Episode 2 - Mitch “One Shot” Ryder

Episode 2 of Curiosity, Unpacked, welcome Mitch “One Shot” Ryder. 

Mitch is a professional wrestler, originally from Toowoomba, QLD. Now residing in Brisbane, he wrestles professionally all around the country and overseas.

From number beginnings in small studios and tin sheds to wrestling in Japan, Chile, Vietnam and more. We chat about how his journey began and the opportunities this life has afforded him along the way. 

A fantastic chat with an amazing person who has an incredible perspective on life and his journey.

https://www.instagram.com/oneshotryder?igsh=bGNjZ2xiOGc1NDAy

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Curiosity unpacked. Conversations beyond the surface. Exploring the moments, decisions, and experiences that shape who we are, not just what we do. Honest stories, deeper questions, and the journeys behind it all. Episode two welcomes Mitch Ryder to the podcast. Mitch is a professional wrestler who has spent over ten years training and competing. We delve into his journey from the on and off start in tin sheds to competing around the world. We discuss the highs and lows along with some incredible opportunities that have come all from driving from Toowomba as a 17-year-old to give wrestling a crack.

SPEAKER_00 0:38

Alrighty.

SPEAKER_02 0:38

Welcome to episode two of Curiosity Unpacked. Thank you so much for being here. Episode two, Mitch Ryder. Thank you so much for being here and welcome to the podcast. Awesome. Love it. So yeah, I did a little bit of a sort of rundown at the beginning of the podcast of who you are and what you've done. And um yeah, the point of today is just to be curious and find out a little bit more about it. And um yeah, for me, I guess to give you a little bit of background, always just sort of wondered about stuff. I've always been um yeah, big sports guy, big wrestling guy growing up for a lot of my life. But um yeah, it's always I always sort of get myself in situations where I go, how how's that work?

SPEAKER_03 1:17

Or what's this person do, or whatever it might be.

SPEAKER_02 1:20

So um yeah, I wanted to take the opportunity to speak to people and find out more, just probably more from my own selfish point of view as well. So why not report? But 100%. 100%. I'm I'm awe about that. Yeah, it's great. So uh yeah, I'm really excited to get into it. And in a little bit we'll get into your sort of journey specifically. Um, but I did want to have a little bit of a nerd out, as I said, um wrestling guy for a good chunk of my life. Yeah, um, once again, this is not about me, but I'm gonna guess introducing it to you. I want to know. Um, yeah, so like a lot of a lot of my childhood, probably a really massive fan, and then um probably as I entered my sort of mid-teenage years, probably dropped off, but actually started getting it back into it a little bit more now. Yeah, um, especially with WWE and Netflix, too. It's a lot of access is like it's right out. Yeah, makes it super. What were you you said childhood, like what years are we talking? I think five was probably when I first started. Okay, yeah. My um my older brother, he's nine years older than me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, so he started getting into it. Yeah, what'd it say? Probably 2003. Yeah. Oh, great time. Um but also like a transitional time for when it was like at its absolute peak. Yeah. And then the people that were, you know, peaking it, like The Rock that spoke of Steve Austin, had gone away.

SPEAKER_05 2:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:36

Austin retired in 03, the Rock was making movies in 03. So it kind of like it's a weird transitional time. But I one of my personal favourite times. Yeah. That's cool. So uh my guy was Batista. Oh, what a guy. What a Batista rig. Yeah, what a rig on that. Yeah, 100%. Um, yeah, the iconic entrance. Yeah, dude. Get down to the machine gun. Oh, yeah, the power bomb rather. Yeah. Um the Batista gets sent around in a few group charts of my hundred percent weekly, I reckon. Just that entrance, the theme music. Talk about acting too. He's one that's transitioned really well. Yeah, probably almost the best. I I would think I would agree with that. I mean, I I got a bit of a bias for John Cena because I think he's hilarious. But from a character acting perspective, yeah. Big Dave, man. Yeah, was it Russian? That one a couple years ago, like knock at the cabin or something like that. I don't know if you saw that. That was actually incredible. That might have been the one he like slimmed right down for. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Slimmed down, he's still enormous, but like compared to 2005. 100% a little different. Yeah. Um, but yeah, dude, he's um, yeah, what a what a guy. Yeah, what a man, what a man. So John Tena, that's he was yeah, he was my he was my guy from like I got into it in like 2005. Yeah, okay. And that was when he him and Dave, to be fair, T star, that was when they were both like you know, that was their like launching partner at WrestleMania. They both won the belts and got through races. One of my uh I was thinking about it, you know, coming into today to recording and some of the things that I wanted to sort of touch on. And uh, I guess some of those connection points, and one of the big things, one of the saddest, probably it's a bit depressing for start of a podcast, but saddest points in my life um was when Eddie Grera passed. Um I was sort of gonna out myself a little bit here, but um actually cried when he died. Oh, I didn't know I mean I um so hold on. So if you were you five, watching an 03, that puts us at I was that was my first year. Oh five is what my first year was. I was eight. Yeah. So yeah, I remember 97? Yeah, yeah, I'm 98, yeah. So exactly. So so yeah, so I was um yeah, I was yeah, that was man, it was so sad. No, I was probably to be fair, I probably hadn't had enough as much stock invested as you had at the time. Yeah, because you've been watching for a few years. But yeah, I I remember, I recall, I probably only started watching a couple months prior to that. Yeah, okay. But you could just tell you it's special, right? Yeah, like even as a kid, yeah. He's playing the bad guy, but you could tell there's something special about it. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, um, yeah, cool. No, I just thought it'd be cool to do a little bit of a note out there before we get into your journey specifically. What was going on when you dropped out? I don't know if I can put a time on it necessarily. Um, it probably would have been maybe like 1415. It would have been like yeah, 2012, 2013. You know, honestly, it probably would have been coming into high school. Yeah, it probably wasn't cool anymore. Yeah, 100%. That dropped out of the same. Yeah. I I exactly the same. I think I dropped out when I was like yeah, probably like 13. Yeah, right. Went to high school. You sort of realize that you know, maybe it isn't as legit as you think it is. Yeah. Uh when you're when you're when you're a kid, you know, maybe the undertaker isn't really dead. He actually isn't gonna hurt anyone. Yeah, um, and then yeah, I I did the same and then sort of came back around to it when I was like probably 17, like by the end of high school. Yeah, yeah. You've I guess we figured a few more things out at that point. It's okay to be yourself a little bit more than exactly, exactly. And I um I came back around to it because I was like, wow, these guys also at the time the the the style of wrestling had obviously changed, but the um the size of a wrestler had changed obviously as well. Like by the time I was 17, I realised I probably was never gonna be six foot tall, right? Yeah, and but then you know I would look on the TV and Brian Daniels or Danny Bryant, he's there, and he's like he's actually I met him, he's smaller than me.

SPEAKER_05 6:31

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:31

And I I mean I didn't mean him back then, but since I've met him, and he he was and you're like, oh wow, I guess these it's different. Yeah, it's really athletic. It's a really good point. It's probably less the I guess just to be honest, the juiced up steroid guys. Yeah, yeah, you don't have to have anymore.

SPEAKER_03 6:46

100%, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:47

So couldn't paint that picture, I guess, a little bit, so you needed to probably rely on that athletic ability a little bit more. 100%. Yeah, I mean, yeah, that's what drew me back eventually. But yeah, nice. Yeah, what drew you back other than the accessibility and um yeah, I don't know. Like I think um, yeah, once again, probably it's just a time of my life, I guess, where you sort of come back around to things a little bit more and um yeah, probably just looking for something different to focus on or you know, kind of be into sort of thing. I once again probably couldn't pinpoint a time. It's probably been the last couple of years. I don't think it's necessarily be directly because of the Netflix move, but it's made it a hell of a lot easier now. Definitely. Um yeah, I don't know, probably not anything really in particular, but um just cool to sort of have your finger in another sort of pie a little bit and have to be too into it. I don't have to make up my entire identity like I did before, but of course, yeah. Yeah, it's kind of cool to have something different to be into, I guess. Yeah. Not a lot of others are into. Yeah, and it's probably too like right now is probably the the biggest, well the last few years at least are probably the biggest it's been on a mainstream level. Yeah, since when you probably first watched it. That's a good point, yeah. Um, which is yeah, it's cool, it's definitely drawing a lot of people. And I mean Netflix helps, but yeah, what's been actually transpiring in the world of wrestling the last few years, I think it's been the real reason why people stay. Yeah, 100% continue watching everywhere. 100%. Um yeah, cool. So probably a pretty good segue. Um, take me back right to the beginning of when you first I guess first started training, first thought that this was going to be something that now you wanted to sort of delve into.

SPEAKER_05 8:21

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:22

So I I was this would be a funny, like you can connect some dots with it, but when I got back into wrestling, when I got back as a fan, I said before I was about 17, maybe, and from there I obviously, you know, you're figuring the internet out and things like that. And at the time I was actually racing BMX. Oh wow, okay, and doing that at like a decent level, like I was doing that alright. I um the like the it's one of those sports though, very similar to wrestling, where if you're not at the very like top, if you're not like the top guy in your country, basically, you're probably never gonna make any money. And even if you were that guy, you're not gonna make like you're not gonna retire on a future. Um, and at the time when I was racing, the the Southeast Queensland corridor was like the best place for BMX in the entire world. Yeah, okay. So like everyone that was here was like the tippy top best. Yeah. Um, and I wasn't really hanging with any of them. So um, and I sort of just rediscovered wrestling again from a fan's perspective and said, you know, a quick Google search and a little, you know, country outside of Toowomba Kid finds a wrestling school in West End, literally across the river.

SPEAKER_04 9:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:37

And I'm like, oh man, I'm gonna go down the big smoke. My dad came with me. Um, we drove down to this wrestling school that was in a TV studio. Well, it wasn't even a wrestling school, it was a wrestling ring in a TV studio. Yeah, right. Um in yeah, literally like in West End. I think it was on Hawking Street or something like that. Yeah, okay, yeah. Like off um, what is that street? Montague, off Montague. Oh, yeah, okay. Just off one of those streets on Montague. Yeah. Um, and I went in and there was you know all sorts of characters there, little people, massive people, everyone in between. Um, and yeah, it was just it was awesome. Like it was great. And I I I went down on a Tuesday, can you I brought myself back on the Thursday, and I remember listening to um the SmackDown's rule, I think, like the soundtrack on the way there that just hyped me up. I don't know. Um and I I did that, and but at the time I was still pretty involved in BMX, yeah, and so and I was coaching in BMX at the time too. So I was sort of that was kind of like my whole life. I just started a career away from all of that, like in a more corporate world, and I sort of just didn't really. I guess I was like, oh, you know, driving to Brizzy twice a week, like that's sort of like an extra 10 hours in the car, really, if you think about the the to and from and traffic and whatever. Yep. And so I just I don't know, I kind of just parked it, I think, at the time, um, until about a year, I don't know, a year later. So I'm like 18 there, sort of like end of 19, coming into 20, um years old, not years old. Um and there was a school that was sort of at the back side of Ipswich, and I was like, okay, well, that's a little bit closer to Toowomber, a bit a bit of an easier commute. And then I yeah, I went back and forth. I did a couple of sessions there, and honestly, I reckon I trained for like three and a half weeks, and then they were like, Oh, you're gonna be in this rumble the next weekend. And I was like, Holy shit. I might have been picking it up, all right. I don't know if I should be in a match. Yeah, um, and then yeah, next thing you know, like I started training in like the middle of October and in the middle or the end of November, I was in a wrestling match. Yeah, wow, crazy, like absolutely would not recommend, shouldn't be the case. The wrestling match was like a three-ring rumble with like weapons, and it was it was definitely right. There were more people in the backstage than there was in crowd. Yeah, it was just it was it was bad. Yeah, it was really bad. But I was like, wow, I'm wrestling, like this is happening. Yeah, um, and then essentially I I don't know, they this particular company, which were you know was definitely not very good, um, just kept bringing me back every month. And there I was, I was I was wrestling and huge. Yeah, I did that for maybe a year and a half. Yeah, okay. And then it kind of I don't know, it sort of I could tell that that was really going nowhere, to be I guess blunt about it. Yeah, yeah. Um and at the time I was working really hard at a job I had, I just started a business actually. That sort of lines up and I just sort of put all my hours and effort into business. I kind of stopped wrestling for a year a year, even after I'd begun. So yeah, that's kind of the origins of it. Oh wow. What were the uh what were the nerves like that first time? It's funny looking back on it now, because like I said, there's probably more people backstage than it was in the actual audience. Yeah. Um but my all my family were there and stuff like that, and I probably wish they weren't because my mum didn't watch me wrestling for like another six years. Well, what is this? Yeah, yeah. Um, but the nerve, yeah, the nerves were were were high. I remember standing behind the curtain and I remember saying, well, I remember not even saying anything, but I was I was visibly obviously nervous. Yeah. Um one of the girls was wrestling at the time, she wasn't wrestling anymore. She said to me, She's like, Oh god, you'll be right. And it's so funny in hindsight, and something I'm really glad that I remember because when I see other people nervous about their opportunities, I can relate still and I I try to be the girl that was standing next to me at the curtain. Yeah. Um, but it's just so funny in hindsight because it's just like that sort of that sort of scenario now. I wouldn't even like, yeah, I don't know. I'd probably be in a banana with a curtain, just like so chill, you know what I mean? Like just doing nothing. Do you think the fact that it hadn't been that long since you came back to it again helped? Like you were talking about you know, maybe six weeks from when you'd started training again. Do you think that was just like how well I'm here now? So yeah, and I think I had like a warped opinion of like, oh, you know, this is how it happens. Yeah. You know, you're training for you. You don't know otherwise. Yeah, like I and I was training, I was doing a one-on-one training too, so I wasn't really gonna be a group or anything. Yeah, okay. Um and I don't know, I guess I just had blind faith in the people that were training me at the time, like they obviously, you know, they obviously think I'm good enough to be in the spot. So which is a good, I think, a good lesson in general. That you know, if people put you in a certain position, you'd like to think that they've you know, they think you're they believe in you and they've they've throw you back. Maybe it's not always the case, but yeah, like I probably shouldn't have been in that spot particularly. But um, yeah, I think it does help because because most people train for like a year, 18 months before they even get a match on the show before the show. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, and so yeah, I think I just had this weird, like probably yeah, nerves, but like not because I didn't think I was ready, more just because I was just like downknown, I guess. Yeah, yeah. I guess it probably comes from having a different sport, but having competed in something before, I think probably makes a big difference where you you knew what those nerves were for competition, so just applying it to something different. Very, very true. Like you know what the um, like the pre like before the bell rings, you know what you know how you're kind of supposed to feel because you know you've been on the footy field and you've heard the whistle go if you kick off, or like you know, in in a BMX term, you stand on the start gate waiting for it to drop. There's those that's actually so interesting, like, because there is those moments, regardless of what you do, yeah, that's like I don't want to say the calm before the storm, but like the the there's a handful of seconds when you when everything's like quiet and you know it's about to happen, and there's it's out of your control at that point. Like it's that like even and this is obviously not the case, but like even starting this podcast, right? Yeah, like we were having a good yarn before we turned the microphones on, and I kept jumping in being like saying more things, but there was a spot there where we pause for like two seconds and you press play, and it's like even in this scenario, yeah, just a little switch, yeah. Yeah, like there's there is those, which is um I think those moments are really cool, yeah. Because you're just with yourself, there's like you're kind of out of control of all of it, yeah. But you know what's gonna happen. Yeah, it's kind of where you go, Well, I'm here now. Yeah, so whatever happens, I can't do anything about it now. It's almost it's almost calming in a way, I think. Like in particular, I guess wrestling is kind of easy because well, not easy, but you really are in zero control of that particular thing. Like you're standing backstage behind the curtain waiting for somebody else to play your music to signal that it's time to go out. Yeah, like there's no, like, yeah, and and yeah, I guess if you're playing footy, like the referee is the one that tells you when you're gonna do stuff.

SPEAKER_00 16:38

Yeah, that's cool. That's a cool one other thought about it. Yeah, near the me. No, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_02 16:44

Um, what was it like taking the bumps for the first time? I remember that very first night I was in West End, which is another thing that's like I don't even know how this ended up because it's not how we train people at all now. But that very first night I was in West End, I took my first bump, but it wasn't like oh hold the ropes and just fall backwards. It was like someone gave me a clothes on. Yeah, right. It was just you know, like in Hardside, I'm sure it was very gentle, but like thinking about it, I'm like, this is not how we do things anymore.

SPEAKER_03 17:12

It's very um, it's very different now.

SPEAKER_02 17:14

And um I don't know. I remember I remember thinking that it was uncomfortable, but not as much as I kind of envisioned it to be. Yeah, which you know, it can't like it's it's not pleasant, yeah, obviously, but you gotta be able to get up and do it all over again. Yeah, and so I don't know. I remember thinking that it was actually okay in comparison to what I sort of built up in my mind. And there's probably nerves there around your first one too. Everyone's watching you. The adrenaline probably helps really a little bit in that. It doesn't it doesn't feel like it's the next day. The thing that is the most um I think the thing that surprises people the most that's most painful, not most painful, but it is painful, is actually running the ropes. Yeah, hitting the ropes is actually really painful. Yeah, because the ropes are just I mean, sometimes they're actual rope, but most of the time they're actually like aeroplane cable. Yeah, right. So they're like cable with like a thin kind of hose around it and tape around that.

SPEAKER_05 18:10

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_02 18:10

So yeah, and they're wound as you know as tight as they can be. Yeah. So yeah, it's that that sucks. Even now, like if I haven't been in the ring for a little while, you run the ropes a few times, you're like, man, that's not that's not fun. I was gonna say, do you even do you notice it now? Like, do you notice every bump or is it just you're so accustomed to it now? It just depends how long you have off. Yeah, I think if you have a little bit of time between drinks, it's definitely. I mean, I this is such an like an old timer thing to say, but I try to avoid bumping at all costs. Like when I'm a training, I'm not bumping for anything. Yeah, you know what I mean? Yeah, like in a match, it's different because the trains go up, but like, yeah, yeah, if I can get out of taking a bum, I'm whereas some people are I don't know, some people are all for it. They're like, no, I love it. Yeah, no, dude, you've only got so many of these you can do. Yeah, well, that's I'm not gonna waste them here in front of no one, you know?

SPEAKER_00 18:56

Yeah, that's fair.

SPEAKER_02 18:57

Um, but yeah. Yeah, cool. So how long I guess from that first match, how long before it became this is this is what I'm doing, this is I'm gonna continue doing this. Was it straight away you just made it a regular thing, or was there once again that sort of switch? I think I think, yeah, straight away it it was definitely something that I like wanted to do and be like, okay, this is awesome. I don't really know what I expected it to be like, but I I remember just I I almost think sometimes that the idea of being a wrestler was actually more enticing than the life of being a wrestler at the time because it wasn't it was I mean not to say that it's very glamorous now, but like it it was less than glamorous, like it was you really are like, why would you choose to do this?

SPEAKER_01 19:51

You really gotta love it, right?

SPEAKER_02 19:52

Um and that was yeah, that was kind of how it was. And I think um I think I think I really liked the idea of being a wrestler and being able to be like, oh, I'm a wrestler, even though I really wasn't like one match and three weeks training.

SPEAKER_04 20:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:04

Um but it was that it was certainly something I wanted to pursue. But at the time I just didn't where I was at, it was so such a miserable kind of place, like in terms of the actual facility and company and things like that. It was just yeah, it was just not very good. Yeah, and so it was just really hard to see it being anything more than that.

SPEAKER_05 20:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:27

Um and there was just no one even close to going anywhere even outside of here, like Queensland or Southeast Queensland, let alone to interstate or overseas or anything like that. Like that just seemed so just out of out of touch. Yeah. Um, and I think that was really disheartening because I was like, well, I don't want to just wrestle in North Yards and things forever, yeah. And just you know, yeah, lose hurt my body and lose heaps of money just doing this everything. Because you're paying the train, I imagine, right? Yeah, you're paying a train early on, probably not getting paid for matches or very little? Very little. And I mean, like, that really doesn't change a great deal for like a really long time. Um and yeah, like it's really I feel like wrestling is quite unique in the sense that like it's it's you really do it for the love of the game, yeah. Pretty much all the way through until the point that you're actually assigned to a major company. Like it's hard to do it any for any other reason than other than that, really. It's just not financially plentiful. Yeah, and it's a big sacrifice too, right? Like, yeah, Brisbane's probably pretty good for it, and then I feel like the space, just from our very little knowledge, is growing, but yeah, it's not like you can wrestle three nights a week in Brisbane, right? So exactly if if you're ever gonna go anywhere further, yeah, you have to go somewhere else, right? Yeah, yeah, and then that's super taxing on like work, like you've got to have a readjust. Because it's not paying you enough to do that. So it's very difficult to hold down work, relationships, like all sorts of stuff. Like pretty much all of those things. You've it's very selfish. Like you've really got to be quite selfish to pursue pro wrestling in the nicest possible way. Like not like that you're self-absorbing, you you think you're the best. Yeah. But you kind of if it's something that you really want to do, you have to kind of be like that a little bit. And yeah, that's that's true. Really, that's just the truth, isn't it? Yeah. Um you obviously have a partner now. Were you with her when you started all of this? Or she's come in post? So she's come in, so she came in at a cool time. So when I first started training, I had um a very long-term girlfriend, I say long-term. We were together from high school all the way through till I was 20 essentially. Yeah. Um, and like it was really early. I probably only I'd had like one match and done my training when I was sort of with her. Yeah. Um, so sort of not really um, I guess that's not really an applicable scenario for where I'm going with this. But the next my next relationship was I was, you know, for three years, and it I didn't realise at the time, but from her perspective, it was very much like, oh, this was just this like weird hobby, you know. It's like it's not really like it's nothing, right? And you know, to be fair, I I wasn't doing anything cool with it, like there was nothing exciting was happening, um, and it wasn't anything more than a hobby, really. In my head, I thought it was, but at the time it wasn't really. Um, and then it was sort of after I I'd sort of split off from her that I took it it was right in the middle of COVID, like right in the middle of 2020. Yeah, and I'd really just decided that you know what, I'm gonna this is the year I'm gonna travel and do all these things and COVID happened, whatever. So I sort of pivoted and actually bought my own wrestling ring.

SPEAKER_05 23:57

Oh wow, okay.

SPEAKER_02 23:58

So I bought my own ring, I rented my own warehouse space, things like that. Um and I just put in the hours, like I had because everything was in lockdown, so I didn't have like I was working from home.

SPEAKER_03 24:09

What a switch, right?

SPEAKER_02 24:10

I'm in commands working from home.

SPEAKER_03 24:12

Yeah, making sure the mouses move it so the tags look like it. Exactly, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:17

But I actually I just put I was putting in hours in my ring in this warehouse that I rented, and it was this like boiler room, like graffiti all over the walls, like old car bodies in it when I first rented it. It was it was heck, it was cool. Yeah, um, but yeah, I I just would put in hours just by myself, literally just by myself, moving around the ring, rolling around, trying things, just body control stuff, yeah. And did that for hours and hours and hours of putting in hours every week for probably like I don't know, probably like 12 months. Yeah, okay. I had a 12-month lease on the on the place that I rented. Um and yeah, I was really just just putting it in. And it was during that time that I met my fiancee now. Yeah. Um, like only probably three or four months into that time. Um, and then I think so. When I met her, she's quite career-driven, goal-driven, just quite successful. And when I met her and I'd sort of explain to her my vision with things and the fact that I'd bought a ring and I'd rented things out when there was no training or stuff like that. I think immediately she was like, Oh man, this guy's pretty community. Yeah, yeah. And so because I had sort of taken that leap and she'd already, you know, was quite entrepreneurial and you know, real go-getter. I think because of that, she was like, Wow, like he he's really gonna crush this. And she was all on board with it, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 25:32

Right.

SPEAKER_02 25:32

Which is awesome because through her pushing me is I feel like a huge step to why I'd managed to break out and do a few things, yeah, which is really cool. No, that's awesome. Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, yeah, I was gonna say, like, I I'd wondered when when she sort of came into that journey, and I think um, yeah, I think that's actually really special that there was writers. I guess you were taking it that little bit more serious, and you were going, well, this is who I am. It's like to your point earlier of maybe it's oh, this is just a joke thing or whatever, but she could see right from the beginning that this was gonna be something that was serious. 100%. And and that's the thing. Like, I um yeah, I dove right into it, and I think it was it was important that I did that for myself, and then the fact that I met her, and then she was like, Wow, like no, this is really like he is gonna make it, he is gonna do these things with us. It's cool. He's not just like part-time in this. Um, pretty much honestly, like, pretty much straight away, I feel like stuff just started happening. Yeah, which is really cool. And I don't I don't know how the universe works. Like, I like to think I'm pretty logical, but I do really think that some cool shit goes on. Yeah. Um, and yeah, like pretty much within two months of meeting her, all of a sudden things were just happening. And it's like, whoa, yeah, this is cool. That's cool that you can have that too for your relationships. It's such a pivotal moment. And um, yeah, COVID's a really interesting one, I think. Um I actually don't know if you knew this, but I used to have a podcast as well. Um so I used to have a it was mainly sort of a MBA NFL podcast, and I started that during COVID as well. Um we were living in Melbourne and um yeah, in I don't know whatever it was, 200 plus days of lockdown. Yeah, that would have been lost my job and couldn't do anything, so I just bought a microphone, click and collect from JB Hi-Fi. It would have been pretty early on, probably April, like right as COVID kicked off. Um yeah, and sort of just I was just doing a podcast every day because it was that was something to give me purpose. Yeah, because otherwise like I was waking up at 11 o'clock in the morning and like just sitting around because you couldn't do anything. You couldn't you could only go outside for one hour a day, but it was only one of the people in your family. So like my wife and I would take turns doing the groceries every day, and you just buy it that night because it was there was nothing else to do, and obviously understanding the restrictions and not wanting to go out too much, but yeah, there was nothing else you could you could do. So that gave me the purpose of all right, well if I wake up at nine o'clock by ten, I'm recording the podcast, I was doing it for YouTube and doing live streams of games because the NFL and the NBA were still going on, like I was just doing anything I could. But um, yeah, and obviously since then it that's fallen apart, it's been a couple of years, but um, I think that's sort of where this came from. A little bit was that I had sort of done it before, and yeah, um, yeah, and then even to that point of those tough times of what you go through then can sort of set you up for the the future of it all as well. So 100%. And like the thing is oh man, I mean, COVID was wild. Like it's crazy to even hearing what you're saying about like you can only go outside one of you every like every second day like that. You see you it's I feel like it's easy to forget how it's yours. 100%. Like and you do you also don't realize probably how like depressing that is. Oh gotta try not to think too much about it, but like you're 100% reflecting on it, definitely word depressed. Because like that's the thing, I'm I'm not I don't sleep until one o'clock now, but I was then because what else was point doing it? Yeah, I mean it's probably nice for like a weekend, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 28:58

If I lose my job and I go, Oh, this is all right, I know if it worked for a week and then then it wears off pretty quick. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:05

Yeah, I mean, I I actually did I did sort of jumping ahead a little bit, but a couple of years later, not a couple of years later, literally like a year later from the timeline we're at at the moment. Yeah, I um I had the opportunity to go and train and stay in New Zealand.

SPEAKER_04 29:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:20

Um right as the travel bubble opened, right? Yeah. The travel bubble from Queensland and New Zealand was open for like three weeks. Yeah. Then I got stuck in New Zealand. Yeah. Um and I had to come back via Melbourne, do two weeks' hotel quarantine. Yeah. It was like an emergency fly out, I flew out. Like that was the only way I could get back to Queensland. So dumb. Yeah. And New Zealand had like 50 cases in the whole country.

SPEAKER_05 29:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:39

It's crazy, right? Anyway, so they threw like they had one case, they threw the whole country into lockdown and completely shut the travel by the loop. It's like, oh shit. Yeah. Um, and the only way I could get back to Queensland, which had no cases at the time, was to go through Melbourne, which was right as everything was opening up and there were cases everywhere. Yeah. Yeah. So I landed, went straight through like all of the all of the crazy security protocol and whatever, and then went to two weeks hotel quarantine, which was like 15 days. Two thirds food was awesome. So good. Um only going to be a good thing. I'd never been like a big movie guy up until that point. I was like, it's gonna be nothing else you can do. Yeah, that was that was it. Yeah, watched all these movies, and then literally did my 15 days hotel quarantine, and then just went outside, got an Uber to the airport, yeah, and then flew to Brisbane, then went home. Just like my biggest risk of COVID was at the airport and on the plane. 100%. Just so crazy. Ours was so weird. So, like we um we lived up here in 2019, yeah, um, and then went back down to Victoria because that's where all the family are. Yeah. For 2020, obviously not knowing COVID was gonna happen, got stuck, and then it was pretty much just a dash to whenever we could go, we could go. But because Victoria was so bad, Queensland weren't opening up the border. And then we moved out of our place at the end of 2019, and we had got a place back up here, but we it wasn't until I don't know, it was the middle of January or something. So staying at my parents' house um a couple hours from Melbourne, just ticking the time off. Um, and then there must have been a spike again in Victoria or something like that, and they go, We're gonna close it tomorrow. And not knowing how long that was gonna take, and we were about to start a lease and all that sort of stuff, we had to like go on 12 hours notice, had to like change our cancel our flights, rebook our flights to come back up here right before it was closing. And that was you know, third or fourth of January or something like that. And then we landed and I had like cops at the airport because it must have been as we flew, they'd decided that anyone that had come from Victoria had to then get tested. So you didn't have to come into quarantine here if you had to get tested. So, but like we'd gone through the airport on the the trair train or whatever it is, back to the hotel, and then you get the message going, No, you've got a quarantine now. You go back out to go to the hospital to get tested, and then go. I think it was two days for results to come back stay in the hotel because the lease was starting, I don't know, the next Monday or whatever. Yeah, um, but yeah, like it's just insane. It's just nuts, man. It's so crazy to the next year. And then now it's just like, I mean, obviously it was a few years ago, but yeah, it's just like just open it up and right. Every single day. 100%. Oh, I had it I don't know, a month ago. Yeah, exactly. Exactly right. Um yeah, that was a weird little tangent, but um yeah, interesting times. But yeah, it was a cool little story about you and your fiance. That's that's yeah, man. Yeah, yeah, it's cool. It's nice. Yeah. Um all right, so now I guess further from there, um when how long I guess did it take to for you to have that sort of pivotal moment where there was a big match or you know, where sort of that did your career turn, I guess, post that sort of I think well it it probably happened. The the big thing that happened was so I'm I met my fiance in the end of October, yeah, Halloween. Yeah, it was like the day before Halloween, I think. Yeah. Um so like the 30th, 31st, something like that. And I on like early December, I out of nowhere was cast as a character on the season of the first season of Young Rock. Oh wow, yeah, which was sick. And I think that was like I had a friend of mine at the time that was like working as like a casting assistant or something, yeah, okay. And I saw because they were looking for wrestlers when like before they'd even cast anyone in the show, yeah, like six months earlier, they did a big casting call for pro wrestlers, this and that. They were looking for like six foot two, 150 kilo wrestlers. So I didn't even apply, I was just like, like, why would I bother? Yeah, I'm not either of those things, right? I'm like 5'10 max with my boots on, and like eight, not well at the time, probably like 95 kilos. Yeah, and um I was like, well, that's a waste of everyone's time. Um, and anyway, he he hit me up, like they were already filming, like they were already like half a year filming the first season. Yeah, in Brizzy, yeah, or Brizzy Gold Coach, yeah, um studio. And this is like end of 2020, so like COVID's like pretty like still kicking, like everyone's like getting tested or whatever.

SPEAKER_04 34:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 34:04

Um, and yeah, and I he ended up hitting me up. He's like, hey man, would you be interested in coming in and being a referee on Young Rock for we we need a ref for a scene that's like next Thursday or something? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:15

I was like, Yeah, dude, that sounds great.

SPEAKER_02 34:16

Like, I'll come and do whatever. Yeah. Anyway, I went to my, he's like, okay, cool, come get fitted um on on this day, and then just you'll be filming on the Thursday.

SPEAKER_01 34:24

And I'm like, Wow, that's really cool.

SPEAKER_02 34:26

All right, whatever. Anyway, I go to get fitted for the for the referee, and the casting people are like, So you're a wrestler?

SPEAKER_00 34:35

And I was like, Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 34:36

They're like, all right, hold on, like, let's go talk to and then they left me like sitting in this massive warehouse with all these like costumes by myself for like an hour. Yeah, right. Like, what is going on? This is weird. Anyway, then like a team of people came back and they're like, No, no, no, if you're happy, we're actually gonna switch it. I was like, Oh, okay. And they're like, No, no, no, we actually think you can do this role that we have. We think you can like if you if you can wrestle, and I showed them videos and I've yeah, this is my actual thing. That's actually what I know about. I don't know about it. Um, they're like, if you can wrestle, we actually think you'd be a better fit for this character than the person we've already cast. And I was like, sorry. Um, and anyway, I was like, Yeah, that sounds awesome. Um, and essentially, I then that day they fitted me for this character called the Black Demon, um, which was like a Puerto Rican wrestler. I'm clearly not Puerto Rican. We wore the fake tan, yeah. Exactly. They even like coloured in. So I wore a mask, but they still like coloured in my like mustache to be like black. And anyway, you're not saying no.

SPEAKER_03 35:37

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 35:38

I was like, that's so sick. And my what I did is I my entire like role scene is was just wrestling, which was great because if I was actually acting, it would have been stressful. So I'm not an actor. Um, and my uh they cast me to wrestle the main character in a wrestling match. Wow, um, and they filmed that at the Brisbane Entertainment Center. They brought in like hundreds of people to be extras as like the crowd. And literally I rocked up and I was like, I don't know where I needed to be. I like brought stuff in like a bag thinking maybe I like needed to bring costume. Like I brought my wrestling boots and stuff, thinking like they wouldn't have costume. I already tested it, it was all good, and then yeah, I I got there and I was like, hey, like I'm this person. They're like, Oh, okay, look, come with me. And I was like, All right. They took me to my own trailer. I had a trailer, like it was nuts. Um, and I went in there and like just it was just an unbelievable, like just it was just surreal, right? Like just being there, being on a real set, like you see the inner workings, like there's 50, 60, 70 crew that just work on this one TV show. Yeah, and then yeah, that they've filed in all these extras to be in the stands, and then the uh the stunt coordinator was Chava Guerrero. Oh wow, yeah. So like I'm working with Chavo, which is sick, and then I sort of touched on it earlier about like there's this weird like nervousness but like calm to when you like you're standing backstage and you're you know your music's better play, but you don't know when it's gonna happen. Yeah. The other the other time when I've felt that most, or the mo the time when that ever would become really apparent to me is when you're standing there and you're about to film your scene and they start rolling cameras, for example, and then you literally hear the director say action, yeah, in a like a on a set, like on a huge set, and then all of a sudden you're like, How the fuck did I get here? Like, what is going on right now? Um, and then like that was yeah, that I think that was probably the moment where I was like, oh wow, like I I'm on like a Hollywood scene. A sense of how big it is, yeah. And like I got here because I started wrestling in this weird little TV studio in West End, and then some backyards, and now I'm a movie. What has got around? Yeah, I've got a script for my scene, and the rocks lines were on my script. It said Dwayne Johnson, and then underneath it it said my name. I was like, what is that? Like it was nuts. Um, and then yeah, that was like massive. I think that was a really big one where I was like, oh wow, like this is actually going somewhere. Yeah, I'm actually going to look at what then Ips this can create for me. Yeah, yeah. And I think at the time too, like this is like three or four years after my first match. Um, but and then I think that was the thing, which is interesting. I said before that, like my mum can my first one was like didn't want to buy over on the bar. Like from there, she was like, Holy shit, like okay. And then from there she kind of like started like being a little bit more interested. Which I from a parent's perspective, like it's a gap. Yeah, it's like I was doing some wild stuff before that. Yeah, but yeah, that would be that I think that would be like the the thing where it's like, uh, this is happening. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's cool. Huge. Yeah, talk about yeah, how crazy is that that you just happen to know someone, yeah, and it happened to be that in any other case they could have gone, oh yeah, perfect. You're the referee getting there, that's it. But you happen to just have that one conversation with that person going, oh wait, no, you're actually a wrestler too. And it was not. And like and it it happened so quickly, which I've now come to learn that like that's so typical for the entertainment industry. Like, I got the call about being a referee on like a Monday. Yeah. And then I was onset as the wrestler in the scene on Thursday. Yeah. Like it was, yeah, it was it was crazy. And then because of that opportunity, because I wore a mask, so you couldn't really see me, yeah. I did a lot of like stunt double extra stuff for for the wrestlers on the second season. So I like they like brought me back and I was like taking all the bumps and stuff, which is uh you know, one of the few times where I'm like, yeah, I'll take all the bumps. I'm okay with this. Yeah, exactly. Um, so yeah, so I did a bunch on the second season too, and then the third season next thing in the States. But yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_03 39:51

That was cool. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_02 39:52

Yeah, that's incredible. And it's almost like nothing else happens or I see your life, you know, in wrestling, it's like you're gonna have that moment. Yeah, yeah. That is huge. Yeah, which is cool. And I think at the time too, like because I lived in like because I was filming in Queensland, because it was during COVID, and like those opportunities wouldn't normally be afforded to well, it's changing now, but at the time they certainly wouldn't have been afforded to a wrestler up here. Yeah. But because we were filming up here and it was COVID and they didn't want to be able to do that. Like they really had no choice. It was that was a it was a great circumstance for me to find myself in. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I'm like, that's awesome. That's awesome. Um, I guess I want to pivot now. Um you obviously had some really incredible opportunities because of it. Probably things that you never thought you'd be able to ever do, right? Travel around the world.

SPEAKER_03 40:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:41

I do want to touch on Japan in a little bit and no doubt about that, because it's one of my favorite places in the world. But um, when was the the first overseas opportunity came about? I guess outside of the training in New Zealand to do a professional plan. It was Japan actually. Okay. Um, but that came that came about actually, this is a wild scenario, really. But so that I wrestled for the first time in Japan in 2023. Yeah. But the opportunity to wrestle in Japan came pretty much, ironically, from a decision that I made like a week after I filmed for Young Young Rock in 2020.

SPEAKER_05 41:21

Yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 41:22

And it's such a dumb decision, but it's like a it's one of those ones where it's like if I trace it back all the steps, it's like a the butterfly flick, right? If I didn't do this one particular thing all these years earlier, it wouldn't have happened. Yeah. And so what happened was I ended up taking, I did the Young Rock stuff, and then I ended up taking this booking up in Cairns for a promotion that was like tiny, right? There was one of one of those scenarios where there's probably more guys in the back than there was in the thing. Yeah. Um, but it was one of those ones where it's like my mates were going, it's cans, yeah, you know, like they would tell me stories about how we'd go, and then we'd go out after, and then we'd fly out at like 6 a.m. the next morning. And my cousin lived there, so I was just like, why not? Why not go? Take the opportunities. Exactly. Like it's probably not gonna from my perspective, you know, like I it it probably wasn't gonna be my best matches, yeah, but why not have a good opportunity? Yeah, and so anyway, like I I I went up there this particular time, and because I went up there, that promoter had somehow connected with this particular guy in Japan, and because I was advertised on this show, that guy in Japan followed me on Instagram, yeah. Right, and then I did a couple of shows for them, and that was so much fun, like they were actually heaps of fun, and I really liked the guys up there, and we would go out every time, and you know, Kansas Tiny, so there's only like three places you can go, but it's a great time, yeah, yeah. Um, and then yeah, so I did that. This particular Japanese wrestler followed me on Instagram because I was on this poster, right? That's the only visibility he had to me. Fast forward like two years, it's 2022. He messages me out of the blue. He's like, hey man, I've been seeing your stuff on Instagram, I'm thinking about coming to Australia. Do you think we could wrestle? Yeah. Absolutely. Sick, all right, cool. I'll let me see. Like, when are you gonna come? I'll talk to the promoters in that time and see if we can do it. Thankfully, one of the promoters did. The match was in Maribor of all places. Yeah, so the Japanese guy flies in on the Saturday morning, we pick him up, we drive him to Maribor, I wrestle him, we drive him back to Brisbane, he flies in on the Sunday. Oh good. He came to Australia, went to Maribor, saw the Mary Poppins like street crossing song, and was like, Oh, this must be Australia, and then we're home. Crazy, right? And then um him and I wrestled and we had a we had a pretty good match, like in in hindsight from now. I'm like, well, I'd probably cringe looking at it, but yeah, he was happy and I was happy at the time. And then from there, he basically was like, Look, if you ever want to come to Japan, let me know I'll try and help you. I was like, Oh yeah, cool. But I had a you know a real job, and yeah, it made sort of got a job. The idea of it sounds good, but the exact like a logistical side of it. Yeah, you can't really just up and leave and go to Japan. Yeah. Um, and then out of nowhere, probably six months later, I lost my job. Out of nowhere. Yeah, okay. Um, and literally coming back to coming back around to having a good partner, f I I basically came out and I was like, look, I've I've lost my job, like you know, thinking the world was over. Yeah. And first thing she said to say, Why don't you just go to Japan? Literally. First thing she said, I love that. And I was like, Well, that's like the best slash worst advice.

SPEAKER_03 44:21

Like, it's like so like nonsense. Don't tell me that, because like that's what I want to hear. Probably not what I need to hear. Exactly right, exactly right.

SPEAKER_02 44:27

I'm like, that's such a like it's great advice, but also like, no, I can't just do that.

SPEAKER_00 44:32

Yeah, she's like, why not? Why not? Yeah, like just what's like why not just do it.

SPEAKER_02 44:36

And so anyway, so yeah, I basically I reached out to to this guy, his name's Shota. Um I said, Hey, got plenty of time, man.

SPEAKER_03 44:44

Yeah, free. What are you reckoning? Well, when should I come? And he's like, Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_02 44:48

And then he's like, you know, can you come at this time? I'll help you get booked. And that's literally what happened. And you go there, and it's just like it's literally just like wrestling or any other job. Like you just go somewhere, you meet new people, you network, yeah, you make connections. Yeah, open stores. Yeah, and it's I mean, obviously it's harder because they don't speak English and whatnot, but yeah, it's just one of those like leaps that you gotta do and did it and been back a bunch now, and it's been awesome. Do you find um are they standoffish when you come over there? Is the uh person coming in? I know it's it I from what I know the space is big over there, right? So they're used to having foreigners come in. Yeah, it's huge. And the I think the bad the the the thing that had sort of just happened, or maybe not when I went, but since going, I think I think there'd been a handful of foreigners that had kind of gone and ruined some reputation a little bit. So I maybe not the first time I was there, but since between my first time and my second time, I think people went and took, you know, like it's kind of ruined, not ruined the fun, but like ruined things a little bit for people.

SPEAKER_04 45:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 45:52

Um, but no, like for the most part, everyone's really happy to see you. Yeah, okay. Because it's because you're just different, like you're just different. Uh and I mean they they wrestle to your point before, like they wrestle every day of the week, yeah, sometimes twice a day. Like it's so busy and so popular. And so I don't really think like any I mean, and I could be wrong about this, I obviously didn't understand what people were saying most of the time, but I think people like they're already so busy, and so they were like, I don't think they saw me as like a threat. Yeah, okay. Whereas that's good, but there's certainly been times on other tours where I've gone and there's been people that are quite standoffish, and you're like, Well, you're you like, but then you know, you know, you must be the big dog, and you know, they are they are the big dog, and yeah, like the only time I've ever been like what we call stretched essentially in wrestling, which is like someone basically just beats you up, yeah, is in Japan. That's really the only time that's ever happened to me. Yeah, but it also like it's just part of it, you know, like it's just and it wasn't like bad to me or anything, it's just like he pretty much just dominated me for 15 minutes, and then that was it. Did you find that you lost the first couple of times that you went there? Um or do you think it was just the same as anything else? I think so. Yeah, like for the most part, yeah, like for the most part, anytime, unless you're like a really, really, really big deal, yeah. Anytime you travel anywhere, you're kind of there to put people over there. Yeah, which is fine. Yeah, suits me. The year that I consider my best year is is well, maybe not so much anymore, but for the longest time, the year that I would consider to be my most successful from an opportunity and and just places I went, period, was 2023. So that first year I had to go to Japan.

SPEAKER_04 47:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 47:35

Um, and I think I had like 36 matches and won uh three. Yeah. You know what I mean? It's to me in my head, that's my best year. Yeah, yeah. Like I said, maybe not so much anymore, but up until recently, yeah, that's like my wow, I rushed it and I lost all the time. Yeah, that's fair. But it was just like I was losing on the biggest stages, like I was losing for TNA wrestling and GCW against like the one of the best wrestlers in the world at the time. So it's like, and in Japan against everyone, yeah. So yeah, it's it's really what are the crowds like in Japan? Um, I thought they'd be really like really weird, yeah, because they're really quiet. Yeah, yeah. And I thought that would really do my head in because I liked how much I liked the volume from a crowd, yeah, which is pretty natural, right? Yeah, but I really liked it. Like, I I don't know, Japan's easily my favourite place that I've wrestled um because they appreciate the sport of it and the art of wrestling, yeah, which is what I love. Um, but yeah, they're very quiet. Like you do something that you might do over here, over there, and the most excited they'll get is like, oh, oh like that's like that is like them like losing their mind. Yeah, you know what I mean? Yeah, interesting. Otherwise, it's just like a little gold plat. Yeah, it's but it's I don't know, it's cool because I think there's little like there's little things that you just you can tell you're winning them over by, even in that like quiet. Yeah, um, because you can make them to make get them to make any of those others, or if they say your name, yeah, like that's especially my name, because it's not uh he's name, if they can figure out all of those things, like you can tell you're really making a difference, yeah, they'll really make a point to appreciate you, um, which is which is really cool. Like the amount of times I've gone back um after like gaps in time when I've been there, or I've gone to one city and wrestled, and then I've gone to another city, and then someone from that city has come to watch me and shown me pictures of us at the last show. Yeah, right. Like just stuff like that. Just the level of appreciation is just on an absolute different tier than it is to unloved anyway. We've um we've been three years in a row. So um, yeah, that's why I was sort of mentioned they wanted to nerd on nerd out on it. But I think it's just like it's so different than here, right? Like you said, the that sort of respectable culture, and kind of why I brought it up was that you know they get sort of a bad rap for not liking foreigners or not liking change or whatever it might be. But um, I just think the big thing is that I've noticed is like when they like things, they go all in on things. I think that's really special because I think especially here, just in general in Australia, like sort of I don't know if you just say too much going on all the time, but we sort of half into so many different things. Whereas like you mentioned, like they over there they're so into it, they appreciate every part of it that I think that makes it really special too. 100%. And the other thing that they do is they they they really invest in it, like they really they'll really put their hand in their pocket for all pro wrestling over there, which is which is really good. I mean, maybe they're in different positions than people here, which is probably true in some aspects, but but yeah, they really like they just they really really appreciate, they really love it, and they they there is like a shyness to it a little bit, but they really will let you know as well. But the thing that I love about over there is if you if I talk to people and say I'm a pro wrestler over there, they're like it's like oh my god, yeah. Whereas over here, people are like, oh, you mean the fake stuff? Yeah, like you know, it's really it's just not appreciated. It's it's the appreciation of just the little things, yeah. Like they they get so much, I guess, sort of excitement or appreciation out of just the normal stuff that um yeah, because I think you hear a lot of things kind of there, you see a lot of people that you know some of them just don't have a lot, they work so hard and that sort of stuff. They're not sort of as relaxed, I guess, as we are, that they don't have a lot else. Yeah, and a lot of them so I guess that's probably why sumo is so big over there too, is they work, go to sumo, or they work, go to you know it's like that. And the progress thing's the same overall, like the amount of people that you see that have clearly come from their job. Yeah, and they're just like the the there's so many people in suits in the crowds, and you know, like it's it's it's it's a r it's yeah, it's really just like it's it's almost in a way, it's actually quite funny because it's almost they take it so seriously and they're so in it to the point where they just like fit it in anywhere. Yeah. Like instead of going and getting some GYG before you get the train, they'll like catch a show before they go home. It's strange because they they're so in it, but they'll also just they'll just catch it wherever. Yeah, they'll go, oh sweet, like I can I can be at that show in like 15 hours. Oh, I'll go. Which I think like the way that I look at it, like you can learn so much from that. There's like so many times in my life where I go, I'm not gonna do anything after work because I've got to go back to work tomorrow. Or you know, oh well, there's I can do that in two weeks because nothing else is going on. Yeah, just that different appreciation for how things go that yeah, you you can have a certain sort of situation in your life, yeah, work less hours or whatever, but that doesn't have to stop you from doing the things that you're passionate about as well. Exactly. I think it's just yeah, it's yeah. I just made a I made a like I recently made a made it important, made it a declaration. I haven't actually acted on it yet, but it's a declaration where I was like, I want to go see more live music this year. I feel like for the last couple of years I've really like been a lot of bands that I like that have come and I've not seen them. Yeah. And I I it's at the point where I'm like, if I had gone, I wouldn't have regretted it. Now I regret not going. 100%. You know what I mean? It's the same, it's the same thing. It's just like say yes to anything and or everything, and you'll have a good time. 100%. If you have a good life, probably really think it's um sort of a switch that I've made as well of being a little bit more, I guess, conscious of living life too. I think it's probably just the nature of everything's expensive, like everything's harder to do now. Yes, it's accessible, but it's not as easy just to go do it. And exactly, like I mentioned, we've been to Japan three years in a row. Are you gone back this year? Well, we went already went this year. So we went in um March because it was our um my wife and I's 10-year anniversary of being together, four years married, but ten years being together. Um yeah, it's a good time. So we've gone almost the exact same time three years in a row. So we spoke that really well. But um, but it was just one of those things where I go, like, we could not do it, and then all we could go. We went for five days.

SPEAKER_01 53:49

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_02 53:50

So it was just like straight over there, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, so it's just easy and like it cost probably way more than it needed to because we booked it two months in advance, but it's just like yeah, I don't know, uh, to a certain extent, like, what's the point if you're not going to try and seek out those things, right? Like, you know, back to I guess that opportunity with young rock, like you could have easily gone, this is too hard. It's too hard to ask it, or this is not who I am, so I'm not gonna do that, right? Yeah, it's it's those moments that like you're gonna remember that for the rest of your life now, isn't it? Even if nothing else came from anything else you did beyond that, you know, forever. Like 100% they could have cut me out of the show, and I would still have been like the experience.

SPEAKER_03 54:26

You still tell everyone that you meet exactly like that's the thing too, right?

SPEAKER_02 54:30

Like, I didn't even I just said yes to it, and I was like, it was like one of those ones where it's like you say less yes to it, and then 30 minutes later you're like, Wow, I'm gonna have to pull a sticky, I suppose. Like, how am I gonna get out of work to do this league? But you just say yes and figure it out, like I understand. I think that's because like yeah, and and yeah, this yeah, I feel like there's a lot to be learned about all of those scenarios.

SPEAKER_01 54:49

Like, if I really thought about it, there'd be so many of those scenarios in my head.

SPEAKER_02 54:52

Like going to Cairns and then being followed by the rest of them, and now all of a sudden I've done like five tours of Japan, you know what I mean? Yeah, because I decided to wrestle in Cairns one time, yeah. And even to the point of like, what was gonna be the worst that could happen if I just went to Cairns for days. Yeah, it's one of those things where it's like it's great, yeah. You never then wonder about what if you know, like exactly um, yeah, it might not work out if you say yes to it. Yeah, but you'll never know if you don't say yes to it. Dude, exactly. Like starting this podcast, right? Yeah. Like jump back in on this, like I feel like, and and Australia's so bad for it, but I feel like the biggest barrier to doing anything that you want to do is other people's opinions, right? 100%. And like wrestling for like for me, that wrestling was that definitely. Yeah, like wrestling wasn't cool when I first started training, and yeah, it was something that I like hid for for a long time from people. Like I didn't I didn't tell people I was doing it, I didn't probably for like a couple of years. Yeah, like the people that knew I was wrestling were the people that were at the wrestling. Yeah, yeah. No one else. And because I lived far away, and and then it got to the point, honestly, probably, which isn't this isn't the best lesson for it, but it probably got to the point where like I did book the young rock stuff and then I booked other stuff sh soon after it that opened up like there were really cool opportunities, and that's when I finally started feeling comfortable about it. Yeah, like it was just before that, but like you know, you almost needed something to justify it in a way to go, oh well, look, this is why I'm doing it. Yeah, exactly. Which is like I said, uh, it isn't really that's not great, but yeah. But that was human nature, yeah. That was the way it was.

SPEAKER_05 56:25

Where it's like you're doing your thing, it makes you happy. Yeah, why would you like it?

SPEAKER_03 56:31

Even to that to your point, like I I when I sort of started the podcast and all put out there a couple weeks ago, like I haven't told a lot of people necessarily just because I'm like, I don't know, potentially I go, uh, I can't be bothered having the conversation about it, so I just leave it, sort of thing, and then people find out about it and then it's an easier conversation.

SPEAKER_02 56:47

I don't know, but like I said at the beginning, I kind of just go on, well, this is something else that I'm passionate about and allows me to have a conversation that I wouldn't have had otherwise because I'm not gonna go put myself out there in front of someone. But if I go, I'm doing a podcast, yeah, yeah, it makes it so much easier, right? It kind of opens doors too, right? Like you probably get to talk to people now that you wouldn't necessarily have the opportunity, and it's an easy in, right? Yeah, like if you just randomly start a message with people like, hey, you want to chat? Yeah, you want to be my mate? But yeah, in this and I and then like once again, right? Like it's this has been cool for me because it's like I'm talking about things that I've probably thought about, really like vocalized and actually put the pieces together. I love doing podcasts for that reason, because normally like just shit in my head. Yeah, yeah. And I think it's good too to I mean, maybe that's sort of the way that I see it, but talking about it one way or the other, I feel like makes a big difference. And like as I said, like some people may think things are little, but you know, they may hear it. You may perceive it to be one thing and someone else hears that and goes, Oh wow, how amazing is that like yeah, I think that's that's a really big thing that I've sort of tried to switch into in my life, I think. And um, yeah, I'm hoping that some of these conversations can be that for people, and if not, it is for me, yeah. And hopefully it is for you or you know, the other person, and then they're they're documented for forever, 100%. Which is sick, and I think that's really cool because I I feel like as I get older, I'm one of those people where I'm like, wow, I wish I took more photos of that, yeah. I take a lot of mental photos, and it's something I think when me and my partner got together, it it it was one thing where I was like almost like judgy of a little bit. I'm like, man, you've always got your phone out, take a snap. Yeah, but now it's like yeah, in hindsight, I'm like, oh it's cool, you've got all that stuff that you can send me five years later. Yeah, it's funny you mentioned it too. Like um, same with my wife. Yeah, even now I'm kind of like I don't pull my phone out and take photos necessarily, but she works in social media so that she doesn't call me, so she's all over it. Exactly. Um but it's good to be able to have that sort of yin yang as well. That's no matter what, I'm I'm not forgetting it because she's got it, so it's all good. Yeah, um, but yeah, I think as I said, like it was just really cool to be able to learn a little bit more about the journey and um yeah, just interested in how things go. So it's I think it's really cool and yeah, sort of naturally went into that little bit more in depth about your life and how you look on things, and I think that's really special too. So um cool. All right, well, um as I said, this is only episode two, but want to make it a thing at the end of every episode about this to ask three questions to every guest saying three questions, but I didn't give you didn't give you the heads up of what the questions were, um unless you listen to the first episode. If I haven't, so you don't know, so that's worked out well. Um yeah, they're very relaxed, but I think it's cool just to end it in a little bit more reflective. So the first one, um, outside of the obvious, what makes you happy? My daughter, which I didn't even touch on.

SPEAKER_05 59:37

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 59:38

Yeah. I mean in the overarching family side of things, obviously. But um, yeah, her, which is pretty crazy because she will be two next week. Okay, yeah. Um, and like like it's one of those scenarios where I never thought I'd have kids. In particular, I touched on being selfish before from a wrestling perspective. I was like, there's no way a kid fits into this at all. Yeah, um, and I mean, truthfully, like they don't really, like it's something that you really have to figure out, yeah. Um, and you know, pivot with and whatever, right? Um, but yeah, it's very like it's very cool. Her and I get to spend a lot of time together, which is lovely. And I feel like every day it's just like, oh, this was the best day we've ever had.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:22

But like that's every day. Maybe not every day, that's an exaggeration, but like weekly, it's like, oh, this is like our best day ever. Yeah. And that's really cool. Yeah, it's and it's because it's like not stuff I ever like. I wasn't really a kids person. Yeah, even with like other kids now, I'm kind of like, I like like kids. You know what I mean? Like, which is probably a bad thing, but like it's um, yeah, it's cool. And so yeah, she's she's big time.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:45

She's yeah, definitely like it. I mean, the first one that popped into my head.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:48

Yeah, that's awesome. No, that's awesome. Yeah, uh, the second one is uh what's the best advice you've ever received? This is the one that I mentioned uh before the podcast. You don't have to think about it a little bit. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh man, that's tough. Do you want me to go to the next one and you can think about it? Next one's a little bit easier. Yeah, we'll run that. Alright. So the last one is uh what would be your death row meal? And I've been so I've been so like the last 18 months I've been like really locked in nutrition wise. Yeah. And this like wouldn't be it, but once again, it's like the first thing that came to mind. I mean, it be could be relevancy, right? Yeah. Um I had a big match in Melbourne like two weeks ago. Two weeks, yeah, like about two weeks ago. And I was like, it was a big opportunity, I was really looking forward to it, and thankfully more stuff's gonna come from it, which is amazing. But at the end of it, it was it was one of those days I was quite nervous about it, like I said, it was a really big opportunity, and I'd been really locked in up until that point. And then after the match, I realised I hadn't eaten anything pretty much, like I had like a banana and some yogurt and whatever. Um but then like I kind of just bypassed food and just we just got stuck into the pint. Yeah, and then you know, four, five, six pints later on an empty stomach, and you've just exalted all your energy liquid out of your body. I was like, oh my god, this is rough. Thankfully, there was a burger joint next door. Went through the burger joint. I got this. Mind you, I haven't had a burger in like 80 months. Yeah, like a proper burger. Yeah, I got this like brioche. I'm gonna paint this picture for you. Yeah, good. I love it. That's why I brought up that's why I had this question.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:32

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:33

You can probably tell that brioche, beef patty, bacon, cheese, beef patty, bacon, cheese, brioche. Yeah, stop it. Maybe more cheese. Yeah. That right, it's like a double stack of just like unbelievable. The oil's just falling out of this thing, right? Yeah. But I wasn't on there. I was like, no, it doesn't finish here. Talk dirty to me. So exactly, exactly. So then next door to this, just to just adjacent to this burger, parallel, you might say, to the burger. I just got these like loaded gravy bacon, all the cheese you can think of, fries. Yeah, dude. It's like probably in one meal, like more calories I've been eating like per day last year, right? And then a pint comes with it as well. And it was like, honestly, the whole thing was like 25 bucks. Incredible. So I was like, this is value. That's perfect, it's good value. Yeah, and uh just I've still been I've been thinking about it for like two weeks. It's over bringing it up.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:36

No, no, like it's sweet, and like it's that like I used to be like a big chicken palmy guy, like big time, but yeah, that would I think that'd be it.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:44

And then be some ice cream in there too. What's the thing? Like, it's it's death row, like you're gonna die anyway. It doesn't matter.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:50

Like, I'm not putting it in my no, and like it doesn't matter if it upsets your stomach or you shoot your pants or anything like that, but it's the end anyway.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:57

Yeah, I'm going in the ground, yeah. So yeah, exactly. So that'd be yeah, you'd give you that. Love it. I circling back to the best advice, though. I really I I mean it's pretty, I don't even know if it's really advice more than just like a statement, but it's like you literally have one line. Yeah, like just fucking do the thing you want to do. Yeah, because like people will just die. Yeah, like I've been getting so many of them on my algorithm lately, like it's the yeah, we're all gonna die. Like if you're gonna die, I'm gonna die. So like and you don't know when. Like that's exactly right. You know what I mean? Like, it's like you know, like I would have seen you in 2019, right? And it's well, I mean, I've probably seen you a few times at wrestling shows since, but like, what's to say that we were ever gonna see each other ever again? 100%. Like, there's a lot of people that don't, yeah, right? Yeah, and that's the thing. Like when I was uh when I was, I don't know, probably around that same time that I met you. Um I remember like I was like, I'm gonna get a tattoo. What am I gonna do? I want it to be really small, and so I literally just got this little like the word one. That's it. Because I was like, you're one, I don't have to just like do your own thing. 100% like do the things that you want to achieve because you're you're literally only gonna get to 70. Yeah. And I what the fuck? Why did why why was I a real estate agent my whole life and not attempt pro wrestling? 100%. Yeah. Because of what someone else thought, or something like that. Like it's just nuts.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:20

Yeah, I love that.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:21

Even if you think back to that that interaction with that guy in Japan, the second show that you may never see him ever again. Literally, but that may be something that sticks with him the rest of his life. 100%. That's yeah. Exactly. And like that's that is something that's like super, super cool about and something that I try and be really present to is is moments exactly like that. Where it's just like it's really, really cool that stuff like that happens. Yeah. Like I might not be bloody I might not be where I want to be in my career, yeah. But like I made an effect on that guy. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:55

And that's awesome.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:56

Yeah. Like And sometimes that moment is all that needs to be either. Because you can go, bazaar. Yeah. All right, let's go. Exactly. Exactly. Like if someone wants to buy my t-shirt or buy a picture of me, and me sign it, or pay money to come see me wrestling. That's really cool. Yeah. And you know, it's hard when you're not in the place that you want to get to to appreciate that. But when in hindsight, it's always very cool to look at it and be like, oh, that's really cool. Do you have a uh do you have an end goal on it? Or are you the type of person that just take as it take it as it comes and yeah, I de I definitely did for a really long time. I mean, I still do. I think it's a good at the moment I'm in like this pivotal spot where I'm sort of I mean, I've probably been in it for a minute now, but um I mean as a I mean as a kid, the only thing that there was to watch was the WWE, right? Yeah, um and there was no Aussies in the WWE. No, that's a couple, yeah. Um but getting there is so very difficult as a as a non-American person. For sure. Um and so that's that's I think that's always still the goal, but it's not really the it's not necessarily the one that's like be all end all. Like that's it. Like I I I really, really love wrestling in Japan. Getting a getting a contract from a Japanese company is probably higher on my priority list, but also it's it's it's more attainable, and it's one of those things where it's like if you did that, it would be a stepping stone to the other end. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So there's that, but then also like because obviously now being a dad, things like that, like there's obviously a lot of lots of travel involved with wrestling, and she's getting to an age where she's realizing when I'm gone, yeah, which is pretty bloody hard. Yeah. Uh for me as well. But like it's it's only hard for me because it's hard for her. Yeah. Um, and so it's at the point where I I'm kind of I was only having this conversation the other week, well not the other week, the other day, about how like I've always had this inner belief that I was supposed to do something cool. Yeah. Um and I don't know where that ever came from, like whether that was something that was instilled in me as a as a from my parents or something, I'm not really sure. And so I feel like that really and in my head forever that was wrestling, right? And I mean it still is, but I feel like there's part of that that you know is open to exploring if if there's something that's sort of along that line that is maybe different to that. Yeah, okay. Um from Young Rock things I've found, I've had the opportunity to work on a couple of different sets and a couple of different TV shows, in particular from like a physicality perspective.

SPEAKER_05 1:08:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:28

Um, and that's an industry, like the entertainment side of things. That's an industry that's like really, really busy in Southeast Queensland. Yeah, Gold Coast, Brazil, like there's constantly stuff, big things getting filmed here. Yeah. Um, and so you know, there's transferable skills there that I'm like, well, maybe there's avenues there to explore. And so I think whatever I'm doing, as long as it's one of those things where like, you know, everyone in my circle is happy. Yeah, you know, fiancee, baby, I'm fulfilled.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:56

It doesn't really matter what it is.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:58

Yeah, I don't really know if it matters what it is anymore. It's more of just that that's that's the goal, is that everyone in the circle is fulfilled. Yeah, yeah. I love that. Which is cool. Yeah, 100%. Uh I mean, I'm in a yeah, I'm in a bit of a weird sort of transition period, I guess. Um, as I said before, like I worked in sports for the last few years and um that's always what I wanted to do. Uh that was always where I was gonna go down. I was played tennis growing up. Um and yeah, I got to a relatively high level. Yeah, um that's cool. Yeah, that was sort of that's a hard sport to get to a high level.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:28

Yeah, it's hard. It's definitely hard enough.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:30

Especially because it's popular too. Yeah. Um, so I got to the point where um first I was gonna be professional, but then it was okay, I'm gonna be okay if I can go play college tennis. Um I could have done it. I had a standing offer there um to go over and play, which was good, but um yeah, it's I just fell out of love with it. I was mentally was not up to it. Um, because it's a very it's only you, right? I guess you can sort of relate to that where um yeah, I just was I was emotional, I was angry, and it was just it turned me into a person as soon as I stepped on the court, it was completely different than the person I was often. Very quiet, very sort of um introverted person, but was just completely the opposite when I go on the tennis court. Um, and I just didn't like who I was. Um and it was sort of right at the time that I met my now wife. Certainly not that she was the whole reason, but yeah, I guess the person that I could be with her was the person that I wanted to be. So it it made me realise even more that you know, committing so much time to being a tennis player was not what I wanted anymore. Yeah, um, so yeah, I was sort of fulfilled in the fact that I could have done it. Yeah, sure. Didn't go do it, but I could have. So I was okay with that. Um so then it just turned into, well, I'm gonna go work in sports administration. That's what I want to go do. And um, yeah, had a really good role with the QRL, Queensland Rugby League, which was really exciting. It's probably all I sort of wanted for a long time. But yeah, over the last little period, sort of probably realised that you know, maybe that's not what I want. Yeah, so I'm in a bit of a weird period, I guess probably coincides now with um you know starting this podcast. Um yeah, I think I'll put because that was what I was gonna do from 10 years old, yeah, put so much pressure on that's what I need to go be. Yeah, and probably not focusing on everything that comes along with it. Yeah, yeah. Um, so yeah, probably just made that little bit of a switch and and it's it's okay just to enjoy everything as it comes and take everything as it comes and not put so much pressure on what you're gonna be or what you are, and probably yeah, a little bit of an identity sort of crisis from that perspective, but I think I've got a a good outlook on it. Yeah, it's not probably not some part of it. Yeah, because it would be hard to like I I yeah, I and I think I I think it'd be difficult to like there's this there's something that you said there where like I I didn't definitely relate to that where it's like you sort of you you know you got to a level that was very good and and that you were you know happy with but you also saw like there was other like there was just other avenues that can also make you happy. Yeah. Um and I feel like I've had those recently, you know, I touched on my daughter before, obviously making me happy, and and I think that that is like the big one. Like I remember I had I remember I had a a good wrestling match, like a really good one. You know, the crowd are really into it, though this is awesome, you know, you know, fight forever, like all the chance, all the things you want to hear from a crowd, yeah. Um and then like the week before that, I'd had a good match in South America randomly, and then they chant different things because of Spanish. Yeah, so like right in a bit of a wrestling high. Yeah. And I remember the next day after that second match of the two, like it was like a one weekend here, one weekend in Australia, and the next day of the Sunday, I remember I was driving in the car and my daughter was like singing wiggles, and like we were playing like, I don't know, let's say big red car, like whatever.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:50

Like, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:12:53

Yeah, yeah. We all grew up on them. Um and I remember like she was sort of doing the dance, doing the singing, and I was just like, if I never wrestled ever again, this is really cool. Yeah, and and not that I want that, yeah, but like if I never did, I did some really cool stuff, but this is really cool now too much. Yeah, yeah. But like I think for me, like I kind of I needed that. I mean, I needed like I don't think I'd be able to not do it without having something else. Yeah, um, and so yeah, to have like that cool optimism of like this is where I'm going. I don't know exactly where it is yet, but this is where I'm going. I think that's sick, man. Yeah, that's really cool. I think it's well as you were saying that the the thing I thought of, and probably gonna sound a bit cringe, but um like if if all I am at the end of the day is Grace's husband, yeah, then I'm probably okay with that. That's cool, man. I think because we kind of grew up through that all of that together, I think that like that's a big thing in and of itself to have that we have, and then anything else that comes along with it is just part of the journey. And it's gonna be 10 years is like pretty it's I don't want to say it's unheard of because it isn't, but it's like it's certainly a lot of people don't get that far. 100% and like we're young people, yeah. Yeah, and you know, year 12 together and through all of that. And um see, I think that's probably changed my perspective of it, especially over the last couple of years, that like I don't have to be anything. Yeah, I think that was my big thing growing up, was like I was probably kept to myself a lot, as I said, very internal that like this is what I have to be. That's my identity, that's who I am, and I think not having that is okay too. Like just enjoying your life and getting through it is okay too. Like all these things we talked about with you is incredible, but yeah, you don't have to be that to be to have a good life too, right? And if you can do that, amazing. But as long as you're sort of having something that you're happy with, that's all that really matters. And I think if you can be happy, then give one. 100% because there's a lot of people, unfortunately, 100%. There are a lot of people that aren't and post-COVID and all that sort of stuff, so much has changed that it's much harder to enjoy things now, I think. And um, yeah, well, that's all I'm looking for, is just more things I can enjoy. I feel like I feel like on that too, I know we're probably like way over time yet, but I feel like on that, like I think a lot of the time too, the people that aren't happy are the ones that actually never had a crack. Yeah, you know what I mean? Like I think it's easier to be happy when you've really had a crack at something and pivoted because things do change 100%. Like you could have you could have gone to college, played tennis, and then realize you actually like you're a tall guy, realize you actually love volleyball and become really good at that, or you know, handball or something, right? And you like you go there for one thing, you think that's all you want to do in life, and then I mean you could I mean you could really flip it and go all high school musical and be like, no, I actually want to do musical theater. Yeah, yeah. And you're really good at it, right? And then all of a sudden, but like you've had a crack at the things you wanted to do. Exactly. Right. Because I think a lot of people just don't even do that. Yeah. And the big thing is like, you know, I guess look back to the sort of switch in the career that I've had now. Like, I don't want to leave things hating them. Yeah, of course. And I think that was my big thing when I just made the decision to not um go to college. What I thought of was, you know, and obviously it was a little bit impacted by the fact that you know I now had a partner, so that was gonna make things difficult. I'm not gonna run away from that. Wasn't the only reason, but it's part of it, it's just how things go. But um to a certain extent, like I knew that if I went, I would hate it because I didn't want to do it anymore. Yeah. And I didn't want to go just for the sake of being of going. Yeah. Because going over there and coming home after four months was gonna be a fail to me. But knowing I could have done it, considering I put everything into it to get to the point where I could do it, I was okay with that. Yeah, so I think that was a big thing that like that was gonna leave a sour taste in my mouth. Is there still part of me that goes, oh well, what what could have happened? Of course, but you can you can't live your life like that because anything could change at any point, right? But that's really so interesting. Because yeah, that was gonna go, well, then I failed that, even though I've I've gone, yeah, as I said, I could have gone over there, spent the four years, fantastic, would have been amazing. But I just I felt truly that it wasn't gonna work out the way that I wanted it to. Yeah. So why risk that? I think how early like what's the gap between like when you got the offer and then if you take it back before that, like when you started like not liking it anymore? Yeah, well, I mean I it had been a while, like I didn't really uh hadn't liked it for probably a long time. Um because yeah, the I was always angry, like I always um it's probably just because I put so much on the court or just in general? No, on the court. I mean, I had anger management issues probably growing up, but by the time I'd teenage by the time I started playing tennis, it wasn't angry off the court, like I was I'd kind of grown up into being a teenager by then, so it's probably okay. But um, on the court, it was just I always felt like I can be better. I put way too much pressure on every single situation because I felt like oh, if I don't win this one matchbats get, I can't become a professional anymore. But so much pressure on everything going wrong that I was never okay with it. Yeah, um, so it was probably a couple of years before, I would say, but I thought I put so much effort in, yeah, stop now. It's like a doctor getting like all the way through their course. 100% even the last year, kind of to the point of my parents put a lot of money and time into me, my coaches put a lot of time and money. I just I didn't do anything else when I was growing up. Like it was that was all I did. Like I didn't go out drinking, I didn't go out and see my mates, like I was training all the time. Uh that was all it was because I had it's also very not natural either. I'm not very athletic, so I had to try very hard. And then I felt like if I didn't, I'd lose that progress. So I'd sure you know, had had some back issues and stuff like that. It's had some things along the way, just like what anyone else does. But um, yeah, it was it was definitely before that I met my wife that I thought about it. It was just I think this gave me everything that I needed to make the decision. But yeah, to your point, like I it would have been like a year later when I would have gone, because it would have been the August semester after year 12. Oh, right. So I made the decision like the July. Okay. So because I kind of would have had to, the way that the system works is you kind of have to get locked in a year in advance, yeah. Yeah, especially for the the scholarship process because there's so much money tied to it over in the US. Yeah. Um, so it's probably yeah, the July of 2016, I would have gone the August 2017. So even if I had said yes, there still would have been plenty of time between then that I I could have changed my mind. So um, which once again, reflection potentially could have gone the other way as well. But um, yeah, I think that that was probably more there's probably a little bit of pressure on that too of making the decision now before I was too far into it. And you can you can back at any point, so it's not like up until when you go, there's no money spent on it effectively, but um that probably put a bit of pressure on it too, going that yeah, over a four-year degree, it's over a hundred grand, especially at a big college um, there's a lot of money attached to it sort of thing. So um what year what age were you when you started playing? Uh 10.

unknown 1:19:47

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:48

So I was yeah, 17 at that point when I sort of stopped. Um is that late to start playing? For sure. Yeah, I think that's probably why I wasn't super natural at it either. Like I am the fact that you weren't natural at it, and then you taught you basically gained the ability to do it. Yeah. Um like that, yeah, I think that actually shows a lot more perseverance than I like from a wrestling perspective, the wrestling side of things, when I was shown the like the actual moves and how to run and take a bump, like a lot of that stuff I was quite natural at. It was a lot of the other stuff that took a lot of work, yeah. And it's to your point, like I'd put in a lot of work to that point, so I was like, Well, and I love it, so I want to get better. I hadn't fallen out of love with it or anything, so yeah, but yeah, like I don't I think if I had found it really difficult, I probably would have been like, well, I had a track. Yeah, I tried. Yeah, but because I I don't know, I think I remember the first time I ever tried water skiing, I couldn't do it. Yeah, fuck yes, I don't want water ski, yeah. Bullshit. And then I don't know, like you know, you you just you persevere more than if you try, so you're like, okay, this was alright. Yeah, you know what I mean? But like I feel like I had that personality where it's like if I'd if I'm not like handy at something quickly, yeah, I just like no, it's not for me. Yeah, yeah. Which is probably generally the the way that I thought I would have been too. I guess I just sort of got connected to it and that was that was it sort of thing. And um, but I guess because I was so into sports, but probably never thought I was gonna be anything before I started playing tens, I was still pretty young, but like I didn't play a lot of sports before that. Okay, I was just really into sport, like into everything. So that was sort of that nerdy being into sport is sort of where the the sports admin part came out because I thought, well, that's where I can be you know an asset sort of thing because I was never really athletic. I was just I just had a good work ethic. My dad busted his ass for his entire life and worked a physical hard job that I think had just sort of taken some of that off him. Yeah, um, where I was like, so I can I can work hard and I was passionate enough about it, but then it got to the point where that passion started to dwindle that how am I putting in so much effort? And to be honest, I probably just got to the point where I was actually having this conversation with someone today, I probably just got as good as I could have got. Yeah, I felt like I'd plateaued.

SPEAKER_05 1:22:03

Sure.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:03

Could that have been because of the mental struggles behind it all? Probably, but I just felt like physically I wasn't I wasn't getting any better anyway. So, what would be the point in continuing to go do it sort of thing? So um, but yeah, like I now I sort of look back on it just going, well, that was just the time and I've you know had a lot of success and a lot of really great opportunities. Yeah, I was gonna say it's like you like you would have you've got, I'm sure you've got some really cool like school law that the kids say.

SPEAKER_05 1:22:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:29

Well, I mean, like I got to um traveled to the US in 2014, play tournaments, and um made the final. My only ever final that I made as a player was in in the US. So yeah, there's a lot of really good memories. Like one of uh we billeted out with host families there. We stayed in this tiny little town, and then one of the guys there is still we don't talk very much now, but still one of my better friends. And then you know, 12 years on, sort of thing. So yeah, I can have that ability now to probably go. There's so many great things because I travel all around Australia doing it and um yeah, spend more time with my parents and um all that sort of stuff. That you know, there's a lot of good things with it too, which I probably felt like I wasn't gonna be able to have that outlook on it. Yeah, and I continued and it got sour more and more sour, whereas now I go, well, I did everything I could, I gave it everything I could. Like there wasn't any more that I could have really done. Yeah, yeah. So that was just the result of it. So yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, it's really cool. Yeah, and a really cool outlook there. Yeah. That was cool.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:25

It turned into a little bit of interview with me.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:27

I feel weird talking to myself all the time that I'm not like asking follow-up questions or bouncing back. You know, I feel really strong. I'm throwing there. What's next? When's your next match? Um, I my next match was on the 6th of June. So like it's like the 11th of May right now. Yes, 11th of the year. So I have like a very quiet May. Yeah. Um, but then honestly, from then like the rest of the year kind of kicks off. Like it's it's really like the start of my year. I mean, it's not, I've had matches already this year all over the place. Um but 6th of June is like in Toowoomba, which is cool because it's 12. Um and then uh from there it's like Brizzy, Melbourne, Brizzy, Melbourne, all over all over the place, really. Back to Japan in September, I think. Yep. Um, and then yeah, just it's a lot, it's a lot busier throughout the rest of the year, which is great. So it's been it's been a pretty quiet start to the year. Um it's probably not the worst thing either, though, right? Nah, nah, I got pretty banged up my last trip in Japan last year, so I probably needed the rest. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:24:32

Yeah. Because yeah, my body was cooked. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:35

But yeah, I mean, that's that's what's next. And then um, I don't know, kind of lean into what I was saying before, like lean into maybe other opportunities that might sort of rear their head a little bit. Yeah, yeah. Rather than just being like, this is the only path. Yeah, I could sort of just you know, say yes to other other things that might be fun. Yeah. Love it. Yeah, yeah. Awesome. Okay. Well, that was this was fantastic. It went a lot longer than what I thought it was gonna start. How long are we at? Uh almost an hour and a half. Oh, okay. That's good. It was a really good conversation. And yeah, thank you so much for coming on and being um open and honest and vulnerable to certain things. I think that's what I yeah, big reason why I wanted the podcast to be what it was. So um, yeah. Can you do it again, man? I feel like I got all sorts of other stuff you dive into. Yeah, I love it. Maybe we can make some my home life. Uh maybe we can make some wrestling content at some point as well. That'd be cool. Um that'd be awesome. Yeah. Do you remember do you remember the first match you ever saw? Uh would have been one of Xander's ones. Okay. Because obviously, yeah, we've got that connection with working on side of him. It was actually at, I think the first one might have been at uh Trifford. Trifford, yeah. Yeah, sick. Yeah, yeah. Um you saw on TV. No one actually that matched the first one he wrestled against um, he was Maddie Wahlberg then. Wow, but Grace Muller now from WL. Wow. That's cool. Yeah, that was it the trip. I remember that. Yeah, Queensland Open Weight Championship, maybe well, and Belt's made a return too. It's bad. Really? Yeah, okay. I think he beat him too. Yeah, probably. He was the champion for a long time. So that's huge. That's a claim to fame, right? So that's pretty cool. Like, even just when that one little thing, like obviously he's obviously I wouldn't have known who he was anyway, right? But got to see that before.

SPEAKER_03 1:26:20

Yeah, that's pretty cool as well.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:21

Um yeah, there's been a few others since then, but um I'm actually going, like I said, before we started recording, going to the US, but going to um Argentina and Mexico later on this year, too. Um, and we're going to a show in Mexico, yeah. That's gonna be awesome. Yeah, so that'll be really cool. That's so cool. That's like such a huge part of their tourism, yeah. Which would be sick. Yeah, and obviously the AAA stuff's got to take off a lot more now, too, with the WB connection, which is pretty cool. So that's yeah, I just think that atmosphere would be pretty sick. Um, but yeah, awesome calling in. Thank you, Mickey, bro.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:52

Appreciate it, appreciate you having me.