WHISTLE, FIZZLE, POP: SCOTTY 2 HOTTY

WATCH THIS EXCLUSIVE CLIP

WHISTLE, FIZZLE, POP: SCOTTY 2 HOTTY:

This episode we talk about our 4th of July, a board game that’s OUTTATIME, Summerween?! Huh?! Plus we are joined by one of our best friends and WWE Superstar, Scott Garland aka Scotty 2 Hotty! He reminisces about his love of theme parks, haunted attractions and his early years as a wrestling fan and how he turned that love into a lifelong career. He also loves cigars! HA! 

You can watch the full episode on YouTube here

TRANSCRIPT:

Mike Aiello:
Hey everybody, it's Mike Aiello with We're Grounded With Austin And Mike. Before we get started with today's episode, we've got to give a shout out to our sponsor. Yes, We're Grounded With Austin And Mike has a sponsor. Who knew that a podcast that has absolutely no level of success yet, or any awareness would be sponsored by any company? But, Death Wish Coffee has come through and said, "You know what, guys? We have faith in you. We trust you and we're going to sponsor you." So, they have. We're Grounded With Austin And Mike is sponsored by Death Wish Coffee. I'm told is the world's strongest coffee. Austin, am...

Austin Romero:
It is Mike. It's very strong.

Mike Aiello:
Austin drinks it all the time. He loves it. And, a special thing just with us, if you put in "Grounded" into deathwishcoffee.com, you will get 12% off your order of Death Wish Coffee, the world's...

Austin Romero:
It's great.

Mike Aiello:
... the world's strongest coffee. As spoken and as said by Austin Romero, a proud drinker of...

Austin Romero:
It's very strong Mike, thank you.

Mike Aiello:
I would say Austin is now fueled by death at all times when he drinks this coffee. So, go to the site...

Austin Romero:
I'm going to have a heart attack, Mike.

Mike Aiello:
Go to the site, put in, "Grounded" and you'll get 12% off of your order courtesy of us.

Austin Romero:
You're welcome.

Mike Aiello:
A podcast that is sponsored by Death Wish Coffee.

Austin Romero:
They are absolutely out of their minds, I love them.

Mike Aiello:
Yes. I mean, it's ridiculous. It's absolutely ridiculous that they would do that, but it just goes to show, they have no idea...

Austin Romero:
How smart they are.

Mike Aiello:
All right, so do that. Get your 12% off. Drink some Death Wish coffee and we'll get right into...

Austin Romero:
We're Grounded.

Mike Aiello:
... this week's episode of We're Grounded With Austin And Mike. All right. Hey, everybody. Welcome to We're Grounded With Austin And Mike. This is episode two. We're recording our second episode.

Austin Romero:
We did more than one.

Mike Aiello:
It's amazing. We didn't bail out while we're editing the first, because that happens a lot in my life. I'll start something and then I'll go to some other phase of the project...

Austin Romero:
Speak for yourself. I bailed out a long time ago.

Mike Aiello:
It's going to be, We're Grounded With Just Mike in the third episode, this is, we're going to herald the final episode with Austin in this episode, he's giving us the wave...

Austin Romero:
Little pageant wave for those of you listening in audio format, I'm just giving a little Miss America wave.

Mike Aiello:
What's going on, my friend?

Austin Romero:
You know, hanging out.

Mike Aiello:
Yeah. I feel like I just saw you. Because we just did.

Austin Romero:
That's right. We shot off the most awful 4th of July fireworks ever, the worst, literally ever, in the history of fireworks. America was embarrassed of us.

Mike Aiello:
Well, I think it's the worst in the history of us spending 4th of July together because...

Austin Romero:
Correct.

Mike Aiello:
... for everyone, Austin and I, we make it a point every 4th of July to hang out. And, it's been a tradition for many years where we get food, again, much like everybody in the country, we get food, we get fireworks. And, we hang out with the people that we love. And, last night was no different, except the fact that we had purchased the worst fireworks that we've ever purchased in our history of doing this together.

Austin Romero:
They got me with the sales pitch. So, we're in line and we've got this, it was what? The United, they were called the United States something, like we had this box that looked really cool. And, I was like, "Yes."

Mike Aiello:
It had like jets on.

Austin Romero:
It was like the American seal, not, the original one, it was gold and said like United States or whatever on it.

Mike Aiello:
Oh, the one we didn't buy?

Austin Romero:
Yeah. The one we didn't buy, it was like, "Buy one, get one free." And, I was like, "This is great. It's $60 buy one, get another one free. This is awesome." And then, it's, as I'm standing in line, the lady's like, "Orange stickers, buy one, get one free. The green sticker is buy one, get two free." And, I was like, "Did you say buy one, get two free?" And, she goes, "Yep." So, I went to go put that back and next to it was this one with fire and jets and stuff. And, I was like, "Nothing says America like fire and jets."

Mike Aiello:
Fire and jets.

Austin Romero:
So, I grabbed three of them because it was $90. So, I was just trying to do the math and I'm like, "This is a great deal. Let's do this. You get another one free."

Mike Aiello:
What a great deal.

Austin Romero:
Yeah. Don't listen to me anymore.

Mike Aiello:
What a great deal of heartache. It was, so we had the bright idea and I live in a neighborhood and I want to, and I'm also a very conscientious neighbor. I want to make sure all of our neighbors know that we're going to be lighting fireworks. Most of the neighbors around us were also lighting small, little, small driveway stuff, the stuff you get in the supermarket. However, we had made this purchase and we had these three red, hot and boom, whatever the heck it's called, boxes of, again, the picture makes it feel like you've, literally if Rambo lived inside of a pyro box. That's what this picture implied.

Mike Aiello:
Yeah. It was just going to be like the most massive amount of pyrotechnics imaginable for the price of what? Buy one, get two free.

Austin Romero:
It was like that scene in, what was it? Was it the jungle fear? What was that movie? Was it jungle fury? What's the one with Ben Stiller and everything where they...

Mike Aiello:
Oh, Tropic Thunder.

Austin Romero:
Tropic Thunder. That was the one, where he's sitting there and he's like, "Mother nature just pissed her pantsuit." And, he's like, "Boom boom boom boom boom boom." That's how I pictured it in my mind. We were going to like light it and stand back and be like, "Yes."

Mike Aiello:
So, I take a poll, all of our neighbors around our house, take a poll and like, "Hey, we've got this box." We had three of these mind you, but we got, I said, "I've got one of these, do you think the neighborhood, the street would like to see this thing go off?" And, everyone, all the neighbors are like, "Yeah, great." So, we put it in the center of the road, again, we're in, I'm in a very residential neighborhood. Our houses are zero lot line kind of thing. And, we light this and it proceeds to rain hell at a very low height, all over the street.

Austin Romero:
Also, whistle at us. It's like [Whistles 00:06:39].

Mike Aiello:
It was little gold tail whistles with a little red pop, except it's supposed to go right up into the air. But, these did not. These decided to go up maybe two feet and then out. Or just exploded just above the box that they're contained within.

Austin Romero:
Or like the last box we lit, only half of them went up.

Mike Aiello:
Well, yeah. So, anyway, we're. I'm just now, I'm afraid for all of my neighbors because kids were running, a girl across the street was crying because it, just, this thing was just unpredictable and we lit it right in the middle of the neighborhood and it was, it could not have gone...

Austin Romero:
Mike Aiello the chaos bringer.

Mike Aiello:
And, I'm usually, I'm very quiet. But, last night I was the bain of our neighbors existence for what seemed to be 30 seconds, but felt like three weeks.

Austin Romero:
Yeah. Felt like an hour. His neighbor was very polite though. Came over and goes, "Yeah man, that was awesome."

Mike Aiello:
Yeah. So then, we had these two other boxes. So like, well we got to light them off because I'm not going to store them. So, we went, our neighborhood is currently being, there's a new phase being built. So, we drove to a more open field and he lit the other two boxes. Austin had the idea to make it more, probably, and this was a better idea we should have done this, to link the fuses together and light both boxes off at the same time. But, I said, "No, let's enjoy this." Instead, that was the wrong decision. It was further disappointment in these buy one, get two free.

Austin Romero:
We got 12 shots out of that 20.

Mike Aiello:
Yeah. 12 shots literally went off and that was the end of our 4th of July. It was a fizzle. It ended in a fizzle.

Austin Romero:
A fizzle pop.

Mike Aiello:
Fizzle, pop. Whistle, fizzle, pop.

Austin Romero:
Whistle fizzle pop.

Mike Aiello:
Whistle fizzle pop. Which probably is another pyro brand. Somewhere in that tent was whistle fizzle pops.

Austin Romero:
I should've got the whistle fizzle pops, it would have been better than that.

Mike Aiello:
Here's the other thing that I'm, that every year it makes me so happy and I laugh all the time, is when you're going through the aisles of the tents with all the pyro in it. And, you're seeing all these fireworks branded, illegally, off of name brands. Like, there was one yesterday we saw it was themed after Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Austin Romero:
Oh yeah. The Donatello's and Michelangelo.

Mike Aiello:
Yeah, it was literally a silhouette of Donatello. I mean, no approval here. But, they don't care. Like, pyro companies, because again, it's all overseas stuff so they're just sending this, they'll theme it off of anything. And, they don't...

Austin Romero:
I remember the mermaid. I really, I almost, I should have picked the mermaid. I feel like that was our selection. That's what we should've gone for.

Mike Aiello:
Oh, remember the lady bug? There's this pyro, this lady bug shaped pyro piece, I didn't know what it did. And so, again, we're in our neighborhood and I light it and this thing starts spinning and it shoots up into the air like 40 feet and, which is great, it explodes. But, then what falls is just plastic.

Austin Romero:
Shrapnel. Yeah.

Mike Aiello:
Burning plastic all over the neighborhood.

Austin Romero:
Yeah.

Mike Aiello:
So, again, my neighbors were quite upset and I apologized.

Austin Romero:
And, still a better fireworks show than the $90 I spent on those three boxes. And, that thing was like five bucks.

Mike Aiello:
Oh, well, anyhow. Hey, at least the burgers were good.

Austin Romero:
My grill.

Mike Aiello:
I grilled. I hardly ever grill.

Austin Romero:
Do you want yours well done? Or well done?

Mike Aiello:
Well done or brick? Which one would you like? I know, I'm not... A buddy of mine, he's got a phrase called real man, real man. You know, these are like guys that are all outdoorsy and I am not a real man. I'm not, not a real man at all.

Austin Romero:
I will say this, every burger you lost through the grates in the charcoal, you salvaged. So, I'll give you points for that.

Mike Aiello:
It became a massive rescue effort as I'm spatuling burgers, they would fall through. Which I believe...

Austin Romero:
Trying not to burn his arm.

Mike Aiello:
... these oven, these little grates in the barbecue are far too wide.

Austin Romero:
I mean...

Mike Aiello:
So, these burgers fell through and then it became as if we were rescuing someone that fell into a mine. Trying to go between the greats and pick these now charcoal covered burgers that we did eat.

Austin Romero:
They were delicious. They saved like, they tasted like the 4th of July. They tasted like those fireworks we shot off.

Mike Aiello:
Hey, mission accomplished.

Austin Romero:
You're a real man, Mike Aiello, you're a real man.

Mike Aiello:
So not. So not. So, that was fun. It was a good time.

Austin Romero:
Speaking of being real men and an adult, there's some cool anniversaries that have happened recently.

Mike Aiello:
Good segue. We're going to get better at this. I know it.

Austin Romero:
No.

Mike Aiello:
What were you saying, Austin?

Austin Romero:
I remember. I said, "Speaking of being real adults..." You got some cool toys recently. Listen, I never said I was a professional, okay? I say names and weights.

Mike Aiello:
No. But, you're right. There, so Back to the Future is celebrating its 35th anniversary, it was just a couple of days ago. And, look at this thing, I just got. Check it out. What I'm holding up is a, is it Playmobil? Is that how you say it?

Austin Romero:
I think so. Yeah.

Mike Aiello:
Playmobil.

Austin Romero:
Playmobil.

Mike Aiello:
Yeah. The one that's not Lego.

Austin Romero:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Mike Aiello:
They did an awesome Playmobil version of the DeLorean from Back to the Future. And, it is honestly one of the best DeLorean toys I've seen. The...

Austin Romero:
Light it up. Go ahead.

Mike Aiello:
... Oh yeah.

Austin Romero:
Go ahead.

Mike Aiello:
And, it lights up. Look at this, the doors open just like the DeLorean, but it also has a light up feature where it looks like it's going 88 miles per hour. And, you've got these awesome led blue lights all around it. But, the best part, which a lot of details missed in some things like this, check out the inside. That is the flux capacitor also lighting up.

Austin Romero:
That is awesome.

Mike Aiello:
It's too...

Austin Romero:
You're a real man, Mike Aiello.

Mike Aiello:
I am.

Austin Romero:
As I Stand in front of my arcades and my toys.

Mike Aiello:
But, it's cool. They've got little Playmobil versions of... I know I'm not saying that right. Playmobil? Playmobil. Anyhow, the non Lego versions of Marty and Doc are really, really cool looking. He's holding the RCA camcorder...

Austin Romero:
So lifelike.

Mike Aiello:
Doc's got the remote, you know, when he sends Einstein back into, back in time. Here, they even have an Einstein. There's no sets that ever come with Einstein.

Austin Romero:
No.

Mike Aiello:
And, there he is. They got Einstein...

Austin Romero:
What is the age range on those toys, Mike?

Mike Aiello:
Not, probably younger than me. It's probably, it's probably [crosstalk 00:13:54].

Austin Romero:
I feel like every time I've, I think, I feel like Playmobil did a Power Ranger set that I came across in target and I was like, "Oh my God, this is so awesome." And, I picked up the box and on it, it said three to 10 or something like that. And, I was like, "I feel personally attacked right now."

Mike Aiello:
Well, the thing about the, you know, Lego pieces are small, but these are also, they've got a lot of smaller accessories. But, I imagine this is for kids or for kids at heart.

Austin Romero:
I love it. Love it.

Mike Aiello:
That came now. And then, the other latest obsession I have, because you know I love a good board game, Austin.

Austin Romero:
You do. You do.

Mike Aiello:
I've got many.

Austin Romero:
Yeah. We learned that last episode.

Mike Aiello:
Ravensburger. Look at that.

Austin Romero:
All right. And, how is it?

Mike Aiello:
Awesome. Oh, is this reverse? Is this also reverse on, Oh, I think it's in reverse. I didn't notice that.

Austin Romero:
No. I see back to the future. I can see that.

Mike Aiello:
Okay, cool. On my screen, it's reverse. But, here it is. Back to the Future dice through time. Ravensburger, really great board game company, they put this thing out. This is a dice game and it's really fun. Cayden and I played it last week and it's a nonlinear co-op board game where you roll dice and the whole object is Biff has been going through time, taking items from one time stream and putting them in another and you have to collect...

Austin Romero:
Damnit Biff.

Mike Aiello:
... I know Biffs always causing trouble. And, you've got to collect these items and put them back in the times that they're supposed to be in. And, it's a race against time before you're out of time. Just like...

Austin Romero:
Is it better than the Nintendo game? That's all I got to ask.

Mike Aiello:
Oh God. Yes. Oh my God. That game was awful.

Austin Romero:
Those damn bee's.

Mike Aiello:
The bee's. That's right. Oh my God. But, it's fun. It's really easy to learn, it's about a half hour to 40 minutes of gameplay and there's different difficulty levels you can employ to make the game harder or easier. It's a blast. So, I would say it's a blast through time.

Austin Romero:
A blast from the past.

Mike Aiello:
Yep. It's very cool. Cayden and I've had a blast playing it. It's been fun. So, yeah. That is... Oh, and then. So, I went to a good friend of ours, her, it was her son. Not only was he graduating high school, but it was also his birthday last weekend. And, of course, we're in some kind of odd times where you can't really...

Austin Romero:
Social distancing birthday parties.

Mike Aiello:
Exactly. Exactly. So, the trend lately has been doing kind of these drive-bys where you drive past the person that's having the celebration and you decorate your car and you wave and just wish them well. Well...

Austin Romero:
Happy birthday.

Mike Aiello:
Yeah, so Cind, this kid's name is, his name is Evan. He's a good friend of my son's. She had the awesome idea of contacting a guy that owns a replica of the DeLorean from back to the future. And, in turn, also we have people that we know that actually do look a likes for Marty McFly. And so, part of the train of people that went by was the DeLorean and Marty from Back to the Future. And, they drove past his house and parked the DeLorean in front of his house and there was photo ops. And, this DeLorean is amazing. Like it's, it is completely recreated down to the tiniest detail.

Mike Aiello:
And so, that was his birthday celebration. He actually got a visit from Marty who, which I thought was cool, told him that the future does get better. This whole thing is going to pass. So, we heard it from Marty McFly himself, that all of this is going to pass.

Austin Romero:
Why would he lie about that?

Mike Aiello:
He would not lie. Marty doesn't lie.

Austin Romero:
He would not lie.

Mike Aiello:
Except when he's trying to lie to his mom who know that she's his mother.

Austin Romero:
Correct. But, he was awful at that.

Mike Aiello:
Yeah. Which has also always been a very, if you really look at the subtext of that film, there's some deep rooted issues in that movie.

Austin Romero:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Mike Aiello:
The whole like mom wants to kiss her own son, but she doesn't know it. And, is it wrong if you don't know?

Austin Romero:
I don't think so. I don't know. I don't know. Who makes these rules? You know what I mean?

Mike Aiello:
I didn't know you were my mother.

Austin Romero:
God. This is a turn.

Mike Aiello:
What a turn.

Austin Romero:
This just turned left like really hard.

Mike Aiello:
Yeah. That happens.

Austin Romero:
Doc was like, "Get out of the DeLorean now. Get out."

Mike Aiello:
Yep. I'm going eighty-eight to get the heck out of here.

Austin Romero:
Yeah. Right.

Mike Aiello:
I'm sorry.

Austin Romero:
That wasn't the only anniversary this month. We've got Jaws.

Mike Aiello:
Yes.

Austin Romero:
Classic. Another one. Was a good one.

Mike Aiello:
Yes.

Austin Romero:
Yep. Watched that one, obviously. Which kind of ruined our 4th of July because we've watched it beforehand and then...

Mike Aiello:
That's right. [crosstalk 00:18:37] that is usually the 4th of July staple. And, because the 30th anniversary, it was, we all watched it earlier. So, 4th of July, you're like, "What are we going to watch?"

Austin Romero:
Well... And, it also worked out because... So, Vanessa's been, like I talked about last episode, she's been kind of retroactively going backwards and watching all these movies because she missed so much, so many horror movies when she was growing up. And so, she's always on Instagram and she found this list, which I'm going to pull up here. It's called list of horror and spooky movies to watch for summerween. So, she's found this, she's like, "You know what? I'm going to commit to this. I'm going to do it." And, funny enough, number one on there is Jaws.

Mike Aiello:
Okay.

Austin Romero:
One, I've never heard of summerween.

Mike Aiello:
I was just going to ask you is summerween, Is that something new that we're unaware of?

Austin Romero:
It's a thing now, Mike Aiello, it's a thing. Apparently.

Mike Aiello:
So, summerween is a...

Austin Romero:
Christmas in July and summerween.

Mike Aiello:
Because I've heard of, you know, there's Christmas in July.

Austin Romero:
Yeah. Summerween.

Mike Aiello:
But, now we're saying summerween, but summer's so close to where Halloween is. Why wouldn't there be...

Austin Romero:
Ask me about my summerween.

Mike Aiello:
Yeah. That's odd. I don't know if I'm down with this summerween yet.

Austin Romero:
Instagram is a weird place. Let's just, let's be honest. Let's call it how it is right now [crosstalk 00:19:48] And, they said horror and spooky. I mean, you could have just said horror. You didn't have to say horror and... It's just, the whole thing is, it's... So, I'm going to give you this list real quick and...

Mike Aiello:
Okay.

Austin Romero:
... I want to hear your thoughts because I don't know how I feel about this list. This wouldn't be my list if I put it together. But...

Mike Aiello:
So, are these [crosstalk 00:20:05] are these movies themed towards summer?

Austin Romero:
I'm guessing, but when I look at some of these I'm going to go with no.

Mike Aiello:
Okay. All right.

Austin Romero:
All right, so here we go. Jaws, number one.

Mike Aiello:
Yep, summer.

Austin Romero:
Number two. Yep. Sleep away camp.

Mike Aiello:
Yep. Summer.

Austin Romero:
Friday 13th.

Mike Aiello:
Yes. Summer camp.

Austin Romero:
I know what you did last summer.

Mike Aiello:
In the title.

Austin Romero:
Five. Us.

Mike Aiello:
They're on vacation. So yeah. Okay.

Austin Romero:
Six, Tourist Trap.

Mike Aiello:
Tourists, vacation, summer. Got it. Yeah.

Austin Romero:
It.

Mike Aiello:
Is that, does that take place in the summer? Does it?

Austin Romero:
I don't think so. It's like fall time isn't it?

Mike Aiello:
I can't remember. Isn't it, yeah. I can't remember.

Austin Romero:
The Burbs.

Mike Aiello:
Not a summer movie, but it's residential.

Austin Romero:
Misommar.

Mike Aiello:
I don't know how that, that doesn't equate. But what is it?

Austin Romero:
Midsommar.

Mike Aiello:
Summer. Sounds like summer.

Austin Romero:
But it's not.

Mike Aiello:
But, and they're on a trip. I think it is a, it's a break from school that they go on to this trip and then they go get into a cult. It's awful, but the movies great.

Austin Romero:
The classic. Blood Beach.

Mike Aiello:
Okay. Summertime.

Austin Romero:
Piranha.

Mike Aiello:
Yeah. Yeah, spring break.

Austin Romero:
The Evil Dead.

Mike Aiello:
It's a cabin, but I don't know. Are they on summer break for that? In that movie?

Austin Romero:
I don't know.

Mike Aiello:
I can't remember.

Austin Romero:
Cabin in the Woods.

Mike Aiello:
They're on break. They go there on a school break.

Austin Romero:
Yep. Jeepers creepers.

Mike Aiello:
I can't remember if any, I can't remember if there was a summer theme there.

Austin Romero:
I feel like in part two, there was a school bus, right? Or was that in part one?

Mike Aiello:
No, that was part two. There's a school bus in part two.

Austin Romero:
Okay. Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

Mike Aiello:
Yeah. They're on a break. They're on, it's a group of friends on some sort of vacation. Yeah.

Austin Romero:
The Hills Have Eyes.

Mike Aiello:
Yes. They're taking a family vacation and get lost.

Austin Romero:
Wrong Turn.

Mike Aiello:
Oh God. It's been forever since I've seen that movie, but I...

Austin Romero:
Same.

Mike Aiello:
I imagine it's the same trope.

Austin Romero:
Jurassic Park.

Mike Aiello:
Aren't the kids on summer break? And, that's why they're...

Austin Romero:
They are, Summer break. Yes.

Mike Aiello:
Yeah.

Austin Romero:
The Final Girls.

Mike Aiello:
Can I be honest? And, it's bad. I mean, I've never seen that movie yet and I hear it's awesome, but I have not seen it yet.

Austin Romero:
I haven't even. I never saw Tourist Trap and that was...

Mike Aiello:
That is a, that's a movie that's a product of its time. That was in the era where we can make money really fast if we just make a slasher movie and do it quickly.

Austin Romero:
Oh man. I mean, when he had the psychic powers, I was just like, "Wow, this is. Oh, I didn't see that one coming."

Mike Aiello:
No. No one did.

Austin Romero:
Ghost Ship.

Mike Aiello:
Yeah. Another movie I haven't seen in so long, but God, that opening scene is like the best.

Austin Romero:
Yep.

Mike Aiello:
It's the best.

Austin Romero:
From Dusk till Dawn.

Mike Aiello:
Yes. I think. Yeah, I think what's her name? Juliet, God, what's her name? Juliette Lewis?

Austin Romero:
Is that who it is? In that one?

Mike Aiello:
Yeah. She's the daughter of Harvey Keitel in that movie, but I think they're on vacation.

Austin Romero:
Oh, I think so, yeah. Are they?

Mike Aiello:
Juliette Lewis? I can't remember her name.

Austin Romero:
I told you, I've only, that's one I've only seen once. It's been a long time.

Mike Aiello:
Is that the list? Is there anymore?

Austin Romero:
Hold on. There's four more. House of Wax.

Mike Aiello:
Oh, wait. The remake?

Austin Romero:
2005.

Mike Aiello:
Okay. With Paris Hilton.

Austin Romero:
Oh my God. Sorry.

Mike Aiello:
I don't mind that movie. And, again, it's Paris Hilton dies in it. So, it's like, if you're [crosstalk 00:24:12] to happen. Then ...

Austin Romero:
That's your movie. Go for that one. You heard it here. The lost boys.

Mike Aiello:
Oh yeah. Yeah, of course. Yeah. Summer. It's a, that's a summer or break movie. Yeah. Which, man, Joel Schumacher just passed too. This past week or a week ago. Yeah. The lost boys is awesome.

Austin Romero:
Cabin Fever.

Mike Aiello:
Yeah. Eli Roth. Good movie.

Austin Romero:
Yep.

Mike Aiello:
So...

Austin Romero:
I remember. Were you going to ask me if I've seen it?

Mike Aiello:
Yeah.

Austin Romero:
Yeah. That's, because that was the one I was asking about, was a kid from Boy Meets World was in it, right?

Mike Aiello:
Yes.

Austin Romero:
Yeah. Sean Hunter from Boy Meets World. Yeah. I remember seeing that, I actually saw that in theaters.

Mike Aiello:
Yeah, I did too. I did too. Yeah, the it's... I think...

Mike Aiello:
I did too, I did too. A great double feature is, actually, if you want to do a really good triple feature of just horror movies that are just wet and gross, do a triple feature of Cabin Fever, Slither and Dead Alive.

Austin Romero:
Oh.

Mike Aiello:
Those movies are just wet.

Austin Romero:
Yeah. All right, last one are you ready for it?

Mike Aiello:
Yeah.

Austin Romero:
Creature from the Black Lagoon.

Mike Aiello:
I don't know if it's the ... I don't get the summer aspect of that.

Austin Romero:
It's water.

Mike Aiello:
Yeah [crosstalk 00:25:39]. Yeah. Why not? That's a very-

Austin Romero:
Happy Summer-ween Mike.

Mike Aiello:
Summer-ween. Okay. So Summer-ween is a thing and let's create a list of things that kind of go together, but some of them don't.

Austin Romero:
Not at all. Yes.

Mike Aiello:
You said Vanessa is going through these. What had she watched?

Austin Romero:
She's made it all the way to,

Austin Romero:
I think she got through, cause this photo actually, you won't be able to see it, but the photo I took it from her story, it says, "blood beach, awful movie. I think she's made it to Purana, so she's 11 in right now.

Mike Aiello:
Piranha original or Piranha remake.

Austin Romero:
Are you talking about Piranha was it 4D or 3D-

Mike Aiello:
No, no well, it was in 3D, but there was a Piranha remake and then they... Yeah, it was Piranha 3D I think that came out.

Austin Romero:
I don't know.

Austin Romero:
Which is great by the way.

Mike Aiello:
It just says Piranha on there, so I don't know which one it is.

Austin Romero:
The original is great too, but the remake they did was is, is fantastic. The sequel of the remake, not so great.

Mike Aiello:
Yeah.

Austin Romero:
That's a fun list. Let me know when she gets to Slither.

Mike Aiello:
Done.

Austin Romero:
I want to hear about that. Hell, I might want to watch that with her.

Mike Aiello:
Oh my God.

Austin Romero:
That one's a good one.

Austin Romero:
There's two things she doesn't do good with is wet or moist people hate that word. I know. Or super, if it's gory for the sake of, for example, man what was the movie with Art the Clown?

Mike Aiello:
Oh, Terrifier.

Austin Romero:
Terrifier. Thank you. I don't know why that slipped my mind for a little bit. Terrifier, even though it's called a slasher, she doesn't understand why it's just mindless, slashing. She's like, "It doesn't make any sense. It's just killing this person for the..." and there was that scene and Terrifier where it was like the famous scene. And she was like, "No I'm done. I'm good. I'm out."

Mike Aiello:
Oh, wow. Well then Slithers is going to be something for her. Although, that's not just because there's a story wrapped around the reason why, the organic chaos is happening and it's in that movie, and then dead alive too. Again, we're talking early Peter Jackson, where he was just about doing some really crazy practical effects, and it's a really fun zombie movie, but it is wet. It is gross and wet.

Austin Romero:
I have those, they did a Peter Jackson sale on iTunes or something, and I ended up picking those up. And I think in the trailer, there's a scene where the face is just dripping and whatever. And she goes, "I'm not watching that. I'm not going to watch that. It's too drippy."

Mike Aiello:
I've got them. I'll send them your way, so you can pop it in-

Austin Romero:
Can't wait.

Mike Aiello:
...and surprise her with it.

Austin Romero:
The education continues, Mike. The education and learning about Summer-ween.

Mike Aiello:
Summer-ween. All right, well-

Austin Romero:
Add it to my holidays.

Mike Aiello:
Okay.

Austin Romero:
Maybe our guests knows about Summer-ween.

Mike Aiello:
I doubt it. I didn't know about it, but who we're talking today?

Austin Romero:
The one, the only Scott Garland better known as Scotty, too Hottie.

Mike Aiello:
So fame WWE superstar. Now training a lot of the-

Austin Romero:
WWF too, mostly WWF.

Mike Aiello:
Now in the training and development of future superstars-

Austin Romero:
And our best friend.

Mike Aiello:
...but more importantly, one of our best friends in the whole wide world. So we get some time with him. Talk about all kinds of stuff. Talk about wrestling. We talk about his love of theme parks, his love of the HA Industry, his love of horror nights. We get kind of serious for a little while and talk about some like social media stuff. That's really, really fun conversation-

Austin Romero:
We talk about his love for cigars.

Mike Aiello:
His love for cigars. Yeah. You guys will love this story, but, but he's an awesome guy. He's a really great friend of ours and we're really happy to be able to share him with whomever decides to listen to this. So, I think we should head to that or this podcast is going to be almost two hours long.

Austin Romero:
Yeah. Let's get the Scott's.

Mike Aiello:
All right. We're going to head right now to our interview with Scott Garland, AKA Scotty, too Hottie.

Jeff:
Whoa. I'm not sure how I got here, but this is a really cool podcast. Well, while I'm here, I guess I'll introduce myself. I am the incredible Jeff, the host of Fueled by Death Cast, the weekly podcast from the Death Wish Coffee company. Each week, I get to talk with a special guest from rock stars to astronauts about what they do and what fuels their passion, because we're all fueled by death. We want to leave this world a little different before we inevitably leave it for good. Follow Fueled by Death Cast on all social media and subscribe today on iTunes, Spotify, or the Death Wish Coffee Company, YouTube page. But for now let's finish this awesome podcast.

Mike Aiello:
Scott gets that problem all the time. Everyone's like,-

Austin Romero:
I know.

Mike Aiello:
..."You were down there?"

Austin Romero:
This guy flexes when he eats a cheeseburger. You see him drinking his water earlier?

Mike Aiello:
So not many people know that the three of us have known each other quite a long time now. Since what? 2012, 2013 maybe now?

Scott Garland:
I was just trying to think of that, when it was. I know Austin what year did you start back at with WWE?

Austin Romero:
2016 I started.

Scott Garland:
Okay, so I did too. The first time I remember meeting you was at Mike's house at that Wrestle Mania party. It may have been before that, but that's the first time I really remember.

Austin Romero:
I think it was Dallas. Was it 2015 or maybe before that? I don't know.

Scott Garland:
[crosstalk 00:32:21] before we both started back. Cause we were at Mike's for the-

Austin Romero:
It was either 2014 or 2015.

Scott Garland:
Yeah, I-

Austin Romero:
Because you came out to Halloween horror nights when I was doing Jack.

Scott Garland:
Yeah. And I already knew you, so I already knew you by then.

Austin Romero:
Which is 2015, yeah we already knew each other.

Scott Garland:
Yeah, and then Mike slipped into my DMS.

Austin Romero:
The truth comes out all he's a DM slider.

Scott Garland:
On Twitter, right?

Mike Aiello:
I don't know what that means. [crosstalk 00:33:00] I'll claim ignorance on that. It's a good thing then. So yeah. I'll take it.

Austin Romero:
Oh yeah. He slid into my DMS before they were DMS.

Mike Aiello:
That's right. That's right. I remember the first time we met was at horror nights. Because we were messaging back and forth and I was working the event that night and you were there and we met over at the Simpsons. We met at Krusty Burger. You were there with-

Austin Romero:
What a fine establishment that is.

Mike Aiello:
We met over a wonderful Krusty Burger.

Scott Garland:
And it was so crusty, wasn't it?

Mike Aiello:
Very, very very.

Austin Romero:
That's hilarious.

Mike Aiello:
But yeah, I remember we were exchanging because obviously you enjoyed the event and you're a massive theme park nerd like us. And I remember, we've talked about this in the past, but I'm a huge wrestling fan, and what would I be called with? What's the term, mark? Is that what the term is?

Scott Garland:
I hate that word though. It's looked as a derogatory term, so-

Mike Aiello:
Oh, is it?

Scott Garland:
... I hate calling you that.

Mike Aiello:
Oh, okay. All right. Well then-

Scott Garland:
The term mark comes from the carnivals, right? The old carnies running the games would people try, walking by the marks, so it's a bit of a derogatory. I can't even say the word I'm so crusty.

Austin Romero:
Drink that water. Drink more water.

Mike Aiello:
But I remember getting a message and then walking over and I texted Summer and I'm like, "You'll never believe this. I'm going to go and talk with Scott Garland." And she goes, "Scott Garland?" and I go, "Scotty too Hottie." She goes, "No Way!" I'm like, "Yes, way. We're going to go see him," and I remember it was this awesome thing, because I watched you. I remember going to my buddy Hunter's house, and we used to go every Monday night and watch raw. Then I was like, "I'm going to go talk with Scotty too Hottie," and now years later we're brothers now. It's just the awesome turn of events.

Scott Garland:
Yeah, and I think even then we didn't realize we lived like five minutes from each other.

Austin Romero:
Yeah, we're all basically [crosstalk 00:35:24] a Bermuda triangle of each other.

Mike Aiello:
Once you come here, you're never seen again.

Scott Garland:
And then I can remember in 2016, Austin, we did that and exceed tour to Japan and Australia. I think you were-

Austin Romero:
That's right. Yeah, well, it's funny because that was around the same time that we met up at Halloween horror nights, the year previous to that, but that was when I moved up to Raw. So, I was supposed to be on that whole tour and we were like, "Yeah, it's going to be great. We're going to go to Japan and Australia, we're going to do all this stuff," and then they called me a week beforehand. They were like, "Hey listen, you're not going to Australia," which has now been a running gag for me for four years because I was supposed to go to Australia every year, and every year something has changed including this year. I was supposed to go to Australia and clearly I'm not going now, but yeah, so they pulled me off so I could debut on Raw.

Austin Romero:
And so they couldn't get a visa for the girl that was there with me to do Japan, so I got to still do Japan, so that was stoked. That I was cool, so-

Scott Garland:
That was my first year back working for NXT, the performance center, and your first year there. So the year before, that's when we met roughly watching Wrestle Mania at Mike's house, and now we're on a tour to Japan together, pretty cool world.

Austin Romero:
And we celebrated after I got hired, you got hired. We got to the house and celebrated. That was a cool moment.

Scott Garland:
We smoked a cigar together.

Austin Romero:
We did.

Mike Aiello:
Scott loves cigars. He absolutely loves them-

Austin Romero:
He loves cigars. Favorite thing in the world.

Scott Garland:
Also loves Krusty Cheeseburgers.

Mike Aiello:
Can I tell that story?

Scott Garland:
Yeah, of course. It's not true, but that's fine.

Austin Romero:
So listen, we decided since I had gotten the job, then Scott got hired not too long after. It was really cool that I'd watched Scott as a kid and then working at the company was cool, and then getting to work with my friend who I also watched as a kid who is now working at the same... It was just kind of this like full circle, awesome moment, and Mike also had some successes in his career at the time we're like, "Hey, you know what? We should get together and celebrate."

Austin Romero:
So everybody came over to my house and we had a celebration cigar, and a glass of whiskey just to-

Mike Aiello:
Whiskey.

Austin Romero:
Whiskey, amongst friends, and outside I just laid the tile and stuff down on that little area. So I had to-

Mike Aiello:
And your festoon lighting was just installed.

Austin Romero:
Yeah, so we had this little area there, so it was just a celebration all around. And so we were hanging out there. We had, the cigars and we're like, "Hey, you know what would be really suited if we went inside and played WWE 2K16 or whatever it was. So we actually went in and played wrestling on the PlayStation, so we're playing there and three of us were in a rural rumble or something was happening. There was more people in there, and I just remember, I kept getting bumped out of the ring and I'm on the outside. And I'm like, "Scott, Scott helps Scott!" and Scott's dude is just standing there. He's just standing there, and I'm like, "What is he doing? Scott what's happening?"

Mike Aiello:
When you don't use the controller for a while and the, and the character just kind of goes into this repetitious activity just to show that the character still has life in it, but you know the person controlling it's not doing anything. It's just doing this.

Austin Romero:
Just standing there, and so I had these reclining couches and so Scott was reclined, but if you've ever seen like a couch swallow someone, that is what happened in that moment. He was literally one with my couch back like this.

Mike Aiello:
Completely just green, just green.

Austin Romero:
Controller like this.

Mike Aiello:
We felt so bad.

Scott Garland:
Keep in mind I was pretty much straight edge before there was a word for straight edge. [crosstalk 00:14:33].

Austin Romero:
Bad influences.

Scott Garland:
I couldn't tell you the last time I smoked a cigar.

Mike Aiello:
Well, we discovered that night that if Scott... [crosstalk 00:39:41] We discovered that if Scott Garland is Superman and has a kryptonite, it is cigars.

Scott Garland:
I was green as kryptonite.

Austin Romero:
Chris in my bathroom that night.

Mike Aiello:
I will enough embarrassing Scott. I know I asked the one thing that we always do is we talk about like the thing about this podcast is it's called grounded a lot because, Austin, I've talked about the fact that when we were kids and we'd get in trouble or have to go to our rooms, it was the best thing in the world, because we had all of our favorite things there. Scott, when you were growing up, what was your room like? And what were the things that you're really passionate about at a young age that have influenced you now?

Scott Garland:
Wrestling, it was wrestling, wrestling, wrestling from a probably say 10 years old, from then on, everything was wrestling.

Mike Aiello:
So, posters on the wall.

Austin Romero:
Which posters?

Scott Garland:
I remember I had a Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake poster. And then I had, it's funny, I had... it wasn't a WWE poster, but it was like one of the Pro Wrestling Illustrated there was a bunch of different posters. They were two sided, so you had to choose which side you're going to put up in the room. I remember there was The Road Warriors, there was The Fabulous Ones.

Austin Romero:
I'm pretty sure there's actually-

Scott Garland:
There's actually a Terry Taylor one, who-

Austin Romero:
Wow, The Red Rooster?

Scott Garland:
Yeah.

Austin Romero:
I know they had a Shawn Michaels and Marty Jannetty one at one point that you could...

Scott Garland:
Yeah, but growing up, ever since I saw Shawn Michaels, I was a shell Michaels fan. I was a fan of the smaller guys, Ricky Steamboat, Randy Savage. They were big guys in real life, but they were smaller guys compared to-

Austin Romero:
Comparatively

Scott Garland:
... the Hogans and Andres at the time, but it was wrestling, wrestling, wrestling. My dad, used to take me to see, I grew up in Portland, Maine, and we would go see ICW would do their TV tapings. Who was Mario Sovaldi's promotion, and they would do two, 3000 people for the TV tapings. They put everybody on one side of the building, and the show is start at 7:00 and they would do TV, weeks and weeks of television until midnight, one o'clock in the morning. But I didn't realize that growing up what I was getting to see, because it was a lot of the guys he was using at the time were the guys from Puerto Rico, like Bruiser Brody, Abdullah the Butcher, the Sheep Herders who became Bushwhackers, David Schultz, that crew of guys. And to think that I was getting that in my small town in Maine, that was pretty lucky looking back on it.

Mike Aiello:
What was it like growing up in Maine?

Scott Garland:
It was awesome way to grow up, really. Very little crime, so small town. I grew up in Southern Maine, so it was a little bit more populated. Once you get up above like a Gusto Bangor, it starts to get a little bit more rural, but it was awesome.

Mike Aiello:
Did you gravitate towards any of the winter sports being from the- [crosstalk 00:43:09]

Scott Garland:
I was always afraid of getting hurt, because first time I was ever in a pro wrestling ring was when I was 15, and I knew I wanted to do that even before that. But a lot of people, I knew that like skied and stuff, they had blown out their knees had knee surgery, so I was always afraid to do that. And my parents didn't ski or do any of that stuff, so I never really got into it. My uncle had a snowmobile we would do that once in a while, but it was skiing. I've still never been skiing or snowboarding.

Mike Aiello:
Yeah, I've only been skiing and my body's not built for it.

Austin Romero:
I used to snowboard every year.

Mike Aiello:
Really?

Austin Romero:
Every year. Yeah.

Scott Garland:
I want to try it. Honestly, at some point.

Austin Romero:
We should take a trip. We should do it. We've talked about it before.

Scott Garland:
Yeah. The [crosstalk 00:43:51]

Mike Aiello:
I'll be in the lodge.

Austin Romero:
Here's a question, so not to completely change directions or anything, but you said you're from Maine, obviously. Stephen King, obviously famous house there. A lot of people don't know you're a huge horror guy as well, and you travel around and you go see a bunch of stuff. I love doing the same thing, so I love following your travels because I'm like, "Oh, I'm going to add that one to my list." Where did your love for that stuff start? Because you said you grew up wrestling, wrestling, wrestling. When did you start landing into horror stuff, and did Stephen King have anything to do with that considering your area?

Scott Garland:
No, not at all. I was a horror nights fan before I was a horror fan.

Austin Romero:
Wow.

Scott Garland:
So I moved to Florida in 2004. I'd never been to Halloween horror. And I had heard about it really had no interest. And then a friend of mine from Rhode Island was here on vacation and he had an extra ticket and he said, "Do you want to go?" So I was like, "Yeah, I'll go," and I went and dude, instantly fell in love with it. And I've been every year since, and it's always the full out frequent theater past and try to go as many times as we can.

Scott Garland:
And now that my son's a huge fan we try to, literally try to cram in as many nights as we can. And we take the trip to Hollywood and do that one out there, so yeah. No, it actually worked in reverse for me where it was the haunted places first, and then more to the... Of course, I watched horror movies, but I wasn't a huge fan. Now I go back and watch stuff. Especially as the house has come up every year for horror nights. As they announced, we go and we watched the movie and we get ready for it. it's a cool thing that I have with my son.

Mike Aiello:
The fact that both of our sons are friends and they go there together. It's just this awesome, who knew 10 years ago, 15 ago, that would be something that exists.

Austin Romero:
Especially for you, Mike.

Mike Aiello:
I know right, but the other haunt events you've been around the country. What are some of the other haunts you've been to?

Scott Garland:
We did, of course, like I said, we did that horror nights at Hollywood. We did-

Mike Aiello:
You did that in 24 hours, didn't you? [crosstalk 00:46:11].

Scott Garland:
We did well, so I did the whole video of us doing it. We did horror nights in Orlando from 12:00 AM to 2:30 AM, and then we got on a plane at 7:00 AM, flew to LA and we did the one out there on the same day. Now, so I posted the video into one of the horror nights fan pages. And I got annihilated for, for having the audacity to say that I did it on the same day because there was a time change. And it was within 24 hours. But I was like, "Dude, I'm just trying to post some fun stuff during this Corona thing that's going on," and I came across the video. I thought I'll put it up on this page.

Austin Romero:
Excuse me, sir. You did not. There's a space time continuum.

Mike Aiello:
My job is to take the joy out of things that you do, so I'm going to do that.

Scott Garland:
Yeah.

Austin Romero:
I thought it was cool that you did that. I know Vanessa and I were trying to do not so scary, so we did one and then we went and did the one of the and stuff and try to go back and forth and then try to do the horror nights. It's cool to do that stuff though. I realized the more I traveled with WWE, we ended up for some reason, the way our routes would go, we end up in certain places that were hotbeds for haunts or just all events or anything. I started to go do those on my own, and then Vanessa started joining me and I remember following your stuff on social media. I was like, "Oh my God, Scott's doing this too. This is so great," and you would always go to places that I would never even think of. So then I would add those to my list, like Nether World I think you went there before I did.

Scott Garland:
Nether World's great.

Austin Romero:
Yeah, it was awesome, and I didn't know that. And I drove out... we went to Atlanta for Raw, I think it was, and I literally landed and went straight there and went to all of it by myself and got the express. And I had a great time, but I would have never even known about it if it hadn't been for your travels.

Scott Garland:
Yeah. It's awesome. We did the Warner Brothers. I know they didn't do it last year, but the year before, maybe two years prior, they did their Halloween event. We did the Queen Mary event. We did the Knotts scary event out there.

Mike Aiello:
I love Knotts. I've done Knotts four or five times. And also I went way, way, way back, and to see their level of quality, start to build and grow over the last decade or more, even more than that. Some of their design and their mazes is just so, so well done. I'm a fan. Absolutely fan.

Austin Romero:
That is one I have not been to yet. I was very disappointed cause we finished a live event and I think we were a little North of it and we had to drive for two hours and I wanted to go see Elvira so bad, because I think it was every year I had missed her every year I had missed her. And then the last year that she did the show, they were down the week that I was in LA, I was like, "Oh, I'm finally going to happen," and then it never happens. So I never went, and now I've just decided I'm not going to go. I'm protesting.

Mike Aiello:
Scott, you've been to Eastern State Penitentiary, right?

Scott Garland:
Yeah, we did that last year. That was really cool actually-

Austin Romero:
The one in Pennsylvania?

Scott Garland:
Yeah, we did some package where you do an hour tour of the prison by flashlight before the haunted event, so they did five or six mazes, but then we also did the guided tour by flashlight. And that was actually probably scarier than the maze.

Austin Romero:
Yeah, I did it years and years and years ago when I first started with horror nights, and that was the thing that I took away from it like that place is just scary all by itself. Just turn the lights off, and it's a small group and you're walking around and the way...

Mike Aiello:
It's a small group and you're walking around and the way the light bends around the bars and just the atmosphere of that place is already... It's just a heightened sense of just, "I don't want to be here." Nothing good-

Scott Garland:
You know some stuff went down there.

Mike Aiello:
Yeah.

Scott Garland:
100 years ago, you know stuff was going down. You know what's funny is we actually shot the opening to Monday Night Raw in that prison.

Mike Aiello:
Really?

Scott Garland:
Back in 2002, 2003, maybe somewhere along there.

Mike Aiello:
Wow. I didn't know that.

Scott Garland:
Yeah.

Austin Romero:
I didn't know that either.

Scott Garland:
They shot each one of us individually in the cells.

Mike Aiello:
Oh, wow. It was for Raw?

Austin Romero:
You know what? I think I remember seeing that.

Scott Garland:
It was either the opening for Raw or Smackdown. I can't remember.

Austin Romero:
No, I think it was Raw. I think you're right.

Scott Garland:
Yeah. Have to look it up.

Austin Romero:
Interesting. That's wild.

Mike Aiello:
I know you're right on that.

Austin Romero:
What an interesting cross of paths there?

Scott Garland:
Yeah.

Austin Romero:
It's such a cool place though. I actually didn't even... I was doing live events around there and then somebody messaged me like, "Oh, you got to check this place out." I remember reading about it going, "Oh, that's going to be an interesting one." Then, the same as you, I kind of did the haunt stuff and I was like, "It's cool." But then once you go into this building that has a history behind it, and you're just... I don't know. It's either your mind starts to let go or you just start to make up stories in your head. You're like, "Oh, God. It's eerie." Actually, that was the first place that's changed the trajectory of the way I travel too. I started trying to hit more real places as opposed to built haunts. I did both, but I loved just... Because those things actually get me like...

Scott Garland:
Queen Mary is very similar to that.

Mike Aiello:
Yeah. But that place is super haunted.

Scott Garland:
When you go through the boiler room and all that stuff, and they've incorporated the boiler room into the mazes and different parts of the ship into their different mazes. Then, they have... I think it was like two or three outside in tents, but then two or three of them happen inside the ship, which is very cool.

Austin Romero:
What's the coolest place you've been to so far?

Scott Garland:
As far as theme parks?

Austin Romero:
Outside of Halloween Horror Nights.

Scott Garland:
Haunted or theme parks in general?

Austin Romero:
Yes.

Scott Garland:
Probably Naut's. I'd say Naut's. Yeah.

Austin Romero:
Wow.

Mike Aiello:
Yeah. The thing about Naut's, fact it's been around so long. Literally, the haunt events and hell, even like the Bill & Ted type show, their show, The Hanging, all that originated over at Naut's. When you walk into that place, A, it's a beautiful park. It's just a gorgeous park in general. But then when they do the Halloween overlay, it just oozes traditional Halloween from around every single corner. A lot of it, due to the fact, just the way, how beautiful the park is laid out and the landscape of that park. They can light just the trees all around that park and it's just a gorgeous look.

Austin Romero:
That's cool.

Mike Aiello:
Yeah. I love going there.

Scott Garland:
They did a house a couple of years ago. They didn't do it last year, but I can't remember the name of it now. I think they had done it quite a few years previous, but we went... I think it was the last year they did it. It was completely dark. It was like an old farmhouse. You went through with just a flashlight. They gave you these flashlights that flicker. One flashlight per party and they see [inaudible 00:53:34]. I can't remember the name of it, but it was real. At first time going through, we did it, I think like five or six times the night we went. But the first time you went through there and not knowing what was coming was crazy.

Mike Aiello:
Yeah. Not even from a haunt sense, you've been to a ton of theme parks all around the world. What's your favorite theme park?

Scott Garland:
Of course, I think Disneyland has a special charm to it because you just feel Walt Disney's presence. They always say like you can feel like he had a [crosstalk 00:54:04].

Mike Aiello:
It's the original.

Scott Garland:
Right? But a lot of people say... I've been to Tokyo, Disney Tokyo three times, I think. From a detail perspective, you can't beat Tokyo, I think, and DisneySea, but I really think if I had to pick one, I would go with Disneyland Paris. For some reason, I just liked the Disneyland Park. Not so much the Studios Park. I think that's a work in progress.

Mike Aiello:
What? You mean where you can do the Armageddon, the attraction?

Austin Romero:
Not anymore.

Scott Garland:
No. It's gone.

Mike Aiello:
Is it gone now?

Austin Romero:
Yeah, I rode it right before... I literally got in three days before it closed. There's a spot. There's a whole thing in the Armageddon ride. When you go in, you get in and then you're in this huge room, right? They're basically prepping you that you're on a movie set. You're an extra whatever, whatever. They're showing all these scenes and there's a spot in there where they go, "All right. You've got to scream like an American or yell like an American terror being terrified." They do it in English and French, so they do it and then everybody goes, "Oh." They do this whole thing and I was like... I was like Vanessa and I and another couple. We looked over and like, "Was that what we sound like? I guess it's what we sound like when we're scared. I don't know." That was my favorite part of the [crosstalk 00:55:26].

Mike Aiello:
I don't want to close my eyes. I don't want fall asleep because I miss you, babe.

Austin Romero:
I don't want to fall asleep, because I miss you babe. Impromptu ballad.

Mike Aiello:
There you go. The album will be out next week.

Austin Romero:
It's funny. I did two or three days there in Disneyland Paris. I enjoyed it. Also, I think the very first time we went to Tokyo Disney, Scott, I was with you. It's the closest thing to Disneyland, I think, Tokyo Disney, but DisneySea is universal. It's like all the theme parks came together and had this baby and it is DisneySea. There's so much there. There's so much there. The first time you go, it's super overwhelming and it's beautiful. You're like, "This is great."

Austin Romero:
Then, the second time you go, you're like, "Okay. I've seen all this stuff." By the third time you go, you're like, "All right." It doesn't have the... It's over. It's big and you're just like, "Wow." But it doesn't have that like you go to Disneyland a thousand times and you're like, "Oh, this is great. This has history and just has this class to it." It's just such a different experience, I guess to that. I could see why you like Paris, why you chose Paris over that.

Scott Garland:
Yeah. I think Phantom Manor of course, at Paris is awesome. Then, I think their pirates is the best one in the world. I know you've done Shanghai.

Austin Romero:
Okay. Hold on. Excluding Shanghai, why... I got to know. I don't know if we talked about this, why do you think... Is it because of the extra space and the added part that they have in there or why do you consider that the best pirates?

Scott Garland:
For the most part, it's the same, isn't it? It's the same ride that basically we have here in Orlando and California, but it has extra scenes, right?

Austin Romero:
Yeah. I think it's actually closer to California than it is the one here in Florida. It's closer to the California one, except it has that extended... I don't even know how to explain. It's like there's a corridor that's extended that has different scenes in it.

Scott Garland:
I remember you go around the top there and you look down and you see the ship first, right?

Austin Romero:
Yes.

Scott Garland:
The guys on the rope.

Austin Romero:
Yep. It's almost like you're going through the wreckage or something first and you're looking at the other ship on the left side. That's cool.

Scott Garland:
Yeah. But that space mountain also. Then, their main street, I think is awesome with all of the brick pavers.

Austin Romero:
Hyperspace Mountain messed me up.

Scott Garland:
[crosstalk 00:57:53]. What's that?

Austin Romero:
Hyperspace Mountain messed me up.

Scott Garland:
Yeah.

Austin Romero:
There's a photo floating around the internet and me going... It's cool. The rides are great. I will fight all day on the pirates because Shanghai hands down just... If you're going for classic pirates, obviously you have to choose one of the other ones, but just the effects and being between two ships that are life-size and 4K screens there, you can see people moving in the ships while they're shooting.

Scott Garland:
Yeah. I wanted to watch video of it on YouTube. I was like, "Oh, I don't want to spoil it because..."

Austin Romero:
Oh, don't.

Scott Garland:
What I saw though looked awesome.

Austin Romero:
Even the animatronic of Davy Jones when he turns around and does this whole... You're like, "Oh my God. Dude, it's insane."

Scott Garland:
What about the animatronic of Peter Tork?

Austin Romero:
I didn't see it. Which one is that one?

Mike Aiello:
From the monkeys?

Austin Romero:
I was like, "What?"

Scott Garland:
You said Davy Jones, so I didn't know.

Austin Romero:
Hated the monkeys. Oh, dad joke.

Mike Aiello:
Oh, man. Yep. Actually, I'm going to create a graphic that's going to go over Scott's face and go, "Dad joke."

Austin Romero:
Why is he referencing the monkeys? I didn't see that one in...

Mike Aiello:
Peter Tork. I was like my [inaudible 00:59:00] to go, "Peter Tork. Peter Tork. Oh, the fake drummer from the monkeys." Wait. No, he wasn't a drummer. He wasn't the drummer. Who was the drummer?

Scott Garland:
It was Micky Dolenz. Who was the other guy?

Mike Aiello:
Peter Tork. Davy Jones. Then, the-

Scott Garland:
Mike something.

Mike Aiello:
Was it Mike Nesmith?

Scott Garland:
Yes. Yep. Yep.

Austin Romero:
Look at you.

Mike Aiello:
Look at that. If I turn the camera this way, you'll see my entire monkeys fan club wall.

Austin Romero:
He actually has somebody holding cue cards up for him. There's the answer.

Mike Aiello:
The one park. Have you guys ever been to Europa-Park in Germany?

Scott Garland:
No.

Mike Aiello:
Okay. I've been twice. That park, first, it's gorgeous. It is actually built around actual castles. Their castle is a real castle. I think the people that own it, the family that owns it still either works out of that castle or some people live in the castle still, but the park's gorgeous. The interesting thing about it is I remember walking in and the first thing you see is the Epcot ball. Again, it's from the World's Fair.

Austin Romero:
Got it.

Mike Aiello:
But it's the Epcot ball and I'm like, "Oh, look at that." I remember we were being given a tour and I went, "Oh, wow. You guys have... That looks similar to the ball from Epcot." He was very quick to go, "No, no, no. That is from the World's Fair." I went, "Oh, okay. Okay." Again, fine. Great. It's very similar so we keep walking and then I go, "We're going to ride The Haunted Mansion."

Mike Aiello:
We go to this attraction and it is a German version just different enough to not be liable, I'm sure, but it is The Haunted Mansion down to several singing statue busts singing a song in German. I don't know what the song was. It was in German. There are popup heads from some tombstones, so like, "Oh." They go, "Oh, this is the scary haunted mansion." I'm like, "Cool." We go a little further and here's their Pirates of the Caribbean. There's a song... Again, just different enough. Obviously, the effects aren't nearly as quaint as what Disney does, but we're just walking. I'm just laughing so hard because there are these weird alternate twilight zone versions of these classic attractions and their mascot is a gray mouse.

Austin Romero:
What?

Mike Aiello:
Yes. Anybody that gets a chance to travel to Europa-Park and...

Austin Romero:
Where is that located? Do you remember?

Mike Aiello:
It's in Germany. It's right on the border of France and Germany.

Austin Romero:
Got it.

Mike Aiello:
Let me look at this map.

Austin Romero:
Yes. Can you give me the exact longitude and latitude?

Mike Aiello:
I'll give you the GPS coordinates, but if you want to experience like a twilight zone, alternate dimension version of a Disney Park, go to Europa-Park. They do have some of the best coasters though.

Scott Garland:
That's what I was going to say, I thought I had heard they had some really good coasters.

Mike Aiello:
They do. They do. The coasters are amazing there.

Austin Romero:
Is that the park that you went to and I saw that show. You showed me like a show or something that you filmed, or...

Mike Aiello:
Oh, I think it was the mascot show with their... It was the German mouse speaking in German. It was a kid's show and it was a German speaking mouse. I can't remember his name. I have to look that up.

Scott Garland:
What a concept though.

Mike Aiello:
What's that?

Scott Garland:
What a concept to have a mouse that speaks [crosstalk 01:03:09].

Mike Aiello:
Hold on. I got to look up what the mascot is.

Austin Romero:
It's never been done. Just like three grown men talking on a podcast.

Mike Aiello:
The mascot is named Ed Euromaus. Yep.

Austin Romero:
Ed?

Mike Aiello:
Ed Euromaus.

Austin Romero:
Okay.

Mike Aiello:
That is his name.

Scott Garland:
It's got a hell of a ring to it.

Mike Aiello:
Again, park's beautiful, but there's this weird... This kind of blink and you're like, "Where am I?" kind of a feeling.

Austin Romero:
See, now I want to go. Now, I want to see that. Do they do a Halloween event?

Mike Aiello:
I don't know if they did it. I don't know if they do anymore. They did. It was actually called Horror Nights.

Scott Garland:
Wow.

Mike Aiello:
Yeah. It was a weekend event. They had mazes and scare zones and if you look up online, they did an amazing... Actually, Jason, we saw him yesterday at the store. Jason Mercurio.

Scott Garland:
Oh, yeah?

Austin Romero:
Yeah.

Mike Aiello:
He did something with the guy that created the event, because he's an amazing guitar player, but there's some video of a show that they do together. It's an ice skating horror theme show and he's playing guitar live right there on the ice.

Austin Romero:
I wonder because it's... There was a guy who was a musician here in Orlando who actually moved to Germany and created a horror event out there. I wonder if it's the same event because I don't think it's happening anymore, but it was happening before. He was a guy in a band called Natural, but Jason would know him. I wonder if that's the same events.

Mike Aiello:
I think it is.

Austin Romero:
Interesting.

Mike Aiello:
I think it is, because I seem to remember something about there being a famous musician that was leading a lot of the creative efforts for the event, but his name escapes me. I'm trying to look it up.

Austin Romero:
I think it's Mark.

Scott Garland:
I think it's Mike Nesmith.

Austin Romero:
I feel like his name was Mark, but I don't remember his last name. I can't remember.

Mike Aiello:
Anyhow, it's cool. It was a really cool park aside from the weird kind of blink, and you're like, "Oh, I kind of recognize this from someplace else."

Austin Romero:
See, those things are awesome. Little twilight zone versions of things. You're like, "Huh?" [inaudible 01:05:33] anyway.

Mike Aiello:
Yeah. Pretty much. Oh, God. I remember... Man, I miss Mystery Funhouse so much. For those who don't know, there was an attraction here in Orlando that was fairly well known in the 80s, and maybe early 90s before it ended up closing called Mystery Funhouse. It was classic side of the road attraction off of international drive, mirror maze and tiny little haunt pathway. You could take arcade. It was wild. I remember the exterior was a carved face of a wizard. You walk into his mouth or just under his mouth, massive wizard hat, but that was the whole exterior of this place.

Austin Romero:
I'll do you one after that, Skull Kingdom.

Mike Aiello:
Oh my gosh. Yes. Yes. Massive. Awesome. Castle gray skull-esque exterior.

Scott Garland:
Where was that? I remember seeing that, but I don't know. I can't place where it was.

Austin Romero:
Like when you're coming up over where Wet and Wild used to be, you're going to the Universal, it was right there on the right side. Right before you get to I4, it was literally right there where the IHOP and everything is.

Scott Garland:
Yep.

Austin Romero:
That was oof. That thing loved me. Loved that place.

Scott Garland:
I remember [inaudible 01:06:57]. I remember driving by it.

Mike Aiello:
Yeah. I remember after we had a couple... Near the end of its lifespan, it was looking pretty, pretty bad on the outside. There were a couple of massive storms we had here in the area and a lot of the paint was exposed. It was just these white splotches all over the building near the end of its life. Yeah. It was looking pretty rough. Yeah. That was a fun attraction. Again, because Horror Nights was doing its thing, but that was really the one year round haunt that was in the area. When Horror Nights wasn't running, you'd go to Skull Kingdom, because by that time, Terror on Church Street had already closed, I think.

Austin Romero:
Yeah. I was going to say that. Yeah. That was literally what I was just about to say.

Mike Aiello:
Yeah.

Austin Romero:
Don't forget about Terror on Church Street.

Mike Aiello:
That was another massive attraction here in Orlando, haunt attraction that was in downtown Orlando. It ran for a decade or more, I think.

Austin Romero:
What happened to that?

Mike Aiello:
I know when downtown started changing, because it got moved from where it was in downtown. I got moved to Church Street Exchange, which was this massive complex that was stores. It was the only place in Orlando. I had like a full time magic shop in Church Street Exchange. It was like the third floor of that exchange. Then, that place completely closed. It kind of died a slow death, I think.

Austin Romero:
Yeah.

Mike Aiello:
But I remember my father is also part of the reason why I loved haunts. My dad was the security guard for Terror on Church Street. He was with Orlando Police Department and one of his side jobs was security for Terror on Church Street. He was there every weekend, so I would go. I'd go almost every weekend and walk through the attraction.

Austin Romero:
That's awesome.

Mike Aiello:
Yeah. It was a blast. I remember that, because they had branded things in the attraction without actually paying for a license.

Austin Romero:
What?

Mike Aiello:
They had an awesome Freddy Krueger, Elm Street room that was the boiler and I'll never forget. It was the first time I ever walked through it. They had the actor positioned on a moving platform. When he would engage his trigger, he literally looked like he was sliding with his claws down a sewer pipe or down a boiler pipe into the scene and there were sparks and he would move. It was crazy. They had a Dracula that you walk around a corner and the Dracula would be on the ground and then literally raised in the air right there in front of you off the ground. He was on this tiny little lift that would put a bump in the air and then the lights would go out. Then, you hear him become a bat.

Mike Aiello:
It was really cool things that I never really seen before in a haunt at that point. Of course, it ends with a chainsaw exit. Classic. I'll never forget because it emptied into the store as all attractions should. I remember one time, we were in the store and this girl comes flying out of the exit and our shoes flew off and hit two of the shelves and knocked over these glass skulls they had in the store. Their shoes literally flew off as she was running.

Austin Romero:
That's the real Terror on Church Street.

Mike Aiello:
Yeah. It was awesome. It was so much fun.

Austin Romero:
Scott, when you were talking... To backtrack again, you were talking about how on Halloween Horror Nights, that was your gateway into horror. What is something you've found from that event that you didn't necessarily know about before, like a movie or a franchise or something that you love now that you maybe didn't watch or maybe you didn't give it the time of day or maybe watch it and then understand it or whatever?

Scott Garland:
Going off your attire there, I think killer clowns. I had no exposure to killer clowns whatsoever. I think just the soundtrack alone is awesome. The main thing too, like I had no idea what killer clowns was and that was my first exposure to it. It was watching the movie sets, but really what I was going to... I was never a horror fan, but I think it was the art. People don't realize the artist part that goes into wrestling. I'm not a UFC fan. I'm not a fighting fan... It's funny. We were talking about this last night, there was boxing on in the restaurant we were in. I was like, "Oh, I can't stand to see another human being get physically beat up or punched in the head or get punched after they're knocked out." It literally makes me nauseous. Not a football fan and I don't think I'm a violent person. I don't know.

Scott Garland:
That's not what draws me to the wrestling. It's more of the artist part, which when I met you guys, I was like, "These are my people. They understand me." I don't feel like you... I think I told you guys this before, I don't feel like either one of you ever did what you do for the money. It was because you love the art part of it. It was a true passion there for it. That's what made me fall in love with the horror nights is like you walk into these sound stages and you see these massive sets, whether it's horror related or anything related, it's all this work went into this. Then, it's ripped down and then it's done again the next year. I think it's my appreciation of that from an artist perspective and an entertainment perspective that made me fall in love with it.

Austin Romero:
Yeah.

Mike Aiello:
Well, I think the other thing that draws us towards the things that we're doing now is there's still that innate sense of storytelling.

Scott Garland:
Right. Oh, absolutely.

Mike Aiello:
Again, the mediums couldn't be more different, but it's still about storytelling. For me, it's a visual storytelling. It's recreation. It's original storytelling for you and the wrestling business, it is about creating characters. Honestly, the thing that I've always loved about wrestling is these characters are lifespans. You can track an Undertaker or a Shawn Michaels, and look at these characters and they are years and years and years and years of story.

Scott Garland:
Yes.

Mike Aiello:
That is such a... And new story. That's the thing. It's not just based in an original backstory in that. Then, you just latch onto that because you're a fan for so long. These stories evolve and change, and that medium is so unique. There's only other medium I could compare it to, and this is going to be super geeky is if you've ever done a long campaign in a DnD session where you've created a character and you have lived with that character for years and years and years playing with the same people and charting that character's growth. Again, super, super geeky, but that's what this thing is all about. Those two for me have always felt hand in hand because the medium allows for a character to be a story and then evolve into something else, but it's still the same persona.

Austin Romero:
Yeah.

Scott Garland:
Then, even a story within a match. That's the hardest thing to teach as a coach is when you're new and you haven't been established yet, and you've had zero to little TV exposure, it's easy to go out there and you do all these big moves and high flying moves and take all these crazy bumps to the floor over the top to get that reaction. It screws with your head as new talent, because you have these old guys, me telling you it's not about the moves, but then they go out there and they don't get a reaction unless they do one of these crazy moves, but it's really about telling the story and slowly telling. That's why I always liked wrestling the big guy. Being a small guy, the story's so easy.

Austin Romero:
Yeah. David and Goliath.

Scott Garland:
You have this little guy finding a way to defeat the big guy, and that's so easy to tell.

Mike Aiello:
Even on a simpler level...

Scott Garland:
... easy to tell.

Austin Romero:
But I mean, even on a simpler level, and I've watched this from NXT through Raw, SmackDown, everything that I've seen is you've got the simplest good guy, bad guy. And when you're not established, it can be hard, but that storyline's not as complicated because all somebody has to do is just be a bad guy. And then somebody... And it's the easiest simplest way to go back and forth. And I feel like a lot of times that's forgotten as well. Everybody just wants to be liked by everybody. So it's hard to get those genuine bad guys anymore because everybody wants the cheer. Everybody wants to be applauded. So that's that one simple one that gets forgotten a lot.

Scott Garland:
Yeah. And then you throw into, which we all deal with, you throw social media into the mix and you have this 21 year old kid who's trying to get established. And it's just, being human, you want to go and see what the world is saying about you. So you go on Twitter and most of Twitter is just negative. Then this guy sucks and that guy sucks. And I dealt with it back when the internet was first coming around and getting popular.

Scott Garland:
I can remember when the Scotty 2 Hotty character started to take off, and reading what people were saying about me online. And it was like, "They hate me!" I don't feel like they hate me when I'm performing. I feel like they love me. They're cheering me and spelling out W-O-R-M, and getting these huge reactions. But then when I go and read online what they're saying about me, they hate me. They're literally saying, "Die, Scotty, die," on some forums. I can remember reading, like, "What the hell is going on," But then as I can remember I had my neck surgery. So I'm sitting home for over a year and I would read about a lot of event reports and I would see what they were saying about Austin and Rock and Undertaker. And they hated them as well. So I'm like all right, "I'm in good company here."

Mike Aiello:
Welcome to wrestling Twitter. Honestly, it's not just-

Scott Garland:
It's just not wrestling, right Mike?

Mike Aiello:
No, it's everything. It's everything. And that's fandom. That is the unfortunate byproduct of social media, and even having kids, having young kids now that are involved in social media now. The biggest thing I'm telling Caden and Paige is, "You got to filter all of that negative away." Because there are positive things about social media, but unfortunately there's no middle ground with social media. It exists on two opposite ends of the spectrum at all times.

Mike Aiello:
You've got the overly negative, then you've got people that just want to spread joy and comment or post things that give them life, make them happy, things that they're passionate about. And then you've got the people that just want to break down those things. And that's an unfortunate byproduct, but it has to coexist, for whatever reason. Again, it goes back to the innate nature of story. There are heroes and there are villains. And that is how this world works. And it's learning to filter those other things away and really creating your ecosystem and the things that you want to react to.

Austin Romero:
Some people just want to watch the world burn.

Mike Aiello:
That's right. That's right! That's right. But there's so much joy in the fact that... What I love about social media is that there are people you get to interact with that you'd never normally be able to. Or people that, again, things that I've done, people that honestly just love the things that you're doing and want to tell you that. And then you get to know them and you can talk with them. And it's just a medium that if you land in that portion of it, it is an incredibly positive thing. And you got to figure out how to not get pulled into this negative portion of it.

Austin Romero:
But that's the thing is back in the day when you're growing up too, if you're a nerd, for example, you would only meet like minded people A, at the comic book store, or at a Comic-Con. Now, you can go online and post like, "Oh man, I love Batman," or "I love this," or "I'm going to this con," and now you've met these people. And then there's people in our industry, and on Broadway, and here and there that have the same interests. And now all of a sudden we're all connected and we have all this. It's such a cool platform for that. It's unfortunate we have the other side of it.

Mike Aiello:
Yeah, it is. And it's just learning to ignore it. Knowing that their voice is only as loud as you make it.

Austin Romero:
It's actually just a small percentage, too.

Mike Aiello:
I know, I know.

Austin Romero:
It feels like it's loud, but it's not.

Scott Garland:
But it's that one guy. That one guy who [crosstalk 01:19:31]

Mike Aiello:
Well Scott, we're running low on time but the one thing, I think there's an interesting segue here that we may be able to end on. Knowing your passion for wrestling when you were a young kid and being able to fulfill that in your life, and now in a phase where you're teaching others the things that you've learned, and also, learning to deal with some of the realities that exist in today's world. What are some of the lessons, some of the things do you really zero in on when you're training some up and coming talent?

Scott Garland:
Well, a lot of it is just the storytelling. Learning who your character is, learning how to tell a story, learning how to create longevity for yourself. The old guys would tell me when I was younger, "Don't do that, save your body, save your body." And now being on the other side of it, I see that, I learned that as my career went on and my neck was screwed together and my back surgery, like, "Oh, I get what you're talking about now." Because you do get old quick and it goes fast.

Scott Garland:
So there'll be times when some of my guys want to try some new move, and I'll be like, "Is the risk worth the reward?" Even if you're on a big pay-per-view and you want to do something crazy to make the show better, yes. But do you want to do a top rope leg drop night after night, after night, 200 days a year, where you're coming down on your tailbone. That's what I'm talking about. Stuff like that, that you're going to put yourself in a corner where you're beating up your body and it takes its toll. Especially with these guys today, they hit so much harder and the pace is so much faster, and with high-def television it has to be that way. [crosstalk 01:21:15] be there. So it's a little bit more brutal that way. And just focus on the storytelling and learning how to create that longevity.

Mike Aiello:
And approaching your moves and the things that you want to do, that may be more high risk, as a toolbox and utilize these things when absolutely necessary and know the realms that you should live in, versus the realms you shouldn't when you're charting that course, during that story.

Scott Garland:
Right. And it's teaching them to listen to the crowd. You want to listen to the audience and it's hard. I had the luxury of working with a Rick Martel, a Mr. Perfect. Even though I was a teenage kid or in my early twenties and just going up there and getting killed by these superstars at the time, I was still in the ring with these veterans who were some of the best of all time. Martel, Perfect, Michaels. I got to get in a WWE ring with them and wrestle for six minutes and listen to them and let them guide you. So, you can be in a hold and if you're young, you want to get out and you want to have action out of that hold and go to the next thing. Whereas if you're in there with a veteran, they'll listen to the crowd for you. And they'll tell you, "Listen. Listen to that-"

Mike Aiello:
Wait, wait.

Scott Garland:
Yeah. So just teaching somebody to listen to the crowd, without having the luxury of somebody up there to lead them where there's so many younger guys and newer guys now.

Austin Romero:
It's funny you say that. So when I first moved up, guys like Big Show and Cena and Cain and some of those guys were still there, and watching a live event, you've got the very beginning of the card, those first couple of matches and those guys are flipping and doing all kinds of crazy stuff, I mean for a house show, just putting their body through everything. And then you skip to the end of the card where you have these two established guys, you've got five, six, seven minute entrances a piece, and it's a 25 minute match total, maybe. They've gone in there, they're doing stare downs, they're doing all this stuff that isn't...

Austin Romero:
They're telling a story before, so much so that when they do the match, the match itself was maybe five minutes and they're getting, "This is awesome!" Because they're listening to the crowd, they're listening to the calm, they're getting the holds, they're letting them basically... Not feel like they're dictating the match, but they're going with the story that they set up in the beginning. And when it's over, you're just like, "This is insane." And if you really look at it compared to that first match and the last match, there was more work put into that first match, and the last match was just beautiful storytelling.

Scott Garland:
[crosstalk 00:08:54].

Austin Romero:
So much so that I've seen so much of it and I've watched it and I'm sitting ringside watching and going, "This is amazing. This is fantastic."

Scott Garland:
And that's what we understand that I think that the average... Not the average person, but the person who isn't a wrestling fan, they don't understand what it is, and the artistry that goes into it. I mean, we all have an appreciation for that [inaudible 00:01:24:21], but that comes over time, it comes over time.

Mike Aiello:
Well, I think there's also this innate feeling that happens, whether you're in tune with it or not, there's this innate feeling you have when you know a match is just clicking and the match's stories being told expertly.

Austin Romero:
You've got them right here.

Mike Aiello:
And whether you're honed in on the storytelling artistry of it, or you're just watching because you love to see these two guys battle it out. There's this innate feeling that happens. I think it's the same unsaid, unspoken, unknown detail when we're designing [haunt 01:25:04] attractions or any attraction, there's a level of detail that you know is required for, even if it doesn't matter.

Mike Aiello:
Again, for horror nights, we always, from a design standpoint, we would always get tagged on designing things that are not featured in the room. Why would you go to that detail in this corner when the focus is way over here? Well, because for us, it's like you know when something doesn't quite look or feel right. And as a guest walking through, even though it's not the focus, you're going to feel off about a space if there's something, some detail that's been missed, and that you haven't checked that box. The guests know it, whether they overtly know it because they're looking and going, "They didn't detail that end of the room." Or it's this subliminal thing that occurs, they just have a feeling about the maze. If it wasn't put through the paces from a detailed standpoint, they know that for some reason, they just didn't get the full exploration in it. They know it.

Austin Romero:
It's true though. But you're advertising, especially when it's an IP, something that somebody knows or maybe they've watched a thousand times, and I know I've done it when I've gone through. And I know both sides of it. I've been fortunate enough to work the events and see it as a fan. But when you go into that, you have to tell the story, the same thing in the ring, whether your time gets cut or not. You have to tell this two-hour long movie in this maze. You have to choose the parts that stand out, you have to choose the parts that tell the story the best, to get from point A to point B. Because when you walk through there, not everybody looks for the same things.

Austin Romero:
When I go through a house, I'm not looking for the same things that maybe you are, or maybe you are, Scott. I'm looking for certain things, so you have to touch on so many different things in this small space. So when somebody leaves there, they feel like they sold out through that the whole movie and they're like, "Oh my God, I just walked through this movie, I just lived it like it was there."

Austin Romero:
Because it's only happened maybe once, I went into one of those rooms and I was like, "Wow, it doesn't look the same." It doesn't happen very often. But when you go in there it's something, whether the windows off, or maybe something on the desk is different or it takes you out of it. But like I said, I'm different. I specifically look for those things, just because I've known [inaudible 01:27:19] for so long. And I know the other side of it. So I want to see all that detail. But most of the time I get so sold out and I forget that I'm in a house and that's so cool. That's one of my favorite things about it. And the fact that you guys can tell that story and choose the parts that make it what it is.

Mike Aiello:
And I think it goes hand in hand with what I'd done in my career, Scott, what you're doing, Mike what you're... Or, Austin, I just called you Mike!

Scott Garland:
Mike Nesmith, Mike Nesmith!

Mike Aiello:
Mike Nesmith.

Austin Romero:
Daydream believer.

Mike Aiello:
It does come back to we're all trying to tell a story. We're all trying to tell the best story we can with what we have to work with. And at the end of the day, we hope that it translates to something that somebody enjoys. Again, I'll go back to it's the reason why I've loved wrestling for as long as I have is it is not just two guys battling it out in a ring. There is character and there's storyline, and there are motives and there's a true beginning, middle and end, just like a movie narrative. There's peaks and valleys.

Mike Aiello:
And when it works, it works so beautifully. And it's just like any other, going back to the theme park realm, when the mazes work, they work beautifully. If you've been able to tell that story the best way that you can.

Scott Garland:
Yeah. That's the best way. That's why I think, people put the attitude there up on this pedestal all the time, how great it was. Actually, if you go back and watch a lot of the in-ring action, It has nothing compared to what the guys are doing today, but the characters, the character pool was so deep. And every, from Crash Holly to [Kai and Tide 00:14:06], Val Venis to us, and we were all bottom to mid-card guys, let alone the Undertakers and Rock. And it was just that the character pool was so deep. And you were so invested in and every single character that walked through that curtain, it was an awesome time. But it just goes to prove, to show that it's not all about the wrestling, it's more about the characters.

Mike Aiello:
Yeah. Well, and I think that's why the three of us have gravitated towards each other as well. We all kind of live in that world and love that world, and again, just want to tell stories and do it in the most unique way possible. All right.

Austin Romero:
I need to ask one more question. I know we're running low on time.

Mike Aiello:
That's all right.

Austin Romero:
This is something that everybody wants to know, I feel like. Maybe it's just me.

Mike Aiello:
Okay.

Austin Romero:
All right, Scott, you ready-

Mike Aiello:
We'll find out.

Austin Romero:
Too Much, or Too Cool?

Scott Garland:
Too hot.

Mike Aiello:
It's funny you say that, again, as much of a fan I was, I did not realize the fact that Too Much existed before Too Cool.

Austin Romero:
I didn't either.

Mike Aiello:
Okay. So for those that are unaware, Scott, in his career with WWE, he was part of a tag team. The more prominent version of the tag team was called Too Cool. And they were incredibly popular and these awesome, larger than life characters. And they were what, I guess, industry calls face characters. But prior to that, you were heel, which was bad guy and called Too Much, right?

Scott Garland:
Yeah. Yeah. So there's a whole story that goes, I didn't tell you guys, how the whole Too Much came about was-

Mike Aiello:
Okay.

Scott Garland:
... so I signed in '97, signed my first WWE contract in February '97. And I didn't really do anything for the first year, year and a half, I guess it was. And I was sitting home. Hadn't done anything for months. And I got a call. WrestleMania was going to be in Boston that year. And so WrestleMania, of course, is on Sunday. Wednesday night, I got a call from WWE offices saying, "Hey, we need you in Boston tomorrow to wrestle in a show at Faneuil Hall, this big outside thing we're doing." If you remember, it's when Tyson came in and...

Austin Romero:
Oh, yeah.

Scott Garland:
... and the whole DX thing with Tyson, it was that year. So I go from sitting home to the next day, I'm sitting in a meeting in the hotel getting ready to do this thing outside of Faneuil Hall. And there were only a couple matches. So I wrestled Taka Michinoku, as a baby face, that was Scott Taylor, the young baby face that had started in '97 there. And, [inaudible 01:32:03] fringes, and I was sitting in this meeting in this hotel. I go from sitting at home to this meeting with Vince McMahon, Shawn Michaels, Triple H, Chyna, Mike Tyson. And I'm like, "What the? How did this happen?" And just discussing what's going to go on that day.

Scott Garland:
And so I did this huge thing. And then we're there for a WrestleMania weekend. And they said, "They're doing a tag team Battle Royal, and you're going to be tagging up with Brian Christopher." Which, Brian had been a heel all the way up to this point, I had been a total baby face, and they just kind of threw us together into this Battle Royal as a team. And so years before though, on the Independence, I had wrestled as Scott "Too Hot" Taylor. And that was my name for maybe six months. And Brian had been wrestling at WWE as "Too Sexy" Brian Christopher. So I go into catering that day before the show, I'm just getting a coffee. This is like, I tell my guys all the time, you just need this. Everything is timing, timing.

Austin Romero:
Yeah.

Scott Garland:
Yeah, you might be the greatest thing in the world, but you need timing on your side also. Right? So I go into catering, getting a cup of coffee, who walks in? Vince McMahon, gets a cup of coffee beside me. And I was like, "Hey, thanks. Thanks for having me on the show. I know you have me with Brian, I used to wrestle as Scott "Too Hot" Taylor. I know Russell, Brian Russell is "Too Sexy." I don't know if there's anything to that." And the next week we're together and we're called Too Much.

Mike Aiello:
Just like that.

Scott Garland:
Yeah.

Mike Aiello:
Just like that. That's wild.

Scott Garland:
I mean, we did the Battle Royal that day as just Scott Taylor and Brian Christopher. But the next week, we show up at TV and we're Too Much, and Too Sexy, Too Hot, Too Much. It's crazy how things happen.

Mike Aiello:
That's awesome.

Austin Romero:
Now, here you are.

Mike Aiello:
Here we are.

Scott Garland:
Here I am. Now I'm Scotty 2 Hotty, or Lukewarm.

Austin Romero:
Scotty Kind of Hotty?

Mike Aiello:
Well, too cleverly segue into our out. This has been too much fun.

Scott Garland:
Too cool.

Austin Romero:
That's two dad jokes than one podcast. I think we've hit our quota.

Mike Aiello:
Dad joke!

Austin Romero:
I refuse to participate in this.

Mike Aiello:
Well, you're not a dad yet.

Austin Romero:
Well, there you go, see. I'm exempt.

Mike Aiello:
You're exempt. You're exempt from the dad joke graphic. Dude, this has been awesome, man. And it's cool that for an hour or so, I don't even know how, it's been maybe that, we've been able to give everybody a little bit of insight into us hanging out just normally. But I learned some stuff too that I hadn't known.

Austin Romero:
Agreed. Same.

Mike Aiello:
This has been great, brother. And we'll-

Scott Garland:
[crosstalk 01:34:58] exposing my cigar story.

Austin Romero:
It's-a-me.

Mike Aiello:
Well, thanks so much, brother, for being on. We really appreciate it. And we'll keep this going too, if you, again, I know your schedule is crazy, traveling all around, doing your thing. So if you ever have an opportunity to come back and sit with us, and maybe sit with us and another guest, that'd be awesome.

Scott Garland:
Yeah. Anytime. Thank you.

Austin Romero:
All right. Thanks [inaudible 01:35:24].

Scott Garland:
Love you guys.

Austin Romero:
We'll be back with more, love you too, brother. We'll be back with more We're Grounded in just a few seconds.

Mike Aiello:
We're back from our conversation with our good friend Scott Garland. That was awesome.

Austin Romero:
It was too much and too cool, all at the same time.

Mike Aiello:
Too much and too cool. I love him. He's a wonderful human being. He's good people.

Austin Romero:
He really is. And I'm very thankful he came to hang out with us and we get to talk about so many things. Everything.

Mike Aiello:
Yeah. It ran the gamut, with all kinds of stuff.

Austin Romero:
Between just us and the Back to the Future stuff, and then all the Halloween stuff, all the way down to pictures of Sean Michaels on his wall.

Mike Aiello:
Yeah. Yeah. But a fun episode. Hey, we're at the end of our second episode, Austin. Congratulations.

Austin Romero:
Wow. Thank you. Thank you. Congratulations to you.

Mike Aiello:
Why, thank you, my friend. Thank you. So if you guys are enjoying this, let us know. We are online. You can see us online and message us ourselves at Mike Rome WWE over on Twitter and Instagram for Austin. For me, I'm Michael_Aiello on Twitter and on Instagram. But the podcast now also has its own Instagram and Twitter account. So on Instagram, I wrote it down because I didn't want to mess this up, on Instagram we are grounded_pod, and on Twitter, it's we, the letter R, groundedpod@twitter.

Austin Romero:
That's right.

Mike Aiello:
That is where you can find us.

Austin Romero:
That's right. Come check us out and also available on deathwish.com and speaking of deathwish.com. Make sure you go over there and use the code grounded to get your 12% and try the world's strongest coffee legit. I know we joke around a lot in here, but I do literally drink a cup a day of Death Wish coffee, and I wouldn't be able to survive without it. So you definitely got to give it a try. I would be like this right now. And Mike has seen me like that before.

Mike Aiello:
Most of the time.

Austin Romero:
What a difference a couple hours of coffee makes. It's most of the time.

Mike Aiello:
We're really, really happy Death Wish is, as we said before, this untried untested unsuccessful podcast and they decided to sponsor us and it's been really, really cool.

Mike Aiello:
So go-

Austin Romero:
Literally out of their minds.

Mike Aiello:
Yes. Show them some love and we hope you enjoyed this week's episode. We'll be back with another episode. We've got hopefully some pretty interesting guests lined up for the next couple of episodes. We won't reveal it yet, but I think you're going to be excited with some of the people we're going to [crosstalk 00:23:10].

Austin Romero:
Buckle up.

Mike Aiello:
Yeah. So, hope you enjoyed this episode of We're Grounded with Austin and Mike. They was sure nice seeing you. Sure nice hearing from you, my brother.

Austin Romero:
You too, brother. Let's do it again next month.

Mike Aiello:
Let's do that. All right, everybody have a great rest of your week, your month, and we will talk to me and see you soon.

Austin Romero:
See you guys.