Branson Quirke on TMZ’s Inside The Ring & John Cena’s Retirement | The Double G Show

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[SPEAKER_01]: It is the return for one night only or one day only of the double G show and it's a special one for me because this is the first time that I've interviewed somebody who I knew and he was a little kid.

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[SPEAKER_01]: I want folks to welcome Branson Quirk, who is a host of Inside the Ring, TMZ's wrestling podcast.

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[SPEAKER_01]: He also does work on TMZ's podcasting side and he and my son Brian were the same age and went to the same elementary school.

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[SPEAKER_01]: So Branson, Brian reminded me that you came over for some paper views back in the day.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I did.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I talked about, I've been talking about this a lot with one of our other friends Brandon Carmichael.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I'll give him a shout out on here.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Me, Brian, and Brandon.

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[SPEAKER_00]: You know, we used to come to your house every month to watch on Sundays.

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[SPEAKER_00]: We used to watch the one paper view a month.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I think the first one I did was Russell Mania 27.

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[SPEAKER_00]: If I remember incorrectly, so about 2010,

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[SPEAKER_00]: And yeah, I really, I always came in your house and saw you sitting at your table with your laptop.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And I never really understood it.

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[SPEAKER_00]: It took me years before I really like when back and looked at what you actually did because I thought, you know, you were just on your computer shopping or something.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I never knew what you were actually doing.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I had no idea, but, you know, those were some of the best memories that Brandon and I have ever had, you know, coming over eating pizza, hanging out with you, hanging out with your friends who all knew like, you guys knew pro wrestling so well, and I just didn't understand it because let me tell you this, the first year or so, I thought WWE was fully non-scripted, I thought it was a real thing.

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[SPEAKER_00]: That's amazing.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So coming to your house was really, really fun for us.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And years later, not getting into this whole scene, me doing a deep dive on you, seeing what you do, wrestling, observer, Dave Meltzer, you know, all these amazing things you've done.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I was just shocked and I called it Brandon one day and I go, do you know, Garrett is on this show?

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[SPEAKER_00]: This show and I started listening to it on Fridays and it's incredible and it's so cool to me and it's told by Mom this too, it's a whole, like, kind of full circle moment

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[SPEAKER_00]: They come back to this.

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[SPEAKER_01]: So when Brian started to Brian my son, when he started sending me your stuff, he was like, hey, do you see what Branson is doing?

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[SPEAKER_01]: And I was like, oh my gosh, this is actually, you know, really cool to see you as an adult in this side of things.

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[SPEAKER_01]: And, you know, for me, like if someone would say to me when they were asking for some advice or when they were little like, oh, I want to get involved in pro wrestling

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[SPEAKER_01]: No, you need to like, go do something else because Pro Wrestling can be kind of crazy.

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[SPEAKER_01]: And so, you know, when I saw you doing those videos, I was like, oh my gosh, he's already in the mix with Matt Riddle and the shenanigans of, and then, you know, the one that I really enjoyed was Paul Walter Houser, right?

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[SPEAKER_01]: Because he's wrestling, but he's also real Hollywood.

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[SPEAKER_01]: And so he's like an impressive dude who

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[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, by the way, it also likes wrestling.

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[SPEAKER_01]: So to see you with those folks, I was like, man, he, I don't have to tell him any of the he already knows what this stuff is about.

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[SPEAKER_01]: So he's in it and he's smartened up enough to know what the deal is.

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[SPEAKER_01]: So that was impressive and to do it on such a big platform for you, I wanna actually go backwards because, you know, Brian, you and Brian stopped going to school together.

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[SPEAKER_01]: I think during the junior high school days, right?

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[SPEAKER_00]: because yeah, so PWCA, um, I believe it was that he, he leapt elementary school before junior high.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So he wasn't in that junior high, class me and my friend Brandon, one of our friends, I continued on into that into those three years, but I, you know, Brian, like he was in every one of my classes, my entire elementary school, you know, I have, I have many memories of you just walking in with them to elementary school that I still remember.

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[SPEAKER_01]: So yeah,

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[SPEAKER_01]: So, there was a time where, you know, he had gone on to a different school, and so he wasn't a part of that, PWACA that get where a community is much anymore from a school perspective.

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[SPEAKER_01]: So, that's where I'm just like, oh my god, when's the last time I saw Branson, like, how long ago was that?

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[SPEAKER_01]: But I want to go back because I don't really know, like, your origin story from school, like,

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[SPEAKER_01]: do stuff in radio TV or is this kind of like a hobby that turned into a career?

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[SPEAKER_00]: You know, so I always loved for wrestling, but I also, my first found love is acting and high school I did theater for four years and I even traveled for theater as well.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I senior year I went to Moscow and to London.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I got to do some really cool things in theater and that was my passion.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So after high school I go, oh, I'm absolutely just going to go and

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[SPEAKER_00]: online, you know, took a few classes right away, but then immediately I looked for any production that was going on in the San Francisco Bay Area.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And the first thing I found was 13 reasons why, which is an Netflix show.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, yeah.

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[SPEAKER_00]: They were looking for extras to be on the show and in production folks as well.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So they were filming out in Vallejo, Mayor Islands, the basketball, Santa Rosa all around there.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And the whole production was filming there.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So they didn't even go to LA to film whatsoever.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So everything was out here on location.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And I met some people online.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I figured out how to apply.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So I got myself in as an extra like in the crowd of that show during a football scene.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And I just started shaking hands, meeting everybody because I wanted to move up as quickly as possible and get onto as many jobs as I could.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So when I was on that show, long story short, I eventually became one of the jocks, one of the football players.

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[SPEAKER_00]: on that show for about three and a half years, and one of the incredible experience that was because in the midst of all that, I met so many other people on other productions.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I became a standing and became a body double for people like Joseph Gordon Levitt.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I came, I did a little bit parts in history, channel reenactments.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I got to do a lot of really cool things.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I got myself a local agent out here in San Francisco, so that's what it was.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I wanted to be an actor.

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[SPEAKER_00]: But I was in the Bay Area and the Bay Area is, you know, there's jobs that come through and a lot of commercial work in Silicon Valley, and I ended up on Rocket Money, and that was kind of like my big...

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[SPEAKER_00]: quote unquote commercial break.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I guess you say I became the the face of rock and money for a couple of their ads and that was awesome.

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[SPEAKER_00]: You know, and then I kind of started realizing this is a lot more tough than I originally had had thought because it's easy to think I'll go out to LA.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I'll go out here and I'll get auditions and I'll book these roles quickly.

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[SPEAKER_00]: You know, because in high school they always told me that, you know, you're you're the guy you're going to be a star one day and that quickly fades when you get out to the real real world as as you know.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And eventually, you know, long story short, I started jumping on production a little bit more because acting kind of dried up during COVID time, so I jumped on Gordon Ramsay shows as a COVID supervisor production guy.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I jump on different shows like Kelly Clarkson show, and that's the one that kind of led me out to LA.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I'd be going back and forth from Gilroy in the bay to LA, flying driving as much as I could for those.

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[SPEAKER_00]: those bit jobs that they gave me.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So one day I decided I'm just going to go out to Los Angeles, I'm just going to just going to make this happen out there, use my connections I have already out there and make this happen.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So I get down to LA and Kelly Clarkson show is there for a little bit, but soon enough I think it was about two months before I got there, two months after I got there,

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[SPEAKER_00]: Kelly Clarkson decided to move the entire production to New York, the entire thing so everybody had to go and they said okay so if you want to keep working here you can move out to New York and we'll make something happen there and I thought you know my parents are five hours away I have some friends here in L.A. already I don't want to just leave

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[SPEAKER_00]: So I stuck around and I applied for as many jobs as I could, one of those being WWE actually, and another being TMZ, those are the two jobs that I really wanted, and I interviewed for both of them, and let me tell you this, the same 24-hour period, I got the call from WWE, and I got the call from TMZ, so I had to make a decision.

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[SPEAKER_00]: What's when do I want to do?

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[SPEAKER_00]: The WWE job was on the road road production.

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[SPEAKER_00]: It was, you know, three flights a week.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Sure.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Always on the road as you know, as you know, that crazy schedule.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And then TMZ was, was every day, Monday to Friday.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Crazy hours, but you know, I'm still in LA and I can work on something and mold something as a production assistant.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I started as a production assistant.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Just so the bottom job there.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So I chose TMZ WWE was like, hey man, I think you're making a mistake, you know, this is going to be a fun job for you.

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[SPEAKER_00]: We know you love it so much and TMZ just became the the job for me.

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[SPEAKER_01]: You know, that now we don't have to make this about, you know, young people learning about, but the ability for you at that age, not that you're that much older than you were back then, but as a young person starting your career to be able to kind of not only pivot off of acting, but kind of understand, you know, I can go to New York and follow this job or

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[SPEAKER_01]: And the Kelly Clarkson thing is like, the better thing for you to do, you don't learn that maybe for a couple years, then you have some regret.

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[SPEAKER_01]: But you were like, nope, I got to make this decision.

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[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm going to choose between these two of those things.

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[SPEAKER_01]: That's actually betting on yourself and all those good things that people say.

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[SPEAKER_01]: But as a young person, those are kind of hard decisions to make.

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[SPEAKER_01]: I'm sure you had some guidance and maybe from your parents or from other people in the industry who

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[SPEAKER_01]: You know, he hears, here's how to think about that.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Like did you seek out guidance from folks to help you with these decisions?

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[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I did, you know, I talked to a lot of my connects that were in Los Angeles.

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[SPEAKER_00]: People that I knew in San Francisco just about, you know, first off, what I wanted to know was what's the scene like in New York for production?

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[SPEAKER_00]: You know, if I get to New York and Kelly Clarkson doesn't work out, then what's the next,

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[SPEAKER_00]: two weeks for me, you know, I'm gonna have to fly back and flip flop and I had already just signed a lease for the apartment in L.A.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So it's just like, I live in Irvine, Orange County, because I can't take L.A.

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[SPEAKER_00]: It's a little too busy for me.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I love, you know, Gilroy, if you know Gilroy, it's the suburbs, so I wanted to match that feeling.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So I found the most Gilroy place I could kind of in Irvine.

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[SPEAKER_00]: But

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[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, no, I, I, I think out, you know, helped from people and, but it really was more just my decision.

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[SPEAKER_00]: It didn't pick that long.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I just knew like, I got to this new place.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And I love Los Angeles.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I love Orange County.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I love Newport Beach.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And I wanted to see that.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And I knew that there was a lot, many other jobs I could get in LA.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I was just doing production on Kelly Clarkson.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So it wasn't like I was,

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[SPEAKER_00]: You know, this big job dangled in front of me and I was gonna, but you know, I could have moved up at that job and it was the thought process I went went through as well.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Same with WWE.

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[SPEAKER_00]: He told me, you know, some of our guys who started production assistant on the road become producers here within a couple of years.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And it says it's quick.

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[SPEAKER_00]: But then I heard also the WWE could be a, um, what's the word a revolving door things can happen like they moved through people lied.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I was kind of worried about job security.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, lots of people want.

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[SPEAKER_01]: those jobs I'm sure I'm sure they have tons of people who are looking for that opportunity to start start at the bottom at WWE and then grow like I'm sure they have a lot of candidates of folks so yeah that no I mean that's a really good way to look at things I think so you get you start at TMZ now was the role that you originally were hired for was to just do something in podcasting like because based on what you do now I'm sure that's not what you

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[SPEAKER_00]: Not at all.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Not like at all.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So I started as a production assistant there and I'll be transparent with what I was doing.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I was refilling fridges.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I was refilling Harvey Levin's fridge.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I'd refill the lawyers fridge.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I would go around like getting food for people like just an assistant and office assistant doing really my entire work.

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[SPEAKER_00]: You know, like things I didn't want to do and I always thought, okay, if I just stay here and meet the right people, I was always told that.

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[SPEAKER_00]: If you meet the right people, you can eventually move into that department.

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[SPEAKER_00]: But my trajectory was so different.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I was doing a game show production assistant, a production assistant on this game show.

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[SPEAKER_00]: We had for Fox called who the bleep is that.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And what I did was I was the right-hand guy to the producer on that show.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And what I always tell people is that it all started because I would be refilling this lawyer's fridge, Derek Hoffman would give him a shout out.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And eventually, him and I got to talking.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And that's what led to him telling the people in the game show

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[SPEAKER_00]: production world there that hey you know this kid he's really eager and he wants to work on something that's other than just doing things in the office So they gave me this shot worked on the game show and that's what led to me be coming a test host for that game show So when the host was actually out you might know him Jeff die who's a big rustling fan as well He was out and I was his test host.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I would do it for the fox executives while he was out so they kind of see how the game works And that's what led them to see my on camera presence

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[SPEAKER_00]: Harvey himself as well, and then long story short, once I became a part of, you know, back to production, so the game show was over, Harvey was looking around at someone to do live shots for different new stations that we talked to across the country.

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[SPEAKER_00]: That's one of my big jobs at TMZ right now is talking to like Seattle, Fox.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Orlando, Fox New York, all of these cities about entertainment news, so when someone was leaving from that, he thought, okay, who do I know who has camera experience that can start in the next two, three days?

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[SPEAKER_00]: And immediately he thought of me called me over to his desk and said, hey, do you want to start doing live shots?

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[SPEAKER_00]: And I kind of skipped over the part as well that I was last on to as an associate producer for podcasting before this and working as like the assistant

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[SPEAKER_00]: and between that, doing live shots and associating producing podcasting, I got to do both things, production and on camera.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And then eventually Harvey Levin put me on the TV show.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Eventually he put me on the TMZ live show, where I speak about entertainment news with him and Charles, Lada Boudier, and you know, I got to do every avenue at TMZ in terms of on camera.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And then what happened to where I am now

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[SPEAKER_00]: was great and then I got to a point where, you know, I had all these ideas, wrestling being one of those things, and then my boss, wild, he decided that this podcast and world was something he was kind of done with, and he ended up leaving, and then Harvey Levin was like, hey, do you want this job?

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[SPEAKER_00]: And that's how it all started for this thought to become the where we are now.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Now, to come from an acting background, to being a host, are those wildly different skill sets?

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[SPEAKER_01]: Are they related?

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[SPEAKER_01]: Was it a natural transition for you to just go, oh, camera, microphone?

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[SPEAKER_01]: Like, this is what I like to do.

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[SPEAKER_00]: For me it's interesting because it podcasting I did other podcasts before him like the TMZ podcast the reality show podcast that we have I tried different avenues in terms of hosting and it's a lot different than doing live shots because when you do live shots with the news you kind of turn on this persona

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[SPEAKER_00]: that's a lot different than you would if you're kind of more in a conversational avenue.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So I had to kind of find that at different balance between being a host, it's conversational, and not just kind of sounding like I'm reporting the news every Monday night.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So I had to kind of find that balance.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And when I was hosting one of our other podcasts, that's kind of where I started to learn like, okay, it's a little harder than I thought.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I always thought it'd be easy.

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[SPEAKER_00]: You just jump on the microphone and you talk, but it's not easy at all.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, no, it's a the thing that I like about podcasting is in and kind of what we're doing right now like I like it I like hearing something that you say and then I get an idea right, but I can't sit on that idea because I still have to hear the rest of what you're saying because there may be something better that you say that leads me to the next question now some podcasts I'm sure.

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[SPEAKER_01]: a lot most people have some sort of bullets about what they want.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Like if I was to read my thing of what I wanted to talk to you about, like I haven't even gotten through like two of the things that I really wanted to talk to you about.

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[SPEAKER_01]: So the asset of the, you have to have, it's like you have to have the ear open, but

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[SPEAKER_01]: You know, you cannot let the ear dominate, you cannot let the mouth dominate.

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[SPEAKER_01]: It's like this interesting balance of like comprehending what people are saying.

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[SPEAKER_01]: I find it to be a very active skill.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Like it keeps me on my toes, but also you're at the mercy of your guests.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Like there's times where...

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[SPEAKER_01]: Just have a dud of a guest, right?

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[SPEAKER_01]: And they're not engaging and they're not doing, and so then you have to like, maybe do more than you want.

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[SPEAKER_01]: So it's such a fun thing.

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[SPEAKER_01]: I come from a radio TV journalism background.

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[SPEAKER_01]: So this is kind of in my wheelhouse, and I can do it as a hobby, which makes it fun for me, because this is not anything that's gonna change in my life career-wise.

17:54.098 --> 17:56.322
[SPEAKER_01]: I just do it for fun because I can.

17:56.302 --> 18:13.146
[SPEAKER_01]: But to actually go into and this being your career, like, do you like what do you see as kind of the apex of what you can do here or do you see podcasting is like this ever growing thing and maybe it just keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger.

18:14.493 --> 18:19.459
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, for podcasting, what I'm learning as I'm going along is we're under the Fox audio network.

18:19.499 --> 18:24.485
[SPEAKER_00]: So there's a lot that's being talked about in terms of where things are going, you and I just talked about it.

18:24.505 --> 18:26.227
[SPEAKER_00]: Netflix is jumping into this whole thing.

18:26.267 --> 18:33.335
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a lot of growth for podcasts, especially in my opinion, and I've been trying to bring these up.

18:33.355 --> 18:37.480
[SPEAKER_00]: Because I've had a podcasting now, so they're kind of like, what's your ideas?

18:37.460 --> 18:57.004
[SPEAKER_00]: Tell us what's what's the next step for things here and what I see it as is is then I've learned this through wrestling is finding podcasts That we can create that are in niche markets niche markets is where it's that because if you could harness those those niche audiences And when I say niche I don't mean like small, but I mean like

18:56.984 --> 18:57.585
[SPEAKER_00]: avenues.

18:58.407 --> 19:04.639
[SPEAKER_00]: If you can capture those avenues, it's a lot easier to market than say news podcasts.

19:04.879 --> 19:07.985
[SPEAKER_00]: Like the TMZ podcast, we do it daily and it's great.

19:08.206 --> 19:08.987
[SPEAKER_00]: It has great audience.

19:09.368 --> 19:11.252
[SPEAKER_00]: But where do you go from there?

19:11.312 --> 19:12.254
[SPEAKER_00]: How do you market that?

19:12.274 --> 19:13.897
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a million news podcasts.

19:13.917 --> 19:16.562
[SPEAKER_00]: But there's also a million wrestling podcasts.

19:16.542 --> 19:22.251
[SPEAKER_00]: And I understand that too, so it's kind of finding, what can we do differently that's gonna make us just explode?

19:22.431 --> 19:32.186
[SPEAKER_00]: So like early when you brought up the Matt Riddle incident that I had on the show, that's one thing I saw to that can be applied to our all of our other podcasts.

19:32.206 --> 19:37.834
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, doing things that have shock value, because VIMZ already has that reputation a little bit in terms of shock value.

19:37.874 --> 19:41.520
[SPEAKER_00]: So why not try things that have never been done before?

19:42.091 --> 19:52.115
[SPEAKER_01]: What was your experience with Riddle because I've like he wouldn't know who I was by the way, but if you go back like seven or eight years, actually no, even longer.

19:52.255 --> 19:55.864
[SPEAKER_01]: So maybe eight years.

19:56.992 --> 20:05.885
[SPEAKER_01]: So Dave Meltz was writing about him as like kind of the sub-and-coming guy, obviously from the UFC side of things, Dave had been watching him.

20:05.925 --> 20:10.632
[SPEAKER_01]: So he's writing about him like, oh, you know, up-and-coming prospects, someone you, you know, you should pay attention to.

20:10.692 --> 20:26.475
[SPEAKER_01]: So Riddle very smartly latches on to Dave, and, you know, uses that in a sense of as he's growing through the industry, you know, he's kind of like, oh, you know, Dave likes me.

20:26.455 --> 20:33.264
[SPEAKER_01]: events, and I want to say it was the 20 17, WrestleMania 33.

20:33.644 --> 20:36.668
[SPEAKER_01]: I didn't actually go to the show, but I think that was the New Orleans one.

20:37.009 --> 20:39.873
[SPEAKER_01]: I went for the weekend, and I flew back to watch the show at home.

20:40.954 --> 20:46.381
[SPEAKER_01]: And there was an indie show, and we walk into the building.

20:47.523 --> 20:50.927
[SPEAKER_01]: And the thing about riddle is that,

20:51.532 --> 20:55.918
[SPEAKER_01]: when he was younger, he just physiquized.

20:56.459 --> 21:00.064
[SPEAKER_01]: He kind of resembled like a of on Eric brother in a way.

21:00.724 --> 21:02.647
[SPEAKER_01]: And so he's in the ring.

21:02.867 --> 21:05.711
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's the first time I'd seen him physically seen him in person.

21:06.212 --> 21:07.273
[SPEAKER_01]: And I was like, okay, I get it.

21:07.313 --> 21:10.618
[SPEAKER_01]: Like he does resemble like a of on Eric.

21:11.139 --> 21:15.585
[SPEAKER_01]: And then as we walk, we just walk through the building, riddle very smartly.

21:15.625 --> 21:21.032
[SPEAKER_01]: He, I don't know how he saw us, but he just literally sees us

21:21.012 --> 21:27.201
[SPEAKER_01]: Dave Meltzer and he just makes this big old and you know him a little bit so you can see this.

21:27.241 --> 21:41.721
[SPEAKER_01]: You can visualize him doing this and I was like, this is so hilarious to me because what usually happens, and maybe not so much in the indie route because a lot of times, you know, but people are not

21:41.701 --> 21:55.567
[SPEAKER_01]: They don't always want to be known to no Dave, like they kind of hide that relationship sometimes because they don't want it to be known that they talk to him because maybe he gets news from them and you know, so they kind of just watch themselves.

21:55.907 --> 22:00.115
[SPEAKER_01]: I think it's a lot better today, like they don't care as much today as they did maybe.

22:00.095 --> 22:01.437
[SPEAKER_01]: you know, 25 years ago.

22:01.797 --> 22:07.404
[SPEAKER_01]: But I just found it to be hilarious because he was just outwardly showing affection for Dave, just in public.

22:07.504 --> 22:13.892
[SPEAKER_01]: And this is he's in the ring with like 20 other dudes and they're just like warming up and practicing things.

22:13.992 --> 22:17.597
[SPEAKER_01]: And he just out, I just starts yelling Dave's and I thought that was hilarious.

22:17.937 --> 22:22.563
[SPEAKER_01]: By the way, that was the, I think that was the same show where Coda Obushi was there.

22:23.124 --> 22:24.425
[SPEAKER_01]: And we went to go talk to him.

22:24.445 --> 22:28.330
[SPEAKER_01]: And the students just

22:28.512 --> 22:58.519
[SPEAKER_01]: And he did not know he did not know Vince McMahon like he didn't really know who Vince McMahon was and I think he was going to be part of the Cruiserweight Classic at that point and he was just like very like very just nonchalantly like oh yeah, yeah, okay, I know who that guy is it was just that was wild.

22:58.499 --> 23:20.237
[SPEAKER_01]: And he was just over to the side, just by himself, and I just went over to him, I said, what's up, and I, you know, I mentioned Meltzer and just said what's up, but other than that, I don't really know him, but I, like, I find his personality to be over the top, and in sometimes in a good way, and sometimes in a bad way,

23:20.403 --> 23:24.289
[SPEAKER_01]: But he just creates enemies almost for no reason.

23:24.409 --> 23:29.838
[SPEAKER_01]: It seems like, I don't know what, can you tell what his strategy is?

23:29.958 --> 23:36.688
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, he worked for WWE for several years there, and now he's working for court power.

23:37.189 --> 23:43.499
[SPEAKER_01]: But like, you get a sense of when you were able to kind of talk to him, like, what is Matt Riddle's strategy here?

23:43.519 --> 23:45.482
[SPEAKER_01]: Where does he want to go with this stuff?

23:45.850 --> 24:05.682
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, a lot of people think that Matt Riddle has kind of a plan or a strategy in the way he's doing things and hey, he might have a strategy that he's not talking about or anybody know it might be a secret for him, but my opinion on him if you ask me just working with him and I think I've had him on the show four times now.

24:05.662 --> 24:10.515
[SPEAKER_00]: And I even got to hang out with them at MLW after that whole incident that we had.

24:11.097 --> 24:12.982
[SPEAKER_00]: And he's really just a genuine guy.

24:13.102 --> 24:17.454
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that the way he is on camera is the way he is behind the camera.

24:18.517 --> 24:20.502
[SPEAKER_00]: He's just he said he has no filter.

24:20.803 --> 24:21.645
[SPEAKER_00]: I always say.

24:21.625 --> 24:26.029
[SPEAKER_00]: He's passionate, and he has no filter, and you can't tell him not to say something.

24:26.330 --> 24:26.890
[SPEAKER_00]: He just can't.

24:27.511 --> 24:34.158
[SPEAKER_00]: And so when he came to the office, after I already spoken with him three times, I mean, you've seen it, you've seen what he said online.

24:34.638 --> 24:50.434
[SPEAKER_00]: He always goes a little too far, but I think his strategy is kind of unique in a sense where no wrestler, I mean, there's many wrestlers that have been very outspoken and said there, really negative opinions that they have,

24:50.903 --> 24:56.778
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that when people perceive him as saying things that are negative to him, he doesn't see it that way.

24:56.938 --> 25:05.439
[SPEAKER_00]: So like for example, when he came on my show and talked about AJ Lee, I don't know if you saw that news, but he was, you know, I'm talking a little smack about AJ Lee.

25:06.141 --> 25:08.727
[SPEAKER_00]: When I had him in, I talked to him, I go, hey, like,

25:08.707 --> 25:15.962
[SPEAKER_00]: you know how do you feel getting all this backlash that you've gotten about talking about that and he's like I didn't even think that it was negative.

25:16.162 --> 25:19.769
[SPEAKER_00]: I really just said it because you know, I like AJ.

25:19.789 --> 25:26.342
[SPEAKER_00]: I love AJ and and then he brought up the fact that she had kissed like Dolph Siggler and all those guys on the storyline.

25:26.683 --> 25:26.783
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

25:26.803 --> 25:28.707
[SPEAKER_00]: He had been talking about the storyline.

25:28.687 --> 25:31.553
[SPEAKER_00]: And people took it as he was talking about it backstage.

25:32.054 --> 25:38.166
[SPEAKER_00]: I think he just has trouble communicating sometimes with what he's trying to say and what he's feeling.

25:38.526 --> 25:43.496
[SPEAKER_00]: But the other day, he's probably one of the most genuine dudes that I've ever been able to work with.

25:43.937 --> 25:48.045
[SPEAKER_01]: The thing about him that is interesting to me is it's almost like,

25:49.443 --> 25:54.615
[SPEAKER_01]: He brings the locker room conversation into the forefront.

25:54.635 --> 26:07.165
[SPEAKER_01]: Like a lot of those things that he gets quoted for, I was like, I can totally see him talking backstage in that way as kind of a joking behavior or whatever, like all the goldberg stuff.

26:08.528 --> 26:13.035
[SPEAKER_01]: But then to say it out in front of a camera is wild.

26:13.075 --> 26:17.041
[SPEAKER_01]: And maybe this is just his way of kind of staying in the news.

26:17.342 --> 26:19.725
[SPEAKER_01]: Now that he's not working for WWE anymore.

26:20.546 --> 26:22.469
[SPEAKER_01]: But yeah, I mean, I find him to be really interesting.

26:22.489 --> 26:24.012
[SPEAKER_01]: I know he's got a bad reputation.

26:24.032 --> 26:26.155
[SPEAKER_00]: But do you think he's gone over the line?

26:26.315 --> 26:30.722
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you think he's gone over a certain line now where it's like all bridges are burned?

26:30.702 --> 26:36.691
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I can't imagine either the big two are interested in bringing him in.

26:36.991 --> 26:42.960
[SPEAKER_01]: And if I was to actually give him advice, I would say, dude, look at look at the Jake Paul stuff.

26:42.980 --> 26:45.784
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, how could you get into that stratosphere?

26:46.064 --> 26:51.212
[SPEAKER_01]: And he probably just enjoys pro wrestling too much, but he's kind of a real guy at the same time.

26:51.672 --> 26:58.262
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, I don't know, you know, from a boxing standpoint, that's where everything really is right now.

26:58.242 --> 27:05.192
[SPEAKER_01]: in a, in a, you know, in a cage fight with almost anybody outside of an active UFC fighter.

27:05.212 --> 27:07.135
[SPEAKER_01]: He's, he's mobbing the floor with them.

27:08.517 --> 27:16.369
[SPEAKER_01]: So I, I, I, I, I think that would be the way to go, but at the same time, like, I mean, I'm sure he loves the, the processing stuff, but.

27:16.349 --> 27:32.063
[SPEAKER_01]: um, kind of on that same wavelength, you've interviewed a ton of people who were some of your, uh, outside of Roodle, some of your most memorable and, and I'm guessing for all kinds of different reasons, they're, they're memorable, but who who stands out in your mind?

27:32.650 --> 27:33.992
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I tell everybody.

27:34.052 --> 27:36.676
[SPEAKER_00]: And our first guest was Matt Cardona.

27:36.696 --> 27:42.685
[SPEAKER_00]: So I got to give him props because in his funny, Matt Cardona, he always likes to be the first on something he always wants to be.

27:43.366 --> 27:44.288
[SPEAKER_00]: He wants to have something.

27:44.308 --> 27:45.750
[SPEAKER_00]: I asked him to be on it.

27:45.790 --> 27:47.453
[SPEAKER_00]: And originally he wasn't that interested.

27:47.473 --> 27:48.815
[SPEAKER_00]: He didn't really understand it.

27:48.875 --> 27:55.886
[SPEAKER_00]: But he said that because it's the first person the first guest, he wanted to be on there just in case blew up.

27:55.966 --> 27:57.488
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what he said, just in case.

27:58.650 --> 28:00.733
[SPEAKER_00]: But so he's got to be,

28:00.713 --> 28:09.842
[SPEAKER_00]: my most memorable for me because that was me trying to learn how to interview a wrestler that was me trying to talk to someone that I was a fan of at the same time.

28:10.162 --> 28:15.748
[SPEAKER_00]: That's the hard part for me is I'm a fan of these people and it's hard for me not to be a fan boy during these interviews.

28:15.768 --> 28:20.392
[SPEAKER_00]: I have to kind of bridge that gap but I think that they do appreciate it a little bit when you kind of bring in both.

28:20.813 --> 28:23.536
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a good way to cozy up to them in a way too.

28:23.616 --> 28:28.020
[SPEAKER_01]: It kind of creates

28:28.608 --> 28:37.899
[SPEAKER_01]: you're in on the, you understand that world, you appreciate them and it probably helps in pulling their guard down at the same time.

28:39.181 --> 28:40.583
[SPEAKER_00]: And I mean, other people, exactly.

28:40.603 --> 28:48.853
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, other people that I'm thinking of, like, Mark Henry, Mark Henry is my favorite guide to interview out of anybody.

28:49.013 --> 28:50.134
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, I don't care who it is.

28:50.435 --> 28:52.337
[SPEAKER_00]: Mark Henry is just so fun to talk to.

28:52.397 --> 28:56.442
[SPEAKER_00]: He's the person that can come on and I feel like I'm just talking to somebody.

28:56.462 --> 28:57.163
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not just,

28:57.143 --> 29:04.312
[SPEAKER_00]: interviewing, you know, and he's so fun and he's jolly and he he he's this hilarious, you know, I love speaking with them.

29:04.352 --> 29:04.952
[SPEAKER_00]: He's a good one.

29:05.873 --> 29:06.534
[SPEAKER_00]: Courage aid.

29:06.574 --> 29:12.041
[SPEAKER_00]: We had her in after she kind of took a break from wrestling and super nice.

29:12.101 --> 29:18.608
[SPEAKER_00]: Definitely our most memorable person before Matt Riddle that came into the office because, you know, we get all these people on zoom and yeah.

29:18.628 --> 29:19.349
[SPEAKER_00]: I hate zoom.

29:19.409 --> 29:25.817
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, zoom's great and all, but I love having them there in different different connection in person.

29:25.797 --> 29:28.040
[SPEAKER_00]: Another would be David Atunga for me.

29:28.080 --> 29:30.743
[SPEAKER_00]: He's been in two or three times now.

29:30.763 --> 29:39.074
[SPEAKER_00]: He lives not far from the studio in LA and I was the big fan of the Nexus, you know, growing up and David Atunga himself being the lawyer on TV.

29:39.114 --> 29:44.560
[SPEAKER_00]: So having him come in, I mean, let me tell you I'm just kind of star struck every time these people come in.

29:44.721 --> 29:54.673
[SPEAKER_00]: It's kind of crazy for me because I can both get paid to do my job, but also bring these guys in and like I just go back to being at your house.

29:54.653 --> 30:00.241
[SPEAKER_00]: I think about it all the time when I'm on my podcast and it's like this guy's here in front of me It's such an honor to me.

30:00.541 --> 30:02.104
[SPEAKER_00]: So you know, David and Tom go Mark Henry.

30:02.364 --> 30:03.025
[SPEAKER_00]: He had to film me.

30:03.045 --> 30:12.358
[SPEAKER_00]: I was really cool Another I mean, I've had so many great guests Rob Van Dam Jeff and Matt Hardy, which is interesting because my co-host Roger

30:12.963 --> 30:16.889
[SPEAKER_00]: He's more of the hardcore era, well before me.

30:16.929 --> 30:18.411
[SPEAKER_00]: Again, I started in 2010.

30:18.471 --> 30:21.175
[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm like super seen a PG era.

30:21.195 --> 30:27.925
[SPEAKER_00]: So for him to have him on there, that's such a great help because he has that knowledge that goes behind me a lot.

30:28.005 --> 30:33.013
[SPEAKER_00]: And then for me, like when we bring in somebody like CJ Perry, you know, my era is Lawn Unrucif.

30:33.073 --> 30:41.485
[SPEAKER_00]: So the power coming in, that's kind of how we connected in the first place was because of that era that she said, your my target audience from that.

30:41.465 --> 30:45.630
[SPEAKER_00]: So meeting you in person is like, very touching for me, essentially.

30:45.991 --> 30:49.234
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's good to have that to those two sides.

30:49.254 --> 30:51.257
[SPEAKER_01]: I have a funny Mark Henry story.

30:51.978 --> 30:55.802
[SPEAKER_01]: Kind of funny, but I was just more impressed with him, his patient.

30:55.883 --> 31:01.309
[SPEAKER_01]: So that same, I think it's the same time frame that I was mentioning, the Roodle story.

31:01.990 --> 31:03.692
[SPEAKER_01]: I was at Walla Mania.

31:03.672 --> 31:30.388
[SPEAKER_01]: And Mark Henry was was sitting there and Dylan aka horn swaggle was was back there and you know I think horn swaggle may have had a couple maybe a couple too many and he was trying to joke with Mark about stuff and I don't know if Mark

31:31.229 --> 31:48.698
[SPEAKER_01]: didn't like him or didn't like the Joe or whatever it was, but I could tell that Hornswag was being a little annoying in a way and he could not tell that and maybe he has known mark enough to know how far he could go with Mark and I just sat there thinking like man.

31:48.914 --> 31:52.258
[SPEAKER_01]: Mark Henry could kill all of us right now if he wanted to.

31:52.378 --> 32:14.145
[SPEAKER_01]: And this guy who's so annoying, he's being so patient and so kind, and I would have been so frustrated in his shoes, but I guess being such a giant human and being portrayed as the world's strongest man when he came into WWE F and in the mid 90s, he's probably had to

32:14.125 --> 32:20.393
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, keep a lot of that patience in dealing with with folks, but that was that was insane.

32:20.733 --> 32:33.289
[SPEAKER_01]: That was also the same night that Wale himself made Dave Meltzer take a shot of Hennessy, which I think is still the only time Dave has ever taken a shot in his life.

32:34.170 --> 32:42.040
[SPEAKER_01]: So that was really, I was right there for that moment.

32:43.049 --> 32:44.671
[SPEAKER_01]: very tribalistic.

32:45.413 --> 33:01.497
[SPEAKER_01]: We have this AEW side, we have the WWE side, and as a host, you're talking to people from both sides, but because of how you grew up though, I imagine you're still a little

33:01.797 --> 33:16.660
[SPEAKER_01]: What do you think about AEW and the style of wrestling much more sort of violent and in-ring though the, because you talked about niche audiences like the AEW hardcore audience is very niche.

33:16.700 --> 33:18.423
[SPEAKER_01]: They know exactly what they want.

33:19.064 --> 33:19.965
[SPEAKER_01]: They love it.

33:20.426 --> 33:28.378
[SPEAKER_01]: Anytime they have the opportunity to show their colors and promote those three letters, they do it.

33:28.358 --> 33:32.592
[SPEAKER_01]: And on the other side, WWE is like, ah, they're just kind of the little guy.

33:32.612 --> 33:36.765
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, where do you sit with your fandom when it comes to AEW and WWE?

33:37.268 --> 33:38.149
[SPEAKER_00]: You're totally right.

33:38.930 --> 33:39.851
[SPEAKER_00]: People make the joke.

33:39.871 --> 33:40.952
[SPEAKER_00]: They call me the company man.

33:42.213 --> 33:46.657
[SPEAKER_00]: Because I just, I'm like, I came into this right off the bat.

33:46.717 --> 33:47.198
[SPEAKER_00]: Fun fact.

33:47.238 --> 33:55.206
[SPEAKER_00]: I came into this whole new podcast that I created, basically telling everybody at TMZ, we're going to make this WWE only.

33:55.426 --> 33:56.807
[SPEAKER_00]: It's going to be WWE.

33:57.248 --> 34:00.251
[SPEAKER_00]: I thought I could get current out of the talent right away.

34:00.311 --> 34:04.575
[SPEAKER_00]: So AEW, you know, I had watched a bit of AEW and I

34:04.555 --> 34:14.092
[SPEAKER_00]: And I enjoyed it, but my whole life for some reason, I haven't told anybody this, but my whole life for some reason, like even TNA, I couldn't even get into that.

34:14.132 --> 34:20.623
[SPEAKER_00]: I, like, every time I turn on a different wrestling show, I feel like I was cheating on WWE.

34:20.603 --> 34:28.095
[SPEAKER_00]: I like I watched Raw, I watched SmackDown, and that was it, and I had nothing else I wanted to see, because I felt like it was kind of like cheating on that.

34:28.716 --> 34:30.800
[SPEAKER_00]: And I was like that going into this.

34:30.860 --> 34:36.890
[SPEAKER_00]: So let me tell you from the beginning of this in August, early August, to now, I have completely transformed.

34:36.930 --> 34:38.994
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, AEW is great.

34:39.334 --> 34:39.895
[SPEAKER_00]: They have

34:39.875 --> 34:43.560
[SPEAKER_00]: amazing shows, amazing wrestling, the store lines are great.

34:43.620 --> 34:44.901
[SPEAKER_00]: I love, you know, death writers.

34:45.682 --> 34:50.548
[SPEAKER_00]: I've interviewed some great people from there and I've asked a lot of talent about that exact question.

34:50.588 --> 35:00.741
[SPEAKER_00]: The tribalism between both fan bases and they always answered the same way saying, you know fans, they love what they love, but like you don't have to just want love one thing.

35:00.781 --> 35:03.324
[SPEAKER_00]: I think Mark Henry said this, you don't have to love one thing.

35:03.344 --> 35:08.430
[SPEAKER_00]: You can love both things and we can all be friends in your right about the

35:08.410 --> 35:14.420
[SPEAKER_00]: My interviews with AEW stars are vastly different than WWE, former legends or whatever you say.

35:15.041 --> 35:24.816
[SPEAKER_00]: And because the fans are just a little bit more judgmental, they take everything you say very, very critically and they'll let you know about it.

35:24.796 --> 35:30.606
[SPEAKER_00]: I will get DMs all the time from AEW fans, you know, and I interviewed Kyle Fletcher, love Kyle Fletcher.

35:30.626 --> 35:44.070
[SPEAKER_00]: I had Don Call of Son, and that was I opening for me because it was weird for me because I always thought that the WWE, the former talents would be a little more k-fabe, but when these AEW guys came on, they were the ones that were the most k-fabe.

35:44.050 --> 35:53.429
[SPEAKER_00]: especially don't call us, don't call us, flip me off like six times during the interview when he is just facing you do this and things like that, and he's hilarious.

35:54.271 --> 36:05.113
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, hey, you know, I love it, we have a good relationship with them, the coming out to Los Angeles and March for a bit show, so we're going to be out there TMZ, you know, we love both.

36:05.853 --> 36:20.200
[SPEAKER_01]: that I'm glad that you've come to that conclusion because I think what happens in your scenario very similar and this is no shot at you because what is WWE great at they're great at promoting

36:20.602 --> 36:22.044
[SPEAKER_01]: WWE.

36:22.104 --> 36:27.149
[SPEAKER_01]: And in that way, you grew up, there was no WCW anymore.

36:27.850 --> 36:34.797
[SPEAKER_01]: TNA is a, is a, you know, a bad copy, a back then, a bad copy of WWE.

36:34.817 --> 36:41.925
[SPEAKER_01]: There was ROH for like those DVD traders who, but they didn't have any exposure out where we lived.

36:42.386 --> 36:44.448
[SPEAKER_01]: So it was really the only game in town.

36:45.149 --> 36:49.073
[SPEAKER_01]: And AEW, though WWE,

36:50.065 --> 36:55.453
[SPEAKER_01]: WWE wrestlers will not say this to your face, but behind the scenes, they will 100% agree with this.

36:56.095 --> 37:12.520
[SPEAKER_01]: The best thing for WWE wrestlers when it comes to their leverage and how much money they make is having Tony Khan on the other end because they know that Tony Khan is willing to pony up money to grab the best guys.

37:12.781 --> 37:15.465
[SPEAKER_01]: And so if they are on Tony Khan's radar,

37:15.530 --> 37:20.418
[SPEAKER_01]: They can guarantee that their WWE paychecks are going to be higher just just for that reason.

37:20.498 --> 37:39.327
[SPEAKER_01]: So they may not say that in person, but behind the scenes, it is definitely the case, but I'm glad that you see that because what happens is if your podcast is WWE only and they know that, then they got all the leverage and they're like, oh, well, we can give you folks for coverage or not.

37:39.347 --> 37:41.250
[SPEAKER_01]: And, and, but,

37:41.230 --> 38:04.943
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I'm not saying that your podcast is solely depending on talent because you guys can talk about wrestling and, you know, for whatever, but you know, when you when you do have a podcast where a lot of your virality is because of who the guest are, you know, it is, but it is good to have from both sides because someone like Kyle Fletcher, you know, in two years, maybe Kyle Fletcher's like,

38:04.923 --> 38:21.200
[SPEAKER_01]: the biggest, you know, non-WW star out there and you have him, you know, already and maybe you create a good relationship with him and then he comes back when he's, you know, even a bigger star, moxley, so you'll get a kick out of this.

38:22.081 --> 38:27.847
[SPEAKER_01]: So I'm doing a show and people who listen to this, they probably know this story a bunch of times because I've told it.

38:29.969 --> 38:31.150
[SPEAKER_01]: During the pandemic,

38:32.227 --> 38:41.076
[SPEAKER_01]: Dave and I had John on and I never met John before, but John is not the most technologically sound guy.

38:41.596 --> 38:47.102
[SPEAKER_01]: So I was working with him on the side to get him to be able to connect to what we were using to record back then.

38:47.582 --> 38:51.366
[SPEAKER_01]: And so like, and so then he brings Renee over and he's like, hey, how do I do this?

38:51.607 --> 38:53.989
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I'm talking to Renee at the same time.

38:54.870 --> 39:01.997
[SPEAKER_01]: And so we get him on and we end

39:02.500 --> 39:06.387
[SPEAKER_01]: You know the fight game stuff like you you follow UFC as well.

39:06.427 --> 39:13.841
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm like, yeah, you know, I used to be a much bigger UFC fan though I do still cover it with Dave whenever you have see has a paper views.

39:13.941 --> 39:20.593
[SPEAKER_01]: I cover it now the numbered shows since it's on paper view, but so he's like, you know,

39:21.468 --> 39:23.852
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe maybe one day you want to jump on it.

39:23.872 --> 39:24.794
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, we'll talk about it.

39:24.994 --> 39:28.621
[SPEAKER_01]: And I was like, I was like, yeah, I didn't even think about it.

39:28.761 --> 39:30.945
[SPEAKER_01]: I thought he was just being nice, you know?

39:32.027 --> 39:38.197
[SPEAKER_01]: So I thought about it for a day and I was like, just on the mere chance that he was being serious.

39:38.238 --> 39:39.440
[SPEAKER_01]: Let me reach out to this dude.

39:40.201 --> 39:41.383
[SPEAKER_01]: So I reached out to him.

39:41.903 --> 39:45.050
[SPEAKER_01]: And then he was like, yeah, like I love the UFC.

39:45.070 --> 39:48.117
[SPEAKER_01]: I'd rather talk about the UFC more than anything else.

39:49.019 --> 39:52.908
[SPEAKER_01]: And so we did, I don't know, we did like three or four shows.

39:52.948 --> 39:53.449
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe more.

39:53.529 --> 39:58.360
[SPEAKER_01]: I can't even remember because during the pandemic and that time just feels like it was forever ago.

39:58.380 --> 40:01.347
[SPEAKER_01]: And yeah, and he was like,

40:02.120 --> 40:04.023
[SPEAKER_01]: just the coolest dude to talk to.

40:04.104 --> 40:10.856
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, whenever you dovetailed into wrestling, he wasn't going to be as open, of course, because that's his art form.

40:12.579 --> 40:21.816
[SPEAKER_01]: But off the air, he would tell us a lot of stuff about what he thought about certain things in the AWS such and when he was,

40:21.982 --> 40:34.446
[SPEAKER_01]: When he was dealing with, you know, his contract and whether or not, you know, he was, I think he's, I think he's AEW probably until he's done just because I think he's so anti WWE.

40:34.566 --> 40:35.428
[SPEAKER_00]: I was gonna ask you that.

40:35.869 --> 40:36.149
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

40:36.630 --> 40:39.636
[SPEAKER_01]: I, I, I do not think he.

40:39.616 --> 40:49.971
[SPEAKER_01]: enjoys the power structure of of WWE and he just likes the freedom of doing like he could now like he's dude bleeds on TV like every other week and he couldn't do that in WWE.

40:49.991 --> 40:53.697
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, could WWE give him the godfather offer.

40:54.117 --> 40:59.786
[SPEAKER_01]: Sure, they could, but I think he's, you know, he's already turned that down before and I think he's comfortable where he's at.

41:00.407 --> 41:03.832
[SPEAKER_01]: But um, but yeah, like he's like he's such a good dude.

41:03.852 --> 41:07.497
[SPEAKER_01]: Like he would be a great person to have on your

41:07.983 --> 41:14.517
[SPEAKER_01]: I would I would caveat it though by saying I would caveat it just by saying like

41:14.598 --> 41:23.430
[SPEAKER_01]: He's going to feel you out, you know, he's going to, he's going to make sure that that this is not just a pro WWE thing, right?

41:23.450 --> 41:24.351
[SPEAKER_01]: Like he's going to feel you up.

41:24.391 --> 41:40.352
[SPEAKER_01]: He'd be a fantastic guest because that dude could just, his on-screen persona is a little interesting compared to who he is in person, he's a, you know, he's kind of the same guy, but at the same time, like he can talk like this dude.

41:40.332 --> 41:43.355
[SPEAKER_01]: just loves talking about the things that he loves.

41:43.375 --> 41:44.897
[SPEAKER_01]: So he'd be a really good guest for you.

41:45.497 --> 41:53.686
[SPEAKER_01]: And Renee as well, like I remember before Renee got her podcast started, this is even before she was working for AEW.

41:53.746 --> 41:56.268
[SPEAKER_01]: She had reached out, or John had reached out.

41:56.289 --> 42:02.635
[SPEAKER_01]: I was like, hey, can you jump on with Renee and just kind of talk to her about what the landscape is and her technology and stuff.

42:02.655 --> 42:06.079
[SPEAKER_01]: So I jumped on with her for 20 minutes to talk to her about podcast.

42:06.119 --> 42:07.420
[SPEAKER_01]: And this is back.

42:07.400 --> 42:13.027
[SPEAKER_01]: in, you know, six years ago when everything is DIY because you're trying to figure out what to do during the pandemic.

42:13.047 --> 42:14.890
[SPEAKER_01]: So she's so nice too.

42:14.970 --> 42:20.297
[SPEAKER_01]: So both of them, like if you if you could talk to either of them, they're both fantastic.

42:20.317 --> 42:23.742
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, let's let's wind down here and I got two quick ones for you.

42:24.142 --> 42:32.293
[SPEAKER_01]: One of them, which I think I know the answer to based on your background, but a lot of what podcasting is today.

42:32.493 --> 42:39.044
[SPEAKER_01]: is trying to find the virality so that people go, oh, like, I've never seen this show before.

42:39.244 --> 42:45.975
[SPEAKER_01]: I see this clip, this YouTube short or this TikTok video, thus I now want to go find the whole thing.

42:46.937 --> 42:52.546
[SPEAKER_01]: But a lot of those videos are just short videos of whatever's like kind of shocking or important.

42:52.967 --> 42:55.291
[SPEAKER_01]: And your face is kind of plaster all over these.

42:55.391 --> 42:58.416
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, do you worry in any way that

42:58.396 --> 43:06.186
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, if there may be not the best version of you like do you worry about some feedback about these these kinds of videos?

43:07.447 --> 43:14.075
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I do and that's why I mean you go back to the first videos that I made the first shorts that I've seen clipped.

43:14.096 --> 43:19.282
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I just saw clips Made last week or this week from from Goonthers interview.

43:19.362 --> 43:24.108
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's just like I kind of think about that now as I'm doing the podcast.

43:24.549 --> 43:25.770
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm thinking about

43:25.750 --> 43:43.287
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, if this is clipped, what am I saying that's being put out into the world because you know you deal with this in a bunch of things not just podcasting but also news interviews and things like that without context a lot can be put out there you know a lot can be can be said without context.

43:43.267 --> 43:48.993
[SPEAKER_00]: So, what I try to do is I try to be as clear as possible now, I change my delivery a little bit.

43:49.493 --> 43:57.441
[SPEAKER_00]: I start my sentences differently because I assume when this is cut as a social clip, then I need to put as much context in this as possible.

43:57.501 --> 44:04.588
[SPEAKER_00]: But, you know, things like the mat riddle incident, you know, him getting up and picking up and throwing me, like a lot of people don't even know why that happened.

44:05.289 --> 44:08.852
[SPEAKER_00]: It was because I accused him of looking for a payday.

44:08.832 --> 44:11.296
[SPEAKER_00]: They call, you know, like, things like that.

44:11.356 --> 44:17.987
[SPEAKER_00]: Like no one knows that because it's all clipped out of context, but it is weird seeing my face plastered around.

44:18.448 --> 44:24.898
[SPEAKER_00]: But again, I'm just trying to figure out the best way to be as clear as possible and not confuse anybody.

44:25.319 --> 44:32.090
[SPEAKER_01]: The thing for me is like, now, we don't do it nearly as much as you're going to do it.

44:32.731 --> 44:33.152
[SPEAKER_01]: But,

44:34.280 --> 44:52.052
[SPEAKER_01]: Like you have to think about like, am I making a funny face and my laughing and my overly expressing and how is that going to look on but it like that stuff that if you think about it too much then you might be overthinking it and it could change the way you do content but it's it's so much of the game okay last one and then we'll let you go.

44:53.045 --> 44:56.210
[SPEAKER_01]: When you started watching, John Cena was the man.

44:56.951 --> 45:06.264
[SPEAKER_01]: He was the top star, and he would stay the top star for like the next four or five years until it became Roman Reigns.

45:06.965 --> 45:11.211
[SPEAKER_01]: You got to see this last year of John Cena, his retirement run.

45:11.271 --> 45:14.596
[SPEAKER_01]: Overall, what were your thoughts about the run?

45:14.656 --> 45:19.423
[SPEAKER_01]: And then also the way that it ended with, and you talked to Goethe about it just last week.

45:19.876 --> 45:22.300
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I might have a different opinion than a lot of people.

45:22.761 --> 45:36.383
[SPEAKER_00]: A lot of people have their opinions about the fair world to worry and how they think it should have ended, but to me, the way I look at it and the way I've always looked at it is when it does come to an end for John Cena, I just want to see John Cena happy.

45:36.363 --> 45:43.071
[SPEAKER_00]: And from what I'm seeing in the last moments, from at least, you know, he's putting out there in the public, is he's happy?

45:43.452 --> 45:48.779
[SPEAKER_00]: And Triple H said it time after time, that John Cena is going to write his own end.

45:48.859 --> 45:50.741
[SPEAKER_00]: It's up to him how he wants it to be.

45:50.881 --> 45:57.750
[SPEAKER_00]: And to me, you know, I was in Washington DC and I was in that arena, and it was much different than you saw on TV.

45:58.090 --> 46:01.655
[SPEAKER_00]: It was just like you could feel the sadness a little bit.

46:01.675 --> 46:05.880
[SPEAKER_00]: You can feel that emotion from John Cena.

46:05.860 --> 46:08.362
[SPEAKER_00]: This is the way John Cena would have wanted it to end.

46:08.422 --> 46:13.907
[SPEAKER_00]: It felt, I don't know about you what you think, but I felt like it was a very John Cena type ending.

46:14.248 --> 46:19.172
[SPEAKER_00]: Like John Cena's not always gonna give us the big horror at the end.

46:19.192 --> 46:21.074
[SPEAKER_00]: John Cena's not always gonna do it that way.

46:21.094 --> 46:35.867
[SPEAKER_00]: John Cena, from what we've seen just in the last year, one example I can think of, and I tell people about this all the time is when he went to the dungeon recently with Nadi and he helped out a lot of stars rising stars there and he did the same thing with Bailey too.

46:35.847 --> 46:41.557
[SPEAKER_00]: Exactly, even after hours, you know, after he, he says, oh, did I give enough?

46:41.617 --> 46:42.378
[SPEAKER_00]: Did I do it right?

46:42.558 --> 46:43.700
[SPEAKER_00]: I feel like I didn't do it right?

46:44.081 --> 46:46.886
[SPEAKER_00]: Like John Cena's always wanting to elevate the next talent.

46:46.906 --> 46:49.651
[SPEAKER_00]: And I know a lot of people say, well, Goons are he's 40 years old.

46:49.991 --> 46:51.774
[SPEAKER_00]: How is he the next generation?

46:52.115 --> 46:55.921
[SPEAKER_00]: But to me, you know, Goons there's just the biggest guy in the current era.

46:56.001 --> 46:57.484
[SPEAKER_00]: So it doesn't matter how old he is.

46:57.845 --> 46:58.125
[SPEAKER_00]: But

46:58.105 --> 47:02.294
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm happy with it, you know, there's some things that would have changed throughout the year.

47:02.355 --> 47:09.551
[SPEAKER_00]: Some people I would have liked to see, but at the same time, it's important to say, maybe they couldn't get those people in, maybe they couldn't make it work out.

47:09.751 --> 47:17.228
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a lot of variables, but I want to hear what you have to say about that and I wanted him to win mostly because

47:17.208 --> 47:21.295
[SPEAKER_01]: deputy presents themselves as the company that makes moments.

47:21.435 --> 47:25.823
[SPEAKER_01]: And I don't think there would have been a bigger moment in company history than if John Cena won.

47:25.863 --> 47:31.572
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, I also understand it from the perspective of John Cena probably wants to lose.

47:31.853 --> 47:37.242
[SPEAKER_01]: Triple H is trying to see is, okay, who can benefit the most of somebody that we are

47:37.222 --> 47:54.842
[SPEAKER_01]: actively pushing, Gunther makes a lot of sense because if you are looking at 2026 and this is kind of the hook for the whole thing is, I'm not exactly sure what 2026 looks like for WWE because if you go back to,

47:54.822 --> 47:58.489
[SPEAKER_01]: 2023 is the bloodline.

47:58.509 --> 48:02.818
[SPEAKER_01]: 2024 is Cody telling his story and the rock coming back.

48:02.838 --> 48:06.024
[SPEAKER_01]: 2025 is John Cena's retirement tour.

48:06.505 --> 48:12.156
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not sure what 2026 is like, but if they think that Goonther can be.

48:12.136 --> 48:17.205
[SPEAKER_01]: one of the movers and shakers, maybe it's also brown breaker, maybe it's trick Williams.

48:18.287 --> 48:25.138
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe it's re-erriply, whatever it is that they think is going to continue the hot streak of their business.

48:26.240 --> 48:29.766
[SPEAKER_01]: If Gunther is someone who's in their plans, I think it makes a lot of sense.

48:30.868 --> 48:34.414
[SPEAKER_01]: I would have liked to see John Cena win only because

48:34.630 --> 48:40.266
[SPEAKER_01]: it would be a moment that they could play for the entirety of the company.

48:40.667 --> 48:49.652
[SPEAKER_01]: It's like, you know, think of the the biggest moments that they still play a Hulk Hogan body slamming Andre the giant, like they play that all the time.

48:49.632 --> 49:07.475
[SPEAKER_01]: Daniel Bryan, you know, winning at WrestleMania, they play that, maybe they don't play it as much as they used to because he's not working for them, but like stuff like that where it just kind of transcends what pro wrestling is when you have moments like that, but they chose to do the way that they did and I was actually fine with the way that he tapped out.

49:07.816 --> 49:10.519
[SPEAKER_01]: I know a lot of people had some conversations about that.

49:11.380 --> 49:13.463
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think he should have gone to that smile.

49:13.443 --> 49:33.105
[SPEAKER_01]: that that's your transcending moment like that's that's your Andre moment for them at least I think it is it's that smile the zoom in I think it's going to be more of a meme though that's the problem is I think it becomes a meme which may be down the line then becomes this like fantastic moment but yeah hey they they you know John Cena

49:33.085 --> 49:42.834
[SPEAKER_01]: I hope that he continues his ascent outside of wrestling, because I just like seeing him on stuff like Ricky Stinicki or whatever that that was hilarious.

49:42.894 --> 49:44.595
[SPEAKER_01]: Like he can do more stuff.

49:44.615 --> 49:49.900
[SPEAKER_01]: So all right, man, this was a ton of fun down the line.

49:49.920 --> 50:03.092
[SPEAKER_01]: I would love to do it again and just wish you tons and tons of success as you continue your ascent in your young podcasting and just overall career.

50:03.072 --> 50:05.615
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you, and I really quick before we end it.

50:05.635 --> 50:13.403
[SPEAKER_00]: I just want to say you said the bloodline in 2024 That whole story line that's how I want 2026 to be like that was to me.

50:13.684 --> 50:24.075
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, cinema That was absolutely cinema was you know semi-zane betraying Roman like if we can get back to that Then I think I think we're there that's what I want to see.

50:24.095 --> 50:25.857
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know about you, but that's what I want to see

50:26.393 --> 50:26.874
[SPEAKER_01]: All right.

50:26.974 --> 50:30.418
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I want to thank Branson for taking time out of his holiday.

50:30.478 --> 50:38.728
[SPEAKER_01]: We're recording this during the holiday break here, and it was a great time because I know you're back home back in the bay.

50:38.768 --> 50:42.432
[SPEAKER_01]: I, Gilroy can still be the Bay Area.

50:42.492 --> 50:44.915
[SPEAKER_01]: I've always called it the dirty dirty South Bay.

50:46.137 --> 50:47.558
[SPEAKER_01]: Can I ask if you're still in Gilroy?

50:47.659 --> 50:48.880
[SPEAKER_01]: No, I'm in Sunnyvale, actually.

50:49.140 --> 50:50.422
[SPEAKER_01]: So I'm further out.

50:50.442 --> 50:51.183
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, sweet.

50:51.203 --> 50:51.403
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

50:51.423 --> 50:53.886
[SPEAKER_00]: I was going to say you're like a cross town from you right out there.

50:53.866 --> 50:58.878
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay cool, but yeah, that's awesome at some point if we we we should connect again and do something.

50:58.898 --> 51:13.554
[SPEAKER_01]: This was this was a blast and I have a little bit of a pride seeing people from, you know from Gilroy do well and also just the fact that you know like I said like I remember you as a little kid So that that's really cool and I'm glad to see that you're doing well.

51:13.674 --> 51:14.817
[SPEAKER_01]: All right for Branson.

51:15.339 --> 51:20.852
[SPEAKER_01]: I am double G See you when we see you peace out Thanks