November 27, 2023 • 36 mins
Get ready for a spectacular conversation with the incredible Nigah Sism, a wrestler whose journey in merging his music character with wrestling persona for branding is truly inspiring. This episode unfolds with Nigah's fascinating discourse on the significance of face paint in wrestling, its influence from his favorite wrestlers and how it has become a part of his unique branding. He also reveals the story behind his viral video with his son that has garnered over a million views and discusses his commitment to Platinum Championship Wrestling.
As the episode progresses, I recount my personal experiences and the rollercoaster ride of returning to wrestling in 2020. The journey was marked with challenges and victories, from being booked on multiple shows, challenging for world championships, to selling out arenas. I also share the thrilling story of my match with Alex Kane and how it has brought me a step closer to my dream of wrestling overseas.
In the concluding segment, Nigah and I delve into the crucial aspects of maintaining a strong and quality-driven brand in the wrestling business. We explore the pitfalls of putting too much emphasis on rankings and lists instead of personal brand development, discuss the importance of professionalism and consistency, and conclude with some invaluable advice for aspiring wrestlers. This episode is a goldmine of insights and experiences from wrestling veterans, sure to inspire and guide anyone aspiring to make their mark in this sport.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to a brand new
episode of no ID podcast.
Here I have here.
I can't even say phenomenal, Iwant to say crazy.
I'm giving this man his flowersbefore we even start the
podcast.
I see nothing but great thingswith this man.
(00:25):
I've seen him.
It's highlights on YouTube.
I've seen the highlights allover on Instagram.
I found him off a blackwrestling.
You get Instagram page.
The great Nigah Sism.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Yes, I appreciate that.
Great introduction, wonderfulintroduction.
Maybe sound bigger than I am,but yeah they man.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Yeah, I see it man.
I'm a fan.
I became a fan.
I think you had a video thatwent viral where you were
wrestling your son and then Ijust tap my son.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Let me explain it.
The video went viral.
My page alone is up to almost800,000.
It's about an 800,000.
But there's another page.
You took my video and posted onFacebook as their own and it
has.
I think it has over a million.
Last time I checked it wasaround 700,000, but that was a
couple of weeks ago.
Then another page posted onFacebook too as their own video,
(01:24):
but they did tag me and thatgot over 20,000.
So collectively on the internetit is well over a million views
.
And that's just actually one ofmy fans and he's the son of one
of the photographers that filmthat actually shoot PCW
Wrestling Show.
It's her son, so you can hearin the background come on, tray.
(01:47):
So that's her son.
When he's a big fan, she sentme pictures of him posing like
me and it's just, it's crazy,it's inspired.
You know kids and I get it atall the shows like kids coming
with their faces painted andstuff like that.
I love it.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
The face paint.
Let's start there.
We don't go all over.
How did you come about with theface paint, like, what is?
Who inspired you?
What inspired you?
Speaker 2 (02:15):
It's not that complicated of a story.
Growing up, my favoritewrestlers were the guys with the
face paint staying warrior,great motor, the road warriors,
you name it.
I love guys with face painting.
Then when I first startedwrestling, I was into music and
a part of my music I wanted todo something that kind of set me
apart and make me stand out.
(02:35):
So I added a little face paintand my music character, my music
, my character as a musician,kind of just merged with my
wrestling character.
And I'm always thinkingbranding and marketing.
I don't think like just like anindie wrestler.
I'm always thinking what's,what can be marketable, what can
be branding wise?
They got the logos, you got theshirts, you got the colors,
it's, it's marketable,definitely.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Hell yes, Sting great Muda, I would say road warriors
.
You named a couple of greatones.
Man, how did you get startedinto wrestling, though?
Like what made you wake up oneday and do that?
Speaker 2 (03:10):
I have been a wrestling fan since I think I
was about four years old andwhat would happen is I would
like watch a lot of the samestuff over and over, because we
would go to the, to the store toget, you know, rent DVDs and
rent stuff, and I would just,you know, they don't always have
new stuff, so sometimes I justrent the same thing over and
(03:31):
over.
But I've just always been awrestling fan and like I told
you I was doing music here inAtlanta and I was performing at
a venue and I saw a wrestlingcome across the big screen and I
was like where's that at?
What's that?
They're like oh, that'swrestling.
They train here on Tuesdays.
I was like really, I'm coming.
(03:52):
They was like you're a musician, you're not coming to wrestling
.
I showed up Tuesday and thatTuesday and literally I was
doing everything.
I was because I've always beeninto martial arts boxing.
My background is in martialarts boxing, captain of the
wrestling team in high school,all of that.
So I already had a littlenatural talent.
(04:14):
I've been in my mind, I've beenwatching wrestling and studying
it all my life, so it literallycame to me like that.
I wouldn't say the psychologycame to me like that, not in
psychology, but the moves, thebumping.
Because when I first startedwrestling I was having 10, 15
minute matches with Vets and wewere just calling it in the ring
(04:35):
and it was easy like butter tome.
No planning anything out.
I had a best of seven serieswith a guy named Phantom who did
like to plan anything.
So literally we had sevenmatches of just beating the hell
out of each other.
No calling, no planning, doinga lot of crazy stuff.
(04:57):
You see on TV now reversals,all that crazy stuff we were
doing.
And without planning it out, itwas just us going in the ring
and that was like me six monthsinto wrestling, damn.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
I went to wrestling school for one hour.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
Speaking of a wrestling school for whoever's
watching, if you're in Atlanta,decatur, stone Mountain,
covington, coyne, georgia's area.
I am one of the trainers atPlatinum Championship Wrestling
PCW's wrestling school.
We train on every Sunday,wednesday and Thursday.
We have a good hold on thebasics, but we can teach every
(05:37):
element of wrestling, whetherit's branding, marketing, promos
, everything.
We do it all.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
Yeah, that's actually very important.
I commend you for stickingthrough.
I went one hour and 40 of thatwas on the phone trying to
figure out if I'm going toactually do this.
The other 20 was me actuallypulling up to the driveway and I
was like you know what?
I'm going to go ahead and tapout on this one.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
It's not easy and it's not for the week, and I
mentor a lot of young talentsright now.
Talk to a lot of young guys nowand the cassette, the they have
it easy now.
They don't know they have iteasy, but you know it's easier
to get your name out with socialmedia now.
So many different promotions towork for and everything.
(06:28):
But a lot of the young talentsnow have become entitled.
After six months, three monthsof training.
They think they're good, theythink they're the best, just
because they can do some flips.
But they still don't have thepsychology.
They still don't understand thebusiness.
And that's what we're runninginto with a lot of younger
talents now.
That's just starting out.
They want it right then.
(06:48):
And there they want it withtheir six months of training.
They're not willing to work forit, they're not willing to
grind for it.
A lot of them aren't going tomake it because they they're not
willing to put the work in.
They think they deserve itwithin a year.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
Yeah, that's true.
That's just like with me andcompany.
You get some cats, they'll getlike a good five minutes set.
They could shoot a Netflixspecial with five minutes like
bro.
It would be an ad for everytime you say the sentence.
But it is what it is, man.
You know what I do want to say.
I want to give you a compliment.
Your move set closely remindsme of AJ Styles TNA Run, when
(07:27):
they actually went over thespike when they first were
starting off.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
He's a big fan of his and one of the bookers here in
Georgia who I really always takeadvice from and has been around
forever.
He does gear.
He still does AJ Styles gear tothis day Rick Michaels.
When AJ Styles had his firsttryout match in WWE.
(07:51):
I think like 2002-2003.
He had that tryout matchagainst Rick Michaels.
So Rick Michaels is a legendhere in Georgia and just
speaking of AJ I just had tobring that up but somebody I've
always studied and loved AJ RVD.
I'm a AJ RVD, bret Hart, shawnMichaels, ricky Stembeau type of
(08:12):
guy.
When I'm ring-wise that's what,that's where I put my mindset.
As far as my in-ring workCharacter work I like the guys
with the face paint and all that, the colors and all that but
wrestling wise I'm looking toShawn Bret RVD, AJ, and I don't
like to necessarily take frompeople when I do what my move
set is up.
I like to.
I'll take from somebody, butI'll make it my own First.
(08:37):
It's like Leo Rush does thebottom rope thing, where he
springs back and does thestunner.
Well, I do the bottom ropething, but I'll come back and do
a clothesline.
So you know I'll take somethings from some people, but I
always make it my own.
I'm not gonna do exactly whatother people do and some people
say, well, it's wrestling, youknow it doesn't matter about the
move.
It doesn't matter about themoves, but one part that makes
(08:59):
me stand out.
I'm a smaller guy so I have todo things that makes me stand
out.
And one thing that makes mestand out is being creative in
the ring and doing having aregular move set.
But my move set is differentfrom everyone else's move set.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
Thanks.
How has been the, the wrestlinggrind from, you know,
graduating from wrestling schooland into the level that you are
at right now and thenprogressing on to like a bigger
territory, a bigger market, likea maybe.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
AEW or M-PAC or NWA.
So what happened for me when Ifirst started?
I didn't understand thebusiness and that's why I'm on
Younger Talus now, because I wasjust wrestling at PCW and was
like this is great, this is it.
You know, I didn't knowanything about indie wrestling.
I didn't really even ever thinkabout getting signed.
I was just doing it for fun.
(09:52):
And then Xavier Wood started totrain with us for a while.
That was when I was just brandnew.
He had just.
He started training with usright before he got signed to
WWE and he really like took meon his way, like right, and took
me to a ring of honor show.
He always talked great about mebecause he was able to see that
(10:13):
best of seven and he's like Ican't believe they're having
these matches and not callinganything.
They're just literally going inthere wrestling.
And he took to me and I alwaysrespect that.
You know that was a big, bigdeal for me, but at the time I
didn't know how big of a dealthat was, that somebody on his
level would take the time toreally so into me and really
(10:34):
push me and all that kind ofstuff.
I didn't understand thebusiness.
So I started to venture offfrom PCW and go a couple other
places, started to get pushed,started to get championships and
stuff like that.
But then I got an opportunitywith music to travel overseas
and do a tour overseas.
I got booked on aninternational tour.
So I was like life is kickingmy butt right now.
(10:57):
I'm going to step away fromwrestling, go do this tour, then
I'll come back and eventuallyI'll start back wrestling.
That never happened.
I took a break.
I came back in 2020.
As soon as I started trainingto come back in 2020, first I
came back, it was in December Icame and watched the wrestling
show.
I was like, hmm, because PCWhad been gone for a while, they
(11:19):
came back.
They got a new building.
I was like, oh, they can dothis.
This person can do this.
I started to talk to some ofthe talents, I started to
commentate and I was like Iguess I can do one more match.
This is 2020.
I was like I guess I'll do onemore match.
So I started training just forone match.
March 2020 happened.
I got into a bad car accident.
Top car got total.
(11:40):
I couldn't train for like fouror five months because my back
was so messed up.
So you know, I had just startedtraining to come back.
So then I had to train to comeback from the back injury.
So I had my first match inJanuary, january 8, 2021.
First match back.
I wrestled for like four monthsin PCW.
I didn't really wrestle.
I wrestled maybe one show.
(12:00):
I didn't wrestle for a coupleof shows.
I wrestled one show.
I had two matches here andthere, but I was really starting
to get good.
But in my mind my cardio wasn'twhere I wanted to be.
I just was doubting myself.
Then Rick, speaking of RickMichaels he came.
He's like hey, you should cometo Adarchy because he's booking
Adarchy here in Georgia, used tobe NWA Wild Side, which is
(12:21):
where AJ Styles, r Shroof all ofthem got there starting.
So he was like you should comeon.
He's like you're good, Ipromise you you're good enough
to do this.
I was like, oh no, I don't feellike I'm in the best shape,
blah, blah, blah.
I just was doubting myself andeventually I got on and started
wrestling at multiple shows.
That's the thing you know, I'mchallenging for world
(12:42):
championships here here there.
It just gradually started tohappen and if you would have
asked me two years ago, wouldthis be going on now Main event
in multiple shows having NickPatrick's retirement match
Within two and a half years?
I've done all this.
You know I've made events atthe biggest shows here in
Georgia, sold out arenas.
(13:02):
A couple of weeks ago we soldout the Eastern downtown Atlanta
me and Owen Knight over 1,200people.
So you know, none of this wasplanned, none of this was in my
head, none of this I thought wasgoing to happen.
It just happened.
So, after putting in this hardwork over the past two years
after about a year of putting inthat hard work and starting to
really get booked.
(13:22):
I said I think I can reallymake it in doing this.
So the ultimate goal is for me,if I ever get to wrestle on a
big stage like WWE, wow.
But my main goal is to getoverseas.
Get some years overseas reallywrestling, doing some getting
them wrestling here in Japan.
(13:43):
I would love to get theopportunity to do impact impact
NWA, aew and overseas.
Those are the main things thatI would like to accomplish
before my career is over.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Like I see now, like everybody's kind of moving away
from the big box of WWE andthey're going to more tours of
AEW ROH.
You see the relationships beingbuilt with Impact and New Japan
and DDT and I'm just sayingthere's a big surgeons and I
also see a big surgeons and alot of more black wrestlers
(14:23):
being featured, a lot more.
You know Bobby Lashley Street,profes Rich Swan, alex Kane,
shane.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
Teller Nigga Alex Kane shout out to him.
I had an awesome match with him.
What was that?
In July?
Great match, great match, andthat's another thing that really
pushed me along this year.
For people who didn't havetheir eyes on me.
A lot more eyes got on me afterthat.
Alex came back earlier thisyear and it was a month before
he won the MLW championship, sothat was a big deal for me.
(14:53):
So respect, all respect, due tohim also.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
Big respect to him.
He's the reason I startedwatching MLW.
Hopefully I get him as a guestup here, but I definitely need
to get Nigasism story out a lotmore.
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
Speaking of Alice, that was a great match.
I loved it.
It reminded me of like a BrockLesnar versus Daniel Bryan or
Brock Lesnar versus Ben Baller.
It was that style of match.
You know, I had to fight forMunder.
I had to use my speed to fightagainst those suplexes, his
power and everything, and we hada banger.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
Hell yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
And I got that rolled up in that pen no rematches, no
rematches.
I can't get him Get it back Ileft that MLW championship on
the line.
I'll come to you.
Court Bauer, you can just goahead and book that match.
(15:57):
I'll come on in.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
MLW.
Be lit man.
I saw they brought Don Kingback this week.
I was like damn.
I remember that first feelingyou had when you stepped in the
ring and that first feeling youhad when you got that first W or
that first don't.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
The first one is how I feel every time, because I'm
always nervous Every time I goout.
I'm never.
I'm never like oh, I got this,I'm cool.
I'm always backstage stretchingfor like about an hour doing
pushups, before I go outstretching, praying, getting my
mind together.
I'm nervous for this in frontof 500 people, 1,000 people, 20
(16:37):
people, 100 people, because I'mmy worst critic.
And not only am I my worst, myworst critic, I'm also how would
I put this?
I'm never.
I never settle.
I always want to be the best.
I always want to steal the show.
I don't care if I'm in theopening match, I'm gonna care if
I'm in the last match.
(16:57):
I always want to be the best.
I don't know if I ever get outof that.
I've heard some of that sayingyou know, I used to want to be
the best, but I realized I'mgonna get paid the same
regardless or whatever.
You know, I've heard that, butI just always want to be the
best on the card.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
I don't think nobody is in the business not to be the
best Trust me.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
There's plenty of people who are just in this
business because they like doingit.
They like wrestling.
Because I was that guy when Ifirst started.
I just liked wrestling, Iwanted to be good and I wanted
to be the best where I was at,where I was wrestling at.
But I didn't have this bigaspiration of I could be doing
this overseas.
And I would hear my trainer sayit.
(17:38):
People say you know you can goas far as you want in this
business.
I'll hear them tell me you knowhe can be a big star, he can go
wherever you want to do,whatever you want to do in the
business.
And I'm listening in my headI'm listening.
I'm like, yeah, but I'm doingmusic too, like you know, it's
like I never I didn't realizewhat I had when I had it, but
now I do, and you know thatcomes with maturity and a lot of
(18:00):
stuff that the younger talentsare going through now, like
attention tantrums or tempertantrums or, you know, being
upset about certain things orthinking they should have won
this award or they should wentbe winning this championship,
and stuff like that.
You just got to put the work ininstead of complaining about it
.
Shut up, go train, get in thegym and get better.
(18:22):
That's what I say.
You're doing too much of thisinstead of doing too much of
this.
You're doing too much of thisinstead of running the ropes and
training.
Keep talking.
All that talking is why you'renot getting to the point where
you're supposed to be at.
It's a big problem in theindustry now, just because you
got a couple cool reels and youcan do a couple a lot of cool
(18:43):
flips and stuff like that.
See, I can post reels doingcool flips and cool moves and
stuff, but not only is the realof the clips and the moves cool,
but the whole match, the storyof the matches was good.
The story of the match, theflow of the matches, was the
good part.
So that's what I mean by theypost the cool flips and stuff.
(19:06):
But then you watch the whole 10minute match and the match is
sloppy as hell they strikes thecar of them.
But they did a cool flip.
But they look like they've beendoing karate at the local
Kroger.
They look like they're learninghow to fight at Kroger.
You know what I'm saying.
This is like stepping game up.
(19:26):
That's what I tell everybody.
I do a lot of talking but I backit up because I train every
week.
That's not a week that doesn'tgo by on train.
As good as I am, or peoplethink I am, I train every week.
Still I'm not that bad.
That's like, oh, I'm not takingthat, I'm not doing that.
(19:46):
No, we were working on bodyslams off the top rope in
practice on Thursday before Ihad my three stages of hell
match against over night.
Friday night we were literallydoing a Ric Flair bump off the
top rope, you know.
So it is what it is.
Too many wrestlers now out heretalking.
(20:07):
Stop talking, go train, live upto the hype.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
That's it.
I think we like it more of apush button era, like an air
fryer microwave, then put on theoven and cook it on the stove
Type.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
But it wants that shit so fast, man, and they
don't realize like it's a grindto get to the top.
Sometimes you get cash.
You meet that could be 20 plusyears into the game and they'll
still go hard as hell andthey'll get that big break and
they're still going hard as helland it's like you can't have it
now Exactly.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
He just got it and 99 .
And now he's 41.
Main eventing.
So no one can't tell me likeit's never.
Anything is possible if you putthe work in.
You become undeniable, whichnot only with your social media
and your presence in the ringand everything.
(21:02):
You just become undeniable asan undeniable package your
branding, your body, gettingyour body in shape, chris
Jericho's in his 50s, claudiaall these people are wrestling
in their 40s and 50s and they'rein their prime and they're not
slowing down.
So all these young peoplethinking, oh, let the young
people get a chance.
Blah, blah, blah.
Make your way.
(21:23):
You know, fight your waythrough.
Keep the door, keep the door in, break the glass ceiling.
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
Yeah, my thing is I always tell people shut the fuck
up, put the work in and it'llspeak for itself.
You may not win that award, butyou want to be that guy that if,
even if you didn't win theaward, you'll have people come
up to you like me damn, youshould have won that one.
That should make you even goeven harder, going on to the
next time and the next time.
And if you just shut the fuckup, focus on your craft, drink
(21:53):
water and mind your business, Ipromise you in any music
wrestling, even in comedy andpodcast, you'll go so far.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
Speaking of podcasting something I'm about
to get into, so when I start mynew podcast, I can have you on
as a guest.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
Yeah, I got you Hit me up.
I believe in returning the love, I believe in giving the
flowers out there and I believein just helping out because I
believe that the entertainmentgods, as I like to say will
bless us back.
You know what I mean.
Like, if you bless me with 30minutes of your time, I can
bless you with 30 or moreminutes of my time.
(22:30):
That's plain and simple.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
And now speaking, when you say how awards and
stuff work and how people are oh, you should have got this and
you should be here and youshould be good.
So just to bring it up, theblack.
What is the black top 500?
Yeah, it is.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
Like the.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
PWI 500, so they had the BW 500.
And of course it's not official.
It's not an official list,right?
It's not an official list thata committee came together and
they, they went and checkedrecords and they went and
checked vote, they voted and allthat kind of stuff, and then
they came over.
They came over with it.
It's one guy with the pain.
Okay, I'll follow with that.
But everyone was kind of likesending me the list.
(23:07):
How are you not on the list?
You've beaten a lot of peopleon the list.
You've beaten people in the top100, the top 200, 300, a half,
you know, through the whole listI've beaten people and my brand
is way stronger than a lot ofpeople.
I was like.
You know, at the end of the day, my brand, who I am, shines
through all of that.
It doesn't matter if I'm on thelist, not on the list, because
(23:31):
everybody knows who deserves tobe in what, who don't deserve
whatever.
You know, it is what it isBecause, at the end of the day,
I'm still gonna be the greatest,the baddest, the best.
I'm still gonna be main eventing.
I'm still gonna be walkingaround here with plenty of belts
on me.
I'm still gonna be sellingplenty of merch at shows.
(23:51):
I'm still gonna be doingeverything I'm doing.
I'm still gonna be in the mainevent.
Have that?
People on that list never evenwrestled in front of 500 people?
You know they never been in themain event, they never sold out
of the main event, they neverheld world championships.
So at the end of the day, it'sa list.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
I don't care about it .
Speaker 2 (24:11):
Talk your shit, it's a list and I'm proud of
everybody that was on the list,but hey, it's a list.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
It's other people's opinions.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
And guess what this is?
This is a business, and for meit's been a business.
That's why my merchants I'malways selling shirts, I'm
selling autographed pictures.
Okay, I'm booked and busy.
Brother, I'm on a list or not?
Speaker 1 (24:41):
I like it, man.
How did you do that, that threestages of Hill match?
Well, one night man cause youjumped off some shit.
You taped them up to a table.
Now you know what?
Speaker 2 (24:54):
So it's pretty much all over social media right now
and it just happened Friday andyou know, somebody sent me a
video of it and I was like hey,so many people got videos.
You know we're in the digitalage where I was like, well, dang
, I want to wait till the showcome out so I can watch it, just
to kind of like that.
The first match was a regularmatch and pretty much we went
(25:14):
back and forth.
We wrestled each other about 12times this year.
We had everything between meand Owen.
We wrestled for the first timelast July or June, something
like that, and after wrestlinghim once I was like wow, it's
something there Like we can makemagic together.
Last November I challenged himto the best of seven series at
Southern Honor.
We had the best of seven seriesat the end of that Southern
(25:37):
Honor in February, I mean nobodyhas tested me in the ring like
that.
This guy is super talented.
If anybody deserves to be on amain stage, he is one of those
talents, because it's not justthe end ring, it's the
personality.
He can talk, he can do it alland he deserves every accolade
and every spot that he's inright now.
(25:58):
Then we end up having anotherbig match at a Comic-Con and
like Tupelo I think it wasMississippi Tupelo or something
like that it's hundreds ofpeople there.
That was great.
Then we came back, we did itagain at a festival here and for
his part, anyway, we justcouldn't get away from each
other.
And after that best of seven,the crowd started chatting.
(26:21):
We won a tag team.
So we had a great tag teammatch against the Washington
Willets Top Tag Team here inGeorgia for years.
Then we challenged for the tagtitles.
That's when he turned on me.
So all of that led to the.
Finally we got the end.
It started in November last year.
It ends in November this year.
So three stages of hell.
First match was back and forthlike our normal best of seven
(26:44):
style matches we had back andforth.
Then it turned into a falsecount anywhere.
We battled all over the arenaChair shots, trashcans shots,
low blows.
Then it went to the I quitmatch.
What you said I quit matchended how you just the strap to
the table and everything likethat there was I don't want to
get too much away.
(27:04):
We just going to let peoplewatch it when it comes out in a
couple of weeks.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
Yeah, it's long-term storytelling.
From what I heard, yes.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
And that's one thing, a lot of these talents who
think they are good and thinkthey are great.
I said, yeah, you've done abunch of flips, so you do cool
stuff, but how many long-termstories have you been in?
How many promotions have beenable to build a story around you
and then bring that story tothe end?
And then how many promotionshave been able to put you in a
(27:34):
main event spot, build thepromotion around you and all
that?
So yeah, you've had a couplecool matches and you did a
couple good flips and did acouple little good spots and all
that kind of stuff.
But it's not about theirwrestling, it's not just about
that.
You got to be able to tellstories, promos, you got to be
able to bring it all into apackage.
(27:55):
And so you know I'm tested.
I'm tested in every aspect,from the promos to the backstage
stuff, to the main events, tothe tag team matches.
I've been tested, I'm prepared.
So I always tell, every time Ido an interview, I say I don't
know what's next, but I do knowI'm prepared for whatever is
(28:16):
next and I'm always going to beprepared.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
Hello you, hey.
Speaker 2 (28:21):
before we end the interview, we're about to wrap
it up, cause you know what?
I got a photo shoot in 30minutes with my new faction.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
Show it.
Speaker 2 (28:32):
My new faction is coming over.
We're about to get these newshirts.
We got to get the photo shootwith the new shirts and
everything.
Shoot some bing-yats.
Hell yeah, cause that's my nextstep, you know building.
Everyone in my faction has beenwrestling, less than you know,
two or three years or whatever.
Some of them have beenwrestling for a year or two.
Everybody's pretty much in therookie or a coming up status.
(28:56):
So I'm starting a faction, notwhat established guys.
I'm starting a faction withfour younger talents that I can
elevate.
So this, as we build this storyand we start this group, I'm
going to elevate them.
Where am I mad?
I'm going to bring them with me.
We're going to have on theshirts, we're going to have on
the hoodies.
So, yeah, I'm about not onlyjust building myself up as I am
(29:22):
on this wrestling journey.
If I see somebody who has thetalent, I'm gonna build them up
to and elevate them to.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
Maybe you ever need a comedy writer.
Speaker 2 (29:32):
Yeah, oh, we gonna talk about it too, because if I
have a Show called its variety,which is sketch comedy, we the
first season I did by myself, Idid multiple characters, film
the whole thing myself.
The second season I did a cast,I had a full cast.
So I've already written thethird season and we were
planning for that to get beyond,to be so that's my whole other
(29:55):
side of thing, my whole TV show.
It's variety.
So maybe I'll get you linked upon that and you can see what
what I got going on with itsvariety and then outside it's
variety.
I'm not just a wrestler, I'm inschool.
I'm In school for my seconddegree, media.
I'm in school for my seconddegree, media Communication.
(30:17):
So I have a podcast in class, Ihave social media classes, I
have film and Video.
All that, that's everything inmy degree, you know, encompasses
it, encompasses all media.
So, yeah, I'm in school, I'mrunning a production company,
I'm running a wrestling companyand I'm doing what I do as a
wrestler also.
(30:38):
So the grind don't stop.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
Mm-hmm 25 25 man.
If the people want to get incontact with you, reach out for
two for interviews, get merged.
What do they see you at onsocial media?
Speaker 2 (30:58):
So we're gonna keep everything.
I'm gonna tell everybody justIG right now, because when you
go to the IG, in the bio it hasa link tree and the link tree
has tiktok.
It has everything that you needto know.
But if you want to email medirectly for an interview,
everything's not just a nod tosystem at gmailcom, simple, in
(31:20):
aJ I s, I s m at gmailcom andthen if you want to reach out to
me on social media, let's justkeep it on Instagram because I
can connect you to everythingelse on Instagram.
On Instagram is the Nodgism, soT he NHA, as I s m the greatest,
the best, the best, just hit meup on Instagram.
(31:40):
I do follow back.
Social media has been crazy forthe past month because, like
you said, that video went viral.
I've never had that muchinteraction till this day.
Every time I go on my Instagram, there's more than 100 lights,
more than 50 comments that Ihave to go through and just
Respond to.
Because I try to respond toevery comment, I try to
(32:01):
acknowledge every like andeverything like that, because,
um, I feel like beinginteractive with your audience
is how you continue to grow youraudience.
Speaker 1 (32:09):
When, when new people come on your page and they see
oh he's interacting with all hiseverybody comments and he's
interacting and he's.
Speaker 2 (32:16):
That makes them want to interact with you.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
So you know big facts , big face.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
Yeah, follow the Instagram D nodges ism message
me, I'll respond, or email me,I'll respond and support,
support, support, support,support, support support support
.
Speaker 1 (32:33):
Yeah, I heard all the messages them.
You can't.
You're not a wrestling fan of.
You heard this one.
You are going to be a fan of anodges ism.
He also gave a lot of jewelsabout how to not Get a big head,
stay humble, how to stay trueto the craft.
The passion he had with hiswhole conversation shows not
(32:54):
only is he professional wrestler, musician, businessman, but
he's an artist.
He cares about his craft.
Speaker 2 (33:03):
And the biggest thing I could tell people who are
trying to get into wrestling yougot to come into the mindset of
this is a business.
How you carry yourselfbackstage, how you carry
yourself when you walk in a room, it's always, always have a
business mindset.
You don't see me go to showswithout my own virtual, my own
shirt on um, and I'm justexperienced.
(33:26):
For the past two and a halfyears I experienced a lot of
younger talents lose their coolbackstage or, uh, you know, just
lose it.
I mean I'm not gonna go intodetails, but just stay
professional, guys.
Um, do what the booker wants todo.
I mean certain things you canquestion, but one of the most
(33:48):
things, best things you can doas a young talent, where you
going to a new show or you'retrying to get over and all that
kind of stuff.
You know you can add yourlittle two cents in, but always
be professional and try to dowhat the booker says.
Because you listen to thebooker the first time he's
probably gonna have you comeback because he feels like, okay
, I can work with this kid, Ican coach him, I can, he's gonna
(34:09):
listen.
You know, whatever you know,you know most bosses aren't
gonna hire somebody that'salways gonna be combative and
always arguing all would, neveron time, and all that kind of
stuff.
Be on time, be on time, be a beabout your business If you're
entering the wrestling businessis called the wrestling business
(34:29):
for a reason.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
Fuck yeah, got to hear that.
And to my comedians out thereAll podcasts is the entertainers
.
Listen to this man right hereand, instead of think about
wrestling, think about thecomedy aspect as well too.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
That's it.
I released a video on myproduction page, my production
company page.
I'm starting to do tutorials onthat page and the first one I
tutorial job was consistency,and consistency is key with
everything you know, whetheryou're a comedian, actor,
business owner, entrepreneur,hairstyles, whatever Consistency
(35:04):
is what one thing that willhelp drive your brand.
If they know that you'reconsistent with posting and
everything that you do and thequality of the work Is
consistently grows, then I'mgonna purchase whatever your
product you buy and I'm gonnause you.
I'm gonna hire you becauseyou're consistent.
If you're that consistent withwhat you're doing, I know you'll
be consistent for me.
So that's that's my Key thingfor everybody.
(35:28):
Whatever you're doing, just beconsistent and always stay
quality.
Don't just throw stuff outthere just for the sake of
throwing it out there.
Be strategic with what you postand what you do.
I'm strategic with everything Ido.
I.
Speaker 1 (35:42):
Like Thank you so much.
Now just says them for being, Iguess, um, I really appreciate
the jewels that you drop and Ihope you continue getting your
flowers and being a OG of thegame.
I'm not talking about originalgame, so I'm talking about
offering game To those that'swilling to go underneath your
(36:03):
mentorship.
So I appreciate you so much,brother.
I'm going to stop the recording.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to a brand new
episode of no ID podcast.
Here I have here.
I can't even say phenomenal, Iwant to say crazy.
I'm giving this man his flowersbefore we even start the
podcast.
I see nothing but great thingswith this man.
(00:25):
I've seen him.
It's highlights on YouTube.
I've seen the highlights allover on Instagram.
I found him off a blackwrestling.
You get Instagram page.
The great Nigah Sism.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Yes, I appreciate that.
Great introduction, wonderfulintroduction.
Maybe sound bigger than I am,but yeah they man.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Yeah, I see it man.
I'm a fan.
I became a fan.
I think you had a video thatwent viral where you were
wrestling your son and then Ijust tap my son.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Let me explain it.
The video went viral.
My page alone is up to almost800,000.
It's about an 800,000.
But there's another page.
You took my video and posted onFacebook as their own and it
has.
I think it has over a million.
Last time I checked it wasaround 700,000, but that was a
couple of weeks ago.
Then another page posted onFacebook too as their own video,
(01:24):
but they did tag me and thatgot over 20,000.
So collectively on the internetit is well over a million views
.
And that's just actually one ofmy fans and he's the son of one
of the photographers that filmthat actually shoot PCW
Wrestling Show.
It's her son, so you can hearin the background come on, tray.
(01:47):
So that's her son.
When he's a big fan, she sentme pictures of him posing like
me and it's just, it's crazy,it's inspired.
You know kids and I get it atall the shows like kids coming
with their faces painted andstuff like that.
I love it.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
The face paint.
Let's start there.
We don't go all over.
How did you come about with theface paint, like, what is?
Who inspired you?
What inspired you?
Speaker 2 (02:15):
It's not that complicated of a story.
Growing up, my favoritewrestlers were the guys with the
face paint staying warrior,great motor, the road warriors,
you name it.
I love guys with face painting.
Then when I first startedwrestling, I was into music and
a part of my music I wanted todo something that kind of set me
apart and make me stand out.
(02:35):
So I added a little face paintand my music character, my music
, my character as a musician,kind of just merged with my
wrestling character.
And I'm always thinkingbranding and marketing.
I don't think like just like anindie wrestler.
I'm always thinking what's,what can be marketable, what can
be branding wise?
They got the logos, you got theshirts, you got the colors,
it's, it's marketable,definitely.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Hell yes, Sting great Muda, I would say road warriors
.
You named a couple of greatones.
Man, how did you get startedinto wrestling, though?
Like what made you wake up oneday and do that?
Speaker 2 (03:10):
I have been a wrestling fan since I think I
was about four years old andwhat would happen is I would
like watch a lot of the samestuff over and over, because we
would go to the, to the store toget, you know, rent DVDs and
rent stuff, and I would just,you know, they don't always have
new stuff, so sometimes I justrent the same thing over and
(03:31):
over.
But I've just always been awrestling fan and like I told
you I was doing music here inAtlanta and I was performing at
a venue and I saw a wrestlingcome across the big screen and I
was like where's that at?
What's that?
They're like oh, that'swrestling.
They train here on Tuesdays.
I was like really, I'm coming.
(03:52):
They was like you're a musician, you're not coming to wrestling
.
I showed up Tuesday and thatTuesday and literally I was
doing everything.
I was because I've always beeninto martial arts boxing.
My background is in martialarts boxing, captain of the
wrestling team in high school,all of that.
So I already had a littlenatural talent.
(04:14):
I've been in my mind, I've beenwatching wrestling and studying
it all my life, so it literallycame to me like that.
I wouldn't say the psychologycame to me like that, not in
psychology, but the moves, thebumping.
Because when I first startedwrestling I was having 10, 15
minute matches with Vets and wewere just calling it in the ring
(04:35):
and it was easy like butter tome.
No planning anything out.
I had a best of seven serieswith a guy named Phantom who did
like to plan anything.
So literally we had sevenmatches of just beating the hell
out of each other.
No calling, no planning, doinga lot of crazy stuff.
(04:57):
You see on TV now reversals,all that crazy stuff we were
doing.
And without planning it out, itwas just us going in the ring
and that was like me six monthsinto wrestling, damn.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
I went to wrestling school for one hour.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
Speaking of a wrestling school for whoever's
watching, if you're in Atlanta,decatur, stone Mountain,
covington, coyne, georgia's area.
I am one of the trainers atPlatinum Championship Wrestling
PCW's wrestling school.
We train on every Sunday,wednesday and Thursday.
We have a good hold on thebasics, but we can teach every
(05:37):
element of wrestling, whetherit's branding, marketing, promos
, everything.
We do it all.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
Yeah, that's actually very important.
I commend you for stickingthrough.
I went one hour and 40 of thatwas on the phone trying to
figure out if I'm going toactually do this.
The other 20 was me actuallypulling up to the driveway and I
was like you know what?
I'm going to go ahead and tapout on this one.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
It's not easy and it's not for the week, and I
mentor a lot of young talentsright now.
Talk to a lot of young guys nowand the cassette, the they have
it easy now.
They don't know they have iteasy, but you know it's easier
to get your name out with socialmedia now.
So many different promotions towork for and everything.
(06:28):
But a lot of the young talentsnow have become entitled.
After six months, three monthsof training.
They think they're good, theythink they're the best, just
because they can do some flips.
But they still don't have thepsychology.
They still don't understand thebusiness.
And that's what we're runninginto with a lot of younger
talents now.
That's just starting out.
They want it right then.
(06:48):
And there they want it withtheir six months of training.
They're not willing to work forit, they're not willing to
grind for it.
A lot of them aren't going tomake it because they they're not
willing to put the work in.
They think they deserve itwithin a year.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
Yeah, that's true.
That's just like with me andcompany.
You get some cats, they'll getlike a good five minutes set.
They could shoot a Netflixspecial with five minutes like
bro.
It would be an ad for everytime you say the sentence.
But it is what it is, man.
You know what I do want to say.
I want to give you a compliment.
Your move set closely remindsme of AJ Styles TNA Run, when
(07:27):
they actually went over thespike when they first were
starting off.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
He's a big fan of his and one of the bookers here in
Georgia who I really always takeadvice from and has been around
forever.
He does gear.
He still does AJ Styles gear tothis day Rick Michaels.
When AJ Styles had his firsttryout match in WWE.
(07:51):
I think like 2002-2003.
He had that tryout matchagainst Rick Michaels.
So Rick Michaels is a legendhere in Georgia and just
speaking of AJ I just had tobring that up but somebody I've
always studied and loved AJ RVD.
I'm a AJ RVD, bret Hart, shawnMichaels, ricky Stembeau type of
(08:12):
guy.
When I'm ring-wise that's what,that's where I put my mindset.
As far as my in-ring workCharacter work I like the guys
with the face paint and all that, the colors and all that but
wrestling wise I'm looking toShawn Bret RVD, AJ, and I don't
like to necessarily take frompeople when I do what my move
set is up.
I like to.
I'll take from somebody, butI'll make it my own First.
(08:37):
It's like Leo Rush does thebottom rope thing, where he
springs back and does thestunner.
Well, I do the bottom ropething, but I'll come back and do
a clothesline.
So you know I'll take somethings from some people, but I
always make it my own.
I'm not gonna do exactly whatother people do and some people
say, well, it's wrestling, youknow it doesn't matter about the
move.
It doesn't matter about themoves, but one part that makes
(08:59):
me stand out.
I'm a smaller guy so I have todo things that makes me stand
out.
And one thing that makes mestand out is being creative in
the ring and doing having aregular move set.
But my move set is differentfrom everyone else's move set.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
Thanks.
How has been the, the wrestlinggrind from, you know,
graduating from wrestling schooland into the level that you are
at right now and thenprogressing on to like a bigger
territory, a bigger market, likea maybe.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
AEW or M-PAC or NWA.
So what happened for me when Ifirst started?
I didn't understand thebusiness and that's why I'm on
Younger Talus now, because I wasjust wrestling at PCW and was
like this is great, this is it.
You know, I didn't knowanything about indie wrestling.
I didn't really even ever thinkabout getting signed.
I was just doing it for fun.
(09:52):
And then Xavier Wood started totrain with us for a while.
That was when I was just brandnew.
He had just.
He started training with usright before he got signed to
WWE and he really like took meon his way, like right, and took
me to a ring of honor show.
He always talked great about mebecause he was able to see that
(10:13):
best of seven and he's like Ican't believe they're having
these matches and not callinganything.
They're just literally going inthere wrestling.
And he took to me and I alwaysrespect that.
You know that was a big, bigdeal for me, but at the time I
didn't know how big of a dealthat was, that somebody on his
level would take the time toreally so into me and really
(10:34):
push me and all that kind ofstuff.
I didn't understand thebusiness.
So I started to venture offfrom PCW and go a couple other
places, started to get pushed,started to get championships and
stuff like that.
But then I got an opportunitywith music to travel overseas
and do a tour overseas.
I got booked on aninternational tour.
So I was like life is kickingmy butt right now.
(10:57):
I'm going to step away fromwrestling, go do this tour, then
I'll come back and eventuallyI'll start back wrestling.
That never happened.
I took a break.
I came back in 2020.
As soon as I started trainingto come back in 2020, first I
came back, it was in December Icame and watched the wrestling
show.
I was like, hmm, because PCWhad been gone for a while, they
(11:19):
came back.
They got a new building.
I was like, oh, they can dothis.
This person can do this.
I started to talk to some ofthe talents, I started to
commentate and I was like Iguess I can do one more match.
This is 2020.
I was like I guess I'll do onemore match.
So I started training just forone match.
March 2020 happened.
I got into a bad car accident.
Top car got total.
(11:40):
I couldn't train for like fouror five months because my back
was so messed up.
So you know, I had just startedtraining to come back.
So then I had to train to comeback from the back injury.
So I had my first match inJanuary, january 8, 2021.
First match back.
I wrestled for like four monthsin PCW.
I didn't really wrestle.
I wrestled maybe one show.
(12:00):
I didn't wrestle for a coupleof shows.
I wrestled one show.
I had two matches here andthere, but I was really starting
to get good.
But in my mind my cardio wasn'twhere I wanted to be.
I just was doubting myself.
Then Rick, speaking of RickMichaels he came.
He's like hey, you should cometo Adarchy because he's booking
Adarchy here in Georgia, used tobe NWA Wild Side, which is
(12:21):
where AJ Styles, r Shroof all ofthem got there starting.
So he was like you should comeon.
He's like you're good, Ipromise you you're good enough
to do this.
I was like, oh no, I don't feellike I'm in the best shape,
blah, blah, blah.
I just was doubting myself andeventually I got on and started
wrestling at multiple shows.
That's the thing you know, I'mchallenging for world
(12:42):
championships here here there.
It just gradually started tohappen and if you would have
asked me two years ago, wouldthis be going on now Main event
in multiple shows having NickPatrick's retirement match
Within two and a half years?
I've done all this.
You know I've made events atthe biggest shows here in
Georgia, sold out arenas.
(13:02):
A couple of weeks ago we soldout the Eastern downtown Atlanta
me and Owen Knight over 1,200people.
So you know, none of this wasplanned, none of this was in my
head, none of this I thought wasgoing to happen.
It just happened.
So, after putting in this hardwork over the past two years
after about a year of putting inthat hard work and starting to
really get booked.
(13:22):
I said I think I can reallymake it in doing this.
So the ultimate goal is for me,if I ever get to wrestle on a
big stage like WWE, wow.
But my main goal is to getoverseas.
Get some years overseas reallywrestling, doing some getting
them wrestling here in Japan.
(13:43):
I would love to get theopportunity to do impact impact
NWA, aew and overseas.
Those are the main things thatI would like to accomplish
before my career is over.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Like I see now, like everybody's kind of moving away
from the big box of WWE andthey're going to more tours of
AEW ROH.
You see the relationships beingbuilt with Impact and New Japan
and DDT and I'm just sayingthere's a big surgeons and I
also see a big surgeons and alot of more black wrestlers
(14:23):
being featured, a lot more.
You know Bobby Lashley Street,profes Rich Swan, alex Kane,
shane.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
Teller Nigga Alex Kane shout out to him.
I had an awesome match with him.
What was that?
In July?
Great match, great match, andthat's another thing that really
pushed me along this year.
For people who didn't havetheir eyes on me.
A lot more eyes got on me afterthat.
Alex came back earlier thisyear and it was a month before
he won the MLW championship, sothat was a big deal for me.
(14:53):
So respect, all respect, due tohim also.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
Big respect to him.
He's the reason I startedwatching MLW.
Hopefully I get him as a guestup here, but I definitely need
to get Nigasism story out a lotmore.
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
Speaking of Alice, that was a great match.
I loved it.
It reminded me of like a BrockLesnar versus Daniel Bryan or
Brock Lesnar versus Ben Baller.
It was that style of match.
You know, I had to fight forMunder.
I had to use my speed to fightagainst those suplexes, his
power and everything, and we hada banger.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
Hell yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
And I got that rolled up in that pen no rematches, no
rematches.
I can't get him Get it back Ileft that MLW championship on
the line.
I'll come to you.
Court Bauer, you can just goahead and book that match.
(15:57):
I'll come on in.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
MLW.
Be lit man.
I saw they brought Don Kingback this week.
I was like damn.
I remember that first feelingyou had when you stepped in the
ring and that first feeling youhad when you got that first W or
that first don't.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
The first one is how I feel every time, because I'm
always nervous Every time I goout.
I'm never.
I'm never like oh, I got this,I'm cool.
I'm always backstage stretchingfor like about an hour doing
pushups, before I go outstretching, praying, getting my
mind together.
I'm nervous for this in frontof 500 people, 1,000 people, 20
(16:37):
people, 100 people, because I'mmy worst critic.
And not only am I my worst, myworst critic, I'm also how would
I put this?
I'm never.
I never settle.
I always want to be the best.
I always want to steal the show.
I don't care if I'm in theopening match, I'm gonna care if
I'm in the last match.
(16:57):
I always want to be the best.
I don't know if I ever get outof that.
I've heard some of that sayingyou know, I used to want to be
the best, but I realized I'mgonna get paid the same
regardless or whatever.
You know, I've heard that, butI just always want to be the
best on the card.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
I don't think nobody is in the business not to be the
best Trust me.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
There's plenty of people who are just in this
business because they like doingit.
They like wrestling.
Because I was that guy when Ifirst started.
I just liked wrestling, Iwanted to be good and I wanted
to be the best where I was at,where I was wrestling at.
But I didn't have this bigaspiration of I could be doing
this overseas.
And I would hear my trainer sayit.
(17:38):
People say you know you can goas far as you want in this
business.
I'll hear them tell me you knowhe can be a big star, he can go
wherever you want to do,whatever you want to do in the
business.
And I'm listening in my headI'm listening.
I'm like, yeah, but I'm doingmusic too, like you know, it's
like I never I didn't realizewhat I had when I had it, but
now I do, and you know thatcomes with maturity and a lot of
(18:00):
stuff that the younger talentsare going through now, like
attention tantrums or tempertantrums or, you know, being
upset about certain things orthinking they should have won
this award or they should wentbe winning this championship,
and stuff like that.
You just got to put the work ininstead of complaining about it
.
Shut up, go train, get in thegym and get better.
(18:22):
That's what I say.
You're doing too much of thisinstead of doing too much of
this.
You're doing too much of thisinstead of running the ropes and
training.
Keep talking.
All that talking is why you'renot getting to the point where
you're supposed to be at.
It's a big problem in theindustry now, just because you
got a couple cool reels and youcan do a couple a lot of cool
(18:43):
flips and stuff like that.
See, I can post reels doingcool flips and cool moves and
stuff, but not only is the realof the clips and the moves cool,
but the whole match, the storyof the matches was good.
The story of the match, theflow of the matches, was the
good part.
So that's what I mean by theypost the cool flips and stuff.
(19:06):
But then you watch the whole 10minute match and the match is
sloppy as hell they strikes thecar of them.
But they did a cool flip.
But they look like they've beendoing karate at the local
Kroger.
They look like they're learninghow to fight at Kroger.
You know what I'm saying.
This is like stepping game up.
(19:26):
That's what I tell everybody.
I do a lot of talking but I backit up because I train every
week.
That's not a week that doesn'tgo by on train.
As good as I am, or peoplethink I am, I train every week.
Still I'm not that bad.
That's like, oh, I'm not takingthat, I'm not doing that.
(19:46):
No, we were working on bodyslams off the top rope in
practice on Thursday before Ihad my three stages of hell
match against over night.
Friday night we were literallydoing a Ric Flair bump off the
top rope, you know.
So it is what it is.
Too many wrestlers now out heretalking.
(20:07):
Stop talking, go train, live upto the hype.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
That's it.
I think we like it more of apush button era, like an air
fryer microwave, then put on theoven and cook it on the stove
Type.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
But it wants that shit so fast, man, and they
don't realize like it's a grindto get to the top.
Sometimes you get cash.
You meet that could be 20 plusyears into the game and they'll
still go hard as hell andthey'll get that big break and
they're still going hard as helland it's like you can't have it
now Exactly.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
He just got it and 99 .
And now he's 41.
Main eventing.
So no one can't tell me likeit's never.
Anything is possible if you putthe work in.
You become undeniable, whichnot only with your social media
and your presence in the ringand everything.
(21:02):
You just become undeniable asan undeniable package your
branding, your body, gettingyour body in shape, chris
Jericho's in his 50s, claudiaall these people are wrestling
in their 40s and 50s and they'rein their prime and they're not
slowing down.
So all these young peoplethinking, oh, let the young
people get a chance.
Blah, blah, blah.
Make your way.
(21:23):
You know, fight your waythrough.
Keep the door, keep the door in, break the glass ceiling.
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
Yeah, my thing is I always tell people shut the fuck
up, put the work in and it'llspeak for itself.
You may not win that award, butyou want to be that guy that if,
even if you didn't win theaward, you'll have people come
up to you like me damn, youshould have won that one.
That should make you even goeven harder, going on to the
next time and the next time.
And if you just shut the fuckup, focus on your craft, drink
(21:53):
water and mind your business, Ipromise you in any music
wrestling, even in comedy andpodcast, you'll go so far.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
Speaking of podcasting something I'm about
to get into, so when I start mynew podcast, I can have you on
as a guest.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
Yeah, I got you Hit me up.
I believe in returning the love, I believe in giving the
flowers out there and I believein just helping out because I
believe that the entertainmentgods, as I like to say will
bless us back.
You know what I mean.
Like, if you bless me with 30minutes of your time, I can
bless you with 30 or moreminutes of my time.
(22:30):
That's plain and simple.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
And now speaking, when you say how awards and
stuff work and how people are oh, you should have got this and
you should be here and youshould be good.
So just to bring it up, theblack.
What is the black top 500?
Yeah, it is.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
Like the.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
PWI 500, so they had the BW 500.
And of course it's not official.
It's not an official list,right?
It's not an official list thata committee came together and
they, they went and checkedrecords and they went and
checked vote, they voted and allthat kind of stuff, and then
they came over.
They came over with it.
It's one guy with the pain.
Okay, I'll follow with that.
But everyone was kind of likesending me the list.
(23:07):
How are you not on the list?
You've beaten a lot of peopleon the list.
You've beaten people in the top100, the top 200, 300, a half,
you know, through the whole listI've beaten people and my brand
is way stronger than a lot ofpeople.
I was like.
You know, at the end of the day, my brand, who I am, shines
through all of that.
It doesn't matter if I'm on thelist, not on the list, because
(23:31):
everybody knows who deserves tobe in what, who don't deserve
whatever.
You know, it is what it isBecause, at the end of the day,
I'm still gonna be the greatest,the baddest, the best.
I'm still gonna be main eventing.
I'm still gonna be walkingaround here with plenty of belts
on me.
I'm still gonna be sellingplenty of merch at shows.
(23:51):
I'm still gonna be doingeverything I'm doing.
I'm still gonna be in the mainevent.
Have that?
People on that list never evenwrestled in front of 500 people?
You know they never been in themain event, they never sold out
of the main event, they neverheld world championships.
So at the end of the day, it'sa list.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
I don't care about it .
Speaker 2 (24:11):
Talk your shit, it's a list and I'm proud of
everybody that was on the list,but hey, it's a list.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
It's other people's opinions.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
And guess what this is?
This is a business, and for meit's been a business.
That's why my merchants I'malways selling shirts, I'm
selling autographed pictures.
Okay, I'm booked and busy.
Brother, I'm on a list or not?
Speaker 1 (24:41):
I like it, man.
How did you do that, that threestages of Hill match?
Well, one night man cause youjumped off some shit.
You taped them up to a table.
Now you know what?
Speaker 2 (24:54):
So it's pretty much all over social media right now
and it just happened Friday andyou know, somebody sent me a
video of it and I was like hey,so many people got videos.
You know we're in the digitalage where I was like, well, dang
, I want to wait till the showcome out so I can watch it, just
to kind of like that.
The first match was a regularmatch and pretty much we went
(25:14):
back and forth.
We wrestled each other about 12times this year.
We had everything between meand Owen.
We wrestled for the first timelast July or June, something
like that, and after wrestlinghim once I was like wow, it's
something there Like we can makemagic together.
Last November I challenged himto the best of seven series at
Southern Honor.
We had the best of seven seriesat the end of that Southern
(25:37):
Honor in February, I mean nobodyhas tested me in the ring like
that.
This guy is super talented.
If anybody deserves to be on amain stage, he is one of those
talents, because it's not justthe end ring, it's the
personality.
He can talk, he can do it alland he deserves every accolade
and every spot that he's inright now.
(25:58):
Then we end up having anotherbig match at a Comic-Con and
like Tupelo I think it wasMississippi Tupelo or something
like that it's hundreds ofpeople there.
That was great.
Then we came back, we did itagain at a festival here and for
his part, anyway, we justcouldn't get away from each
other.
And after that best of seven,the crowd started chatting.
(26:21):
We won a tag team.
So we had a great tag teammatch against the Washington
Willets Top Tag Team here inGeorgia for years.
Then we challenged for the tagtitles.
That's when he turned on me.
So all of that led to the.
Finally we got the end.
It started in November last year.
It ends in November this year.
So three stages of hell.
First match was back and forthlike our normal best of seven
(26:44):
style matches we had back andforth.
Then it turned into a falsecount anywhere.
We battled all over the arenaChair shots, trashcans shots,
low blows.
Then it went to the I quitmatch.
What you said I quit matchended how you just the strap to
the table and everything likethat there was I don't want to
get too much away.
(27:04):
We just going to let peoplewatch it when it comes out in a
couple of weeks.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
Yeah, it's long-term storytelling.
From what I heard, yes.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
And that's one thing, a lot of these talents who
think they are good and thinkthey are great.
I said, yeah, you've done abunch of flips, so you do cool
stuff, but how many long-termstories have you been in?
How many promotions have beenable to build a story around you
and then bring that story tothe end?
And then how many promotionshave been able to put you in a
(27:34):
main event spot, build thepromotion around you and all
that?
So yeah, you've had a couplecool matches and you did a
couple good flips and did acouple little good spots and all
that kind of stuff.
But it's not about theirwrestling, it's not just about
that.
You got to be able to tellstories, promos, you got to be
able to bring it all into apackage.
(27:55):
And so you know I'm tested.
I'm tested in every aspect,from the promos to the backstage
stuff, to the main events, tothe tag team matches.
I've been tested, I'm prepared.
So I always tell, every time Ido an interview, I say I don't
know what's next, but I do knowI'm prepared for whatever is
(28:16):
next and I'm always going to beprepared.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
Hello you, hey.
Speaker 2 (28:21):
before we end the interview, we're about to wrap
it up, cause you know what?
I got a photo shoot in 30minutes with my new faction.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
Show it.
Speaker 2 (28:32):
My new faction is coming over.
We're about to get these newshirts.
We got to get the photo shootwith the new shirts and
everything.
Shoot some bing-yats.
Hell yeah, cause that's my nextstep, you know building.
Everyone in my faction has beenwrestling, less than you know,
two or three years or whatever.
Some of them have beenwrestling for a year or two.
Everybody's pretty much in therookie or a coming up status.
(28:56):
So I'm starting a faction, notwhat established guys.
I'm starting a faction withfour younger talents that I can
elevate.
So this, as we build this storyand we start this group, I'm
going to elevate them.
Where am I mad?
I'm going to bring them with me.
We're going to have on theshirts, we're going to have on
the hoodies.
So, yeah, I'm about not onlyjust building myself up as I am
(29:22):
on this wrestling journey.
If I see somebody who has thetalent, I'm gonna build them up
to and elevate them to.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
Maybe you ever need a comedy writer.
Speaker 2 (29:32):
Yeah, oh, we gonna talk about it too, because if I
have a Show called its variety,which is sketch comedy, we the
first season I did by myself, Idid multiple characters, film
the whole thing myself.
The second season I did a cast,I had a full cast.
So I've already written thethird season and we were
planning for that to get beyond,to be so that's my whole other
(29:55):
side of thing, my whole TV show.
It's variety.
So maybe I'll get you linked upon that and you can see what
what I got going on with itsvariety and then outside it's
variety.
I'm not just a wrestler, I'm inschool.
I'm In school for my seconddegree, media.
I'm in school for my seconddegree, media Communication.
(30:17):
So I have a podcast in class, Ihave social media classes, I
have film and Video.
All that, that's everything inmy degree, you know, encompasses
it, encompasses all media.
So, yeah, I'm in school, I'mrunning a production company,
I'm running a wrestling companyand I'm doing what I do as a
wrestler also.
(30:38):
So the grind don't stop.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
Mm-hmm 25 25 man.
If the people want to get incontact with you, reach out for
two for interviews, get merged.
What do they see you at onsocial media?
Speaker 2 (30:58):
So we're gonna keep everything.
I'm gonna tell everybody justIG right now, because when you
go to the IG, in the bio it hasa link tree and the link tree
has tiktok.
It has everything that you needto know.
But if you want to email medirectly for an interview,
everything's not just a nod tosystem at gmailcom, simple, in
(31:20):
aJ I s, I s m at gmailcom andthen if you want to reach out to
me on social media, let's justkeep it on Instagram because I
can connect you to everythingelse on Instagram.
On Instagram is the Nodgism, soT he NHA, as I s m the greatest,
the best, the best, just hit meup on Instagram.
(31:40):
I do follow back.
Social media has been crazy forthe past month because, like
you said, that video went viral.
I've never had that muchinteraction till this day.
Every time I go on my Instagram, there's more than 100 lights,
more than 50 comments that Ihave to go through and just
Respond to.
Because I try to respond toevery comment, I try to
(32:01):
acknowledge every like andeverything like that, because,
um, I feel like beinginteractive with your audience
is how you continue to grow youraudience.
Speaker 1 (32:09):
When, when new people come on your page and they see
oh he's interacting with all hiseverybody comments and he's
interacting and he's.
Speaker 2 (32:16):
That makes them want to interact with you.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
So you know big facts , big face.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
Yeah, follow the Instagram D nodges ism message
me, I'll respond, or email me,I'll respond and support,
support, support, support,support, support support support
.
Speaker 1 (32:33):
Yeah, I heard all the messages them.
You can't.
You're not a wrestling fan of.
You heard this one.
You are going to be a fan of anodges ism.
He also gave a lot of jewelsabout how to not Get a big head,
stay humble, how to stay trueto the craft.
The passion he had with hiswhole conversation shows not
(32:54):
only is he professional wrestler, musician, businessman, but
he's an artist.
He cares about his craft.
Speaker 2 (33:03):
And the biggest thing I could tell people who are
trying to get into wrestling yougot to come into the mindset of
this is a business.
How you carry yourselfbackstage, how you carry
yourself when you walk in a room, it's always, always have a
business mindset.
You don't see me go to showswithout my own virtual, my own
shirt on um, and I'm justexperienced.
(33:26):
For the past two and a halfyears I experienced a lot of
younger talents lose their coolbackstage or, uh, you know, just
lose it.
I mean I'm not gonna go intodetails, but just stay
professional, guys.
Um, do what the booker wants todo.
I mean certain things you canquestion, but one of the most
(33:48):
things, best things you can doas a young talent, where you
going to a new show or you'retrying to get over and all that
kind of stuff.
You know you can add yourlittle two cents in, but always
be professional and try to dowhat the booker says.
Because you listen to thebooker the first time he's
probably gonna have you comeback because he feels like, okay
, I can work with this kid, Ican coach him, I can, he's gonna
(34:09):
listen.
You know, whatever you know,you know most bosses aren't
gonna hire somebody that'salways gonna be combative and
always arguing all would, neveron time, and all that kind of
stuff.
Be on time, be on time, be a beabout your business If you're
entering the wrestling businessis called the wrestling business
(34:29):
for a reason.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
Fuck yeah, got to hear that.
And to my comedians out thereAll podcasts is the entertainers
.
Listen to this man right hereand, instead of think about
wrestling, think about thecomedy aspect as well too.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
That's it.
I released a video on myproduction page, my production
company page.
I'm starting to do tutorials onthat page and the first one I
tutorial job was consistency,and consistency is key with
everything you know, whetheryou're a comedian, actor,
business owner, entrepreneur,hairstyles, whatever Consistency
(35:04):
is what one thing that willhelp drive your brand.
If they know that you'reconsistent with posting and
everything that you do and thequality of the work Is
consistently grows, then I'mgonna purchase whatever your
product you buy and I'm gonnause you.
I'm gonna hire you becauseyou're consistent.
If you're that consistent withwhat you're doing, I know you'll
be consistent for me.
So that's that's my Key thingfor everybody.
(35:28):
Whatever you're doing, just beconsistent and always stay
quality.
Don't just throw stuff outthere just for the sake of
throwing it out there.
Be strategic with what you postand what you do.
I'm strategic with everything Ido.
I.
Speaker 1 (35:42):
Like Thank you so much.
Now just says them for being, Iguess, um, I really appreciate
the jewels that you drop and Ihope you continue getting your
flowers and being a OG of thegame.
I'm not talking about originalgame, so I'm talking about
offering game To those that'swilling to go underneath your
(36:03):
mentorship.
So I appreciate you so much,brother.
I'm going to stop the recording.
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