Wyatt Sick6, MITB, & Summerslam Talk + OVW's "Certified" Luke Kurtis

We are back for the first time in a while to chat about the current WWE landscape! We talk the debut of the Wyatt Sick6, The New Bloodline, Jey Uso potentially winning MITB, how the Summerslam card is shaping up, and more!

Plus, we welcome on a new friend of the show with our first OVW guest in some time as "Certified" Luke Kurtis joins us! You probably know him from his promo on Al Snow in the hit Netflix series "Wrestlers" We talk about that, his journey to reach the top of OVW, and much more. Enjoy!

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hey, everybody, that's the AmericanNightmare Cody Rosen, and you were listening
to the baby Faces on iHeartRadio.Hey guys, this is ww Superstar Timpty
Strun and you're listening to the babyFaces on iHeartRadio. What's going on y'all?
Is WWE Superstar Kobe Kingston and you'relistening to the Babyfaces on iHeartRadio.

(00:21):
Babyaby all right? You hear thatmusic? That means we are back.
New intro by the way, andcourtesy of our guys Billy Fricket right there,
and I did some of the visualstuff. You can go check that
out on our TikTok Instagram Facebook pages. Really really cool stuff. But it's

(00:46):
back the two og baby Faces here, not really in person behind the flesh
of course, had one hell ofthe last couple months with WWE guest on
the show. And last time youheard of us, we were with our
guy friend of the show, CodyRhodes. He came in studio, we
got to hold the championship belt.A lot of things are going on around
that time, especially Billy moving.He is season a little bit of a

(01:10):
different background. Now he's moved backhome. He is in he is back
in northern Kentucky, his roots.He is now coaching for his Alma Manor
High School. Dude, Billy Hive, you been man, I've been good,
you know, getting settled here.I'm definitely gonna miss Louisville, but
you know you'll still see me aroundplenty. But yeah, it was good

(01:30):
to get settled after literally moved theday after we interviewed Cody Rhodes, which
was just freaking crazy, man,Like, what a crazy weekend that was,
and what a crazy couple of weeksit was leading up to that.
Just all the great guests that wewere lucky to have on the show.
You know, Cody Rhodes is likeunbelievable that that that would even happen.

(01:51):
Uh my figure him, dude,look at that ultimate sign front and back.
He was so freaking cool, sogenerous. Yeah. Absolutely. I
mean for any anybody out there that'slistening that's a die hard fan of Cody
Rhoades, and I'm sure there areplenty because because he has so many fans,
you know, meeting him is everythingyou you could expect it and wanted

(02:13):
to be. He's just a classact every every part of the way and
just really makes you feel like likeyou're his friend and and you know,
we were just a couple of guysthat that were interviewing him, so uh
it was really cool to do that. We had tip Tiffany Stratton on,
which is really cool. Guys.We're big Tiffy time guys, our guy
Austin Theory, uh for for thesecond time, so uh it was fun.

(02:35):
Third time, Oh my goodness,th time. Yeah, well he
needs a shirt now too. Yes, we got some shirts to give out.
But yeah, so guys, right, but this week kind of getting
back to to the meat and potatoesof the show, which is me and
Austin, you know, talking wrestling, something we haven't done in a while.
Uh, but we also have aninterview with with an OVW guy you

(02:57):
know, again back to our rootsa little bit on this episode Certified Bluke
Curtis And if you've watched if youwatch WW, if you if you've watched
the Wrestlers documentary, you're definitely awareof who this guy is. He was
the one that cut the promo onal Snow in that viral moment from from
Wrestlers, and his career is kindof like taken off since then. So

(03:19):
stick around for you know, we'regonna talk about some stuff going on in
wrestling right now and then that interviewson the back end of this episode.
But Austin, I got a fewthings I want to talk about before we
get to that. Let's do it. We're on the road to Summer Slam
right now. I don't want tohate on what w has been doing,
but you know, in between WrestleManiaand up till about now, it was

(03:40):
getting kind of stagnant for me.I didn't have much reason to want to
turn on Raw and want to turnon SmackDown every week like I was on
the road to WrestleMania. But they'vethrown in a couple of wrinkles and and
that's how I know that, allright, We're we're back on to road
to a big event with money inthe bank on the horizon in Summer Slam.
Beyond that, one of the mostintriguing things going on right now is

(04:02):
certainly the arrival of the Wyatt Sixand Uncle Howdy. I mean, just
an incredible presentation of them and theirfor in their debut on Raw, and
then followed it up this past Mondaywith the VHS tape of Uncle Howdie bo
Dallas and that kind of interaction.So what are your initial initial thoughts on

(04:25):
on kind of the White six andwhere you see this going and how you
how you feel they've done with itso far. Uh. I love the
follow up, and I think thedebut last week was one of the coolest
things ever. Like you, meand I were texting about it, seriously,
something out of like Field of Screamsor something like a horror movie,
something really cool. I mean,hell, they damn near committed murder to

(04:46):
Chad Gable and he was able tokind of rise back in. But you
know, once you kind of onceit dust settles on that and you're like,
wow, what a sick moment.Hey, you have everyone that everyone
was talking about it online. Youhad the meme that came out of the
Chad Gable stuff, so that getseveryone talking. But once you kind of
let that settle, and especially withyou're one of those people that just like,

(05:08):
all right, the bell has toring and then what this does.
Once we get into the ring andother storytelling, then that's when you kind
of think, where is this thinggoing to go? And I thought that
this last week. I thought itwas absolutely perfect with the VHS tape thing,
and then you kind of got tosee more or less. You got
to see like the Uncle Howdie interviewingBo Dallas or I wonder if he's even

(05:30):
gonna go by Bo Dallas going forwardmaybe. And I heard our buddies over
at or on the Bust Open podcastsomething that Bully Ray said just a couple
of days ago was that was TaylorRotunda speaking. That wasn't Bo Dallas,
that was Taylor speaking. And Ithink that's something that they had to run
with. They have like a motive. They're playing off of real life stuff

(05:54):
and talking about how did you feelafter the death of your brother? And
you know, even Boa or Taylor, I can only imagine how he feels
personally. And then just like careerwise, because if you've watched the Wyatt
documentary, that was going to besomething that they were going to introduce Bo
Taylor into the mix, and theywere finally going to do them that thing
theirselves, and of course, withthe untimely passing of Bray Wyatt, that

(06:16):
whole thing was up in the air. Whether or not Bo Taylor Keith I
don't even know what to call him, Whether or not Bou wants to wrestle
or not, whether he wants toit even if he does, if he
wants to continue on that legacy,and I thought it looks like they're going
with it. And of course ithad the debut something very what like you
know why, it's always had kindof had the dark, supernatural type of

(06:39):
gig and that's always been like thecoolest thing. But the detriment to somehow
hardcore fans feel about him because there'snot a lot of people that just kind
of understand that horror stuff and sometimesit doesn't translate to wrestling, but it's
gonna be pretty fun. I havea bone to pick with that wrestling at
its core, and it's early days, you know, talking about the eighties.

(07:03):
It was built on crazy, weird, larger than life characters, right,
yeah, and some of them supernaturalUndertaker obviously comes to mind first,
but you got like Papa Shango andlike, uh, what was it Kamala
or whatever? Yeah, yeah,where it was like you know, African
potion rituals and whatnot. Yeah,like there are there are very clear you

(07:29):
know, there's precedence for supernatural actsand wrestling, and it's wrestling, y'all,
like it's supposed to be goofy andweird and fun like that, and
it's built on character, it's builton storyline, and this has that tenfold,
right, Like this has that tothe max and it's something that you
makes you want to tune in tosee, like how do they even explain
what happened, you know, onthat debut and what was going to happen

(07:53):
with Chad Gable and all that.So I think it really is lightning in
a bottle. I always love actslike this. It's the reason I like
bray White a lot too, withthe whole Wyatt family early on, like
just a super you know, intriguing, very creepy, uh you know,
something that kind of it just youreyes glued to the TV when you're watching
it. They can't help to dothat. So I think it's brilliant what

(08:16):
they're doing, and I'm excited tosee where it goes. Like you said,
how that translates to the ring We'llsee, like are there matches in
store for an act like this oris it just kind of a group that
reeks havoc? And you know,that's kind of where I'm at across roads
with it, you know, like, how how can I see this translating
to, you know, a greatmatch, and that was I guess that

(08:39):
was kind of great. Why it'sdownfalling away too though, you know he
was he was okay in the ringbetter in his early days and his Fiend
days. Though it turned into moreof like attraction rather than rather than a
match, which is fine, right, but they kind of have to find
their footing and what they want todo with that. Yeah, I think
some of the things that he's gotteninto, especially with the Fiend, because

(09:01):
everyone was excited for the Fiend,everyone was excited for the whole dual personality
thing. He came out at theFirefly Funhouse gimmick and then of course he
translated to the Fiend and everyone lovedhis debut when he came out, and
he ended up destroying Finn Balor,and it seemed like a lot of people
fell off, not really fell off, but had a lot of criticism with

(09:22):
that Hell in a Cell match withSeth Rollins. It's not more or less
like not more or less like thecreepy side stuff, because I think like
that whole match, it was allread some of the production stuff going with
it, and I think Seth Rollinsended up winning because the referee called it
off. It's just somehow like howit's booked. And if you're gonna make
the strong guy, then you shouldn'thave a hell in a cell with the

(09:43):
fiend and he's losing because the refereecalls it off because Seth Rowlins throwing a
bunch of shit on him. Andthen when he finally gets a title he
shouldn't be losing to Goldberg in SaudiArabia. So I guess some of that
stuff has to be on the bookingand what they're doing more or less than
like the actual characters, because thatthat's what makes it cool, that's what
makes you know, it attractive,and those like you mentioned the earlier iterations

(10:05):
of the Wyatt days. You know, he wasn't necessarily super natural. You
know, he just kind of hadthe dark backwoods sort of gimmick and he
kind of had the thing that theUndertaker did. The lights of go out
and then he would appear in thering. You know, he wasn't doing
stuff with his hands or you know, with the force or something that's causing
that. Really just whatever Bray Whitttwas doing in the beginning that translated well

(10:28):
to the ring, especially with hiswhole the whole Wyatt family had his tag
team. And the only thing thatI have about is everyone's in the suits.
Right. You got a guy inthe pig costume, you have a
guy and and these are former wrestlers. You have gay Sy, You're gonna
have a Nikky Cross and there EricRowan is back, and they're they're all

(10:50):
a part of that stable. SoI think the debut, the VHS tape
was kind of like a good lookinto hopefully most of the time, ninety
percent of the time, whenever youknow, Bo Dallas does go to the
ring, it's going to be moreor less in that in person sort of
thing. And it's seeming like theUncle Howdie is more like an extension of
him, kind of how like theFiend was to bray White. And I'm

(11:13):
hoping that the rest of the charactersget that too, because I mean,
what do you I mean if aguy's coming to the ring with a pig
mask and a costume and a gianthammer, I mean he should be able
to win at all times, right, I feel like they're going to eventually,
It's it's all going to be howit's produced and how they're going to
pull that out. I mean,there's a good case to be made that
these guys can still come out aslegit wrestlers and have you know, legit

(11:37):
matches. So I'm definitely intrigued tosee how that goes. And and of
course why it's I thought it wasimportant to have the why. Why is
why is the Whyatts six doing whatthey're doing. Bo Dallas came out in
a great way and explain why wefeel like everyone forgot about me and I'm
going to do this. So hegot really really personal and it wasn't scripted.

(12:00):
That was spoken from the heart.And just like Bray White did he
always he was a great promo guybecause he had these cryptic messages and he
had stuff that made you think andit was real. Well, whatever they're
doing in the interview with Uncle Howdieand himself seemed very real. So that
was a big major step in thenext direction. I'm excited for it.

(12:20):
It's it's definitely now a reason peoplewant to watch for all to see what's
going to come next, because Ialready know that their production is amazing.
They did that thing with Gable andNikki Cross Crawdon who ring and ended up
handing the box to Michael Cole andthat was just super cool looking. So
WW always does well with stuff likethat. Yeah, I mean, that's
that's the key, is being areason that people want to tune in.

(12:43):
That's that's what being a drawl isand that's the of any wrestling acts.
So yeah, like you said,I'm definitely excited to see see where that's
going. And it's it's given mekind of an invigorating, you know,
of a reason to turn on Rall every week. And then you got
small on the other end, andand I can see where people are.
I've liked, you know, Ihaven't been in love with the new Bloodline

(13:07):
thing so far. I mean it'sit's been fun and and but more or
less, you're just kind of waitingfor that next chapter because you know,
you know, obviously they just signeda couple of new talents. There's so
many Damn Samoans and other fatus andother on a yez out there to debut
that could be used in this.So I think that's what's making this whole
Bloodline thing continue to be fresh aswho they can bring back, the who

(13:31):
they can feature either like the usso'sthe USO's dad you can have Rakishi in
there somehow, you can have someother family members. Everyone's waiting for the
Roman reigns that come back, butthey're adding more layers to it. And
let me tell you something. Thedebut of Jacob Fatu this past Friday Night
on SmackDown was probably one of thebest that they've had in recent memory.

(13:52):
This guy came and tore through threemain eventters and he If you haven't got
to watch any of Jacob Fatu inany MLW or anything on the indie scenes,
you definitely need to go check himout. Because if you talk about
like a dangerous dude, that's him. If you talk about like a freakish
guy for his size, he mightbe one of the best out of the

(14:13):
bloodline. And I think people havenot gotten to see that yet and it's
about to get it. It's aboutto get intensified. And they've kept him
away over the last couple of months. Remember during WrestleMania when they signed him,
and at least I was thinking thathe was going to be a big
part in that big part in thatmain event, but they've been kind of
keeping him silent and he's come outand this is not the speak weight or

(14:35):
shame on anybody, but he isin perfect freaking shape. Somebody has been
having them under their wing or they'redown at the performance center somewhere and hiding,
and he looks just like an absolutekiller. And I think it just
brings so much more legitimacy to thebloodline and it gets me thinking, all
right, what's next? Yeah,I mean I feel like that was another

(14:56):
storyline that was getting a little stagnant, right. I mean, they had
the tom Tanga debut, which whichwas cool, but the whole like Solo
being being the head of the bloodlineright now, people were kind of getting
stale on it. But now thatI feel like, you know, we
all know it's heading towards Roman Reignscoming back and take it back over,
right, So that that's why peopleare intrigued. In the meantime, it's

(15:20):
kind of just been like, well, okay, like it's just kind of
there, but it's building, right. It's that slow Burns storyline that they've
been really good at the last coupleof years. And you know, once
Roman Reigns comes back, he's goingto be absolutely nuclear. There's gonna be
an awesome probably like War Games matchwhere it's like his clan versus this this
plan of the Bloodline for ultimate rightsand all that. So I'm really looking

(15:41):
forward to how that plays out.And it looks like, according to most
reports, we're heading towards Cody Rhodesversus Soloska for the championship at SummerSlam.
And I can see him on oneend where that might be a little like
disappointing for some people, just becauseand his run with the Bloodline with Roman

(16:03):
was kind of just used as like, you know, he was the enforcer,
but like he would just be arandom main event matches against whoever Roman
was feuding with, and he wouldtypically like lose those matches at a certain
point, right, So I cansee where people are like, all right,
Solo kind of has lost like thatheat, But I feel like he's
been building himself up with with thisrole and again it's all leading towards a

(16:26):
bigger picture. So while that,you know, Cody Rhodes Versus Solo seems
like a disappointing main event for SummerSlam, I wouldn't disagree with that, but
also like, don't we expect RomanReigns probably make his return if that is
the main event of Summer Slam,like obviously they're gonna do something big to
make it bigger. That's where Isee problem. There's so many layers to

(16:48):
that story because just last year,before last years WrestleMania, Cody, I
remember him kind of promo and Romanreigns how we just said, well you're
looking at me, let me tellyou something. Solo, You're not ready,
So they kind of go back.So it's that kind of solo maybe
taking that a little bit personally.Now he's kind of been able to shine
a little bit on the uh,on the bloodline and kind of do things
on his own. Paul Hayman's doinga masterful job of being absolutely terrified of

(17:14):
these guys. And I think Istill have hope in solo Soca. I
don't know why everybody just kind ofshits on him. I just I will
say me personally, I loved whenhe was just like the silent Enforester and
he was just kind of they kindof just ruined his his aura, if
you will, like the kids saynowadays, because like he used to just
be that silent killer and he was, I mean, he was undefeated for

(17:36):
a while, but then eventually theyjust stopped doing that and and like fed
him to whoever Roman Marines was feudingwith, you know, yeah, and
he would just be on random mainevent matches on smackdowns and rolls, and
you knew that he was going tolose every single time based like based on
the pattern of how it was going. So they kind of they kind of
ruined it in that way. Butat least they've been building him back up
with this whole storyline. And Ifeel like and Cody kind of a really

(18:00):
good match, and you know,it seems like it's just probably it's not
so much about the match rather thanthe moment of Roman probably returning at the
end of it or during it,whatever it might be. Right, It's
kind of like when Roman, whatwas it Roman versus Edge at like money

(18:22):
in the Bank and John Cena returned, right, that was such a huge
moment, and it wasn't more itwasn't about like the Roman Roman versus Edge
match as much as like, whoaRoman versus John Cena? All right,
Now, now we got something toget excited about. So I feel like
that's where we're heading with with that, with that side of things. But

(18:45):
no, absolutely not. You thinkthere's a case for Solo to to be
champion or no no. Cody wasthe first person that in Solo was Undefeated
Street that was on the SmackDown rightbefore WrestleMania thirty nine, So that just
adds on more layers to their story. It seems like they gave Solo the

(19:07):
opportunity to literally squash John Cena andhe's been kind of on a losing streak
since then. So I mean,does he lose cleanly to Cody Rhodes as
he come back and he's fake headof the table and that's what brings Roman
Reins back. That's going to bepretty interesting. Or they just give it
all back to the Bloodline and putthe blood Line right back over again.
But I like you said, Idon't think because WWE they've been doing such

(19:30):
a great job at just having thedrama that's caught on camera if you guys
watch it Clash of the Castle,once the Bloodline came out, Once Solo
came out and had his eyes seton the title, they got chased off
by Randy Orton and Ko you hadthat moment where Randy Orton is kind of
looking a little sideways at that titlethat Cody Rhods has happened, and you
talk about meat on the bone withthat story, that's also somewhere they can

(19:52):
go. I'm just concerned about howSolo looks after Summer Slam, whether it's
going to be like they'll probably stillkeep the same bloodline formula. They're definitely
gonna interfere, but they have acouple people that they have a couple of
people to help neutralize the bloodline nowwith Ko and Randy Orton. But the
addition of Jacob Fatu really kind ofspices things up a little bit in that

(20:15):
realm. Yeah, definitely. Ihonestly thought they were going to hold off
Jacob fa two to come back withRoman as part of his tribe that he'll
build. But yeah, I thinkhe's just as dangerous on the other side
and just as intriguing, if notmore so. What about this, Billy?
What about this? Before you geton to your next point, what

(20:37):
if? Because right before that debut, you had Solo tell Paul Hayman Roman's
not coming back. And so ifyou want to look into WWE does things
purposely, like I said, theylet you catch that drama, there's little
bits in between. What if wefind out that Roman is the one that
sent Jacob fa tou what if wefind out he's the one that came back

(21:00):
back? And at the very endthere you saw Solo going hug Jacob.
Jacob didn't hug him back. Nowthat could be that could just be me
thinking too much into it. Maybedislike they're just doing this wild like he
has no clue. He's just ananimal. He's in that, he's in
the mode. He just he's notthinking about hugging Solo back. But when
the Tagas get back in the ringto do the one right behind him,

(21:21):
they're both looking at him crazy,like where the hell did this guy come
from? You know, and they'rekind of terrified. So I'm interested to
see those layers too. Maybe it'sRoman Reigns calling out the ancestors and sending
somebody in there to check Solo.But that's eventually inside an inside the job
type. Yeah, yeah, thecall, the call came from inside the

(21:41):
house, right right, right right, Yeah, you're right. They do
such a good job of like leavingthose little bread crumbs for you to like,
oh that was interesting, like thatthat little look that he gave him,
or what you know, a lotof people kind of built up h
during the road to WrestleMania, likethe Rock holding up a one with like
his im out. Oh yeah,yeah, you know which gonna end up?

(22:03):
Yeah right, But they they dodefinitely use those breadcrumbs occasionally, so
like the time, yeah, butsometimes it feels like, you know,
they they try to do it tomake you think one way, right,
make you think like, oh soyeah, it's I mean, that's how
TV should be. So another memberof the Bloodline, Jay Usso, getting

(22:23):
a lot of hype to possibly winmoney in the bank, which is coming
up here soon. Yeah. Theother members of the match right now so
far, if I remember off thetop of my head, would be Carmelo
Andrade, Chad Gable, Dad Gablecame back from the dead, yeah yeah,
and then there's Juso. And thenI would assume there's two more spots

(22:44):
left. I assume one of thosegoes to either l A Night or Logan
Paul And then what what's the triplethreat on Monday? Dragging Off and dragging
Off? Yes, so either eitherdragging Off wins because see them Punk interrupts
and calls through the match, orDrew wins. That triple thread match goes

(23:06):
onto the money in the Bank matchand then seem Punk screws him in that
match. But you said something onTwitter the other day that was really intriguing
too, is that that Men's Moneyin the Bank match could have a lot
of interference in it, right,because you got a lot of guys that
are in there that are feuding withother people. If L. A.
Knight is in that match, thenLogan Pole is definitely getting involved, right
or vice versa. If Drew isin that match, then seem Punk is

(23:29):
getting involved, Chad Gables involved,He's having this weird thing with the Wyatts.
Do they get involved? You know? So there's a lot of different
storylines that can be kind of tiedinto that match, but you don't want
to overdo it either, right,So I'm intrigued to see what they do
with those last two spots. Nonetheless, jay Usso is the favorite to win
the match. Thoughts on that.I would think so too. However,

(23:52):
I wouldn't just be so so dismissiveon the fact that Chad Gable possibly winning
it. Wow. I think hecut a really good promo walking out to
the ring, and I think someof that has been the detriment to how
his promo is. His acting skillsare great. Some of the drama that
he's been doing with Otis and allthat are great. And not only has
he feud in with the Wyatts.I guess if you can have him almost

(24:15):
reach the mountaintops and a one ofthe Wyatts can interfere, or he can
have or he can have one ofhis former Alpha academy, I'll hold them
back. But as we've been talkingabout breadcrumbs and if you want to follow
the internet, looks like Chad Gablecan possibly be joining with the Creed Brothers
and that could be the new AlphaAcademy. That's something, and that's a
group that ww is extremely trying tobuild up. And maybe I might be

(24:40):
crazy, but I think that Ithink that the Wyatts six might be done
with Chad Gable. I think ChadGable was just more like a red herring
cannon fodder of them. They've beenbuilding up Chad Gable. They can show
Chad Gables, you know, afriend of the show. By the way,
his character is more or less dispensableenough to where he can get attacked
like that. He doesn't have toon a long feud with the Wyatts.

(25:02):
So I mean, what happens.So like, is Chad Gable just going
to get absolutely fucked by the WyattSix and they're just gonna go into a
feud with them, Well, you'regonna eventually he's gonna need some backup too.
Is it just gonna be all theWyatt six or all Bo Dallas Uncle
Howdie against Chad Gable. They've beenbuilding up their reinforcements that he's going to
come back with the Creed family justas or the Creed brothers just as well.

(25:26):
So I'm not thinking that they whatare they gonna do? Just go
forward with the Creed brothers and bothof them just debuted, so you're it's
gonna be hard to have them win. I think there's something in my mind
that wants to believe that they justdid Gable to make a statement. Maybe
they'll just go ahead and target someother other people. They just want to
have a high profile guy that's probablynot one of their main top guys get
shown how dangerous that they are.And Chad Gable came out and he did

(25:49):
the he did the you're gonna callme Master in the bank, and that
could be something fun that they canrun with just as much as it is
the jay Uso thing. I dothink jay u so probably is the favorite
right now to win that, butI wouldn't be I wouldn't be surprised if
they gave that opportunity to Chad Gable, And a lot of people might if
that were the case, a lotof people might poo pooh off, Well,

(26:10):
what's to deal with the whole Wyattsix thing? And I think that
he could have just been a redherring for them, and just could he
walked out to the ring absolutely spoopedout. I got everybody spooped out,
and that's a good way for themto put over. I don't think that
they have to keep attacking him becausethey're eventually gonna have to bring out reinforcements
for Chad Gable, which, likeI said, most likely going to be
the Creed Brothers. So what areyou gonna do? Just have a tag

(26:30):
team feud with those guys going forward? One of them is gonna have to
lose one of them, and youjust I think that they'll go ahead and
sight set their sights on someone else. But you've been coming around to jay
Usa a lot more recently, Ihave you know, I've probably said on
the podcast before that. I youknow, I for some reason it just
didn't hit with me before, butlately seeing Jay Usso and just the like

(26:53):
the energy that he brings as ababy face, Like something that's really hard
to do in wrestling today is bebe a baby face that is truly over
right, Like not somebody that's cornyas hell, and and not somebody that
you know is is just putting ona smile but doesn't like truly believe in
themselves. Jay Uso definitely, likeyou can tell that it's himself just turned

(27:15):
up to ten, which is whichis how wrestling should be. So,
you know, he's got a uniquelook, he's got a great theme song,
he's got the great merchandise, whichis the number one selling T shirt
on the shop right now in Philly. You know, I mean it's unreal,
right the dude. And and Ithink part of that is because one

(27:36):
like the shirt is just cool,like it's a cool shirt. He is
like a funny like young saying nowadays, so people may just buy it just
for that reason. But he definitelyhas a big time following too, right.
I don't think that he's the numberone guy, but he is the
number one t shirt seller because theT shirt's really good too. But you
got it all right there, right, you have the makings of a big

(27:57):
time main event superstar with with allthose things packaged together. So yes,
I have I have changed my opinionon Jay Us as of late. It
always just like early on in thebloodline just seemed a little force for me,
you know, he and he wasalways just kind of like the like
just the just part. I don'teven know I always saw as right.

(28:21):
I always just saw him like astag team the USO's like, there's no
way this guy is ever gonna breakout and be like some big time main
events start. It just seemed alittle forced to me. But he's definitely
found himself in in this latest salesrun, and I do think that he
will win money in the bank.But you make an interesting point with Chad
Gable and it usually a heel carryingthe briefcase is a lot better than uh

(28:44):
than a face. If anybody's watchingon YouTube, my cat is like crawling
all over me. So sorry,right, but yeah, you know,
babyface carrying the briefcase can be alittle odd sometimes just because you're like super
opportunistic with that, and That's nothow a babyface is supposed to operate,
right, They're supposed to be like, I want to face you one on
one, you know, no,blah blah blah. But heel will take

(29:07):
advantage of an injured champion or whatever. So I think that's the one thing
that might hold them back. ButI think they'll overcome that. They'll look
at the T shirt sales, They'lllook at jus So, they'll be like,
all right, give this guy thebriefcase money, money, eat in
the bank or whatever they want tocall it. They can make a really
cool briefcase out of that too,and probably sell that as well. So
I do think that we are headingtowards a Jay Uso mounting the bank run.

(29:32):
I personally don't think that Jay needsit as much as everyone says.
I know everyone's gonna get mad atthat. He's come close several times several
times, and his character allows himto do that, you know, and
especially if everything goes how I thinkit's gonna go. When Gunther finally gets
the championship at SummerSlam. Jay Usoand Gunter have a really fun backstory too.
Jay Usso's faced them a couple oftimes and they've gone on the on

(29:56):
the Dark matches a lot and havedone that, so I can think of
them playing that story. Well,Jay, you've come close several times and
blah blah blah. I'm going tomaybe deep in in Gunther's run where Gunther
is gonna give him a pity kindof like the stipulations, right, like,
you can chart challenge me for thisthis title, but if it's it's
the if you lose, you can'tchallenge for the championship anymore. And he

(30:21):
finally wins. It's all about thatchase, right, They kind of do
the same exact thing that they didwith Daniel Bryant. Well, here comes
Alpha Academy after he finally overcomes,after he finally overcomes a Gunther after he
finally and he's the type of guy, he's a wild card. He's a
type of guy doesn't have to outwrestle Gunther, he doesn't have to out
chop him. He's just he's justlike a he's like a wild card.
So that's like the perfect guy tobeat that. He's not going to go

(30:42):
just toe to toe and have ajust a Matt Classic with them. But
he finally reaches that after the wholestory. You can't do it. You
finally are the champion, and thenhe gets attacked by the Creed Brothers and
here comes Chad Gabe and then boom, you have your heel start right there,
and then you just the money isall in the chase, right because
what happens if jay Uso does whenthe World Heavyweight title, then then what

(31:04):
we're kind of left in what everyone'skind of criticizing the Cody Roads thing right
now with his reign and being undisputedchampion. Yeah, I mean, it's
definitely tough. Another reason why beinga baby face is so tough is like,
you know, you're so over andpeople want to see you win that
championship so bad, but then onceyou win it, it's like the moment
often outlives the title reign, right. You saw that with even Daniel Bryan,

(31:30):
who was so over, unbelievably overback at Wrestling A thirty. Do
you really remember anything from that titlerun other than him winning the championship.
Nope, I don't know. Idon't remember anything. They had him feuding
with Corporate Kine right afterwards, andthere was no plans. They just wanted
And I feel like sometimes it's thesame with Cody Roads. I think Cody
Roads has done well for what he'sbeen given because he's just facing legends after

(31:53):
legends, and it helps that they'regoing to these crowds that are absolutely hot
and singing the song and just likehad the wwez there, so they're they're
garner a pop. I think that'sthem trying to cover up for Listen.
They've had two years to know thatCody Rhoades is a champion, and there's
really kind of no story after himwinning the championship. His first thing was,

(32:14):
you know, facing AJ Styles andAJ Styles finally fully turn and heel
and now they did the whole thingwith the fake contract. But Roman Reigns
could have had his chance for hisrematch clause you still had the Randy Orton
thing right there. And if theydo go that way, I think it
would be just it's still gonna bang, but I think it'll be a little
bit too late. That's something theyshould have planted seeds immediately when he won

(32:36):
the title, like when they're inthere holding him up, or there's a
coronation on Raw the very next day, right after, right after WrestleMania,
instead of having that weird interaction withthe Rock and they could still go that
way, but you can have acelebration codally Cody finally does it, then
here comes the viper. He's holdingthem up on the shoulders, and just
like how Randy Orton was done byhis mentor when he finally won the titles,

(32:58):
it turns it back and then youcould you could have had that last
until SummerSlam. But they with theopposite way. They're just letting him be
the fighting champion, right and he'sjust putting on these bangers with Logan Paul
and AJ styles. So I thinkit's it's it's definitely interesting. I think
you nailed it on the head.Don't let the moment outlive the title rain.
Yeah, and that's that's the hardestthing when it comes to being a

(33:19):
babyface, and I don't I don'tenvy that position, right, but not
us we're babyfaces, right yeah yeah, yeah, but it really is on
It's not even on the actual wrestler. It's not like you're saying, it's
not like anything Cody Rhodes is doingthat's wrong. It's just like they didn't
really have an intriguing storyline for himthat is if you are like guys that

(33:42):
appreciate storylines like me, and youlike, if you just love great matches,
then I'm sure Cody Rhodes Style Rainhas been incredible for you. Cody
Roads versus AJ Styles, Oh mygod, what a dream. But you
know, we're not We're not reallyin that same camp of where it's like,
yeah, I just want to puttwo guys together just to see them
wrestle. Yeah, so yeah,well we'll kind of. I think that
the solo feld will do them welland probably you know, lead to some

(34:05):
more intriguing stuff for him down theline. Speaking of down the line,
big time announcement this week by WWEas they are going to be coming to
Indianapolis for not only the Royal Rumblewhich is going down in February, but
also a WrestleMania, which we don'tknow which one yet and the same for
SummerSlam. We don't know which oneyet, but those two big events will

(34:28):
become in Indianapolis in the near future, which obviously as a wrestling podcast in
Woulville, that is massive for us. I mean, we're just not even
two hours down the road from Indianapolis. So if you guys think that We've
been bringing you good content from thebig events that we've attended, like the
Rumble in Saint Louis and WrestleMania thisyear in SummerSlam and Nashville. Just get

(34:49):
ready because there's more on the way. We will definitely be at those events.
We might even want to. Wemight go to SummerSlam in Cleveland this
year. That's not firm, butkeep that on the on the back burner.
But Austin, how thrilled are youabout about this news that they dropped
this week? I think it's awesomeand it's amazing that they haven't come to
the Lucasol before for any other Yeah, I feel like I was just talking

(35:14):
about this maybe when we were inPhilly. I'm like, dude, why
why hasn't WrestleMania ever come to Indianapolis? Like it's It hosts the Final Four,
it hosts the freaking National Championship,and it hosts Super Bowl. Like
Indianapolis is a great city for hostingbig events. They just do it.
They know what they're doing, theydo it often. Everybody that hosts events

(35:36):
there always says that you know,it goes off without a hitch beautifully.
So I imagine that's why. Andalso the relationship with Pat McAfee with the
city too, definitely helped. ButI imagine, you know, just the
the history of Indianapolis and the bigevents that they've had has played a big
part in them getting these, youknow, three massive wrestling events. Yeah,

(35:57):
it's it's gonna be super cool.Like you said, we're just only
a couple of hours away. SoI definitely look forward to getting some more
superstars on there closer to when theystart promoting the show, that would be
fun. But yeah, like yousaid, and best part is, and
you know, sometimes our weather canbe tricky, but once we get around
to like April, we kind ofknow what's around springtime. Once we got
to April in Philadelphia, it stillfelt like it was January. And I

(36:21):
think Night one, yeah, firstnight had everyone freaking freezing, where Nick
con and Triple H is like,f this, dude, We're not coming
back here. And it's even gottenthem to even a contemplate shooting WrestleMania to
like May just to be perfectly safe. But Indianapolis is a perfect freaking place.
I know they've done like a fastlane and stuff there before, but

(36:44):
that building, especially for wrestling,could get over sixty seventy thousand people in
there. What they're pretty much drawnfor WrestleMania now, but also just kind
of to piggyback on that, thenout Summer Slim is now going to be
a two day event starting next year. What do you think about the whole
Summer Slam being two days. We'vebeen under the WrestleMania two day thing for
a while so and everyone's kind ofstill split on that on the whole restaurant

(37:07):
in two days. I I alwayshave just liked it being one day.
I feel like it feels bigger whenit's just one day, Right, you
split it up over those two you'reyou're kind of filling the card with some
matches that might not be as hotas you know they could be. And
I don't know, it's just italways felt bigger when it was one night
to me. And that might justbe me like be an old man yells

(37:30):
at cloud like this is how italways was, you know, But especially
for a Summer Slam. I getit for WrestleMania, it's WrestleMania. You
have the time to build great storiesall that, But like we're looking at
a Summer Slam this year, that'sgonna be main invented by Cody Roads,
and so was Co most likely.I'm not shitting on that by any means.

(37:51):
But at the same time, that'snot Cody Roads versus Roman Reigns.
That's not Cody Roads and seth Rawlinsversus Roman Reigns in the Rock. It's
you know, like it's just it'stwo different, two different playing fields.
If they step their game up andreally put on some great Summer Slams coming
up, you know, in thein the near future, and really take
the time to build those storylines forthem, then Okay, maybe I can

(38:14):
get on board with it. Butyeah, the whole two night thing just
seems like a little bit of anover overkill to me. Yeah, and
they're gonna be going on Netflix ofcourse, starting in January and next year,
and it makes me think with them, I don't know, I don't
know if they ever announce it SummerSlamis now officially a two day event going
forward, or if it's just forthe one that's gonna be up at US

(38:34):
Bank Stadium up in Minneapolis. Butif it is just for that one,
then that may be a telling talethat maybe it might be superstar powered filled.
Maybe that's where you have the rockcome back and he finally continues the
stuff one with Cody Rhodes. Weare probably under the assumption whenever they get
to Rock and Rome and that's onethousand percent gonna be a WrestleMania I don't
care how much money isn't bought,that it's gonna be a WrestleMania match one

(38:58):
thousand percent. It's not gonna beanywhere else. But it just makes me
think what other kind of stars thatthey're going to have and feature there.
And possibly they just saw the successof the WWE World and how successful they
were in Philly, their partners withfanatics, and just the stuff that they
can do that whole week lead leadingto a major premium live event. Maybe
it's just a test, and Ikind of hope it is, because I'm

(39:19):
just like you. I just kindof like it the one day wrestle Maine.
I don't like change, right,Like it was tough for me to
just kind of accept the WrestleMania astwo days. I was never mad at
it being one day and it neverwent on eight nine hours like people said
it did. Maybe it did ifyou added the pre show OneD there,
but I mean, who's really watchingthe pre shows. It's just a four
or five hour event, which isacceptable for WrestleMania, not like a fast

(39:42):
Lane or a Great Balls a Fireor something like that. But you know,
it's the two day thing does feelbigger. It's just cool to go
back to two days of WrestleMania.That's really cool. I mean the wrestling
market and me just kind of likesgoing back two days. But I feel
like that's something that's It's like,you know how they have like move now
that are just in three or fourparts, Like I feel like that's WWE's

(40:04):
way of doing that. Yeah,yeah, I don't know. I mean
it's definitely everybody. It's their owncup of tea, right what they prefer
with it. But at the endof the day, it's all driven by
money, like simple as that money. They know that about the money.
Yeah, if they could sell twotimes more tickets, then why would you
not do it? Right? IMean obviously you're paying more for the production

(40:29):
costs to do it two nights,but you're basically you're doubling your profit at
least theoretically, right, because youdid it for one night you would have
this profit. So if you justduplicated the next night and you got the
same amount of people there, thenodds are that you're making the same amount
of money, right So it's allmoney at the end of the day.

(40:49):
But you know, they're on fireright now, so they're definitely trying to
take advantage and make as much moneyas possible. And you got to do
that. You got wrestlers to pay, you got you know, you got
to remain competitive, especially in today'smarket now too, with aw and all
that. So, uh, totallyget it. But yeah, I'm excited
about Indianapolis getting getting those big events. That's how it's gonna be huge for

(41:10):
us as a podcast, huge foranybody listening that lives in Louisvill too.
I meant, you know, mostof our audience are people in Louisville.
You know, if you're a hugewrestling fan, you're gonna have easy access
to see the biggest events in wrestling. And we can tell you firsthand.
You know, we've been to theRumble, We've been to Wrestling, and
we've been a Summer Slam. Likenothing compares to going to big time events

(41:31):
like that with huge matches and hugesuperstars. Uh So definitely exciting stuff right
here on the baby Face Podcast withbat News Austin. Coming up next WEEKET,
We've got a great interview with ourwith our guys certified Bluke Curtis,
Right, Yeah, it's gonna beit's it's gonna be awesome. He is
it. Guy's a character man,and yeah, it's it's always fun to

(41:52):
go talk back to these OBW peoplebecause that's kind of I feel like we
started out as OBW right because wegot a couple of guys from the star
of Wrestling Wrestlers on Netflix, Haleyj she's doing big things and of course
a cash flow. We haven't hadhim on yet, but I know he's
someone that wants to come on andwe've been we've been certainly waiting for Luke
Curtis. He made himself known inWrestlers Netflix, like you said, with

(42:15):
that with that crazy promo that hecut on out and he's going to talk
about that more at the end ofthe show. So it was really really
fun stuff and we look forward tohaving him back on the show. Yeah.
Always love to shout out our guysat ov W. Be sure to
get out to if you're if you'recraving some wrestling. You know, we
were kind of we just had smackeddown in town. Who knows really when
the next one is going to befor us here in Louisville, imagine not

(42:37):
super far, but you know,if you're craving wrestling sometime in that interim
period, God to David Serena checkout OBW. Those guys are doing great,
great stuff over there, and wewill welcome on one of the round
right now. It is certified LukeCurtis and getting back to our roots a
little bit with the guests from ourfriends over at Ohio Valley Wrestling OVW.

(42:59):
We've had many in the past,and today a brand new one, brand
new friend of the show, certifiedLuke Curtis. If you've seen wrestlers,
you're definitely aware of this guy.Luke, thanks so much for taking the
time today. Man, No,thank you guys for having me and to
mention the slew of ww wrestlers youguys have. I originally want to talk
to you guys because I saw youguys had Cody Rhodes on and I'm gonna

(43:22):
be a little bit of a markright now, you know, and we're
all we're all marks at the endof the day wrestling, right, you
know, I saw Cody on andI really try to like emulate myself after
Cody Rhodes as far as you know, backstage and how he is as a
professional. I try to, youknow, shake everybody's hand, make them
feel welcome, bring along the newguys. And Cody Roads has always done

(43:45):
the same thing, even for me, even though he wouldn't really know me
like that, but he remembers faces, and you know, every time I
see him somewhere, no matter whatcompany it is, he has the same
type of energy, and you know, he wears suits. He's the most
professional, He's just the man.He's Cody Roads. He's the reason why
he's the top guy. So I'vetried to do that at OVW, you

(44:07):
know, because Code Rhodes is anOVW guy. He is an OW snow
guy. You know, I'm anOVW guy. I'm an OW snow guy.
So I thought the more that Icould, you know, be like
Cody Rhodes, you know, asa professional, the better things would be
for me. And it's probably beenlike eight months that I started really setting
that into my mind, and alot of good things have happened for me

(44:30):
since then, so I definitely feellike it was a right decision. So
I saw him here and I said, hey man, any opportunity to do
with Cody's done, I'm gonna doit, you know. So I appreciate
you guys having me, you know, dude, not a problem. Like
we said, we appreciate you takingyour time, and we're we're very thankful
that we have such a good workingrelationship with WW because they always send people

(44:50):
to our show whenever they're in townto try to promote and stuff like that.
And they were just in Indianapolis thislast week, and that's where you
were being a security guard and what'skind of what's kind of that? Like,
I know that you were just doinga couple of weeks ago when they
were actually in SmackDown, you werea security guard and high profile segments.
That was the one with the Bloodlinetoo, right, you're holding back like

(45:10):
Kevin Owens and Solo and all that. No, I was the one with
Cody Roads and aj Styles. Ohokay, yeah, that was the first.
I was Cody Rhodes. So thatthey dropped the meme that said,
like one of these guys is goingto be WW Champion in the next ten,
I was one of those guys.I got that's right. What is
the whole process with that? LikeI've always wondered, I mean obviously,

(45:34):
like uh in WW always runs atight ship, especially like when you're official
one air roster person, there's likea call time at like one o'clock and
you have to be there the wholeday. Is that something that you do
or is this even something that alsets up? Is does WW reach out
to like local talent, say wantsto be a security guard or how does
that hooked up normally happen just toget some TV time like that? Okay,

(45:55):
so you know, as all wrestlingshows are very similar in the sense
that like you have a call time, you know you have to be there
early because I mean, if you'redoing television, there's so many moving parts.
And when we're talking about the WWE, I mean we're talking about the
most moving parts in professional wrestling.I mean the amount of people that work

(46:16):
for that company. And it's truewhen they when they tell you, like,
hey, you don't necessarily have tobe a wrestler to make it them
wrestling, because there's so many jobs. When you work for WWE, you
see, like the reality of thatbecause there's hundreds and hundreds of people working
moving. Nobody's really sitting around chilling. Everybody is hustling to make that happen.

(46:37):
So, like, you always haveto be at something early if you're
gonna like like make something happen successfully. So with all wrestling shows like WWE,
of course, as professional as theyare, you're going to have to
be there early. So yeah,we're there very early, you know,
And I had to travel from Mobile, so I probably left, you know,
at like ten o'clock in the morningto head up that way, you
know. And there's many different operatortunitiesyou know, for you to be a

(47:01):
part of something like that with WWE, I mean, it all becomes with
relationships and professional wrestling, honestly.And WWE always wants guys that have good
reputations, have good ability, andthat they can kind of rely on to
come in and do this role becausewhile you're not like an active member of
the roster, you know, beingbrought in for a day to do work

(47:23):
for them, there is a lotof responsibility, you know, and a
lot of things can go wrong.You know. They have to worry about
people looking out information. You know, you have to worry about, you
know, guys fanboying over WWE superstars. You know, we're brought in there
to work, the same as everybodyelse, like, the same as the
guys building the ring, the sameas the people doing catering, the same

(47:45):
as the security guards that sit inthe hallways and make sure fans don't come
backstage. You know, everybody hasa part to play, you know.
So, I mean, you buildup a network of people throughout your wrestling
career, and then you hope thatsomebody can helpfully get you an opportunity like
that, and once ww begins totrust you as one of those people,
it's easier. It's easier for youto get that type of work because now

(48:07):
they know that you can do thejob and that you're going to do it
correctly and you're going to be aprofessional about it. Yeah, for sure.
So, Luke, like I mentionedat the top of the show,
at its earliest days, this podcast, OBW really kind of gave us,
gave us our start on getting guestsand wrestlers and all that we've had Aloe
and plenty of times. One ofour great friends of the show is our

(48:30):
guy Cal Hero, our Palcal.I think he's the most recurring guests that
we've had on the show. Ithink he's been on three times. And
I know that you guys, youknow, you guys are buddies, but
it seems like there's also been alittle bit of tension brewing between you two.
So can you just kind of giveus the lowdown on where you stand
with our Palcal? Right now?Well, if anybody wants to watch the
match. Cal and I actually justwrestled this past Thursday on OVW. It

(48:54):
was the main event. Twenty minutes. I put it on my YouTube.
It's gotten a great spawns so far, like over five thousand views, you
know, so that's good for us. And you know Cal, uh yeah,
I mean Cal is you know II Col's like the little brother,
you know. I feel like that'sthe part that he plays in all this

(49:16):
and you know, they wrestling hasso many, so many elements to it
that are that are real life.And you know, Cal's twenty two years
old. He's about to be twentytwo years old on Friday. Happy birthdays
now, right, He's birthday.Cal twenty two years old on Friday.
And you know, I'm gonna bethirty one this year. I'm still thirty.

(49:38):
I know, I said thirty one. I shouldn't have Yeah, but
i's I know, it's okay.I know it's okay. But you know
you're not trying to go to theWWE, right, So those days are
past me. Beat my wheaties.Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm still
eating my wheaties. You go,booom, there you go, there you

(50:01):
go. So, you know,Cal is like a little brother. You
know, he's going to be verysuccessful in professional wrestling. He has a
lot of time to do what hehas to do, and he's even at
that, he's accelerating at like anextremely good rate. He puts in all
the work. So I can respectCal for those things. Right, Whether
me and Cayl are friends is notthat big of a deal, Like we

(50:22):
don't need to be hanging out allthe time, Like we have a working
relationship. And that's kind of whatdrives our story together, is that,
you know, we're both pushing forthe same goal. But me personally,
where I'm at in my life,I've been through while Cal. Not to
diminish anything Cal has been through hislife, I've been through some very hard
experiences and those have translated well forme as a professional wrestler because this is

(50:46):
built on emotion and character, andI have been in some very very emotional
circumstances. I have been in morecharacter building moments than someone like Cal Hero.
So that's why on Thursday I wasable to pick up the win.
You know. But at the endof the day, we shook and we
hugged. I mean, we shookhands and we hugged after because you know,
we have a common foe, andme and Cal understand that while you

(51:08):
know, we may have to sortout our differences sometimes in scenarios like that,
at the end of the day,we're better off when we're together because
we can at least like respect eachother enough to you know, be there
for the other guy. I don'tknow, it's funny because I know you
guys had it was just on yourpage and Obw's page. You guys are

(51:30):
putting up the ring and that's whatyou got into an argument. Now,
I always just kind of thought itwas, you know, more or less
fascinating, you know, especially withObew's and when you're younger and kind of
paying your dues. And it don'tget me wrong, dude, you're still
young. Okay, we're still young. Yeah, you're still thirty years old
and ID you can still definitely beconsidered one of the bright young stars in

(51:51):
professional wrestling. But what is itlike when you're talking about paying your dues
and I go that it just cango for something like just setting up the
ring or help setting up cameras.What's it sort of feel likes to you
know, kind of be at yourplace after doing all that stuff. And
obviously you've been obw World Champion,you've been on WWE television a part of
their programming. But you know,everyone still finds uself paying the due,

(52:13):
setting up the ring, doing stuffbackstage. So what's that been more or
less like for you when still continuingto pay your dues? Wrestlings all about
like, you know, who didyou ever beat? So kind of what's
that what's that process been like foryou? I think when you get out
of the mindset of paying your dues, I think that's probably when your career
will start to backslide. I don'tknow if that's necessarily true, but I

(52:35):
feel like at whatever level you're atin wrestling, there's a due to be
paid. If you're the top guy, if you are the Cody Roads,
your due is to give back tothe guys like me that are trying to
be there, that are trying tofollow in your footsteps. And he does
that and that's why he's at thetop. You know, I myself,
I came from a working background.You know, my my father was an

(52:59):
AC mcchannic. My grandfather was ana city I was an HVAC mechanic.
I was a pipefitter welder for fiveyears. When I got out of high
school, I was yeah, yeah, I went through I went through some
hard times. Man. I endedup being an HVAC guy. I was
an apprentice, so I paid dues. I worked under a journeyman for five

(53:20):
years to learn how to weld,and I worked with my hands, and
you know, I busted my assfor a long time. And getting into
wrestling. The things that people thinkare difficult, like setting up a ring,
to me is like a minimal task. So I've always like tried to
keep the mindset of like, youknow, this is just a part of
what it is. It's my jobto lead people. If I'm going to

(53:40):
be a leader of these these newguys, these guys coming in, I
have to set the example. Andby being at the top of the company.
Now, I started at the bottomwhen I came in OVW. I
rose to the top of the company, and you know, I paid my
dues along the way. And nowthe new students that are there, I'm
in the position where I can setthe example for them and where the new
talent coming out of OVW will bebetter than the talent that has come out

(54:04):
of OVW prior, because now guyslike me and guys like Cal are setting
the example for them and showing themhow real professionals behave. Because this is
our company now and we're still payingour dues. We listen. I wrestled.
I wrestled in Omaha, Nebraska onSaturday. Cal I don't know what
he did. He might have beenwrestling somewhere else. OVW had to show

(54:28):
that Saturday Friday, the day priorwe wrestled. Me and Cal wrestled in
the main event twenty minutes Thursday night. On Friday, they asked people to
come to the school to load thering in the truck to take to the
show on Saturday. That neither Caland I were on right. There was
maybe five students from the school,Doug Bashelm and Calum, myself, not

(54:49):
one person from that show that's onOVW Television was at that helping put that
ring in the truck. Me andcal Load pretty much loaded the ring with
the student for the rest of theboys to go have that show on Saturday
that neither one of us were on. I went and wrestled in Nebraska.
I got paid, I wrestled,I sold good merch, I had a
twenty minute match. I'm moon sawedout of the ring. That video has

(55:12):
got two hundred and fifty thousands onTwitter right now. And I still help
those guys break down the ring afterthat show when other people did it.
And that's fine because I'm still payingmy because I have set a very high
bar for myself and this is notenough, you know, Like, I'm
not going to get in the mindsetof being comfortable that I've done enough in

(55:32):
my career to be successful and behappy because I haven't. Like, I'm
still very hungry and I want thesuccess that I see for myself that I
believe that I can have. SoI'm consistently pushing for that, and I'll
be paying my dues till the daythat the day that I'm out of this,
you know, And I know thatthat's just the type of person that

(55:52):
I am. Yeah, I feellike me and Austin can really relate to
that too, because you know,we both work in radio and really just
started from from the ground up,like we were the guys that were going
out there. And Austin still doesa lot of it too. I try
to help out when I can,you know, setting up our events and
all that and making sure it looksgood so that when the talent gets there
and all that, they're ready torock right. So definitely definitely can relate

(56:14):
to that, bro. So Iwant to talk about wrestlers for a second.
Obviously, wrestlers was such a big, a big thing for OBW.
Brought you guys into the mainstream,you know, kind of wrestling world,
whereas before, you know, manypeople outside of Louisville, Kentucky may have
not known about OBW that much.One of the classic moments in the whole

(56:35):
documentary, Obviously you weren't one ofthe main wrestlers I was featured in it,
but you still made you mark yourmarch in Al's office, the viral
moment of the of the whole documentarycutting that promo on him right there.
Can you just talk about you know, just that that whole experience. What
was what was your motivation? Whatwas kind of going through your mind when
that's going on? Yeah, thatthat is actually like such a story.

(56:57):
There's so much that goes into justthat one. It's really a big thing
for me. That's actually what Ihave pinned on my Twitter right now that
applied forever vpin There is me comingin and cutting that promo and that jump
started my career at OBW. Theywere on the fence at that time about
who was going to be like theRush champion, which was basically the cruiserweight

(57:21):
champion. I'd probably been at OBWfor a month or two and they were
teetering. I had the match withIsaiah and they were teetering on who was
going to become the champion. Thatpromo is what is the reason why I
won that championship. That was thefirst time that I had become really the
what certified Luke Curtis is now Iwear suits, you know, jewelry,

(57:45):
I dress flashy. That was likethe first evolution of that character. And
before that, I had the certifiedMoniker. But I'm gonna let you know
how like this works right now andhow it worked for me and I love
to tell this story. This isone of my favorite stories. Can tell
you know. I came to OVWand I was certified Luke Curtis. I

(58:07):
was wearing biker shorts and like aleather jacket. It was very much like
a pit pool, very aggressive inthe ring. And they liked me,
but they didn't they didn't know exactlywhat to do with me, where to
fit me in. And Doug Bashamwho is like our head coach and trainer
at OVW. While Al is likethe mind of everything, and Al teaches

(58:28):
us so much about you know,doing business and in wrestling, Doug is
the coach. He's the one that'sin the ring with us. So you
know, I Doug took me tothe gym one day and he said,
hey, man, you want tocome have a work out with me?
And I said, yeah, sure. Me and Doug have never worked out
together, you know. So I'mlike, okay, this is like some
wrestling stuff right here. This iscool. I'm going with like an old

(58:52):
former WW guy to hit the gym, an old school gym. And you
know, he told me like certified. He goes you have something there.
He's like it's awesome. He's like, but we have to find a way
to make it mean something. Andhe he he asked if I had ever
considered, like, you know,wearing trunks, and I said, yeah,

(59:12):
I started in trunks. And he'slike, have you ever thought about
wearing a robe? And I waslike, oh, man, I don't
know. He's like, I wantyou to like go back, and I
want you to like watch guys likeRick Flair and you know, I want
you to watch guys like Connor McGregortalk, and I want you to,
you know, find find who you'regonna be, you know. And he's

(59:35):
like kind of gave me a directionfor how to take this character. And
I got the robe made and everythingand all this and that, and then
I went to the store and Ibought a suit and I bought on this
jewelry and these glasses and I sentDug a picture and he said, he
said, get all this together,and then he said send me a picture
when you got it. So Isent him a picture and I'm in my

(59:55):
suit and the jewelry and the glassesand everything, and he's like, all
right, He's like, you lookgreat. He's like, now the last
thing you have to do is gocut a promo for AL. So I
was like, oh shit, man, I was like, I was that's
nerve wracking, right, He's like, yeah, you needed me to go
sell the character to him, youknow. And I didn't even know that

(01:00:19):
the cameras were in there for Netflix, you know. I just remember going
to TV that day and I wasthinking, like, I got to get
here early, you know, soI can cut this promo on AL.
And yeah, I just walked inthere and I and I cut the promo
and I slammed my hand on thetable and I walked out, and I
was trying to like what me thewhole time, and yeah, I remember

(01:00:40):
walking out. I was so nervousthat I was like, I was like
walking out, like, oh mygod. That was crazy, like such
a drilling rush. But I wasproud of myself, you know, and
that helped set me off to whereI I you know, I won the
Rush Championship, and then the nextweek I introduced like the robe and that
was like the new evolution of certifiedCurtis. And then I won the Rush

(01:01:00):
Championship you know, four times.And then I you know, won the
Tag Championship, and then I wonthe Nightmare rumble who I threw out Calba
Win. I won the Nightmare Rumble, and you know, I started to
become organically like, since we're I'mgonna use the wrestling term, since we're

(01:01:21):
on the baby Faces podcast, Istarted to organically become one of the babyfaces
of ov W. And it waslike I started to realize that I didn't
have to be like a Rick Flairor any of these guys that had war
robes prior, just because Rick Flairhad always defined a wrestler maybe as a
heel in a robe, Like Ijust have to be myself in the robe,

(01:01:45):
you know, like Rocky war robeto the ring and he was a
babyface, right, Muhammad Ali allthese guys, and I'm like, you
know, I just need to bemyself in this. So I realized that
I can. I can be myself, I can wear robes, I can
be he certified. And I reallytruly believe that, like every dollar that

(01:02:06):
I make like today in wrestling islike I owe it to Doug Vashon,
you know, because it's not likeit's not jobs out, it's not our's
job to like tell me things likethat, you know, and it's not
really Doug's job either, like it'smy job to present something, but Doug
as the coach, like he reallypulled me to the side. He sparked
me up to something, and hetold me like I believe that, you

(01:02:29):
know, I could have told anybodythis, but I believe that you can
do it, you know. AndI'll never forget that that he believed that,
Like when he told me, thisis how you need to go with
with certified, you know, hebelieved in me. So now I take
that and I believe in myself andI don't want to let him down,
you know, like as my coach. Like that's real life right there.
And and yeah, that's how thatpromo happened. And it was a great

(01:02:52):
moment. That's I'm very glad thatthat was captured, you know, and
I'm able to tell the story.Yeah, So you didn't even know that
the cameras were in there. Ihad no idea because they were talked away
in the corner. I was officelike stretches out to the right. So
I walked in there like later focus, you know. I was like like
I had nothing on my mind,but what I wanted to say to him,

(01:03:14):
and I didn't know he was goingto be trying to cut me off
the whole time. So and thenthe beauty of like this is like I've
taken this and I've passed this littlebit of knowledge on and I learned from
this experience like that when you wantsomething in wrestling, you cut a promo,
you know. And I've cut promoson I'm not going to even say
their names, by cut promo onsome really high top people, like in

(01:03:37):
the high companies, just being ballsyand like walking up and being like,
hey, this is who I amand cutting a promo on them, you
know, because I learned that whenyou want something in wrestling, you promo.
And I've given that to another studentin OVW and he's promoted on AL
and gotten a huge role on television, and it's helped really boost him up
out of like just right out ofthe academy, you know. So it's

(01:03:59):
you know, it's passing on theknowledge and giving back. Yeah, that's
awesome. Right. If the promowasn't good in itself, which it was,
Al's reaction just added to it too. They were like what was that
all about? He's like fucking findthat he really had no idea he had
no idea what that was about,but it realized after. I feel like

(01:04:23):
it's just the perfect like look forfor us as fans into like what it
looks like in a wrestling locker room, just like you know, crazy personalities
and egos walking around cutting promos oneach other. I was just sitting there
like, Okay, he's like,what the fuck happening? I think?
And it's honestly, you can almostequate it as like, let's just say,

(01:04:45):
like when you're dating or trying togo meet a girl early, you're
just out there at the club,it's more or less like not what you
say, but the confidence of walkingin there and say it. It's just
really kind of just selling yourself andsaying, hey, this is who I
am, and just let that personthat you're trying to impress be like,
oh my god, that just tooka lot for him to come in and
do that, because you can easilyon your easily kind of fall flat on
your face. Not certified Luke Curtisbecause he's chrisped everything he does, but

(01:05:09):
I'm just saying just anybody that couldjust walk in there and try to say
something and can stumble on their wordsand that was just like a one take
thing, and that seemed to likelike like Billy even mentioned that was one
of like the one of the bettermoments of Wrestlers, which is an awesome
documentary. If no one's you know, got to check that out and can
still check that out on a Netflix, maybe you can kind of peel back

(01:05:29):
the curtain for us right now.Is there any talks of the Wrestlers too
coming out or well do you knowabout that? Well, I mean we're
not sure for now. Basically,Like you know, if you look at
like you know, Greg Greg Whiteley, who directed our show, like he's
got a lot of projects and likehe's got things that he's working on right

(01:05:50):
now, and you saw like theDallas Cowboys Cheerleaders documentary just came out,
so like he has a lot ofshows now that like he can revisit probably
any point, but like you know, even like cheer and Last Chance You
and Wrestlers and all these shows arejust like in a holding pattern because he's
got a lot of work on hisplate, you know, So like,

(01:06:10):
I it could happen. I don'tthink it's gonna necessarily happen right now,
but could it happened next year.I don't know, maybe you know,
like it's just a matter of youknow, if Greg decides to come back
and invest his time and his effortinto that. So I think it is
very much a real possibility, butwe don't know for sure right now,
Like we're not focused on necessarily thatper se. That would be amazing,

(01:06:33):
but I know OBW has like afew other things that they're working on to
hopefully like boost the company higher,So like we'll see if we can,
if we can deliver, we definitelyI'll go for it. Billy my bad.
I was just saying, we definitelyhope. So, you know,
because like there there were only acertain amount of wrestlers that could be featured

(01:06:53):
on a season, right the HaileyJays, the cash Flows and and all
them did a great job. Butthere's also so so much more in the
locker room that we want to seeof, you know, certified Blue Curtis
and our guy cal Hero and themany other great talent in OVW. So
I feel like there's definitely, youknow, some meat on the bund there
to do a season two. Sooh yeah, absolutely, Oh there's so

(01:07:14):
many stories to be told. Imean, my story hasn't even been told
on a platform like that, andyou know I haven't. I have an
awesome story to tell, you know. So I mean, yeah, like
I've been through so much in mylife, you know, to be here
today as amazing, you know,it really is. So I definitely think
there's there's definitely a lot of stuffthey could come back and OVW is a

(01:07:34):
whole different company now. So yeah, and they know that. I mean
they keep up with us, theyfollow us, they watch us like they
haven't like scorned us forever. Likeyou know, they all were in contact
with all of those people. Youknow, they're like a big family.
Yeah, everybody. I feel likethat's been a part of one of his
projects. We support each other.I follow people from cheer I follow people
from the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders. DallasCowboy cheer leaders follow me, you know,

(01:07:57):
like y it is. We're allpart of like a bigamily for the
most part because we're under like youknow, I feel like the Greg Whiteley
umbrella. Well, I mean wecould talk about it and you just said
there's a lot of meat on thebone for that. I mean you have
people like a cash Flow who gotpicked up it Robert it was Robert de
Niro, right, who he justgot picked up by somebody to go do

(01:08:25):
Sylvester salone. Why do I getthese Italians mixed up? My bad?
And then of course you go on, like you said, you go on
to win the Rush Division Champion.You eventually go on to win the OBW
Heavyweight Champion, and then of courseand great fashion got cheated out of that
victory. So you've been at thetop of the mountain and you won the
cruiserweight titles, you won the OBWWorld Hand Championship, one of the most

(01:08:49):
prestigious unsung championships that there is inall the wrestling. Think about all the
many greats that have held that title. You can now add yourself on to
that list. So we talked aboutbeing at the top and then regardless or
not, you got cheated out,You're lost, you got jumped. What's
it, what's it take to kindof get back to that mountain top and
what is certified? Luke curtis gonnabe back on top? Well, I

(01:09:14):
have a contract signing on Thursday tomorrowwith EC three for the OVW National Championships.
So obviously, like there's like apretty storied like timeline with me and
EC three. We started out asa group together with the faction. He
came in. I worked under him, I've tagged with him. I tagged

(01:09:35):
with him at Blizzard Brawl against AlSnow and Doug Basham Like. I've done
a lot of great things with him. And then I faced him for the
NWA Championship and you know, likethe highest viewed match on my YouTube,
it has like over thirty thousand views. You know, we really you know,
he was he was a shoulder upbetter than me that night. But

(01:09:58):
you know, uh, I reallywould like to beat that guy. So
we have a contract signing on Thursday. We have our pay per view on
Saturday. It's going to be meversus e C three. I believe that
I'll have Doug bash Him by myside, so you know, I got
coach with me. So yeah,man, I'm ready to win the ov

(01:10:23):
W National Championship and beat the nw A World champion and I want to
say that, so oh that wouldbe awesome. It's going it's going to
be awesome. It's gonna be awesome. I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna kick
his ass. Yeah. EC threeknows I haven't seen him in a while.
He's been, you know, touringall over the world doing some pretty

(01:10:45):
cool things. He's been in Japanholding up the ov W national title in
Japan. So I'm ready for himto come back and give it to me.
He knows his time, he knowsthat time is tick, and he's
trying to get that. He's tryingto carry that everywhere he can. He
knows time. I'm close. Yeah, yeah, So yeah, it's coming
on Saturday, so awesome. Yeah. We always cool for our our friends

(01:11:05):
of the show, and you areofficially a Babyfaces guy. Now we appreciate
you. Right, you got someof your stories, yeah, we yeah,
get your shirt. We still gotCalis shirt though. So I don't
know has been on the back fora while. It'll be he's been on
three times. I know it'll betwo more times, right exactly. Uh,

(01:11:27):
but you got any like you gotpro wrestling teas or so social media
anything you want to tag to getour listeners. So to give you a
follow up, I mean, yeah, I have pro wrestling teas certified Louke
Curtis. I you can buy merchfor me at a show if I haven't
a or you can uh subscribe tomy YouTube. Just YouTube certified Louke Curtis.

(01:11:48):
Watch a match the best thing thatyou can do. I have all
my matches on there, me versusEC three. I got some great matches.
Uh. You can follow me onTwitter. It's certified Luke K because
Twitter doesn't let me use as manywords. Certified luke k altogether. Instagram

(01:12:08):
is certified Luke Curtis. My Facebookpage is Luke Curtis. Seeing me there
holding the tidle like, ah yeah. Just follow me on social media.
Hit me up if you want tobuy some merger or something I don't know,
and uh yeah, catch me outa show and we're gonna do some

(01:12:28):
great things. Man. We're justwe're just plugging away one day at a
time. I'm always improving myself,you know, That's what I'm always working
on. So I'm just trying tobuild myself into a product that you know,
people can believe in and get behind. And I think we're on the
right path. So if you stickwith me, I'm going to show you
guys that you know, I'm gonnado some some great things in wrestling awesome.
Well yeah, check out OBW atDavis Arena tomorrow. If you're in

(01:12:51):
the Woisville area. Unfortunately, Idon't live in Louisville anymore, but I'll
still be up there down there nowand then. But me and got to
get out to a show here,so yeah, and not too. Watch
ov W every Thursday, seven pmon YouTube, Thriller, Facebook, whatever
you want. Yeah, I'm almostalways out there doing some awesome stuff.

(01:13:12):
So yeah, watch ov W.That is a platform that I am almost
featured on right now. And yeah, we'll see next time you get on
the show. We're gonna have We'vealready had the w W champion on our
show. We've already had social mediachampion OVW on our show. We've had
tag champions on our show. We'veeven had the NWA World Heavyweight Champion.

(01:13:35):
Next time we have you on theshow, we're definitely looking forward to having
that champion on yours to national championship. It's gonna look great around your waist
and that robe and those trunks.Are you kidding me, baby faces that
we need that and we're rooting foryou? Yes, yes, I appreciate
it. Thank you guys. Yeah, sir, we'll have a good one.

(01:13:56):
We'll talk soon. Man, Yep, what's up? Guys, it's
certified Luke Curtis, and you arelistening to the baby Faces on iHeartRadio.