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Open Mic 20: Mike Belcaster
40 Plays2 years ago
On this Episode of Open Mic, The MVP actually talks about "Open Mic" with the man about town, Mike Belcaster! They talk about his time in stand up comedy, including his time at Second City, and the night he hung out with one of the greatest comics of all time! We also talk about him working the independent wrestling scene, how he got into podcasting, and being an ambassador for the Turnbuckle Tavern (Yes, he's another member of the Tavern crew). Enjoy!
Find all things Chick at www.chickfoley.com
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Transcript
Introduction and Pod Foundation Overview
00:00:41
Speaker
Welcome back, everyone, to another episode of Open Mic with the MVP Marco. I am, of course, your host, the MVP Marco. It wouldn't be anybody else. Sheena hasn't gotten rid of me yet. I think I'm doing pretty good on these shows so far. So I think I'm in it for the long haul. We'll see what happens. But anyway,
00:00:52
Speaker
Who the hell told you tonight was open mic night
00:01:02
Speaker
The Pod Foundation brings you this show, I like to say. Obviously, Chick Foley has something to do with it, but I like to, you know, the collective of the Pod Foundation, the greatest collection of content creators and podcasters known to man. Obviously, that's the Chick Foley show with myself, Sheena, Seth, and the Fig God, Jordan Wells. We also have the Turnbuckle Tavern. I mean, the work horses of the Pod Foundation, the guys that are pumping out
00:01:32
Speaker
You know, content literally every single day of
Marco's Wrestling Participation and Show Introduction
00:01:34
Speaker
the week. I know for a fact, because I am on one of those shows on the raw down, um, every Thursday, eight o'clock on YouTube. You can hear me and Jay bone in our crazy musings on, uh, the world of WWE and some other stuff in professional wrestling as well. We kind of go off on a tangent.
00:01:51
Speaker
Um, the extra cool show, we welcome them back. They're back from hiatus, uh, pumping out some new episodes. I get, uh, you get Nick, you get Matt, you get the rest of the survivor series team, as they like to say, just bringing you all the, all the nostalgic goodness of, uh, professional wrestling. And then last but not least.
00:02:10
Speaker
Is uh coming down the aisle with j-bone my like I said my partner from the raw down here every week He's another content machine that guy's pumping out shows every week as well as you know on instagram He's pumping out videos and rails and all this stuff. So like I said with a great with the greatest collection of content creators In this game right now, I think I mean i'm a little bit biased but that could be me anyway
00:02:35
Speaker
Let's bring it to my my
Marco's Podcasting Journey with Mike Bellcaster
00:02:36
Speaker
guests. I'm very excited about this one. This has been a long time in the making. I think I reached out to this person last year when I was going to start doing the show, but I kind of like got scared of doing the show and went into hiatus a little bit. And then I was like, you know what? I'm just going to go full force. So we're here and that's all that matters. I'm not sure if he'd agree with me, but I consider, you know, if you take the you take the turnbuckle tavern, right? And you make you
00:03:03
Speaker
You make them like the NWO. Let's say they're the NWO. You have your chads, Hogan and Nash, right? But then you get this guy. His name's Mike Bellcaster. He's like the Scott Hall of the Turnbuckle Tavern, the cool guy, like the guy that you can whip a soda at his head in the middle of the ring. And he'll just take those juices and stick his hand back and keep it moving. So let me bring him on. Mike Bellcaster, how are you doing, sir?
00:03:32
Speaker
Hey, yo. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful intro. I'm doing fantastic, man. How are you doing? I'm doing well, man. I mean, like I said, I consider you like the... You bring the coolness to the turnbuckle tavern. Would you agree at all? I try. I'm very modest. I'm not going to sit here and be like, hell yeah, man. I'm the coolest guy. No. In my eyes, I'm probably like the nerdiest dude of the tavern.
00:04:00
Speaker
Yeah, but I mean, do you have, I mean, do you have obviously have Tom too as well? He brings a nerd factor. He's like the Boris Hogan of the NWO. Oh my God. And you have Ace who I recently interviewed. His episode will be out soon. And so, I mean, you have Ace. It's like I said, it's like you guys like the NWO. Do you like the NWO of the podcast
Social Media's Role in Turnbuckle Tavern's Growth
00:04:24
Speaker
world? Yes.
00:04:24
Speaker
We're taking over. We actually talked about this on the Chick Foley show, the growth of the term buckle tavern, like brand, like the amount of like followers you have now on Instagram, freaking almost like 12,000 followers. Like that amount of time. It's insane. And what do you think? Like the growth of like, are you like shocked by it at all or?
00:04:47
Speaker
No, man, I think a lot of the hard work pays off. I mean, we we put the reels with I mean, the tick tock growth was insane, too, man. Like when they started the tick tock page, I was watching videos hit like two million views, three million views. I was like, wow, this is insane. But like the Instagram thing, man, think I'll thank Reels for that. But I'll think I'll think, you know, the hardworking crew at the tavern because I don't do any I just show up for shows here. I
00:05:13
Speaker
I'm just a voice I don't do all the technicality stuff but uh yeah man the contents there it is so quality uh they always you know hot topic left and right they always got the good stuff like even with the Adam Copeland you know debut and AW like they put it up like
00:05:29
Speaker
Well, a month ago, like, oh yeah, punk got fired, but good thing we got, you know, edge coming down to the future. And look, look what happened, man. It blew up quick and I'm happy to see it, man. All the, everybody, including the pot foundation, we all deserve the love, man. And we've been busting our humps, kicking ass and, you know, taking names, man. And so I'm happy to see the growth.
Mike Bellcaster's Comedy and Wrestling Background
00:05:48
Speaker
Yeah, you can definitely see that, too, with obviously when I had I had extra cooler on a while back in the beginning of the beginning of the like the early stages of the show. And, you know, I asked him, oh, how does it how does it feel like, you know, you're with us upon foundation stuff? And I'm like, how does it be the only one that actually in the group actually has a talent? You actually do something. And he's just like, oh, that's all right. But I know he likes even him, like the amount of like growth, like the growth he's had, like the amount of like
00:06:18
Speaker
You know, we're seeing his gear on a on TV Yeah, every week everywhere like he's in the Indies and he's in the majors He's you know, Matti Matt Cardona comes in for the designs now. He's with FTR It's like, you know, it's awesome to see on the brawler man. He's got his gear on a figure Is that where you like
00:06:40
Speaker
You're you drew that here does well, it's it's a collaboration, but you put that design you did it You actually have to work in and now you're gonna see it probably on a figure too. Like you said like a micro brawler. It's a very merchandise Let's say couldn't be happier for the guy. They're both Nick and math. They're both killing it mad and if it's awesome to see
00:07:00
Speaker
just everybody kind of succeed here, man. Like we've been doing this for, I mean, almost four years, three years, something like that. Right. So, I mean, yeah, it's insane. So I'm, I'm very, very proud of everybody. I'm very happy to see everybody growing and, you know, shining, blossoming little flowers. What about the, uh, so
00:07:20
Speaker
you coming in to the turnbuckle tavern and all that stuff. We don't have to go into full detail about what happened. Give us your take on how everything happened. How did you connect with the chads? Yeah. All that stuff.
00:07:37
Speaker
No, for sure. So like I was I was on a former podcast that will rename nameless because I'm not trying to start. No, no guff here. But it was just doing figure podcast. I mean, the pandemic happened. I was I was doing stand up comedy beforehand. And
00:07:54
Speaker
once, I mean, what was I supposed to do in those stages? No bars, no nothing to go do the standup. And I trained at Second City and did all like this crazy stuff. Like I did a standup show in Vegas, like I was just floating around and then everything shut down. So I was like kind of stuck wondering what I was going to do. AW has been picked up. You know, I had the wrestling passion, like going really strong, but I was like, you know, I used to work Indies for maybe like six years, seven years and
00:08:23
Speaker
kind of fell out of it. Long story short, I lost my brother, my dad in 2016. AW research brought me back, you know, the passion of it all. So I was like, Oh, cool. Like I like wrestling, like if my dad was my big wrestling buddy, I mean, him used to go to all of our shows together. So I had a huge giant wrestling collection, started dabbling around with
00:08:45
Speaker
Instagram because I never had one up until my stand-up days my improv days and I was like, oh, okay Like so let me start posting some of my toys Got picked up with a friend started. We he was like, hey, man, let's do podcasts. I was like, all right, man Never tried it before I'm down, you know, I'll never say no twice. So let me say once so
00:09:05
Speaker
Yeah, we were doing that. I think we in his verbiage, it was a season and we were about to do season two. He kind of fell off the map. So I did a debate with the tavern man and me, Chad Sneed, we're all big Pantera fans. Like we got along really like clicked very, very well together. And I was like, all right, these guys are cool. Then
00:09:28
Speaker
Yeah, it just kind of grew from there. And everybody was just like, Oh, we want to kind of persuade you to join up over here. And you know, we were already part of the pod foundation. So like, we didn't need no introduction or anything. So it's just a comfortable space. And I started doing these little, maybe like,
00:09:45
Speaker
half hour videos with Tom and we were talking about like my fandom with wrestling and you know we would do like specials on like the Road Warriors and stuff like that and then it just became hey let's start a figure show let's start this let's do this and it blew up man and I think at one point I was doing
00:10:03
Speaker
six shows a week. It was insane, man. So the workflow slowed down a little bit, which I'm not complaining about. But yeah, it was hustling, man. I love doing wrestling stuff. Yeah. I think, uh, I think just to add on to that with the, uh,
Early Days and Evolution of Turnbuckle Tavern Podcasting
00:10:19
Speaker
the amount of shows, like I think in the beginning, like we all like, like when everyone got together and we were all doing, it was just so much stuff going on. I was like, Oh, let's do a show and let's jump on this show. And like literally everybody was doing each other's shows. And then I think like,
00:10:32
Speaker
At some point, it was just like, you know, obviously life gets in the way. But at the same time, you're like, let's like compartmentalize who's going to go where. Like, I think around the time when like the raw down started, like the actual like inception of it, I think that's when everything started to like, all right, fig night, that's going to be the show. Raw down is going to be the show. And then like so on and so forth. And you just start. It was more of like a schedule thing. But in the beginning of it, it was just like, yeah, those like people doing like seven or eight shows.
00:11:00
Speaker
Like how do you, how do you do this? Like let's, let's, let's, I want to get to the comedy stuff. Cause I did not know that. Oh yeah. No, for sure. Absolutely. Like how was that? Like jumping on different like six, seven shows. Like it was insane. I mean, I've even dropped, I even hopped on the raw down a few times, which is not my specialty whatsoever, but I was like, yeah, let's do it. But let's see. We had the GCW show on Mondays. We had fig night on Tuesdays. The wrap-up was on Wednesdays. Thursday was.
00:11:29
Speaker
Uh, I was doing something on Thursdays. I forgot what it was, but then Friday was shot in nostalgia. That's that, that was the five show schedule and, uh, everything in between. I mean, we had hanging at the tavern, all this, all these specials that we were doing after pay-per-view shows. And, uh, yeah, it was chaotic as hell, but it was fun. And I don't know, it kept me on my toes. Like I got very comfortable. I had to get comfortable in front of the mic and the camera. And I think that was the best way to do it was deep dive right into it. Like, you know, don't, don't, don't take the steps into the pool. You just dive into the deep end and see what happens.
00:11:59
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's I think that's how it mostly especially when I like started doing this cuz it's obviously it's a one-man show I don't have you don't have Sheena or Seth Oh, yeah So it's like a little like well, it was a little overwhelming at first, but I actually like it now I actually like being able to like, you know
00:12:16
Speaker
sit down and talk one-on-one with somebody or when I had the chads on here, you know, having them. That was amazing. Listening to like how they came together and, you know, the whole, I'm not sure if it's still, if it's a gimmick or a true story, if they are actually related. I still don't know. I'm living the kayfabe world on that one. Kayfabe. Kayfabe, brother. I don't know. They play their poker faces. They haven't said anything yet, so they keep that gimmick alive, but. It's the
Comedic Influences and Storytelling in Comedy
00:12:43
Speaker
best. Yeah.
00:12:46
Speaker
Let me go. Let's go to the car. I did not know you did. How long did you do that for? I started doing 2018. I took classes down at Second City just trying to figure it out.
00:13:01
Speaker
First it started with stand up and then one of the guys from stand up was like, oh, you should try improv to to get loose on stage and like, you know, just kind of shake all the, the, you know, the, the worry out because when you're up there, it's hard to talk and they were cold as hell. They throw you up on stage, uh, microphone in a room of four people, you know, and then you'd have to tell jokes and hopefully something would react. It was, it was insane, man. Uh, very fun though. I took, uh,
00:13:28
Speaker
two classes of stand-up. I did the whole improv thing there. We had an improv group called Daddy Issues. Super fun. And I met a lot of great people doing it. And I think it probably stopped doing it in total, like right when pandemic happened, man. I literally was in Vegas that December. Came back, January hit. And then by the time March came, it was like, oh, everything's done. It was tough, man.
00:13:58
Speaker
Did you like, uh, like what, what got you into doing like, you know, pursuing like a comedy like career, like doing things like that. So it's weird. So I was doing, uh, pro wrestling, you know, I got started doing independent wrestling, probably like 2000.
00:14:14
Speaker
11 something like that. So I loved performing like it was it was you know, I was I started off just helping out and then I was doing timekeeping That I moved it doing ring announcing which I absolutely fell in love with. Yeah, it's so cool being up there I've never held microphone in my entire life like that and being in front of a crowd like it was exhilarating man I absolutely like just fell fell in love with it. So
00:14:37
Speaker
fell out of that. And then like I said, my brother, my dad passed away, which just threw my whole life in the shambles for like a year, right? Like it was recovery time was just ridiculous. So trying to get back to a happy space. I used to watch stand up with my dad and my brother a lot. And I was like, yeah, you know,
00:14:56
Speaker
What the hell? I live in Chicago, second city is 15 minutes from me. Let's figure it out. And I signed up for the classes. I was super, super nervous getting into it. I was never a big speaker, especially public speaker. I hate talking. Shocker, right? But yeah, it made me
00:15:20
Speaker
not only better at, you know, public speaking and being, but it just overall helped with, you know, mental quickness, like just keeping you on your toes, feeling to walk into a room and
00:15:32
Speaker
read the room you know so like it was very beneficial mentally and uh yeah i was happy as a pig and ship like i was being able to go out and perform and uh our improv crew we sold out uh two months worth of shows at second city like we were on fire we were doing great stuff and uh while while on top of doing the improv i was doing the stand-up with it and uh yeah it really enjoyed
00:15:56
Speaker
bringing people into a space and making them smile for, you know, maybe five minutes, 10 minutes, whatever I got. It was, it was always worth it. That's awesome. What was it? What was it like? What would you say your comedy style? Oh, I was very, very into Burke Chrysler. Uh, I grew up watching George Carlin and all this stuff. So I was Mitch Hadberg, uh,
00:16:18
Speaker
I was very storyteller aspect because I lived a wild couple of years. So I closed out a bar with Dave Chappelle and my mom in like 2015. Yeah, wild, wild stuff. But we could go back to that in a minute. But yeah, I was just...
00:16:39
Speaker
I have a totally spaced, but I know comedy style. Like what? Yeah. Yeah. So I, I was like a good one liner guy. I love doing that. And then, uh, I was started, like, I would tell this Chappelle story. It was like one of my favorite things. They're like, I have this one story about like the first time I met Marilyn Manson and like, he was absolutely everything you would picture a rock star to be, you know, a black garbage bags taped to the walls and lock. And
00:17:03
Speaker
in the dressing room. He was like, had me my drug purse. And I was like, this is everything I've ever wanted as walking into a concert backstage. You felt like you were in front of the Beatles. It was insane. But yeah, big storytelling guy. Loved doing one-liners. My big opener was like, hey, guys. I don't do cocaine. Never done it. But I always trim my nose hair in anticipation. Silly shit like that.
00:17:32
Speaker
Whitty stupid jokes and they everybody always like had a good time with it So I always try to bring a good energy when I get up there and even if I'm telling Weird jokes or if I'm telling stories like I just try to keep it as light-hearted as possible But like yeah, man, like everybody I want you to get story time sit down. Let's talk, you know, cuz yeah, I like the intimacy and I love doing crowd work Like you can talk to people like what's your job? You know, and they'll come back and like you just go back and forth with it It's just it was so
00:18:01
Speaker
new to me that like I was just like, Oh, I could I could do this forever. Like I was I was feeding off. Yeah. Oh, man. I was sort of like doing that type of stuff. But I was I'm a big scaredy cat when it comes to jumping on stage. But now like for a living, my shoe job, you know, I'm
00:18:18
Speaker
Doing that pretty much I'm doing Talking to people presentations in front of the world It's like it comes natural after to like when you're just in front of people just talking But to be yeah, he is a different a whole different element like you might think something's funny But obviously your job is to put that out there and see if someone else laughs and I remember I remember Patrice O'Neill said oh
00:18:41
Speaker
He always used to say it should be 50 50. It should be 50 50 percent of the people laughing in the room. Fifty percent of the people just shocked and horrified. Everyone shouldn't be laughing at everything you say. It should be a mixed bag.
00:18:57
Speaker
I love Patrice O'Neill, man. That is a name that hits home, man. I used to watch him shorties, watching shorties on County Central. Yeah. Flashbacks. Right. All the stand up specials are so great. Did I go on YouTube and I literally like watch
00:19:13
Speaker
like not watch but I listen to like when he was on like Opie and Anthony when he had his own show Sirius X7 Black Phillip listen to that all the time I go back to his uh stand-up elephant in the room uh tough crowd if you if you've heard of that show tough crowd oh my god yeah Jim Collins Quinn Jim Norton like all those guys I used to hang out and stuff and man that's that's the type of like I love comedy and that's that style of comedy is like that's my style like all those guys too like all
00:19:40
Speaker
pretty much came from Boston. Patrice, no Rogan, Bill Burr. And then they all moved to, obviously, New York. And they all became this, like, Bob Kelly, another one of those guys, too. So that's the type of style that I kind of took on for myself when I like to tell jokes and kind of things in that way. I kind of took on that persona just by listening to it so much. What do you like?
00:20:05
Speaker
I know your comedy style story telling, but what is, who is your like, who do you go to as far as like a inspiration when it comes to, when it comes to that, who makes up your, your comedy stylings? I know you said like Carlin and all that stuff, but is there a specific person?
00:20:20
Speaker
uh it's hard as like there's so many people i always wanted to aspire to be when i was trying to think about like they're like writing jokes like i was always trying to be the anthony jesel neck or you know somebody of like but i don't have that cold deadpan look to me like i'm too well like i'm i'm i i feel like i'm the burke christ your type of guy you know i'm just
00:20:40
Speaker
I'm big. I'm hairy. I like to have a good time. So like I can never go up to a place and be like, you know, I can't pull the heel move. Like I'm always going to be the baby face in the room. So that's usually what it goes with. But I like I could like we had a class. It was like two weeks worth of it where we were just doing one liners. And I was just sitting there watching Mitch Hedberg, like trying to pick apart the way he thought because it was so
00:21:07
Speaker
so out there, so wild, like his jokes, like talking about the rice, if you ever hungry enough where you want a thousand of something, eat more rice, man. Like, it's so, so silly. You're like, how the hell?
00:21:22
Speaker
Did he think about like, and so that's where I would try to like sit down and like try to get outside of the natural bubble of, you know, even with the storytelling stuff, try to find a unique way to tell the story. Even if you embellish it, like you got to figure out where you can embellish. You got to figure out how to embellish it, where you can lift it up a little bit more, where you can bring it down and like get really close. You know, and then you got to, there's stage work. Like you got to walk, you know, how am I going to walk around? Where am I going to be? Am I going to tap on the like for somebody's at the door?
00:21:50
Speaker
Yeah. You know, like that. But yeah, it's it's I try to take everybody, you know, I love I love Robin Williams. I love. Yeah, I love Cat Williams. Like you can go across the spectrum. Yeah. So like I was I was always very into it. Like I just love I love laughing. I like being happy, man. Yeah. It's it's a hard thing when you really need it. And when you find it, like you love it.
00:22:16
Speaker
I mean I remember like I think with comedy too like if you're into comedy and you're a fan of it I think like obviously you're not gonna find every single person you know funny but at the same time you a majority of the you're gonna you're gonna have a I like a lot of different stylings it's like professional wrestling like you might
00:22:36
Speaker
Professional wrestling you might like mucha style you might like strong style you might like no big meaty men slapping me you might Like you're still gonna have like a majority of things you like and that's that's what comedy to like you might not like everything But there are gonna be certain like you said the contracts from Robin Williams a cat Williams. That's like yeah, that's a huge contrast here and I absolutely Funny not really a funny story, but my father He passed away in 2000
00:23:04
Speaker
nine, but a huge religious guy, like really from the South.
Meeting Comedy Legends and Their Influence
00:23:10
Speaker
You know, Christian, all that stuff. And my mother, you know, she's from a pair. She's you know, she was actually she actually did like open mics and stuff. And she was younger. She wanted to be like a full time comedian at one point. But she was like a huge fan of George Carlin. And I think it would I think it would show. I think it would our special was that he did that thing on God.
00:23:32
Speaker
It was like the last bit. It was like about like a tenon. I remember it was like me, my father, my mother sitting there like we were watching it like HBO. It was a premiere of it. My mother was like, oh, we got to watch us. And I remember my I remember my father like watching it and him like saying like, yo, you know, there is no God. Well, if there was strike, he struck me dead right now. He's like, oh, wait, no, I feel a little tingle. I feel like my father was like, he's actually laughing. He thought it was like.
00:23:57
Speaker
That's how powerful comedy is. You could be the most religious person in the world. But if someone articulates a joke in a certain way and tells a story in a certain way, that's how you know they're geniuses. And I want to transition over to
00:24:12
Speaker
Chappelle because I think he's one of if not like the best Story tell like he can tackle any type of subject and it's just palatable and like he has that like I don't want to say he's he has that like thing that Patrice said like not everyone's gonna laugh and he says but it's gonna be 50 it's gonna be 5050 some people are gonna be like mortified by what he said and some people are gonna laugh hysterically and
00:24:40
Speaker
And I watch all the specials on Netflix, all the ones that he put out there. They're just so good. The trailer is just gold. I mean, I could go on and off with Dave Chappelle. But how the hell did you end up you and your mother hanging out with Dave Chappelle? So a very, very long story. But so the pro wrestling company I was working with at the time was Resistance Pro. It was ran by Billy Corgan pre his TNA.
00:25:05
Speaker
days pre his you know nwa purchase uh this was like him kind of getting his feet wet uh he was co-owners with uh two guys that lived you know on the south side of chicago and then uh my mom and i came in and uh kind of helped build up like what the missing pieces so i like you know they they needed somebody to do publicity stuff for him like i would help them find a tv station that they could get on at two in the morning so we could watch it like ecw back in the day you know stuff like that but uh
00:25:35
Speaker
became really really close with billy corgan uh you know we we were not i mean i i proposed my wife during the time we were there uh we got married in a wrestling ring we were in the national choir a lot a lot of crazy shit happened so um it was it was a trip but so billy the the company
00:25:56
Speaker
blows up, you know, like, like all good things, they do come to an end. So Billy removes himself from the company, we all kind of follow along with them, the smarter ones did. Yeah, I was, I was out in DC with my buddy Giovanni, my mom, Billy Corgan,
00:26:16
Speaker
trying to think there was a couple other people there, but we were there for like a wounded soldiers concert. So all the band members would play with like Tom Morello, Billy Corgan was doing it. My mom does a lot of work with the military. So she helped set this up for him and stuff. But who's there? One of the guys from Pink Floyd, can't think of his name off top of my head. So it was like, wow, this is insane. Like let's go to it. So we're out there.
00:26:43
Speaker
and while we're there we go to we do the concert thing we have a great time Billy's like come back to my hotel afterwards like I'll meet you guys in the lobby we'll hang out talk and I was like all right cool so we get to the hotel we're like it's me my mom my mom's friend Mick I was her co-worker and my buddy Giovanni who I just was like hey come to DC with us like oh yeah I'd love to
00:27:04
Speaker
So we get there and we're in the four seasons, you know, DC. So I'm like, Oh, this is crazy. Like it's probably the first time I ever stepped into a place that I could not afford to be. So you're like, like T is like $30. Like I'm free. Like I would, I'm,
00:27:22
Speaker
So before this, I like I didn't start drinking until my late 20s. This probably was the start of it was this night. Yeah, like I was I got there. I'm like, I'm going to have a green tea. Like I'm going to hang on. I'm going to wait for Billy to get down here. And we're sitting there. Tom Arrell walks by and I was like, oh, we were just at the concert. We start chatting him up. He was from he's from Chicago. He's from like Edgebrook or something. So shooting some shit about, you know, the Chicago Cubs, his guitar, play guitar. So I was like, oh, guitar talk up. This is, you know, his ear off.
00:27:50
Speaker
And while we're talking to him, Kathy Griffin walks by. She stops and she's like, oh, hey, what's going on, guys? And we're like, fuck, Kathy Griffin is crazy. So can we get a selfie? Yeah. I don't hang out with teamsters. It was really, really random. Like, it was just like, OK. So she's like.
00:28:09
Speaker
My mom's like, what are you doing here? And she's like, oh, well, we're here. Dave Chappelle's getting the Mark Twain Award. And I was like, oh, so it's like wild, right? So I was like, we're like, oh, shit. And she's like, oh, yeah, he's supposed to be here. Like Chris Rock was in the lot. Like there's so many people in the bar area. So I'm like, I'm not going to like, this is it. I capped off. Like I met Tom Morello and Kathy Griffin. Like I'm having a great time. So.
00:28:36
Speaker
We're sitting there. Billy finally comes down and he's like, Oh, Hey, what's going on? You know, we'll sit down. We've got a really big long table, his crew's there. So everybody's telling stories and, you know, having dinner, sharing drinks, having a good time. And I see Chappelle out of the corner of my eye, like with this kid on his shoulder, his wife, he's walking through the lobby and my buddy's like, do, do, do.
00:28:57
Speaker
It's Chappelle, man. I was like, no, no, no, we're not going to bother him because that's what made him go to Africa. Like we're going to, yeah, I'm not. Yeah. I'm not trying to be the guy that's like, Hey, Dave Chappelle, what's going on? And he's like, man, fuck you guys. You know? Yeah. So we're sitting there at like an hour or two pass. It's probably like 11 o'clock at night.
00:29:21
Speaker
And I turn and I see Chappelle at the bar. I was like, dope. He's sitting by himself. He's on his phone like doing this.
00:29:28
Speaker
My cat, man, was like, my buddy's like, should we go say hi to him? I was like, no, no, no. I was like, just let's play it out. Let's see what happens. Maybe we'll cross paths, right? I don't want to be that guy. He's like, all right. So I see Chappelle get up and he goes, gun lines outside. He pulls out a cigarette. And I was like, grab my buddy, he's by the shoulder, you know, drag him out. I was like, come on, come on, come on. He's like, what are you doing? And I was like, just shut up, come on. So I get out there, I light my cigarette. Chappelle looks up and goes, hey, man, you got a light? And I was like, boom, we got it.
00:29:57
Speaker
So I said, I'm like, hell yeah, man, for you. I was like, absolutely. So I'm like scrambling through my pockets, trying to get my lighter out. I pull out one phone because I had like, it was like the old Apple C phones. They were like plastic iPhones. Yeah. So I had two of them because one was from Spotify because I put all my music on it because we were traveling. And the other one was for my normal phone shit. And so I'm sitting there juggling phones and I get my lighter out, light a cigarette. Oh, thanks, man. He's like, I'm Dave.
00:30:23
Speaker
I was like, hi, Dave, I'm like, like, who gives a fuck? So my buddy's like, I'm Giovanni. Pleasure to meet you. You know, Chappelle's just like, hey, man, like we started just shooting the ship and we're like, oh, man, it's so cool. Like you heard you're getting award. Like we ran into Kathy Griffin. He's like, Kathy Griffin's here. He's like, shit, let's go. So like we ran around the lobby trying to find other comedians because he was so excited and nobody was there.
00:30:49
Speaker
And he was just like, oh, man, like he looked like a hurt puppy. I was like, I couldn't. I couldn't. I was like, shit, man, like his whole night's like going to be ruined because he gets to hang out with us. So I was like, hey, can I buy you a beer? Sorry, your friends left. Like, let's go sit down at the bar. And he's like, like, no, man. He's like, you're going to come with me. We're going to sit down and I'm going to buy you a drink. And I was like, oh, shit. So I thought.
00:31:14
Speaker
I was not like, I think I've had like two beers my entire life up until this point. And he was like, oh, what are you drinking? And I don't know, the bartender walks up and Dave's like, I'll have like, I'm still light. And I was like, I'll have what he's having. He's like, motherfucker, don't you dare pull out the Samuel L. Jackson drink. I'll have what he's had. We were cracking up. And this whole time, it's just me, my buddy and Chappelle.
00:31:42
Speaker
Like we're just sitting at the bar. My mom's never seen me drink a day in her life. She comes walking past me and she's, you know, she's had a few cocktails. She sees me, she falls on the floor and she goes, what the fuck are you doing? You don't drink. Like, you know, she was just like, she was just shocked. And then I looked at her and I was like, giving her that look like, yo, shut the fuck up.
00:32:04
Speaker
So yeah, so Chappelle turns and she goes, oh my God. And she falls on the floor again. And like, he's like, man, I was like, Dave, this is my mom. Mom, this is Dave. He's like, hey, mommy. So I was like, yeah, my mom's like, he never drank a day in his life. Like he's this is like first period goes shit. He's like, don't let me become the reason for all your problems.
00:32:26
Speaker
So we're chatting it up, we're having a good time and I was like, hey, it's like, do you want to meet Billy? Have you ever met Billy Corgan? Do you want to meet Billy Corgan? He's like, is that that motherfucker from Pearl Jam? He's like, he gave me a skateboard. I almost broke my damn arm on it. And I was like, close. It's like same generation. He's like, he's over here. He's like, hell yeah. So I walk over to the table. I'm like, Billy.
00:32:46
Speaker
This is my friend. He's like, what the fuck? So there was it was a cool, like little shocking moment. Everybody in the in the like it became we met up at 11. We didn't leave Chappelle until like five 30 in the morning. Damn.
00:33:01
Speaker
Like it was insane. And he was like, I'm just going to hang out and close out the bar. Like, hey, chill with you guys, man. And I was like, this is crazy. So yeah, it was it was a wild, wild story. And he was the coolest motherfucker I've ever met in my entire life, as he would be. He lives. He lived up to every expectation possible. Funny, charming, super, super smart. And
00:33:25
Speaker
Like I was just, I, it took me until like four 30 in the morning to be like, I'm a huge fan. Like I was, none of that the whole time. I was just like, yeah, I'm from Chicago. We were showing pictures of each other's kids. Like he's, you know, it was just, it was, it was a really nice intimate encounter. Then I wasn't expecting it to be that cool. You know, like usually it's like a five second, like, Hey, Hey, cool. Nice to meet you. Can I get a selfie? Yeah. We didn't even take a picture until.
00:33:52
Speaker
Like, way, way late. It was probably like close to six in the morning, like before he jetted off. He's like, my wife's going to kick my ass. I got to get up. I was like, all right, man, fair enough. Was crazy, man. Absolutely crazy. He kills mine. I hung out with Marty, Janetti and Doink. Oh, wow. That's that's sounds like a crazier story. Yeah, it wasn't that bad. There was that I think it was that it was that a
00:34:21
Speaker
Was that one of the, uh, there was a local wrestling show. We were all at the same hotel. He was, his, his door was across from ours. We didn't even know. Oh, he, we had at one point we had doing swig.
00:34:36
Speaker
I don't know how we got it. He had it. Martin Jeanette. He had doinks wig with the curly, Afro wig. He had that. He was wearing it at one point in the hallway. We invited him to the room. We drank. We drank with them and stuff like that. No drugs, no drugs involved. All right. None of that stuff. He was heavily drinking. Went to the bar, drank, and that's when we seen Doink. And he was there. We drank with Doink.
00:35:00
Speaker
You know, it's tough. That's I mean, there's nothing fun about that, but yeah, he's he's definitely a ladies man. I'll tell you that much. Oh, they try to be. Yeah. Yeah. He's all over the place.
Memorable Encounters in Wrestling Fandom
00:35:13
Speaker
He's hit on all the all the cougars. Yeah. The female clientele, the establishment. But yeah, man. Jeez. Wow. That's that's insane. You got to freakin' hell.
00:35:28
Speaker
yeah man and it was like it was so wild and he was so cool man like literally was just like i like my daughter was just born like i was one of those things like i was just like so that's normal like i was just like yo dude he was like here this is my daughter it's because that was the part one of the jokes is in there is like i was digging for my lighter i pulled out the one phone and i pulled out the other phone and he's like oh man you got side bitches don't you
00:35:52
Speaker
like this one's for pictures and music. This one's to talk to people. And he's like, Oh, okay. He's like, you lied, man. You lied. And I was like, no, no. It's like, you know, I shouldn't picture my daughter. He's like, Oh, hell yeah. And then he started showing me pictures of his kids. It was, it was so like random, so wild. So it's like, you know, it's like running into a Pokemon in the fucking wild. It's like, what's going on? It's like wild. They spell period. Wow.
00:36:17
Speaker
So it was cool. I was super pumped and he was, like I said, it was just the coolest dude in the world. I don't think I've ever had a good encounter that well. I was like, damn. Has there been any other, has there been any people that you did meet that were just like, nah.
00:36:33
Speaker
Oh yeah, of course. Yeah, I thought this guy was going to be, or lady. Well, I mean, not necessarily have high expectations, but like I've been treated weirdly and bad. Like one time we were at, we were, this is why I was working with the wrestling company. We were hosting or not hosting, but we had a table at this overnight
00:36:54
Speaker
horror themed flea market right sounds so fucking great but a lot of lot of like the guy that played the oompa loompa and willy wonka was there like there's some some forms of celebrities walking around and stuff honky talk fans there and honky talk man walks over to our table he's like oh he's like billy corgan's company huh he's like tell that motherfucker to call me i got good plans for his company
00:37:16
Speaker
And I was like, this was going on for hours. Like I was at some point, I was like, man, like get him the fuck away from us. So I'm sitting there with my buddy Giovanni again and we're like, oh, we're going to go take a walk to the floor and check out the merch and stuff like that.
00:37:31
Speaker
We both were like, oh, we've got a piss. Let's go to the bathroom. Honky talk man comes walking in behind us and he's just like, he's like, hey, Bubba, he's like, you want to see my dick? And I was like, what the fuck? And like, he was just so it would I couldn't tell if he was fucked up or like he was ribbing me. Like, I don't know what the fuck was going on. But honky talk man is not on my front. Yeah, we got we got he honky talk.
00:38:02
Speaker
it was wild man but like the whole time he was just like get me a job get me a job hey you want to see my dick get me a just like what the fuck is wrong with you oh no we were like I'm done I'm spent man like I need a cigarette afterwards like this is crazy but he was like he was there he had the big gold like he
00:38:23
Speaker
Not the intercom, like he was just all over the place. He didn't have the actual intercom. No, no, no, I see title. He had the big WCW gold, which made no sense. Just live in his dream. Fun times, man. I've been to not throw everybody on the bus, but I've had some other encounters where I was like, oh, this guy's an asshole. And like, oh, those are mostly wrestlers. A lot of them were wrestlers. I mean, a few celebrities in between two, you know. But but yeah, man, it was like.
00:38:51
Speaker
It's it's crazy, but not everybody's everybody's flavor, you know, so I get it. It's it's the honky tonk man was definitely one of those ones. I was like, he said, you know, you mentioned like before you mentioned your mom to like she was helping out. Is she like, is she into like the wrestling and she loves it. She loves it because I love it. She like she sees like a passionate for it. She gets it. And
00:39:20
Speaker
This is like, you know, I was just getting started into it. I started talking to the guys that own the company. They were they were great for the run. Right. And so until everything blew up, it was much like everything, you know, it was it was fun while lasted. Yeah. But when she seen how much I was doing with it and what I like, oh, like she knows she like run Chicago. Like she's she's basically the Irish mafia here.
00:39:45
Speaker
only jokes only jokes but uh but like if i needed like hey we need a venue down in this area like do you know anybody you know it was one of those things like yeah i could call somebody for you and like we'll get it set up and like so we were doing a lot of stuff for them like that like eventually it was like hey let's let's throw some money towards them and help them out like booking people and like it was
00:40:05
Speaker
It was the only way I was going to be able to get bigger attention on it. You know, so it was like what we had a Kevin Nash coming for a show. And he was like, these are the smartest fucking dude in the room for bringing me it. Thank you. You know, but we were so.
00:40:20
Speaker
The show, we were doing great. We had a year under our belt. We were supposed to be on AMC. We filmed for a reality show. We were like nine episodes deep in the filming. And we were on our way to Minnesota for a zombie pub crawl wrestling show, venues book, Justin Credibles on their DDP. It was crazy, right? Raven was, Raven's like one of my good friends from all this, which is wild.
00:40:49
Speaker
but on our way to Minnesota for the zombie pub crawl, the AMC crew is like literally with a camera in her face and they're like, oh, AMC just canceled all reality programming. Like talking dad was gone, like everything. So they're like, hopefully somebody else can pick it up. We're going to continue to film this weekend, but hopefully we'll see what happens. And that was kind of like the downfall at all. Once the reality show
00:41:11
Speaker
got screwed up. A lot of bad shit came into light from the other two owners and things and we were like, we're out. I don't want to be attached to this drama. I've dealt with enough shit growing up. I'm good. But yeah, it was a trip, man. I had a great time. I met a lot of great people.
00:41:32
Speaker
I made Pineapple Pete his first action figure. This is years, years down the line, man. So yeah, it was crazy who I ran into. Cash Wheeler was part of our crew, running to him at every AW show now. And he's always like, hey Bubba, what's up? I'm like, hey Bubba. So it's cool to see.
00:41:52
Speaker
Like the success of everybody that's that's my favorite part of doing anything is watching everybody grow like John Schuyler Who's on impact right now that guy is a hell of a talent even better person? Just just seeing all these guys that came from where I was, you know Yeah, and seeing them go up to do bigger and better things including myself, you know, it's it's awesome, man
00:42:14
Speaker
Yeah, I was going to say that you actually brought up a good point because I spoke to the wrestling class like Justin about that. He said he likes to see people like flourish. Like he likes to like, you know, if he's working with somebody or he's friends with somebody, he likes to see them, you know, grow and get bigger. Do you think like
00:42:35
Speaker
now, because we talked about like early 2014, 2015, social media wrestling wasn't like a huge thing. There wasn't like, you know, podcasts like crazy. There was like a few pages that I kind of, we spoke about, I kind of said like, you know, Chick Foley was one, he was one. I think extra cooler at the time too. They were, they all came up around the same time. And there was a couple other
00:42:59
Speaker
pages early and you know early in the Instagram days and then obviously now it's like It's it's insane. It's like, you know, this is everywhere. Yeah streamers us included. Do you think there's like Do you like seeing like it? Do you know anybody else besides like us and they're like the pod foundation? Do you know anyone outside of that that's doing this? That's like yeah Absolutely. Yeah, it was like that crazy crazy good, but that Nick Houseman, you know, he's
00:43:30
Speaker
The scrum guy, right? He worked at the same company I did. So it was cool to see him. I mean, first time we seen him at a media scrum, I was like, holy shit, dude. I'm so happy for him. It's the coolest thing. And he was one of the first guys that started doing, like he quit the company and then he started his podcast right afterwards. And like he was helping out. I know he was helping out cult and like now he's like the CM Punk.
00:43:55
Speaker
the the voices he's the voice of the voice of the voiceless so it's but it's cool to see like anybody that i've ever came cross paths with uh i mean like the over the moon salt girl that does the cosplay like i've seen her a few times at like these these fanfests and stuff and like she's she's killing it you know like i love yeah
00:44:17
Speaker
seeing it and like Chick Foley too, like I filed Chick Foley on Twitter, God knows how long ago, I mean. And that was like, that was when I wasn't collecting actively, like that was like, oh damn, that looks so cool, you know, and I was just checking out all this stuff. So I was like, I always kept up with it, even when I wasn't watching Foley, you know, I always tried to stay like toys wise too, like you're walking down a Nile, you know, you're in Target to buy cat litter, you're like, oh shit, I'm gonna still check it out, even though I'm not buying anything, but like.
00:44:46
Speaker
as you can see i still buy a lot but good problems they have actually i had yeah i had um kacey uh over the moon salt on uh i think yeah like i think she was like in the like the fourth or fifth maybe episode and nice but i actually have her back again i think uh it's gonna be i'm gonna have her and sheena on we're gonna do a uh
00:45:10
Speaker
We're going to do like a Halloween open mic episode because she like she loves Halloween. She loves all things about it. Obviously, Casey with the costumes and stuff like that as well. So I kind of want to bring them two together. It'd be like the first time they're meeting each other, too, as well, which is which is pretty awesome. I think, you know, like I told Sheena when I first started doing the show, one of my main one of the main things I wanted to do with the show is to highlight
00:45:36
Speaker
like women in our like our community because we obviously you know you know Sheena you know Casey yeah like I have like I just had to heal Liz I'll hurt her um episode will be out soon um I've had uh like I said Casey I've had Marie shadows you guys have heard she she was on the debate ones yeah
00:45:57
Speaker
And then one non-wrestling one, which is Queen Jie, she collects a teenager Ninja Turtles stuff, mainly Donatello stuff, but she's like, you know, with, you know, she's like a deal with Paramount and Nickelodeon
Women in Wrestling and Fan Opinions
00:46:09
Speaker
and stuff like that. And she's like, it's weird to see like, like, cause I had her on once, like the first time and then like a year later.
00:46:17
Speaker
She's like, yeah, I just went to the premiere of the, you know, mutant mayhem. And I got to sit down with Kevin Eastman and, you know, I have this thing with like Nickelodeon now where I'm doing like, you know, advertising and stuff like that's, that's, it's just insane. Like, you know, people that you've interacted with and now they're starting to do like all these amazing things. It's, it's, it's awesome to see like, yeah, you just, you just want everyone to like, to win. And I think, I think I'm trying to get into this next part, which I always bring up with everybody, social media and.
00:46:46
Speaker
Wrestling yeah, you've seen it. I mean we talk I talk about it. I was gonna go like on a huge rant about You know, it's and I talked to wrestling class you all this who like it see Wrestling fans not knowing what they want like they'll hate one thing. I
00:47:05
Speaker
But then someone else would do that same thing, but they'll love it because they love that person. But you just hated it on this side. But now you like it's just I don't I just don't get the like, especially now, like in the spot that we're in with the amount of we're spoiled now.
00:47:20
Speaker
But the amount of wrestling that we have, like, Impact, GCW, New Japan, AEW, WWE, Defy, like, this goes on, like, there's this NWA, there's like, you can't go anywhere without, like, watching, you don't have to, like, watch every single thing. You can pick and choose what you like. So I don't get where the complaining and all the negativity, like, where do you stand on that, like,
00:47:44
Speaker
Like it's a small minor. It's a minority of the you know of the wrestling community that you know speaks their negative Yeah, like where do you stand on that like as a you know as a podcast or as a content creator? Cuz obviously you're out there looking at the stuff the same things I am everything I see the positive the negative I don't shy away from either side so like where do you stand on like Like the effect that like, you know social media has on on wrestling and wrestling fans. Yeah, I think it's a lot of
00:48:15
Speaker
people just wanting to be heard, even if they're not right. You know what I mean? And I don't mean to say that negatively because I've probably said some stupid shit too. God forbid, no deep dives on me, damn it. But I don't know. Half of these people, a good portion of these people probably didn't grow up during the Monday night wars. And I have a feeling like they're just
00:48:40
Speaker
They've been and I'm not trying to say it's fat brain. I'm not trying to say it's tribalism I just think that they were so accustomed to having that one thing, you know, like us having Toys R Us It's hard to go to a mom-and-pop shop now. Yeah, you don't get the same feeling. You know what I mean? Like it's it's so when you see stuff that Sure is exciting, you know. Yeah edge signing the AW
00:49:02
Speaker
Of course they're going to shit on it. You know, of course they're going to, there's going to be people. It's like, mom, I seen something. It's like, it's like dad getting divorced from mom, which is utter
Current Wrestling Boom and Fan Unity
00:49:11
Speaker
deathbed. And it's like, fucking calm down. Like it's not, none of this is that serious. I've always been on the boat of like, just sit back and enjoy the ride, man. We are, well, you just said we are spoiled right now. We are in probably the biggest boom for pro wrestling. Yeah. I mean, absolutely. Like this is,
00:49:30
Speaker
way bigger than the Monday night wars. And I imagine what the tribalism would have been if there was, you know, social media back then. Yeah. Like, God, you can only imagine. But like, it's insane. But I understand where people do come from, where they are like trying to stick up and be like, I was there for day one. I watched Roman Reigns debut and he is my tribal chief. And it's like,
00:49:56
Speaker
and it's it's some like 40 year old white guy that he doesn't belong in any tribes you know what i mean like and like i i love people man wrestling fans are absolutely oh my god it's mind boggling me it's it's their takes it's i don't know where half of these people get money like i've always had these fanfests and i'm like
00:50:18
Speaker
These guys have like three belts on and they're like, you know, they're buying bags of figures. And like, I was like, I can't even get a ticket to the show, man. What are you doing? And it's it's it's one of the most beautiful, mind boggling sports fandoms in the world. And it's it's but it's awesome, too. Like I am one of these guys.
00:50:40
Speaker
If I had the want to go dress up as a wrestler and go to the shows, I would totally do that. I used to go slick my hair back as we're going back to the Scott Hall. I'd pull the little thing down and put a tooth in my mouth and I'd be a Nitro man with my dad. It was a good time.
00:51:00
Speaker
That's what we do. Nobody should, nobody should be attacking their own. It's like, it's Star Wars versus Star Trek. It's baseball versus football. My team's better, your team's stuck.
00:51:13
Speaker
It's that's what we got. It's like almost like, you know, when you see like, like other sports fans, like when wrestling fans come into the conversation of like, with other sports fans, it's like, who like, they're like, these people are fucking crazy, like wrestling is like,
00:51:33
Speaker
like toxic, crazy, our beers. And one thing is like, one thing you won't do is talk about wrestling to like anything negative. Like one thing we'll all get together on attack us. We get attacked back and like, yeah, absolutely. Which is a good thing.
00:51:49
Speaker
That's what that's what we need. We need like a good like public moment where somebody shits on wrestling. So all of us could just come together and be like, Naro. Yeah, we need like a we need like a like a Stephen A. Smith or someone from like ESPN. But even that, you can't do that because now they're like doing it. These guys and they'll laugh about it and be like, yeah, like first with everybody like they like they show up on ESPN and do like the sports talk at all. Yeah. I mean, even
00:52:18
Speaker
You think about wrestling in its bubble, man, seeing wrestling on ESPN is that is a hell of it's a hell of an accomplishment, though. Sports Illustrated. Yeah, everything like amazing. Like anything that happens, I get like this with Edge. Well, yeah, the topical edge was literally on everything ESPN. Jay Jay Jay was illustrated all that stuff.
00:52:40
Speaker
Yeah, the Jade Card goal thing was absolutely insane. And it falls right into what you were talking about. It's like all the people that were watching from the sidelines with Jade were like, oh, she's terrible. She's, you know, she's so green. She sucks, blah, blah. And like, we're all like, yeah, we love Jade. Jade's great. Like if you've ever seen Jade in person, you're like, God damn, Jade is a presence of a human being, man. So like, did you see her in person? Oh, yeah. A couple of times, man. I was I was helped. I helped.
00:53:07
Speaker
film some stuff for jazzwares at one of the fan fest where they debuted her one of 3000 shop AW figure and like just seeing her like being five feet in front of her you're like damn man like she's got presence she has that it factor no matter what and like those WWE fans are like yeah look we got jade cargo it's like
00:53:27
Speaker
I don't want to say on the edge thing, but like I see people saying like he should be, WWE should remove him from, from the Hall of Fame.
Wrestler Transitions and Industry Impact
00:53:37
Speaker
You crazy, man. It's like stuff like that that makes me so angry. It's like, well, everybody goes to their extremes. Like that's, that's their first.
00:53:46
Speaker
Yeah. Newsflash, they're all everyone's friends. They all know each other. They all talk to each other. Like if you're if I'm not sure what corner of like Twitter or Instagram, but you'll see them all will be taken. They'll be at the same parties with each other. Like you'll see like an MJF hanging out with fucking Cody Rhodes and like you like Bailey with freaking someone in AEW. It's like they all intermingle. They're all friends. It's like
00:54:11
Speaker
Well, much like us, we all want to see each other succeed. They want their peers to succeed too. They want their friends. They want everybody to do good. And it doesn't matter where they're going to do it. And right now, it's the best time to go to do these things, do big changes like that. Edge is doing one of the coolest things in the world because he said, fuck it. I'm going to go to AW now and just have fun.
00:54:31
Speaker
Yeah. Like there's nothing left for me to do here. How can you be even slightly against that? Like not reasoning. Like what else is there for edge to do in WWE? Right? Like guys done it all. No, no. I mean, yeah. The moment we got, yeah, the moment we got on dynamite with him and Christian was amazing, man. It was so fun. And like, I love wrestling. Wrestling is so good like that. And like, even
00:54:55
Speaker
Listen, I was at WrestleMania. Again, I'm not a big WWE guy. You know this. And I thoroughly enjoyed the show. It's not the kind of wrestling I'm really into. It's not like, and I hate big arena shows like that, like being there. It's like overly produced. Yeah. But it's like, you know, I don't want to pay. I never want to pay over 40 bucks to stare at a screen. And like I do that enough with pay-per-view, you know?
00:55:18
Speaker
So going to LA and spending the flight there and thankfully our homies over at Mattel were generous enough to hook us up with the ticket for the Saturday show. It was beautiful. I've only been to WrestleMania twice before that.
00:55:35
Speaker
and both were at the Allstate Arena, the Rosemount Horizon, and it's a completely different machine now. WrestleMania is like going to Disney on Ice for a whole weekend.
00:55:51
Speaker
Back in the day it was you know, I like I was at WrestleMania 13 I was at WrestleMania 22 like those were grittier type shows the pantry wasn't as it wasn't Yeah, you expect cool of the world yet, but it was still growing and doing good and like my fan fest for WrestleMania 22 was hillbilly gyms in the parking lot go meet hillbilly Now it's not like the don't even call it access anymore the WrestleMania
00:56:17
Speaker
Superstore or whatever the hell it is. It's dude. I walking into that was its own show. It was a production up the ass. They had all this cool stuff. You get to see the stuff on display. You get to see the new figures. You get to see the meet and greets, all the titles, gear. Like it's it's overwhelming, man. And for. Yeah, it blows my mind. Absolutely blows my mind. He said, how could you be upset about, like I said, as just being a wrestling fan nowadays, like how could you be upset?
00:56:42
Speaker
with like, with what's going on. I mean, obviously, you know, you love you love the people that you like, and you don't want to see them go and all this type of stuff. But I've seen sport like I've seen a tweet, someone tweeted out like they wish that like, you know, the NFL, the NBA or, or baseball was like,
00:57:00
Speaker
you know, wrestling in the sense where a legend can come back and play a game. Like just strap with just one game. Just, you know, maybe the super bowl, maybe like, yo, Tom Brady comes back and plays on the game. Like his money in the bank. Like he gets to come in and he gets one quarter, any quarter he wants for the rest of the season. I would love it, man. You're like Shannon Sharp. Maybe he can come back and play a game.
00:57:27
Speaker
You have like a legends deal and all the legends come back and they can play. I wish we could do that. We get to see like dream matches. Like, cause we always talk about like, Oh, I wonder if this person will beat this person. Well, a lot of these guys are healthy now and you're actually getting to see it. You don't get to see that. And you don't get to see, like I said, I hate to bring up Tom Brady, but Tom Brady, you don't get to see them, you know, battle it out on the field.
00:58:09
Speaker
every time I'm gonna be the 96 Bulls, 97 Bulls, no matter what, because it's my shit. But like, I loved playing against the Heat. I loved playing against the New Age Bulls, you know, like their crows and Michael Jordan going at each other, man, it was intense. It was like, you get a lot of that,
00:58:17
Speaker
how awesome would it
00:58:26
Speaker
And you're like, hell yeah, dude. Like this is, I imagine if they did that with other sports would be insane. What I'm saying is we get to, as wrestling fans, we get to, we get to actually experience that stuff. You should be happy that you get to see it. Like you get to actually get to see like, Oh, what if this person would face, you want to see Rob Van Dam face somebody in AW or WWE? He's so alive. He can move. He can put him in the ring. Well, good man. Not so much. He's a, you know, he's old now, but we'll keep that.
00:58:55
Speaker
I'm sure if he shaved, maybe he might, he might be able to get that. He listened. What was the, what was the show when him and triple H fought? Yeah. What was that? Was it a jewel or what was it? I think it was a crown jewel, but like he was the best looking one in the match. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yes. He looked, he looked good. Yeah, but he was still doing his like, but at some point like that was like an embarrassment, you know?
00:59:24
Speaker
But but hbk did look still like he could still go but he's like i'm good i'm not gonna do that anymore Yeah, we're out we're gayfay brother he did do that at one point in the match if you go back Like he's in the court. He's like, yeah, this is we're too old for this we can't do this Well, I mean triple-h tour is a lot like that was two minutes into the match
00:59:47
Speaker
Kane's mask falls off. It's just like the greatest cluster fuck me. I want to move on to my next question, but I think it kind of like people think of that when they see like, you know, edge go over to AEW where it's like.
01:00:04
Speaker
It's obviously he made the decision. He's a grown man. He knows what he can get into. He knows what he can do. But like, yeah, you get the people it's AW is not, you know, WWE in a sense, the wrestling is a little bit more, a little bit more stiff. Yeah, of course. It's, it's, it's a lot of different. It's a fast pace. It's, it's, it's crazy. It's a lot of different styles. So I think like, that's where I think people's mentalities are coming from. Like, Oh, something might happen to him, but he
01:00:31
Speaker
made a decision himself. He signed the paper. He knows what he can do. He knows he can get. I want to see him get the ring with muchasaurus. I'm stoked. I can't wait. Hobbs at some. Yeah. Oh, man. Could you imagine? We're going to get a lot of good matches that are like, even when punk came back, like he had such a good run, like in the before he got hurt. Yeah. He wrestled everybody. And it was like we got so many good moments out of it, like the sad look, you know, like all that shit. I mean, that
01:00:58
Speaker
That lasted forever and like that's the cool thing about it, but it's i'm here for more people coming in Yeah, somebody from new japan. That's all i'm saying. It's gonna be He was teasing okada. Oh my god, dude as you know, talking about it. How would you ever even him instead? Yeah, like watching edge and stinks in the ring together was like surreal in itself Yeah, and that's the that's I mean for for people like us who are smart
01:01:23
Speaker
You silly marks. We're just we get to enjoy it. That's the things right now to say that people are going to look back at it and be like, this was the greatest moment in our fandom ever. And it really is because it's like how many times do we get to see Sting Russell again after the WWE run? And it's been it's been beautiful.
01:01:46
Speaker
He's the new Jack. I'm quitting the Hall of Fame. I'm going to be new Jack and he did it very well. I think he wanted to put me in a match once. I was in New Jersey. It was WrestleMania. It was WrestleMania. It was the one where
01:02:03
Speaker
was it 28 or 29? It was there was a rock and stone cold with the main event. But we went to the pro wrestling syndicate show. It was in Jersey. And we went to the there was a meet and greet before the actual it was a supercard that they had. And it was it was it was a meet and greet.
01:02:20
Speaker
What do you call it? New Jack was there. John Morrison was there. Who else? Iron Sheik. Thank you, Bubba. Thank you, Bubba. I was like, you're the greatest world champion that ever lived. He's like, thank you, Bubba. Thank you, Bubba. I take a picture with New Jack and he's like, dude,
01:02:45
Speaker
top hat like really not like dudes like dress like freaking like i was like this is a new jack this is like freaking freaking like freaking rolex like jewelry i was like holy shit so we take a picture together he's like he's like oh man he's like hey you wrestle and i'm like i'm like no no he's like he's like
01:03:02
Speaker
Huh? I was like, I walked away. I was like, Oh, thank nice. Nice. Nice to meet you. I thought he wanted me to like, I thought he's going to ask me to be like in a spot in the next night. He faced our Necro butcher. Oh, hell yeah. So like, and I'm in the front row. I remember I actually have the DVD. If you go on, I think it's pro it's supercard 2013. Just for sure. Yeah. Look it up on YouTube. New Jack's retired. You'll see me right in the front row at the guardrail. That's so cool. At it.
01:03:31
Speaker
Uh, chairs, blood all over the place. They're fighting outside next to the guardrail. New Jack grabs fucking necko butcher throws him like over, like almost on like on V. You just see the whole front row, just get up and just back.
01:03:47
Speaker
You're like, I'm stuck. I got that. There's blood all over them. They're just wild. I was like, holy shit. Anyway, yeah, that's cool, man. You do that. I think you dodged a bullet working with New Jack. Oh, man. Yeah, I guess he's looking me up and down. I was like.
01:04:04
Speaker
Oh man, he's in a fucking ass. He starts getting you. I was like, thanks. Nice meeting you, man. And then I went to talk to Lita. She was at the signing too, but, but that was pretty
Mike's Toy Photography Journey and Recognition
01:04:18
Speaker
cool. But I want to get, I want to get into, uh, your, your business dealings that you have. Cause you kind of mentioned like jazzwares and Mattel and all that stuff. So like, how did you, how did you get into,
01:04:29
Speaker
Like, you know, get in, get in there. You're pretty much like an in-guy with like jazz. I'm not sure, but I will get to Mattel, but I'm not, cause I'm not sure what you are at Mattel, but jazz is definitely, I mean. Yeah, I know for sure. I haven't all that, but.
01:04:44
Speaker
uh i all during pandemic man i said i was the line was announced uh i don't remember how i found out that magic worked on the line but magic almost they're their lead designer and like i i was just shooting them up like dude i can't wait to see these this is awesome i'm so pumped blah blah yo they're not in stores yet you know being that guy like yeah man i'm waiting on my cody roads right now i don't know what the hell's going on but uh
01:05:09
Speaker
Yeah, I was, again, I was kind of out of collecting WWE stuff just because it was like over it. There was nothing, I had as many elites as I needed. I have my house, second floor is all wrestling memorabilia, basement is all wrestling memorabilia. I'm in an Oreo of normality on this floor and it's taken over here too.
01:05:37
Speaker
Yeah, I was just kind of texted him, hit him up, you know, like, man, this is great, blah, blah, blah. And I used to take photos of my figures when I was a kid and I started getting back into it. I was like, man, we get an iPhone. I can do this shit from my living room. I'm going to go anywhere. This is great. So I started getting I wouldn't say I'm great at it, but I take some cool photos. You know, I get some good concepts in my head. I'm like, this is going to look great. Yeah.
01:06:01
Speaker
So I remember specifically that Darby's first figure came out. I took a cool picture. He's holding the skateboard behind his head. I was like, can I post this on my own page? And I was like, yeah, dude, like what the hell will go for it? Like knock your socks off. So he posted it and it was just like, dude, he's like Mike Bellcaster took this photo and it was like amazing. He's like, is this really making you realize how awesome of a figure I made? And I was like, damn, it was like, that was very flattering for me, dude. I was like, thanks, man. He's like, no, no, he's like, thank you.
01:06:31
Speaker
So I started taking more pictures, because he was always like, dude, do it, go for it, man. Hell yeah. And the talent started sharing them. And Cody would retweet me. He'd be like, oh, this is awesome. On Valentine's Day, I took a photo of him and Brandy. I was the grandson of the plumber and his beautiful bride. He retweeted with hearts. And he's like, dude, this is awesome. He's like, thank you for, I appreciate the photo. Thank you for taking it. And he's rocking. And I was like, cool, man.
01:07:01
Speaker
Then I took one of Orange Cassidy and this was the one of the worst photos I took, which is the funniest thing. I was in my upstairs and like I have boxes laying around. So I just shut the light off. So it was just orange, like kind of in the ring. Yeah. And I put, he had this cool picture on Instagram where it was his face with lasers going through it, you know, like it was like a very trendy looking Instagram photo. And I was like, yeah, it'd be cool if I could do that.
01:07:26
Speaker
You know, instead of, instead of taking a picture of him, like doing the orange punch or something, like, yeah, I want to, I want to, I want to imitate his life with my shit. So I did one with, you know, the rainbow lights going through with the lasers and, you know, hand in the pocket, thumbs up. And Jeremy Padour, great, great dude. Awesome friend. Uh, he shared it and he's like, this is amazing. And orange Cassidy, the next day I wake up and he's like, didn't I just take this picture and it's my photo there. I was like, holy shit. Like he just shared my thing.
01:07:56
Speaker
30,000 likes on the photo. Like I'm like, what the fuck is going on? And they're like, you know, I'm not big on trying to see who's looking at stuff, but I clicked on the likes and it's like Tony Khan liked it. All these other guys liked it. So I was like, damn, I was like, I did something really cool there. And it's like, so that was, I took another one with like Santana Ortiz and I found one of their promo shots where Santana's on a chair. He's got the flag hanging down and like Ortiz was standing behind him like this. And I, you know, I replicated it again. Same response. People loved it. Oh shit.
01:08:26
Speaker
so jeremy pedour is sharing everything like this is the cleanest kenny omega photo like i love jeremy from the classic superstars line like is that really brought me into collecting hardcore you know you're kid collecting but this is like teenager going in the 20s like i need everything like fuck yeah
01:08:46
Speaker
So I was chatting him up there in pandemic magic. And I met Greg Mitchell, who's on their team and was just like, all these guys were so cool. And Chris Masker, who makes the head designer for packaging.
01:09:01
Speaker
he's a stand-up guy and he's like oh man he's like I would he's like I want to I want to meet you he's like you are fucking like so intrigued so he was like if you could fly out to double or nothing and if this was 2021 I want to say it was I don't remember it was the first one back from pandemic in Vegas yeah so I was I was like he's like if you could fly in
01:09:24
Speaker
you're you got a welcome place to hang out like we got he's like I'm gonna be busy he's like so it's like you're I don't want you to be my puppy dog or my shadow or anything but he's like we could hang I was like I was like I'm a goddamn adult I can handle it so first night I get there
01:09:38
Speaker
I'm like, hell yeah, go to Dynamite. I get back to the bar afterwards. Matt's crew is like, oh, I'm gonna be there like later on in the night. I think my flight gets in at like nine. And I was like, cool. I first West Coast wrestling show ever was at Dynamite. And I was like, it's seven o'clock and the show's over. Like I was so, I was so like mind blown by like that concept. I was like, oh, cool. I'm gonna go walk around the casino.
01:10:03
Speaker
like I see all the, you know, talent going through and I was like, this is crazy. Absolutely crazy. And I walk up to the bar and I met, she was like, oh yeah, I just got here. I was like, cool. I got walking through and I'm like, you know, I meet AW's marketing team. I'm meeting Jeremy Pinauer in person. Like he was, and he was like, oh shit, like Bellcast. You know, it was really cool. And like, you know, uh,
01:10:24
Speaker
I was there, so I was like, if you guys need any help, I'd be happy. If you need some extra muscle or anything, just let me know, because I'm going to be hanging out anyway. You might as well use me. I got the help set up the Fanfest display and stuff like that. They were so welcoming and so cool. I got to meet everybody, shoot the shit with them.
01:10:46
Speaker
Obviously, they've seen my photos, so they knew I could pose a diagram of figures at least half decently, so that worked out good. Yeah, Chris got the whole deal set up, was like, we'll get Fignite live at FanFest. So I did the whole weekend there. Yeah, so it's like that big, Fignite in Vegas, man. It was cool as hell. And then it's just been every
01:11:10
Speaker
show since I'm like, if you guys need something, holler, I'll be there no matter what. Like I don't care. I was like, I got miles. I could take a plane, ride a pig. Poor me. I have to spend a week in Vegas watching wrestling and playing with toys.
01:11:25
Speaker
But yeah, it's kind of been like that. And I just, I love being around the man. Like that's another thing. Like I was working wrestling for so many years. So yeah, I'm easy to handle talent. I'm easy to help people like David. Hey, we need Sammy Guevara. Go find him. Okay. Give me a pass. I'll go take care of your shit. So it's cool. And like, I got to do so many really amazing things. Like this is, if I could tell my childhood self,
01:11:54
Speaker
what I'm doing now. I would be like, get the fuck out of here. Who are you? You're lying to me. I never thought this was an attainable thing to do. And now I'm doing so much of it. It's podcasting, wrestling, going to shows, hanging out, being around all the talent and stuff. It's a dream come true. And I absolutely couldn't be happier. I'm so
01:12:21
Speaker
I don't even know. I'm so proud of where I came from because I had a rough childhood growing up. I had a rough couple years. When my brother and my dad passed away, I was lost as hell. I didn't know what to do anymore. I just literally was stuck.
01:12:38
Speaker
And this literally saved me and became everything I ever wanted it to be. Like even when I was working in wrestling with the independence, like it was fun. Yeah. It was, it was, it was cool, but it was never where I envisioned myself. Right. So now I'm kind of like,
01:12:56
Speaker
I'm kind of working in the figure life, I'm kind of working in the rest of the life. I get to do the podcast, I get to do everything I've ever wanted to do, and then some. And I'm still at a loss at how to explain how grateful I am to be in this
Personal Struggles and Wrestling as a Saving Grace
01:13:11
Speaker
space. I'm telling you, the Mattel thing was
01:13:14
Speaker
insane because like we got an official email from WWE it was like if I request of Mattel we'd like to invite you out the WrestleMania like I printed it out I'm framing that shit I'm like I was in tears like I was like holy shit like that I mean what what is the greatest like you get to go tour Mattel's design center and like crazy John from ringsides like I've been doing ringside for so many years and I've never done this before this is crazy and I was like what the fuck
01:13:42
Speaker
So like I'm, yeah, and I'm walking the same hallways with, you know, Steve Ozer, Bill Mckenna, you know, John from ringside, every damn wrestling influencer out there. And it was, it was, it was so mind blowing, man. And like that happened live on fig night. Me and Tom both thought Steve Ozer was pulling our legs. Cause he was like, Oh, he's like, WrestleMania is coming up. It would be cool to see you guys there. And I was like, Oh,
01:14:09
Speaker
Yeah, that would be cool. And then Chad emails us the next day, goes, oh, you guys might want to see this because they sent the invite to the tavern email. I was just like, what? So that was that was me going, all right, I need to figure my shit out, get out there right away and just do it because once in a lifetime thing. And it was amazing. That's awesome. Did Tom go?
01:14:34
Speaker
No, it was I was so I couldn't believe. I was like, what now? And like it was it was I'm a toy guy. It's not just wrestling. I love collectibles. I'm really into it. So walking around, seeing like this is the very first hot wheel, like in front of you, not on.
01:14:55
Speaker
You know, a screen, like you're looking at the first, like, see how they do everything. Like my daughter is big Barbie people. Like I, I got into it too. You know, like, I'm like, Oh, we gotta go find this bar. We gotta have a SpongeBob drop for the, for the Barbie shirts. We gotta go find it. You know, like, so walking through those hallways and seeing those things and like,
01:15:13
Speaker
of just flabbergasting, like just absolutely mind blowing, man. And it was like I felt like I was like in Indiana Jones. Like if I touch the wrong thing, like a trap's going to go on, I'm going to be thrown in there. But it was it was amazing. Like even even like Sam Roberts, you know, he's been on the debate a few times and he's been on fig night a few times just meeting him in person. Like it was like, oh, Sam, like he's like, oh, shit, what's up, dude? Like, all right. Like this is wild, man. So like it was.
01:15:44
Speaker
It's just been a blessing, man. I'm very, very thankful for everything. And a lot of it comes from, you know, doing this. And I can't say that enough, like having magic on Fig Night's amazing, having Chris come on, having Ozer and all these people, Bill Mckenna. Bill Mckenna follows me. Like it's cool. Like he popped up at the AW Fan Fest. He was like,
01:16:06
Speaker
the star cast that was just this past month, you know, and he was like, he was like, Hey, is there any cool toys in there that I should be looking out for? And I was like, no, no, not at all. This is not it. But there was, there was an awesome moment. I wish it would have gotten a picture of it, but
01:16:22
Speaker
Bill Mckenna's talking to Magic and the Jazzverse team and then Matt Cardona comes walking out. He's like, oh no. And I was like, they're all just sitting there talking. I was like, hey, hey guys. I was like, calm down. You got three of the greatest wrestling toy designers in one square right now. And they all laughed at it. And I was like, you should do like, that should have been a photo somewhere. I think it would have been like, did they take a picture together? They better have. I think it's, I think they went over to,
01:16:48
Speaker
The Mattel one or something. It was something. Yeah. It was like, it was like, I figured what the caption was. It was basically like, what the hell is going on here? Two different like the rival companies or whatever. But it just that is awesome. Like, I love little shit like that. Like, you know, and then he's walking by, he's checking out the dome that we put together the day before. And it's like.
01:17:09
Speaker
Again, figures, man. They're all friends. They don't hate nobody. Nobody calls Bill. They talk to each other. They're like, hey, what's going on next year? What do you what's going on? Let's not release it because they have to kind of like know each other's business in order. Yeah. Well, magic used to work at Mattel. So him and Bill are close. And like every time I like if I'm in Vegas, Bill's in Vegas because he's like, I love wrestling and I want to come to Vegas for a week.
01:17:33
Speaker
You know, it's like, oh no, totally understandable, man. So I've crossed paths with them a lot. It's just been, he's a really cool dude and he's from Chicago. So he knows like his mall was my mall. He used to go to my toys or us, my KB toys. He gets it, you know? So that's cool to have that kind of,
01:17:49
Speaker
What do we, you go into the super dog tonight. We're going to go get a hot dog. Yeah, man. Like hit me up. We'll go through. I'm about to stick with the, uh, with the tavern side of things. Cause, uh, Sheena Sheena has, uh, has some heat with Bill.
01:18:05
Speaker
I will ask about this off fair. I've been trying to, you know, men fences and try to, you know, give a good name to the, you know, Chick Foley show. We have Steve. Steve loves the Chick Foley Twitter. He's always, you know, always retweeting stuff. Oh, Kelly, you know, stuff like that. Steve's great, man. Love Steve. I don't. Bill's very quiet, though, on his own. So it's not like negative, probably. He's probably like, oh, no, I'm not doing that.
01:18:30
Speaker
What else I think yeah one year we did Jeremy actually helped us do the chick Foley toy drive for one of the oh he ended up like Donate like a ton of toys to like that's super cool, which is pretty sick. So yeah, so yeah
01:18:46
Speaker
He's uh, uh, Jeremy loves uh, he loves a chick Foley show with a china. How can you not come on? No, jeremy's great Yeah, we just need to get bill. We just need to get bill back on board We'll do it i'm gonna that's my mission just to get bill Back in the good graces they have to meet up. Maybe i'll like say hey bill. You want to come on over mic? Hey she do you want to come on and just like Have them on the screen. Just just merge the megapower Now you know you can't go nowhere
01:19:17
Speaker
Yeah, no, that's awesome that you get to like, and it's not like, you know, you got it on your own merit. You got it on your own, you know, your own talent. Yeah. And it looks like that's the coolest shit in the world. Pictures and it like kind of snowballed into this, like,
01:19:32
Speaker
big thing which is pretty I mean it's awesome just like just to think about like how you know you just tell the story and how like how this all happened and how everything very organic yeah and like that's the circle it all back the improv the stand up it all helped like hey can you interview
01:19:50
Speaker
you know, Sammy Guevara about his new ringside toy. Fuck yeah. I'll go bring my one, two, three ready. Let's go. Well, hi, I'm Mike Bellcaster from Turbuckle Tavern, you know, and it's just it's it clicks instantly. And you're like, yeah, you go into the mode. You're like, all right, I got this. They're like, I don't know how you do that. That's what I do. Oh, man. But how is it you go back to one more thing? So like, yeah, please say like you're
01:20:17
Speaker
So your father, he said it was like, you know, how, how, how, how like in influential was he in your like fandom?
01:20:27
Speaker
Yeah.
Family Bonds Through Wrestling and Nostalgia
01:20:28
Speaker
Uh, they, my parents took me, my first, I was born in December of 1987. My first wrestling show, which I still have the ticket stub was in January of 1988. And Dustin Rhodes was on the card. It's super cool. It was a WWF, like superstars show at the Rosemount horizon. And just ever since
01:20:52
Speaker
I mean, ever since I remember, it's always been around because like, my brother was into the Hasbro's and the LJN's. I was on the tail end of Hasbro collecting. So he's, you know, we had him in the house. I got his toys when he was like, Oh, I like, you know, cool shit now. And that wrestling toys, you're like, okay, like I play with them. Yeah. Okay. So all his friends were into it. So, uh,
01:21:15
Speaker
I got into it just naturally like that and kind of, I remember like my first live show experience was Hogan was fighting Bundy. We were like third row. I must've been like four or five, right? And like baby, still baby, maybe even younger, I think three.
01:21:33
Speaker
red and yellow Hulkamania shirt, you're like rocking and rolling, like full blown into it. And Bundy came over and we were like third row, Hogan gets thrown in the guardrail and Bundy, you know, does a nice stiff punch to him, Hogan's gushing blood. And I was like, I remember grabbing onto my mom like, is she gonna be okay? Like what's going on? And then it was just like,
01:21:57
Speaker
me and my dad's thing from there on out like with my dad and my brother they bonded over music and me and my dad bonded over pro wrestling and it was every every monday night it was either our house or we were at my grandma's house channel seven o'clock to eight o'clock was wcw time monday night we're all comes on at eight it's channel flipping time
01:22:17
Speaker
got really into it. It was huge, huge. I mean, we went to everything. WCW shows, WWF shows, ECW, never, never did like the indies until later on. But like, I mean, one of the last pay per views I took my dad to was a T and A bound for glory here. And it was always one of those things like, Hey, man, you want to go hang out, watch wrestling? Hell yeah. Like even when my parents split up, I was like,
01:22:45
Speaker
17 ish, you know and was like still going over my dad's, you know apartment watching pay-per-view Over at my place and you know watch favor views and it was it was it was just always something we were into and like I used to Like he would take me out of school and I'd go to work with him and on our way back We'd be like hitting up KB toys toys Ross He was he was the worst influence on me because he was like I want you to have what you want Yeah, it was like it was like alright, so I would be like while he's doing work. I'd be on there
01:23:15
Speaker
work phone like called and KB toys like, Hey, you guys got too cool in yet? No. Okay. Pick up another phone like Toys R Us. Hi, do you guys got Scotty too? How do you figure it out? Very quick. It's like you're bouncing back and forth. Like I used to call the stores and he was such a good dude for taking me everywhere, like everywhere. And he went above and beyond. Like we weren't
01:23:37
Speaker
You know, we weren't wealthy. He worked at a warehouse job, but he took care of me. Days, I'd come home from school and like, you know, WWF attitude would come out. On his way home from work, he would stop at the KV toys, pick me up the game. You know, it was like, he always looked out for me like that.
01:23:54
Speaker
It was cool, man, even to a point like we were making our own wrestling accessories for the toys. He would help me build stages and like, you know, he was he was cool. He was creative, man. And it was it was really cool to experience that with him. I like one of my favorite memories is him falling asleep there. And I think it was raw or Smackdown and Vince did the turn. I'm going to poison my own creation with the N.W.O. And I'm like, I'm slapping him like, wait the fuck up, man.
01:24:21
Speaker
i don't know who's going to chicago and like i was there for the first rock day i got the truck piece from one of them you over and the rock over i have a the the kenworth side of the truck and it's autographed by hogan and nash and like it's crazy that like it's just always been
01:24:37
Speaker
part of my life and I mean every every week I don't think I've ever skipped watching it even when I fell out of it it would still turn it on 10 minutes 15 minutes be like what's going on over here yeah yeah they have this I think of the same way the sense where you know my father when he uh we used to of what every every Monday night raw every nitro flipping back and forth and stuff like that I think it's just something
01:25:01
Speaker
Like, even now, like, even though, like, you know, Ryan isn't the greatest show to watch right now. It's not like it was back in the, you know, the attitude era. I still put it on because it's like ingrained in me. I think it's like a thing where, you know, it's something I used to watch with my father every Monday night. And it just it's just continue on. I might be watching it now, too. He like, I mean, he loves the best. Yeah. He's like really into it. So like that that definitely helps. But like, I think it's it's it's crazy how like, you know, you know,
01:25:30
Speaker
It wasn't really like my mom wasn't really into wrestling. She got into it with like, you know, she was around it. She wasn't into it. She didn't get into it, obviously, like everybody else. Monday Night Wars happened. Everyone's loving, you know, Stone Cold and The Rock and all that stuff. Mick Foley and everyone's like, you know, that's when they like brought like the casuals in for the most part. But it was always like it was always me, my father, my uncle as well. It was always us like from the early early 80s, late 80s, the 90s, like
01:25:58
Speaker
Just remember, like, you know, my father, like, love it. He loved Bobby, the brain heat of like, oh, yeah, it's like dude ever like he loved. He loved. It was a bash and booger. Yeah, yeah, bash and booger. Hell yeah. He loved when what do you call it by the brain heat? It was like, you know who I pick? I pick booger to win.
01:26:22
Speaker
He always thought that was like the funniest like thing. I'm like, that's such a corny joke. Why'd you look at it? It's not even funny at all. Like just like stuff like that. He loved all the like the like the goofy, silly side of things. But it's cool. He's one that brought me. Yeah, he brought me into into wrestling mainly because, you know, he's from the south side. I started watching like the mid south and all that stuff. So those were all good stuff, though. Yeah. You know, junk yard dog, butch reed.
01:26:49
Speaker
he was uh when he was you know young and young and thriving and stuff like that young plumber yeah i grew up i i grew up watching that and like the vaughn erics and all that stuff so like that was my first foray into wrestling before you know the at the time so
01:27:04
Speaker
Dude, just coming back to it with the kids thing, like you see it now when your kids are watching with you. And like, how beautiful is it? Like my two daughters watch with me every week. My nephew was, I have custody of my nephew. He was super into it growing up. He's 13 now. So he's kind of like, but he's still like, every time I get a new toy, he's like, oh, what is it?
01:27:27
Speaker
Like, oh, can you buy me that Adam Cole? Yeah. You know, you just show him something cool and he'll he'll be right back and show him. Oh, he loved it. Darby. He's so ecstatic. Like he's like, man, you get to go to these shows with this. He's like, what a fucking trip, dude. Like, you know, he gets on board and it is like, you guys talk to him, talk to all the ladies and stuff like that and all the superstars and all the movies and stuff. Yeah, man.
01:27:56
Speaker
uh always actually you know what one more question the last question please yeah if you listen to the show i always give this last question if you were to uh bring somebody back because we kind of talked well they'll see yo you bring it you're bringing your nephew back into wrestling
01:28:11
Speaker
right? He's a watcher of it. Now he's like, nah, I'm not really into it. I'm, you know, I'm, you know, I'm into girls now, however, however that, you know, what happens to the best of us. So if, if you were to bring him back into, into the fold, like, man, what match are you going to show him?
01:28:33
Speaker
to bring him back, to bring him back into the level. Since we're using him as an example, you might have to go more current. You can't, you might not be- Yeah, I think it's gonna be more current. Or you can go before it's time too, that's another thing. Hey, I'll throw it both ways, right?
01:28:50
Speaker
Like my grandpa's really, he's, he's watching AW. He's never watched wrestling my entire time. Guy's 90 years old. He's like that, that goofy shit. And now he's like, Oh, that's awesome. That's what you do. No, he loves it, man. And like, he watches every week now and it's, I'm not even there with him. I was like, so that's crazy. He just knows the AEW like logo. So he's like, Oh, it's on. Cool. You know? And it's like, so he gets to watch it, but like,
01:29:17
Speaker
one of my first times falling in love with it and this is what brought me into it and this is what I showed my nephew the first time I like he was not you know five and eating boogers and not knowing what he was watching except for two guys beating the shit out of each other but it was Ray's Ramon and Shawn Michaels ladder match you know and I thought for me as a kid being his age seeing
01:29:41
Speaker
Razor walk under the ladder, you know, hands out doing this, flicks the hair back, does the toothpick.
01:29:49
Speaker
What, what a cool dude, like where you don't get cooler than that. Then you get this awesome match. Yeah. And they're like the, the shining, like the old school, nobody, like I love current day product, but the old wrestling when the camera would hit the light the right way with the title hanging down, you get that beautiful shine. Like you don't see that shit anymore. You know, it's just like, I loved it. Like I was hooked. I was like, what is this? I'm just signed me up. I'm all in dude. So I showed him that match, but, uh,
01:30:16
Speaker
bringing it back was Forbidden Door. My kid, he's in the Fortnite. Even Fortnite's not cool enough for him. He's too cool for school, but he walked out while we were watching Forbidden Door.
01:30:30
Speaker
And he was obsessed with Danielson versus offspring. Like obsessed, like, like heard final countdown. He's like, what the hell are you watching? Sat down, watched the whole match was like, whoa, like cool stuff, man. Like, and he was like, man, like, so it's still much like, like I see it from my perspective, like he's like, oh, it's kind of not cool. Yeah. He still loves it. You know what I mean? And like, that's like, he's got all those figures lined up in this room. I mean, like he doesn't try to hide it or anything.
01:31:00
Speaker
but he's just like, yeah, I put all my AW stuff up now. Cause like I see you at the shows now it's cool. So they're like, yeah, there you go about it. Like it's, I mean, I love the pageantry and the characters from pro wrestling, but those physical matches like an off spray versus Danielson, like,
01:31:21
Speaker
That that's like the deep dive reading reading the whole novel, you know, like I got the cliff notes here and I could watch all the Hogan matches and it's sure it's great. But like you go watch this. These two guys literally beat the piss out of each other for the love of it. They like their best friends and they're slapping the big men's slap meeting men, man. And it's poetry like it's like wrestling such an artistic
01:31:47
Speaker
form of entertainment. And it's so beautiful. When it's done on the highest of high platforms, and it's done well, I could sit there and watch it on loop. You know, I could, I could put that Daniel Sinoff's frame match on a, what do they call those, those NFT like frames now where it just shows the motions instead of it being a photo. I would just watch them slap each other. Like I paid $1,000. Like it's crazy. I love
01:32:13
Speaker
Love it. It's like my girls are into it. Like my daughter loves Britt Baker. We got her. Thank God for the cameos and all that shit out there now. That's awesome. We can get the. My youngest was obsessed with Matt Hardy when he was broken. You know, she loved the delete, delete, delete. And she was like her, I think it was her fourth birthday. We got a Matt Hardy cameo. And one of the ones where they call you, you know, I can actually talk to you live. And she was just like,
01:32:41
Speaker
And Matt was so cool about it. He's like, ah, what's up little one? And you're like, they know what they're doing. They know what they have. And that's why I love when, especially nowadays, like the talent now are so in tune with their fan base. It's not like a hockey talk man situation. Everybody's super, super beautiful. But like I ran up to Brit.
01:33:08
Speaker
This was the first all out after pandemic. So this was my first AW show was I went to the item. This is my first AW pay-per-view. It was there. Chads came up from, you know, down South. Hawk came up. Like it was, I was the first time getting that in person. Yeah. And so it was, it was cool to like put physical people to the pictures that we're always looking at. But, uh,
01:33:35
Speaker
I walked up to Britt Baker and I was like, oh Britt, I was like, can I show you something real quick? And she like, it wasn't like, she was like, ah, what the fuck weirdo? Like I was like, my daughter, like she dresses you for Halloween. And she was like, she's such a cutie. I was like, is it okay if we like get a picture real quick? And she's like, I'll shoot a video for it. Like she was so,
01:33:53
Speaker
That's nice. And she was talking to her, like her dad and her sister at the time. Like she was like, oh, fuck. Yeah. And like the people like that. I love it. Like Darby's one of those guys like they just get it. Sammy Sammy's one of those guys that goes above and beyond like just a genuine good person. And you could see it. You could tell who is and who isn't. You know what I mean? Yeah. And it's it's awesome when it when it plays out that well. And I couldn't be happier.
01:34:19
Speaker
I was going to say that's one of the things I appreciate about AEW. It's the intimacy with the fans and stuff like that. It's like the acknowledgement of the fans.
01:34:36
Speaker
you know, we're the tribal chiefs finally did. Yeah, yeah. Not even that. It's more or less like they're in the stage. I mean, hopefully they stay this way. They, you know, they don't get, you know, AW does get like too huge where it's like, you know, now they're going to be this big corporate entity and now they're just like a few fans. Yeah.
01:34:56
Speaker
But I'm hoping they say that with that level of connectedness with the fans and stuff like that. Because all the people there, you can definitely tell that they're very thankful for the spots that they're in right now. 100%. They're very grateful for where they are and who even knows them and acknowledges them. Their first time getting an action figure, a lot of the men and women on that roster.
01:35:23
Speaker
You know, it's I mean, it's so they just see and that is probably surreal to them But then having you walk up and say hey my daughter dress up as you it's like they don't think of that stuff They don't know no little girls dressing up as Britt Baker for yeah, whatever You actually show it's like holy
Joy of Wrestlers Seeing Their Action Figures
01:35:39
Speaker
shit. This is reality It's a blast man that was that's like when if you want to swing back to the those guys getting their figure for the first time like
01:35:48
Speaker
That's one of my favorite things to be there for, is to see like, Yuna got this, like the Blood and Guts one and the upcoming one coming out.
01:35:59
Speaker
he got to see it in person. And I was like right next to him as he's looking at it. And we did a little like interview piece. I don't think that released, but I was just like, we were, you know, like you are the official first time figure here. Like, you know, how awesome is that for you? And how awesome is it that you get to bring the first ever figure form of a ring of honor title? Like, you know, it's gotta be like he's afterwards, he's like, can I go show, can I take a picture of this? And so I'm like, yeah, do it, man.
01:36:28
Speaker
like i love i it's one of the coolest things to just not i don't even say be a part of but just be in that moment there seeing people like yeah jamie hater's first figure she got the like i watched her see it for the first time like you know like freak the fuck out and like oh my god this is so cool and like that's that's so awesome and this is like circling back to watching our
01:36:52
Speaker
our people grow and glow. I love, it makes me so happy to see Hobbs going, man, that's a bad-ass spine buster you set up there with my toy. They get it. They all love it. It's the best, man. Oh, man. We can go on and on.
01:37:10
Speaker
Yeah, I could do this for like the rest. I mean, we could like I got I got I got some time. We'll end it there. But yeah, this is awesome having you. Thank you for thank you for joining me. This is I feel like I have to have you on again because I feel like you have a lot more. So we haven't even scratched the surface. I want to hear more stories of your.
01:37:29
Speaker
of your interactions with different celebrities and- Yeah, man. I got plenty too, man. Absolutely plenty. Might have to do like a special like Mike Bell. I opened Mike with MVP Marco and Mike Bellcaster just to get the stories out like a little bit serious going. I'm here, man.
01:37:49
Speaker
I appreciate you for inviting me on here. I always love talking to you, but this is good to get a little intimate one-on-one time, not on a wrap-up, not on a rawdown. We're not here pleasing the fans. We're just enjoying each other's company, and that's what it's all about. The thing I love about this show, too, is most of the time it's the first time I'm actually
01:38:08
Speaker
speaking to the person like obviously we've spoken before but like yeah in a one-on-one setting that's why I like doing this because it's like obviously if you know the term open mic it's your first time standing on stage and yeah you might bomb you might you might not but uh hopefully when you people listen to this we didn't bomb I think
01:38:26
Speaker
I enjoyed you. Hopefully I didn't bomb standing here. I'm just together. We could have ended it at the de Chappelle story. I could have been 15 minutes in. We were done. We're good. I could have ended the show right there. People would have been like, holy shit, what the hell? But I know this. Listen, man, I'm always happy to come and talk, tell stories, talk, wrestle and anything, man. And it's an absolute pleasure to be here. I can't thank you enough for having me on.
01:38:52
Speaker
Yeah, definitely. Give you plugs out. Oh man, plug. I turnbuckle tavern first and foremost because I wouldn't be anywhere without those beautiful group of extraordinary gentlemen, including yourself, the Pod Foundation. Everybody, you guys have been so gracious taking me under your wings and bringing me, keeping me warm from all the bad stuff that happened to me before.
01:39:17
Speaker
but uh yeah the turnbuckle tavern.com you guys if you if you watch fig night uh the wrap up any of the shows we do shot in nostalgia i i mean plug shot in nostalgia at like it's been one of the funnest journeys of my lifetime was going back and watching these things with ace and it's just a blast but uh yeah everybody uh
01:39:36
Speaker
I'm plugging everybody else besides me. I'm at Mike Bellcaster, wherever you need to find me, basically. Instagram is my hopping place. I don't really use Twitter anymore. It's more of like, I go there for the memes and the retweets to see what people are posting. Sometimes they'll share photos on there, but not too much. But you can see all my beautiful artwork. Maybe I think of the picture of
01:40:02
Speaker
Chappelle is up on my Instagram. Maybe not. I don't know. But if not, remind me, I will send it to you. But lots of lots of cool stuff, man. I'm at Mike Bellcaster Instagram. Just hang around, man. Follow along for the journey. We've got a lot of cool stuff and taking a lot of cool photos. It's good to be seen.
01:40:22
Speaker
yeah definitely man and the same thing here you can uh he already said the pod foundation you'd actually go to the ig at pod foundation that's where uh you get all the up to date shows when all the shows drop um i'll be transparent on the one that does it so you'll see all the updates if you can't go to each individual
01:40:40
Speaker
uh uh instagram page you can just go to pod foundation and see all the new shows as they appear uh you can go to the mvp marco that's my instagram start starting to get a little bit more active on there uh so hopefully that hopefully i build their twitter not so much i am on twitter same thing at the mvp marco i am on the twitter machine
01:41:01
Speaker
She likes to say at chick Foley show. I run that over there. She is obviously on chick Foley on IG chick Foley calm if you want to follow every all the musings I would say of the Holy crew, so we're uh, we're not turning out as much, you know product as the turnbuckle tavern But what's we're starting to we're starting to get a lot of shows out there was but we're trying to keep up with you know in between the in between the the paper views as I like to call them when she
01:41:30
Speaker
Yeah, but anyway in between good content. I mean, that's that's what it is. We were all out here doing our thing man, and that's you guys are Amazing at what you do and like that's I was a fan of chick Foley before I even started doing the podcast Like so it's it's super cool to be involved with y'all man I remember when she hit up our other former partner and he was like, I want to do it man and I was like No, you should do it because like
01:41:54
Speaker
good people like big enough playground for all of us to play so i couldn't be happier to cross paths with you guys i mean we've made friends with all of you like this is the most wrestling friends i've had in my entire lifetime oh yeah definitely the amount of people we met and all the friends yeah like
01:42:14
Speaker
you can like literally go anywhere across the country and like no no somebody which is pretty insane hey oh you want to go to new york oh you got anthony and freaking tom out there you want to go you can tennessee you get shina down there like literally all over the country there's like
01:42:29
Speaker
Yeah, we can we can go coast to coast man. Even across the pond. You get 100%. Oh, Nick Storman. Nick Storman. We have in our Facebook group, we have our Phil Dunnett. He's our... Yeah, I love Phil. I'm from Oak in the UK. Go visit him. But yeah, I mean, he likes to shake me down when I don't get my picks in early for our football team. I'm kind of scared of him.
01:42:53
Speaker
But anyway, that was the show there. But thank you very much for for joining on this audio journey, as I like to call it. And we'll see everybody next time. Hell, yeah. Peace.
01:43:32
Speaker
done.