#380 The Lib’s Finisher with Simone Garcia Johnson

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With John Marco Serena.

Crazy. This is my first ever podcast.

Never pause.

Oh my gosh. I'm honored. It's it is a Do you are you nervous?'Cause some people get nervous because you're you're you're talking. Yeah. And God knows what comes out.

Exactly.

Uh but it'll be great.

I'm excited.

Um

Everything working, can you guys hear me?

Yeah, we can hear you. There'd be some music and we're recording. We'll probably start with you saying you've never done a podcast before'cause that's exciting. Yeah. We have so many comedians and is they're so exhausting they've done it a thousand times. Uh we have so much to talk about. Uh uh Uh sometimes I wait till the music. My name's Jamarcus Arazi, this is the downside. I'm here with my co host Russell Daniels.

Hi, Jamarco.

And we're here with with s a special guest, Simone Grasia Johnson. Thank you.

Thank you.

Um Well there's a million things to talk about but I do want to ask'cause I went to the University of Miami in F

I saw I saw your little um diploma in imagination.

Yeah, I actually never got my diploma because I w I didn't return a library book. Okay. And so I never got a physical I'm sure it was a opera score I never read. I never looked at it.

That's embarrassing.

But Uh as as our listeners are aware, sophomore year Software year, I think. I was the lead I was the lead in Hello Dolly the musical.

The lead?

It's an ensemble y piece.

Like w one of

Cornelius is one of the

Secondary lead, not like Isn't her boyfriend? Isn't Dolly's boyfriend

It's kinda like two different plots. It's a really I don't know if you're familiar with the show. Uh uh uh Cornelius was my part.

Yeah, but there's an older man that has a slightly bigger part, I think.

Yeah, but it's kinda like it's I don't know, who is the lead in succession. They all

were well no but you wouldn't say like you wouldn't say that Siobhan was the lead in succession. You know? She's a leading player.

Okay. You were important.

Thank you.

Yeah.

You want Dolly. Dolly's the

That would be sh shocking if I was. Maybe if you had gone to school, Russell, you could have been Dolly. But one night your dad Dwayne Johnson came to the show'cause he went to UM and he saw it. And I was just wondering, d did he ever bring it up?

So I know what you're talking about because I also went that night.

No way!

What's so funny is the minute you said ho hello dolly, I was like, wait a minute. I vividly remember this when I was a kid. One night my mom was like, Hey, we're gonna have to we're gonna go see this play. We're gonna do it. We're gonna we're gonna have to go see this play at UM and I was like, okay. And it was Hello Dolly.

Oh. I wouldn't have guessed that in a million years. How old were you?

I don't

Ask give her the year and she'll figure it out.

Uh two thousand uh Uh nine?

That checks out. I was probably like eight. So yeah. Wow.

Wow. Do you remember him in Hellman?

I don't remember anything about the

But on your Sunday closes, lots of world happened.

The play was good or do you remember thinking this is kinda boring?

I was entertained like as a kid. Like I was like locked in. I was like, this is cool. But that is so

Funny. Wow, I cannot believe that. Wow. I meant it as a pure joke.

I was there.

Wow.

That's crazy.

And my dad did not mention it again.

I feel like that's when he really shifted into his acting career.

Because like my parents are not like big theater people, so Yeah.

Go into that. Uh just like as a favor to the school, maybe? Like like maybe.

You know?

Did you go to a lot of UM stuff?

That was literally the only thing. That was the only theater thing we ever went to, but then we would go to football games here and there. Okay.

Maybe it was me. Probably.

It's theatrical. And every like it is theater. And everyone in it is a theater kid. True and true. Like even if they didn't do it, it's in their like you it's like when you would meet a theater kid in middle school and you'd be like, Uh. Same thing.

How is it I think what's so interesting though is like uh theater It it feels very uh broad breaststroke. more feminine. There's more like it's certainly more more we're jumping into this more more liberal and left leaning and like somehow wrestling like the Undertaker is one of my is who I grew up on. And I'm like, he was wearing purple gloves and a cute little like fat tie and long hair.

It literally. And every time that I bring something they're like, No it's not I'm like

Definitely.

Everyone is in their underwear. It is real. Everyone is in their underwear. Like you said, they have on all this fun makeup.

Masks they're wearing you know, h headpieces sometimes. Yeah. You know, yeah.

I love the evolution of wrestlers where they start with like big masks, big everything and as they get older they go Like like Kane was one of my favorites, he was the Undertaker's brother. Big mask that must have been a nightmare to wear all the time. And then one day the mask goes away. And then the one day they're like, My character now dresses like I do.

Right, because also when you're traveling on the road, like sometimes the you can like leave your stuff in a road case and like production will take it with you, but most of the time you're responsible for it. So like You have to be like there was a girl in NXT and she used to come out with a sword and she would have to travel with that sword and she'd have to check it and she'd have to show the little card that was like it's not a weapon, blah blah blah. So it's

And they go, Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I have to I have to ask her, but like yeah, she'd have to do the whole thing. So I see why people are kind of like maybe like you said, I'll just it'll just be an extension of me.

It's like in sketch comedy when you decide as you go on, hmm, actually it'll just be our thing that there's no costumes. It's an artistic choice that that we won't do that, yeah.

Um yeah, I think about those like I I hate one class I skipped in my musical theater degree. was a makeup. Oh. And you were not supposed to be able to skip to and I thought you skipped It was like one of the requirements at some point you had to take makeup and like by last semester I was like guys I'm not doing this

Why weren't you gonna do it? Yeah.

I you are so I'm not yes. I said now this is too gay. Senior year of musical theater degree. I said this is the one thing

This is where I draw the line.

No, I just don't like w you know me. I'm not a dress up I'm not I don't like dressing up. If if I was a wrestler, uhhuh it would be one speedo thing. Definitely maybe

That's fair.'Cause men have it I feel like men in wrestling, they have it quite easy. Like they just put on like the Speedo or the Spandex and then they just They call it a day. Like it's definitely less intricate, but that's okay. But then I feel like when it is really intricate, like it stands out, i.e. The Undertaker and Kane. Yeah. Full red bodysuits. Yeah.

Um well, welcome to the Downs. This is a place we complain, we get negative, we uh We we want you to feel better about who you are because you're not any of the people in this room today. Um join the Patreon, patreon.com slash downside four bonus episodes every month. Subscribe on YouTube, Spotify, and check out our Reddit page. Um I'm so excited to have you we we connected Such a r such a uh uh a a random thing. We connected around um One was Charlie Kirk shot.

Oh my god.

A couple days after that.

Like September, October of last year, right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I was tweeting up a storm. Yeah. And and you retweeted uh a thing. And it was it was a pretty I think it was a a uh one of the nicer jokes that if you want people to talk well about you after you've died, uh do good things while you're alive, essentially. Yeah.

And the way that has haunted me since that day. Has it? Like it like you said, it was meant to just be like, this is a statement, be kind to people.

I didn't even mention who it was about. You're a good person.

Oh it was like I and'cause the thing is like I was quite used to getting like hated on by like wrestling fans because I was like, all right, whatever, fine. But it

It was like. I hate it on.

wrestling my certain wrestling fans, yes. Like I'm like used to that blah blah like Shitting on me'cause of who my dad is.

Aren't they scared your dad's gonna kill'em?

No. They'd be calling me every type of slur. But that's from wrestling fans. Uh-huh. However, there were so many angry conservative men that I was like even know who I who I am. Yeah. But I was like, you don't even know who I am, so yes. But the good thing that did come out of that was that now we're here.

I uh it's so cool. I'm s I'm I'm really thrilled. Um well so let's let's talk about uh you you were born in Florida?

It was.

Um both your parents

Yeah. So my mom competed I believe like Three or four times and she has her pro card, which I think is awesome.

What does that mean?

So basically in bodybuilding it means like you become a professional bodybuilder so you can get sponsored and you get a little fancy like card that says I'm a professional bodybuilder, I'm more jacked than everyone else. Uh-huh. It doesn't say that, but I think that it

That's the gym.

Yeah, that's the gist of it.

I have to imagine your Well tell me if I'm wrong, did your kitchen pantry just fucking suck? It's just like dried chicken, dried tuna fish. Were there any was there any shit in there? What was food like?

I f it y didn't suck, but it was kind of like imagine Whole Foods, but like Whole Foods when it like first started. Like it didn't have like all the variety that it has now. So it was it was a lot of like Cream of wheat, it was a lot of oatmeal. A lot of chicken in the fridge. So yeah, exactly that. Lots of containers.

Rise.

Asparagus. the time and you know what we my partner and I don't have a blender in our house now and that's probably why. Yeah because I would hear that shit every single morning.

Ha ha.

Was it like super like was was there any candy and chocolates was or was it like no, that's garbage?

We didn't keep it in the house, but like when my mom would have a cheat day, like we were in that Dairy Queen drive through.

like we were. Okay, so you gotta...

First in line.

Once a week.

There. I think hers was like once yeah, I think like once a week.

And it was like a real deck.

Dire meal.

So closer to her competition day it would be a meal, but like early before that it would be a day. So it was like you made the most of that day.

Crazy.

Yeah. I think it's funny though to your kid who's not living by the cycle, they get one insane day and they w have a regular tide.

Yeah, pretty much. So I was like looking forward to Saturday every week. I was like, This is it. This is Dairy Queen Day.

Um you are I don't know if you know you're w consider what first, fourth generation

Wrestler. Wrestler.

Um, did you know uh you didn't know your great grandfather?

No, I didn't. I didn't meet him.

Um but he was He was he televised? Were they filming his matches?

Yeah, so it was clear.

Forgive me, I have it written down.

My Chief Peter might be...

Hi Chief Peter Mavia. Yeah. And uh yeah.

It was quite early on, yeah. But they did film some of it, but I unfortunately I didn't get to meet him. He passed, I believe, when my dad was around ten years old. So

Do you know what his finisher was? 'Cause the old finishers look the finishers now. I I I'm a big I was a big big wrestling fan. Um Sure. Of the big move, you know, you have three or four moves, like the rock has rock bottom, but then there's other ones, the people's elbow and the one over the side, I forget what that one's called. But but They're really uh complex and amazing and then you go further back to Hulk Hogan and it's the leg drop.

And I think they could get away with that at the time because they were the first ones to do it. So like no one had ever seen.

Your finish is gonna be like the big wind up punch.

Yes.

No offense to older generation, but it's a little like Babe Ruth. being really great at baseball and you're like that's just a fat man you know I mean like like it probably wouldn't Yeah. Yeah, okay. Um no offense to Babe Ruth.

Yeah. And High Chief was his character l is this uh High Chief like Native American?

So uh Samoan. So in Samoan culture he is a high chief and then he did bring that into wrestling. Really?

Yeah.

Um... Did he play it up?

I think so. I'd probably ask my grandma a bit more, but yeah, I think so.

Finish it was the dream catcher.

Now I'm actually gonna go back and look up what his what his finisher was, but like I'm I'm glad it that I never got to meet him'cause my dad and my grandma they spoke so highly of him. Really? Yeah. Like just and I know he meant the world to both of them.

Yeah. It could not have been an easy time. I mean wrestling's I think wrestling's so incredible because I'm fascinated by circus culture and like like you know

Because that's where it started. From the circus, yeah.

These territories and competing territories and frankly seeing how the d I I still st will always be the WWF in my heart from when I was raised, just how it just took over the whole thing. Yeah. Is astounding to witness. Yeah. Always good, who knows. But um okay, but you did know your your grandfather.

I did. Yeah.

Um and this uh uh soul man.

Yes.

Some rocket. And I saw a picture of him at the roast recently. They showed a picture of him and he was fucking jacked.

I saw a picture too

Jack. Um... Was it w was you st'cause you when he was an older man, was he as strong or was y sometimes you see those old weightlifter things and the the guys you go oh go oh no, that's not good.

I guess. No, he like I I mean he had great posture from what I remember. Like there wasn't I don't think there ever was a time when he was like a small, feeble old man. Like he was j jacked till the end.

Yeah.

Wow.

So it's just like I when you're a kid, I mean, is is discipline

Yeah.

I mean it seems like a disciplined profession and for four generations is crazy. Yeah. I would never do what my father told me.

And also yeah, so but in your decision'cause you decided around COVID to go into training, correct?

It was a little bit before that, but then in February of 2020 was when I signed with it.

Is there a time in your life where you're like, I'm not doing But there's a lot of pressure. Three generations have done it.

Yeah.

Like what was that experience of like deciding that? Like were did you reject it for a while or do you always knew you kinda wanted to do it or what was that?

So I first started watching wrestling when I was like nine or ten. My grandma, my uh dad's mom, she was the one who showed me'cause she has loved wrestling her whole life. Obviously her whole family's in it. She still loves it to this day. So she was the one who showed me um everything about wrestling and then I went to WrestleMania twenty eight in two thousand twelve when my dad

The your dad. Oh, yeah.

I remember seeing that live and I was like hooked. Like I knew that I wanted to do it from then on and then when I was like fourteen or fifteen I think I went through like a six month period where I was like, Mm, I don't know, maybe I don't wanna wrestle and then I wanted to do it again. So it was kind of like literally ever since I was a kid, I was like That's what I want to do.

Did you ever get to experience at any point in your life the feeling of it's real or you understood from the beginning because John Cena's coming over for Cheetah, you go, Oh, this isn't real. Like I got I got just that moment of being a child. Where I was like, this is this is real.

Yeah.

I don't n so when you say that it does remind me of like a feeling. So when I had my first ever televised match, it was uh in LA and it was at the Staple Center and I remember like finishing the match and walking back up the ramp and It was like nine thousand people in there and it was like nuts. Like I couldn't comprehend at the moment. And I just remember like looking back at all the crowd and being like

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So much of wrestling is emotion.

But there was that time I was I was a kid. I mean,'cause I was watching wrestling way I mean, feels like way before John Cena. Uh this was D Generation X. This was when like you see these old videos And it's crazy because it's become a little bit more family friendly in certain respects. And e despite it being the same brand. And back in Degeneration X days, this was Highly inappropriate for a child to be watching.

Yeah.

There's a penis, of course! And and it's uh that's I mean, I had the VHS's of like the best doves and and I feel like it was the era of like watching your dad go from like The a popular recipe, but then like fucking cool. And like suddenly just like like the charisma just exploded. It found it. Yeah. Oh God, I loved it. I have a Mr. Sako.

I love that.

Uh stone cold Steve Oft. We it was a non televised match. My dad, we were in the front. I think Stoncle Steve Austin ripped off the sock, poured beer all over it, and my dad was like, Over here, over here. And we got this beer soaked sock puppet he would stick in their mouth.

Bye.

Did you watch at any point?

Not really.

I'm looking at you.

Incredible sound.

Not really, no. I will say, um, uh I was just thinking back to my like being not watching as like an outsider. And something that strikes me is that there was an era of like Hulk Hogan member did do also did like movies and stuff. Really an actor.

He was just like.

Oh, he was just small Hogan. And I'm like it's fascinating to see then the the progression to like uh your dad and John Cena where I'm like, Oh, these are actual actors who

Yeah.

Could translate in a real way and like that that evolution of like uh oh this guy's a star, Hulk Hogan, we gotta put him in movies and you're like, it's still Hulk Hogan. You know, yeah, it's just a fascinating thing too.'Cause I remember there was big like I remember initially there was like, Oh, we're gonna make these wrestlers actors now and then like and then you watch a few things and you're like, Oh well

Yeah, and they say about like comedians coming out of sketch. It's like now we just have all these different avenues. Um okay, so so you're growing up uh with with Your is your dad always on the road? Like are you travelling a lot or s staying home?

So I did travel a lot. So my parents actually divorced when I was seven. So

Yeah.

Yeah. So my dad moved out to California obviously to pursue acting and I would still see him like pretty frequently, but I mainly stayed in Florida with my mom. But like she's obviously super busy lady, so she would travel the time, so I would get travel with her, and that was always really cool.

She started managing him after

Now that's

Fascinating.

Really fascinating.

How did that happen and and how did it work? Like it

They made it work.

She must have been helping him along the way though before.

Hundred percent. I like will always say this, like so much of my dad's success is

Of course.

And I don't think she ever will get enough credit. And my dad is a phenomenal actor, phenomenal entertainer, phenomenal in everything he has done. But like there has been so much behind the scenes that my mom has done in her own lane and I think that's amazing.

I kept telling my my girlfriend is my my manager and we we started the other way, we got together and then started working together. But I kept bringing this up and she was like, Why do you keep bringing this up? And I'm like I'm just saying, I was saying it worked really well. Yeah. But it's uh it's it's um So was it was it then was it a good you're going back and forth or your dad's always away so you just see him like randomly?

I would see him like uh I would see him regularly. Kind of random randomly, but also pretty regularly and I mean I like am very lucky that I I never even when my parents were married and when they were getting divorced, like I never remember seeing them fight. It was always like very amicable. Obviously they're still great friends friends to this day and I feel like I'm quite lucky'cause I never remember them not being good friends. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. That's just incredible. And they and they just started working together. I wonder if they both if they both are like, Yeah, this works, let's keep doing this or one of them was like, I have a proposition.

I don't know. I have I'll ha that's actually a good question, I'll have to ask. But I think it was like 'Cause it literally was like right around the same time that they got divorced and it was like, All right, cool, we're gonna work together and clearly they've made it work super

What is your mom good at? Like like sing her praise, like what what is her mind like so good at? Like seeing or or'cause she started in the you know, not wrestling but you know Physical entertainment, I guess.

Right.

I think just her ability to like see stuff that is so far I think beyond like what's going on right now and just her eye for opportunity. And I think she does a really good job of what works for certain people and how to like maximize on that, if that makes sense. Like I work for her now and Really? Yeah, I do. And like we'll be in meetings and like

What's her company? Is it a management

Yeah, so she has a management company and then she also is working on l launching a clothing company.

That's exciting.

Yeah, luxury.

Any particular.

Um but they it's supposed to be like specializing it's made for the athlete of life, so it's like high end athleisure that you can wear to the gym, you can wear to a podcast, you can wear to like anything. Yeah. It's very it's very cool. And it's like it's been really cool to see her go from like strictly kind of manager role to then like bodybuilder to then like now I want to go into fashion and it's been I feel like she's really now found her footing and she's so happy.

Yeah.

Right.

And I was working with your with a parent.

It's good. I also it's good because she's not my direct boss.

Sure.

But also like she we talk w like we always talked a bunch before. She calls me like every day now. Like we are talking so much more now and I think that's what I love the most.

Yeah yeah. Um okay so so parents but I'm gonna go.

Up.

Yeah. You're still seeing them both. You're are are you are you an athletic kid?

Yeah.

I was also a kid that got injured a lot, but yes, still an athletic kid. So I broke my wrist as a kid, I broke my ankle as a kid, I dislocated my knee as a kid. I've dislocated both of my knees.

Boof. Is that what happened to your dad's football career? A knee injury?

No, my dad maybe no, I think it was his back. My dad has stuff his back, which I inherited as well because now I have a bad back too. So

How tall are you?

I'm five nine on a five.

Five nine. Yeah. As a kid were you like taller than were you

I was five six when I was ten.

Wow.

Yeah. So doing basketball?

No, that was the one sport I never did. I played volleyball, I rode horses, I did gymnastics, which I was way too tall to do gymnastics. I don't know why I was doing that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I was pretty pretty athletic kid. Still hurt myself, but that's okay.

Uh my dad wanted me to ride horses so bad and I just hit my balls the first time I ever did it and I I I cried and

You're like, that was awesome.

I mean I mean that was it. And I had a parent uh my parent, not very disciplined, said Okay, never you never have to do this.

What do you say right horses like jumping like over things? Yeah.

I'm still a horse girl.

Really.

Do you have horses? I do. Wow.

I have three.

Three. What are their names?

I have juicy. Scooby, Finn, oh I have four and queso.

I

Wow. Your dad was a horse guy too, right?

Yeah. Yeah, my dad had he always had always had like one uh his the last one he had one named Ernie for a long time.

Horses with like m human names I think is is the best.

Uh my only thing with horses, at least for some people, I think a horse for them i is a mammal. bigger than them that won't judge them for the kind of person that they are.

That's why I love horses.

Yeah. I just it's like, you know, you have a parent for so long and

Yeah.

Well, because maybe you should be judged. Maybe there's some behaviors the horse should be criticizing.

Horses like Loki, I think, will judge you sometimes. Like one of my horses, Scoopy, who I've had him like since he was six and he's my age now, he's twenty four. And I feel like there are times where he looks at me and I'm like He he's wants me to die. Like

Sure. I'd love if my dad's horse looked at him like you should tell.

Like

Really?

Yeah.

And my dad's like, no.

How long do horses live naturally?

I don't want to breeze past the day. Um horses can live to I think around like thirty. My friend had a pony that was forty and she had no eyes. The horse.

Came that way. out from old it.

I both eyes. Apparently it's quite common for horses to lose their eyes when they get older. Really? Yeah. So I

I thought that only happened in Equus.

I always say that like horses are built to die. Like they can't so if swear to God, so like they can be out in a field doing whatever and they'll like tear a ligament in their leg and they'll be lame for like year and a half. If horses get sick, they can't throw up. So if they get like indigestion, they'll die.

Oh my god. I've seen I've seen the horse when th they get ill, uh Sunni something's wrong with her stomach, the doctor will put on this glove. That goes all the way to their shoulder and they go all the way inside the horse's ass. Why are you? To the point where they're like

Yes.

Or are you watching that?

Quite literally.

And then they give you...

I've seen this video, I've seen multiple videos.

I I've seen it in person.

I saw it in Ace Venture the the sequel member. He put that his hand in the rhino.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um have you had any horses die?

No, I'm not sure. Yeah.

It sounds like it's a rough uh 'Cause'cause they stand for a while. Like you there's there's the fault.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's also not like

Mm.

Easy is not the right word, but I feel like when a cat or a dog passes, you can take them to the vet and then they will take care of them and then whatnot. But like a horse is like They gotta get like the crane and the whole thing and

Yeah, yeah. To scoop him over the cliff. Um what do you do you inject a horse with with like a you put it down like that?

I think so.

She probably like a big Like a dog or I think it's big. It can't be the same as a dog.

List of things we'll have to look up later.

Um well yeah, you'll f find out one day. Um Uh okay, so so you you have these horses living a good life, getting injured a lot. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then and then the plan was to go to NYU? What do you want to do?

I don't know at the time. I think I wanted to get some sort of I wanted to get a degree in political science. Shocker.

So okay, so so talk to me about like what was uh uh were you were you following the news? D were you politically active?

Yeah, so I think when I was a teen a teenager, the thing that made me be like I would like to learn more about political science was quite literally Trump getting elected because I was like How? did this, that man.

At least you had that how moment when you were a teenager and not like mid twenties. Yeah.'Cause that was like It was embarrassing. It was embarrassing like mid twenties to be like the world's not working quite well. Something some I gotta I gotta look I gotta watch something other than MSNBC to see what's going on in this full world.'Cause I was assured Hillary was gonna win.

Yeah you are.

Now

Sorry about that.

Uh since Trump did some uh WWF Um was he Pals? Was he coming over for the Che Tays? Did you ever meet him?

No, I didn't.

But like you knew you knew this guy, my dad, like uh w we watched The Apprentice.

We had to watch the apprentice in high school. We had to in high school.

Oh Florida.

There you go. No, for our econ class we had to watch The Apprentice and we were just like And it was while he was president we were all

कर दो कर दो

He got elected for the in twenty sixteen and then in twenty nineteen when I was a senior we had to watch the apprentice and in school we would all be like there has to be a better way that we can learn about economics that's not the apprentice.

That is crazy.

That's so funny. That becomes the curriculum. That's how you learn math.

Pad.

Yeah.

season. Ever it was about when we would start every day in class, we'd watch it. And we were all like

Well were you all like or were some people like yes? Favorite episode.

No. Well thankfully the majority of us it was a small class and we were like this is not this is not it.

Yeah.

Surely there has to be another way to learn.

This is high school. That is why

I just love imagining that curriculum, that w that that plan.

And I don't know. Anything else about that about that class aside from that we had to watch the apprentice every day.

I'm trying to think like what other clo'cause you're a Florida boy. I'm trying to think what else to keep this riff going. I'm desperate. What else did Tro what else what other classes could you teach with

With Trump?

Trump.

Mm-hmm. Um Todd, I I don't I th what he's only really known for like the apprentice and then that uh scene in uh

Photography, dance, you know.

Dance?

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

P E

Yeah. Um the day you do YMCA. Done four.

But he was he was I I remember him that WW I in WF. I remember watching him. I remember him as a character. Yeah. And it was fun. And then and then he wins. Is is the area you're growing up in Florida is it is it conservative leaning? Is it like Trumpy?

You said Fort Lauderdale?

Yeah, not I maybe, but I feel like if it is Trumpy, it's more like Maybe the undercover trumpet. You know what I mean? Like obviously you like you said, your in laws live in Fort Lauderdale. So you know it's kind of like that.

And it's close enough to Miami. Which is more democratic leaning, but or was. Was yeah. Yeah. Um but uh yeah, there's a mix, I imagine, yeah. Of things.

Kind of all of Florida is is like that. Florida really does feel like a whole other country sometimes.

I dun uh I I'cause I talk to him a lot about Florida'cause we tore in Florida too and I just don't I'm like, why? Why is it like this? Why why w'cause it feels like people who are like that move there too.

Well i it got it got bad. So post COVID you got like all the Republicans of like the North East moved there, so it got even more to the right. It got'cause like when I grew up it was Republican leaning obviously, but it was more purple. Yeah, so

could have won it.

I do think it's funny when the narrative the narrative of like everyone's moving to Florida and you're like also baby boomers started retiring and they all m pe old people moved to Florida all the time and this is a giant generation of people. So yeah, they all became of retirement age and they all still move to Florida.

I think that's Florida propaganda.

They all live in Fort Lauderdale.

There's so many houses sitting empty. I don't know. But yeah, it's it's crazy now. I mean it wa it's always been wild, uh, you know, my fiance being from Davy, but she has a brother that has like a ton of illegal reptiles, so

Yeah.

Yeah. I feel like there's just so many different types of like evil in Florida too. Very like Trump evil, then there's like why do you have all of those illegal animals? Like you should probably free them, like

Well it's funny, it's from her dad that's from Brooklyn. Again, like a northeastern like Democrat moves to Florida, becomes a Republican and starts getting like a

Right.

So I think it is a state of mind.

Are we talking gators? What are we talking about?

Uh at one point uh like not a Komodo dragon, what is it? The the monitor lizard, which is like uh like a four foot, five foot long, very aggressively

You had to dissect them for high school.

No, we did what did we did we have to dissect anything in high school and try to remember?

Oh we did we did pigs. You did a pig?

Pigs and frogs.

Frogs, pigs. I think my mom my mom did a pig.

Yeah. Dead pigs.

Each get one or you split the pig?

We all had a pig, I think.

Wait, was it like full size pig or like

Pigs.

A piglet. Wait, like this big?

Yeah.

Oh that sucks.

Yeah.

Kill it with our hands before. Okay, find yours and kill it. Uh

What do you have to do to it?

I don't know. Dissect I don't remember. Again, not worthwhile because I don't remember a goddamn thing. And I've never i it should be like you should walk into biology class and they should say Anyone here looking to fucking rip apart animals in the future, you have to do this. The rest of you, you're good. I why?

I think it's good. I think it's hard and I think it's good.

Why?

Well I think like if you eat meat, we have a such a disconnect between like what it is that we're doing

Do I still eat meat, I shouldn't be. I shouldn't be eating it. And I still I ripped I op I looked at that little picklet, I looked at its little heart and things. I didn't stop eating meat. I still eat meat and I know I shouldn't. So what what? You know? What did I learn?

You learned you're a bad person.

We just killed more piglets.

Yeah, you don't even get to eat those.

We're not even eating those ones.

I think it's good. I wish I had dissected more things. I'll never do it as an adult. You can't make me but I I

Like makeup class.

Can't do it. Like makeup class, yeah. I'd rather dissect a pig than learn how to put on uh highlights and low lights. I'll tell you that. Um Okay.

Sorry, we got very off topic.

No it's fine. You're doing some gymnastics. You can you could do like My my what we did my dad he we put two mattresses on top of each other and then he was a s he was a single divorce. Uh so he was he could leave two mattresses in the living room. Gotcha. And there was no woman there to go what

Субтитры сделал DimaTorzok

Ha ha ha.

And and we would do just wrestling moves. Just wrestling moves. And he would

What was your finish? Huh?

Yeah. Oh I well I had a trampoline and a big like dinosaur doll and I like to do I like to do uh pile drivers and tombstones and suplexes and um I really got into uh uh the figure four holds.

Oh yeah.

Who's who's the older us that was that is that Rand Rick Ric Flair? Ric Flair would do a figure four hold and I could do it to you if you want. But I did it to a friend. And immediately he started weeping.'Cause it's it's very painful. Right. It's a real

Yeah.

And uh we didn't hang out ever again. I didn't even like do I didn't like do it like he was like please stop It was like the second I did it he burst into tears

Yeah.

More like where you do.

Really moves?

I wasn't, no. Because I was also an only child, so I like

Oh yeah.

I didn't come and go, Huh weapon No Really?

Only only child, yeah.

Um

No wrestling moves, just in theory.

Oh gosh. So so then you s again you said so you started like getting more into it. A Holler again when you saw the WrestleMania. And then that's when you start to go like, Oh, I want to

Yeah, too.

And did it feel You had the gymnastics, you had the

Really didn't help a shit, I'm not gonna lie. Really? No. Because I never got very far in it because I've dislocated my knee.

So you s so you start training? Yeah.

Well, yeah. So I started actually training for wrestling when I was eighteen. But then I like would always work out in high school just to like mentally prepare and lock in, as they say. And I feel like it did help me. Like I'm definitely quite grateful that like I was an athletic kid and I did work out when I was in high school'cause it made the transition easier.

Yeah. Um, and then when do you start when do you go to the the the actual wrestling school?

So in February of twenty twenty, that was when I signed. And then I shortly after I was there, I hurt my knee again. So then I was out for a little bit, but it was also during COVID. So like I don't know if you guys have ever seen what WWE was like during COVID, but it was empty.

I did see.

So everyone was still yeah, and it was literally like ASMR because the arena is empty and but the camera's still on and the mic is still on and they're so wrestling so you just hear all these grunts and like no cheers. Which just seems like the worst thing in the world.

We were all comedy. Everyone was trying to figure out what to do and praying this wouldn't be forever. Yeah. Um

Wait, I have questions on the training. Yeah. So when you're training for it, can what can you just describe like obviously there's physical blah blah blah is there performance aspects to the training? Like

So we have we have something called that. It was called promo class, which like obviously you guys know what a wrestling promo is. So you would go and you would do that and you would have promo class a couple of times a week. They had improv class too.

That's what I was gonna say. So like are you are I imagine for you to like discover your character, like what is that like? You know what I mean? Are you in improv and being like trying out different angles?

Yeah, I think so much of it is trial and error. And I think that when people are like, Oh, I came up with this character and like this was my first idea, and like it ended up working, I'm always like I feel like that's bullshit. Like so much of it it's like similar to comedy. It is just trial and error and figuring out what works and figuring out what feels natural to you so you can perform and it connects with the audience.

Was also like It's hard because I see sometimes indie wrestling, there's a guy right now, I th maybe his name's Luigi, but he is making a pizza the whole

Yes.

And and it's fun. And you know, he like throws it at him, tackles him and then gets it back up and who knows what's in this dough that it never he it's never breaks apart.

All right.

But it's hard to imagine him as that in Guardians of the Galaxy. And like it's now a space pizza or whatever. Like there it's it's fun and it goes back to like the circus thing where it's like, Okay, that's cool But at some point this can't exist unless unless there there's right now there's uh some some wrestler where he plays Jesus and all his moves he doesn't touch them so it's like all Darth Vader and they flip.

I've seen this.

Yeah. I don't know maybe if there's gonna be more like an alt wrestling circuit.

What's your character if you you're you're doing okay?

If I'm going like ulti?

Or just like if you were like, what would be your thing? Your Had like ten seconds to come up with what your thing is.

It would be a it would be an extension of my stand up thing, so it'd be like a lot of like lanky. It'd be something like like a move final move would be like

It could be like a submission or s yeah. It would be the th you do the figure four.

The figure four. I could just reinvent the figure four. And then and then, of course, instead of a metal chair, I'm getting out of stool. I'm smashing. What about you? What are you doing?

think mine's coy and just like not really interested in fighting until he is. So he's just kinda like like he's just kinda like no A little shy and a little and then and then when it starts happening he'll surprise you, you know?

Is it like is it like you don't wanna fight and then something happens and then you're like like hulk out and

Yeah, yeah, I think so.

And then you like come to and you're like, what happened?

Yes.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Uh okay. So these classes like a promo class like is it like okay you it's your turn now and you go'cause you have to Exudes so much energy.

How many people are in the train? Like how many people are you doing this with?

So I think with the promo classes it was usually like between like ten to twenty people in one, but like performing in front of your peers is so much worse and so much harder than going out there. Like cutting a promo in front of your peers is

We tried it once, I think. It works. We had that pock we we had a a restaurant.

Oh yeah.

It was very funny. We had a restaurant for one of our live shows. We used to like do a regular episode live. Oh, God. And and it was funny because At the beginning it was like oh You're in character. That wasn't What I thought we were gonna do.

Couldn't we kept

But he was the only one doing the bit.

Well we kept not talking to him like he was in character and then he kinda quit. Like after like five minutes he's like he like put down

A guy well he's he's a

Awesome.

He has a girl, but he has like he has like a toy of stuffed goat. And he would just like talk about like the goat and I'd be like I just wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't accept that this was a real goat. Right. With a personality. And then eventually we shifted in there. Yeah. But that's what's so weird. It's so

No.

Um could you define it better than I could?

No I wanna hear you defined.

Okay. 'Cause it feels like th the world is you know, if you want to get big about it. I mean it's kinda like th th th how would you define theater? It can be really big if you think about it. Uh, K thade is kind of from my understanding, it's it's the um It's the imagined world and and characters and interactions and personality of kind of believing that the fantasy is real.

Yeah. Like kinda like the fourth wall, like not breaking.

Yeah!

Okay.

Yeah. And and so you go like, Oh, the the Undertaker and the Rock they hate each other And it you know, if they're if or or then now they're friends all of a sudden and th he's the living dead and it's it's kinda like buying into it all. Sometimes purposefully, even if you n even if you understand they're all backstage hanging out, it's like

Spending belief.

Yes.

Yeah.

Okay, okay.

And there's a lot of argument of like

Bye.

The some of the success of Trump is he wa it's K-fab. It's like, I'm a billionaire businessman and I've I'm a big guy. And then it was like. And now that person is real. And now that person is president and now people's lives are being affected by it. So it's not K Fabe, but if you ever accused him of being racist, be like, It's just the K Fabe, we're just having fun. It became a means of

Yeah.

I'm now Dwayne Johnson. It's like they're your sweeney. W do you remember like uh d did you try uh are some people trying like a r uh really over the top character or I feel like school would Make you more A more functional you're not gonna get a a g uh what's his name? Goldberg? Is that Goldberg? Yeah. Can you look up the rest of Goldberg? Because this is who I see you as as being. G Goldberg, this was like back where like he might kiss you and he's a guy

Wait, we're not talking about the same person.

Not Goldberg.

Hold on, you started describing it and I was like

Pull up a video of Goldbust. When you gave me that

I was like,

Kiss you. You reveal that you were kissed by Goldberg in real life. Breaking news, John

I really like me.

Made out with gold.

That was a wonderful mistake.

Goldberg's gay.

Breaking news.

I know gold.

Just.

Who I like to do.

Is a gayer name, Gold Dust.

I had a I had a lot of uh I had a I was a big action figure guy. Mm-hmm. Do you have a lot of action figures around the house? Or just just your every iteration of your dad?

We d my grandma has quite literally every iteration of my dad. I think we have like one old, old one, but that's it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, I remember them. You find one?

Ty.

Yeah, I have like a compilation.

This is what I think you can

I can see this.

Uh Okay. We'll paint it for a couple more seconds here.

Goldust it's a lot of makeup. Mm. But uh I like that air.

No, all this was great.

So like were you were you ever being like I'm a bird girl or like you know I mean who knows?

Or like really political'cause the era of Trump, it's like, you know, like I'm you know

No, but so I do have a funny story. It's not about me, but it is a promo class story that I think I should share. So there's this we have this like website internally where you can like upload your promos and upload your matches, like in-house thing where everyone can kinda see what's going on. So One day I was on there and this one girl, she was cutting a promo and

Oh wow.

And that promo will never see the light of day and I'm so mad about that. Cause I watched it with my partner and our friend and we literally like c walk closed the computer and we all just walked away. Yeah. Cause I was like how How d how does Shakespeare himself could not put that promo together? Yeah, it's fun. And it was literally like three days after the war in Iran started.

Wow.

Oh god.

Last person who said I ran, got bombed. I was like And then suddenly, I think.

Kamala comes out a fucking

This is called Das.

This is gold that And now locking up with gold dust. Now we're gonna get down to some business. And again Sabio Vega now look at him and moving him back to the corner now. Sabio Vega with Goldus. Let's see what happens here. Don't expect a clean

Break. Субтитры сделал DimaTorzok

I love this character. Please welcome ladies and gentlemen the W Um I love Goldus.'Cause all Goldus did is he just acknowledged that what you're doing is kinda homosexual. He's just he's just he's just like you you're holding him

I'm scared of it.

This is how erotic people are like, get off of me. Get off of me. You're wearing a full bodysuit, I'm wearing a tiny little d dance belt. You Um, I love Goldust. I don't know what happened to him. Yeah. I imagine he hit age he said, I do not want to put on this face makeup.

But not as I don't know.

Not as gold.

But I he's definitely

No way. Can you s can you look up who Goldust is now? Um I remember watching the documentary about Andre the Giant and he was so his body was so fucked up towards the end that when he did The Princess Bride, he he's holding the princess. They had to they had she was on strings. He couldn't hold her at all. And he did like one final match which like helped WWE a lot and He just could barely move. It's a brute it's shocking.

Yeah.

The people your dad or John Cena, the anyone who's like still doing it, you're like how did you take care of your body enough that you aren't hobbled over?

Yeah, like there are people who literally wrestle for like twenty, thirty years and I'm like Like it's it blows my mind.

How soft is this is the wood of the m of the ring? Because it's got it's gotta be bad.

So it's like wooden planks, then a mat. Then another mat, and that's it.

Okay. Okay, so if someone suplex me.

Like you feel it. Like I think your your body eventually does get used to it, but like if you haven't wrestled in a bit and then you go back and you train like you feel it and you're sore.

Um okay, so you're at school, you're figuring out when did you have a moment of like, oh I got it. This is it. This is my character.

Yeah.

Yes and no. I feel like there was always a lot of characters that I wanted to try, but then I ended up being the general man general manager character, which was more like authorit and kind of already set for me. And I still had a lot of fun with that because I got to interact with like so many different talents. So that was a great part of that.

Yeah. Were there any other characters that you're like, ooh I wanted that one to work?

I definitely wanted to be more of like a creepy goth kind of character.

Talk to me'cause I I li my my knowledge about wrestlers is is you know, m more more guys. Mm-hmm. Like who who are who who's what's the legacy of of women wrestling like When your dad was coming up, were there were like was China was for me, of course, a big one because she was in Degeneration X.

Yeah.

And she was fuck strong as hell. Yeah. But she was also wrestling the guys.

What?

She would. Uh so China she she uh her neck, she broke her neck. Yeah. Uh it was a pile driver. Horrifying. Yeah.

Right.

Is that like s who who are the legacies? Who are the ones that like when you were like studying you were like, Oh fuck.

A China's definitely one, like China, Lita, Jazz, all of those women that were in the nineties because they really like paved the way for all of us because people women w w excuse me, women's matches were seen as the bathroom break matches and it was so sexualized and like I feel like now female wrestling is just kind of fully hitting its stride and being respected the way that it should have been since the beginning.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hundred percent. Is it still is there still like a belt is it l are there multiple belts or is it just like the ladies' belt?

So there are I believe there's three or four in total for women, not counting the tag team titles now. So that's that was actually one of my favorite memories that I had in WWE and in NXT was when we unveiled one of the new women's belts and then it gave women two championships in NXT. So that was awesome.

That's nice.

Yeah, and it's been it was I'm so grateful and it was so cool to be a part of like seeing kind of like NXT's own version of the women's evolution. Yeah.

Uh so so you go to the school, you graduate. Could you just uh d tell uh us what NXT is this uh just a a weekly sh uh show within the

Yeah, so it's it's another weekly show under WWE, so there's Raw, SmackDown and then NXT and NXT is kind of seen as a bit more of their like developmental show, but I would honestly argue that some of the talent there is better than what you see on Raw or SmackDown.

Yeah, yeah. And it has a little more slightly more experiment or a little bit

Little bit more experimental. I think it's just a bit of a different pace as well, which I think is cool. I think NXT did a really good job at showcasing like like there would be a time where you would have like sixty or seventy talent on a two hour show. Which I thought was really cool. Like they really did a great time of a great job of making time for so many people.

Yeah. So so you're you're working there. You're a general manager and what does that mean?

So that is the on screen character that is pretty much like the boss. Like I was on screen, I was the one who was booking the show, making the matches and it like I said, it was fun because I got to Interact with like so many talent that wasn't just the women's division. And I loved that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And and all the rest of the they're mean to you and the thing. Like you are you are you making a decisions behind the scenes too, or is this all like a character? It's a full character.

Wow.

Uh that's that's a fun character to play.

It was. Yeah.

I think you know, I think about seeing all the McMahon's doing that character.

Right, yes.

I mean Vince, ironically, was doing that character and was the guy.

Vince was doing both, yeah.

Um... Oh gosh. So and how much were you doing were you doing matches too? Were you

So I was still training but I wasn't having matches on T V or anywhere else really because my care my T V character was just being general manager.

Did they ever did anyone ever knock you out or like

Hit by a door once. That was fun. Yeah.

Uh

Very dictatic. Can't what was the context of it? It was something where like this group of guys started fighting and then like one of them ran into the door and then I

Yeah. It's my

Very theatrical. Felt very very dramatic.

It was really hard watching Tony Hinchcliffe get chokeslammed by The Undertaker because I felt like that's what I want to happen to me.

Yeah, do you want to be the victim or the one doing

Oh I wanna get I wanna get a slammed through a table. And if the Undertaker did it And I th I think it would be nice given the fact that uh the Undrack and I have such differing political views, it makes more sense for him to kick the shit out of me. You're hanging out with Tony. Let me be let me be

Definitely. Yeah.

Jamarco the Lib Serezi. And I come up, I got all sorts of flags on me and and you know, like like pride flags and and and all all the things. All the pride flags. All the pride flags. Um uh uh Palestine, Ukraine and then all just every flag. This is purely for me.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, I understand the problem with it. Yeah. We'll do have a redemption art. I just want to get slammed. And that's the only thing I s that's the only way I see it fitting in right now. In the current in the current state of I'm I'm the lib. Yeah. The lib. Yeah. And then like my finisher is like I get out my phone and I tweet something.

You're like actually.

You're cancelled. And then they fucking choke slam me.

You're canceled. Yeah.

Um uh So what what led you to wanna move on from this.

Oh man, it was

How how long do you six years? You kind of in it?

Six yeah, it was ne it was nearly yeah, it was six. Okay. Um There wasn't one particular thing, unfortunately. It was like a lot of things and had been something that was on my mind for a while and like I I am so grateful for my time at WWE. I wouldn't change it for the world. I did. I got I got to live out the dream that But I think It was just it was time for something new. It was time for something different. And I I really I don't regret regret leaving and I'm really happy now and

Can we talk about the the politics of like what like how did I think it's so weird because in a way again, it's K Fape. It's like it's all kind of imaginary. And then this this last Trump election, it suddenly felt so weird where, um, who who's the wrestler from Guardians of the Galaxy?

Uh Batista.

Yeah. Was like coming out in support for Kamala. Mm-hmm. And then the Undertaker in Kane, who became a r a Republican politician, I forget what he became the the governor of town.

Mayor of Mayor.

I think similar to Tennessee, like Knoxville.

Think so. Yeah. No mask. Mask is gone. Makeup's gone too. And it's like that's Kane and that's the Undertaker.

The election.

He won the election.

Mayor of Knox County, yeah.

Um I mean I guess before that you got Jake the Snake Roberts, is that his name? Yes. He I mean he he he was he was something

Well what the guy the independent from um what's his name? Um uh a while back. Oh.

I'm talking about Jesse Mitchell.

It's a Matura. So it's like it's it's like show business where it's like

Yeah.

Yeah. Of course you can become a politician. You've learned how to persuade the masses

It y it makes sense. Yeah. It checks out, yeah.

People say that about your about uh your your dad. They go he should run for president. I'm like, why would anyone want to become president?

Also that, I'm just I've said this before. I'm staunchly opposed to celebrities in politics. I just feel like they should be two separate things.

Yeah.

Yeah.

No, that they're not going to be able to do that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I just feel like cognitive dissonance just goes out the window when we when we get there. But then also like you said, at the end of the day, why would anyone want to be

It it does go past like a th like you're like, Oh, it's not even enough that you're like fame and making money. You're like you then are like now I wanna control everything. Like it's like Oh so it really wasn't about just fame and thing, it's really about

I cannot imagine wanting to take on the responsibility of like overseas affairs. Unless that was like something I'd studied and been interested and had thought of my whole life. Yeah. Not like to find out. via the most biased people in the world when I'm sixty. Yeah. Right. And then like make decisions about millions of people potentially dying. Right. I would not want to have that on my soul.

Yeah.

So how how do you feel like the there was a conservative underpinning uh within wrestling the whole time. Did it emerge? Was it surprising? I never thought of it as like

Anything.

I I always saw it as like, you know, there was certainly it le it could lean into racist stereotypes or or you know, what what was the Iron Man chic? There there was there were some characters that were like I don't even know how things are racist, but this is

Right, yeah.

Um, so did you feel like it was always this conservative bent was there or did it did it g s move with Trump in a faster way that was surprising to you?

I think it just I don't I wouldn't categorize it as a thing in I wouldn't tone it down to wrestling in particular particular, I would just feel like it's a example of unfortunately just the world that we live in. And I hate to say that because it does kind of feel like a cop out sometimes, but I feel like truly everything is so polarizing and I feel like that has bled into entertainment a hundred percent. Because how can it not? You know what I mean? Like

Yeah, it's just like a weird like like when I think of like the Kill Tony, they kind of with the Undertaker i they did like a r a WWE Kill Tony collapse. Yeah. I don't know, some of this is like the problem I think with uh not that W D is a pure monopoly, but with such a such a an entity where it's like you have to be part of this thing. If it starts leaning a certain direction, suddenly it all becomes that thing. And then I can't get chokeslammed unless I'm the lib.

Yeah.

Oh

The people's time step.

Yeah, yeah. Well that's good. Yeah. That's really good.

Um

Wrestling and tap shoes. I hope you tape your ankles if you do that.

Sure?

Yeah.

Oh man, it's it's my fantasy.

Choke slancers lead by the Undertaker through through a table.

I... Yeah, I mean...

or the announce table.

Do those announced tables how much do they hurt? They uh are they are they what hurts less?

I feel like the wooden table would hurt. less because of the way that it breaks, like down the middle it would kind of absorb your fall. Like I've seen people get slammed on the announce tables and then like one side falls and then the other side falls. You're telling me. Yeah.

Wooden table, maybe put some pillows down.

There you go.

And as the lip will be like, That broke broke my bones. Don't hurt my tweeting fingers. I feel like it's gotta be a little bit dated, all the reference of like what the living

Right.

And then pass out and then.

He's gonna break your finger. Like not my tweeting fingers.

And then like I pass it on the stage where like, we need to get him some avocado toast.

But I think that's perfect. I love when like references in any form of entertainment are just like two years behind.

Yeah.

Because it's never really on the nose.

I was watching I was watching a T V show recently. Someone was yelling in a coffee shop and the barista was like, We find yelling triggering. It was one of these things where I'm like I've never heard anyone say that in real life. Like maybe online someone said like that's triggering a long time ago. But no one no one in real life said, Hey, that yelling is triggering me right now.

Or it's like when you hear someone s still to this day be like, Oh, you know you millennials and it's like I

We're past that.

41. Like you're like you're using and you're also like you are a millennial. Like it's like sometimes people like

The call's coming from inside the house.

You gotta know that it's younger than that now. You know? But you've been complaining about it for

We'll get so it'll change if the oh, you you millennials, you're always getting prostate cancer.

Yeah.

You know why? All that avocado toast we've been eating. We can't even afford the insurance because of it too. Um

Great pro wrestling problem.

Avocado toast for so long it was this thing and then I'm like, go anywhere in this I've traveled all over the fucking world in America. Uh huh. Avocado toast is on every menu imaginable now. It's good. It's

Avocado toast is the um sushi of the nineties. In the nineties, if you were pretentious, that was the example used in T V shows and movies to show that you're pretentious that you ate sushi. So avocado toast replaced that.

I've been on the front end of that pretension since I was a kid.

Ooh.

Uh I think matcha.

Yeah.

I feel a match.

I think.

Or already fascinating.

Oh god.

No, I think so. I feel like everything now is like name somebody.

Pepti because I still don't know what peptides are. That is and people keep talking about

And I should know.

Yeah, that's why it's the next one.

Tell you you look like you know what peptides are.

Obdopeptide.

What is that?

Uh I actually really I don't know. It lives in that like red light therapy camp. It's like y I I think maybe inject the

You inject them.

Да, да, да, да.

Contact them.

I... I...

Self regeneration.

It's not happening.

Yeah.

It's not happening. You make a pill form of peptides maybe.

It will be peptides.

They're doing like Chinese peptides too. I mean it's it's like

What does that mean?

Because it's like I guess they're like cheaper if you get Chinese peptides and there's like an unregulated market and it's crazy. Peptides are already like they're going off.

Steroids?

No.

No, I think uh cell regeneration

It's closer to like stem cells.

Yeah, I know it through like buzzwords. So I'm not like

It'll be a peptide matcha line.

I'd love to do that.

I love that.

We'll we'll have them sponsor us. We'll try it on camera. Beautiful. So so you laugh. Do you d s a and and as we said, to go to circle back kinda to how we connected like People people already were were hating on you. I'm sure I'm sure uh w women uh wrestlers like women comedians get a outsized amount of hate from the internet writ large. Yeah. And the wrestling fan base. We um Uh a friend of mine, comedian Canise Mobley, was fired.

Oh yeah.

Yeah because she she was was on a podcast, she got hired to write and they were like she was like, Yeah, I don't really I maybe misquot him, but she was like I don't really know a lot about wrestling or I haven't followed it a bunch. Oh yeah And and they fired her and it sucked. I'm sorry. It sucked. I don't know how much she got to talk about'cause she, you know, signed things and

Right.

And I think that's what's so interesting about the future that I'm sure they've dealt with or you sh sh sh sharing any political views is that for so long it felt like wrestlers were under lock and key. They didn't break the K Fave. They didn't talk about their political opinions. And then with the internet it kinda became you couldn't have a career or you you everyone Yeah, social media probably fucked it up. There was a time where it was like your character was owned by the company.

Yeah, and that had to be your your social media.

Yeah. And so I feel like you experienced just a a a just a Expressing yourself personally, you got a lot of flack for it. Yeah.

Yeah. But also I think what's interesting is like if you've followed me before I signed with WWE, like That was always me. I was always outspoken. I always stood up for what I thought was right. Like I always I literally have this meme saved on my phone.

Yeah.

It was kind of always just like I think that everyone should have basic human rights in one form or another. And like you said, it's like I don't know. I don't even know how to how to fully encapsulate it or describe it.

Yeah.

When you look at this this company that, you know, your family was so involved in and just this legacy, like do you think Do you think it's it's gonna be stuck here for a long time, this this I mean, it's so hard to know like post Trump it's hard to imagine JD Vance having a a cool character arc. in the WWE it's like Trump was Trump is such the it is the Yeah.

This is his thing, right?

Yeah.

Sure, he could. So easy. Yeah.

He does like a full character, big gloves, more eyeliner than than normal. Yeah. Um

Flies in.

it's it's ever gonna veer out of it. Do you think it's like Trump had this had ha it's because of because Trump literally w was part of the WWE as a character that it like glommed on to wrestling. Is it is it there's all these older wrestlers now that don't wrestle fully but they're for they're conservatives'cause they're older and they have money and and the underta I mean the Undertaker.

Yeah.

And you're s you're in the ring like talking about how much you love your wife and Jesus and I'm like, What's going on? Cain should come out here and be like, I am Jesus Christ Uh okay, for my lib character I'm I'm developing now. So first here's I have redemption arc. So first let me get in there and people

writing it on?

What's it?

It's gotta be something like uh you know Like electric car, but like

No, give me a

Yeah, yeah. Um

Yeah, yeah, Subaru and then Um

And you have bumper stickers you in my in my house, in this house.

Still with her.

We believe in science.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

Tova Tova's my my girlfriend would be an incredible uh like the manager character from the sides. Like just yelling at me. Um but then I think so first I do it and a bunch of like liberals and le oh yeah.

Yeah.

I'm wearing a... Uh but it's and then and so everyone goes, This is bad. This is bad, you shouldn't be doing this, you're giving us a bad name. But then like at some point I get beaten so much. And maybe it's the avocado toast that unlocks it, but suddenly become um like you know what they said about Biden? Was it Dark Biden or or or he became like

Dark Brandon.

Dark Brandon. And I become and I become like the dark version. Yeah. And and suddenly I like I have a cool finish or I go like this. And they they die and it's called the Charlie Kirk. Um so let's go into our next segment. This has gotta stop.

Gotta stuff.

Thank you.

This has gotta stop. This is where we think uh talk about a thing that needs to come to an end. Big, small, personal, private. Um We if you join the Patreon you get to submit your own this has gotta stop. Ty, what is our patron submitted? This has gotta stop.

Uh, this is from Sam. This has gotta stop. John Marco might not be affected by this, but it is pissing me off. My pants slash jeans rub on the inside of my thighs. and weaken the fabric so much that if I even think about kneeling down they rip. My whole ass is out for half the day at work. And it was so embarrassing because I didn't have my good underwear on and they were my favorite uh they were my favorite pants too. That is all.

Why wasn't I mentioned? I guess John Marco might not be affected by it.

Well it it was your it was your show like a few weeks ago.

Uh

Um I mean I've never had this problem before. I'm not saying you've got to be a problem.

ripped off from my thighs, but um

Yeah.

But yeah, I guess. Sucks. Sucks. Hey.

Like are there s right. Is there solutions to it or

I think hundred percent cotton pants. You know, I think that's what's going on. We're getting cheaper materials. We need strong pants.

Yeah. Things are being made worse.

Yeah we need

And always wear your good underwear. I posted I posted something where I was wearing some i I thought it was a funny picture, but apparently it was the most toxic form of gay baiting I've ever conceived. And um

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I had no idea. And so then they started roasting my my boxes sticking up. Yeah and and Something about getting your underwear roasted, it does feel Hurtful.

Yeah.

It was just regular boxer brief. But I guess they were cheap or whatever or or they were a little bunched up. Okay. And and sorry, man. I was like I was like Jesus.

Wait w were you gay baiting or were you just poor? Like what were they going after about?

I I someone took a earring, I was looking for the earring and I was looking for an early

Oh I was there. I was there for the

I didn't even take the picture. Your wife did.

Yeah, sorry.

She never apologized for this and I

Ha ha.

Post it. You posted it.

That's what I found. She should have posted, I should have shared. Yeah, yeah. I posted and so pe it people as if I said to my friends, Hey, let me make a bottom joke real quick. Get a picture of me like this. Yeah. Yeah.

And yeah, in your defense you were naturally looking for.

I was naturally looking for an earring that way. And and by the way, by the way, maybe the fact that my underwear is is such garbage is sign that I'm not gay baiting and I'm not I'm a straight man. Yeah. If you l if you look deep to my underwear, I'm straight.

Oh my god.

Can you look up if Gold Dust was a gay man?

Uh no no.

Is married with kids.

Yeah.

With kids? With kids. Right, with kids, I believe so.

So

He he uh he left the WWE, he went to uh competitor I think uh AEW and then he wrestles just under his normal name. Yeah.

Yeah. Without any of the makeup and stuff?

Do you guys mind if I film a little BTS of this?

Please please.

Yeah. Goldus if you're out I can't believe how he must be an old man.

I don't believe it.

He was like a niche now, he had a finishing move. He would put his

Oh, he still wears some makeup. Oh, he looks a little more

It's kind of scary.

Yeah.

But tell me he's still doing the same homoerotic movie. Can you find a video of him? Or look up.

Justin Rhodes.

Dust of of finishing mode.

Goldustin.

Oh, I did want to ask your your uh your partner. Did they were they wrestler? Are they wrestler?

Yeah, she's she's a wrestler. Yeah, she's still right.

Oh she's still doing it.

Uh but she also was a ninja warrior?

Yeah. So she was the youngest um Australian competitor on Ninja Warrior.

That's just a good thing.

Crazy. Yeah.

What kinda gym is sh is she going to? Do you have like a special

So she doesn't do Ninja Warrior anymore. Okay. Yeah. But she I think she was like Sixteen or seventeen at the time when she did it, which like when I was sixteen and seventeen I wanted to wrestle, but I did not want to do Ninja Warriors.

Dustin Rhodes. Ooh, that's a cool finishing. You see I also think it's it's really tough to like evolve your character because everyone's watching.

Yeah. Oh here we go.

Yeah.

Bamboo's train is

What a maneuver.

Oh my god.

Oh here's the right. Can you go down? All right.

Wow, he had a a lot.

Damn.

It's hard to say.

Oh so if I I meant to say when you're training like were there people in the school where it was like They go, Oh, I'm not an in shape wrestler. Like some of these wrestlers are uh athletic phenoms and some are like they like Mick Foley, he's a he's a big dude.

Yeah.

And he could like take a hit.

Yeah, I feel like there are some people like that have super athletic college backgrounds, like come from professional sports, blah blah and then there are some people that are just like athletic and love wrestling. Or there's some people that aren't athletic and they love wrestling but they make it work.

Or they're any that's just like I'm fat and that's what I am and you're gonna they're gonna move around me, I'm gonna go like this. And they're going to hit.

No but that's a that's a good th

But then you see like Rashiki and he could like fall.

Oh yeah. He could move.

Cheeky. He uh he wore a big thong and his one of his finishers he'd just rub his asshole at your face.

Please.

The Rashiki Bomb. Look at the Rashiki Bomb. I love wrestling so much. God

It's just it's tr it's like drag and theater and

Well then maybe part of the Maybe part of the the the left word turn for wrestling is like Get a drag queen in there to like kill. Just kick some ass.

That'd be great.

That'd be great.

Maybe maybe that's where my character evolves. Like I'm getting beat up. I'm getting beat up.

And then it comes in and

Right.

I could see that turn. I get beat up and then it's like Bob the drag queen and Bob comes out and just like Does incredible moves. Yeah. And there's like a fan. Oh, a fan.

Okay and weapon.

Ooh.

You upgrade from the stool to the fan.

Smart.

Yeah, show me some brushes. Oh thing of horror movies. Oh man. But Rashiki could like Sundays he would do a cartwheel and he could like do some fucking moves.

Yeah.

Um, man, what a cool thing. So so uh what's your partner's name?

Tatiana

Yeah.

Um she just got it the other day but she hasn't revealed it yet.

Oh exciting.

Maybe when this comes out it will

Where

Can you say is she joining is she in a particular league right now?

She is I'm gonna that's she hasn't shared that yet, so

Okay, okay. So be on the lookout. But this is really exciting.

Yeah.

That's so cool.

Um are you What's your relationship like? Are you involved in the creative process?

So she is naturally like a super creative individual, so I think she's got it. I always feel like honored when she does ask me her my opinion on stuff, but She comes from an acting background, T V background and like It's been so cool to see someone who d had like no connection to wrestling at all, completely new world and like the way that she's experienced it and the way that she's found her own footing in taking that on because

That's really cool. Wow. Um, when you watch her Does it stressfully?

Yes. So when I before I would go out, whether it was like wrestling or doing a promo, like I would literally always get A cramp in my stomach every single time.

Yeah.

And now I get the cramp for her. So like before she goes out I'm like, Oh my god, oh my god, like if I I get so nervous, but I love watching her. But it is stressful. Like I can only imagine like if I had a kid and I was watching them wrestle. Like I feel like I'd have to be on Xanax.

Did your dad ever get injured doing wrestling?

Nothing nothing major Yeah, nothing major. Mm-hmm.

That is cool. Um Russell, do you have a disgust?

Yeah, this gotta stop. Um people are always talking about Um, from small towns, like how nice everyone is and how like you know, I like a simple life. Not like these city folk where people in the city people are so mean and rude, blah blah blah. Let me tell you, I went upstairs. And um this does not include my parents or their lovely neighbors who I actually love. But I would be I would take the dog on walks, I'd go around the town.

Yeah.

Peep you be on the street and it's a very small town. And when you actually talk to people, they're they're they're great. But

Uh

just in the simple interactions, it's like they've never encountered a human being. You'd like wave if you're on a street and you're the only other person and they wouldn't wave back. They wouldn't it was so weird and so like and I think maybe it's just because Everyone knows each other there and they're like if I don't know you, who are you?

Yes.

Just be open to seeing a new human you don't know and a little wave or a little thing. But it was very weird, cold, kind of like Um, it happened a bunch of times. And I was like, or they wouldn't hold a door. It was just like weird stuff where you're like, you're all a little rude. Yeah. Um

Do you think it was your Hillary Clinton shirt?

Do they have a porch goose?

What does that mean?

Porch goose hasn't hit the the small town. It's literally this goose that you put on your porch and you said porch party. So I was like

No. I've heard about this. I saw a very moving TikTok.

We just got one. It's great. Not real.

Yeah, it is.

So what do you do with it? Like what's the point of it?

You dress it up.

Yeah, you dress it up. Well mine has on a rain jacket and a raincoat.

It's all the same looking goose though, like it's

Whatever you want. We saw one the other day that had dreadlocks. Which I was like, I don't I don't know I don't know how that how they did that.

The the the you know milkshake duck? The milkshake duck it becomes the porch goose really quick.

Yeah.

Um, no we don't. They're my parents have uh always had a porch, so they've but but

Portugal.

That might f everyone might start saying hi then. If d they're like, Oh, there's Porch Goose guy, we've got to say hi to him.

Yeah, maybe.

Portuguese like a kimono. I think you should get that for them.

Uh maybe. I don't I don't know. They got they have enough things. They you know they have a f my mom puts out a different flag for different like seasons, you know. Uh they decorate

Like a fall flag?

Yeah.

What does it say?

Just like leaves and cornucopia of like thing. You know, like like she and she's she won't put up the American flag. She hasn't been putting up the American flag because she feels like it's weird right now.

Russell, uh your mom this sounds exactly up your mom's alley.

And she could dress it up for the

She okay, she is a little she's not a she wouldn't I I nurse know my mom, she's very specific, she would not like Mm. She would not like this. But she you know, uh uh so ap apologies to the porch goose. But

Um how much are we talking?'Cause maybe I'll get it as a gift for your parents.

I th don't get them that's a woman. She's not gonna use it.

And then everyone will wave at each other.

Exactly. No, they they do wave if you're sitting on the porch. It's weird. It's hard to describe. And maybe it's because I have a pit bull and I'm walking around a small town and they don't like that was not a dog that I saw a lot of. So maybe it's just them being weird about the pit bull. I don't know. Yeah.

My this gotta stop is uh when when rich people or successful people say the I don't even use uh an email or a phone. Yes. Um this is specifically uh Christopher Nolan who if he casts us anything we'll delete this whole episode. Sorry to use Moon but um I it's it's this thing of like I understand people who might detach from it or maybe people who don't use it, but someone is using it for you. A lot of people were commenting, Christopher Nolan's wife.

printing out emails for you and you're reading them so you can go to meetings. Like you're not showing up to the meeting like it you've not been in a library getting the information you need to get. Like someone is using Excel and someone is using documents and emails and they're printing all that shit out for you and giving you some sort of a

And you m you might live an elevated life because of it, but you are doing it at the degradation of someone else's. And acknowledge that as opposed to like I am a a divine being who has somehow overcome this thing that everyone else needs to use. I would love to not use my phone, but then how would I know where Russell is?

Yeah, yeah.

For a podcast recording. I God whenever you whenever you go w you went through a couple of days now text me and and by the fourth video I sent you I go like man I've fucking put together like an hour worth of media for Russell to return to

When did I not respond?

I'm not even complaining about it.

You think it's recently?

There w there was just there was a two day you just th this was an acceptable dip. Okay. A two days it was weekend. But no, I feel bad once I hit the fourth video I go

I feel like I'm not sure. I feel like we were communicating in different like we were the like there was stuff happening

Not complaining about

Not in the text.

I'm not I'm just say I'm not complaining about

Thank you, okay. Thank you.

I think your biggest crime is when you respond to the group chat of our guys and you haven't responded to our chat for like two or three days.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's criminal.

But do you know why? I'll tell you why, my friend.

In fact I sent a video that I sent to you originally to the guy's group chat and that's when it was

And then I responded to it. Yeah. Well, that was the reasoning. I thought you s already sent me this. Oh, I'll watch it in this and respond to it. And also I have a um a hang up because uh w months ago you tweeted that the your chat group was not good at responding, so I thought the priority here should be to respond in the group chat. You were like I don't know, you talked about Mm-hmm.

My male friends are the Charlie Kirks of my life. I don't even know, but I've been leaning on it pretty hard. I've been leaning on that reference as much as I can. Uh someone do you gotta stop?

I do. So I wrote down a couple of them, but then it happened on the way here. Okay. Again. So I feel like getting in an Uber in New York City can be a little treacherous because it's a lot of stop and go, a lot of traffic, right? Yeah. Normal. Getting in a Tesla anywhere can also be a little, you know, nauseating'cause there's a bit of stop and go. Getting in an Uber in New York that is a Tesla should be banned. Truly should be. If you have a Tesla, please don't be an Uber driver in New York.

Yeah. I feel. Is it the stop and start of like the Tesla? Is that

I think everyone who has a Tesla is an Uber driver. I've never I've never met anyone with a Tesla that isn't an Uber driver.

Yeah.

Do you know what I mean?

There's a comedi I have a credit but I'm not trying to to steal his bit where he talks about some he's like, I became an Uber driver so I could afford this car and he was like, So you bought a job? It's uh it's oh what's his name? Tim Oh he's from Chicago. Fuck. I'm gonna I'm we'll tag it in the comments'cause it's such a good bit, Tim.

I I think it's the uh regenerative breaking. That's what someone told me the theory,'cause it like It has an electrical charge for the braking, so like the way it slows down feels kinda like a like it's roller coastery.

My Uber from my hotel to the airport was like forty five minutes.

Oh yeah that's it.

And I was like

Were you looking at your phone too?

No, I had to put my phone down and I was trying to make dinner plans with my friend and I was like, can't talk in a Tesla. Yeah, it's suffering. Like

Yeah. Maybe well to specify in your Uber requests

No Tesla.

No Tesla.

Test less.

They had to be driving a car where the CEO didn't beg Epstein to visit his island. No other car.

And those fucking.

And then they're like, there's no cars that fit that profile at all.

Yeah.

Um uh before we go into our final segment, let me ask you this. You had a very public career now now you're working with your mom. Do you still want to participate in the public sphere? Obviously you're here.

I'm here. So this so fun fact, the last Instagram post I did was when I left WWE and I have not posted anything, but now obviously I'll post about this, so I'm excited. Um I think to a certain degree, but I do feel like so much of my life was public for so long and like obviously my partner and I we still have our separate Instagram account. Big Up's Official. Make sure y'all go follow it. Where we do like little travel content and stuff. And I love doing that, but I

yeah is it If everything my dad did, my father I c I I Do you ever look do you ever look at like is it stret does your dad ever say to you like hey y d you are a representative of The family. With there's such an onus to that. Yeah. And vice versa. I mean, who knows? You you go you go, Oh, I didn't like that you did that thing. Like that's a tough dynamic. Was there any talk or do you feel like you truly felt independent to be the person that you wanted to be entirely.

I definitely feel like I was able to be the person that I was entirely, but always still keeping in the back of my mind that because my family is so public, like everything I do is still in some capacity a reflection of them and like you said, vice versa. So yes, definitely independent to be able to be myself fully, but like just always keeping that in the back of my mind.

'Cause he and I we got a tiff on Twitter once. You did. Someone tweeted about how he showers three times a day. Mm-hmm. And I I did a joke it's like people who shower three times a day are crazy. Something pretty basic. Right. And suddenly I was like I was looking at my Twitter and I was getting so many like likes and comments, I was like, What is going on? This was a nothing. And It was'cause your dad replied to the dream.

You had to remind him that we actually know each other.

Then I wrote and then I replied I did a full backpedal, a full like humiliating like like Mr. Rock sir, uh I uh you am a lum here, you saw me in Hello Dolly and he wrote and he wrote something back sweet.

Yeah.

But again and then I had people calling me stinky for about four days straight. I did of all the things I've been called in the internet Think he is the least hurtful because it's like I'll just go shower them.

Right.

He is very solvable.

Yeah.

You're not a funny comedian. That's tough. Yeah. I've made a big mistake in my life. Choices. Yeah. Stinky is fine. Right.

Right. You you survived it. And showered.

I tell me if you recognize this song so I said It only Take Moment. Okay. Um Those are my two big songs. But on your son that you don't remember a single thing. Do you remember how was the layout? Yeah hello Dolly.

Yes, I remember the same.

What was like it was it was

I'm not good with like theater terms, I'm sorry.

What are you looking for?

Compliment. That was that was the biggest role I've had, maybe ever again in musical theater.

I think um

His wife saw me and

No, she didn't. Oh. She was studying abroad. This the the she wa worked in the box office. She worked for the box office at UM. Did not remember John Marco at all from the time there and she felt like she knew all the actors. And the one semester that you had your big role though, she uh was in France. So otherwise she wouldn't remember it. You know?

The play was good.

You did say you weren't one of the actors that really talked to the box office staff and m most of them did. So that's probably why she didn't know you.

Well,'cause I was I was still being Cornelius from the time I showed up.

Yeah.

Yes, yeah, yeah.

Break K fab.

You better count your blessing.

Think about everything's K Fa. We're all playing characters. No one knows who each other is, really. Um uh Russell, do you have a blessing? This is we say one thing that we're thankful for.

Um, yeah, you know what? Um, uh I was home this weekend and um Uh my parents. They're they they sometimes you hear about other people's parents and then and then you get you I just am very thankful for my parents. They really um are so supportive and lovely and um and I it was a good reminder to get to see them this weekend and I had a really great time and it was very relaxing. Very relaxing. And um yeah, just f thankful for my parents. They're sweet.

They're gonna be thankful for this porch kus I'm gonna s ship to them directly. How heavy is it?

It's not heavy. It's not heavy but you have to excuse me, you have to fill it with like um sand or soil so it doesn't blow away.

My blessing is here in New York City at least. Every single AI ad I have seen has been defaced brutally. Crossed out, fuck AI, everywhere. And and some of these ads, I mean it's like AI clearly has some good uses for the The w the way that these American companies think they're gonna pitch us is gross sending the AI CEOs to colleges, talking about how they're taking the jobs away from the people who just spent two hundred thousand dollars to graduate.

It's a crazy plan to be like, hey, go talk to them about it. And they're about to go into the real world.

What the fuck? If anything, send them to freshman orientation so they leave school and don't waste money on this fucking tuition. It's psyched. But to graduation is so

then they're like what it's what what when they get booed? Shut up. Wha i like it's crazy that they're just sent to go do propaganda at the at the at the graduation thing.

Throw tomatoes, guys.

Um yeah, throw tomatoes at these people. Um I uh about the AI. So I'm in this diner in my hometown. T old old diner, been around my whole life, right? I'm in this diner. Um my I'm looking at the photos and I'm like What a wait. They ha mixed in with real photos of the town from from like the thirties, forties, fifties is AIR of old things that's not real. And they framed it and put it on the diner wall. And I was like, what is this? And my nephew's like, that's AI art. And I was like, what?

Yeah, that's why.

And were they

Go to the historical society and get some real photos of the Like what are you doing? Spend a little bit more time.

And it was just like regular pictures.

Here's an old man from the thirties and it's not it's fake, you know? Like

How could you tell?

Uh it looked it looks I mean it's next to real photos in some of the cases. And it was so clear. And my nephews pointed it out and I was like, This is crazy.

Mm. Yeah. Like the s the tagline is Claude, now you can fire all your workers. And you're like, that should not Acceptable behavior.

That's the right thing.

Face it. That should not be a tagline. That's crazy. Deface it. Rip it down, throw a tomato.

That wasn't the exact tagline to be fair. That'd be a crazy techline.

But I mean like if you told me that was the real tagline, I'd be like, yeah.

Workers. Kill them. You know what I mean? Like it is

Eat the poor before they eat you.

Yeah.

Uh Spotify has started a customized AI, fully AI podcast.

Wow.

Designed to to tell you what you want to hear, I guess. So check that out. Spotify community.

Yeah.

He stopped. You stop. Between the ice ads like and the AI they were doing ice ads for a while like

You don't waste time, but like you you like as soon as people have like kind of moved on and are like and it like then you're like here's this other shitty thing we're gonna do to get people riled up. Just stop for fucking two seconds.

Can you imagine Ice that all recruiters are Debbie downsiders? It's not gonna be the most efficient task force you ever.

Oh, my God.

Um, Simone, do you have a uh blessing?

I do. I would say my friends, we had the most wonderful Girls night the other day and I truly do feel like girlhood makes the world go round and there's just there's nothing better than having your pals over. Yeah. Having some wine and laughing your ass.

They in Florida with you?

They are.

That's really good. It's your you have a night in New York, what are you doing?

I do. Um I'm actually gonna go see one of my friends who lives up here and her partner, we're gonna go get Mexican

Okay.

Can we debrief about this podcast?

I thought I I mean listen, you could see the original professional wrestling Broadway.

And see

So there so there is a do you guys remember the movie Fighting with My Family about wrestling?

Uh yes, I never saw it, but it was dire it was uh directed by um uh cr th the guy from the office, the other guy. Uh what's his name? Ricky Gervais and

Stephen Murchus.

Steve Merchant.

Yeah. Um becoming a musical. It is literally becoming a musical and I found that out and I was like I cannot wait to see wrestling in the form of a musical.

They did a Rocky musical.

So intrigued.

Box.

So true. Fuck man.

Yeah, yeah.

He did a play.

Train wrong track.

They did a play called that's a good I've never heard the phrase. Right train, wrong track. They did I think it's called Chad Daniels is a play about wrestling and like the way that they show it on stage is so cool. I can't wait to see it. I love that this is how listen, I I

This is your end.

I'm trying to grab the left reins and fucking yank it over. And I'm gonna do it as the lib. Coming soon to NXG. Uh uh uh tag uh y you the travel channel, your your your girlfriend, all the stuff.

Big ups are um it's called Big Ups Official. It's me and Tatiana's travel account. We All of our traveling adventures, we post a lot of bullshit, it's fun, it's a good time. Um, and then Tatiana Dumas is her account if you guys want to check her out personally. She's way cooler and way more athletic than me. So

Uh check her out. And yeah, and if if if Tatiana's announcement comes out, we'll we'll plug it, whatever. That's so cool. Uh I don't know exactly. But but top producer, f what whatever there.

What's up?

Um uh Russell, what do you want to play?

At Ross J Daniels on Instagram. And then get those tickets for the downside live in Portland, um LA and San Diego in August.

When are you guys going to align?

Uh

Eight Chulai or early August.

Early August, yeah. But I've been in LA a lot. What do you go to LA?

I'm gonna be there in like mid early August.

No.

Oh I also didn't plug my Instagram. It's Simone Alexandra O one.

Yeah, well if you've ever in LA or done a show, tell us what.

And it'll be in Hawaii too, but uh yeah.

Oh that's fun.

Like so for a boys' trip. Yeah. It's becoming more of a to do, but I'm I'm holding up. We gotta do the island switch. We can't just do Honolulu.

No.

I told you. I told you. Forty. Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.

Yeah, I love that place though.

Yeah. Thank you. Which one? Kuai?

Any of them, honestly.

Yeah. Rock on toy.

What? Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

Um okay. Um let's see if you know this one. Oh first uh join the Patreon patreon.com slash downside. Four bonus episodes every week. When we do our live shows, we post that footage up there. Uh uh subscribe on Spotify, subscribe on YouTube, Apple Podcasts. We have a a Reddit, we have an Instagram, we have a TikTok. We're building and moving. Please, please support us. Um uh okay, so uh Out there There's a world outside of Yonkers This is the doubtful.

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