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Speaker 1: Welcome to the Battleground Podcast.

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Speaker 2: You'll pay for all these pros.

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Speaker 1: And exclusive interviews with some of your favorite wrestlers.

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Speaker 2: Abound stop being.

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Speaker 3: Once up, you guys, welcome back into iHeartRadio official wrestling podcast,

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Speaker 3: The Battleground Podcast. And it is a great day for

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Speaker 3: TNA because I mean you look at the schedule for

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Speaker 3: twenty twenty five, I mean they are all over the place.

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Speaker 3: Rebellion's gonna be in La Slammiversary in New York. Of course,

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Speaker 3: tickets for both of these shows are on sell.

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Speaker 2: With Teenag's big Mega on Cell event.

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Speaker 3: And joining us on the show today, I gotta give

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Speaker 3: him a great entrance because I can't just be like, oh,

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Speaker 3: it's Frankie Gazarian. You gotta say the rock icon, the legendary,

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Speaker 3: the man, the myth, the legend.

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Speaker 2: Frankie Gazarian joins the show. Frankie, sir, how are you

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Speaker 2: doing well?

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Speaker 1: I like that one man. That's that's that's high raise.

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Speaker 1: Thank you, brother.

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Speaker 3: I mean, we the thing is is and I will

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Speaker 3: tell you we go way back when it comes to this.

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Speaker 3: The last time we hung out with you was at

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Speaker 3: a cigar event in Nashville. And then fast forward to

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Speaker 3: uh a few months later, we had you in our

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Speaker 3: old radio station where you had just became the first

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Speaker 3: A E W Tag team champions with Scu and it

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Speaker 3: was you and uh Daniels and Scorpio in our studio.

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Speaker 3: So a lot of things have changed since those past

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Speaker 3: two times that we have hung out with you.

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Speaker 1: A little bit. Yeah, I think it was was Scott

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Speaker 1: Hamilton also there that morning.

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Speaker 3: I think he was, Oh, yeah he was, because we

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Speaker 3: all ran into each other and it was like this

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Speaker 3: like cool thing, so you never know who you're gonna

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Speaker 3: run into.

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Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, Yeah, that's got that's you know, five years ago,

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Speaker 1: it seems like a lifetime ago. Really, it's that's crazy, man.

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Speaker 3: It's it's it's uh, it's it's been a fun ride

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Speaker 3: to watch where you were then to where you are now.

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Speaker 2: And let's just kind of jump right into it.

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Speaker 3: Earlier this year, you declared that twenty twenty four would

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Speaker 3: be your year.

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Speaker 2: With just a couple of weeks left.

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Speaker 3: In twenty twenty four, how would you assess your journey

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Speaker 3: so far?

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Speaker 1: I mean, everything, you know, like a good movie villain,

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Speaker 1: everything is proceeding just as I planned, you know, kind

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Speaker 1: of like the Emperor said, Yeah, you know, I think

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Speaker 1: I've positioned myself to be right where I need to be,

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Speaker 1: you know, starting with the kind of my mission statement

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Speaker 1: at the beginning of the year. And I've been able to,

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Speaker 1: you know, kind of do everything I said I was

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Speaker 1: going to do. And you know, I really really enjoy

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Speaker 1: the pardon me, the creativity, the freedom I have at

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Speaker 1: TNA to be able to, you know, kind of formulate

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Speaker 1: ideas and stories and be listened to and be heard.

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Speaker 1: And it's been, you know, by far with the funnest

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Speaker 1: year of my career.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, and obviously you could tell that you're having a

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Speaker 3: lot of fun in TNA. I mean we everybody was

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Speaker 3: surprised when when you made your appearance. Everybody was very

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Speaker 3: surprised when you showed up on NXT. And you know,

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Speaker 3: you look at your career and I mean you've been

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Speaker 3: doing this for quite some time, and some guys that

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Speaker 3: have had the longevity of your career kind of hung

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Speaker 3: the boots up. But doesn't seem like you're stopping anytime soon.

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Speaker 3: I mean, you're still going with the best of the best.

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Speaker 3: But looking back, what do you consider your most significant

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Speaker 3: achievement and what goals remain on your professional horizon.

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Speaker 1: It's hard to pinpoint one particular singular achievement. I mean

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Speaker 1: there's so many, like certain moments that really helped like

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Speaker 1: springboard me to the next level, you know, whether it

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Speaker 1: be like winning my first X Division title and that

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Speaker 1: really put me on the map in a national way

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Speaker 1: that I hadn't been before. You know, I had some

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Speaker 1: success in various independence around the country, but being you know,

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Speaker 1: being anointed as the X Division guy in TNA that

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Speaker 1: really helps me. And and you know, and again like

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Speaker 1: you know, me the forming the team with Chris Daniels

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Speaker 1: that really, you know, we really you know awakened a

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Speaker 1: lot of people to what we could both do not

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Speaker 1: only in the ring, but like in terms of on

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Speaker 1: the microphone and the success we had, you know, the

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Speaker 1: same with the success of SCU and SCORP and I

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Speaker 1: becoming the first aw tag team champs, you know. And

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Speaker 1: then there's been like marquee matches like my first time

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Speaker 1: wrestling Kurt Angle for the world title in TNA in

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Speaker 1: two thousand and seven, and a big ladder match I

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Speaker 1: had with Christian Cage. Those are all, you know, moments

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Speaker 1: that were important to me because of what they did

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Speaker 1: for my career and then obviously most recently returning to

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Speaker 1: TNA two years ago, and you know, basically saying I

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Speaker 1: left where I was and I'm here because I want

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Speaker 1: to be here and I want to help TNA go

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Speaker 1: to the levels that I know we can go to.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 3: Absolutely, And of course you see the levels of where

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Speaker 3: TNA is heading. I mean again, rebellion in Los Angeles,

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Speaker 3: You've got Slammiversary in New York. And you know, the

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Speaker 3: one thing that you've expressed a very strong desire is

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Speaker 3: to capture that TNA World championship. You know, you stated

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Speaker 3: that the TNA World title has eluded you and you

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Speaker 3: won't stop until you win it. How has this ambition

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Speaker 3: influenced your approach to training and of course in ring strategy,

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Speaker 3: because everybody seems to want that title, but it seems

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Speaker 3: like Frankie Kazarian wants it even more.

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Speaker 1: Well, you know, I pride myself being one of the

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Speaker 1: you know, i'll just say, elder statesmen in the locker room,

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Speaker 1: old guys. You know that motivates me right there to

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Speaker 1: just be in the best shape I can physically and

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Speaker 1: in terms of in ring shape, and quite honestly, I'm

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Speaker 1: in the best shape of my lives. I can go

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Speaker 1: with anybody on our roster, and you know that motivates

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Speaker 1: me in a whole different way. You know, I'm a

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Speaker 1: forty seven year old man and I'm in there with

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Speaker 1: guys that are in their early twenties. So I have

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Speaker 1: to be on top of my game more so than

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Speaker 1: anybody else. So I kind of have that edge. And yeah,

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Speaker 1: you know, look at I want to be GNA World champion.

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Speaker 1: And when you're a world champion, you are the guy.

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Speaker 1: And if you're the guy, you got to be able

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Speaker 1: to go out there every night against anybody on the roster,

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Speaker 1: and you've got to be able to do media, and

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Speaker 1: you got to be able to carry the company. And

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Speaker 1: I welcome that. That's all I've ever wanted and I

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Speaker 1: that's a challenge that I've just basically staring in the

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Speaker 1: face right now and can't wait to just kind of

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Speaker 1: slay that dragon.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 3: Absolutely, And of course, you know, when people come onto

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Speaker 3: this show, I will tell you that they go on

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Speaker 3: to win championship gold. You know, everybody from Matt Cardona

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Speaker 3: to Pco. We had Cardona on right before he went

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Speaker 3: after that NWA championship.

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Speaker 2: Two days later, after he was on. He won, so

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Speaker 2: you're in good graces.

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Speaker 1: Right.

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Speaker 3: We're gonna say that Frankie Gazarian will be your next

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Speaker 3: TNA World Heavyweight Champion. And when you win that TNA

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Speaker 3: World Championship, because we're putting it out in the universe.

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Speaker 2: Uh, what's the victory cigar that you're gonna smoke?

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Speaker 1: Oh? Man? I mean, you know, just for you know,

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Speaker 1: it's got to be an American rebel that's my cigar.

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Speaker 1: You know, I got to fire up an American rebel

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Speaker 1: cigar to celebrate that, just because it's that particular cigar

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Speaker 1: is synonymous with the pro wrestling fans, because that's the

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Speaker 1: brand that Cody and I launched, you know, five years

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Speaker 1: ago at this point long, yeah, over five years ago

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Speaker 1: and one of my favorites. It's a fine cigar. But

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Speaker 1: I mean I have there's look at my Humidor. I

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Speaker 1: got you know, sixty different brands in there. So but

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Speaker 1: that night, I will be sure to fire up a

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Speaker 1: a an American Rebel cigar.

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Speaker 3: You know what I think you should do is wouldn't

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Speaker 3: you become the TNA World Heavyweight Champion? You have like

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Speaker 3: a world champion cigar, and then the the wrap around.

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Speaker 2: It should be the belt, the belt.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, that's funny you say that we've actually

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Speaker 1: discussed that idea in just talking about revamping our logo

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Speaker 1: and our branding and everything, and that that idea has

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Speaker 1: been discussed and that would be a perfect tie in

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Speaker 1: for for for me, you know, representing the TNA World title.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, well, we're we're putting it out in the universe.

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Speaker 2: We're gonna make sure that that happens.

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Speaker 3: Frankie Gazeria and your next TNA World Heavyweight Champion.

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Speaker 2: Now, you know, we.

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Speaker 3: Talk about the legacy of Frankie Gazeri and of course

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Speaker 3: reflecting on your time with SCU, you know, uh, you

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Speaker 3: had mentioned that the breakup was kind of stupid, and

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Speaker 3: as wrestling fans, we were like, what is happening?

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Speaker 2: Like this was a.

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Speaker 3: Great trio In hindsight, what would you have done differently?

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Speaker 3: And do you foresee any possibility of reuniting, bringing some

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Speaker 3: of those guys and maybe doing something in TNA.

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Speaker 1: Well, Odi, those guys are always giving me. They're always

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Speaker 1: my brothers and my friends, you know, outside of pro wrestling,

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Speaker 1: U the real honestly, SCU was never used on the

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Speaker 1: early aw television to our full potential. And what I

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Speaker 1: mean is what brought us to the dance, the stuff

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Speaker 1: we were doing bte and this stuff like our microphone stuff,

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Speaker 1: and just us as a unit that was never featured

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Speaker 1: the way I it could have and should have been

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Speaker 1: in my opinion, in the early days. You know, SCU

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Speaker 1: got really really hot the last year of Ring of Honor,

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Speaker 1: the last year we were there in Ring of Honor

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Speaker 1: twenty eighteen in particular, and you know, our faction was

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Speaker 1: right up there with you know, the elite in terms

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Speaker 1: of popularity and rivaling those guys. But for whatever reason,

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Speaker 1: we were never presented as that version of SCU on television.

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Speaker 1: And I think hindsight, looking back, things might have been

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Speaker 1: a lot different if we were and we were given that,

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Speaker 1: you know, freedom to go out there and be SCU,

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Speaker 1: But that just didn't happen. And it is what it is.

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Speaker 1: In terms of getting together, I mean, those guys I

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Speaker 1: would love I would love that. You know those again,

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Speaker 1: those guys are my brothers. Logistically, obviously we work in

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Speaker 1: different companies. It's wrestling and it's the weirdest thing in

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Speaker 1: the world. So never say never, But you know, we're

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Speaker 1: SCU will always forever have three members. Man, that's C. D.

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Speaker 1: Sky myself. Uh, you know, just steal a phrase from

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Speaker 1: my friend Kevin Nash. When you're SCU your SCU for life,

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Speaker 1: you know. So uh but we all still get recognized

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Speaker 1: and acknowledge of that, you know, like people will still

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Speaker 1: you come up to me and yell SCU in my face.

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Speaker 1: And I love it. Man, It's uh, you know, that's

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Speaker 1: a part of me forever.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely for sure.

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Speaker 3: And I I know as a as a wrestling fan myself,

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Speaker 3: I have a collection of wrestling belts and action figures

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Speaker 3: and funk Co pops.

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Speaker 2: And all this other stuff.

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Speaker 3: And I've got a seven year old who is getting

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Speaker 3: into wrestling, so we watch it every week. And I

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Speaker 3: do have a uh an autograph Frankie Gazarian AW figure

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Speaker 3: that's inscribed first AW Champ. It was almost an open

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Speaker 3: box because my seven year old decided that he wanted

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Speaker 3: to try to play with that, and I was like.

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Speaker 2: You cannot touch that one or the other one.

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Speaker 1: Well, we'll set you up. We'll set you up to

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Speaker 1: get you another one. Man.

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Speaker 3: I know a guy, I think, yeah, you I know

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Speaker 3: a guy that could probably get one if case, my

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Speaker 3: seven year old decides to open it. But of course

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Speaker 3: the big on sell is going on with TNA, I

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Speaker 3: mean everywhere. Next year they're gonna be again Rebellion in

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Speaker 3: La Simma Versary in New York. Tickets on cell, Big

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Speaker 3: Mega on sell event, and definitely grab those tickets now.

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Speaker 3: You know, you look at how things have changed over there.

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Speaker 3: As a kid, I grew up watching wrestling. I was

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Speaker 3: there at TNA every Wednesday night at the Fairgrounds. I

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Speaker 3: mean I practically live there. With the wrestling industry continually evolving,

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Speaker 3: what do you think is best for like right now,

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Speaker 3: you look at everything. How do you adapt your your

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Speaker 3: in ring style and persona to stay relevant and competitive

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Speaker 3: in today's landscape?

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Speaker 1: You know, it's interesting. I was talking to Lance Storm

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Speaker 1: about this the other day, like, you know, just talking

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Speaker 1: about longevity, which I pride myself on because I see

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Speaker 1: anybody can get hot for a three to five years period,

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Speaker 1: but for someone to stay relevant for a long period

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Speaker 1: of time, that impresses me, you know, Like I don't

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Speaker 1: you know, maybe consciously or subconsciously or unconsciously, I never

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Speaker 1: really did anything when I was a say, a twenty

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Speaker 1: seven year old man that I still can't do as

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Speaker 1: a forty seven year old man. You know, whether that

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Speaker 1: was a you know, I was kind of grouped with

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Speaker 1: a lot of the X Division guys that were doing

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Speaker 1: incredible stuff, guys like Amazing Red and low Key and

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Speaker 1: Eli Skipper, and I certainly wasn't doing the stuff they

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Speaker 1: were doing. I was just kind of doing my stuff.

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Speaker 1: But I got kind of grouped in with those guys,

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Speaker 1: which I don't mind at all, because all those guys

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Speaker 1: are tremendous talents. But you know, I think what's helped

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Speaker 1: me a lot is my style. I'm still you know,

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Speaker 1: there's nothing like, oh man, he used to be able

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Speaker 1: to do this. No, I still do everything I was

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Speaker 1: always doing, so that has certainly helped me. But in

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Speaker 1: terms of adapting, yeah, you know, there is a different

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Speaker 1: style than there was, you know, twenty five years ago

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Speaker 1: for sure. And you know, I I roll with the

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Speaker 1: punches I look at I was my you can call

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Speaker 1: the ex Division style that was at the time a

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Speaker 1: new style, and now that's you know, the ex Division

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Speaker 1: has been around for you know, over two decades, so

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Speaker 1: that's also evolved in what the guys are doing now.

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Speaker 1: And like I said, I like to you know, pride

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Speaker 1: myself on being a guy that can go in there

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Speaker 1: and wrestle somebody like a PCO, you know, or like

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Speaker 1: a like a Nick Namoth that have a pure technical match,

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Speaker 1: or Josh Alexander, but also have a you know, just

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Speaker 1: as entertaining of a match with the Leon Slater, who's

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Speaker 1: you know, the future of the ex division.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely.

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Speaker 3: And you look at the the TNA roster and it's

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Speaker 3: it's stacked from both the men's roster and the women's roster.

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Speaker 2: As somebody who has been in plenty of.

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Speaker 3: Locker rooms before, what do you think makes this TNA

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Speaker 3: locker room?

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Speaker 1: Uh?

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Speaker 2: What it is now?

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Speaker 1: I mean just the work ethic and you know, the

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Speaker 1: the the everybody's striving for that common goal of you know,

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Speaker 1: the and that goal being the success of t and A. Yes,

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Speaker 1: we're all looking to achieve individual success and individual goals

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Speaker 1: and accomplishments, but we all want what's best for the

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Speaker 1: company legitimately. Uh. And you know, tremendously talented locker room

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Speaker 1: full of knockouts, tremendously talented locker room full of tag

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Speaker 1: teams and extra vision guys and and heavyweight wrestlers, but

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Speaker 1: we all truly do want what's best for the company. Uh.

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Speaker 1: And and more importantly than the entering stuff, just a

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Speaker 1: great group of people, just a lot of very hard

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Speaker 1: working human beings, a lot of people that are just very,

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Speaker 1: very dedicated to the same cause. And that I think

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Speaker 1: our locker room is our biggest strength. I've said that

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Speaker 1: since I came back, and that rings true now more

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Speaker 1: than ever. Yeah.

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Speaker 3: Absolutely, And you can you could definitely see, uh, you know,

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Speaker 3: watching the product on TV and the and of course

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Speaker 3: having some of the locker room and the roster on

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Speaker 3: this show, you can legitimately see that it's not me, me, me,

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Speaker 3: me me when it comes to everybody.

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Speaker 2: There, it's we we we and everybody else.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm the only selfish one there.

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Speaker 2: So well, I mean you're you're allowed to be. I

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Speaker 2: would say, when you when you get when you.

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Speaker 1: Say, yeah, there's no there's no egos in our locker

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Speaker 1: room other than mine.

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Speaker 3: So because I mean, when when you think about tn A,

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Speaker 3: I know a lot of people like to say who's

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Speaker 3: the flag bear of TNA and everybody likes to say

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Speaker 3: Eddie Edwards or Sammy Callahan.

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Speaker 2: But can we be honest here for a second. Uh,

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Speaker 2: the real flag Bear, the real face of TNA. It's

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Speaker 2: got to be Frankie Gazarian, right.

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Speaker 1: I appreciate that well. I mean, you know, uh, I

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Speaker 1: predate anybody in the company. That's one thing I've been.

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Speaker 1: You know, I was there before anyone else. But then

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Speaker 1: you also got someone like Eric Young, who's you know,

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Speaker 1: he and I are the last of the ogs. And

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Speaker 1: the guy that you mentioned, Eddie Edwards, he's kind of

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Speaker 1: the guy that really held it down, you know, in

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Speaker 1: the that period, like after all of us AJ, Joe CD, myself,

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Speaker 1: all of us left and he's been he's been the

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Speaker 1: concept man and he's you know that dude does not

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Speaker 1: get half the credit he deserves for being the incredible

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Speaker 1: in ring guy that he is.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean Eddie, Eddie has has put in his time,

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Speaker 3: and I will say, like you said, you know, he's

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Speaker 3: been there after you guys left. And when I think

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Speaker 3: of TNA, you know, the O G TNA, like you said,

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Speaker 3: those names that you mentioned, when you think of the

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Speaker 3: the impact TNA, it's.

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Speaker 2: It's Eddie Edwards is right up there with the flag Bear.

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Speaker 3: Now, I know your your time is very precious being

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Speaker 3: the rock icon and the.

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Speaker 2: Superstar that you are so real quick before we let

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Speaker 2: you go.

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Speaker 3: We always have a little fun at the end of

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Speaker 3: these interviews where we go to chat GPT because that

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Speaker 3: seems like to be the big topic thing chat GBT

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Speaker 3: drones and AI technology and whatnot. So we let our

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Speaker 3: computer asked Frankie Gazari in a question and well, the

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Speaker 3: computer wanted to know if you could form a tag

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Speaker 3: team with any Figtion character, cartoon, movie, video game, or musician.

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Speaker 3: Who would it be and what would your team name be?

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Speaker 1: Oh? Man, what a what a question? God, God, I

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Speaker 1: have so many answers for so many different reasons. I mean,

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Speaker 1: I'm a big horror movie fan, so I think me

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Speaker 1: and Michael Myers would be a good tag team because

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Speaker 1: I could, uh, you know, I could stand on the

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Speaker 1: apron let him do all the work.

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Speaker 2: You'd be undefeated. You wouldn't have to worry about anything.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Gee, uh, there's God, there's I mean, got it.

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Speaker 1: You know I would have I would have liked to

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Speaker 1: have been a tag team, uh with with Lemmy Killmeister

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Speaker 1: from Motorhead. But I would probably spend a lot more

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Speaker 1: time at the bar than we would in a ring,

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Speaker 1: So I don't know how well that would function.

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Speaker 2: Hey, it worked out for you know, James Dorn and

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Speaker 2: Chris Harris, so.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. Yeah, but this, this would be much This

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Speaker 1: wouldn't be playing drunks on on John Camra. I'd probably

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Speaker 1: have to Yeah, well I could. I couldn't. I couldn't

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Speaker 1: keep up with Lemmy. I'm I'm silly to even put

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Speaker 1: myself in the same category as him. Maybe Clark Griswold

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Speaker 1: from Christmas Vacation, that'd be a good one. Uh, you

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Speaker 1: know maybe, uh, God, there's there's there's so many that's

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Speaker 1: that's a real question. That's a real good question. I

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Speaker 1: would have to sit and really really think about that

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Speaker 1: for a while. I'd love to team up with James

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Speaker 1: Hetfield from Metallica. You know, I would just uh, I

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Speaker 1: would volunteer to do all the work and do uh

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Speaker 1: and to uh take all the ass beatings just for

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Speaker 1: the honor of getting to sit and converse and pick

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Speaker 1: his brain. Because I'm not a I'm not a guy

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Speaker 1: that really fanboys or marks out for anybody. But that's

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Speaker 1: one dude that I would that I would certainly uh

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Speaker 1: want to spend some time with the Talk and Sylvester salone.

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Speaker 1: There's another one because I kind of, oh, my career

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Speaker 1: in a Rocky three, that's kind of the gateway that

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Speaker 1: got me into pro wrestling, and Sylvester Salon and like

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Speaker 1: Arnold did those guys, but that those movies have meant

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Speaker 1: so much to me, I would I think. I think.

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Speaker 1: I think the King of TNA and the Italian Stallion

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Speaker 1: will make a hell of attag team.

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Speaker 2: That's that's that. I mean, that's solid. That's that's how

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Speaker 2: we're gonna end it.

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Speaker 3: So before we let you go, anything you want to

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Speaker 3: say to people watching or listening to this right now.

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Speaker 1: Uh, to all the fans of the fans of TNA,

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Speaker 1: the fans of Frankie Kazari and fans of pro wrestling,

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Speaker 1: you know your loyalty means the world to me, to us,

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Speaker 1: and you know if you saw what TNA did this year,

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Speaker 1: I welcome you to roll with us next year because

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Speaker 1: it's going to be bigger and better and onward and upward,

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Speaker 1: and we're going to shock you and blow you away,

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Speaker 1: just like we did this year.