Transcript
Podcast 1 presents the Steve Austin show classics. Jabo Guerrero junior is my guest today here at the house. We're about to talk about glow wrestling and a lot of other things, just shooting the breeze. I know you've been on Chris Jericho's podcast extensively. You guys have covered a lot of ground. So Sure. Let's try to cover some different material and shoot the breeze. Obviously, I don't think you guys have talked about glow. Not really. No, man. We kinda talked about right before we started doing the the second season, we weren't even known if we were picked up yet. So we just kinda shot the sheet a little bit and, you know, but we're always sweet to start talking about, you know, the Guerrero's and how crazy my dad was and stuff. But hold on. Let's get the cheers on this. We got some broken skull IPA right here that I've been hearing so much about. And, Well, see, it was interesting when you came by or just walked in the front door, you said, man, he goes, I wanna try your beer. I was gonna bring some. And I said, man, you don't like no IPA. Oh, man. I like it, but I'm Mexican. We like it a lot. We just like I I I I knew the Fit Finley. When I first met Fit Finley, I go, hey, man. What kind of beer do you like? He goes, cold. That's all he said. Him and Dave Taylor go cold. But did it take you a while to make the swing? Because, man, like, basically, here, cheers. Cheers. Cheers. Yeah, man. And then an unsolicited, response as far as your take on the beer. Oh, yeah, man. It's not you know, sometimes they say if you hit you in the face on those IPAs, man, it's like drinking a pine tree sometimes, or you're like, wow. This is good. You could you could throw this down easy. What's the alcohol content of these? 6.6.7. Oh, yeah. That's not that's good. So we can And I can use a low on this because I don't like real bitter. I like that kinda hits mid palate. I don't like anything too upfront or too far back, so it's it hits mid palate. That's good. That's great. When we came up with this beer, I was gonna brewing company myself and the owner, Rob Crocs, all sat there at the table. And we had 12 or 15 beers that we both liked, and I kinda just, you know, described each one and how they hit. And we weeded them out, and then he came up with this formula, man. And I went up there after, you know, we brewed the beer. Went back 25, 30 days later and took a test beer, and I was like, I figured this process was gonna take a long time because can we talk about your your plumbing project? Because you're you're about to come up with the beer. I got a beer coming out called, Guerrero Golden Ale. Nice. That's that's the working name right there right now. So, and it's, like a blonde a blonde ale, but it's also called a golden ale. And the reason I went that way real quick is with IPAs and all that stuff, you start limiting your your market and you know much more than I do on this but you start limiting your market and and this is something like the the IPA markets only like 5% so you have all these companies trying to vie for that 5% now as opposed to a lighter beer that everybody drinks. It's more like a 75%. So I don't know. I just Well, dude, you do the numbers. I mean, Bud Light's number 1 selling beer Right. Probably in the world, but for definitely in United States, you know, I think Coors Light? Coors Light is number 3. I think Metalite's number 2, but Bud Light is number 1 Really? By a landfall. Wow. So, yeah, to your point Mexicans in in over here, and they were taking over, man. Tricking Bud Light, man. But The Bud Light You know what? I think, I think Modelo was ahead of Corona and Takati. Really? But I would think that Corona was on top. But I'm a Corona light guy. If I'm drinking light beers, then I can just no. If I'm at the river, I'm throwing down crow's lights like crazy. You know what I mean? But, that's your guilty flavor? Yeah. Yeah. Come on, man. Coors Light's since I was in high school, man. For sure. Dude, I'd drink I'd drink a ton of them. That's Coors Light. You throw them down, man. But if I'm, you know, if I'm gonna drink, like, you know, if I want to drink if I want to drink 20 beers, I'm drinking Coors Light. If I wanna drink 8 beers, I'm drinking Corona Lights. If I wanna drink 1 or 2 beers, I'd do an 8 an IPA or something to that effect. You know the thing about these, these are, 22 ounce bombers. So I mean, it's almost 2 beers and a 67, you know, I don't you were around you're a little bit younger than me. You're 47? 47. Yep. So do you remember when the, when the ice beers came came out? Yeah. But ice, they had Miller ice. What was the other one that was real big? g*****n. They all had ice beers. In Georgia at the time. Oh, yeah. Yeah. They all had ice. And all about they were about 5, 5 and a half percent alcohol. Yeah. And all of a sudden, you know, you go from drinking light beer to those ice beers. It's a little bit of a kick. And so for a while, they hit, but then it was like, everybody kinda went back to light beers because it like, to your point, they wanted to drink 20 and be able to kinda still function. I don't wanna say drive. Sure. Sure. Sure. We've been there and did that probably a few times going up to 3. That was not me. Yeah. Throwing beer beer bottles out the side of the road and hitting the beers of the signs, that was not me. Actually, I grew up traveling with my dad and some of the guys back then. And, bro, I what they used to do, man, they would never stop drinking. Harley Race and those guys, you just kept their beer full. I was in the back as a kid, and every time I saw them finish a beer, I had a that was my thing. Give him a new beer. That was the thing when, Vader was riding with Harley Race. Yeah. The rule was Harley always drove, and Leon rode shotgun. When I hitched the ride, I was in the back seat. But the rule was by the time Harley had finished the beer, and it didn't take him long, crushed it and dumped it out the window, handed to Leon. He had to have another beer popped open, tab, your opening turned in the right spot to hand to Harley, or there's gonna be hell to pay. I mean, this is just according to Did he do the the tomato juice with it? No. Because we was flying down the road. Because because we now Malcolm Mondo will tell me that when he first he worked with Harley one time where the the main event guy didn't show up. Monk Amano was green green the business. He looked at Mike. Monk Amano goes, I wanna work with the kid there. So he worked with him and goes, kid, you're driving with me in the next town. And he said the whole time, you know, back then, the speedometers only went to 85. So he had it pinned. He didn't know how fast he was because they've pinned the entire time. And every time his Charlie's beer would run out, he poured a little bit of tomato juice and the whole beer. Here you go. He had had it going from the whole time. So What was it with tomato juice? I never really got into that. I I like that because it's like, it's a good hangover beer. It because it's it's in Mexico or, you know, this Mexican culture is called a a michelada. So now you can buy those it's almost like a bloody Mary mix, but it's got all the stuff ready to go. You just pour a little bit in your beer and it just it just got it's sometimes a a blood and mirror I could I could have 1, 2, sometimes too much for me. I'm like, alright. But you just throw a little bit in your beer and it's just it's a good hangover hangover cure. You just start drinking, you know, 3 or 4 or 5 of those, you're ready to go again. So where are you at with respect to your beer? So have y'all done I mean, y'all got a formula because my going back to my story, we brewed this dude. I went up there and tasted it twice. I said, that's it. And I slept on it, and I said, that's it. It's not heavy. It's not sometimes with the IPA, man, it it knocks you to s**t in the face, which I like if I'm gonna drink 1. Right. But it would be hard for me to swallow this whole this whole 22 ounce. This is really good, man. I'm not telling I'm just not telling you that. Guys, for real. It's great. I could drink many of these. So when I went up there, you know, and I said, okay, man. We'll do this one. But I thought, man, it's gonna take 7 or 8 times to go through this, you know, brewing process to get the right beer. So where are you guys at? So we so far, I've gone to the brewery. We've taste tested a bunch of different beers. I've narrowed it down to the beer that I like that we think not just that I like, but everybody's really gonna like. You know, it's kinda like a compromise, like a marriage. It's a good compromise. You know what I mean? Right? But, so we went and so now we're just deciding if we wanna throw what's really getting big, popular, I was kind of is beers with a little of, fruit hint in it. Not too much. You know, you get, like, like, grapefruit IPAs that I like and stuff. But it's and those are those are good. It's just got a little bit we're thinking of maybe, we might call it gory bomb because my grandfather gory made the gory special, and I turned that into a gory bomb. I don't want it to be too much of a wrestling beer. You know what I mean? But we're just we're we're still kicking it around, so we might throw a little hint of, of an orange, something like that in there. I'm not we're not sure yet. We're gonna we'll play with it a little bit, sir. That's where we're at. It's we're very close. I could just pick that beer as the way it is now because it's it's awesome. And then we'd, you know, just sign some of the dotted line, basically. Don't try to put £10 of s**t in a 5 pound bag. Like a match? Yeah. How many times you said that? How many times you said that? Right? Going on more and more and more as we as we continue to watch the business evolve. Hey, man. You're talking about gory, and we were walking down the sidewalk to get these beers out of the crib. Dude, what kind of pressure was it coming from just y'all the Guerrero family is one of the most famous wrestling families in the history of the business. Was there any pressure on you? Because I know that you would wrestle Eddie, you know, like, during intermission in a lot of shows way back in the day, but you and Eddie actually went to college. Did you go to college? Or because I'm asking you, how did you know that this is what you wanted to do? Everybody else is doing your family. So first the first part of the question, yeah, there was some pressure for sure. As a kid, no. That's all we had a wrestling ring in the backyard. I grew up with my grandfather's promotion. I mean, we've sold tickets, sold popcorn, sold 8 by tens, set up the ring, traveled. To us, it was fun. We we this was what we did. It was great. You know? There was, we loved me and Eddie loved wrestling. We loved it. That's all we you know, we had a like I said, wrestling in the backyard. We learned how to walk in a wrestling. Then the summer before my freshman year, me and Eddie must have been a junior, kept going to his junior, maybe it was senior year. We traveled my uncle Hector and my father were tagged him for Dusty at Florida Championship Wrestling, FCW. So we've traveled for the summer. The entire summer, we spent with those guys. And, man, when I tell you, we loved wrestling before after spending, they took us on the road. They took us to the bars. They did everything. We really love wrestling after that. We're like, wow. This is exactly what we wanna do. Eddie lost his virginity on that trip. Man, man, it was we every every little town back in the day, you know, we'd go, like, Monday would be Tampa, Tuesday would be Orlando, whatever. What I'm I'm getting the dates wrong, but Wednesday the the day is wrong. Wednesday was West Palm Beach. You know, they do, you know, TV somewhere. Then we do Miami. We do somewhere else. So, you know, he and I would travel everywhere. We'd have our little our little rats in every little city. You know? And I had my little 12 year old, 14 year old rats and, like, meeting them. Hey. How you doing? You know, make out with the one in every little place. I was like, wow. This is what it's like? You know? And then, you know, I'd we go in the bars, man. We'd travel in this place, and if if I had to pull over to pick a piss, you know, Mike Davis would look at me and say, no. We don't do that. Pissing the water bottle I mean, the Gatorade bottle kid, they never stopped to eat afterwards of drunk because we had 300 mile back drive back. So we'd stop at the at the 711 or the gas station, and we get beet jerky and a hot dog and a bunch of beer, and we'd get the Gatorades and just start driving, man. We fell in love with it, man. It was pretty awesome. And the one time so Kendall Windham was there too. So Kendall was only Eddie would maybe be 16. Kendall was 17, but Kendall was 6 foot 5 already. He was a big kid, so he could buy beer. So when my dad and and my, uncle Hector would go do a shot for, for Bill Watts, He they fly to Houston. This is when we were there, and they'd leave us there for a day or 2. So me and Eddie were like, what are we gonna do? Like, alright. Well, let's call Kettle up. So we'd call Kettle to come over and go buy us a beer. We'd be, you know, looking through the medicine cabin and find a little hand. And, you know, oh, man. It was we were like on our own. It was like this is what it's like to be wrestlers. Yes. We couldn't wait. So, you know, that the the pressure to the there was no pressure there. Then once I became a wrestler, getting in the door was was easy. People say, oh, your girl. Come on in. Well, shoot. I don't want to be wrestling a year. You know? I mean, if I probably had 20 matches, and then she know I'm in WCW. I'm like, really? And then they're comparing me to Eddie who they're comparing to my father, who they're comparing to my grandfather, and it's tough. That that's really tough. But it was like I I I learned on the job, and it was it was a lot of sink or swim for sure. And, you know, you're getting beat up a lot. You're getting you get so you get beat up so much that you get tired of being beat up and then you start fighting back and so my teachers were was was Benoit, Eddie Malenko, Finley, Regal, then we had the next Jesus, like, a who's who of people that can Yeah. Then train you. Yeah. Then we have I mean, those guys beat me up every single night. Then we'd have the next generation that was, like, we'd have, like, the Arns and the the the hand or the like, the Hennings and the the those guys, like, the Roods and those guys. Then we go the orange and the flares and stuff. And then after that, we'd still have other guys up like Dickie Slater and those guys. All those guys. I was working with these guys, like, 4 generation of people. Colonel Parker was there and telling us all the old stories. And and there was, you know, I had Booker t and all the the the locker room was incredible back then. We just missed you. You just took off. Right? I think, when we when I first started there, you hadn't hit it hot. You weren't yeah. I think you're still the ringmaster. Yeah. Or or maybe you're just killing an ECW, one of the 2. And, man, dude, man, what a time to be what you're talking to Booker T about this the other day? What a time to be wrestling. So, anyways, we get wrestling. And first, I'd have to pay for a lot of my dad's mistakes from a lot of the guys that, you know, they wronged. You know, he'd get me in the ring, and they'd be like, certain guys like, Scott Hall. I love him to death, but he lit me up real good. And that boy's got some hard chops, and he's known for that. Man, he chopped me so hard. He he literally, like, not just waltzed my chest, but cut my chest with his hand. And I was mad afterwards. I was pissed. My uncle Hector looked at me and goes, yeah. Welcome to the business, son. Because we do that every night. I was like, wow. I didn't know I didn't know it hurt so much. But then after that, man, you just get you just, you know, you get your butt kicked enough. You're like, well, then nothing hurts anymore. But you're you so then you're 3rd generation. Mhmm. 3rd generation of both sides. My grandmother met my grandfather because she went to see her brother wrestle and then saw my grandfather and fell in love with him. And all of his brothers were wrestler wrestlers, and his brother's kids and his kids were wrestlers. So on both sides of the family, there's there's, you know, 25 wrestlers in the family. That's crazy. Yeah. This seems to be my observation. Then a lot of second generation guys or or or third generation, there's not not as many. 2nd generation guys, in most cases, just seem to absorb the business or have a have an understand a better understanding of it, or they're more natural too because they've been around it so much, and they've just been observing it if they haven't been in the ring, but just being around it and understanding the dynamics of it. I see that for sure. Now there's a lot of 2nd and 3rd generation wrestlers that are out of jobs that that that never made it. You see a lot of those guys. I mean, fit I used fit Finley a lot as a, example because he's a, you know, 3rd generation wrestler. Dude, he takes the business. You you and I take it serious. Yeah. I I would venture to say he's probably more serious and then, dude, I'm not as hardcore as you can get, but he's definitely serious about business. We talked we talked about a lot, man. It's it's it's real to us. It's not it's not just the work. It's you in the ring. It's real. I remember my dad when I was a kid telling me, god, I feel the pain, man. When he was kicking my leg, I feel that pain. And I'd be the like, the same way. I'd be in the back after selling my leg in a in a match, and I'm still limping. And they're going, why are you limping? I'm like, oh, well, oh, oh, I'm okay. Never mind. I just killed I'll keep selling it. So me, fit Philly were talking, and and Dave was like, sometimes there's things that I know the business, and I don't know how I know them. I just know them. And there's reason that when I went to Lucha Underground, so you didn't know that I'm part of a producer on Lucha Underground. Yeah. So when I went there and and they didn't really know wrestling and all of a sudden I'm telling the camera guys how to how to film this. Now this is all from watching WWE and watching Vince and Kevin Dunn and all those guys do their stuff. And I was a very quick learner by watching. I was telling the camera guys how to how to film this. This the director how to direct it. The the seamstress how to sew sew the the costumes, the the, the tights so that, you know, I gotta can't have a spike on the knee because you're gonna kill somebody, you know. And the or and then the the the ring is set up wrong. You're, all these different things. Your mats were wrong. You only have a 4 foot mats. And, like, you know, the set designer was going, well, that's, you know, that's all we have for a budget. I'm like, look. I get it. That's all we have for a budget, but we're flying over those, and you could've cracked somebody's head open real fast. The show producer, Eric Van Wagon, who you know Yes. Walks by me and goes, what's what's up, Chavo? And I said, look. Our mats are too small. He's a why. And I explained to him. He goes, okay. Order mats now. He was it was like right there because he he understood that these guys are gonna they're gonna kill themselves. And before an indie show, they got nobody to sue. It's fine. But when you got Mark Burnett to sue, you know, they're gonna come back. Right? You know? You're listening to another classic episode of the Steve Austin Show only on podcast 1. That's the thing I liked about working with Eric Van Wagonen on Tough Enough. Dude, we'd have a little conversation. And he loves you. And it was just you know, we went out and did it. There wasn't no script, wasn't no paper. Just we talked about it, and then they started filming it. Right. He acclimated to the business very quickly, and he has a a love for it and an appreciation for it and respect for it. So, like, when you say, hey, man. We need this. You know, there's no hesitation. And, you know, yeah, let well, let's go get the other match so you guys don't kill themselves. Right. Dude, you guys do some crazy a*s s**t over there. I mean, some of the half line stuff. I know some of it's camera angles, but, yeah, to a degree, yeah. But some of that stuff that you that the guys were jumping off of is very spectacular. Our first season. So when I came on, you know, nobody really knew what we were now we're doing, but we we all had an idea of what we wanted to do. And what the final product came out, I just say the stars aligned because that product, it it changed the game a little bit. We we did our own thing. WWE is the Coca Cola of wrestling. If anybody else comes out and makes another cola, you're just an RC Cola. You're a knockoff. That's all you are. And we've seen it time and time again. Everybody trying to copy them. Right? And they're doing something right because everybody's trying to copy them. So then we come in and Mark Burnett is notorious for saying, hey. I would rather fail, being original than succeed being the same. So that's what he did. And when we came in, when I we were still filming the first season. I saw the first episode. I get I get saw, like, a pre I pre a preview of it. I was blown away. I was blown away just the way that the angles are. The the they come in with the, you know, the the shots of the helicopter coming into the city, and they come into a scene, and then it morphs into the ring. I was like, wow. I've never seen this before. Usually, it's the production trying to keep up with the wrestlers. But this time, it was the it was the wrestlers having to keep up production. And I I pulled the rest of the sides and said, guys, come here. We need to step up our game because this is this is this is a new product. You've never seen this before. So then I got guys like Pentagon, Phoenix, Prince Puma, now Willie Mac, and Mil Muertes, Ricky Banders, Drago. All these guys that that have never the the the world has Mexico seen them, but the world's never seen these guys. So and I'm pulling these guys. These guys have been on TV sometimes for 10 years over there. I'm pulling them aside and go, look. This is all Vince stuff. Look at that camera right there. This is your moneymaker. Look at your face. If you're looking side to side, that camera's chasing you. You can't stop and make sure that that camera focuses on your face. They're like, oh, child, they never told us before. I said, no one's told you this before? They said, no. I said, okay. Just now grab a hold. I don't care if if if it's taking too long. You just stop and wait and sit on it. I don't care if you're quiet. Now our believers are really they're always constantly going, going, going, but I I don't care if they're quiet. Just wait. Stop. And they're like, nobody's told us this before. And I said, well, this is this is how you do it. This is what I've learned. This is how I was taught, and I was taught by the best in the business. So it's worked for a long time. They went out and did it, and look what they are doing now. This like, you were talking about Pentagon and Phoenix before. Those guys are how great are those guys? Oh, those guys are awesome. Those are my favorite gimmicks as well. So when you were at WCW, you were paying attention to the camera setups. And when you got to WWE, you were really paying attention. What I Dude, a lot of people don't get that because I I didn't. I was there to work, and I didn't give a s**t where the cameras were. I just worked, and I was just worried about me. You were a little bit of level ahead of me though on that curve. Yes and no, man. You you you know what? There's this this is an art form. Wrestling is an art form. I tell people that all the time. They think we just go in there and wrestle. It's an art form to learn this business. And now I grew up. I'm 85 years wrestling's fed my family. I grew up with a wrestling ring in the backyard, 3rd generation on both sides. And it really did when I tell you, it took me 5 years before I really knew what was going on, that's the truth. 5 years of being at the highest level of being at WCW. Now there were times when I was wrestling in there and, like, I like, I'd get out of the ring. It's like, oh, who is my ref again? I don't remember who my ref was because I was so, like like, awestruck. But there's one time I was in the ring, and I remember hitting the guy was on a turnbuckle and I hit him. Boom. And I heard this this roar like, ah, and I went, man, what was that? And I stopped. And I hit him again. Boom. And I went, oh, that's what they're talking about. The crowd learning how to work these people. I was like, that's what they're talking about. I I didn't I didn't know. I was like, oh, there it is. But after that, it took me another 5 years. So I'm talking 10 years in this business until and I and I told and this is not just because we're on this this episode. It took me 10 years in the business till I had Ric Flair, and I had you telling me, hey. Go out of your way to go, hey. Excellent match. It took me a long time. One time, it was the survivor series. Me and Rey Mysterio went and tore it down like me and Rey do. As I came back, you pulled me aside and you put your hand on you and said, excellent match. And I said, oh, now I've made it. But when Ric Flair was telling me, Chavito, hey. Great match, kid. I was like, alright. Now we've arrived. And then you even been even better than that. You know? But you agree. I I agree with you because that 5 year mark is kind of a you know, it's it's there, but it it's between the 510 and and it's an average of 10 before I think, you know, guys have flipped back and forth, baby face the heel, heel baby or whatever. But that 10 year mark is kind of, dude, at 10 years, you should know your s**t inside and out. You're still gonna always have more to learn. Yes, sir. But, you know, if if you are pissed for 10 year if you're pissed for 10 years, you're probably not cut out for this business. Yeah. But if you are, you should be outstanding by that point. And Macho Man's, a classic example of that because I don't know how long he worked. Shoot. What territory he worked before he got to USWA, but he was Macho Man down there. But Was he? Okay. When when Vince picked him up Yeah. I mean, he'd already been in ring damn there 10 years, and boy, all of a sudden, he gets on WWF TV or New York TV with Vince and blows up because he knew how to work like a bastard. But that's how the business is. It's changed because you didn't make it to WWE, WWF until you were 10 or 15 years in. You didn't even make it there. That you were at the pinnacle of your career. Now and and nothing I'm not not talking nothing just but just saying that sometimes because I respect those guys, and I'm always like I said before with you in the other room that I'm for the wrestlers, man. I love I'm always for the rest of I want these guys to just thrive, and I want these guys to be taken care of, you know, from all the stuff that we've gone through. But it almost seems like they you start your career there now, and then you go somewhere else. You start in there, like, you know, you you go down to NXT or you get trained. You're a bodybuilder or a football player or whatever you are, And then you get you you get trained for a couple years, and then you make it to the big time. And you stay there for a couple years, and then you leave. It almost seems like that's the way it's happening. So there's something we're missing a step. We're missing a step. And thank god that every that indie wrestling there was a lot of times that these guys, like like, I wanna I'll say Ricochet, Prince Puma, who when I got him in in Lucha Underground, I was like, how come he hasn't been picked up before? And And they're like, oh, well, they passed on him. I'm like, what? Are you kidding me? Willie Mac, Brian Cage, all these guys. I'm like, what do you mean they passed on these guys? I'm like, but but, you know, they're when you're up there, you always say, well, they got rid of this guy, but they kept this guy? Like, why did that happen? I was always a huge fan of, just kinda let the, a train, Prince Albert, Baldo. When they let him go and he went to to New Japan. New Japan, I was like, oh, yeah. Okay. There's a there's a 320 pounder who can work, who doesn't mind putting people over and doing business. And, yeah, we'll go and let them go. And I was like, why could you let this guy go? That guy's golden. Like, that that's who you build your company around. But it's interesting, you know, when I watch Lucy Underground and watch WWE, man. You know, I love WWE. Absolutely. But, you know, just because they have, you know, 2 live shows. Yeah. 5 hours of programming right there. That's tough. 3 hours raw, 2 hours SmackDown. Do they need talent? And, you know, a lot of their people have, you know, that are, you know, making their in ring debuts or not a lot of them, but a few of them They're not ready yet. 2, 3, and 4 years and even some even sooner than that. And, dude, when you get your number called, it's like, you know, when I got called up from USWA and went to WCW, and I'm working with beautiful Bobby Eaton, one of my favorites of all time. And Bro. So underwritten and appreciated. If you if you don't know anything about Bob Eaton, you don't know s**t about wrestling. That's right. I couldn't lace his boots, so I took a TV title off of him. So, you know, what I say? Hey, man. I don't think I should beat Bob Eaton, you know, because I'm not good enough. So what are these kids are supposed to say? You know? Hey. They're they're giving you a push, so you take an opportunity. You take what you got because you don't get it. Green is green. You know? So you gotta do what you gotta do. Absolutely. But you don't watch that when you watch that Lucha Underground stuff, like that Mil Norte. So I don't know how long he's been, but, man, I just I love that guy's work. He's aggressive, mean. He I got him and and and he'll tell you. So Ricky Banderas has wrestled for a long time from Puerto Rico, wrestled in Mexico as El El Mesias and stuff. And I wrestled him before he we Lucha Underground was even a thought. When we got him over here and they put that gimmick on him, I I looked at him, and I saw his first match. And I looked at him and said, no. Come here. I go, bro, you do what you want. This is my opinion. But you are and I always bring up Taker and Kane because I go, you're a monster. You're not real. You can't kill you. Your name's Neil Muertes. You're a 1,000 men of a 1,000 deaths. They can't kill you. So don't put a rest hold on somebody. Don't grab a hold. Just beat them up. I see you. When I see your mouth open up, I see bats fly out of your mouth. And he's like, oh, wow. I love that, Chavo. Okay. Okay. So every time he'd come to me, like, how was that? And I said, more. Kill him. Kill him. Apologize later. Kill him. And they're like, okay. Okay. Okay. We're doing business. Right? You're build doing business. You're building company. And then and every time I see the guy, he hugs me and kisses me. He goes, Travo, you you you made me. You made me. No. I didn't. I just gave him advice that I learned from other people. But, dude, that that's the thing. You gotta have advice handed to you or, you know, someone to solicit or offer to you. Man, I was just getting just riding down the road and all the cars that I've been in. Yeah. You know, with the veterans, man, I'd be, you know, picking their brain, whether it's gorgeous Gary Young or, Maniac Matt Born or all these other guys or Danny Davis And Danner. And to Mayman, why'd you do this when you did it? Well, hell, Steve. Here's why. And, you know, it's it's stuff like that or riding down the road with a Skandorak bar and, Bronco Lubitsch show referee. Lubitsch. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Riding in the back of a Delta 88 with Valura interior. And, you know, just listening to those old old guys just tell stories and all of a sudden you start absorbing this s**t. And it's like just your sponge, a dry a*s sponge, and all of a sudden they just keep pouring water and use it to absorb it all. But it's those guys and and that's always I always just think it's, you know, it's as as the the road that I've been down, any anytime I can change Bill, member Klondike Bill? Do? Klondike Bill? Remember Klondike Bill? Oh, yeah. Absolutely. On the ring crew at WCW. But all those guys, you know, if you don't pass down that knowledge, you know, the the next generation can't learn from you. And that's what that's what you gotta do to keep the business going strong, in my opinion. I agree. Hey. That's and and and I told the guys now, like my dad and those guys and you your time, they were very stingy with the business. They didn't wanna give you the business because you take their spot. They're like, oh, we we can help you. We can't. You figure it out for yourself, k? We'll give you a little bit. We won't give you all of it. But nowadays, it's a dying art. We wanna give as much as we can to these guys because it's gonna it's gonna it's gonna be lost if we don't. Now wrestling evolves. Just like any any kind of business, it evolves. If you don't evolve with it, it'll pass you by. I always bring up, like, Madonna, by the way. So I was listening it was on the radio the other day, and my brother-in-law was going going, you like Madonna? I said, well, I don't really have her music, but I respect Madonna because she's kept herself in the in as a performer, as an entertainer in the limelight, kept herself relevant for 30 5 years or whatever it is, and that's very hard to do. She constantly changed and evolved. And in wrestling, if you don't change and evolve, the wrestling will pass you by. If you keep doing the same stuff if they're not buying it, they don't buy it. Sometimes they buy it, and and you're fine. You just keep going. But some I mean, I would I use, Terry Funk. He did his first moonsault at 43 years old. Not saying you gotta do a moonsault, but just you just evolve. You You gotta evolve. And if you don't, you don't. That's the thing that we're talking about with, you know, grab a hold or put you say £10 of s**t in the 6 pound bag or whatever it is. Whatever that saying was. But the the business has evolved a little bit. Every match can't be like that, but there's room for some of the matches to be like that. I remember ricochet were talking about him and, the other kid from New Japan. That's the English kid that, Oh, Will Osprey. Osprey. And they had that match and it got praise and it got a lot of criticism. Right? Well, first of all, I can't do any of that stuff. We were one of the top cruiserweights back in the day. Right? Me and Mary Vesterio look at each other. Oh my god. We can't do any of this stuff anymore. Like, these guys could. We never even could we never could think about that stuff. But we I saw that match. I was like, wow. That's awesome. Would I have done that match? I couldn't. 1st of all, I couldn't do that match. I'd do it a little bit differently, but it not that it was wrong. It's just different. The the the business has evolved. But it it was their interpretation and their skill set that they put out there. It was incredible. So, Jeff Farmer, who used to be the NWO sting, Jeff Farmer, COBRA. He was, like, in in WCW. I remember he was great, real cool guy, great guy. But when I first got to WCW, he pulled me aside and he says, the first time Eddie and Chris Benoit worked in WCW, the locker room had never seen that. So they did this they did about a 8 minute match. They got done, and everybody was like they walked through. Everybody was like, did you guys rehearse that for, like, 3 months or what? Like, no. We just went on and called it. What do you mean you called it? Well, we we know each other pretty well. We just sit there like, I've never done it. And Terry Taylor kicks the door down and goes, that's how you work, guys. That's how you do it. And they said the business changed right when that happened. Literally, when I got to WCW and all the cruiserweights were doing stuff, I remember seeing Kane do a hurricanrana or a head swiss and I was like, okay. Well, now this business has definitely changed for sure. You know? Not that he's doing those all the time, but I saw him do one with a big guy. I don't know if it was Mideon or or somebody, you know, somebody like that. And he did one. I was like, wow. It's changed. You're listening to another classic episode of the Steve Austin Show only on podcast 1. Alright. Listen to the Steve Austin Show. Pay attention for just a second. I wanna keep this podcast free to download with minimal ads and to do so, I would appreciate your participation in the PodcastOne survey. The responses will help make sure that the right advertisers are matched up with you folks, the audience. Survey is short and will take no more than 5 minutes of your life. Either go to podcastone.com/mysurveyorvisitpodcastone. 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Early termination installation fees apply. Excludes taxes and fees. Applies to traditional services only. Certain markets excluded. Licenses available at adt.com. This is the Steve Austin Show. Hey, man. Tell me about the, the rings you grew up with back when you was an kid. Hard, man. The ring we had in the backyard was a when I first when I was a kid, it was 40 years old. So I don't know how old it is now. I mean, well What was it? It's not with a 16 footer or 18 footer? I mean No. It's probably a 20 footer. The one of the Olympic auto twenty should be a 24 footer. 24. No no kidding. If you look at it, back at the Olympic auditorium here, no. When my dad first started. That's why we're here in in California because my dad first started wrestling for Michael LaBelle at the w w a, I believe it was called. It was like NW Hollywood, basically. It was like Freddie Blassie and John Tullos and very, very young Roddy Piper and and Victor Rivera that could go on, but that was a 24 footer back and forth. They said they'd get so blown up going back and forth. And there's Gosh. Are you kidding me? Like, really? Our rings, we had a few different rings. So my grandfather had, like, 3 different rings. He had he had the portable 16 footer, and then he had the one the backyard was, like, a 20 footer. You know, there's about, you know, pretty standard 18, 20 foot. What w w is using. We use 18 foot in WCW. Yeah. Yeah. 18 and then 20. Yeah. Right? And that's kind of the the standard in it because you can you can port you can transport it, but you can it'll it you can work in it, actually. You know? You know, 16 footers are too small sometimes. You know tag is 16 footer, forget it. You just can't even Dude, the thing about the 16 footers, let me jump in here with that. We used to work those 10 shows when I first went to WWE. Yeah. Yeah. Went back in the 95 and 96, and I was working with Aldo Montoya Yeah. PJ Polacco, whatever gimmick he's working at the time. And, man, the thing about the 16 footers was they're so small. You gotta really work hard to blow up in a 16 footer. You gotta really be out of shape to blow out in a 16 footer because, you know, you send somebody into a reversal, you already up the damn rope. Step it in. Yeah. And so it's just and plus, they just they're not like a trampoline because I hate when people compare a ring to a trampoline. But they just got that. That just set the whole square. Sweet spot. The sweet spot. Yeah. The sweet spot. The whole ring is a sweet spot. Yeah. Because in an 18 footer and a 20 footer, you damn sure wanna find a sweet spot. But in a 16 footer, the whole thing is Yeah. So those things were just a blast to work in, plus the acoustics. I don't know. But between the iron, the wood, and everything, just Those tent shows and, like, the the Hamptons and all those remember the place, you know, and Cape Codos. But yeah, man. But the I remember I was that's a good story. We were in in wrestling in in Mexico somewhere. I think it was Tijuana, and it was me, Edge, and Orton, Randy Orton against Ray Mysterio and DX who was, Sean and and Hunter. So we wrestled on there. I mean, me and Ray had the the big angles. So what was cool is that Hunter comes to me and goes, hey. Do you mind if we all put our finish on you and beat you? I'm like, no. Like, I mean, it took 3 of you guys maybe? Yeah. Absolutely. Great. But nobody told me that it was a 16 footer. So when I got in the ring, I was like, okay. First of all, I'm in the ring with triple h and, you know, you I don't care where you're at. You're, you know, you're like, okay. Alright. Let me you gotta bring my game up a little bit here. Right? I'm looking around and, like, something's off in the ring. I see guys getting the ring doing stuff, and I'm like, what's off? Why is this? This what's I'm looking around the crowd. I'm like, what is different about this? And then I got in the ring, and, somebody shot me off, and I hit the rope. And all of a sudden, I I ate a elbow really hard because I I just as soon as I turned around, the elbow was there. Boom. I went, oh, it's a small ring. That's what's different about this thing. I said, okay. Then I adjusted it, but but I I kind of was like no one told me. And I was like, it just you know, sometimes you you see something right in your face and sometimes you don't see it, and I I just didn't see it. And I was like, oh, that's what it is. But that was a that was a good Dude, I can only imagine working in a 24 footer because when you're adding 4 feet to Huge. The the WWE size ring Can you imagine that? No. I can't. Grab a hole. Straight. Grab a hole. With me. No. I'm serious. I'm serious. It's a 24 footer, man. This ring was massive. Four feet on each side. That's 8 feet, and you're running 8 more feet over a 10 to 25 minute period. You know? And back then, you know, you're you're doing that time. They didn't have 18 matches in the show. Man. And and then the apron even the apron was was bigger too. You know? So you look at that ring. That rings in a lot of movies too because they always have film bunch of stuff all over the the the, the, Olympic auditorium. You always see that Richmond 95171 that that, sign in the background. Then you see that that movies in a lot of movies like Bad Ew, Bears movies. I could all these movies back in the one and only back in the day with Henry Winkler, that that was was filmed. See, the 24 foot ring would be great for a tag match because if there's one thing that really shaps my a*s is when someone's gone for the tag Yeah. And the heels let them get too close and a baby or or the heels got an alligator arm over there. Or if they got the tag rope, you know, they're hanging on to the right there by the turnbuckle instead of being extended with the rope and reaching out Right. To make it a shoot. Alligator arms. So the alligator arms just really don't get me wrong. I've done my share of alligator arms in the past, but I just hate to see it from a technical aspect of the business. We me and Eddie would we when we were tagging up as little squirrels, we hated that, man. We hated that. We would say, hey. We tell the guys challenge them. If you can tag, tag. It's our fault. And we'd have, like, we'll buy drinks tonight. Alright. We'd have, like, Spike Dudley running to try to tag. We'd, like, try to cut them off and stuff, but we would keep everybody in our side of the ring, like, right I mean Right. In our not even our side, our corner. We wouldn't even turn our backs to them because if if we did, they'd run and tag. We just challenge them. You can tag tag, man. It's our fault. So it was real in a sense like that. You know? That's smart to do that because, I mean, like, you know, the business work, but, you know, it's like, It's a work, but it's not a work. People But you got it but at the bottom line, dude, you gotta you gotta feel. If you and you'll tell me you'll know this. If you don't believe it, they don't believe it. Exactly. When you were doing your your, you know, when you were stone cold in the heyday and you against, you know, Vince and all that stuff you're doing back in the day, you look at them that you you were you believed it. You wanna kick his a*s. It came off that way. We could see it. It was and I'm the same way. When I get in the ring, I believe I'm looking at your looking at you. I'm like, alright. I'm gonna kick your a*s. Let's just do this. Because it's I always equate, and I use this example a lot when I'm teaching younger guys. I say, when you're in a bar fight, like, I you know, been we've both been a 1,000,000 bar fights. And all of a sudden, you look at somebody and and looking around his side, and he looks away, I go, I got him. As soon as he looks away or looks down, I go, I got him. I got him, and I'll turn it up. But when I look at him and he goes, yeah. Come on. I go, ah, s**t, man. Now I gotta go. Like, he's calling my bluff, man. Like, oh, okay. But that's the way it is in the ring. He believes it because he knows that I'm I'm just laser through him, and that's the way it is in the ring. In the ring, if I don't believe it, those fans don't believe it. If I don't believe that I'm gonna beat the crap out of this guy or or I'm getting my butt kicked. I'm running away, and I'm trying I'm trying to make that tag, then then then it doesn't matter. So I tell the guys, if you're gonna let me tag, well, then I'm gonna tag. I'm not gonna sit there and go, oh, because then I I always you sacrifice the, integrity of the match. Don't ever sacrifice integrity of the match. There's a couple more examples I use. So one example is I equate wrestling to, this one I'm doing, like, a seminar or teaching people. It's like, it's like magic. It's like Criss Angel. Crissing, we all know magic's an illusion. Just like wrestling, it's it's entertainment. But just because magic's an illusion, as soon as Chris Angel starts floating, you go, woah. He's floating. How's he doing that? Woah. Woah. What's going on? How's he doing that? But when you see the string, you go, okay. Okay. Change the channel. He's insulting my intelligence now. So I tell the wrestlers, don't ever let him see the string. Don't ever let him see that wrestling punch. Don't ever let him see, you know, a a a hold put on wrong because then they see the string or don't ever can't make the tag because then they see that string and then they change the channel. Because the biggest form of flatteries, they they wanna lose themselves in your mess. They wanted to suspend suspension of belief. There's you know, suspend their belief. So they want to, but if you don't let them, then they then they can't. So as soon as you're, like, unless they're, you know, 5 years or 10 years old, but even that, I mean, when I was a kid at the Lickbaud Auditorium, I'd ask my dad, hey. How come when they shoot you to the rope, you don't just you don't, you don't stop. What do you mean? I go, well, shoot me the rope. We're in the ring. I'm 10 years old. He shoots me in, and I kind of stopped. And he shot me, and he he he he went for it. And I I slowed down and he go, I go, how come you don't do that? He goes, well, you know, it's wrestling. We don't do that. And I went, okay. But I'm 10 years old thinking that. A 25 year old man's gonna think Yeah. You know, come on. Let's let's let's let's not let's not insult their intelligence. Let's not sacrifice that integrity of that match. So take pride in your job. Take all you young guys. Take pride in your business. Take pride in your on your in your work and make them question whether this is a work or not. That's where you get them. Hey, man. You're 47. You've been in a business, what, 22 years? Probably. Or I'll be probably more than I don't even know anymore. What's worse you've been hurting around? Well, I'm just getting over a bicep tear right here. Go to this. Boom. My my arm's not straightening like yours all of a sudden. What happened? You know, WrestleMania weekend, we're all in, in New Orleans, and we had our Russ a Lucha Underground versus, Lucha Underground versus, Impact Wrestling, team a Impact. I was aging in the show, you know, for Lucha Underground, and I came in I came in there, and then they say, hey. Can you wrestle? Yeah. Sure. Sure enough. Some guy jumped out. I'm trying to protect him and just it just popped off. Just just flew. Just popped off. So, worst injury because, you know, we've all been in July. You know, broke broken eye orbits, and I tore this one in o three, this bicep. The worst injury was when, I got knocked out in the ring. Billy Kidman did the shooting star press in the ring Fresno, California. It landed right on my head, and it almost almost killed me because my brain was bleeding. You know, I woke up in the hospital. My wife's next to me, and she's like, I'm like, why are you here? And she's like, well, you had brain bleeding, and they were gonna cut your head open if you didn't if it did pressure didn't if it didn't stop to relieve the pressure. So that's probably the worst. I lost I didn't work for about 4 months. I kinda had to learn how to rewrite and stuff a little bit, but it is what it is. What'd Billy say to you? Oh, he was really he felt really bad, but what's really cool is that he was still married to Tory Wilson at the time. So I was like, well, okay. You tried to kill me, so I'm gonna go hit on your girlfriend for on your wife for a while. Like, what's he gonna say? You would've you almost killed me. You're gonna kill me again? Whatever I'm that guy. Kidman. Guy, good worker. I know he's producing for a while. Kidman is, he's the timekeeper. He took for Briscoe's job. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Jerry Briscoe. He's he's the WWE? Yes. He's the main time he went WWE. Yeah. He's in the gorilla position all the time, man. He he's got a good little spot over there. Yeah. Good guy. Good good worker. He was awesome, man. He was he was a lot of fun. We were group we broke in together. You know? How do you feel as far as a pain level goes? Like, man, I I talked to, Tommy Rogers before he died. Yeah. 2 years ago. A great restaurant, man. Oh, dude. Those guys were on fire. Fantastic. Okay. You know, I was talking to him and I said, Steve. He said, Steve. He goes, on a 10 out of 10, I'm a 10. And so I was like, dude, are you are you that bad off? And he was telling about eating Perks. I mean, he wasn't Oh, wow. He wasn't on on on just, you know, take them for the hell of it Sure. Because he was hooked on them. Sure. He was taking them for a shoot because that's how much pain he was in. So, you know, like like right now, as I sit here before you doing this podcast, you know, everybody thinks I'm just beat to to shreds. Yeah. Yeah. And I am. But I don't I you know, on a one to 10, I'm not even a 1 on a daily basis. Yeah. Yeah. Every now and then, you have those s**tty days, but men are feeling far between. Yeah. So how about you with all the s**t you did? You know, I I actually feel good, man. What what saved us is that we're not 6 foot 8, £100. Your bones and your ligaments, mine and yours, big shows, they're all the same strength. They're just bone and ligaments. I don't have £300 pounding all that all the time. So I was able we were able to get get away from it pretty good. You know, everybody in the family is, you know, took a back here and there, knees here and there, but for the most part, we're all okay, you know, and I'm I'm one of those guys that just I took care of my body. I really iced all the time. I you know, I I did the I went from the You were ahead of your time? Yeah. I did the Dallas. DDP I did DDP the DDP school of of of self help. We used to joke that in WCW, his merchandise would have been a was was a was a a ice bag with DDP on it because he'd be on the he'd be on the plane, man. I love DDP to death, but he'd be on the plane with, like, 18 ice packs on him and tell him the steward the flight attendant, hey. Can you give me more ice? And she's like, you know, they only have so much ice on a plane. Right? And he's like, she's like, son of a b***h. This guy really is, like, fill all these ice packs up. I was like, dude, this guy's got some nerve asking you, hey. Can you go give me some ice? And he's got a ice pack on every joint on his body. I used to tell him because it was me and Mick Foley roaming with him. He's walking around the room naked with all his ice packs on him. I just Well, he was, like, 80 years old back then. He'd he'd lie and say he was 45, but he was 80. I'd have a bunch of beer. I'd have a bunch of ice from a beer, but hell, all the damn ice ice being, you know, in baggies on it on his damn joints. So I just put a beer on his arm and then go get when I needed it. Exactly. So so you feel pretty good? I feel good, man. I I man, I'm I'm thank god, man. I'm still I I I don't I don't wake up in pain. Now there's day like you said, there's days for sure. You know? But, you know, it is what it is and, you know, you age has a lot to do with it too. You know? You don't heal as fast. Like, this biceps is taking a lot longer than What are you doing with your workouts now? I mean, because you're staying active, you look good. I mean, obviously, still in the gym. So I just started working out again. I was on the margarita diet. The what? Your the margarita diet that's just Oh, you're talking about bro. Go Ranch Margaritas. No. No. I was on I was training hard. And right before I got hurt, that was probably the best I ever looked, man. I was jacked. I was veiny. I felt awesome. And then you got hurt, and so I just started to sit on the couch for a little bit, and, you know, then I like to eat. So we're eating, hanging out. So I just kinda started training again probably the last 2 weeks. You know? So I I feel good. You know? I mean, I'm I I when I go in the ring, I'm gonna go to the gym. I train hard. I train I don't train I train smart, though. I don't train real heavy. I just get in there. I kill it. I'm in there for about 45 minutes to an hour, and I get out. And I'm there about 5 days a week. Just boom. I hit it. You send a body part every 5 days or what? I I play off how I feel. You know what I mean? Sometimes I'll do a a back and buys. If I don't got a little time, I'll just hit shoulders real quick. You know? It just it just depends. I'm one of those guys that's lucky that I I don't have to do a lot of legs because they just grow faster than you. Probably the same way. Right? They grow a lot faster than the rest of my body, so I'm kinda like that takes a whole body part that I don't have to do all the time. You know? So, you know, I'm a chest and chest and shoulders guy, and I'll do arms one day. And then, you know, if I get real, you know, enthusiastic out there's some abs in there, you know, but back for sure, you know. So what are you doing with your rep range? I don't I I don't go less than 4. I don't have, like, a one rep maximum. I'm not trying to gain size or strength anymore. I'm usually a, I I superset everything. I try to get a 10 rep range. If I could hit more, then I'll hit more, but I'm usually about a, you know, 10. I do everything to failure the way it goes, but it's usually about 10 reps. Until I can't do it, I'll stop, drop the weight, and hit it again. I don't I don't have to do too much anymore. So as a kid, I didn't have to do a lot of cardio, and I have to do more cardio. But, you know, it's hard for me to gain rate back then. Now I can I I keep my size no problem? So let's like, if I'm doing chest, I'll I'll blow it out with a bunch of push ups first and get my chest activated, and then whatever I'm doing is just repping it. It's pumping out. If I'm doing back, I'll grab, like, a 65 pounder and rep, you know, 20 on one side, 20 on the other. 15, 15, 10 12, 12, 12, 10, 10. And after that, man, now it's like I'm jacked. I'm pumped. And now I just I'll do another 12 exercises, but everything is just I'm done. I'm I'm I'm out. That's kinda what I'm doing. Like, it's part of my pressing movements. I'll start off, you know, like, on bench with a bug 35, but I'll do probably 5 sets, but I'll do them Right. Right. Failures. So then when I start going down to get my fives in or my h of my fives, I pre exhausted everything. So You don't like to do it like to weight is not that much. Right. But it feels like a lot. You're not trying to gain size anymore. It's a different you're not No. I'm trying to transport them. I mean, because I got 2 blown rotator cups. I had them fixed, but, you know, they're not the same. They're starting to straighten out. It's all the same bulls**t. But I try to kinda, you know, get everything tired before, you know, attach it with Again, it's not heavy, but it feels heavy to me at the time. It's it's the way of life. We continually just hit it all the time. I don't ever miss more than a day or 2. Even on vacation, I feel bad if I'm not doing squats or or doing something. You know what I mean? If, after, like, man, 2 days is the 3rd day, I could I gotta do something. I gotta break a little bit of a sweat because that way I can drink more beer and I can eat more. But, I just feel like I'm just I just like I that's just my my routine, man. I gotta I gotta do to get a little sweat in there. I gotta do something. You know? Hey, man. Last time you competed in the ring, was that for Lucha Underground? Because I was just watching you versus, Ray in the, losing leads Lucha. That's from, I think, 16. Yeah. But are you are you still actively in the ring? Yeah. You know, so so besides Loose on the Ground, I'm doing glow also. Right? Yep. I wanna talk about that because that's why you're here. Sure. So, those two shows keep you pretty busy. You know? Once I if I throw a 3rd show in there, I'm I'm pretty booked. So I only do maybe 10 to 20 maybe maybe 10, 12 shows a year outside of that. I'll do some indie shows. What's cool is that the the the indie market basically has changed. We got Comic Cons now. I mean, I did, Russellcon in, in New Orleans, but what sucks is that we, at about maybe about 12 or 1 o'clock, all of our business stopped because there was somebody that had a line that was around the building. I mean and oh, that was you. Yeah. So you're banned from West Russell Con, by the way. You cannot go to any more Russell Cons because you took bids away from everybody. This is the truth that we were all killed, man. This is great. We're all making great money meeting all these fans, and all of a sudden, like, crickets, like like, like, what's going on? I thought I was doing stand up comedy. What is happening here? And then all of a sudden, like, oh, well, Stone Cold started signing. And I was like, alright. Great. I mean, really? Alright. Alright. Alright. Cool. You know? But but, you know, just just joking, but we no. I still do see, you know, some autograph satellite autograph signs here in Comic Cons and, you know, I'll do matches here here and there. It just depends. You know? You're not doing the the WrestleMania matches throughout there and you're kissing babies and, you know, high fiving people and doing that kind of stuff. But did you ever have an exit strategy for leaving the business? Because when I retired, I was 38 years old. When Eddie died Sure. He was 38 years old. That's the ultimate retirement respect. Absolutely. Yes. For sure. I I love that guy. I was at his funeral and I knew you were. So I I got at 38 years of age. I didn't know what I was gonna do. I was like about 90% of the other boys. I didn't have a plan. I was sitting there in San Antonio in a gated community, and I was drinking, hunting, and fishing, and doing a lot of stupid s**t in any particular order you wanna name. Mhmm. And I said, hey, man. You better take your a*s out there to Los Angeles and at least try to capitalize on what name you have left. So I started doing some independent movies, and, you know, I don't really like acting too much. I found reality television. I started podcasting, so I found my way out here. Yeah. My point is I didn't have a plan like So I found my way out here. Yeah. My point is I didn't have a plan like most other boys. I just I just okay. Now after 3 years, I've had my thumb up my a*s. The r word always sounds good until you get there. And it's like, what do I do? I still need to pay my bills. I got my monthly nut. Right. All that other stuff. And so now you're, like, you're still making your appearances, that stuff, and still doing maybe 12 appearances in the ring, and you found producing in Lucha Underground and doing a stuff of glow, which we're gonna segue into, because that's pretty amazing. I was a huge glow fan, biggest team of Ferrari fan in the world way back in the day. Yeah. Ivory. But, dude, did you have an exit strategy? Were you riding down the road one day and thinking, hey, man. Once I get out of the business, maybe I should try this. Hell no. We were wrestling, wrestling, wrestling. That's we ate No. I'm glad to hear that. I'm sad to hear that at the same time. We ate, slept, breathe, dream, crapped wrestling our entire lives. It's what we did. Everything I did my entire life was to be a pro wrestler. When I played football, when I amateur wrestled in high school and college was to be a pro wrestler. That was it. That's the only thing I wanna do my entire life. So when I became a pro wrestler, I mean, there was that was that was the best. There was no extra you just keep going, keep going, keep going. And then all of a sudden, you start seeing your your idols. You know, my idol is who my family, of course, my father. Then you start seeing guys like, just without naming any names. All these guys and all of a sudden, they're they're still holding on to things. You know? And I always say that the movie, the wrestler, could have been called the hockey player, the basketball player, could have been called anything, the football player. If you continually to hold on to you you we can only borrow in the ring the the sports entertain the sports aspect of it for a short amount of time, then we gotta give it back. No one told me that. They it it wasn't they were just like wrestling, wrestling, wrestling. Okay. Then we'll go into producing and stuff. And I saw my dad. I was just trying to hold on to it, man. He was always trying to hold on and go back to it. Might have had a degree. He'd become a teacher, go back to teaching and start teaching again. He'd be doing, you know, 2 or 3 years with teaching and pension stuff. And so he'd get a shot. He'd leave all that to go wrestle in Japan. I was like, dad, what are you doing, man? He's like, he's that bug, man. You you never retire. You never fully retire from the ring. So I just started you know, there's a time when you're in in WWE and, you know, when you're being used and then you know when you're not being used. And you're like, okay. Now I'm here to help everybody get better. I get it. I totally get it, and I I see where it's at. I didn't wanna I didn't want I didn't need to be that. You know? They'd asked me to be an agent a couple different times, and I was like, I'm not ready for that. But then I didn't wanna be in the my my payoff would be in the ring as an agent, which was awesome. It was great. You're still on the road all the time. Man, I I didn't know what to do. And then Eddie passed, and then Chris passed. And it was, man, it was tough. It was like, and do I do I wanna keep doing this? There was about about a 3 year period that me and my wife kicked around. Thank god, she was on my side for sure because she was always going, you know, if you need to leave, you leave. You do what you gotta do. Now, man, I got college funds to put together. I got mortgages. I got retirement. All this stuff. I'm like, can't just leave. Finally, one time, I came home and I I looked at her and say, hey. I quit. And she said, you what? I said, yeah. I quit. When when did you quit? I quit last night. And she's like, okay. Alright. Let's do this. So I kinda sat, you know, kicked around for about 6 months. Where were you? WWE. K. I was in WWE, and I had finally, you wanna know the whole story? Yeah. Alright. Here's the whole story. So I do a, already a little disgruntled there. You know? You you everybody thinks But we all get disgruntled. We we all should think we we should, you know, we should be getting more than we should be doing. Okay? I'm better than this guy. Okay. Whatever. I I I get it. It's it's what one man sees in you up there. You know? If Vince sees you up there, then doing something, that's what you're doing. You gotta convince 1 guy. Right? So, we're there, and, they have, like, one of the the other shows, the Saturday shows, whatever it was, and I gotta put over Yoshi Yos**tatsu. No offense. He's a great guy. Great I I enjoy him very much. But I go to Johnny Ace, who's head of talent relations at the time, and I say, why am I doing this? Finally, I start questioning things. Now it's a little late. I should have started questioning a couple years before. Now I'm questioning. And he's like, well, man, you know, well, Travo, You know, this show is really big in Japan. And I'm like, oh, really? That's what you're doing now? So are we a Japanese company now? Are we a world company? That's what I asked him. And he said, well, I get what you're saying. I get what you're talking. And I said I said, look man I I just don't I don't agree with this at all and I think this is wrong I was already at my breaking point. Yeah. So, he goes, well you know this is just what we the direction we want to go with and I said okay I get it I will do this but, I would like my release please. Kinda took him off guard. He was like, what? And I said, look. I'm I'm I'm I'm done. I'm not I'm I see where I'm going. I see where this is at. I probably should've done this a bit earlier. Okay. Whatever. He said, well, okay. No. I gotta talk to Vince about this. Okay. So I went over, did my job, put Yoshi over, went home that day. I get a call from from, from Johnny. He says, well, you know, Vince is still trying to is kicking around a little bit. And I'm like, alright. Well, is he gonna let me go? He's not gonna let me go. 1 or 2. You know? So I'm waiting there. Wait. Then he said, alright. Don't come to TV this week. So I'm sitting at home. Alright. We can still pay me. Alright. So then I get a call from Johnny the next week and says, hey. Vince has agreed, but you there's conditions. I said, what are the conditions? Before, but you get your release. You're still paid for 3 months, and then you can go do what you want. Right? Well, well, that wasn't with me. It was like, okay. Anytime you gotta work with anybody, you need to let us know. This and I was like, alright. That's fair. I just needed to go. And, man, I was I felt like a weight was lifted off my shoulders. It sucked because, yeah, you mean you don't know what you're gonna do. But at the same time, it's like, okay. Weight's lifted off for a second. Let me chill out at home. Thank God WWE is really cool giving you 3 months to contemplate it a little bit and, you know, get your feet back on your ground. So I I kinda sat there for a little bit, and and I didn't do anything. And I and 6 months went by, and I was like, alright. Well, I still got some bills to pay and stuff. Alright? You know, I did I didn't make stone cold money, so I was like, you know, I did well, but I I I, you know, I wasn't 1,000,000 and 1,000,000 of the bank where everybody thinks you're on TV. You're all rich. You know? So I just sat there, and I was like, alright. Well, let me go back to work a little bit and start doing a little a couple of indie things. Got a shot with, Jeff Jarrett. Did some things in India called Rinka King, which led to TNA. I went to TNA for a year and, left there after a year. And then I don't know what else to do. I kinda left wrestling for a minute. I wanna thank Chavo Guerrero junior for coming down the road to 317 Gimmick Street and shooting the breeze with me and drinking Broken Skull IPA in the process. Good time seeing you. Thank you for joining us for another classic episode of the Steve Austin Show. Please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts and tell your friends. For more Steve Austin show, go to podcastone.com. That's podcastone.com. I love reality TV on Pluto TV. Same. And I love that it's free. It gives me the freedom to watch Bravo's Real Housewives Vault channel. I'm totally free to watch Bad Girls Club. I'm free for Jersey Shore. Love and Hip Hop? I'm free all day. Survivor? I'm free all night. With 100 of free reality shows, you are totally free to watch what you love on Pluto TV. Pluto TV, stream now. Hey, never. Hi. We're the Nemeth bros. I'm Nick, and he's Ryan. And I'm a 20 plus year pro wrestling veteran, amateur comedian, f list actor, wannabe lawyer, and once in a 96 ounce steak, and we have a new podcast because we finally got some time on our plate called the Nemeth bros. The Nemeth bros. Bros. Hey, Nick. What is this podcast about? This podcast is gonna be about stories from the road for the past 20 plus years of my pro wrestling career, winning world championships, injuries, everything in between that you can think of. Stories about you and I putting together a comedy tour, you and I doing skits, me being an f list actor, on set stuff, and, of course, q and a answered questions in-depth from the fans who wanna hear them the most. Hey. What if I wanna have special guests on that are, like, famous comedians or showbiz types? Types? There's no roles. This is America. Bring them in. Hey, if we're bragging about accomplishments, I have been an extra on Jimmy Kimmel Live 27 times. Follow, rate, and review the Nemeth Bros podcast at Apple Podcast, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. The Nemeth Bros.
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