Mark Bell's Power Project - Power Project EP. 166 - Seth Rollins & Jason Khalipa

Episode Date: January 15, 2019

Multitasking and multi-casting with Seth Rollins and Jason Khalipa. While Seth Rollins and the WWE rolled through Sacramento, Jason Khalipa linked up with Seth here at Sling Shot HQ to record a podcast. Colby Lopez (who performs as Seth Rollins in World Wrestling Entertainment) is a top-level superstar who has held numerous prestigious titles in the wrestling industry. He has performed for audiences around the globe, gaining their respect and adoration along the way. As a pro wrestler, he was the only man to cash in a Money in the Bank contract in the main event of WrestleMania, the only human being to ever hold the WWE Championship and United States Championship simultaneously, and took the WWE Title from Brock Lesnar. He also co-owns his own wrestling school in Moline, Illinois called the Black & The Brave Wrestling Academy, training students in the ring throughout the entire twelve week process, giving hands-on attention in order to provide the highest quality training possible. This episode can be heard here and on Jason Khalipa's AMRAP Mentality Podcast. If you like what you here, please give Jason and his podcast a like and subscribe at: http://www.jasonkhalipa.com/ampodcast/ ➢SHOP NOW: https://markbellslingshot.com/ Enter Discount code, "POWERPROJECT" at checkout and receive 15% off all Sling Shots ➢Subscribe Rate & Review on iTunes at: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/mark-bells-power-project/id1341346059?mt=2 ➢Listen on Stitcher Here: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/mark-bells-power-project?refid=stpr ➢Listen on Google Play here: https://play.google.com/music/m/Izf6a3gudzyn66kf364qx34cctq?t=Mark_Bells_Power_Project ➢Listen on SoundCloud Here: https://soundcloud.com/markbellspowerproject FOLLOW Mark Bell ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marksmellybell ➢ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkBellSuperTraining ➢ Twitter: https://twitter.com/marksmellybell ➢ Snapchat: marksmellybell Follow The Power Project Podcast ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/MarkBellsPowerProject ➢ YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/markbellspowerproject Podcast Produced by Andrew Zaragoza ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamandrewz

Was it Facebook? Yeah, yeah, yeah. There was like a mint. Oh, the mint mojito. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't even like mint, but I was into it. I brought him to Facebook because it's just a whole different world out there. That's that Bay Area life.

Oh, dude, it was awesome. We got to go back again. My whoop, man. My whoop says I had a good training day today. My perceived rate of exertion was, I would say, hard. You have your whoop, like wristband thing, right? I have the whoop. Do you have to put in a little extra effort tonight?

Because I heard that Vincent Kennedy McMahon is in the house. Oh, he is. Yeah, he's making his return. Uh-oh. What's it like having him around? Does he pop into the locker room and stuff like that? Is he around a lot or you don't see him? No.

He hides and then he is in like guerrilla, you know, right before you go out to the ring. He sits in his little chair and then he gets on his limo and goes to his jet. Every once in a while he gets lost walking around the hallways and that's about it. Who is kind of like in charge of you guys? Like, is it like Triple H and those guys? Dude, there's just so many people now. You know what I mean? There's a person for everything.

So, you know, there's two people in talent relations. There's like a head referee. There's, you know, a bunch of match producers. And then you have a team of writers that do the promos. So there's just, everyone's got, everyone puts in a little bit of effort and, you know, specialized areas as opposed to like Vince is the dictator, but he's got minions that handle all the menial tasks. How long has he been doing that for?

Vince is forever. I mean, his dad did it. He was born into it. He bought, he bought the company from his dad in the eighties. I want to say seventies or eighties. Is there,

is there somebody in the locker room that you look to when you come back from your match and somebody's like, hey, Seth, you're looking a little soft, or they give you advice on a move or some rhythm to the match? Is there somebody back there that you're kind of relying on? I know you've been doing it for a long time, but there's always somebody, right? Well, yeah, for me in my mind, I'm that guy now.

Okay. Yeah, so I've been doing it that long that I'm that guy that people ask that question to. Awesome. So for me, I don't answer to anybody, but the only people I talk to are Triple H and Vince. As far as like, what do you see? Because they're the only people that, not that there's other experienced guys back there who have the information, but they're the ones that I want. You know what I mean? You want the feedback. Yeah. They're the, they're the guys.

And one of those one things too, is like, you don't want to, sometimes some guys are like, they ask everybody for feedback. And then you just get different, too much, too much feedback, too much response. And how much of the feedback do you think they're trying to like throw you off your game a little bit too? Well, some, some guys might. And I mean, maybe back in the day when the culture was a little different and um but now we're so much of a family and the guys you know people are around each other so much that i feel

like we all want success for each other i mean everybody wants the quote-unquote top spots but at the same time like if if i do well then everyone does well because we're all bringing people in andrew how are we by running oh no we're all bringing people in. Andrew, how are we, by the way? We're running. Oh, no, we've been running this whole time. Oh, okay. So how much time do you have? You have like 45 minutes?

Yeah, for sure. Yeah, we're good. Yeah, yeah. We're on the clock, baby. I'm going to do a quick little, I'll just intro what we're doing here, right? Sure, perfect, yeah. All right, guys, we are here with Colby Lopez, a.k.a. Seth Rollins, WWE superstar. And we've known each other for a long time. Yeah.

And I've been wanting to get you on the Amarant Mentality podcast for a while because I feel like you embrace this idea of as many reps as possible. And I want to talk about that today. But we were, we're in Sacramento and I have a really good friend in Sacramento. His name's Mark Bell. Hey. Aka Smelly. And, uh, we were at his gym, super training gym, and we just got in a great workout. And so we're all sitting here and, you know, Mark, you obviously have a big background with wrestling and, um, you know,

Colby, you have a huge background. Yeah. I got a background with wrestling. A little bit, but I'd love to, um, kind of start the conversation off by talking about your work ethic. You know, we're sitting here and we just got done doing a great training session. And Mark and I are sitting and we're thinking, man, this guy travels a couple times a week. Last night you were in San Jose at a big event. Today you're doing a show in Sacramento. Yeah, you're coming in here and you're busting your butt in the gym. And then you're traveling constantly. You've been doing this for years.

And so I want to kind of back up. I was listening to a podcast and you were talking about how as a young kid, you looked up to Hulk Hogan and you wanted to be kind of, you aspired to be that. And you've been driven and focused for a very long time. And when you were 18, you kind of started really pursuing wrestling.

And so what kind of started your whole like work ethic? Where is that coming from? Cause I imagine your guy that's just all in, where does that stem from? And what, I want to talk a little more about that. I, I firmly believe that it was the environment that I grew up in. Uh, just my parents, their work ethic and my grandparents, like they were all, I, cause I grew up in a really small Midwestern town, like less than a thousand people, not a single stoplight anywhere. You know, the mailman delivered to a post office. There's no way to drive into the town to go to the grocery store. But like my parents were very like work driven, work oriented. And we weren't, you know,

uh, we weren't poor. We weren't, we weren't we were just middle class just regular folks in a little house in the corner you know um but they always uh put that work ethic into me and my dad um who's not my biological father he adopted me when i was two uh last name lopez and his parents coming from hispanic background like they were always about the hustle so just always work work work work work so they would you know they put me to work at an early age, just, just doing little things like tours and yard work and stuff like that. But it was always sort of incentive based in the sense that like, you know, you do this work and you're praised and you get something behind it. So for me, I think that stuck with me as I got older is like, if you work hard, something

good will come out of it. And so they never complained. They never moaned. They were never like, oh, we want more. We need this. You know, they were just like, you go to, you go to work, you do your job. You're thankful for what you have gratitude. Obviously you want to move up in the world, but it was never like, um, you know, it just, it work always felt like the means to an end to me. It felt like that was the way to get how I, where I wanted to go. And, and, and it seemed to work every step of the way I would put in the work, I would get the opportunities. And then if I, you know, when, you know, preparation meets opportunity, that's where you get the success, hopefully. So, um, that to me, that's where it comes from. How do you get yourself to the gym? Is it just automatic? Like, have you learned over the years years if you don't get in the car in the city that you're in and just head to the gym that it ain't gonna happen have you kind of like learned that over the years yeah i mean dude you know you guys know how it is fitness becomes

a bit of an addiction you know what i mean and probably in a chemical way but it's it's it's a mental vibe like i just feel so much better when i get a workout in and and the cool thing about CrossFit with the community and it's been great for me it's made fitness fun whereas you know back in the day it was like oh go to the gym get your sets and reps and put your headphones on and like shut out the world like after oh after you do that for years it's a lonely existence but like CrossFit is cool like today we had what six six people working out today, right? Good vibes, pushing each other. Yeah.

And so that is the incentive. And I told Mark before I came in here, he's like, oh, I can't wait to see you. And I'm like, just wait, I'm going to be a sad sack today, man. Because I was exhausted. I was tired. But once we got in here, started moving around and like, you know, Jason's got good energy. Mark's got good energy. Everybody was kind of feeling good.

My coach, Josh EG, who's in the corner over here, he's got to get to him. And we're all open-minded. So it's like, oh, let's do this. Let's do this. Let's do this. And the next thing you know, you know, morale picks up and I'm ready to go. So it was a good, it's a good kick in the butt. And it's something that I've learned that I need to get me going for the day.

On that note, what does your schedule look like? Because when I think about, you know, kind of segmenting my day, I try and prioritize what I want to get done. I know Mark does the same for you. What does that look like? So what does your schedule look like now that you're, you know, now that you have shows all the time, how many shows you do in a year? What is the life of a WWE superstar? Cause you're at the, you're, you're at the highest level possible for the wwe um i mean you've won basically everything you can and yeah and so on a regular basis what does the lifestyle look like for seth rollins it's chaos you know it's it's chaos we're on the road uh two-thirds of the year i would say at least so you know, wrestling probably around now a hundred

and maybe 180 matches a year, 160, 160 to 180 matches a year, I would say between live events, television, pay-per-view overseas tours, all that stuff. Um, and then you have travel and media on top of that. So again, probably on the road and or traveling 220, 230 days a year would be my guess. If you're healthy, full-time, used all the time. And I'm in that position where I'm fortunate, 32 years old, in good health, knock on wood, in good health. And the company relies on me to do a lot of the legwork as far as promoting shows. What is a daily?

So, okay, you landed yesterday. You went to, you had an event in San Jose, today you have an event in Sacramento. What does that day look like for you? What does the week look like for you? So a standard week for me is we will leave our first shows on a Friday. So that's like my Monday, right?

So that's how I segment my week. So I always have an early flight because I live in a small town, so I have to connect. So I'll usually, I live in Davenport, Iowa. So our airport's small. So shout out to Iowa. Yeah. It's a little regional airport. So it gets all to all the hubs, but it can get me where it needs to go in one stop usually. So I have like, but I'll have a 6am flight Friday morning. So I got to get up, do two flights to get to where I'm going. Friday's usually a rest day for me as far as training is concerned, because I like to train

when I'm home, just so I can get in a better groove. So Friday, I'll get into the town. I usually find a coffee. I find some food, just something to relax me to chill. We'll do the show that night. I'll probably get to the building around 530. The show starts at 730. I've been on last lately, so we'll get done at 10. By the time I'm showered and out of the arena, it's 11. lately so we'll get done at 10 about the time I'm showered not of the arena it's 11 then I'll have a drive so for this week for example we are actually in Nashville on Friday so I flew from home to Nashville Friday did what I just said but then we had another flight Saturday morning so we flew Nashville to LA met up with Josh I went over to Paradiso and got in a workout with a couple of our

friends there. Hung out for a few hours, but then we drove two hours after that, after the workout and some food and coffee. We drove two hours up to Bakersfield because we had an event there. So we had the event again, 7.30, get done at 11. Then after that, four-hour drive. Four-hour drive from Bakersfield to San Jose. So that was interesting.

We got in at 3 in the morning and had to be at the arena the next day at 11. Mind you. Yeah, so we get in at 3. And that's not go to sleep. That's get to the hotel. Like, okay, car's off. So then you got to get in, unpack, do your thing, get ready for bed. By the time you're asleep, it's 4 a.m.

But then you got to get up, eat breakfast, and be at the arena by 11. And for me, I'm a big football fan. So I had to get up and watch on the West coast. You guys start your games at 10 a.m. over here. So I'm like losing my mind. I wanted to get up and watch. Yeah.

I wanted to get up and watch my team. So we woke up, you know, five hours of sleep, four hours of sleep, whatever it was. And went and got some food, ate some, ate some breakfast, watched a football game and stuff like that. But I, like I said, I got to be at the building by 11. So we're at the building from 11 until when we leave yesterday, Josh, eight, nine, nine o'clock.

So 11 a.m. to nine o'clock doing work, getting the match ready. It was a pay-per-view. So it was a big, big event. So we're there all day. You had a long match. And then drove here last night, ate some food with some friends and drove here last night. And then again, wake up this morning and we tried to maximize sleep. We, we did, uh, the fasted fasted cardio this morning. So we just woke up, drove straight here. Cause I was like, I don't even want to wait. I like, you have to decide, do I want to eat or do I want to sleep? And right now I need to sleep more than I'm going to eat. So, uh, we slept a little bit extra, drove here and did this workout. And then as soon as we're done with this podcast, I got to head over to the arena cause we got to be there by noon. And then again, uh, we're taping two episodes are all at a night. So I'll be there from noon until.

Uh, 10 o'clock. So another 10 hour day there. And then, uh, I was going to red eye out tonight, but I don't think I'll make it. So again, another 6.00 AM flight home tomorrow. And then usually two, three days off and back out on friday but since it's christmas coming up we have uh we have a nice stretch here what's what's interesting is he's he's leaving out like so much like he's giving us a lot you're telling us a lot about your day but he's leaving out like how exhausting the promos are and when he goes backstage somebody will give him you know maybe 150 photos to sign and somebody will give him something else right i mean these are all the things you're dealing with. It might be signing autographs for like make a wish foundation or these

other foundations that the WWE works with. And then you're, you know, meeting like little kids that have been dying to meet you, you know, for the last five years. And you're, you gotta be polite to this person and that person backstage.

And then you're over here cutting another promo for a segment for something else. And then you got to go out on screen, you you know on live television and cut a 15 minute promo and then somebody comes to the ring you got to remember all the shit that goes on in your match so the physical and mental demand that's on you is like off the charts well i want to add to that right so when you were 18 you decide you want to be a wwe in it yeah and now here where we are where we're at right now x amount of years later what uh you know i don't know 12 years later 13 14 years later yeah i'm sorry my 15th year in wrestling in january whoa 15th year in wrestling right and so you've

transitioned through over the last 15 years now i mean you just explained to us a week and there's a lot going on right i mean i think anybody think anybody would agree that that's a stressful week and you have a stressful job. What's the kind of like the deeper reason why? What are you trying to accomplish right now that you haven't accomplished? Or what's been the goal of the last 15 years to get you where you're at? I mean, where does this kind of like internal why or deep drive to kind of keep doing what you're doing? I mean, it sounds like it's a hustle. It's a struggle.

Yeah, I think for me, wrestling, when I was a kid, it was like my safe place. You know, when I was really young, as you mentioned on the other podcast, I talked about the wrestlers that inspired me when I was a really young kid. You know, they were the superheroes. Macho Man, Randy Savage, The Ultimate Warrior, Hulk Hogan. Like, comic books were cool. They were in these pages and stuff like that, Spider-Man, Superman, but Hulk Hogan was in the flesh.

I could go to the show. I could hear a real American blast. I could see him come out. That was a superhero in real life. And everything that he preached as his character was good stuff. So I was like, that's my guy like that. That's my superhero. That's who I want to be.

And I carried that over when I was younger. But once I grew up kind of in my teens, wrestling also became like my escape. You know, my parents got divorced. I moved away to a new town. So I didn't have any friends. This is before social media. So meeting people wasn't just like, you know, yeahipe right, swipe left. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, you know, you weren't online.

Like, aim instant messenger. You go to message boards and meet some weird creep from, like, Albuquerque or something like that. But, you know, if you wanted to meet people when you were 14, I didn't have a license. I didn't have a car. I didn't know anybody. I couldn't talk to anybody. So I'm going to a new school. So I was like, well, what do I have?

I got video games and pro wrestling. So pro wrestling, again, became, like, well, what do I have? I got video games and pro wrestling. So pro wrestling again became like my safe place. So I, I just dove into that. And it was the one thing that like, it kept me bonded, uh, with my brother, with my friends back home, we were all kind of on the same page. So like when I would see them, when I would get to go back home, like that was how we came together. And so when we we were teenagers the internet just started to pick up like you could you could get videos online but it took two hours to download them and then they were like you were just staring at the screen every you know a percent every 20 minutes or whatever it was like oh so this was also when backyard wrestling became a big thing

because now people could do it in their yard, which they were for years, but now you could show other people that you were doing it in your yard. And people were like, Oh, we were doing that in our yard too. So me and my friends really bonded over wrestling. We decided to put on our own shows. And that's when I realized that I, I enjoyed the entertainment side of it. Like I enjoyed being in front of a crowd. I enjoyed being an entertainer and making people feel the way Hulk Hogan made me feel. Or, you know, I would do a move or off a trampoline and people will go, oh, and I would be like, hey, that's cool. And then I would go to school, you know, the next day and they would be like, oh man, that thing you did on, I can't believe you did that.

And like that made me feel good. That's what gave me value was like impressing these people in that way. And for whatever reason, couple that with the lifelong passion that I had for the industry and my sort of disdain for like the, um, monotony of everyday life of like, you know, I was, you're in high high school what do you want to do for a living uh you got to go to college i didn't like school like i was i i've you know talked to you i've read your book listen to the way you way you approach high school you're like oh yeah we just get through it you know what i mean it was it was pretty you know if you're if you're fortunate enough to be uh you know well schooled and intelligent and aware like you can mosey through high school pretty easily if you

want to, which is what I did. And I was fine. I got good grades, no problem. But then I like the idea of going to college for me was like, I just don't want to, I don't know what, I have no passion for anything in that realm. I went for a couple of years, like a year and a half or so,

while I kind of started my wrestling training, but there was no, I couldn't find, I couldn't find a passion for whatever I was being taught. You know what I mean? And whether it was, I couldn't find, I couldn't find a passion for whatever I was being taught. You know what I mean? And whether it was, I couldn't find the direction or the people giving me the information wasn't right or whatever it is, but it wasn't for me. And I just had that, I need to try to do something else to get me out of this monotony. Like, I don't want to be that guy going to his cubicle and there's nothing wrong with that. Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying like, who are you? If you just go to your, it just wasn't for me.

And I felt that. And I was fortunate enough to feel that early on in my life where I was like, that's going to this nine to five job is just not for me. I've got to do something that I'm passionate about that inspires me, that inspires other people to want to be better than they are. Because if I'm not doing that, then I'm wasting, I'm just wasting time. You know, I'm wasting time living. Backyard wrestling, maybe give you like a false sense of like, uh, kind of how good you were and that's what kind of led you into pursuing wrestling further.

Like you thought you were doing pretty good. Right. And yeah, you know, pro backyard wrestling is like a joke. Right. So yeah. And in a weird way, it did give me, I mean, I was always a fairly confident kid. Like, you know, I felt good in athletics and played sports in junior high and stuff like that. And, uh, yeah, in a weird way, it did give me like

a false sense of confidence that like, oh, I can, I'll be all right. I can do this. I mean, it was a rude awakening once I got into the, into the wrestling world and like, you know, I realized that it wasn't as easy as I thought it was, but at the same time it did, that confidence was like, it was a jumpstart gave me like a, you know, I, you know, I'll give it a shot. Why not? Well, so you were going to school for a little bit and then you were working and you were traveling to Chicago to go to wrestling school. Yeah, correct.

And so you just, did you just know when you graduated from high school, you're like, okay, corporate America isn't for me, but I know wrestling is my vision. Yeah. And you've just stayed true to that ever since. Yeah, pretty much. You know, like I said, when I was in high school, everyone just goes, the thing is like, oh, okay, you finish high school, you go to college, but there was no direct, like people, most people just don't have a direction. They just go to college, they get a degree in whatever they get a degree in, but there's no passion. And I always felt very fortunate that I was able to find a passion in a specialized area that is pro wrestling

and i was able to parlay that into you know being happy and being successful i and i don't attribute that to anything but happenstance in the sense that some people just don't they're just not fortunate enough to find something they're passionate about you know what about like your parents and friends and family and stuff are they like what are you talking like you know you got to go to college what are you doing so the reason the reason I went to college was I initially moved. There was a wrestling squad in Philadelphia. I was 18. I was like 17.

I pretty much decided, all right, this is what I'm going to do. I told my folks I'm doing it. They were like, all right, okay. Well, they're loving it. So they were still supportive. They were supportive. Apprehensively supportive. Apprehensively supportive. Apprehensively supportive.

They gave me a couple bucks. They let me, I never lived outside my house. So at 18, I spent the summer after graduation at home. I moved to Philadelphia to try this wrestling thing out. I never lived on my own. I had no idea what I was doing. Didn't know how to like find a job really. I didn't know how to do anything.

I was really like not self-sufficient at all. What was in Philadelphia? So Ring of Honor was a small independent wrestling promotion and they had a wrestling school out there there was a guy who used to wrestle his name cm punk and he was the head trainer of that school at the time it was the best wrestling school in in the country and so i was like i want to learn from the best i'm gonna go out there and do this uh i went out there with a buddy and again we mismananaged everything and we ended up being there for a month and having to come home.

So we come home and I was pretty defeated, but I found, like you mentioned, a trainer in Chicago. I was like, I still want to wrestle. I still love this. I still got to do it. I'm not going to be a failure. But my mom's one caveat for the support was like, okay, you

can live in my house. You can pursue this wrestling thing, but you have to work and you have to go to school. Like, that's it. If you're not going to school, like you can find your own place to live. So it was like, all right, either find an apartment that I don't have money for, or I suck it up and, you know, go to college for a few hours a day. So it was, yeah, that was why I went. Well, I think some people look at you now and they see you on TV and they see your popularity and they, and they think it came easy. I mean, a lot of people, I think, think that about anybody who's made it, but I'm from the beginning. I mean, how long did it take you for how many years did it take you to get to a point

where you could actually like support yourself through, through wrestling. I mean, you were working another job, you're going to school. I mean, this was for years, right? I mean, what does that process look like? Cause I think it's so simple to look at people are successful and they always want to cut them down instead of saying, Hey, you know what? Colby worked really hard for a long, long time. And that's why he got to where he's at. Yeah. So I, I quit my last like real job when I was 23. Now, again, I was living with my parents, so I was rent free, but I said, mom, look, things are going well in Ring of Honor. I had just gotten a raise. So I wasn't making enough money to where like I can move out of the house, but as long as she let me live there, um, I could,

I could not work the regular job. I could get paid enough through wrestling to like handle all my other bills and help her around the house, do whatever I need to do chore wise to, you know, make sure that I was living there was viable for her. And, um, and then I could work and make better progress because I could focus more. I could put more of my time and energy into what I was passionate about. And she saw, she, she followed my career. So she saw the little steps. She knew the hard work I had put in for the five years, you know, before that. So she, she, cause she was there the whole way. So she saw the little steps, um, the increments

of like, okay, he's working, he's getting a little more here, a little more there. Like it was going in a positive direction. So she said, okay, yeah, we'll take, yeah, you can do this. We'll take a chance at it. So it's good. She was there. She was supportive. She held me out. And again, I, it was good. I signed with WWE after six years. So when I was 24, uh, I signed with them and, um, you know, they paid me enough to move down to Florida and live. Um, and that was like the first time after six years that I was like, I'm living by myself and with money that I'm making years. Yeah. Six years of like, and that's short, honestly. Like I'm, like I said, I'm fortunate. Most people in my position, they work sometimes 10, 15 years. They don't get those shots. I was very fortunate to be successful in six years is a

short period of time in our business for something like that. But, you know, I mean, Mark and I are sitting here and, and, you know, Mark's achieved a lot of success as well. And I think five years is a long time when you're in something where a lot of people don't even necessarily know what it is. And so when you tell someone, Hey, what do you do for a living? Well, I'm a pro wrestler. It's like, Oh, so, uh, you know, and five years is a long time to be dedicated to that craft without seeing necessarily like a

financial return. And that's just a, a compliment to your kind of dedication and, and resilience because I mean, that's, that's pretty remarkable. And I think that's something to take into consideration. I mean,

it's impressive to me. I always call it suffering for the unknown. You know, you're, you're doing something. You're kind of not sure why, you know, you're like, you're like, I mean, it's impressive to me. I always call it suffering for the unknown. You know, you're, you're doing something. You're kind of not sure why, you know, you're like, you're like, I don't really know what the payoff is going to be, but you're so passionate about it. And you're so maybe even the word delusional, you know, you think that you're going to be this rockstar pro wrestler and no one else can change your mind for some, for whatever reason, like something clicked in your head where this is what I'm going to do. And then as you got closer to it, you probably, uh, chased it down

even harder and went after it even more. And you're like, I could, I could hang with that guy. I can hang with that guy. I could maybe one day I could be better than that guy. And you kind of start to see it. And when you're closer to it, it makes you even more passionate about it. And you're like, if I get my body a little bit better, if I get a little bit more athletic, like it's game over, then I can do this, you know? Yeah. The thing with that too, is like, you know, people think, oh, now you've made it now it's successful. Now you're living the easy life. When in fact, the further, the deeper you get into it, the harder it becomes, the more work it is. Like I'm working harder now than I ever worked. I mentioned those five years,

you know, the WWE schedule is insane. The independent schedule. I was only working twice a week. I'd work Friday, Saturday, and then I live the rest. And those were shows that I wasn't flying to. And, you know, that was driving and I was sleeping in cars and not making any money and stuff like that. Or like, you know, living on my friend's floors and, you know, dirt houses in Michigan or something like that. But I was young and it didn't matter and whatever, but like, that was the extent of my work as far as actual workload at 32, almost 33, being at the top of the food chain. Now the work, it's more than ever because you've got all these dogs

underneath you. They're gunning for you. They want that spot, and so I've got to outwork them. You have something to prove every night. Yes. Right? Every single night. Josh Bridges and I were talking about this, how if you qualify for the crossfit games one year it's not guaranteed next year and if you like for you i mean every night you have to show up right every single night and so how do you how do you overcome that um stress for lack of a better term how do you overcome that every night you're showing up multiple times a week? You know, a lot of people in there, when they have traditional professional jobs, they might have to show up every now and then for a big meeting or whatever it may be for you, your big meetings occur on a reoccurring basis, multiple times a week. So what kind of mindset,

what kind of preparation do you do before an event, like right before an event to put out your best performance? Uh, for me, like the performance, I mean, sometimes it's hard. Cause like I said, when you do something 200 times a year over and over and over, it definitely becomes, it's funny. I tried to get out of the monotonous nine to five lifestyle, but even, even after I wrestled, you know, over a thousand matches in my life, like after a while it becomes that, you know, a Sunday in Paducah, Kentucky is like, all right, we got to go out there and do this thing. And it that, you know, a Sunday in Paducah, Kentucky is like, all right, we got to go out there and do this thing. And it hurts, you know?

So it's not like you're going out there just to like shake hands and kiss babies. Like I got to fall down and get back up again. And so like, it hurts. And so it does become like a, you know, you got to work to get yourself up mentally for that. But for me, every time, no matter what's going going on like as soon as my music hits and i go through that curtain you get that little adrenaline rush and there's you know there's this connection with an audience and that energy like the energy we had in the gym today when you're feeling down

and out like that energy from the people and like seeing a little girl in the front row like with my wristbands on or something like that like for, that's her moment that could change your whole life. You know what I mean? For me, it's another show on a Sunday afternoon, but for her, that moment could change her whole life. You never know. That could be you going to see Hulk Hogan. That's exactly my point.

That's exactly my point. So that, that whole, that moment could be everything for her. So like, that's what keeps me moving forward. Is that a reflection that you do before? So as soon as you hear that music, that's a reflection that you do in your head, like every day you show, cause it's someone's, it's someone's moment. Yeah. And so that's something you constantly think about.

Yeah. I mean, it's something that like, I know it's going to happen. It's like, it's going to click for me as soon. Like, no matter what I'm feeling down, my neck hurts, I'm tired, I'm sore. I'm, you know, I'm like, maybe my knees tweaked. Like I, I, maybe I can't, I don't think I can do what I want to do tonight or like, whatever it is. I've had a long flight. My feet are swollen, whatever. You know what I mean? Like once I know, like once that music hits

and I walked through the curtain and the red lights on, like, I'm going to, it's, everything's going to go away for 30 minutes. I can man, I can manage that. If you think it's going to hurt, then it hurts 10 times more, right? Usually, yeah. Or sometimes it's the opposite where like, oh, that's not going to hurt. And then it hurts like way more than I thought or like the things that hurt. I'm like, why didn't that hurt me? So I want to talk briefly about your preparation physically.

When I look at like the wrestlers physically, I mean, you're in great shape and you do more acrobatic, for lack of a better term, movements than most, right? So what type of preparation are you doing ahead of time that maybe others aren't doing or aren't putting as much emphasis on so you could physically perform? You know, what does that look like? I mean, in terms of like your physical preparation, going to these matches, obviously you're doing cross on a regular basis. You're working out regularly. Are you doing anything else outside of regular basis. You're working out regularly. Are you doing anything else outside of that? Are you finding coaches out? You know,

Josh is obviously your, your strength condition coach. Do you have other coaches that are helping you prepare for these matches? I mean, I have a, we have like our staff's cool. We got some trainers and, um,

and stuff like that. And they do a good job of getting massage there. But I have like a therapist at home that makes sure that I'm taken care of every week and a chiropractor and stuff, which I like to think it's doing something, but who knows? He's like, I, every weekend I go and screw it up, but you know what I mean? At least getting myself aligned for a few days is probably good. So I try to take care of myself in that way. Um, and then, you know, the training really helps. Honestly, it's funny because a lot of times people look at CrossFit and they just think oh met cons they think metabolic conditioning they don't understand like that

it's the mindset of just being an all-around athlete is what changed the game for me as far as like a fitness perspective because the the speed of what we do is increased exponentially over the years you know we discussed the old timers the hulk hogan's and randy savages and macho man was a uh you know he was a high flyer for back in his day. And all he did was jump off the top rope once. And now, like you said, you know, it's much more gymnastic related, but the speed of the game is just so much faster. And that, that's just come comes with like, I think the attention span of an audience is much shorter now. So we have HD cameras, everybody can see

everything that's happening. So the impacts are a little bit harder. Everyone's moving a little bit faster. You know, you can't watch a 30 minute match with a headlock anymore. Like there's just got to be so much action. The expectations are higher. And so part of that is me. I do that as well, but you have to move with the way the industry's going. And for me, CrossFit and that method of training has just kept me healthy as far as like the mobility is concerned, working on stretching, working on, you know, just your thoracic spine, you know, who thought of thoracic mobility 10 years ago? No one even, no one knew, you know what I mean? No one even cared about it. And now it's like, oh yeah, that's why I feel better today. Or,

you know what I'm saying? So like little stuff like that, it's not just about aesthetics anymore. It can't be. I remember when I went with Kelly Sturette, we went to Connecticut and we did a little seminar type thing and he had you come up and you put your arms over your head. And Kelly was like, this guy's a mess. And I remember everybody else in the, in the audience, like it was all the other wrestlers that were like, if Seth can't do it, we're all in a lot of trouble. Like we're all really screwed. Like if he doesn't have the mobility, we're all done for. Yeah. It was just like,

in my overhead mobility is better than literally 99% of the people on the roster. And like, you know, I've got my arm over my head and I'm thinking that's all right. Everybody else is looking at me thinking like, oh wow, that's pretty good. I can't even get my arm. And then he's like, oh, this is terrible. Yeah. And I mean, Kelly's a stickler for it and that's his gig. But like at the end of the day, you know, prioritizing just little stuff like that is what helps injury prevention. And,

and, and in our business being healthy is the name of the game. Cause we don't, if you don't get, you're not working, you're not making the money. So. Well,

I want to talk about that. So you got injured a couple of years ago, tore your ACL, MCL. And meniscus. And meniscus. All of them. And so what was that like?

Cause I mean, you're on this path from when you're basically, you know, a young adult, you're on this path of just like grinding, getting there, getting there, getting there. Then you kind of get there, you do get there. And then all of a sudden it gets taken away from you in a sense. Right. Um, what was that like? And how did you overcome that, that, that hurdle in your life? Because had there been any major injuries going in? I mean, up was that like and how did you overcome that, that, that hurdle in your life? Because had there been any major injuries going in, I mean, up until that point? No. And they were all different.

Like I had, I'd had a, you know, so I had, I don't want to say it wasn't major. I had neck surgery when I was like 23, 24, but it wasn't like I didn't get anything fused. I got nothing put in. It was just, I needed some extra space for a nerve that wouldn't come unpinched. And so it wasn't, it was very minimally invasive. They went in, you know, once the scar healed, I was fine. It was, you know, it was, it was not even two months. So it was no big deal. Um, but the six months of like, Oh, your knee's screwed. We're going to have to go in and really do surgery, total reconstruction, take, you know, part of your patella tendon to make a new ACL, staple down the MCL, smooth out that take, you know, part of your patella tendon to make a new ACL,

staple down the MCL, smooth out that thing that you're, there's no way you're coming back in less than six months. You know, it's not going to happen. And I imagine every day you're sitting there watching these shows and the show goes on and you were the guy. And so what was that like mentally to kind of like get through that process? It was very difficult because that is one thing about our, in the entertainment business, like the show always goes on, you know, and, and having to face the realization that at the end of the day, as good as you are, and as much as you think of yourself, I was a world champion when I got hurt. I was the literally on top of the game. I was the world champion.

Like you are still just a cog in the machine. And understanding that is very humbling. And it's important to, to realize that, you know, you can't take for granted what you have. You have to be grateful. There has to be gratitude for those moments. And then it was about, you know, we talked right off the get-go about how I'm just a work oriented person. And that's just what I did. I just treated the rehab as work for me. And in retrospect, I wish I would have taken maybe a little more time for myself and enjoyed the time off, but I just not my personality. My personality was like, okay, what's the fastest way we can get this healed? How can I get back to full strength and back doing what I love to do as fast as possible. Oh, we need to rehab twice

a day. Okay. We'll rehab too. Okay. When am I going to work out? I guess in between rehab sessions, because that's the only time it's going to go two hours here, two hours there. I'll get some upper body in, in between, and then sleep for 10 hours to, you know, do what I can. Do we need to do stem cell? Do we need to do PRP? Like, what do we need to do to get this done? I'll get it done. So needless to say five and a half months and I was back, but it was, it was mentally very difficult for me at that stage of my career. Brutal. This just in from somebody that you might know, a guy named John Cena. So I asked John Cena because I, I recall this incident that happened in the ring and Andrew, maybe you can bring it up on the screen there.

Um, you know, I thought that Seth Rollins broke John Cena's nose, but this is a quote from John Cena. And he said, I ran full speed into those muscular quads. My mistake. His thighs are made out of titanium and twice as strong as a normal human being. So you don't have to feel bad about breaking his nose. He, you know, he messed up and you got strong quads and overpowered him and busted up his face. Oh man. Yeah. Yeah. You know, accidents happen in the ring. They know as the old saying is it's not ballet. And, um, and even

in ballet ballerinas get hurt. You know what I mean? They're not made of titanium either. I guess John thinks my knees are, but, um, that's a tough opponent right there. He's pretty jacked. I mean, you got to use more speed and athleticism to beat somebody like that. John's a big guy, but I'm, uh, I'm okay. I'm all right. I got a couple inches on him. I got to reach, you know? So, uh, yeah, I think it was, um, no, this was a different match, but, um, John and I were doing an episode of Monday Night Raw and there was a situation match but um john and i were doing an episode of monday night raw and there was in a situation where i ended up um kneeing him and i literally he has a tendency to put his head into the movement more than some guys and the there's the first time i had done this knee and

we did not really talk about it much backstage it was like one little thing i threw in just to change up the flow and uh i felt it it was the It was like one little thing I threw in just to change up the flow. And, uh, I felt it. It was the first time I'd ever really heard anybody in the ring. Did you, did you feel it?

Oh, I felt his nose. It literally just, I heard it. It was just a pop, a pop and a crunch. And I felt it just smush. And then I,

you know, he went down in the corner and yeah, you know, he was a lot of blood and it is, he came back like, uh, it reminded me of um and this might be it yeah yeah it was um here it comes boom right there and down he goes

yeah it looks not like much there but uh i i got him pretty good and he he so i i get i get back uh there's the blood yeah so i was i was, I was up against the ropes. And once he realized that he was okay to continue, he came at me like just a bat out of hell. It reminded me of the scene, the scene. And there he comes. Yeah. See, there he comes. That reminded me of the scene in fight club. Is he really upset? Like, so what happens? He's probably excited, probably more than anything. Cause you're in the ring and you know, obviously you can't control everything. Yeah. So, I mean, are you guys, what happens behind closed doors with the crew? Is there a lot of, what's the vibe like?

After an event like this, what's the vibe like? I mean, I'm super apologetic because, again, the name of the game is to make it look like you're hurting somebody, not actually hurt them. I mean, John, he's a professional. He's as professional as it gets. He understands, you know, he's got big ham hands. Well, and you and John Cena fighting is good for wrestling. Yeah, he's punched somebody. He's punched some dudes in the face from time to time.

It's not his first rodeo. But, I mean, I don't ever want to hurt him. He was our top guy, and he's a good human being. It's not like I relished in the, you know. Well, he kicked me in the face and gave me a pretty black eye. So, you know, that's payback. Payback. That's all.

I was just looking out for my boy smelly. But yeah, I was super apologetic. And John was like, ah, don't worry about it. You know, no, it's not a big deal. And I'm like, well, you know, it's a kind of a big deal. Uh, luckily John, you know, has the best medical team on the planet. And so he was able to get like, get it fixed really quick. We, we actually wrestled like two weeks after this and he looked completely normal what's been the worst

of it for you in the ring like uh you know i know some of these guys will wrestle something will happen in a match and their arm goes dead or like what's been the worst thing you had to kind of battle through uh well the mcl acl injury that jason mentioned i did i mean it tore it in the match and so i had to finish the match. It wasn't much left to do, but not having stability in my knee was funky. You know, the tendons, so you don't, like, it stung a little bit, but it's not like this, you know, it's not like you tear a muscle and it's, like, just excruciating pain. It's like once it goes, it goes, and there's no feeling.

Yeah, you lose stability there. Yeah, there was no stability, So I didn't really understand it. I'd never done it before. I didn't know what was going on. Pain-wise, the worst thing that ever happened to me was broke my jaw in the match. Literally, we're talking 30 seconds into a match, a guy who didn't know what he was doing formed me, but instead of putting his forearm in the crook of my neck, he put his elbow into the point of my jaw.

Oh, my God. So it split. How long did you have to finish the match? I wrestled for probably at least 12 minutes after that. 12 minutes? Yeah. And I was 18. Maybe I was 18 years old.

Right? Like, this was the first. So he split my jaw right down the center. Like, it was not on the sides here. There was a little break on the left side of the mandible, but it was legit in between my two bottom teeth so i didn't know what was going on i'm like i couldn't close my mouth and this is a little graphic so i apologize but every time i would close my mouth i could feel my jaw separating in the center and it was tearing the i could feel it tearing the skin in between my two teeth so how long there was a recovery from that so that was only two months as well it was because

they wired it shut but not like not like months. And this is when you're 18 you're just, so I just want everybody to understand, when you're 18 and you just started your wrestling career, you were working for UPS or one of these other companies. Yes, I was working for UPS at the time. You were working for UPS right? At night? Yep. That could have been a gimmick. Four in the morning. Going to school.

Three in the morning, whatever it was. Well, you don't need to talk to anybody at UPS so you can have the jaw wired shut. Yeah. So it wasn't like a full wire, like a Kanye West, like wired shut. It was basically a bottom brace because of the way it broke. So normally people break over here, here, and they have to get a large shut so it doesn't move. But mine was just like a brace on my bottom teeth.

So they didn't separate when I closed my mouth. So it was not the worst situation in the world. I do want to ask you something. So you talked about when you got hurt about hard work and how it was just ingrained in you. I want to float back to your high school days. Cause you said something on an interview. I was really intrigued by how you regret kind of being so closed minded to people, how you regretted kind of judging everybody and thinking you were always right and everybody else was always wrong. And looking back on it, like you wouldn't go to parties, you wouldn't do things because we're, I'm really curious if you could shine some light

on that and where you think that stemmed from and then had you overcome it. Cause I'm sure there's other people who are probably either, either they don't recognize they're doing that, or maybe they do recognize they're doing that, but they can't overcome it. I honestly wish I knew where the sense of entitlement came from. I don't know. It was just, like I mentioned, my friends and I bonded over pro wrestling, but we also felt isolated in our interests. And so when we bonded over being straight edge and being into wrestling and being different, and so that was just, it became our rallying cry. And it was so anti-establishment, you know, because it wasn't what anybody else was doing. Everyone goes to high school.

How weird is that? Being good is different. Yes. They're like, oh, we want to go party. Let's do this and that. And, you know, hang out with the upperclassmen, go to football games, get wasted on the weekends, talk about it on Monday. Like, you know, and, and like, I had, for some reason that just, I was disgusted by it. Like it just, I hated it, but it also put me off of being social. Like

I was only social within my own crew, you know what I'm saying? and so like it in a way that those blinders kept me focused and helped me along my path but at the same time it closed a lot of doors from a personal perspective just because i was so closed-minded that it turned people off that's really weird yeah i was the same way i didn't go to homecoming i didn't go to the prom i didn't go to any of that i was like i i just played football i lifted i was like this is what I'm doing. Yeah. And I don't know why I can't explain why I was so focused in that way. And so like, you know, head forward and, and, and all that stuff. But I just, it, it, it looking back, I wish that I had been more open-minded to people. Not that I wish that I'd done all that stuff necessarily, but I just wish that I had been more accepting of other people and their ways

that they live their life. Cause you felt like your way was the only way you didn't understand why anybody would not be that way. Yes. And so if someone's in that situation today, let's just say they're in high school, they're WWE fan, they're a Seth Rollins fan and they kind of find themselves, uh, being the same way. Maybe they're straight edge. Maybe they're just different. I mean, who cares? Everybody's different. Right. Um, what would you tell them? What would be the advice for them to overcome that? Because I'm you looking back on it, you probably miss out on a few things, but it also kind of led you to where you're at today. So, I mean, there's pros and cons, everything, but what would you have done different? I think, um, understanding if I,

if I could tell like, you know, 15 year old Colby, Seth, whatever that, you know, if I gave him one piece of advice, it'd just be to understand that everyone has different shoes to walk in, right? Everyone has a different story. I think it's so easy to, you know, look at the world through your own lenses, to look at through your own perspective, but it takes so much to step outside yourself and really try to understand that everyone's got their own stuff going on everybody's got their own path their own story their own shoes and no matter what like even if you have these differences or these similarities you're never fully going to be able to understand how people experience life through their own set of eyes through their own personal experience

because that's the only way we can experience existence each other love these feelings all these things is the only way we have them is through our own personal experiences and so you're never really going to be able to get how other people see things and i think once i started to understand that as an adult it really changed my perspective on on how i interacted with other human beings you'll be shocked at the things you can get when you help other people too so like maybe the way that you were maybe it wasn't open to like helping somebody that might be like that because you're like that has nothing to do with anything i want to be part of and you might look down on that person kind of right yeah and then you know whether that's a natural instinct or something that's been you've learned or whatever but yeah that is the i think sometimes when things

are different your first instinct is to scoff at it, is to turn away to it or, like you said, look down on it. And I think if you have a more open-minded approach and, again, try to put yourself in that person's shoes and understand how they got to that place mentally or how they arrived at this location in their life, it'll give you a sense of gratitude. It'll humble you a little of gratitude. It'll humble you a little bit, let you understand that again, we're all, we're all different. We all have different stories. And even though we're all connected, everyone's got their own lenses to see life through. Wow. I, I agree a hundred percent. So switching gears a little bit, um, right now you have, you're at the top of the game in WWE. What, what are the goals for Colby right now?

What, what are you trying to accomplish that you haven't accomplished? Because when you set out at the age of early age, you're like, Hey, I want to be a WWE champion. Boom, done. I want to be on the cover of a, I don't know, video game, done, whatever. Right. You get, you get these things that kids only dream of yeah and now you've accomplished those and you know i know i probably speak for mark and saying this and you could agree with me

is that for myself as well i try and set goals and then sometimes when i accomplish them i'm just on to the next one i don't even i don't even um realize that i had worked so hard for that goal i need to be appreciative of that and like, enjoy it. I think I'm always thinking about the next thing, right? And it's a blessing and a curse. Yeah, it is. And so for you in your life, where are you at right now? Because you've accomplished so much. And I know that you, you have your wrestling school, which is a whole different, you know, new challenge and probably comes with a ton of benefits, but from a wrestling and from a life perspective, what are you trying to do in the next couple of years? Uh, so for me, uh, in, in wrestling, there's a few things that I've, so you mentioned some of those goals, right? Uh, you know,

I've won world championships, I've main evented pay-per-views and stuff like that. And, um, had good matches and been able to travel the world and see things through my job that most people don't get the opportunity to do, which is fantastic. And that I think alone has helped me gain a lot of perspective about my own life and be able to, you know, even say the sentences that I just said to you just a little bit ago. Uh, so that's all great for me, uh, personally on a, on, on a professional level, I want, I still want a main event WrestleMania. That's the big one for me. Um, you know, I've, I've been on the cover of video game. That was never even a goal of mine. Never even thought that was a possibility. You know what I'm saying? It's a damn good goal. Yeah. I never even thought, Oh yeah. One day I'm going to be on the cover of the WWE video game.

Yeah. That's amazing. That's like one of those. It was like, Whoa, what really? Uh, but for me, I want a main event WrestleMania, you know, the WrestleMania you came to at Levi's in San Jose, I was fortunate enough to walk away at the end of that one with the world heavyweight championship, but I wasn't in that match per se. You know, I cashed in my briefcase that you love to reference that I've been carrying around for over a year. And,

uh, because you brought that up, can you just briefly explain money in the bank? Can you just briefly explain that you brought that with you everywhere? Everywhere. Yeah. I carried the money in the bank briefcase, which is,

uh, essentially, uh, uh, symbolic of a contract that I can cash in anytime for a shot at the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. I used to have to carry it everywhere. I won it in, like, June. When you say everywhere, what do you mean by that?

I mean everywhere. I mean anywhere I would travel there was a pro wrestling show or an appearance related to WWE, I had it with me. So, like, it was my carry-on on my airplanes. I'd bring it into the gym. I had it like there's no anywhere i would go it was with me it was it was obnoxious really obnoxious but so i cashed that sucker in in the main event of wrestlemania walked out with a title but the match was roman reigns versus brock lesnar like my goal is to the last match on wrestlemania the one that puts all the butts you know in the

seats right whatever whoever versus seth rollins that's to me always been my goal uh you know from day one that's like wrestlemania is the pinnacle of our business that's like you're the superbowl mvp that night right so that's that's kind of what i wanted um on a on a personal level to me you mentioned the wrestling school and i've been doing that for four years now. Um, and that's like, to me, I think that'll be my greatest legacy, which is saying a lot because I've done, you know, I've created some moments that people were going to remember forever, uh, I think in wrestling, but I think the information that I've been able to provide for these kids, uh, who, you know, again again may not have had a direction all they've

got is this passion for pro wrestling in their lives they're inspired by seth rollins or whomever they know that i've got a school they pack up their stuff from germany or whatever and move over to davenport iowa for three months and learn how to wrestle and some of them stick around man some of these kids that move from wherever they, they live now in Davenport, Iowa, or in the squad cities area. And we've really started to build a full, a community out of it. And I think that was one of the things I never really aspired to when I was younger, it was beyond me. I didn't have the, I didn't, I don't care about anybody else, but my own goals. But now I find a lot of value in helping out other people in my community, especially these

guys and girls who are younger, who have the same passion that I have, or think they have the same passion that I have, uh, and trying to cultivate that and get them to the next level to be the next Seth Rollins or bigger than me or whatever it is, you know, but I have this information, this wealth of knowledge that I've accumulated over 15 years of doing this. And I'm able to pass it along to them at an early stage in their, their career and their early development. And hopefully put, you know, they're not going to understand everything they're hearing,

but hopefully you, you plant the right seed and it'll pave the way for not just them, but an entire future of future generation of pro wrestling. So I'm hoping that that'll be my biggest contribution. We've put the gym in a really cool location in my hometown and downtown Davenport. Uh, I'm, I'm investing in a little coffee shop next door.

So yeah, giving, giving people a little take. There's no, there's no great coffee shops in Iowa. We're a little behind on the time. So like I'm a huge like third wave coffee craft coffee guy. So for me, I wanted to take something that I I travel the world and get to try this wonderful coffee. I wanted to take something that I love and give it back, give it to my community and, you know, hopefully they'll enjoy it as much as I do, but here's like a little taste of something that's fantastic. And I don't think you guys get enough of. So to me right now, that's sort of what I'm focused on personally is just building a better community through whatever means I can. And wrestling has been great to me and has given me the opportunity to do that. Huge collegiate, uh, wrestling state, Iowa, right? Yes, it is. Yes, I'm trying to bring the pro wrestling game up a little bit.

University of Iowa is huge in college wrestling. We're always top five. I've been to Dubuque, Iowa, went to the convention center over there and benched 800 pounds some years ago. That's it? How far is that from where you're at? Dubuque's about an hour north. Yeah, right up the road.

It's actually halfway between Davenport and Madison. So just to kind of like the last note here is you have your business, which is obviously wrestling. You have your fitness, which is, you know, you mainly do CrossFit. But on your family or personal level, how do you balance having a relationship, right, with also being on the road so much? And I'm curious, and I'm just curious for people who are listening who, you know, I don't think more is always better, but I think just better, more attention is, is always great. And I'm curious if that's the way you live with your girlfriend, meaning when you're home, you're present, you're with her,

you're developing a relationship because you're on the road so much. What do you do to keep that relationship tight because you're gone almost 50% a year, if not more? Yeah, I mean, it is very difficult. I'm not going to lie. Dating me is not easy. It is not easy at all. I mean, I work set when our wrestling school is in session. I work seven days a week. So I mentioned the four days that I, you know, that I do the stuff on the road.

But when I'm home, those are the days the wrestling school is open. So Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, I'm at the school for a little bit of time at least. And that's where my gym is too. It doubles as a gym. So, you know, training is a priority. Wrestling school is a priority. For me, it's the same way. I don't have time.

I don't have a lot of it. I don't have a lot of it. I don't have a lot to give. So if you're dating me and you're looking to spend a ton of quality time together and take vacations and all this, I don't have that, you know, and she knows that. But when I am with her and it's, we do have our time, like you said, it's the quality of time that you spend, not the amount of time that you can give. So yes, when you are home, it's, again, it's trying to be present in that moment. There's so many distractions. 2018 is the year of the distraction, you know what I'm saying? So trying to eliminate those

as much as possible and focus in on what time you have to just be with that person and just putting that focus on them, uh, I think gives them a little bit of the patience to understand, you know, that you have to go again on Friday morning. Is there anything in particular you do when to do that little technique or trick? You know, I don't I don't I don't have anything for that, man. Like, you know, I this stupid little device right here. I just I've done my best holding up a cell phone.

I know you guys can't see it, but this, you know, I've tried to I tried my best. Holding up a cell phone. I know you guys can't see this. But I've tried my best to separate Colby Lopez from Seth Rollins in that sense. That when I'm with her. And granted, my career is such a big part of my life that it's part of me. You know what I mean? You can't separate it entirely. If you love me, you're going to love Seth Rollins as well. That's just part of the gig. You know what I'm saying? But understanding that, you know, she just wants time with that

person. So put this thing away, sit down, have a conversation, engage, ask real questions, appreciate real answers and listen. Cause nine times out of 10, she don't want to hear about, she don't want to hear about how my day was. You know what I mean? She just wants me to talk to her about her day, care about how she feels and stuff like that. So given her the quality of attention she needs, I think is important in understanding that it's not, you know, the time you do give to your relationship, whatever that may be, like that's her time or, you know, his time, whoever you are,

but that's their time that they're getting from you. So make that worth their while. Because otherwise, like I said, it is hard, it is hard to date me. Does she travel with you at all? Or it goes, let's go to some shows here and there. Well, I described my schedule and normal people don't want to do that. Right. They don't want to do that. And, and that's, it sucks, dude. Like it's, you know, uh, Josh, he comes with me sometimes and he sees it. He, you know, a lot of sitting around. Yeah. Yeah. It's a lot of like, okay, well I have to be at the building for 10 hours. And you know, I'm like, you mentioned, I'm signing pictures, I'm meeting people, I'm talking about the match. I'm trying to,

you know, rewrite this promo or, you know, things change on the fly. You never know what's going to happen. So like, you know, it's work, but it's also a ton of downtime and the travel's cool, but it's not, like I said, I'm not, I've gotten to see things if I go out of my way, but a lot of, a lot of the weeks is just, you're at the gym, you're at the hotel, you're at the arena. That's it. Those are the only things I see. I've made it out of good. You know, I go out of my way to get the coffee for 15 minutes, but, but, but yeah, you know, she,

she'll travel every once in a while when we're in the same town for a while, when we do our big events, WrestleMania, you know, we're in New York for a week. I'll bring her up for the week new york we can have some we'll have time we can actually like plan a couple dinners out or you know and she can go see some things that she hasn't seen or we're in phoenix for the royal rumble coming up here in january for a few days so you know maybe she's got a friend in phoenix or something you know but i'll bring her out for a few days that way she can actually get the experience of being in the city and not just like, oh, I want to go to sleep in the car because your schedule is insane. So yeah, I do my best to, to try to accommodate that. But

at the end of the day, it is work. So, well, I got to tell you, man, you're a guy who's, uh, put in work for a long time. I know Mr. Uh, Mark Bell over here has as well. Um, I really enjoyed, uh, hearing more about kind of the background, especially what you were talking about with high school and how you were pushed off other people's opinions. I think that's really powerful stuff. I know you have to go to a show tonight. We wish you all the best in Sacramento to go out there and crush it.

And, yeah, I mean, where can people find you at if they want to know more about Seth Rollins? Yeah, everything on social is WW Rollins. So Twitter, WW Rollins. Instagram, WW Rollins. Don't do a Snapchat. Facebook is private, so don't worry about that. Those are the only two socials you really need to worry about.

Otherwise, like I said, we've got some good stuff coming up. A ton of live events in January all over the country. And then we'll be in Phoenix at the end of January for a week for a rumble. If you are a fitness enthusiast and you want to come to Phoenix and watch pro wrestling, we're also probably going to be doing another dead boys seminar with my coach and I, Joshy G. So that's basically a community workout for everybody who wants to come hang out and learn a little bit about CrossFit. And that's it, man. And then we're just moving,

marching towards WrestleMania in April. So yeah, check me out online, tweet me, DM me, whatever you want to do, comment, like, whatever. Last question. Uh, when you're on the road, what do you, uh, what do you listen to? How do you like educate yourself? You're reading books, you listen to audio books, listen to podcasts. Uh, yeah. So I, I like music on the road. Like when I'm driving, well, I'll listen to a podcast every once in a while. Like, uh, I keep up on Jason's just cause it's very interesting to me, but like, um, I can't, I can't get too deep into it. Sometimes if I listen to people talk for too much, I get sleepy, so I can't do that. So I like music when I'm like driving, driving, but I do love to read as well. Uh, there's an author that I've really taken to his name's Yuval Noah Harari, and he's written a few books big ones called sapiens

and it's oh yeah yeah sapiens is uh he did that one he did homo deus and now it's like 21 lessons for the 21st century book mark yeah scary yeah it's it's a big it's a lot of words um but uh i think it's like it should be required reading or audiobook if that's your thing uh for anybody it's such an amazing um perspective on human history And he's my, that's what I've been focused on lately. So otherwise I like a good Netflix binge. And when I'm at the hotel, I can sit back and watch some blue planet or something like that and learn about the oceans. So yeah, yeah. All the things I hated in high school.

Now I like to learn about philosophy and animal life and all this weird stuff, science and stuff. So yeah, it's funny how that, how that comes around, but yeah, that's, I try to stay busy when I have the time and I'm, I'm, I actually can spend it. Otherwise it's coffee shops and, uh, Nintendo switch. There you go. Cool. All right, guys. We'll have a great day.