February 16, 2022 • 30 mins
AJ Mendez, formerly known as AJ Lee during her time at WWE, shares her incredible journey from being homeless to making her way to the film and television industry. AJ also tells me how she got her current job as part of WOW (Women of Wrestling).
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
M hm. Welcome back to Wrestling with Freddy. I'm your
humble host today, especially your humble host. And you'll find
out why because I have a very special guest, someone
who this would have never happened had we not had
a mutual friend. So let's start the show. Welcome to
(00:23):
Wrestling with Freddy. Now stepping up to the mic, the
host of Wrestling with Freddie, Freddie Prince Tune Yeah. Former
w w E champion m J Pendece, Welcome to the show.
How are you? Holy crap, I haven't seen you in forever.
What the hell is going on? Oh my gosh, thank
(00:45):
you for having me. It's such a strange way the
universe has has brought us together again. Uh, I don't know,
do you remember at all? Like I was a baby
when you were you were a so so let me
break this down. I did a movie for Netflix with
Amy Garcia, who people might know from from Lucifer, and
(01:09):
you should all bow down in her presence whenever you
you meet her. Don't even shake her hand, just bow
because she is. She didn't just earn my respect, man,
that girl earned my love. Like if she was ever
in trouble, I would get her a jet to a
non extradition country and a hunter grand in less than
an hour. Like, that's that's how how dog I would
(01:32):
roll for her. So she mentioned to me randomly that
her writing partner used to wrestle, and I went, wait,
who who's your I said, I used to work there.
Who's your writing partner? And she said your name? And
my jaw hit the floor because I still have this
memory in my head. I don't know why, but you
came to like what was like an acting workshop that
(01:55):
we would do where all the wrestlers would take scenes
or do acting exercise is and you did one about Pokemon.
What this dude? That's wrestling in Japan now? And I
remember being like, what the hell? What the hell is
a Pokemon? Like I didn't know what I didn't know
what it was. So I was sitting there trying to
like analyze it, and the whole time, like when you
were done, I think I asked Cardona. I was like, Hey,
(02:18):
what what the hell is a Pokemon? And he was like,
what's the matter with you? And I was like oh,
and then it all made sense. But do you remember
this at all? Are am I crazy? Oh? My god,
it's coming back to me, um, you were. I'm telling
you you were, so I don't know how old you
were when when they brought you up. How old were you?
I think I don't know. I mean I think they
(02:40):
got signed when I was like twenty one or something
like that. It looked like you were seventeen. I mean,
it looked like it was illegal for you to work
there because of child labor laws. It was insane. But yeah,
I definitely. I remember A big issue was that, like,
no one would believe I was a woman, and so
(03:00):
throw all of the makeup you can onto this. You
pulled like this evil kind of smile and this evil
little you would narrow your eyes a bit, and that
made you look much more grown up. It was a
real smart move that you did. But you kind of
had a meteoric rise you. I mean it just from
(03:21):
I mean you're there and they're trying to figure out
what to do. But once they did, and I know
the person very well who came up with with your story.
He wasn't on the road, but he conceptualized it in
the office. But once it was that one episode you
just kind of like took off. How do you process
that at twenty two? I'll put it to you this way.
(03:41):
My pops was twenty two. He couldn't handle it, and
he literally like turned to drugs and ended up killing
himself because a twenty two early twenties that's a ton
to deal with. And they put a rocket ship underneath
you and just launched you off. What talk to me
about how you felt there and all that? Gosh. I mean,
I guess it was really helpful that I had grown
(04:04):
up so rough and I survived so much before I
ever got there, that anything that happened it was like
sprinkles on top of a Sunday of just surviving life. Uh.
And so I really always took everything with a grain
of salt and realized that it could be, you know,
(04:24):
living on the street. I could be dead from all
the decisions I've made before. Wrestling really saved my life.
You know. I I tell my story a lot, but
the the Cliff Knows version is I grew up insanely poor.
I was homeless for most of my childhood. Was lucky
to make it out alive, and wrestling and storytelling and
just living in this these fantasy world saved my life.
(04:45):
So I always kind of had that perspective that this
was an opportunity that I was just gonna have fun with.
And I really think it is a hundred well I
say a hundred percent, but I have to give myself
a little bit of credit. So let me say so
a lot out of a credit goes to the fans
because it just spoke to me being successful, spoke to
(05:06):
what they wanted to see. And they really were fighting
for this movement of just someone on screen that represented them.
And I was the first that really was not this
picture perfect, you know, supermodel. And I wasn't a big,
strong warrior either. I was just like a scrappy little
(05:27):
mouse that looked like she was twelve and was them.
I was a fan that snuck in And I think
just that idea of feeling represented and seen. Um, I mean,
that's what made me want to tell stories, and that
what's what made me want to wrestle in the first place.
That resonated with with this generation of fans, and so
(05:49):
their love of me and championing me and my journey
kept me in the storylines. And uh so I owe
them so much of the It's it's funny because and
you talk about growing up and how rough it was
in your book um, what's the name of your book again?
It's called Crazy is my Superpower? Please go to Amazon
(06:12):
or wherever you buy your books and look that up
and you can learn exactly what this woman went through
as a child. You know, it's weird because you still
look so young, but you are an old soul, and
kids that have to grow up more quickly tend to
go back and embrace that childhood when they get older
and start to have success. My my friend McCauley is
(06:35):
one who never had a childhood, right. He was a
working professional from age birth until he till he finally stopped,
and so he never got to do any of that
stuff that you got to do as a kid and
then as an adult win and went into that. So
when when you have that kind of and I see
you doing that now. But what I wanted to get
(06:55):
to is you have this old soul because when you
talk about why you loved it, I've heard eyes like
Terry Funk say that almost word for word what you
just said. And I know you're not like a Terry
Funk historian, and and taking a quote and like mishmashing
it into your own. That's just you talking. But you
have this very sort of old school and I and
(07:17):
I guess it is from growing up. But you've been
able to apply discipline in a way that very few
artists can, because most artists are right brained and they
reject everything the left brain has to offer, which is
order out of chaos. Um. And I'm guilty of that,
and a lot of artists are. And I I know
(07:39):
a ton of people want us to talk wrestling, but
you made this transition from professional wrestling into writing a
New York Times bestseller and then transition from that into
the art of screenwriting, which is incredibly difficult. Everyone's written
a script, but none of them are good. Right, there's
only a small handful that that can impact the right
(08:03):
person that says yes in order to get it made.
And now you've done that. I don't think another wrestler
has ever done that. I don't know if they've wanted to.
But you've now transitioned into Hollywood and screenwriting. You have
a movie that recently wrapped. Do you want to talk
about that or I just I just get off on
(08:24):
the process. So what whatever you want to talk about
is fine with me. But this is an incredibly impressive accomplishment.
Whether you're coming from wrestling or not, and you're still
having to apply a similar but completely different discipline to it.
(08:49):
So I'll shut up and just let you talk about
whatever you want to talk about. This this movie which
I've seen like video rehearsals of the stunt fights and stuff,
and that was so sick. But anyway, I'm gonna I'm
not go ahead. I did. I think you're right. It
is so the same kind of discipline, right. I think
what really helped me was just the perspective of like
(09:11):
I was grateful to have food in my fridge, Like
that was my baseline. If I could just have a
career and I could feed myself and you know, send
money to my parents, Like life was good. That's all
I needed. And I felt such a like end of
a chapter when when that when that chapter ended, it
felt like I was so whole. And what I knew
(09:31):
I could take into the next chapter was these fans
and that we really had this mission of representation um
and I just needed to figure out what that was.
And so the book was the first try I wrote.
I wrote crazy as my superpower, and I don't want
to get my story out there because I had felt
that I hadn't really told people where I came from
(09:54):
and how hard I struggled and my mental health journey.
And I wanted to be really transparent about up because
these people had supported me for so long. And what
I noticed from that was that these these these fans
really just believed in seeing a different perspective and seeing
a different kind of hero in the world. You know,
(10:17):
when I was growing up, I did not see women
who looked like me on TV. I never saw any
woman the last name Mendez. I never you know, she
had brown hair. I could be like, okay, close enough,
by the way, there's still only maybe two but we're trying,
and so like, you know, to me, there was a
(10:37):
point when I realized, oh, if I want to see
characters like me on TV, I'm just gonna have to
be that character. And that was wrestling, and then after
that it was Okay, it's not just good enough, it's
just if it's just me. I need to create more
characters for the next generation. And so that's how I
started writing UM. I had gone to six months of
(10:58):
film school. N y U, that's good. Yeah, I got
some experience. I couldn't afford it. UM, But I started
wrestling when that didn't work out, So everything kind of
felt really serendipitous, and I took this circuitous route to
get back into writing UM and it was just all
about like representing this, this type of of this just unseen,
(11:23):
underrepresented character UM. I started in comics and with Amy
we did Glow and we did Dungeons and Dragons and
Wonder Woman, and then we really just started to dapple
in writing for television and screenwriting. The first thing I
did was I entered I started at the bottom, like
(11:44):
going from wrestling and being like, oh, I'm this champion,
Like I didn't. I had such a perspective of like
everywhere I go, I need to like hustle and just
like and like I have no ego, and like that
has been what really served me in wrestling. I knew
I had to start from the bottom of the barrel.
I started wrestling for like I would get paid into
like hot dogs and like bus fare and then and
(12:08):
I knew I had no ego about I was just
going to work my way to the top. And so
when I started writing, it was the same thing. I
entered a writing competition UM and in one and I
got on the blacklist slatin x TV List and like
that opened the door and that is what introduced me
to a lot of people, and I started taking meetings
and um, that's been a really productive tool for screenwriters.
(12:31):
I know a couple other writers who have literally gotten
careers because of that tool. Yeah, and you know what,
even like the the exposure was amazing, but there's also
a thing where like they people just give you feedback
if you asked through that, but through the black the Blacklist,
and so just like even every meeting, people give me
feedback and what I can make it better, how I
can make the script better, or what they connected to it.
(12:54):
I really saw that there was like a space um
that just needed to be filled, and so Amy and
I just started this production company and started taking open writing,
open writing assignments, and that's how we ended up writing uh,
Blade of the forty seven rown in, which is going
to be on Netflix next year. It is it was
(13:16):
this idea for a project that they had and Amy
and I were everything we do, it's like just just
go ball to the wall. Um, do it a hundred
percent your vision and it's either gonna work or you're
gonna fail miserably. But at least you don't. You know,
you didn't, you know, you left everything all on the field.
And that's what was with wrestling, like I'm either gonna
(13:37):
get fired by playing this little like nerd chick tom Boy,
or it's gonna work. And it worked. So the same
thing kind of worked with writing, and we pitched this
all female version of what they wanted to do. I
was like, no, it's all about the women, like they're
the stars. It's inclusive, it's it's very diverse, and you know,
(13:58):
we were scared, like okay, that was okay. That by
the way, there's actually like Japanese history to support that,
and a lot of like the women in the farms
trained with the spear to learn how to fight, and
they could hide the spear as a as like a
garden tool, and that was how they were able to
you know, train their weapons and keep them hidden in
plain sight. So there's actually like evidence of this in existence,
(14:21):
to which I love. And then so it's actually like
it's even though it's a fantasy, fantastic movie and there's
powers and people are doing things with swords that with
a wire is a lot easier to do, it still
has like that one route that one seed of truth,
which all those movies kind of need. Yeah, definitely the
Ona bu Geisha, Like they are fascinating, and so we
really wanted to lean into that through that the wall
(14:43):
and actually worked, and these wonderful producers and studio gave
us a chance and gave us our first shot. You know.
It just kind of took off from there, and and
it's really interesting how like one thing always leads to
the next, you know, like a certain meeting you need
a writing sample of hour long drama, and it's like,
we don't have it. Let's let's get it done in
(15:03):
a month. Done. Uh, And all of a sudden, we're
now in the you know, in the race for our
long dramas and and so stuff is just kind of
snowballed in a really wonderful way. And we just got
hired for our second feature. Yeah. So it's like, and
we're developing, can you can you can you mention again
or is it too early? I can't yet. I'll tell
(15:25):
you later. Yeah, And we're developing on two TV shows
and so, oh my gosh, man, that's so insanely great.
It's the coolest thing. It's the cool thing the world.
And I think it only works because I I don't know.
I know that like nothing can kill me. Like I've
(15:45):
lived on the street, I've like starved. I know I
can survive that, and so if I have to go
back to it, I can go back to it. So
now just have this like burn the boat's mentality though
it's so hardcore, you know what I mean, It's like
there is no I remember. But they asked Sugar Ray
Leonard back in the in the seventies, he was a
boxing world champion and they said, uh, what do you
(16:07):
plan on doing if you lose this fight? Like what's
an expert you? And He's just like, I don't, that's
not an option, Like I I never even thought about
that until you just said it, Like I don't. I
don't train to lose, man, I trained to win. And
you just kind of push your cards all in or
your chips all in, and you're like, look, if you
think you have a better hand, cool, but I'm not
(16:28):
telling you my cards until you pay you fold. And
like you said, you went in with a nerd gimmick
that you're just like, if it's I got to seven,
if they call I'm in big trouble. But if they fold,
I'm good, and they did. They blinked and you didn't,
and it helped get that character over. Apparently it's helped
you guys. You add Amy kicks serious ass. And I
(16:51):
want to segue, you're talking television and we're talking wrestling,
So I have to I have to babble a little
bit again, um to get into this, because where I failed,
you have succeeded. And I really want to talk to
you more about this because I just want to pick
your brain and get schooled. But everyone else should here too.
(17:14):
So about a year ago, I guess this was during
the pandemic, a couple of friends approached me and talked
to me about Wow, Women of Wrestling, and they said, hey, man,
would you be interested in trying to help get this
made on TV in one way shape or for me
to write an EP or whatever. And I said, yeah,
I love wrestling and I love women's wrestling. And I said,
(17:37):
I think women's wrestling is is really at a high
point right now, and they should get an opportunity. So
I talked with David McClain, and he and I didn't
exactly click, but we had respect for one another, but
we certainly didn't click, and Genie Buss, owner of the Lakers,
Go Lakers. We went to what I knew to be
(17:58):
friendly ex ecutives, where I knew the executives, where I
knew they would give this the idea chance. And it
was a brick wall, another brick wall, and another brick wall,
and there might have been a fourth brick wall in there,
I don't remember. I hit my head so many times
I could not get this idea over to a single
(18:19):
executive forget you know, you know, I got one in
the room, but it was a room of three. I
couldn't get it over to anyone. And I'm just like randomly,
you know, checking out the news. Dada da da da,
and then I just see your name and I see wow,
and I go, oh my god, they're gonna be on TV.
Oh my god, they're gonna be on TV. And I
flipped out in the best possible way. So could you
(18:41):
please talk. I have no ego about this. I just
want as many wrestlers as possible to have as many
opportunities on television as humanly possible. So that's my stake
in this game, right, So how did you come? I
guess maybe the glow connection, but what was the process
of getting the viacom D and forget everyone else listening,
(19:02):
this is just you and school me up. I've got
to give all that credit to to Genie and David.
I was brought on at the end of that, so
they really did all the hustling and and figured out
the right home. She's an amazing woman, isn't she. She's
a force of nature. And oh, what I've understood is
(19:24):
that she you know, those brick walls continued, and she
just really believed in this. And what I so appreciate
about her vision is that she wants it to be
a family friendly show that like everyone can sit down
and watch it on Saturday morning. And that is such
an old school vibe that I connected to because you're
an old soul, You're Terry funk. I just you know,
(19:48):
I remember being really little and the only posters they
had of the female wrestlers were in bikini's and like
the magazines, and I was like putting a bikini poster
up on my wall. Um So, just the idea of
like giving a younger generation, um this this sort of
like wholesome superhero type lean. That's what their characters lean
(20:09):
into is that superhero vibe. They all kind of have
an archetype character, which I really really liked as well.
Let's talk about Genie for a second, because I love
talking about how people made it, and I love bringing
(20:32):
on people that it's so it feels so disrespectful to
say I'm proud of you, right, that just feels disrespectful.
I'm so impressed by you and by so many of
your period that I've had other wrestlers on here. I've
had the miss on here who just I look, you
talk about a force of nature, like like, I've had
other wrestlers on here. But Jennie was such an interesting person.
(20:53):
She wanted she wanted me to make a puppet show. Okay,
and I love puppets all right, Like I loved my
uncle wrote the Rainbow Connection for for Kermit the Frog.
My uncle's Paul Williams, so like I got to play
with the first Kermit the Frog. I love muppets, and
and we had a friend in comment and so we
were gonna come up with it. I can talk about
(21:13):
it now because it's never gonna happen. It was called
Little Lakers, and it was all these like it was
like Little Kobe, Little Shack, all these and they all
had like attitude, right, And so I was talking to
her about Saneca, So where are you seeing this? Like
you just want to put on like spectrum or something
like that, and she goes, you're not thinking big enough.
And right when she said that, every sentence she said after,
(21:37):
I've never forgotten like any and I delete things people
say to me all the time, good advice and bad.
But she has this ability to think big. Even when
you think your idea is too big and you're nervous
to pitch it, it's like it's not big enough. I
think you have a woman behind you and behind this
(22:02):
company that when she commits to something, she is committed
to it. And she's been involved with while for a
while now. So for her to make that commitment with
you and to have that trust in you. And again
I was the wrong fit. You are the right fit.
I think you have a huge opportunity here to bring
more wrestling to that. And it's not about competing. I
(22:24):
hate it's always about competent. That's so stupid, man, there's
so many channels. It should be about opportunity, right. There
shouldn't be an Academy Award Actors should be family. Like
there's no real wrestling award. They're slammies, but those aren't real,
Like wrestlers are a family. So this should be you know,
it should always be about opportunity. And I love that
you're working with with someone who I she has earned respect.
(22:48):
It's not about between thousand championships. I don't I love
the Lakers, but that's not as important. She has earned respect, Okay,
in a world where no one wanted to respect her.
She was Jerry Buss's daughter. What did she ever work for?
What did she is? Like Stephanie McMahon, you know, all
she ever had to be with Vince McMahon's daughter, and
(23:10):
I'd be like, dude, she's saved the Jeff Hardy Championship promo.
She single handedly saved it. When the power went out,
ran in and it was like, excuse my language, and
said fuck that we're fixing this. I was already like,
I don't know what we're gonna do. She's like I do,
and I mean just steamrolled through man. So it's like,
those are moments where respect is earned, and Jeannie has
(23:31):
earned that respect, and so when she gives it to
someone like you, and it's not like me starting to
appreciate that I already know YouTube based on how you
came up. I just I'm so excited to see what
your plan is. I mean even beyond creatively, like you
can even improve the work there. You can help prevent
injuries there, just because you know how to work the
(23:53):
perfect way, you know what I mean. Like, and you're
the same size as some of those girls too, you
know what I mean. So, and I love that you're
out here in l A doing it. Can you talk
about do you guys have a plan on where you're
gonna shoot yet? What's the plan for you guys? So
we'll actually be shooting pretty soon. I think we're maybe
sixty days out. Um, so it's getting it's getting kind
(24:13):
of close. Um, we're gonna be in syndication in the
fall of two. Please check w O w E dot
com for your local listings. Still I still have my
T shirt. I'll rock my shirt. It's also on the
seed w Seed app and the Pluto app. But um,
(24:34):
you know it's it's really what inspired me to join
WOW was the idea that it was women behind the
scenes in every capacity and women in front of the
camera and every capacity, and to me. I love wrestling,
(24:54):
and I never stopped lovest loving wrestling. Um, and this
was like the perfect way to rejoined the world of wrestling,
but also combined it with what I'm doing now and
what I have a passion for now. And so I'll
be executive producer alongside Jeanie and David McClane, which is mine.
(25:15):
I'm so happy, Oh my gosh. And then I when
I talk to her on the phone, you know, um,
she really just kind of laid it out there, like
what she wants us to be and what the vision
is and um, and then also left a lot of
space for what I wanted to be or what I
could bring to the table. And I really, yeah, I
just I think that that's the right way to start something.
(25:36):
It's you know, we know that people know that the
product is or if they know what it was before,
but this is going to be a new beast, and UM,
we're really excited about that, and it's it's it's a
great group of women. UM. And I somewhere along the
way just kind of got inspired to say, Okay, I'm
also gonna do color commentary. I knew it. I knew
(25:59):
I was actually were going to ask you. I was like,
I gotta do something. I can't. You gotta kid, you
can't do them like that, You can't do the people
like that. Oh my gosh. I mean, you know, like
wrestling opportunities have popped up over the years, and I've
just never been ready for that. Um I'm not sure
like physically if that's something that like is the fires there,
(26:20):
but the art of it it's always been there, you know.
And when I was a fan, the women were my
favorite part of the show, and I would, you know,
skip the guy's matches to watch the ladies. And so
I had such a crush on sensational Sherry, Oh my god,
like everyone else like pulled for Elizabeth and I literally
like what what, Oh my god, Oh god, never know
(26:42):
share Like I was such a Sherry Mark. Like when
everyone went trip Stratus, I went lead to I was like, oh,
oh day, lead all day. I like the tougher chicks.
I always like tough chicks. Man. I married Buffy the Vampires.
I like tough chicks. Man, Oh my god, I love that.
My husband's is the same thing about Sherry and Elizabeth.
(27:04):
It was all about ship because she was she could
talk to man like and she could really work, she
could actually like wrestle that w W have didn't really
let her wrestle, but she was actually really good wrestler
before she got there. Um, and they just limited what
what women can do as you had to deal with
when you were there. I'm sure they said certain moves
you weren't allowed to do. Oh yeah they were. I
mean I talked about in my book a little bit,
(27:25):
but they you know, it was it was the time
when we had very small windows of matt tive minutes
and and a minute each for your walk in and
so it's really a three minute match telling story. Ang yep, yep,
And I'm oh my god. My favorite match ever is
when they told us to go home and we were
like nope, and we just went like twelve extra minutes
(27:48):
and like I got in trouble. But then they were like,
but it was a good it was a good match,
and I gave you a seat. Sometimes you gotta just
burn the boats and if you get if you take
the heat, you take the heat. But a lot of
times someone in a in a position of power, if
you know you can do it, and you're willing to
take that shot and prove them wrong, or be proven
(28:10):
wrong yourself. That's how you get, that's how you are
in respect, big time, big time you are. You are
going to absolutely kill it. My daughter is twelve years old.
She loves women's wrestling. I can't wait for her to
watch Wow. She already watches w W E. She watched
she followed Ruby over to a e W because she
likes Ruby a lot. So I can't wait to share
(28:32):
your contribution to that product. And uh, and yeah, I
just thank you so much for doing this. I haven't
seen you in fifteen plus years probably, and you're kicking
so much as and it's so awesome and I'd love you,
Amy Garcia for making this happen. And yeah, I'll get
(28:53):
you a jet in a non extradition country to a
j So Andy, if you, if you and your man
ever need to, you know, rabbit can get away with it.
Just called me up. I really appreciate that. And when
I call you, you're back back those words up, you know. Yeah,
I mean I think I just implicated myself. So I
may have to go to a not execution as well,
(29:15):
but you know we'll party. Oh my gosh, I appreciate
this has been amazing. It's so cool to see you
still loving wrestling, and I just you were such a
huge part of making us feel comfortable, um when I
just start on the road, and you were a friendly
face and your kind and really gave us a lot
of confidence. Not to say thank you for that. Yeah
(29:38):
it needed a little balance that company. I'm all for
tough love, but I'm like, yeah, they never heard about
Bruce Lee like you gotta have a little bit of both. Then,
Thank you so much. Thank you everyone for listening. Follow
this woman wherever she goes. She has the right focus,
she has the right imagination, and she's an absolute steam roller,
the smallest steam roller on earth, but it's still still
(30:00):
squash you. Thank you everybody. 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 m
h m hmmm.
M hm. Welcome back to Wrestling with Freddy. I'm your
humble host today, especially your humble host. And you'll find
out why because I have a very special guest, someone
who this would have never happened had we not had
a mutual friend. So let's start the show. Welcome to
(00:23):
Wrestling with Freddy. Now stepping up to the mic, the
host of Wrestling with Freddie, Freddie Prince Tune Yeah. Former
w w E champion m J Pendece, Welcome to the show.
How are you? Holy crap, I haven't seen you in forever.
What the hell is going on? Oh my gosh, thank
(00:45):
you for having me. It's such a strange way the
universe has has brought us together again. Uh, I don't know,
do you remember at all? Like I was a baby
when you were you were a so so let me
break this down. I did a movie for Netflix with
Amy Garcia, who people might know from from Lucifer, and
(01:09):
you should all bow down in her presence whenever you
you meet her. Don't even shake her hand, just bow
because she is. She didn't just earn my respect, man,
that girl earned my love. Like if she was ever
in trouble, I would get her a jet to a
non extradition country and a hunter grand in less than
an hour. Like, that's that's how how dog I would
(01:32):
roll for her. So she mentioned to me randomly that
her writing partner used to wrestle, and I went, wait,
who who's your I said, I used to work there.
Who's your writing partner? And she said your name? And
my jaw hit the floor because I still have this
memory in my head. I don't know why, but you
came to like what was like an acting workshop that
(01:55):
we would do where all the wrestlers would take scenes
or do acting exercise is and you did one about Pokemon.
What this dude? That's wrestling in Japan now? And I
remember being like, what the hell? What the hell is
a Pokemon? Like I didn't know what I didn't know
what it was. So I was sitting there trying to
like analyze it, and the whole time, like when you
were done, I think I asked Cardona. I was like, Hey,
(02:18):
what what the hell is a Pokemon? And he was like,
what's the matter with you? And I was like oh,
and then it all made sense. But do you remember
this at all? Are am I crazy? Oh? My god,
it's coming back to me, um, you were. I'm telling
you you were, so I don't know how old you
were when when they brought you up. How old were you?
I think I don't know. I mean I think they
(02:40):
got signed when I was like twenty one or something
like that. It looked like you were seventeen. I mean,
it looked like it was illegal for you to work
there because of child labor laws. It was insane. But yeah,
I definitely. I remember A big issue was that, like,
no one would believe I was a woman, and so
(03:00):
throw all of the makeup you can onto this. You
pulled like this evil kind of smile and this evil
little you would narrow your eyes a bit, and that
made you look much more grown up. It was a
real smart move that you did. But you kind of
had a meteoric rise you. I mean it just from
(03:21):
I mean you're there and they're trying to figure out
what to do. But once they did, and I know
the person very well who came up with with your story.
He wasn't on the road, but he conceptualized it in
the office. But once it was that one episode you
just kind of like took off. How do you process
that at twenty two? I'll put it to you this way.
(03:41):
My pops was twenty two. He couldn't handle it, and
he literally like turned to drugs and ended up killing
himself because a twenty two early twenties that's a ton
to deal with. And they put a rocket ship underneath
you and just launched you off. What talk to me
about how you felt there and all that? Gosh. I mean,
I guess it was really helpful that I had grown
(04:04):
up so rough and I survived so much before I
ever got there, that anything that happened it was like
sprinkles on top of a Sunday of just surviving life. Uh.
And so I really always took everything with a grain
of salt and realized that it could be, you know,
(04:24):
living on the street. I could be dead from all
the decisions I've made before. Wrestling really saved my life.
You know. I I tell my story a lot, but
the the Cliff Knows version is I grew up insanely poor.
I was homeless for most of my childhood. Was lucky
to make it out alive, and wrestling and storytelling and
just living in this these fantasy world saved my life.
(04:45):
So I always kind of had that perspective that this
was an opportunity that I was just gonna have fun with.
And I really think it is a hundred well I
say a hundred percent, but I have to give myself
a little bit of credit. So let me say so
a lot out of a credit goes to the fans
because it just spoke to me being successful, spoke to
(05:06):
what they wanted to see. And they really were fighting
for this movement of just someone on screen that represented them.
And I was the first that really was not this
picture perfect, you know, supermodel. And I wasn't a big,
strong warrior either. I was just like a scrappy little
(05:27):
mouse that looked like she was twelve and was them.
I was a fan that snuck in And I think
just that idea of feeling represented and seen. Um, I mean,
that's what made me want to tell stories, and that
what's what made me want to wrestle in the first place.
That resonated with with this generation of fans, and so
(05:49):
their love of me and championing me and my journey
kept me in the storylines. And uh so I owe
them so much of the It's it's funny because and
you talk about growing up and how rough it was
in your book um, what's the name of your book again?
It's called Crazy is my Superpower? Please go to Amazon
(06:12):
or wherever you buy your books and look that up
and you can learn exactly what this woman went through
as a child. You know, it's weird because you still
look so young, but you are an old soul, and
kids that have to grow up more quickly tend to
go back and embrace that childhood when they get older
and start to have success. My my friend McCauley is
(06:35):
one who never had a childhood, right. He was a
working professional from age birth until he till he finally stopped,
and so he never got to do any of that
stuff that you got to do as a kid and
then as an adult win and went into that. So
when when you have that kind of and I see
you doing that now. But what I wanted to get
(06:55):
to is you have this old soul because when you
talk about why you loved it, I've heard eyes like
Terry Funk say that almost word for word what you
just said. And I know you're not like a Terry
Funk historian, and and taking a quote and like mishmashing
it into your own. That's just you talking. But you
have this very sort of old school and I and
(07:17):
I guess it is from growing up. But you've been
able to apply discipline in a way that very few
artists can, because most artists are right brained and they
reject everything the left brain has to offer, which is
order out of chaos. Um. And I'm guilty of that,
and a lot of artists are. And I I know
(07:39):
a ton of people want us to talk wrestling, but
you made this transition from professional wrestling into writing a
New York Times bestseller and then transition from that into
the art of screenwriting, which is incredibly difficult. Everyone's written
a script, but none of them are good. Right, there's
only a small handful that that can impact the right
(08:03):
person that says yes in order to get it made.
And now you've done that. I don't think another wrestler
has ever done that. I don't know if they've wanted to.
But you've now transitioned into Hollywood and screenwriting. You have
a movie that recently wrapped. Do you want to talk
about that or I just I just get off on
(08:24):
the process. So what whatever you want to talk about
is fine with me. But this is an incredibly impressive accomplishment.
Whether you're coming from wrestling or not, and you're still
having to apply a similar but completely different discipline to it.
(08:49):
So I'll shut up and just let you talk about
whatever you want to talk about. This this movie which
I've seen like video rehearsals of the stunt fights and stuff,
and that was so sick. But anyway, I'm gonna I'm
not go ahead. I did. I think you're right. It
is so the same kind of discipline, right. I think
what really helped me was just the perspective of like
(09:11):
I was grateful to have food in my fridge, Like
that was my baseline. If I could just have a
career and I could feed myself and you know, send
money to my parents, Like life was good. That's all
I needed. And I felt such a like end of
a chapter when when that when that chapter ended, it
felt like I was so whole. And what I knew
(09:31):
I could take into the next chapter was these fans
and that we really had this mission of representation um
and I just needed to figure out what that was.
And so the book was the first try I wrote.
I wrote crazy as my superpower, and I don't want
to get my story out there because I had felt
that I hadn't really told people where I came from
(09:54):
and how hard I struggled and my mental health journey.
And I wanted to be really transparent about up because
these people had supported me for so long. And what
I noticed from that was that these these these fans
really just believed in seeing a different perspective and seeing
a different kind of hero in the world. You know,
(10:17):
when I was growing up, I did not see women
who looked like me on TV. I never saw any
woman the last name Mendez. I never you know, she
had brown hair. I could be like, okay, close enough,
by the way, there's still only maybe two but we're trying,
and so like, you know, to me, there was a
(10:37):
point when I realized, oh, if I want to see
characters like me on TV, I'm just gonna have to
be that character. And that was wrestling, and then after
that it was Okay, it's not just good enough, it's
just if it's just me. I need to create more
characters for the next generation. And so that's how I
started writing UM. I had gone to six months of
(10:58):
film school. N y U, that's good. Yeah, I got
some experience. I couldn't afford it. UM, But I started
wrestling when that didn't work out, So everything kind of
felt really serendipitous, and I took this circuitous route to
get back into writing UM and it was just all
about like representing this, this type of of this just unseen,
(11:23):
underrepresented character UM. I started in comics and with Amy
we did Glow and we did Dungeons and Dragons and
Wonder Woman, and then we really just started to dapple
in writing for television and screenwriting. The first thing I
did was I entered I started at the bottom, like
(11:44):
going from wrestling and being like, oh, I'm this champion,
Like I didn't. I had such a perspective of like
everywhere I go, I need to like hustle and just
like and like I have no ego, and like that
has been what really served me in wrestling. I knew
I had to start from the bottom of the barrel.
I started wrestling for like I would get paid into
like hot dogs and like bus fare and then and
(12:08):
I knew I had no ego about I was just
going to work my way to the top. And so
when I started writing, it was the same thing. I
entered a writing competition UM and in one and I
got on the blacklist slatin x TV List and like
that opened the door and that is what introduced me
to a lot of people, and I started taking meetings
and um, that's been a really productive tool for screenwriters.
(12:31):
I know a couple other writers who have literally gotten
careers because of that tool. Yeah, and you know what,
even like the the exposure was amazing, but there's also
a thing where like they people just give you feedback
if you asked through that, but through the black the Blacklist,
and so just like even every meeting, people give me
feedback and what I can make it better, how I
can make the script better, or what they connected to it.
(12:54):
I really saw that there was like a space um
that just needed to be filled, and so Amy and
I just started this production company and started taking open writing,
open writing assignments, and that's how we ended up writing uh,
Blade of the forty seven rown in, which is going
to be on Netflix next year. It is it was
(13:16):
this idea for a project that they had and Amy
and I were everything we do, it's like just just
go ball to the wall. Um, do it a hundred
percent your vision and it's either gonna work or you're
gonna fail miserably. But at least you don't. You know,
you didn't, you know, you left everything all on the field.
And that's what was with wrestling, like I'm either gonna
(13:37):
get fired by playing this little like nerd chick tom Boy,
or it's gonna work. And it worked. So the same
thing kind of worked with writing, and we pitched this
all female version of what they wanted to do. I
was like, no, it's all about the women, like they're
the stars. It's inclusive, it's it's very diverse, and you know,
(13:58):
we were scared, like okay, that was okay. That by
the way, there's actually like Japanese history to support that,
and a lot of like the women in the farms
trained with the spear to learn how to fight, and
they could hide the spear as a as like a
garden tool, and that was how they were able to
you know, train their weapons and keep them hidden in
plain sight. So there's actually like evidence of this in existence,
(14:21):
to which I love. And then so it's actually like
it's even though it's a fantasy, fantastic movie and there's
powers and people are doing things with swords that with
a wire is a lot easier to do, it still
has like that one route that one seed of truth,
which all those movies kind of need. Yeah, definitely the
Ona bu Geisha, Like they are fascinating, and so we
really wanted to lean into that through that the wall
(14:43):
and actually worked, and these wonderful producers and studio gave
us a chance and gave us our first shot. You know.
It just kind of took off from there, and and
it's really interesting how like one thing always leads to
the next, you know, like a certain meeting you need
a writing sample of hour long drama, and it's like,
we don't have it. Let's let's get it done in
(15:03):
a month. Done. Uh, And all of a sudden, we're
now in the you know, in the race for our
long dramas and and so stuff is just kind of
snowballed in a really wonderful way. And we just got
hired for our second feature. Yeah. So it's like, and
we're developing, can you can you can you mention again
or is it too early? I can't yet. I'll tell
(15:25):
you later. Yeah, And we're developing on two TV shows
and so, oh my gosh, man, that's so insanely great.
It's the coolest thing. It's the cool thing the world.
And I think it only works because I I don't know.
I know that like nothing can kill me. Like I've
(15:45):
lived on the street, I've like starved. I know I
can survive that, and so if I have to go
back to it, I can go back to it. So
now just have this like burn the boat's mentality though
it's so hardcore, you know what I mean, It's like
there is no I remember. But they asked Sugar Ray
Leonard back in the in the seventies, he was a
boxing world champion and they said, uh, what do you
(16:07):
plan on doing if you lose this fight? Like what's
an expert you? And He's just like, I don't, that's
not an option, Like I I never even thought about
that until you just said it, Like I don't. I
don't train to lose, man, I trained to win. And
you just kind of push your cards all in or
your chips all in, and you're like, look, if you
think you have a better hand, cool, but I'm not
(16:28):
telling you my cards until you pay you fold. And
like you said, you went in with a nerd gimmick
that you're just like, if it's I got to seven,
if they call I'm in big trouble. But if they fold,
I'm good, and they did. They blinked and you didn't,
and it helped get that character over. Apparently it's helped
you guys. You add Amy kicks serious ass. And I
(16:51):
want to segue, you're talking television and we're talking wrestling,
So I have to I have to babble a little
bit again, um to get into this, because where I failed,
you have succeeded. And I really want to talk to
you more about this because I just want to pick
your brain and get schooled. But everyone else should here too.
(17:14):
So about a year ago, I guess this was during
the pandemic, a couple of friends approached me and talked
to me about Wow, Women of Wrestling, and they said, hey, man,
would you be interested in trying to help get this
made on TV in one way shape or for me
to write an EP or whatever. And I said, yeah,
I love wrestling and I love women's wrestling. And I said,
(17:37):
I think women's wrestling is is really at a high
point right now, and they should get an opportunity. So
I talked with David McClain, and he and I didn't
exactly click, but we had respect for one another, but
we certainly didn't click, and Genie Buss, owner of the Lakers,
Go Lakers. We went to what I knew to be
(17:58):
friendly ex ecutives, where I knew the executives, where I
knew they would give this the idea chance. And it
was a brick wall, another brick wall, and another brick wall,
and there might have been a fourth brick wall in there,
I don't remember. I hit my head so many times
I could not get this idea over to a single
(18:19):
executive forget you know, you know, I got one in
the room, but it was a room of three. I
couldn't get it over to anyone. And I'm just like randomly,
you know, checking out the news. Dada da da da,
and then I just see your name and I see wow,
and I go, oh my god, they're gonna be on TV.
Oh my god, they're gonna be on TV. And I
flipped out in the best possible way. So could you
(18:41):
please talk. I have no ego about this. I just
want as many wrestlers as possible to have as many
opportunities on television as humanly possible. So that's my stake
in this game, right, So how did you come? I
guess maybe the glow connection, but what was the process
of getting the viacom D and forget everyone else listening,
(19:02):
this is just you and school me up. I've got
to give all that credit to to Genie and David.
I was brought on at the end of that, so
they really did all the hustling and and figured out
the right home. She's an amazing woman, isn't she. She's
a force of nature. And oh, what I've understood is
(19:24):
that she you know, those brick walls continued, and she
just really believed in this. And what I so appreciate
about her vision is that she wants it to be
a family friendly show that like everyone can sit down
and watch it on Saturday morning. And that is such
an old school vibe that I connected to because you're
an old soul, You're Terry funk. I just you know,
(19:48):
I remember being really little and the only posters they
had of the female wrestlers were in bikini's and like
the magazines, and I was like putting a bikini poster
up on my wall. Um So, just the idea of
like giving a younger generation, um this this sort of
like wholesome superhero type lean. That's what their characters lean
(20:09):
into is that superhero vibe. They all kind of have
an archetype character, which I really really liked as well.
Let's talk about Genie for a second, because I love
talking about how people made it, and I love bringing
(20:32):
on people that it's so it feels so disrespectful to
say I'm proud of you, right, that just feels disrespectful.
I'm so impressed by you and by so many of
your period that I've had other wrestlers on here. I've
had the miss on here who just I look, you
talk about a force of nature, like like, I've had
other wrestlers on here. But Jennie was such an interesting person.
(20:53):
She wanted she wanted me to make a puppet show. Okay,
and I love puppets all right, Like I loved my
uncle wrote the Rainbow Connection for for Kermit the Frog.
My uncle's Paul Williams, so like I got to play
with the first Kermit the Frog. I love muppets, and
and we had a friend in comment and so we
were gonna come up with it. I can talk about
(21:13):
it now because it's never gonna happen. It was called
Little Lakers, and it was all these like it was
like Little Kobe, Little Shack, all these and they all
had like attitude, right, And so I was talking to
her about Saneca, So where are you seeing this? Like
you just want to put on like spectrum or something
like that, and she goes, you're not thinking big enough.
And right when she said that, every sentence she said after,
(21:37):
I've never forgotten like any and I delete things people
say to me all the time, good advice and bad.
But she has this ability to think big. Even when
you think your idea is too big and you're nervous
to pitch it, it's like it's not big enough. I
think you have a woman behind you and behind this
(22:02):
company that when she commits to something, she is committed
to it. And she's been involved with while for a
while now. So for her to make that commitment with
you and to have that trust in you. And again
I was the wrong fit. You are the right fit.
I think you have a huge opportunity here to bring
more wrestling to that. And it's not about competing. I
(22:24):
hate it's always about competent. That's so stupid, man, there's
so many channels. It should be about opportunity, right. There
shouldn't be an Academy Award Actors should be family. Like
there's no real wrestling award. They're slammies, but those aren't real,
Like wrestlers are a family. So this should be you know,
it should always be about opportunity. And I love that
you're working with with someone who I she has earned respect.
(22:48):
It's not about between thousand championships. I don't I love
the Lakers, but that's not as important. She has earned respect, Okay,
in a world where no one wanted to respect her.
She was Jerry Buss's daughter. What did she ever work for?
What did she is? Like Stephanie McMahon, you know, all
she ever had to be with Vince McMahon's daughter, and
(23:10):
I'd be like, dude, she's saved the Jeff Hardy Championship promo.
She single handedly saved it. When the power went out,
ran in and it was like, excuse my language, and
said fuck that we're fixing this. I was already like,
I don't know what we're gonna do. She's like I do,
and I mean just steamrolled through man. So it's like,
those are moments where respect is earned, and Jeannie has
(23:31):
earned that respect, and so when she gives it to
someone like you, and it's not like me starting to
appreciate that I already know YouTube based on how you
came up. I just I'm so excited to see what
your plan is. I mean even beyond creatively, like you
can even improve the work there. You can help prevent
injuries there, just because you know how to work the
(23:53):
perfect way, you know what I mean. Like, and you're
the same size as some of those girls too, you
know what I mean. So, and I love that you're
out here in l A doing it. Can you talk
about do you guys have a plan on where you're
gonna shoot yet? What's the plan for you guys? So
we'll actually be shooting pretty soon. I think we're maybe
sixty days out. Um, so it's getting it's getting kind
(24:13):
of close. Um, we're gonna be in syndication in the
fall of two. Please check w O w E dot
com for your local listings. Still I still have my
T shirt. I'll rock my shirt. It's also on the
seed w Seed app and the Pluto app. But um,
(24:34):
you know it's it's really what inspired me to join
WOW was the idea that it was women behind the
scenes in every capacity and women in front of the
camera and every capacity, and to me. I love wrestling,
(24:54):
and I never stopped lovest loving wrestling. Um, and this
was like the perfect way to rejoined the world of wrestling,
but also combined it with what I'm doing now and
what I have a passion for now. And so I'll
be executive producer alongside Jeanie and David McClane, which is mine.
(25:15):
I'm so happy, Oh my gosh. And then I when
I talk to her on the phone, you know, um,
she really just kind of laid it out there, like
what she wants us to be and what the vision
is and um, and then also left a lot of
space for what I wanted to be or what I
could bring to the table. And I really, yeah, I
just I think that that's the right way to start something.
(25:36):
It's you know, we know that people know that the
product is or if they know what it was before,
but this is going to be a new beast, and UM,
we're really excited about that, and it's it's it's a
great group of women. UM. And I somewhere along the
way just kind of got inspired to say, Okay, I'm
also gonna do color commentary. I knew it. I knew
(25:59):
I was actually were going to ask you. I was like,
I gotta do something. I can't. You gotta kid, you
can't do them like that, You can't do the people
like that. Oh my gosh. I mean, you know, like
wrestling opportunities have popped up over the years, and I've
just never been ready for that. Um I'm not sure
like physically if that's something that like is the fires there,
(26:20):
but the art of it it's always been there, you know.
And when I was a fan, the women were my
favorite part of the show, and I would, you know,
skip the guy's matches to watch the ladies. And so
I had such a crush on sensational Sherry, Oh my god,
like everyone else like pulled for Elizabeth and I literally
like what what, Oh my god, Oh god, never know
(26:42):
share Like I was such a Sherry Mark. Like when
everyone went trip Stratus, I went lead to I was like, oh,
oh day, lead all day. I like the tougher chicks.
I always like tough chicks. Man. I married Buffy the Vampires.
I like tough chicks. Man, Oh my god, I love that.
My husband's is the same thing about Sherry and Elizabeth.
(27:04):
It was all about ship because she was she could
talk to man like and she could really work, she
could actually like wrestle that w W have didn't really
let her wrestle, but she was actually really good wrestler
before she got there. Um, and they just limited what
what women can do as you had to deal with
when you were there. I'm sure they said certain moves
you weren't allowed to do. Oh yeah they were. I
mean I talked about in my book a little bit,
(27:25):
but they you know, it was it was the time
when we had very small windows of matt tive minutes
and and a minute each for your walk in and
so it's really a three minute match telling story. Ang yep, yep,
And I'm oh my god. My favorite match ever is
when they told us to go home and we were
like nope, and we just went like twelve extra minutes
(27:48):
and like I got in trouble. But then they were like,
but it was a good it was a good match,
and I gave you a seat. Sometimes you gotta just
burn the boats and if you get if you take
the heat, you take the heat. But a lot of
times someone in a in a position of power, if
you know you can do it, and you're willing to
take that shot and prove them wrong, or be proven
(28:10):
wrong yourself. That's how you get, that's how you are
in respect, big time, big time you are. You are
going to absolutely kill it. My daughter is twelve years old.
She loves women's wrestling. I can't wait for her to
watch Wow. She already watches w W E. She watched
she followed Ruby over to a e W because she
likes Ruby a lot. So I can't wait to share
(28:32):
your contribution to that product. And uh, and yeah, I
just thank you so much for doing this. I haven't
seen you in fifteen plus years probably, and you're kicking
so much as and it's so awesome and I'd love you,
Amy Garcia for making this happen. And yeah, I'll get
(28:53):
you a jet in a non extradition country to a
j So Andy, if you, if you and your man
ever need to, you know, rabbit can get away with it.
Just called me up. I really appreciate that. And when
I call you, you're back back those words up, you know. Yeah,
I mean I think I just implicated myself. So I
may have to go to a not execution as well,
(29:15):
but you know we'll party. Oh my gosh, I appreciate
this has been amazing. It's so cool to see you
still loving wrestling, and I just you were such a
huge part of making us feel comfortable, um when I
just start on the road, and you were a friendly
face and your kind and really gave us a lot
of confidence. Not to say thank you for that. Yeah
(29:38):
it needed a little balance that company. I'm all for
tough love, but I'm like, yeah, they never heard about
Bruce Lee like you gotta have a little bit of both. Then,
Thank you so much. Thank you everyone for listening. Follow
this woman wherever she goes. She has the right focus,
she has the right imagination, and she's an absolute steam roller,
the smallest steam roller on earth, but it's still still
(30:00):
squash you. Thank you everybody. 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 m
h m hmmm.
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