Exclusive interview with WWE Superstar Ethan Page

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another Wednesday episode of the No Contest Wrestling Podcast. I am the heel that you love to hate O Shea Jacks Jr. Penny Guerrero. Hey, yo, it's me. It's me.

It's the T-double-O, that J-I-G-G to J good, T-J Jefferson. What up, dope? What's up, man? You were busy. Last episode I was man had to had to shoot, you know, for the Rich Eisen show every year.

We go to the Super Bowl, you know, we do our show from whatever city the Super Bowl's in. You know, the lead up to all the pomp and circumstance. We don't get to stay, they kick us out. But so every year we do a special open for the week.

So last week, you know, unfortunately, we had an interview, but it was also the day, the only day we could get the crew.

So I had to dip. And yeah, but I saw what you said. Yeah. Yeah, I saw it. We had a good time.

But you did say TJ two jobs, so you know, let the people know I'm out here grinding. Yeah, man, he's out here. You see the dress. He's not Jamaican, but he got multiple jobs out here. And we like clutch.

We appreciate you, man. We got a good. Good episode for you today, man. Uh the egotistical one. The egotistical one, Ethan Page will be joining us.

Oh, ego. Very excited to talk to him. Been cool with him for a while on Twitter. We saw him. Uh, when we went to TNA a while back, and uh, dude's a hard worker, man.

Yeah, he's a hard worker, he's worked for Pretty much all the major promotions right now, WWE, W, ROH, TNA. He's been around the world. Aye, aye, aye. Yeah, so we will be talking to Ethan Page, but. There's some other things we got to get to, man.

got to get to. We uh we had a pretty Impactful Saturday night's main event. Let me tell you, brother. Yeah. Go ahead, man.

Let's talk about I mean just quick, you know. The biggest thing for me. For Saturday night's main event, obviously. It's no secret how huge of a Shinsuke and Nakamura fan I am. I wear it on my sleeve.

It's no secret that I love AJ Styles as most people do. And that match, I think, just. stood out On a really good Saturday Night Tamil event, card is probably the best card I feel like they've had in a while when it comes to Saturday night. But, brother, just. I wish I could have watched this match with you.

You were up in Sunday and shout out and congrats on what shitheads? Yeah, yeah. Shitheads, if you censor it. All right, someone else is going to point out. I swear for the second.

Yeah, but it's a film type. Yeah, but um. When AJ and Nakamura met in WrestleMania. I was on Twitter and all I said is or all I kept saying was I just want some producer. To watch their Wrestle Kingdom match, which honestly was one of the best.

Like that, if I can only watch 20 matches for the rest of my life, that would be one of the 20. And I was like, just somebody, producer, watch this and then let them just recreate this match. Fortunately, they didn't. It wasn't the same. It didn't have the same flow.

It ended with that weird, you know, Nakamura became the, you know, the nut splitter. Yeah. And it just, it wasn't, it just wasn't it for me. Was that the official title? Nah, it just popped into my head right now.

The nut splitter? Because he went on a roll of just like kicking him in the ding ding. Kick them in the ding ding. But man, this match that got put together at seemingly the last minute between Shinsuke and AJ. I didn't hear about it until Saturday morning.

I didn't even know it was going to happen.

So I'm very excited. Yeah. This match, bro, did not disappoint. It didn't. It was the closest thing that I've seen to their Wrestle Kingdom 10 match.

There were so many callbacks, so many of the exact same moves.

Some of the sequences were perfectly executed the way they did at that time. And. And it also just made me understand, you know, when we had AJ Styles on this podcast a few weeks ago, he was making it seem, he was kind of downplaying his retirement. Like, I don't think they'll make a big deal. And you and I were confused by this, right?

Because it's like, you're AJ Styles. They're going to, there's going to be pomp and circumstance. And then I think.

Now with the Gunther thing, where his career is up on the line. this weekend at the Royal Rumble. I started to get the idea and understand that AJ's been on a retirement tour for the last few months, and we didn't realize it. Say this. With his match with Cody.

Yeah. You know, The just the love letter, the wrestling with Cena. You know, finally getting a match with punk. On Monday Night Raw, even though it didn't come to a conclusion. All these things have been happening, bro, and it just makes me think this man.

has been on an unannounced retirement tour and we didn't even realize it. And then when this Nakamura match came, what happened? And I'm like, all right, it's been 10 minutes. Probably gonna be, okay. No, it's been like 15 minutes.

Like, yo, this is dang near half an hour they've been going at it. And that kind of just fully. I think unfortunately made me realize that, man, dog, this. He just said goodbye to Shitzuka. This might be it for AJ.

And. Yeah. That is something, a hell of a thing to have on Gunther's resume if you are the one. To retire AJ Styles. I'm kind of hoping we see some swerve coming.

Not that swerve. He ain't coming. But like maybe the Good Brothers come out and they help him. But maybe we draw this thing out for the rest of the year. But I don't know, bro.

I'm kind of thinking this could be it. Yeah, I remember after the. You know, the the next raw after Gunther retired Sina. first person the the person that was waiting by his car was AJ. And I remember thinking like, man, They're already hinting at this.

Don't AJ got a full year before. We should start having them go face to face, but Now it's just, I'm reading the tea leaves. You know, I hope I'm wrong. I hope that's right. The writing is on the wall.

And you know, You know, then you think about Shinsuke's post on his Instagram. Uh well the conversation that he was having with AJ and Yeah, it it does not feel Too good if you're an AJ Styles fan. But There is a small bit of hope. You always have to pay attention to what these superstars say their exact words used because In there, you might find a little. A little slimmer, little sliver of hope.

And you know how I feel about hope? Hope is dangerous. You gotta have faith. Faith is powerful.

So, what faith are you finding? I have faith. That I will get More matches. By AJ Styles after the Royal Rumble. But not with the WWE.

I hope you're right because, you know, we still have that Mike Santana thing that we talked about. AJ said his WWE career. And he goes, if I do it, it's going to open up the floodgate for WWE people to do it. And I don't think they'll let him. But if he doesn't work for WWE, if he's technically.

Not with WWE. Yeah, and he goes home. And he goes home because that would kind of make more sense if you're going to do it to finish it up in a house that you built. I don't know, bro. There's that little bit of hope there, bro.

Because he specifically said his WWE career. And that's what you got to love about. Like we talked about. You got to pay attention. You got to watch.

But also, like, yeah, man, it's just like there's always something because when it seems like the obvious answer is staring you right in front of the face, it's never the obvious answer. No, never.

Something strange. I hope that I'm wrong, and I hope that the writing wasn't on Wall Jeff Hardy's style. Yeah. We do need him back at least to do a little. I know he came out on the first AMC episode.

Yeah. Of T and A. Maybe that was the taste. Or maybe that was the final goodbye. Like, exactly.

You see what I'm saying? You just don't know. Then you start thinking of like everything that Cena did for WWE and his final run. Maybe there's a world where AJ's like. I should be doing that for TNA and their new TV deal.

Let me go home. And but At the same time. I'm going to pay it forward the same way Cena did. And let Gunther take me out. But until uh We're just, it's all speculation right now, but it does not feel good.

Yeah, it doesn't, man. It really does not feel good, man. And because it's weird, because you look at AJ physically, he's more jacked than he's ever been in his life, which doesn't matter. And, but I'm just saying, physically, we don't know how he feels internally, but from the outside, he looked, he had that one thing where he kind of slipped off the top rope for him. Every other, and I hate when fans say you're botched, but every other botch that someone does, people keep bringing up.

Yeah, man. Not one person. It's it was like okay, that was AJ. That like, so we're not talking about someone who's falling off in the ring, you know?

So it's like, why, dog? Bro, why part of tribalism is part of all this nonsense that But I mean, like, why? Like, why would you want to go now? Like, you know, like, uh. It's just, you know, I.

We only see the outside of the car. Yeah. We don't know what's going on with the engine. We don't know what's going on with the transmission. Only he does.

I like that. And so it's. Yeah, we can only be thankful that somebody that important to the business is able to go out the way that he wants to. True that. And that's what we as fans have to be thankful for.

Put a little pin in that because you're talking about fans bringing up botches. There's a guy, I don't know your name, but you're on Twitter, and he brought up when My milk and magnesia. Oh, yeah, Maxine. Maxine. Did her little spin kick on Becky Lynch.

and her foot went over Becky's head and Becky sold it. And they call that a botch. Do you want her to kick her in the head? Is that what you want? Oh, they want Becky Lynch, who famously got her nose shattered in the rain by the punch.

You want her to be kicked in the face for real. Guys, for real. We know who we're watching. And honestly, if you took every wrestling match and slowed it down to 0.2 speed. They're professionals, yo.

Bro. They. I can't stand people. But I will not let y'all give me gray hair. All right, well, that's coming naturally exactly.

But I won't let them give it to me. All right. I have a daughter, she will give me gray hair. All right, I have the Lakers, they will give me gray hair. But not y'all from the IWC, I swear for God, and two white men.

But yeah, so yes, AJ, shout out to AJ. Yeah, shout out to AJ. We will be watching. If it's really the end, man, we appreciate you, brother, for taking the time and doing this. That again, one of our favorite episodes, but I'm hoping it's not.

Some say the writing on the ball. Hey, but if it is, you know, we need. We need that part two episode, bro. You talk to us about how you Kept your secret from us in front of our face. And we can talk a little bit more in video games.

But either way, we will be watching with anticipation. That day, I was at Sundance Film Festival trying to sell my movie Shitheads. Shitheads. But I got two texts. One was from my sister.

Uh I'm sorry, Karima. But one was from my sister that said Of course it was Sammy. That's what I said. And then I got one from you that was like uh you said what are the chances that they let Shinsuke and AJ cook I was like, what the hell is he talking about? you didn't even know they had the yeah i was like what the hell is he talking what do you mean what do you mean Like, we were talking to AJ Styles where he was like, bro, if we asked Shinsuke to do another run, he would just take kill me.

Kill me.

So I was like, what the hell is TJ talking about? And then I looked and I was like, no way. I'm talking to like the Hollywood reporter. Can we hurry this up? Like, bro, you don't understand what I'm missing right now.

Yeah. Have you had a chance to fully watch all of it? At some point, you just got to watch the whole card. It was, like I said, I thought it was great. It was, you know, Rio, EO, Rhea, they defeated the Judgment Day, Roxanne, and Live.

Sammy, of course, won the four-way between Randy, Damien, and Trick. Trick, of course, got that, you know, because I'm listening and I'm hoping. Trick, of course. The fans went nuts. For his activity, you know, Randy's in the back, like bottom, you know, he's cool ass St.

Louis ass Randy Williams. Yeah, and then, but you know, one thing was Jacob and Cody, right? They kick it off. Jacob's like, I was EBT before I was WWE. Eat better today.

Wow. That match didn't even take place because they just start scrapping. They fought for like 20 minutes till Drew came down and just put them both through tables.

So, you know, that's going to set up a triple threat match. That's a nice triple threat. I think it did wonders for Cody a little bit, believe it or not, because put a little edge on him. Yeah, because here's the deal: if people only know this version of Cody Rhodes, and you've never got to see. Like the elite, the hill, the independent.

Cody Rhodes, you are going to be for such a treat because this man is a menace on the microphone. He truly is. And when I don't think this Cody can fully come out yet, because I just don't know if there's a baby face that's ready to take over everything he has to do as that baby, that top guy. But when it does happen, oh, like people keep saying Homelander. Homelander wouldn't even mess with the Cody that I feel is going to be coming when the time comes.

But yeah, just to be able to stand toe to toe with Jacob, who, you know, is a monster and a beast, I think that added a little bit to Cody. Gave him a little bit like. Of, like, toughness, and of course, Jacob, you just look at him like any day, any given second, he's gonna can win any title, he can beat anybody.

So, that was that was amazing, man. Just those cats just brawled through the arena, and it was, it was, it was pretty wild, you know, but. Yeah, but I I just wanted to say, man, I just wanted to thank whoever was in charge of of booking this match and in charge, whatever producer let these two, Shinsuke and AJ, do their thing. And it was. It It's kind of weird.

It was like a little emotional. Yeah. You know, and it's weird. It's kind of weird to say that, but I can say that to you because you get it. Like, I can say it to them because they get it.

You watch something like that. with people that you love. And they're doing this at a high level. And it was just, it was beautiful. It was brilliant.

There were callbacks, like I said. And in the back of your mind, they're like, this could be it. For, I don't know how much longer Shinsuke is going to be around. You know, is he going to get another chance to shine like this?

So it was, man. It was a little like, not that I was crying, but it was like you feel it in your side, man. Bit Yeah. I love this, man. I'd love this.

And so, yeah, so thank you to whoever was in charge, whoever allowed this to happen as a wrestling fan. Thank you, man. Yeah. It's like uh Man, uh Right before Magic retire, you know, throwing Jordan the ball. Let me get one more 101 before I'm out of here.

You know, like, oh, that don't.

Now, if you want me to tear up, don't bring up that all-star game. Bro, cheer up, bro. Was it 92? Kobe. I went to Kobe's last one.

2016 in Toronto, freezing. And uh I remember Drake ruined the picture, but like LeBron guarding Kobe, it just felt like damn like Cobe, especially considering this is what two days after he passed, or was that yes the anniversary? Oh, yeah, bro, the 26th. Yeah, I reposted our thing about Edge coming out at the Rumble that same night because you. You felt so awful all day and you felt like Man, that was.

And then he came out, and it was just like, okay, man, just a little something. You know, we talk about when wrestling broke your heart. That might be one of the. One of the times where wrestling tried to keep you together. Yeah, it kind of healed your art.

Yeah, man. So that might be. That might be another good question. You got to really dig through your mind crate a little bit to think of that when you needed wrestling, man. But let's not labor a guy handling.

Yeah, man. The dude. The dude's got hardware he's carrying. Two bags. Yeah, we got to let him in.

I don't know if y'all are ready, but I know we're ready. Here's Ethan Page. Fans of the show of no contest, we have a guest coming on right now that we both have been very excited to talk to. Been a fan of his for a while now. Even when that time we went to TNA, In my own city of Los Angeles, booed me because I chose this guy to beat Joe Hendry in about.

He's a collector of many things. He's also a collector of hardware. He is the fastest. To win the NXT title after his debut. 40 days.

That's no time. Got there and took over. Got there and took over right now. He is your North American champion. Also has the AAA mixed tag team champion with Chelsea Green.

Yes, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, the egotistical one himself, Ethan Page, welcome to the pod. Yes, sir. Thank you. Hell of an intro.

Thank you, man. I got you. We kind of pride ourselves on his intros, man.

Okay.

Well, you start hot. Let's see how it goes now. It's all Dalmio from here.

So, right.

So, Ethan, man, we like to start off every interview with, you know, a bit of a a humanizing question, you know, let let the people know On this journey that you've been on, you know, collecting the hardware that you have. Take us to the beginning. And when did Ethan Page get bit by the wrestling bug? Oh. Man, so my, I guess, earliest memory of wrestling.

Is seeing King Kong Bundy on television and it absolutely scaring me. I want to assume it was like a Saturday night's main event or some kind of weekend wrestling thing. But yeah, it was a King Kong Bundy wrestling promo on television. That was definitely one of the bugs that caught me. It's like a lasting memory.

And then being there live for... like a house show on televised event in my hometown, Cops Coliseum in Hamilton. Ontario, Canada, and seeing the Undertaker's entrance was like another. When you're a kid, the ambiance, the whole like feeling in the room, the music, tall bear, like the whole thing. I just remember seeing that and then looking at my dad, like, why did you bring me here?

But yeah, it was it was honestly it's the larger than life aspect of Wrestling that really kind of bit me. And then In high school, I was doing. like stage shows or plays or whatever. and also playing football at the same time and martial arts and then When wrestling kind of came back into my life, which was like later, like grade eight, kind of like just after the attitude era. I was like, oh man, I'm doing this backyard wrestling stuff.

But it just seems like stage acting, football, and martial arts all kind of. Put together, I get to be the center of attention. contact to it, martial arts is involved, a lot of body control. I just managed to kind of take to it like water, I guess, after all of my unknown training beforehand.

Now, it it's funny that you say that because it it For a lot of us wrestling like we we get introduced And then there's always this this point that it seems where it kind of Fizzles, it doesn't completely leave you, but then when that second wave hits, you're all the way involved. It just takes over. And so when you started the journey into.

Now you want to do it. Yeah. Do you remember your Welcome to Wrestling moment? You know what? It's so.

I want to go back to what you were saying about where this wave takes over. Yeah. I think that's happened to me like eight times. Like it happened again in WWE just in the past two years. Like, just being to like under the learning tree of guys that have opened my eyes to things that just I was never able to either see or wasn't mature enough to understand or didn't focus on that maybe aspect of the game.

But there's been so many, like, literally eight times, I think, where I'm like, oh, I fall back in love with this, or I find a new way to enjoy wrestling or to perceive wrestling or to deliver wrestling. Yeah. So, yeah, I don't know. I'm on my eighth time falling in love with this thing. But the first one.

Probably just walking out. And performing in front of people. That's the most addictive thing, probably on. Earth? Yeah, yeah.

Attention? Facts. A hundred percent.

Well, my uh, my very first job. Was going on tour with my father and building and taking down stages and The the coolest part is he would bring me and my brother Daryl out We do two songs with him, and you just feel like the man. Yeah. Two songs, bro. I'm looking forward to them two songs.

Sweating out my shirt. I have to talk to you about this. I'm going to take over your show now because I have to talk about it. Absolutely, man. We're talking.

Talk to us. I'm sorry.

So. It's funny, my wife was telling me a story because last night we had our show and my My daughter, she's getting older, so she's allowed to stay up a little later.

So she gets to watch daddy on TV for a couple minutes after eight o'clock on a Tuesday. And apparently Lexis King comes on. Yeah. And he's talking about, you know, his father. My wife's telling my daughter, oh, yeah, his.

His dad used to be a wrestler and you know he passed away. This is a very sad story. And my daughter, her brain just instantly clicked. She said, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Her dad was a wrestler?

Yeah. He's the king? And she goes, yeah. And my daughter goes. Could I be the queen?

I like, I mean, I talked to Hook about this when I used to work with him as well. Another wrestler with a father in the business. I'm always asking, like, Okay, what was it like growing up with someone that had that much attention as a kid? Like, dude, I've met you. You're a cool dude.

So, I'm hoping my daughter ends up okay. I've seen the opposite happen.

So, yeah, I just find it interesting. You're talking about being on stage because I've made YouTube videos with my kid and she still brings up, like, can I do it again? And I'm like, oh no, I don't know if I'm ready to. give someone that much attention.

So yeah, I find it so interesting. Yeah, I mean w when The way that I think My father handled it is while he was in the light. you know, it wasn't like He was able to separate Or and show us that like That's his job. You know, that's his job. You know, we don't get too caught up in all that glitz and glamour.

Like, this is just what I do for work. And when I'm home, this is our thing. Like, this is us right here. And so, like, my dad never did the MTV cribs or like none of that, you know, big and you know. Bragging type showman, you know, just like he never was out there like that.

He always separated it and showed. That he was having the most fun being with us. You know, like that's. That's really The the family unit is what Was the most important thing in the house growing up.

So. As I got older, you know, those things and the blessings that I had. They're there and I appreciate them, but I still have my core values, you know, my things that really mattered. And it's, you know, how you treat people, how you, you know, the respect that you give and the respect that you earn, just those things that. keep you from smelling your own ass too much, you know?

Because it's real easy to just be an ass. As you know, ask the people on Twitter. I can I can do it real quick. But uh yeah, so yeah, as long as you you Do those things, she'll be just fine, man. All right, I'll take your word on it.

Yeah, absolutely. And maybe one day we'll interview a young female wrestler and goes, the day I got bit by the wrestling bug, I saw Lexus King. First of all, I would train her to have a better answer. Second of all, I'm 100% calling every connection I have if any of my kids end up becoming a wrestler. I have had to get my ass kicked by some wrestler's kid too many damn times.

I'm definitely doing the same damn thing. And let me tell you, my kids will be 10 times more talented than y'all's. Absolutely. That's what's happening. Oh my God.

So, you know, we're s you mentioned your dad earlier. You were just talking about your dad. I like to go a little deeper into that too, man. What was life like growing up for young Ethan Page, man? I mean, I can't have any complaints, honestly.

My parents loved me. They supported me. Um And you know, I think it was the biggest thing having immigrant parents coming from former Yugoslavia.

So you got. people coming from Europe to chase a dream in North America, and they chose Canada. and watching them kind of, I guess, grow and. In some facets of their life struggle especially my grandparents so I'm now I think that would make me third generation here.

So to be able to like accomplish this, it all came from like a very Stable, supportive, and good home.

So it was great. Also, my dad liked wrestling, so you could all thank him for Ethan Page. Yeah. Do you remember who some of your dad's favorites were? Yeah, I mean, they all ended up being my favorites too.

Like, he loved the Macho Man. He loved Razor Ramon. I think both of our guiltiest pleasure, which I don't know if I should ever admit this, is Val Venus. There's a big hello, ladies. Yeah, thank you exactly.

So we just replaced the throwing the toothpick with spinning the towel for a little bit. But yeah, so I love that. Absolutely. That was one of those like... characters when I was younger.

Like, I'm like, I know I'm not supposed to be watching this. Yeah, for sure.

So, when you don't want your mom to come in and fuck by your wife, we get in trouble. Like, get this dude off TV. Him, Godfather, when Al Snow had head, right? You everybody want. Oh, I hated when Godfather was on TV because I was of the age.

Well, hate it and love.

Well, I was of the age where I should not have been watching the show.

So. Then you have just what my parents' perception of the show was or whatever people were telling them about wrestling at the time.

So they're like, oh, you cannot watch this. And I'm like defending wrestling, of course. No, it's the best. It's not what you say it is. I turn the TV on and then the hoes are on TV.

Yeah. Yeah, dude. He's so like Like, man, dude, you're killing me here. You know, or Xbox. I remember turning it on at my grandmother's house, and Xbox is just bow, bow.

And I'm like, oh, man. He's saying, what? Yeah. Yeah. You guys see Rey Mysterio doing that on Monday?

Right. He was going hard. Right? Oh, yeah. Ray was like, oh, no.

Like, yo, chill. Yeah, he was definitely enjoying himself. You know, and you said you had to argue. That's one thing, right? No matter.

What wrestlers you like, no matter what wrestling company you like, no matter what type of wrestling you like. One thing every single wrestling fan does have in common is the fact that we've had to have that argument more times than we care to admit. We've had to defend wrestling. Like, I've almost gotten into legitimate fist fights with people because they're talking trash about wrestling.

So that's one thing all wrestling fans can agree, man. We will unite. It's like today, Bill Belichick doesn't get inducted into the Hall of Fame. Everyone today got together and collectively decided we hate those 11 people. Right.

And I hate Bill Belichick.

So that's one thing about wrestling fans. That's one thing. We can't agree on anything, but we will unite on a mug who tries to talk bad about our wrestling. Come on, man. Stop that.

That's true. There are no sides when you're just talking bad about wrestling. There's only one side. Right. Yeah, man.

Pro-wrestling. And I always like to tell people: like, when you have a wrestling talk, right? It's like if someone's a fan of wrestling. You never have to explain why you like wrestling. But if they're not, no explanation you give them is going to be good enough to explain why you like wrestling.

You can point it out: well, you like movies, don't you? You like soap operas. No, they won't care. I look at it like there's certain moments that grab us. That make us like Like that, it's just that moment.

It's almost like when you hear a song, you've probably heard the song a bunch of times, but there's a certain night where that shit resonates. Yeah, and then every time you hear it now, you think about that one night. And it's the same thing with wrestling, which is a. Perfect transition into this one. One of our favorites to ask.

Because wrestling, it's Broadway with violence, the greatest soap opera there ever was. Say it again. Can you remember as a fan? The first time that wrestling broke your heart. Oh man.

Okay.

Yes, but this is an embarrassing story to tell. No such thing. And it's all right, man. And it absolutely has nothing to do with.

Well, it does in a sense, but it doesn't.

So I am like just about the age to become a wrestler. Hold on. Also, I want to touch on the fact you guys were saying, we'll go to this after I'll tell the story, but. You guys said that there's no way to defend wrestling, and I would like to debate that after. I think there's a way to do it that the wrestling people can win the argument every time.

Okay, so let's go, let's go back to the first thing, though. I'm old enough to kind of become a wrestler, but I'm like... Peak wrestling fandom at this point, ordering every TNA pay-per-view. I'm like deep, deep, deep into this Ring of Honor independent events. I'm trading IWA Mid-South burnt DVDs to catch up on my Chuck Taylor matches.

So I'm like.

Well, I think. Yeah, locked in, locked in. I'm in my friend group. And I might get a little trouble for saying this, but I was the only one that liked Randy Orton.

Okay.

Like It's like shoulder report randy that was awesome like all all like From that day, oh, I'm hooked. I'm a fan of this guy, and I'm supporting him no matter what. There was a champion at the time in the company that ends up defending the title against. Randy Orton.

Okay.

At a pay-per-view. And I am telling all my friends. This man is going to become. The world champion, and you're all going to eat my words. Like, I'm like, the only guy, bro, that's backing this guy up.

Only guy. Yeah. All the boys get together for pay-per-views. We order a bunch of pizzas, a bunch of fat-ass teenagers. This is the greatest nights of my adolescence for sure.

Right. I get grounded. I cannot attend. No way. I don't know how many 13, 14-year-olds get grounded, but I'm sure some internet sleuth is going to find out I was probably 17.

But, anyways, so I get grounded. I get grounded and cannot attend. The text messages that I received telling me that Randy Orton. had one The World Heavyweight Championship, and I could not attend, might have been one of the most heartbreaking moments of my time. For sure.

For sure. For sure. And you know, they had the best night ever. Actually, best night ever. Especially when you consider if you were rocking with Randy from the beginning, we're talking like those electric blue biker shorts with the stripes on the side, you know, the white baby face, Randy.

Yeah. You know, like, yeah, so you rent it. And that's a historical night, too. The youngest, like, dude. That hurts.

Yeah, that hurts. That's heartbroken. That's terrible. Absolutely heartbroken. Especially when the guy he won the belt from was someone who you looked at like, there's no way he could ever beat this guy.

No chance. Everyone told me no chance. And I was dying on that hill, and I couldn't even be there to enjoy my life. And the fact that you would have been the only one in the room, like, I told you! Oh, they robbed you.

Yeah. You're a survivor. My parents robbed me. You know what? I take back it.

I did not have a good child very long.

Now that you think about it. Yeah. That's incredible. Super villains, his parents. As a, you know.

I always bring up when Hulk Hogan ran over the rock in the ambulance. I was like, he's dead. You know, this is it. It's over. I hate Hulk Hogan for the rest of my life.

But to go even before then, is uh seventeen. You know, WrestleMania is seventeen.

Okay.

Uh Vince McMahon and Austin team up and crack rock with the chair and like that whole thing. And I just recently went up over to WWE headquarters to do an interview with Stephanie. And They took me to the warehouse. And they showed me the chair. With like Rock's blood still on it.

And I was like, this is trauma. Like, why would you show me this? Like, yeah, dude, I hate that chair.

So you told me this, right? And then I saw the video. That chair is not like in Case and glass, or it's literally leaning against the wall. And it's got a sticky note on it, like Rock vs. Austin X7.

That's wild. It's so crazy. It's like the Dude, it's like the ultimate dad evidence. Yeah, because a crime was committed on that. Yeah, just leave it.

Don't touch it. It's got like a sticky note on it. Tape. Damn. Yeah, bro.

Piece of history that like changed the game. Yeah, I think it's over there. The SmackDown fist just in the back cracked. It's correct. Bring that back.

Yeah, oh yeah? I'm a big fan of the the SmackDown Fist. I'm a big fan of the old sets because you end up getting a play set out of it, and it's very fun. Um, yeah, I mean, the video screens are nice because you could put my face on there very, very bright. I just, I definitely miss the old school stuff, but I'm just like a nostalgia dork.

Like the things you can't see on this camera would embarrass me. There's so many things in this room.

So you're very, I'm very 90s. Type of duh guy, I guess. Oh yeah, we're about to get into that. Yeah, you're a big toy collector, we understand. Yeah.

What started that? New Year, same extra value meals at McDonald's.

So now get two snack wraps, plus fries, and a medium-sized drink for just $8. For limited time only, prices and participation may vary. Prices may be higher in Hawaii, Alaska, and California, and for delivery. Probably just like. Was it an influx of income?

No, definitely not. No. I just have like a very addictive personality.

So like once I lock in on something, I'm just... Unhealthily. Um deep yeah if that makes sense yeah Yeah. Yeah. Oh, and you see some line in the walls, man.

Yeah, yeah. When I like something, I. If I get to the point where I love it, I'm going to start myself out. Which I definitely did, like all the way to never filming another toy video again. That was my bird myself back all the way.

Yeah, yeah, man.

So, yeah, take us through like the collection itself. I know there were some episodes where you were looking for a new holy grail, you know, after you got the utility belt. Batman and and those type things.

So, like what are some uh what are some of your holy grails in there, the untouchable ones in your collection? Yeah, that's the perfect word: the untouchable stuff. Because I mean, collecting, I think, just in itself. Is The drug of the hunt Yes. chasing something I mean life is the same.

The journey is more fun than the achievement.

So the hunt is just the same. It's like hunting these things down is the most fun part. Where am I going to find it? Where can I find it? Can I get a good deal for it?

Can I haggle the guy for it? Can I trade something for it? And then you end up flipping it in five years because you want something else.

So essentially, it's just like a revolving door of stuff. For me, the stuff that will never leave is anything that I have any personal attachment to from when I was a kid.

So, toys that I either had as a child that I repurchased to keep on card. Or stuff that I really wanted as a kid that my parents couldn't afford or we couldn't find. Or as a Canadian, honestly, a lot of the stuff just never made it to my neck of the woods or was just impossible to find.

So All that stuff is staying and most of that stuff is like Deeply rooted in 90s nostalgia. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Dragon Ball Z, Mortal Kombat, video game, but like they came out with a bunch of toys and stuff like that. Small Soldiers, that was like a huge family movie for us today. Oh, the best. Yeah.

That was the best. I'm just looking around. There's like so much stuff. And then, obviously, like Batman, you said it, the utility belt, Batman. I have all of the.

Card aid, I guess. Original few waves of Batman the animated series, the Spider-Man cartoon, the X-Men cartoon, all that stuff. I'm just a big dork. Yeah, dude, come on, man. We made this show so we can nerd out.

Yeah, right. No doubt. No doubt. And then we find out, you know, like I'm older than him.

So like I played video games up until about the mid-90s and I got a little bit older and I, you know, discovered other things. Yeah. He's still heavily into it.

So I love it when we find these guests who are still into this stuff because it's nostalgic for me because I haven't thought about a lot of this stuff and you're still heavily into it into it. What'd you play? Me, oh, bro, I was playing like Super Tech Mobile, you know, all the early Sega Genesis, like Bill Walsh college football, uh, because Genesis had a disc at the time, and this is the early 90s. And, you know, my neighbor had that because he, his family had a little bit of cash, and I was right.

So I was like, this is like the greatest thing I've ever seen.

So it was all the early stuff, you know, like even duck hunt, bro. But yeah, the amount of rule. Yeah. But the amount of hours that I sat and played Super Mario Bros., like, I would go to sleep. And I could see Mario Luigi in my when my eyes were closed because I played that game.

for like three hours before bed, like every single night, you know?

So that well, I have a massive Sega Genesis collection. Like massive, massive. I got a YouTube video of that. I mean, my channel's still live.

So if anyone wants to see any of my past life go nuts, it'll be there forever. Um, but yeah, my Psychogenesis collection is probably one that I'll never get rid of too, because that was my childhood console, I loved it, and there were so many games that were like. Mystical items that I would either never play or never see in my life because they would just make new games all the time.

So now I have most of them and I put them in and they were all terrible. Yeah. Yeah. That man, I I feel you 100% because now I've gotten, you know, they got emulators and and things like that where you got 60,000 games on it. Then you realize like I'm not really having fun, but I'm glad I got it.

It's like, yeah, just that feeling, you know, just seeing the 16-bit or whatever, just that feeling and. I can see myself back in the game room, you know, sitting on my knees for hours, which sounds crazy. Like, come on now, like, doing like. I would, I would, my ACL would tear right. But yeah.

Yeah, that was like a few Black Fridays ago. I went out and bought a brand new Xbox, right? Yeah. I played it one time and put it back in. I still played my old school Nintendo that I still had.

I played that 10 times as much as I played this. Xbox is still sitting in a box right now. And the Nintendo's still hooked up, and right now it has Super Tecmo still in it, sitting on the floor in my living room. I think people don't talk about how. Much anxiety we get trying to learn all these new buttons and how to play these games.

I don't want to have to do. A four-course class to learn how to play the new video games. I don't. I really don't. Four buttons.

That's all I have to do. And the thing is if you try to like... If you try to hop in a game. Yeah. It might have come out and you let months go by and now that game's community is like next level.

You're getting destroyed as soon as you turn it on. Like it's a wrap and now I'm never playing. Like you have to be locked in for launch. Like, there's a game, Ark Raiders, out right now. People are loving it.

It's crazy. I couldn't imagine getting on right now. I don't know the buttons. Fortnite, there is no reason in the world that O'Shea Jackson Jr. should not be one of the top players in the world.

But I got a job, I got a kid, I changed, you know?

So, like, if I put that on right now, I'm getting destroyed. Video games introduced me to wrestling, Ethan. It was really? Yes, Sega Genesis. WWF Raw.

I had an older brother, and he showed me that game, and I. It introduced me to Razor Ramon, Bam Bam Bigelow, Sean Michaels. My brother always picked Sean Michaels. Made me think. Undertaker really had powers because he can shoot these like great things out of his arm.

I was like, What is that? That's not a move. Yeah. But my favorite part about the story is what Daryl told you later. Oh, yeah.

My brother goes, you know, we can watch these people.

So, what do you mean? What? He was like, Yeah, this is like a real thing, like it's on TV. These are real life humans.

Okay, hold on, hold on. Go back.

So, you were playing WrestleMania. 'Cause the offense So it's the WrestleMania arcade game. If they have superpowers like Razor Ramon's arms turn into Razors. Yeah, that one and the Raw with the, it was Shawn Michaels with the baseball bat. Daryl would always have Shawn Michaels with his baseball bat.

Yeah. And that's all in that Sega Genesis.

So those are the games that introduced me to everybody I grew to know. And then he showed me it on T V.

Now hold on, I have a question. I have a question. Because you're saying your reference was watching the Undertaker shoot smoke out of the pants. When That Mother Effer shot lightning. Right.

Did that just confirm the video game for you? 100%. There was times where I was like, I've never seen The Undertaker blink. Like, this dude is a machine. He's a monster, you know?

And he was my favorite for a while until. I saw a rock. When Rock came, I was like, this dude is just the embodiment of cool. And uh yeah, from there I never Uh, put it down. It might have like flickered a little bit, but like it never left me because it.

It just grabbed me in such a way, the the invasion angle. Was probably the most stressed I'd been at that point in my life. I'm like, what do you mean? Like, everybody from WCW and ECW is here, plus Stone Cold and Kurt Angler over there. We lost.

It's over, bro. The rock is shooting movies. He's, you know, he's still rusty. Like, I was stressed, man. It's a key part of my life, but it all started with video games.

Well, the worst about that was unfortunately not everybody did come from WCW. Yeah, and if someone a little bit older, you know, that's what kind of let me kind of like, oh man, like, you know, we had Booker, but where was Goldberg? Where was Stane? Where was Lex? You know, none of these dudes came over, man.

So to me, that's, I know you love the angle. I know, but people of a little older world, like, that was kind of just a miss. You can do it on a video game.

Okay.

Now, who's the one that's coming out? 2K26. Available soon. Pre-order, January. I don't know when it is, but yeah.

That was a good commercial. You were right there. Almost there.

Now, um. We we talked about our excitement that we we get. What had, do you have any moments backstage where you got to meet some of these pioneers and just been like, oh my God, I can't believe I get to talk to. What was your markout moment? Yeah.

Ooh, um Not Really?

So Maybe where I used to work. It was probably like The first real instance of that, I guess, but I've also ran a promotion. Since I was like 18 years old? Alpha one.

So I had been like. trying to persuade these Legends to come work with me for a fair price since I was like a teenager. I don't know. I have like a different. Look, there are moments where after a conversation, most of the time it's with like a Shawn Michaels, where I'm like, oh.

I can't believe that just happened.

So, yeah, 100%. I mean, I got a picture with him right behind me. Obviously, still a fan. Got rock up here, too.

So there's definitely like. The fan in me that will never die, but I don't think that that can ever leave if you want to do what we do. Right. You mentioned it, man. Let's talk about Alpha One Wrestling.

That was. Oh, thank you. Thank you very much. Yes, sir. How did this start, man?

How did this come about? Uh so I really wanted to invite my family to watch me perform because at the time I had kind of just started wrestling in my hometown, but the only places really running shows were at a bar that I was a bartender at. And they were charging $2. for people to come in and the ring ropes couldn't be tightened. 'Cause the ring was so bad.

So I was like, okay, well. My parents don't want me to wrestle.

So, I don't know if I should invite them to this. And, like I said, I was like deep in fandom of like independent wrestling.

So, I had like all this Rolodex of, I guess, at the time I thought knowledge, but I just knew wrestlers that were willing to travel that wanted to come work.

So, I was like, well, I'll start my own thing and I'll hire all these wrestlers that I thought were good on the independence.

So I think my first show, my main event was Stu Grayson versus Brodie Lee. Oh, wow, okay. A little dark order right there. Yeah, right. But for me, it was like I was 18 years old at the time, and the thought of buying someone a flight was like the most insane thing to me, especially financially.

So I had Montreal up the road. Five-hour drive, and then I had Brody in Rochester with a carload of guys. Colin Delaney came down, Cheech came down. This was all independent guys that I thought were great. We were doing like Chikara and IW Mid-South and Ring of Honor.

So all the fandoms of mine collided, and I brought what I thought was a good style of wrestling to my hometown. I mean, it's been going literally ever since. Still running. Yeah, 2010 it started. Uh we just had a show this two weeks ago.

The Evolve title was defended on the show. Very cool. Thank you. You being a former Evolve star, that's. Yeah.

Actually, I personally appeared on an event in 2024 and they let me bring the Canadian North American Championship to my hometown so I could show it off to friends, family, and fans that supported me from day one. To show back up with the WWE Championship was very, very, very cool.

So I'm very grateful that Sean and NXT and WWE allowed me to do it. But yeah, it's still going, still going strong. Swipe Wright just lost the Alpha One tag titles on the last event.

So. Okay, that's one thing I always tell Shay, man. Like, my one of my dreams here for NCW. Because a friend of mine who went on to become a writer for WWE in 2009, 10. We had always had this dream, and I tell Shay, like, just one time, man.

I want us to put on an independent show and no contest wrestling and a bucket show. Just one time. And I'm telling you, we are going to do this. Oh, yeah. We're going to do this.

It's already written down. It's already, I'm, I'm. Putting it out there. We're going to have an NCW show one day, man. I fully support it and I support, honestly, I have a theory that I wish was implemented.

I don't think that anyone should be allowed to become a professional wrestler until they personally host three events. I say three events because. After the first event, the honeymoon phase will wear off and you'll realize that you're dealing with a bunch of egomaniacs who only worry about themselves. Then you'll realize the show does not revolve around the wrestlers and you have to deal with Buildings and permits and fans and accessibility to the building and advertising. And you know, oh, we damaged this and we damaged that, and the wrestlers didn't clean up after themselves.

And you slowly kind of learn to respect what this actually is, and how much actually goes into putting on an event, and that the entire company does not revolve around you.

So, I would pray that one day that's the rule. You don't get a pair of wrestling boots until you run three shows because everyone will tap out after the first show. That's nice. That's interesting. That's very interesting indeed.

But we're definitely getting that, definitely getting that show off. I'm telling you, that's all I want. One time. I support it. Heck yeah.

When you guys do it, hit me up. I'll help you in any way that I can. Absolutely. As one of the bookers, we're going to give you a call.

Okay, now. We've had plenty of guests on here. that have kinda talked about You know, there there are certain fans out there. Cool. hat live in the WWE bubble.

You know, like that, you know, that's what they only watch. And then there are some fans who are, you know, they're paying attention to what they can catch on T V. You've had your ear to the ground wrestling for quite some time.

So, if you could give fans who are interested. Three Matches to look at. from you know the from uh the past or or you know Far back when you were a fan of all the underground indie things, what are some that come to mind that are must-watches for fans to look up on YouTube or wherever they can? Oh damn. That's tough.

I mean, a go-to is always like... Rock versus Hogan. Mm-hmm.

So Let's go back to you guys saying you can't defend wrestling. I think the number one argument should always be: if you've never been to a live event, you can't really say anything. Mm-hmm.

Because it's true. Wrestling is unlike anything else you'll ever experience, but you actually have to physically be there. And by the end of the event, you will have a respect for what it is. No matter what, whether you watch it again, it will never matter because you can actually be there. You can smell it, you can see it, you can feel it, you can understand how people's emotions get changed by people that are manipulating them in the middle of the ring.

It's like literally circling around. This is the oldest. form of entertainment. Just kind of changed how we advertise it really So to me, it's like the purest form of any kind of entertainment. You have to be there though.

And if you've never physically been there, you are not allowed to have an opinion on it, truly. That's like saying someone watched Hamilton when they put it up on Disney Plus and they're like, yeah, I was there. I actually went to go see Hamilton. Yeah. Like, wow, so I did too, and then I watched it on TV and I said, this sucks.

Yeah. But I was there and I'm almost in tears.

So I'm like, oh, this is a completely different experience. Like, there's such a human element, and there's so much connectivity between the people and the performers that you can't get that through the television. You can't. It's impossible.

So, if you want to talk trash about wrestling, you're more than welcome to, but please be there in person and physically experience it first, and you can say whatever you want. And plus their their their opinion will most definitely change. Because you see, 100% when you see this, you feel that building, bro. There's nothing like it, man. And I love sport.

I love football, basketball, baseball. I like hockey, but man, hockey go hard when you're there. Make sure you got two pairs of socks on. It's hot cool when you're there. It's hard when you're there.

But man, there's just something about a wrestling, go into a wrestling card, bro. And I think it's because for me, you know, I have these memories of. Me and my grandpa, and a lot of people, their grandmothers, their grandfathers, but I can still remember me and my grandpa going to the, you know, the Jaffa Mosque in Altoona and watching WrestleMania 3 on closed circuit. TV and it was just like you couldn't tell me. That this wasn't the greatest thing that ever happened on the planet Earth.

Like anything that happened on Earth. Before WrestleMania 3, you can't tell me was better than what I just got done watching as a kid, because I just saw the greatest thing God ever made on these screens in front of me. You know, it's just, there's nothing like it, bro. 100%. I gotta drag my dad's one of these shows, too.

That's the amazing part. He's never been. I mean, he's been when I was a kid, but like he's just chaperone and he's not like you're not locked in, man. And I gotta get, I mean, WrestleMania is in basically his house. That's true.

The Raiders stay raiders, Cube. Yeah, I mean, come on. And now he's getting two years.

Now, another year. Last year, you didn't get him.

Now you had another year. Yeah, you're not coming to Saudi.

So, like, go to Vegas, man. Look, if your dad goes, I won't go with you. Is all yeah, man, he would get it. He would get like. The move and the production, and like just the magnitude of everything.

That part. It's entertainment. Yeah. No matter what, it's entertainment. And so I tried stand-up comedy for I did it twice.

It's two more than me. Yeah, me so. After the second time I get to the locker room. That's what I'll call it, the green remember. And the main eventer Through list, so like I was going over my time because I had no clue, and the main eventer of the night.

Said my punchline as I was like finishing my thing, and I was like, Oh, well, who yelled that? I guess I told a very obvious joke.

So I come to the back, and the guy's like, Hey, jerk. You don't know your time, you didn't see the flashing light. And I was like, I'm so sorry. This is literally like my second time ever doing this. And he's like, Yeah, you got to respect the veterans.

And he gave me this whole wrestling speech. And I had been wrestling for like seven years, but he gave me this whole speech. And I said, Oh. Oh, it's all the same. I said, don't worry, man.

I will never do stand-up comedy again. He was like, wait, what? I go, yeah, I've been dealing with this for seven years. I just might as well just be a wrestler.

So I just never did stand-up, never did stand-up again. I was like, well, I'm way deeper into this thing, so I might as well just keep going that way. That's hard. I admire that too, man, because as someone who's always considered themselves a class clown and whatnot. Always, that's one thing.

I'm like, I know I can sit around in a group and make people laugh, but like to stand up on stage and have some material written, I think fear has kept me from ever trying it, but that's another thing. Just one time, man. Just go up there for four minutes, even if you bomb. Like, I know I got some funny stories. Yeah, get it out.

Yeah. Yeah. That'll be on the no contest comedy tour coming. We're doing a Chitlin search. Right after the show.

Yeah, right after the show. All right, out of the vo well, damn, I asked him another question. Yeah, I'm sorry. I've derailed your show seven. No, no, no, whatever.

Keep it going. We're just having a conversation. For us, this is more like, you know, you can go on the other shows, right? And you're probably going to answer the standard issue wrestling questions. Yeah.

But we love those, but we like to know people on a human level, too.

So I'm loving it, you know? Yeah. Yeah, me too. That's why sometimes I just take the role of the host and start asking you guys. Hey, we're perfectly fine with you.

Now, you've been wrestling for quite some time. I need to know. What are some moves you hate to take? Yeah. All of them.

So, as someone that hates being picked up at all and like, Any head over butt stuff, like if my feet are going over my head, I'm panicking.

So, if you're gonna powerbomb me. I'm probably going to lose.

So, Hop T scare the crap out of me. I just hate anyone controlling my body other than me or God. No, thank you. Yeah, makes sense. A lot of trust makes sense.

Yeah, for sure.

You know, you've got WWE's got this partnership now with NXT. With NXT. Let me start again. NXT has his partnership with TNA. Right.

You, of course, spent time in there, you know, a year-long reign as a tag team champion. Tell us a little bit about your time in TNA, man, up until, you know, the North is one of the best tag teams of all time for that company. Yeah, so I mean, the longer my career goes, and I've actually said this to my wife many times. The longer my career goes, and I guess the more heights that I get to reach. The more validity that gets added to the past things that I've done in my career.

So, the longer this goes and the more I get to kind of reminisce, the cooler all of those things feel because. To me, it all felt like it was worth it and was like building to something.

So I look back at my time in TNA as like probably. One of the biggest chances for me to grow and like get experience on television. Every stage kind of prepared me for the next level. And TNAs was just getting me ready to be like a television wrestler to essentially survive in my next gig because I had no TV experience up until that point.

So it was amazing. And then obviously being in a tag team. Uh, it's funny, like now I'm sending these top 30 moves of the north to tag teams and NXT because no one's doing any of the stuff that we were doing, and I was just like a young dude in a car driving 10 hours every weekend. Bringing wrestling action figures with me so that I can concoct and create these tag team moves. And we end up inventing a bunch of stuff that's kind of dead in the water now, so I'm trying to Pass around the creativity because I'm just a solo act now.

So it was a very, very, very fun time in my career. And I literally have a tag belt hanging up right here from Impact. I got a plaque. From these guys over here as well. Best tag team of the year, two years in a row.

So I'm very proud of that, but uh, it's it was a great time in my career.

So, wait a minute, you literally had the action figure, something we've all done, we've all done, and you were literally making moves while you're making towns with Dalt, with the action figures. Yeah, I so I mean, I'm all ego, so I can get away with. Tooty Mount Horn. I've probably invented more moves than anyone in professional wrestling and I'll never get the credit for it. Oh.

Okay.

What a hero. Can you give me just off the top of your head give me three that you Sure, okay, so tag moves. We used to have one that was our finisher called the Northern Assault. It's like a burning hammer. And from the burning hammer, the guy would get tossed over into like a sit-out spinebuster.

Eventually ripped off by another tag team. They just added a little flair to it, but that creation was mine. I have one called the Cluster Bomb. It's a move I made sure to do at least once on WWE television so that I could lock that in as my creation. It's like a cobra clutch, but you hook underneath the leg and then grab their own arm, kind of like a chin-up bar, and you tie them up like a knot.

Pick them up and drop them on their back. I've got another tag move that we used to do. It's like a assisted blue thunderbomb where the guy would get picked up in a back suplex with his feet extended, and I would run by and push the feet to create the motion. Of the blue thunderbomb, and then sometimes I would end it with a dive through the middle rope to take care of the tag partner so that we could potentially win the match. I'm probably the smartest wrestler of all time.

Ethan Page, y'all. I love you. No ego. No ego. By the way, you only asked for three.

So how about five then? All right, bro. Chill, bro. Chill, man. Guest.

It's the first time here. All my enemies are going to watch this and they're going to scout my moves or steal them and say that they created them.

So, all right, well, 100. He's now been trademarked here by the NCW. I'm getting, you know, now, as a collector, what's it like to be a collectible? What's it like to insane? It is like absolutely insane.

I still have not seen myself in a store.

So the. Ultimate dream has still not been achieved. Uh I was telling um the guys at Mattel that I've been dying to get a basic figure. Everyone wants like the extravagant toys, which is like, you know, it comes with the jacket and the multiple heads and the changeable hands and whatever. That's all for 40-year-olds to buy.

I wanted a basic figure because. Every year for Christmas, grandma has no clue what to get, but they know that the kid likes wrestling.

So they go and they grab. Five of the wrestlers that are available. And Ethan Page is just a boy in his underwear, and that's an easy purchase for a wrestling figure. And I got all those wrestling figures. I literally became fans of wrestlers because on Christmas or for my birthday, they were the basic figures: the $8.99, the $10.99, the $9.99, the ones that go on sale.

And all of a sudden, I have a roster of wrestlers. Who's this guy? Who's that guy? I want to be available for everyone to be able to purchase because there's so many ways you can make fans. You literally became a fan because you played the video game.

So there's so much influence out there.

So I've been dying. I've been telling Mattel: please, please, please, please make me a basic figure, make me an affordable figure to hang on the shelf. And they just announced it a couple of weeks ago.

So that to me is like the ultimate, like, okay. I am now Made in surplus for the world to purchase. Yes, yes, exactly. You'd be in more houses, you know, more houses, more first of all, more matches with little kids booking. Yeah.

I've never told this story before.

Okay, number one, I would like to also say I One of my proudest moments in my career was my one and only Funko. My one and only Falco. Um is after I did Obi-Wan Kenobi and you know it's one thing to you know, have your individual Funko pop. But when they put you in a like a box set, that's pretty huge, you know? And I I'm in there with Obi-Wan Kenobi and Darth Vader, and I'm just like, no way.

That's what you know, no way. Yeah, like little old me. Like, if you would have told little kid me that we would have that, he'd explode on the spot. True, yeah. But I had um, you know, my my ex Who then turned into my assistant and like some other weird stuff.

But Jason. Back when we were first dating. Kind of the same thing you were talking about, about how uh You know, you just know he likes wrestling. I don't, you know, I don't know wrestling thing, so let me get it for him. And she had got me, you know, I guess they were they were doing some line where wrestlers would get their own like Hot Wheel or like car or whatever.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So she she was like, Yeah, I got you. You know, do you know this guy? And I looked.

It was Chris Benoit.

Well Do you know who this is? How'd you get this? Like, where did you go to buy this right now? Oh, yeah, it's this shop that's giving you like a bunch of antique stuff. I was like, Yeah, I bet.

So it was like, wow.

So, yeah, I have that car. He's Jade. Yeah, I mean, he's one of them little cars. Yeah, little toy cars, and there he is. I have an Eddie Guerrero, NWO, LWO, one that I found at some bookstore years ago in New York.

Yeah, man. Crazy.

Well, I'm going to add to that. Because I got one of this hanging out right here. Just a big line here. I was a big fingerboard fan. Got a big box, man.

That's sick. That's bust. That's another guy I thought for sure died when I was a kid. Oh, because Undertaker. I was like, that's it.

I just watched Murder. Yeah. Here it is. Mom, I promise it's not always like this. Yeah, I was going to say that's a parents' walk-in moment.

Yeah. I remember he played, he was just like, Yeah, like he was doing a great job of not moving. Yeah. Oh, man.

Okay.

All right. Just because I have not been paying attention to time or nothing like that, I just want to make sure we get our number one question out the way just so we can have it. Yeah, this is just fine. I'm looking at the clock like, oh, it's per minute. This is, we've talked less wrestling, I think, in this than any other interview we've ever done.

And I'm love. That's fine. That just means we'll have to do it again. My hope is that you guys have me on your show. I'm a big star.

The views just go through the roof. We can increase the budget. Then you guys fly me in so we can all hang out together. Oh, yeah. We prefer.

We're right behind LAX. It takes 12 minutes to drive to the airport from it. I prefer it too, especially guys. You've got good energy. It'd be great to be in the room with you.

So we'll definitely do this again. I just booked myself. I have to correct myself because this is all ego Ethan Page. 100%. He's going to the FBO in Van Nye.

So that's going to be like 40. He's not flying commercial here. You know, he's okay. Yeah. Yeah.

Because those PJs come. I don't know. We got that in the budget. Hey, if my work's going to make me do it, I'll do it for you guys. Thanks, man.

My man.

So just to make sure we get this out the way and we can continue our conversation. Our number one question is a situation-based question, okay? Oh, okay. Either page you are in a bar. Minding your business, doing what Ethan Page do.

And in that bar, there are 50 dudes in that bar that do not want you in there.

Okay.

I need you to pick a team of you and four other wrestlers. to make sure the egotistical one makes it to the car. And Ethan, these could be wrestlers from any point. Yeah. And current you know, of the past, whatever.

Okay, I saw I'm getting out alive. Do I have to do anything? And do I have to be involved in the scuffle? Yes, you're getting 10, you're beating up 10 people apiece, man. You and four other superstars, bro.

Yes, five versus. I got to take 10. It's five versus. Depends on who you pick. You might take 20, and then your workload drops.

Okay, Jacob fought you. Immediately did you. You know what I mean? Yeah. Because I've wrestled him, Drew McIntyre, big boy.

Yeah, also a friend of the show here. Yes. Billy Gunn. Ooh. By the way, have you s you didn't see Dynamite last no.

Billy Gunn is, what, 62? Yeah, that was so you said any era by the way. Yes, right so I'm looking at this in a sense of this man in this current state, you would accept that answer.

So now imagine if I got to select what era, right? Exactly. Yeah. You guys were okay with that answer if he showed up in his current state. Absolutely.

Yes. Okay.

It's a big dude, bro.

So we got Jacob, we got Billy. One more. Brock Lesnar. A hundred percent, man. Every time we ask this question, I'm ready for Brock.

I'm ready for Haku. Haku has been, he's been by far the most. Mentioned wrestler to the point where we always almost had to change it to anybody but Haku because he was the standard issue answer that everybody. Yeah, so I wanted to avoid that. Also, that's like an era before me.

So I don't have like a relationship so much, even like fandom-wise. But I've heard the stories and I believe them all. Right. Like, there's no way everybody's talking about you ripping people's throats. Yeah, like, come on.

Yeah. People were like, and actually, you know what? I heard Rick Rude was a badass, too. I might have, yeah, he might have been one that I would have picked or thrown in there. Yeah, from all accounts, Rick Rude was nobody wanted to.

And if you want to go old school like that, Mr. Wonderful was another one who people say, like, legit. Rude was legit, tough guy. You know, there's been a people think because wrestlers. Kind of do what they do, that they're not really tough.

Some of them aren't. But there's a lot of them that will ruin your week. Bro, I think I'm pretty sure Mark Henry picked Haku on his team. I would actually pick Mark Henry. Yeah, dude.

Scary.

So careful. He's very scary. I've shaken his hand many times and regretted it. Listen, I always describe it like this: it's three people in this world that when I shook their hand, I did not like it.

Okay.

Who was it? Shaq, because, like, you know, when you shake a man's hand, it makes the noise. You know, it was silent. My hand was gone. It was a blanket.

Yeah. My hand was gone. And then Mark Henry. And James Harrison made my pinky knuckle pop. And I did not like that.

That was crazy. It was like, oh, wow, my knuckle cracked. I didn't want to do that. James Harrison would have made a tremendous heel in wrestling. Very believable.

Yeah, man. Have you shaken hands with Omos? Yes. Oh, yeah. I didn't like taking a picture with him.

I looked like a damn action figure. Yeah, we after. It was the After WrestleMania, the first night, we get back to the hotel. We see Truth and Omas.

So we take a picture of him. And it's literally like, luckily, you're standing by Omas. And it's like Omas is here and Shay's head is down. Yeah, man. Oh, yeah.

You could go lower. Right. I look portable. Like, I didn't like it. I didn't like it.

And what a nice guy, too. Yeah. Thank goodness. I really wish. I disagree.

I disagree because I see him working out at the performance center. I'm there almost every day. I'm a regular. I'm a very, very regular person. I'm in there and I see his big ass in there.

And the second he walks in, I literally want to leave. Yeah. 100%. Yeah. Look, and I also love attention.

So when I travel to events, you know, like AAA, current AAA mixed tag channel, he's also now a AAA star.

So when we travel to these hotels, I just don't enjoy the fact that people are just standing around taking photos of him just because he's massive. Right. Don't think no good sense. It's insane. Literally, just standing in the hotel.

He's waiting to check in. There's just people stopping. Oh, pull their phone out. Let me take a picture of this. That's what's painting.

Yeah. Insane. I want them to take a picture of me. And let's, you brought it up. Let's talk about that.

Let's talk about your time in triple A, as you once put it. And now I can't stop saying it like that. Triple Ah.

Well, that's how they say it. And so you'd be doing it out of respect. Triple A. Triple A. Triple A.

So uh talk to us about how this whole started. When you got the word that you'd be working with them and How'd that all come about?

So it seemed like things kind of started catching steam with Chelsea and I. And triplet A was striking while the iron was hot and things worked out very great for us. Winning these mixed tag titles. And it's kind of been the home for me in Chelsea on a more regular basis than anywhere else as a team.

So it's been great. Good. Are you guys the greatest mixed tag team of all time? I would say so. And I would love all these other.

mixed tag teams to come challenge us, but I don't know. They probably don't. Seems like they're busy. Right. You know, and you got Ava getting on him about defending uh the North American Is there fear?

It kind of scared of Ethan Page around there. People are afraid. They're definitely afraid. And Ethan, how'd you go about being able to customize that? Because the North American title to me was always pretty amazing as it was.

Yeah, I agree. And now you've come and you've customized this dream. How were you able to do that?

Well, like you guys said at the beginning of this, you didn't know how much motion you had. Yep. You did say that. Got motion. Neither did I.

Got motion. Here we are, Street. Look at that. Here we are. You know, big maple.

Big maple, like what? Yeah, I love it. You know what's cool? This is a piece of history that will be here forever. And if anyone does it after me, they'll just be copying the first.

So, to get to kind of create something uniquely mine forever and ever. Very cool. Get to etch my name and history. Like Kerry von Eric etched his name on the NWA belt. Yeah.

His initials. It's in Triple H's office. Did you have a say in what the belt would. look like or did they just present it to you and you were like, All right, bet, I like this.

So, I mean, with everything here, it's very collaborative, but there was no notes. Oh. It was literally like How does this look? And my jaw was on the floor.

So, yeah, I was like, Yeah, I can't believe we're even getting to do this. This is amazing. That's pretty great. And what's going to happen is, you know, 15 years from now, somebody else is going to take a warehouse tour and they're going to be like, oh, there's a copy of Ethan Page's belt. Why is it just with a piece of tape and a Sharpie just around?

We're just going to hope it's in my house, but I'll let you go.

Well, I mean, I don't see you ever losing it, so it probably will stay there. Correct. Neither do I.

Okay, now, uh success, you know, it is a uh A road that not everyone gets to travel, but it is not one that people travel alone. You need Yeah. Either Put in a good word, or people to sacrifice to make sure that you get opportunities. Who are some people, whether that be in your personal life or professional life? that you wouldn't be here without.

Oh, my wife. Man, that's such a dead answer. But, like, I know you're not. No, no, no, no. Like, for like, I'll go in detail.

This is, she's like an internet sleuth. She'll watch this interview back and she'll give me notes. She'll watch the fight.

So, the fact that she didn't tell her that I was doing your guys a show, she's going to give me a hard time when I get out of this room because she's going to say, Why didn't you tell me you had this? I would have watched the show they did before, and before that, I would have told you what they were like. If you talk trash about me online, she'll know, she'll tell me about it, she'll break it down, she'll let me know what's good, what's bad, who's doing what. She'll watch other wrestlers' vlogs and say, like, this was while I was YouTubing, oh, they're doing this, avoid it, or they copied you with this.

So, see, now it's time to change it up. Or so-and-so has gear that looks like yours.

Now it's time to change it up. Dude, this is she's Barbara Gordon. Oh, yeah. What's her name, Ethan? Bro, I'm not telling you that.

You're telling me every time Cody Rhodes wears glasses that look like mine, my wife's not sending me a screenshot saying this guy loves you. Hell yeah, man. I love it. For the squad. I love it.

Hell yeah.

So when I take over professional wrestling, You know what? My daughter was right. There already is a queen. That's right. That's right.

Good stuff. Hell yeah.

Oh, but why? Right. And she also was like, hey, buddy, you're fat. You need to get in shape.

So, I mean.

Well, Ethan, let's since you brought that up, there is a point, man. You were on the beefier side a little bit, and then you completely switched it up. What was that journey like?

So I think for me, the biggest issue was that I wanted to say whatever I wanted to say and be able to defend myself in a fist fight.

So I just lost weight so that I could. Are we Yeah. That makes sense. I'm just conscious broken. I mean, to me, it was like.

It was like, this is the only part of my game that's weak.

So it's time to tighten it up and give people no excuses. Because I had always believed in myself, but I mean, belief will only get you so far.

So. I can believe in myself all I want. I got to do the work. And that was the only thing that I was like, okay, this is where I'm lacking. And I have a newfound respect for so many performers before me just because now I actually realize how much work goes into being a WWE superstar.

It is not a one night a week job. This is a wake up and you make sure that you're the best in the world every single day, whether you're wrestling that night or not.

So this is all part of the job. Is there anything that you've learned on this journey that you feel that people who are trying to get in the business and and you know make it to the top that they Is there anything that they should be paying attention to more that you've learned? Yeah. the people that buy tickets. Mm-hmm.

You are performing for others, not yourself. If you can keep that as the motivator for everything that you do, you will do fine because it's not a selfish act. If everything is selfish and self-absorbed, you will probably get far, but this will definitely eat you alive. Or when you cross paths with me, I will. Absolutely.

No ego. No, no. He's telling it like it is. Damn. You know what I'm saying?

Yeah. Got no problem with that. No, Ethan, I think we've chopped it up. I think we all kind of have a friendship going on here.

So I want to let you know, man, we consider you NCW family, right? You come into town. We're going to let you know where the spare key is. You come on over. You take the guest room, raid the fridge, put your feet on the couch, do whatever you want.

I appreciate that. But now, in the garage, though, we got a little nice little whip in there, right? We got a DeLorean if you're a Back to the Future fan. And I am. That DeLorean, as you know, is a time machine.

So you can borrow that.

So what we're going to do is we're going to give you The keys to the DeLorean, right? You're going to be able to go back in time. and have five WrestleMania main event matches with five performers of any era.

Okay.

Which five wrestlers would you pick? to main event WrestleMania with. The rock Yeah. I bet that's my fault. I I jumped the gun on that.

The macho man, Randy Savage. Yeah, oh, we go eat them page, brother. Yeah, coffee, man. Cup of coffee in the big time, yeah. Shawn Michaels.

Okay.

Oh yeah. I know everybody's just sizing Sean up. Randy Orton.

Okay.

Or anyone. Screwed angle. Oh, okay. Some good ass matches man That's solid. Funny thing about Kurt Angle, he's from Pittsburgh.

I lived in Pittsburgh. And one thing I would hear: he's got like four brothers, and apparently, Kurt is the. As I was told, The least tough of all of his brothers.

So, like his older brother, from what I've heard some stories, Street Fighter, ain't no joke. The Angle Boys were monsters. Gold metal with a broken freaking neck, bro. Broken freaking neck. All right, man.

Now, before we let you out of here, I gotta ask you some nerd shit. Go for it. I know Marvel got you into the collecting and everything, but you talk about Batman pretty high. I need to know who. Who is your favorite superhero?

Oh. Oh, I mean, it's for sure Batman. 100%, bro. Your famous Batman, too? Bro, yeah, like Batman.

Yeah, he's the most vulnerable. To me is the most vulnerable superhero. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know. The character resonates with me.

And if you're talking about villains, he's got the best ones. Right. That's yeah. I mean, like, they're so they're so interesting, they get their own movies. That's true.

Like, dude, you also they make you second guess whether they're bad or not. Like, one of my favorite characters of all time is Mr. Freeze. Yeah. And what is Massive Mr.

Freeze fan.

So, yeah, Batman is just a little bit deeper than everything else, I think. And that's why I enjoy it the most. And Batman's your favorite. Yeah, man, because Batman. Does not have to do this.

He doesn't have, like, he's rich. He's just like, he gives a damn so much that, like, he, I'll never let what happened to me happen to anybody else. Yeah. If I could.

Now, there are some arguments that some of these villains, like he said, like Mr. Freeze. I just want to cure my wife, bro. Like, I just want to cure my wife there. But you're just handling it very aggressive, and I can't let you do that, bro.

Poison ivy. Like, yeah, I get it. You want the planet to survive. Pollution is terrible. We can all agree.

It's just certain things that are just. The Batman animated series, there were so many episodes that, like, as a little kid, I'm like. That didn't feel good that we won. Like, you know, it was just like. Like, oh my God, I feel so bad for that person.

Like, it just puts a new. Layer on, he's just so. He's a real freaking hero, dude. Didn't Heart of Ice, the episode about Mr. Freeze, win an Emmy or something like that?

Something that Pasim crushed me. The the one with the baby doll? The the dude, the valet baby doll for Telly Tony Blanchard? No, no, oh, damn it, TJ. My bad.

We nerded now. You got to go watch the show back. The show was definitely made for adults and promoted to children. Yeah, it just happened to come on right before Dragon Ball Z for Toonami. But either way, like Batman animated series, uh, people always ask me who my favorite Batman is.

I say Kevin Conroy every time, and they're just like, uh, not Christian Bale. And I'm like, No, you don't get it, bro. Yeah, you don't get Kevin Conroy, fantastic. You don't get it. Also, too many people talk trash about Ben Affler.

Oh, all right. Defend the bat flick right now, if you can.

So I will say that cinematically, my favorite. Portrayal of Batman is ironically in Batman versus Superman. Wow. Okay.

Uh it's like very dark and they're trying to get people that are locked up. I think there's like a bunch of people locked up. There's police there, and the camera just keeps frantically moving around. Yeah. And Batman's perched up in the corner, kind of in the dark.

And to me, that was always the best part about reading Batman: he kind of had to use the elements around him, dark. And being one of them, all the shadows uses martial arts, mostly his brain, and he was a detective, which they showed all that very well in that movie. But people absolutely hated that movie. To me, I was like, hey, this is Batman that I've been reading. Yeah.

Yeah. And of all the Batman, of all the live action Batman, He's probably the one that you least want to be after you. He's very aggressive. Big dude, Jack, a little bit of bad. Yeah, he's pissed.

He's pissed. Always. Yeah, might have killed a couple people. I don't know. He for sure.

He for sure killed people in that movie, dude. Bro, if I didn't want to bring that up, if he hadn't come to the Martha conclusion, yo, he would have killed him. He was my little Superman on a shirt. Come on, like, oh my god. Thank goodness he registered in his mind.

He was older, okay? He was already past the point of leaving his house. He was that old man. Yeah, exactly. You know, my favorite cartoon character from this jump was always the Hulk.

Yeah, because I was always told the Hulk was the biggest, he was the strongest, he was the fifth, yeah, he literally says it, and then. Thanos. Thanos two-piece his ass up. Thanos? Did I break your heart?

Yeah. Bro, I'm telling you. That moment, ever since that moment, I have not been into Marvel movies as much because everything I knew from the time I was three. Like my mom would tell me I was a kid, like, We somehow saw old versions of the TV show The Hulk, right? I have the entire collection.

The Hulk TV show on DVD. Yeah. Like, I the Hulk was everything to me. And when they was getting pieced up, I was sitting in that theater, guys, and I literally just sat there like this. And then, okay, he gets shipped like, what was it?

Uh he gets sent away. Yeah. And I'm like, all right, end of the movie. He'll get his lick back. No.

No. Okay.

All right, well I gotta wait for this next movie. This cat's a hipster in Williamsburg, and I'm like, two-piece his ass into perfect English, in perfect English into retirement.

So would you say that now you know how fans felt watching John Cena wrestle Brock Lesnar? Oh, man.

I don't know because I don't think in any world you look at. Lesnar and think he couldn't beat Cena. Yeah, you thought there's no one who could, and so, yeah, no, it was worse than that, dog. It was, it was worse than that. But since you're Canadian, let me bring this up.

One of my favorite comics, my favorite teams for Alpha Flight. Really? Y'all, yeah. I love that. Oh yeah, who that's that's the one.

It's a glare. That's just me drawn in the suit, but yeah.

Okay.

Yes. Yeah, you know, I was a Wolverine Canadian. Puck, you know, I love because Puck was like a little bowling ball. I mean, you had the Saswatch and you had the twins. And it was just, yeah, I just was really, really in Alpha Flight for whatever reason.

Matter of fact, our first episode with CM Punk, our first episode, I wore an Alpha Flight. T-shirt. I might have to bring that back, but no, we can't. Hint, hint, hint, hint. All right, man, we're about to let you go.

Before I let you go, I got to let you know my Batman story. Once again, why he's the goat.

So I am presenting at an award show. I see an actress by the name of Aubrey Plaza at this award show. I want to go say what's up to her. And these nice nice old ass ladies stop me. And they start telling me, you know, my grandson loves straight out of Compton.

And ya, I'm like, that's amazing. Do you want a picture? Like, let's get this off.

So, we take a picture. I talk to her about her grandson for a little bit, and I look up, Ari Plaza is gone.

So naturally to complain I get on Twitter. She sees these tweets. Folllows me and then DMs me. It was like, yo, I got this movie. It's called Anger Goes West.

I'd love for you to be a part of it, yada yada. Like, all right, cool. You know, let me get your number. Let's set up a meeting, yada, yada. She sends me her number.

I text her, Hey, it's Batman. She goes, great, exclamation point, exclamation point.

So we have the meaning. And uh she's like, How do you like the script? I was like, what script? I was like, script for the movie. I said, you just sent me a script.

What's my email? She goes, then why did you say you were Batman? Blash.

So I don't know. I just thought it'd be cool. Like, I like Batman. I don't know. She was like, your dude in the movie is obsessed with Batman.

So I already I told the director and producers you said yes. Pretty. And that's how I got that movie? No! Yeah.

Random, random, dude. That meant a goat. That's awesome.

So, if you ever see Ingrid Goes West, that's how I got that role, bro. Batman. No, that's not the lesson of the story. The lesson of the story is when you're sitting at home and you're typing up that text 15 times and you're worried about hitting send, don't. Yeah.

Just attend right away. Pull the trigger. Don't think. Just do. Yeah, man.

Shooters gotta shoot. Right? And now I'm looking at our other monitor here. That's you as Guardian. Weapon out.

Okay.

I couldn't really see. There was a glare before, but ah, yes, look at that. There you go. Batman. It's all right there, bro.

Love that, man. Man, this has been a treat. Yeah, we can nerd out for long. We got to let you go, man. This has been fun.

I was a little worried because I'm like, you know, he might be in character. You know, we had Dom Mysterio early, right?

So before the interview started, you know, we don't really, like, I asked you, was there anything you didn't want to talk about? You were fun. Normally, we don't even do that, but like, I wasn't sure where Dom was going to be.

So I was like, hey, there was a moment I want to talk to you about, you know, your dad getting inducted to the Hall of Fame and your mom and. The entire crowd started cheering for his bomb. And I remember thinking to myself, even though he left in the back, that. That feeling must be unbelievable. I said, Can I talk to you about that?

He goes, I didn't stay for that. I left. And O'Shea and I both went. Oh, okay. So this is going to be so.

This, so we literally had to flip the script, like, and turn it off. Like, all right, so he's going to be in character. Yeah. So, all right. I never talked so bad about Reddit in my life.

So, yeah. To me, there's no difference. You guys are not offensive.

So, you're not offensive to me. You guys are here to gloat about my accolades. I'm not going to be mean to you. When you guys start asking me some dumb questions, you're going to get a side of me that's usually on television, but. There's no difference.

I'm the same person. in or out or not. Yeah, and I am not here to tell any secrets. I'm definitely here to sell some tickets, though. That's the sky.

Ladies and gentlemen, of no contest, all hail the king of the north. Ethan Page, man. Thank you, brother. Thank you. Appreciate you, brother, bro.

Anytime. When does this air, by the way? Tonight. Even better, ladies and gentlemen, tomorrow I'll be getting on an airplane and I will be heading to Knoxville, Tennessee for an NXT live event. And then Friday, I'll be in Nashville, and Saturday, I'll be in Birmingham.

Go check it out. Check my social media out. You can see me live if you are in any of those cities that I just mentioned. Yeah, there you go.

Now I'm actually trying to sell tickets. It's going to work. Yeah, man. Thank you so much. Appreciate you, bro.

Thank you guys. Stay healthy. Thanks for thinking of me and giving me the time. Of course, man. Of course.

Anytime, man. Ethan Page, everybody. Ethan Page. Boy, that went off the rails. I love that.

Just like first blush. I love that might be one of my favorite last week with Trick. I was like, this might be my favorite. I think every week we go on, I'm like, this might be my favorite, which means that we're doing something somewhat right. We more, you know, it's more relaxed.

That conversation definitely was just three homies kicking it. Seemed like it, right? Yeah, like we, we understand that was our, you said it was our least wrestling. Yeah, I mean, we could talk, but it was like everything, man. Because, like I said, you can go to anyone and get like the, you know, wrestling.

But the vibe is there. It was vibing. Either vibe or you don't. You know, you're hurt. We're two cool cats.

You know what I'm saying? Hey. You hear him say that They be watching her. How about that? They be watching.

I want to say I'm surprised. They said, we're a professional show. I don't want to come off as arrogant. I don't want to be cocky or conceited. I'm just convinced.

Yeah, like I got a little. Got a little ego about us, you know, a little bit, a little bit. You boys got emotional here. But that was dope, man. Ethan Page, man, true professional.

And another guy, he's just great on the mic, too. Charisma. Yeah, he's got it all.

So it's going to be interesting. And a mind for the business. Yeah. A mind for the business. Definitely one of those people that might be back there in a suit one day.

And when we do get this NCW one-night indie show going, he's going to be on the cutter. 100%, man. God, we got to get a lot of belts. But. Before we get out of here.

you guys have seen by now, hopefully. Your boy Your boy was in Connecticut. Yeah. And your boy was on What's Your Story. Got to speak with Stephanie McMahon and her husband Paul, who's a good guy.

You know, he came by, talked to him for about 30 minutes. I couldn't tell you guys last week. I didn't know it was coming out literally the next day. But either way, your boy got a nice little two-hour conversation. That's a lot of time.

I don't know. It's a lot of time. It is. Very interesting to talk to. Don't boo, don't let us get two hours.

Yeah, that's crazy. Golly. Golly. Shackles. But I'm sure he's in our ear.

He just said we're on two hours now. But yeah, Dave, what's your story? It was so great. It was dope, man. It was dope.

It was really fun. Just another dream come true. And it's just one of those things that's like.

So much is happening so fast. A lot of things that I would never thought. I would be able to do our happiness.

So that just means that we have to have bigger dreams. And I got plenty of bigger dreams for no contest. And we're going to try to put those into work. But Yeah, what's your story with Stephanie McMahon? It's out now on YouTube or wherever you listen.

And. Stephanie McMahon says she can't wait to do our show in return. That's dope.

Now, when I tell you, this place will be spotless when that lady comes here. All right. We will put out the good food and the good silverware. All right. I want the drinks on ice.

Whatever she needs. Whatever you need. Whatever you need. We'll do it on Rich's side. Whatever you need.

Just thank you to Stephanie McMahon. Uh and my buddy Paul. This guy. Such a good guy, that Paul. You know, it's Paul.

You'll know him like that. Paul, they throw me Paul. I kicked it in his office. He showed me an original NWA title. With uh KVE.

Go ahead. You know the KVE. Carrie von Erich one night. Eric. Who only had the belt for, I think, like.

Two, three weeks, he scratched his name, carved his name into the you know, the big gold. Yeah, not the big gold, but the oh, yeah, yeah, he took it and he carved his name in there, and that's one of the reasons that Triple H. As you told me, it was able to authenticate that that was the real title. You could see KVE. And uh it was just uh it was such an amazing Travel down history.

It was so cool to be able to talk to them. Stephanie, about both of our fathers and just what it is. Oh, yeah, we got to get that Nepple Baby merge line. We got to get that going. But just to be able to.

Kind of to do what I've always wanted to do. You know, from the jump, we wanted it, we wanted Shane McMahon on here. Of course, it was bad timing, but I've always wanted to get their perspective because I've looked up to her and Shane. Uh uh Roman, Randy, now Cody. Uh Just to be able to go into your parents' footsteps and to take the name to different heights, you know, new heights.

And uh yeah, it was it was an amazing time. It's going to be some good things happening for No Contest Wrestling. And you guys, as fans, I appreciate everybody who went to go watch. I appreciate everybody who's going to go watch now that they know. Your boy was on Raw, too, by the way, because they do that little preview thing of like everybody who's on everybody pod.

And that kept me up for a long time. They were talking about Lil Yacht, but my face was still up there. I hope they don't think that I'm him. But anyway, that was an amazing moment. Big things are are coming.

But Something big is coming this weekend. The Royal Rumble. Live from Riyadh. Yeah, man. That's alliteration, folks.

Royal Rumble and Rehop. Royal Rumble Rehab. Anyway, sorry. I just, you know. Sky jumped earlier in that.

Yeah, I know. I just, I just, you know, I got rock Tourette's. But TJ, how you feeling? Who are you thinking for this Rumble? Man, it's crazy because you're going in this right now.

It seems like it's wide open, right? Like, I don't really have a firm. I guess a firm handle on who is going to be going to WrestleMania. But you know, we had a caller call into the Rich Eisen show last week. And uh, you know, he had, you know, traditional sports Talk questions and then right before he left, he was like, TJ, I got a I got a no contest question for you, which you know, that makes me immediately get ready for my shot.

And he asked me, Who did I think was going? I'm just now peeping my Sid Vicious. Yeah. By the way, uh for those who don't know, super dishes. Loves him some softball.

Yes, so much that he would stop wrestling for months at a time just because he was in a softball league. He loves softball. But anyway, that's ambitious. But yeah, so he was like, TJ, who do you think is going to win the World Rumble? At first, blush, I don't have a lot of time to think about this because, you know, we got time restraints.

So I said, for the women, Bianca Belair. For the men, I believe I picked. Who did I pick? I'm tripping right now. Uh Well, who was your woman's pick for us?

Do it like Bianca Belair? Same thing. Yeah. Because I was like, okay, let me think. Let me put my Booker hat on.

Okay, I got Stephanie Vacare. God bless you. God bless you. Stephanie Vacare. And I'm really looking at Raquel is bloodthirsty right now.

Raquel's on fire right now. She's bloodthirsty for that title right now.

So I'm really liking what they're doing.

So I don't know if I want to mess with that. And then I'm thinking, who got the. All right, Jade. Who Who here Deserve, or not, I'm not going to say deserve, but like makes sense to like. Be front.

Incinerania. And would make sense for Jade And like, you know, they're doing the Jordan storyline and She's been kind of like Tear an ass, you know. And the only thing that I think would Get the pop needed. make the most sense. And would be the only formidable opponent that got enough cache to step up to this new dominant force in Jade.

Would it be if we hear that whoa whoa whoosh? I'm on my own, yeah, man.

So, I think Bianca returns, and uh, I think Bianca takes it the same way that Charlotte returned and Charlotte took it when we went to Indiana.

Okay, and with the men, my pick was uh, right now, it's looking very strong. I picked Braun Breaker, yeah, on the men's side to win the World Rumble now. See. I also feel that with, you know, just how, especially with everybody in the vision being added to the Rumble now. Um It it's just like And they all chose him.

Raw, everyone on the vision decided that the one to win should be bronze. Right. And it's like: okay, are we giving. Are we giving punk the main event is m is the only question I have. Because like Is Braun Bray?

Like, you're not going to have him go against McIntyre. Heel versus heel. Yeah, I know. Heel versus heel in Mania. And so like Ev everything just seems to be pointing to Braun, but if I could pick a dark horse.

And if you got The gusto to do it? No, no, no, no, no, no. If you really want to piss people off and you really want to push somebody, I think. Overfamy. Should win the Royal Rumble and just assert himself as the new dominant force on the main roster.

Now, I'm not saying he should necessarily win that maniac. But do you know what type of impact you make for him if he come in? and destroy in the rumble his first rumble. He doesn't necessarily have to beat a Drew. But like That right there makes him a key player.

Here on out. in one night.

So, I, you know, I've already, look, what was it, eight months ago, almost a year ago, I pointed out that he should have been one of the retired seniors. You know, I ain't got no problem with the ruler and a two-time NCW guest. I feel it is going to be something like he's going to have a dominant performance. We're talking like Kane, we're talking like 13, 14 brothers, 13. Just off, you know, I don't think he's going to win, but when you have a performance like that, you don't have to win because now everyone's on notice.

So, I think we're going to get that. We're going to get a just. An otherworldly performance out of Oba Femi. It's going to take all of the vision to get him out. Yeah, but I don't think he's going to win, but.

He's a star. He's gonna be the man's gotta be my dark horse pick, man. And at some point, we're gonna see him and Lesnar going face-to-face, hopefully. McAfee on McAfee, Lesnar said he's in the Rumble. Yes, I heard about that.

Well, of course, I didn't think he was. I don't know what Brock be doing, but killing moose. But yeah, I feel he's going to have just an incredible showing that we're going to be talking about. Uh forever. But yeah, I I don't feel he's gonna win, but not because I ain't a fan, because I think we all know where we got, you know, we we we think highly of a feminine round here.

Bro, so highly that I think it would it would send a shockwave through the business. Like because in our minds it's no way. No way. And that right there is when they smack you in the mouth. But that being said, it's probably going to end up being Roman.

I don't give a damn my chief out here winning it, boy. I'll be okay with that. And another dark horse, the woman who last year. Set the record for the longest time in the Rumble. NCW little sister, Roxanne Perez.

Look out for her. There's a chance. Yeah. You know, shout out to Wyatt. You know, so who knows?

But that's the thing, there's really no clear-cut winner. That's right, exactly. It's very open. Don't forget, it starts early on the west coast, too. Lem.

11 a.m. Yeah, which is honestly not bad. I get the rest of my day. That's true, you know? A little brunch with the postmate, you know?

But yeah, so I'm locking my in with. Bianca and Oberfemi. Um Come on now, you know what month. Actually, no, it just missed February. Yeah, February.

Just missed February. We were wilding out in Indiana. Remember, I was like, not on Black History Month. February 1st, we were screaming. It was crazy.

So you got Bianca and Braun. I'm going with Bianca and Braun. Hey man, you know We're all fans just like you. We ain't no insiders, but. Shout out to Stephanie and A great husband, Paul.

Yeah, yeah, that was good. Seriously, though, check it out. Great interview that you did with him, bro. Yes, and I know what you're thinking. Damn, Shay, you dressed nice.

Thank you, baby. I did it for you.

Now, QJ, please tell them where to find us. Yeah, because you couldn't do it last week, so I got to let them know. I don't know the list. If you want to follow all the adventures of no contest wrestling, all you got to do is follow us on Twitter or X at There's No Contest. On Instagram, There's No.

At Instagram, we're no contest wrestling podcast on TikTok, No Contest Wrestling Pod. Of course, you'll find us on the ESPN app, on Apple Music, on Spotify. know, basically wherever you you listen to your podcasts and uh Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah, man. Crack that open. Yeah, man. I got to drink some of this unleaded. But yeah, check it all out.

You can see everything from episode one with CM Punk to this episode, which is going to be this is episode 70. Yeah. 70 already in the camera. 70 with Ethan Page, and that was a really, really good one, man. Yeah.

Yeah, man. Dwayne, man, hook us up for 100. And also, NXT.

Someone, uh a show favorite came back. Jada returned, so there was that.

So you might want to watch her and Big Cat Keita and the Keith A Lions go at it from last week. Wow! Yeah, man. Now, on behalf of myself and my podcast partner, make sure y'all have a good day, but not too good. Cause who the hell you think you are?

My miss Parker, welcome back. We miss you.