WEBVTT - Corazón de León Chris Jericho 0:00:03.120 --> 0:00:06.960 What's up everybody. Welcome back to Wrestling with Freddy, and 0:00:07.000 --> 0:00:10.240 we have a very special guest today. I'm always excited 0:00:10.280 --> 0:00:12.480 when I get the chance to speak to him. He's 0:00:12.520 --> 0:00:17.119 succeeded in so many different areas of art and uh 0:00:17.160 --> 0:00:19.600 and life, and I like getting to speak to these 0:00:19.640 --> 0:00:22.000 types of people more than anyone else. So let's start 0:00:22.040 --> 0:00:25.880 the show. Welcome to Wrestling with Freddy. Now stopping up 0:00:25.880 --> 0:00:30.360 for the mic, the host of Wrestling with Freddie Freddie 0:00:30.640 --> 0:00:36.600 Prince June. Yah, ladies and gentlemen, please welcome one of 0:00:36.600 --> 0:00:39.480 the all time greats and one of my favorites, Mr 0:00:39.520 --> 0:00:43.680 Chris Jericho. All right, and I'm excited to you. You've 0:00:43.720 --> 0:00:47.040 done my show before, and now it's only fair that 0:00:47.080 --> 0:00:50.720 I do yours in return. How are you, brother? I'm 0:00:50.720 --> 0:00:54.040 doing good, man, I'm doing good. Like I said. Uh, 0:00:54.120 --> 0:00:57.680 you know, we've been busy this whole time, over the 0:00:57.760 --> 0:00:59.880 last year and a half, you know, with with a 0:01:00.240 --> 0:01:01.840 w and of course now that we're all back on 0:01:01.880 --> 0:01:04.040 the road and there's crowds and other stuff. So for me, 0:01:04.400 --> 0:01:08.120 the whole uh you know, lockdown and Pandemic was obviously 0:01:08.480 --> 0:01:11.440 a hindrance, but we still kept moving every week so 0:01:11.520 --> 0:01:14.880 it wasn't like I was ever, you know, stuck in 0:01:14.920 --> 0:01:18.000 a house and couldn't go be creative, so that that 0:01:18.080 --> 0:01:19.560 kind of helped me. So I've been actually really good 0:01:19.560 --> 0:01:21.679 over the last you know, a couple of years. See, 0:01:21.760 --> 0:01:24.320 for me, it was the opposite because I'm an introvert, 0:01:24.440 --> 0:01:26.600 so I literally was in heaven. I was like, I 0:01:26.640 --> 0:01:30.640 don't have to see anyone going anywhere. I'll sit in 0:01:30.680 --> 0:01:33.880 my little studio and write all day long. It was heaven. 0:01:34.880 --> 0:01:37.120 A lot of people like that, absolutely, so it was 0:01:38.080 --> 0:01:40.520 I don't do very long episodes, but we got a 0:01:40.520 --> 0:01:43.479 lot to catch up on. Sure. Since I last spoke 0:01:43.520 --> 0:01:46.720 to you, you helped you helped create an entire new 0:01:46.760 --> 0:01:51.560 wrestling federation and uh it has since launched. It has 0:01:51.640 --> 0:01:56.320 become wildly successful. And the growth that you guys are showing, 0:01:56.320 --> 0:01:58.400 and I'm not talking about numbers and all that stuff 0:01:58.440 --> 0:02:00.000 because I don't care about that. You guys are gonna 0:02:00.000 --> 0:02:02.720 beyond ten years regardless of numbers, and then people can 0:02:02.760 --> 0:02:06.360 talk about whether or not mountains have been climbed, but 0:02:06.400 --> 0:02:09.760 you guys have already kind of established a foundation. I 0:02:09.880 --> 0:02:14.320 like watching, and I watch much more consistently than I originally. Uh, 0:02:14.720 --> 0:02:17.840 did with this younger talent that you guys are bringing up. 0:02:18.440 --> 0:02:23.000 You're seeing creative growth on a damn near weekly basis 0:02:23.080 --> 0:02:26.880 with some of these younger people. And I don't know 0:02:26.919 --> 0:02:30.440 how much you're willing to go behind the curtain here 0:02:30.480 --> 0:02:33.480 and how much of the the sort of love you're 0:02:33.480 --> 0:02:37.040 willing to share. But a lot of these young kids. 0:02:37.080 --> 0:02:40.200 I watched someone like m JF. And I'm just sitting 0:02:40.240 --> 0:02:44.640 there like he's doing an old school thing but in 0:02:44.680 --> 0:02:49.760 a new school way, and somehow he's It's like Japan, 0:02:50.000 --> 0:02:52.880 like they exist with like the oldest of old and 0:02:52.919 --> 0:02:55.760 the newest of new, and they don't crap on each 0:02:55.760 --> 0:02:58.680 other and somehow they make it work. And I he's 0:02:58.720 --> 0:03:01.600 this weird hybrid that I don't know if people are 0:03:01.639 --> 0:03:03.160 are used to see him for a while. Do you 0:03:03.160 --> 0:03:04.920 want to talk about him or are you supposed to 0:03:04.919 --> 0:03:06.640 hate him right now? Do you want to smash him 0:03:06.639 --> 0:03:09.840 in the face. Um, this is not a movie, you know. 0:03:09.880 --> 0:03:13.400 This is not uh, you know, like your experience doing 0:03:13.639 --> 0:03:15.680 Scooby Doo or whatever it may be. It's like, this 0:03:15.720 --> 0:03:17.520 is not a script for somebody wrote it and this 0:03:17.600 --> 0:03:20.519 is the part you play for the next ninety minutes. 0:03:20.560 --> 0:03:22.560 This is something that we play on a weekly basis. 0:03:22.840 --> 0:03:27.280 Like you said, for ten years for me thirty one years. Uh, 0:03:27.360 --> 0:03:31.520 you cannot write a promo for me. Um, that's gonna 0:03:31.560 --> 0:03:34.519 be better than what I can write for myself now 0:03:34.560 --> 0:03:37.560 in w B after working there for you know, a 0:03:37.600 --> 0:03:40.760 dozen years, I had kind of more freedom to to 0:03:41.200 --> 0:03:43.640 do that, but a lot of other guys didn't and 0:03:43.640 --> 0:03:46.160 would kind of have to do what they were told, 0:03:46.200 --> 0:03:51.520 and therefore it gets very uh, stagnant, sterile. It doesn't 0:03:51.560 --> 0:03:53.960 feel real. And I think the a W from day 0:03:53.960 --> 0:03:57.080 one has always let the guys do their own promos, 0:03:57.160 --> 0:03:59.880 write their own stuff. Something I said, let the pro 0:04:00.160 --> 0:04:02.520 was be pros. That's what we're paid to be. And 0:04:02.560 --> 0:04:06.320 whether it's being on screen, behind the scenes, lighting whatever, 0:04:06.480 --> 0:04:08.920 I'm not going to tell the lighting director how he 0:04:08.960 --> 0:04:12.920 should light my face because we hire right. We have 0:04:13.160 --> 0:04:16.240 the old school John Malkovitch philosophy where he says, hey, 0:04:16.240 --> 0:04:18.080 I don't tell you where to put the cameras, don't 0:04:18.080 --> 0:04:21.680 tell me about my motivation exactly it's right. And it's 0:04:21.720 --> 0:04:25.679 the Clint Eastwood thing where where you hear where he's 0:04:26.400 --> 0:04:28.680 doesn't do a lot of takes. Why is that? Because 0:04:28.720 --> 0:04:31.520 I hired these guys because I thought they're the best 0:04:31.800 --> 0:04:34.279 guys for the part. I don't need twenty takes to 0:04:34.360 --> 0:04:36.360 convince me of that one or two is pretty much 0:04:36.360 --> 0:04:38.520 going to be the closest, right. I feel the same 0:04:38.520 --> 0:04:39.880 with a W. So when you take a kind of 0:04:39.880 --> 0:04:43.719 like and JF, if he was in another company, they 0:04:43.760 --> 0:04:46.400 would probably give him more of a script, which is 0:04:46.440 --> 0:04:48.840 not going to be the same as when you just 0:04:48.880 --> 0:04:51.760 talk off the cuff. Though sometimes he says things, I 0:04:51.880 --> 0:04:53.600 say things all of us do that maybe we're a 0:04:53.600 --> 0:04:55.919 little bit over the line, But for the most part, 0:04:56.240 --> 0:05:00.599 it's more real, and it feels more admitted, and it 0:05:00.640 --> 0:05:05.520 just feels, uh like the whole scenario is more legit. 0:05:05.600 --> 0:05:07.760 And I think the first thing people notice when they 0:05:07.760 --> 0:05:10.640 started seeing a W from day one is that this 0:05:10.760 --> 0:05:13.600 just feels different because the guys can be more of 0:05:13.640 --> 0:05:17.080 the characters that they want to be and not characters 0:05:17.120 --> 0:05:18.760 that have to be approved through. And you know this 0:05:18.880 --> 0:05:21.560 more than anybody four or five sets of rewrites and 0:05:21.600 --> 0:05:24.599 redrafts and approvals four or five, I mean they had 0:05:26.120 --> 0:05:29.240 in their given notes. So like, right, it's going in 0:05:29.360 --> 0:05:32.440 on right now. Yeah, And you know, like I said, 0:05:32.440 --> 0:05:33.880 if if, if you and I were going to write 0:05:33.920 --> 0:05:36.760 a script, and we honed it and did rewrites and 0:05:36.800 --> 0:05:40.400 rewrites and wrists and finally sold it. For the most part, 0:05:40.480 --> 0:05:43.520 that script that we're now casting our our actors with 0:05:43.760 --> 0:05:47.680 would be you know, ninety complete most of the time, 0:05:47.960 --> 0:05:51.640 most of the time in this you know, if in 0:05:51.680 --> 0:05:54.599 the w W world they're writing their scripts the day 0:05:54.600 --> 0:05:57.320 of the show sometimes and then changing it right up 0:05:57.360 --> 0:06:00.719 to Uh, there's no way you can really master that 0:06:00.800 --> 0:06:03.520 as a performer. The best way is just your own 0:06:03.760 --> 0:06:07.120 personal character and knowing your character better than anybody else. 0:06:07.400 --> 0:06:08.960 What would I say? What would I do? Know? Some 0:06:09.080 --> 0:06:12.960 guys need help. M JF doesn't need help, Chris Jericho 0:06:13.000 --> 0:06:14.880 doesn't need help. Those type of guys can go out 0:06:14.880 --> 0:06:17.679 there and do what they what they're paid to do, 0:06:17.880 --> 0:06:20.480 and it just comes across better. And as a result, 0:06:20.560 --> 0:06:22.840 I think more people really enjoyed our show right out 0:06:22.839 --> 0:06:24.599 of the gate because of that I might not have 0:06:24.680 --> 0:06:27.279 expected at first, because of them, Well, wrestling is wrestling. 0:06:27.360 --> 0:06:30.440 That's not the case. Yeah, that's not the case at all. 0:06:30.520 --> 0:06:32.920 Let's uh, I wasn't expecting to go down this road. 0:06:32.920 --> 0:06:35.120 But let's go a little deeper into that. Because when 0:06:35.160 --> 0:06:37.719 I when I worked there. You hit me with a 0:06:37.760 --> 0:06:40.680 couple of philosophies and you probably won't even remember one 0:06:40.760 --> 0:06:43.599 of them, but I really took it to heart. But 0:06:43.760 --> 0:06:45.719 before we get into that, I want to talk about 0:06:45.720 --> 0:06:50.480 that writing element, because I always felt if you didn't 0:06:50.480 --> 0:06:53.520 know how to write your own promo, you needed someone 0:06:53.600 --> 0:06:57.560 like me. If you did, what am I what? What 0:06:57.600 --> 0:07:00.240 would we do? Like? There's no there's nothing that I 0:07:00.240 --> 0:07:02.360 can give you that you don't already know how to do. 0:07:02.680 --> 0:07:04.440 And most of the time, the people who knew how 0:07:04.520 --> 0:07:06.960 to write their own promos were already over to some extent, 0:07:07.279 --> 0:07:09.760 so they didn't need much help getting over outside of 0:07:09.800 --> 0:07:12.800 the other person in the ring. Where I found it 0:07:12.880 --> 0:07:18.239 to be most beneficial were people that either a couldn't 0:07:18.280 --> 0:07:20.480 do it and guys that were literally like, yo, man, 0:07:20.520 --> 0:07:22.240 could you just like give me a line reading and 0:07:22.280 --> 0:07:24.360 I'll just do it like like you do it. I'm like, 0:07:24.400 --> 0:07:26.640 all right, but you gotta sound tougher than me. I 0:07:26.720 --> 0:07:30.360 sound like, you know, a stoner from l A. You 0:07:30.440 --> 0:07:34.400 gotta sound like a badass. So um. The one thing 0:07:34.440 --> 0:07:38.800 that I did find though, was I could help problem 0:07:38.880 --> 0:07:43.920 solve a lot of the overwritten stuff. Right. I remember 0:07:43.960 --> 0:07:46.960 seeing an m v P promo and he hated it 0:07:47.240 --> 0:07:51.240 because Vince wrote it and or rewrote it, I should say. 0:07:51.320 --> 0:07:53.280 And I was kind of sitting in the back looking 0:07:53.320 --> 0:07:55.800 and I already knew what the fix was, right. It 0:07:55.920 --> 0:07:57.960 was just one little line that needed to be tweaked, 0:07:58.000 --> 0:07:59.840 and I knew it would be in his voice, and 0:08:00.000 --> 0:08:01.880 that was the problem. None of it was in his voice. 0:08:02.240 --> 0:08:04.720 And I finally just said, all right, he's either gonna 0:08:04.840 --> 0:08:07.760 knock me out, because we had never met and he 0:08:07.800 --> 0:08:09.720 wasn't giving me like a come on in and help 0:08:09.760 --> 0:08:12.560 out kind of. I said, he's either gonna throw a 0:08:12.600 --> 0:08:15.000 punch or he's gonna hear this out and I'll earn 0:08:15.080 --> 0:08:17.520 some respect. And I ran up and he was with 0:08:17.720 --> 0:08:20.040 he was with DJ, and I said, hey, man, I 0:08:20.080 --> 0:08:21.920 think it's just this one little line and it's kind 0:08:21.920 --> 0:08:23.560 of like a pulp fiction vibe. And I hit him 0:08:23.600 --> 0:08:24.960 with the line and he looked at me like he 0:08:25.000 --> 0:08:28.600 was gonna kill me. And I said the line and 0:08:28.640 --> 0:08:31.520 he goes, don't go anywhere, sit down, and I was like, okay, okay, 0:08:31.560 --> 0:08:34.200 I'm in, and we rewrote the promo real quick, and 0:08:34.240 --> 0:08:37.920 I just let him basically say what he wanted to say. 0:08:38.000 --> 0:08:39.600 And then I would kind of like put a couple 0:08:39.600 --> 0:08:42.520 of words there to bring those sentences together. And he 0:08:42.640 --> 0:08:45.120 and I had a really good working We became really 0:08:45.120 --> 0:08:48.120 good friends after that, even though he wanted to kill me. Um. 0:08:48.520 --> 0:08:52.360 But when I went to like pitch ideas, I would 0:08:52.400 --> 0:08:54.360 run into walls a lot. And then you and I 0:08:54.400 --> 0:08:56.560 had a conversation. And again I don't know if you'll 0:08:56.600 --> 0:08:59.840 remember this, but I was having a hard time pitching, 0:09:00.080 --> 0:09:03.240 uh some of the smaller guys, and you just kind 0:09:03.240 --> 0:09:07.320 of smiled and like looked away like you were remembering 0:09:07.440 --> 0:09:10.720 something way back when. And I didn't know what it was. 0:09:10.800 --> 0:09:12.679 But I'm like staring at him, like what's he gonna say? 0:09:12.720 --> 0:09:15.760 What's he gonna say? And whatever you were gonna say, 0:09:15.760 --> 0:09:20.280 you changed to Freddie. He's his father's son, and I went, 0:09:20.480 --> 0:09:21.880 I went, what do you what do you? What do 0:09:21.920 --> 0:09:24.040 you mean? I mean, I grew up without no dad, 0:09:24.120 --> 0:09:28.080 so it didn't click with me. And you said, his 0:09:28.160 --> 0:09:31.240 dad loved the big guys, and he's his father's son, 0:09:31.840 --> 0:09:34.600 so he's always going to see the big guy able 0:09:34.640 --> 0:09:37.120 to beat up the small guy, no matter how much 0:09:37.160 --> 0:09:40.120 evidence you show him, because his father told him it 0:09:40.200 --> 0:09:44.000 was that way. And I remember like getting on the 0:09:44.080 --> 0:09:49.280 plane and with Vince and kind of like looking at him, 0:09:50.080 --> 0:09:55.400 and I just changed. It changed my whole philosophy on 0:09:55.480 --> 0:09:59.040 how I pitched things, especially how I pitched the smaller guy. 0:09:59.200 --> 0:10:01.840 And the first one I tried it with was Kofi, 0:10:02.600 --> 0:10:05.800 and I literally just I pitched it like a like 0:10:05.840 --> 0:10:08.640 a Spider Man comic where all the bad guys beat 0:10:08.720 --> 0:10:11.560 up Spider Man the whole time, but it's his like 0:10:11.720 --> 0:10:14.080 goodness that's going to sort of bring it out and 0:10:14.120 --> 0:10:17.000 not Hulk out. But you know, we always pitched it 0:10:17.040 --> 0:10:18.880 where and of course you know he wouldn't win the 0:10:18.920 --> 0:10:21.080 he wouldn't win the title, but we'll just get him 0:10:21.120 --> 0:10:23.319 into that match, and you know we'd always be like, well, 0:10:23.360 --> 0:10:26.680 cross that title bridge when we get there. So so 0:10:27.040 --> 0:10:29.280 it really changed the way I pitched, and I started 0:10:29.320 --> 0:10:32.480 having a lot of success with it. And after Kofi 0:10:32.679 --> 0:10:36.199 came to Jeff Hardy storyline which brought him to the Championship, 0:10:36.280 --> 0:10:39.040 and I literally started just looking for different angles, and 0:10:39.360 --> 0:10:41.640 I started seeing that he was selling more merch than 0:10:41.679 --> 0:10:44.080 even Hunter was selling, and so that's what I went 0:10:44.120 --> 0:10:46.880 into the pitch with. It was like, you know, the 0:10:46.920 --> 0:10:49.040 creative was the creative but I was like, hey man, 0:10:49.520 --> 0:10:52.200 this dude selling more merch than anyone in the company 0:10:52.320 --> 0:10:55.319 right now, and even the people who were against the idea, like, 0:10:55.400 --> 0:11:06.640 he's selling more merched than you. Brom You've got thirty 0:11:06.679 --> 0:11:11.760 plus years in this business, and I've seen matches of 0:11:11.800 --> 0:11:15.040 you all over the world. You know that I have 0:11:15.120 --> 0:11:19.320 a weird obsession with Asian culture. You gotta talk to 0:11:19.320 --> 0:11:21.960 me about Japan. I know we don't have a ton 0:11:22.000 --> 0:11:23.920 of time, and I got a million things I want 0:11:23.920 --> 0:11:27.440 to talk to you about. But is Japan where you 0:11:27.559 --> 0:11:31.280 made your bones? Or was Canada really weird? Not made 0:11:31.280 --> 0:11:35.000 your bones? Found yourself? Is where you found yourself? Let 0:11:35.000 --> 0:11:37.440 me kind of tie it all together, because because that 0:11:37.600 --> 0:11:39.240 is the true story it is to this day, like 0:11:39.440 --> 0:11:43.000 w B has always been a big man's territory. Um. 0:11:43.000 --> 0:11:46.400 It started in the sixties and seventies with with Vince's dad, 0:11:46.800 --> 0:11:49.080 and Vince loves big guys. It's just the way it is. 0:11:49.120 --> 0:11:51.360 It's the culture he came up in. And even when 0:11:51.440 --> 0:11:54.040 when some of the smaller guys get a shot, it 0:11:54.160 --> 0:11:56.640 still goes back to bigger guys more often than not. 0:11:57.320 --> 0:11:59.640 Having said that, so, in the early nineties, when I 0:11:59.679 --> 0:12:03.199 first started I was very small, in five eleven two 0:12:03.600 --> 0:12:08.040 twenty pounds. This was the whole Camania era still, which 0:12:08.040 --> 0:12:10.679 was six three hundred pounds. So how do you get 0:12:10.720 --> 0:12:14.160 into the business. Well, I knew starting on Canadian Independence, 0:12:14.200 --> 0:12:16.320 I'd never be the biggest guy in the show, but 0:12:16.400 --> 0:12:18.719 I could have the biggest character and the biggest personality 0:12:18.720 --> 0:12:21.640 and the biggest charisma. So I started kind of focusing 0:12:21.679 --> 0:12:24.520 on that, which very much helped me throughout the years 0:12:24.559 --> 0:12:30.120 even to this day. Then where do you go? Well, um, 0:12:30.200 --> 0:12:32.600 you could go to the indies around Canada, but if 0:12:32.600 --> 0:12:33.959 you wanted to go to the big leagues, which for 0:12:34.000 --> 0:12:35.959 me was always do w to b it just wasn't 0:12:35.960 --> 0:12:37.960 the place at the time. Everyone was too big. So 0:12:38.360 --> 0:12:41.840 I was also really into Stampede Wrestling which was in Calgary, 0:12:42.280 --> 0:12:44.440 and all of those types of guys, which was your 0:12:44.760 --> 0:12:48.240 Owen Heart, Chris Bena, Brian Pillman, the smaller guys that 0:12:48.280 --> 0:12:50.520 I could tell like, these guys are probably my size, 0:12:51.000 --> 0:12:53.600 you know, plus thirty pounds of muscle, but they're very 0:12:53.640 --> 0:12:56.079 athletic and acrobatic, and I was very mu especially Owen Hard. 0:12:56.120 --> 0:12:58.800 I was very connected with Owen and what he was doing. 0:12:59.080 --> 0:13:02.000 What is this Owen Hard do he wrestles in Japan. 0:13:02.120 --> 0:13:04.559 He wrestles in Mexico. Well, that's interesting to me. How 0:13:04.600 --> 0:13:06.760 can I do that? So that's kind of where all 0:13:06.800 --> 0:13:08.959 that started. In Calgary was still at the time of 0:13:09.120 --> 0:13:12.840 very big wrestling hotbed where there was guys working in 0:13:12.920 --> 0:13:15.800 Mexico and guys working in Japan. So I got a 0:13:15.800 --> 0:13:18.839 couple of tours of Mexico, which then led me to 0:13:18.920 --> 0:13:22.040 meeting Ultimo Dragon, who still wrestles to this day, who 0:13:22.080 --> 0:13:25.959 was wrestling in Japan and was looking for arrival uh 0:13:25.960 --> 0:13:30.400 and not arrival a rival um. And so that kind 0:13:30.440 --> 0:13:32.319 of where is where I stepped in, and I got 0:13:32.360 --> 0:13:34.280 a couple of tours there right off the bat and 0:13:34.320 --> 0:13:37.040 did good, so I kind of got a steady job 0:13:37.080 --> 0:13:40.840 there very quickly. So Mexico and Japan is where I 0:13:40.960 --> 0:13:45.320 made my mark the most uh and the earliest, because 0:13:45.400 --> 0:13:48.840 it wasn't so much based on size, it was based 0:13:48.920 --> 0:13:53.760 on athleticism and showmanship. So when I was twenty two 0:13:53.840 --> 0:13:57.000 years old, I was like, uh, probably like you when 0:13:57.040 --> 0:13:59.040 you were twenty two, Fred Freddie I was a cover 0:13:59.120 --> 0:14:02.040 boy as well, on the cover of all of all 0:14:02.080 --> 0:14:05.520 the team Beat magazines and those type of things. In 0:14:05.520 --> 0:14:08.560 in in Mexico, and you know chicks when you win 0:14:08.600 --> 0:14:10.920 a date with Cortazon de Leon was was my name, 0:14:10.960 --> 0:14:14.120 and all that sort of stuff. And also and it 0:14:14.280 --> 0:14:16.439 also wrestling had just gone on TV a few years 0:14:16.480 --> 0:14:19.520 priors of wrestling was huge in Mexico. So it's very 0:14:19.560 --> 0:14:23.080 much a Beatlemania type of of a reaction with and 0:14:23.440 --> 0:14:26.320 chicks like you come out of the arena and they're 0:14:26.360 --> 0:14:29.840 just fucking guy. This is not exaggeration. Remember getting kissed 0:14:29.840 --> 0:14:32.840 on the cheek and grabbed and pulled and uh. They 0:14:32.960 --> 0:14:37.600 used very red lipstick that would basically tattoo itself to 0:14:37.680 --> 0:14:39.960 your skin. You could wash that for an hour and 0:14:40.000 --> 0:14:41.720 it would still have read. And after a while, I 0:14:41.800 --> 0:14:44.440 just walked around with red marks on my face. What 0:14:44.480 --> 0:14:46.960 else can I do? And this is not to say 0:14:47.080 --> 0:14:48.480 look at me, I'm such a stud. It's just to 0:14:48.480 --> 0:14:50.160 say this is how popular was so right out of 0:14:50.200 --> 0:14:52.480 the gate at a young age, I had that fame. 0:14:52.920 --> 0:14:55.440 But also too, I was learning from the best workers 0:14:55.440 --> 0:14:58.200 in Mexico because I was in the main event. So 0:14:58.480 --> 0:15:00.880 because I was the good looking baby face who could work, 0:15:00.880 --> 0:15:04.120 I was working with Negro Costas and Bestislava and you 0:15:04.160 --> 0:15:08.000 know Sangre Chakana and all these types of guys Altahano 0:15:08.120 --> 0:15:10.840 and and and and Silver King. So I was learning 0:15:10.840 --> 0:15:13.680 how to work a different style, and then that nailed 0:15:13.680 --> 0:15:16.040 me go to Japan, where I learned another style. So 0:15:16.080 --> 0:15:19.440 by the time I was four, I'd already had five 0:15:19.520 --> 0:15:24.040 years of main event experience all around the world. A 0:15:24.040 --> 0:15:25.920 lot of guys don't have that at the time, and 0:15:25.960 --> 0:15:27.360 they still don't have it to this day. So I 0:15:27.440 --> 0:15:31.040 was very fortunate because of that international flavor. I still 0:15:31.080 --> 0:15:32.880 work that way to this day and can pull things 0:15:32.880 --> 0:15:36.160 that I learned from Negro Kostas in n that no 0:15:36.200 --> 0:15:38.400 one remembers and no one knows, but I know it. 0:15:38.720 --> 0:15:40.680 And then I can pull what I learned from, you know, 0:15:40.720 --> 0:15:42.960 Sean Michaels, or what I learned from Ultimo Dragon, or 0:15:42.960 --> 0:15:45.920 where I learned from Eddie Guerrero and all these different guys, 0:15:45.920 --> 0:15:49.240 and next time I have a match with Darby Allen 0:15:49.320 --> 0:15:52.480 or Jungle Boy or m JF or Eddie Kingston, I 0:15:52.520 --> 0:15:55.120 can kind of bring in something extra to the table 0:15:55.440 --> 0:15:57.440 because of the way things were when I first started. 0:15:57.760 --> 0:16:00.600 You're still talking about young people. You always thinking about 0:16:00.600 --> 0:16:04.680 getting the next person you have to from day one 0:16:04.720 --> 0:16:07.200 and a W Freddie and and once again it's something 0:16:07.440 --> 0:16:09.840 this is not a w B bash. I worked there 0:16:09.880 --> 0:16:12.320 for for almost twenty years. I loved working for w B. 0:16:12.440 --> 0:16:14.080 But one thing that they still have an issue with, 0:16:14.280 --> 0:16:15.680 and you can see it if you watch the show 0:16:15.960 --> 0:16:18.920 is building new stars. They really have a problem with that. 0:16:19.040 --> 0:16:21.680 I don't know why, but once again, it doesn't matter 0:16:21.720 --> 0:16:23.560 to me what they do. From day one and a 0:16:23.920 --> 0:16:27.360 W when we showed up on October two, even before that, 0:16:27.480 --> 0:16:29.720 when we showed up for the first couple of pay 0:16:29.720 --> 0:16:32.120 per views, we had no television deal. Then when we 0:16:32.160 --> 0:16:34.360 finally got one on T n T, it was an 0:16:34.360 --> 0:16:37.240 ad revenue share. Now what that means for people that 0:16:37.320 --> 0:16:40.400 don't know, is you make the money based on the advertising. 0:16:40.880 --> 0:16:44.440 If fifty advertisers, you get a share, If one advertiser, 0:16:44.440 --> 0:16:46.480 you get a share. So it was not a big 0:16:46.520 --> 0:16:49.480 monster deal. So I realized early on is being the 0:16:49.560 --> 0:16:52.080 kind of the face of the company and the one 0:16:52.120 --> 0:16:55.600 guy that the national audience knew besides Jim Ross, but 0:16:55.680 --> 0:16:56.880 the one guy that was in the ring. I mean, 0:16:56.880 --> 0:17:00.040 they knew Cody maybe, but not really. And Kenny and 0:17:00.120 --> 0:17:02.760 the Bucks were kind of more independent or popularly in 0:17:02.800 --> 0:17:06.159 other countries. I need to make new stars as quickly 0:17:06.200 --> 0:17:10.080 as I can, Cody being one of them, Uh, Kenny 0:17:10.119 --> 0:17:12.200 Omega being another one. And then you moved to look 0:17:12.200 --> 0:17:15.159 at my first few programs like that Match three in 0:17:15.200 --> 0:17:17.720 a W was versus Darby Allen. Then Jungle Boy was 0:17:17.800 --> 0:17:21.160 right around that time. And then you know then John Moxley, 0:17:21.200 --> 0:17:23.560 who had to be rehabbed when he came from w W. 0:17:24.080 --> 0:17:26.320 MOCKX was not mocks when he first showed up. He 0:17:26.440 --> 0:17:29.280 was still Dean Ambrose, kind of the goofy guy that 0:17:29.359 --> 0:17:31.400 wasn't funny doing a little stupid ship. They made him 0:17:31.400 --> 0:17:34.360 do we talk about writers. We we had to make 0:17:34.440 --> 0:17:35.960 him into a star right out of the bat. So 0:17:36.000 --> 0:17:37.720 all of those guys, if you look at the first 0:17:37.760 --> 0:17:41.080 six months pre lockdown in a W, I worked with 0:17:41.119 --> 0:17:44.320 all of them so very quickly. We had six to 0:17:44.400 --> 0:17:46.680 eight to ten guys that were all shouldering the load. 0:17:47.080 --> 0:17:50.199 And four months after our first date October two or 0:17:50.280 --> 0:17:52.400 three months we we went from the ad ReBs share 0:17:52.440 --> 0:17:55.080 to a contract for I believe a hundred and sixty 0:17:55.119 --> 0:17:57.639 million dollars for four years. Because of the demos and 0:17:57.760 --> 0:17:59.840 ratings we got right out of the gate. That add 0:18:00.200 --> 0:18:04.080 that AD revenue share is such an old school Hollywood 0:18:04.359 --> 0:18:08.280 move and it's I mean, it's literally like walking on 0:18:08.320 --> 0:18:11.199 a plank and the captain of the ship is like, 0:18:11.320 --> 0:18:14.160 tell me a joker. It's the ocean for you. If 0:18:14.200 --> 0:18:16.359 I don't laugh, it is the scare. I've been in 0:18:16.400 --> 0:18:18.560 negotiations where that was on the table. Then I was 0:18:18.600 --> 0:18:22.040 just curious. Okay, so it's a dent gamble on myself 0:18:22.160 --> 0:18:25.000 right on. Let's see what happens. I guess, you know. 0:18:25.119 --> 0:18:27.399 And and then when I first started podcast, it was 0:18:27.440 --> 0:18:29.879 the same as it was an AD share And then 0:18:30.200 --> 0:18:32.160 you know, either you you you strike up a chord 0:18:32.200 --> 0:18:34.760 and get a fan base quickly, or you don't. So 0:18:35.600 --> 0:18:37.439 we were able to get one very quickly, and it 0:18:37.440 --> 0:18:39.959 paid off in space. And now if you look at 0:18:39.960 --> 0:18:42.960 the television contracts that are out there, I mean, we 0:18:43.040 --> 0:18:45.320 are primed if we continue doing the demos that we're 0:18:45.359 --> 0:18:48.280 doing for a huge renewal when the time comes, just 0:18:48.320 --> 0:18:50.520 because the ratings and more important because the demos that 0:18:50.560 --> 0:18:55.040 we've been acquiring. Let's talk about multiple show business real quick. 0:18:55.480 --> 0:18:58.320 Have Look, you've been able to succeed in a lot 0:18:58.359 --> 0:19:02.920 of different areas, not just wrestling, but through rock and roll, 0:19:03.640 --> 0:19:06.359 especially in this decade of your life. I mean, I 0:19:06.400 --> 0:19:09.080 know you've done it longer, but you've really kind of 0:19:09.119 --> 0:19:13.080 exploded with Fozzy. My son rocked out to it when 0:19:13.080 --> 0:19:15.680 I would drive him to school on Syria Sex m 0:19:15.880 --> 0:19:18.640 because you were on the hard rock station, not thirty five, 0:19:18.840 --> 0:19:23.359 not thirty six, but thirty seven, and even he was 0:19:23.440 --> 0:19:28.560 rocking out to it. Do you think that wrestling opened 0:19:28.560 --> 0:19:31.160 that door for you or do you think that door 0:19:31.240 --> 0:19:34.000 would have been opened and wrestling slowed it down. I mean, 0:19:34.040 --> 0:19:37.720 it's really hard to transfer from one craft to another 0:19:38.200 --> 0:19:41.040 in any form of show business. It is. I mean, 0:19:41.920 --> 0:19:44.280 like I said, you know all about this because I 0:19:44.280 --> 0:19:47.000 know Hollywood is and you came in. You know as 0:19:47.040 --> 0:19:49.440 as the teen heartthrob, Well, how does the teen heartthrob 0:19:49.560 --> 0:19:53.439 transposed to winning an oscar at fifty? I mean, you 0:19:53.520 --> 0:19:57.000 do get stuck into a mold that people want you 0:19:57.040 --> 0:20:00.399 to be in Fozzy. I think at the start it 0:20:00.480 --> 0:20:02.680 was probably more hindered by the fact that I was 0:20:02.760 --> 0:20:06.720 a wrestler rather than helped. I think we had to 0:20:06.760 --> 0:20:09.160 work twice as hard to get people's respect because there 0:20:09.200 --> 0:20:13.080 are so many bands in Hollywood, um from different actors 0:20:13.119 --> 0:20:15.040