Speaker 1: What's up everybody. Welcome back to Wrestling with Freddy, and
Speaker 1: we have a very special guest today. I'm always excited
Speaker 1: when I get the chance to speak to him. He's
Speaker 1: succeeded in so many different areas of art and uh
Speaker 1: and life, and I like getting to speak to these
Speaker 1: types of people more than anyone else. So let's start
Speaker 1: the show. Welcome to Wrestling with Freddy. Now stopping up
Speaker 1: for the mic, the host of Wrestling with Freddie Freddie
Speaker 1: Prince June. Yah, ladies and gentlemen, please welcome one of
Speaker 1: the all time greats and one of my favorites, Mr
Speaker 1: Chris Jericho. All right, and I'm excited to you. You've
Speaker 1: done my show before, and now it's only fair that
Speaker 1: I do yours in return. How are you, brother? I'm
Speaker 1: doing good, man, I'm doing good. Like I said. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, we've been busy this whole time, over the
Speaker 1: last year and a half, you know, with with a
Speaker 1: w and of course now that we're all back on
Speaker 1: the road and there's crowds and other stuff. So for me,
Speaker 1: the whole uh you know, lockdown and Pandemic was obviously
Speaker 1: a hindrance, but we still kept moving every week so
Speaker 1: it wasn't like I was ever, you know, stuck in
Speaker 1: a house and couldn't go be creative, so that that
Speaker 1: kind of helped me. So I've been actually really good
Speaker 1: over the last you know, a couple of years. See,
Speaker 1: for me, it was the opposite because I'm an introvert,
Speaker 1: so I literally was in heaven. I was like, I
Speaker 1: don't have to see anyone going anywhere. I'll sit in
Speaker 1: my little studio and write all day long. It was heaven.
Speaker 1: A lot of people like that, absolutely, so it was
Speaker 1: I don't do very long episodes, but we got a
Speaker 1: lot to catch up on. Sure. Since I last spoke
Speaker 1: to you, you helped you helped create an entire new
Speaker 1: wrestling federation and uh it has since launched. It has
Speaker 1: become wildly successful. And the growth that you guys are showing,
Speaker 1: and I'm not talking about numbers and all that stuff
Speaker 1: because I don't care about that. You guys are gonna
Speaker 1: beyond ten years regardless of numbers, and then people can
Speaker 1: talk about whether or not mountains have been climbed, but
Speaker 1: you guys have already kind of established a foundation. I
Speaker 1: like watching, and I watch much more consistently than I originally. Uh,
Speaker 1: did with this younger talent that you guys are bringing up.
Speaker 1: You're seeing creative growth on a damn near weekly basis
Speaker 1: with some of these younger people. And I don't know
Speaker 1: how much you're willing to go behind the curtain here
Speaker 1: and how much of the the sort of love you're
Speaker 1: willing to share. But a lot of these young kids.
Speaker 1: I watched someone like m JF. And I'm just sitting
Speaker 1: there like he's doing an old school thing but in
Speaker 1: a new school way, and somehow he's It's like Japan,
Speaker 1: like they exist with like the oldest of old and
Speaker 1: the newest of new, and they don't crap on each
Speaker 1: other and somehow they make it work. And I he's
Speaker 1: this weird hybrid that I don't know if people are
Speaker 1: are used to see him for a while. Do you
Speaker 1: want to talk about him or are you supposed to
Speaker 1: hate him right now? Do you want to smash him
Speaker 1: in the face. Um, this is not a movie, you know.
Speaker 1: This is not uh, you know, like your experience doing
Speaker 1: Scooby Doo or whatever it may be. It's like, this
Speaker 1: is not a script for somebody wrote it and this
Speaker 1: is the part you play for the next ninety minutes.
Speaker 1: This is something that we play on a weekly basis.
Speaker 1: Like you said, for ten years for me thirty one years. Uh,
Speaker 1: you cannot write a promo for me. Um, that's gonna
Speaker 1: be better than what I can write for myself now
Speaker 1: in w B after working there for you know, a
Speaker 1: dozen years, I had kind of more freedom to to
Speaker 1: do that, but a lot of other guys didn't and
Speaker 1: would kind of have to do what they were told,
Speaker 1: and therefore it gets very uh, stagnant, sterile. It doesn't
Speaker 1: feel real. And I think the a W from day
Speaker 1: one has always let the guys do their own promos,
Speaker 1: write their own stuff. Something I said, let the pro
Speaker 1: was be pros. That's what we're paid to be. And
Speaker 1: whether it's being on screen, behind the scenes, lighting whatever,
Speaker 1: I'm not going to tell the lighting director how he
Speaker 1: should light my face because we hire right. We have
Speaker 1: the old school John Malkovitch philosophy where he says, hey,
Speaker 1: I don't tell you where to put the cameras, don't
Speaker 1: tell me about my motivation exactly it's right. And it's
Speaker 1: the Clint Eastwood thing where where you hear where he's
Speaker 1: doesn't do a lot of takes. Why is that? Because
Speaker 1: I hired these guys because I thought they're the best
Speaker 1: guys for the part. I don't need twenty takes to
Speaker 1: convince me of that one or two is pretty much
Speaker 1: going to be the closest, right. I feel the same
Speaker 1: with a W. So when you take a kind of
Speaker 1: like and JF, if he was in another company, they
Speaker 1: would probably give him more of a script, which is
Speaker 1: not going to be the same as when you just
Speaker 1: talk off the cuff. Though sometimes he says things, I
Speaker 1: say things all of us do that maybe we're a
Speaker 1: little bit over the line, But for the most part,
Speaker 1: it's more real, and it feels more admitted, and it
Speaker 1: just feels, uh like the whole scenario is more legit.
Speaker 1: And I think the first thing people notice when they
Speaker 1: started seeing a W from day one is that this
Speaker 1: just feels different because the guys can be more of
Speaker 1: the characters that they want to be and not characters
Speaker 1: that have to be approved through. And you know this
Speaker 1: more than anybody four or five sets of rewrites and
Speaker 1: redrafts and approvals four or five, I mean they had
Speaker 1: in their given notes. So like, right, it's going in
Speaker 1: on right now. Yeah, And you know, like I said,
Speaker 1: if if, if you and I were going to write
Speaker 1: a script, and we honed it and did rewrites and
Speaker 1: rewrites and wrists and finally sold it. For the most part,
Speaker 1: that script that we're now casting our our actors with
Speaker 1: would be you know, ninety complete most of the time,
Speaker 1: most of the time in this you know, if in
Speaker 1: the w W world they're writing their scripts the day
Speaker 1: of the show sometimes and then changing it right up
Speaker 1: to Uh, there's no way you can really master that
Speaker 1: as a performer. The best way is just your own
Speaker 1: personal character and knowing your character better than anybody else.
Speaker 1: What would I say? What would I do? Know? Some
Speaker 1: guys need help. M JF doesn't need help, Chris Jericho
Speaker 1: doesn't need help. Those type of guys can go out
Speaker 1: there and do what they what they're paid to do,
Speaker 1: and it just comes across better. And as a result,
Speaker 1: I think more people really enjoyed our show right out
Speaker 1: of the gate because of that I might not have
Speaker 1: expected at first, because of them, Well, wrestling is wrestling.
Speaker 1: That's not the case. Yeah, that's not the case at all.
Speaker 1: Let's uh, I wasn't expecting to go down this road.
Speaker 1: But let's go a little deeper into that. Because when
Speaker 1: I when I worked there. You hit me with a
Speaker 1: couple of philosophies and you probably won't even remember one
Speaker 1: of them, but I really took it to heart. But
Speaker 1: before we get into that, I want to talk about
Speaker 1: that writing element, because I always felt if you didn't
Speaker 1: know how to write your own promo, you needed someone
Speaker 1: like me. If you did, what am I what? What
Speaker 1: would we do? Like? There's no there's nothing that I
Speaker 1: can give you that you don't already know how to do.
Speaker 1: And most of the time, the people who knew how
Speaker 1: to write their own promos were already over to some extent,
Speaker 1: so they didn't need much help getting over outside of
Speaker 1: the other person in the ring. Where I found it
Speaker 1: to be most beneficial were people that either a couldn't
Speaker 1: do it and guys that were literally like, yo, man,
Speaker 1: could you just like give me a line reading and
Speaker 1: I'll just do it like like you do it. I'm like,
Speaker 1: all right, but you gotta sound tougher than me. I
Speaker 1: sound like, you know, a stoner from l A. You
Speaker 1: gotta sound like a badass. So um. The one thing
Speaker 1: that I did find though, was I could help problem
Speaker 1: solve a lot of the overwritten stuff. Right. I remember
Speaker 1: seeing an m v P promo and he hated it
Speaker 1: because Vince wrote it and or rewrote it, I should say.
Speaker 1: And I was kind of sitting in the back looking
Speaker 1: and I already knew what the fix was, right. It
Speaker 1: was just one little line that needed to be tweaked,
Speaker 1: and I knew it would be in his voice, and
Speaker 1: that was the problem. None of it was in his voice.
Speaker 1: And I finally just said, all right, he's either gonna
Speaker 1: knock me out, because we had never met and he
Speaker 1: wasn't giving me like a come on in and help
Speaker 1: out kind of. I said, he's either gonna throw a
Speaker 1: punch or he's gonna hear this out and I'll earn
Speaker 1: some respect. And I ran up and he was with
Speaker 1: he was with DJ, and I said, hey, man, I
Speaker 1: think it's just this one little line and it's kind
Speaker 1: of like a pulp fiction vibe. And I hit him
Speaker 1: with the line and he looked at me like he
Speaker 1: was gonna kill me. And I said the line and
Speaker 1: he goes, don't go anywhere, sit down, and I was like, okay, okay,
Speaker 1: I'm in, and we rewrote the promo real quick, and
Speaker 1: I just let him basically say what he wanted to say.
Speaker 1: And then I would kind of like put a couple
Speaker 1: of words there to bring those sentences together. And he
Speaker 1: and I had a really good working We became really
Speaker 1: good friends after that, even though he wanted to kill me. Um.
Speaker 1: But when I went to like pitch ideas, I would
Speaker 1: run into walls a lot. And then you and I
Speaker 1: had a conversation. And again I don't know if you'll
Speaker 1: remember this, but I was having a hard time pitching,
Speaker 1: uh some of the smaller guys, and you just kind
Speaker 1: of smiled and like looked away like you were remembering
Speaker 1: something way back when. And I didn't know what it was.
Speaker 1: But I'm like staring at him, like what's he gonna say?
Speaker 1: What's he gonna say? And whatever you were gonna say,
Speaker 1: you changed to Freddie. He's his father's son, and I went,
Speaker 1: I went, what do you what do you? What do
Speaker 1: you mean? I mean, I grew up without no dad,
Speaker 1: so it didn't click with me. And you said, his
Speaker 1: dad loved the big guys, and he's his father's son,
Speaker 1: so he's always going to see the big guy able
Speaker 1: to beat up the small guy, no matter how much
Speaker 1: evidence you show him, because his father told him it
Speaker 1: was that way. And I remember like getting on the
Speaker 1: plane and with Vince and kind of like looking at him,
Speaker 1: and I just changed. It changed my whole philosophy on
Speaker 1: how I pitched things, especially how I pitched the smaller guy.
Speaker 1: And the first one I tried it with was Kofi,
Speaker 1: and I literally just I pitched it like a like
Speaker 1: a Spider Man comic where all the bad guys beat
Speaker 1: up Spider Man the whole time, but it's his like
Speaker 1: goodness that's going to sort of bring it out and
Speaker 1: not Hulk out. But you know, we always pitched it
Speaker 1: where and of course you know he wouldn't win the
Speaker 1: he wouldn't win the title, but we'll just get him
Speaker 1: into that match, and you know we'd always be like, well,
Speaker 1: cross that title bridge when we get there. So so
Speaker 1: it really changed the way I pitched, and I started
Speaker 1: having a lot of success with it. And after Kofi
Speaker 1: came to Jeff Hardy storyline which brought him to the Championship,
Speaker 1: and I literally started just looking for different angles, and
Speaker 1: I started seeing that he was selling more merch than
Speaker 1: even Hunter was selling, and so that's what I went
Speaker 1: into the pitch with. It was like, you know, the
Speaker 1: creative was the creative but I was like, hey man,
Speaker 1: this dude selling more merch than anyone in the company
Speaker 1: right now, and even the people who were against the idea, like,
Speaker 1: he's selling more merched than you. Brom You've got thirty
Speaker 1: plus years in this business, and I've seen matches of
Speaker 1: you all over the world. You know that I have
Speaker 1: a weird obsession with Asian culture. You gotta talk to
Speaker 1: me about Japan. I know we don't have a ton
Speaker 1: of time, and I got a million things I want
Speaker 1: to talk to you about. But is Japan where you
Speaker 1: made your bones? Or was Canada really weird? Not made
Speaker 1: your bones? Found yourself? Is where you found yourself? Let
Speaker 1: me kind of tie it all together, because because that
Speaker 1: is the true story it is to this day, like
Speaker 1: w B has always been a big man's territory. Um.
Speaker 1: It started in the sixties and seventies with with Vince's dad,
Speaker 1: and Vince loves big guys. It's just the way it is.
Speaker 1: It's the culture he came up in. And even when
Speaker 1: when some of the smaller guys get a shot, it
Speaker 1: still goes back to bigger guys more often than not.
Speaker 1: Having said that, so, in the early nineties, when I
Speaker 1: first started I was very small, in five eleven two
Speaker 1: twenty pounds. This was the whole Camania era still, which
Speaker 1: was six three hundred pounds. So how do you get
Speaker 1: into the business. Well, I knew starting on Canadian Independence,
Speaker 1: I'd never be the biggest guy in the show, but
Speaker 1: I could have the biggest character and the biggest personality
Speaker 1: and the biggest charisma. So I started kind of focusing
Speaker 1: on that, which very much helped me throughout the years
Speaker 1: even to this day. Then where do you go? Well, um,
Speaker 1: you could go to the indies around Canada, but if
Speaker 1: you wanted to go to the big leagues, which for
Speaker 1: me was always do w to b it just wasn't
Speaker 1: the place at the time. Everyone was too big. So
Speaker 1: I was also really into Stampede Wrestling which was in Calgary,
Speaker 1: and all of those types of guys, which was your
Speaker 1: Owen Heart, Chris Bena, Brian Pillman, the smaller guys that
Speaker 1: I could tell like, these guys are probably my size,
Speaker 1: you know, plus thirty pounds of muscle, but they're very
Speaker 1: athletic and acrobatic, and I was very mu especially Owen Hard.
Speaker 1: I was very connected with Owen and what he was doing.
Speaker 1: What is this Owen Hard do he wrestles in Japan.
Speaker 1: He wrestles in Mexico. Well, that's interesting to me. How
Speaker 1: can I do that? So that's kind of where all
Speaker 1: that started. In Calgary was still at the time of
Speaker 1: very big wrestling hotbed where there was guys working in
Speaker 1: Mexico and guys working in Japan. So I got a
Speaker 1: couple of tours of Mexico, which then led me to
Speaker 1: meeting Ultimo Dragon, who still wrestles to this day, who
Speaker 1: was wrestling in Japan and was looking for arrival uh
Speaker 1: and not arrival a rival um. And so that kind
Speaker 1: of where is where I stepped in, and I got
Speaker 1: a couple of tours there right off the bat and
Speaker 1: did good, so I kind of got a steady job
Speaker 1: there very quickly. So Mexico and Japan is where I
Speaker 1: made my mark the most uh and the earliest, because
Speaker 1: it wasn't so much based on size, it was based
Speaker 1: on athleticism and showmanship. So when I was twenty two
Speaker 1: years old, I was like, uh, probably like you when
Speaker 1: you were twenty two, Fred Freddie I was a cover
Speaker 1: boy as well, on the cover of all of all
Speaker 1: the team Beat magazines and those type of things. In
Speaker 1: in in Mexico, and you know chicks when you win
Speaker 1: a date with Cortazon de Leon was was my name,
Speaker 1: and all that sort of stuff. And also and it
Speaker 1: also wrestling had just gone on TV a few years
Speaker 1: priors of wrestling was huge in Mexico. So it's very
Speaker 1: much a Beatlemania type of of a reaction with and
Speaker 1: chicks like you come out of the arena and they're
Speaker 1: just fucking guy. This is not exaggeration. Remember getting kissed
Speaker 1: on the cheek and grabbed and pulled and uh. They
Speaker 1: used very red lipstick that would basically tattoo itself to
Speaker 1: your skin. You could wash that for an hour and
Speaker 1: it would still have read. And after a while, I
Speaker 1: just walked around with red marks on my face. What
Speaker 1: else can I do? And this is not to say
Speaker 1: look at me, I'm such a stud. It's just to
Speaker 1: say this is how popular was so right out of
Speaker 1: the gate at a young age, I had that fame.
Speaker 1: But also too, I was learning from the best workers
Speaker 1: in Mexico because I was in the main event. So
Speaker 1: because I was the good looking baby face who could work,
Speaker 1: I was working with Negro Costas and Bestislava and you
Speaker 1: know Sangre Chakana and all these types of guys Altahano
Speaker 1: and and and and Silver King. So I was learning
Speaker 1: how to work a different style, and then that nailed
Speaker 1: me go to Japan, where I learned another style. So
Speaker 1: by the time I was four, I'd already had five
Speaker 1: years of main event experience all around the world. A
Speaker 1: lot of guys don't have that at the time, and
Speaker 1: they still don't have it to this day. So I
Speaker 1: was very fortunate because of that international flavor. I still
Speaker 1: work that way to this day and can pull things
Speaker 1: that I learned from Negro Kostas in n that no
Speaker 1: one remembers and no one knows, but I know it.
Speaker 1: And then I can pull what I learned from, you know,
Speaker 1: Sean Michaels, or what I learned from Ultimo Dragon, or
Speaker 1: where I learned from Eddie Guerrero and all these different guys,
Speaker 1: and next time I have a match with Darby Allen
Speaker 1: or Jungle Boy or m JF or Eddie Kingston, I
Speaker 1: can kind of bring in something extra to the table
Speaker 1: because of the way things were when I first started.
Speaker 1: You're still talking about young people. You always thinking about
Speaker 1: getting the next person you have to from day one
Speaker 1: and a W Freddie and and once again it's something
Speaker 1: this is not a w B bash. I worked there
Speaker 1: for for almost twenty years. I loved working for w B.
Speaker 1: But one thing that they still have an issue with,
Speaker 1: and you can see it if you watch the show
Speaker 1: is building new stars. They really have a problem with that.
Speaker 1: I don't know why, but once again, it doesn't matter
Speaker 1: to me what they do. From day one and a
Speaker 1: W when we showed up on October two, even before that,
Speaker 1: when we showed up for the first couple of pay
Speaker 1: per views, we had no television deal. Then when we
Speaker 1: finally got one on T n T, it was an
Speaker 1: ad revenue share. Now what that means for people that
Speaker 1: don't know, is you make the money based on the advertising.
Speaker 1: If fifty advertisers, you get a share, If one advertiser,
Speaker 1: you get a share. So it was not a big
Speaker 1: monster deal. So I realized early on is being the
Speaker 1: kind of the face of the company and the one
Speaker 1: guy that the national audience knew besides Jim Ross, but
Speaker 1: the one guy that was in the ring. I mean,
Speaker 1: they knew Cody maybe, but not really. And Kenny and
Speaker 1: the Bucks were kind of more independent or popularly in
Speaker 1: other countries. I need to make new stars as quickly
Speaker 1: as I can, Cody being one of them, Uh, Kenny
Speaker 1: Omega being another one. And then you moved to look
Speaker 1: at my first few programs like that Match three in
Speaker 1: a W was versus Darby Allen. Then Jungle Boy was
Speaker 1: right around that time. And then you know then John Moxley,
Speaker 1: who had to be rehabbed when he came from w W.
Speaker 1: MOCKX was not mocks when he first showed up. He
Speaker 1: was still Dean Ambrose, kind of the goofy guy that
Speaker 1: wasn't funny doing a little stupid ship. They made him
Speaker 1: do we talk about writers. We we had to make
Speaker 1: him into a star right out of the bat. So
Speaker 1: all of those guys, if you look at the first
Speaker 1: six months pre lockdown in a W, I worked with
Speaker 1: all of them so very quickly. We had six to
Speaker 1: eight to ten guys that were all shouldering the load.
Speaker 1: And four months after our first date October two or
Speaker 1: three months we we went from the ad ReBs share
Speaker 1: to a contract for I believe a hundred and sixty
Speaker 1: million dollars for four years. Because of the demos and
Speaker 1: ratings we got right out of the gate. That add
Speaker 1: that AD revenue share is such an old school Hollywood
Speaker 1: move and it's I mean, it's literally like walking on
Speaker 1: a plank and the captain of the ship is like,
Speaker 1: tell me a joker. It's the ocean for you. If
Speaker 1: I don't laugh, it is the scare. I've been in
Speaker 1: negotiations where that was on the table. Then I was
Speaker 1: just curious. Okay, so it's a dent gamble on myself
Speaker 1: right on. Let's see what happens. I guess, you know.
Speaker 1: And and then when I first started podcast, it was
Speaker 1: the same as it was an AD share And then
Speaker 1: you know, either you you you strike up a chord
Speaker 1: and get a fan base quickly, or you don't. So
Speaker 1: we were able to get one very quickly, and it
Speaker 1: paid off in space. And now if you look at
Speaker 1: the television contracts that are out there, I mean, we
Speaker 1: are primed if we continue doing the demos that we're
Speaker 1: doing for a huge renewal when the time comes, just
Speaker 1: because the ratings and more important because the demos that
Speaker 1: we've been acquiring. Let's talk about multiple show business real quick.
Speaker 1: Have Look, you've been able to succeed in a lot
Speaker 1: of different areas, not just wrestling, but through rock and roll,
Speaker 1: especially in this decade of your life. I mean, I
Speaker 1: know you've done it longer, but you've really kind of
Speaker 1: exploded with Fozzy. My son rocked out to it when
Speaker 1: I would drive him to school on Syria Sex m
Speaker 1: because you were on the hard rock station, not thirty five,
Speaker 1: not thirty six, but thirty seven, and even he was
Speaker 1: rocking out to it. Do you think that wrestling opened
Speaker 1: that door for you or do you think that door
Speaker 1: would have been opened and wrestling slowed it down. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's really hard to transfer from one craft to another
Speaker 1: in any form of show business. It is. I mean,
Speaker 1: like I said, you know all about this because I
Speaker 1: know Hollywood is and you came in. You know as
Speaker 1: as the teen heartthrob, Well, how does the teen heartthrob
Speaker 1: transposed to winning an oscar at fifty? I mean, you
Speaker 1: do get stuck into a mold that people want you
Speaker 1: to be in Fozzy. I think at the start it
Speaker 1: was probably more hindered by the fact that I was
Speaker 1: a wrestler rather than helped. I think we had to
Speaker 1: work twice as hard to get people's respect because there
Speaker 1: are so many bands in Hollywood, um from different actors
Speaker 1: and stuff. And that's fine. I mean, everybody should do
Speaker 1: what they want to do. But I don't think people
Speaker 1: took it as serious at first, solely because I was
Speaker 1: the singer. What really kind of opened the door was
Speaker 1: the fact that we never quit, we never stopped, and
Speaker 1: we worked, like I said, twice as hard. But for us,
Speaker 1: the real difference is when we started getting played on
Speaker 1: rock radio, like you mentioned, but across the country too.
Speaker 1: I never realized how important rock radio is two bands,
Speaker 1: even in two then I never realized until we started
Speaker 1: getting played on rock radio how it just took things
Speaker 1: through the roof. And then finally when Judas came out
Speaker 1: and that became the elusive hit single. I mean I
Speaker 1: I got videos on Twitter last night, one from London
Speaker 1: Stadium or west Ham this was sing that was an amazing,
Speaker 1: amazing and in the same day with Carolina Hurricanes playing
Speaker 1: it during their period their play breaks too, So you've
Speaker 1: got both of these things, um happening at the same time.
Speaker 1: Now Judas has gone from you know, a fosy song
Speaker 1: to more of a universal sports arena song. I'm not
Speaker 1: all happened because of rock radio and timing and the
Speaker 1: fact that we just kept continuing to build and write
Speaker 1: good songs and work with the right people. Rock radio
Speaker 1: when they support you. And and my uncle who discovered
Speaker 1: my dad and Richard Pryor before comics. He had musicians,
Speaker 1: so he had friends, He had Van Halen, he had
Speaker 1: x Exene from that punk band X back in the day,
Speaker 1: and any the power of radio is this when you're
Speaker 1: driving down the road and you just got off work,
Speaker 1: or you had an audition that you knew was gonna
Speaker 1: go great and instead of just sucked ass and was
Speaker 1: and you know you're not gonna get it, or your
Speaker 1: old lady just broke up with you, or maybe your
Speaker 1: old ladies driving you crazy and you put on the
Speaker 1: radio just to yell and scream, and then all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, the song comes on that just like clicks everything.
Speaker 1: And that's why radio is never gonna die, because you're
Speaker 1: always going to be in a car at some point,
Speaker 1: piste off at someone, and there's just a certain song
Speaker 1: that brings you back. Man. I mean, I I got spoiled,
Speaker 1: like I got a soft spot for for three types
Speaker 1: of people, stand up comics because my old man, professional
Speaker 1: wrestlers and rock and roll stars. Okay, so it's until
Speaker 1: you go on stage and crack some jokes. Then you'll
Speaker 1: become like sainted in my in my mind, i've done
Speaker 1: that before that you are, you'll be the saint that
Speaker 1: your your next gimmick from Less Shampyond to Saint Christopher St. Jericho.
Speaker 1: That's right. But yeah, man, ever since I was a kid,
Speaker 1: I remember it was my twelfth birthday. It was and
Speaker 1: I was in my uncle's backyard in Brentwood, California, and
Speaker 1: Exan and the band punk band X were there in it.
Speaker 1: She was married to Vigo Mortenson at the time. This
Speaker 1: was before he was like famous famous. He was just
Speaker 1: an actor named Vigo. And uh, she's sang a punk
Speaker 1: rock version of Happy Birthday to me and my cousin Kate,
Speaker 1: and then uh, she was leaving and I said, oh,
Speaker 1: please don't go, could you. I don't remember what song
Speaker 1: I asked her to play, so would you please just
Speaker 1: play one more thing? She goes, I can't. I'm going
Speaker 1: to a Belinda car She had a cigarette. She goes,
Speaker 1: I'm going to Belinda Carlisle concert. And I was like,
Speaker 1: what Belinda car In my head, I'm like Belinda Carla
Speaker 1: and she goes, yeah, I'm going to kick her fucking
Speaker 1: ass and she just walked out. I'm twelve, so until
Speaker 1: I was like sixteen, I believe she legit like went
Speaker 1: there to Beta Hell on a poor little Bolinda Carla.
Speaker 1: But I've always I've always loved rock stars because of
Speaker 1: that very first encounter that I had with one, which
Speaker 1: was her, And every time I've met him, I've had
Speaker 1: the best time. And now you get to live the
Speaker 1: wrestler life, which is tough, but then you get the
Speaker 1: rock star life just glory. So you have like the
Speaker 1: perfect the perfect balance. Man. Well you know what, dude,
Speaker 1: I mean, I think that's kind of one of those
Speaker 1: miss umbers. Like, you know, rock and roll isn't as
Speaker 1: glamorous as you think, especially when you first start. Like
Speaker 1: anything else, it's like wrestling, you are acting like you
Speaker 1: gotta just go with the flow and travel in a
Speaker 1: van and you know, do all the things you gotta do.
Speaker 1: Now we've reached a certain level where we have a
Speaker 1: nice tour bus and um, so that that takes things different.
Speaker 1: But you know when we toured with Slash, you know,
Speaker 1: Slash has a really nice tour bus that takes him
Speaker 1: to a really nice hotel where he gets off the
Speaker 1: bus and stays overnight and then in the morning gets
Speaker 1: back in the bus and drives, you know, forty five
Speaker 1: minutes of the gig. For us, you're driving sometimes you
Speaker 1: know three d four miles on the bus and when
Speaker 1: you get to the gig, there's a shower in the
Speaker 1: gig if you're lucky. If not, you get a day
Speaker 1: room where you go have a shower, but you get
Speaker 1: back onto the bus to sleep and travel. So there's
Speaker 1: different levels. And then there's the Stones who travel and
Speaker 1: private jets to private tells and then you know they're
Speaker 1: playing stadium, so there's always different levels. But to me,
Speaker 1: the most important, same with the same with a W.
Speaker 1: A w's treatment is a million times better than w
Speaker 1: w's ever was because the Khan family our owners of
Speaker 1: sports teams, so they come at it from a sports standpoint.
Speaker 1: I never had hotels and cars provided ever ever, ever
Speaker 1: in in the in the thirty years of working in
Speaker 1: the States. If I did a want offer something, but
Speaker 1: they would never take care of that. A W does.
Speaker 1: So you know, the most important thing is if you
Speaker 1: want to be there and you love what you do
Speaker 1: and you have a passion for it, the rest of
Speaker 1: it falls into place. You know, if you don't want
Speaker 1: to be there, you can be staying at the Waldorf
Speaker 1: for story and flying in a private jet and it's
Speaker 1: a hindrance. If you do want to be there, you
Speaker 1: can travel on the back of a van and stay
Speaker 1: at the you know, sleep in the van, or stay
Speaker 1: at the Super eight with six other guys and you're happy.
Speaker 1: So to me, I've always done things, in my opinion,
Speaker 1: for the right reasons. I've never done things for money.
Speaker 1: I do it because I love to do it. And
Speaker 1: if you see of my my my career, uh you know, history,
Speaker 1: my resume, so to speak, it's pretty rare when I
Speaker 1: do something just once, like podcasting. We're going on nine years,
Speaker 1: five books. We've done eight fausey records. I've been wrestling
Speaker 1: for thirty one years. It's never like, oh, he put
Speaker 1: out a book and maybe didn't make money or asked like,
Speaker 1: you gotta put the time and to build it no
Speaker 1: matter what it is, acting anything, And that to me
Speaker 1: is why I've always picked and choose projects according to
Speaker 1: what my gut instinct is. You know, Cruise, like we
Speaker 1: worked on the Cruise for three years and we're we
Speaker 1: just announced our fourth one I have. I have friends
Speaker 1: that are a part of that cruise now for a
Speaker 1: couple of years. I have buddies that have gone and
Speaker 1: done in the in the stand up comic world. But
Speaker 1: that's great, it's it's it's the best vacation I have
Speaker 1: to If you do and they all love it, they
Speaker 1: all love it. If you're doing your your podcast for
Speaker 1: the next year or so on Cruise five, love the
Speaker 1: Freddy Prince Live podcast, you can come hang out. It's
Speaker 1: the best. It's the best vacation. But point is, it's like,
Speaker 1: if you do things for the right reason, the money
Speaker 1: will follow you. If you do things for money, you're
Speaker 1: probably not gonna like it and either not do the
Speaker 1: best job you can or it's not gonna last, and
Speaker 1: you've got to go into the next thing. And I've
Speaker 1: never done that. As a result, my career has always
Speaker 1: been diverse and I've had great longevity. And for everybody listening,
Speaker 1: the reason he can say that, and the reason I
Speaker 1: can nod my head and you don't see it is
Speaker 1: because we have both seen people do it for money,
Speaker 1: and we have both seen those people phase out real
Speaker 1: quick because it does not work. I agree, it doesn't work,
Speaker 1: and that's like I said, and it's sometimes it's hard
Speaker 1: to wrap yourself around. I turned down big money gigs
Speaker 1: not all the time, but most of the time because
Speaker 1: you'll find money in other spots. If if it puts
Speaker 1: you in a bad position where you don't feel it,
Speaker 1: then you're probably not gonna do a great job, and
Speaker 1: people can people can sniff that out. Aren't stupid for sure.
Speaker 1: The modern fan for audiences were never sophisticated until post millennium,
Speaker 1: and that's when audience has started like figuring stuff out
Speaker 1: and going okay okay. Behind the scenes is now just
Speaker 1: the scenes, like there is no buy so you can
Speaker 1: you cannot fool them out. I want to finish with
Speaker 1: something that's more for just my fantasy, but maybe you
Speaker 1: can jump into if you could have one match, any
Speaker 1: stadium guaranteed sellout any opponent at any time in their career.
Speaker 1: I'm giving you the doctor who phone booth. You can
Speaker 1: travel wherever, whenever, any stadium guaranteed sell out every single
Speaker 1: fan screaming or booing for you, whichever one you want,
Speaker 1: any opponent at any time in their career, who and where? Well,
Speaker 1: but there there is there is, there is two that
Speaker 1: I would take but but but but the one that
Speaker 1: I'm really looking forward to now that will have is
Speaker 1: the is the is the story we're building with Eddie
Speaker 1: Kingston and a w that's a guy from day one,
Speaker 1: the moment he walked in and said that's a superstar.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be a huge baby face. But I like
Speaker 1: his style. It's very hard hitting and you know, he
Speaker 1: I can't believe you brought him up. I love I
Speaker 1: love Eddie Kingston. I love to hear that you're actually
Speaker 1: doing something with him. He legit, forget the Puerto Rican
Speaker 1: Puerto Rican thing. Okay, it's not just because of that.
Speaker 1: I he legit. I was watching whoever does gerrols? Like
Speaker 1: video clips and those montages on social media. They need
Speaker 1: a raise like they kill I'm telling you man, the
Speaker 1: music behind it, the cut, the edit. They did one
Speaker 1: with Eddie a couple of months ago, and I legit cried, cried,
Speaker 1: and and that's the reason why I like him is
Speaker 1: is he doesn't look like a typical wrestler. He just
Speaker 1: looks like a tough guy at the bar. But his
Speaker 1: promos are above and beyond. So that's why like I
Speaker 1: kind of pick and shoes who I'm gonna be working
Speaker 1: with and also too, it has to fit in with
Speaker 1: the plans that Tony Khan has and with the guys have.
Speaker 1: But the Edione was really something cool to me. And
Speaker 1: I also deal in long term stories, so uh, nothing's
Speaker 1: set in stone, but but that's one that I'm really
Speaker 1: looking forward to that will happen. But the two that
Speaker 1: I have that never did happen and their brothers and
Speaker 1: they're from the same part of the country as I
Speaker 1: am was, was Brett Hart and Owen Heart. I never
Speaker 1: had a chance to work with either one of them. Um,
Speaker 1: when I made up my mind to leave w CW
Speaker 1: and nine and come to w B. If you gave
Speaker 1: me a list of ten reasons wrestling, Owen Heart would
Speaker 1: be one of the probably seven, eight, nine, ten ones.
Speaker 1: Owen passed away before that could happen. He passed away
Speaker 1: and I'd believe in May of ninety nine. I didn't
Speaker 1: get there till August, and then Brett was in w CW,
Speaker 1: but we were on different levels. I was never kind
Speaker 1: of allowed to get to that level when I was there,
Speaker 1: and then he had to retire out of w CW,
Speaker 1: so we really never actually not really we never had
Speaker 1: a match together. So those two I think would have
Speaker 1: been great chemistry. Um because when you come from a
Speaker 1: certain area of a country, and obviously I trained at
Speaker 1: the Heart Brothers pro Rusting camp. There wasn't any Heart
Speaker 1: Brothers there, but there's a certain way that you train
Speaker 1: where our styles were very similar and we probably think
Speaker 1: a lot the same. And you know, people say who's
Speaker 1: who's the greatest of all time? And to me, you
Speaker 1: could it's all subjective whoever you think it is it is.
Speaker 1: Some people say it's you know some people some people
Speaker 1: say that Christierick is greateful time and if you think that,
Speaker 1: thank you. But other people say Christijerick is not even
Speaker 1: the top twenty. You know. But to me, Brett Hart,
Speaker 1: you could make a case for him as being the
Speaker 1: greatest of all time, or one of them at least,
Speaker 1: because as the years go by, you forget how good
Speaker 1: these guys are or how good these guys were, and
Speaker 1: all it takes is watching one of their matches in
Speaker 1: their prime you go, holy sh it, this is better
Speaker 1: than anything that's going on today. But you forget that
Speaker 1: as the years go on. But so Brett Nolan would
Speaker 1: have been huge, And then of course for me, Sean
Speaker 1: Michaels was a guy really wanted to work with, and
Speaker 1: we did in two thousands and three. We had the
Speaker 1: best match at WrestleMania nineteen um, but we really got
Speaker 1: to come to other in two thousand and eight, and
Speaker 1: that was one of my favorite stories that I've ever
Speaker 1: done in my life. Uh eight nine months long. I
Speaker 1: can't compare it to anything if you wanted to make,
Speaker 1: you know, a documentary on how to have a great
Speaker 1: angle that was originally supposed to be nothing and ended
Speaker 1: up being a top angle that we're fighting for the
Speaker 1: world title nine months later, nine months storyline and wrestling
Speaker 1: is like music to my ears. Well yeah, and then
Speaker 1: just think to Freddie we did m JF and I
Speaker 1: in the Pinnacle, Inner Circle did a year. It was
Speaker 1: it was I think it was two days, shy a year.
Speaker 1: So I made sure to mention it in the week
Speaker 1: after just so we could say it was literally legitimately
Speaker 1: three sixty five days. And that was done more like
Speaker 1: we didn't plan it that way, but we had a
Speaker 1: long term story that kept being cool, and I said,
Speaker 1: let's what's the rush. That's the thing I asked any
Speaker 1: wrestling company, what's the rush. You got fifty two weeks
Speaker 1: a year, a WS two shows a week, WWS two
Speaker 1: shows a week. I hate hot shotting. I hate story
Speaker 1: ways that don't tell a full arc with all the
Speaker 1: twist and turns you can do. And I also hate
Speaker 1: it when people go, alright, already, this needs to end.
Speaker 1: It's been going on too long. Shut your fucking mouth. Okay,
Speaker 1: an hour or two of Titanic. If you thought it
Speaker 1: was too long, you didn't see anything yet. The whole
Speaker 1: last hour was the whole thing. So just shut up
Speaker 1: and enjoy the ride from beginning to end, and then
Speaker 1: tell me your opinion. Don't get mad at the beginning,
Speaker 1: don't get mad in the middle. Wait and see the
Speaker 1: whole movie before you start giving your opinions. And that's
Speaker 1: what I really focus on the best, and I appreciate
Speaker 1: long term storylines, and that's kind of what I focus
Speaker 1: on with whoever I'm working with. In aw you and
Speaker 1: I are so old school, man. It literally is the
Speaker 1: reason I stopped watching TV because I got tired of
Speaker 1: knowing everything about the main prior in the pilot. I'm like,
Speaker 1: you answered all my questions already. I don't need to
Speaker 1: see episode two. He doesn't need to grow, He's already perfect. Great.
Speaker 1: I just I just stumbled on this show on Netflix
Speaker 1: called Slasher, and it's kind of like a Canadian version
Speaker 1: of American horror story, but is way gorrier and it's
Speaker 1: way better written. Do you gotta check it out? From
Speaker 1: episode there there. Each one is its own contained season,
Speaker 1: but it starts in episode one and it's this violent,
Speaker 1: gory murder mystery where you do not see what's happening
Speaker 1: until episode eight. All three seasons i've seen so far
Speaker 1: been that way. I love it. I don't know what's
Speaker 1: happening that stuff. Yeah, and you know it's got eight seasons,
Speaker 1: so of each episode two, well that was stupid. Well
Speaker 1: just shut up because an episode six, when you see
Speaker 1: in two, it's gonna make sense. It's like a Tarantino
Speaker 1: movie or something. I love that ship. Just I will
Speaker 1: watch from beginning to end. Just don't give me any
Speaker 1: plot holes and give me some plausible reasons and I'll
Speaker 1: be there. Yeah, man, old school, Yeah, thank you so
Speaker 1: much for being on the show. Man. I appreciate your
Speaker 1: time so much. Dude. You succeeded in so many different
Speaker 1: facets a lot every guest that I've had on are
Speaker 1: people who I respect their process and their approach because
Speaker 1: I feel those are ways to success. And uh, with
Speaker 1: not even asking you those types of questions, you just
Speaker 1: laid it out. Just you laid it out for anyone
Speaker 1: listening like that your approach to learning, your approach, to
Speaker 1: leaving your comfort zone and going to other places to
Speaker 1: challenge yourself. And then when you succeed there, of course
Speaker 1: that dude brings you to Japan to have a rivalry
Speaker 1: with him out there because of the sacrifice, because of
Speaker 1: that work, So of course you get noticed in Japan
Speaker 1: and then get to go like that's the process. And
Speaker 1: even when I try to talk about the glamour life,
Speaker 1: you go back to the early days of the rock
Speaker 1: and roll when it's tough and it's rough and there
Speaker 1: are no private jets, And that's that's what's necessary for
Speaker 1: artists to succeed. That's why Jackson Pollock was broke most
Speaker 1: of his damn life. But if you if you look
Speaker 1: at at how he would have succeeded today, he would
Speaker 1: have been a multimillionaire today with the way media goes
Speaker 1: and those types of things. So that's the level of sacrifice,
Speaker 1: that's the type of grind and uh, you're far I
Speaker 1: I like to claim myself as an ex ample of it,
Speaker 1: but you are a far finer example of it that
Speaker 1: I got first class quicker than some people. So I can't.
Speaker 1: I can't suffered like the rest of you. No, dude,
Speaker 1: like you said, man, I mean um. Even even when
Speaker 1: I left w B to go have the match with
Speaker 1: kenyel Mega at the Tokyo Dome once again in Japan
Speaker 1: for not being there with New Japan for over twenty years,
Speaker 1: took a chance, built the match, had did huge business
Speaker 1: with it over in Japan, and that's the match that
Speaker 1: Tony con saw where he realized people want to see
Speaker 1: an alternative and that kind of spurred him in a
Speaker 1: lot of ways to take a chance to start a
Speaker 1: w And then when he took that chance, I took
Speaker 1: another chance and went with him. So to me, it's
Speaker 1: always about that you leave your comfort zone. You know,
Speaker 1: if your kiss take the makeup off, you know you
Speaker 1: gotta do it. If not, you get stuck in a
Speaker 1: nostalgia role or you become stagnant and nobody, nobody wants
Speaker 1: to see that. I've always been mostly influenced by David
Speaker 1: Bowie when it comes to this, he always updated his image.
Speaker 1: He always evolved and changed you never fucking even til
Speaker 1: his last record Lazarus, you never knew what Bowie was
Speaker 1: gonna do, but it was always Bowie and it was
Speaker 1: always cool. Even if you didn't like the Berlin years
Speaker 1: or you didn't like the thin White Duke or whatever,
Speaker 1: it still was something really cool and it was exactly
Speaker 1: And that's what I love about those types of guys,
Speaker 1: the long term. Guns and Roses did it, the Beatles
Speaker 1: did it, Johnny Depp does it. I mean, you're always
Speaker 1: changing and I love that, and so I, as Chris
Speaker 1: Jericho made a pact with myself years ago, I'll never
Speaker 1: once again. I'll never do it just to get a paycheck.
Speaker 1: And if it bores me and I'm not creatively stimulated,
Speaker 1: I'll move on to the next thing. And that's what's
Speaker 1: always benefited me with my career. And I've got a
Speaker 1: great fan base that trusts me on that and follows
Speaker 1: me and nine times at Attendant success once in a while,
Speaker 1: not quite, but nothing's ever a failure unless you don't
Speaker 1: try it. That's the best advice. Second, give damn right.
Speaker 1: And by the way, the list is still a top
Speaker 1: ten gimmick of all top I don't care what everybody says.
Speaker 1: That ship that would correct me up and that. But
Speaker 1: once again, Freddie, like when when I came to a
Speaker 1: W and two thousand and nineteen, another reason was, if
Speaker 1: I go back to W now, the first thing they'll
Speaker 1: do is make me put someone on the list. And
Speaker 1: I'm not feeling it anymore. That was two thousands. That's
Speaker 1: that's too, that's so two thousand and sixteen. But that's
Speaker 1: how you've always been, man like, You've always had these
Speaker 1: things to to continuously evolved. And I think, and again,
Speaker 1: I've never bashed WW on this podcast. I have my criticisms,
Speaker 1: but I've never bashed on him. But when they find
Speaker 1: something that's money, they never want to let go and
Speaker 1: they get a little they get a little bit of
Speaker 1: a not a little bit, but they fear like like
Speaker 1: Garth from Wayne's World, we fear change like they don't.
Speaker 1: They don't want to see what's next, and it'll it
Speaker 1: takes top guys to kind of show them like we're
Speaker 1: stopping that. It takes a top guy a lot of
Speaker 1: confidence to do that. Uh, And so I think w
Speaker 1: B kind of shies away because most guys that's hard
Speaker 1: to do. Man. I've seen you do it multiple times
Speaker 1: in a year. I've seen you do it multi times
Speaker 1: in a year. I don't I don't think I've seen
Speaker 1: anyone else ever do that, which is I'm not trying
Speaker 1: to blow smoke. It's just crazy, thank you, But I
Speaker 1: can because I'm still a fan of everything. I can
Speaker 1: feel when it gets a little bit boring, and I
Speaker 1: can feel when it's like, Okay, we've seen this again
Speaker 1: and that's cool, but give me something new, man, Just
Speaker 1: just something. You know, if I go see a band
Speaker 1: played ten times and it's the same set every night,
Speaker 1: it's like just throwing throwing something, throwing something different for
Speaker 1: the guys that see you ten times, and the best
Speaker 1: bands do that, you know. Um, So that's kind of
Speaker 1: always been my m O. And that's what I'll continue
Speaker 1: to do and um because it's exciting and it's it's
Speaker 1: inspiring to me to do that. Well, dude, you're the best.
Speaker 1: You're so awesome that I've literally seen an m M
Speaker 1: A guy do the walls of Jericho in an actual
Speaker 1: match and got a tap. That's how awesome you are.
Speaker 1: And thanks for Rido part of the show. Brother Thanks
Speaker 1: Freddy anytime man, always got always got time for you
Speaker 1: for sure. All Right, you guys, thanks for tuning in.
Speaker 1: I'll see everybody next week with a brand new episode
Speaker 1: of Wrestling with Freddy. This has been a production of
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio's Michael Tura podcast Network. For more podcasts
Speaker 1: for My heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Speaker 1: H m hmm.