Speaker 1: Hi, Welcome back to Wrestling with Freddie. I am your host,
Speaker 1: Freddie Prinz, Jr. And this is a podcast that takes
Speaker 1: you guys back to my time when I was a
Speaker 1: writer at w w E. I worked there at two
Speaker 1: separate occasions for a total of a little over a
Speaker 1: year of a combined time, and I share a bunch
Speaker 1: of stories and how those stories sort of shape my
Speaker 1: perspective on the business. So hopefully I give you guys
Speaker 1: a bit of perspective on that as well. But um,
Speaker 1: it's mainly just stories. I'm not trying to preach to
Speaker 1: y'all or teach you guys how to start a wrestling brand.
Speaker 1: But today we're gonna talk about the writing process, the
Speaker 1: creative process, the booking process, which I was really terrible
Speaker 1: at and still am, and some stories to kind of
Speaker 1: help you guys see what it was like when I
Speaker 1: was working there under Michael ps Pierce, Sexy Hayes, Vince McMahon,
Speaker 1: and Bruce Pritchard's going to get a shout out in
Speaker 1: in this week's episode because he was sort of my
Speaker 1: first mentor backstage. So enjoy the episode. And here we go,
Speaker 1: now stuffing up for the mic of wrestling with Freddie
Speaker 1: Freddie Prince June. Yeah, I'm in New York City. You
Speaker 1: may hear me from time to time. Mentioned another writer
Speaker 1: who was hired the exact same day I was, and
Speaker 1: I call him Low Faz, So if you ever hear me,
Speaker 1: say Low Fas or low that's the That's a writer
Speaker 1: who I really kind of linked and bonded with, and
Speaker 1: he worked there another ten years after I left. I'm
Speaker 1: in New York City. I'm living in Manhattan. M My
Speaker 1: wife and I had an apartment in downtown New York
Speaker 1: and it was super quiet down there at night because
Speaker 1: it was the business district. I love New York when
Speaker 1: it's quiet, so weekends when everyone gets out of the city,
Speaker 1: or living downtown at night because everything closes was perfect
Speaker 1: for me. It also happened to be the same building
Speaker 1: that Shane McMahon lived in. Kind of all worked out
Speaker 1: and he drove me. I wasn't even tell the story,
Speaker 1: but he drove me home one night from White Plains,
Speaker 1: New York, which is where they housed the w W
Speaker 1: E jet, which was black with the red WW on it,
Speaker 1: and I got to fly on it all the time.
Speaker 1: But we were he was on the flight. This time
Speaker 1: he had just sold his shares of like I think,
Speaker 1: like a Chinese cable broadcast network or something, and he
Speaker 1: had just come back to the family and he was
Speaker 1: on this first flight with us, and we landed and
Speaker 1: he was like, hey, Freddie, we're in the same building. Man,
Speaker 1: I'll drive you home. And he had this like I
Speaker 1: think it was like fifty six Mercury coupe that was
Speaker 1: chopped and just had a monster sleeper engined under the hood.
Speaker 1: And uh, it was me, him and the head writer
Speaker 1: of Raw, Brian Gowertz, who was sitting in the back.
Speaker 1: And Shane hit the highway and he must have had
Speaker 1: this thing going a hundred thirty five forty miles down
Speaker 1: the straight away. And I like going fast. I just
Speaker 1: I just do. But Brian Gowerts does not. And I
Speaker 1: look back and the look of sheer terror on this
Speaker 1: man's face as he's looking for a seatbelt that's better
Speaker 1: than just the waist wrap, which is all that's in
Speaker 1: the fifty six coupe in the back seat, and the
Speaker 1: sheer look of joy on Shane's face from causing such
Speaker 1: terror to Brian was amazing. But that's not today's stories. Uh,
Speaker 1: today I get to work. On the first day, I
Speaker 1: took the train there. I took it with this other writer, Angelo,
Speaker 1: and we hopped a cab. They didn't have like a
Speaker 1: shuttle or anything like that, even though it was a
Speaker 1: very corporate feel when you were in the offices. When
Speaker 1: you're on the road, it's a circus, but it was
Speaker 1: very corporate at the office. So we take a cab
Speaker 1: to work, show my fancy badge that lets you in. Uh,
Speaker 1: there's security out front, and you know, like, oh, good morning,
Speaker 1: Freddy and h good morning. And I go up to
Speaker 1: I think what was the third floor, and that was
Speaker 1: the creative the creative floor, and so I walk in
Speaker 1: and uh, I'm talking to Michael ps Hayes, who used
Speaker 1: to be a professional wrestler. For those of you don't know,
Speaker 1: he was a part of the Fabulous Freebirds and he
Speaker 1: was really, really, really good on the microphone. And they
Speaker 1: put him in the this position as head of creative
Speaker 1: for SmackDown. And Michael had just been in some trouble
Speaker 1: in the company and uh, he had just got sober.
Speaker 1: So everyone told me how nice Michael was. But at
Speaker 1: the end of the day he didn't have time for it.
Speaker 1: So he his patients would wear it thin with the
Speaker 1: redding staff, is what I was told. So I go
Speaker 1: in nice and early, um, and I go into Michael's
Speaker 1: office and he goes, hey, well, nice to meet you.
Speaker 1: All right, all right, he's got this like he lives it, right,
Speaker 1: he walks it. He shows me this photo of his
Speaker 1: lady who got a tattoo of him on on his
Speaker 1: on her leg and and this I just met the guy.
Speaker 1: And he's like, look, someone sent me this. Like, oh,
Speaker 1: that's kind of creeping. He goes, isn't it. And so
Speaker 1: so he's telling me what I have to do, and
Speaker 1: he's talking to me about basically, we work backwards, is
Speaker 1: what he says. He says, Vince gonna give you the
Speaker 1: pay per view who he wants to work it, and
Speaker 1: then you have to build the story that's gonna get
Speaker 1: us to that match, whether it be three weeks in
Speaker 1: between pay per views, a month, five weeks, six weeks, whatever.
Speaker 1: We're not doing as many as we used to do,
Speaker 1: so you get a little more time. I go, all right, yeah,
Speaker 1: I can do that, and he goes, Now, today's assignment,
Speaker 1: everybody's gonna go out there. I need you to build
Speaker 1: me three weeks a TV on SmackDown and show me
Speaker 1: who's gonna wrestle and give me a reason why, and
Speaker 1: give me options. Freddie options is a w options. They say,
Speaker 1: all right, how many do you need? And he goes, well,
Speaker 1: the first two you do are gonna get shipped on
Speaker 1: just because you're new. The third one will be the
Speaker 1: one we take to TV, but at production day it
Speaker 1: will be about forty people who all crap all over
Speaker 1: it and rip it to shreds. So your fifth one
Speaker 1: is gonna be the one that makes the show. So
Speaker 1: make sure you don't put that one in first. And
Speaker 1: I'm like, yeah, that sounds like a regular TV show.
Speaker 1: Like the first draft of your television scripts are never
Speaker 1: the best one because the network's gonna give you horrible notes,
Speaker 1: and you don't want to get horrible notes on your
Speaker 1: best stuff. You save those. See you write kind of
Speaker 1: a Vanila generic script, and then when they give their
Speaker 1: god awful notes, you just give them the one you
Speaker 1: wanted to write, and you say, hey, those notes were great,
Speaker 1: and all they wanted was an ego stroke anyway, So
Speaker 1: you of the executives don't even read the rewrite um
Speaker 1: of them. If you say hey, that was a great note.
Speaker 1: They just go, yes, it was, because they just want
Speaker 1: their fingerprint on the product. You know. It's a it's
Speaker 1: a pride thing. It's not something I agree with wholeheartedly.
Speaker 1: But that show business. And we all know which words bigger,
Speaker 1: and that's gonna be a very familiar theme throughout this podcast,
Speaker 1: because the wrestling businesses show business and we all know
Speaker 1: business is the bigger word. So I sit down and
Speaker 1: I'm like, all right, um, now I have to write wrestling.
Speaker 1: My whole life has completely done a one eighty. Like
Speaker 1: I was wanting to just chill. I was gonna hang
Speaker 1: in New York for a while. I had some friends
Speaker 1: out there who lived there full time, and I was
Speaker 1: having a lot of fun with them, and I was
Speaker 1: just I'd never lived the New York life before. I've
Speaker 1: been a Callie kid and a New Mexico kid it
Speaker 1: and that's it. So I was really enjoying myself, and
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, I take a full time job
Speaker 1: basically nine to five. Those are my hours, and uh,
Speaker 1: and I have no idea how to write wrestling. I
Speaker 1: know how to write dialogue. I had done a lot
Speaker 1: of ghostwriting over the years, for different TV shows or movies,
Speaker 1: or just friends who liked the way. I wrote some
Speaker 1: scripts that actually sold that didn't get made, but everyone
Speaker 1: was like, dude, You're dialogue is sick. And my thing
Speaker 1: was always like, yo, I just write all the lines
Speaker 1: that no movie would ever let me say, because I
Speaker 1: was always the sweet boy in the movies that you
Speaker 1: would let your daughter go out with, never the guy
Speaker 1: that would be like rowdy roddy. But I've come here
Speaker 1: to chew bubble gum and kick ass, and I'm all
Speaker 1: out of bubble gum. Like nobody's gonna let Freddy Brend's Jr.
Speaker 1: Say that. So I would write all my fantasy lines,
Speaker 1: and so I knew I could do dialogue. So they
Speaker 1: give me the whole roster, and I put together like
Speaker 1: this guy versus this guy, this guy versus this guy,
Speaker 1: this girl versus this girl. And I bring it to
Speaker 1: Michael and Michael's like, what are you doing in here?
Speaker 1: I go, Here's I brought you some options this. A
Speaker 1: couple hours later he goes, ship, don't bring it to me,
Speaker 1: give it to d J. And that's christ Joseph, who
Speaker 1: um in the beginning, like most people, probably wasn't happy
Speaker 1: I was there, but he and I got crazy tight
Speaker 1: by the end of this and one one of these
Speaker 1: podcasts we're gonna get into the Jeff Hardy story and
Speaker 1: Chris is a big part of that. It was Michael, Chris,
Speaker 1: and myself who were responsible for making people give me credit.
Speaker 1: But that's not true. Um, I was a part of
Speaker 1: a wrestling triumvirate um that got Jeff to the title.
Speaker 1: But that's a story for another day. So I bring
Speaker 1: this to Chris and he's looking at me like, wait,
Speaker 1: what are you doing? And I go, I'm bringing you
Speaker 1: the options and he was like, oh yeah, let me
Speaker 1: let me see it. And I go did I do
Speaker 1: some Ryan goes no, just nobody does that. And I
Speaker 1: was like, oh, all right, he told me to do it.
Speaker 1: I'm bringing it to you. And so he's looking at
Speaker 1: what I got and he goes, I'm sorry, man. He goes,
Speaker 1: none of this is gonna work. And I was like, well,
Speaker 1: what do you mean, and he goes, well, this guy
Speaker 1: can't work with this guy. This guy can't stand this
Speaker 1: guy because he slept with his girl and he's still
Speaker 1: wrecked over. These two girls hate each other, and this
Speaker 1: guy is never gonna lose a match to him for
Speaker 1: reasons X Y Z, and literally there's a flash that
Speaker 1: goes through my head where I was like, Yo, you
Speaker 1: need to quit, Like you don't know what the hell
Speaker 1: is going on. You don't know who like, you have
Speaker 1: to know who likes who, You have to know who
Speaker 1: can work with who. By the way, I would still
Speaker 1: be a terrible booker to this day, even with all
Speaker 1: the stuff that I learned. I would have if I
Speaker 1: had my own wrestling brand, the World Wrestling Federation, I
Speaker 1: would have to hire like Cornet or DJ or somebody
Speaker 1: to book every match and I would just you know,
Speaker 1: help them come up with a reason why. And then
Speaker 1: whoever needed help writing, I would just write for them. Um.
Speaker 1: So I get humbled. So and DJ wasn't being a
Speaker 1: jerk or anything. He was just being real like he
Speaker 1: had to write the whole show and had a bunch
Speaker 1: of writers that you know, he would have to rewrite
Speaker 1: a lot of the time. Um, and it was a
Speaker 1: frustrating job because he knew he was gonna get rewritten
Speaker 1: again on show day. Because Vince wouldn't even read the
Speaker 1: SmackDown script until the morning of SmackDown. All his focus
Speaker 1: was on Raw because Raw was the cash cow. Um
Speaker 1: when I worked there, which I think with oh seven
Speaker 1: and oh eight or o or oh nine and two
Speaker 1: thousand ten. I can't remember those dates, but you guys
Speaker 1: don't know that better than me. Um. So anyway, I
Speaker 1: sit down and this writer, Angelo comes up to me
Speaker 1: and he goes, hey, man, let me help you. And
Speaker 1: this dude is like a wrestling thesaurus. All right, I
Speaker 1: learned more about the history of the bit man arn
Speaker 1: Anderson and Angelo. And Angelo grew up just a fan,
Speaker 1: not even in the business, but he just knew every
Speaker 1: match by heart, every story by heart. He was up
Speaker 1: on something called a dirt sheet, which I had never
Speaker 1: even heard of, which was basically the national and wirer
Speaker 1: for for wrestling fans. It was like a tabloid site,
Speaker 1: which I just in the eighties. I don't know if
Speaker 1: that existed, Like if guys did that, we would get
Speaker 1: beat up by other guys because that wasn't a guy
Speaker 1: thing to do. He saw a little old ladies getting
Speaker 1: the inquiry, not dudes in their twenties and thirties, unless
Speaker 1: there was like Aliens. Maybe I don't know. Um So anyway, Uh,
Speaker 1: I'm super humbled. Di stude. Angelo comes like goes, let
Speaker 1: me help you out, man, and he says, these guys
Speaker 1: have wrestled before. It was three years ago. It was
Speaker 1: in Phoenix, Arizona, and he's telling me the whole and
Speaker 1: I'm looking at this guy like, dude, what bro Like,
Speaker 1: how do you how do you know this? So he
Speaker 1: really helps me adjust it and I put together like
Speaker 1: my first group of wrestlers, and uh I bring it
Speaker 1: back to Chris and to DJ in about an hour
Speaker 1: and he legit. When I walk in, he goes, yeah, man,
Speaker 1: what do you need? Like he just doesn't he does
Speaker 1: not want me in there at all. And I said, uh, hey,
Speaker 1: I just I'm trying to get better, dude. It's like
Speaker 1: hash course, man, can you just take a look at this?
Speaker 1: And he goes, yeah, I'll take a look at it.
Speaker 1: I'll talk to you at the end of the day.
Speaker 1: So this is still like not even lunch, and I
Speaker 1: got nothing to do for the rest of the day.
Speaker 1: So everybody like goes to get lunch and they're doing
Speaker 1: their thing, and I stay in the office and I
Speaker 1: just start writing promos. I just start I just started
Speaker 1: writing promos. And it was an undertaker one and I
Speaker 1: didn't show it to anybody, but I just I just
Speaker 1: held onto it. And it was kind of about this
Speaker 1: young this young stud who was going to challenge him
Speaker 1: in what he thought was a different way. But the
Speaker 1: Undertakers seen it all, He's heard it all, and this
Speaker 1: is just another young warrior trying to climb them mountain
Speaker 1: and it's gonna be another failure. Um. And this became
Speaker 1: the promo that everybody loved. That Undertaker cut in London,
Speaker 1: UM on Jeff Hardy's Rise to the to the title,
Speaker 1: and it was Jeff Hardy saying, you know I'll be
Speaker 1: the one and Undertakers like many before you have walked.
Speaker 1: I don't remember what. I wrote this a long time
Speaker 1: ago and I'm forty five years old now, um, But
Speaker 1: so I write this, and I write a couple other
Speaker 1: ones for some of the other talent there, and one
Speaker 1: of them was Brian Kendrick and h they called him
Speaker 1: the Brian Kendrick. And to know Brian is to know
Speaker 1: that his mind is fully right brain operational. There is
Speaker 1: no left brain function right. The right brain is the
Speaker 1: creative side. The left brain is the logic side. If
Speaker 1: you want to know if somebody's lying to you you
Speaker 1: asked him a question about something that happened. If they
Speaker 1: look up into the left, they're remembering factual information. If
Speaker 1: they look up into the right, they're creating a story
Speaker 1: of fiction for you to know. So that's just something
Speaker 1: cool for everybody to use to find out when their
Speaker 1: lovers are cheating. What I write this promo for Brian.
Speaker 1: He was getting ready to separate from Paul London. They
Speaker 1: had a good tag team thing going, but Brian could
Speaker 1: really talked um, but he was a smaller guy. So
Speaker 1: I wrote this other one for Brian, and I only
Speaker 1: really remember the first sentence, which is there's a fine
Speaker 1: line between genius and insanity. And Brian was one of
Speaker 1: the guys that I had on my like booking sheet
Speaker 1: that I gave to a DJ. And at the end
Speaker 1: of the day, DJ comes up and the only one
Speaker 1: that got approved was Brian's match. So I asked if
Speaker 1: I could get sixty seconds of backstage time or promo.
Speaker 1: I asked for promo time. He said no, I say,
Speaker 1: can I get sixty seconds backstage just to kind of
Speaker 1: show this new character. I mean, the guy's never been
Speaker 1: solo before. He goes, yeah, I'll give you sixty seconds,
Speaker 1: but you have to time it out. I've never even
Speaker 1: known about that concept timing it out. I would just
Speaker 1: my undertaker promo was They asked me how long it was.
Speaker 1: I was like, it's as long as it is. But
Speaker 1: with live TV you just can't get away with that stuff.
Speaker 1: So anyway, I write this thing, and and DJ really
Speaker 1: likes it, and he puts it in the show. So
Speaker 1: now we're going to travel and I wasn't on the
Speaker 1: jet US yet, so I took a regular plane and
Speaker 1: we're gonna shoot Monday night RAW. I get there. I
Speaker 1: haven't written anything for RAW. They put me on SmackDown
Speaker 1: to kind of help me learn the rope. SmackDown wasn't live,
Speaker 1: it was taped. They could fix screw ups a lot easier.
Speaker 1: So now it's the live show, it's the big show.
Speaker 1: And I'm at my first production meeting and right away
Speaker 1: Vince tears up the entire script. After about thirty people
Speaker 1: give notes, which sitting I'm sitting in the back next
Speaker 1: to DJ and Freebird, and Freebirds already like hat it.
Speaker 1: He doesn't. He's not given a note. He's like, I'm
Speaker 1: a SmackDown. I'm not dealing with this nonsense. So we're
Speaker 1: sitting back there and Vince says, how do we fix this?
Speaker 1: And no one speaks, and he gets crazy mad. No
Speaker 1: one's got a one single god, god, damn my, damn right,
Speaker 1: and he's just going off. So now nobody wants to
Speaker 1: raise their hand again, right, So it's just dead silence,
Speaker 1: and you just hear poor brang go where it's get
Speaker 1: this number two pencil that he would always hold in
Speaker 1: his hands, and you just hear this and this snap,
Speaker 1: and for whatever reason, it broke the tension for me,
Speaker 1: and I just I threw out an idea. I said,
Speaker 1: I compared Collie to Andre the Giant, not as in
Speaker 1: terms of quality of wrestling, but just in terms of size.
Speaker 1: And I said, what do you throw the great Collie
Speaker 1: in there? And he just smashed. I don't want to
Speaker 1: give the reasons why this became what it was, because
Speaker 1: it would damage somebody else's career basically because they got
Speaker 1: like jobbed out, right, But I pitched this thing and
Speaker 1: and Vince goes, well, we'll just do that. It wasn't
Speaker 1: a good idea, but it was something, right, And uh,
Speaker 1: he goes, Freddie, you're gonna shoot it, and I'm sitting
Speaker 1: there like, what am I gonna shoot? That bitched a
Speaker 1: match in a ring, and Freeberg goes, you should have
Speaker 1: just kept your bleeping mouth shut. And so now I'm like,
Speaker 1: all right, I'm gonna be learning some lessons here. And
Speaker 1: so the production meeting ends. It's like two and a
Speaker 1: half hours long. It was just just death, but being
Speaker 1: drugged by a horse while you're still alive, just knowing
Speaker 1: you're gonna die at the end. It was horrible. And uh,
Speaker 1: I meet Bruce Pritchard and I'm already exhausted just from
Speaker 1: the production meeting, Like it was crazy. The notes were psycho.
Speaker 1: I've never heard dialogue options like that ever, Like it
Speaker 1: was just a different world for me, and I didn't
Speaker 1: I didn't respect their their process. Add yet I still
Speaker 1: thought I could do this way better. Right, So I
Speaker 1: meet Bruce Pritchard, who was Brother Love back in the day,
Speaker 1: and he had these big, rosy red cheeks and had
Speaker 1: this like eighties reverend evangelical gimmick going where he's like
Speaker 1: I love you, and I'm like, yo, is this brother?
Speaker 1: Is this brother freaking Love? Like I didn't know about
Speaker 1: the behind the scenes stuff. I had never read a
Speaker 1: dirt cheat, and he's like, hey, how are you doing?
Speaker 1: All on? Bruce? Good to meet Fredd, And all right,
Speaker 1: I almost show you what you're gonna be doing. I'm
Speaker 1: kind of meant were you And I'm like, all right,
Speaker 1: and he's just good old Texas boy. And I grew
Speaker 1: up in New Mexico, so I've seen a lot of
Speaker 1: these guys and I kind of know you gotta you gotta,
Speaker 1: you know, let them know how great they are and
Speaker 1: how gracious they are, or or they're gonna stop with
Speaker 1: it real quick. So we get up there and and
Speaker 1: I'm looking around. He goes, so we're gonna do the
Speaker 1: Andre Walk. The camera's gonna be nice and lowe, and uh,
Speaker 1: he's gonna be approaching the ring. We're gonna just make
Speaker 1: this look real great. Okay. I go all right, and
Speaker 1: he goes, all right, I'll see you later, and he leaves.
Speaker 1: This just me. Okay. He didn't introduce me to a crew,
Speaker 1: a stage manager, a cameraman, gaffer, that someone who does lights, audio,
Speaker 1: which we didn't need, no nobody. He just left. I'm like,
Speaker 1: all right, so now it's time to hustle. So I'm
Speaker 1: running around backstage. Um, I'm just asking guys like, hey,
Speaker 1: hey man, what do you do here? He's like, oh,
Speaker 1: I'm magic, which is like their word for props. I'm like, sorry,
Speaker 1: wrong guy, I'm Freddy. Nice to meet you. I see
Speaker 1: this dude with a camera. His name is Luise. I go, hey, man, uh,
Speaker 1: could you help me shoot something backstage? And he says,
Speaker 1: I'm on another I'm on another shot. Who are you?
Speaker 1: I said, I'm sorry man, I'm Freddie Prince Jr. And
Speaker 1: he goes, hold on what and I go, I'm I'm
Speaker 1: shooting this segment. He goes, you aren't shooting a segment.
Speaker 1: I go yeah, man. He goes, you've worked here. I
Speaker 1: go yeah, because you're Freddie Prince Jr. I go, yeah, man,
Speaker 1: but I need a camera. He goes, bro, I got you.
Speaker 1: So Luis is awesome and he runs back and uh,
Speaker 1: I find the Great Collie and he doesn't speak English
Speaker 1: and I don't speak Punjabi. So I walk into a
Speaker 1: knock on the locker room door. Another wrestler comes out,
Speaker 1: one of the younger guys on the restaur and I go,
Speaker 1: my allow to go in there. I don't want to,
Speaker 1: and he goes, who do you need? And I said
Speaker 1: I need Collie, and he goes, all right, So he
Speaker 1: goes and I've never met the great colleague. But the
Speaker 1: guy is legit, like seven foot four, okay, like he's
Speaker 1: a legit giant. He ducks to get out of the
Speaker 1: basketball arena locker room door where the doors are built
Speaker 1: for tall, large statuesque type men, and he ducking and
Speaker 1: turning his body sideways because his shoulders don't fit if
Speaker 1: he walks straight through. And he goes and I'm not
Speaker 1: trying to be mean, but this is what I heard.
Speaker 1: Hello friend, nice to meet you. And I go, oh,
Speaker 1: this guy speaks English right on, and I go, okay, Kellie,
Speaker 1: I go, so, I'm gonna be shooting your segment. It's
Speaker 1: gonna be a real simple andre walk and uh, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna light it so it looks real cool. So we
Speaker 1: get some great shadows over your face and then you
Speaker 1: go into the light and out of the light and
Speaker 1: then back in. It's almost gonna be like a horror
Speaker 1: movie and you're just gonna destroy my man in the ring.
Speaker 1: And he looks at me and he goes, I don't understand,
Speaker 1: And I'm like, do you do you speak English? And
Speaker 1: he goes, no, brother, Like this and I'm like, uh, hey,
Speaker 1: just just come with come with me, bro, just come
Speaker 1: with me. He goes okay. And so we just walked
Speaker 1: me and my giant. I feel like I feel like
Speaker 1: Karen Culkin in The Mighty and uh. We get there
Speaker 1: and I got Louise and I say, hey, can you
Speaker 1: help me? Fine? Oh and Bruce. And then Bruce Pritchard
Speaker 1: comes back up and he goes, hey, you got him?
Speaker 1: And I go yeah. I go can I can we
Speaker 1: get some lights? He goes no lights? I go, okay,
Speaker 1: well can I get an audio guy? He goes, no sound.
Speaker 1: What are we gonna do? He goes, you're doing it?
Speaker 1: I was like, all right, okay, so no, so you
Speaker 1: were you were just walking with a camera. He's like,
Speaker 1: that's it and he just leaves again. This is my
Speaker 1: mentor all right, it's a secret swim company. Let's party.
Speaker 1: So we shoot it? Oh sorry, we rehearse it. And
Speaker 1: then I say, okay, we're gonna we're gonna shoot it.
Speaker 1: And the stage manager comes up, who I hadn't met yet,
Speaker 1: and he goes, no, you're gonna shoot a live Well,
Speaker 1: why don't we just shoot it now? Like we got
Speaker 1: the camera here now and I've got Collie here. Now
Speaker 1: he goes. They told me they want to shoot a lot.
Speaker 1: I'm like, man, these guys just want there's just they
Speaker 1: want me to fail so bad, like they're just and
Speaker 1: I know it in my heart. They're just grinding me right.
Speaker 1: And it was the only show in town basically, so
Speaker 1: they can get away with doing stuff that's gonna screw
Speaker 1: up their own show, like legit screw on purpose just
Speaker 1: because it'll give Vince a laugh. I saw him do
Speaker 1: this a million times to talent in the ring. I
Speaker 1: saw them gimmick a chair when Big Show was gonna
Speaker 1: read Christmas stories to Hornswoggle so that the chair with fall.
Speaker 1: I was like, yo, man, what if he gets hurt?
Speaker 1: And Vince's like, guy, he's falling harder than that. And
Speaker 1: I'm like debating the whole that I gotta tell him, man,
Speaker 1: I gotta tell Paul this is crazy or Big Show.
Speaker 1: I gotta tell Big Show this is crazy. And then
Speaker 1: Jerry Briscoe is like, you better not tell him shit.
Speaker 1: It's like, okay, I won't. So anyway, back to the show.
Speaker 1: They make us shoot it live. Luis is like, bro,
Speaker 1: I've done this a million times. Luis is the cameraman.
Speaker 1: He says, bro, I've done this a million times. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna make you look bad. Don't worry about a thing.
Speaker 1: And he knows that what they're doing to me too,
Speaker 1: and he's being so cool to me, this guy. And
Speaker 1: so they go in three to one and uh they
Speaker 1: do the shot and Kindie just walks and you can't
Speaker 1: even see him because it's completely dark. There's no light anywhere.
Speaker 1: This is, you know, the backstage of the arena. You
Speaker 1: can't see anything. It looks terrible. This his camera work
Speaker 1: because he was does all the boxing fights, so he's
Speaker 1: a pro, a legit dude. But there's no light, and
Speaker 1: they just put like rock and roll music, which doesn't
Speaker 1: fit the mood at all. It's like coming up next
Speaker 1: the Great Colleague by now Brown No no, no, no,
Speaker 1: no no, and he's doing this slow like monster walk
Speaker 1: like it just doesn't match. It's a horror movie without music.
Speaker 1: So so anyway, we do that and I don't see
Speaker 1: anybody else and I'm sitting in the room like, man,
Speaker 1: these guys they played me. I was waiting for tomorrow.
Speaker 1: We'll go to the next city and uh, I get
Speaker 1: to shoot my thing. So the show ends. I see
Speaker 1: Bruce and he goes, hey, great job with that promo,
Speaker 1: and I go, yeah, man, thanks, thanks. We uh we
Speaker 1: take our our flight or cars. We drove to the
Speaker 1: next town and we get ready for SmackDown. We get
Speaker 1: to the production meeting and Vince hasn't read the script
Speaker 1: and the showrunner for this I think his name was
Speaker 1: Ed and uh we're sitting there and DJ, yeah it
Speaker 1: was and indeed I did an x T, DJ did macdam.
Speaker 1: So we're sitting there and Vince hasn't read anything, and uh,
Speaker 1: he starts tearing the script apart, and he starts asking
Speaker 1: for input, and again nobody says anything. So I I
Speaker 1: put my hand up again. I'm the new guy, and
Speaker 1: they hate me whatever they're gonna hate me. I'm Eyther,
Speaker 1: gonna prove myself or I'm not. And so I just
Speaker 1: start pitching what I had originally done, but now with
Speaker 1: the wrestlers that they had agreed we're going to wrestle,
Speaker 1: So I'm just kind of forcing stories on people. I'm
Speaker 1: going in there and I'm talking to Brian and he's
Speaker 1: wanting to do this like sadistic kind of cerebral heal
Speaker 1: character who's gonna use his mind to be people. But
Speaker 1: he's not willing to cheat. And so I showed him
Speaker 1: this promo and I tell him basically what I just
Speaker 1: told y'all, which is, you know, anything that you don't like,
Speaker 1: throw away. You can ask my producers. I say, hey,
Speaker 1: you give me any criticism you want. It's not You're
Speaker 1: not gonna hurt my feelings. We're all working on the
Speaker 1: same thing here. There's a million ways to get it right.
Speaker 1: The only way to get it wrong is if you
Speaker 1: don't commit right. So I'm talking about this and he's
Speaker 1: really goes, no, man, I really like this. I just
Speaker 1: want to get it right. I go and I feel that, man,
Speaker 1: because I was like that when I was a young actor.
Speaker 1: I said, but if something sounds off, just kill it
Speaker 1: and do your own thing. Put it on there. And
Speaker 1: they've teamed Brian up with this huge dude named Rickland
Speaker 1: and they called him Ezekiel Jackson, so buff man, I mean,
Speaker 1: just looked like he was carved from stone. And Zeus
Speaker 1: was like, yeah, that guy, that's what I want to
Speaker 1: look like, not tiny Zeus, the actual Greek god Zeus.
Speaker 1: So they don't tell me this, I get there we're
Speaker 1: backstage and he's like, hey man, I'm Rickland and he's
Speaker 1: like the nicest dude. I'm like, oh man, he's from Oakland, California.
Speaker 1: And I shake his hand and his hand is just
Speaker 1: like it's like two of my hands, right, and I
Speaker 1: can't even see anything but my wrist. And I'm like, dang, bro,
Speaker 1: what's going on? And he's like, oh, I'm with him.
Speaker 1: And I was like, oh, okay, okay, okay, okay, let's
Speaker 1: let's work this out. So Brian has this high concept
Speaker 1: there's this like line between genius and insanity. But if
Speaker 1: you're not willing to tie it, rope it or whatever
Speaker 1: the dialogue, if you're not willing to walk that line,
Speaker 1: if you're not willing to take that risk, then you'll
Speaker 1: never And it's and what he's saying is kind of true,
Speaker 1: but it's but it's kind of in an a whole
Speaker 1: sort of way. And I don't know what to do
Speaker 1: with Rickland because every w W thing I've ever seen
Speaker 1: was just a big guy standing there, right, and they're
Speaker 1: intimidating and big and strong, but it's there's nothing there.
Speaker 1: So we're about to shoot, and I'm walking by and
Speaker 1: there's like a stack of books, just a random stack
Speaker 1: of books that like an employee who worked in the
Speaker 1: arena had left there, and one of them was Dr
Speaker 1: SEUs is the Cat in the Hat. And something in
Speaker 1: my brain just went, dude, I'm gonna make him read
Speaker 1: that book in the background while Brian's cutting this promo,
Speaker 1: and that's gonna be the funniest ship that is on
Speaker 1: this whole show, and it's gonna look sick. So I
Speaker 1: get the book and I go to Rickland. I go, yo, man,
Speaker 1: what if you just read Dr Sue in the background
Speaker 1: so I can see it and nobody will know unless
Speaker 1: they're looking, and they have to don't, And go, yo,
Speaker 1: is that humongous dud reading a cat and a hat
Speaker 1: while this guy is quoting son Sue? That's what it was.
Speaker 1: I had. I had Brian quoting Son Sue in the
Speaker 1: promo also, and uh And he's like, dude, that's really funny.
Speaker 1: I go, I don't know if it will get approved,
Speaker 1: but let's take a shot, and if they hate it,
Speaker 1: it's all on me. I'll say you didn't even want
Speaker 1: to do it. And he's like, okay, cool, thanks, So
Speaker 1: we shoot it. We just shoot it one time. I
Speaker 1: have to get Stephanie McMahon or Bruce to approve it,
Speaker 1: and uh, Bruce comes by and he takes a look
Speaker 1: and he goes, damn, that's pretty good, and like, all right, cool,
Speaker 1: thanks man. He goes, you gotta get through Steph, and
Speaker 1: I go, okay. So Steph comes by and Steph like me, man.
Speaker 1: I talked to you guys in the first episode about
Speaker 1: the meeting her and I had, and her wanting me
Speaker 1: to take chances and and really communicate my opinions to
Speaker 1: her father in a respectful way, but to communicate those things.
Speaker 1: So I showed it to her and she approved it.
Speaker 1: It's sixty seconds. It's not a big thing, but it's
Speaker 1: an opportunity for this guy to get a character over
Speaker 1: before you see him on his own for the first time.
Speaker 1: So he does it. Vince sees it, and Vince really
Speaker 1: likes it, right, this little sixty second, one minute thing,
Speaker 1: and he books Brian the next week in a much
Speaker 1: bigger match in the second hour and he's gonna get
Speaker 1: a commercial break. And it all kind of clicked for
Speaker 1: me there with Michael, because Michael brought me in his
Speaker 1: office and he said, look, you did ah, you did
Speaker 1: a real good thing. You gotta remember, he goes, and
Speaker 1: I wish more you bleepers would remember this. The writer's
Speaker 1: sole function is to help get the talent over and
Speaker 1: basically what he was saying is, don't have any ego,
Speaker 1: don't make it about you, because a lot of the writers,
Speaker 1: well not a lot of them, but a handful of
Speaker 1: the writers would make it. Did you see my promo?
Speaker 1: Did you see my promo? It's like you mean, did
Speaker 1: I see Kyne's promo? Yeah? Man, that guy can make
Speaker 1: anybody's writing look good. Get out of here and what
Speaker 1: you want to cookie. So there was some of that.
Speaker 1: They're not as much on raw, but definitely on SmackDown,
Speaker 1: And so that hammered in my brain pretty quick. And
Speaker 1: I was raised a humble guy. I was raised by
Speaker 1: a bunch of psycho martial artists like Bob Wall, Gene LaBelle,
Speaker 1: Pat Johnson, Chuck Norris. Like anytime I thought, uh that
Speaker 1: I was hot stuff, trust me, they reminded me real
Speaker 1: quick where I was on the letter. So I appreciated
Speaker 1: that point of view, and I started working really hard
Speaker 1: on this. And we weren't supposed to really connect with
Speaker 1: the talent because the promos would change so much. But
Speaker 1: that was one of the w W rules that I
Speaker 1: just threw in the trash. And I contacted Brian right
Speaker 1: away when we started talking about this promo in the ring.
Speaker 1: He's gonna get in ring promo before his match, and uh,
Speaker 1: we're setting all this up and I got the promo
Speaker 1: and he just starts reading it to me and he
Speaker 1: makes it. He makes a few he had the confidence
Speaker 1: to make a few changes on it, and uh, it's
Speaker 1: so much better after he does that, and he's reading
Speaker 1: it to me again, and this is over the phone.
Speaker 1: I'm like, man, that sounds great. You just need to
Speaker 1: get off book. He's like, brother, I already am. He goes,
Speaker 1: I'm not reading. He goes, I've memorized, and I was like, oh, dude,
Speaker 1: you're the man. So we got this whole thing set
Speaker 1: for the week, and uh, the following week, we get
Speaker 1: to the production meeting Monday night. Raw happens. I don't
Speaker 1: have much to do on that show yet. That happens later, um,
Speaker 1: and so uh so we get to our Tuesday, Vince
Speaker 1: hasn't read smacked down again and all the writers are
Speaker 1: just depressed because it felt like you were on a
Speaker 1: show he didn't care about. Right. That was why all
Speaker 1: the writers on Raw seemed to work a little harder,
Speaker 1: seemed to have a better attitude because they were getting
Speaker 1: notes during the week, you know what I mean, instead
Speaker 1: of in the production meeting telling them all how horrible
Speaker 1: they are and why did they go in this direction?
Speaker 1: And the writers are like, man, just you give us
Speaker 1: any direction, bro, we will go there. But every direction
Speaker 1: we choose, you hate. So they just they needed that
Speaker 1: kind of a flow and they did not. They did
Speaker 1: not have it. So we get in there and uh
Speaker 1: and Bruce just tears my promo apart pretty my mentor.
Speaker 1: It just says, that's a lot of talk, Vince, That's
Speaker 1: what he said. And I see DJ's head go down.
Speaker 1: I don't know, that's the kiss of death. Okay, DJ's
Speaker 1: head goes down. I'm like what I'm I'm fighting for
Speaker 1: my idea. So I go, hang hang on a second,
Speaker 1: hang on a second. I go, look, we did really
Speaker 1: well with this guy last week. We all think he
Speaker 1: can work. Please give me a chance with this promo.
Speaker 1: Give Brian a chance to execute this. I can't say
Speaker 1: he's already off book right, Otherwise I'm admitting that I'm
Speaker 1: breaking a rule. So I go, this guy gets off
Speaker 1: book crazy fast. Give him an opportunity with it. It's
Speaker 1: not too much for him. He's asking for this, he
Speaker 1: wants the opportunity. And he's read and I'm talking, I'm talking,
Speaker 1: I'm talking, and then Bruce just closes it with it's
Speaker 1: a lot of talk, and so they rewrite it. They
Speaker 1: want me to rewrite it. So I rewrite it and
Speaker 1: I make it way shorter, and then DJ takes it
Speaker 1: to Vince and when he comes back, it's being rewritten
Speaker 1: again by Vince, by DJ v E Vince. So now
Speaker 1: I'm looking at it and it's a mess. It's just
Speaker 1: a mess, and there's like two words in that are
Speaker 1: mine and I have to go to talent. This is
Speaker 1: my second or third week in the company. I didn't
Speaker 1: know this happened every week. I would like sitting there going, oh,
Speaker 1: he's never heard this before. Meanwhile, he's heard it every
Speaker 1: day of his life working for the company. So I
Speaker 1: knock on the door and uh, he invites me in
Speaker 1: and none of the old school guys are in there,
Speaker 1: which is why I think he did. And uh we
Speaker 1: sit down. I say, hey, man, I got bad news.
Speaker 1: And he goes, they killed it and I go, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: He goes, I don't get to say anything. I go, no, no,
Speaker 1: you do. But we gotta figure out a way to
Speaker 1: make this sound good and it and it has to
Speaker 1: be these words I was told. And he's like, all right, man,
Speaker 1: let's just do it. And instead of just you know,
Speaker 1: complaining and moaning, he's a lot like me, and we
Speaker 1: just attack this thing right, and we're working at beat
Speaker 1: by beat. It's called moment to moment. It's how I
Speaker 1: learned in acting School's how a lot of actors learned.
Speaker 1: You don't want to blur moments. You want to make
Speaker 1: sure certain things hit otherwise you take the value away
Speaker 1: from those words if you just keep going right now,
Speaker 1: in the wrestling business, it's hard. Thanks to stone Cold
Speaker 1: Steve Austin as anytime someone paused to remember a line,
Speaker 1: he would go what and the crowd loved that. He
Speaker 1: sort of broke the fourth wall there, Shame on you,
Speaker 1: stone Cold. The whole thing is rewritten. Brian and I
Speaker 1: are trying to learn this and it's gonna be live
Speaker 1: in the ring, and it's my segment. Even though I
Speaker 1: didn't write a freaking word of it um. And I
Speaker 1: have to sit next to Vince in Guerrilla for the
Speaker 1: first time, and Brian goes out there and they what
Speaker 1: him through the whole promo, through the whole promo, and
Speaker 1: he's off book and that it's why I hate the
Speaker 1: what so much. And it's just personal because I know
Speaker 1: what Brian could have done right. So Vince's piste and
Speaker 1: he's like, oh, that's blape and watts A damn it
Speaker 1: this promo ship and he looks at me and he goes,
Speaker 1: this is ship. And I look at him and I go,
Speaker 1: I agreed, and he we don't say anything, goes why,
Speaker 1: I go, I didn't write this. I told you what
Speaker 1: I wanted to do. We made this the best we could.
Speaker 1: I can make this show the best I can make it.
Speaker 1: But you have to let me. You gotta give me
Speaker 1: a chance. And he just kind of grunts the way
Speaker 1: he would grunt when he doesn't want to acknowledge the
Speaker 1: opinion and just kind of wants to move on. But
Speaker 1: he's letting you know, all right, this one's on me
Speaker 1: without saying it. Right. It's the most accountability you'll get
Speaker 1: in the in the show. Moments after the show you
Speaker 1: can have talks and stuff like that. So the promo
Speaker 1: fails and Brian knows it fails, but they give Brian
Speaker 1: some more opportunities and it leads to the crazy Pat
Speaker 1: Patterson Scramble match. Or technically Brian was the champion for
Speaker 1: a while. Within the construct of that match. Um, some
Speaker 1: shady stuff went down in that match, which we'll talk
Speaker 1: about in a later episode because they did arrest the
Speaker 1: rail wrong in that, but I can't get into that
Speaker 1: in this one. UM, So moving on. UM, I'm kind
Speaker 1: of learning the ropes at this point. I'm figuring out
Speaker 1: where I'm gonna fit in, and I'm already learning what
Speaker 1: my strengths are. And they begin or Vince says, Freddie,
Speaker 1: I want you to come on the plane. Andre to
Speaker 1: come on a plane. We're gonna we're going to Cleveland.
Speaker 1: So we flat a lovely Cleveland. It's very cold and
Speaker 1: uh and I like California weather. So we go into
Speaker 1: the arena and Ben says, we're doing a promo class today.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna show you how we do promo class. Say
Speaker 1: all right, man, So I sit down and we're gonna
Speaker 1: finish with this story and then our next episode we
Speaker 1: will get deep into it, but this is one of
Speaker 1: my favorite moments of working at this company, so I
Speaker 1: want to end it with something that I think is
Speaker 1: really awesome. So I sit down, and every single professional
Speaker 1: wrestler employed by the w w E on the roster
Speaker 1: is in the production meeting. Okay, before the production meeting
Speaker 1: would happened. We're in that room, all of them, all
Speaker 1: of the writers and agents are in the very back,
Speaker 1: and Vince is sitting like at the front of the room,
Speaker 1: off to the side, behind a table with like protein
Speaker 1: bars and whatever, like energy drinks. He drinks, and uh,
Speaker 1: I'm sitting there. I'm like, wow, this is crazy, man.
Speaker 1: It's like full on auditorium in here. And he starts,
Speaker 1: he gets up and he starts talking about what he's wanting,
Speaker 1: what he's lacking or what they're lacking, and what he's
Speaker 1: not seeing from them. And he's literally says the words,
Speaker 1: you gotta give me a little razzle dazzle, and the
Speaker 1: writer to my left, who was a younger guy, whispers,
Speaker 1: what the hell does razzle dazzled me? And so I
Speaker 1: know none of the wrestlers really know. He's like yeah,
Speaker 1: because Vince looks at it like, it's vaudeville. And he's
Speaker 1: even made this comparison to me, says, we give him
Speaker 1: some comedy, we give him some music, we give him
Speaker 1: some drama and suspense. It's vaudeville, Freddy, it's vaudeville. Um.
Speaker 1: I was highly educated on vaudeville because my dad, who
Speaker 1: was a straight boss stand up comic and comedic actor
Speaker 1: back in the day, worked with Jack Albertson, who was
Speaker 1: the man on Chico and the Man. You guys would
Speaker 1: know him his uncle Joe from Bully Wonka and a
Speaker 1: chocolate factory. But he was an old vaudeville guy. That's
Speaker 1: how he got his start. So I kind of learned
Speaker 1: about the history of vaudeville when I was learning about
Speaker 1: my father, And all of a sudden, Vince and I click, okay.
Speaker 1: So we have this moment right before promo class and
Speaker 1: now he's given him the speech of the razzle dazzle
Speaker 1: and all that. He goes, so, now you're gonna show
Speaker 1: me what you've got. Let me get some volunteers and
Speaker 1: a few people put their hands up. But Shamus, who
Speaker 1: you guys all know, he gets up and he walks
Speaker 1: to the front. He takes initiative. He didn't wait for
Speaker 1: someone to say yes, and Vince likes that. That's an
Speaker 1: alpha move, right. Wade Barrett, who used to be there
Speaker 1: now he does commentary, I think for n x T.
Speaker 1: He uh, he gets up next. So we got the
Speaker 1: Irishman and the Englishman up there. This should be a
Speaker 1: real easy promo for these guys to cut. If you
Speaker 1: don't know, why, check out your European history so or
Speaker 1: just google Protestants versus guy flix Um. Anyway, so they
Speaker 1: get up there and they're ready to do their thing,
Speaker 1: and Vince says, hold on, hold on, I'm gonna give
Speaker 1: you a premise. You're a dog, and you're a dog
Speaker 1: now make me want to watch you fight. And my
Speaker 1: heart stops. I'm not even the one doing it, but
Speaker 1: you could feel the panic, like since everyone got tight, man,
Speaker 1: there was so much tension, and you just see sweat
Speaker 1: beads form all over Wade Barrett's forehead right, just all
Speaker 1: over him. And Shamus is stone quiet like, he doesn't move.
Speaker 1: He looks like one of the English soldiers outside the palace.
Speaker 1: They're frozen. Thirty seconds go by, not a sound, seconds
Speaker 1: go by, nothing, I'm dying man like I want to
Speaker 1: just jump up and yell stop. It's like a murder.
Speaker 1: It's like watching a murder. A minute goes by, Shamus
Speaker 1: says on accident out loud, is it on accident or
Speaker 1: by accident? Which chevery one? On accident out loud says,
Speaker 1: I think I'm having an out the body experience. And
Speaker 1: no one laughs, no one says anything because they can't
Speaker 1: believe it just came out of his mouth. Now, Wade,
Speaker 1: he takes the first step, because Shamus is like in
Speaker 1: a different zone right now, right like he's in this
Speaker 1: place where he was a kid and wanted to be
Speaker 1: a wrestler, and what is going on? I'm a dog?
Speaker 1: Why did I step forward? Why did I raise my hand?
Speaker 1: Why I should just do my own like you could
Speaker 1: just see it right and way. It's like, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: go for it. He said, you're a dog. You're a dog,
Speaker 1: all right. You can see him prepping and he growls.
Speaker 1: And as soon as he growls, Vince gets up and
Speaker 1: goes not an actual plate and dog, and he storms
Speaker 1: out of the room right comes back in. He goes,
Speaker 1: let's try again. So now Shamuses go He's not gonna
Speaker 1: let Wade go out like that twice in a row,
Speaker 1: Like these dudes look out for each other and these
Speaker 1: chicks look out for each other. So Shamus is going
Speaker 1: to be the baby faced dog and he starts talking
Speaker 1: and he's saying, hey, I'm a good old dog. You
Speaker 1: know I'm loyal on this. I'm that, and Vince goes,
Speaker 1: just forget the hall damn thing and he storms off.
Speaker 1: Promo class is canceled. So I, he just told me
Speaker 1: how great it was gonna be. So I go to
Speaker 1: Vince's office within like five minutes, knock on the door
Speaker 1: and uh come in and go in Vince's office and uh,
Speaker 1: I say, hey, let me talk to you about promo class.
Speaker 1: And he goes, well, what did you think? I go, well,
Speaker 1: I think you're using terminology that they don't quite understand,
Speaker 1: and I think they get crazy nervous at the fear
Speaker 1: of failure in front of not only their peers, but
Speaker 1: in front of the people who make decisions on their careers.
Speaker 1: And I don't think it's an environment. I remember this
Speaker 1: word for word, and I don't think it's an environment
Speaker 1: that's conducive to success. That's what I hit him with.
Speaker 1: And I'm like working on this my way into his office.
Speaker 1: I said, listen, this is gonna sound off the wall.
Speaker 1: But what if I did what my acting coach did
Speaker 1: for our class. You give me one of these like
Speaker 1: rooms that don't have anybody in him that's not being used,
Speaker 1: and I'll teach them the same way all these young
Speaker 1: actors were taught. And I started hitting him with all
Speaker 1: the actors that were in my acting class, not realizing
Speaker 1: he wouldn't know who Kirsten Dunst is. He didn't know
Speaker 1: who the hell I was. He didn't know who any
Speaker 1: of these people were, right, And we had a we
Speaker 1: had a deep class, all crazy successful actors, all of
Speaker 1: us were working. So I hit him with this and
Speaker 1: he goes, uh, yeah, I go find a stage manager
Speaker 1: let him know. And so I'm like in my head,
Speaker 1: I'm like, wow, I would just set this up were
Speaker 1: they're gonna believe me? Like, I don't understand. So I
Speaker 1: have the email Evince's guy Jimmy, who's like the guy
Speaker 1: that sits on his desk. This us his ex army
Speaker 1: dude had to be ex military, and uh. I hit
Speaker 1: him up and I say, hey man, I'm gonna start
Speaker 1: a acting class. I got Vince's approval, but I don't
Speaker 1: know who the hell to go to to get this
Speaker 1: thing going. Can you help me out? And he writes
Speaker 1: me back, I got it. That's it. The next week
Speaker 1: I show up and all the stage managers who had
Speaker 1: avoided me like the plague, none of them liked me. Now,
Speaker 1: like the main dude is right there. He goes, uh, Freddie,
Speaker 1: I've got a room ready for you. Um, we're ready
Speaker 1: to start your acting classes. We're calling a promo class
Speaker 1: that's gonna be labeled outside there, and everything's gonna be
Speaker 1: taken care for you. And I was like, oh, dude,
Speaker 1: thank you man. I appreciate that they're being like so nice.
Speaker 1: So the promo class is gonna happen before the production meeting.
Speaker 1: So now I've just given myself more work. I have
Speaker 1: to do both. I get an hour with talent and
Speaker 1: then I get to go sit through a thirteen hour
Speaker 1: production meeting for a live show and give everyone sixteen
Speaker 1: seconds to prepare for it. So, uh so I go
Speaker 1: and I see the sign and it's glorious. Man. It
Speaker 1: says promo class, and they digitally they did all the
Speaker 1: digital stuff on the printer made it look professional. And
Speaker 1: it's right on the door. And I opened the door
Speaker 1: and I get inside and I'm not joking. It's a
Speaker 1: utility closet. There's no chairs, and it's about the size
Speaker 1: of a prison cell in Alcatraz. Okay. One wrestler shows up, okay,
Speaker 1: and he's a e W now Sean Spears and I
Speaker 1: sit with him and I go, man, this one hurt.
Speaker 1: And he goes, that's a pretty good rib. And I go,
Speaker 1: what's a rib? He goes, and they're just pranking you
Speaker 1: see it? How much you can take? I said, all right?
Speaker 1: I said all right. He goes, well, what do you
Speaker 1: want to do. I go, well, let's just work on
Speaker 1: some stuff. He goes, well, I'm not on TV this week.
Speaker 1: I go, well, then, what's your favorite movie? And he
Speaker 1: tells me, are alright, so what movie do you like
Speaker 1: right now? I think, I said, and he said Bad Boys?
Speaker 1: And I said, well, I'm gonna take a scene from
Speaker 1: Bad Boys, and I'm gonna show you how I think
Speaker 1: these two gentlemen broke it down based on my experience,
Speaker 1: and you and I are going to do this scene together.
Speaker 1: He goes, okay, and so for an hour we did
Speaker 1: the scene from Bad Boys where Martin Lawrence is driving
Speaker 1: and Will Smith's is you know, you drive almost low
Speaker 1: enough to drive Miss Daisy, and He's like, drive like
Speaker 1: a bit. He's like, wow, I got to be all that.
Speaker 1: And we're doing this back and forth and just kind
Speaker 1: of like playing right. Next week comes and this is
Speaker 1: this I promised to the end the story. And I'm
Speaker 1: in another utility closet, only now I got six wrestlers,
Speaker 1: and I bring in six chairs that I'm just finding
Speaker 1: from other rooms and putting them in there. And we
Speaker 1: just sat down and we talked about the process of
Speaker 1: what we were gonna do and how we're gonna do it.
Speaker 1: And I basically told them, you're gonna bring me scenes
Speaker 1: from your favorite movies. I'm gonna show you how I
Speaker 1: believe they were broken down by these actors. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: give you four weeks to get off book. Each week,
Speaker 1: we're gonna want to be further down the road with
Speaker 1: these scenes. And then when you're done with it and
Speaker 1: it's performance quality, I expect you to be off book
Speaker 1: and ready to kick ass with choices that you didn't
Speaker 1: just see in the movie, but choices that we've been
Speaker 1: experiencing with and everybody was crazy because I said, you
Speaker 1: don't have to do any of the work. I said,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna print up all the pages for you. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna email you everything you need to do. You you you
Speaker 1: just need to be committed to the class. That's all
Speaker 1: for this week, and I appreciate you guys for listening.
Speaker 1: And remember, if you want to support what we do,
Speaker 1: then please share. You guys, hit it up on social media.
Speaker 1: You can tag me in it. I'll always talk some
Speaker 1: trash back and forth with you guys, or send love.
Speaker 1: If you send love, I will see you on the
Speaker 1: next episode of Wrestling with Freddy. Until then, this has
Speaker 1: been a production of I Heart Radio is Michael Tour
Speaker 1: podcast Network. For more podcasts for my Heart Radio, visit
Speaker 1: the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows. H