May 4, 2022 • 34 mins
Pro wrestling has been a passion of mine since I was a child. From watching with my grandmother to writing for the WWE. Now, I want to make a different kind of impact on the industry by launching my own wrestling company and bringing it back to the basics.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
M H. Welcome back everyone to Wrestling with Freddy. And
today's episode isn't even it's not the past, it's not
even the current product. It's the future. I did an
interview on the Aerial Helwani Show where I had mentioned
one of my dreams, which is now a plan, was
(00:21):
to start my own small, little indie wrestling federation, and
we'll go into what my goals with that are. But
a lot of wrestling fans saw it. Some of you
thought I was full of crap. Some of you really
believed in the idea. But we got so much feedback
that we're gonna deep dive into the plan and the
philosophy behind it, and I'm gonna share way more with
(00:43):
you that I'm probably even comfortable sharing, minus the financials,
and we're gonna get it started right now. Welcome to
another episode of Wrestling with Freddie. Now stuffing up to
the mic. The host of Wrestling with Freddie Freddie Prince June. Yeah,
all right, you guys. So a few months ago I
(01:04):
was on the m M A Hour with Ariel Helwani,
who I like very much. I think he sells the
sport of mixed martial arts very well and he's randomly
a huge wrestling fan and if you go back a
few episodes, he was a guest on here. He's a
really good part of our family over here. And he
talked about being at the actual Montreal screw Job with
(01:25):
Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels. Because he is a France Canadian.
We were having a conversation and I had never really
spoken publicly about it before, but it had been a
dream of mine for a long time. And and uh,
I'll tell you kind of how that dream came to
pass right now, because you can watch all the arial
stuff on his channel. Nobody really knows this, but I
almost became a showrunner for another wrestling federation whose name
(01:51):
I will not say. A friend of mine who financed
the company asked me to come help them try and
get a TV deal. So I was happy to help.
I love wrestling. I love the person who had this
promoters back and was financing the company. I have a
lot of I have a lot of respect for this person,
and so when they asked me for something, which is
(02:12):
very rare, it's an easy yes for me. There's someone
I liked doing favors for, and I don't feel they
asked enough. So I came in, no contract, no money,
no anything, and saw their product, saw the good stuff,
saw what I thought I could improve, and had another
conversation with the finance. Here I met the promoter. By
the way, it was an old school promoter. The promoter
(02:34):
was very professional and polite to me, look me in
the eye when we shook hands, that kind of stuff,
and then started selling me on on their their brand.
And it was an oversell too to my eyeball anyway,
and there was no need to oversell it. I feel
that people should always be very straightforward when dealing with
with other professionals in this in the same industry, that
(02:57):
being show business. Not that I'm a wrestling expert, but
I do you know what quality television and quality film is.
So I tried to relax him and put him in
ease and and well now you know it's a guy,
and and tell him that, uh that I was, you know,
a fan of the product and all this stuff, and
I mentioned where I thought I could help um who
I knew that I thought would come in and be
(03:19):
friendly to us and help improve you know, everything from
our on camera stuff to putting some credibility on commentating
to training, to to all kinds of things. Not that
I would train, but I knew, you know, some of
the best wrestling trainers in the business, because I treated
them with respect, the travels of the world that have
trained a lot of people. So and I wanted the
(03:40):
good people to work, So I didn't push on anything.
I knew I was there just for story stuff, and
and so I started breaking it down. And then I
started being very honest about how Hollywood perceives the wrestling business.
And it's not favorable, and it hasn't been ripple in
(04:00):
a very long time, or they would have pulled a
ton more professional wrestlers and lured them with with money
and Beverly Hills and and girls named Beverly and everything
and guy's name. Whatever you desire is here in Hollywood.
They can steal your way. They've done it countless times.
John Cena used to talk smack about the Rock for
being a part timer, and then Hollywood said, oh, I'm sorry,
(04:21):
you talked crap about the biggest star in the world.
How would you like to be one as well? Yes,
yes I would, And he pieced out. So it's it's
a foul temptress. But it can be. It could be
a beautiful temptress at the same time if you already
know who you are. So we talked about what I
thought needed to be done for TV based on conversations
that I've already had with executives, and I said, look,
(04:44):
I don't have the connections that I had in the
nineties when I was hot shit, but but the relationships
that I that I had, I'm there's only one producer
I've worked with that I really wouldn't work with again,
I have solid relationships. I'm always pro alway is on time,
always knew my ship, never was a drug addict, so
I didn't cause any problems. There was no reason for
(05:05):
people not to dig me. So the people who had
advanced up and we're in positions of authority now to
say yes, some of them were my friends or at
least acquaintances. So I said, here's the three places that
I could take us to, and he said, I have
a friend who maybe getting a promotion at this other
place as well. I said, cool, if it happens, let's
(05:25):
let's go there too. So we set up the three
meetings and all three and I want to write a
pilot for them as I say, look, you have You're
gonna have to have something. They're gonna want to see
something because they don't know wrestling. Now, well we don't.
We don't really write it like that. We don't. We
don't write the w Wilay I said, I don't have
to write at the w W E way. I just
want to show them a format so they can understand
(05:46):
how long the show is, how long the matches are,
what the back states. He goes, well, you can just
pitch it. You're a great picture. And I think he
did like me for that, but he really just wanted
my name to help sell his show, which we found
out down the room. So we go into the first
meeting and it was I believe the first one was
at the c W. And the gentleman that I knew
(06:06):
there was Mark Petowitz. See I'm comfortable saying. And Mark
was one of the original execs on Buffy the Vampire
Slayer like way back in the day, and he runs
the CW and his business model is what keeps the
CW afloat. It's how they can afford to make all
their DC shows, whether you think they're good or not.
They have a very He came from their business affairs department.
So he was a lawyer negotiating contracts, which is not
(06:29):
usually a guy that I like. But he knows that
I'm very straight up about it. And they have a
crazy contract structure there as well. But those actors are
still making way more than wrestlers, so as far as
budget and what these these wrestlers would be paid, because
it wouldn't have be a license deal like US, a
licensed Monday Night Raw. They don't own Monday Night Raw,
(06:51):
so this would still be on the cheap for them,
an affordable show. They said, we don't want to script,
so we go in, we pitch it, and the promoter
takes over the pitch. I'm about maybe four minutes in
and he and he and he takes over the pitch,
and so I stopped talking. It doesn't work if we're
both talking at the same time. And he goes and
he goes, and it's about fifteen minutes in and I see,
(07:14):
I see Mark shaking. Is not shaking his head, but
it's an internal head shake. I've normally had twenty plus years.
And I see the other exacts, and I know when
they're tuning out on a pitch because I've had plenty
of bad ones myself, and so he finally finishes up.
And the last thing you wanna have happened at the
end of the pitch is say well, thank you, we'll
(07:37):
be in touch. That means that sucks and we don't
want it. It doesn't mean your idea sucks. It just
means they think it sucks. If they ask questions, there's
obviously interest. So I already know where this is going.
And the meeting stops, and right away Mark and this
other guy I don't remember his name in stereo, they say, well,
thank you very much, we'll be in touch. And I
(07:59):
shake my head and we're walking out and Mark puts
a hand on my shoulder and he says, hey, come
back in here after you say goodbye if you can.
I say, yeah, okay, So I go and I talked
to the sales group right and uh, I say, all right,
you know the next time, and and he's even apologizing, sorry,
I kind of I barreled on there and you were
doing great. He did not care if I was doing great.
(08:20):
I think he just was looking for a door to
get opened so he could try to sell a show. Right,
they leave, I go back in and Mark goes, what
the hell was that? He actually didn't cuss. He rarely cusses.
He goes, what was that, Freddy? I say, I don't know, man,
(08:42):
it wasn't the meeting that I thought it was gonna be.
I said, I have a different pitch if you want
to hear what I think wrestling could be. Although I
know you guys aren't in the market for this. He goes, well, listen,
we don't want to buy a wrestling show, but let
me let me see what you got. Say all right.
So we go back and the financier, the one who
called me, who me for help. I said, oh my gosh,
I'm so sorry. So and so is not going to
(09:04):
do that again. Uh, please don't leave, Please come to
the next pitch. I say, I'm not going anywhere. Don't worry.
I made a commitment work good. So I have a
good conversation or what I think was a good conversation
with the promoter and uh, I say, look, I'm not trying.
I'm very directed him. I say, I'm not trying to
steal your your show. I don't have a contract. I
(09:25):
get no money if we sell this, none, not a
not a single dollar. I just want to put my
friend in a position for this type of wrestling to
succeed because the ku genera can be because I believe
in this type of wrestling, so stupid and uh he says, yeah, okay,
you know or all on the same. So the next
place won't take a pitch without a script, which is
(09:47):
what I thought. So I write one up and I
try to give even the wrestlers that I can't fit
into the show wrestling a moment backstage, a little time
to shine. Right without telling me before we go into
the pitch, dude rewrites everything that I did to make
it fit more what he wants. Now you can look
at this two ways. This is his baby. It's his baby,
(10:11):
and here comes this jerk with his ideas and what
he feels are major changes. Even though I stayed true
to every single character. I spoke with every wrestler before
I wrote for them, and noticed I didn't say before
I made changes because I made zero. I worked with
what I was given because I didn't know that I
wasn't being paid. It was a favor. So you show
(10:31):
me what you think your best self is, and that's
what I'm gonna work with. I'm not going to change
the thing and I didn't, so the whole script gets rewritten.
We go and we have the pitch and he lets
me pitch, which was really cool and it's a great pitch.
We killed it. They seem actually into it, which I
was surprised by. And this woman says, you know, Freddie
called me afterwards. So I call her and she says, Hey,
(10:52):
we're actually excited about this. I'm excited to read your
your pilot. I said, yeah, quit. I go. Look, it's
just a temporary thing, just so you can kind of
see what the flavors are and how the show goorks
goes okay. So I get a call that night from her,
which is weird. It would always be an email, and
it would never be that night unless it was like,
oh my god, we love this and we have to
buy it, in which case it would be a phone
(11:13):
call because they don't want to avoid my lawyer cost
the more money. So I say hello, and I know
who it is, and she goes, Freddy, did you write this?
I said yeah. She goes, and we have a good
enough relationship. She goes, I really didn't respond to this
at all, and I was like, really, what about this? This?
So and so monologue. I thought that was a promo
(11:34):
we call it, but monologue they called. I go. I
thought that would be right up your alley because there's
no there's no monologue at all. I did say monologue.
Be goes, there's no monologues at all, Like, what do
you mean? Send send me the script because now I'm like,
I already know what's happened, and everything has changed every
single page. And I called my friend back. I got yed.
(11:54):
This old man is trying to sabotage me. I don't
know why. I don't have a contract with him. You
don't what I don't. I was doing a favor, but
clearly he does not want my help. So I'm gonna
step back. I go, if you want to read my pilot,
I'll send it to you. She goes, don't even send
it to me. I'm not buying this show, said, all right.
So it's the third meeting that's coming up, and I
(12:16):
text dude to UH to talk about the pitch, and
I don't hear back. And then Uh. I texted him again,
it's about a week out. I don't hear back. Third
fourth fit text nothing. I text the boss the finance
here and I say, hey, what's going on. So I've
texted homeboy a few times. I haven't heard anything back
(12:39):
our meetings in like two days or this was a
text that I wrote. And I get a phone call
back and she says, uh, Freddy, I'm really sorry. I
thought he told me he was gonna he was gonna
talk to you, but he doesn't. He doesn't want to
work with you, and he's really uncomfortable, and so we're
just gonna walk away. And I said, let me ask
you something. Did his friend get the promotion that he
(13:00):
was talking about? And it's dead client on her end
of the phone, and I literally almost said the name.
I literally go, this is insane. I said, I was
doing this for free, and now that he doesn't need
me to get a meeting at a TV network because
his friends there, he's just kicking me out. And she goes,
oh my god, I'm so sorry. Da da da dada.
(13:21):
I go, it's all right. I go, I'm not mad
at you. I go, you know, it wasn't It wasn't
a job anyway. Best of luck, good luck. And they
actually got a TV deal without any of my assistants whatsoever.
They didn't need it. I didn't have anger when it
was over because it was just more weird and the
kind of guy he was was so old school and
and transparent that you know, I wasn't trying to smash
(13:42):
on the guy before or after the fact, because it's
just a different were from different generations, and neither one
of us is going to change. So instead of getting angry,
all that energy started, Like I don't know, man, It's like,
do you know when you're in a dream and you
(14:02):
know you're about to wake up and reality starts to
slip into the context of the dream, so all of
a sudden, whatever you were dreaming feels much more attainable.
Does that make sense to anyone out there at all?
It's happened to me a million times in my life,
and I feel like it's one of the main reasons
(14:24):
why I've never not accomplished a goal that I set
my mind to. Every everything I wanted to do in Hollywood,
I did everything I wanted to do. In wrestling, I did.
I'm not even done with jiu jitsu, but every goal
I said in jiu jitsu, I've accomplished so far and
that journey will never in thank God. So I started
dreaming about wrestling. I started dreaming about men's wrestling, women's
(14:47):
wrestling bodies smashing together, or as Biggie would say, medi men,
media manly men slapping meet against one another. That's a
Biggie would say. Shout out to Biggie, I'd love you.
So I start having this dream, and I remember my godfather,
Bob Wall Rest in peace. He said, dreams are what
(15:08):
happens when other people are making plans, and that philosophy
is one of the main reasons. Now it's one of
many reasons that I've been able to find success. I
don't spend too much time dreaming. The moment I have
the dream and I know it's something I want, I
start planning. So the first thing I did was call
(15:31):
my accountant and I said, Hey, I'm gonna try to
figure out how much money I need to uh to
start a wrestling promotion, and I'm gonna hit you back.
And he said, you better go get a job because
I'm not gonna let you spend any of the money
that you saved up over the years for wrestling promotion.
And I respect my accountant. I called my manager, I
(15:52):
called my agent. I said, yo, man, I want to
go back to work, and they said, great, Why And
I told my manager the reason why you started laughing
at me. You said, you're absolutely insane. I said, I know,
man as, but I'll have fun doing it. I only
want to work with, you know, good people. We don't
have to be, you know, desperate for stuff. But let
(16:12):
people know that I'm that I'm hungry. And I had
never worked for Netflix before. I didn't really know anyone
over there. So I had like a video general meeting
with them and it went well, and they offered me
this romantic comedy. Of course, it's it's always a romantic
comedy if it's for me, if it's if I audition
for your movie it's an action movie, or like I
(16:35):
want to be a tough guy or something like that.
If it's Sweetie sweet Cakes, then they're like, oh, man,
give that crap to Freddie. So I read this script
and it's charming as all hell. It's a Latino family,
and you gotta remember that's always been something I've been
insecure about because my father was half so I'm only
(16:57):
a quarter, right, So I was never really fully except
did I felt by a lot of the Latino community.
I think I've touched on this before. It used to
be called the n c l A or the National
Council for Larrassa, and now it's something different. But screw
those guys straight up. I told them I didn't speak
Spanish on purpose, just to hear what they would say
(17:19):
about me and my father, and they said it all baby.
So anytime I get an opportunity like that, and it
isn't often, at least a lot of times, I'll change
the name after the fact, Like on his name was
not Cole Ortiz. Coal is not a Latino name. His
name was like Cole McGuire and they're like, oh, look,
we hired Freddie and this will look like we're a
(17:40):
diverse show. Ha ha. It's Ortiz And that's what Hollywood does.
That's diversity for them. Everyone's white until you hire someone
that's not and then you change the name. So anyway, um,
I take this this joy. I meet with the director,
female director who I just Her name is Gabriella, and
I just fell in love with her. Man. She gave
(18:01):
me some of the Granted I hadn't worked in forever,
so notes weren't fresh in my head, but some of
the things she said to me just unlocked a ton
of ship. I got to work with this great actress,
Amy Garcia. You guys know her from that show Lucifer.
She plays the nerd. She basically plays Shakira in this movie,
and it's like sexy and the opposite of her character
on Lucifer. She's just a stone assassin and she's partners
(18:25):
with a j who we've had on this show. They're
too crazy Puerto Rican girls and their writing partners, and
I swear in ten years they're going to be running
the business. I'm doing this movie and it's making me
(18:46):
fall in love with acting again. And as hungry as
I was getting to act again, it never outweighed the
desire to start the promotion. So long winded story. Notice
I didn't say long story short, because that was not short.
Here's the plan. I was talking with Sam Roberts, who
(19:09):
has a lovely podcast as well, the Sam Roberts Show
last year Professional in the Damn Business, and he mentioned
g c W. He goes, you have to watch it.
They tell a story every single show and it's great.
He goes, they're gonna ask some stuff that that you
don't vibe with, and they're gonna have some stuff that
you love, I know it go okay. So I watch
(19:30):
a g c W show and sure enough I see
a death match, and I'm freaking like, it's just too much.
It was too much blood for me, right, too much,
and there's room for blood and wrestling. I believe that
it's a it's a big, big part. And it wasn't
every match in g c W, which was smart, but
I was not. I was not prepared. I watched the
rest of the show and I thought they did a
(19:52):
great job. And I started watching other shows, older shows,
old Ring of Honor. A started listening to Jim Cornett
and his philosophies on wrestling, started listening to other promoters
and people in the business and their philosophies on wrestling.
I started watching what other wrestlers were trying to do.
I started asking everyone I knew in the business questions.
(20:18):
Then I started looking at arenas locally here and and
what it would cost a rhom. And then as I
saw what my opportunities would be in this business, as
there would be more of them after I did the
Netflix one, I started saying, well, I can accelerate the plan,
or I could keep the plan as it is, do
(20:42):
a couple more of these and own the space, which
I believe right now is the plan that I'm going
to execute. I've already have a commercial realtor that I
know and love. She's already looking at properties for me.
I would love to have a all time home for this.
The plan was originally a two year plan. Now I
(21:04):
should have the money for a three year plan, meaning
it doesn't have to make money for three years before
I'm like, yo, man, i gotta go do another day movie.
You have to be in Scooby, almost said Mother Treuk,
and have to be in Scooby Part seven or some
crap like that to keep inflouid. So so I started
looking for properties, and then social media did what social
(21:28):
media does, which is like feeding frenzy. Right, It's like
baiting the water. And there's a lot of of wrestling
instagram pages and websites out there that do dirt sheets
and wrestling news and things like that, and they need content,
and so they picked up on this and put it
out and then all of a sudden, all these like
indie wrestlers and indie refs and indie musicians who have
done wrestling stuff all started reaching out. And before I
(21:51):
get into this, let me say something. Whether you were
being real with me or whether you were trying to
troll and crap upon me, thank you. Some of you
wrote some stuff that was like you took the time
to not only say, hey, man, I would love to
come and be a part, but here's some wrestlers that
(22:12):
I respect and I think you would too. And for
you to take the time to do that, and it's
not just one cat that did that. That's the most
beautiful part of the wrestling community to me. I love that.
That's what acting used to be. I think I may
have told this story, but I did a movie with
Peter side Quest. I did a movie with Peter Falk,
(22:33):
who was amazing. People know him as Columbo, but this
guy was doing Cassavetti's movies in the seventies. Man is
just a gangster actor. And he was talking to me
one time on on the ride to work. We would
take the same van to work every day as in
New York City. We were both staying at the Essex
House hotel, and he would make me buy him his
true one hundred cigarettes at like two o'clock in the morning,
(22:54):
and the guy would just light one off the other
as it was going out, and he would run scenes
with me over and over. I was a naive, inexperienced actor,
and he was investing so much time in me, so
I'd buy the this cat's cigarettes how a light in
court for the guy. He was given me film school
one oh one in three months, and I was getting
(23:15):
four years of an education, right. But he used to
tell me about how it used to be. How freddy
are He said, Uh, do you and your acting class,
you know, you get together? You do this? Do you
do that? It was always like a family for me
and and Nick and John. He's talking about these legends
and I had to look him in the face and
just be like, nah, man, it's it's not like that.
(23:36):
It's cutthroat and everybody's ready to kill each other for
a job. And he looked so disappointed. I never saw
him long for the past. He was a life through
the windshield guy, at least that's what he tried to
impart on me. Always look forward, Freddie, always look forward.
(24:00):
And so when I see that in the wrestling world,
and I've met so many cool cats, man, so many
of you are awesome. And for the ones that talk
trash for real, thank you like that motivates me way
more than people say. And you can do it like
I would have much rather say some have someone say
you suck. That will never happen that way. When it does,
(24:22):
you just have to sit in that like it's there
every week on TV, and you have to know that
everything you said was dead wrong. That to me has
always been way more fun for both parties, I think,
because then at least you're getting to watch more wrestling.
So thank you that said, I'm not hiring anyone yet.
(24:42):
I'm not hiring anyone yet. So if your friends ask
you if this story is true, you tell him yes,
and then you send them the link to this episode
so that you don't have to have the thirty minute
thirty minute explanation as to win. So plan on having
this thing up and running in eighteen months. That's my plan.
There's a way for me to get it done sooner,
but it requires me going to Australia for three months
(25:04):
and leaving my family. So I'm not a big fan
of of of doing that, um, regardless of of how
kind and respectful the studio is, unless I was in
a position where I had to. I love being a
dad it's the reason I walked away from the business
in the first place. However, there are moments where I'm like,
you know what they could come for the summer. You know,
(25:27):
we could get it done and then I can get
these cats in the ring. So my goal. I don't
know how long I want the show to be yet.
I think I want a two hour show at least
in the beginning. I doubt I'll have a TV contract
right away. It's very difficult to maintain ownership and get
(25:50):
a TV deal in the beginning like that, if you're established,
they can come in and license you or by a
portion of you, but you'll still be in control. So
if I started off as live shows and I film it.
By the way, if you want to know if I'm serious,
I already purchased a used like kit that was an
arena kit used even used these mugs is expensive, but
(26:15):
I want this to look legit. So it's literally sitting
in my storage unit because my man was like, Yo,
this dude selling it at a really good price if
you want to get in on this. So I did.
I think I want to start it as a two
hour show. I wanted my storylines based in reality. I
want to give the women and the men equal time
on the roster, and then the goal is to bring
(26:40):
the show to television. And I mentioned this on Arials podcast,
but it's important to me, so I'm gonna say it again.
And I wanted to be a SAG show, And what
that means is I wanted to be a union show,
which would mean each and every single one of my
wrestlers would be a member of the Screen Actors Guild
and be entitled to all of UH insurance and medical
(27:01):
benefits and retirement plans that that entails. Now, I will
say this, the Screen Actors Guild is not the best union,
all right. There's a reason every c b A they
lose more and more. Actors should not be in charge
of their own union. Most actors are far too sensitive
to be able to negotiate, or to even be able
(27:22):
to hire an insensitive lawyer that's willing to be cut throat. Producers,
on the other hand, don't seem to have that issue.
So although I love my man do let Hill and
his representation, I've been asked to run many a time,
and I don't think that would go well. It would
turn into a TLC match very quickly. Um, but I'll
always vote for Mr Hill, even though you talk trash
(27:43):
on me about on Monday and I raw that was
cold blooded. But anyway, so the goal is to get
them all unionized, right, which is a big deal, which
is something I I would support all wrestlers to go after.
It won't happen under Vince's rule, but I believe when
the w w E cells, that should be very first
thing that every single wrestler should have on the forefront
(28:03):
of their of their goal list is unionized day one.
That it should be a walkout the day, the day
they sell the company, the day they sell it to
whoever new ownership is. Every wrestler should be like, good luck.
We want unionization. And I'm telling you right now. And
the only reason I'm saying this is because I had
(28:24):
a conversation back in the day and I know it
to be true. Now I don't know if it would
still be in effect, but I'll tell you the conversation
I had, um rest in peace. Bernie Martin. He was
a United States Marine and he was a local I
don't remember which which part of the Teamsters union he
uh he repped, but he was a Teamster and he
(28:46):
was my driver, my wife's driver, a bunch brother actors
that he was just the best, one of the best
men I knew. And I was talking to him one
night about professional wrestling, and uh, he asked if they
were unionized. Then I said no. He said, I want
to introduce your buddy of my named John. I didn't
know John was the head of the Teamsters union at
the time. Um, he may still be. I don't know
(29:08):
if he's alive. This is a very long time, over
a decade ago. And uh, he said, you should talk
to some of the wrestlers there and let them know
that if they did have interest in unionizing, Teamsters would
support that and absorb them bring them in, which would
be insane. Now that's good for the teamsters, right, because
they get more union dudes, and it's a group of
(29:29):
workers that would never compete for any job that a
teamster has, so there's no risk for the teamsters. It's
all reward. The wrestler's reward is the benefits of insurance, health, medical,
that kind of stuff, so they don't have to be
self insured anymore. Right, And then they also get power
in negotiation. A teamster lawyer does not have time, nor
(29:52):
are they impressed by any executive anywhere, any suit on
the planet, like they just not have name. So the
wrestlers I talked to all told me the same thing.
That's never gonna happen. I said, why, They said, because
Triple hs wouldn't go for it, and uh and they're right.
And literally that's what every single wrestler said. So that's
(30:14):
why I think when the sale comes and then it
literally is someone else's property, that's when wrestlers need to
be like, hey, let's start thinking about our future and union.
So I hope you guys do, but if you don't,
this could maybe be a model one day, you know, three,
four or five years, six years from now where they go,
holy crap, these efforts are actually pulled that off. Man,
that's crazy. So that's I mean, that's the big of it.
(30:40):
I'm I'm legit. I got a I got an email
on Monday, yesterday. This is a Tuesday, we're recording on Monday.
I got an email with three listings that I was
already one. Two of them were nonsense, but one of
them actually looked pretty good. It was a no at
the end of the day, but it actually looked pretty good.
So I'm looking in different parts of town. I don't
have a name yet. It's not gonna be the Federation's
(31:03):
I want it to be reality based. I'd call it
West Coast Wrestling, but there's already a w c W,
so I can't do that. But I'll figure something out.
I'm down to hear your thoughts. If you guys can
come up with a cool name, then uh then yeah,
of course I say that, and then in the Instagram
post that everybody like cool Scooby Scooby Dooby Wrestling. No,
(31:23):
I want it based in reality. So while you may
think that witty joke is a good joke, I would
remind you that Ricky Gervais said wit is the lowest
form of human um. So bite your tongue or break
your finger before you crack that joke. Now even more
people do it. Um. But yeah, serious for real though,
(31:43):
if you think you have a cool name for it,
I'll give you credit. I might even give you a
couple of bucks for it. You can what you claim
the domain name and hold it hostage shroke from me. Um.
But yeah, So that's that's the goal. I want women's
and men's wrestling. I want the storyline is based in reality.
I want my wrestlers to be unionized performers, and yeah, man,
(32:07):
I just want to make good wrestling. I don't. I don't.
It's not a dream, it's a plan and it will
be a reality. My only thing is how quickly can
I pull it off and at what sacrifice. I've said
this before. Wrestling requires a hundred percent of you to
do it right, regardless of what side of the camera
(32:29):
you're on. It's one of the reasons I wouldn't go
back to w w WE. I couldn't give him a
hundred percent. Can't travel all over. But if I had
a local show in Los Angeles in an office that
I could go to every day, and I would have
a booker because I cannot book to save my life.
I can, but I can really write, and I can
connect with people, and I can pull good performances out
of people when their bosses didn't think that performance was
(32:52):
within them before. I know I can do that because
I've seen it happen. I know what my strengths are.
Damn well, know what I suck at. I was told
that I suck at enough, So yeah, so that's that's
the plan. I hope you guys support it. I hope
you dig it. If you don't, you can be just
as vocal because, like I said, that stuff motivates me too.
I want to make you eat it, even if you
(33:14):
don't want to admit it. Later on you can go silent.
It's just as satisfying and seeing you go hey man,
right on, I was wrong, you pulled that off. So
so yeah. So that's that's the episode today. No past,
no no present, only the future. And I think the
future for wrestling is bright. I think this is a
about to be a huge rebirth for wrestling once this,
(33:36):
especially once the sale goes through and they will find
a buyer for it and they will sell the company,
And once that happens, I think wrestling is really going
to explode and just take on a whole new life.
And I hope it goes back more old school because
art usually go moves in cycles, right in a circle,
and it's constantly evolving, but eventually it has to get
back to an idea that existed before that that inspires
(33:59):
a new move. It happens with painting, with movies, with fashion,
with sculpture, it happens with comedy. It happens with wrestling too.
So that's today's episode. I appreciate you guys listening. I'll
be back next week with a brand new episode. Until
then on behalf of myself my awesome producer Alexis. But
thank you for listening. We'll see you next week. Right here,
I'm wrestling with Fredday Peece. This has been a production
(34:24):
of I Hearts Michael to 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 m hm
M H. Welcome back everyone to Wrestling with Freddy. And
today's episode isn't even it's not the past, it's not
even the current product. It's the future. I did an
interview on the Aerial Helwani Show where I had mentioned
one of my dreams, which is now a plan, was
(00:21):
to start my own small, little indie wrestling federation, and
we'll go into what my goals with that are. But
a lot of wrestling fans saw it. Some of you
thought I was full of crap. Some of you really
believed in the idea. But we got so much feedback
that we're gonna deep dive into the plan and the
philosophy behind it, and I'm gonna share way more with
(00:43):
you that I'm probably even comfortable sharing, minus the financials,
and we're gonna get it started right now. Welcome to
another episode of Wrestling with Freddie. Now stuffing up to
the mic. The host of Wrestling with Freddie Freddie Prince June. Yeah,
all right, you guys. So a few months ago I
(01:04):
was on the m M A Hour with Ariel Helwani,
who I like very much. I think he sells the
sport of mixed martial arts very well and he's randomly
a huge wrestling fan and if you go back a
few episodes, he was a guest on here. He's a
really good part of our family over here. And he
talked about being at the actual Montreal screw Job with
(01:25):
Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels. Because he is a France Canadian.
We were having a conversation and I had never really
spoken publicly about it before, but it had been a
dream of mine for a long time. And and uh,
I'll tell you kind of how that dream came to
pass right now, because you can watch all the arial
stuff on his channel. Nobody really knows this, but I
almost became a showrunner for another wrestling federation whose name
(01:51):
I will not say. A friend of mine who financed
the company asked me to come help them try and
get a TV deal. So I was happy to help.
I love wrestling. I love the person who had this
promoters back and was financing the company. I have a
lot of I have a lot of respect for this person,
and so when they asked me for something, which is
(02:12):
very rare, it's an easy yes for me. There's someone
I liked doing favors for, and I don't feel they
asked enough. So I came in, no contract, no money,
no anything, and saw their product, saw the good stuff,
saw what I thought I could improve, and had another
conversation with the finance. Here I met the promoter. By
the way, it was an old school promoter. The promoter
(02:34):
was very professional and polite to me, look me in
the eye when we shook hands, that kind of stuff,
and then started selling me on on their their brand.
And it was an oversell too to my eyeball anyway,
and there was no need to oversell it. I feel
that people should always be very straightforward when dealing with
with other professionals in this in the same industry, that
(02:57):
being show business. Not that I'm a wrestling expert, but
I do you know what quality television and quality film is.
So I tried to relax him and put him in
ease and and well now you know it's a guy,
and and tell him that, uh that I was, you know,
a fan of the product and all this stuff, and
I mentioned where I thought I could help um who
I knew that I thought would come in and be
(03:19):
friendly to us and help improve you know, everything from
our on camera stuff to putting some credibility on commentating
to training, to to all kinds of things. Not that
I would train, but I knew, you know, some of
the best wrestling trainers in the business, because I treated
them with respect, the travels of the world that have
trained a lot of people. So and I wanted the
(03:40):
good people to work, So I didn't push on anything.
I knew I was there just for story stuff, and
and so I started breaking it down. And then I
started being very honest about how Hollywood perceives the wrestling business.
And it's not favorable, and it hasn't been ripple in
(04:00):
a very long time, or they would have pulled a
ton more professional wrestlers and lured them with with money
and Beverly Hills and and girls named Beverly and everything
and guy's name. Whatever you desire is here in Hollywood.
They can steal your way. They've done it countless times.
John Cena used to talk smack about the Rock for
being a part timer, and then Hollywood said, oh, I'm sorry,
(04:21):
you talked crap about the biggest star in the world.
How would you like to be one as well? Yes,
yes I would, And he pieced out. So it's it's
a foul temptress. But it can be. It could be
a beautiful temptress at the same time if you already
know who you are. So we talked about what I
thought needed to be done for TV based on conversations
that I've already had with executives, and I said, look,
(04:44):
I don't have the connections that I had in the
nineties when I was hot shit, but but the relationships
that I that I had, I'm there's only one producer
I've worked with that I really wouldn't work with again,
I have solid relationships. I'm always pro alway is on time,
always knew my ship, never was a drug addict, so
I didn't cause any problems. There was no reason for
(05:05):
people not to dig me. So the people who had
advanced up and we're in positions of authority now to
say yes, some of them were my friends or at
least acquaintances. So I said, here's the three places that
I could take us to, and he said, I have
a friend who maybe getting a promotion at this other
place as well. I said, cool, if it happens, let's
(05:25):
let's go there too. So we set up the three
meetings and all three and I want to write a
pilot for them as I say, look, you have You're
gonna have to have something. They're gonna want to see
something because they don't know wrestling. Now, well we don't.
We don't really write it like that. We don't. We
don't write the w Wilay I said, I don't have
to write at the w W E way. I just
want to show them a format so they can understand
(05:46):
how long the show is, how long the matches are,
what the back states. He goes, well, you can just
pitch it. You're a great picture. And I think he
did like me for that, but he really just wanted
my name to help sell his show, which we found
out down the room. So we go into the first
meeting and it was I believe the first one was
at the c W. And the gentleman that I knew
(06:06):
there was Mark Petowitz. See I'm comfortable saying. And Mark
was one of the original execs on Buffy the Vampire
Slayer like way back in the day, and he runs
the CW and his business model is what keeps the
CW afloat. It's how they can afford to make all
their DC shows, whether you think they're good or not.
They have a very He came from their business affairs department.
So he was a lawyer negotiating contracts, which is not
(06:29):
usually a guy that I like. But he knows that
I'm very straight up about it. And they have a
crazy contract structure there as well. But those actors are
still making way more than wrestlers, so as far as
budget and what these these wrestlers would be paid, because
it wouldn't have be a license deal like US, a
licensed Monday Night Raw. They don't own Monday Night Raw,
(06:51):
so this would still be on the cheap for them,
an affordable show. They said, we don't want to script,
so we go in, we pitch it, and the promoter
takes over the pitch. I'm about maybe four minutes in
and he and he and he takes over the pitch,
and so I stopped talking. It doesn't work if we're
both talking at the same time. And he goes and
he goes, and it's about fifteen minutes in and I see,
(07:14):
I see Mark shaking. Is not shaking his head, but
it's an internal head shake. I've normally had twenty plus years.
And I see the other exacts, and I know when
they're tuning out on a pitch because I've had plenty
of bad ones myself, and so he finally finishes up.
And the last thing you wanna have happened at the
end of the pitch is say well, thank you, we'll
(07:37):
be in touch. That means that sucks and we don't
want it. It doesn't mean your idea sucks. It just
means they think it sucks. If they ask questions, there's
obviously interest. So I already know where this is going.
And the meeting stops, and right away Mark and this
other guy I don't remember his name in stereo, they say, well,
thank you very much, we'll be in touch. And I
(07:59):
shake my head and we're walking out and Mark puts
a hand on my shoulder and he says, hey, come
back in here after you say goodbye if you can.
I say, yeah, okay, So I go and I talked
to the sales group right and uh, I say, all right,
you know the next time, and and he's even apologizing, sorry,
I kind of I barreled on there and you were
doing great. He did not care if I was doing great.
(08:20):
I think he just was looking for a door to
get opened so he could try to sell a show. Right,
they leave, I go back in and Mark goes, what
the hell was that? He actually didn't cuss. He rarely cusses.
He goes, what was that, Freddy? I say, I don't know, man,
(08:42):
it wasn't the meeting that I thought it was gonna be.
I said, I have a different pitch if you want
to hear what I think wrestling could be. Although I
know you guys aren't in the market for this. He goes, well, listen,
we don't want to buy a wrestling show, but let
me let me see what you got. Say all right.
So we go back and the financier, the one who
called me, who me for help. I said, oh my gosh,
I'm so sorry. So and so is not going to
(09:04):
do that again. Uh, please don't leave, Please come to
the next pitch. I say, I'm not going anywhere. Don't worry.
I made a commitment work good. So I have a
good conversation or what I think was a good conversation
with the promoter and uh, I say, look, I'm not trying.
I'm very directed him. I say, I'm not trying to
steal your your show. I don't have a contract. I
(09:25):
get no money if we sell this, none, not a
not a single dollar. I just want to put my
friend in a position for this type of wrestling to
succeed because the ku genera can be because I believe
in this type of wrestling, so stupid and uh he says, yeah, okay,
you know or all on the same. So the next
place won't take a pitch without a script, which is
(09:47):
what I thought. So I write one up and I
try to give even the wrestlers that I can't fit
into the show wrestling a moment backstage, a little time
to shine. Right without telling me before we go into
the pitch, dude rewrites everything that I did to make
it fit more what he wants. Now you can look
at this two ways. This is his baby. It's his baby,
(10:11):
and here comes this jerk with his ideas and what
he feels are major changes. Even though I stayed true
to every single character. I spoke with every wrestler before
I wrote for them, and noticed I didn't say before
I made changes because I made zero. I worked with
what I was given because I didn't know that I
wasn't being paid. It was a favor. So you show
(10:31):
me what you think your best self is, and that's
what I'm gonna work with. I'm not going to change
the thing and I didn't, so the whole script gets rewritten.
We go and we have the pitch and he lets
me pitch, which was really cool and it's a great pitch.
We killed it. They seem actually into it, which I
was surprised by. And this woman says, you know, Freddie
called me afterwards. So I call her and she says, Hey,
(10:52):
we're actually excited about this. I'm excited to read your
your pilot. I said, yeah, quit. I go. Look, it's
just a temporary thing, just so you can kind of
see what the flavors are and how the show goorks
goes okay. So I get a call that night from her,
which is weird. It would always be an email, and
it would never be that night unless it was like,
oh my god, we love this and we have to
buy it, in which case it would be a phone
(11:13):
call because they don't want to avoid my lawyer cost
the more money. So I say hello, and I know
who it is, and she goes, Freddy, did you write this?
I said yeah. She goes, and we have a good
enough relationship. She goes, I really didn't respond to this
at all, and I was like, really, what about this? This?
So and so monologue. I thought that was a promo
(11:34):
we call it, but monologue they called. I go. I
thought that would be right up your alley because there's
no there's no monologue at all. I did say monologue.
Be goes, there's no monologues at all, Like, what do
you mean? Send send me the script because now I'm like,
I already know what's happened, and everything has changed every
single page. And I called my friend back. I got yed.
(11:54):
This old man is trying to sabotage me. I don't
know why. I don't have a contract with him. You
don't what I don't. I was doing a favor, but
clearly he does not want my help. So I'm gonna
step back. I go, if you want to read my pilot,
I'll send it to you. She goes, don't even send
it to me. I'm not buying this show, said, all right.
So it's the third meeting that's coming up, and I
(12:16):
text dude to UH to talk about the pitch, and
I don't hear back. And then Uh. I texted him again,
it's about a week out. I don't hear back. Third
fourth fit text nothing. I text the boss the finance
here and I say, hey, what's going on. So I've
texted homeboy a few times. I haven't heard anything back
(12:39):
our meetings in like two days or this was a
text that I wrote. And I get a phone call
back and she says, uh, Freddy, I'm really sorry. I
thought he told me he was gonna he was gonna
talk to you, but he doesn't. He doesn't want to
work with you, and he's really uncomfortable, and so we're
just gonna walk away. And I said, let me ask
you something. Did his friend get the promotion that he
(13:00):
was talking about? And it's dead client on her end
of the phone, and I literally almost said the name.
I literally go, this is insane. I said, I was
doing this for free, and now that he doesn't need
me to get a meeting at a TV network because
his friends there, he's just kicking me out. And she goes,
oh my god, I'm so sorry. Da da da dada.
(13:21):
I go, it's all right. I go, I'm not mad
at you. I go, you know, it wasn't It wasn't
a job anyway. Best of luck, good luck. And they
actually got a TV deal without any of my assistants whatsoever.
They didn't need it. I didn't have anger when it
was over because it was just more weird and the
kind of guy he was was so old school and
and transparent that you know, I wasn't trying to smash
(13:42):
on the guy before or after the fact, because it's
just a different were from different generations, and neither one
of us is going to change. So instead of getting angry,
all that energy started, Like I don't know, man, It's like,
do you know when you're in a dream and you
(14:02):
know you're about to wake up and reality starts to
slip into the context of the dream, so all of
a sudden, whatever you were dreaming feels much more attainable.
Does that make sense to anyone out there at all?
It's happened to me a million times in my life,
and I feel like it's one of the main reasons
(14:24):
why I've never not accomplished a goal that I set
my mind to. Every everything I wanted to do in Hollywood,
I did everything I wanted to do. In wrestling, I did.
I'm not even done with jiu jitsu, but every goal
I said in jiu jitsu, I've accomplished so far and
that journey will never in thank God. So I started
dreaming about wrestling. I started dreaming about men's wrestling, women's
(14:47):
wrestling bodies smashing together, or as Biggie would say, medi men,
media manly men slapping meet against one another. That's a
Biggie would say. Shout out to Biggie, I'd love you.
So I start having this dream, and I remember my godfather,
Bob Wall Rest in peace. He said, dreams are what
(15:08):
happens when other people are making plans, and that philosophy
is one of the main reasons. Now it's one of
many reasons that I've been able to find success. I
don't spend too much time dreaming. The moment I have
the dream and I know it's something I want, I
start planning. So the first thing I did was call
(15:31):
my accountant and I said, Hey, I'm gonna try to
figure out how much money I need to uh to
start a wrestling promotion, and I'm gonna hit you back.
And he said, you better go get a job because
I'm not gonna let you spend any of the money
that you saved up over the years for wrestling promotion.
And I respect my accountant. I called my manager, I
(15:52):
called my agent. I said, yo, man, I want to
go back to work, and they said, great, Why And
I told my manager the reason why you started laughing
at me. You said, you're absolutely insane. I said, I know,
man as, but I'll have fun doing it. I only
want to work with, you know, good people. We don't
have to be, you know, desperate for stuff. But let
(16:12):
people know that I'm that I'm hungry. And I had
never worked for Netflix before. I didn't really know anyone
over there. So I had like a video general meeting
with them and it went well, and they offered me
this romantic comedy. Of course, it's it's always a romantic
comedy if it's for me, if it's if I audition
for your movie it's an action movie, or like I
(16:35):
want to be a tough guy or something like that.
If it's Sweetie sweet Cakes, then they're like, oh, man,
give that crap to Freddie. So I read this script
and it's charming as all hell. It's a Latino family,
and you gotta remember that's always been something I've been
insecure about because my father was half so I'm only
(16:57):
a quarter, right, So I was never really fully except
did I felt by a lot of the Latino community.
I think I've touched on this before. It used to
be called the n c l A or the National
Council for Larrassa, and now it's something different. But screw
those guys straight up. I told them I didn't speak
Spanish on purpose, just to hear what they would say
(17:19):
about me and my father, and they said it all baby.
So anytime I get an opportunity like that, and it
isn't often, at least a lot of times, I'll change
the name after the fact, Like on his name was
not Cole Ortiz. Coal is not a Latino name. His
name was like Cole McGuire and they're like, oh, look,
we hired Freddie and this will look like we're a
(17:40):
diverse show. Ha ha. It's Ortiz And that's what Hollywood does.
That's diversity for them. Everyone's white until you hire someone
that's not and then you change the name. So anyway, um,
I take this this joy. I meet with the director,
female director who I just Her name is Gabriella, and
I just fell in love with her. Man. She gave
(18:01):
me some of the Granted I hadn't worked in forever,
so notes weren't fresh in my head, but some of
the things she said to me just unlocked a ton
of ship. I got to work with this great actress,
Amy Garcia. You guys know her from that show Lucifer.
She plays the nerd. She basically plays Shakira in this movie,
and it's like sexy and the opposite of her character
on Lucifer. She's just a stone assassin and she's partners
(18:25):
with a j who we've had on this show. They're
too crazy Puerto Rican girls and their writing partners, and
I swear in ten years they're going to be running
the business. I'm doing this movie and it's making me
(18:46):
fall in love with acting again. And as hungry as
I was getting to act again, it never outweighed the
desire to start the promotion. So long winded story. Notice
I didn't say long story short, because that was not short.
Here's the plan. I was talking with Sam Roberts, who
(19:09):
has a lovely podcast as well, the Sam Roberts Show
last year Professional in the Damn Business, and he mentioned
g c W. He goes, you have to watch it.
They tell a story every single show and it's great.
He goes, they're gonna ask some stuff that that you
don't vibe with, and they're gonna have some stuff that
you love, I know it go okay. So I watch
(19:30):
a g c W show and sure enough I see
a death match, and I'm freaking like, it's just too much.
It was too much blood for me, right, too much,
and there's room for blood and wrestling. I believe that
it's a it's a big, big part. And it wasn't
every match in g c W, which was smart, but
I was not. I was not prepared. I watched the
rest of the show and I thought they did a
(19:52):
great job. And I started watching other shows, older shows,
old Ring of Honor. A started listening to Jim Cornett
and his philosophies on wrestling, started listening to other promoters
and people in the business and their philosophies on wrestling.
I started watching what other wrestlers were trying to do.
I started asking everyone I knew in the business questions.
(20:18):
Then I started looking at arenas locally here and and
what it would cost a rhom. And then as I
saw what my opportunities would be in this business, as
there would be more of them after I did the
Netflix one, I started saying, well, I can accelerate the plan,
or I could keep the plan as it is, do
(20:42):
a couple more of these and own the space, which
I believe right now is the plan that I'm going
to execute. I've already have a commercial realtor that I
know and love. She's already looking at properties for me.
I would love to have a all time home for this.
The plan was originally a two year plan. Now I
(21:04):
should have the money for a three year plan, meaning
it doesn't have to make money for three years before
I'm like, yo, man, i gotta go do another day movie.
You have to be in Scooby, almost said Mother Treuk,
and have to be in Scooby Part seven or some
crap like that to keep inflouid. So so I started
looking for properties, and then social media did what social
(21:28):
media does, which is like feeding frenzy. Right, It's like
baiting the water. And there's a lot of of wrestling
instagram pages and websites out there that do dirt sheets
and wrestling news and things like that, and they need content,
and so they picked up on this and put it
out and then all of a sudden, all these like
indie wrestlers and indie refs and indie musicians who have
done wrestling stuff all started reaching out. And before I
(21:51):
get into this, let me say something. Whether you were
being real with me or whether you were trying to
troll and crap upon me, thank you. Some of you
wrote some stuff that was like you took the time
to not only say, hey, man, I would love to
come and be a part, but here's some wrestlers that
(22:12):
I respect and I think you would too. And for
you to take the time to do that, and it's
not just one cat that did that. That's the most
beautiful part of the wrestling community to me. I love that.
That's what acting used to be. I think I may
have told this story, but I did a movie with
Peter side Quest. I did a movie with Peter Falk,
(22:33):
who was amazing. People know him as Columbo, but this
guy was doing Cassavetti's movies in the seventies. Man is
just a gangster actor. And he was talking to me
one time on on the ride to work. We would
take the same van to work every day as in
New York City. We were both staying at the Essex
House hotel, and he would make me buy him his
true one hundred cigarettes at like two o'clock in the morning,
(22:54):
and the guy would just light one off the other
as it was going out, and he would run scenes
with me over and over. I was a naive, inexperienced actor,
and he was investing so much time in me, so
I'd buy the this cat's cigarettes how a light in
court for the guy. He was given me film school
one oh one in three months, and I was getting
(23:15):
four years of an education, right. But he used to
tell me about how it used to be. How freddy
are He said, Uh, do you and your acting class,
you know, you get together? You do this? Do you
do that? It was always like a family for me
and and Nick and John. He's talking about these legends
and I had to look him in the face and
just be like, nah, man, it's it's not like that.
(23:36):
It's cutthroat and everybody's ready to kill each other for
a job. And he looked so disappointed. I never saw
him long for the past. He was a life through
the windshield guy, at least that's what he tried to
impart on me. Always look forward, Freddie, always look forward.
(24:00):
And so when I see that in the wrestling world,
and I've met so many cool cats, man, so many
of you are awesome. And for the ones that talk
trash for real, thank you like that motivates me way
more than people say. And you can do it like
I would have much rather say some have someone say
you suck. That will never happen that way. When it does,
(24:22):
you just have to sit in that like it's there
every week on TV, and you have to know that
everything you said was dead wrong. That to me has
always been way more fun for both parties, I think,
because then at least you're getting to watch more wrestling.
So thank you that said, I'm not hiring anyone yet.
(24:42):
I'm not hiring anyone yet. So if your friends ask
you if this story is true, you tell him yes,
and then you send them the link to this episode
so that you don't have to have the thirty minute
thirty minute explanation as to win. So plan on having
this thing up and running in eighteen months. That's my plan.
There's a way for me to get it done sooner,
but it requires me going to Australia for three months
(25:04):
and leaving my family. So I'm not a big fan
of of of doing that, um, regardless of of how
kind and respectful the studio is, unless I was in
a position where I had to. I love being a
dad it's the reason I walked away from the business
in the first place. However, there are moments where I'm like,
you know what they could come for the summer. You know,
(25:27):
we could get it done and then I can get
these cats in the ring. So my goal. I don't
know how long I want the show to be yet.
I think I want a two hour show at least
in the beginning. I doubt I'll have a TV contract
right away. It's very difficult to maintain ownership and get
(25:50):
a TV deal in the beginning like that, if you're established,
they can come in and license you or by a
portion of you, but you'll still be in control. So
if I started off as live shows and I film it.
By the way, if you want to know if I'm serious,
I already purchased a used like kit that was an
arena kit used even used these mugs is expensive, but
(26:15):
I want this to look legit. So it's literally sitting
in my storage unit because my man was like, Yo,
this dude selling it at a really good price if
you want to get in on this. So I did.
I think I want to start it as a two
hour show. I wanted my storylines based in reality. I
want to give the women and the men equal time
on the roster, and then the goal is to bring
(26:40):
the show to television. And I mentioned this on Arials podcast,
but it's important to me, so I'm gonna say it again.
And I wanted to be a SAG show, And what
that means is I wanted to be a union show,
which would mean each and every single one of my
wrestlers would be a member of the Screen Actors Guild
and be entitled to all of UH insurance and medical
(27:01):
benefits and retirement plans that that entails. Now, I will
say this, the Screen Actors Guild is not the best union,
all right. There's a reason every c b A they
lose more and more. Actors should not be in charge
of their own union. Most actors are far too sensitive
to be able to negotiate, or to even be able
(27:22):
to hire an insensitive lawyer that's willing to be cut throat. Producers,
on the other hand, don't seem to have that issue.
So although I love my man do let Hill and
his representation, I've been asked to run many a time,
and I don't think that would go well. It would
turn into a TLC match very quickly. Um, but I'll
always vote for Mr Hill, even though you talk trash
(27:43):
on me about on Monday and I raw that was
cold blooded. But anyway, so the goal is to get
them all unionized, right, which is a big deal, which
is something I I would support all wrestlers to go after.
It won't happen under Vince's rule, but I believe when
the w w E cells, that should be very first
thing that every single wrestler should have on the forefront
(28:03):
of their of their goal list is unionized day one.
That it should be a walkout the day, the day
they sell the company, the day they sell it to
whoever new ownership is. Every wrestler should be like, good luck.
We want unionization. And I'm telling you right now. And
the only reason I'm saying this is because I had
(28:24):
a conversation back in the day and I know it
to be true. Now I don't know if it would
still be in effect, but I'll tell you the conversation
I had, um rest in peace. Bernie Martin. He was
a United States Marine and he was a local I
don't remember which which part of the Teamsters union he
uh he repped, but he was a Teamster and he
(28:46):
was my driver, my wife's driver, a bunch brother actors
that he was just the best, one of the best
men I knew. And I was talking to him one
night about professional wrestling, and uh, he asked if they
were unionized. Then I said no. He said, I want
to introduce your buddy of my named John. I didn't
know John was the head of the Teamsters union at
the time. Um, he may still be. I don't know
(29:08):
if he's alive. This is a very long time, over
a decade ago. And uh, he said, you should talk
to some of the wrestlers there and let them know
that if they did have interest in unionizing, Teamsters would
support that and absorb them bring them in, which would
be insane. Now that's good for the teamsters, right, because
they get more union dudes, and it's a group of
(29:29):
workers that would never compete for any job that a
teamster has, so there's no risk for the teamsters. It's
all reward. The wrestler's reward is the benefits of insurance, health, medical,
that kind of stuff, so they don't have to be
self insured anymore. Right, And then they also get power
in negotiation. A teamster lawyer does not have time, nor
(29:52):
are they impressed by any executive anywhere, any suit on
the planet, like they just not have name. So the
wrestlers I talked to all told me the same thing.
That's never gonna happen. I said, why, They said, because
Triple hs wouldn't go for it, and uh and they're right.
And literally that's what every single wrestler said. So that's
(30:14):
why I think when the sale comes and then it
literally is someone else's property, that's when wrestlers need to
be like, hey, let's start thinking about our future and union.
So I hope you guys do, but if you don't,
this could maybe be a model one day, you know, three,
four or five years, six years from now where they go,
holy crap, these efforts are actually pulled that off. Man,
that's crazy. So that's I mean, that's the big of it.
(30:40):
I'm I'm legit. I got a I got an email
on Monday, yesterday. This is a Tuesday, we're recording on Monday.
I got an email with three listings that I was
already one. Two of them were nonsense, but one of
them actually looked pretty good. It was a no at
the end of the day, but it actually looked pretty good.
So I'm looking in different parts of town. I don't
have a name yet. It's not gonna be the Federation's
(31:03):
I want it to be reality based. I'd call it
West Coast Wrestling, but there's already a w c W,
so I can't do that. But I'll figure something out.
I'm down to hear your thoughts. If you guys can
come up with a cool name, then uh then yeah,
of course I say that, and then in the Instagram
post that everybody like cool Scooby Scooby Dooby Wrestling. No,
(31:23):
I want it based in reality. So while you may
think that witty joke is a good joke, I would
remind you that Ricky Gervais said wit is the lowest
form of human um. So bite your tongue or break
your finger before you crack that joke. Now even more
people do it. Um. But yeah, serious for real though,
(31:43):
if you think you have a cool name for it,
I'll give you credit. I might even give you a
couple of bucks for it. You can what you claim
the domain name and hold it hostage shroke from me. Um.
But yeah, So that's that's the goal. I want women's
and men's wrestling. I want the storyline is based in reality.
I want my wrestlers to be unionized performers, and yeah, man,
(32:07):
I just want to make good wrestling. I don't. I don't.
It's not a dream, it's a plan and it will
be a reality. My only thing is how quickly can
I pull it off and at what sacrifice. I've said
this before. Wrestling requires a hundred percent of you to
do it right, regardless of what side of the camera
(32:29):
you're on. It's one of the reasons I wouldn't go
back to w w WE. I couldn't give him a
hundred percent. Can't travel all over. But if I had
a local show in Los Angeles in an office that
I could go to every day, and I would have
a booker because I cannot book to save my life.
I can, but I can really write, and I can
connect with people, and I can pull good performances out
of people when their bosses didn't think that performance was
(32:52):
within them before. I know I can do that because
I've seen it happen. I know what my strengths are.
Damn well, know what I suck at. I was told
that I suck at enough, So yeah, so that's that's
the plan. I hope you guys support it. I hope
you dig it. If you don't, you can be just
as vocal because, like I said, that stuff motivates me too.
I want to make you eat it, even if you
(33:14):
don't want to admit it. Later on you can go silent.
It's just as satisfying and seeing you go hey man,
right on, I was wrong, you pulled that off. So
so yeah. So that's that's the episode today. No past,
no no present, only the future. And I think the
future for wrestling is bright. I think this is a
about to be a huge rebirth for wrestling once this,
(33:36):
especially once the sale goes through and they will find
a buyer for it and they will sell the company,
And once that happens, I think wrestling is really going
to explode and just take on a whole new life.
And I hope it goes back more old school because
art usually go moves in cycles, right in a circle,
and it's constantly evolving, but eventually it has to get
back to an idea that existed before that that inspires
(33:59):
a new move. It happens with painting, with movies, with fashion,
with sculpture, it happens with comedy. It happens with wrestling too.
So that's today's episode. I appreciate you guys listening. I'll
be back next week with a brand new episode. Until
then on behalf of myself my awesome producer Alexis. But
thank you for listening. We'll see you next week. Right here,
I'm wrestling with Fredday Peece. This has been a production
(34:24):
of I Hearts Michael to 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 m hm
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