Dickie V Talking Final 4, WWE Champ Cody Rhodes, Fyre Fest And We Put The Pieces Back Together After April Fools

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Speaker 2 Sebastian Maniscalco's new stand-up special, It Ain't Right, is coming to Hulu on November 21st.

Speaker 1 30 years ago, Jeff Bezos, complete nerd. Bezos now ripped to shreds on his super yacht, and the boxes keep coming.

Speaker 2 Sebastian Manascalco, It Ain't Right. Premieres November 21st, streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus for bundle subscribers.

Speaker 1 Terms apply.

Speaker 1 On today's part in my take, we have a two for the people. We have Dickie V on the show talking final four.

Speaker 1 We only had him for about 15 minutes because his voice, he's still working it back, but it was have to have Dickie V on when offered. And then we have WWE champion Cody Rhodes in studio.

Speaker 1 Really awesome interview. He's a cool, cool guy.
So we had a lot of fun talking to him. We're going to talk some Final Four.

Speaker 1 Where the hell is Aaron Rodgers going to play football next year?

Speaker 3 When Cool Creamy Ranch meets tangy, bold Buffalo, the whole is greater than the sum of its sauce. Say howdy, partner, to new Buffalo Ranch sauce, only at McDonald's for a limited time.

Speaker 4 At participating, McDonald's.

Speaker 1 Okay, let's go.

Speaker 1 Welcome to Part of My Take presented by DraftKings. Bet the Unexpected with DraftKings Sportsbook.
Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app and use code TAKE. That's code TAKE.

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Today is Friday, April 4th,

Speaker 1 and then there were four.

Speaker 1 March Madness comes down to San Anton. Do you say San Antonio or San Antonio?

Speaker 5 You can say San Antonio if you want to sound like you're selling salsa.

Speaker 1 San Anton.

Speaker 1 I realize, too, Charles Barkley having to do live shows in San Antonio is great.

Speaker 5 Listen, Charles Barkley, when he's talking about the big old women, don't act like Charles doesn't sneak a peek. Yeah, San Antonio.
Who amongst us doesn't?

Speaker 1 So, we have it. We're ready.
Duke, Houston, Auburn, Florida. This will be,

Speaker 1 it is the best Final Four, I think, ever, just if you're looking at statistics.

Speaker 5 I have to tell myself that. Yeah.
I have to tell myself that this weekend is going to be the best weekend of college basketball of my life.

Speaker 1 Every single team in this Final Four, any other year, is probably a champion. Without, you know what I mean? Without this type of competition.
That's how good they all are.

Speaker 1 And I have been saying for a month and a half now that it is Duke's year, and I do fully think that.

Speaker 1 They feel like even though it's a loaded Final Four, they feel a little step ahead. But I'm excited to watch the games.

Speaker 1 I will not be rooting for Duke, but I am also resigned to the fact they will probably win.

Speaker 5 If Duke doesn't lose, you talk about an all-time wasted meme from the White Lotus, right? I know. Like, it feels like that has to be used at some point.
Yeah.

Speaker 5 It would be a real shame if it wasn't. I do find myself also rooting for Duke because they're fun to root for.

Speaker 1 Well, I'm not rooting for Duke.

Speaker 5 But then, well, I find myself myself enjoying it because they're fun to watch. But also, then I think about what would those crying faces look like? And they would be some good crying faces.

Speaker 1 Really good crying faces.

Speaker 5 And you get crying moms that you've seen.

Speaker 1 I think Con Nipple might be a good cry.

Speaker 5 He would be a great cry. That's what I'm focused on: is like the cheeks would get extra red.

Speaker 5 It would be a solid cry. So I'm going to be rooting for the Coogs.

Speaker 5 But I do think that Duke is going to win.

Speaker 1 By the way, side tangent, should we do a finale review of White Lotus next week? Because I have a lot of thoughts on this show, and it's starting to piss me off.

Speaker 1 Should we do that? I think we could. Yeah.
You want everyone watching?

Speaker 6 Watch just the finale? Yeah.

Speaker 1 Yes. Okay.
Yes. No spoilers.

Speaker 1 But yeah, watch just the finale. Hank has not watched any of White Lotus.
The finale is Sunday night.

Speaker 6 I've watched two episodes of season one, but I'm told it doesn't matter. Or they're not related.
They are

Speaker 1 one little tiny. There's a thread.

Speaker 5 One thread. See if you can pick up on the thread.
Okay. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah,

Speaker 1 watch the first episode of season one, the first episode of season two, and then the finale of season three and see if you can figure out.

Speaker 5 I just keep thinking to myself, like, this is the place that Cliff Kingsbury bought a one-way ticket to. Oh, yeah, that's right.

Speaker 1 Remember that? I forgot about that.

Speaker 5 I think that's the horniest move that an adult male can do is to buy a one-way ticket to Thailand. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah. I would say so.
And always back. Yeah.
Horniest and weirdest. Yeah.
Yeah. I mean, we know from

Speaker 1 what's Sam Rockwell's character. Yes.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Which.

Speaker 1 I got a lot of things. We'll save it for the recap.
I just, yeah. yeah.

Speaker 1 The Greg Gary guy pisses me off. Yeah.
He just

Speaker 1 keeps staying at White Lotus's. It's fucking crazy.
He loves it.

Speaker 5 He loves it. Like, dude, go to a different place.

Speaker 1 Go to any hotel anywhere in the world. Yep.
Just keeps going to White Lotus's. But yeah, basketball.
Yeah, basketball.

Speaker 5 Pump for the final four. I don't know what to expect in Auburn, Florida.
I can't, I've closed my eyes. I've tried to visualize this game.
Basically, if Clayton is hot, Florida wins.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I'm curious to see what Florida's going to do because Condon's a really, really good defender, and I think they might just be like, hey, look,

Speaker 1 we're going to let Broome do what he does. And if he scores, you know, in the post, that will be fine.
We can't let

Speaker 1 their guards, Denver Jones and Pettiford, just go crazy.

Speaker 1 But both these games are going to be great. I'm very excited.
I think they're going to deliver. I think we're going to get two close games.

Speaker 1 Because I keep going back to like the Florida Auburn to me is a complete

Speaker 1 toss-up because I just both those teams are battle-tested. Auburn was the best team for

Speaker 1 29 games of the regular season. Obviously, the end weren't as good, but they found their footing.
Florida was probably the hottest team going down the stretch. Houston Duke, my only

Speaker 1 hope as someone who does not like Duke, is that Houston has man strength that Duke's not ready for. But I know that's also not true because Cooper Flag's so good.
Malowak is so good.

Speaker 1 Proctor's so good. Like, Nipple is so good.
So, they're, and by the way, I know that I'm not saying his name right, but I'm calling him Nipple because that's just what we're doing.

Speaker 5 It's way more fun to say.

Speaker 1 It's so much more fun.

Speaker 5 Yeah, you might be right.

Speaker 5 I don't know. Houston is a lot older.

Speaker 5 I do think that makes somewhat of a difference at that age. Yeah.

Speaker 1 The only problem is Duke is like so, Duke is so fundamentally sound in every like portion of the game that like Houston, the way Houston wins these games a lot of times is, you know, they are not the best shooting team, but they get so many offensive rebounds, and then Duke is just going to get all the defensive rebounds because Duke is just fundamentally sound.

Speaker 1 So, it's like all those Houston, Houston's, Calvin Samson's Houston, always has that calculation where they're like, we don't have to shoot great because we'll just keep shooting and we'll get 15 more shots than the other team.

Speaker 5 They shot pretty good last week.

Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 Hank, do you have any thoughts?

Speaker 4 Are you rooting for Duke?

Speaker 6 I'm rooting for Houston. I have a Houston future that I put in after the Eagles won the Super Bowl.
So I have Houston straight up. I think it's 9-1.

Speaker 6 And then I have a natural parlay of Trey Young to win Clutch Player of the Year and Houston to make the Final Four. I just said, you know, hand in hand.
Like, obviously

Speaker 1 you would parlay those things.

Speaker 5 Naturally, you had to also parlay Trey Young.

Speaker 6 Yeah, like if you're going to bet Trey Young to win Clutch Player of the Year, you have to win. You have to also bet Houston to make the Final Four.

Speaker 5 What were the odds? How do you go about setting the odds for Clutch Player of the Year?

Speaker 6 I just asked Stephen Shea. It was right after the Eagles won, and I'm like, Stephen, I just want a bunch of money.

Speaker 6 I want to basically invest in some futures is how I think about it, like store some money away. And he gave me some very Stephen Che analytical answer about how Trey Young is

Speaker 6 definitely going to win Clutch Player of the Year. This was in February.
It's not looking great right now. Yeah.

Speaker 6 So, and I guess he missed like three shots in the last two minutes last night, including the game winner. That could have been it.

Speaker 5 Yeah.

Speaker 6 So that's an issue, but I also have Houston straight up to win the championship. This was before the tournament.

Speaker 5 Maybe get a cash out?

Speaker 1 Well, I don't think you can. Stephen Che also, I unfortunately sat down in the gambling cave two days ago and

Speaker 1 sell blue call. Oh, yeah,

Speaker 1 it was sell blue call, and they were just talking about it. And so now I am rooting for

Speaker 1 Anthony Edwards to win Clutch Player of the Year.

Speaker 5 Just to go against Stephen Che.

Speaker 1 No, no, no, which I would understand. No, he said it's incredible value.
He made me bet. I bet it.
I have Anthony Edwards to win Clutch Player of the Year. Such a made-up award.
Yeah.

Speaker 5 Is that bet still open? Can I bet? Yes, yes.

Speaker 6 Jalen Brunson is minus 170 right now, but he's hurt and there's a chance he doesn't meet the

Speaker 6 game requirements.

Speaker 5 The game required the clutch player of the year. Jokic is going to win.

Speaker 6 He's plus 190. Trey Young's plus 550 and that's dropped significantly.
Like it used to. He was plus 190 for a while.

Speaker 1 And Anthony Edwards was like 50 to 1, and Stephen Shea thinks that they just decided on who scores the most clutch points. And Anthony Edwards is only four points behind in the clutch points scored.

Speaker 6 The most ridiculous award of all time.

Speaker 6 And it was also Steven being like, Stephen, what should I, you know, I need a good, good future? He goes, oh, Trey Young, clutch player of the year.

Speaker 1 What the fuck is that?

Speaker 5 Yeah, a fictional award, but he's got a hot feeling for it. There should be an opposite award.
Least clutch player of the year. Yeah.

Speaker 1 I did like J.J. Reddit.
Did you guys see him just trashing the awards? Yeah. I liked that.

Speaker 1 The most improved player, he's like, this is the dumbest award because it's just a lottery pick who finally got good. Yeah.

Speaker 5 A good player that figured out how to play good in the NBA.

Speaker 1 Yeah, good, better. And he was just like, yeah, none of my guys are going to win, so why would I talk about it? Yeah.

Speaker 5 There's also John Morant being investigated again. Yeah.

Speaker 5 The NBA has launched an investigation against John Morant, and I believe Buddy Healed, too, for simulating a gun, which I think this is progress. Yeah.

Speaker 5 This should be celebrated, the fact that John Morant is now not holding a gun.

Speaker 1 Yeah. It was an assault rifle, it looked like.
I don't know if you watched it.

Speaker 5 But I did see it. Yeah.
He did do the two hands. Could have been a shotgun.
Could have been a shotgun. It could have been a sporting gun.

Speaker 6 It also could have been one of those like.

Speaker 5 Super soaker.

Speaker 1 spearfishing guns.

Speaker 6 Spearfishing guns. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Also, Draymond, kind of a snitch.

Speaker 1 Huge snitch. Yeah, just immediately was like, did you see that gun? So, he's going to win Defensive Player of the Year.
That's crazy. Who? Draymond.
Yeah.

Speaker 6 Heavy favorite.

Speaker 5 I just make up your mind, NBA. Do you want John Morant to hold a gun or do you want him to not hold a gun? Because that's all I saw last night was him not holding a gun.

Speaker 1 He was not holding a gun. He was simulating it.

Speaker 5 His hands were empty.

Speaker 1 We also taped early on Tuesday, so we missed Russell Westbrook ruined Jokic's maybe greatest game ever, where he scored 61, had 10 rebounds, 10 assists, and then full Westbrook at the end of the game, missing a layup, which he didn't need to take.

Speaker 1 Well, he was and then following a three-point shooter with no time left.

Speaker 5 He also did the

Speaker 5 Russell Westbrook thing where he just decided to go full speed, like down the court. He's like, I'm going to sprint.

Speaker 5 I'm going to get as fast as I can, then misses it, and then comes back and blows it again. It was a great game, though.
It was a great game.

Speaker 1 It was a great game. And Hank, I feel like the Celtics gave up on the one seed, kind of following what you said, because didn't they sit players?

Speaker 6 They haven't worried about the one seed. The one seed's been

Speaker 6 over for months. Yeah, there's no, there was never really a path.
Yeah. The Cavs would have had to have gone on an insane losing streak.

Speaker 5 Things do look pretty bad for Mr. Bing Bowen, too, for Jerry, for his Knicks.

Speaker 1 Don't even bring that up.

Speaker 5 It just feels, it feels every time they play one of the two teams they're going to have to play, they get their ass kicked. Yes.

Speaker 4 Your Knicks.

Speaker 5 Oh, I cashed out. Oh.

Speaker 5 I bet on Knicks to win the NBA Finals, and I think it was less than a week later.

Speaker 6 The Celtics 40-pieced them.

Speaker 5 But

Speaker 5 I think it was the Cavs. I think they lost to the Cavs, and I was like, fuck this.

Speaker 5 I'm not going to just spend my money.

Speaker 1 Hank, let me ask you a question because you're not worried about the Cavs. Are you worried about the Thunder? Because the Thunder are really fucking good.

Speaker 4 No. Too young?

Speaker 1 Well, actually,

Speaker 6 if the Celtics are healthy, they can beat anyone.

Speaker 1 The Thunder are really fucking good. The Thunder are a good team.
They're really good. And they can do everything.

Speaker 6 But they don't have the experience.

Speaker 6 and i think even if both teams are fully healthy and playing their a games the celtics still win i don't know man watching the thunder they're just i mean they're just

Speaker 1 they have the mvp what you don't think so max

Speaker 7 no i think hank is acting way too confident oh yeah yeah yeah i would agree they're 64 and 12 and they their defense is really good defending champions okay yeah but how often do the defending champions win again yeah it was a year ago i mean it's happened recently you're acting like because you're the you're the defending champions, that it's just automatic.

Speaker 1 Well, it's like, yeah, you're going to win again.

Speaker 6 No, it's not automatic, but it's like I'm not going to worry.

Speaker 5 Hey, Max, are you worried about winning the Super Bowl next year? Yeah, of course. Exactly.
You should be because

Speaker 1 league streams.

Speaker 5 Max knows ball. That was smart.

Speaker 6 But if they had the same exact team, more or less, then I feel like he'd be like, we won the Super Bowl with this team. We can win the Super Bowl again.

Speaker 7 But you also didn't play the, like, you're playing different teams.

Speaker 1 Who said that? And you were going to advance?

Speaker 7 Who said you're going to advance?

Speaker 1 True. We're going to get.
I mean, NBA. What are we? We're like

Speaker 1 two weeks? No, but the play-in games are coming up.

Speaker 6 I think, yeah, there's two more weeks of regular season.

Speaker 1 Way to go, Jerry Reinsorf. The Bulls officially clinched a play-in game.

Speaker 1 So that's all he wanted.

Speaker 5 Love that for you. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Just end. Hang the banner.
Every year. It's 38 wins and a loss in the play-in game.

Speaker 1 That's fucking so sick. That's how you build a team.

Speaker 5 But you had an exciting march. Yeah.

Speaker 1 You know what's fun about having an exciting march in the NBA? March NBA does not fucking matter because half the teams are not even trying. Yep.

Speaker 1 So when you say, oh man, look at this team so hot in March, turns out that's all fool's gold.

Speaker 5 January, February, Bulls.

Speaker 1 Fake, fake-ass month. It's like if you look at the NBA any given night, I mean, there's the clear tanking teams, but then there's also teams that are like, we're going to just take this night off.

Speaker 1 And then so if you start playing well in March, you're just a fake team. That's really what it comes down to.
Yeah. Unless you obviously were already a good team and you just keep rolling.

Speaker 1 But any team that's like, wow, man, they're coming on strong in March, fake.

Speaker 5 And any team that's like, oh, we took a nosedive in March, it's like, well, you did that intentionally for probably a smart reason. Right.
Like the Sixers. Right.

Speaker 1 And just like, oh, oh, wow, you beat a bunch of teams that aren't trying to win, that are actively trying to lose and get better draft position must must be really close to winning something big.

Speaker 5 Max, can you sim the lottery one time? Oh, yeah, I like this. Give us one sim.

Speaker 1 There we go oh no no you just there we go

Speaker 1 i saw the wizards logo i saw the butthole basketball

Speaker 1 sixers getting the first pick it's fine they're not allowed to have it oh my gosh

Speaker 5 this one for pug i can't believe you why did you celebrate the wizards logo was the last one that i saw and i thought it stuck sixth that'd be a nightmare i you got six i gotta be honest i'm really i'm terrible at tankathon at the simulator i i can never get it like statistically i should get it once every what eight times seven times?

Speaker 5 Every morning, I wake up, I go to tankathon, and I simulate it probably 20 times until it happens. I'm no good at it.

Speaker 1 Hank, are you kind of sneaky rooting for the Sixers to get Cooper flag just so you can get Max off the mat when it comes to basketball?

Speaker 1 No. Okay.
Okay. Wait, what? I was just wondering.

Speaker 7 What do you mean, off the mat?

Speaker 1 Like, you've just been dead.

Speaker 7 Oh, no, I'm actively rooting for the Sixers to lose.

Speaker 6 Well, yeah, what I'm saying, though, is like, you know, if you get Cooper Flag, you'll have to come back, and then when we beat you, it'll be.

Speaker 1 Right, and Joe Embiid is probably never going to play basketball again. And so, like,

Speaker 1 you're going to be heading back into a deep process. And if you get Cooper Flag, you could be out of the process pretty quickly.

Speaker 6 But it doesn't matter if they have

Speaker 6 an all-world talent on their team, they're still going to lose.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 5 Why is that?

Speaker 1 They're the Sixers.

Speaker 5 They are the Sixers. He's cocky, Hank.
Yeah, he is.

Speaker 1 He is feeling himself, Hank.

Speaker 1 Big time.

Speaker 1 Big time. Did you guys see Anthony Edwards also just paid for his entire child support at once?

Speaker 5 Respect.

Speaker 1 Wild. Lump sum.

Speaker 5 She took the lump sum.

Speaker 1 She took the lump sum. It was like $1 million.

Speaker 1 Yeah. For the next 18 years.

Speaker 5 You see what Elon paid that girl, Ashley? No. He paid her 2.5 mil up front and then 500 grand a year.
Whoa. It's a pretty good.
That's a great job.

Speaker 1 Damn. Rocket baby.
Rocket baby. What's that noise?

Speaker 6 I just texted you. They're building the mini golf.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 No. They're building the mini golf.

Speaker 5 That's Max Farting.

Speaker 1 We got Masters next week. Ooh.
I'm excited.

Speaker 5 Very excited.

Speaker 1 Some great sports coming up.

Speaker 5 I got to download the Masters app.

Speaker 5 It is the greatest piece of technology to ever exist.

Speaker 1 It's a great feeling.

Speaker 6 They're doing

Speaker 6 stats from the range.

Speaker 5 Yeah, I know you can watch every single range shot.

Speaker 1 Getting really clued.

Speaker 6 Insane amount of data.

Speaker 5 Yeah, the Sickos are going to love this.

Speaker 6 The gambling sickos of golf that are like, well, his range session, he was a little bit all over the place.

Speaker 6 It's too much information.

Speaker 1 Paralysis by analysis.

Speaker 6 It's exciting to see. I'm excited to see how people overanalyze range sessions.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Yeah.
All right.

Speaker 1 We got to pick our final four teams because we got a little competition we're going to do.

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Speaker 1 All right, the other thing we're also brought to you by DraftKings.

Speaker 1 DraftKings, the finals for March Mania are here, and the only thing for sure, it's the last time to bet on college basketball this season.

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Speaker 1 So all customers, a no-sweat parlay every day for the final games of the season. How does it work? Opt-in, place a bet on any eligible parlay.

Speaker 1 If your bet doesn't hit, you'll get a bonus bet back in the amount of your original bet. Okay, so we have to pick teams, right, Max? How are we doing this? What's the order? What's the draft order?

Speaker 7 We got to figure out an order.

Speaker 1 So we get, so we're picking a team in the final four, and we get money line. We're picking money line, and then it's a rollover, so it's going to be with DraftKings.
We're picking our teams.

Speaker 1 So if you bet Duke, and then you obviously, $1,000 would win you $600. I'll pull it up right now.

Speaker 7 Let's do a lotto ball to figure out the order, and then we'll go in

Speaker 7 an order. We can go 0 to 25, 25 to 50, 50 to 75.

Speaker 1 That's fair. Okay, I like that.

Speaker 6 I'll take three.

Speaker 7 And then we'll just go in

Speaker 1 clockwise. Okay.

Speaker 1 Hank, you have 0 to 25. Max, you have 25 to 35.
Specifically three.

Speaker 5 You have 51 to 75.

Speaker 1 And then I have 76 to 99. Or 100.
Or 44.

Speaker 1 I hope it's three. I really hope it's three.

Speaker 1 39. That's Max.

Speaker 4 So that's me.

Speaker 7 So I get first one.

Speaker 5 Can we go clockwise?

Speaker 1 Counter.

Speaker 1 Always go counter. What? What?

Speaker 7 We never go counter.

Speaker 7 My first pick will be.

Speaker 7 Oh, it's your only pick. Yeah.
Yes. But my first overall pick will be Auburn at plus 130.

Speaker 7 So that would be 1,000 would be $1,300. So I would get a $1,300 bonus bet.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 1 I will go Florida. Oh.
Okay. So if you're not going to be able to get the first pick's still there.

Speaker 7 That's minus 155. You'll get 16.45.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah. I'll take Houston.
Longest odds.

Speaker 1 You're a piece of shit. I mean, what? Did you? I don't know why they didn't take Houston.

Speaker 7 That's plus 220.

Speaker 1 I know, but it's free bets.

Speaker 5 I just wanted to fade Max.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 7 Well, I just like Auburn.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 1 I like Houston.

Speaker 6 Can I take a Crown game? Nope. You're taking Duke.

Speaker 1 Yeah, you have to. You can't.
You actually

Speaker 1 cannot. You love Duke.

Speaker 7 The fall from Grace with Hank and Duke is crazy. Duke was also minus 27.

Speaker 5 Where did Duke touch you?

Speaker 6 No, I'm just kidding. I'll take that.

Speaker 1 It's when Coach Kay died.

Speaker 5 Yeah, it's sad.

Speaker 1 That was the death of Dookie Hank.

Speaker 5 You were a fan of a coach. Imagine that.

Speaker 6 That's not true. It's more just like, again, I've talked about it.

Speaker 1 You and him are a lot alike. I'll talk to you.
You are a rider.

Speaker 1 My dad,

Speaker 6 chances of him watching this game are low.

Speaker 1 So it's like, what? Well, now you just called him out. Yeah.
You better watch the game, Mr. Lockwood.
Yeah.

Speaker 6 If it's the early game, it probably will. He'll be listening.

Speaker 1 No, it's the late game.

Speaker 7 It's the late game.

Speaker 1 They already have the schedule out, Hank. You're like,

Speaker 1 as if that.

Speaker 1 Well, I didn't look at what

Speaker 1 games.

Speaker 6 It's the only time they play at.

Speaker 1 You don't think I'll watch? I actually kind of like that, Hank.

Speaker 1 I might start taking that strategy when it's like the tournament or like maybe even NBA and NHL playoffs, just not looking at the schedule and just being surprised with whatever game's on.

Speaker 1 Well, you know, it was. Oh, shit.
That's cool. This game's on now.

Speaker 5 Yeah, that's how I'm with networks. Yeah.
Like, I always wait till the last second to find out what network a game is on.

Speaker 6 No, my dad, shout out to my dad. But he'll probably wake up at like 4 a.m.
Sunday and check the score.

Speaker 1 Got it. Early riser? Early riser.
Early riser. I got a question for you guys.

Speaker 1 Does Shohei Otani have aura? Because I think he has maximum aura.

Speaker 5 I mean, he hit a walk-off home run on Bobblehead night.

Speaker 1 And if you watch that clip, so the Dodgers have not lost. The Braves have not won.
They were tied 5-5 in the bottom of the ninth. Shohei comes up.
The fucking place goes electric for his entrance.

Speaker 1 First pitch, home run.

Speaker 1 Just, he doesn't change anything about his expression, swing, anything. It's just business as usual.

Speaker 1 I think Shohei Otani has reached the next level of superstar to where he just has the most aura in the game.

Speaker 5 This is an interesting debate. Shohei Otani.
Does the best player in baseball have it? Does he have the it factor?

Speaker 1 I think he has the aura factor.

Speaker 5 I think he's had the aura factor.

Speaker 1 But we haven't had a best player in baseball have aura for a while.

Speaker 5 Well, for a while, we knew that we didn't have that because the debate was who is the face of baseball. Correct.

Speaker 1 And I think it's settled. Shohei is

Speaker 5 the face and the arms. He's everything.
And his dog is the dog of baseball. Yeah.

Speaker 1 He's everything. I just, I watched that clip and I got chills, and that's when I knew, oh my God.

Speaker 1 Because you also like, it's not necessarily like, hey, he's so good, that's why he has aura, because obviously there's a language barrier, and

Speaker 1 he's not marketed in the state. I mean, he is now, but for the first, whatever, six, seven years of his career at the Angels.
But now I think it's just Max Mamora, and he is the face.

Speaker 5 It was against the Braves, who are not having a great season so far.

Speaker 5 I think Braves fans, they need to burn Blooper in effigy.

Speaker 1 I think they need to kill Blooper.

Speaker 5 Yeah, I said yesterday, light him on fire. I realized that was going a little too far.

Speaker 1 No, run him over with a truck.

Speaker 5 I think just lighting, get your Blooper dolls out.

Speaker 1 Have a little bonfire.

Speaker 5 Run the dolls over with a truck.

Speaker 1 How many losses until you say run them over with a truck?

Speaker 5 Like two? Two more?

Speaker 1 Two more. Two more and then then just run them over a truck yeah max you agree i think it's three more i think right now they're 0-7 right yeah get the double digits 0-10.

Speaker 1 i think there was a stat no team has ever gone to the playoffs after starting 0-7 in baseball yeah it's a fact yeah i feel like that doesn't happen that often 0-7 just because you usually win one the padres are also undefeated they are

Speaker 7 so that's interesting for that that division yes That is. Whatever.
That was a bad.

Speaker 1 Oh, hey, hand up. Hand up bad edition.

Speaker 1 Hey, we're just happy you're back. We're happy you're here.
I opted in. Taking shots.

Speaker 5 I'm glad that you're listening to the show and you're contributing to it. Yes.

Speaker 1 That's very good. Not everyone can do that.
No.

Speaker 1 Not everyone can do that.

Speaker 1 Correct. That's a fact.

Speaker 7 I'm happy that everyone on this show can.

Speaker 1 Everyone on this show can. Hey, where's Aaron Rodgers going to play football next year?

Speaker 5 So I've been thinking this for the last like two and a half, three months. It's very strange how he hasn't made up his mind, obviously.

Speaker 5 And it's very strange how the Vikings took a while to commit to JJ as their starting quarterback.

Speaker 5 It took longer than you think that it would if they had a first-round pick that they absolutely loved. They would just be like, oh, yeah, Sam can go.
No problem. This is JJ's team.

Speaker 1 By the way,

Speaker 5 you have to admit, there was a flirtation. There's been some flirtations.
Can I make one point?

Speaker 1 I think JJ McCarthy needs the last name.

Speaker 5 He hasn't earned JJ yet. J.J.
McCarthy.

Speaker 1 He hasn't earned full JJ. Did you agree?

Speaker 5 That's fair. J.J.
McCarthy.

Speaker 1 He's got to earn that.

Speaker 5 I think if he was just JJ, then it's like he's the starter. Right.

Speaker 1 Once he's, yeah, when we just start calling him J.J., he's been doing it.

Speaker 5 Because we already have a J.J. Right, exactly.
Justin Jefferson.

Speaker 5 So if Jettis gets the starting job, like right off the bat, if they're like, hey, Mr. McCarthy, we know that you're a guy for next year.
I don't think they would even.

Speaker 5 They wouldn't pause, right? If they if they were firmly committed to it. But it took them a while, and then they kind of got sick of the Aaron Rodgers thing.
So then they said, yeah, J.J.

Speaker 5 McCarthy is going to be our starting quarterback, and we're fully committed to him.

Speaker 5 Meanwhile, I think Aaron Rodgers is waiting to commit to the Steelers until he knows for sure that the door is shut in Minnesota. Yeah.

Speaker 5 That's what I think is happening.

Speaker 1 That makes sense. But it just,

Speaker 1 we're getting pretty close to the draft. Yeah.

Speaker 1 And I don't know, like, if Aaron Rodgers, I mean, he's old enough to retire. So it's not like aaron Rodgers was 32 years old.

Speaker 1 I wouldn't, it wouldn't even be a thought in my head because like he's obviously playing. But as we get closer, if he wants to play for the Vikings, the Vikings say no, we're committing to J.J.

Speaker 1 McCarthy. Could he retire? I don't know.

Speaker 5 It all depends on what he saw in his most recent vision quest.

Speaker 5 Like, he could come in after a long week and be like, no, I'm not playing football anymore. Yeah.
Or he could be like, yeah, I'd like to sign a five-year contract.

Speaker 1 He never replied to my Steelers question mark from a week ago.

Speaker 5 Disrespectful. Yeah, so.
Did he say lose my number, bro? No, but

Speaker 1 I wonder if that means no Steelers.

Speaker 5 He has not confirmed it. Or denied.
He has not confirmed interest interest in the Steelers.

Speaker 1 Confirmed or denied.

Speaker 1 Okay, what else? We got. Oh, Hank lost his QB of the future.

Speaker 5 Yeah, Joe Milton. Bazooka Joe?

Speaker 5 Bazooka Joe is a Dallas Cowboy, which both Max and I are upset about because we like Bazooka Joe and we want to root for him to be successful, and it's just impossible to do that with the Cowboys.

Speaker 5 So it's kind of a bummer for us. That's my analysis.

Speaker 7 I think Bazooka Joe could be fun to watch.

Speaker 7 I wanted him to go to a spot that he could compete to be a guy.

Speaker 5 I mean, Dak doesn't always play.

Speaker 1 That's a good point.

Speaker 7 That's a good point.

Speaker 1 He's not a guy.

Speaker 7 He's literally a guy.

Speaker 1 Well, you don't know that. You can't assume that.
That's true.

Speaker 5 He is a guy. He is not the guy yet.

Speaker 1 Ever.

Speaker 5 From the outside, it's fun to root for Bazooka Joe.

Speaker 7 Bazooka Joe has a sick arm.

Speaker 5 Dude, he would not be afraid of the business.

Speaker 1 Listen, I've done the Bazooka Joe experience when he was in the Big Ten and then at Tennessee. Like, he's Bazooka Joe.
Yeah, but that's not touch pass Joe.

Speaker 5 That's the beauty of Bazooka Joe is that we've all seen Bazooka Joe and we know what he is, but it's fun to get re-excited for Bazooka Joe. Yeah,

Speaker 1 I would rather him just be in, like, you know, you know what would make me excited? If Dude Perfect signed Bazooka Joe. No.
That would be sad in the NFL. I would hate that.
That would be sick.

Speaker 1 He would make some sick videos with Dude Perfect.

Speaker 1 Hank, you're sad about Bazooka Joe?

Speaker 6 I'm not. I mean, we got Drake May.
That's my quarterback of the future.

Speaker 6 Fifth-round pick kind of tells you everything you need to know, I think.

Speaker 1 Well, I mean,

Speaker 5 he improved in value. He got two rounds better last year.

Speaker 6 Yeah, but like a fifth-round pick.

Speaker 5 Bill Belichick built his career off fifth-round picks.

Speaker 1 That's all he only drafted in the fifth round.

Speaker 7 What was Tom Brady?

Speaker 1 Sixth.

Speaker 7 Yeah, that's what I thought.

Speaker 5 Good point.

Speaker 1 Not fifth.

Speaker 5 Checkmate, though.

Speaker 1 Hank hates fifth. He hates fifth.
He thinks sixth is better than fifth. He'd rather be drafting in the sixth than the fifth.

Speaker 5 I mean, the Belichick model was trade your first, your second, your third-round picks and get 25 picks in the fifth round.

Speaker 1 Drake May.

Speaker 6 Although I did Milton Tough was a great nickname, would have been a great shirt.

Speaker 1 We made those shirts. I don't think we sold them.
I'm pretty sure when he was the quarterback at Michigan, Dave was like Milton Tough, and then he told me.

Speaker 6 We had a Patriots version that

Speaker 6 we made, and then we were waiting for him to do something. No, we had a great

Speaker 5 quarterback shirts that we haven't put out yet.

Speaker 1 We sold Joe Milton Tough shirt or Milton Tough shirts for Michigan, and I think he threw his first screen 3,000 miles an hour, and then Dave took him down. Yeah.

Speaker 4 That was probably what happened.

Speaker 5 We also changed the rules for hard knocks. Did you see that? No.
So now a team that made the playoffs last year can

Speaker 5 be a hard knocks team. That's awesome.
So my ass is in the jackpot now.

Speaker 1 That's awesome. Is that why you brought it up?

Speaker 5 That's what made the news stand out to me. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Wait, so what are the other rules? Are there any other rules?

Speaker 5 That's the only change.

Speaker 1 It's the only change. So new head coach is out.

Speaker 5 You can't have it. You still can't do that.

Speaker 1 Can't do that. And then, so that's it.
Yep. So that's fun because now we have actually some decent teams that we could go to.

Speaker 5 We got some good teams we could go to, yeah. I mean, Pittsburgh would be awesome if Aaron Rodgers there gets to run that back.

Speaker 1 Yeah. I'm trying to think who I'd won on hard knocks this year.

Speaker 1 I want to kind of want the Pats.

Speaker 5 Well, you can't.

Speaker 1 New head coach. New head coach.

Speaker 6 We just said that. You don't know.
No, no.

Speaker 1 Hey, Max. Max is getting even coached.

Speaker 1 Max is being proven to be coaching. He forgot.

Speaker 7 He forgot that Bravo was a new head coach because he's been a coach in the NFL before.

Speaker 7 So I understand what he was thinking there.

Speaker 5 We should be rooting for the Chargers.

Speaker 1 Chargers would be awesome. Harbaugh.
Chargers would be awesome.

Speaker 5 Harb Knox.

Speaker 1 Maybe you a new head coach. Okay, all right.

Speaker 1 How's it going? I don't know. I don't know.
I don't know about it.

Speaker 1 Just run it back with the Lions. Or Dan Campbell.

Speaker 5 Also, Kirk Cousins had a meeting with Arthur Blank. Okay.
Apparently, it was an hour-long meeting, and Arthur Blank says that he took five pages of notes during the conversation.

Speaker 1 I don't know what he could possibly do. How many of that were doodles?

Speaker 5 I don't know. Five pages of notes.

Speaker 1 What would the notes be about?

Speaker 5 It might be a new chapter of the Bible. I don't know.

Speaker 6 Rich guys love taking notes during meetings. Oh, yeah.

Speaker 1 Fake notes. Big-time fake notes.

Speaker 6 Just writing things down.

Speaker 5 Look how productive I was.

Speaker 1 But I will say, there's something about showing up to a meeting with pen and paper. I always feel like such an asshole because I never show up to meetings with pen and paper.

Speaker 1 And then there'll be people with pen and paper, and I'm like, fuck.

Speaker 5 This should be a one, if anything, a one cheater. It should be, yeah, it kind of sucked when you drafted a quarterback.

Speaker 1 Yeah, or it could be five pages of notes where it's just like Kirk Cousins passing him a note saying, can I start? And him passing it back saying, no. Yeah.
Back and forth over and over.

Speaker 1 How about now?

Speaker 5 Still no. Write down a team that you would be willing to go to.
Not that one. Yeah.
Write down another team.

Speaker 1 Not that one. Not that one.
That's an interesting five pages of notes. No idea what that would be.

Speaker 5 I would pay a good amount of money for those notes. Yeah.
Good amount. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Okay. Do we have anything else? Oh, did it, was there another.

Speaker 1 I got to say something. I'm officially done with conversations comparing eras in the NBA.
I feel like that's all that is talked about at this point. I'm getting tired of it.

Speaker 1 I know LeBron said it in relation to other people saying it, but wasn't there a recent one that like Stephen A. Smith or someone said

Speaker 1 someone from the 80s said that Steph Curry couldn't even score like 15 points against us because we would have hurt him.

Speaker 5 That is the most insane thing ever.

Speaker 1 It's also just, I'm tired of it. We're never going to.

Speaker 1 We just got to get the playoffs here. This is a late March situation.

Speaker 5 Yeah, I mean, we had a debate the other day of Shaq versus Jokic.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Oh, yeah, that was a fiery one.

Speaker 5 They play different positions. Yeah.
And I'm sure that both could be successful in the other person's era.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 I would say both. I'd say Prime Shaq will be dominant dominant anytime, and Prime Jokic will be dominant anytime.
Yep. Agreed.

Speaker 1 Yeah, why can't we just say all the good players would be good in their era?

Speaker 5 Why can't we just be like, these guys are really good at basketball? Let's enjoy watching them play.

Speaker 1 They're so sick that we do need someone who

Speaker 1 there needs to be someone in the media who just actually was J.J. Reddick.
That's the problem.

Speaker 1 Maybe that's what's happened. The vacuum for this debate is like the power vacuum because J.J.
Reddick is now coaching. J.J.

Speaker 1 Reddick was the guy who just was like, yeah, the players this like now are just incredible. Like, let's just enjoy that.

Speaker 5 Yeah. And if you took them and dropped them back into the 1980s, they'd be really fucking

Speaker 5 fucking. If you made them grow up in the 1980s, they'd probably be very good at basketball, but not quite as dominant as they are now.
Right, right.

Speaker 5 Case closed. Case closed.
Happy we had that debate. Basketball is good.

Speaker 1 There you go. Good basketball players are good.
Yep. Agreed.
All right, do we have anything else in the sports world that's going on? That's getting people upset? That's getting people ready?

Speaker 1 So, Dickie V,

Speaker 1 Dickie V, we only had him on for 15 minutes. People were wondering.
He's still working back with his throat and his voice. So we were offered, we were like, hey, you get Dickie V wants to come on PMT.

Speaker 1 He only can give you 10 minutes. We're like, we'll take anything.

Speaker 1 It ended up being closer to 15. He's the best.
He's the absolute best. And Cody Rhodes was awesome in person.
Really, really fun. Great time.

Speaker 1 Is there anything else? Max? I guess we'll talk about a Firefest.

Speaker 1 we'll do a little recap of what happened on wednesday's show thank you everyone for subscribing after wednesday's show yeah i appreciate that yeah please keep subscribing uh we appreciate all the subscriptions uh okay well oh also san antonio i will be there friday and saturday we're doing a live show 6 p.m central and 2 p.m central on saturday 6 p.m central friday 2 p.m central saturday what's does anyone know where we're doing it river ice house river Can you find it for me?

Speaker 1 River Ice House.

Speaker 5 I'm going to chip myself to death. River Walker.

Speaker 1 I'm going to eat so many chips.

Speaker 5 I'm going to go to Austin Solidarity and have some breakfast tacos and some chips and queso and barbecue, and it's going to kick ass.

Speaker 1 Yeah. And cold beer.
I'm back on beer. Oh, beer's back.
Beer's back.

Speaker 5 Beer is so good.

Speaker 1 I would agree. Beer is very good.
Wait, what?

Speaker 1 I didn't tweet it, so

Speaker 1 Hank, you got it? I'm looking. Hank's got it.

Speaker 1 I don't know know who would have tweeted it, though. Dave for Peto Bats.

Speaker 5 Also, Ovie is three away. Oh, yeah.
Three away. And now I'm moving up my timeline.
I think

Speaker 5 if he gets to one by Sunday, after Sunday's game, I think I'm going to have to go to a game next week. I'm going to try to chase this record.

Speaker 1 Are you going to withdraw from mini golf?

Speaker 5 No, but Tuesday. Oh, no, he only plays on Thursday next week.
Fuck.

Speaker 5 All right, I hope Ovie doesn't score until after this week. Okay.
And then he breaks the record.

Speaker 1 That's fair.

Speaker 5 Going goat chasing.

Speaker 6 River North Ice House. There we go.

Speaker 1 River North Ice House. It's that first tweet you just scrolled by a million times.
Yeah. Barstool Live, River North Ice House.
So come on out. 6 p.m.
Central Friday and 2 p.m. Central Saturday.

Speaker 1 I think Johnny Fantas is going to be there on Friday night. And then, yeah, let's have some fun Final Four.
Let's get some great games. We need some great fucking games.

Speaker 1 All right, let's kick it to ourselves. Dickie V, and in a very, very, even if you're not a wrestling fan, the Cody Rhodes interview was awesome because he's just a really cool guy and his whole story.

Speaker 1 So, and he was in person. Really, really awesome interview.

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Speaker 1 Okay, we now welcome on a very, very, very, very, very special guest, someone we've wanted on for a very long time. It is the legend, Dick Vitale.

Speaker 1 Dickie V, we appreciate you so much coming on. Just so our listeners know, you are still, you know, working your way back all the way through health.

Speaker 1 So your doctor said maybe seven to ten minutes that you can talk to us. But we said any minutes.
If we had two minutes with Dickie V, we're taking it. So first of all, how are you feeling?

Speaker 1 How's everything going?

Speaker 10 Well, first of all, you're very kind. I'll tell you, you guys really, I know, are so very, very popular.

Speaker 10 My grandkids called me up and said, oh, my God, you're going to be, I'm a big cat. PTF.

Speaker 1 Unbelievable. But no, I, you know, I...

Speaker 10 I feel really good physically. You know, when you're a cancer survivor, it's scan by scan.
My last scan, I was totally cancer-free.

Speaker 10 I'm gonna get all nervous again when I got to go for another scan in May.

Speaker 10 Let me tell you guys, my heart goes out to every cancer patient. I know that feeling.

Speaker 10 You know, I've coached for years and you get tense and all in the game when it's close, but there's nothing like waiting for the results because that phone call is life-changing.

Speaker 10 If he tells you, scan's great, you're cancer-free, man, it's heaven.

Speaker 10 But if he tells you cancer came back, it's back to chemotherapy, radiation and all that and it really gets nerve-wracking and i could feel for every cancer patient and on my message any cancer patient listening as well to always think positive and have faith because really that got me through what i did i had as you guys know four different battles one with melanoma one with lymphoma vocal cord cancer, which was the toughest for me.

Speaker 10 Couldn't speak for unbelievable weeks and weeks. And just,

Speaker 10 and then I got lymph node cancer. So again, through it all, I want to talk basketball.
Yeah, we got Mark's madness.

Speaker 1 Yes, yes. So by the way, everyone, May 2nd, his galla, Dickie V's gala to benefit the V Foundation for Cancer research.
So we're raising money for pediatric cancer. You're doing a great job.

Speaker 1 So let's talk Final Four.

Speaker 1 Probably the best Final Four we've ever seen in terms of these four teams any other year are worthy champions. Is there a team out of the four that you see as a cut above?

Speaker 10 Well, you know, certainly we got the best of the best playing.

Speaker 10 But, you know, also when you think about it, I was just thinking the other day, 1985 was pretty good, too, when you had certainly Gillanova and you had Georgetown and Memphis and St. John's.

Speaker 10 And I mean, we can take a lot of tournaments up pretty good. But it's special because these are the four teams that have been listed basically all year as the best of the best.

Speaker 10 So you're getting the best against the best. And we got some great matchups.
The one thing, and I've read from day one, I think Duke to win it all.

Speaker 10 And that's going to change my mind right now until we get results. But there's a reason I pick them.

Speaker 10 Number one, anytime a team is top five guys in offensive and defensive efficiency, I mean, they got a great chance to win.

Speaker 10 Because if you're not shooting well and you're defending well, you're going to stay in the game.

Speaker 10 And that's where Duke's the only team in the country that's top five by Ken Pomeroy in efficiency in both areas. Yeah.

Speaker 10 and if you were to pick apart duke it what what is their weakness what would that be if houston finds a way to win this game how do you think they do it well i think you're the number one if they're going to win the game they're going to rely on their great defense i think there's going to be a lot of motion in the game for houston as well because last year they really had two kind of ropes They had a lot of ropes until their star got hurt.

Speaker 10 Sheet, who's now with the,

Speaker 10 he's with the Toronto Raptors, I believe. He got hurt, and that game turned around when he went out.
So they're they're going to be playing with a little chip on their shoulder.

Speaker 10 Plus, let's face it, when you're Duke, I don't care who you play. It's like my son-in-law told me, please play quarterback in Northern Dame.

Speaker 10 And I once was, I never forget saying to him, oh, you got a cupcake this week, man. I'm going to play Navy.
I said, that's a cupcake. So you're out of your mind.
It's never a cupcake for us. Yeah.

Speaker 10 Because everybody here at Northern Day, when they play Northern Dame, they're at another level. Well, same with Duke.
You play Duke in basketball. You play Kentucky in basketball.

Speaker 10 You play schools like that. Teams play at such a high level, they commit.
So you got to match that. And I think John Shire has done a great job with that, getting his players to understand,

Speaker 10 understand

Speaker 10 how it really is important to play at a higher level because people want to beat you so badly.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 5 And with Cooper Flag, is he the biggest diaper dandy of all time? Because he might be the youngest diaper dandy, right? Because he enrolled early.

Speaker 10 Well, you're right about that, Patrick. He is so young.
There's no doubt about it.

Speaker 10 I look at the kid. I saw him in high school, and I said this.
I'm sitting there on ESPN. Some people took it the wrong way.

Speaker 10 They got all over on the case because they said, oh, I'm going to be putting his name in there with LeBron with Colby and Magic.

Speaker 10 What I said was, if they listened, I said at the same age in my 45 years at ESPN.

Speaker 10 Three guys that I've seen with skills and ability that he has. And that was LeBron.
I did his game in high school. I'm talking about games of kids I did in high school.

Speaker 10 I didn't do Kareem in high school, but I did LeBron in high school. I did a game with Kobe Bright in high school.

Speaker 10 And I saw a match a number of times in high school because I was recruiting him and I got rejected. He went to Michigan State.
I was trying to give him the keys to the city of Detroit. But anyway,

Speaker 10 the bottom line is, I just think he's so special. What he does is so rare, and that he doesn't have to score to be probably the most valuable player on the court.

Speaker 10 He does a phenomenal job.

Speaker 10 He draws so much attention. He creates angles and spacing for Knippo.
And the kid inside, wow, is he going to be special? Malowatch is unbelievable what he does defensively.

Speaker 10 Hey, guys, when you got three players, right now, I looked at the draft yesterday, a mock draft, three guys that are going to be drafted in the top seven. Several others going in the second round.

Speaker 10 My God, you got a chance to win.

Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah. And so PFD mentioned Diaper Dandy Cooper Flag.
I mean, PTPer, it's got to be Walter Clayton and Janiai Broome. Both those guys.

Speaker 1 That's two PTPers going up against each other on the other side of the bracket.

Speaker 10 Well, Clayton certainly has been missed a clutch. He's been humble.

Speaker 10 You know, he played for Rick Betino down at Iona, but he wanted to stay in the state of Florida where he's from to go to his next stop. But if you went to St.
John's, wow, wow.

Speaker 10 Because Petino was my coach of the year this year, the job he did with St. John's.

Speaker 1 Yeah, agreed. Dickie, are you, I know you had a stretch there where you only ate out.
You never ate in. You never ate at home.
Did you keep that alive? How long was that stretch for?

Speaker 1 Because I used to join your periscopes when you'd go out to breakfast every morning, and I'd just be sitting in there basically eating breakfast with you.

Speaker 10 Wow, that's really cool, man. I'm really proud of that, Big Cap.
But the bottom line is, we go out every night. I love people.
I love it. You know what it did for me?

Speaker 10 Even through my chemo, even through all my

Speaker 10 radiations, I told my wife, I want to go out. I'm not going to sit home and mope and cry and,

Speaker 10 you know, feel sorry.

Speaker 10 And because let's face it, when you're a cancer patient, you're doing your chemo and your radiation, you're always there's a tendency, tendency when you're alone to think all the worse.

Speaker 10 Is this my last day? Is this, but if you get out, and I used to love to get out with people and be around people. Of course, I love people, guys.
I really do.

Speaker 10 I

Speaker 10 I've been that way I've been a hot dog all my life

Speaker 10 I've been that way a little wacky like you guys when I was younger I was wacky like you guys but that's why you're so popular because you're real you're genuine and that's what makes you guys the whole Arsenal star with David the bottom line is guys are all real you tell them from your heart you're not afraid to share an opinion and

Speaker 1 people appreciate that yeah I think people a lot of people appreciate you Dickie.

Speaker 5 I'm sure that you've had a lot of people that reached out over the last couple of years and let you know exactly how loved you are, how they're rooting for you.

Speaker 5 I'm curious, though, when you were going through the treatment and you couldn't talk, what was that like? Because you're a guy that loves to talk. Like, that's your thing.
You love talking to people.

Speaker 5 Would you go home? Would you, would you write? How did you get these thoughts out? Yeah.

Speaker 10 I will tell you this,

Speaker 10 Patrick. No, no doubt about it.
It was the toughest time for me. I felt trapped.
I felt trapped.

Speaker 10 I had a whiteboard and I would write on the board and all for my wife, you know, get me this, do this, do that. But even when you do that, you really can't communicate like you want.

Speaker 10 You get so, I've done many times. I got so frustrated because I want, especially when I was in the hospital doing a chemo and I had, couldn't talk.
And, you know, I write on a

Speaker 10 paper or write on a chunk I had there, white boy board. And you can only write so much, you can't tell what you're really going through.

Speaker 10 And, you know, my darkest moment was, and I'll tell you this, I've told other people this, and I think about it all the time, was in the hospital doing chemo and I had a bad, bad day.

Speaker 10 I mean, it was a bad day. So much so that normally I would go home after the chemo and the doctors came in and they said, Dick, we can't let you go home.
It's we've got to monitor everything.

Speaker 10 And my family was there with me and wife, daughters, grandkids. And I got three at Duke.
They're hoping Duke Wins. I got two at Norden.

Speaker 10 My Naughty Name was two-time La Crosse National Champ. And my dog man, she's watching right now, Sydney's Flores with my grandmother.
She loves you guys. She's watching and she

Speaker 10 graduated in Nordre Dame played tennis. And I got three right now playing tennis on top 10 teams at Nortre Day, at Duke rather, in tennis.
So they're cheering for their Dukeies.

Speaker 10 But they were all in the hospital. They were there visiting me.

Speaker 10 And It was time to leave at nine o'clock. And they left.

Speaker 10 And when they left, I really, as i tell people i cried like a baby i'll never forget that day as long as i live i was like hysterical and the nurse came in and the nurse was terrific she said dick what's calm down you're gonna be fine

Speaker 10 she said why are you crying so much i said i don't know man i wonder if that's the last time i see my i jumped up through the

Speaker 10 last time i see my family

Speaker 10 I said, it's been such a tough day.

Speaker 10 But anyway, bottom line is, I came through it, messages i can't tell you how many messages i haven't used my phone that day for about six seven hours and all of a sudden i went to my phone i have messages you name a coach they patinos and caliper peris and is those right down the line all the italians naturally i'm like decent but the bottom line is they all you know wishing me the best keep fighting remember jimmy v don't give up don't ever give up and all of that meant so much to me that it made me really say to myself I'm going to beat this sucker.

Speaker 10 I'm going to beat it. I'm going to get out of here.
I'm going to beat it. And fortunately, it worked out that way.

Speaker 10 But like I said, cancer patients only know this, like I do, that you go scan to scan and you wait for that next scan. I'm going to count the days ready to make.
You mentioned my gala.

Speaker 10 I mentioned my gala. I appreciate that so much, but cap.
The bottom line is we've raised $92.8 million since I started for pediatric cancer.

Speaker 10 If people, I know you got a lot of fans, they want to help join my team, we're going to go over $100 million

Speaker 10 on May 2nd. And we got great, great people we're honoring.
Michael Strahan, who knows a lot about pediatric cancer, his daughter, Barron Brain Cancer, is now cancer-free.

Speaker 10 We got the Grant Hill superstar. We got Danny Hurley coming in.
We got John Calaperi, Nancy Lieberman. I mean, Hannah Storm.

Speaker 10 It's going to be a special night special but we're going to raise and if anybody wants to join my team and help me raise those dollars they whatever they donate 50 100 200

Speaker 10 you guys will donate more because you're making big cash i'm only kidding but the bottom line is bottom line just go to dick dick fightale.com simple committee dickfightal.com and you could donate you could buy any of my merchandise every dollar that i would make on the purchase of any item, basketballs, books, I give to the V-Foundation.

Speaker 10 I love it.

Speaker 1 I love it. So

Speaker 1 I know we've taken you a little over time, so I have one last thing.

Speaker 10 My voice is okay.

Speaker 1 Okay, yeah. I mean, listen,

Speaker 1 I hope you understand how loved you are.

Speaker 1 This show that we've been doing for almost a decade now, our big thing is sports are supposed to be fun. And you always were that guy.
You were the guy who sports were fun, and you welcomed people in.

Speaker 1 And like you said, you're a people person. I have to mention one thing.
So I've met you a couple of times before. One was actually, you were nice enough to take a picture with me.

Speaker 1 2006, when I was a student at Wisconsin, we beat Pitt, Aaron Gray. They were the number two team in the country.

Speaker 1 You took a picture at halftime. That's how great of a guy you are.
He's calling the game at halftime. He's taking pictures.

Speaker 1 The other one, though, was maybe the coolest power move I've ever seen in my life. It was Florida State Notre Dame football 2014, I want to say.

Speaker 1 And you showed up and you just walked right into this frat house that we were doing a show at, uh used the bathroom your wife by the way ride or die she stood outside the door made sure no one went in and then you had like these postcards that you were handing out that were signed postcards i loved the move because everyone wanted everyone wanted to talk to you and you're just handing them out and i was like this guy's the best he's the man of the people he's going to the bathroom in a frat house he's the best that's you

Speaker 10 Well, that's so nice of you. I really appreciate it.
And I can tell you this. You went to Wisconsin.
You're a hell of a student then because I couldn't bell Wisconsin. They asked me to go there.

Speaker 10 But the bottom line is, you know, I love people. I do.
You do?

Speaker 10 Hey, when people don't recognize me, I'm in a restaurant. I put a sign and I'm back.
Hey, I'm Dickie V. Remember me?

Speaker 1 That's my adventure.

Speaker 1 It is. It's the truth.
But I like, you know, you meet people who are celebrities or in the public eye, and sometimes you're not the same person. You are the same person.

Speaker 1 The two encounters I've had with you, just salt of the earth, just regular guy. And it always struck me as like, man, he's exactly like I see on the TV.
And I love that about him.

Speaker 10 Tell you guys, man, I'm going to make you my PR agents, man.

Speaker 1 I love you guys.

Speaker 10 Call me anytime if you want me on. Tell David, tell David, try some pizza here in beautiful Sarasota.
I know they said he came.

Speaker 10 He was here one time, but he's going to try the pizza that's really, I think, good at a place called Lucha Ballerina. Okay.
Mucha Ballerina.

Speaker 1 Okay. Sounds great.

Speaker 5 So, Dickie, thank you so much for joining us. It's a dream come true to get to talk to you.
And we hope you enjoy the game. So, you got Duke against who in the championship?

Speaker 10 I got Duke Florida in the championship, Duke winning the championship. On the woman's side, you got great games.
Man, tomorrow, you got great semifinals. You got Gino Ariama.
I really worry.

Speaker 10 My heart wants Connecticut. I love Paige Beckers, and I want to see her get to the championship game.
But UCLA is really good. They got a young lady named Bets who can really play.

Speaker 10 And then on the other side, you got Texas against South Carolina. I'm going with Dawn Staley, man.
She just knows how to win. I'm I'm hoping I can see Staley and Oriama in the finals.
Yes.

Speaker 10 Two coaches that know what Woody's about. And Paige Beckers is special, really special.
Hey, guys, I just figured something out looking at both of you. Yeah.
Now I know why I got fired by the Pistons.

Speaker 10 My guards look like you suck it, man.

Speaker 1 I know you can't win.

Speaker 1 I know you can't win. Oh, man.
Yeah, you nailed us. Yeah, you did.

Speaker 5 Yeah, knife for talent. Yeah.

Speaker 1 All right. Well, Dickie, thank you so much.
Oh, one last thing.

Speaker 1 I got a special friend who we work with named Stephen Che. Can you just say, hey, Stephen Che, you're awesome, baby.

Speaker 10 Stephen Che, man, you're awesome, baby, with a capital A. You're a PT beer.
You know, I lie a lot, Stephen.

Speaker 1 Thank you, Dickie. You're the best.
We really appreciate your time, and we're huge fans and keep fighting the good fight. And we'll make sure we donate for that gal on May 2nd.

Speaker 10 Thanks a lot behalf of me on. Remember, dickfightal.com, people.

Speaker 1 Absolutely. Absolutely.
All right, thanks for watching. Thanks, Dickie.
It was great to see you. Appreciate it.

Speaker 5 Enjoy the games. All right, see ya.

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Speaker 1 Okay, we now welcome on a very, very, very, very special guest. He is the undisputed WWE champion of the world.
It is Cody Rhodes.

Speaker 1 He's got big, big-time WrestleMania coming up April 19th and 20th at Allegiance Stadium in Las Vegas. So, Cody,

Speaker 1 first of all, thanks for coming by.

Speaker 1 Let's start with how it feels. So, it's going to be about a year now that you've been the champion.
How are we feeling? Is it everything that you dreamed about?

Speaker 1 Because I know it was a lifelong dream, but a year being champion, was it everything that cracked up to

Speaker 4 I feel like it's definitely a positive. It's not that it's a negative, but I will say that it's nothing like I anticipated it to be.

Speaker 4 What I really quickly found out is that it is almost a de facto position in the office. It's almost,

Speaker 4 it's a bigger position than just man in tights wrestling, which is great. I love it because I love the infrastructure.
I love the industry. I grew up in the business.

Speaker 4 My dad was behind the scenes, in front of the camera, all that. But that was a part for me that I thought, oh, there's a layer of responsibility.
Right. Like a team captain.

Speaker 4 And I tried to lean into it in the last several months where I'd like that. I like being the big dog here as long as

Speaker 4 it's going to last. But it's been amazing.
Really, and especially for...

Speaker 4 being a good guy character. Right.
To have the title this long is rather unheard of because everyone just tries to murder you every week.

Speaker 4 I'm very lucky.

Speaker 1 So speaking of like being babyface, because I think in today's day and age where people are more cynical, a little edgier, whatever you want to call it, do you find that hard having to be the good guy when you're like, man, it's probably easier to just be the bad guy once in a while?

Speaker 4 Well, it's always easier. I feel

Speaker 4 every week I think they're going to boo me.

Speaker 4 And every week we've been lucky where it's been like, no.

Speaker 4 We like you.

Speaker 4 I genuinely find a surprise.

Speaker 4 And every night in the way they do my entrance, I'm surrounded by all this cryo and then it does this little sparks, these cold sparks, and then I can really hear the audience and it's legit the coolest thing ever.

Speaker 4 I don't know.

Speaker 4 I don't know the formula. I think there's a element of being in the family and the love they had with my dad and the connection we have.

Speaker 4 I think it's because I took them on the full ride from the time I was back at WWE. Also, when we the suspension of disbelief in what we do, everything about me is,

Speaker 1 I don't have a character. Right.

Speaker 4 I am me. This is, and I'm, I'm really happy that it's worked out.
But I'm always expecting, like, yeah, today's the

Speaker 4 Barkley's or something, you know, like, or Chicago's always notoriously a tough wrestling market. And then it's, in those places, they're like, nah, he's cool.
So it's.

Speaker 1 That's got to feel like that. I'm very lucky.

Speaker 4 At a certain point, you know, who knows, but it's blessed.

Speaker 5 Yeah, I mean, your story is incredible. For those that don't know, like, you bet on yourself.

Speaker 5 Actually, our good friend Robbie Fox,

Speaker 5 you and him became pretty close. He like drove you around.
He showed me a picture where he took you to the emergency room.

Speaker 5 So tell our listeners the story about how you bet on yourself, the road that you went on, that you brought people along.

Speaker 4 When I was at WWE the first time and I was a legacy hire, you know, my dad was in the business, my brother was in the business, godfathers, uncles, all that. I was in a great position.

Speaker 4 And then in the last three or four years, I technically, I hate using this term, but I technically became an enhancement talent, a jobber. And I was under the alias of stardust.
I was pain in my face.

Speaker 4 It just was very much, I say beneath me, but I wasn't doing the work to outkick it either. And I felt like I was trapped.
So no one ever does this.

Speaker 4 What I would do next is really what set this all off. I ended up quitting WWE.
Wasn't going to get fired because of the legacy I had, but also things weren't going to get better. I quit WWE.

Speaker 4 And when I left,

Speaker 4 That's where I got to do bet on myself, as you said, and got to mobilize the audience.

Speaker 4 I put a list together of various opponents, all different companies, all different continents, all this stuff I wanted to do because I was a lifelong WWE kid. I had been made in their system.

Speaker 4 And to be able to break out and do independent wrestling, deathmatch style stuff, New Japan pro wrestling, all this stuff that you didn't see

Speaker 4 as often, I was able to bring everybody who had... you know, all the equity I had at WWE and bring them along with me.

Speaker 4 And it was all a real journey in terms of, I'm going to try and get, if this place holds 400, I'm going to try and get 500 people in there. You mentioned mentioned Robbie Fox.

Speaker 4 We were at La Boom in Queens, New York. And hey, there's only 100 and something people here.
Well, guess what? We're going to buy pizza for each and every one of them.

Speaker 4 We tried to make what I was doing everything destination, even though it wasn't WWE, it wasn't USA, it wasn't Fox, it wasn't one of our television partners.

Speaker 4 I tried to make it destination because streaming was becoming a thing. You could find me.

Speaker 4 That turned into

Speaker 4 All In, which was in Schomburg. There's a plaque on the building still.
I'm terrified they're going to take this plaque down at some point.

Speaker 4 Me and Matt Nick Jackson doing the first show ever because the bet was nobody could get more than 10,000. No company other than WWE could get 10,000 people.
20 minutes later, we had 11,000 people.

Speaker 4 We had this Woodstock for wrestling. And really, everything since that moment has just sparked off of that.
An alternative wrestling promotion now exists in terms of AEW and being a founder at that.

Speaker 4 And then being able to come back to WWE, be so well received, be so trusted, and take up the first journey I had in the business, which was this.

Speaker 4 You know, my dad in 1977 wrestled superstar Billy Graham in Madison Square Garden, wins the match, but doesn't win the title.

Speaker 4 But he got to do the thing where he held it up for the audience before the inevitable shoe drop from the announcer. And as a kid, that was it.

Speaker 4 That was my legitimate, no matter how you look at our business, not real, real, however, I wanted to win the damn belt for him.

Speaker 4 And when I came back, that was the one thing I was like, hey, this is what I'm going for. It's as real as it will be presented on TV.

Speaker 4 It's as real behind the scenes as it is in front of the camera. And

Speaker 4 I was able to do it. That's very cool.

Speaker 5 Do you carry the belt around with you?

Speaker 5 Like, what's the longest that you've ever gone without touching the belt?

Speaker 4 That's a great question.

Speaker 4 I feel like I touch the belt every day. Yeah.

Speaker 4 Because, I mean, how boring is it if I came in here and I didn't have the belt?

Speaker 1 Yeah. You got to have the belt.

Speaker 4 To me, I have...

Speaker 4 There's multiple belts, right?

Speaker 4 There's one that's on TV and there's one that you can kind of take on the road with you, but I keep the same one each time, which was the one that I know Roman wore to the ring at WrestleMania 40.

Speaker 4 I've never even touched the other one. It's somewhere in case I was ever to forget it, but I get hands on it every day.
Yeah. Yeah, while you have it.

Speaker 1 You got it. You got it.
You got it.

Speaker 1 Don't give it up.

Speaker 4 Just keep winning.

Speaker 4 Well,

Speaker 4 that's the bittersweet thing about WrestleMania this year is I'm excited. This is another headline match.

Speaker 1 Cena retirement.

Speaker 4 Cena's thing. thing, but that's the bittersweet part.
I have to do what John did for all those years, just win. Right.

Speaker 1 Right.

Speaker 4 That's not that exciting to everybody who, maybe he'll break Ric Flair's record, but yeah, maybe he won't. Yeah.
And like you said, keep winning. Yeah.

Speaker 1 So the story you told, it is great. Did you, have you had moments where you're like, this was the path I had to take? Because you mentioned your dad, Dusty Rhodes' legend, hard times and the everyman.

Speaker 1 And you kind of had to, because for a while, you were, I don't want to say what people thought, but like I'm sure there were people like oh he's a Nepo babies.

Speaker 1 Oh, yeah, he's in there because of his dad and then you found it on your own the hard times That's a really cool full circle moment where you're like hey I was given a lot, but then I had to go earn it in its own way It's almost a reverse situation from a lot of guys who work their way up whereas I got so many things afforded to me early and then this is gonna sound like a silly

Speaker 4 parallel, but really the best way I can think about it is if you've ever seen the movie The Lion King. I went out there and like found my Timon and Pumba and

Speaker 4 had to find what was inside for me. It's such a silly way to look at it.
But

Speaker 4 being a Nepo baby or being a second or third generation in our industry, that's one thing. When it's dusty, you know, I think about some of these kids whose dads are essentially Mount Rushmore dads.

Speaker 4 You are forever behind the eight ball in a way. You're forever trying to, you don't even want to say it out loud because it sounds mean, but you're trying to be better than he was.
Right.

Speaker 4 I think the first person at WWE who realized, oh man, I will accept nothing less is Mr. Heyman, is Paul Heyman.
I think he's the first person who realized, oh, he's

Speaker 4 trying to do essentially with the impossible.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 4 I got flanked. It feels so good, but I got flanked by the best team when I came back.

Speaker 4 I mean, there are people there, and if I could shout them out,

Speaker 4 Michael Hayes, Triple H, I can't believe I'm going to say this guy's name, but The Rock, the final boss.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 4 As much as what you see on screen is pretty volatile,

Speaker 4 the tools are right there.

Speaker 4 WWE right now, all those guys are right there to get that information from. And Triple H has been wonderful with me.

Speaker 4 He's been like a coach, putting me out on the field and just calling the plays, and they've been great plays.

Speaker 1 Do you think The Rock one-on-one, is that going to be in the future?

Speaker 1 He did pin you last year.

Speaker 4 He did, and

Speaker 4 I'm a bit of an ego-centric individual who wants his win back. Yeah.
You know what I'm saying?

Speaker 1 He's got one over you. He could just retire tomorrow and you'd be screwed.

Speaker 4 I think he's due for more than one match, and I would love to be penciled in on one of those. Obviously, that schedule is as intense as it gets, but he's still so involved with WWE.

Speaker 4 He could have easily been the final boss and just kind of taken that as a... customary title.
But he has really gotten his hands involved in what we're doing.

Speaker 4 And the thing I, even though we may not like one another, the thing I do like about him is instantly, no matter what he's done, record-breaking Disney movie, whatever he did that weekend and then showed up, when you look at him, you can tell, oh, brother's a wrestler.

Speaker 4 Yeah.

Speaker 4 It's in there. It's hidden the ropes and what the reaction you can get from doing wrestling moves in the ring and the promo and the interview.
I really have enjoyed that connection with him.

Speaker 4 I'd like to be one of those. I think he has two matches he has to do.
Okay. He has to do.
And I'm not putting any pressure on anyone.

Speaker 1 Put the pressure on.

Speaker 4 I think he does.

Speaker 4 I'd love to see if him and his cousin Roman Reigns ever have this encounter. Yep.
Maybe it's the greatest match we never get just because timing and whatever it may be.

Speaker 4 And I think we need to finish our own story with

Speaker 4 him and with myself, but we'll see.

Speaker 1 His cheat days are bullshit. Where he's like, oh, look at me.
I'm the rock. I'm so,

Speaker 1 I have huge muscles and I'm eating 100 pancakes. Like, yeah, dude, eat 100 pancakes when you're already full and fat.
That's, that's hard work.

Speaker 1 You know what I mean? A lot. Like, anyone could eat 100 pancakes with a six pack and then be like, back to the gym.

Speaker 4 A lot of people have a lot of opinions on his cheat meals. Yeah, that's my opinion.

Speaker 1 I feel like fake.

Speaker 5 I think he embellishes them. I don't think that, like, when he stacks up all those pancakes, I think he eats maybe a quarter of them.

Speaker 1 And it's just like, if you're in really good shape and you eat a lot of food, that's not hard. You know what I mean?

Speaker 1 Because you're just going to go back to the gym the next day and you're going to take a big dump.

Speaker 1 If you're already fat and you feel like shit and you can only wear a sweatshirt and you're like, I'm still stuffing my face, that's hard work.

Speaker 4 So you don't think his cheat meals are hard work enough and you think his cheat meals are fake?

Speaker 1 Oh, I think they're completely fake.

Speaker 1 Yeah, so I guess we got tapes.

Speaker 4 So his cheat meals, I don't, here's why I don't think they're fake.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 4 Because I think it's a feast or famine situation where if you diet and train like a lunatic, you will eat all 100 of those pancakes until you're in pain laying on the floor, which to answer yours, maybe it is hard work.

Speaker 6 No, it's not.

Speaker 4 Maybe these cheat meals aren't such a negative.

Speaker 4 I don't know.

Speaker 1 He goes to the gym that stays in the middle. I've never seen him eat.

Speaker 4 I've got 100 pounds over my head.

Speaker 1 I'm back on my grind.

Speaker 5 What Big Cat's saying is that it's stolen valor. Right.
To eat a big meal like that and to act like you're a fat guy and then to not have to suffer the consequences of eating like that all the time.

Speaker 5 His culture is not his culture.

Speaker 1 I want to see The Rock eat a cheat meal when he's already full.

Speaker 1 Because that's what I do.

Speaker 4 I just, for the record, his cheat meals have been referred to as stolen valor.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Stolen valor.

Speaker 5 Yes. 100%.

Speaker 5 I agree with that taste. Yes.
But I'll go one step further and say I don't think he actually eats everything. I think that The Rock did his first cheat meal, which was organic.

Speaker 5 And it not like in terms of organic food, but like it was from his own brain. Hey, I'll post my cheat meal.
And everybody was like, wow, The Rock, that's such a huge cheat meal.

Speaker 5 And then he was like, oh, shit, that did a lot of traction.

Speaker 1 So now I have to keep it up.

Speaker 5 Find a different way to make my meal look bigger.

Speaker 4 If you had to have a cheat meal just because we're now, we're in it on this cheat meal thing, what would you have?

Speaker 1 Well, it's all about how you photograph it.

Speaker 5 So if you want to make something look bigger, you got to get down from like a low angle.

Speaker 1 The angle.

Speaker 5 Yeah, and angle it up and have it really right in the camera space.

Speaker 4 I've been trying to get this. There's a place in there's one in Brooklyn location called Crispy Pizza.
Okay. And they're all over Instagram.

Speaker 4 That's mainly that my algorithm is just ice cream and wrestling and pizza.

Speaker 1 Nice.

Speaker 4 That's where it's circling at the moment.

Speaker 1 Mine's like big tits and cheeseburgers, but yeah. Yeah.
Each their own. Cheeseburgers? Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 4 For whatever reason, I've been trying to get this pizza, but then finally I did a commercial shoot the other day, and I could have eaten it, and somebody brought it, and I couldn't do it.

Speaker 1 Why not?

Speaker 4 I feel like I'm not to the finish line yet on the dieting,

Speaker 4 but it wouldn't have hurt either, was the thing.

Speaker 4 I have this dumb game I play with myself where I tell myself, if you have that, you lose everything. Yeah.
And that seems like a sick statue.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it might be.

Speaker 1 That's fucked up, man.

Speaker 1 That's what makes you great. It's the same thing.

Speaker 4 But if you touch it, it's like you lose it all.

Speaker 1 House gone. You know, like

Speaker 1 Everything's gone.

Speaker 4 It's gone.

Speaker 5 You were talking about how you keep thinking next time you come out into the ring, they might boo me. Like that's a thought that's in the back of your head.

Speaker 5 I would imagine that to stay in the good graces of your audience, you have to think of ways at times. Like, what can I do to keep them cheering for me?

Speaker 5 But then it's kind of a catch-22 where if you go too hard, they can sense that. Yeah.
And then they'll start to boo you. So

Speaker 5 how do you deal with that mentally?

Speaker 4 Well, I think it's you can't do the latter in a sense that you can't just do it to get the pop. You can't just do it to, hey, they'll like this.
That'd be easy.

Speaker 4 I'm going to wear a, we're in Chicago's, I'm Chicago, I'm going to wear a bear's jersey. You can't just go for the low-hanging fruit.
It has to be an authentic thing.

Speaker 4 And one of the big disagreements John Cena and I have had, and we had this disagreement behind the scenes, and we had this disagreement right in front of the camera, is he feels I'm not authentic enough or as authentic as he was.

Speaker 4 And I think at this point,

Speaker 4 I'm pretty confident in who I am. You've proven it, yeah.

Speaker 4 Exactly. I feel like I got a proven track record.
But the answer is

Speaker 4 you can't be a hack about it.

Speaker 4 And maybe it's that let some of them who don't like you, you can't get them all. They may not like you.
When I was wrestling Kevin Owens, he has a great fan base, just great equity in general.

Speaker 4 Most people booed, but there are some.

Speaker 1 You hear a

Speaker 1 wild thing here every now and then.

Speaker 4 You just got to let you can't get them all. You know what I'm saying?

Speaker 5 Yeah.

Speaker 4 Have you ever seen the episode? This is such a random, deep, deep cut here. You ever seen the episode of Parks and Rec with Leslie Nope running for office?

Speaker 1 Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 7 I love that shit.

Speaker 4 When she's trying to get the guy and she's bowling with him.

Speaker 4 That's the kiss of death if you're a babyface in our business. That dude's not voting for you.
Right. You got to move on.
All right. You got to move on.
That's a good point.

Speaker 1 That's a good point. So I have a question about your dad and growing up.
Like, I grew up loving wrestling, but obviously I was removed from it.

Speaker 1 Was it ever like when you're growing up and you're watching it, was it ever different for you experiencing it and then knowing like, oh, that's my dad out there and he could get hurt and like that whole feeling of like, I can't love it like a fan can love it in the same way?

Speaker 4 The way my dad raised me in the business, which will not be the way I raised my daughter, was incorrect. And he never really gave me any inside.

Speaker 4 So I had to figure out very early on that he has a relationship with Ric Flair. That's not just Ric Flair breaking his arm in the parking lot.
I had to figure it out early on, and I never really did.

Speaker 4 Interesting. If that makes any sense.

Speaker 1 So, like, if Ric Flair showed up to your house when you were like 10 years old, you'd be like, it's on site.

Speaker 4 So, even if I can't win the fight,

Speaker 4 I would be willing to fight. Yeah.

Speaker 1 You're like, this guy is really mean to my dad.

Speaker 4 Exactly. And the way my dad was, he might complain about something that happened on screen.
He also might complain about something.

Speaker 4 off screen and they all blend together. Here's what I've learned in my position on the top at WWE and with other top WWE stars that I've worked with.
It might as well be the UFC.

Speaker 4 When you get in this rare space, it's as real as it can possibly get in ways you wouldn't expect.

Speaker 4 And that's almost terrifying. But that's why, again, growing up the son of Dusty Rhodes, I just was his biggest fan.
And

Speaker 4 anyone across from him

Speaker 4 just, I wasn't having it. I wasn't having it.
And I've told this story before, but it's the greatest example of there's the toughest guy in the industry ever was a guy named Haku.

Speaker 4 If you hear any of these big fish stories about him taking a man's eye out or smashing the McDonald's drive-through window, throwing a body press slamp, they're all real. They're real stories.

Speaker 4 Took a man's eye out.

Speaker 4 I took a cop's eye out. This is a real story.
You can look it up. But Ming Haku,

Speaker 4 he slammed a chair. My dad slammed a chair over his head, and he was so tough that he didn't sell it.
And then he choked my dad out. My dad was bleeding and all this.
And I'll never forget it.

Speaker 4 I I was maybe 10 at the time. I probably should have had some.
I'm backstage. I should probably know a little bit about what's going on.

Speaker 4 I remember I'm sitting there next to my dad and he's bleeding and he's got his knees all wrapped up. And Haku walked in and I stood up.
This is a man who's taking another man's eye out.

Speaker 4 And my dad just like,

Speaker 4 shoved me back down on the chair right next to him in a way like, no. And I came over and he was the sweetest human being ever.
Oh, Dusty. Thank you, legend.

Speaker 4 He helped him unwrap his knees and he kissed him on the forehead. and he left.
And I remember thinking,

Speaker 4 just so shocked, instead of knowing, instead of

Speaker 4 knowing the performance, my dad just looked at me and he said, oh, there's different rules back here. We can't fight back here.

Speaker 1 And I bought it. Yeah.
I thought, yeah, okay, that makes sense. That's incredible.
That's fair, yeah.

Speaker 4 No, but it was, to me, there's that famous clip of the guy standing up saying it's still real to me. Yeah.

Speaker 4 That's just me. I'm just saying it in a more sophisticated fashion.

Speaker 1 Did you ever have a rebellious

Speaker 1 teenage years where it's like your dad caught you putting on a butterfly robe and you're like, what the fuck? He can't do this. He likes Ric Flair now?

Speaker 4 I never had a, I was never rebellious against him. Right.
But there were certain wrestlers that I would like that I could tell. He's like, ugh.

Speaker 1 Ugh.

Speaker 4 So he had to explain to me, I liked Hulk Hogan as a kid.

Speaker 4 And he had to explain to me that Hulk Hogan, and again, I thought this was my dad talking, but he had explained to me Hulk Hogan stole and in the proper way stole.

Speaker 4 He was inspired by dusty he was inspired by superstar and I just thought that's a dad talking years later Hogan tells me oh I used to watch your dad in the Tampa Armory I took everything from him

Speaker 4 oh my gosh Shawn Michaels we were just talking about him on my bus too I was watching one of his matches I thought Shawn Michaels was the coolest thing ever I don't think my dad wanted his

Speaker 4 son at the time to like the guy with the you know chaps and hoop earrings yeah and long hair but I was in yeah I was in on it So he used me, I feel like, as a test.

Speaker 4 I'd watch and I'd tell him who I liked, and I could tell he would never try to sell me against my own joy

Speaker 4 about things, but I could tell there were certain ones he thought, like, what the?

Speaker 1 I raised them better.

Speaker 1 You know, why? Yeah, why, why this guy?

Speaker 9 But

Speaker 4 that's how he, I think that's how he kept young in the business.

Speaker 5 Yeah, he's a great focuser.

Speaker 5 Exactly.

Speaker 4 He knew, like, no, no, that's the guy for this generation.

Speaker 1 Were you stone cold or the rock?

Speaker 1 Oh,

Speaker 4 important question.

Speaker 4 So I was

Speaker 4 in the moment, I was stone cold. Okay.
And in the moment, I was stone cold because stunning Steve Austin from WCW was on occasion my babysitter. Oh, on occasion.
That's pretty bad.

Speaker 4 At center stage in Atlanta, and he was the nicest guy about it ever because he didn't really do a lot of babysitting as much as he'd sit me in the locker room and be like, hey, you want a soda? Yeah.

Speaker 4 Yeah, sure, Steve. All right, stay here, though.
Don't go anywhere. My match is next, and then I'll be back.
It was really basic, just keep an eye because my dad was running the show at the time.

Speaker 4 So when he was showing up up in WWE and became the man and had this, I thought,

Speaker 1 that's Steve. That's

Speaker 1 my guy. Yeah.
So, yeah,

Speaker 4 I was with Steve early on. And then, you know, I feel like I love The Rock like everybody else did as well.
Yeah. He was so different and so unique.
They really were great partners together.

Speaker 1 You just basically described 12-year-old me's dream. Stone Cold Steve Austin's my babysitter.
Yeah.

Speaker 4 And I had a lot of at center stage in Atlanta for WCW, at the Omni, at all the local UTC Chattanooga, all these local WCW shows. He'd always get me somebody to watch me.

Speaker 4 But Steve, I felt like, was one of the only ones that really took it serious. I love that.
I remember Sherry Martell one time was watching me. She was not watching me.

Speaker 4 Ricky Steamboat stitched my eye up one time because I fell down the steps and busted my eye. He didn't want my dad to know about it.

Speaker 4 But how is he not going to know about it when I have stitches and a black eye? Yeah,

Speaker 4 I had a fun group, Harley Race. That's incredible.
He was just whittling a stick with a pocket knife and the scariest man I've ever seen in my life. So they were unique babysitters.

Speaker 1 Yeah, definitely.

Speaker 12 Man, I'll tell you what. When you're hungry out there, you start acting like a rookie quarterback in his first game, making bad decisions, messing up the basics, being all out of sorts.

Speaker 12 That's where Snickers comes in, man. That thing is packed.
Roasted peanuts, nugget, caramel, milk chocolate. It's like the MVP of candy bars.

Speaker 12 And when you bite into it, boom, it sorts you out, gets your head back in the game of life, satisfying your hunger. Remember this.
Snickers handles your hunger so you can handle everything else.

Speaker 12 Snickers satisfies, man.

Speaker 4 That's a winning play.

Speaker 5 What about like a rebellious phase where you thought that you weren't going to be a wrestler? Where you were like, maybe I'll be an accountant?

Speaker 4 Never accountant, but I got a little worried when I was 18. Because when I was 18, I had a great amateur wrestling, folk-style, freestyle wrestling career.
And I was always wanting to be a wrestler.

Speaker 4 That was it. I didn't want to go to college.
The plan was pro-wrestling, but I thought I was going to be 6'5, like my brother. My brother's 6'5.

Speaker 4 We had the same foot. You know, I thought, like, I'm getting there.
Still not there, guys.

Speaker 4 So that was a concern for me. I went to LA, Howard Fine's acting studio out there, and I thought, hey, maybe I can tell stories in a different way.

Speaker 4 Maybe wrestling, pro-wrestling, those guys seem so big not to realize that I'm pretty normal sized in our game now.

Speaker 4 But it took me a little while of realizing this is not for me acting. I didn't go on a single meeting.

Speaker 4 I had a great coach, and I really enjoyed it. But wrestling is where I wanted to tell stories first.

Speaker 1 No, you're back in acting.

Speaker 5 You're going to be the new naked gun, right?

Speaker 1 Yeah, I had a little cameo. That's pretty cool.
I love that. I had a little cameo.
I feel a little weird because they keep promoting me.

Speaker 1 You know what? I'm happy that they're promoting me.

Speaker 4 It's pretty cool. But I got to do a scene with Liam Neeson.

Speaker 1 That's awesome. That's legend.
Well, that's the thing.

Speaker 4 And there's so many different things you could say, like Liam Neeson in this movie, Liam Neeson, this movie. I'm a die-hard Star Wars fan, so this is Qui-Gon Jin, man.
This is Liam Neeson. Yeah.

Speaker 4 You know, like it's a, it's a yes, no matter what. But he was the, he was the coolest guy.
He was, and, and

Speaker 4 the way he was doing every scene, he'd take it a little differently. It was just cool to chop up with and learn from him just in that moment.
It was very fun.

Speaker 5 Yeah, I just saw the trailer a second ago, and it's, I, I can't remember the last time I laughed out loud at a trailer. Nice.
This one did it.

Speaker 1 I'm in on this movie. Full LOL, huh? Full LOL.

Speaker 5 When they showed the picture of OJ. That's what did it for me.
Oh, wow.

Speaker 1 Yeah. That was so funny.
Yeah, yeah. It was good.
Sweet. Wait, so now that you've been the champion for a year and your story,

Speaker 1 some may say, you know, it was completed. Are you worried at all? Like, hey, what's next? Like,

Speaker 1 should I have that piece of pizza?

Speaker 4 Bro, I could be sitting here peaked. Yeah.
And not know it. I could just sit there.

Speaker 5 It's a pretty good peak, though.

Speaker 1 It's a great peak, but it also is very, it's got to be a little bit scary to be like,

Speaker 1 what is next? Because this, you had such a great story arc to this point. I'm sure you'll find a way to tell more stories, but

Speaker 1 it's a reinvention almost.

Speaker 4 Again, I think it's, it's especially with John, who was my legitimate mentor. I drove him around for two years and learned everything I possibly could from him.

Speaker 4 And now to have the situation where it's me versus John Cena in the WrestleMania main event is a wild teacher-student moment for me. But you have to win in those moments.

Speaker 4 Otherwise, the master was always the master, right? Right.

Speaker 4 For me, so much was done for me.

Speaker 4 I certainly have worked very hard and I have a great team around me. And I try to work harder than anyone in the locker room.

Speaker 4 However, so many people at WWE have done so much for me that I feel like I have to keep going.

Speaker 4 You know, it's crazy to me that my dad never got one WrestleMania main event and now this is fourth for me and the third headline match going on last. It's like a drug though.

Speaker 4 I just got to find a way to

Speaker 4 get to another one. And the only way you can do that is beat John Cena.
Yeah, which is why I can't have that pizza.

Speaker 1 Yeah, you can't have that pizza.

Speaker 5 How do we feel about John Cena now? How should we feel about John Cena?

Speaker 4 Or where are you from originally?

Speaker 1 Originally from Russia. I don't know why that determined the GeoCena.
John Cena.

Speaker 5 Right outside D.C.

Speaker 1 He's a recurring guest on this show. Yeah.
Yeah. He's been on twice.
Second time didn't go so well.

Speaker 4 John is

Speaker 4 so polar opposites, I feel like, in terms of when he was teaching me, because he genuinely was. I'd get in the car with him.
He'd get on the phone. Hey, how'd we do at the merch stand?

Speaker 4 He'd get every number breakdown. He'd then call his boss at the time, which was Vince.
He'd talk about the show. He just, he was so committed and so locked in.
And I watched all that, and I stole.

Speaker 4 He even said it to me this past Monday. You stole all of the playbook.
You stole the playbook, and you're using it wrong. I don't know what that means.
You use it how you use it.

Speaker 4 I feel like fans, if they have a love for John Cena, if he's their hero, if you want to see him break the record, I would not discourage that.

Speaker 4 Kind of like we were talking about, my dad never tried to rob me of my joy. To some people, he's still John Cena, you know, picking up big show and edge and doing these amazing feats of strength.

Speaker 4 And to other people, especially the younger audience that's now seen John in the last month or so,

Speaker 4 he's kind of a dick.

Speaker 4 And

Speaker 4 I'm good wherever you sit on the fence with that. But when you come to WrestleMania 41, it's

Speaker 4 you, you're, you're watching the end of John Cena. Yeah.
So you can enjoy it as his fan or you can enjoy it as someone who's not his fan.

Speaker 5 Kind of a dick. I like that.

Speaker 1 I would agree. Sorry, I feel like.
No, that was good.

Speaker 1 No,

Speaker 1 that got me right there.

Speaker 1 We're here to watch the end of John Cena. That's it.
And you're going to do it.

Speaker 5 Showing our

Speaker 5 biggest ops funeral. Yeah.
We're going to be so happy. Yeah.

Speaker 1 You should whisper in his ear while you're wrestling, like, the part might take guys, say hello. He probably won't remember us at all.

Speaker 4 I don't know. He's got a pretty good memory.

Speaker 1 Then that would piss him off. He's got a pretty good memory.
That would piss him off if you said it. You can get him.

Speaker 4 He went in on me on Monday in London, and it just felt so deep. Yeah.
So deep to the point where, you know, I think I might have had a penis joke as a follow-up, which I was, I was good with that.

Speaker 4 Yeah.

Speaker 4 We're here to have fun, guys. Yeah.

Speaker 4 We're here to have fun. But also, I walked away from that thinking, he's been thinking about this for a while.
Yeah. If I'm meant to be his successor,

Speaker 4 he ain't handed it over.

Speaker 6 Yeah. All right.

Speaker 1 So you got to tell him, be like, you remember the time you went on the number one sports podcast with purple gloves and you couldn't take a joke?

Speaker 4 Maybe hit him with that. You want me to hit him with that? Yeah, hit him with that.

Speaker 4 Do you want to know how dumb certain people think I am, by the way? They must have told me that you guys are the number one sports podcast. They're laughing because I told them to stop.

Speaker 4 Because I said, they say, hey, do you want to come on part of my take? Yes. It was a yes.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 We were a yes.

Speaker 4 Let's go. And they were still, you know, it's the number.

Speaker 1 Yes, what part of me indicated to you I wasn't interested?

Speaker 4 Yeah.

Speaker 4 That's an old school sell at WWB.

Speaker 4 It's you guys are factually the number one sports podcast. Way back in the the day, WD would be like, hey, it's a great opportunity.
You could really, that was always, I don't need that.

Speaker 9 It's real. Just let it be.

Speaker 1 All right, so just tell them that the pardon my take guys like me more than you because that's a fact. You're a better guest than him.
Yeah. That you are a better guest than John Cena.

Speaker 4 I'll tell them right now.

Speaker 4 Where's he at?

Speaker 1 Yeah, John Cena.

Speaker 4 John Cena, the pardon my take guys like me way more than they like you, and I am a better guest.

Speaker 5 It's not even close.

Speaker 1 And our fan base likes you way more now than him because, again, it didn't go well the last time we had him on. There it is.

Speaker 5 Good job by your team, though.

Speaker 5 I think they sometimes teams remind people of that because when they sit down here, they're like, they forget that when they're talking to us, and they're just like, how?

Speaker 5 How are these guys number one?

Speaker 1 Yeah, because we're looking at it.

Speaker 1 We actually cleaned up today for you. We actually,

Speaker 4 your neighbors didn't clean up. Yeah,

Speaker 1 Brandon Walker and the rat and the wrestling game.

Speaker 4 There's a big chewy box on the floor and no dog.

Speaker 1 No, that's for Brandon. What a tease.
Yeah, no, the guys came in and they cleaned up. Yeah, they cleaned up.
It looks really clean in here.

Speaker 4 It looks great.

Speaker 5 I have maybe a dumb question for you about the signs that you see at wrestling events.

Speaker 4 events yes they're always really funny i feel like for the most part people are creative when they bring their signs in yeah that's all i look at when i'm watching wrestling a good sign a good sign yeah i try to find the best sign do you spend any time at all reading the signs in the audience so uh there's a particular moment where uh it's been heavily complained about by some of my peers but there's a lot of pyro for my entrance uh and there's there's a third one that may be a little indulgent where i'll go up on the buckle and they all yell whoa in my song when i get up on the buckle before i go in the ring i try and look out and see as many signs as I can because a lot of times it might just be a little kiddo with an American Nightmare sign.

Speaker 4 I want him to know I see it.

Speaker 4 And that's also a good way for me to remind myself: I'm doing this. We're doing this together.
This performance, this competition is not just here in the squared circle. We're all involved.

Speaker 4 So I like to do it there. In terms of funny signs,

Speaker 4 I saw one that had a picture of me side by side saying that I look like Randall from Monsters Inc.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 4 for a moment, my heart was broken, but then I kind of looked at the way my posture is, and I'm a little randled up. You're a little randled.
I'm a little randled up. And I thought, you know what?

Speaker 1 I'm good with that. That's a compliment.
Yeah,

Speaker 4 I was okay with it.

Speaker 1 Wait, so are you saying other guys have big-time pyro envy of you? Are they mad that you have to get it? Pyro's hard to get. And you have all of it.

Speaker 4 Pyro's hard to get.

Speaker 1 Are you hogging the pyro?

Speaker 4 If you were to look at a like a line-by-line

Speaker 1 sheet,

Speaker 1 are you a pyro hog? I am a pyro hog. Okay.
But also, I don't.

Speaker 4 So Triple H runs the show. Right.

Speaker 4 I'm his guy. Yeah.
I don't want to blow that.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 4 I might have just blown it.

Speaker 5 But that's who picks out the pyro.

Speaker 4 So Kevin Owens is the one who's gone on a rant lately as to why he doesn't have any pyro. And I feel like we could probably spare some pyro for KO.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 You should just hand him a little, like a sparkler or something. Yeah.
No, buddy.

Speaker 4 Well, there's a whole argument for maybe he doesn't need it. Yeah.
You know, Steve Austin never needed pyro. I'm not going to lie.
I don't mind the whole, give me all the bells and whistles.

Speaker 4 Some guys are just right there in your face and they didn't need it. But I don't mind blowing this guy up when I come out there.
It wakes him up. It's an exciting moment.

Speaker 5 So you think like every other guy sees your pyro and they're like, that is a firework that could have been used on me. Yeah.
Like every single time.

Speaker 1 That one was too much. I could have had that one.

Speaker 4 I heard a guy literally, as I was walking out and the first one burst, tell the rest of the boys that were in the gorilla position, which is the behind the scenes position, there goes your your Christmas bonus, guys.

Speaker 1 Oh, I love it.

Speaker 4 A, we don't get Christmas bonuses. It's just a, it's not how the pay works.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 4 And it's not, we're not taking money from the talent pool for the pyro.

Speaker 1 But I love this because this is kind of what you were talking about. How, yeah, listen, we understand what wrestling is, but there's a real factor to it, the competition behind that is so real

Speaker 1 that that makes it awesome.

Speaker 4 That's why, so when like the F word, when people say fake, I always, I never get hot. Some wrestlers get real like hot under the collar and they're talking about injuries and things of that nature.

Speaker 4 The reason I never say it is because the competition at the top is as real as anything I've ever done in my life. Right.

Speaker 4 So I can't, and then the feeling, you see a kid and his dad or a whole family together and they come to a show, their feeling is as real as anything ever, too. So

Speaker 4 it's a real crazy world.

Speaker 1 I love that, Cody Rose, the Pyro Hog. So

Speaker 1 speaking of entrances, you've wrestled Undertaker.

Speaker 1 Did you, were you ever like, this is the longest entrance ever?

Speaker 4 So I didn't have that reaction to Undertaker.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 4 I had that reaction to Romans. Okay.
But then I found out mine clocks in a little longer.

Speaker 1 Really?

Speaker 4 And I thought, okay, fair. I'll tell you a cool Undertaker story from last year because I believe The Undertaker might be shoot magical.
Okay.

Speaker 4 Well, explain that.

Speaker 4 I think there's real magic there. Okay.
And here's where I saw it. WrestleMania 40.
Undertaker's going to come in. He's going to choke slam the rock.
This is going to happen.

Speaker 4 He's going to help me in my situation because there's 50 members of the bloodline and I didn't have anybody with me.

Speaker 4 So the gong hits, and then he appears, places their mine, and it's just really the energy. You can feel it.
And I'm kind of laying there, half beat to death, but one of my eyes was open.

Speaker 4 He chokeslams the rock and he looks at me. And it never was on camera because he just looked back at me.
I think he was looking to have a moment with me.

Speaker 4 I blew it basically because I'm just laying there half dead. And he literally just looked at me and went and winked and then the lights went out.

Speaker 1 That's awesome. And I thought that that happened.
Yeah.

Speaker 4 The Undertaker.

Speaker 4 I feel bad. I texted him at I want to say five in the morning his time the other day on accident because I was in Europe and we just did this big thing with Clash of Clans and Supercell.

Speaker 4 And he's one of the skins you can get. I just needed him to know how good the game was.

Speaker 4 I don't know if he was interested.

Speaker 1 Yeah. I don't know if he cared.

Speaker 4 I thought it was really cool.

Speaker 1 That is cool. Yeah, Taker's the best.
He is the best.

Speaker 4 You got to get him on your show.

Speaker 1 You've had him on. We had him on your show.
You had Take on? Yeah, he was on.

Speaker 7 Big UT guy.

Speaker 4 Big Texas guy.

Speaker 1 Yeah, he's the man. I mean, Undertaker and Kane, that storyline,

Speaker 1 no offense to any of your storylines. I think that's the peak of wrestling.
Brothers fighting each other? Yeah. And just like, I thought they were, yeah, well, I mean, brothers.

Speaker 1 The fire and everything, and, you know,

Speaker 4 lightning bolt on one another. And they did some wild stuff.
Yeah, Kane.

Speaker 1 Ken being revealed. Yeah.
Yeah.

Speaker 4 That Hell in the Cell is altogether one of the greater pieces of business. The match is amazing.
Shawn Michaels is amazing, and then the reveal of Kane.

Speaker 4 I had to watch it, remember in pay-per-view if you didn't order it? Yeah. Or if it got screwed up, I waited too late.
So I had to watch it in the

Speaker 4 fuzz and just use IR.

Speaker 1 Like, that's got to be Kane. Yeah.

Speaker 5 The best. How often are you actually surprised in the ring? Like, how often does the production pull something on you that you don't know is coming?

Speaker 4 I honestly like to be surprised every week.

Speaker 1 Oh.

Speaker 4 Yeah, I like to be very disciplined, organized, know what I plan to do, and be polished and prepared. But I'll say this, working with Cena, I've been surprised every week.

Speaker 4 That's not going to be,

Speaker 4 I don't want to say it's difficult. I want to say it's challenging.

Speaker 4 Again, if you're meant to be my successor, show me. Yeah.
And just, geez. All right.
But production-wise, they're pretty on about

Speaker 7 no...

Speaker 1 nothing wild

Speaker 4 with me at least. It's a really good, really good team at WWE.
They can make stuff look quite amazing. Yeah.

Speaker 1 What do wrestlers do for fun? What do you do for fun outside of wrestling? You don't eat pizza. I want it, though.
You want it? Crispy pizza, man. You don't eat it.

Speaker 1 You should get like an assistant who just eats all your pizza for you. I'll do that.
I'm going to be honest. Just go around with you.
Kind of have that already. Oh, you do? Okay.

Speaker 4 My brother's on the bus right now ordering an ice cream cake. There you go.

Speaker 5 That is the scene from Dodgeball where a guy LaFleur is sitting in the office and he's just looking at pizza and shocking himself. Yeah.
So he won't eat it. Yeah, that's the joy.

Speaker 4 That's not unhealthy in any way, right?

Speaker 1 He was a good character.

Speaker 5 Yeah.

Speaker 1 But what do you do for fun?

Speaker 4 Well, my daughter, she's almost four. So that is the journey.
Yeah. Just,

Speaker 4 that's the greatest thing ever is just hearing about what's going on in her life and the trials and tribulations of super kitties.

Speaker 4 And that stuff. She's just, oh, my gosh.
And she saw Snow White the other day, all kinds of opinions on that. Just that to me, I never thought I was going to have children.

Speaker 4 And me and my wife, that wasn't part of our plan. And then then this has been, oh, my gosh, why weren't we doing this all along? I know.
It's just been the greatest thing.

Speaker 4 Other than that, other than hanging out with Liberty,

Speaker 4 I would say I go to top golf a lot.

Speaker 1 Oh. Yes.
Oh, yeah.

Speaker 4 And I'm a slugger at top golf.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 4 I feel like a real golfer. Yeah.
Yeah. And I try to dress the part and everything, but I'm not a golfer.
Yeah. I'm just got, I'm a good little.
You dress up like it.

Speaker 4 Yeah, I'm a good little top golfer.

Speaker 1 I like top golf's very fun.

Speaker 5 So you smash it, you step up, you just hit driver.

Speaker 4 Oh, yeah, just and if somebody sets it where they're playing angry birds, they're effing up the whole flow, yeah, because that's not when that's not skill-based, that's not top golf, yeah, it's not top golf.

Speaker 1 That's not top golf, thank you. Wait, do you actually golf on a golf course? No, no, this is just I just go to top golf, I'm just cranking.

Speaker 4 That's what I'm saying.

Speaker 9 I want to look the part, yeah, and I would be ready.

Speaker 4 You know, you start talking to, again, I mentioned kind of being in an office position. I'm always ready.
Somebody asked me to go golfing, yeah,

Speaker 4 I'm gonna fake it till I make it. Yeah, I'm gonna go out there and do my best.

Speaker 5 Yeah, you bring your your own clubs to top golf?

Speaker 4 No, not yet. I haven't got there yet.

Speaker 1 That's what you should do, too. That's a bold move, huh?

Speaker 5 Buy your own set just for top golf. Gosh, that sounds great, though.

Speaker 4 Yeah. Custom clubs, too.
Exactly.

Speaker 1 Yeah, like a pool shark. Yeah.
Show up and you're like, oh, I got this one.

Speaker 4 You remember that unbelievable Fresh Prince episode where he

Speaker 4 Uncle Phil and the hustler?

Speaker 1 Yes.

Speaker 4 Yes. It's a regular.

Speaker 4 This is a weird thing.

Speaker 4 You watch weird stuff when you're on the treadmill. Yeah.
Weird things motivate you. Something about that scene makes me want to run through a brick wall.

Speaker 1 What is he name as pool q

Speaker 1 oh it's a got a female name

Speaker 1 from jeff is it is it lucille yeah i think it's lucille like jeffrey fetch me lucille lucille yeah and then he's just so nasty he's just running it up on him oh man smooth yeah yeah he's got that big guy smooth man they don't make tv like that anymore no they don't huh they don't i wish

Speaker 13 um all right well this has been awesome i got one last question for you hey this is ria from chicks in the office and this season we're heading home for the holidays with abercrombie and fitch we all know our calendars are about to get chaotic.

Speaker 13 For non-stop plans, Abercrombie has the pieces to curate your perfect seasonal wardrobe, sweaters and denim for casual plans, party dresses for nights out, and comfy matching sets for everything in between.

Speaker 13 Keep the chaos cute this season in Abercrombie. Shop their new holiday outfits in the app online or in stores.

Speaker 1 Okay, so we talked about your future in wrestling. Are you acting? Are we going to be i know that you're in the new movie, but are you, are you, are we going to be like lead man Cody Rhodes?

Speaker 4 I'd love to get out there. There's some fun projects coming up.

Speaker 4 I'd love to get out there and tell stories that way for sure and grow. I love pro wrestling.
I'll always, like I found with The Rock, it's here. He's a wrestler.

Speaker 4 But to get out there and I love what Rock has done. I love what John has done.
And Dave Batista as well. All of them have gone different routes when approaching Hollywood.

Speaker 4 And I think I might be next to join the fray with all that.

Speaker 1 And we're going to beat John Cena on April 20th, right? Yeah. You got to.

Speaker 4 His last WrestleMania. Just whispering.

Speaker 5 Can you promise us something? Can you just make him feel pain? Yeah.

Speaker 1 Put him in pain. Tell him this is for pardon my take.

Speaker 4 It's naturally pretty painful, but extra pain. Extra pain.
For pardon my take.

Speaker 1 This is for pardon my take.

Speaker 5 Dial it up to 11.

Speaker 4 It's a little PMT pain right here. Yeah.
You know what I'm saying?

Speaker 1 Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 4 One extra, you know? Yeah.

Speaker 1 He'll actually, he might get scared. He might be like, oh my god,

Speaker 1 kill me.

Speaker 4 Sneak one in, you know? Yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 Kill him.

Speaker 4 yeah um all right well cody this has been awesome man we really appreciate you coming by thank you a lot of fun talking to you and good luck april 19th april 20th in vegas be careful in vegas can you can you go out after can you can you like enjoy yourself so i've been to vegas uh a bunch of times yeah uh we were talking about the story earlier i went from wrestling in samstown which is a local casino which is a great the killer's albums named after it uh to allegiance stadium i am vegased out yeah so i can do it to you yeah i'm I'm more worried about some of my peers.

Speaker 4 Okay. I need them to make it there Saturday and Sunday.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Do you have a fanny pack? I always loved wrestling. Like, not

Speaker 1 wrestlers, you always had fanny pack. I assume it was.

Speaker 4 I tried shirt, tuck, fanny pack, and dip. I tried to be a chewer.

Speaker 4 I threw up on the side of the ring at OBW, and CM Punk had to watch me, and like basically, while I threw up in a trash can, so that didn't work for me. Okay.

Speaker 4 And the fanny pack, I didn't have enough stuff.

Speaker 4 Wrestlers always have, there's like everything in there. It's a bottomless bag.

Speaker 1 What about more pyro?

Speaker 1 I could always get more. If you just have more pyro in your face, like when the next time someone complains, they're like, God, he's taking all the pyro.
Be like, hey, buddy, look at this.

Speaker 1 Here's some black cash for you. More pyro.

Speaker 1 Well, that's a great idea. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Yo, you thought I took all the pyro? Look at this.

Speaker 1 I had a little left over, bro.

Speaker 1 They didn't know what to do with it, so I took it.

Speaker 1 All right, well, Cody, best of luck. Thanks.
And stay champ. Yeah.
Thank you. Thanks, man.
Thanks, guys. That was great.
That was great.

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Speaker 1 Okay, Fire Fest of the week.

Speaker 1 Let's get it going.

Speaker 1 Henry!

Speaker 5 I don't think Henry has any Fire Fest because you've been in such a great mood this week that it seems like you're really running on full cylinders here. Yeah, actually, you know what?

Speaker 1 Let's let's let's go a different uh order this week. Uh, Max, do you have a fire fest? I don't do fire fests.
Uh, let's do one this week. Do you have a fire fest, Max?

Speaker 6 I don't do fire fests.

Speaker 5 Okay, you got you got fooled by America's top actor.

Speaker 7 Yeah, yeah, and I hope this is the last we talk about it.

Speaker 5 I think that's the real takeaway is Jerry O'Connell's back. Yeah, the acting chops still got it.

Speaker 1 We're victims as well. True.
We were just we were victimized just like you, Max.

Speaker 5 I think me and Big Cat are actually the biggest victims here. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Disagree. Okay.
Do you how did the 24 hours you said your mom called and made funny other people?

Speaker 7 Yeah, my mom called and made funny me

Speaker 1 How

Speaker 1 any other reactions from from people close to you?

Speaker 7 Yeah, I got re I got reactions from a ton of people.

Speaker 1 Yeah I mean you had the craw listen did it suck for you? Yeah.

Speaker 1 Are you a moron? Yeah.

Speaker 7 I will say I got a lot of people who were who would text me as they were listening being like, holy shit, you're going to the White House, and then being like, oh, fuck.

Speaker 5 So they fell for it too. Yeah.

Speaker 1 But this was one of those moments that crossed over where my friends in real life were like, holy shit, Max is such an idiot. And I was like, yeah, man, he's really dumb for that.
But

Speaker 1 you put a smile on a ton of people's faces on Wednesday. That's a fact.
Yeah, I'm happy for those people.

Speaker 1 Hank was one of them. How is your beef with Hank

Speaker 7 I wish I thought of the pizza draft thing in real time.

Speaker 4 That was a miss by me.

Speaker 6 What was the first thing? This was going to be my Firefest, but what was the first thing I said to you on Wednesday?

Speaker 7 No idea. I apologize.

Speaker 6 I listened back.

Speaker 6 I said I was going to listen back to make sure nothing was cut. And I remember laughing as hard as I did.
I was like, this was really funny. And then as I listened back, I was listening to myself.

Speaker 6 And I was like, you know, chill out, Hank. Like, you're being an asshole.
I sounded like an asshole.

Speaker 6 I felt bad, even though it did get the reaction that was funny, but I felt like I was from, I didn't think I was as mean as I sounded when I listened back.

Speaker 6 And I was like, no, dude, you just sound like an asshole. So my Firefest is I was mean, and I apologize.

Speaker 5 Yeah, also, Hank's Fire Fest is reminding you that he does listen to the show. Yeah.
That was a good way of putting that, Hank.

Speaker 1 And he wants credit for the apology. Yes.

Speaker 6 Well, no, that was going to be my Fire Fest.

Speaker 7 It's like, no, he just wanted to listen back because he's a sicko, and he was like, Max sounded like an idiot. Let me go back and relive that moment of Max.

Speaker 6 I was like, because you were like, we're going to cut this. I was like, I'll make sure he doesn't.

Speaker 1 You knew I wasn't going to cut it. Hand up, I listened back twice.
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 7 But that had nothing to do with seeing if I was going to cut it. You just loved that moment and wanted to live through it again.
No,

Speaker 1 I was laying in bed on Tuesday night. And I saw the podcast dropped, and I made my wife listen to it.
I was like, you got to hear this. Yeah, well.
And it was worth it.

Speaker 7 But yeah. Also, my girlfriend listens to nothing.
She didn't listen after the Eagles won the Super Bowl. She was like, oh, I got to listen to this.

Speaker 1 I was like,

Speaker 7 everyone just likes to listen, likes to see me at my low points.

Speaker 6 And that's how I felt bad. No, you don't.

Speaker 1 Don't say that you feel like that. Max is a good guy.

Speaker 6 Why are you being such an asshole? I can tell you that.

Speaker 1 It wasn't that.

Speaker 6 Like, when I was like, dumb, you're so dumb. You're so dumb.
It's like, that was mean.

Speaker 5 Yeah. It's been eating Hank up inside.
Oh, yeah.

Speaker 1 He's as guilty conscious as hell.

Speaker 7 No, Hank's never had any moments like that where he falls for a prank.

Speaker 6 Well, I wouldn't get that upset if I did fall for a prank.

Speaker 1 Oh, yeah. I was going to say, here's the good news, Max.
As long as you get over this prank,

Speaker 1 I would say within two years, you'll have gotten over faster than Hank did with the pizza Mount Rushmore. Hank was mad about it for legitimately two full years.

Speaker 5 You know why Hank's been in such a good mood recently? Because this is as far away from Mount Rushmore season as we can possibly get.

Speaker 5 Once we get back into Mount Rushmore season, he just becomes pissed off all the time.

Speaker 6 That's true. I mean, different circumstances, but I still, you know, double olives.

Speaker 1 You know what?

Speaker 5 I was actually looking back at the Mount Rushmore pizza toppings. This is how I know that I'm getting a little bit old.
The combination of ham, green olives, black olives, and mushrooms.

Speaker 5 Like, that actually sounds like pretty good. Yeah, it does.

Speaker 1 I think we did it another day.

Speaker 7 Billy and Jake saying oregano with their oregano.

Speaker 1 Oregano, yeah. Oregano.

Speaker 7 With their number two overall pick.

Speaker 1 And then I did the whole, oh, I thought you took sausage. How to get back to Hank? Oh, my God.
Hank had everything.

Speaker 1 Do we also do it with appetizers because someone sent me a graphic of our appetizers. Yeah.
And it was like, we had the worst picks ever that looked intentional.

Speaker 5 No, I think what we did on that, if memory serves, Hank had an all-time bad draft of the worst appetizers. Oh, yeah.
Where he put all the good ones. And so we tried to give that back to him.

Speaker 6 I won that, John. Yeah.
Calamari's trash.

Speaker 1 No, Calmar's good.

Speaker 5 No, but I can tell that you're really beating yourself up over being mean to Max. And I appreciate that from you.
Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 1 really nice of you. Well, I do sometimes because I do get people

Speaker 6 a decent amount, even like I think my mom is asking me, she's like, Are you and Mac? Like, I'm like, Yeah, me and Max are tight, like, we're boys. She's like, Really?

Speaker 6 Because it doesn't sound like that.

Speaker 7 I know, I like that's my favorite question when people come up to me and be like, You and Mac, you and Hank actually hate each other.

Speaker 1 But listening to the

Speaker 1 podcast, I completely get it because it was like very intense.

Speaker 6 And I got you to your voice to screech.

Speaker 1 Oh, man, my voice screeches.

Speaker 1 But again, Max, I have a question.

Speaker 5 Do we have a way of, like, when you're going back and listening to the podcast and when Pug is editing it, certainly you're letting Pug edit in peace, right?

Speaker 7 I got mad at Pug.

Speaker 5 For doing what?

Speaker 1 You didn't threaten him with violence, did you?

Speaker 7 I don't think that I threatened him with violence.

Speaker 1 I heard violence.

Speaker 7 I don't remember threatening him with violence. He did.

Speaker 4 We have a clip, too. What did he say?

Speaker 7 We don't have a real clip. He did.

Speaker 1 No, we have a clip. Max does a thing that's very Italian.
When he gets really, really mad, he goes like this. He raises his hand like this, like he's going to backhand.

Speaker 7 Well, no, but that's like

Speaker 7 that's me just speaking with my hand.

Speaker 5 That's when he adds a period.

Speaker 1 Yeah, he chops. Correct.
Correct.

Speaker 5 So, memes, what did he say to Pug?

Speaker 4 So, Pug was editing the podcast. It was his first time listening to it, and out loud, Pug just goes, I can't believe you fell for this.

Speaker 7 No, that's not what he said.

Speaker 1 That's not what he said. That's not what he said.

Speaker 5 Memes is talking. Well, he just did it wrong.
Well, memes is talking.

Speaker 1 Let memes present his case, but he answered the question over, and you can hear me. It was close.

Speaker 7 It was close. He was like, he genuinely asked the question, which made it even worse.
He was like, you didn't actually believe this, right?

Speaker 7 And

Speaker 7 it was when I was the most heated about it.

Speaker 5 That's what Memes just said.

Speaker 7 And he said, no, no, no. Because the way that Memes portrayed that was he was mocking me, but he wasn't mocking me.
He was genuinely asking the question.

Speaker 5 Not mocking.

Speaker 7 Which made me even more angry. And then when I told him, to shut up, he just kept asking, being like, no, like, you said it.
Like, this is all.

Speaker 7 He was like, this is all a joke.

Speaker 1 He was trying to have your back.

Speaker 7 Kind of, but it, but it made me

Speaker 7 more angry because he couldn't

Speaker 7 possibly fathom.

Speaker 6 He's like, surely after he said Hamas, you knew it was. Yeah.

Speaker 1 No liberal judgment.

Speaker 7 Nothing more from Hank. Nothing more from Hank after you've also been pranked in a way that is unfathomable to understand.

Speaker 5 Also, to be fair, well, no, that's competition.

Speaker 6 I believed in something, and I just didn't realize that the...

Speaker 7 You believed that Billy Football's first pick was a Reagan.

Speaker 5 Billy and Jake and yes Jake could definitely pick a Regano as a favorite topic to be fair to Hank or to be fair to Max he PFT has terrible taste he probably thought that that Jerry said no hummus and Max was like not a problem yeah

Speaker 1 never never an issue never uh yeah so I had to I had to uh I came in on Wednesday morning so I think there's a lot of this is in PM TV go watch it uh I came in Wednesday morning and I said hello to the boys and they're like did you hear Max threaten Pug with violence so I had to call Max.

Speaker 1 I had to, I had to, to, to lay down the law. There's no threatening of violence to Pug.

Speaker 1 Everyone in this room can threaten violence to each other. That's a totally fair thing.
I think that's a good, healthy, working relationship. If every now and then we're like, I want to beat your ass.

Speaker 1 But Pug, he's too precious. We cannot touch Pug.
So Max agreed, no more threatening violence towards Pug.

Speaker 1 Fair? But Pug also was like,

Speaker 1 I was like, did he threaten you? He's like, kind of. And I was like, how'd that make you feel? He's like, well, he is my boss.
I was like, that's bad.

Speaker 7 Yeah, no, I should have done that.

Speaker 7 But I was mad.

Speaker 1 Yeah. You hate dogs.
Yeah.

Speaker 4 I have a dog.

Speaker 1 But credit to Hank for saying sorry to you.

Speaker 7 What? No, no credit to Hank.

Speaker 6 Sounds like you weren't listening. This dude's done with me.

Speaker 1 He's done.

Speaker 6 This was like maybe six hours later. Well, that and me and Max crossed past in the bathroom, and I saw him, and I just like, you know, tapped him on the shoulder.

Speaker 1 Like, he kind of chuckled. Yeah.

Speaker 7 Hank just looked at me for the rest of the day with that stupid little fucking grin on his face.

Speaker 6 I'm done with you, and stormed out of the bathroom. Yeah, he was mad.

Speaker 1 I tried to give him a hug. He hates when I tried to give him a hug.

Speaker 6 I always, every time I leave the office and the boys are still working, I go up.

Speaker 1 That's a lie. That's a lie.

Speaker 5 And I went up to him and it's usually pretty late because you're working late.

Speaker 1 What are you doing? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's a lie.
Hank is playing golf. Good guy.

Speaker 1 Great job, Hank. And golf.
All right, PFT.

Speaker 5 Good friend, even better coworker. That's what we say about Hank.

Speaker 5 My Fire Fest of the Week, it's all Blake related this week. So on Sunday, I took Blake to a dog training class because we're trying to work on some of his behavior issues.

Speaker 5 And at the start of the class, the trainer went around the room and she said, everybody here, please introduce yourselves.

Speaker 5 Start with the pronouns. I thought she meant Blake.

Speaker 1 The dog.

Speaker 5 And I think he goes, I think he's he, him, is what I think. That was an awkward moment for myself.
And then later on this week, I picked him up from daycare. Wait, why is what does the matter?

Speaker 1 What do you mean?

Speaker 6 Like,

Speaker 6 why was it awkward?

Speaker 5 Because the dog, I don't know. She wasn't actually asking for the dog's pronouns.

Speaker 6 But she was asking for yours.

Speaker 1 She was asking for pronouns. Gotcha.

Speaker 6 But you're still he, him.

Speaker 5 Yeah, but when I look at Blake, I'm like, I thought she was talking about introducing Blake.

Speaker 1 Did you introduce Blake as he, him?

Speaker 5 I started to. Gotcha.
And then I realized it halfway through, and it was very awkward and very embarrassing for me.

Speaker 5 And then I picked him up from daycare on Tuesday, and he wasn't putting any weight on his back right leg. So I took him to the vet.

Speaker 5 He wouldn't let the vet touch him yesterday because he was like, I don't know. He's like, don't fuck with my leg.
So now I have to, I've got him doped up today. I gave him four pills this morning.

Speaker 5 I'm giving him four more this afternoon. Then I have to pick him up because he's going to be knocked out.
put him in the car, take him to the vet. Hopefully they'll examine him.

Speaker 5 But now it's looking like Blake might be. Last summer is when he had the double elbows.
Yeah. And now he might have an ACL.
Oh, so I got to get. I don't know.
Can we do blood spinning? Can we do H.

Speaker 5 Is there HG? Get him to Germany? Get him to fly Blake to Germany and see what's going on. Hopefully, it's not the ACL.

Speaker 5 But yeah, we're looking at maybe another summer where

Speaker 5 Blake won't be able to go outside and play, which is a bummer when you look at your dog and he just looks at you like, I'm depressed. Yeah, I mean, I can tell that my dog is depressed.

Speaker 1 People are starting to ask, can he stay on the field? Yeah, there's injury questions. You can't make the club in the top.
You can't.

Speaker 5 There's injury questions for Blake. He is, this is Anthony Rendone.
I signed Anthony Rendone to be my dog, and I still love him.

Speaker 5 But it's tough looking at your dog when he's just like, this sucks, dude. Yeah.
Help me out. Yeah, nothing you can do.
Hopefully, we get an answer today.

Speaker 1 Yeah, hopefully, it's not a tornado.

Speaker 6 That would suck. Yeah.
Drive over in the Camaro.

Speaker 5 I don't own a Camaro. I mean, you don't listen to the show.

Speaker 1 Oh, wow. Doesn't listen again.

Speaker 5 The El Camino is also not starving.

Speaker 1 But I think that's a good question. But that is also normal.

Speaker 5 Yeah, a lot of people are asking questions about the El Camino.

Speaker 1 Here's the thing.

Speaker 6 No one had high expectations for the El Camino, though.

Speaker 6 That was kind of like when you drafted the El Camino, it was like he already has torn four ACLs and it'd be a shock if he can make it through a career.

Speaker 6 So that one at least is like, oh, you know, no one blinks an eye.

Speaker 5 Right, we're taking a shot on a guy that had injury concerns in college and is high upside for it. But I think I figured out what's going on, and I'm fixing it up this weekend myself.

Speaker 5 I'm going to try to fix my car.

Speaker 1 You're You're going to make it worse.

Speaker 5 I'm not going to make it worse. I'm going to make it better.

Speaker 6 Can you make something worse?

Speaker 5 Good question, Hank. No.

Speaker 1 What do you mean, Hank?

Speaker 5 Max, you don't know anything about this.

Speaker 7 It could physically blow up. Like, it could just cease to exist.

Speaker 1 That sounded like an Italian threat. Yeah, are you going to put a bomb in my car? That'd be a shame.
Yeah, it'd be a real shame if that happens. If you try to turn it on, PFD, and it blows up?

Speaker 5 I bet you, Max, that I get the car running by the end of this weekend.

Speaker 7 With no help.

Speaker 1 No help.

Speaker 5 I get to use YouTube.

Speaker 1 Well, it's probably don't take that. And take that bet, Max, because it probably just doesn't have gas in it.
That's true. That's not true.
That's a good point. That's a good point.
That's not true.

Speaker 5 I just put two gallons in my garage in there, and I filled it up on my way home from work and put

Speaker 5 20 bucks in there. So I think I know what it is.
The battery is not hooked. The battery terminal had like a thing that was fucked up on it.

Speaker 5 So I'm replacing the battery terminal, like the part that connects the wires to the battery this weekend. And I got tools.
I bought $200 worth of tools at AutoZone. By the way,

Speaker 1 do you know that like the new cars it's crazy what they've been able to do to to fix some of the old car things where i left my car door open overnight the other night uh because i was like getting my kids out of the car and i just forgot to close my door door all the lights turned off on their own it's crazy it just knows because usually that was i remember like back in the day you left the light on in your parents car and they were just like well the battery's dead fuck you why would you do that but like and it was like the little light yeah now they they they got it all figured out except it's all a computer now so like it's way harder for you to fix it yeah there's something wrong with it you got to take it in it was always hard for me to fix it yeah i know me too i went from like i have no car knowledge whatsoever now i feel like i'm i'm elementary school level where i'm i'm still like that guy from the meme where he stands in front of the server and just looks at it and hopes that he can figure out what to do but i watched so many youtube videos on how to replace a battery terminal and i got the most expensive said tools that actually here's here's what happened i hit up the guy that sold me the El el Camino and I was like, hey, man, another problem.

Speaker 5 And this is like my third time calling him. And he goes, okay, I think I know how you can take care of this.

Speaker 5 You're going to want to go to Lowe's and you're going to want to buy a really expensive set of tools and you're going to want to learn how to fix the car yourself.

Speaker 5 And then he hung up on me.

Speaker 1 That's brutal. That's pretty bad.

Speaker 1 That was like the, when I was, when I was like 18 years old and I went to a GNC and I was like, hey, I'm looking for some type of pill or something, powder to lose weight and gain muscle.

Speaker 1 And he's like, you're going to want to just grab, I think I've told this before, you just want to grab these big black plates and then you're going to want to lift it up and then you're going to want to lift it up again.

Speaker 1 Yeah. And do like, you know, sets of like 10 and then do that five times.
Yeah,

Speaker 5 that's exactly what this guy said to me. And I was like, okay.
And then I paused for a second. I was like, wait a second.
This guy's fucking with me. And he's like, okay, I got to run.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 And then he hung up. I was like, oh, shit.
There's nothing worse.

Speaker 5 So step one accomplished. I bought the tools.
Step two, I'm going to get this fucker started. I'm going to drive it if it's nice outside.
I'm driving it to work on Sunday.

Speaker 5 You can take that to the bank, Max.

Speaker 1 I'm looking forward to it. I hope you do.
Max, my Fire Fest, it's convo between you and I. We got to talk.

Speaker 1 It's,

Speaker 1 we're getting a t-shirt weather. Do we have a plan? Because this is, this is a, I'm in trouble too.
Like, I've, this is, this happens every spring where

Speaker 1 the Twinks here, Hank and PFT, they get a little nice weather and they put on shorts. They're like, I love this.
I'm an otter.

Speaker 1 The first nice day where it's like 70 degrees and you hold on to the sweatshirt and you're like, this is uncomfortable. And you realize I'm going to have to start wearing a t-shirt.

Speaker 1 It's the worst feeling in the world.

Speaker 11 Yeah, but you know what?

Speaker 5 I feel like swim shirts have become normalized.

Speaker 1 For regular work?

Speaker 1 No, I'm just saying, like, if you're thinking about going to the oh, no, no, I'm not talking about taking my shirt off. Once the shirt is off, it's all there.
There's nothing you can do to hide it.

Speaker 1 I'm talking about the feeling of being uncomfortable wearing a t-shirt outside, which all

Speaker 1 bigger men do around April. It's like April happens and you're like, fuck, this sucks.
I forgot that I couldn't just wear a sweatshirt for the entire year.

Speaker 5 You know what you should do? You should just become like a clean white quadruple XL tea guy.

Speaker 1 Like a Kevin Federline?

Speaker 5 Yeah, like the ones that you can buy in gas stations.

Speaker 1 That's a dated reference.

Speaker 5 Just become a giant t-shirt guy. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Max, should we become giant t-shirt guys? I mean, Max and I have talked about this before, the Instagram ads that try to sell us the t-shirts that make us look awesome, but they never work.

Speaker 1 No, nothing works. Nothing works.

Speaker 7 I just got to get...

Speaker 1 It's always like I'm just 10 to 15 pounds. Just lose that.
I also gained a little weight from March Madness, so that didn't help. Here's what you do.

Speaker 5 Giant t-shirt, big ass. Preferably and one basketball shorts that go down to like your shin, and then walk around with a hand towel on your shoulder.
That's a good look.

Speaker 1 That is a good look. Like a Tarkanian.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah, Max, so you got no plans?

Speaker 1 You've been lifting?

Speaker 7 Yeah, I lift, but I mean,

Speaker 7 it's not enough. I don't do it.

Speaker 6 You went all the way to a different planet fitness location because we had to move. Oh, wow.

Speaker 7 I've gone to two separate planet fitness locations this week. I was playing road games.

Speaker 1 So I'm trying. I'm trying.
Yeah, I did the.

Speaker 1 They were nice? I mean, we love planet fitness. Yeah, they were great.
I did the thing where I started lifting again.

Speaker 1 I think I've lifted four times in the last week and a half and then i tried to convince my wife that's why i've gained seven pounds in the last week i was like well it's muscle it's power duh but it's like four times

Speaker 1 yeah it's this the streaming the streaming just eats so much food march madness is just sit around and eat yes there was so much so much research so much oh my god and then we got blizzards and they were just oh the thing is when you're staring at a screen you just absentmindedly eat stuff you just graze all day long right but that's the cycle of life it's like every single year i'm pretty sure that we go through the same phase correct and it's like post uh normal spring break it's our post march madness and then we look at the clock and we've got oh shit we got two months to get in shape but that what happens every year is we get that one day that's uh like 70 degrees earlier in the week or i mean sorry early in march and you're like oh no this this t-shirt shit is going to be problem but then you tell yourself you convince yourself oh i still got like a couple months months we're like a week away from it just being t-shirt all the time and we're going to be so fucked so i don't know what we got we got to do something about it we got to do something about it i just got to eat less yeah yeah i got to eat less i got to work out more i got to walk more calories in calories out have you heard of that one yeah you're a little remember when you got a trainer because you were trying to dunk and then you didn't dunk

Speaker 1 i remember that yeah yeah oh you're gonna dunk yeah oh really yep you're still training yeah are you That's interesting.

Speaker 6 I'm still working out. I'm not training for dunking, but I think I'm going to,

Speaker 6 like, once September comes around, I'm going to start training for dunking again.

Speaker 5 Are you nervous at all for how much money?

Speaker 6 I'm still getting stronger.

Speaker 5 Are you nervous at how much money you're going to owe me after the golf long drive?

Speaker 6 Definitely. Yeah.

Speaker 1 That's a lot. Yeah.
Could be a lot. Yeah.
A lot of cash. I'm cash about it.

Speaker 5 I've struggled with that because if I outdrive Hank by like 30 yards,

Speaker 5 am I actually going to be able to collect $30,000 from Hank? Yeah.

Speaker 1 Jack McCarthy owes owes me $19,000 right now.

Speaker 4 Yep.

Speaker 1 I'm going to collect that. Coming for that.

Speaker 4 Call your daddy, Jackie.

Speaker 7 Nova won their first crown game.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 4 But this also

Speaker 1 going out on Friday, so we don't know.

Speaker 1 That would suck if they lost tonight.

Speaker 7 All I said was they won their first game. They did.
They won their first game.

Speaker 1 That's a fact. All right, numbers.
Four. Whoa.

Speaker 1 Three. I'm getting it.

Speaker 4 One. I hope.
Also, we got to play more hoops.

Speaker 5 Yes, we do. 91 works.

Speaker 1 I'm thinking Monday afternoon hoops. Monday afternoon, we do morning.
Yeah.

Speaker 7 I like Monday. Yeah, Monday sounds great.

Speaker 1 I'll go 73.

Speaker 1 Get in here, pug, quick.

Speaker 1 Neem's going on, Poo. Four.
I'm getting.

Speaker 5 Oh, I hope you. No, you are.
I hope three hits so hard, Brianna.

Speaker 5 Thirty. Ah.

Speaker 1 93. Did you say 93?

Speaker 5 I said 91.

Speaker 1 Shane, what's up? You got a problem? You staring at it?

Speaker 4 Shane's looking at it all weird.

Speaker 1 Shane, you got a problem? You got a problem. Do you have a problem, Shane? You looking at it weird?

Speaker 5 Hey, Pug, do you feel safe at work?

Speaker 4 Pug, do you feel safe at work?

Speaker 1 Do you feel safe at work?

Speaker 4 Me and Max squashed the beef, so things are better now.

Speaker 1 Yeah, but

Speaker 1 that's kind of like someone's got a gun to your head. You're like, hey, I got no problem with him.
Like, you could tell us, like, pretend Max isn't here. Max Hayes.

Speaker 1 Are you worried about it?

Speaker 4 If he gets that mad again, there's no telling what he could do. Yeah.

Speaker 1 See? Yeah, there's a small worry.

Speaker 5 Do you feel for your safety?

Speaker 4 No one can get him that mad again.

Speaker 1 I feel like we're going to walk in one day and Pug's going to have a black eye. Like, Pug, what happened? He's like, oh, no, I slipped.
Or he'll be like, I said some things I shouldn't have said.

Speaker 1 Yeah, he fell down the stairs. It's fine.
It's fine. It's not Max's fault.
Pug, we're here for you, okay? We could beat the fuck out of Max, all of us combined. That's a fact.

Speaker 1 We almost had to do that.

Speaker 5 Yeah, yeah. There should be a safety word.

Speaker 1 Actually, you know what? I'm going to get you a taser, Pug, in case he ever comes at you again. You can tase him.
And even if

Speaker 1 he

Speaker 1 steps to you a little threatening, tase his ass. Okay?

Speaker 1 Because, goddamn, would that clip be incredible?

Speaker 5 Pug, if you're ever around Max and he's making you feel unsafe, like he might hurt you, let's think of a word we can say.

Speaker 5 Maybe, maybe meatball.

Speaker 1 I like that. Okay.
Meatball. Meatball.
That might get him hungry, though. Yeah.

Speaker 5 Well, that would distract him. Yeah, true, true.

Speaker 1 Meatball. I want to go outside.
Someone says meatball?

Speaker 5 Love you guys.