February 8, 2024 • 11 mins
Just hours ahead of the WrestleMania 40 Press Conference in Vegas, and days ahead of Monday Night Raw taking over Rupp Arena right here in Kentucky, we welcome on Alpha Academy leader Chad Gable! We talk all things WrestleMania season like what the vibe is in the locker room, favorite WrestleMania moments, and more. Enjoy! Ah THANK YOUUUUU
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Missus Austin Theory, and you're listeningto the Baby Faces podcast on the iHeartRadio
lin wut right the wall and youare listening to the Baby Faces on Iheigh
Radio. What's going on y'all isWWE superstar Kobe Kingston and you'll listen into
the Baby Faces on iHeart Radio.Bab all right, you can hear that
(00:28):
music that means it is time hereback on with the Baby Basis podcast live
when I Have Heart Radio broadcasted byninety seven to five w A and Z
and her sister station ninety eight wonthe Pool. We are back with a
very special guest. We're on aroll with WWE superstars and you may see
that guy in the middle. That'snot our special guest, Billy. I
(00:48):
know that everyone's been channing hashtag wewant Billy, but now he's just a
part of the show. Our specialguests is is this guy all the way
to our right? Chad Gable,WWE superstar for former SmackDown ta Raw tag
Chance. This guy's done it all. I had one hell of a year
last year and he's going to bepart of Raw that's coming to Lexington next
Monday. So Chad thank you forcoming on to the show. Man.
(01:11):
How you doing. We're getting ms? Oh baby, It's my favorite time
of the year. I always sayfor obvious reasons. I mean, if
everybody's goal to get on the show, have their match, have their moment.
But it's the old athlete in mecomes out at this time of year
because I get to crank up mytraining and I get to die on the
diet and really try to peak forthat one big show. You know.
(01:33):
So I'm excited you're training right now, You're at the gym. What time
did you wake them in here?Dude? I just sleep in here.
Yeah, I just sleep in here. This is my garage. This is
where otis and I work out everysingle day. Keeps things convenient nice.
You know, don't have to goto any jam with a million people there.
We just hunker down in the garageand crank our music and we're good
(01:53):
to go. Yeah. You know, I've learned that if you have some
workout stuff at home, it's justlike staring you in the face by going
to you's so you get you know, it gives you the motivation to do
it. Love that finger at you, man. Yeah, it makes it
makes it easy. Or you feelguilty, right, But like you said,
it's no secret very exciting time inwrestling, right, WrestleMania, the
road to WrestleMania, it is thebest time of year. It's really what
(02:15):
made me fall in love with wrestlingback when I was a kid heading into
WrestleMania twenty four in two thousand andeight, that's when I started watching.
Okay, And you know, I'vealways wondered, you know, what is
the Bible like as a superstar?What is it like in the locker room
when we get to the stud here, You know, you can feel it
changed that first day of the signgoes up. I'll say that when they
(02:36):
raise it and it's almost like weknow it's coming, but it kind of
catches you off guard every time thesign you see it there the first time,
and it's almost like everybody puffs theirchest out a little bit more and
it's like, you know, it'stime, baby. And like I said,
my at least for me, Ijust dial in. Man. I
just get so excited even that ina year like this or last year,
(02:57):
where like I don't necessarily have mymatch like planned, I don't know what
I'm doing yet, I don't knowif I'm doing anything, and a lot
of people are in that same position, but that doesn't change like your approach
or your mindset. Really, youknow, it's like this is our super
Bowl, It's our biggest thing.I mean it's a cliche to say,
but it is everything for us,and you know, it's hard not to
(03:19):
just get that feeling you had whenyou were a little kid man when you
get to be a part of itnow. So it's it's exciting. I
mean, I personally, Austin attendedWrestleMania last year. We're trying to find
our way there this year. Hopefullywe can get some credentials or something,
but that yeah, we're going totry to fly this year. Yeah,
So I've never been personally, Ican't even imagine, you know, the
experience as a fan obviously incredible,but as a superstar walking out in front
(03:45):
of you know, eighty thousand people, what what is that feeling like?
I mean it's probably a cliche tosay it's it's unlike anything in the world,
but like trying to give us aglimpse of what that would be like
for us walking out there, Yeah, let me try to do this in
a real way. So it's notjust like you said, like a cliche,
but it's like, you know,I I did it in Dallas,
(04:05):
and then I did it last yearagain in LA And I would say in
La I allowed myself to take itin a lot more than I did in
Dallas for whatever reason. I don'tknow if it was because Dallas was like
my first, my first one asa performer on the show. But in
LA I took a step back whenOtis and I walked out onto the stage
(04:25):
because it's like you know, asa kid, and for those that don't
know, before the Olympics, beforeanything, this is all I ever wanted
to do. And it was thelike, maybe the best moment of my
life because you kind of take backor take a step back and go,
I did it. I've arrived andeverybody's looking at you. It's not like
(04:46):
when I look when I did theOlympics and walked in the opening ceremonies,
it was a spectacle in and ofitself. It blew my mind. It
was a stadium as well, butnobody was looking at me, you know,
they were looking at the spectacle.What's unique about in these moments when
you earn them for yourselves and you'regiven these opportunities, is for that one
moment in time. Man, it'sall about you, all eyes around you,
(05:10):
that whole stadium, eighty ninety thousandpeople. However many people, there's
nothing like it. I mean,there's no unless you're a concert performer or
someone that can sell out a stadiumlike that, you don't get those moments.
It's it's and as a kid comingfrom Minnesota, growing up in this
humble town where it just hard workand everything was preached to reach the pinnacle
basically of what you do, it'sjust so gratifying and it almost like sets
(05:36):
you up for life to be ableto tell people like it's possible. Man,
Like whatever, whatever your dream is, no matter how big or impossible
it might seem, you can doit. Because trust me, I grew
up in a cult or in aregular neighborhood, just like everybody else did.
And so to come that far andjust be able to take that in
for a moment was something else.It's fascinating to say that you kind of
(06:00):
it's always especially me and Billy workingin the radio business and working in events.
We work a lot of really coolthings too. It's sometimes hard to
stop and smell the roses a littlebit, but you know, to sit
and watch you as a performer asports entertainer, we wouldn't even be able
to tell how nervous he was,especially before that match last year, because
that happened to be such a reallygood match, and I think a lot
of people were kind of maybe givingit flack a little bit. We had
(06:20):
Ricochet on a couple of weeks agoand talked about how, you know,
it felt like you guys that torethe house down it and you guys totally
did and you guys are no secretto doing that. So once you get
out there and you kind of havea match like that, is is the
vibe good once you step back throughthe curtain afterwards, especially in a match
where it seems like, oh,you guys are just kind of throwing on
the car. I mean talk aboutlike having a chip on your shoulder.
(06:42):
Like I went from finding out wewere going to have that match, which
is like, oh, like Ifelt rewarded. I felt like I put
in the work for the year,I get this match. But then that
you know, as you said,the feedback from a lot of people it
was like, WHOA, why dothey get a spot on the card,
like there's no story there that it'slike, okay, now my mindset switch.
Now I get to back to thatold athlete mode and it's like,
okay, now it's a competition,boys, because we're gonna we're gonna tear
(07:05):
the house down. Yeah. Andthe coolest thing was like, you know,
walking into WrestleMania weekend and the vibeis there in like La and like
all the boys are showing up andeveryone's getting together and we're all vibing about
this match. Everybody felt the sameway, Like everybody was like, Okay,
we're gonna walk in that thing andwe're gonna tear the house down and
we're gonna blow everyone else out ofthe water because of that. Like so
(07:28):
now you're gonna pay for saying that. And then we left the show and
everybody's saying it was the best match, like maybe the best match of the
weekend. Yeah, like fireworks right, just dropping bombs the whole time.
And I think a lot of bigpart of that was just like everybody was
so unselfish, like everybody wanted eachother to like look good. Everybody wanted
the match to come together look good. And when you have that kind of
(07:50):
vibe in that like relationship between allof the guys in the match, thankfully,
which we did. I mean,that's what you get, you get
a spectacle and so I think comingout of it, it's like, going
forward, everyone's going to be like, well, what's the spectacle match going
to be this year? What's theuh or whatever? We called it the
(08:11):
Showcase match? Who's in the Showcasematch this year? Because we made it
a thing from the first year.That's how you do something. So well,
it's been a very WrestleMania heavy themedinterview so far, and for obvious
reasons, I'll continue on that themewith a few few whitening round questions.
A couple of mark questions here foryou. What's your favorite WrestleMania match of
(08:31):
all time? Probably bretton Owen,just because of the like technical prowess,
the fact that it's brother and brotherand the finish man. I just loved
the whole story and the fact thatit went on so early to paint the
picture for the rest of the night. But just Owen and Brett, I
think how about like best overall WrestleManiafrom from top to bottom? Maybe eighteen
(08:56):
probably the one, the one Iremember that Wreania. Yeah, that's probably
I would say that that probably beit. Yeah, yeah, I know,
I know. Seventeen. It's alot of love. Seventeen eighteen nineteen
was a hell of a stretch inmy opinion. There's a lot of good
ones in the twenties as well.And I grew up that was just around
me. And I'm talking about theHouston Astrodome like that WrestleMania seventeen that they
(09:20):
give the match. I remember thatfor her for whatever reason, and that
was that. That was good stuffall a sudden. I have another mark
question before we let you go,Gab Well, you had one hell of
a run last year with a Guntherand chasing their continental championship. Fell short,
but you had one hell of amatch with him, and obviously you
had a great moment afterwards with yourfamily and and your daughter. I have
(09:41):
to ask, how's everything it is? She still have heat with Gunther?
Is doing good with him? Yeah? Yeah, she's she's all good now.
I think she I had to talkher down a little bit, you
know, after that, but shesaw herself like online, which was weird,
you know, after like in articlesor whatever, and she's like super
into YouTube and stuff. So she'slike, as soon as she saw that,
(10:03):
like her mind all shifted off agunther and onto like what are people
saying? I'm like, you gottawe're not worrying about what people say now,
don't get into that mode. Soyou know, it's just funny,
man, how your different kids.I have three react to different things.
So she was like everybody saw,she was like highly emotional from the match
in physical like my little dude,who might you might have seen two he
(10:26):
wears single that matches me and allmy big matches. He like is into
the matches, but not as emotionalabout it, doesn't And then like my
middle girl, like she could careless, you know, she's just like
looking down and like she was justmad because she spilled her nachos, you
know, and was out of lemonade. I understand the field. Yeah,
people get it. So we aretalking to WWE superstar Chad Gable just stays
(10:48):
ahead of Monday Night Raw Taken Over, Rapperina and Lexington, Chad, have
you have you been to Lexington,Rapperina even the state of Kentucky before any
memories there? And what can thefans, you know, expect if they
come out to the show on Monday. Shout out to Factory Gym first of
all, one of my favorite gymsanyway. I've been to Lexington many times.
(11:09):
What a wrestling crowd you guys havethere, just whatever it is,
they seem to really love their wrestlingin that area, and so it makes
me brings me joy to come backto areas like that that really stand out,
because it's not everywhere in the country. You know, we're a hot
product right now, but there's certainspots and areas where we really stand out
(11:31):
and feel like we resonate, andyou're in Lexington's one of them. So
I'm excited to get back there andquote a Factory Gym one of my favorite
pots. Well, Chad Man,we appreciate you taking the time and we'll
see you here in a couple ofdays in Lexington. Thanks guys. Hey
guys, this is South Academy leaderChad Gable right here. You're listening to
(11:52):
the Babyfaces on iHeartRadio. Thank you.
Missus Austin Theory, and you're listeningto the Baby Faces podcast on the iHeartRadio
lin wut right the wall and youare listening to the Baby Faces on Iheigh
Radio. What's going on y'all isWWE superstar Kobe Kingston and you'll listen into
the Baby Faces on iHeart Radio.Bab all right, you can hear that
(00:28):
music that means it is time hereback on with the Baby Basis podcast live
when I Have Heart Radio broadcasted byninety seven to five w A and Z
and her sister station ninety eight wonthe Pool. We are back with a
very special guest. We're on aroll with WWE superstars and you may see
that guy in the middle. That'snot our special guest, Billy. I
(00:48):
know that everyone's been channing hashtag wewant Billy, but now he's just a
part of the show. Our specialguests is is this guy all the way
to our right? Chad Gable,WWE superstar for former SmackDown ta Raw tag
Chance. This guy's done it all. I had one hell of a year
last year and he's going to bepart of Raw that's coming to Lexington next
Monday. So Chad thank you forcoming on to the show. Man.
(01:11):
How you doing. We're getting ms? Oh baby, It's my favorite time
of the year. I always sayfor obvious reasons. I mean, if
everybody's goal to get on the show, have their match, have their moment.
But it's the old athlete in mecomes out at this time of year
because I get to crank up mytraining and I get to die on the
diet and really try to peak forthat one big show. You know.
(01:33):
So I'm excited you're training right now, You're at the gym. What time
did you wake them in here?Dude? I just sleep in here.
Yeah, I just sleep in here. This is my garage. This is
where otis and I work out everysingle day. Keeps things convenient nice.
You know, don't have to goto any jam with a million people there.
We just hunker down in the garageand crank our music and we're good
(01:53):
to go. Yeah. You know, I've learned that if you have some
workout stuff at home, it's justlike staring you in the face by going
to you's so you get you know, it gives you the motivation to do
it. Love that finger at you, man. Yeah, it makes it
makes it easy. Or you feelguilty, right, But like you said,
it's no secret very exciting time inwrestling, right, WrestleMania, the
road to WrestleMania, it is thebest time of year. It's really what
(02:15):
made me fall in love with wrestlingback when I was a kid heading into
WrestleMania twenty four in two thousand andeight, that's when I started watching.
Okay, And you know, I'vealways wondered, you know, what is
the Bible like as a superstar?What is it like in the locker room
when we get to the stud here, You know, you can feel it
changed that first day of the signgoes up. I'll say that when they
(02:36):
raise it and it's almost like weknow it's coming, but it kind of
catches you off guard every time thesign you see it there the first time,
and it's almost like everybody puffs theirchest out a little bit more and
it's like, you know, it'stime, baby. And like I said,
my at least for me, Ijust dial in. Man. I
just get so excited even that ina year like this or last year,
(02:57):
where like I don't necessarily have mymatch like planned, I don't know what
I'm doing yet, I don't knowif I'm doing anything, and a lot
of people are in that same position, but that doesn't change like your approach
or your mindset. Really, youknow, it's like this is our super
Bowl, It's our biggest thing.I mean it's a cliche to say,
but it is everything for us,and you know, it's hard not to
(03:19):
just get that feeling you had whenyou were a little kid man when you
get to be a part of itnow. So it's it's exciting. I
mean, I personally, Austin attendedWrestleMania last year. We're trying to find
our way there this year. Hopefullywe can get some credentials or something,
but that yeah, we're going totry to fly this year. Yeah,
So I've never been personally, Ican't even imagine, you know, the
experience as a fan obviously incredible,but as a superstar walking out in front
(03:45):
of you know, eighty thousand people, what what is that feeling like?
I mean it's probably a cliche tosay it's it's unlike anything in the world,
but like trying to give us aglimpse of what that would be like
for us walking out there, Yeah, let me try to do this in
a real way. So it's notjust like you said, like a cliche,
but it's like, you know,I I did it in Dallas,
(04:05):
and then I did it last yearagain in LA And I would say in
La I allowed myself to take itin a lot more than I did in
Dallas for whatever reason. I don'tknow if it was because Dallas was like
my first, my first one asa performer on the show. But in
LA I took a step back whenOtis and I walked out onto the stage
(04:25):
because it's like you know, asa kid, and for those that don't
know, before the Olympics, beforeanything, this is all I ever wanted
to do. And it was thelike, maybe the best moment of my
life because you kind of take backor take a step back and go,
I did it. I've arrived andeverybody's looking at you. It's not like
(04:46):
when I look when I did theOlympics and walked in the opening ceremonies,
it was a spectacle in and ofitself. It blew my mind. It
was a stadium as well, butnobody was looking at me, you know,
they were looking at the spectacle.What's unique about in these moments when
you earn them for yourselves and you'regiven these opportunities, is for that one
moment in time. Man, it'sall about you, all eyes around you,
(05:10):
that whole stadium, eighty ninety thousandpeople. However many people, there's
nothing like it. I mean,there's no unless you're a concert performer or
someone that can sell out a stadiumlike that, you don't get those moments.
It's it's and as a kid comingfrom Minnesota, growing up in this
humble town where it just hard workand everything was preached to reach the pinnacle
basically of what you do, it'sjust so gratifying and it almost like sets
(05:36):
you up for life to be ableto tell people like it's possible. Man,
Like whatever, whatever your dream is, no matter how big or impossible
it might seem, you can doit. Because trust me, I grew
up in a cult or in aregular neighborhood, just like everybody else did.
And so to come that far andjust be able to take that in
for a moment was something else.It's fascinating to say that you kind of
(06:00):
it's always especially me and Billy workingin the radio business and working in events.
We work a lot of really coolthings too. It's sometimes hard to
stop and smell the roses a littlebit, but you know, to sit
and watch you as a performer asports entertainer, we wouldn't even be able
to tell how nervous he was,especially before that match last year, because
that happened to be such a reallygood match, and I think a lot
of people were kind of maybe givingit flack a little bit. We had
(06:20):
Ricochet on a couple of weeks agoand talked about how, you know,
it felt like you guys that torethe house down it and you guys totally
did and you guys are no secretto doing that. So once you get
out there and you kind of havea match like that, is is the
vibe good once you step back throughthe curtain afterwards, especially in a match
where it seems like, oh,you guys are just kind of throwing on
the car. I mean talk aboutlike having a chip on your shoulder.
(06:42):
Like I went from finding out wewere going to have that match, which
is like, oh, like Ifelt rewarded. I felt like I put
in the work for the year,I get this match. But then that
you know, as you said,the feedback from a lot of people it
was like, WHOA, why dothey get a spot on the card,
like there's no story there that it'slike, okay, now my mindset switch.
Now I get to back to thatold athlete mode and it's like,
okay, now it's a competition,boys, because we're gonna we're gonna tear
(07:05):
the house down. Yeah. Andthe coolest thing was like, you know,
walking into WrestleMania weekend and the vibeis there in like La and like
all the boys are showing up andeveryone's getting together and we're all vibing about
this match. Everybody felt the sameway, Like everybody was like, Okay,
we're gonna walk in that thing andwe're gonna tear the house down and
we're gonna blow everyone else out ofthe water because of that. Like so
(07:28):
now you're gonna pay for saying that. And then we left the show and
everybody's saying it was the best match, like maybe the best match of the
weekend. Yeah, like fireworks right, just dropping bombs the whole time.
And I think a lot of bigpart of that was just like everybody was
so unselfish, like everybody wanted eachother to like look good. Everybody wanted
the match to come together look good. And when you have that kind of
(07:50):
vibe in that like relationship between allof the guys in the match, thankfully,
which we did. I mean,that's what you get, you get
a spectacle and so I think comingout of it, it's like, going
forward, everyone's going to be like, well, what's the spectacle match going
to be this year? What's theuh or whatever? We called it the
(08:11):
Showcase match? Who's in the Showcasematch this year? Because we made it
a thing from the first year.That's how you do something. So well,
it's been a very WrestleMania heavy themedinterview so far, and for obvious
reasons, I'll continue on that themewith a few few whitening round questions.
A couple of mark questions here foryou. What's your favorite WrestleMania match of
(08:31):
all time? Probably bretton Owen,just because of the like technical prowess,
the fact that it's brother and brotherand the finish man. I just loved
the whole story and the fact thatit went on so early to paint the
picture for the rest of the night. But just Owen and Brett, I
think how about like best overall WrestleManiafrom from top to bottom? Maybe eighteen
(08:56):
probably the one, the one Iremember that Wreania. Yeah, that's probably
I would say that that probably beit. Yeah, yeah, I know,
I know. Seventeen. It's alot of love. Seventeen eighteen nineteen
was a hell of a stretch inmy opinion. There's a lot of good
ones in the twenties as well.And I grew up that was just around
me. And I'm talking about theHouston Astrodome like that WrestleMania seventeen that they
(09:20):
give the match. I remember thatfor her for whatever reason, and that
was that. That was good stuffall a sudden. I have another mark
question before we let you go,Gab Well, you had one hell of
a run last year with a Guntherand chasing their continental championship. Fell short,
but you had one hell of amatch with him, and obviously you
had a great moment afterwards with yourfamily and and your daughter. I have
(09:41):
to ask, how's everything it is? She still have heat with Gunther?
Is doing good with him? Yeah? Yeah, she's she's all good now.
I think she I had to talkher down a little bit, you
know, after that, but shesaw herself like online, which was weird,
you know, after like in articlesor whatever, and she's like super
into YouTube and stuff. So she'slike, as soon as she saw that,
(10:03):
like her mind all shifted off agunther and onto like what are people
saying? I'm like, you gottawe're not worrying about what people say now,
don't get into that mode. Soyou know, it's just funny,
man, how your different kids.I have three react to different things.
So she was like everybody saw,she was like highly emotional from the match
in physical like my little dude,who might you might have seen two he
(10:26):
wears single that matches me and allmy big matches. He like is into
the matches, but not as emotionalabout it, doesn't And then like my
middle girl, like she could careless, you know, she's just like
looking down and like she was justmad because she spilled her nachos, you
know, and was out of lemonade. I understand the field. Yeah,
people get it. So we aretalking to WWE superstar Chad Gable just stays
(10:48):
ahead of Monday Night Raw Taken Over, Rapperina and Lexington, Chad, have
you have you been to Lexington,Rapperina even the state of Kentucky before any
memories there? And what can thefans, you know, expect if they
come out to the show on Monday. Shout out to Factory Gym first of
all, one of my favorite gymsanyway. I've been to Lexington many times.
(11:09):
What a wrestling crowd you guys havethere, just whatever it is,
they seem to really love their wrestlingin that area, and so it makes
me brings me joy to come backto areas like that that really stand out,
because it's not everywhere in the country. You know, we're a hot
product right now, but there's certainspots and areas where we really stand out
(11:31):
and feel like we resonate, andyou're in Lexington's one of them. So
I'm excited to get back there andquote a Factory Gym one of my favorite
pots. Well, Chad Man,we appreciate you taking the time and we'll
see you here in a couple ofdays in Lexington. Thanks guys. Hey
guys, this is South Academy leaderChad Gable right here. You're listening to
(11:52):
the Babyfaces on iHeartRadio. Thank you.
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