February 19, 2025 • 17 mins
Mance Warner and Steph De Lander sit down with Battle to talk about all things TNA Wrestling! Mance breaks down the shocking "23" mystery leading to his debut and why now was the right time to join TNA. Steph details how she took the Digital Media Championship "in the divorce" and what it means for her character’s evolution. Mance opens up about being "made for TV" and his talks with various promotions, while Steph reflects on her comeback journey after neck surgery. Plus, Mance shares insights from his intense battle with Gabe Kidd at the JCW Jersey J-Cup.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Battleground Podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
You'll play for all things pro wrestling.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
And exclusive interviews with some of your favorite wrestlers abound, stop.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Doing, What's up you? Guys?
Speaker 4 (00:24):
Welcome back into iHeartRadio's official wrestling podcast, the Battleground Podcast.
And man, it is a great time to be a
wrestling fan because TNA Wrestling returns to Orlando, Florida with
back to back nights of Action Pack Pro Wrestling Live
Yes Live from Full Cell University Thursday and Friday of
this week, and well joining us on the show today.
(00:45):
We got Steph DeLanda, we got Mass Warner.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
What's going on? Guys?
Speaker 2 (00:48):
How are you good? How you doing?
Speaker 4 (00:51):
We are doing pretty good. Glad to have you on
the show. So let's go ahead and just jump right
into this. Man's everybody's talking about your debut in TNA,
especially with the twenty three mystery leading up. Of course,
a lot of people thought it was this thing, but
when it announced, it was a much even bigger pop.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Can you walk us through how this.
Speaker 4 (01:11):
Surprise unveiling came together and what drew you to TNA
at this point in your career?
Speaker 5 (01:16):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (01:17):
Man, Like I've said it before, I've been on the
independent scene. I've had every world title there is to have.
I've been watching TNA since it first started in two
thousand and two, two thousand and three, so I've been
a fan for the entire run. So the next logical
step is I want to level up. I want to
see what else I could do. The only way to
get better is fight more people.
Speaker 5 (01:39):
So I go to TNA.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
Everything worked out in that situation where boom, I'm debut
in Steph's real you know, coming back in and now
we're in the ring together. Every place I've been, I've
started at one spot and worked my way to the
tippy top.
Speaker 5 (01:51):
Now you got me a step together.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
There ain't a single soul in TNA that's going to
stop us from doing whatever we want.
Speaker 5 (01:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (02:00):
Absolutely, and that that's a you know, it's cool to
see your real life relationship go on to you know,
on TV, so people can kind of see a little
bit more of a glimpse into that. And you know,
one thing that has been really cool to watch is
Steph is your return to TNA. You introduced Man's as
(02:21):
your boyfriend, you took ownership of the Digital Media Championship,
mentioning you got it in the divorce.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
Let's talk about the storyline.
Speaker 4 (02:29):
How did it develop, and you know what does this
signify for your character's evolution and of course obviously bringing
your real life relationship into wrestling on TNA.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
Yeah, so, as you mentioned, we won. You can see
it in the background. We won the TNA Digital Media Championship.
I want it in my divorce, which I think is
one of the most unique ways that you can win
a wrestling championship. I don't think anyone's ever done that before.
But yeah, coming back off my injury. You know, I'm
obviously still a ways out from getting cleared to wrestle,
(03:01):
but the fact that I have enough value in myself
as a character to be brought back into TENA this soon,
you know, the having the championship, now getting getting to
introduce my real life boyfriend Mance into the mix. I
think it's just a testament to you know, people tune
(03:22):
into what we're doing. People want to see what SDL
is up to, People want to see what mans Want
is going to do on the show. And I think
when you have a loyal fan base that wants to
follow you and see what you're up to, I think
then companies like Teena can take a gamble on it
and go, Yeah, we don't like we've seen Manz, but
we haven't worked with him yet. But we trust that
this is going to go well. And I mean it's
(03:43):
one of the biggest angles on the show already, so
I'm just excited to see, you know what crazy stuff
we can come up with together.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
I like too the fan base of people that have
over the years watched us all the Independen scene or
watched old Mancer. Now they're going to tune in to see, Well,
that's our guy. We want to see him. We know
he's a sob and he's a dirty dog and this
and that, but that's our dirty dog. We want to
see what he's going to do, and if it's with
weapons or not with weapons, I get in the ring
(04:13):
and I fight. We could go in there and just chop, headbutt,
punch each other, that's fine. Or I could get a
screwdriver and a door and a table and just beat
the heck out of you.
Speaker 5 (04:21):
It is what it is.
Speaker 4 (04:23):
Yeah, I'm ready to see Manton like a monster's ball match.
Let's just go ahead and book it. I mean, we
still got some time, we'll figure this out, but we'll
book it later down the road. And you know, I
want to talk about your recovery staff after your next
surgery last year, your comeback has been very impressive. How
has the recovery journey influenced your in ring performance and
approach to wrestling. I know you said you're still not
(04:44):
clear just yet, but I mean you're out there and
looks like it's well ahead of time.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
Right.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
Yeah, I'm definitely very ahead of my recovery timeline, which
is really cool. I'm very happy about that. I mean,
as far as how it's influenced how I'm gonna wrestle
when I come back, what I will say is, I
mean I initially injured myself like three years ago when
I was at WWI. So I've which no one knew
(05:11):
the whole time, that I've been working with this bulging
disc in my neck. Right, Like I would quietly tell
my opponents when they wanted to give me pile drivers, like, hey,
I'm not taking a pile driver. I have a neck injury.
But for the most part, I just kept it under
wraps and I worked through it. But so I've had
this in my head for years of like I need
(05:32):
to wrestle as safely as I can, because I want
to do this for decades. I don't want to do
this for a few years and then my body gives up.
You know. So I've, as I said, I've already taken
steps where like the last few years, I've you know,
I've taken one pile driver in my entire career, and
I'm never gonna take another one ever again. You know,
I stopped taking German superlex's. Like the only person I
(05:54):
would let German me was Jordan Grace, Like no one
else is allowed to give me like a high neck bump.
There's certain movements that, in my opinion, the risk just
isn't worth the reward. And I did run into that
a lot more on the indies than you do on TV,
because TV you have producers and people saying no to things,
whereas on the indies everyone can do whatever they want
and they do that. So I had to be the
(06:15):
bad guy a lot of the time and just say
I'm not doing that, that's stupid. But then moving forward,
you know, there's a couple of movements that I don't
know if the juice is worth a squeeze anymore. And
I'm speaking to my surgeon. Like, I had a conversation
with my surgeon I literally the other day, was like, so,
these are the moves that I do, and are there
any of these that you think it's not really worth
(06:37):
it right now? And he was like, if you want
to wrestle for like another, you know, ten to twenty years,
maybe you don't need to do a spear every single match,
or maybe you don't need to be like catching a
full body weight on your shoulders. You know, maybe there's
another way you can get around it. But the cool
thing about wrestling is you can modify what you do,
right when if you play football, you have to do
(06:59):
every movie, whereas Russell, I can choose what moves I
want to do, what moves I want to take out,
what I can come up with instead. So yeah, it'll
take a little bit of time of workshopping my moveset
of what I want the new rendition of my in
ring to be. But this isn't a new thing for me.
(07:19):
As I said, I've had a neck injury for the
last few years, so I've definitely already been thinking safely
for a while.
Speaker 4 (07:26):
Yeah, and that's awesome and of course glad to see
that the recovery is doing very well, and I mean
soon we'll be seeing you in there, you know, taking
the bumps that you want to take, not the ones
that everybody else is calling for you. Of course, TNA
Wrestling returns Full Sell University Live this week Thursday and Friday,
and Man's You've been very vocal about being made for
(07:49):
TV and you hinted discussions with various promotions. Obviously it
landed you with TNA. What do you see your role
evolving in TNA and possibly beyond for me?
Speaker 5 (08:01):
Like I said, Man, I grew up watching TNA.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
Every company I go to, I start at one spot
and you could guarantee I'm gonna climb that ladder. So
at TNA, it's like I'm gonna start here. Me and
my old ladier coming in. We're gonna do whatever we
want and the end result is gonna be I want
to be the guy. When you talk about TNA, you
go Stephan old Mancer. So it's a matter of time.
No one's gonna stop me. I will fight everyone that
(08:25):
I gotta fight, and at some point averon's gonna go TNA.
Oh that's Stepan Olmncer. That's that's where that's their playground.
They do what they want out there.
Speaker 4 (08:33):
Yeah, and it's definitely gonna be fun to watch and
see what happens, for sure with TNA and you guys
being together. And I know a lot of people have
been talking about this, and uh, you know one thing that.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
Happened here recently, I mean your.
Speaker 4 (08:46):
Match against Gabe Kid recently at the JCW Jersey j
cub I mean showcase your resilience. I mean that was
I'm allowed to cus because this is my show. That
was like a fucking bar bra. Like, how do you
prepare for something like that, because obviously you can't just
be like, hey, I'm gonna take a couple of soup
plexes here and there.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
That was like a full blown fight.
Speaker 5 (09:08):
There's very few people.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
First of all, I hate Gay Kid and he hates me,
but there's very few people in this business that you
know they're gonna fight.
Speaker 5 (09:17):
Me and him could get in their fight just with
our fist. Just so happened.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
There was one door and a couple of chairs in
that one, and then at the end you had a
screwdriver and a damn tool.
Speaker 5 (09:26):
But that's it's a taste to what I do.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
Like I said, I could get in a ring with
no weapons and headbut you and stop your face in
and bust your teeth out. And for me, I'm excited
to show that at TNA. And like you said that
what me a gay kid, that that's that's a I
don't say match, that's that's fight of the year so far,
So anyone else fucking follow that, And I will continue
to do that at TNA coming up. Absolutely have two
(09:53):
live events. They're gonna be sold out. You're gonna have
you know, let's see what happens. The train is rolling,
jump on down. I would see what's going to happen.
Speaker 4 (10:01):
Absolutely, And I mean here we are just two months
into the new year and you can already call that.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
Well, I'm just gonna say it's a fight.
Speaker 4 (10:08):
Like you said, the fight between you and Gave Kid
could be a match of the year candidate.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Fight of the year is what we'll say.
Speaker 4 (10:14):
Of course, TNA is at full Sell University Live this
Thursday and Friday.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
You can still grab tickets, you can watch it live
on TV.
Speaker 4 (10:22):
And you know, both of you had made significant impacts individually,
but of course your alliance in TNA has a lot
of the internet buzzing. The IWC. What can we expect
more from this partnership moving forward? Obviously you've got the
Digital Championship behind you. Is there some way, some form
that once you're cleared to wrestling, you go after the
Knockouts Championship and then Mans has the you know, the
(10:45):
World Heavyweight Championship and you just become this big power
couple and take all the titles.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Yeah. I mean, I think it's one of those things
where I think there's a lot of people in Tena
that have been there for a while and they are
happy to be there, which is great, and I'm happy
to be there too. But my motive isn't to come
and hang out with my friends every couple of weeks.
My motive is to come to work with my husband
and win championships and become, you know, the version of
(11:15):
myself that I know I can be and I know
I will be. I just haven't had somewhere believe in
me the way that Teena does. And I think it's
the same situation for MAT's. So I think we're both
you know, we've both been doing this for quite a while.
As you said, we've both had very successful careers individually,
but now we're in this like it's almost this like
ultimate powered duo of like I'm very strong by myself,
(11:38):
He's very strong by himself. We both kind of have
a chip on our shoulder of feeling like we've watched
a lot of people come along and get awesome opportunities
while we've sat in the background going what the fuck.
So we're kind of both at a point in our
careers where we're not going to wait for stuff. We're
going to take what's ours. If that means that that's
(12:00):
rubbing people the wrong way, or someone doesn't want to
be friends with me in the locker room, like I
don't really care because I'm not there for that. So
I think us being together as a duo. In TNA,
there are titles that are there for the taking. I mean,
the Knockouts Championship is there, The Knockouts Tag Team Championship
Championships are there.
Speaker 6 (12:19):
There's people moving parts, people getting released from WWE, people
coming from all different places that like, there's a few
future tag partners that I could see myself winning the
tag titles with.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
I could see myself winning the Knockouts World Championship. This
is a world champion sitting right here, So I think,
you know, we're going to make a lot more of
a splash in TNA than I think people first realized.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
And for me, you know, everyone knows I don't got
no friends. The only person that can stop me from
doing crazy shit is my wife. That's it, right, So
I'm not here to make friends. This is something I
grew up watching that I knew I would be at
this place, and sometimes things take a little longer. But
when you get there, I'm used to that. I'm used
to be told maybe not now. I don't know about this.
(13:02):
God damn, when I get there, ain't a single soul
gonna stop me, unless it's my old lady telling me, hey, maybe,
don't you.
Speaker 5 (13:09):
Know Jat that screwdriver all the way and that man's head.
Speaker 4 (13:11):
That just a little bit, not all the way in there,
just a little bit, just give him a little taste
of it.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
I'm telling you, man.
Speaker 4 (13:17):
It is great to uh to see you guys on
TVC on TEENA because I remember watching you both of
you guys wrestling, especially on the Independence here in Nashville
with Sup and everybody else. It's it's great to see
the recognition that you guys are getting now, giving you
your flowers now to you in person, and you know
(13:38):
the thing that a lot of people are excited to
see you recently with TNA making the announcement with the
WWE partnership, is there anybody with that partnership that you
envision that possibly at dream Match that you would like
to have you want to call anybody else for.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
Me, I will find any single person there is, if
that means with fist, with a chair, with a screwdriver,
or you just want to give me a microphone or
someone else on microphone that we get promo all damn day.
Speaker 5 (14:04):
You can insert the name of anyone I wouldn't. You
got the look.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
There's people that I used to work with, you know,
a few years ago, and there's people that I love,
and there's people that I don't like and they know that.
And I think that's going to be interesting too. Coming
back in is like if we go into NXT at
some point, there's people that I have history with and
you know, I'm not going to name names because A
(14:31):
I don't want to give them the heads up, and
B I think, you know, there's not enough surprises in wrestling,
So I think let's, you know, let's leave a couple
of things unsaid, But I think I'm not I'm not
interested in doing anything at this point in my career
just because like, oh, that would be a cool match,
Like I don't care for that I care for Like,
is this an interesting story? Does this make sense? Are
(14:54):
their legs to it? Do people want to tune in
to see this? Like that's all the stuff that I'm
interested in. And as I said, I have plenty of
history with we and plenty of people there, so I
think it'll just be a matter of who, what, when
and why?
Speaker 4 (15:09):
Just have to watch and find out on TNA every week.
Last question, and this is always where we have fun.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
At the end of the show.
Speaker 4 (15:16):
We like to turn to chat GPT the robots to
ask a question. Sometimes it's always the stupid question of
how you got your start in wrestling?
Speaker 1 (15:24):
What we can all go to your Wikipedia page or
whatever and find out that.
Speaker 4 (15:27):
But we had to slap it around a little bit
and they finally came up with a good question. If
you two had to start a reality show together, what
would it be called? And what's the one ridiculous challenge
contestants would have to complete to win?
Speaker 5 (15:45):
I don't know what it would be called. But the
challenge is easy.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
We would send the people to family Dollar or Dollar Tree,
and you would have to cook the greatest meal that
you could cook. And I'm talking with the government cheese.
I'm talking with the gross pickles.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
Hey, I have nothing to do with it.
Speaker 3 (16:01):
That is, these are all the things that I love.
I went to she called me because I like to
take a walk, so I'll end up at a dollar
Tree somewhere pickled sausage. And I came back with poor
crimes that I've never seen before. She hates this stuff.
Speaker 5 (16:15):
I love it. I'm a redneck, you see. I could
live for a week with five bucks and a dollar.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
But what's the premise they're making.
Speaker 5 (16:22):
The premise is, god knows what. They just got to
hang out.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
With us, So they're making this crazy meal of like
dollar Tree ships. If it impresses me, yes, then they went.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
A cooking show. That's what it is.
Speaker 5 (16:34):
The headset, and I'll be running around like, you know what.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
Our podcast is called That's Cooked, So I think it
would be That's Cooked the reality show perfect.
Speaker 4 (16:43):
And then they have to just go the Dollar Tree
and they've got five dollars and they have to make dinner.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
With what they have with the five dollars, and I have.
Speaker 3 (16:49):
A headphone deal on like on the cooking shows, and
I'll drinking whiskey the whole time, and I'm screaming and yelling.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
I don't know who.
Speaker 4 (16:55):
We got to pitch this to somebody in Hollywood right now.
We got to make the show happen been coincides with
your podcast. I think that would be a great show.
I'll definitely watch it. I'll even try to participate in
it if if we make this happen. So, uh, it's
an honor and privilege to have you both here on
the show. And before we let you go, is there
anything you want to say to everybody that's watching or
(17:15):
listening to this right now?
Speaker 2 (17:17):
I just want to say, stay tuned with what's gonna
happen with TNA. I mean, watch every single week, follow
us on social media. I'm at Steph DeLanda, He's at Manswana.
I know it's corny, but this year really is going
to be huge for everyone in wrestling, but t and
A especially, So yeah, make sure you're you can say
you were a fan before it blew up, blew up
Welcome to the Battleground Podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
You'll play for all things pro wrestling.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
And exclusive interviews with some of your favorite wrestlers abound, stop.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Doing, What's up you? Guys?
Speaker 4 (00:24):
Welcome back into iHeartRadio's official wrestling podcast, the Battleground Podcast.
And man, it is a great time to be a
wrestling fan because TNA Wrestling returns to Orlando, Florida with
back to back nights of Action Pack Pro Wrestling Live
Yes Live from Full Cell University Thursday and Friday of
this week, and well joining us on the show today.
(00:45):
We got Steph DeLanda, we got Mass Warner.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
What's going on? Guys?
Speaker 2 (00:48):
How are you good? How you doing?
Speaker 4 (00:51):
We are doing pretty good. Glad to have you on
the show. So let's go ahead and just jump right
into this. Man's everybody's talking about your debut in TNA,
especially with the twenty three mystery leading up. Of course,
a lot of people thought it was this thing, but
when it announced, it was a much even bigger pop.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Can you walk us through how this.
Speaker 4 (01:11):
Surprise unveiling came together and what drew you to TNA
at this point in your career?
Speaker 5 (01:16):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (01:17):
Man, Like I've said it before, I've been on the
independent scene. I've had every world title there is to have.
I've been watching TNA since it first started in two
thousand and two, two thousand and three, so I've been
a fan for the entire run. So the next logical
step is I want to level up. I want to
see what else I could do. The only way to
get better is fight more people.
Speaker 5 (01:39):
So I go to TNA.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
Everything worked out in that situation where boom, I'm debut
in Steph's real you know, coming back in and now
we're in the ring together. Every place I've been, I've
started at one spot and worked my way to the
tippy top.
Speaker 5 (01:51):
Now you got me a step together.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
There ain't a single soul in TNA that's going to
stop us from doing whatever we want.
Speaker 5 (01:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (02:00):
Absolutely, and that that's a you know, it's cool to
see your real life relationship go on to you know,
on TV, so people can kind of see a little
bit more of a glimpse into that. And you know,
one thing that has been really cool to watch is
Steph is your return to TNA. You introduced Man's as
(02:21):
your boyfriend, you took ownership of the Digital Media Championship,
mentioning you got it in the divorce.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
Let's talk about the storyline.
Speaker 4 (02:29):
How did it develop, and you know what does this
signify for your character's evolution and of course obviously bringing
your real life relationship into wrestling on TNA.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
Yeah, so, as you mentioned, we won. You can see
it in the background. We won the TNA Digital Media Championship.
I want it in my divorce, which I think is
one of the most unique ways that you can win
a wrestling championship. I don't think anyone's ever done that before.
But yeah, coming back off my injury. You know, I'm
obviously still a ways out from getting cleared to wrestle,
(03:01):
but the fact that I have enough value in myself
as a character to be brought back into TENA this soon,
you know, the having the championship, now getting getting to
introduce my real life boyfriend Mance into the mix. I
think it's just a testament to you know, people tune
(03:22):
into what we're doing. People want to see what SDL
is up to, People want to see what mans Want
is going to do on the show. And I think
when you have a loyal fan base that wants to
follow you and see what you're up to, I think
then companies like Teena can take a gamble on it
and go, Yeah, we don't like we've seen Manz, but
we haven't worked with him yet. But we trust that
this is going to go well. And I mean it's
(03:43):
one of the biggest angles on the show already, so
I'm just excited to see, you know what crazy stuff
we can come up with together.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
I like too the fan base of people that have
over the years watched us all the Independen scene or
watched old Mancer. Now they're going to tune in to see, Well,
that's our guy. We want to see him. We know
he's a sob and he's a dirty dog and this
and that, but that's our dirty dog. We want to
see what he's going to do, and if it's with
weapons or not with weapons, I get in the ring
(04:13):
and I fight. We could go in there and just chop, headbutt,
punch each other, that's fine. Or I could get a
screwdriver and a door and a table and just beat
the heck out of you.
Speaker 5 (04:21):
It is what it is.
Speaker 4 (04:23):
Yeah, I'm ready to see Manton like a monster's ball match.
Let's just go ahead and book it. I mean, we
still got some time, we'll figure this out, but we'll
book it later down the road. And you know, I
want to talk about your recovery staff after your next
surgery last year, your comeback has been very impressive. How
has the recovery journey influenced your in ring performance and
approach to wrestling. I know you said you're still not
(04:44):
clear just yet, but I mean you're out there and
looks like it's well ahead of time.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
Right.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
Yeah, I'm definitely very ahead of my recovery timeline, which
is really cool. I'm very happy about that. I mean,
as far as how it's influenced how I'm gonna wrestle
when I come back, what I will say is, I
mean I initially injured myself like three years ago when
I was at WWI. So I've which no one knew
(05:11):
the whole time, that I've been working with this bulging
disc in my neck. Right, Like I would quietly tell
my opponents when they wanted to give me pile drivers, like, hey,
I'm not taking a pile driver. I have a neck injury.
But for the most part, I just kept it under
wraps and I worked through it. But so I've had
this in my head for years of like I need
(05:32):
to wrestle as safely as I can, because I want
to do this for decades. I don't want to do
this for a few years and then my body gives up.
You know. So I've, as I said, I've already taken
steps where like the last few years, I've you know,
I've taken one pile driver in my entire career, and
I'm never gonna take another one ever again. You know,
I stopped taking German superlex's. Like the only person I
(05:54):
would let German me was Jordan Grace, Like no one
else is allowed to give me like a high neck bump.
There's certain movements that, in my opinion, the risk just
isn't worth the reward. And I did run into that
a lot more on the indies than you do on TV,
because TV you have producers and people saying no to things,
whereas on the indies everyone can do whatever they want
and they do that. So I had to be the
(06:15):
bad guy a lot of the time and just say
I'm not doing that, that's stupid. But then moving forward,
you know, there's a couple of movements that I don't
know if the juice is worth a squeeze anymore. And
I'm speaking to my surgeon. Like, I had a conversation
with my surgeon I literally the other day, was like, so,
these are the moves that I do, and are there
any of these that you think it's not really worth
(06:37):
it right now? And he was like, if you want
to wrestle for like another, you know, ten to twenty years,
maybe you don't need to do a spear every single match,
or maybe you don't need to be like catching a
full body weight on your shoulders. You know, maybe there's
another way you can get around it. But the cool
thing about wrestling is you can modify what you do,
right when if you play football, you have to do
(06:59):
every movie, whereas Russell, I can choose what moves I
want to do, what moves I want to take out,
what I can come up with instead. So yeah, it'll
take a little bit of time of workshopping my moveset
of what I want the new rendition of my in
ring to be. But this isn't a new thing for me.
(07:19):
As I said, I've had a neck injury for the
last few years, so I've definitely already been thinking safely
for a while.
Speaker 4 (07:26):
Yeah, and that's awesome and of course glad to see
that the recovery is doing very well, and I mean
soon we'll be seeing you in there, you know, taking
the bumps that you want to take, not the ones
that everybody else is calling for you. Of course, TNA
Wrestling returns Full Sell University Live this week Thursday and Friday,
and Man's You've been very vocal about being made for
(07:49):
TV and you hinted discussions with various promotions. Obviously it
landed you with TNA. What do you see your role
evolving in TNA and possibly beyond for me?
Speaker 5 (08:01):
Like I said, Man, I grew up watching TNA.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
Every company I go to, I start at one spot
and you could guarantee I'm gonna climb that ladder. So
at TNA, it's like I'm gonna start here. Me and
my old ladier coming in. We're gonna do whatever we
want and the end result is gonna be I want
to be the guy. When you talk about TNA, you
go Stephan old Mancer. So it's a matter of time.
No one's gonna stop me. I will fight everyone that
(08:25):
I gotta fight, and at some point averon's gonna go TNA.
Oh that's Stepan Olmncer. That's that's where that's their playground.
They do what they want out there.
Speaker 4 (08:33):
Yeah, and it's definitely gonna be fun to watch and
see what happens, for sure with TNA and you guys
being together. And I know a lot of people have
been talking about this, and uh, you know one thing that.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
Happened here recently, I mean your.
Speaker 4 (08:46):
Match against Gabe Kid recently at the JCW Jersey j
cub I mean showcase your resilience. I mean that was
I'm allowed to cus because this is my show. That
was like a fucking bar bra. Like, how do you
prepare for something like that, because obviously you can't just
be like, hey, I'm gonna take a couple of soup
plexes here and there.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
That was like a full blown fight.
Speaker 5 (09:08):
There's very few people.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
First of all, I hate Gay Kid and he hates me,
but there's very few people in this business that you
know they're gonna fight.
Speaker 5 (09:17):
Me and him could get in their fight just with
our fist. Just so happened.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
There was one door and a couple of chairs in
that one, and then at the end you had a
screwdriver and a damn tool.
Speaker 5 (09:26):
But that's it's a taste to what I do.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
Like I said, I could get in a ring with
no weapons and headbut you and stop your face in
and bust your teeth out. And for me, I'm excited
to show that at TNA. And like you said that
what me a gay kid, that that's that's a I
don't say match, that's that's fight of the year so far,
So anyone else fucking follow that, And I will continue
to do that at TNA coming up. Absolutely have two
(09:53):
live events. They're gonna be sold out. You're gonna have
you know, let's see what happens. The train is rolling,
jump on down. I would see what's going to happen.
Speaker 4 (10:01):
Absolutely, And I mean here we are just two months
into the new year and you can already call that.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
Well, I'm just gonna say it's a fight.
Speaker 4 (10:08):
Like you said, the fight between you and Gave Kid
could be a match of the year candidate.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Fight of the year is what we'll say.
Speaker 4 (10:14):
Of course, TNA is at full Sell University Live this
Thursday and Friday.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
You can still grab tickets, you can watch it live
on TV.
Speaker 4 (10:22):
And you know, both of you had made significant impacts individually,
but of course your alliance in TNA has a lot
of the internet buzzing. The IWC. What can we expect
more from this partnership moving forward? Obviously you've got the
Digital Championship behind you. Is there some way, some form
that once you're cleared to wrestling, you go after the
Knockouts Championship and then Mans has the you know, the
(10:45):
World Heavyweight Championship and you just become this big power
couple and take all the titles.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Yeah. I mean, I think it's one of those things
where I think there's a lot of people in Tena
that have been there for a while and they are
happy to be there, which is great, and I'm happy
to be there too. But my motive isn't to come
and hang out with my friends every couple of weeks.
My motive is to come to work with my husband
and win championships and become, you know, the version of
(11:15):
myself that I know I can be and I know
I will be. I just haven't had somewhere believe in
me the way that Teena does. And I think it's
the same situation for MAT's. So I think we're both
you know, we've both been doing this for quite a while.
As you said, we've both had very successful careers individually,
but now we're in this like it's almost this like
ultimate powered duo of like I'm very strong by myself,
(11:38):
He's very strong by himself. We both kind of have
a chip on our shoulder of feeling like we've watched
a lot of people come along and get awesome opportunities
while we've sat in the background going what the fuck.
So we're kind of both at a point in our
careers where we're not going to wait for stuff. We're
going to take what's ours. If that means that that's
(12:00):
rubbing people the wrong way, or someone doesn't want to
be friends with me in the locker room, like I
don't really care because I'm not there for that. So
I think us being together as a duo. In TNA,
there are titles that are there for the taking. I mean,
the Knockouts Championship is there, The Knockouts Tag Team Championship
Championships are there.
Speaker 6 (12:19):
There's people moving parts, people getting released from WWE, people
coming from all different places that like, there's a few
future tag partners that I could see myself winning the
tag titles with.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
I could see myself winning the Knockouts World Championship. This
is a world champion sitting right here, So I think,
you know, we're going to make a lot more of
a splash in TNA than I think people first realized.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
And for me, you know, everyone knows I don't got
no friends. The only person that can stop me from
doing crazy shit is my wife. That's it, right, So
I'm not here to make friends. This is something I
grew up watching that I knew I would be at
this place, and sometimes things take a little longer. But
when you get there, I'm used to that. I'm used
to be told maybe not now. I don't know about this.
(13:02):
God damn, when I get there, ain't a single soul
gonna stop me, unless it's my old lady telling me, hey, maybe,
don't you.
Speaker 5 (13:09):
Know Jat that screwdriver all the way and that man's head.
Speaker 4 (13:11):
That just a little bit, not all the way in there,
just a little bit, just give him a little taste
of it.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
I'm telling you, man.
Speaker 4 (13:17):
It is great to uh to see you guys on
TVC on TEENA because I remember watching you both of
you guys wrestling, especially on the Independence here in Nashville
with Sup and everybody else. It's it's great to see
the recognition that you guys are getting now, giving you
your flowers now to you in person, and you know
(13:38):
the thing that a lot of people are excited to
see you recently with TNA making the announcement with the
WWE partnership, is there anybody with that partnership that you
envision that possibly at dream Match that you would like
to have you want to call anybody else for.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
Me, I will find any single person there is, if
that means with fist, with a chair, with a screwdriver,
or you just want to give me a microphone or
someone else on microphone that we get promo all damn day.
Speaker 5 (14:04):
You can insert the name of anyone I wouldn't. You
got the look.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
There's people that I used to work with, you know,
a few years ago, and there's people that I love,
and there's people that I don't like and they know that.
And I think that's going to be interesting too. Coming
back in is like if we go into NXT at
some point, there's people that I have history with and
you know, I'm not going to name names because A
(14:31):
I don't want to give them the heads up, and
B I think, you know, there's not enough surprises in wrestling,
So I think let's, you know, let's leave a couple
of things unsaid, But I think I'm not I'm not
interested in doing anything at this point in my career
just because like, oh, that would be a cool match,
Like I don't care for that I care for Like,
is this an interesting story? Does this make sense? Are
(14:54):
their legs to it? Do people want to tune in
to see this? Like that's all the stuff that I'm
interested in. And as I said, I have plenty of
history with we and plenty of people there, so I
think it'll just be a matter of who, what, when
and why?
Speaker 4 (15:09):
Just have to watch and find out on TNA every week.
Last question, and this is always where we have fun.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
At the end of the show.
Speaker 4 (15:16):
We like to turn to chat GPT the robots to
ask a question. Sometimes it's always the stupid question of
how you got your start in wrestling?
Speaker 1 (15:24):
What we can all go to your Wikipedia page or
whatever and find out that.
Speaker 4 (15:27):
But we had to slap it around a little bit
and they finally came up with a good question. If
you two had to start a reality show together, what
would it be called? And what's the one ridiculous challenge
contestants would have to complete to win?
Speaker 5 (15:45):
I don't know what it would be called. But the
challenge is easy.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
We would send the people to family Dollar or Dollar Tree,
and you would have to cook the greatest meal that
you could cook. And I'm talking with the government cheese.
I'm talking with the gross pickles.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
Hey, I have nothing to do with it.
Speaker 3 (16:01):
That is, these are all the things that I love.
I went to she called me because I like to
take a walk, so I'll end up at a dollar
Tree somewhere pickled sausage. And I came back with poor
crimes that I've never seen before. She hates this stuff.
Speaker 5 (16:15):
I love it. I'm a redneck, you see. I could
live for a week with five bucks and a dollar.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
But what's the premise they're making.
Speaker 5 (16:22):
The premise is, god knows what. They just got to
hang out.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
With us, So they're making this crazy meal of like
dollar Tree ships. If it impresses me, yes, then they went.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
A cooking show. That's what it is.
Speaker 5 (16:34):
The headset, and I'll be running around like, you know what.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
Our podcast is called That's Cooked, So I think it
would be That's Cooked the reality show perfect.
Speaker 4 (16:43):
And then they have to just go the Dollar Tree
and they've got five dollars and they have to make dinner.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
With what they have with the five dollars, and I have.
Speaker 3 (16:49):
A headphone deal on like on the cooking shows, and
I'll drinking whiskey the whole time, and I'm screaming and yelling.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
I don't know who.
Speaker 4 (16:55):
We got to pitch this to somebody in Hollywood right now.
We got to make the show happen been coincides with
your podcast. I think that would be a great show.
I'll definitely watch it. I'll even try to participate in
it if if we make this happen. So, uh, it's
an honor and privilege to have you both here on
the show. And before we let you go, is there
anything you want to say to everybody that's watching or
(17:15):
listening to this right now?
Speaker 2 (17:17):
I just want to say, stay tuned with what's gonna
happen with TNA. I mean, watch every single week, follow
us on social media. I'm at Steph DeLanda, He's at Manswana.
I know it's corny, but this year really is going
to be huge for everyone in wrestling, but t and
A especially, So yeah, make sure you're you can say
you were a fan before it blew up, blew up
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