Devan Drake Interview

The interviews are back and we came back with a bang! In this interview, Nate sits down with former NOW Heavyweight Champion and 2 Time NOW Hall of Famer Devan Drake! Devan talks about what got him into wrestling, working on the indy scene, the chaos he created, and what seemingly was the final straw that made him leave wrestling.

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Episode Transcript

(00:02):
There we go. Welcome, yep, all right, Welcome ladies and gentlemen
to the Game Changer Podcast. I'myour host of the most a pallatin of
positivity and everybody's the local favorite Bananaand Nate d F and great and I'm
very fortunate to be doing another interviewsegment with an independent wrestler from Wisconsin.
Former I should say he had agreat, wonderful career. Honestly, looking

(00:26):
back, he's one of those guysI really wish I had the chance to
observe his career more. I sawhim sporadically in wpw ACW, but his
recent run, his final run withNow That's Wrestling, was definitely one of
the things that helped me appreciate thisguy a lot more. He is a
monumental personality in the world of professionalwrestling here in Wisconsin, h enormous ego.

(00:50):
Some people might say he is theone, the only, the ever
so cocky Devin the man Drake.Hey, how's it going, man,
mister Banana Guy. I still sayto this day that my favorite photo that
I took with you is the onewhere I'm chucking bananas at you and mc

(01:14):
McClure and there's just you having thatlook of like, oh you got a
banana, wall I got a bananatoo, And then McClure just throws a
banana's directly right at me as retaliation. Yeah, I vaguely remember that I
was like pointing the banana at youlike a gun for whatever reason, and
I think I was yelling at youlike go back to Mario Kart loser or

(01:34):
something said something ridiculous on the orderof that. Well, to be honest,
it's not the most ridiculous thing thatI've heard, not the most ridiculous
thing I've experienced. I mean,we both know kodiaks, So yes,
yeah, that was that was somegood times there and now and ladies and
gentle we will talk a lot abouthis time with some of the promotions,

(01:57):
But first things first, something I'dalways like to talk to people about is
what got you so interested in theworld of professional wrestling? So, what
was kind of the thing that startthat sparked the fire for you? What
got you so interested in the worldof professional wrestling. Well, like everybody
that gets into the pro wrestling business, everybody starts out as a fan.

(02:20):
I started falling in love with it, like when I was five years old
watching it at my grandma and grandpa'shouse. I was watching Monday Night Nitro.
I wasn't allowed to watch WWF becauseit was more graphic, but no,
I fell in love with it watchingWCW programming way back then. And
then as I got older, Igot into WWE, especially when the Monday

(02:45):
Night Wars was going on, Iguess you could say. And then I
had nothing else to watch. Nowthat I got a little bit older,
I was in my teenage years,so I was like, well, I'm
gonna watch ww F at the timegoing into ww and then I just I
really got into it more. Andthen like as I'm getting older, I
thought maybe I can, you know, get try this out, you know,

(03:07):
actually try professional wrestling out. Andyeah, that's kind of how I
guess I grew into becoming or wantingto become a professional wrestler at that time.
So what kind of you know,sparked the deal to wanting to be
a proressor. Was there like aspecific match where you kind of looked at
it and thought this is going tobe me someday or was there like a

(03:29):
specific wrestler that you're kind of idolizinggoing into it. Well, it's funny
bat way back in two thousand andseven. I don't know if you remember
or heard of Mercury one Wrestling before. It does not ring a bell.
It does not, okay. Itwas owned by Mike Murcury. At that
time. They were running shows inthe Manawak area, Green Bay area,

(03:50):
and my dad actually took me togo see this. It was my first
ever independent wrestling show. And Iwent there and I I've seen like Shane
Hills, some other big independent wrestlersthere. I've never I didn't even I
didn't even know independent wrestling even existedat that time. I thought, oh,
this will be interesting, you know, to go and see this,

(04:12):
and I thought it was way betterthan like Monday Night Raw or anything WW
you know related, And I waslike, I kind of want to try
this out, Like this seems prettyawesome. So I got in contacts with
Shane Hills and I just went fromthere and asking about training and whatnot.
So there's always stories about first dayof training, first multi training, however

(04:35):
long it usually takes for them.So kind of walk us a little bit
step by step. What was yourfirst day like in training as well as
compared to how your first month wentwith training. So if anybody knows Shane
very well, yeah, he hasthe ring inside of a barn. So

(04:56):
this is like old school a WAtraining. My first day, it was
I started in late fall, youknow, it was late two thousand and
eight. I think it was likeNovember, and it was cold, very
very cold, and there's no there'sno heat inside this barn. So it
was it definitely felt super old school, like great Ganya old style training.

(05:18):
Um, I had like five layersof clothes on me. It was so
cold. Bumping sucked like I can'teven like, I can't tell you how
much pain I was in after justone bump. Uh yeah, the first
day, like to anybody, it'sa lot of people, you know,
it really does. Like a lotof us guys get offended for, you

(05:40):
know, these days because when somebodycomes and says, you know, it's
this is fake, this is oh, it's like jumping on a trampoline.
No it's not. It absolutely fuckingsucks like uh um. But yeah,
like I got my ass kicked myfirst day. Because if you can't handle
day one and you're gonna quit,which a lot of people did quit on

(06:01):
their first day. And don't getme wrong, I didn't even think about
going back because that's how much ithurt and sucked. And I gave it
two weeks and like, I didn'teven go back for two weeks, and
I was like, I don't knowif I want to do this. This
hurts. But I ended up goingback. And the only thing that made
me go back was Shane said tome on my first day was if you

(06:27):
keep coming back, it'll get easier, you know, on your body,
and you'll adapt to the pain.As weird as that sounds, and I
was like, well, that doesn'tsound fun, but I ended up going
back and I listened to them.In day two was a lot easier,
like just on my back and adjustingto everything. Like even hitting the rope
sucks because those are just those seethose cables in there, you know,

(06:51):
as you're hitting them. Yeah,everything about it, like just like getting
bumped, you know, taking thoseslams on the mat. It definitely does
a toll on you, especially foras long as I've been doing it,
like nearly fifteen years, you know. But anyways, Yeah, going back
to camp, man like he youryour day one, he plans on just

(07:14):
kicking the shit out of you andtries to make you puke. I did
not puke on my first day becauseI was in decent shape at that time.
But yeah, and then like asthe weeks were going by and training,
it just got easier on my bodyand I was adapting to it fairly
well. And I was actually reallyskinny when I started. I was one

(07:36):
hundred and twenty pounds, which isnot big so and I started, I
was like a high flyer or that'swhat he, you know, was trying
to build me as it was ahigh flyer at that time. But yeah,
as time went on, man like, I just eventually got better at

(07:56):
it, and then eventually I dayboot crazy because I did a little bit
of research before we did this tokind of look at some of the matches
that you had, and one thatstuck out was it was a w PW
match you had with Jordi Lee,and I think it was like either crown
the first ever or new ex divisionchampion at the time. And and it's

(08:18):
kind of amazing because I look atyou then and you have the same theme
song, which I'm going to askabout that in a bit that you had,
you know, this past year,and I'm just seeing this, and
I'm seeing you as a baby face, and I'm just seeing just seeing all
these things coming through, and I'mjust kind of like, man, this
does not fit him whatsoever. Thissong does not fit whatsoever, because you

(08:43):
just seem like that generica, aplucky, young baby face and just be
like, oh hey, what's up? What's up? Everybody Like there's there's
a part of me that's like,who is this to me? Who is
this? For sure? But no. One of the things I do understand
is that you mentioned that a lotof times these haters will definitely be hard
at your first date because they wantto know if you're gonna be serious about

(09:03):
it. So I kinably imagine youknow, how many people like you said,
go in and they think they oh, this is easy, this is
not gonna be a thing, thisis fake. They gonna teach yourself the
stuff. And then after day onewas like, Okay, this is not
fake. I'm done. So letme ask this when it came to the
first when you were in camp,how many people signed on when you were
there and how many people actually stayedstay? Honestly, not many. I

(09:26):
think there was three the entire timeI was in camp. I think three
other people stayed. Yeah, andShane's camp, the Dojo of Pain.
I don't remember the exact number,but he said there he had I think
a couple of hundred tryouts and normallyon their first day they quit, and

(09:50):
only I think thirty something people stuck. So that's how like serious, And
that's in the course of like Ithink, like twenty years. Like that's
like it's no joke, Like somepeople think it's just a walk in the
park to do and it's not.So like it's literally you know, you
got to have the heart and passionfor it, because if you don't,

(10:11):
you're not gonna make it. Youknow, definitely I agree with that.
So we go from first day oftraining to your first matchup, talk a
little bit about, you know,the kind of emotions you had going into
it. Were you kind of nervousor were you kind of more excited?
Did you have those kind of likejitters of being I'm like, Oh,
it's my first matchup, this isgonna be great, or just oh,

(10:33):
that's my first matchup. Hopefully Idon't suck. Well, It's funny because
like my first match was technically planned. So I started going to the at
the time, which is well nowused to be wpw IT. At that
time, it was called NWA Wisconsin, and I was supposed to have a

(10:54):
scheduled debut eventually, I think itwas like six months in the training.
I was supposed to have the scheduledday view and I was supposed to have
it with a guy named Chuck Dollar. Um. But UM, I ended
up having beef with the promoters andthe the bookers at that time because they
thought my attitude was a little littleridgy because like doing rings set up,

(11:18):
you know, when you have likea group of dudes you're trying to do
rings set up with and tear down, and not everybody wants to cooperate,
and I can get frustrating. Ilashed out on a few dudes, and
yeah, prolonged my debut a littlebit longer, but that all patched up
and then I ended up getting anaccidental debut basically in the summer of two

(11:41):
thousand and nine against Stacy Shadows.Stacy Shadows was my very first opponent,
and I was my ring name atthat time when I started was Daredevil Devon.
I was a high flyer. UM. I didn't even have ring gear
ready for this. I just hadchimed shorts and epads and tennis shoes.

(12:05):
But she had an opponent for thatshow, but she no showed and they
said, oh, Devin, youcan wrestle, you're trained and stuff.
I'm like, and I was notready for it, especially when I was
just on the fly like that,and I was nervous as fuck. Yeah,
and when you're going into something likethat, like I was shaking and

(12:28):
sweating and stuff before I even debutbecause it's your first match. Everybody's going
to be nervous for their first match. I don't care who you are.
But yeah, I went out therekilled it. It was only like a
five or six minute match. Butfrom that point forward though, I was
getting more matches and you know,more bookings. Well, it's really crazy

(12:50):
because we talk about Stacy Shadows anda lot of people might not know how
big of a name that she isnow because she wrestled with Ring of Honor
and she's also wrestled in a lotof other promotions here. But to have
you know, that kind of experienceyou early on, hey, I mean
that's still pretty good. Even ifyou're only getting five minutes, at least,
you're kind of learning. Okay,this is how it kind of starts

(13:11):
off. This is kind of howyou know things deal. And there's some
people that are really good at,you know, thinking up stuff on the
fly. But then there's some peoplethat need to have like they need the
well, i'll call it the Enzotreatment, which is like, okay,
we gotta go to here, here, here, here, with like very
little to no room for improvisation.As time goes on, do you find
yourself more being used to more beingdoing structured matches like that? Are you

(13:33):
more kind of like on the flykind of deal when you were as time
went on. Oh, when Istarted, I wanted them to be structured
because I was, you know,green and new, So I wanted like
I wanted every move, I wantedevery punch in there. I needed to
plan like everything out, Like Iwas like a nervous young kid. I
was only sixteen when I started,so like being at that age now that

(13:58):
I'm like way older now and Ilook back at that, I was like,
yeah, it's definitely a young andscary experience for like a sixteen year
old to just be thrown into somethinglike that, especially the locker room atmosphere.
But yeah, it's at that time, yeah, I just wanted all
my matches structured. But now asI was getting, you know, years

(14:20):
into my wrestling career, I waslike, no, I want to call
it on the fly. I likecalling things on the fly because it just
it worked out better and then youcould try some new things. And yeah.
So after your first match, wasthere ever a point or a match
where it kind of clicked where youthought, Okay, I can do this,

(14:43):
compared to like your days and trainingwhere you're just like, I'll give
it a couple of weeks and theni'll you know, if I like it,
you know, you know, keepgoing. If not, then well
this is maybe not for me.Was there a specific match you could thick
up where you're just like, okay, make your break in. Then afterwards
you're like, I can do this. Yeah. I mean like when I

(15:05):
started out, I had that matchwith Stacy and then like they wanted to
build me as a cruiser away becauseof how big I actually was. And
I don't know how far you dugdeep into my like history there, but
I was known as this young skinnywrestler, Daredevil Devon at the time I
was starting to put face paint On. I was like a miniature version of

(15:28):
Sting, but I was high flyingbasically, And eventually they put the X
Division Championship on me in NWA Wisconsinthere and I ended up winning that title
five times in the company. Anduh yeah, I was doing like some
high flying stuff, not compared totowards the end of my career there,
like I was literally springboarding off thetop rope. I was doing a lot

(15:50):
more high flying stuff off the ropes. Definitely watched a lot of like Sean
Michael's, Chris Jericho, Jeff Hardyto learn all that high flying stuff.
And yeah, I was at thattime, like I would say that was
like two thousand and nine to liketwenty and twelve thirteen, I was Daredevil
Devon and that was like practically theonly time I was a baby face,

(16:14):
because you know, I was justthis young, rambunctious, dweevy kid,
like you know, you can bringit up, and you know, you
come out with that baby face firethrough the Kurd and you're like, come
on and whatever home, whatever townwe're wrestling, and you know, and
eventually that gimmick did get stale.I mean I remember one night I did

(16:36):
like a match against another baby face. I think it was actually against Shane,
and every and everybody knows Shane andthey were cheering for him. I'm
like, Okay, this gimmicks startingto get stale here and I need to
do something else. So like andthat's basically what my first four or five
years was, And like NWA Wisconsinwas like this daredevil Devon high flying you

(16:59):
know care and at the five yearmarket got stale and I needed to do
something else. So let me askyou this before we get into obviously you
dabbling into the darker side of thecharacter. What were some of your favorite
matches that you know what we're partof, those like first four or five
years that you were as Darry DevilDevon. Yeah, I remember one night

(17:23):
at Boba Louis and the Pier,I had a match against Nathan Gus and
Mark Preevy and a triple threat match. And at that time wpw or I
don't even know what it was atthe time, NWA Wisconsin maybe still they
were trying to do like this hardcorefight night, extreme wrestling type atmosphere,

(17:47):
so weapons were allowed and everything.And funny thing is we went into that
match with little to nothing planned Bythe end of that match, I felt
like we just did a five closeto a five star match, Like we
didn't call, like we didn't plannothing. Everything was on the flyout there,
And to this day it still standsas like one of my favorite matches

(18:11):
because of the amount of like likeno planning we did whatsoever, and like
the story we told in that ring. It was just phenomenal, and the
crowd wanted another match, and weactually gave him a rematch like a couple
months later, and that's a that'sa feel good feeling. But yeah,

(18:32):
we tore it down that night,and I gotta say, as a baby
face that was that was probably oneof my favorite matches. It is really
amazing when you can have three individualsgo in to one match and people are
so excited after the first one,they're like, can you do that one
more time, just a little better. It's like you think of people like
Samoa, Joe Ags, Thousand Daniels, they had their their series of triple

(18:56):
threat matches. Another one that Icould think of that's local. Here was
I believe it was. It wasBrooks, Stash and Tub three I want
to say it was and ACW werefirst driple thriat match was great, and
then to get to the next oneand that was great. It might have

(19:17):
actually been Grace not Brooks if Iremember correctly. It's every single one of
these shows can just blend in witheach other. It's absolutely amazing. But
obviously, getting back to you,mentioned that your character was getting stale,
so obviously something had to change.Yes, let's talk about that change,
because I feel like this is wherethings are really interesting for your career.

(19:41):
Yeah, talk about you turning heelfor the first time. Yeah, So
this is where where the Blood MoneyGroup comes in. So Bruno was the
booker at the time for WPW,and I'll be honest and I'll just say

(20:02):
it on the show, and Idon't even care if he listens. He
came up with a lot of terribleideas and blood Money was kind of the
start of one of them. Heuh, he started this blood Money group
and it was supposed to be,from my understanding, like this ghetto nWo
basically. So at first it waslike he had his handful of guys and

(20:26):
then like I think it was likemy third, my third win as the
X Division champion, that's when Iturned heel. One night at Baba Louis
into Peer and I had to shakeBronson Bay's hand and then that's when I
turned heel. And then like laterthat night, we were like doing nWo
type beatdowns on like some of thebaby faces, like and I came out

(20:51):
like the John c in a chainaround my neck and I had like a
white beater on. I had abandana around my head. So you know,
you had this baby face Daredevil Devon. You know, he's all the
kids love him. He's like alittle superhero. But then he got stale
and oh guess what now I'm likeon the ghetto dark side. So it
was it was a little fun timethere and blood Money and it was some

(21:15):
of the shows man that Blood Moneyrun Like all we did this was and
this was Bruno's booking at that time, was going doing like run ins and
just beating up on a lot ofthe baby faces. Like I swear every
match was that. That's what bloodMoney was. I'm like, oh,
this is like somewhat terrible but kindof fun in the but yeah, I

(21:41):
was actually very hard as a heelwhen I started doing that too, And
I could go into a couple ofstories telling, but like I wanted that
that ECW heat when I started,like it was it was pretty bad with
some of the stuff I was doing. So you say ec W heat for
me, I could think of twoprime examples of that. Were you thinking

(22:02):
about like Dudley Boy's heat. Areyou thinking like new Jack heat? I'd
say Dudley Boy's heat is what Iwas going for. Like I was spitting
in people's faces. That's how hardI was going. And I was trying
to start fights. Basically. Ididn't want to be the oh, shut
your mouth, you know, tellthis person off. No, I want

(22:25):
you to fight me. Like.That's how badly I wanted that heat right
off the bat. So I was. I was spitting in people's faces,
and I got yelled at for doingthat. And then at one point and
I got unbooked for this. Iwas telling children Santa Claus wasn't real.
I got literally I pretty much gotsuspended from w BW for costing a sponsor.

(22:48):
Actually, and one of the sponsorskids were there and they the sponsor
got so mad. They're like,we're not having you as our sponsor anymore,
Like you're we're dropped, We're droppedthis And I got basically suspended for
making children cry by telling him SantaClaus ain't real. For some reason,

(23:10):
I don't know if this happened tonow show. I feel like somehow i've
heard either the story before I sawyou do that you were just like Santa
Claus. There there was, butI didn't come out and say it.
But like that's when I made thecrowd go silent because I was pointing at
a Christmas tree at a at aDecember show for Now, and I said,
you and there was a fake Santain the corner as well, And

(23:33):
I said, you look in thatcorner. There's a there's something fake in
that corner. And I'll tell youwhat's fake. And then the crowd's like,
he's not gonna go there, heis not gonna go there. I
said that Christmas tree is not evena real Christmas tree. And even by
saying that, some kids started crying. It's funny these moms in the audience

(24:00):
jelling demon, devon, don't yougo there, Devon, don't you And
but I went to the Christmas tree, which wasn't so bad, but it
still made a couple of kids cry. For whatever reason, there's there's some
kids that seemly configure it out ontheir own. But there's some that are

(24:22):
just getting emotional over the weirdest things, and really a Christmas tree is one
of them. Holy color, Yeahright. Actual you're gonna see is that
guy dressed up as a banana isnot really a banana? What right?
And he's got a face, armsand legs. What's going on? So
I do have to ask this.You mentioned with Blood Money that it was

(24:45):
kind of like the nWo style,So stupid question, but I'm gonna ask
it, Okay, who is theHall? Who is the Nash? Who
is the hogan of the group.I was more like that was probably more
of the off bag well, whichI wasn't like. I wasn't I wasn't
there right away. I wasn't thereright away. But I think the leader,

(25:07):
the hogan was t Dub three,Tommy uh Kaz was like the Kevin
Nash rough Rider. Rashan was theScott Hall. It was. They were
basically the originator guys. Jordi Leewas the tell boy at first, and
then he eventually dropped from the group, and then there was Kippy. He

(25:30):
became the tell boy. Like Iremember, Kippy would get on his hands
and knees for me to like getin the ring, like so I wouldn't
have to make like I'll go upthe stairs, like I'd stand on his
back to get up to the hewas my stairs, and that's how I'd
get in the ring with that.And that was like I'd say, a
six to eight month rain as BloodMoney. And then that drop because some

(25:52):
smarter people in the business came alongand said, you know, you don't
need to have this group jump everysingle fucking match and put them over as
a heel, like that's just howthat's just how dumb fucking Bruno was at
booking these shows, and yeah,going forward with that um but yeah,
then that that angle dropped, andthen there were so many and during that

(26:18):
time there was so much what waslike drama going through WPW, and somebody
else took over. It was RonaldPop Rocky for booking. So then like
I went into a different direction eventuallytoo. I pretty much was just dropped
from that Blood Money group, andI think Blood Money just kind of uh,

(26:41):
you know, debanded eventually and weall went like our separate ways on
that. So then I was likesolo Devin Drake at that time, then
that's kind of when I started that. So one of the things I remember
it was uh ww show. AndSteven's point, I think that you were
booked on the show because I thinkI remember mainly you because one of the

(27:04):
things that you would always do isyou would have your chest puffed up and
you would do that classic strut deal. So where did you come up with
the struts? I guess at theDrake Struts. Where did that kind of
come about? Because I feel likeit's more than just like a Vince McMahon
knockoff. Really yeah, Like Ididn't even really I wasn't even really thinking

(27:26):
of Vince mc Vince mcman walk atthat time when I started doing But a
guy that gave me that advice,gave me some advice is or tips or
whatever you'd like to call it,was Nick Coluchi, as we talked about
earlier. He's actually the way hewas talking to a group of us before
his show one night, and Iremember he said, you know, you

(27:48):
can, just like with your bodylanguage, you can really piss somebody off.
I just like given him like afacial expression or what or just something
with your body like you don't evenhave to say anything. I was like,
and I sat there and that likekind of like registered for a little
bit, and I'm like, okay, all right, well I'm gonna try
this because like the strut, Ilike think back to like my high school

(28:14):
days, like the classic bully ifyou will, like imagine like some some
like a guy my size walking throughthe high school hallways and he's walking like
that. Who is gonna like thatguy? Nobody? Everybody's gonna want to
see him get his ass kicked,right, So I was like, I'm

(28:34):
gonna do that, and I'm reallygonna think I'm eight feet tall, five
hundred pounds on top of it,and when I do a move, I'm
gonna do that classic strut and pisspeople off. And man, I pissed
a lot of people off. Iremember specifically from the w W Show when
you did that, and you've probablybeen called you no, I know you've

(28:56):
been called worse, but I justremember me of my friend Spencer. We
were just doing like chance of MightyMouse, Mighty Mouse, Mighty Mouse,
and I'm like, he kind ofdoesn't like mighty Mouse when he does that.
I don't know what it is,but like I said, I know
you've been called worse because, ohyeah, because I've heard a lot of

(29:17):
stories, one of which you mighthave to fill in the gaps for list.
I do remember that you worked fora promotion, and I believe it
was a situation where you said somethingor you did something to like the promoter's
wife in the crowd. I believeit was. And it was literally one
of those things where the promoter wentbackstage and was They're like, where's that

(29:38):
fucker. I'm gonna just just almosttrying to like either knock you out or
something like that. But I thinkI might have missed a few details on
that. So no, no,here's here's this is one of the good
stories. And this is one ofthose stories that where you never think it
happened, but it did. Thiswas actually this was just a random backyard

(30:00):
show. Not keep oh no,I'm not even happy about it because it
was a backyard show and me andRuthie got onto this backyard show. Is
actually smash his uncle's house, andit was for his uncle's birthday. But
keep in mind, I didn't knowthis was gonna be a backyard show.

(30:21):
I thought this is at a venue, so we and it was in the
summertime, outdoors. Me and Ruthyare going down oh, and Ruthie's like,
yeah, I think this is ata venue. We get there and
like when you turn like as apro wrestler an independent wrestler, you don't
want to go and wrestle in abackyard. It just seems like it's like
to me, it's like kind oflowering yourself. And I was not happy

(30:45):
about it when we showed up therebecause we got there and like, oh,
it's an outdoor shows, it's abackyard show. I'm like, I
was pissed because I'm like, I'mnot I wasn't happy about it. I
was like because I feel like I'mlowering my my I don't know my talent
here, and like because if youwatch any backyard wrestling match on like YouTube,

(31:08):
they're all fucking terrible. But weget there and I'm like I had
a sour attitude since since I showedup because it's like fucking backyard showman,
come on, and uh and Ilove Smash. You know, I'm not
knocking the show. You know,his family or you know, the the
whole thing, but it's like,come on, can we be a little

(31:30):
bit more professional than this? Youknow, But anyways, fast forward,
I'm wrestling Ruthie Michael Wayne in amatch that day, and keep in mind
this, I'm still sower about,you know, the whole backyard thing.
I'm busy, And I said toRuthie, I don't want to do shit
out there, and Ruthie's like,yeah, I don't want to bump either.

(31:51):
So and we did not take thismatch seriously at all. But going
forward, I think we were seconda third match, and this entire audience
which was all Smash his family andfriends and like his uncle's family and friends.
So this is where it's going tostart to get ugly. So Michael

(32:14):
goes out there first. Yeah,he's he's the lumberjack, gimmick baby face,
right, cool, everybody likes him. I go out there, I
go out there. I go outthere with a fucking ladder, and for
no reason, it's not a laddermatch. I just felt like going out
there with a ladder teasing the factthat it might be a ladder match.
No, you ain't getting a fuckingladder match. So I go out there

(32:37):
and I start cussing at people,and I didn't. There was no fucks
given, There was no filter,there was I literally go up to smash
his uncle's wife and I called hera horror and a bitch. Man.
Was she triggered by that? LikeI got in the ring and she's trying
that. She came in running afterme, and she's trying to fight me,

(32:59):
and I'm holding back her punches andstuff, and I'm looking at the
referee who was fucking stupid and hadno idea like what to do. He's
like, oh, stop, getoff of Oh, Like he's just the
whole the whole layout was just likelike I don't know, like it wasn't
out of like the professional level.So like that's why my attitude was,
like I just don't care right now, so I'm gonna say whatever I want

(33:22):
to say. And yeah, Icalled her those names, man, and
like eventually she got out of thering. Michael and I had our match.
Oh and by the way, asI'm making my entrance, I also
called the kid with downs retarded.But I didn't know he had But I
didn't know he had downs. Iknow, I didn't know he had downs
until after the show when the parentscame up to me and said, you

(33:45):
know, our kid has down syndrome. By the way, and you called
him retarded, and I'm like,oh, I'm sorry. But anyways,
going forward, we did the matchand Michael had a Michael Wayne came and
he had a real axe, righthe put the axe under the ring.

(34:06):
Match was over. Michael wins.I'm laying in the ring. You think
that crowd would still liked me bythe end of it. No, they
were throwing every object they could inthe ring at me. They were digging
stuff underneath the ring. What's underneaththe ring the axe, So they somebody
threw or somebody was gonna throw anaxe at me. That's how much I

(34:29):
pissed him off. And I gotout of the ring, no joke.
I had my back turn. WhenI got out of the ring, a
thirteen year old came and swung mein the back of the head with a
punch like that is how badly likethey wanted blood up out of me at
that time, and like literally halfthe locker room had to come out and
play security. That's how much Ipissed everybody off. I get to the

(34:52):
back of the locker room smash.His uncle is like livid with me.
He came up to me. He'slike, you little motherfucker, you will
call my wife a horror and abitch. Will go And he said,
we'll go in the garage. I'llget we'll get some boxing gloves and I'll
fucking knock your ass out myself.And I'm like, well, nice to
meet you too, sir. Andand like Smash had to calm everybody down,

(35:16):
like it got really really bad,like I don't even know. I
stayed in the locker room part untilthe show was over. And then like
we we're at the after party afterwards, and then here's a little bit more
funny stuff. I'm I got sodrunk. And they had a pool there,
right, I'm throwing I'm throwing sausagebots in the pool. I'm throwing

(35:40):
food they made out in the pool. I went up to this kid's toy
box. They had like a playgroundthere and a toy box on the side.
I pissed in the kid's toy box, like there was no yeah,
there was no fucks given, manlike. And that's pretty much that whole
story in Illinois. And it's it'sa crazy one for sure. Oh that

(36:04):
explains so much of it. Nowit happened to Illinois. Why not?
Yes, I honestly thought that thisstory was going to end with somebody pushing
you in the pool as you weredrunk. Now, I was just throwing
food in the pool and pissing morepeople off figurability and literally apparently. So
let's talk about what some people probablywould say was one of your I guess

(36:29):
crowning achievements, that being wrestling witha using the politically correct term Little People's
League, and supposedly being the onlynormy of the entirety of the promotion,
I guess. So talk a littlebit about that. If you have a
story, by all means you havethe forum. Okay, Oh yeah.

(36:52):
I was actually like I was boredat my normal job one day, right,
and like doing those w PW showsaround that time being HEALEDVN Drake,
I kept I was hearing every shortguy joke in the book, Like there
was not one short guy joke Inever heard of, you know, I've
heard everything. So I was,I was bored at work one day and

(37:14):
I seen like Extreme Midget Wrestlings comingto Milwaukee. So I was like,
you know what for Ships and Giggles, I'll message them and see if I
can get on their show. SoI sent them a message and the the
guy that owns it got back tome. He's like, oh, you're
you're really shut. You're short,but you're not a midget. I said,

(37:34):
yeah, could I come try out? Oh yeah, come to Milwaukee,
you know, get in the ring. We'll you know, we'll see
what you have. I'm like,seriously, like this is a thing,
this is actually going to happen.So the day of Milwaukee they show up,
you know, I told them whoI was, and then one of
the more experienced midget wrestlers said,you know, would you like to get

(37:55):
in the ring, you know,and try try out. I was like,
yeah, sure, why not,no joke, Nathan. I was
in the rink for five minutes andthey're like, you're gonna pay in the
main event tonight. I was like, ha ha, that's a good rib.
No, you're you're gonna main eventwith me. You actually know how
to work compared to these other moronsthat are on tour. I was like,

(38:15):
oh okay, so yeah, itwas in the main event that night
in Milwaukee in front of just ahuge crowd. Let me tell you right
now, midget wrestling draws like andsome of these guys they don't. They're
they're going out, they're fucking stoneman like, they don't know what they're
doing. They can't work. Butbecause they're midgets and that's an attraction,

(38:37):
that's like the circus attraction. Youknow, they're they're amused by that.
But then here I come out andby the way, I chant. This
is another gimmick I had at thetime, a little sexy Devin Nash.
I was, yes, that wasan actual thing which was created by Nathan

(38:58):
and Ruthie and now wrestling and Iwas water Shock. Yeah yeah, Brock
was Brock Hall and we are theinside outsiders. But anyways, I did
the Devon Nash gimmick for Midge Wrestling, and immediately after that they asked me
if I wanted to go on tourwith them. I was like, holy
fucking shit, this is huge andI was getting paid fairly well, and

(39:22):
uh yeah, I went on tourwith them. For three and a half
months. I was on the roadliterally wrestling across the nation. I was
wrestling three to five nights a week. Yeah, it was like my full
time job. Basically, living withmidgets in an RV for three and a
half months months was the absolute worstbecause they don't know how to take care

(39:44):
of themselves. But yeah, alot of a lot of hilarious stories and
a lot of good experiences too,And wrestling in front of a different crowd
every night was just amazing because theydidn't know who I was, so to
come out as you know, littlesexy Deva Nash, and a lot of
them got mad at me. Alot of the audience members got mad at

(40:07):
me because what they knew, Iwasn't a midget. They there was a
borderline there, and I was obviouslythe tallest one. But I got a
lot of heat for that, evenfrom some of the boys, because they're
like, well, this guy isn'teven a midget, why the hellsy with
us? But I knew how towork, and I knew how to you
know, do my stuff. AndI've got attacked a few times on tour

(40:28):
from some audience members, like Iliterally had I literally knocked a couple of
audience a couple of crowd members outbecause they were ticked off at me for
not being a real midget. Butthat's okay. I always won. You
were thinking I would learned that whenyou messed with the wrestler, they're not
just going to be like oh,this is is totally applied to be like,

(40:51):
oh you want to try okay pop? Yeah, yeah, he's on
the ground. There was actually Icould say a couple of stories here.
We we wrestled at a biker barone night and all of the heels were
going over. I was in themain event, but those bikers were getting
so pissed off with all the heelswinning, and I was always the one

(41:13):
that was pissing people off the mostout, so I was basically their biggest
Heal. Well, there, thesebikers are about to jump in the ring
and like start killing people and theythe promoter the came back and he's like,
you're not gonna win this match.If you win, they're jumping you.
I was like, really, andI want to win, just just

(41:37):
the start of the pot, right, Um but no, I had to
put the baby face over because thebikers they're they're drinking and shit, they
were gonna like literally I probably wouldhave ended up dead if I would have
won that match, but um yeah. Probably the best experience though on tour
was wrestling in front of five thousandpeople in Louisiana one night, and that

(42:01):
was just an amazing experience because likewe only had one night's storylines, Like
we didn't have oh, the nextshow, it's gonna be so and so.
No, it's like one night's storylines. And I'd always start out as
like a referee. I turned onthe baby face and we'd main event later
that night. And that was likethe same thing every night we did shows,

(42:22):
because nobody was like, you know, following stories and whatever. But
literally, We're doing the national anthemat the in Louisiana and I'm like just
looking around at everybody in front offive thousand people, and I just can't
believe, like how big of anaudience this is, and we're gonna be
I'll be main eventing in front offive thousand people. That's definitely my biggest

(42:45):
achievement. But yeah, that wascool, and I pissed a lot of
people off, and somebody broke glasson the floor, was like cement and
that somebody said we're gonna the peoplefrom the audience is like, we're gonna
throw you on this fucking glass.I'm like, oh yeah, and they

(43:06):
and I ended up kicking them offthe ropes because that's how chicked off they
were. They were going to throwme in a pile of glass. I
was like, yeah, you ain'tgonna do that. Like, here's the
thing. I may be short,but I could really hold my own like
when it comes to like people tryingto fuck with me like that. But
yeah, and eventually, you knowthat three and a half months came up,

(43:29):
and like, I could have wentlonger on tour, but I was
like, the living it was,like, dude, there was sometimes I'd
go four or five days without showeringbecause we were just constantly going and traveling,
and it was it wasn't it wasn'treally healthy living in my honest opinion,
you know. So I was like, gonna take a break from that

(43:51):
and go back to the independence andgo home and do normal stuff. And
yeah, I mean, don't getme wrong, it was a phenomenal experience,
but yeah, I had to adaptto normal life again. Maybe there's
always so much you can take,especially when crowds are basically saying, well,
we're gonna go GCW on your ass. So yes, so maybe this

(44:15):
will be an interesting time because thiswas one of the questions for those fans
that are kind of curious. Someof these questions actually came from the Now
That's Wrestling group, So there's somequestions that had to be asked by some
of these people. One of them, which I feel like you have plenty
of stories about, is I wasasked about taking getting drinks for girls at

(44:38):
bars. Talking about that. Soat the after parties I like the Baba
Louis shows for WPW, I wouldjust say, though the most outlandish things.
I'd say a lot of stupid things, which I'm about to get into,
especially when you're drinking and you're hangingout with your certain friends and buddies.

(45:00):
Oh, there was these group ofgirls at the bar, right good
looking. I said, hey,ladies, you know, how are you
doing tonight? Blah blah blah.I learn with them a little bit,
and I just I'm still in gimmick. I feel I don't know why the
gimmick never gets turned off. ButI said, let me buy you lady
some drinks. Oh yeah, sure, that's awesome of you, you know,

(45:23):
I said, bartender. These threeladies were right here, get them
three waters on me, and waterat the bar is free. And they
just look at me with the mostlike discussed look, and they're like they
give me the cold shoulder, andthey walked away. I was like Okay.

(45:43):
It was funny as fuck just theirreaction to that, and yeah,
just the cold shoulder I got andthen they were like, well, fuck
this kid, we don't want oneto do with them. All it took
was just one active random kindness toliterally be like yep, nope, fuck
this guy. So I'm just lookingout for you. But somehow I can

(46:09):
actually picture that some of these storiessomebody else might think like, this is
outlanders, this is stupid, There'sno way this happened. That is the
one story I'm like, you knowwhat, I've met some of the women
in the state. I can onepercent believe that they would be like super
nice at the start. You doone thing and they're just like nope,
I'm out. Yes he still.So you work for a lot of promotions

(46:34):
here you work for now that's WrestlingWW and ACW, which is probably the
second show that I actually saw youwork because it was the first Water City
Wrestling Con and it was the whatwas the former Evil Roy Slade's Battle Royal,
And one of the things that stoodout to me with the show was

(46:55):
the story that you and I believeat the time, approach a Mike.
We're doing where where the two ofyou were were aligned and it was the
big payoff where Big Mike gets thebig win over you, and it seems
like, you know, he's gotthe check and it seems like there's gonna
be a storyline going with it.But from what I remember, I don't

(47:16):
remember them actually capitalizing on that story. And I'm kind of curious what will
happen in ACW. Was it anothersituation where like kind of the attitude and
such kind of came along, orwas there something else that kind of cause
you to leave ACW. Yeah,so I get a little dark on the

(47:36):
subject because you know, I didhave a good run. I thought I
had a decent run in ACW,and I I got along with everybody.
I'll just put this out there now. Throughout my entire wrestling career, I
tried. I wanted to get alongwith everybody. I was never in any
clickie groups. But if you're inthe wrestling business long enough, let's be

(47:59):
honest here, there's people that formcertain groups clicks if you will, and
if you're not one of us,then you know, the hell with you.
But um ac ACW, you knowthe guys that run it. Nick
Coluchi, Dylan was the other guy, Josh Weimer. Yes, I loved

(48:23):
all of them, and don't getme wrong, I tried. I hadn't
the best attitude going there. Iworked hard. Um. Yeah. Eventually
it was the Water Steady Wrestling Conwith Mick Foley. That was my last
ACW appearance. I won't go intotoo much detail on it, but in

(48:44):
my humble opinion, the reason whyI was pretty much stopped being booked for
that promotion is there was a girlinvolved, and I'll say one of the
said promoters was going after that girland when they see and I was with
her, that's when I was stoppedbeing booked. That's ill. That's probably

(49:04):
the PG answer I'm gonna give tothat. And I had it's it's shitty
because I've had how many like wrestlingfans message me like when you coming back
to ACW, when you're coming back, I loved you in ACW, you
know. And what's shitty about thatis like I felt like I wasn't part
of their like wrestling there their clickenough, Like I felt like they had

(49:30):
their wrestling school going on, andI felt like they wanted to bring a
lot of those kids onto the showwhere I was just kind of one of
those Oh Devin, you know,he did other things whatever, but we
don't want to use him for likeanything big in ACW. I've no joke,
I've only had one win in ACW. Like that just kind of goes
to show how much they looked atme, I guess is. And I

(49:53):
felt like I could have done alot more, like with storylines and like
stuff, but it's one of thosethings where it is what it is.
And I had fun while I wasthere, you know, but um,
yeah, it's just a shame Ididn't do more in that promotion. And
you know that it's one of thosesituations too. And this is another,

(50:16):
I guess the reason why I juststopped wrestling, as well as the amount
of clicks and ask kissing you gotto do for certain people a certain promotion,
certain groups, if you will,Like that's the toxic bullshit that I
just don't want to deal with.And it's unfortunate in that time that that

(50:37):
that's the way it had to go, you know. And I even message
Dylan in my last year, Isaid, you know, I'd planned on
this twenty twenty two being my lastyear. If you want to use me
on any of your shows. Youknow, I'm happily. I'll work hard,
you know, And I said,you know, I send them a
long message just saying you know,I was happy working for you. I

(51:00):
happily do another show or two ifyou like. Didn't even message me back.
I was like, cool. Soit's just one of those unfortunate things,
you know, that happened, andthat is the reason I feel.
But the whole girl situation, that'sthe thing anybody that's watching this or listening,
girls in wrestling that don't mix welland bullshit like that happens unfortunately.

(51:24):
So that's what happened there. Andyeah, yeah, it's kind of one
of those things where I definitely donot notice. That was certain you know,
spots where there are those clicks andthere are those deals, and it's
one of those things where we dealtwith this stuff in high school and sometimes
we do with it within our workalike. We don't want to do with

(51:44):
this in any other place, butsadly there are places that still do that
whole click deal. And sucks said, you know you had to go through
that because you know, especially youknow, talking as a guy who saw
you on what was probably one ofyour best years. Was that final year
of twenty twenty two where I gotthe chance to actually see you being elevated

(52:07):
as a guy who can definitely carryhis own I mean, you had the
one night tournament where you won thenewly were christed Now Heavyweight Championship, and
the main thing that Gus was sayingthat he wanted to go through he wanted
people to just literally do the wholeI want to say it was. I

(52:28):
don't know if it was the NBAdeal or is the Montreal deal where they
just start chucking like rash into thering and it happened. It was all
those things where it's like, okay, yes, and why they're doing this
is because they know this guy isgoing to be a dick attended. And
let's talk a little bit about that, because that does tie into your final

(52:50):
year with our wrestling. Is nowthat wrestling you know has you as the
Now Heavyweight Champion and you have somegood matches. You had a match with
porn Stash, you had a matchwith Ruth the Gus, Randy Fitzsimmons,
and it concludes with Classic Alpha,to which it was kind of weird because

(53:12):
I remember hearing the rumors about youending your your career that year, and
then I was thinking myself, well, if that's happening, is he going
to end it like here on theshow or is it gonna be at the
December show that we're gonna see thatdeal? And guys, I cannot begin
to tell you the atmosphere that itwas for me. This is one of
those few times that I'm in anindependent show. It's like you kind of

(53:34):
hear the rumors, You're kind oflike, how is this going to play
out? And when when you madethat announcement that you know, if you
lost Alpha, your career is done, I'm like, is this really gonna
end? Like, is this reallyit? It wasn't until the one two
three, I'm like, holy shit, it actually wow. I was in
shock. And then the post matchdeal, which I think was amazing.

(54:00):
Which for the longest time throughout theyear, everyone hated you, Everyone was
booming you. Everybody thought that youwere basically the worst thing since I don't
know, enter worst president that peoplehave right here. But that moment when
McClure is just shaw Jack and youPie facing you, you take them down,
you hit the elbow drop, andthe crowd just exploded they're just like,

(54:22):
yeah, I devern drink, he'sthe man. Yeah yeah, and
that whole entire deal. Just talkus through like the emotions and everything you
went through for that Now show,because that was an amazing night for everybody
at Now as well as for you. Really. Yeah, man, let

(54:44):
me be honest here. Now wrestlingwas like the only group of guys you
know, like Nathan Ruthie, everybodythat the originators in that federation, they're
the one that They're the ones thatgave me the opportunity to be that main
event guy. I felt like Iwas never that anywhere else. And I

(55:05):
remember, not to get off subjecta little bit. I remember one night
Nathan Gus said to me, youknow, I don't know why you're never
why other promoters and bookers never usedyou as or put you over as a
heavyweight champion. And I gave hima blunt answer. I said, well,
it's because I'm short. I mean, why would anybody on especially on

(55:28):
an independent wrestling scene, use aguy that's five four or five five as
their heavyweight champion? You know,that's just my opinion. I worked,
like I said, I worked hardfor everything I tried to do, But
going back to now Wrestling. Youknow, they gave me that opportunity to
run with that heavyweight title and thenthat final night, and I think I

(55:51):
had a pretty successful run as aheavyweight champion. And if anybody that followed
that, you know, everybody thatfollowed that, you know knows and sees
that. And hell, when wewhen now Wrestling started back up and they
put me put the belt on meto that time where it was my last
night as heavyweight champion, the drawwent I'm not saying it was all me,

(56:13):
but when you're the heavyweight champion,that's kind of a big role as
a you know, in a federation. So the draw went up. You
know, people want to see melose because I was such a pretty pretty
big heel, you know in thatcompany. But that night, dude,
I didn't even I'll be honest,I didn't even know that was going to
be my last match that night becauseit was kind of said beforehand, you

(56:36):
know, this is what we're gonnado and as the years, since this
is your last year, you're goingto drop the belt and this is your
pretty much your last time, asthat's what we're gonna do. I was
like, oh, so total shock, news to me. But and like
I remember Smash Jonathan Smash. Backstage, he kept saying to me, Michael

(56:58):
jerk and other words, said tome, are you okay? Because like
the entire time backstage, I'm justlike I'm not even thinking about my match.
I'm just thinking like, oh,this is it, you know,
And Michael just kept coming to me, He's like, are you okay,
and I'm like, yeah, I'mfine, I'm fine. Just a lot
of things going through my head,you know. So you know, I

(57:21):
did the match, and I thoughtit was a pretty solid match between me
and Alpha, and you know,we get to the one two three spot,
and by the way, that waslike the first time I wrestled without
a shirt on in such a longgoddamn time, because I did not have
the confidence whatsoever. But I lostso much weight. I was like,

(57:44):
you know what, fuck it cameoff and I thought I'd looked decent.
But yeah, I did that match, and then it's unfortunate my family and
friends weren't there, but the onetwo three happened, and like I thought,
I literally thought I was just goingto drop that elbow on mclare and

(58:04):
then I was going to go backstageand that was it, Like I did.
Everything else that happened after that wasnot planned whatsoever. So yeah,
that elbow dropped, and then Istarted here and the thank you Devin chance
and I've thought to myself right away, I'm like, why the fuck are
they chanting for me? I'm aheel or I was a hero. I'm

(58:27):
like, I'm surprised I'm even gettingthese chants right now. And then you
know, the standing ovation started andI started to get pretty emotional there on
the outside of the ring, andit's one of those things where it's like,
you know, if like say,you won something like you want a
big game or whatever, right,and you worked your entire life or something

(58:50):
like you put a lot of effortinto something you're like out of your like
a sports career, I guess youcould say, and like here is like
your appreciation for it. For once, that felt good because I was always
like this this badass heel, likeI was always just that cocky, arrogant
pissing people off. And I feltlike at that moment when everybody's standing up

(59:15):
cheering thank you Devin, and youknow, I had the boys come out
from the locker room and they're huggingme and you know, clapping for me.
I just felt like that was likethe only time like I was really
like appreciated and like, you know, thank you for your hard work,
and it's just I lost my shipand I was bawling, and yeah,
it was. It was definitely anemotional night. Definitely, will never forget

(59:38):
it. Um and yeah, andthen we went backstage and a lot of
a lot of guys you know,asked me because some didn't even know,
like it's really your last match.I was like, well, and now
wrestling, yeah, because then fastforward a little more, I did the
Andrew Ever match right and then butthen but then in December, you know,

(01:00:00):
I was inducted into the Hall ofFame, which is nice of them
to do that. Yeah, Decemberdefinitely was. I would definitely say one
of those shows, one of thosemonths that really stood out because of the
fact that now did have their showthere and I believe weren't you the only

(01:00:21):
like two time Hall of Famer orsomething like that, or was that?
Yes, I am a two timeHall of Fame and now Wrestling one with
Brock Hall as the inside outsiders withour little short run and now Wrestling and
then me as a singles wrestler,So I yeah, I guess I'm the
only two time Hall of Famer inthe company, which is pretty cool.

(01:00:44):
Just walk around. You have liketwo now rings, but they're like the
little plastic rings. You get itlike a machine, right, And it'd
be fitting for that because it's nowwrestling, and you know they obviously don't
take anything serious and so it's fitting. So I do love that you brought
up the whole match with the Everettbecause that was one of those matches that

(01:01:05):
I remember you coming up to meand be like, do you have like
any idea why am I being puttingthis matchup here? Why am I getting
putting this? And I kind ofexplained it to you and that you're like,
oh, because you're both oh okay, that actually kind of makes similar
sense now. So it's kind oflike one of those matches where it's like,
yeah, we're getting a big started, it's gonna be funny against your
why well, we're putting the kindof now taste on it where it's like

(01:01:27):
you guys are both big guys,you're all playing so But honestly, I
loved that matchup. That was definitelyone of the best matches to close the
year with, and I definitely lookback at them they think that, you
know, I will say this,so you made such a positive impact,
especially on Everett, that he definitelyis planning on coming back. And one
of the things that he actually saidsaid to me was that he wished that

(01:01:50):
he knew that this was your finalmatchup or at least for what it was
there that time, because he wouldhave done the honors to where you know,
he would have rose your hands stufflike that. Yeah. No,
I definitely will say that was thatwas an awesome month and an awesome matchup
that you guys provided, And theonly thing I hated was that they didn't
announce it. It was false kindof anywhere because they would have made more
sense as to why you guys wentfrom one ring to the other ring.

(01:02:15):
Yes, wells like that's whatever.Interesting. Fans don't really care. They'll
they'll connect the dots to deck.Oh, they're just going that's fine.
Yeah, they were understand by it. I'm trying to think if there was
any other at Okay, I actuallydo have like a two more questions from
the now chat Um. One ofthem actually comes from mister Ethan Matthews,

(01:02:38):
who asked the question, how doyou maintain your mountainous physique my mountainous zeke?
Yes, I don't know, man. I just eat miracle girl and
that's how I stay eight feet fivehundred pounds. Yeah. I just fucking

(01:03:00):
make it into a protein shape.Just throw some miracle grow in there,
and that's just what happens. I'mjust imagining now, just somebody like,
oh, I'm so proud. It'slike, yeah, because it's chocolate.
Let's see exactly. So the otherquestion that I had here was, Um,
I guess they wanted me to askabout working with Archer Sterling for about

(01:03:22):
a year. Oh, there's athere's a story. There's a story behind
this. As soon as I sawthe reaction, like, oh boy,
who brought that up? Um,I'll give you two guests here. Let
me guess Ruthie Yes, yeah,man, So okay, rewind a lot

(01:03:45):
to like twenty twelve thirteen, Ithink it was. And this is when
I was still a baby face.Um and Bruno. Going back to Bruno,
the terrible booker I told you aboutbefore ambling in coherent mind, he
thought, hey, let's have DaredevilDevon and Archer Sterling feud for a year,

(01:04:08):
because you know, that's just what'sgood for this company. I like
Archer Sterling as a person, butas a worker, he's he's the shits
like he he he kept like whiningabout stuff, he kept like botching moves
in our matches, and what Brunosaw in that I will never know,

(01:04:30):
but he kept saying, Oh,it's gonna be you an Archer the next
show. It's gonna be you anArcher the next show. Like, dude,
this crowd doesn't want to see meand Archer like wrestling like all year
round, like maybe two or threefour shows tops, but not all freaking
year. And in the process ofthat, that's when I actually ended up
turning heel and feuding with Archer.But no joke, Like every show was

(01:04:55):
me Archer, me, Archer,Me and Archer like and then that food
ended in a dog dollar match,which he screwed up so much shit in
that match, like the dude,the dude sucks. And that's a year
in my wrestling career I'll never getback. Like, I like Archer as
a person, but man, asa worker, he was not that good.
I'm not I'm just being honest.It's and it is what it is.

(01:05:17):
It's one of those things. Right. To hear that, I'm like,
how do you shrew up a dogcollar match? It's it can't be
that hard, can it. Imean, normally it's just brawling, but
like, I don't know, man, there's certain things. He there's so
many spots we could have done better. But because like, and that's the
thing too, you want to makea story good. No, he wanted

(01:05:41):
to like do things his like certainways because he was sick of me going
over him all the time. Butlike this match is like, let's do
this, let's do that. No, I want to do this on you
because I never get shine and blahblah blah. I'm like, well,
I agree, and you'll get yourshine. But then there's like you have
to make a match makes sense andmake a story makes sense. And he
wasn't willing to do some of thatand kind of pissed me off. And

(01:06:04):
I was just tired of him,like working with him all year long,
which was very very unnecessary to do. But yeah, I think you kind
of hit the nail on the head. It's kind of makes sense. I
think that's also one of the reasonswhy now you know prospered so much attendance
wise while you were the champion,because the story was indeed there that you're

(01:06:26):
the champion that everybody wants to see, you know, just beat the everliving
piss out of And it didn't matter. It didn't matter if you were the
opening match, middle of the card, main event, as long as they
got to see you, you know, get your beat down. And as
an added bonus, you lost thetitle, then hey, they're happy about
it. But every single time youcame out victorious and just hearing that,

(01:06:47):
you know, the booze, thebooze, it just got better and better.
But also, as I said before, probably one of the things that
stood out was your theme song Tired. And it's one of those things where
I just remember. I actually rememberone show going to my Syria and saying,
like, what is the song?Because I need to cham out to
it every single time. I jamout to that song every now and then.

(01:07:10):
So how did you come across thatsong? And what made you say
this is what I need is mytheme? Yeah, it was playing on
the radio one day and I likethe beginning of the dune, dune right,
and I was like, and thenit goes into the lyrics, and

(01:07:30):
I was like, this is apretty badass song. I like this,
I'm gonna use it for my wrestlingtheme. And that's pretty much how I
came across that. And then Idon't even think it plays on the radio
anymore. Stone Sewer just came outwith that big song for like it was
like shining for like a year,and then they just stopped using it on
the radio and stuff. But Istill think it holds up pretty well.

(01:07:51):
So they're they're proud that you're carryingon their legacy of that. I don't
know if I want to say onehit wonder because I have to listen to
some other songs if they have someother good ones, but that song,
yeah, that's that's definitely my favoritestone Seller song. So a couple more
questions and then we'll wrap it up. So, obviously one of the things

(01:08:11):
that you involved in your character wasthe massive shay in around around your neck.
Was that something that was inspired bylike i'd say, like East,
like the pit Bulls, or wasthat just something that you thought you'd look
like a badass coming out to Wheredid the chain kind of come into play?
Yeah, So there was a littlegap in this where we kind of
missed. I was part of atag team called Badass Reincorporated in WPW there

(01:08:36):
with Kujo u Fifth. He's beenin the business for a long time,
way longer than me um and hehe's just if you know anything about Kujo,
anybody that's watching, he's just thisbig badass like I want to say,
like he's pretty much a mad dogbasically is what he is. And

(01:08:59):
he has this spiked blonde hair,comes out like he's got a body like
Vader. I swear to God,Brussels like him too, and he always
wore the chain. Well, therewas a time in WPW there when there
was another smart head booker in thecompany that brought me back and it was
like, you know, you twoare gonna tag and you know, come

(01:09:20):
up with this name Badass Reincorporated.So we were scheduled and we faced the
faces of Fear, Hako and Barbarian. So that was a big deal.
And we had this Uh I dyedmy hair blonde like my partner did Coojoe,

(01:09:40):
and he's like, you're gonna cometo the ring with this big ass
chain around your neck and I waslike okay, and I put the thing
on. I'm like Coojoe, I'mgonna be blown up before I get to
the ring wearing this this thing asheavy as shit, and uh yeah,
and I kind of just kept wearingit from that point forward. And it's
just kind of one of those thoseI guess easter eggs if you will,
because me and Coujo, I thinkwe had a solid run as a tag

(01:10:03):
team. But yeah, and that'swhy that's the story of the chain.
I just kind of imagine how crazyit would have been if during your final
year they were able to get Coujofor a NOW show, just to have
that small reunion for you guys thatwas in the works at some point.

(01:10:24):
But then they're you know, likeeverything else, it's card subject, card
subject change, and you know,people back out or there's some booking conflict
and what have you. So sure, yeah that wrestling things as wrestling does
the exact. It's independent wrestling.You know, anything can happen, right,
So final question, and then Iwill ask you if you have any

(01:10:47):
final stories or anything that you wouldlike to say, you know, brand
even one that you might have nottold. When people look back on your
career, what is one thing thatyou want them to take away from Devin
Drake, the wrestler. I wantto say, you know, for anybody

(01:11:11):
that's followed me from my first dayof wrestling camp to my last match here
this past year, is you know, I really worked my ass off.
I like I brought up before,I tried to get along with everybody I
know in this business or any otherbusiness. People have different personalities, but

(01:11:32):
I was never part of any click. I just wanted to show up,
work as hard as I could,get along with everybody. And I did
burn some bridges and you know,rub some people the wrong way, but
you know that's wrestling. And butanyways, yeah, I just want them
to look back at how hard Iworked as a heel. I think a

(01:11:55):
lot of the time when I'd gothrough the curtain and come out as this
like this very serious, like justthis prick of a bad guy that comes
out that is the eight feet tall, five hundred pound Devon Drake. And
I never brought this up before,but I'm gonna bring it up now because

(01:12:15):
I just feel like it's the righttime to do it. How I got
so like into my character. Igot so like my mindset going into this
character that I when I'd walk throughthat curtain. Like when I was a
kid, I got bullied a lot, Like I got bullied hard man,
Like I got my ass kicked randomly, and like when I growing up,

(01:12:40):
like I didn't have the most expensiveclothes, I wore glasses. I got
my ass kicked for just that atschool. That is what I'm saying and
going through that curtain every night beingthat heel. Sorry, it's just a

(01:13:01):
little emotional just talking about this becausethis is my mentality going through that curtain.
When I'm looking at that audience andI'm talking shit to them, I'm
thinking those are my bullies growing up. So in a weird, fucked up
way, It's it's one of thosethings where it's like those are all my

(01:13:25):
bullies out there, and I'm goingto pretend those are my bullies even though
they weren't. But I'm just mindsetgoing into this character because that's how serious
I took that role, and that'show serious I wanted to be, like
at that heavyweight champion level, LikeI I worked my ass off trying to
be that guy like and that's why, like whenever I go through, like

(01:13:46):
I said, that curtain'd you knoweverybody that's talking shit to me, those
were my bullies, and I'd alwaysbe kind of like fighting back on them
and talking shit and saying really meanthings, which was my job. But
that was kind of like the fire, the fuel of like pissing people off.
Like that's why some people, Idon't know if you ever noticed when
you were backstage, like some ofus guys are getting jacked up going out

(01:14:10):
there. While before I walk outthere, I'm thinking my bullies are out
there, Man, I'm gonna fuckingtell them off, and I'm gonna say
some pretty nasty things back to him. But I'm also like being that prick
of like the cocky heel, youknow. You know there's just some like
aspects behind that that I went intothat and like just wanted to do a

(01:14:31):
really good job. And I hopepeople will look back and say, you
know, Devin did do like hewas a badass, fucking heel. Like
watch my work and like if there'sanybody out there that like really wanted that
advice, you know, just kindof like look back and what like kind
of pisses you off basically, andlike use that and go towards that audience

(01:14:53):
and attack them and you know,be the best heel you can be.
And that's kind of what I did, is I kind of look back at
my dem basically, and you know, and those bullies, and I just
kind of got all that that rageout from from that and use it kind
of towards the audience to tick themoff. And there's a lot of people

(01:15:13):
that kind of ticked off at mefor some of the things I've said.
It's kind of one of those thingswere if I were looking at it from
like your psyche, is that Ilook at it more as you know,
you're going out, And even iflike one of those bullies was in the
crowd. Literally, it's just mostsays, hey, you beat me up
as a kid. Now you're payingto see that kid that you beat up
kick some ass. Yeah, Soin a weird way, I kind of

(01:15:39):
understand where you're coming from. Andit is also kind of those things are
was like, Hey, you're probablyworking at some random McDonald's and I'm out
here entertaining like thousands of people.Hell I entertain tained five thousand people last
week. What have you done sincehigh school? Yeah? Right, exactly,
Like some of these people, Idon't know what some of them are
at. You know, now,some of the bullies and stuff. Actually,

(01:15:59):
it's funny. One of the bullieswas at an ACW show. I
won't mention I won't mention his name, but I remember walking past him and
he was front row. I spitin his face. No, no,
there was no hesitation, Like Iliterally looked at spit in his face.
He stood up and I thought,what are you gonna do? What are
you gonna do? Like and like, yeah, my balls felt pretty fucking

(01:16:24):
big at that time. So it'slike, if you want to go right
now, I'll kick your ass.Then I'll get in the ring. And
what my opponents asked, I wouldjust imagine him just slowly sitting back down
being like and that's what happened.That's exactly what happened to the bully has

(01:16:45):
become the hunter. Yes, sothank you so much for Devin, for
your time not only in the ring, but for you're taking time out to
do this interview. It definitely isone of those interies I'm hoping people get
a better perspect of not only youknow, wrestling in general, but also
the man behind Devin Drake, becausehonestly, this opened my eyes up immensely.

(01:17:09):
I didn't know what to expect.Like you said, we got a
chance to interact, you know,behind the scenes and such like that.
But this gives me a deeper appreciationand respect for the person that you are.
So thank you so much for everythingthat you put into, you know,
the fifteen plus years that you putin, Dude, that's says a
lot. And I know that wehad that conversation. You know why you
wanted to you know, and oneof the things was that you know,

(01:17:31):
you kept getting overlooked by so manypeople. Honestly, if you were put
into a company like you know,Impact or Ring of Honor, I could
definitely see you trouncing MGF on microphoneprobo. Because I'm looking at this,
I'm thinking, Okay, this guy'sbeen doing this for fifteen years. He
was cool before MGF was doing hisship. So that's the thing, man,

(01:17:53):
I always worked hard, and justI think if I were to ever,
if I was ever that, youknow, get that opportunity to go
to like packed or a bigger promotionlike that, like the stuff I didn't
now, I definitely amp it upto working even harder. You know.
Well, Lord knows that it's notgonna be a WWE thing. But Yeah,
because they're they're two PC and theycare about their PG too much choice

(01:18:16):
for Todds are just looking at like, well, this guy's work promotion while
we're pulling this sponsorship away. Yeah, so thank you much Devin for your
time. Thank you guys so muchfor listening in for Devin Drake, I've
been nate and great always. Youcan listen on so many different networks.
See you guys next time. Byebye bye