Pod Meets Wrestlemania: Mark Henry & Chelsea Green

Welcome to our second jam packed Interview episode for you. We are very very excited to bring Mark Henry. What an incredible personality athlete.

Yeah, he was so funny and the things he was telling us that he did and was able to accomplish, just in heavy things to lift.

We looked up.

We just watched his video of the Thomas Inch Dumbell that he was telling.

Us about that he was then able to lift over his head.

Crazy, it's ridiculous.

Well, I encourage all of you when you hear the interview and you get to that part, look up that YouTube clip because it's pretty remarkable. And then we have Chelsea Green, the only woman to attend my husband's bachelor party back in twenty eighteen.

Yes, and what an incredible story she.

Has of perseverance, Yeah, of using her talents to come up with unique characters and gimmicks but that really work and make it special.

Yeah, she came up with some really kind of off the wall characters that all of us were talking about afterwards as just what a cool backstory to you know, Well, I don't want to ruin it, but you know, just think about her dress.

That's all I'm going to say.

Yeah, she's telling us about it, how it changes after every match.

It was just so all the little details we're thinking about. You were saying that if I was a wrestler, i'd be the professor. Yeah, I think I should just be angst. Oh oh that's great, just the angst. That's great.

Every time, like everybody comes out to this big music, but you're always.

Just in the corner kind of just saying by your and like they want. They'd interview me before match and just be like, I'm just too much. Man, I just can't.

I can't even go would be thunder and rain, Oh I love it.

I'm just too deep for this.

I just can't.

We should be two wrestlers that never actually wrest I just sit in the corner and a rock, That's.

What I mean.

And I'm always just like I'm not kidding in that.

So that's we can have the characters because we have the talent portion with the acting, but not so much with the athleticism.

It seems like you need.

Kind of the whole package.

You definitely need both, sure, but I think you guys are onto something. Try to be wrestlers without any any Yeah exactly.

Hey, I've gone through this much of my life without any athletics.

All right, everyone enjoyed this episode. Our next guest is an absolute legend, whether as a two time Olympic power lifter, as a Pan American Games winner of a gold, a silver, and a bronze medal, or as a multi time US national champion and winner of the two thousand and two

Who wrote my Wikipedia But it's just rotten. I'm gonna have to I'm gonna have to actually do it because like they mixed. I did three sports, okay, powerlifting, weightlifting, and strong man, and you know, thank god I was able to win at all of them. And the what it sounds like bragging when I say it, but it's like the powerlifting World I was world champion. The Olympic

I don't know what strong man.

Strong Man is like an athletic, Like they just take implements like who can lift this heavy rock?

Don't you have to pull a bus?

Isn't that strong man?

Like it's like.

Well I would have said a pull of train, but that that might sound bad, but we've done it all and it's it's funny that like the yoke, Like people say what's a yoke, and it's like, oh, you put something on your neck and you carry, like there's a timber carry, there's a frame carry and all of these are eight hundred pounds implements that you have to pick up and then walk with, you know. And then you've seen the movie of Conan. Yeah, you know, so they

Did you the the keke tar like.

Height?

So how do you train for that?

Do you do?

You know all these events before you go in, or you know, you.

Know before, but you know, like the competitions vary, so you might go to one competition and it might be real heavy and pressing implements, or you know, this one might be pulling things right, you know, so it's it's different and you just have to be versatile. And I was because of my leticism. It just takes. It was tailor made for me.

Wow, there's so much fun to watch.

If you've never watched a strong man competition, they're really you just get sucked in. I mean they're really because you're going this it seems superhuman, right, I mean to grab a keg and throw it up over their head and it's good. It's for height, so their talk, it's really an amazing thing.

You just like a seven hundred pounds all drum, like you know, like you see it, you see it on the ground, you go, wow, why is there a big ol drum right here? And there are people gonna lift it? And they go.

How Yeah, it's amazing and.

It's a technique to it. It's like you have to start going through you know, Okay, I have to push this forward and get my knees under it and then hug it and pull it to me and do it. So I've been I've been blessed to do things that no other human walking the planet has been able to do. Still to this day.

What's the most what's the heaviest thing you've ever lifted?

Uh? The Thomas inch dumbbell is. It's a three inch handle, one hundred and seventy two point five pound dumbbell and for years and years people couldn't even pull it off the ground. It was kind of like Thor's hammer. And then the first time I touched it, you know, I did Arnold Schwarzenegger's competition at the on a Classic, and I was so disappointed that I couldn't lift it over my head, and they were like, hey, man, you just lifted something off the ground to your waist that people

Of Asgard now, so I don't understand what the problem is.

So I was like, I'm lifting over my head next year. And in the calendar year, I lifted it. Wow, and nobody's been able to do it since.

So wow, it's crazy.

I love the expression that y'all have.

Well, yeah, because it's it's superhuman.

Yeah.

Really, we always talk comic books and superheroes and it is people that are superhuman.

You're one of them. It's crazy.

Yeah, that's pretty incredible.

Cool.

There's a lot of work that go into it because I've spent my I had a lot of talent, but I spent my life working like I don't And you know, I hate I hate losing. I would rather not lose than win. Right.

Yeah.

People think, wait a minute, that's kind of odd, Like what do you mean I cry when I lose? Yeah, like I can't sleep, Like I'm telling you it's a sickness, and people laugh. My wife she's just like, oh my god, let him win, me and the family playing and I lose.

Oh no, right in.

The house, know that I'm just gonna go over there and power.

No one wants to play games with you.

I can't wait Monopoly. I can't do nothing if I.

Lose your toys and go home.

Yeah yeah, yeah, but that it made it made me great. Now I thank God for it.

Well, thank you for being here with us on WrestleMania Weekend. You have had so many amazing WrestleMania moments over the years. Uh, is there anything like WrestleMania makes it so special?

It's the spectacle of it. It's the fact that, you know, you people come from all over the where I'm I sat and talked to a guy from Singapore yesterday and he barely could speak English, and he started crying, and I was like, man, what's what's up. He's like, He's like, I just can't believe I'm in America. I'm at WrestleMania. It was a big.

Damn And people come from every little small place in the world because they've seen it on TV or they watched it on YouTube.

And they finally get here, Like it's just a special thing and it's not like the Olympics or the Arnal Classic or you know, the NBA Championships and stuff, where it's only important to people in that genre or people in that country. You know, I don't know nothing about cricket or you know a lot of rugby and so forth. But I'm sure that there's some people that take it really, really seriously. Everybody takes wrestle serious. Yeah, like that's crazy.

Yeah, well one of the things that like, this is Will's only second wrestling event ever. He went to the premiere of Raw on Netflix that was his first. This is Writer's first ever wrestling event ever, and both of their first WrestleMania so Saturday. Yes, he's never even been to a wrestling show.

That's like going to Carnegie Hall and performance. Yes, I'm excited.

I'm excited, Ma.

You get to go to WrestleMania first.

Yes, it's like your first super Bowl. It's like your first football game ever. It is the Super Bowl.

And he has his ten year old son here with him, who it's also his first wrestling show. So it's going to be a family affair.

Because your kid is going to go to a live event and go where's the Pyroe.

But he'll be into it because of the character. So one of the one of the things that they have both really gravitated to with the with the or the storylines and and the understanding that each of you are not only doing what we've been doing our entire lives, acting and performing, but you're also doing it while being incredibly athletic.

We talked about in little.

Tiny clothes in front of everybody, and something we all have in common that I wanted to ask you about is we've all had this experience where you build a reputation for yourself, you're doing something, and then all of a sudden you get a script to become sexual chocolate and serenade an eighty year old woman.

And let me stop you. Okay. Sometimes people suggest that and hand you a script created sexual jog.

Okay, see good, that is on. That's the thing that's unlike what we get to do the do.

They invested a lot of money in me, and they were like, look, we want you to be serious, and I was like, no, I want to do comedy. No, you're an olympian. We want you to do this. And I was like, listen, I beg you to see the vision. Let me do this. You won't be entertained, like and they allowed me to do it, and here it is thirty five years later, and uh, every.

I can't go nowhere without people to people.

Hey, chocolate, and that's so great, Like we love that so much that you that you have the freedom. They pushed back, but you you won, and that some of Like I think everybody we've interviewed today, their most iconic moments they created and that came from that.

Yeah.

Yeah, And it just goes to show you that like wrestling now having it finally it's been it's.

Felt niche for so long, and now it's really starting to feel like it's starting to become for the masses. And one of the things I'd like for our industry to learn is the fact that when you trust your talent enough to let them make their make some of their own decisions, and you can really it can really be for everybody.

Okay, I have a question.

You're so your training you're an Olympic athlete.

Was professional wrestling always something you wanted to do or was this something you found after.

I had no idea.

Huh.

I was a wrestling fan. My grandmother and I share that, and I never nobody else in my family watches wrestling. Okay, I've twenty eight years of pro wrestling. Nobody's ever asked me for a ticket for Wrestlmingia really never. I'm I always go on record as probably saying twenty five times I had a family member come to a show. They just don't care. Wow. Like it's like wrestling is not

Did your did your grandmother ever get a chance to see you wressell?

Oh? My god, yeah, I'm glad that she lived to see me wrestle, probably about six years and would come to shows and I heard my mom and and and just like she would laugh a lot because it was me doing it.

Breaks the fantasy when.

Somebody else was. She was so.

And I'm like, why you laugh about You ain't gonna hurt No, It's like, oh, Grandma, don't believe.

That's so.

You were outside the WWE for a little, you were working elsewhere after being with this company for decades, and here you are Siberia. What's the most important thing you learned while dabbling with others for a minute.

I think the most important thing is there's unbelievable talent everywhere, but without proper leadership and direction and focus, you can't succeed.

Right, So smart, leave it right there? Leave it there, all right?

That's fair.

You have seen a lot of wrestlers come and go in the amount of time that you have been doing what you do. What is the worst thing someone very green can do in their first few months not care.

If you if you fail, you better show me that you're morseful. You be able to show me that you're trying to get better and you're sorry that you made a mistake. And the people that's like, oh, well something you can't make omelet I breaking a few eggs. Those people get that kicked right. Like all wrestlers feel the same exact way. It is nothing your life. Every one

He was he was puke.

He was in the documentary where with You're kidding.

Paralyzed.

I didn't know.

That and it just it was, it just it was bad. But he was never bitter about it, and he was like, it's not his fault. Like I tried to put the mustard on the hot dog and I ruined it. And I hurt myself in the process, and it's it's hard to wake up every day and realize you can't do nothing about that. But if that person's life is in your hands, the last thing you want to do is do something and not be responsible and not be understanding

Yeah, just get out of here with that.

Have you?

Can you think of a wrestler that you saw up and coming that you were like, this person is going to be huge and then they just never got their shot.

Really, Oh, there's been a lot of them, I think, like looks and talent wise. That was a girl named Linda Miles. She played a character named Schanik what it was with the Bashing Brothers and I just knew she was Jay Cargill before j But she just didn't like wrestling.

That's a problem.

I want to do that. She she wanted to do things her way, not the way that the company wanted to do. They you can't go to McDonald's and make a whopper, right, ye, Like it's they company do what they want you to do and go home, take your check.

But especially when you're just getting started to ingratiate yourself a little bit, make yourself making how you does exactly. So Will has been steadily working out for all, I mean, most of his life. He's in great shape, but he's really striving to get you around.

Round is a shape, so we're honest. So yeah, we look like ten, it's a shape.

His goal is to feel comfortable taking his shirt off. Do you have any suggestions for a man who's pushing fifty who wants to get in the best shape of a different way?

This question?

Man, is there a way to ask a decrepit falling.

Strange?

Sometimes?

Listen, I've been around wrestling. I seen five hundred and sixty pounds with no shirt on. So like, you gotta just take it as it goes. Yeah, that's true. That's true. Nobody's gonna judge you if your performance is great.

That's true.

Okay, So I could be Will dra the giant.

Oh, let's work on the.

Figure something out.

But like I wouldn't say the giant with a J.

Giant with a J.

That's my hook.

We're gonna work on Okay, workshop, But if workouts don't take you to be in the gym for three hours. You know. It's consistency over time, you know. So if you can do three hundred reps every day, reps every day, that's nothing. That's five five sets.

Okay, Okay, you do you do five of twenty five okay.

And the upper body like some curls, some overhead presses, some bench presses, some lattle raisers, some rows, some whatever, and then you do one hundred reps. There's one hundred set ups. You can do one hundred squads or fifty squads or twenty five lunches and then twenty five leg curls like something. You're done with three hundred. Like you know, my coach always said, if you could jump over broomstick, you can stay in jake. So like you just keep jumping over the broomstick.

So my first goal is jumping over the broomstick.

Start there. It don't take a.

Lot, okay, And then I could lift that arnold bar.

No, let's not get over zeps.

Now, your son, Jacob Henry has signed a deal with the WWE were you always supportive of him following in your footsteps?

Yeah? Because he loved it, and I know He's going to be really good because there's steady habits, you know, the questions he asked, and his knowledge of the force if you will. He knows history, and in order to know where you're going, you got to know where you came from. And a lot of athletes don't have that. They just have the I want to make me dollar. I want to look real good so I can get the girls, you know, like or whatever it is, or the guy as for that matter. And Jacob is like,

Wow, that's so that's so cool. Now you are on Serious XM with Busted Open Radio, the podcast, still watching a lot of wrestling, fifteen hours a week.

Really, Wow, I watched every brand and wrestling in the world, man, and.

Stuff that I shouldn't watch. Really, I've seen some wrestling that definitely killed brains up.

If we had to bet, we're in Vegas. If we had to bet on a young superstar who's going to be the next Rock or Roman reigns or see him punk? Who do we put our money on?

Will Drew the Giant? I thought we've established this.

If we not established that, I thought we're.

In the conversation. I can't I can't miss this. Jacob fi too, Okay, can't miss o man, Like you could tell that he love it and he's really good at it, and the stuff that he does without thinking is great. Its just it's a trip to me to watch my find myself watching him going dude, is that like he just he just gets your attention, I guess. On On the On the on the women's side, j Car Gill has got so much potential to be what every female wrestler should want to aspire to be. Charlotte Flair, the

That's exactly it. That's what we were talking about. That's so incredible is that to really be at the top of your game, you have to excel in both.

Yeah, you got you both.

Yeah, and then all the travel on top of it, and yeah, it's so what you guys do is really remarkable. What's one thing you'd like to see disappear from wrestling in twenty twenty five and what do you want to see more.

Of disappear from wrestling? I want to I want people to stop diving through the ropes without knowing how to do it properly. Okay, there's several things in wrestling that people are doing. It's really dangerous and they don't know how to do it.

If you're going to do it, go to the hunter.

And say, listen, there's five people that can do it really well. All the rest of y'all can't do it no more. Right, Like, there's a bunch of moves like that needs to be the greatest people at it. Hey, y'all keep on doing it. All the rest of y'all until I give you permission. Y'all want to see you do it again.

Or out your lights go right right? I like how important it is to you that everybody stay safe, because, like you said, it really is people's lives on the line in the ring.

I've seen people risk that. It happened not long ago. I'm not mass you no names because I don't want to point the way out. But a girl dove through the ropes, plunt her through the ropes to the floor, and the girl on the rope on the floor saved her life. It looked like too because she stopped wrestling.

Right and had to catch her right so ron dart into the ground, and like she shouldn't have done it.

The agent should have said, no, I'm not doing that.

Yeah, right.

So it's a lot of personal responsibility that we got to do to take care of each other, and the ring should be everybody sanctuary. Yeah, you should treat it like that.

What's something you'd like to see more of silliness?

Yeah?

I want to see people make a fool.

Out of themselves.

Yes, yes, you know.

Anthony Morelli Santino, you know, just selfless, just funny without trying to be funny, just I'm going to make a fool out of myself going one hundred miles an hour and hope everybody like it. Yes, and that's wrestling. Need that, Yeah, and everybody want to look good and be cool. Tired of cool people?

Yeah, let's bring back someself.

I want to see.

That your advice is the inverse of each other. It's like, on the one hand, you want people to pull back on the physical and like be very careful.

No, I don't want him to risk. I want him to have a comedic and uh and a fear that Like you go to a Broadway show and if it's a one man's show, John leg Ozamo, you've ever seen this one man show? Google John leg Ozamo and look at this one man show. He's on stage, just him. He did five characters in about thirty seconds and they all made me laugh. Right, that's what wrestling. A guy

What was I talking about?

Do you remember what I was saying? Like he interactive? There needs to be more interaction than wrestling too. We we produce it so that you go, go go, but wrestling is not that Historically wrestling is the term broadway comes from wrestling, you know. So you have to be able to perform big motions and let people get it as they get it, you know, going you get it, you get it. Takes away from the joke.

Right, you have a long history with this guy. What have you thought about seen A's heel turn.

I told y'all he was rotten. Everybody was mad at hey, Mark, Why you do that to him? He deserved it? I think that is awesome. Yeah, talk about versatility.

Uh huh.

You know another guy that works incredibly hard. But John is just inherently smart too. Yeah, so it's not like he has to outwork you. He's just better than you. Some people just good and he's one of those people.

I want to end on a rapid fire note. I'm gonna let's hear your predictions on a few matches. Okay, gunther versus JAUSO violent?

Oh violent, this is gonna be. Jay's gonna have to earn his bones because I don't think he's had a match yet.

Like what gun could bring My son's a big ja So fan. Yes, that's his guy, all right. How about Living Rock hel versus Bailey and Lyra.

I think that that's another one that's a great entertainer, that that Live She is locked in.

Yeah, she's our pod meets World champion so yeah current yeah, Current, that means that, Yeah, she could be out of there.

How it's going with the organization before.

She's got a lot of personality and like you talk about making fool out of yourself, she don't mind. I love it.

Yeah, she's willing to go silly. How about Io Sky versus Bianca, bell Air versus Ria Ripley Uh.

EO will come here and beat you up if she heard you say?

Okay, eo, thank you?

Is very talented and underrated. And I'm going with her. Okay, like she needs to have more, uh runway to do more?

Okay, Punk versus Rawlins versus Roman.

Rains very complicated.

I'm a pump fan, Okay, so yeah, but I want to see.

And I want set Rollins to get bay him and and I'm just gonna stop right there because everything else I say is going to be very critical.

What you say it on your own podcast.

I don't know. I don't want.

And then finally Cody versina.

I want Cody to to win, and I want John Cena to do what evil people do. And that's just lie. You said he was gonna retire. I'm not retiring, y'all, suckers. I mean lied to get the opportunity to do what I'm doing right now. I main invented WrestleMania. It ain't nothing you could do about it. And then I'm gonna make your life miserable until I win. Nobody's winning until I win. It was always my philosophy. If I lost a fight as a little kid growing.

Up, yeah, I'm gonna make you me tomorrow too.

Eventually you go say, look, okay.

Just take it because I'm gonna make your life miserable and that and that's the character that I want.

John to become.

Wow, I lied. I have one more question for you. I mentioned that this is their first WrestleMania. What advice do you have for them tomorrow to make the most of their experience?

To take it in and act. Don't analyze, Okay, like.

You're very good at that.

I believe that when you analyze, you take your eye off being in suspended belief and it happens to me all the time, like I want to, Oh, man, I want to just watch it. Yeah, and I'll start writing notes for tomorrow for the show, and I'm like, once I start analyzing it totally, so I say, just going there. Get you some popcorn and Eminem's because I can't.

Eat popcorn without something sweet.

They go together like peanut butter joke, and enjoy yourself, like.

It's okay to embrace the fantasy.

Yes, it's okay to embrace the fantasy.

You watch Marvels, Yeah, I love that stuff.

I guess so deep sometimes in the series that it's hard for me to convince myself that is a movie.

That's good though.

That's how you should.

I love your I would, for the record, like to say that I wear that on my biceps. It's beautiful. I absolutely love it and truly thank you so much for being here with us. You are one of a kind and it was really great having the opportunity to talk to you. So thank you.

Well, gentlemen, another champion has arrived, so everybody act cool. Our guest is the inaugural w w E Women's US Champion and a former women's tag team champion who has quickly become a bright shining light on SmackDown, and though she is a genuine heel, she somehow attended my husband's bachelor party.

Yes.

In the podcast, Chelsea Green, everyone how you were the only woman.

Allowed at my husband's bachelor party.

Okay, So first of all, I had no idea what was going on, but the boys went to all In.

Yes, his bachelor party was at all in In.

Okay, so all In is I'm so glad you asked. Yeah, so thank you for asking. It is the biggest and best independent wrestling show to ever be put on. This was like the first little snippet of what would be aw but we didn't know that at the time. It was just the biggest independent show. It was in Chicago. It was at the All State Arena, and that was the first time that like indie wrestlers had filled up an arena exactly.

And so they Jensen took a bunch of guys they went all In.

It was a front row.

They sat front row, and then the entire group fell in love with Chelsea and was like she's the coolest and one of Jensen's friends, Nano, then secretly added her to the weekends group the group chat. Yes, so she was in the group chat.

That nickname or is he just really small?

But it isn't large.

Though, it's not a large man.

No, that we're discussing.

Not at this point. I'm sure he's happy we're talking about that. He's a small man named Nano.

Okay. Checking.

And at that time you went by hot Mess Chelsea Green was.

I was a little like, okay, this was man. There's a lot to them at So at the beginning of twenty seventeen, I had evolved into this hot Mess character that was a jilted bride left at the old So I led great. I wrestled in a wedding dress. Oh, the wedding dress got dirtier and dirtier and shorter and shorter, and I got more and more disheveled. My makeup was everywhere, hair was everywhere, and I wrestled barefoot. It was honestly, I.

Come, it's brilliant.

So it was like a Wiki feet dream.

Yes, there you go, exactly. You probably have more Wiki feet pictures than I did.

I bet I do, maybe well maybe. So then when I got asked to do all in, I'm like, what can I do? That's different? That people haven't seen. This could be the start of like the next kind of iteration of this character. So I really I just watched Split with James McAvoy. I was obsessed with a Split personality and no one was letting me do it. So

Was good hair dish.

It was so much fun. So when they saw me, it was like a drunk girl wrestling. Wow, it was all over the place. It was a lot. There was a lot going on, lot going on, and I didn't really know what I was doing, but like I knew I was having fun, and I knew in this match probably everyone was going to look the same except me. Yeah, we'll we wear a bunch of brunette girls. Like, what's different. We're all four white brunette girls, five ot eight. There's

Jeez, I love it so much.

It's so great.

Okay, wait, I have a question.

When you're designing the wedding dress to wrestle in, is it function over style? Can you still wrestle while you're wearing a wedding dress? How did that work?

The problem with wrestling is like you don't know what next week is going to bring. So when I wore this wedding dress, we had no idea that I was going to be wrestling in it for the next year. So we just had a wedding dress. And in fact, the wedding dress was much more functional before we altered it to make it sexy. So we were trying to like add a little pizaz to it. So we cut the sleeves off and we added like a key hole right here.

Boys won't know, but yeah, I get it.

And then I ended up having to wrestle in it for a year, and we kind of had to slowly start figuring out ways to keep it on and in tact. Yeah, and you know, I had also never wrestled barefoot, Like it's not exactly natural to be jumping around with no shoes on and no stability, so it was a whole Honestly, it really changed the way I wrestled because instead of wrestling, I started doing theater.

Right great and truly talk about iconic, you know, like at least when you look back on it and you're like, Okay, I can't believe I was able to do it, but no one else was doing that.

I was also single when I started doing that, and that was really terrifying to me because I'm like, no one is gonna date me. I'm really not gonna nobody is going to date me. So I had just gone on my first date with my husband, and I'm like, and now, oh my god, I'm going on live TV and I'm gonna like embarrass him and everyone's gonna talk about this. And they did, but in such an amazing way, Like I'll never forget when Randy Orton went up to him in the locker room in front of all the

He's doing this and I can't believe that's your woman.

And then he married me, and I was just as much of a hot mess at the wedding.

So the hot mess is your version of engagement? Chicken?

I have a question from a wrestling standpoint, if you wrestle barefoot, is that also a weakness?

Can they like footstomp you and stuff like that?

Yeah, they can do anything. And also just like the thought of having your dogs out like the on that nasty canvas, like after the boys have been their sledding.

Yeah, he knows what fluids are on that canvas.

I could name a couple, okay, yeah, yeah.

We don't want to do that. So guys, Chelsea is from Victoria, British Columbia, so it's possible Boy Meets World didn't get to you. Did you watch Boy Meets World? Or were you degrassy?

No?

So it okay? No, I was not degrassy okay at all? And in fact, I was shocked to learn that Drake was on de Grassy like I that was how That's how annected I was. I was a family channel girl, so I kind of watched a little bit of everything, but I wasn't a TV household. Like we're on the West Coast. Yeah we're always outdoors hiking and everything. But now I'm very like nostalgic about all things nineties two thousand's. So I've gone back now and watched so yes, yes, but I think that's better.

Yeah, So retroactively, what's your favorite ninety shi?

Oh?

I mean, I guess I would have to say I kind of Thursday nights for me in my house, that was our night that we watched TV and it was Survivor and Friends and back to.

Back Loves Survivor Huge.

Can you imagine if you can bine those two shows.

And it's the cast of Friends on Survivor, it's a great idea meets alone.

Just yeah, I would.

I would love to see what just Aniston's hair looks like in.

The drinks exactly.

Matt LeBlanc just you know, eating the stomach of some elk gat awesome.

You mentioned you didn't you were in a big TV household, But did you have any TV crushes when you were a kid?

I mean definitely Zach Morris Okay, and you know that's what my husband named himself after. Zach Ryder from w B is a Zach Morris reference. Yes, so that's an interesting one.

No.

You know what I kind of started maybe thinking about like crushes and stuff when like the Jonas Brothers Popped Popped.

Off which Jonas did you?

I mean, I think everyone was Joe until until you got older, and then it shifts.

I don't know why I asked.

I don't know what the Jonas brothers are, but I mean I've heard of the Jonas brothers, but I don't if you like, how many brothers.

Are the fourth there's a bonus Jonas, but he's not in the He's not in the group, so he's the bonus Jonas.

He's the young you imagine being the fourth Jonas brother who isn't in the.

And honestly, even the nickname bonus Jonas, there was like time it was a little offensive.

Yeah, seriously, dude, pick up the cowbell, play a triangle.

I mean, sus in the band?

How hard is that? Oh? Man, No, that.

Would be really sad. If he also had no musical skills. We don't know that. We don't know that.

I think he does.

He now has his own he's like on his he has.

His own musical career.

So the.

Bonus.

I can't wait to google the bonus Jonas.

Oh yeah, I can't wait to google wiki feet. I still don't know. I still don't entirely know what it is. I know Daniel's big out on.

No riders actually have.

More feet more. My feet are disgusting.

I never want to be barefoot ever in life, Like I hate it, Like I wear boots like this is this is me at the beach right. But but for whatever reason, I have more wicked feet entries than he does.

It does it is He's got the feet that can bring the ring to Mortor and save us all.

I've got very long toes, So I feel that I that's the thing.

Yeah, I have nothing.

I keep submitting him. They keep sending them back. It's weird, like we don't need this, We're good, thank you.

I just fun fact, Black China makes like a million dollars a month off her feet. Wow, so there's a market.

She was our neighbor.

She was literally our neighbor.

Literally, So you really paid your dues in what is called indie wrestling, which I am a big supporter of. And this means you're performing around the country in small local events outside of a major company, which because of the WWE Performance Center, is now not as common as it used to be.

What do you think you learned because of your indie roots?

Oh my gosh, I mean how to perform for five people, how to make the most out of absolutely nothing, how to travel properly, how to come up with matches in two seconds and work on the fly, And I mean it was it.

Did you literally wrestle for five people?

I mean, was there was?

They were that small?

And actually it was. I would say probably three times I wrestled for five people, and there's yeah, so much harder. It is so much harder. And I realized that it really like came to light when I had my first WrestleMania and I walked out and I'm like, oh, this is so much easier in front of eighty thousand people than it is in front of twenty five. Like you just you hear everything that they're thinking. They're saying it

You can look at each one of them, and yeah, it's very scary.

It's very scary. You just Indie Wrestling has taught me wrestling, and now I'm just now I'm just performing. Now, I'm just like on autopilot, just like having fun. Yeah, And I really have so much respect for everyone who wasn't on the indies for a long time, I was all like bitter Like some people they didn't have to do any of that, they didn't have to fight to get here. No, everyone had a different fight to get there, to get spotted, right.

Well, I mean that's like any performer, you know.

The great performers are the ones who started in small theater and started on stage and built up. Yeah, and then when they get to the they've they've earned it on the way up.

And if he earned.

Every little over night success, yeah right, yeah overnight.

Yeah.

This is something I really experienced this year, and not even just with this title, but also all of a sudden, a match from twenty eighteen or nineteen versus Pentagon came to light and now Pentagon is at WWE, and everyone's like, oh my god, she can do this and then I'm like, I've been doing this since twenty fourteen, what do you mean? Yeah, I mean I'll accept it. I'll take I'll take it all. But it's like no, no, no, no, you can go back on YouTube and exactly I've been trying to.

Do the selling to get here. Yes, so you eventually ended up in Luca Underground as Reclusa, a hardcore intergender bat so she wrestled due Crazy and now.

The Fighter like the Yeah, I was a spidery dark character.

And now with Penta in the WWE, do you ever think you'll cross paths?

I hope not. I hope to god not. That was the most amazing, Like it would be like making a sequel to the most perfectly made movie that there ever was. And I know everyone keeps saying they want to see it, and I totally understand that. I also understand that right now I'm the comedic relief of WW and they want to see like that serious side back, right, but like this is how wrestling works, like we evolve. I'm not

No, yeah, yeah.

No, smartink, it's smart right, don't let it.

Don't try because you know what will happen. They'll all on it.

Yeah right, exactly, right exactly, people begging for it will then be bumbed it happened.

I know how this works, exactly.

This is your first rodeo.

What I Reclusa got left at the altar.

Oh, well, that would be crazy, That's what I mean.

Then, it's just.

That would definitely be yeah. And you know what, Also, I wore a very very very tiny outfit in Luke Underground. I also don't need to revisit that.

Your journey to WWE also had some false starts. You played extras, finished fourth on Tough Enough, went to NXT, then smacked down for a year, and then you got released, only to be rehired by WWE two years later.

Did you always think you'd be coming back?

Yes, you knew it. I knew the minute they fired me. So I got a call about three minutes before I was fired from my husband saying you're about to get fired.

Wow.

I just got a text like Chelsea's going to be called, like she's like next on the list. So he gave me the heads up and I'm very thankful. I'm not an emotional person, so like I wouldn't have cried or flew off the handle, but it just gave me a split second to like yeah. So when they called me, I was like, Okay, thank you. You know, hopefully I'll see you in the future. And then I was like, oh,

Right?

No?

Right?

Exactly?

Who cares? So he says, no, Okay, Well I'm surviving, I'm making money, I'm paying my bills. I'm fine. But like if he doesn't know why I want to come back.

How absolutely absolutely? Sitting around hoping for a phone call versus picking up the phone yourself.

And I have always asked for a job at WWE, so I'm not changing my tune now. And you know, for so long I got ripped apart on the Internet for like telling, like letting people know that I was asking for things, I was pitching things, I was coming up with all these crazy ideas, and the Internet was like, you're delusional. But like, that's why I'm here right with this exactly because I just put it out there and I'm not embarrassed.

So smart honestly, especially like I don't mean to make this a gendered thing, but I know women especially I feel in my experience because I have dealt with it myself. I'll just speak from personal experience. Letting people know you want something, you're asking for it. There is for some reason it feels more desperate if you're a woman doing it versus a man being like, this is what I want,

Women are nags, right, That's what it comes down to. It's like that's not accurate.

It was very interesting. I've I've had a lot of ups and downs with with Twitter, and I've obviously.

Learned on Twitter it's shocking.

Well, let me tell you something. I'm I'm in an up part right now, and it's terrifying.

Yeah, oh yeah, because you know the crashes.

Of course, because I was canceled two years ago. I could have saved a puppy from drowning and they would have canceled me. So it's just like, at this point, I don't care what you think about me. I'm I'm more than happy in my life and I go home and I don't think about anything to do with work or social media, and like, it's great, but it takes a while to get there.

And Will is speaking from experience as well. Will is almost fifty years old and is just now getting to it.

There's a great quote that's care what people think of you, and you'll forever be their prisoner that So I just came to the point where I don't care exactly.

If you believe the hype, then you have to believe they hate too. So I'm not going to believe anything because I didn't believe it when they were canceling me, so I'm not going to believe it when they think all of a sudden, all of a sudden, Now my pitches are amazing, and I'm right, I'm the smartest person. No, no, no, because you canceled me two years ago for those pitches.

Yeah exactly, Wow, well thank you for that. If you had to book your own dream WrestleMania match, who are you facing? Are there any stipulations? And is my husband's bachelor party there?

Oh?

Oh yeah?

Because they I mean they made all in with their they were crazy, they were.

You have no idea how much fun they had. It was the great. It was literally the time of his life. I mean, I'm still in the group chat. I'm sure I go through my through my text messages.

And find it.

When you're done here, send send the group.

You are kicked out of the Montel Jordan text. Nobody anymore.

So Ryder and I text each other like we got you and me, but that's what we got.

Okay, So they'd be front row. It would be in Canada.

Great. I mean, even though you're wearing the US A jersey.

To you know, I'm a I'm a patriototty okay, but I claim everywhere, great claim everywhere.

You know.

I think I think I would do a very Canadian match, a triple threat myself verse Natty versus Trish in Canada, all Canadians.

That literally, I will be planning.

That's it.

I think that would be like the ultimate Canadian moment. But also I have to say, I have like been dying for a hair verse hair match where I an excuse to shave my head.

I've been bagd.

Wait, what is a hair versus hair.

Matt loser gets their head shaved, literally shaves their head in the ring the ring, and it's the most nasty looking thing because you know, you only get like two strips gone and then you look absolutely nuts. And that's everything I've ever dreamed of. It is, Oh, absolutely absolutely.

That's one of the things.

You're so different. Dreams are not anywhere.

I like, if I had a hair like you, I too would never want to shave my head, so you know, I understand that. But that is like a moment I need. I need a hair verse hair matchic I need to shave my head and then they need to change me back into a crazy character with a shaved head.

That's harse.

I mean, you just put it out into the universe. I'm going to be thinking about it for days. So I'm just gonna start manifesting that for you.

I really, I really am, Like, come on, so the person who beats you gets to shave your Wow.

I really love that.

Yes, I really wanted it to be nicky Bella, but that's okay, it's not. You know, we're going to.

Take I was on the plane with her on the way out here, and isn't she beautiful unbelievably unbelievably gorgeous, bear faced perfection.

So shave her head, like shave my head. Shave so you well, we don't know yet whoever wins.

Well, i'm she wants spoiler alert, it's gonna be the worst wrestling for me ever.

That's crazy.

And the best word is like, you know, I have a husband, so.

He has to has to like you anyway, whether.

I have a peanut head or not, because we don't know what's under here, that's the way. And I have big forehead, so like, I fear that it won't be good, but I think that's amazing.

It's part of the dream.

Is there wiki hair? Is that a thing?

There will be?

There's gonna be a wiki forehead shaving my head?

Elsey, thank you so much. For being here. I oh, we've done. I know it went very fast, but boy, we have so enjoyed having you.

Thanks for having me.

Thank you so much for being here. Yeah, just best of luck to you. Can't wait to see you shave your head.

Thank you guys.

Can't wait to see the peanut heads.

Yeah, I can't wait to see it all the lumps and bumps, oh gol. Pod Meets World is an iHeart podcast produced and hosted by Danielle Fischel, Wilfridell and Wryter Strong Executive producers, Jensen Karp and Amy Sugarman, Executive in charge of production, Danielle Romo, producer and editor, Tara Sue Bash producer, Maddie Moore, engineer and Boy Meets World super fan Easton Allen. Our theme song is by Kyle Morton