September 5, 2025 • 16 mins
Xavier Woods joins us ahead of WWE Monday Night Raw in Milwaukee to talk about the WWE x Netflix UnReal series, the possibility of returning as Consequences Creed, and how digital culture is shaping wrestling today.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Battleground Podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Your day for all East.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
And exclusive interviews with some of your favorite wrestlers.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Stop seeing what's up you guys. Welcome back in too.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
iHeartRadio's official wrestling podcast, The Battleground Podcast. It is battle
from ninety five to seven Big FM, Milwaukee's best variety
of the eighties and nineties. And as you know, WWE
Monday Night Raw returns to Milwaukee this Monday night at
the five Serve Forum. You could still grab tickets, very
few left ticketmaster dot com or WWE dot com. And
today on the show, we got a guy that wears
(00:48):
mini hats inside and outside of the ring.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
And today he has a special hat on because it
is his birthday.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Today, Xavier Woods joins the Showy, Hi, your birthday.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Thank you very much. The pleasure is all yours and
I am very happy for you to get the opportunity
to speak to me. And you're going to enjoy this
a lot. So let's get started.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
I'm very excited. First and foremost, let me ask how's
the neck doing. I know your doctor said that you
could take it off for a couple hours a day.
Obviously we're not in that couple of hours where you
could take it off.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
How's the neck?
Speaker 3 (01:19):
My neck is feeling terrible. I don't know if you
watched Raw this past Monday night, but I was forced
to wrestle even though my neck is injured. I had
to take my neck brace off during the commercial break
because the referee was accosting me about wearing it, as
it was an illegal tool in the ring that I
was not allowed to have. But then Penta jumped off
of Ivar's back and somehow attached his body to mine
(01:42):
into an incredible Mexican destroyer that has only injured my
neck even more so. Now I don't know where we
even are in the recovery process at this point, because
Adam Pierce refuses, He absolutely refuses to ban this maneuver.
But he bans it when it happens to Cody, He
bends it. It gets banned when it happens to Randy.
But oh, but not me, not the twenty one year vet,
(02:05):
not the fifteen year company guy, not the guy who
delivers every single time he's out there. We just don't
care what happens to Woods. I wonder why, oh, because
he doesn't want to give us a rematch with the
tag Team Championships doesn't want to give me a match
for the ICY title. I should have been Icy Champion
years ago.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
You should have.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
We were advocating for that on this show before, and
it's a shame that they have not. They have mistreated
a former King of the Ring the way they have
been not fair, not fair at all for Xavier Woods. Now,
I do want to ask you this because a lot
of fans have watched the show, watched the documentary on Netflix.
You know, ww Netflix Unreal has got everyone talking. It's
(02:43):
kind of pulling the curtain back more than ever. Do
you think something like this helps evolve the business or
maybe chips away the magic wrestling thrives off because it
doesn't seem like k fabe is really much of a
thing anymore.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
This is a heavy question that I will answer as
best I can. I love magic, I love David Blaine,
what's his name, Copperfield, all these things. I don't want
to know how the tricks are done, so I don't
go searching for information on how the tricks are done.
(03:17):
If I want to know how the tricks are done,
then I will go find out how the tricks are done.
But I will not complain about now knowing how the
tricks are done. After I've looked up the information of
how the tricks are done, it's a.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Solid answer and I dig it.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
Uh, Monday Night Raw Milwaukee this Monday night Pfizer form.
You can still buy your tickets ww dot com, ticketmaster
dot com. Now, I gotta say, when it comes to
Xavier Woods, you've always been ahead of the curve with
blending wrestling and of course the digital culture, especially with
up updown, down, and among other things that you've done
outside of wrestling. Has fan engagement online changed how you
(03:53):
connect with audiences in the ring.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
I don't know if it's changed how I engage or
how fan engagement has it's come about. I will say
that sometimes things occur on the Internet that then definitely
don't translate to inside the arenas, because in the arenas
it's a very different experience. The energy is palpable. You
(04:24):
can damn near taste it sometimes, which is disgusting because
people should wear more toyodorant. Like we were in France.
It smelled horrible in that place. But it is cool
to see people having a voice online, people that might
not live near other people that also love wrestling. People
that might find people who love wrestlers who might not be,
(04:45):
you know, really on the scene yet, and finding somebody
across the world who also loves this wrestler and being
able to bond with them. So it is great seeing
people be able to bond about things they might not find.
What do you say, bonders bonding friends with otherwise. So
engagement for me is talking to the audience that I
know is listening online. So for me, it's people who
(05:09):
will say people who know ball, people who understand that
I've been wrestling for twenty one years. I started on
the Independence in South Georgia. I then got into TNA
before I graduated college. I then went to New Japan.
I then came to WWE. So I've got a very
long career where I'm very proud of the things that
(05:31):
I've been able to accomplish. And so I talk to
those people because those people are the ones that I
know have been rocking with me. Those are the people
that I know understand video games, they understand movies, pop culture.
So I might say something on television that the world
at the masses might not understand, but the people that
know me know that this is a reference from the
(05:52):
movie White Chicks. This is a reference from the game Fallout,
and so I'm talking to those people because that's who
I wish would have been talking to me while I
was wrestling. There wasn't anybody like me when I was
growing up watching this show. There were a million incredible characters,
but there wasn't anybody who I felt spoke to me
as a nerdy kid who was getting yelled at in
(06:14):
school for reading too many comic books or playing too
many video games. And so with the amount of characters
that we have on the show, there's someone for everybody,
and I'm very proud to be that representative for those people.
So a long winded way to say it doesn't change
the way that I necessarily engage with fans, but I
(06:36):
do enjoy having a space specifically for those fans who
want more of me, or want more of bron Breaker,
or want more of Riha Ripley. It's nice to have
that setup, as in tandem with being able to perform
in the ring in the stadiums and tell people that
their signs are trash and rip them up and tell
them to shut up because they're being disrespectful to me,
(06:57):
or you.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
Know, throwing their cell phones down when they're trying to
get a selfie.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
Well, the thing is this, and this is a this
is a very interesting thing we can talk about. You
spoke about unreal. This sh great show Netflix, if you
want to watch it, by all means, engage with all
of it. A bunch of people in the comments on this,
uh this video of me taking the cell phone, Oh,
this is this is a plant. This is no sorry
(07:21):
to break it to you, guys. That's somebody who broke
the rules. Somebody to in my line of thinking, ever
since I began professional wrestling, I was always told if
someone crosses the barrier, that's not a problem because you
don't know what they can do. You don't know what
they've got on them. And so I think about a
wrestling show like a roller coaster. What do they tell
(07:43):
you right when you get on, keep your hands and
feet inside the vehicle at all times, because something out
there might want you more than you want it. So
I see that arm come across the barrier with a
cell phone, with a sign with a pen that now
belongs to me. I don't know you. You don't know me.
You haven't been put there by anybody. You paid your
hard earned money for this, for this seat, and now
(08:06):
you want to throw that money away by putting a
cell phone in my face. No no, no, no, no no.
We're gonna toss that on the ground because it's it now.
Now you disrespected me, and I need the world to understand.
They got to stop doing this or they're gonna get
their stuff taken.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Exactly. Let it be a lesson.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
When you see Xavier and Kobe walking down to the ring,
keep your hands behind the barricade. It's kind of, you know,
like you said, a roller coaster, arms and hands and
feet and everything inside the ride.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
So this is crazy to me too. Someone will see
me take a sign, they'll see me take a pin,
they'll see me destroy something of someone's and then they'll
still have it on the other side of the barrier
at this point. Fool me once, shame on me, or
shame on you, right m hm. Fool me twice, fool
(08:52):
me three hundred times, fool me for the duration of
a full wrestling theme song. That's I can't be blame
for that. I can't blame for that.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Exactly exactly. Xavier Wood is our guest on the show
with us, right now.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
Uh, so you mentioned about the journey that you had
starting from you know, beginning early days the independence to
where you're at now. I will tell you, as a
fan of yours for a very long time, I remember
you as Consequences Creed from TNA. Now that WWE has this,
this partnership and they've opened the.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
Door with TNA.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
By chance, one night only, they ask you to bring
the red, white and blue trunks back.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
Are you open to this for one night only?
Speaker 3 (09:39):
So I this is this, This is a sore subject
because at Rustlemania in Philly that year prior to Carl
Weather's past and that's my inspiration, Apollo Creed, and so
I wore an updated version of the Consequences Creed gear
and more mixed with Xavier woods and that was me
retiring the fit. The only way that I would bring
(10:01):
it back for one night only would be if there
was a TNA show where we had a six sided ring. Okay,
that is that is what I have been begging for.
But also I would need I would need a very
high dollar amount because the things let me let me,
this is gonna take a second. This is gonna take
a second. I when you really go back and look
(10:22):
through the history of history books. I am the first
homegrown TNA talent to find true success in WWE. When
you break that down, that means that I am the
one who washed the stink off of TNA and made
it acceptable for us to cross over to WWE. That
is why aj Styles is now here. That's why P. D.
(10:44):
Williams has a job here, Robert Rude has a job here.
That's why Samoa Joe got to come here for a
little while. That's why that's why so many people that
were in TNA now have the ability to experience WrestleMania.
That's literally because of me. Without me coming over and
showing that TNA was cooking up real stars, none of
(11:07):
them would be here. And so I need an entrance
where people are throwing candies and rose petals at my
feet because the homegrown successful talent has finally come home.
People want to say, oh, aj Styles, just Aja is
very good. He's incredible, one of the best. He's one
of the reasons that I got into TNA in the
first place. But I still did this first. I'm still
(11:29):
the one. I'm still the man, and so we're gonna
acknowledge that first and foremost before I put on any
sort of red, white and blue and get inside of
any sort of excited ring exactly.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
And I know people on the internet they want to
try to, you know, say that you weren't the first
and that was our truth. But if we really want
to go back to it, our truth was in WWE,
and then he got released, then went to TNA, and
then came back.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
We're TNA original, then came to WWE.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
Exactly, And that's what I tried to explain to p people.
But these new booty wrestling fans want to do a
quick Google search and think that they know everything about wrestling. Like, Bro,
you've been here long enough for a cup of coffee.
The amount of time that I have been a professional
wrestler now has the ability to drink twenty one years.
What are these kids talking about? Oh well, I heard on.
Speaker 4 (12:18):
TikTok that this and this, and you're really sucking wrestling.
What are you talking about? What did you get on
your phone? Get out of your bedroom, get in front
of the sun, and go do something. Experience life a
little bit like I have fired me out hind Neckertz.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
No, sorry, sorry, we gotta calm things down here. So
we don't injure the neck even more. I know our
time is coming up here towards the end, and I
got one more question for you before we let you go.
Especially with today being your birthday and everything else. You know,
WW feels like it's on the edge of a much
bigger shift than before. New leadership, new platforms, a changing
(12:56):
fan base, partnership with other companies that we thought we'd
never see. What excites you the most about where WWE
is heading right now?
Speaker 3 (13:12):
I'd have to say the thing that excites me most
about where WWE is heading now is showing the world
that what we do is not a joke. What we
do as professional wrestlers. We tell stories that people want
(13:33):
to hear, that people genuinely want to experience. Play is
something that's very important for children to learn, how to
understand human interaction, how to understand situations that they might
not yet have the chance to be a part of.
Movies are very important for storytelling, character development, understanding things
that you might not get the chance to understand by
(13:54):
not yet being in that situation. Professional wrestling is something
that occurs a year, not a twelve episode run, and
then you got to wait six years, Like, it's not
Game of Thrones. We're not coming at you every couple
of years. We're coming at you every single week, multiple companies,
multiple different types of people from across the world, and
we are able to tell stories that are meaningful to people,
(14:18):
that really help people understand friendship, conflict, so many different things.
And I love that. Let's say specifically, Hollywood is starting
to understand that this is not what they thought it was.
It's not it doesn't have this stink on it anymore
where it feels like, oh, wrestling that fake stuff, Like, no,
this is not fake. This is the complete opposite. This
(14:40):
is one of the realest forms of entertainment that you
could ever experience coming to this live performance. And I've
seen grown men crying at wrestling shows due to the
emotion that they're feeling from these performers in the ring.
I last just last week, I had little children letting
out all the rage that they've ever had in their
bodies focused at me and getting it out. That's cathartic
(15:03):
for them. It's cathartic for me being able to yell
at people and tell them to shut the hell up.
This is the greatest tribe on the face of the
planet to be a wrestling fan. You're so lucky. I'm
so lucky to be a fan. I'm so lucky to
be a professional wrestler. And the direction it's going, it's
only growing and getting bigger and becoming more of a
(15:23):
thing in pop culture. And I love that. I love
that for everybody who's getting to touch wrestling for the
first time. I love that, for everybody who's loved wrestling
all their lives. I love that so much, for our
entire tribe. You're gonna get me all choked up. I'm
supposed to be.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
We don't want that to happen. We don't need you
to get choked up and into connective every more. But
we're gonna wrap things up.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
I just want to say thank you for coming back
on the show today.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
It's an honor and privilege to have you on. And
once again, Happy birthday, Xavier Woods.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
Thank you very much. You know what, I'm sad this
one is ending. I'm actually enjoying this interview.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
Maybe we'll have to do it again sometime soon.
Speaker 3 (15:59):
You know what, I'd love that. You know what you know,
regardless what they say about you, you're not that bad. O.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
Well, I appreciate that.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
Hopefully, uh now that this is a little, a little
and in the wrestling business a rub, so maybe this
will help me get over eventually.
Speaker 3 (16:12):
Fingers crossed for your kid.
Welcome to the Battleground Podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Your day for all East.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
And exclusive interviews with some of your favorite wrestlers.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Stop seeing what's up you guys. Welcome back in too.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
iHeartRadio's official wrestling podcast, The Battleground Podcast. It is battle
from ninety five to seven Big FM, Milwaukee's best variety
of the eighties and nineties. And as you know, WWE
Monday Night Raw returns to Milwaukee this Monday night at
the five Serve Forum. You could still grab tickets, very
few left ticketmaster dot com or WWE dot com. And
today on the show, we got a guy that wears
(00:48):
mini hats inside and outside of the ring.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
And today he has a special hat on because it
is his birthday.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Today, Xavier Woods joins the Showy, Hi, your birthday.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Thank you very much. The pleasure is all yours and
I am very happy for you to get the opportunity
to speak to me. And you're going to enjoy this
a lot. So let's get started.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
I'm very excited. First and foremost, let me ask how's
the neck doing. I know your doctor said that you
could take it off for a couple hours a day.
Obviously we're not in that couple of hours where you
could take it off.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
How's the neck?
Speaker 3 (01:19):
My neck is feeling terrible. I don't know if you
watched Raw this past Monday night, but I was forced
to wrestle even though my neck is injured. I had
to take my neck brace off during the commercial break
because the referee was accosting me about wearing it, as
it was an illegal tool in the ring that I
was not allowed to have. But then Penta jumped off
of Ivar's back and somehow attached his body to mine
(01:42):
into an incredible Mexican destroyer that has only injured my
neck even more so. Now I don't know where we
even are in the recovery process at this point, because
Adam Pierce refuses, He absolutely refuses to ban this maneuver.
But he bans it when it happens to Cody, He
bends it. It gets banned when it happens to Randy.
But oh, but not me, not the twenty one year vet,
(02:05):
not the fifteen year company guy, not the guy who
delivers every single time he's out there. We just don't
care what happens to Woods. I wonder why, oh, because
he doesn't want to give us a rematch with the
tag Team Championships doesn't want to give me a match
for the ICY title. I should have been Icy Champion
years ago.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
You should have.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
We were advocating for that on this show before, and
it's a shame that they have not. They have mistreated
a former King of the Ring the way they have
been not fair, not fair at all for Xavier Woods. Now,
I do want to ask you this because a lot
of fans have watched the show, watched the documentary on Netflix.
You know, ww Netflix Unreal has got everyone talking. It's
(02:43):
kind of pulling the curtain back more than ever. Do
you think something like this helps evolve the business or
maybe chips away the magic wrestling thrives off because it
doesn't seem like k fabe is really much of a
thing anymore.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
This is a heavy question that I will answer as
best I can. I love magic, I love David Blaine,
what's his name, Copperfield, all these things. I don't want
to know how the tricks are done, so I don't
go searching for information on how the tricks are done.
(03:17):
If I want to know how the tricks are done,
then I will go find out how the tricks are done.
But I will not complain about now knowing how the
tricks are done. After I've looked up the information of
how the tricks are done, it's a.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Solid answer and I dig it.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
Uh, Monday Night Raw Milwaukee this Monday night Pfizer form.
You can still buy your tickets ww dot com, ticketmaster
dot com. Now, I gotta say, when it comes to
Xavier Woods, you've always been ahead of the curve with
blending wrestling and of course the digital culture, especially with
up updown, down, and among other things that you've done
outside of wrestling. Has fan engagement online changed how you
(03:53):
connect with audiences in the ring.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
I don't know if it's changed how I engage or
how fan engagement has it's come about. I will say
that sometimes things occur on the Internet that then definitely
don't translate to inside the arenas, because in the arenas
it's a very different experience. The energy is palpable. You
(04:24):
can damn near taste it sometimes, which is disgusting because
people should wear more toyodorant. Like we were in France.
It smelled horrible in that place. But it is cool
to see people having a voice online, people that might
not live near other people that also love wrestling. People
that might find people who love wrestlers who might not be,
(04:45):
you know, really on the scene yet, and finding somebody
across the world who also loves this wrestler and being
able to bond with them. So it is great seeing
people be able to bond about things they might not find.
What do you say, bonders bonding friends with otherwise. So
engagement for me is talking to the audience that I
know is listening online. So for me, it's people who
(05:09):
will say people who know ball, people who understand that
I've been wrestling for twenty one years. I started on
the Independence in South Georgia. I then got into TNA
before I graduated college. I then went to New Japan.
I then came to WWE. So I've got a very
long career where I'm very proud of the things that
(05:31):
I've been able to accomplish. And so I talk to
those people because those people are the ones that I
know have been rocking with me. Those are the people
that I know understand video games, they understand movies, pop culture.
So I might say something on television that the world
at the masses might not understand, but the people that
know me know that this is a reference from the
(05:52):
movie White Chicks. This is a reference from the game Fallout,
and so I'm talking to those people because that's who
I wish would have been talking to me while I
was wrestling. There wasn't anybody like me when I was
growing up watching this show. There were a million incredible characters,
but there wasn't anybody who I felt spoke to me
as a nerdy kid who was getting yelled at in
(06:14):
school for reading too many comic books or playing too
many video games. And so with the amount of characters
that we have on the show, there's someone for everybody,
and I'm very proud to be that representative for those people.
So a long winded way to say it doesn't change
the way that I necessarily engage with fans, but I
(06:36):
do enjoy having a space specifically for those fans who
want more of me, or want more of bron Breaker,
or want more of Riha Ripley. It's nice to have
that setup, as in tandem with being able to perform
in the ring in the stadiums and tell people that
their signs are trash and rip them up and tell
them to shut up because they're being disrespectful to me,
(06:57):
or you.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
Know, throwing their cell phones down when they're trying to
get a selfie.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
Well, the thing is this, and this is a this
is a very interesting thing we can talk about. You
spoke about unreal. This sh great show Netflix, if you
want to watch it, by all means, engage with all
of it. A bunch of people in the comments on this,
uh this video of me taking the cell phone, Oh,
this is this is a plant. This is no sorry
(07:21):
to break it to you, guys. That's somebody who broke
the rules. Somebody to in my line of thinking, ever
since I began professional wrestling, I was always told if
someone crosses the barrier, that's not a problem because you
don't know what they can do. You don't know what
they've got on them. And so I think about a
wrestling show like a roller coaster. What do they tell
(07:43):
you right when you get on, keep your hands and
feet inside the vehicle at all times, because something out
there might want you more than you want it. So
I see that arm come across the barrier with a
cell phone, with a sign with a pen that now
belongs to me. I don't know you. You don't know me.
You haven't been put there by anybody. You paid your
hard earned money for this, for this seat, and now
(08:06):
you want to throw that money away by putting a
cell phone in my face. No no, no, no, no no.
We're gonna toss that on the ground because it's it now.
Now you disrespected me, and I need the world to understand.
They got to stop doing this or they're gonna get
their stuff taken.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Exactly. Let it be a lesson.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
When you see Xavier and Kobe walking down to the ring,
keep your hands behind the barricade. It's kind of, you know,
like you said, a roller coaster, arms and hands and
feet and everything inside the ride.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
So this is crazy to me too. Someone will see
me take a sign, they'll see me take a pin,
they'll see me destroy something of someone's and then they'll
still have it on the other side of the barrier
at this point. Fool me once, shame on me, or
shame on you, right m hm. Fool me twice, fool
(08:52):
me three hundred times, fool me for the duration of
a full wrestling theme song. That's I can't be blame
for that. I can't blame for that.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Exactly exactly. Xavier Wood is our guest on the show
with us, right now.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
Uh, so you mentioned about the journey that you had
starting from you know, beginning early days the independence to
where you're at now. I will tell you, as a
fan of yours for a very long time, I remember
you as Consequences Creed from TNA. Now that WWE has this,
this partnership and they've opened the.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
Door with TNA.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
By chance, one night only, they ask you to bring
the red, white and blue trunks back.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
Are you open to this for one night only?
Speaker 3 (09:39):
So I this is this, This is a sore subject
because at Rustlemania in Philly that year prior to Carl
Weather's past and that's my inspiration, Apollo Creed, and so
I wore an updated version of the Consequences Creed gear
and more mixed with Xavier woods and that was me
retiring the fit. The only way that I would bring
(10:01):
it back for one night only would be if there
was a TNA show where we had a six sided ring. Okay,
that is that is what I have been begging for.
But also I would need I would need a very
high dollar amount because the things let me let me,
this is gonna take a second. This is gonna take
a second. I when you really go back and look
(10:22):
through the history of history books. I am the first
homegrown TNA talent to find true success in WWE. When
you break that down, that means that I am the
one who washed the stink off of TNA and made
it acceptable for us to cross over to WWE. That
is why aj Styles is now here. That's why P. D.
(10:44):
Williams has a job here, Robert Rude has a job here.
That's why Samoa Joe got to come here for a
little while. That's why that's why so many people that
were in TNA now have the ability to experience WrestleMania.
That's literally because of me. Without me coming over and
showing that TNA was cooking up real stars, none of
(11:07):
them would be here. And so I need an entrance
where people are throwing candies and rose petals at my
feet because the homegrown successful talent has finally come home.
People want to say, oh, aj Styles, just Aja is
very good. He's incredible, one of the best. He's one
of the reasons that I got into TNA in the
first place. But I still did this first. I'm still
(11:29):
the one. I'm still the man, and so we're gonna
acknowledge that first and foremost before I put on any
sort of red, white and blue and get inside of
any sort of excited ring exactly.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
And I know people on the internet they want to
try to, you know, say that you weren't the first
and that was our truth. But if we really want
to go back to it, our truth was in WWE,
and then he got released, then went to TNA, and
then came back.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
We're TNA original, then came to WWE.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
Exactly, And that's what I tried to explain to p people.
But these new booty wrestling fans want to do a
quick Google search and think that they know everything about wrestling. Like, Bro,
you've been here long enough for a cup of coffee.
The amount of time that I have been a professional
wrestler now has the ability to drink twenty one years.
What are these kids talking about? Oh well, I heard on.
Speaker 4 (12:18):
TikTok that this and this, and you're really sucking wrestling.
What are you talking about? What did you get on
your phone? Get out of your bedroom, get in front
of the sun, and go do something. Experience life a
little bit like I have fired me out hind Neckertz.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
No, sorry, sorry, we gotta calm things down here. So
we don't injure the neck even more. I know our
time is coming up here towards the end, and I
got one more question for you before we let you go.
Especially with today being your birthday and everything else. You know,
WW feels like it's on the edge of a much
bigger shift than before. New leadership, new platforms, a changing
(12:56):
fan base, partnership with other companies that we thought we'd
never see. What excites you the most about where WWE
is heading right now?
Speaker 3 (13:12):
I'd have to say the thing that excites me most
about where WWE is heading now is showing the world
that what we do is not a joke. What we
do as professional wrestlers. We tell stories that people want
(13:33):
to hear, that people genuinely want to experience. Play is
something that's very important for children to learn, how to
understand human interaction, how to understand situations that they might
not yet have the chance to be a part of.
Movies are very important for storytelling, character development, understanding things
that you might not get the chance to understand by
(13:54):
not yet being in that situation. Professional wrestling is something
that occurs a year, not a twelve episode run, and
then you got to wait six years, Like, it's not
Game of Thrones. We're not coming at you every couple
of years. We're coming at you every single week, multiple companies,
multiple different types of people from across the world, and
we are able to tell stories that are meaningful to people,
(14:18):
that really help people understand friendship, conflict, so many different things.
And I love that. Let's say specifically, Hollywood is starting
to understand that this is not what they thought it was.
It's not it doesn't have this stink on it anymore
where it feels like, oh, wrestling that fake stuff, Like, no,
this is not fake. This is the complete opposite. This
(14:40):
is one of the realest forms of entertainment that you
could ever experience coming to this live performance. And I've
seen grown men crying at wrestling shows due to the
emotion that they're feeling from these performers in the ring.
I last just last week, I had little children letting
out all the rage that they've ever had in their
bodies focused at me and getting it out. That's cathartic
(15:03):
for them. It's cathartic for me being able to yell
at people and tell them to shut the hell up.
This is the greatest tribe on the face of the
planet to be a wrestling fan. You're so lucky. I'm
so lucky to be a fan. I'm so lucky to
be a professional wrestler. And the direction it's going, it's
only growing and getting bigger and becoming more of a
(15:23):
thing in pop culture. And I love that. I love
that for everybody who's getting to touch wrestling for the
first time. I love that, for everybody who's loved wrestling
all their lives. I love that so much, for our
entire tribe. You're gonna get me all choked up. I'm
supposed to be.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
We don't want that to happen. We don't need you
to get choked up and into connective every more. But
we're gonna wrap things up.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
I just want to say thank you for coming back
on the show today.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
It's an honor and privilege to have you on. And
once again, Happy birthday, Xavier Woods.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
Thank you very much. You know what, I'm sad this
one is ending. I'm actually enjoying this interview.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
Maybe we'll have to do it again sometime soon.
Speaker 3 (15:59):
You know what, I'd love that. You know what you know,
regardless what they say about you, you're not that bad. O.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
Well, I appreciate that.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
Hopefully, uh now that this is a little, a little
and in the wrestling business a rub, so maybe this
will help me get over eventually.
Speaker 3 (16:12):
Fingers crossed for your kid.
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