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00:00hey everybody meltdown here in the studio with my old friend rhino the gore machine the war
00:07machine the man beast you didn't have to say old friend you could have just said friend you know
00:13i mean we've been friends for wow 25 years it'll be 24 get it straight 24 yeah yeah okay that's
00:20right you know three days after my daughter was born yeah yeah i thought of you by the way today
00:23not because we were doing this interview but i was planting flowers at my house yes yes and you
00:28taught me the proper way to plant that's right yeah so you dig the hole and then you put a little
00:34water in there and then you plant the flowers true see we're already we're already enhancing people's
00:39lives yeah teaching them things see with my italian background when you're digging a hole you don't
00:44put water in there there's other things that'll fertilize the flowers that's a rhino ladies and
00:48gentlemen is here all week but don't forget to tip your waitresses so uh what's happening man you got
00:54another busy week ahead yes yes aew all elite wrestling wednesday and thursday masonic temple
01:00so uh yeah come get your tickets tickets are as cheap as uh 25 so it's very affordable for the
01:08family and uh you know your college buddies if they want to get together and or if you want to get
01:12together with college buddies or yeah it's just going to be a great event all together two-day event
01:17no it sounds fun and uh that's a cool place that you've been in there very very very cool yeah great for
01:23wrestling too it's haunted by the way is it so don't get there don't go there by yourself i'm not
01:27i'm not but i'll bring my ev equipment are you a paranormal guy i can't remember yeah are you ghost
01:34hunters i've kind of fallen out of it you know i don't go searching for ghosts yeah you know so i
01:39scare very easily have you ever been to like uh the eloise or anything like that no no but my brother
01:46has okay i'll never forget my brother told me this was back in before they started tearing down the
01:51buildings but uh uh yeah he said something about eloise yeah him and his buddies went and they
01:57snuck in there and uh my dad got creeped out because he he would drive by there as uh you know
02:05a kid and when it was still open and just yeah it was just a yeah it was a mental hospital and the
02:12patients were out in the lawns and the screaming and stuff you'd hear it you could tell it troubled
02:17him and he he wasn't troubled easy so i've talked about this before but we captured some really cool
02:22stuff last year when i was there in the summertime some screams from outside the room we were in which
02:27was yeah pretty wild yeah so yeah so you know ghosts can attach themselves to you and you can bring
02:32them home right yeah i try not to do that right that's that's one of my main goals well see i try to
02:38get attached to women and have them come home with me but they never do so yeah well i stick with
02:43wrestling one attached to you right now so right right yeah she's mean so talk about her no i'm
02:48kidding she's very nice but no i mean it's paranormal is very cool because people are so passionate about
02:55it and you know pat you have so many passions whether it's motorcycles wrestling radio and all
03:01that stuff and and uh just with wrestling being such a big passion of mine um you know on tv fans can
03:09watch it and i was actually watching ghost hunters the other day now that you mentioned it i'm starting
03:13to get back in that passion but no i i just uh i i think um passion is great you know to have a passion
03:20because you know life is so short it seems like you know and uh to to go out and be involved in
03:27in your passions whether it's going to a show or going searching for ghosts i think it's something you
03:32need to incorporate in your life we get sometimes we get too busy with work but now uh your passion of
03:37course obviously is wrestling what i tried to do is segue back into wrestling i took that long road
03:43yeah so well i'm here for a reason i picked up on it yeah yeah okay well i seen you picking up on it
03:49and you give me the eyes going okay get to the point when's the show what time you know how much
03:54are tickets where can they go well we've already talked about that we'll talk about it again yeah
03:58right uh but anyway so speaking of passion so i don't know if i've ever really talked to you about
04:02this before but your wrestling career started over did were you uh training under scott to more
04:07yeah okay that's what i thought yeah and what was your first match because you're coming up on the
04:1230th anniversary right or was it no i just had it okay when was your first match march 10th 1995
04:18might you had your first match on my birthday you should have told me that i keep on forgetting your
04:23birthday i'm a horrible friend but a great wrestler this wednesday and thursday masonic temple see how i'm
04:30plugging it yeah see i'm trying to see i'm trying not to get fired before i get hired yeah that's what i'm
04:35and adam's looking over there going over the sheets going hey you got to plug this gotta plug that so
04:39now march 10th was your first match what was your first tv match with hacksaw jim duggan no no my first
04:45tv match was oh geez now you you put me on the spot but it was for wc no actually wwe uh wwe or wcw
04:53but yeah um yeah because i i got here um you lost to hacks um august 5th 1995 so that wasn't very long
05:00after your debut thanks for bringing up my losses well we don't have all day to talk about all your
05:05losses i said to bring up a couple of them but wednesday i won't be losing in the ring and you
05:10know so so do you remember that match with hacksaw is that was that your first televised match or no
05:17well growing up as a kid you know watching hacksaw jim duggan and just getting in the ring um i wrestled
05:23mark merrill and guys like that and you know what's funny is uh adam copeland um he wrestles with aew yeah edge
05:30for those don't know yeah yeah and uh we went down together to do tapings and that was my first
05:35time ever meeting him and then we became friends on the independent scene so in christian cage by the
05:40way christian cage said he ordered all the rain and bad weather here in michigan so when you see him
05:46you can boo him he's always trying to dig up more heel cred yeah yeah he's a total heel i remember uh the
05:51one day this was before texting and stuff and i was living in my old house so this was in the early
05:56early 2000s and you you you you called me and said hey uh you guys are doing a house show downtown
06:01and you said yeah we're gonna we're going to the uh the denny's over there on telegraph road just by
06:0694 and it was edging christian yeah uh hurricane shane helms right yeah and then uh lance storm yeah
06:14and then uh young chris jericho walks in with his shirt completely unbuttoned looking for us like he
06:20thought i don't think he's buttoned his shirt since then yeah he's a total rock star yeah right
06:26exactly and that was when you were i mean you were still like fairly new but you were your name was
06:30out there you were becoming yeah i know yeah well after ecw and uh um i had a lot of uh great
06:37experience with that and learned a lot and then you know just was able to uh you know and at that
06:43time i was just starting in wwe but um it's been a hell of a career and you know i always say you
06:49know people are like oh that's great you're you know you're showing up with aw and stuff like that
06:53and i go i'm not there for a long time you know when you're this late in your career you don't show
06:58up for a long time you're there for a good time and a good time will be had wednesday at the masonic
07:04temple that's right keep plugging it um so speaking of that one of my other questions i had was what is
07:10the longest you've ever been at one organization um you've jumped around a lot like a lot of guys do
07:15yeah uh usually five years well which which organization well wwe uh five years i think the
07:23first time and five years the second time how long were you at ecw because you were there for a while
07:27two and a half oh just two and a half okay wow yeah we'd wrestle up in buffalo at burt flick and
07:32burt flickinger center that's right yeah i was with uh actually ring of honor i was with ring of honor for
07:38about three years so yeah yeah so that was a lot of fun learned a lot there too helped a lot of young
07:45guys out so and that's what i like to do is help the younger talent out and you know and i'm still
07:50learning you know so i learned a lot off of chris jericho around the time you're talking about how we
07:55broke bread at denny's yeah and actually it was ram's horn but oh ram's horn that's right you are
07:59correct yeah i think he has stock in denny's you are correct well you said 25 years i said denny's so
08:06yeah we're just about even right so yeah you talk about um you know helping out the younger guys
08:11and stuff you have a young a lot of younger guys working in your uh in in your promotion i don't
08:16know if we can talk about it or not yeah yeah we can touch on it but yeah no it's it's so much fun
08:21i love going down there and seeing it a lot of the and i mean by young guys some of these kids i think
08:25are in school yeah you know what's great is you help give them opportunity to learn you know and and
08:31one of the things uh you know with wrestling it's very important for younger guys to get that
08:35opportunity and one thing i like about um all elite wrestling aw is tony khan he has a great
08:42passion to help the younger guys and give them a platform to um you know showcase their talent and
08:49and that's very important not only to the wrestling fans but or not only to the wrestlers themselves
08:55men and women um but to the wrestling fans because you can see these young men and women just go out
09:01there and you're kind of like with them from the beginning and that's very important especially
09:07when you've been a wrestling fan for several decades you can say i remember when that guy first started
09:12or that girl first started and look at them now like a brit baker you know dr brit baker yeah so yeah
09:19so but uh she actually took a couple seminars and i've she actually mentioned that i helped mentor her
09:24and and and that made me feel good because i always tell people like it's not me you know so when you do succeed
09:31it's your hard work i can only you know throw things out at you if it sticks and you know you're the one
09:37you know if you're gonna run with the ball you know i'll give you the ball run with it and if you run you run
09:44if you don't you know it's up to you and when you do score a touchdown you know it's your hard work so
09:49but yeah when she plugged me i think it was on chris jericho's podcast and i was like oh that's cool
09:54you know so i marked out i'm not gonna lie so so you've been in it for three decades now can can you
10:01remember being starstruck like early on in your career when when you when you saw somebody for the
10:06first time like maybe a hulkster or something like that yes yeah but you know what's really crazy is
10:11as i've gotten older um you know because a lot of the men and women i've you know met
10:19and you know and then i you know that i watched as a kid and several times it's cool when you got
10:24tito santana coming up to you go hey ronald how are you and i'm like i remember you when you got hit
10:30you know macho man hit you with a foreign object and you lost an intercontinental title and you're
10:35you know my name and so it's it's still cool when that happens but i mark out over guys like
10:41like rock stars or something that i haven't met or something like that i well rock stars have you
10:47and i was thinking about that earlier because i i just saw the story the other day about uh brett
10:51hart talking about how that that fake sammy hagar came in years ago this is years ago and he got
10:57backstage and everything else till someone realized it wasn't actually him but what rock stars have you
11:01met that that that you know well billy corgan he owns yeah yeah wrestling and uh i met him years ago
11:07back in the 90s and then in for ecw and uh oh geez uh well kid rock i ran into it several times i know
11:14you guys are friends um just in passing but didn't really get to know him and just being from
11:19detroit i um but you know what's also cool is i met uh mike wolf from american picker oh yeah yeah
11:27which i i stopped at a shop yeah and i didn't think i was gonna mark out but i did i didn't show it
11:33though i played it cool i i call it like playing cool like kevin nash playing it cool and uh i you know
11:40i knew he wasn't a big wrestling fan because just watching the show and and uh anyways uh i was in
11:47the shop and a lot of the props that they you know or things that they picked they kept as props for
11:53people coming in the shop and and and i got a picture with them and uh i'm just like please don't
12:00look like a school girl like you know or a fangirl you know like shaking at the knees and like so but
12:07no he was really cool and and that was fun but you know but like i never really did that because
12:12when we were training and wrestling we were told don't ask for an autograph you know and this was
12:18back then you know just look you know just you know listen and do what you're told yeah yeah so
12:25so i couldn't really mark out you know yeah yeah so yeah i met uh i met mike wolf actually about 15
12:31years ago i met him he was walking down woodward at the dream cruise uh around 15 that big green
12:36grassy area around 15 in woodward yeah i met him and i kind of blew his cover and then people
12:42started realizing i go i go hey you're mike from american pickers right yeah so people heard that
12:46and he started coming over right yeah anyway so then i went and saw metallica three years ago in
12:50pittsburgh and i met him again and i apologized to him yeah yeah well i'm sure i'm sure he gets used to
12:57it but well what's crazy is he never he's never in the shop yeah you know and for well they were
13:04actually fixing up at airbnb across the street he bought it fix it up to make it at airbnb now was
13:10this in in uh national or no this was in uh and iowa yeah yeah so uh um leclair i think it's called
13:18but anyways uh i didn't think i was gonna meet anybody you know i just wanted to pick up some
13:22stuff and grab a t-shirt and stuff and and then he walks in to grab a ladder and like people are like
13:29starting to mark out and i'm like play it cool play it cool so did you tell him who you were or
13:35did he yeah yeah well i had to drop that right at least you know but he was you know he was really
13:41cool with everybody gave his time to everybody that was in the shop shopping and and uh their store and
13:47yeah and i'm just like you know i'm in the marina business and there's a lot of stuff you can pick
13:53not at my places but i know guys you know if you ever were you know out there and you know so
13:59yeah when i saw him in pittsburgh you took one of my friend's numbers because my buddy's got all
14:03this crap yeah yeah and they've contacted him a few times but uh what kind of uh what kind of
14:07memorabilia and stuff you know speaking of that do you have do you save anything you know what i don't
14:12i didn't think so yeah yeah i you know i like signs and i like history and stuff like that so
14:17but uh yeah i know you're a history buff yeah i'm gonna collect victories wednesday and thursday
14:23at the masonic temple how many victories do you have in your career you know oh no more more
14:29victories and losses so that's all i could say so yeah but you know what i've kind of did some rough
14:36math uh i've definitely wrestled over 3 000 matches wow which is crazy how many surgeries have
14:42you had uh one i think or two something like that you know actually chris jericho i think doesn't he
14:49keep track of all his wins and losses i don't know i'll have to ask him he's gonna be here next week
14:53really for fozzy right yeah yeah he's gonna be in this studio next week yeah yeah i've learned a lot
14:59off of him with uh wrestling and stuff like that just and i'll tell people you know you can listen to
15:05a match and tell if someone's having a good match or not just by listening to it and it was at joe
15:10arena too so someone was having the crowd was going crazy and it was like mid uh mid mat mid card
15:17and uh he's like who's out there wrestling and he comes back he's like you know and i'm like it stuck
15:23with me so like sometimes i'll say hey it was a good match i didn't see it but i heard it the crowd
15:28was really going crazy for you what'd you guys do and they would tell me it's like okay i'm gonna do
15:33that next show yeah i don't want to copy from unless it's on tv you know whoever does it on tv
15:41first yeah they get the credit i remember talking to stone cold here in the station uh back it was
15:47it was after wrestlemania here at ford field and it was uh the hair versus hair match remember that
15:52yeah with trump and yeah 2007 i think yeah so i talked to him after that but anyways he told me
15:58that the room was so big that he couldn't really hear the crowd and you know he's uh he's a reactive
16:03guy to the crowd and he said that he thought they stunk the place up in his words he went backstage
16:08and they they watched it they were surprised how good it was it's almost you know you love big arenas
16:14like that and stadiums and all that but you know when you're wrestling and sometimes even a fan i like
16:19the the the arenas the the stadiums or theaters where you can feel the people yeah you know and uh
16:27like wednesday and thursday coming up bingo i was just gonna lean into that
16:31it's not my first rodeo kid you know i'm here for a purpose so no it's always great seeing you melt
16:39though yeah i was talking as i roll my eyes yeah yeah right i'm kidding i saw just seeing you saturday
16:45right i was running around did i look like a wreck do you look you look a little flustered
16:49well not flustered you know it's uh when you run your own stuff you know you want everybody to have
16:54a great experience and right there's a lot of weight that you put on your own shoulders and
16:58but it's crazy i haven't learned um how to uh balance it out you know and and takes a really
17:07special team and a you know an aw and i'm not just plugging them because i'm you know here promoting
17:14the shows but they've got a great team and that's um after i finished up with tna i reached out to them
17:20and i said hey anything behind the scenes because i've produced with tna for three years uh the last
17:25three years i was with them and wrestled and uh let me know because it's a place where it's got a great
17:31locker room um and unless it's christian cage in the locker room then he's kind of a jerk but uh
17:37and he'll tell you how great he is and stuff like that but um but no it's a great atmosphere and
17:43it's something not only the aw fans you know they they know that vibe you know and they hear you
17:51know especially if they you know read online and stuff and um but it comes it bleeds through with the
17:57product you know and tony khan's definitely um set up a great locker room for that and the growth it
18:04just you know they've they're into their sixth sixth year and uh they just re-signed with uh tbs
18:11for multiple years being on uh tbs and which is a great testament to yeah not only leadership but
18:18actually to learn how to put together a team so you're not running around like me fucking oh excuse my
18:25language bleep that out but uh you know you're not you know just stressed out trying to figure
18:32everything out and make sure everybody has a great time yeah you gotta lean on other people
18:35yeah you know you just mentioned and uh i'm always i'm always afraid of what i can bring up because
18:39you guys always wrestled about 87 different uh you know organizations but uh tna just had you know
18:45they just get put you in the hall of fame talk about were you there i was not there um i didn't
18:50get the invite apparently only close friends got no i'm just teasing you wednesday and thursday you
18:53want to go to the show we got um no seriously if you want to go um but uh it was one of those
19:01things where whenever you're inducted into the hall of fame whether it's tna or you know wwe or any
19:08type of or you're recognizing any uh profession you're in or job it's it's very uh it's a comforting
19:15feeling that they've recognized what your hard work and passion and with wrestling the wrestling fans
19:22you know really recognize it too and and i gave the speech with two hours of sleep we had a show on
19:30thursday and then i flew down to atlanta i drove two hours worked out did a show drove back to atlanta
19:35to catch the earliest flight out to uh slept for two hours and then uh went into a production meeting
19:43figuring i'd take a be able to find a corner and take a nap didn't i go dreamer i have nothing to say
19:49because i actually tried to get adam copeland to you know induct me in the hall of fame and they go
19:56well we don't know about the budget and i think he was uh booked for something that day or and then
20:04uh dreamer goes you're stuck with me i go that's not a bad thing yeah because he's done great things
20:10with wrestling and for the wrestling fans and and he goes just start off you were born and then going
20:16to where you trained and so now i can add aw to a chapter of my life and this is actually the first
20:23time i'm getting in an aw ring oh so really and to do it in detroit is very special so but yeah so
20:31but i i let it come from the heart and a lot of people have come up to me and said hey i really
20:36enjoyed your speech and i was gonna take another minute or two but i had ingrid counting down the
20:42time because we had to go into the pay-per-view right after that and there was a match and the
20:46match was like uh every couple minutes you know it was like a gauntlet style and and you couldn't go
20:52over because that match you know so yeah so we wouldn't want to you know bleed that you know
20:58the matches into the pay-per-view so i'm just glad i don't have an ingrid counting me down because
21:04she's mean oh she is mean anybody count down time is mean you know so all right real fast uh gary
21:12your your partner there and your your promotion wanted me to ask you about alien probes
21:16oh during the eclipse right yeah yeah i put on uh um i got into the whole alien thing right so
21:27you really research stuff right i like to put your guests on the spot i have questions from diane too
21:34but i think i'm gonna leave those there well no i put on uh um like i made a tinfoil cap right and
21:40put on those glasses and and it was really cool did you watch it yeah i never really got into that
21:46but you know you're at home and it's not gonna happen for another like 360 you know years or
21:53whatever come through over here and so i was like aliens are uh real and you know watch out they'll
22:00come down and you might get probed and stuff like that so it was just a little joke and yeah so
22:06that's so funny and by the way uh you know it was your 49th birthday last year and you had a
22:11birthday party aliens are real i mean um probably yeah well i mean you never know what's out there
22:17so i and all all kidding aside you know we don't know so just live your life and don't be jerks to
22:25others and do your best and put your best foot forward and try not to get probed and that
22:29i was just gonna go into a pitch on and on wednesday and thursday i'm gonna do the best i could
22:35possibly deal with your support you know hey real fast so before we wrap things up here i know a
22:42young will has to head out but um you're gonna be 50 this year you had you had a a 50th minus one
22:48birthday party last year was that your diane said that's your first birthday party you've ever had
22:52really yeah well when we were kids you know we didn't have money growing up and so we couldn't
22:57really our parents and there was three of us total so it's like if you throw one of your kids a
23:04birthday party you kind of have to do that could get pretty expensive right throughout the years and
23:09so anyways uh we'd have cake ice cream and my grandparents would come over and you know and
23:14just have a little meal and some cake and ice cream and some gifts and and it was nice and then
23:19when i wanted to become a pro wrestler um because i knew this path would lead me to the masonic
23:26temple right this wednesday in 2025 right um you know you just birthdays are birthdays and then uh
23:35it just it was one of those things where it's like go out and have a meal or a buddy would take you out
23:41or whatever and have a meal and and that was it you know and and uh birthdays i think are important
23:46for people to celebrate but for me it wasn't like i went 21 years without going on vacation
23:53so um and that was fine because i i love you know professional wrestling well you were traveling
23:59all over the world which a lot of people don't get to do and like like i tell you rock star guys you
24:03get paid to travel you work for free yeah yeah right right true that's very true but so yeah that
24:09happened and uh it was definitely a surprise and we're actually talking about it earlier today
24:14adam from aw so yeah um yeah and uh it definitely surprised me and i was glad everybody turned out and
24:22it was really nice and i was totally 100 surprised oh no kidding yeah that was yeah that was fun i was
24:27uh honored even just to uh be there that we've been friends for almost 24 years well 23 at the time
24:32yeah yeah yeah all right one more plug give it a plug this wednesday and thursday aw live on tbs
24:41go get your tickets at aew ticks t-i-x dot com tickets start at 25 great family friendly and
24:51actually be there for a little bit of wrestling history in detroit wrestling history i'll be stepping
24:56in uh aw wrestling ring for the very first time and i'm sure i'll gore someone oh somebody is gonna
25:02get gored yeah yeah how'd i do was that a good that was fantastic awesome rhino always great to see
25:08you um if you need any help planting flowers yep you know who to talk to for sure for sure you know
25:16it's funny when you bring that up it's like rhino's planting flowers yeah you had your biker outfit on
25:21too i came over on the hark biker outfit i don't wear outfits i had my regular yeah you know leather
25:26jacket i don't know why the chaps were assless but because i'm a badass i didn't have assless chaps
25:31right well young william cut this off right now