I'm a pro wrestler,
and I've abused my body in different ways.
I haven't been very kind to myself over the years.
I will beat the shit out of my body
for entertainment, you know?
But I feel it, you know,
and I know that cumulative damage is taking its toll.
Physically my body is telling me,
"You ain't gonna be doing this shit too much longer."
I recognize it for what it is, you know.
This world is coming to an end.
Eventually I'm gonna have to hit this exit ramp.
Callihan is very well known all around the world.
He is a freaking nut.
When you think about wrestling, like it's fucking stupid.
Wrestling's changing,
and it's not the business that I came into.
Like everything else, wrestling must evolve.
You started with the Model T Ford,
and now you have Teslas...
Whoa! Stricklin knew it was coming!
Bugattis...
Oh!
Where the athletes are today, they are good at everything,
so it's really difficult to try to stand out.
Now you have this new generation of guys
that can do incredible things that you never saw before.
That was awesome!
Some guys are willing to accept the evolution,
and some guys are holding fast to,
"That's not how you do it. That's not the way it's done."
Well listen, this is the fight choreography now.
This is where we're at.
Everything evolves.
Now we're not combat fighters, we're superheroes.
♪ Another day another dollar as I holla to the world ♪
♪ I love the way I'm living love the Gucci love the girls ♪
♪ All the parties and the clubs all the models in hot tubs ♪
♪ All the German engineers set on deep dish dubs ♪
Hassan Assad is a pro wrestling superstar,
known in the ring as Montel Vontavious Porter, or MVP.
And full disclosure, he's a good friend of mine,
and also one of my favourite wrestlers of all time
As famous for his theatrics as he is for his wrestling skills
MVP has won multiple championships and performed wit
some of the top wrestling promotions in the world.
These days he's a free agent and in high demand,
appearing at independent promotions
all over North America.
- And you are? - I'm MVP.
- MVP? - Yes, ma'am.
- The most valuable player? - That would be me.
That'd be my son also. He's a left-handed pitcher.
At 44 years old, Hassan is already feeling
the long-term effects of repeated hard impacts,
falls, and concussions, and he is approaching
a major shift in his career.
He's also been witness to a shift in the industry.
Strickland right now holds multiple championships.
A new generation of wrestlers, many of who grew up
idolizing MVP and the major wrestling promotion,
are now making it big on the independent circuit.
Rising stars like Shane Strickland are finding success
without the help of top promotions...
Whoa!
...and are instead growing their own fan bases
through social media.
My god!
I'm here to talk to a veteran
on the verge of retirement about where he's come from
and where he's going now, and also to get his take on
the changing face of wrestling.
- There he is. - Hello.
- What's up, man? - Your place is incredible!
- Did you find it okay? - Yeah.
My humble abode, welcome.
Well, let me tell ya, it has humbled me.
Very few people I know in my life have a mantle
full of action figures of themself!
It's... It's a rare achievement.
If you go on eBay and try to buy it,
they're on sale for like 3-400 bucks a piece.
I wouldn't pay that.
Look at this, come look in here.
I still got 'em.
A collection of VHS tapes.
I would wash your mouth piece.
I'm on steroids there, man.
I'm on the vitamin T heavy.
Antonio Banks certainly has
the athletic ability to become
the FIT heavyweight champion down below.
Is it just to get bigger, or does it actually help you train?
Back in the day, it was all about just getting bigger.
I didn't really understand until later on that the steroids
actually help with recovery.
The problem is most professional wrestlers,
myself included back then, we didn't use them, we abused them.
Antonio Banks trying to take the legs out from CM Punk,
and connects with that elbow which sends him down.
What lessons do you think this next generation has learned
from your generation?
I think the main two things I would have to say
is the passion.
You can't be a fly-by-night guy and do this.
The camaraderie, the brotherhood of pro wrestling still maintains
that you gotta respect this fucking craft.
Which ties in perfectly
at the end of the day, it's all about the fans.
Giving them something for them to come back to.
And a lot of the young guys... you know, you got guys,
"Oh, I just got all this cool shit I gotta do,"
with no real rhyme or reason to it.
There's a story to tell, a psychology, to...
to solicit a certain reaction from the fans.
That's the foundation of what we do.
You just-- You gotta leave the fans wanting more.
"Leave 'em wanting more"
is something Hassan knows all about.
Like many fans, I was shocked when after four years with
a top wrestling promotion, MVP unexpectedly quit.
I had one year left on my deal.
They were trying to resign me to a five-year deal.
And at the time, I just wasn't happy.
My passion for wrestling at that point was waning because
wrestling had become a job.
I've always been like fascinated with Japanese culture,
and history, and bushido, and samurai.
I wanna wrestle there.
New Japan is the biggest pro wrestling promotion in Japan,
the second biggest in the world and Japanese wrestling is famou
for strong style, a more realistic style of wrestling
which had appealed to Hassan since he began his training.
I debuted in Sendai February 6th, 2011.
I remember just standing in the ring that afternoon,
and I could hear the lion's roar.
"New Japan Pro Wrestling!"
I got goosebumps, I was like this is fucking insane!
I'm here!
So you were aware enough of the situation that
you could take it in at least, it seems.
Oh man.
From 16 to 26 I was the property of
the Florida Department of Corrections.
And there were times when
thinking about the future was difficult
'cause I didn't know if I was gonna make it to tomorrow.
But it was so surreal.
I was waiting for the prison guard to kick my bunk.
"Inmate, get up! Wake up!"
I went, "Oh! Ah damn, it was all a dream."
I remember Booker T said,
"Nah, bro, ain't nobody gonna kick your bunk. You wide awake."
Hassan Assad was born Alvin Burke Jr. and grew up in Miami
in a neighbourhood known for violence and crime since
the rise of the Miami cocaine trade in the 1970s and '80s.
Alvin and his two younger brothers
were raised by their mother.
His father, a police officer, was only an occasional presence
in his life.
My mom worked a full-time job,
a part-time job, and went to school.
Jeez, and raised two kids.
- Three. - Three kids.
Yeah, three.
At one point, Opa-locka had...
I don't know if it was the, but it was among the nation's
highest per-capita murder rate.
So these are now garden apartments.
Here on that little ledge right there
is where I learned how to pitch change.
You know, closest to the ledge wins everybody's money.
And there used to be a bank of pay phones
where all the drug dealers would hang out,
and you know, with their pagers.
So it wasn't uncommon to find a little, you know,
fucking gram packets of cocaine and whatnot.
This is where you probably knew at a young age
that I had a chemical imbalance.
I used to get in trouble sometimes 'cause I'd climb
over the railing on the third floor, and on the outside
walk on the edge so I could practice being a ninja.
They would tell my mom, I'd get my ass kicked.
And my escape route would be I'd run up the stairs,
hop that fence on the roof, and I would jump to this branch.
But one day the branch, as I got-- extended out,
the branch snapped.
And I fell a full storey flat on my back.
That was my first big bump.
That's your first back bump.
Yeah, that was my first back bump, off the top of the cage!
You said that you were a bad guy at a certain point.
Yeah.
But from the stories here, you just sound like a kid
that's hyperactive, having fun.
When was that transition point for you, do you think?
Fourteen is where I started to turn the corner.
It went from just, you know,
doing stupid little mischievous things to, you know,
grand theft auto, and then armed robbery.
And then that's when the gang shit came in,
around 15, the gunplay and all that kind of shit.
So it happened fast, man, 14.
By 15, I did 6-and-a-half months in the juvenile program,
and by 16 I was facing life in prison.
Right down here in the street, they used to sell drugs
all through here.
But I saw little kids, smaller than me,
they had to've been like kindergarten.
The one boy had some leaves,
and the other boy had some little pebbles,
and they were playing a drug transaction, you know.
So what future do you have, you know?
Guy we're about to meet, Bernard, we call him Bert.
Left.
He's my big brother, you know.
He's the dude who kinda raised me up out here.
So this is the neighbourhood you moved to after?
Yeah, from those apartments to here.
- That was my house. - Right there.
My younger brother, Brad, state champion wrestler.
I did amateur wrestling briefly,
but then I wanted to be an asshole.
I didn't wanna be an athlete.
But at the end, I turned out to be a champion wrestler.
Yeah, you're the only guy who's got gold in Japan.
Yeah, right?
Bert!
Man, don't be camera shy, man.
- Hi. Damian. - Damian, Bert.
- Bert, this is Damian. - Nice to meet you.
What was it about him that made you wanna
take him under your wing?
Just him being your neighbour, or is it...
Not just that.
I like the fact that he always asks questions,
always thinking, mind going.
Always had big dreams as a young kid, you know.
What did you think when he got locked up for that,
you know, long bit?
That was hurtful.
That hurt me really bad, man.
Just devastating.
The damnest thing about it is I chose that life.
I didn't have to live that life, you know,
but something drew me to it.
Just growing up here in Miami, I wanted that life.
I liked the crimes.
So many guys from around here just... it's almost like
going to prison was a rite of passge, you know.
Unfortunately.
You're just waiting for your turn.
I kinda wanted to go to the Navy,
and my mom was really into like superstition.
There was this lady that she just called "The Lady".
The Lady told her some some very big things were about to happen
in my life, and that she saw a boat in my future.
A ship, a big ship.
Oh, I'm going to the Navy!
That must mean the Navy, yeah!
And then I go to prison for robbing a cruise ship, right?
When he was 16, Alvin Burke Jr. and three accomplices
committed armed robbery on a casino cruise ship.
At the end of the night, the group of teenagers appeared
from hiding, held up the staff with loaded shotguns,
and escaped with over $80,000 in cash.
One dude got caught, and he ratted everybody out.
My father told me to turn myself in.
I was on my way to Mexico.
He's like, "Man, you're 16.
What is it, armed robbery case? You're gonna get boot camp.
Just come get the shit over with, you know."
Well, all the people in the casino,
we locked them in a closet.
I had no idea that in the state of Florida,
it's considered kidnapping.
And it was nine people?
- Ten with the janitor. - Ten with the janitor.
And that's why I ended up with an 18-and-a-half year sentence.
Alvin ended up serving 9-and-a-half years in prison,
where he changed his name to Hassan Assad.
He spent his final year here at the Opa-locka Work Release
Center, just a few blocks away from his childhood home.
This is where his wrestling story begins with a prison guar
named Daryl Davis, who was also a local Miami wrestler
known in the ring as Primetime.
Well, this is it.
It's been a while since I've been here, man.
How long did you live here?
About a year.
I put in for a transfer to come here
when I got regular work release status.
And then you met fate.
Yeah.
So Prime, do you remember when he showed up here?
Yeah, I was the one that had to sign y'all guys out.
Right, in the morning, yeah.
He would bring in VHS tapes
of the pay-per-views and indie shows.
I remember the guys would talk like,
"Hey man, don't fuck with Officer Davis, man.
He know that wrasslin' shit, man, he'll hit your ass up."
I remember one day asking Officer Davis,
"Hey man, how y'all do that shit
without really breaking each other's necks, man?
What's the real deal with that shit?"
And he gave me a book by King Kong Bundy about
how to be a pro wrestler, about life on the road...
- I gave it back to you, man. - No.
I gave it back to you the next day!
- No. - Ah, yeah, yeah, yeah!
Oh, okay.
But that's how we hit it off.
He goes, "Damn, you read that quick. You serious, huh?"
I said, "Well, I'm just curious."
So he said, "I'm gonna start my won independent promotion,
so when you get out, if you wanna learn, I'll teach you."
Well shit, I'm getting out of prison soon, I need a hobby.
Yeah, alright, yeah.
Do you remember when he called you once he was out?
- He called me. - Really?
I mean, you can look at certain guys and say...
and say, "Man, he ain't gonna make it,"
so why even take his money
or why even just waste your time with him?
With him, he would ask so many goddamn questions.
You know, especially here.
That's when you know okay, this guy's serious.
He got a taste of the ring, and then I mean,
you know, like this guy, he just became, you know...
crazy with it, where this shit becomes a drug.
Yeah.
And once you get addicted to it, man,
you just wanna keep going further and further and further.
And then he went the furthest you can go.
For all the shit that I've done, you know,
wrestling saved my life.
And I've had this trip through professional wrestling
to accomplish things that I never thought I'd do.
And looking back now, I'm playing with the house's money.
If I got convicted for all the shit I did,
I'd be under death row.
We're at one of Hassan's first wrestling schools,
CZW in Fort Lauderdale.
Alright, let me...
Hey, man.
Pablo!
Where's MVP?
I couldn't find no MVPs, they were taken.
You got fucking Charlie Hoss.
You gotta rectify that, man. That's not right.
He's fired. You're fired.
No, you stand over there and start doing squats.
I'll get back to you in about an hour.
One, two, three!
One of the reason Hassan loves coming back to visit CZW is tha
his old wrestling coaches are still here,
training young men and women in the ring and running their own
independent promotion.
- Dave Johnson. - Nice to meet you.
If Primetime introduced me to the business, Dave gave me
the bumps and the bruises of the business, you know.
Like Dave was the enforcer down here.
It's a tough business, it's...
It used to be.
You don't like where it's gone?
Uh, you know, everything evolves.
Yeah.
There's different styles.
The new school, the old school.
You know, but I mean, now you don't earn your keep.
You just pay your gym dues.
Just pay your gym dues, you know?
It sucks to say.
I get the feeling that these coaches may be the kind of vets
who despair at the new generation
and the shift in the industry.
We've been a business now for over 14 years.
Well, in that 14 years, how has running a school changed?
Well, I can tell you how it's changed over in the last...
since '89 when I went to Molenko's.
Everybody seem to have been training, working out.
It seems like the guys just don't train like they used to.
Prime was saying like from the first moment he started working
with MVP, he knew that he had something.
Even before that, you said you knew he had something.
Did you see that?
Yes, I'd seen it right away.
I didn't tell him. I was tough on him.
I told everybody else.
It seems like that's an important part of this business,
is giving it to someone as hard as you can at first to see
if they have the mettle to kind of stick around.
Dave will tell you, I mean, these guys back in the day,
they'd beat the shit out your ass.
The training was much more harder than this.
You ask Hassan what we put his ass through.
They would press charges on us right now
if we were to do what we did.
Ask him what we did to him.
Now you'd be afraid of these guys
gonna fall out and drop dead.
Sometimes we're getting guys that are close to 40 years old
and they're just starting, you know?
40 years old, you're supposed to be wrapping it up, you know.
So you're saying it's not too late for me?
It's not too late, today's the day.
- Today's the day! - Today's the day!
If you wanna be a pro wrestling superstar,
I can tell you right now you're not working hard enough.
I don't even know you,
I can tell you're not working hard enough.
You gotta be honest with yourselves.
Did you raise your hand 'cause
you wanna be a professional wrestler?
How many people in pro wrestling look like you?
What are you doing about that?
Are you being honest with yourself?
No, with yourself.
Okay.
If you wanna be a professional wrestler,
you have to be consumed with pro wrestling.
But I do have some good news.
It's easier to get hired now than it's ever been.
Kevin Owens, a fat guy in a t-shirt,
beat John Cena, Superman.
That means there's been a philosophy change.
So if you're a chubby dude in a sweatshirt,
there's a chance.
But do you have Kevin Owens' charisma?
Be real with yourself and your expectations of yourself.
Shane "Swerve" Strickland is a 28-year-old
wrestler who grew up watching MVP on TV,
and is a perfect example of the changing face of wrestling.
In less than a year, he's gone from a virtual unknown to one o
the most recognizable and in-demand wrestlers on the indi
circuit, doing shows all over North America and the world.
He's also the championship belt holder here at Defy Wrestling
in Seattle, and is famous for his ability
to seamlessly mix wrestling styles.
You're bringing in the lucha, the high flying,
but you're also doing like Japanese strong style
that everyone loves too, and then there's also like
the American influence.
Is that typified by this generation that you're part of?
Yeah, it definitely is, because like everything has been
pushed forward so much now.
The limit's been, like, well surpassed.
Everybody's like really skilled and really well rounded
in what they do, and that's what I try to,
like, be at the forefront of.
I was the one that really tried to just master or get as...
maybe like a B+ in every category.
You gotta be good at everything, every style,
like literally doing every single style of wrestling
in a matter of a week.
There are the detractors of what's happening
in wrestling right now, and it tends to be people
that are from an older generation.
Yep.
Why do you think there is such resistance to this sort of
new evolution of wrestling that's happening?
I feel like they only see the actual aspects of wrestling
that go viral.
They just see like the hot new thing.
They see Joey Janela falling off of a building.
You know, they see the Lucha Underground when people are
falling through glass.
That's what catches people's attention 'cause it's like...
...it's front page news.
Oh!
Do you think it's a more exciting time
to be a wrestler now than say five years ago or something?
Yes, and I feel like a lot of the guys who've been doing this
for like 15, 12 to 15 years, they kind of like don't like
that because too many guys get opportunities very quickly.
There's no gatekeepers now.
The fences are down.
If you're talented and if you can connect with an audience,
you don't need the industry leader to market you
and to put you in a place and be successful.
Now in this information age, you can create your own market.
As an old school traditionalist, you know,
I think it allows some people in the business that,
you know, from my old school mentality,
don't belong in the business.
But then that's an outdated thinking.
You know, like, "It's our business.
You don't belong here, kid."
"Bullshit.
I got-- I got a YouTube channel with 100,000 subscribers.
What do you got?"
"Well, I gotta wait on this guy to call me
and book me on this show."
"Oh, okay," you know.
One of the most successful wrestlers on
the independent scene is 30-year-old Sami Callihan.
Sami actually made it to a top wrestling promotion in 2012,
and like MVP, after a few years felt unsatisfied
and requested his release.
How high is the ropes here?
- Are they like... - Yeah.
- Like normal? - Yeah, normal I'd say.
In Sami's case, he felt he was being under-utilized,
and believed he could achieve more on the indie circuit,
a move that would've been career suicide 10 years ago.
You left there, and you're bigger now than ever.
Yeah.
It's almost like that spurred you on.
Oh yeah, man, it like... it made me cool.
Like it works into the whole desperado character.
I'm not complacent sitting around performers
that are collecting a really good paycheque.
I wanna work for my money.
I didn't stick around and like try to wait it out.
I knew I was worth more than I was being used at events,
so I wanted to rock the show.
Sami's success is well known, but not everyone's a fan.
When veterans of the industry talk about the cocky new breed
of indie wrestlers, they often use the phrase
"Sami and friends".
Sami's this guy that a lot of people have labelled,
you know, even in a negative sense sometimes,
when people are talking shit, like "Sami and friends".
Yeah.
You know, like this generation of wrestlers being like...
you know, led by or inspired by Sami.
There's always going to be that negative back push
when you're successful.
And whether you like it or not, Sami's been successful.
Oh yeah.
That's... yeah.
And Sami's just like of like a leader.
He has a lot of influence from a lot of talented young guys
in the business.
Oh!
When you're in demand like Sami too, there's gonna be issues.
One, two, three!
The winner of Sami Callihan!
You know, I remember when I was coming up,
it really wasn't possible to be an unknown indie guy
and make a living.
- Mm-hmm. - And now it is.
You know, you can work domestically
and internationally, and maybe you're not gonna get rich,
but you're a professional wrestler.
As a professional wrestler who's had... I couldn't even tell you
how many concussions, I don't know, all of these people
who had severe CTE, they all had the same symptoms.
It scares me sometimes to think like now,
what's gonna happen to me in 15, 20 years?
'Cause you know, I joke about it,
but dude, sometimes mid-sentence I'll be...
you know, what was I just saying?
Does that fear play into part of the reason
that you wanna kinda step away from this?
Yeah, I mean, I've always said I wanna walk away,
I don't wanna limp away.
And I had a doctor once tell me, it was funny.
She said, "You guys always look great on the outside,
but you're a mess inside."
For the past few years, MVP has not been signed to
any major wrestling organizations.
- Good to see you, bro. - How was your trip?
Instead, he freelances with independent promotions
all over the United States.
Some big, some... not so big.
And then you kind of hold it not like you're ripping
her head off, but a little bit hard,
'cause if not she'll start to wiggle around.
- Okay. - Yep.
It is still very much a privilege and an honour
to perform in a wrestling ring.
We'll just walk and talk, man.
When people pay money because they wanna see you perform,
that's a huge honour.
And I recognize it, because at any given time,
you know, it could be over like that.
You know, blow out a knee, land on your head and you become
a quadriplegic, or you know, something terrible.
How old are you?
- 45. - 45?
I'll be 44 in about 3 weeks.
I'm right there with you, man.
Anything... Any injuries or anything?
Uh, this shoulder right here, if you can see,
that's about as high as I can pick it up.
Okay.
Physically it's a day by day thing, you know.
There are some days when man, I feel great!
And there are some days when my knee's bothering me,
or maybe the previous weekend I got suplexed on a pile of chairs
and my back's still feeling a little aah, you know.
You know, with all the cumulative wear and tear
from the bumping, I don't feel like the 28, 29-year-old,
you know, uber stud that I was, you know.
Who's your favourite wrestler, young man?
Well, guess what?
Damien Wayne gonna be out very, very soon,
and he's wrestling who?
MVP!
- He's wrestling who? - MVP!
That's who he's wrestling.
Are we ready?
Some nights I'm just like, "I don't wanna be here.
I just wanna go home."
But the flipside of that is once I walk out there in front of
that crowd, it all changes.
The adrenaline kicks in, I find those people that I connect with
in the audience, and I appreciate it, you know.
Here we go, the main event.
Oh!
He's coming through the curtains.
Let it sizzle.
Three, two, one.
Wrestling is a 365 day a year business,
so not every night is gonna be the Tokyo bill.
But seeing MVP appear in front of a small crowd and still
give it his all reminded me how dedicated he is to his fans.
MVP!
M... V... P!
One!
Time out!
Oh, you're laughing at him 'cause he's a chicken?
Or you're laughing at his funny face?
You can't laugh at me. I can only laugh at you.
Yeah, why can't she laugh at you?
Don't tell me how to live my life!
I think David's... David's scared!
Time out.
That's why live wrestling's awesome.
I love it, I love being in it.
I gotcha.
There comes a time when maybe yeah,
you're on the mat in the major wrestling promotion,
but those people who saw you on TV remember that,
and they're cheering, you know.
MVP! MVP!
Yeah, classic MVP!
Performance, the adoration, exhilaration...
...there's no other drug like it.
And I've tried a few, you know.
There it is!
I can see where it can be like crack.
Some people can get so addicted to it to their detriment.
Where do they go?
Here's your up-close, personal pretty picture of MVP.
Now that's 10 bucks.
Oh!
Sometimes emotionally, I realize where I'm at right now,
this is the home stretch, you know.
When the time comes when I say okay,
this is it, and I take the boots off for the last time,
what's that gonna feel like?
Order!
One, two...
I know that, as I said, the chapter of being an in-ring
performer is coming to a close.
As I approach 44 and knowing like this is a danger zone
for most pro wrestlers, you know, if you're gonna drop dead
of a heart attack, it's usually in the 40s, you know.
And now I have a son, and he's just changed me in a way that
I can't even verbalize.
No conversation could ever prepare you for the love that
you develop for your child.
I never wanted kids.
I was perfectly content to die childless.
And the main reason I didn't want kids was because I didn't
want the responsibility that comes with a child,
and the vulnerability.
'Cause I can look after myself.
I've been through all kinds of shit.
Hey, where you going?
Come back, Camden.
Camden, come here, come here.
Come here, you gotta wait your turn in line.
He was unplanned.
Certainly not by me!
It took a little bit of time for me to like
really bond with my child.
Walk, walk, walk, walk!
Alright.
Nice!
Oh, cartwheels! Let's go!
My father was in my life, but we're not close.
He was around, but my father and I never like...
had any father/son stuff that we did together.
Ready?
Go!
Go, Camden! Go, go, go, go, go!
It seems like it was just yesterday I was trying to
find out what clubs were open at night, you know.
Like let's get some bottles, you know.
That's not the case anymore, you know.
Now I wanna be a dad.
I'm the bully.
Who's the aggressor now?
Who's the one attacking now, me or him?
Him.
So, shuffle down, knees on the ground,
hands behind his leg, up.
Push, push, push, push, push!
I'm gonna take him down, alright?
Now, both of your hands on his arms.
Punch me, bully, now.
He cannot punch me now.
I don't want my son to be a pro wrestler.
Whatever he decides, I hope, you know,
I can enstill enough guidance and intelligence so that
he'll make some pretty solid decisions.
But I want him to use his brain, I want him to be brilliant.
You know, let him compose music, let him write code,
let him study medicine.
You hungry? You want rice?
Physically, you know, I beat the shit out of my body
for entertainment, you know.
I don't want him to fucking deal with that, you know.
Hassan has brought me to meet
another pro wrestling super star,
long-time friend and fellow Houston resident Booker T.
- Yo, how you doing? - Good.
Booker, this is Damian.
The six-time world champion was both a hero and mentor
for Hassan early in his career.
Both men are African American wrestlers who overcame criminal
pasts to become champions in the wrestling world.
Wax on, wax off, baby.
Tie up.
Wax on.
And it looks cool, and that's what...
No, no, that's what wrestling mostly is, you know what I mean?
Booker retired from pro wrestling in 2016,
and as well as his weekly gigs as a wrestling commentator
he now runs a wrestling gym training the next generation.
Good, good.
Really early on when MVP found out about your story and the
things that you kind of were able to overcome to get the
legend that you are today, that was a huge inspiration for him.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean, he stole a lot of my traits.
For me, you know, I always try to set an example.
I'm all about, you know, helping young people.
I got, you know, maybe 50 kids
that all look to me as a father figure.
MVP's someone who's kind of at a crossroads right now,
like you know, talking about the end of his career.
Have you guys spoken about what's next?
Have you given any-- offered him any advice?
We've talked frequently, you know, about...
...life after wrestling.
You know, especially when you get a kid.
You gotta start thinking about...
As well as when you get older, you know,
the body, you gotta be able to think about yourself.
You know, I was just watching a video today,
and it had a couple of the old wrestlers from the '80s,
and they were still wrestling on the show in 2017,
and I was like God, man, you know.
You don't wanna be that guy.
My education is professional wrestling.
I got a lot of knowledge in the business.
That's one of the reasons I opened this school.
And I wanted to be able to walk away from it and say man,
thanks for the ride, guys.
It's been awesome.
Booker T left the ring at a point where he was one of the,
you know, still the greatest, and didn't wait till that point,
that decline.
Was that at all inspiration for why you're choosing to get out?
I got a few more years left, you know, it's not--
Well, I don't me now now.
I mean like in the next few years.
But in the very near future, yeah.
You don't wanna give them that mental snapshot of when
you used to be good, and now when he goes to do
the spinneroni and his back pops.
Always leave them wanting more. Always leave them wanting more.
Booker did that, you know, and that's what I wanna do.
We're back in Hassan's home state of Florida
at MLW One Shot, a new event on the outskirts of Orlando.
Hassan's old prison guard and wrestling inspiration,
Primetime, has travelled up from Miami to join me
in the audience.
Alex, Primetime. Primetime, Alex.
Hi, it's so nice to meet you!
I'm gratified for putting this motherfucker in my life.
Hassan is a busy man tonight.
He's working as an agent for four young wrestlers
in two of the matches.
- Seven minutes. - Okay.
They want like a 70/30, heel, babyface kinda deal.
He'll also be performing in his own match.
none other than indie upstart
and worldwide desperado Sami Callihan.
So some brainbusters out.
I can take a brainbuster, that's fine.
Hassan's plan is for Sami to win,
creating a kind of "passing of the torch" moment
from a veteran champion to a new star.
You're gonna have ooh, aah, and oh.
Richocet and Swerve are gonna be the, "Aah!"
Lawler and Jeff Cobb will give you the, "Ooh!"
And then we're just like, "Oh!"
We're gonna give you the, "Oh!"
We'll just beat each other up and have fun.
Shortly after arriving though, he discovers that
the MLW promoters have decided it's MVP who should win.
Did he talk to you about the finish?
No.
Okay, um...
Mute this for a second, please.
So there's been a bit of a change in the plan
for this evening, right?
Uh, originally Sami was probably gonna come out on top,
but now things have had to change.
On a night like tonight, for this venue,
nobody would expect Sami to beat me, you know what I'm saying?
There's just, you know, a heirarchy.
Like it's all bullshit anyway, right?
But it doesn't hurt me at all to lose to Sami,
but it does something for him.
And you know, from a business standpoint,
for whatever reason, things change,
but that's fine because Sami doesn't give a shit.
And that's one more reason that I respect him.
He's a guy that's brought up by a lot of the detractors of
the current generation as being sort of the figurehead
of what's wrong with the new kids.
You know, like "Sami and friends".
He's become sort of this guy that--
Well then, count me in as the "and friends", you know,
'cause I like his style, I like his intensity,
I like his approach to it.
And you know, like I said, everything evolves, man.
You know, you can't become a relic, an antique, you know.
Hassan has a pretty realistic approach to
the business of wrestling, and doesn't take it too seriously.
It's something he and Sami seem to have in common.
When you think about wrestling, like it's fucking stupid.
I'm a cowboy, you're a basketball player.
There's an undead wizard that
strikes people with lightning bolts.
Right, you know.
But we're taking this so seriously,
people wanna get in fights every time.
That's what I say all the time!
- We're grown men! - Yeah.
Play-fighting in spandex!
We're Game of Thrones.
Relax, man! Take it easy!
This is supposed to be fun!
He is so agile.
Oh, Strickland knew it was coming!
Strickland knew it was coming!
Wow, like The Matrix!
Able to get out of the way of the kick!
- I'm impressed, man. - Thank you.
I'm watching your growth, you know.
I appreciate it.
I've been watching more movies and acting more
to try to finally impliment that in my wrestling.
I've been talking about the evolution of the business.
Right.
The old school guys who shit on the new school guys,
like we used to have the fight scenes,
Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone.
Now it's fucking John Wick and Jason Statham, you know?
That shit evolves.
And you guys do that shit in a single take with no wires.
- Imagine that. - Yeah.
A lot of pressure!
A lot of pressure.
You got it, baby, you got it.
The future's in good hands.
Thank you so much, man.
Suckerpunches right. Didn't work!
Damn.
Connects there with a kick.
A lot of people I'm sure would get out of that system of
being incarcerated and find themselves right back in it.
For him to kinda get out and then become the very heart
of this industry, that's like all because of you.
Pull yourself up.
That's what you gotta do.
Sami's a younger guy and represents a sort of
different generation.
That's why it's such a dream match show,
because it's like the two generations colliding.
What in the world is he doing here?
Mocking MVP, okay.
Oh!
There are times now when I'm in the ring
from an emotional perspective.
I know like man, I really have to savour this,
because these days are coming to an end.
Watching this match, it's hard to believe
MVP will be retiring soon.
But at 44, he's already achieved far more than
one might've expected from an ex-con from Opa-locka.
And for all the veterans that dump on the new generation for
not wrestling like they used to it's clear the business is
in good hands with talent who are creating wrestling
by this generation for this generation.
The wrestling world, especially independent wrestling,
is only getting bigger.
And maybe the high-flying acrobatics get clicks,
but the brutal combat, the old school grappling,
and the crowd-pleasing characters are all still there.
From Shane, the unpredictable golden child who wants to be
good at everything, to Sami, the jeans-wearing,
spit-throwing, street-brawling desperado,
young wrestlers are surprising their audiences,
winning new fans, and driving the evolution of
American pro wrestling.
And they're fortunate to have coaches and mentors who can
pass on their experience and craft, and push them
to work hard and achieve greatness.
Even if it is just play-fighting in spandex.
Throws him in a suplex.
Holds on for the cover, and that's it!
Ladies and gentlemen, here is your winner,
M... V... P!
I have to say I'll be sad when MVP finally decides to
hang up his boots, but on the other side of the coin
lies a bright future full of new stars
who strive to burn just as bright.
Hold on, is this not done?
Well, yeah.
Passions are running high right now.
There's a prison guard that helped him pursue his dream of
being a pro wrestler.
We understand that prison guard is actually
in attendance here tonight.
Callihan's checking to make sur all of his teeth are still in.
Yeah, and it's not the front that he's gotta worry about,
it's the wisdom teeth.