R-Truth Is HILARIOUS! His Childhood Hero John Cena, 24/7 Championship, Getting Brock Lesnar To Break Character
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December 31, 2024
TLDR: R-Truth discusses his career in professional wrestling with Chris Van Vliet, including memorable moments, music career, and potential for a heel turn, as INSIGHT LIVE tickets go on sale for Jan 31, 2025.

In this exciting episode of Inside the Podcast, host Chris Van Vliet speaks with the legendary R-Truth, known for his comedic genius and significant contributions to the world of professional wrestling. At 52 years old, R-Truth (aka Ron Killings) continues to thrive in a career that spans decades, captivating audiences with his unique blend of humor, talent, and resilience.
Key Highlights of the Episode
The Longevity of R-Truth's Career
- R-Truth discusses how he has maintained his wrestling career, thriving at 52, underscoring a few vital insights:
- Mindset: He emphasizes the significance of a positive outlook, suggesting that time is an essential currency in life.
- Adaptation: R-Truth adapts and evolves with time and circumstance, believing that learning never stops.
Disney and Comedy in Wrestling
- Throughout the podcast, R-Truth reveals how humor plays a crucial role in his career. He shares memorable segments involving notable wrestlers like Brock Lesnar and Triple H, recounting times he made them break character, demonstrating his comedic chops:
- Impromptu Moments: R-Truth shares his knack for spontaneous humor, often performing on the spot, making the audience and fellow wrestlers laugh without prior scripting.
- Memorable Segments: His hilarious antics, like bringing a ladder into the Royal Rumble, show how he leverages comedy to enhance storylines.
The Evolution of His Character
- As R-Truth's character evolves, the interview highlights:
- Little Jimmy: This comedic persona emerged from an unexpected segment and became hugely popular, even leading to requests for action figures.
- The Duality: He also contrasts the on-screen character to Ron Killings, emphasizing the complexity of both and how they connect deeply with the audience.
R-Truth's Greatest Achievements
- Reflecting on his accomplishments, R-Truth proudly talks about being a former TNA World Champion and highlights:
- 24/7 Championship: He revitalized this title, making it a pop culture phenomenon during his reign. He won the title a record 54 times, which became a talking point among fans and the wrestling community.
- Influence on New Talent: He aims to impart wisdom on younger wrestlers, affirming, "Don't wait to get ready; stay ready," emphasizing the importance of timing in a performer’s life.
Insights on Life and Passion
- R-Truth shares life lessons underscored by his commitment to health and fitness:
- Physical Fitness: He attributes much of his youthful energy to exercising consistently, believing in the mantra that "motion is lotion," signifying the importance of staying active.
- Mental Resilience: The podcast emphasizes that overcoming personal challenges has shaped him into a motivational figure, showing that perseverance leads to realization of dreams.
Practical Takeaways from R-Truth's Journey
- Go All In: One of the recurring themes throughout the episode is the importance of commitment. R-Truth believes you must fully invest in any endeavor to attain success.
- Find Your Voice: R-Truth stresses the significance of self-expression, especially within the wrestling industry, advocating that a true performer must reveal their unique self to resonate with fans.
- Value of Humor in Adversity: He shows how laughter is not only an entertainment tool but also a coping mechanism in tough times, making the audience’s experience richer.
Conclusion
This episode with R-Truth serves as a reminder of the art of professional wrestling beyond just athleticism; it encapsulates the essence of storytelling, character development, and the liberty to adapt creatively. R-Truth embodies resilience and humor, teaching listeners not just about wrestling but about navigating life with grace and laughter.
Summary
R-Truth's journey is a testament to the power of humor, determination, and lifelong learning in both wrestling and life. To experience more behind-the-scenes insights and stories, be sure to listen to this enriching podcast episode.
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Ladies and gentlemen, Chris Van Blee!
Oh yes, welcome back to another one here on Inside I'm CBV, Chris fan fleet, and welcome my friends to episode number 700. Man, that's a big number. That sounds crazy saying that out loud.
Some of you have been listening since the very first podcast episode in 2019. Heck, some of you have been around since the YouTube channel started in 2011. And some of you just started listening over the last few months. Wherever you've fallen there, I appreciate you so, so much that this podcast is even able to be a thing. And thank you for helping to make insight the number one wrestling podcast.
on the planet. If you haven't yet, I'm assuming you have because you're here. But if you haven't yet, hit a fisherman suplex on that follow button because we've got some huge plans for 2025, including live shows. We got live shows in Indianapolis for the Royal Rumble, Toronto for elimination chamber.
Las Vegas for WrestleMania, and then hopefully, probably New Jersey for SummerSlam. I'll let you know about that one. Tickets for Indy right now are on sale at CVVTix.com. CVVTix.com. The tickets for Toronto will be on sale soon, but I'm so excited about this one today.
Our truth is one of the most requested guests ever. And you guys have been sending me messages or leaving comments, trying to get him on the show for years. And what better time to do it than the big episode number 700 and what a way to wrap up 2024. I don't need to tell you this. You already know our truth is hilarious. He's also brilliant. The our truth that you see on TV is not the same person as Ron Killings.
There's so many layers to Ron Killings and what he does in the ring and what he does on the mic. And I think this interview is going to surprise you in a lot of different ways. And I just love from the second he came in the door. He brought with him this big, excited energy. He's just, he's such a happy dude.
I love it. We talk about some of his viral moments, like bringing out the latter in the Royal Rumble or mistaking Triple H for Tomasso Champa, how he became the most interesting thing about the 24 seven championship. We also talk about his heel turn in 2011, which led to the creation of little Jimmy and how he wanted to do a little Jimmy action figure, which would have nothing in the package. I still think he should do that. We talk about him winning the NWA TNA championship.
So his role in the movie, the wrestler with Mickey Rourke, man, there's just so much in here and so many great stories. So snap a screenshot. Let us know you're on this ride with us and tag us. He's at Ron Killings on Twitter. Very active on there. So pretty good chance.
If you snap a screenshot and tag him that he's going to retweet this. I'm not saying he's going to, but saying there's good chance. He's at Ron Killings one on Instagram. You can also check out his music on his website. It's the official Ron Killings dot com. All right, you ready for this? Here we go. Please welcome the one, the only our truth.
We are finally making this happen, my friend. Yeah. Oh, man. Long time awaited, yes. We've been talking about this for a while. It's good. I know, right? So thank you for making this happen. Ah, thank you, man. You get a move in. You do not age. It's incredible. I wish I did age. Ah, thank you, man. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for the kind of words. I hear a lot, man.
It's good to know. It's crazy, though, because if you look at a clip of you from 10 years ago, you look the exact same as you do right now. I get that a lot. I get a lot that online as well, too. So I like that. Yeah. Is there a secret to staying young, looking young? Daniel Bryan always said this. I don't have a time just doesn't.
exist to me. I don't
I feel like we have to make time for time, in a sense, you know what I'm saying? So I don't look at it as, oh, are you too old for this? Are you too young for that? Just look at it like, we have time to adapt, evolve, we have time to make time for time. So you're like, time's the most important currency we have. Time is the key to everything. Timing, time, time plays so much. So it affects our lives in so many different ways. Yeah. Where we look, the way we age,
Our success rate, troubles we get in, time is an essence of life to me. At what age did you realize that? I'm still realizing it. Again, we don't care how old you are, you never stop learning on this earth. We always learning. We always evolve and we always recreate and we always, time is always going. Yeah. Did you always think that you'd be doing this for a living?
I knew I would be doing something, Chris. I didn't know it would be this, but I knew it was something. I knew I had a calling. I knew a man upstairs had big hope for me. I had the desire. I had the heart. I had the want. I had the ambition. It was just time to put some work behind it. Where did it start to feel like it was realistic to do something in entertainment? Oh, wow, man.
I don't know. It's just always been in me.
When I felt, I guess I would say, to pinpoint your question, I would say probably when I could say I made it. My first WWE contract, first time, you know what I'm saying, leaving NWA wild side to being on television, was like that sense of, this is what I was meant to do. But there's gotta be a moment before that, where you're a kid with a dream, right? But it's just a dream.
How does it start to feel like it's something you could actually chase after? Always. From the time you become a dream. Man. From the time you develop that dream, if you believe it, you're supposed to achieve it. You're supposed to go with it. You're supposed to roll with it. You gotta run towards it. Yeah, so the feeling comes from the dream. What's the difference between Ron Killings, that character as a wrestler, and the art truth that we see now in WWE?
Oh, wow, ain't that much of a difference, man. But there is a difference. Ron Killings is either father, either husband, the son, he's a friend. He's all those things about our truth. Shares that with Ron Killings. I would say share because when I'm our truth, I'm our truth. That's up and down.
What's up, Chris? Ron Killings, dog. Yeah. I'm here for an interview. Yeah. Oh, we're getting serious now. Yeah. I'm ready for interview. This is what's so great about you. It's so great about this. There's a fine line right between our truth and Ron Killings. Yeah, we get cameras here.
I don't think I ought to be. Oh, man. I'm right here. Oh, no. That's it. Our truth's out of here.
See, at first you would think like, this is a joke of concuss. That's something, right? You think it's something crazy, but not not. And I just, it's here to just give me a little part of that right there. That's a little of our truth. I'm predictable. You know what I'm saying? Ron, feelings are predictable. You pretty much know I'm on, Kay, I'm on schedule, I'm on point, you know what I'm saying? Our truth, you never know what you're gonna get. There's a lot of WWE fans that will look at your resume and they'll go,
That guy was the NWA champion. Our truth, the 54th time 24-7 champion? Yeah. How different was that version of you? Oh man, that was a running wild version of me. That was a, ooh. A lot of people never seen me as that version. Yeah. They know me as, they had to go lucky. That was more of a younger, in raised,
immature I was very I was I was I was immature because I didn't know that much talent
Talent is talent. You know what I'm saying? Everybody, we all got talent. Talent is talent. But knowing how to use the talent at the right time, they're going to time it again. Knowing, you know what I'm saying? Like I had a lot to develop when I was running the truth killings, the NWA time. I had a lot to develop mentally, emotionally, spiritually, physically. I was just, I think I was just evolving into who I was. You know what I'm saying? Who was to become? Because there was a lot of,
When people see our truth now, they don't know that Ron Keith had a lot of depression. Ron Keith had a lot of hatred. Ron Keith had a lot of, I had a lot of things going on in my life, my mind. Still at the same time trying to juggle a career. So a lot of what you saw from Ron Latree killing the NBA was like real.
That was real, a lot of stuff that was built up in me. It seems like a real lightness though to you now. Yeah, because I know now. It's a difference, man, when you're in the dark, you don't know. I've been there. That's why the archery Catholic can relate to so many people because I didn't want to you. I was that guy with no sense of direction, but a whole and a dream, ambition, you know what I'm saying? But when you're in the dark, man, it's like not knowing it's the worst place to be. So where'd that change for you?
When I started learning, when I started seeing the light, when I started thinking differently, when I started going different routes, not going to a different place I used to be at night. My song, that song called Making the Cut couldn't certain things out of your life to where if you don't let go certain things, you can't grab nothing. You know what I'm saying? So that that's part of like evolving and adapting.
When you do that, you start learning more. You start seeing things different. You start adapting. You start, you know what? Maybe I should do it this way right here. There's always a way it's going to get. She's got to find a way to do it. Are there certain points of your career where we can see this happening, this awakening happening for us? Oh my goodness, yes.
If you go back to the beginning of my career, always to me and Road Dog, that we have in New York, you know what I'm saying? The restaurant, to now, I know now. I know what I possess. I know how to entertain. I know psychology. I know how to tell a story. I can cut you a promo that will have you there as your seat. I can cut you a promo that will have you behind your seat. I can, you know what I'm saying? So it's like, I know all the aspects there is to be in great entertainment.
And back then, I had all the tools, but I didn't know how to use them. How did you find this comedic side of yourself? I've always been funny. I think we all funny, man. It's timing. I think just being able to, and I'm best at it.
On the spot it's nothing. I can just I mean I can't be creative and think of it too But like on the spot funny is just that's from my strong point says are you not coming up with most of this stuff ahead of time? Hell no. Excuse me. Can you cut some here? Of course. Oh, hell. Hell no. Since what is hella cuss words? Yeah. Well, they say the cuss words. They say it ain't PG so you know
Right? You know what I'm saying? I don't want to be the first one to say hell on the show, dog. You know what I'm saying? You can say hell. You can say hell. You can say whatever you want. You can't say motherfucker on here. You just did. Did I? Yeah. I didn't say that.
Our truth said that. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You try to give me. Yeah. Okay. You're not coming up with that stuff in advance. No, most of the stuff. No, it comes like on the fly, even in pre tapes backstage stuff. I sometimes don't tell you what I'm going to say because I don't know what I'm going to say. It's just it's the moment you have to ride away. What's your most? What's the impromptu thing you're most proud of?
Probably Paul Heyman, the Paul Heyman and Brock Lesnar thing. I come to the gorilla and Paul was there. He's like, hey, we got a bet going on. I was like, what bet? He's like that you can make Brock, you know, ain't Brock laugh. I said, what do you mean? He said, you know, we not want to tell him what you want to say. We don't want to hear what you want to say. I said, man, I think we should let Brock know.
what we're gonna do. He said, no, we're not gonna let Brock know it all. And that was the most impromptu thing that man that was just, that came off like sliced bread. It was just great. They were so good. You got Brock Lesnar to break. Yes, yes. That was one of my, not just my belts right there. Who have you tried to get to break that will not break? Nobody. I haven't tried to break anybody. It's just,
It just happens, man. Y'all got that for everybody. I got a funny bone, you know what I'm saying? Well, how are they not going to laugh? Exactly. If you said timing, it's all the timing. And I think a lot of people when they're in a promo with me or they're in a backstage with me, I think their guard is up so much because of that.
that it's easy to penetrate. When you try not to do something too hard, too good, you end up doing it. You see what I'm saying? It's like they reverse psychology type things. So you have to just be yourself. I'm going to be myself. You in the ring with Triple H was so good. Yes. Because you're setting this up here like a genie.
Tomasso Champa. Yeah, yeah. And, uh, Hunter was another one that was like, um, he was like, you know what? I got to get through this and get through this. I'm not going to break. I'm not going to, this is going to be this business. And I've been on Hunter for a long time. So I kind of like, I know his funny spots, you know what I'm saying? Like, like, I know the funny spots on him. I know what to say to like, you know what I'm saying? And that was one of the moments I was waiting on. To look at his face is like,
Yes, and he was trying to hold it in. Try him. He was trying his best to hold that in. He was not going to give me that one.
I interviewed Damien Priest recently, and you got him to break, which was great. But he said, like, he turned away from the one camera, because he didn't want to, like, show that he was breaking. Yeah. He turned around, and there just happened to be another camera. There's a camera right there, Arnold. Got you right here, DP. Yeah. KI from the camera. They're everywhere. Yes. So good. I love it, man. I love it. And it just shows the different elements, man, with the entertainment that we do. You know what I'm saying?
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I don't think people give you enough credit for how smart you are about all of this. And I think that might just be a testament to how good you are at playing this character, that there's people who think that you're like our truth all the time. Yes. They really think I might get all the time, man. Y'all really do. But, hey, I mean, I don't want to bust somebody's bubble. Shit, excuse me. I mean, half the time I think I might get too.
Yeah, I think that to pull things off at the level that you pull them off, you have to be really smart to be able to do that. You know, timing, timing, knowing, knowing your audience, knowing the people you're talking to is like, um,
It's kind of weird. I'm giving my secrets. That's what I've got. So without coming to contact with people, I'm already analyzing you. I'm already analyzing everything, everything around me. I don't know if that's just my upbringing or the streets or what, but I'm analyzing everything about you to where I know.
Your temperament. Yeah. I know how it can make you laugh. I know if you're a jolly guy, I know if you're sticking the mud. I know if you're like one of the, I'm not going to laugh at nothing. I know if you're, I just know you now. Yeah. And it takes me a couple of minutes. I have to listen and listen. So you're like reading people. Always. Man. Always. They said there's so much more to you than people would ever think. Yes. And you can read people without even looking at them. In what way? Energy.
vibe, feel. Yeah. Real stuff. You know what I'm saying? I love this. Yes. I was going deep on this. Yes, man. Yes. At what point did John Cena find out that he was your childhood hero? Oh, man. I broke him through with that one. I broke him through. That was good, man. And they're still running with it. Of course. Still running with it. I love it, man. And it's like, um, like on commentary, they will bring it up all the time.
And I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna bust nobody's bubble. It's hilarious. I'm not a bubble buster, you know what I'm saying? So I love it. He is my childhood here now. I would be, you know what I'm saying, Lays Cross watching every Saturday morning. Did you tell him in advance that you were gonna do that? No, they, they actually had it written out and I was like,
Oh, this is funny, this is funny. But I did. I text John and I asked him about dressing like him. And I got the ha ha ha, the laugh, you know what I'm saying? The emoji, he'd have to think it's great. He'd have to think it's great. Run with it. So I just, I'd become my childhood hero. Did you with his blessings? Did you ask for his blessing to do the Five Knuckles Shuffle? Yes, everything. Even the wedding shorts.
He said, true, you don't have to ask me to wear shorts and rings. I said, man, but I wanna, I wanna be you. I wanna, I wanna, I wanna, everything you do. Walk, talk. I mean, I'm saying, how do you hold your head to the side? I wanna do everything. I wanna be, you know what I'm saying? You. He said, run with it. Man, so good. Yeah, he's one of the greatest, man. Everybody says that about you. About me? Yes. Oh, I hope so. I hope so.
You know what I'm saying? But people talk behind your back too now. You know what I'm saying? Everybody behind your back says truth is the best. That's what's up, man. And that's why I hope I can lead the business like that to where there's nothing. Nobody have no discomfort about being around me, working with me. Truth is all good. Truth is solid. But it hasn't always been that way. From what you were saying earlier, right? What you mean? What you talking about, Chris?
Oh, my dark days. Oh, yeah, yeah, but that's all mental stuff. That's all like, man, just crashing that comes from if you ain't ever been down.
you would understand. If you've been down, you would understand. Like if you've ever been broken, you would understand. To be broken as a man, it's like, especially when you have people depending on you. When you have kids, you have, you know what I'm saying, a woman at home, parents, you have people depending on you that's looking up to you. And when you're a broken man,
you have to dig down deep and find a way out. And sometimes it's hard to. Sometimes you find your way out better without being around people than being around people. Sometimes people are consoling you and babying you and peppering you kind of like it makes you miss the essence of feeling that rugged.
Because when you go down, that's just setting you up for a big come up, you know what I'm saying? So you have to feel all that man and go through the rollercoaster ride of it, man. And I felt every rollercoaster ride you can feel from losing loss, whether it was a
family member, my sister, whether it was a relationship. Well, regardless of what to lose in life, man, it makes you feel like a loser. So I've been down that road. So those times, those dark times, was me just like, all that stuff just bottled in, bottled in, bottled in, bottled in, bottled in, and learning, adapting, evolving with life, taught me to release. And once you release me, you'd be surprised at how much stuff you can grab. You can grab influence. You can grab
some more motivation, some more ambition, some more discipline, some more love, some more compassion. You can grab those lighter and brighter things that I take you away from the dark. So just like going from that to where I'm at now, man, it's day and night to me. As in physically, you can see it on me, I feel it in me, and I shine for people.
I love the passion that you have for life and the curiosity that you have for life. You have to have it, man. You have to. If not, life will do you in. Yeah, I love that quote. It's that we don't stop, but we don't get old because we stop playing. We stop playing. We don't stop playing because we get old. We get old because we stop playing. Yes. Man, you know what? Ben, you said that my daughter's their dance. And one of her dance friends, mom and dad, asked me,
How do you stay in shape so much? How do you, you know, you're 52 and you're doing this, you're doing that? I said, I never stopped working out since high school. And I asked him, I said, when was the last time you did a jumping jag? And they laughed. But I was serious. When was the last time you did a jumping jag? I thought, but you look like you work out. So I can't thank you. Yeah, he looked very dappable. Look at it. I looked very dappable. Thank you. Look, Moscow coming out there. Okay. So yeah, man. So it's like,
This is book Daniel Bryan I haven't read. It was called Supple Like a Leopard. And it was about an animal, not
Our animal is always going to be an animal. We as humans, sometimes we get, like today, we get too comfortable, and we stop doing the things that we normally, to keep this engine going, keep this vehicle moving, we stop doing those things. Then you got joints tightening up, stiffening up, can't move, can't bend down and what's next. I never stop, Chris.
Yeah. I never stopped. Yeah. Motion is lotion. Motion is lotion. Yes. Vaseline too. I think that was a DDP. Lupricade those joints, man. Yeah. The Vaseline. Yes. Yes. Is this the most fun you're having in your career right now? Yes, it is. The most fun I have in my career. Because I'm clear-handed, man.
I'm happy. I'm in a good space, good spot, man. Everything bounces off me, man. I'm good to go now. And you can tell.
You can tell when you're out there, whether it's a match or it's a promo or a backstage, you're having a blast and you light up the screen. Man, you have to have a blast at what you do. If you don't, you're gonna self-destruct. Why force it? Why force do anything you don't want to be doing? Change that motion.
It looked like you were having so much fun if we go back to 2011 when you turned heel. Would mean Morrison from the cigarette? Yeah. Yeah. I have fun doing that. Yes. And then everything that came after that, like that was the invention of little Jimmy and a lot of people don't remember that. That was the invention of little Jimmy. Yes. Do you know people were taking pictures with an impature? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They were like, Hey, did you mind if you take a picture with little Jimmy?
by all means, they could be a little Jimmy. And they would get beside the chair, and they were just like, it would be nobody in the chair. So I was getting a kick out of this, you know what I'm saying? So as long as they went with it, I was going with it. But little Jimmy was birth, he was created, and people loved him. What was the genesis behind Little Jimmy? I was calling him Little Jimmy's.
They're my little Jimmy's. All the John Cena fans, the ones that want me to dance, the ones that want me to be funny, they were John Cena's. I just happened to turn to my side and say, oh, look, a little Jimmy. And I don't know a lot of people. It was like, oh my God, he's talking to him right now. He's talking to the little Jimmy. There you go. And I looked too, so the Jimmy was born on that stage that night. Man.
And took off. It did? I actually wanted to give them, uh, give Lil' Jimmy an action figure, but it wouldn't be nothing in there. So if you don't, right? It'd look a lot like the John Cena action figure. I would have the box, the clear plastic, who would not be in there and just say Lil' Jimmy. That feels like a missed opportunity. That would have been good. Yeah, I think stuff that not truth, we gotta give him something. That's when we get the box.
Right? They get the box. They would have bought it. They would have bought it. I mean, the idea, you're floating it out there right now. Yeah. I mean, come on. The legitimate with nothing in it. People would buy that. You think so? Oh, yeah. Would y'all buy a legitimate with nothing in it? Ha ha ha. Okay. Might have to talk about that. And Helen is out already. Helen is out 2011. When you and Ms. were just causing chaos.
That felt like one of the most realistic segments, at least in like modern day wrestling. Like it just felt so authentic. Everyone's coming down there trying to open Hell in a cell. What looked to be actual police officers are down there trying to do it. There was just a real, it was very authentic.
It was me, Miz, man, was in that mold, man. We was ready to grab the bull by the horns and ride it, man. It was, again, at that time, it was time for Austin Truth. And I think it was the first time with Austin Truth, so we was in it to win it. So everything, man, was coming up on the fly. Everything was just great. I love that moment. As of right now, that video has over 100 million views on it.
I think it's the second most viewed video. Really? WWE's YouTube channel, or one of your videos is. Wow, that's great, that's great. Yeah, but Miz, I went down the wrong hole now. Yeah, what the heck? Yeah, he gonna get what he got coming to him. That seems like it. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Mm-hmm. I remember watching The Wrestler, and I didn't know you were in the movie, and I was in theater watching this, and I'm like,
That's okay, quick. There he is. He's right. And you had lines in this. You weren't just like, yeah, man, that was crazy, man. I actually had a friend of mine, Eric Adams, he's a wrestler. Darren Aronaski was shooting the movie. And he actually talked him into holding another audition for me.
And when I got there, he auditioned me, man, he gave me the part. We started doing it, Mickey Rourke saw me, we started talking, hanging out, and I think Mickey actually added more parts to the movie. Wow. And your trading lines with Mickey Rourke? Yeah, he actually added more parts for me in the movie, so I tried to make it work on that. What a movie.
Did you like it? Oh my gosh. He got robbed. But it was deep though, right? It was deep. And I don't want to spoil anything but that ending. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, it sounds a little tad bit of a light. He got robbed. He should have won the Oscar for... You would think right after that year. And Sean Penn's performance that year was very good in milk.
But I remember I interviewed Mickey Rourke a few months later, and I'm like, you got Rob? You got Rob. He's like, oh, thank you, brother. I love Mickey. Yeah, come on. Cool. What was Mickey Rourke like off camera? Cooling the fan, though. Cool dude, man. Straight suit him. I know he was a box suit, man. I love Mickey Rourke, man. He was down the earth.
where more you would think it would be. And it looked like he had a real appreciation, a real appreciation for what you guys do. He did. He did, man. Um, which he was asking a lot of questions about it too. You know what I'm saying? He was, um, he was intrigued by it. And he respected the business as well. You know what I'm saying? So I think it was like a, um, a mutual type thing. You know what I'm saying? It looked like it could actually work.
I think, yeah, for real. Yeah. Like, it looked like he could actually have a match. I think making real what have a handle of a match. Man. Yes. You're still doing some acting, right? Still doing acting. Still doing acting. Actually, people can do a little bit of voice over now. I got this new country album coming out.
Brand. Country album coming out, man. It's called The White Album. Okay, when's it come out? Probably the first song will be coming out November, probably towards late after Thanksgiving.
That's like right around now right around the corner. Okay, I just did a holiday song man. I Got so much music coming out right now. I gotta Just release a song come out tomorrow called for real. It's about Just life just it's about what you do it for. What do you do?
what you do and where you do it, who you do it for. You do all this. A lot of people do it for themselves. A lot of people don't have kids. I do a lot of stuff and I do, whether it's me grinding, whether it's me, I was in the airport, whatever I do, what I do, I do it for my family.
Me's, I'm the second thought. Me was that guy that was learning and adapting and evolving through time to become this vessel that would take care of a lot of people, my family. I still take care of my mom, my dad. So it's like, I do this for my family. And this song I got coming out called From Real, it's about that.
It's just putting in people's mind that question, asking people, you know what I'm saying? What do you do it for? Who do you do it for? You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Then I got a holiday song coming out called, How are they Feels? And it's just, when you were younger, man, like in the holiday time felt so good, you know what I'm saying? Like just being with your family, just being around loved ones or people, your family brought over that respect to the family. Like it just made you feel good. And I think like,
As of recent, everybody's just missing that feel good. So much negative energy, so much negative. Media, just negativity is everywhere. It's going to always be there. But holiday feels is about just feeling good again. I love that. Bringing that good feeling back. Yeah, it's a real magic around the holidays. It's always been magic there if you look for it. Yeah. Yeah, we just get older and we get out of
to get out of that element. I'm a relatively near dad. It's my daughter. Oh, congratulations. Thank you so much. Welcome to the club. Yeah. Thank you. My daughter is 18 months. And as I sit here right now, baby boy, we'll be here in three weeks or so. Wow. OK, so you doubling up on it. OK. Double it up.
But there's a, I now see the world through my daughter's eyes, right? And there's a real magic of like, we just put the Christmas tree out. Yes. And I just, oh wow. I see that in her eyes. Yes. And it brings me to that situation of going, oh man, I feel like as we get older, we forget that that magic exists. We forget because we get to life in life. We get to living and life does these things on us and we forget certain things that
gives us life. Yes. Just that moment of where we're at that tree. How many times do you think you have to be able to do that with it? So it's important. Yeah. Those times means that those times are magical. Don't forget the grass hole of them. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, like when I first became a dad, I saw something on Instagram. It's like, if you're lucky, when you get 18 summers, it's like, what? Yeah, when you break it down and count, yeah. It makes you think about it, right? Yes. Boom.
It makes you think about it. How many more times do you get to put a tree up with her? I'll tell you this right here. Weirdly, my 10-year-old still sleep well. My nine-year-old still sleep with my wife.
And she just recently stopped sleeping with us. And it broke my heart. And the week before that, she packed up all her baby dolls, all her toys. I'm done with the dolls. I got three girls. So I went through that stage of, and this is my last daughter. This is it. My little girl is growing up now. No more baby dolls. She don't want to sleep with us anymore. She's like, I want to do my own room.
But I thought you know, time cherished those moments. And it just reminds me of this two-shell pass. A good times this two-shell pass. The bad times this two-shell pass. Yes. Yeah. So enjoy it, man. Yeah. Did you ever have a point in your career where you didn't think you'd be able to keep doing this?
Like this injury you had recently, did you feel like that might be the end for you? At one point, I thought it was, because it was when I caught the infection. And I said, a lot of people thought I'd just tore my quads in. I did tear the quads in there.
I think a couple weeks out when I was going to get the sutures out, it wasn't healing. And that's when they found out I had five different bacteria, and they'd be like, staff, Mercer, their cousins, and Kim folks, and relatives. Yeah, it was bad. It was so bad, the doctor wouldn't even give me a high five. Yeah, I know it sounds crazy. I want a high five with the doctor. But you know what I'm saying? He didn't work on me, man. It's cool, man. Like, oh, bro, it's going to be like, nah.
Nah. He didn't want to catch that. Not catching. He was like, bro, you don't have time to be high-five. This is serious. Like, this is like, he said, what are you doing this afternoon? I just went to get my stitches out. He said, what are you doing this afternoon? I said, going to pick my kids up. He said, can somebody else go do it? I'm like, why? He's like, we need to take you to surgery now. Oh. Yeah, so everything went from ha-ha-ha to like...
Boy, you better be ready. You know what I'm saying? It was serious. There was a chance I could lose my leg. What? Yes. See, that's how serious he got. The infection was that bad that he thought they were going to have to amputate. If they couldn't get it slowed down. I was on antibiotics, man, that was like, think about it. I was thinking about it. I feel like it was $4,700 a week for it.
I was on the heavy stuff. Just to get out, I had a pick line here. The first six weeks, and I had to have a pick line there. I could see the start of the scarf. Yeah, see, we didn't know that. They just saw me on.
They just had me, you know what I'm saying? But they didn't know it. Like deep down, it was like, might be going. Like, so it was, and my mind was thinking, way ahead, it wasn't just thinking, it was thinking, okay, if you don't have this, what are you going to do? You have to think that that was, he told my wife that. He didn't think, I heard him, I heard him like, if this doesn't get controlled, he said, we have to think of the options. She was like, we met other options. He's like, I have to say.
I'm like, fuck you, excuse me. I'm like, what the, you know what I'm saying? He can tell me that, but that's when I was thinking, wow, I'm gonna go back to this again.
How am I going to adapt? It wasn't a what was me. It was a, how can I adapt? How can I reroute this thing? Is that what's about reroute? Can't crash out no more. That sounds really scary. It was scary. It was scary, man, but it's part of life, man. It was. I think I'm just moving so fast that I just took it as a cane.
But you're also at a stage of your career with what you're doing. Well, you don't need to be in the ring. I feel like you can be in WWE till you're 100 doing what you're doing. And you just don't look the same. Yeah.
I like being in the ring. I think I'm like Rey Mysterio with this right here. I'll let my body be the guy and be the answer to that. You're listening to your body. I will always listen to my body always. And right now, man, to be honest, man, I've never felt as healthy as I feel now.
clear-minded, clear-headed, still can do my backflips, still can do my splits. There's a lot of things that generation hadn't even seen me do yet, and I still can do. Like you said, just some time I don't need to do it. I just give an opportunity. I will go out there and show that, oh, shit, he can still go.
But the great thing about doing comedic work is you're not taking as many bumps. And every wrestler talks about you got a bump card, right? Yeah. You only have so many bumps your body can take. That's a Booker T line. Yeah, that is a Booker T line. Yeah, if you only got so many bumps and say, yeah, man.
And when you've gotten to, when you get to that level to where like, you don't have to, man, it's a blessing, right? Especially when you can get the same numbers, you can get the same effect. And you can send them home happy. Yeah. That's, that was, that's one of the wrestlers motto. We have to send these people home happy. And when I can send them home happy, they can reach up and they happy. I send them on that rollercoaster. My job is done. Do you think about how much longer you want to do this for?
I don't. I never think about time. It'll come to me. I think every answer we seek, look for, it'll come to us in due time. What's the hardest part about what you do in WWE? Is it the travel? If we break down the fourth wall right now, it's almost midnight as we sit here in Phoenix, Arizona. Yeah. Your flight just landed a little while ago. You've got to get up tomorrow, go to work for your call time. Is it the travel?
I can't say that, Chris, because it's part of the gig. I've been doing this for how many years? I've been, I've missed flights, I've been in airports, probably more time than people to work there. You know what I'm saying? Like I, it's part of the gig. There's nothing too hard about this that makes it hard that I'm not used to, that I haven't been through that. Don't expect.
In this business, it's not a work, man. Not just professional wrestling, but any line of work entertainment wise, you gotta be willing to go, man. You gotta be willing to take it, give it, receive it. You know what I'm saying? Run with it.
On the flip side of it, what's the best part about your job? Everything. All the perks. The love. The notoriety. Meeting different people. Meeting different cultures. Going different places. I've been to some important world man and I've seen more than the eyes probably have seen.
I've seen places people want to read about in books. I've been there. I've been in pyramids. I've experienced so much in life, man, because of what I do for living. And those perks, I could write a novel on the things that these perks give you. And I wanted to give you that. It gives you a sense of, I know people.
Yeah. When people talk about the Mount Rushmore of comedic wrestlers, you are number one on that. Everyone... You think so? Everyone's always like, okay, it's our truth. Okay. And then Santino and then, you know, they kind of throw in two other people after that. Yeah. How does that make you feel? It feels good. I really like that. Rock was funny too though. Rock was funny. Rock was funny. Rock was funny. Rock was funny. Rock was funny. Rock was funny. Rock was funny. Rock was funny. Rock was funny. Rock was funny. Rock was funny. Rock was funny. Rock was funny. Rock was funny. Rock was funny. Rock was funny. Rock was funny. Rock was funny. Rock was funny. Rock was funny. Rock was funny. Rock was funny. Rock was funny. Rock was funny. Rock was funny. Rock was funny. Rock was funny. Rock was funny. Rock was funny. Rock was funny. Rock was funny. Rock was funny. Rock was funny. Rock was funny. Rock was
Yeah. And there's a lot of fun. Book is funny. Book is funny. So yeah. Stone Cold was funny. Stone Cold was funny. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. So to be on that Mount Rushmore, man, I mean, I like that. I like it. Oh, they give me a smile. It don't make my nose be. You know what I'm saying? What's the comedic moment in your career you're most proud of?
Um, and we're going to run through a bunch of them here, but I don't know. Probably the Brock Lesnar, the Brock, uh, actually mean Triple H is have, we've had plenty, uh, the one with little Jimmy. Uh, me and him and I have some good comedic moments. Um, there's so many men to call out. Uh, you've had some really good ones in the Royal Rumble.
Yes, the hot tag. Hot tag in the royal rumble. Yes, who, who? What was that? That was dumb, but I don't know if it was Jason Jordan.
or Ken and Diasra. Somebody came to me and said, hey, you should do a hot tag. I can't clip a Shane Hymns. One of those guys gave me the idea to do a hot tag. And I'm like, a hot tag. And I thought it laughed. I said, you think they were like brave, the place they would love it. And it just, it worked. Well, because you went all in, you're holding the tag rope. You gotta believe it, man. You gotta go all in. You're gonna do it, do it. Yes. You bringing the ladder out in the middle of the Royal Rumble? Yes. That was a fan's idea.
Yes, I do read those tweets. I see them all too, so watch what you're saying. But yeah, I saw a fan tweet that, I used to run it, going in with the latter, and I was like, oh my gosh, that's funny, to get the creative, and it was like, let's do it.
Well, the best part about it is you're climbing the ladder, and the crowd starts getting behind it. Yes. The crowd starts like not just laughing, cheering. They co-find the bull shit. Sorry. Stuff. The bull stuff. Yeah. The feces. And then you reach for it. Yes. I commit it. You committed it. You got to go all in, man. You can't go halfway. That's the... I don't know. That's PG.
I'll lean as far as like, what you're doing for what you want to do. Go all the way. Did you come up with the PG line off the cuff? Did I? I think I did. Did I come up with the PG line? That was me way better when I knew that line. With the Pinocchio nose. Yes, no, that was great. I think Brian came up with that line for me. I think Brian came up with it because when they showed it to me,
No, when they showed it to me, I started putting up your nose, get along. I'm like, oh man, I said, can we do that? Is that PG? And I was like, oh my God, that's good. Can you say it? I said, I don't even know. Is it PG? Can we do that? And I was like, yeah, you can say that.
Yeah. It sounds like the best advice here is just go all in. Like it's, you got to commit. You got to. And that doesn't even feel like wrestling advice. That just feels like life is right. All the way, all the way, 1000%. If you don't go all the way, you'll never get in.
I had a conversation with Eugene, and he was talking about that. Like, if he didn't believe what he was doing with his character, how could he possibly expect that millions of people watching at home to believe it too? Same as we're acting. If you can't convince me that that's that character, how you want me to believe in that character? I can't believe in what I'm not seeing. I can't believe it. You have to go all in so people can see you all in. Yeah. Whose idea was it for you to enter the women's royal rumble?
I think it was Jason Jordan. I think that was the answer. Oh, Shane Elm. Those guys are good. Shane Elm, Jason Jordan, and Ken and Daxford. Those three are like, they're beating my ear a lot. Did they're coming up with a lot of these ideas? Excuse me. They go with some good ones. One of those guys came up with the women's, me going to the women's battle. I think it was Shane Elm's.
Where are the guys at? Yes. Yes. That was good. Do you crack yourself? Oh yeah, all the time. When they give me something, if I laugh at it, they're like, they're happy that I'm laughing at it because now I become that. Once I read and see it, I become it. And I'm all in.
How about the time when big show is just laying waste to everybody in the ring? And then it's you and big show and you're like, I got it. And you knock yourself out. Everybody got that, right? Everybody got that, right? Yeah. Let me do it. You don't have to do it. I'll do it. And I give myself a good one. You know what I'm saying? So yeah, that was one of my good. How did you come up with that? They came up with that one, which was great. I just went all in.
I just went all in. You got to go all in. And like, I think your face when you're down on the mat really showed you were all in. All in, man. Yeah, man. Yes. I want you to believe. I don't need him to hit me. I want him to believe I'm going to hit myself hard enough to where you don't have to do it.
How do you keep coming up with new stuff? You have to reinvent yourself all the time. You have to evolve. You have to be, you have to stay up with the time. And you want age out. If you keep coming up, you have to like, we're just like, you're only as good as your last match. That's saying you have to always just evolve. You have to re-serve. You have to reinvent yourself. Life is about re-involved. Like everything changes. Like I was around when they had to have telephones.
Not when they had pigeons, but when they had like pages and stuff, you know what I'm saying? I wouldn't round on it. I heard they had pigeons. I don't know about that. But when they had like, you got mail. A-O-L, you're a fan like. So you just evolved, Chris, you got to evolve man with everything. Musically, theatrically, with a visual to everything evolves. Where's the inspiration for music come from for you?
Life. I got a great, great, great producer, man. Jay Trax, Justinek Olds, man. He knows me well. He inspires me a lot, just by, he's a real, real artist. And to see a real, real artist at work, you know what I'm saying? It's inspiring to me. Music is important to me. Think about music when you think about wrestling. When you hear that intro, that music,
It sets the tone. Yes. You know what I'm saying? When you hear that glass break, you know, it's awesome to me. Music sets the tone, man. So, music has always been a part of my life. That just itself is influential to me. But just being around people like Jay Trax, man, being around people that's in their same, might their same aura that I am as far as, musically gifted.
Musically oriented is just always been a part of my life. You're still right, though. The music sets the tone. It sets the tone of everything. And your music, especially with you interacting with the crowd, with what's up, like that sets the tone immediately. If someone's never watched wrestling and they see that, they're like, oh, I get it. Again, exactly what I'm supposed to do here. Simplicity. It involves, it involves a crowd for boys interaction. And I think a lot of our audience want to be involved.
And I think we don't involve them. I will involve you. Where did that concept come from to involve them in your entrance theme? Just reading the crowd. Just knowing people.
reading the matches before my match, reading the arena, reading the energy. Because that goes back to when you were with Road Dog, right? And like you say, what's up? The crowd says, what's up? Yes. And you've got them. You got them. Once you engage with them, you have a split second to get their attention and keep it to where it is.
Now we will be involved with this. We want to be involved. The crowd, the audience is there to participate. They did a yell, curse, scream, have a good time. They want to go on that rollercoaster ride. So the more you involve them, the more you make them a part of the show.
But not a lot of people get a live mic on their entrance. You write about that a lot. You write. Think about it. You write about that. Like Road Dog is one of the very few other ones. You write. A lot of them don't get a lot. You write about that. I didn't think of that. How did you get that worked into your entrance?
Uh, from the first time, I've always done that. Always done that. I never had the earbugs of Road Dog talk to me to give me the earbugs. Because it's so loud out there. Oh, so like a monitor? Yes, in my ears. But I've always since since Jack Crocker got me involved with wrestling. Bill Berry is the end of your wild side. I've always come to the ring with the microphone. Man. And when I sign,
They let me do that. I went straight to New York, recorded what's up. I actually had a record of what's up. I went and redid my vocals on that. Me and Road Dog, I've always had the microphone. It's just been, that's my mistake.
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Who would you say is the person you've learned the most from in this industry? Oh, man, so many people, man. I won't leave nobody out. I learned a lot, man. Road dog, way Mysterio. Sino? Your childhood hero. What childhood hero? Rakeshi?
Umaga, believe it or not, me and me so wrote it right together a lot. From Roman, from Randy. I've learned a lot, man. I just take a little bit from each person I'm around. You know what I say? Show me your friends. I show you your future. So all my friends that I'm around, man, are like, a couple of good guys that are like,
boom, they're successful men that think this way, think that way. So I just take a little bit from each person and their aspects of the business and put it to my own. What do you think young talent's learning from you now? I get a lot of longevity.
They won't learn longevity. And I think also, probably timing, you know, timing, which seems to be a theme with what we're talking about here. I tell a young talent, timing. And I'm like, well, they're not doing nothing with me right now. I'm not a timing, timing. Don't wait to get ready, stay ready. So when it's your time, you're ready. When you won the United States Championship, it looked like you weren't supposed to win against Shinsuke Nakamura.
Because you're not there. Okay. So one, two, three, but then you guys kept wrestling. So man, that was crazy. If I could remember this correctly, we had maybe another two or three most bots to go to. And that was it. I was, I was going to get it anyway. Yeah. But there was a strict rule.
If you don't kick out at three, referee's gonna get fine. If he not want that, don't hold your hand. You better slap that motherfucker. Excuse me. Sorry. You better slap it down, right? So, Kyoto just killed it at the job.
since getting kicked out. So it was just, and we were like, oh shit. Sorry. We're like, oh shoot. What we're gonna do is we're gonna be like, that was it. That was a wrap. That was, he did his job. You did your job, blah, blah, blah, boom. Champion. All right. But it made it look like you weren't supposed to win. For bullfrog, had wings, we needed hands every time we out. I don't know.
That sounds like a phrase from the south. Yeah, they don't have bullfrogs in the north. Sure. Yeah, of course. OK, good. Bullfrogs. Do they have wings? No, sir. All right. What do you eat? Yeah, they every time you hop. They got any other great quotes like that. That's a good one. Good.
When you talk about timing and everything timing and being right, would you think about your character turning heel again? I think there's a certain section of the audience that wants to see Ron the truth killings. They want to see you win another World Heavyweight Championship or another championship.
There's a part of me that I do want to turn the other guy. I think the selfish part, just for people to see me as his heel. Because I think a couple of generations have just known me to be our truth to fund.
I don't, a lot of people haven't seen that side of me, that, that still can be brought out. Um, there's time that I've went and talked about turning heel and like, ah, truth, I don't think people want to see you as a heel. They don't want to see you. They, you may people feel good. And it's like, um, somebody didn't know, right? Mysterio had never been a heel before, you know, they'd be, he never was. Um,
And she's filthy animals and you see that? That was closest to you ever gotten, you know what I'm saying? So it's like, damn, I just like Ray, am I just like a, uh, there's a part of me that won't turn to you that want to selfishly because I can be a good heel. I can be a, I can be a good asshole, you know what I'm saying? Uh, but then if that part of me that there's so many
Bad guys, I gotta be one of the good ones. You know what I'm saying? Everybody's a bad guy. It's easy to be a bad guy. It's so easy. Can you be a good guy? Do you know, like, even being a good guy, there's people that still say, you suck. And you're not supposed to say that to a good guy. You're supposed to cheer him like, nah, you suck. You suck. I hope he beats you up all the way. Like, yeah, but you still got to be a good guy. You know what I'm saying?
The selfish part of me would love to turn heel and be a heel, but the majority of me is like, I could never be a heel. And you've crossed over this line, like, you've gone from loved to beloved. And people would think it's cool if I did something bad. If I did something to heal this shit, they would think it's cool. I smoked a cigarette and they thought that was the coolest thing on TV, you know what I'm saying?
You can't, to get, to be a heel, you have to be crying. You have to be like, to get that real genuine hatred, heel, heat. Mine would be more of like, they will want me to like bash somebody head in. Go ahead like this. Selfishly, I would love to see it one time, but I don't have to.
Yeah. I think people just expect like goofiness out of you. That's where they expect the goofiness. Yes. And again, you've got real longevity with this. You know, longevity. And I like to like take the art truth character into a thing to where they see it as a goofy character, but I've maneuvered my way into the planning championship matches. Yeah.
And it's almost like I like to play the sense of like, I get the last laugh in a sense. Sometimes playing goofy or playing the person that doesn't know used to be the one that knows.
and acting like our truth sometime. I go over the edge with it, but truth always knows the truth. There's like an extra layer of that because your name is truth. I always know the truth. I feel like you single-handedly saved the 24-7 championship. I think so. Well,
With great respect, it was not coming out of the gate. It was not very well received. It wasn't received good. Yeah, you're right. Everybody said it was ugly. Yeah. Mick Foley took it out of that bag to like no reaction. Yeah, it was ugly. It was ugly. It was ugly. It was ugly, baby, right? But you did something to that championship.
You turned it around. Yeah, I made it beautiful. I made them a step to baby, right? How did you get your hooks into that? How did you make it your own? I went all in. You got to go all in. Can't go halfway.
I have fun. I have fun. I was able to throw a lot of creative in there. The numbers that it was doing was ridiculous, like 15, 20 million views a week.
like more views and it was getting on TV. Did you know Forbes magazine get a write-up about it? Really? Google that. Forbes magazine get a write-up about a 24-7 title and the numbers that it was doing. So that itself was an incentive for me.
That was a booster for me. So I was getting those numbers, plus this commercial that the Yang Yang did for 24-7. It was doing its thing. What was the first 24-7 segment that really popped off when I first wanted? The first night, me and Bobby Roode,
Did I come to SmackDown? I came to SmackDown. Actually, they called me the day before. I said, hey, I got a new title. Why don't you come to SmackDown? Put a title on you. And then when Bobaroo came out and I took it from him at the car, and said I'm taking the title of the Monday Night Raw, millions of views on that. And it took off very since then. What do you think was the most ridiculous 24-7 segment? Oh man, there was so many of them that was good, man. So good.
Ah, I could tell you some good stories or so. The plane was good. The plane was good. Yeah. Drake's wedding was good. Wasn't that his actual wedding? That was his real wedding. That was a real wedding, y'all. That was funny. The thing in New York, the Christmas light and tree, oh man, they robbed us. I was so bad.
We had these horses. The guy had the horses. And we had to pay him more money for the horses to run. They wouldn't even run. They would try. And it was cold. You know, I knew your kid's cold. Yeah. Yeah, he was like, if I'm my horse won't run, my horse won't run. My horse won't run unless you give me more money. More money. We didn't say that first. He's like, we trying to shoot this thing.
put me running, right, with the championship running. And he's like, the horse is just trotting, trotting. And I can't remember who the producer was. Like, can you get your horse to run? He said, run, run. I said, give him some money. Give him some money. And they put out $20. Horse started trotting then. I trotting. Not a run. It was trot, man. So if you go back and look at that footage, you would see like,
And it was so funny that it was in slow motion, we kept it. You would think we were running and it's slow motion because we got a $20 truck from the horse, you know what I'm saying? So that was one of the great ones, the golf course. And genders, it is full wrestling gear for nations, people looking at us out there.
And Carmilla drug me with that golf cart from one end of the fence to the other end, because I thought I would run the golf cart. Didn't know the guy gave us the fastest one he had, and he had souped up. So I told her, I said, when you got the one take, I said, you push that gas, you better push that gas. And she pushed it. And that last leap I took, I was holding on for their life, because she was moving with it.
If you go back and watch that, you could tell I almost didn't get it. And are there golfers like, oh my God, they were barely laughing. Oh my God, look at you. They were better. And they're in the middle of a round of golf. Yes. Watching us do this. Shenanigans.
It was great. Maybe they gotta bring the 24-7 title back. I don't have no problem with it. Like, it going away just feels like a, you know, that really robbed you. I don't have no problem with it. I mean, Judgment Day, man. I got so much stuff going on. You're in Judgment Day?
Yeah, I don't want to kick that man out. Yeah, totally. Definitely. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Not no more though, I'm not in them. Yeah, I'm not even in them more. I cut them loose though. Got new friends now. That stuff was so good. You like that? I love the Judgment Day stuff. I love it. It was so good because they're trying to be so serious.
Yes. And you're doing whatever you can to make it the least serious. Our truth. Our truth. Just don't mean to mix, man. And I don't have to, you know, just be there. I would have to say anything. And it just melts out to be like, okay, something's not right here. Yeah. Right. The jelly rolls. That was one of my great ones. The judge of their stuff was a good moment too.
I like all the Judgement Day stuff. Is there anything you didn't like? To know it's not, because I go all in. I become it. Yeah. There's a, again, there's a real lesson in that. Yeah, man. Go all in. Was the, when the 24-7 title was originally introduced, did you know you were going to win a bunch of times? No.
Because you saw that graphic that we shared. Actually, it was Troy that made that graphic. Really? Yeah. Of all your WWE championships that you've won? Yeah. And then that one. Yes. And then there's definitely a lot of views on that. A lot of hits on that. 54, 24, 7 titles. Yeah. That's crazy. Pull this up so we can. That's crazy man. I remember when they drafted me to Raw because of that.
Because of the 24-7 title? When it was USA's title. And they wanted pretty much with the mascot for it.
Like, look at this, it's two hardcore titles. The United States Championship, tag team championship, United States title, then 54. All of those, wow. 54, 24, 7 titles. Oh, and then one more tag title. That's a lot of pins, right? It's a lot of cover in it.
I would thank you. I would thank you. That's pretty amazing. It's pretty good, man. Thank you. So when you go into the Hall of Fame one day, who should induct you? Mmm. Probably Road Dog, right? That would make a lot of sense. I think Road Dog. Or Triple H could come out, and you could thank Tommaso Champa.
Yes, that would be good. You've seen that meme, right? Like where it's you at the Hall of Fame speech and you're like thanking people for coming to something completely different? No. It's like you're like thanking people for, let me see, I'll pull it up. Are you serious? They did me like that. Oh, wow. People have too much time in their hands. Oh, you know, you're too, you're too fun. It's, uh, I'm going to pull it up here.
I'll take it. Our truth when he gets inducted in the Hall of Fame. I just want to say thank you for choosing me as King of the Ring. This is such an honor. Wow, okay. Okay. Who did this? Very funny. Hardy, hard, hard. That's great. That's so great.
I think the best part about what you do is you're not afraid to laugh at yourself. No, man. I learned that a long time ago. You can't be afraid to laugh at yourself, make it fool yourself. If you want to be in this business, can't take life too serious. Life don't take you serious. It do serious shit to you. Excuse me. Stuff to you. But yeah, can't be too, uh, can't be afraid to laugh at yourself.
No, and I think that that's what makes you so endearing. Yeah, and it's separation, man. It separates you from a lot of people that's just too stiff or just a stiff stick in the mud and just separation. Yeah. Also, I feel like you bring the best out in people. Yes, and I don't know. It's a good thing or a bad thing.
How could that be a bad thing? Because why can't they bring the best out of themselves before meeting someone to have to bring it out of them? Some people are just too stuck in the mud. Some people are just too stuck in their own head, you know, too stuck in focusing on all of these other things.
You write about that, and I try to see the good in everybody. I feel like everybody got some type of good in them, but I mean, this is life. That's just bad. Yeah. What do you think's been the highlight of your in-ring career? Oh, I can't pinpoint one. The highlight... I whole love it. I can't pinpoint one. There's just so much, man.
It's too much to choose from, to pick one. That's like people ask me, what is your favorite match? What's your favorite place you've been like? You're going to get a variety of so many things in life. To pick one, you'd be selling yourself short because each one has its own unique
feel his own vibe, his own message, his own story, his own relatableness to you. Each one has his own different, everything mess. So it's like, it would be hard for me just to pick one. What did beating Ken Shamrock for the TNA championship? What did that mean to you at that point in your career? Oh, that was dope at that time. That was mind blowing.
Again, it felt like I had made it. For like I had succeeded. I overcame that verse in these. I broke the stereotype. I made it. That was a warm feeling of accomplishment. I was proud of myself. I think people still look back at it now. Yes. People still talk about that now. Yeah. And that's a moment in history that I will always be proud of.
You've got a hell of a career. Yes. It still ain't done yet. That's the thing. I'm telling you. You're going to wrestle to your 100. I don't know about that, but yeah. We'll let the body man and let the universe be the.
One, the time people were dead. I just, I just do what I do. Yeah. Thank you for making this happen. Oh, thank you. You are the best. And I will ask you the question I ask everybody at the end here. Gratitude's so big for me. I wake up every day, I say out loud three things I'm grateful for. My wife and I do it before we go to bed. Truth, what are three things in your life you're grateful for right now? My life, my family.
And people, people made the world go well. Yeah. I feel like I learned a lot from this one. Huh? I feel like I learned a lot. We all, man, we all do. Go all in. Yes, go all in. Or don't go at all. If you go have with me, you're not getting a full effect of it. And you're not giving your full self. So good. Thank you, man. Oh, thank you.
Man, isn't our truth just the best? And what a guess for episode number 700. Like I said in the intro, there was so much more to him than what you see on TV, and I hope that you saw that here. He's brilliant. And I love hearing him talk about how he breaks people down to see what they're all about.
It's incredible. And it just makes me appreciate him and love his work that much more. Snap a screenshot, tag us online so we can share it. He's at Ron Killings on Twitter. He's at Ron Killings of one on Instagram. Also, check out the music on his website, theofficialronkillings.com.
Or if you're listening to this on Spotify, I know you're already going to leave a comment, so I appreciate you for that. But if you're listening on Spotify, go check out his music on Spotify. Just type in Ron Killings when this episode is done. Since it is New Year's Eve here, I will wrap this up with a quote about the New Year. This is from Joe Descenta. Most New Year's resolutions fail because they're wishes, not plans.
Break your goals into daily actionable steps. Success isn't about the resolution. It's about the execution. Hmm. Be great. Be grateful, my friends. We will see you on the next one for some more insight. And this is the time of year when I love to say this and so ridiculous. See you next year.
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