Hold up just a minute. This is Chase. And I'm once again joined by George Howard Adams, fresh off the tails of Action Jackson. Oh yeah. How do you think we did George?  Man, I think you guys did a tremendous job. , I can tell that you all actually watched the movie and you seem to really enjoy the movie.

And , it's just one of those things where it. It feels good to relive  some of those moments , from being younger is just a good time. And it's always good when somebody can. , bring us something that we see from their childhood, especially like a great actor as yourself  we can  see some of the inspiration, , I know you haven't landed your action Jackson role yet But hopefully it's coming down the road.

Maybe they do a remake. Yeah, I might play the uncle or the dad or something That ship may have sailed but who knows They let Liam Neeson is a really old guy do like taken or whatever. So  maybe I can be the old dude doing that , yeah, it's there for you. , and if you want to listen to that episode, you can go find that on any major streaming.

Platform, but today we're gonna talk wrestling. , oh yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Dig it  So when we talked about action jackson,  we kind of gotten into our love of wrestling, you know Obviously we grew up in separate eras, which is totally fine.  When you were a kid, it was mainly, what, the territory days, or?

Yeah, it was territories, and, , things were starting to go national. , if you wanted to watch WrestleMania, you watched it on close circuit TV at a movie theater. Oh, wow. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. God, did you do that a lot? No, but I remember the ads for it.  My mother was not spending that money. The way I saw Wrestlemania and Survivor Series were, I had an uncle that bought all those pay per views and he taped them all and then he would give me the VHS tapes the next day.

Don't rat your uncle out. The FBI's been looking for him for years. , yeah, , I grew up a huge wrestling fan, so it's always fun to talk wrestling and, , I want to ask, like, so what started your wrestling fandom? I know you just talked about your uncle, but, , growing up in Memphis, that's a huge wrestling territory, huge wrestling town, like Atlanta is.

Atlanta and Memphis were huge in those days. Yeah, I mean it was one of those things where there was no shame in being a wrestling fan  and I mean You're a little kid growing up. You liked the good versus evil kind of thing. The pageantry . Yeah I heard someone say that professional wrestling was like drag show  with fighting for, it's like the straight man's drag brunch.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, . And wrestling, you know, people out there that hate on it. I'm like, what was there to hate on? It's an action movie. It's a comedy show. It's a concert. It's sometimes it's a club. Yeah. It's a little bit of the circus,  like a stunt show, a drama. Yeah. You get everything you need in one go.

What else do you need to watch? Well, people will point out that it's quote unquote fake, but they're watching all this other stuff on TV, that's scripted as well. . I never got that. You never got that. Yeah. And I know , the art of wrestling is to make it as real as possible and blur the lines, but that's part of the art is no one out there other than there are some crazy people that believe it is real or did in the eighties.

There's nobody these days, we're all , aware. We were aware in the 90s when Mae Young was giving birth to a hand. Right.  I have a relative, , I won't rat him out, , that, that believes the, , title matches are real.  Really? Still? Yeah, he believes everything else is a work, but the title matches , are like a shoot.

Yeah, I'm like,  okay, alright, alright, whatever, you know.  Why, why ruin that for him? Yeah, don't, yeah, he's living the dream with that one. Yeah, exactly. , did you get to see a lot of wrestling shows as a kid? Yeah, so there were television tapings every week, and then the Mid South Coliseum often had, , the big shows, and then occasionally the national, , promotions would come through and have shows.

I actually got to see, , Hulk Hogan vs. The Iron Sheik and a rematch with, , the doctor of style slick as the manager and slick took an atomic drop like a champ,  which I thought was a legit move when I was a kid though, even though I knew it was scripted, I thought the atomic drop was something that really was like, and that was like the first.

Fakest move now. I feel like no one, does anyone do an atomic drop? I haven't even seen one. I don't maybe see him pulling it out.  Like the DDT isn't even a finisher anymore. Yeah. And that, yeah. Back in those days, like the leg drop,  Oh God, watch out. Yeah. Yeah. The shake, rattle and roll from a honky tonk man.

The camel clutch, all those like, all those weird looking finishers now wouldn't even, it's not even a transition move anymore. Right, right. The Iron Sheik probably would have been fighting MMA.  Because you know, he was a legit like,  yeah, like a really good wrestler. He was like , the, Bodyguard to like the Shah of Iran or whatever.

Like , he was a tough dude. Yeah. And all those guys were next level tough too. Like you're talking about like wrestling with broken legs and stuff, but yeah. So they could eat and usually they didn't even get to eat if they did that. , true. Yeah. I've heard some stories. Yeah. Cause like, Cornette fall off the scaffolding and  tore every ligament in his knee and still had never got the surgery.

Yeah, that is the craziest thing.  I've seen that bump too. That's brutal to even watch today. I remember watching that as a kid and I don't know if you experience this, but when you look at that stuff now you're like, how did I watch that resolution?  Like, and understand what was going on. Is that part of the brain rot?

Yeah, it's like  You couldn't make out anything in those days. No, it wasn't well lit. . And it's like shooting in four 80 or whatever. It's like  , how this  , the frame rate would drop. , do you remember tape trading? Were you a part of tape trading? I was not, no. Okay. But I remember people doing it. So I, this kind segues me into  what I really wanted to talk about.

So we,  do , basically a film podcast. You're a great actor. , I always am curious about wrestling because I feel like wrestling and acting and wrestling and film are not that far apart. And some people will throw them in categories of wrestling is its own thing. Film's its own thing. And I'm like, not really.

Like I think that there's a lot of parallels there and I think you're the perfect person to kind of talk about those parallels. And I think it starts with even just going to media because horror tape trading, you know, me being a horror fan is, A big thing, like back in the 80s and 90s, and there's a lot of lost media out there.

, a lot of horror movies didn't make it from VHS to DVD, so you had to trade them off. And that was a big thing for wrestling, because it was territorial. You didn't get to see every match, but if you wanted to see when Bret Hart was in Smokey Mountain, I don't even know if that happened, but if Bret Hart did wrestle in Smokey Mountain,  You knew that the only way you could get his tape trade, right?

Exactly. So even just the media aspect of  and VHS brought wrestling into that kind of mainstream category because you were only going to see what's in Smoky Mountain. You weren't going to see what was in NWA or in Atlanta's territory.  I do think that that kind of starts our questioning for you.

Where does the parallels between wrestling and acting start? Well, , I think part of the problem with people judging  wrestling versus acting is someone judges Citizen Kane or  some really stuffy, like critically acclaimed movie.  against something silly that they saw in wrestling. But when you start going more towards the middle in these things, I think they are similar.

There are scripts that I've,  I've read where I'm like, oh, in order to achieve what they're asking,  this is going to have to be cartoonish.  And sometimes in order to achieve what they're asking in wrestling, it's going to be cartoonish, but other times it's going to be  ultra realistic. Like, I remember a very cartoonish thing where, , Goldberg, , ran over Sid Vicious.

Car. Do you remember that  like Sid? Vicious runs. I was like, 

, do you remember the Yapa pie? Yes.  Like Hulk and just slamming a leather strap into a cage  repeatedly. This is the kind of content you get with wrestling. It's so fun. , yeah, no, I agree with you.  , if we look at Action Jackson, that's not far from like a wrestling event.

No, no. But then if you look at something more grounded, like  when the Hart Foundation was heel in the U S and face in Canada, those interviews that Bret Hart did, where he was talking about The USA and, you know, like sticking in an enema in whatever town that was, you know what I'm talking about?

Yeah, that was very grounded. Yeah, it was realistic and that would have hold  up in an actual Movies, I said hold up because of where I love the plug  Yeah   think about like the actors we have, like The Rock and Batista, , doing big things in movies, you know, now they're playing action stars,  they're not doing like these incredible  performances, but , , look at how easy that was for them to segue.

Yeah. And I feel like.  , I think it's easier for wrestlers to transition to acting than it is for actors to transition into wrestling. , I don't know if you remember during the Attitude Era where, , LL Cool J shows up. , with the a PA and he's like having this conversation like, Booker T comes in.

Yeah.  Like, what the hell was ll doing? Yeah. Like , it's like I know you can act like, yeah, what, what are you doing here? What are you doing? Yeah. And, and I think it's like that's where we get  the stage performances too. , , 'cause wrestling is always. 

 Bled over into Hollywood. We've gotten a lot of actors, you know, mainly at WrestleMania time, but we get a lot now, I mean, Bad Bunny had a match. Right like yeah, and did pretty well , but like his outside of that, you know the promos and everything It's like dude, you you've done this and like shows before like how why is it so different now?

Yeah, and even Lawrence Taylor remember Lawrence Taylor was actually a main eventer. Yeah, WrestleMania 11 Yeah, Bam Bam Bigelow is the only non I guess champion. Yeah. To be like , the main guy in , the main event at WrestleMania, you know? Um, so. And I remember that being a huge deal when I was a kid, but like that was when wrestling had kind of fallen on hard times.

Yeah, they were bringing in every celebrity they could to like, yeah. Celebrity mania, I think is what they nicknamed Wrestlemania 11. Yes, yes, yes. Uh, cause Pam Anderson was there with Shawn Michaels. Oh, I forgot about that. Yeah. Yeah. And looked out of place. It's, yeah, and that just drives the home the point.

, it's like actors get in there and they don't, they, they're like, what do I do with my hands, Ricky Bobby style. Right. Yeah.  , and why do you think that is?  Ooh, you know, .  That's a really good question. I, so I have a friend that, , wrestled as the cat, Ernest Miller. Oh yeah. And somebody call his mama.

Right.  And he's also an actor and he has this great charisma  as a wrestler  that he rarely displays as an actor. When he acts, he does a, he does a good job, but I feel like if he were more the cat. Um, when he was acting, he would probably be a household name with his charisma in these TV shows. I'm sorry to put you out there like this, Ernest, but you know, I love you, man. 

We can invite Ernest on the show and then he can like bad mouth you at some point. Yeah. I mean, he's gonna, he's, I mean, he's going to talk trash. That's just , what he does. He's a world class. Trash talker, but yeah, like There you have it. Ernest, call me.  Not your mama. Not your mama, call me. Yeah, but like,  you see him show up at a wrestling event or autograph signing, you see a video of that and you see that cat character come out and it's incredible.

Yeah, he got really over too in late WCW. Yeah, yeah, like,   When he was first getting into wrestling is kind of , when , I got to know him a little bit and, I just saw him like rise, rise, rise. I wish they had done more with him in WWE, but like, you just see how like,  okay, this character would work. 

is like a great character , on a show or in a movie, but you don't see that. I don't know if they're afraid to let him be that or if he doesn't want to do that. And do you think it's like  like Hollywood kind of puts up a barrier? Like this is too low brow. , cause I know wrestling has that.

stigma that it's for trashy low income people. Even though I, as a wrestling fan, all these years, I can attest that that is not the case, especially now it is expensive to go. Yeah. I think the cheapest ticket at WrestleMania, like 800 or something like that is ridiculous. But I mean, I guess WrestleMania is two days now.

So it makes it a little bit of a difference, but still. I went to, I attended a raw for first time in a long time. Okay. And. I mean, I got cheap bleed tickets, but they weren't cheap, you know, they were still verging a hundred bucks for back row and the top of the building, but it was sold out. Okay. Yeah. I mean, 12, 000 people there at state farm arena.

 That's impressive. That's a lot of people for a Monday night raw.  And I can tell you walking around, you know, I don't judge anybody, but , that was not the crowd that people peg as wrestling fans feel like it's more nowadays it feels like it's more open, but when in the nineties it wasn't, it was like trash TV.

Yes, I think wrestling has gone through these cycles and you let me know if you, you agree with this. Like , when I look back to when I first started. watching wrestling and wrestling really started becoming popular with like the Hulk Hogan and having like A rock and wrestling cartoon coming on on Saturdays and stuff.

It was clearly marketed towards kids. , and I feel like It kind of grew up With me. And by the time I was an adult, we had attitude era and then like the ruthless aggression era, we had the Monday night wars and stuff like that. And then there was almost a reset to get it back to kids again. And now it seems like it's taken that same amount of years to move forward and ultimately have WWE on Netflix and , it's getting more adult again.

So I don't know if that's.  A coincidence or if that's like a pattern that they're trying to yeah, getting rid of Vince McMahon helped that. So yeah, that's  so crazy with Vince. Cause like  Vince is the greatest fight promoter of all time. All time. He has gotten people to watch scripted fights on a high level more than someone could get. 

People to watch Mike Tyson, Floyd Mayweather, Muhammad Ali, Rocky Marciano, you know. It's crazy because WrestleMania is always the most watched event. It's like right next to the Super Bowl. People watch it. And like, I think this year it's going to be, I think it's going to pass the Super Bowl. I think you're right.

It is worldwide. No one watches the Super Bowl outside of the United States. It's the most watched, Super Bowl I think is the most watched event in the United States. But worldwide Wrestlemania just absolutely kicks the shit out of the Super Bowl. Yeah. It is crazy. And I think this year it's going to be even crazier.

, and I agree with you on all that. We won't get into Vince as a person or his character cards, cause that's another podcast for another day. And yeah, I don't want to touch that. Yeah, that's not, yeah, that's, that's we're going to keep it strictly business here. Right.

But  to your point though. , no one has done what he's done, you know,  in Hollywood or. You know, like I mean you I guess you could say the creation of the Super Bowl, but like that would be the closest thing I mean he is essentially  What Babe Ruth was to baseball when it was dying?

, started hitting home runs and then people were like I want to see it see this home run , you know he I mean he had some crappy ideas He has some Terrible things that like you can't do anymore. The guts to do everything though. The guts to just try something is  , like him, hate him, whatever.

But in any business practice or creative venture, it's almost inspiring to like, say, Hey, I'm just going to go do it and not  hesitate because look at what happened. He events created  a worldwide sport      everybody is into. Yeah. That works well live and televised.  Because think about these over the top expressions. One of my favorite things is like when Vince would get, , Scared and like he would do that big swallow like the goal  Character his eyes bugging out of his head.

Yeah, that would not work in a Christopher Nolan movie  But it works like when you hear the glass shatter stone colds coming out Vince is pissing himself Exactly like you know, we suspend disbelief as far as everybody's music being queued up,  even if they allegedly don't work for the company.  They just happened to debut , and like the DJ, it was like, Oh, Chris Jericho is in the back.

Let me play his music.  Yeah. It doesn't make any sense. No, no, no. But it's fun. It's, it's fun. And that leads me into the production qualities, the production values of. wrestling, watching it now is way better than any TV show or Hollywood. But  they are inventing new camera angles, new camera tricks.

They're capturing stuff at a mile a minute.  , just watching the Royal Rumble, , you have 30 men in there and they're all getting their shit in and then you have to capture each one's physical reaction to the timed moments, right?  Just to time all that stuff. It's like, how is that not so similar to a Hollywood production  or a play, right?

 It's like, Hey, we're going to do a superplex before this person runs in. So we got to time the superplex where everybody in this 12, 000 seat arena can see it. Yep. And then have that done. So someone comes in and we're down on the mat so they can focus on that person.

Yeah. You have to hit your mark. You have to be facing the correct camera. Yeah. You have to be standing in your light,  like all these different, and there's no do overs. None. , like, , that Royal rumble where. Batista was going to do the power bomb on John Cena and he flipped up too hard and they both fell out.

. That was a happy accident. Yeah. Yeah. They both landed, happened to land at the same time. ,   the acrobatics and everything of has to be like on point at all times. So,  who do you think now? Or let me rephrase this. Who is the best wrestler slash actor who has come from the wrestling industry and been a good actor?

Because I also see, we talked about the parallels where actors can't come into wrestling and do it, but wrestlers have a hard time of going into acting, I guess it's the way that they're directed or,  or like casted. They're always casting these like faceless. Action heroes or faceless like henchmen, you know  you always think about like where they had all those marine movies or whatever.

Oh, yeah I forgot about those like ken kennedy sean michaels and all those people And then you see like kevin nash and the punisher and he doesn't say a word big show and jingle all the way Right kevin nash and john wick though  was nice. , he did a good job of that That was perfect right up his alley.

I think  So for the time, because the style of acting was different back then, it wasn't as grounded. I think Roddy Piper in, , They Live, , , was excellent. Everybody's acting style was a little bit , more over the top right then. So I think  really well today. ,  You know, for what he does, which is kind of playing the same dude over and over.

The Rock is a great movie star.  And then Dave Bautista,  he's not a movie star, but he is an actor. Yeah. This transition real well. So I think , those are probably  the ones, I mean, Sina is also like, A star  that's a star on a TV show and a star in the movies more so than, , just being like a, like this grounded actor, but I enjoy what he does.

, he's funny. Yeah. He's embraced what he does well.  , but , you have so many people from so many different  fields of entertainment.  They go into acting  and we accept it like the number one movie in the country right now is One of them days and  the musician SZA  is one of the leads in it  She's not this polished actor,  but what she does it's they're throwing her  they're letting her play home games instead of away games.

Yeah, and it just works. So yeah,   it's interesting to think about because the first like  I don't like the man, like throw him in there with Vince, but Hulk Hogan, he kind of started the whole thing with acting because , he, what do you have like Santa with muscles and yeah, and he started Mr.

Nanny and he tried so hard to be Arnold, you know, like instead of just playing Hulk Hogan in movies,  which I think he kind of, Thunder in Paradise with Carl Weathers. That's one. Maybe we touch on down the road  if we do Thunder in Paradise, we're bringing you back. All right  That one we may tear into but sting his hammerhead.

Yeah, that's when he just got all of his friends to do it Yeah, but it's weird because that's what I remember as a kid. I remember you never saw wrestlers in Hollywood You saw Hollywood in wrestling, but you never saw wrestlers in Hollywood unless it was like Hulk Hogan And then I remember down the road,  yeah, he got Jesse, , who got blacklisted from wrestling from blacklisted from everything, but he doesn't care.

Yeah. He doesn't care. He doesn't care. Yeah. And,  so you have, , , down the road, you got ready to rumble, which I remember as a kid, loving that movie. I never actually saw it. I'm sure it's shit now, but I remember being a kid and being like, you saw all your wrestlers, but they were playing themselves.

They weren't playing like other characters. And then the rock hit , the scorpion King. And then that kind of seemed to turn everything around. And then it became like these wrestlers are not getting these roles of these. Oh, you're a wrestler. You can only play an action star. It's like, no, John Cena's in these like family comedies or these rom coms and then, , the rocks and everything like, but he's still kind of an action star, but he's  in these comedies .

He's  in these family movies. He kind of did a little bit of everything. So you're seeing that role breakdown, Batista's in all kinds of different things. Guardians and yeah, like  one of the James Bond movies. I tell you though, you put The Rock and Kevin Hart in something, I'm probably gonna watch it.

Yeah, they have great chemistry. Yeah, I'm gonna watch it.  , and The Rock's gotten so much better, but  , he just plays himself, I think, in every movie he's in. Yeah, yeah, which is, which is fine. It's, it's kind of a category like blaxploitation movies are. It's like, Oh, this is a rock movie.

We're watching the rock. He's going to do his thing. And  it's probably going to be funny. But one thing  I do really like about him is that he lets everybody else shine.   There are certain people like him and even Tom Cruise to a certain extent, or like you see a Tom Cruise movie, you see a mission impossible movie. 

 He'll get his ass kicked. Yeah.  He's not one of those guys. It's like, well, since I'm the star, I'm not going to lose any fights. He'll lose some fights and let the other people rescue them. See, I'm a big Tom Cruise apologist out there. , I don't know how this is going to land with everybody, but I think like I tell everybody all the time, I don't think Tom Cruise is bad as an actor.

I think he's really good. And I have a high respect for him. , I get  how people like think of him. I guess the Scientology thing people can't get over. Right.  I do think he was like an arrogant prick for awhile and that kind of created that persona for him.

But like he showed up in Atlanta in the Atlantic station, just went to the movie theater and hung out with everybody. I remember that. Yeah I was at the theater that day. I just wasn't going to see mission impossible. But I happened to like be in the same room , and everybody was talking about how just nice of a guy he went around the entire room and thanked everybody for coming out to the movies and seeing it and like how important it is to go see movies and I'm like.

The dude loves movies and loves yes, so  it's hard to hate  like I get you were a prick when you were younger and a little weird a lot of us were yeah Yeah, you know what? I mean? I just think without millions of dollars in fame. Yeah, and that'll change you. Yeah Yeah, so hopefully it doesn't change you when your millions come  but  what was your favorite era of wrestling? 

  Right.  This is a little conditional. So  when it comes to non WWF wrestling,  It's gonna be the territory days when Hawk and Animal were running around everywhere. They were my favorite tag team. Before WWF ruined them. Yeah, yeah. When they became , the Legion of Doom instead of being called the Road Warriors.

See, I feel so bad because like every older wrestling fan, I'm like, I remember them as a Legion of Doom. And they're like, shut your Damn that. Yeah. Yeah. , which you brought this program here, , we'll put it on our Instagram for people to see, but , I love the, , the Road Warriors being on, , the cover of it and like, shot in a garage.

It looks like , right?  With Precious Paul Elling. So would you say the NWA is like what, like the nwa Yeah, those were, yeah, , that was the. That was the best non WWF era I, if I had to go with like more modern, non territory wrestling Yeah, then it would be the attitude era. , same era that you were saying, saying you came up with.

Yeah. , don't let Jim Cornett hear you  . Jim Cornett is a curmudgeon that doesn't like any change.  You know, whatever the structure of wrestling was when he came into the business, he thinks that that, you know, and he's an expert. I mean, I'm not going to say he's not an expert, but you like what you like.

Yeah. Yeah. ,  I agree with him a lot. Now. I didn't agree with him for  period of time as a fan. Cause I was like, Oh, protect my attitude error where. , people were  driving Zambonis to the ring, but now I totally get it as an adult. I guess it's just your taste change over the years.

So, and I feel like the new modern product is going more towards that. Not AEW though. Just WWE is like going back towards that , we're going to create stories and you're going to get into them and then the matches will be fine. But we're not going to go over the top. So, yeah, some of the matches, , let's say five years ago.

Yeah. I was just kind of like,  I would just watch a movie. Yeah. If I want to see like , a great action sequence with people I don't care about.  I can see henchman number three get thrown off a building and that's cooler than just seeing like this random  wrestler that doesn't have any great story behind them.

 Get hit with a pile driver, you know, well even looking through this program  i'm jealous you grew up in this era, too So like I think that is a good choice because like what do we have the rock and roll express the midnight express? The fabulous ones  The fabulous free birds, Dr.

Death, Lex Luger at his like, when he, before he, before he drove the Lex express around. Yeah. Back when, ,  they used to talk about Florida wrestling all the time. . And Lex Luger was like one of the main guys in Florida wrestling. And you would always see , these little articles about.

Lex Luger's going to land in the NWA one day and all this kind of stuff and like he joins the horseman and like it was an exciting time.  This program is like a heart string being strung here.  Especially   an era that  I watched like as a voyeur. 

Like through my brother's eyes. So I was like, man, I missed out. Um, I did get to see Jerry Lawler wrestle in my hometown, though, in front of 40 people. Pulled down the strap. He did. Yeah. You could tell when he made it into the building, he was like, what did I sign up for?  And he was coming straight from a raw taping. 

, was he a heel or face when he? Oh, he was definitely a face because he wasn't wrestling much at that time. His time is very part time, but there was still like. NWA tours that he was doing. Yeah. And he would just wrestle occasionally. This was like, to give you context, this was early two, this is like 2002, 2003.

Okay. Yeah. He is up there in age. Yeah. So he was just wrestling for minor appearances, but it was like at a fairgrounds. And I remember there was nobody there and  it was crazy. I was like, I'm watching Jerry Lawler, , the commentator I see on tv, right? And I'm like, why is he doing this? He doesn't need this money.

That was always weird for me. Because his persona as a commentator was so different from what I grew up with. , I enjoyed both, but it always just blew my mind  that was the same guy. And I guess he did some acting too, man, on the moon. Yeah, he did. Played himself, so I don't know that qualifies as acting.

Well, I mean, yeah, he got out in the public eye , with Andy Kaufman. Yeah, yeah. And that whole thing, and that was  That's crossing that barrier to where  he's playing it straight and he looks actually mad He's actually slapping Andy Kaufman across the face on David Letterman. Yeah,  people bought it Yeah, I mean they were like people were calling the police right, so it's like , we shit on wrestling a lot, but like, when it blurs the lines like that, like, there's nothing better of entertainment.

I agree, yeah.  Did you ever see Jim Cornette's, , thing on why people love wrestling? We're spotting Jim Cornette a lot of publicity. I don't, I don't know if I've ever  I don't know if I've ever seen that.

I can't do it. I've seen a lot of Jim Cornette stuff, but I can't do it justice. I'll give you the rundown of it. I'll send it to you later. But it's like, he basically says like wrestling is you're driving by the side of the road and  there's a guy beating up this smaller guy and just kicking the shit out of him.

And you're like, Oh. I can't take that big guy, so I can't help out. But you're watching, rooting for the little guy, and the little guy just comes back, and he starts getting back at the big guy.  And then eventually maybe you'll pay money to see the little guy fight the big guy.

Right. And you just want to see him get back for you. Yeah. , that is so poetic. That is true. Yeah, and I was like, that is amazing.  Insight onto what wrestling is. And, and it's the same thing with acting. It's like, you got to be,  you got to be able to make people believe. I think, I think that's the lost art of acting, right?

Like I go to a movie to escape.  I live in this world and think in this world and now it's all green screened and, , actors delivering just lines. I don't feel like I'm escaping anymore. I feel like I'm kind of missing that. , and wrestling now is the opposite. Now wrestling feels like an escape.

Yeah,  like they kind of flopped a little bit. Yeah, there's some adversity every, every time like that, that was  one of the problems that I used to have with like a lot of Batman stuff is like, you can't do anything to Batman. I think that's one of the reasons why the last Batman movie worked so well for so many people is that Batman gets his ass kicked.

. And then he has to work himself back to, to defeat his foe, , that's just like when, um, there was this angle between a macho man and Ricky Steamboat in the eighties where macho man kept dropping the ring bell on Ricky Steamboat's neck and he had to have a tracheotomy. Oh my God. Yeah.

Of course there was never a hole there, but he had to have a tracheotomy and then Ricky Steamboat came back from the injuries. That was that legendary WrestleMania match too.  Full speed, a hundred miles per hour the entire time. But that was such a great. Story because you saw this hero overcome the adversity.

Yeah. And , that match is credited for modern wrestling. I think it started modern wrestling. So yeah, big, big shout out there. Yeah. , before we get out of here, cause we can talk about this all day. Maybe we should just start our own podcast. Throw the lights up. We'll do it. We can do a wrestling podcast.

We'll just do that. Yeah. , I want to talk about your Mount Rushmore wrestlers. Oh man, I was going to throw that on you. , I didn't want you to prep at all. I want this to be totally improv. ,  so I'm just going to go with like my personal, yeah, it's just Mount Rushmore, the people , that made me feel something.

So two spots are automatically taken with Hawking animal. Yeah, you know the big time. Yeah, and , a lot of people are gonna say Ric Flair But when I was a kid, I didn't like Ric Flair. I liked him when I got older. Yeah, , so I am going  To go with not the best wrestler in the world, but I just really always liked him  Lex Luger, you know,  I love Lex Luger.

I actually worked out at his Jim made a vent, , when I was a teenager and, , he was one of those people that made me put  more eyeballs , on  wrestling. I'm just like, I want to see what he, I want to see what Lex Luger is going to do.  Whoo. And my last spot,  that's a difficult one because I do like  so many people,  but I am going to have to say that, like.

As an adult,  The Rock  made me tune in more , once his character kind of took off. I have a Nation of Domination shirt, and I wear it all the time. I need a new one. But like, when, when The Rock was kind of the leader of the nation, I got very interested in what was happening between him and Stone Cold.

And that made me watch. Attitude stuff, you know before he became the corporate champ. Yeah yeah, so   I'm just gonna stick with those but like I Could knock everybody off and hawk an animal would just be my dudes Yeah, till the end rest in peace both of those guys. They were just  My favorite, , I have a cousin that is a Oakland Raiders fan because he saw Oakland Raiders fans wearing the spiked, pads that the road warriors used to wear.

And he is a hardcore Oakland Raiders fan.  Las Vegas Raiders. Those things don't get talked about enough, you know, like how wrestling bleeds into other parts of society. Yeah, 316 shirts with whoever 316.

Yeah, you know because of the Austin 316. Yeah. Yeah, so yeah I that's gonna be my Mount Rushmore. Who do you have? So, I've always toiled over this question cause like, again, I grew up in the attitude era. I didn't catch,  Ric Flair in his prime.  And I was mostly a WWF at the time kind of guy.

So that's mainly where I was watching. , first two were easy for me and they can be flip flopped, whatever. It's Brett and Sean. , and that whole rivalry in the nineties with the real heat on it and like we all knew that they hated each other sunny day. Yes. Oh,  and you know, Brett was just such a great in ring technician and Sean was,  uh, just an amazing.

Amazing wrestler, you know, they both made everybody else look good to so good and Sean huge prick. Probably. , obviously I only know what other people say. I've never met the guy, but like I had a pair of Shawn Michaels tights. My grandmother made me. Oh wow. And it said heartbreak kid on the back of a six years old running around. 

God rest her soul.  Amazing woman. , I was a huge Shawn Michaels fan. Um, I just, I don't know. It's like the high flying, I guess, like really relates to a kid, especially when you see it and you're like, Oh man, that's very acrobatic. That's really cool. Like I was big into sports too, so that kind of reminded me of someone flying around a football field or like Vince Carter in 2000 dunking, you know,  you were like, man, that's really cool.

And Brett just made me believe every match was real. And I didn't appreciate that until I got older. But when I watch Brett now, like go back, I was like, Damn. He was so good and it is such a shame that he didn't get to  finish out his career the way he should have. Yeah. I wish we had gotten him versus Kurt Engel that, that, , so many Brett Hart matches, or Brett and Eddie, like late, right?

Yeah. Like later when Eddie had kind of developed more.    , Kurt Engel's won. That throw on my list. Yeah. Yeah. I hate it. Leaving them off. Yeah. And , damn you, Dave Nelson for never giving him a five star.  Why is Dave Meltzer the authority on  rating people's matches? I  don't know.

, Dave Meltzer shouldn't be an authority on anything anymore. Like listening to that guy talk. What a blow hard. And now his like WWE hate and his AEW love just like makes me like not even listen to him. , he basically shits on his own legacy.

Yeah. Oh. , does he have a legacy other than just being someone that doesn't like stuff? That's what you talk about with him. You don't talk about what he likes. You talk about what he doesn't like, which is not a great thing, you know, you got to do 14 flips in a row and then fall headfirst into a table.

And that's what Dave Meltzer likes. Yeah. And then it's seven star match. I was like,  I thought there was a five star rating system. When did this seven star shit start? Right? Yeah. Oh, I hate that. Yeah. I mean, I did enjoy like the tables, ladders and chairs matches back in the day, but when it became like, We're going to see stuff like this all the time.

It doesn't special. It's not special anymore. And like an AEW, they do it every night and like blading and bleeding. And yeah, I don't need the blood. I don't need the blood. Yeah. Occasionally it's okay to get a point across it. Hey, Ooh, this got violent, you know? Yeah. But like.  I don't know.  It makes it phony, you know, it makes it feel unbelievable  and then I can't get behind it anymore.

 When I'm watching wrestling. I'm like I'm watching this movie I want to zone out and feel what you're feeling and if I'm not feeling that  Then what's the point of watching it? It's like, it's the same thing with the show. It's like, this is too stupid for me to believe it's real.

Right. Gone.  So have you noticed, this is an observation I've just recently had, but , if you watch a segment from like a television taping, in like the 80s or whatever,  when someone gets attacked,  people are screaming.  They're reacting like something is actually happening. . Now people are cheering  like it's just a sporting event.

It doesn't seem like there is invested. Yeah. As they used to be. No, not at all. Back then. Yeah. No, it's absolutely true and ,  it goes back to the point of,   make me believe it the way that I want to watch a movie and really, , feel for the characters.

, I want to feel what they're feeling and it's the same thing with wrestling. It's not that I think it's real, it's that I, I'm zoning out. Yeah, I mean, enjoy this, like,  , when, like your guy Shawn Michaels there, , when he's wrestling Ric Flair and he's about to give him the sweet chin music and he tells him he loves him. 

Cause he knows it's going to end his career. Yeah. It's like, Oh man, I guess my man car just got pulled. Yeah. I'm starting to cry a little bit. I'm cutting onions. I'm cutting onions. You know, we all shed a tear, every wrestling fighter, like, and then  he almost couldn't pull the trigger earlier in the match.

Like that, that long term storytelling is just a beautiful thing. And that's like I said, I mean, it rounds back to Bret Hart and Kurt Angle. Like they used to tell. Great stories in the ring. Kurt was, I'm so grateful I got to grow up watching Kurt Angle wrestle. Yeah, he was amazing. Even in TNA where he was, yeah.

Perk Angle. I wasn't gonna say that. We're all saying it now. Cause he recently was asking people not to say it. I was like, man, I feel bad cause I've used that term. Yeah, but yeah, I liked it. I liked his interview though, where he said that that's what people knew me as at the time. I mean, you know, I'm glad he's on the other side of it.

Cause , that man deserves all the legacy, all the credit. He showed up for every day in work and as, as a fan, I'm so grateful for people like Kurt Angle who battled through and He's Captain America, he's like Can't beat Kurt Angle Yeah, real Captain America , and my fourth pick too, I don't even know Like, I always like, I'm like, do I put The Rock, do I put Stone Cold?

, how do you not put Stone Cold? Exactly, how do you not put Undertaker? You know, right. And Undertaker I loved as a kid because I love the mystical side, you know, like setting people on fire and sending people to hell. Why do we have to, why do we have to go with like  a Mount Rushmore?

Why can't we go with like our seven dwarfs or our 12 apostles of wrestling or something? Your double Mount Rushmore? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's hard not to put Eddie there.  Ray Mysterio captivated me as a kid. , especially the high flyer.   All these people, Triple H, like, Triple H I hated more than any human being alive.

Rick Rude. Rick Rude, yeah. , Macho Man. Yeah. , you can interchange all these people, like, in Mr. Perfect, Kurt Hennig.  Yeah, I missed his time. I'm not gonna backpedal, but I kinda wish I had said Mr. Perfect in there. , everything from , his actual wrestling, to like His like segments that they would shoot of him doing various sports to him being a commentator.

All that was incredible. Yeah. And I think hearing all this, I think for my fourth spot, because of what happened to the business, where it went and how popular it got. I think I got to put Stone Cold on there. Yeah. I think it's just hard not to, because people talk about The Rock now, but if it wasn't for Stone Cold, Wrestling would be dead and buried.

Yeah, or WCW It'd be something different. Yeah, it'd be something different. Vince would have figured it out. Yeah, he would've found something. He would have made a different king,  and Stone Cold was really hot for like four years or five years or something like, it wasn't very long that Stone Cold was that Yeah.

People forget his career was also cut very short with all  the neck injury, you know, suffered by Owen. Also great legend. Yeah. Whose career was tragically cut short. So, I mean, you could. We could build this Mount Rushmore out for days, but I would say Brett and Sean,  that was a magical time in the nineties  those two they could wrestle mops and it would still be sorry Dave a five star match.  I Know he doesn't like to give that to him because they're not both in all elite wrestling  Yeah, any closing comments you want to make on wrestling and versus acting  what do people need to Should people still continue to watch wrestling?

What if you're a new fan? Do you go if you go out and watch today? I think you should. I mean, it's something that everybody can understand.  , it does have Lessons in morality, you know, way, way more than it did in the attitude era. You know, I'm glad that that was not a thing when I was a kid cause I would not have been able to watch wrestling. 

Had one of those moms that was just like, no, there were 12 curse words in this.  My mom tried. My mom tried. , we got away with it, but it wouldn't. I think it's to my brother. If it wasn't for my brother, I don't think it was just me. So like, that's why I couldn't really.  But yeah, , I think people  should, , watch wrestling.

It's, , it's one of those things.  If you have kids, you have the opportunity to say, like. Something's right or something's wrong. And we're all in agreeance. Everyone's booing the same people and everyone's cheering the same people. For the most part, there are some exceptions. Like, yeah, I heard a few boos for Cody Rhodes when we were in Atlanta.

Oh, really? Yeah. Trickling down from the top. Cody Rahim Rhodes. Have you seen that stuff? Where they're like, , he's the only black champion left in wrestling. 

Well, George, tell everybody what you got going on. If you can tell us what you got going on, where they can follow you to find out what you got going on in the future. Well, you can follow me, , Blacktastic on everything.

Yeah, what I, really what I have going on is just like, continually auditioning, , you can catch me in the Holiday Inn Express commercials right now, , and  I'm always promoting whatever my people are doing.  If you're supporting my people, you're, you're supporting me. So you'll see me repost , what my friends have going on and like, please just give it a look because we can all use a  few more eyeballs on, on , what we're doing.

We're all in this together for one art. So, and we can, we gotta lean on each other, especially in this day and age. That's all we can do is lean on each other. Yeah. And we have it.  We have an opportunity, like , with this podcast, for instance,  this is an opportunity that wouldn't be here, you know, if you, if you go back, like. 

10 years. And, , I have to say this about you and, , Andrew and Kyle, it's awesome that you guys are doing this and sticking to it because I can't tell you how many people I know that have done an episode of a podcast.  , like the internet is a graveyard of an episode or two.

Of a podcast or in a bunch of podcasts with no direction or anything, but like could tell you guys are friends, you're passionate about what you're doing. Like , the love that you all have for what you're doing is just like coming through the speakers. And that's why I wanted to be, , a part of this.

 So thank you for including me. ,  keep up the great work and it's an honor. I really appreciate the kind words. You're welcome. Anytime. Like I said, you're a great actor.

I've enjoyed your work even before I met you. With hell fest like   I that was that was the one I knew it stuck with me and I never told you  But that was like when we met for the first time I was like this guy looks familiar And it took me forever to figure out where I knew you from and you told me you were an actor and you were all like had all these great roles and I was like, Oh, I still remember him from something.

, and then I saw you sitting down in Regal theater in a holiday.  I was like, I need to catch up with him, but talented actor. , he hasn't told me anything. I know he's got something big on the way, so please follow him. Find out what that thing is and support him, support all the local actors here and in the great city of Atlanta. 

Find art, support it somewhere.   Find your community, you know. Yeah, support wrestling.   That's about all the time we have here. Thank you so much for coming on. If you ever want to do that wrestling podcast, I'm right here. So let's do it.

Let's figure it out.   We appreciate George. He will probably come back on to later episodes. We will drag him kicking and screaming. So we hope you guys have a good rest of your day and please follow him at Blacktastic.