August 22, 2024 • 63 mins
Do you have any questions, any comments about the episode? Jimanekia would love to hear from you!
Ever wondered how a passion for football and pro wrestling can shape a person’s life and career? In this episode, we sit down with Sean Ross Sapp, part-owner of Fightful and a die-hard Cincinnati Bengals season ticket holder. Sean reflects on his journey from humble beginnings in a trailer to becoming a prominent figure in wrestling journalism. We explore his deep-rooted love for Kentucky, the impact of loss and trauma, and how these experiences have molded his resilient character.
Navigating the tumultuous waters of online harassment, Sean and I share our battles with trolls and stalkers, revealing the emotional toll and the strategies we've employed to maintain our sanity. From receiving invaluable advice from the late Bray Wyatt to experiencing a bizarre turn of events with a persistent harasser, we delve into the significance of maintaining perspective amidst negativity. This chapter serves as a candid eye-opener to the harsh realities of living life in the public eye.
Our conversation takes a heartfelt turn as we discuss the profound impact of losing loved ones and the emotional rollercoaster that follows. Whether it's the grief of losing a grandparent or the absurdity of social media drama, we highlight the importance of resilience, community support, and finding solace in small connections. Join us as we wrap up with exciting future plans, travel anecdotes, and the joys and challenges of balancing a hectic career with personal aspirations, all while leading a thriving enterprise in the niche world of pro wrestling and MMA journalism.
Thank you all for listening. Set a boundary with yourself this week, set a boundary with someone else. If someone else does not respect that boundary. LET THEM LOOSE YOU! Stay hydrated internally and externally. We do not have an ashy family.
IG: @The_Trauma_Within
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@thetraumawithin
Jimanekia Ig: @Jimanekia
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Sean Rostap is a part owner of Fightful and, more
importantly, a CincinnatiBengals season ticket holder.
Y'all buckle up for this convo.
It might be what you think, butprobably not Okay.
So some of you came herebecause you thought you were
going to hear some messy shitand others came for we'll find
out what you came for, butregardless, I have a lovely
(00:43):
human on the show today who I'msuper excited to talk to.
I love my first question that Ido ask everyone.
This also convo is going to befluid like a Gemini, but the
first question of the show whoare you?
Speaker 1 (01:01):
I am a person who writes wrestling gossip and news
on the internet and likes theCincinnati Bengals.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Sean Ross.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Sapp is who I am.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
How did we meet?
I want to hear how you rememberit.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
Oh my gosh.
I mean obviously connected viawrestling in some capacity.
We met in person.
Was it Vegas or Nashville?
They both are, so Nashville Icall Southern Vegas, so all my
trips to Nashville I getconfused with Vegas in general,
and it didn't help that therewere Summer Slams in both places
(01:40):
, yeah, so that often throws mefor a loop, but I believed it
was vegas in person when we met.
What was it?
It was either wale mania or agcw karaoke thing, maybe there's
so there you go, because see,listen, those two aren't that
different either.
(02:01):
One is just the gcw version ofwale mania to on a much, much,
much smaller scale.
It's just different budgets.
Yes, exactly, but it's justlike a little bit, just like a
little different um one one doesnot have kazim famu ya day and
the other one does, and that'sthe real difference and that you
know what you decide.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
You decide which one you want to take a chance on.
So the show is called traumaqueen and I think that there is
such a distinctness of traumafor everyone and I think that
everyone experiences differently.
But what does trauma mean toyou?
Speaker 1 (02:38):
Well, I mean there's physical trauma and then of
course there there's emotionaltrauma.
I mean physical trauma issomething that I live, I've
lived with a lot longer thanemotional trauma, because
emotional is something I don'tfeel like I really experienced
until recently, especiallylooking in perspective of things
(02:59):
that I thought really affectedme before.
But at least physical trauma,or you know the bumps and
bruises I've had along the way,but I mean emotional trauma.
Certainly I equate that withloss, great loss for me
personally, because I've beenfortunate to not experience as
much of it in other senses.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Sure, All right, let's jump in Kentucky.
Tell me about it.
I've never been sure.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
All right, let's jump in kentucky, tell me about it.
I've never been.
I love it here.
I love it here, so much so.
And and there's no nowhere elseI'd rather live, although I'm
sure you've seen the movie usyeah okay, I call north carolina
kentucky'sether.
Everything's just a little bitslower.
We got the same kind of foodsbut it's just a little bit
(03:48):
weirder there.
The accents are just a littlebit different there, so I could,
I could make it there, but man,I love it here so much.
Now I like where I grew up,which is an extremely rural area
, but I actually grew up in theone small urban part of those
areas and then kind of movedaround.
(04:08):
But since then we've relocatedto Lexington and it is.
It is just, it is my city.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
I am within an hour.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
Yeah, I'm within an hour of three airports.
Uh, I love the city so much.
The city is growing around us,cause we were just on the
outskirts and now they'rebringing a bunch of stuff here.
I love it here.
Um, we get every every seasonin a week.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
It's wonderful I don't think I could do that.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
You have snow oh boy, so do we ever have snow.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
I hate it?
Speaker 1 (04:39):
do we ever have snow?
Now there will be winters whereyou get one snow and that's it,
or you'll get it back to backfor a month straight, like you.
It's really, really hard topredict.
For example, like I went to thearnold sports festival, I want
to say like eight, nine yearsago and we left with a foot of
snow on the ground.
We came back two days later andyou had no idea it snowed and
(05:03):
it was 65 degrees.
So, like we, we experiencedeverything in March or April.
You stand just as much of ashot of it being like 30 degrees
as 75 or 80.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Well, it's like 103 here in SoCal, so I'm like I
don't know.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
We got the humidity, though.
It's like you're walkingthrough soup when you're outside
here, like you walk outside andyou immediately sweat I always
refer to as like walking intosomeone's mouth fair like that's
.
That is.
That is a pretty goodcomparison and it's like this,
(05:44):
it's just like that, so muchespecially because we have the
hills and the trees and all thatstuff here, like I am in the
foothills of the AppalachianMountains, effectively.
So the first time that I drovea little bit north or a little
bit west, I was amazed thatthere was flat land, like I
didn't know that that was athing that existed.
I didn't know you could gosomewhere and look and see like
(06:10):
a mile down the road, because Ihad never experienced that
before.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
It's all mountains out here interesting.
You often talk about like beingin kentucky and like growing up
in a trailer.
I think I I see it as likesomeone that's like.
I just want you to remember Ido know where the fuck I came
from, because people try to actlike you don't.
What was that like for you?
Like?
What was baby Sean like?
Were you this opinionated?
Did you have thoughts?
Were you investigated?
(06:32):
I was so cute.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
No, I didn't get opinionated until I realized
that I could take care of myselfin a physical stance and all
that.
When I finally overcame thatbecause I was really undersized
growing up and all that and Iwanted to play sports.
But until I found track andamateur wrestling, I didn't
(06:55):
really have the ability to dothat.
But once I got into MMA and prowrestling I was like, okay, I
feel a little bit more confidentvoicing my opinion in that
regard.
But I just I loved sports and Icame from a place where there
wasn't much else to do but watchwhat sports were on TV and
(07:17):
watch wrestling and boxing andMMA and literally anything like
that that you could get yourhands on.
There just wasn't.
There were no recreationoutside of the sports that we
did.
There weren't arcades here,there weren't like water parks
here or amusement parks oranything like that.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
So I I turned to sports and wrestling did you
know that you had adhd young, oris this like an older
understanding of self?
Speaker 1 (07:44):
oh no, it was.
It was very, but it took awhile for them to realize what
it was.
I didn't realize it wascounseling and therapy.
At the time I just was like,hey, you're going to comprehend
and you're talking with thisnice woman named Kelly and
there's a bunch of cool toys inher office.
And I didn't realize, and Idon't know when ADHD really came
(08:08):
to the forefront or whatever,but I went from excelling in
school to not excelling inschool overnight.
My kindergarten first, secondgrade, I was well advanced from
where I should have been and inthird grade I just I didn't care
, I didn't care.
Then I got medicated, um, andit was very beneficial for me
(08:32):
for a number of years.
But after that grade four, five, six, seven I was, I was on
point.
I was helped greatly by thatand at the time so it's funny
because I didn't interview withcody rhodes and like people have
joked about it because I said,yeah, my mom thought that
wrestling gave me adhd.
(08:53):
I didn't mean she thought thatit gave me adhd.
She thought that's what led tomy hyperactivity.
She thought that was the reason.
It was because I watchedwrestling it.
And yes, because obviously I didlike, but she thought that's
what led to the hyperactivityand the lack of focus.
Was this because there was noother thing to blame?
(09:15):
Like there?
you couldn't blame like weren'tproblems at home or anything
like that.
But then they realized no, it'sa thing that he's got, it's a
disorder, it's ADHD.
And when my mom especiallyunderstood that greatly, that
helped out immensely and she wasso far ahead of a lot of other
(09:38):
mothers in that time that wouldbe in denial over that, and I
think it's probably becauseshe's in the medical field as
well denial over that, and Ithink it's probably because
she's in the medical field aswell.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
Nice, I know a lot of folks in my life that have ADHD
.
I know I for sure have ADD.
Do you think you use it as likea superpower?
Because I think for sure I'mover here doing 20 things all
the time.
Sometimes it's helpful.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
So I have a three monitor setup for my, my
computer like I, so I am alwaysdoing multiple things yeah for
the job that I specifically do.
yes, absolutely.
Now there there are some daysthat are very crippling and I
can't accomplish anything andsure, I'm just like, all right,
I gotta, I gotta take off.
(10:21):
I'll go up to cincinnati, gosome shoes or something, come
back, sit down at the desk, likejust get away.
There are some days I don'teven try and I've been
unmedicated since my senior yearof high school and that can be
a good thing and a bad thing,yeah, yeah, but I was on Ritalin
(10:42):
and be 110 pounds or do I wantto.
You know, actually eat right and, you know, grow as a human
being physically.
But there are times when I'vebeen like, okay, I need to take
like a focus supplement orsomething like that.
Um, but there are definitelytimes where it's benefited me
(11:03):
and I spoke to Nick Comoroto,who's in AEW, and we had a
wonderful talk and it was sofunny the things that we
realized he hyper-focused onworking out and math.
Those are the two things Istruggle with.
I'll do a set and I'm like I'mbored and when it comes to math,
(11:23):
I can't focus on it, but thenthere were things that I hyper
focus on that he couldn't.
So it is really unique to theindividual.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaking of like, when there'sdays that you just can't, I am
always talking about mentalhealth and I I love that, since
the pandemic people are like, ohyeah, we should give a fuck.
Um, what has your mental healthjourney been like?
I'm not.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
let me finish before working in this industry and
currently I am infinitely morethin-skinned now than I was
before because I, within my town, in my area, I got along with
everybody, had a lot of friends,all that stuff still do.
But you don't get criticizedfor literally nothing.
(12:11):
In a town of 200, like thereare more people that have said
like out, made up things aboutme than lived in the town that I
just moved out.
Of.
So like if somebody in my townwould have said anything like
some of the town that I justmoved out of.
So like if somebody in my townwould have said anything like
some of the things that are saidabout me online, like there's
(12:32):
gotta be a reason, like it's notjust oh, he likes something or
does something or his job.
That's just not a thing thatexists where I come from.
So it's not the easiest thingto adapt to and everybody wants
to be universally loved, unlessit's their job to be hated.
But that's definitely a thing.
Like I am way morehypersensitive, not to criticism
(12:54):
, just to the reality of that.
Some people are just kind ofweird and I'm like what can they
be saved?
Do they want to be saved inthat sense?
Uh, but yeah, definitely thatis a major thing that has
changed since I started to workin wrestling, because it just
wasn't a thing that I needed tofactor in when I'm working at a
(13:15):
gnc or something like that sohow do you take care of it?
Speaker 2 (13:19):
because it's it literally, is you just wake up
and someone's like fuck, you die.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
You're like good morning to you as well, I mean
there's a guy right now onTwitter who has posted a picture
of my dead grandmother 45 timesin the last two days.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
Oh, you're mad at me.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
Well, I mean, yeah, I mean, did I offer to fly him
across the country?
Yes, I did.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
Okay, maybe we're the same, but okay, we're back.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
We're not that different.
He didn't take me up on that,but quitter I mean, that's what
I try to think of is like OK,how would his loved ones react
if they would see this tweet?
A thing that I'll often say tothese people is I will pay you X
amount of dollars if you readthis tweet out loud to a loved
(14:05):
one on video and get theirreaction, because I want to see
what they say to you when youact like this over pro wrestling
or even just somebody you don'tlike in pro wrestling.
Even if I said something thatyou don't like, maybe I told you
to read the article orsomething.
That's how I've come to termswith it recently.
And actually Bray Wyatt hadmessaged me I want to say gosh,
(14:34):
about a, a year before hispassing and he he was like hey,
I see this stuff and here's howI always dealt with it.
And then he said how manypeople do you have that follow
you and that subscribe and allthat stuff?
Speaker 2 (14:43):
And I him a number and he goes you don't have one
percent of that many people thatdon't like you and come on, man
, I was like you know what I waslike that that's a good point,
that's a good wow it isperspective, but also it's like
I'm just trying to exist andthat's hard oh, I get people not
(15:04):
liking my job, for sure.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
but just so you don't like my job or my work, I'm not
going to be hurt by that but,it's like people bled your life.
Oh yeah, oh, I mean, I've hadhad people threaten my wife, Um,
I mean, there were.
There was a guy who his aunthad him committed because of the
things that he was saying aboutmy co-host and about my wife.
(15:27):
Really, oh my gosh.
So I've never told this storypublicly, but I will now.
There was a situation where aperson got my phone number, or
they got my wife's phone number.
They didn't get my phone number, but then I messaged them, got
them away from that.
They didn't get my phone number, but then I messaged them, got
them away from that and Iimmediately, based on the things
that that person said, reachedout to a PI to find out who it
(15:50):
was, because I was going topress charges immediately.
So the PI was on a four or fivehour drive back to somewhere
they needed to be and I wascalling and updating them Myself
and a friend that you know,share delaware, poked into it
and we noticed a lot of commonmisspellings that this person
had that weren't so common she'sso good so we just
(16:13):
cross-referenced that withtweets to me and there was one
guy across multiple accounts whowas tweeting this hateful stuff
and, uh, I pressed charges andthey said you know, there's not
a lot we can do.
Kentucky to LA.
Well, I guess, not.
(16:34):
So fortunate, he lived about 45minutes away from one of my
co-hosts in California, so I wasable to take that information.
I sent it to a loved one and Isaid, hey, just so you know,
this is what this dude's beendoing.
And he actually lived with hisaunt and she said, no, there's
no way, there's no way.
And two days later she messagedme and she said I owe you an
(16:55):
apology.
He has been pretending he'sbeen going to work and then
going to McDonald's or hotelswith wifi and sitting there all
day and he had harassed andthreatened over 50 different
people and they ended upcommitting him, and then she
told me that he was beingevaluated.
(17:17):
Then she told me he was stayingand actually recently I want to
say in the last two or threemonths he's re-emerged on
twitter as like a, as like avery positive account, including
towards me.
I'll send you the account later, but, uh, okay, yeah, uh, it
was, it was I'm glad he got thehelp that he needed because it
(17:41):
was.
It was the kind of things whereI was like is dude gonna diaper
up and drive across the countryand you know, try to pull some
shit which you never know.
People do you never know peopledo we?
Speaker 2 (17:52):
we know what happened to dario, having people break
into homes and you know it's.
I think people take light ofthe internet and they're like
it's just the internet.
I'm like yes, and ain't justthe internet.
Yeah, ain't just the internetno, how do you try to keep
yourself safe now, like what doboundaries look like?
What does that mean for you?
Since you are on the internet,it's like you can leave yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
So I mean, I ended up actually there.
There, share delaware helped mewith a cyber stalker that I got
a few years ago because that,because I reached out to this
person, because they I knowright, but this person got very
fixated just because I hadreached out and said, hey,
please explain to me this tweet,because I don't think I
(18:36):
understand what you're upsetabout.
And they developed an immediateparasocial relationship and I
was like, okay, parasocialrelationship.
And I was like, okay, none ofthat unless I know the person
interpersonally, or one degreeof separation is my limit.
One degree of separation.
You, you gotta have a referenceat this point.
(18:56):
And and if I happen to meet youor you know one of my
subscribers that I've known fora long time knows you or
something.
One of my subscribers that I'veknown for a long time knows you
or something?
Yeah, other than that, I don'tput loved ones on Twitter.
They're still on my Instagramand stuff like that.
I have isolated other socialmedia that I don't have.
(19:17):
I don't do Facebook or anythinglike that anymore.
I'll tell you a mistake that Imade very early on.
Here's a mistake I made veryearly on when I first got a
snapchat account.
It was a completely incognitoname but like my own friends
wouldn't add me back becausethey didn't know it was me at
the time, like it was anincognito name, so I was like,
(19:40):
ah, gotta, gotta do my real.
Well, I didn't change it when Istarted to get popular in
wrestling and unfortunately, Ihad a show with Vince Russo,
unfortunately, and this was likesix months after I had canned
him and I open up my Snapchatand I've got a snap and it is a
(20:03):
giant erect penis.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
I it was gonna be a dick and I just knew.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
And it said fuck vince russo.
In all caps on it, like acrossit, like across the, and they
were perpendicular okay,emphasis on the dick.
It was perpendicular so upwardsa penis across.
Fuck vince russo.
(20:27):
In all caps.
And I'm like, I'm like the 50cent meme, I'm like why he say
fuck me for what did I?
Speaker 2 (20:33):
do I.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
I don't work with him , but I did reply and I said
well, it looks like with thatthing you could.
But like that was that's alesson that I learned as well.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
Like okay, on your private socials, protect
yourself there too do you havelike an online personality and
just sean at home, or is thisjust who you are?
Speaker 1 (21:00):
the way that I say is I never say something to or
about anyone in any capacitythat I wouldn't say to them
directly or to their face period.
If I'm telling some, ifsomebody is being a jerk to me
and I react, I would.
I would 100% say that to themUm, you ain't going to hit me
any harder than UFC fightersthat I used to train with hit me
(21:22):
.
They're way better at it thananybody on the internet.
But like, but no, I'm prettywell the same way on Twitter as
I am in person.
It's just I don't talk aboutwrestling as much in person
Because when it consumes my lifeonline and at work, I'm just
like I don't want to do that.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
Yeah, so we'll get to wrestling eventually, because
we have to.
But what brings you joy?
I think that's such a thingthat we don't talk about
football brings me joy footballbrings me joy.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
I love football.
Um, wow, I like competing.
I like even if it's like likeme and my wife compete a lot
like anything oh my gosh, somuch, so much, and she wasn't.
She's not an athlete, she's notlike a competitor.
But we went on our honeymoon toniagara falls and we did like
(22:15):
they have a very competitivego-kart thing and we started
23rd and 24th and finished firstand second.
Had we raced anybody but eachother, we would have been middle
of the pack maybe, but it'sjust because we were out there
like that.
That's all that that was.
But we like arcades, activategames, stuff like that, like any
(22:37):
way that we can compete, we dobecause that's entertaining for
us, like that's, that's what Ilike to do.
And yeah, like pro wrestling,like actual wrestling, satisfied
my competitive urges for a longtime.
So that was helpful.
And then getting a story righthelped satisfy my competitive
urges a little bit.
I think my ultimate goal waslike just to be the best in the
(23:01):
world at something for at leastsome period of time.
Whether it be like mopping afloor or work like being the
best target cashier, whatever itwas, I just wanted to be the
best in the world at somethingfor a short period of time at
least.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
Do you think that's attached to the ADHD?
Speaker 1 (23:19):
Yes, 100% attached to the ADHD, because when you have
ADHD, it can sometimes bedifficult to follow through on
goals.
It's not difficult to creategoals.
I've got a million differentgoals.
That's why, like the reason whymy YouTube channel isn't at
(23:42):
500,000 views is the same reasonwhy it's gotten to a hundred
and some thousand.
If I would have separated allthe different ideas that I had
and did individual channels forthem, I probably would have been
more successful individuallythan collectively.
But I was like no, I want to dothis, this, this, this, this,
this and this, and they all sortof came together.
(24:04):
So, yes, I absolutely thinkthat that's related to ADHD.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
Do you do any work outside of Fightful?
Speaker 1 (24:13):
Sort of.
I mean I do charity work andfundraiser stuff.
I did volunteer up until thelast few months at different
places.
Usually it would be my God, whyam I drawing a blanket where I
volunteered at NAMI?
Obviously I would help promoteNAMI walks and things like that.
(24:35):
We do a lot of fundraisers atIronfish Gym in Maysville,
kentucky Since 2016,.
I've been really tunnel visionon Fightful and doing that type
of stuff.
Occasionally I would pick upoutside wrestling work.
I've done a hobby binglespodcast that somebody approached
(24:57):
me about turning into work andI was like no, not doing that,
it changes it real quick.
Yeah, yeah, not, not.
Not doing that.
Salvation army.
That's where I don't volunteer.
That, my God, it was.
I was drawing a blank there,but yeah, here and there, but
mostly Fightful consumes my life.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
All right.
Well, we're here.
Now we're at the door, Let usin.
How the fuck did you get intoFightful?
How do you partially own excuseme, let's get language how do
you partially own this,something that has grown to be
such a magical place for so manypeople?
Speaker 1 (25:37):
So I worked for free for Bill after for five years
and that ended up being one ofthe best decisions I ever made.
Um, listen, I was broke as hell, I was poor as hell, I was
struggling, but I wanted to.
Just, I wanted to write forBill after because he had such
an influential part of my lifewhen I wasn't allowed to watch
wrestling.
When I was younger I would readhis magazines.
(25:58):
I did every job I could in andaround wrestling and MMA
commentary, taping hands,managing fighters, teaching
kickboxing training and allthose Every bit of experience I
could get.
I went through a couple jobswhat Culture Wrestling Inc.
And I was about to leaveWrestling Inc, actually over a
(26:20):
pay dispute, because I was tiredof being poor.
And I got an email from a fellowfrom Toronto and it was almost
like it was meant to be becauseI never cared about leaving
Kentucky.
But the one place I looked atand said, man, that'd be cool
was Toronto.
And that's because when I waslittle they had the cool new
(26:42):
baseball stadium with the roofthat opened and closed.
Their football or theirbaseball team was really good.
They had the new NBA team inthe 90s.
So I was like, oh, oh, that'dbe cool.
And he hit me up and he goeshey, I'm thinking about starting
a hybrid pro wrestling MMAwebsite and, quite literally,
the way that I was taught to prowrestle is a hybrid of MMA and
(27:06):
pro wrestling.
It's catch wrestling.
It's what pro wrestling wasbefore it turned scripted and he
reached out to bill after andbill after said yes, this is
absolutely your guy, you shoulddo it.
And there was a wage that I hadin mind and I said, if I made
(27:26):
that and it was very low wage Isaid if I could make that and
just do what I love, I would behappy.
And he met that wage andexceeded it and said he had told
me before.
He's like if you stay loyal tome, I'll stay loyal to you.
I never forgot that.
And, um, that's that's how itstarted.
(27:48):
And eventually I mean he he tooksixure losses for a very long
time on FIFO.
And then finally I want to say2021, we broke a few really big
stories and that made us notprofitable, but we were finally
cutting into the debt.
(28:08):
And then 2022 hit and I had hadsome really nice offers
elsewhere.
So he knew that he had to do alittle bit more to retain me
because the reality is I couldjust leave, do my own Patreon,
(28:29):
do my own YouTube and makesignificantly more and say sorry
, you're stuck with all thoselosses you accrued over the
years, partial ownership of thiscompany and a disproportionate
amount of pay compared to thatownership, because I realized
this is a talent-based type ofventure now, as opposed to I'm
just running a website wherepeople write.
So I got very lucky that Ifound a business partner who is
(28:54):
one of the most loyal humanbeings you could ever meet and
generous as well is the reasonI'm in the house I'm in right
now.
I got very fortunate to matchup with that, because had I
taken any of the offers that Ihad entertained along the way, I
would be, nowhere near where Iam, nowhere.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
That's wild.
How big is the staff now?
I would be nowhere near where Iam Nowhere.
Yeah, that's wild.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
How big is the staff now?
Now it's 40.
It started off the first yeah,the first day.
The first day was actually likeJuly 6th 2024.
And it was me, uh, Jimmy, whoowned the site, Vince Russo, who
(29:39):
I didn't want to be on the site, but he had hired him without
me knowing, july 16th it's 2024.
Oh, 2016.
Speaker 2 (29:46):
Sorry, Okay we're good, we're bringing it back.
Speaker 1 (29:48):
Absolutely not 2024.
Would never have anything to dowith him now and Showdown Joe
Ferraro.
So there were really fourpeople and then he had a parent
company and then they would justkind of do work.
In addition to that, they wouldlike pick up some stuff.
Now we have 40 people on staff,40 people that submit invoices
(30:09):
a month, including, I want tosay, there are six to eight
people full-time, including twothat are on the admin side as
well.
So it's grown exponentially.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
Yeah, what kind of boss are you?
Speaker 1 (30:26):
Oh man, I've never asked anyone.
So I had a boss at WhatCultureand he was the worst boss I ever
had.
And I specifically said if Iever become a boss, I will never
be like him.
I will never tell somebody youcan't.
I will try to offerconstructive criticism or if
(30:49):
they're not a right fit here,I'm never going to tell them,
hey, you need to give up.
I'm never going to say that,cause that's what was told to me
.
Um, and then when I was atwrestling inc, I had a boss that
limited my income and I saidyou know what, unless I'm paying
paying somebody a full-timewage, I'm not going to limit
their income.
They want to write here andthere and there and there.
(31:09):
I'm not going to restrict thatat all.
I'm not going to make anybodybe just fightful because that's
not fair, that's not, it's justand it's not okay to do so.
I'd like to think in that senseI'm much more liberal than a lot
of the other outlets that areout there, although that has
become the norm in recent years,since we have just refused to
say no, you're not exclusivehere.
(31:31):
You can write at wrestle zone,you can write at wrestling
observer, you can do your ownthing.
I I don't care if, if you workfor us and you get an interview
and I pass on it, I'm like, no,I don't think that's a good fit
here.
I'm not gonna get upset if youput it on your own youtube.
So, uh, very open.
Uh, try to be as as transparentand honest with people as
(31:54):
possible.
But I would like to think thatI'm a good boss.
I haven't had any publiccomplaints yet.
Yeah, I've not had any publiccomplaints yet, and I think
after eight years, I think aftereight years, that's pretty good
.
Speaker 2 (32:10):
I think, as as someone that else that also owns
things and has people, that ifI don't make money, they don't
make money.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
Sure.
Speaker 2 (32:18):
What are the stressors of that?
Because I lost my hair.
So what have been yourstressors in doing this?
Speaker 1 (32:26):
A lot of people think they can pitch me a podcast and
it will make money because it'sjust under the Fightful banner.
Not everybody is WillWashington, phil Lindsay and
Righteous Reg where I getpitched that idea and I said I
know that will make money.
And not only did they know itwould make money, because they
offered me I think it was a revshare.
(32:46):
Immediately they weren't likeoh no, give us a flat rate.
They're like we know this isgoing to make money and we want
the rev share as a result ofthat.
Everybody isn't that and that'sthat's okay, it's not.
Those are three juggernauts inthe podcasting wrestling world
like it's okay to not be that,but you can't just slap a
(33:07):
fightful logo on something andit be successful.
So there are things that I haveto look at that are outright
money losers and then there areloss leaders.
So there are shows on FightfulSelect that don't make us money
and if I got rid of them wewould save a few hundred bucks a
month.
Then I'm like well, is it worthsaving that few hundred bucks a
(33:29):
month to not have this person apart of our team, not this
topic covered, and not serveeven the few people that they
that like that?
No, it's probably not.
I can eat that cost, I canhandle not making that amount
more.
But then there are some thatare just like, well, this isn't
making money, it's affectingalgorithms, it's not good for
(33:53):
the site, etc.
There are certain personalitieswithin wrestling that I say we
don't need to cover, we don'tneed, we don't need their the
bait of them very clearly goingafter this.
So that's, that's a you knowone of the things that we have
to weigh and what sources to useor not to use.
(34:14):
Those are some stressors.
But as far as like managingpersonalities like, I've been
fortunate that up until likethat quite quite a far way in
everybody kind of workedtogether.
It's mainly just, it's mainlydetractors outside a fightful,
that kind of take aim and stufflike that.
(34:34):
But really I don't pay them anymind because people who actually
read the content, have medialiteracy, know where to follow
news.
Our track record speaks foritself.
But having to tell people nosometimes does suck.
Having to tell people no.
It wouldn't make sense for usto put this interview up on this
feed because it's not going todo any traffic and it will
(34:56):
actually hurt our algorithm.
That does suck because we usedto be a very just like you want
to do a podcast about the NBAdraft on the main feed, go for
it, I don't care.
We had that ability, but now wehave to be a little bit more
concentrated in what we do,because we do have so much
content.
Speaker 2 (35:15):
You really do, you really content, you really do,
you really, you really do.
And I think that's so amazing,we not?
Speaker 1 (35:18):
only have sorry to interrupt.
We not only have the most paidcontent, we have the most free
content of any wrestling website, which is something I take a
lot of pride in wrestling issuch an interesting thing.
Speaker 2 (35:31):
I I remember.
I will always say I know theday I found wrestling it was
1996, stone cold.
Steve austin was breaking intobrian pillman's home, yes, and I
was turning through thechannels and I was like I'm
sorry, what the hell is this?
And that was it, but I became awcw girl, which is a whole.
When do you not work?
Speaker 1 (35:55):
sundays during football season, uh, so I I know
I bring up football a lot, manshocker, this is my this is
actually my bingles uh studio,but a couple years ago like I've
been.
But there was a period gosh,between 2014 and 2018, where
(36:20):
there were two days I had notwritten an article or done a
podcast over four years and myline of thinking was if I don't
do it, somebody else will, and Ido not recommend that for
somebody else.
I don't, but that's how I cameup and my path led me to where I
am.
So I'm not recommend that forsomebody else.
I don't, but that's how I cameup and my path led me to where I
am, so I'm happy I took it, andthose two days were my bachelor
(36:40):
party and my wedding.
Other than that, I worked everysingle day to some degree not
now.
There were plenty of days Iworked 14 to 16 hours, but it
wasn't like that every day.
And then I started to delegatemore and that was very important
.
I delegated social media toKyler, who is a wonderful dude
(37:01):
and he's grown our socials.
I delegated day-to-day newswriting to Jeremy Lambert and I
delegated moderating and allthat.
But I want to say, about threeyears ago, after the pandemic, I
was just like, yeah, I want tostart going to some Bengals
games.
And then last year I got seasontickets and I did that because
it forces me to take a day off.
(37:23):
I am not going to spend theamount of money that I spent on
season tickets and then say,well, you know what?
Hulk Hogan just took a dump outof a pickup truck going down
the highway.
I better stay home and writeabout it.
No, I'm going to go to thatdamn bingles game.
Somebody, jeremy, can writeabout hulk hogan taking a dump
out of a ford ranger.
I don't care.
I don't care, um, but that isvery important to me and I'm
(37:45):
very fortunate because wrestlingdoesn't compete with the nfl
anymore, which makes me veryhappy.
But that's when I don't work,um, and during the school year
my wife's a school teacher.
I try to not work in theimmediate hours following her
school day because, she'll.
(38:06):
She'll be in bed by 10, 10 30.
So I can work later at night ifI need to.
I try to like have that, so Ikeep relatively normal office
hours during the school year andthen I'm working pretty late at
night as well.
But those are the windows Isort of open for myself.
Speaker 2 (38:26):
That's fucking crazy, but I know what the grind looks
like.
I used to do 12-hour daystalking about trauma and writing
and sex ed and all the things,and now I talk about wrestling
things.
So we've talked about thewrestling part.
Let's get that over with.
Something happened to both ofus in the past two years and we
(38:47):
both lost individuals that werereally important to us.
As someone that works in mentalhealth, I've known what grief is
.
I'm a child of trauma.
I've experienced grief, butsomething about my grandfather
dying last year changed me and Ihave talked about it with
(39:08):
people.
There's a podcast with JeremyLambert and three of my other
friends and we're talking aboutgrief and losing people because
all our parents died around thesame time, which is fucking
crazy, and grief is such a Ialways think of it as like a
weighted blanket dipped in waterand then they just throw it on
you and you're like wait, and Iknow that was also a time for
(39:31):
you to step away and you talkedabout it a bit um, what has
grief look like for you?
How was your relationship withyour grandmother?
I believed she raised you asmine raised me.
Um, yes, what was that like foryou?
Speaker 1 (39:48):
so I mean, uh, I had growing up great relationship
with my mom.
As I got a little bit older itwas hit or miss.
Now it's wonderful, but I wasalways a grandma's boy.
I lived there for years.
I lived there, um, after Ineeded to to kind of keep her
company because she needed it,yeah, but um, she was the most
(40:11):
important person in my life, theway that I like.
We expected to have her another10 years.
We knew that she'd be battlingdementia and it would be tough,
but we expected to have her fora lot longer.
It took a part out of me that Idon't feel like can be replaced
.
We are three months after ithappened and I don't know if
(40:34):
it's fully hit me.
It's and we are three monthsafter it happened and I don't
know if it's fully hit me.
Um, it's, it's, and maybeabsent of emotion, like I don't
yell, I don't, I haven't criedyet, I haven't, I was just empty
, that's.
That's the best way I canexplain.
It is that I was empty and Iwent to see her so much in the
(40:54):
spring and it's it's about anhour and a half trip to see her
and I wish I would have seen herevery day.
But the last five visits I sawher get progressively worse and
it was such a deep accelerator Imean to to show you how, like,
quickly accelerated.
I remember five visits.
From the last one I was talkingabout going to Cleveland for
(41:18):
SummerSlam, for work, and shejoked and she said, sounds like
a terrible job.
And I love that because sheknew how much I bagged on
Cleveland.
She knew how much, like as aCincinnati sports fan, I would
just bust balls over that.
Then the next time I saw her shewas just a little bit more
frail.
And then the next time she wasin bed and the next time she was
(41:42):
in bed and didn't talk, andthen the next time she just
didn't wake up when she was inbed.
It got that progressively worseover two and a half weeks and
the night, the last night, I sawher.
I knew it was coming and I wassort of prepared for it.
When my mom called me and shewas so wonderful to, my
(42:02):
grandmother took care of her inher last year I knew that's what
she was about to tell mebecause, yeah, it's like we
would call each other all thetime, but it was just unusual, 6
pm on a Sunday, it's just, italmost hits you.
It's like, well, yeah, we calleach other all the time, but
it's never happened.
At 6 pm on a Sunday.
I could tell something wasgoing on, you know, and it just
(42:25):
it made me absent of emotion,like I don't have it in me to be
upset or angry or cry oranything like that right now.
I don't.
I haven't developed that havehappened since then, where I'm
certainly more subdued than Iwould have been three, four
(43:00):
months ago.
So empty is the feeling that Iwould indicate.
Speaker 2 (43:10):
Will you ever get out of it?
The answer is yes.
When will it happen?
When you least expect it andprobably in the most not fun
place.
Have you ever?
Well, like in the sense of oneof the questions, when we were
talking about grief and I askedthem, like where's the weirdest
place, you cried?
I said when I just sat down topee, I just started bawling.
My friend was a stripper andshe was, like you know, when I
(43:32):
started crying, doing a lapdance.
They don't like that.
Oh, no she said and then I criedon the pole I was like, but you
know what, someone was into it.
She's like I did get tipped.
Speaker 1 (43:44):
Oh, no, did she get any complaints.
Speaker 2 (43:48):
Nah, I mean, there you go.
Her tits are out.
What are they going to say?
Fair, fair, here's a tissue andput those away.
No as losing your person.
How have you existed?
I know when I lost my dad.
So for those that don't know, Ilost my grandfather to prostate
(44:10):
cancer.
He raised me.
He was the man that I put menup to when I date them.
I went to travel for work and Iwent on a speaking engagement.
It was the best college keynoteI ever did.
I signed my contract for AEWand I got a phone call on the
way home and I was like myfamily doesn't call me.
What is this?
(44:31):
And I asked the week before Ihad went and saw him and he just
looks so weak, like it wassomeone I didn't know, and I
made him take a photo with methat day and for some reason I
also recorded part of thatconversation.
Something said do all thethings.
Speaker 1 (44:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (44:51):
And that was the last time I saw him, really, really.
But I got to ask him are youscared?
It was the only time in lifeI've ever heard him say yes
(45:15):
heartbreaking thing aboutdealing with dementia with my
grandmother.
Speaker 1 (45:17):
She wasn't scared of anybody, anything I mean for
listen, for anybody.
That that's upset.
That I talk shit back to you ontwitter, it's her fault, I mean
she.
She was like she would shittalk non-stop if somebody was
going at her.
That you weren't winning thatverbal battle.
But she realized she was losingher mind.
(45:37):
She realized she was losing hermemory and the first time I
heard her say it's scary I.
That was like the biggestheartbreaking moment to me and I
To me.
That was the only solace that Itook was that I knew that when
she passed she wasn't scaredanymore, because living in a
(45:59):
perpetual state of fear ofabandonment was what really made
her upset, what really botheredher, because she had those
abandonment issues For years.
People would move in and outwith her.
She was the safe haven.
She was home base.
If anybody had a badrelationship, lost a job
anything, they in and out withher.
She was the safe haven, she washome base.
If anybody had a badrelationship, lost a job
anything, they'd go stay withher.
That's just how it was.
(46:19):
Her sisters, her grandkids, herkids, anybody and to me that
was the only thing that made mefeel a little bit's it's okay
was because I knew that shewould never be scared again in
that sense because I lived for30 plus years and never heard
(46:42):
her say I'm scared.
Then I heard her say it everysingle day um every single day.
She said it and that was sohumbling and it's just, it's
very unusual to realize thingsthat you don't even realize.
Like, after she passed, I wasslowly realizing every trip that
(47:04):
I had taken, every if I wouldbuy something at walmart, like
she would be in the back of myhead about the financial
decision I was making, the tripI was taking, like, okay, but is
(47:29):
somebody there with her?
Is, am I going to have you know?
I'm glad that I feel that waybecause that shows me that
reaffirms that I did a good joband helped her the way that she
helped me, and that was veryimportant to me.
That was the most importantthing to me.
That's why I wanted to succeedwas to take care of her the same
way that she had taken care ofme in the past.
Speaker 2 (47:51):
I'm like shedding tears as I think about this,
like it really is like one ofthose things.
You don't cry, I cry so much.
It's really good for my skin,though.
Look at me, I look like I'm inmy 20s, uh, but it's one of
those things that it doesn'tchange and it hits you like
you'll be walking on.
You're like, oh shit yeah hereally, he really done died.
Speaker 1 (48:13):
That's crazy, like I have those moments I have those
happen every day and, like, I'velost a lot of people, like
close to me, a lot of friends.
And there's one person he wasmy best friend for about a year
and we I wouldn't say we had afalling out, we grew apart, sure
, but like we were only bestfriends for about a year and
(48:35):
then we lost touch largely forthe remaining five or six years
of his life.
He was involved in some stuffthat I didn't want to be, but
every fall I remember hangingout with him, every single day
and then every fall, still, eventhough three times as much time
has passed that he's been gone,as I knew him, I still think
(48:56):
about him and I'm like, and he'sreally not here, that, like
everything right now is likethat with my grandmother,
because it's every first.
It's going to be my firstbirthday, the first Christmas,
the first new years.
Her first birthday immediatelyafter was the first mother's day
.
Yeah, um, yeah, like it's.
(49:17):
I'll go to the corner store andI'll see butter pecan ice cream
that I hated.
And now I'm like give me thatbutter pecan ice cream.
That's what she, that's theonly shit she had at her house.
That's what I want.
I didn't drink soda.
I drink pepsi Zero now becauseshe drank Pepsi and it makes me
feel a little bit closer to her.
Speaker 2 (49:39):
I danced in my kitchen the other day, in my
mom's kitchen, because theanniversary of his death this
year.
It's been a year my mom decidedshe wanted to go into kidney
failure and so I had to go tothe hospital and I parked in the
same spot.
I parked in the night when Irushed to the hospital that he
(49:59):
died because there was no otherparking.
I was like who's fuckingplaying in my face?
And so now she's on dialysisand she does it at night and we
have to go and help her, which Iam so thankful that I get to do
.
And there's this huge thing ofmy dad's face, because he was in
the Air Force and every day I'mlike you really just left me to
take care of these people,because I got left to be in
(50:20):
charge of everything and so, assomeone that was there all the
time in doing these things, howdo you navigate the bullshit on
the internet, these things?
How do you navigate thebullshit on the internet and see
, we get spicy?
The bullshit of this personposting her.
Speaker 1 (50:38):
Well, I mean, it's funny because the picture of her
flipping off a camera, becauseI said it's national indigenous
people's day, what do you thinkof Chris Columbus?
And she said, fuck, chrisColumbus.
And I'm very proud of thatpicture.
For that reason, I love that.
I love it and I take solace inthe fact that he believes he's
(51:04):
the normal one.
He had to scroll back 10 yearson my personal social media to
find that.
Let me tell you, I've tried todo that on my own instagram and
it's not easy, it takes a lot,it's not an easily searchable
platform at all, uh.
So I take solace in knowingthat in him saying my time is
(51:27):
worth something when we had alittle tizzy, he has spent the
last two days fielding peopletelling him that he is a loser
because he is and like,ultimately, if you're going
there, you don't have anythingelse to draw off of, and if
you're remaining anonymous, inthat sense you're not proud of
(51:49):
what you're doing, what you'resaying, or you're you're afraid.
You're afraid that people thatknow you, uh, pretend to love
you or work with you, are goingto find out about what you say.
So I don't take that muchoffense to it, I'm just like,
listen, well, I draw someattention to it.
I'll say, hey, yeah, here'sthis loser that did this, and
then he's going to have athousand people calling him a
(52:10):
loser for the rest of his life.
So if listen, if that's whatyou want to deal with, by all
means go for it.
Speaker 2 (52:19):
But it doesn't usually work out Well.
I think we should bring publicshaming back.
Speaker 1 (52:24):
Yeah, I agree.
Speaker 2 (52:24):
Really Just like, why not?
Speaker 1 (52:27):
I'm not saying you need to harm them, but like sure
, and I understand that for alot of people they think that I
should rise above it.
All that I disagree.
I disagree.
If you talk trash to somebody,expect to get it back.
I don't say anything to aboutanybody that I don't expect to
get back to them, regardlesswhether I tag them on Twitter or
(52:47):
like if I were saying it to youoff the air, I would expect it.
I would expect that person toeventually hear about it and, uh
, just treat people the way youwant to be treated and if you
mistreat me, probably just dothe same thing to you Get backs.
Speaker 2 (53:07):
I love it.
I love it for folks that havegotten through and gotten to
learn more about you and they'relike yeah, yeah, yeah, thanks
for all that.
Like how do you do this job?
Like how do I get to do thiswork?
I know people hit you up allthe time yeah how do they get to
be never sean but like?
How do they get to be like seanadjacent?
Speaker 1 (53:25):
produce content, all of it, write articles, do
interviews, do the transcripts,edit the audio, edit, edit the
video, create the thumbnail.
There's a reason why a lot ofjournalism programs in college
are no longer journalismprograms.
They are multimedia journalismor convergent media, because
they want you to know how todirect it, design the webpage,
(53:46):
all that.
You have to know how to do allof that because then you become
a versatile hire.
If somebody comes to me andthey say, hey, I do a podcast,
great, I can.
If I wanted another podcast,that bad, I'd just do another
podcast.
I don't really need that Like.
But if you can design logos, ifyou can transcribe, if you can
(54:08):
do the interview on the podcast,edit and upload the audio, run
and produce the video of it,then write an article about it,
you stand a lot more of a chanceof getting hired somewhere
other than oh, it's me withHeadlock Radio.
Okay, great, there's a millionpodcasts out there.
There are not a million peopleout there who can do all of
(54:30):
those things to a competentlevel.
Then when you do everything ata competent level, you can
specialize, you can find outwhat you're really good at.
There's a reason why I don'trun Fightful social media.
I would not be nearly as goodat it.
I'm good at my social media,not at Fightful's.
There's a reason why I don'tedit audio.
I'm not that good at it.
I know how to do it, but I'mnot that good at it.
(54:51):
I was able to cast a wide net,catch a fish and eventually zone
in on that and focus on what itwas that I was great at.
Speaker 2 (55:04):
Do you think people understand your job?
Speaker 1 (55:08):
No, and I say that because I didn't understand my
job Whenever somebody's being ajerk to me.
I remember back 14, 15 yearsago when I was a jerk to Justin
Labar, a guy who did work onWrestleZone and stuff like that,
and the reason was I wasjealous of what he had done.
I was jealous that he had putthe work in and was doing
(55:31):
something I wanted to do, hadput the work in and was doing
something I wanted to do.
And I'm very fortunate that hewasn't a jerk and instead he
reached out and he goes hey, Isee that you do some writing and
it's very good.
Why don't you focus on thatmore than what I'm doing?
And I was like you know what?
You're right, I'm being alittle bitch.
So the long and short of it is Istopped being a little bitch
(55:53):
and I went and I did the workand now I like I'll help anybody
.
That's that seems like theyhave goodwill and do it in good
faith and you just haveinfinitely more security.
And it's.
It's definitely tough whenyou're coming up and you're
starting and you have like athousand followers and somebody
doesn't credit you for aninterview or something, and
(56:13):
that's understandable.
But it took me a long time tobecome secure in that, but that
conversation made me go from ohI'm going to be jealous to no,
let me do the work.
I was afraid of my own failure.
I was afraid of my talent notbeing good enough and actually
trying and putting myself outthere and then not succeeding.
(56:34):
That's ultimately what it was,and there's a lot of people that
think they know how to do thejob.
They think they know all theelements of it.
There are maybe five people onthe planet in wrestling that
truly there's probably davemelzer, mike johnson, john
pollock, brandon thurston, ryansatin who isn't even in
(56:57):
wrestling anymore, wade keller.
There's you can count on lessthan two hands the people that
really know how to navigateexclusive news and pro wrestling
when people say pro wrestling'sfake.
Speaker 2 (57:08):
Why are you wasting your fucking time?
What do you say?
Speaker 1 (57:13):
okay thanks I guess I I don't give that a.
Yeah, I don't give that a lot.
There was so my othergrandmother who passed away.
I was there and this was yearsago, and I got introduced by my
aunt, who was big locally in themedia, to an editor of the
(57:37):
local newspaper.
She goes oh, this is my nephewSean.
He covers wrestling.
And that woman scoffed at meand then and she's like
wrestling and she even saidsomething like that's fake, I
want to say about four yearslater she asked me to write a
feature and I think I saidsomething like I'm washing my
(58:01):
hair that night.
I can't do that, Sorry, notinterested.
Maybe you can find a middleschool golf article that can go
there instead.
Good luck.
Speaker 2 (58:15):
But yeah, it was one of those things.
Speaker 1 (58:17):
Occasionally I'll find that, and then I'll find
people who have been at it avery long time and they're like
no, it's very cool that you wereable to find your lane and your
niche and excel at it, andthat's what I think everybody
should try to find is find thatone thing you really specialize
at.
Speaker 2 (58:38):
When's your next vacation?
Speaker 1 (58:42):
Christmas day Going to New York city on Christmas
day because I'm an idiot.
I'm still going.
My wife has never been and shewanted to go.
We're big, home alone, 2 fans.
Uh, we are not staying at thethat hotel that he was at.
I wish we were, but it's tooexpensive.
But we're actually are going togo to a wrestling show, we're
(59:05):
going to go to the the msg show,but that's always a thing I've
wanted to do since I was a kid.
Yeah, and yeah, we're goingthere, we're going to go
sightsee and all that stuff, butyeah, that will be a vacation.
And then we will go to Orlandoat some point to see a friend,
because that's one of the fewcities that Lexington flies
direct to.
Speaker 2 (59:28):
We're wrapping up because life be lifin', but
before we do, I have a few morequestions, like two, um sure,
within this space and everythingthat you do, what are you
looking forward to for the restof the year, or are you looking
forward to anything?
Speaker 1 (59:46):
I'm looking forward to not flying that much, because
the last few years I've flownan awful lot.
I get to drive to an upcomingshow next week.
I don't have anything August,september, october.
Until the end of November I flyto North Carolina, so I've got
(01:00:07):
those pretty well cleared andthen I do the little vacation at
the end of the year.
I'm actually excited to spendsome time at home and enjoy that
.
This is the first time in ayear and a half that I haven't
had a pro wrestling match toprepare for myself, which is
nice Look at you.
I mean, listen, I ain't in greatshape, but I was doing my best
(01:00:32):
and I got to eat like a dumb assthe last three days and it's
been great.
But I I'm very much lookingforward to not having to be in
my head over that, because Ifeel like I've already had the
two biggest matches that I willhave.
So I'm like, okay, good, don't,don't have to worry about that
as much, but I'm looking forwardto relaxing a little bit.
(01:00:52):
More is hopefully what I'mlooking forward to.
Speaker 2 (01:00:54):
Good, let's call that in.
Let's get that rest energy soyou can actually connect with
self and ignore people.
My last question of the showand I feel like you have a lot
of options here what is thewildest thing that someone has
texted, emailed or DM'd you inthe last two weeks?
Speaker 1 (01:01:16):
I'll give you one that was earlier today.
Oh, casual, apparently, wearen't allowed to run this
because he was fucking high.
I don't believe it.
Speaker 2 (01:01:31):
That sounds so fun.
Speaker 1 (01:01:34):
It was not fun, it it was.
It was a thousand dollar textmessage.
I'll say that much.
It effectively cost us athousand dollars that message I
got itchy.
I'm like I don't like that foryou oh man, but you know it's
not, it's not that big of a deal.
(01:01:56):
But you know we were, we werekind of happy to do that thing I
to do that thing to get thispiece of information, uh, or
article or interview or podcast.
I won't clarify and I just wantto say I dispute that text.
I don't believe he was fuckinghigh, I think.
(01:02:18):
I think that person is beingtypecast, to be honest with you,
so I'm not happy about it.
Speaker 2 (01:02:25):
You can't be typecasting people in these
streets.
This was fun.
This was fun.
I think I learned a lot aboutyou, and that makes my heart
happy, so I got what I wanted tohear, that Um, I'm sure folks
know already, but if not, wherecan they find you?
How can they give you money?
We love that, Um and all thefightful select, fightful
(01:02:46):
selectcom.
Speaker 1 (01:02:48):
It's $5 a month, if you like.
Pro wrestling we report notjust the most news but the most
accurate news.
I am very proud of, of ourtrack record there, but that's
and and fightful across theboard.
We are on every platform tiktok, instagram, facebook, twitter.
We've got multiple youtubepages.
I'm very proud of what we'vecreated there well, we did it.
Speaker 2 (01:03:11):
We did the things.
So again, thank you for takingthe time to come and sit with
the trauma queen, as they callme.
That's crazy.
Um, and until next time, folks.
Sean Rostap is a part owner of Fightful and, more
importantly, a CincinnatiBengals season ticket holder.
Y'all buckle up for this convo.
It might be what you think, butprobably not Okay.
So some of you came herebecause you thought you were
going to hear some messy shitand others came for we'll find
out what you came for, butregardless, I have a lovely
(00:43):
human on the show today who I'msuper excited to talk to.
I love my first question that Ido ask everyone.
This also convo is going to befluid like a Gemini, but the
first question of the show whoare you?
Speaker 1 (01:01):
I am a person who writes wrestling gossip and news
on the internet and likes theCincinnati Bengals.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Sean Ross.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Sapp is who I am.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
How did we meet?
I want to hear how you rememberit.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
Oh my gosh.
I mean obviously connected viawrestling in some capacity.
We met in person.
Was it Vegas or Nashville?
They both are, so Nashville Icall Southern Vegas, so all my
trips to Nashville I getconfused with Vegas in general,
and it didn't help that therewere Summer Slams in both places
(01:40):
, yeah, so that often throws mefor a loop, but I believed it
was vegas in person when we met.
What was it?
It was either wale mania or agcw karaoke thing, maybe there's
so there you go, because see,listen, those two aren't that
different either.
(02:01):
One is just the gcw version ofwale mania to on a much, much,
much smaller scale.
It's just different budgets.
Yes, exactly, but it's justlike a little bit, just like a
little different um one one doesnot have kazim famu ya day and
the other one does, and that'sthe real difference and that you
know what you decide.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
You decide which one you want to take a chance on.
So the show is called traumaqueen and I think that there is
such a distinctness of traumafor everyone and I think that
everyone experiences differently.
But what does trauma mean toyou?
Speaker 1 (02:38):
Well, I mean there's physical trauma and then of
course there there's emotionaltrauma.
I mean physical trauma issomething that I live, I've
lived with a lot longer thanemotional trauma, because
emotional is something I don'tfeel like I really experienced
until recently, especiallylooking in perspective of things
(02:59):
that I thought really affectedme before.
But at least physical trauma,or you know the bumps and
bruises I've had along the way,but I mean emotional trauma.
Certainly I equate that withloss, great loss for me
personally, because I've beenfortunate to not experience as
much of it in other senses.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Sure, All right, let's jump in Kentucky.
Tell me about it.
I've never been sure.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
All right, let's jump in kentucky, tell me about it.
I've never been.
I love it here.
I love it here, so much so.
And and there's no nowhere elseI'd rather live, although I'm
sure you've seen the movie usyeah okay, I call north carolina
kentucky'sether.
Everything's just a little bitslower.
We got the same kind of foodsbut it's just a little bit
(03:48):
weirder there.
The accents are just a littlebit different there, so I could,
I could make it there, but man,I love it here so much.
Now I like where I grew up,which is an extremely rural area
, but I actually grew up in theone small urban part of those
areas and then kind of movedaround.
(04:08):
But since then we've relocatedto Lexington and it is.
It is just, it is my city.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
I am within an hour.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
Yeah, I'm within an hour of three airports.
Uh, I love the city so much.
The city is growing around us,cause we were just on the
outskirts and now they'rebringing a bunch of stuff here.
I love it here.
Um, we get every every seasonin a week.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
It's wonderful I don't think I could do that.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
You have snow oh boy, so do we ever have snow.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
I hate it?
Speaker 1 (04:39):
do we ever have snow?
Now there will be winters whereyou get one snow and that's it,
or you'll get it back to backfor a month straight, like you.
It's really, really hard topredict.
For example, like I went to thearnold sports festival, I want
to say like eight, nine yearsago and we left with a foot of
snow on the ground.
We came back two days later andyou had no idea it snowed and
(05:03):
it was 65 degrees.
So, like we, we experiencedeverything in March or April.
You stand just as much of ashot of it being like 30 degrees
as 75 or 80.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Well, it's like 103 here in SoCal, so I'm like I
don't know.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
We got the humidity, though.
It's like you're walkingthrough soup when you're outside
here, like you walk outside andyou immediately sweat I always
refer to as like walking intosomeone's mouth fair like that's
.
That is.
That is a pretty goodcomparison and it's like this,
(05:44):
it's just like that, so muchespecially because we have the
hills and the trees and all thatstuff here, like I am in the
foothills of the AppalachianMountains, effectively.
So the first time that I drovea little bit north or a little
bit west, I was amazed thatthere was flat land, like I
didn't know that that was athing that existed.
I didn't know you could gosomewhere and look and see like
(06:10):
a mile down the road, because Ihad never experienced that
before.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
It's all mountains out here interesting.
You often talk about like beingin kentucky and like growing up
in a trailer.
I think I I see it as likesomeone that's like.
I just want you to remember Ido know where the fuck I came
from, because people try to actlike you don't.
What was that like for you?
Like?
What was baby Sean like?
Were you this opinionated?
Did you have thoughts?
Were you investigated?
(06:32):
I was so cute.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
No, I didn't get opinionated until I realized
that I could take care of myselfin a physical stance and all
that.
When I finally overcame thatbecause I was really undersized
growing up and all that and Iwanted to play sports.
But until I found track andamateur wrestling, I didn't
(06:55):
really have the ability to dothat.
But once I got into MMA and prowrestling I was like, okay, I
feel a little bit more confidentvoicing my opinion in that
regard.
But I just I loved sports and Icame from a place where there
wasn't much else to do but watchwhat sports were on TV and
(07:17):
watch wrestling and boxing andMMA and literally anything like
that that you could get yourhands on.
There just wasn't.
There were no recreationoutside of the sports that we
did.
There weren't arcades here,there weren't like water parks
here or amusement parks oranything like that.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
So I I turned to sports and wrestling did you
know that you had adhd young, oris this like an older
understanding of self?
Speaker 1 (07:44):
oh no, it was.
It was very, but it took awhile for them to realize what
it was.
I didn't realize it wascounseling and therapy.
At the time I just was like,hey, you're going to comprehend
and you're talking with thisnice woman named Kelly and
there's a bunch of cool toys inher office.
And I didn't realize, and Idon't know when ADHD really came
(08:08):
to the forefront or whatever,but I went from excelling in
school to not excelling inschool overnight.
My kindergarten first, secondgrade, I was well advanced from
where I should have been and inthird grade I just I didn't care
, I didn't care.
Then I got medicated, um, andit was very beneficial for me
(08:32):
for a number of years.
But after that grade four, five, six, seven I was, I was on
point.
I was helped greatly by thatand at the time so it's funny
because I didn't interview withcody rhodes and like people have
joked about it because I said,yeah, my mom thought that
wrestling gave me adhd.
(08:53):
I didn't mean she thought thatit gave me adhd.
She thought that's what led tomy hyperactivity.
She thought that was the reason.
It was because I watchedwrestling it.
And yes, because obviously I didlike, but she thought that's
what led to the hyperactivityand the lack of focus.
Was this because there was noother thing to blame?
(09:15):
Like there?
you couldn't blame like weren'tproblems at home or anything
like that.
But then they realized no, it'sa thing that he's got, it's a
disorder, it's ADHD.
And when my mom especiallyunderstood that greatly, that
helped out immensely and she wasso far ahead of a lot of other
(09:38):
mothers in that time that wouldbe in denial over that, and I
think it's probably becauseshe's in the medical field as
well denial over that, and Ithink it's probably because
she's in the medical field aswell.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
Nice, I know a lot of folks in my life that have ADHD
.
I know I for sure have ADD.
Do you think you use it as likea superpower?
Because I think for sure I'mover here doing 20 things all
the time.
Sometimes it's helpful.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
So I have a three monitor setup for my, my
computer like I, so I am alwaysdoing multiple things yeah for
the job that I specifically do.
yes, absolutely.
Now there there are some daysthat are very crippling and I
can't accomplish anything andsure, I'm just like, all right,
I gotta, I gotta take off.
(10:21):
I'll go up to cincinnati, gosome shoes or something, come
back, sit down at the desk, likejust get away.
There are some days I don'teven try and I've been
unmedicated since my senior yearof high school and that can be
a good thing and a bad thing,yeah, yeah, but I was on Ritalin
(10:42):
and be 110 pounds or do I wantto.
You know, actually eat right and, you know, grow as a human
being physically.
But there are times when I'vebeen like, okay, I need to take
like a focus supplement orsomething like that.
Um, but there are definitelytimes where it's benefited me
(11:03):
and I spoke to Nick Comoroto,who's in AEW, and we had a
wonderful talk and it was sofunny the things that we
realized he hyper-focused onworking out and math.
Those are the two things Istruggle with.
I'll do a set and I'm like I'mbored and when it comes to math,
(11:23):
I can't focus on it, but thenthere were things that I hyper
focus on that he couldn't.
So it is really unique to theindividual.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaking of like, when there'sdays that you just can't, I am
always talking about mentalhealth and I I love that, since
the pandemic people are like, ohyeah, we should give a fuck.
Um, what has your mental healthjourney been like?
I'm not.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
let me finish before working in this industry and
currently I am infinitely morethin-skinned now than I was
before because I, within my town, in my area, I got along with
everybody, had a lot of friends,all that stuff still do.
But you don't get criticizedfor literally nothing.
(12:11):
In a town of 200, like thereare more people that have said
like out, made up things aboutme than lived in the town that I
just moved out.
Of.
So like if somebody in my townwould have said anything like
some of the town that I justmoved out of.
So like if somebody in my townwould have said anything like
some of the things that are saidabout me online, like there's
(12:32):
gotta be a reason, like it's notjust oh, he likes something or
does something or his job.
That's just not a thing thatexists where I come from.
So it's not the easiest thingto adapt to and everybody wants
to be universally loved, unlessit's their job to be hated.
But that's definitely a thing.
Like I am way morehypersensitive, not to criticism
(12:54):
, just to the reality of that.
Some people are just kind ofweird and I'm like what can they
be saved?
Do they want to be saved inthat sense?
Uh, but yeah, definitely thatis a major thing that has
changed since I started to workin wrestling, because it just
wasn't a thing that I needed tofactor in when I'm working at a
(13:15):
gnc or something like that sohow do you take care of it?
Speaker 2 (13:19):
because it's it literally, is you just wake up
and someone's like fuck, you die.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
You're like good morning to you as well, I mean
there's a guy right now onTwitter who has posted a picture
of my dead grandmother 45 timesin the last two days.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
Oh, you're mad at me.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
Well, I mean, yeah, I mean, did I offer to fly him
across the country?
Yes, I did.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
Okay, maybe we're the same, but okay, we're back.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
We're not that different.
He didn't take me up on that,but quitter I mean, that's what
I try to think of is like OK,how would his loved ones react
if they would see this tweet?
A thing that I'll often say tothese people is I will pay you X
amount of dollars if you readthis tweet out loud to a loved
(14:05):
one on video and get theirreaction, because I want to see
what they say to you when youact like this over pro wrestling
or even just somebody you don'tlike in pro wrestling.
Even if I said something thatyou don't like, maybe I told you
to read the article orsomething.
That's how I've come to termswith it recently.
And actually Bray Wyatt hadmessaged me I want to say gosh,
(14:34):
about a, a year before hispassing and he he was like hey,
I see this stuff and here's howI always dealt with it.
And then he said how manypeople do you have that follow
you and that subscribe and allthat stuff?
Speaker 2 (14:43):
And I him a number and he goes you don't have one
percent of that many people thatdon't like you and come on, man
, I was like you know what I waslike that that's a good point,
that's a good wow it isperspective, but also it's like
I'm just trying to exist andthat's hard oh, I get people not
(15:04):
liking my job, for sure.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
but just so you don't like my job or my work, I'm not
going to be hurt by that but,it's like people bled your life.
Oh yeah, oh, I mean, I've hadhad people threaten my wife, Um,
I mean, there were.
There was a guy who his aunthad him committed because of the
things that he was saying aboutmy co-host and about my wife.
(15:27):
Really, oh my gosh.
So I've never told this storypublicly, but I will now.
There was a situation where aperson got my phone number, or
they got my wife's phone number.
They didn't get my phone number, but then I messaged them, got
them away from that.
They didn't get my phone number, but then I messaged them, got
them away from that and Iimmediately, based on the things
that that person said, reachedout to a PI to find out who it
(15:50):
was, because I was going topress charges immediately.
So the PI was on a four or fivehour drive back to somewhere
they needed to be and I wascalling and updating them Myself
and a friend that you know,share delaware, poked into it
and we noticed a lot of commonmisspellings that this person
had that weren't so common she'sso good so we just
(16:13):
cross-referenced that withtweets to me and there was one
guy across multiple accounts whowas tweeting this hateful stuff
and, uh, I pressed charges andthey said you know, there's not
a lot we can do.
Kentucky to LA.
Well, I guess, not.
(16:34):
So fortunate, he lived about 45minutes away from one of my
co-hosts in California, so I wasable to take that information.
I sent it to a loved one and Isaid, hey, just so you know,
this is what this dude's beendoing.
And he actually lived with hisaunt and she said, no, there's
no way, there's no way.
And two days later she messagedme and she said I owe you an
(16:55):
apology.
He has been pretending he'sbeen going to work and then
going to McDonald's or hotelswith wifi and sitting there all
day and he had harassed andthreatened over 50 different
people and they ended upcommitting him, and then she
told me that he was beingevaluated.
(17:17):
Then she told me he was stayingand actually recently I want to
say in the last two or threemonths he's re-emerged on
twitter as like a, as like avery positive account, including
towards me.
I'll send you the account later, but, uh, okay, yeah, uh, it
was, it was I'm glad he got thehelp that he needed because it
(17:41):
was.
It was the kind of things whereI was like is dude gonna diaper
up and drive across the countryand you know, try to pull some
shit which you never know.
People do you never know peopledo we?
Speaker 2 (17:52):
we know what happened to dario, having people break
into homes and you know it's.
I think people take light ofthe internet and they're like
it's just the internet.
I'm like yes, and ain't justthe internet.
Yeah, ain't just the internetno, how do you try to keep
yourself safe now, like what doboundaries look like?
What does that mean for you?
Since you are on the internet,it's like you can leave yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
So I mean, I ended up actually there.
There, share delaware helped mewith a cyber stalker that I got
a few years ago because that,because I reached out to this
person, because they I knowright, but this person got very
fixated just because I hadreached out and said, hey,
please explain to me this tweet,because I don't think I
(18:36):
understand what you're upsetabout.
And they developed an immediateparasocial relationship and I
was like, okay, parasocialrelationship.
And I was like, okay, none ofthat unless I know the person
interpersonally, or one degreeof separation is my limit.
One degree of separation.
You, you gotta have a referenceat this point.
(18:56):
And and if I happen to meet youor you know one of my
subscribers that I've known fora long time knows you or
something.
One of my subscribers that I'veknown for a long time knows you
or something?
Yeah, other than that, I don'tput loved ones on Twitter.
They're still on my Instagramand stuff like that.
I have isolated other socialmedia that I don't have.
(19:17):
I don't do Facebook or anythinglike that anymore.
I'll tell you a mistake that Imade very early on.
Here's a mistake I made veryearly on when I first got a
snapchat account.
It was a completely incognitoname but like my own friends
wouldn't add me back becausethey didn't know it was me at
the time, like it was anincognito name, so I was like,
(19:40):
ah, gotta, gotta do my real.
Well, I didn't change it when Istarted to get popular in
wrestling and unfortunately, Ihad a show with Vince Russo,
unfortunately, and this was likesix months after I had canned
him and I open up my Snapchatand I've got a snap and it is a
(20:03):
giant erect penis.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
I it was gonna be a dick and I just knew.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
And it said fuck vince russo.
In all caps on it, like acrossit, like across the, and they
were perpendicular okay,emphasis on the dick.
It was perpendicular so upwardsa penis across.
Fuck vince russo.
(20:27):
In all caps.
And I'm like, I'm like the 50cent meme, I'm like why he say
fuck me for what did I?
Speaker 2 (20:33):
do I.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
I don't work with him , but I did reply and I said
well, it looks like with thatthing you could.
But like that was that's alesson that I learned as well.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
Like okay, on your private socials, protect
yourself there too do you havelike an online personality and
just sean at home, or is thisjust who you are?
Speaker 1 (21:00):
the way that I say is I never say something to or
about anyone in any capacitythat I wouldn't say to them
directly or to their face period.
If I'm telling some, ifsomebody is being a jerk to me
and I react, I would.
I would 100% say that to themUm, you ain't going to hit me
any harder than UFC fightersthat I used to train with hit me
(21:22):
.
They're way better at it thananybody on the internet.
But like, but no, I'm prettywell the same way on Twitter as
I am in person.
It's just I don't talk aboutwrestling as much in person
Because when it consumes my lifeonline and at work, I'm just
like I don't want to do that.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
Yeah, so we'll get to wrestling eventually, because
we have to.
But what brings you joy?
I think that's such a thingthat we don't talk about
football brings me joy footballbrings me joy.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
I love football.
Um, wow, I like competing.
I like even if it's like likeme and my wife compete a lot
like anything oh my gosh, somuch, so much, and she wasn't.
She's not an athlete, she's notlike a competitor.
But we went on our honeymoon toniagara falls and we did like
(22:15):
they have a very competitivego-kart thing and we started
23rd and 24th and finished firstand second.
Had we raced anybody but eachother, we would have been middle
of the pack maybe, but it'sjust because we were out there
like that.
That's all that that was.
But we like arcades, activategames, stuff like that, like any
(22:37):
way that we can compete, we dobecause that's entertaining for
us, like that's, that's what Ilike to do.
And yeah, like pro wrestling,like actual wrestling, satisfied
my competitive urges for a longtime.
So that was helpful.
And then getting a story righthelped satisfy my competitive
urges a little bit.
I think my ultimate goal waslike just to be the best in the
(23:01):
world at something for at leastsome period of time.
Whether it be like mopping afloor or work like being the
best target cashier, whatever itwas, I just wanted to be the
best in the world at somethingfor a short period of time at
least.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
Do you think that's attached to the ADHD?
Speaker 1 (23:19):
Yes, 100% attached to the ADHD, because when you have
ADHD, it can sometimes bedifficult to follow through on
goals.
It's not difficult to creategoals.
I've got a million differentgoals.
That's why, like the reason whymy YouTube channel isn't at
(23:42):
500,000 views is the same reasonwhy it's gotten to a hundred
and some thousand.
If I would have separated allthe different ideas that I had
and did individual channels forthem, I probably would have been
more successful individuallythan collectively.
But I was like no, I want to dothis, this, this, this, this,
this and this, and they all sortof came together.
(24:04):
So, yes, I absolutely thinkthat that's related to ADHD.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
Do you do any work outside of Fightful?
Speaker 1 (24:13):
Sort of.
I mean I do charity work andfundraiser stuff.
I did volunteer up until thelast few months at different
places.
Usually it would be my God, whyam I drawing a blanket where I
volunteered at NAMI?
Obviously I would help promoteNAMI walks and things like that.
(24:35):
We do a lot of fundraisers atIronfish Gym in Maysville,
kentucky Since 2016,.
I've been really tunnel visionon Fightful and doing that type
of stuff.
Occasionally I would pick upoutside wrestling work.
I've done a hobby binglespodcast that somebody approached
(24:57):
me about turning into work andI was like no, not doing that,
it changes it real quick.
Yeah, yeah, not, not.
Not doing that.
Salvation army.
That's where I don't volunteer.
That, my God, it was.
I was drawing a blank there,but yeah, here and there, but
mostly Fightful consumes my life.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
All right.
Well, we're here.
Now we're at the door, Let usin.
How the fuck did you get intoFightful?
How do you partially own excuseme, let's get language how do
you partially own this,something that has grown to be
such a magical place for so manypeople?
Speaker 1 (25:37):
So I worked for free for Bill after for five years
and that ended up being one ofthe best decisions I ever made.
Um, listen, I was broke as hell, I was poor as hell, I was
struggling, but I wanted to.
Just, I wanted to write forBill after because he had such
an influential part of my lifewhen I wasn't allowed to watch
wrestling.
When I was younger I would readhis magazines.
(25:58):
I did every job I could in andaround wrestling and MMA
commentary, taping hands,managing fighters, teaching
kickboxing training and allthose Every bit of experience I
could get.
I went through a couple jobswhat Culture Wrestling Inc.
And I was about to leaveWrestling Inc, actually over a
(26:20):
pay dispute, because I was tiredof being poor.
And I got an email from a fellowfrom Toronto and it was almost
like it was meant to be becauseI never cared about leaving
Kentucky.
But the one place I looked atand said, man, that'd be cool
was Toronto.
And that's because when I waslittle they had the cool new
(26:42):
baseball stadium with the roofthat opened and closed.
Their football or theirbaseball team was really good.
They had the new NBA team inthe 90s.
So I was like, oh, oh, that'dbe cool.
And he hit me up and he goeshey, I'm thinking about starting
a hybrid pro wrestling MMAwebsite and, quite literally,
the way that I was taught to prowrestle is a hybrid of MMA and
(27:06):
pro wrestling.
It's catch wrestling.
It's what pro wrestling wasbefore it turned scripted and he
reached out to bill after andbill after said yes, this is
absolutely your guy, you shoulddo it.
And there was a wage that I hadin mind and I said, if I made
(27:26):
that and it was very low wage Isaid if I could make that and
just do what I love, I would behappy.
And he met that wage andexceeded it and said he had told
me before.
He's like if you stay loyal tome, I'll stay loyal to you.
I never forgot that.
And, um, that's that's how itstarted.
(27:48):
And eventually I mean he he tooksixure losses for a very long
time on FIFO.
And then finally I want to say2021, we broke a few really big
stories and that made us notprofitable, but we were finally
cutting into the debt.
(28:08):
And then 2022 hit and I had hadsome really nice offers
elsewhere.
So he knew that he had to do alittle bit more to retain me
because the reality is I couldjust leave, do my own Patreon,
(28:29):
do my own YouTube and makesignificantly more and say sorry
, you're stuck with all thoselosses you accrued over the
years, partial ownership of thiscompany and a disproportionate
amount of pay compared to thatownership, because I realized
this is a talent-based type ofventure now, as opposed to I'm
just running a website wherepeople write.
So I got very lucky that Ifound a business partner who is
(28:54):
one of the most loyal humanbeings you could ever meet and
generous as well is the reasonI'm in the house I'm in right
now.
I got very fortunate to matchup with that, because had I
taken any of the offers that Ihad entertained along the way, I
would be, nowhere near where Iam, nowhere.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
That's wild.
How big is the staff now?
I would be nowhere near where Iam Nowhere.
Yeah, that's wild.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
How big is the staff now?
Now it's 40.
It started off the first yeah,the first day.
The first day was actually likeJuly 6th 2024.
And it was me, uh, Jimmy, whoowned the site, Vince Russo, who
(29:39):
I didn't want to be on the site, but he had hired him without
me knowing, july 16th it's 2024.
Oh, 2016.
Speaker 2 (29:46):
Sorry, Okay we're good, we're bringing it back.
Speaker 1 (29:48):
Absolutely not 2024.
Would never have anything to dowith him now and Showdown Joe
Ferraro.
So there were really fourpeople and then he had a parent
company and then they would justkind of do work.
In addition to that, they wouldlike pick up some stuff.
Now we have 40 people on staff,40 people that submit invoices
(30:09):
a month, including, I want tosay, there are six to eight
people full-time, including twothat are on the admin side as
well.
So it's grown exponentially.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
Yeah, what kind of boss are you?
Speaker 1 (30:26):
Oh man, I've never asked anyone.
So I had a boss at WhatCultureand he was the worst boss I ever
had.
And I specifically said if Iever become a boss, I will never
be like him.
I will never tell somebody youcan't.
I will try to offerconstructive criticism or if
(30:49):
they're not a right fit here,I'm never going to tell them,
hey, you need to give up.
I'm never going to say that,cause that's what was told to me
.
Um, and then when I was atwrestling inc, I had a boss that
limited my income and I saidyou know what, unless I'm paying
paying somebody a full-timewage, I'm not going to limit
their income.
They want to write here andthere and there and there.
(31:09):
I'm not going to restrict thatat all.
I'm not going to make anybodybe just fightful because that's
not fair, that's not, it's justand it's not okay to do so.
I'd like to think in that senseI'm much more liberal than a lot
of the other outlets that areout there, although that has
become the norm in recent years,since we have just refused to
say no, you're not exclusivehere.
(31:31):
You can write at wrestle zone,you can write at wrestling
observer, you can do your ownthing.
I I don't care if, if you workfor us and you get an interview
and I pass on it, I'm like, no,I don't think that's a good fit
here.
I'm not gonna get upset if youput it on your own youtube.
So, uh, very open.
Uh, try to be as as transparentand honest with people as
(31:54):
possible.
But I would like to think thatI'm a good boss.
I haven't had any publiccomplaints yet.
Yeah, I've not had any publiccomplaints yet, and I think
after eight years, I think aftereight years, that's pretty good
.
Speaker 2 (32:10):
I think, as as someone that else that also owns
things and has people, that ifI don't make money, they don't
make money.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
Sure.
Speaker 2 (32:18):
What are the stressors of that?
Because I lost my hair.
So what have been yourstressors in doing this?
Speaker 1 (32:26):
A lot of people think they can pitch me a podcast and
it will make money because it'sjust under the Fightful banner.
Not everybody is WillWashington, phil Lindsay and
Righteous Reg where I getpitched that idea and I said I
know that will make money.
And not only did they know itwould make money, because they
offered me I think it was a revshare.
(32:46):
Immediately they weren't likeoh no, give us a flat rate.
They're like we know this isgoing to make money and we want
the rev share as a result ofthat.
Everybody isn't that and that'sthat's okay, it's not.
Those are three juggernauts inthe podcasting wrestling world
like it's okay to not be that,but you can't just slap a
(33:07):
fightful logo on something andit be successful.
So there are things that I haveto look at that are outright
money losers and then there areloss leaders.
So there are shows on FightfulSelect that don't make us money
and if I got rid of them wewould save a few hundred bucks a
month.
Then I'm like well, is it worthsaving that few hundred bucks a
(33:29):
month to not have this person apart of our team, not this
topic covered, and not serveeven the few people that they
that like that?
No, it's probably not.
I can eat that cost, I canhandle not making that amount
more.
But then there are some thatare just like, well, this isn't
making money, it's affectingalgorithms, it's not good for
(33:53):
the site, etc.
There are certain personalitieswithin wrestling that I say we
don't need to cover, we don'tneed, we don't need their the
bait of them very clearly goingafter this.
So that's, that's a you knowone of the things that we have
to weigh and what sources to useor not to use.
(34:14):
Those are some stressors.
But as far as like managingpersonalities like, I've been
fortunate that up until likethat quite quite a far way in
everybody kind of workedtogether.
It's mainly just, it's mainlydetractors outside a fightful,
that kind of take aim and stufflike that.
(34:34):
But really I don't pay them anymind because people who actually
read the content, have medialiteracy, know where to follow
news.
Our track record speaks foritself.
But having to tell people nosometimes does suck.
Having to tell people no.
It wouldn't make sense for usto put this interview up on this
feed because it's not going todo any traffic and it will
(34:56):
actually hurt our algorithm.
That does suck because we usedto be a very just like you want
to do a podcast about the NBAdraft on the main feed, go for
it, I don't care.
We had that ability, but now wehave to be a little bit more
concentrated in what we do,because we do have so much
content.
Speaker 2 (35:15):
You really do, you really content, you really do,
you really, you really do.
And I think that's so amazing,we not?
Speaker 1 (35:18):
only have sorry to interrupt.
We not only have the most paidcontent, we have the most free
content of any wrestling website, which is something I take a
lot of pride in wrestling issuch an interesting thing.
Speaker 2 (35:31):
I I remember.
I will always say I know theday I found wrestling it was
1996, stone cold.
Steve austin was breaking intobrian pillman's home, yes, and I
was turning through thechannels and I was like I'm
sorry, what the hell is this?
And that was it, but I became awcw girl, which is a whole.
When do you not work?
Speaker 1 (35:55):
sundays during football season, uh, so I I know
I bring up football a lot, manshocker, this is my this is
actually my bingles uh studio,but a couple years ago like I've
been.
But there was a period gosh,between 2014 and 2018, where
(36:20):
there were two days I had notwritten an article or done a
podcast over four years and myline of thinking was if I don't
do it, somebody else will, and Ido not recommend that for
somebody else.
I don't, but that's how I cameup and my path led me to where I
am.
So I'm not recommend that forsomebody else.
I don't, but that's how I cameup and my path led me to where I
am, so I'm happy I took it, andthose two days were my bachelor
(36:40):
party and my wedding.
Other than that, I worked everysingle day to some degree not
now.
There were plenty of days Iworked 14 to 16 hours, but it
wasn't like that every day.
And then I started to delegatemore and that was very important
.
I delegated social media toKyler, who is a wonderful dude
(37:01):
and he's grown our socials.
I delegated day-to-day newswriting to Jeremy Lambert and I
delegated moderating and allthat.
But I want to say, about threeyears ago, after the pandemic, I
was just like, yeah, I want tostart going to some Bengals
games.
And then last year I got seasontickets and I did that because
it forces me to take a day off.
(37:23):
I am not going to spend theamount of money that I spent on
season tickets and then say,well, you know what?
Hulk Hogan just took a dump outof a pickup truck going down
the highway.
I better stay home and writeabout it.
No, I'm going to go to thatdamn bingles game.
Somebody, jeremy, can writeabout hulk hogan taking a dump
out of a ford ranger.
I don't care.
I don't care, um, but that isvery important to me and I'm
(37:45):
very fortunate because wrestlingdoesn't compete with the nfl
anymore, which makes me veryhappy.
But that's when I don't work,um, and during the school year
my wife's a school teacher.
I try to not work in theimmediate hours following her
school day because, she'll.
(38:06):
She'll be in bed by 10, 10 30.
So I can work later at night ifI need to.
I try to like have that, so Ikeep relatively normal office
hours during the school year andthen I'm working pretty late at
night as well.
But those are the windows Isort of open for myself.
Speaker 2 (38:26):
That's fucking crazy, but I know what the grind looks
like.
I used to do 12-hour daystalking about trauma and writing
and sex ed and all the things,and now I talk about wrestling
things.
So we've talked about thewrestling part.
Let's get that over with.
Something happened to both ofus in the past two years and we
(38:47):
both lost individuals that werereally important to us.
As someone that works in mentalhealth, I've known what grief is
.
I'm a child of trauma.
I've experienced grief, butsomething about my grandfather
dying last year changed me and Ihave talked about it with
(39:08):
people.
There's a podcast with JeremyLambert and three of my other
friends and we're talking aboutgrief and losing people because
all our parents died around thesame time, which is fucking
crazy, and grief is such a Ialways think of it as like a
weighted blanket dipped in waterand then they just throw it on
you and you're like wait, and Iknow that was also a time for
(39:31):
you to step away and you talkedabout it a bit um, what has
grief look like for you?
How was your relationship withyour grandmother?
I believed she raised you asmine raised me.
Um, yes, what was that like foryou?
Speaker 1 (39:48):
so I mean, uh, I had growing up great relationship
with my mom.
As I got a little bit older itwas hit or miss.
Now it's wonderful, but I wasalways a grandma's boy.
I lived there for years.
I lived there, um, after Ineeded to to kind of keep her
company because she needed it,yeah, but um, she was the most
(40:11):
important person in my life, theway that I like.
We expected to have her another10 years.
We knew that she'd be battlingdementia and it would be tough,
but we expected to have her fora lot longer.
It took a part out of me that Idon't feel like can be replaced
.
We are three months after ithappened and I don't know if
(40:34):
it's fully hit me.
It's and we are three monthsafter it happened and I don't
know if it's fully hit me.
Um, it's, it's, and maybeabsent of emotion, like I don't
yell, I don't, I haven't criedyet, I haven't, I was just empty
, that's.
That's the best way I canexplain.
It is that I was empty and Iwent to see her so much in the
(40:54):
spring and it's it's about anhour and a half trip to see her
and I wish I would have seen herevery day.
But the last five visits I sawher get progressively worse and
it was such a deep accelerator Imean to to show you how, like,
quickly accelerated.
I remember five visits.
From the last one I was talkingabout going to Cleveland for
(41:18):
SummerSlam, for work, and shejoked and she said, sounds like
a terrible job.
And I love that because sheknew how much I bagged on
Cleveland.
She knew how much, like as aCincinnati sports fan, I would
just bust balls over that.
Then the next time I saw her shewas just a little bit more
frail.
And then the next time she wasin bed and the next time she was
(41:42):
in bed and didn't talk, andthen the next time she just
didn't wake up when she was inbed.
It got that progressively worseover two and a half weeks and
the night, the last night, I sawher.
I knew it was coming and I wassort of prepared for it.
When my mom called me and shewas so wonderful to, my
(42:02):
grandmother took care of her inher last year I knew that's what
she was about to tell mebecause, yeah, it's like we
would call each other all thetime, but it was just unusual, 6
pm on a Sunday, it's just, italmost hits you.
It's like, well, yeah, we calleach other all the time, but
it's never happened.
At 6 pm on a Sunday.
I could tell something wasgoing on, you know, and it just
(42:25):
it made me absent of emotion,like I don't have it in me to be
upset or angry or cry oranything like that right now.
I don't.
I haven't developed that havehappened since then, where I'm
certainly more subdued than Iwould have been three, four
(43:00):
months ago.
So empty is the feeling that Iwould indicate.
Speaker 2 (43:10):
Will you ever get out of it?
The answer is yes.
When will it happen?
When you least expect it andprobably in the most not fun
place.
Have you ever?
Well, like in the sense of oneof the questions, when we were
talking about grief and I askedthem, like where's the weirdest
place, you cried?
I said when I just sat down topee, I just started bawling.
My friend was a stripper andshe was, like you know, when I
(43:32):
started crying, doing a lapdance.
They don't like that.
Oh, no she said and then I criedon the pole I was like, but you
know what, someone was into it.
She's like I did get tipped.
Speaker 1 (43:44):
Oh, no, did she get any complaints.
Speaker 2 (43:48):
Nah, I mean, there you go.
Her tits are out.
What are they going to say?
Fair, fair, here's a tissue andput those away.
No as losing your person.
How have you existed?
I know when I lost my dad.
So for those that don't know, Ilost my grandfather to prostate
(44:10):
cancer.
He raised me.
He was the man that I put menup to when I date them.
I went to travel for work and Iwent on a speaking engagement.
It was the best college keynoteI ever did.
I signed my contract for AEWand I got a phone call on the
way home and I was like myfamily doesn't call me.
What is this?
(44:31):
And I asked the week before Ihad went and saw him and he just
looks so weak, like it wassomeone I didn't know, and I
made him take a photo with methat day and for some reason I
also recorded part of thatconversation.
Something said do all thethings.
Speaker 1 (44:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (44:51):
And that was the last time I saw him, really, really.
But I got to ask him are youscared?
It was the only time in lifeI've ever heard him say yes
(45:15):
heartbreaking thing aboutdealing with dementia with my
grandmother.
Speaker 1 (45:17):
She wasn't scared of anybody, anything I mean for
listen, for anybody.
That that's upset.
That I talk shit back to you ontwitter, it's her fault, I mean
she.
She was like she would shittalk non-stop if somebody was
going at her.
That you weren't winning thatverbal battle.
But she realized she was losingher mind.
(45:37):
She realized she was losing hermemory and the first time I
heard her say it's scary I.
That was like the biggestheartbreaking moment to me and I
To me.
That was the only solace that Itook was that I knew that when
she passed she wasn't scaredanymore, because living in a
(45:59):
perpetual state of fear ofabandonment was what really made
her upset, what really botheredher, because she had those
abandonment issues For years.
People would move in and outwith her.
She was the safe haven.
She was home base.
If anybody had a badrelationship, lost a job
anything, they in and out withher.
She was the safe haven, she washome base.
If anybody had a badrelationship, lost a job
anything, they'd go stay withher.
That's just how it was.
(46:19):
Her sisters, her grandkids, herkids, anybody and to me that
was the only thing that made mefeel a little bit's it's okay
was because I knew that shewould never be scared again in
that sense because I lived for30 plus years and never heard
(46:42):
her say I'm scared.
Then I heard her say it everysingle day um every single day.
She said it and that was sohumbling and it's just, it's
very unusual to realize thingsthat you don't even realize.
Like, after she passed, I wasslowly realizing every trip that
(47:04):
I had taken, every if I wouldbuy something at walmart, like
she would be in the back of myhead about the financial
decision I was making, the tripI was taking, like, okay, but is
(47:29):
somebody there with her?
Is, am I going to have you know?
I'm glad that I feel that waybecause that shows me that
reaffirms that I did a good joband helped her the way that she
helped me, and that was veryimportant to me.
That was the most importantthing to me.
That's why I wanted to succeedwas to take care of her the same
way that she had taken care ofme in the past.
Speaker 2 (47:51):
I'm like shedding tears as I think about this,
like it really is like one ofthose things.
You don't cry, I cry so much.
It's really good for my skin,though.
Look at me, I look like I'm inmy 20s, uh, but it's one of
those things that it doesn'tchange and it hits you like
you'll be walking on.
You're like, oh shit yeah hereally, he really done died.
Speaker 1 (48:13):
That's crazy, like I have those moments I have those
happen every day and, like, I'velost a lot of people, like
close to me, a lot of friends.
And there's one person he wasmy best friend for about a year
and we I wouldn't say we had afalling out, we grew apart, sure
, but like we were only bestfriends for about a year and
(48:35):
then we lost touch largely forthe remaining five or six years
of his life.
He was involved in some stuffthat I didn't want to be, but
every fall I remember hangingout with him, every single day
and then every fall, still, eventhough three times as much time
has passed that he's been gone,as I knew him, I still think
(48:56):
about him and I'm like, and he'sreally not here, that, like
everything right now is likethat with my grandmother,
because it's every first.
It's going to be my firstbirthday, the first Christmas,
the first new years.
Her first birthday immediatelyafter was the first mother's day
.
Yeah, um, yeah, like it's.
(49:17):
I'll go to the corner store andI'll see butter pecan ice cream
that I hated.
And now I'm like give me thatbutter pecan ice cream.
That's what she, that's theonly shit she had at her house.
That's what I want.
I didn't drink soda.
I drink pepsi Zero now becauseshe drank Pepsi and it makes me
feel a little bit closer to her.
Speaker 2 (49:39):
I danced in my kitchen the other day, in my
mom's kitchen, because theanniversary of his death this
year.
It's been a year my mom decidedshe wanted to go into kidney
failure and so I had to go tothe hospital and I parked in the
same spot.
I parked in the night when Irushed to the hospital that he
(49:59):
died because there was no otherparking.
I was like who's fuckingplaying in my face?
And so now she's on dialysisand she does it at night and we
have to go and help her, which Iam so thankful that I get to do
.
And there's this huge thing ofmy dad's face, because he was in
the Air Force and every day I'mlike you really just left me to
take care of these people,because I got left to be in
(50:20):
charge of everything and so, assomeone that was there all the
time in doing these things, howdo you navigate the bullshit on
the internet, these things?
How do you navigate thebullshit on the internet and see
, we get spicy?
The bullshit of this personposting her.
Speaker 1 (50:38):
Well, I mean, it's funny because the picture of her
flipping off a camera, becauseI said it's national indigenous
people's day, what do you thinkof Chris Columbus?
And she said, fuck, chrisColumbus.
And I'm very proud of thatpicture.
For that reason, I love that.
I love it and I take solace inthe fact that he believes he's
(51:04):
the normal one.
He had to scroll back 10 yearson my personal social media to
find that.
Let me tell you, I've tried todo that on my own instagram and
it's not easy, it takes a lot,it's not an easily searchable
platform at all, uh.
So I take solace in knowingthat in him saying my time is
(51:27):
worth something when we had alittle tizzy, he has spent the
last two days fielding peopletelling him that he is a loser
because he is and like,ultimately, if you're going
there, you don't have anythingelse to draw off of, and if
you're remaining anonymous, inthat sense you're not proud of
(51:49):
what you're doing, what you'resaying, or you're you're afraid.
You're afraid that people thatknow you, uh, pretend to love
you or work with you, are goingto find out about what you say.
So I don't take that muchoffense to it, I'm just like,
listen, well, I draw someattention to it.
I'll say, hey, yeah, here'sthis loser that did this, and
then he's going to have athousand people calling him a
(52:10):
loser for the rest of his life.
So if listen, if that's whatyou want to deal with, by all
means go for it.
Speaker 2 (52:19):
But it doesn't usually work out Well.
I think we should bring publicshaming back.
Speaker 1 (52:24):
Yeah, I agree.
Speaker 2 (52:24):
Really Just like, why not?
Speaker 1 (52:27):
I'm not saying you need to harm them, but like sure
, and I understand that for alot of people they think that I
should rise above it.
All that I disagree.
I disagree.
If you talk trash to somebody,expect to get it back.
I don't say anything to aboutanybody that I don't expect to
get back to them, regardlesswhether I tag them on Twitter or
(52:47):
like if I were saying it to youoff the air, I would expect it.
I would expect that person toeventually hear about it and, uh
, just treat people the way youwant to be treated and if you
mistreat me, probably just dothe same thing to you Get backs.
Speaker 2 (53:07):
I love it.
I love it for folks that havegotten through and gotten to
learn more about you and they'relike yeah, yeah, yeah, thanks
for all that.
Like how do you do this job?
Like how do I get to do thiswork?
I know people hit you up allthe time yeah how do they get to
be never sean but like?
How do they get to be like seanadjacent?
Speaker 1 (53:25):
produce content, all of it, write articles, do
interviews, do the transcripts,edit the audio, edit, edit the
video, create the thumbnail.
There's a reason why a lot ofjournalism programs in college
are no longer journalismprograms.
They are multimedia journalismor convergent media, because
they want you to know how todirect it, design the webpage,
(53:46):
all that.
You have to know how to do allof that because then you become
a versatile hire.
If somebody comes to me andthey say, hey, I do a podcast,
great, I can.
If I wanted another podcast,that bad, I'd just do another
podcast.
I don't really need that Like.
But if you can design logos, ifyou can transcribe, if you can
(54:08):
do the interview on the podcast,edit and upload the audio, run
and produce the video of it,then write an article about it,
you stand a lot more of a chanceof getting hired somewhere
other than oh, it's me withHeadlock Radio.
Okay, great, there's a millionpodcasts out there.
There are not a million peopleout there who can do all of
(54:30):
those things to a competentlevel.
Then when you do everything ata competent level, you can
specialize, you can find outwhat you're really good at.
There's a reason why I don'trun Fightful social media.
I would not be nearly as goodat it.
I'm good at my social media,not at Fightful's.
There's a reason why I don'tedit audio.
I'm not that good at it.
I know how to do it, but I'mnot that good at it.
(54:51):
I was able to cast a wide net,catch a fish and eventually zone
in on that and focus on what itwas that I was great at.
Speaker 2 (55:04):
Do you think people understand your job?
Speaker 1 (55:08):
No, and I say that because I didn't understand my
job Whenever somebody's being ajerk to me.
I remember back 14, 15 yearsago when I was a jerk to Justin
Labar, a guy who did work onWrestleZone and stuff like that,
and the reason was I wasjealous of what he had done.
I was jealous that he had putthe work in and was doing
(55:31):
something I wanted to do, hadput the work in and was doing
something I wanted to do.
And I'm very fortunate that hewasn't a jerk and instead he
reached out and he goes hey, Isee that you do some writing and
it's very good.
Why don't you focus on thatmore than what I'm doing?
And I was like you know what?
You're right, I'm being alittle bitch.
So the long and short of it is Istopped being a little bitch
(55:53):
and I went and I did the workand now I like I'll help anybody
.
That's that seems like theyhave goodwill and do it in good
faith and you just haveinfinitely more security.
And it's.
It's definitely tough whenyou're coming up and you're
starting and you have like athousand followers and somebody
doesn't credit you for aninterview or something, and
(56:13):
that's understandable.
But it took me a long time tobecome secure in that, but that
conversation made me go from ohI'm going to be jealous to no,
let me do the work.
I was afraid of my own failure.
I was afraid of my talent notbeing good enough and actually
trying and putting myself outthere and then not succeeding.
(56:34):
That's ultimately what it was,and there's a lot of people that
think they know how to do thejob.
They think they know all theelements of it.
There are maybe five people onthe planet in wrestling that
truly there's probably davemelzer, mike johnson, john
pollock, brandon thurston, ryansatin who isn't even in
(56:57):
wrestling anymore, wade keller.
There's you can count on lessthan two hands the people that
really know how to navigateexclusive news and pro wrestling
when people say pro wrestling'sfake.
Speaker 2 (57:08):
Why are you wasting your fucking time?
What do you say?
Speaker 1 (57:13):
okay thanks I guess I I don't give that a.
Yeah, I don't give that a lot.
There was so my othergrandmother who passed away.
I was there and this was yearsago, and I got introduced by my
aunt, who was big locally in themedia, to an editor of the
(57:37):
local newspaper.
She goes oh, this is my nephewSean.
He covers wrestling.
And that woman scoffed at meand then and she's like
wrestling and she even saidsomething like that's fake, I
want to say about four yearslater she asked me to write a
feature and I think I saidsomething like I'm washing my
(58:01):
hair that night.
I can't do that, Sorry, notinterested.
Maybe you can find a middleschool golf article that can go
there instead.
Good luck.
Speaker 2 (58:15):
But yeah, it was one of those things.
Speaker 1 (58:17):
Occasionally I'll find that, and then I'll find
people who have been at it avery long time and they're like
no, it's very cool that you wereable to find your lane and your
niche and excel at it, andthat's what I think everybody
should try to find is find thatone thing you really specialize
at.
Speaker 2 (58:38):
When's your next vacation?
Speaker 1 (58:42):
Christmas day Going to New York city on Christmas
day because I'm an idiot.
I'm still going.
My wife has never been and shewanted to go.
We're big, home alone, 2 fans.
Uh, we are not staying at thethat hotel that he was at.
I wish we were, but it's tooexpensive.
But we're actually are going togo to a wrestling show, we're
(59:05):
going to go to the the msg show,but that's always a thing I've
wanted to do since I was a kid.
Yeah, and yeah, we're goingthere, we're going to go
sightsee and all that stuff, butyeah, that will be a vacation.
And then we will go to Orlandoat some point to see a friend,
because that's one of the fewcities that Lexington flies
direct to.
Speaker 2 (59:28):
We're wrapping up because life be lifin', but
before we do, I have a few morequestions, like two, um sure,
within this space and everythingthat you do, what are you
looking forward to for the restof the year, or are you looking
forward to anything?
Speaker 1 (59:46):
I'm looking forward to not flying that much, because
the last few years I've flownan awful lot.
I get to drive to an upcomingshow next week.
I don't have anything August,september, october.
Until the end of November I flyto North Carolina, so I've got
(01:00:07):
those pretty well cleared andthen I do the little vacation at
the end of the year.
I'm actually excited to spendsome time at home and enjoy that
.
This is the first time in ayear and a half that I haven't
had a pro wrestling match toprepare for myself, which is
nice Look at you.
I mean, listen, I ain't in greatshape, but I was doing my best
(01:00:32):
and I got to eat like a dumb assthe last three days and it's
been great.
But I I'm very much lookingforward to not having to be in
my head over that, because Ifeel like I've already had the
two biggest matches that I willhave.
So I'm like, okay, good, don't,don't have to worry about that
as much, but I'm looking forwardto relaxing a little bit.
(01:00:52):
More is hopefully what I'mlooking forward to.
Speaker 2 (01:00:54):
Good, let's call that in.
Let's get that rest energy soyou can actually connect with
self and ignore people.
My last question of the showand I feel like you have a lot
of options here what is thewildest thing that someone has
texted, emailed or DM'd you inthe last two weeks?
Speaker 1 (01:01:16):
I'll give you one that was earlier today.
Oh, casual, apparently, wearen't allowed to run this
because he was fucking high.
I don't believe it.
Speaker 2 (01:01:31):
That sounds so fun.
Speaker 1 (01:01:34):
It was not fun, it it was.
It was a thousand dollar textmessage.
I'll say that much.
It effectively cost us athousand dollars that message I
got itchy.
I'm like I don't like that foryou oh man, but you know it's
not, it's not that big of a deal.
(01:01:56):
But you know we were, we werekind of happy to do that thing I
to do that thing to get thispiece of information, uh, or
article or interview or podcast.
I won't clarify and I just wantto say I dispute that text.
I don't believe he was fuckinghigh, I think.
(01:02:18):
I think that person is beingtypecast, to be honest with you,
so I'm not happy about it.
Speaker 2 (01:02:25):
You can't be typecasting people in these
streets.
This was fun.
This was fun.
I think I learned a lot aboutyou, and that makes my heart
happy, so I got what I wanted tohear, that Um, I'm sure folks
know already, but if not, wherecan they find you?
How can they give you money?
We love that, Um and all thefightful select, fightful
(01:02:46):
selectcom.
Speaker 1 (01:02:48):
It's $5 a month, if you like.
Pro wrestling we report notjust the most news but the most
accurate news.
I am very proud of, of ourtrack record there, but that's
and and fightful across theboard.
We are on every platform tiktok, instagram, facebook, twitter.
We've got multiple youtubepages.
I'm very proud of what we'vecreated there well, we did it.
Speaker 2 (01:03:11):
We did the things.
So again, thank you for takingthe time to come and sit with
the trauma queen, as they callme.
That's crazy.
Um, and until next time, folks.
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