Speaker 1: Good morning, Ethan. How are you doing today?
Speaker 2: I'm good. How you doing?
Speaker 1: Absolutely fantastic. You've got to be amazed at where wrestling
is today because when I was growing up, it was
always hidden away on a far away TV station and
it was out of Denver, Colorado, in all honesty, and
and you know, and you just didn't find it unless
your dad found it first.
Speaker 2: Yeah, fair enough.
Speaker 1: And then now, I mean, you got NXT being on
the CW and you fighting around the country. This is
amazing on where wrestling has grown too, well one percent.
Speaker 2: I mean, you got the CW network getting us all
across America. But I'm Canadian guy, and the fact that
I can have anyone in my home country turn Netflix
on in my face is the first thing they see.
It's pretty incredible.
Speaker 1: Dude. I grew up in Montana, so therefore I grew
up on Canadian wrestling, the Heart Family, the Heart Foundation,
everything up there. The Dynamite Kid. So man, I'm with you.
I'm already on your team.
Speaker 2: I love that.
Speaker 1: Thanks, But there's a different style of wrestling up there
in Canada, and to me, you guys are more rugged
than those that are here in the States. Do you
see that and feel that I.
Speaker 2: Do, And I don't think it's that we're more rugged.
I think that we kind of have to scratch and
claw to get out of Canada. Then we have to
scratch and claw to kind of make a name in
America and then find our way. So our path is
a lot tougher. So by the time we actually make
it where we need to make it, we're a little grizzled,
we're a little fed up, and we're a little hungry.
Speaker 1: But doesn't that really sharpen the skills of your showmanship,
because I mean it's all about, you know, the entertainment
value as well as the sport value.
Speaker 2: There's not a single wrestler under contract to WW that's
better than me at this job.
Speaker 1: I like your attitude, man, I mean, you're you're solid
with that attitude, aren't you.
Speaker 2: Well, you could say it's attitude. I mean this is
just naturally who I am.
Speaker 1: I love that. But see, you know so many people there,
they're hiders these days. And I believe that the real
superheroes in this world are not on a on a
big screen TV at a movie theater. It's you guys.
You guys are the ones that are giving us that
strengthen that energy to move forward.
Speaker 2: I agree. I mean we're larger than life and to
do what we do, we have to be athletic, we
have to be showman's, we have to be professional travelers.
We have to be able to suck it up when
we're hurt or sick or not in the mood. Yeah,
there's nobody like us.
Speaker 1: How do you do that? Deal with that in the
way of when when you're not in the mood, Because
I talked to many people at many lectures about that,
when you aren't in the mood, the show still must
go on. What do you do to make that happen?
Speaker 2: Well, I mean I look at all the seats that
are filled and people that spend their money, so there's
no option. You got to go out there and perform.
Speaker 1: How many knights are you on that on that ring?
Speaker 2: So nights? I would say at least one or two
in a rain though, I would say probably three to
four days a week. Just saw a regular basis training,
staying sharp, staying ready.
Speaker 1: Do you do you go by the same rules that
we did when I would do these taekwondo tournaments in
the It's not if you get hurt, it's when you
get hurt.
Speaker 2: No, not for me, I actively just try and avoid it.
I mean, there is just a general understanding of, yeah,
this is gonna suck. I was making a joke to
a wrestler yesterday that I would say, if I could
stay at sixty percent consistently, then that's great. It's when
you start dipping below sixty feeling like sixty percent, and
then you know, you get some rest period you can
get close to seventy eighty percent. But I understand that
I'll never be one hundred percent ever again, for the
rest of my life, and that's just a price that
I'm willing to pay for who I am and what
I get to do.
Speaker 1: That is so true because I wish my soboym way
back in the early part of the two thousands would
have told me that kicking the bag and basically kicking
another human being would actually put a big limp in
my life at sixty three.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean not wear and tear is real. Especially taekwondo,
it's a lot of kicking.
Speaker 1: It's it's which is kind of weird because when I
first started out, it was it was in combat karate
and Julio Hildeger would sit there and tell me, he says,
you don't want to kick above the waist. You're going
to be old one day and you're gonna barely get
over the ankle. Learn how to kick the foot man,
take the towers out.
Speaker 2: I kick those legs out.
Speaker 1: Is that what you guys study as well? Get those
legs from beneath them and get on that canvas.
Speaker 2: So I honestly have two black belts, one in karate
one in taekwondo. So I trained for both my whole life,
starting from four years old till about sixteen, and then
transition to professional wrestling. So I have a extensive martial
arts background.
Speaker 1: Don't you like that mental stability that that it gives you,
because you know, when you sit there and you complain
about doing a pum say, it's like, oh, there's so
many moves. But as you grow in life, you begin
to enhance everything.
Speaker 2: And I would say the mental was a big part
of it. And I like even my children, I can't
wait to get them into martial arts just because of
the respect and kind of how they humble you. And
it's just it's a way of life that I truly appreciate.
Speaker 1: Please do not move. There's more with All Ego Ethan
Page coming up next. Hey, thanks for coming back to
my conversation with Ethan Page. We're talking about martial arts, well,
even the mantras that we would always say right there
at the beginning part of class. One that still sticks
out to me is learn to love all living things. Now,
my neighbors don't understand that because I have a very
tall weeds in my yard. I just can't kill them.
They're living.
Speaker 2: Yeah, hey, good one.
Speaker 1: When you hear the term all ego, how did you
feel when they started chanting that, Because it's like, I've
never heard that in all my years of watching professional wrestling.
Speaker 2: So I gave the name to myself.
Speaker 1: Wow for for marketing reasons, for or just because it's like, Okay,
I'm going to live up this role.
Speaker 2: I mean, obviously marketing reasons, it sounded great with Ethan Page,
All Ego Ethan Page, but for me it was trying
to one the second someone hears your name, they understand
everything you're about and what you bring to the table.
And two I felt it really matched my presence and
my energy, so it was kind of a perfect fit.
Speaker 1: How did who do you take into that ring with you?
Mentally and spiritually because you grew up in Canadian wrestling,
but you also watched everything that was going on around
the world. I mean, every time that I would step
into the ring, I'm not gonna lie to you, I
thought either Muhammad Ali or Rick Flair.
Speaker 2: Oh okay, so oh this might rub people the wrong
way because I'm It's not that I don't want to
give people their flowers. I legitimately don't think of anyone
but myself. Nice Like there's like I would say, like,
obviously there's influence, but that will all come, you know,
when I'm in a different mental state in the locker
room or in the I guess a preparation state. But
when it comes time to performing and you know, you
walk out the curtain, they say it's like, oh, once
your music hits and you walk out, Like that's real,
that's one hundred percent real. I don't think of anything
other than just me and doing the job that I'm
there to do. And everything that I do is reactive
and very what naturally I feel I would do, And
that's just like I'm very much me when I'm out
there performing, I'm not really focused on anyone else or
thinking about anyone else.
Speaker 1: Is there a ritual that you go through before you
go out there? For instance, like when I come into
the studio, I always touch the autograph of Casey Caseum
from American Top forty and Wolfman Jack that they are
inspirations in radio. Is there something that you do as
a ritual before you go out there?
Speaker 2: The only thing I do. I'm Orthodox, So I'll do
like a three finger crossed you know, father found only
spirit but yet so that's about it. I'll pray and
go out there and beat some mess. I guess it's
not really like, I don't want to say ritual, but
it's something that I've done since I started wrestling at
sixteen years old and two thousand and six, I've never
not done it before a match.
Speaker 1: I totally get that, because I mean, when I sit
down to do my daily writing, the first thing that
I do is I write out my prayer. Nothing happens
until that prayer has been written out.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's not a Yeah, there's no performance without that.
Speaker 1: Now. One of the things that I know that professional
wrestling does merch. They've got lots of merchandise. Where can
people go to get your merch? Sir?
Speaker 2: Thank goodness. WW is you know, one of the biggest
entertainment companies in the world, and the second you put
it into Google, there will be an ad to purchase
a WW T shirt. I would just search Ethan Page
merch or Eastern Page T shirt. I got an All
Ego T shirt available with WW. And then there's another
T shirt provider that we have in agreement with called
five hundred Level and they have a very cool, I
believe fan created t shirt. But there's March all over
and if you're at the live events, I want to
say there will probably be an all Ego T shirt
in Houston available. So if you're there is coming Tuesday
and Houston, make sure you grab an Ethan Page sure
and celebrate with the North American champion, because That's what
I'm coming there to do.
Speaker 1: I love it. Please come back to this show anytime
in the future, Ethan Sure.
Speaker 2: If they set it up and they tell me to
wake up early and come to interviews for two hours
again and you're on the list, I'm.
Speaker 1: Man, you'd be brilliant today.
Speaker 2: Okay, Sarah, I will thank you