No-Contest Wrestling: WWE NXT Superstar Lexis King

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All-State Fire and Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates, Northbrook, Illinois. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another Monday, Monday episode of the No Contest Wrestling Podcast. I am the heel that you love to hate, O'Shea Jackson Jr., aka Petty Guerrero. Hey, yo, it's me, it's me, it's that T-Dou O. J-I-Double G2 Jiggy, T-Jefferson.

Hold on. And today, we got a guest, another guest today from NXT. He is the current holder of the NXT Heritage Cup. The King, Lexus King, will be joining us on NCW today. Great dude.

Can't wait for you to check it out. And I can't wait to see how he gets that Heritage Cup around. What I'm like, dude, that's you gotta make sure we can't forget that. Does that get from here to there? It's insane.

I mean, I feel like a belt is so much more conventional. It'll be good to know how he lugs that cup around now. I heard you had a guest on? Oh, yeah, on the main show, on the Rich Eisen show. We had the architect.

Seth. I guess they dropped the freaking. With Seth Rollins. He came onto the Rich Heisen show today, and I had some questions for him.

Okay. All right. We we gotta get Seth on NCW. Or what what ha what happened on the the Rich show? Boom.

I can show you better than I can tell you.

Okay, I'm getting clips. I don't know the clips that's going to be on the show. All right, let's see.

Now we know. You, Roman Reigns, CM Punk, WrestleMania, it's looking like the main event, right? The story of CM Punk and the Shield goes back, what, 12, 13 years? Yes, sir.

So it's pretty amazing to see this thing kind of come. I don't want to say full circle because full circle means it's over. I don't think it's over. But to see this thing come around all these years later, what's it going to mean and feel like for you to step in that ring at WrestleMania with the Roman Reigns, CM Punk, and you, man? I mean, you look at it, three of the biggest icons of the business in the last 15, 20 years.

And I think there's a lot of animosity between the three characters that you mentioned. Real animosity, I know, between myself and Punk and Roman and Punk. I think a lot of professional respect between myself and Roman, but also a little bit of distrust there. We've got a lengthy history. And so I think what you're going to get is three very, very combustible elements.

And, you know, triple threat matches don't have rules.

So there's no disqualifications and no count outs.

So we really have anything and everything at our disposal to take care of the other two.

So I'm really excited for it. You don't really get the opportunity to do triple threat matches at WrestleMania very often. It's often a singles, one-on-one contest.

So there's a lot at play. And like you mentioned, a lot of history. And we got about a month to dig into all that stuff.

So I think it'll come up and I'll be very curious to see what kind of emotions it elicits from our audience who, you know, we're kind of three fan favorites. But The one thing I notice, as much as these crowds love me, you know, I was in Bologna, they're singing my song, I can barely get a word in. Edgewise, the minute I start talking about CM Punk or Roman Reigns, they're not too happy about that. They turn on you a little bit, bro. I don't know.

But that's the way it is when Punk starts talking about me or Roman or Roman starts talking about me or Punk. They love to put the finger in the air, but when you start running down the guys they like, then they don't know how to feel.

So there's a lot of complex emotions going on between the three of us and between the audience.

So I'm very interested to see how it plays out. Hmm. I just gotta say, man, like. Hmm. I can't believe this is my job sometimes.

Number one, great, great job. Being on the rich show is still finding a way to get an NCW top. Oh, that goes without saying. That's just the versatility from Jefferson is crazy. Look at him go!

Look at him go. The dude is Dude, it's amazing. But absolutely, dude. Um, Okay. Yeah, I mean seeing everyone who knows me.

No, CM Punk is, you know, an actual friend of mine. Yeah, that's like Phil is my guy. He's been my guy for years. He was my guy before he went back to AEW. Yeah, man.

And everyone knows that Roman, like, I don't know, I don't know if they know, but like, he is my, your, our tribal chief. And Seth Rollins, we know how Seth Rollins held down the WWE for the years when he was on top.

So it is going to be a bunch of mixed emotions. I don't know. How I'm gonna feel that mania, but I will know. I will be at mania. I will be there.

I will be in the building, TJ. I mean, rain, sleet, or snow. I'm gonna be there too. I'm saying, I don't care if I got to dress up like a you know a concession worker and uh sell peanuts and cokes in between the matches. You know, I don't care if I got to clean up, maybe they'll put me on the ring crew.

I'm gonna be in the building though.

So, peanuts and coaches, broke. That versatility, bro. Come on, stop playing with us. Stop playing with us, bro. The match is gonna be huge, bro.

Match is gonna be huge. And now, you know, he said you rarely get a you know, a triple threat, and now it looks like we're gonna get two because you're gonna have Roman Seth. And Punk, and then you're gonna have EO, Bianca, and Rhea.

So we're gonna get two of these, and both of these matches are gonna be certified grade A bangers. Bro, and I'm like you, I love all three. of the guys on the men's side. And I, you know. Y'all know how I feel about Bianca.

What are we never gonna do? I'm never gonna boo Bianca. And you know me about EO. Yeah, bro. I'm never gonna boo EO.

I don't think I've ever booed Rhea. Yeah, so I mean. Man, this is gonna be incredible, man. I'm so third where we What was today?

Well, we're not in April yet. We're not in April yet.

So, we're almost about three weeks away. Almost about a little bit over. This WrestleMania, now it's starting to take shape a little bit.

Now you've got your. Gunther and Jay match for the world heavyweight title. You know, then you're going to have Tiffany and Charlotte. You're going to have the trip two triple threats, like we said. We're going to get KO, Randall K, and KO going at it.

You know, this is. Starting to come together, man, and the excitement is just, I'm starting to feel it. Yeah, and let me. Don, I'm going off the rails. Let me just say, oh boy.

All right. Oh, boy. I don't know what's going on with Tiffany Stratton, but it's not the Tiffany Stratton I know and love from NXT. Tiffany. I need you to lock in.

I need you to lock in. You know, I'm a Charlotte Flair fan, second generation forever. But Tiff, I'm gonna need to see something. As a Tommy Stratton fan. My girl's getting worked.

I was getting beat up a lot, dude. I don't know. I'm talking about the microphysically. Because it's a little both right there. I know, but like, I know that Tiffany from NXT was.

Quick as a whip, sharp. You love the hater, but that's what made us. Really love her. And I think WrestleMania, I think the way that they're gearing and pushing her up is going to be. I mean, she's already the champion, so I can't call it a coming-out party, but.

I'm very excited and I'm anticipating this match because I feel like the WWE knows we need to see something from Tiff, and Tiff. Bring that house down. Down, please, please. Oh, I hate to interrupt. You know, it's just sometimes something just pops in your head.

This just popped in my head. during the Seth Rollins interview. After we cut the interview there. Seth is still talking about things that could happen at Mania. And I told him.

I had an idea.

Okay. That would Burn it all down. And he goes, Well, that's my theme. Burn it down. And I'm like, It's funny you said that.

I'm going to make just a A prediction? I'm going to make a little WrestleMania prediction. Because what's wrestling about? It's about. Taking you down the road and then making a turn that you never let on a road that you never saw coming.

True. You've got the triple threat. Uh-huh. Got the travel chief. Talk to him.

Got it. Charles Montgomery Punk. And you've got Seth Freak and Rollins. Also on the outside, you've got the wise man, Paul Heyman.

Now, Paul Heyman, we know, owns Charles Montgomery, Cookie Monster Punk. A favorite. You remember a few decades ago when Paul Heyman was with Brock Lesnar and then he flipped on Brock? And then took the big show on.

Okay, don't do this, TJ. I think it's Monday that would something that would set the world on fire. Who's the one guy that the wise man? Paul Heyman has not Been in the On and Air manager slash advocate slash wise man for out of those three men. No, Seth, What if at WrestleMania?

Mm-hmm. Paul Heyman and Seth Rollins. Wonder Twin Powers. Activate. I'm calling my Uber right now.

Okay. Like Zan and Jaina and their monkey friend Gleek. Wendy and Marvin too. They were on this what if Seth And Paul Heyman. Did you drop the monkey's name too?

No, just now I did. You are out of pocket. I don't. I just thought I shook you a little bit. You ain't got to be a little bit more.

I don't want to hear that. I don't want to hear that. I don't want that. And Seth asked me on the Rich Eisen show. I said, no, I said, you know, I got a podcast where I can talk about that.

So I wanted to make sure I got that in today. What if? What if? And sadly, on this episode, we got a big interview to do. Yeah.

So we'll get into more of that next week on next Monday. Such a marinate for a week, baby. Yeah, you, you. I've been in the scamming stabbing. It made me an animal.

There's rules to this stuff. I wrote me a manual.

Okay. Hey, Rich Eisen here. I hear from a lot of business owners like you about the work it takes to pursue your passions.

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All-State Fire and Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates, Northbrook, Illinois. TJ, I've always said the heaviest letters in the alphabet. Are JR. All right, they bring a level of responsibility onto you from day one, and it is a challenge given to you. From the first day you're born, make a name for yourself.

And our next guest is doing just that. He is a former PWI Rookie of the Year. Rookie of the Year. Rookie of the Year is crazy. Rookie of the Year.

My man has a, he's gone from earning his bachelor's degree in business and information systems to earning the NXT Heritage Cup. Northern Kentucky stand up. He's gone from cubicles to the squared circle. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to King, Lexus King, to NCW, man. Good to see you.

Hey, happy to be here. It sounds like you did your research. A little bit. You know, we try. We try.

Hey, Lexis, like I like to tell people, this ain't a game. We don't do this for fun. I mean, we do do it for fun, but you know.

So, dude, we, you know. Like you said, I've done my research.

So talk to us a little bit about getting that itch. For wrestling from the cubicle. You know, you had your idea of where your life was going to go, but when exactly did you get bit by that wrestling bug?

Well, I think you touched on it earlier. It's always very, very difficult to follow in the footsteps of a great man. And as great as my father was, it didn't quite end so well for him. And I think because of that, there was a lot of pressure from my family and my teachers and my coaches to pursue more of a mundane lifestyle and to go to college and get my degree. And All of those things.

So I kind of put wrestling in the back of my mind. You know, I tried not to connect with it too much until I got older. But, you know, it was, you know, getting through college. You know, I wanted to prove to myself that I could do that. That's, you know, my father never actually finished, never graduated.

My mother, my mother didn't finish either. You know, so it was kind of a family thing to kind of get that diploma and show that I could succeed at being a rather, you know. Normal, for lack of a better word, person. And I think when you're, you know, when you're there and you're and you're like, oh, okay, well, this is it. You know what I mean?

This is going to be my life for the rest of my life. Nine to five, every day, I'm going to sit in this chair and I'm going to answer phone calls and I'm going to solve other people's problems.

Well, you know, I just quickly realized that that wasn't for me. You know, I was spending more of my day at the office on YouTube. Watching wrestling videos and figuring out that, wait a minute, there's actually a world outside the WWE. You know, I don't actually have to be. An NCAA or a freaking NFL draft pick to make it.

I saw what Cody Rhodes was doing. I saw what the Young Bucks were doing. And Kenny Omega and Chris Jericho going over to Japan and creating all that. And I thought, wow, this wrestling world is so much bigger than I thought. And maybe there is a chance for me to kind of break in and see if I like it.

Right, and um I I'd seen you speak a bit about those memorial shows.

Now, you're are you in attendance of those shows? Are wrestlers speaking to you about how old were you? Talk to us a little bit about those.

So, I was like between the ages of like five and eight. We did like three or four of those shows, and that was my first real exposure to it. I was really young, so I wasn't really able to grasp sort of what the business was and all that. But I remember just being around Mark Henry and the Hardy Boys. And you know, my first ever wrestling entrance was at one of those memorial shows.

Me and my little sister, we came out with the Hardy Boys, and we got to feel that like coming through the curtain kind of pop and stuff. But you know, it wasn't long after that those, you know, those were sort of used as like you know, a way to raise money for our family and stuff. And then, once they stopped having them, you know, I kind of was more or less disconnected from the business after that. You know, and again, you know, the way that we were raised, you know, was more or less not. To be, you know, associated with wrestling.

You know, we were kind of, you know, annexed from it in that way. But no, I mean, those memories are still very fond to me. You know, I remember meeting Ric Flair, you know, Goldust, a lot of those guys, you know, at a young age. And it was, you know, it was really cool to look back on those memories. And, you know, part of me wishes I had started sooner.

But also, everything happens for a reason. And I'm very, I don't know if I'd be where I'm at now if I didn't take the path that I took, you know?

Okay. So, Lex, I know you were very young when your father, the late, great Flying Brian, the loose cannon Pillman, passed away. Can I just talk to you about, like, what are some of your memories of your dad? I know it was so early in your life that he passed on, but. I actually, you know, the memories are very few, but some of the most, you know, some of the most.

things I remember are, you know, when he had his uh Is Hummer accident? And he came home after getting his surgery and stuff. And he had these bolts. He had this weight like bolted into his ankle to keep it in place. And I'm telling you straight up, they were like screwed in there.

And you could see them sticking out of his leg and like the blood and the crust around the bolts. It almost looked like it was just like he was like a machine, like he was just this mechanically disabled. Like I can just remember that very vividly. There's the details of the grime and all that. And like, I thought that was like super cool as a kid.

I didn't know he was in so much pain. I was like, oh, he's in so much pain, but all I could do is look at it and touch it and stuff. You know, I really remember his voice, you know, and how coarse it was through all the throat surgeries he had. And then I do remember, I remember the night that Stone Cold broke into my home and vandalized my property, destroyed my kiddie pool, broke the glass, shattered the glass at the back door. I mean, they didn't clean up that glass for like three weeks after that.

You know, I was mad. I was like, there's glass all over my we had, I had like a little Little jungle gym down there in the basement. I was a spoiled little brat. You know what I mean? You know, my dad was a pro wrestler, so I had a lot of toys and stuff.

And, you know, Steve Austin didn't give a damn. He just came in and tore the place of shit. And I think he closed me. He closed me that one.

So. Do you remember much, like you said, about the shoot? Do you remember them that they talked to you before the shoot to let you know what was going to happen? Did they explain to you? I mean, even at that young age, do you remember any of that?

Yeah, we were, we were, I remember me and my sister, we were crying and we didn't know what was going on. And they were like, just, you know, you know, they have obviously the production people there telling us to stay upstairs, don't go downstairs, don't go downstairs. But, you know, at the time it was just so chaotic, you know, and they didn't want to spoil it for us kids.

So honestly, we thought it was a shoot. Like, we didn't know what was going on. That's crazy. Because at that time, man, like, your dad had. You know, he had become one of these first wrestlers who really blurred the lines between.

a work in a shoot, right? To the point where I remember when that happened. We literally thought Stone Cold really broke. Like, oh no, bro, this isn't, this is real. Yeah.

And then Brian Pillman pulled a gun on Stone Cold. Like, no, no, no, no. Rightfully so. And like, so, yeah.

So back in those days, man, it was just like. At that moment, that just seems so real. And, you know, when you're wrestling fans, we always have to suspend this belief a little bit. And so there's always times when something will happen, but like, no, no, that right there, that, that really, and that was one of those moments where you couldn't tell me lines of blur that was not a real event. I mean, to be, to be fair, you're not the only ones.

I mean, we, I mean, we got guys here that have been training here for years and they'll bring it up to me like, man, like when your dad pulled out that gun, like that was the realest. shit I'd ever seen. Like they were like, people were bought in on it. Like it was, and it was one of those angles where, you know, maybe it did go a little too far. You know, maybe it was a little bit too edgy for the times.

But, you know, that's what people remember and that's what people look back on. And, and I think it's, it's, it's pretty cool that he has sort of that moment in history where, you know, reality was definitely, you know, blurred there.

Now you mentioned training. know that you trained under the Great Landstorm. Can you yeah If I if I heard this right, you drove 30 hours. To go train up in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Talk to us about what it is to drive 30 hours.

I'm not driving 30 hours for shit, TJ.

Well, if you want to become a pro wrestler, Lance Storm was there. I get it. I get it. 30 hours, man. There's literally a song about that.

But yeah, so talk to us about driving 30 hours. What are some of those road trips like before you even get there?

So, you know, I made my decision to train with Lance Storm, you know, based on a bunch of different factors. You know, I looked up what was the most reputable school at the time, and I actually reached out to Steve Austin, who was kind of guiding me in the right direction. And he assured me that Lance was a great place to start with. But I actually took my first bump in OVW in Louisville under a guy named Rip Rogers. That's where I kind of took my first bumps.

cut some promos. I didn't learn a whole lot because it was a few weeks after that that I would end up going up to Calgary, but I wanted to get a little bit of a head start and see what was going on. And but yeah, I mean, it was just, it was a cool little ride of passage for me as well, because my father trained in Calgary and trained in that Canadian wrestling style. And for me, Lance Storm, because, you know, the Hart family didn't have a school up there at the time.

So for me, Lance Storm was sort of the successor to the Hart Dungeon in many ways. And I think, you know, Lance himself actually trained with the Harts too when he was coming up. And there was a point where. He was like leading the classes and was like the head coach, like almost for them too.

So he was the ultimate successor for me. And it was this cool, you know, a lot of my career has sort of, you know, mirrored my father's in some ways. And I always thought that was very special in a way to sort of pay respect to him and go get trained the right way. Yeah, I took my own car. I had a little Scion XD at the time, a little piece of junk, but she made it all the way out there.

My uncle, who more or less was, you know, raised me, he was pretty much the closest thing I had to a father. He took the trip out west with me and we took the scenic route. You know, we went through Yellowstone and we saw Mount Rushmore and all that before we, you know, cut it up north up to Calgary, where I ended up staying in Calgary for three months.

So it wasn't too bad to get the drive out of the way. My uncle flew back a few days after we got there. But yeah, it was a cool little road trip out there. I got to live in Calgary, Alberta for three months and train with one of the best, you know, most sound fundamental wrestlers that there ever was, and pay a little tribute to my father. Also, while I'm out there, I'm in Calgary.

You know, I got to meet the Hart family and Bruce and Brett and everybody. You know, I've been over to Brett's house. He's been very good to me. And then years later, down the road, after being on AEW and some different things, the Hart family actually did start up an independent show at some of their different venues and stuff. And Brett's got a distillery.

So it's always been a great connection with them. I love going up there and getting a chance to perform. It's really cool. Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile with a message for everyone paying big wireless way too much. Please for the love of everything good in this world, stop.

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Taxes and fees extra. See full terms at Mintmobile.com. No Contest Wrestling, where O'Shea Jackson Jr. and TJ Jefferson bring their hot ticks with the biggest names in the game. Ladies and gentlemen, Broad Breaker.

Welcome to the proof. My aspirations in life. I always wanted to be a WWE superstar. The prodigy. Roxanne Perez.

I gotta talk about the Hugger cosplay. I mean, it was perfect, wasn't it? LA Knight. What am I doing here? This morning I can retire.

See, everybody. The No Contest Wrestling Podcast, part of the Rich Eisen Podcast Network. Follow and listen on your favorite platform. Talk to me a little bit about. what it means to you to kind of earned the stripes when When I made the decision to go into the same career path as my father.

You know, I was going to an an acting class three times a month for two years straight, flew to New York to be with a coach. Uh there's been a such funny story. Uh, I did this film called Denn of Thieves, and it's like my third film ever at the time. And you know, I was having a hard time on set. Dealing with just the hours and not being used.

There's times where I'm on set for 12, 13 hours, and I'm just. They're like, oh, we'll try tomorrow. Maybe we'll get to you tomorrow. And I remember asking my dad. You know, is this normal?

Like, do I talk to the director? Do I talk to the AD? And his response was: just go home. I was like, what do you mean? He was like, yeah, tell them you're going home.

Tell them you're getting, and if they don't use you, you're going to LA and call them when you're ready.

So that's a real ice cube thing to do. I can't really do that right now. Not on my third film. And I had to kind of go through the ringer a little bit to kind of get to where I felt that. I had earned it.

So, talk about earning those stripes in wrestling and what that means to you. Yeah, it's a very interesting predicament and something that I've also struggled with my entire career. I've read a book, it's called The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene and Law 41, which is Always be wary of falling in a great man's shoes. It'll tell you that, you know, as the successor of a great man, such as your father and mine, you know, you almost have to do twice the work, you know, just to receive the same amount of appreciation for your work.

So it is an uphill battle. And the best strategy that you can do is to either work literally twice as hard just for people to appreciate what you're doing, or, you know, go in a completely different direction. Obviously, I chose to get into the pro wrestling world.

So, in order to, you know, exemplify that hard work, I told myself, I said, I'm not going to go straight to the WWE. You know, I'm not going to go straight to the performance center. I actually had a tour to. You know, see this place. Regal brought me around and let me see what was going on here before I even decided to go to Lance's school.

So the door was already open, and I thought what would be best for me and my growth is to go out there and do it the hard way.

So I went out on the Indies. I started asking for just $100 to go and wrestle. I didn't want to go out there and. And risk getting hurt for free. But at the same time, I was like, hey, I've got a little name value.

Some guys go out there and they start off working for free and all this. But I was like, you know what? I'll show up. I'll help with the ring. But it's like, I need a little something to justify that I'm doing this and to make a little money to pay the bills.

And having a little bit of that name value, most promoters were very open to that and they were happy to have me on their shows. But it was a lot of failure. It was a lot of failure very quickly, very early on. I was in a lot of positions that I truly didn't think I deserved to be in at the time. But I was in them positions based on who I was.

And it sucked. It really sucked to go out there and to know that you're in a spot just because of what your last name is. And then to also not deliver right away always felt really bad. But eventually, time and time again, I mean, shit, I had 400 matches before I came to the WWE. You know what I mean?

So I failed more than any of them. I failed on the grandest stage in front of 20,000 people.

So, no one can say that I didn't go out there and bust my ass and get hurt and fall down and fail and get back up and keep going. And the same thing happened when I got here. You know, they didn't take it easy on me. And there's a little bit of that here at the WWE. You know, we, we, you know, as a second generation wrestler, you do have some advantages, but they're going to make you work for them and they're going to make you pay, you know, and you're going to have to pay, like we said, almost twice the amount of dues, you know, working twice as hard, you know.

And I talked to Cody about that. I got to sit down actually when I was in Calgary training with Lance. We weren't allowed to wrestle on the shows, but there were some indie shows going on. And Lance wanted us all as his students to go and help set up the ring. And one of those shows was Cody Rhodes was booked on it.

It was Prairie Wrestling Alliance, PWA. He was doing his big indie world tour before a Ring of Honor and the freaking AEW, everything got started. He was just like, dude, I'm doing it. I'm betting on myself. And that's when he sat down on the floor with me and he said, it's going to be hard.

It's going to be harder for you because of who you are. Everybody. Everybody thinks it's easier, but in so many ways it's harder, you know? You know, Lexus, you mentioned Stone Cold Steve Austin earlier. And just for those who don't know, your dad.

Flying Brian Pullman and stunning Steve Austin. Part of a great tag team in WCW called the Hollywood Blondes. I want to give a little, you know, Hollywood Blonde shout out, you know, right there. And, you know, and I think that was. Part of the reason it hurt me so bad that they started to feud in WWF because I was a Hollywood Blondes fan, and now I see Stone Cold Steve Austin and the Luce Cannon together.

I'm like, oh, we're bringing it back. And then, of course, they started to feud.

So, you know, that's just a little history lesson there. But. The question being, you mentioned Steve, are there any other wrestlers, maybe friends of your pops, that you kind of do look at as mentors and that you can still call, you know, wa when you have questions? I mean, there is such a long list. I mean, I've been so blessed with so many of the guys that my father, whether he worked with them directly or indirectly, or even they just looked up to his work.

You know, I've been very blessed. You know, Matt Hardy has always been there for me, Chris Jericho, a lot of these guys that, you know, even if they weren't like directly right there with him, you know, they respected what he did. I mean, even Sean Michaels understands, you know, the decisions that my father had to face, whether to go down the road he went down or to go down another one. And so a lot of these guys, they can relate to my story and my father's story and the unfortunateness of his passing. And they can kind of relate and extend a hand and help me out.

But honestly, I am a product of my environment. I am a product of all these amazing producers and agents and the writers here at WWE. They've really reined me in and really molded me into a much better performer because, you know, I mean, I mean, Going back to even when I was on the indies, just so many guys that sharing locker rooms with, Ricky Morton, you know, and then like I mentioned, Rip Rogers earlier. He worked with my dad a lot.

So there's been so much that has gone into, you know, getting me to where I am today that like, you know, I couldn't have done it alone, you know? You talk to us about the training and the grind and the 400 matches. I need to know what was your welcome to wrestling moment. A bump that was either crazy or something, something that just made you say, Yeah, this is the life we chose. This is it.

This is it right here. Or maybe being a second guest, goddamn. You know, there's been a lot of times where I've doubted myself, and a lot of times where I was like, Is it for me, or am I just chasing something that's not for me? You know, but as far as your question is concerned, as far as just thinking, like, holy shit.

So, um, I was wrestling in, this was very early on in my career. I was wrestling in Raleigh, North Carolina, I believe, some town of that nature. And we're wrestling in a gym, in like a high school gym, you know, on a basketball court.

So, you know, we've got hardwood floor. We've set the ring up for this independent promoter. And there's no mats around the ring, you know. And I'm like, all right, you know, no big deal, right? You know, and uh.

And it's hotter than shit, right? Because we're in North Carolina, it's the middle of the summer. I'm excited to wrestle. I'm very lucky in that I get to work in a more experienced guy. His name is John Schuyler.

And at the time, he was really solid and he's really great now, too. But we were in this match and, you know, we're doing our best. Again, I'm young. I'm trying to do everything in the book. And he goes, hey, man, I want to do a, it's pretty simple.

I know you're green. You haven't taken it before, but I'm going to do like a Finley roll off the second row. You know, I'm going to stand on the second. I just need you to get up there and get on my shoulders. And I'm like, all right, you know, simple enough.

You know, looking back, I would have been like, no, no, thanks.

So I didn't know any better. And I'm going to do whatever they ask, but I'd never done or taken the move before. And so, of course, we're in the blistering hot North Carolina. It's sweatier than a dog out there. He's a sweaty guy.

I'm a sweaty guy. He pulls off the straps of his singlet, so there's no friction up there. You know, I'm up on the top rope. You know, he comes and gets me, goes to set me up on his shoulders. And I don't know if it was just the ropes or the ring or whatever, or me being nervous, but I maybe I grabbed something or pushed something.

But we're up there, you know, we're at the top of the turnbuckle. And instead of going in the ring, we just took a nice little DVD to the hardwood floor. I went and spin. Luckily, I tucked my head. I landed right on my shoulder, immediately separated my AC joint.

I'm laying there. I think I'm, you know, I think my whole career is over. And he comes out there. He's like, Are you okay? I'm sorry.

He throws me in. He's like, Take it, super kick, boom. And we take it home, you know. And I'm thinking, man, this is rough. But then, you know, adrenaline's going.

I'm not, I'm not too bad. I'm thinking, oh my God, everything's. Tour up. I get to the back, and they're like, oh, like, you know, you got to catch this flight tomorrow. And so it's like, shit, I go back to the hotel.

I'm laying there. I'm in pain. I can't find a single comfortable spot. You know, I mean, at some point, I think I just freaking. I think I just stayed up and writhed in pain all night.

And then I you know, I go no, I think I actually went to the ER that night before I went back to the hotel. Of course, they tell me it's separated. You know, it's a grade three, but good thing about it was It was very painful. It made me realize How hard this job is. It made me realize how Much that I have to look forward to these struggles, and it and it tested me, and you know, and it really put me in a position where I was like, Man, like, this is the life I'm signing up for.

This could happen on any night. And I get it, the more experience you get, the less likely that's going to happen. But it happens every day, it happens to some of the most talented people I see here that you know you wouldn't even believe it's the stupidest little misstep, or somebody lands wrong, and then their knee is gone. And I just remember being in that hotel room, like, man, like, you know, I'm gonna have to toughen up because this is the job, you know, this is this is what it is. Turned out it wasn't too bad, it's still separated to this day.

You kind of see it. Oh, wow. You know what I mean? Oh, yeah.

So that's just not connected. But a lot of guys have them. It's a common MMA injury. And yeah, you just rehab it. And then I bounced back pretty quickly.

You know, I kept taking my bookings, I kept wrestling and training. And that's something else you got to do in this business. You know, whether you're hurt or injured, you got to keep going because you don't wrestle, you don't get paid. It's easy. Yeah.

So sorry for hurting you. But get in the ring and take this super character race. Wow, man. That's why that not everyone can is built for that life. Yeah, i is there is there anybody at um you know, we I like to ask this question a lot.

Is over at obviously you're over at NXT, you're working with, you know, a lot of great people over there. We think it's one of the most talented rosters NXT has put out in Quite some while.

So anybody's move, whether it be a finisher or it can be, you know, just your run-of-the-mill move that you just hate taking. you just when you know you you gotta take that above it's like all right yeah we gotta gotta suck it up today no there's there's there's a there's a few moves out there we got a couple guys that like to lay their stuff in but i think we can all as a roster we all have the consensus that uh taking the pizza toss from oba that's a tough one to take because he's just so i mean he's just so strong i mean he's the strongest human i've ever met He's such an impressive person. He's taken so well to this business so very quickly, as far as you know, the psychology and what it is we do. You know, it's not so common for the athletes to pick it up so well. But Oba's a natural and he does everything to his best ability.

But it's one of those bumps where you're not going up and down or straight, like you're going sideways and you're coming down. And it's just like there's no way to land on it without feeling like the wind gets knocked out of you.

So I always try to, you know, prepare for the pizza toss.

So Lex, you know, you spent some time in GZW and then you moved over to AW. Talk to me about the varsity blondes, man. What did you learn? wrestling in that tag team, or anything you picked up in your time there. You know, the the one of the greatest things, maybe one of the worst things as well about AEW was just the utter amount of creative freedom that we had.

I mean, we had so much that, you know, of course, as wrestlers, we think our ideas are so great, and then this is what we're going to do. And I remember Tony, you know, coming up to me like, hey, like, I'm putting you, you and Griff together. I look at Griff, you know, and we actually were on the flight, the same flight to work that day. And I looked at him and I thought, you know what? I could see us tagging.

And lo and behold, we get to the building that day. Tony says, Hey, I want to put you guys together. You know, we'll just call you the blondes for now. And I thought, the blondes?

Well, that has a nice thing to it. But I was like, we need a little something extra. You know, we need a little put a little something into it. And then, you know, I took in. I think Griff was doing some sort of like You know, collegiate Ivy League athlete gimmick at the time.

And I had very fond memories of playing high school football growing up as one of the greatest times of my life. And I knew Griff was an athlete as well. And I thought, well, there's a movie called The Varsity Blues, and we're the Blondes. Why don't we do the Varsity Blondes? And, you know, and I thought that's an easy gimmick to relate to.

You know, everybody played, you know, everybody went to school. They either played sports or they knew the asshole jocks that played sports. I thought, we can go either way with this. We can be heels that jump you and take your lunch money, or we can be the hometown team and we can, you know, rally to victory. And I thought I had some legs on it.

Again, a little bit of a generic idea, but I wasn't trying to, you know, overcomplicate things for my first pitch and my first gimmick there. And another hat's off to Cody. You know, Cody's always been sort of a guide in my career that I've kind of looked to for leadership and guidance. And I asked him, I said, hey, you know, me and Griff, we got this thing going on. We're doing the varsity blondes.

We got. The Letterman jackets. And then I was like, but look, there's this girl here. She's already in blue gear. I'm like, can we?

And she's a she's like a you know, national champion cheater. Could we please just like have her come out and do a couple round offs at our entrance? And then, like, if she fits, we'll just put her in the group. And then, you know, of course, Tony didn't like it at first. And then, like, Cody was like, no, no, this is great.

And then it was actually QT Marshall that really like choreographed it and made it look real good for us and really got the okay for us.

So a lot of help from him too. Um, when I was over there, he's he's an excellent human being.

So it all came together, and that was like my first pitch. And to like get your first pitch to be approved, it's always a good feeling to be like, oh, okay, maybe my ideas aren't too bad after all, you know. And the girl, of course, being Julia Hart, who she joined you guys.

Now, you can correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems as though you're one of the few people who've gone back and forth that doesn't really have like a tumultuous story when it comes to children. That's a good word, TJ. Brand. Tumultuous. Yeah, I see you, bro.

Thank you. I see you. It seems like you, unless it's something happened that we don't know, seemed like you were, you know, it was a pretty amicable split. You did your time in AEW, and then. What?

I guess I want to say like what was the time or when did you realize that like, okay, I've done this here, but I think I want to move on and like take my career to a another level and see what's, you know, over on the other side? Yeah, I think that things started to look a little grim when they took, you know, when they sort of. Remove Julia from the group. You know, I thought she was a very imperative part of it. But at the same time, I was confident in mine and Grip's abilities.

So I thought, why don't we change course a little bit and get away from the generic babyface and transition into a little bit more of like a rock and roll sort of fuckboy, you know, kind of group, you know, where we're just like little sexy guys.

So then we were going to do like the blondes or whatever. And then like, and then the The uh there was a tag team that we wrestled and they came and like You know, trademarked the name Varsity and stole it from us.

So then we were no longer the Varsity Blondes. We were just the blondes. And then it just kind of seemed like they were running out of ideas for us. And then it just, you know, it started to, you know, the writing was on the wall. I think also Griff got hurt at that time.

And so I was doing a lot more singles on dark and sort of starting to find myself again. And whenever, and the beauty of the beauty of AEW too is that when you weren't being used, you know, you had access to go and do the indies and to experiment and try new things.

So I took very full advantage of that and I tried to stay booked. You know, even if I wasn't booked on TV, I was, I had something going on on the weekends and stuff. And so I was always traveling, staying busy. And that's where I started to find myself. And again, it might have been a little too little too late.

You know, AEW was very much a sink or swim environment.

So by the time I found myself, it might have been a little too late. And I don't think it was, you know, my contract had come up. You know, it wasn't like I was released prior to it being done with, but it was a little out of the blue just because I was doing a lot of the, we had started doing house show loops and I had been performing well. I had a match with Jeff Jarrett and Claudio and some great, like really fun house show matches.

So I was on the road with the team. And at the time, a lot of the bigger stars, you know, weren't weren't willing to do those shows.

So I thought that I was showing like a lot of like, you know, willingness to work and to be for the company. And I did put the company first. I was very much a huge fan of AEW while I was there. And I still am a huge fan. And I wish them all the best because, you know, if it wasn't for, you know, we have to remember, you know, if it wasn't for AEW giving myself that stage, you know, giving Ricky and Ethan that stage, you know, we might not be where we are.

Now, you know what I mean?

So, it was a great amount of exposure. And I got to work with, I mean, I got to work with Brian Danielson and Jon Moxley and all these great guys. That, I mean, just by feeling them and just by touching them, you get better. You know what I mean? And, like, being in a tag team, and me and Griff, we got to wrestle the Young Bucks and we got to wrestle FTR.

So, we got to have a nice taste of like the whole spectrum of wrestling. You know, the AEW is kind of like a melting pot of wrestling. They have so many styles and so many little things you can pick up on.

So, it's definitely a different type of learning experience as opposed to here at WW. It's more of a structured learning experience, which is more beneficial for me. You know, I've always benefited more from structure, but no, it was a very, very imperative part of my career that definitely helped me grow. You know, that's what's up. No.

TJ, I know that we are a wrestling pod.

Okay, I know we talk wrestling all day. My man's got he's got other interests that I want to tap into. You're a car guy, man. You're a car guy. You know, you're still pushing the, what was it, the IS 300?

Lexus, by the way. Yeah, yeah. I got a 5.0 now. What about the Lexus 5.0? Bro, Lexus King driving the IS 300 drove me crazy last night when I found out.

Lexus, I'm also a Lexus guy. I got an SC430.

So I'm also in that Lexus. That family. Give us some of your dream cars. Give us a top five or something. Let us know about your love.

The story, I'll get to the top five in a second, but the story about that Lexus goes deeper than the name.

So my very first job when I was 13 years old was at my uncle's body shop.

Now, this was like a junkyard where they would buy wrecked cars at auction that had like body work damage. And then a bunch of old guys would fix them up and then resell them as like salvaged titles. And it was a great way for a young person that was trying to afford a car, you know what I mean? And so my uncle was like, hey, if you help us out around the shop, do this, that, the other, you know, pay your dues, eventually I'll, you know, I'll help you get a car. And they had this blue.

Lexus IS300 manual in the back corner. And I thought, man, I'm going to bust my ass and I'm going to work here as long as I have to to afford to get that damn car.

Well, then one of the days, you know, getting closer and leading up to when I was finally able to get it, the freaking one of the shop owner's sons comes in and he goes, Oh, I want that one. And then they started working, you know, of course, it was currently wrecked, but you know, they picked it out and then they started to get to work on it. And then it became his. And I thought, man, one day I just want to get that IS.

So purchasing that car, you know, last year or whatever was a way for me to sort of fulfill my little childhood dream of owning one while also paying an homage to my character name, right?

So I thought that was really cool. But no, right now, I, you know, I, I, I was, I had a motorcycle uh stint where I was really big into riding for a bit. And so I had just, you know, John Cena pulled me aside one day at the PC, said, you know, I saw you coming in on your bike, you know, and I just want to say, you know, I, you know, I. I like cars and stuff too, but and I used to ride, but you know what? I stopped riding once I got this job because if I get hurt, I don't get paid.

And then when John Cena says something like that to you, you pretty much have to just hang up the motorcycle boots and focus on rest.

So I needed something a little more fun.

So I took the IS and I sold it. And then I sold my motorcycle and got myself a Mustang 5.0 2015 performance package.

So it's a really awesome car. I've always been a fan of driving manual.

Now that I've had them, I was always very critical of Mustangs, but now that I've owned one, like for the price per buck, I mean, you're getting so much car. I mean, it's an amazing car. I love it. But yeah, top five. I mean, obviously, I think the McLaren F1 is like the most legendary car ever.

I think that down as like the top car. I was always a huge fan of the James Bond Aston Martin. Always. A favorite as a kid. That's probably number two.

Yeah, I mean, I guess we have to throw the Lexus in there also. Not only that, but like in the need for speed games, I would always get the Lexus IS2. It was always fun for me. And then, and then I guess we'll throw my dad's Hummer up there, you know, at number four, you know, because goddamn, that Hummer basically changed the course of my life.

So it's a very important car. And also, I believe he had a Porsche as well. Yeah, that's, you know, I don't know what specific one it was, but, you know, I've always aspired to have a little Porsche at some point in my life. It's just, they're so expensive these days. Yeah, of course.

I'm a big fan of Porsche. When I was. When I was a kid, like, what got me into... Like, where I started paying attention to cars is movie, Gone in 60 Seconds, Sniffs is Cage, Chef BGT 500. Like, to this day, I need that in my life.

Goldberg had a barracuda, and I remember asking my brother, what car is that? And just like, so I feel you. When I found out you're a car guy, I was like, okay, I gotta ask him that. But I also know. for our gamers out there like myself.

Amanda's on Twitch. He's still on Twitch, right? Lexus. Yeah, I was streaming last night. I streamed all night last night.

It was crazy. What are some of your favorite games? What are you playing right now? Right now, I'm stuck on Monster Hunter Wilds with the homies. Shout out to Chris and Geo.

Yeah, I. I'm sorry. No, what are you playing? What are you playing? I've recently.

I've always grew up playing like World of Warcraft, and then I had a period of college where I wanted to go pro in League of Legends.

So I'm still. Pretty, pretty proficient at the game. I'm a little bit of an OG. I started playing League of Legends when it first came out, and I've taken like an eight-year break.

So I'm still kind of rusty. And then I've kind of quit playing World of Warcraft. It's just, it becomes a little too much. But no, through the locker room and through meeting a lot of the guys here, I've developed a friendship with Axiom, and he has gotten me into the Magic the Gathering, which is just like a whole nother, like, it's like, and we're playing with the real cards, you know, and we're showing up to the tournaments and we're like, you know what I mean? Like, we're super competitive about it.

That's sick. And then they have the digital version of that as well, the MTG arena that you can play online. And, you know, like I grew up with the cards, but as a kid, I didn't know how to play the game. I just collected the cards, you know, I didn't really know what was going on. But then when I got older, I tried out Hearthstone and that kind of taught me like how to play a card game for real.

And then, so now I just actually play the real card game.

So it's pretty cool.

So between that and then I'll stream League of Legends. And then I've never been much of a wrestling game guy. Like I've always been like fantasy, RPG, whatever, Skyrim, Elder Ring, you know, I've always liked that stuff. But I've always been like a multiplayer person too.

So I used to I used to play Smash Brothers competitively, Smash 4 and Smash Ultimate. I would go to tourneys for that. And then. Yeah, I don't know where I was going with that, but uh I was gonna say, bro, you're in uh you in 2025, right? You in 2K25.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

So I was gonna say, like, I was never a big fan of uh wrestling games, but the last one I played was SmackDown vs. Raw 07, and I loved it. And I'd always play as Brock Lesnar, but um Now that I'm in WWE 2K25, I was like, you know what? Screw it. I'm just going to give it a chance.

And I play it and I love it. It's a great game. It's really, really fun. I created my own character, which isn't myself, but it puts in like the first freaking, so in the first like story mode, like quests, you like go up against me and this group. Like I'm like a bad guy in the game, which is pretty cool.

Cause like as a gamer myself, I've always thought like how cool it would be to be in a video game. And now like. even though it's WWE, but like it's still a video game and I'm one of the villains in the game.

So our group is called Mutiny and we have like this faction called Mutiny and it's like the first bosses you face and it's like me and KO and Bailey and Trick and EO and me and JC Jane are the intergender tag champs. Like it's just so funny like how like these game developers, these game developers, like they probably don't know, you know, too much of what goes on with the booking and everything behind the scenes here.

So they're just taking the characters that they like. I would assume, and like putting them together, you know, I'd assume Triple H isn't like telling the developers how to book the damn story mode. You know what I mean? Yeah, you know, so I'm a little bit flattered that they chose me to be like a pivotal part of the story mode. And then also, if you go into the tutorial where it talks about like the grappling and stuff, it uses me and Charlie Dempsey as like the dummies for the tutorial.

So I thought that was pretty cool too. You know, that's sick. Another second generation guy. Yeah, dude. I'm always happy to see a gamer in a game, dude.

Same respect to you, man. It's cool. Like that. And then getting the action figure in the same year. It's been like a really good year for me to sort of be like, you know, immortalized by those things and to show that I've kind of, you know, did my part in this business and I've created my own name.

You know, for the first time, I'm starting to feel like my own man. You know what I mean? I'm starting to step outside that shadow. That's dope. That's really dope.

So, you know, we talked about everything before.

Now we're in NXT. And I guess I have a two-part question here. Your presentation, right? First of all, where did the idea for the sitting on the The chair, the throne, and having it slide in the frame. That shit's so hard.

That that's first of all, never been done that I know of in wrestling before. That's part one of the presentation and part two, a little bit more of the physical part. We got to get on your beard game and we got to talk about where This I guess this idea for you to have your beard looking so crispy. Where should I start? Should I start with the throne or start with the beer?

You start wherever you like to start, Lexus.

Well, I'm not here to be able to get it. I would love to say that the throne was my idea, but no, that was 100% a WWE production call. I want to say it was Matt Bloom, the head coach, because he was the first person to tell me about it. But the way he pitched it first, he was like. We got an idea for you, Luxus.

We're gonna have this throne, and they're gonna, and we're gonna have a bunch of smoke shows, and they're gonna carry you out on the throne. And I'm thinking. Wow, I got hit the freaking jackpot. I got the name king. I got all the hot girls carrying me out on the throne.

And then we get to the day of the show, and they're like, ah, it's going to be hard for these girls to carry you out there.

So we're going to have to figure out another way to like. You know, get you to come out. And then one of the production guys was like, Oh, why don't we just throw it on some wheels and we'll roll them out? And then we like spent the day like figuring out how it would work and like, you know, how we're gonna get the wheels. And it's like, it's not like some advanced technology.

Like, it's literally just on wheels. And then, like, there's a few guys on the other end that just like. You know, they just like pull you off, but it but it but it comes out great. And then you add the fog in there and, you know, it comes out great.

So I'm very, I'm beyond blessed by that. I think that apart from, you know, the important things of changing my name, obviously was very important for me to create my own identity, but also all these little things that we can do to further myself from my father to create my own character has done wonders for me. You know, this company didn't owe me anything and they've done so many things to make me an even bigger star. I always thought I was going to be a star. I always thought I had what it took.

I always thought I had the look and the ability to talk and the ability to connect with people. But it's all the smoke and mirrors. It's all the production. It's all the hard work and from the writers and the people pulling the chair and from everybody. You know what I mean?

The props people that put together the Heritage Cup and keep it shined up. Like there's so much that goes into this business that I didn't understand because as an indie wrestler and even at AEW, you had so much on your plate and so much control. you didn't realize how much Other people can do to contribute, and how, if you just focus on the wrestling and getting that done in the ring, everything else will fall into place, you know? No doubt. And then The facial hair, the beard.

Yeah.

The geometry. I'm a little worse for wear today. You know, it is a very expensive procedure, I will say, but every week I spend a few hundred dollars and I go to a guy named Charlie. He's a Peruvian man. He's a local.

He's actually the barbershop owner. He owns like several barbershops around Orlando. I think there's like four or five of them. And he is the utmost professional. This is like his artwork.

You know what I mean? So he spends, it takes me two hours to get my beard done. And again, he's not cutting my hair. He's trimming up the sides and he's doing the beard. He's not touching any of this.

You know what I mean? So. All this, I mean, he spends two hours with a razor and then the paintbrush and then all the enhancements, and every little detail is done to a certainty to be his artwork, his unique design. And we finally landed on, you know, we did a few different iterations of it, but we finally landed on a design that we're gonna make my iconic look. And it all started when I moved here.

Um, I needed to, you know, find a barber, and you know, I don't know why. I just decided to go through my contacts. Uh, Carmelo Hayes was somebody that I was cool with because you know, we had ran into each other on the indies a few times, and I didn't know a lot of the guys here. And I said, Hey, man, like, I got this TV thing Tuesday, I need to get a haircut. Like, do you know where I can go?

And he sent me to the right place because it had completely I just showed up with it one day with a spray tan and the beard all lined up. And people were like, That's it, keep doing it. And then it just got more, you know. Um obnoxious as time went on. We kept upgrading it a little bit.

But no, I think we're happy with where it's at, and I'm happy with the reception that it's had. There's so many ways that you can make yourself stand out in this business. That's definitely one of them. Yeah, I'm and You know, you mentioned obviously the the name change. From Brian Pillman Jr.

to Lexus King.

Now, funny story, TJ. My dad A lot of, you know, most people don't know this, but there was a time where he. Was a little concerned about me being a junior where he felt like. Maybe I shouldn't have been a junior because of how hard it would be to make a name for myself. And so, you know, that was an inner battle that he kind of went through.

The only issue was he came to this conclusion when I was 31 years old.

So it was the game at that point three years ago.

So it's like, oh, we're a little late. You know, we've got some credits now.

So talk to us about how it came down to Lexus King. And, you know, what you said, you know, you got the cool King name and like all that.

So what is that process of finding that new name? Yeah, so I just going back to what you're saying about your dad or whatever. My father did name me Brian, but his middle name is William. Ah, so that saves you.

Okay. My middle name is Zachary.

So I don't legally have the surname Junior, like I don't have, but I am Brian Pillman.

So again, it can be kind of confusing. And when I remember as a kid, I didn't like the name Brian. And I was like, just call me B, Zach.

So even as a kid, I was trying to do my own thing and separate myself. But no, it was definitely a blessing in disguise because, you know, coming in here. I'm thinking about that. I'm thinking about the equity that holds and the amount of and the way the fans connect with that and how that sort of carried me through my Indy and into my AW career.

So I was very nervous about. Foregoing that, and I didn't know if that's what my father would have wanted either. I thought about that. I was like, Would he want me to change my name? And the more I thought about it, and the more I realized, and I'm like, Man, this is.

This is something I've always needed. This is something I've always wanted is to, you know, to finally, you know, everybody else has their cool like wrestling name. Like, why don't I have mine? You know what I mean? Like, I was really excited.

And believe it or not, my very first indie wrestling match was against Cody Hawk, the guy who trained Dean Ambrose, later became Jon Moxley.

So. His name was Cody Hawkin, and I actually wrestled because I was Lance had warned me about the whole second generation comparison things. He was like, Oh, maybe you should wrestle in a mask for two years. And I was like, We're not doing all that, but like, I'll go work on all indie show. And I was like, let me just have a fake name and then just get it out of my system.

And then if I decide to be Brian Fayman Jr., I will. But my very first indie name was Alex King. Oh, okay. I was Alex King because my little sister's name is Skylar King. That was my stepdad's daughter, same mom.

And then my mom's daughter, different dad, her name was Alexis Reed. And she passed away when she was like 28. And I want to say I was like 15. And she was actually pursuing an indie wrestling career at the time. Passed too.

So it was a little bit of a tribute to her and my little sister Skylar from all the troubles that she went through in her childhood, too.

So it was my way to give a little tribute to my sisters. I've got four sisters and one brother. I don't think my brother would be too mad about not using his name, but that's where the name came from. And I was just, I was so blessed to come here to WWE because as soon as they told me, Like, as soon as they were like, all right, you know, we talked, again, again, there's a million standards, who knows what's true, but they're like, all right, we talked to legal and they said, you can't be Brian Pillman Jr. And I was just instantly, I just, I already had the name ready.

I was like, all right, I know what I'm going to be. Like, and then actually, again, I'm thinking Alex King or Alexis King, and I'm thinking about it. I'm like, I'm like, man, how do I make this cooler, edgier? And like, I almost wanted to like rib the whole like, cause you know, everybody makes fun of like the NXT names. And I'm like, my name's got to be some goofy, like, it's got to be something weird.

That way, people can just like, they can't, you know what I mean? They can't stop looking at it.

So one of the guys in the, in the, um, And the break room was like.

Well, you know, just some random, you know, who's just like. What if you just do Lexis like without the A? Like just Lexus. Like, you're a damn genius. Like, you're a genius.

And then I actually texted Jericho about it too, to get his thoughts on it. And he liked it too.

So that was a cool time. You know, anytime there's creativity involved or creating something new, it's always really cool for me.

So I really like that process and getting gear made and anything that, you know, where new stuff comes about, it's always interesting for me. That's dope. That's dope. Well, before we get to that, because we have a few more questions for you, but since we're on the topic of family, I just want to bring this up because I feel like she deserves her flowers. I remember watching your dad's dark side of the ring and your aunt Linda.

Was on there, and she, I guess, you know, helped raise you. And I can just remember watching that thinking, Linda is a G, man. Can you tell us a little bit about your aunt and what she meant? To you. Yeah, Linda, that is my father's sister.

She is a saint, and you know, everything happens for a reason. She never actually had kids of her own.

So, you know, when my father passed, there was a very rough period where I was living with my mother and stepfather. And about the age of 13, things started getting pretty rough. And then. My aunt Linda was up in Norwood taking care of our grandma grandma, Granny, which is my dad's mother, who lived to be like 83. Like she, you know, she lived to be quite old.

So my aunt was busy taking care of her. It was, it was hard for her to drop that and to come down. But once my grandmother passed, my aunt Linda, you know, sold her home up there, you know, took out a lot of her retirement and bought me and my sister Brittany a home in northern Kentucky so that way we could continue going to the same high school. And that's when my aunt Linda really stepped in and became my caretaker. And when I was about 16, 15 or 16, she took over.

I lived with a friend for a couple years before that. I lived with a buddy named Paul for that. But once Linda came in and gave us like a solid, you know, stable home to live in, that's when I was able to really dial in and focus on sports and not focus on what I was going to eat the next day.

So she is a true angel, a true saint. And she is. every bit of my mother as as anybody, you know what I mean? She's she is my mother, you know, and she took care of me and my sisters and everything.

So she deserves it all, you know what I mean?

So I always make sure when I get those when I get those action figure checks to send her a couple of thousand. Dollars here and there because you know anything to help her out. Right now, she takes care of my dog up in northern Kentucky. I got a wild uh Catahoula leopard dog, and um She's a handful. And I couldn't have her down here at the apartment because it wouldn't have worked out.

So Linda's still creating miracles to this day as she continues to take care of my dog back home in Edgewood. Shout out to Aunt Linda, man. Shout out to Aunt Linda. True G, right. She's actually had that.

She has a shirt on ProWrestlingtees.com. It's like the loose cannon shirt. Instead, it's Linda's face on it. It's pretty cool. Linda Hep and Billman.

You might have to grab us too. Exactly. All right, now we got a question that we ask everybody, you know, our First guest ever, CM Punk. We kind of set the bar there. Fans loved it, and we've asked every single person that's been on here.

So here we go, man. You're in a bar. It's 50 dudes in that bar that don't want you in there. All right. You need to pick a team of you and four other wrestlers to make sure that the king, Lexus King.

Gets to the car. They're BMW fans, Lexus. You know what I'm saying?

So they're off. Rough.

Well, I'll tell you one of my number ones is going to be Baron Corbin because I just saw the other day he won another golden jiu-jitsu. Turner. I mean, talk about a guy that's just such a pro, yeah, and you never and doesn't act like he can, like, actually be, you know what I mean? It's always the guys that like act like they can fight who can't, you know, but just the nicest guys, the lightest brother to work with, but like he could break your break your leg in half and yeah, yeah, like I know, I know who the real shooters are. I could tell you right now, I'd want Baron Corbin, I would want uh Carrion Cross, and these are big guys, too.

Not only that, yeah, they're also huge. Um, so not only can they fight, but they're also big. Um, and you know, win or lose, I mean, shit, I'd still want Gable Stevenson on my I got to train with that motherfucker, and he's the strongest human I've ever met. And I think he had a load of potential and would have been an amazing star. In his business, I think his mind was still in that world, you know, the amateur rest of the world.

And, you know, because when you grow up, you know, and that's all you do. I mean, that's what you live and you breathe. You know what I mean? Where a lot of these guys here, you know, this is what they, whether they came from the Indies, that's what they're focused on.

So I think maybe his head was still in that sport. But talk about like one of the baddest dudes I've ever met, like, literally picked me up in the air and like held me in his hand in like practice, and I couldn't get down. He held me up in the air with one hand.

So I'd want, I'd want Gable, I'd want Cross, I'd want Baron. One more. I only need one more Man, who's a real shooter? Hmm. I don't know.

I guess we have to have a chick in there, don't we? We need Shana in there. No way. She's one that if she doesn't get mentioned in the comments, everyone's always like, well, what about Shayna? You know, in case someone at the bar's girlfriend's there, you know, have her fight her.

It'd be a couple dudes that Shana's going to take out. You know, you don't have to worry about that. I've heard she's trouble. Like, I've heard she's like, I'm not that good at the jiu-jitsu, but I go and I train at the same gym where they coach.

So Shana's a coach. Riddle's a coach. Riddle will be a good one, too. Yeah, I'm actually surprised no one's mentioned Riddle. He's my ass.

Yeah.

So I tell you, like, so we had Trick Willie, Trick Williams on the show a few weeks ago, and we asked him the same question. And, you know, you have to take this up with him, but he put you on his bar fight crew. And the reason being, he figured if you were on the crew, half the guys might hate you anyway, so that half of them might leave and try to jump you, and it could help him.

So, you know, you might want to address that. I mean, that's one way to do it. Also, too, like, I'm not a Afraid to be dirty, you know what I mean? Like, I'm not going to sit there and get on the ground and grapple you. Honestly, if I was in a bar fight situation, I would probably do some dirty tactics.

You know, I'd probably like headbutt somebody in the nose or kick them in the bottom. There's no fuck. You're trying to get a bad thing. I know my dad was actually notorious for getting into bar fights and stuff. And, and he would, you know, he would break people's arms over the bar and stuff.

Like, he would do dirty shit. He once dangled some guy over like the balcony of like a, of like a riverfront restaurant over the water of the river. Like, he's done some crazy shit. You ever heard the squeegee story with Sid Vicious? Yeah.

What do you know about that story? Oh, I don't know. I mean, it's, I'm sure it's just, I'm sure it's been told 25 different times and it's changed a million times. But I guess that was this: the idea was that, you know, my dad was punking him out at the bar and he and he and he went to the gas station and came back with the squeegee and shit and tried to fight him. But who knows?

I've heard of my dad putting people through car windshields and I've heard it all. He was, he was, he was trouble for sure. Not in like a not in like a jiu-jitsu technical way, very much just a mad dude type way. Yeah, just a street kind of way. You know what I mean?

I don't recall him. You know, he played football and stuff, but I for the Bengals for anyone who doesn't. I don't recall him ever doing like martial arts and shit. You know what I mean? Like he would just, he would just beat you up.

Your dad wasn't the biggest man, and for him to make the Cincinnati Bengals at the position he played, like that comes with a lot of heart and a lot of toughness.

So I could definitely see Brian Pillow. Yeah, a lot of it's the confidence and just being willing to say, you know, F it. You know what I mean? I've heard stories of. Of even CM Punk before he got into the MMA, like you know, guys had a problem with it and they'd be like, All right, well, let's go outside and settle it.

And CM Punk would be like, All right, let's do it. You know what I mean? He was always willing to stick up for what he believed in. And I think my dad was the same way too. And there's a story, I don't know if it was Vader or somebody, somebody big, some big guy had a problem with my dad and was like, you know, let's do it, let's fight or whatever.

And my dad said, Hey, dude, you beat my ass and nothing changes. You know, everybody expects you to beat my ass. But if I get lucky and if I s fucking knock you out, dude, you're gonna be embarrassed for the rest of your life. Dude, you just You know what I mean?

So and it part of it's that part of it's just that verbal judo of just like, you know, knowing that, you know, you're fucking meaner and nastier and that, you know, if it does go your way, then the other guy looks like shit, you know. Since we're talking Brian Pullman, you know, and I love talking old school wrestling matches real quick. 1989. Halloween Havoc. I had that on VHS tape.

Your dad against Lex Luger for the United States Championship. I can't tell you the amount of times in my life since 89 that I've watched that match. Your dad came to the ring bumping Def Leppard with, I think, some cheerleaders walking him to the ring. And then he and Lex put on like a 16, 17-minute match that I don't know, I love, and I watch that on YouTube every now and then, just out of the blue.

So, you know, not for nothing, but that, you know, some of my Brian Pillman. Memory right there. No, they play that. Uh, it's kind of cool working here. You know, they always have matches playing on the monitors, and every now and then I'll look up and I'll see some Brian Pillman on there.

And that match comes up a lot, you know. And they're, you know, I always say that the standard of tan back then was much higher as you could be. We had a tanning bed in our house, so my dad owned a tanning bed, and they must have lived in them motherfuckers. They were all tanned shit, just a couple of bronze gods out there. And, you know, a lot of people criticized Lex's work, but I thought my dad got a hell of a match out of him that night.

And then they had a lot of great chemistry. And again, that's what the business was. You know, you got these blonde, bronze, jacked-up guys. The amount of work that they put into their physiques and stuff was unparalleled back then, too. You know, obviously there was a lot less control on wellness policy and stuff.

But at the same time, I still feel like back then, you know, they put a lot of work into their physiques. You know, like they all looked really good. And that's something that we could all. You know, work on today too to kind of bring back some of that, you know, some of that pure freaking muscle of the old 80s and 90s, you know. Man, Lexus dude.

Wait, wait, wait.

Something I want to ask.

Okay. Because we've had a bunch of people that gotta carry around, you know, some belts. Yeah, this was actually, I have two questions. This was one of them.

So you take the light carrying around that big ass cop. Bro. Like, do you, yeah, well, do you have to? Do they please tell me production just takes it from show to show? Please tell me you don't have to take this airport.

How much does it weigh? How big is it? It's honestly the biggest rib ever.

So, so there's like a TV cup, and then there's like a house show cup. Um, and the TV cup is about 85 fucking pounds. I mean, it's Unreal how heavy it is. And it's like, and I'm walking out there, and like my bicep is already torn by the time the man started. I'm carrying this goddamn cup.

Now, luckily for me, when we do go on the road, it's on the creative team to check it and bring it to the menu and all that because I think the cup's worth like, it's like it's worth $30,000.

So it's a real thing. You know what I mean? It's made out of some real shit.

So I don't think they trust me with it. But the other cup. And the working cup is at my apartment, so I get to keep that one. And that one is like half the weight. That one's like 25 pounds.

And I'm telling you, like, even then, even then, it's heavy, heavy. And the hardest part is getting in the ring with it because you got to, like, you know, you got to like. Shuffle it in there. The ropes. I've gotten pretty good at it, but it's definitely tough.

I like it. I think it's original. I think it's unique. No one else has it. I mean, just to be able to say that I have a title in the WWE is just such an amazing feeling to have.

No one will ever be able to take that away from me. Obviously, it's one of the, you know, it's a little bit lower on the totem pole than most of the titles, but you know what? It's also different. It's also original. You know, how many belts are we going to have?

You know, there's so many belts. You know what I mean? It's really cool to have something that's different, you know. And I always liked the presentation of it. I liked it when Tony D had it.

I liked it when Charlie had it.

So R brought it over, correct? Yeah.

And as far as the rules changing and stuff, you know, I think that's just sort of evolving with the new, you know, the TV deals we have and having a little less time on the show and just trying to keep things tighter and more concise, you know what I mean? But also, too, I was getting blown up in those matches, man. It was kind of my call. I was like, can we do away with the rounds? It's tiring when you stop and start, you know what I mean?

Like it's easier to just like feel the emotion and ride through a match, but when you stop in between rounds and you're like, wait a minute, I'm fucking tired. Yeah.

And you got to like start over again. It's like, oh, no, we got to do another match, basically. Right, basically. You know, it's funny you said about a rib because I remember years ago, Chris Jericho told me here on the Rich Eisen show. He was like, he thought it was a rib that he had to carry around the WWF and the WCW belts with him everywhere.

Like he was like, he was tired of lugging around these two belts everywhere. And then he was like, I could never get through the airport because they're always pulling them out and taking. pictures with them.

So I guess I could see how you might. Phil, that's a rib. But speaking of cars, I'll leave you with this one since you're a car guy. You remember Back to the Future? I do.

All right. Shut a setup, TJ.

So, you know, Thuck Brown, he had a DeLorean that was a time machine. And I don't know if you know, but we got that thing working here at No Contest Wrestling.

So, Lexis King, I want to put you in the time machine, bro, right? And I'm going to allow you to go to any point in time. any point in time and pick five different wrestlers. That you could main, or that you would want to main event WrestleMania with. Which five wrestlers would you pick up, or not even pick up, that you'd go back in time to face during their, you know, their era?

Okay. Well, I guess we'd have to say my father for sure. That was.

Now, now are you are you wrestling flying Brian Pillman or are you wrestling the loose cannon Brian Pillman? I think that I'm heel and he's flying Brian Pillman. Nice, nice, flying Brian. He's rocking the Bengals trunks. I'm doing the fucking whatever, the black tights, whatever.

I'm the bad guy. I like that. He's the OG flying Brian because that was the peak of his career, right? You know what I mean? Like Luce Cannon was the peak of his character work.

But when we look back at his ability in the ring and stuff, like that's when it started to decline due to his injuries and the Hummer accident and stuff.

So it'd be cool to wrestle my father at like Liger Prime, you know? I was just about to say, for anyone who doesn't like it. Just take Jushin out of the match and put me in the match. I'll wear the mask and everything. I'll just be Jushin.

If you've never seen Brian Pillman against Jushin Thunder Liger, after this is over, go on YouTube. Do yourself a favor, watch that. I thought about doing something like that, like having like a gear set like him with the mask and everything. Maybe one day. But no, I also, you know, I've always been a huge fan of Eddie Guerrero.

I would have loved to wrestle with him, you know, talk about another guy that was gone too soon, you know. He would have been super cool, you know. And then, yeah, I mean, shit, you know, I didn't expect. It's funny because a lot of the older wrestlers are just like, they just keep wrestling. You know what I mean?

Like the stem cells and everything. I'm like, Rey Mysterio still wrestles. Like, if I get called up tomorrow, like, I have to compete with airtime with Rey Mysterio. Like, that's not easy to do. He wonders, like, oh, why don't they use all these new people to get called up?

And I'm like, they still have the rock. Why would they need anybody? They have the rock, they have John Cena, they have Ray. Like, these are people that I grew up aspiring to be. I mean, I'm sure they'll bring Brock Lesnar back.

It's like, if these are the guys I played on SmackDown versus Rawl 2007, right? Still wrestling, then why would they call any of us up if they've already got you know, they still got Randy Orton, they've still got you know all the greats that we grew up on?

So, in a way, that's great for the industry to see like how many years you can get out of this. You know what I mean? It's really cool to see that. But as far as me picking like a fantasy opponent, it's like it's not that much of a fantasy anymore. I might work them next week.

Then you got Logan, Logan Paul's wrestling Rey Mysterio. I'm like, damn, all right, like, we don't need a time machine, like, we'll just go down the street and work down, but no, that'd be cool. You know, my first match ever was actually against Rey Mysterio at the Memorial shows. You know, we got in the ring before the show. I was like five or six.

You know, he called me, you know, he wrestled a little match with me. I did, I think I did like a double stomp just off the top rope, all my weight on him, just no working, nothing. Of course I'm, you know, I'm six years old so you can hurt her. But I tried to kill that man. It's funny because he wasn't wearing his mask at the time.

Okay. Like, there's a lot of pictures of me and him and Conan, and like Ray's not wearing his mask and shit, you know, because that's where I met Conan at that show too. And so I got some cool pics with Maskless Ray after our match, you know. That would be a cool one, too, you know, like a prime. I mean, again, how do I say he's not in his prime right now with everything he's doing?

I mean, he's amazing. But I've always wanted to work with him, have that rematch. Yeah.

So three matches. We got fine brine. We got Eddie. We got Ray. Yeah.

How many more we need? Two more. Two more. Two more. You know, I've always I've always thought it'd be cool to wrestle uh Mr.

Perfect, you know. Oh, oh, wow. He was brothered out. Like, he was he was a good one. Like, he was a guy that, like, made you all your shit look good, you know?

Like, that's what he was doing. And I like just I just like I don't know if I ever like I never got to meet him and like I knew I knew his son like I had a connection with him so like when you're a second gen in this business you just kind of like It's just an unwritten thing that you're all like. related you know yeah Like all of our dads like Did like Crazy partying together.

So it's like some of us could be related, you know what I mean? But like, it's just kind of like a brotherhood type thing. You know, not that we don't have, not that I don't have that connection with all the talent, but we all kind of know what we're going through and can relate to that stuff. And so, uh, His son, Curtis Axel, he's a good brother, but it'd be cool to wrestle his dad. And then and then Flair.

I think I think that everybody My trainer, especially Lance Storm, used to tell us about how he dreamed of wrestling Flair and all this stuff. And it is a cool thing to think about going, like, I'm going to go an hour with Flair with the fucking 60 minutes. With the greatest of all time, you know. And it was and it was kind of cool for me because I was on the his last match card.

So player ladder's last match. It was me and Brock Anderson and R Anderson. versus Ricky Morton, his son Carrie Morton.

So, in a tag match, so it was cool to be on that card, and I could be like, Oh, I wrestled on Ric Flair's last match card. That's awesome. Getting that match flare probably won't happen. Who knows? The way things are going, right?

Well, with the time machine, it's making anything happen. Yeah, all right, we got the time machine.

So, yeah, bring me back the prime flare. Just put me, take out Steamboat, put me in there again. In this situation, I want to be the babyface. In this situation, I want to be led through a crazy match with Ric Flair. That's an hour long.

That would be cool. That's awesome. Man, dude, I mean, I've had a great time. We hope, you know, you enjoy the interview. How do we do, bro?

How do we do? Oh, it was great. Thank you. I'm glad I got to. Say whatever I wanted and not be too censored.

You know, sorry if I cussed too much, but hey, no, fuck that. I felt the vibe. You know, exactly. We're all good here. All good, man.

Much more power to you. You know, we'll be watching, obviously. We got to go get some merch now. We got to go get Linda merch. Oh, you're not talking about me.

You're talking about the Linda. We'll get to you, Lex, but on Linda, she's Linda. We got to get her, and then I'm going to get to you. You know, fat toe cats. All the proceeds from the Linda F and Pillman shirt go straight to Linda and her cats.

That's her cats. You're a wild dog. Dude, much power to you. Thank you for giving us the time on ACW. Enjoy your day, man.

You deserve it. And all the best to you going forward, brother. Absolutely. Long live Lexus King, baby. Long live Lexus King, man.

Lexis King, everybody. Doom. Lexus. Paul Heyman joined as Seth. I'm sorry, I know.

I'm sorry. I had a great interview with Lexus King. And thank you, Lexus King. Paul Heyman with Seth Listen. I stay up at night and I think about stuff, all right?

That was just something I thought about last night. Mm-hmm. Nah, bro, we gotta talk about this.

Next week. I know. What an asshole. But listen, guys, thank you, Lexus King. I appreciate it.

I got to talk to my co-host. We'll see you next Monday. We're still doing Mondays. Yep. TJ, you sick man.

Tell them where to find us. Oh, yeah.

You know, you can find us everywhere socially. You can find us on Twitter/slash X at There's No Contest. You find us on Instagram at No Contest Wrestling Podcast. You find all of our videos on the Rich Eyes and Show YouTube page. And hey, by the way, NXT tomorrow night.

Something that I don't know that's been done before. Stephanie Vacare. The Champ Champ is going to defend both of her titles, the NXT Women's Championship and the North American Championship on the same damn show. Against Yeah. Miss Parker.

and Fallon Henley. Jada Parker going after the NXT Championship. By the way. We put out that video, and I decided, you know, I just a little socially, I put this out there. I thought the first video we should put out should be you and her, because I really didn't have much to say talking anime and video games.

And when I tell you, that video blew up for us. Yeah.

Because now everybody is even more in love with her than they were before because they know she games.

So, yeah, that. Shout out to Jada Parker for being there. Did I say thank you to Jada Parker? Thanks, Ms. Parker.

But, you know, Stephanie Vacare, Fallon Henley, like NXT tomorrow. I can't wait. I cannot wait for this tomorrow 'cause I can you ever rema remember a time where A champion Defended both Having a double champion is very rare anyway, right? But defending both titles on the same night. Yeah.

And it's incredible. It speaks to Stephanie Vacare and what they got going on at WWE. We will see you guys next week. We'll know the results of all that. And.

This Paul will serve. Anyway, this is the No Contest Wrestling Podcast. Don't look at my ankles. And thank you to Jada Parker just because. Bye, Miss Parker.

Did you think? Yeah.