Speaker 1: You're listening to Comedy Central.
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Speaker 1: Here's edition listener, It's Roy Wood, junior correspondent for The
Speaker 1: Daily Show. You're about to hear an episode of one
Speaker 1: of our original Daily Show podcasts, Beyond the Scenes, hosted
Speaker 1: by yours Truly. It's the show where we dive deeper
Speaker 1: into segments and topics from this show with the show's writers, producers,
Speaker 1: and outside experts. In this episode, we're taking a look
Speaker 1: at how wrestling and politics are more similar than you think.
Speaker 1: I'm joined by WWE superstar La Knight and Peter Rosenberg,
Speaker 1: host of the Cheap Heat podcast. Together, the three of
Speaker 1: us chat about how wrestlers and politicians put on a
Speaker 1: show to connect with the crowd. I also travel a hand.
Speaker 1: It a macho man impression.
Speaker 3: You don't want to miss.
Speaker 1: It, and if you like the show, check out the
Speaker 1: Beyond the Scenes podcast wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome, Welcome,
Speaker 1: Welcome to Beyond the Scenes. The podcast. It goes deeper
Speaker 1: into topics and segments that originally on the Daily Show.
Speaker 1: This is what you gotta think of this podcast, asked
Speaker 1: like if this was a wrestling match. The Daily Show
Speaker 1: was the regular main event in the cage and the
Speaker 1: folding chair and the table. This podcast has a flying
Speaker 1: elbow drop from Macho Man Randy Savage off the top
Speaker 1: rope to win the belt at WrestleMania for a great
Speaker 1: ending to a classic match. Oh yeah, and today I'm
Speaker 1: trying to do Macho Man. We're gonna be talking about wrestling,
Speaker 1: professional wrestling, sports entertam and just in time for pro
Speaker 1: wrestling's biggest event, WrestleMania. Today, we're diving into how the
Speaker 1: worlds of wrestling and politics are more like than they
Speaker 1: may appear in. Wrestlers and politicians can learn a few
Speaker 1: things from one another about performance and building a connection
Speaker 1: with their audience. Now, Ronnie change on Ronnie Jane. He
Speaker 1: did this topic on The Daily Show a couple of
Speaker 1: years back. He went down the Middle of America and
Speaker 1: Iowa and Flyover Country and he took to a wrestler
Speaker 1: named the Progressive Liberal and crafted a unique dealing persona
Speaker 1: by bringing politics into the squared circlem. Miss Elizabeth rolled
Speaker 1: the clip.
Speaker 4: Democrats might know how to rally their banks, but when
Speaker 4: they reach out to Middle America, they say things like.
Speaker 5: For working families to get a share of that prosperity
Speaker 5: that they're creating. We need some serious enforcement of competition laws.
Speaker 3: You're boring.
Speaker 4: It's no surprise last election people in swing states went
Speaker 4: for a guy.
Speaker 2: Who said things like.
Speaker 3: Who's gonna pay for the law?
Speaker 2: Like to punch him in the face, I'll tell you.
Speaker 4: Trump honed his trade mount oratorical style where else in
Speaker 4: professional wrestling, And if Democrats were gonna fight back, they
Speaker 4: needed someone who could go head ahead with a WWE
Speaker 4: Hall of Famer like Trump. And in the hot of
Speaker 4: cold country we found him.
Speaker 6: Shut your ignorant mouth, progressive liberal something is fad. Shut up.
Speaker 4: But even if the crowd hates him, the progressive liberal
Speaker 4: could keep Swing state Democrats some classic wrestling techniques for
Speaker 4: getting voter's attention?
Speaker 2: Do you want to stick to broad brushstro talking points?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 4: So Middle America would rather learn about politics through a
Speaker 4: mostly naked man than by reading a book.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Later in this episode will be joined by WWE superstar
Speaker 1: La Knight, who'll break down the world of wrestling and
Speaker 1: how politicians can take a few pointers from the art
Speaker 1: of wrestling. But first, my guess, can I say, friend?
Speaker 1: I feel like I feel like we've known each o
Speaker 1: the long enough to defriend his friend of Jason with.
Speaker 3: I think we're absolutely, if not friend friend of Jason.
Speaker 1: If I saw you in a fight out, at least
Speaker 1: break it up. I don't know if I would help.
Speaker 1: I need to know what you did first to get
Speaker 1: punched in the face. He's a renowned radio DJ from
Speaker 1: The Michael K Show and Hot ninety seven who's also
Speaker 1: the host of the Cheap Heat podcast on The Ringer
Speaker 1: Wrestling Show from Spotify, and You're Forever twenty four to
Speaker 1: seven champion Peter Rosenberg. Welcome to Beyond the Scenes.
Speaker 3: I am honored to be a part of a podcast.
Speaker 3: This professional really makes my JIBBRONI podcast look like a joke.
Speaker 1: Your podcast is a good time man. I've been on
Speaker 1: a couple of them.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: I apologize in advance for not wearing a shirt and
Speaker 1: tie for your podcast, but I'm trying to spiff you
Speaker 1: up my look. I look weird without my blazer. I
Speaker 1: look like a mcdonald' shift manager. Once you roll up,
Speaker 1: once you roll up, your dress leaves.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, you're a manager.
Speaker 1: It's no longer it's no longer correspondent. You gotta drop
Speaker 1: some fries, drop through line round the building. Now, let's
Speaker 1: just start with your love for wrestling, bro, Like, what's
Speaker 1: the earliest wrestling match or moment that you remember like
Speaker 1: that got you hooked, you know? And what is it
Speaker 1: about professional wrestling that gets the fans so wrapped up
Speaker 1: in it? Like I remember watching Monday Night Raw as
Speaker 1: a child. I'm forty four. Just for perspective, so I
Speaker 1: remember watching Monday Night Raw and seeing the Ultimate Warrior. Dude,
Speaker 1: I was watching wrestling on Saturday Morning's WCW, I watched Glow.
Speaker 1: I did all of it. But just take me back
Speaker 1: to your origin story of falling in love with the
Speaker 1: Square Circle.
Speaker 3: So yeah, my origin story is the same. I'm almost
Speaker 3: the same age as you. I'm forty three, and it
Speaker 3: was Saturday mornings. I can't pinpoint exactly what it was
Speaker 3: like what the feeling was, but I do remember what
Speaker 3: storyline it was, and the one that really truly hooked
Speaker 3: me was they were simultaneous. They were the bill to
Speaker 3: WrestleMania three. It was Halcogan and Andre the Giant and
Speaker 3: the aforementioned macho man Randy Savage and Ricky the Dragon's Steamboat,
Speaker 3: and those two stories just drew me in. Man, my
Speaker 3: level of passion for Ricky the Steamboat for Ricky the
Speaker 3: Dragon Steamboat getting his redemption on Macho Man's after and
Speaker 3: crushed his larynx with the with the bell. I was
Speaker 3: just absolutely hooked. From that point on.
Speaker 1: For me, it was Ultimate Warrior that was my guy.
Speaker 1: And before I understood the intricacies of the human vascular system,
Speaker 1: and I did not know that you should not tie
Speaker 1: shoe strings tourniquet levels tight on your arm and then
Speaker 1: run around the house like I saw Ultimate Warrior do
Speaker 1: the promos like a little the Spaceship with the ruck
Speaker 1: of you ho can like all of that stuff, right.
Speaker 1: I didn't know that when a yell cut, Ultimate Warrior
Speaker 1: would take that shit off his arm and get blood
Speaker 1: back to his fingers. I kept that shit on my
Speaker 1: arm for hours at a time, like hand noticeably numb.
Speaker 1: That was my thing. Bro. My cousin Vauren used to
Speaker 1: put us in the figure four leg locks. He would
Speaker 1: put us in the perfect plex. And the thing that
Speaker 1: I always loved about wrestling also was that, you know,
Speaker 1: to a weird degree, from a you know, it leaned
Speaker 1: into stereotypes in the eighties, but there was still some
Speaker 1: degree of representation no matter who you were, you had
Speaker 1: a guy. It was at the height of the Cold
Speaker 1: War and they still had Nikolai Volkov stomping through that
Speaker 1: bitch screaming Russia. You have to iron sheake. You represent
Speaker 1: the whole literally, like that part of it. I really love.
Speaker 1: Now you come from a politically active family, Like does
Speaker 1: that help you understand wrestling in a unique way? Like
Speaker 1: to you, what are the similarities in this world? And
Speaker 1: you know, what percentage of wrestling fans do you think
Speaker 1: connect with politics on the same wavelength?
Speaker 3: You know, I never think about it being the same wavelength,
Speaker 3: but there's no way to deny, like some of the facts.
Speaker 3: You know, when you talk about wrestling, there's good guys
Speaker 3: and bad guys. Obviously in the case of politics, you're
Speaker 3: good guys and bad guys vary depending on your view
Speaker 3: of the world, but there is always someone. I mean
Speaker 3: when you think about it, and I know we'll dive
Speaker 3: more into Trump obviously later for his multiple layers with
Speaker 3: regard to this subject, But like, when you think about it,
Speaker 3: for so many people, Trump is like this long term
Speaker 3: bad guy who lasts Like it's almost like now, if
Speaker 3: you were to talk when you talk to progressives, it's
Speaker 3: almost like in a weird way. They don't want Trump
Speaker 3: to go away because he is the guy to root against,
Speaker 3: and let's be honest, DeSantis is almost the same guy
Speaker 3: in so many ways, but he's not nearly as fun
Speaker 3: to root against, like he doesn't have a villain character
Speaker 3: tied up the way Donald Trump does for progressives. And so,
Speaker 3: my biggest memory about politics and the intersection with politics
Speaker 3: and wrestling was when me and my at the time
Speaker 3: he very young cousin who was working on Capitol Hill
Speaker 3: in his early twenties, when him and I got into
Speaker 3: a loud screaming match about how I believed pro wrestling
Speaker 3: was just as important as politics, and he did not appreciate,
Speaker 3: Now Granton, I was trolling. I was trolling, and I
Speaker 3: as a wrestling band often find myself, especially back then
Speaker 3: more so than now, often myself on the defensive.
Speaker 1: Because they call it fake and they would, yeah, it's
Speaker 1: the physicality.
Speaker 3: And just sort of because of that, because the outcomes
Speaker 3: are predetermined, particularly you know, not really not as much today,
Speaker 3: although it still happens, but really it used to be
Speaker 3: like just such an easy way to put someone down
Speaker 3: was to attack the fact that wrestling was predetermined, which
Speaker 3: of course, has no effect on how I viewed the art.
Speaker 3: In fact, I prefer it I like, and I heard
Speaker 3: recently Rick, Yeah.
Speaker 1: It's no different than your fucking TV show that you
Speaker 1: love and you tune in in primetime every week for
Speaker 1: I don't mean to cut you off.
Speaker 2: No, no, no.
Speaker 3: It's a stupid argument, and it's frustrating for anyone who's
Speaker 3: ever enjoyed wrestling. My thing always is, I've always wanted
Speaker 3: to do this. As a matter of fact, you have
Speaker 3: the platform to do it, you should. I've always wanted
Speaker 3: to walk into a movie theater like wearing wrestling apparel
Speaker 3: and when it gets to the good part of the movies,
Speaker 3: turn around and yell to everyone, you know this is fake, right,
Speaker 3: this is not a document. This is fake. It's like,
Speaker 3: I don't understand. And I think it goes back to
Speaker 3: a time where people felt like they were ripped off
Speaker 3: and cheated, Like when people finally realized that this art form,
Speaker 3: which was clearly not real then, was in fact predetermined.
Speaker 3: I think many people felt heartbroken and burned by it
Speaker 3: and angry at it as a result, and some of
Speaker 3: the that is left over to this day. But yeah,
Speaker 3: the political part's always been, It's always been there, and
Speaker 3: it's tied together in many different ways, whether directly or indirectly.
Speaker 1: But then to that point, I think that wrestling and
Speaker 1: politics do have that similarity because I think a lot
Speaker 1: of I think a lot of voters possessed the same
Speaker 1: level of disappointment when they think that their politician is wait, no,
Speaker 1: you don't care about my issue. But I thought you
Speaker 1: cared about my issue. Why would you do that to me?
Speaker 1: That's not cool and people are legitimately heartbroken. I think
Speaker 1: we're wrestling and politics are also similar. Is that to me?
Speaker 1: Politics in America has changed that guy is just like me,
Speaker 1: Like every politician ran on, I'm just like you. They
Speaker 1: show up to your town, they wear your stupid denim
Speaker 1: whatever you wear when you go to work. They show
Speaker 1: up at your job wearing a stupid hard hat. They
Speaker 1: eat the shitty burger at the fair to show you
Speaker 1: look I'm just like you. But somehow it is transformed
Speaker 1: into I don't want to vote for the guy that's
Speaker 1: just like me. I want to vote for the guy
Speaker 1: I want to be. I wish I had his life.
Speaker 1: I wish I could be him, and every wrestler that
Speaker 1: we ever grew up. Our favorite wrestlers were the ones
Speaker 1: we wanted to imitate. You wanted to be that person.
Speaker 1: I got four splinters in my hand trying to fucking
Speaker 1: be hacksaw Jim Duggan because I didn't understand the concept
Speaker 1: of you don't grab just raw two by fours in
Speaker 1: a back alley like at that's pressed wood, Bro, You're
Speaker 1: gonna catch a disease through your hand. Like what wrestler
Speaker 1: do you think would make a great politician? And I
Speaker 1: know Trump would be a good wrestler. I mean, Trumps
Speaker 1: already wrestled, so that's all we let's be honest.
Speaker 3: Physically, it was not the most impressive performance we've ever seen. Yes,
Speaker 3: he has been involved.
Speaker 1: In a storyline. I dare you to go back and
Speaker 1: look a shit on his whole fucking arc.
Speaker 3: I dare you to go back and watch WrestleMania twenty
Speaker 3: three when he has that match and he attacks Vince McMahon.
Speaker 3: You have never looked close. You have never seen a
Speaker 3: human being throw punches that look like this, Like he
Speaker 3: like hit sideways like a little kid beating up his brother.
Speaker 3: But honestly, it's it's so hard for me to think
Speaker 3: of because there's so many people. Obviously, an incredible voice
Speaker 3: in pro wrestling that would make a fantastic politician is
Speaker 3: Paul Hayman. I don't think there's any doubt about that.
Speaker 3: And not just saying this, but in terms of new talent,
Speaker 3: who you could really see flipping on the politician button,
Speaker 3: I gotta tell you, La Knight would be perfect. I believe,
Speaker 3: completely capable of a up that mic and rallying a
Speaker 3: base in some direction.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna ask him about that after the break. What
Speaker 1: about what about The Rock? I don't like the fact
Speaker 1: that they keep trying to pester The Rock and to
Speaker 1: run and it's like, dude, I got nine more franchises
Speaker 1: to make. I got fifteen more ju mind used to make.
Speaker 1: I gotta be doing fast and fear.
Speaker 3: I will hold on Roy. Let's be real. The Rock,
Speaker 3: who I love. He has his own TV show, Young Rock,
Speaker 3: which is, by the way, maybe the most underrated show
Speaker 3: on television. It is a fantastic sort of traditional family sitcoments.
Speaker 3: It's a wonderful show, and I love it because it's
Speaker 3: all about pro wrestling. But he made the backdrop of
Speaker 3: the show that he was running for president, so he
Speaker 3: loves the toy with this idea. Yeah, I think for
Speaker 3: people as well. And with Rocky, you never know whether
Speaker 3: he's just being a pro wrestler and working everybody, or
Speaker 3: if he really does have aspirations. It's really hard to tell.
Speaker 1: But I think that's what makes him so effective and
Speaker 1: in a way dangerous, because he knows how to charm people.
Speaker 1: He knows how to engage the voters. Like, go watch
Speaker 1: footage of a politician coming out when they've announced that
Speaker 1: they're running for whatever the fuck office, and compare it
Speaker 1: to a wrestler coming out the tunnel. Same music. You
Speaker 1: got some van Helen Figgin high up and high straight
Speaker 1: up with and then just pointing to the people are
Speaker 1: going ape shit crazy and a guitar is rocking. He's
Speaker 1: got a woman on his side kissing him. What event
Speaker 1: let me ask you this before we go to the break.
Speaker 1: What event would you say in politics is the WrestleMania
Speaker 1: of the political world?
Speaker 3: You know? Is it?
Speaker 1: The conventions? I would say that the debates are essentially
Speaker 1: you know, the mean gene kind of set, which I've
Speaker 1: also said that there should be more shit talking in politics.
Speaker 1: I don't like the tactfulness in politics if you're going
Speaker 1: to lean into the entertainment factor and the bombasticness that
Speaker 1: politics is getting into, don't run on a platform just
Speaker 1: blatantly talk shit about your opponents. That's part of what.
Speaker 2: I mean.
Speaker 3: There is a guy who's done that, but nobody did
Speaker 3: it that.
Speaker 1: Nobody clapped that, Nobody clapped back, especially the Republicans.
Speaker 3: You remember how you remember how Jeb Bush got handled?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean he.
Speaker 3: Got tossed around, beat up nothing, Mark Park, Rubio got destroyed.
Speaker 3: No comeback whatsoever. Mean and funny enough, ironically enough, it's
Speaker 3: good old sleepy Joe who came back. The old man
Speaker 3: was the only one who sort of stuck back, and
Speaker 3: by the way it worked, it worked. He punched back
Speaker 3: a little bit. Yeah, it's it's I would say, the
Speaker 3: final night of the convention in some ways is like
Speaker 3: a WrestleMania.
Speaker 1: When I accept your nomination for president or whatever.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but but in some ways you're right, man, it's hard.
Speaker 3: The last couple of elections, the debates were such must
Speaker 3: sy TV yo for real. I watched the Hillary i
Speaker 3: think the final Hillary Trump debate at a big party
Speaker 3: at the forty forty Club in New York. Like it
Speaker 3: was like a fight, like you were going to a fight.
Speaker 3: So you're right, it's either the convention or the debate.
Speaker 1: I wanted to think that if politicians were smart, if
Speaker 1: there's nothing else that they would be able to borrow
Speaker 1: from the world of wrestling. It's just have energy. I
Speaker 1: can't tell you shit about Howard Dean's platform, but I
Speaker 1: can tell you that motherfucker had his dress shirt rolled.
Speaker 3: Up and was like, he looks like you right now.
Speaker 1: He looked like a McDonald's district man. He looked like
Speaker 1: the one that come in and check on me and
Speaker 1: ask me why to the deep frying at the right temperature.
Speaker 3: Remember, for the rest of life.
Speaker 1: After the break, Peter and I are gonna be joined
Speaker 1: by ww superstar La Night. We're gonna further discuss how
Speaker 1: wrestling and politics are more like than they appear to be,
Speaker 1: and how becoming a pro wrestler can help some politicians
Speaker 1: get to that next level. We need to send all
Speaker 1: these politicians down to Tampa to what of the Hill.
Speaker 1: The wrestling school is down there. They all need to beer. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they need to go down there. This is beyond the scenes.
Speaker 1: We'll be right back beyond the scenes. We're back politics wrestling.
Speaker 1: How much do they overlap?
Speaker 3: A lot?
Speaker 1: Is what we're discovering so far. The host of Cheap Heat,
Speaker 1: Peter Rosenberg, has been posted up with me, but joining
Speaker 1: us now is someone much stronger than Peter, much more
Speaker 1: charismatic than Pete. I say, oh this with respect to you, Peter.
Speaker 3: I don't want you to think, by the way, complete respectation.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you have to respect it. The glisten in the
Speaker 1: background of this, gentleman. For those of you listening and
Speaker 1: not watching, all I see is championship belts. Just listen
Speaker 1: to camera lands and thank god he wore a nice
Speaker 1: black leather jacket to dull some of that glisten. If
Speaker 1: you can catch up on Friday Night smack Down on
Speaker 1: Fox LA Night, Welcome to Beyond the Scenes. How you doing,
Speaker 1: brother man?
Speaker 2: I heard you call Peter the forever twenty four to seven. Check.
Speaker 6: Let's call me the forever million dollar Champion youturee WWE champion.
Speaker 2: Yeah, let me talk.
Speaker 1: You know what see and let's just start right there.
Speaker 1: Let's start right there with the world of wrestling promos.
Speaker 1: For the people listening and not watching, he got all
Speaker 1: them belts glistening on the wall in the background, just
Speaker 1: every single belt. Now, if you lose a belt, do
Speaker 1: you have to like take that off the wall and
Speaker 1: unframe it? And then like how does that work? We'll
Speaker 1: talk about that, litter. I'll ask you the question I
Speaker 1: asked Rosenberg off the top. Who was the wrestler that
Speaker 1: got you into wrestling just as a fan, not necessarily
Speaker 1: as a career choice yet, but just when you were
Speaker 1: eight and nine and jumping off your dad's couch and
Speaker 1: he going, stop dropping off my couch, Brama, Who were
Speaker 1: the ones that got you inspired?
Speaker 6: So I was about, I'm going to say, estimated about
Speaker 6: three years old, and I had already been put to bed,
Speaker 6: and I snuck out back behind the couch because wrestling
Speaker 6: was still on the TV and I needed to see
Speaker 6: what was happening. And I poked my head around and
Speaker 6: Nikolai Volkov was talking all kinds of trash on Hawk
Speaker 6: Cogan Wow. And I remember he had that Russian hat
Speaker 6: and at the time I'm three, I don't know what
Speaker 6: he's wearing.
Speaker 2: It looks like a big burn marshmallow. And I think
Speaker 2: I yelled something like, be quiet, marshmallow head.
Speaker 6: I was a big time hawkamaniac. I told them myself
Speaker 6: by accident. My parents were like, what are you doing here?
Speaker 6: Put me back to bed, but I yeah, man, I
Speaker 6: was big time Haulkamania from day one.
Speaker 1: How are wrestlers able to come through the television and
Speaker 1: connect with people? I don't think people really understand just
Speaker 1: how difficult that is because you're just talking. You're not
Speaker 1: doing a lot of moving around. Like those interview segments
Speaker 1: to me, are where you fall in love with the wrestler.
Speaker 1: The performance is one thing, but yeah, it seems like
Speaker 1: now wrestlers have to be multi multifaceted, Like it's one
Speaker 1: thing to be athletic and strong. Like we could argue
Speaker 1: that Andre the Giant did not come through the screen
Speaker 1: in verbiage. He came through the screen in performance and
Speaker 1: just being massive. I would make the same argument about
Speaker 1: the Undertaker, you know, the next gen version of that
Speaker 1: to me was the Undertake, who was just I'm move
Speaker 1: in silence. But when you hear that dong, you bitch
Speaker 1: is gonna be scared, Like in your opinion, like, what
Speaker 1: is it that holds other wrestlers back from being able
Speaker 1: to have that gift? Can you learn that gift? Is
Speaker 1: that something that's taught when you at wrestling college. That's
Speaker 1: the That's how I'm trying to frame.
Speaker 2: It, old wrestling college.
Speaker 1: When you at wrestling college down in Florida before you
Speaker 1: get to the big time, is there a shit talking course?
Speaker 1: Do you go to it? Do they put you on
Speaker 1: stage at a black comedy club and go attack the audience?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Learned how to talk shit?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 6: No, it's it's it's funny because a lot of the
Speaker 6: places you go they don't do any of that. Like
Speaker 6: I started an old school, you find a wrestling school
Speaker 6: and like you learn the moves and stuff like that.
Speaker 6: Every maybe three months we do a little bit of
Speaker 6: promo stuff and that was it. Otherwise it was just
Speaker 6: you develop your personality on your own. And that's why
Speaker 6: a lot of the guys I think just develop moves
Speaker 6: and never think like that isn't that uh what I think.
Speaker 6: The second biggest fear of people in jedial is death.
Speaker 6: The first is public speaking.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 6: So for a lot of people, it's a tougher challenge
Speaker 6: to get in and pick up the microphone than it
Speaker 6: is to do a backflip or you know, pick a
Speaker 6: dude up or whatever. So for me, it was just
Speaker 6: that was always the focus, because those are the guys
Speaker 6: that spoke to me like you said, like like for me,
Speaker 6: if a guy couldn't talk, if he wasn't like saying something,
Speaker 6: that caught me.
Speaker 2: But it's not just the saying the stuff.
Speaker 6: It's it's the mannerisms, it's the body language, all that stuff.
Speaker 2: I wasn't getting that. I just wasn't feeling them the same
Speaker 2: as the other guys.
Speaker 1: What are the keys in your opinion to delivering a
Speaker 1: good promo?
Speaker 2: Who?
Speaker 3: And by the way, you're he's a good person to ask.
Speaker 3: I mean, you are the you are the best new
Speaker 3: promo in WW right.
Speaker 2: Now, Thank you. I appreciate that.
Speaker 6: I don't know that I really like I never thought
Speaker 6: about it step by step necessarily, but I think it
Speaker 6: just boils down to believe in what you're saying.
Speaker 2: And there's also like a there's a charisma. I guess
Speaker 2: that you asked a second ago, like can that be learned?
Speaker 6: And I know there's a bunch of guys who I
Speaker 6: knew way back who were not good talkers and just
Speaker 6: avoided at all costs. Actually, I'm even gonna I'm gonna
Speaker 6: use sammy' zama as a great example. He like avoided
Speaker 6: it wasn't a very good talker, actually didn't want to talk.
Speaker 2: For now, he's like one of the best in the business.
Speaker 6: You put him in front of a microphone, in front
Speaker 6: of a camera, and it's it's electric that people love him.
Speaker 2: And so it can be learned if you can unlock
Speaker 2: that in yourself.
Speaker 6: But a lot of guys you kind of I don't
Speaker 6: know if it's there's a block there or what. They
Speaker 6: can't get in touch with that part. But for me, Man,
Speaker 6: like you asked, who started it for me was Hogan,
Speaker 6: But like as it went through then you discover flair,
Speaker 6: you discover.
Speaker 2: The Austin Rock.
Speaker 6: Jake, the Snake, Roddy Piper, like all these guys who
Speaker 6: were just big, verbose and and everything that they said.
Speaker 6: You're like they believe every word they're saying. And there's
Speaker 6: not just like a charisma as far as like personality,
Speaker 6: physical Chrismas said he can't move around much, but like
Speaker 6: even within that space, there's just body language and there's
Speaker 6: movement where you're just like this guy is he's legit
Speaker 6: and that's what I always wanted to do.
Speaker 2: Man is another.
Speaker 1: One, Rosenberg, do you remember the macho man on YouTube.
Speaker 1: I know if you type in macho Man, sugar is
Speaker 1: sweet and so it's the cream rises to the and
Speaker 1: man is a big one.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: The way he would just enter the frame, Macho Man's
Speaker 1: thing was he would very rarely be in frame when
Speaker 1: Mean Jean start at the top of the promo.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he ran a lot.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah. Normally it's a two shot and he just goes, Okay, motherfucker,
Speaker 1: what do you have to say about the fight? Macho
Speaker 1: Man would come in the frame, not even face the camera,
Speaker 1: sometimes not even face Mean Jean or but just just
Speaker 1: throw away. Just Macho Man can talk abou wrestle. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I thought so, Yeah you thought so, but I know
Speaker 1: so it's like, why are you attacking me?
Speaker 3: Gene?
Speaker 1: But it was so great. I feel like some of
Speaker 1: the key elements in Rosenberg you chime in if you
Speaker 1: have some ideas, but I feel like some of the
Speaker 1: key elements are the tempo in which you speak and
Speaker 1: the octaves, like you talk about Rick Flair. Ric flairir
Speaker 1: was up there, but then when he would get into specificity,
Speaker 1: I think detail is a very important thing that is
Speaker 1: overlooked when we're talking about painting a picture like we're
Speaker 1: just talking about, like on some human connection shit, like
Speaker 1: when Hogan goes these thirty four inch python However, why
Speaker 1: this bicep was he would get into that level of
Speaker 1: specificity about things that I think also would help. And
Speaker 1: I don't think politicians do that because politicians are so
Speaker 1: worried about saying the wrong thing, and they've got some nerdy,
Speaker 1: nerd tech person right off camera going Okay, that speech
Speaker 1: will get fourteen more likes than the last quote that
Speaker 1: you gave that scaled. Well, you need to make sure
Speaker 1: that the voters know that you cant whereas La, I'm
Speaker 1: assuming that you just know what your character is, you
Speaker 1: know what the objective is, and from there on it's
Speaker 1: just a little bit of improv and a little bit
Speaker 1: of who you already are as a person one and
Speaker 1: two as a character. But how much thought goes into
Speaker 1: the words before they come out of your mouth versus
Speaker 1: I would say a politician.
Speaker 6: Okay, So I've been doing this a very long time,
Speaker 6: but even before WWE and so one of the big
Speaker 6: things I can remember saying at least a good sixty
Speaker 6: to seventy percent of the time before I walk through
Speaker 6: the curtain is I don't know what I'm about to
Speaker 6: say when I go out there, but we're about to
Speaker 6: find out. And it's because I have a roadmap. I
Speaker 6: know where I'm going, I know how I'm gonna start,
Speaker 6: I know how I'm going to finish. But in the middle,
Speaker 6: we're gonna weave a road and we're gonna figure out
Speaker 6: where we go and hopefully it's hopefully it gets us
Speaker 6: where we need to go. Usually it does. WW is
Speaker 6: slightly more structure, but at the same time, it's like
Speaker 6: I do have the freedom to again where.
Speaker 2: It's like it's it's I know where I'm going.
Speaker 6: Maybe there's a key point or two, but otherwise, hey,
Speaker 6: we'll see what we get when I come You.
Speaker 3: Also, you tapped into something there Roy that I thought
Speaker 3: was super interesting. I haven't heard expressed like that, and
Speaker 3: I think it makes a lot of sense, which is
Speaker 3: the cadence, tempo and the voice changes. Because when you
Speaker 3: think about the best my favorites, La mentioned, Jake the
Speaker 3: Snake is a guy who would stay so low and
Speaker 3: then get up and get big when he needed to,
Speaker 3: but then come right back down. Savage Savage did that brilliantly.
Speaker 3: Flair did it as well, and the only sort of
Speaker 3: political colmp because I think you're right. Most politicians don't
Speaker 3: do that because their thought is I want to seem even,
Speaker 3: I want to seem measured. But when I think of
Speaker 3: the greatest orator of the of the modern era in
Speaker 3: any way, not exactly a politician, but a similar sort
Speaker 3: of energy, I think of doctor King. Doctor King was
Speaker 3: a master in his speeches and keeping you. I'm gonna
Speaker 3: tell you a story, we're gonna stay low, and then
Speaker 3: we're gonna go, and he'd gets you all the way
Speaker 3: back up. He allowed his emotions to dictate, and I mean,
Speaker 3: let's be honest. He is probably the most effective public
Speaker 3: communicator of the twentieth century, you know, and it is
Speaker 3: interesting that he shared that quality.
Speaker 2: That's the key word effective.
Speaker 6: I was just gonna say, if you're going to be
Speaker 6: an effective speaker, you can't be at one level the
Speaker 6: whole time. There's different levels that you got to take people.
Speaker 6: You got to bring them down to bring them up.
Speaker 6: If you're just up the whole time, where do you
Speaker 6: go if you're down the whole time? Okay, well that
Speaker 6: was nice, but never got us anywhere. It's like having
Speaker 6: a setup to a joke. And no punchline or just
Speaker 6: telling all punchline and no setup, Like you have to
Speaker 6: have ya hold the whole piece of the equation.
Speaker 1: It's like when you hear a lot of politicians speak
Speaker 1: at big rallies, especially when it's a bit crowd, they
Speaker 1: all fall into the John F. Kennedy cadence and tempo
Speaker 1: school of public speaking, and we America well not standing
Speaker 1: for that.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 1: And I'm like, if you're listening to the words acoustically,
Speaker 1: they're all playing the same song, same bpm, It's the
Speaker 1: same y'alla all a genre of music almost where everybody
Speaker 1: has essentially the same producer.
Speaker 6: LA.
Speaker 1: When did you feel a change in your career where
Speaker 1: you feel like the fans were starting to connect with
Speaker 1: you And was there something different or anything different that
Speaker 1: you feel like you were doing performatively that got you
Speaker 1: to that place like, oh, I need to do a
Speaker 1: little bit more of that and then more fans will
Speaker 1: love me.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 6: I'd say it was probably this was early on in
Speaker 6: my career, was about ten years ago, and I was
Speaker 6: living in LA just working little local promotions and whatnot.
Speaker 6: It was just like I felt a freedom that I
Speaker 6: didn't feel when I started in Ohio, Ohio, I just
Speaker 6: felt like everybody was like breathing down my neck and
Speaker 6: they were criticized for this, that, whatever, and that's fine
Speaker 6: sometimes you need that stuff. But when I got to LA,
Speaker 6: there just felt like a freedom of just like, all right,
Speaker 6: I can do my thing. These people like respect the
Speaker 6: fact that I've traveled around, I've done different things and whatnot.
Speaker 2: And so having that weight off my.
Speaker 6: Back, I guess gave me the ability to be a
Speaker 6: little more free if it's just kind of like going
Speaker 6: out there and just letting me be me. And I've
Speaker 6: always said that, like Mike, I'm basically like, when I'm
Speaker 6: out there, it's the argumentative and the party version myself.
Speaker 6: So I'm super turned up, but at the same time,
Speaker 6: I'm ready to, you know, tell you some shit.
Speaker 2: Oh can I say that? I don't know, Oh yeah,
Speaker 2: all right.
Speaker 6: So but so it's just like I'm ready to fire
Speaker 6: up when I'm out there, but at the same time, again,
Speaker 6: you got to be measured while you're out there. So
Speaker 6: I don't know that I can pinpoint anything particular, but
Speaker 6: there was like I'm going to say probably late twenty eleven,
Speaker 6: I just had a mind shift, like like a mindset
Speaker 6: shift where it was like, I'm kind of letting.
Speaker 2: Things come to me.
Speaker 6: I need to go and start knocking some doors, knocking
Speaker 6: some doors down and make opportunities happen rather than just
Speaker 6: you know, sometime at some point somebody will find me
Speaker 6: in discovery.
Speaker 1: Let's flip it real quick, Peter, what are some skills
Speaker 1: that polyp titians have that could serve wrestlers will in
Speaker 1: the wwe like there's a lot that wrestlers do that
Speaker 1: politicians could be doing. Is there anything that wrestlers could
Speaker 1: learn from politicians?
Speaker 3: I think I would put it like this, serving your base,
Speaker 3: knowing who your base is, and giving them what they want.
Speaker 3: I mean, I'm sure LA could speak to this more.
Speaker 3: But sometimes, you know, as people or guys and girls
Speaker 3: are figuring out what their character is over years, I
Speaker 3: feel like they end up trying to do things that
Speaker 3: are just not them. And I understand you want to
Speaker 3: push boundaries and listen. I'm sure there are times politicians
Speaker 3: are like, you know, I don't know how I feel
Speaker 3: about this issue, and who am I talking to? Roy?
Speaker 3: You know, every politician does it all the time. I
Speaker 3: don't really believe in this, but this is what the
Speaker 3: base wants, and I am going to please the people
Speaker 3: who already mess with me instead of trying to win
Speaker 3: over people I'm not going to get. And I think
Speaker 3: sometimes wrestlers can learn from the same thing. If you
Speaker 3: know that you are great at you know, I'll hear
Speaker 3: the I'll hear the veterans talking all the time. Book critique,
Speaker 3: who shut I have to be wearing right now, but
Speaker 3: loves to point this out. We'll be we'll be watching
Speaker 3: the show after the kickoff show, and we'll see a
Speaker 3: big wrestler, a physically really large, you know, impressive guy,
Speaker 3: try to do these aerial moves that just don't benefit
Speaker 3: him or the person that they're wrestling, and book you know,
Speaker 3: bookers like, god, damn, what the hell what he's acting
Speaker 3: like he's five to seven, he's six foot eight, you know,
Speaker 3: like you're pleasing the fans and what the fans want
Speaker 3: from you and la I'm sure you know, like a
Speaker 3: lot of guys like, yeah, but I want to show
Speaker 3: that I can do more. But sometimes that's for your
Speaker 3: ego and not for the audience that's watching.
Speaker 1: You just look corny trying to.
Speaker 2: Exactly you got to save that stuff for the right spots.
Speaker 6: But but I would add an addendum to what you're
Speaker 6: saying is you want to appeal to your base, but
Speaker 6: also want to just like politicians, you want to bring
Speaker 6: in the new voters, You want.
Speaker 2: To bring in the new eyes and the audience and
Speaker 2: and so.
Speaker 6: But I don't think, as to what you're saying, you
Speaker 6: need to do some ridiculous shit like that where it's
Speaker 6: just like I can I can do me and be
Speaker 6: true to what.
Speaker 2: I'm doing and what my character would do and.
Speaker 6: All that stuff, and still hopefully connect enough to bring
Speaker 6: in people who aren't.
Speaker 2: Ordinarily there and be like, oh, you know what, I'm
Speaker 2: kind of interested in what this guy's doing. Right.
Speaker 1: But do y'all think though, you know, and I don't
Speaker 1: know how wrestling is after a match or the week after,
Speaker 1: where you do like a performance review or you talk
Speaker 1: with the producers and they go, Okay, here's where we
Speaker 1: would have liked to done better or worse or whatever.
Speaker 1: But I know politicians have a bunch of people in
Speaker 1: their ear telling them right down to what color fucking
Speaker 1: tie to wear for this particular event. Oh well, today
Speaker 1: you're talking to steel workers. So we're just gonna go
Speaker 1: with a sweater instead of a blazer. We need you
Speaker 1: to look more away, Like how important is public perception
Speaker 1: for politicians? And should they just start letting go of that,
Speaker 1: this idea that oh I am good and I need
Speaker 1: to be a regular person because regular people are voting
Speaker 1: for me. Can they start letting go of that a
Speaker 1: little bit and start listening to themselves instead of listening
Speaker 1: to all of these people who are trying to do
Speaker 1: political science and in motion.
Speaker 6: My god, after the last two election cycles, Hell yeah,
Speaker 6: I think I think that whole apple cart's been upset
Speaker 6: at this point.
Speaker 2: I mean, I heard you guys talking before I got
Speaker 2: in here about you know, how.
Speaker 6: The politicians try to be just like you, but it's
Speaker 6: like they do but like they don't, like they're almost
Speaker 6: They tried to be too clean for so long, like perfect,
Speaker 6: like I do no wrong, and then the second, you know,
Speaker 6: somebody does the slightest hell that Howard Dean went.
Speaker 2: Pah, and that was enough to get this like like
Speaker 2: that was that was it?
Speaker 6: So like the littlest thing would get people out, whereas
Speaker 6: now it's like since twenty sixteen, it's like you can
Speaker 6: say anything and as long as you just own it,
Speaker 6: it seems like you're good. But if you cower to it,
Speaker 6: then it's like, well, all right, well I'm out of here.
Speaker 6: So it's in a strange way, it's beneficial that they're
Speaker 6: not doing but at the same time it's come out
Speaker 6: in a really poisonous way, whereas now just everybody is
Speaker 6: gloves off saying ridiculous stuff.
Speaker 2: Uh so you don't know what's what?
Speaker 1: Yeah, Like I really feel like the shame monster has
Speaker 1: already proven that it won't bite if you look it
Speaker 1: in the eye. And I think that the good politicians
Speaker 1: have realized that, oh the shame musters coming. Got a run,
Speaker 1: gotta run. It's no what's up? Yeah I did it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I got eight babies on the way. Anyway, vote for me.
Speaker 1: You're gonna vote for me or not. There's nothing people
Speaker 1: can say.
Speaker 6: I can remember, like ten years ago, just being like,
Speaker 6: you know, like these politicians are so clean. If somebody
Speaker 6: just came out and they were they were themselves, they'd
Speaker 6: probably win. And I didn't expect it to go quite out,
Speaker 6: did but val right happened?
Speaker 1: Yeah, he just said, yeah, he took pictures with McDonald's,
Speaker 1: like he didn't need to go to a school and
Speaker 1: read to elementary. Look at me, I'm eaten Big Max
Speaker 1: on a private jet. You know what? Yeah, I want
Speaker 1: to be that because what American wouldn't want to be
Speaker 1: on a private jet would fucking McDonald's.
Speaker 3: And that's what That's what wrestling. I think when you
Speaker 3: asked earlier about you know, what was it about wrestling
Speaker 3: that got me? I really I'm a very I certain
Speaker 3: wouldn't say I'm non combative, because I am verbally combative,
Speaker 3: but I am certainly non violent. I have no interest
Speaker 3: in any violence in any way. And the toughness of
Speaker 3: certain superstars the fact that they could really I mean,
Speaker 3: I had a period in my life when I was
Speaker 3: an adult and I would still before something big, like
Speaker 3: a big meeting. I swear to god, I would literally
Speaker 3: be blasting Triple H's theme in the car to like
Speaker 3: I'm picture in Triple H water spit the water up
Speaker 3: in the air, like like that Triple H when he
Speaker 3: comes out, spits that water up in the air. That
Speaker 3: dude's not scared of anything on earth. And I do
Speaker 3: think that's a real appeal of superstars.
Speaker 2: I get it. That songs a jam. I listened to
Speaker 2: it in the gym I'm spitting water on the floor.
Speaker 1: To that point about shame, brother night, What do you
Speaker 1: do when you make a mistake, you know, in the
Speaker 1: ring or at an event like as a as a wrestler,
Speaker 1: Like how do wrestlers recover from botches or mistakes on
Speaker 1: the mic and the ring? Like Peter, you're talking about
Speaker 1: Booker T. We've all seen the hilarious video of him
Speaker 1: kind of sort of almost saying the inward because it
Speaker 1: got so wiled up, like that's how black people talk.
Speaker 2: I'm coming for you.
Speaker 3: Definitely hit it.
Speaker 1: I'm coming for your negroes like he said, and then
Speaker 1: you can see on his face like the oh shit,
Speaker 1: I shouldn't have said that. How do you recover as
Speaker 1: a wrestler? And what tips would you give to politicians
Speaker 1: who might be making gaffs on the campaign trail?
Speaker 2: It depends, you know what.
Speaker 6: I like to say that I've never made the mistakes,
Speaker 6: but that'd be damn But you just you got to
Speaker 6: look like you did them on purpose. There was one
Speaker 6: I did back in like twenty seventeen restaurant. He's some
Speaker 6: double bounced thing. Totally botched it, but when I landed,
Speaker 6: I just kind of looked at the audience like I
Speaker 6: meant to do that, and they just kind of.
Speaker 2: Showered me with you know, booze and all that stuff.
Speaker 1: And now, Peter on the radio side, the time that
Speaker 1: I was in radio in Birmingham, a much different market
Speaker 1: from New York City in terms of the immediacy of
Speaker 1: reaction to saying the wrong thing on the air when
Speaker 1: you because when you're talking for four hours straight, you
Speaker 1: can't script that, and sooner or later some shit gonna
Speaker 1: come out of your mouth that maybe you should have
Speaker 1: thought about for a couple of extra songs before you
Speaker 1: said it. Yes, is it a matter of waiting until
Speaker 1: you see if there's outrage and then you own it
Speaker 1: or do you just own the gaff immediately? And like,
Speaker 1: which road do you think politicians should kind of deal.
Speaker 3: With I'm a big apologizer, I admit that, and I
Speaker 3: didn't used to be as much. And then I had
Speaker 3: a few situations because thank God, knocking on wood, I've
Speaker 3: never had anything crazy. I'm I'm well. I like to
Speaker 3: believe I'm just a good person, So nothing that insane
Speaker 3: is gonna come out of my mouth. Now. Context is everything.
Speaker 3: We were to go back to the way my show
Speaker 3: with Cipher Sounds was promoted ten years ago where we
Speaker 3: were really leaning into race stuff all the time. I've
Speaker 3: heard things we did that I'm like, that would not
Speaker 3: go today, And that goes for all of us, everyone
Speaker 3: on the show. Our whole vernacular to me now sounds scary.
Speaker 1: It goes to be fair. That goes for urban radio
Speaker 1: as a genre.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, and it wasn't ninety.
Speaker 1: Five about Trayvon Martin.
Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly. Everything was a little was a little different.
Speaker 3: But for what those times were, I knew I was
Speaker 3: good at watching what the line was, like I understood
Speaker 3: and didn't cross. And now there's the line has changed,
Speaker 3: and I try to push myself with the line. I'm
Speaker 3: not going to fight back against that. So like, even
Speaker 3: when I have something silly come up, like a few
Speaker 3: months ago, I got dragged for about three or four
Speaker 3: days because in an interview with Kelly Rowland, I compared
Speaker 3: her to Beyonce. Basically was like, what's it like being
Speaker 3: sort of, you know, second to Beyonce. I didn't frame
Speaker 3: it exactly like that, but it was close. Question, Yeah,
Speaker 3: it was. It was clumsy, it did not It's not
Speaker 3: my favorite question of all time.
Speaker 2: But at the same time.
Speaker 3: You know, if I was talking to la Night and
Speaker 3: he was in the middle of a storyline with the Undertaker,
Speaker 3: and I'm like, so, what's it like being that close
Speaker 3: to the Undertaker, I imagine he'd be like, I gets your question.
Speaker 3: He's one of the greatest of all time. The point
Speaker 3: is I got dragged for saying that it was a
Speaker 3: it was a three day, never ending beat.
Speaker 1: On the grounds that you minimize Kelly Roland as a
Speaker 1: solo artist and everything that she's done post Destiny's Child correct.
Speaker 3: Correct, And then of course there was extra racial components
Speaker 3: thrown into it and just like different things, all of
Speaker 3: which a lot, of course, a lot of me is going,
Speaker 3: this is absurd. This is an absolute ridiculous Internet conversation
Speaker 3: to have. But my response was just I'm sorry, like
Speaker 3: if I really I said, hey, it was a clumsy question.
Speaker 3: I meant no disrespect by it, and I realized people
Speaker 3: are upset. I didn't hit you with the if I'm offended,
Speaker 3: I'm sorry. I just said I'm sorry, like people are upset,
Speaker 3: I'm sorry I should.
Speaker 1: What sucks though, is that there's a serious lack of
Speaker 1: nuance and then even looking at your energy in the
Speaker 1: interview leading up to that question. Even if the question
Speaker 1: was clumsy, if the intention was genuine, we kind of
Speaker 1: got to give people a foul tip. And I think
Speaker 1: we also live in a society now where everybody they
Speaker 1: are putting on strike too. You're on strike too when
Speaker 1: you leave the house with society, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: And I think that's part of the issue as well.
Speaker 1: But after the break, we're gonna bring this conversation home
Speaker 1: and take a look at famous wrestling matches and rivalries. Also,
Speaker 1: we need to talk a little bit about the music
Speaker 1: that is attached to creating the persona and what politicians
Speaker 1: could learn about that, because we need to talk about
Speaker 1: these musicians who But hey, man, don't you come out
Speaker 1: to my shit no more? I saw what you did
Speaker 1: at the rally last night. Though, don't beyond the scenes.
Speaker 1: We'll be right back beyond the scenes. We're round and
Speaker 1: third and hated for home. We're talking about wrestling and
Speaker 1: politics and how they overlap. Before we get into one
Speaker 1: or two other questions I had about the comparisons and
Speaker 1: you know, similarities and differences between these two worlds. WrestleMania's
Speaker 1: this weekend, so let's just get into your favorite WrestleMania moment. Peter,
Speaker 1: I want to start with you because I got a
Speaker 1: two parter for La Night. But Peter, what's your favorite
Speaker 1: WrestleMania moment? I feel like we already kind of talked
Speaker 1: about it with Andre the Giant, but do you have
Speaker 1: any others?
Speaker 3: Yeah, of course that that WrestleMania three will forever be
Speaker 3: my WrestleMania. I don't think anything could ever surpass it.
Speaker 3: Hogan slamming Andre and then the match between Steamboat and
Speaker 3: Savage that's probably the biggest one. But then I'd say
Speaker 3: you go way later to Toronto, Ontario WrestleMania eighteen. That
Speaker 3: moment when Hal Coogan in the Rock are just staring
Speaker 3: at each other and the crowd, Hey, Canada may have
Speaker 3: the best wrestling fans in all the world. And and
Speaker 3: b the fact that you get this, This is what
Speaker 3: makes wrestling the best. This is why wrestling crushes quote
Speaker 3: legit sports. You're never getting Muhammad Ali vers Mike Tyson.
Speaker 3: It's just never, it cannot happen. But you got to
Speaker 3: see like the faces of two generations.
Speaker 1: That's a great analogy.
Speaker 3: Like face off against each other, and to watch the
Speaker 3: crowd and then to see you know in La I'm
Speaker 3: sure this stands out in your mind too. The crowd
Speaker 3: completely turned around in the match and ended up cheering
Speaker 3: for Halt Cogan, who had been a bad guy to
Speaker 3: that point, but the nostalgia hit them so hard that
Speaker 3: they said, you know, I got a root for Halt Hogan.
Speaker 3: That to me is just an epic What do you
Speaker 3: think modern day? That's an epic moment.
Speaker 2: I'm just gonna see myself out because he just stole
Speaker 2: my thunder.
Speaker 6: Uh No, I mean I was gonna say Wrest eighteen
Speaker 6: as well, for the exact same reasons, the exact same things,
Speaker 6: because I mean, for me personally, you're talking about one
Speaker 6: of my childhood well definitely my childhood favorite and one
Speaker 6: of my like teenage favorites, like between like my Mount.
Speaker 2: Rushmore is Hogan Rock Austin Flair.
Speaker 6: And so now you got two of those four in
Speaker 6: a match, and it was a lot. I mean again,
Speaker 6: like he said, that crowd was insane. They stood there
Speaker 6: and had a face off for probably a good solid
Speaker 6: two three minutes and the place just is erupting when
Speaker 6: they're doing nothing, and the first time that like Hogan
Speaker 6: like shrugs him off, on the on the lock up
Speaker 6: and it's just you're seeing the people out in the crowd,
Speaker 6: like we had. There was one guy I remember like
Speaker 6: doing this and they catch the shot of him doing
Speaker 6: it and everything, and it's it's so crazy. You're like, man,
Speaker 6: I wish I was there. So that's one hundred percent
Speaker 6: like one of the top ones that that really really cemented, like, shit,
Speaker 6: I think I'm gonna do this. And that was exact
Speaker 6: a year before, one to the day, one year before
Speaker 6: I started rest.
Speaker 1: Wow, what is it like? What is the energy of
Speaker 1: that event in person like? And what does that mean
Speaker 1: like for you and your journey? Like the only thing
Speaker 1: I can compare it to in stand up comedy is
Speaker 1: the Apollo Theater because there's such history within that building
Speaker 1: and what it takes to get on that state blah
Speaker 1: blah blah. Like I know what that was like, but
Speaker 1: I know even that doesn't keep Just to start at
Speaker 1: wrestling college, I don't know why I keep calling it college,
Speaker 1: but you.
Speaker 2: Know what I mean, I like it. I'm start from when.
Speaker 1: You started at the Florida Institute of Wrestling to go
Speaker 1: from you know, splitting a Panda Express meal with one
Speaker 1: of your with one of your buddies. To go from
Speaker 1: there to being in that building. What was that like
Speaker 1: and what did that mean to you?
Speaker 6: Well, rumble is my closest so far are you're talking
Speaker 6: in the Alamodome with you know, about fifty thousand people
Speaker 6: or whatever.
Speaker 3: It was not like, man, it felt like many out there.
Speaker 2: It did very much so and and I mean you're
Speaker 2: talking about.
Speaker 6: And you know, everybody's got their own struggles and story
Speaker 6: and stuff, but I mean a guy who's slept in
Speaker 6: my car, a guy who's you know, slept on friends'
Speaker 6: floors for months at a time, and stuff like that.
Speaker 6: Just trying to make this whole thing happen over a
Speaker 6: long period of time and to finally come to a
Speaker 6: moment like that, that is crazy. It's it's like humbling
Speaker 6: in a way. But it also makes me look back
Speaker 6: at that process like shit, it was all worth it.
Speaker 6: And in a way like almost I can look back
Speaker 6: at that in like a weird, like endearing way where
Speaker 6: it's like I can almost be like, man, those are
Speaker 6: damn good times, even though they were really shitty times.
Speaker 1: What will you all say in the wrestling world, are
Speaker 1: there any political comparisons to like, like give me a
Speaker 1: famous political feud or rivalry that you think remind you
Speaker 1: of a thing, miss wrestling feud, Like.
Speaker 6: I don't I don't know if I can be specific,
Speaker 6: but I would just say, like the Democrats and the
Speaker 6: Republicans themselves.
Speaker 2: Are like WW and WCW. It's like you've got, really you've.
Speaker 6: Got passionate fans who want to choose a side, but
Speaker 6: then there's like a big swath in the middle who
Speaker 6: like they might lean one way or the other, but
Speaker 6: they're still switching channels back and forth because they're at
Speaker 6: least kind of interested in what the other one's doing.
Speaker 6: And so like that reminds me so much, just like
Speaker 6: the two political parties just in general.
Speaker 1: And also, you know, wrestling is interesting in that it
Speaker 1: also has all of these other outlets which would essentially
Speaker 1: parallel independent third party voting where people go, no, I
Speaker 1: don't like either one of those. Yeah, I kind of like,
Speaker 1: what's going on over here? How much thought do you
Speaker 1: put into the music that you choose and how that
Speaker 1: moves the audience and how that helps to build your persona.
Speaker 6: I'm probably an annoyance in that in that field because
Speaker 6: I'm like, so for on top of that.
Speaker 2: I made my own.
Speaker 6: Music when I was in the Independence because I always
Speaker 6: knew that there was a specific.
Speaker 2: Sound that I wanted. How can I do this? Okay,
Speaker 2: I like this song, but I wanted a couple of
Speaker 2: beats per minute faster. I used to be a drummer, so.
Speaker 6: Like, you know, I can figure out how to make
Speaker 6: a beat or you know, get a piano and create
Speaker 6: some loops and stuff, which I did back in twenty eighteen.
Speaker 6: So it's like I'm on top of stuff I wwe
Speaker 6: they created, but I had some input, like hey, look
Speaker 6: this is what I want. This this that they gave
Speaker 6: me one and I'm like, hey, can we bring the
Speaker 6: drums up a little bit because you want like you
Speaker 6: can make an awesome song that's great for a video package,
Speaker 6: But video package music ain't gonna be the same as
Speaker 6: music where I'm walking into a room about to fight
Speaker 6: somebody and you know, kick somebody's ass. I need some
Speaker 6: hard hitting stuff when I'm walking out there. That just
Speaker 6: gets me into his own and really that depends on
Speaker 6: what you're doing. The Undertaker, for instance, you know we
Speaker 6: mentioned him earlier. He's coming out to basically funeral music.
Speaker 6: So that's a whole other different vibe. So it's what fits.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, and.
Speaker 3: Think about it. Has there ever been a better better
Speaker 3: case of like, actually your theme song and wrestling being
Speaker 3: political than Haul Cogan having real American I mean, that's
Speaker 3: that's that is not unintentional. I mean, by the way
Speaker 3: he took that theme song was being used previously before that,
Speaker 3: and then they said, you know what, let's give this
Speaker 3: tall Cogan and that real America. That leaning into the patriotism,
Speaker 3: that's a that's a big part of Hogan's character. And
Speaker 3: I thought it was really fascinating and funny and impactful
Speaker 3: in some way. Granted I chuckled when I would hear it,
Speaker 3: but now whenever I hear the proud to be an American,
Speaker 3: whenever I think Trump and like you watched it, yeah,
Speaker 3: every rally and you know they'd be waiting for him
Speaker 3: for like ten minutes. It would just be playing over
Speaker 3: and over again.
Speaker 2: And I just think, MCA, that's true, that's the song.
Speaker 3: Right, No, But it's it's so funny because like that song, obviously,
Speaker 3: he is so not a typical like proud American. He's
Speaker 3: this business tycoon from New York who the people who
Speaker 3: he's speaking to should hate everything about him, but he
Speaker 3: throws on proud to be an American.
Speaker 1: And it's yeah, it's a banger.
Speaker 3: Clinton had don't stop thinking about Tomorrow, which was like
Speaker 3: so perfect his character was, you know, and.
Speaker 2: They also doing Van Halen right now? Am I am?
Speaker 6: I imagining that they even just think of a crystal PEPSI.
Speaker 3: I don't know all important things from that time. Honestly,
Speaker 3: they could stand to learn from wrestlers, because there are
Speaker 3: some wrestlers, man, who I love, and I realized later
Speaker 3: a lot of it was their theme song.
Speaker 1: I'm like, really nice, but.
Speaker 3: The entrance that's a big piece.
Speaker 2: You hear that banger? You're like, yes, all right, okay.
Speaker 1: All right, well I'll get you all out of here
Speaker 1: on this. This this is we'll just call this a
Speaker 1: rapid a rapid answer question. Here out there in California,
Speaker 1: a former actor Ben Savage is running for I think
Speaker 1: senate or is it house?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Boy meets right.
Speaker 1: Yeah. What's a better transference of skill sets? Celebrity turned
Speaker 1: politician or celebrity turned wrestlers.
Speaker 6: I think politician just because it depends on the celebrity though.
Speaker 6: If you're talking like a sports celebrity something. Now they've
Speaker 6: already got like an athletic background something like that, because
Speaker 6: a lot of times when we brought in you know,
Speaker 6: sports figures, they're able to pick it up a little
Speaker 6: bit just because of again that athletic background.
Speaker 1: But yeah, Rodman did a couple of stints.
Speaker 2: Yeah. But I mean like it's if somebody's not used to.
Speaker 6: Getting beaten up, banged up, it can be a real
Speaker 6: reality check. So I almost feel like being a celebrity
Speaker 6: going into politics, that's that's a lot maybe not easier necessarily,
Speaker 6: but probably a better fit just because now it's like, Okay,
Speaker 6: well I can use this charisma or this status or
Speaker 6: whatever that I used before to get this going to
Speaker 6: now appeal to these people.
Speaker 2: They know my face, I'm familiar.
Speaker 3: I'll make Ella's a point for him. I work for WWE.
Speaker 3: They will never use me in a wrestling match ever
Speaker 3: in history. It will never happen.
Speaker 1: You're not gonna You're not gonna be the next Jonathan
Speaker 1: Coachman to come out the booth.
Speaker 3: I mean, I'm a former twenty four to seven champion,
Speaker 3: but I'm not gonna get invited to be in the
Speaker 3: Royal Rumble. However, if I were to say, like I'm
Speaker 3: running against Eric Adams in the next New York mayoral race,
Speaker 3: I'm not saying I'd win, but having being known in
Speaker 3: New York for that long, I could at least get
Speaker 3: myself into the conversation. I have no chance at wrestling.
Speaker 3: The ability that it takes is im possible, and Telie point,
Speaker 3: that's why you can have a Pat McAfee show up
Speaker 3: and be effective and good. You can have Logan Paul
Speaker 3: show up and get a WrestleMania match, because these guys
Speaker 3: are real athletes who can transfer it. If you don't
Speaker 3: have it in you, though, there's not much you can do.
Speaker 1: Well. Dude, You've done a really good job of leaving
Speaker 1: a cultural footprint in New York City, and I think
Speaker 1: you'd be neck and neck with Eric Adams until he
Speaker 1: pulls out that Kelly Rowland Beyonce tape on your ass.
Speaker 1: That's all the time we have for today. Thank you
Speaker 1: so much to our guest Peter Rosenberg. La night, Thank
Speaker 1: you all. Hopefully we've taken you beyond the scenes. Enjoy
Speaker 1: WrestleMania boys, take care of everybody.
Speaker 2: Thanks Roy, good night.
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