Ever wondered how professional wrestling is akin to performing arts? The charismatic and talented Aron Haddad, a renowned professional wrestler, joins us to highlight the captivating world of wrestling, where each move is a blend of athleticism and carefully choreographed artistry.
But life is not all about wrestling, is it? We reflect on personal transformations, the experiences that come with career shifts, and the importance of staying grounded. We conclude on a contemplative note, exploring the power of living in the present, accepting our current circumstances, and moving forward with gratitude.
You wouldn't want to miss it!
Follow Aron on Instagram @thearonfiles
Music credit to Kalvin Love for the podcast’s theme song “Bee Your Best Self”
Tune into our CHW Streaming Radio and the full lineup at cominghomewell.com
Download on Apple Play and Google Play
Online-Therapy.com ~ Life Changing Therapy Click here for a 20% discount on your first month.
Contact Suzi at suzigma@gmail.com or (818) 470-2013 and share your story.
suzilandolphi.com
vetsandplayers.org
wildhorserescue.org
Thank you for listening! Be sure to SHARE, LIKE and leave us a REVIEW!
Ever wondered how professional wrestling is akin to performing arts? The charismatic and talented Aron Haddad, a renowned professional wrestler, joins us to highlight the captivating world of wrestling, where each move is a blend of athleticism and carefully choreographed artistry.
But life is not all about wrestling, is it? We reflect on personal transformations, the experiences that come with career shifts, and the importance of staying grounded. We conclude on a contemplative note, exploring the power of living in the present, accepting our current circumstances, and moving forward with gratitude.
You wouldn't want to miss it!
Follow Aron on Instagram @thearonfiles
Music credit to Kalvin Love for the podcast’s theme song “Bee Your Best Self”
Tune into our CHW Streaming Radio and the full lineup at cominghomewell.com
Download on Apple Play and Google Play
Online-Therapy.com ~ Life Changing Therapy Click here for a 20% discount on your first month.
Contact Suzi at suzigma@gmail.com or (818) 470-2013 and share your story.
suzilandolphi.com
vetsandplayers.org
wildhorserescue.org
Thank you for listening! Be sure to SHARE, LIKE and leave us a REVIEW!
I'm Susie Landolfi and welcome to be crazy. Well, oh my God, we're already recording, because I didn't want to miss this minute.
Speaker 1:Yes, I know that was like the whole Susie. How are you?
Speaker 2:Oh, my God, I'm so happy to see you. I know it's great, you look great, it's fabulous, except you are three thousand miles away.
Speaker 1:I know right, it's crazy, where are you Right now? I'm in Kentucky, so I live in Louisville right now, but I'm actually in Lexington because I'm having like twice a year I go get my car kind of all tuned up and looking in tip top shape, and so this is like a year.
Speaker 2:I see here twice a year. The only time you get your car all tip top shape.
Speaker 1:Well, no, the oil change. And then?
Speaker 2:they do all the little bells and whistles to it now.
Speaker 1:So it's all like a thing. So it's yeah, so it's cool, it's, you know, plus, like I stay with people out there, like family to be down here, so I go and I get to visit their kids and hang out with them, and it's really cool. So it's a, it's a good little thing right now.
Speaker 2:OK, so everybody welcome to be, crazy. Well, and I'm here with Aaron Hedad. Did I say that right?
Speaker 1:Because I've, I just like. But you know, like I'm so like Americanized, I just say it's, it's had had.
Speaker 2:That's why I've always said I was just going to say down there they're saying had had.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like that's just what we were. Yeah, I was kind of done that way, so it's all good. Like that's my you know, I know you're talking about job done Right.
Speaker 2:I just say Aaron, because Aaron. Yeah right, aaron, with Winnie. So I want you to tell everybody how the hell I know you and knew you for quite a long time before I knew that you were in the wrestling world, so do you want to share, to remember how we met.
Speaker 1:Yes, we met. We were volunteering at a animal rescue place. We we had a friend too, like we well, that's where we physically met. But we met through a friend. Her name was Sherman, she was in Malibu, she was a Malibu staple and we had always just kind of like you know, I mean you can't be in that area like for any length of time and not know Sherman right, especially if you're involved in any kind of animal issue. And so, yeah, actually we connected through her.
Speaker 1:And then it was so funny because we had the I knew right away. I'm like, ok, you're from Massachusetts, what part are you from? You know what I mean? Because it's like the little little things. You like you don't have a thick Boston accent but you can tell on some of the things like, ok, no, you're, you know you're, you're from this like 100 mile radius at some point. So that was kind of cool and we always just kind of had that connection. And no, ever since then we've been just great friends and it's been awesome. And like, I'm just so happy to be on here because I see the great stuff you're doing.
Speaker 2:Well, you know, you're doing great stuff too and I say that, and this is what I want to get into in a minute. I want to also tell everybody I want to you just heard the accent there. There is a T in there want to. So wicked, wicked, wicked. When we talk like that because we go to the packing get some beers no idea what I just said at that moment, but you do because you're from Worcester, not Worcester, worcester right.
Speaker 1:Well, actually it's like 10 miles south of Worcester. Oh, oxford is the way they say.
Speaker 2:Oh my, God Oxford, oh X E E D Oxford or O X F E D Oxford. We fed the ox as opposed to Oxford. That there's actually right, oh my God. No, it's so much fun when you meet somebody from New England, especially the Boston area, because there is one thing that we can totally bond on is that every single one of us, once we moved out, had to learn to say the letter R you have to use your mouth you have to use your mouth as opposed to ah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's hard, you know it is hard, and the other thing we can do really well is we can say the F word in a sentence more times than anybody else.
Speaker 1:Oh my God. So, like I don't want to cut into time, but we may have had this conversation to where, like, geographical cussing is a real thing because, like I grew up, look, there is my family. They are as Catholic as it comes. My grandfather, my mother, they all have faith, like I wish I had. But they will say, you know G-O-D-D-A-M-N. Like they will say it like nothing, like they will all the time. And then when you go to the south, like, oh no, that's like you don't say that at all.
Speaker 2:It's a real thing. It walks real square, yeah.
Speaker 1:And then, like with the way we use the F word, like we'll say it all the time and it doesn't mean we're mad, Ever, Ever, it's, yeah, it's just. All it means is like, no, we're just, that's how we talk. And then here in the south, if you, you have to be conscious, like oh, why are you cussing at me? Like you know what the F are you talking about? Like I'm not cussing, but it's interesting, so I had to learn that real quick it is.
Speaker 2:So I tell people, if they really want to know how we talk in New England and in Boston, just watch the movie Ted, because it's like, oh, I'm going to be like, oh, I'm going to be like, oh, I'm going to be like that is a documentary. That's exactly the way that Teddy bear talks, exactly the way we talk.
Speaker 1:Yes, oh, my God, yes.
Speaker 2:So I want to say something to you because more people that listen to this podcast will know more about you in terms of your wrestling prowess and your unbelievable athleticism. I want to tell you I work with retired professional athletes. You know that in merging that, some players and veterans and I have always known being a gymnast. I've always known that wrestlers are by far some of the greatest athletes we've ever had.
Speaker 1:Oh, thank you, it's performance art. It's performance art and like anything else, you know, it's a a learned set of skills, I guess, right To where it's an extremely niche thing. But, yeah, like, I often say like, if you asked me to run a 5K, I'm like absolutely not, no, and like one time my ex was like, oh, we should do this. No, she was like, what do you mean? You're athletic? I'm like no, no, no, like I have an agreement with my body when I'm in front of people and you know, in wearing spandex I can do stuff that I can't in real life, like on in day to day. No, I just I go to the gym, right, I kind of do my own thing, but like in terms of you know what I was, you know, capable of doing in a ring and how that translates to real life, it's like not so much, you know.
Speaker 1:You know it's not like we we don't have necessarily the regiment right Of, like you would see in the NFL to where, like, where you know the statistics and all these people around us, but it's kind of born out of because we have to do it so much right, Like the flips and everything like that Repetition is, you know kind of the the foundation stone of building any kind of like, any kind of greatness, right, like you to some degree need repetition in terms of athleticism, because your body just needs to get used to doing something, whether it's, you know, you're in MMA, you're boxing, wrestling, basketball, whatever it is. So I think with us, like, where we have to do that so much and it's such like a live performance thing where you almost, like you have to get good quick or you just kind of won't have the career that potentially you'd like to do. So that's just kind of, you know, it's more out of necessity.
Speaker 2:So if you're doing three things, so an NFL player, which I have lots of friends who are NFL players and a boxer who's a very dear friend of mine, and his brother is now doing wrestling. So here's the difference, though and also having a degree in theater when you go for a tackle, you are all in, like you're throwing your entire body, you're all in, so we can see all of that power. Here's what you guys and women get to do.
Speaker 1:You're talking, so you have a friend in pro wrestling too. Another one because you're like using, like you know, a tackle how a that's pretty cool. That's pretty cool too is like, well, my God, it's been too long, we have to.
Speaker 2:It is. So you have to go all in and hold back some. That's the hardest thing in the world to throw a punch, but hold it back at the same time because you just want to tap 10 times harder. Let's add something else on and you're acting at the same time Like that's incredible the amount of what you have to do mentally, what you have to be able to control in your body and make it look like you're all in, like 100%, like you're just throwing yourself at the quarterback. You're not. You're throwing yourself with intention and purpose and holding back and figuring out how you're going to land and how you're going to make it look like you're hitting someone so hard when in fact you're not, because then the performance is over Cause you can't get up, right, yeah, yep, that's incredible and I don't think people, I think they know it, I don't think they think about it enough and give you guys enough credit for that.
Speaker 1:You know, the cool part is right in, like what you just said. Now let's take it a step further. Now you have to walk out in front of 10, 20,000 people in your underpants. You have live television, right? So you're dealing with live television.
Speaker 2:So Coca-Cola which is the thing that's right. It's theater, it's theater, film right, go ahead.
Speaker 1:But for 30 seconds, right, for 30 seconds, coca-cola's paying like $500,000 for advertising, right, or whatever. It was time, right. So when you're doing this, right again in your underpants in front of a live audience, so you have to make everything look believable, or as believable as it can be in the, you know, that world of wrestling. You know, and I say it's good enough. So people suspend their disbelief Like that's what believable is right, so to where they can kind of understand, like just immerse themselves in the performance.
Speaker 1:But you have to be off TV within seconds, right, if we're going on a commercial break, we have to like know what to do that when we go to commercial, people will wanna turn back because it's on, like you know, usa or Fox or everyone.
Speaker 1:Now, coupled with, like, you have to kind of factor all these things in and make sure the crowd, the live crowd, doesn't kind of just blank out. So there's a lot, so like to do this, like there's an extreme amount of precision, which and I often say it's sensory overload to the unteens degree in terms of pressure, because, like you know, after being on set with acting and stuff, and then there's sets where there's, yeah, pressure's on, it's a late night shoot, whatever, but there's no pressure equal to live TV doing that. And then it has to be to the second, or else, like you get into hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions of dollars, like put back ratings and it's just, there's so much that goes into it. But at the end of the day you just learn to say eh so, and I say like I'm more comfortable, I think, in extremely high pressure situations than I am in real life.
Speaker 2:That makes perfect sense to me.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:It makes perfect sense. When I was acting and I was doing live theater, I actually felt safer on the stage. Of course, I did have a crazy family, dangerous, crazy family, so they couldn't get to me on the stage. That helped. That helped, yes, and what you're saying is so important, which it also says to me wouldn't that draw a certain kind of person to wanna do that, even if they don't realize it right at the beginning? Now you have a story where you always wanted to be a wrestler, or when you were very young. Is that true?
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I mean pretty much like I'm sitting talking to you today, because I was five years old in a department store and there were those old school arcade games and the deal with mom was, if I behaved I would get to go play a game. Well, I happened to put a quarter in the wrestling one and I didn't know what I was doing and I remember the stool I was stepping on and I was just pressing buttons and I locked and then the character taunted me and I said at that moment I was going to be a wrestler and I was just like, all right, I guess that's how it ended up. So it's been a journey, yeah, yeah, it's been.
Speaker 2:When I was little and wrestling was. I mean, wrestling's been around for thousands, if not as long as men and women have been on this planet. There's been wrestling for sure, right. That's always been part of our connection, whether it was a real fight or whether it was some kind of a ceremony, wrestling in a ceremony. So I'm much older than you, which I'm proud of.
Speaker 1:Oh, you don't look at. To stop, you don't look at.
Speaker 2:I know that's the good part, but I am. I have all original body parts, except a little help with my eyebrows. And anyway, I'm watching Haystack Calhoun In black and white television. Haystack Calhoun people won't even remember that name, but that was and he was a wrestler and he was as big as a Haystack.
Speaker 1:I mean, he was like huge 500, 600 pounds, I believe yeah and overalls right now.
Speaker 2:Overalls. He looked like he just got off the farm. That's what I remember.
Speaker 1:You know and you know it's interesting, right when, if you go back historically to television in this country, right? So in the era where people were just getting TVs, right, like television was just becoming a thing, there was two things on there was the news and there was wrestling, because guess what? Wrestling was so cheap to produce, right? We had a system of, like there was different territories in the US, but like there was the Northeast, there was the Southeast, whatever right, and it was divided into territories. And this went for television too, I believe. But it was like you had your local stars, so you set it up and wrestlers were actually the first TV stars for a time. And then this is going back to people like gorgeous George, and that's when they started to figure it out where, wait a minute, television is a tool for me to sell my brand. And then with gorgeous George, he was a little more flamboyant with the robes and the bobby pins and the kind of like the character I'm doing now, but he used it as a form of just advertising himself. And then the business exploded. Like Haystack Calhoun, he was like a good old country boy from the farm and you know like where you kind of hit, and like any success I've had in wrestling.
Speaker 1:I just did an interview like we went like an hour and a half today with a pretty major wrestling news outlet and every conversation always gets in. They asked me about my character stuff because I've had this weird kind of thing where I will float from character to character and it's for some reason accepted and usually a lot of wrestlers like that doesn't happen. If they do it, their careers kind of go out, but like it's kind of like it's cool. I've been able to do this and have the fans still dig it.
Speaker 1:So what it is, it's extremely archetypal, right. We have these different kind of archetypes, whether you know your heroes, your villains, and then there's all these you know subgroups in there, but like even past that you know like the farmers, the flamboyant aristocrat, like whatever, and man, like when you just hit on it and you can kind of base your persona on television around whatever you'd like to bring to life right Now. You have to get the right combination, but once that happens, it is like I was calling it magic today, because it really is, when people actually like they see you and even though they know that, you know we are a show, right, we are, you know we're in a circus, but they still, when they meet you, it's still kind of like oh, is he like his character?
Speaker 1:And it's just kind of cool, right Like to, and that speaks more toward, I think, human nature, and in a good way. So like we want to believe essentially.
Speaker 2:We want to believe and character and story has been how we used to give wisdom. So before there was television and radio and everything else, people told stories. Then they wrote books.
Speaker 2:But way before they even wrote books, it was sitting around the fire telling stories and telling stories about characters and myths and gods and like that, and that's how we taught people these ideas about archetypes and the suffering hero and the conquering hero and then the villain and all of that, and that was the way that we connected. So I have to ask you this. I've never asked you this, I've never even thought to ask you, because when we met and how we used to hang out, it was always about what we were doing in real life, right? I mean, we and I were friends and we were hanging out with my daughter and Sherman and all of that and animals. How do you create a character? What's your process? What is important to you about a character?
Speaker 1:The how to is very, it is very in the moment. To be honest, I have reached a point to where, like, if you say I want you to go be an ice cream man on TV, right Okay, I would research ice cream man, Right Okay, what do they do? I would find some commonalities. Of those commonalities, I would simply take what worked for me and kind of stick with that and then, when it's time to perform, I would completely forget everything and I would know, but I would go out there. I would go out there because, like like to me, right when I whether I'm kind of swinging the chair of somebody or or, you know, punching and getting punched, or I'm just on the microphone, because there's a lot of times now where I'm on the microphone stuff I am truly emotionally exhausted after every performance because it is, it is an energy exchange with the audience Right Now, when, when I say like, okay, if I'm a character, I'm going to wear something, right, like I'll wear what's comfortable in terms of whatever it is. But then when I'm out there and like I'll feed him some, like I'll throw a couple of lines out there, see what's bite and see what's not, and then usually, and then this is just. You know, I have about within 30 seconds, I'll be like, okay, this is what we're doing, and then I just go.
Speaker 1:You know, there was, like the original Damien Sandow character. It was very. There was bits and pieces taken from a few different people, but what I did, I kind of took them and then made this this chop suey, that it ended up working pretty well, and then again, like, adding my own layers to it Because, like to me, if you're going to have a good character in wrestling or in really like in TV, because wrestling is a little more primitive, right? Or L yeah, like we'll also say primitive when it comes to just, you know, identifying with characters and okay, we're going to, we're going to have an athletic contest or a fight, for lack of a better term or we have a personal problem, we're going to, you know, settle it in the ring. It's pretty much straight up, right. So we have to care about the people doing it and in doing that, like, you have to again take some part of you and then just lay it out, and so. So, either way, like, is this making sense, by the way Cause?
Speaker 2:I know like my brain, so making sense.
Speaker 1:Yeah, cause again like.
Speaker 2:Right, you are talking about the sixth sense that we have. So we have hearing, you're listening to the audience and seeing right Feeling, taste all of that and get that. We have another one that's so important. It's called intuition.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:It's that energy between you and me, it's that energy between you and what's going around you and you are allowing I mean, think about what you're giving as a gift, aaron you are allowing 20,000 people to be part of the experience. When you go to theater, I can't yell out, I can't throw popcorn, I can't. I've got to listen to what. I've got to sit there passively and accept what they give me and then I get to participate at the very end with my clapping. I mean, think about that. You invite all of us in to the performance. We have a say about this. Do you know how important? I mean psychologically? I'm sitting there, community belonging. You know creativity. I am as valuable to you as you are to me. In that performance, in that experience, you have created an experience that I have value. Anybody thought?
Speaker 1:of it that way. Thank you, it's magnificent.
Speaker 2:It's called community psychology. There's actually a thing that you guys are doing and women that are doing that allows me to play with you. I love that.
Speaker 1:That's cool, that's what it is right. There have been nights I've gone out there. I've literally. One time I think we're like, is it Durban's South? It could have been London, it could have been Durban. I'm sorry, these towns, they've gone together. Well, it was Manchester and I know it because I did laundry that day at the building. One night I went out and I, just like before the match, I just stood there and I looked and then the building just kind of erupted. I'm just like I think I'll stand here now. I told the referee, I said when I turned my back, tell him to hit me. I turned my back and I just raised my hand up a little bit to give a hat and then the play started to come. But again, it was in the moment it started to burst your bubble.
Speaker 1:Not all wrestling's fake, just that was, if you're still kind of wanting to believe. But no, that's the magic of it, right, we can interact. And that's where I say when I say it's an energy exchange. It truly is the way you may exchange energy with someone privately, behind closed doors, the feeling you get after it's exhaustion. Right, it's very much the same thing with me. We're after I'm performing, you're on this high because it really is like, look to have that many people on a nightly basis whether it's 10,000, or I've had 90,000, 100,000 a couple of times which is something. It's just a feeling that just transcends everything.
Speaker 1:I think a lot of wrestlers right After their career ends. That's what the problem is, because there's nothing in the world that can equal that. God, just do something, and then I can just smile. I would do like my own, like mm-hmm, and that place would just boo, and they're throwing stuff at you and you're just standing there like ha ha, ha, and you know what I mean. You do it to the other side, it does something to you, right To where you feel like you are in command.
Speaker 1:It is the biggest power trip, right, psychologically too. But at the same time, like the trick is and here's the opposite side of the coin it's like you are the conductor, but when I am out there, I am literally listening to them and giving absolutely like my performance is being dictated to a T by the people right Now. Usually it's like, hey, I'm gonna take you on this roller coaster ride right, like this is the plan and a match and a step promising, but we're gonna go, you know I'm gonna make you laugh, I'll make you mad, I'll make you whatever. But if you ain't buying it, I ain't gonna keep trying to sell it Like we're gonna do something else. And I think a lot of wrestlers today they don't do that. They have this like ABCD mentality and if you do that like you really lose the magic in this.
Speaker 2:Oh my God, you know, and in that sense the only thing I can liken it to, so we would call that improv. So you have a structure, right, you've planned all of this stuff and then you will throw it out the window in a nanosecond. If it's not working, yeah Right. If the audience isn't buying it or they've got another idea, something's happened, even in that community, that you didn't know about and you weren't sure, and that improv is absolutely amazing.
Speaker 2:When I deal with comedians, they oftentimes say oh, this is what I do, and then they go out and they go. I bombed, I don't know why. And I say well, you didn't listen to the audience. You had this structure. You thought they were funny, you knew they were funny, and they were funny someplace else and they're not tonight Cause you didn't read, you didn't invite them in to play with you. And so you what I'm hearing is, you have such high skill and experience, you have all these things you want to do and can do, and you've planned. And then you get out there and you trust yourself and your partners to go. We're taking a left here, we're not, we're taking a left. And then the audience responds and you guys get more confident and validated. So now you know you're on a path together. And then I can't even imagine some of the greatest moments happened that you didn't plan.
Speaker 1:Oh, absolutely and 100%. It's interesting to where, like if I don't know you, and like we're doing anything on TV, right? So I'm with the NWA right now, which is owned by Billy Corgan, who's the lead singer of the Smashing Pumpkins, and that's a whole another chapter in my life. I was at his wedding a few weeks ago. That was wonderful, it was great time, just phenomenal. He's been incredible.
Speaker 1:But no, like, going back to our point, like when I'm doing anything, if I don't know somebody and I jokingly say this, but it's understood I go and, above all else, don't kill me and listen to everything I say out there and we'll be just fine, and no, but that's and they're cool with it because, like, I do have a reputation, admittedly, for changing things out there, but that's also why I have the reputation I have professionally, which is like, and I said this to you and I struggled, where I now I'm sorry I struggled and you've helped me with that in terms of my relationship with wrestling, so where I you know, billy even talked about that in an interview we did recently to where, like I was, I just had this weird aversion to it for, whatever you know, I know the reasons now and they're non-existent.
Speaker 1:But like, no matter what right, like you have to kind of like and to me anyways right, like I've accepted it now as part of who I am and that has been kind of more healing than anything. And also like and I was. I had a very negative connotation for a while, but I also kind of it blinded me to a degree in the sense of like you know when, but when I met you right, like I was going through that period of discernment, shall we say although it felt more like a dark night.
Speaker 2:Yeah, be an actor. Yeah, I remember that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, or more like the dark night of the soul, but hey, depending on whatever, but no, ultimately it was to kind of like, come to the conclusion like, yeah, every time I've ever wanted a job like a full-time job, I have been able to. Just all I have to do is like, oh yeah, I think I want to do this, and like it's a blessing right, it's a blessing. And again, you know, it took me a while to kind of see that and I'm saying like this was Aaron version two. Now to where, like, my career's taken so many twists and turns, and like I'm a manager like I never thought I would be.
Speaker 2:Talk about more about that cause. It's different now, oh my.
Speaker 1:God. So here's the thing like I have, I have nothing to prove in the ring at all. I mean, I have nothing to prove to myself, and you know every athlete, oh, I can still do what I can do. Look, I can right, Like I do test myself every now and then, just, can I still, like, do the nip up, Can I still, you know, do all like the, just to see, right, and look, you're not gonna be able to do it forever, but like, physically, no, it's fine.
Speaker 1:It was the way the company was at the time. There was just an opening. So let me just try this. And I, you know, more than any kind of in ring work, I've been known like, I'm known as a character, Like I've been known for my, my mic work, like the work on the microphone, right, Like one of the people who talks more than they. You know, that's my primary vehicle to get people to care about me, Right? So this came up to management. I went all right and then first night I was like that's kind of fun, and then I just kind of stuck with it. When and Billy asked me about it, he's like yeah, wait, how do you feel about being a full-time manager? Of course he's like you're okay with that, You're not. I went. No, I was like if I want to fall down, I'll let you know. But yeah, if you're gonna continue to just employ me here and like that's fine and it has been. We've talked about you know, giving back.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:So people, like they contact me all the time, like they want to fly me out and I do these week long seminars or weekend seminars or whatever I'm like, no, like I have zero desire. No, I'm being honest, right, I know, I know they're coming. I feel guilty, yeah, taking people's money because I have zero desire to go teach people how to fake fight, for lack, I mean, and look, I say that in jest there's so much and when it comes to, like, wrestling or, and I said, fake fighting, there's nobody that takes this stuff more serious than me. Cause, like, for all my character, stuff, like you have to be so on point, like you said, like there can be no room for error, and there's a lot of people that have wrestling schools that shouldn't, because they've never done anything right, but I know that's not for me.
Speaker 1:However, what I do do is I can look at someone and be like this is how you present yourself on TV to get people to care about you.
Speaker 1:Cause, in life, we have three to five seconds when we meet someone, right, like we always do the obsessed up and down, right, same thing on TV, if not worse. Right, when you come through that curtain, there's three to five seconds. How are you gonna get them to care about you? And then, like helping them with their promos, as they say, with like like how we you know when you do your interviews in front of the camera and so that, like, I've done two seminars so far, selective seminars, but they've kind of garnered really good feedback and it's kind of cool because I get to give back like that and as a manager, like the people I'm with, I get to help them and at the same time, stay on TV. So that's one of those things where the God, the universe, when you let go of something, you know you'll get something even better. And it's great because, like I said, I feel awesome, I'm not bumping, bruised and everything like that.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, you know it's interesting. When you talked about being asked to come to seminars, here's what happened to me. I saw you as an inspiration. I saw you of helping people emotionally, like I saw you being, because that's how I know you. I know you with all the conversations we had about you know what happened to us, our principles, how we are living on this planet, how we have relationships People don't know.
Speaker 2:You talked about Sherman, like there were moments, many moments, where you saved her life, like literally helped her save her life, and when I mean that is, you were there, when you are always there. When people are going through difficult times, you say yes, all the time. You are one of the kindest, most generous hearts. I know and I could see you up there just talking about life, about how to be the person you deserve to be and create the life you deserve to live, whatever that is based on principles, because that's all we talked about, that's what we did together and that's what you did for Sherman and for all the places that you volunteered, and that was the personal work you were doing when you weren't in wrestling for a while.
Speaker 1:Like that was the personal work you were doing. Thank you, because with the stuff I was going through at the time I had no idea, seriously Like I was. Just I didn't know I was and I didn't know you even saw me like that, because I was just always like I had a warped view of myself and I remember. Yeah, it was just again something that I had to work through. But again, like thanks to you, Sherman, Father Tim, who I met through you, Tim, oh yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah he's wonderful. There has been just a lot of people that have come into my life that have really helped me through it. And it's funny because I'm in a place now I never thought I'd be again and that's like I look at some of my peers that are still kind of trapped. And it's funny because had I not gone away and moved to California and met everybody and gone through some of the stuff I did out there, I don't think I would have been able to fully heal.
Speaker 1:And it was a lot of times I felt alone out there because I had a lot of my families back here and there was a relationship I was in that I didn't feel I was good enough to be in that relationship. So I pushed that person away, which we actually talked for the first time a little bit ago, which is interesting, but yeah, that was cool. But and I had a chance to say that to her To where, like, that was like that was a bad, just a bad state I was in. But you know what and I think I told you this before and I've said this before in interviews but like, there was a period in my life where for 18 months, I couldn't even look in the mirror because I was so, like, just disappointed myself and I hated myself so bad. But we talked about principles, right? I never even in that period, right, like, and there was a degree of self pity, there was a degree of self loathing, there was a degree of whatever, but and in part of me being, you know, a spoiled brat sometimes, but maybe a little part, but at the end of the day, I never lost my principles and even though it was 18 months that I couldn't look in the mirror. Here's the beauty of that. I was able to look in the mirror after that period and I haven't ever since and I didn't kind of compromise any part of who I am.
Speaker 1:Right, like I've made choices that people said, hey, that's a bad career, right, when you don't want to do something that's going to hurt someone else's career, and especially if it's someone you care about and you know it's just a test if people do it or not. But I don't play that and that. Look, that's the way. It is good, bad and different. There were some situations and in Hollywood that I was Given the opportunity to, To get to know people a little better, that let's just say I didn't want to and that's fine, right, and it doesn't happen with everybody. Some people it does. It's just it's a choice I made and it's funny because I move and I'm getting more acting work than everyone. There's not a strike going on, which is it's interesting, right, yeah, but but either way, it's just Like being okay in the right, now Right, and like all we have is this moment and for years, right where that sounded like a cliche, me beginning to understand that, and like like seeing things to where, like I'm, I'm making choices.
Speaker 1:Now that I'm I'll say this, right, I Don't regret not making in the past, because regret, like holding on to it, all it does is slow us down. Right, we can look at it and say, hey, I went through this stuff or this stuff happened to me. I made this decision, I made that decision. Look, that was then and it got us to where we are now. And if we're contemplating that right, like the very fact that we're contemplating that shows us that we have arrived at the logical conclusion that that's not necessarily perhaps the best way to go.
Speaker 1:And you know, with me, like I had, just you know, my family, I hadn't been as close with them as I'd like and I say I love them With every fiber, my being, like I was just trying to like find out who I was. But like now, you know, going back there and in a couple weeks and and cousins getting married and everything, and my, my little cousin is also my godson. He's like, hey, a bunch of us stayed over. Do you want to see? Yeah, you know what I'm gonna. I'm gonna take those couple extra days just to hang, and Because it means, like that's the kind of stuff that means a lot that I wasn't necessarily there, you know, and when you're on the road 300 days a year, or when you're out trying to, you know Chase rainbows, you know in LA, as they say right, or like you're trying to get look at that pot of gold it's.
Speaker 1:It's something that could be Put on the back burner. And now it's funny because the more time I'm thinking like about that, focusing on that, and about, like the people who were there for me, and the Like, more professional success, I'm getting to a degree and that's. That's really kind of cool.
Speaker 2:Well, you know what you did, that so often when you went through your difficult time. That, that inner Evaluation, that that struggle, I call it about your value, where you belong, what you've done well, what you haven't. Who do you want to be? And and not even Believing at times that you worth being, what you think about being or desire to be here's what you did do. You showed up every day to help somebody else. That's how I know you. So, as much as you were struggling internally, as much as things had not gone well for you at that moment, as much struggle as you had in your own personal life, you were always out there helping somebody else, us included, in terms of that ranch and and that and Sherman like not just them, mvp Everything. You never stopped knowing what was important. It was that connection with the others and helping others. Like that's.
Speaker 2:When you say seminars, I'm like how are you not Helping and talking to people about that struggle, time and what we do and what we get to do and how we get to live this life? We don't know we get another one. I mean, I'm hoping I come back. I'd like to come back. I'd like to come back as a wrestler. That would be good, by the way. Do you think I could be one a grandmother wrestler? I can't. You could be one, right now.
Speaker 2:Susie, look, I'm, look, I'm boxing.
Speaker 1:No, no, you right now I tell you what I'm a manager. If you, if you need a manager, hit me up, we'll do this. We need a ring name, like okay, what we do for what would your ring name be?
Speaker 2:No, they call me Jima. That's what calls me, because Logan's now 18. Like unbelievable that I can, that's crazy.
Speaker 1:Oh my god, he's doing well.
Speaker 2:Oh my god, so well, and I'm boxing with George form and son George, number three. You have to know the right number. So he's wonderful, it's called craft boxing. It started here in Calabasas. Now he's opening them around the country. So when you do come back to LA, let me know we'll go pound it out. Yeah, you'll have so much fun over there. It's such a great community. So I thought, oh my god, I did gymnastics like I know. I can still do a handstand I can do, still do it.
Speaker 2:Yeah right, oh no I should like just be a grandmother at least one time. Should show up as your grandmother.
Speaker 1:No, you're, we will make that happen. I mean, I'm telling you, be careful. What you wish for, I want to do it, I want to do it. Do not look like my grandmother. No, no, you wouldn't be like.
Speaker 2:I can, though I can Make that happen. I mean, I got you yeah, I. Got the right hair so I can just put it back. So tell me, excuse me, tell me what's next. So you're here now. What do you think about when you think about the future?
Speaker 1:so again like for me, where I had always like in life.
Speaker 1:I had taken a very, very Opposite approach To my professional life. Like my professional life again, I just like you, you hit a switch and I will go, like I will, you know, get out there and like, whether it's fifty thousand or five hundred, like I'll get out there and do what I do and I again we're talking about in the moment and and just letting the next thing happen, like letting it unfold, like I'm, you know, you go out there and you kind of communicate what's going on in a ring. I'm not worried about when you know where we're going two minutes from now. I'm just like let's do this and we'll figure it out.
Speaker 1:In life I was always like, okay, I came out here to accomplish x, y and z. I Haven't done that so far. What is wrong with me? Like I'm not accomplishing this, like something is wrong with me. I need to, you know, and I just kind of kept like that and I would worry about the future.
Speaker 1:So, to me, like I cannot tell you when I'm going to be six months from now, to be honest with you, let alone, you know, five years. However, what I can tell you is that, philosophically and emotionally, five years from now, I hope I have the same mentality I do now, if not some kind of a refined version of it, and that is Taking every day, one day at a time, and also like seeing the opportunity and everything we get. Like I've I've had more opportunities and film and television when there's not a strike going on, because I've kind of just let it go, and then people are kind of seeking me out now. Okay, that's cool. Um, you know, some other stuff that I've had has been very positive and so I'm just kind of like alright, like whatever it is, trusting the universe, god, you know, whatever you put your faith in um to like Let it happen.
Speaker 1:you know what I mean. And again, like to me, you know, anxiety is something that I have struggled with big time, like as a performer. It's, I think, and there's, I'm sure there's studies done. You may know more about this than me, but like there's some weird kind of brain chemistry to when, like you have to, you're out there and you're performing the whole time and then it has to do something in your brain because, like again, the feeling of euphoria, I mean you can't feel that good for so long and have there not be a come down, right, and that's just, but no, it's right, like whatever, it's true, and so it's stuff you kind of you know, but again, to understand what it is and to learn how to manage it, that's a great thing.
Speaker 2:That's the key. That's the key to be able to put it in context. So one of the things we do is you can go up and down with your feelings and your thoughts. I tell people listen, I'm a therapist and I don't give a shit about what you think and I don't give a shit about how you feel. I care what you do, because what you do changes your thoughts and feelings, and most of what you think about yourself and feel about yourself was either done to you or told to you. Think about that. That happens as a child and an adult. So what you're talking about now is living in the moment of what you're doing, not your critique about yourself, Not your thoughts and feelings about yourself anymore.
Speaker 2:It's like what am I doing? I'm at this wedding, this is lovely. I'm walking out, here's 20,000 people and they're all excited about doing something together, so let's do it. That's like the most Buddhist thing you can do is to live in the moment and to be here now and to be present. And that actually, Aaron, that actually builds your foundation for the future.
Speaker 2:So, people keep planning the future a lot and we have to do that. And then what happens is they have this one year, five year, 10 year plan and it doesn't necessarily plan out. And they can get terrified that they've messed up, that it's not gonna happen and all like this, and then that starts that whole anxiety wheel and I think a lot of it too.
Speaker 1:It's like anxiety, it's okay, worry about what could happen in the future. So to a degree it's a search for security. That's right, and I was looking for external circumstances to provide me that feeling. So I think, a big thing for me. And look, do I still get anxiety? Yes, but I also found security in the way I'm looking at every situation now, like that is my security, that is my like. All right, look, no matter what happens, I'm gonna deal with it. Like right, I'm still here. I've lived through extreme highs. I've lived through extreme lows. I've been in situations that if I told you about it you may not believe me, but I can you know what I mean. Like I know what happened, kind of stuff, yeah, and everything in between. And yet here I still am.
Speaker 2:That's right here I am.
Speaker 1:And that's kind of the key right.
Speaker 2:Well, it's like there's a great Buddhist saying that says no matter where you are, no matter where you go there, you are. No matter where you are, you're always gonna be there. And if you're looking outside of you for somebody else to give you something, you're right. They may not be there and they may not be able to give you what you deserve, but we can always do that with ourselves. I'm just so thrilled. I can't thank you enough for this. This is just-. This is great. Yes, I know.
Speaker 1:It's like we just FaceTime it and we'll make it a podcast, right, right?
Speaker 2:Okay, next time, like we're gonna have, we're just gonna do it and we'll be sitting out of my glass of wine and we'll talk about it. Yes, all right, absolutely. And, kateke, where do you perform next? And how do we find you? How do we find your performance? So it's NWA.
Speaker 1:NWA, I think very soon you're going to see us on a much more well-known platform and I don't wanna Right, we'll keep that. I wanna grill the beans, but right now you can catch NWA Power on. It's a show we're on YouTube TV. It airs at 6.05 on Tuesday shows free and then you can go back and watch anything. My failed weddings on there was actually. I'm not trying to brag, but I think it was the most rated or highest rated episode of Power in the last several years.
Speaker 2:I'm just saying but the wedding didn't go well. It was just typecasting. I mean, I see you like not getting close to a wedding and backing out anyway.
Speaker 1:So oh yeah, oh. So, all right, you know, and not to keep it, but can I tell this is a funny like. This is just one of those things where so to bring it in, like one of my best friends in the world he's Santino Morales, he was in WWE forever but he, him and I, like we lived together for like seven years, we traveled together, like he's family to me and he's with another company, but we got him to come in and like be the preacher for the wedding and so like we're sitting there and like we have to take these mock wedding photos and I mean he knows me better than pretty much anybody. Like there's a couple of people in this world that like truly know like me, like the road version of me, right, so that's, you know, we'll leave it at that. But we're like, hey, look at this, I go, this is just like if I was getting married for real.
Speaker 1:Like I call him Boris and he's not his real name, right, he goes, yeah, he goes. The sad part is this is the post that we'll ever get to it. It's funny because it's true and you know what I mean, but it was like, and then some people didn't know how to take that, but I laughed so hard, because it was true, I'm like oh yeah, that's right, but yeah, it's just funny.
Speaker 1:And yeah, but, like I said, moments like that it's cool. But we'll be I'm sorry I digress On Flight TV. That's where you're gonna be able to see. It's the 28th of October. We have a big pay-per-view NWA Salon. It's like this Halloween thing. It's gonna be a little nuts.
Speaker 1:I'm gonna like some of the stuff we're planning. It's definitely old school wrestling Like, if you like, that kind of. You know the 80s, the 90s, the different characters, but it's gonna be some hard-hitting action, shall we say. And past that, you know, actually I have to go to Cleveland on Friday because there's this like part of the thing is like there's this talent evaluation thing going on that I have to go to. Then I go to Toronto for like 10 days with Santino because I get to go see his kid. He has a big school, so like I'll teach for a week there the character stuff and I get to just go like I hang out with him and his kids. We do it like twice a year, so it's like Uncle Aaron comes to town, which is fun, and from there cousin's wedding in Massachusetts, back to Cleveland for the pay-per-view and then back to Louisville to enjoy how. So yeah, Honestly.
Speaker 2:I can't wait. Someday I'm gonna be in that audience or I'm gonna be in that arena, like in that ring.
Speaker 1:Oh no, you already said it. Someday you may be in front of the camera. I hope you have a blue dress to match my jacket.
Speaker 2:You have no idea how I can be your grandmother. You just don't know I can do that.
Speaker 1:Oh, no, you, no, no, no. I'm gonna want you to be like oh, Suzy, I want you to just be you with the volume turned up, It'll be perfect.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, that can be that.
Speaker 1:You know smoking grandmother too, you know, I can just be grandmother, you just whatever you want, whatever you want, and I'll put the jacket on and that's it. You know what? All right we're in. You got it.
Speaker 2:We're in you got it. I adore you. I can't even thank you and tell you how much I appreciate you and all that you gave to us at the ranch. You know, sherman, all the time you were here. I just I can't even tell you how grateful I am for you and I'm so blessed that we've reconnected and, yeah, I can't wait to spend more time with you.
Speaker 1:I miss you. Wonderful thank you.
Speaker 2:And I love it All right, thank you, you're awesome. All right everybody this was crazy. Well, I can't think of anybody more crazy well than this guy, aaron, haddad and Aaron. A theme song was given to me by Kelvin Love. It's called Be your Best Self. His dad happens to be Snoop Dogg and he gave me this wonderful song and he's such a great musician himself, so make sure you listen to that. When you see this, you post this. Yes, absolutely Okay, love, and bless you Love you too, sue.
Speaker 1:Thank you, bye-bye, bye.