October 9, 2025 • 41 mins
In this Eyes Up Here Flashback, The Queen of Extreme sits down with “The Man of Steel” Mike Verna for one of the most powerful and emotional interviews ever featured on the show. Verna opens up about the life-changing car accident that nearly ended everything — and how sheer determination, faith, and grit helped him fight his way back. Nothing is left out as he shares the raw, inspiring details of his recovery, his outlook on life, and his return to the ring. A must-listen story of true survival and strength.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:11):
Speaking to forget about it. I mean, that's not a
great one.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
We were just brabbling. I want to introduce a former guest.
He back. I want to talk about current events with
him because something happened and I think he's going to
be open to talking about it. Mike to Verna. Mike Verna,
you have forty two million names. I don't know what
to call you.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
The man of steel, I'm wearing. I'm wearing what we
need to wear.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
That Jack, we look fantastic.
Speaker 4 (00:39):
Thank you, Thank you, Francy, you too. I'm sure I'm
sure you hear that on a everyday basis.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Thank you, sir. You broke my heart. Are you up
to talking about that for sure? Okay?
Speaker 4 (00:52):
I think this is the first public forum that I'll
be talking about it.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
So that's why I wanted to grab you right away.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
I want to how we do it?
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Hello, I said, I'm not going to pounce on him.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
I want to give him some time. But I did
check in on you with no intention of anything back.
I just my heart sank.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
It.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Let me explain why all of this bus with Tammy
and what's happening. And then your picture came up and
I literally got a lump in my throat and I
froze and I said to myself, I don't know the story,
you know, and it was fresh. I didn't want to
ask you if you knew, like if the guy was
(01:34):
drinking or whatever. Can you tell us what happened, because
all I can see is you in the hospital, and like,
it broke my heart.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
Yeah, it was. It was definitely a crazy experience. It's
still fresh on me.
Speaker 4 (01:46):
I mean it happened May second, So we're about a
month and a week away, give or take. And first
and foremost, for the most part, I am feeling better.
I'm getting better each day. I do have a couple
of stuff going on that we can get into. I'm
not totally afraid to discuss what's happening, but there are
there are some things going on that that are going
to require some time, no doubt about it. But so
(02:09):
what happened was is I was filming a movie on
that Monday, that Monday night or whatever it was the second,
I don't know if it was.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
I think it was a Monday, it was. It was
that night.
Speaker 4 (02:18):
I was in the Upper East Side in Manhattan, and
I was driving home. We did about a regular standard
twelve hour day. It was a student film too, so
it was a relatively you know, simple project for the
most part, just going in and getting some work and
coming home that same night.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
One day. Shoot, easy, easy does it. I'm taking the.
Speaker 4 (02:36):
Triborough Bridge from Manhattan to get back to Queen's to
get back into Brooklyn to get home, and all I
remember was a split second of seeing a headlight and
then getting hit and then the airbag knocking me out,
and then waking up about several seconds later, only to
(02:57):
feel the car moving and then get knocked out again
from a whiplash concussion, which is common in the wrestling
world to begin with, and then being out cold, and
then being woken up from a police officer who actually thought,
and I don't want to get too dramatic, but thought
I was dead because I was knocked out at the time.
The type of collision that it was usually doesn't leave
(03:17):
people at one piece. But once I heard him open
the door, I kind of regained consciousness, gave him the
thumbs up, and then he started kind of breaking the
air bags up and get me out one piece. Yeah,
that's that's all I remember. So, you know, like you
mentioned Tammy and everything that's going on with her. It
is ironic because you know, you saw what's possible in
(03:41):
a situation like that, and to be able to kind
of hop myself out of that car in like I said,
a couple of pieces, but okay, for the most part
was was really you know something up there was just
careerund you.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
Know, yeah, do we know if the gentleman was under
the influence of anything?
Speaker 3 (03:59):
So he passed. It's the breathalyzer.
Speaker 4 (04:01):
They arrested him that night because first of all, to
backtrack the story, the guy was driving on the wrong
side of a major bridge, So that's the thing. And
I remember when the cop woke me up and he said,
you know, I said, what happened? Because when I woke up,
I mean I thought, did I look away? Did I
hit a pothole and flipped?
Speaker 3 (04:22):
Like what happened? I didn't know. I still to this
day don't really know exactly what happened.
Speaker 4 (04:26):
But he told me is like the officer told me, said,
you just got hit by a guy speeding on the
other side into oncoming traffic on the wrong side of
the Tribell Bridge. The first thing I said to him,
I said, where is he? Because I was ready to
like fight, because I'm sitting there and I'm thinking about
(04:47):
something like, Yo, I'm alive, but I probably shouldn't be
because someone did something asinine. You know, you can't even
put into words and comprehend what exactly was going through
his head. And then I actually said, I said, sir,
what happened? Because he's under don't worry, he's under little
do I know? Because I have plenty of family and
law enforcement. They said under means under arrest. So first
I thought he was under the influence idiot.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
Once I heard he when I heard the term under,
I said, I'm gonna kill him. I'm gonna have to
kill him because he almost killed me. I'm gonna have
to kill him right now.
Speaker 4 (05:18):
But when he said any said he's under arrest, that
made me feel a bit better because it's like, Okay,
you know, clearly this guy was doing something, and you
know the way the New York City, you know, jail
system is right now, they would just sometimes they just
let someone do something like that, just walk, and just
to just to know that the arrest, it made me
feel better because you know, if it wasn't me, if
it wasn't the car, I was driving if it wasn't
(05:39):
the shape I was in, which was a big fact
that doctors are tell me, which prevented my net from snapping,
because remember a whiplash concussion. I'm not gonna do it
now because my brain is still rattled. But we're all
we all know, Francia, you know, you know, usually up
close in person, whiplash is the head just jerking back
and forth as fast as it can, and it can
knock you out. Someone who's not I guess is physically fit,
(06:00):
especially in the line of work that I'm in, that
could have snapped someone's neck. That's how fast the impact was.
I mean the guy was going about eighty miles per hour.
I was going out a fore good speed myself. It's
eleven o'clock at night, no traffic on the road. You're
going you driving, no, because the car would have been
shot if I was speeding, And I don't think he
was speeding to the point, because like I said, I
think if if any of us were going above you know,
(06:20):
seventy five eighty miles peru, I don't think any of.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
Us would be here to talk about it.
Speaker 4 (06:24):
But you know that that that was a big factor
and saving my life as well. So shout out to
Lexus and shout out to you know, being jacked exactly that.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
Chad. While we're chatting, can you pull up his Twitter
and show the picture to our Patreon members that might
not follow Mike, because it shook my core, Like I
just was like, good lord, because anytime I see an
accident like that, like I have kids, right, and I
always think about when we leave the house, God forbid,
(06:56):
if somebody hits my car, my children are in the car,
you know what I mean. Like it just it makes
me really nervous to even leave my house anymore because
you never know who's you know, in the other car driving.
You don't know what they're doing, what they're under. Did
he passed the breathalyzer?
Speaker 3 (07:13):
You said, yeah?
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Was he one anything? Or was he just the confused individual?
Speaker 4 (07:19):
A couple of theories that I had, I had I
had three three theories really because I haven't found out
yet and obviously, you know, my lawyers and everything else
are kind of getting to.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
The bottom of that. I was knocked out. I didn't
even see that. I didn't even see him get arrested.
Speaker 4 (07:31):
I didn't see I didn't see what he looked like,
I didn't see what the car looked like. All I
had was the accident report the next couple of days.
But I had the theory that A, he was obviously
tripping on something, something good for that matter. The other
thing was is you know that that bridge is known
to be a drag racing bridge. It's known for you know,
at late at night, for guys to your girls for
(07:53):
that matter, of getting their cars and just kind of
speed through it.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
He was the only car there, so I don't think
it was a drag race at the time.
Speaker 4 (07:59):
And honestly, as dramatic as this may sounds, like maybe
he was trying to himself, you know what I'm saying,
like you just you just don't.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
Know, you just don't go into a pole, Yeah, go
towards the water.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
You know, you just don't.
Speaker 4 (08:13):
Not really, you really have no idea what exactly was
in his going on through his mind. I know that
when they when they asked him for you know, when
they basically interviewed him, he had no response, like he
not not that he was unresponsive, but he didn't say anything.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
He was just kind of like, you know, I had
nothing to say.
Speaker 4 (08:29):
I mean, look, if it was if it was an accident,
like a genuine accident, and he was clean and all
that stuff. Like, I feel just as bad for him
because you know, we both survived at the end of
the day.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
You know, he must be shook.
Speaker 4 (08:40):
He probably has the same PTSD that I have, you know,
all that kind of stuff going on, so he who knows.
But but if it was something that he shouldn't have
been doing, then I have no sympathy for something like that.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
I know.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Do you have it? Yeah, pull up the picture before
I do that.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
I just want to say one thing.
Speaker 5 (08:58):
I'm very disappointed that the first question you didn't ask
was what's the score of the met game?
Speaker 2 (09:02):
Okay, I'm just.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
For that was the second thing you probably said.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
But all right, so here's the car. Oh my god,
your feet.
Speaker 4 (09:14):
The unlucky thing about that was when you see when
you see the shot, that's the most like crazy.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
I guess, for lack of a better word, I must.
Speaker 4 (09:22):
Have turned last minute a little bit away when I
saw the headlights, because for the most part he just
hit the driver's side. And like I said about lexis
right now, I when I drove my rental car that
I had the first couple of days after the accident,
and I looked and I sat inside that car. I said,
if I was driving this car, because rental cars, for
the most part, are not really genuine, you know, they're
(09:44):
they're low, low level things, I said, I would have
been dead. That that car was built so well in
regards to the protection, the safety, the amount of airbags.
I mean, I got knocked out from the airbag. Yeah,
but that also probably saved me. So I give that
car credit. But you can you can scroll the scary one.
That's that's God forbid that that's the one that shows
(10:04):
everybody what the hell happened.
Speaker 3 (10:05):
Oh man, you're.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
Not supposed to see this part of the car.
Speaker 4 (10:10):
No, you're not supposed to see it. I mean, a
car is not supposed to look like that. I mean,
the wheel's not there. You know that it is just
is it's it's it went through a grater. It went
through it really went through a metal grader. And that
image right there, I actually didn't see. I didn't take myself.
My parents went to get the car the next day
to get whatever was in it. I had like a
lot of baseball equipment in there.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
I had.
Speaker 4 (10:31):
I had my wardrobe from the movie that I shot
the night before in there, so I had a whole
bunch of stuff. So they went in there and got it.
And when they sent me that picture, I said, holy ship,
is that I didn't see?
Speaker 2 (10:42):
Yeah, that's that's graphic.
Speaker 4 (10:44):
Right, Yeah, that's the one I think that makes people
just go, you know what happened here?
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Yeah, exactly, And then go to him in the in
the bed.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
That was. That was more people taking pictures and make
fun of me at that point.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
But well, I I this, this is what me like
seeing you in there with all the tubes and then
crazy and I was.
Speaker 4 (11:04):
Just like, my god, hindsight, Francy. And I even hate
posting it, but the business that we're in, you have
to do. You have to let people know why you're
not around. Oh that's the last thing I wanted to do.
I didn't want any sympathy from this. I didn't want
I didn't want to This is.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
A to me. This is a very personal picture. It's
a very vulnerable picture. The last thing I ever want
to post is something like that.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
But it's terrible. I'm tearing up now that it totally
breaks my heart, Like I felt so bad for you.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
I'm alive, that's good.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
Thank God, Thank God. I mean, he was definitely watching
over you that day. You put good Lord, you're telling
me good So God bless you because you're sitting here
and you look fantastic, and you look you look like
nothing happened to you.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
It's been a it's been a it's been a long
month so far.
Speaker 4 (11:51):
So I give you the first injury that we're going through, well,
the two injuries that were going through that are diagnosed
at the moment, is every tendon except for my and
my left foot is torn everything from A to Z.
When the car hit me, it hit me on my side,
like I said, and the I guess when you're sitting
in a car, obviously you're driving with your right foot.
But he hit me on the left hand side where
(12:12):
everything pushed up from my left ankle all the way
up to my left lower part of the back. So
imagine just everything boom. Still pull it off. Pull the
cane off. I pulled a cane off.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
Fantastic, dirty dapper.
Speaker 6 (12:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (12:28):
I had to take off the boot for that picture,
just to show people that I forgot some styles.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
Fantastic, all right, So we have trouble on the left
hand side.
Speaker 4 (12:38):
So yeah, the left the left foot and the left
ankle is gonna need certain so that that I see
my specials tomorrow for when we're going to do that
and kind of sew everything back together. I have MRIs
for my neck, my knee, my lower back, like I
said on June twentieth and June twenty first, So this
is like my eighth MRI since I did cat skins
and all that stuff. Thank god, there was no internal bleeding,
(12:59):
nothing like that could have killed me that night.
Speaker 3 (13:01):
Like I said, I give a lot of credit to
the car with that.
Speaker 4 (13:06):
The other thing, and this is to me the most
alarming thing, especially you know, in the business of entertainment,
especially wrestling and acting, where a lot of it has
to do with memory.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
I have memory issues from this right now.
Speaker 4 (13:17):
Yeah, and that was the most I think that hit
me more than the physical thing, because I went to
my neurologist the couple of weeks ago whatever it was,
and we did a regular scans, We did brain scans.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
Obviously, two concussions were found.
Speaker 4 (13:32):
I guess it's funny because it's like all the years
of wrestling, obviously I've had concussions, but the two and
one shot that I've never had I never had two
and one shot, so I had the concussions. And with
that came a couple of tests to see where my
cognitive function is right now and my memory shot. And
that was a little scary for me, because you know,
(13:52):
like I said, the business that we're in, I definitely
need it. Luckily, it wasn't so much memory where I
don't have memories. I obviously don't have much memory of
the event, but it's not so much that I forgot
things in my pass and whatnot.
Speaker 3 (14:03):
It's more of photographic memory.
Speaker 4 (14:05):
I noticed yesterday I was doing an exercise in UH
and short term memory for that matter. I was doing
an exercise and PT and I had to keep asking
my therapist what is it? How many reps for how
many seconds? And that was like I'm sitting there, I'm like,
I legit, don't remember it. That was a little bit
like messed up for me. And that's another thing where
like when you think about getting back into the ring,
that's going to take some time because until that's back,
(14:27):
the last thing I want to do is put anyone
else in harm's way.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
Sure, that's the last thing I want to do.
Speaker 4 (14:32):
I've been working long enough where I have an idea
where I don't need to call things. I can just
go out there and react and do what I need
to do. But if you forget something in the midst
of a match or you know, for the most part,
you get hurt somebody. So you know, yeah, I obviously
want my memory back. I obviously want my brain to
function the right way. So I want to make sure that,
I mean, your brain's important. And and not to get
(14:52):
too off topic, but shout out to just about every
single promoter that I've ever worked for, you know, because
they're there. They said, they said, you take your time,
your spot is not gone. As soon as you're ready
to come back, you you did's yours exactly where you
left off. Because the brain is you can't take that back.
You know, once you lose that, you lose everything, right,
So I really want to be easy with that, especially
(15:14):
my neck. You know, there's definitely some some stuff messed
up there as well from the whip last So once
I have the MRIs from that, I'll have a little
bit more of an idea of where.
Speaker 3 (15:22):
I'm going to be right. But like we said in
the beginning, I'm alive. I'm alive.
Speaker 4 (15:27):
These injuries will pass. I am recovering a lot quicker
than most people. I'm walking without the boot now I
have when I'm home, Like I don't even need to
wear the brace when I'm out. Obviously, I need the cane,
I need the the the brace that I have, which
is much smaller, and then we take it from there.
Once the surgery happens on the foot, I'll have rehab
for that and then physically, hopefully that lower half is
(15:48):
good to go, and then we work on work our
way up.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
Yeah, and you never want to come back too soon
because that's when things will happen and set backs occur,
and then you're out for longer. So you need need
to take your time because it's not like it's just
one thing. You have several things that you're dealing with. So,
like you said, your your spot isn't taken. You're young enough.
I mean, it's not like you're fifty eight years old
(16:11):
and you're depending. You got to really long.
Speaker 3 (16:14):
I'm ready to go, I got time.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
You're good, You're good. How about you were talking about
memory loss? How about like scripts? Are you able to
read a script and remember lines?
Speaker 4 (16:25):
So when I spoke to my doctors and my lawyers,
because those are the two taking care of me during.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
This time, I said, obviously. Because they said, don't even
think about wrestling.
Speaker 4 (16:33):
I was like, even if you feel good one day
and you decide to get in the ring, like and
you hurt yourself and you're back to square, don't even
think about it. So I said, Okay, I accepted the
fact with dealing that I'm going to be out for
wrestling for a little bit.
Speaker 3 (16:44):
I understand that, But I said, it's a I have
to work. I'm going to entertained. I have to work something.
I said, Can I Can I act?
Speaker 4 (16:50):
If I get auditions and my if my you know,
agents and managers, if they send me auditions for a project,
can I do it?
Speaker 3 (16:56):
They said, it's all it's just not physical.
Speaker 4 (16:57):
Go ahead and do it. Go ahead and work. I mean,
you know, there's no denying that you're hurt. So we
don't have to sit there and say, oh, you know
you can't do this.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
No, you're hurt.
Speaker 4 (17:06):
So if you can do certain things, do it. You know,
that's the biggest thing about situations like this is a
lot of people get hurt and they decide to not
push themselves to the point of getting better with activity,
and they only get worse. So the number one thing
I told my doctor, I said, I want to be
able to go to the gym to do stuff that
I can do. I need blood flow, you know, I
need some kind of function, and I want to be
(17:28):
able to work if I can. And they said, if
you can physically do certain things, I'm not going to
tell you.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
Not to do it.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
So that was a good thing for me.
Speaker 4 (17:34):
Now, I had an audition recently and I'm actually waiting
for I had the call back.
Speaker 3 (17:40):
I had everything. It's down to me and another person.
This is Patreon, this is you, guys. I can tell you.
Speaker 4 (17:45):
It's for a reoccurring role in the show Godfather of Harlem. Yeah,
with as far as Whittaker Child's promentary guys like that.
It's it's a nice role. It's a good role. So
it's down to me and I think one or two
more other people. I had the audition last week and
I had the manager sent me to my manager sending
my callback as for all the vaccine stuff that they
(18:06):
required these days whatever.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
So I'm just waiting for the phone call to see
if I got it or not.
Speaker 4 (18:11):
But during that process, I actually I needed I needed
the words on the screen on in front of me,
and and that I don't rarely do it was but
then again, look Marlon Branda did in The Godfather, So look,
I'm gonna use it as a skill that as a setback.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
Do you tell the casting people like this is what
happened to me? And I mean, because if it was me,
I would just to let them know, like this is
why I have to read a prompter or I need
a que card or something like. Do you let them know?
Speaker 4 (18:43):
Thankfully, my reps handle all that, so like my moll,
they'll talk to the casting director.
Speaker 3 (18:47):
You know, I have a great team.
Speaker 4 (18:48):
So they're the one that once they got the notice
from the casting director that they were interested in auditioning
me for the role, they told them what happened. I said, look,
he just got into a really bad car accident less
than a month ago. He's banged up, but if he
can do it, he'll do it. And then they asked me,
they said can you do it? That's the first thing
I said. I said, one hundred percent, I can do it.
I mean, first I said, what is the role? Because
(19:09):
the last role I did was I'm equalized. I were
queen the teeth, and.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
I wanted to talk about that after all this, and
she I saw your part. I really did it. But
let me get this over within.
Speaker 3 (19:20):
And them problem, we'll get the point. Whoop my ass.
Speaker 4 (19:24):
So I said, if it's a role like that, I said,
I probably can't do it. And they said, no, this
is the role, this is what it consists of doing,
and if you feel comfortable doing it audition, So I said, hell, yeah.
Now the casting directors themselves, they don't know if I'm
reading from a teleprompter or not. I just have to
I just have to perform. So luckily the audition was
good enough where they didn't know what it was. And usually,
(19:44):
mind you, in auditions you're only reading like a page anyway.
But there was one chunk of dialogue that I kept
like almost like DYSLEXI in a way. I just kept
reversing the words and I couldn't get it straight. I
just kept every time, and I just said, you know what,
write it. I write it in front of the paper,
right in the paper, in front of me with my reader.
I said, wright in the on the on the paper,
and I'm just gonna read it once the line comes.
(20:05):
I'm just gonna read it off the baby because I
can't get these words for some reason.
Speaker 6 (20:08):
And it was I think the line was, I'll just
tell you the line just to show you how uh,
because I have it here, just to show you how
crazy like, how little of a difference it was.
Speaker 3 (20:24):
Okay, So the line was.
Speaker 4 (20:30):
It's no trouble at all, don't be scared. I assure
you you're not in danger. And I kept saying, don't
be scared, You're not in danger. It's no trouble at all.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
And you basically we're saying it right or yes, and for.
Speaker 4 (20:43):
Some reason I could not switch it. I couldn't yes,
I said. If I couldn't get it, I said, fuck it.
We just were giving them that one and that's it.
They can get it. They can get But like I said,
when I'm in that situation, I'm sitting there thinking, I'm like,
I couldn't.
Speaker 3 (20:59):
I couldn't get those words right.
Speaker 4 (21:01):
And that was what was bothering me more than anything,
because it's those little things, you know, whenever you're banged
up or something happens to you, even even with COVID,
like some people have no symptoms at all, some people
had symptoms, but you know your body better than anybody.
So it's like when you have those little things where
you're like, I'm just not feeling right, that's what gets
you more than anything because it's like, yeah, you know
I sound good, I look good, I'm feeling good for
the most part, but.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
You know you're not right.
Speaker 4 (21:21):
And and that was something that was like to me,
It's like, man, I just got told my memories banged up.
Now I gotta do a script, and here it is,
my memories banned up.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
Right.
Speaker 3 (21:30):
It's little things like that. But like I said in
the beginning of this talk, like it could it could
be so much worse, right, so much worse. We could not.
It was memorial show.
Speaker 5 (21:42):
Yeah no, what like what like really poignant, like philosophical
thing did Chaz have to say to you the first
time you guys saw each other.
Speaker 3 (21:51):
You know what's funny is he did totally.
Speaker 4 (21:53):
At that because I always do his class. I always
do whenever he is the class, I always do the class.
Speaker 3 (21:58):
And I could not. So this happened a second.
Speaker 4 (22:00):
The class was May sixteen, seventeen eighteen, so as soon
as I walked in, he didn't even see it. Like
on Twitter, usually he sees stuffing or reach out. He
didn't see it on Twitter. So when I walked in
with the crutches and the boot, he was like, what
the fuck?
Speaker 3 (22:13):
How do you?
Speaker 2 (22:14):
And and you know he I'm not laughing at the
situation going.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
You can imagine Childs saying that.
Speaker 4 (22:20):
And Chads is a street guy, so the first thing,
I'm not gonna bolp his spot on the air, but
I'm sure you can imagine some of the things he said.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
He said, you fucking get this guy.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
That's why I wanted to know.
Speaker 4 (22:32):
But he said it in his typical philosophical way where
it was just great advice.
Speaker 3 (22:37):
And no, child did not tell me to kill the guy.
I promise you that, I promise you that.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
You have a great work ethic.
Speaker 3 (22:45):
That's what gets me gone. That's what gets me gone.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
Yeah, it's very admirable. Just like I said, don't push
yourself to the point where it's going to become a setback,
because then all this time is gonna go by and
you're gonna say, why did I do that? You know
what I mean? So take it slow. But thank god
that it wasn't worse than it was totally totally unbelievable. Well,
(23:08):
we wish you good luck on this role. But I
did see the Queen Latifah spot. Did you see him, Chad?
Speaker 3 (23:17):
I did not see it.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
No, I didn't watch the episode. I only watched you.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
I didn't see the full like, no, I don't.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
I didn't watch the full episode. I watched Mike and
you need exactly but you need to do more of
this stuff. You need to.
Speaker 3 (23:34):
I am, I am. But it was the last time,
the last time we spoke. I did the Philly commercial,
the super Bowl commercial that was that.
Speaker 4 (23:43):
Was shortly after the Philadelphia Cream cheese cream Yes. Yes,
So that was my first big break in commercial. That
was my first national commercial. Got a ship ton of likes,
uh follow views rather all that stuff, which was awesome.
That really kind of set them on that thing for me.
I did a lot of like independent, low budget, non
union stuff before that, but that was like my first Okay,
(24:06):
now it's time to work. First good paying gig, first
national exposure. And then I did a couple of commercials
after I did Camping World, which was a regional one.
I did Magic Spoon Cereal, which everyone's seen you all.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
The time, everyone all the time.
Speaker 3 (24:20):
It's great. I love it. I love it cheap plug,
but it's great. It's great.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
It's not a cheap cereal either, but it's worth it.
Speaker 3 (24:26):
No, no, no, no, it's not cheap.
Speaker 4 (24:28):
On. Once my commercial you know, here's your free boxes
ran out, I was like, yeah, I gotta start buying
this Dan thing.
Speaker 3 (24:37):
And I did it because it's War War It's well
worth the money. Yes, will worth the money.
Speaker 4 (24:41):
And I did the Super Bowl one, which was unfortunately
it was just you know, like a streaming thing social media,
but it was a Super Bowl spot which I loved.
Speaker 3 (24:49):
You know, it was Fanahauser Bush.
Speaker 4 (24:50):
So I did Stella butt Light butt Wise and they
did like eight different variations of what I was drinking,
but great spot as well. I had a lot of
fun with that. And then I did Monkey Shoulder Whiskey.
Not to give you my whole resume here, but I'm getting.
Speaker 3 (25:03):
To the tour anymore.
Speaker 4 (25:04):
Monkey Monkey Shoulder Whiskey. And the reason why I say
that was we did that last summer. I did it
with Anthony Bones from the Acclaim from a W and
we were both under Luta masks and we were wrestling
with Joel McHale. If you guys are familiar with Joe, yeah,
he's the man. First of all, he's yes. See Francine
went on the same page here because whenever I explained
(25:25):
who he is, I said, you guys don't remember the
soup from.
Speaker 3 (25:30):
I was like, damn, I'm a nineties baby, I know that,
you know. But it was great. That was another fun thing.
And then I told my manager and my agent.
Speaker 4 (25:40):
I was like, I like commercials because they pay good
and they keep paying, which is great, but I love
like The reason why I got an acting in the
first place was my agent saw me at an Evolved
show in Brooklyn. If you remember Evolved Wrestling w w N.
I was wrestling for that and my agent. New York
City obviously is filled with just entertainers of all type.
(26:02):
So these these talent agents would go to wrestling shows
to try to find I guess, people in shape, that
had had a that looked good on camera, that had
a little bit of natural charisma, you know, just basically
good at what they do.
Speaker 3 (26:15):
Let's put it that way, and you.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
Put yourself everydew. I got it. I was trying not to.
Speaker 3 (26:20):
I was like, fuck it at this going.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
This is out for a while.
Speaker 3 (26:24):
I gotta keep myself going something.
Speaker 4 (26:27):
So they're basically looking for people that can kind of
have that easy transition into the Hollywood world. And he
had reached out to me, and first I thought it
was just we know how the wrestling world could be
sliding into your messages.
Speaker 3 (26:40):
Hey you look good? All right, there we go again.
What do you what do you want from it?
Speaker 2 (26:44):
Try to buy your underwear? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (26:46):
Yeah, Parentcine you know, I mean we're on the same agent.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
Cad.
Speaker 3 (26:49):
You'll get there, brother, you'll get there. You know, Atlanta
people who start asking you for your underwear too, But
we'd have the experience.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
Go ahead, I'm sorry.
Speaker 4 (26:58):
So once I into it, I said, oh shit, this
is real. And he said have you ever had interest
in kind of working and acting? And I said, well,
I had no experience whatsoever in acting. Because no, you
have all the experience. He said, pro wrestling is the
purest form of entertainment. And I said, wow, that that
is deep.
Speaker 3 (27:15):
That is deep. So I went in and I said,
screw it, let's try.
Speaker 4 (27:18):
So you know, he started they started representing me, and
they said, look, you non union, you have no credits,
you have no real It's going to be tough, but
there are going to be roles that are made for
your type and that's what we're going to submit you on.
And then once you start booking some roles, then you
have a little bit of steam behind you. Just like wrestling,
it's all about buzz, all about work and what you
think is So I connected with that.
Speaker 3 (27:38):
I understood it. So I started.
Speaker 4 (27:40):
I booked my first role on my own, really like
a lot of just you know, independent self submitting roles,
and then I finally got the Philly commercial, like I said,
and that's where it kind of lifted off from there.
And from there after the commercial, I said, I want
to start doing more narrative stuff film and TV.
Speaker 3 (27:57):
And like I said a few minutes ago, I did a.
Speaker 4 (27:59):
Lot of that almost his practice work by self submitting
myself on like student projects and non union projects where
you know, I actually have.
Speaker 3 (28:06):
One of my first roles. It's called The Right Path.
It's a short film.
Speaker 4 (28:09):
It's on Amazon Prime. You can actually watch. I'm pretty
sure it's free. That was the movie that was my
first movie I worked. And then again zero dollars non Nun.
But it was great production. It was good and that cool,
cool little movie but I paid nothing for it was
non Nun but it was the experience and the exposure
I needed to kind of get get yourself going. And
then you know, after the commercial work and building up
a real I started getting auditions for bigger projects like
(28:33):
The Equalizer. I filmed a movie called Justina Valentine Presents
Forget About Christmas. It's an Italian Christmas movie. It's gonna
be a Paramount plus.
Speaker 3 (28:41):
It's by uh yeah, it's my girl. I played a Sistan. Yeah,
the it's the best. It's gonna be such a good movie.
It's gonna be a lot of time hilarious.
Speaker 4 (28:52):
That's coming out probably Paramount plus only because the whole
while and out crew pretty much it's.
Speaker 3 (28:57):
Paramount, So I assume it'll be on Paramount. But obviously
they're going to listen.
Speaker 4 (29:01):
To whatever offers are on the table, so that'll be
out and around Christmas time, and then you know, hopefully
the Godfather Harlem.
Speaker 3 (29:07):
Thing gets done, because that's so a little bit of esteem,
a little bit of steam got it.
Speaker 4 (29:12):
January twenty two hit and I booked The Equalizer. I
booked this movie and I got this hopefully lined up.
And that's what it's all about, is momentum. How much
jobs can you blow it and you want to move
about Chad's philosophy there. He said, you're meant to fail
in the acting world. You were meant to fail. You
show up to a room full of people that are
decision makers that don't really care much about you, don't
(29:34):
really care much about your talent, what you can do.
They just want to say okay, yeah, yes, no. They
what the power to say yes and no. And he said,
when you walk into these rooms and you do these auditions,
and most of these auditions now are virtual, he said,
they're all shit. They mean nothing, These people mean nothing.
Do not be afraid of these people because they don't matter.
You're gonna have one hundred auditions. You're gonna get ninety
nine o's, and then you're gonna get one yes. That
(29:55):
sets you off to the promised Land. And that's all
you got to worry about.
Speaker 2 (29:58):
Then they start call it gratitude.
Speaker 3 (30:00):
Yeah, it's great. I mean he talked about Chaz He
what a guy. What a guy. Yeah, what a guy.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
It's good you got hooked up with him. And getting
back to the acting thing. We always said, like wrestling
is like live theater. Yes, you know what I mean,
because you're performing in front of thousands of people and
you're acting because that's not you.
Speaker 3 (30:20):
Yeah no, it's not.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
You're playing a character. So they hit the nail on
the head with that. So you're you're one of the
people that weren't afraid to try and branch out.
Speaker 4 (30:30):
You know what, You're one hundred percent right. And I
was thinking about my future in the presence because I'm
in the prime of my wrestling career. Like we said,
I'm thirty years old. You know, I've been very selective
about you know, there's a reason why I have him
pursued contracts, let's put it that way, and not being said. Look,
if I was off in a contract that was like perfect,
I'll sign it tomorrow. But you hear all these stories
(30:50):
about WWE, and aw God bless them because all the
work I've done with them, they give their talent freedom,
they give them the ability to do stuff. So this
is not a direct on them, And this isn't knock
on w W because if you work for WWE, you
know that's your passion, that's where you want to be,
and you get paid good money to do it. But me,
I'm at the point right now, especially after this, you know,
traumatic situation. It's like I have so many, so much
(31:12):
interest and so much love in all the things that
I do that's not just wrestling, that I always want
to have my options open. I've been lucky enough to
make a living on the indies where it's like, okay,
if I can do the indies and I can do
my stints at aw when they're in the area, that's
okay with me right now, because to me, it's like
I need it to be the perfect And this may
sound selfish in a way, but I do want it
to be a perfect situation situation. I don't need to necessarily,
(31:35):
you know, take myself out of the indies and take
myself out of my coaching career, which I love.
Speaker 3 (31:39):
That's like my that's I love that. I really love that,
you know, Yeah, I love this acting career.
Speaker 4 (31:45):
That kind of is almost like a gift to me
because it's it's I if you would ask me this
ten years ago when I started my wrestling career, then
oh man, Mike, you're gonna be a movies one day,
I would have laughed at you.
Speaker 3 (31:55):
That would I would have left.
Speaker 4 (31:56):
And this was like a gift that was given to
me that I I I worked at my Once I
started going, I work my ass off.
Speaker 6 (32:02):
You know.
Speaker 4 (32:02):
I take classes every single you know, as much classes
as I can I take.
Speaker 3 (32:06):
I practice my craft. I take it seriously. I work hard.
Speaker 4 (32:09):
I have so much more respect for these actors that
are like season season trained actors from you know, all
these n Yu Tish and all these you know, LaGuardia,
all these things that are just you know, acting based things.
I have all the respect from. But this gift, this
gift was given to me, So I'm going to take
advantage and use that as well. And I don't necessarily
want to throw that away for an industry right now
that's really really crowded.
Speaker 3 (32:30):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (32:31):
It's not selfish of you to want to do this.
You you have more than one interest in your life.
You're able to make a living off of several different
different things, So why.
Speaker 1 (32:41):
Not do it?
Speaker 4 (32:42):
Yeah, and Francine, you know, thank god, I hope that
this never happens again, a situation like this. But if
I just had wrestling and what happened to me just
happened to me, it'd be.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
On the shelf.
Speaker 3 (32:55):
I mean, what would I be doing for money? You
know what I'm saying, what would I be doing for work?
Speaker 2 (32:59):
You know, if you're lucky.
Speaker 3 (33:02):
The last thing I want to be is somebody that
has to you know.
Speaker 4 (33:04):
No, I don't want to say this in a negative
way because I understand people need things, but I don't
want to have to rely on on gofund me or anything.
Speaker 1 (33:14):
I get it.
Speaker 4 (33:14):
I understand I've supported many of my peers with it,
but I never want to be in a situation where
I have to do that.
Speaker 3 (33:20):
You know, I don't. I can't. And and this, this
is this was eye opening for me.
Speaker 4 (33:23):
This whole situation, this whole experience is like it could
just be gone like that. So do everything you love now.
And that's the thing too. I work three jobs that
I mean basically dream jobs. I'm a pro wrestler, which
was my childhood dream. I stopped playing baseball to be
a pro wrestler. I've become that. You know, I still
coach baseball. I get paid to coach baseball. Like that's
(33:45):
a great thing. And this acting thing, you know, I
used to be the type of kid when I was
when I was younger that used to make you know,
home movies with their with their cousins and their siblings.
Speaker 3 (33:53):
Did I you know, did I ever Did I ever
think I would be an actor?
Speaker 2 (33:56):
No?
Speaker 3 (33:56):
Did I ever train an actor?
Speaker 2 (33:58):
No?
Speaker 4 (33:58):
But looking back and it's like I'm doing something that
I did when I was a kid. So these three things,
it's like I'm lucky. I'm very lucky in a lot
of a lot of levels, and and and the grind
is there. And that's something that you mentioned the work ethic.
I love the grind of being able to balance a
schedule when healthy, you know, to do all three of
these things at a full time basis. You know, I
remember Black in March when I was shooting Justina's movie.
(34:19):
I mean that was that was opening week for my
college team. So I had to say, Okay, so I
had to coach a game on on on the eighth,
show up to set on the ninth, go to practice
on the tenth in the morning, then drive back to
Jersey to get back on set, sleep over that night,
film again, miss a game, which I hate doing. So
you know, it's just it's it's almost like your own
(34:40):
little adrenaline rush. And you know, from the days on
the road, you know, you know how it is. It's
it's it's a rush. It's a rush.
Speaker 3 (34:45):
I'm lucky I do and.
Speaker 2 (34:47):
And I it's refreshing to hear somebody like you say
that WWE isn't the be all end all in this industry,
because especially today, there's so many places is to work,
there's so much opportunity out there. You have a good
head on your shoulders. I think you're doing it the
right way. And you love wrestling, you get to do it.
(35:09):
You love acting, you get to do it. You love coaching,
you get to do it. There's nothing wrong with that.
You're not being selfish. It's it's a perfect life for
what you want to do. So I applaud you for that.
I think it's wonderful, THANKTT.
Speaker 4 (35:21):
And I wish more wrestlers would be open, not so
much just acting, but just open to having something else
outside of wrestling, because I think a lot of wrestlers,
even if they're contracted to one of these TV companies
and they're making a good living, I think a lot
of them are thinking, like, you know, this is different.
This maybe wasn't I mean doing wrong. And there are
some people that literally they reach for the top. They
(35:41):
reach the top, they'd fulfill their dreams and all they
need is wrestling. But then there's some situations where yeah,
they're getting paid good, they have a good spot on TV,
but like maybe it's not exactly what they expected.
Speaker 3 (35:51):
You know, maybe they're falling out of love with it.
Speaker 4 (35:53):
And I see that, and I would never throw any
names out there on the air, but I had to
talk to people, and I'm sure you'd have that, you
know your career as well, where you just you see
people reach a point where they fall out of love
with the business and they don't have anything else, and
they're they're still doing this business because this is what
they have, and you know, Guilty has it as well.
There are times where, you know, like I said, I'll
work on a movie and I'm fucking killing it and
(36:14):
I'm having a great time and I'm making good money,
and I turn around, I look at my schedule.
Speaker 3 (36:17):
I said, damn, I have to wrestle next week.
Speaker 4 (36:19):
There's been times, there has been times, because you know,
acting is so similar to wrestling without the pain unless
you so when I say that, I say, okay, Damn,
I have to drive five hours in Massachusetts. I have
to get my ass up and I have to drive
five hours back. That's that's what I mean by them,
I have to wrestle that time, but.
Speaker 2 (36:39):
Your heart's still into it, so you're going to do it.
Speaker 4 (36:43):
A difference one hundred percent. But there are people that
have that feeling, and then then there's like what else
do I do? And I always say this to everybody,
is like I would not be where I am without wrestling.
So until the day comes where I have to turn
around and say I just don't love it anymore, that's
the day I hang it out. But until then, it's
like I am what I am because of wrestling, and
I can't turn around. Like even on the baseball field,
(37:05):
like I have other coaches saying they made a steel
but it's like, you know, they told me they bring
championship belts to the.
Speaker 3 (37:11):
Game, like they like it's like you have these are
exactly they all are. It doesn't matter, they all are.
Speaker 2 (37:20):
Oh my gosh, Well, I you know, I wanted to
catch up with you, Mike. I'm so happy to see
you like this from.
Speaker 4 (37:27):
Happy to be here, like I said, once you hit
me up and yeah, it's like I didn't want to.
I didn't want to jump on anything major yet and
kind of give everyone the A to Z, but I said,
perfect platform to do it perfect And I.
Speaker 2 (37:39):
Didn't want to force you. That's why I said, if
you're not comfortable with it, you tell me a good date.
If it's a year from now, I don't care. But
I had I had contacted you before the accident to come.
Speaker 3 (37:48):
Yeah, I know you. I'm if I didn't want to
do it, I wouldn't have done it.
Speaker 6 (37:53):
Trust forth.
Speaker 2 (37:54):
Well, we're so happy that you came here. God bless you.
I'm so happy that you're good and you have all
this work ahead of you. We're proud of you. Where
can people find you on social media again? If they
want to follow you, follow your career, what you got
coming up again? Plug the way.
Speaker 4 (38:11):
All my social media is their man of steel MV
man of steel m v U MV not envy.
Speaker 3 (38:17):
But yeah, that's where I'm at. I mean, I said, guys,
I'm not sure when I'm going to be back yet.
Speaker 4 (38:22):
I promise you will be sooner rather than later, because
once I get everything diagnosed and everything fixed, my work,
my work ethic is to is to work. So I'm
going to make sure that I work hard in PT,
work hard and rehab and and you know, get everything
back to normal. As quick as ken because you know,
off topic. Uh, buddy of mine, JT done great wrestle
on the Independence. I'm in a faction with him, called
(38:45):
the Unit out in the Massachusetts area, and he had
texted me after the show last Friday and he said, Man,
all we have to do is mention your name once
and the crowd stood to their feet and started a
chance in your name.
Speaker 3 (38:55):
We could even wrestle. And I said, that's that's the
stuff that I need. You know, that's the stuff that
I need. So I miss it.
Speaker 4 (39:01):
I I it's only been a month and a week
and I miss it. I can only imagine how it's
going to be a couple of months from now. But
I promise you want to be back and and better
than ever. And I'm happy that everyone has been supporting me.
I've read every single message, every single comment, every single
anything on any kind of media platform.
Speaker 3 (39:17):
Thank you for that.
Speaker 4 (39:19):
And I'm happy that I was able to kind of
express where I'm at my recovery right now on this
on this show and my two buddies over here.
Speaker 2 (39:27):
Absolutely well, if you don't mind, I'm going to check
in on you from time to time.
Speaker 3 (39:32):
Francine has been one of the constant d ms of.
Speaker 2 (39:35):
I don't want to be but see certain tweets and
I'm just like, I just want to say, Hi.
Speaker 1 (39:44):
We'll bond in September when the when the end of
the season finally hits.
Speaker 3 (39:48):
Oh baby, get a chance to discuss.
Speaker 1 (39:51):
That fingers crossed. We'll keep you.
Speaker 2 (39:53):
We'll talk to discuss the mats.
Speaker 1 (40:00):
I mean, come on, look how good it looks on
the airwaves.
Speaker 3 (40:02):
I'm planning, I'm playing. It's just when the Mets are good.
Speaker 4 (40:06):
When the Mets are good, spirits are high, it's hard
to take out the arms and blue and sometimes black.
Speaker 1 (40:11):
I think that's another reason why he's so positive. I'm
not gonna lie.
Speaker 3 (40:15):
One of those other seasons. It's been a big help
when you're not able to do much. Well.
Speaker 2 (40:20):
You enjoyed the season. I will talk to you again,
but take care of yourself.
Speaker 3 (40:25):
You guys are the best.
Speaker 2 (40:26):
Thank you, all right, take Karen and we'll be in touch.
Mike to Verna, everyone, thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (40:41):
Yeah, franc.
Speaker 7 (40:46):
Franc Queen Extreme Extreme, The Queen Extreme Podcast. Awesome, The
Queen Extreme Podcast. It's the Queen of Extreme brut he
in the legend, she is the woman nufty dreams legend
on the Senior Francine podcast, which you
Speaking to forget about it. I mean, that's not a
great one.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
We were just brabbling. I want to introduce a former guest.
He back. I want to talk about current events with
him because something happened and I think he's going to
be open to talking about it. Mike to Verna. Mike Verna,
you have forty two million names. I don't know what
to call you.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
The man of steel, I'm wearing. I'm wearing what we
need to wear.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
That Jack, we look fantastic.
Speaker 4 (00:39):
Thank you, Thank you, Francy, you too. I'm sure I'm
sure you hear that on a everyday basis.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Thank you, sir. You broke my heart. Are you up
to talking about that for sure? Okay?
Speaker 4 (00:52):
I think this is the first public forum that I'll
be talking about it.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
So that's why I wanted to grab you right away.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
I want to how we do it?
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Hello, I said, I'm not going to pounce on him.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
I want to give him some time. But I did
check in on you with no intention of anything back.
I just my heart sank.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
It.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Let me explain why all of this bus with Tammy
and what's happening. And then your picture came up and
I literally got a lump in my throat and I
froze and I said to myself, I don't know the story,
you know, and it was fresh. I didn't want to
ask you if you knew, like if the guy was
(01:34):
drinking or whatever. Can you tell us what happened, because
all I can see is you in the hospital, and like,
it broke my heart.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
Yeah, it was. It was definitely a crazy experience. It's
still fresh on me.
Speaker 4 (01:46):
I mean it happened May second, So we're about a
month and a week away, give or take. And first
and foremost, for the most part, I am feeling better.
I'm getting better each day. I do have a couple
of stuff going on that we can get into. I'm
not totally afraid to discuss what's happening, but there are
there are some things going on that that are going
to require some time, no doubt about it. But so
(02:09):
what happened was is I was filming a movie on
that Monday, that Monday night or whatever it was the second,
I don't know if it was.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
I think it was a Monday, it was. It was
that night.
Speaker 4 (02:18):
I was in the Upper East Side in Manhattan, and
I was driving home. We did about a regular standard
twelve hour day. It was a student film too, so
it was a relatively you know, simple project for the
most part, just going in and getting some work and
coming home that same night.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
One day. Shoot, easy, easy does it. I'm taking the.
Speaker 4 (02:36):
Triborough Bridge from Manhattan to get back to Queen's to
get back into Brooklyn to get home, and all I
remember was a split second of seeing a headlight and
then getting hit and then the airbag knocking me out,
and then waking up about several seconds later, only to
(02:57):
feel the car moving and then get knocked out again
from a whiplash concussion, which is common in the wrestling
world to begin with, and then being out cold, and
then being woken up from a police officer who actually thought,
and I don't want to get too dramatic, but thought
I was dead because I was knocked out at the time.
The type of collision that it was usually doesn't leave
(03:17):
people at one piece. But once I heard him open
the door, I kind of regained consciousness, gave him the
thumbs up, and then he started kind of breaking the
air bags up and get me out one piece. Yeah,
that's that's all I remember. So, you know, like you
mentioned Tammy and everything that's going on with her. It
is ironic because you know, you saw what's possible in
(03:41):
a situation like that, and to be able to kind
of hop myself out of that car in like I said,
a couple of pieces, but okay, for the most part
was was really you know something up there was just
careerund you.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
Know, yeah, do we know if the gentleman was under
the influence of anything?
Speaker 3 (03:59):
So he passed. It's the breathalyzer.
Speaker 4 (04:01):
They arrested him that night because first of all, to
backtrack the story, the guy was driving on the wrong
side of a major bridge, So that's the thing. And
I remember when the cop woke me up and he said,
you know, I said, what happened? Because when I woke up,
I mean I thought, did I look away? Did I
hit a pothole and flipped?
Speaker 3 (04:22):
Like what happened? I didn't know. I still to this
day don't really know exactly what happened.
Speaker 4 (04:26):
But he told me is like the officer told me, said,
you just got hit by a guy speeding on the
other side into oncoming traffic on the wrong side of
the Tribell Bridge. The first thing I said to him,
I said, where is he? Because I was ready to
like fight, because I'm sitting there and I'm thinking about
(04:47):
something like, Yo, I'm alive, but I probably shouldn't be
because someone did something asinine. You know, you can't even
put into words and comprehend what exactly was going through
his head. And then I actually said, I said, sir,
what happened? Because he's under don't worry, he's under little
do I know? Because I have plenty of family and
law enforcement. They said under means under arrest. So first
I thought he was under the influence idiot.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
Once I heard he when I heard the term under,
I said, I'm gonna kill him. I'm gonna have to
kill him because he almost killed me. I'm gonna have
to kill him right now.
Speaker 4 (05:18):
But when he said any said he's under arrest, that
made me feel a bit better because it's like, Okay,
you know, clearly this guy was doing something, and you
know the way the New York City, you know, jail
system is right now, they would just sometimes they just
let someone do something like that, just walk, and just
to just to know that the arrest, it made me
feel better because you know, if it wasn't me, if
it wasn't the car, I was driving if it wasn't
(05:39):
the shape I was in, which was a big fact
that doctors are tell me, which prevented my net from snapping,
because remember a whiplash concussion. I'm not gonna do it
now because my brain is still rattled. But we're all
we all know, Francia, you know, you know, usually up
close in person, whiplash is the head just jerking back
and forth as fast as it can, and it can
knock you out. Someone who's not I guess is physically fit,
(06:00):
especially in the line of work that I'm in, that
could have snapped someone's neck. That's how fast the impact was.
I mean the guy was going about eighty miles per hour.
I was going out a fore good speed myself. It's
eleven o'clock at night, no traffic on the road. You're
going you driving, no, because the car would have been
shot if I was speeding, And I don't think he
was speeding to the point, because like I said, I
think if if any of us were going above you know,
(06:20):
seventy five eighty miles peru, I don't think any of.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
Us would be here to talk about it.
Speaker 4 (06:24):
But you know that that that was a big factor
and saving my life as well. So shout out to
Lexus and shout out to you know, being jacked exactly that.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
Chad. While we're chatting, can you pull up his Twitter
and show the picture to our Patreon members that might
not follow Mike, because it shook my core, Like I
just was like, good lord, because anytime I see an
accident like that, like I have kids, right, and I
always think about when we leave the house, God forbid,
(06:56):
if somebody hits my car, my children are in the car,
you know what I mean. Like it just it makes
me really nervous to even leave my house anymore because
you never know who's you know, in the other car driving.
You don't know what they're doing, what they're under. Did
he passed the breathalyzer?
Speaker 3 (07:13):
You said, yeah?
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Was he one anything? Or was he just the confused individual?
Speaker 4 (07:19):
A couple of theories that I had, I had I
had three three theories really because I haven't found out
yet and obviously, you know, my lawyers and everything else
are kind of getting to.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
The bottom of that. I was knocked out. I didn't
even see that. I didn't even see him get arrested.
Speaker 4 (07:31):
I didn't see I didn't see what he looked like,
I didn't see what the car looked like. All I
had was the accident report the next couple of days.
But I had the theory that A, he was obviously
tripping on something, something good for that matter. The other
thing was is you know that that bridge is known
to be a drag racing bridge. It's known for you know,
at late at night, for guys to your girls for
(07:53):
that matter, of getting their cars and just kind of
speed through it.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
He was the only car there, so I don't think
it was a drag race at the time.
Speaker 4 (07:59):
And honestly, as dramatic as this may sounds, like maybe
he was trying to himself, you know what I'm saying,
like you just you just don't.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
Know, you just don't go into a pole, Yeah, go
towards the water.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
You know, you just don't.
Speaker 4 (08:13):
Not really, you really have no idea what exactly was
in his going on through his mind. I know that
when they when they asked him for you know, when
they basically interviewed him, he had no response, like he
not not that he was unresponsive, but he didn't say anything.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
He was just kind of like, you know, I had
nothing to say.
Speaker 4 (08:29):
I mean, look, if it was if it was an accident,
like a genuine accident, and he was clean and all
that stuff. Like, I feel just as bad for him
because you know, we both survived at the end of
the day.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
You know, he must be shook.
Speaker 4 (08:40):
He probably has the same PTSD that I have, you know,
all that kind of stuff going on, so he who knows.
But but if it was something that he shouldn't have
been doing, then I have no sympathy for something like that.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
I know.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Do you have it? Yeah, pull up the picture before
I do that.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
I just want to say one thing.
Speaker 5 (08:58):
I'm very disappointed that the first question you didn't ask
was what's the score of the met game?
Speaker 2 (09:02):
Okay, I'm just.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
For that was the second thing you probably said.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
But all right, so here's the car. Oh my god,
your feet.
Speaker 4 (09:14):
The unlucky thing about that was when you see when
you see the shot, that's the most like crazy.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
I guess, for lack of a better word, I must.
Speaker 4 (09:22):
Have turned last minute a little bit away when I
saw the headlights, because for the most part he just
hit the driver's side. And like I said about lexis
right now, I when I drove my rental car that
I had the first couple of days after the accident,
and I looked and I sat inside that car. I said,
if I was driving this car, because rental cars, for
the most part, are not really genuine, you know, they're
(09:44):
they're low, low level things, I said, I would have
been dead. That that car was built so well in
regards to the protection, the safety, the amount of airbags.
I mean, I got knocked out from the airbag. Yeah,
but that also probably saved me. So I give that
car credit. But you can you can scroll the scary one.
That's that's God forbid that that's the one that shows
(10:04):
everybody what the hell happened.
Speaker 3 (10:05):
Oh man, you're.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
Not supposed to see this part of the car.
Speaker 4 (10:10):
No, you're not supposed to see it. I mean, a
car is not supposed to look like that. I mean,
the wheel's not there. You know that it is just
is it's it's it went through a grater. It went
through it really went through a metal grader. And that
image right there, I actually didn't see. I didn't take myself.
My parents went to get the car the next day
to get whatever was in it. I had like a
lot of baseball equipment in there.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
I had.
Speaker 4 (10:31):
I had my wardrobe from the movie that I shot
the night before in there, so I had a whole
bunch of stuff. So they went in there and got it.
And when they sent me that picture, I said, holy ship,
is that I didn't see?
Speaker 2 (10:42):
Yeah, that's that's graphic.
Speaker 4 (10:44):
Right, Yeah, that's the one I think that makes people
just go, you know what happened here?
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Yeah, exactly, And then go to him in the in
the bed.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
That was. That was more people taking pictures and make
fun of me at that point.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
But well, I I this, this is what me like
seeing you in there with all the tubes and then
crazy and I was.
Speaker 4 (11:04):
Just like, my god, hindsight, Francy. And I even hate
posting it, but the business that we're in, you have
to do. You have to let people know why you're
not around. Oh that's the last thing I wanted to do.
I didn't want any sympathy from this. I didn't want
I didn't want to This is.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
A to me. This is a very personal picture. It's
a very vulnerable picture. The last thing I ever want
to post is something like that.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
But it's terrible. I'm tearing up now that it totally
breaks my heart, Like I felt so bad for you.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
I'm alive, that's good.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
Thank God, Thank God. I mean, he was definitely watching
over you that day. You put good Lord, you're telling
me good So God bless you because you're sitting here
and you look fantastic, and you look you look like
nothing happened to you.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
It's been a it's been a it's been a long
month so far.
Speaker 4 (11:51):
So I give you the first injury that we're going through, well,
the two injuries that were going through that are diagnosed
at the moment, is every tendon except for my and
my left foot is torn everything from A to Z.
When the car hit me, it hit me on my side,
like I said, and the I guess when you're sitting
in a car, obviously you're driving with your right foot.
But he hit me on the left hand side where
(12:12):
everything pushed up from my left ankle all the way
up to my left lower part of the back. So
imagine just everything boom. Still pull it off. Pull the
cane off. I pulled a cane off.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
Fantastic, dirty dapper.
Speaker 6 (12:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (12:28):
I had to take off the boot for that picture,
just to show people that I forgot some styles.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
Fantastic, all right, So we have trouble on the left
hand side.
Speaker 4 (12:38):
So yeah, the left the left foot and the left
ankle is gonna need certain so that that I see
my specials tomorrow for when we're going to do that
and kind of sew everything back together. I have MRIs
for my neck, my knee, my lower back, like I
said on June twentieth and June twenty first, So this
is like my eighth MRI since I did cat skins
and all that stuff. Thank god, there was no internal bleeding,
(12:59):
nothing like that could have killed me that night.
Speaker 3 (13:01):
Like I said, I give a lot of credit to
the car with that.
Speaker 4 (13:06):
The other thing, and this is to me the most
alarming thing, especially you know, in the business of entertainment,
especially wrestling and acting, where a lot of it has
to do with memory.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
I have memory issues from this right now.
Speaker 4 (13:17):
Yeah, and that was the most I think that hit
me more than the physical thing, because I went to
my neurologist the couple of weeks ago whatever it was,
and we did a regular scans, We did brain scans.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
Obviously, two concussions were found.
Speaker 4 (13:32):
I guess it's funny because it's like all the years
of wrestling, obviously I've had concussions, but the two and
one shot that I've never had I never had two
and one shot, so I had the concussions. And with
that came a couple of tests to see where my
cognitive function is right now and my memory shot. And
that was a little scary for me, because you know,
(13:52):
like I said, the business that we're in, I definitely
need it. Luckily, it wasn't so much memory where I
don't have memories. I obviously don't have much memory of
the event, but it's not so much that I forgot
things in my pass and whatnot.
Speaker 3 (14:03):
It's more of photographic memory.
Speaker 4 (14:05):
I noticed yesterday I was doing an exercise in UH
and short term memory for that matter. I was doing
an exercise and PT and I had to keep asking
my therapist what is it? How many reps for how
many seconds? And that was like I'm sitting there, I'm like,
I legit, don't remember it. That was a little bit
like messed up for me. And that's another thing where
like when you think about getting back into the ring,
that's going to take some time because until that's back,
(14:27):
the last thing I want to do is put anyone
else in harm's way.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
Sure, that's the last thing I want to do.
Speaker 4 (14:32):
I've been working long enough where I have an idea
where I don't need to call things. I can just
go out there and react and do what I need
to do. But if you forget something in the midst
of a match or you know, for the most part,
you get hurt somebody. So you know, yeah, I obviously
want my memory back. I obviously want my brain to
function the right way. So I want to make sure that,
I mean, your brain's important. And and not to get
(14:52):
too off topic, but shout out to just about every
single promoter that I've ever worked for, you know, because
they're there. They said, they said, you take your time,
your spot is not gone. As soon as you're ready
to come back, you you did's yours exactly where you
left off. Because the brain is you can't take that back.
You know, once you lose that, you lose everything, right,
So I really want to be easy with that, especially
(15:14):
my neck. You know, there's definitely some some stuff messed
up there as well from the whip last So once
I have the MRIs from that, I'll have a little
bit more of an idea of where.
Speaker 3 (15:22):
I'm going to be right. But like we said in
the beginning, I'm alive. I'm alive.
Speaker 4 (15:27):
These injuries will pass. I am recovering a lot quicker
than most people. I'm walking without the boot now I
have when I'm home, Like I don't even need to
wear the brace when I'm out. Obviously, I need the cane,
I need the the the brace that I have, which
is much smaller, and then we take it from there.
Once the surgery happens on the foot, I'll have rehab
for that and then physically, hopefully that lower half is
(15:48):
good to go, and then we work on work our
way up.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
Yeah, and you never want to come back too soon
because that's when things will happen and set backs occur,
and then you're out for longer. So you need need
to take your time because it's not like it's just
one thing. You have several things that you're dealing with. So,
like you said, your your spot isn't taken. You're young enough.
I mean, it's not like you're fifty eight years old
(16:11):
and you're depending. You got to really long.
Speaker 3 (16:14):
I'm ready to go, I got time.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
You're good, You're good. How about you were talking about
memory loss? How about like scripts? Are you able to
read a script and remember lines?
Speaker 4 (16:25):
So when I spoke to my doctors and my lawyers,
because those are the two taking care of me during.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
This time, I said, obviously. Because they said, don't even
think about wrestling.
Speaker 4 (16:33):
I was like, even if you feel good one day
and you decide to get in the ring, like and
you hurt yourself and you're back to square, don't even
think about it. So I said, Okay, I accepted the
fact with dealing that I'm going to be out for
wrestling for a little bit.
Speaker 3 (16:44):
I understand that, But I said, it's a I have
to work. I'm going to entertained. I have to work something.
I said, Can I Can I act?
Speaker 4 (16:50):
If I get auditions and my if my you know,
agents and managers, if they send me auditions for a project,
can I do it?
Speaker 3 (16:56):
They said, it's all it's just not physical.
Speaker 4 (16:57):
Go ahead and do it. Go ahead and work. I mean,
you know, there's no denying that you're hurt. So we
don't have to sit there and say, oh, you know
you can't do this.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
No, you're hurt.
Speaker 4 (17:06):
So if you can do certain things, do it. You know,
that's the biggest thing about situations like this is a
lot of people get hurt and they decide to not
push themselves to the point of getting better with activity,
and they only get worse. So the number one thing
I told my doctor, I said, I want to be
able to go to the gym to do stuff that
I can do. I need blood flow, you know, I
need some kind of function, and I want to be
(17:28):
able to work if I can. And they said, if
you can physically do certain things, I'm not going to
tell you.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
Not to do it.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
So that was a good thing for me.
Speaker 4 (17:34):
Now, I had an audition recently and I'm actually waiting
for I had the call back.
Speaker 3 (17:40):
I had everything. It's down to me and another person.
This is Patreon, this is you, guys. I can tell you.
Speaker 4 (17:45):
It's for a reoccurring role in the show Godfather of Harlem. Yeah,
with as far as Whittaker Child's promentary guys like that.
It's it's a nice role. It's a good role. So
it's down to me and I think one or two
more other people. I had the audition last week and
I had the manager sent me to my manager sending
my callback as for all the vaccine stuff that they
(18:06):
required these days whatever.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
So I'm just waiting for the phone call to see
if I got it or not.
Speaker 4 (18:11):
But during that process, I actually I needed I needed
the words on the screen on in front of me,
and and that I don't rarely do it was but
then again, look Marlon Branda did in The Godfather, So look,
I'm gonna use it as a skill that as a setback.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
Do you tell the casting people like this is what
happened to me? And I mean, because if it was me,
I would just to let them know, like this is
why I have to read a prompter or I need
a que card or something like. Do you let them know?
Speaker 4 (18:43):
Thankfully, my reps handle all that, so like my moll,
they'll talk to the casting director.
Speaker 3 (18:47):
You know, I have a great team.
Speaker 4 (18:48):
So they're the one that once they got the notice
from the casting director that they were interested in auditioning
me for the role, they told them what happened. I said, look,
he just got into a really bad car accident less
than a month ago. He's banged up, but if he
can do it, he'll do it. And then they asked me,
they said can you do it? That's the first thing
I said. I said, one hundred percent, I can do it.
I mean, first I said, what is the role? Because
(19:09):
the last role I did was I'm equalized. I were
queen the teeth, and.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
I wanted to talk about that after all this, and
she I saw your part. I really did it. But
let me get this over within.
Speaker 3 (19:20):
And them problem, we'll get the point. Whoop my ass.
Speaker 4 (19:24):
So I said, if it's a role like that, I said,
I probably can't do it. And they said, no, this
is the role, this is what it consists of doing,
and if you feel comfortable doing it audition, So I said, hell, yeah.
Now the casting directors themselves, they don't know if I'm
reading from a teleprompter or not. I just have to
I just have to perform. So luckily the audition was
good enough where they didn't know what it was. And usually,
(19:44):
mind you, in auditions you're only reading like a page anyway.
But there was one chunk of dialogue that I kept
like almost like DYSLEXI in a way. I just kept
reversing the words and I couldn't get it straight. I
just kept every time, and I just said, you know what,
write it. I write it in front of the paper,
right in the paper, in front of me with my reader.
I said, wright in the on the on the paper,
and I'm just gonna read it once the line comes.
(20:05):
I'm just gonna read it off the baby because I
can't get these words for some reason.
Speaker 6 (20:08):
And it was I think the line was, I'll just
tell you the line just to show you how uh,
because I have it here, just to show you how
crazy like, how little of a difference it was.
Speaker 3 (20:24):
Okay, So the line was.
Speaker 4 (20:30):
It's no trouble at all, don't be scared. I assure
you you're not in danger. And I kept saying, don't
be scared, You're not in danger. It's no trouble at all.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
And you basically we're saying it right or yes, and for.
Speaker 4 (20:43):
Some reason I could not switch it. I couldn't yes,
I said. If I couldn't get it, I said, fuck it.
We just were giving them that one and that's it.
They can get it. They can get But like I said,
when I'm in that situation, I'm sitting there thinking, I'm like,
I couldn't.
Speaker 3 (20:59):
I couldn't get those words right.
Speaker 4 (21:01):
And that was what was bothering me more than anything,
because it's those little things, you know, whenever you're banged
up or something happens to you, even even with COVID,
like some people have no symptoms at all, some people
had symptoms, but you know your body better than anybody.
So it's like when you have those little things where
you're like, I'm just not feeling right, that's what gets
you more than anything because it's like, yeah, you know
I sound good, I look good, I'm feeling good for
the most part, but.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
You know you're not right.
Speaker 4 (21:21):
And and that was something that was like to me,
It's like, man, I just got told my memories banged up.
Now I gotta do a script, and here it is,
my memories banned up.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
Right.
Speaker 3 (21:30):
It's little things like that. But like I said in
the beginning of this talk, like it could it could
be so much worse, right, so much worse. We could not.
It was memorial show.
Speaker 5 (21:42):
Yeah no, what like what like really poignant, like philosophical
thing did Chaz have to say to you the first
time you guys saw each other.
Speaker 3 (21:51):
You know what's funny is he did totally.
Speaker 4 (21:53):
At that because I always do his class. I always
do whenever he is the class, I always do the class.
Speaker 3 (21:58):
And I could not. So this happened a second.
Speaker 4 (22:00):
The class was May sixteen, seventeen eighteen, so as soon
as I walked in, he didn't even see it. Like
on Twitter, usually he sees stuffing or reach out. He
didn't see it on Twitter. So when I walked in
with the crutches and the boot, he was like, what
the fuck?
Speaker 3 (22:13):
How do you?
Speaker 2 (22:14):
And and you know he I'm not laughing at the
situation going.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
You can imagine Childs saying that.
Speaker 4 (22:20):
And Chads is a street guy, so the first thing,
I'm not gonna bolp his spot on the air, but
I'm sure you can imagine some of the things he said.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
He said, you fucking get this guy.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
That's why I wanted to know.
Speaker 4 (22:32):
But he said it in his typical philosophical way where
it was just great advice.
Speaker 3 (22:37):
And no, child did not tell me to kill the guy.
I promise you that, I promise you that.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
You have a great work ethic.
Speaker 3 (22:45):
That's what gets me gone. That's what gets me gone.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
Yeah, it's very admirable. Just like I said, don't push
yourself to the point where it's going to become a setback,
because then all this time is gonna go by and
you're gonna say, why did I do that? You know
what I mean? So take it slow. But thank god
that it wasn't worse than it was totally totally unbelievable. Well,
(23:08):
we wish you good luck on this role. But I
did see the Queen Latifah spot. Did you see him, Chad?
Speaker 3 (23:17):
I did not see it.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
No, I didn't watch the episode. I only watched you.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
I didn't see the full like, no, I don't.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
I didn't watch the full episode. I watched Mike and
you need exactly but you need to do more of
this stuff. You need to.
Speaker 3 (23:34):
I am, I am. But it was the last time,
the last time we spoke. I did the Philly commercial,
the super Bowl commercial that was that.
Speaker 4 (23:43):
Was shortly after the Philadelphia Cream cheese cream Yes. Yes,
So that was my first big break in commercial. That
was my first national commercial. Got a ship ton of likes,
uh follow views rather all that stuff, which was awesome.
That really kind of set them on that thing for me.
I did a lot of like independent, low budget, non
union stuff before that, but that was like my first Okay,
(24:06):
now it's time to work. First good paying gig, first
national exposure. And then I did a couple of commercials
after I did Camping World, which was a regional one.
I did Magic Spoon Cereal, which everyone's seen you all.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
The time, everyone all the time.
Speaker 3 (24:20):
It's great. I love it. I love it cheap plug,
but it's great. It's great.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
It's not a cheap cereal either, but it's worth it.
Speaker 3 (24:26):
No, no, no, no, it's not cheap.
Speaker 4 (24:28):
On. Once my commercial you know, here's your free boxes
ran out, I was like, yeah, I gotta start buying
this Dan thing.
Speaker 3 (24:37):
And I did it because it's War War It's well
worth the money. Yes, will worth the money.
Speaker 4 (24:41):
And I did the Super Bowl one, which was unfortunately
it was just you know, like a streaming thing social media,
but it was a Super Bowl spot which I loved.
Speaker 3 (24:49):
You know, it was Fanahauser Bush.
Speaker 4 (24:50):
So I did Stella butt Light butt Wise and they
did like eight different variations of what I was drinking,
but great spot as well. I had a lot of
fun with that. And then I did Monkey Shoulder Whiskey.
Not to give you my whole resume here, but I'm getting.
Speaker 3 (25:03):
To the tour anymore.
Speaker 4 (25:04):
Monkey Monkey Shoulder Whiskey. And the reason why I say
that was we did that last summer. I did it
with Anthony Bones from the Acclaim from a W and
we were both under Luta masks and we were wrestling
with Joel McHale. If you guys are familiar with Joe, yeah,
he's the man. First of all, he's yes. See Francine
went on the same page here because whenever I explained
(25:25):
who he is, I said, you guys don't remember the
soup from.
Speaker 3 (25:30):
I was like, damn, I'm a nineties baby, I know that,
you know. But it was great. That was another fun thing.
And then I told my manager and my agent.
Speaker 4 (25:40):
I was like, I like commercials because they pay good
and they keep paying, which is great, but I love
like The reason why I got an acting in the
first place was my agent saw me at an Evolved
show in Brooklyn. If you remember Evolved Wrestling w w N.
I was wrestling for that and my agent. New York
City obviously is filled with just entertainers of all type.
(26:02):
So these these talent agents would go to wrestling shows
to try to find I guess, people in shape, that
had had a that looked good on camera, that had
a little bit of natural charisma, you know, just basically
good at what they do.
Speaker 3 (26:15):
Let's put it that way, and you.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
Put yourself everydew. I got it. I was trying not to.
Speaker 3 (26:20):
I was like, fuck it at this going.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
This is out for a while.
Speaker 3 (26:24):
I gotta keep myself going something.
Speaker 4 (26:27):
So they're basically looking for people that can kind of
have that easy transition into the Hollywood world. And he
had reached out to me, and first I thought it
was just we know how the wrestling world could be
sliding into your messages.
Speaker 3 (26:40):
Hey you look good? All right, there we go again.
What do you what do you want from it?
Speaker 2 (26:44):
Try to buy your underwear? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (26:46):
Yeah, Parentcine you know, I mean we're on the same agent.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
Cad.
Speaker 3 (26:49):
You'll get there, brother, you'll get there. You know, Atlanta
people who start asking you for your underwear too, But
we'd have the experience.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
Go ahead, I'm sorry.
Speaker 4 (26:58):
So once I into it, I said, oh shit, this
is real. And he said have you ever had interest
in kind of working and acting? And I said, well,
I had no experience whatsoever in acting. Because no, you
have all the experience. He said, pro wrestling is the
purest form of entertainment. And I said, wow, that that
is deep.
Speaker 3 (27:15):
That is deep. So I went in and I said,
screw it, let's try.
Speaker 4 (27:18):
So you know, he started they started representing me, and
they said, look, you non union, you have no credits,
you have no real It's going to be tough, but
there are going to be roles that are made for
your type and that's what we're going to submit you on.
And then once you start booking some roles, then you
have a little bit of steam behind you. Just like wrestling,
it's all about buzz, all about work and what you
think is So I connected with that.
Speaker 3 (27:38):
I understood it. So I started.
Speaker 4 (27:40):
I booked my first role on my own, really like
a lot of just you know, independent self submitting roles,
and then I finally got the Philly commercial, like I said,
and that's where it kind of lifted off from there.
And from there after the commercial, I said, I want
to start doing more narrative stuff film and TV.
Speaker 3 (27:57):
And like I said a few minutes ago, I did a.
Speaker 4 (27:59):
Lot of that almost his practice work by self submitting
myself on like student projects and non union projects where
you know, I actually have.
Speaker 3 (28:06):
One of my first roles. It's called The Right Path.
It's a short film.
Speaker 4 (28:09):
It's on Amazon Prime. You can actually watch. I'm pretty
sure it's free. That was the movie that was my
first movie I worked. And then again zero dollars non Nun.
But it was great production. It was good and that cool,
cool little movie but I paid nothing for it was
non Nun but it was the experience and the exposure
I needed to kind of get get yourself going. And
then you know, after the commercial work and building up
a real I started getting auditions for bigger projects like
(28:33):
The Equalizer. I filmed a movie called Justina Valentine Presents
Forget About Christmas. It's an Italian Christmas movie. It's gonna
be a Paramount plus.
Speaker 3 (28:41):
It's by uh yeah, it's my girl. I played a Sistan. Yeah,
the it's the best. It's gonna be such a good movie.
It's gonna be a lot of time hilarious.
Speaker 4 (28:52):
That's coming out probably Paramount plus only because the whole
while and out crew pretty much it's.
Speaker 3 (28:57):
Paramount, So I assume it'll be on Paramount. But obviously
they're going to listen.
Speaker 4 (29:01):
To whatever offers are on the table, so that'll be
out and around Christmas time, and then you know, hopefully
the Godfather Harlem.
Speaker 3 (29:07):
Thing gets done, because that's so a little bit of esteem,
a little bit of steam got it.
Speaker 4 (29:12):
January twenty two hit and I booked The Equalizer. I
booked this movie and I got this hopefully lined up.
And that's what it's all about, is momentum. How much
jobs can you blow it and you want to move
about Chad's philosophy there. He said, you're meant to fail
in the acting world. You were meant to fail. You
show up to a room full of people that are
decision makers that don't really care much about you, don't
(29:34):
really care much about your talent, what you can do.
They just want to say okay, yeah, yes, no. They
what the power to say yes and no. And he said,
when you walk into these rooms and you do these auditions,
and most of these auditions now are virtual, he said,
they're all shit. They mean nothing, These people mean nothing.
Do not be afraid of these people because they don't matter.
You're gonna have one hundred auditions. You're gonna get ninety
nine o's, and then you're gonna get one yes. That
(29:55):
sets you off to the promised Land. And that's all
you got to worry about.
Speaker 2 (29:58):
Then they start call it gratitude.
Speaker 3 (30:00):
Yeah, it's great. I mean he talked about Chaz He
what a guy. What a guy. Yeah, what a guy.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
It's good you got hooked up with him. And getting
back to the acting thing. We always said, like wrestling
is like live theater. Yes, you know what I mean,
because you're performing in front of thousands of people and
you're acting because that's not you.
Speaker 3 (30:20):
Yeah no, it's not.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
You're playing a character. So they hit the nail on
the head with that. So you're you're one of the
people that weren't afraid to try and branch out.
Speaker 4 (30:30):
You know what, You're one hundred percent right. And I
was thinking about my future in the presence because I'm
in the prime of my wrestling career. Like we said,
I'm thirty years old. You know, I've been very selective
about you know, there's a reason why I have him
pursued contracts, let's put it that way, and not being said. Look,
if I was off in a contract that was like perfect,
I'll sign it tomorrow. But you hear all these stories
(30:50):
about WWE, and aw God bless them because all the
work I've done with them, they give their talent freedom,
they give them the ability to do stuff. So this
is not a direct on them, And this isn't knock
on w W because if you work for WWE, you
know that's your passion, that's where you want to be,
and you get paid good money to do it. But me,
I'm at the point right now, especially after this, you know,
traumatic situation. It's like I have so many, so much
(31:12):
interest and so much love in all the things that
I do that's not just wrestling, that I always want
to have my options open. I've been lucky enough to
make a living on the indies where it's like, okay,
if I can do the indies and I can do
my stints at aw when they're in the area, that's
okay with me right now, because to me, it's like
I need it to be the perfect And this may
sound selfish in a way, but I do want it
to be a perfect situation situation. I don't need to necessarily,
(31:35):
you know, take myself out of the indies and take
myself out of my coaching career, which I love.
Speaker 3 (31:39):
That's like my that's I love that. I really love that,
you know, Yeah, I love this acting career.
Speaker 4 (31:45):
That kind of is almost like a gift to me
because it's it's I if you would ask me this
ten years ago when I started my wrestling career, then
oh man, Mike, you're gonna be a movies one day,
I would have laughed at you.
Speaker 3 (31:55):
That would I would have left.
Speaker 4 (31:56):
And this was like a gift that was given to
me that I I I worked at my Once I
started going, I work my ass off.
Speaker 6 (32:02):
You know.
Speaker 4 (32:02):
I take classes every single you know, as much classes
as I can I take.
Speaker 3 (32:06):
I practice my craft. I take it seriously. I work hard.
Speaker 4 (32:09):
I have so much more respect for these actors that
are like season season trained actors from you know, all
these n Yu Tish and all these you know, LaGuardia,
all these things that are just you know, acting based things.
I have all the respect from. But this gift, this
gift was given to me, So I'm going to take
advantage and use that as well. And I don't necessarily
want to throw that away for an industry right now
that's really really crowded.
Speaker 3 (32:30):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (32:31):
It's not selfish of you to want to do this.
You you have more than one interest in your life.
You're able to make a living off of several different
different things, So why.
Speaker 1 (32:41):
Not do it?
Speaker 4 (32:42):
Yeah, and Francine, you know, thank god, I hope that
this never happens again, a situation like this. But if
I just had wrestling and what happened to me just
happened to me, it'd be.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
On the shelf.
Speaker 3 (32:55):
I mean, what would I be doing for money? You
know what I'm saying, what would I be doing for work?
Speaker 2 (32:59):
You know, if you're lucky.
Speaker 3 (33:02):
The last thing I want to be is somebody that
has to you know.
Speaker 4 (33:04):
No, I don't want to say this in a negative
way because I understand people need things, but I don't
want to have to rely on on gofund me or anything.
Speaker 1 (33:14):
I get it.
Speaker 4 (33:14):
I understand I've supported many of my peers with it,
but I never want to be in a situation where
I have to do that.
Speaker 3 (33:20):
You know, I don't. I can't. And and this, this
is this was eye opening for me.
Speaker 4 (33:23):
This whole situation, this whole experience is like it could
just be gone like that. So do everything you love now.
And that's the thing too. I work three jobs that
I mean basically dream jobs. I'm a pro wrestler, which
was my childhood dream. I stopped playing baseball to be
a pro wrestler. I've become that. You know, I still
coach baseball. I get paid to coach baseball. Like that's
(33:45):
a great thing. And this acting thing, you know, I
used to be the type of kid when I was
when I was younger that used to make you know,
home movies with their with their cousins and their siblings.
Speaker 3 (33:53):
Did I you know, did I ever Did I ever
think I would be an actor?
Speaker 2 (33:56):
No?
Speaker 3 (33:56):
Did I ever train an actor?
Speaker 2 (33:58):
No?
Speaker 4 (33:58):
But looking back and it's like I'm doing something that
I did when I was a kid. So these three things,
it's like I'm lucky. I'm very lucky in a lot
of a lot of levels, and and and the grind
is there. And that's something that you mentioned the work ethic.
I love the grind of being able to balance a
schedule when healthy, you know, to do all three of
these things at a full time basis. You know, I
remember Black in March when I was shooting Justina's movie.
(34:19):
I mean that was that was opening week for my
college team. So I had to say, Okay, so I
had to coach a game on on on the eighth,
show up to set on the ninth, go to practice
on the tenth in the morning, then drive back to
Jersey to get back on set, sleep over that night,
film again, miss a game, which I hate doing. So
you know, it's just it's it's almost like your own
(34:40):
little adrenaline rush. And you know, from the days on
the road, you know, you know how it is. It's
it's it's a rush. It's a rush.
Speaker 3 (34:45):
I'm lucky I do and.
Speaker 2 (34:47):
And I it's refreshing to hear somebody like you say
that WWE isn't the be all end all in this industry,
because especially today, there's so many places is to work,
there's so much opportunity out there. You have a good
head on your shoulders. I think you're doing it the
right way. And you love wrestling, you get to do it.
(35:09):
You love acting, you get to do it. You love coaching,
you get to do it. There's nothing wrong with that.
You're not being selfish. It's it's a perfect life for
what you want to do. So I applaud you for that.
I think it's wonderful, THANKTT.
Speaker 4 (35:21):
And I wish more wrestlers would be open, not so
much just acting, but just open to having something else
outside of wrestling, because I think a lot of wrestlers,
even if they're contracted to one of these TV companies
and they're making a good living, I think a lot
of them are thinking, like, you know, this is different.
This maybe wasn't I mean doing wrong. And there are
some people that literally they reach for the top. They
(35:41):
reach the top, they'd fulfill their dreams and all they
need is wrestling. But then there's some situations where yeah,
they're getting paid good, they have a good spot on TV,
but like maybe it's not exactly what they expected.
Speaker 3 (35:51):
You know, maybe they're falling out of love with it.
Speaker 4 (35:53):
And I see that, and I would never throw any
names out there on the air, but I had to
talk to people, and I'm sure you'd have that, you
know your career as well, where you just you see
people reach a point where they fall out of love
with the business and they don't have anything else, and
they're they're still doing this business because this is what
they have, and you know, Guilty has it as well.
There are times where, you know, like I said, I'll
work on a movie and I'm fucking killing it and
(36:14):
I'm having a great time and I'm making good money,
and I turn around, I look at my schedule.
Speaker 3 (36:17):
I said, damn, I have to wrestle next week.
Speaker 4 (36:19):
There's been times, there has been times, because you know,
acting is so similar to wrestling without the pain unless
you so when I say that, I say, okay, Damn,
I have to drive five hours in Massachusetts. I have
to get my ass up and I have to drive
five hours back. That's that's what I mean by them,
I have to wrestle that time, but.
Speaker 2 (36:39):
Your heart's still into it, so you're going to do it.
Speaker 4 (36:43):
A difference one hundred percent. But there are people that
have that feeling, and then then there's like what else
do I do? And I always say this to everybody,
is like I would not be where I am without wrestling.
So until the day comes where I have to turn
around and say I just don't love it anymore, that's
the day I hang it out. But until then, it's
like I am what I am because of wrestling, and
I can't turn around. Like even on the baseball field,
(37:05):
like I have other coaches saying they made a steel
but it's like, you know, they told me they bring
championship belts to the.
Speaker 3 (37:11):
Game, like they like it's like you have these are
exactly they all are. It doesn't matter, they all are.
Speaker 2 (37:20):
Oh my gosh, Well, I you know, I wanted to
catch up with you, Mike. I'm so happy to see
you like this from.
Speaker 4 (37:27):
Happy to be here, like I said, once you hit
me up and yeah, it's like I didn't want to.
I didn't want to jump on anything major yet and
kind of give everyone the A to Z, but I said,
perfect platform to do it perfect And I.
Speaker 2 (37:39):
Didn't want to force you. That's why I said, if
you're not comfortable with it, you tell me a good date.
If it's a year from now, I don't care. But
I had I had contacted you before the accident to come.
Speaker 3 (37:48):
Yeah, I know you. I'm if I didn't want to
do it, I wouldn't have done it.
Speaker 6 (37:53):
Trust forth.
Speaker 2 (37:54):
Well, we're so happy that you came here. God bless you.
I'm so happy that you're good and you have all
this work ahead of you. We're proud of you. Where
can people find you on social media again? If they
want to follow you, follow your career, what you got
coming up again? Plug the way.
Speaker 4 (38:11):
All my social media is their man of steel MV
man of steel m v U MV not envy.
Speaker 3 (38:17):
But yeah, that's where I'm at. I mean, I said, guys,
I'm not sure when I'm going to be back yet.
Speaker 4 (38:22):
I promise you will be sooner rather than later, because
once I get everything diagnosed and everything fixed, my work,
my work ethic is to is to work. So I'm
going to make sure that I work hard in PT,
work hard and rehab and and you know, get everything
back to normal. As quick as ken because you know,
off topic. Uh, buddy of mine, JT done great wrestle
on the Independence. I'm in a faction with him, called
(38:45):
the Unit out in the Massachusetts area, and he had
texted me after the show last Friday and he said, Man,
all we have to do is mention your name once
and the crowd stood to their feet and started a
chance in your name.
Speaker 3 (38:55):
We could even wrestle. And I said, that's that's the
stuff that I need. You know, that's the stuff that
I need. So I miss it.
Speaker 4 (39:01):
I I it's only been a month and a week
and I miss it. I can only imagine how it's
going to be a couple of months from now. But
I promise you want to be back and and better
than ever. And I'm happy that everyone has been supporting me.
I've read every single message, every single comment, every single
anything on any kind of media platform.
Speaker 3 (39:17):
Thank you for that.
Speaker 4 (39:19):
And I'm happy that I was able to kind of
express where I'm at my recovery right now on this
on this show and my two buddies over here.
Speaker 2 (39:27):
Absolutely well, if you don't mind, I'm going to check
in on you from time to time.
Speaker 3 (39:32):
Francine has been one of the constant d ms of.
Speaker 2 (39:35):
I don't want to be but see certain tweets and
I'm just like, I just want to say, Hi.
Speaker 1 (39:44):
We'll bond in September when the when the end of
the season finally hits.
Speaker 3 (39:48):
Oh baby, get a chance to discuss.
Speaker 1 (39:51):
That fingers crossed. We'll keep you.
Speaker 2 (39:53):
We'll talk to discuss the mats.
Speaker 1 (40:00):
I mean, come on, look how good it looks on
the airwaves.
Speaker 3 (40:02):
I'm planning, I'm playing. It's just when the Mets are good.
Speaker 4 (40:06):
When the Mets are good, spirits are high, it's hard
to take out the arms and blue and sometimes black.
Speaker 1 (40:11):
I think that's another reason why he's so positive. I'm
not gonna lie.
Speaker 3 (40:15):
One of those other seasons. It's been a big help
when you're not able to do much. Well.
Speaker 2 (40:20):
You enjoyed the season. I will talk to you again,
but take care of yourself.
Speaker 3 (40:25):
You guys are the best.
Speaker 2 (40:26):
Thank you, all right, take Karen and we'll be in touch.
Mike to Verna, everyone, thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (40:41):
Yeah, franc.
Speaker 7 (40:46):
Franc Queen Extreme Extreme, The Queen Extreme Podcast. Awesome, The
Queen Extreme Podcast. It's the Queen of Extreme brut he
in the legend, she is the woman nufty dreams legend
on the Senior Francine podcast, which you
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