January 2, 2025 • 30 mins
We hope you had a great New Years and are ready for new episodes coming in 2025, for now enjoy this great sit down with AJ Lee.
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
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
What's up everybody? Happy New Year to you.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
We got all new content coming to you next week
and every week after that. In the meantime, enjoy this
classic wrestling with friends on sanctioned Thursday.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
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 Wrestling with Freddy.
Wow stepping up to the mic, the host of Wrestling
(00:41):
with Freddie, Freddie Price Tune, former WWE champion miss A
j Pendex, Welcome to the show. How are you? Holy crap,
I haven't seen you in forever. What the hell's going on?
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Oh my gosh, thank you for having me.
Speaker 4 (00:59):
It's a strange way the universes has brought us together again.
I don't know, do you remember at all? Like I
was a baby, when you.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Were you were a baby. So so let me break
this down. I did a movie for Netflix with Amy Garcia,
who people might know from Lucifer, and you should all
bow down in her presence whenever 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.
(01:33):
Like if she was ever in trouble, I would get
her a jet to a non extradition country and one
hundred grand in less than an hour. Like that's that's
how how dog I would roll for her. So she
mentioned to me randomly that her writing partner used to wrestle,
and I went, wait, who's your so I used to
(01:55):
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 we would do where all the wrestlers would take
scenes or do acting exercises, and you did one about
Pokemon with this dude that's wrestling in Japan now, and
(02:18):
I remember being like, what the hell, what the hell
is the 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,
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? Or am I crazy?
Speaker 3 (02:38):
Oh my god, it's coming back to me.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
I'm telling you you were so I don't know how
old you were when they brought you up. How old
were you?
Speaker 3 (02:47):
I think? I like, I don't know.
Speaker 4 (02:51):
I mean I think I got signed when I was
like twenty one or something like that.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
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.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
Yeah, I definitely. I remember.
Speaker 4 (03:08):
A big issue was that, like, no one would believe
I was a woman, and so throw all of the
makeup you can onto the.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
Well. 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, do you. I mean
it just from 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
(03:41):
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. My Pops was twenty two. He
couldn't handle it, and he literally like turned a drugs
and ended up killing himself. Because at twenty two, early twenties,
(04:03):
that's a ton to deal with, and they put a
rocket ship underneath you and just launched you off. Talk
to me about how you felt there and all that. Gosh.
Speaker 4 (04:12):
I mean, I guess it was really helpful that I
had grown up so rough and I survived so much
before I ever got there, that anything that happened was
like sprinkles on top of a Sunday of just surviving life.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
And so I really always.
Speaker 4 (04:32):
Took everything with a grain of salt and realized that
it could be, you know, living on the street, I
could be dead from all the decisions I've made before.
Wrestling really saved my life. You know, I tell my
story a lot, but the cliff Notes version. As I
grew up insanely poor, I was homeless for most of
my childhood, was lucky to make it out alive, and
(04:53):
wrestling and storytelling and just living in these fantasy world
saved my life.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
So I always kind of had.
Speaker 4 (04:58):
That perspective that this was an opportunity that I was
just gonna have fun with.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
And I really think it is one hundred percent.
Speaker 4 (05:06):
Well I say one hundred percent, but I have to
give myself a little bit of credit.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
So let me.
Speaker 4 (05:10):
Say a lot of the credit goes to the fans,
because it just spoke to me being successful, spoke to
what they wanted to see, and they really were fighting
for this movement of just someone on screen that represented them.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
And I was the first.
Speaker 4 (05:29):
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 mouse that looked like she
was twelve and.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
Was THEMB was a fan that snuck in.
Speaker 4 (05:46):
And I think just that idea of feeling represented and seen,
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 it with this generation
of fans, and so they are love of me and
championing me and my journey kept me in those storylines,
(06:08):
and so I owe them so much of.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
The Gay Jay. It's funny because and you talk about
growing up and how rough it was in your book.
What's the name of your book again.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
It's called Crazy is my Superpower?
Speaker 1 (06:23):
Please go to Amazon 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
(06:43):
when they get older and start to have success. My
friend McCaulay is one who never had a childhood right.
He was a working professional from age birth 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 and went into that.
So when you have that kind and I see you
(07:06):
doing that now. But what I wanted to get to
is you have this old soul because when you talk
about why you loved it, I've heard guys 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 taking a quote and like mishmashing it into your own.
That's just you talking. But you have this very sort
(07:27):
of old school and 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. And I'm guilty of that,
(07:49):
and a lot of artists are. And I know 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,
(08:09):
but none of them are good. Right. There's only a
small handful that can impact the right 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
(08:32):
recently wrapped. Do you want to talk about that or
I just get off on the process. So whatever you
want to talk about is fine with me. But this
is an incredibly impressive accomplishment, whether you were coming from
wrestling or not, and you're still having to apply a
similar but completely different discipline to it. So I'll shut
(09:03):
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 going to shut up.
Not go ahead.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
I did. I think you're right. It is so the
same kind of discipline, right.
Speaker 4 (09:19):
I think what really helped me was the just the
perspective of like I was grateful to have food in.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
My fridge, Like that was my baseline.
Speaker 4 (09:28):
If I could just make have a career and I
could feed myself and you know, send money to my parents,
Like life was good.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
That's all I needed.
Speaker 4 (09:36):
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 I could
take into the next chapter was these fans and that
we really had this mission of representation and I just
needed to figure out what that was.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
And so the book was the first try I wrote.
Speaker 4 (09:57):
I wrote crazy is my superpower, and I just wanted
to get my story out there because I had felt
that I hadn't really told people where it came from
and how hard I struggled and my mental health journey,
and I wanted to be really transparent about that because
these people had supported me for so long.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
And what I noticed from that was that these these these.
Speaker 4 (10:19):
Fans really just believed in seeing a different perspective and
seeing a different kind of hero in the world. You know,
when I was growing up, I did not see women
who looked like me on TV. I never saw anyone
the last name Mendez. I never you know, she had
brown hair. I could be like, okay, close enough, by.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
The way, there's still only maybe two, but we're.
Speaker 4 (10:46):
Trying, and so like, you know, to me at there
was a point when I realized, oh, if I want
to see characters like me on TV, I'm just going
to have to be that character.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
And that was wrestling, and.
Speaker 4 (10:58):
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. I had gone to six months of
film school at NYU.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
That's good though.
Speaker 4 (11:14):
Yeah, I got some experience, I couldn't afford it, but
I started wrestling when that didn't work out. So everything
kind of felt really serendipitous, and I took this like
circuitous route to get back into writing, and it was
just all about like representing this, this type of this
just unseen, underrepresented character. I started in comics and with
(11:41):
Amy we did Glow and we did Dungeons and Dragons
and Wonder Woman, and then we really just started to
dabble in writing for television and screenwriting. First thing I
did was I entered I started at the bottom, like
going from wrestling and being like, oh, I'm this champion liken'.
I had such a perspective of like everywhere I go,
(12:04):
I need to like hustle and just like ground 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 in like hot
dogs and like bus fare and then and I knew
I had no ego about it. I was just going
to like work my way to the top. And so
when I started writing, it was the same thing. I
(12:26):
entered a writing competition and and won and I got
on the Blacklist Latin XTV list, and like that opened
the door and that is what introduced me to a
lot of people, and I started taking meetings and.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
That's been a really productive tool for screenwriters. I know
a couple other writers who have literally gotten careers because
of that tool.
Speaker 3 (12:48):
Yeah, and you.
Speaker 4 (12:49):
Know what, even like the exposure was amazing, but there's
also a thing where like they people just give you
feedback if you ask through that through 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.
I really saw that there was like a space that
(13:10):
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
Blade of the forty seven ronin.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
Which is going to be on Netflix next year.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
That's right, it is. You know.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
It was this idea for.
Speaker 4 (13:29):
A project that they had and Amy and I were
everything we do, it's like just just go balls the wall,
do it one hundred percent your vision, and it's either
going to work or you're going to fail miserably, but
at least you don't you know, you didn't you know,
you left everything up all the field. And that's what
was with wrestling, like I'm either going to get fired
(13:50):
by playing this little like nerd chick tomboy or it's
going to work.
Speaker 3 (13:55):
And it worked.
Speaker 4 (13:56):
So the same thing kind of worked with writing, and
we pitched this all female version of what they wanted
to do where it's like, no, it's all about the women,
like they're the stars. It's inclusive, it's very diverse, and
you know, we were scared, like, okay.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
That was okay.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
By the way, there's actually like Japanese history to support that,
and a lot of like the women and the farms
trained with the spear to learn how to fight, and
they could hide the spears 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 too,
(14:34):
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.
Speaker 4 (14:49):
Yeah, definitely the Ona Bugeisha, Like they are fascinating, and
so we really wanted to like lean into that through
that the wall and actually worked, and these wonderful producers
and studio gave us a chance and gave us our
first shot.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
You know.
Speaker 4 (15:02):
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 an hour long drama, and it's like,
we don't have it. Let's let's get it done in
a month. Done, And all of a sudden, we're now
in the you know, in the race for hour long
dramas and and so stuff is just kind of snowballed
(15:26):
in a really wonderful way.
Speaker 3 (15:27):
And we just got hired for our second feature. Yeah.
So it's like and.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
We're developed wait can you can you can you mention
it yet or is it too early?
Speaker 3 (15:36):
I can't yet.
Speaker 4 (15:37):
I'll tell you later, okay, Yeah, And we're developing on
two TV shows.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
And so, oh my gosh, man, that's so insanely great.
Speaker 4 (15:49):
It's the coolest thing. It's the coolest thing in 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
lived on the street, I feel like starved. I know
I can survive that. And so if I have to
go back to it, I going back to it.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
So now just have to just like burn the boat's
mentality though it's so hardcore, you know what I mean,
It's like there is no I remember they asked Sugar
Ray Leonard back in the in the seventies, he was
a boxing world champion, and they said, uh, what do
you plan on doing if you lose this fight? Like
what's next for you? And He's just like, I don't.
That's not an option, Like I never even thought about
(16:27):
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
telling you my cards until you pay or you fold.
And like you said, you went in with a nerd
gimmick that you're just like, if it's I got two seven,
(16:49):
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 d amy kick serious ass. And I
want to segue you talking television and we're talking wrestling.
So I have to babble a little bit again to
(17:12):
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 hear too. So about
a year ago, I guess this was during the pandemic,
(17:32):
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
write at EPT whatever, And I said, yeah, I love
wrestling and I love women's wrestling. And I said I
think women's wrestling is really at a high point right
(17:53):
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 friendly executives,
where I knew the executives, where I knew they would
(18:15):
give the idea a 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 executive forget you know,
you know, I got one in the room, but it
(18:35):
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. Da da da da dah, and then
I just see your name and I see wow, and
I go, oh my god, they're going to be on TV.
Oh my god, they're going to be on TV. And
I filipped out in the best possible way. So could
you please talk. I have no ego about this. I
(18:56):
just want as many wrestlers as possible to have as
many opportunities he's 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 deal and forget everyone else listening,
this is just you and me school me up.
Speaker 4 (19:18):
I've got to give all that credit to Jeanie and David.
I was brought on at the end of that, so
they really did all the hustling and figured out the
right home.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
She's an amazing woman, isn't she.
Speaker 3 (19:32):
God She's a force of nature and.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
Oh my gosh, she is.
Speaker 4 (19:35):
What I've understood is 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.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
An old sawyer, Terry Funk, You're the.
Speaker 4 (20:00):
I just you know, I remember being really little and
the only posters they had of the female wrestlers were
in bikinis and like the magazines, and I was like, guy,
I'm putting a bikini.
Speaker 3 (20:11):
Poster up on my wall. So just the idea of
like giving a younger generation.
Speaker 4 (20:16):
This that's sort of like wholesome superhero type lean That's.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
What their characters lean 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
(20:44):
I love bringing 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 peers that I've had other wrestlers
on here. I've had the Miz on here, who just
I look talk about a force of nature, like like,
I've had other wrestlers on here. But Jeannie was such
an interesting person. She wanted she wanted me to make
(21:07):
a puppet show. Okay, and I love puppets all right,
Like I loved him. My uncle broke the rainbow connection
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 common,
and so we were going to come up with it.
I can talk about it now because it's never going
to happen. It was called Little Lakers, and it was
(21:29):
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 Son, I go, 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, I've never forgotten like any
(21:52):
and I delete things people say to me all the time,
good advice and bad. But Geenie 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
(22:13):
you and behind this company that when she commits to something,
she is committed to it. And she's been involved with
Wow 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
(22:34):
to bring more wrestling to that. And it's not about competing.
I 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. There's slammis, but those
aren't real, Like wrestlers are a family. So this should
be you know, it should always be about opportunity. And
(22:55):
I love that you're working with someone who I she
has earned respect. It's not about oh, the Lakers of
seventeen thousand Championship. 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 it. She
was Jerry Buss's daughter. What did she ever work for?
(23:17):
What did she is? Like Stephanie McMahon, you know, all
she ever had to be was Vince McMahon's daughter, and
I'd be like, dude, she saved the Jeff Hardy Championship promo.
She single handedly saved it. When the power went out,
ran in and 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,
(23:37):
and I mean just steamrolled through man. So it's like
those are moments where respect is earned. And Jeanie has
earned that respect, and so when she gives it to
someone like you and it's not like me, you satn't
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
(23:59):
can eat then improve the work there. You can help
prevent injuries there, just because you know how to work
the 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 La 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?
Speaker 3 (24:19):
So we'll actually be shooting pretty soon. I think we're maybe.
Speaker 4 (24:22):
Sixty days out, so it's getting it's getting kind of close.
We're going to be in syndication in the fall of
twenty twenty two. Please check wowe dot com for your
local listings.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
I still right, I still have my T shirt. I'll
rock my T shirt.
Speaker 4 (24:40):
It's also on the CW Seed app and the Pluto app.
Speaker 3 (24:45):
But you know it's it's really what inspired me to join.
Speaker 4 (24:52):
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
and I never stopped loving wrestling, and this was like
the perfect way to rejoin the world of wrestling, but
(25:15):
also combine 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 McLean, which is mine.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
I'm so happy, Oh my gosh.
Speaker 3 (25:29):
And then I want to talk to her on the phone.
Speaker 4 (25:31):
You know, she really just kind of laid it out there,
like what she wants us to be and what the
vision is, 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.
It's you know, we know that people know what the
(25:51):
product is or they know what it was before, but
this is going to be a new beast and we're
really excited about that, and it's it's it's.
Speaker 3 (26:00):
A great group of women.
Speaker 4 (26:04):
And I somewhere along the way just kind of got
inspired to say, Okay, I'm also gonna do color commentary.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
I knew it. I knew I was actually going to
ask you. I was like, I gotta do something. I can't.
You got it. You can't. You can't do them like that.
You can't do the people like that.
Speaker 3 (26:20):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 4 (26:21):
I mean, you know, like wrestling opportunities have popped up
over the years, and I've just never been ready for that.
I'm not sure like physically if that's something that like
is the fires there, but the art.
Speaker 3 (26:34):
Of it it's always been there, you know.
Speaker 4 (26:36):
And when I was a fan of the women were
my favorite part of the show, and I would, you know,
skip the guys matches to watch the ladies.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
And so I had such a crush on sensational Sherry,
oh my god, like everyone else like pulled for Elizabeth
and I literally was like what what, Oh my god,
oh god, never no share, Like I was such a
Sherry Mark. Like when everyone went trist Stratus, I went
lead A. I was like, oh, oh Dan, I like
(27:03):
the tougher chicks. I always like tough chicks. Man, I
married Buffy the Vampires. I like tough chicks, man.
Speaker 3 (27:11):
Oh my god. I love that. My husband says the
same thing about Sherry and Elizabeth.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
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 WWF didn't really let her wrestle,
but she was actually really good wrestler before she got there,
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.
Speaker 3 (27:34):
Oh yeah they were.
Speaker 4 (27:35):
I mean I talked about in my book a little bit,
but they they you know, it was it was the
time when we had very small windows of matter.
Speaker 1 (27:44):
You are and five minutes and and a minute each
for your walk in, and so it's really a three
minute match. Tell the story, hang up, yup, yup.
Speaker 3 (27:54):
And I'm oh my god.
Speaker 4 (27:55):
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.
Speaker 3 (28:01):
And like got in trouble. But then they were like, but.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
It was a good way. It was a good match,
and I gave you a seat. Sometimes you got to
just burn the boats. And if you get if you
take the heat, you take the heat exactly. A lot
of times someone 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 wrong yourself.
(28:24):
That's how you get that's how you earn 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 WWE. She watched she followed Ruby over to AEW
because she likes Ruby a lot. So I can't wait
to share your contribution to that product. And yeah, I
(28:49):
just thank you so much for doing this. I haven't
seen you in fifteen plus years probably, and you're kicking
so much ass and it's so awesome. And I love you,
Amy Garcia for making this happen. And yeah, I'll get
you a jet and a non extradition country too, AJ.
So if you and your man ever need to, you know,
(29:12):
rob a bank and get away with it, just call
me up.
Speaker 3 (29:14):
I really appreciate that.
Speaker 4 (29:16):
Yeah, And when I call you back those words up
you know.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
Yeah, I mean I think I just implicated myself. So
I may have to go to an non extradition as well,
but you know, we'll party.
Speaker 3 (29:30):
Oh my gosh. I appreciate this has been amazing. It's
so cool to.
Speaker 4 (29:33):
See you still loving wrestling, and I just you were
such a huge part of making us feel comfortable when
I just start on the road, and you were a
friendly face and you were kind and really gave us a.
Speaker 3 (29:48):
To say thank you for that.
Speaker 1 (29:50):
Yeah, it needed a little balanced that company. I'm all
for a tough love, but I'm like y'all and I
never heard about Bruce Lee like you got to have
a little bit of both. Then, Thank you, 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 steamroller, the smallest
steamroller on earth. But it's still it could still squashing.
(30:13):
Thank you everybody. This has been a production of Iheart'smichael
Tura podcast Network. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the
iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
favorite shows.
What's up everybody? Happy New Year to you.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
We got all new content coming to you next week
and every week after that. In the meantime, enjoy this
classic wrestling with friends on sanctioned Thursday.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
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 Wrestling with Freddy.
Wow stepping up to the mic, the host of Wrestling
(00:41):
with Freddie, Freddie Price Tune, former WWE champion miss A
j Pendex, Welcome to the show. How are you? Holy crap,
I haven't seen you in forever. What the hell's going on?
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Oh my gosh, thank you for having me.
Speaker 4 (00:59):
It's a strange way the universes has brought us together again.
I don't know, do you remember at all? Like I
was a baby, when you.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Were you were a baby. So so let me break
this down. I did a movie for Netflix with Amy Garcia,
who people might know from Lucifer, and you should all
bow down in her presence whenever 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.
(01:33):
Like if she was ever in trouble, I would get
her a jet to a non extradition country and one
hundred grand in less than an hour. Like that's that's
how how dog I would roll for her. So she
mentioned to me randomly that her writing partner used to wrestle,
and I went, wait, who's your so I used to
(01:55):
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 we would do where all the wrestlers would take
scenes or do acting exercises, and you did one about
Pokemon with this dude that's wrestling in Japan now, and
(02:18):
I remember being like, what the hell, what the hell
is the 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,
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? Or am I crazy?
Speaker 3 (02:38):
Oh my god, it's coming back to me.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
I'm telling you you were so I don't know how
old you were when they brought you up. How old
were you?
Speaker 3 (02:47):
I think? I like, I don't know.
Speaker 4 (02:51):
I mean I think I got signed when I was
like twenty one or something like that.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
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.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
Yeah, I definitely. I remember.
Speaker 4 (03:08):
A big issue was that, like, no one would believe
I was a woman, and so throw all of the
makeup you can onto the.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
Well. 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, do you. I mean
it just from 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
(03:41):
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. My Pops was twenty two. He
couldn't handle it, and he literally like turned a drugs
and ended up killing himself. Because at twenty two, early twenties,
(04:03):
that's a ton to deal with, and they put a
rocket ship underneath you and just launched you off. Talk
to me about how you felt there and all that. Gosh.
Speaker 4 (04:12):
I mean, I guess it was really helpful that I
had grown up so rough and I survived so much
before I ever got there, that anything that happened was
like sprinkles on top of a Sunday of just surviving life.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
And so I really always.
Speaker 4 (04:32):
Took everything with a grain of salt and realized that
it could be, you know, living on the street, I
could be dead from all the decisions I've made before.
Wrestling really saved my life. You know, I tell my
story a lot, but the cliff Notes version. As I
grew up insanely poor, I was homeless for most of
my childhood, was lucky to make it out alive, and
(04:53):
wrestling and storytelling and just living in these fantasy world
saved my life.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
So I always kind of had.
Speaker 4 (04:58):
That perspective that this was an opportunity that I was
just gonna have fun with.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
And I really think it is one hundred percent.
Speaker 4 (05:06):
Well I say one hundred percent, but I have to
give myself a little bit of credit.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
So let me.
Speaker 4 (05:10):
Say a lot of the credit goes to the fans,
because it just spoke to me being successful, spoke to
what they wanted to see, and they really were fighting
for this movement of just someone on screen that represented them.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
And I was the first.
Speaker 4 (05:29):
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 mouse that looked like she
was twelve and.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
Was THEMB was a fan that snuck in.
Speaker 4 (05:46):
And I think just that idea of feeling represented and seen,
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 it with this generation
of fans, and so they are love of me and
championing me and my journey kept me in those storylines,
(06:08):
and so I owe them so much of.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
The Gay Jay. It's funny because and you talk about
growing up and how rough it was in your book.
What's the name of your book again.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
It's called Crazy is my Superpower?
Speaker 1 (06:23):
Please go to Amazon 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
(06:43):
when they get older and start to have success. My
friend McCaulay is one who never had a childhood right.
He was a working professional from age birth 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 and went into that.
So when you have that kind and I see you
(07:06):
doing that now. But what I wanted to get to
is you have this old soul because when you talk
about why you loved it, I've heard guys 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 taking a quote and like mishmashing it into your own.
That's just you talking. But you have this very sort
(07:27):
of old school and 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. And I'm guilty of that,
(07:49):
and a lot of artists are. And I know 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,
(08:09):
but none of them are good. Right. There's only a
small handful that can impact the right 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
(08:32):
recently wrapped. Do you want to talk about that or
I just get off on the process. So whatever you
want to talk about is fine with me. But this
is an incredibly impressive accomplishment, whether you were coming from
wrestling or not, and you're still having to apply a
similar but completely different discipline to it. So I'll shut
(09:03):
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 going to shut up.
Not go ahead.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
I did. I think you're right. It is so the
same kind of discipline, right.
Speaker 4 (09:19):
I think what really helped me was the just the
perspective of like I was grateful to have food in.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
My fridge, Like that was my baseline.
Speaker 4 (09:28):
If I could just make have a career and I
could feed myself and you know, send money to my parents,
Like life was good.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
That's all I needed.
Speaker 4 (09:36):
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 I could
take into the next chapter was these fans and that
we really had this mission of representation and I just
needed to figure out what that was.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
And so the book was the first try I wrote.
Speaker 4 (09:57):
I wrote crazy is my superpower, and I just wanted
to get my story out there because I had felt
that I hadn't really told people where it came from
and how hard I struggled and my mental health journey,
and I wanted to be really transparent about that because
these people had supported me for so long.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
And what I noticed from that was that these these these.
Speaker 4 (10:19):
Fans really just believed in seeing a different perspective and
seeing a different kind of hero in the world. You know,
when I was growing up, I did not see women
who looked like me on TV. I never saw anyone
the last name Mendez. I never you know, she had
brown hair. I could be like, okay, close enough, by.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
The way, there's still only maybe two, but we're.
Speaker 4 (10:46):
Trying, and so like, you know, to me at there
was a point when I realized, oh, if I want
to see characters like me on TV, I'm just going
to have to be that character.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
And that was wrestling, and.
Speaker 4 (10:58):
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. I had gone to six months of
film school at NYU.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
That's good though.
Speaker 4 (11:14):
Yeah, I got some experience, I couldn't afford it, but
I started wrestling when that didn't work out. So everything
kind of felt really serendipitous, and I took this like
circuitous route to get back into writing, and it was
just all about like representing this, this type of this
just unseen, underrepresented character. I started in comics and with
(11:41):
Amy we did Glow and we did Dungeons and Dragons
and Wonder Woman, and then we really just started to
dabble in writing for television and screenwriting. First thing I
did was I entered I started at the bottom, like
going from wrestling and being like, oh, I'm this champion liken'.
I had such a perspective of like everywhere I go,
(12:04):
I need to like hustle and just like ground 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 in like hot
dogs and like bus fare and then and I knew
I had no ego about it. I was just going
to like work my way to the top. And so
when I started writing, it was the same thing. I
(12:26):
entered a writing competition and and won and I got
on the Blacklist Latin XTV list, and like that opened
the door and that is what introduced me to a
lot of people, and I started taking meetings and.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
That's been a really productive tool for screenwriters. I know
a couple other writers who have literally gotten careers because
of that tool.
Speaker 3 (12:48):
Yeah, and you.
Speaker 4 (12:49):
Know what, even like the exposure was amazing, but there's
also a thing where like they people just give you
feedback if you ask through that through 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.
I really saw that there was like a space that
(13:10):
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
Blade of the forty seven ronin.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
Which is going to be on Netflix next year.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
That's right, it is. You know.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
It was this idea for.
Speaker 4 (13:29):
A project that they had and Amy and I were
everything we do, it's like just just go balls the wall,
do it one hundred percent your vision, and it's either
going to work or you're going to fail miserably, but
at least you don't you know, you didn't you know,
you left everything up all the field. And that's what
was with wrestling, like I'm either going to get fired
(13:50):
by playing this little like nerd chick tomboy or it's
going to work.
Speaker 3 (13:55):
And it worked.
Speaker 4 (13:56):
So the same thing kind of worked with writing, and
we pitched this all female version of what they wanted
to do where it's like, no, it's all about the women,
like they're the stars. It's inclusive, it's very diverse, and
you know, we were scared, like, okay.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
That was okay.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
By the way, there's actually like Japanese history to support that,
and a lot of like the women and the farms
trained with the spear to learn how to fight, and
they could hide the spears 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 too,
(14:34):
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.
Speaker 4 (14:49):
Yeah, definitely the Ona Bugeisha, Like they are fascinating, and
so we really wanted to like lean into that through
that the wall and actually worked, and these wonderful producers
and studio gave us a chance and gave us our
first shot.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
You know.
Speaker 4 (15:02):
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 an hour long drama, and it's like,
we don't have it. Let's let's get it done in
a month. Done, And all of a sudden, we're now
in the you know, in the race for hour long
dramas and and so stuff is just kind of snowballed
(15:26):
in a really wonderful way.
Speaker 3 (15:27):
And we just got hired for our second feature. Yeah.
So it's like and.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
We're developed wait can you can you can you mention
it yet or is it too early?
Speaker 3 (15:36):
I can't yet.
Speaker 4 (15:37):
I'll tell you later, okay, Yeah, And we're developing on
two TV shows.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
And so, oh my gosh, man, that's so insanely great.
Speaker 4 (15:49):
It's the coolest thing. It's the coolest thing in 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
lived on the street, I feel like starved. I know
I can survive that. And so if I have to
go back to it, I going back to it.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
So now just have to just like burn the boat's
mentality though it's so hardcore, you know what I mean,
It's like there is no I remember they asked Sugar
Ray Leonard back in the in the seventies, he was
a boxing world champion, and they said, uh, what do
you plan on doing if you lose this fight? Like
what's next for you? And He's just like, I don't.
That's not an option, Like I never even thought about
(16:27):
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
telling you my cards until you pay or you fold.
And like you said, you went in with a nerd
gimmick that you're just like, if it's I got two seven,
(16:49):
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 d amy kick serious ass. And I
want to segue you talking television and we're talking wrestling.
So I have to babble a little bit again to
(17:12):
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 hear too. So about
a year ago, I guess this was during the pandemic,
(17:32):
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
write at EPT whatever, And I said, yeah, I love
wrestling and I love women's wrestling. And I said I
think women's wrestling is really at a high point right
(17:53):
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 friendly executives,
where I knew the executives, where I knew they would
(18:15):
give the idea a 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 executive forget you know,
you know, I got one in the room, but it
(18:35):
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. Da da da da dah, and then
I just see your name and I see wow, and
I go, oh my god, they're going to be on TV.
Oh my god, they're going to be on TV. And
I filipped out in the best possible way. So could
you please talk. I have no ego about this. I
(18:56):
just want as many wrestlers as possible to have as
many opportunities he's 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 deal and forget everyone else listening,
this is just you and me school me up.
Speaker 4 (19:18):
I've got to give all that credit to Jeanie and David.
I was brought on at the end of that, so
they really did all the hustling and figured out the
right home.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
She's an amazing woman, isn't she.
Speaker 3 (19:32):
God She's a force of nature and.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
Oh my gosh, she is.
Speaker 4 (19:35):
What I've understood is 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.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
An old sawyer, Terry Funk, You're the.
Speaker 4 (20:00):
I just you know, I remember being really little and
the only posters they had of the female wrestlers were
in bikinis and like the magazines, and I was like, guy,
I'm putting a bikini.
Speaker 3 (20:11):
Poster up on my wall. So just the idea of
like giving a younger generation.
Speaker 4 (20:16):
This that's sort of like wholesome superhero type lean That's.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
What their characters lean 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
(20:44):
I love bringing 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 peers that I've had other wrestlers
on here. I've had the Miz on here, who just
I look talk about a force of nature, like like,
I've had other wrestlers on here. But Jeannie was such
an interesting person. She wanted she wanted me to make
(21:07):
a puppet show. Okay, and I love puppets all right,
Like I loved him. My uncle broke the rainbow connection
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 common,
and so we were going to come up with it.
I can talk about it now because it's never going
to happen. It was called Little Lakers, and it was
(21:29):
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 Son, I go, 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, I've never forgotten like any
(21:52):
and I delete things people say to me all the time,
good advice and bad. But Geenie 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
(22:13):
you and behind this company that when she commits to something,
she is committed to it. And she's been involved with
Wow 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
(22:34):
to bring more wrestling to that. And it's not about competing.
I 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. There's slammis, but those
aren't real, Like wrestlers are a family. So this should
be you know, it should always be about opportunity. And
(22:55):
I love that you're working with someone who I she
has earned respect. It's not about oh, the Lakers of
seventeen thousand Championship. 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 it. She
was Jerry Buss's daughter. What did she ever work for?
(23:17):
What did she is? Like Stephanie McMahon, you know, all
she ever had to be was Vince McMahon's daughter, and
I'd be like, dude, she saved the Jeff Hardy Championship promo.
She single handedly saved it. When the power went out,
ran in and 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,
(23:37):
and I mean just steamrolled through man. So it's like
those are moments where respect is earned. And Jeanie has
earned that respect, and so when she gives it to
someone like you and it's not like me, you satn't
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
(23:59):
can eat then improve the work there. You can help
prevent injuries there, just because you know how to work
the 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 La 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?
Speaker 3 (24:19):
So we'll actually be shooting pretty soon. I think we're maybe.
Speaker 4 (24:22):
Sixty days out, so it's getting it's getting kind of close.
We're going to be in syndication in the fall of
twenty twenty two. Please check wowe dot com for your
local listings.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
I still right, I still have my T shirt. I'll
rock my T shirt.
Speaker 4 (24:40):
It's also on the CW Seed app and the Pluto app.
Speaker 3 (24:45):
But you know it's it's really what inspired me to join.
Speaker 4 (24:52):
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
and I never stopped loving wrestling, and this was like
the perfect way to rejoin the world of wrestling, but
(25:15):
also combine 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 McLean, which is mine.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
I'm so happy, Oh my gosh.
Speaker 3 (25:29):
And then I want to talk to her on the phone.
Speaker 4 (25:31):
You know, she really just kind of laid it out there,
like what she wants us to be and what the
vision is, 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.
It's you know, we know that people know what the
(25:51):
product is or they know what it was before, but
this is going to be a new beast and we're
really excited about that, and it's it's it's.
Speaker 3 (26:00):
A great group of women.
Speaker 4 (26:04):
And I somewhere along the way just kind of got
inspired to say, Okay, I'm also gonna do color commentary.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
I knew it. I knew I was actually going to
ask you. I was like, I gotta do something. I can't.
You got it. You can't. You can't do them like that.
You can't do the people like that.
Speaker 3 (26:20):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 4 (26:21):
I mean, you know, like wrestling opportunities have popped up
over the years, and I've just never been ready for that.
I'm not sure like physically if that's something that like
is the fires there, but the art.
Speaker 3 (26:34):
Of it it's always been there, you know.
Speaker 4 (26:36):
And when I was a fan of the women were
my favorite part of the show, and I would, you know,
skip the guys matches to watch the ladies.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
And so I had such a crush on sensational Sherry,
oh my god, like everyone else like pulled for Elizabeth
and I literally was like what what, Oh my god,
oh god, never no share, Like I was such a
Sherry Mark. Like when everyone went trist Stratus, I went
lead A. I was like, oh, oh Dan, I like
(27:03):
the tougher chicks. I always like tough chicks. Man, I
married Buffy the Vampires. I like tough chicks, man.
Speaker 3 (27:11):
Oh my god. I love that. My husband says the
same thing about Sherry and Elizabeth.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
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 WWF didn't really let her wrestle,
but she was actually really good wrestler before she got there,
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.
Speaker 3 (27:34):
Oh yeah they were.
Speaker 4 (27:35):
I mean I talked about in my book a little bit,
but they they you know, it was it was the
time when we had very small windows of matter.
Speaker 1 (27:44):
You are and five minutes and and a minute each
for your walk in, and so it's really a three
minute match. Tell the story, hang up, yup, yup.
Speaker 3 (27:54):
And I'm oh my god.
Speaker 4 (27:55):
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.
Speaker 3 (28:01):
And like got in trouble. But then they were like, but.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
It was a good way. It was a good match,
and I gave you a seat. Sometimes you got to
just burn the boats. And if you get if you
take the heat, you take the heat exactly. A lot
of times someone 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 wrong yourself.
(28:24):
That's how you get that's how you earn 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 WWE. She watched she followed Ruby over to AEW
because she likes Ruby a lot. So I can't wait
to share your contribution to that product. And yeah, I
(28:49):
just thank you so much for doing this. I haven't
seen you in fifteen plus years probably, and you're kicking
so much ass and it's so awesome. And I love you,
Amy Garcia for making this happen. And yeah, I'll get
you a jet and a non extradition country too, AJ.
So if you and your man ever need to, you know,
(29:12):
rob a bank and get away with it, just call
me up.
Speaker 3 (29:14):
I really appreciate that.
Speaker 4 (29:16):
Yeah, And when I call you back those words up
you know.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
Yeah, I mean I think I just implicated myself. So
I may have to go to an non extradition as well,
but you know, we'll party.
Speaker 3 (29:30):
Oh my gosh. I appreciate this has been amazing. It's
so cool to.
Speaker 4 (29:33):
See you still loving wrestling, and I just you were
such a huge part of making us feel comfortable when
I just start on the road, and you were a
friendly face and you were kind and really gave us a.
Speaker 3 (29:48):
To say thank you for that.
Speaker 1 (29:50):
Yeah, it needed a little balanced that company. I'm all
for a tough love, but I'm like y'all and I
never heard about Bruce Lee like you got to have
a little bit of both. Then, Thank you, 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 steamroller, the smallest
steamroller on earth. But it's still it could still squashing.
(30:13):
Thank you everybody. This has been a production of Iheart'smichael
Tura podcast Network. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the
iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
favorite shows.
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