Baron Corbin On His WWE Exit, New In-Ring Name, AEW, TNA, New Japan, What's Next
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January 23, 2025
TLDR: Professional wrestler Tom Pestock (Baron Corbin) discusses his WWE career, a match with Josh Barnett, and upcoming plans in wrestling, along with stories like meeting Taylor Swift at a Kansas City Chiefs game.

In this episode of the podcast featuring Tom Pestock, formerly known as Baron Corbin in WWE, host Chris Van Vliet delves into Pestock's wrestling career, his recent transition from WWE, and what the future holds for him in the wrestling industry and beyond. Here are the highlights from their enlightening conversation.
Leaving WWE and Embracing Change
As of January 1st, Pestock is officially a free agent after WWE chose not to renew his contract, which led to an overwhelming fan response. He discusses his feelings upon hearing the news and reflects on his thirteen-year tenure with WWE. Some key insights include:
- Fan Reception: Pestock shares how the wrestling community began to appreciate his skills, especially near the end of his WWE run. He credits his ability to elevate other talent as one of his strong suits.
- Independent Wrestling Experience: He recently had his first independent wrestling match at GCW’s Bloodsport, which underscored the differences between indie and WWE wrestling, both in format and audience reactions.
His New In-Ring Name and Future Plans
Pestock is committed to reinventing himself in the wrestling world. He teases a new in-ring name, Bishop Dyer, explaining the inspiration behind the name change:
- Bishop vs. Baron: The significance of the new name represents his growth and aspiration to elevate himself higher than before, akin to moving up in the wrestling hierarchy.
- Future Goals: Pestock expresses excitement about exploring opportunities in wrestling, including a potential stint in New Japan Pro Wrestling, while also pursuing his interests in movies and cooking.
Reflections on WWE
Pestock shares several anecdotes from his time in WWE, including:
- Memorable Matches: He provides a humorous account of a match involving John Cena that went hilariously awry. Pestock mistakenly poked Cena in the eye, which resulted in a memorable moment that highlighted the stress of wrestling in front of a live audience.
- Mentorship and Relationships: Pestock emphasizes the importance of mentors in wrestling, notably his relationships with other wrestlers like Randy Orton and Triple H, and how they influenced his career.
The Wrestling Business Landscape
In their discussion, Pestock also talks about the wrestling business as a whole:
- Industry Changes: With the rise of AEW and other wrestling promotions, he discusses the shift in approaching contracts and the perception of wrestlers moving between promotions.
- Personal Growth: Pestock acknowledges how his time in WWE helped him build a personal brand, which he plans to leverage while continuing to grow as an athlete and performer.
Key Takeaways
- Gratitude for Experiences: Pestock conveys a sincere appreciation for his WWE experience, how it shaped his career, and the opportunities afforded to him. He is excited about the future and particularly about wrestling in Japan and working in film.
- Maintaining Passion: Even with the uncertainties of the wrestling industry, his passion for performing remains unwavering, highlighting the importance of finding joy in pursuing one’s goals.
Conclusion
Baron Corbin's exit from WWE could signal a new exciting chapter in Pestock's professional journey. With his eye on various opportunities in wrestling and beyond, including films and indie shows, it will be interesting to see where he lands. This podcast episode highlights not only his professional experiences but also his mindset as he prepares for this new era of his life.
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Ladies and gentlemen, Chris Van Blee!
Oh my goodness, welcome back to another one here on Insight. I'm CBV Chris fan fleet. Hope your day's going well. Hope your week's going well. Thanks for being with us on this episode. And thank you as always for making insight the number one wrestling podcast on the planet. If you haven't done so already, hit a sidewalk slam on that follow button. If you're listening on Spotify or Apple or cast box or whatever the podcast app of your listening pleasure might be.
Looking forward to seeing you guys at our live shows coming up in Indianapolis next week. It's the day before the Royal Rumble. Then we've got Toronto coming home. I can't wait for that one. It's the day before elimination chamber and then Las Vegas at Circuit Resort and Casino during WrestleMania week. Tickets for all of those are available at CVVtix.com. That's CVVtix.com.
You knew him as Baron Corbin in WWE for 13 years. His real name is Tom Pestock, and it's just so great to have him back on the show. As of January 1st, he is officially a free agent after WWE didn't renew his contract. He talks all about that and the time that he spent there and all of the memories and great moments that he had in WWE.
And Tom just made an appearance in GCW in a blood sport match against Josh Barnett. And he says, he's excited for what the future holds, excited to do more, not just wrestling, not just more wrestling, but just more. He has a real passion for movies, a real passion for cooking. And I can't wait to see what this year has to offer for him.
It just feels like, though, over the last maybe year or two people were just starting to give Corbin credit for how good he is and how incredible he is at elevating other talent. Maybe too good at elevating other talent. I don't know. It's interesting to hear his thoughts on all of this.
So snap a screenshot, tag us if you're listening. He's at Tom Pestock on Instagram and Twitter. That's T-O-M-P-E-S-T-O-C-K. I'm at Chris Van Fleet and let's dive into this. Please welcome Tom Pestock, aka former WWE superstar, Baron Corbin.
Well, it's good to see you again. Yes. Number three, right? Yeah. Yes. And you're fresh off your first ever indie band. Oh, man. Yeah. Yeah. Fresh off the plane out of the New York City, GCW blood sport.
This is the interesting thing when a lot of people get released or their contracts are not renewed from WWE, people just go, oh, they'll just work the Indies. You've never done this before. No, it's funny, man. I put in 13 years with WWE, and that was my first ever in-ringing experience with WWE. Most guys come from independent world or whatever. There's a few of us that skip that whole process, more so now too with all of the NIL and bringing athletes from college.
Um, so you don't kind of get that, that taste of the other side, if you will, you know, like Gables, another guy who, you know, he came from Olympic wrestling and all these people love wrestling, but it's a, it's a different world out there. I now know and can say that I actually know, um, you know, working in an independent show. That crowd seemed to be into you. It was why I was so.
I was so nervous going into it. And I haven't. I mean, you always get good nervous when you're doing a show, especially massive arenas in front of lots of people, big matches. Yeah, that was him or some ballroom. Yes, but like it was a different nervous for me because I had no idea how they were going to react to me. Also,
GCW is known for its crazy matches and wild bumps that guys are taking. And we're going to put on a blood support match, which is we're grappling. We're hitting each other a lot harder than we would if it was not a blood support match.
I was like, man, how's the audience going to take to this style match? I was worried. If I plan to match or put something together that had a lot of like the Jiu Jitsu grappling and all of that in a WWE ring, it just doesn't translate as well. I think especially with the audience being families and kids.
they just they would get bored very quickly of watching the same reason you know a lot of kids don't watch like UFC if you will because they don't understand like the grappling the technique and it's just not not checkers you know they're trying to set things up and sometimes that takes a minute or a minute and a half to set up a triangle or an armbar you know so going in front of that crowd that I know is rowdy and I'm going man
How are they going to react to not hearing Baron Corbin? How are they going to react to hearing Tom Pestock? Are they just going to chant Corbin or are they going to boom me out of this building? I had zero insight to what was going to happen. It was very surreal and ended up getting some pretty cool chance. They were chanting big F and Tom. I mean, it helps when you're twice the size of most of those guys.
So that was crazy. Got to use my new entrance music that the guys put together. And from from downstate, they did Cody's music and they do my music. They do your music. They're they're they're super. They're Miss Cardona. They're so dope. They're the best. Such cool guys. I got to use that. So that was really cool. Welcome to the Downstate family. I know. And what and the cool thing is like,
When they reached out to me too, we're going to go off topic here. I said, they reached out and they're like, these are our influences. Like, and one of them was seven dust Le John. Le John's a good buddy of mine. And I was like, maybe we can get Le John on the track. And they're like, no way. And so I texted him. He's like, I'm fully in. So we're trying to set it up. Now they did a whole track without him, but, um, you know, if they want him to kind of do the first verse and run the chorus. And it's like,
That'll be so sick. It's just like kind of a cool, full circle moment for me to bring one of my buddies in to be a part of the entrance music. And then, you know, these guys, I mean, they the tracks, they're laying down. I mean, look at Cody's music. It's massive. And I think it's helped elevate him to the level he's at amongst many other things. But that plays an important role. And when you have audiences singing that, but and then last night, you know, we finished the blood sport match.
I got a please come back and i'm like these are guys that have hated me for years. Yeah i mean ten years of telling me how horrible i am on social media and now they're like please come back i love it like. Obviously i think that whole wolf dog run with brawn and nxt and getting to just do me for once and getting to.
showcase what I'm truly capable of and getting out there and being able to work longer matches and do more things that I want to do. I think opened their eyes to like, yo, like he got us for 10 years. Like he was actually really good at what he was doing, but he's also really good at this. And so it was a cool self gratifying moment to get that in that arena with those fans. Did you have any sort of eye opening moments? This is your first thing you should have. So I mean,
The whole thing is kind of funny. Again, I had zero expectations on what I was going to get, how I was going to work, flying out to New York, and it's everything is different, right? I mean, normally I'm used to getting travel in my app, get on my plane in Atlanta, I book my own rental car, I go do my thing, get to the building and their security, your staff entrance.
a locker, everything. And I get there and it's like Wild West almost like, I'm just, do I just walk in the front door? Do I, I, what time do I need to be there? Like not nothing. It's like do this. But so I get there and I'm talking, I'm like, I need some water or some caffeine and I'm like, oh, I should have brought my own. So, um, if this is pretty crazy to me is, is I walk across the street to, uh, Walgreens or CVS, whichever it is. And I'm looking at street and I'm staring at the front of MSG.
And I'm looking at him and she going, that's my garden. I'm looking behind me. Ballroom like we're doing 2000 here. We've done like 15,000 there. I said, I was like, man, I may have been in Madison Square Garden with the undertaker Roman Reigns. It was me and Kevin Owens. I think first taker of Roman Reigns was it was takers very last match ever in the garden. And then I've also been over there where
They kind of didn't tell me what I was doing on a show and I went out and Vince came out to the ring and cut a whole promo on the mic about how awesome I am. And then Cena came out and I fought Cena in Madison Square Garden. So I've got, I've got Vince, I've got Cena, I've got, you know, Roman, I've got Undertaker and I've also got several other matches in Madison Square Garden. I was kind of a humbling moment to be now on the outside of that looking at MSG, knowing I've headlined and headlined that building.
Um, and then turning around and like. Seeing what I'm doing time, totally different world, different arena, different crowd, obviously. Much smaller. And I think it was a, it's kind of a humbling moment of like.
what I've accomplished in life and like how you can continue to go down that path, but it can be very different. You know, it's a different world, but same world. And so I think it was a, it was just like a kind of a ground shaking moment for me, just like to appreciate everything over the last like 13 years of there would be in the magnitude of it. And because when you're in it so much, sometimes you, not that I ever took it for granted, but you can
lose a little bit of appreciation for the magnitude of things you're doing and the greatness of it. And when it's gone, sometimes you realize it hits you a lot harder than you think. Like, I was okay. I mean, my contract ended January 1st. I was okay. I was at peace with it all. And it's like one of those moments where like,
how much do I really miss it? Do I want to get back to that level? Do I want to try to get to a point where I put myself in a position where, hey, man, I'm going to do the garden again with Cody Rhodes or CM Punk or someone like that. Is that something I want? Like I stood on that corner for like 15 minutes freezing to death because it was so cold in New York, but just like looking back and forward at the same time. I'm literally dead in the middle of two.
very different stops in my life. And so it was just, it was really cool. It was like one of those moments, you know, sometimes you just stand and you just feel alive and like what you've done. And like, you know, my, my wife, my family, like they, they seem like they don't understand sometimes the magnitude of, of what I've accomplished in wrestling world, you know, and, um,
It was just a really cool thing. And then to go into that show with that energy, you know, to go fight Josh Barnett as a guy who's made a living at beating people up and he's one of the best at it and he's tough as nails. And sometimes you come upon people and you just see like, I can look at somebody and usually tell for the most part, like this dude has some grit and like he's one of those guys when you're standing in front of him.
You're going, like, there's going to be a fight. There's very few people in the world like that. So it was just such a cool moment for me in life in general to be standing on that corner in between the two buildings, like looking past, present, future, all at one moment. Having an existential crisis. But it wouldn't even that. It was like, it was like euphoric in a sense. It was just something where I was like,
This is cool. Like my life is, it's cool. Like it's fun and exciting in it. Makes you appreciate it. And I think it made me appreciate the show even more last night with GCW.
And the opportunity I had to do that bloodsport mast with Josh and be in front of that crowd. It's such a cool spectrum and to stand in the middle of it was really awesome. One of the biggest differences is the rains are off now. You're in control. 100%. You're the one who's going to decide how the rest of this year goes and then into next year. What do you want to do? I mean, a lot of things.
I'm always a guy who's got multiple things in the fire. Always with this WWE. I was doing food stuff on my social media or I started a coffee company. I was doing a coffee company and then all the family stuff and like that. But now I'm going to have an opportunity where I don't have to ask permission to do something. I've also been smart with
all of my money that I've made over the years with W.B. because I watched how quickly it came in. When I left the NFL, it's like no more paychecks. And you go, oh man, it ends that quick. I was playing ping pong and now I don't have a job. It's crazy. And so I put myself in a position now that I can literally just do the things I want to do. I don't have to do things because I
have to do them. And I think that's a really freeing thought process. And so I can take risks. I want to do movies. I want to do TV shows. And I want to do like horror movies or thriller movies or like darker action kind of films, like anything in that world, whether it's television, it's Netflix, it's Hulu, or it's the b-rate horror movies that are amazing that I just like guilty pleasures. I love them.
You know, that's the world I want to dive into. And it's risky. It's scary. And it's, um, you know, a lot of people don't make it, but how many things have I already accomplished that a lot of people don't, you know, NFL 1% of college players make the NFL made it, um, made it the WWE made it to the top of the roster, main event around the world, all of those things. How many people get that opportunity? You know, it's talking to usos one time and they'd never had a singles match at mania and they
in the WWE long and I had like three at that time at an Ambrose had Kurt Angle and Drew McIntyre and it was like.
Whoa, it's crazy to think that. And so I think that if I go after that, it's something I can accomplish. And you need a little bit of luck, a little bit of opportunity, stages like this. You don't come in here and talking with you. Maybe somebody hears this and is like, oh, man, he'd be perfect for this. Or I know somebody here. It's a lot of connections, as you know, to get into that world. I signed with TA with Ross, and he's going to do an amazing job with helping me get some opportunities.
It is. It's up to me now. I control everything that happens right now. I can take independent shows that I want to take. Like GCW, I definitely go back. It was so fun. That crowd was amazing, energetic, passionate. And this show was like five hours last night because
Unfortunately, one of the girls broke her ankle in the second match. And with the New York commission, it kind of put a hold on the show for like 40 minutes. And I was like, how do we restructure to try to get the crowd back and all of those things after this long intermission? And they were just as passionate when we got back to work as they were when they started. I want to go to Japan. I want to wrestle in Japan. I've wrestled there quite a few times with WWE, but never like that new Japan company. That's something that
you know, AJ and Finn and Gallows and Anderson and Shinsuke and all those guys. They did that. I never got to do it before WWE like they did. So I'm like, man, let's go do it now. Like I love it over there. I love the culture. I love the history of the wrestling business over there. So many stars, so many traditions. I think it's so cool. So I want to want to go there and do that. I want to go to Food Network, do some like food stuff. I'm going to go to Miami.
in like four weeks for the Miami food festival to meet some of the people. Yeah. I'm going to eat with Michael Simon and I'm going to go to a guy, some of the guy Fury stuff. I had a friend reach out about potentially doing B-Bobby Flay, like not as a competitor, but as a host. Like that would be amazing. And I want to win some more gold medals in Jiu Jitsu. Like I got my purple belt last week or two weeks ago after our
Professor tried to kill us with eight minute rounds. We basically went.
like 104 minutes or something like that, 106 minutes, whatever it is, straight, just beating the crap out of each other. So I'm going to do a couple more tournaments there, like to do Pan Am games. Like I'm just kind of florin it in all of these different avenues. It sounds like the floodgates are open now. They are all the things you've wanted to do for the last few years. You're like, well, now I can do it. Yeah. Yeah. And like WWE gave me a platform to be able to try to do these things. Like obviously,
Tom Pestock there there would be no Baron Corbin without there to be there would be no Tom Pestock in a sense of Celebrity lack there a better term, but like someone of of a brand, you know, I built a brand around my name with that would be helping obviously So having that resume is gonna make it a little bit easier than it would be for someone who's got no head start and so
Yeah, man, the door's just open and I'm gonna do as much in as many things as I can. Wrestling's still a passion for you. Oh, yeah. So is it an option to go to TNA or AEW or New Japan? I think, I mean, like I said, I would love to go to New Japan, I think for multiple reasons. And you know, the door never closes with WWE either. And as far as AEW, their fans
They liked that AW in a sense, you know, its own entity and built from the ground up. And I don't want to be, if I went there out of respect for that world, I wouldn't want to be just another WWE guy that came there because they left WWE. Like, I would rather go and do like New Japan for a year or whatever or more. Who knows? Maybe that's where I just love it and I stay there for the rest of my wrestling career. So if I ever did go that route, I would want to kind of clear that, oh, he's just a WWE guy coming over like Baron Corbin is dead as far as we know.
We're dropping new name new moniker new character i love wrestling i love the creativeness of it i love the freedom i love performing in front of an audience and getting that live feedback in the moment there's nothing better you know if i want to go in the movie world.
I've filmed a movie last week and it'll be on twenty twenty six like you have to wait for that and I like that instant gratification of a wrestling audience you know in the moment what they're feeling and how they're feeling about you. Nothing beats that like being a rock star it's so cool and so fun and. I mean it's what I love to do and I think that to for me.
You know, with my contract ending and WWE deciding not to renew, obviously that hurt and like lights a fire because I felt like in my WWE career, I was in like uncharted water in a sense. I had gone to NXT reinvented myself and put a lot of work into it, even though like I didn't agree with some of it. I had a conversation between the NXT. I was sat down.
I'm gonna be like we talked about a walking in bruce picture i'm gonna be polite. I think that you know he he was like you know it's just not working we want to go in there reinvent yourself new moves lose a little weight blah blah blah and i did and i think it was like.
I think it was not maybe not meant for me to succeed as well as I did down there, but they've got such an amazing system there with the talent they have, with the producers they have and with the coaches they have and the writers. It's impossible not to succeed down there.
like impossible. And I think I killed it and it couldn't be denied. And then I went back to the main roster and I just, you know, I'm a very open truthful person. I just, I'm not capable of lying and or, you know, be a thing about things. But like, when I got up there, it just, I feel like someone was holding me down in a sense of like,
that wasn't supposed to work, you know, because I would go out and do dark matches or when I did wrestle on TV, like the crowd was insane for me. It was the best reactions I'd had in years since I was the king or the constable. Like when I was getting all that heat, this was the opposite. I was getting people chaining my names. Like there were times in matches where Apollo would be getting beat up and
You know, they'd be chanting my name and he just looked at me and he's like, you're over. Like, it would be crazy every night. It would be crazy. My reactions and with no ego, I say, aside from maybe Cody, Randy and Kevin were the best on the whole show every night.
on SmackDown. And that's doing dark matches or doing TV, like Berlin when we did a tag match. They were insane. And I would come back to the curtain and regal and always be like, this is amazing. The work is awesome. They love you. Road Dog would be like, Corbin, you're over in this town. And I'd be like, it's every town, dude. Like, it's not just like a one off. Like, and even, you know, one of the writers we were talking about and
They were like, how we want to change you to heal. And I'm like, I don't know, man, we've never done this baby face. They wanted me to be different. Like, what do we have? And then we went out there and it was, I don't remember what, what city it was. Arkansas or somewhere. And it was, it was crazy. They blew the roof off for me, like chanting my name in the match when I wasn't even in the match, like standing on the apron or whatever. Cheers for everything. And I walked back and Chad's like, he's like, I told him,
It's the head writer smack down and he goes, I told him that you should just walk back here and give us both the finger and walk off because the reaction was so good. And so I think that that was frustrating. So I'm like, man, there's still something there, maybe unresolved that I could get back and accomplish as that baby face with the cheering.
And I think it made me hungrier to succeed being told, oh, man, we're just we're going to go a different direction. Like after already being told, like, hey, we want to go change everything. And you do it. And it's successful. And it's where it's not like I'm very self-aware at the same time. Like there were times with the JBL stuff. I think it could have worked if we'd done it differently, which we pitched several ideas. I mean, JBL is the man. Like he's unbelievable. He is. He's sent in amazing pitches. And they just
They died in the wind somewhere, but I'd stand out there and go, man, you could feel it's not working. I'm not getting the reactions I want or anything like that to where like six months ago, I'm telling you the reactions where everything was there. It was firing on all cylinders. I recreated everything like I was asked to do. I've always done everything that I've been asked to do. And then to be like, we're just, we're going to go in a different direction. It's like, what? Like that was frustrating because there's nothing you can do at the end of the day.
And I was talking to Randy about it. A lot of guys reached out, you know, I'm sorry, you know, and guys you expect like Seth and Finn and Kevin and those dudes are amazing people and, you know, punk and Randy, but Randy is like, he's like, dude, I honestly thought you were like going to be here another 10 years. She's like, I don't understand it. He's like, do you mind if I talk to Hunter about it? I don't know if he ever did, but he's like, he's like, he's like, he's like somebody doesn't like you. And I'm like, there's nothing I can do to change that. I feel like I know who it is.
Um, and that's beside the point, but they had power enough to either kill creative or whatever it is. And, and they got to go to bed with that at the end of the night. That's on them. Um, but for 13 years, like I, I made this entity that is me and his Tom Pestock. And I think it's going to help, um, continue to push me in. And again, I wouldn't have had that without WTV. I wish it hadn't ended like it did. I wish.
I had more opportunity to continue with this babyface thing. Like, nobody wants it to end any job. Like, it's not fun. But it's also exciting at the same time. Like, because now...
I can literally do whatever. I can try to create something new. I can go in different directions. Um, I think the most frustrating part for me is not understanding why really they're, you know, there's an ulterior motive there because again, I've been a company guy through and through. I've never said no to doing something. I've made everything work that I've been given. Um, not complain. I've never once complained online. Um, you can send me to talk to ESPN. You can send me to talk to boys and girls club.
I fit the mold of a professional, I dress professional, I show a professional, I don't miss show. 13 years never once missed a show or training or anything because of injury or being sick, not once, not even COVID. I was a hero during COVID in my opinion. I was on every show, sometimes both shows. I've been a team player through and through and I think.
Maybe in the end, that hurt me a little bit. Always being the guy that's like, yeah, no problem. Oh, yeah. Oh, you need Ben Ballard that he meant to be me up in three minutes at summertime. Okay. No problem. Like cool. And so it was a weird place to be. But I think now, again, that moment yesterday, standing in between the two buildings, like it's, it's like pretty cool to go. Yeah, man, I was here and I'm here. How do we get back to there?
not necessarily WWE, but that level of accomplishment. I think people were really surprised when the news came out that they weren't renewing your contract. It was like two and a half million views on my tweet alone, like people were shocked. And a lot of people in the show, I was shocked. I could weirdly kind of, you know, when your gut instinct tells you something. And like I said, I think there was, there's one person in particular that I think was behind all of it.
It sucks, but it is when I came and I got to cry over it like I'm not as I'm grateful for everything I had there and every opportunity that I had there. I can't let one person put me in a bad place. I'm not going to let one person control my emotions like.
I mean, the fact that Randy Orton's calling me going, someone doesn't, there's someone that doesn't like you. And I, and again, I know who it is. I told him and he's like, yeah, I probably right. Um, but when you have someone of that magnitude being like, I'm going to talk to Hunter, like it makes you feel good because, you know, a lot of other people see the flip side of it. They're like, Oh man, no, he's really good. Like I don't why no one can do what I do in a sense of going out and making people believe
In the authenticity of what I'm doing, whether it's happy Corbin, sad Corbin or wolf dogs or you know the new stuff I was doing with burn the ships and just being. Myself, you know people believe it and then also to I can make people believe. I mean I got beat 10 million times but people were still booing me and still having fun and.
When I would work with different baby faces, again, when I would lose every single week, they still bought that there was a chance I was going to win, a chance that I would screw this guy over. And that's a special talent. And also to do it without complaining. There's a lot of guys that walk around booboo facing when they're not getting the win or whatever it is. And I just, I did my job and I was happy to do it. And when I look back up, we were talking earlier, maybe I should have been a little more selfish with what I did.
It could have hurt me and I could have been done three or four years ago, you know, you never know or, you know, it could have helped me because there are some guys that are that way and you see a benefit some and doesn't benefit the others. I don't know. I don't, there's no.
right path to take to find all the success that you want. It just feels like people were just starting to appreciate how underutilized you are. I mean, over the last maybe a year or two people were going, man, you could put Corbin in there with anyone. Absolutely. And it's going to be great. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I could have run with never got to run with Cody. You know, there's other guys I would love to run, you know, with Gunther. I would love to run with then again, AJ again, like,
Punk like these guys that I haven't really got to work with because I've never worked with Cody or gone to our punk. You know they want fresh. What's fresher than a guy who spent 10 years as a bad guy is now a baby face that gets fantastic reactions working with guys he's never worked with like that's what you want and it's just.
It would, it's just, it's frustrating because I even like two weeks prior, there's a few things that are very frustrating to me. I was asked to go change everything and I did. And then I come up and a month before I'm released, Hunter standing next to me at the ring and he's like, you should be really proud at reinventing yourself. You've accomplished a lot. And then a month later, you're like, Oh, they're not going to renew. And you're like, wait, a month ago, Hunter told me how good I was doing. And then so that was kind of like,
just weird. And then, um, and I, and I love Hunter. Like I don't think he's the guy by any means. So anybody listening, don't read into that. He's not the guy. The guy has helped me every step of the way. He built my entrance and NXT. When I first came through main roster, he's given me more advice than I could ever ask for that helped my career. And you know, we talk about our families. I love Hunter to death and I always will. I think what Hunter does is amazing and him and I are
you know, in tune with music and the way we see things and having badass heels that can be people up and not just comedy. He was like, I think we're more aligned with our thought on philosophy of how things work. So that that was a bummer to have that. And then we'd send in like two great pitches of like one of my head involved. Chad's one of the writers and I think he's he's
one of my favorite writers to work with because he's very creative and I'll send him an idea and he'll help me like mold it into a true wrestling pitch. But we send an idea that was like one whole thing and it was going to get like six people involved in it. And it was not centered around me. Like it was centered around a group of different individuals. And it was breaking guys like Carmelo off and Andrade off into different things. And like, I've always been a guy that's like, how can I get other people around me and bring them up?
Um, so, you know, I'm not sitting in a pitch like, Oh, I do this and jump Cody Rhodes and I win the world title. Like that's not my pitch. My pitch is involving LA night. It's Carmelo. It's Andrade. It's Apollo. It's Garza and them. It's like, how can we involve all these people and make it an interesting story? Like those are the type of pitches I sent in. And then two, another good thing about leaving one of the bright, like I'm trying to find like benefits. Like how do we, you know, what's a good thing? So, um,
And I just lost my train of thought. The silver lining. Yeah. The silver lining is like, I think for so long, I was that guy that that built guys to the main event scene. I spent six months wrestling Rollins and then he goes to summer, Sam, to face Brock Lesnar. I spent seven months with Roman for multiple reasons. I'm that guy. I can get the reaction to other matches.
They're really good matches. I can work with anybody. I don't have bad chemistry with anyone. And I think that's attributed to wanting to make guys look better than they are. And I'm safe. Like I keep dudes safe in the rain. They're not going to get hurt. So if they're building Seth Rollins for WrestleMania, who do we put him with? Building up to WrestleMania that checks all those boxes and it's me, you know, and I'm fine with that. Like, yeah, do I want to be world champion? Hell, yes, I did.
You know nobody wanted that more than i did is there a point where you're like i'm putting all these other people over yeah when do i get my hands my head for sure 100% and and that's always like that's why i want to be world champion i want to have that accolade on me for the rest of my life like that's a cool thing to tell people when you're 60 tell my kids.
I was a world champion WWE like here's a picture of it like whether it was a day Run like Kane had or whatever, you know, I wanted that moment and I did it for a lot of people I built bronze
to go. I mean, not that these people needed building, but I worked with these guys. You know, Braun went on and he won the title from Ray Wyatt. And then, you know, Seth Rollins, I worked with him and he went to summer standard Brock Lesnar, Roman Reign, to that he went to WrestleMania. You know, I'm not getting those big moments, but I had a lot of great big moments. You weren't a lot of men of us. There were so many. Yeah, there was one time I was talking about the other day that I said, people don't realize
Like there was a Europe tour and it used to be like 14 day Europe tours. You do a TV in the States, fly to Europe, do a TV there, finish there, fly back and do a TV back in the States. It was like a 14 day run. Roman and I may have ended 30 minutes every single night, like 12 shows, 14 days. Wow. Doing TLC matches, like we were putting each other through tables every night all over Europe in the States. And like,
All of those were main events. I main evented like basically two years straight because I was running with Seth with Roman and then a little bit of Kurt and Braun like those were all main events and That was that was three into three four shows a week that you're doing that
But again, my silver lining to, to no longer being there is I can kind of shake that stigma. I can shake the stigma of he's the guy that just puts people over on to go to their big moments. And he, or, you know, he's a good guy to put people over. Like let's say I go away for a year. Our new, our audience with Netflix going on and Smackdown going to use it. Audience has turned over like this deal they have with Netflix is going to bring so many new viewers that
You know, a year from now, they're going to have no idea who Constable Corbin was, like our audience is going to change. So I can come back and not have that stigma necessarily attached. If that was something I do, I stand here saying, I don't know if I would ever go back. You know, if they call me right now, I would, I would respectfully say, no, thank you. I need to clear this. I need to fix this, which is what I thought I did in the next year, but.
When I went back to the main roster, I think there are some writers that still have that, oh, well, you know, Corbin's our guy for this. This is what he does. So I kind of want that to go away. I almost lost it one time. This is just, I was so angry and I don't get angry that easy at stuff like this. Like I said, I try not to let people control my emotions. It's just one of those things I try to teach that to my kids because then you're always going to go around letting other people affect you. Like my daughter smoked some chick in the arm and classed and I got a call from the teacher and like,
Your daughter punched in your arm and I was telling my daughters, he can't let people control your emotions like that. It's like I'd punch 25 people a day if that was the case. But I was sitting with the head writer smackdown and it still just kind of makes my blood boil because it doesn't pertain just to me. But I was just like, hey, you know, do we have any ideas? You know, what are you thinking creatively? And he's like, well, you know, we got we got Jacob up and running. So we're going to need bodies for him. And I was like,
We're not bodies, dude. Nobody on this roster is just a body. Like that was so frustrating to hear. And like I said, it doesn't pertain to me, but it just goes, this is what you think of like, I've been here at this point 12 years and I'm a, I'm a body like for somebody else. Like, dude, if you want to say something like that, go, Hey man, like we think you'd be great because you could help build Jacob, like you could make him look like a monster. No, let's go.
we're going to need bodies. Like he's referring to the bottom half of the roster when you say that. And I'm like, it's so disrespectful to say that about people who go out there and put their life on the line every night, because careers can be in it, in it, in an instant. I mean, look at Biggie, like,
One suplex wrong and he may may never wrestle again. Like they can end like that. Or you can end up a quadriplegic. You could all of these things could happen. It's your livelihood. It's how you put food on the table. I'm so gracious to have such a long career that I don't have to worry about that. But if you're three years in and you're just a body and you're disregarded is not even a human being in a sense. Like, come on, dude.
It takes everybody from guys who are there to be extras. They're just as important as talent in a sense, because without those guys doing that, we don't, we don't have major superstars. You know, you need guys that can, that can do that and do it well. Like I think that that's harder sometimes than being the top guy. When everything is fed to you, you're given every opportunity you're built on this pedestal. Like when you're all the dudes clawing at the bottom to try to get there, like,
It's way harder to be down there and survive and be happy and successful than it is to be. This is our guy. We wrote, so we wrote his name right there. So everything else funnels to him. Like that's easy to be up there. It's the only hard part is the amount of time it takes. When you're put on a pedestal, it's much easier than being guys fighting for those two, three minutes on a show and then just referred to him as bodies. And I said something and he was like, God, anything about how I said it that way. But I was just like,
This is why it's good that I'm going away for a little while, regardless.
And I think when I went to NXT, again, I thought that was going to accomplish that. And I think it did because when I came back, audiences were so excited to see me and reactions were amazing. This may do it times 10 and it might, again, this might lead to, I'm going to go try to shoot this horror movie in Portugal at the end of the year. It's called slash them. It's going to be super dope. It's a super like super gory movie. I got a chainsaw.
Um, it'll be dope. They're, they're trying to get it financed right now. Um, you know, and maybe I go into that world and I never look back. Yeah. I don't, I don't know what the future holds. I think that's another exciting thing. Um, to all of this is the doors are open everywhere. I just got to find my way through them. And wrestling is it going to be as Tom Pestock? No.
Okay, I'm letting it out right now. I'm gonna go, because I gotta do me at the end of the day still, right? And I've talked to you about having, I wanna go here, I wanna go here, I wanna go here, I wanna go to New Japan. TNA is called, so maybe there's something there, maybe NWA. I am open to it all, because I love wrestling. And if I can go somewhere and be in front of fans, I'm gonna go. It's just, I know that I don't wanna sign a contract right now, because I like this ability.
And so I'm going with the Nomad Bishop Dyer. I'm going to be the Nomad. I'm going to roam, man. And I'm going to go to all these and then Bishop Dyer. I think, you know, D-I-R-E. Yeah, D-Y-E-R. Okay. I'm going to change them a little bit because it pays tribute to the Wolf, Lone Wolf, Dyer Wolf.
And then a bishop is higher than a baron. So, you know, we're going up. The rankings are going up. And so it's getting trademark. So don't even try it, suckers. Getting trademarked right now. But I think it's just, it's a powerful name. It's a cool name. And I want to be the nomad man. I'm going to float and see, you know, where the wrestling world takes me in that sense.
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I'm sure Baron Corbin is trademarked. Corbin probably wasn't. I don't think so. You could have been just Corbin if you wanted. So I think so. And you could change the spelling. And I spoke in length with this with a buddy of mine and Sam, obviously, you know, he does so many podcasts. Sam Roberts, I constantly call and bug him about his thoughts and my wife. And they're like,
If you want to create something new, be something new. Yeah. Don't like, because even my guy that's doing the trademark, he's like, well, what about like Bishop Corbin? And I said, it's still WWE. I want to, I want to shed that. I want to take Bishop Dyer to a level. Cody's a great example. Cody left, created this.
entire thing that has made him who he is today. And he never, that granted his first show, he's smashing, smashing Hunter's chair. But, you know, he let go of that and just did him. And then he brought it back and it's completely different. You know, nobody
on the independent world or A.W. or wherever he was, was saying, oh, that's just Cody from WWE. Like, what do you think? Well, he left his stardust. Yes. So, to leave his stardust and come back as Cody Rhodes in the massive departure. Yes. So, I just want to shed it all and see what I can create. And, like, let's say, you know, we were, I'm not even three months out of WWE, so it's going to be our main focus of our conversation. But, um,
When I come back, maybe let's say a year from now in 2026, they go, hey, we want you in the rumble. And I go, and it's Baron Corbin. I go, he's dead. Bishop Dyer is the guy. So Baron Corbin's dead. I think he's dead. I think he's dead. And there's no looking back. That burned the ships thing that I did. It's a true life philosophy. I'm not looking back. I'm always going forward. They burned the boats when they landed on an island. They said, if we're leaving this island, we're leaving on the enemy's boats.
or we're dying in these fields. And I think that's my philosophy. Like I'm going forward, man. I'm not gonna hang on to the past. People know who I am. Like I did that show last night as Tom Pestock. People know that. And then too, like there's just little things you think of that make sense. Like my wife would, you know, and I discussed like, you know, when actors do new movies, they don't keep the same name in a new movie that they,
are who they are. You know, it's, they have a name, which is Tom Pestock. And you know, Baron Corbin was a WWE character. Bishop Dyer is now the nomad, you know, wondering the streets of the independence or, you know, like I said, I keep going. I want to go to the new Japan. And I saw someone lying there like other interested. I would love that. Like, call me up. Let's go.
I just I want to do that style and stuff. So I think he's he's just buried for now. Like we're gonna we're gonna leave him. We put some dirt on top and Baron Corbin is dead in that sense of moving forward with that. You know, obviously if
We were talking about signings in the car. Yeah, Baron Corbin figure. Yeah, I'll sign his Baron Corbin. It's still there. Jack Sparrow signed Jack Sparrow as that, not as Johnny Depp. It's one of those things. I think these different characters will play different parts in life and we're on to the new one. Did you feel like you had the chance to take it and run with it in WWE? For example, when you were money in the bank, when you had the money in the bank,
was there like, OK, you're going to win Money in the Bank. And then it's going to lead to this. There were so many instances of that in my career.
And you kind of lose faith in this sense of this is the plan. This is where we're going. And then it changes six hours later. So what was the original money in the bank plan? I mean, I think I think Vince saw me becoming world champion. And I think that winning that he's like, you're going to hold it for a while because, you know, I think
Um, you know, gender being champ also played, uh, a part of not only, you know, him doing his thing because he's an incredible performer, but also they were trying to get, uh, you know, certain demographic of an audience that helped and like they had no intentions of changing that title at that time. So it was to carry it and it was eventually to take it off of gender, but obviously it did not come to fruition, but there's other times where
Things like that with Kurt Angle, it was supposed to be this whole thing where he was never going to wrestle again. I was going to have a gold medal. I was going to do this whole thing and we're going to run with it. I said, don't Twitter one time or X, whatever it is now. I feel bad that I didn't do more with that with Kurt giving me that opportunity of going over at WrestleMania and being a part of his last match and being lucky enough to have that stage with him.
i wish i could have accomplished so much more and i think i think that's one reason kurt did it is there were expectations for me to do it and then it literally the next monday night it took a left turn when they put kurt out there with lars remember that guy for a hot minute, and he got beat up like right after this retirement match it was like wait what and then.
The whole gold medal idea got scrapped because he's like, I just don't think it will mean anything. It's so like start and stop with ideas sometimes. And I think I think it's changing now with with H being in charge. I think they see things through much better for better or worse, which is good because sometimes it takes more than a week or two to get something through to an audience.
And I think there's guys that, you know, Hunter believes in, especially, you know, his, his crew of guys that he sees. Um, when we're very self aware of reactions and I watch everything, I worked with seen this so long, all I do is listen to audiences and you hear it and you watch some of these guys come out on an entrance and there's nothing like it doesn't matter if you're giving them WrestleMania pyro when they win the tag titles or whatever it is, or they do these big things like.
there's not the reaction you're hoping. And five years ago, that would be the end of it. Like, okay, it didn't work. We're going here where Hunter's like, no, this is going to work. Believe me, let's keep going. And then you start to see it kind of come and you start to hear that reaction follow. And I think that's a big difference in
They're not losing faith. And it's not that they lose faith in talent. They lose faith in the idea or that, or just prior to this, it was just a complete like, I forgot what we were going. Let's go here instead, you know? It's funny because depending on who you ask, you're one of the few people who are, you're either the most overrated or the most underrated. Yeah, especially like, you know, 2017, 2018, man, that guy's so overrated. It's worse overrated. And then I think the pandemic time was like, man, this guy's so underrated. Well, which one is it?
Yeah, I don't think they can make up their minds. It's so funny to have that. I don't think there's anybody else like that. Like you said, he's the most overrated, also underrated at the exact same time. I think the only other one I can really think of is Ziggler.
Oh, yeah. Another guy. Yeah, it's a similar kind of a situation that... Well, yeah. Because you are, when you're in that situation, when you're that guy, they lean on to help out, whatever. You're kind of handcuffed at times. You don't get to do the real cool stuff. You don't get to... You know, it's for a reason. There's a whole, like, what's this saying?
for me, not for the like, sure kind of thing going on. And there's a lot of that there, like certain guys are given certain liberties and whatnot. And it's like, well, if I could do that, I could be at the same level. Maybe it's true. Maybe it's not true. I don't know. But yeah, when I was doing constable and stuff like that, like I was the most overrated, over pushed over everything like, but I was pulling eight segs of show, not not my fault. I was overexposed in a sense of like,
I'm changing rules to matches. I'm out there in front of the crowd, like six, seven times a show backstage is even the king, the whole presentation. They're like, oh, man, they're carrying him to ring. He's so overrated. Like, and then now, yeah, it's like, just give him a chance. He's so underrated. He's so good. And it's like, if it makes my head spend sometimes, and it's crazy, especially because like those fans, like we said, they were calling me overrated hated me, go away heat, which was not a thing.
It was actually because you guys actually hated me, but those are the same fans going, wait, no, man, he's actually really good. He's super underrated. Give him more. Like, why is he not IC champ or something like that? Like, you know, it's just, it's funny to watch that flip and to hear people say that like.
Yeah, I don't know, you know, but I guess that's what happens to me in a 13 year career, 12 year career with big stuff in it. Yeah, you're able to accomplish a lot of things. Yeah, for sure. I mean, cover a lot of the list of people like, you know, already listed, take her to MSG and debut a Fox with the rock and how many matches, 100 matches with Cena, Summer's name was Cena. I mean, Drew McIntyre is on fire right now, you know, worked WrestleMania with him, like so many moments, Kurt Angle, Andre, Money in the Bank,
King of the ring like the list of accomplishments. I just don't have that world title so so i think some people go oh man he's he's underappreciated underrated because it doesn't have that world title but i have so many accolades and itself. Your work as sad core but i think so underappreciated i love this story about this. The fox executive daughter felt so bad for you jake of jake of all men right yeah she's trying to send me your allowance money.
That is, I had a lady in Houston too. I was leaving the building and I'm driving up the rampway and I had a lady trying to shove a $20 bill in my window. And I was like, I mean, like if I should have done like the Divan past the hat, I probably could have retired three years ago. Divan kept all that money by the way. I would have too. Why would you not? I mean, I'm walking to the ring. I probably could have made a thousand bucks a night for sure. And if I passed the hat in the stadium, like,
Oh, not as many people carry cash these days, though. You'd be surprised. There's a lot of people waving. It's like I was a stripper or something walking down the aisle. They got ones and fives and tens. And I was like, man, I wish I could just put it in my hat. You know, should have. I know. I would have incorporated that into the game. And they did. Remember, they did the GoFundMe?
Yes. It's shut the website down. So many people went to it, because they built a fake website for it. But so many people had crashed the little fake site they built. It wasn't an actual GoFundMe, but I was like, dude, you should have legit done a GoFundMe and then donated a Jerry or something, because it would have been insane.
You see what go fund me do like the girl that broke rank last night. I think Cardona and them. Yeah, she set it up and it's already over 30 grand. Wow. And that's amazing because you know this. Yeah, I think stuff to land or set it up. We talk about going to the other side like there's guys that are in this independent world.
Again, it was an eye-opening experience for me of like how hard the road is for some of these guys. You know, they're like the GCW show last night. Guys that aren't on the show, but they're there and they're helping set up and then they're doing it for free. Or there's guys on the show that, you know, they're making a couple hundred bucks. Like they're probably losing money traveling to New York, driving to New York or whatever is to do the show.
It's a hard life out there for some of these guys and I think that's what makes it so much sweeter when they succeed because you see videos like Seth Rollins came from that and like Punk came from that those guys they worked those indie shows and like I hope character and NXT was built around making fun of those guys you know you got paid and chips and a hot dog and I got called you know come here sign this big contract.
And there's truth to it. I think that's why that resonated so well with that crowd, but it is. Last night was eye opening to what these guys go through to try to make it to the big time. And I flew in a first class on a cushy thing. I mean, paid for part of the ticket myself, but I have the ability to do that. And so I think seeing these guys, that Corbin was kind of play on that in a sense.
You know, I had nothing and I'm trying to get back to my grips. And like, I should have went and worked the Indies for like a month and then been like, I have so much more inspiration in a way of like being hungry to like find success because it's awesome to see. I love seeing, I want everybody to succeed. I want every superstar to succeed. I want them to make money to live their wildest dreams to whatever that may be, different amounts of money for different people, whatever makes them happy.
I want AEW to succeed because the more competition that anybody has, whether it be TNA, ROH, WWE, New Japan, competition breeds the best. I hate this tribalism with the fans of one company sucks. If it's not for you, just shut your mouth.
You don't have to be negative. You don't have to bury it because if you do, maybe somebody who doesn't know, sees that and they're like, oh yeah, I hate it too. When they don't, but like, let's kill this tribalism. Let's want everybody to see. I want everybody that was at GCW last night to accomplish everything they want to accomplish in the wrestling world because it's amazing. Like I've accomplished so much through WWE that it's amazing. I can give my kids a great life, my family, and my wife's a boss, by the way. She's a CEO, runs her own company. It's her company.
She'll make more money than I'll ever make. But I want people to have that success. I want people to taste it. I want people to stand on the corner and go, man, like I may have ended that arena right there with so and so. I want everybody in ROH and TNA and all of these companies to succeed. I want their show to do well. I want their attendance to be amazing. I want those guys to make money. I want TV channels fighting over which shows they want because it's good for everybody.
It's good for sponsors, which show do we want? Who do we want to put this in the lawn? Like it's great for everybody involved. It's never hurt to have two or three or four great companies like battling and it gives guys, you know, a GCW and maybe WWE is not ready for them. So they go to AW and they find a ton of success and they do amazing things or a TNA and they do amazing things. So they go to TNA and start working. Now they have a partnership with WWE. So now everybody's like, whoa, how do we, we didn't know this guy.
Look at Jacob Fattu, like...
He's been doing these amazing things for a number of years. And now you put him on a made stage and you go, that dude's gonna main event mania for five years. They weren't willing to give him a chance because of his background. No. And people kept saying, you gotta give this guy a chance. I remember Mark Henry telling a story recently. You gotta sign this guy. Finally they signed him and it's like, yeah, we should have done this. He's gonna main event five Wrestle manias. Wow. He's incredible. He is so incredible. And he's an amazing person, amazing father to his kids.
And it's so cool. But like without this competition in these other worlds, you don't find those guys like you need that. And I think there's plenty of guys that are going to come up over the next few years. And it's going to be I hope there's a bidding more like.
The ability to be able to, where do I want to go? What's going to be best for me? Well, this side's offering me this much. This one's offering me this much. This place has this where I want to go. This place is tied to this. You know, it's like, that's a great thing for all of us. Like this tribalism is crazy. And I hate, I'm going to bury, I'm not going to bury, I'm going to be polite. There are certain people on the internet that run, you know,
Dirt sheets if you will and they're the reason for all this as much as they want to act like they're not they're the prime hatred. Spewers you know they want to talk down on one thing and over and it's biased if it was unbiased to be one thing but like most of it is biased they just they need to. Just focus on the things you enjoy the world of people everyone in it needs positivity like I want to hear.
The great things that are going on in these industries in these worlds. I have no bitterness to ww. I never will that company is so amazing and the things they've given me are so amazing. The life they've given me are so amazing. The opportunities I've seen the world because of that company.
Um, and I've had so much fun. I've made great friends and I've performed in the audience. I've changed people's lives all because of WWE, you know, people like I haven't done this, you know, I haven't self harmed in two years because of something you said to me at a, at a signing at a, at a access, whatever it is. Like you can change people's lives and I've been able to do that through WWE. And like, I want other people to have those opportunities. I want other people to have that grace. I want people like,
You know, I get to see a chop as an example. Like he's such a wonderful father to his kid and like, he's got things to show his kids now that he can be so proud of that they're going to look up to. And that's because of WWE. And I want that to be an AEW thing too. I want guys over there, you know, FDR, two of my favorite people in the world. And, you know,
amazing father, you know, and his daughter is making my kids bracelets right now. But you know, Dax is so amazing what he does, but he has something he means proud of. And it's not indubitably, like what he's accomplishing now, he has something to be so proud of to show his kids. So I want all of that. I want that success for everybody. Like, we've got to kill all that, like nonsense of one thing's bad, one thing's not. The tribalism
just doesn't make sense to me. No, no. There's this quote that I like. It's like, there's two ways to have the tallest building in town. It's to tear down all the other buildings or just build a better building. Yeah. And if I really didn't like mint chocolate chip ice cream, but I really liked chocolate ice cream, I wouldn't go around talking about how much I hate that flavor of ice cream. Right.
I would talk about the flavor that I do like. You should really try chocolate. It's delicious. It's so good. I want a chocolate ice cream cone. I can't believe you like that. How dare you like this mint ice cream? Who's public? I hate you selling mint ice cream. I saw four people buy chocolate and only one person bought mint. Who cares, dude?
A person likes mint. I think one of the beautiful things about independent wrestling is that hunger that's there, especially seeing people that are sleeping in their car or fight people in a hotel room, just trying to make it work. Is it going to be difficult for you? You come from the NFL, you've got NFL money, then you've got WWE money. How can you have that hunger if you've got the comfort of what you've done in your past? It's very simple for me because it's just built in me.
I started a coffee company and I'm making seven figures already. So now I'm investing all this time, researching coffee, trying to plan trips to Costa Rica, Ecuador, all these countries to go, look at farms for green coffee, learning about coffee, roasting coffee, I pack it myself. So my coffee company, open air, I roast it myself, I source it myself, I package it, I hand write labels. You know, I'm doing all this. I'm making seven figures over here. Who does that?
That's amazing. Who invests all this time into seven figures just from the coffee? No, no, if I wish, brother, from wrestling. But I do that while I'm wrestling. And like, I'm just one of those guys who's hungry to continue to create, to continue to have success. Because of a lot of things I've done, like my hunger from the NFL performing and playing in front of massive crowds led to the hunger of WWE. I want that back. Like that's still what will drive me. You know, last night that show was amazing. The crowd was amazing. I want that again.
want to know a bigger magnitude. The money is whatever. Like it comes and goes. I don't have to think about it, which is the beauty of it. So it's not that some people are hungry for different reasons. I need to be able to eat this week. I've got to go do these four shows. I got to sell this many tickets. I got to sell this merch. And that's what drives them to do that. Yes. So what drives you? I don't know. It just there's something inside me.
I'm 40 years old and I'm competing in jujitsu tournaments. I'm training three, four days a week in jujitsu. Going to the gym, my wife is on me because we got back from Christmas and holiday. I was like, all right, we're back super tight on diet because I don't cook all the great things she wants to eat sometimes because I'm stuck on this thing. There's just something in me that is a natural thing that drives me to be successful, to drives me, keeps me hungry, keeps me motivated, keeps me disciplined.
and pushes me to that next level. It was cool to see you on that podium for Jiu Jitsu. Yeah, it's awesome. And it's like, and it's so funny because like, again, I have some screws loose in that sense of like, you know, who wants to do this? And now I'm going to whole new level at Purple, but like I fought the heavyweight division.
And I took silver. Um, it was BS, by the way. The dude was literally crying because I was cranking on him so hard. Uh, they should have said verbal tap, but he, he beat me on points. It's my own fault. I wasn't tracking the points and I was trying to finish him. Uh, that sounded wrong. Um, I was trying. Yeah. I'm married to a woman, ladies and gentlemen. Um, no, I, uh, yeah, weird. Um, but, uh, the, um,
I was trying to hit the submission and trying to get him to tap. And any time ran out, he beat me. And immediately I stepped off and I go, all right, I'm signing up for the open division because I want my goal. And then I smoked everybody in the open division. Because it was like that I just I
Some people that silver medal, jujitsu, that's super dope. And I was like, not enough. I want that gold. So I went back and I fought three more fights after I'd already fought three fights. So I did six in one day. Like my wife's like, you coming home for dinner? Nope. I got to get open division. I got to get my gold. And like, then I'm like, when's the next tournament? When's the next I'm doing one in February and Atlanta at purple whole new division. It's going to be a whole nother level of competitors. I mean, people think, Oh, even people like last night when I was working on some guys, like your blue belt's not going to help you.
And it's like, man, it still takes you four years to get a blue belt, like to get your your white belt for probably two years, two and a half years, and then you're riding your blue. And I mean, I've been doing jujitsu for four and a half years and got my purple, like to get to your black takes 10, 15 years for some people. So I just I have something in me that I am just kind of that guy where I I'm never satisfied, whether
It's weird too, because sometimes I do say, how are these people not satisfied? Like, oh, you have $10 million in the bank. How are you not satisfied? Why are you not home with your family, your kids? But no, you're doing all this. And I get there and I'm like, I'm the same way at the end of the day. Like, I'm not satisfied with what I have. And it's not a greed thing. It's not a, I need more money thing. It's, I just like, I chase that feeling, the feeling of it all. I don't care if the money comes with it at this point now. That's a beautiful thing that I've set up. Like, I can go do these shows.
and not have to worry about like, you know, if somebody's like, hey, man, we got a really cool show, really great opportunity. It's going to be a fun crowd, but I only have this money, much money to pay. Okay, cool. Let's go do it. Like I've taken that out of the equation, which I think makes me more hungry for the success because it's not about.
Survival at this point. It's just about like chasing that feeling. I want that feeling that I had when I be Kurt Angle WrestleMania. I want that feeling when I'm walking down in front of 80,000 people at a WrestleMania or coming out a rumble and everybody's going crazy and performing it. I want to perform in Tokyo though. Like what?
How epic would that be? So now I'm hungry for that. It's those next things. And it's cool because I have the freedom to take risks and I have the ability to go different routes versus I need to eat this week. So I need to work in Bettendorf, Iowa, in front of these 60 people, or I can go, I don't need to do that show. I want to push to try to get on this show. I have that ability. And I think that is a cool thing that I have going for me right now. And I have the support of my wife and my family to kind of
You know, movies, like I'm going to shoot mid February. The sky is doing a short film kind of grand theft auto. We I'm going to do a role in that movie. It's a little short film in like two or three weeks. And it's like, he's like, I'm self financing it.
Uh, you know, I don't, I don't, I don't worry about it. Let's do it. Like I can take these risks to get to that next level, which is a really cool thing where maybe somebody like, I can't do it because I need to make this much. You know, so it's, it's really kind of surreal to be able to have that.
You put out a tweet about a match and a great story around this match with John Cena, he just dialed versus Bray Wyatt versus Dolph Ziggler versus Apollo Cruz versus Baron Corbin. He said, maybe you can share this great story. I will share it because I love this story. I will, I will start with the backstory of it. So there when Nexus was up on television,
Bray Wyatt was not Bray Wyatt. He was Husky Harris, right? We're going back here. And there is a rumor that I believe is 100% true that Husky poked John Cena in the eye in a match. And Vince was so mad, Cena was so mad that they sent Husky Harris back to NXT. We're all grateful for that because Bray Wyatt was born, right?
So this story of like, you gotta, and like, I'm gonna tease Randy because Randy is a buddy of mine, but you're always taught like, don't hit Randy, doesn't like to be touched, you know, it needs to be. So like everybody's kind of scared to work with Randy and it's not like that Randy's tough. Sometimes, sometimes he's a baby. Sometimes, sometimes Randy, I know you're listening, you're kind of a baby sometimes, I love you. But so this whole rumor of like,
Seen has been poked in the eye a couple times, and it sent Bray back to NXT for like two and a half years, like this was a massive punishment for that, right? So fast forward to this six man. And I'd only been on the main right, I still had hair, we're going way back, right? Still had the long beautiful locks. So in it's the beginning of the match.
And the match starts, and I'm still, this is my first big like match. We got a lot of crazy spots. There's a lot of cool stuff. I gotta, gotta let go. Oh, yeah, sure. Yeah. A bubble. A bubble. Yeah, no, we got it. The story's too good. Not a bubble. Get a bubble in your throat while telling the story. I'll drink some water too. So we get into the match. It's the very beginning of the match, right? And I'm supposed to attack Cina.
So I drive scene in the corner, put him in the corner and I wind back to throw a body shot and my thumb lands about knuckle deep in his eye. And I'm like, Oh, no. And he starts dog custom. You mother ever you and he's dropping F like we're talking first 20 rows are here in this.
And he's going, you mother f or you poke me in the mother f and I, what the f boom. And I mean, he's laying it in on me. And I've got my back to him at this point. And I'm hearing all of this. I'm literally about to start crying because I'm like, I'm finally on the main roster. I'm home up here. Now I'm going back to NXT. No, like I poked like, because this whole thing had hit Bray, poking him in the eye and I'm going, dude, I'm going back to NXT without a doubt.
I'm so screwed. I don't want to go back to NXT. I'm so sad and aged in front of me, but I know I have to turn around to John for the next spot. And he's still mother effing me up and down. And I was like, just, can we rewind life like five minutes? Let me start over. Like all of these things, and then we're on live television.
And these are all going through my head. And like the audience is even like I can see in their eyes, they're like John Cena is cussing like he's going ape shit on Corbin. And I finally have to turn around because like this is the time I'm delaying this as long as I can possibly turn. I turn and John punches me.
dead in the face, like dead in the face. And I mean, it was a solid potato. And I was like, and I just, I mean, I wore it and I was like, cool. Like, and then for the rest of the magic, I'm trying to remember these spots, but I'm trying not to cry. Cause I'm like, I'm going back to the next team. Like I just got out of there. Like I'm so.
Like, just a range of emotions I'm going through for the rest of that match. I'm just like, and I've walked through the curtain so dejected and they're like, that was amazing. And I'm just head down in the corner like, it's over for me, man. Like, this is it. And John comes back and I just look at him like puppy dog eyes like, dude, please don't say me. And he's like, hey, that was great. I go, John, I am so sorry. He goes, ah, we're good. I gave you a back. We're good. And I was like, wait, this has got to be a work.
He's lying to me. I'm going to walk out of this curtain and they're going to be like, we need you to get your bags. You're going back to energy. Like, and luckily that was the end of it. You were good. I was good. But like, I legit thought my life was over. I was like, this is it. Because I pop, Pope John Cena in the eye and he mother effed me up and down in the whole match. I was panicking, trying to remember stuff. And I walked to the curtain, he's like, Oh, no, we're good. Oh, man. And like, and I was talking, I think, road dog was asking.
because John always gets poked in the eye. And so it's like, what? So was it my fault? It is fault. Now I'm questioning, John, like, poking his eye out there, like trying to get you to poke at me. I was like, I don't know. But that match to me. But that will stand in my mind for the rest of my life. That match will be because of poking John in the eye after, like, again, this whole thing was set up by
Husky Harris poking him in the eye. Yeah, there's the lore here. Yeah. Like that's the thing too. Like, you know, if you stiff Randy, you know, he's not going to work with you. It's like all of those things. It was so funny dude. It was so crazy. It's like, those are the little things that stand out in your career too. Like, but that's one of them. And I, I've never brought it back up to John because I don't want him to remember like it's one of those things like I'm 40 years old and I'm now telling the story. And I was like eight years ago. It's like,
It's gives so funny, dude. It was like, you mother effort. And I'm going to, he's, he's really mad. Like saying it doesn't swear like that. He doesn't. He was in front of people. Like, I was like, dude, this, this is the end of it. This is the end I told Apollo in the match. And I was like, I'm sorry, man. It's been fun. We got brought up together. I'm going back. Say, why are you? I poked you on the eye. And he's like, I like the eyes open. Like he's like, I heard that story too. Like,
Like, you know, don't say Bloody Mary. She's going to come get you. That's what I did. I said it, but I survived. What a story. It's like so much of like nothing, but it's so it was so impactful in my life. And in that moment that it's like you'll never understand like the emotions I was going through.
Because when I was coming to you when I was finishing up in the next year, I thought I was never getting out of there. Me and Matt Bloom were butting heads. We were not getting along. I was just like, man, it's never going to happen. Now Matt Bloom and I get along wonderfully like it's so amazing our relationship. I could call him and ask him for help and you do it in a heartbeat. You know, if I needed something from him and the effort he put into me when I was down in NXT and all of that, I love that entire staff.
from Michael's to Terry Taylor, Norman Smiley, all those guys, Johnny the writer, has done amazing things. I still call him and ask him for advice on things. But that into that NXT run, I felt like Bloom was nitpicking me to death. One time I got, I was so mad. This is another little just fun story, but we did a show when I worked with Corey Taylor and NXT, and we had these NXT track uniforms.
They were garbage. They were like hot. And they were made of terrible material. I hated them. And the pants were really baggy and just didn't look good. I thought they looked sloppy.
You know, I lost 70 pounds. I was like, I need to show off this figure a little bit, but no. Um, so Finn had actually bought me these really nice Adidas track pants that kind of matched the track outfit. So we finished this show and, and I go to get on the bus and Bloom looks at me and he gets so mad at me for not wearing the correct NXT track pants because everybody's supposed to be in these track uniforms.
And he cuts a promo on me about not being part of the team and not being part of NXT. And I'm livid, and I'm not saying I'm holding my tongue. And he chews me out in front of everybody on the bus in these pants. And I'm like, I'm an adult dude, you don't get to talk to me like that. And it's saying that, I just sat down and took it. And then three people behind me, Finn gets on the bus with the exact same pants on. And not a word is said.
And i was like you mother like i want to fight him and we get back and we're still just button heads not getting along and i told him i was like a conversation i remember sitting on the edge of the ring with bloom and arguing with him and like i'm doing the main event of nxc every night it's like me smojo fin shinsuke we're running four ways we're doing things sammy zanes in the mix there.
Um, and then I'm at training and I stay at none of those guys are and I'm, you know, so we're having this out a little bit. And I was like, you know, these guys don't train you know, do anything. He's like, you haven't done what they've done. They've all done independence. They've all worked in Japan forever. And I go, I don't, I don't, I don't care. Dude, I played in the NFL. Like it's the same thing. We're all a little beat up man. Like there's a level of this and him and I were just really button heads. And then, you know, I worked that takeover and got brought up to the Andre. Um, and I was like,
I was like, I don't think I even went back to the PC to clean out my locker. I was like, that stuff's going to let them throw in the trash. I don't even care. I left my apartment Orlando fully with everything in at lock the door and left. I was like, F this place, dude, I'm out. Like I don't ever want to see the PC again. I don't want to see Orlando again. I don't want to see Matt Bloom ever again. Like I'm done with it. And that's on me. I was frustrated. I wanted to be on the main roster. I'd been there three years. I taught other guys getting the opportunities or whatever. And I was like, man,
You watch Braun Strowman go up and he has no clue what's going on. And I'm going, I got, but if you learn that it's not about that, it's about filling roles and opportunities. He got called out real quick. He very did. And he's in his matches. They were so great. Yeah. You know, they know what they're doing. Um, but I was angry as frustrated, bitter. Um, and then blue and I hashed out one year to mania after at the after party, uh, at a bar in a hotel and talked it out and like we were cool.
And then when I got back to NXT, I was nervous going back to NXT thinking, man, how's our relationship going to be? And it was so amazing, and I'm so thankful that I can reach out to those guys now. And like I said, I was angry, that's on me, that was my own fault. That's why, again, I try to do things that I don't let people control my emotions. Cuz I should have just, I got on the bus, he said something, it should have been like, okay, my bad. It's hard not to take that personally. But I felt like I was getting picked on because I wasn't the indie guy in a sense.
It's so cool that, you know, like Matt, he didn't hold that against me at the end of things. Like when we asked it out, we're cool. Like, again, like if I call him and he'd help, hey, man, I need this. My daughter's in trouble. Can you help me? He would get a truck and drive down and help me. Like we have a great relationship now going back to NXT and getting all that with all those guys are so special, but.
Like, it's just crazy how all of that. But, you know, so, so the point of that, like going back to NXT was a death sentence for me when I poked John in the eye and I was like, like, you know, Bloom's not going to take me back getting a fire. And he was like, it's all over. The dreams are dead before they got started. So it's just all because of an eye poke. But here we are. 13 years later, DCW in the bank, Josh Barnett, I want to fight you again. You know?
You're a Chiefs fan die hard, baby. You're wearing the hat today. I am Kansas City. This, by the way, I don't know if you use monsters. But city brimco, they seem like look like you do my goodness. It keeps it nice. It doesn't get smashed in my bags. I look up here. Yeah, yeah, it's good. I'm looking monitor.
Yeah, it just helps keep us right there. Hats are super dope from Kansas City, local. I got to support local. I love Kansas City. Everything about it. Are we going to see you in the suite with Taylor Swift again? Maybe maybe we need a party again. Get to Instagram. Oh, yeah. I had to get out of that happen. I'm cool. No. So is that Travis Kelsey's suite? Yeah, what's Travis's? So really cool. Like,
It's funny. There was, um, again, born and raised cheese pan. So we deserve our three peat. Just so everyone out there is watching free people angry people angry, but don't touch my homes if you don't want the penalty.
Stop crying about it. You know, you touch his head in any way, shape or view. If you put a gust of wind on his head, you're getting a penalty. He's getting the Brady calls. 100%. Yes. 100%. I'm okay with it. I'm a Browns fan. I know that they have no chance of winning. Ever. It's tougher. It is. I feel bad for you. I don't. Look, we had a lot of bad years in Kansas City.
Yes. Hasn't he been Patrick Holmes has been the Super Bowl MVP three out of the last six years. Yeah. We're making a Patriots run. Yeah. We're going to go three Pete. And then there's going to be, is there talk of four? Let's go. So anyways, the first year when we made the Super Bowl in Miami, Fox had the game. So I was like, I have to go like that was 2020. Yeah. Jacob helped me.
give me tickets, whatever it takes. And he's like, can you go to a media? The same Fox executive we were talking about earlier, whose daughter was going to give you her allowance. I also am telling him that Jacob, give me on MasterChef, dude. Let me come guess. Gordon Ramsey, I can... Jacob's great. Can't cook better than you. I sat near him at a raw risk. He's amazing. He's awesome. Yeah, but I wanted him to get me on MasterChef on Fox instead. I want to hang out with, you know, those chefs like Ramsey and them and Joe. And I want to compare watches with Joe. He always has dope Rolexes on.
Um, and his Italian food has to be amazing. Um, but I want to go like this. I'm always on him to do things, but that I was like, dude, you got to help me. Um, so I got to do a media day. Um, and it was so funny because we want you to wear your crown in there. And I was like, I feel like an idiot, like out of context. Why is this gigantic guy wearing a crown that is like black and gold studded?
And I was like, no, not doing it. Not going to wear that. So I went in and then I realized the madness that this press conference was. And it was all the players were set up at different podiums. Already a row, that whole thing? Yes. So, um, and I'm standing there like,
And i'm just watching these is like i have no i i've got a ww microphone and i'm like this is awkward and like dudes are just shoving their way let me Patrick Patrick and you know you have to kind of go all right get the crown like that's going to be my i want to answer that guy that'll make a stand out he's wearing a crown so i put the crown on.
And of course, the first one I go to is Travis's thing. And he answers to her questions and he looks right at me. I go, yo, trap. And he's like, what up, king? And like, I was like, hey, man, I got a question. I said, I'm Baron Corbin from WWE. And he's like, oh, it says we kind of chat. And all these other reporters are like, who's this asshole? And I asked him a question like, yo, what would your finishing move be? Or who would your tag partner on your team be? Whatever it was. And it was funny because then
The following year, which we won the Super Bowl that year, I was at the game front row. It was beautiful. Roman Reigns was at the game. Few rows away. And I was giving him the finger. And when we scored that game, winning touchdown, go Chiefs down with the Niners to all the Usos and Roman.
But I go back and I get invited to play in Big Slick, which is a Kansas City charity event that, um, guys like Eric Stone Street, who is the leads Kansas City, like through and through, as a part of our royals, he's got a farm. He's one of the greatest human beings I've ever been around. Um, you, you got Rob Riggle, uh, Heidi Gardner.
All these guys that put this, this, uh, David Keckner, they put this game on and it's a softball game. It's a variety show and it's hospital visits and it's such a. Amazing, amazing, amazing week. And I hope I'm a part of it forever because it's just. It's so hard and rewarding at the same time because every dollar goes to Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas, which is an incredible hospital. Um, they do amazing things, amazing staff, amazing everything. So this game.
We come in on a Thursday night and we do a dinner at the owner of the royal house, but it's like it's for companies or whatever they buy tickets for an absurd amount of price, like five grand or something. And they get to come and mingle with all of these celebrities from the ones I mentioned that run the game, but then they bring all their friends in. You know, I get to be a part of it. Other athletes are there.
At the dinner, it's a lot of different people. They have, like, Logan Miles plays music. They have comedians. You know, David Dustin Munchen was there. He was a buddy of mine. Bits you. We talked about earlier in the car. She was there. There's so many girls from modern family. There's actors. I mean, massive stars that are at these things. And, um,
We, we, you know, kiss the ring a little bit that night and get people to do donations. They do a couple of small auctions. It's such an amazing thing. Then the next day we do, um, we go play family feud at the hospital. Um, and they bring all the nurses and doctors into a room and we play in for the floors of the kids. And it's so fun to be a part of that. Weird. I was on my team last year, which is so amazing because weird. I was the best. Um,
And we do all that will forte was on my team another guy who's just the best and. The list goes like naming names there's so many of them, but. Then we do that family if you then we play a softball game at Kaufman stadium which is.
just a total shenanigans, but Travis came out to that the first year I did it and immediately, right? He's like, yo, you're the, the king, the WWE. And so he always called me the king. And we were kind of like, buddyed up a little bit that weekend and like, you don't have a few drinks together. And it's like, oh, you're cool. I'm cool. Like, um, you become friendly with friendly. Yeah. Yeah. And so.
And then I'm going to continue to talk about this charity event because it's so amazing. But then the next day we do the hard hospital visit, which is we're going to rooms of the patients and you're just being with the kids and the families and you're trying to allow them escape, whether it's four or five minutes. I mean, Cheryl Crow goes and sings in their room for them with us and just amazing, amazing stuff. Blake is an amazing magician. He goes and performs. You're so lucky if you're in a group with like someone like that because
Otherwise, I'm just kind of like, yeah, I'm from the WWE man. Hey, how's it going? Like how you doing? How's the family? Because some of them are babies. They're a month old and some of them are 15 year old kids and they're fighting everything from terminal things to bad injuries to freak accidents. It's so right a girl this year who was bit by taking it.
made her just go haywire had seizures and it wasn't lined as it was like something else. And like they're like she's not going to make it and she pulled through. I actually reach out to the families. Making a full recovery. Amazing. That's how good this hospital is. But that's a very like.
grounding you especially having kids you understand that you see a one-year-old in a thing it's like it rushes your soul and it's like the world is not fair and that's nothing like it we just need positivity in this world and all senses like it's cool if we don't agree on something but like let's not focus on that let's focus on things we do agree on whatever it is.
or be open to other people's beliefs. Like, Jesus, this is what you like. No, you're not hurting anybody. Oh, get it. This is a quote. Don't yuck other people's yums. Yeah, it's like a preschool quote, but I'm like, man, that's so good. Yeah, that's a great. You like something cool. That's funny, right? As long as it's not hurting people. It's cool. Yeah. So that's so great. And then they do like a variety show where they do like massive auctions. Like,
Well, there was one year where, uh, sedakus auctioned off, uh, walk on roll to head lasso flights to London, all that. It went for like 150 grand or 200 grand or something like that. We raised like over three million bucks every year. I've done it a few years now, but then so the next year Travis is there again. And now we're like, we're like buds now. And then he's like, go.
Come do a game. Let me treat you to a game. Stay in my suite. He's like, I own a suite there. Come to it. Let me know. He's like, here's myself. Hit me up and come to whatever game you want.
So then I start texting randomly, just like, yo, have a good training camp. And it's like super cool. And then I was like, Hey, man, I can actually make to the game this weekend. And he's chance at like doing, I said, is it cool? If I bring my uncle and my brother, like, he's a hell yeah, bring him, dude. Come on. So we went, they took us in, took us over the suite. And then my, my uncle or my brother, one of the two was like, I wonder if Taylor is going to be here. And like, as they say it, she like walks in the room.
And it was like, it was like, yeah, right there, dude. And like, my brother's freaking a little bit. And like, she walks right up to everybody and gives him a hug, gave us a hug. Like, like, it was like, you were instantly family in that. And it was crazy because I was like, we're a fish. Like, I wanted out of the suite for a little while because, dude, it's just mobs of people standing outside the suite, just taking selfies of Taylor. I'm just her existing. Dude, it's.
I've never been around. Someone like, I've gone to dinner with John and it's crazy. You know, I used to run around with Ryan Dunn and it was crazy when he was in the prime of the jackass stuff. Like that is a different magnitude. It was, you felt like everybody in the stadium is staring at you because you're standing behind her or whatever it is. And they're like, why is that guy in there? Wait a second. Is that Baron Corbin? Yeah, there were a couple of tweets like, yo, but then when I put out the selfie of us all, uh, meet her, my brother, my uncle, everybody's like, what? Like, dude, when Matt's like, man, I hope she like,
The cool of she posted I get some more followers trying to try to get to 2 million people and stuck at 1.1 forever. That's pretty great. Yeah, right. Yeah. So, but like had conversations with her, super dope, super humble come with an entourage. No, she walked in with like maybe her security guard. But like no entourage and it's all Kelsey's buddies from like high school and home and they're all super cool. They're all like.
Humble and they're there. Nobody's got egos in there. It's with this, the Jason Blum story comes from that. I was telling you, I felt like a jackass. But so Taylor's super dope done. We went to a Christmas party with her and Travis after we're Travis through a little Christmas party. So you hung out after? Yeah, we hung out with the bar. Super dope. What's her drink of choice?
I don't know what she was drinking, but she'll go. I can't think of it as tequila or why have I heard tequila? One of the parties, but that's what I'm but not even that she just like a regular human being that is probably the most influential person in the world, right? Yeah, and very talented. Unbelievably talented writes all her own stuff, but like.
It's so refreshing to see someone like that. That's something in the wrestling world. I'm going to bounce like Roman Reigns is the biggest thing in wrestling. Cody's getting up there, but Roman's on a pedestal all of his own. Roman has no ego. Roman doesn't treat people bad. Roman doesn't carry himself different than not. He carries himself different. He doesn't carry himself above other people. Like he's not
If Carmelo Hayes goes and asks Roman for vice, Roman's gonna be more than happy to give it. And Carmelo's been on the main roster for a hot minute, right? Roman is unbelievable and a good human and a good person and a good family man. And he's humble and he is the guy.
same with Taylor, like she is all of those things for her to come up and just give me a complete stranger a hug. And she doesn't know that I'm there with Travis unless Travis said something is like, yo, like, how many people do you know like that that are going to walk in and be that welcoming to anybody and everybody in there not granted that's her box like she's not going to do that out in the live audience because she'd get mauled to death. But
Like that, that speaks volumes on the type of person sing with Travis. Like that speaks volumes for him to invite me and put me in that atmosphere of what kind of person he is. Um, it's so neat. But so after the game, before we went to the Christmas party, um, it's so cold in Kansas city that weekend, but it was fun. We had lots of drinks that night. Um, keeps you warm. Yes, it does. Um, so the end of it, I'm talking and there's this guy there and I'm like, man, he kind of looks,
I'm not out of place, but you're like, he's obviously not with all of this crew. Like he's there for another reason. And so I'm talking to somebody else and they're like, oh, he's a big horror guy. And I point to this guy. I'm like, oh, yeah, man, like that's awesome. I love horror movies. Like, what do you like? So I started naming off movies and like.
All my cult classics from like 80s to reanimator to poltergeist to paranormal activity and whatnot. He's like, yeah, what about you? And he's like, ah, this movie, this movie, this movie, this movie. And I'm like, oh, man, those are all really good movies. And I'm thinking like, that's cool. And then I was like, uh,
he said something else and
I said, it's not a horror movie. And I said, what? And he's, he's like, he's like, well, you know, I like these movies. And I was like, I'm, I'm a house. He says, we're on Blumhouse. And he sees it click in my head. And he kind of is like, and I was like, no. And he's like, yeah, Jason Blum. I was like, no.
Like, I'm not of like, I, you know, it was just out of context. It's like one of those things like, I've walked by somebody wearing my own t-shirt before and they didn't notice it was me. And it's like, because it's when it's out of context. Sometimes you're just not self-aware and paying attention. And I was like, I'm standing there listing like movies from 824 and from Blumhouse and from like other media companies. And I was like, man, if I had known that was him, I'd have been like, oh, yeah, I only watched Blumhouse movies like,
You know a good person for you to know right right i want to be an or movie don't hold that one against me it's just a kind of funny i've heard Taylor Swift's recall is incredible. It's gotta be like if you were to see her again now she'd be like she would list off all the things you guys talked about i mean i think to do what she does put on a three hour show every night and like.
memorize all these songs in the notes and play the guitar play the piano with choreographing a dance. I'm going to have a heck you do you have to be special. I saw something where she was training while running on a treadmill and singing her songs to see if she could have the cardio to do it for a show. I wouldn't doubt it. You have to have a special talent like.
It's so funny because i look at other industries i went to my first broadway play ever a couple months ago i took my wife to see the outsiders oh yeah i'm a broadway guy now like that was the dopest show i've ever seen in my life in person like it was so cool but i'm watching and going. How do they remember all this and then i'm going.
I do the same thing. I remember Paige promos on a 10 minute. You got 10 minutes to learn this. Go do this. Suppose I got a 30 minute match or a 20 minute match or a 15 minute match. All these different things. And I'm going, it's just when it's what you do, it's what you do. But that show was amazing. There was the girl place. Cherry is one of the best singers I've ever seen. And it looked so.
Effortless, and then the guy who played Darryl, another one, his scene was just, it blew me out within it. I'm going to be over critical on a fight scene, right? Like, this is what I do for a living. I'm beat people up and not actually kill them. Even though sometimes you throw like a Rey Mysterio off a roof, it looks like they die or you smash Mad Cap's head with Andre the Giant trophy. Like, they're not actually dying, but
So I'm going to be hyper critical. And then the way they did it, where I was like, they were fighting in slow motion in the rain, the strobe lights, it was such a cool thing. I'm going to go back to another one. If I was going to, because I was in New York yesterday, I was like, do I have time and I didn't have time? I was going to go see the same thing again. Wow. It was so just such a cool thing.
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You have this reputation for being safe to work with. Yes, a few times. Which is great, right? It's a badge of honor. Yeah. There's this spot with Dolph Ziggler.
We know the spot. When he trips on the step, he trips on the step and you catch him. Yeah. Because it could have been real bad. You catch him and you turn into this great move. But man, that could have gone south real quick. And I think he even said, thank you as I caught him. I mean, knowing Dolph, he did. And it's so funny because the deep six, he always just called it the Whirly Bird. Like he's like, the Whirly Bird thing is he could never remember the name, but and that's where we were going. And he clipped that step and I luckily could react fast enough that I caught him from just
You know, head first into something bad. And there's been a few things like that. Like, there's one time I was doing a pop-up with Gable where I was going to catch him saying he landed funny. And if I had just continued with it, it would have dumped him on his shoulder and his neck. And, you know, I corrected and landed him flat. I think that's the opportunity that I got to work with Kurt because I could get through without hurting him. There's one time in a match, we're opening the door a little bit here.
It was me and Drew and Bobby when we were destroying everyone. And it was me, those two verses, Kurt, Finn, maybe Elias, not positive who their third teammate was, but there was a point where Drew is in with Kurt and Kurt is screaming.
Jack Corbin back in, get him back in. He's like, you're killing me. Like it was pretty funny. So like that is a thing. And that's like, you know, like Randy wants to work with me because I'm going to, you know, he's not going to get hurt. And plus there's things like I can maximize things like a punch and get a reaction. The same reaction I'm going to get if I do a superplex or a triple power bomb or whatever crazy movie we want to do where someone almost gets killed. Like, so there's times like I had Deena Brian on top of a cage elimination chamber match. And he's like superplex. And I go.
I'll get the same reaction, just hitting you the right hand and telling the people how good I am. And he's like, okay, here we go. Off the top rope, superplex, the Daniel Bryant.
It's like, I think guys just trust me with their bodies and their safety. And I've always taken pride in that. Again, that goes to the note of like, I want to make guys better than they are. And then there's guys that don't need help. Seth Rollins doesn't need help. But if I'm flying around for Seth and he's bounced me all over the place and I'm getting the heat that I need for him to get cheered when he starts making that comeback.
It just makes everything better. But keeping guys safe, because you got to do this four nights a week, three nights a week with each other. And, you know, if I'm hurting somebody, they're not going to want to meet or if they get hurt, like I missed this. I was supposed to have a summer slam match with Calisto. And Calisto got hurt on a clothesline out in a six man that we did that he took from somebody or something and hurt his shoulder. And then I didn't have my summer slam match because we were supposed to work summer slam. And, um,
So you, you realize, man, if people are on the shelves, it's less opportunity. So I'm like, my job and something I'll still forever take pride in is keeping guys safe and making it. So we both walk out of there and, and not everybody's like that man. Some guys are going to just get their shit in for lack of better terms. They're going to do their thing regardless of how it affects other people. And that's just, that's just not me. I got
Again, I may have a different outlook. Again, where like I said, I want everybody to have success. I don't care if CM Punk is making more money than me if we're on the same. We're both being successful. I'm comparison is a thief of joy. My CPA actually told me that to me one time when I was complaining about something and that kind of changed my perspective on a lot of things. It's like, dude, just wish success for people on all things.
for everybody, whether I like you or not. There's guys on the WWE roster that I do not care for. I don't care for them in the wrestling world. I don't care for them. I still want them to be successful. I want them to accomplish great things.
Um, I would never let my selfishness dictate that. So that's, that's something that comes from that taking that pride of keeping people safe. I think, um, it's just something in me to do that. And it's to help people, you know, I see random go fund meets sometime. And I'm like, Oh man, this person needs a little help. Here we go. Like it's just, it's to be a good person. And I was listening to an interview. Dax Shepard did one time and he was talking about, um, you know, his wife and he's like, I was very, like,
I don't like to spend money. I like to just hoard it all. And he's talking to my wife, Kristen just gives it away. And he's like, wow, how can you do that? And then he's like, I realize she's giving away, but more is coming back in. And then he's like, wait, if we're good people, she taught him, like, hey, man, help other people. It helps you in turn. It's not selfish. It's just good karma. It's good being a good person. The living is giving of her. I mean, I think so. And it's not just
a monetary thing. Give people your time. You're giving me time right now here to tell a story and people are going to watch this and maybe something from this conversation is going to help them or they're going to enjoy it or they're going to understand more. They're going to find entertaining or funny or whatever. But yeah, I mean, giving it, especially my kids, like now, you know, I was starting some stuff on Twitter the other day because I was delayed in the airport or whatever.
So sometimes I just like to fire people up, but I'm talking back and forth. Is that what that was? You were just bored? Yeah. If I'm going back and forth, I'm bored. I need something to do. And people are like, oh, you're begging for a job. I'm like, no, I don't need a job, man. Like I'm home with my kids right now. I take my daughter to school five days a week. I get to play with my other daughter during the day, like make up for time loss to being gone. I'm gone this week. I was New York yesterday, LA today, LA tomorrow. So you're giving, like you're giving time. You're giving.
attention you're giving a car like to talk to random strangers and just hear what they have to say, whether it be a bar sitting there talking to the restaurant or, you know, i've had conversations where people start a conversation and it gets really deep of a complete stranger and they're like, expressing things that.
Maybe they've wanted to get off their chest for a year or two years that's bothering them and they're going to get no judgment from a complete stranger in a sense and think, so I'm giving someone time and giving someone a year to express themselves. Like that's a cool thing to do, man. People were really coming at you on Twitter and all you were saying was like, that's how a contract works. Yeah, it's not. This is how a concept. It's like,
And again, you know, I'm not saying it's right or fair, but you're saying this is how a contract. Yes, I'm not saying that one side or the other side is correct. I'm just saying simply that's how they work. Like I've signed NFL contracts. I've signed five WWE contracts.
It's the nature of the beast. And it's the same in any industry. They may not be the greatest contracts when you start up. They are unfair. You're fighting an uphill battle sometimes in a contract, the music industry. I mean, 50% of your money is gone like that. And it's a contract, but you're a band. You're trying to make it. You got to do it. You got to sign the paper.
And you got to get through it and then you can kind of start to negotiate terms. It's just one of those things. They're there to protect both sides. Usually they benefit the person giving the contract a little bit more than they do the other side, but at the end of the day, those people are you over contracts. Number one, everybody that's commenting on social media, including myself, we don't know the inside thing that's going on. There could be bad blood there. There could be things one side said to the other.
Nobody has a clue except for those people in that small circle. So you can't say one person is right. One person is wrong because nobody actually knows the answer to that question. You don't know the full story. A hundred percent. But what I do know is how contracts work and how unfair they may be. No one is forcing you to sign it ever. Every contract that's ever been put in front of me. You've never been forced to sign. I've been in some sticky situations where like I was supposed to sign a new five year deal.
And I've been pushing off because I was not agreeing to the money that the WWE was offering. I felt like my value was higher. And then I was approached at WrestleMania before my match with Kurt and they're like, hey, we need you to sign this deal. And I went and had a conversation.
I ended up signing the deal, but I was like, hey, man, can we reevaluate this in a year if this is where we are? It was one of those things where an hunter said it to me and I fully get what hunter said to me when I was asking for more money because it was like my second contract. I'd finished my first. I didn't ask to renegotiate. I was out earning my downside.
I was happy and then my next offer was lower than i wanted and hunters had a conversation with me and he said look you can i earn this and i'm going yeah if i'm booked correctly and on paper views and all things that are out of my control i can control who you pencil in for these things i can do my best because look at where i'm at now.
If you went based on reaction, I would have been in that upper, not, not the tip top, but I would have been in that next level of guys based on reactions and based on people cheering for me and based on what I was putting out as a product. I should have been on some of those papers, but I wasn't, but it's not in my control. I was barely on TV coming back up after the draft. I deserve to be on TV and I deserve to be working in programs and, you know, they threw me in Apollo together and
It started to really work. And I thought we had something special and Apollo was showing out and he's still crushing it. So happy for him. He's getting a lot of TV time right now. But those are things out of my control. So you're telling me I can out earn this downside, but I can only do that if I'm booked this way.
I'm a heel number one, so I'm not slinging merch, and I'm not getting asked to do the Snickers commercials because I walk out, and I'm not even walking out those second my music hits. It's guttural boost throughout every arena in the country and world. So I'm not getting all those little things that good guys get, those monetizing opportunities. So I feel like my worth is high on this. He said, we also have to figure out
and make sure you're not a flash in the pan. He's like, yeah, you're hot right now, but what's six months from now? What's a year from now? And I get the business sense. They don't want to offer me this deal that I'm fighting for every penny and they meet me where I want to be. And then they lose out on it. Like the contract is going to benefit the person handing the contract. And I had a conversation sign the contract two years later. It was a five year deal, two years later. Vince brought me to the office up in a very fancy office at the Royal Rumble and was like, hey, you're underpaid.
Wow, let's fix this. He offered me a different deal and I said, no, thank you. This is what I want. And he said, do you want to bet on yourself? I said, absolutely do. He goes, how about we do a one year deal for this much? Done. Bet on myself. And it worked out fantastic for me because 10 months later, I got a fantastic deal. And it's like, I've had, like I said, five contracts there.
I bet on myself through them. I did it again. When I went down to NXT, that day they were releasing everybody, a guy named Dan was in charge of all that, right? And I had no idea they were releasing people. So I see that I had a missed call from Dan. I just got out of like a box or size class, like one of those places. I was like, I was wanting to get back in boxing. And I was trying to, again, I was told to lose weight for some reason. Who knows? I never thought I was in bad shape. I'm used to be 330 pounds.
There's going to be loose skin, not abs. It's just the nature of the beast with me. I was a gigantic refrigerator. Um, but so I was trying, I'm, you know, again, you want me to be professional and do what you asked me done. Let's go. Um, and Dan, I would call him and he's like, Hey, I think you've seen, we've been releasing people today. I go, no, I had no idea. And so I was like, I guess this is a call I'm done. This is, um,
Maybe September, while I was in NXT. And he's like, we're not letting you go. And I go, okay, so what's up? It's good news. And he goes, we can't keep paying you what we're paying you with what you're doing in NXT. I was like, okay, he's like, you're gonna have to get a significant pay guy. Okay, so what are we talking? And again, I'm fine with it because I understand I'm a business guy. You can't be paying me this.
monster contract of main roster. Well, what I thought was monster. Well, I'm an NXT worker one day a week, if that. So Andrew living in Tampa, driving Orlando. That's great. Cush life, baby. So then I was like, what is it? He's like, I don't know yet. We'll be in touch. And then we had
for your four months go by and then I think you got all the way to December. And then they made the offer and it was, it was not what I expected. And I was like, I, I don't know, man, I can't, I can't do that right now. Let me talk to my wife blah, blah, blah. And Sean Michaels is the one that actually talked me into it. And he's like, you know, you can make as much money as you want in this business in a sense of like you're in control. You can out earn him. Sean kind of talked me and they told me to plan to potentially work with Braun.
And I was like, I, again, money, whatever. And my wife can help. I control everything with that myself. I keep myself separate from all that because I'm just like, this is what I want to provide for my family. And I don't look at that. My wife, again, is a boss and does well.
So then I signed, I understand how contracts work. I understand sometimes they're fair, sometimes they're not fair, but they're a necessity, protect people. And there's things that people hate in WWE contracts. You're an independent contractor. Can I go to this? No. On your likeness. It is what it is. You can't change that. So that whole situation that's going on over there, I'm commenting strictly on the contract aspect side of things.
It's legal. It's binding. It sucks. It sucks for both sides because outside looking in, one guy wants to work. They're battling and not arguing. He wants to leave. He wants to be his brother or whatever it is. It's hurting both sides. But one side can't go, oh, yeah, you're right, man. Let's just rip this up. Go do your thing. And the other side can't be like, you can't fold and go against it. It's just
The world we live in, man, it's movies, it's law, it's by, I mean, how would you view it by a house? Do you sign the contract? They're like, ah, but somebody came in with a bigger offer. So we're just kind of, you know what I'm saying? Like the contracts are there to protect people. It is what it is. It sucks. Sometimes it's not pretty. Sometimes it's great. Sometimes it, you know, for that's our AW world. The rumors, the contracts are guaranteed there would be there, not guaranteed. So like, or you're fighting over apples and oranges and different things.
You know, I don't know. Nobody knows. Does WWE, are they bringing him in? Nobody knows. What are you doing responding to these people on Twitter? I board, man. There's many. I know. Read a book. I just got a new book. Listen to a great podcast like this one. Yes. Listen to it.
all of the episodes. I don't know. You get caught up sometimes again. The problem is it's like a snowball going down the hill because I know but also you got to respond again. I got ramped up though because I have no handcuffs now. If I want to say a potty word on Twitter, I can say it.
I can be kind of, I can kind of be on the edge a little bit. Maybe you should just send a tweet that says like, yeah, once a week, just just write SHIT and then tweet. And then that will fix that thing. So like, I kind of got caught up in that. It was funny. And like, I like, I used to destroy people on Twitter out of fun and like,
And then I was like, I'm a good guy now. I can't do that. NASA now is like, I don't have any rules. I can do this. With all of, with all of this said, do you think the door is open to go back to WWE one day? I think so. I don't think it ever closes. I mean, how many people? Look at the roster now of guys, Cody, Drew, punk, punk.
I mean, punk's a guy who said he would never, ever, ever, ever go back. He said that in an interview with me. There you go. You punk, you need to come for round two and explain yourself. Ooh. You're in LA. You're here. Get your butt here. Agreed. You texted me today anyway, so get your butt here. Yeah. Do the podcast. You and bring, I'll get McAfee here too, because you talked about it. I need to do your McAfee. Or I'm going to be an Indianapolis for the rumble.
He'll probably wear shorts and flip flops. He'll be right in his backyard. Yes. You need to make this happen. I'll make it happen. The door is open. Yeah, it happens. I think it is because there's so many people that have gone and come back. And again, I hold no ill will towards WWE because I'm so thankful for everything they've ever given me, the opportunities to perform in front of millions of people on TV and person go to Boys and Girls Club, pull a plane for Special Olympics, you know,
There's just so many cool things they do. And now like, I was a little bummed I didn't get to be on Netflix. Like how cool is that? Like it's such a really awesome thing. And things are changing there. I never thought I would see like logos on the ring. Cause it's been such a historic business of like, don't change this. Like this is the history. We don't mess with it. And I was bringing a new light, a new vibe, a new energy. And I think it's going to bring new fans or seeing celebrities. It's not, it's not what it used to be where guys were like,
Are you wrestling? Yeah. Like don't let anybody hear me tell you. But did you see raw last night? Now it's like, this is cool, man. This is fun. Like people stars, you know, from kiddle to all all these people in my homes. Was that a raw? Bad bunnies wrestling. Bad bunnies killing it. You're one of the best celebrity performers ever. She's always around. And she knows the product. It's not like
Hey, we're bringing these guys in and they have no clue like we're just going to pay him to show up like these are people who they know what they're doing. They know what they're going to say. Jackson Jr. has a wrestling podcast. I know, right? Ice Cube son. He was asking me is it. Hey man, can I get you on the podcast? I said, I already promised the first one to my man.
Thank you. So he was, he's like, all right, let me get on there after. All right, done. He's great. I told him, I said, get me a Den of Thieves too, dude. And he's like, I'll try. And then they push filming and all that. Well, now you can be a Den of Thieves 3. That's what I'm hoping. I'm hoping I get there with that with him. Like, that's the cool thing. I just want to do some fun movies with buddies and hang out and cook food, drink bourbon, workout, wrestle for some more. Nice watches. Yes. Well, I got my holy grail, so I mean,
I want to say I'm done buying them, but I mean, I've said that like three times. You're trying to get this watch from you. They could try. My house is a one way ticket. You come in, you ain't leaving.
Good luck. I live in Florida. Yes. That says it all right there. I used to live in Florida. Good to see you man. Oh, it is so fun. Always so good. Hopefully, a year from now, we're like, hey, look where we are. Yeah. You've done this movie. Yeah. You know, you're now with this company. And I've talked to CM Punk and Pat McAfee. Yes. Yes.
I love it. I love it. I'm going to wrap this up with a question. I asked this to you last time too, but always gratitude is a big part of my life. What are three things in your life you're grateful for? Obviously number one, my family and my kids and I say it every time we do it like.
to have a family that backs you and allows you my wife saying, I'm like, hey, you know, we got two kids at home, a five year old, now three year old. And I'm going and a dog and a house to run. And she runs a company. It's not like she's a stay-at-home mom. She's got employees and everything. And I'm going to go to do the show in New York. I'm going to go do the podcast in LA and I'm going to stay a little extra and try to have some meetings.
She's like, cool. Go do it. Go do your thing. Get it. Like, get after it. Like to have that support. It's the same with her. Like, there's times where she's like, hey, I got to reprogram these computers. I got to do this. I'm going to be a little like, get it babe. Like, go do your thing. Like, I'll see you. I got the kids dinner. I'll get them in bed if you're not home by eight o'clock. Like, whatever it is, like to have that support system and my mom and her parents and they love everything we do and support everything we do. Um, then grateful, like now that my time with WDM, I'm grateful for that, man.
Thank you to WWE for giving me a platform to become something to change lives, to impact lives, to impact kids and future superstars and having everything they've given me. My kids get to go to a great private school because of that and they get to go on vacations.
Whatever it is, they've given me a life that I get to live that I'm grateful for and thankful for. And I don't take for granted. We talked about that earlier standing there in that street corner doing, man, like I've got a really cool thing. And then I'm grateful for the opportunities that I've gotten. And I'm grateful for the opportunities that have yet to arrive. So I'm looking for that. Those are my things I'm grateful for today. And then
Obviously grateful to be here with you and see you just because like they we have fun chatting and I think we were cool like buddies but also like you having a new baby and Like having two kids now like I have it on like it's such a cool thing. So like I'm grateful for like this little Yeah, man. I'm grateful for you. Yeah, it's cool something something about being a father and then when it happens again It just I don't know it's changed your number two is not as difficult as the first
Because now you actually have somewhat of a game plan now some of it will go out the window. Like we're talking cars on there like no bro you got to have a stroller if you got to now like different like there's different rules now that apply. I love my pick up truck but stress of things is a little bit less where you're like. You're coughing. Do I need to run in there and check on them now you're fine. Hunter told me a story one time he's like.
Tell me how each kid gets easier when I was like, I got number two on the waist. Oh, it's easy. He's like the first kid, like their pacifier drops. You're sterilizing it. He's like second one. You're like, Hey, why about a third one? That's got a little dirt on it. Here you go. Like it just becomes that you like you realize how resilient and tough they are. So true. So funny. Well, I'm excited for what's next for you, man. Like as of January 1st, you're able to do whatever you want. As of January 1. And it's cool too. Cause like I,
You know, I didn't have to do the 90 days because it was just, and it's cool Tuesday. I had a 13-year career with WD. I wasn't fired. It was just the contract ended and we separated away. How many people can say that? It's a cool feeling. Again, no ill will, I think, on either side. I have one person that's against me, but maybe we can turn them someday. And I'd be like, man, I'm a massive fan of what they've done. So be dope. Who knows? I'm excited. I'm excited.
I feel like it's gonna be a very, very busy year for Tom. So good to have him in the studio for this one. Great to catch up with him. That horror movie he's talking about sounds amazing. I can't wait to see that. And I just can't wait to see where he pops up next to Russell. It definitely sounds like he wants to spend some time in New Japan, which feels like it'd be the perfect fit for him. So let's see. Let's see what this year has told or has in store for him.
Snap a screenshot. Tag us. Let us know that you're listening. He's at Tom Pestock on Instagram and Twitter. I'm at Chris fan fleet and we will wrap it up with this quote from Colin Powell. A dream doesn't become reality through magic. It takes sweat, determination and hard work.
Be great, be grateful. We will see you on the next one for some more insight. We've got Ask CVV number 67 tomorrow. If you've got a question for that one, leave a comment on Spotify, send it in on social media using the hashtag Ask CVV or send me an email. CVV at chrisvamfleet.com. We'll see you back here tomorrow for that one.
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