WWF Classic: I’m Talking Wrestling with Macaulay Culkin

Published Dec 25, 2024, 8:00 AM

Happy holidays everyone, please enjoy this classic episode of Wrestling with Freddie as we take a break.  We will see you in 2025.

In this week’s episode I talk to Macaulay Culkin about the current state of wrestling, launching our own wrestling league, and how far women’s wrestling has come.

What's up everybody. Welcome to another episode of Wrestling with Freddy. I want to wish everyone a happy, happy holiday, Merry Christmas, happy Hanukah, happy everything that you celebrate. I hope you celebrate all of them because it means you get more presents, including this blast from the past from Wrestling with Freddie. It's one of my favorite episodes. I hope you guys enjoy it. Stay tuned because the show starts right now.

Oh thank you for.

Tuning in to Wrestling with Freddy, Thanks for coming back, thanks for joining the Freederation.

And today it's not going to be story time.

We're going to have a guest, a fantastic guest. So let's start the show. Welcome to Wrestling with Freddy.

Wow.

Stepping up to the mic, the host of Wrestling with Freddy.

Freddy prece tune.

Ladies and gentlemen, McCauley cochie, Yeah.

We.

Go, Mile. Welcome to the show, man, How are you man?

Thanks for having me man. I'm doing good and doing good. I was just saying before we recorded that I'm I took the morning shift with the kiddo, so you know, but I'm doing okay. But I'm glad this is a this is a podcast, and you know, I haven't put a comb through my hair yet this morning, but sorry.

I haven't shaved in about a week and a half. So we're on the We're on the same page.

Brother, were all, we're all a little grizzly here exactly. Man.

So I started this podcast a while ago, and this is about I don't know, ten or or eleven episodes in and a lot of the talk in the beginning was sort of how it all came to fruition. And I started talking about that Rick Flair retirement match that we all went to ye, and I got sidetracked.

On the gambling that we had.

And I don't know if I told the story right or not, but I don't think you lost a match the whole night. And I was I think you walked home with like eight hundred bucks or some some shit like that.

Well, you know what it was was that I wasn't really watching the product a lot around that time, so so everyone kept on putting in bets on what you know, everyone was being so smart, you know, yeah, And I was like, cool, I'll take Randy Orton, sure, man.

Yeah, there was It drove me nuts. We were there there were I think four of us, and all of us watched a lot except you, and you didn't lose a bet the whole night, and it drove me absolutely insane, but it re ignited my sort of love of wrestling, and I was just hoping that you could kind of touch on where you and your family kind of got their love, because I know your brother was a hardcore fan, and I don't think you ever jumped into the dark side, or if you did, at least not for as long as.

Your brother did.

But I but I've seen your your knowledge, and I was just wondering where it all started, when it started, and where it came from.

For me, it was when I was doing an Uncle Buck and you know, so I'm sitting in some place in like suburban Chicago or whatever, and uh so this must have been the winner of eighty nine.

And so it was one of those like like I guess what were they called the like the essentially the daytime shows, like you know.

The Saturday Yeah what was that like?

Not main events? But yeah, I forget what it was like a recap shows with yeah, yeah exactly, and uh they were showing a replay of a warrior Honky talk Man from Summer Slam eighty nine, and it was the first wrestling match I ever saw on you know, and boom as soon as that, like you know, that music hit and all that kind of stuff, I was just like, who is that guy?

Yeah?

You know, yeah, when it comes to comes to not Honky talk Man, the Warrior.

But they didn't like the Honey talk music.

I know, you know what, I appreciate him so much more now. Yeah, guys guys like I miss guys like the Honky talk Man and the Genius. I think I think wrestling needs more guys like that nowadays, for sure, you know. Yeah, but yeah, no, the music hit and boom and then the so you know, I was hooked and I was I was looking it up, you know, made sure I didn't miss anything. And you know, I remember I was a year later. I was back in Chicago and I was working on home alone and that's when WRESTLINGIA six happened, and I was such a big Warrior fan all stuff, but I couldn't watch the paper because I was working. So they actually had a hot line back then. Remember you had to call in and they tell you the results.

Gosh, that's right, hey, Yeah.

And I was, I was ecstatic. What it like the Ultimate War. It's like it's like it's a mean gene doing it and the Ultimate War or defeats ho Hogan, you know, look at you know, and yeah. It was like I was like, yeah, you know, yeah, so but that's the yeah. That That's how I watched WRESTLINGIA six for the first time. Was mean Jean recapped it for me over the phone at like whatever ten dollars a minute or something.

So in eighty seven or eighty eight, I was in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and there was a house show at the place where like the rodeos were at, because that's all that really came to New Mexico, and it was called it was called Engley Colisseum, and there really wasn't a good seat in the house, but there were seats there, but there were just pillars everywhere. So there were people blocked all over the place and they were going to do a Battle Royal or a yeah, I think it was just a little Battle Royal and all the kids would like run down to.

The rail to see their favorite wrestlers come in.

And I didn't have a ticket for that area, but I ran in with the other kids, and the Ultimate Warrior ran by and secure. The security guy grabbed me and was like, hey, you don't have a ticket. And the Ultimate Warrior didn't put his hand on me, but kind of around me and on the security guy and he goes, it's okay. And I could smell I still remember. I smelled like dirt from the coliseum, baby oil and sweat.

I was going to say, oh my god, I still smell it.

And his like the bicycle tassels were like kind of like wet and sticky and like on my face when he was like and I still remember that. And so I was a huge, huge Ultimate Warrior fan. And then well, and then I started watching nw A and I saw Rick Flair and then everything ended for me.

I was that.

It was Rick Flair and Sting and that was That's all I cared about for a long long time.

But we both have Warrior origin stories.

He was such a good gateway drug, you know. I mean he was just you know, like me, just like you know.

You know it's not good, but you're just gonna try it a few times.

Yeah, exactly, exactly. Yeah, you know, I love the version I am. When I watched The Ultimate Warrior, you know.

Yeah, I only have to wrestle for forty two seconds.

Yeah, I am so funny and hilarious.

And your brother told me a story once, and I'm wondering if you were there, But he told me a story of when he was at a show. He said he got thrown out of a wrestling show. And this was we were all at your place in New York City and we were playing Soul Caliber two or three years I don't remember which one. And uh, you guys were killing me with this dude with a long staff and I couldn't get in and it was driving me nuts and we started talking.

I hated you, and so he said he got there. I said, what happened?

He said, I threw a beer on the big show and they threw me out of this good good they absolutely But were you Were you there when that happened?

Or no?

Fu no man? And if anything, I'd be pushing him towards the security guard like he did it. Did it?

Yeah, he'd be the Russell Westbrook of the of the of the Rest.

Keep this guy out of here.

So Kirie went.

He went hardcore, like hardcore and deep to the point where I had no like I couldn't even communicate with him, and there was just one other dude that could.

And his name was Angelo.

Yeah, yeah, And we all know Faz and we love Faz. And when I started working there, he started working there as well. And I took a little break, and you came in when I did like a GM spot, just to like say hello and help out and be a part of the show. And I get asked this question all the time, and I think I know why, but it's better if you say it. But I get asked this all the time. Why didn't you ever get Mac to go and write for the w W E Oh man.

There were times where I wanted to like kind of just you know, like find you know, six months of my life at the very least, kind of go in there and stuff. And you know, I will say, I do kind of regret not doing that now now that I'm a dad and stuff like that, Like I got I, Man, I barely have time to pete at this point.

That's why I could.

I mean, yeah, I know, yeah I figured that, you know, yeah exactly, it all makes sense now, you know, But yeah, no, I you know, I just never got around to it. Things, you know, there was. There was always something I'm you know, next thing, I know, I'm like on the road being in a pizza band or something, you.

Know, like pizza band if out of like Europe or you were in Paris or something.

Yeah. Yeah, then I moved to France for like five years and stuff like that, you know. But also I came up with some really great like uh Ray Wyatt story angles, like when alone in my room in Paris, man, you know, I really wanted to they called me up for consultation kind of stuff like you know how yeah, yeah.

I know a few people they've reached out too for that kind of stuff.

Yeah, exactly, kind of just you know, what do you think will make the brand better? What about that? And they don't, you know, I think they might have like done one or two things. And I was like, hey, I'm not saying I came up with it or nothing. But at the same time, I was like, oh, there you go, you know, but you know, I'm just like, hey, you know, why don't we make the shows slightly different? Because I mean, just one's blue and one's red, like you know, want you know, I said, you know, God blessed Kevin Dunn. But you know, it's like nope, nope, no, like you were, this is our products, like dig it man.

Look and he's very protective of it.

Man, He's like a yes, so he's really good at what he does. What he does, Yeah, far be it for me to criticize anything that he's saying. I'm just saying, well, can we do something that's even just visually different, you know, things like that.

Now they're the generation of go with what you know, So they're they're like like Garth, they fear change.

Oh yeah, no shit, especially the product now. Fuck, dude, like this is just I have to see one more fucking Like, don't get me wrong, you know, I actually looking forward to what will be different this time. But if I see brock Lessener Roman reigns one more freaking time, you know. Yeah, That's the thing is that, like they'll do the same pay per view like back to back.

That was Sena and Norton for two years straight.

It felt like it's always like a like new day. USO's like every freaking card, like you know, and it's just like you know, and I understand that, like their roster obviously isn't as deep as it was a year ago. Back they've caught I think eighty six wrestlers from their roster in the past calendar year. Yeah. Yeah, so it's like, you know, like yeah, so like you don't really have this rich for right that maybe you might have had before and stuff. But even then, man, it's like, you know, how many times can we watch the same match over? I mean literally, I think it was just recently it was like like Survivors series and I think they like, you know, the one before that, they were like, I think it was the two before that, they were virtually the same card man, And it's just like, what the fuck's going on.

When you when you and I were younger, they allowed the storylines to develop sometimes for almost a year before you got that that final payoff. And I think once the Attitude era hit, they gave you everything right away in a four week package, and it kind of changed the way the stories were told, almost pay per view to pay per view, and at a certain point, I feel like you just run out of stories to tell, so they.

Just go with what they know. And I'm not saying this is.

You run out of stories.

Come on, they are running out of stories.

Believe I pitched one hundred if I pitched one every week is just when you're pitching to a wall is going to bounce back at you See.

That's kind of the problem, you know, that's that's that's the problem right there, because you know there there there's never gonna be a lack of stories. I mean, you know Three's Company. You know, they had an episode in the first season where they had to hide a puppy from from yuh the Landlords, uh, the other Ropers, and then in the season like six, they're they're hiding a kitten from mister Furley. You know, it's just like, yeah, it's like, man, you know, you can even you just repackage some of this ship. You know, as long as you give it enough time, you know, you can you can.

Do that had more time than any TV show ever.

Yeah, but I mean I think there is something to your point of like these longer stories. But at the same time, there was less product on television, and you know, you were totally fine with like you know, uh, you know, watching bad News Brown beat up Jerry the Jobber, uh, you know, on on Saturday mornings kind of thing. Like you know, now then you know, no one's gonna be like down with that there's only you know, like they you can't really have too many Coco be Wares in your company anymore, you know what I mean.

It's hard and you have to because you have to have people that can lose, right, and you have to give them a run at least once a year, at least a baby run, so that they're credible that the guys you want to get over, the girls you want to get over, have a have a villain or a or a or a good guy to beat.

That was the Dolf Ziggler kind of thing. Man. They kept on jobbing them out, and he's just like, if I don't win one, no one's like, you know, like and listen, the guy bumps like a boss. I would love to see him and a Kurt Henning, him and Kurt Henning and a match together. Just all they're doing is bumping and not actually attacking.

Selling each other the entire match.

By the way, those are the best matches when it's two wrestlers trying to outsell each other.

Doesn't That'd be.

A freaking dream right there. You know, throw Shawn Michaels in there too, like Sean That Sean Michaels.

It just does it like a double backflip, just.

Love it, Like, yeah, I want to see that, you know. I mean definitely the Dolve Ziggler, Like he's guilty of selling way too well, so next thing, you know, they freaking job him out.

You know?

Yeah, Mac, have you been to Kendrick's Wrestling pro wrestling shows here in Los Angeles?

I took I took a buddy of years from New York, Matt and his brother and they literally have matches like that where it was he's a he's a wizard and his name is the his name is the Great Branzino.

Well, let me back up.

Xavier Woods brought Xavier Woods brought me and introduced me to this, and I'm like, what am I seeing here? And he goes, it's Holiday wrestling. I go, what are you talking about Holiday wrestling? Goes, it's the Christmas Show. He goes, I'm not telling you anything else, all right? So we sit down. In the first match is a guy named Emo Tep, but it's Emo E m O Tep and he's.

A mummy and pretty shops a hot topic.

Well, he has a he has a each bandage that comes down over his eye and the I make of his Egyptian and dramatic, but he wrestles the way a mummy would wrestle, very slowly.

Oh my god.

And all the.

Matches are like this, and they put a Holidays story around each one, and in this one in particular, it was die Hard and they had literally a guy named the Sexy Assassin who and he has a lisp, so he sounds like Daffy Duck. He comes in in the middle of the EMOTEP match and with all these like lumberjack looking guys that are some aer buff, some are not so buff, and uh, and he takes the microphone and he goes, I'm I'm the fat via fath In. I'm not going to do a Sexy Assassin because he was too good. And he says uh. He says, I'm taking over Wrestling Pro Wrestling, and to prove it, I'm calling the owner of the company right now, and you can listen in.

And we're in the Moose Lodge in Burbank, so it's like a hundred people.

Okay, yeah, and he calls he calls the owner of Wrestling Pro Wrestling, and the speaker comes on and plays.

It ring.

Ring and I look at Exavier and I go nobody's picking up, and he looks back at me and he goes, no, he never picks up, and it reads about seven more times and then he gets super mad and he hangs up and he goes, well, just cause he's not there, it doesn't.

Mean I'm not taking over it.

And to help me, I brought a bunch of Lumberjack orphans that were never adopted. And they all turn to the crowd and they go, we're a our fans that were never adopted, and the crowd, the crowd's literally yelling back, we just heard him say that. Like they're going back and forth. And then the only way that you can save the show, of course from this this Hans Gruber's sexy assassin who's taking over the show is you got to have a John McLean, And that John McLean is none other than a character they have named cereal Man. And cereal Man is dressed like you and I, but he has has this amazing prosthetic cereal box completely like plastered to his head and it says wheedies.

And uh or whatever their version of.

But I'm telling you, like the the cosplay that they do for these is top shelf.

They do full Kaiju matches.

Okay, like literally the Kaiju matches and people, giant monsters are falling out of the ring and breaking.

It's hysterical.

So so John McClain comes our cereal man comes up and he says, I'm gonna stop you, and throughout the whole night, which about two and a half hour show, he starts assassinating some of the lumberjacks. And at the end of the show, the sexy Assassin gets the only person close enough to serial Man that he can get leverage, right, like the John McLain's wife whatever, Holly McClain, right, And but their.

Version played by my aunt by the way.

Well side quest Hello, yeah.

That's my that's actually my Aunty Viadilly is my aunt. She plays Holly McLain.

That's crazy.

Yeh, family offas tight all back.

That's right.

So their Bonnie Badilia is of course pop Tart Boy, who is a giant pop tart and only his hands can poke out and his feet so he can't really wrestle. And he's got him on top of the turnbuckle and he's gonna throw him off the turnbuckle the way they were gonna fall out.

The knocka Tomi Plaza.

But here comes Cereal Man and he walks right by Austin and I and instead of a nine millimeter tape to his back, he's got back of cereal and.

He takes it off. And this guy, God.

Bless him that he throws it and it hits the Sexy Assassin right in the head, and the Sexy Assassin falls off, and then his vel crow gets stuck to the Pop Tarts vel crow, and the Cereal man comes in and undoes it, and the Sexy Assassin falls off the turnbuckle and lands on the Lumberjack orphans that were never adopted, and the main event that was supposed to happen never happens. They literally just say thanks.

For coming out, and could not they do it for Thanksgiving.

I've seen them top it with RoboCop on Thanksgiving, which was hysterical, like they do the weirdest stuff. But you said something earlier that led me to this, which is now I'm leading back to you. He said something like eighty three wrestlers had been released.

Yeah, I think eighty.

Six wrestlers have been released, right, People like Keith Lee, people like Carry and Cross that I think are like, well, that's a shock that you would release them, people like Bray Wyatt, where I'm like, that's the only attraction left in professional wrestling. But okay, that's weird Coretta with all these wrestlers. And I already said this on a podcast with Ariel Halwani. I just did this Netflix movie and I'm doing a couple more after this, and I'm putting a little kitty together. Right in the old days, that would be like a little piggy bank, a little kitty. And I want to start, not to make money because it won't, and not to compete with anyone, because I'm not trying to do that, but just to start a West Coast indie wrestling brand. And there's so many free now. Granted I'm a year and a half away from this coming to fruition. I just finished the first one, so I'm still a little ways out. But when I'm ready to go, I just want to have a two year plan where if it makes money, cool, but it's probably not, which is what my accountant said.

Yeah, you're hoping for a break even endeavor. I'll take it.

I'll take it, and I'll try to do things the old Cornet way. As far as business, I like if I can find some places that actually want to play it. Otherwise I'm just playing on my YouTube channel and screw all of them. But I want to start an indie league or an indie wrestling league. And I don't know if I wanted to be kind of like I don't know, if you're familiar with GCW or Cordona's Wrestling now, they kind of they brought a lot of cool back to wrestling, Like there's just some cool elements to it. But I don't know if I want to go that direction or if I want to go full like comedy wrestling, like wrestling.

The silly attraction kind of stuff.

If you and I were to we're to start a wrestling brand, what would you.

Want it to be?

Oh like between those two, between those two, whatever you wanted to be.

About it, and maybe, you know, in a year and a half we do it. I don't know.

I like the silly stuff kind of thing. I think, you know, I think that's something that's kind of missing, uh from from wrestling, you know, uh, you know, like that that attitude era still had that stuff. It's yeah, I mean, you know, Kane can still shoot lightning, you know, like stuff like that like you know, yeah, like you know, some of that kind of like that, that kind of over the top ness. I think it has been sorely missed in wrestling, So I think engaging in something like that would be a lot of fun.

You know.

I always had this idea for a character called the arm.

Uh.

It just he's got one strong arm and he does all of his moves with his one arm, and the other arm is just doesn't do any no effect, just like you know, punch, punch, nothing, but this one's all chokes. I'm like, oh god, the arm, you know, Yeah, you.

Have to convince someone to get super buff on one side.

Yeah, just on one arm again, Like, hey, bron Stroman, Hey dude, would you mind just working out one arm and just not giving.

You doubled to just completely morph your body. Didn't you have like a comedy character that we were joking about one time. I think we're talking about doing a like a D and D wrestling league, and you were gonna have a character named the Librarian.

Yeah, the library didn't interrupt promos.

Every time the crowd popped. He goes like, you know, which is actually great heat. I'd love to see somebody just always shushing the audience every time he loses because he's so well schooled, because he's already read all the rules, all the books on wrestling. Uh, he always can get his losses overturned because of some kind of technicality.

Contests or something like that.

Yes, exactly. You know, so he's got a spotless record, you know.

Yeah, comedy wrestling.

Heck yeah no, he said, what is it? The doing decimation system? You know that would be a finisher.

Yeah yeah, all right, See this would be good at a Moose Lodge place.

If you're going for silly young your man. You know, we can come up with all kinds of stuff.

You believe me. I know. Okay, I love.

This Netflix funded wrestling Federation.

All right, man. They don't care where I put my money, all right.

Yeah exactly, No, No, I'm just care Yeah, like doing gigs exclusively to make sure.

I fall in love in ninety six minutes or less. That's all they care.

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

It'll it'll fund my ultimate Warrior inspired wrestling fans.

See, but we're not we're not going to say that.

Yeah, taking and taking the Jim Courtnett like like package like all right, yeah right.

I just like his business package.

That's all I want to end on uh on women's wrestling, because when I got there, the women had five minute matches and two minutes of it was their intros.

So yeah, and I mean I think the like, what were you either like Lda and Trish and stuff like that. No, I was, oh, geez geez. Yeah, I mean just I mean, I forget what the people nicknamed that, but yeah, I mean it was it was just it was just kind of just trashy. It was just you know, good looking women like riding around with each other. You know it skin me up?

Yeah, they it was. It was goofy.

And when I got there their matches, they weren't allowed to do much. I would see the producers literally tell Vince in the production meetings like look on the road were let these girls work and they can do these moves. They're not getting hurt. They've been doing them for months now. You gotta let them be.

Like, oh no, they're gonna get hurt. They can't do it.

And so the women had to fight girls like Eve Torres, the Bellas, McCool and Layla they were like lay cool or something like that. That was in between my two stints was the Lay Cool Experiment, Beth Phoenix, Natty Knightheart like that was the that was.

Like the group that was there.

There are some legit talents, yeah, but.

They had no time.

And then I left and the Total Diva Show started out rating segments of aw and all of a sudden, the women that were on that show started getting nine minute matches and then they had commercial breaks, and then that next generation of wrestlers came in and really just took flight off of that foundation to where they were Headlinron, Yeah, Banks and Bailey had a sixty minute Iron Woman match on nx HE. When it was before it looked like you can't do that on television.

Yeah, don't get me started.

Started. There's a salt box right over there.

But they kind of like took flight, and then all these releases happened, and it looks as if they're pushing more towards that pretty girl less time. I don't time the women's matches, but I have timed a couple of them because it felt, well, I don't they felt like they've been getting shorter and what worth thirteen minute matches or eleven minute matches now? So if I'm worried that it's going back the other direction. But if they keep releasing them ae W, who I've I find lacking in a women's roster as far as.

Yeah, I think it's one of their one of their flaws. I think otherwise, I think they're actually a really cool company. I dig with it.

I do too.

What about and they would have to start it by signing a bunch of these winsen? But what if ae W did a women's division and gave it an hour and a half or gave it the full two hours on one of their nights. They have a lot of men. They don't necessarily talk.

About that is there? We was There's been talk about like you know, like a women's only kind of show, you know what I mean, Like, yeah, well.

They're gonna try with wow, but they don't have the level of talent the a W.

Yeah. Well no, no, no, no, I'm talking gosh, I forget which which where there was uh it was somebody was talking about this. No, not not just a fed that is all women. It's like literally just giving the women a show, you know, like that kind of thing, giving them an hour, like kind of a week. And I think, yeah, I don't I don't think it's w w E. But I I just remember I think it was some it was a women's wrestler that was like Ring of Honor.

Yeah yeah, yeah, Ring of Honor women sounds great.

It sucks that we were at a point where like yeah, like you kind of do have to time in some of these matches like that's actually you know, like the fact that we that that that's even a notion, uh is messed up. Like that's not the way it should be. You know, look at like they're putting together insane.

Sorry for interrupting, Go ahead.

Yeah, well yeah, no, that's what I mean. Is that like before when they were just these five minute men. I mean, women's wrestling was a joke from like you know what I like, from even with the like when I first started watching the Rock and Robin and stuff like that, and just like fuck, man, I don't like it was just like that was your pee break, you know, yeah, man, wasn't a lot going on, you know, Yeah, and then they didn't really you know, I think there was I think that kind of stigma like kind of stuck for a while until you actually started like letting some of these women cut loose and actually you know, do some things. It's like, yeah, you know, now, like you know, you can it's not crazy for them to headline WrestleMania or to close the show at Survivors.

You can put Charlotte Flair in any WrestleMania main event and people are gonna want to watch.

I mean, that's that's.

No brain, regardless of men or women or whatever, like exactly, like you know, it's it's just good.

Yeah, this is her peak, this is her time, man Like, she's she may not be the best actor, but she owns that character.

And when she stays in that character and.

She never breaks, it's gold man like. She's just she should never be a babyface. As for as long as John Cena wasn't a heel, like that's that's how long she should be a heel for it.

Yeah, I think I think that's I think that's fair. You know. Yeah, Becky Lynch is a heel is kind of a interesting.

Yeah, but I don't buy that she's always.

That's the problem is that you don't you don't buy it, like you know, it's it's it's it's the term didn't work right, you know, that kind of thing. People people still won't like. People still freaking are cheering for her and stuff.

That's Charlotte and Beef.

That that herd that she and Charlotte had is still so fresh in people's minds, and it's like for them to just get that one match out of that and then just say, well, they're on different brands, so it's over. It's like, man, that's that's three pay per views. You could get three pay per views out of that.

Easy, easy, easily.

She could interfere with her on Raw, Charlotte could interfere with her on SmackDown for what for four months?

Okay whatever?

Yeah, you know, I've always have two minds when it comes to the brand split anyway. You know, it gives people more TV time, you know, and we have a deep roster. I think that's a good, you know, good thing. They've got a lot of talent that you know, you want to be able to see. But at the same time, it's like I don't think they It does prevents you from certain kind of matchups, and not necessarily in a good way. There's not these dream matchups per se that you actually like, Oh, I can't wait till you know Survivor series where's you know, Big E gets to get take on Roman brains like that. You know, it doesn't tickle you in that kind of way. But you know, like I don't think they've taken full advantage of it, Like you know, I think maybe they tried to do like an invasion storyline once or twice or something like that. You know. But again, they're the same product, like you know, on both shows, Like stylistically they're the same. They look this one is just blue when the other one is red, and like that's that's it's just you know, so I you know, I don't even pay attention to who's on what roster anymore, you know what I mean. I can tell what I just glance at what color their belt is. But otherwise, like I don't know who's on you know, don't know what show misses on. I just know that he's on it, and.

It isn't important to the fans which show they're on anymore.

Like there is not a brand, you know, because they're actually they aren't separate brands. They're both WWE.

By the way, how can they make NXT look so different? But they can't make SmackDown and Raw look different in any way, shape.

Or for in any way exactly.

And I don't mean for the better, Like I don't think they improved NXT.

I thought I thought n XT went from the most watchable product in WWE too unwatchable in a week, like it just there was nothing.

There was just nothing there for me.

And they have some wrestlers that I still like, but I just don't And the name thing I still don't get, Like, I just they got. They got Rick Steiner's kid and he's he's gonna call himself bron Breaker. Kids love it, but likeker Man like, and then they'll change it when he gets to RAW and it'll be you know, brick Brackman.

Like, yeah, I don't Ricky Reckman.

I just don't get it.

Man.

Like what they do to carry across was insane. They had a guy who looked like Jesus turned.

Him to Immortal Kombat Man.

That he had on red suspenders. They put him, they put him in red. You know how imagine imagine you You create this great character right as an actor, and then a new director comes onto the movie and is like, hey man, we feel like for this.

You lost all your hair, like you you.

Have a unicorn, You're just like these movies made a billion dollars. This is your first movie, man, Like, even if it's your tenth, what are you talking about. When he came out in like the porno dungeon mask and the red suspenders, I literally I didn't.

I didn't. I felt bad for the guy. I didn't even know him. I reached out to a wrestler that I do.

Know, who I happened to know was on the road with him, and I was like, Yo, man, give that dude a hug for me.

You just don't even know the dude.

They FaceTime me that night. He was driving and it was Morrison. John Morrison was riding Shotgun and I literally like, bro, I'm so sorry, and he was like, dude, thanks man, it's been hard, but.

I just I got it. He goes, I gotta stay with you.

It's like it's like his grandma died something.

Him and his girl Scarlet. I don't Scarlet board though.

They were like the Evil Macho and Elizabeth for NXT and they're like, yeah, we're gonna split you guys up. And you look like a linebacker who could legit beat up everybody, So we're.

Gonna get rid of that too. In some video game costumes and see how that goes.

I I never felt bad for someone, or if I not, since I worked in the company, I haven't felt bad for someone.

What it was, I well remember I was it Harper and Rowan because a bash brother, they give him big accidents.

My daughter, my daughter, dad, Why are they doing that to these big guys?

She was she's twelve now, I think she was.

Ten then, and I'm like, yo, my daughter knows what humongous men don't need weapons?

How do you not know that?

I people think it would make that better if she was fighting through tears to say it.

You know, Matt when they gave him the basket that he kept covered. My my daughter literally just walked in the room, looked at the TV.

She was eleven, I think at this.

Point, and goes here we go again, and was walked out, and I was like, she's.

Eleven and doesn't want to watch? Like, what are you doing to these humongous people?

Yeah? No, exactly. I feel like they've kind of, you know, the E is really kind of lost focus on on all this, and I, you know, I think there is some kind of master plan. You know, they're bringing all these new people and they're I mean personally, I think they're going to sell. I think that's exactly why you're exactly probative what they say. Yeah, you know, I think Vince doesn't feel like anyone like you know, and his family can do this. You know, he'd like Vince had to buy the company from his dad. So he's like, all right, Stephanie, if you want to buy it, you know, you have to kill the billion dollars.

Yeah, so I haven't.

I haven't said this before, but I'll say it now because Ben long enough. So I was talking to a dude who was interviewing to be their COEO or do that. They wanted to interview, and they ended up going with Nick conn He had he had passed, but he just wanted to talk to me about the company another and uh so we were just talking about the brand and all this. He goes, Yeah, they wanted us to buy the whole product. He was an exec at Fox. He goes, they want us to buy the whole brand. But the number they wanted wasn't a number we were going to pay. So we licensed SmackDown instead. And I said, were you going to overpay?

Yeah? I said, were you even considering the job?

He goes, no, but I just wanted to talk to you to make sure I wasn't like crazy and lose my mind. I said, a man, it's a crazy place to work. So you got a nice job in La. Your family's in La. Stay in La. But I knew they were going to saw a long time ago off that, and that hit me like a ton of bricks. I was just like, yo, Vince, isn't gonna let anyone have it.

That's crazy. That's crazy.

Have a faceless corporation have it rather than like you know, keep it in the family.

Man.

We're going to start a wrestling federation. We got to think of a name. We'll start texting you ideas.

Don't forget the arms and the librarian.

We have to make sure we.

Have both of them. I could just do steroids in one arm for like six months.

I'm willing. I'm willing to make the sacristic.

All right, there you go.

We found it works like that.

Yeah, that's that's how it works. Just want to just keep injecting in the bush.

You got it.

I haven't Drago style, all right, dude, Thank you so much for being a guest. Thank you for being a friend. Like the Golden Girls always said.

Thank you. Thank you. Actually, I got my son some Golden Girls.

Really, I'm gonna tell Woodsy that he's going on the Golden Girl Cruise.

Oh wow, Oh yeah, I remember because he asked for time off. I heard about this. He has for time off, like like do this freaking thing. All yeah, So I got I got that, got him some of these little little things so you can play with his little Elmo and.

All right, my brother, thank you and enjoy being enjoyed being a great dad.

That's the idea.

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Wrestling with Freddie

Actor and wrestling enthusiast, Freddie Prinze Jr. pulls the curtain back on the world of pro wrestl 
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