Speaker 1: What's up, everybody. I'm Freddie Friends Jr. And Welcome to
Speaker 1: Wrestling with Freddie, the brand new WWF. We're gonna talk
Speaker 1: about my career that I had as as brief as
Speaker 1: it was with the w w E, my passion for
Speaker 1: wrestling as a kid, and the love and respect that
Speaker 1: I still have for it, uh to this day. Um.
Speaker 1: My time is limited to w w E, but with
Speaker 1: wrestling being in the shape it is now and wrestlers
Speaker 1: sort of becoming free agents and going to other places,
Speaker 1: I can actually talk a lot about other brands too,
Speaker 1: because it's all shared now. UM. So you're gonna hear
Speaker 1: a lot of stories. Some of them are gonna be
Speaker 1: kind of crazy, some would be super funny. Some of
Speaker 1: them are even kind of sad. But I feel like
Speaker 1: I have a good perspective on them. I'm not here
Speaker 1: to bum anybody out. Um. In today's episode, we're gonna
Speaker 1: talk about how I got introduced to wrestling, which was
Speaker 1: the craziest way possible. Then we're gonna discuss the moment
Speaker 1: I fell in love with wrestling, and then we're gonna
Speaker 1: discussed the ridiculous circumstances of me being in Orlando Florida
Speaker 1: at Ric Flair's retirement match, being in the room right
Speaker 1: next to Snoop Doggs, so you know what that smelled like.
Speaker 1: And then getting offered a job for the w w
Speaker 1: E and for some reason I said yes, So that's
Speaker 1: what we're going to get into. And uh, now it's
Speaker 1: time to start the show. Now stuffing up to the
Speaker 1: mic the host of Wrestling with Freddie Freddie Prince Dunyah Okay,
Speaker 1: so uh for those of you who don't know, I
Speaker 1: gotta take you back in time a little bit. My
Speaker 1: father was a stand up comedian named Freddie Prints hence
Speaker 1: the Junior, and he was a big time stand up
Speaker 1: comedian and he was so big time that gave him
Speaker 1: his own show and it was the number one show
Speaker 1: in the country for a very short period of time.
Speaker 1: And uh he he died in nineteen seventy seven, so
Speaker 1: he couldn't make any more TV shows. But the Puerto
Speaker 1: Rican part of my heritage, my grandma mainly has always
Speaker 1: been obsessed with professional wrestling. My grandma will call it
Speaker 1: luchad And so my mom wanted me to understand my
Speaker 1: father's side of the family and the culture there, and
Speaker 1: she would send me out to Puerto Rico every Christmas
Speaker 1: break and everyone uh and every summer break. H. It's
Speaker 1: also a good time for her to find herself and
Speaker 1: got a vacation from her pain in the butt only child,
Speaker 1: so she sent me out to Puerto Rico. And back then,
Speaker 1: I don't know if they still do it, but they
Speaker 1: would put like a little tag around your neck that
Speaker 1: says I'm flying alone, and you would have, you know,
Speaker 1: a flight attendant help you on the plane and get off.
Speaker 1: And I landed in San Juan, uh, Puerto Rico, and
Speaker 1: my Papo William picked me up. He was a butcher
Speaker 1: and he was big and buff like a pro wrestler,
Speaker 1: and uh. He drove me to Bocron, Puerto Rico, where
Speaker 1: my grandmother lived. And my grandmother had posters on her
Speaker 1: wall of old school matches at the Carlos Cologne Arena
Speaker 1: in San Juan, and we would watch American wrestling and
Speaker 1: lucha wrestling pretty much every day. That in a weird
Speaker 1: tune called silver Hawks, which got me into anime too,
Speaker 1: But other than that, it was wrestling, and she, as
Speaker 1: did many back then, was fully convinced that wrestling was
Speaker 1: a hundred percent real and that these fights meant something
Speaker 1: and they were important, and the Puerto Rican fans really
Speaker 1: believed in in their person winning because their person was
Speaker 1: the good guy. They hated the heels, and those will
Speaker 1: be some terms you hear me use sometimes heels and
Speaker 1: baby faces. Heels are bad guys all like the hardcore
Speaker 1: wrestling fans are like, dude, we know, but there's some
Speaker 1: that aren't. And all the good guys are called baby faces,
Speaker 1: whether you're men or women. So uh so the baby
Speaker 1: faces have to win in Puerto Rico, at least back then.
Speaker 1: I don't know how it is now. And uh we
Speaker 1: started watching it on TV, and I asked if we
Speaker 1: could go to uh to see a match live. I've
Speaker 1: never I've never been to one. And she goes, yeah, okay, okay,
Speaker 1: so we get tickets. And my grandma was like a
Speaker 1: baller in Puerto Rico. Okay. Her son was Freddie Prinz.
Speaker 1: Puerto Rico really claims him even though he was only
Speaker 1: half part Ricon, which makes me a quarter quarto rican. Um.
Speaker 1: That's what a comic name. Paul Mooney called me when
Speaker 1: I was like twelve years old. He's like, you ain't
Speaker 1: even Puerto Rican. You're you're you're a quarto rican um.
Speaker 1: But anyway, Uh, so she drives up to San Juan.
Speaker 1: She had this great Cadillac, right and she gets a
Speaker 1: treatment man. And I didn't know anything about my dad
Speaker 1: at this point, so I just thought my grandma was
Speaker 1: like the governor of Puerto Rico or something. So she
Speaker 1: gets to park right up front, and uh, this guy
Speaker 1: sits outside and he says, I'll watch the car. I
Speaker 1: didn't know that, man, he was gonna sit there the
Speaker 1: whole time. When we came out, he was in the
Speaker 1: same spot. And the dude watched the car. It was
Speaker 1: she had. She had cloud. So we go and we
Speaker 1: get right up close and uh, we're there really early too,
Speaker 1: by the way, and they're putting a cage around the ring.
Speaker 1: And I'm, you know, eight years old, a third grader,
Speaker 1: and I asked my grandma said, oh, it's a steel
Speaker 1: cage match. You didn't tell me it's a steel cage match.
Speaker 1: She said, no, that's to keep the wrestlers safe. I said,
Speaker 1: what do you mean she goes to keep them safe
Speaker 1: from us? I said what? And I didn't really understand
Speaker 1: until the show started and the fans, I mean a
Speaker 1: lot of you'll remember the story like Yankees fans or
Speaker 1: whoever it was, they were like throwing batteries at that
Speaker 1: picture John Rocker, Um. And I think that's who it was.
Speaker 1: That's how it was here, Like any food that was
Speaker 1: brought was thrown all over these guys. And all they're
Speaker 1: doing is walking to the ring and it's not even
Speaker 1: a steel kid. They didn't, not one wrestler used the
Speaker 1: cage as a weapon, like there's any regular matches. But
Speaker 1: I'm watching the crowd almost as much. I'm like excited
Speaker 1: just talking about this right now, like shaking for real,
Speaker 1: like adrenaline. Um, I'm watching the crowd as much as
Speaker 1: I am the matches because this was it was a
Speaker 1: little scary for me. And uh So we go back
Speaker 1: home and we're watching wrestling, and said, did you like it? Oh?
Speaker 1: I loved it. I loved it, and I would wrestle
Speaker 1: with her. She was the first person ever hit me
Speaker 1: with a with a Rick Flair chop and she hit hard.
Speaker 1: And she's a tough Puerto Rican girl. Grew up in
Speaker 1: Puerto Rico and moved to New York. Had to be
Speaker 1: tough out there too, so she was no joke. And
Speaker 1: uh I would watch wrestling with her every single week.
Speaker 1: And then I went back to New Mexico where I
Speaker 1: was living with my mom, and uh there was a
Speaker 1: wrestling match that was coming. The WWF was coming to Albuquerque,
Speaker 1: New Mexico, in this little place where they had the
Speaker 1: rodeo called Tingly Colosseum. And when I say it had
Speaker 1: dust on the floors, I don't mean dust, I mean
Speaker 1: dirt because it was actually a rodeo and they didn't
Speaker 1: put hardwood floor in in there in between the rodeos.
Speaker 1: It was just dirt. So there's a wrestling ring, bleachers
Speaker 1: and a dirt walk up basically with some rolled out,
Speaker 1: you know, tarp for them to walk down. And it
Speaker 1: was it was you know, New Mexico wasn't the richest
Speaker 1: state in the country. So so we go and our
Speaker 1: seats are awful, so the smaller place, and there were
Speaker 1: a lot of pillars holding it up. And I'm not joking.
Speaker 1: Our seats are right behind the pillar and uh so
Speaker 1: I can't see anything. And I sneak down, uh, towards
Speaker 1: the railing where all the wrestlers are coming out, and
Speaker 1: it was like a battle royal, I think, is is
Speaker 1: what it was. Because there was multiple wrestlers already in
Speaker 1: the ring, and then all of a sudden, here he
Speaker 1: comes and it's the Ultimate Warrior and he's running down
Speaker 1: the ring, and right when I see him, like come
Speaker 1: out of the backstage area, this security dude catches me
Speaker 1: right and he knows I'm not supposed to be down there,
Speaker 1: and he puts his hand on my shoulder, and the
Speaker 1: Warriors like running down and I'm not resisting, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm I can't. I think I'm nine now, maybe maybe
Speaker 1: maybe ten, and uh, but I want to, you know,
Speaker 1: I want to see the Warrior. And the Warrior veers
Speaker 1: to the right, like close to the rail, and he goes,
Speaker 1: it's okay. He puts his hand on the security guard
Speaker 1: and he goes, here's with me. Now, I wasn't, but
Speaker 1: he was being good to the kid, right, And it's
Speaker 1: not like this place was sold out, like he was
Speaker 1: just having this moment. I remember what he smelled like.
Speaker 1: It was a mixture of baby oil, sweat and dirt
Speaker 1: from the from the rodeo and the tassels around his
Speaker 1: arms like the things you will put on your bicycle
Speaker 1: in the eighties if you were like, you know a
Speaker 1: little girl on your bike with a basket. I felt
Speaker 1: him on my face and because of the baby oil,
Speaker 1: they're like stuck to my cheek and slid off as
Speaker 1: he like ran to the ring. And I'm looking at
Speaker 1: this guy and it was still real to me, and
Speaker 1: he was a superhero. And the security guard obeyed he.
Speaker 1: He listened to it. He did what he said. And
Speaker 1: the Ultimate Warriors in no position of power over this
Speaker 1: guy and his job. The guys doing the right thing,
Speaker 1: but he obeyed him, and so they became these magical
Speaker 1: characters to me. And I watched the brand and then, um,
Speaker 1: here's where all the hardcore fans will hate me. Then
Speaker 1: when it became the the Attitude era was when I
Speaker 1: started to tune out a little bit because I didn't
Speaker 1: like a lot of the storylines. They just played more
Speaker 1: more goofy to me. That said, I watched all the
Speaker 1: matches because those were some of the greatest matches that
Speaker 1: I ever saw in my life. Still to this day. Um,
Speaker 1: they had so much time to work and you would
Speaker 1: really commit to the character that was built up, so
Speaker 1: that when they had a match, they didn't have to
Speaker 1: have a lot of time on the microphone. You could
Speaker 1: just get to it um or get to it. Get
Speaker 1: it's because I'm from New Mexico and that's close to Texas. Anyway,
Speaker 1: they became these like sort of special, magical, magical characters
Speaker 1: to me, and so I kept watching. I kept watching.
Speaker 1: I kept loving it. My grandma, God rest her soul.
Speaker 1: It was so real to her. My wife, Sarah Michelle
Speaker 1: Geller made a movie with the Rock years ago called
Speaker 1: Like south Land. I don't know, it wasn't it wasn't
Speaker 1: the best movie, but they made a movie together. And
Speaker 1: for those of you who know the Rock wind from
Speaker 1: being the People's champion, he was a baby faced champion
Speaker 1: to becoming a heel champion, meaning a bad guy, and
Speaker 1: he became the corporate champion. My grandma hated him. He
Speaker 1: was her favorite. He was handsome, right he still is. Uh.
Speaker 1: He was great on the microphone. He could wrestle and
Speaker 1: bounce around the ring like he weighed a buck sixty.
Speaker 1: But he looked like he was sculpted from stone, like
Speaker 1: Aries or some other Greek god. And he had the
Speaker 1: people's eyebrow, which if you don't know about the people's eyebrow,
Speaker 1: you just need to YouTube that. There's literally like three
Speaker 1: minute montages of it. It's the most powerful eyebrow in
Speaker 1: the history of sports entertainment, and he can just do
Speaker 1: the one where I've never been able to do it.
Speaker 1: And I'm telling you, I like this guy so much
Speaker 1: that it was something I actually practiced and didn't even
Speaker 1: succeed once without taking my finger and just pushing it
Speaker 1: up um the same way you would do your biceps.
Speaker 1: But she loved this guy and it was it was
Speaker 1: real man, because he genuinely hated his boss, right, And
Speaker 1: that's why Vince McMahon was so smart. He gave the
Speaker 1: working man an opportunity to live out the fantasy of
Speaker 1: slapping your jerk boss across the face when he speaks
Speaker 1: out the side of it, and that is so satisfying
Speaker 1: to see as an audience member and not to get
Speaker 1: to like psychological. But that's why we love John McClean
Speaker 1: from the die Hard series so much, because he is
Speaker 1: the most relatable protagonist of all the eighties and nineties protagonists.
Speaker 1: His body is the most attainable, his hairlines the most attainable.
Speaker 1: His karate skills are the most attainable because there are none.
Speaker 1: He's just gonna out average Joe. You you know, we
Speaker 1: had to. You can't relate to Rambo that much unless
Speaker 1: you're super Jack. You can't relate to Commando or the
Speaker 1: Terminator because you're not super buff. But we can relate
Speaker 1: to the John McClean care her, which is I think
Speaker 1: white fans try to push the smaller guys so much
Speaker 1: in wrestling, because we can relate to that more. But
Speaker 1: we'll get into that episode down the road. So she
Speaker 1: turns on the rock, turns on the people. My grandma
Speaker 1: turns on the rock. My wife and my grandmother, her
Speaker 1: name was Maria. They'd met. She loved her. My wife's
Speaker 1: very very sweet um as John Leguizamo told me smart
Speaker 1: Puerto Rican's married Jews, so I'm smart, uh and and
Speaker 1: she's always taking taking care of me. So my grandma
Speaker 1: loved her and they got along great. And then about
Speaker 1: three months after that Christmas that we spent out there,
Speaker 1: my wife books this movie and I get a phone
Speaker 1: call from my grandmother Mary. I called her Mary, and
Speaker 1: she's really upset, and she has this heavy Puerto Rican
Speaker 1: accent and she says, your wife, Sara Mitchell, your wife
Speaker 1: Sana Michell. Yeah, what's rock? Grandma? She goes she's working
Speaker 1: with the Rock and I go, yeah, yeah, she's working
Speaker 1: with Rus. She goes, hey, Thorn, this back on the people.
Speaker 1: He's the call for a champion. Bleep him. But I
Speaker 1: don't know if I can curse you, if if I
Speaker 1: can buy episode three, I'll be cursing. Like a story.
Speaker 1: But I'm trying to keep it together. When dealing with
Speaker 1: my grandmother. It's very hard not to laugh at her accent, right.
Speaker 1: Like my dad even had a joke about it because
Speaker 1: he introduced her to uh to Peter Falk, the great
Speaker 1: actor Peter Falk, who played Colombo, and I got to
Speaker 1: one of my first movies was with him, and I
Speaker 1: told him the story and he actually confirmed it and
Speaker 1: told me it's true. My grandma wanted to meet Peter
Speaker 1: Falk and my dad said, okay, just don't call him Colombo.
Speaker 1: He freaking hates that. Please don't do him. She goes out,
Speaker 1: don't worry, I'm not going to embarrass you. Don't work.
Speaker 1: And so he goes, Peter, this is my is my mother, Marie,
Speaker 1: and she goes, Colombo, I love you. After they made
Speaker 1: he goes, my, don't I told you, don't call Colombo.
Speaker 1: He hates that she goes with his last name and
Speaker 1: my accent. I contact that kind of chance because it
Speaker 1: sounds like the effort, which I don't know if I
Speaker 1: can say it um So anyway, I'm trying not to laugh,
Speaker 1: but I know she's upset, but she's upset about pro wrestling.
Speaker 1: And then it all clicks and I remember, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: he he turned his back on the people. So my grandma,
Speaker 1: I don't hear some of the stuff in the middle
Speaker 1: because she's pretty upset. But the call finishes before I
Speaker 1: say I love you, and she hung up before she
Speaker 1: said I love you too. By the way, she says,
Speaker 1: you'll tell Sada she takes that movie. She's dead to
Speaker 1: me too. I'm not joking, and I'm not joking when
Speaker 1: I say this. They never spoke again, she never and
Speaker 1: the movie didn't do that well, and my grandma like
Speaker 1: checked to like make sure, and she was happy when
Speaker 1: the movie died. It didn't even really I don't think
Speaker 1: it got distribution. I think it was like released in
Speaker 1: like independent theaters, and she was happy and pleased. Did
Speaker 1: the Rocks movies failed? Meanwhile, today she's rolling in her
Speaker 1: grave because the Rocks the most successful dude on the
Speaker 1: planet is probably gonna run for president one day, that
Speaker 1: I'll get her to come back from the dead. But
Speaker 1: that's how hardcore, that's how serious the connection for her.
Speaker 1: And she passed that passion to me, and then I
Speaker 1: interpreted it in my own way. Now in I'm twelve
Speaker 1: years old, and uh, you know, the secret is out
Speaker 1: on wrestling right for the out. But there were a
Speaker 1: lot of us that were still holding on even though
Speaker 1: we knew. And I'm in Albuquerque, New Mexico, at my
Speaker 1: second school in one year. I was going through puberty.
Speaker 1: I didn't have a dad. My godfather's Bob wall Uh.
Speaker 1: You can google him if you want, or I'll tell
Speaker 1: you about him on another episode. But needless to say,
Speaker 1: I was getting in a lot of trouble. So I'm
Speaker 1: at this private school send you a preparatory academy, and uh,
Speaker 1: I was doing really well. I even I made it
Speaker 1: on the chess team as a sixth grader and this
Speaker 1: was like sixth or twelve, um, and they let me
Speaker 1: be on their high school chess team. My heads were good.
Speaker 1: I didn't always get good grades. Kids, if you're listening,
Speaker 1: work harder than me. Um. And there was this dude
Speaker 1: named Ray Garcia, and Ray, I'm sorry for saying your name.
Speaker 1: I love you wherever you are and whatever you're doing,
Speaker 1: and I wish you the best. But on this day, man,
Speaker 1: you crossed the wrong wrestling fans. So we're at lunch
Speaker 1: and uh, I'm talking to my cousin, my he was
Speaker 1: my best friend. I called my cousin, Chris Sandoval, and uh,
Speaker 1: this fool Ray comes up and he he hears us
Speaker 1: talking wrestling, and he says, you know it's fake, right,
Speaker 1: And it was like someone saying, like, you know, your
Speaker 1: dad shot himself, right? Like that was the kind of
Speaker 1: visceral emotional reaction that I couldn't help but have. And
Speaker 1: then he said, I got a curse on this one.
Speaker 1: He said, Rick Flair ain't shit, and I like, lost it.
Speaker 1: I don't I lost it, right, because I all these
Speaker 1: guys were heroes to me as a kid, so and
Speaker 1: I always like the bad guys because the bad guys
Speaker 1: always won. Rick Flair, he cheated. That's how we want.
Speaker 1: The iron cheek cheated, that's how he wants. And I
Speaker 1: would literally look at my mom and be like, Mama,
Speaker 1: look and she hated it. Right. I started pulling for
Speaker 1: the bad guys in movies. Because of that, I never
Speaker 1: liked Paul Cogan Andre the Giants my favorite wrestler ever.
Speaker 1: So this guy spoke against one of the great villains
Speaker 1: who I think is a hero, and so I punched
Speaker 1: Ray right in his face. And this isn't the funny part.
Speaker 1: And he falls on the ground and I legit grabbed
Speaker 1: his left his right leg, and I stepped over it,
Speaker 1: spun around, put it over his other leg like the
Speaker 1: number four, and I applied what we all now know
Speaker 1: as the figure four leg lock. Now I had never
Speaker 1: done this before, but I had seen it done a
Speaker 1: thousand times, so the technique was flawless. I get on
Speaker 1: the ground and I execute the what's what you need
Speaker 1: to execute in the figure four? You put pressure on
Speaker 1: the leg that's bent over the other, a leg like
Speaker 1: the angle part of the four, not the straight line
Speaker 1: of the four. And I've seen, you know, Ricky the
Speaker 1: Dragon Steamboat reverse this, so I gotta be careful if
Speaker 1: it gets reversed. I've seen the pain on on Ric
Speaker 1: Flair's face and it's no joke. Um. So I pressed
Speaker 1: down hard with my right leg and I just hear
Speaker 1: and I let go right away. Almost threw up, and
Speaker 1: I nobody said anything because it was loud, and then
Speaker 1: Ray just starts screaming, dude, and don't worry, I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna tell everybody. You were crying. Ray, I said, screaming, UM,
Speaker 1: but he's crying, and I knew right away. I was like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, I sproke this guy's ankle, and I
Speaker 1: freaked out. I got so scared. I ran and got
Speaker 1: a teacher, who bust themselves. By the way, it's such
Speaker 1: an idiot. I just ran home, but I win got
Speaker 1: a teacher and he had a legit broken ankle had
Speaker 1: to be in a cast for however long you're in
Speaker 1: a cast, six eight weeks or twelve weeks, whatever it was.
Speaker 1: And I felt so bad, so shout out to Ray Garcia. Um.
Speaker 1: But now you're kind of getting where the crazy comes from, right,
Speaker 1: Like my grandma didn't talk to my wife even on
Speaker 1: her deathbed. She had time. She was diabetic, UH and
Speaker 1: just refused to to let that go. Ray trash trash
Speaker 1: the nature boys. So he got his ankle broke, which
Speaker 1: leads us to UH Orlando, Florida, and it was Rick
Speaker 1: Flair's retirement match, and he was wrestling against Shawn Michaels
Speaker 1: and we went out there early. It was me, Um,
Speaker 1: Macaulay Culkin and uh a lot of the wrestling shows
Speaker 1: I go to her usually with a Culkin brother. Um,
Speaker 1: one of them has been thrown out for throwing a
Speaker 1: beer on the big show. By the way, I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna rad him out though, But it was me and McAuley.
Speaker 1: We were sharing a hotel room and our hotel room
Speaker 1: was right next door to the Snoop Doggs and uh,
Speaker 1: they brought like a garbage bag of marijuana into there,
Speaker 1: by the way, I'm not exaggerating. Uh. So we're there
Speaker 1: and Saturday was the Hall of Fame speech and this
Speaker 1: was when everyone hated John Cena and uh they booted
Speaker 1: him while he was like trying to give this speech
Speaker 1: about somebody who was going into the Hall of Fame
Speaker 1: because a poor showing on the fans part. But they
Speaker 1: were mad, you know, John Cena represented a different kind
Speaker 1: of ww than what they were wanting at that time.
Speaker 1: But he had to because the company was p G.
Speaker 1: We'll get into the business of w w E in
Speaker 1: a in another episode. Um, because actually a ton about
Speaker 1: that from Vince from the Horses mouth, so to speak.
Speaker 1: So we go to that, we meet a bunch of
Speaker 1: the wrestlers, and I meet this lady who works there
Speaker 1: who kind of helped UH do the invites and and
Speaker 1: she tries to book celebrities and things like that for
Speaker 1: w W events. And we we chatted up at like
Speaker 1: the Hall of Fame party or whatever it was, and
Speaker 1: then everybody goes home, goes to bed, and the next
Speaker 1: day is WrestleMania, and UH, we're there and we're watching
Speaker 1: the final match and it's the whole I'm sorry, I
Speaker 1: love you superkick to the face right, and everybody goes crazy,
Speaker 1: and I think we had a bet on another match.
Speaker 1: And Mac every wrestling match I've ever bet McCauley on,
Speaker 1: I've lost. He always knows who's gonna win. He could
Speaker 1: write wrestling in his sleep. He never has. He should, um,
Speaker 1: but he literally, but he's donna one and we've got
Speaker 1: a hunter bucks of match. That's what we would do,
Speaker 1: and Uh, I would you know, the end of the night,
Speaker 1: you're out, you know, eight hundred to a thousand bucks
Speaker 1: anytime that you go with him to a wrestling match anywhere.
Speaker 1: So I'm talking to UH, to this nice lady and
Speaker 1: I don't know if shoants me to say her name,
Speaker 1: so I was gonna keep it out. And uh, she says, wow,
Speaker 1: you should. You should uh talk to Stephanie McMahon. You've
Speaker 1: got some some really cool ideas about wrestling, because we
Speaker 1: had talked about like the old school versus the new
Speaker 1: school and where the happy medium is? Is there a
Speaker 1: happy medium that kind of stuff, and uh, I wasn't.
Speaker 1: I was kind of done acting. I was like, yeah, okay.
Speaker 1: I was like, I'm staying in New York with my
Speaker 1: wife and I had an apartment out there then, and uh, okay,
Speaker 1: I'll take the train up and I'll come. I'll sitting.
Speaker 1: I'll mean, I'll meet Stephanie McMahon. That would be cool.
Speaker 1: I think it's uh Wednesday, because they had a Monday
Speaker 1: night raw and they shot smacked down on Tuesday nights
Speaker 1: back then. Um, so on Wednesday, I take the train
Speaker 1: to Stanford, Connecticut to Tighten Tower. And this is the
Speaker 1: building that had the same gym with the pink and
Speaker 1: purple neon lights that Vince used to work out and
Speaker 1: where he blew out like both his quads or something
Speaker 1: like that. So it's the same building that I saw
Speaker 1: as a kid. So I'm already like getting kind of
Speaker 1: tingly right because I just remember the old days. And uh,
Speaker 1: I was kind of like, what's the word disenfranchised with
Speaker 1: my business, if that's the right word, but you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. And I was wanting to retire all
Speaker 1: the way if at the very least I had a
Speaker 1: foot and a half out right. And so I go
Speaker 1: and I sit with Stephanie and we just start talking
Speaker 1: wrestling and characters and you know, characters who maybe seem
Speaker 1: stale and couldn't get over, and they would challenge you
Speaker 1: with like, well how would you get this character over?
Speaker 1: And and really just on the spot kind of thinking, right,
Speaker 1: So you gotta be quick and fast, and my improv
Speaker 1: skills are good and we're going to get into that
Speaker 1: in an episode where we did acting class with professional
Speaker 1: wrestlers and we did literal like acting techniques and things
Speaker 1: like that, and there's some really great stories in there,
Speaker 1: and they shine like the stars they are. It was amazing.
Speaker 1: But so I'm in there with steph and we're talking
Speaker 1: about this stuff, and we start talking about acting workshops
Speaker 1: and things like that and techniques and stuff to make
Speaker 1: people feel things. Uh, little cheats you can do here
Speaker 1: and there. Our meetings not over. And she says, you
Speaker 1: have to talk to my dad, And I said, what
Speaker 1: do you mean? And she goes, you have notes, you
Speaker 1: have notes on on the brand, but you're not crapping
Speaker 1: all over it. And you come to the table with ideas,
Speaker 1: not just oh that sucks, Well what would you do?
Speaker 1: I don't know, but it sucks like I would have
Speaker 1: three or four ideas for everything. So she would say, hey,
Speaker 1: what would you do with Kane? And say oh this,
Speaker 1: Oh how about this? Oh what about this? And just
Speaker 1: try to, you know, build it up. And then all
Speaker 1: of a sudden you have you know, five, six, seven ideas.
Speaker 1: So I'm like, I can't. I'm seriously gonna meet Vince
Speaker 1: McMahon right now, Like this is crazy. So this all
Speaker 1: happens in a day, you guys. So um. I shake
Speaker 1: hands with Steph. I haven't met anyone else. I go
Speaker 1: into Vince McMahon's office. He has this dude outside on
Speaker 1: his desk, is cool guy named Jimmy. I think he
Speaker 1: was like ex Army X. He's ex military for sure,
Speaker 1: and serious dude, but cool cat. And he looked out
Speaker 1: for me when I was there when not everyone did.
Speaker 1: And we'll get into that, but uh, yes, I go
Speaker 1: into Vince's office and I have a very similar conversation
Speaker 1: that I had with Steph. You know, we're just talking
Speaker 1: about the characters and and the reason to people will fight, right,
Speaker 1: that's the story. And so he hits you with like,
Speaker 1: you know, wrestler X is John Cena wrestler? Why is
Speaker 1: is Randy Orton? I want him to wrestle at WrestleMania.
Speaker 1: Get me there in a way that we haven't gotten
Speaker 1: there before. And so we would start talking about stories
Speaker 1: things like this. Bringing these other guys in is like
Speaker 1: red herrings, which is like a decoy. Right, And uh,
Speaker 1: I grew up. I told you the part with my
Speaker 1: dad earlier for two reasons, once you understood the Puerto
Speaker 1: Rican connection, but also not growing up with a father.
Speaker 1: I'm a sucker for him, Okay, I'm a I want
Speaker 1: to please my boss. I want to please people that
Speaker 1: I looked up to when I was younger. Right, It's
Speaker 1: just it's just something anyone without a father or a
Speaker 1: mother can relate to. This. Um. So I'm sitting in
Speaker 1: there and he calls me son, and he says, well,
Speaker 1: I think we could really use you here, son, and
Speaker 1: he puts out his hand and I'm like, well, in
Speaker 1: my head, I'm like, hold up, I don't I haven't
Speaker 1: even like seen a contract or. We haven't spoken money,
Speaker 1: and this guy is putting out that lesson make a
Speaker 1: deal hand. But because he says, son, that's that's crimpt tonight.
Speaker 1: And he did it to me twice, that son of
Speaker 1: a gut. He got me to come back with the
Speaker 1: same technique. Um So that one's a shame on me.
Speaker 1: Um So I shaked the man's hand. I haven't even
Speaker 1: spoken to my wife and she was in l A
Speaker 1: and uh. He goes, all right, so we'll send you guys,
Speaker 1: We'll send your your people whatever they gotta get to you,
Speaker 1: and we'll start you next week. Next week. Okay, it's
Speaker 1: a Wednesday. So I get on the train. I may
Speaker 1: have spoke with Stephanie again after I don't remember. I
Speaker 1: get back on the train and I go back to
Speaker 1: my apartment. I called Sarah and I say, hey, so
Speaker 1: I just took a job working for the w w E.
Speaker 1: And she says, well, you're gonna be a wrestler. I
Speaker 1: said no, um, I think I'm gonna write, and I
Speaker 1: think I'm gonna teach him how to act. She goes, no,
Speaker 1: you're not, You're an idiot. I'm Sarah I met with
Speaker 1: Vince McMahon today. Because she didn't meet with Vince McMahon today.
Speaker 1: I said, Sarah, I shook, I shook his hand. I
Speaker 1: said yes in the room. She goes, why would you
Speaker 1: do that? And I told her the son thing and
Speaker 1: she's laughed because, oh my god, just a stupid She's like,
Speaker 1: but I support you. That's what you that I told you.
Speaker 1: My wife's the cool that. She goes, that's what you
Speaker 1: want to do. She was like, try it out. She said,
Speaker 1: don't get fired. I said, that's why Steph wants me
Speaker 1: to to uh to take the job, because she thinks
Speaker 1: I'm not afraid to get fired. So I'll kind of
Speaker 1: speak my mind more. Um. I think everyone has some
Speaker 1: fear of job termination. But for whatever reason, the longer
Speaker 1: I was there, the less I worried about it. But
Speaker 1: in the beginning I was still a little nervous. And
Speaker 1: so so Sarah goes, Okay, she goes, so you're write wrestling,
Speaker 1: and she goes, when are you coming home? I said,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I don't. I don't know what they
Speaker 1: want me to do. So here was the deal. Hey
Speaker 1: send me a contract, and uh, I don't want to
Speaker 1: throw out like exact numbers because I don't know if
Speaker 1: their business is public or not. So we'll say it
Speaker 1: was We'll say it was two and to write for
Speaker 1: them per year. And it was a number that they
Speaker 1: weren't in a budget from. And so I said, you
Speaker 1: guys can keep all that money and just give me stock.
Speaker 1: I'll just take stock in the company and and bet
Speaker 1: on myself off right again because I was just dumb,
Speaker 1: and so against my manager's advice, that's what I did. Um,
Speaker 1: and signed the contract. And the deal was for me
Speaker 1: to travel to every single Monday night Raw and every
Speaker 1: single shot on Tuesday, but airing on Thursday, I believe
Speaker 1: was the date of SmackDown back then, so we would
Speaker 1: shoot Raw and smack Down. I would be at all
Speaker 1: of those tapings and I would be in the office
Speaker 1: every single week. Um, And that was the job. I
Speaker 1: took it, and I went in stormy and we'll finish
Speaker 1: with this story because it's awkward, horrible and really funny.
Speaker 1: So I get to work. I get to work. I
Speaker 1: wanted to bring like a lunch box. I didn't have one.
Speaker 1: I took the train to work. I've never done that
Speaker 1: in my life. New Mexico there's no trains taking new places,
Speaker 1: so I'm uh. I get there to tighten tower. They
Speaker 1: take a photo so I can do my badge, so
Speaker 1: you know, I have full access to Titan Tower. I
Speaker 1: can go to the gym if I want. They have
Speaker 1: a cafeteria in there where they're serving food. They have
Speaker 1: like the media department where they were doing like not
Speaker 1: magazine stuff, but whatever, like the digital stuff was at
Speaker 1: that point. Then they have like the writer's room, then
Speaker 1: the writer's floor I should say creatives floor. Then they
Speaker 1: have the executives floor, and then on the very bottoms,
Speaker 1: like the merch floor right where you can get like
Speaker 1: old DVDs, which I grabbed everything I could and just
Speaker 1: watched and studied right away. Um so I get there,
Speaker 1: I'm super excited, and I meet my superior, Michael ps Hayes.
Speaker 1: And yes, the PS stands for Pier six D dude.
Speaker 1: So Michael, who's seen it all now has to deal
Speaker 1: with this Hollywood guy coming into his writer's room and
Speaker 1: he's supposed to teach me the wrestling business, right, and
Speaker 1: I'm supposed to, you know, write better scripts. And nobody
Speaker 1: has been told anything about the other person. So I
Speaker 1: get in there, I have my meeting with him, and
Speaker 1: he's awesome. Okay, he couldn't have been cooler to me.
Speaker 1: He had just been in some trouble at the company,
Speaker 1: is what I was told, so he was kind of
Speaker 1: humbled a little bit, and maybe that's why it was nice.
Speaker 1: But Michael and I, by the time I left, were
Speaker 1: really really tight. So he kind of breaks it down
Speaker 1: for me and he says, here's what's gonna have to do. Uh,
Speaker 1: here's how many wrestlers you have on the TV roster
Speaker 1: that are going to be working, um, and you have
Speaker 1: to give me stories four weeks of stories for all
Speaker 1: of them. And most of the time it's not gonna
Speaker 1: go through because there's not gonna be enough time in
Speaker 1: the show. But that's your job, no matter what I said, Cool,
Speaker 1: that's my job. That's my job. While I'm having the
Speaker 1: meeting with him, they knock on his door and they
Speaker 1: say Vince wants to see Freddy uh in his office,
Speaker 1: and Michael's like, you need to go. So I get up.
Speaker 1: I'm like, what the hell is this? And uh, I
Speaker 1: go into Vince's office and there's this other dude sitting
Speaker 1: in there named Brian, and uh I sit on the
Speaker 1: other side and Vince shows me the Monday Night Ross
Speaker 1: script and he says, Brian fred hey Man, nice to
Speaker 1: meet you. Brian, hey hey, nice to meet you. And
Speaker 1: Brian's looking warily at me. All right, He's it's like
Speaker 1: all side ie, He's like, what is what is going well?
Speaker 1: Who is this guy? And I'm sitting in there like
Speaker 1: what what am I doing in here? Who am I?
Speaker 1: So Vince shows me the script and he goes, Brian
Speaker 1: Freddy's here to help out with all the scripts and
Speaker 1: the dialogue. I'm gonna have to send you back to
Speaker 1: the drawing board on this one. He hadn't even read
Speaker 1: it yet. Okay. Brian visibly and audibly snaps a number
Speaker 1: two pencil in half upon hearing this, he snapped a
Speaker 1: lot of pencils, um and uh he goes okay, and
Speaker 1: his big side just and he grabs the script and
Speaker 1: Vince looks at me and kind of smiles, and I'm
Speaker 1: literally like he's this is a test, like he's trying
Speaker 1: to see he's gonna pit me against these guys and
Speaker 1: see if I can freaking take it. This is who
Speaker 1: this guy is, right, and uh so I'm like all right,
Speaker 1: and I don't mind the challenge. So I walk out
Speaker 1: and uh, Brian is not waiting for me, by the way,
Speaker 1: He's already like halfway down the hall. I catch up
Speaker 1: to him and I say, hey, man, that's a that's
Speaker 1: just a terrible way they have to meet. I'm so sorry.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm not here to rewrite your stuff, dude,
Speaker 1: because this is because of you. Man, just straight up
Speaker 1: all cards on the table right away. And I was like,
Speaker 1: oh no, this guy hates me now he did, But
Speaker 1: by the time I left, Brian and I were really
Speaker 1: tight to We're not I wouldn't. We're not like friends.
Speaker 1: We don't send each other Christmas cards or anything like that,
Speaker 1: but if we ever see each other or randomly like
Speaker 1: or on the same chain on the social media thing,
Speaker 1: it's always all love. And I always check in on
Speaker 1: him and he's he's a good dude outside of his
Speaker 1: sports team affiliations. Um So I'm sitting there like they
Speaker 1: just and he literally threw me in the fire day one.
Speaker 1: So I go back in to the writer's room and uh,
Speaker 1: Freebord goes, how's your meeting? And he has this huge
Speaker 1: grid because he knows, he knows, like this is a
Speaker 1: routine for Vince. He just any of all because I
Speaker 1: wasn't the first Hollywood writer they had there. They brought
Speaker 1: writers from like USA TV shows in there all the time,
Speaker 1: and we're gonna get into some of those in future episodes.
Speaker 1: But now I go, I go, yeah, everything's fine, and
Speaker 1: he goes, so are you ready to work on some
Speaker 1: storylines that are gonna get cut every week or not?
Speaker 1: And I literally was like I sat there, I sat down,
Speaker 1: I opened my computer, and I just started writing. Um,
Speaker 1: we're gonna get into the process of writing at w
Speaker 1: w E, the pain of getting your ideas killed, the
Speaker 1: glory of getting your ideas over. I'm gonna talk about
Speaker 1: some wild pitches that were given to me by wrestlers,
Speaker 1: some really great pitches that were given to me my wrestlers,
Speaker 1: some crazy on the road moments. I have one. I've
Speaker 1: told this story before to two friends, but the suitcase
Speaker 1: at Terminal Velocity during a nice storm is still one
Speaker 1: of my favorite stories. And I'll share that in greater
Speaker 1: length because this isn't someone else's podcast, That's my podcast.
Speaker 1: That's all for this episode. I want to thank all
Speaker 1: you guys for for listening, and remember, if you want
Speaker 1: to support what we do, please share, please subscribe. That's
Speaker 1: all for now, but I'll see you guys in the
Speaker 1: next episode of Wrestling with Freddie. This has been a
Speaker 1: production of I Heart Radio is Michael Tour podcast Network.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts for My heart Radio, visit the I
Speaker 1: heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
Speaker 1: your favorite shows.