July 3, 2025 • 11 mins
It’s Unsanctioned Thursday, and I’m answering your questions—Star Wars memories, The Undertaker in the writers’ room, and the truth about writing for SNL vs. WWE. Honest takes, behind-the-scenes stories, and a few laughs—just how I like it.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Ladies and gentlemen, are you ready? Shuts about that hit
the fan? Welcome to on sanctioned Thursdays, horestling with Freddy.
Welcome to unsanctioned Thursdays or whatever day you're listening to us.
Welcome back, and today the Federation answers your questions. And
(00:28):
you guys came in with a ton. So we're gonna
get into more of them now, and we're gonna start
right in about ten more seconds. Just give me ten
seconds of dead air. I think, people, No, I'm just kidding,
Alexander linim line them, line them, I think, Freddy, what
do you miss? I haven't read any of these. I
(00:49):
haven't preread these, just so you know, so these you're
getting cold, cold, honest truths. What do you miss most
from working on Star Wars? So, for those of you
who don't know, I wasn't like in Star Wars Star Wars.
I did a cartoon called Star Wars Rebels for the
Disney Channel or the Disney app or I don't remember
(01:09):
what it was called back then or what it's called now.
But I played this character named Canaan Jeris and he
was just like Jedi who lost his master in order
sixty six when he was a boy, so he never
got to complete his training. So he's a Jedi, but
he's not like a great powerful Jedi, although the Force
is strong with him and he gets better over time
by learning from these other Jedi that are far superior
(01:32):
to him. And then his voice is in one of
the movies which shouldn't have been in that movie that
was super weird and not a good choice. But whatever,
everybody makes their choices. But what do I miss most
about it? There was an actor named Taylor Gray, and
he played my Padawan, my baby Jedi, and him and I.
(01:54):
He's a lot younger than me in real life as well,
but he and I just kind of clicked and got
each other and had a lot in comedy. He's an
old soul and we became good friends. And I miss
not getting to see him every week. It's it's far
and few between. Now. He's working on movies and not
a lot of things shooting Los Angeles anymore. So he's
traveling all over the world making movies. He was in
that Saturday Night Live movie. He just had another movie
(02:16):
come out. If you fall him on Instagram. He's got
kids working all the time and he's a really talented actor.
He's really in touch with his emotions. He can bring
him out, and he's been able to bring him out
since he was a young, young actor. So really talented dude.
Respect him a lot. And I miss I missed the
whole cast, but Tyler and I, or Taylor and I
definitely we got close on that. I know a Tyler
(02:38):
Gray as well, who's also an actor. So I often
say the wrong name, but I love him. If you're listening, bro,
I love you. He's not listening, all right? Next up,
Jay Sutton forty two. All right, Jase, here we go.
Should the Undertaker and more former wrestlers get into the
writer's room? Yeah, if they could talk. If they could talk,
they absolutely should. If they weren't talkers on the mic,
(03:00):
then absolutely not. You know, I remember a wrestler was
frustrated with one of the producers because the agent or
producer of the match was giving him stuff to do
that he didn't think was going to work. And I said,
you know, I'm trying to make it all peaceful. And
I was like, well, you know, the guy's got a
lot of experience, man, just give him a chance on this.
(03:21):
He goes he's got experience not getting over. He's like
this dude wrestled twenty years. He didn't get over once
because he doesn't know how to do a good match.
Now I got to listen to him, and I was like, yeah,
I didn't think about it like that, And so I
went to my boss at the time and spoke to him,
and he kind of laughed and well, he's not wrong,
but I shouldn't do the accent. Everyone will know who
(03:41):
it is. Anyways, the person I went and talked to
was Michael Hayes. I'll just say his nay, he's awesome, freebird.
He goes, well, he's not wrong, but he's got to
do it. He goes, I go talk to him, don't worry,
and then he smoothed it all out. And the guy's
still wrestling today and doing great, and he definitely got over.
But I remember that that was funny. So yeah, if
there good at it, I absolutely think they should be
(04:01):
in the room. Next up for Miss Kate Fabe, Get it,
Kate Fabe. What's one major thing that each major promotion
AE W and WWE should focus on for the rest
of the year. The aw one is easy. The matches
are great, the reason why sometimes leaves a little to
(04:22):
be desired. They're they're getting it right with Hangman, Adam
Page and John Moxley. They're telling a long term story
there and building that out before all in. But I
don't feel they always give you enough story even when
the opportunity is there. Sometimes there's not enough time, and
there's not enough spots on the amount of hours of
(04:43):
wrestling that you put on per week. Sometimes there's just
not But I felt, you know, over the last year
that there have been some opportunities story wise that they
could have snuck in there and made it work for
match to match and give everyone sort of a reason why.
And then when they see each other three months later,
I remember what you did to me, you son of
a gun. So yeah, So I think that's what they
could focus on. And for WWE, I would say, it's
(05:04):
almost time for the carry and cross push. That would
be really cool if he got the push that everyone
kind of wants him to get this year. So I'd
love for those two things to come true. This one's
from Adam Geek show. Do you think the WWE is
better now that they're under the TKO brand? You'd have
to describe better for me, Adam. You know, I think
(05:29):
story wise that they're telling really good stories. But they
were also telling pretty good stories right before the TKO bye,
with the bloodline and Sammy's ain in it and all
that good stuff, and Cody's story which is pre and
post TKO takeover. I believe if my history is right.
I don't pretend to be an historian. I'd just love wrestling.
(05:50):
But so, yeah, So I don't know if it's better.
You know, maybe the quality of life is better for
the wrestlers. Maybe it's worse. I don't know. I can
ask a couple wrestlers I know how they how they're
liking their jobs and things like that, and get your
answers there. But creatively, I feel like it's still in
line with where it was right before the buyout as
far as the types of stories they're telling. That doesn't
(06:11):
answer your question as well as you'd hope. But better
is a tricky word because it's subjective, right, So there
you go, Austin x v I Austin sixteen. Here we go.
(06:40):
Do you think wrestling is better with or without the Internet.
I think it's better. I think wrestlers have another option
to help get themselves over and some of them have
done it really really well. If you look at what
Matt Cardona was able to pull off, he did it first.
I think he was the first Internet Champion, a title
he created. I believe Drew McIntyre is really good on
(07:02):
Twitter as far as like help getting his character over
and his philosophies and his points of view and carrying
that over into storyline. A lot of wrestlers use his
tweets against him and their promos, so I think it's
better for wrestling. There's definitely good and a bad to it, right,
like both things can exist at the same time, just
like in life. It's not you know, black and white.
Life is very, very gray, and there's a bad side
(07:26):
to it too. I know people's contract stuff gets leaked.
That's bad. Storylines get leaked, that's bad. Finishes get leaked,
that's all bad. But it you know, what's the Buddhist thing,
there's ten thousand joys and ten thousand sorrows in life,
and sometimes you're going to experience a bunch of them
at once, and it's going to outweigh the other. And
sometimes it's going to be balanced, and sometimes it'll be
out of whack the other way. But there's ten thousand
(07:47):
joys and ten thousand sorrows with everything that has to
do with wrestling, So yeah, but I think it's better overall.
All Right, we're getting through these. The final question from
the so cal King thirty two, which would be harder
to write for SNL or WWE so Cal King thirty two.
(08:09):
I am in a unique position that I have seen
both environments work and have successes and failures. I hosted
SNL back in the day. I don't remember what movie
I was promoting. I think it was Down to You.
That's the name of that one or two styles right
down to You down, Yeah, don I'm not tripping down
(08:32):
to you, and I hosted I don't remember the musical
guest was Macy Gray, and I watched their writer's room
work and operate. I think it might be a little easier,
believe it or not, in SNL, because you can have
evergreen skits, sketches, scenes that aren't on any kind of timeline.
(08:56):
You can just come up with a character and go, well,
I'm gonna save that for when the boss is feeling me,
and then I'm gonna pitch this new character and see
what happens, or I got this funny idea for a
one off scene that we can just pocket, and if
the show is struggling, I go, oh, I have this scene.
Da da da da da. So in wrestling you can't
do that. It's it's weak to week. You can't really
save anything. You can maybe save a good promo, but
(09:17):
you still have to tweak it when the time comes,
based on the person the other the other characters wrestling, right,
and the bosses were very, very different, like Lauren is
a very was a very different boss than Vince was.
I don't know how how Hunter is as a boss.
I like, I liked Hunter when I worked there, but
I don't I don't know how he is as a boss.
I just know Vince and I know how Lauren operated.
(09:39):
Lauren was certainly more supportive, tough, but supportive. Vince wouldn't
even read the SmackDown scripts until the actual like rundown
of the show, you know, four hours before we shoot,
and then would sometimes not like it and make the
writers rewrite everything. Right. Then, Lauren is in those pitch
(10:02):
meetings where all the ideas are getting pitched, and he's
letting you know almost right away whether he's liking what
you're doing or not and is sending you back to
the drawing board, so you get a little more time,
even though Saturday Night Live is crazy rushed, and then
the final thing is Saturday Night Live runs in seasons.
WWE is three hundred and sixty five days a year,
(10:23):
so the writers get time off to kind of recharge,
come up with new ideas, go out do their stand
up comedy, come up with new characters, all that kind
of stuff. The writers in WWE just get grinded on,
grinded on, not like at a strip club where it's
awesome in a horrible way, like a rock grinding on
your skin, and it really wears It really wears you down,
(10:45):
especially when a good idea gets smashed and gets replaced
with an idea that you don't think is as good
as the one that just got smashed. Now, that probably
happens in SNL two, but it happened like on the
weekly in WWE, so I've seen how both operate. That's
kind of my on both, and I think SNL would
be not quite as hard as as WWE, although there
(11:06):
are comedy stuff on SNL outside well, we'll save that
for another episode. Thank you guys for watching. If you're
watching our videos on social, thank you for listening. Wherever
you listen from and whatever day you listen on. I
hope everyone is a happy Fourth of July weekend. If
you're listening to us after the fourth, I hope it
was awesome. Stay safe, watch fireworks. Don't light fireworks same
(11:29):
as cigarettes, right, It looks cool, but don't smoke them
because they'll kill you. See y'all next week. Peace,
Ladies and gentlemen, are you ready? Shuts about that hit
the fan? Welcome to on sanctioned Thursdays, horestling with Freddy.
Welcome to unsanctioned Thursdays or whatever day you're listening to us.
Welcome back, and today the Federation answers your questions. And
(00:28):
you guys came in with a ton. So we're gonna
get into more of them now, and we're gonna start
right in about ten more seconds. Just give me ten
seconds of dead air. I think, people, No, I'm just kidding,
Alexander linim line them, line them, I think, Freddy, what
do you miss? I haven't read any of these. I
(00:49):
haven't preread these, just so you know, so these you're
getting cold, cold, honest truths. What do you miss most
from working on Star Wars? So, for those of you
who don't know, I wasn't like in Star Wars Star Wars.
I did a cartoon called Star Wars Rebels for the
Disney Channel or the Disney app or I don't remember
(01:09):
what it was called back then or what it's called now.
But I played this character named Canaan Jeris and he
was just like Jedi who lost his master in order
sixty six when he was a boy, so he never
got to complete his training. So he's a Jedi, but
he's not like a great powerful Jedi, although the Force
is strong with him and he gets better over time
by learning from these other Jedi that are far superior
(01:32):
to him. And then his voice is in one of
the movies which shouldn't have been in that movie that
was super weird and not a good choice. But whatever,
everybody makes their choices. But what do I miss most
about it? There was an actor named Taylor Gray, and
he played my Padawan, my baby Jedi, and him and I.
(01:54):
He's a lot younger than me in real life as well,
but he and I just kind of clicked and got
each other and had a lot in comedy. He's an
old soul and we became good friends. And I miss
not getting to see him every week. It's it's far
and few between. Now. He's working on movies and not
a lot of things shooting Los Angeles anymore. So he's
traveling all over the world making movies. He was in
that Saturday Night Live movie. He just had another movie
(02:16):
come out. If you fall him on Instagram. He's got
kids working all the time and he's a really talented actor.
He's really in touch with his emotions. He can bring
him out, and he's been able to bring him out
since he was a young, young actor. So really talented dude.
Respect him a lot. And I miss I missed the
whole cast, but Tyler and I, or Taylor and I
definitely we got close on that. I know a Tyler
(02:38):
Gray as well, who's also an actor. So I often
say the wrong name, but I love him. If you're listening, bro,
I love you. He's not listening, all right? Next up,
Jay Sutton forty two. All right, Jase, here we go.
Should the Undertaker and more former wrestlers get into the
writer's room? Yeah, if they could talk. If they could talk,
they absolutely should. If they weren't talkers on the mic,
(03:00):
then absolutely not. You know, I remember a wrestler was
frustrated with one of the producers because the agent or
producer of the match was giving him stuff to do
that he didn't think was going to work. And I said,
you know, I'm trying to make it all peaceful. And
I was like, well, you know, the guy's got a
lot of experience, man, just give him a chance on this.
(03:21):
He goes he's got experience not getting over. He's like
this dude wrestled twenty years. He didn't get over once
because he doesn't know how to do a good match.
Now I got to listen to him, and I was like, yeah,
I didn't think about it like that, And so I
went to my boss at the time and spoke to him,
and he kind of laughed and well, he's not wrong,
but I shouldn't do the accent. Everyone will know who
(03:41):
it is. Anyways, the person I went and talked to
was Michael Hayes. I'll just say his nay, he's awesome, freebird.
He goes, well, he's not wrong, but he's got to
do it. He goes, I go talk to him, don't worry,
and then he smoothed it all out. And the guy's
still wrestling today and doing great, and he definitely got over.
But I remember that that was funny. So yeah, if
there good at it, I absolutely think they should be
(04:01):
in the room. Next up for Miss Kate Fabe, Get it,
Kate Fabe. What's one major thing that each major promotion
AE W and WWE should focus on for the rest
of the year. The aw one is easy. The matches
are great, the reason why sometimes leaves a little to
(04:22):
be desired. They're they're getting it right with Hangman, Adam
Page and John Moxley. They're telling a long term story
there and building that out before all in. But I
don't feel they always give you enough story even when
the opportunity is there. Sometimes there's not enough time, and
there's not enough spots on the amount of hours of
(04:43):
wrestling that you put on per week. Sometimes there's just
not But I felt, you know, over the last year
that there have been some opportunities story wise that they
could have snuck in there and made it work for
match to match and give everyone sort of a reason why.
And then when they see each other three months later,
I remember what you did to me, you son of
a gun. So yeah, So I think that's what they
could focus on. And for WWE, I would say, it's
(05:04):
almost time for the carry and cross push. That would
be really cool if he got the push that everyone
kind of wants him to get this year. So I'd
love for those two things to come true. This one's
from Adam Geek show. Do you think the WWE is
better now that they're under the TKO brand? You'd have
to describe better for me, Adam. You know, I think
(05:29):
story wise that they're telling really good stories. But they
were also telling pretty good stories right before the TKO bye,
with the bloodline and Sammy's ain in it and all
that good stuff, and Cody's story which is pre and
post TKO takeover. I believe if my history is right.
I don't pretend to be an historian. I'd just love wrestling.
(05:50):
But so, yeah, So I don't know if it's better.
You know, maybe the quality of life is better for
the wrestlers. Maybe it's worse. I don't know. I can
ask a couple wrestlers I know how they how they're
liking their jobs and things like that, and get your
answers there. But creatively, I feel like it's still in
line with where it was right before the buyout as
far as the types of stories they're telling. That doesn't
(06:11):
answer your question as well as you'd hope. But better
is a tricky word because it's subjective, right, So there
you go, Austin x v I Austin sixteen. Here we go.
(06:40):
Do you think wrestling is better with or without the Internet.
I think it's better. I think wrestlers have another option
to help get themselves over and some of them have
done it really really well. If you look at what
Matt Cardona was able to pull off, he did it first.
I think he was the first Internet Champion, a title
he created. I believe Drew McIntyre is really good on
(07:02):
Twitter as far as like help getting his character over
and his philosophies and his points of view and carrying
that over into storyline. A lot of wrestlers use his
tweets against him and their promos, so I think it's
better for wrestling. There's definitely good and a bad to it, right,
like both things can exist at the same time, just
like in life. It's not you know, black and white.
Life is very, very gray, and there's a bad side
(07:26):
to it too. I know people's contract stuff gets leaked.
That's bad. Storylines get leaked, that's bad. Finishes get leaked,
that's all bad. But it you know, what's the Buddhist thing,
there's ten thousand joys and ten thousand sorrows in life,
and sometimes you're going to experience a bunch of them
at once, and it's going to outweigh the other. And
sometimes it's going to be balanced, and sometimes it'll be
out of whack the other way. But there's ten thousand
(07:47):
joys and ten thousand sorrows with everything that has to
do with wrestling, So yeah, but I think it's better overall.
All Right, we're getting through these. The final question from
the so cal King thirty two, which would be harder
to write for SNL or WWE so Cal King thirty two.
(08:09):
I am in a unique position that I have seen
both environments work and have successes and failures. I hosted
SNL back in the day. I don't remember what movie
I was promoting. I think it was Down to You.
That's the name of that one or two styles right
down to You down, Yeah, don I'm not tripping down
(08:32):
to you, and I hosted I don't remember the musical
guest was Macy Gray, and I watched their writer's room
work and operate. I think it might be a little easier,
believe it or not, in SNL, because you can have
evergreen skits, sketches, scenes that aren't on any kind of timeline.
(08:56):
You can just come up with a character and go, well,
I'm gonna save that for when the boss is feeling me,
and then I'm gonna pitch this new character and see
what happens, or I got this funny idea for a
one off scene that we can just pocket, and if
the show is struggling, I go, oh, I have this scene.
Da da da da da. So in wrestling you can't
do that. It's it's weak to week. You can't really
save anything. You can maybe save a good promo, but
(09:17):
you still have to tweak it when the time comes,
based on the person the other the other characters wrestling, right,
and the bosses were very, very different, like Lauren is
a very was a very different boss than Vince was.
I don't know how how Hunter is as a boss.
I like, I liked Hunter when I worked there, but
I don't I don't know how he is as a boss.
I just know Vince and I know how Lauren operated.
(09:39):
Lauren was certainly more supportive, tough, but supportive. Vince wouldn't
even read the SmackDown scripts until the actual like rundown
of the show, you know, four hours before we shoot,
and then would sometimes not like it and make the
writers rewrite everything. Right. Then, Lauren is in those pitch
(10:02):
meetings where all the ideas are getting pitched, and he's
letting you know almost right away whether he's liking what
you're doing or not and is sending you back to
the drawing board, so you get a little more time,
even though Saturday Night Live is crazy rushed, and then
the final thing is Saturday Night Live runs in seasons.
WWE is three hundred and sixty five days a year,
(10:23):
so the writers get time off to kind of recharge,
come up with new ideas, go out do their stand
up comedy, come up with new characters, all that kind
of stuff. The writers in WWE just get grinded on,
grinded on, not like at a strip club where it's
awesome in a horrible way, like a rock grinding on
your skin, and it really wears It really wears you down,
(10:45):
especially when a good idea gets smashed and gets replaced
with an idea that you don't think is as good
as the one that just got smashed. Now, that probably
happens in SNL two, but it happened like on the
weekly in WWE, so I've seen how both operate. That's
kind of my on both, and I think SNL would
be not quite as hard as as WWE, although there
(11:06):
are comedy stuff on SNL outside well, we'll save that
for another episode. Thank you guys for watching. If you're
watching our videos on social, thank you for listening. Wherever
you listen from and whatever day you listen on. I
hope everyone is a happy Fourth of July weekend. If
you're listening to us after the fourth, I hope it
was awesome. Stay safe, watch fireworks. Don't light fireworks same
(11:29):
as cigarettes, right, It looks cool, but don't smoke them
because they'll kill you. See y'all next week. Peace,
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