Brewsers #300- Marek Brave with Black and BraveWrestling Academy

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Welcome to Bruisers podcast about beer, Coffee, Booze and Bruisers.
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I am your host, Fray John, and today we talked
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to Merrick Brave with Black and Brave Wrestling Academy. We
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talked about his journey into pro wrestling, Black and Brave
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Wrestling Academy and so much more. This is such a
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fun conversation and a milestone episode is our three hundreds
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episode and I can't wait for you guys to get
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right into it. So without further ado, here is Merrick
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Brave with Black and Brave Wrestling Academy. I would like
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to welcome show Americ Brave with Black and Brave. How
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are you doing today, sir?
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I'm doing well. How are you doing?
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I'm doing well, So for those listeners, kind of paint
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us a word picture, where yet what's going on around you?
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I am freshly woken up from a nap. We had
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an event last night with the independent promotion that I run.
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It's called SCW Pro here in the Quad Cities Eastern Iowa,
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Western Illinois. We had an event at a minor league
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hockey game last night which starts after the hockey game's over,
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so it didn't start until about nine thirty at night,
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got out of there probably eleven forty five or so,
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and uh, I'm just an old man now. It's too
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late for me to be staying up. So I got
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myself a nice long nap on this Saturday afternoon, but
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made sure I woke up in time so I could
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chat with you.
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I appreciate you waking up just for me. That's very nice.
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Well, you're welcome.
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What does naps look like? What is a What is
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a nap for you?
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Like?
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For me, like, twenty minutes is good, even though you know,
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obviously I think I've gone to like two or three
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hours before. What's a good nap for you?
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Yeah, I'm kind of new to the whole nap thing. Obviously.
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When I was younger, I was a napper, But in
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my adult life, I've just been kind of go go
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go all the time, you know, running multiple businesses, and
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I wasn't necessarily anti nap, but I just didn't really
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know how to slow down and give myself the rest
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I need. So this has been more of a In
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the last two to three months, I've been more of
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a napper. But yeah, like you said, it can range
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from a twenty minute nap all the way to today.
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It was a two and a half hour nap, which
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I'm not even sure if that's just a nap anymore,
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or did I just fall asleep, like was that just
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an extra sleep? I'm not sure, but yeah, twenty minutes
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is just fine on an afternoon when I've got some
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things going on in the evening. But today I decided
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to give myself the full on nap experience.
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I understand the aspect of not being able to slow down,
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and so that way the nap can exist because you
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don't have time for it or you don't make time
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for it. Yeah, yeah, it is hard sometimes just to go, go, go,
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but you know, as long as you're still moving, it's
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a good thing. Once you do slow down, that's when
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it's all like, oh, the tiredness has hit.
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Yeah, And you know, like I always use the rationale
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that you only get one life to live, so you
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might as well live it and not spend it trying
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to avoid busyness or uncomfortability, Like, let's embrace all that,
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But lately I've also been embracing the naps. So it's
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about balance exactly.
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Life is about balance, and at the end of the day,
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that's really all it is about.
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M M.
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Well, let's go all the way back in time. What
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is your earliest memory of pro wrestling?
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Oh, that's funny. My earliest memory of pro wrestling, and
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this would have been years before I would have considered
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myself a fan. I remember, oh, either late eighties or
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very early nineties, a Saturday night, probably my my mom
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flipping through the channels, and uh, she landed on wrestling
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and for some reason she wanted to stop and keep
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that on. And I wasn't watching it super intently, but
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I remember seeing Hull Cogan, Jake the Snake, Roberts, and uh,
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just thinking like, oh, this is this is this is odd,
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this is strange, this is nothing like anything I've ever
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seen before. And and uh it wouldn't be until oh,
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probably two three four years later where I really became
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a diehard wrestling fan and that that stuck for the
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rest of my life. But I just have these fleeting
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memories of myself as a very young child seeing those
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those two guys in particular on my TV screen, and
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it created a lasting memory.
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I mean they even to this day. I mean obviously
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right p Hul Cogan, but they're still you know, in
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their later years, still very much the same characters that
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they were in the eighties and nineties, just you know,
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obviously older.
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Oh yeah, timeless, timeless. When you when you find something
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like they did that works as well as those characters did,
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you stick with it and you make your money. So
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they were able to do that well.
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As a kid from Iowa, how was it that you
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ended up deciding, you know what I want to be out,
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that's what I want to do? Like how do I
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get into that?
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Yeah? So actually I was born in New Hampshire, moved
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around a lot as a little kid. Became a wrestling
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fan when I was living in Kansas, but then did
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eventually move to the Quad City's Bettendorf, Iowa, directly next
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to Davenport, Iowa, in nineteen ninety seven, and just a
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few years later, this would have been two thousand and two,
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me and my group of friends from high school, we
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decided we wanted to sleep overnight at the venue to
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get some tickets for using that was coming to town,
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and it just so happened that that night I ran
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into my future Tag team partner, business partner, and great friend,
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Seth Rollins. When he was just a sixteen year old kid,
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and we hung out all night long, and you know,
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his group of friends, they were outside waiting for tickets
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as well. They were doing some backyard wrestling on the
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lawn outside of the arena, which was actually coincidentally where
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my event took place last night, was at this vibrant arena.
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We had an event in a ballroom there after the hockey.
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So yeah, we were like, hey, these guys seem really cool.
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Let's let's be friends with these guys. And little did
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I know that that would become one of the most
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important days of my life, you know, meeting my future
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tag team partner, you know, good friend and now business
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partner in the Black and Brave Wrestling Academy. Yeah, I'm
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not sure where I'd be as a human being or
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an individual without that. But after meeting him, and he
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was so passionate about becoming a pro wrestler, and I
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never thought that that was going to be the path
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I was going to take. But as I was graduating
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high school and I had I had started wrestling professionally
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during my entire senior year of high school, I was like, well,
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I don't really know what else I'm going to do,
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and and uh, I'm pretty solid at this wrestling thing
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and I like it a lot. And it wasn't for
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a lack of passion, right that I didn't think I
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was going to be a professional wrestler. I just didn't
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think it was a realistic goal or or something that
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that could be attained. And uh, you know, going to
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independent shows at that time, we learned about wrestling schools
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and how people broke into the business, and after high
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school we just said, screw it, let's let's do that.
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Let's let's go be pro wrestlers. Let's try and figure
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out how to make this, uh, make this a career.
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And thankfully, through a very secuitous route that has, uh
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that has happened for me, and now I make my
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living almost strictly off of pro wrestling. So very blessed
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in that regard.
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When you had these thoughts of, well, is that really
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something that you can actually, you know, do for a living.
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Was that something people were putting in your head or
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was that something that you were looking at and you're like,
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how do you make money just doing this?
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Yeah? I don't think it just wasn't very common back then.
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We broke into the business in two thousand.
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And three, yeah.
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And it just wasn't very common for people to come
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from independent wrestling and make a living off of pro
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wrestling in major companies like WWE. The path hadn't been
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forged yet. You know, this was prior to Cmpunk doing
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it and prior to Matt Seidel doing it and people
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like that, and so it just it was like a, well,
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you know, we could keep doing this independent wrestling thing,
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but can you really make a living doing independent wrestling?
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And then you know, we found places like a Ring
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of Honor. Oh, okay, so you can make a living.
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If you get a contract with Ring of Honor, you
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can make a decent living and you don't have to
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make it all the way to WWE. And so it
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was just like, you know what, I really enjoyed doing this.
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It's really fun doing this. At the time, I was
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dating a girl who was a year older than me,
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so my senior year in high school. She was at
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the University of Iowa, which is where I was supposed
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to go as well, and we had to plan this
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whole thing out about how I would move there and
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we'd get an apartment together and you know, basically start
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our adult lives together. And as I was nearing graduation,
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I realized that it's not what I want to do,
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and I didn't want to go to college directly after
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high school, and I wanted to keep pursuing this wrestling thing.
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So although it felt like something that ultimately would be
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very difficult to achieve, if not impossible to achieve, it
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was something that I had to I had to go
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for just because I had such a love for it.
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How cool were you as a senior? You were dating
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a college girl and a pro wrestler at the same time, Like, come.
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On, yeah, no, not cool at all. Wrestling. Wrestling wasn't
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cool then. That's why my students will ask me now, like, oh, man,
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you you wrestled when you were in high school. I
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bet everybody thought you were the coolest. I'm like, no,
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quite the opposite. We would we would hand out flyers
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during the lunch period to the shows that we were having,
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and I mean classic, you know, high school movie kids
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would just crumple the flyers up immediately in front of
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our faces and throw them in the garbage if not
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on the floor, and we were like, oh, okay, cool,
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thanks for that, but yeah, not wrestling had had its
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boon in the late nineties and I graduated in two
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thousand and four, so by the time I became a
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pro wrestler, it was no longer cool to be a
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pro wrestler. But also nobody knew what independent wrestling was.
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You know, this was before this was pre YouTube days,
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pre streaming days. To try to explain to somebody what
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independent wrestling was, they just didn't get it. And here
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in Davenport, Iowa, there's a big MMA contingent. Yeah, a
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lot of popular MMA guys had come from here, and
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so when we would tell people about the indie wrestling
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that we were doing, they just assumed it was MMA,
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and we just had to keep explaining to them, no, no, no,
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it's it's it's pro wrestling, like Hulkogan, the Rock Stone Cold,
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Steve Auston like those guys. And then people would just
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be disgusted, like what do you mean, like that, that's
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the fake stuff you should go do the mm A. Yeah,
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we're like no, no, no, we don't want to get punched
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for real.
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Well kind of paint is a word pictures. I mean,
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I graduated oh one, and I know, you know, WWE
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bought w CW, a ECW and basically level the whole
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wrestling world where it was just them, and like you
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were saying, the independents weren't as pop as prevalent as
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they would be obviously now. But I mean, and even
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at that point, TNA had kind of just started, but
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not really so kind of tell us how, you know,
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for those that either weren't alive or weren't paying tension
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as much. What the really the landscape of the pro
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wrestling world was around the time, like you said, you
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were actually getting into it.
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Yeah, I mean, it was WWE and then everybody else.
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The Ring of Honor had kind of just just started
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up and they were gaining some traction, and we would
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illegally download some clips off of Kazah. I remember downloading, yeah,
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low Key versus Amazing Red from one of the East
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Coast promotions. They you know, they kind of took it
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around the whole East Coast back then, and I remember
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taking forever to download, you know, just a ten second clip,
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and then eventually we found a full match and that
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was like a full day's worth of downloading. But but
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we watched it, we were like, what is this. This
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is not like the WWE. This is completely different. These
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are people that are closer to our size, moving much
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faster than the guys in wwee doing. You know, at
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the time, probably thought it was like matrix style or
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Kung Fu movie style wrestling, you know, John Wick eventually
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when John Wick would be created. But you know, we
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just we immediately gravitated towards that and said, oh, you know,
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I can't relate to somebody the size of the rock,
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you know, like I'll I'm and now even as a
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thirty nine year old man, I'm six foot two, two
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hundred pounds. Back then, I was probably five ten, one
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hundred and sixty pounds, you know, like there was just
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no there's no one in WWE that I could relate
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to on a size level like that. And so I just,
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you know, it never occurred to me that anyone my
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size could make a living off of pro wrestling. So
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when I saw low Keen amazing Red, I was like, Okay,
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I that's cool. I can do that. I can I
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can I can do that style of wrestling. I could
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be that style of wrestler. And and we my group
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and I are, our group of friends, are our group
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of you know, local wrestlers here. We had heard about
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independent wrestling in Chicago. We're about two and a half
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hours away from Chicago, through an old message boards called
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Chicago Pro Wrestling message Board. You know, this was pre Facebook,
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pre Twitter, all of that stuff. Social media wasn't a
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thing yet. So we found it through a message board
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and we found dates for independent shows in the Chicago area,
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and we were like, why don't let's go. Let's go
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to this. Maybe this will be like the the low key,
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amazing red stuff. It wasn't, but you know, we got
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our first look at at guys like see them Punk
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and Colt Cabana and Jimmy Jacobs and you know, guys
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like that and before they ever broke it big anywhere,
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and they were good back then. So we saw that
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and we were like, okay, indie wrestling School, I like
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this stuff, you know, let's figure out how we can
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get involved with that on a bigger scale, you know.
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And that's that's when the wrestling school came in. All right,
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we got to get trained properly if we're gonna if
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we're gonna make this a thing, right.
279
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Well, so I know you had to retire from a
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competition due to a neck injury, which I heard you
281
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tell the story on another podcast, and it is it
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sounds so gruesome. I don't want to see the video,
283
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which I imagine a lot of people might if you
284
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could walk us through, please what happened? And I want
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to talk about things afterwards?
286
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Sure? Yeah. So unfortunately, this was pretty pretty early on
287
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in my independent career. I started in August of two
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thousand and three, and my injury happened in May of
289
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two thousand and seven, so less than four years in.
290
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And myself and Seth who was known as Tyler Black
291
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at the time. That's where the tag team named Black
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and the Brave came in. Very creative. I know, we
293
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had actually gotten a tryout for Ring of Honor, so
294
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you know, we were kind of we were inches away
295
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from from this dream that we had had since we
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had started of getting contracts with Ring of Honor. That
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was our ultimate goal, you know, like this is this
298
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is the the peak of the mountain here. If we
299
00:16:14.960 --> 00:16:18.360
can get here, then we've made it. And we were
300
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in a tag team match against the Briscoe Brothers down
301
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in Florida. We actually drove up from Davenport up to
302
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Chicago two and a half hours to pick up three
303
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other guys and then we drove all the way down
304
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to Tampa, Florida. Night one was in Tampa, I had
305
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a singles match against Mark Briscoe, and Seth wrestled Jay
306
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and then the very next night we challenged for the
307
00:16:46.440 --> 00:16:50.799
f I P Tag Team titles, which we were told, hey,
308
00:16:50.799 --> 00:16:52.720
this is your this is your trial match. You guys
309
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do well here and you're gonna get contracts with Ring
310
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of Honor. We're like, all right, cool, let's do this,
311
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and unfortunately I was I was going for a reverse
312
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r Kanarana on Jay and and instead of flipping over,
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he made a bit of a mistake and fell on
314
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top of me instead. But I was completely upside down
315
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and so the my forehead made contact with the mat,
316
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it completely folded me over to the point where the
317
00:17:16.640 --> 00:17:19.599
back of my head was making contact in between my
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shoulder blades. Looked like I was decapitated. Pretty gruesome, and
319
00:17:24.960 --> 00:17:27.000
I tried to get up. I tried to continue the
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00:17:27.039 --> 00:17:32.079
match against the wishes of the promoter, one Gabe Sapolski,
321
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and he came rushing down to the ring. He said, hey,
322
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you stay here, We're getting you an ambulance. So they
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called an ambulance, stretched me out of the ring took
324
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me to the hospital. They that was just a kid
325
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with with no health insurance, so they didn't give me
326
00:17:46.680 --> 00:17:50.279
very good care, not not comprehensive care in the least,
327
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and they didn't know that I had herniated two discs
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in my neck and broken a vertebrae in my lower
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back as well. So I went home home was pretty
330
00:18:00.759 --> 00:18:04.279
immobile for about two weeks before I started just rehabbing
331
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it on my own. And at that point, you know,
332
00:18:07.279 --> 00:18:10.200
I had been wrestling multiple times a week, every single week,
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00:18:10.359 --> 00:18:12.640
you know, with the goal of getting a contract and
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ring of honor, you know, making a living off of
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00:18:14.799 --> 00:18:18.559
independent wrestling. But I had to really scale back my schedule,
336
00:18:19.359 --> 00:18:21.240
and also I had just lost a lot of love
337
00:18:21.319 --> 00:18:24.599
for independent wrestling pro wrestling at the time, just because
338
00:18:24.640 --> 00:18:27.519
of the injury I had suffered and how devastating it was.
339
00:18:27.839 --> 00:18:30.279
And I had come to the realization that due to
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this injury, you know, and I didn't know the extent
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of it at the time, but I just knew it
342
00:18:34.079 --> 00:18:37.799
felt awful, you know, due to the extent of the injury,
343
00:18:37.839 --> 00:18:40.759
I wasn't going to be able to achieve the goal
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of making a living off of professional wrestling. At least,
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you know, as a professional wrestler. Later on, i'd be
346
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able to do it as a trainer, which I'm doing
347
00:18:48.559 --> 00:18:50.880
now again blessed to do that, but at the time
348
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I was just so bitter and angry at the business
349
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for taking my health away at such a young age.
350
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I was twenty years old when that injury happened. I
351
00:18:59.079 --> 00:19:02.559
wouldn't turn twenty one until the following month, and you know,
352
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just less than four years in so I was pretty
353
00:19:05.519 --> 00:19:08.720
upset about it, but didn't really know what else to
354
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do to make money. So I continued to take limited
355
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independent bookings, but it just wasn't the same. I had
356
00:19:14.279 --> 00:19:16.880
to completely change my style, and I wasn't able to
357
00:19:16.920 --> 00:19:19.200
work out at the time, and so you know, I
358
00:19:19.279 --> 00:19:23.119
went from having like a bodybuilder's physique, albeit a small
359
00:19:23.160 --> 00:19:27.759
bodybuilder's physique, to just not being able to work out
360
00:19:27.759 --> 00:19:29.079
and not being able to go to the gym. And
361
00:19:29.119 --> 00:19:31.559
it was just soul crushing in every way. So I
362
00:19:31.599 --> 00:19:33.759
did eventually end up taking about a year year and
363
00:19:33.799 --> 00:19:36.119
a half off to kind of get my mind right.
364
00:19:37.440 --> 00:19:40.400
I also thought that I was probably done, but after
365
00:19:40.440 --> 00:19:43.480
about a year and a half classic pro wrestling story,
366
00:19:43.559 --> 00:19:45.240
I get the itch and so I get back in
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00:19:45.319 --> 00:19:48.200
shape and I come back, and at that point my
368
00:19:48.319 --> 00:19:51.279
goals for what I wanted out of wrestling had changed.
369
00:19:51.319 --> 00:19:54.440
I was doing it more so for the love of it.
370
00:19:54.519 --> 00:19:57.480
I had, you know, refound my love for pro wrestling,
371
00:19:57.519 --> 00:20:02.200
and that allowed me to put things in perspective and obviously,
372
00:20:02.359 --> 00:20:05.720
honestly just put less pressure on myself. You know, I
373
00:20:05.799 --> 00:20:09.160
wasn't trying to make it as this big, famous pro wrestler.
374
00:20:09.200 --> 00:20:10.920
I just wanted to have fun with my friends, and
375
00:20:11.000 --> 00:20:14.640
so I started doing that, and then shortly after the
376
00:20:15.000 --> 00:20:17.759
wrestling school came to be. So it all kind of
377
00:20:17.759 --> 00:20:19.920
worked out in the end, and again in a very
378
00:20:20.680 --> 00:20:25.160
very strange way. But the injury itself was a very
379
00:20:25.400 --> 00:20:29.039
scary and trying time of my life.
380
00:20:29.160 --> 00:20:31.400
Yeah, thank you for sharing that, because I know that
381
00:20:31.640 --> 00:20:34.920
it's not something that you obviously want to relive. But
382
00:20:35.039 --> 00:20:37.359
it in the long run worked out well for you
383
00:20:37.440 --> 00:20:40.000
because unfortunately, you did get out of it for a
384
00:20:40.039 --> 00:20:43.519
little while, and obviously the effect on your neck was
385
00:20:43.759 --> 00:20:46.359
not good at all, But then you did find your
386
00:20:46.440 --> 00:20:48.880
love for progrestling again. And I did want to talk about,
387
00:20:49.000 --> 00:20:53.000
like when it was that down period where you were
388
00:20:53.079 --> 00:20:56.319
just so not happy with the business because what it
389
00:20:56.319 --> 00:20:59.960
did to you, and obviously everything that happened, what kind
390
00:21:00.039 --> 00:21:02.960
kind of helped pull you through or pull you out
391
00:21:03.000 --> 00:21:06.440
of it? Because you know, when athletes get that kind
392
00:21:06.480 --> 00:21:10.200
of injury, no matter what sport they're playing or whatever
393
00:21:10.240 --> 00:21:12.559
it is, they can get into a really dark hole.
394
00:21:12.720 --> 00:21:15.920
And you know, unfortunately some of them, yes they come back,
395
00:21:15.960 --> 00:21:18.480
but mentally they're not there, They're not the same person.
396
00:21:18.839 --> 00:21:21.200
So what kind of things kind of helped you through
397
00:21:21.240 --> 00:21:23.960
that time that you were You didn't just keep spiraling
398
00:21:24.000 --> 00:21:25.640
and you actually did get yourselself out of it.
399
00:21:26.359 --> 00:21:29.160
Yeah, you know, at that point I decided to just
400
00:21:29.279 --> 00:21:33.000
kind of pursue other interests as a young man. I
401
00:21:33.079 --> 00:21:36.480
was in my early twenties at the time, and I
402
00:21:36.519 --> 00:21:41.400
did eventually get married during my time off or since divorce.
403
00:21:41.480 --> 00:21:44.240
But we're really good friends still to this day, so
404
00:21:44.759 --> 00:21:48.079
no issues there. But you know, my significant other helped
405
00:21:48.079 --> 00:21:51.400
pull me through. And then also I've always been into music.
406
00:21:51.519 --> 00:21:55.440
I started a band here in my hometown. We did
407
00:21:55.440 --> 00:21:58.759
a little two week summer tour across the Midwest, which
408
00:21:58.839 --> 00:22:02.160
was a good time, recorded an album. I realized this
409
00:22:02.200 --> 00:22:03.519
is a lot harder than I thought it was going
410
00:22:03.599 --> 00:22:05.119
to be. And I don't really have the time to
411
00:22:05.160 --> 00:22:07.720
commit to this because I ended up going back to
412
00:22:07.799 --> 00:22:10.240
school at the same time too. I ended up going
413
00:22:10.279 --> 00:22:13.319
to college for the first time, so that plan just
414
00:22:13.400 --> 00:22:16.960
got delayed by a few years. Yeah, I just kind
415
00:22:16.960 --> 00:22:21.079
of kept myself busy with other things again, with wrestling
416
00:22:21.119 --> 00:22:23.400
not involved. I didn't even watch wrestling at the time.
417
00:22:23.440 --> 00:22:25.480
I wouldn't even put it on the TV. And this
418
00:22:25.599 --> 00:22:28.200
was right around the time that Seth had gotten signed
419
00:22:29.720 --> 00:22:34.680
to the Developmental Territory FCW, which would become NXT, and
420
00:22:34.720 --> 00:22:36.759
so we would chat and talk about how he was
421
00:22:36.799 --> 00:22:40.000
doing and whatnot. There wasn't any way to watch it
422
00:22:40.279 --> 00:22:42.160
at that point. It wasn't like they were on TV
423
00:22:42.319 --> 00:22:44.079
or anything. So he would just tell me how things
424
00:22:44.079 --> 00:22:47.920
were going, and so I'd kind of stay I don't
425
00:22:47.920 --> 00:22:49.920
want to say I stay involved in that way because
426
00:22:49.960 --> 00:22:52.920
I didn't, like I said, I didn't watch it anything
427
00:22:53.000 --> 00:22:55.200
like that, but you know, at least we were still
428
00:22:55.279 --> 00:22:57.880
chatting here and there. And then one day I was
429
00:22:58.000 --> 00:23:01.680
just sitting on the couch flipping through channels, didn't even
430
00:23:01.680 --> 00:23:04.680
realize what day it was, what time it was, and
431
00:23:04.960 --> 00:23:10.079
I happened to come across Monday night Raw and See
432
00:23:10.119 --> 00:23:12.240
Them Punk was on the TV, and like I said,
433
00:23:12.240 --> 00:23:15.240
I had known CM Punk for quite a long time.
434
00:23:15.519 --> 00:23:19.519
We'd become friends on the independent scene, you know, not
435
00:23:19.960 --> 00:23:22.119
we weren't hanging out or anything like that, but you know,
436
00:23:22.240 --> 00:23:25.400
cordial and had some good conversations and we kind of
437
00:23:25.440 --> 00:23:27.599
bonded over the fact that we enjoyed the same type
438
00:23:27.640 --> 00:23:30.519
of music and whatnot. And so I saw him on
439
00:23:30.559 --> 00:23:33.079
the TV and I was like, oh, let's I'll stop
440
00:23:33.079 --> 00:23:35.079
on this first time in a long time. Let's see
441
00:23:35.079 --> 00:23:37.839
what's going on with See Them Punk. Well, he took
442
00:23:38.319 --> 00:23:43.119
took a seat cross legged on the on the entryway
443
00:23:43.119 --> 00:23:45.319
there on the ramp, and that was the famous pipe
444
00:23:45.319 --> 00:23:48.279
bomb promo and I was like, wow, okay, that was
445
00:23:48.920 --> 00:23:52.039
awesome and and that kind of that kind of sucked
446
00:23:52.039 --> 00:23:55.599
me back in. It was it was serendipitous to say,
447
00:23:55.680 --> 00:23:57.799
but I was like, well, now I got to see
448
00:23:57.839 --> 00:23:59.680
where this goes, what happens with this. So I just
449
00:23:59.680 --> 00:24:02.559
started watching Monday Night Raw again and then all of
450
00:24:02.599 --> 00:24:05.759
a sudden, Seth was sending me some matches that he
451
00:24:05.839 --> 00:24:09.119
had had in FCW on YouTube and I watched him
452
00:24:09.480 --> 00:24:12.680
and a young Dean Ambrose John Moxley in a match
453
00:24:12.720 --> 00:24:14.240
I think it was two out of three falls, and
454
00:24:14.319 --> 00:24:17.480
in my head I was kind of calling the spots
455
00:24:17.839 --> 00:24:20.359
before they were doing them, like I was calling the
456
00:24:20.359 --> 00:24:22.519
match in my own mind ahead of time, and then
457
00:24:22.559 --> 00:24:25.279
they were acting it out in the ring, and I
458
00:24:25.319 --> 00:24:28.000
was like, man, I think I still got a mind
459
00:24:28.039 --> 00:24:30.279
for this pro wrestling thing. I just don't really have
460
00:24:30.359 --> 00:24:32.599
the health or the body. I'm not in shape right now.
461
00:24:33.000 --> 00:24:37.519
And I remember Seth coming home for Christmas break and
462
00:24:37.720 --> 00:24:41.319
we went out for lunch and we were having a conversation.
463
00:24:41.480 --> 00:24:43.720
I told him that story. How you know, I felt
464
00:24:43.720 --> 00:24:45.400
like I still had a brain for it, but I
465
00:24:45.440 --> 00:24:48.960
just didn't have the body, and in simple Seth fashion,
466
00:24:49.160 --> 00:24:51.200
just he just looked at me and he said, so
467
00:24:52.039 --> 00:24:54.240
get the body, go to the gym, get in shape,
468
00:24:55.079 --> 00:24:57.400
and do this again if you still love it. And
469
00:24:57.440 --> 00:24:59.640
I was like, well, I guess I just needed somebody
470
00:24:59.720 --> 00:25:02.799
to put it to me in simplest in the simplest
471
00:25:02.799 --> 00:25:05.920
way possible, and He's always good for that. So that's
472
00:25:05.920 --> 00:25:08.680
when I decided to get back in shape and get
473
00:25:08.680 --> 00:25:11.119
back into pro wrestling because I loved it and not
474
00:25:11.240 --> 00:25:15.000
because I felt like I needed it for for any
475
00:25:15.559 --> 00:25:18.279
you know, reason whatsoever. I just I just wanted to
476
00:25:18.279 --> 00:25:21.319
do it again. I just I refound my love for wrestling.
477
00:25:21.759 --> 00:25:24.960
I love that. What well, then, where did the idea
478
00:25:25.000 --> 00:25:27.359
for the school come from?
479
00:25:27.440 --> 00:25:33.079
I actually was training a handful of local kids here
480
00:25:33.119 --> 00:25:36.599
in Davenport, Iowa, just people who had contacted me wanting to,
481
00:25:36.920 --> 00:25:41.279
uh to find their way in independent wrestling. I would
482
00:25:41.319 --> 00:25:45.000
say maybe like five kids or so, and uh, you know,
483
00:25:45.039 --> 00:25:47.599
Seth would would message me, Hey, how's that, how's that
484
00:25:47.640 --> 00:25:50.279
training stuff you're doing? How's it going? And we would
485
00:25:50.319 --> 00:25:53.119
talk about it and I'd vent frustrations, you know, just
486
00:25:53.880 --> 00:25:56.000
the classic I wasn't even an old guy yet, but
487
00:25:56.039 --> 00:25:58.240
I had an old guy mentality. It just classic, Oh
488
00:25:58.279 --> 00:26:01.279
these kids aren't working hard enough and YadA, YadA, YadA.
489
00:26:01.319 --> 00:26:03.720
And he's like, well, i'll tell you what. Someday, when
490
00:26:03.720 --> 00:26:05.920
I get signed to the main roster, I'm going to
491
00:26:06.000 --> 00:26:08.680
move back to Iowa and we can start a wrestling
492
00:26:08.720 --> 00:26:10.720
school together. And I was like, oh, yeah, it sounds great,
493
00:26:10.839 --> 00:26:13.039
not thinking it would ever happen. You know, I'm thinking
494
00:26:13.039 --> 00:26:15.079
it was one of those things that would be talked
495
00:26:15.079 --> 00:26:19.359
about but never come to fruition. And sure enough, you know,
496
00:26:19.640 --> 00:26:24.119
I'm watching Survivor series whatever year, it was and out
497
00:26:24.119 --> 00:26:27.039
pops the shield and I was like, oh, cool, he's
498
00:26:27.119 --> 00:26:29.559
on the main roster, still not really thinking about what
499
00:26:29.599 --> 00:26:31.839
he had said. And then a few days later, I
500
00:26:31.880 --> 00:26:34.079
was at work and I had gotten a text when
501
00:26:34.079 --> 00:26:35.519
I was on my break, and I looked at it
502
00:26:35.559 --> 00:26:37.319
and he's like, all right, I'm moving back to Iowa
503
00:26:37.480 --> 00:26:39.319
in about a month and then we can sit down
504
00:26:39.359 --> 00:26:41.400
and start making plans for that wrestling school. And I
505
00:26:41.440 --> 00:26:44.680
was like, oh, all right, well, I guess we'll do this.
506
00:26:45.160 --> 00:26:48.440
And yeah, he moved back home and we immediately started
507
00:26:48.440 --> 00:26:51.160
getting the wheels in motion. I think we announced the class,
508
00:26:51.920 --> 00:26:58.920
the first class in July of twenty fourteen, and we
509
00:26:59.039 --> 00:27:01.519
had a full class and we began our training just
510
00:27:01.559 --> 00:27:05.480
a month later. And it's been a it's been a
511
00:27:05.519 --> 00:27:08.240
full time job since then, and it's been a wild ride,
512
00:27:08.319 --> 00:27:10.680
but again something I'm very very thankful to be able
513
00:27:10.720 --> 00:27:10.920
to do.
514
00:27:11.920 --> 00:27:13.559
I've had some of your students on the show and
515
00:27:13.599 --> 00:27:16.279
they have absolutely come out and said nothing but glowing
516
00:27:16.319 --> 00:27:19.240
things about how much they love the school. So obviously
517
00:27:19.279 --> 00:27:22.279
you guys are doing something fantastic. Plus you've been open
518
00:27:22.319 --> 00:27:24.920
for eleven years now, which is insane.
519
00:27:25.240 --> 00:27:31.000
Yeah, it is insane. It does feel unrealistic. If you
520
00:27:31.000 --> 00:27:33.720
would have told if you'd have told little kid me
521
00:27:33.839 --> 00:27:36.000
that one day I'd make a living off of pro wrestling,
522
00:27:36.000 --> 00:27:37.839
he wouldn't have believed you. But then if you told
523
00:27:37.920 --> 00:27:40.400
bitter old man me, who was suffering from a neck
524
00:27:40.440 --> 00:27:43.160
injury from wrestling, that one day you'd make a living
525
00:27:43.160 --> 00:27:45.799
off of pro wrestling, I probably would have just laughed
526
00:27:45.839 --> 00:27:48.079
in your face. But here we are, like you said,
527
00:27:48.119 --> 00:27:51.319
eleven years later, and you know, all of our twenty
528
00:27:51.400 --> 00:27:54.559
twenty six classes are filled, half of our twenty twenty
529
00:27:54.599 --> 00:27:57.720
seven classes are filled, and it just it just it
530
00:27:57.799 --> 00:28:01.000
keeps on rolling. And just very thankful that we've built
531
00:28:01.039 --> 00:28:05.519
this community of people who are as passionate about pro
532
00:28:05.559 --> 00:28:09.160
wrestling as Seth and I were when we first started
533
00:28:09.160 --> 00:28:11.359
in two thousand and three and still are now.
534
00:28:12.400 --> 00:28:15.039
Now, is it true that the students have to work
535
00:28:15.079 --> 00:28:16.839
at the coffee shop three nine two.
536
00:28:16.680 --> 00:28:21.000
Deeple No not, It's not a requirement. A handful of
537
00:28:21.039 --> 00:28:25.839
them have decided to get jobs over there, but I mean,
538
00:28:25.880 --> 00:28:27.200
at the end of the day, it's just a job.
539
00:28:27.240 --> 00:28:30.480
So they usually they're usually like, wait, what I thought
540
00:28:30.480 --> 00:28:31.880
I was just going to get to talk about pro
541
00:28:31.920 --> 00:28:34.200
wrestling all day. It's like, no, no, no, there's real
542
00:28:34.599 --> 00:28:37.759
regular people there. There's civilians there, and they don't care
543
00:28:37.839 --> 00:28:41.799
about wrestling at all. So yeah, got a requirement.
544
00:28:42.000 --> 00:28:44.440
The building's connected, right, like the coffee shop in the school.
545
00:28:44.519 --> 00:28:47.599
Yeah, yep, yep, yep. We share a wall with them
546
00:28:47.680 --> 00:28:51.240
and we can hear their easy listening music while they
547
00:28:51.279 --> 00:28:53.799
hear our heavy metal music all day long.
548
00:28:54.680 --> 00:28:56.720
What is your go to order over there?
549
00:28:58.279 --> 00:29:00.359
I'll tell you what. I am A simple man. I
550
00:29:00.400 --> 00:29:05.279
get a black Americano, just a very simple black Americana.
551
00:29:05.319 --> 00:29:08.359
No cream, no sugar, just just give me the caffeine, baby,
552
00:29:09.440 --> 00:29:12.920
iced or hot, either or depending on the weather, I'll
553
00:29:12.920 --> 00:29:15.359
do an iced Americano in the summer and a hot
554
00:29:15.400 --> 00:29:18.960
Americano now as it's starting to get chili.
555
00:29:19.319 --> 00:29:21.039
I was gonna say, you guys are probably far more
556
00:29:21.119 --> 00:29:23.039
chillier than we are down here in Texas right now.
557
00:29:23.759 --> 00:29:27.079
Yeah, we just our temperatures just cooled off last week.
558
00:29:27.119 --> 00:29:29.519
We were in the upper fifties, low sixties every day,
559
00:29:29.559 --> 00:29:32.319
and looking forward, it looks like we're dipping down into
560
00:29:32.359 --> 00:29:35.240
the low fifties and then we'll have snow and ice
561
00:29:35.640 --> 00:29:36.440
before you know it.
562
00:29:36.960 --> 00:29:40.240
Yeah, we're getting Yeah, it's dipped down to the seventies eighties,
563
00:29:40.240 --> 00:29:42.200
but it's also been raining the past two days, so
564
00:29:42.200 --> 00:29:43.680
that helps things.
565
00:29:44.440 --> 00:29:46.680
Well, I'm not a big fan of the winter weather,
566
00:29:46.839 --> 00:29:50.039
so maybe someday I'll find myself living in the south.
567
00:29:50.440 --> 00:29:52.240
Then how the hell are you still in Iowa? I
568
00:29:52.240 --> 00:29:55.359
hear it so windy and so cold it is, Yeah,
569
00:29:55.480 --> 00:29:57.079
it's it like goes to your bones.
570
00:29:57.759 --> 00:30:00.319
Yeah. Well, I mean, I've made a nice little for
571
00:30:00.400 --> 00:30:03.079
myself here in Iowa, so I'm not ready, not ready
572
00:30:03.119 --> 00:30:05.559
to give that all up yet. And now I have
573
00:30:05.599 --> 00:30:08.480
two sons, ones a freshman in high school, the other
574
00:30:08.519 --> 00:30:12.839
ones in fourth grade, and they're you know, they're they're
575
00:30:12.880 --> 00:30:16.000
my anchors, They're my rocks, and wherever they are, that's
576
00:30:16.000 --> 00:30:16.519
where I'll be.
577
00:30:17.000 --> 00:30:19.519
I love that so much. Well, I mean, over the
578
00:30:20.240 --> 00:30:22.039
ten years you have been training, what have been some
579
00:30:22.079 --> 00:30:23.359
of your favorite memories so far?
580
00:30:24.599 --> 00:30:27.279
Gosh, I mean, I feel like every day is a
581
00:30:27.400 --> 00:30:30.359
new favorite memory, you know, just getting to build the
582
00:30:30.400 --> 00:30:34.960
relationships with these students and take them from oftentimes, plenty
583
00:30:34.960 --> 00:30:37.039
of people that come to us they've never stepped foot
584
00:30:37.079 --> 00:30:40.000
in a professional wrestling ring a single time in their life,
585
00:30:40.319 --> 00:30:43.000
and we get to take them from their first steps
586
00:30:43.079 --> 00:30:45.279
in a pro wrestling ring all the way up to
587
00:30:45.319 --> 00:30:48.480
them having matches just twelve weeks later, and then we
588
00:30:48.559 --> 00:30:51.440
get to send them out into the independent ranks and
589
00:30:51.519 --> 00:30:54.920
watch them gain experience and kind of go through the
590
00:30:54.960 --> 00:30:57.440
same things that Seth and I went through when we
591
00:30:57.839 --> 00:31:01.079
first started. And it certainly an up and down journey.
592
00:31:01.119 --> 00:31:03.279
You know, it's a wild ride. You're gonna have good days,
593
00:31:03.319 --> 00:31:05.759
you're gonna have bad days, You're gonna have days in between.
594
00:31:06.359 --> 00:31:10.000
And thankfully we get to you know, we get to
595
00:31:10.000 --> 00:31:12.359
help them through those those highs and lows, and we
596
00:31:12.400 --> 00:31:15.400
get to give them advice on how to deal with
597
00:31:15.440 --> 00:31:19.480
these things. But every day is just kind of a new,
598
00:31:19.599 --> 00:31:23.240
rewarding experience. And I love in particular, I love learning
599
00:31:23.319 --> 00:31:26.519
about these guys and these girls. I like learning about
600
00:31:26.519 --> 00:31:28.839
their backgrounds and where they come from. And you know,
601
00:31:28.920 --> 00:31:32.319
I'm always asking questions about, hey, you know, what's your
602
00:31:32.319 --> 00:31:35.400
favorite food? You know, especially our foreign students coming from
603
00:31:35.440 --> 00:31:38.240
from different countries, like, hey, tell me about what it's
604
00:31:38.319 --> 00:31:41.680
like where you live. And I'm learning about the world
605
00:31:41.759 --> 00:31:44.240
through through our students who are coming from all over
606
00:31:44.279 --> 00:31:48.680
the place, and it's just it really is a rewarding
607
00:31:48.799 --> 00:31:51.079
job and It's not lost on me how blessed I
608
00:31:51.119 --> 00:31:53.359
am to be able to do this for a living,
609
00:31:54.359 --> 00:31:57.160
To be able to wear sweatpants to work while everybody
610
00:31:57.160 --> 00:32:00.240
else suits and thighs, you know, to be happy to
611
00:32:01.400 --> 00:32:05.200
listen to cool music and and and work alongside my
612
00:32:05.279 --> 00:32:08.400
best friends like it. It's it's a really awesome gig
613
00:32:08.960 --> 00:32:11.640
and very happy that that this is what I get
614
00:32:11.680 --> 00:32:13.160
to wake up and do every single day.
615
00:32:13.920 --> 00:32:17.319
What are what's the uh what other countries out there
616
00:32:17.480 --> 00:32:20.079
people come to help drain with you all over?
617
00:32:20.160 --> 00:32:22.359
I mean right now, we got a guy from England.
618
00:32:22.720 --> 00:32:27.000
We've had plenty of people from Australia, New Zealand, the
619
00:32:27.119 --> 00:32:36.440
United Arab Emirates, a lot of South American countries, Chile, Brazil,
620
00:32:37.160 --> 00:32:40.519
places like that. We've had people from Poland and Germany
621
00:32:40.799 --> 00:32:45.240
and just France all over all over our entire globe,
622
00:32:45.240 --> 00:32:49.079
We've had people come through and it's just been really
623
00:32:49.079 --> 00:32:54.519
cool to see them experience American culture for better or worse,
624
00:32:54.920 --> 00:32:56.920
for the first time, and then also get to learn
625
00:32:56.920 --> 00:32:58.240
about their cultures as well.
626
00:32:59.000 --> 00:33:03.279
Yeah, Iowa is definitely not like the rest of the America.
627
00:33:03.480 --> 00:33:07.200
So how how do people How do people like Iowa?
628
00:33:07.519 --> 00:33:10.119
Because I imagine they think when they think America, they probably
629
00:33:10.119 --> 00:33:12.640
think of la or New York or you know, things
630
00:33:12.640 --> 00:33:15.440
like even maybe even a beach or something. But nobody
631
00:33:15.480 --> 00:33:18.440
really truly thinks about the middle of the country. So now,
632
00:33:18.759 --> 00:33:19.799
how does that work out?
633
00:33:20.039 --> 00:33:23.440
The Midwest is certainly different than most of those places
634
00:33:23.480 --> 00:33:25.160
you mentioned. Now. We are, like I said, two and
635
00:33:25.160 --> 00:33:27.359
a half hours from Chicago, and a lot of our
636
00:33:28.359 --> 00:33:30.880
graduates are wrestling in Chicago all the time. So we
637
00:33:31.000 --> 00:33:35.960
encourage our current students to hop in cars excuse me
638
00:33:36.000 --> 00:33:39.839
on the weekend to go to independent shows and see
639
00:33:39.839 --> 00:33:41.920
what it's like out there. So they do do get
640
00:33:41.920 --> 00:33:45.160
to experience the big city a little bit through Chicago,
641
00:33:45.240 --> 00:33:49.039
Saint Louis, places like that. As far as where we're living, Davenport,
642
00:33:49.119 --> 00:33:52.160
Iowa is part of the quad cities of Iowa and Illinois.
643
00:33:52.200 --> 00:33:55.599
We're right along the Mississippi River. It's not it's not
644
00:33:55.920 --> 00:33:59.039
a big city feel by any means, but we're not
645
00:33:59.400 --> 00:34:03.119
super I would say there's about three hundred and fifty
646
00:34:03.160 --> 00:34:06.720
thousand people in our area. So you get a little
647
00:34:06.720 --> 00:34:11.519
bit of the you know, the at least the things
648
00:34:11.599 --> 00:34:13.960
to do, right, Like, there are some things to do.
649
00:34:14.639 --> 00:34:18.599
We have bars and dance clubs and and you know,
650
00:34:18.639 --> 00:34:20.559
you can go bowling and go to movies and all
651
00:34:20.599 --> 00:34:23.320
that stuff, but you also have, you know, that small
652
00:34:23.360 --> 00:34:25.559
town living as well, where there's not a lot of traffic.
653
00:34:25.679 --> 00:34:29.719
You're driving by corn fields and cows and horses all
654
00:34:29.760 --> 00:34:31.880
the time, and so you get a little bit of
655
00:34:31.880 --> 00:34:33.880
both worlds. But I guess it just depends on where
656
00:34:33.960 --> 00:34:36.960
they're coming from. For some for some of our students,
657
00:34:37.039 --> 00:34:41.159
coming to Davenport, Iowa actually is visiting the big city
658
00:34:41.199 --> 00:34:44.360
for them, they're coming from smaller areas than even in
659
00:34:44.480 --> 00:34:47.159
we're living in now. But then others who come from
660
00:34:47.159 --> 00:34:48.960
like New York City and stuff, they come here and
661
00:34:49.000 --> 00:34:51.400
they're like, what do you guys do? There's nothing to
662
00:34:51.559 --> 00:34:54.199
do here? And I'm like, well, I'm old man. I
663
00:34:54.280 --> 00:34:56.920
go home and play with my dog and hang out
664
00:34:56.960 --> 00:34:59.559
with my kids. That's what I do. But but yeah,
665
00:34:59.599 --> 00:35:01.960
I guess it just depends on where you're coming from
666
00:35:02.599 --> 00:35:05.320
in regards to your perspective on what it's like to
667
00:35:05.320 --> 00:35:06.079
live in Iowa.
668
00:35:06.400 --> 00:35:09.800
That's true. Yeah, Yeah. I watched some of the videos
669
00:35:09.800 --> 00:35:12.199
they're talking about the school and they kept saying quad cities,
670
00:35:12.199 --> 00:35:14.119
and I was like, what are they talking about? What
671
00:35:14.840 --> 00:35:17.639
what are the For those that don't understand, what are
672
00:35:17.639 --> 00:35:20.960
the quad cities that do make up the Davenport, Iowa area.
673
00:35:21.480 --> 00:35:25.400
So there's some debate as to which cities make up
674
00:35:25.480 --> 00:35:30.000
the quad cities because in reality, there's probably like minimum five,
675
00:35:30.199 --> 00:35:33.719
maybe six seven cities in our area that kind of
676
00:35:33.760 --> 00:35:37.079
make up this little metropolis that we have. But in
677
00:35:37.079 --> 00:35:41.199
my opinion, there's the core four of of course Davenport, Iowa,
678
00:35:41.639 --> 00:35:44.559
and then Bette, North, Iowa, which I mentioned earlier was
679
00:35:44.559 --> 00:35:46.679
where I went to high school. And then on the
680
00:35:46.719 --> 00:35:49.519
Illinois side of the river, you have Rock Island, Illinois,
681
00:35:50.079 --> 00:35:53.559
and then you have Moline, Illinois. So those, in my opinion,
682
00:35:53.559 --> 00:35:56.039
in most people's opinion, are the core four of the
683
00:35:56.360 --> 00:35:57.239
quad cities.
684
00:35:58.800 --> 00:36:01.480
Well, if people want to debate, what would the other
685
00:36:01.519 --> 00:36:04.840
ones be that they think would be considered the part
686
00:36:04.840 --> 00:36:05.320
of the quad.
687
00:36:05.960 --> 00:36:10.519
So you have East Moleine, which is obviously just connected
688
00:36:10.519 --> 00:36:14.400
to Moline, so there's another one that people sometimes consider
689
00:36:14.440 --> 00:36:16.440
part of the quad cities. And then you have cities
690
00:36:16.519 --> 00:36:20.760
like Eldridge and Leclair on the Iowa side that are
691
00:36:20.800 --> 00:36:23.400
really close. And then you can kind of branch out
692
00:36:23.400 --> 00:36:27.519
even further and you have Bluegrass, Iowa, where I hold
693
00:36:27.519 --> 00:36:30.920
a lot of independent events, and then Buffalo, Iowa, which
694
00:36:30.960 --> 00:36:34.159
is where Seth Rollins grew up as a young child.
695
00:36:34.280 --> 00:36:39.039
So there's a lot of smaller cities associated suburbs of
696
00:36:39.039 --> 00:36:41.400
the Quad Cities, if you will. That People try and
697
00:36:41.480 --> 00:36:43.840
sneak in there, but I tell them it's in the name.
698
00:36:44.119 --> 00:36:46.280
You can only pick four. It's the Quad Cities. You
699
00:36:46.320 --> 00:36:49.639
can't have seven cities in the Quad Cities. It's four.
700
00:36:50.119 --> 00:36:52.360
Yeah. Yeah, it's like you said, it's in the name.
701
00:36:52.400 --> 00:36:57.960
There's no way. Yeah. So when did the idea for
702
00:36:58.159 --> 00:37:01.119
opening your own actual independent company them?
703
00:37:01.360 --> 00:37:05.480
Well, actually, this has been a part of our lives
704
00:37:05.519 --> 00:37:10.280
for a long time. This was essentially SCW Pro's the
705
00:37:10.400 --> 00:37:14.639
name of the promotion. They were like a backyard fed
706
00:37:15.119 --> 00:37:18.239
and high school kids having a good time. They eventually
707
00:37:18.320 --> 00:37:22.320
made a makeshift ring in a barn and had people
708
00:37:22.400 --> 00:37:24.280
come to these shows that they were putting on. And
709
00:37:24.320 --> 00:37:27.559
this was a pretty elaborate setup to the turnbuckles were
710
00:37:27.599 --> 00:37:30.840
screwed into the support beams of the barn. They had
711
00:37:30.880 --> 00:37:33.440
the cables wrapped around just like you would on an
712
00:37:33.440 --> 00:37:37.320
independent show, covered them into tubing, and then the mat
713
00:37:37.440 --> 00:37:40.880
was made out of mattresses that had metal, sheets of
714
00:37:40.960 --> 00:37:43.360
metal over the top of that, with some gym matts
715
00:37:43.360 --> 00:37:46.280
over the top of that, so it was it was
716
00:37:46.320 --> 00:37:49.960
a pretty legit setup. And me and my high school
717
00:37:49.960 --> 00:37:52.159
buddies went to a couple of the barn shows and
718
00:37:52.159 --> 00:37:53.719
we're like, all right, we got to get involved with
719
00:37:53.760 --> 00:37:55.960
these guys. How do we how do we? How do
720
00:37:56.039 --> 00:37:59.079
we wrestle in this barn? So we became friends with
721
00:37:59.119 --> 00:38:01.960
the guys who were running SCW at the time, and
722
00:38:02.000 --> 00:38:06.039
shortly after the kid whose dad owned the barn was like,
723
00:38:06.079 --> 00:38:07.960
I can't have all these people up in my barn.
724
00:38:08.039 --> 00:38:12.199
This is an insurance liability and I'm kicking you guys out.
725
00:38:12.239 --> 00:38:13.599
So we're like, well, what are we gonna do? How
726
00:38:13.599 --> 00:38:16.159
are we going to keep having shows? And somebody was like, well,
727
00:38:16.159 --> 00:38:18.360
we could just buy a wrestling ring and try and
728
00:38:18.360 --> 00:38:21.239
figure it out from there. So that's what happened. A
729
00:38:21.280 --> 00:38:24.519
wrestling ring got delivered, and we ended up holding our
730
00:38:24.559 --> 00:38:27.719
first show on our first what we consider our first
731
00:38:27.719 --> 00:38:29.840
official show because it was the first show with a ring,
732
00:38:30.320 --> 00:38:33.679
on August thirtieth, two thousand and three, and at that time,
733
00:38:33.760 --> 00:38:36.719
a lot of us were going to day camps with
734
00:38:36.800 --> 00:38:39.880
independent wrestlers, you know, trying to learn things a proper way,
735
00:38:40.679 --> 00:38:44.840
so while not being fully trained, you know, right off
736
00:38:44.880 --> 00:38:48.519
the bat, we had some formal training. I think it
737
00:38:48.559 --> 00:38:51.039
was like three dollars to come to that first show,
738
00:38:52.679 --> 00:38:56.039
but you know, we'll always remember it was Funnily enough,
739
00:38:56.159 --> 00:39:00.920
it was at a church called Saint Mark's. Looking back,
740
00:39:00.960 --> 00:39:03.960
we find that's an ironic name to have the first
741
00:39:04.039 --> 00:39:07.400
independent show, or the first show that we were on. Anyways,
742
00:39:07.559 --> 00:39:11.519
But man, fast forward many years later. Basically the guys
743
00:39:11.559 --> 00:39:15.800
who were running SCW were no longer interested in doing so,
744
00:39:15.679 --> 00:39:17.760
and so the promotion was going to die unless somebody
745
00:39:17.800 --> 00:39:20.440
took it over. And I stepped up and volunteered, and
746
00:39:21.760 --> 00:39:23.440
after it was kind of my baby. I was like,
747
00:39:23.440 --> 00:39:25.519
all right, how can we grow this and make this
748
00:39:25.639 --> 00:39:27.960
kind of a destination spot for people here in the
749
00:39:28.039 --> 00:39:31.000
Quad Cities. And thankfully we've been able to do that.
750
00:39:31.119 --> 00:39:34.920
But I would say I took over probably around twenty
751
00:39:34.960 --> 00:39:37.760
twelve or so, twenty eleven, twenty twelve, and I've been
752
00:39:37.840 --> 00:39:38.800
running it ever since.
753
00:39:39.280 --> 00:39:40.880
Oh so before the school even happened.
754
00:39:41.639 --> 00:39:45.079
Yeah, yep, wow, this yeah, this is something that we've
755
00:39:45.119 --> 00:39:47.360
been doing for a long time. But this was something
756
00:39:47.400 --> 00:39:49.840
I was doing before we opened the school. So after
757
00:39:49.880 --> 00:39:52.480
the school got after the school was opened, was it
758
00:39:52.519 --> 00:39:58.000
was easy to have our graduates get experience right away.
759
00:39:58.039 --> 00:39:59.840
You know, we can allow them to wrestle on this
760
00:39:59.880 --> 00:40:05.320
S shows and they can immediately get that experience in
761
00:40:05.320 --> 00:40:08.400
front of a live audience right upon graduating. So it's
762
00:40:08.440 --> 00:40:09.960
been it's been a nice partnership.
763
00:40:11.079 --> 00:40:14.000
Now I want to ask this question, but now I
764
00:40:14.039 --> 00:40:17.519
want to ask it in three different stages. So I
765
00:40:17.559 --> 00:40:21.239
want to ask what veterans helped you out along the way.
766
00:40:21.320 --> 00:40:24.719
But I want to ask as a pro wrestler, as
767
00:40:24.760 --> 00:40:28.880
an as an independent wrestler promoting, and then later as
768
00:40:29.039 --> 00:40:31.440
an actual teacher.
769
00:40:31.119 --> 00:40:36.880
Yourself interesting, So as a wrestler or as wrestlers. When
770
00:40:36.880 --> 00:40:39.079
we were first coming up as the Black and Brave
771
00:40:39.119 --> 00:40:43.519
tag team, one guy who was really really helpful at
772
00:40:43.559 --> 00:40:48.280
that time was Jimmy Jacobs. He from Michigan, so not
773
00:40:48.519 --> 00:40:51.519
necessarily close to us, but we ran in the same circles.
774
00:40:51.559 --> 00:40:53.519
We were on a lot of the same shows, and
775
00:40:53.559 --> 00:40:56.880
he took a liking to us right from the very beginning.
776
00:40:57.000 --> 00:40:59.840
I remember being on a show, I think it was
777
00:40:59.880 --> 00:41:02.199
a I w a Mid South show with him and
778
00:41:02.480 --> 00:41:05.639
afterwards he was like, hey, we're gonna go get some dinner.
779
00:41:05.639 --> 00:41:08.320
Do you want to get dinner with us? And we're oh, yeah,
780
00:41:08.320 --> 00:41:10.360
that that'd be really cool. You know, I was a
781
00:41:10.360 --> 00:41:12.480
big fan of Jimmy Jacobs when I was just going
782
00:41:12.519 --> 00:41:16.000
to independent shows, so getting to hang out with him,
783
00:41:16.280 --> 00:41:17.880
you know, that sounded like a cool deal to me.
784
00:41:18.880 --> 00:41:22.920
And I remember we went to Wendy's and he all right,
785
00:41:23.159 --> 00:41:24.800
what are you guys going to order? And we were
786
00:41:25.119 --> 00:41:27.440
I think it was some chicken sandwiches or something like that,
787
00:41:27.920 --> 00:41:30.719
and he ended up paying for the meal for myself
788
00:41:30.760 --> 00:41:33.440
and Seth. And it's not like he was rolling in
789
00:41:33.920 --> 00:41:36.239
dough at the time either. And we were like, oh,
790
00:41:36.280 --> 00:41:37.920
you don't have to do that, and he's like, no, no, no,
791
00:41:39.239 --> 00:41:42.079
I'm gonna do that. That's what that's what you're supposed
792
00:41:42.079 --> 00:41:44.000
to do. You're supposed to pay it forward to to
793
00:41:44.039 --> 00:41:46.840
the to the new guys. Someday you guys will be
794
00:41:46.880 --> 00:41:49.840
able to pay it forward as well. And we actually
795
00:41:50.239 --> 00:41:53.519
we do pay it forward. For for every graduating class,
796
00:41:53.559 --> 00:41:56.760
we hold a graduation lunch or a graduation dinner where
797
00:41:57.239 --> 00:42:01.719
the meal is paid for by this and everyone gets
798
00:42:01.760 --> 00:42:04.320
to eat for free. And we do that specifically because
799
00:42:04.360 --> 00:42:07.320
of that time with Jimmy where he paid for our
800
00:42:07.360 --> 00:42:10.039
dinner and told us to pay it forward someday. So
801
00:42:10.119 --> 00:42:14.320
as a wrestler, Jimmy Jacob was very instrumental. Jerry Lynn
802
00:42:14.400 --> 00:42:17.360
another guy who was doing a lot of independent shows
803
00:42:17.360 --> 00:42:19.079
in the Midwest at the time. I got a chance
804
00:42:19.079 --> 00:42:21.119
to wrestle him when I was eighteen years old. I
805
00:42:21.199 --> 00:42:25.519
was very nervous for that one, but you know, he's
806
00:42:25.559 --> 00:42:29.480
a consummate professional and pulled me through to what I
807
00:42:29.519 --> 00:42:31.880
considered to be a really good match. And then we
808
00:42:32.559 --> 00:42:35.559
ended up having a program with each other in Chicago
809
00:42:35.679 --> 00:42:38.840
where I dropped my championship belt to him, and that
810
00:42:39.000 --> 00:42:43.400
was an eye opening experience. He would call and text
811
00:42:43.480 --> 00:42:45.559
and just hey, I had some ideas for this, and
812
00:42:45.599 --> 00:42:49.519
it was just for me, you know, somebody who watched
813
00:42:49.559 --> 00:42:51.760
him on TV when I was younger. Being able to
814
00:42:51.800 --> 00:42:54.039
be in the ring with him and learn from him
815
00:42:54.079 --> 00:42:57.679
and pick his brain multiple times over the course of
816
00:42:57.880 --> 00:43:01.159
a few years when I was coming up, that was invaluable.
817
00:43:01.239 --> 00:43:03.679
But as a wrestler, I would kind of name those
818
00:43:03.679 --> 00:43:07.800
two guys is as two of the biggest ones who
819
00:43:07.880 --> 00:43:11.599
helped us, And from a promoter's perspective, I always look
820
00:43:11.800 --> 00:43:17.360
at my trainer, Danny Daniels. He runs aaw in Chicago,
821
00:43:17.480 --> 00:43:19.920
you know, at one point one of the biggest independent
822
00:43:19.960 --> 00:43:22.039
promotions in the country. They still do a lot of
823
00:43:22.360 --> 00:43:25.119
really large events in the Chicago land area. You know.
824
00:43:25.280 --> 00:43:28.639
He he was my promoter when I was wrestling for
825
00:43:28.679 --> 00:43:31.960
AAW when I was younger, so I gotta and as
826
00:43:32.760 --> 00:43:34.440
he was also my trainer, I got to see a
827
00:43:34.440 --> 00:43:37.199
lot of the behind the scenes stuff about how a
828
00:43:37.280 --> 00:43:40.519
show gets put together, in the thought process behind booking,
829
00:43:41.280 --> 00:43:44.599
and you know, different things that you can do to
830
00:43:45.960 --> 00:43:48.719
gain a larger audience. And so when I started promoting
831
00:43:48.719 --> 00:43:51.159
my own shows, he was somebody that you know, I
832
00:43:51.840 --> 00:43:54.199
looked back on the times I spent with him while
833
00:43:54.239 --> 00:43:56.280
he was promoting shows, and then obviously I had a
834
00:43:56.280 --> 00:43:58.760
direct line of communication with him, so I would call him,
835
00:43:58.760 --> 00:44:03.480
text him, ask him questions, and so you know, I
836
00:44:03.559 --> 00:44:06.159
was able to lean on him as a resource. And
837
00:44:06.199 --> 00:44:10.119
then you know, as a teacher, I think obviously I
838
00:44:11.039 --> 00:44:13.159
harken back to a lot of the lessons that that
839
00:44:13.239 --> 00:44:15.440
Danny taught us when we were training with him, But
840
00:44:15.480 --> 00:44:18.039
I also think back to those day camps that I
841
00:44:18.119 --> 00:44:20.480
was doing. You know, I'll still tell stories from a
842
00:44:20.519 --> 00:44:23.400
Samoa Joe day camp that Seth and I had done
843
00:44:23.440 --> 00:44:26.559
when we were eighteen years old, and he taught us
844
00:44:26.639 --> 00:44:29.440
the proper way to chop somebody. And that's still the
845
00:44:29.440 --> 00:44:33.719
way I teach chops today. So a lot there's been
846
00:44:33.719 --> 00:44:38.280
a lot of influences throughout the years. Doctor Tom Pritchard,
847
00:44:38.400 --> 00:44:41.000
who helped train Seth when he was in NXT. He
848
00:44:41.039 --> 00:44:45.599
wrote a book on professional wrestling training, and I remember
849
00:44:45.599 --> 00:44:48.280
buying the book and taking a lot of notes and
850
00:44:48.280 --> 00:44:49.679
then you get to the end of the book and
851
00:44:49.679 --> 00:44:52.679
he says, hey, listen, thank you for reading this book.
852
00:44:52.679 --> 00:44:55.719
But at the end of the day, there's no one
853
00:44:56.159 --> 00:45:00.000
right way to train someone. Everybody's a different human being,
854
00:45:00.119 --> 00:45:05.360
different individual and they'll all need different training techniques to
855
00:45:05.440 --> 00:45:08.199
help get them through. And that's something that I've taken
856
00:45:08.239 --> 00:45:11.559
to heart as well, and I try to adapt and
857
00:45:11.559 --> 00:45:16.599
and you know, change the training class by class. You know,
858
00:45:16.639 --> 00:45:18.920
what does this class need more of? What can we
859
00:45:19.039 --> 00:45:21.320
kind of Okay, they got this, let's move on. You
860
00:45:21.320 --> 00:45:23.480
know what can we get through a little more quickly
861
00:45:23.519 --> 00:45:26.400
than maybe some other classes got through. So there's just
862
00:45:26.440 --> 00:45:29.119
I mean, that's just the wrestling business, that's life in general, right,
863
00:45:29.400 --> 00:45:32.039
every day. Every day you should be learning something new,
864
00:45:32.239 --> 00:45:35.039
you know, whether it's the tiniest little thing off a
865
00:45:35.079 --> 00:45:38.639
YouTube video you watched, or you know, something as large
866
00:45:38.639 --> 00:45:43.960
as learning new things in order to to better your
867
00:45:44.440 --> 00:45:48.119
your standing within your profession. So I consider myself a
868
00:45:48.159 --> 00:45:53.159
lifelong learner and and just trying to get better each
869
00:45:53.199 --> 00:45:53.880
and every day. You know.
870
00:45:55.639 --> 00:45:58.679
I live by that philosophy every day too. And that's
871
00:45:58.679 --> 00:46:01.239
why I love this podcast because talking to different people,
872
00:46:01.280 --> 00:46:04.000
you get everyone's different. You get so many different aspects
873
00:46:04.000 --> 00:46:06.599
and different views on life and what they've gone through
874
00:46:06.639 --> 00:46:10.159
and how they have come back from, you know, adversity
875
00:46:10.199 --> 00:46:12.800
in their lives, or sometimes they don't and they just
876
00:46:12.880 --> 00:46:15.760
kind of, unfortunately stick in it. And it's like, well
877
00:46:16.159 --> 00:46:18.760
that unfortunately didn't work out for you, but that you know,
878
00:46:18.880 --> 00:46:20.360
you just got to be a little bit better every
879
00:46:20.400 --> 00:46:23.360
day and keep, like you said, lifelong learner and never stop.
880
00:46:23.920 --> 00:46:24.559
Yep yep.
881
00:46:25.159 --> 00:46:28.320
Well, I mean speaking of that obviously, when you are
882
00:46:28.360 --> 00:46:32.599
training people or people learn, everybody learns differently, everybody takes
883
00:46:32.639 --> 00:46:38.800
criticism differently. Like you said, you were saying the class
884
00:46:38.840 --> 00:46:41.360
itself might need more of this or that, or that
885
00:46:41.400 --> 00:46:43.960
they got it you move on. But when you see
886
00:46:44.000 --> 00:46:48.960
somebody actually still struggling with it or they're not learning obviously,
887
00:46:49.000 --> 00:46:51.320
you know, like I said, people learn differently. How have
888
00:46:51.480 --> 00:46:55.400
you kind of learned to adapt when it does come
889
00:46:55.440 --> 00:46:58.360
to either when it does come to criticism or really
890
00:46:58.360 --> 00:46:59.920
making sure somebody kind of gets it down.
891
00:47:00.760 --> 00:47:03.440
Sure. Yeah, when we first started the school, I was
892
00:47:03.480 --> 00:47:05.280
twenty eight years old. I had grown up in a
893
00:47:05.280 --> 00:47:09.159
professional wrestling business that was all about you know, being tough. Yeah,
894
00:47:09.480 --> 00:47:12.079
and you know, it was a different world back then.
895
00:47:12.079 --> 00:47:14.119
When we broke in in two thousand and three, the
896
00:47:14.119 --> 00:47:16.519
locker room was a different place. And so you know,
897
00:47:16.599 --> 00:47:19.920
we we started out as trainers that we were yelling
898
00:47:19.960 --> 00:47:21.880
at you and pushing you to do this and that,
899
00:47:21.960 --> 00:47:26.599
and you know, like it. And there's some merits to that,
900
00:47:26.639 --> 00:47:29.719
you know. I remember being in high school football and
901
00:47:29.760 --> 00:47:33.400
getting chewed out all day every day at practice. So
902
00:47:33.480 --> 00:47:36.039
there's some you know, there's a little bit of merit
903
00:47:36.079 --> 00:47:37.679
to the old school way of doing things. But then
904
00:47:37.719 --> 00:47:39.920
you just realize that you're dealing with people who come
905
00:47:39.960 --> 00:47:43.320
from a different generation. You know, they weren't raised the
906
00:47:43.360 --> 00:47:46.159
same way that you were. And so okay, what type
907
00:47:46.199 --> 00:47:49.800
of different teaching techniques are there, and what can be
908
00:47:49.840 --> 00:47:51.960
done differently. So we softened up a little bit in
909
00:47:51.960 --> 00:47:54.760
that regard. You know, not to say that the training
910
00:47:54.840 --> 00:47:58.280
is easier. It certainly isn't an easier, but we're you know,
911
00:47:58.719 --> 00:48:03.280
instead of at you when you can't get something done correctly.
912
00:48:03.320 --> 00:48:05.239
You know, it's like, all right, let's let's let's become
913
00:48:05.280 --> 00:48:07.920
problem solvers. Let's put our heads together and figure out
914
00:48:08.000 --> 00:48:10.960
what we can do to help you get this. And
915
00:48:11.000 --> 00:48:15.480
I think one thing that that maybe differentiates our school
916
00:48:15.519 --> 00:48:17.599
from a lot of other schools is that we own
917
00:48:17.639 --> 00:48:21.519
our own facility and it is open seven days a week,
918
00:48:21.559 --> 00:48:24.480
and we have people there. We have we have coaches
919
00:48:24.559 --> 00:48:28.719
there and graduates there who can help anyone who may
920
00:48:28.760 --> 00:48:32.159
be struggling with a certain move or a certain concept.
921
00:48:33.039 --> 00:48:35.199
And you can come in seven days a week to
922
00:48:35.280 --> 00:48:37.719
work on it. You know, outside of training hours. You
923
00:48:37.719 --> 00:48:40.119
can come in and all right, I need to practice
924
00:48:40.239 --> 00:48:42.519
drop kicks because I can't get the drop kick down
925
00:48:42.559 --> 00:48:44.480
and I want to have a good drop kick. You
926
00:48:44.519 --> 00:48:48.400
can do that for hours upon hours upon hours at
927
00:48:48.400 --> 00:48:51.440
our facility, seven days a week. We have crash pads,
928
00:48:51.440 --> 00:48:54.280
so you can try it without destroying your body. You know,
929
00:48:54.320 --> 00:48:57.239
you're not gonna you're not gonna be bumping a thousand times.
930
00:48:57.239 --> 00:48:59.199
You could do it on the crash pad. And like
931
00:48:59.239 --> 00:49:01.360
I said, we got co which is there every single
932
00:49:01.440 --> 00:49:03.920
day that that can help. We have graduate students who
933
00:49:03.960 --> 00:49:07.440
are traveling the country who can help uh. And and
934
00:49:07.480 --> 00:49:11.480
it's really you know the old cliche of iron sharpening iron.
935
00:49:11.519 --> 00:49:14.400
We got everybody. You know. I feel like I became
936
00:49:14.440 --> 00:49:17.639
a much better wrestler myself after we opened this school.
937
00:49:17.719 --> 00:49:21.840
I felt like I was I was practicing professional wrestling
938
00:49:21.880 --> 00:49:24.719
every single day, So how could I not get get
939
00:49:24.760 --> 00:49:27.519
better as a wrestler in the process. So I think
940
00:49:27.559 --> 00:49:30.960
we have a pretty unique spot and a pretty we
941
00:49:30.960 --> 00:49:33.320
we you know, maybe it's cliche, but we can. We
942
00:49:33.360 --> 00:49:36.639
consider it a family, and you know, we're there for
943
00:49:36.719 --> 00:49:39.360
each other. We help each other through and and I
944
00:49:39.400 --> 00:49:41.960
think a lot of people have benefited from that mindset
945
00:49:42.000 --> 00:49:42.880
throughout the years.
946
00:49:43.199 --> 00:49:47.440
Yeah, I love that now, being a you know, you're
947
00:49:47.519 --> 00:49:51.440
you own a school, you are owning a promotion. When
948
00:49:52.079 --> 00:49:56.880
you look at the landscape of what independent wrestling in
949
00:49:56.920 --> 00:50:00.079
America or obviously I've talked to so many people in
950
00:50:00.079 --> 00:50:02.880
Canada as well. There's so many great companies up there.
951
00:50:03.400 --> 00:50:06.320
Do you kind of see the landscape, not going back
952
00:50:06.320 --> 00:50:12.400
to a territorial situation, but where every area has that
953
00:50:12.480 --> 00:50:15.880
one big promotion and then there's obviously other promotions around
954
00:50:15.880 --> 00:50:18.960
it as well. But it's so it's not easier, but
955
00:50:19.000 --> 00:50:22.519
there is a lot more companies for these guys and
956
00:50:22.559 --> 00:50:26.079
girls to go check out and obviously try different areas.
957
00:50:26.079 --> 00:50:28.480
Because a crowd in Davenport I was going to be
958
00:50:28.480 --> 00:50:31.079
completely different from Chicago. Who's going to be different from
959
00:50:31.320 --> 00:50:34.000
Detroit or Saint Louis or even down here in Texas.
960
00:50:34.039 --> 00:50:36.559
So like, how do you kind of see what the
961
00:50:36.639 --> 00:50:39.280
landscape of pro wrestling is when it does come to
962
00:50:39.320 --> 00:50:40.760
the independent side of it now.
963
00:50:41.000 --> 00:50:44.559
Well, you're absolutely correct. When I broke into the business
964
00:50:44.599 --> 00:50:46.119
in two thousand and three, there were not a lot
965
00:50:46.159 --> 00:50:49.960
of independent promotions around. You know, every state might have
966
00:50:50.079 --> 00:50:53.440
had one, maybe two, and you try to get booked
967
00:50:53.480 --> 00:50:55.480
on them as often as you could. And we were
968
00:50:55.519 --> 00:51:00.400
so wrestling every weekend, multiple times a weekend. But it
969
00:51:00.559 --> 00:51:04.400
wasn't as easy to get bookings as it is today
970
00:51:04.440 --> 00:51:08.559
in my opinion, mainly because there were there were less promotions,
971
00:51:08.559 --> 00:51:12.440
but also we didn't have the benefit of social media, right.
972
00:51:12.519 --> 00:51:15.920
We couldn't record our matches with a device in our
973
00:51:15.960 --> 00:51:20.280
pocket and then immediately upload it to the internet where
974
00:51:20.280 --> 00:51:22.679
somebody could just click on it and watch it, didn't
975
00:51:22.719 --> 00:51:25.960
have to download it or anything. You know, ten minutes
976
00:51:26.000 --> 00:51:28.159
after you have the match, you could upload your match
977
00:51:28.400 --> 00:51:32.159
and then somebody from Kentucky is watching your match ten
978
00:51:32.159 --> 00:51:34.639
minutes after you have it. You know. Like that stuff
979
00:51:34.679 --> 00:51:36.880
just didn't exist for us back in the day, and
980
00:51:36.920 --> 00:51:39.920
so it was harder to get the word out about
981
00:51:39.960 --> 00:51:42.960
who you were and your abilities. So I think there's
982
00:51:43.079 --> 00:51:49.159
certainly advantages nowadays for people breaking in in terms of
983
00:51:49.199 --> 00:51:52.480
getting noticed, but then there's also disadvantages too. If you
984
00:51:52.639 --> 00:51:56.039
were somebody who you know, kind of got it quickly,
985
00:51:56.079 --> 00:51:59.719
and you were young and athletic like myself, like Seth was,
986
00:52:00.280 --> 00:52:04.320
we were able to gain traction pretty quickly because we
987
00:52:04.480 --> 00:52:08.639
stood out. There weren't as many wrestlers as there are nowadays.
988
00:52:08.679 --> 00:52:11.360
There's so many wrestlers. Everybody wants to get involved in
989
00:52:11.360 --> 00:52:15.239
wrestling now because wrestling's cool and they see the pathway
990
00:52:15.320 --> 00:52:21.280
from the independence to WWE, ae W, you know, TNA
991
00:52:21.599 --> 00:52:26.800
and other promotions of the like. So while it may
992
00:52:26.880 --> 00:52:30.119
have been you know, back in the day, it may
993
00:52:30.119 --> 00:52:32.360
have been more difficult, difficult to get your name out,
994
00:52:32.400 --> 00:52:35.280
you didn't have as much competition. Nowadays you can get
995
00:52:35.320 --> 00:52:39.000
your name out very easily, but so can everybody else.
996
00:52:39.039 --> 00:52:41.119
So what are you going to do that allows you
997
00:52:41.159 --> 00:52:47.280
to stand out and rise above the thousands upon thousands
998
00:52:47.280 --> 00:52:49.639
of new faces that we're seeing all the time in
999
00:52:49.639 --> 00:52:50.559
independent wrestling.
1000
00:52:51.519 --> 00:52:57.239
Do you think to help stand out you need good matches?
1001
00:52:57.400 --> 00:53:00.679
Do you need a good personality? Good or just being
1002
00:53:00.719 --> 00:53:03.320
good on social media? What do you think really kind
1003
00:53:03.320 --> 00:53:06.159
of helps set people apart when it does come to oh,
1004
00:53:06.320 --> 00:53:07.880
I'm going to go check that person out.
1005
00:53:08.320 --> 00:53:10.239
Well, I think you need all of it, really, Like,
1006
00:53:10.880 --> 00:53:12.719
ideally you need all of that if you're going to
1007
00:53:12.800 --> 00:53:16.159
succeed and really thrive in this business. Certainly there's people
1008
00:53:16.199 --> 00:53:18.440
who are going to get noticed off of a cool
1009
00:53:19.079 --> 00:53:22.840
gif that they have on social media, of a move
1010
00:53:22.920 --> 00:53:27.000
they may have invented, or something difficult that they perfected.
1011
00:53:27.119 --> 00:53:30.800
But it's very easy to get noticed for something like that.
1012
00:53:30.960 --> 00:53:33.639
But then when it comes down to staying consistent and
1013
00:53:33.760 --> 00:53:36.719
having good matches and being able to cut a good
1014
00:53:36.760 --> 00:53:42.559
promo and you be able to tell a good story,
1015
00:53:43.079 --> 00:53:46.119
those are completely different things. And if all you have
1016
00:53:46.440 --> 00:53:49.519
is the gift of the cool move that you can do.
1017
00:53:49.960 --> 00:53:53.159
Then people are going to see through that pretty quickly
1018
00:53:53.280 --> 00:53:56.039
because it's the property of diminishing value. There's only so
1019
00:53:56.079 --> 00:53:58.599
many times somebody can see you do your cool move
1020
00:53:59.000 --> 00:54:02.159
and think you're the most awesome wrestler on the planet.
1021
00:54:02.199 --> 00:54:04.519
You know, eventually they're gonna say, all right, what else
1022
00:54:04.559 --> 00:54:07.400
do you got for us? Can you get me emotionally
1023
00:54:08.039 --> 00:54:11.840
invested into what you're doing out there or is it
1024
00:54:12.119 --> 00:54:14.960
just the move? You know, And we've seen that with
1025
00:54:15.119 --> 00:54:17.199
guys and girls. They get noticed for the move and
1026
00:54:17.239 --> 00:54:20.639
then you know, it's all all sizzle, no steak. And
1027
00:54:21.159 --> 00:54:23.360
so if you really want to have a leave a
1028
00:54:23.440 --> 00:54:25.639
lasting impression on the business, you got to have all
1029
00:54:25.639 --> 00:54:27.760
of it. You got to be able to Your basics
1030
00:54:27.760 --> 00:54:29.760
have to be good. Your footwork has to be good.
1031
00:54:29.800 --> 00:54:33.039
You're timing, you're pacing, your spacing, all of that has
1032
00:54:33.079 --> 00:54:35.000
to be good. You have to be able to have
1033
00:54:36.159 --> 00:54:38.639
a good character and to cut a good promo. Your
1034
00:54:38.639 --> 00:54:41.119
psychology needs to be on point. You need to take
1035
00:54:41.199 --> 00:54:44.880
people on an emotional roller coaster and get them invested
1036
00:54:44.920 --> 00:54:47.920
in you as an individual and want to see more
1037
00:54:47.960 --> 00:54:50.000
of you. And then you have to be able to
1038
00:54:50.320 --> 00:54:53.840
have good, good manners, good etiquette. You have to be
1039
00:54:53.920 --> 00:54:56.599
somebody that people want to share locker rooms with, you know.
1040
00:54:56.760 --> 00:54:59.159
That's the other side of wrestling that I don't think
1041
00:54:59.199 --> 00:55:02.239
a lot of fans think about too often. Is they're like, oh, well,
1042
00:55:02.280 --> 00:55:04.719
this person's really good. Why aren't we seeing more of them?
1043
00:55:04.760 --> 00:55:07.239
And I'm like, well, yeah, what are they a jerk
1044
00:55:07.239 --> 00:55:09.559
in the locker room? Are they rubbing people the wrong way?
1045
00:55:09.800 --> 00:55:12.119
Are they pissing people off? Do people not want to
1046
00:55:12.159 --> 00:55:15.800
work with that person because of their personality? There's there's
1047
00:55:15.840 --> 00:55:20.679
so many different layers to finding success in this business
1048
00:55:20.719 --> 00:55:24.079
that you can't really just boil it down to one thing.
1049
00:55:24.199 --> 00:55:27.760
You really have to be a master at multiple things
1050
00:55:27.800 --> 00:55:29.840
to find true success in this business.
1051
00:55:30.159 --> 00:55:33.199
Yeah, yeah, you're right. Without it out. I've thought that
1052
00:55:33.320 --> 00:55:35.800
many a time about like why didn't this person get
1053
00:55:35.840 --> 00:55:38.239
you know, get pushed more? And then like, oh, then
1054
00:55:38.280 --> 00:55:40.840
I hear backstage. Yeah, like you said, not a great
1055
00:55:40.840 --> 00:55:42.840
person to have around. And if you're not, if you
1056
00:55:42.840 --> 00:55:45.920
don't have a good attitude, you know, especially during showtime,
1057
00:55:45.960 --> 00:55:47.360
then people are not going to want to have to
1058
00:55:47.519 --> 00:55:48.199
have you at the show.
1059
00:55:48.599 --> 00:55:49.239
Absolutely.
1060
00:55:49.519 --> 00:55:51.639
Yeah. I mean speaking of show days, they can be
1061
00:55:51.800 --> 00:55:55.320
very long days and obviously as a promoter, you know
1062
00:55:55.360 --> 00:55:57.719
how you really fully got to be there the whole time.
1063
00:55:58.159 --> 00:56:00.320
Unlike some of the wrestlers they can kind of do
1064
00:56:00.360 --> 00:56:03.599
their job, get paid and leave. What are some standards
1065
00:56:03.599 --> 00:56:05.360
that are always in your bag for show days?
1066
00:56:06.880 --> 00:56:11.119
Oh gosh, Well for me, I you know, I used
1067
00:56:11.159 --> 00:56:12.920
to get real worked up on a show day and
1068
00:56:12.960 --> 00:56:15.719
get real nervous, and oh my gosh, I hope people come.
1069
00:56:15.760 --> 00:56:19.079
I hope people show up. I hope this is a success.
1070
00:56:19.119 --> 00:56:21.559
If it's not a success and it's a failure, that
1071
00:56:21.639 --> 00:56:25.519
means I'm a failure. And I've kind of learned throughout
1072
00:56:25.599 --> 00:56:27.960
the many years of doing this that there's just an
1073
00:56:28.000 --> 00:56:32.440
ebb and flow to professional wrestling to independent wrestling. When
1074
00:56:32.519 --> 00:56:37.679
you are involved in independent wrestling, your competition isn't other
1075
00:56:38.119 --> 00:56:42.719
independent wrestling. It's not solely other independent wrestling. Your competition
1076
00:56:42.920 --> 00:56:46.800
is literally everything. It's independent wrestling. This isn't like the
1077
00:56:46.840 --> 00:56:50.679
traveling circus of WWE coming to town, where everybody you
1078
00:56:50.719 --> 00:56:52.559
know goes out of their way to make sure their
1079
00:56:52.599 --> 00:56:55.159
calendar is clear so they can go see the big stars.
1080
00:56:55.239 --> 00:56:57.320
This is okay, Well, I want to go to the
1081
00:56:57.400 --> 00:57:02.719
independent wrestling show, but my sister has a birthday party
1082
00:57:02.800 --> 00:57:04.960
that day, so I'm gonna do that instead. Or Oh,
1083
00:57:05.039 --> 00:57:08.519
the hit new Marvel movie just came out, so I'm
1084
00:57:08.519 --> 00:57:12.360
gonna go do that instead. Or my favorite band is
1085
00:57:12.400 --> 00:57:14.480
playing an hour away, so I'm just gonna go to
1086
00:57:14.480 --> 00:57:17.599
that instead. Your competition when you're involved in indie wrestling
1087
00:57:17.719 --> 00:57:20.559
is literally anything and everything. So there's gonna be ebbs
1088
00:57:20.559 --> 00:57:22.599
and flows. The draws are going to be up and down.
1089
00:57:22.679 --> 00:57:26.599
All you can do is be consistent. That's the number
1090
00:57:26.639 --> 00:57:29.679
one thing in my opinion. Be consistent. Don't promise things
1091
00:57:29.679 --> 00:57:31.960
that you're not going to be able to deliver on.
1092
00:57:32.400 --> 00:57:36.000
You know, show your audience that your product is a
1093
00:57:36.039 --> 00:57:38.599
reliable product. If we say we're going to be at
1094
00:57:38.599 --> 00:57:41.840
this place at this time, then you better be right
1095
00:57:41.880 --> 00:57:43.760
and you better put on a good show. And some
1096
00:57:43.800 --> 00:57:45.679
shows are going to be better than others. And that's
1097
00:57:45.719 --> 00:57:48.199
just how this business goes. But I used to be
1098
00:57:48.239 --> 00:57:50.599
somebody who just really got worked up on show day,
1099
00:57:50.800 --> 00:57:53.760
just living and dying by what the draw was going
1100
00:57:53.800 --> 00:57:55.679
to be and how good was the show and did
1101
00:57:55.719 --> 00:57:59.719
all the storyline things hit that day? And now I
1102
00:57:59.719 --> 00:58:02.440
really that you know, there's going to be a million
1103
00:58:02.519 --> 00:58:06.320
different things that play a role in whether that event
1104
00:58:06.400 --> 00:58:08.320
was successful or not, and you just got to roll
1105
00:58:08.360 --> 00:58:10.800
with the punches, and you've got to remember that there's
1106
00:58:10.840 --> 00:58:12.880
gonna be another one. And for me, we're putting on
1107
00:58:13.000 --> 00:58:15.960
multiple events every single month. There's gonna be another one,
1108
00:58:16.000 --> 00:58:18.280
probably the very next weekend. So you just got to
1109
00:58:18.280 --> 00:58:20.880
get back on the horse and ride. And thankfully, we've
1110
00:58:20.880 --> 00:58:23.719
been really successful over the last I would say five
1111
00:58:23.840 --> 00:58:26.599
or six years. The business has really picked up and
1112
00:58:26.599 --> 00:58:28.800
and we're we're doing shows all the time, and we're
1113
00:58:28.840 --> 00:58:32.440
getting booked for different festivals and and things like that,
1114
00:58:32.559 --> 00:58:34.519
and we do our own shows on top of that.
1115
00:58:34.599 --> 00:58:37.840
So we've stayed busy and we've we've kind of woven
1116
00:58:37.880 --> 00:58:41.480
ourselves into the fabric of the Quad Cities in terms
1117
00:58:41.559 --> 00:58:47.519
of being a destination spot for live entertainment. And you know,
1118
00:58:47.559 --> 00:58:49.719
that's that's a that's a cool spot to be after
1119
00:58:49.800 --> 00:58:52.400
doing it for so long and almost kind of feeling
1120
00:58:52.480 --> 00:58:55.480
like the like the redheaded step child of entertainment in
1121
00:58:55.480 --> 00:58:58.159
the area, to now be welcomed into the inner circle
1122
00:58:58.280 --> 00:58:59.960
is a fun place to be.
1123
00:59:00.920 --> 00:59:04.000
Yeah, I am lucky enough to work for a company
1124
00:59:04.039 --> 00:59:08.320
in Arkansas. Shout out Mutiny Wrestling Federation and so what
1125
00:59:08.440 --> 00:59:12.039
they've done with getting themselves established in the community has
1126
00:59:12.079 --> 00:59:16.079
been absolutely fantastic, and I love that that independent companies
1127
00:59:16.079 --> 00:59:19.679
are doing that, because if if you're not part of
1128
00:59:19.760 --> 00:59:21.880
the community, that community is not going to come help you.
1129
00:59:21.960 --> 00:59:26.119
Also, yep, I completely agree, and thankfully we have a
1130
00:59:26.239 --> 00:59:29.800
very supportive community in our area that has allowed us
1131
00:59:29.800 --> 00:59:30.960
to thrive recently.
1132
00:59:31.360 --> 00:59:33.840
I love that. Now I have a question for you,
1133
00:59:33.840 --> 00:59:35.920
considering you've been in the industry as long as you have,
1134
00:59:36.000 --> 00:59:38.239
I haven't asked this to anybody, and I have had
1135
00:59:38.239 --> 00:59:40.679
this thought for quite a while. So when you and
1136
00:59:40.679 --> 00:59:44.000
I were growing up, we would obviously see the guys
1137
00:59:44.199 --> 00:59:47.840
in whether be WCWWF wherever it is, and they all
1138
00:59:48.119 --> 00:59:50.320
you know it. This question is about body here, by
1139
00:59:50.360 --> 00:59:54.840
the way, so okay, you always sell the guys, whether
1140
00:59:55.039 --> 00:59:57.440
you know they'd either have the shaved legs or obviously
1141
00:59:57.639 --> 01:00:00.280
always the shaved our pits because if headlocks were far
1142
01:00:00.320 --> 01:00:04.360
more prevalent back then. But now as we've as time
1143
01:00:04.360 --> 01:00:07.639
has gone on, the body hair is just all natural.
1144
01:00:08.039 --> 01:00:10.119
Where do you think that that happened where people stop
1145
01:00:10.159 --> 01:00:13.360
shaving the armpits and then probably other parts of their
1146
01:00:13.400 --> 01:00:15.280
body as well. I guess I'm not going to get
1147
01:00:15.320 --> 01:00:18.880
into pubic situations, but the armpits in general, I've noticed
1148
01:00:18.920 --> 01:00:21.440
that there's far more just regular hair now as opposed
1149
01:00:21.480 --> 01:00:24.000
to back in the day where the men didn't have
1150
01:00:24.039 --> 01:00:24.719
any armpit hair.
1151
01:00:25.199 --> 01:00:29.559
Yeah, I think just as a society, we've gotten hairer
1152
01:00:29.800 --> 01:00:35.079
through the years, right, that's I guess that's my only
1153
01:00:35.800 --> 01:00:39.760
My only explanation that I can lean on is we
1154
01:00:39.880 --> 01:00:46.199
as a society have just become more accepting of hair. Right,
1155
01:00:46.480 --> 01:00:49.519
everybody's got a beard now, I myself have a beard,
1156
01:00:49.559 --> 01:00:51.679
but that wasn't what you know, that wasn't what it
1157
01:00:51.760 --> 01:00:54.679
was like twenty twenty five years ago. Some people had beards,
1158
01:00:54.679 --> 01:00:57.360
but a lot of people didn't, and it was important
1159
01:00:57.360 --> 01:01:00.039
to be clean shaven and whatnot. And I think he
1160
01:01:00.119 --> 01:01:04.559
went through the bodybuilder phase of pro wrestling where you
1161
01:01:04.639 --> 01:01:08.760
wanted to see the muscle definition and everybody was real
1162
01:01:08.880 --> 01:01:11.280
tan and they were putting the baby oil on. And
1163
01:01:11.360 --> 01:01:13.400
I mean I did the same thing when I was younger.
1164
01:01:13.440 --> 01:01:16.400
I wasn't a naturally hairy guy, so I didn't have
1165
01:01:16.440 --> 01:01:18.960
to shave much more than my armpits, but I definitely
1166
01:01:19.039 --> 01:01:22.119
shaved my armpits for every single show, you know, as
1167
01:01:22.159 --> 01:01:25.119
a courtesy to my opponent. But I don't know, It's
1168
01:01:25.159 --> 01:01:28.400
just something that we were taught to do. Seth very
1169
01:01:28.559 --> 01:01:29.599
very very hairy guy.
1170
01:01:29.800 --> 01:01:31.559
I was gonna say, your buddy, Seth is a very
1171
01:01:31.599 --> 01:01:32.079
hairy guy.
1172
01:01:32.320 --> 01:01:35.079
Yeah, when he was wrestling in the speedo trunks, he
1173
01:01:35.159 --> 01:01:38.760
did have to shave his legs, and he shaved his arms,
1174
01:01:38.760 --> 01:01:41.239
and he shaved his chest and his thumb everything, always
1175
01:01:41.239 --> 01:01:45.360
shaving all the time. And then when he started doing
1176
01:01:45.440 --> 01:01:49.119
the shield gimmick and wearing the long pants and wearing
1177
01:01:49.199 --> 01:01:51.800
the vest and everything like that, he said, Hey, I
1178
01:01:51.800 --> 01:01:54.079
don't have to shave anymore. And he stopped and he
1179
01:01:54.159 --> 01:01:56.000
was like, Oh, this is the best thing I've ever
1180
01:01:56.079 --> 01:01:59.320
done in life. And so to this day he doesn't
1181
01:01:59.519 --> 01:02:03.639
shave anything anymore. I don't think, but yeah, I just
1182
01:02:03.679 --> 01:02:09.039
think we as a society started caring more about I
1183
01:02:09.039 --> 01:02:13.039
guess maybe not more about but less about everyone's physique
1184
01:02:13.199 --> 01:02:16.360
in pro wrestling and more about their work, and so
1185
01:02:16.880 --> 01:02:19.599
body hair just kind of became a thing that everyone
1186
01:02:19.719 --> 01:02:22.639
was accepting of, and I personally don't care. My favorite
1187
01:02:22.679 --> 01:02:24.400
rest ser of all time is Sean Michaels, and he
1188
01:02:24.480 --> 01:02:29.480
kind of pioneered the hairy chest look at least for
1189
01:02:29.559 --> 01:02:30.199
my generation.
1190
01:02:30.599 --> 01:02:32.840
Yeah, I mean I don't have that kind of hair
1191
01:02:32.880 --> 01:02:34.400
on my chest. Though for me it wouldn't have been
1192
01:02:34.400 --> 01:02:36.239
a thing. But yeah, I imagine there are a lot
1193
01:02:36.239 --> 01:02:37.800
of guys that are like, oh, thank goodness, I don't
1194
01:02:37.800 --> 01:02:42.079
have to shave anymore. Yeah. Now, I didn't want to
1195
01:02:42.119 --> 01:02:45.199
ask any more staff questions, but I am very curious
1196
01:02:45.199 --> 01:02:48.440
about his wardrobe. Does he keep those outfits or does
1197
01:02:48.480 --> 01:02:50.599
he just using them for the night and then maybe
1198
01:02:50.960 --> 01:02:52.039
returning them of some sort.
1199
01:02:52.800 --> 01:02:57.360
Yeah, so he has a stylist, him and Becky Lynch.
1200
01:02:57.760 --> 01:03:00.280
He is not a stylish person in real life.
1201
01:03:00.039 --> 01:03:03.199
If he knows the guy with a T shirt and backwards.
1202
01:03:04.519 --> 01:03:09.119
He still wears the exact same sweatpants that he wore
1203
01:03:09.719 --> 01:03:12.320
when we were sixteen years old going to the mall,
1204
01:03:12.440 --> 01:03:15.519
going to Hooters to watch at WW pay per view.
1205
01:03:16.000 --> 01:03:18.920
You know, he's still not a similar pair, not a
1206
01:03:18.920 --> 01:03:22.039
pair that looks like that pair, the pair. And he
1207
01:03:22.119 --> 01:03:26.320
is a he is a worldwide celebrity, a multi millionaire,
1208
01:03:26.360 --> 01:03:29.039
and he still wears the same raggedy old sweatpants. So
1209
01:03:29.519 --> 01:03:31.920
not a stylish guy. So he has a stylist that
1210
01:03:31.920 --> 01:03:36.280
that picks out his clothes oftentimes sends him things without
1211
01:03:36.360 --> 01:03:39.159
him even looking at it at first, and he gets
1212
01:03:39.199 --> 01:03:42.440
it in and each week it's crazier than the last,
1213
01:03:42.519 --> 01:03:45.320
and he goes out there and puts it on and
1214
01:03:45.679 --> 01:03:48.519
tries to rocket the best he can. But after he's
1215
01:03:48.559 --> 01:03:53.519
done with it, he doesn't repeat outfits if if he
1216
01:03:53.920 --> 01:03:56.400
if something that is sent to him is something that
1217
01:03:56.440 --> 01:03:59.599
he likes, he'll keep it and re wear it in
1218
01:03:59.679 --> 01:04:02.360
like his personal life. But you know, judging by the
1219
01:04:02.360 --> 01:04:05.840
outfits you see on TV, that doesn't happen too often. Sure,
1220
01:04:05.880 --> 01:04:08.639
But as far as the you know, the big elaborate
1221
01:04:09.559 --> 01:04:12.440
entrance entrance jackets and whatnot, a lot of those are
1222
01:04:12.679 --> 01:04:15.760
are in the WWE archive so that they can take
1223
01:04:15.800 --> 01:04:18.599
him out on the road and display them at the
1224
01:04:19.679 --> 01:04:22.480
WrestleMania All Access or whatever they call it nowadays.
1225
01:04:22.920 --> 01:04:24.599
Superstore. Yeah yeah yah yeah.
1226
01:04:25.000 --> 01:04:28.039
And then a lot of it does get donated to
1227
01:04:28.159 --> 01:04:31.679
charity as well. He has a storage closet here where
1228
01:04:31.679 --> 01:04:33.360
he'll keep some things, but a lot of stuff he
1229
01:04:33.360 --> 01:04:36.400
does donate to charity and just just says, let somebody
1230
01:04:36.400 --> 01:04:37.760
else get some use out of it.
1231
01:04:38.280 --> 01:04:40.760
I love that. Yeah. I loved when he started just
1232
01:04:41.079 --> 01:04:43.400
wearing the most ridiculous things. I'm like, yes, this is
1233
01:04:43.760 --> 01:04:44.840
I'm here for this all day.
1234
01:04:45.440 --> 01:04:46.239
Oh yeah, I love it.
1235
01:04:47.440 --> 01:04:48.800
Well, I mean we kind of touched on it a
1236
01:04:48.800 --> 01:04:50.320
little bit earlier, But as much as this is a
1237
01:04:50.360 --> 01:04:53.480
physical sport, it's also a mental one. Now that you
1238
01:04:53.800 --> 01:04:56.320
are on this side of your career and you know
1239
01:04:56.360 --> 01:05:01.000
you're the rewardness of actually helping a student further their
1240
01:05:01.039 --> 01:05:04.400
career or actually you know, find their passion in for wrestling,
1241
01:05:04.559 --> 01:05:08.519
how do you kind of mentally either build yourself up
1242
01:05:08.559 --> 01:05:10.800
for a day or decompressed at the end of the day,
1243
01:05:10.960 --> 01:05:13.639
or you know, throughout the entire day. How does how
1244
01:05:13.639 --> 01:05:15.079
do you mentally kind of work through all that?
1245
01:05:16.159 --> 01:05:18.440
I think you know, at this point, I've developed a
1246
01:05:18.480 --> 01:05:22.440
pretty solid routine, you know. I I'll usually work out
1247
01:05:22.639 --> 01:05:26.920
on show days just because I happened. My workout schedule
1248
01:05:26.960 --> 01:05:29.199
has me working out on the weekends. Very busy during
1249
01:05:29.239 --> 01:05:32.000
the week so I get my workout in in the morning,
1250
01:05:32.199 --> 01:05:36.239
and then I get home and get cleaned up and
1251
01:05:36.559 --> 01:05:38.079
get dressed for the day, and then I always have
1252
01:05:38.119 --> 01:05:39.800
a bunch of errands I need to run, so that
1253
01:05:39.920 --> 01:05:43.199
keeps me busy in the morning. But as far as mentally,
1254
01:05:43.239 --> 01:05:45.800
you know, I try to listen to some inspiring music,
1255
01:05:46.239 --> 01:05:48.119
just some of my favorite artists on the way in.
1256
01:05:49.159 --> 01:05:52.280
It tends to be similar, similar artists most of the time,
1257
01:05:52.440 --> 01:05:54.840
just because you know, that's that's the stuff I've been
1258
01:05:54.880 --> 01:05:58.000
listening to since I first broke into the business, you know,
1259
01:05:58.119 --> 01:06:00.519
twenty two years ago, So I kind of fall back
1260
01:06:00.519 --> 01:06:02.920
on that stuff. And then, you know, there really isn't
1261
01:06:02.920 --> 01:06:05.519
a lot There isn't a lot of free time on
1262
01:06:05.559 --> 01:06:08.079
a show day to stop and think about much, So
1263
01:06:08.199 --> 01:06:11.679
I just I just get the things done that need
1264
01:06:11.719 --> 01:06:14.760
to get done. And then after the show's over, there's
1265
01:06:14.760 --> 01:06:16.760
still a whole bunch of tasks that need to be
1266
01:06:16.840 --> 01:06:19.320
done before we can leave the venue. And then I'm
1267
01:06:19.360 --> 01:06:21.599
the guy that hauls the trailer to and from the
1268
01:06:21.599 --> 01:06:24.840
shows as well, so I'm dropping the trailer off after
1269
01:06:24.880 --> 01:06:27.320
the event's done. And then finally, when that is all
1270
01:06:27.360 --> 01:06:31.639
said and done, I will I'll come home. My dog's
1271
01:06:31.639 --> 01:06:34.000
always so happy to see me. He comes running down,
1272
01:06:34.400 --> 01:06:39.159
running down the stairs to the garage and he's jumping around,
1273
01:06:39.239 --> 01:06:42.480
and that's always fun to come home too. And then
1274
01:06:42.599 --> 01:06:44.679
you know, I just I have a bite to eat,
1275
01:06:44.880 --> 01:06:47.639
and sometimes I'll pour myself a drink to kind of
1276
01:06:47.639 --> 01:06:50.679
ease into the night, and I know after a show
1277
01:06:50.719 --> 01:06:53.400
I'm not gonna sleep well because the adrenaline is just pumping.
1278
01:06:53.880 --> 01:06:56.559
So I just I don't put any pressure on myself.
1279
01:06:56.599 --> 01:06:58.440
I get into bed, I throw on a show, and
1280
01:06:58.480 --> 01:07:02.559
I just try and drift off to sleep eventually, but
1281
01:07:02.679 --> 01:07:05.480
usually it takes me a good twenty four to forty
1282
01:07:05.480 --> 01:07:08.880
eight hours to decompress from the rigors of a show. Day.
1283
01:07:09.360 --> 01:07:14.079
Wow. Love that well, So I have a segment. So
1284
01:07:14.119 --> 01:07:16.320
I call it the five count. It's just five random questions.
1285
01:07:16.719 --> 01:07:17.280
Sounds good.
1286
01:07:18.039 --> 01:07:19.599
What is your workout music of choice?
1287
01:07:20.679 --> 01:07:23.679
I'm a big eighties pop guy when I'm working out
1288
01:07:23.840 --> 01:07:25.760
a lot of people like to listen to angry music
1289
01:07:25.840 --> 01:07:28.119
when they're working out, but not me. I like to
1290
01:07:28.159 --> 01:07:31.199
listen to like Madonna or Prince or Michael Jackson when
1291
01:07:31.199 --> 01:07:33.199
I'm working out, just something that gets me in like
1292
01:07:33.239 --> 01:07:36.199
a good mood, because already I don't like working out.
1293
01:07:36.400 --> 01:07:38.719
I've never liked working out. Even when I was in
1294
01:07:38.760 --> 01:07:40.840
the best shape of my life, I didn't enjoy it.
1295
01:07:41.199 --> 01:07:44.760
So I like to find myself in a positive, happy
1296
01:07:44.840 --> 01:07:47.440
mood when I'm working out because I'm already kind of annoyed.
1297
01:07:47.480 --> 01:07:50.000
I have to be there, I get it. Whitney Uston,
1298
01:07:50.039 --> 01:07:50.960
I want to dance with somebody.
1299
01:07:51.559 --> 01:07:53.760
Yeah, one of my favorite songs of all time.
1300
01:07:53.920 --> 01:07:56.559
Right, If that comes on and you're not dancing, I
1301
01:07:56.559 --> 01:07:58.119
think you might want to check your pulse.
1302
01:07:58.199 --> 01:07:59.920
Yeah, it's basically a perfect song.
1303
01:08:00.239 --> 01:08:04.760
Yes, number two. If you owned a liquor company, brewery, winery,
1304
01:08:05.280 --> 01:08:08.079
not the coffee shop that's next to you, a coffee shop,
1305
01:08:08.159 --> 01:08:10.159
or a dispensary, which one would you own and what
1306
01:08:10.159 --> 01:08:10.760
would the name be?
1307
01:08:11.400 --> 01:08:17.920
Oh man, that's a great question. I don't know. I'm
1308
01:08:17.960 --> 01:08:20.079
not sure i'd want to own any of those things.
1309
01:08:20.079 --> 01:08:23.520
They seem difficult to run. I feel like I feel
1310
01:08:23.600 --> 01:08:26.680
like there's just a lot of problems associated with running
1311
01:08:27.520 --> 01:08:31.960
an establishment. That's the whole intention is to get people
1312
01:08:31.960 --> 01:08:35.319
into a different mind frame, you know, Like like I don't.
1313
01:08:35.479 --> 01:08:37.479
I often think about what it would be like to
1314
01:08:37.560 --> 01:08:39.760
run a bar, and then I'm like, oh man, I'd
1315
01:08:39.760 --> 01:08:41.880
either be at the bar at two am, which is
1316
01:08:41.880 --> 01:08:43.760
way too late for me. I like to go to
1317
01:08:43.800 --> 01:08:46.159
bed early, or I'd be getting a phone call from
1318
01:08:46.159 --> 01:08:49.279
one of my employees at two am saying somebody you know,
1319
01:08:49.840 --> 01:08:52.800
puked all over the bar and then beat up another
1320
01:08:52.920 --> 01:08:54.880
Patreon and we had to call the cops. It always
1321
01:08:54.960 --> 01:08:58.319
just sounds like such a such a hard life to live,
1322
01:08:58.359 --> 01:08:59.920
So I'm not sure i'd actually want to own any
1323
01:09:00.000 --> 01:09:02.399
of them. Maybe I'd own a dispensary just because I
1324
01:09:02.399 --> 01:09:05.159
think there's some money in that, and I think we're
1325
01:09:05.199 --> 01:09:09.039
getting to a point in American society where that's gonna
1326
01:09:09.359 --> 01:09:12.359
be legal everywhere, and it's gonna it's gonna be a
1327
01:09:12.359 --> 01:09:15.920
business that continues to grow. So I guess I'll own
1328
01:09:15.960 --> 01:09:18.760
a dispensary and we'll call it braves blunts.
1329
01:09:19.119 --> 01:09:25.159
Ooh, that's perfect. Number three. What emoji do you use most?
1330
01:09:26.560 --> 01:09:31.640
Probably the laughing crying emoji? That's probably you know. I'm
1331
01:09:32.359 --> 01:09:34.079
I like to goof off a lot, and so to
1332
01:09:34.119 --> 01:09:37.319
all my friends and family members. So we're always cracking
1333
01:09:37.399 --> 01:09:40.680
jokes with each other in the group chats and getting
1334
01:09:40.680 --> 01:09:43.920
a good laugh. So, you know, my grandma, she recently
1335
01:09:43.920 --> 01:09:46.359
passed away. She was ninety five years old, but for
1336
01:09:46.439 --> 01:09:49.000
the last ten years of her life, she'd always she
1337
01:09:49.039 --> 01:09:53.399
would always credit her longevity to having a good core
1338
01:09:53.560 --> 01:09:56.920
group of close friends that always laughed together and had
1339
01:09:56.960 --> 01:09:59.159
fun together. And she said, as long as you're laughing
1340
01:09:59.199 --> 01:10:02.119
and having fun, and then there's more life left to live.
1341
01:10:02.279 --> 01:10:04.640
So uh so maybe I got that from her.
1342
01:10:05.239 --> 01:10:08.760
That's so true. Uh Number four, Who are what inspires you?
1343
01:10:10.680 --> 01:10:14.279
I think at this point I I am inspired by
1344
01:10:14.960 --> 01:10:17.680
a lot of different things. I watch a lot of documentaries.
1345
01:10:17.720 --> 01:10:22.720
I like to learn about how people became successful, you know,
1346
01:10:22.760 --> 01:10:25.000
what type of traits they had that that allowed them
1347
01:10:25.039 --> 01:10:29.880
to stay successful. So I'm always consuming you know, documentaries
1348
01:10:30.000 --> 01:10:34.159
and podcasts and and stuff just about anyone and everyone.
1349
01:10:34.199 --> 01:10:38.079
I like to read biographies and autobiographies, So I get
1350
01:10:38.119 --> 01:10:40.239
inspired by a lot. But I get inspired by the
1351
01:10:40.279 --> 01:10:42.319
people closest to me as well. You know, when I
1352
01:10:42.359 --> 01:10:46.239
see when I see one of my students succeed, that's
1353
01:10:46.319 --> 01:10:48.800
just a reminder that, Okay, I'm doing a good thing
1354
01:10:48.880 --> 01:10:52.119
here and and and I'm doing a rewarding thing, not
1355
01:10:52.319 --> 01:10:55.279
just for them, but for myself as well. I love
1356
01:10:55.319 --> 01:10:59.479
to watch my students achieve milestones, and especially when they
1357
01:10:59.560 --> 01:11:02.079
check back and they're like, oh, coach, thank you so much.
1358
01:11:02.119 --> 01:11:05.399
I just had my first match in Mexico or Canada,
1359
01:11:05.520 --> 01:11:07.840
and you know, and now I can say I'm an
1360
01:11:07.880 --> 01:11:11.199
international star, and it just feels so good because I
1361
01:11:11.239 --> 01:11:15.279
remember what that felt like when I was younger, and
1362
01:11:15.319 --> 01:11:19.880
it's so refreshing to see people who's who's who, just
1363
01:11:20.520 --> 01:11:23.159
you know, still get amped up for things like that,
1364
01:11:23.279 --> 01:11:26.479
and and and to see them achieve their dreams. It's
1365
01:11:26.560 --> 01:11:27.640
just a really special thing.
1366
01:11:28.119 --> 01:11:31.359
That's beautiful. And Number five, what would you tell your
1367
01:11:31.399 --> 01:11:32.359
seventeen year old self?
1368
01:11:33.640 --> 01:11:37.640
I think I would just tell myself to just just
1369
01:11:37.640 --> 01:11:40.279
just just keep on keeping on right, like it's gonna
1370
01:11:40.359 --> 01:11:43.159
it's gonna pay off. You don't know, you don't know where,
1371
01:11:43.359 --> 01:11:45.119
you don't know when, you don't know how, you don't
1372
01:11:45.159 --> 01:11:47.000
know why. But but all of this is gonna pay
1373
01:11:47.000 --> 01:11:49.800
off someday. You know, you're gonna you're about ready to
1374
01:11:49.840 --> 01:11:52.640
go through some trying times here. Man. You're gonna be
1375
01:11:52.680 --> 01:11:55.359
working hard, you're gonna be losing money, You're gonna be
1376
01:11:55.359 --> 01:11:58.880
getting injured and feeling like crap a whole lot of times.
1377
01:11:59.159 --> 01:12:00.760
And there's gonna be so many many times in your
1378
01:12:00.760 --> 01:12:03.800
life where you feel like, you know, I failed at this,
1379
01:12:03.960 --> 01:12:06.600
I failed at that, and maybe I am a failure.
1380
01:12:06.640 --> 01:12:09.319
But just keep putting one foot in front of the other,
1381
01:12:09.760 --> 01:12:12.159
you know, don't beat yourself up about it, and it's
1382
01:12:12.199 --> 01:12:17.359
all going to turn out okay. And also if if
1383
01:12:17.560 --> 01:12:22.119
you're thinking about doing or reverse her karana in a
1384
01:12:22.159 --> 01:12:24.760
tag team match a number of years from now, Maybe
1385
01:12:24.800 --> 01:12:25.520
skip that one.
1386
01:12:26.520 --> 01:12:28.840
Maybe don't put a poison rana in your repertoire.
1387
01:12:29.239 --> 01:12:32.680
Yeah yeah, uh, I.
1388
01:12:32.720 --> 01:12:34.239
Was gonna say it, but I'm glad you did.
1389
01:12:36.439 --> 01:12:36.560
Now.
1390
01:12:36.640 --> 01:12:38.520
People wanted to find out more about you, follow you
1391
01:12:38.560 --> 01:12:42.119
online obviously if they want to be a student at
1392
01:12:42.119 --> 01:12:44.039
the Black and Brave or they want to see the
1393
01:12:44.079 --> 01:12:46.079
independent shows. How can they do all the things?
1394
01:12:46.439 --> 01:12:49.920
Yeah, So I'm on social media at M Brave thirteen.
1395
01:12:50.039 --> 01:12:52.520
I just do Twitter and Instagram. I've actually never had
1396
01:12:52.520 --> 01:12:55.760
a Facebook. I was a big MySpace guy, and when
1397
01:12:55.800 --> 01:12:58.359
Facebook took over, I was very salty about it because
1398
01:12:58.359 --> 01:13:01.680
I'd spent a lot of time curate MySpace friends and
1399
01:13:01.720 --> 01:13:03.479
so I was very angry that now I had to
1400
01:13:03.479 --> 01:13:05.520
start all over. So I just chose not to. So
1401
01:13:05.680 --> 01:13:09.479
I'm not doing Facebook, so Instagram and Twitter at M
1402
01:13:09.560 --> 01:13:13.479
Brave thirteen. I can't say I'm the biggest social media user,
1403
01:13:14.079 --> 01:13:16.399
but you should be able to find me on there occasionally.
1404
01:13:16.960 --> 01:13:19.359
If you want to find Black and Brave Wrestling on
1405
01:13:19.600 --> 01:13:22.840
those platforms, it's at Black and Brave Wrestling on Instagram
1406
01:13:23.199 --> 01:13:26.439
at Black and Brave on Twitter and then my independent
1407
01:13:26.479 --> 01:13:33.199
promotion at scwpro on Twitter Instagram. I think we got
1408
01:13:33.199 --> 01:13:36.399
a TikTok. I do not do TikTok. I don't run
1409
01:13:36.439 --> 01:13:38.920
the TikTok. Somebody else runs the TikTok. I think that
1410
01:13:38.960 --> 01:13:42.279
one's official scwpro. We have a Facebook for that that
1411
01:13:42.359 --> 01:13:44.239
other people run, so I don't have to learn how
1412
01:13:44.239 --> 01:13:48.520
to do it at almost forty years old. So yeah,
1413
01:13:48.560 --> 01:13:51.199
you could find us all over the internets.
1414
01:13:51.600 --> 01:13:53.760
I love it, Meeric, thank you so much for this.
1415
01:13:54.199 --> 01:13:56.720
I've loved this interview so much. And I have never
1416
01:13:56.760 --> 01:13:58.760
been to Iowas, soo I need to make it up there.
1417
01:13:58.800 --> 01:14:01.159
I want to check to school obviously, the coffee shop
1418
01:14:01.199 --> 01:14:03.000
and then, but I will definitely not be there in
1419
01:14:03.039 --> 01:14:03.560
the winter time.
1420
01:14:04.239 --> 01:14:07.079
Yes, you come find us on a nice, hot summer day.
1421
01:14:07.119 --> 01:14:10.399
It gets real sticky around here with the humidity. But
1422
01:14:11.159 --> 01:14:13.479
you know you're from Texas, so you're used to it.
1423
01:14:13.560 --> 01:14:15.079
I'm used to it. It's fine. It'd be like a
1424
01:14:15.079 --> 01:14:32.039
normal day for me there you go. Thank you so
1425
01:14:32.119 --> 01:14:34.239
much to Maerk for being on the show again. If
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01:14:34.279 --> 01:14:36.119
you want to be a pro wrestler, you heard it.
1427
01:14:36.319 --> 01:14:39.039
They have people from around the world coming to them.
1428
01:14:39.359 --> 01:14:41.760
They've been open for over ten years now and they're
1429
01:14:41.800 --> 01:14:44.600
doing absolutely incredible things up in Iowa. So definitely check
1430
01:14:44.640 --> 01:14:46.960
out Mark Brave when it comes to a Black and
1431
01:14:47.000 --> 01:14:49.880
Brave Wrestling academy because you want to make sure you
1432
01:14:49.920 --> 01:14:52.159
are taught by the best. So while you're checking them out,
1433
01:14:52.199 --> 01:14:54.199
definitely make sure to check us out. On social media.
1434
01:14:54.279 --> 01:14:57.680
It is bruisers Pod that has r e WSD rspod
1435
01:14:58.159 --> 01:14:59.920
on the Instagram, of the threads and of the tw
1436
01:15:00.800 --> 01:15:02.159
If you want to send us an email, it is
1437
01:15:02.159 --> 01:15:04.319
bruisers at gmail dot com. If you want to follow
1438
01:15:04.319 --> 01:15:06.159
me directly, it is Roady John. That is R O
1439
01:15:06.279 --> 01:15:08.600
d I E j O N. Roady John is the
1440
01:15:08.680 --> 01:15:10.880
name on the Twitter and an untapped in case you
1441
01:15:10.880 --> 01:15:12.239
want to find it. When I'm drinking, maybe we can
1442
01:15:12.319 --> 01:15:13.800
have a beer together. If you want to follow me
1443
01:15:13.840 --> 01:15:16.399
on the threads or the Instagram, it is official Order John.
1444
01:15:16.479 --> 01:15:18.880
So until next time, make sure to enjoy life, drink local,
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01:15:18.960 --> 01:15:37.439
and cheers.