Bonus Interview with "Real1" Formerly Known as Enzo Amore

I know what you're thinking. Wednesday? Like the good old days, it's Wednesday. You know what that means. It's time for no contest wrestling podcast, baby, but it's a special little hump day special.

Pause. Little Wednesday special for you guys. We got somebody special. My man, a TJ orchestrated an interview with somebody that we both know personally. We've both had conversations with.

And we definitely need to have a conversation on our show. Yeah. We got to have them. Because it's a real one. The real one.

The real one formerly known. As Enzo Amore, we'll be here to talk, and I'm excited to get to it. I mean, are you trying to waste some time? Nah, man, we're going to talk about Fourth Rope. Yeah.

See what's going on. They got a show on Thursday with Westside Gun. Huge. We're big wrestling fans. He might be a bigger fan than us, but he's got his own promotion, Fourth Rope.

We wanted to learn about Fourth Rope, so who better than Real One to tell us about it? And their big show that they got coming up, Heels Have Eyes, on 10:30 at Six Flags, Great Adventure. Sure and get into it. Let's do it. Get into it.

Fans of the No Contest Wrestling Podcast, we would like to present to you one of the best talkers there ever was. Ever.

So I once seen the man cut a promo without a microphone. It was on his hand. Keeps it on him. Keeps it on him. Um you know just a A real one in more ways than one.

You could catch him. What is it? This Thursday in Jersey? Yes. Six flags, fourth rope.

He is your current, give me, you know, correct me if I'm wrong, the current flyweight champion of the fourth rope. Please, ladies and gentlemen, welcome. Oh, yeah, that's a nice one. Please, welcome. But you might know him as Enzo, but right now he is the real one, and he is on the No Contest Wrestling podcast.

Hey, I can't thank you guys enough for having me on here. Brother, I think I guess the question I have is. Tell us about Fourth Rope a little bit, man. How'd you get involved with Westside Gun and this promotion? Honestly, man, I couldn't have told you.

It was God's plan, bro. There was just no way. For me to explain what I went through when I left the company. There was no place I wanted to be. I mean, New York, New York, that's it.

You know, the city of my backyard. I never wanted to go to WCW. AEW was, you know. Uh something that I considered, I reached out, they had no interest. And I'm at a point where if it's me, it's you.

I mean, I don't. What do I care? What are you going to cancel me? Like, what do I care? I have nothing to lose, bro.

I've already lost everything. I've been dragged through the mud. And, you know, when you treat them like dirt, they stick like mud, bro. You know, I don't care if you, if you treat me a certain way, I'll treat you the same way back, bro. I don't have any gripe with the business because I'm in such a good place.

Like I said, I'm solid right now. You know, the foundation for which I built this business, you know, fourth rope. Is really all of the things that I love. It's hip-hop, it's wrestling, it's fashion, it's rap, and it's all of those things wrapped into one because that's what this business is, bro. If you look back at the history of pro wrestling, it's sex, drugs, rock and roll.

It's wild. And it and it's and it's It's held to a different standard now, but I came up in a PG era. And like I said, I wasn't playing with the handicap. There was no cheat pop. You couldn't stick your middle finger in the air.

You couldn't call somebody a curse word. You had to really reinvent the wheel if you wanted to become as fly as I was. And that was calling people S-A-W-F-T soft. And I think that the reason why I was able to transcend pop culture at a time where wrestling to me got boring was because I saw it for what it was. I was watching a show that I thought lacked a certain value of entertainment.

And I was the one who looked around and said, Well, if you're not going to do it, I am.

So I I just uh I believe in myself, and I like to say to people, I'm sorry if my confidence, you know. hurts your feelings. Like right. You feel the way about yourself, I feel about myself in my industry. To be the best in the world at anything is unbelievable.

And to achieve it. Um It takes A certain type of person, and unwaveringly, my confidence has never left. My opportunities got squandered. I got canceled. I got shit on by the world.

And I got told I was one thing. But to that point, I love to inspire those that. have to persevere and go through things you know moses had to leave egypt And he they are going the desert. And you know, he had to go through something to come back and say, all right, well. Here's what time it is now, you know?

I went through hell. You got to go through me. And I'm not taking no for an answer in this business.

So, like, I'm moving the needle with this. And fourth rope is making waves. And it's not just me, it's a team of people. It's my boss, Westside Gunn, and Smoke Dizzer, who are the brains, who are the operation, who are the money, the finance. And for me to have that opportunity, I owe so much to them, and my loyalty is real.

And I prove it all the time. You know You'll be reminisced to find anybody like me in this business.

So I had to go through.

something that nobody else had to go through and it only made me ready for what I'm about to go through next.

Now You know, in. In any profession, you have to have some sort of confidence about yourself. But they you know there's a thin line. People like to people like to Maybe misplaced confidence is arrogance.

So you Talk to us a little bit. you know, for people who might lack that confidence in self. You know, what it in your eyes is the difference between somebody who just believes in themselves and somebody who's, you know. An arrogant, you know, so-and-so. Maybe he was faking a funk a little bit.

Yeah, yeah. What's the difference in your eyes? I think I could certainly blur the lines of that. I could, I could come across as just that thing, you know. I I just think that I worked really, really hard at writing.

That was my thing. That was my forte in this business. That's what I was able to do. And I would say I had to write millions of words, man, millions to find that five-letter word that would change my life forever, recalling somebody soft.

So it just didn't happen overnight for me, but it. it actually did. The first time I was ever in the ring was because John Cena was at the day that I debuted in NXT. And I went to college at the same school John Cena did, chasing him, chasing my dream. I just thought if I went to Springfield College, where the WWE champion played football and I play football there, that I will get into the WWE.

So I went to Springfield. I met John Cena there as a freshman. He came to speak to the football team. I asked him, how do I get in the WWE? He said, go to college, get your degree, have Coach DeLong reach out to me when it's over.

And luckily, I got to the WWE without him. And when I sold, Him in the hallway in NXT. He was there to keep the house for the dark segment. And I just said to him, Hey, man, take me home tonight. And he looked at me like, what?

And I was like, that's the song we played at Springfield College whenever we won a football game. Did they play it when you went there? And he looked at me like, yeah, yeah, they did play it. And then he kind of walked off, and he watched me debut. Apparently, he stood up backstage and repeated me: Bada boom, realest guy in the room.

So he pulled me aside, and I quote: He said, I've been watching this show for three hours, and nothing's caught my attention until you came through the curtain. Would you like to come out to the ring and cut a promo with me in the dark segment? Wow. And at that moment, I said to him, that guy over there is my tag team partner, but he wasn't. Big Cass just became my tag tee partner because I told John Cena he was.

I didn't know at the time I was green. I didn't understand, you know, I was just gonna get heat for doing something like that. But I just, man, God came over me and I just trusted my intuition. And next thing you know, I'm out there with big cast. Damian Sandow is the intellectual savior of the masses.

So that fed me the line: you know, this guy's seven feet tall, and you can't teach that. And if you're so smart, how many dimples are there on a golf ball? Oh, you don't know? There's 168 dimples on a golf ball. You know how many there are on my hind end?

Zero. You want to know why? Because I'm hard body. You know what you are? S-A-W-F-T soft.

Soft. Repeated soft.

Next thing you know, we're at the next TV taping. We're not booked. Me and Cass haven't had a match yet. And Ryback is out in the ring, and the people are going, Suff, Suof, Suff. They come and tap us on the shoulder and go, get your gear on and get out there now.

So now we're out there for our second dark segment in consecutive tapings, and we don't have any material ready.

So I just told Big Cass, just, hey, ladies, you got a real cheap date in the ring right now. If you like meatheads, all you got to do is take them to the local Golden Corral. Feed me more. Hey, big cast, what are we gonna have, right? Big Cas just rattles everything off on the menu, and I just say, How are you doing?

in between it. He's like, you know. Chocolate fondue, how you doing? Different strawberries. How you doing?

And I just, how are you doing? In between everything he said, next thing you know, we got soft. And how you doing over in front of an NXT crowd that would change our lives because of the same people coming there every week. And then they make us stars to you, the viewer on TV.

So when we show up NXT for the first time in the UK, they know our catchphrases by heart. We're going out there and we're just blown away by the fact that they know who we are in Europe. Mean casso, what the. Like, it was just crazy, crazy, crazy time to be us. And hey, man, I made my mistakes.

Don't ever, ever get it twisted like I was some, you know, some saint over there, bro. I was Ric Flair in my best days. I was. Absolutely bending my elbow at the bar. with the best of them, trying to keep up with the big guys.

And man, I just, you know, I fell flat on my face too many times, bro. You can't, uh, you can't live that lifestyle and expect it if you're burning the candle at both ends to not eventually fizzle out.

So, you know, there were lessons learned in this life. And, you know, more notably, my tag tee partner who struggled with addiction, who is an advocate for it these days and shows the world when he's on, you know, AEW, Big Bill, that, you know. You can go through something, and I've seen the biggest men literally get taken out by substances and. I knew then and there that you know what What he did. Coming back, I had to remind him when he came back on TV.

It was he had no microphone. He wasn't advertised and he got beat up and lost. And to me, that debut at AEW was so much bigger and better than the debut we made together in the WWE. Because if you knew what he went through to get back on TV, I had to remind him, bro, do you remember how... How big of a deal it was when we got on TV.

Mm-hmm. It was all we ever wanted to do in our lives. And you. Just came back to life. You die.

You just. This guy had a seizure. He was sitting in a hospital. He tried to cold turkey alcohol, and he just can't do that. And He was able to be, you know, a real.

a real driving force in my life as far as like Don't give up. You know, this thing that you love, pro wrestling, it's not owned by one man. It's not owned by any corporation. And God had a plan for the pendulum to swing the other way. I just felt like it needed time.

I needed to grow. I needed to go through some things and I needed to see it from a different lens. And, like I was talking about being in the desert, for me, that was the Indies. I was able to meet people, see talent. humble myself.

You know, I've wrestled in front of 15 people. I've wrestled in front of, you know, 1500 people on the indies and I gave it the same amount of energy. And you need to be able to do that, especially if you want to get back, you know, to the top. And if there's no room for me at the top, and that would be the WWE, well, damn, I'm going to make my own room, bro. I'm the realest guy in the room.

So that's what happened. Fourth row, you know, there was an AEW. I didn't get invited, bro. TNA wasn't, you know, something that I was. Eagerly looking at and saying, Oh, that's where I belong either.

So, you know, I had to see the landscape and go, bro, this is still missing something. And I got with Smoke Dizzer, I got with Westside Gun. I saw their vision, they saw mine. Um And it afforded me the opportunity to make applicable the things I learned at what I consider to be the Harvard of. pro wrestling and that's the performance.

I learned from the best coaches in the world. I learned from the best mouthpieces in the world. And I learned from Dusty Rhodes. And you can't teach that because he's dead. And, you know, I learned from.

Triple H at a time where He made believers out of people because when he came to NXT and he was like, oh, we're going to take this show on the road. We were in Florida Championship Wrestling doing weekly TV on like Tuesdays. in front of 50 people. You know, and as a talent, you're looking at him like, Yeah, dude, like, what? You know, and next thing you know, you're at the Barclays Center and you're in the O2 arena in London, and this thing is taking off.

And to his credit, You know, I don't He believed in me. Right. If he didn't, he wouldn't put a microphone in my hand every single night.

So I owe him a big thank you for that. But I also felt like You know, people ask me all the time, bro, when are you going back to the WWE? I mean, it's the most common question I get everywhere I go. And to be honest with you, I've never called them. I've reached out via text message.

I've gotten responses, which is cool. but I've never actually picked up the phone. um and they never called me that's for damn sure So Um I don't answer that question with a, it's definitely going to happen or it's definitely not going to happen. I just don't know if it will ever happen. And I have to look at it and say, You know, why wouldn't it happen?

Well shit. For one. People are scared shitless of me. Mm. I'm the fing best in the world.

By false. By far. Like, second place couldn't see my ass with a pair of binoculars. Humble telescope, dude. I mean, I'm a star.

And you knew it the first time you saw me. And that's confidence. And I bring that same confidence because I don't have a nervous bone in my body. I said it to Shane McMahon the day I debuted. Shane pulled me aside.

He said, Hey, man, you're nervous. And I said to Shane McMahon, the night I was going to debut, before I went out there, I said, Brother, I don't have a nervous bone in my body. I'm going to grab that microphone, turn it into the brass ring, and start beating everybody over the head with it around here. Hmm. Then he grabbed that mic.

Before you go through the curtain and actually do what you were saying, you know, that was a different, a different Eric. That was a different Enzo, and that was not who I am today. you know uh you got to grow in this business um You know, I gotta, I don't put on a suit and tie, I still wear my Jordan swag, but you know, when um I'm there at fourth rope, I'm there for the other town. Anybody's got a question? Anybody wants to know?

I've seen everything but the wind at this point from the WWE showing me the world to the indies showing me bingo halls and armories where guys can't remember a spot. And you got to know who you're in the ring with and realize you once were in the ring with the best in the world.

So Now You've got to know. That's not this. And indies have been a learning experience that was invaluable for me, that all of my peers got.

So they got to do that before they got to WWE. And I was spoiled. I was a spoiled brett. I used to tell people, oh, you worked for New Japan, TNA. I don't even know what the fuck that is.

Since day one, and that's the only place I'm ever going to wrestle. Welcome to the show, buddy. You know, saying that to a Fergal Devitt walking through the door or a Kevin Owens, you know? Saying it With sincerity, but also. with the knowledge and the rationale that I don't know.

a lot and I need to learn and I'm and I can learn a lot. From Finn Balor. I could learn a lot from Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn and riding in the car with El Generico and hearing Neville's reasoning for why he did this or that.

So I got an education in this business driving in cars with Wyndham and with guys that you can never. They're not even here anymore. My education Can't even be replicated, and timing is everything in life. I had the benefit of good timing, I've been a blessing, blessed man with timing, timing being my debut. Uh, Hunter and the people in the brass holding me and big cast back, at least we thought at the time, but the you know.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder, and people wanting to eagerly see us on Raw and them holding us back. The moment where we debuted on the night after Raw, we could have debuted in Mississippi on a random Raw, and you would have never heard everybody say our shit with us when we came out.

So Timing is everything. Timing is key for you there. Man, being in FCW for a year before it became NXT, before they built a performance center, I was there building every single ring in NXT. And I had to set up the ring and learn how to set up the ring. And God bless my homie, who's dead too, got shot in the stomach.

I've been in Warsaw just a few months back. I lost one of my best friends in this business, and I would have never met him if it wasn't for WWE. I got introduced to people, places, and things that I would have never seen.

So I am grateful for my time there. And I'm at such a place of peace right now that I'm not bitter about any of it. But, you know, I also am all-knowing in the fact that you got to, it takes two to tango in this business.

So you can't work with anybody if they don't want to work with you. Mm. And that's a shame because things that have happened to me in my career, even since I left WWE, you know, people have cut their nose to spite their face in this industry on my behalf. I once showed up to Survivor Series and bought a ticket. But it was all for the greater good.

In an angle that had me jumping over a guardrail at Madison Square Garden with Big Cass the first time we were seen together outside of WWE. And I couldn't manufacture that, I had to make it real.

So the only way to do that. was To tell the producers of Ring of Honor at the time, Joey Mercury, that we can't shoot this. We have to make it seem like it was what I did at Survivor Series. They didn't put it on camera and I trended number one in the world because everyone's phones caught it. And that's 20,000 people in an arena that are all posting or talking about it.

Not to mention the people at home watching the show going, wait, what just happened at the show?

So you had to be able to replicate that, and then it took. real violence. Brock Lesnar. And Randy Orton at SummerSlam blurring the lines of what's real and what's fake. Can I interrupt you real quick and talk to you about that?

I heard a story years ago when you were working with Brock in that Rumble. You kind of told him what you wanted to do. And can you just share that story here with us? Bro, I will say this, bro. Paul Heyman would see me in a hallway, and whenever he saw me, he'd pop.

And for shooting, you go, aha. Broom. Don't say that. You're gonna give me like heat, you know what I mean? And to be honest with you, I'm a Christian.

So, Seth Rollins, you can miss me with that Monday Night Messiah bullshit. My Lord and Savior is Jesus Christ, and the only God I know. I'm monolithic, He's above me.

So, I'm no God. I'm just incredibly gifted at writing and memorizing. And I might got a touch of the tism, but it ain't an epitism. Basically Oh, we're talking about entrant number like 20, and I know this could probably only go one of two ways, right? Brock Lesnar is coming out before me, and Goldberg is coming out after me.

So, yeah, we're at number like 20 something, and I haven't seen or talked to Brock yet.

So, I can talk about it now when I look back. I've been doing Sober October, guys. It's been a hell of a month for me. I plan on toasting with some of the boys after we do Fourth Rope Show at Six Flags Great Adventure on Thursday, the 30th, but I'll get through the Royal Rumble story. I knock on the door.

It's Brock Lesnar's locker room. He's there with a trainer named Larry and just Paul Heyman. And I bust through the door. I was probably high, but I just was like, Hey, you know, I knew, first of all, I know it's going to be a night off. I don't have to go out there and hit on and put on a main event.

I mean, in the Rumble, you know. Hang around, sell around the ring. And I knew Goldberg was coming in after me. I knew it wasn't gonna be a long spot.

So My mic work was done for the night, and I was chilling. And I knocked on the door, and I said, Hey, man.

So I was thinking I'll come in a ring, I'll jump on the apron, I'll get in a ring, I'll hit my shit, and I'll fire up and I'll just run at you full speed. And whatever happens, happens. And Brock looked at me like No. Ha ha! And you just put his hand out.

So I shook his hand and I walked out of there. And I didn't know when I ran at him if I was going to get murdered. Or if it was going to be Suplex City. But I think he liked it. And I think he spared me because I had the boss go say hello to him.

Paul Heyman liked me.

So. At the time, I didn't feel like I was infringing. I mean, I am up after you in the Rumble. We have business to do.

So at some point, hopefully, we talk to each other. I said, I'll run at you full speed and whatever happens, happens.

So I ran at him full speed. He took my f ⁇ ing head off with a close. And then he just threw me out of the ring and spared me in the suplex city.

So they don't like me for it, man. I can't say because I'm not him. The Lord knows I avoided conversations because I did not want him to dislike me. I see that. And you talked about all the people you got to learn from, right?

And that is an education that you just can't buy.

So now you get to pay it forward almost to the people that you're working with. You know, when people have you on cards, you elevate the card. And that's what you're going to be doing on the 30th at Six Flags at Great Adventure. Gangrel, dog. Gangrel.

Legendary Gangrel from the brute. When his music hits, dude, it's fire.

So, oh, trainer of Nikki Blackheart. Trainer of Nikki Blackheart, one of our star. She's a star, right? She's a star waiting to happen. Steal her from us.

Yeah, I mean. Time, dog, because we got some stars at fourth rope and we're making stars. Tell us about some of them, man. Let's introduce people. We got a guy making a debut who's seven feet tall.

We got another guy called um. Black leather, I believe, or or leather. Man, giant leather. Giant giant leather. He's Deion Dawkins' brother, the left tackle for the Buffalo Bills.

Okay. And this guy can move, and he's cool as shit. And I can't wait to see what we do with him. We've got Some fourth rope strongholds and Cha Cha Charlie, Joe Alonzo, and Mo Jabari, who are guys I believe in. And let me tell you a story about Mo Jabari, okay?

Now, that is the protege and the stepson, almost for lack of a better word, of Bret Hart. Oh. Yeah, he's a trainer at the dungeon. And uh TJ Wilson actually helped him because he saw him in the building that he grew up in with a single mother. TJ grew up the same way, and this kid loved wrestling.

And he walked up to TJ and he knew who he was.

So he introduced him to Brett. And Mo's been, you know, in that circle with all the Hart brothers and everything ever since. And I had the honor and the privilege of wrestling in front of Bret Hart at the dungeon. Dungeon Rustling, Stampede. Stu Calgary's famous place.

And I grew up loving Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels, the feud they had. And that was my error, right?

So I went up to Bret Hart before the match and I said, hey, brother, you mind if I call this match completely in the ring? Mm. Wow. And he was like, no, you can't do that because he wanted to protect Mo. And he's like, he comes from a different mindset, right?

Brett grew up in the day where you had to protect your comeback. You had to make sure you got your shit in. You had to make sure you got your moves in. And you weren't about to let Ric Flair go out there and just say, no, I'm calling. It's like, no, I'm the champ now.

I'm calling it to you. And I got to make, you know what I'm saying? Yeah. I was kind of blown away by the fact Brett was like, no, you can't call it in the ring. I was like, wait, what?

Like, I thought you did that. And I've come to find out over the years: like, there's a lot of guys who knew what they were doing when they got in the ring, and there were very few that went out there and just called it.

Well The most nerve-wracking situation you can get into in NXT is when your job was on the line and they randomly blow the whistle and tell all the talent to circle the ring. And then they just randomly call in the ring two people. And then they got to work on the fly. And some of those guys get called up on raw the next day.

Some of those guys get fired the next day. And it was nerve-wracking. And there was a time where. Scott Dawson from FTR, one of the best workers out there, Dax Harwood, saved my job and his job at the same damn time. He was a vet.

I was greener than goose shit. And we were both on the edge of getting fired. And they called us both in the ring, and Scott locked up with me and he said, Shut the f up and just listen. I went, all right, no problem, I'll do that.

So I just listened to Scott. And I was, I'm telling you, I've only been wrestling for like three weeks. All I know is like a vertical suplex in an international spot. I knew because I watched wrestling my whole life and I loved it that selling is where the money's at. I think we out.

Is what Shaw Michaels made a living doing.

So I just sold around the ring, and we went back and forth at things. But that match, we both ended up bleeding in the face and they had to call it.

So there was no finish. In front of all the boys.

Now, all the boys were on the edge of their seat, so intrigued by what just happened. I owed Dax Harwood because he was the first one to save my job the first time. That time.

So, what I did when I got on the indies was I realized that, man, people don't know how to work on the fly.

So, I would ask every single promoter to put me in the ring with green kids. I don't want to work a veteran, I don't want to work somebody who's been doing this. Like, Shane Douglas has seen everything but the wind. What does it benefit him getting in the ring with me? You know?

You can help elevate the younger people coming up who. I strictly work with green guys. And I And I got them shit in their pants right up until the curtain every single time we work. Because all I do is show them how to take my finishing move. And then I go out there and I call all the shit on the fly.

I work on the fly, completely on the fly. And that's why I'm the flyweight champ. And now it makes sense. Does it make sense?

Now, you grew up going to this six flags, right? I grew up going to Six Flags in New Jersey. This is kind of a bucket list, kind of like a. Like, I can't even believe it's happening. You know, I'm going to be wrestling in the Batman action arena where they've gone to see it as a kid.

And we're putting on one hell of a show, man. We really are. We have some incredible new talent. Like you had mentioned, Nikki Blackheart, Tiara James, Littlefoot, Maura. She's in TNA.

You've seen her in WWE and NXT. We got all those girls on the card. We got this new kid. I think she's the shit. I watched her wrestle and I actually reached out to her.

Her name is Zamaya. She looks like Bol Nicata.

So um I'm a big fan of hers.

So I'm excited to see her and have her on our show with Rio, our women's champions. She's from the UK, and we spare no expense when it comes to travel and getting these people over here. We put the title for the females on a girl who's over in the UK defending it on the Indies, which is super cool. The Hardy Boys, they ain't cheap either. And they got our Nitals.

Azilla's the man right now. And the main event is the way these shows operate is: I'm the flyweight champ, and I open off our shows because I trust myself to go out and do that. I can hit my time. And if I ask you to go 10 minutes after me, And I just went 10. Like, how are you going to look at me when you go 12?

and be like oh well you know like I can hit my time. And so I expect the next wrestler to hit his time or her time. And more importantly, you know, I opened WWE shows around the world for many years. And it's a very important spot. And you need to set the tone and hype the crowd.

And I don't know anybody in the world who can open a show better than me. I don't think people understand that, too. They sometimes think going on first is a bad thing. No, you're setting the tone, like you said. And that's the job of the flyweight champion at fourth rope right now.

I open the show, Zilla Fatu, main event, closes it out.

Somewhere in the midst, you get the Hardys tag team champs. You'll get the women in the main, semi-main spot. And I'll tell you what, these chicks tore it up on Westside Gun Day. And I believe that's going to drop this Thursday.

So keep your eyes peeled for Westside Gun Day. That was in Buffalo. He has a mayoral holiday. He does a lot for the community, giving out backpacks and school supplies. It's cool that he does that, man.

I'm proud of him, and I'm proud of the fact that he stuck to his guns. And did this thing the right way. And we're not just jumping overboard. We have a catalog and we're slowly building it, and we're not. you know We're not cannibalizing ourselves and putting out three shows at a time and four shows and all this stuff.

Making sure it's quality. We're keeping the stuff trendy and we're keeping it underground. It's really just a great time. For me in this business, I never thought that I'd be a producer of a show. And now you look at it, and it's like you got Kenny Omega and the Young Bucks over at AEW, and I hate that shit.

So have a look. Have fun with WCW, bro. I'll wait for you guys to do something with Big Bill, who's seven feet tall and should be beating the shit out of all of you. But that's neither here nor there. You know, TNA.

It was a product that's been around for a long time, and you know, I think they're hitting their stride right now.

So, absolutely. Cool to see that. Happening, but we are fourth row, we are affiliated with uh Anthem and TNA. Um, and we're lucky to have some of those guys, man. And you know, Mike Santan has got a hell of a story, he'll be wrestling on the show at Six Flags Great Adventure, new world champion, yeah, defending the TNA title on our show.

We've got MVP, our GM, he's from AEW. This is the forbidden door, and you can only do that if you're westside gun because you've supported all of these businesses so many years purchasing front row tickets, you see him everywhere. See him at all the shows. He loves this, man. He really loves the business and he gets the business.

So when he books a card, it's on me to. To make sense of it or to put it in a timely fashion where it becomes a two-hour show. I work with Smoke Dizza on that. And we're, as we say, Vince was at the pool with Pat Patterson and Gerald Briscoe or Jim Cornette. We've got a pool, and there's only three people at it right now.

And then Kaz. You know, who's our announcer, who was a writer in WWE, has that experience, and also has a podcast with Carmelo Anthony, works in Madison Square Garden with the New York Knicks. Oh, Kazim, yes. Kazim has a ball. Yeah, Kazoom's a good dude.

So, Kazeem sits at the table with us, and we come up with this show and we map it out. And we last time at West Side Gunde, everybody hit their times. It was a three-hour show. This aims to be a two-hour show so that people can get out and ride rides and go hit the theme park and all that stuff. But, you know, I'm going to bring up what you had mentioned too.

You know, it takes two to tango, and you can only work with people if they want to work with you, you know, and elevating talent is what you had mentioned. And I enjoy doing it with all of the green guys that I work with on the independent scene and then helping with producing and lending a hand there. A lot of these guys, you can just say, Hey, you got 10 minutes, go out there and kill it. And they'll do it, you know, like Agino, Medina, Mike Santana, going out there. They don't need somebody to oversee what they do.

They're great at it, and I trust them, you know?

So. A lot of this, you know, fourth rote lends the credibility to the artist.

So that's what's dope. When I see the WWE And I look at it from an outsider's perspective. There is no one. that I couldn't work with and elevate on that show. Mm-hmm.

There's not a single guy. Uh you know my story. Uh, you know, I'm Dusty Rhodes' number one student. He believed in me more than anybody, and on the 25th anniversary of Monday Night Raw, the night I was set to be. wrestling gold dust my mentor's son I got fired.

Mm. But if you know, I had a title and I was set to be in a three-hour thread of the show and wrestling my mentor's son. You've seen Seth wrestle everybody. You've seen Gunther wrestle everybody. You've seen Roman wrestle everybody.

I'm telling you right now, you put me on that microphone and you send me out there with Paul Heyman and Roman Reigns, you're going to see a rating pop that you haven't seen in a decade. I believe that you put me out there to go tell my story about how Dusty Rhodes would look at me after I cut a promo and say, Entheo. That was some John Wayne shit. There were three bad men: Dusty Rhodes, John Wayne, and they're both dead. The other one's sitting right here.

What you end up with our favorite question. Yeah, man. We got to hit you. Everybody who's a first-timer on the No Contest Wrestling Podcast, they got to answer this question.

So we're going to present it to you here. You are in a bar. You're in a bar, and there's 50 dudes in that bar, and they do not want you in that bar.

So we're talking about WWE? Talking about in general, man, out in the general pop.

So I need you to pick a team of you. There's four other wrestlers. You've been around the world in III. You've seen a lot of them. From any era, either.

Any era, either. Also, rather. you and four other wrestlers to make sure the real one is getting to his car. Brock Lesnar, Brock Lesnar, Brock Lesnar in a whole... Oh, Brock loves it.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. Right. Do you need anybody else? We got the Brock pick. Just to have fun while we're fighting.

I got Brock there. I got to get stone cold in there. We got to hear some glass shatter, some gl yeah some bottles get broken overheads, brother. Um And then I'll go with two of my very good friends in this business that literally had my back. And I mean, To a point where I got into a fist fight in the WWE, and the guy who pulled me off the bus and probably saved me from having to fight everyone was Wyndham.

My best prep. Yeah. Oh, uh, And then my other brother. Braun Strowman. Oh, yeah.

That makes sense. You've got me, Wyndham, Braun Strowman, Brock. You know, Stone Cold. Stone Cold. Angel of Wyndham and Stone Cold, right?

So I think Wyndham would have make sure that I don't get killed in that fight. I got a little angel that rests on my shoulder sometimes. That's a solid squad. That's a solid squad. And as far as a Mount Rushmore of guys on the microphone, I would have to say Enzo, Enzo, Enzo, Enzo.

Dude, this has been a very fun conversation, you know, just to be able to. get into your mind a little bit, you know, speaks to The man behind the microphone. I feel like everybody who sees this is going to have, you know, whatever their idea of you is, is going to have a new. coat of pain over it. I loved your words.

I want to leave you with some that I use in my own life just because, you know, just hearing you talk and the passion that you have for it, I want to leave you with this. My favorite quote of all time. is uh by Henry David Thoreau and it is Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. and live the life that you've imagined. And I've had that quote since I was 17 years old, and I have it written on my wall, and I keep that going.

going for me and another one that I feel like fits you as well. Yeah. though I cannot control the direction of the wind. I can always adjust my sails to reach my destination. and one does not sail the seas.

simply by staring at the water. Much love to you, bro. Hey, thank you guys so much. And hey, when this episode drops, if it's 10:29, that's going to be 40 years to the day that Dusty Rhodes dropped hard times. One of the most iconic promos.

My favorite promo ever. And I am going to drop a promo on my IG. That is real ones hard times. Looking forward to it. Hey, tell us where to find you.

And it is going to be Very, very Paralleling what he said in that promo. I mean, I took his hard times promo and I made it my own. And I really hope that your viewers go out there, seek it, search it on IG, because I'm just one man with one platform. And if it was ever taken away from me, there would be nowhere to find me.

So, anybody who follows me, I appreciate you more than you'll ever know. I take the time to meet those people at Meet and Greets, thank them. And I'm just so grateful for the fans that I have out there and for the opportunities I've been given in this business. And for anybody who goes out there and seeks Forth Rope, I appreciate you. You know, and I think that's what fans of this show know we're all about.

Of course, we cover the big boys, but we also, you know, we go to MLW quite a bit. You know, we're always looking for, you know, the independent show.

So everyone helped with Nikki Blackheart. Yeah. So, yeah, exactly. Coastal Championship. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

CCW.

So, yeah, man, everyone watching us, you know, we know that the people watch us love wrestling and they can't get enough.

So if you haven't been familiar with Forth Rope, check it out. And oh, by the way, tell everybody where they can see. This show on the 30th.

So the show that's happening on the 30th will not be aired live as we always do. Yeah. High-level production, high-level production, and we have vignettes that go in and out that you know you just can't show to a live audience on an LED screen. you know per se.

So the fourth rope show is fourth rope wrestling. Type it in on YouTube, you'll find us. We have eight episodes out. We're coming out with our ninth. And we've got guys that you've never heard of, but you know how I found them?

because I had to go to the desert. And I know what I'm doing. I don't care what anybody says. I'm out here.

So I know when I see a star, and Nikki Blackheart is a star, right? Yeah. And I saw her at CCW, just like you said. And I showed her to Westside Gun and smoked this in. West Side Gun said, oh, I already know who she is.

You're right. West Ignati's such a huge fan of Russell. Got to get him on there. He's somebody we'd love to have on. Out there, bro.

They find him, too, just like, you know. we are developing some guys i would take i i would i would say hey keep your eyes out for body bag benny I mean, that's going to be a wild one. Keep your eyes out for giant leather. You know, and then Josh Bishop and Zilla Fatu, who I showed up to slam aversary with, they're coming. That's what we love as wrestling fans.

We like to know who's next and who's on the come up. And a show like Forth Rope will definitely introduce us to some of those people. And so you're a real one, man. Got it. I know I don't own the name, but I guess I'm always going to be Enzo, right?

You know, it is what it is. I guess they ought to call my daddy Craig. And I'll share a story. You know, I met Enzo after an episode of Monday Night Raw back in 2016. Uh backstage In the parking structure under Staples, waiting on our cars, where he and I met.

It's the day that I told you the story about me talking to Bailey for the first time, who was just standing in the corner by herself. She had yet to debut. And he and I, you know, we kept up a friendship over the years, you know, texting each other. And I saw him at a fan fest in WrestleMania in Philadelphia. Remember, we ran into each other and I spoke to him about this pod.

And I let him know what I was hoping to do with you. I'm like, he hasn't officially said he's going to do it yet, but I'm like, that's who I'm hoping to get. And he was like, yeah, let me know if I can ever help. You know, let me know if I can be on. And here we are.

And then I think it was like May of last year. I'm sitting in the crib, right, bored. And I'm like, I'm going to go take a drive. Drove through Santa Monica. I'm like, oh, Gold's Gym's up the street.

Let me just drive by. Cause sometimes, you know, you might see somebody come out of Gold's Gym. And who's standing outside of Gold's Gym was my man, real one here. And I pulled up next to him and we chopped it up. Do you remember this?

And then you and I went, and bro, we hit Venice Beach, and he and I just parked the car. We walked. We walked, and I, it's one of those times where I wish we could have had a video camera because. The conversation we had about wrestling and life and everything, we must have walked for almost an hour and a half, two hours, Santa Monica, back down to Venice. We had lunch.

It was just, it was really dope. And we just, and you know, just seeing the people on the pier. Like Fanboy out over him, man. It was just, it was a, it was a fun afternoon, random that you and I had just. Just because I happened to drive by Gold's gym in the next four hours, you and I were just chopping it up, man.

So that was it. That was a great day. And you know what? That was a time for. For me, that was very significant in my life too.

I moved to California. I was getting clean and sober, you know, stopped drinking and, you know, was Cali sober at the time, you know? You know, that was much. Watching Big Cass go through what he went through with addiction, I had to nip some things in the butt and make sure that I wasn't next.

So I went to California, and that Gold's Gym man is such a special place for so many athletes, for so many. Famous celebrities, and it breathes some life into you and motivates you. And I can't even tell you how many countless minutes and hours I've spent on a treadmill manifesting my reality to a point where we're here now. And uh You know, I watched every single Royal Rumble last year leading up into the Rumble. And I'll be honest with you, it was a case of, hey, maybe my phone rings.

And if they ask me to be in the Royal Rumble, I wanted to know that I'd be ready.

Well Transition, I'm in a Royal Rumble. I write the script. I enter number one. I go over and I become the flyweight champion of the world.

So there you go. Look at that belt. That belt is money. Let them discount you, bro. All you people, grown-ass men that think that it's over.

You have no idea what God has in store for you. You can't write this script, man. I'm leading the way in something that I believe is very special and groundbreaking. And we're transcending pop culture, and we're fourth rope, and I'm proud to be a part of it. We love it.

We're wrestling fans here first and foremost.

So, yeah, brother. Thank you, man. Enjoy the rest of your day, bro. And good luck Thursday. Good luck Thursday, yeah.

I don't need luck. I got God on my side there. There you go. That's right. There you have it.

A little special little Wednesday gift for you. A little Wednesday gift for your friends at no contest. I kind of. I kind of miss Wednesday. Yeah, we might have to get back to him.

But you know, the thing with him is, you know, he. As talented on the mic as anyone we've ever seen in the sport of wrestling. You know, he had his ups and downs. I'd love to hear, I love hearing the stories about him and Kaz who fought addiction and overcame it. A lot of people need to hear stuff like that.

A lot of people need to hear, and I truly believe that. There's going to be one person who watches this. Who's struggling, and that's going to help get them through it. And if that's the case, then that was this interview alone was worth it to save that one person. But it's great to see, you know, he had some things happen to him that unfortunately some accusations untrue.

You know, he had to move on, but he's recovered, he's rebounded, he's still working in the business, and he's still hyping up and teaching those, you know, with less experience than him. That's a pretty dope story. And, you know, like I said, that guy that you saw here. He's he put on the character, but the day he and I, the time I met him, the time we're hanging out, that was Eric. That was Eric.

And that's who I was chilling with. And I'm telling you, like, he's a great character. He truly is. And we wish him the best. And, you know, I'm sure there is going to come a day.

Where they're gonna, that phone's gonna ring, and he will be back in the Royal Rumble. They say you can always come home. We've seen it. Look, I mean, we never. We never thought CM Punk would be back in WWE.

Hell no. And now, look at him about to go for the championship again on Saturday night's main event. This is Saturday on Peacock. But yeah, definitely check out Fourth Rope. Check out all independent wrestling, man.

Because, yeah, we got the big dogs, we got the WWE's, AEWs, the TNAs, ROHs, but there's so much talent out there and they're young. And it's like a band. You always want to be the person to say, I knew the band before they blew up.

Well, you go to these independent shows, man, and that's what you're going to be able to do. You're going to be able to find a wrestler who you like before they go to the big shows and truly blow up, man.

So yeah, thanks to Real One for joining us. Remember, you can catch us. On Twitter, X at There's No Contest on Instagram, No Contest Wrestling Podcast on Twitter. TikTok, No Contest Wrestling pod, and you can watch this video and all of our videos on the Rich Eisen Show YouTube page that has over 1 million subscribers, or just type in No Contest Wrestling and you'll see everything we have to offer, man. Special Wednesday drop.

I hope you guys enjoyed it. And if you get a chance, like I said, check out Fourth Rope and All independent shows. That's right. And make sure you guys have a good day, but not too good. Who the hell do you think you are?

Bye, Mrs. Parker.