Cody Rhodes Best Stories: John Cena, Logan Paul & Leaving WWE

00:00:00
Speaker 1: Welcome back to Unplugged. This episode is presented to you by Draft Kings. Crown is yours. Before we get started, shout out the homie Lazy Bone. I opened up your package. Brother. This dude got like three nice T shirts. He gave me a clock like the red clock from the First of the month, videos and rolling trays. What else? I love when guests bring us gifts anyway, appreciate you, bro. Last week, we had an opportunity to sit down with the Undisputed WWE Champion, Cody Rhoades. First and foremost, it was my first time meeting I'm obviously knowing the lineage of his family and how great his dad was and having a brother in the space. My first impression he was clean, probably the most well dressed guest I've ever had, but just the energy, the charisma seemed like a really great dude. I think you guys are gonna really enjoy this interview. Take a look. Welcome back to Unplugged. Today we got a very special guest, WWE superstar Undisputed Champion the QB one him Sol Cody Rhodes. Welcome to the show. It's an honor. Hey, I have to say, man, I've been doing this show, this show and my other show for six You're definitely the cleanest one who has ever stepped in this building. Man, from head to time. I mean, I'm over here like I was wearing slippers before you came in. You made me put my shoes on. I mean, you have something in your lap right here? What is this belt? Obviously coming from a long line of great wrestlers in your family, to be at the top of the mount right now as the champion with the belt present, what does that mean to you to hold this belt?

00:01:32
Speaker 2: I am This is the WW Championship, the undisputed WW Championship. For me, this was this massive culmination of not just the story I had in the wrestling business, but my dad as well. And it spans not just decades, but it spans kind of my knowledge of the industry. When he goes to wrestle Superstar Billy Graham in nineteen seventy eight in Madison Square Garden, he's just a guest from Florida, and the crowd takes to him and they love him so much that he wins the match, But he wins it in a way that Superstar still left with the belt, which was the common practice of keeping the territory the way it was. I had seen this photo of him, and I had seen him holding the title, not ever knowing he had won the championship because I wasn't born to l eighty five, And he explains to me the story this is still when I think wrestling is one hundred and ten percent as real as he gets, so that it became the goal. Oh eight years old, I see this frame with this photo and him holding this title, and I thought, I have to win.

00:02:33
Speaker 1: It for him.

00:02:35
Speaker 2: And now you know, I'm forty years old and I look at the business quite differently. But I did not get my opportunity at the w Championship till I came back. For me, what it represents is the biggest title we have in our game. You know, you have your your various trophies, your you know, your Lombardi Trophy, your Stanley Cup, whatever it may be, and this is this is the one that you know can always go on last and can all He's lead the company. It means something different for different people. When John Cena had it, it meant this is the hardest working guy in the game. When Roman Reigns had it, there was this element of presentation and aura. As all the young'uns say today, it always means something a little different. And I feel we're in that stage of my career where we're identifying what it means for me.

00:03:21
Speaker 1: Yeah, still write in that chapter. Yeah, you also have a brother that was in the space. Well, so what was childhood like with you guys? And obviously your dad being a wrestling star other sports wrestling at time. Remember my parents used to screen stop flipping your sister and throwing your brother, like, what was what was your household?

00:03:39
Speaker 2: Like my oldest brother, Dustin, who was ww's gold dust and wrestle, this Dustin Rhodes. I admired him so much as a little kid because there's a sixteen year age gap. Yeah, he doesn't love me pointing it out, but there's a large there's a large age gap. And I would watch him at the Omni in Atlanta or you know making you know, the Central Plex, whatever it was, and he was the women would be going nuts for him when you go out there, and he was six six, He just he seemed like the greatest wrestler ever, And particularly I was watching him in his rookie years and knew he was gonna be something special. I admired him, wanted to be like him a great deal. That's uh. Anytime you have any family in the in the business, you know, my father and my brother the biggest thing that's important that you do. And my dad was really good on instilling this. You have to be really different than they were. You can't do you can't do tribute. You gotta you almost got to get away from your own identity. Yeah, you gotta, you know, you gotta get far. I got two nephews who are breaking in the industry, which is jarring, but they're gonna make it, and they're breaking in now. And the thing I told him was, you gotta go and train with someone who doesn't care about the road stuff. Trained with somebody who doesn't know about Austin Hall wrestling boots or the cowboy wrestlers of old. Get with you know, the like the hearts, get that different style and that different flavor it or really behoove you as you move forward in your career. But to me, growing up, it was always I felt we had a very normal life. I really did. I didn't realize how abnormal Dusty's job was until I first moved into a subdivision, and that's where other kids, you know, my dad's a salesman, my dad's a teacher, whatever it may be. They really looked at my dad just with really superhero very Yeah, but I think also a little like Adam's family, because he would mow the lawn in his dr wrestling trunks and he had these ray bands. My dad this head was like as round as this blue table, and these ray bands were basically breaking. They're sucked onto his head. You'd have to pull them with all the force in the world. You'd always make a big spectacle, which was part of how it was done at the time. You'd always let people know you were in the room. Loud, yes, very loud. But I didn't realize it was so different until I got around other kids, and for me, I just it was dead. Yeah, it was very much. He was older, he was a producer. He wasn't as active in the ring anymore as he was with the first kiddos. Yeah, it just was a very normal childhood until you went to the office one day. Then you saw, okay, this is.

00:06:23
Speaker 1: What was the pressure. Like I have two sixteen year old twin boys who aspire to play basketball, obviously you come from a line of greatness when it comes to your profession. What was it like with that Road's last name, kind of breaking in and kind of making your own name.

00:06:38
Speaker 2: My sister Teel, she always looked at it in a way where she would say, you don't look at it as a shadow, look at it as a light. And I've really stood by that because I think a lot of second gen third generant like they focused too much on how difficult the hill is to climb, or how unfair it is perhaps to climb, versus think of the success you had right, think of the ring, think of where you've been if if you're the kiddos. I don't think there's any shame in saying, oh, I want to be better. I want to I want to say I'd be able to outplay him, and that as a father, I think my dad wanted to. Mister Hamond Paul hamon the other day had said that he thought I had passed. He had mentioned in an interview he thought he I'd passed my dad in terms of the wrestling game, and to me, that's asinine and I don't believe so. But as he was saying it, inside, I was like yeah, yeah, you know, and like you know, like you want to get there.

00:07:44
Speaker 1: Yeah. Rest in peace to your father. But he is literally the one man that wants you to be as great as you can be with no strings attached to it. Yea better than him. He would love to know that his son looking down and raised a good son. Yeah.

00:07:58
Speaker 2: I think that's the that's the beauty in this. And I think when you're at a level of success that you've had, and in the wrestling space, a level of success that my dad had, it you're just setting that bar really really high, really really high. This is gonna sound mean, but I don't mean it sound mean. There are other second and third generations in the industry, but they're not always like the success sons of a mount Rushmore dad or mom. You know, I'm not knocking it, but that almost Hey, your door is a little more open than my door is, right, But I wouldn't have it any other way. I wouldn't because it's so you know, Charlotte Flair, who's Rick Flair's daughter, That's another one. Look at the cards you were handed. Ava, who's at NXT, who's rock Starter.

00:08:44
Speaker 1: Look at the.

00:08:45
Speaker 2: Cards you were handed. That's if anything that's just a wonderful challenge. That's a wonderful challenge and if you get there, amazing, God bless you.

00:08:54
Speaker 1: The WWE and the business of it right now is on fire. Recently signed a deal with ESPN for all your premium live events, your YouTube pages numbers eleven in the world. Signed a deal, a multi year deal with one of the best partners in the game, one of our partners, Netflix. The business of WWE, and you've seen it since a child, and the growth in the peaks and valleys, and you've seen other and been in other leagues. What makes the WWE what it is and why is it so hot right now?

00:09:24
Speaker 2: Gosh, I wish we could kind of trap the lightning in a bottle as to what's been created with ww and being so hot Netflix and ESPN. I was on the red carpet for the Netflix premiere for Monday Night Row and I was having to kind of kick myself.

00:09:41
Speaker 1: In La in La. That shit was amazing. I went Holy cow, and I sat next to Stephanie McMahon. I'm like, holy shit, Like I was fanboying out because I was a huge not to cut your off, keep your train of thought growing up and I was born in nineteen eighty, so wrestling was my life. Your Dad, the Islanders, Hulk, Holgan, Jyd all these people like you couldn't tell me. I would fight someone to try to tell me that shit was fair, of course, you know what I mean. So just to kind of see where it's been. And then I kind of died off a little bit, and then my twins picked it up, and I swore they were going to be professional wrestles until they found out daddy played basketball and they wanted to go that direction. So again you got to see it from all levels, from a child to someone who saw the success and the peaks and valleys, and now you're at again the top of the mountain as the undispeeded champion. But the business side has never been as hot and never been as big.

00:10:27
Speaker 2: Into a dome, you had really great seats. If you're sitting next to step shut Out, Netflix, Netflix Premiere. As I was on the carpet, I just kept kicking myself and trying to remind myself to be present and be as silly as it sounds, be Cody Rhods, you're doing these interviews, you're taking these pictures, because I was really caught up in the idea of thinking about the eighties, thinking about not just my father but all his peers and everything they had did wrestling sometimes you know, eight times a week if they were going twice on Sunday, and the more carnival aspect of territory wrestling and going from city to city and doing it at that pace. This was everything they ever dreamed of. This was everything. ESPN is just, oh my gosh, this is to be taken seriously by the biggest, the main sports component in the entire world, and not just to be taken seriously to come to the table and say, hey, look at what we have, look at our value. Look at WrestleMania forty that shattered every record. And it's really started WrestleMania in Dallas in a few years, not a few years, but a few months leading into that Russemania Dallas, coming out of COVID, everything wrestling just became a place to come back to for fans, and there's so many great stories to gravitate to. You have great great wrestlers like Ria Ripley and Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns of course and see them punk. It's just a almost comedic list of high wrestling IQ talent that love to engage with the crowd, mean it, mean what they're doing, authentic in their presentation, and they've just got it to this place now where like you said, we're number eleven, But I'm almost mad hearing number eleven because get gotta get its way, gotta get it on that TOPI but I will say this is as far as the business is concerned, the business really has taken this unbelievable turn upwards with the inclusion of Nick Cohn. And I don't know if you know Nick, but Nick is the president of WW now and he has just looked at it with a different and a fresh outlook that is really nice for a wrestler's wrestler like me. I try to take a note pretty much every time he says anything thinking is that seems like wisdom? You know, just there's something special in how he is operating WW at this level. And I hope we can continue to break all the records because nobody gets more mad than eighties wrestlers and nineties wrestlers when the business keeps taking off.

00:12:49
Speaker 1: And I love it.

00:12:50
Speaker 2: Because that's what we're supposed to do. Yeah.

00:12:53
Speaker 1: Recently, SummerSlam John Cena tell us about Yeah, the reason why you're holding that belt now, tell us about that day and the lead up and what it meant to finally get it.

00:13:04
Speaker 2: I was very excited about Summerslime because MetLife. So it's New York, New Jersey, and that's not an easy market. They've seen it all. They're a special market and that you have to be special for them to care. You know, it's the same vibe when you're going into the garden almost. It's just if you can make it in New York, I really can't make it anywhere. And to wrestle a person who gave me his playbook, who was the model for how I like to be as a babyface professional wrestler, how I like to do it, how I liked it. We were talking an off camera, how I would work seven days a week, if the rhythm of wrestling and going to every town to be able to stand across from a guy who was your mentor somebody who talked to you about, hey, well this is why this worked, this is why this didn't work. You should work on this, you should improve this. It's rare you get the time to actually play the game against them, right, You might have all those lessons, but you're playing against somebody else. It's really rare you can stand across from that guy, look him in the eye and not just be grateful and and thankful, but also hope he sees you and go, ah, there he is right and and and make him see you. And the opportunity to do two matches with John, one at WrestleMania and then one at SummerSlam where we could really treat them almost as one match in itself. Very blessed that I got to be in there with him. But in the moment, it couldn't be one of those I'm blessed, It couldn't be one of those. It needed. I needed to bring everything I possibly could, and he has given. We're at the tail end of John's farewell tour. He has given everything as far as you could possibly give, body wise and mind wise to the industry, especially with the young talent who asked questions. If you're a young talent, you asked John Cen a question, get ready to get ready because he's not because a lot.

00:14:48
Speaker 1: Of some superstars and different sports aren't like that. Oh yeah, you know what I mean. And uh, tell us a little bit about him as a person obviously, you know he's been someone that's been able to transcend not only in wrestling but acting in other ventures. What kind of person is he?

00:15:02
Speaker 2: I had a really great feeling that he would do well when Peacemaker came up, or acting gigs in general, because of his attitude when it comes to ww John was always wanting to work, was there, early, stayed the latest. Wasn't in the habit of just selling tickets as much as he was selling a story. He was selling an experience, something that you would come back to. And then you hear these stories of him going on sets all over town here and being the most professional guy he'd ever met, the most prepared guy you ever met. I think John has tons of natural talent, gift of gab, and incredible physique, incredibly functionally truly strong. He had tons of natural talent to be a pro wrestler. But the thing he'll be remembered for is the work. Is the work ethic he had is he set a standard that this isn't like an old man shouting at clouds thing. But if you're at an XT right now and you don't know about what John's day was like on a Monday, night, what his day was like as a performer, then you should look it up because that's the level.

00:16:08
Speaker 1: You need to do.

00:16:09
Speaker 2: And even now with ESPN and Netflix and all the spotlight, you got to do even more. But he just he probably would have made it on talent alone. But the reason John Cena and you can't see me is, you know, culturally relevant is his work ethic.

00:16:23
Speaker 1: Street Fight of the movie, Yeah, and you're playing guy Isle is gonna say, yeah, you know who they need to get for then Keith is one of Jog's brothers.

00:16:31
Speaker 2: Hey, I sent the director Catao, the director for Street Fighter. I sent him a joke the other day. I said, what are street fighters like in their Hamburgers? And he I got like a long dot dot dot, a long ellipses forever, and then he finally said what And I said, zang beef. And I thought that joke nailed, and it didn't. It's just I think he gave me like the face with the one line thought I was a hit street Fighter is. I'm so glad I got to do that. Try to tell stories in a different way, and that crew Kleina Cogoah the three leads to this movie. Andrew Schultz, stand up comedian fifty cents playing ball rog It's It was such a ridiculous moment to have everyone on set, but it was so well organized rehearsing, like we were actually going to be fighting somebody on the weekend because everybody was locked into Australia going over all the dialogue together. It was just a really well oiled machine and legendary pictures and I'm I'm blessed to be part of that. I went in for a meeting thinking I was going to talk to them about other stuff and they told me, oh, we want you for guy, and I I know, I know the role. You know, it's a charge character.

00:17:50
Speaker 1: I used to play that game.

00:17:52
Speaker 2: I do find it funny because every now and then my list will really settle out and be pronounced. There was a few haters online who kept saying a sonic boom and now I kind of just want to find it somewhere. I just want to find sonic boom. But it was a blast.

00:18:10
Speaker 1: Podcasts. You're also in that space. Now, what do you want to talk about? Yeah? Do you like it?

00:18:15
Speaker 2: By the way, do you like this?

00:18:17
Speaker 1: Love it? Oh?

00:18:18
Speaker 2: Good, all right, I love it.

00:18:19
Speaker 1: I'm in between well, because you're still your current you know what I mean? Like to me, I don't think I could put all the time I needed for this to be successful. It is if I was still playing.

00:18:28
Speaker 2: I tell them this. Yeah, it's a commit It's hard.

00:18:30
Speaker 1: It's hard. No, it is because I mean I think people think, Okay, podcasts, they're not They're not easy. There are a lot of work. You need a great team around you. Look like you have a good team, but it's just like the work you need to put into for this to be successful takes away from your primary job and the fatherhood and all the other great things you have going on.

00:18:47
Speaker 2: Do you do? You do a lot of ad reads.

00:18:50
Speaker 1: Hate them. I just did them for your coming.

00:18:51
Speaker 2: Okay, so they made the mistake of on my pod, what do you want to talk about? Which I do love. I just don't know if I'm any good for it is we there's cocktails provided by Wheatlee Vodka, and they make these specialty cocktails. This season for some reason, everybody's going live rounds. There's not been one false episode. So you're pumping out three of these in a day with like a Damien Priest or someone like that. You getting, You're getting there right, So then they'll have you do the ad reason for you know, a rectile dysfunction roasts and it's you're just and I'm already trying that, like you're just. I'm locked in and the prompter is so long, and all the codes are your name plus fifty off like Cody fifty off sign up at backslash code. I they're brutal. Two of them have not made it. Two of them have flat out not seen air because just on the intro for someone I really like, I'm not you can't put that out there. I can barely get her name out, Like that's no good, you know what I'm talking about these, So we're redoing a few of them. Yeah, I'm learning.

00:19:58
Speaker 1: I've learned one thing. I can give you adviceles and don't take yourself serious doing it. I used to try to like really read it and have a serious voice. I laugh like I'm doing. We do roast sparks, and I laugh at some of like it's obviously they pay the bills, so they're very important. I don't enjoy them. But there I think we start to have more fun because, similar to you, we'll drink or smoke and shoot three episodes and we're doing what now, we're doing adreads. I can't even see the screen right now. I love this.

00:20:19
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm gonna take that strategy going into it because they are just.

00:20:23
Speaker 1: Yeah, don't take it so serious, be able to laugh at yourself. Yeah.

00:20:27
Speaker 2: I like this because a lot of this could be done shorter too.

00:20:30
Speaker 1: Yeah.

00:20:30
Speaker 2: The sponsor's great, thank you for the money. Let me say your name and what you do.

00:20:35
Speaker 1: And once you guys do a rolling. What they've allowed us to do now is on some of them like put in your own words, which I'll make it go a lot, not to Craig, but anyway, I mean, what is it? What was it been like in again Champion and we'll touch on a little bit A proud father of two beautiful little girls. But then this podcast? What does the podcast space meant to you? And how have you enjoyed it outside of ad Reids.

00:21:02
Speaker 2: I've enjoyed it because you get to show you're seen one way as a wrestler, particularly my guest on the show. You're seeing almost sometimes barely three dimensional. Maybe that character is what presents and that's all there is. And there's a vulnerability to when you sit across from somebody and you actually have you share this drink together, and you ask questions outside of the suspension of disbelief, outside of canonical what we're doing on our show more a little bit behind the scenes. But I like to showcase my guests in a way that if you didn't understand them, maybe you'll start watching a raw or SmackDown and maybe that's your guy now, Maybe that's your girl now, just because there's something you didn't know about. You know, wrestlers are a funny, insecure, wildly confident sometimes party animals. They're just all over the map. The human element of it gets to be on what do you want to talk about? And I like that a lot.

00:21:58
Speaker 1: Well, I think two and to add my goal being in this space for almost sixteen now was being able to humanize your guests and show like, you know, everyone knows what you do, but I wanted to be able to pull back the curtain a little bit more from my audience and kind of show you as a man, as a father, as a businessman. So that's kind of always been my thought process going into it, and again to introduce fans to new people and new opportunities. Before you were the top guy in the WWE you left in twenty sixteen. Yeah, can you explain that journey?

00:22:28
Speaker 2: Oh man, it was I'm surprised they let me back, and legally, I one thing there's a byproduct of my departure is nobody gets to leave how I left. I got so a lucky I was Dusty rhodes Son. Also, I think they respected that I had put in a decade of work. I didn't even sign my release papers. I told them I was done on social media, which is none of this works anymore, none of this flies anymore. I had to leave, and I've heard described as I wanted to not be treated as a little kid anymore, and they were only ever gonna see me as a little kid. And I'm thirty at the time. A ten year shift's been put in. I've offered a different body of work than my brother or dad ever did, just different, just a different variety. And maybe maybe it was a matter if I wanted to come back and be seen as an adult or come back and be seen as Hey, I've accrued all this knowledge. I've wrestled Triple h I've wrestled The Undertaker, I've been in the ring with Sean Michaels. You don't get that knowledge unless you're in the ring with them, and you guys aren't allowing me to showcase it. But as time's going on, I look back at it and think a lot of it was more immaturity on my part. Anger, a lot of anger which can take you very very far. My gosh, a chip on your shoulder. I just wanted to show outside of the bubble of w B, and I've talked about the bubble. I wanted to show that I could mobilize an audience to follow me. If that meant to a VFW hall where can only hold four hundred people, if that meant to the cow Palace where you're you know, putting you know, over four thousand people in there for a show that wasn't w B or the original all In, which was just a person on social saying nobody can get ten thousand people besides w B and me taking the bet, and then the next thing you know, we're off and running and there's an alternative promotion out there. I was very lucky, though, I got to find a sexier way to tell the story. Aroun I'm like, oh, I knew all along, and you know, but I was very lucky because I was surrounded by good people. I was so angry that I wasn't sleeping. I was just motivated. I needed to be everywhere at every point I possibly could be, and especially with social media and podcasts and how everything are today, I wanted to make sure throughout my time away, I took the news feed away. Every week, I did something every week that took the news feed away. And to the point where you know, the Bullet Club was group I was part of. Finn Balor started the Bullet Club in New Japan and aj Styles was a leader, and we had so many shirts at a WrestleMania that a market dealer was asking, hey, where are they? When are they on the show, and they had to be told, oh there, that's another thing. So just the underground scene, meeting my flavor and the guys I was around. Just again, I never can explain it correctly, but I was. I was very lucky to have that, and I was very motivated to get it done.

00:25:30
Speaker 1: But I mean, also to your credit, you bet on yourself. Yeah, which is important. I think a lot of people like you said. I mean, you mentioned earlier than some wrestlers are insecure and there's a lot of athletes are insecure as a whole, like to be able to have the legacy in the weight on your shoulders, to be at the top of the mount in the WWE and then bounce, take a you know, leave and have a hiatus for you know, a handful of years and be able to come back like you bet on yourself.

00:25:53
Speaker 2: And it worked, It worked, and it worked further than I ever imagine. I think everyone thought w B lifer, and nobody knew this was always the goal until I really set it out loud and tried to will it in existence and came back to w B. But I think a lot about it now because now I'm I'm often put out there as the face of the company, and I don't know if that's accurate or not, but that's often where I'm positioned, and I'm honored by that role. But I think, is he still inside? I know that's like a crazy thing. Is this disruptor? Is he still in there? How would he approach this? How would he feel? I try everything I can to not become a corporate version of myself, even in the most corporate setting. That's important because it's it could be quite easy actually, you know, you get everything you ever want and then you got to find it inside. Is it still on fire?

00:26:52
Speaker 1: You know? Then? Also too, I mean, I mean you're forty years old. I mean understanding the journey you've been on. I think a lot of people don't appreciate and enjoy the journey. Yeah, because it's you know, you've been wrestling for twenty years now, and you know, God willing however long you want to wrestle. You know, you're kind of on the back side of that. So just understanding and appreciating that journey because it's been incredible. Were there ever times talk to us, because it's only natural times that during you were on between sixteen and twenty two when you went back, was there any times you doubted yourself before.

00:27:22
Speaker 2: I came back to w Oh my gosh. All the time I thought about going and getting a degree, because in Georgia, if you have a degree, you can be a wrestling coach. I was really into amateur wrestling growing up. I was the only one in my family who did folk style, freestyle greco Roman. I thought I'd be a really good coach and that I never thought about a plan B. So that was the first time Plan B comes up. You're married at the time, no children just yet, but looking to start a family. And you can't start a family with just nothing, you know, or a little bit of savings here and there. From my time with w B. But I doubted myself. I feel like I doubt myself every step of the journey. But here's what happens in wrestling, is you put up a good performance, you have a match, you do somethings, a segment of promo. The fans are always the one to tell you that you're doing it, that that something is happening. And that was undeniable during that period, and it was there was others involved with me, but it was undeniable, the buzz that was happening. And it'll give you a great example. You do a show in San Antonio in a bowling alley for three thousand people a bowling alley. Right, They've been sitting there for five hours watching this TV taping and you're the last thing out there, and you stay out there for forty five minutes to an hour, just making jokes on the mic, off camera, greeting the fans, and not a single soul leaves. You know, there's something going there's something happening, and that's always been I never get mad at fans, and fans had booed me in the past, and maybe they weren't supposed to boom me, or fans had gotten to me in a social space, whatever it was. I never could go to sleep mad at them because they're also responsible for everything I have. And that's not just my career, but the confidence. You can't do it for silence, right, the live audience needs is what we do.

00:29:19
Speaker 1: Yes, this is what makes you the noise, being able to decide for the noise of what set's greatness apart. Yeah.

00:29:24
Speaker 2: Tully Blanchard is a legendary wrestler from the Four Horsemen. I remember him telling me your job is just to make them the loudest, the longest. It doesn't matter if it's up that booze cheers, just the loudest, the longest. And ever since he said that, scene is of the same mindset that's always been Okay, I can do that.

00:29:41
Speaker 1: I interviewed me today and they were super excited, So I have some questions from them, but I remember so. I had an incident with Kobe in two thousand and nine where I faked the ball in his face and the yeah, fucking went crazy. My twins got to start traveling with me after that because they got become a little bit older and I had to use a rest kind of example to let them know what it was. So, as I told you before, my job was always to guard the best player. And the twins would come to the games like, Dad, why do they blew you when they announced your name in the starting lineup? And I'm thinking, like, all right, how do I explain this to six year olds? And I'm like, well, you know, daddy has to guard the best player of it, so that's like Coole Colgan and then Daddy's the undertaker. Yeah, and like, but you don't wear black. I was like, yeah, I know, but that's my uniform is a basketball. Yeah. Okay, So they like you, they just don't like the job you're doing them exactly.

00:30:31
Speaker 2: Well, you were the heel.

00:30:32
Speaker 1: Yeah you had to be.

00:30:33
Speaker 2: You had to be everybody's heal. But there's did you feel there was a following for you as well?

00:30:40
Speaker 1: It was split because yeah, it's when I became the bad guy. It kind of hurt my feelings because I felt like, damn, I'm not a bad guy. But then once I became once I got ahold of that and embraced it. I was the villain. I was great with being that villain that you needed.

00:30:54
Speaker 2: Well, I think too, when you're so good at it and you're at the level you were, it's not a bad guy in a what we would call in the wrestling business station in the wrestling business we call like a chicken shit heel that's not as good as the type of heel perhaps a Rick Flair was so the type of you even mentioned the Undertaker one that nine times out of ten might be winning this thing. Actually, you know, there's a consistency to it to the point where you stay that long enough, you find yourself a good guy. Yeah, you stay that long enough, you find this is this disruptor, this individual, and and you end up playing with some of the guys that you used to have to guard and things like that.

00:31:33
Speaker 1: You know, well, that was the thing not to cut you off. Literally. That next season, Kobe recruited me to the Lakers. Yes, so we got into it. We fought, and now we're teammates like, oh shit, maybe he's not that bad after it.

00:31:42
Speaker 2: No, you weren't bad at all. Is if we're gonna we need we need it right, Yeah.

00:31:47
Speaker 1: Heel versus babyface. You've done both in your career. Explain the nuances that are held in each of those spaces.

00:31:55
Speaker 2: Gosh, it's a today, It's it's easier to be heel. I suppose you know, traditionally a heel is gonna lead the match. This is the bad guy. They're gonna feel the crowd. Hopefully they're educated enough to know, you know, their connection with them when they want you to get up, when they want you to not yet you know, in terms of then this comeback comes whatever. Even with that said, it's a little easier to be disliked today, whereas in twenty twenty five now or in the last five years or so, baby faces were essentially an endangered species because something about doing the right thing wasn't as cool as it used to be. You know, the eighties are one thing. You know, Bob Ackland was amazing and beloved by fans, but that type of kind of goodie two shoes virtuous style wasn't the thing that was on. You know, we got Breaking Bad on TV, you got Game of Thrones. There's a different type of hero. But something opened up in the wrestling space where I don't know if it's virtuous or if it's goody two shoes or whatever it may be, but something open up in the wrestling space where good guys have become a thing again. And I don't think it's about being virtuous as much as about being authentic. You know, Jay Uso is one of the most popular wrestlers on the planet. Jay's done some diabolical stuff. I've been so lucky I got a great following with our young audience. I've done some terrible stuff I would hate if they looked up, but when they see me, they are one hundred percent sure that is authentically who I am authentically, and I think that's been the key to being a good guy. I also think it's more challenging. We're at this point where the longer that it goes for me, the less I'm able to turn to this nefarious, dmon bad guy because so much has happened that there's a core audience now that won't go. And we actually saw this with John Cena recently. I admired him taking the challenge and loved him going forward the idea of being a bad guy at the end. But you've got decades of equity built with them. All that's probably gonna happen is no, we're gonna stay with you. We don't agree with a lot of these where we're staying with you, which is in fun in its own way because it creates a hell of an acoustic in the live crowd. But he'll babyface is really funny to determine if you were looking at a sheet our roster. A lot of guys who look like heels might be babyfaces. A lot of guys who look like babyfaces might be the heels. Same with the girls. It's really our audience is gonna make the choice.

00:34:47
Speaker 1: We spoke to the wear and tear and off came before we started, what it was like when you first came in and how much you wrestled, and then what it's like now. Can you break that down to.

00:35:00
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean live events today, I wouldn't be able to do like today because we'd be in Omaha, Nebraska and wed you know, you do your Saturday live event, your Sunday live event. Perhaps you do Monday night roll your home, you know, Tuesday, Wednesday hit back on the road, Thursday, you do Friday Night SmackDown. It was you were home two and a half to three days a week and you were wrestling. But those live events were wrestling matches, so it went twofold. You could really get banged up and hurt yourself, or you built up a bit of a rhythm and a it's like dancing almost. You got to rep out of it where it only advanced your skill and at one point in your career they could be hurting you like crazy, and at another point in your career you could absolutely need them. I will, and my man from Talent Relations is here had said, don't say it out loud, but I will. I loved the days we were wrestling on right, Oh my gosh.

00:35:55
Speaker 1: So give me an example loving.

00:35:56
Speaker 2: I want it back in a year.

00:35:58
Speaker 1: In a year, back in the day, how many days out of the year would you be wrestling?

00:36:01
Speaker 2: I mean, so what is that? It would be two hundred and something dates sixty Yeah, two dates, and now we're at one hundred and twenty ish.

00:36:09
Speaker 1: So you guys got a little bit of load management now.

00:36:11
Speaker 2: Oh again, like credit to the new too new management at w TOB with Triple H and Nick con it's far healthy. But I came up in the system where you're always wrestling, So I look at it and don't That's how I knew you would get good at it. That's so we've got to figure out how else.

00:36:28
Speaker 1: Can we do that. I love that parallel because I came from an era in the NBA. Obviously it's a heavy load. Guys are making a ton of money now and it's load management up. But I came up in an era where we went through the entire training camp, played the entire preseason. It was an honor to play eighty two games, and we wanted to play every single playoff game, right. That was like, that's how we came up in the game. So I miss you know, I look at it from a standpoint of it if I'm going to a wrestling event or if I'm going to a basketball game, like I want to see the best players out there every single time. Yeah, I mean, because it's how expensive it is and all the other you're taking a whole family. So it's interesting that the similar parallels in wrestling. You know, like you miss the old school grind. We're out that motherfucker two hundred days a year and we're getting it done. But to your point, that's how you felt like you got better and that's how you felt those reps got everyone else better.

00:37:15
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, it's you got a rhythm with your your dancing partner. And you said load management. I don't know if I've heard it, it's worded that way.

00:37:24
Speaker 1: I hate that.

00:37:26
Speaker 2: I like all there's all these new terms load management. But man, oh man, I'm getting in so much trouble with my peers. But these wrestling companies are banning so much money. Now get up and then like the grind is a negative? Now what are you talking about. You get to go to a town on Saturday that may not normally see you, and you get to see families and you get to have a moment with them, and you get to be their escape, you get to be their hope. Then you go Sunday you do it all over again Monday. You've got a good idea, you've been on the road, your mind has been tuned in a wrestling You've had a good idea, how to do this promo, how to do this match. It's just I miss it, but I do. I credit too. Ever figures out with load management, whoever figures out how we improve, and I'm seeing it. Dom Mysterio is probably my favorite example. Don Masterio does not have the amount of live events that we used to have, although he's working multiple companies for WW at the moment, special special talent. He's somebody that's often cited internally. I don't think I'm giving anything away here as somebody who's gonna be a future of WWE. He's one of the ones that when it said, I believe it, like I think I'm going to come to a WW show in fifteen years and pay money to see and it will probably be Dom Masterio on the top of the car because he's figuring out how to do it. So whatever he's got, yeah, ok, yeah, but you never know. He's tall, he's got like you never like, you know, by the work in like the Hurre Editarry passion that Ray has. He has raised, you know, the greatest sutra door of all time with respect to Santo, I think he really is the greatest to ever do it. Dom is special. There's there's a few that I see on that list, and that one for sure. I don't want to be overly confident, and you know, but I certainly believe it. He's somebody I'm gonna go pay to see at an event in fifteen years.

00:39:22
Speaker 1: Well, I mean, I feel like you obviously have the respect of what it is, but you miss how it was. Yeah, you know, I mean it's the same thing. I'm not gonna be one of these old dudes and shut your old ass up complaining how it used to be. But like there is some some some you know, there is some nostalgia and how the grind used to be done, for sure.

00:39:39
Speaker 2: And I remember something one time my dad asked. Somebody asked my dad, what which is harder, wrestling seven days a week or what they do now in TV wrestling. At the time, we were wrestling maybe three days a week. And he actually surprised everybody with an answer. He said, today is harder because high definition television, every everything you do, this conversation, we're having lifts forever. So you can't copy and paste, you can't time, you can't steal a song, layer it can put it on a T shirt because there's somebody who's gonna find it. And so you like they were getting a little getting away with things of that nature, whereas today it's just the pressure is on. And one of the cool things about and I don't know if it's cool for a wrestler, but it's cool for a fan. One of the cool things about today and the lack of live events we have is when you see two guys go at it in the ring, that might be the first time they genuinely ever touch. And I love about that is that those can be a little stiff, those can be you know, like those can be as real as real gets in a way, and that's that's fun for an audience member.

00:40:41
Speaker 1: Walkers. I mean again as a as a longtime fan, and I kind of fell off as an adult, and my kids brought me back in your guys' ecosystem. Walk me through a quote unquote match snight or a game day, Like what is your day? Like, when do you have to get there? How do you prepare? Do you work with your partner? Or like how does that work? You know?

00:40:59
Speaker 2: You see, we got a good, good team here. I always have a schedule for everything in the day, and I try to balance out from a priority standpoint. WW has a lot of things, partners, backstage tours, merchandise is a massive component of WW today, especially with our partnership with Fanatics. You're looking at a stack of three hundred to five hundred. If you're a top man or woman of eight x tens, they got to be signed autograph weight belts. There's also various you know, community partnerships like Make a Wish and those are we try to give. Those are absolute one percent all and you've got to do that. You've got to also while doing all of this, have that hydration mix in the shaker. Make sure your gear is laid out on you in your locker room or on the bus. Uh, you've got to have the top notch again HD television, the top notch gear in the game, which is a lot based on wrestlers. What would I say their preference? Triple Ah doesn't tell me how the American Nightmare looks. I've that's my character. He gives it a spotlight, he gives it a highlight. He might give me a note. But a lot of the characters seeing a great deal of the ones that are popular with the crowd come from us. And you've got to have everything ready again to steal the feed. So it's just a mind going type thing all day and with maybe you're wrestling somebody you've never touched before, you're working against somebody like a Drew mcandire's is this giant Scottish just ball of muscle that you know is going to throw you around and it's going to be rather aggressive evening. You can't take any risk. You've got to The last thing you want to be is that wrestler who's taping his wrist up while his music is hitting in Gorilla And no, I like to be very, very prepared. I don't like to run it tight at all. So it's just a matter of if you've got a checklist and I always have a little old school yellow legal pad with everything that's supposed to get done in a day. And they're silly thing, shave your upper body like there's still a thing you know, like they're just but they're they're but you if you don't by the time that bell rings and you can hear that crowd coming into their seats and they're wooing and they're doing all that, you want to know, you did everything right. You're prepared. And I'll tell you something because I'm I feel like I've circled around your answer because every day is different. But I'll tell you something that really helps at WW helps you prepare is we have our own set of coaches that we call producers who help us with our matches. You've got a legendary person like Michael Freebird Hayes, who's just if you can get past the wild enigma and unbelievable charisma and swag that Michael's got and whatever outfit he has on for that day, he's he is a super genius, as we call in the industry when it comes to Hey, I think the crowd may be here by the time you go out there. You got to give him this. You have mister Paul Hayman, you have Triple h. You got a young guy like Bobby rue d Abyss, Chris Park, these producers, Molly Holly, all these producers have experienced have a wrestling IQ. If we didn't have them, WW would not be as hot as is right now. That producer's squad.

00:44:13
Speaker 1: Now, is that new to the game. Has it always been that way or is it kind of amped up as you guys as the sport has continued to reach its peak.

00:44:20
Speaker 2: I think it's amped up. It's always been part of the game, but it might have been a lot less when it was Chief j Strongbow just telling you and I, Hey, he's gonna give you the leg drop at the end. You know, all right, cool, we'll figure the rest out. You now have a lot. And maybe that's the answer to my question earlier, is how we improve is to have those minds in the business. I love when arn Anderson's around. I love you, Jesse the body Ventterra will talk your head till it explodes. But when he's around, I know you're getting some of the greatest information ever. And I remember one hundred years ago saying Triple h saying, all the books are there, guys. If you don't go in there, grab a book and open it up, that's your fault. And really, you know NXT right now, our developmental system is taught by probably the greatest bell the bell wrestler ever in that being Sean Michaels. If you're not picking this up, you know, And maybe that's again I feel like I'm answering my own question throughout this conversation.

00:45:18
Speaker 1: I like it.

00:45:18
Speaker 2: Maybe that's the difference between wrestling four days a week is having those super genius type individuals around to walk you through what you did wrong, walk you through what you can do further. Undertakers now super involved with a Triple AR partner which is crazy because that's Luca Libre, but he knows. Yeah, live crowds are live crowds, So to have them cheat code, Yeah, that's what it is. It's a cheat code.

00:45:41
Speaker 1: Yeah, playing and performing through pain. You had a legendary picture that we're going to pull up right here. It's gross. You toy your peck muscle right there. Yeah, talk to us. I mean, I'm someone and again, football is crazy basketball. I've done the tourt ale shots where I've torn something in my shoulder, having an able to practice and I take this shot, I'm superhuman for four hours and then I'm back to horrible pain. You being able to perform through pain and not allow it to affect your mental and still go out there and put on performance. What are some of the stuff that you guys have to do, in particular with this injury right here, that you had to do to get your mind in the right place to be able to make it through this night?

00:46:19
Speaker 2: This is really and this is what a brutal picture this is.

00:46:22
Speaker 1: Uh, But that's to me, like as a fan, that's like that's a You're a fucking warrior, you know what I mean? For you to be able to play or perform through something like that. You know, obviously the admiration goes through the roof, but it's it's that's not the only time you've been hurt. There's a number of times where you had to get through it.

00:46:37
Speaker 2: This was there was really no element of preparation because I'll be honest, I didn't think I would be able to wrestle, And a lot of me being able to wrestle is maybe at the time I was scary enough, or intimidating enough, or forceful enough with everyone I spoke to from a office level, who's in charge of me going out there and the world seeing that my pectendon is removed from the bone and now is filled with blood. I just wasn't allowing the conversation to get to a place where I wasn't wrestling. We were the main event. Peacock had seen a big surge in subs for Hell in the Cell, and I'd also not been the main event before I'd come back to wrestle Mania. I wrestled Seth Rollins Amazing, wrestled mcnick again the next month of Backlash. So we've done too. Now we're the main event and we're finishing it off in Hell in the Cell, which is one of wrestling's best creations, and we're the main event all statering in Chicago, which has not always been a market that liked me. It's a real pro punk market, and they never they liked me, but I always had to earn them over. I just couldn't leave them hanging. There was nothing else that could have been the main event. I don't mean that with any braggadosha, just there wasn't. So I hid. Really was my preparation, you know. The night before one doctor looked at it. My own physician said, well, it can't get any worse because it was torn. I had strengthened my fingers and things of that nature. But WW is also very adamant about there's no substance abuse in this company anymore. None in the years the eighties are over. We've got to be healthy, We've got to be clean. So people ask all the time if I had any like pain medication or anything of that nature. I had for baby aspirins, really because they didn't even have regular ad bill. Now they read it. I had regular ad bill, I would have had it, but they had that baby aspirin. I was for this match.

00:48:34
Speaker 1: I was fine.

00:48:36
Speaker 2: Until a couple minutes in, and then I remember at the time being told, Hey, if you're in pain, we are going to stop it. There's nothing to prove here. If you're in pain, we are going to stop it. And my thought was, how would you know, I'm already were pretending to be in pain, Like, what level of pain are you gonna go on? That's right? So I'm walking this tightrope the whole match, not sure if they're just gonna ring the bell, But I just Seth was the perfect person to be in there with me. Seth Rollins, And the crazy thing about this photo is Seth Rollins and I recently wrestled at Crown Jewel and Seth finally beat me. I'd beat him three times before, nobody had sweeped him like that, but he tore his I don't know he tore I want to say his rotator cuff is. We don't have an actual answer on what's but Seth, I know, has gone under the knife and got surgery, so at this point real not real. However, you look at the industry. Him and I aren't good for each other. We're not We don't need to wrestle ever, again, He's lost. He's lost his shoulder. That was the first major injury I ever had. But I was glad to be in the ring with him that night.

00:49:47
Speaker 1: It was special. I mean, what is it? Obviously you hear about substance abuse in all leagues, all entertainment facets, and obviously all leagues have tried to change it, Like what do you guy? You guys beat the shit out of your body? What do you out of outside of just trying to take care of it? Like, what do you guys do to maintain.

00:50:04
Speaker 2: I think now it again load management, which is now my favorite term. Ww's really good about Hey, such and such banged up?

00:50:14
Speaker 1: It's not.

00:50:15
Speaker 2: We don't power through anymore. That might have been the very last example of let's power through. We really the show. We create the show so we can navigate around things like that and give somebody a break if they need it. You just have more athlete conscious people today. You know, you've got people who are have amino shakes. You've got people who are I started doing pilates about a year ago, because your workout has to change as you get past thirty five. Right, this peck injury came from me being a dumb ass and trying to binge three point fifteen with no warm up and open toad sandals. Oh right, dude, took it off the bar. Took it off the bar, bro open toad sandals, open cup of coffee, what like, no knowledge of a body of athleticism of so so we now, I feel like, have such a good crew. Larry, who's our head trainer, We have just a good crew of athlete minded people. And this is why it has to be this way. Modern wrestling is insanely fast, with an insane amount of rotations, flips, high spots, whatever you want to call them. It's not getting any slower. It's only going to get more dangerous and more wild. So if we're not doing it safely, we're gonna kill our own business. So you find a lot more people. It's not like the golden eighties, whereas like guy smoking a cigarette douce does ten pushups and goes out there and tears the house down. It's not that I kind of wish that'd be fun. It's a science now, yeah, it's a whole science, and we're just I feel like we've been provided proper education. I don't mean to I don't want to kiss his butt further, but I will. But one thing that really helps is Triple H being in charge because he was an athlete in there who got hurt, who's been there and had to bring himself back into the game. So when you're around other people like that, you see it and you know it. And now no one's coming back early. There's no one like, hey, they gave me seven months, but I'll be back in four. No, no, you'll be back in seven and you'll be good.

00:52:09
Speaker 1: We'll be waiting for you.

00:52:10
Speaker 2: Yeah, we'll be waiting. It will be here when you come back.

00:52:14
Speaker 1: Yeah.

00:52:14
Speaker 2: So it's just a lot more athlete minded and smart businessmen and.

00:52:18
Speaker 1: Women balancing work life and being a father. I mean, we're thankful to get a little three and a half month break in our NBA seasons. I was someone who personally walked away from the game after fourteen nearly fifteen years, and was still paid for another two years. I still had two years on my deal because I felt like I was missing time with my kids. You're a father of two beautiful young girls and a newborn right the newborn is eight weeks and a four year old daughter. What is the balance like and how do you make time for your kids and your family.

00:52:47
Speaker 2: I remember hearing somebody saying there really is no such thing as the balance. You either are doing one or you're doing the other. I have really tried everything I can to bring it together, and a lot of times that's expensive. I know that's a silly thing though, but that's but I don't mind going in on the PJ that gets me home at three in the morning versus showing up at five pm the next day. I just try to be there at the breakfast table for my oldest daughter, which is Liberty, because that's what she expects. She does understand that I go away for SmackDown is what she refers to everything, as you know. So but Leilani, my newborn. I just always try to find the moments, and a lot of it can be. We're lucky as wrestlers that we get to travel the world and wrestle everywhere. This way the company is now, you can make it so the family comes with, oh really, this isn't an era. You know, a lot of wrestlers almost did it.

00:53:45
Speaker 1: Man.

00:53:45
Speaker 2: I've really gone in on the eighties today and I shouldn't have, but like they almost did it. In spite of the fact that they had a family versus the idea that they do it for their family. You know, my girls, I got photos with them at with Liberty at SummerSlam, and and she knows the backstage area she's gone to still photos, she's taken some photos before she's she's We've tried to bring her into the mix, because that's the only way to do it. You know, you got to You got guys who've got tour buses now, and those are many homes, so you can have your life, you know, and and that's that's special. But it certainly I think you hit a point. You said something earlier that I'm thinking, Yeah, he's not wrong. You get to a point where there's only so much. You can only go so long. And I think I know my number where I'd like to get with this. And and I was lucky that my dad, who I thought was the best dad ever, he was out of the game. He was in it as a producer and as a creator, pop in here as kind of an old man wrestler every now and then, but he was out of the game. So he was number one dad at every game. He coached our football team. He's known in Cobb County as coach more than the American dream, like that's what he was. I I'd like to make it by the time they hit that age that I'm not I'm not going that often or I can't really walk around that much. And and that's we're getting We're getting closer. What I'd say is probably my last contract with ww or the next contract I signed probably be my last and and finish finish my days with w w E. It's the house that built me, and it's the house that brought me back and put me in this wonderful, wonderful position. But yeah, I I I don't know. It's very very hard to balance. It certainly is you've got to but when you're in it, you gotta be in it. Arn Anderson, I remember him telling me when you came off, when you come off the road, He's like, don't take a nap. When you come off the road and you show up at that house, you're on, You're on. And I love that challenge. Now two little ones, though, it's a little different. So uh, I'm learning as we go again. Eight weeks so we're in the phase of all best laid plans, whatever scale, all the help you could get still. It's coming at you from all angles, you know.

00:56:04
Speaker 1: So.

00:56:04
Speaker 2: But I got right back in it, man, I got right back in. I had changed a few diapers, it had been a minute, and then like I got back right away.

00:56:12
Speaker 1: I was like right like I was.

00:56:14
Speaker 2: I was so excited. Yeah, all these people taking all their time and like they're they got like the Aqua Ford and something like no, yeah, yeah I got her, Yeah, I got her her two girls too.

00:56:26
Speaker 1: Yeah.

00:56:26
Speaker 2: I don't know girl dad, yeah, real the girl Dad's like a thing in wrestling, and I don't.

00:56:31
Speaker 1: I don't.

00:56:31
Speaker 2: I think I have unrealistic expectations for like I just assume they're going to live with me forever, and then it ain't, you know. And then I'm thinking, here's what I can do to really screw that guy up. Set set the bar so high.

00:56:48
Speaker 1: Come on, man, my dad's been doing this ship. What are you talking about?

00:56:51
Speaker 2: Yeah, set the bar so high that their daddy issues are actually that I'm just always there. Yeah, their daddy's standards.

00:56:57
Speaker 1: Yeah, I want to take you back real, QUI before we get out of your dad. Late Great Dusty Rhodes rest in peace. But we found some footage of him hooping' popska hoop a little bit.

00:57:07
Speaker 2: Oh dude, dude, I know the footage.

00:57:10
Speaker 1: Let's let's watch this clip that I know the footage. He was out there working big body jumpers. Look at his outfit holex S Luger and Sting. This is amazing, So explain what this was.

00:57:25
Speaker 2: This is I believe the NWA versus the Charlotte Police. My dad was also the boss of the company. He was the executive producer. There's Barry Wyndham on the free throw line. He gave a speech before that has been described by I want to say Sting as not even a pep talk. He said, if we lose to these guys, you're fired. So I I have. My legacy of basketball is complicated my my dad. I think his favorite sport was basketball, and my mom has this one picture of him going up for a layup and like talks about how sexy his legs were. He's like a big, robust man.

00:58:07
Speaker 1: So it's like not the area you're like, you.

00:58:09
Speaker 2: Know, but he loved basketball. We always had a hoop at all our houses and if we had moved or if the one was you'd be hearing him out there sending up in the morning. I played horse with my dad every day from fifth grade to sophomore year in high school. I never ever beat my dad ever, ever, And then I furthered my shame because he loved basketball, loved it, and he was very much of the Like something that really motivated him was the year bird plays the the shoot around and doesn't take his jumper off, you know the one.

00:58:46
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, he goes and talks shit, doesn't take his warm up off and still wins it.

00:58:49
Speaker 2: Yeah. He would treat that as if it was essentially like a great story in sports, Like that's that's motivating more than like the miracle on ice that he just he loved. He loved basketball, and I thought I was. I didn't get any of the skills, obviously, but fanatics fest if you want to see reverse of that footage, fanatics veest. God bless him. They did this thing where they got all of us playing different events, and I was not great at any of the events. I was also, you're doing the signings and you're doing the photo ops. If we ever do it again, we're gonna split the days so I can give it my time. But I did a full eye shot. I don't know twenty baskets. I didn't make one, and I'm in a three piece suit, but that's not even the excuse. Like I didn't even make one. The DJ there on the floor is like, all right, get it up for Cody. Here you go, come on, man, get him, get it up. I was just completely unathletic. My legs didn't look like I even know how to jump. You don't know how to human a little bit. Yeah, But the old man loved, loved basketball, and he honestly could play. He used to do all kinds of pickup games. You go to these buildings and they'd be like kids playing in the gym him, and the next thing you know, he'd be over there playing with him. He just he just loved it that. I loved that that footage exists because he was extremely athletic for a big, robust dude, and that is what his whole gimmick and wrestling was. People will see like a fat wrestler today and say something like, oh, he's like Dusty Rhodes, and I want to just no, no. Dusty Rhodes looked away and then worked away, and the same thing. Dusty Roads looked away and then he talked away. He just had a just lightning and I don't know what it was. Yeah.

01:00:33
Speaker 1: Man, we're coming down the home stretch. I'm gonna ask you. I want to throw the questions that my son's had at you. Yeah, a question, Yeah, those are them. I said, I'm interviewing Cody Rose. What you guys would you guys like about him? He's like, you're your guests are so tough? Ask him, Carter said, ask him personality wise? How did you like playing two different people from Stardust to Cody Rose? Yeah? Yeah, what was that like?

01:00:58
Speaker 2: Well, So at the beginning of start Us, I looked at it as real. This was in the era of you're not getting a lot of playing time, but they want you to do something special with this character. You're gonna be with your brother Golddust. So I looked at it as a challenge to maximize, to really kind of make chicken salad out of chicken shit essentially, like to that's always a big thing in wrestling. Take something that's a little silly and then you blow it out. El Grande Americano is a guy we got right now who is doing this exact thing. He's taken something that could have been a death sentence for another wrestler and is just making it special. And they don't mean it to be a death sentence, but they mean it to be a challenge. And at the beginning of start Us, I thought, this is a great challenge. And I've answered the challenge. We're selling these gloves. I'm learning how to do the paint. I can be so ridiculous. My promos have almost moved into this realm where there's a British accent to it. At the it's just gone so ridiculous. All this sci fi knowledge and trek babble that I knew corporate into this character. But I also gave it a shelf life of about six months, so over a year. In was the lowest of low as a wrestler. And people will always send me pictures of me as like them would start Us, like remember we met, and I always tell them that's human rock Bo. That's like because it's a sad clown. I was always in full gimmick. And one of the reasons I was always in full gimmick I was embarrassed. I didn't want to be half Cody and half starterst. I hated the idea. I just couldn't get out of the blocks on it. So in the beginning I accepted the challenge and then at a certain point I got very lost, lost my gut instincts. This was all led to me leaving. So I'm so grateful for start Us, so grateful for the idea that I got to play be ridiculous. And also I was shielded. You know today I'm not shielded. I will if I was to run to Anaheim right now to do raw, I'd come out just like this. That's who I am, that's my life. Everys been out in the open since I came back on. I lived my story just on television. For them that time was just ridiculous. You were able to be a character and have fun and be covered, be mass so that it had its benefits. But also, you know, I'm trying to relate it to to your world where you it was beneath me, it was beneath me, But then even me saying it was beneath me, that was beneath me. It was just this whole conundrum, this whole couldn't get out of the blox. And ultimately that's why I said see you bye.

01:03:34
Speaker 1: So it's almost like you left this kind of guy guy coming off the bench, and you came back as a superstar.

01:03:39
Speaker 2: Literally, I when I left and told people I'm gonna do something, I'm gonna make it. The amount of wonderful posts that are still out there that I love them for this that thought. No, not maybe a comeback, but not even close to what we've done. That's a beautiful thing. I mean, the highest I hate being inside baseball here, but the highest three matches in WW history in terms of your box office.

01:04:07
Speaker 1: Uh.

01:04:08
Speaker 2: The other name on the card was also start us. Basically that's a wild concept. Wild and I don't take it for granted, and I don't mean to be to brag on it, but that is wild. And some fans I don't think can can even see past that, like this is we're putting it in on him.

01:04:24
Speaker 1: I guess you know, yeah, hey, it works all right. This is my other son who was your favorite wrestler that the work you got the chance to work with. Thus far ah Man.

01:04:32
Speaker 2: I changed my answer a lot, uh, just to be like almost manic in my interviews where they're like, this guy's full of shit. But I'll tell you one that's been like sticking out to me. A lot of I named a lot of the luminary figures like like mister Hayman and Michael Hayes. But wrestler in the ring that I really enjoy working with, I mean John obviously Jim, but I'm trying to think of something that I'll tell you. One that I learned a lot from in a very very short amount of time was Jake Roberts Jake to Stabs. I learned a lot from him in just a single promo and a single promo, I learned how a guy can basically cut your legs. But if you're strong enough as a character, you can stand to that. But if you weren't, he was going to move past you. The real sign of what we do, the competition on who gets to the top, that's all very very real. Just the other parts of it are not. And I learned a great deal from working with him. I don't share that with him enough because it was just one night that we had this interview and I thought I just got a masterclass, and had I not had my feet planet in this ground, this guy would have just eaten me up and moved on. But he was one that I thought was really special.

01:05:45
Speaker 1: Shout out as an Carter you got got some good questions, good answers. All right, quick hitters, real quick name your wwe Mount Rushmore.

01:05:54
Speaker 2: That is not a quick hitter. That is like so hey, but I'll be I wonder if I can qualify it further because my Mount Rushmore. If anyone watches my series of interviews, they often think I just have told a different story each time. My Mount Rushmore. I think a lot of it has to do with so. I was talking with my buddy, who's another wrestler, this morning, and I was saying that your legacy a lot of times depends on your last chapter and not always your active chapter. Did you offer anything after you left? So I put my dad on Mount Rushmore because his final chapter in the business is hilarious. Half the next guys, including Roman and Seth, were under his tutelage. War Games is still a show that we do to this day. The Road's name is still on in the business and currently has the game's number one title. He just had an unreal from the grave chapter. He threw another jumper from you know, so he's on there Mount Rushmore Wise. I think the rock is on there Mount Rushmore Wise. He came back to a very tumultuous ww uh a year or so ago and decided, no, I'm not gonna deal with that. I'm in instead going to create a new character, even though I'm already one of the greatest characters ever, that being the Final Boss. And we've even we've just scratched the surface on the Final Boss, like there's something incredibly special there. So the rock is on my Mount Rushmore again, final you know chapters that you still are. I would put Triple H on there because he's put the entire ww on his back, and if the guy with the title or the girl with the title can't carry the load, he's there, even as a executive, carrying the load and looking to expand our industry. So then you've got all right, you got Dusty, you got Rock, you got Triple H. We got four heads. I found this out sadly on my bus the other day. There's not five on Mount Rushmore. Oh gosh, I want to.

01:07:47
Speaker 1: You know, you can throw too if you need to slide too more.

01:07:50
Speaker 2: No, now, I gosh, let's see. Oh he was just talking about him. We got to put the five knuckle shuckle. We gotta put John on there. Seeing on there because again last chapter. If you're a young wrestler and you go up to John at his final show in DC on Saturday Nights made them and say, hey, John, I want to be a wrestler. He's gonna give you thirty minutes plus of his time. That's just an insane bandwidth. Like my nephews walked up to them and they got the greatest lesson they've ever got in their life. And he didn't need to do that. Hello is good. You shook his hand, you know, move on, No man, He's just giving and he'll go down as the hardest working superstar ever. So that's a great four headed mount Rushmore. There's four heads.

01:08:35
Speaker 1: Give me a few matches that you feel like help shape your journey in career.

01:08:40
Speaker 2: My favorite match I used to grow up watching as a child. And if I ever get like whiskey drunk, who's ever with me? I'll be like, you gotta check this out? Is it's not even good? It's the best part. It's a clash of the champions. I think it's eighty eight and the Night Center in Miami. It's Tolly Blancher and Arn Anderson versus Dusty Rhods and Sting and why I always want them to watch his matches because Sting is starting to catch with the kids. You see if the kids have their face painted in the crowd. But it's Florida. Still, it's Miami. And when they tagged us the oh my gosh, and he knew it. So you can feel the sin to like not yet not, you know what I'm saying, like this, it's and they they they that was the right thing to do though, because they were building Sting up, and that's the rub as we call it. So that one's incredibly special for me. I'm a hardcore believer in WrestleMania twelve, which is Brett Hart versus Sean Michaels an hour plus. You hear all these people today say it's not what it used to be. Not They wrestled for sixty minutes with no falls. So I'm a diehard Sean Michaels fan thinking he didn't win it again, he didn't win it again, and then you know, Gorilla comes out. They're gonna go fifteen extra minutes, they go, and he wins the championship and the boyhood dreams Sean Michaels becomes champ, legendary, legendary. I remember my dad watching me like sit right there watching it, and he knew he could out what they were running. He knew and he could see how excited I was. So that one shaped me greatly. And then my favorite match I was ever involved with is Wrestlmania thirty nine and so far against the Roman Reigns. Because stadiums, the sound goes up, so you can't always hear it until you watch it back on TV. But I felt like I literally could like feel everyone's heartbeat. I was just connected with them that night. Now almost get emotional thinking about it, because all this stuff that you talk about backstage, Oh they're gonna go like this and they're gonna do this, it's not always that when you get out there and man, it was there plus wow, and it just it just shaped me in a way that I thought. It was the first time in my entire career I had a complete match. I know that's a crazy concept because I was maybe thirty eight at the time, but that's when I had a complete match. I'm a slow, slow learner, and that was special to me.

01:10:53
Speaker 1: Producer Nate was there. He's shaking his head over their sweat and just reminiscent there yeah, I took my dad.

01:10:59
Speaker 2: Yeah, we were there both nights. No, just just rough night for a Cody family.

01:11:03
Speaker 1: Yeah.

01:11:06
Speaker 2: Also they just set I sat in the rings. I didn't know what to go, where to go, and Roman and left. So there's just that sad shot of me just on my butt, like I don't know. I'm grateful for it, but.

01:11:19
Speaker 1: Oh, tough night, tough night. The Paul brothers have made names for themselves from YouTube stars to one is boxing now he's won fighting Jamonte Davis, and then Logan in the WWE. What do you think about Logan and what he's been able to do so far.

01:11:32
Speaker 2: I kind of want to turn on Logan because every time I do an interview, you know how you do you and you have to know this with the with the pod going like it's going right now, basically you get mini canceled and uncanceled on a weekly basis. For something you say long form pod, you're gonna say something wrong. Logan has so many people who don't like him, and I think he's wonderful. He works super hard, he asked the right questions. He's big, jack strong, unbelievably athletic, like a little bit you know, arrogant. Sure, but you're in wrestling, man, like this is in a timid world. Get out there and get in there. But I always say that and people are like, So what I'll say now is I think Logan sucks. I think, with all that great, I think it sucks. I want Jake, you know, like, uh now they're those two are those two are sending the world on five Absolutely, And I feel like, even you know, Dana White, I've heard kind of I've seen him on Logan's pod that there's a softening to them and not just a softening of oh they're okay guys, they're really smart businessmen.

01:12:40
Speaker 1: Yeah.

01:12:41
Speaker 2: I'd like to know Jake a little bit more because I really enjoy Logan. And here's something I like about Logan. I hope he doesn't mind me sharing this. Logan doesn't need necessarily to listen to everybody. Anytime I've ever told them something about this and the match something, man, he's all yours spun and really taking it in. And maybe those are just private combos, but that's how I know, Okay, he's he's going to go further. I think I think Logan's a huge part of ww moving forward.

01:13:10
Speaker 1: I do So last question, WW heading back to Las Vegas for WrestleMania forty two. Last year was record setting? What can fans expect?

01:13:19
Speaker 2: Well? Last year at a record setting WrestleMania in Allegiant Stadium, lovingly nicknamed the Death Star, I love me some Las Vegas. I lost. So we'll go right off the cuff and say you're coming to WrestleMania forty two. I will not be losing.

01:13:33
Speaker 1: I will not. That's up.

01:13:34
Speaker 2: I will not. I will not be losing. I think wrestling fans got a huge kick out of Vegas if they'd never made the trip over and seen just how Vegas is done today. I think it will be the best show ww's ever put on. There's a commercial it might have aired by the time this pod makes it out there that really kind of spells out how much we want the fans to be part of this WrestleMania, especially with our on location experiences. But we did a wonderful job for two nights. This one will will top anything that WrestleMania forty one did, and very much looking forward to everyone coming over. The next WrestleMania we're doing is in Saudi Arabia the year after that, so there's also kind of this call to get here for this Vegas one because we're off, we're overseas for the next one. So I'm very much looking forward to one more go in Vegas and it's simple wrestleminga forty two. Cody Rhoads is not going to lose period this year. No gonna first successful defense, Cody.

01:14:32
Speaker 1: We appreciate your time, Congratulations on all the success on end out of the Ring. Your legendary run is yet to be finalized. This is it's been a fun journey to watch and continued success and man, best of luck.

01:14:48
Speaker 2: Thank you so much, thank you. I appreciate it.

01:14:50
Speaker 1: Man, I have a question. You've held the belt the whole time. Can I feel it? Yeah?

01:14:59
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know the one I always bring, the one that's actually from TV so it can get a little beat up. But what they used to do is they used to put your nameplate on it, but now they put they put your logo on. Okay, yeah, so you gotta have a good logo to really sell it real.

01:15:12
Speaker 1: Quick to everyone.

01:15:12
Speaker 2: Where they can find you at everywhere?

01:15:15
Speaker 1: Wait, everywhere? No where?

01:15:17
Speaker 2: Are the place you can find me at?

01:15:18
Speaker 1: Your show? YouTube?

01:15:19
Speaker 2: What do you want to talk about Thank you so much. Netflix for Monday Night Raw USA for Friday Night SmackDown, ESPN for all ww's major pls, and at Cody Rhoads on X at American Nightmare, Cody on Instagram, and I'll be there. I'm pretty active, get it. Thank you, appreciate it.

01:15:34
Speaker 1: Man, Thank you so much. Thank you. John Moran is in the headlines again after a bizarre postgame interview on Friday night. He was suspended by the team for conduct detrimental to the team. Let's take a look at the clip. What went wrong for you today? A Jo? Do you feel like? I mean, it was anything you could do differently? I guess regards they had a whole spill to him.

01:16:04
Speaker 2: So from the outside and that outsaid may be wrong, but from outside it didn't look like you had your usual energy tonight. Okay, you feel like you should play more? Oh the coaching staff, what could have been done different get a different outcome other than actionally?

01:16:24
Speaker 1: Coaching staff?

01:16:25
Speaker 2: Uh, according to they don't probably don't play me.

01:16:28
Speaker 1: Honestly, that's what basically a message was happter. So it's cool.

01:16:34
Speaker 2: The coaching staff message was that cool, We're good. You didn't have anything physically wrong, just illness or anything.

01:16:40
Speaker 1: Okay, I'm fine, all right. This is a very interesting I think cross roads are at with Jos's career and we're gonna have a little time. I'm gonna run down some stuff for you guys right now. But you never want to speculate on what's going on behind the scenes. Could you never really know actually being a former player, But if I were to guess, this is a little bit of a power struggle with the new head coach, Thomas Cilia, first time NBA head coach, And I've played for some great coaches, and one thing I know that new coaches try to do is they have to establish themselves in the locker room. Obviously, Taylor Jenkins being gone, you know, he had a solid run there. There's a little bit of ups and downs with him in the locker room as well. But I think a new coach has to set the foundation the presidents and earn guys respect and figure out how to do it because it's different these days. I know I've had coaches like Phil Jackson who would cuss Kobe's ass out so he can talk to everyone else as well. If he's going to do it to Kobe. That means he could do it to you. I know Stack has said that, you know, Pop would cuss out Tim, so he can do it to everyone else. So I think what this coach is trying to do is you Jaw as an example, being the best player on the team, if he can attack him to possibly motivate him and help this team. That's probably I'm guessing where this coach was going. But that's still no excuse for the type of play the job. Let us see the other night. You know, obviously everyone has off nights eight points three for twelve, whatever that was. I don't care about that. That shit's gonna happen. But just the lack of effort, the lack of just not wanting to be out there, the lack of almost like, you know, you're wasting my time having me out here type energy, that's something from a star player you can't have. I think there's no excuse for that if you look at other star players. We would never let another star player slide like that, because no matter how messed up it may be, going between you and the coach, you and the team, what's going on in the locker room, your personal life, the stars have to be stars at all times. That's on both sides of the ball. I think John needs a fresh start, and we're going to take a look at a timeline of kind of you know, what's going on of lately. But I think before he needs it, before the fresh start happens, I think he really needs to look at hisself the mirror, because we were ready to hand this guy the keys to the league just two and a half years ago. You know, someone who was having in twenty seven, eight and seven, twenty seven, seven and six around those numbers. One of the most electrifying players we've ever seen come on the scene, an All Star, so he was must watch TV, and year by year that's gone down. Some of it's become because of injury, which is which is only natural. Some of it is because of the off court shit and the one thing that we used to hear back in the days, you never want your off court bullshit to be louder than what you're doing on the court. When Jab was at the top of his game, I'm not sure how things were going in the locker room or if he had tough, you know, situations within that organization because the play was doing so so the play was doing all the talking. But since then it's been just a decline in games played. He's played three hundred and thirteen out of four hundred, so it's about a sixty six sixty three. Clip hasn't played over sixty five games since his rookie season. Again, some of this is injury, some of this is suspension. Jock currently is at twenty one and seven shooting shooting percentage is at a career low. He's shooting fifteen percent from the three point line. Again, this guy came in the game electrified, and I think the one knock that everyone had is how long will he be able to play at this level at the rim. He's gone from nearly shooting fifty percent at the rim to this season only twenty eight. Again, that ground is hard, you get fouled injuries, your body is a little different. And we live in a game today where guys are making a living shooting. And Joe was able to break the mold because he didn't have to be forced to shoot. But if he's not able to get to the rim at will like he used to, his game is going to have to develop. So I say all that to say, I mean I think he's still great. I think he has a lot of great miles left. But I also think he needs to look at yourself in the mirror, because I think he's let the outside noise distract and and be louder than what's on the court. So we're gonna go a little jog down memory lane and give you And this is not to bring up old ship or anything, but but my point is is just how he came in and took the world by storm and where he currently sits at right now on a three and four basketball team and a lost team that has no direction. It doesn't look like it has very much leadership. And that's that. That was what you think Jaw at this point in his career, what's this year seven? Form year seven? You think year seven, that's where he would be on all fronts.

01:21:44
Speaker 2: Six years old? Like where you stand in the.

01:21:47
Speaker 1: League that your career? Yeah, well, I mean I think you're you're you're heading to your prime athletic proless in your twenty seven, twenty eight, twenty nine thirties. But more this is the time where you know, year seven, where the game should have already started to slow down for you and you're able to manipulate the game and understand the game and understand, Yeah, we don't need him to be a lockdown defender, but we need him to play the passing lings like Alan Iverson. We need him to work on his game and not be someone who's picked on like Steph was picked on early on, and Steph took that shit personal. And again, Steph's not a great defender, but he's not a weak link anymore. And I think that's what they need from Jah is to be this twenty six you know, you look at it Aunt Edwards, who's not that much with the same How old are they close to age? Right? Yeah, you know there's not a but you know obviously, And I think to another issue with this younger generation is is they didn't and this is not all of them, but not a lot of them had a lot of like real og vets that could tell him anything and kind of guide them and help them steer this ship. Not from a superstar perspective, but just as a player as you continue to get older perspective. But anyway, let's take a look at this journey. Number two overall pick in the twenty nineteen draft brings electricity to Memphis. Memphis was much watch basketball. Josh rookie year he obviously took home the Rookie of the Year. Year two, the Grizzlies make the playoffs. He averages thirty points in a first round loss, so it's obviously showing growth and potential and he still must watch TV at this point. Year three, breakout year, All Star, Starter one most improved, averaging twenty seven, seven and six, takes his team to the Conference. Simmis unfortunately hurts his knee, misses the last three games and that's kind of the end of their run. They lose in six to the Warriors. The year the Warriors go on to win a championship. So we're sitting right now, year three, I think we're ready, Like he's one of these people that we're talking about if we were rind And remember, you know, Brown's on the backside, Steps on the backside, Kd's on the backside. Who is going to be one of the faces or the face of the league. And this is when people are starting to stay like that boy out in Memphis, Jaw is gonna be at least one of them, if not the one. He's the rising star signs his Nike deal and there was rumors I don't know if you guys heard this, but there was rumors that Nike was gonna bring their version of Little pennyback for Jaw. They were gonna bring Little Jaw, which would have been absolutely incredible. You know. I think Penny hinted. Penny hinted hinted that when we had him on What's Burning at one point, so there was talks about him possibly having a little job which would have took the game to another level. He's currently sitting on his third signature model of his shoe, And how I measure success on kids shoes is how much I see him at AU tournaments and who's wearing them, because that means they're being bought. I remember someone I used to see all the time was the Kyrie shoe. He was always at tournaments. Obviously, Kobe shoes are at tournaments, but Jos shoe was in heavy row, so you know it was working at one point. Let's take a look at twenty twenty two. This is the off season after he's hurt. He hurts his knee right twenty twenty two. Allegedly, some things happen at foot locker. Later on, there's an incident I think at his house with a younger kid, and despite all that, he's still able to kind of move past that, because obviously, when you're playing at a certain level, things are overlooked. He signs to Max deal five year, one ninety three, something that changed him and his family's life forever. The twenty twenty three season, Josh stays in the headlines. January, there's an incident in Indiana with some friends in a light. This was also, you know, obviously that stemmed over from some on the court shit that happened at the game twenty twenty three, the unfortunate flashing a gun. This is when we're talking about people telling on themselves. I think, right, I think this was the whole thing where, you know, he flash of something. The league suspends him for eight games. Up until this point, he's still killing though, so the headlines are starting to get a little louder, but his game is just as loud, so it's allowed to continue. At this point, he's at twenty seven, eight and six, and they were thirty four and nineteen in the Western Conference. The twenty thirty three playoffs, Grizzlies losing six to the Lakers in round one, which will put him you know, obviously finishes their season. May twenty twenty three, another gun incident on Instagram Live. I think is Homie caught it. And at this point, you know, this is when people are starting to make fun of him and almost disrespecting him because one time's a mistake, two times is what you know. So again he's incriminating hisself. And again I don't even want to bring up all this old ship, but my point of bringing it up is to make you guys understand how the game has suffered since all this off the court shit has started to make more noise than me on the court shit. So he suspended. Second time around, he suspended the beginning of the next season. Is at the twenty twenty three, twenty twenty four Missus twenty five games, we're thinking, like, hey, you know this is I think this is going to wake him up, and from all aspects you think about it, did. He came in in those nine games, played nine games and was at twenty five, eight and six, and then he tears his labram, which ends his season. This past season only is able to play fifty games twenty three and seven, So the numbers of starting to dip a little bit. They're swept out of the playoffs, and now we're sitting here with a new coach who is trying to figure out, how do I get through this team? Can I go through the superstar to do it? I think you can tell by his energy and the way he handled that situation. Again, we don't want to speculate it could be some real bullshit going on behind the scenes, but still as the star player to handle it a better way. So we're sitting here with a team that's under five hundred, and it takes me back to one of my original statements. I think he needs a fresh start. I think he's outgrown Memphis from a standpoint of He's done a lot of shit there on and off the court, good and bad. And you know, I think it's a good time for, you know, for them to kind of press the reset button as a team. You know, I think they got some good young talent. Obviously Jaron Jackson is still there. I mean it's a situation where do they try to clean house and try to rebuild with youth. Because if you look at this team as with Jah leading them and Jared is this co pilot, I don't see the light at the end of the tunnel respectfully, especially in a tough Western conference. You know, obviously Sham's reported there's tension, you know, over the last few days with the head coach who Nate butchered his name and jaw. And again I think, if I'm looking at this thing, and I'm gonna say it one more time, I think it's this head coach trying to figure out who can I go through to get through to the team. And normally you can use the best player as an example to talk to the rest of the team, but that hasn't worked. So again, we are now here. Let's think about a possible few places he can land. Let's keep in mind he's under contract until twenty twenty eight, making forty million, which is a lot of money, but with today's deals, that doesn't make him unmovable or untradeable. You can still move around and play with that and make a trade like that work. So we're gonna give you a few scenarios. You know, Houston is looking for a guard. John can definitely fill that role, which would be scary. You know, they could send someone like a shepherd east end of van Fleet. They have Phoenix's first round pick in twenty twenty seven, So Houston could be a potential spot. Minnesota, you know they can throw a Nas Reed, a Devincenzo, possibly a Rob Dillingham who hasn't really got an opportunity yet. Terrence Shannon Nas can't be traded un till January because he just had an extension. But Minnesota is another destination and Jah, holy shit, would be scary. Phoenix, interesting situation. Obviously, there would be a package, probably around Jalen Green. You know they're not giving up Devin Booker, but can Devin Booker and Jaw play alongside each other? Great city, I think management needs to tighten up and get a little bit better. But a great city to play for, a great fan base, and obviously Devin Booker one of the most solid players in the game. And then last, but not least, you know that we're thinking Miami. You know, you can build something around Tyler Hero getting a fresh start in South Beach could be good for some. That'd be a big responsibility for Jah to be out of South Beach to get his fresh start, and possibly Brooklyn. Brooklyn has assets. They're looking for a star, you know, after they lost Kde and Kyrie and Harden, they've been looking for a new direction. So Brooklyn can be that big New York stage, but not necessarily the nixt kind of scrutiny and and and eyeballs where Jock can flourish there, Uh, Nate the producer, it makes a good point, I think, you know, because we also mentioned, you know, we were talking in our pregame conversation who else can use a new start, And obviously Trey Young's name came up to me, Zion came up to me. But producer Nate said, tray for Jaw and both get a fresh reset. And my thing to that is, obviously that's a fresh reset, But I don't think that trade makes either team better, you know, to be honest with you, you know, so I think, you know, them go into situations where they can thrive and and be a piece of something big would be interesting. So we'll see again. The one thing I would would say to John, because I'm a huge fan of him, Pops looked out for us this summer out in Memphis. We kicked it and he opened the gym for us. And and so I mean, I love Jaw, but also feel like, you know, sometimes in our position, we need to have some way of constructive criticism that hopefully gets through to the younger player that's not looking to just hate. You know, him and Perk just went back and forth. He saw that shit, and that's not the position I'm trying to come in. My position is just incredibly talented. Bro. The sky is still the limit for you, But to me, it's less about what's going on around you and more about what's going on within you and being able to tighten up and killing the shit off the court. There can be no more off the court bullshit, locker room distractions. You just got to go out there and be a killer. And again you're still very capable of doing that, but that's going to come with hard work. Bro. You know, your game has to improve, especially as you get older. That ground gets harder and you're not an acrobaty. You can't be an acrobat and dunk on everybody and hit the ground that many times. So you know, obviously the game has to steadily improve. But then also I think the mental mindset of being a twenty six year old superstar more of a leader, more of you know, the guy the team can rally around, because when things were going good, you were that guy. I definitely think a new start would help this situation, but I think before it goes anywhere, you know, you got to look at yourself in the mirror, bro and really remember why you're doing this and lock back in because you are one of the greatest players in this game and this should go by fast. Man. If you don't capitalize on that.

01:33:14
Speaker 2: At a superstar player, brand new head coach, how much? So long because we didn't hear about coaching issues And.

01:33:30
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I get I think this is just a new coach trying to find his way. And for years, again, as I said earlier, coaches have gone at the best player to be able to go with everyone else. Now I don't know if that's exactly what he's doing or not. I'm thinking he's probably trying to challenge him and he's just not pressing the right buttons. And to your point, Jock could be like I've been here, like what the fuck are you talking about? You know, and that's still not the right approach to take. And again I'm speculating. I don't know what Josh said or done, but my thing, as the best player on the team, you don't always have to be the leader, but you can't be an example of bullshit, and you know, he showed bullshit in that last game, so that's something that could never happen as someone in his position. So I hope he's able to figure it out again. He's one of my favorite players. He's one of the best players we have in this game, and I think he needs to go out there and reclaim that and all that shit starts between his ears the World Series too. Remember incredible, incredible, incredible Dodgers come through and get back to back titles. Shout out to my Dodger people, Mookie and Line and Magic. Magic said he's eighteen won eighteen championships, winners, win, Shout out to Magic. I think one of the best World Series we've seen in a long time. Disclaimer, I didn't get to watch all Game seven. I had to go support somebody at an event. But trust me, I almost got kicked out of the venue for having my phone on because I was at a comedy show and they were trying to tell me, oh, you can't. It's like, I don't give a fuck what you're saying. I'm gonna watch this game on my phone. And then the dude win away and got someone and the next thing.

01:35:01
Speaker 2: I know.

01:35:01
Speaker 1: They tapped me on the shoulder. Mister Barnes, you're okay, you can finish watching the game. So I told him you got to throw me out. You and a motherfucking army. You're gonna have to throw me out of the comedy show if you thought I wasn't gonna watch. I say all that to say I heard I missed an incredible game seven. You know we have a slide right here of literally a slide in how close the Blue Jays were to winning this. I was talking shit with some friends, some ladies that are helping me with the golf tournament. They're Canadians, and there was just a big time shit talking about of the whole time. But I will say, I mean Toronto played their asses off. I think no one gave them the chance that they went out there and earned. I think they could have finished it in game six. I think a lot of base running errors and then obviously bottom of the ninth, second and third no outs and you can't score. That's when you're fucking with the baseball guys right there, Toronto, that he's trying to hand you something. The guys are trying to hand you something, and you pop out and then you hit into a double play in left field, which was an incredible play. And then Game seven, back and forth, Otani got out there and they took his head off off the mound. But shout out to him, man, just as much as he was doing and trying to do for that team was incredible. You know, our guy Mookie, the fend of the program didn't hit very well. You know. I had some conversation with him during it, and I can only imagine how in his head he was. But he had a huge hit in game three, or excuse me, in Game six that that helped them get the victory. That's his fourth and three with the Dodgers. Four rings. Shout out most, shout out most of any And I like what Derek Jeter said too, because I mean, I think obviously as athletes, we expect the absolute best for ourselves. When he was really hard on usself in the post game, I think it was Game six, wasn't it where he was really hard said he was playing man, And Derek, You're like, nah, man, you've been playing some great shortstop and you're gonna be instrumental, you know, moving forward. So it's always good to hear ogs, you know, give these guys grace and hopefully give them the mental confidence they need to get over. But was it, you know, the bat wasn't his live like we're accustoming like I'm sure he was accustomed to, but there was still things he did to win. Yamamoto was absolutely incredible. He was five and one then the playoffs with a one point four to five e r A two complete games came out and closed game seven and he won three games in the World Series, which is absolutely amazing. I don't know, if you guys got a chance to see it, we'll put it up. But they found his how he trains and how he trains without weights, and he's thrown these like it looks like style froam rockets and and long toss and this human fucking crab work just absolutely incredible. His flexibility, his focus, the way he got hisself to the point he was and able to be so big, you know, for the for the Dodgers. But right now it's it's you know, in obviously social media world is not a real world. Some of you think it is, but it's not a real world. But people are having a hard time with you know, Dodgers, what they have going on. I mean, they'remitted over a billion dollars to Yamamoto uh and and Otani uh and I think they're worth every penny and more. But you look at it in something and I'm mad I didn't say that. I saw a post maybe like a month ago, saying that, you know, all the guys that the Dodgers are able to go out and get had opportunities to stay with their teams, but their teams didn't want to pay them, and the Dodgers wanted to pay them. So three rings in six years, you know, back to back champs. Alex Rodriguez himself said that they have the best farm system as far as pitching and hitting, So it doesn't look like that they're going to be short of of youthful talent. You know, they're not afraid to spend money. Does this kind of dominance that I don't know enough about baseball the inner workings to really know, but is this kind of this kind of domination and and and willing to just go out and pay whatever? Does this car Does this bode well for the rest of the league? Is this looming, you know, a stoppage there's no talent, but everyone else you guys better figure it out. Dynasties. You think about this team obviously, back to back champills the first time since win the early okay, I say late nineties, early two thousand, so first time in nearly twenty five years, and we all know what they were on at that time. They were you know, they were doing a version of this. You know, they were going out and getting the best players. So really interesting to see where this team goes from here. They got their stars locked in uh pitching. I'm sure they're going to find some amazing prospects and grab another all star caliber player in the off season. But this is one of the best teams we've seen in a while, and I'm happy for him. Man, definitely happy for Mook four rings. Lon Roser, the you know, the friend of the program, he's the homie. I'm happy for him. Magic obviously, magic is magic making magic things happen. So congratulations again to the Dodgers. And remember, you guys can conversate with me, have me answer your questions the hotline. Make sure you hit the hot line two seventy nine call A T S. That's two seventy nine c A L L A T S. Hope to be here from you soon. Do we have anything to hear from this time or no? Okay, This Pick six segment is presented by DraftKings. The sixers will take on the Bulls on Tuesday, who are playing really well. I think VJ. Edgecombe will have more points than when Draft Kings Pick six has them at and Tuesday night we have SGA, the reigning MVP and the champion Oklahoma City Thunder taking on the Los Angeles Clippers, who have some defense, but it's still in the season so they probably not going to bring it out, so I think SGA will have more than the Draftking Pick six has him slated for. That's a rap for unplug. You can catch us on all the Smoke Productions YouTube and the Draft Kings Network. We'll see you guys next week.