I want us to focus on WrestleMania particularly because that
was entertainment, right?
You had to know going in, you and
Johnny Knoxville weren't gonna have a quote on quote five star classic match,
you had something entirely onto itself, it was a spectacle.
In my opinion, Vic and I stood there in the stadium and watched it go down.
>> [LAUGH] >> And compliment you enough.
>> [LAUGH] >> I believe actually texted you,
after the fact.
>> Yeah. >> Because it was like, wow.
>> Yeah. >> You superseded expectations,
you got to give yourself a little credit for that, but how did that come to be?
What made that so special?
>> Man, I don't even know where to begin, but i'd like to,
there's one little statement you made I'd like to expand upon a little bit here.
>> Please. >> That I don't wanna get into,
cuz it can become a real rant here,
I don't want to go into the anatomy of a match and all this kind of thing.
But while it was a spectacle and while it was dressed with all kinds of
special effects, but yeah if you want to call it that.
And stuff that you don't normally get to do with a normal WWE superstar in a normal
wrestling match, I still think it was actually a great wrestling match.
Cuz if you look at the things that actually the components of a wrestling
match, they're all there.
>> Sure >> We didn't throw anything out of
the framework of a wrestling match to create this match.
One of the things that we run into because we work here, and
we're surrounded by this all the time, and especially you Corry,
cuz you worked in the ring for so many years.
Sometimes it's hard to take off the insider goggles and
just put on fan goggles.
>> Yes, >> Right,
like you're looking at structure,
you're looking at the things that you know are the components.
So one of the things I'm really proud of is that match blinded so
many people internally to all of that.
People who know the business inside out who have been working forever forgot about
match structure,
forgot about match psychology, when you should do this, where you should do that.
And they were just reacting in real time to all of it, but, if you actually
look back on it structurally speaking, it's a normal wrestling match.
>> Checks all the boxes.
>> [CROSSTALK] Checks all the boxes.
>> Vic and I stood there in AT&T Stadium, we were in our little corral area for
the announcers that weren't working at the time.
And there were only a few moments all weekend that I got to do that,
and Vicki and I were standing there and in particular.
>> [APPLAUSE] >> [LAUGH]
>> And I say this without any
exaggeration, may have been the loudest AT&T stadium was all weekend long,
with the exception of when stone cold glass broke.
>> Yeah. >> That's how the magnitude of that
moment, and Vic and I are looking at each other laughing and smiling and going, God,
this is so much fun.
>> Yeah. >> And it was different, and
it stood out in the wake of WrestleMania,
a lot of people still talking about that matchup because it was just so different.
>> I think people will talk about that for years and years and years.
>> Yes.
>> So another thing that I'm really proud of that matches one of the things you
touched on earlier when you brought it up.
It's recreated something that doesn't actually, like it doesn't really exist.
There's not really a match like that anywhere else,
because there's only one Johnny Knoxville and one Sami Zayn and
one WrestleMania where those things could exist.
Going back to what we're talking about was Cody and Seth, circumstance.
There is an element of circumstance to this because you can't
recreate that match, you just can't recreate that now.
Like for example you could watch Undertaker Shawn and you could be two
guys on the independence and you can do your little version of that match.
You can't redo a version of this match because it doesn't exist.
>> Right.
>> [CROSSTALK] >> There's no Party Boy,
there's no other We Man.
>> Right.
[LAUGH] >> There's no other giant hand,
you know what I mean?
>> Yeah >> Was there ever a moment all
WrestleMania weekend or in the lead up to this.
Cuz we're about the same age and you grew up and Jackass,
was a cultural phenomenon here, at least in the United States where everyone and
their brother was obsessed with it.
Do you ever have any moments in this process where you went, man,
Party Boy is shaking his parts at me at WrestleMania?
>> Well, so and I said this in a couple of interviews, but
I didn't grow up a Jackass fan.
>> Okay. >> So but
I obviously knew what a huge deal it was and all that, so
there were definitely moments in the lead up like man I never
thought 20 years ago when I started wrestling.
That I'd be wrestling Johnny Knoxville at WrestleMania of course you have those
thoughts, right?
But I had to do a little bit of homework for
the match too because I had a preconceived notion of what Jackass was from 20 years
ago to when I first made the decision, I'm not into this.
>> [LAUGH] >> 20 years ago, when it was like, hey,
there's this thing called Jackass and all I understood about jackass is it's a bunch
of guys getting hurt, and I don't really like watching guys get hurt.
>> Yeah. >> Or people hurting themselves,
Kevin is different, he loves those videos.
>> [LAUGH] >> People slipping and falling or
whatever, he loves that stuff, I am kinda squeamish and
I'm like, God don't show me that.
So I didn't really know what Jackass was about and
I kinda made the decision early on like, God it's not for me.
But then now revisiting it at all, I've said this before but
I find it ironic that I missed the point of what Jackass was all about.
Cuz the reason Jackass was a huge cultural phenomenal is because it was
the camaraderie.
>> Right. >> And it was the guys doing everything,
it's the crew and you get me and I get you and
like it's the laughs and which it's so funny and ironic.
I would miss the point because I love wrestling and
people constantly miss the point about wrestling.
So, its just so funny that i would have missed the point and
I'm quick to call myself out on that, and I'll admit that I was wrong.
So all this to say, going back and
watching Jackass a little bit into the match,
I wanted it to be a true pro wrestling Jackass collaboration, crossover.
And I think that's what it was if you go back and watch it and
like maybe a little elements of Home Alone as well but that's a different thing.
But that's kind of what I wanted, I wanted it to be true to what happens when
wrestling meets Jackass and I think we nailed it.
>> Mission accomplished.
>> Yeah.
>> As Corey said, we stood there with like, our childish glow on our faces,
we were looking around at everyone rising and there was a moment in the match.
>> Yeah.
>> That I think I said, they're about to go nuts, and I think he kicked out of
something and the place like erupted in laughter, and the match was great itself.
But I wanna go back to you actually diving in to this story.
>> Yeah. >> To the point where you did the stuff on
social media, cuz I think that also is now getting lost after the match,
like this was that beautiful story.
>> Right.
>> But, through the power of Instagram and Twitter and things like that.
>> Well so that's another thing that I take a lot of pride
in now looking back on all of it and talking about circumstance.
The build up to that match is also not a build up you could have done with
anyone else, I can't build my Hell in a Cell match with Seth Rollins,
for example, by flying his phone number over Los Angeles.
>> [LAUGH] >> That's just not how you build programs.
>> It's not what that was, that.
>> [CROSSTALK] Yeah like we gotta go so far.
Right. >> Exactly, we got go so
far out of the box and I got kind of addicted to it,
I was like, man here's all these things we can do next, and there's just so
much awesome stuff that we could do that.
I think is like him giving out my phone number and me taking all those calls and
I think that's gonna be very memorable.
And it was very exciting and there was so much others stuff that
was on the table to do, that for one reason or another we didn't get to do.
But one of the big things was the red carpet premiere at the Chinese Theatre in
Hollywood going to the movie premiere, and that was such an awesome moment for me,
I've never done anything like that before.
But it was my Andy Kaufman moments a little bit with Dave Letterman and
the thing that I find funny is in this case I was Andy Kaufman and
the wrestler >> Yeah [LAUGH].
>> [CROSSTALK] >> [LAUGH] Yeah which is funny, but
it just got me so addicted or not.
Almost going back to what you asked me about when was the light bulb moment of
transitioning from good match guy to storytelling guy or whatever it is.
This was a bit of a lightbulb moment for like, man,
there's so many creative ways I wanna do things.
And I hope I can do them, it's kind of hard sometimes here with the nature
of how we do things, but it just got me so
excited about the out of the box ways to build a story or tell a story.
And things to do and ways to build your character all that all this fun stuff, and
I couldn't have done it with anyone else except Johnny Knoxville because A,
he's not a conventional wrestler.
B, he's not even a conventional celebrity,
[LAUGH] like if I was wrestling Leonardo DiCaprio, we wouldn't be doing this stuff,
[LAUGH] it's because that's what Johnny Knoxville does.
He does gags and goofs and he gets you this way and that way whatever, so
it could only have worked with him.
So that was another thing that, they're big takeaway for me.
Is the creative way we can go about telling stories and
getting character stuff over and doing things that we don't always do.
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