April 13, 2022 • 30 mins
I continue my conversation with Tony Khan, CEO of AEW. We talk about our favorite moments in wrestling, Kieran Culkin as a super-fan, and memorable stories about Glenn Close and my late dad.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
What's up everybody? Welcome back, and here is part two
of our interview with Tony count Now stuffing up to
the mic. The host of Wrestling with Freddie Freddie Bruce June. Yeah,
m JF my favorite wrestler right now, the man at
the moment, I was watching MLW and it was, you know,
(00:24):
hard to miss. And JF Uh did he cut a
promo that night? Uh? He cut? I watched him money.
I watched like for weeks and weeks and months and
months all through so I saw cut a lot of promos.
They had a lot of good people on the show
at that time. Um and uh so I was. I
was watching it pretty regularly looking for people, so I
(00:46):
would go back in that summer and and and Jeff
was one of the real standout people. You know. Uh
just topped top of my head. And this is the
same stuff all hardcore fans might have been watching at
that time. But I was really into New Japan. They
had the show on Access but also a court in
New Japan World and that was, like he said, A
big part of my business case was, um, you know,
(01:08):
taking Omega versus Jericho, bringing it to America, and I
knew that match had been a huge fan event around
the world, and I thought on American pay per view
it would draw a big audience and also would draw
a big house having seen what they did at the Tokyoo,
and and then I was trying to build a roster
kind of around and obviously, like you know, Young Bucks
(01:31):
versus Luta Brothers is a great tag match that that
could headline of pay per view. Um, so you love
you love tag team wrestling, You actually love it. This
is a fan thing, okay, because I I pushed every
well not just me, everyone when I worked there, pushed
so hard, and Vince was always like, I'm paying four
people for one match, and so he just he hated
(01:53):
he hated it. That's why it's never been that legitimate.
But except maybe like eight months here, three months here
and then not forget all that, but you have a
genuine love for it to the point where you guys
just put Moxley and and and and Brian together. Now
even nobody's beating them, bro, nobody's beating them. Nobody, nobody
(02:16):
is beating the American Dragon period. And my nobody's beating them.
No way, I'll do a run in and prevent the pinfall.
If it happens, those men will be killers. I love
that you guys put them together. They're so great and uh,
it's a great parent. I didn't want to and I
don't want a short change. Uh m JF. We still
haven't given. Don't worry. He won't let you no E, Definitely,
(02:39):
I won't. I won't be able to do that. And
heast that's one person I'm not gonna have a change
to short change. He's Uh, such a great wrestler, is
such a great professional. And you were talking about all
the great stuff that CM punkin m JF did uh
in building up their dog collar match, the revolution and
telling the story. It's one of the best things I've
(03:00):
ever been a part of in my life. I haven't
loved a match like that. And I don't know how
long period I I literally start to finish all like
they say, suspension of disbelief, All that was gone, Like
I literally, you guys built up to it. This kid,
he's like twenty four years old, this kid or twenty
six years old. Some crazy. I was such an idiot
(03:22):
at that age, and just to see how crisp and
clean and precise all this was. To see that match
and you guys had a long chain and so like
even like the visuals when they were tired and spread
out across the ring, it was just like it looked
you could pause it and take a photo like. I
loved everything, And I think it is the best story
(03:45):
and the best maybe not best match, because there's some
other ones that have got to be up there with it,
but the best story that I've seen you guys do,
and the best story that I've seen in wrestling period
since before I ever wrote a wrestling story. And I
couldn't even tell you the one I liked more. Well,
it's love, I love, I love, Thank you man. It
means a lot to me to hear that. But also
it's emblematic uh uh my philosophy in a lot of
(04:09):
ways because I give all the credits to two of
them and Jaff and see him punk. I am that
administrator in a lot of ways. And what I think
is really cool is you know what people people will
ask why I don't have a lot of writers, It's
because I've worked with the top talent and there's all
(04:30):
developed stories and programs front all due to everything and
say like you're gonna do this, this and this, You're
gonna here's ere gonna work this week. We're gonna build
you up, and then at the end of the next week,
I'll explain where we're going next week. And you can
do that with like some younger people, but with like
and Jeff and see him punk, you know, with each
of them, I spent hours and hours sitting and planning
and talking, and they both team in with such great
(04:52):
ideas and a lot of this stuff just matched up beautifully.
And they both had like long term story ideas and
things that to do. And when you have wrestlers with
those kinds of great ideas, Look, I don't have to
do every idea that it's thrown in here and tried to.
That's the thing. I try to pick the best one
and talk to different people about different ideas. But I
feel like I'm better off talking to the two of them.
(05:15):
I imagine if I'd gone off in a room with
neither of them, with like six other people and then
to this was the death of This was the death
of every good idea that people smashed. The writer's room
for w W is so often and I've even being
critical and I've written some dog stories too, by the way, Um,
(05:35):
but the fact that there would be literally forty or
more people that all got to have say on a storyline.
The day of a show, I literally would just be like, guys,
this is so far removed from what it started as.
This won't how how can we make it? Was crazy?
So I love that control a controlled envirus with Brian Denna,
(05:57):
he rest in Peace. We're talking about a lot of
past on actors. But h he said artist, Brian Denna,
he said artist, Oh my god, Okay. He was like
a mentor to me on Summer Catch. He was a
great dude. I went to go watch him a Iceman
comment on Broadway and he killed it and I was like, man,
you're amazing. And he goes Freddie actors or he said
artists need an environment that's conducive to success, and I
(06:21):
was like, oh, yeah, that's why this movie sucked. That
movie and I started like put peace and things together.
And he was just such an old school, like clean
personality like that. I love that you can trust your
talent like that, and the ones who you who you
can't you can help kind of shape and develop and
bring up and not force the entire world upon their
(06:43):
shoulders before they're ready. The entire thing was the three
of us like that, and that's how it should be,
like jealous, right, and that's like that's and and it's
been like that a lot. Like the same thing when
Paul came in with Darby, you know, he and I,
Punk and I sat down put ideas together, and then
I went to Darby and nobody in the wrestling business
(07:06):
knew what was going on with me and Punk, and
I went to Darby and said, it's the promo you're
gonna do. And basically it was the one I think, uh,
you know, maybe ten days before the first dance. I
think it was um in early August. And the line
I gave Darby was a w you know, no matter
how great you think you are, if you want to
(07:29):
prove it, you have to come to a w even
if you think you're the best in the world. And
I knew that like that one line would Yeah, that's
it's great. And like working with different people, you know,
whether it's uh Moxley and and Danielson or the Young
Bucks and Adam Cole and Tenny when when he spent
(07:51):
healthy obviously Jericho and Eddie Kingston, Oh my gosh, Eddie.
Eddie gets some of the biggest reactions in the damn company.
They love him and that story they told was beautiful,
and I love that he didn't shake his hand and
there was so much hatefulness. But Eddie's talking on the mic.
I had him on the show Man and I told
(08:13):
him this. On the show, I said, and you guys
need to give your social media people are raised by
the way you guys cut together a clip with some
music and Eddie was talking about some some Latino pride
and you know, I'm not full Puerto Rican either, and
I leg it, like my eyes welled up. I was like, Yo,
this guy is gonna make me cry. And then like
three months later he's making me want to watch him
(08:34):
fight somebody. I was just like, they have some dudes
that I am in love with. We talked off air
about my love for for cargill Um, who I told
you I think literally is is the goddess Athena just
she never left and all the all the other Greek
gods died and she just ate them or or consumed
their souls or something. I think she I literally have
(08:58):
never It's like when I was a it in the eighties,
I saw the ultimate warrior at a house show in
Tinglely Colisseum, which was a rodeo house in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
And he looked like he was sculpted from granite and
that his muscles didn't even push in when the other
men punched him. Like everything it was like body armor.
(09:19):
And when I saw her, I was literally watching it
with my twelve year old daughter, and my daughter I
don't care about language. She's seen all Sarah's in my movies,
so language isn't it. But when Jade Gargill talked about
being a bad bitch, and I literally watched my daughter's
head and you guys can't see this Tony camp, but
her literally her whole posture when Jade said that, she
(09:42):
just went up up, up, chest out shin hai and
it was just like she would looked like she was
ready to fight. And I was like, yo, she just
had her ultimate worrior like she literally was like, yeah,
I'm taking pride. It was this crazy moment where I'm like,
that's why I still love wrestling to this to this
day is because of stuff like that. And I've gotten
(10:02):
to kind of jump back in through my children, and
I'm so grateful. People talk about the craziness of wrestling.
I think this is a renaissance for wrestling. It's a
rebirth and you guys have shown it now for a
couple of years and have a consistent number that I
can't wait to watch grow. Um, you guys are coming
(10:23):
to l A soon. I want to come to that show. Uh.
I'm not gonna run in. I will not affect any matches,
even if Moxley is in trouble and uh, but I
just want to go. I haven't been to a live
show in so long. I got to indie shows out here,
but it's a different vibe. You guys are gonna be
at the Forum, which is beautiful now since they bought
it and refurbished it. The acoustics are great in there.
(10:45):
It's such a beautiful space. And a w W A
abandoned our West coasts. There's no more summer slams here,
So let us show you. Let us make you feel
at home. Man, we'll sell your asses out. I'm I've
lived in l A for you know, years of my life,
and uh, I think wait to come back. M h.
(11:14):
I said this once in another interview, but I went
completely over the head of everybody in the room, I
said it too, so you'll appreciate this much more than
anyone else in that media scrum. I think, uh so,
like I love going back, and I was back to
the super Bowl and it was the first time I've
been able to really hang out in l A in
a while because I was back for a few days
and I went to Craigs and you know, there's like
(11:37):
a paparazzi out in front of Craigs, and I'm sure
that whenever you walk into a friend and Freddy didn't
want to take photos and that's why I hide out. Yeah,
Like so when I when I never had that at
Craigs before, like where they like mob me and I
got right like, oh, man, like this is a very
different l A than the last man TMZ likes for wrestling. Bro.
(12:00):
It's it's you know, Hollywood embraces or embraced wrestling one
time one time in the eighties, and then it was
always kind of like this, yeah, they're in our business,
but not really in our business. Like in the nineties
when I was coming up, they'd be like pretty your
film act or not a TV actor. I'm like what
And then all of a sudden, Glenn Close does a
show on effects and it's like opens up the floodgates
(12:23):
for everyone right close. What a really nice lady, bro.
She and only one other actor are the only people
who have ever won an Academy Award, Tony Award and
an Emmy Award. It's like her and Jack Albertson from
Willy Wonka to Chocolate Factor. It's so talented but also
like a really really nice person. We went to the
Abaijing Olympics together. What whoa whoa what? What American contingent
(12:48):
of people like our our my family and some other families. Uh,
there was like it was like a group of CEOs
and her husband and my dad and a bunch of
people organized this up to Beijing for the two thous Olympics.
I just graduated college like maybe a year prior, and
I was I was working my first job, and uh
(13:10):
it was a lot of fun. But like the Beijing Olympics,
it was a real experience and like these days, they
organized this like tour. So we were like going game
to game and there was no food, like and we
get to the I haven't seen her in years, but
this is like she was so nice. Um. We got
into the basketball games and it was USA versus China.
(13:31):
It was at the time the most watched supporting event
of all time. There are three billion people watched the
USA versus China, and USA had Lebron, Kobe, Yeah, Carmelo,
so many great players and uh. And I went out
and the concession stand all. Now, the one thing they
did in Beijing really well is all the stuff on
(13:52):
the menu was very affordably priced. But like it was like,
you know, it was like meat on stick, which is like, Okay,
what's this gonna be? And could you just tell me
what kind of meat? Yeah, there was just one thing.
I can't remember what it said, but I think it
said biscuits or something, and I was like, I've tried
what is At this point I got to see that
(14:14):
it turned out to be Rich tract on Oh, like
biscuits like English crackers. Yeah. Like so I get like
a box of rich crackers and the Olympics I sit
down unclosed looks at me and she goes, oh my god,
rich practice, where did you get those? Like it's so like, uh,
but yeah, it was such a great talent. Also, you know,
(14:37):
all those old school actresses are so smooth, and so
I fell in love with all of them a little bit, man,
and they always have like great quotes. I remember Kathleen
Turner was quoted as saying, a movie is a marriage
with a guaranteed divorce. So fall in love as much
as you want because it end's suit enough. And it
was just like, Yo, that's some smooth ship. I would
(14:57):
never say, I'd be like, movies are cool, like making
the like it would never sound smooth like that. Man.
I love that you got to hang with her. When
I was coming up, I always got to, you know.
My dad charmed a lot of people, so they they
were good to me, you know. And I met a
lot of old school cats and I could always tell
if they had slept with my father or not based
(15:18):
on the way they said. Hi, I'll tell you that
you'll love this story. Okay, you're the perfect age for this.
So you remember Joanna Kerns from Growing Pains, Okay, so
sweetest mom in the world. In the seventies. She was
a dancer and a really good one, and my dad
was dating her, and that he used to go on
dates with her and Pam Greer because they liked each other.
So we take them both out at the same time.
This is seventies game. So I'm on a pilot that
(15:40):
didn't get picked up and Joanna Kurrens is playing one
of the roles and I didn't even know and I
go into the trailer and I see her look at
me and double take and she goes hi. So right
away I know the hand sex. Right right away, I
know they had sex because there's always a breath first,
it's always and if it's not, if it's just oh, hello,
then I know they were just friends and cool. Right
So right away, I'm like, oh my gosh, this is awkward.
(16:01):
So I'm sitting there and she goes this quiet and
awkward and she goes, can I tell you a story
about your dad? And I was like, I was waiting
for it. So she goes, okay, your dad and I
it was and we were on a date with Pam Greer,
me and your dad at a restaurant and Richard Pryor
called the restaurant and he said, hey, I'm having a
party at my house. Come by, and Richard discovered my father.
(16:26):
But he was very jealous of my father because he
loved Pam Greer, and Pam wrote about this in her biography,
so it's not like uh an autobias, it's not like
telling tales out of school. But she loved my daddy.
So my dad brought Pam and Joanna to Richard's house
and there was no party. My my dad in the seventies,
Playboy Radio would do comedy from like ten pm to
(16:46):
two am on the radio, and a lot of comments
would try out new new material there just to see
how it would play it. And my dad had a
set that he hated, and Richard got the set and
he started playing it as soon as they walked in,
and it's like, yeah, you're gonna fall in love with
this on motherfucker. And my dad goes, and Joanne's telling
me the story. She goes, your dad jumped over the couch,
punched Richard in the face, took the real office like
(17:08):
it was on like a wheel to wheel audio thing,
grab Pam and left me. I said, what, She goes, Yeah,
he forgot me at Richard's house. I go, what did
Richard do? He said, bitch, get yourself a cab through
her holy ship. That's one of the greatest stories I
ever hear. The old school actresses are always the best man,
(17:29):
always and the seventies were the seventies, man, So they
get to have the coolest stories. Our stories are like, yeah,
that was pretty sweet. There's a you know, an hour
long and awesome. Yeah. Yeah, I've got nothing that can
compared to that we were. We were just born in
the wrong generation, that's all. But listen, dude, you you're
kicking so much ass man. And I love to see
(17:49):
the growth of the of the brand that you're building.
I love to see your take on the business. What's
your favorite stuff? Like not you take the modern taking
whatever and not that I'm saying, be said you like
a lot of what we're doing going back, Like, you know,
what's your favorite stuff? So, like, if I had to
my favorite sort of moments. I loved when JBL invaded
(18:14):
ECW and cut the Wrestling God promo. That's one of
my favorite promos of all time. Uh, Bret, you love
the original One Night? Yeah? Yeah? Um. I loved Bret Hart,
not Shawn Michaels. I always pulled pulled for Bret Hart.
I always believed in Bret Hart. All my friends pulled
for Shawn Michael's. Karen Culkin and I still argue about
it to this day and in a very unfriendly way. Yes,
(18:40):
very much, so very much, So I gotta go. Lenarly
taught my dad out of freaking drive, so I gotta go. Lit.
I felt like we're the way people went back and
forth on it. It reminds me of Dave and j
because it was like to like people and in the
same era in the nineties, these two and especially with
the behind the scenes stuff going on to it was
(19:00):
very similar. He used to be friends and they were
really a big part of like and you know, Brett
had like done a lot to help advance Shahn's career
when even be a singles wrestler, just like David a
lot to advanced to day his career um as a
comedian when and uh and then the way it shook
out and one guy being maybe flash here and the
(19:22):
other guy being more In Dave's case, I would say
like a little bit more probably the comics comics, I
would I would say he's the more intellectual of the
comics and Jay was the more mainstream, right like Jay
had Jay. I I know Jay Leno's seventies set because
my dad gave him his first job and he literally
had jokes about milk and cookies you know what I mean,
(19:43):
whereas like Dave let him is never going to touch
that subject unless it's in the most cynical way possible,
and it has nothing to do with milk or cookies.
That's just like you know, the color for it. So
they were very different, very different comics as far as
like an accessible, safe and and one who doesn't care
if you don't get his joke. He just doesn't care,
(20:04):
you know what I mean. And Dave, Dave doesn't care
if you don't get to Dave used to be rough
on a guest if the guest wasn't that good, he
would kind of dump on the guest, whereas Jay's like,
let's let's let's sparkle. Let's sparkle. But I think actors
and comics and musicians always wanted to earn Dave's respect
more than Jay's when they were doing the shows back
in the day. There's so many wrestlers in the business
(20:34):
and they talk about in the same way about trying to,
you know, getting respect. From Brett Hard it's like the
highest because he's so sparing with it. He doesn't throw
it out there. He really it's an old school philosophy
hand out dignity demand people earn respect. Everyone deserves dignity,
but respect should be earned on a case by case basis,
(20:57):
and Bret Hart embodies that way more than anything I
just said, you know what I mean, Like he's so
hardcore about it, and that's still so Yeah. I've always
I've always been a fan of Brett, But like I
watched just like gotta watched America go back and forth
on Dave and Jay. I watched uh, you know, the
w WF even go back on the fans hand Vince
(21:18):
Yeah Worth on them at different points, and it's really
kind of a fascinating thing to watch. Like the experience
Bob Right and NBC was probably having was very similar
to the experiences Vince was having very much, so very much.
So all we gotta do is find the uh, we
gotta find whatever the the equivalent for the Jamie Kellner
character is and then everybody will kind of universally team
(21:41):
up and beat him down. You know, he was he
was the exact on on Sarah's show back on the
day on Buffy, and so when he I used to
give him ship all the time, I'd be like, dude,
I'm gonna kick your ass when he'd be like, dude,
it's not me. I'd be like, I know exactly, it
was you. I used to give him ship all the time,
but it worked out great for me. You're the last
one to complain about You're You're as big as fit.
(22:05):
You would be here right now. I would be working
in football and I would still be very happy, but
I would I would never have unlocked this part of
my life. You get to do something creative, which is
real special and in the most respectful way. A part
of me is even like a little jealous man, because
it's just like I see they can't see you smiling,
but I see you smile when you talk about your job,
(22:28):
and to see people get to do what they love,
that you that you never work a day if you
do what you love. Whatever. The saying is like, you
look really happy and you look really motivated. Man, So
thanks so much that I appreciate you, dude, thank you.
Thanks for giving me the time to talk on the show.
And it's I mean honestly doing the doing the show.
And I hope that the people listening to this and
enjoyed it nearly as much as we've enjoyed recording it.
(22:50):
We'll have you on for a repeat, We'll do a repeat.
I would love to do a repeat, and and uh,
you know, talk more wrestling. I felt like every time
I got going, like I was trying to, I want
to really put it's you, it's your full You like clue,
and it's like once once people like clue. It's like
when there's two people that like wrestling in a poker game,
Like the one person they kind of like wrestler, but
(23:12):
if there's another one there, all of a sudden, nobody
could touch him and they become powerful. And that's what
we did today. That's right, that's it, and that is it.
I mean, give me two wrestling people. I heard Karen
Coulton's a big fan. Karen is like crazy hard. You
gotta meet this dude. Man, he's a New Yorker. Um,
he's working like crazy on succession. But this dude is
(23:34):
like an encyclopedia. I've seen. He's been kicked out of
a wrestling he threw a beer a big show. He
got so mad one time and got thrown out of
a wrestling show. They made up. Um. I watched him
wrestle the Miss at WrestleMania and Arizona. When Brett harton
O Whole Heart Family came in on Vince Um. They
wrestled for forty minutes in our hotel room and it
(23:54):
was like a shoot match almost, and and then Karen
lays down finally and miss pins him for the one
too three, a forty minute match. Bro, Like he was
so I'm sure he still loves it, but back then,
like he was so hardcore. Bro. He had a closet
full of like the action figures and like chose them over.
His girlfriend at the time was like, I'm not getting
rid of those yuk bouts and she did, and he
(24:15):
was glad. He's a gangster. Bro. I love this guy.
I gotta you know what's crazy. It's my favorite show
Succession and I can say and not only is it
that the absolute truth, but I can also say that
and put it over because the media partners with HBO
and TNT, so it's like its synergy. But it's also
really my favorite show. It's even my dad's favorite. I
(24:36):
was gonna say, there's gotta be a like an odd
connection for you there, because there is that huge patriarch
father figure and then the son that wants today I'm
gonna do my thing but I want to make you
proud at the same time, you gotta connect to that
big time. Kendell never had wrestling Like Kendel never had
that thing in his life that he could go do
(24:57):
because what was he supposed to do? Like I never
this got me apart from my dad where people say, Okay,
that's Tony, Like that's what because working in football even
until like working on statistics, even Fulham were I'm the
general manager and negotiating all the contracts and and taking
all the heat. Uh, you know, they're maybe a little
bit more in England, but for the most part, like
(25:18):
I'm known for being until a w my father's son,
and it was you know, Kendall and none of the
Roys really never had that. They never had that thing,
that project they wanted to do, that they needed. They
just want the whole thing. They wanted his whole empire,
the whole business. None of them ever sent their teeth
in the one thing. And I mean, you know, Kendell
(25:41):
never had that. Roman never had that, and uh and
she had never had that, and obviously Connor never had Roman.
Roman is going to be the one that starts the
indie company well. Season eight succession what's crazy to mean
about success? But my favorite show, Karen Holkin is like
so this crazy wrestling band. I've heard Nick bron is
also a big wrestling fan. Plays cousin Greg and you
(26:05):
know who is I have yet Now I'm really excited
to meet him. He's been he's common. He was a
guest in our board room, but I had not gotten
to go see him in person. Jeffy Armstrong is a huge,
full of fan really this season Take Older Yeah, yeah,
And I cannot believe that's I'm such a huge fan
(26:25):
of his his work, so it really excited to meet
him too, because it's such a great show. But the
connections and it's such a small world they it really is,
and it keeps getting smaller this circle. Um. I think
Karen's best actor on the network period. Like the work
he's put up the last two years. You can put
up against anybody and you ain't gonna say someone did better. Incredible,
(26:46):
He's one of the He's amazing. He's one of the
best actors on television right now. I totally agree the
Roman character. I could I could watch the session all day,
all night. Well there you go. We went from wrestling
to clue to Madeline, con to Glenn, close to Growing Pains,
to Succession and the Circle before what Yeah, what, especially
(27:09):
because I think somebody who is close to it was
close to your your father was Gary Schandler, and that
was the best show. My wife and I used to
sit in bed and watch it together all the time. Man,
all the damn times that show. And I still do.
I think there's like, that's the show when I have
like reflective moments, like at the beginning of the pandemic,
(27:31):
I watched so much stuff to try and get a handle,
like what are we gonna do? What I'm gonna do?
The shows? And I watched Letterman with no audience during
the hurricane, and I was like, this is what only
Dave could do this. It was David Denzel and an
empty studio, and I was like, this is what I
don't want to do because I don't think any would
pull this off. It was I'll be honest with you.
(27:54):
I was looking forward to it because sometimes the crowds
make me mad. And about three minutes and I was like, yeah,
I was wrong. This needs a crowd and it needs
one right now. And I hope they screamed super loud,
Well you might have heard me told us throwing in
another show, but like, because that's the thing that I
I was, So I was digging deep watching stuff. I
watched a bunch of Larry Sanders, so I'm trying to
(28:15):
get introspective. That's what I watched. And uh. And then
he's such a self hater though careful people on the internet, like,
nobody hates me more than I hate myself and uh,
and it's like I'll never see me on TV more
than a minute or two making an announcement like in
the hundred twenty seven episodes, the only times I've ever
(28:36):
gone out there were announced the Ring of Honor, just
say goodbye to Brody Lee and seven episodes I've shown
my face for me five minutes total, and you know,
out of thousands and thousands. So um, I there's a
lot of that like uh in me and also already
like trying to keep everything together. Uh. And then Hank,
(28:59):
which is like anybody in your life that like every well,
we're rough on Hank, but we love Hank. But there's
one hand comes through It makes it all. And so
I love Larry Sanders, but um, and I would watch that.
But the other thing I really watched. It helped me
in the Pandemic was Um one of my friends is
(29:20):
a writer for Fallon, and they had the staff and
crew in the audience for the for the Pandemic episodes
at the beginning, and it set them apart from the
other talk shows because even though he made only had
a dozen what you couldn't see at least there was
some laughter. Though that's it. It was of the utility
(29:43):
of a fall audience, and that's what I realized. It
was like, if I put a small audience of the
crew and wrestlers around the rain, that's gonna have Mostly
it's not gonna be quite as good, but it'll be
the best thing. It's better than just nothing. You don't
want to be in a funeral home watch in wrestling, man,
like you want to. You want some energy. Man, I'm
(30:03):
we're about to side quest again and go on for
another three hours. We have to do another episode, but
I want to thank all of our listeners. I want
to thank you, and this has been the most pleasantly
jealous I've been in a very long time. So thanks
now in the in the best possible way. I love
what you're doing and it makes me wanna It makes
me wanna reach out more. You know what I mean?
(30:25):
It makes me wanna stretch, stretch more, wings like that.
This has been a production of I Hearts Michael podcast Network.
For more podcasts for My Heart Radio, visit the I
Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
your favorite shows. H
What's up everybody? Welcome back, and here is part two
of our interview with Tony count Now stuffing up to
the mic. The host of Wrestling with Freddie Freddie Bruce June. Yeah,
m JF my favorite wrestler right now, the man at
the moment, I was watching MLW and it was, you know,
(00:24):
hard to miss. And JF Uh did he cut a
promo that night? Uh? He cut? I watched him money.
I watched like for weeks and weeks and months and
months all through so I saw cut a lot of promos.
They had a lot of good people on the show
at that time. Um and uh so I was. I
was watching it pretty regularly looking for people, so I
(00:46):
would go back in that summer and and and Jeff
was one of the real standout people. You know. Uh
just topped top of my head. And this is the
same stuff all hardcore fans might have been watching at
that time. But I was really into New Japan. They
had the show on Access but also a court in
New Japan World and that was, like he said, A
big part of my business case was, um, you know,
(01:08):
taking Omega versus Jericho, bringing it to America, and I
knew that match had been a huge fan event around
the world, and I thought on American pay per view
it would draw a big audience and also would draw
a big house having seen what they did at the Tokyoo,
and and then I was trying to build a roster
kind of around and obviously, like you know, Young Bucks
(01:31):
versus Luta Brothers is a great tag match that that
could headline of pay per view. Um, so you love
you love tag team wrestling, You actually love it. This
is a fan thing, okay, because I I pushed every
well not just me, everyone when I worked there, pushed
so hard, and Vince was always like, I'm paying four
people for one match, and so he just he hated
(01:53):
he hated it. That's why it's never been that legitimate.
But except maybe like eight months here, three months here
and then not forget all that, but you have a
genuine love for it to the point where you guys
just put Moxley and and and and Brian together. Now
even nobody's beating them, bro, nobody's beating them. Nobody, nobody
(02:16):
is beating the American Dragon period. And my nobody's beating them.
No way, I'll do a run in and prevent the pinfall.
If it happens, those men will be killers. I love
that you guys put them together. They're so great and uh,
it's a great parent. I didn't want to and I
don't want a short change. Uh m JF. We still
haven't given. Don't worry. He won't let you no E, Definitely,
(02:39):
I won't. I won't be able to do that. And
heast that's one person I'm not gonna have a change
to short change. He's Uh, such a great wrestler, is
such a great professional. And you were talking about all
the great stuff that CM punkin m JF did uh
in building up their dog collar match, the revolution and
telling the story. It's one of the best things I've
(03:00):
ever been a part of in my life. I haven't
loved a match like that. And I don't know how
long period I I literally start to finish all like
they say, suspension of disbelief, All that was gone, Like
I literally, you guys built up to it. This kid,
he's like twenty four years old, this kid or twenty
six years old. Some crazy. I was such an idiot
(03:22):
at that age, and just to see how crisp and
clean and precise all this was. To see that match
and you guys had a long chain and so like
even like the visuals when they were tired and spread
out across the ring, it was just like it looked
you could pause it and take a photo like. I
loved everything, And I think it is the best story
(03:45):
and the best maybe not best match, because there's some
other ones that have got to be up there with it,
but the best story that I've seen you guys do,
and the best story that I've seen in wrestling period
since before I ever wrote a wrestling story. And I
couldn't even tell you the one I liked more. Well,
it's love, I love, I love, Thank you man. It
means a lot to me to hear that. But also
it's emblematic uh uh my philosophy in a lot of
(04:09):
ways because I give all the credits to two of
them and Jaff and see him punk. I am that
administrator in a lot of ways. And what I think
is really cool is you know what people people will
ask why I don't have a lot of writers, It's
because I've worked with the top talent and there's all
(04:30):
developed stories and programs front all due to everything and
say like you're gonna do this, this and this, You're
gonna here's ere gonna work this week. We're gonna build
you up, and then at the end of the next week,
I'll explain where we're going next week. And you can
do that with like some younger people, but with like
and Jeff and see him punk, you know, with each
of them, I spent hours and hours sitting and planning
and talking, and they both team in with such great
(04:52):
ideas and a lot of this stuff just matched up beautifully.
And they both had like long term story ideas and
things that to do. And when you have wrestlers with
those kinds of great ideas, Look, I don't have to
do every idea that it's thrown in here and tried to.
That's the thing. I try to pick the best one
and talk to different people about different ideas. But I
feel like I'm better off talking to the two of them.
(05:15):
I imagine if I'd gone off in a room with
neither of them, with like six other people and then
to this was the death of This was the death
of every good idea that people smashed. The writer's room
for w W is so often and I've even being
critical and I've written some dog stories too, by the way, Um,
(05:35):
but the fact that there would be literally forty or
more people that all got to have say on a storyline.
The day of a show, I literally would just be like, guys,
this is so far removed from what it started as.
This won't how how can we make it? Was crazy?
So I love that control a controlled envirus with Brian Denna,
(05:57):
he rest in Peace. We're talking about a lot of
past on actors. But h he said artist, Brian Denna,
he said artist, Oh my god, Okay. He was like
a mentor to me on Summer Catch. He was a
great dude. I went to go watch him a Iceman
comment on Broadway and he killed it and I was like, man,
you're amazing. And he goes Freddie actors or he said
artists need an environment that's conducive to success, and I
(06:21):
was like, oh, yeah, that's why this movie sucked. That
movie and I started like put peace and things together.
And he was just such an old school, like clean
personality like that. I love that you can trust your
talent like that, and the ones who you who you
can't you can help kind of shape and develop and
bring up and not force the entire world upon their
(06:43):
shoulders before they're ready. The entire thing was the three
of us like that, and that's how it should be,
like jealous, right, and that's like that's and and it's
been like that a lot. Like the same thing when
Paul came in with Darby, you know, he and I,
Punk and I sat down put ideas together, and then
I went to Darby and nobody in the wrestling business
(07:06):
knew what was going on with me and Punk, and
I went to Darby and said, it's the promo you're
gonna do. And basically it was the one I think, uh,
you know, maybe ten days before the first dance. I
think it was um in early August. And the line
I gave Darby was a w you know, no matter
how great you think you are, if you want to
(07:29):
prove it, you have to come to a w even
if you think you're the best in the world. And
I knew that like that one line would Yeah, that's
it's great. And like working with different people, you know,
whether it's uh Moxley and and Danielson or the Young
Bucks and Adam Cole and Tenny when when he spent
(07:51):
healthy obviously Jericho and Eddie Kingston, Oh my gosh, Eddie.
Eddie gets some of the biggest reactions in the damn company.
They love him and that story they told was beautiful,
and I love that he didn't shake his hand and
there was so much hatefulness. But Eddie's talking on the mic.
I had him on the show Man and I told
(08:13):
him this. On the show, I said, and you guys
need to give your social media people are raised by
the way you guys cut together a clip with some
music and Eddie was talking about some some Latino pride
and you know, I'm not full Puerto Rican either, and
I leg it, like my eyes welled up. I was like, Yo,
this guy is gonna make me cry. And then like
three months later he's making me want to watch him
(08:34):
fight somebody. I was just like, they have some dudes
that I am in love with. We talked off air
about my love for for cargill Um, who I told
you I think literally is is the goddess Athena just
she never left and all the all the other Greek
gods died and she just ate them or or consumed
their souls or something. I think she I literally have
(08:58):
never It's like when I was a it in the eighties,
I saw the ultimate warrior at a house show in
Tinglely Colisseum, which was a rodeo house in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
And he looked like he was sculpted from granite and
that his muscles didn't even push in when the other
men punched him. Like everything it was like body armor.
(09:19):
And when I saw her, I was literally watching it
with my twelve year old daughter, and my daughter I
don't care about language. She's seen all Sarah's in my movies,
so language isn't it. But when Jade Gargill talked about
being a bad bitch, and I literally watched my daughter's
head and you guys can't see this Tony camp, but
her literally her whole posture when Jade said that, she
(09:42):
just went up up, up, chest out shin hai and
it was just like she would looked like she was
ready to fight. And I was like, yo, she just
had her ultimate worrior like she literally was like, yeah,
I'm taking pride. It was this crazy moment where I'm like,
that's why I still love wrestling to this to this
day is because of stuff like that. And I've gotten
(10:02):
to kind of jump back in through my children, and
I'm so grateful. People talk about the craziness of wrestling.
I think this is a renaissance for wrestling. It's a
rebirth and you guys have shown it now for a
couple of years and have a consistent number that I
can't wait to watch grow. Um, you guys are coming
(10:23):
to l A soon. I want to come to that show. Uh.
I'm not gonna run in. I will not affect any matches,
even if Moxley is in trouble and uh, but I
just want to go. I haven't been to a live
show in so long. I got to indie shows out here,
but it's a different vibe. You guys are gonna be
at the Forum, which is beautiful now since they bought
it and refurbished it. The acoustics are great in there.
(10:45):
It's such a beautiful space. And a w W A
abandoned our West coasts. There's no more summer slams here,
So let us show you. Let us make you feel
at home. Man, we'll sell your asses out. I'm I've
lived in l A for you know, years of my life,
and uh, I think wait to come back. M h.
(11:14):
I said this once in another interview, but I went
completely over the head of everybody in the room, I
said it too, so you'll appreciate this much more than
anyone else in that media scrum. I think, uh so,
like I love going back, and I was back to
the super Bowl and it was the first time I've
been able to really hang out in l A in
a while because I was back for a few days
and I went to Craigs and you know, there's like
(11:37):
a paparazzi out in front of Craigs, and I'm sure
that whenever you walk into a friend and Freddy didn't
want to take photos and that's why I hide out. Yeah,
Like so when I when I never had that at
Craigs before, like where they like mob me and I
got right like, oh, man, like this is a very
different l A than the last man TMZ likes for wrestling. Bro.
(12:00):
It's it's you know, Hollywood embraces or embraced wrestling one
time one time in the eighties, and then it was
always kind of like this, yeah, they're in our business,
but not really in our business. Like in the nineties
when I was coming up, they'd be like pretty your
film act or not a TV actor. I'm like what
And then all of a sudden, Glenn Close does a
show on effects and it's like opens up the floodgates
(12:23):
for everyone right close. What a really nice lady, bro.
She and only one other actor are the only people
who have ever won an Academy Award, Tony Award and
an Emmy Award. It's like her and Jack Albertson from
Willy Wonka to Chocolate Factor. It's so talented but also
like a really really nice person. We went to the
Abaijing Olympics together. What whoa whoa what? What American contingent
(12:48):
of people like our our my family and some other families. Uh,
there was like it was like a group of CEOs
and her husband and my dad and a bunch of
people organized this up to Beijing for the two thous Olympics.
I just graduated college like maybe a year prior, and
I was I was working my first job, and uh
(13:10):
it was a lot of fun. But like the Beijing Olympics,
it was a real experience and like these days, they
organized this like tour. So we were like going game
to game and there was no food, like and we
get to the I haven't seen her in years, but
this is like she was so nice. Um. We got
into the basketball games and it was USA versus China.
(13:31):
It was at the time the most watched supporting event
of all time. There are three billion people watched the
USA versus China, and USA had Lebron, Kobe, Yeah, Carmelo,
so many great players and uh. And I went out
and the concession stand all. Now, the one thing they
did in Beijing really well is all the stuff on
(13:52):
the menu was very affordably priced. But like it was like,
you know, it was like meat on stick, which is like, Okay,
what's this gonna be? And could you just tell me
what kind of meat? Yeah, there was just one thing.
I can't remember what it said, but I think it
said biscuits or something, and I was like, I've tried
what is At this point I got to see that
(14:14):
it turned out to be Rich tract on Oh, like
biscuits like English crackers. Yeah. Like so I get like
a box of rich crackers and the Olympics I sit
down unclosed looks at me and she goes, oh my god,
rich practice, where did you get those? Like it's so like, uh,
but yeah, it was such a great talent. Also, you know,
(14:37):
all those old school actresses are so smooth, and so
I fell in love with all of them a little bit, man,
and they always have like great quotes. I remember Kathleen
Turner was quoted as saying, a movie is a marriage
with a guaranteed divorce. So fall in love as much
as you want because it end's suit enough. And it
was just like, Yo, that's some smooth ship. I would
(14:57):
never say, I'd be like, movies are cool, like making
the like it would never sound smooth like that. Man.
I love that you got to hang with her. When
I was coming up, I always got to, you know.
My dad charmed a lot of people, so they they
were good to me, you know. And I met a
lot of old school cats and I could always tell
if they had slept with my father or not based
(15:18):
on the way they said. Hi, I'll tell you that
you'll love this story. Okay, you're the perfect age for this.
So you remember Joanna Kerns from Growing Pains, Okay, so
sweetest mom in the world. In the seventies. She was
a dancer and a really good one, and my dad
was dating her, and that he used to go on
dates with her and Pam Greer because they liked each other.
So we take them both out at the same time.
This is seventies game. So I'm on a pilot that
(15:40):
didn't get picked up and Joanna Kurrens is playing one
of the roles and I didn't even know and I
go into the trailer and I see her look at
me and double take and she goes hi. So right
away I know the hand sex. Right right away, I
know they had sex because there's always a breath first,
it's always and if it's not, if it's just oh, hello,
then I know they were just friends and cool. Right
So right away, I'm like, oh my gosh, this is awkward.
(16:01):
So I'm sitting there and she goes this quiet and
awkward and she goes, can I tell you a story
about your dad? And I was like, I was waiting
for it. So she goes, okay, your dad and I
it was and we were on a date with Pam Greer,
me and your dad at a restaurant and Richard Pryor
called the restaurant and he said, hey, I'm having a
party at my house. Come by, and Richard discovered my father.
(16:26):
But he was very jealous of my father because he
loved Pam Greer, and Pam wrote about this in her biography,
so it's not like uh an autobias, it's not like
telling tales out of school. But she loved my daddy.
So my dad brought Pam and Joanna to Richard's house
and there was no party. My my dad in the seventies,
Playboy Radio would do comedy from like ten pm to
(16:46):
two am on the radio, and a lot of comments
would try out new new material there just to see
how it would play it. And my dad had a
set that he hated, and Richard got the set and
he started playing it as soon as they walked in,
and it's like, yeah, you're gonna fall in love with
this on motherfucker. And my dad goes, and Joanne's telling
me the story. She goes, your dad jumped over the couch,
punched Richard in the face, took the real office like
(17:08):
it was on like a wheel to wheel audio thing,
grab Pam and left me. I said, what, She goes, Yeah,
he forgot me at Richard's house. I go, what did
Richard do? He said, bitch, get yourself a cab through
her holy ship. That's one of the greatest stories I
ever hear. The old school actresses are always the best man,
(17:29):
always and the seventies were the seventies, man, So they
get to have the coolest stories. Our stories are like, yeah,
that was pretty sweet. There's a you know, an hour
long and awesome. Yeah. Yeah, I've got nothing that can
compared to that we were. We were just born in
the wrong generation, that's all. But listen, dude, you you're
kicking so much ass man. And I love to see
(17:49):
the growth of the of the brand that you're building.
I love to see your take on the business. What's
your favorite stuff? Like not you take the modern taking
whatever and not that I'm saying, be said you like
a lot of what we're doing going back, Like, you know,
what's your favorite stuff? So, like, if I had to
my favorite sort of moments. I loved when JBL invaded
(18:14):
ECW and cut the Wrestling God promo. That's one of
my favorite promos of all time. Uh, Bret, you love
the original One Night? Yeah? Yeah? Um. I loved Bret Hart,
not Shawn Michaels. I always pulled pulled for Bret Hart.
I always believed in Bret Hart. All my friends pulled
for Shawn Michael's. Karen Culkin and I still argue about
it to this day and in a very unfriendly way. Yes,
(18:40):
very much, so very much, So I gotta go. Lenarly
taught my dad out of freaking drive, so I gotta go. Lit.
I felt like we're the way people went back and
forth on it. It reminds me of Dave and j
because it was like to like people and in the
same era in the nineties, these two and especially with
the behind the scenes stuff going on to it was
(19:00):
very similar. He used to be friends and they were
really a big part of like and you know, Brett
had like done a lot to help advance Shahn's career
when even be a singles wrestler, just like David a
lot to advanced to day his career um as a
comedian when and uh and then the way it shook
out and one guy being maybe flash here and the
(19:22):
other guy being more In Dave's case, I would say
like a little bit more probably the comics comics, I
would I would say he's the more intellectual of the
comics and Jay was the more mainstream, right like Jay
had Jay. I I know Jay Leno's seventies set because
my dad gave him his first job and he literally
had jokes about milk and cookies you know what I mean,
(19:43):
whereas like Dave let him is never going to touch
that subject unless it's in the most cynical way possible,
and it has nothing to do with milk or cookies.
That's just like you know, the color for it. So
they were very different, very different comics as far as
like an accessible, safe and and one who doesn't care
if you don't get his joke. He just doesn't care,
(20:04):
you know what I mean. And Dave, Dave doesn't care
if you don't get to Dave used to be rough
on a guest if the guest wasn't that good, he
would kind of dump on the guest, whereas Jay's like,
let's let's let's sparkle. Let's sparkle. But I think actors
and comics and musicians always wanted to earn Dave's respect
more than Jay's when they were doing the shows back
in the day. There's so many wrestlers in the business
(20:34):
and they talk about in the same way about trying to,
you know, getting respect. From Brett Hard it's like the
highest because he's so sparing with it. He doesn't throw
it out there. He really it's an old school philosophy
hand out dignity demand people earn respect. Everyone deserves dignity,
but respect should be earned on a case by case basis,
(20:57):
and Bret Hart embodies that way more than anything I
just said, you know what I mean, Like he's so
hardcore about it, and that's still so Yeah. I've always
I've always been a fan of Brett, But like I
watched just like gotta watched America go back and forth
on Dave and Jay. I watched uh, you know, the
w WF even go back on the fans hand Vince
(21:18):
Yeah Worth on them at different points, and it's really
kind of a fascinating thing to watch. Like the experience
Bob Right and NBC was probably having was very similar
to the experiences Vince was having very much, so very much.
So all we gotta do is find the uh, we
gotta find whatever the the equivalent for the Jamie Kellner
character is and then everybody will kind of universally team
(21:41):
up and beat him down. You know, he was he
was the exact on on Sarah's show back on the
day on Buffy, and so when he I used to
give him ship all the time, I'd be like, dude,
I'm gonna kick your ass when he'd be like, dude,
it's not me. I'd be like, I know exactly, it
was you. I used to give him ship all the time,
but it worked out great for me. You're the last
one to complain about You're You're as big as fit.
(22:05):
You would be here right now. I would be working
in football and I would still be very happy, but
I would I would never have unlocked this part of
my life. You get to do something creative, which is
real special and in the most respectful way. A part
of me is even like a little jealous man, because
it's just like I see they can't see you smiling,
but I see you smile when you talk about your job,
(22:28):
and to see people get to do what they love,
that you that you never work a day if you
do what you love. Whatever. The saying is like, you
look really happy and you look really motivated. Man, So
thanks so much that I appreciate you, dude, thank you.
Thanks for giving me the time to talk on the show.
And it's I mean honestly doing the doing the show.
And I hope that the people listening to this and
enjoyed it nearly as much as we've enjoyed recording it.
(22:50):
We'll have you on for a repeat, We'll do a repeat.
I would love to do a repeat, and and uh,
you know, talk more wrestling. I felt like every time
I got going, like I was trying to, I want
to really put it's you, it's your full You like clue,
and it's like once once people like clue. It's like
when there's two people that like wrestling in a poker game,
Like the one person they kind of like wrestler, but
(23:12):
if there's another one there, all of a sudden, nobody
could touch him and they become powerful. And that's what
we did today. That's right, that's it, and that is it.
I mean, give me two wrestling people. I heard Karen
Coulton's a big fan. Karen is like crazy hard. You
gotta meet this dude. Man, he's a New Yorker. Um,
he's working like crazy on succession. But this dude is
(23:34):
like an encyclopedia. I've seen. He's been kicked out of
a wrestling he threw a beer a big show. He
got so mad one time and got thrown out of
a wrestling show. They made up. Um. I watched him
wrestle the Miss at WrestleMania and Arizona. When Brett harton
O Whole Heart Family came in on Vince Um. They
wrestled for forty minutes in our hotel room and it
(23:54):
was like a shoot match almost, and and then Karen
lays down finally and miss pins him for the one
too three, a forty minute match. Bro, Like he was
so I'm sure he still loves it, but back then,
like he was so hardcore. Bro. He had a closet
full of like the action figures and like chose them over.
His girlfriend at the time was like, I'm not getting
rid of those yuk bouts and she did, and he
(24:15):
was glad. He's a gangster. Bro. I love this guy.
I gotta you know what's crazy. It's my favorite show
Succession and I can say and not only is it
that the absolute truth, but I can also say that
and put it over because the media partners with HBO
and TNT, so it's like its synergy. But it's also
really my favorite show. It's even my dad's favorite. I
(24:36):
was gonna say, there's gotta be a like an odd
connection for you there, because there is that huge patriarch
father figure and then the son that wants today I'm
gonna do my thing but I want to make you
proud at the same time, you gotta connect to that
big time. Kendell never had wrestling Like Kendel never had
that thing in his life that he could go do
(24:57):
because what was he supposed to do? Like I never
this got me apart from my dad where people say, Okay,
that's Tony, Like that's what because working in football even
until like working on statistics, even Fulham were I'm the
general manager and negotiating all the contracts and and taking
all the heat. Uh, you know, they're maybe a little
bit more in England, but for the most part, like
(25:18):
I'm known for being until a w my father's son,
and it was you know, Kendall and none of the
Roys really never had that. They never had that thing,
that project they wanted to do, that they needed. They
just want the whole thing. They wanted his whole empire,
the whole business. None of them ever sent their teeth
in the one thing. And I mean, you know, Kendell
(25:41):
never had that. Roman never had that, and uh and
she had never had that, and obviously Connor never had Roman.
Roman is going to be the one that starts the
indie company well. Season eight succession what's crazy to mean
about success? But my favorite show, Karen Holkin is like
so this crazy wrestling band. I've heard Nick bron is
also a big wrestling fan. Plays cousin Greg and you
(26:05):
know who is I have yet Now I'm really excited
to meet him. He's been he's common. He was a
guest in our board room, but I had not gotten
to go see him in person. Jeffy Armstrong is a huge,
full of fan really this season Take Older Yeah, yeah,
And I cannot believe that's I'm such a huge fan
(26:25):
of his his work, so it really excited to meet
him too, because it's such a great show. But the
connections and it's such a small world they it really is,
and it keeps getting smaller this circle. Um. I think
Karen's best actor on the network period. Like the work
he's put up the last two years. You can put
up against anybody and you ain't gonna say someone did better. Incredible,
(26:46):
He's one of the He's amazing. He's one of the
best actors on television right now. I totally agree the
Roman character. I could I could watch the session all day,
all night. Well there you go. We went from wrestling
to clue to Madeline, con to Glenn, close to Growing Pains,
to Succession and the Circle before what Yeah, what, especially
(27:09):
because I think somebody who is close to it was
close to your your father was Gary Schandler, and that
was the best show. My wife and I used to
sit in bed and watch it together all the time. Man,
all the damn times that show. And I still do.
I think there's like, that's the show when I have
like reflective moments, like at the beginning of the pandemic,
(27:31):
I watched so much stuff to try and get a handle,
like what are we gonna do? What I'm gonna do?
The shows? And I watched Letterman with no audience during
the hurricane, and I was like, this is what only
Dave could do this. It was David Denzel and an
empty studio, and I was like, this is what I
don't want to do because I don't think any would
pull this off. It was I'll be honest with you.
(27:54):
I was looking forward to it because sometimes the crowds
make me mad. And about three minutes and I was like, yeah,
I was wrong. This needs a crowd and it needs
one right now. And I hope they screamed super loud,
Well you might have heard me told us throwing in
another show, but like, because that's the thing that I
I was, So I was digging deep watching stuff. I
watched a bunch of Larry Sanders, so I'm trying to
(28:15):
get introspective. That's what I watched. And uh. And then
he's such a self hater though careful people on the internet, like,
nobody hates me more than I hate myself and uh,
and it's like I'll never see me on TV more
than a minute or two making an announcement like in
the hundred twenty seven episodes, the only times I've ever
(28:36):
gone out there were announced the Ring of Honor, just
say goodbye to Brody Lee and seven episodes I've shown
my face for me five minutes total, and you know,
out of thousands and thousands. So um, I there's a
lot of that like uh in me and also already
like trying to keep everything together. Uh. And then Hank,
(28:59):
which is like anybody in your life that like every well,
we're rough on Hank, but we love Hank. But there's
one hand comes through It makes it all. And so
I love Larry Sanders, but um, and I would watch that.
But the other thing I really watched. It helped me
in the Pandemic was Um one of my friends is
(29:20):
a writer for Fallon, and they had the staff and
crew in the audience for the for the Pandemic episodes
at the beginning, and it set them apart from the
other talk shows because even though he made only had
a dozen what you couldn't see at least there was
some laughter. Though that's it. It was of the utility
(29:43):
of a fall audience, and that's what I realized. It
was like, if I put a small audience of the
crew and wrestlers around the rain, that's gonna have Mostly
it's not gonna be quite as good, but it'll be
the best thing. It's better than just nothing. You don't
want to be in a funeral home watch in wrestling, man,
like you want to. You want some energy. Man, I'm
(30:03):
we're about to side quest again and go on for
another three hours. We have to do another episode, but
I want to thank all of our listeners. I want
to thank you, and this has been the most pleasantly
jealous I've been in a very long time. So thanks
now in the in the best possible way. I love
what you're doing and it makes me wanna It makes
me wanna reach out more. You know what I mean?
(30:25):
It makes me wanna stretch, stretch more, wings like that.
This has been a production of I Hearts Michael podcast Network.
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