Speaker 1: Whenever there was a camera around, like a professional camera anywhere,
Speaker 1: and I'm talking like if they were there was a
Speaker 1: news thing, and I would literally be up behind it
Speaker 1: trying to get on the TV to do an interview.
Speaker 1: If you look at Netflix right now, there's a show
Speaker 1: of Woodstock train Wreck. I went to Woodstock ninety nine
Speaker 1: and I got in front of this camera and was like,
Speaker 1: Woodstock ninety nine. Baby, had no idea this was out
Speaker 1: there at all until that documentary came out on Netflix
Speaker 1: this year and they used me as like their first person,
Speaker 1: like guy. They didn't say it was the Miss, but
Speaker 1: everyone on the internet was like, is that the Miss?
Speaker 1: Is that the miss? It? Yeah, that was me. That
Speaker 1: was like eighteen year old miss out of high school
Speaker 1: going to honestly what I thought was the greatest concert
Speaker 1: I've ever been to. Hey, what's up? It is the
Speaker 1: most musty w w E superstar of all time? The
Speaker 1: Miss or You may know me as Mike from the
Speaker 1: Real World and Miss and Misses and I am awesome. Well,
Speaker 1: hello everybody, and welcome to a brand spanking new episode
Speaker 1: of Off the Beat. I'm your host, as always, Brian
Speaker 1: Bob Gartner. Now, as you just heard today I got
Speaker 1: to sit down for a full interview with the Miss.
Speaker 1: Why because he's the Miss and he is awesome. If
Speaker 1: you listen to the Live from Lake Tahoe episode, you've
Speaker 1: got a sneak peek into just how freaking awesome he is.
Speaker 1: But if you didn't let me catch you up, you
Speaker 1: probably recognize them is from his pure domination in the
Speaker 1: w w E. But there might be a group of
Speaker 1: you out there who knew him before he was a wrestler,
Speaker 1: when he was just planting the seeds of his future
Speaker 1: career on the real world. Tough enough and well then
Speaker 1: just about every popular reality TV show of the early
Speaker 1: two thousands. The MSS is an entertainer to say the least,
Speaker 1: but he's also a true underdog. He went from being
Speaker 1: just well, the token real world guy to the only
Speaker 1: two time Grand Slam champion in w w E history.
Speaker 1: But that's not all. He's continued to crush the reality
Speaker 1: TV space and a number of ways, including his very
Speaker 1: own show with his wife Maurice MS and Mrs Mike
Speaker 1: the Ms. He delights me. I don't know what it is.
Speaker 1: His spirit is so infectious. He's an interesting guy. I
Speaker 1: cannot wait for you to hear this conversation, but buckle up, okay,
Speaker 1: because it is going to be a wild ride here.
Speaker 1: He is everybody, Mike the MSS Bubble and Squeak. I
Speaker 1: love it. Bubble and Squeak, Bubble and Squeaker Cookie every
Speaker 1: month left over from the NAT before. What's up? Mike?
Speaker 1: Look at you? What's up? Buddy? How are you? Look
Speaker 1: at you? Where are you? I'm at my house. This
Speaker 1: is like this is like our office alright, like like
Speaker 1: our production company's office. Okay. I I don't know why
Speaker 1: I keep feeling like I have to tell people I'm
Speaker 1: at a hotel room in Atlanta, Georgia. But I mean,
Speaker 1: we've got we've got a studio ready here, you know.
Speaker 1: I you know, I lived close to Atlanta, like right,
Speaker 1: I lived in mcdonnet, Georgia when I first started wrestling.
Speaker 1: I'm from here originally. I know that I've listened to
Speaker 1: Off the Beat literally NonStop since it was before Off
Speaker 1: the Beat, So I know, I feel like I know
Speaker 1: everything about you, and well, we're gonna get to know
Speaker 1: more about you today. Mcdonn. Why were you here? Is
Speaker 1: this a training facility or what it was? So? W
Speaker 1: W E had a training facility called Deep South Wrestling.
Speaker 1: And once I got off the show Tough Enough, which
Speaker 1: is a show where you could win a contract. It
Speaker 1: was a reality show for w W, but I didn't win,
Speaker 1: but I got a contract for Developmental and Deep South
Speaker 1: Wrestling and mcdonnoh, Georgia was where we trained. And yeah,
Speaker 1: your look says it all. Uh it's it wasn't the
Speaker 1: greatest place, but honestly, I really enjoyed it, like I
Speaker 1: loved I had such a blast. It was very grueling,
Speaker 1: hard work. It was a great place to dedicate yourself
Speaker 1: into a profession. Well, we're gonna talk about all of
Speaker 1: that and more. I want to start going back now.
Speaker 1: My understanding is not just born, but lived in Ohio
Speaker 1: exclusively for a very long time. Born in Parma, Parmasana. Yeah, yes,
Speaker 1: I was born in Parma, Ohio, and um I lived there.
Speaker 1: My entire life grew up kind of I guess middle class,
Speaker 1: you know. Um, and it was it was a great
Speaker 1: place to live. Like I I still have friends to
Speaker 1: this day that I talked to on a weekly basis
Speaker 1: from you know, Cleveland, and uh, it's it's it's amazing.
Speaker 1: It's like I've developed friendships that will last literally a lifetime,
Speaker 1: and they have lasted my lifetime. So growing up Parma
Speaker 1: was a great spot. I lived in a condo. It
Speaker 1: was like a eight square foot condo and yeah, I
Speaker 1: lived there basically until I got off the real world.
Speaker 1: How would you describe yourself as a kid? Exactly like
Speaker 1: my kids. I have a four and a half and
Speaker 1: three year old and they have way too much energy.
Speaker 1: Like when I say way too much energy, I'm like,
Speaker 1: I have a lot of energy, Like I know I
Speaker 1: am high, like I am high energy person. But these kids, man,
Speaker 1: they they'll worry out tell you what. And now I
Speaker 1: really appreciate my parents even more having kids because man,
Speaker 1: it's it's gruel. It's it's not that it's grueling. It's
Speaker 1: it's great. You love them to death, but man, it
Speaker 1: is tough because they just want to play at all
Speaker 1: times and sometimes you just want to sit down and
Speaker 1: relax and have you time. But I'll try to talk
Speaker 1: to my wife and my kids would be like, dada, dada, dada.
Speaker 1: I'm like, I'm just starting. I just want to talk
Speaker 1: to Maurice just for five minutes. Is that okay? That
Speaker 1: that that a It's like all right, you played basketball
Speaker 1: and cross country. Would you consider yourself like, were you
Speaker 1: an athletic kid? Was sports like was that your main
Speaker 1: focus and interest when you were a kid? Yeah, definitely,
Speaker 1: I was very sports oriented. I wasn't very good at them,
Speaker 1: Like I was a captain of the cross country and
Speaker 1: baseball team. I played basketball, football, I swam a year.
Speaker 1: It was funny actually, uh my, uh, I don't even
Speaker 1: know if I had told this story before. So when
Speaker 1: I was in high school, I was on the basketball team,
Speaker 1: and my sophomore year I got on the varsity team
Speaker 1: and played the varsity team, and the next year I
Speaker 1: got cut and I didn't understand it, Like I was like,
Speaker 1: how do you get cut? And I wasn't like it
Speaker 1: wasn't like I was a rude person or a bad
Speaker 1: kid or anything that. Like, I was very devoted, very dedicated,
Speaker 1: hard working. I just didn't understand how you can make
Speaker 1: the varsity team your sophomore year and then junior year
Speaker 1: nothing really, If anything, I got better and bigger and
Speaker 1: everyone liked me on the team, and it wasn't like
Speaker 1: there was some sort of thing. I didn't understand what happened.
Speaker 1: I went home and I was like dad, like, the
Speaker 1: weirdest thing happened, Like I got cut from the basketball team.
Speaker 1: My dad was like, yeah, I figured that, I got
Speaker 1: What do you mean you figured that? Bees? Yeah, I
Speaker 1: got a fight with your coach um last year. I
Speaker 1: didn't want to tell you about it because I didn't
Speaker 1: think it would I thought it would blow over. But uh,
Speaker 1: I'm probably the reason why you got cut. Like my
Speaker 1: dad got in a full blown fight with my coach
Speaker 1: which got me cut from the team. Now here's how
Speaker 1: I know this is true. So I went for out
Speaker 1: for I was like, I had to do something during
Speaker 1: my I just get bored real easy. So I went
Speaker 1: to for the swimming team and I was one of
Speaker 1: the best swimmers on the team. And the next year,
Speaker 1: this coach got fired and I tried out for the
Speaker 1: varsity team. Guess what, I made the team. So it
Speaker 1: was literally like like that was what happened, and it
Speaker 1: was crazy. And I know with off the beat you
Speaker 1: like to talk about acting. In my school we did
Speaker 1: have theater, but I never I never even thought about
Speaker 1: it because it was so sports oriented and I wish
Speaker 1: I did because I love entertaining, I love acting, but
Speaker 1: I also loved sports. So I really didn't have the
Speaker 1: time to do the theater, but I'd always go to
Speaker 1: the plays and watch them and think, wow, these guys
Speaker 1: are so great at this. But you would go, you
Speaker 1: would go and watch Okay, Yeah, absolutely. Was a press
Speaker 1: into the student government and then senior editor of the
Speaker 1: year book. Like I was highly involved with the school.
Speaker 1: So uh, whenever you're like president of anything, you should
Speaker 1: go to everything is what I'm It was instilled in me.
Speaker 1: So as president student government, I would go to all
Speaker 1: all the functions and try to just you know, meet
Speaker 1: people and talk to people and have a great time.
Speaker 1: And I would go to these things and they were
Speaker 1: so good, like even back then, like watching them, you know,
Speaker 1: watching some of the kids that would do the plays,
Speaker 1: I'd be like, wow, that's so amazing. And I never
Speaker 1: thought I could ever do anything like that. Like coming
Speaker 1: from Cleveland, I was always like I want to be
Speaker 1: a basketball, baseball, football player, but I was never the athlete.
Speaker 1: And then once I got to college, I started realizing
Speaker 1: I was like, I don't I don't want to do business,
Speaker 1: Like I wouldn't mind peop Ohio and my pet Ohio
Speaker 1: has a great like theater school, like very good in acting.
Speaker 1: I didn't. I didn't even think to go there, and
Speaker 1: nobody actually like that. I knew went to that side
Speaker 1: of the campus, but it was a really cool side,
Speaker 1: um is more artsy, and so I never went over there.
Speaker 1: But I was wished in high school and in college
Speaker 1: that I would have done theater. It wasn't until I
Speaker 1: got on the real world. It made me realize, screw everything,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna try and do everything I possibly can. Right,
Speaker 1: So okay, so let's let's take this moment for a second.
Speaker 1: So you, I mean, your president of student council, your
Speaker 1: head of the yearbook, you're playing three varsity sports or
Speaker 1: whatever it is. So I mean, you're incredibly active and
Speaker 1: involved and you decided to go to Miami of Ohio
Speaker 1: study business whatever. But what what did you at that moment?
Speaker 1: What did you see yourself doing? Like? Where did you
Speaker 1: did your life going? You didn't. I didn't. I had
Speaker 1: no idea, Like I thought. My dad owned a Mr. Hero,
Speaker 1: which is kind of like a like a hot subway
Speaker 1: sandwich if you will, like it's it's like a Cleveland
Speaker 1: version of like a better subway. Think of it like that.
Speaker 1: And so Billy Chi Steakes like I worked there. I
Speaker 1: worked there from when I would fourteen. I bought my
Speaker 1: first car because I didn't want my dad to pay
Speaker 1: for my car, because a lot of kids in school
Speaker 1: would have their parents buy their cars. I didn't want that.
Speaker 1: I wanted to buy my own car on my own.
Speaker 1: So I spent like three summers just saving, saving, saving
Speaker 1: until I could buy my first car, which was a
Speaker 1: V six Firebird and it looked like kit and I
Speaker 1: thought it was the coolest thing ever. So I worked
Speaker 1: for my dad at Mr. Hero. Then I also worked
Speaker 1: at J. C. Penny as a stock boy, and Abercrombie
Speaker 1: and Fitch as a greeter. So I had many jobs.
Speaker 1: And then once I got into Miami of Ohio, which
Speaker 1: once you get done with with high school, you basically
Speaker 1: are like, all right, what do I do? I go
Speaker 1: to college. That's that's the standard where where I'm from,
Speaker 1: you know, nothing else was even in my mind. So
Speaker 1: I went to college and I was like, all right,
Speaker 1: what do I do? Like, I don't know what I
Speaker 1: want to do with the rest of my life, my
Speaker 1: own my own business like my dad, So maybe I
Speaker 1: should just go in business. And it was a very
Speaker 1: good business school, very public school to get into and
Speaker 1: so I went there and I just I would do
Speaker 1: terrible in all of my like business classes, but all
Speaker 1: of like like I did Greek mythology and art history
Speaker 1: and I get straight a's and it was just like
Speaker 1: I wasn't into the business side of it. And got
Speaker 1: into a fraternity. Yeah, I got into a fraternity, uh,
Speaker 1: Theta Kai. And then I saw I was watching I
Speaker 1: would sitting at home watching TV and it said, do
Speaker 1: you want to try out for the Real World? And
Speaker 1: I was like, uh, yeah, definitely, Like I want to
Speaker 1: be on TV. Okay, so did you did you watch
Speaker 1: The Real World? Yes, you're a fan of the Real World?
Speaker 1: Then yeah, it was. It was the biggest show in
Speaker 1: in my demographic if you will, like you know, a
Speaker 1: teenager going out of you know, high school into college,
Speaker 1: like that was the prime time for the Real World.
Speaker 1: I'll never forget like sitting at home sick when I
Speaker 1: was in eighth grade watching the seasons like the I
Speaker 1: think it was the third season San Francisco with Pedro
Speaker 1: and Puck, and I was like, this is the greatest
Speaker 1: show ever. And I and and now actually being on it.
Speaker 1: I get people all the time that tell me like
Speaker 1: I watched the Real World or everyone has their season
Speaker 1: that they invested in that they watched, at least my
Speaker 1: generation does, and so it's kind of interesting to hear,
Speaker 1: you know, different people in their different views and what
Speaker 1: what show they watched, like because I was I was
Speaker 1: in San Francisco and New Orleans person that I watched
Speaker 1: those seasons of the Real World, and that's what made
Speaker 1: me want to be on the Real World. You auditioned
Speaker 1: by sending in a VHS tape basically, guys that that
Speaker 1: would existed back in the sixties, what what was its
Speaker 1: eight and nineties two? I mean there was my camera phones.
Speaker 1: I know what was on the tape, all right, So
Speaker 1: I would videotape everything. So I would have parties at
Speaker 1: my house and I would videotape and I had the
Speaker 1: camera over the shoulder. I don't know if you remember
Speaker 1: those back in the big, big order camp order. I
Speaker 1: had one of those things, and I would videotape everything.
Speaker 1: And so i'd video tape just different things that I
Speaker 1: would do in my life, partying, dancing, you know, hanging
Speaker 1: out with friends, that kind of stuff. So I edited
Speaker 1: an entire video together. Now nowadays kids can edit on
Speaker 1: their computers. Back then, we didn't have like the computers
Speaker 1: and the editing tools to do that. So you had
Speaker 1: to hook up your camcorder to your VHS tape and
Speaker 1: press play on the camcorder and then record on the
Speaker 1: tape on the VHS and then stop at the same time.
Speaker 1: You're doing your left hand in your right hand and
Speaker 1: you stop it at the same time, and then you
Speaker 1: like fast forward on the camcorder and then you press
Speaker 1: record on your on your VHS and play and it's
Speaker 1: like that's how you edited. So that was my edited. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that was my editing technique. And just how that is unbelievable. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's pretty crazy. Wow, And what did you did? You
Speaker 1: deliver like a monologue like, yeah, I did a whole
Speaker 1: Like here's why you should choose me. I'm from Parmer, Ohio.
Speaker 1: I go to college. This is who I am. Gave
Speaker 1: him a whole thing. My parents were divorced when I
Speaker 1: was in fifth grade. Uh. You know, when you're going
Speaker 1: on in the real world, you tell them all your drama,
Speaker 1: all your ups, all your downs. But I like to
Speaker 1: make it more entertaining and energetic, and so I uh,
Speaker 1: that's kind of how I did my monologue if you will. Okay,
Speaker 1: So this this is where I'm starting to go deep
Speaker 1: with you here because I want to know at this
Speaker 1: moment and obviously could change, But at this moment, what
Speaker 1: did you perceive as the greatest reason that you should
Speaker 1: be on the show? Was Yeah, Like, was there a
Speaker 1: quality within you that that you were saying to them,
Speaker 1: this is why you should choose me. I'm the most
Speaker 1: fun person you'll ever have on your entire show. Like that,
Speaker 1: That's that was basically the gist of it. Like I
Speaker 1: am You're token frat boy that will literally go out
Speaker 1: and party and have fun, and I'm an open book.
Speaker 1: And I didn't realize that being an open book on
Speaker 1: TV was so difficult for people like me. Whenever there
Speaker 1: was a camera around, like a professional camera anywhere, and
Speaker 1: I'm talking like if they were there was a news thing,
Speaker 1: and I would literally be up behind it trying to
Speaker 1: get on the TV to do an interview. If you
Speaker 1: look at Netflix right now, there's a show of Woodstock
Speaker 1: train Wreck. I went to Woodstock ninety nine and I
Speaker 1: got in front of this camera and was like, Woodstock
Speaker 1: ninety nine, Baby had no idea this was out there
Speaker 1: at all until that documentary came out on Netflix this
Speaker 1: year and they used me as like their first person,
Speaker 1: like guy, they didn't say it was the miss, but
Speaker 1: everyone on the internet was like, is that the miss?
Speaker 1: Is that the miss of it? Yeah? That was me.
Speaker 1: That was like eighteen year old miss out of high
Speaker 1: school going to honestly what I thought was the greatest
Speaker 1: concert I've ever been to. In that tape, and as
Speaker 1: you began the real world, are you playing a character?
Speaker 1: Are you showing yourself? I? I, uh so when I
Speaker 1: got on that show, like it's interesting. So I started
Speaker 1: in August and I didn't get on the show until February.
Speaker 1: Like that's how long the audition process took. So I
Speaker 1: sent in a videotape. Then I got had this fifty
Speaker 1: page application asking everything and anything about my life. Then
Speaker 1: you do like a sit down interview where you have
Speaker 1: a camera in front of you and you videotape it
Speaker 1: and they're on your speaker phone and you are talking
Speaker 1: directly to the camera and they're asking you questions and
Speaker 1: these aren't your normal, average every day questions. Like the
Speaker 1: one question that sticks in my mind to this day
Speaker 1: is Mike, you're an onion? And I peel Away, your
Speaker 1: fraternity at peel Away, your friends at peel Away, your family,
Speaker 1: what's at the core of Mike mazzanin And I literally
Speaker 1: was like at a loss for words, and I was like,
Speaker 1: I don't know, I I don't know. And it was
Speaker 1: an honest answer and an honest question. And then the
Speaker 1: next interview I had in person interview. And when I
Speaker 1: was there it was like in Detroit. I had to
Speaker 1: drive from my me Bhio to Detroit in my Firebird,
Speaker 1: drove up there and I had to wait like fifteen minutes.
Speaker 1: So I saw all these girls and they were all
Speaker 1: going to prom so I kind of went up to him,
Speaker 1: sort of talking to him, not realizing that the producer
Speaker 1: is going to come down and see me talking to
Speaker 1: like ten girls. I was like, oh, wow, this probably
Speaker 1: was a good thing anyway, So go up there. I
Speaker 1: talked to them in this interview, and you ever see
Speaker 1: people on reality shows and they're bawling, crying, and you're like,
Speaker 1: why is this person crying? Like, I don't get it.
Speaker 1: I don't get like. That's that was my mentality until
Speaker 1: I got into that interview and they were not necessarily
Speaker 1: dissecting me, but asking questions that I've never been asked before,
Speaker 1: and questions that I felt meant something, and and it
Speaker 1: made me, I don't know, think, And you know, when
Speaker 1: you're just living your life, you don't ever have people.
Speaker 1: Sometimes you don't have people that really challenge you. And
Speaker 1: I thought this show was really going to challenge me.
Speaker 1: And so I was like driving back from Detroit to Miami,
Speaker 1: I was like, I have to make this show. I
Speaker 1: have to make this show. This is gonna make me
Speaker 1: better and a better person. And so that's what happened.
Speaker 1: Like I got done, went on the show, and I
Speaker 1: didn't play a character. I was Mike until I was
Speaker 1: on the show, and I was just uncomfortable. Now was
Speaker 1: New York for the first time in my life. It
Speaker 1: was a big city, is a melting pot, all this diversity,
Speaker 1: so many people from different backgrounds, different ways of life,
Speaker 1: different ways of thinking. And I am an unfiltered person,
Speaker 1: so I just speak whatsever on my mind, and I
Speaker 1: was hurting people's feelings and I didn't realize it and
Speaker 1: didn't know. And then finally, like everyone started not liking me.
Speaker 1: It felt like I was the outcast of the show.
Speaker 1: And it was the first time in my life, I've
Speaker 1: ever been an outcast anywhere. I was always able to
Speaker 1: fit in, always able to be a chameleon, if you will.
Speaker 1: And this was the first time that I couldn't do that,
Speaker 1: and nobody liked me no matter what what I did.
Speaker 1: And so I created this character called the Miss, which
Speaker 1: was a w W E wrestler that was basically cutting
Speaker 1: promos on everyone. And so I would get hammered and
Speaker 1: literally just start cutting promos on everyone, telling him exactly
Speaker 1: how I felt. And everyone loved the Miss but didn't
Speaker 1: like Mike. And so everyone will always be like, do
Speaker 1: the Miss, do the Miss, Do the Miss? Do the Miss.
Speaker 1: So I just keep on doing the Miss, keep on
Speaker 1: doing the Miss, keep on doing the Miss. So you asked,
Speaker 1: did I was I a character on that show? No,
Speaker 1: I wasn't. I was. I always look at the real
Speaker 1: world is as real as real can get with cameras
Speaker 1: in front of you. But the first week, so we
Speaker 1: had this, uh this tryout right where we all went
Speaker 1: to Palm Springs before we were on the real world.
Speaker 1: It was a tryout. It was like twenty six people
Speaker 1: were brought there and they had cameras and everyone was
Speaker 1: talking about all these different things, like as soon as
Speaker 1: you meet them, like they were talking about religion. Uh,
Speaker 1: all these different issues that were at the time very important.
Speaker 1: But you don't meet them and say, Hi, I'm Mike
Speaker 1: Mazzen and uh, this is my religion, this is who
Speaker 1: I You don't you don't just do that. And that's
Speaker 1: what everyone was doing. And I literally in an interview,
Speaker 1: I went, this is the biggest thing I ever seen
Speaker 1: in my life. But three days into that that shoot,
Speaker 1: I guess you can say people started getting real and
Speaker 1: it started you started forgetting about the cameras. So once
Speaker 1: you're on the real world, the first week is a
Speaker 1: little weird, but then it just becomes the norm and
Speaker 1: you're just in front of a camera. Yeah that makes sense.
Speaker 1: I mean this is fairly early early days of reality TV.
Speaker 1: What was your experience with other people in your life
Speaker 1: about you becoming like a reality TV star? People supportive?
Speaker 1: Was it difficult for you or what happened? I was
Speaker 1: leaving college. There was no way my parents were gonna
Speaker 1: be like, yeah, great, you're going to do this show.
Speaker 1: And by the way, I wasn't allowed to tell anyone
Speaker 1: that I was going to be on a reality show.
Speaker 1: You had to tell. You had to be like, hey,
Speaker 1: I'm going away for a little while. So I debated
Speaker 1: telling my parents. And the reason I've debated is because
Speaker 1: my parents have big mouths and they'll tell everyone. So
Speaker 1: I kind of like said it like this. I was like, Mom, Dad,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go do this thing in New York and
Speaker 1: I think it's gonna be big and it's gonna help
Speaker 1: me and it's gonna be great. I'm gonna leave college.
Speaker 1: What what is it? I can't tell you. And so
Speaker 1: they were not happy with that, but I did it
Speaker 1: anyway because I knew. I just knew there was something
Speaker 1: about it, something that was you know when you feel
Speaker 1: something and there's something inside you that are like, this
Speaker 1: is right, this, this is where I need to be,
Speaker 1: This is where I need to go. That was that moment.
Speaker 1: And if I didn't do that just then and there,
Speaker 1: I would sit in college plug probably flunk out, go
Speaker 1: back to Cleveland and stay there for the rest of
Speaker 1: my life and never feel that fire ever again. So
Speaker 1: sometimes you get chances in life where there's a fire
Speaker 1: and you feel it and you're scared of it because
Speaker 1: everyone's telling you not to do it, and you're like, no,
Speaker 1: I can't. I have to do it. I have to
Speaker 1: do this. I have stick to my guns and I
Speaker 1: believe it. I feel like so many people don't do
Speaker 1: it because of what everyone else is telling them. I
Speaker 1: read you were a fan of wrestling when you were
Speaker 1: a kid. You create this persona the miss on the
Speaker 1: real world. When does the idea began to come into
Speaker 1: your mind that that could be a direction that you
Speaker 1: you move. It didn't until I until I like, as
Speaker 1: a kid, you're not thinking just because I love a show,
Speaker 1: you're actually going to do it and be on it.
Speaker 1: Like I loved w w E. I loved it. I
Speaker 1: loved Ultimate Warrior. I loved the pain in his face,
Speaker 1: streamers on his arm, I loved his energy when he
Speaker 1: when that music hit and he came out, I was like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, that's the outside my Warrior, you know
Speaker 1: it was. It was amazing to me. And these guys
Speaker 1: were larger than life, and I believed in him. I
Speaker 1: had every action figure that you could imagine. Like I
Speaker 1: talked about wrestling NonStop as a kid, and so you
Speaker 1: never believe as a child that you could actually become
Speaker 1: a w w E superstar. There's just no way, no option,
Speaker 1: and it's it's I never even thought of it until
Speaker 1: I got on the Real World and right, that's what
Speaker 1: I was saying. So you at that moment you've created this,
Speaker 1: people are loving them, miss is this this is what
Speaker 1: starts the idea like maybe you could do this? Yes,
Speaker 1: I I was like, maybe I can do this. So
Speaker 1: as soon as I got home from the Real World,
Speaker 1: I was sitting in my bedroom in Parma, Ohio and
Speaker 1: my dad's condo, and I was like, am I going
Speaker 1: to go back to college or am I going to
Speaker 1: pursue this? And so I was calling, like being to Murray,
Speaker 1: the production company that did Real World, trying to get
Speaker 1: on you know, the challenges, because that was the next thing.
Speaker 1: It was like, once you're on the Real World, I
Speaker 1: want to be on the Real World road Rules Challenges.
Speaker 1: And now today there's like ten challenges. They're like everyone
Speaker 1: anyone could be on it. Back then it was just
Speaker 1: Real World and road Rules, and I wanted to be
Speaker 1: one of those cast members. So I got on the
Speaker 1: show and actually won the show, and so I got money.
Speaker 1: So I was like, because I was broke once I
Speaker 1: got off the Real World. You don't get paid like
Speaker 1: people were like, Oh, you're on TV, You're a millionaire. No,
Speaker 1: that's not necessarily true. I was on a reality show.
Speaker 1: I didn't get paid very much, like literally nothing. I went.
Speaker 1: I went. Actually, I maxed out my credit cards because
Speaker 1: I wanted to live the life of a person on television.
Speaker 1: And so once I paid off those credit cards with
Speaker 1: everything everything I had left over, I was sitting in
Speaker 1: my room and I was like, all right, what do
Speaker 1: I want to do with my life? And I looked
Speaker 1: in the mirror and there was an action figure of
Speaker 1: the Rock that my my roommates gave me and were like, hey,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be a w W superstar. So I went
Speaker 1: on Google. I checked up all right, wrestling schools. How
Speaker 1: do you how do you do it? Like? How does it?
Speaker 1: Does it even work? So I saw ohil Valley Wrestling. Okay,
Speaker 1: I could go to Louisville and learn there, or I
Speaker 1: can go to l A with Ultimate Pro Wrestling. I'm
Speaker 1: going to l A. So I moved to l A.
Speaker 1: People from Buna Murray found me a place uh that
Speaker 1: I literally lived with roommates from Buna Murray and then
Speaker 1: I went to Ultimate Pro Wrestling pays to learn the
Speaker 1: art of professional wrestling, and then I was like, all right,
Speaker 1: what is wrestling? Wrestling isn't just wrestling, it's acting, it's improv.
Speaker 1: So I went to acting school from Steven Anderson, who
Speaker 1: was a great acting coach. And then I also was like,
Speaker 1: all right, I need to go to Groundlings. I need
Speaker 1: to go to Improv Olympics. So I went to those
Speaker 1: two places and then the real world was like real
Speaker 1: world was like hey, awesome, yeah, So then real world
Speaker 1: was like, hey, do you want to do like when
Speaker 1: you get off the real world? Pedro started this thing
Speaker 1: from real world San Francisco, where you would go to
Speaker 1: colleges and speak to students about your experience because it's
Speaker 1: so much like being in college, and they would pay
Speaker 1: you for it. So I started doing motivational speeches and
Speaker 1: I looked at that is a way to perform in
Speaker 1: front of a live audience. So I would always have
Speaker 1: a promo in my mind of who the miss was,
Speaker 1: and I would cut a promo at each one, but
Speaker 1: then have this speech about motivating people to do stuff
Speaker 1: with their lives. And there was a kid that never
Speaker 1: graduated college getting paid to go to colleges to talk
Speaker 1: to students. It's crazy, right, So that's how I would
Speaker 1: make money. And then I started. I started making T shirts.
Speaker 1: I got myself a logo for on a person that
Speaker 1: would that would do a logo for me for unnor
Speaker 1: Bucks because I wasn't really rich, so I started making
Speaker 1: a T shirt lines because I was like, all right,
Speaker 1: WW has a bunch of merch. All their superstars sell merch.
Speaker 1: Maybe if WW sees me on TV talking about being
Speaker 1: a w W superstar, they know that I'm trying to
Speaker 1: become a WW superstar by learning the professional art of wrestling.
Speaker 1: I'm also trying to act. I'm trying to improv. I'm
Speaker 1: working on my body to get bigger because everyone was
Speaker 1: like six seven three pounds and I wasn't, uh so,
Speaker 1: what's gonna stand me out? And then also I wanted
Speaker 1: to make sure that my merch was out there that
Speaker 1: I could tell them, hey, I'm selling merch, like even
Speaker 1: though I'm not in w W, E I am valuable.
Speaker 1: I can, I can, I'm I can do something. So
Speaker 1: and the best part was when I would go on
Speaker 1: the challenges, people weren't jealous of the fact that I
Speaker 1: was bringing T shirts and hats. They were supportive and
Speaker 1: that doesn't happen very often. And everyone from the crew
Speaker 1: from the cast members even to this day, have always
Speaker 1: been so supportive of of me and and and my
Speaker 1: dreams and everything that I've wanted to do. And they
Speaker 1: literally if you watched The Inferno, which I think it's
Speaker 1: on like either Paramount Plus or and Netflix, one of
Speaker 1: the two. But if you watch that, people are all
Speaker 1: wearing my my my gear, like my T shirts and
Speaker 1: my hats with my logo on it, and I'm being
Speaker 1: the miss on the show and everyone's loving it. And
Speaker 1: by the way, the next season that was my I
Speaker 1: believe my last season, they basically said no one's allowed
Speaker 1: to do T shirts anymore or hats because I ruined
Speaker 1: it for everyone. Uh so you you do all of
Speaker 1: the this. I did not know this. You were going
Speaker 1: to improv Olympic. That's unbelievable. Um, you then go on
Speaker 1: tough Enough talk a little bit about tough enough. So
Speaker 1: three years into training, I'm not making any noise through
Speaker 1: w w E. I've been backstage and every time they're like,
Speaker 1: hey we do an interview for w w E dot com.
Speaker 1: Absolutely no problem, whatever you need. And they never would
Speaker 1: give me a contract, never give me any like they
Speaker 1: just wanted to basically put me on dot com and say, hey,
Speaker 1: the miss backstage uh from the Real World loves w
Speaker 1: w A. But no one was. It wasn't catching anything.
Speaker 1: I wasn't getting what we call dark matches. I wasn't
Speaker 1: getting these matches where you know, you could wrestle and
Speaker 1: show what you can do. And so I was like, man,
Speaker 1: I don't know if this is ever gonna happen. There's
Speaker 1: always those doubts, you know. And in three years, I
Speaker 1: did five um challenges, making it to the end on
Speaker 1: a lot of them. The MS was honestly, any time
Speaker 1: I would go anywhere, I was recognized, like it takes
Speaker 1: I always think it takes five seasons or five five
Speaker 1: shows to really get recognized by everyone. Um, that's when
Speaker 1: it's like you're a staple. And so with the Real
Speaker 1: World on my fifth season, I was like, my god,
Speaker 1: I literally it's five Like everyone recognizes me, but I'm
Speaker 1: still not making any noise with w w E. And
Speaker 1: then I got a call, would you like to try
Speaker 1: out for Tough Enough? And I said I would love to,
Speaker 1: but I tried. I wanted to try out two years
Speaker 1: ago and they wouldn't let me because back then you
Speaker 1: couldn't be on two reality shows. You couldn't be on
Speaker 1: Real World and The Challenges and Tough Enough because it
Speaker 1: was all at MTV. And they were like, well, it's
Speaker 1: not an MTV anymore, it's on CW. And so I
Speaker 1: was like, I'm in. He's like, all right, you have
Speaker 1: to try out. There's fifty people gonna try out. It's
Speaker 1: in Venice Beach. I was like, no problem, I make
Speaker 1: my way there, went to Venice Beach and tried out
Speaker 1: and made it onto the show that I believe there
Speaker 1: was eight of us, and they put us through the ringer.
Speaker 1: Like every week we'd have to go to Connecticut and train,
Speaker 1: and the training would be like taking five bumps, and
Speaker 1: a bump is when you flat back onto the ground,
Speaker 1: Like think about like just straight back to your like
Speaker 1: if someone shoved you and you just landed straight on
Speaker 1: your back. So taking five hundred of those, you are sore,
Speaker 1: your body hurts, you're getting bumps, you're getting bruises, and
Speaker 1: you have to do it every day to train to
Speaker 1: get ready to learn the art of professional wrestling. And
Speaker 1: by the way, I've already been three years in, so
Speaker 1: I knew how to do a lot of the stuff
Speaker 1: that they were training us to do. But you couldn't
Speaker 1: have a big head, you know, you couldn't be like,
Speaker 1: oh I know this stuff already, ha ha. Like I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna tell al snow and build a mop that
Speaker 1: absolutely not. Like, so, you know, we were training and
Speaker 1: it seemed like fans were getting into us, and it
Speaker 1: was through and vote on how you were going to
Speaker 1: win or lose. And I've always been a punchable face.
Speaker 1: I guess you can say a bad guy. And so
Speaker 1: I ended up coming in second place. So I didn't
Speaker 1: win tough enough, and I'll never forget. They were like,
Speaker 1: you know, you impressed us so much that you know,
Speaker 1: maybe there is something for you here. And so they
Speaker 1: brought me up to Connecticut to commentate. I don't think
Speaker 1: I've ever told this story. Actually they brought me up.
Speaker 1: So Joey Styles brought me up with Todd Grisham and
Speaker 1: Michael Cole. They all brought me up and I had
Speaker 1: to do a take of commentating and they told me, hey,
Speaker 1: we think we're thinking we might bring you in as
Speaker 1: a commentator or an interviewer. And it was the first time.
Speaker 1: I like, I said, but I want to be a
Speaker 1: WW superstar and they were like yeah, Like they didn't
Speaker 1: look at me like a w W superstar. They looked
Speaker 1: at me as a personality. But I saw something different.
Speaker 1: I was like, no, Like, I love what you guys do,
Speaker 1: and I think you guys do a great job, but
Speaker 1: I want to be, like I want to be bigger
Speaker 1: than the Rock. I want to be bigger than than
Speaker 1: than Hogan. I want to be I want to be
Speaker 1: a superstar like and they were like, all right, okay,
Speaker 1: And so they gave me a developmental deal to go
Speaker 1: down and they didn't. They did not think I was
Speaker 1: gonna be much of anything. To be honest, you could
Speaker 1: you could kind of tell they were like, hey, let's
Speaker 1: see what we got here, because I remember I was like,
Speaker 1: they gave me this developmental contract and I was like,
Speaker 1: I'm making more than this doing the real world and
Speaker 1: the challenges and stuff like I'm gonna take a pay
Speaker 1: cut to do this. And I had to think about that, like,
Speaker 1: all right, are we looking at this is a career
Speaker 1: move because sometimes you have to take you know less
Speaker 1: because you see the big picture and you you see
Speaker 1: them more and That's exactly what I did. I said, Okay,
Speaker 1: I'll take less money, I will go there and I
Speaker 1: will train and I'll prove everyone wrong. And I became
Speaker 1: the first ever Deep South Heavyweight Champion. Uh. The first
Speaker 1: thing they tell us is like, when you can sell
Speaker 1: out this territory like we called it, like a territory
Speaker 1: like Deep South Wrestling and mcdonnah Georgia. If you can
Speaker 1: sell out our little arena which is like two people,
Speaker 1: then you can go to Ohio Valley, which is like
Speaker 1: which is the other territory. If you can sell that
Speaker 1: one out, then maybe you can come to w W
Speaker 1: E and SmackDown and raw and then that's where you
Speaker 1: know you can make some money. So we were selling
Speaker 1: out shows at Deep South Wrestling and I was the
Speaker 1: first ever Deep South Heavyweight Champion. And I was a
Speaker 1: good guy. People loved me. And Paul Hayman, who is
Speaker 1: a huge influential person in wrestling in the wrestling world
Speaker 1: like created e c W. He was was like, all right,
Speaker 1: we're moving you to Ohio Valley Wrestling. So I went
Speaker 1: to Ohio val Wrestling and Paul Haman was the first
Speaker 1: person that said you're not a baby face because I was.
Speaker 1: I connected with the Deep South people, like all the
Speaker 1: people loved me and thought it was a baby face
Speaker 1: and would buy my shirts and everything like that saw
Speaker 1: me off the real world. When I went I was
Speaker 1: a good guy. I was absolutely good guy. You know,
Speaker 1: everyone's a big smile on my face. Hey cheer me,
Speaker 1: rah rah ra. So then I go to Ohio Valley
Speaker 1: Wrestling and they weren't cheering me. They were just it
Speaker 1: was kind of just men, you know, like all right,
Speaker 1: what do you got kid, Let's see what you got.
Speaker 1: And it was a different territory. It was a different group,
Speaker 1: and I didn't realize like different areas. I don't know
Speaker 1: in theater when you go to like say Atlanta and
Speaker 1: then you go to Broadway, then you go to different
Speaker 1: is it different audiences? Do you do you do you
Speaker 1: feel the different audiences? Do you feel the energy? Okay,
Speaker 1: so it's the same thing. So we went to Oil
Speaker 1: Valor Wrestling and it was just different and I was like,
Speaker 1: oh man, and I wasn't getting we call it over.
Speaker 1: We I wasn't connecting with the audience. And so Paul
Speaker 1: comes to me and goes, you know why you're not connecting?
Speaker 1: I go, no, He's like, you're not a baby face,
Speaker 1: You're a heel, which is a bad guy. And I
Speaker 1: was like, I don't know, man, down there is like
Speaker 1: trust me, you're a heel. So we sat up, we
Speaker 1: wrote this promo and I went out there and at
Speaker 1: it and I don't think i've ever went back since.
Speaker 1: It would just felt right. Oh my god. It was
Speaker 1: just having people boo me and hate me and get
Speaker 1: under their skin. And I became the biggest bad guy
Speaker 1: in Ohio Valley Wrestling. And so then what happens. You
Speaker 1: get taken up to SmackDown in raw And this was
Speaker 1: another learning curve because right when I first got to SmackDown,
Speaker 1: which is where they brought me, it was on national
Speaker 1: television Live TV, and I was brought in as the host.
Speaker 1: And I'll never forget the first day I was there.
Speaker 1: I didn't know what I was doing there. No one
Speaker 1: told me anything. I was just there like and they
Speaker 1: were like, Vince would like to see you, and I'm like,
Speaker 1: oh boy, I'm going in with that. I'm going to
Speaker 1: Vince like this is like the first real conversation, like
Speaker 1: I'm going to have with Vince McMahon. Walk in, I'm like, hello, sir,
Speaker 1: I'm really excited to be here, and he's and he
Speaker 1: sits down, he just he takes kind of a while,
Speaker 1: like he'll just stare at you and just wait, and
Speaker 1: there's that moment and he just waits to see what
Speaker 1: you're gonna do. And I just sat there and stared
Speaker 1: at him. We're just staring at each other for an
Speaker 1: awkward amount of time, and he goes, we're gonna make
Speaker 1: you the host. I want you to be the Ryan
Speaker 1: Seacrest of w w E. And in my head, I'm
Speaker 1: going like, you don't ever want to hear your boss
Speaker 1: Like Ryan Seacrest is a hell of a talent, an
Speaker 1: amazing talent, incredible host, but when you want to be
Speaker 1: the biggest superstar in the world, you don't ever want
Speaker 1: to be told you're the host of a show. But
Speaker 1: in my mind, I said, I'm going to get a microphone.
Speaker 1: If I can get a microphone and get this audience
Speaker 1: to absolutely despise me as the host, then they're gonna
Speaker 1: want to see me get beat up. And if they're
Speaker 1: gonna see beat up, they gotta put me in the ring.
Speaker 1: If they put me in the ring, they're never gonna
Speaker 1: want me to come out of that ring. And so
Speaker 1: for the next three four months, I was the host
Speaker 1: of SmackDown, and there was a lot of ups and downs.
Speaker 1: Because I was such a good host on SmackDown, they
Speaker 1: made me the host of a Diva Search, which was
Speaker 1: where we which is where I first met my wife,
Speaker 1: by the way, which was w W E's version of
Speaker 1: tough Enough. It's for the women, trying to find the
Speaker 1: next women's superstar. And we went in there and I'll
Speaker 1: never forget. I forgot the phone number of like I'm
Speaker 1: on Live TV. We don't have Q cards, we don't
Speaker 1: have teleprompters. There's none of that stuff out there. Teleprompters, No, Brian, No,
Speaker 1: we don't have teleprompters. We memorize everything, and whatever we forget,
Speaker 1: we just make up. You know. It's it's it's highly
Speaker 1: improm that's what. That's where my my my ground lays
Speaker 1: in prov Olympics come in, let me tell you. But
Speaker 1: so I forgot the number and I wrote it down
Speaker 1: on my wrist, but I was sweating so much that
Speaker 1: it wiped off of my wrist. And what is the
Speaker 1: number one thing you don't forget when you're the host.
Speaker 1: It's the phone number you called to vote in like
Speaker 1: I forgot it, Brian and I it was the first
Speaker 1: time I felt cold sweat. I don't know if you've
Speaker 1: ever felt this, where you're out there and you forgot everything.
Speaker 1: Your mind goes blank and you nothing even you can't
Speaker 1: even put words in your mouth because there's nothing there,
Speaker 1: there's nothing in your brain. You're you're sinking and you
Speaker 1: know it, and it's just like you're in quicksand and
Speaker 1: you can't get out of it. And that's what I
Speaker 1: was feeling while I was out there. Luckily, they played
Speaker 1: music and just introed, so I introduced all the girls
Speaker 1: and I was like, great, thank god they just did that. Um.
Speaker 1: But then I went back and I went to Vince
Speaker 1: and I was like, I am so sorry. This will
Speaker 1: never happen again. I will dedicate, I would do whatever
Speaker 1: it takes. I will figure out he goes. I know
Speaker 1: it won't happen again. I know you won't allow that
Speaker 1: to happen. And it never happened again. And from that
Speaker 1: that point, I never wanted that to happen again. So
Speaker 1: I would cut promos on everything I'm talking. If I
Speaker 1: was stuck in traffic, I would cut a promo on
Speaker 1: the traffic. If I was in the shower, I was
Speaker 1: cutting promos on shampoo and conditioner. If I was if
Speaker 1: I was you know, running, I was cutting promos on
Speaker 1: the person running next to me, you know, or or
Speaker 1: running across from me, or the tree. I was cutting
Speaker 1: promos on everything. So even if I got that cold
Speaker 1: sweat again, I would have something in my brain. And
Speaker 1: so from there, from hosting they were it worked like
Speaker 1: people hated me and despised me and wanted to see
Speaker 1: me get my butt whooped. So they put me in
Speaker 1: the ring and I went undefeated for like six months.
Speaker 1: And then once I got beat, I had to figure
Speaker 1: out what was next, like how do I elevate and
Speaker 1: evolve this character? And they brought me so there was three.
Speaker 1: There was raw SmackDown in E c W, and E
Speaker 1: c W was like the C Show. You know it,
Speaker 1: we never say it, but it was the C Show.
Speaker 1: It was like where people are trying to figure out
Speaker 1: what they're doing. Veterans are in that area to kind
Speaker 1: of boost and you know, give it a rating, but
Speaker 1: you know it's kind of an up and coming kind
Speaker 1: of thing. And that's where I met John Morrison, who
Speaker 1: became my tag team partner at the time, and this
Speaker 1: guy taught me so much in the ring. Like I
Speaker 1: had the charisma, I had the ability to connect with
Speaker 1: an audience, but my in ring skills were okay at best,
Speaker 1: you know, and I had to And even though I
Speaker 1: was training for three years on the independence, even though
Speaker 1: I was training envelopmental and doing well, I just still
Speaker 1: didn't connect in the like I was a reality star
Speaker 1: to everyone, and it's gonna take time to get them
Speaker 1: out of that reality star mode because I don't even
Speaker 1: know about you. But in Hollywood. When I went to Hollywood,
Speaker 1: like I would tell people, Um, I was on the
Speaker 1: real world, and they would look at me, like, look
Speaker 1: at you. Like I couldn't get an audition, Brian, Like
Speaker 1: I was trying to audition for stuff before w W
Speaker 1: EAT and they wouldn't even let me audition because I
Speaker 1: was on the real world and people know exactly who
Speaker 1: I am. So then, you know, back then you weren't
Speaker 1: allowed to know who the people are. You have to
Speaker 1: be very hidden, Like actors had to be very hidden
Speaker 1: because you know, you're playing a character and they didn't
Speaker 1: want to know your character. And so that's kind of
Speaker 1: where I set, so when I went to w w E,
Speaker 1: it was like I was still a reality star. People
Speaker 1: didn't like me, and I had to develop myself into
Speaker 1: a w W superstar and gain respect not only in
Speaker 1: the ring, but outside the ring as well. Well. You
Speaker 1: have won the w w A Championship twice, the Intercontinental
Speaker 1: Championship eight times, United States Champion twice, eight tag team championships,
Speaker 1: giving you a total of twenty overall championships in w
Speaker 1: W E, and you became the ww E Triple Crown
Speaker 1: Champion and fourteen Grand Slam Champion. I mean, yeah, you
Speaker 1: were a reality star that nobody paid much attention to,
Speaker 1: kept pushing you into hosting and holding a mike as
Speaker 1: opposed to doing what you wanted to do. How did
Speaker 1: that make you feel? Eventually when you when you began
Speaker 1: this this ascent really to the place where you are now.
Speaker 1: So when I first won the money in the bank contract,
Speaker 1: which is a contract that you can cash in anytime,
Speaker 1: anywhere to have a w W Championship match. So say
Speaker 1: the person just got done with the match, got slammed
Speaker 1: with a chair, is laying down and can't get up.
Speaker 1: I could cash in that contract and say, hey, I
Speaker 1: want to match this guy right now for the w
Speaker 1: W Championship, and that's how I won the championship twice.
Speaker 1: Now is a bad guy. There's no better way to
Speaker 1: win than that kind of way. And once I won
Speaker 1: the first w w E Championship, there was so many naysayers,
Speaker 1: so many people that were like, this guy does not
Speaker 1: deserve the title. He's a reality star, he's an outsider.
Speaker 1: I still get it to this day that I'm an outsider,
Speaker 1: you know, coming in looking in, even after eighteen years
Speaker 1: of being in this business, you know, still trying to
Speaker 1: harness that respect value. I guess that I want and
Speaker 1: so bad, I guess you can say. But when I
Speaker 1: wanted that first w championship, nobody wanted it. And then
Speaker 1: I went on to main event WrestleMania, which is the
Speaker 1: hardest thing to do, and I was w W champion
Speaker 1: at the time, walked in the w W Champion as
Speaker 1: a bad guy in the main event of WrestleMania, and
Speaker 1: walked out the w w E Champion at WrestleMania with
Speaker 1: the Rocks help granted. But then the Rock gave me
Speaker 1: People's elbow at the end, which was fine because I
Speaker 1: walked out the w w E champion, uh, And that
Speaker 1: was that was one of the most incredible things that's
Speaker 1: ever happened in my life. Because, man, I'll tell you
Speaker 1: what you try to get, like it's like getting an
Speaker 1: Oscar or an Emmy or you know, for me, you know,
Speaker 1: getting to be the main event. That doesn't happen very often,
Speaker 1: especially to a guy like me who people were so
Speaker 1: down on and didn't didn't expect to do anything in
Speaker 1: this business. And then to be able to go there
Speaker 1: and main event and do it then and then from
Speaker 1: there you think I'm a made man, But I wasn't.
Speaker 1: Like I went on a deep downward spiral where I
Speaker 1: couldn't win anything, and then all of a sudden, you know,
Speaker 1: maybe like six years ago, I started understanding what I
Speaker 1: had to do to be a top talent in w
Speaker 1: w E. And there's a difference between you know, winning
Speaker 1: at w w E Championship and being a top talent
Speaker 1: and not needing a title and still being considered one
Speaker 1: of the most valuable superstars that w w E has.
Speaker 1: And so that's where I've turned my career into being Uh.
Speaker 1: I guess you could say a leading man like I
Speaker 1: can be the main focus on Monday Night Raw. I
Speaker 1: could be the main focus on SmackDown. It's like, you know,
Speaker 1: I guess having a Michael Scott. You know, he can
Speaker 1: do so many different things. He can give you so
Speaker 1: many different emotions, tell so many different stories. Each superstar
Speaker 1: knows their role and basically is trying to become the
Speaker 1: biggest star in w w E, and everyone's there to
Speaker 1: help it. Like I always look at The Office as
Speaker 1: such a great show of so many different characters, and
Speaker 1: everybody is, as we say, getting over and everyone knows
Speaker 1: how to get over and nobody everyone knows their role
Speaker 1: and what they need to do to get there. It's
Speaker 1: kind of the same thing fascinating past current w w
Speaker 1: E stars. Compare them two characters from the Office, say
Speaker 1: who would be whom? And why? Ready? Michael Scott. I
Speaker 1: would want to be Michael Scott, to be honest. But
Speaker 1: but here's the thing, though, I can't be Michael Scott
Speaker 1: because I feel like I'm Jim. Because on Miss and Misses,
Speaker 1: which is my reality show on the USA Network, I
Speaker 1: do the Jim look to the camera almost not like
Speaker 1: almost every episode. And the reason I do that and
Speaker 1: I love so I love what you know, Greg Daniels
Speaker 1: and and all your interviews with all the different characters,
Speaker 1: the crew, the cast, you know from you know, makeup people,
Speaker 1: the casting directors, every I loved all those interviews to
Speaker 1: hear the insights of reasonings on why. And I believe
Speaker 1: the reason that that Jim would look at the camera
Speaker 1: is because it's so absurd that someone needs to bring
Speaker 1: reality to this is this really happening kind of look?
Speaker 1: And Jim would always have that look. And so in
Speaker 1: my reality show, if something so absurd is happening, and
Speaker 1: trust me, in my real day to day life, absurd
Speaker 1: things happen that you won't believe is happening, but it
Speaker 1: really is. So I have to give that Jim look
Speaker 1: to the camera to show like I'm in on this
Speaker 1: with you, like I know this is ridiculous, but it's
Speaker 1: really funny. So I I kind of I stole that
Speaker 1: from the office because I love the show so much.
Speaker 1: So I would reckon. I would say, I'm Jim. Um,
Speaker 1: Michael Scott is is the lead. Every story can revolve
Speaker 1: around him, right, so I would say, gosh, it have
Speaker 1: to be like Roman Reigns or a John Cenah. Granted
Speaker 1: it's not the comedy aspect of it's not the airhead
Speaker 1: aspect of it. It's not the you know, I wouldn't
Speaker 1: call him airhead, but you know what I'm talking about,
Speaker 1: Like he's just so absurd. So I would say, as
Speaker 1: a lead actor, you'd have to have like a Sena
Speaker 1: or a Roman Reigns as like you're Michael Scott. But
Speaker 1: like with the comedy aspect, I mean, Sammy Zane is
Speaker 1: doing some really funny stuff in w W E and
Speaker 1: the whole show can revolve around his character, so he
Speaker 1: could also be that Michael Scott. I didn't and prep
Speaker 1: you for this question, I'll just do one more. Who's
Speaker 1: Dwight Shrewd? Dwight Shrewd? Uh? Can Maurice be Pam because
Speaker 1: that's who I marry? And then Dwight Shrewd? Gosh, who
Speaker 1: would be Dwight Shrewd who's a weirdo and gets on
Speaker 1: my nerves? Johnny Gargano right now is on my nerves
Speaker 1: or dex uh he who shall not be named uh
Speaker 1: shall is always on my nerves? So I guess if
Speaker 1: I'm Jim, then right now, in this moment, Johnny Gargano
Speaker 1: has to be Dwight because he's annoying. Okay, are you
Speaker 1: an athlete or you an entertainer primarily primarily entertainer. I
Speaker 1: love entertaining and I'm a I'm an athlete as well.
Speaker 1: Like it's a little bit. That's the thing about w
Speaker 1: w E. There's nothing quite like it. It's why you
Speaker 1: always see the rock coming back to w w E
Speaker 1: because there's nothing like it. There's nothing like that live
Speaker 1: audience and that live feel. I imagine that's why you
Speaker 1: probably enjoy going back to theater because you get that live,
Speaker 1: instant gratification rather than waiting six two months to a
Speaker 1: year to wait for your stuff to come out and
Speaker 1: you're like, oh, like, yeah, I did that like a
Speaker 1: year ago exactly. UM, have to talk about your wife, Maurice,
Speaker 1: your new reality show, Miss and Mrs. You work together
Speaker 1: both in the ring and outside of the ring. Is
Speaker 1: that correct? We met, like I said before, we met
Speaker 1: off the Diva Search. She was a contestant. I was
Speaker 1: the host and the first time, it's funny, like on
Speaker 1: TV you can see the first time I ever set
Speaker 1: eyes on Maurice and the first time she ever set
Speaker 1: eyes on me in the first conversation we ever had
Speaker 1: is literally on television. Yes, so you like Jim and Pam.
Speaker 1: I know you are like Jim and Pam. You played
Speaker 1: out in front of the cameras. What do you think
Speaker 1: that your chemistry? How did that? How did that change you?
Speaker 1: And you're persona or enhance it? She enhances me in
Speaker 1: every way. She makes me a better person, pushes me
Speaker 1: when sometimes I feel like I don't need to be pushed,
Speaker 1: but she will push me into directions. And I always
Speaker 1: look at her as like she's a dreamer and a
Speaker 1: go getter. And sometimes when I'm like, I'll we have
Speaker 1: this joke now because my buddy just came up with
Speaker 1: this book called There's Just One Problem, and she read
Speaker 1: the book and now she uses There's just One Problem.
Speaker 1: Because I always say she'll come up with an idea
Speaker 1: and I go yeah, but she goes yeah, but is
Speaker 1: there is there a problem? Is there just one problem?
Speaker 1: And I go, oh my god. And so I'm just
Speaker 1: trying to be a realist here, but she's sometimes her
Speaker 1: like fans. So we have a production company called mad Reproductions.
Speaker 1: We have like six shows that we're pitching right now,
Speaker 1: and some of these ideas she comes up with, and honestly,
Speaker 1: most of these ideas are hers, like she derived him,
Speaker 1: came up with them, got the decks and the sizzles
Speaker 1: all together and squared away. And then I am always
Speaker 1: the one that's like, yeah, this is not really real,
Speaker 1: and I's like, what this is real? Look, this is
Speaker 1: what we can do, this is what we can have,
Speaker 1: this is this is and then she does it and
Speaker 1: I go, wow, that's actually a really great idea. The
Speaker 1: good thing I have you. But she pushes me and
Speaker 1: she makes me a better person. And outside the ring,
Speaker 1: so say say we're in the ring and she's managing me.
Speaker 1: If you will, whenever you have your wife, you always
Speaker 1: want to show off. And I'm in I'm in a speedoh,
Speaker 1: like I'm half naked, Brian, you know out there. And
Speaker 1: so when I'm half naked and I'm I'm wrestling, I
Speaker 1: want to show off in front of my wife. I
Speaker 1: want to you know, show her like, hey, look what
Speaker 1: your husband can do. So I'm always trying to do go,
Speaker 1: go one better, and go and add it. But on
Speaker 1: miss and Mrs we love doing this show, like you know,
Speaker 1: we've had so much fun. It's our We're we're getting
Speaker 1: into our fourth season and we absolutely love it, and
Speaker 1: you know, it's a reality show that we're proud of
Speaker 1: that my parents are involved in and everyone loves my
Speaker 1: dad and Margaux and it's comedy and our little girls
Speaker 1: to see them grow up, Like we started this show
Speaker 1: and Monroe wasn't even born. She's four and a half now,
Speaker 1: and literally I've been able to watch videos of my
Speaker 1: daughter getting born on the on the first season, and
Speaker 1: now I get to see her grow and it's been
Speaker 1: such a cool process, Like I'll always have those, like
Speaker 1: homemade videos that are really professional and we're televised, and
Speaker 1: I'll always have those to watch and see them grow.
Speaker 1: And sometimes it brings a tear to my eye, but
Speaker 1: it's a comedy, so you know it will tug on
Speaker 1: your heartstrings, but it will also make you laugh. And
Speaker 1: it's kind of what The Office does for me, Like
Speaker 1: I still watch all the Super shows, like the Super episodes.
Speaker 1: I think was the most genius idea that they have.
Speaker 1: And I don't know if this is my favorite scene
Speaker 1: off the office, And I'm sorry to get off of topic,
Speaker 1: but my favorite scene off the Office is with you,
Speaker 1: and it's not the chili. I imagine everyone is says,
Speaker 1: it's the Chili. It's not and I think gets off
Speaker 1: of a Super episode and I don't know if this
Speaker 1: actually aired on the real episode. So Jan has a baby.
Speaker 1: She brings a baby, she's singing with it and she's
Speaker 1: and people are asking her where did she get the sperm?
Speaker 1: And she's like, oh, it is a very high end
Speaker 1: v I P type place, and you go, was it
Speaker 1: next to the eye hop? And she gives the look
Speaker 1: and it's like, oh my god, Oh my god, she
Speaker 1: got it from where Kevin gave his Like this could
Speaker 1: beat Kevin's kid like that. That is my favorite scene.
Speaker 1: That one, and and Creed coming in as a teenager
Speaker 1: like his hair done was two of my favorite scenes
Speaker 1: in the office. And did I stutter yes, Oh yeah.
Speaker 1: That was the biggest fight I ever had with the
Speaker 1: editors and writers when that scene in Baby Shower was cut.
Speaker 1: I thought it was the most genius I was. I
Speaker 1: am right, it was. It's in the Super show it now,
Speaker 1: and it's my favorite scene because the way you throw
Speaker 1: it out there and the look she gives you, Oh
Speaker 1: my god, it was like it was one of those moments.
Speaker 1: It's like a moment that you that you yearned for,
Speaker 1: like in those type of shows where you she didn't
Speaker 1: never say anything, and the look she gives it's like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, that's where she got it. And it's
Speaker 1: next to the eye hoop, so prestigious, it's so p
Speaker 1: I P. It's next the freaking eyehop. So good, so
Speaker 1: well written. I don't know was that improv or was
Speaker 1: that like, oh that was the writer's that was so good. Well,
Speaker 1: look you're now you're also now doing straight acting. You're
Speaker 1: starting in the Marine franchise as Sergeant Jake Carter. Do
Speaker 1: you find acting in that more difficult or easier than
Speaker 1: the entertainment stuff that you do on reality TV? And
Speaker 1: from the w w E. They're all different. So being
Speaker 1: on a reality show is completely different than being on
Speaker 1: a series show, than being on a movie, than being
Speaker 1: in w w E. So with acting, and I was
Speaker 1: very fortunate on my first marine Marine three Home Front
Speaker 1: to be with Scott Wiper, who was the director, because
Speaker 1: he is very method in the way he does things,
Speaker 1: and he taught me kind of how to do that
Speaker 1: and I was, you know, I was green, and so
Speaker 1: he made me stay in my trailer and he would
Speaker 1: make me watch before we even did the movie. We
Speaker 1: would sit there and watch like all these old school
Speaker 1: movies and the little things like the good, the bad,
Speaker 1: the ugly, and just the little things that Clin Eastwood
Speaker 1: would do that we're nothing. And then watching cool Hand
Speaker 1: Luke and watching Newman like literally be effortless and everything
Speaker 1: that he does. And me, I'm a try hard I
Speaker 1: want to try hard and do the best impossible can
Speaker 1: and everything I am and sometimes that isn't the character
Speaker 1: and that isn't and I'm too big. I'm very big,
Speaker 1: especially when you're in a theater like I look at
Speaker 1: w W as a theater like if you have I
Speaker 1: have to play for the last person in the in
Speaker 1: the last row, so I have to be big and huge.
Speaker 1: But with the camera it's so it gets everything. So
Speaker 1: he was teaching me all these little nuances, these little
Speaker 1: things that I could do to be natural and normal,
Speaker 1: and I'll never forget. I actually called the Rock and
Speaker 1: I texted him and I said, hey, man, I'm about
Speaker 1: starting my first movie, um getting ready to do my
Speaker 1: first scene. Is there any advice you can give me?
Speaker 1: And he called me and he was like, dude, the
Speaker 1: best thing that I could tell you and help you
Speaker 1: out with is just to be natural and it's gonna
Speaker 1: sound so easy and so weird. But once you get there,
Speaker 1: there's gonna be three or four cameras. You're gonna have
Speaker 1: to hit a spot that you're not that you can't
Speaker 1: look at. You can't look at the spot, and you
Speaker 1: have to be normal and natural and it's action. You
Speaker 1: have to just make it feel and I was, and
Speaker 1: it was great advice because you know, sometimes you see
Speaker 1: in acting, you know you'll see a robotic kind of portrayal,
Speaker 1: and I didn't want to do that. And so luckily
Speaker 1: Scott Wiper was able to hone me and dedicate me,
Speaker 1: and then you know, I was given I didn't have
Speaker 1: to audition for Marine three. I was given it. And
Speaker 1: then my next movie, Christmas Bounty. The producer of Marine
Speaker 1: three said, we gave you Marine three, but you earned
Speaker 1: Christmas Bounty, and then from there we I was the first.
Speaker 1: It was so Marine three was my first one. John
Speaker 1: Cena did the first, tabas did the second, and so
Speaker 1: every time they had a new marine. The first time
Speaker 1: they made brought a marine back was me. So a
Speaker 1: Marine four, five and six was all me and I
Speaker 1: was like, I couldn't believe that they would give me,
Speaker 1: you know, like keep doing it with my character and
Speaker 1: elevating the character. And then I also did a couple
Speaker 1: you know, Supernatural and a bunch of other things. But
Speaker 1: I love acting, like I love getting into different characters.
Speaker 1: It's just so much fun. And that's why I love
Speaker 1: off the Beaks. I like hearing other people's process in
Speaker 1: how they developed their characters, get into their characters, how
Speaker 1: they got their characters, how you know, some people didn't
Speaker 1: have to audition, some people did have to audition. Some
Speaker 1: teop to auditioned for years upon years and did an
Speaker 1: audition for that that actual show, but then they saw
Speaker 1: them off that audition and got them that thing. So
Speaker 1: every time I do an audition, I'm like, maybe I'm
Speaker 1: not auditioning for this role. Maybe I'm auditioning for something else.
Speaker 1: So I'm always trying to get better and hone my
Speaker 1: craft and and be better as an actor, especially coming
Speaker 1: off of reality because people still look at me as
Speaker 1: a reality star. Well let me tell you something. Let
Speaker 1: me tell you what I admire about you. Right, Both
Speaker 1: Michael Scott and Wayne Gretzky said, you miss or you
Speaker 1: miss of the shots you don't take, you shoot your
Speaker 1: shot and let me just say this. You're pitching six
Speaker 1: projects right now. You've got the reality show with your wife,
Speaker 1: You're doing stuff with w w E, You're acting in
Speaker 1: in other films. And in addition to all of those things,
Speaker 1: let me tell you something. It exhausts me looking at
Speaker 1: your Instagram. Its exhausts me because you are constantly creating content.
Speaker 1: You are constantly putting yourself out there. And now I'm
Speaker 1: gonna say something, and this is gonna sound negative, but
Speaker 1: I promise you it is not. I watch your stuff.
Speaker 1: You know, we've gotten to know each other, we're friends.
Speaker 1: I watch your Instagram. Let me just say this, with
Speaker 1: all respect, some of it is is terrible. Okay, now
Speaker 1: I'm saying that. No, I'm saying that. I'm saying that
Speaker 1: in a funny way. But then the next day I'm
Speaker 1: scrolling through and I genuinely laugh. And so here's my
Speaker 1: point is you always and consistently shoot your shot, and
Speaker 1: when you do that, it's not all going to be perfect.
Speaker 1: And that's not just how it should be in what
Speaker 1: you're doing, but I'm talking about in terms of acting
Speaker 1: as well. The boldness with which you try new things,
Speaker 1: set up different shots, put on God only knows what
Speaker 1: outfits in different settings, and you make a hell of
Speaker 1: a lot more than you miss. So I yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean we joked before when we talked in Tahoe that
Speaker 1: you are the consummate entertainer, and I mean that. I
Speaker 1: mean you are putting yourself out there consistently and regularly,
Speaker 1: and you are are very often succeeding. So I wanted
Speaker 1: you to hear that from me. I respect the hell
Speaker 1: out of you and you're willingness to put yourself out
Speaker 1: and that is a lesson that regardless of what you're doing,
Speaker 1: whether it's sports or whether it's entertainment or acting or
Speaker 1: singing or any of the other folks that we're talking
Speaker 1: to here, that's a lesson that everybody can learn is
Speaker 1: just keep keep shooting your shot. Well, thank you very much, man. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I want you to know, whether it's conscious or not,
Speaker 1: it's impressive. It's it's really impressive, and you're entertaining a
Speaker 1: hell of a lot of people, So congratulation. Times it
Speaker 1: is sometimes it is like I mean to do it,
Speaker 1: and other times I don't. I'll give you an example.
Speaker 1: So Mortal Kombat came out with a movie, right, brand
Speaker 1: new movie and once it came out, Johnny Cage wasn't
Speaker 1: in it, but I was trending worldwide that the miss
Speaker 1: should beat Johnny Cage. So literally the next day I
Speaker 1: call my age and I go, hey, if this is
Speaker 1: an option, I will do whatever it takes to beat
Speaker 1: Johnny Cage in the next Mortal Kombat movie. And so
Speaker 1: they made calls and they're like, we don't have a
Speaker 1: script yet, Like this guy's already calling, Like I'm already
Speaker 1: like I'm already shooting my shot, like I've been stretching,
Speaker 1: I am so close to getting the splits down. I've
Speaker 1: been working on my kicks, my punches, and like, this
Speaker 1: is a this is a thing I've even auditioned for,
Speaker 1: Like I haven't even audio for. It was just exactly
Speaker 1: it doesn't even exist right now, but I'm still preparing
Speaker 1: for it because there's something wrong with me, Brian. I
Speaker 1: really honestly believe there's something wrong with because I'm like,
Speaker 1: this is something that I want. I really feel I
Speaker 1: can be it and really put everything I have into
Speaker 1: it and make it the character that it should be.
Speaker 1: And I know I could do it, and so it's
Speaker 1: all a matter of just seeing the scurrit and then
Speaker 1: literally getting the producers and they don't have directors of producers,
Speaker 1: they have anything done like but that that's that's all it.
Speaker 1: Like I guess I do really do shoot my shot
Speaker 1: even when there is no shot to be shot, Like
Speaker 1: I'll still shoot a shot just to see if it
Speaker 1: if it makes it because you never know what's going
Speaker 1: in it can it can ricochet and hit something even
Speaker 1: better at times I can speak from personal experience on that. Uh,
Speaker 1: Mike the miss thank you so much for talking to me.
Speaker 1: My best to your family. I'm want to see on
Speaker 1: the golf course soon. Yeah, I'm actually go right, I
Speaker 1: gotta beat you and something you will beat me and
Speaker 1: that and be honest with you. I mean you you
Speaker 1: played a hell you played a really good in Tahoe.
Speaker 1: Let me tell you. I think I was like eighty
Speaker 1: I out of eighty six. And then I look for Brian,
Speaker 1: You're like in the forties. Well and that is that
Speaker 1: is saying something because everyone there is like really good
Speaker 1: at golf. It's ridiculous there. But hey, I also wanted
Speaker 1: to say I really appreciate you having me on your podcast.
Speaker 1: I love Off the Beat. I loved like ever since
Speaker 1: the beginning, when you're doing all the office stuff. I
Speaker 1: watched it. I love how you interview, I love how
Speaker 1: the information and the passion you have for it. And
Speaker 1: by the way, just for everyone out there, Brian is
Speaker 1: amazing at gambling, because every time I've gambled with you,
Speaker 1: I have one. I have one. I I went up.
Speaker 1: By the only time I win is when I'm next
Speaker 1: to you, because you literally tell me everything to do. Oh,
Speaker 1: I do have something else to say. When I talked
Speaker 1: to MSS in Tahoe for the podcast this is what
Speaker 1: do we call this? A special A very special follow up?
Speaker 1: MS found a five thousand dollar chip and we made
Speaker 1: a lot of jokes about what to do with it.
Speaker 1: I told him he could just give it to me,
Speaker 1: and I would I would put it in a safe place. No.
Speaker 1: He went to Jonathan Thomas, the head of the American Century,
Speaker 1: and told him the story and said, this is for
Speaker 1: the foundation, this is for cancer research. And the five
Speaker 1: thousand dollar chip that wasn't his that he found, fair
Speaker 1: and square ended up getting donated for cancer research through
Speaker 1: the American Century Foundation. So there you go. A good
Speaker 1: guy as well as a lucky guy. Yeah, very lucky
Speaker 1: very lucky. Well, thank you so much, Mike. That was
Speaker 1: so fun. I have loved getting to know you better
Speaker 1: and what makes the miss tick, or at least what
Speaker 1: makes Mike tick. To everybody out there listening, you're the
Speaker 1: best as well. It's always great to spend my Tuesdays
Speaker 1: with you. I will be here next week, same time,
Speaker 1: same place, with another guest who some might say he's
Speaker 1: always watching. Mm hmm, what does that mean? You'll see
Speaker 1: next week? Off the Beat is hosted an executive produced
Speaker 1: by me Brian Baumgartner, alongside our executive producer Langley. Our
Speaker 1: senior producer is Diego Tapia. Our producers are Liz Hayes,
Speaker 1: Hannah Harris, and Emily Carr. Our talent producer is Ryan
Speaker 1: Papa Zachary, and our intern is Sammy Cats. Our theme
Speaker 1: song Bubble and Squeak, performed by the one and only
Speaker 1: Creed Bratton