Speaker 1:
0:00
Welcome to your go-to source for entertainment.
Speaker 2:
0:04
Wait for it? Gaming. Wait for it Anime PLUS ULTRA. Mr Eric Almighty and Phil the Filipino yeah, they've got you covered.
Speaker 3:
0:15
And all you gotta do is wait for it.
Speaker 2:
0:31
This is the Wait For it Podcast.
Speaker 3:
0:35
Hey everyone, welcome back to the Wait For it Podcast. I'm your co-host, Phil Smith, aka Phil the Filipino, and joining me, as always, is your other co-host, mr Eric Almighty, and Eric super excited for the July edition of Creator Spotlight. Way back when this podcast was in its infancy, there was a time that we tackled everything, and when I say everything, not just anime, not just movies, not just video games, but also sports NBA, nfl and also professional wrestling Because if you've known Eric and I for a long time, you know that we are huge fans of professional wrestling and Eric. Probably about a year, year and a half ago, we got a very unique opportunity here in Jacksonville to actually go a little bit behind the scenes of that world, and we had a blast doing so and we hope to get that opportunity again. And it led us to our guest here today, who we recently reconnected with here in the last few weeks. So super excited to talk to him today and discuss his journey when it comes to both professional wrestling and pop culture.
Speaker 1:
1:39
Yeah, I think it's going to be a really fun episode. For a little bit of context, especially if you guys are part of the patreon, you've already heard us talk at length about our experience when we had to do commentary for a wrestling event. It was the first time we had to do it. It was on a whim shout out to friend of the show, babo, who was one of the wrestlers participating in that event and, honestly, phil, it was an absolute blast. But even then we walked away saying there was one competitor that really stood out to us and, honestly, the competitor that uh, helped us get into our groove for commentary and that is our guest, who we also got to meet at river city con just recently. I would like to introduce you guys to the world cheddar weight champion himself, the Cheese, who has joined us. Cheese. Feel free to come back on and tell us a little bit about your excitement for this episode. Are you ready to jump into cheese and pop?
Speaker 2:
2:38
culture. Brother, I was born for this. This is amazing. I really appreciate you guys having me on. I was born for this. This is amazing. I really appreciate you guys having me on. I was so excited. You know, you have a lot of interactions with people in the world of pro wrestling and probably, I'd say, about 30% of that is people who have a podcast or some kind of media or whatever and they'll say, hey, we want to have you on the podcast. And I'm like, yes, of course, and then I never hear from him, but I heard back from you guys, so it works out.
Speaker 1:
3:09
Oh, a hundred percent, yeah, no, and that's one of the things that has been really great, uh, about podcasting for us is when we get to not only meet cool people, like when, when the vibe is there, we go that extra step and we're like, hey, you want to come on, and then we end up. I mean, phil, that's how we've had a lot of our guests not only come on the first time, but come on multiple times onto the show, especially for our bonus episode. So, cheese, we really appreciate you coming on board joining us for this episode and we're going to throw a couple of questions at you so our audience can get to know you the way that we have a little bit with. That being said, cheese, can you tell us a little bit about? People are hearing us call you cheese. You're the cheese. What exactly is that? What does that mean? What do you do? Again, we want to put the spotlight on you. So, for our audience, tell us all about yourself.
Speaker 2:
4:02
Well, if you ask Sharkboy of TNA fame, he found me in a dumpster. So that's the earliest origin story from someone other than Jay Lethal. I was trained by the great and powerful Jay Lethal, who's become a really good friend of mine, a mentor, a coach, a buddy, all the above. But during the time of training, when you go to school, so to speak, to become a professional wrestler, a part of that is your promos. And I cut my very first promo in front of people. I cut my very first promo in front of people. That wasn't like a joke, I mean just fair warning for everybody. I'm still a huge, massive wrestling fan. That's the whole reason I'm in it, and any wrestler that tells you that they don't love it should probably leave.
Speaker 2:
5:03
That being said, I've cut so many promos in my day. But that was my moment where I got to cut a promo in front of Jay Lethal and I was nervous, but the showman in me prevailed. But I borrowed from an old Saturday Night Live sketch a Chris Farley sketch that's very famous, where he's Matt Foley, he's a motivational speaker and he's living in a van down by the river and, you know, on a steady supply of government cheese. So I cut that promo in front of Jay and Jay seemed to like it and he said you seem pretty mad about that government cheese. And then he kept calling me government cheese and it stuck and he eventually cut off the government and just started calling me cheese. And I just said you know what I am the cheese. I will go on this quest and I will be the cheese of pro wrestling. And here we are cheese of pro wrestling.
Speaker 1:
6:09
And here we are. I think that's fantastic, Phil. I know that we are obviously huge wrestling fans. You mentioned that at the beginning of the episode. What was your first impression of the cheese? Bring us back to that day where we saw him just pulling out cheese and shoving it in people's faces. Like what was that experience?
Speaker 3:
6:23
like Phil, from the other side of the commentary table, Well, like you mentioned, eric, I mean obviously it was the first time we had ever done any type of color commentary. You know, a friend of ours asked us if we could check it out and we were definitely. It was definitely a feeling out process, especially as the day went on. It was very hot, you know, I'm sure you remember that, geez, we're obviously here in Florida, it's the middle of the summer and you know, just, we're really big on presentation when it comes to professional wrestling. You know it is when it really comes down to it.
Speaker 3:
6:56
You know people that are listening to this episode that are not necessarily wrestling fans, like it is a performance and you get a very short amount of time to tell a story and to tell people who you are and what you're about. And she's just your presentation, your charisma, everything about that just drew us in immediately and because you were so confident in what you were doing, it made eric and I a lot more confident in what we were doing as well. So I, you know, really, really commend you on that. You know we're big fans of just having fun with wrestling. You know there's a part of wrestling Twitter and wrestling social media that's not the best, but like when you break it down and you just have fun with other fans and the people that really enjoy this form of entertainment and the amount of work that goes into it as well. Eric, I mean I think I can speak for both of us. That's definitely. What drew us in was just the presentation. Right off the bat we were like, oh, this is going to be a blast.
Speaker 1:
7:49
Yeah, definitely a fantastic time and, again, absolutely love the backstory there, cheese, about how that all just kind of came to be Very, very fantastic. Phil, did you have a question that your first one you want to throw out there Did?
Speaker 3:
8:03
you have a question that your first one you want to throw out there. Yeah, so a lot of people when you know you talk about how you drew that inspiration from the Chris Farley character Again, an iconic sketch from Saturday Night Live Just out of curiosity when it comes to, because you know a lot of wrestling, which a lot of people are kind of surprised by. It is a lot of acting. You know you're portraying a character, you're delivering that. Were you like a theater kid. Do you have any theater background or acting background or anything like that? Before going into this, so I did.
Speaker 2:
8:34
I wasn't a theater kid. All through school I played sports and did stuff like that. But if I had the time, if I could have cut myself in half during football season or track season, I would have definitely done theater. I just didn't have the time for it. But whenever I was a younger kid, my mom was a student center director at the local community college and she got into producing plays and stuff like that. So technically I was a theater kid. I always loved performing. It was always my favorite cutting up in front of the family, all that kind of stuff. And then when I got into college I did some. I did some theater and it was just for fun. There was no, I had zero expectation out of it other than just having fun, and it was a blast and it was something that I carry with me.
Speaker 2:
9:27
The improvisation, as you both know, in professional wrestling is huge. You have to be able to improv on the spot. You have to be able to think quick on your feet, and that's something that I've been pretty adept at. I don't do a lot of bragging on myself, but in this case I typically will say you know, I'll poke my chest out a little bit, but that's something I'm I'm pretty good at and I and I have carried that with me and it has helped Um it, it and beyond that, I, you know, I've worked in a lot. I was a government cheese. I worked in a lot of government jobs, so I had to do a lot of public speaking in my professional life before I even touched a wrestling ring, and that helped me immensely as well. I had to get in front of crowds of anywhere from 10 to 500 people and just be able to talk in front of people.
Speaker 2:
10:28
I feel is something that is a little bit of a lost art, in the sense that a lot of people are scared of it, not to sound like an ageist or anything like that. But the younger generation, they don't really have that part. So, and, by the way, the story I was telling you before about my, my origin story of cutting that first promo, that's something that is near and dear to my heart for pro wrestling. But the younger guys, the younger folks that are coming along in pro wrestling, they're working at it. There are a lot of. I'm not saying there's nobody out there that doesn't have the chops, and I'm not saying I'm the end, all be all or anything like that, but is a huge part of this world.
Speaker 2:
11:14
The pro wrestling world, you know, needs people who are not afraid to talk in front of people and not just about their match, what time it is, whatever. You have to be able to give them some gusto, in my opinion. So I was one of the older in this case the most aged of Cheddar in that first class and there were a lot of guys that were younger and, like you know, like 19, 20 years old and I started at 32, you know. So I was like you know, it was a little bit of a shock for me. I, you know, I had a lot of fun and a lot of those guys. It's really I'm sorry I've gone off on a little tangent here, but the age and difference and you know the way people speak and the public speaking personas and all that kind of stuff it is really just fun to see those young guys kind of dig into it and really watch them grow and, uh, become great performers in their own right.
Speaker 1:
12:20
Oh, a hundred percent, a hundred percent cheese. And, and you know, I think one of the cool things about wrestling that we've talked about is the showmanship. On an obviously much different level, me and Phil we do a lot of stuff at local conventions and we've had to get out of our comfort zone and learn how to speak in front of people, but not just speak, almost put on a show in our field. For you that's absolutely the case, and I think what makes wrestling so special is there's so many different elements going on. There's the showmanship, there's a little bit of acting, and then there's that physicality.
Speaker 1:
12:55
And I would love to know, cheese, like, what has that been like for you when it comes to the physical side of wrestling? Because for a lot of people that appreciate wrestling, we know, like we know what it's like to get hit by an object, we know that that's gotta hurt when you hit the mat. Every time it's not pleasant, but for people that don't really watch wrestling, it feels like that goes unnoticed because of the showmanship, because of all of the lights. So I'd love to know, like, especially from when you first started to now, what has that journey been like from an athletic and physicality standpoint?
Speaker 2:
13:31
Well, your body takes a huge beating from day one to day, whatever it is. Gosh, I currently I, you know, outside of wrestling, if that's okay to talk about that real quick. Outside of wrestling I run my own business. It's a very physical. It's property maintenance, it's landscaping. I do a lot of commercial contracts and residential contracts and stuff like that. So I'm out in this Florida heat all the time.
Speaker 2:
14:03
But before that, when I first started training for wrestling, I was I worked for Tampa international airport and I had to wear a. It wasn't, it wasn't me, I know no shade on that job. It was a good job. They paid me a lot of money. But I started training whenever I was working there before I started my business full time and I had to wear a suit and tie every day.
Speaker 2:
14:32
It was I would come in with bruises. I would come in with, you know, like I would have I didn't have as many tattoos as I have now and I would have, like bruised up arms. I would be sore constantly. There's a lot of physicality that goes into it, whether it hurts in the moment or not or not. And you know I'll go off on a little tangent about Jay Lethal and how amazing of a trainer he is. That guy could you could pluck him out of pro wrestling and put him into another field of anything that he's passionate about, and he could tell you how to do it, from step A to step Z, and then he can give you sub steps. Within those steps. He breaks everything down perfectly and, as an amazing trainer as he is, he told us he's like things aren't going to be the same for you guys. You're going to be hurting, you're going to be sore. You know the physical part where you train cardiovascular stuff like that. You've got to do that on your own. But here you learn how to be a pro wrestler. You learn, you know.
Speaker 2:
15:50
The biggest emphasis he had for us was be safe. That means not just yourself. You know. We learn how to protect ourselves, but keep your opponent safe. Yeah, yeah, I know I'm we're. I'm stepping out on the. Is that okay to step out of K-Fed?
Speaker 1:
16:08
years. You've got to hate everybody. Okay, everybody you fight.
Speaker 2:
16:11
Yeah, no, the old saying a lot of the veterans I'm around and then a lot of the younger guys that kind of co-opted it is. It ain't ballet. I've kind of co-opted it as it ain't ballet. And you're talking about just learning how to chop, learning how to take a chop properly. Because what's interesting about that is whenever I was a kid and I would emulate wrestling with my friends or with my brother, when you chop you look at the TV and you see that they're going like this. You know, like Ric Flair would go back like this, but he's landing a palm like that. But when you're a kid it was the back of your hand and you can destroy not only the back of your hand but you can destroy the other person that you're hitting and you can break a bone or you could really damage yourself. So, learning the proper way, a lot of light bulbs going off all the time during the training and it prepared me to take a beating.
Speaker 2:
17:18
I was an athlete from a little kid playing t-ball up to in high school. I played football and I got injured and couldn't play football anymore, lost any scholarship opportunities or whatever. But you know, I knew what pain was. But that only prepared me just a little bit for pro wrestling pain and I consider myself very lucky. I've had very minimal injuries, little nagging things that can keep me out of the ring for a match or two. But learning how to understand when enough is enough and learning how to understand when to keep going.
Speaker 2:
18:04
For example, I had a match with the Headbangers, two of my favorites growing up whenever I was a kid, and let me tell you something, brother, they beat the living cheese out of me, they chopped me. They both chopped me so well and I will not say anything bad about those guys. I'm not picking on them at all. They were safe and they were fun. And they about those guys, I'm not picking on them at all. They were safe and they were fun and they're great guys. We took a picture afterwards but they beat me pretty bad but they made sure I was okay and that's. You know what we do and it's a lot of mental preparation. It's a lot of you know there's bumps and bruises and things that come along the way, but you have to be ready to be very physical.
Speaker 3:
18:56
And I think that's one thing, that whenever we bring people into our fandom, you know we'll invite people over to watch. You know wrestling with us who typically don't you know'll invite people over to watch. Uh, you know wrestling with us who typically don't, you know, watch it on their own. And we always point out hey, did you see that that's how they kept that person safe? You see the referee check on the person, like that. You know all that stuff is all always so important, eric. I honestly think it's almost to the point now, like I'll use a very recent example like Chelsea Green, that amazing table spot over the weekend at Money in the Bank Perfect, it was beautiful, she nailed it and you're almost more in awe of her being so good at that taking that bump than anything else that went on in the match, even though it was the match of the weekend, in my opinion, as far as Money in the Bank goes. But yeah, it's really great to hear.
Speaker 3:
19:45
You know you stress the importance of keeping each other safe and also just preparing for that physicality, and you know you did. It is funny because you said, like you know it's not ballet, but it is kind of like like a gymnastics team right, like you're, you're responsible for everybody else. That's, that's part of the part of that match and, um, you know, seeing that art form come together and getting a little behind the scenes glimpse of it is really cool. What is your? You know you mentioned the headbangers. What were some of your other big time influences when you were uh, when you're coming up, you're around, we're all around the same age. You know, were you a big wcw, wwf, a little bit of everything. Where did you really fall in love with this like we did?
Speaker 2:
20:25
Well, I grew up in the North Florida area, a couple of hours east excuse me, west near Tallahassee-ish. It's a very small rural community and so we got old NWA when the antenna was working, when, know when we eventually got satellite. I would do the Monday Night Wars, flipping and switching from WCW to WWF. But WCW was my big time. But my two biggest influences happened to be my two favorite wrestlers of all time. One is the American dream, Dusty Rhodes, who if you watch any of my moves in the ring you'll know, or any of the, you know any of the gestures, any of the kind of walking around type stuff. That's dusty. And the my other favorite of all time, who I finally got to meet at River City Wrestling Con, was the Icons thing and some of the moves I just straight up stole from him and I told him that when I met him, Like I was, like we were I don't know if you guys, you guys were there right, Like the meet and greet part.
Speaker 3:
21:41
Yeah, we only got to go Sunday, but we were there yeah.
Speaker 2:
21:46
Yeah, it was very quick. He was there for a very short amount of time and his people were very guarded with him and I understand, because he just retired he's wanting to kind of take it easy. He's earned it. I didn't care about any of that, but I did get to rattle off a bunch of things that I was able to say to him that I had held in my head for 38 years. And he stopped me and shook my hand and said thank you truly. You know it means a lot to me and it was really cool. But he and Dusty Rhodes were my biggest influences. No matter where they were, no matter what they've done in their career, I always would clamor to watch them. But WCW holds a very special place in my heart because kind of the origin of the little cheese is.
Speaker 2:
22:43
You know, my grandma and grandpa. We all watched wrestling together as a family and it was a big time thing. And my grandpa was a I don't know why I say grandma and grandpa, but like they're my nanny and my papa, and my papa was a man's man. He was a World War II veteran. He was a coal miner. After he got went to the war, he went back to West Virginia and worked in the coal mine. Still, he had black lung, he did not mess around, he was a mechanic. He was all these different things but he loved pro wrestling, lovedved it, and it was a big part of our family time. And his wife, my nanny, she was like the most important person in my life to me for as long as she was alive and when he passed away we watched wrestling to feel closer to him.
Speaker 2:
23:42
And WCW was a huge part of that because we could get some NWA action early on in the early nineties. But then it, you know, slowly started in WCW. Kind of the Turner days started taking over and all that. And I just remember Nanny would be cooking something, wcw would be on the TV, my papa would be waiting for Sting. Sting was his favorite, so he became my favorite as well. But, yeah, wcw all the way. I love the things that WWF was doing, but it was such a different vibe. You know what I mean 100%.
Speaker 1:
24:23
Yeah, I mean, it was so, so different, but there were also again, all these things have like the same elements, which is really nice, like and you know, today you've got wwe and aw uh, you've got your tna, you've got your nxt, so they all still have all the things that you love about wrestling uh, but each one has their almost their distinct style, which I think is really, really cool. Is that something that you're about wrestling Uh, but each one has their, their, almost their distinct style, which I think is really, really cool? Is that something that you're noticing, like, what is your kind of view on the landscape right now?
Speaker 2:
24:53
I yeah, I don't want to cut you off, but I really I want to step on the the cheese box for a second here on that. It is so easy these days to pick apart something just because we don't like one part of it and let it ruin. You mentioned Money in the Bank earlier. The ladies' match by far was the best part of the night. They killed it. But there are some who will say, oh, it's just a women's match or it's just whatever. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, it's wrestling. It's wrestling. It's what we all came for. It's why we watch.
Speaker 2:
25:29
They told a story, they told multiple stories. They had the athleticism, they had the physicality, they had the storytelling, the improvisation, the acting, everything. It had every element of every thing it wanted to be. But there's still people who are going to pick out the negative part of that. But if you talk to those people outside of wrestling, I would say nine times out of 10, they're going to pick out the negative part of their day. They're going to pick out the negative part of their job. They're going to pick out the negative part of their family life their friends or whatever.
Speaker 2:
26:00
Why do that? I understand that there are things that bother us and fester in our heads but, like I am a wrestling fan through and through and, yeah, I have complained about certain things in wrestling. I have complained about certain things as a wrestler. But you know what I won't complain about when there's wrestling. There's wrestling because it is the best art form. It is so magical and so wonderful and it brings you to a place of when you were a child. But now you're an adult and you kind of have adult money and even though you're, you know, working at a job that's beating you down or a job that you love or whatever, when you come home and watch wrestling, you get to release. You know, you get to be that. That that's what wrestling is for me. I love that I'm able to entertain people. I love that we get to have a few laughs, but then when I get to turn on serious cheese, it's time to go. I love that because people are captivated. I love seeing little kids do the same thing and become captivated to wrestling. Tna, aw, nwa, wwe, nxt, new Japan, you know, whatever your poison is for wrestling, just pick out the good stuff and love it, because it's there for you, it's not there for.
Speaker 2:
27:23
Again. It's easy to get on social media and do a post that says I do this for the fans. But let me tell you something Damn it. I do it for the fans Because I am one and I will always be one. If there's something to complain about, I'll complain about it and say this isn't right because A, b and C. And then I will move on. Because there is something from every wrestling show, independent or at the tippy top. There is something from every wrestling show that you can extract and say that was wonderful. That brought me back to that spot where, when I was a kid or whenever I was an adult, and I discovered that love for pro wrestling. If you can extract that, then that's a good wrestling show.
Speaker 2:
28:12
I feel the same way if I see a little kid come up to me and they have a slice of cheese that I've thrown out to them and they say cheese, will you sign my cheese? I say absolutely, buddy, I will, and I sign it and they go off and they're having the best day of their life. Now, when they leave that building, they may forget who the cheese is or whatever it is. Typically they don't, because I've had kids that come back to me you know shows years later and they're like hey, I kept this in the refrigerator and you signed it for me, but thank you, it's the lasting impressions that we get.
Speaker 2:
28:46
Pro wrestling is an art form and it's something that we don't need to take for granted. And no matter how many companies rise up from the ashes, come up from money, come up from nothing, poof just apparate out of nowhere. Poof, just apparate out of nowhere. We should be thankful because the more pro wrestling companies there are, independent and corporate, that's better for guys like me, but also for guys like you, because it's the best time to be a pro wrestling fan. You think about those days where all you guys talking about being around the same age, I think we're all in that same bracket. Think about it.
Speaker 2:
29:33
Swapping back and forth from WWF to WCW during the Monday Night Wars was the biggest thrill that we had. That was wonderful for me. Now you can't keep up. You've got to watch past episodes. You've got to go on the CW app, you've got to go on the Peacock app, you've got to go for TNA's library, aew on TNT and TVN all that kind of stuff. There are people that will argue that there are too many pro wrestling companies. That is absolutely asinine. The child in me, the small cheese curd that I was when I first started watching and falling in love with pro wrestling, is saying I am in paradise. This is amazing. I get to find new wrestlers and I get to revisit the old wrestlers. It's amazing. That's my thoughts on that.
Speaker 1:
30:25
Yeah, no, 100%. I mean, Phil, he made so many good points there. Just, you know, if you kind of look around that landscape like you mentioned, you know so many people harped on things they didn't like about money in the bank, but the women's match was a showstopper, it was a scene stealer. And then you have all these other promotionsW for everything that is complained about. For AEW. They still gave us Ospreay vs Swerve just recently. Like how can you complain, ospreay? Obviously with the New Japan background. Then you go to TNA and Joe Hendry making an appearance in NXT and everything with that story. So, phil, like I love the Cheezus passion here because Joe Hendry just popped into this session.
Speaker 1:
31:08
How did you get this? How did you get this?
Speaker 3:
31:13
I do feel like in post-production, you have to do it Now. I have to add the video in. Joe, just let the copyright slide.
Speaker 1:
31:18
Yeah, anything you wanted to add to that passionate plea to our other wrestling fans who, again, criticism is nice, but it's when we go past. That point is a problem, and in the wrestling community that does exist for sure.
Speaker 3:
31:33
Yeah, absolutely, and we cover obviously a lot of anime in the conventions. We work our anime conventions and you see that over there as well. Eric, you're a big Star Wars fan. We're not numb to that type of criticism when it comes to our fandoms, but you are right. She is in the same way that I tell our audience all the time that anime is in the healthiest spot that it has ever been. Pro wrestling is also in that spot.
Speaker 3:
31:57
You can watch a show every single night, and while I don't, and we don't get to watch every single one, we still are on social media. Like, oh, what happened in NXT Last night? I don't typically get to watch NXT as much as I want to, but I knew and I had an inkling Joe Henju was going to show up and I did not miss that main event. So you're absolutely right. Like just the plethora of options that are available to you right now, even for people that are casuals. I mean, you see people on social media John Cena is announcing his retirement tour. How people on social media John Cena is announcing his retirement tour. How many people are going to come back next year when he is on that grind and putting on the jorts one last time. You know what I mean. So that's going to be a big deal.
Speaker 3:
32:36
Eric, we have been honestly kind of spoiled here in Northeast Florida because, cheese, we would go to the OG NXT shows down at the Armory all the time. We got to go to AEW. During the pandemic we were actually at the Winter is Coming show where Sting returned and we lost our shit man. It was an incredible time and we brought a friend, a friend of the show Jordan streams with me every Thursday night on Twitch. She's not necessarily a wrestling fan, but she knew who Sting was and she came with us and was losing her mind as well. So, yeah, you're so right, cheese. You know it is frustrating when you see, you know those people that are just there to criticize, but I will say, the amount of positivity on wrestling social media and those fans, the people that come together and make new friendships and make new relationships and new memories all that trumps the negative. So you know, at least that is being highlighted out there as well.
Speaker 2:
33:32
I'm sorry, I don't want to cut you off. No, no, no, go for it. I really want to jump in on something that she says is so poignant A casual fan. Here's the thing. There's one thing I can't stand in life, whether it's a job, wrestling, sports, anything I can't stand gatekeeping. I hate it. There's no reason for it. If you love something, you open the gate. You don't forcibly take someone's head and stick it through the gate. You open the gate for them. And you're talking about your friend, who's a casual fan, who may not watch Monday Night Raw every single Monday, who may not have ever even heard of what NXT is. But that is my goal, alongside entertaining people and giving them memories. Whenever I go to a show and I'm lucky enough that somebody asks me to be on their show, I plea to the casual fan.
Speaker 2:
34:33
There was a great thing we had going in the Sarasota Florida area it's about an hour south of me and it was a Munchies 420 Cafe. It was this crazy restaurant known for all these crazy burgers and crazy entrees and stuff. It's been on diners, drive-ins and dives and stuff and we had this amazing audience who were just hungry for entertainment. They'd had a few cocktails. The place is called Munchies 420. You do the math. But they were not fans that are going to tell you about Puro. They're not going to be like. Oh yeah, I remember back in 1987, stan Hansen did the da-da-da-da-da-da. They don't know anything about that, but you know what? That doesn't matter. So I took it upon myself. I said the cheese is going to be the gateway drug for people for pro wrestling. I'm going to take somebody who may not necessarily be in the pro wrestling, but they like silly things, they like nostalgic things, they like funny things and they like things that can be serious if we need them to be. So you know the, the shirt that you're wearing which I greatly appreciate, mr Eric Almighty, the cheese shirt, that's a Blockbuster logo. Side note I worked for Blockbuster back in the day. It was one of the greatest jobs I ever had. But it's a complete rip. But it's a 90s nostalgia thing, man, and people saw that. I sold those shirts at different locations and you know, people don't even know about pro wrestling. They're like this says cheese on it and it's a blockbuster logo. Let me get it, you know they'll buy it.
Speaker 2:
36:18
I am the gateway drug for pro wrestling, so if I can bring someone in, whether I make them into just a casual fan and they want to come just see me, or if I can bring them in and they get immersed into this wonderful world that we have in pro wrestling and just become huge fans. Which I have seen happen and I'm more proud of that than anything that I've done in pro wrestling is that I've brought people to the dance and they have kept dancing. That is my favorite. That is something that's very important and I implore you anyone who's listening to the sound of my voice, watching this podcast listening I implore you, if you are a pro wrestling fan or you're a pop culture fan, anime, whatever it is don't keep the gate shut on people. You don't have to force them. I don't ever.
Speaker 2:
37:12
Whenever I have a show, I have people.
Speaker 2:
37:14
I have people all the time like friends and family.
Speaker 2:
37:16
I got to see a show and I'm like, great, yeah, come on. But I never press them and say I need you to come to the show. You got to come in here. Yeah, I say, hey, we'd love to have you out. Leave the gate open for them. Do not shut the gate. Do not be a gatekeeper. Let them come in and see how they like it.
Speaker 2:
37:40
And guess what, if they don't like it which that has happened if they don't like it, then the worst thing that's happened is you brought one person to a pro wrestling show. They tried it and didn't like it. But there's going to be something that sticks with them and they will tell their friends about it and it will keep the gears going and one day they will either reference it or go back to another pro wrestling show and talk about pro wrestling with somebody and it'll be a good memory that's solid for them. You know there is no reason to keep people from this wonderful, this beautiful world that we have, and I'm so glad that you guys you talk about a friend that you that will just watch with you just have an open mind, you know. So you know I'm going off on these tangents, but you guys are bringing up such really good points that I just I wanted I had to touch on that for just a second no, yeah, no, for sure.
Speaker 1:
38:33
No, no apologies needed because, like we've definitely talked about this phil, about uh, sometimes when you have guests, especially if it's their first time, they don't want to talk. You're doing it like thank you, that's, that's exactly what we wanted and it actually segues nicely into my next question for you, because you know you make so many good points about that and you know I could tell just from the shirt and your vibe and just talking to you, like that bridge between, like, pop culture and wrestling. We thought you'd be a great guest, like from the get-go once we met you at your table and I love to see that here. So, kind of in the spirit of that conversation, you know you talked about real life people that uh impacted you and your love of wrestling uh, you mentioned wrestlers, actual legends that have influenced you uh, and icons from a pop culture standpoint like you.
Speaker 1:
39:24
You mentioned Chris Farley earlier. Is there anything else that has developed your character or your personality in wrestling? So if there's a sitcom you watched a lot that made your sense of comedy a little different, again that SNL type example you gave earlier any kind of pop culture things that really stood out for you from when you were a kid or even recently, that have kind of made their way or creeped their way into your wrestling character.
Speaker 2:
39:54
So, by the way, for anybody who doesn't know, anybody who's younger and hasn't watched the older SNLs with Chris Farley, do yourself a favor, go back and watch as many of them as you can. Farley, do yourself a favor, go back and watch as many of them as you can. Chris Farley would have been the most entertaining professional wrestler of the nineties If they would just let him get in the ring. Oh my God, he would have been amazing. So, yes, he's a he would have.
Speaker 1:
40:20
he would have sold like crazy. Absolutely.
Speaker 2:
40:23
He is amazing and pretty much like basically everything he did so absolutely yeah, he, just he is one of my biggest influences, just from a comedy perspective, from a physicality perspective, an emotion perspective. You know, I was a huge, I was a huge fan of sitcoms, sitcoms and I would. I was watching Seinfeld at an early age and I enjoyed, you know, just somebody like a Kramer, the character Kramer, who when he would just slide into the room and his facial, you know, and the way that he would just talk and move and emote and move with his hands and everything like that that that was an impact on me, that that's had an impact on me, which I do have a cheese logo in the style of Seinfeld, by the way a cheap little plug for another one of my shirts there.
Speaker 2:
41:18
But the you know, it's stuff like that. It's stuff like you know, just the cartoons that I watched as a kid Ninja Turtles, the old school Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, that remember the feeling that you get when you listen to that intro song when it would hit Saturday morning. There ain't nothing that hits like that anymore. I'm trying to chase that dopamine and I can't find it. Only thing I find it with is wrestling and my daughter. But you get what I'm saying, like that feeling of that. And then you knew that have and like stuff like that. The way they interacted with each other has influenced a little bit of that, um, subconsciously, if anything at all. Um, there was a. There was a promo that I recently did for a match that I have coming up that I did. The old jim halpert from the office uh, look right dead into the camera, camera. After the guy that I was cutting the promo with says something ridiculous and I'm just like no, no, no, no, no. And then I look and I'm just like you know it's like.
Speaker 2:
42:37
That kind of stuff is influential. You know movies and things. There's just so many things to pull off you know from pop culture and that's why I love your guys podcasts. I love what you guys discuss because full on nerd man like it. Just you can pull elements from different things and borrow and kind of melt it into one pro wrestler if you wanted to. You know it's. There are so many things that I would probably overload the podcast with.
Speaker 2:
43:16
But yeah, those stuff like that, that 90s like and I know everybody that comes from every different decade swears that their era hits because of the nostalgia, because of the memories attached to it, because of this and that. But I truly feel that the 90s, even though some of it was a little bit talking down to you, with cartoons and stuff like that, there was always a message. In a sitcom, family Matters, there's always a message you know like. I truly feel that that was when for sitcoms, movies, tv shows, regular TV shows, cartoons, anime, whatever during that late 80s, early 90s, that was when writers and writing started really hitting their stride and allowing actors to kind of come out of their shell, be real life people but also be over the top people. So, yeah, I got a lot of feels on that too.
Speaker 3:
44:12
No, that's a. You make a really good point and, like you said, I think everybody, you know, in a couple of years, like my daughter she's 16, she's going to be like, no, the 2010s were were that time. But, like I, I think you're onto something there because in in the nineties that time. But, like I, I think you're onto something there because in in the 90s. I think the point that I think you're trying to make is you can pluck some of those shows and those movies out of the 90s and release them now and they will still be as poignant and memorable as they were back then. So, uh, like eric's thing is you know he's a big star wars fan. I'm a big fan of jurassic park. You know you could release the original jurassic park and it would be a cultural sensation just as it is. It was in 1993.
Speaker 3:
44:54
For me, it was Power Rangers, Like you talk about. You know, tmnt. Hearing that Power Rangers intro got me hype as a kid. That was what I always wanted to. You know, I was looking forward to A little bit later on. We're talking about, know, late 90s, early 2000s. You know pokemon, yugioh, things like that. You hear those, those iconic intros. So, um, yeah, I really think there are shows like family matters, fresh prince of bel-air uh, full house. Those shows can be plucked out of the 90s and released now, and you have to tweak them a little bit, obviously, but still the core of those shows and the message will still be the same. So, yeah, I think that's a really, really good point. And you know, and Eric, I think that's why we're seeing a lot of shows being rebooted now, like in terms of new iterations, because people know that they will not only the parents will come back to them, but they also think that they can bring in a new generation of fans. You know, no matter what that show may be, yeah, there's a real argument for that.
Speaker 1:
45:51
I think that's a great, great point for the 80s and 90s. That's why we keep seeing reboots. I think one of the things I love the most Cheese that you brought up that I never really thought of was, like the impact of theme songs and there's a straight correlation between your classic cartoons, your Saturday morning cartoons or any show that you watch. I'm a big anime guy, so openings is important to me, like if the opening is catchy and visually stunning, I'm almost into the show right away, and anytime I hear about it it brings me back. So the fact that wrestling theme songs, your most iconic wrestling theme songs, basically do the same thing uh, those are definitely two dots. I never connected until now. I've got to ask in that spirit, cheese, do you have like any all-timer wrestling theme songs that like when you hear it, you just you're gonna go absolutely nuts the easiest layup that I could score two points with here is Stone Cold and hearing the glass break the first time after it caught on.
Speaker 2:
46:59
The first time I heard the glass break and I knew it was Stone Cold and I knew something was about to happen, I lost my shit. And then, the last time that Stone Cold showed up, when he bought Kevin Owens and you heard the glass break, I lost my shit. And I will lose it every single time because when the glass breaks, you know something good is about to get their come up and something is going to happen. That is either a reference to the past or it's going to be a reference to something that is going to happen, something that's going to continue to happen. Right, that's the iconic one.
Speaker 2:
47:40
Obviously, whenever I would hear any of stings various themes over the years, whether it crow sting, whether it was surfer sting, stuff, like you know, I'll even give a shout out to my tag team partner on the Indies right now, who goes by the name of Bud Heavy, champions of pride of wrestling based out of St Pete, florida. But whenever I hear he plays, it's the. It's the doom, doom, doom, doom. You hear that cowbell and it's like, and it's like that. It's a Nazareth song. I can't think of it, but I don't know why it's not coming to me. But I think it's another song.
Speaker 3:
48:28
Yeah, I know what song you're talking about. I can't remember the name of it, though I know what you're talking about.
Speaker 2:
48:31
Yeah, I keep wanting to say Black Betty. I know it's not Black Betty. I had it at the tip of my tongue whenever I was telling you that.
Speaker 2:
48:38
But whenever I hear that song from when he comes out there. That gets me hyped Because you, you know, he was just like you want to use when we came out as a tag team. He's like you want to use my intro, you want to, or you want to use your intro? We should use your intro because people are chanting cheese. I'm like no, no, no, no, no, no. Your song does more for me because I'm just so used to that, that tempo which, coincidentally, the last time we went out as a tag team we did the Metallica For Whom the Bell Tolls and that has a different connotation these days because Nick Gage using it and stuff like that.
Speaker 2:
49:18
But in this instance I was thinking of, you guys know, zombieland, like the most beautiful part of an intro to a movie and you see this person just running in slow motion and then you hear for whom the bell tolls playing and they play it almost all the way through the intro and it is stunning, it's the best thing and it's like that feeling that you have that evokes an emotion. You know it was for stone cold, for sting, for um nwo, for you know, later, whenever I was pleading with everyone from nwo to become good again and they were in the nwo wolf pack and then you hear that, oh, you know, like that's like okay, now there's going to be 30 people that's going to come out here and they're all going to be wearing the you know, the good guy NWO red and black. There's just so many. So I think Mike Quackenbush put out a question on Instagram the other day and it it was really kind of ties into what we're talking about here. He's like does it match the character? Does it match your gimmick? Does it match what you're doing? And I come out to.
Speaker 2:
50:38
I alternate two different songs. I have this original song, a theme song for the copyright stuff. Anytime I'm on a show that's streaming or it's, you know, on a network or whatever, and we're going to get around copyright, we use that. But it's a wonderful song. But it's a ska song. It's like totally ska.
Speaker 2:
50:58
It's talking about Sultan of Swiss. He's the Havadi heathen swing in a miss. Ain't nobody cheesing, it's. You know, that's the stuff that you hear. But I alternate between that and Cheese by Less Than Jake, which is one of my favorite bands as well and always has been, which, by the way, I don't use it because people don't believe me and I don't want to go through the whole thing, but I did when I first started, when I first became the cheese, and I was like I love this song. I have to use it as my intro. So I asked the band on Facebook, thinking I would never in a million years get a response. But I did and they were just like hey, we're no longer with that label, but we will give you our blessing to use the song from the band.
Speaker 2:
51:45
You can use it, but the label we don't know and but so, like when people what I and again, going back to my love for pro wrestling and getting people interested, I love that I hear people cheering and the ring announcer hasn't said anything yet. I love that I hear people cheering and losing their minds whenever they hear the first drum. Part of that. Don't call me rich, don't call me George, don't call me cheese. That's what I am. Don't call me rich, don't call me George. Just call me cheese, that's what I am.
Speaker 2:
52:17
And then it just goes in the whole thing. It's all like super up-tempo, but it's like it kind of connects these dots. There's this meme out there floating around. It's like listening to ska is what it feels like whenever you're eating mozzarella sticks like the fried mozzarella, the cheese sticks. You know I'm doing a terrible job of explaining that meme, but it's out there somewhere. I'm sure you've seen it, probably glanced over it, maybe laughed, but it just works. And I so, on my quacking bushes thing on Instagram, I said I come out to the cheese by less than Jake. Ska and cheese go together. It's science.
Speaker 1:
53:04
I love that.
Speaker 3:
53:04
I love that.
Speaker 1:
53:05
Honestly, I gotta, I gotta, listen to that on repeat now. So that's going to be. We have a playlist that we do on Spotify. I'm sure at some point it'll make its way on there, but, uh, with that being said, phil, um, I know you're going to present our two games that we have as we're kind of entering the third act, but are there any other questions that you had? Uh, in our first kind of portion of the episode, I've got some cheese related games that I think we're going to have a lot of fun with.
Speaker 3:
53:33
But, phil, anything that you've got before we get to that point, no, I don't, I don't think so, you know, just excited for the games. But I appreciate those answers. You say they're tangents but really it's just, it's just passion that's coming out. So we appreciate that I. I to touch a little bit on your uh, the the glass break, the very first pay-per-view I ever went to, I think it was survivor series 2003 in dallas. It was team austin versus team bischoff and that's the first time I ever heard the the glass break live and it is man. Just hearing it in person is crazy. That was like when john cena was first becoming like a face. He was turning from from from a heel to a face character and uh, yeah, that was the first pay-per-view I ever went to and it was, uh, it was a good time. So, um, but yeah, no, eric, I think we are, uh, we're ready for for the games. Which one do I pick first?
Speaker 1:
54:28
Yes, so we are going to do two games. There is our first game, which is Cheese Riddles, which I think we're going to have a lot of fun. This is going to be a tag team event for both of you to help each other out. I think this is going to be mainly to test the cheese's cheese knowledge off of riddles. So, phil, you will be the supporting member of that tag team and then we've got a cheesy pop culture trivia which I'll go into in a little bit. So a lot of fun there.
Speaker 1:
54:57
Uh, phil will actually go ahead and show it and, phil, each slide will animate. So you won't, you'll just have to press it once and it'll do its thing. So you pull that up and then we will get started. Can you see this? Okay, here we go. Awesome. And if not cheese, because I know, if it doesn't show clearly, because I know there might be a lot going on on your screen, I'm going to verbalize all this. So this will be for the video portion, but this is going to be cheese riddles. The video portion, but this is going to be cheese riddles. So as we go through each screen, I will read out the riddle and cheese you're going to be tagged in each round, uh, and if you need help, if you're not sure or you get it wrong, uh, we will tag in phil to support you, are you?
Speaker 2:
55:46
ready, ready, baby. All right, phil, let's go ahead and jump to support you. Are you ready for this challenge? I'll be ready, ready, baby.
Speaker 1:
55:50
All right, phil, let's go ahead and jump to our first riddle. I melt in heat with a stretchy pull Atop a slice. I make taste buds full. Chase what do you got?
Speaker 2:
56:02
Mozzarella.
Speaker 1:
56:04
It is mozzarella.
Speaker 3:
56:07
You want me to tap?
Speaker 1:
56:08
Yes, okay, there we go.
Speaker 2:
56:12
Yeah, I'm the mozzarella fella. We're off to a great start, that's right, All right.
Speaker 1:
56:17
Our next one At a fancy feast. I'm soft to feel with a white coat. That's quite the appeal.
Speaker 2:
56:24
Brie.
Speaker 3:
56:26
It is Brie. I'm really glad I haven't had to get tagged in here all right.
Speaker 1:
56:35
Uh, let's go ahead and jump to our next one. I'm aged or mild from dutch. I hailed on a cheese platter.
Speaker 2:
56:41
I'm often detailed hmm, oh, uh, is it Gouda?
Speaker 1:
56:52
it is, gouda it is. Gouda alright we are off to a great start. Oh, gouda, this one may be the hardest one of them all. If you were to cut me, you might think I'd ouch, but instead I'd just show you my holes.
Speaker 2:
57:17
Fantastic riddle. By the way, I'm guessing we're going for Swiss here.
Speaker 1:
57:22
It is Swiss. That's the only one I knew for sure.
Speaker 3:
57:27
I think, oh, that's fantastic one, I knew for sure.
Speaker 2:
57:29
I think, oh, that's fantastic.
Speaker 1:
57:30
I'm gonna use that in a promo. I'm giving it to you. It's all free. Thank you, alright, let's jump to our next one. Too great or not is often the question for pasta's friend. I'm the right suggestion.
Speaker 2:
57:51
Parmesan.
Speaker 1:
57:53
It is Parmesan.
Speaker 2:
57:56
Yeah.
Speaker 1:
57:58
All right, let's jump to our next one. We got about 10 in total here, fresh and crumbly, I may be.
Speaker 2:
58:13
In a Greek salad you'll see me Feta.
Speaker 1:
58:16
It is Feta. All right, listen, we might be going for an undefeated streak here. I'm chilling.
Speaker 2:
58:28
I'm taking all the heat.
Speaker 1:
58:28
No, it's fine uh, for pies of apple or a slice of bread.
Speaker 2:
58:33
I'm the friend to whom you have when um, I want to say cheddar, because I've I've heard of people doing that oh, yeah, yeah it is cheddar.
Speaker 3:
58:49
Yeah, I just recently saw that on Twitter that people are putting cheese on apple pie.
Speaker 1:
58:55
There's only a couple of hard ones in here, or?
Speaker 2:
58:57
I thought that was one of them. For the record, it's like a Midwest thing I think Of course.
Speaker 3:
59:05
I think I read New England as well. Oh, maybe New England. Yeah, that tracks.
Speaker 1:
59:07
Yeah, because I didn't understand the riddle. I was like pie.
Speaker 2:
59:11
Yeah, that's what set it off for me. But, like you know, some people will use the slices of american, like the singles, you know, and that's not right interesting yeah that is, uh, that is criminal.
Speaker 1:
59:26
All right, let's jump to our next one. We're moving along nicely, yeah, uh, I am italian, firm and smooth in sandwiches.
Speaker 2:
59:43
I'm the groove Provolone.
Speaker 1:
59:49
Oh, it is Provolone. Nice, wow, man. All right, we are on, I believe, our final two. So two more and you're undefeated in cheese.
Speaker 3:
1:00:02
I'm sorry I haven't tagged you, phil. No, no, it's totally fine, I wouldn't have gotten most of these.
Speaker 1:
1:00:14
Honestly, phil, I also was sure you would be bad at this game, so that's totally fine, that's okay. Um, I'm not old, I'm rather fresh. In salad and bowls I mesh.
Speaker 2:
1:00:24
I will say these last two might be tricky, but not really yeah, I mean it's probably going to be an obvious thing, and the salads, salads and bowls have got me thrown off. Yeah not old, I'm rather fresh. Oh, can I give you the tag? Give me the tag Fresh. Oh, can I give you the tag? Give me the tag I'm not old.
Speaker 3:
1:00:54
What's that? Oh my gosh. What's that cheese people don't like to eat because they associate it with it being spoiled.
Speaker 1:
1:01:08
Oh, gorgonzola, no, not Gorgonzola. Oh, gorgonzola, no, not Gorgonzola.
Speaker 2:
1:01:11
Oh, oh, no, it's Lindberger.
Speaker 3:
1:01:13
What's it called?
Speaker 2:
1:01:14
That's Lindberger, that's the one I remember, but I know it's not.
Speaker 1:
1:01:20
This one, I believe, is typically like in a tub if I'm thinking correctly.
Speaker 3:
1:01:24
Yeah, I can't. I'm picturing it, I just can't remember what it's called.
Speaker 1:
1:01:30
Alright, Phil, let's reveal our answer.
Speaker 3:
1:01:32
Oh, this is going to make me mad, it is cottage cheese Ha Cottage.
Speaker 2:
1:01:40
I knew.
Speaker 1:
1:01:40
Phil couldn't figure out the name. I knew he had it, I knew.
Speaker 3:
1:01:42
I could picture the bowl of it in my head.
Speaker 1:
1:01:46
Listen, if you're going to take an L on cottage cheese, we're doing the right thing here so we're doing good all right, let's do our last one. I'm not sharp like cheddar, nor soft like brie. I'm a dish where cheese is the sea this one. I feel like is kind of cheating a little bit, but if you think, hard enough. But the cheese makes sense, see, so like maybe a soup not sharp like cheddar, not soft like brie.
Speaker 2:
1:02:28
I'm a dish, it's a dish.
Speaker 3:
1:02:33
Or cheese is the sea.
Speaker 2:
1:02:38
Yikes, this has got me feeling bad. I'm stumped.
Speaker 1:
1:02:43
We were on a roll until cottage cheese there. Yeah yeah, cheese is the sea I'm trying to think of. So what I'll? What my hint to you guys will be? It's not necessarily what type of cheese for this one, more so how it served yeah, like a there's grilled cheese there's.
Speaker 3:
1:03:04
We already had mozzarella, so it's not a mozzarella stick.
Speaker 2:
1:03:07
Uh-uh.
Speaker 1:
1:03:09
Like broccoli cheddar Phil, you are so off. Oh, like broccoli cheddar, a mozzarella stick is a bad, bad guess.
Speaker 3:
1:03:16
No, I wasn't guessing, I was just listing off cheese dishes.
Speaker 2:
1:03:20
Yeah, I like your style. It's a process of elimination. Yeah, what other?
Speaker 3:
1:03:26
cheese dishes are there.
Speaker 2:
1:03:30
Well, damn, cheese is the C.
Speaker 3:
1:03:36
And a.
Speaker 1:
1:03:36
C I think liquid. Mm-hmm, I'll have you both throw out an answer. Phil, I'm going to make you go first.
Speaker 3:
1:03:48
It's got cheddar in this, so this isn't it but broccoli cheddar soup. I don't know.
Speaker 2:
1:03:52
I was thinking of Panera. Yeah, Panera with that delicious bread bowl.
Speaker 1:
1:03:58
Come on.
Speaker 2:
1:04:02
Jeez, I don't know man. Cheese is the C, that's what. What that is it's the biggest hint it's the biggest hint now I'm gonna, I'm gonna kick myself in the forehead whenever you read it I don't like an alfredo.
Speaker 3:
1:04:21
Like a pasta.
Speaker 1:
1:04:22
Like a pasta, alfredo, okay well, let's reveal it it is fondue. Wow oh my gosh wow, that is, that is it, listen. Cottage cheese definitely, definitely uh, hurt us there, but he railed eight, eight out of ten, and those two, those last two, especially that last, was really kind of cheating.
Speaker 2:
1:04:47
So it wasn't really a cheese, I'll take it. That is good.
Speaker 1:
1:04:52
That is good, way better than me and Phil would have done on cheese knowledge.
Speaker 3:
1:04:56
You really are living up to the name.
Speaker 1:
1:05:00
All right, our next one. That was really just the appetizer.
Speaker 1:
1:05:04
Our next one is the cheesy pop culture trivia, phil, this one will animate after, like the first two slides. Yeah, so right here, cheesy pop culture trivia. I'll read off everything here, the screen here for the video portion of our episode. And, phil, if you want to continue forward, we will talk about the rules of the game and on our next, it's going to tell us the rules. Every question revolves around cheese and pop culture. Pop culture can be anything from games to movies to even real life locations. Our guest is going to go first. Then the person with the correct answer will continue to go.
Speaker 1:
1:05:51
Now, for this reason, to make it competitive, because it will be you versus Phil in a singles match here the points are going to increase by round because they get more difficult, and Phil to try to make it a little fair, because cheese can go on a run here we will only give point losses to the first wrong answer. So whoever's currently getting that first crack at it could lose the same amount of points for a wrong answer. So, with that being said, let's move on into our first round. We've got three rounds, three questions and round one's easy, so let's do our first one Cheese. Can you tell us the answer to this. This was the first restaurant of its kind for kids and families that offered pizza, animatronic entertainment and an indoor arcade. What is this?
Speaker 2:
1:06:47
That is Charles entertainment Cheese.
Speaker 1:
1:06:49
Chuck E Cheese that is Chuck E Cheese oh.
Speaker 3:
1:06:55
God, that's the heinous one.
Speaker 1:
1:07:00
I did pick the creepiest picture that I could uh.
Speaker 2:
1:07:03
Chuck E.
Speaker 1:
1:07:04
Cheese early on, I could try, so all right, good, all right, let's jump into our next one. Uh cheese, this will be back to you. Uh, this popular game was one of the first mass-produced three-dimensional board games and saw players turn against each other using rodent-shaped game pieces. What is this? It's a mousetrap, damn. It is mousetrap Wonderful. So that's another point. Each one in this round is just a single point.
Speaker 2:
1:07:36
You guys remember the commercial.
Speaker 3:
1:07:38
Yeah, and then the trap would only work like three out of ten times. Yeah, it's terrible, it's a piece of crap so poorly made, alright last question in round one, which is easy.
Speaker 1:
1:07:54
The term Cheddar Whizzy was shouted by a supporting character in this Disney animated film Cheese. What is this? Is this Goofy Movie? It is a goofy movie, all right. Leaning tower of cheese, uh an icon iconic.
Speaker 2:
1:08:17
I want to take a pause for the cause here real quick. Pay attention to the next cheese match, because there may be a move called the leaning tower of cheese.
Speaker 1:
1:08:30
Yes.
Speaker 2:
1:08:30
There you go.
Speaker 1:
1:08:32
I love it Full circle.
Speaker 3:
1:08:35
All right.
Speaker 1:
1:08:37
Cheese. You have three points going into round. Two Points are now doubled and we will continue on. Remember you do have to give an answer and wrong answers will cost you points. So as it gets harder, phil, you'll have a chance to crack it. Uh, cheese, we'll go to the next one. And the next question is the term cheesing became popular in what fighting game community to describe the use of cheap or unfair tactics to win.
Speaker 2:
1:09:11
Oh game community to describe the use of cheap or unfair tactics to win uh fighting game community. Uh, but it's based on the fighting game, is it? Is it mortal kombat?
Speaker 1:
1:09:20
it is not so we've. We got you down to one point you're still in the positive phil.
Speaker 3:
1:09:29
No, you have an opportunity to overtake that was gonna be my guess, so, uh, you will not lose points for your guess, so I'm gonna go with tekken it is not tekken.
Speaker 1:
1:09:40
Uh, our answer is actually street fighter.
Speaker 2:
1:09:45
Oh, why did that go with my gut?
Speaker 1:
1:09:47
Why did that go with my?
Speaker 2:
1:09:49
gut.
Speaker 1:
1:09:50
All right Cheese. Since nobody got that right, would you like to take a crack at the next one or give it to Phil? And this one states this famous mascot has used slogans like it's not easy being cheesy and the cheese that goes crunch.
Speaker 2:
1:10:11
You want to give it a try?
Speaker 1:
1:10:12
no, okay I don't know, phil, we'll let you go first on this one uh chester cheeto ah, it is chester cheeto. Good job all right, che right.
Speaker 3:
1:10:24
Cheetah, chester, cheetah.
Speaker 1:
1:10:26
Chester Cheetah yeah, cheetah Cheeto yeah. All right, you've got the lead with two points, phil.
Speaker 3:
1:10:32
Okay.
Speaker 1:
1:10:33
And the next question is for you. Gore Verbinski, known for directing the first three Pirates of the Caribbean films, made his directorial debut with a movie about two brothers who inherit a mansion and a cheese factory, and I do believe you have seen this film, if my memory serves correctly.
Speaker 3:
1:10:57
Inherit a mansion and a cheese factory. What?
Speaker 2:
1:11:03
I don't know. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 3:
1:11:07
Gore Verbinski. I don't know, I don't know anything he's done out there. Okay, direct deal. Okay, let's think.
Speaker 1:
1:11:16
Yeah, take a moment.
Speaker 3:
1:11:18
Okay, so it would have been before the first Pirates which came out in. Like what? 2003 or something like that. No, that's not.
Speaker 1:
1:11:27
It inherit a mansion when you see the movie you're gonna be so angry. I'm pretty sure you've seen. I feel like we had have a conversation about this oh my gosh, I have no idea, stewart.
Speaker 3:
1:11:43
I know that's not it, but I just thought of a mansion. I have no clue.
Speaker 1:
1:11:49
I'm not going to provide commentary on that, but I will later. It is not Stuart Little Cheese, no risk here. Give us a shot. What movie is this?
Speaker 2:
1:12:02
I feel like it's got Nathan Lane on the. I can see. I think I can see the cover of it if I'm thinking of the right one.
Speaker 1:
1:12:13
That is a movie cover.
Speaker 2:
1:12:18
It's something about the hunt, oh mouse hunt, is it mouse hunt?
Speaker 1:
1:12:30
It is oh my.
Speaker 3:
1:12:32
God, maybe that's why, subconsciously, I was thinking of Stuart Little.
Speaker 1:
1:12:38
That's what I was going to say that was the commentary. I was like I don't want to give it away, but Stuart Little, such a bad guess but also close.
Speaker 3:
1:12:45
That's not a good guess, because I knew it wasn't Stuart Little little.
Speaker 1:
1:12:47
But you, yeah, and then literally lay down the cover with the mouse and the cheese yeah drawing.
Speaker 2:
1:12:52
Drawing from that, you kind of led me there because of the stewart little and I was just like, yeah, nice cheese boom yeah, oh, I did not know how that one was gonna go that made me, so that is such an obscure poll by the way it is.
Speaker 3:
1:13:09
Oh yeah, I haven't thought about the mouse hunt movie in years honestly, 98 putting this together, guys was.
Speaker 1:
1:13:16
It was an interesting challenge. Uh, it was so much fun, but definitely I had to go deep.
Speaker 2:
1:13:22
Brother, I feel you, I do I do trivia, so I host trivia night. Oh cool, um, trivia with the cheese. So, like this is, I'm appreciating the level of detail that you put into this so much I can't even begin to tell you I appreciate that.
Speaker 1:
1:13:38
Um, all right, let's jump to our next one so I'm back to zero.
Speaker 3:
1:13:46
Yes, okay, understood uh cheese.
Speaker 1:
1:13:48
You're at three, uh, and now points are going to double. So now all points will be four points. Okay, uh, but that also means you could lose four points. So very interesting here, uh, cheese. Our first question the 1940s Evelyn Overton found a recipe in her local Detroit newspaper that inspired her to move to LA and start a bakery. It is now a very popular restaurant with over 300 locations in the US and Canada. What restaurant is this? And I and I'll make it interesting for the hard round. For the hard round, you won't lose points, or you'll. You will lose points for a wrong answer, but you can skip. However, phil does get a chance to answer and these are worth four points, so that is your risk.
Speaker 2:
1:14:46
I does get a chance to answer, and these are worth four points, so that is your risk. So all signs point to something with cheese in the name, and of the myriad of restaurants that hint to cheese, there's one that I can think of that has cheese in the name. But the only reason I'm a little bit hesitant on it but I'm just going to go with my gut, which is what I should have done before is Cheesecake Factory, because it has cheese in it. There's a lot of cheesecake factories out there.
Speaker 3:
1:15:27
Yeah.
Speaker 2:
1:15:28
You know, I think if I'm wrong I'll take the L, but I think that it's Cheesecake Factory.
Speaker 1:
1:15:36
Well, evelyn did start a bakery and they thought it was a good idea to have a restaurant with a very specific dessert menu Phil Bakery. You can move forward because it is the Cheesecake Factory.
Speaker 3:
1:15:48
Very good, we took the same journey there. Cheese Detroit was throwing me off a little bit because it's like Detroit-style cheesecake. That's not a thing. Detroit was the biggest thing that threw me, yeah, and a menu that's way too large. Mind you Cheesecake Factory, in case you guys are watching Too big, pick like half of it and go from there, please, all right uh, cheese you're, you've got a 7-0 lead right now uh, so we have some some room to play with.
Speaker 1:
1:16:21
Oh my god, let's go ahead and move to our next question. In the opening to one episode of this popular sitcom series, we see one of the characters stuffing a total of 32 cheese balls into his mouth. Cheese what show is this? Oh that's the Office. It is the Office. It is a cold open of the Office.
Speaker 2:
1:16:46
US US version.
Speaker 1:
1:16:48
Jeez, you're running away with this one.
Speaker 2:
1:16:50
I made the Office reference earlier. I love the Office so much. I love both versions of the Office. It's like a pro wrestling thing for me, whenever they were talking about uh, a lot of people were talking about there's going to be a reboot and not hardly any of the original cast, or it's not a reboot, it's like a continuation.
Speaker 3:
1:17:16
But yeah, different. Uh, I think it's going to be at a magazine company or something like that, or uh, yeah, something along those lines.
Speaker 2:
1:17:23
Some other it has to. There's no way you can, because even looking back on it, even in the 2010s or whenever it was on primetime, I was like, come on, nobody's working at a paper company and making a living wage. I'm barely making it right now. You guys aren't making any money, right? Not at all.
Speaker 3:
1:17:47
There's no way you're finding new clients to sell paper to at this point right, phil, uh, phil, would you have gotten this one?
Speaker 1:
1:17:54
uh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, had I known this, I would have switched this in mouse hunt in difficulty. Oh my god, here we are, here we are. Uh, all right, let's jump to our last one. Um and uh, phil, this is. I really didn't try to set this against you, but it just happened again, naturally mouse hunt was the turning point, so there's no recovering for mouse hunt, uh cheese.
Speaker 1:
1:18:20
Our last question uh. In 1995, frank emirate jr was flying on a private plane from a football game when the plane crashed due to ice accumulation. He was saved from serious injury when he used what item for protection in the crash well, this has got to be. I will say, because of the uniqueness of this story, if you're not familiar with it, it is the hardest one I could come up with.
Speaker 2:
1:19:02
However, the item. You will know what the item is Football game.
Speaker 1:
1:19:13
He was. He was on a private leaving, so he was leaving a football game.
Speaker 2:
1:19:17
Wait, so he's a football player, uh he was a.
Speaker 1:
1:19:19
He was a sports fan. He was just attending the game.
Speaker 3:
1:19:21
He was just attending the game okay, because was just attending the game. Okay Cause.
Speaker 2:
1:19:26
I was going to be like Private plane, yeah. So what's my, what's my score right now?
Speaker 1:
1:19:36
You're at 11. If you get this wrong, you'll go down, I believe, to seven and. Phil cannot catch you. This is just for bragging rights, unless I make the question like 10 points.
Speaker 2:
1:19:50
It's all vibes. Is this the last one? This is.
Speaker 1:
1:19:58
You're basically just refusing to cover at this point. You're taunting to the crowd before you get the three count. Come on everybody you're talking to the crowd before you get the three count come on everybody um.
Speaker 2:
1:20:09
I want football game, not a football player.
Speaker 1:
1:20:16
He's a fan if you get this dude, I'm gonna, I'm gonna lose it.
Speaker 2:
1:20:22
So when he used this for protection, so did he use one of those foam cheesehead things from the Green Bay Packers, Like the foam cheesehead. Oh, that's such a good guess there's no fucking way.
Speaker 1:
1:20:41
The answer is the cheesehead.
Speaker 2:
1:20:47
I'm shitting myself right now.
Speaker 1:
1:20:49
That's crazy. That was one of the most dominant performances we've ever seen that was a squash match.
Speaker 3:
1:20:58
I was an enhancement talent and I laid down.
Speaker 1:
1:21:02
Oh yeah. No 100% a jobber I got.
Speaker 3:
1:21:05
Chester Cheeto and I, and I didn't even say it.
Speaker 2:
1:21:08
It's Chester Cheeto, I didn't say it right yeah you didn't say it right. This is AEW Dark brother.
Speaker 3:
1:21:15
Yeah, and honestly that wasn't my guess. I was going to go like wheel of cheese, like as a flotation device, like he was using like a wheel a wheel.
Speaker 1:
1:21:22
I did purposely leave enough hints in there that it could be gotten, but to get it is crazy, is crazy In my opinion like that doesn't sound.
Speaker 2:
1:21:31
That sounds like it could be an athlete's name. Somebody who paid played for the Packers. Because I'm, like cheese related and I was I was going to say something along the lines of like he hugged onto a big one of those. He had one of those big Parmesan Reggiano wheels for some reason, I don't know, but then I got thinking he was coming, he was a fan, he was coming from a football game. It had to be one of those stupid cheese heads which, by the way, I'll never wear. It's too on the nose.
Speaker 1:
1:22:00
No, too, on the nose, they're fine. They're fine. Don't get me wrong, man. That was absolutely wild. What a hell of a way. What a hell of a way to bring us towards the wrap of our episode cheese. What a performance. Uh, we're definitely going to talk about this in the post show. Uh, we would love to give you the opportunity as we're wrapping up, uh, just to let us know if there's anything you want to plug, any events you've got going on, anything in particular, we'll also make sure to have a lot of your links in the show notes. So, if you want to know where to find the cheese, if you want to maybe get some future merch and find out where he's at to support all that great stuff, cheese, this is your chance to promote yourself for everybody that's still listening, for the podcast and for the rest of our audience.
Speaker 2:
1:22:49
I'll do that, ace Ventura like soccer style kicker.
Speaker 2:
1:22:56
All that thing he rolls off. First and foremost, please follow me on Instagram at thecheesepro. That's where all of the a lot of the posts go. A lot of the posts go, a lot of the videos go. Um, I do have a YouTube channel. It's the cheese pro wrestler. Uh, I am trying to build that. I'm trying to be cool, like you guys, um, and do some podcasting, do some fun stuff. Uh, I'm kind of all over the place. It's going to be hard for me to narrow down, but I'm kind of all over the place. It's going to be hard for me to narrow down, but please follow my YouTube channel, I will. I I'm doing a thing where I will send you for free, no shipping attached, anybody who can show me that they have subscribed from from this day we're recording. I don't know when you guys are going to release this, but we're doing this on the 10th of July 2024.
Speaker 1:
1:23:48
It'll, uh, yeah, it'll release on the 31st, so we got some time.
Speaker 2:
1:23:53
Okay, we have time. So, from the 31st on, from when people hear this, anybody who subscribes to my YouTube channel, I will send you a free cheese sticker, no cost to you. No shipping costs, nothing. I will send you a free cheese sticker, no cost to you. No shipping cost, nothing. I will send you a free cheese sticker.
Speaker 2:
1:24:11
I am trying to build my YouTube channel, and not just for the monetization or anything like that, but I'm stepping into that world. I'm enjoying some of the long-form content that I'm doing, like talking to you guys and stuff like that. So my YouTube channel is very small right now. It's got some old stuff, but I'm going to be updating it very frequently very soon. I'm on X or Twitter, whichever.
Speaker 2:
1:24:37
Your poison is the Cheese PW. I'm the Cheese. Pro Wrestling on Facebook. Pro wrestling on Facebook. Um, I do have. I have my, my. I have a pro wrestling tease, but that's more of just so everybody will know. Hey, I'm a pro wrestler named the cheese I. You know you don't make a lot of money off of them, but it is cool to have a pro wrestling store but my main store.
Speaker 2:
1:25:02
If you're going to buy something from me and you can't get to a show, go to devotedbrandcom, my great, great, great friend who's like a brother to me, named Mike devoted. He's a tattoo artist. He has a tattoo shop in Palm Coast, florida, and he has a t-shirt printing shop and a lot of pro wrestlers in Florida have used him. But he has on his website he has a lot of the current designs and, by the way, all of my designs I use local artists, nothing AI generated Not that there's anything necessarily wrong with that but I use local artists for any of the stuff. The Blockbuster cheese buster video logo on your shirt, eric, is made by a local artist, everything.
Speaker 2:
1:25:54
So, that being said, I do have some events coming up. They're all in Florida this time. There is I'm not going to list necessarily an order, but, again, go to my Instagram and look on Facebook and stuff like that. I Instagram on my most recent posts. I've posted all of them, so you can kind of swipe and see the flyers. But I have, I'm going to cheat, I'm going to look because I don't want to. I don't want to squash this opportunity. This is a big opportunity you guys are giving me right now.
Speaker 1:
1:26:31
I was going to. I was going to say I went immediately to to yours. I know we have a lot of events coming up between now and when this episode drops, so any any in August that you've got coming up or lined up.
Speaker 2:
1:26:44
Oh yeah, that's right, it's going to be. They're all going to be over August. Somebody just asked me about an event to do in August. I can't remember. There's a couple of different things. There's several different things going on in August, but I can't remember them right now because I'm very bad at scheduling. It's a weak point of mine. I'm trying to work on it, but I would say the best way to find out what's going on with me is to go to my Instagram at thecheesepro. My link tree is up in the bio. You can hit all the different links for the shirts, for different whatever.
Speaker 3:
1:27:22
That's the best way to know what's going on with me yeah, and all that is going to be in the show notes of this episode. So, uh, make sure you follow cheese, uh everywhere that you possibly can. And uh, cheese. I just want to thank you so much for for joining us here this evening, for uh, sharing the stories about, uh, you know your grandparents and why wrestling means so much to you, and just pop culture in general. We had an absolute blast. If you ever find yourself wanting to come back on, we would love to have you. We do some other episodes here in the podcast where we bring guests in and play some more games and talk more pop culture. So the invitation will always be open. And, eric, we definitely got to make sure that we make some time to find out where she's going to be and if you're ever in Northeast Florida, definitely let us know and we will absolutely make it out your way and come see you and support.
Speaker 3:
1:28:13
So, for those of you that maybe are fans of the Cheese and you're listening to our podcast for the first time, you also find our Linktree link in the show notes of this episode. You can find the library to all the rest of our content. You can follow us on social media Instagram, tiktok, our growing Discord page, and Twitch being the most important one, so make sure you follow us there. You can also support the show a couple of ways. You can head on over to our YouTube page, subscribe, just like you're going to go, subscribe to the cheese, leave those likes, turn on alerts, all of that stuff. You can also leave a five star review wherever you're listening to this podcast Apple podcast, spotify, whatever it may be, and that goes a very, very long way as well. But if you want to maybe see a little bit of this pre show and the post show, eric will let you know how you can get access to that and a lot more by joining a very special community.
Speaker 1:
1:29:04
Yeah. So we have a lot of great things going on at our Patreon so you're able to go ahead and get exclusive behind the scenes access and early access to episodes like this one. We're really working on trying to grow that community and get things moving, but big shout out to our supporting patrons, stefan Briar and T3Kato. We really appreciate all of you and for everyone that joins. We appreciate that, but we understand it's not for everybody. So the likes, the comments, the shares, the listens, the engagement, all of that goes such a long way and we truly appreciate that. Make sure to spread that love over to the cheese as well. With that being said, my name is Mr Eric Almighty. That is my cohost, phil the Filipino, and our guest the cheese as well. With that being said, my name is mr eric almighty. That is my co-host, phil the filipino, and our guest, the cheese. And please don't forget, we release new episodes every wednesday on the podcast, with bonus content on platforms like twitch and tiktok, and all you gotta do is wait for it.
Speaker 2:
1:30:01
So I heard you're looking for a go-to source for entertainment. Wait for it Gaming. Wait for it Anime PLUS ULTRA. Mr Eric, almighty and Phil the.
Speaker 3:
1:30:14
Filipino. Yeah, they've got you covered, and all you gotta do is wait for it.
Speaker 2:
1:30:34
This is the Wait For it Podcast.
