Dickie V Talking Final 4, WWE Champ Cody Rhodes, Fyre Fest And We Put The Pieces Back Together After April Fools
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On today's part in my take, we have a twofer for the people. We have Dickie V on the show talking Final Four. We only had him for about 15 minutes because his voice, he's still working it back, but it was have to have Dickie V on when offered. And then we have WWE champion Cody Rhodes in studio. Really awesome interview. He's a cool, cool guy. So we had a lot of fun talking to him. We're going to talk some Final Four stuff.

Where the hell is Aaron Rodgers going to play football next year? We also had some NBA stuff go down, and it's all brought to you by our friends at DraftKings. The finals for March Mania are here, and the only thing for sure is it's the last time to bet on college basketball this season. It's been an amazing ride to get there.

but full of unexpected happenings. Maybe there will be more. Get in on all the action, expected and unexpected, with DraftKings Sportsbook. With live betting, exclusive content, promos and parlays, DraftKings is the ultimate college basketball destination for March. Ready to make your first bet? Check out the matchups and pick a team to win. It's that simple. First time? Here's something special just for you. New DraftKings customers. Bet $5, get $150 in bonus bets instantly. Bet the unexpected with DraftKings Sportsbook. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app and use code TORN.

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Welcome to Part of My Take, presented by DraftKings. Bet the unexpected with DraftKings Sportsbook. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app and use code TAKE. That's code TAKE. For new customers, get $150 in bonus bets when you bet just $5 only on DraftKings. The crown is yours. Today is Friday, April 4th, and then there were four.

March Madness comes down to San Antone. Do you say San Antone or San Antonio? You can say San Antone if you want to sound like you're selling salsa. San Antone. I realize, too, Charles Barkley having to do live shows in San Antone is great. Listen, Charles Barkley, when he's talking about the big old women, don't act like Charles doesn't sneak a peek. Yeah, San Antone. Who amongst us doesn't? So we have it. We're ready. Duke, Houston, Auburn, Florida. This will be...

It is the best Final Four, I think, ever, just if you're looking at statistics. I have to tell myself that. Yeah. I have to tell myself that this weekend is going to be the best weekend of college basketball of my life. Every single team in this Final Four any other year is probably a champion without, you know what I mean, without this type of competition. That's how good they all are.

And I have been saying for a month and a half now that it is Duke's year, and I do fully think that. They feel like even though it's a loaded Final Four, they feel a little step ahead.

But I'm excited to watch the games. I will not be rooting for Duke, but I am also resigned to the fact they will probably win. If Duke doesn't lose, you talk about an all-time wasted meme from the White Lotus, right? I know. It feels like that has to be used at some point. Yeah. It would be a real shame if it wasn't. I do find myself also rooting for Duke because they're fun to root for. Oh, I'm not rooting for them. But then, well, I find myself enjoying them. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because they're fun to watch. But also, then I think about...

what would those crying faces look like? And there would be some good crying faces. Some really good crying faces. And you get crying moms that you've seen. I think Con Nipple might be a good cry. He would be a great cry. That's what I'm focused on is like the cheeks would get extra red. It would be a solid cry. So I'm going to be rooting for the Cougs.

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

Should we do that? I think we could. Yeah. Do you want me to watch just the finale? Yeah. Yes. Okay. Yes. No spoilers. But yeah, watch just the finale. Hank has not watched any of White Lotus. The finale is Sunday night. I've watched two episodes of season one, but I'm told it doesn't matter or they're not related. There's one little tiny. There's a thread. One thread. See if you can pick up on the thread. Okay. Yeah.

Yeah, watch the first episode of season one, the first episode of season two, and then the finale of season three and see if you can figure out. I just keep thinking to myself, like, this is the place that Cliff Kingsbury bought a one-way ticket to. Oh, yeah, that's right. Remember that? I forgot about that. I think that's the horniest move that an adult male can do is to buy a one-way ticket to Thailand. Yeah.

Yeah, I would say so. But now he's back. Yeah. Horniest and weirdest. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we know from what's Sam Rockwell's character. Yes. Yeah. Which I got a lot of. We'll save this for the recap. I just. Yeah. The Greg Gary guy pissed me off. Yeah. He just.

He just keeps staying at White Lotuses. It's fucking crazy. He loves it. He loves it there. Dude, go to any hotel anywhere in the world. Yep. Just keeps going to White Lotuses. But yeah, basketball. Yeah, basketball. Pump for the Final Four. I don't know what to expect in Auburn, Florida. I've closed my eyes. I've tried to visualize this game. Basically, if Clayton is hot, Florida wins.

Yeah, I'm curious to see what Florida's going to do because Condon's a really, really good defender. And I think they might just be like, hey, look, we're going to let Broom do what he does. And if he scores in the post, that will be fine. We can't let their guards, Denver Jones and Pettiford, just go crazy defensively.

but I'm, I, both these games are going to be great. I'm, I'm very excited. I think they're going to deliver. I think we're going to get two close games because I, I keep going back to like Florida Auburn to me is a complete like toss up because I, I just think they'll, both those teams are battle tested. Auburn was the best team for 29 of the 29 games of the regular season. Obviously the end weren't as good, but they found their footing. Florida was probably the hottest team going down the stretch and,

Houston, Duke, my only hope as someone who does not like Duke is that Houston has man strength that Duke's not ready for. But I know that's also not true because Cooper Flagg's so good. Mollowock's so good. Proctor's so good. Nipple is so good. And by the way, I know that I'm not saying his name right, but I'm calling him Nipple because that's just what we're doing. It's way more fun to see Nipple. It's so much more fun. Yeah, you might be right. I...

I don't know. Houston is a lot older. I do think that makes somewhat of a difference at that age. Yeah. The only problem is Duke is like so... Duke is so fundamentally sound in every like...

of the game that like Houston, the way Houston wins these games a lot of times is, you know, they are not the best shooting team, but they get so many offensive rebounds and then Duke is just going to get all the defensive rebounds because Duke is just fundamentally sound. So it's like all those Houston, Houston, Calvin Sampson's Houston always has that calculation where they're like, we don't have to shoot great because we'll just keep shooting and we'll get 15 more shots than the other team. They shot pretty good last week. Yeah. Yeah. Uh,

Hank, do you have any thoughts? You rooting for Duke? I'm rooting for Houston. I have a Houston future that I put in after the Eagles won the Super Bowl. So I have Houston straight up. I think it's nine to one. And then I have a natural parlay of Trey Young to win clutch player of the year and

Houston to make the final four. I just said, you know, hand in hand, like obviously you would parlay those things. Naturally, you had to also parlay Trey Young. Yeah, like if you're going to bet Trey Young to win Clutch Player of the Year, you have to win. You have to also bet Houston to make the final four. What were the odds? How do you go about setting the odds for Clutch Player of the Year? I just ask Stephen Shea. It was right after the Eagles won and I'm like, Stephen, I just want a bunch of money. I want to basically invest in some futures is how I think about it. Like store some money away.

And he gave me some very Stephen Che analytical answer about how Trae Young is definitely going to win Clutch Player of the Year. This was in February.

It's not looking great right now. Yeah. So, and I guess he missed like three shots in the last two minutes last night, including the game winner. That could have been it. Yeah. So that's an issue. But I also have Houston straight up to win the championship. This was before the tournament. Maybe get a cash out. Well, I don't think you can. Stephen Che also. I unfortunately sat down in the gambling cave two days ago and over Luke Hall.

Oh, yeah. It was a cell blue call, and they were just talking about it. And so now I am rooting for Anthony Edwards to win Clutch Player of the Year. Just to go against Stephen Chet? No. Which I would understand. No, he said it's incredible value. He made me bet. I bet it. I have Anthony Edwards to win Clutch Player of the Year. Such a made-up award. Yeah. Is that bet still open? Can I bet on that? Jalen Brunson is minus 170 right now, but he's hurt, and there's a chance he doesn't meet.

The game requirement. The game requirement. The Clutch Player of the Year. Jokic is going to win. Yeah. He's plus 190. Trae Young's plus 550, and that's dropped significantly significantly.

He was plus 190 for a while. And Anthony Edwards was like 50 to 1. And Stephen Shea thinks that they just decided on who scores the most clutch points. And Anthony Edwards is only four points behind in the clutch points scored. The most ridiculous award of all time. And it was also Stephen being like, Stephen, I need a good future. He goes, oh, Trey Young, clutch player of the year. Completely made up. What the fuck is that? A fictional award, but he's got a hot feeling for it. There should be an opposite award. League of Legends.

Least clutch player there. Yeah. I did like J.J. Redd. Did you guys see him just trashing the awards? Yeah. I like that. The most improved player, he's like, this is the dumbest award because it's just a lottery pick who finally got good. Yeah. A good player that figured out how to play good in the NBA. Yeah, good, better. And he was just like, yeah, none of my guys are going to win, so why would I talk about it? Yeah. There's also John Morant being investigated again.

yeah nba has launched an investigation against john morant and i believe buddy healed too uh for simulating a gun which i i think this is progress yeah this should be this should be celebrated the fact that john morant is now not holding a gun yeah it was an assault rifle it looked like but if you watch but i did see it yeah he did do the two hands could have been a shotgun could have been a shotgun a sporting gun it also could have been one of those like super soaker

Spear-fishing guns? Spear-fishing guns. Also, Draymond, kind of a snitch. Huge snitch. Yeah, just turned around, looked at the sky. Immediately was like, did you see that gun? So he's going to win defensive player of the year. That's crazy. Who? Draymond. Yeah. Heavy favorite.

Make up your mind, NBA. Do you want John Morant to hold a gun or do you want him to not hold a gun? Because that's all I saw last night was him not holding a gun. He was not holding a gun. He was simulating it. His hands were empty. We also taped early on Tuesday, so we missed Russell Westbrook ruin Jokic's maybe greatest game ever where he scored 61, had 10 rebounds, 10 assists, and then full Westbrook at the end of the game, missing a layup, which he did need to take.

And then following a three-point shooter with no time left. He also did the Russell Westbrook thing where he just decided to go full speed. Yeah. Like down the court. He's like, I'm going to sprint. I'm going to go as fast as I can, then misses it, and then comes back and blows it again. That was a great game, though. It was a great game. It was a great game. And Hank, I feel like the Celtics gave up on the one seed, kind of following what you said, because didn't they sit players down?

They haven't worried about the one. The one seed has been over for months. Yeah, there was never really a path. The Cavs would have had to have gone on an insane losing streak. Things do look pretty bad for Mr. Bing Bong, too. For Jerry, for his Knicks. Don't even bring that up. It just feels every time they play one of the two teams they're going to have to play, they get their ass kicked. Yes. Your Knicks.

Oh, I cashed out. Oh, I bet on the Knicks to win the NBA finals. And I think it was less than a week later. The Celtics 40 piece them. But I think it was. I think it was the Cavs. I think they lost to the Cavs. And I was like, fuck this. I am. I'm not going to just spend my money. Hank, let me ask you a question because you're not worried about the Cavs. Are you worried about the Thunder? Because the Thunder are really fucking good. No. Too young.

I just think if the Celtics are healthy, they can beat anyone. Thunder are really, really good. And they can do everything. But they don't have the experience. And I think even if both teams are fully healthy and playing their A games, the Celtics still win. I don't know, man. Watching the Thunder, they're just, I mean, they're just, they have the MVP. What? You don't think so, Max?

No, I think Hank is acting way too confident. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I would agree. They're 64-12, Hank. And their defense is really good. Who's defending champions? Okay. Yeah, but how often do defending champions win again? Yeah, it was a year ago.

I mean, it's happened recently. You're acting like because you're the defending champions that it's just automatic that you're going to win again. No, it's not automatic, but it's like I'm not going to... Hey, Max, are you worried about winning the Super Bowl next year? Yeah, of course. Exactly. You should be because... Way to get worried. ...league change. It's the right time. Max knows ball. That was smart. But if they had the same exact team, more or less, then I feel like he'd be like, we won the Super Bowl with this team. We can win the Super Bowl again.

But you also didn't play the... You're playing different teams. Who said the Thunder were going to advance? Who said you're going to advance? True. We're going to get... What are we? We're like two weeks? No, but the playing games are coming up. I think, yeah, there's two more weeks of regular season. Way to go, Jerry Reinsdorf. The Bulls officially clinched a playing game...

So that's all he wanted. Love that for you. Yeah. Just end. Hang the banner. Every year, 38 wins and a loss in the playing game. That's fucking so sick. That's how you build a team. But you had an exciting March.

Yeah, you know what's fun about having an exciting March in the NBA? March NBA does not fucking matter because half the teams are not even trying. Yep. So when you say, oh man, look at this team so hot in March. Turns out that's all fool's gold. January, February, Bulls. Fake ass month. It's like if you look at the NBA any given night,

I mean, there's the clear tanking teams, but then there's also teams that are like, we're going to just take this night off. So if you start playing well in March, you're just a fake team. That's really what it comes down to. Yeah. Unless you obviously were already a good team and you just keep rolling. But any team that's like, wow, man, they're coming on strong in March.

Fake. Any team that's like, oh, we took a nosedive in March. It's like, well, you did that intentionally for probably a smart reason. Right. Like the Sixers. Right. And just like, oh, wow, you beat a bunch of teams that aren't trying to win, that are actively trying to lose and get better draft position. Must be really close to winning something big. Max, can you send the lottery one time?

Oh, yeah, I like this. Give us one, Sam. There we go. Oh, no. You just said, there we go. Oh, no. I saw the Wizards logo. I saw the butthole basketball. PFT, you just celebrated the Sixers getting the first pick. It's fine. They're not allowed to have it. Oh, my God. I'm just going to have to screenshot this one for Pug. I can't believe you. Why did you celebrate that? Because the Wizards logo was the last one that I saw, and I thought it stuck on it. And sixth. That would be a nightmare. You got sixth. I got to be honest. I'm terrible at Tankathon at the Simulator.

I can never get... Statistically, I should get it once every, what, eight times? Seven times? Every morning, I wake up, I go to Tankathon, and I simulate it probably 20 times until it happens. I'm no good at it. Hank, are you kind of sneaky rooting for the Sixers to get Cooper flagged just so you can get Max off the mat when it comes to basketball? No. Okay. Wait, what? I was just wondering. What do you mean, off the mat? Like, you've just been dead. Oh, no, I'm actively rooting for the Sixers to lose. Yeah, what I'm saying, though, is like,

If you get Cooper Flag, you'll have to come back, and then when we beat you, it'll be fun. Right, and Joel Embiid is probably never going to play basketball again, and so you're going to be heading back into a deep process, and if you get Cooper Flag, you could be out of the process pretty quickly. But it doesn't matter if they have an all-world talent on their team. They're still going to lose. Yeah. Why is that? They're the Sixers. They are the Sixers. He's cocky, Hank. Yeah, he is. He is feeling himself, Hank. Big time.

Big time. Did you guys see Anthony Edwards also just paid for his entire child support at once? Respect. Wow. Lump sum. She took the lump sum. She took the lump sum. It was like $1 million. Yeah. For the next 18 years. You see what Elon paid that girl Ashley? No. He paid her 2.5 mil up front and then 500 grand a year. Whoa. That's a great job. Damn. Rocket baby. Rocket baby. What's that noise?

I just texted. They're building the mini golf. Yeah. Oh, they're building the mini golf. That's Max farting. We got Masters next week. Ooh, I'm excited. Very excited. Some great sports coming up. I got to download the Masters app. It is the greatest piece of technology to ever exist. It's a great feeling. They're doing stats from the range. Yeah, I know you can watch every single range shot.

Getting really clued in. Insane amount of data. Yeah, the sickos are going to love this. The golf perverts. The gambling sickos of golf that are like, well, his range session, he was a little bit all over the place. It's too much information to be true.

Prowess is by analysis. It's exciting. I'm excited to see how people overanalyze range sessions. Yeah. All right. We got to pick our final four teams because we got a little competition we're going to do. Also, if you're trying to go to the games on Saturday or Monday or the women's,

on Friday and Sunday. Game time, the best part of college basketball is here, and we know you're as excited as we are to watch some big upsets throughout the tournament. While we're streaming in the cave, you can get out to see the action in person with game time, the official ticketing partner of Barstool Sports.

Game time makes getting tickets faster and easier. Prices on the app actually go down the closer it gets to show time. Hank, can you look it up for me? Yep. The Alamo Dome on Saturday. You can even find last-minute tickets for the tournament for up to 60% off quickly and easily.

Just pull up your chosen event, turn on the GT pick setting at the top of the screen or browse the best local game time picks deals near you, uh, on your game time app homepage. What are the prices? Get in $256. Okay. That's pretty good. See, see maybe what could be the best final four ever. Uh,

This weekend in San Antonio. So go use the GameTime app. Take the guesswork out of bringing or sorry, take the guesswork out of buying tickets with GameTime. Download the GameTime app. Create an account. Use code PMT for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, create an account. Redeem code PMT for $20 off. Download the GameTime app today. What time is it? GameTime. GameTime has the best stuff out there. Oh, yeah. We got Max just pulled up Padres of Cubs home opener. Pods.

Uh, we're looking at like, I'm actually like tomorrow. This is a thousand percent of my plan. I'm going to go to, I'm going to go to the bar and then use game time right before the, right before it starts. Use code PMT. I wish I was going to game. I'm going to San Antonio. Uh, yeah. Use, use code PMT, Max, and you're ready to go. All right. The other thing, uh, we're also brought to you by draft Kings, draft Kings, the finals for March mania here. And the only thing for sure, it's the last time to bet on college basketball this season. Players, uh,

We'll be right back.

Bet the unexpected with DraftKings Sportsbook. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app. Use code TAKE. That's code TAKE to get a no-sweat parlay every single day only on DraftKings. The crown is yours. So all customers a no-sweat parlay every day for the final games of the season. How does it work? Opt in. Place a bet on any eligible parlay. If your bet doesn't hit, you'll get a bonus bet back in the amount of your original bet. Okay, so we have to pick teams, right, Max? How are we doing this? What's the order? What's the draft order?

We got to figure out an order. So we're picking a team in the Final Four, and we get Moneyline. We're picking Moneyline, and then it's a rollover, so it's going to be with DraftKings. We're picking our teams. So if you bet...

And then you obviously, $1,000 would win you $600. I'll pull it up right now. Let's do a lotto ball to figure out the order, and then we'll go in order. We can go 0 to 25, 25 to 50, 50 to 75. That's fair. Okay, I like that. I'll take three. And then we'll just go in clockwise. Okay. Okay.

Hank, you have 0 to 25. Max, you have 25 to 50. You have 51 to 75. And then I have 76 to 99 or 100. I hope it's 3. I really hope it's 3. 39. That's Max. So that's me. So I get first one. Can we go clockwise? Counter. What? We never go counter. My first pick will be...

Well, it's your only pick. Yeah. Yes. But my first overall pick will be Auburn at plus 130. So that would be 1,000 would be 1,300. Okay. So I would get a $1,300 bonus bet. Okay. I will go Florida. Oh, okay. So if Florida wins. My first pick's still here. That's minus 155. You'll get 1645. Yeah. Yeah. I'll take Houston. Longest odds.

You're a piece of shit. I mean, what did you? I don't know why they didn't take Houston. That's plus 220. I know, but it's free bets. I just wanted to fade Max. Yeah. Well, I just I like Auburn. Okay. I like Houston. Can I take a crown game? Nope. You're taking Duke. Yeah, you can't. You actually cannot. You love Duke. The fall from grace with Hank and Duke is crazy. Where did Duke touch you?

No, I'm just kidding. I'll take two. It's when Coach K died. Yeah, it's sad. That was the death of Dookie Hay. You were a fan of a coach. Imagine that. That's not true. It's more just like, again, I've talked about it. You and him are a lot alike. You are a rider. My dad, chances of him watching this game are low.

So it's like, what? Well, now you just called him out. Yeah. You better watch the game, Mr. Lockwood. Yeah. If it's the early game, it probably will. He'll be listening. No, it's the late game. It's the late game. They already have the schedule out. You're like, if? As if. Well, I didn't look at that. I don't know which time they play at. You don't think he's going to watch? I actually kind of like that, Hank. I might.

I might start taking that strategy when it's like the tournament or like maybe even NBA and NHL playoffs, just not looking at the schedule and just being surprised with whatever game's on. Well, you know it. Oh, shit. That's cool. This game's on now. Yeah, that's how I move networks. Yeah. Like, I always wait till the last second to find out what network a game is on. No, my dad. Shout out to my dad. But he'll probably wake up at like 4 a.m. Sunday and check the score. Got it.

Early riser? Early riser. Early riser. I got a question for you guys. Does Shohei Otani have aura? Because I think he has maximum aura. I mean, he hit a walk-off home run on bobblehead night. And if you watch that clip, so the Dodgers have not lost. The Braves have not won. They were tied 5-5 in the bottom of the ninth. Shohei comes up. The fucking place goes electric for his entrance.

First pitch, home run, just he doesn't change anything about his expression, swing, anything. It's just business as usual. I think Shohei Otani has reached the next level of superstardom where he just has the most aura in the game. This is an interesting debate.

Does the best player in baseball have it? Does he have the it factor? I think he has the aura factor. I think he's had the aura factor. But we haven't had a best player in baseball have aura for a while. Well, for a while, we knew that we didn't have that because the debate was who is the face of baseball. Correct. And I think it's settled. Shohei is the face and the arms of baseball. He's everything. And his dog is the dog of baseball. Yeah, he's everything. I watched that clip and I got chills. And that's when I knew, oh, my God.

Because you also, like, it's not necessarily like, hey, he's so good, that's why he has a word, because obviously there's a language barrier, and he's not marketed in the state. I mean, he is now, but for the first, whatever, six, seven years of his career at the Angels...

But now I think it's just Max Mora and he is the face. It was against the Braves. Yeah. Who are not having a great season so far. I think Braves fans, they need to burn Blooper and Effigy. I think they need to kill Blooper. I said yesterday, light him on fire. I realized that was going a little too far. No, run him over with a truck. I think just lighting. Get your Blooper dolls out. Have a little bonfire. Run the dolls over. How many losses until you say run him over with a truck? Like two? Two more? Two more.

Two more and then just run them over a truck. Yeah. Max, you agree? I think it's three more. I think right now they're 0-7, right? Yeah. Get the double digits, 0-10. I think there was a stat no team has ever gone to the playoffs after starting 0-7 in baseball. Yeah, it's a fact. Yeah. I feel like that doesn't happen that often, 0-7, just because you usually win one. The Padres are also undefeated. They are.

So that's interesting for that division. Yes, that is. Whatever. That was a bad. Hand up. Bad edition. We're just happy you're back. We're happy you're here. I opted in. Taking shots. I'm glad that you're listening to the show and you're contributing to it. Yes. That's very good. Not everyone can do that. No, not everyone can do that. Correct. That's a fact.

I'm happy that everyone on this show can. Everyone on this show can. Hey, where's Aaron Rodgers going to play football next year? So I've been thinking this for the last two and a half, three months. It's very strange how he hasn't made up his mind, obviously. And it's very strange how the Vikings took a while to commit to JJ as their starting quarterback. It took longer than you think that it would if they had a first-round pick that they absolutely loved.

They would just be like, oh yeah, Sam can go. No problem. This is JJ's team. By the way, there was a, you have to admit there was a flirtation. Yes. There's been some flirtations. Can I make one point? I think, I think JJ McCarthy needs the last name. He hasn't earned JJ yet. JJ McCarthy. He hasn't earned full JJ. Don't you agree? That's fair. JJ McCarthy. He's got to earn that. I think if, if he was just JJ. Yeah. Then it's like, he's the starter. Right. Once he's, yeah. When we just call it, start calling him JJ. He's been doing it. Cause we already have a JJ. Right. Exactly. Justin Jefferson. Mm-hmm.

So if Jedis gets the starting job, like right off the bat, if they're like, hey, Mr. McCarthy, we know that you're a guy for next year. I don't think they would even, they wouldn't pause, right? If they were firmly committed to it. But it took them a while and then they kind of got sick of the Aaron Rodgers thing. So then they said, yeah, J.J. McCarthy is going to be our starting quarterback and we're fully committed to him. Meanwhile, I think Aaron Rodgers is waiting to commit to the Steelers until he knows for sure that the door is shut in Minnesota. Yeah.

That's what I think is happening. That makes sense. But it just... We're getting pretty close to the draft. Yeah. And I don't know... Like, if Aaron Rodgers... I mean, he's old enough to retire. So it's not like a... If Aaron Rodgers was 32 years old, it wouldn't even be a thought in my head because he's obviously playing. But...

As we get closer, if he wants to play for the Vikings, the Vikings say, no, we're committing to JJ McCarthy. Could he retire? I don't know. It all depends on what he saw in his most recent vision quest. Like he could come in after a long week and be like, no, I'm not playing football anymore. Yeah. Or he'd be like, yeah, I'd like to sign a five-year contract. He never replied to my Steelers question mark from a week ago. Disrespectful. Yeah. So did he say lose my number, bro? No. But I wonder if that means no Steelers. He has not confirmed it.

Or denied. He has not confirmed interest in the Steelers. Confirmed or denied. Okay, what else? We got, oh, Hank lost his QB of the future. Yeah, Joe Milton. Bazooka Joe. Bazooka Joe is a Dallas Cowboy, which both Max and I are upset about because we like Bazooka Joe and we want to root for him to be successful, and it's just impossible to do that with the Cowboys. So it's kind of a bummer for us. That's my analysis. I think Bazooka Joe could be fun to watch. Yes.

I wanted him to go to a spot that he could compete to be a guy. I mean, Dak doesn't always play. That's a good point. He's not a guy. He's literally a guy. Well, you don't know that. You can't assume that. That's true. He is a guy. He is not the guy yet. Ever. From the outside, it's fun to root for Bazooka Joe.

Bazooka Joe has a sick arm. Dude, he would knock that scoreboard off his hinges at midfield. Listen, I've done the Bazooka Joe experience when he was in the Big Ten and then at Tennessee. Like, he's Bazooka Joe. He's not Touch Pass Joe. That's the beauty of Bazooka Joe is that we've all seen Bazooka Joe and we know what he is, but it's fun to get re-excited for Bazooka Joe. Yeah, I would rather him just be in like... You know what would make me excited? If Dude Perfect signed Bazooka Joe. No, no.

No, that would be in the NFL. I would hate that. That would be sick. I would make some sick videos with Dude Perfect. Hank, you're sad about Bazooka Joe? I'm not. I mean, we got Drake May. That's my quarterback of the future. Fifth round pick kind of tells you everything you need to know, I think. Well, I mean, he improved in value. He got two rounds better last year. Yeah, but like a fifth round pick. Bill Belichick built his career off fifth round picks. He only drafted in the fifth round.

What was Tom Brady? Sixth. Yeah, that's what I thought. Good point. Not fifth. Checkmate, though. Hank hates fifth. He hates fifth. He thinks sixth is better than fifth. He'd rather be drafting the sixth than the fifth. I mean, the Belichick model was trade your first, your second, your third round picks and get 25 picks in the fifth round. Drake May. Although I did Milton Tuff. It was a great nickname. It would have been a great shirt. We...

We made those shirts. I don't think we sold them. I'm pretty sure when he was the quarterback at Michigan, Dave was like Milton tough. And then he, we had a Patriots version that we made and then we were waiting for him to do something. No, we definitely sold. So we haven't put out yet. We sold Joe Milton tough shirt or Milton tough shirts for Michigan and

I think he threw his first screen 3,000 miles an hour and then Dave took him down. Yeah.

That's probably what happened. We also changed the rules for Hard Knocks. Did you see that? No. So now a team that made the playoffs last year can be the Hard Knocks team. That's awesome. So my ass is in the jackpot now. That's awesome. Is that why you brought it up? That's what made the news stand out to me. Yeah. Wait, so what are the other rules? Are there any other rules? That's the only change. It's the only change. So new head coach is out. You can't have it. You still can't do that. Can't do that. And then so that's it. Yep.

So that's fun because now we have actually some decent teams. We got some good teams we could go to. Yeah. I mean, Pittsburgh would be awesome if Aaron Rodgers there gets to run that back. Yeah. I'm trying to think who I'd want on hard knocks this year. I'm with kind of the Pats. Well, you can't new head coach, new head coach.

We just said that. You don't listen. No, I never listen. Max is getting even closer. Max is being proven correct. He forgot that Braywell was a new head coach because he'd been a coach in the NFL before. So I understand what he was thinking there. We should be rooting for the Chargers. Chargers would be awesome. Harbaugh. Chargers would be awesome. Harb Knox. Bears. New head coach. How's it going? I don't know. I don't know about you.

Just run it back with the lines. Or Dan Campbell. Also, Kirk Cousins had a meeting with Arthur Blank. Okay. Apparently it was an hour-long meeting, and Arthur Blank says that he took five pages of notes during the conversation. I don't know what he could possibly do. How many of that were doodles? I don't know. Five pages of notes. Five pages of notes.

What would the notes be about? It might be a new chapter of the Bible. I don't know. Rich guys love taking notes during meetings. Oh, yeah. Fake notes. Big time fake notes. Just writing things down. Look how productive I was. But I will say there's something about showing up to a meeting with pen and paper. I always feel like such an asshole because I never show up to meetings with pen and paper. And then there'll be people with pen and paper. And I'm like, fuck. This should be a one, if anything, a one cheater.

It should be, yeah, it kind of sucked when you drafted a quarterback.

Yeah, or it could be five pages of notes where it's just like Kirk Cousins passing him a note saying, can I start, and him passing it back saying no. Yeah. Back and forth over and over. Yeah. How about now? Still no. Write down a team that you would be willing to go to. Not that one. Yeah. Write down another team. Not that one. Not that one. That's an interesting five pages of notes. No idea what that would be. I would pay a good amount of money for those notes. Yeah. Good amount. Yeah. Yeah.

Okay, do we have anything else? Oh, was there another? I got to say something. I'm officially done with conversations comparing eras in the NBA. I feel like that's all that is talked about at this point. I'm getting tired of it. I know LeBron said it in relation to other people saying it, but wasn't there a recent one that like Stephen A. Smith or someone said,

Someone from the 80s said that Steph Curry couldn't even score like 15 points against us because we would have hurt him. That is the most insane thing ever. It's also just I'm tired of it. We're never going to. We just got to get the playoffs here. This is a late March situation. Yeah. I mean, we had a debate the other day of Shaq versus Jokic. Yeah. Oh, yeah. That was a fiery one. They play different positions. Yeah. And I'm sure that both could be successful in the other person's era. Yeah. Yeah.

I would say both. I'd say prime Shaq will be dominant anytime, and prime Jokic will be dominant anytime. Yep. Agreed. Yeah, why can't we just say all the good players would be good in their area? Why can't we just be like, these guys are really good at basketball. Let's enjoy watching them play. They're so sick. We do need someone who...

There needs to be someone in the media who just actually was J.J. Redick. That's that's a problem. That's maybe that's what's happened. The vacuum for this debate is like the power vacuum because J.J. Redick is now coaching. J.J. Redick was the guy who just was like, yeah, the players this like now are just incredible. Like, let's just enjoy that.

Yeah, and if you took them and dropped them back into the 1980s, they'd be really fucking good. Really, really fucking good. If you made them grow up in the 1980s, they'd probably be very good at basketball, but not quite as dominant as they are now. Right, right. Case closed. Case closed. Happy we had that debate. Basketball is good. There you go. Good basketball players are good. Yep, agreed. All right, do we have anything else in the sports world?

What's going on? It's getting people upset. Let's get people ready. So Dickie V, we, we, Dickie V, we only had him on for 15 minutes. People were wondering, uh, he's still working back with his throat and his voice. So, uh, we were offered, we're like, Hey, you get Dickie V wants to come on PMT. He only can give you 10 minutes. We're like, we'll take anything. Uh, it ended up being closer to 15. He's the best. He's the absolute best. And Cody Rhodes was awesome in person. Really, really fun. Great time.

Is there anything else? Max, I guess we'll talk about a fire fest. We'll do a little recap of what happened last.

On Wednesday's show. Thank you everyone for subscribing after Wednesday's show. Yeah. Appreciate that. Yeah. Please keep subscribing. Uh, we appreciate all the subscriptions. Uh, okay. Well, Oh, also San Antonio. I will be there Friday and Saturday. We're doing a live show 6 PM central and 2 PM central on Saturday, 6 PM central Friday, 2 PM central Saturday. What's does anyone know where we're doing it? River ice house river. Can you find it for me?

River Ice House. I'm going to chip myself to death. Riverwalk. I'm going to eat so many chips. I'm going to go to Austin Solidarity and have some breakfast tacos and some chips and queso and barbecue, and it's going to kick ass. Yeah. And cold beer. I'm back on beer. Oh, beer's back. Beer's back. Beer's so good. I would agree. Beer is very good. Wait, what? I didn't tweet it, so... Hank, you got it? I'm looking. Hank's got it. I don't know who tweeted it. Dave? Dave?

Torpedo bats Also Ovi is three away Oh yeah Three away And now I'm moving up my timeline I think if If he gets to one By Sunday After Sunday's game I think I'm gonna have to go to a game next week I'm gonna try to chase this record Are you gonna Withdraw from mini golf? No but Tuesday Oh no and he only plays on Thursday next week Fuck Alright I hope Ovi Doesn't score until After this week Okay And then he breaks the record That's fair

Going goat chasing. River North Ice House. There we go. River North Ice House. It's that first tweet. You just scroll by a million times. Yeah. Barstool Live, River North Ice House. So come on out 6 p.m. Central Friday and 2 p.m. Central Saturday. I think Johnny Fanta is going to be there on Friday night. And then, yeah, let's have some fun Final Four. Let's get some great games. We need some great fucking games.

All right, let's kick it to ourselves. Dickie V. And in a very, very, even if you're not a wrestling fan, the Cody Rhodes interview was awesome because he's just a really cool guy in his whole story. So, and he was in person. Really, really awesome interview. Okay, before we get to Dickie V, we are brought to you by our friends at Truly, Truly Unruly is the first high ABV hard seltzer that actually tastes good.

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BYU holds the record for most tournament appearances without making a semifinal. 30 times that's happened. 30 times they haven't made a semifinal.

Wow, thank you, Hank. We're here to help prevent a busted bracket, just like American Home Shield is here to help with a busted home appliance or system. I've had issues. I had a sink issue two weeks ago. Fixed. American Home Shield. This is where our friends at American Home Shield come in. When you have an American Home Shield warranty, they will help fix or replace covered parts forever.

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Go to ahs.com slash PMT for 20% off any plan today. See ahs.com slash contracts for coverage details, including limit amount fees, limitations, and exclusions. Okay, here he is, Dickie V.

Okay, we now welcome on a very, very, very, very, very special guest, someone we've wanted on for a very long time. It is the legend, Dick Vitale. Dickie V, we appreciate you so much coming on. Just so our listeners know, you are still working your way back all the way through health, so your doctor said maybe seven to ten minutes that you can talk to us, but we said any minutes. If we had two minutes with Dickie V, we're taking it. So first of all, how are you feeling? How's everything going?

Well, first of all, you're very kind. I'll tell you, you guys really, I know, are so very, very popular. My grandkids called me up and said, "Oh my God, you're going to be on a big cat in the PTF. Unbelievable." I feel really good physically. When you're a cancer survivor, it's scan by scan. My last scan, I was totally cancer free. I'll get all nervous again when I got to go for another scan in May.

because let me tell you guys, my heart goes out to every cancer patient. I know that feeling. And I coach for years and you get tense and all in the game when it's close,

but there's nothing like waiting for the results. Because that phone call is life changing. If he tells you that Stan's great, you're cancer free, man it's heaven. But if he tells you that cancer came back, it's back to chemotherapy, radiation and all that.

It really gets nerve wracking and I could feel for every cancer patient and on my message to any cancer patient listening as well, to always think positive and have faith. Because really that got me through what I did. As you guys know, four different battles, one with melanoma, one with lymphoma, vocal cord cancer, which was the toughest for me. Couldn't speak for unbelievable weeks and weeks.

And then I got lymph node cancer. So, again, through it all, I want to talk basketball, man. We got the March Madness. Yes, yes. So, by the way, everyone, May 2nd, his gala, Dickie V's gala to benefit the V Foundation for Cancer Research. So we're raising money for pediatric cancer. You're doing a great job. So let's talk Final Four.

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

Well, you know, certainly we got the best of the best plan. But, you know, also when you think about it, I was just thinking the other day, 1985 was pretty good too when you had certainly Villanova and you had Georgetown and Memphis and St. John's. We can take a lot of children. It's pretty good. But it's special because these are the four teams that have enlisted basically all year as the best.

of the best. So you're getting the best against the best. And we got some great matchups. The one thing, and I pray from day one, I have to do to win it all. And that was going to change my mind right now until we get results. But yeah,

There's a reason I picked them. Number one, any time a team is top five guys in offensive and defensive efficiency, I mean, they got a great chance to win. Because if you're not shooting well and you're defending well, you're going to stay in the game. And that's where Duke's the only team in the country that's top five by Ken Pomeroy in efficiency in both areas.

Yeah, and if you were to pick apart Duke, what is their weakness? What would that be? If Houston finds a way to win this game, how do you think they do it?

Well, I think Houston, number one, if they're going to win the game, they're going to rely on their great defense. I think there's going to be a lot of emotion in the game for Houston as well. Because last year, they really had two kind of ropes. They had them on the ropes until their star got hurt. Sheet, who's now with the Toronto Raptors, I believe, he got hurt. And that game turned around when he went out. So they're going to be playing with a little chip on their shoulder. Plus, let's face it, when you're Duke, I don't care who you play.

It's like my son-in-law told me, please play quarterback at Notre Dame. And I once was, I'll never forget saying to him, oh, you got a cupcake this week. I'm going to play at Navy. That's a cupcake. So you're out of your mind. He's never a cupcake for us. Yeah. Because everybody here at Notre, when they play Notre Dame, they're at another level. Well, same with Duke.

You play Duke in basketball. You play Kentucky in basketball. You play schools like that. Teams play at such a high level. They commit. So you've got to match that. And I think John Shire's done a great job with that, getting his players to understand.

understand how it really is important to play at a higher level because people want to beat you so badly. Yeah, and with Cooper Flagg, is he the biggest diaper dandy of all time? Because he might be the youngest diaper dandy, right? Because he enrolled early.

Well, you read about that, Patrick. He is so young. There's no doubt about it. I look at the kid. I saw him in high school. And I said this. I'm sitting on ESPN. Some people took it the wrong way. They got all over the case because they said, oh, how can he be putting his name in there with LeBron and with Kobe and Magic? What I said was, if they listened, I said at the same age, in my 45 years at ESPN,

three guys that I've seen with skills and ability that he has. And that was LeBron. I did his game in high school. I'm talking about games of kids I did in high school. I didn't do Kareem in high school, but I did LeBron in high school. I did a game with Kobe Bryant in high school. And I saw a magic a number of times in high school because I was recruiting him and I got rejected. He wanted to make it safe. I was trying to give him the keys to the city of Detroit. But anyway, uh,

The bottom line is I just think he's so special. What he does is so rare and that he doesn't have to score to be probably the most valuable player on the court. He does a phenomenal job. He draws so much attention. It creates angles and spacing for Knieppel and the kid inside, wow, is he going to be special? Malawatch is unbelievable what he does defensively. Hey guys,

When you got three players, right now I looked at the draft yesterday, a mock draft, three guys that are going to be drafted in the top seven, several others going in the second round. My God, you got a chance to win. Yeah, yeah. So PFT mentioned Diaper Dandy, Cooper Flagg. I mean, PTP-er, it's got to be Walter Clayton and Jani Broome, both those guys. That's two PTP-ers going up against each other on the other side of the bracket.

Well, Clayton certainly has been Mr. Clutch. He's been unbelievable. You know, he played for Rick Pitino down in Iona, but he wanted to stay in the state of Florida where he's from to go through his next stop. But if he went to St. John's, wow, wow. Because Pitino was my coach of the year this year, the job he did with St. John's. Yeah.

Agreed. Dickie, I know you had a stretch there where you only ate out. You never ate in. You never ate at home. Did you keep that alive? How long was that stretch for? Because I used to join your Periscopes when you'd go out to breakfast every morning and I'd just be sitting in there basically eating breakfast with you.

Wow, that's really cool, man. I'm really proud of that, Big Cap. But the bottom line is, we go out every night. I love people. I love it. You know what it did for me? Even through my chemo, even through all my radiations, I told my wife I want to go out. I'm not going to sit home and mope and cry and

and feel sorry. Let's face it, when you're a cancer patient and you're doing your chemo and your radiation, there always is a tendency when you're alone to think all the worse. Is this my last day? Is this...

But if you get out, and I used to love to get out with people and be around people. Of course, I love people, guys. I really do. I love, I've been that way. I've been a hot dog all my life. You're the mustard on me. I've been that way. A little wacky like you guys. When I was younger, I was wacky like you guys. But that's why you're so popular, because you're real. You're genuine.

And that's what makes you guys. The whole Arsenal start with David. The bottom line is guys are all real. You tell them from your heart. You're not afraid to share an opinion. And people appreciate that. Yeah, I think a lot of people appreciate you, Dick. I'm sure that you've had a lot of people that reached out over the last couple years and let you know exactly how loved you are, how they're rooting for you. I'm curious, though, when you were going through the treatment and you couldn't talk,

What was that like? Because you're a guy that loves to talk. Like, that's your thing. You love talking to people. Would you go home? Would you write? How did you get these thoughts out? Yeah. I will tell you this, Patrick. No doubt about it. It was the toughest time for me. I felt trapped. I felt trapped. I felt trapped.

I had a whiteboard and I would write on the board and all that for my wife, you know, get me this, do this, do that. But even when you do that, you really can't communicate like you want. I've done many times. I got so frustrated because I want, especially once in a hospital doing a chemo and I couldn't talk and, you know, I'm writing a piece.

a paper right on a trunk I had there, whiteboard. And you can only write so much. You can't tell what you're really going through. And, you know, my darkest moment was, and I'll tell you this, I've told other people this, and I think about it all the time, was in the hospital doing chemo and I had a bad, bad day. I mean, it was a bad day. So much so that normally I would go home after the chemo and the doctors came in and they said,

"Dick, we can't let you go home. We've got to monitor everything." My family was there with me and wife, daughters, grandkids. I got three at Duke, they're hoping Duke wins. I got two at Notre Dame. My Notre Dame is a two-time lacrosse national champ. My daughter, she's watching right now, sitting in these floors with my granddaughter. She loves you guys.

She's watching and she graduated Notre Dame, played tennis. And they got three right now playing tennis on top 10 teams at Duke, rather, in tennis. So they're cheering for their Dukies. But they were all in the hospital. They were there visiting me and it was time to leave at nine o'clock and they left. And when they left,

I really, as I tell people, I cried like a baby. I'll never forget that day as long as I live. I was like hysterical. And the nurse came in and the nurse was terrific. She said, "Dick, calm down. You're gonna be fine." She said, "Why are you crying so much?" I said, "I don't know, man. I wonder if that's the last time I see my...

Last time I see my family, I said, it's been such a tough day. But anyway, bottom line is, I came through it. Messages. I can't tell you how many messages. I haven't used my phone that day for about six, seven hours. And all of a sudden, I went to my phone. I have messages. You name a coach, they have Patinos and Calipari's and Izzo's right down the line. All the Italians, naturally. But the bottom line is, they all...

wishing me the best, keep fighting. Remember Jimmy V, don't give up, don't ever give up. And all of that meant so much to me that it made me really say to myself, I'm going to beat this sucker. I'm going to beat it. Let me get out of here. I'm going to beat it. And fortunately, it worked out that way. But like I said, cancer patients only know this, like I do, that you go scan to scan and you wait for that next scan. I'm going to count the days until May. You mentioned my gallop.

I mentioned Mike Gallagher. I appreciate that so much, McCab. The bottom line is we've raised $92.8 million since I started for pediatric cancer.

If people, I know you got a lot of fans, they want to help join my team, we're going to go over $100 million on May 2nd. And we got great, great people we're honoring. Michael Strahan, who knows a lot about pediatric cancer, his daughter, Barron Brain Cancer, now cancer-free. We got Grant Hill, superstar. We got

We got Danny Hurley coming in. We got John Calipari, Nancy Lieberman. I mean, Hannah Storm. It's gonna be a special night, special. But we're gonna raise, and if anybody wants to join my team and help me raise those dollars,

Whatever they donate, $50, $100, $2,000, you guys will donate more because you're making big cash. I'm only kidding. The bottom line is, just go to DickVital.com. Simple committee, DickVital.com, and you can donate, you can buy any of my merchandise, every dollar that I would make.

on the purchase of any item, basketballs, books, I give to the V-Funders. I love it. I love it. So I know we've taken you a little over time, so I have one last thing. My voice is okay. Okay, yeah. I mean, listen, I hope you understand how loved you are. This show that we've been doing for almost a decade now, our big thing is sports are supposed to be fun, and you always were that guy. You were the guy whose sports were fun, and you welcomed people in, and like you said, you're a people person.

I have to mention one thing. So I've met you a couple times before. One was actually you were nice enough to take a picture with me. 2006, when I was a student at Wisconsin, we beat Pitt, Aaron Gray. They were the number two team in the country. You took a picture at halftime. That's how great of a guy you are. He's calling the game at halftime. He's taking pictures. The other one, though, was maybe the coolest power move I've ever seen in my life. It was Florida State, Notre Dame.

2014, I want to say. And you showed up and you just walked right into this frat house that we're doing a show at. Use the bathroom. Your wife, by the way, ride or die. She stood outside the door, made sure no one went in. And then you had like these postcards that you were handing out that were signed postcards. I love the move because everyone wanted everyone wanted to talk to you. You're just handing them out. And I was like, this guy's the best. He's the man of the people. He's going to the bathroom in a frat house. He's the best. That's you. Yeah.

Well, that's so nice of you. I really appreciate it. And I can tell you this. You went to Wisconsin. You were a hell of a student then because I couldn't spell Wisconsin. They asked me to go there. The bottom line is, you know, I love people. I do. You do. Hey, when people don't recognize me, I'm in a restaurant. I put a sign in. I'm back. Hey, I'm Thinking V. Remember me?

It is. It's true. But I like, you know, you meet people who are celebrities or in the public eye and sometimes you're not the same person. You are the same person. The two encounters I've had with you, just salt of the earth, just regular guy. And it always struck me as like, man, he's exactly like I see on the TV. And I love that about him.

Tell you guys, man, I'm going to make you my PR agents, man. I love you guys. Call me anytime if you want me on. Tell David, tell David, try some pizza here in beautiful Sarasota. I know they said he came. He was here one time, but he's going to try the pizza that's really, I think, good at a place called Mucha Ballerina. Okay. Mucha Ballerina.

Okay. That sounds great. So, Dickie, thank you so much for joining us. It's a dream come true to get to talk to you, and we hope you enjoy the game. So you got Duke against who in the championship? I got Duke, Florida in the championship. Duke winning the championship. On the women's side, you got great games. You got great semifinals. You got Gino Auriemma. I really worry. My heart wants Connecticut, because I love Paige Beckers, and I want to see her get to the championship game. But...

UCLA is really good. They got a young lady named Betsy who can really play. And then on the other side, you got Texas against South Carolina. I'm going with Dawn Staley, man. She just knows how to win. I'm hoping to see Staley and Oriyama in the finals. Two coaches that know what winning's about. And Paige Beckers is special. Really special. Hey, guys, I just figured something out looking at both of you. Now I know why I got fired by the Pistons. My guards look like you suckers, man.

I know you can't play. I know you can't play. Oh, man. Yeah, you nailed us. Yeah, you did. You got an eye for talent. Yeah. All right. Well, Dickie, thank you so much. Oh, one last thing. I got a special friend who we work with named Stephen Che. Can you just say, hey, Stephen Che, you're awesome, baby.

Steven Shea, man, you're awesome, baby, with a cap on the leg. You're a PT beard. You know, I lie a lot, Steven. Thank you, Dickie. You're the best. We really appreciate your time, and we're huge fans, and keep fighting the good fight, and we'll make sure we donate for that gala on May 2nd. Thanks a lot for having me on. Remember, DickFightTown.com, people. We'll do it. All right, thanks, Dickie. It was great to see you. Appreciate it. Enjoy the games. All right, see you.

Dickie V was brought to you by TaxAct. TaxAct, you know what day it is? It's actually April already. You know what day is coming up soon? That would be April 15th, tax day. Taxes are due. Hank, do you have any tips? Don't wait. The time is now. We're getting towards the finish line. So go to taxact.com. Use all the tools they have and that can help you do your taxes, including expert assist.

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Okay, we now welcome on a very, very, very, very special guest. He is the undisputed WWE Champion of the World. It is Cody Rhodes. He's got big, big time WrestleMania coming up April 19th and 20th at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. So, Cody...

First of all, thanks for coming by. Let's start with how it feels. So it's going to be about a year now that you've been the champion. How are we feeling? Is it everything that you dreamed about? Because I know it was a lifelong dream, but a year being champion, was it everything that cracked up to be?

I feel like it's definitely a positive. It's not that it's a negative, but I will say that it's nothing like I anticipated it to be. What I really quickly found out is that it is almost a de facto position in the office. It's almost...

it's it's a bigger position than just man in tights wrestling which is great i love it because i love the infrastructure i love the industry i grew up in the business my dad was behind the scenes in front of the camera all that but that was a part for me that i thought oh there's a layer of responsibility right like a team team captain you know and and and i tried to lean into it in the last you know several months where i i'd like that i like being the

the big dog here as long as it's going to, you know, it's going to last, but it's been amazing. It really, and especially for,

Being a good guy character to have the title this long is rather unheard of because everyone just tries to murder you every week. I'm very lucky. So speaking of being babyface, because I think in today's day and age where people are more cynical, a little edgier, whatever you want to call it, do you find that hard having to be the good guy when you're like, man, it's probably easier to just be the bad guy once in a while? Well, it's always easier, I feel,

Every week, I think they're going to boo me. And every week, we've been lucky where it's been like, no, we like you. I genuinely find a surprise in every night. And the way they do my entrance, I'm surrounded by all this cryo. And then it does this little sparks, these cold sparks. And then I can really hear the audience. And it's legit the coolest thing.

thing ever i don't know i don't know the i don't know the formula i think there's a element of being in the family and the love they had with my dad and the connection we have i think it's because i took them on the full ride from the time i was back at wwe also when we the suspension of disbelief and what we do everything about me is i don't i don't have a character right i am me this is and and i'm i'm really happy that it's worked out yeah but i'm always expecting like yeah i'm

Today's the day. Barclays or something, you know, like our Chicago is always notoriously a tough wrestling market. And then in those places, they're like, nah, he's cool.

So that's got to feel. I'm very lucky at a certain point. Yeah. You know, who knows? But it's blessed. Yeah. I mean, your story is incredible. For those that don't know, like you bet on yourself. You actually are a good friend. Robbie Fox. Yeah. You and him became pretty close. He like drove you around. He showed me a picture where he took you to the emergency room. So tell our listeners the story about how you bet on yourself, the road that you went on, that you brought people along.

When I was at WWE the first time and I was a legacy hire, you know, my dad was in the business. My brother was in the business. Godfather's uncles, all that. I was in a great position. And then in the last three or four years, I technically I hate using this term, but I technically became an enhancement talent, a jobber. And I was under the alias of Stardust. I was pain in my face. It's

It just was very much, I say beneath me, but I wasn't doing the work to outkick it either. And I felt like I was trapped. So no one ever does this. What I would do next is really what set this all off. I ended up quitting WWE. Wasn't going to get fired because of the legacy I had, but also things weren't going to get better. I quit WWE. And when I left, that's where I got to do...

Bet on myself, as you said, and got to mobilize the audience. I put a list together of various opponents, all different companies, all different continents, all this stuff I wanted to do because I was a lifelong WWE kid. I'd been made in their system. And to be able to break out and do independent wrestling, death match style stuff, New Japan pro wrestling, all this stuff that you didn't see before.

I was able to bring everybody who had all the equity I had at WWE and bring them along with me. And it was all a real journey in terms of I'm going to try and get... If this place holds 400, I'm going to try and get 500 people in there. You mentioned Robbie Fox. We were at La Boom in Queens, New York. And hey, there's only 100 and some of the people here. Well, guess what? We're going to buy pizza for each and every one of them. We tried to make...

what I was doing, everything, Destination. Even though it wasn't WWE, it wasn't USA, it wasn't Fox, it wasn't one of our television partners, I tried to make it Destination because streaming was becoming a thing. You could find me. That turned into...

All in, which was in Schaumburg. There's a plaque on the building still. I'm terrified they're going to take this plaque down at some point. Me and Mad Nick Jackson doing the first show ever because the bet was nobody could get more than 10,000. No company other than WWE could get 10,000 people. 20 minutes later, we had 11,000 people. We had this Woodstock for wrestling and really everything since that moment.

has just sparked off of that. An alternative wrestling promotion now exists in terms of AEW and being a founder at that. And then being able to come back to WWE, be so well-received, be so trusted, and take up the first journey I had in the business, which was this. My dad in 1977 wrestled superstar Billy Graham in Madison Square Garden. Wins the match, but doesn't win the title. But he got to do the thing where he held it up for the audience before the inevitable shoe drop from the announcer. And as a kid,

That was it. Right. That was my legitimate, no matter how you look at our business, not real, real. However, I wanted to win the damn belt for him. Uh, and when I came back, that was the one thing as a, Hey, this is what I'm going for. It's as real as it will be presented on TV. It's the, it's as real behind the scenes as it is in front of the camera. And,

I, uh, I was able to do it. That's very cool. Do you carry the belt around with you? I mean, like what's the longest that you've ever gone without touching the belt? Oh, that's a great question. I feel like I touched it. I feel like I touched the belt every day. Yeah. Um, because I mean, how boring is it if I came in here and I didn't have the belt? Yeah. You gotta have the belt. Um,

To me, I have a – there's multiple belts, right? There's one that's on TV and there's one that you can kind of take on the road with you. But I keep the same one each time, which was the one that I know Roman wore to the ring at WrestleMania 40. I've never even touched the other one.

Yeah. It's somewhere in case I was ever to forget it, but I get hands on it every day. Yeah. Yeah. While you have it, you got it. You got it. Don't give it up. Just keep winning. Now. Well, that's, that's the bittersweet thing about WrestleMania this year is I'm excited. This is another headline match. This is,

Cena retirement? But that's the bittersweet part. I have to do what John did for all those years, just win. Right. But that's not that exciting to everybody who maybe he'll break Ric Flair's record. But yeah, maybe he won't. And like you said, keep winning. Yeah. So the story you told, it is great. Have you had moments where you're like, this was the path I had to take? Because you mentioned your dad, Dusty Rhodes, legend. Yeah.

hard times and the everyman and you kind of had to because for a while you were I don't want to say what people thought but like I'm sure there were people like oh he's a nepo babies oh yeah he's in there because of his dad and then you found it on your own the hard times that's a really cool full circle moment where like hey I was given a lot but then I had to go earn it in its own way

it's, it's almost a reverse situation from a lot of guys who work their way up. Whereas I got so many things afforded to me early. And then it's going to sound like a silly, um, parallel, but really the best way I can think about is if you've ever seen the movie, the lion King, I went out there and like found my Timon and Pumbaa and, you know, I had to find, had to find what was inside for me. It's such a silly way to look at it. But, uh,

Being a Nepo baby or being a second or third generation in our industry, that's one thing. When it's dusty, I think about some of these kids whose dads are essentially Mount Rushmore dads. You are forever behind the eight ball in a way. You're forever trying to... You don't even want to say it out loud because it sounds mean, but you're trying to be better than he was. I think the first person at WWE who realized, oh man, I will accept nothing less...

is uh mr hayman is paul hayman i think he's the first person who realized oh he's he's trying to do essentially with the impossible and i i'm i i got flanked it feels so good but i got flanked by the best team when i came back yeah i mean there are people there and i if i could shout them out uh michael hayes triple h i i can't believe i'm gonna say this guy's name but the rock the final boss yeah they as much as what you see on screen is pretty volatile um

The tools are right there. You know, WWE right now, all those guys are right there to get that information from, and Triple H has been wonderful with me. He's been like a coach, putting me out on the field and just calling the plays, and they've been great plays. Do you think The Rock one-on-one, is that going to be in the future? He did pin you last year. He did, and I'm a...

I'm a bit of a egocentric individual who wants his win back. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? He's got one over you. He could just retire tomorrow and you'd be screwed. I think he's due for more than one match, and I would love to be penciled in on one of those. Obviously, that schedule is as intense as it gets, but he's still so involved with WWE. He could have easily been the final boss and just kind of...

Right. Right.

Brother's a wrestler. Yeah. It's in there. It's hitting the ropes and what the reaction you can get from doing wrestling moves in the ring and the promo in the interview. I really have enjoyed that connection with him. I'd like to be one of those. I think he has two matches he has to do. Okay. He has to do. And I'm not putting any pressure on anyone. Put the pressure on. I think he does...

I'd love to see if him and his cousin Roman Reigns ever have this encounter. Maybe it's the greatest match we never get just because timing, whatever it may be. And I think we need to finish our own story with him and with myself. But we'll see. His cheat days are bullshit. He's like, oh, look at me. I'm the rock. I have huge muscles and I'm eating 100 pancakes. Like, yeah, dude, eat 100 pancakes when you're already full and fat. That's hard work.

You know what I mean? Anyone could eat 100 pancakes with a six pack and then be like, back to the gym. A lot of people have a lot of opinions on his cheat meals. Yeah, that's my opinion. I think they're fake. I think he embellishes them. When he stacks up all those pancakes, I think he eats maybe a quarter of them. If you're in really good shape and you eat a lot of food, that's not hard. You know what I mean? Because you're just going to go back to the gym the next day and you're going to take a big dump.

If you're already fat and you feel like shit and you can only wear a sweatshirt and you're like, I'm still stuffing my face. That's hard work. So you don't think his cheat meals are hard work enough and you think his cheat meals are fake? Oh, I think they're completely fake. Yeah. So I guess we got takes. So his cheat meals, I don't. Here's why I don't think they're fake. Okay. Because I think it's a feast or famine situation where if you diet and train like a lunatic, you will eat all 100 of those pancakes until you're in pain and

laying on the floor, which to answer yours, maybe it is hard work. No, it's not. Maybe these cheat meals aren't such a negative. I don't know. I've never seen a meat. I think 100 pounds over my head. I'm back on my grind. What Big Cat's saying is that it's stolen valor. Right. To eat a big meal like that and to act like you're a fat guy and then to not have to suffer the consequences of eating like that all the time. His culture is not his. I want to see The Rock eat a cheat meal when he's already full.

Because that's what I do. I just, for the record, his cheat meals have been referred to as stolen valor. Yes. Stolen valor. Yes. 100%. I agree with that take. Yes. But I'll go one step further and say I don't think he actually eats everything. I think that The Rock did his first cheat meal, which was...

And it would not like in terms of organic food, but like it was from his own brain. Hey, I'll post my cheat meal. Yeah. Everybody was like, wow, the rock. That's such a huge cheat meal. And then he was like, oh shit, that did a lot of traction. So now he's got to keep it up. Find a different way to make my meal look bigger.

Yeah. Yeah. What do you, if you had to have a cheat meal just cause we're now we're in it on this cheat meal thing, what would you have? Well, it's all about how you photograph it. So if you want to make something look bigger, you got to get down from like a low angle. Yeah. And angle it up and have it really right in the camera space. I've been trying, I've been trying to get this, uh, there's a place in, there's one in Brooklyn location called crispy pizza. Okay. And they're all over Instagram. That's mainly that my algorithm is just ice cream and wrestling and pizza. Uh,

That's where it's circling at the moment. Mine's like Big Tits and cheeseburgers, but yeah. Yeah? Cheeseburgers? Yeah, yeah. For whatever reason, I've been trying to get this pizza, but then finally I did a commercial shoot the other day and I could have eaten it and somebody brought it and I couldn't do it. Why not? I feel like I'm not to the finish line yet on the dieting, but it wouldn't have hurt either was the thing. Right. I have this dumb game I play with myself where I tell myself, if you have that...

you lose everything. Yeah. And that seems like a sick... You should see a therapist. Yeah, it might be. That's fucked up, man. No, but that's what makes you great. But if you touch it, it's like you lose it all. Yeah. House gone, you know? Yeah, everything's gone. It's gone, so yeah. You were talking about how you keep thinking next time you come out into the ring, they might boo me. Yeah. Like that's a thought that's in the back of your head. I would imagine that to stay in the good graces of your audience, you have to think of ways...

at times, like what can I do to, to keep them cheering for me? But then it's kind of a catch 22 where if you go too hard, they can sense that. Yeah. And then they'll start to boo you. So what, how, how do you deal with that mentally? Well, I think it,

it's you can't do the latter in a sense that you can't just do it to get the pop you can't just do it to hey they'll like this that'd be easy i'm gonna wear a we're in chicago's i'm chicago i'm gonna wear a bear's jersey you can't just go for what the low-hanging fruit it has to be an authentic thing and one of the big disagreements john cena and i have had and we had this disagreement behind the scenes and we had this disagreement right in front of the camera as he feels i'm not

authentic enough or as authentic as he was and i think at this point that i'm pretty confident yeah and who i am and proven it yeah and exactly i feel like i got a proven proven track record but the answer is you you can't you can't be a hack about it and and maybe it's that let some of them who don't like you you can't get them all they may not like you when i was wrestling kevin owens he has a great fan base just great equity in general most people booed but there are some you hear you hear a

Yeah. A wild thing here every now and then. You just got to let, you can't get them all. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Have you ever seen the episode? This is such a random deep, deep cut here. You ever seen the episode of Parks and Rec with Leslie Knope running for office? Yeah. Yeah. I love that show. That's when she's trying to get the guy and she's bowling with him. Yeah.

Yeah. That's the kiss of death. If you're a baby face in our business, that dude's not voting for you. Right. You got to move on. All right. You got to move on. That's a good point. That's a good point. So I have a question about your dad and growing up. Like I grew up loving wrestling, but obviously I was removed from it. Was it ever like when you're growing up and you're watching it, was it ever different for you experiencing it? And then knowing like, oh, that's my dad out there and he could get hurt. And like that whole feeling of like, I can't love it. Like a fan can love it in the same way. Yeah.

The way my dad raised me in the business, which will not be the way I raised my daughter, was incorrect. And he never really gave me any inside. So I had to figure out very early on

that he has a relationship with Ric Flair that's not just Ric Flair breaking his arm in the parking lot. I had to figure it out early on, and I never really did. Interesting. If that makes any sense. So if Ric Flair showed up to your house when you were 10 years old, you'd be like, it's on site.

So even if I can't win the fight, I would be willing to fight. Like this guy is really mean to my dad. Exactly. And the way my dad was, he might complain about something that happened on screen. He also might complain about something off screen and they all blend together. Here's what I've learned in my position at on the top at WWE and with other top WWE stars that I've worked with.

it might as well be the UFC. When you get in this rare space, it's as real as it can possibly get in ways you wouldn't expect. Right. And that's almost terrifying. But that's why, again, growing up the son of Dusty Rhodes, I just was his biggest fan. And anyone across from him

I wasn't having it. Right. I wasn't having it. And I've told this story before, but it's the greatest example of there's the toughest guy in the industry ever was a guy named Haku. If you hear any of these big fish stories about him taking a man's eye out or smashing the McDonald's drive-thru window, throwing a body press lamp, they're all real. They're real stories. You took a man's eye out? I took a cop's eye out. This is a real story. You can look it up. But Ming, Haku...

He slammed a chair. My dad slammed a chair over his head, and he was so tough that he didn't sell it. And then he choked my dad out. My dad was bleeding and all this, and I'll never forget it. I was maybe 10 at the time. I probably should have had some. I'm backstage. I should probably know a little bit about what's going on. I remember I'm sitting there next to my dad, and he's bleeding, and he's got his knees all wrapped up, and Haku walked in, and I stood up. This is a man who's taking another man's eye out. And my dad just like...

shoved me back down on the chair right next to him in a way like no and I came over and he was the sweetest human being ever oh Dusty thank you legend helped him unwrap his knees and he kissed him on the forehead and I he left and I remember thinking just so shocked instead of knowing instead of oh

the performance. My dad just looked at me and he said, oh, this is different rules back here. We can't fight back here. And I bought it. Yeah. I thought, yeah, okay, that makes sense. That's incredible. That's fair, yeah. But it was, to me, there's that famous clip of the guy standing up saying it's still real to me. Yeah. That's just me. I'm just saying it in a more sophisticated fashion. Did you ever have a rebellious teenage years where it's like your dad caught you putting on a butterfly robe and you're like, what the fuck?

He can't do this. He likes Ric Flair now. I never had a, I was never rebellious against him, but there were certain wrestlers that I would like that I could tell he's like, oh, so he had explained to me, I liked Hulk Hogan as a kid and he had explained to me that Hulk Hogan. And again, I thought this was my dad talking, but he had explained to me Hulk Hogan stole and in the proper way stole. He was inspired by dusty. He was inspired by superstar Hulk.

And I just thought that's a dad talking. Years later, Hogan tells me, oh, I used to watch your dad in the Tampa Armory. I took everything from him. Yeah. Holy shit. Oh, my gosh. Shawn Michaels, we were just talking about him on my bus, too. I was watching one of his matches. I thought Shawn Michaels was the coolest thing ever. I don't think my dad wanted his son at the time to like the guy with, you know, chaps and hoop earrings. Yeah. And long hair. But I was in. Yeah. I was in on it. So he used me, I feel like, as a test. Yeah.

I'd watch and I'd tell him who I liked and I could tell he would never try to sell me against my own joy. Right. About things. But I could tell there were certain ones he thought like, what the? I raised him better than this. You know why? Yeah. Why? Why this guy? I can't believe you just showed up. I think that's how he kept young in the business. Yeah. It's a great focus group. Exactly. He knew like, no, no, that's the guy for this generation. Were you Stone Cold or The Rock? Oh, yeah.

Important question. So I was... In the moment, I was stone cold. Okay. And in the moment, I was stone cold because stunning Steve Austin from WCW was on occasion my babysitter. Oh. On occasion. That's pretty bad. At center stage in Atlanta. And he was the nicest guy about it ever because he didn't really...

do a lot of babysitting as much as he'd sit me in the locker room and be like hey you want a soda yeah yeah sure Steve all right stay here though don't go anywhere my match is next and then I'll be back it was really basic just keep an eye because my dad was running the show at the time so when he was showing up in WWE and became the man was and had this uh

I thought, that's Steve. That's my babysitter. That's my guy. Yeah, I was with Steve early on. And then I feel like I love The Rock like everybody else did as well. He was so different and so unique. They really were...

great partners together. That you just basically described like 12 year old me's dream. Stone Cold Steve Austin is my babysitter. Yeah, he was. And I had a lot of at center stage in Atlanta for WCW at the Omni at all the local UTC Chattanooga, all these local WCW shows. He'd always get me somebody to watch me. But Steve, I felt like was one of the only ones that really took it serious.

I love that. I remember Sherry Martell one time was watching me. She was not watching me. Ricky Steamboat stitched my eye up one time because I fell down the steps and busted my eye. He didn't want my dad to know about it. But how is he not going to know about it when I have stitches and a black eye? Yeah, I had a fun group, Harley Race. That's incredible. Where he was just whittling a stick with a pocket knife and the scariest man I've ever seen in my life. So they were unique babysitters. Yeah, definitely.

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topped with Subway's fresh ingredients for a limited time only. And now, back to Cody Rhodes. What about like a rebellious phase where you thought that you weren't going to be a wrestler? Where you were like, maybe I'll be an accountant. Never an accountant, but I got a little worried when I was 18.

Because when I was 18, I had a great amateur wrestling, folk style, freestyle wrestling career. And I always wanted to be a wrestler. That was it. I didn't want to go to college. The plan was pro wrestling. But I thought I was going to be 6'5", like my brother. My brother is 6'5". We had the same foot. I thought, like, I'm getting there.

Still not there, guys. So that was a concern for me. I went to L.A., Howard Fine's acting studio out there, and I thought, hey, maybe I can tell stories in a different way. Maybe wrestling, pro wrestling, those guys seem so big, not to realize that I'm pretty...

Normal size in our game now. But it took me a little while of realizing this is not for me acting. I didn't go on a single meeting. I had a great coach and I really enjoyed it. But wrestling is where I wanted to tell stories first. You're back in acting. You're going to be the new Naked Gun, right? Yeah, I had a little cameo. That's pretty cool. Love that. I had a little cameo. I feel a little weird because they keep promoting me.

You know what? I'm happy that they're promoting me. It's pretty cool. But I got to do a scene with Liam Neeson. That's awesome. That's legend. And there's so many different things you could say, like Liam Neeson this movie, Liam Neeson this movie. I'm a diehard Star Wars fan, so this is Qui-Gon Jinn, man. This is Liam Neeson. It's a yes. Yeah. No matter what. But he was the coolest guy. He was in...

And the way he was doing every scene, he'd take it a little differently. It was just cool to chop up with and learn from him just in that moment. It was very fun. Yeah, I just saw the trailer a second ago. And I can't remember the last time I laughed out loud at a trailer. Nice. This one did it. I'm in on this movie. Full LOL, huh? Full LOL. When they showed the picture of OJ, that's what did it for me. Oh, wow. Okay. That was strong. It was good. Sweet. Wait, so now that you've been the champion for a year and your story...

Some may say, you know, it was completed. Are you worried at all? Like, hey, what's next? Like, should I have that piece of pizza? Bro, I could be sitting here peaked. Yeah. And not know it. I could just sit there. It's a pretty good peak, though. Yeah, it's a great peak, but it also is very... It's got to be a little bit scary to be like, what is next? Because you had such a great story arc to this point. I'm sure you'll find a way to tell more stories, but...

It's a reinvention almost, again. I think it's, especially with John, who was my legitimate mentor. I drove him around for two years and learned everything I possibly could from him. And now to have the situation where it's me versus John Cena...

in the WrestleMania main event is a wild teacher-student moment for me. But you have to win in those moments. Otherwise, the master was always the master, right? For me, so much was done for me. I certainly have worked very hard and I have a great team around me and I try to work harder than anyone in the locker room. However, so many people at WWE have done so much for me that I feel like I have to keep going.

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

to get to another one. And the only way you can do that is beat John Cena. Which is why I can't have that pizza. Yeah, you can't have that pizza. How do we feel about John Cena now? How should we feel about John Cena? Or where are you from originally? Originally from right outside... I don't know why that had to turn into GeoCenter. John Cena. Right outside DC. He's a recurring guest on this show. He is? Yeah, he's been on twice. Second time didn't go so well. John is a...

so polar opposites. I feel like in terms of when he was teaching me, cause he genuinely was, I'd get in the car with him. He'd get on the phone. Hey, how'd we do at the merch stand? He'd get every number breakdown. He'd then call his boss at the time, which was Vince. He'd talk about the show. He just, he was so committed and so locked in. And I watched all that and I stole, he even said it to me this past Monday. You stole all of the, the playbook. You stole the playbook and you're using it wrong. I don't know what that means. You use it, how you use it.

I feel like fans, if they have a love for John Cena, if he's their hero, if you want to see him break the record, I would not discourage that. Kind of like we were talking about. My dad never tried to rob me of my joy to some people. He's still John Cena, you know, picking up big show and edge and doing these amazing feats of strength. And to other people, especially the younger audience that's now seen John in the last month or so, uh, he's kind of a dick. And, uh,

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

you're watching the end of John Cena. Yeah. So you can enjoy it as his fan or you can enjoy it as someone who's not his fan. Kind of a dick. I like that. I would agree with that. Sorry, I feel like language is not... No, that was good. No, that got me right there. We're here to watch the end of John Cena. That's it. And you're going to do it. Showing up to my biggest ops funeral. Yeah. I'm going to be so happy. Yeah. You should whisper in his ear while you're wrestling like the part my take guys say hello. He probably won't remember us at all.

I don't know. He's got a pretty good memory. Then that would piss him off. He's got a pretty good memory. That would piss him off if you said it. You'd get him. He went in on me on Monday in London, and it just felt so deep. Yeah. So deep to the point where I think I might have had a penis joke as a follow-up, which I was good with that. Yeah. We're here to have fun, guys. Yeah, yeah. We're here to have fun. But also, I walked away from that thinking, he's been thinking about this for a while. Yeah. If I'm meant to be his...

It's he handed it over. Yeah. Yeah. All right. So you got to tell him, be like, you remember the time you went on the number one sports podcast with purple gloves and you couldn't take a joke. Maybe hit him with that. You want me to hit him with that? Yeah. Hit him with that. Do you want to know how dumb certain people think I am, by the way? They must have told me that you guys are the number one sports podcast.

They're laughing because I told them to stop. Because I said, they say, hey, do you want to come on part of my take? Yes. It was a yes. Yeah. We were, yes, let's go. And they were still, you know, it's the number. What part of me indicated to you I wasn't interested? Yeah. That's an old school sell at WWE. You guys are factually the number one sports podcast. Right.

Way back in the day, WWE was like, hey, it's a great opportunity. You could really... That was always... I don't need that. It's real. Just let it be. All right, so just tell them that the Pardon My Take guys like me more than you. Because that's a fact. You're a better guest than him. Yeah. You are a better guest than John Cena. I'll tell them right now. Where's he at? Yeah, John Cena. John Cena. The Pardon My Take guys like me way more than they like you, and I am a better guest. It's not even close. And our fan base likes you way more now than him. Because, again, it didn't go well the last time we had him on.

There it is. Good job by your team, though. I think sometimes teams remind people of that because when they sit down here, they're like, they forget that when they're talking to us. And they're just like, how? How are these guys, number one? Yeah, because we're looking at it. We actually cleaned up today for you. I don't know if you know that. Your neighbors didn't clean up. Yeah, they have boxes and stuff. Brandon Walker and the wrestling gang. Yeah, but we did. There's a big chewy box on the floor and no dog. No, that's for Brandon. What a tease. Yeah, no, the guys came in and they cleaned up. Yeah, they cleaned up. It looks really clean in here. It looks great. Yeah.

I have maybe a dumb question for you about the signs that you see at wrestling events. Yes. They're always really funny. I feel like for the most part, people are creative when they bring their signs in. Yeah. That's all I look at when I'm watching wrestling on TV. A good sign? A good sign. Yeah. I try to find the best sign. Do you spend any time at all reading the signs in the audience? So there's a particular moment where it's been heavily complained about by some of my peers, but there's a lot of pyro for my entrance.

And there's a third one that may be a little indulgent where I'll go up on the buckle and they all yell, whoa, in my song. When I get up on the buckle before I go in the ring, I try and look out and see as many signs as I can because a lot of times it might just be a little kiddo with an American Nightmare sign. I want them to know I see it. And that's also a good way for me to remind myself I'm doing this. We're doing this together. This performance, this competition is not just here in the squared circle. We're all involved. So I like to do it there. In terms of funny signs...

Uh, I saw one that had a picture of me side by side saying that I look like Randall from monsters Inc. And, uh, for a moment my heart was broken, but then I kind of looked at the way my posture is and I'm a little Randall. You're a little Randall. I'm a little Randall. You know what? I'm good with that. It's a compliment. Yeah. Yeah. I was okay with it. Wait. So are you saying other guys have big time pyro envy of you?

Are they mad that you have- Pyro's hard to get. And you have all of it. Pyro's hard to get. Are you hogging the pyro? If you were to look at a line by line sheet- Are you a pyro hog? I am a pyro hog. Okay. But also, I don't- So, Triple H runs the show. Right.

I'm his guy. Yeah. I don't want to blow that. Yeah. Might have just blown it. But that's who picks out the pyro. So Kevin Owens is the one who's going on a rant lately as to why he doesn't have any pyro. And I feel like we could probably spare some pyro for KO. Yeah. You should just hand him, yeah, like a little, like a sparkler or something. Yeah. There you go, buddy. Well, there's a whole argument for maybe he doesn't need it.

yeah you know steve austin never needed pyro i'm not gonna lie i don't mind the whole give me all the bells and whistles some guys are just right there in your face and they didn't need it but i i don't mind blowing this guy up when i come out there it wakes him up yeah exciting moment yeah so you think like every other guy sees your pyro and they're like that is a firework that could have been used on me yeah like every single time like that one was too much i could have had that one i heard a guy literally as i was walking out and the first one burst

tell the rest of the boys that were in the gorilla position, which is the behind the scenes position. There goes your Christmas bonus guys. Oh,

I love it. A, we don't get Christmas bonuses. It's not how the pay works. Yeah. And we're not taking money from the talent pool for the pyro. But I love this because this is kind of what you were talking about. Listen, we understand what wrestling is, but there's a real factor to it. The competition behind that is so real that that makes it awesome. That's why. So when like the F word, when people say fake, I always I never get hot. Some wrestlers get real hot.

like a hot under the collar and they talking about injuries and things of that nature. The reason I never say it is because the competition at the top is,

is as real as anything I've ever done in my life. Right. So I can't. And then the feeling you see a kid and his dad or a whole family together and they come to a show, their feeling is as real as anything ever too. So it's a real crazy world. I love that. Cody Rose, the pyro hog. So speaking of entrances, you've wrestled Undertaker. Did you ever like this is the longest entrance ever?

So I didn't have that reaction to Undertaker. Okay. I had that reaction to Romans. Okay. But then I found out mine clocks in a little longer. Really? And I thought, okay, fair. I'll tell you a cool Undertaker story from last year because I believe...

The Undertaker might be shoot magical. Okay. Explain that. Well, so I think there's real magic there. Okay. And here's where I saw it. WrestleMania 40, Undertaker's going to come in. He's going to chokeslam The Rock. This is going to happen. He's going to help me in my situation because there's 50 members of the bloodline and I didn't have anybody with me.

So the gong hits, and then he appears, places his mind, and it's just really the energy you can feel. And I'm kind of laying there half beat to death, but one of my eyes was open. He chokesams the rock, and he looks at me. And it never was on camera because he just looked back at me. I think he was looking to have a moment with me. I blew it, basically, because I'm just laying there half dead. And he literally just looked at me and winked, and then the lights went out. That's awesome. And I thought...

That, that, that happened. Yeah. The undertaker. I, uh, I feel bad. I texted him at, I want to say five in the morning, his time the other day on accident because I was in Europe, uh,

And we just did this big thing with Clash of Clans and Supercell. And he's one of the skins you can get. I just needed him to know how good the game was. Right. I don't know if he was interested. Yeah. I don't know if he cared. I thought it was really cool. That is cool. Yeah, Taker's the best. He is the best. You got to get him on your show. We've had him on. You've had Taker on? Yeah, he was on Zoom. Big UT guy. Yeah. Big Texas guy. Yeah, he's the man. I mean, Undertaker and Kane, that storyline, no offense to any of your storylines, I think that's the peak of wrestling. Brothers fighting each other? Yeah.

It was just like, I thought they were, yeah, well, I mean, just the fire and everything. Lightning bolt on one another. They did some wild stuff. Yeah, Kane being revealed. Yeah. Yeah. That Hell in a Cell is altogether one of the greater pieces of business. The match is amazing. Shawn Michaels is amazing. And then they reveal of Kane. I had to watch it. Remember in pay-per-view if you didn't order it? Yeah. Or if it got screwed up. I waited too late. So I had to watch it in the...

Yeah. And just your JR like, that's gotta be Kane. Yeah. The best. How often are you actually surprised in the ring? Like, how often does the production pull something on you that you don't know is coming? I honestly like to be surprised every week. Oh. Yeah. I like to be very disciplined, organized, know what I plan to do and be polished and prepared. But I'll say this, working with Cena, I've been surprised every week. That's not going to be...

I don't want to say it's difficult. I want to say it's challenging. Again, if you're meant to be my successor, show me. Yeah. And just, geez. All right. But production-wise, they're pretty on about nothing wild with me, at least. It's a really good team at WWE. They can make stuff look quite amazing. Yeah. What do wrestlers do for fun? What do you do for fun outside of wrestling? You don't eat pizza.

I want it though. You want it. Crispy pizza, man. You don't eat it. You should get like an assistant who just eats all your pizza for you. I'll do that. I'm going to be honest. Just go around with you. I kind of have that already. Oh, you do? Okay. I have brothers on the bus right now ordering an ice cream cake. There you go. This is like, that is the scene from Dodgeball where Guy Lafleur, he's sitting in the office and he's just looking at pizza and shocking himself. Yeah. So he won't eat it. Yeah, that's not unhealthy in any way, right? He was a good character. Yeah. But what do you do for fun? Uh,

Um, well, my daughter, she's almost four. So that is the journey. Yeah. Just, uh, that's the greatest thing ever is just hearing about what's going on in her life and the trials and tribulations of super kitties and,

Yeah, super kiddies, yeah. Oh, my gosh. And she saw Snow White the other day, all kinds of opinions on that. Just that to me, I never thought I was going to have children. And me and my wife, that wasn't part of our plan. And then this has been, oh, my gosh, why weren't we doing this all along? I know, yeah. It's just been the greatest thing. Other than that, other than hanging out with Liberty, I would say I go to Topgolf a lot. Oh. Yes. Okay. And I'm a slugger.

At Topgolf. Okay. I feel like a real golfer. Yeah. Yeah, and I try to dress the part and everything, but I'm not a golfer. Yeah. I'm just got... I'm a good little... Dress up like it. Yeah, I'm a good little Topgolfer. I like that. Topgolf's very fun. So you smash it, you step up, you just hit driver? Oh, yeah. Just...

And if somebody sets it where they're playing angry birds, they're effing up the whole flow. Yeah. Cause that's not when that's not skill based. Yeah. It's not top goal. Thank you. It's not. Wait, do you actually golf on a golf course? No, no, this is just, I just go to top golf. I'm just, I'm just cranking. That's what I'm saying. I want to look the part. Yeah. And I,

I would be ready. You know, you start talking to... Again, I mentioned kind of being in an office position. I'm always ready. Somebody asked me to go golfing. Yeah. I'm going to fake it till I make it. Yeah. I'm going to go out there and do my best. Yeah. You bring your own clubs to Topgolf? No, not yet. I haven't got there yet. That's what you should do. That's a bold move. Buy your own set just for Topgolf. Gosh, that sounds great though. Yeah. Custom clubs too. Exactly. Yeah, like a pool shark. Yeah. You show up and you're like, oh, I got this one. You remember that unbelievable Fresh Prince episode where he...

Uncle Phil and the Hustler. Yes. Yes. It's a regular... This is a weird thing. You watch weird stuff when you're on the treadmill. Yeah. Weird things motivate you. Something about that scene makes me want to run through a brick wall. What is his name? His pool cue. Oh, it's got a female name. It's got a female name. I asked for it from Jeffrey. Is it Lucille? Yeah, I think it's Lucille. Is it Lucille? Like, Jeffrey, fetch me Lucille. Lucille, yeah. He's just so nasty with it. He's just running it up on him. Oh, man. And he's smooth. Yeah. Yeah. He's got that big guy smooth energy. Man, they don't make TV like that.

anymore no they don't they don't I wish all right well this has been awesome I got one last question for you it's a row back question r-h-o-b-a-c-k dot com promo code take 20% off your first purchase q-zips polos hoodies joggers shorts and we're in the sweatshirt right now row back dot com promo code take

Okay, so we talked about your future in wrestling. Are you acting? Are we going to be... I know that you're in the new movie, but are we going to be like lead man Cody Rhodes? I'd love to get out there. There's some fun projects coming up. I'd love to get out there and tell stories that way for sure and grow. I love pro wrestling. I'll always...

Like I found with The Rock. It's here. Right. He's a wrestler. But to get out there, and I love what Rock has done. I love what John has done. And Dave Bautista as well. All of them have gone different routes when approaching Hollywood. And I think I might be next to join the fray. Okay. With all that. And we're going to beat John Cena on April 20th, right? Yeah.

You've got to. His last WrestleMania. Just whisper in his ears. Can you promise us something? Can you just make him feel pain? Yeah. Put him in pain. Tell him this is for part of my take. It's naturally pretty painful, but extra pain for part of my take. This is for part of my take. Dial it up to 11. It's a little PMT pain right here. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. One extra, you know? Yeah. He'll actually, he might get scared. He might be like, oh my God, he's going to kill me. Sneak one in, you know? Yeah.

Yeah. Kill him. Yeah. All right. Well, Cody, this has been awesome, man. We really appreciate you coming by. Thank you. A lot of fun talking to you and good luck. April 19th, April 20th in Vegas. Be careful in Vegas. Can you go out after? Can you enjoy yourself? So I've been to Vegas a

a bunch of times. Yeah. We were talking about the story earlier. I went from wrestling in Sam's town, which is a local casino, which is a great, that's killer's albums named after it to Allegiant stadium. I am Vegas out. Yeah. So I'm do it to you. Yeah. I'm, I'm more worried about some of my peers. Okay. I need them to make it there Saturday and Sunday. Yeah. Okay. Do you have a fanny pack? I always love wrestling. Like 90s wrestlers. You always had fanny pack. I assume that was, I tried shirt, tuck, fanny pack and dip.

I tried to be a chewer. I threw up on the side of the ring at OVW and CM Punk had to watch me and like basically why I threw up in a trash can. So that didn't work for me. Okay. And the fanny pack, I didn't have enough stuff. Ah, wrestlers always have. There's like everything in there. It's a bottomless bag. What about more pyro?

I could always get more. If you just have more pyro in your face, like when the next time someone complains, they're like, God, he's taking all the pyro. Be like, hey, buddy, look at this. Here's some black cats. I got more pyro. Well, that's a great idea. Yeah. Oh, you thought I took all the pyro? Look at this. I had a little leftover, bro. They didn't know what to do with it, so I took it. All right. Well, Cody, best of luck. Thank you. And stay champ. Yeah. Thank you. Thanks, man. Thanks, guys. That was great. That was great.

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FireFest is presented by Morgan & Morgan. Morgan & Morgan is America's top injury law firm. We all know that life comes at you fast. One minute something's going great, the next second, boom, crash, disaster.

When you find yourself in the middle of your very own Fyre Fest, you just might need America's largest injury law firm in your corner. Morgan & Morgan has been fighting for the people and helping with your Fyre Fest for over 35 years. With Morgan & Morgan, it's easy to get started, and their fee is free unless they win. You can check them out at ForThePeople.com slash PMT. That's F-O-R-ThePeople.com slash PMT. Okay, Fyre Fest of the Week.

Let's get it going. Henry. I don't think Henry has any Fyre Fest because you've been in such a great mood this week that it seems like you're really running on full cylinders. Yeah. Actually, you know what? Let's go a different order this week. Max, do you have a Fyre Fest? I don't do Fyre Fest. Let's do one this week. Do you have a Fyre Fest, Max?

I don't do Fyre Fest. Okay. You got fooled by America's top actor. Yeah. Yeah. And I hope this is the last we talk about it. I think that's the real takeaway is Jerry O'Connell's back. Yeah. The acting chops still got it. We're victims as well.

We were victimized just like you, Max. I think me and Big Cat are actually the biggest victims. Yeah. Disagree. Okay. How did the 24 hours? You said your mom called and made funny. Yeah, my mom called and made funny. Me. Any other reactions from people close to you? Yeah, I got reactions from a ton of people. Yeah. I mean, you had the craw. Listen, did it suck for you? Yeah. Are you a moron? Yeah. Yeah.

I will say I got a lot of people who were who would text me as they were listening, being like, holy shit, you're going to the White House and then being like, oh, fuck. They fell for it. Yeah. But this was one of those moments that crossed over where, like, my friends in real life were like, holy shit, Max is such an idiot. And I was like, yeah, man, he was really dumb for that. But you put a smile on a ton of people's faces on Wednesday. That's a fact.

Yeah, I'm happy for those people. Hank was one of them. How is your beef with Hank going? I wish I thought of the pizza draft thing in real time. That was a miss by me. This was going to be my fire fest, but what was the first thing I said to you on Wednesday?

No idea. I apologize. I listened back. I said I was going to listen back to make sure nothing was cut. And I remember laughing as hard as I did. I was like, this is really funny. And then as I listened back, I was listening to myself. And I was like, you know, chill out, Hank. Like, you're being an asshole. I sounded like an asshole. I felt bad, even though it did get the reaction that was funny. But I felt like I was...

I didn't think I was as mean as I sounded when I listened back. And I was like, no, dude, you sound like an asshole. So my Fyre Fest is I was mean and I apologize. Yeah. Also, Hank's Fyre Fest is reminding you that he does listen to the show. Yeah. That was a good way of putting that, Hank. And he wants credit for the apology. Yes.

Well, that was going to be my fire fest. No, he just wanted to listen back because he's a sicko. And he was like, Max sounded like an idiot. Let me go back and relive that moment of Max. I said in the podcast, I was like, because you were like, we're going to cut this. I was like, I'll make sure he doesn't. You knew I wasn't going to cut it. Hand up, I listened back twice. Yeah, yeah. That had nothing to do with seeing if I was going to cut it. You just loved that moment and wanted to live through it again. No, I was laying in bed on Tuesday night.

And I saw the podcast dropped, and I made my wife listen to it. I was like, you got to hear this. Yeah, well. It was worth it. But yeah. Also, my girlfriend listens to nothing. She didn't listen after the Eagles won the Super Bowl. She was like, oh, I got to listen to this. I was like, that – everyone just likes to listen – likes to see me at my low points. And that's – I felt bad. No, you don't. Don't say that you felt bad. Max is a good guy.

Why are you being such an asshole? I can tell you. It wasn't like when I was like, dumb, you're so dumb. You're so dumb. It's like that was mean. Yeah. It's been eating Hank up inside. Oh, yeah. He's as guilty conscious. No, Hank's never had any moments like that where he falls for a prank. I wouldn't get that upset if I did fall. Oh, yeah. I was going to say, here's the good news, Max. As long as you get over this prank.

I would say within two years, you'll have gotten over faster than Hank did with the pizza Mount Rushmore. Hank was mad about it for legitimately two full years. You know why Hank's been in such a good mood recently? Because this is as far away from Mount Rushmore season as we can possibly get. Once we get back into Mount Rushmore season, he just becomes pissed off all the time.

That's true. Yeah. I mean, different circumstances, but I still, you know. Double olives. You know what? I was actually looking back at the Mount Rushmore pizza toppings. This is how I know that I'm getting a little bit old. The combination of ham, green olives, black olives, and mushrooms. Like, that actually sounds like a pretty good pie. It does. It does.

I think we did it another time. Billy and Jake saying oregano with their... Oregano. Oregano. With their number two overall pick. And then I did the whole, oh, I thought you took sausage. How to get back to Hank. Oh, my God. Hank had everything. Do we also do it with appetizers? Because someone sent me a graphic of our appetizers. Yeah. And it was like we had the worst picks ever that looked intentional. No, I think what we did on that, if memory serves...

Hank had an all-time bad draft of the worst appetizers. Oh, yeah. Where he put all the good ones, and so we tried to give that back to him. I won that draft. Yeah. Calamari's trash. No, Calamari's good. No, but I can tell that you're really... You're beating yourself up over being mean to Max, and I appreciate that from you. Yeah. Yeah. Really nice of you. Well, I do. Sometimes I do get people...

A decent body. Even even I think my mom is asking. She's like, are you Mac? Like, I'm like, yeah, me and Max are tight. Like, we're boys. Like, really? Because it doesn't sound like that. I know. I like that's my favorite question. When people come up to me and be like you and Mac, you and Hank actually hate each other. But listening to this. Yeah, I get it. I get it. The podcast. I completely get it because it was like very intense. And I got you to your voice to screech. Oh, man. My voice screeches. But again, do.

Do we have a way of like when you're going back and listening to the podcast and when Pug is editing it, certainly you're letting Pug edit in peace, right?

I got mad at Pug. For doing what? You didn't threaten him with violence, did you? I don't think that I threatened him with violence. I don't remember threatening him with violence. He did. We have a clip, too. What did he say? We don't have a real clip. No, we have a clip. Max does a thing that's very Italian. When he gets really, really mad, he goes like this. He raises his hand like this, like he's going to backhand you. Well, no, but that's like...

That's me just speaking with my hands. That's when he adds a period. Yeah, he chops. Correct, correct. So, Memes, what did he say to Pug? So, Pug was editing the podcast. It was his first time listening to it, and out loud, Pug just goes, I can't believe you fell for this. No, that's not what he said. That's not what he said. Memes is talking. Well, he just did it wrong. Well, Memes is talking. Let Memes present his case. But he answered the question wrong. Then you can object. It was close. It was close. He was like,

He genuinely asked the question, which made it even worse. He was like, you didn't actually believe this, right? And I was... It was when I was the most heated about it. That's what memes just said. And he said, no, no, no. Because the way that memes portrayed that was... He was mocking me, but he wasn't mocking me. He was genuinely asking the question. Not mocking. Which made it... Which made it meme even more angry. And then when I told him to shut up, he just kept asking, being like, no, like you said it. Like, this is all...

He was like, this is all a joke. He was trying to have your back. Kind of, but it made me more angry because he couldn't possibly fathom. He was like, surely after he said Hamas, you knew it was him. Yeah. No liberal judges. Nothing more from Hank. Nothing more from Hank after you've also been pranked

in a way that is unfathomable to understand. Also, to be fair... Well, no, that's competition. I believed in something, and I just didn't realize that the levels... You believe that Billy Football's first pick was oregano, and it was in a topping. Billy and Jake, and yes, Jake could definitely pick oregano as a favorite topping. To be fair to Hank, or to be fair to Max... PFT has terrible taste. He probably thought that Jerry said, no hummus, and Max was like, not a problem. Yeah.

I would never, never an issue. Never. Uh, yeah. So I had to, I had to, uh, I came in on Wednesday morning. So I think there's a lot of this is in PMTV. Go watch it. Uh, I came in Wednesday morning and I, I would say hello to the boys and they're like, did you hear Max threatened pug with violence? So, uh, I had to call Max. I had to, I had to, to, to lay down the law. There's no threatening of violence to punk everyone in this room.

can threaten violence to each other. That's a totally fair thing. I think that's a good, healthy working relationship. If every now and then we're like, I want to beat your ass. But Pug, he's too precious. We cannot touch Pug. So Max agreed. No more threatening violence towards Pug. Fair? Pug also was like, did he threaten you? He's like, kind of. And I was like, how'd that make you feel? He's like, well, he is my boss. I was like, that's bad. Yeah.

Yeah, no, I should have done that. Yeah. But I was mad. Yeah. You hate dogs. Yeah. I have a dog. But credit to Hank for saying sorry to you.

What? No. No credit to Hank. Sounds like you weren't listening. He said he was done with me. He's done? This was like maybe six hours later. And me and Max crossed paths in the bathroom and I saw him and I just like, you know, tapped him on the shoulder. Like a good friend? Kind of chuckled, yeah. Hank just looked at me for the rest of the day with that stupid little fucking grin on his face. I'm done with you and stormed out of the bathroom.

Yeah, he was mad. I tried to give him a hug. He hates when I try to give him a hug. I always, every time I leave the office and the boys are still working, I go up. No, that's a lie. That's a lie. That's a lie. It's usually pretty late because you're working late too. What the fuck are you doing? Yeah. Yeah. That's a lie. Hank was playing golf. Good guy, Hank. Great job, Hank. And golf. All right, PFT. Good friend. Even better coworker. That's what we say about Hank.

My Fire Fest of the Week, it's all Blake-related this week. So on Sunday, I took Blake to a dog training class because we're trying to work on some of his behavior issues. And at the start of the class, the trainer went around the room and she said, everybody here, please introduce yourselves. Start with the pronouns. I thought she meant Blake.

Mm-hmm. And I think he goes, I think he's he, him, is what I think. That was an awkward moment for myself. And then later on this week, I picked him up from daycare. Wait, why? What does it matter? What do you mean? Like, why was it awkward? Because the dog, I don't know. She wasn't actually asking for the dog's pronouns.

She was asking for years. She was asking for all the pronouns. Got it. But you're still he, him. Yeah, but when I look at Blake, I'm like, I thought she was talking about introducing Blake. Did you introduce Blake as he, him? I started to.

And then I realized it halfway through and it was very awkward and very embarrassing for me. And then I picked him up from daycare on Tuesday and he wasn't putting any weight on his back right leg. So I took him to the vet. He wouldn't let the vet touch him yesterday because he was like, I don't know. He's like, don't fuck with my leg. So now I have to I've got him doped up today. I gave him four pills this morning. I'm giving him four more this afternoon. Then I have to pick him up because he's going to be knocked out.

Put him in the car, take him to the vet. Hopefully they'll examine him. But now it's looking like Blake might be... Last summer is when he had the double elbows. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And now he might have an ACL. Oh, fuck. So I got to get... I don't know. Can we do blood spinning? Can we do... Is there HG? Get him to Germany? Get him to fly Blake to Germany? Yeah. Hopefully it's not the ACL. But yeah, we're looking at maybe another summer where... Shit. Blake won't be able to go outside and play, which is a bummer when you look at your dog and he just looks at you like...

I'm depressed. Yeah. I can tell that my dog is depressed. People are starting to ask, can he stay on the field? Yeah. There's injury questions. Can't make the club in the tub. You can't. There's injury questions for Blake. He is. This is Anthony Rendon. I signed Anthony Rendon to be my dog and I still love him, but it's tough looking at your dog when he's just like, this sucks, dude. Yeah. Help me out. Yeah. Nothing you can do. Hopefully we get an answer today. Yeah. Hopefully it's not a torn ACL. That would suck. Yeah. Drive over in the Camaro.

I don't own a Camaro. You don't listen to the show. Oh, wow. Doesn't listen again. The El Camino is also not starting. But that's also normal. Yeah, a lot of people are asking questions about the El Camino. Here's the thing. No one had high expectations for the El Camino, though. That was kind of like when you drafted the El Camino, it was like...

He already has torn four ACLs, and it'd be a shock if he can make it through a career. So that one at least is like, oh, you know, no one blinks an eye. Right. We're taking a shot on a guy that had injury concerns in college and his high upside for it. But I think I figured out what's going on, and I'm fixing it up this weekend myself. I'm going to try to fix my car. You're going to make it worse. I'm not going to make it worse. I'm going to make it better. Can you make something worse? Good question, Hank. No. Mean, Hank.

Max, you don't know anything about fixing cars. It could physically blow up. Like, it could just cease to exist. That sounded like an Italian threat. Yeah, are you going to put a bomb in my car? It'd be a real shame if that happened. If you try to turn it on, PFD, and it blows up? I bet you, Max, that I get the car running by the end of this weekend.

With no help. No help. I get to use YouTube. Well, don't take that bet, Max, because it probably just doesn't have gas in it. That's true. That's not true. That's a good point. That's not true. I just put two gallons in my garage in there, and I filled it up on my way home from work and put 20 bucks in there. So I think I know what it is.

The battery is not hooked. The battery terminal had like a thing that was fucked up on it. So I'm replacing the battery terminal, like the part that connects the wires to the battery this weekend. And I got tools. I bought $200 worth of tools at AutoZone.

By the way, do you know that the new cars, it's crazy what they've been able to do to fix some of the old car things where I left my car door open overnight the other night because I was getting my kids out of the car and I just forgot to close my door. All the lights turned off on their own. It's crazy. It just knows. Because usually that was... I remember back in the day, you left the light on in your parents' car and they were just like, well, the battery's dead. Fuck you. Why would you do that? But like...

like, and it was like the little light. Yeah. Now they, they, they got it all figured out. Except it's all a computer now. So like, it's way harder for you to fix it. Yeah. There's something wrong with it. I got to take it in. It was always hard for me to fix it. Yeah. I went from like, I have no car knowledge whatsoever. Now I feel like I'm, I'm,

elementary school level where I'm still like that guy from the meme where he stands in front of the server and just looks at it and hopes that he can figure out what to do. But I watched so many YouTube videos on how to replace a battery terminal and I got the most expensive set of tools. Actually, here's what happened. I hit up the guy that sold me the El Camino and I was like, hey man, another problem. This is like my third time calling him. And he goes, okay, I think I know how you can take care of this. You're going to want to go to Lowe's

And you're going to want to buy a really expensive set of tools. And you're going to want to learn how to fix the car yourself. And then he hung up on me. That's brutal. That's pretty bad. That was like when I was like 18 years old and I went to a GNC. And I was like, hey, I'm looking for...

some type of pill or something, powder to lose weight and gain muscle. And he's like, you're going to want to just grab... I think I've told this before. You just want to grab these big black plates and then you're going to want to lift it up and then you're going to want to lift it up again and do like, you know, sets of like 10 and then do that five times. Yeah, that's exactly what this guy said to me. And I was like...

Okay. And then I paused for a second. I was like, wait a second. This guy's fucking with me. And he's like, okay, I got to run. Yeah. I was like, shit. There's nothing worse. So step one accomplished. I bought the tools. Step two, I'm going to get this fucker started. I'm going to drive it. If it's nice outside, I'm driving it to work on Sunday. You can take that to the bank, Max. I'm looking forward to it. I hope you do. Max, my Firefest, it's convo between you and I. We got to talk. It's...

We're getting a t-shirt weather. Do we have a plan? Because this is a... I'm in trouble. I'm in trouble, too. This happens every spring where the twinks here, Hank and PFT, they get a little nice weather and they put on shorts. They're like, I love this. I'm an otter. The first nice day where it's like 70 degrees and you hold on to the sweatshirt and you're like, this is uncomfortable. And you realize I'm going to have to start wearing a t-shirt.

It's the worst feeling in the world. Yeah, but you know what? I feel like swim shirts have become normalized. For regular work? No, I'm just saying like if you're thinking about going to the pool. Oh, no, no. I'm not talking about taking my shirt off. Once the shirt is off, it's all there. There's nothing you can do to hide it. I'm talking about the feeling of being uncomfortable wearing a t-shirt outside, which all...

bigger men do around April. It's like April happens and you're like, fuck, this sucks. I forgot that I couldn't just wear a sweatshirt for the entire year. You know what you should do? You should just become like a clean white quadruple XLT guy.

Like a Kevin Federline? Yeah, like the ones that you can buy in gas stations. That's a dated reference. Just become a giant t-shirt guy. Yeah. Max, should we become giant t-shirt guys? I mean, Max and I have talked about this before. The Instagram ads that try to sell us the t-shirts that make us look, like, awesome, but they never work. No, nothing works. Nothing works. I just gotta get... It's always like, I'm just...

10 to 15 pounds. So lose that. I also gained a little weight from March Madness, so that didn't help. Here's what you do. Giant t-shirt, big ass, preferably and one basketball shorts that go down to like your shin and then walk around with a hand towel on your shoulder. That's a good look. That is a good look. Like a Tarkanian. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, Max, so you got no plans? You've been lifting. Yeah, I lift, but I mean, it's not enough. I don't do...

You went all the way to a different Planet Fitness location because we had to move. Oh, wow. I've gone to two separate Planet Fitness locations this week. I was playing road games. So I'm trying. I'm trying. Yeah, I did the ice. They were nice. I mean, we love Planet Fitness. Yeah, they were great. I did the thing where I started lifting again. I think I've lifted four times in the last week and a half. And then I tried to convince my wife. That's why I've gained seven pounds in the last week. I was like, well, it's muscle. It's power. Duh.

Four times. Yeah. It's the streaming. The streaming. Just eat so much food. March Madness is just sit around and eat. Yes. There's so much. So much. So much. Oh, my God. And then we got blizzards and they were just the

The thing is, when you're staring at a screen, you just absentmindedly eat stuff. You just graze all day long. Right. But that's the cycle of life. It's like every single year, I'm pretty sure that we go through the same phase. Correct. And it's like post-normal spring break. It's our post-March madness. And then we look at the clock and we've got, oh shit, we've got two months to get in shape. But what happens every year is we get that one day that's...

like 70 degrees earlier in the week. I mean, sorry, early in March. And you're like, oh no, this, this t-shirt shit is going to be problem. But then you tell yourself, you convince yourself, oh, I still got like a couple months.

We're like a week away from it just being t-shirt all the time, and we're going to be so fucked. So I don't know what we got. We got to do something about it. We got to do something about it. I just got to eat less. Yeah. I got to eat less. I got to work out more. I got to walk more. Calories in, calories out. Have you heard of that one? Yeah. Remember when you got a trainer because you were trying to dunk, and then you didn't dunk?

I remember that. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, you're going to dunk? Yeah. Oh, really? Yep. You're still training? Yeah. Are you? That's interesting. I'm still working out. I'm not training for dunking, but I think I'm going to, like, once September comes around, I'm going to start training for dunking again. Are you nervous at all for how much money you're going to owe me? But I'm still getting stronger. Are you nervous at how much money you're going to owe me after the golf long drive? Definitely. Yeah.

That's a lot. Yeah. Could be a lot. Yeah. A lot of cash. Cash a lot. I've struggled with that because if I outdrive Hank by like 30 yards, am I actually going to be able to collect $30,000 from Hank? Yeah. Jack McCarthy owns owes me $19,000 right now. So. Yep. I'm going to collect that. Coming for that. Call your daddy, Jackie. Nova won their first crown game. Yeah. Yeah.

But this also is going out on Friday, so we don't know. That would suck if they lost tonight. All I said was they won their first game. They did. They won their first game. That's a fact. All right, numbers. Four. Whoa. Three. I'm getting it. One. Also, we got to play more hoops. Yes, we do. 91. I'm thinking Monday afternoon hoops. Monday afternoon, we do morning. Yeah. I like Monday. Yeah, Monday sounds great. I'll go 72.

93. Get in here, Pug, quick. Neem's going for four. I'm getting it. Sorry, Pug. 15. No, you aren't. I hope three hits so hard right now. 93. Did you say 93? I said 91, I think. Shane, what's up? You got a problem? You staring at it? Shane's looking at it all weird. Shane, you got a problem? You got a problem? You got a problem, Shane? You looking at it weird? Hey, Pug, do you feel safe at work? Pug, do you feel safe at work?

Do you feel safe at work? Me and Max squash the beef, so things are better now. Yeah, but that's kind of like someone's got a gun to your head. You're like, hey, I got no problem with him. You could tell us. Pretend Max isn't here. Are you worried about it? If he gets that mad again, there's no telling what he could do. Yeah, see? Small worry. Do you feel for your safety?

No one can get him that mad again. I feel like we're going to walk in one day and Pug's going to have a black eye. Pug, what happened? He's like, oh, no, I slipped. It's fine. I said some things I shouldn't have said. Yeah, I fell down the stairs. It's fine. It's fine. It's not Max's fault. Pug, we're here for you, okay? We could beat the fuck out of Max, all of us combined. That's a fact. We almost had to do that. Yeah. Yeah. There should be a safety word. Actually, you know what? I'm going to get you a taser, Pug.

In case he ever comes at you again. You can tase him. And even if he, like, steps to you a little threatening, tase his ass. Okay? Okay. Because goddamn, would that clip be incredible. Pug, if you're ever around Max and he's making you feel unsafe, like he might hurt you, let's think of a word we can say. Maybe meatball? Mm-hmm.

I like that. Okay. Meatball. That might get him hungry, though. Yeah. Well, that would distract him. Yeah, true. Meatball. I want to go outside. You want me to save you meatball? Love you guys.