AJ Styles & Undertaker watch Boneyard Match

We had the entrances, y'all are face to face, you're talking trash like a great hillwood. No, no, no, no, but you're backing up the whole time like the coward you are, you know, just chip chirping. Wow. No, I mean in the match, like not in real life. Brother. In the match, right? That was heel AJ Styles, yes. So my question is, why you gotta bring me into it and get all personal? A girl sitting at home. We gonna have to move the furniture. Didn't do anything. All right, here we go. Love you too. It's a big weekend. It's a big weekend in D.C. Ooh, that's what I hear. A lot going on. A lot going on. These people decided to go to the A Show. Thank y'all. There'll probably be much better stories told here. Anyway. Hey, I'm only serious. Anyway, no, this is an historic weekend. Big weekend. Big, big weekend. Somebody retiring? Who's that? Somebody having a last match? I think so. I mean, you know, I think they've probably heard the guy. Yeah. You can't see him, right? He's right here. Yeah, he's actually right here, guys. Like, right here. So, how's it feel? No, I'm joking. I mean, my goodness. I'm not quite sure how I feel about it, really. About what? About John retiring? Mm-hmm. What do you mean? You retired 84 times in a row. Let the man retire? What are you talking about? Oh, so we're going to have jokes now, too. Okay. How can you say it? You don't know how you feel about it. No, well, let me, okay. So this will make sense when you see this next clip. Can we play this? Oh. It's from back in the day. Give me a second here. Look at this. I see it. I see it. Nice job. Wow. So... A bunch of young bucks there. Yeah. Why is he the only one that aged? I was going to say how hot. I mean. What were you going to say? You looked hot. I mean, you still look hot, but you looked hot. Okay. Good say. Yeah. Good say. You know, the reason, like, obviously, that was day one for John Cena right there. That was his. He had just, I think, he had just wrestled Kurt Angle, and we shot that. And at that point, I'm already 12 years into my career. And now here this kid is on day one, 23 years later, retiring. But what an amazing career. What a run for John Cena. It's funny. He's another one that I missed on. I know. Well, I mean, you kind of had. You had a match. I mean, you had a quick match, but y'all had a match. Well, we did. No, but I'm just saying early on, there was two people that I watched them work day one, and I was like, yeah, this guy ain't going to make it. Wait, wait, wait. Who was the first one? I was wrong. Look, I can admit when I'm wrong. There's some people in the business that can't do that. I will tell you when I was wrong, and I missed with him. Do you know who the other one was? Who was the other one? I didn't even know he was one. Wait, who, um, no, I'm not even going to guess who was the other one. Cause if I'm the, oops, you missed big. So you gotta, you guys gotta go back though. You, you, you gotta go back to day one when he had the, the, the, the things hanging off of him and, uh, and he came out there and he was rah, rah. And I was like, oh, and he, and he debuted in the garden, right? Rocky my via. Right. So I'm like, oh, this poor kid. And to have the legacy, right? So obviously his grandfather, Chief Peter Mavia, his dad, Rocky Johnson. And then you have these expectations. And you come out with that thing on and, you know, cheesy McCheezer-ton. And I was like, oh, man, this is not going to be good. And I was wrong there. So that's twice. I mean, those are two big ones. Those are two big ones. It took them a minute to find their stride, and I guess they had okay careers. I mean, I guess. Right? Wow. But it's amazing when you look back at John's career, the incredible arc from where he started and how he worked by chance and preparation and work ethic. And again, the chance encounter that he had with Steph. Yeah, that was wild. You know, like it all hinged on that. It's amazing what, you know, we talk about it all the time about how work ethic and preparation puts you in the right place sometimes for luck to happen. And it happened for him and then strapped that rocket to his butt and off he went. I don't think there's anyone I don't think there's anyone ever really that's been like John Cena and in the sense for the majority of his career, like the whole thing I'm not telling you guys anything you guys are all smart, right? I mean well that's yeah no no quit no seriously, you'll see what I live with some people just get lucky baby. That's it. But the whole thing about wrestling, it doesn't matter whether they love you or they hate you. They just have to care one way or another. And John was one of those incredible, incredible stars that come along where one night people love him, just cheer, people go nuts the next night, boo the crap out of him. It's so polarizing. I don't know. And then he got split chants half the time. Yeah, split chants. Yeah. The back and forth. You know, the let's go Cena, Cena sucks. Yeah. I mean, that is for somebody of his caliber and in that position to be so polarizing. It's amazing. And I'm glad at the end here, at the end, the last few years of his career that people really embraced what he did because, um, you know, John did it right, man. He, he, he really did. He was a, he was a leader. He did all of the, you know, as the face of the company, man, he went out and did all the meet and greets and all of those things and did it with a smile on his face and never complained. I remember once even, you know, going up to him and say, John, you're going to have to learn the word no sometimes. but he thrived on it. He wanted it all and he knew what come with being the face of the company and I'm extremely proud for him and the career that he's about to sign off on. Yeah, one time, man, for John Cena. It's going to be interesting. One, I guess it's going to be interesting tomorrow to see where he is after the match. It's going to be interesting to see the arena, the reactions. How many of you guys are going? Is there anybody here going? Almost everybody. Yeah, it's going to be an emotional roller coaster tomorrow, and it's going to be fun. Will you be there? I will... Depends what they have for catering. No, of course. Of course I'm going to be there I don't think I'll be on the show But I will definitely be there To shake the man's hand I heard the word liar I heard the word liar Liar? Wow, they stooged him off real fast I'm going to chokeslam you if you don't shut up Anyway I get in front, you know, I get lights and cameras and stuff. I get all frisky again. I ain't getting up. Don't worry about it. I'm here until we walk off the stage, man. So I just don't have the, I don't have the energy anymore. But anyway, tomorrow should be interesting. And then it's always to the, like, who all's going to be there, right? There's going to be a lot of people. Who's going to be backstage? And then it'll be anybody. Who do you think is the most Who's the most famous person you think is going to be there Oh good gosh After me Oh you think Dave will be there Somebody said Batista You think Dave will be there Batista Oh DC DC Whoever said that I think yeah You think the big man's coming I think Jelly will be there I think Jelly will probably be there Jelly coming maybe I bet there's going to be It'll be a who's who Who'd they say? Nicole. She will be there. She'll probably be there. Who said that? I just barely heard that. But I heard it enough. I heard it enough. I was like, everybody's still got jokes. So anyway, yeah, tomorrow night, man, tomorrow night's going to be really exciting. Uh, I'm looking forward to it. Um, yeah, it's going to be a celebration. It's going to be, it's going to be happy. It's going to be sad. Uh, but man, what a, again, just what an incredible career. Um, so yeah, it's going to be, it'll be fun. Big news, WWE and sports fans, the world's number one sports fan festival, Fanatics Fest is making its return to New York City. Fanatics is bringing you closer to the leagues, teams, superstars, and athletes you love across four action-packed days in July. Meet your favorite WWE superstars, get your hands on exclusive merch, catch live podcasts, and interact with the biggest names in sports. Tickets are on sale now, and fans of the podcast get a 10% discount by using code TAKER10 at checkout. Tonight, we're going to do something. Really, I don't think that I've ever really sat down with this guy and discussed this match, but we're going to go all things Boneyard tonight. I think without further ado, we need to bring out the other half of that Boneyard match. Ladies and gentlemen, the face that runs the place, the phenomenal AJ Styles. Oh. Did you just say something about a redneck? You good? Oh, I'm a redneck. I'm a weird, I'm a different kind of redneck, though. I'll give you that. Wait, what kind of, wait, wait, wait. Is this still on? Because you're speaking my language. There are different types of rednecks for you rednecks that don't know. What kind of redneck are you? So a lot of people think I listen to country music. I don't. I listen to hip-hop. I was moonwalking in the kitchen to Michael Jackson. I was breakdancing. You name it, I was doing MC Hammer was my guy. Like, I wouldn't do all that. But I was poor enough to, you know, eat mayonnaise sandwiches and stuff like that. Bologna. Oh, that was delicious back then. You know, so there's a part of me that's a redneck, and I can't get rid of this accent. It's to go over. No, I know. I've tried to get rid of it. You shouldn't. You shouldn't. It's part of your charm. It's part of your charm at this point. Hey, Taker loves it when you say go Dawgs. He is so excited about the playoffs. Hey, we can shut this down right now. You all know Texas should be in the playoff. I don't care what you say. Here we go. No, no. It's George's fault. Tulane should be in there. Really? I'm with you on this one. I mean, Tulane's going to get killed. I agree. James Madison's going to get slaughtered. Nobody wants to play Texas, but James Madison and Tulane are going to get blown out by 50. You got one guy out there. JMU. All right. Wow. We digress. We digress here. Before we do get in the boneyard, I think we'd be remiss if we didn't talk about John and your history and what John meant to you. Man, he's John Cena, right? The guy I never thought I'd be in the ring with, let's be honest. Getting that opportunity, I learned a lot from him, and that's hard for me to say because we're the same age. But the knowledge that he can retain in that ring that he's learned for some of the greats is unbelievable. and I was able to learn from him. John Cena is one of the best to ever do it. Now, listen, I'm not saying he's the most athletic guy I've ever been in the ring with, but he is so smart and so quick-witted, he will think of something on the spot, and it all depends on how the crowd is reacting. Not a lot of people can do that. He's one of a kind. Yeah, that's for sure, and that is a lost art, the ability to ad-lib and call things on the fly and react to what your situation is. I thought early on I was going to have to do it here. Yeah, yeah. Well, so I had some technical difficulties. I thought I was going to have to just jump down and punch somebody in the face to get a pop. But I think we got some shots of you and John here. Just kind of tell us first what comes to your mind. Oh, man, I know what's coming. and after taking a couple of those even the regular ones there's something about once he drops you from that height you're like oh man is that the last one you know it doesn't feel good but that I believe is the Royal Rumble the year after I debuted which is crazy because I was the champion in this match so it was it was an unbelievable match and we've said this before but if you don't know, there was a lot of matches that had went outside of the ring at the Royal Rumble. And John and I decided we weren't going to go outside the ring. We were going to keep it all in the ring. And if you didn't notice, that's exactly what we did. And I thought we had an unbelievable match. Nice. Yeah, again, that goes to your guys' ability to call things on the fly, which we'll kind of get into in a little bit too. but there you go. You've got things turned around here in this one. Yeah, I'm coming with that too. That's going to be in there. That shot. It's not a receipt. It's kind of, I'm this size, so I've got to make everything count, and sometimes some things come a little bit harder than normal. I don't know if you caught any of those, but we'll discuss that later. So, uh-oh. It's not a good spot to be in. Yeah, that ain't looking good for you right there. Been there a couple times. So, yeah, not a good spot. Yeah, you can see him. Or is it, right? You got to go back. You count, well, I'm in the ring. Who am I in the ring with? So, it's probably a pretty good spot. Yeah, that's actually a great pitcher. You know, I'm in the ring with John Cena. Exactly. Yes. And this got one more here. Look at that. There you go. There we go. Yeah, I don't. U.S. title match. Is that what it was? Yeah. I don't remember that one. I don't know why. So, we were talking about Captain Marina. We had a couple, so you're like, I don't know which one that one is. I bet somebody can tell us. Nope, see? You put them on the spot. It wasn't valuable. Just joking. Now they're Chet GPT in it right now. They'll have their phones. I'll tell you, there was another match with Dean Ambrose that we had. It was a triple threat match that was really good, too. So I don't know if that's it, but there was another one that was really good. Yeah. You guys had a pretty amazing trilogy with the Elimination Chamber, the Royal Rumble match, and then not too very long ago, the match you guys had in Australia. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know who said it, but maybe Triple H said it was a love letter to pro wrestling. Yeah. That was the coolest thing he could ever say, because that's exactly what we wanted to do. We wanted to kind of pay homage to the guys that we have wrestled in the past, and he did it with a lot of the WWE guys, of course, and I did it with some TNA guys. And I kind of spotted some WWE guys in there as well, but we wanted to do that, and it was a really, really fun match, man. It was fun to watch. And, you know, it even started before the match started. you already get hooked um with the with the ring announcement oh man he got me you had no idea so um i will say this before we get to that uh if you're wondering why i was wearing shorts there was a magazine cover when i was in tna and john was in wwe of course and it was a picture on the magazine of us and i was wearing that gear and i was like you know what i'm gonna wear that gear there was all sorts of nostalgia it was two guys who you never thought would be in the ring together same age one's in this company one's in that company and so uh i get to the ring and john comes in does his entrance i'm stretching getting ready to rock and he gives this paper to the announcer and i was like what i wonder what that is i didn't have i'm stretching and i and i hear the definition of total non-stop action i was like is he talking about me and then you'll You see me look over like, you son of a gun. You got me. And that was really cool. And he got in trouble a little bit for that whole thing. I didn't know that Bullet Club was going to be in there. If you watch my reaction, I was like, whoa, uh-oh. So really cool of him to make me feel like a big superstar as he was at that moment. So it was really cool. Let's take a look at it because it's worth seeing. You'll see my reaction right here. The definition of total nonstop action. There you go. The ace and undisputed boss of the Bullet Club. Woo! It is our honor as fans. in my honor as an opponent to see if he can beat up John Cena one final time. He is the face that runs the place, the phenomenal KJ Styles. Wow. That's cool. pretty freaking cool man pretty cool i have to say that is that is pretty damn cool and um i he got in trouble really i mean come on well what i mean what are they gonna do fire him well he said he said that's what i said he's like i got in a little trouble for that and i was like you're john cena right so yeah i'm with you i'm like oh john got in trouble what does that mean I don't know. Like, do you have the visual? Like, who's the visual? Like, who's, like, admonishing him for, like, well, you really shouldn't have done that, you know? I don't know. You tell me. I don't know. I don't know. Listen, when I'm in the ring with John Cena, time really is an issue. You know, we have time limits. It depends who you're in the ring with. John, I don't worry about it. That is the perk of being on top sometimes. Well, I'll tell you the other guy, too. Shane McMahon. I was like, well, I don't have to worry about time. That was another one. All right, we're going first. Perfect. Now him, I can see getting in trouble. Well, he did. And I witnessed it a lot. Well, I will say this. We kind of tore the house down on that one. So Vince didn't say anything. In fact, he gave him a hug, so he must have done something right. So, yeah, I've seen it with my own eyes. It's like one of those things. Like, damn it. Damn it, you went over. Good job. Good job. Yeah. And then blame you Well that was I mean that was the most beautiful like way to celebrate celebrate um just wrestling history as a whole throughout that entire match You know, the way y'all paid homage to, like you said, everybody, Rusev, Miz, Chris Daniels, Kazarian. Yeah. I don't know what to call him on stage. What should I call him? Mark Taker? Daddy. Oh, man. Daddy, okay. Dude, can I tell you? Okay. Okay. do i need to no no no please stay no no i'll tell you that one of the coolest spots though of that match is when i hit john with the aa and i wanted to do the you can't see and he freaking chokes me he gives me a choke slam i was like yes when we were coming up that i said absolutely That's going to freaking be awesome. And then getting the opportunity to do the tombstone was pretty cool, dude. We were watching that. That was perfect. Did any of us call you, by the way? No. No. Absolutely not. It happens. I didn't do the move. I just took it. No, no. John should have called. He didn't. He should have called me, right? He didn't call me when he did the stars clash. it's funny because you're sitting at home and like I have no you know no idea creative what's going to happen the match is happening and you really don't you don't know what you're actually watching I mean you're watching a hell of a match but then you're like oh why'd they oh they're using so and so's move it takes you a minute to figure out like oh okay oh and now you're hooked and now you're like oh who's next Oh, yeah. And the Bray Wyatt, Sister Abigail. Oh, that was, yeah. I'm just going to let you guys know whether I wanted to or not, I was taking it. I mean, if you see the movie, you're like, holy crap. I think he just killed AJ. He whipped me through the map. But it was awesome. And then to see all the lights go up with the phones and whatnot was pretty freaking cool. Yeah, that was cool, man. I tell you what, that may be the most accurate description of that match. is a love letter to wrestling, man. It was something I think people will remember. It's going to be one of those matches. It's like Macho Man and Steamboat and, you know, just those iconic matches. I think you guys did something incredibly special that night. It was an instant classic. Well, you know, the great thing about that was we have wrestled so many people, not just in WWE, but at least I have outside of WWE. Not a lot of guys are able to pull that off the way it should be. And so I'm thankful that we were able to once to be able to do that. It just, it meant a lot. I hope that my friends were sitting at home going, that's mine. He did mine. I even called them. I was like, hey, do your move here. And they're like, please do. You know, they were happy about it. They're excited about it. It's one of those situations where normally, like the old salty old timers would be like, damn, they're stealing my stuff. But then I think probably it was the actual, it was the reverse. Like, I wonder why they didn't use my move. Yeah. Was I not over enough? Yeah. That's probably exactly what it was. Reverse psychology on that. Yeah. Yeah. Hey, but I like these belts, man. They look good. Thank you. I got WWE Shop and Fanatics carry all the legacy titles now. Collect your favorite team's championship-style title and let everyone know where your loyalty stands. You can head on over to Fanatics.com to grab your collegiate and NFL legacy titles today. Let's do it. But for me, I'm sticking with Seminoles and Steelers. Well, if it's okay with y'all, if it's okay with y'all, I mean, can we maybe take it back just a little bit further and dig up a little bit, you know, dig up a little bit into this Boneyard match, which was also, I believe, was an instant classic. It's something WWE had never done before, right? Cinematic. Turned out beautifully. But before we get into the match itself, let's take a look at, there's a clip from the last ride, which you probably know what I'm talking about. But you mentioned a little somebody. My mindset right now is still, if I don't get back in the ring, I think I'll be okay. The one guy here I missed, I'd have loved to have worked with, AJ. He gets it. I mean, he really does. Reminds me a lot of Sean. Aww. Appreciate that. That's a compliment for sure. Thank you. Yeah, that got us started in something, I guess, neither one of us expected. That was just, it's crazy by chance that obviously we're filming the Last Ride documentary, and that's just a genuine reaction. I was sitting in Vince's office watching that and trying to come up with something, and your match came on, and I was just like, then it really struck me like, dang, I didn't get a chance to. Because y'all really didn't know each other that well at that point, right? Like know each other, know each other. Well, no. I mean, obviously we hadn't worked at all. No. So you guys got to know, we have a mutual friend. I went to college with him, one of my best friends on this planet. Also on vacation, vacation's right beside them. They got to know each other really well. I don't know if I ever told you this story. Steven, our friend, was like, hey, I met the Undertaker and Michelle. And then I said something about your move and should I have said that? I'm like, dude, you're talking about the styles class? You're like, I don't care that Michelle does that. That doesn't bother me. So he was a little hesitant because I was starting to fight. Oh, no. Not only is he your mutual friend, good friend, he's also our son's godfather. Like, that's how close we are with. I mean, it was all by chance. I think we had actually been, it's like two weeks every summer we go to the beach. and I get some, after a few months of that, I get a few melanomas cut off of me. But I think we were there for a couple of years before he even brought up the fact that y'all were friends. And then one day we're just all sitting there, we're talking sports, and then he just drops that. You were like, huh? Wait, like the guy I work with? Yeah, yeah, we went to college again. Then he told me the story, and it was just like. It's wild. I'll be damned. Yeah, right? It's crazy. It's wild. Yeah. it's uh yeah again is that that just that i remember i've always like i'm having that that moment right in that in that clip i'm having that moment where i'm like shoot dang this because i've always said and i've always felt like you were you were the sean michaels of this era i mean you were so far ahead of your time. Go ahead. No, no, no, no. I don't, um, I don't throw compliments like that out lightly because I obviously I think the world of, uh, of Sean and what, and what he did and actually my God, what a dream match that would have been. Oh, holy smokes. I tried to make that happen. Oh my gosh, man. But that's kind of what happened because I was very jealous of some of the guys who were in WWE that had the opportunity to wrestle you and Shawn Michaels and Triple H, and I was, like, jealous. So I was like, oh, can I wrestle Shawn? They go, he's not going to wrestle. I said, can I ask him? You know, did anyone ask him? And, of course, I don't know if they ever did, but I assumed the answer was no. But they're kind of the same situation. It's like, can I wrestle Undertaker? And they're like, I don't know. And I'm like, can I call him? They're like, you can try. And I was like, all right, here we go. And I think we all have different, like, we all recount the story differently, maybe. So let's let them know how it kind of went down. Because there was WrestleMania. We were saying goodbye to our mutual friends at the hotel, the guys we were just talking about. Yep. And I think you would maybe put a little filler out in there. Yeah, I wanted to wrestle this guy, you know, and trying to figure out whether or not you were going to, like, say yes or no. Right? Right. and he gives you nothing and he said I'm going to wrestle but not you so you cut that story a little short so let me give you a little more detail on that so you approached me, we had a moment there at the hotel, you were like hey man if you ever think about getting back in the ring I would love for it to be me and then I think the next time we talked you called me. Yep. Right. You called me and it's like, Hey, I was watching that. And it sounded like maybe you, you're not done yet. And that kind of led into a phone call from Vince. And it's just like, now it's starting to snowball. And I had to really think about it from, from where I was in my career. I really had to, because I, I didn't want, I didn't want to be a disservice to you either. Cause you are, you're in your prime and I am at that point, I'm struggling from a match to match basis to, to be on and to be healthy. And, and, and so that was the biggest thing that I, because I didn't, I didn't want to let you down. I didn't want to let them down in a sense of, man, um, I don't want to do this. And then I don't want to, you know, I don't want to shit the bed here and it'd be, it'd be bad. So that was the whole process of me, like, give me a couple of weeks to think about this. And, you know, we had to, we, you know, we had to talk about it, pray about it. And I had to assess where I was physically. But what made you ultimately, what made you ultimately say yes? I think I know where this is going. What? I just, no, ultimately I, like, I just figured in my head, like, dude, this is a, this is a, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. It's somebody that I, that I've always wanted to work. Even back before we had met each other, when you were still with TNA, I was like, man, this guy can go. So it was, it was just like, dude, it's one, it's one night. It's one match, one night. What a way, if that's going to be the last one, what a way to go out. So yeah. So after lots of deliberation and thought and prayer and everything else, I called Vince first and I said, yep, I'm going to do it. And he was like, God damn. All right. I said, but hey, can we at least try to have some fun here? Oh, yeah. This is messed up. It wasn't just Taker. It was Vince too doing it. So I said, call him. I'm going to call him and I'm going to say, I'm going to work WrestleMania. I'm just not going to work with you. You're like, there's some kid in developmental, like I really, there was somebody that was so stupid. Even I didn't believe that. He's not going to let a developmental guy hurt him. Absolutely. Yeah. At the end of the day, there, there were so many variables. Like, like again, I knew, I knew how smooth you were. I knew like, this is going to be good. And, uh, Yeah, it really was once I got over like what my physical limitations would be, it was a no brainer because I knew that we would tear it down. And that was a plan. And I and and when I went when I started training to get in shape, man, I was ultra motivated because I didn't want to be in a situation where I felt like you were having to carry me. right? So that would, that would have actually killed me to, to, to think that, but, um, got off to an incredible, uh, at this time in my career, like I had to, I was like a boxer. I had to go into camp, right? Like I would have to just focus on getting my cardio right and working around the injuries. And if I was too heavy losing weight, or if I didn't feel like I was big enough to put on weight. So it was a whole, what process of, I don't know, 16 weeks, I would usually back out and then try and peak on that day. It was rough. And, uh, like I, we, when, like I started my camp, it was like, man, this is, everything was just gelling, right? It was just like, oh man, I feel really good. This is, you know, this is going to be a banger. And then COVID hits. COVID. COVID stuck his head in. So COVID hits. And I mean, when do y'all find out that it's not going to be in a ring? It's going to be. Can we, I think you skipped something. What did I skip? Part of that story? You asked him what was it that made him say yes. Say yes, ultimately I did. Do you remember what it was? I don't know if you know. Thank you. We kind of skipped over that. Go ahead. I'm pretty sure your wife, Michelle. You're welcome. I heard this come from her mouth. She goes, nobody better. It's true. He looked at me because he really wasn't. So thank you, Michelle. for saying that and getting this guy to get there. He was. He was going kind of back and forth. And, you know, like he said, where he was at, he's like, and he looked at me and goes, I don't know. I go, what do you mean you don't know? It's AJ. Like, it's the greatest. Like, you have to do it. And, you know, the five years prior when he retired, the five years before, I was just like, no. No, but I was like, but it is AJ. You have to come back. To be clear on that, and I never used the words retirement. I never use those words. You're smart. I put my stuff in the ring after the Roman match. You give me one for that. That's pretty obvious what I was doing. And then they talked me into coming back again. You know what they call him? What? Santa Claus. Because he only came out once a year. That came from Fit Finley. Yes, that's a Fit Finley original. Santa Claus never made as much money as this guy did. Holy cow. Okay, so location. So when do y'all find out? Location. Back to location. Let's get off. COVID ruins everything. COVID ruined everything, daggummit. Or did it. Or did it. That's true. So look at this picture, y'all. This is actually the boneyard. Can y'all believe that? It's like a deserted farmland. Is this the day before when y'all went and scouted the location? Yes, this is the day before. By y'all, I wasn't one of those guys. By y'all, we mean, yeah. Who was it? Somebody was big-winging us that day. Oof. He was the face that wrote the place. Listen, guys, I made zero decisions on what we did for the Boneyard match. I barely knew what it was. I think that's what we're going to get to that, too, because I didn't either. Jumping ahead again. I know, I didn't either. I don't think anybody knew. So this is the location. Y'all go look at this, and do you think, oh, yeah, we can make magic here? I mean, you're looking at trees. I remember driving up to this place the day before. This is about – so we are – just to give a little context, too, we, I'd gone to Florida, uh, so I could work out in the PC so I could, you know, I could spar a little bit, get some reps and, and, and work and get my, you know, get my body used to taking bumps and everything. Cause again, we thought this was going to happen at Raymond James stadium in a ring. That was our, that was our, you know, the initial plan COVID comes in, we get that all gets shut down, but we also, we get stuck, we get stuck in Florida. So, um, anyway, so I'm here and we go the day before, uh, the day before the match and we drive again, it's like, this is like 50 minutes outside of Orlando. We roll up on this place and we kind of just pull up and then no one says anything. We're just kind of looking at this empty lot. And I'm like, what, um, where, because I'm looking for a cemetery or something that has some kind of character or some kind of feel to it. And there's an old barn and the rest of it is just grass. Okay. So who is we, We know it's not AJ. So, no, no. So it was Paul and Michael Hayes and myself and then Paul's driver. So it's true. I don't have a driver. Anyway, so, yeah, we're just sitting there looking, you know, and everybody's kind of like, mm-hmm. And I'm like, what on earth are we going to do here? What do you? And so, yeah, that's all we did. We looked at this place, and, like, normally I've got some type of vision. Well, there you go. There's some graves. Yeah, this was not there. None of this was there the day before. So are those like the styrofoam ones you get from Spirit Halloween? Is that like the – It may have been. It's COVID. Everything's shut down. Like what? Yeah, I don't – Party City. I don't know. Was it open up? Yeah, I don't know. Maybe. I have no idea because none of this stuff was there the day of. And, yeah, if I'd have seen this, I would have went, okay, yeah, I can work with this. This is my jam here. But, yeah, no, none of this was there. And I'm trying to be on board, right? I'm trying to be positive because, again, look at this. Well, look at that. That looks cool. I mean, that looks a little more, like, dilapidated. So the barn is there. Yeah. That barn is there, but all this other stuff is just props. Did y'all ever question, like, what is this place? Is this okay to be here? Because it kind of, you know, I don't know. There was a neighborhood across the street. That's in the middle of the neighborhood? It was like a straight-up neighborhood. I bet they were wondering what the heck is going on. They probably left town. Yeah, again, I mean, this is full-on mask lockdown COVID. and then there's people gathered putting a cemetery together. Putting up tombstones. An old man Johnson's farm here. Okay, so we've got the setting, got the location. Y'all nailed that down. And then y'all start putting the match together? Do y'all even structure anything whatsoever? No, okay. No, so we don't see, so day one, we don't see each other until the next day. Right. It's got much more character and appeal to it by the time that we showed up. Yeah, when I got there, I was like, whoa, this is great. Because I didn't know what it looked like before. This is going to be awesome. Maybe that's why they didn't invite you. They didn't want you to think like, hey, this was a little. Negative Neil over here. It was amazing what 24 hours meant to that field. Well, let me say, y'all turned it around 24 hours because as soon as we were watching and I was watching from home, we get these entrances. And I'm not going to lie, this hearse pulls up. I'm thinking it's my husband. Yeah. I didn't come up with that. I don't know if it was Michael Hayes or Triple H, but one of them was like, we want you to come in. It's brilliant. I was like, yeah. In a coffin? No problem. Wait, what is it? Heck yeah. Oh, you're that excited to get in a coffin? There was a lot of things that really like, well you know this is what if AJ died this is what it looked like because I had a tombstone I had a casket I had a hearse like I had it all man oh were you excited about that I think I really was I mean that's kind of sick that was crazy but I knew what was about to happen I didn't know how good it was going to be and I'll tell you this when when they told me it was going to be a cinematic match. They had been maybe one or two before. Randy Orton, I did one, I think, and New Day did with the Wyatts. And they were okay. I thought they were really cool, but they didn't get as many positive reviews as I thought they should have. Sure. And so I was like, oh man, I hope this doesn't suck. I mean, you know, because they're going to hate it because it's cinematic. Not because what we're doing is bad, just because it's cinematic so well it's extremely difficult to do cinematic matches because you don't get any direct feedback like when you're in when you're in an arena or in a stadium and you're doing something and people ah you get those crazy pops and you know you're on track to do something when you and when you are in it in a field with nobody there but cameras and it's like hmm that that felt like it was good and that really hurt i hope it translates when it comes out because that hurt like hell and the ground is pretty unforgiving yeah so yeah it's it's difficult to get into a normally it's it's difficult to get into a feel of of the match in a cinematic type match well the entrance was complete hill brilliance in my opinion i mean we're gonna watch it here but you looked really happy to get out of that coffin too i was i was excited man i was ready let's see got the druids stole them I love it. I was so pumped, dude. 30 years and you kill me off in 10 seconds. I love it. Stole your druids. I accumulated your druids, but I got them. Oh my gosh. Did you pay them or offer them food or something? Told them it was a chance to get back at you for treating them so badly. So early, yeah. And then we start hearing, we see the flames, we start hearing Metallica, which we'll get to that too. And then all of a sudden you hear the bike. You get a little nervous. Hey. I calling me Oh that hot That was cool. I mean, I knew you were coming up in a motorcycle and I knew you were going to have Metallica. I know. Yeah, I mean, you know, you have to make, you know, you kind of one-upped me there. and I go, man, this dude's coming out of a hearse, out of a casket. He's using all my gimmicks. I had to figure out something there. But it's funny, going back to what you had mentioned earlier about being in a neighborhood, like that bike was, obviously it's toned down a little bit, but that bike was loud. Still loud, yeah. And you know me, I'm having a good time on that bike, and I'm putting it in second gear and just letting off, I don't know how far away you were. We were like, here he comes. Yeah. We heard you. I could see peripherally over there. There was a fence and I could see peripherally the lights and houses coming on. And it took, obviously it took three or four times to get all the camera angles right. And the shot that we were looking for. And it was late. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It was. Yeah. It was really late. So, yeah, I don't, I think they probably, uh, I don't think they were real excited about all the, uh. That's funny. So you alluded to this earlier, and I was going to get to it. Am I the only one that legit had no clue what a boneyard match was? Did y'all know what it was? Did y'all know what it was? I had no clue. That makes me feel better. I was like, is it a graveyard match? Yeah. It was a buried alive match on steroids, basically. On steroids, okay. This is what if you were to have a buried alive match in a cemetery, this is what it would look like. We had to do them. We did all those Buried Alives in arenas. So it was a condensed down to the grave. There's a picture of one there. So we had all this room to play with. So that was the first time you'd ever had a match outside like that. You've had one in the arena. Yeah. I did not know that. Yeah, this is all new to me too. I mean, I did the Boiler Room Brawl with Mankind. And, you know, with the betrayal, I learned that recently. The betrayal urn. They name everything, man. The betrayal urn? Betrayal, yeah. Because I fought all the way to the arena. And then waiting for Paul to give me the urn, that's when he turned on me. So it was called the betrayal urn. That's very fitting. Right? Did I get that right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. But anyway. Are you ready to hold WWE history in the palm of your hand? Topps is bringing you closer to the action than ever before with WWE Topps Now. Highlighting the biggest matches and milestones from WWE shows and PLEs throughout the year. Topps Now is enhancing the fan experience by connecting collectors to superstars and spectacles that ignite their passion. Featuring stunning event-exclusive photography, each card is made for the moment. And for some lucky collectors, the moment could be the pull of a lifetime. Along with serial-numbered parallels, some Topps Now releases offer a chance at rare short prints, superstar autographs, and even pieces of the mat, gear, or other items used during the featured match. So which moments will you collect? With each card only available for a limited time, you won't want to wait to begin your Topps Now journey. Be sure to subscribe to WWE Topps Now mailing list on Topps.com and follow Topps on all social media platforms so you never miss a single moment. So, okay, this is where I have a little bone to pick with you. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. It's not bad, not bad, but I mean, you know, now y'all are fake. We had the entrances. Y'all are face to face. You're talking trash. Oh, I listen. No, no, no, no. But you're backing up the whole time like the coward you are, you know. Just chip chirping. Wow. No, I mean in the match. Like not in real life. Brother. In the match, right? That was heel AJ Styles, yes. So my question is, why you got to bring me into it and get all personal? A girl sitting at home. We going to have to move the furniture. Didn't do anything. He's trying to hurt his feelings, you know. I thought, does Michelle know you're out this late? Because you're old. Mind you, I'm pretty old myself in that match. We're two old guys out there. That match aged us both. Yeah. And I was probably already in bed, so I probably didn't know it was out anyway. Oh, yeah? You're in bed? No, it gets dark. She gone. Yeah, my wife's like that. I'm your ride and die until about 9 o'clock. Until about 8, 15. But I mean, y'all started going first name, government name, basis. Well, you started that, though. That's my fault. He started that in the original promos. He started that, right? Yeah, yeah, because I wanted to see three characters come out in one that night, right? That was the premise of that story. Mark, the American Badass, and The Undertaker. Right. and to bring all those out of who you portrayed in your last match, I thought was a brilliant idea. It is. And freaking you brought every one of them, and it was freaking cool. We did all of it. But then, you know, everybody knows I'm Alan now, and that's just not a cool name. It's just a nerdy name. He's Alan. So you just nailed it. So that go-home week to the match, you had that promo where you kind of alluded to what he just said and deemed it what? The unholy trinity? The unholy trinity. Yeah. I like that. It's pretty freaking cool. Oh, we have it? I hope you bring those two ass clowns, Gallows and Anderson, with you. All three of you can feel the wrath of the unholy trinity I'm bringing with me. Just know you will feel the pain. You will get hurt. and you will suffer. And most importantly, you will rest in peace. Ooh, there it is. It's already there. There it is. That was a pretty good shot. That's one of my favorite promos. And I thought because of that promo, when I mentioned Unholy Trinity, that's why you brought... Those two cronies with him. My friends. Gallows and Anand. I thought that's... You figure out, was he bringing three people? Yeah. So... That's smart. Yeah. It was... I figured from the promo that you cut early in that thing where... Which really was so good. She was legit hot. Well, I texted Wendy. I texted his wife. I'm like, Wendy, you know how much I love y'all, but I'm legit kind of starting to hate your husband for a second. No, I said, but he's because it was so good. It was so good. It was good. And it's exactly, I think, for the story that we were going to tell. It was it. John had hit on some of that in a year prior. Yeah, I didn't do anything to him either. I think, but you took it to a level of like, ooh, you kind of got uncomfortable, and no one had stepped on the boundaries that you stepped on. But again, it was perfect to get me to the point of the unholy trinity. Well, that's the whole thing about, anytime I think about what would piss me off, you can talk about me all you want. I don't care about this guy. But when you bring family into it, dude, we're about to scrap. You say another word. And so to me, that's what was hopefully getting you to that point where I'm going to get this guy. I'm going to get him into the ring, you know, whatever it takes. And if I have to talk about his wife or whatever it is, you know, that's what I was trying to do. And it worked. I loved it. Yeah, it worked. And y'all said, screw that. Y'all started throwing blows from the get-go. Y'all were going at it in what, three, four minutes in. You punched a glass out in the hearse, cut your arm all busted, all open. Totally real, by the way. That whole thing was real. His reaction was real. Yeah. Do we have a video? That'd be awesome. Didn't y'all have to... You want to see the... Yeah. I want to see the pain. Did you want to see him get hurt again, the pain in his face? Like that. We actually do have a video. Do you? Y'all had to stop production. Wow, there he is. I didn't think he'd show up. Yeah. And does Michelle know you're half this late? Ha, ha, ha, ha. I look like the kid on the Christmas story getting beat up. Before we get to the arm going through the window, but what was... And this is, again, this is just stuff that you can't teach either have this or you don't have it what made what made this match i think so good and so compelling it wasn't the the physicality was good and it all made sense but it's the interactions between the action and the just the talk back and forth because i think we were able to tap in on on what people would actually feel in that situation right you've all the things you know you called me old and like did she know that i was out she she didn't make me wear my life alert but i've fallen and i can't get out that's what i think hooked hooked people into the story the the promos that we cut that led us to the to the to the match and then the interactions between us between the punches and the selling and all of that and was just like wow that's some good story they are this is different and the cool thing is um we we barely talked about what we were going to do yeah i mean this shoot was a little longer than i thought it'd be but not because we had to talk about anything because they had to move cameras and stuff around that was it yeah otherwise we'd been out there in an hour or less i mean honestly 15 minutes if you're like we'd been done um so that's why i thought it was in that moment i was like dadgum it especially after it was over i was like man what would it have been like to be in the ring with them because i felt like our timing was yeah about the same like it was you kind of knew where you were going and you knew where i was going before we went there and i was like man speaking yeah speaking of things running long i mean y'all had to shut down production because the arm right oh yeah so we're there and we had to wait till it got dark right because who wants to have a boneyard match in the daylight? So we have to, and it's Florida in April, so it's light until 8, 39 o'clock. So finally the sun goes down. All right, let's go. Here we go. We start fighting, and then just a few minutes in, my arm goes through the window, and yeah, show this mess here. What's up, guys? Oh! Oh, God. Oh, son of a bitch. What did you do? You got me cut. That's like the perfect example of, is it real? It was. Yeah, it was very real. So we're probably less than 10 minutes. Yeah, it's at the beginning of the match. Yeah, we're less than 10 minutes into it. And then we had to shut down. We have to shut down for about an hour as they're picking glass out of my arm. I was like, Ellis. So much for safety glass. Look at you back there, AJ. Hands on your head. It's like, oh, man. What a wuss. What a wuss. This guy is off. Suck it up, buttercup. This guy bleeds. He's a leader with glass in his arm when he was younger. Okay, but here, what y'all don't know, and I don't know, I think we may have told you this, but so the glass goes through his arm, right? They get it out, supposedly. A year goes by, like literally a year. We're at home. He's like, babe, I think something's like, I don't know. There's something poking out of my arm and it doesn't feel right. I look and he's got like a triangle like underneath his skin. And I'm like, um, so of course, you know, I've taken out plenty of staples of his head, plenty of, you know, whatever. He's like, stitches. He's like, try to get it out. I'm like, I don't know. I don't know what it is. Like, you want me just to dig into your arm? Long story short, we get to WrestleMania the following year. And I'm like, Doc. Mark's like, I don't know. It kind of moves around. It kind of hurts a little bit. He still had glass in his arm. A year later, Doc had to cut out more glass from his arm. I mean, oh, there it is. So that's the following WrestleMania. Can I try it out? Sure. I asked to try it out, sir. They got it out. Yeah. There it is. Well, you can't really see it. That doesn't really do it justice, but it was another big old, it was a year, guys, a year. Yeah, it was a nice little triangular shard of glass, a little reminder of the year prior. Man. You see it? Yeah, there it is. It wasn't my idea to do that. No, and you were just getting out of the way. Like, who wouldn't get out of the way? Well, yeah. The car? The car would not. I had a metal bar in my hand, and I think I was a little amped up when I swum. And you weren't there. I'm glad you weren't there because it would have been a thunderous time. You and I know. We know what that was. You're going, I'm going to break it the first time I hit it. Yeah. It wasn't. So, yeah, you were amped up because, like, it ain't going to be a boom, you know, safety glass. but man, you punched through it and then some, like it was going to break the first time. There's no doubt about it. That wasn't safety glass. Well, isn't, isn't. It was the, it was the. Yeah, but isn't it called safety glass? Like for real, that's what they use, safety glass? Like I think it's for safety. So like it doesn't shatter all over you. I don't know. I'm making this up. Ben Brown says yes. Sugar glass. Sugar glass. No, no, no, no, no. It's not sugar glass. No, that's a special effect. This was the actual glass they put in the hearse when they built it. Tempered glass. I don't know what it is. We digress. The fact of the matter is he got cut. It's his own fault. It's definitely his own fault. So, yes, it shut everything down for an hour. And it's cold, right? So, like, it's cold. Y'all have gotten warmed up. It's getting cold. Then you have to shut down production. Yeah. Okay. But then we kick things back off. Like we said, you brought your friends. Brought my friends. Brought your friends. My Druid friends as well. Druid? And I think we have a clip of that. This is the first time. Did you go to the Druid Union? I did. Well, I didn't tell you. You spoiled them, man. Hey, guys, I got an idea. They were like, we're on. That guy's been treating you wrong for all these years. They turned on you fast. He's a real douchebag, isn't he? Yes. It's a little strong. Sorry. Yeah, it might have been. Might have been. It worked, though. He's a real jerk. Come work for me. Come work for me. Hey, Deadman! Oh. We're just getting started. This is my best Clint Eastwood. I don't know, man. I wouldn't mess with him. Oh, here it comes. Uh-oh. Wouldn't it be great if I just got on the bike and rode off right there? I mean, tell me if I'm wrong, but I feel like you've been in this situation before. Maybe not in a wrestling ring or in a boneyard, but it looked like you're just like, you know, you're surrounded. It's like, all right, it's time to go. It had been a few years, but yeah, I've been in that situation a few times. I'm about to say the older Mark would be like, you know what, guys, I'm going to get on my bike and just head on out. Yeah, I'm good, man. See y'all. Let us shut it down. Let us be bygones. I'm just going to go and get out of here before she realizes I'm missing. Actually, I thought you were missing that night. Y'all had gone so long at one point. It was a while. So after that, you know, you beat up my friends. Yeah. Gallows and Anderson, I love them. I miss them. But I hit you in the back with a tombstone. Yes, you did. I had to hit you with it. You did. Yeah, you start getting the upper hand real fast. Like I really hit him with it because it's kind of like you're going to break the glass in the first hit. Well, I don't know if we had another one. No. We had to bust up a little bit, so I had to make sure that happened. It looked cool. It may have not felt good. it's funny because people like have watched this and you know they want to they want to talk about the boneyard match and they were like man you're selling man was it was incredible like i could hear like you were you were wheezing and i was like you're damn right i was wheezing the man hit me with a he hit me with a tombstone i couldn't hardly breathe because my ribs were correct well i and i can tell you this too we we did a spot where we went through a little barricade yeah i don't know if you remember this and i had to hit you like i had to freaking tackle you like a straight up football tackle and i had to come with it and you're like bring it dude and you know i'm saying like that's my kind of guy like you you know you had to make something look the way it was supposed to and this guy was like bring it and i was freaking you know like i like i was a linebacker and I came with it, dude. It was cool moments like that, like you know what it needed. Yeah. And it was that. I was like, did I really get him? Because you were wheezing after that one. I was like, oh, man, I really. Because I had to hit you, you know. I think we've got a clip of that, too. Or at least if you get in the upper hand, for sure. Of course. A broken shell is unused. Wow. Phenom. You know, Phenom. We're nothing. We're nobody. Thank you. Thank you, Stole Cold. I have to pay royalties on that. Tater. Tater. I thought you were an American badass. You know what you look like now? A broken down old bitch. Ouch. Yeah. I would if I could breathe. I'm doing the world a favor. I'm gonna bury you. That's all real. Right here. Right now. Dang. Bruh. Dang. Dude. That's cool, man. I mean, there were some harsh words. It's almost as harsh as that shot to your back that sent you into the grave. That's one of those where, as my son sits out here, he's going, that's where I go, listen, AJ Styles is not your dad. You are not to talk like him. So that was, there's no cussing at my house. So AJ's getting me in trouble a little bit there. It was, man. Still feeling it? It would probably bother me a little more if I'd have had any feeling below my waist. But the storytelling, like y'all said, I mean, just the back and forth, man, that trash talk was money. Yeah, man, it was you're right. It was the little things that we did as far as the trash talk, because, you know, we went through a car window. We got I got slammed on a hearse. And, you know, like there's so many things going on right there. Getting hit in the back of the head with this tomb tombstone. And it's about to get better. I think the the biggest name known to man. Oh, no. exactly what we're talking about. I mean, I've seen it everywhere. Oh, yeah. I can't tell you how many people send me this meme. A lot of times it's that meme where you're supposed to be in bed as a kid and your dad wakes up and sees you watching TV. Little did we know one of our major contributions to the world of wrestling would be this meme, right? man it's true everybody still talks about that's so funny it is it was obviously we didn't had no clue that that would it would turn into that we just thought it was going to be a cool looking shot with me backlit this was so back to the storytelling back to the unholy trinity this now is me and this segment of the match is me kind of turning back into to the Undertaker and the supernatural and using some of those supernatural elements of the character through the years So I mean cause you sure enough teleported right behind him You were in the grave five seconds ago and then all of a sudden you up there That old school Undertaker I love it That's how I used to roll. I was trying to translate at that moment, like, oh my God, he's supernatural. And now I'm scared for my life because I don't know how to beat this guy because he can teleport from the grave to behind me. So yeah, it was really cool. I wish I had just started out with the superpowers early. Yeah. I would have took a lot less beating. Yeah. But you thought you had the upper hand, the ashes, the ashes. It was also good. Dust to dust, wiping off the dirt from your hands. That's right. I loved it. Then we get this. Okay. Yep. Here we go. Yeah. Oh, was the tractor just there? Yeah, I mean, because you had to use it to bury the guy, right? But I mean, it was just there at the place? No, no, no, they brought that in. Okay, so somebody had the idea of this tractor. He actually played, used it to dig the hole. Honestly. So the funny thing is, I don't know if you remember this or not, so the tractor's there, and then I think Ellis was the stunt coordinator, did all the props and everything. You got so hot at him because he tried to tell you how to operate the tractor. You're like, I don't know how to run a tractor. in the middle of all this going on you get hot because he questioned your country boy that's funny yeah I did I get hot too but you got your powers back you're throwing fire bombs I had to go way deep into the bag look how slow he's coming up the ladder you just hit him with a shell I mean And if As if all that wasn't enough You end up chokeslamming our friend Off the roof Do you remember this? Do you remember this? I was like hey He is chokeslamming me Off the roof of that barn through another little barn house. I don't know what it was. And there's, it's like a, what's, I don't know, eight by eight little. There was not much margin of error. That's what I'm saying. And I go, hey, how do you want me to do this for you? And you were like, hey man, just go. I'm like, I don't know where I'm going. I'm not back. I can't see anything. I was like, you're going to have to put me where you want me. and I admit man I was like either this is going to be great or I'm going to be paralyzed it's going to be a short night and that was a real thing that we did I mean of course we had something soft but I had to go through that little barn that we had and I had no idea where I was landing because I couldn't see so it's pretty scary and it was real man it was crazy I think we have it oh do we No, this is what you asked for, right? This is what you wanted. Oh, that is a tight little fit there. If you would have seen it, you'd be like, oh my God, he's about killing. Y'all are crazy. Yeah, and I guess I can tell you now. Uh-oh. What the? No, so no, you're well aware. So this is probably two, three o'clock in the morning when that happened. And the temperature has fallen. And that was a tin roof that we were standing on. And it had started to condensate. So it was like standing on ice. Yeah, it was slippery up there. I remember that. It was really slippery. I mean, there was one point where I slipped and almost fell. I don't think we have that footage. but or do we yeah I don't want to see it oh shoot whoop whoa almost right off the roof there That's wild. Oh, you knew it got serious. It had to be hard to keep your footing up there because it was a 10-roof. It's like this number. Yeah, so his foot hit my foot, trying to keep my belt. I slid, and I'm right on the edge of going off of that thing sideways. I almost won that match is what you're saying. Yeah, you did. You almost won that match, but what's going through my head, right? Because obviously I have to place you. I've got to push you out far enough and what's going on in my head is, please don't, your feet, please don't slip. Yeah, and I didn't want to say anything to you. I didn't want you worried because I knew you were already having to take a blind bump off that high roof. I was just like, oh, my goodness, just please don't slip right now. and yeah I was just like do I tell him or do I not ask for it let's just go let's go for it yeah thank goodness it worked but man it was a it was a nightmare up there because how slick it got and I mean you can kind of tell you can kind of just tell by the ginger way that everybody was was walking especially me it was just like oh man we all up there like oh shoot that's crazy We were just taking bumps or whatnot for you to have to do what you did because you tombstone and gave a big boot up there and then threw gallows off the top of the roof. So you were moving. I would just kind of step it back. As a fan, I mean, well, one, y'all are crazy. But as a fan, thank y'all because, I mean, it's freaking good. But I don't think sometimes people realize exactly what the guys and girls go through or put themselves through, you know, to put on a good match. And that's just a small example of, you know, we're invested at that point. I mean, what's that? Go ahead. No, I was going to say we were invested deep into this match. Now we know it by this point that we're doing something that's going to be pretty special. Yeah. And now you're so invested again. It's two, three o'clock in the morning. We've been out there for hours by this point. So it's just like, man, we're just throwing it all. And we're invested. Like we're invested. I mean, everybody's all in. And we get to one of my favorite parts because it was just, again, it was the storytelling. One of my favorite parts that matched was nothing physical, but it was when you kind of gave him this fatherly hug, kind of patted him on the head. And then you sent him airborne into a grave. Again, this is me trying to channel my inner Clint Eastwood here. I think you did pretty good. Let's see. Come on, buddy. Get up here. Come over here. Come over here. Don't bury me. I'm sorry. You're sorry? I'm sorry. That. That. That. I'm in a hell fight. Don't bury me. Huh? Do you think I'm gonna bury you? Really? You just fought your ass off. You fought your ass off. Come on man. Come here. Come here. I'm not... Come here man. I don't know why I'm hugging you back. What the freak? There's a lot of people that ain't giving me that fight. You good brother. You alright? Dang. That looks like a deep hole. It's weird. Like you look back and go, I really hugged you back. I'm just hugging him back. It was the cresting of the head for me. Yeah, he pet me and everything. But again, all of that, all that is just ad lib and like. Was that exact part ad libbed or did y'all have alternate? No. All ad libbed. Dang. We knew, I knew we were going to the hole, but all that is just completely off the cuff. No cut. There's, I mean, it's just action and reaction. And, uh, you know what? They actually cut the final product. do you remember me setting me setting on the edge of the, of the, Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. There's a, there's a, it's actually even more disturbing is because I'm setting, I was setting on the, uh, in the grave, like on the outside with my feet inside the, in the grave and you're beaten and battered self and your head is just kind of laying there. And I'm having that same conversation with you and trying to like trying to comfort you before I kill you. Yeah. Thanks. It was really good. I don't know why they ended up cutting that out. But you get the gist of it with the standing part there. But just again, it was so fun at that point. And again, I think we knew that we were doing something that was really special. And you being the dead man with all your mystique and powers, and actually smarter than you were giving yourself credit for, You let him dig the hole, but you've already got the headstone. You've already got his name, his date. I mean, you came prepared. I took a picture with that headstone. Oh, that's kind of disturbing. A little foreshadowing there. Foreshadowing? He just said he had a picture of him and his headstone. No, we're talking about the headstone. Did anybody else hear that that way? what we're talking about when you know the headstones there and he covers it at the end right like that's what we're talking about got it okay sorry sorry we actually have it on here oh we do oh That hand is so ridiculous. I remember seeing that and going, Yeah. Who's idea was the hand? Whose idea was the hand? Had to be Michael Hayes. I mean, the way I see it, the way I see it, was it you were buried or your hand was raised? Maybe you actually beat him. Did you go over? You might have gone over. Who knows? I don't know. that didn't look too promising. My hand looks weird. I can tell you that. It's like rigor mortis is already. Yeah. I think I'm dead. Oh my goodness, man. I, I, I tell you what, you know, it, it wasn't what we envisioned when we started that whole thing, but man, I think it was meant to be a thousand percent. I said that to you. I think And, like, you know, as bad as it was, COVID and whatnot, man, you literally rode off. Yeah. Like, that's the way you go out right there. And I'm thankful that I was able to be in that match with you, man. It was special to me because I got a chance to work you. And if I could go out like that, man, I would love to do that. That is awesome. And it was an awesome match. It was good. Yeah. It was. yeah. And it is, I don't know that I've ever even, I don't know, maybe I've, I have talked about this, but it was about at that three. So when I wrote off, it was, I don't know, maybe 45 minutes till sun, the sun started peeking through. Um, again, about, about that 3.34 in the morning is when it had dawned on me that this was pretty much it for me. My body, you know, because although I was in shape, it was very apparent to me, and I know it had to do with the temperature dropping and then, you know, doing physicality and then having to stop while they moved cameras, but it was it was somewhere in those early morning hours that I had realized that this was going to be it. You know, and I didn't, you know, I didn't really say anything for a while, but like I knew like this was, this was it. This is what, this is what I'd been looking for, for that closure. And, um, and I knew that it wasn't going to get any, any better than this. And I'm extremely, extremely proud of what we did that night. Yeah. Should be. I just want to reiterate, reiterate one more time that y'all literally started that at sunset the night before. And I remember waking up, still having not heard from you going what on God's green earth? Like, are they okay? Like y'all literally went to five o'clock in the morning, five 30 in the morning. It was really late and we were nasty from being in that dirt. Like, I mean, it was, we were dirty. It was. Yeah. I had dirt in places. I didn't know I had places. And I had to go back to, so again, when I left, when I left here, I had to drive back 50 minutes to meet another doctor at the PC to start stitching my arm up. Cause they didn't stitch it up. They just cleaned it out as best they could and started to kind of glue it together. And they glued that glass right in there. Yeah, they did. It stayed in there for a year. But, yeah, so I had to go back to the PC, finish getting cleaned up, stitched up, and then drive back to where y'all were staying. So, yeah, it was late, man. What a crazy, crazy night. It was as rewarding as it is now looking back on this. And, you know, you kind of you tend to forget everything that was going on with me around that time period. But, man, again, I can't thank you enough for pushing me to have one more, man. I don't know if you know this, but I called Michelle, and I was like, I want to get him something, you know, for having this match with me. And she goes, give him your gloves. Like, that'll mean a lot to him. And so I signed the gloves that we wrestled in and gave them to you as a gift. And it wasn't too long after that, I got your gloves that you wrestled in that night. And they're sitting at home amongst all the trophies that I've done and gotten wrestling and whatnot. And it is my most prized possession, so thank you for that. Thank you, bro. That's the last time that I wore those kind of gloves. That was it, man. That was it, man. And that's the way it's going to stay. I'll be able to sell those for a lot of money. A lot of money one day, for real. I'm surprised you haven't already. Where does that, if I don't put you on the spot too much, but where does that rank? Because y'all both had some bangers at WrestleMania. But, like, for WrestleMania matches, I mean, that's got to be up there. That's my WrestleMania match. I mean, to me, and the fact that it was COVID and it was crazy right now, but we saved WrestleMania. I agree. I'm going to hold on to that. Yes. So, and it was the first, the main event of the first night. So I kind of say that I had a WrestleMania main event match. So there's, for me, that was a big one. Hey, it's all, you know, I tell this all the time, man, it's all always, it's not a, it's not about the wrestling. It's about the story and what we did, what we, we, we started a story. we built a story and then we paid a story off. And that is what professional wrestling is all about. So, uh, yeah, this is, this is one of my favorite, this is one of my favorite WrestleMania moments again, you know, for what we were able to do, we were very fortunate to be able to go and do this. Um, you know, and during COVID, um, and I, I think you tell me, Like, I honestly feel that some of the success, and maybe you guys could give me your input on this, the effort that WWE made during COVID, I think has a lot to do with how much the sport and the entertainment aspect of WWE grew. because I think the audience appreciated the effort that everyone was trying to make to give people some sort of live entertainment, something that wasn't a rerun. And I think that maybe this played a big part in that too. You both did it! I think we should now, yeah, they saved WrestleMania. I love that. Well, let me just say this about the whole COVID experience that we all went through. I went to a children's hospital today and I got to meet some kids and it was unbelievable. These kids are so amazing. And but one of the doctors who's always on call 24 seven, he said he's a he's a new wrestling fan. And because of covid, he was able to watch wrestling because it was the only thing on. And so we made a wrestling fan out of that. And he's one of the greatest minds in the world. and so there's as bad as it was there was a lot of positive things that came out of it because we were able to do what we needed to do and and able to entertain you guys so thank you guys for tuning in so i i don't want to i don't want to put you on the spot but um i've heard rumors that uh you're not, um, you're not too long, not too long for, uh, your days here. It's going to be another sad day. But here's the, here's the thing about retirement, right? Is the opportunity to go out your way, not because of injury, but standing on your own two feet. And the goal of working is to retire and to be able to do that is to me a celebration so i hope that when it does happen that you guys will celebrate with me that i achieved yeah yeah yeah well deserved and i think it's easy to forget sometimes um like even during that match i think you may have mentioned it one time and i even called you and said hey just to give you a heads up. I don't know if y'all know, but the day before, so when they were scouting out that location, Mark got a phone call that his brother died. Out of nowhere, heart attack, but still goes that next day and puts on that. Works overnight, and that's what, you know, for y'all. So, thank y'all. But I mean, you know, everybody puts in their heart and soul, so thank y'all for loving it and um there's a lot that goes on behind the scenes thank you man can't thank you enough for taking time out of your out of your busy day to come and join this is our first live podcast you're the you're the first brother hey thanks for having me i mean you're one of my favorite guys anyway so it was easy to come over here and do this with you. I mean, you're one of a kind, my friend. And to be able to do it in front of you guys, it's awesome. I got no bunch of things. Phenomenal. Phenomenal, yes. It's phenomenal. Brother, there's only one thing left to say, and that's thank you, AJ. Oh, thank you. Thank you, AJ. Thank you, AJ. Thank you. you