Draft Dreams & Wrestling Rumble

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Coming to Northeast Wisconsin live from the Civic Media Studios and featuring TV and radio broadcast veteran John Minow along with the City of Green Bay's longest-serving mayor Jim Schmidt.

This is Minow and the Mayor.

And here are your hosts.

John Minow and Jim

Smith.

Hey, thank you very much.

Welcome back, Minow and the Mayor here, hour number two, 97.9 FM WGPW, 98.3, 96.5 FM WISS and the Civic Media app worldwide, 50 degrees in downtown Green Bay, 50 degrees in Appleton, 51 in downtown Oshkosh.

It is Friday, April 18th, which of course is Good Friday, Animal Cracker Day, Exercise Day, Mark Hewson, Amateur Radio Day, Marbles Day, Piñata Day,

Autism acceptance day, which is very cool with Vanessa Moran's walk run walk they've got going on tomorrow morning at at metalbrook elementary It's mark Houston was actually text to this one.

Hey guys.

Do you realize it's Courtney Kardashian's birthday today mark?

I don't know why you wanted to why did we have to bring that one up mark?

I have no clue that is okay, but mark just text that

one

is actually

wait wait a minute You don't know who Courtney Kardashian is

I

think she

knows about me.

I

don't

know about her.

I'm constantly

texting you.

Hey,

Todd.

Hey,

Todd.

I'm

going

to

put Mark to the test here.

OK.

Out

of everything you see in regards to today, OK, read all those.

What's the one thing that Jim has a very close allegiance to?

What of everything you read, what today is, would Jim's world be rocked?

Oh, I know.

I know you know.

What?

Marbles?

Nope.

It can I say can I give a hint?

Yeah, it's a birthday, right?

Yeah.

Yeah,

wait

No, oh, yeah, oh, yeah, okay, I Eric Roberts Julia Roberts brother.

Oh, it's

Jim's good friend.

They're in

a movie together

Adam movie and is at my house for dinner

Anyway, it's

interesting.

It's more important.

We talk about

You guys talked about ham radios.

Yes, I lived in Allaway

One of my neighbors, I'm almost guaranteed this gentleman has now passed away many, many years ago, but he was like one of the lead ham radios.

Cause I used to ask,

what's that antenna that's

like a hundred feet in

the air.

And yeah.

And then one of my other neighbors said, oh, he's on ham radio.

And I'm like, what do you mean?

They said that little, it looked like a little shed in the back.

They said that's right.

And they said,

If something goes dead in this town, that's who you want to know.

Someday you'll appreciate me.

That's the

one

guy that gets broadcast

worldwide.

He's going worldwide.

He knows the Kardashians.

But he

and Eric Roberts, Jim

and Eric

Roberts, were good

friends.

Jim played a convict.

What do you think of his boots?

What do you think

of his boots?

Yeah, the boots.

What do you think

of

them?

They're fancy

We got so much to talk introduce your very special guest here, buddy.

Yeah, no I've got one of my former athletes from Pestigo, Wisconsin I was an athletic trainer and I have Mitchell VanVoren great family friend.

He's got I would say he's probably

the most sophisticated out of all of his brothers.

Best look at, no, hey guys, I'm not giving you a bad time, but the family is great.

Mitchell VanVoren was one of my athletes up north and went to Marquette, ran track four years, did very well as a hurdler, came back and he's at St.

Norbert's and he played football and he's got a big weekend.

This next week could be a big weekend for him.

You

know it's

amazing that he was so good at hurl because he doesn't look like.

You know what I mean?

He doesn't look like an athlete.

John,

I was going

to

say, I think he could go over four hurdles

before he could even think about

one.

He could use you and me and Jim as hurdles.

He could light up a watch so he'd jump right over all of

us.

I probably should have sent these guys tapes of you and the NCAA.

Oh, I've seen them.

Oh,

I've watched.

Not necessary.

What you introduced him is your former athlete.

Yes, true statement, but he is not a former athlete.

He is a current athlete.

He's a current athlete.

I hope.

So you have a chance of being drafted.

Yeah, uh, hopefully that's a dream, you know,

right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

You know, that's great.

And

you must be a little bit anxious.

Yeah.

I mean, it's a lot of uncertainty.

So, you know, just waiting around these last couple of weeks have been, have been tough, but, you know, it's, it's a lot of fun, it's a cool experience.

Do we need to send gifts or cards to anybody?

Or how does this work?

I'm just kidding.

You just wait, right?

Yeah.

That's it.

They have the tapes.

They have, they know who you are and.

What's

that could be like a draft

day?

Obviously it's not gonna be day one.

I mean,

you know, whatever, but just in general, where it's like your whole life, you've been an athlete and you grew up in Pestigo and all these, and now there's a chance that Roger Goodell could

call your name.

Yeah, it's definitely a surreal, you know, I was talking to my family about it and like, I mean, I think they're a little more anticipating that than I am, you know, I'm trying to just, you know, take it all in, but yeah, they're definitely living up to the height.

You know, it's one of those things though too.

So many and Jim and I talked about this when I was a sportscaster and like in Arizona and all that you'd sit with these kids I'm sorry, you know me, but these young guys, you know during draft and you just every and every time that phone rings.

Hey, get the cameras.

No mom.

Nope.

Are you worried about that?

No buddies calling and stuff like and you're thinking all anticipation is gonna be that cause you're told everybody don't call me for two days.

Yeah, definitely.

I think, uh, yeah, my parents will definitely be, you know, very camera ready.

So, uh, if something like that happens,

they'll

probably, yeah, some bloopers.

But you give them like a red line or a special line, or did you just give them your cell phone that your brother has in your

friend?

They usually ask for two phone numbers, like your number and then like a backup just in case that one's busy.

Okay.

Because there have been cases this is no lie Although this was more years ago where they would like somebody would I forgot which team it was had the wrong number They

were

literally calling the guys I was drafted and the guy the scouter whomever had written down the wrong had one digit wrong

and John I've heard this from the medical side Wow, they call these people sometimes to make sure because it's happened before Geez, we just draft a guy who just had major back surgery or

pick a

basketball that day and like

yeah,

yeah, so it's

You want to make sure they're probably one alive, too, that they're healthy still.

I mean, you know, and nowadays, you know, I think with social media, you can't get away.

But years ago, you could kind of go into hiding and get away with it.

Well, Joe

Thomas.

I just said the NFL network just did a big story on him.

He's the only guy that said basically bleep you to the NFL on draft day.

They're like, well, we need you at the headquarters.

Well, I'm going fishing with my dad in Sheboygan.

Well, well,

no, no, you

can't do that.

He's like, no, we're

going fishing.

And he did.

Yeah.

I think he would on Lake Michigan.

Yes.

And it was kind of like, when I get to, I'll check my message.

Right.

I want to get back.

That's right.

That is

great.

Mark, you, I've been on here a lot, a lot of the sports with high schools and, but you got your.

Stepping in big time on this NFL draft and we had we've had the boys and girls club on here.

We've had the lady with the roots to Yeah,

root it in

rooted in

they were on here.

Just great organization Yeah,

and you are offering your like parking

lot is

fundraisers for them.

Yeah, you know, I mean, it's awesome I mean the reason why we're coming to the event is NFL draft, you know, these young men that are gonna get they're gonna get drafted It's an opportunity for us to give back.

So yeah, we've got from the rooted in we've got

the YMCA coming, they're gonna be, you know, throwing footballs around, you know, obstacle courses.

So bring your kids out because we're gonna have that going on all three days, Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

Another thing that we've talked about, we're gonna have some Packer players coming.

So we have Jerry Kramer, Dave Robertson and Nick Bardet, each one each day that they do autographs in our parking lot.

So yeah, just a lot of, you know, it's not just us.

I think the whole community is coming together.

Putting things together.

It's gonna be a fun event from heck.

There's events going on Monday night Tuesday, you know ground zero Yeah, we're we're ground zero, which means Unfortunately, we were closing down next week.

We're moving our docks and our therapists out of the building It's just it's too much to do in that building this week.

It really got busy with traffic around that area So we're gonna move everyone out to our other locations and

It's a little bit of an inconvenience for a week, but I think it's the best decision, both for our staff and patients.

And I think people

know where you

are, but it's the Bellin Tidal Town Sports Medicine and Orthopaedic Clinic, right?

That was, I think most people know where you are, but you're at 1970 South Ridge.

We're right behind Lodge-Colar.

So there'll be signs, though.

The biggest thing is parking.

You know where to park.

You can park on the streets.

If it's legal, you can park in people's yards.

And that was...

I

guess it was.

And

some of us are still available.

I say I drove John

Rick's the

other day.

It's $100 a day parking.

Honestly, I think that's a great deal for the draft.

Nowhere else in the world would you have an NFL Draft where you can park within walking distance of where Roger Gadell is going to help the things for $100 a day.

Correct.

And I think the

other thing is.

I know a

cheaper place.

I think the other thing that we should emphasize is the NFL Draft is a free event.

There's a lot of people still thinking, well, what's it going to cost me to bring my family

down to pay

to get in?

Zero dollars the biggest thing download that one app Yeah, but yeah,

and

then I think it's so cool though to see you know possibly a local person like Mitchell, right?

You know, you know someone stand up there and announce that name with what a dream come true You know this wasn't planned You know it's just coincidence that he his career is done from the collegiate side and going to hopefully the professional side

and that he's within an hour from his hometown.

Mitchell, let's reintroduce this.

Go ahead, you introduce him and tell this whole story.

It's a wonderful story.

Yeah, Mitchell VanVoren, athlete from Peshtico, Wisconsin, has an opportunity to be drafted this next week.

And it could happen.

Incredible track career.

Go ahead and talk

about

that, Mitchell.

Yeah, go ahead.

Yeah, I mean, I went to Marquette University for four years.

I have multiple top

ten.

Could get into a good

school.

Mark,

that's pretty good.

I want Arizona State.

Oh, okay.

Much more partying.

I'm a little more fun than I did.

I'm just throwing that out there.

But go ahead.

It's rate 97% percent.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So I was at, uh, market for four years is, uh, a little shift from Milwaukee from Pescio, but it was a lot of fun.

Uh, yeah.

I had some top 10 marks.

I was a school record.

And then, you know, with COVID, they gave us some extra eligibility.

So came back closer to home and say, no, but I wanted to keep playing football.

So that's what I did.

Talk

about your events.

Yeah, mainly I did the 400 hurdles at Marquette, you know Little combined hurtling and the 400 says it's a little tough event,

but so hard.

Yeah, but

it

was a lot of fun I mean no

tell him how fast I was the I was a freshman in high school I had to run the 440 that is the worst thing it's no matter what experience I've ever had in my lifetime trying to run the old 440 mark You might be old enough to know the 440 that's the

world about it didn't have to run it like

hold your breath for 60 seconds type thing

Plus jump over stuff.

Yeah, I mean the last hundred meters are gonna suck no matter what but you know As part of the fun of it, you know, it depends on what you got inside of you

tell

them how fast you run around Yeah, my best was a 51.3 and I smacked one the hurdle so it could have been a little faster Wow, come on

It matters you pistol bulldogs and how are you staying in shape?

Yeah,

yeah doing a lot of work now last three months.

I was up at Advantage in Marquette, Michigan training.

So

that's huge I mean I'm proud of my UP roots, but they've got a training facility up there Yeah, because it used to be an Olympic training center up there in Marquette and they they've got other young guys like yourself who have a

aspirations of playing professional athletes they train there and it's pretty it's amazing isn't it

yeah it's pretty sweet i mean there's not a lot of do up there in the winter besides like skiing and stuff but we never did that but you know you just focus on training for football and it's it's a pretty cool experience

so did you know when you were a little kid you wanted to play football nfl or did you go back and forth some of these guys basketball they go in it's like i don't know what i want to do i so

programmed early now

yeah especially

for

basketball some of these guys look i could do anything

yeah

I mean growing up I always wanted every sport I was in that sport I wanted to play in college and then you know I took the D1s track scholarship but then when I got there I was like I miss playing football so that's kind of what I had in the back of my head since then.

Good.

M and O conference.

Yeah.

We got to set a quick break.

This is awesome.

Mitchell VanVoren, Mark Houston, Belton Sports Medicine back right after

this.

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special weekly second balance sports menace with Mark Houston and a very special guest Mitchell VanVoren and it's an amazing story, you know small skull Pesh to go and Tremendous athlete, you know big fish in the small pond and then you decide to go to the big pond and you're still a big fish in the big pond at the NCAA Division one at Marquette and you've done some amazing things and now you that obviously there's no pro track and field type career, but you want to

Give football a shot again.

Give us a little bit of a background after obviously planting Norbert, but you went four years to market without playing and when you put the pads on again and decided I want to try to give my shot to the NFL.

What's that process been like?

Yes, definitely a learning curve going back into especially jumping from high school to college after taking four years off, but.

I had a guy ran Randy Johnson.

He helped me out a lot.

So the summer before I went to St.

Norbert, you know, we threw and worked together every week.

So it wasn't too bad.

Explain who that is.

Yeah, he went to NMU for a couple of years playing quarterback and then transferred to Illinois.

And I met him through Scotty Smith.

That synergy gave me his contact and then he was still in the area at the time.

But yeah, he he helped me a lot.

So what do you think you have to do to really?

I mean, like when you've had workouts, private workouts, correct?

Yeah, where scouts come to town and they work out.

What are those like?

Yeah, it's a lot of fun.

I mean, it's basically like your typical, like, pro day, you know, you do your 40 yard dash, the shuttle, and

then, you know.

What's

your 40 in?

Uh, 47 flat.

I was 46.

Okay.

A little faster

than a car.

Huh?

In a car.

Shut up, Mark.

He doesn't know.

Yeah, I did a fully laser, uh, a Zeibach laser 40 at a 467, but, uh, I don't know, that's technically official since there wasn't scouts there.

What's your, what's your height and weight?

Cause they, cause everybody, you know, the biggest lie.

in the world are high school and college football programs as far as what somebody their height

is.

I love that when the announcers comment on it.

They shouldn't do that, but they do a lot.

I know!

Well,

he says he's 5'11".

It's like, give the guy a break.

Okay, he's 5'8 and a half.

Let him go.

What are your official heights and

weights?

Well, every time I went to the doctors, they told me I was 6'5, but the NFL has me at 6'4 and 5'8.

That's

what you said, crazy.

They gave me a couple inches there.

But what do you weigh?

245.

It's

a perfect tight

end size.

I mean, quintessential tight end size.

How much did you gain weight between track to football season?

I put on like 20 pounds.

All right.

I've done that.

Yeah.

No, that we can do.

I think I did that in standard track season.

We finally found some similarities with this guy.

What's your

body fat?

It's 20%.

I didn't that's not even

hell.

No, I don't What I saw him two years ago when when you were coming when you're running track.

Yeah,

I would say like Very fit and I'm not saying he's not fit now.

Yeah, but yeah, I saw him right after he came back from the NCAA's I was like, oh

So to get into to get drafted do hire like a marketing company or to promote

you were sent tapes or is it used to that on your own?

Yeah, I

have an agent who helps a lot, but then there's also a guy named Emory Hunt for CBS Sports and like, I mean, we don't pay him anything, but he definitely pushes my name out there a lot, which is definitely helpful.

Okay.

You know, it's kind of cool though, is the NFL has gotten more into this type of thing, more of let's find an athlete and fine tune him to play the sport versus somebody who's not a great athlete and trying to get him.

I mean, they're

You get the height, you got the weight, you got the speed, you got those things, and they'll take that and work with it.

Don't you agree?

I mean, they will give you the

chance.

Yeah, I think, I mean, I think that's definitely the, the intrigue with me.

I know I only played two years of college, college football.

So there's a lot of question marks, but at the same time, like I think I'm very like developmental and coachable so they can kind of mold me into the

player that they want to be.

There was a kid at North, I don't mean, but there's a kid at Northern Michigan.

Yeah, Jake Witt.

Yeah, I worked

out and we have the same agent.

He's drafted with a Colts, right?

Yep.

But he was a basketball player and then decided but he got hurt or something gave it up then right?

Yeah, I think he played like two or three years for the Colts, but then he's back in he's back in the UP now

Okay, he'll never leave the UP again.

Yeah, trust me on this You're

one of the few John

this trust me on this if somebody leaves the UP and moves back to the UP They will never leave the UP for the rest of your life true or false.

Yes.

That's true

Hey, tell me let's just talk next minute these personality

I was at a national radio show in time when that guy in I think was played for Baltimore or something and killed people.

Ray Caruth?

No,

Ray Lewis?

Yeah.

No, not Ray.

No, not Ray Lewis.

No, I don't know.

Anyway, and then the Packers really weigh heavy on the personality on the test.

And the psychological profile is just a good guy.

He's going to be good in the locker room.

Have you gone through that or is that killed by anybody?

I have not on record.

That wasn't my question.

My question is, how do they know you're a good guy?

Like, have you sat down with someone?

Did a shrink sit down with you and send something in that, look, this guy's solid.

He comes from a good family.

Yeah, that's a lot of the questions they ask us is our background and information and stuff like that.

But also, I was at the CGS All Star game down in Texas in January and like, we had a couple of tests like that with some personality tests that some teams requested.

So.

They definitely dive into that kind of

stuff.

You just take that test once and it goes out to all the teams or do you have to take it for each team?

Yeah, no, I think they send it to every team that requests it.

All right.

Now, what are like heading into this weekend?

Again, a kid growing up in Peshtagos, Wisconsin, where the highlight was going up to Monomony, I would imagine, right?

Yeah.

Or going to Mickey Luz.

Yeah, Mickey Luz is always a

hot spot.

Mickey

Luz.

But what are some of the things where you have to say to yourself, you know, all that hard work, whatever happens after this happens,

okay?

You gotta feel good.

You know what I'm saying?

At least be in this position.

Can you describe that?

Yeah, I'm definitely grateful.

I mean, a couple years ago, I always thought this was a path that I'm going to be on, but taking it here, looking back at that, this is where I wanted to be.

So it's kind of a cool experience.

That's awesome.

Good for you.

So

where are you going to be?

I'm going to be in Depeer.

I got a house with a couple of my high school friends.

So I'll probably just be there.

My parents wanted me to go back up the patch to go, but I was like, I'm not going to do that.

You can hang out with us.

Yeah.

You know, we should know it'd be a good thing to do.

Have the networks at the fire museum.

Yeah.

I love the Paschical Fire Museum in the little church or

whatever.

Oh, man, I love that place.

That's let me ask you one other thing.

Mitchell VanVoren, who's hoping to be drafted St.

Norbert College, unbelievable athlete, you know, worldwide.

I just got asked.

Oh, Olympic wise.

Did you put that on the back burner?

going to market as a freshman, I always thought, but I'm kind of a heavy guy compared to that.

I mean, the Olympic standard, like for the, to make trials in the USA for the foreign hurdles was 50 flat.

So I think if I didn't hit that last hurdle on that one race, I probably would have been close to that, which may have like changed my, my road a little bit.

Cause I was talking to Madison in Miami about running track after market.

And I thought about doing that, but I was like, at the end of the day, I want to go play football.

So I took that route instead.

Would you rather be in the, on the United States, the Olympic team or the.

Carolina Panthers NFL roster.

Definitely the NFL round.

I think I mean, that's the dream I had growing up.

So that's what I want to do.

Good for you, man.

Big football family.

But, you know, and sports has brought us all together.

But I will tell you that, I mean, just a genuine individual, the family is very genuine.

I mean, I've known his parents.

I've known his brothers a great family.

And best of luck this next week.

Thank

you.

And all those stuff that's going on with

the draft, definitely get up to the bell and parking lot

and

the town.

Great food trucks,

games, vendors, activities.

And the money goes to

charity, which is very cool.

It stays right here locally.

So, yeah.

Good, great organization.

So, all right, we'll see you out there.

Mitchell, we're just gonna be so excited just following your whole career path, what's gonna happen here.

Yeah,

thank you.

You know what?

Just get into a camp, and just kick.

Ash.

You know what I'm saying?

No friends, no friends, everybody's in an enemy, just go ape bleep.

Yes, sir.

All right.

All right.

Great

hand

here.

Mark

Houston, you're the best.

We'll see you this week.

511wi.gov for traffic conditions and plan for extra travel time.

Hundreds of thousands of fans are expected to travel to Lambeau Field in Green Bay April 24th through the 26th.

WisDOT warns that construction is starting up for many highway projects and motorists are reminded to slow down and avoid distractions especially in those work zones.

Significant road construction projects that may impact travel late next week in our area include construction

on I-41 between Appleton and Green Bay and on I-41 between Military Road and Fond du Lac in Highway 26 in Oshkosh.

A man riding on a tractor was killed and its driver was injured after a pickup truck rear ended the tractor in Willpaca County this week.

The accident happened Wednesday night just after 8 30 on State Highway 22 in the town of Little Wolf.

Officials say the tractor was rear ended by a pickup causing the driver and passenger of the tractor to be ejected.

The passenger was then struck by another vehicle.

The passenger died at the scene and the driver was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

The crash is being investigated by the Wapaka Sheriff's Department.

The eighth round downtown Pale Ale.

The collaborative beer created to commemorate the NFL Draft 2025 coming to Green Bay next week is available and on tap at breweries throughout the Greater Green Bay area.

Nine breweries came together to develop the brew that's described as hoppy.

hazy and slightly fruity with plenty of flavor.

Only 45 barrels of the special beer were brewed.

That works out to over 11,000 pints.

Canned pints will only be available at the Draft City Music Fest downtown Wednesday and Saturday.

I'm Lisa Hale for WGBW and WISS News.

For news anytime, visit civicmedia.us.

Well, the teams get ready to choose their top draft picks.

You can help Mino and the mayor choose

their top craft pick.

Northeast Wisconsin is home to amazing breweries, wineries, cideries and distilleries, and we need your help picking the best.

We've drafted 10 of our favorites, but which local craft beverage creator will go to number one?

That's up to you.

Mino and the Mayor's top craft pick.

Drafting Northeast Wisconsin's finest one sip at a time.

Now, back to Mino and the Mayor.

Here's John Mino and Jim Schmitt.

Hey,

thank you very much.

Very special thanks to Mark Hewison, Bellensports of Madison.

They've got such amazing things going on over there over the next week.

But Mark Hewison bringing in Mitchell VanVoren for Bellensports of Madison.

Great, unbelievable track athlete at Paschal High School, the University of Marquette, and then St.

Norbert playing tight end, and he has a chance to be drafted this weekend in the NFL draft.

6-5, 2-45 runs a f***ing

four six.

He's got all the essentials.

So best of luck to you, Mitchell.

We're going to be following you, brother.

Yeah.

Talk about some other crazy athletes walking in the room right here.

We got Sam Eli and TJ Moles, hybrid wrestling entertainment and Jim.

It was great.

We had about a month ago.

We had a great time introducing some of the, uh, the folks out there.

Great crowd.

Great people.

An awesome venue.

An awesome venue.

The only negative is.

If we ever do that again, you got to adjust something because Jim couldn't walk across the mat

without falling over.

Did you see that?

Yes, yes, yes.

And you're a wrestler, Eli.

And we didn't practice walking on that mat.

And so then I went through the rope.

And

John, I heard these people

laughing.

What did I say?

That was so funny.

I didn't know he'd be behind me.

He was like a drunk guy walking across

the street.

And John, you know.

to have my back starts jumping up and down, which we made it all the worse for me.

I'm trying to talk.

And anyway, I'll

have it better next year.

I

introduced one of the wrestlers and John did the other one.

And I was just really impressed with the crowd.

You know, I kind of learned to assess the crowd.

And it was younger than I thought.

I will tell you that.

And it was just youth there.

And they were into it.

Early six to 69.

Yeah,

age-wise.

And it

was

packed.

So we had a lot of fun.

Oh, yeah, it was legitimately standing room only and even then it was just hard.

It was hard to find anywhere to stand.

It was a great turnout, an amazing turnout, which real fast.

I just want to announce that I got some news early this morning.

Big news online pre online sell online sales for tonight's show is sold out as well.

Oh,

wow.

So this is

our second show in a row now that we have actually sold out.

Wow.

So the only way to get tickets now is walking up at the show.

And folks, I'm not blowing

smoke.

I was talking with you guys before the before we came on.

like that night where there people have to come there and experience it's an experience like I said you could be from us and Todd

that close to the wrestlers doing amazing athletic things off the top of the turnbuckles double flips do whatever this is really this is professional level i know it doesn't have the glitz and glamour of you know whatever whatever whatever man and everything but you guys put on a hell of a show and Eli you're one of those people yes sir we're not lying we don't have anything to do with tonight show or anything like that

But you guys are truly impressive to watch, right, Jim?

Oh, yeah, you guys are

great athletes.

And it's fun to watch great athletes.

What do

you think of the place?

Have you wrestled there before?

Absolutely.

You know, I've been with hybrid for, I want to say, almost a year.

I think since

almost since the beginning.

You're one of our originals, one of, you know,

almost since the beginning.

So, you know, I've been there regularly and.

you know, to TJ's credit, the environment, professionality backstage, like you said, amazing place to be.

And like you said, for the fans, I'm one of the guys that's coming over the rope to you and I might land in your lap.

So, you know, it's, it's a crazy atmosphere and TJ's kind of built that and he's given me a platform to be a part of that.

What people don't realize as far as athleticism part.

Okay, everybody can, we could do a quick little thing here, like, you know, hold your punch with a really punch from the face, whatever, but you can't fake the flips

and

the

Body shots, you guys inflict on each other.

That's right.

You can't fake that.

Oh, yeah.

You were in the ring.

You feel how stiff

that ring is.

Yes.

So tell me about that experience.

How do you adapt yourself to be able to do something like that?

Honestly, you just have to commit to it.

You've got to commit your body.

You've got to be in the gym.

You've got to do the work.

Like Jim was saying, with the footwork in the ring, you've got to be sound.

You've got to get your reps in.

And you've got to put time into it.

That's really what it is.

Like any other skill, you have to put the time in and you have to respect it.

And if you don't do it, that's where the injury

factor could come in, correct?

Oh, I don't even want to see you in the ring.

If you're not committed, if you're not fully trained, if you think it's a game, then I'm not even interested.

I want people that are going to be professional.

are invested in everyone's safety first and foremost, including the fans, because some people get reckless outside the ring too.

But tell you what, once you cross that threshold and you respect that, that's when you start becoming a pro.

And that's when I really want to start having that conversation with you.

Very

cool.

Yeah, and Sam, I just want to say now if this comes from TJ or your upbringing, but you guys are nice people.

You know, sometimes you go backstage and there's divas and we've spent a lot of time backstage with people.

I had these flashbacks of John Stossel, you're too young, but you got punched in the ear.

I remember that, you bet.

Those big dudes.

But it was just a nice group of people, and I don't know if you

pre-streamed them.

Didn't something happen to Geraldo with the wrestler?

Wasn't that on a show where somebody took a chair and lost to his nose or something?

I think I

remember hearing about

that.

Anyway, it's a great atmosphere, it's a safe, fun

atmosphere.

So being in the wrestling world for as long as I have, you do get to know people.

Don't get me wrong.

There are those people in the wrestling world.

There's those

people in radio.

But there are people in

this studio.

See you right next to me.

But being a promoter, that's part of my responsibility, helping booking, doing the promoting and all that stuff.

Because it's a team effort.

It's me, Ethan, and a guy named Josh.

And we are proud of what we've been able to build here.

Part of our responsibility is making sure we bring people into that locker room that not only have the skill set

You know, but also have that professional mentality and really we're all here for the same thing We're all here because we love it.

We're all here to make wrestle We're all here to put smiles on people's faces and just making a good environment backstage, you know We could feel that

with

us

being civilians or whatever you want to call it We could feel that type of bonding backstage with everybody

and there's there's a word that TJ left out there that I think is very important for this particular conversation and that's culture mm-hmm TJ TJ and the boys backstage have cultivated an amazing

culture so that when other people come in when they're new, maybe they haven't been there one of the originals like me, but they come in there and immediately they feel that just like you guys did.

That's the goal.

Do they walk in and they know, okay, here's what the expectations

are.

to this event tonight, and we'll talk about that, we'll give tickets away to ours, or I would be at yours.

I did enjoy that.

I mean, I... You're gonna wear those boots and you're not gonna come over?

Come on.

Exactly, right?

Give yourselves a plug.

What's going on today?

So tonight at Badger State Brewing Company at the Barrow House, it is Barrow House Blitz presented by Hybrid Wrestling Entertainment.

There we have seven or eight great matches planned for you tonight, one of which being Sam Ely here, to my right, facing off against Sierra, who is a Midwest staple, one of the best ever.

Honestly one of the best Fimo talents one of the best talents in general made event is Shaq Jordan versus Joey a jet Avalon Tickets are at the door only $15 front row is sold out online is sold out and they get there early

Those

front row people

they are there like an

hour.

They're hanging doors open at 6 30 all the information could be found online beautiful

It's badger

There's a bar, there's popcorn, right?

They

got all the

fixings.

Hey, who brought in the sushi backstage?

That was incredible.

So kind of with the whole culture thing, right?

You really grow a community.

One of my good friends at work knows that I do this and she just wants to support any way she can.

She made, I think it was a handmade 150 homemade egg rolls for the wrestlers backstage.

That was amazing.

That

was

her?

Yep, yeah.

Oh my God, I didn't know that.

Was that great?

So at Badger State, you know, it's great.

There's a lot of parking there, free surface parking.

It's gonna be 150 bucks on Wednesday.

That's

a good idea.

That's

very strategic.

Put a boot down and we'll touch it.

Or wear those orange stickers.

They

already got them.

How did you get into this?

How did you become a pro wrestler?

From being a fan, you know, a lot of guys come in, they see what they love on TV and they think, man, I can

I can really do this.

I want to give this a shot, you know.

Everybody thinks anybody can

do it, but when you

get in that ring, what was that like?

You know, I, I, I tried to go into it thinking, or this is probably bigger than I think, right?

There's a lot of things behind the scenes that I'm not privy to.

So I tried to keep that cognizant, but even with that, when I got in the ring, wobbly legs, just like Jim, you know, it definitely wasn't just you.

I was like, oh, wow.

Okay.

This is different.

And.

you just have to keep staying consistent and keep wanting it because that it throws you.

But it's not that you're like, okay, somebody wants to be good, then go to a driving range every day.

You can go shoot baskets.

But your sport, you're so dependent on the other people.

Yes, you have to trust.

That's the number one thing.

Your number one job is to keep that other person safe, right?

Make sure they're okay.

On top of that, you can't be a strong performer.

You can't do your job without their help.

So you inherently need each other in order to excel.

in something that is really an individual sport for the most part, right?

But you have to have that trust, and it creates that brotherhood that you see in the locker room, because everyone has to develop that, and you have to earn it with each other.

You earn that trust, and that's everyone

you see it.

You're putting your

life and your livelihood in another person's hands.

Hey, with those

flips you guys do off the top of the turnbuckles?

Is that an old man turnbuckle?

No, no.

Is that what they're called?

I actually wanted to use that as my radio name.

Turnbuckle, turnbuckle, turnbuckle, turnbuckle, turnbuckle, turnbuckle, turnbuckle, turnbuckle,

turnbuckle,

turnbuckle, turnbuckle, turnbuckle,

turnbuckle, turnbuckle, turnbuckle,

turnbuckle, turnbuckle, turnbuckle,

turnbuckle, turnbuckle, turnbuckle, turnbuckle, turnbuckle, turnbuckle,

turnbuckle,

turnbuckle, turnbuckle,