March 28, 2024 • 17 mins
I had a chance to kick it with WWE Superstar SAMI ZAYN before WWE takes over Barclays Center April 1st.
We discussed: Most important match of his career - The feeling he had at Smackdown in Montreal the night before Elimination Chamber 2023 - How he felt about the online chatter of Chad Gable losing a WRESTLEMANIA chance to Sami Zayn? - Who came up with Jackie Redmond in the arena promos - Most underrated performer in WWE - How has fatherhood changed him & more.
The Superstar Crossover Podcast is a quick interview by a wrestling fan, just like you. You can find all episodes wherever you find podcasts.
We discussed: Most important match of his career - The feeling he had at Smackdown in Montreal the night before Elimination Chamber 2023 - How he felt about the online chatter of Chad Gable losing a WRESTLEMANIA chance to Sami Zayn? - Who came up with Jackie Redmond in the arena promos - Most underrated performer in WWE - How has fatherhood changed him & more.
The Superstar Crossover Podcast is a quick interview by a wrestling fan, just like you. You can find all episodes wherever you find podcasts.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
It's Josh Martinez. I'm C onehundred, New York's number one hit music
station and the Superstar Crossover podcast withmy guest Sammy's Ames going on man all
good man, happy to do it, happy to be here. So I'm
the first to admit I could bea little emotional watching wrestling. Watching you
the SmackDown before elimination chamber kind ofgot me, you know what I'm saying,
(00:21):
kind of got me a little bit. Take us through that feeling,
not the elimination chamber itself, withjust that that kind of victory lap if
you will, the night before you'retalking about in Montreal last year. Yeah,
yes, sir, Sorry, Yeah, that was a pretty emotional night
for me too. For sure.There's there's no question for the number of
reasons, which I won't won't getinto all of them, but just that
(00:44):
kind of homecoming at that time inmy career, with that kind of reception.
I mean, it's one of thosemagical moments where stars just align and
it creates something really memorable. Iactually get asked about that a lot,
so I'm and it must have beenmemorable to quite a few people, but
it's certainly memorable for me. Becauseyou know, you're lucky to ever get
(01:07):
a reaction any anywhere close to thatin your entire career, let alone in
front of your hometown and all thatkind of thing. So yeah, just
just a very very very special nightthat I think, when I think back
on my career and it's all saidand done, that's got to be up
there one of the top nights inmy career for sure. I spoke with
(01:27):
Damian Priest the other day who saidthat the most important match of his career
was actually the match with Bad Bunnyfor a litany of political reasons and showing
what he could kind of do inthe ring. You're known as one of
the greatest of this generation when itcomes to getting in the ring and creating
a match. What would you sayis your most important match for your career?
Oh? Man, I don't know. It's so hard to it's so
(01:52):
hard to designate or sort of Idon't know, assign importance to one particular
because it's very hard to say whatmatch led to what? You know?
I mean, like, if youreally want to go far back enough,
maybe the first match I ever hadin the States ever, you know.
September eleven, two thousand and fourbecause that was the springboard to everything else
(02:15):
in my independent career, which obviouslywas a springboard to you know, getting
to WWE and everything else. Soit's like, it's really hard to say.
But of course, if you lookat maybe the biggest match, I'd
probably say the one with Roman lastyear Elimination Chamber or the next month main
eventing WrestleMania, that'd be the biggestand certainly the most importance was placed on
(02:38):
it in terms of you know,fan emotional investment or the company's emotional investment.
But it's very hard to say thisis the most important match because it
led to XYZ, you know whatI mean, Very hard to say direct
cause and effect, where well,if I didn't have this match, that
match wouldn't happen. Sometimes it's reallyhard to isolate just one because it's like
(03:00):
life, you know, it's notjust one moment. It's a collection of
things lead to a collection of differentthings. So hard to say, very
hard to say. If we're talkingabout the domino effect, I would probably
say that first match I ever didin the US that you know, ended
up springboarding my whole launching my wholecareer. But if I if I say,
(03:23):
what's the match that had the greatestsignificance in terms of audience emotional investment,
and it would have to be lastyear's WrestleMania, I'd say, so.
Fast forward to this year's WrestleMania asof right now, you go up
against Gunter. There was a rumorfrom Booker t last week that you were
(03:44):
allegedly the word was upset that heused on the kind of the fan backlash
if you will, between you andGable. First off, isn't that true?
Well, I was a little surprisedto read that because I basically bumped
into Booker on the plane and wewere just you know, we were sitting
next to each other, so we'rejust talking. So it's pretty weird to
(04:04):
see it on the internet. Butall is to say, well, no,
I was very happy with the performance, because he was talking about the
performance itself, the match itself,and I was like, yeah, yeah,
I was very pleased with the match. It's just unfortunate that it felt
like the reaction to the win itselfwas a little split, if not a
(04:25):
little more skewed towards Chad, evenbecause we did such a great job of
building Chad and he's done a greatjob of building himself that you know,
for sure, when you're a goodguy or whatever or a bad guy and
you know where you're headed, youjust want the full investment, right,
(04:46):
You want the full scope of audience, emotional investment. And I felt like
this was an interesting story because itsplit the emotional investment in two. So
you're only getting fifty percent of thepie, right. So that's just an
interesting dynamic, it certainly, andit is interesting because it makes it more
compelling. But for sure, likeas a guy whose job is to rally
(05:11):
the entire audience behind him, whichis what I sometimes feel like my job
is as a good guy, Iwas a little led down that I felt
like I couldn't get the entire audienceto rally behind me. Well, at
least that's not even entirely true.Like on during the match itself, it
feels like they're very happy and investedin the whole thing. But the online
(05:32):
backlash or the day after, justwith people feeling a little disappointed for Chad,
which is very understandable, just wasa little deflating, you know.
But again, this is just somethingI was kind of articulating to him.
Two guys just kind of shooting thebreeze on the plane. So I think
maybe once it gets out online,it seems like a bigger deal than it
is. But that's all I wasarticulating to him. Yeah, color me
(05:56):
shocked. That one little comment blowsup, right, And when it comes
to wrestling journalism, it's it's noteven that. It's because, you know,
especially in this day and age,everything is like headlines and little pieces
of information, so you're not gettingthe full context. And of course how
could you. You need to havesat on the plane with us for two
and a half hours and heard thewhole conversation to understand the full context.
(06:20):
But sure, if you just hear, like, yeah, I heard he
was upset, that might cause himyou know whatever. But that's fine at
least exactly right. I love thestory going into that Chad Gable match and
the Gauntlet match. I should say, who came up with the Jackie Redman
(06:41):
sitting in the arena promo style whichwas completely different from every other promo we've
seen over the last you know,several years in w No, no,
No, that might be a tripleah creative direction. I think. I
think I think they're doing a lotand you can actually see it in the
production and some of the camera shotsand all these things that we're doing.
I think they're trying to get outsidethe box lately and really let the people
(07:05):
people who are very, very talented, and I'm talking about behind the scenes.
That's why they work here. Imean, you can say whatever you
want about WWE, but the peoplethat work here are the best in the
world at what they do in frontof the camera, behind the camera,
Like there's I sometimes walk around backstageand I'm just looking at the production.
I'm like, how do they dothis? Every week? They go to
(07:27):
any arena in the world, takemiles and miles and miles of wire and
steel and everything, and they constructthese incredible sets and they just make it
so seamless. It's so impressive.If you actually stop and think about it,
it's mind blowing. So we havesome very talented people in production inside
the truck running cameras. I meanreally just the top of the top.
(07:50):
And now I think they're just gettinga little bit more room to explore because
the box is kind of opened upa little bit. And you know,
this is I don't I don't knowwhat it is. It's just things under
events for all those years. Ithink it was just like we found ourselves
in a box because you find butthis is natural when when you find out
(08:11):
what works, you just do moreof it, and then you've accidentally created
a little box of your for yourself. These these like really narrow parameters,
but it's because of success, youknow what I mean. And success starts
to invariably discard what doesn't work andkeep what does work. So that's why
you end up with these rigid sortof boxes. Sometimes. Well, now
(08:35):
I think that box has opened upa little bit and you're seeing it in
the little things. And part ofthat, to answer your question about Jackie,
is just like a new approach tointerviews with different styles and things like
that, and some of it's alittle bit more, you know, sports
oriented are a little bit more.Yeah, I don't know that's the way
to put it. Sports oriented.Yeah, you're right, And I thought
(08:56):
it was pretty cool, and Ithink it's also cool to interviewed with her,
not just the one week when welaunched the story, but she's kind
of been like a recurring thread likeOkay, where are you at now?
Okay, and then this happens towhere's your head now? And it's kind
of following the journey. I thoughtit was pretty cool, and I think
anytime you get to experiment with stufflike that outside the box, it's fun.
(09:16):
You know. That's why if itain't if it ain't broke, because
it was so outside the box.If it ain't broke, don't fix it,
right, That's the old adage fora reason. And I think that
when you have decades of success toyour point, why bother even trying new
things when we know this is working. Oh and by the way, where
a billion dollar company who went publicand you know, still sells out stadiums
(09:39):
Orris's always going to be people whenyou when you've been in the box or
you've observed the box, like,let's just do new things. But I'm
just telling you why that box existsto begin with. That's all I want
to do. Uh, this iscalled the Superstar Crossover. Our last guest
was Damien Priest. He had aquestion for you, you know what's uh,
(10:00):
why do you do this? Whydo you do this? I don't
know, I don't know. Itjust just this is just what I do.
I don't know. I mean,I just love it. I love
it, and like even if moneywasn't involved. This is if money didn't
exist. I don't want to saynot involved, because you know, it's
(10:22):
a different story now. But uh, this this deep into the game and
at this level and all that.But if money didn't exist, this is
still what I would want to do. Like if if this was some sort
of utopian society where I don't knowwhat, just that these constructs didn't exist
and it was just based purely onwhat would you do for enjoyment, it
would be this. So I don'treally have a I don't know. I
(10:46):
just love it. Man. Yeah, So our next guys could be for
me so long. It's kind oflike, I don't want to say it's
all I know, but it's it'sjust what I like to do. It's
what I've liked to do time Iget it. I'm in radio, you
know what I'm saying. And Iwish the money was better, but I'm
still here. I have a passionfor it. Before we wrap things up,
(11:07):
our next guest could be from aewor from another company, or maybe
from your own locker room. Doyou have a question for them that's an
interesting one. Without knowing the specificguest, I don't know. I don't
(11:30):
know. I can't think of oneoffhand, but I should because you're asking
me to, you know. Ithink what I've been thinking a lot about
lately is as you get higher andhigher in the game and higher levels,
where where does that Where does thelove of the craft itself rank in terms
(11:52):
of importance to you? You know, because we have some people who are
you know, it's a television show, so we we can manufacture and certain
light like we can we can alwayspresent people in a certain light, you
know. But at the end ofthe day, especially on these local shows,
(12:16):
whether we're in Rockford, or whetherwe're in Ottawa, or whether we're
in Buffalo, wherever you are inthese local towns, the TV cameras are
not there, the production is notthere. It's naked. It's just the
craft. It's just the art.And I guess, you know, I
don't know. I'm curious about howimportant that art is the craft is to
(12:37):
your next guest, Jesus Christ,I feel like I can sit here just
talking to you forever. You arepretty fascinating. I'm not gonna lie to
you, bro. Like, beforewe wrap things up, just two quick
questions. Number One, who's themost underrated performer in the w w WE
today cool tough to say, youknow, I've been giving this answer for
(13:05):
years, and it's it's it's kindof hard to say now because he's not
really been on television, but Ido believe he's still kind of under contract.
But I've always thought Bo Dallas theyreally really, really good and never
really got his chance to really spreadhis wings and fly. And I know
that might not be the answer thatmost people would think of off the top
(13:28):
of their head, but I meanI was in NXT with this guy years
and years ago, and I didyou know promo classes, I traveled the
road with him. He's really reallygreat in the ring, there's no question.
But even as a performer and asa as a mind, from the
character side of things, I thinkhe's there's so much more that people have
ever gotten to really see out ofhim. And hopefully his day comes,
(13:54):
you know, I think he's reallyreally, really talented. A lot of
people, but people that I thinkmisconstrue what that word kind of means underrated
because a lot of people on along enough timeline with WWE will get opportunities,
(14:20):
you know, they will, andon a long enough timeline in a
weird way, you'll kind of findyour position of like where you kind of
fit, you know what I'm saying. So I don't know, because what
I'm saying is I tend to seeevery now and again, I'll see like
fan reactions saying this guy's so overratedor underrated or whatever. But in reality,
(14:45):
I think those people have been givenopportunities. Now it's a different story
if there's someone really good that's nevergotten the opportunity. But if you're getting
television time to show parts of yourcharacter, and you're getting television time to
tell your story in the ring andshow what you can do on both sid
that of that front. So I'msure you know all these things. On
(15:07):
a long enough timeline, those peopletend to find where they fit best.
You know what I'm saying. Thatall makes sense. Yeah, my question,
I have a five month old daughter, m M. First time as
a dad. Obviously we saw AlmationChamber documentaries, we saw your son as
(15:30):
well. How has fatherhood changed you? Well, it's changed. Its changed
a lot, But I think withregards to wrestling and w W and all
that, it's made it a lotharder. If I'm being honest, because
it makes it harder to be away. You know. It's also made life
(15:52):
on the road a little different becausewell, not to get into a whole
psychological analysis here, but the roadhas always been an escape of sorts.
You know, like even if you'vegot problems at home, those problems tend
to not follow you on the road. You know, like you know they're
there, but what can you doyou're on the road, you know,
Like and now as a father andwith like text and FaceTime and everything else,
(16:15):
like you're never those problems I feellike follow you. Like if you're
a kid sick, you can't justshake it off. It follows you mentally
wherever you are, or if youknow your wife's having a hard time alone
with the kid and this and that, it's like there's it just does something
to you. Different from prior tohaving a kid, where it was sort
of like, yeah, I knowthese there's things I got to address at
(16:37):
home, but that's when I gethome. You know, I was able
to compartmentalize it more, whereas nowbeing a dad, I find those those
boxes are all smashed to smith therings wherever I go. My home life
is still kind of on my mind. And then when you're busy on the
road, it just it's hard.It's just harder, there's no doubt,
but it's obviously so much more fulfillingand everything else, and you know you're
(17:00):
capacity for love just increases, andit's a it's just a really wonderful thing.
But it has it has changed howI feel on the road. I
would say, no, I digit. April first, Barclay Center,
The Go Home Show to Raw Gonnabe in Brooklyn. Tickets on salewe dot
com, Slash Events Sammy Zane,I wish I had multiple hours with you,
(17:21):
bro, but I appreciate you stopping. Buying you with me some time.
Always a pleasure, and uh,I can't wait to come back.
Brooklyn's awesome. New York's like myhome away from home, away from home.
It's I love New York City somuch, love performing there. I
can't wait to be there.
It's Josh Martinez. I'm C onehundred, New York's number one hit music
station and the Superstar Crossover podcast withmy guest Sammy's Ames going on man all
good man, happy to do it, happy to be here. So I'm
the first to admit I could bea little emotional watching wrestling. Watching you
the SmackDown before elimination chamber kind ofgot me, you know what I'm saying,
(00:21):
kind of got me a little bit. Take us through that feeling,
not the elimination chamber itself, withjust that that kind of victory lap if
you will, the night before you'retalking about in Montreal last year. Yeah,
yes, sir, Sorry, Yeah, that was a pretty emotional night
for me too. For sure.There's there's no question for the number of
reasons, which I won't won't getinto all of them, but just that
(00:44):
kind of homecoming at that time inmy career, with that kind of reception.
I mean, it's one of thosemagical moments where stars just align and
it creates something really memorable. Iactually get asked about that a lot,
so I'm and it must have beenmemorable to quite a few people, but
it's certainly memorable for me. Becauseyou know, you're lucky to ever get
(01:07):
a reaction any anywhere close to thatin your entire career, let alone in
front of your hometown and all thatkind of thing. So yeah, just
just a very very very special nightthat I think, when I think back
on my career and it's all saidand done, that's got to be up
there one of the top nights inmy career for sure. I spoke with
(01:27):
Damian Priest the other day who saidthat the most important match of his career
was actually the match with Bad Bunnyfor a litany of political reasons and showing
what he could kind of do inthe ring. You're known as one of
the greatest of this generation when itcomes to getting in the ring and creating
a match. What would you sayis your most important match for your career?
Oh? Man, I don't know. It's so hard to it's so
(01:52):
hard to designate or sort of Idon't know, assign importance to one particular
because it's very hard to say whatmatch led to what? You know?
I mean, like, if youreally want to go far back enough,
maybe the first match I ever hadin the States ever, you know.
September eleven, two thousand and fourbecause that was the springboard to everything else
(02:15):
in my independent career, which obviouslywas a springboard to you know, getting
to WWE and everything else. Soit's like, it's really hard to say.
But of course, if you lookat maybe the biggest match, I'd
probably say the one with Roman lastyear Elimination Chamber or the next month main
eventing WrestleMania, that'd be the biggestand certainly the most importance was placed on
(02:38):
it in terms of you know,fan emotional investment or the company's emotional investment.
But it's very hard to say thisis the most important match because it
led to XYZ, you know whatI mean, Very hard to say direct
cause and effect, where well,if I didn't have this match, that
match wouldn't happen. Sometimes it's reallyhard to isolate just one because it's like
(03:00):
life, you know, it's notjust one moment. It's a collection of
things lead to a collection of differentthings. So hard to say, very
hard to say. If we're talkingabout the domino effect, I would probably
say that first match I ever didin the US that you know, ended
up springboarding my whole launching my wholecareer. But if I if I say,
(03:23):
what's the match that had the greatestsignificance in terms of audience emotional investment,
and it would have to be lastyear's WrestleMania, I'd say, so.
Fast forward to this year's WrestleMania asof right now, you go up
against Gunter. There was a rumorfrom Booker t last week that you were
(03:44):
allegedly the word was upset that heused on the kind of the fan backlash
if you will, between you andGable. First off, isn't that true?
Well, I was a little surprisedto read that because I basically bumped
into Booker on the plane and wewere just you know, we were sitting
next to each other, so we'rejust talking. So it's pretty weird to
(04:04):
see it on the internet. Butall is to say, well, no,
I was very happy with the performance, because he was talking about the
performance itself, the match itself,and I was like, yeah, yeah,
I was very pleased with the match. It's just unfortunate that it felt
like the reaction to the win itselfwas a little split, if not a
(04:25):
little more skewed towards Chad, evenbecause we did such a great job of
building Chad and he's done a greatjob of building himself that you know,
for sure, when you're a goodguy or whatever or a bad guy and
you know where you're headed, youjust want the full investment, right,
(04:46):
You want the full scope of audience, emotional investment. And I felt like
this was an interesting story because itsplit the emotional investment in two. So
you're only getting fifty percent of thepie, right. So that's just an
interesting dynamic, it certainly, andit is interesting because it makes it more
compelling. But for sure, likeas a guy whose job is to rally
(05:11):
the entire audience behind him, whichis what I sometimes feel like my job
is as a good guy, Iwas a little led down that I felt
like I couldn't get the entire audienceto rally behind me. Well, at
least that's not even entirely true.Like on during the match itself, it
feels like they're very happy and investedin the whole thing. But the online
(05:32):
backlash or the day after, justwith people feeling a little disappointed for Chad,
which is very understandable, just wasa little deflating, you know.
But again, this is just somethingI was kind of articulating to him.
Two guys just kind of shooting thebreeze on the plane. So I think
maybe once it gets out online,it seems like a bigger deal than it
is. But that's all I wasarticulating to him. Yeah, color me
(05:56):
shocked. That one little comment blowsup, right, And when it comes
to wrestling journalism, it's it's noteven that. It's because, you know,
especially in this day and age,everything is like headlines and little pieces
of information, so you're not gettingthe full context. And of course how
could you. You need to havesat on the plane with us for two
and a half hours and heard thewhole conversation to understand the full context.
(06:20):
But sure, if you just hear, like, yeah, I heard he
was upset, that might cause himyou know whatever. But that's fine at
least exactly right. I love thestory going into that Chad Gable match and
the Gauntlet match. I should say, who came up with the Jackie Redman
(06:41):
sitting in the arena promo style whichwas completely different from every other promo we've
seen over the last you know,several years in w No, no,
No, that might be a tripleah creative direction. I think. I
think I think they're doing a lotand you can actually see it in the
production and some of the camera shotsand all these things that we're doing.
I think they're trying to get outsidethe box lately and really let the people
(07:05):
people who are very, very talented, and I'm talking about behind the scenes.
That's why they work here. Imean, you can say whatever you
want about WWE, but the peoplethat work here are the best in the
world at what they do in frontof the camera, behind the camera,
Like there's I sometimes walk around backstageand I'm just looking at the production.
I'm like, how do they dothis? Every week? They go to
(07:27):
any arena in the world, takemiles and miles and miles of wire and
steel and everything, and they constructthese incredible sets and they just make it
so seamless. It's so impressive.If you actually stop and think about it,
it's mind blowing. So we havesome very talented people in production inside
the truck running cameras. I meanreally just the top of the top.
(07:50):
And now I think they're just gettinga little bit more room to explore because
the box is kind of opened upa little bit. And you know,
this is I don't I don't knowwhat it is. It's just things under
events for all those years. Ithink it was just like we found ourselves
in a box because you find butthis is natural when when you find out
(08:11):
what works, you just do moreof it, and then you've accidentally created
a little box of your for yourself. These these like really narrow parameters,
but it's because of success, youknow what I mean. And success starts
to invariably discard what doesn't work andkeep what does work. So that's why
you end up with these rigid sortof boxes. Sometimes. Well, now
(08:35):
I think that box has opened upa little bit and you're seeing it in
the little things. And part ofthat, to answer your question about Jackie,
is just like a new approach tointerviews with different styles and things like
that, and some of it's alittle bit more, you know, sports
oriented are a little bit more.Yeah, I don't know that's the way
to put it. Sports oriented.Yeah, you're right, And I thought
(08:56):
it was pretty cool, and Ithink it's also cool to interviewed with her,
not just the one week when welaunched the story, but she's kind
of been like a recurring thread likeOkay, where are you at now?
Okay, and then this happens towhere's your head now? And it's kind
of following the journey. I thoughtit was pretty cool, and I think
anytime you get to experiment with stufflike that outside the box, it's fun.
(09:16):
You know. That's why if itain't if it ain't broke, because
it was so outside the box.If it ain't broke, don't fix it,
right, That's the old adage fora reason. And I think that
when you have decades of success toyour point, why bother even trying new
things when we know this is working. Oh and by the way, where
a billion dollar company who went publicand you know, still sells out stadiums
(09:39):
Orris's always going to be people whenyou when you've been in the box or
you've observed the box, like,let's just do new things. But I'm
just telling you why that box existsto begin with. That's all I want
to do. Uh, this iscalled the Superstar Crossover. Our last guest
was Damien Priest. He had aquestion for you, you know what's uh,
(10:00):
why do you do this? Whydo you do this? I don't
know, I don't know. Itjust just this is just what I do.
I don't know. I mean,I just love it. I love
it, and like even if moneywasn't involved. This is if money didn't
exist. I don't want to saynot involved, because you know, it's
(10:22):
a different story now. But uh, this this deep into the game and
at this level and all that.But if money didn't exist, this is
still what I would want to do. Like if if this was some sort
of utopian society where I don't knowwhat, just that these constructs didn't exist
and it was just based purely onwhat would you do for enjoyment, it
would be this. So I don'treally have a I don't know. I
(10:46):
just love it. Man. Yeah, So our next guys could be for
me so long. It's kind oflike, I don't want to say it's
all I know, but it's it'sjust what I like to do. It's
what I've liked to do time Iget it. I'm in radio, you
know what I'm saying. And Iwish the money was better, but I'm
still here. I have a passionfor it. Before we wrap things up,
(11:07):
our next guest could be from aewor from another company, or maybe
from your own locker room. Doyou have a question for them that's an
interesting one. Without knowing the specificguest, I don't know. I don't
(11:30):
know. I can't think of oneoffhand, but I should because you're asking
me to, you know. Ithink what I've been thinking a lot about
lately is as you get higher andhigher in the game and higher levels,
where where does that Where does thelove of the craft itself rank in terms
(11:52):
of importance to you? You know, because we have some people who are
you know, it's a television show, so we we can manufacture and certain
light like we can we can alwayspresent people in a certain light, you
know. But at the end ofthe day, especially on these local shows,
(12:16):
whether we're in Rockford, or whetherwe're in Ottawa, or whether we're
in Buffalo, wherever you are inthese local towns, the TV cameras are
not there, the production is notthere. It's naked. It's just the
craft. It's just the art.And I guess, you know, I
don't know. I'm curious about howimportant that art is the craft is to
(12:37):
your next guest, Jesus Christ,I feel like I can sit here just
talking to you forever. You arepretty fascinating. I'm not gonna lie to
you, bro. Like, beforewe wrap things up, just two quick
questions. Number One, who's themost underrated performer in the w w WE
today cool tough to say, youknow, I've been giving this answer for
(13:05):
years, and it's it's it's kindof hard to say now because he's not
really been on television, but Ido believe he's still kind of under contract.
But I've always thought Bo Dallas theyreally really, really good and never
really got his chance to really spreadhis wings and fly. And I know
that might not be the answer thatmost people would think of off the top
(13:28):
of their head, but I meanI was in NXT with this guy years
and years ago, and I didyou know promo classes, I traveled the
road with him. He's really reallygreat in the ring, there's no question.
But even as a performer and asa as a mind, from the
character side of things, I thinkhe's there's so much more that people have
ever gotten to really see out ofhim. And hopefully his day comes,
(13:54):
you know, I think he's reallyreally, really talented. A lot of
people, but people that I thinkmisconstrue what that word kind of means underrated
because a lot of people on along enough timeline with WWE will get opportunities,
(14:20):
you know, they will, andon a long enough timeline in a
weird way, you'll kind of findyour position of like where you kind of
fit, you know what I'm saying. So I don't know, because what
I'm saying is I tend to seeevery now and again, I'll see like
fan reactions saying this guy's so overratedor underrated or whatever. But in reality,
(14:45):
I think those people have been givenopportunities. Now it's a different story
if there's someone really good that's nevergotten the opportunity. But if you're getting
television time to show parts of yourcharacter, and you're getting television time to
tell your story in the ring andshow what you can do on both sid
that of that front. So I'msure you know all these things. On
(15:07):
a long enough timeline, those peopletend to find where they fit best.
You know what I'm saying. Thatall makes sense. Yeah, my question,
I have a five month old daughter, m M. First time as
a dad. Obviously we saw AlmationChamber documentaries, we saw your son as
(15:30):
well. How has fatherhood changed you? Well, it's changed. Its changed
a lot, But I think withregards to wrestling and w W and all
that, it's made it a lotharder. If I'm being honest, because
it makes it harder to be away. You know. It's also made life
(15:52):
on the road a little different becausewell, not to get into a whole
psychological analysis here, but the roadhas always been an escape of sorts.
You know, like even if you'vegot problems at home, those problems tend
to not follow you on the road. You know, like you know they're
there, but what can you doyou're on the road, you know,
Like and now as a father andwith like text and FaceTime and everything else,
(16:15):
like you're never those problems I feellike follow you. Like if you're
a kid sick, you can't justshake it off. It follows you mentally
wherever you are, or if youknow your wife's having a hard time alone
with the kid and this and that, it's like there's it just does something
to you. Different from prior tohaving a kid, where it was sort
of like, yeah, I knowthese there's things I got to address at
(16:37):
home, but that's when I gethome. You know, I was able
to compartmentalize it more, whereas nowbeing a dad, I find those those
boxes are all smashed to smith therings wherever I go. My home life
is still kind of on my mind. And then when you're busy on the
road, it just it's hard.It's just harder, there's no doubt,
but it's obviously so much more fulfillingand everything else, and you know you're
(17:00):
capacity for love just increases, andit's a it's just a really wonderful thing.
But it has it has changed howI feel on the road. I
would say, no, I digit. April first, Barclay Center,
The Go Home Show to Raw Gonnabe in Brooklyn. Tickets on salewe dot
com, Slash Events Sammy Zane,I wish I had multiple hours with you,
(17:21):
bro, but I appreciate you stopping. Buying you with me some time.
Always a pleasure, and uh,I can't wait to come back.
Brooklyn's awesome. New York's like myhome away from home, away from home.
It's I love New York City somuch, love performing there. I
can't wait to be there.
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