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Recently, I was joined on the Conversations With Love podcast by Brian Milonas and Beer City Bruiser of the Bouncers! Crack a cold one and tune in as we chat about how Ring of Honor has treated it’s stars throughout the pandemic, their opportunity with the NWA, bonding with the Rock N’ Roll Express, how their trainers felt about their gimmicks and more. Links to both the full audio and video interview are included below.
WCSN: http://wincolumnsports.ca/conversations-with-love-91-the-bouncers-roh-interview/
PB: https://backbreakermedia.podbean.com/mf/play/gp9pi1/The_Bouncers_CWL_Final_Audio_80pus.m4a
YOUTUBE:
Please credit Spencer Love of the WCSN with any transcriptions used.
What they’re drinking, of course!
Spencer Love: “Of course with this one we've got to get it started with cracking a beer because the Bouncers joining me, Ring of Honor tag team, a personal favourite tag team of mine, Brian Milonas and Beer City Cruiser joining me on the show, guys. Thank you for joining me. I've gotta kick 'er off with: what are you drinking?"
Brian Milonas: “Beer, I hope! (laughs) Well, I'm drinking a local one from up here. It's called Shipping off to Boston, Jack's Abby craft lagers."
Beer City Bruiser: “Look at you! I've got a go-to Coors Light.”
Spencer Love: “Excellently done. Craft lagers in any way, shape, or form, right?"
Brian Milonas: “Or, Beer City Brew!"
Beer City Bruiser: “That's right! Beer City Brew!"
Dealing with life through the pandemic
Spencer Love: “I usually save the end of this for the cheap plugs, but I'm glad we're getting them out of the way early! Guys, it's great to have you on here. Obviously (it's) a bit of a difficult time for everybody in the professional wrestling world. But, of anybody who's sort of coming out of it, you guys have at least kept busy. You're hosting vlogs, you're calling fans who are purchasing merch, you're hosting Q&A's, how do you guys feel making the most out of their shitty hand everybody's been dealt?”
Beer City Bruiser: “Brian and I, both our careers have - we've always had the theory, and we still live by this theory, that when you're told you can't do something, we go out and try to do something. With this whole Covid thing, basically we can't wrestle. But, we were kind of challenged by Ring of Honor, like, 'hey, let's see who wants to put content out to entertain the fans,' and Brian and I took that as a challenge. Like, 'hey, we can do this.' Brian had pitched Happy Hour a few months before the whole COVID thing broke down for like part of our TV segments. We looked at it as an opportunity with the whole pandemic like 'Hey, why don't we bring it to light? Let's re-pitch it see what they say,' and it's catching fire.”
Brian Milonas: “Yeah. We're two guys who, you know, it took us a long time to get to a place like Ring of Honor. We heard no a lot through our entire careers. We're not going to let something like this virus stop (the) momentum that we built. And, this is fun! I mean, this is a lot of fun being able to have all those creative outlets that we've been having. Not that we wouldn't rather be wrestling, but it's really been a lot of fun.”
The best and worst drinkers in Ring of Honor
Spencer Love: “Awesome to hear, guys. Now, I have to ask: you guys had a hell of a beer-drinking contest with Joe Hendry. I'm gonna put you guys on the spot here a little bit: who is the best drinker in Ring of Honor - outside of yourselves - and who's the worst?”
Beer City Bruiser: “Oh geez.”
Brian Milonas: “You think Jay Briscoe?”
Beer City Bruiser: “I was gonna say, Jay Briscoe is up there. We've gone toe-to-toe with Jay Briscoe. Session Moth Martina, she holds her own. We've always tried - we have this little going contest with us where we try to see you can drink the most between Brian, myself, and Martina, and we always run out of beer. It's never one of us taps out. We just run out of beer.”
Spencer Love: “Everybody wins at the end of the day!"
Beer City Bruiser: “Exactly, and there's been a few times with Jay Briscoe has been in there with us, and it's just (like) 'okay, he can go!' I think the worst would probably Flip Gordon. Yeah, it took him six hours to finish a beer one time."
Brian Milonas: “Yeah, yeah. I think nobody will top Flip Gordon."
How Ring of Honor has treated its talent throughout the pandemic
Spencer Love: “Outstanding you guys. Now, I love that you bring up Ring of Honor, because, from everything that I've heard about working with them through the pandemic, they've been nothing but a pleasure to work for, right?"
Brian Milonas: “Yeah. I mean - and I don't say this to like, this is not a shot at any companies that are running or putting out content or anything like that - I just know both of us are really appreciative of the fact that we work for a company that hasn't taken us away from our families during a pretty scary time, hasn't asked us to be in airports on airplanes, in arenas, things like that. For me, being a dad, having two kids, (and) having some older relatives who would be higher risk, it's really been a load off, you know what I mean? They've really taken care of us and made sure we don't have anything to worry about. Honest to god it's not surprising to me, because it's been the story since I got to Ring of Honor. It's a first-class company ran by first-class people who care and take care of their, you know, the guys that worked for them.
Beer City Bruiser: “When all this started and we were in Vegas, we had a meeting. Right away, the company meeting was like, 'don't worry guys, we're gonna figure this out. We're all gonna get together and we'll get through this together.' And, we have. A real cool thing was they have weekly meetings with us. We're constantly talking to the office guys, they're making sure we're okay mentally, physically, they've been taking care of everybody financially. They've stepped up a lot and it's really - you feel appreciated, (because) us putting this content out and stuff, yeah, it gets our name out there, too, but it's also to keep Ring of Honors name in the forefront and they appreciate that. They let us know that on a weekly basis, and it's really cool. And that's not - we're not just doing that because we're 'company guys,' you know. We're saying that because like Brian said, we're fathers, and this is a scary time that you don't know what tomorrow brings. We're able to stay here with our families and make sure everything's okay, but yet, we still have a Ring of Honor family where we have these weekly meetings and we can find out 'Hey, how are you doing?' You know, 'how are you doing?' A few days ago, I wasn't great mentally. I was having a real bad day, and the whole roster checked in on me. That's the cool thing about Ring of Honor. They didn't have to do that, but that just shows that that's the mentality that this company has and it's great to be a part of the roster.”
Spencer Love: “Yeah, it's (the) best of both worlds given the situation, right."
Brian Milonas: “Absolutely. Absolutely."
Embracing the entertainment side of sports entertainment
Spencer Love: “That's awesome to hear, but it's really cool that that's not something really new In my opinion, as far as Ring of Honor goes. As far as even the online content goes, that really seems to be something that differentiates them and something that at least for you guys seems to be something that you really can take advantage of given that you really do embrace the entertainment side of this wild world of sports entertainment."
Brian Milonas: “Yeah, I mean, for us, it's an - you know, Ring of Honor has a weekly television show where it's only an hour a week. So, for us, a lot of the times it's us wrestling and you don't get to see - you get to see our personalities during our entrance and some of the stuff we do in the ring, but you don't get to hear us talk a lot. You don't get to hear from us a lot. So for us, we just saw this opportunity and it's like 'Well, yeah, let's take the ball and run with it. Let's make the most of this situation.' And it's fun to have people now realize like, 'Oh, yeah, these guys can talk! These guys have personalities!’"
Beer City Bruiser: “A really cool thing that we hear a lot when we do our meet and greets is people are just like, 'man, I just want to have a beer with you guys!' And I think what's cool is us doing this Happy Hour is kind of us having this beer with the fans. We've also been doing Instagram Lives between Brian and I, and Brian does like a red wine Saturday, and it's really cool because fans can come on and we'll answer questions, we'll maybe video chat with one of them or do something. It's really cool because like Brian said, with the hour TV, you get to see our five-to-eight minute match, where with these happy hours, and these Instagram Lives and these Facebook Lives that we're doing, you actually get to see us as characters, as the Bouncers and it's great."
Tag team vs singles wrestling
Spencer Love: “Absolutely. Now, Brian, I got to pick on you a little bit on this one because I know you guys have both done blogs but it was something that really sort of caught my eye. You went through you listed not only the tag teams that you wanted to face off with, but the singles wrestlers that you wanted to face off with. I guess the question for both of you before I dig into you a little Brian is: do both of you prefer wrestling as a tag team as you are now, because you have throughout your careers, or are you guys sort of singles guys quote-unquote.”
Brian Milonas: “Man, with two guys that are - well, Bruiser's a little over 40, I'm a little under 40, we'll split the difference and say we're both around 40 - I can tell you I'm a big fan of the tag team wrestling right now. (laughs)”
Spencer Love: “All right, fair enough!"
Beer City Bruiser: “I can tell you, Spencer, with all my heart right now I'm having the best time of my career tagging with Brian. It's very rare that you find a guy you have a lot in common with, and a lot of not just in the ring chemistry, but out of the ring. What you see on our Happy Hours and us in the ring, that's us in real life. We get done with the shows, we crack open beers, we go to the hotel and it's just me and him and we're just laughing having a good time. I wouldn't trade Brian - like, I've done a couple singles matches since Brian's and I have been together and I just kind of look in that corner and go 'man, I miss him! I want him there!"
Coming together because of wrestling each other
Spencer Love: “Which is kind of funny considering the reason you two guys came together was because you wrestled each other in Ring of Honor."
Brian Milonas: “Yeah, it really was. Yeah, the anniversary of that just passed, and I just know that because it came up on like social media, like Facebook or whatever. So it was funny. Yeah, I think people saw the chemistry that we had in the ring together and it just clicked and made sense for a lot of folks. They're like 'Hey, why don't we team these guys?'"
Beer City Bruiser: “I call it our Stepbrothers moment where, after we got punching each other in the face, we looked each other in the eye (like) 'did we just become best friends?’"
Brian Milonas: “Yep!"
Spencer Love: “'You like to drink? Yep.’"
Brian Milonas: “The funny thing is, too, like I'd been around a little bit and this and that, and we had already hit - it's funny, we'd already kind of hit it off already anyways, so it was just like this natural kind of progression of whenever the shows I was around before I was on full time, Bruiser was already somebody I would gravitate to and talk to and hang out with. So, it kind of worked out pretty well."
Their dream tag opponents in Ring of Honor
Spencer Love: “Absolutely. I couldn't agree more. Now. I gotta get back to picking on you a little bit. Because you mentioned again, those tag teams and the singles guys but Bruiser, I actually want to ask you as well: With the Gorillas of Destiny mentioned, Lethal and Gresham, Scurll and Gordon, any differences that you would say are sort of on your dream list of individuals? And Brian, back to you, why those guys specifically?"
Brian Milonas: “Oh man, do you have the list? I don't remember what I wrote now! (laughs)”
Spencer Love: “I only gave you three. I was trying to take notes!"
Brian Milonas: “Oh, that's on my tag teams? I thought you were asking what my singles list! I mean, for the ones that are on my tag team list, you know, the Guerrilla's of Destiny are, you know, they're right there at the tippy top of the best tag teams in the world. At one point, we thought we were going to end up matching up with them!"
Beer City Bruiser: “That one, actually, that's been on our bucket list for at least a year now. When we did the stuff with the Briscoe Brothers, and the G.O.D was doing their thing with the Briscoe Brothers also, we had kind of mentioned to the Ring of Honor offices and New Japan offices - and Brian and I would joke around with the G.O.D like 'hey, yeah, you can beat up the Briscoes, but they're not as drunk as us,' and they loved it. We had a real good playful back-and-forth and right before COVID hit, we were supposed to wrestle them. So, hopefully, when it's all said and done, we're still gonna do it.”
Brian Milonas: “Yeah, I mean, and Lethal and Gresham, they're the tag champs. They're the World Tag champs of Ring of Honor, and I think whether you're a tag team or whether you're a singles guy or whatever you should want to be at the top of the game, you should want to be the champ. So, for us, we want to be the World Tag Team Champions, so they got to be on the list. You know what I mean?”
The differences in working with both Milonas and Silas Young consistently
Spencer Love: “Now, being World Tag Team Champions is something that you guys both chased. Bruiser, you've done it a couple of times. You chased them with Silas Young as well, and now obviously with Brian. What are the differences between working with Silas and working with Brian in a bit of a consistent manner? I know that three of you guys work together, but you've really been the pivot point for lack of a better way to put it.”
Beer City Bruiser: “Well, tagging with Silas. I've known Silas my whole life, (my) whole wrestling career. He trained only an hour, hour and a half for me. So when I started with Ring of Honor, he kind of showed me what it's like to go from the independents to a major company, and I really took advantage of that where I'd listen to him and stuff like that. He's a different type of wrestler than Brian, 100%. Where Silas is that technical, down-and-dirty type thing, where Brian's just a punch you in the face - not saying that Brian can't do the technical stuff - but Brian uses his size and all that. What I had to get used to doing the transition from Silas to Brian is I had to get used to going from the biggest guy in the tag team to the little guy in the tag team. So it'd be like 'alright, cool. We're fighting these guys tonight. Silas, good luck - Oh, wait a minute. I'm the guy get beat up tonight!'"
Meeting the Rock & Roll Express
Brian Milonas: “We went to Atlanta this year when we first moved to Atlanta with Ring of Honor, the Rock and Roll Express were there. I guess it was last year technically when they showed up. We're walking up the ramp, and Robert Gibson is standing there and he says hi to Bruiser and he gives me a big hug, you know, and then I just kind of casually tell him, I'm like, 'Hey,' I said 'I'm the you of my tag team because my tag team partner has to take the heat all the time and I get to blow the comebacks,' and he got a laugh out of that. Now, again, like I said, Robert gave Bruiser a handshake, gave me a big hug, and Bruiser goes, 'Hey, where do you know Robert Gibson from?' I was like, 'I don't! That's the first time I've ever met him!'"
Spencer Love: “Oh, that's awesome, man. The love of professional wrestling right?”
Beer City Bruiser: “It was great, too. So we did the NWA tapings. The first day we were there, the Rock and Roll's grabbed us and they said 'hey, you guys are jumping in our car. You're with us.' And we're trying to explain to them that the hotels only a block away. Like, we don't need to get in a car, and they're like 'no, you two, in the car with us,' and Brian and I got to spend 48 hours with the Midnight Express non-stop."
Brian Milonas: “Rock & Roll Express. Bruiser is drunk."
Spencer Love: “Quotes have been edited for clarity and length."
Beer City Bruiser: “It was great because Ricky would talk to me, and Robert will talk to Brian and just give us advice. I mean, they’re one of the best tag teams in the world, man.”
Spencer Love: “Not just now but like literally forever."
Beer City Bruiser: “Yeah. And to (have) them gravitate to us was a true honour for us. And yeah, we bought the beer, but who cares?"
Spencer Love: “If all you got to do is buy the beer (to) get the opportunity to do that, I think that's a pretty fair trade-off at the very least!"
Learning from the legends of the business
Brian Milonas: “There's not enough of that in wrestling. There's not enough of, I think, that stuff. I mean, for us, it was like, 'man, we'll buy some beers. You guys just talk and let us listen. Let us absorb that. You know, that information.' They wrote - they wrote the friggin’ book, man. I was dismayed that more people weren't there with us listening to them tell stories, y'know?"
Beer City Bruiser: “(The) cool thing about tagging with Brian is him and I, we were fans before all this. Bully is in our locker room in Ring of Honor and him and I are constantly bugging him. Anytime a legend comes in, Brian and I are right there doing what he just said. We'll buy him a beer just 'hey, talk. Just teach us!' We don't care what it is. When I was with Silas he kind of didn't do that, where Brian wants to learn. He wants to learn from the past and make what's old is new and that type of phrase and I think that draws me more to Brian.”
Spencer Love: “It's a bit of a - you know, I've never stepped in the ring myself, so excuse me if I'm wrong here, but like it almost seems like that would be the obvious thing to do, not sort of a rarity you know what I mean?"
Brian Milonas: “Yeah, I mean it's funny. I mean, I don't think it's even - I think guys just get caught up in their routine or doing whatever they want to do, or maybe some guys don't want to feel like they're bugging people, and I guess I used to feel like that. But for me, it's just become a situation where it's like - I mean, it's good from couple standpoints. One: man, we can all still learn, and especially when you got guys like Ricky Morton and Robert Gibson, guys who wrote the book on tag team wrestling. At the same time, too, there was a piece of us we were little kids, man. We were just little kids talking to two guys that we watched on TV when we were children. There's something pretty cool about that, too. That's the other thing I think a lot of people lose, and that's the love of the business. It's like you get into it, and it's almost like you're supposed to fall out of love with it, but this is something I've been in love with since I was three or four years old, man. So anytime now I get the opportunity to talk to some of these guys that have paved the way for a lot of different reasons. Some learning and some just because I want to be like Chris Farley’s character like 'Hey, remember when you won the tag team titles? Yeah, that was pretty cool.'"
Their respective training with Harley Race and Killer Kowalski
Spencer Love: “Yeah, pretty cool. Outstanding, absolutely outstanding. You're completely on point with the reference, too. That's always a big, big bonus in my books. Do you guys think that comes from just like growing up and learning from guys like Harley Race and Killer Kowalski, respectively? You've always had the opportunity throughout your careers to learn from sort of legends of the business and I feel like that's sort of the theme of your guys' careers.”
Beer City Bruiser: “The way I look at it is, is when I was living with Harley, I wasn't down there to work at a McDonald's or Pizza Hut or anything like that. I was there to become a professional wrestler. I love my job. Every day that I get up and go to work, I love it. This is not a job for me. This is my life. This is my career, and I love it. I always took it as 'I'm literally going to college with one of the greatest professional wrestlers,' and it's not just my opinion. You could ask a roomful of people - you ask a roomful of 100 people and all 100 people are going to tell you Harley Race is one of the greatest wrestlers out there. I really took advantage of that. And then, like Brian said, when we're on the road and we see these guys, we walk up and we talk to him for two reasons. One, we're fans, and two - teach us! Harley used to tell us that wrestling was here long before him, (and) it'll be here long after him, so the impact that he makes all these here might as well be a good one. I take that to heart where wrestling's been here long before the Bouncers, it's going to be here long after the Bouncers, so while we're here, let's make a good impact on what we have, and make it better for the future."
Brian Milonas: “It's a healthy respect for the past. You know, making sure while we innovate and grow and change the industry and the industry is always going to evolve, just like any industry does, but still having that eye towards the past, still having that healthy respect for the people that came before us and paved the way. The two of us are just a couple of lucky guys to - Harley Race and Killer Kowalski (are) two guys who would have made money in any era of professional wrestling. Had they been in their primes today, they'd be main eventers today, no doubt in my mind. Two guys who were ahead of their time, and (we're) just so fortunate. It's funny. It's because of my relationship with Walter and the fact that I never got a picture with him, which is completely made me change my whole philosophy on like, getting pictures of people and things like that. When you're coming up, you don't always think about that stuff or you don't want to bug people, or you don't want to be a mark or whatever. It was really when Walter passed away, I realized, it hit me, I was like, 'I don't even have like-' I had known Walter Kowalski since I was like 15 years old, and I don't have one single solitary picture of just - now I think there's some group photos, but never just wanted like me and him. So that's when it really started to hit me of like - man, sometimes you've gotta slow down, enjoy the journey, enjoy the ride, get some pictures and just appreciate the people you're going to meet along the way. Because there are people in and out of your life in this business so quick, man. It feels like it's dog years in wrestling. In a blink of an eye, stuff is gone, stuff is changing. So it's important."
How they feel their trainers would feel about their gimmicks
Spencer Love: “It's a bit of an odd way to put it, but as two wrestlers who - we talked about it earlier and it's obvious right? Like, you guys really embrace the entertainment side. When Kowalski and Harley Race are watching you guys wrestle, they seemed like two pretty no-nonsense sort of guys. Did they ever give you an opinion or anything as far as that goes of like, 'Hey man, maybe you should be a little more serious?’"
Beer City Bruiser: “If you watch, though, if you watch our wrestling our actual wrestling matches, we are two real serious guys. Our characters are fun-loving, we're having a good time going into the ring and we're having a good time leaving the ring, but when we're in the ring, we're down to business. We're serious. We're mouthpunchers! Harley used to - I can't speak for Kowalski - but Harley used to say 'you do what you want in and out of the ring, but when you're in the ring, it's business and you're bound to win.' Brian and I have proven that. We're gonna drink all the beer we want, have a good time, but when we're in the ring, it's business, and you're gonna know that next day that you wrestled us. I think it really came out in the feud with Vincent because he took us to a level that none of our fans are expecting us to be at. Then, we get to Vegas for the Bar Fight without Honor with the pool cues and the darts and stuff and that kind of opened up fans, like 'Oh, these guys aren't just the jolly fat guys, you're actually two guys that can fight!’"
Brian Milonas: “The funny thing for me is this is the complete opposite of what I've been my entire career as far as like from a character standpoint. Coming up through the indies, working on the indies, I was always actually (a) very, very serious, very, nasty, heel character. Some of that was patterned after Kowalski! He was that vicious, nasty heel that old ladies want to stab and things like that, and that's what I always aspired to be. So, it's funny, when I finally get on a bigger stage it's kind of, you know, it's so different for me. Like I don't think the fans who only know me from Ring of Honor don't realize that, and then I don't even think - I'm not even sure how many people at Ring of Honor even realize that, other than like, maybe like some of the guys that I've known for a while so it's funny."
The formation of the Bouncers
Spencer Love: “Yeah. Now I know you guys have told the story before, but we are an Albertan based podcast (and) Ring of Honor hasn't been here in - wink wink, nudge nudge - in far too long. So maybe for me, I always make the comparison and it's funny for me that it's sort of like the Bar. You guys wrestled, you guys are now together, and it's been a huge success you know what I mean? So, maybe take me a little bit - and I know again, you guys have told it before - but just the formation of the Bouncers.”
Beer City Bruiser: “It was real - there's a lot of moving parts that went into it. So, Brian did the Top Prospect tournament and after the Top Prospect, they had us wrestle against each other. What we didn't know is behind the scenes, Todd Sinclair had kind of been pitching the idea of us being a tag team, because Todd and I became really close when we got into Ring of Honor, and Todd and Brian know each other from basically day one of wrestling training. So Brian literally knows both of us, and in his mind, this was his tag team that he wanted. Silas and I were doing this thing when we wanted to go to the six-man tags straps, and we couldn't find a third person. They had tossed a bunch of ideas around and somehow had fallen on Brian. Us having that match and roll kind of opened the eyes of everybody else, like 'wait a minute, these guys are serious!' One day they walked up, they said, 'Yeah, Brian, you're going with Silas and Bruiser.' It literally was the day of, I think in Philadelphia, he was wrestling Kenny King. We had heard rumours, but all of a sudden they came up and go 'tonight's the night, Brian! You're joining Silas and Bruiser, and this is what's happening.' It was like, 'Oh, okay!'"
Brian Milonas: “Yeah, it was - you know, the funny thing, too, is we were told from the start like this (was) literally a show to show things. So, that night, (if) it didn't go well, pssh, we're done with it. For me, (it was) a little different meaning for me versus Bruiser and Silas, because they were contracted. I wasn't. So if this thing doesn't go well, I'm out.”
Spencer Love: “Not just the end of the team."
Brian Milonas: “Yeah! And literally, we were told that every time. Like, 'Hey, this is a show-to-show thing. We give you something, you got to deliver. If you don't, that might be the end of it.' Or 'if it's not getting over, that might be the end of it.' So again, it was different at first, because we weren't - we were, you know, we were being nasty and mean. It's funny that it's come to this."
Beer City Bruiser: “The fans are what turned us into the good guys because the fans saw 'Hey, we like these guys. They drink beer and they fight. Even though they're calling me stupid, that's awesome.' Like Brian said, it was a night-to-night thing where it was we (didn't) know. We (weren't) sure. So, they'd just give us random tag teams, and Brian and I would do what we were taught. We'd go out there and put on the best match we could. It all came together in Philadelphia when we main evented. It was us and Silas against the Bucks and Cody and I remember looking at Brian going 'this is it. This is where we prove we belong here.' You know, 'this is where we prove you belong here,' because like he said, he wasn't under contract yet. We went out and had one of the best matches of our career. We came back and everybody loved it. That's when they decided to put the two of us together and kind of get rid of Silas and we kind of went our own way and every night we literally went out as a do or die thing, and this is what's to be. Then, what's funny is the Martina thing came along. So, now we're established. Brian's under contract, I'm under contract, we're both a little comfortable, we're still going out having great matches, but now they start talking about 'hey, we're bringing Martina. We want you guys to do one promo to introduce her to our fans and that's it.' We're like 'Sure. No problem.' So we do the one promo and it got so many views on social media that on the spot they're like 'we're running with this. This is now an angle. We want you guys to come up with promos.' Literally our whole careers (have) gone 'Hey, here's something! Make something out of it,' And we go out and make something out of it and they're like, 'Well, here's more! Here's more!’"
Spencer Love: “It's not even like you guys are getting handed lemons, though, like working with Martina, working with Silas Young, you guys are getting some pretty good people to make lemonade with.”
Brian Milonas: “And that happens, you know. Any good team as good players on it, and when you're in a place like Ring of Honor, you're going to be surrounded by some pretty great talent. It's funny, too, because this is a business about you have to believe in yourself. No matter where you are, you have to believe you belong. So for me and Bruiser, we're in a company with guys who (are) arguably the best at their profession and we have to believe that we belong there. You know what I mean? You have to go out there you have to prove. So yeah, being surrounded by talented people, hell yeah! And I'll take advantage of that all day long. I'll take that every day of the week!"
Their opportunity with the NWA
Spencer Love: “It's always great for me - I love to hear that, you guys, and I would firmly put you guys in that conversation too. Don't get me wrong there. I needed to ask you guys before we get closer to closing it out here on the show, you're mainly known for your work with Ring of Honor but pretty recently, at least recently as compared to pandemic times, you wrestled for the NWA and challenge for the tag team titles there. Maybe what was the difference, I guess, between a) the studio setting and wrestling in a live venue and b) just the differences between working with the two promotions overall?"
Beer City Bruiser: “
Working with the NWA was a lot of fun. The studio setting, like Brian had said, we both grew up fans. So getting into that studio setting brought back a lot of memories for Brian and I where we really sat there after we walked in, and we're looking around and like 'this is so cool. Like this is just so cool.' The weird thing is the crowd's only on one side. So you're doing your stuff to the camera, but you're getting a reaction from the crowd behind us and that was really unique how we had to come up with that. The minute we walked into that locker room they were so welcoming to us. Like I said, the Rock and Roll Express took us under their wings and then James Storm right away. We've met him a couple times at Ring of Honor shows, and he kind of took us under his wing too, and we were all just drinking beer. I haven't seen Trevor Murdoch since I was down by Harley's, so seeing him again was really cool. Brian hadn't seen Aron Stevens in forever and Brian started with him. So it was really cool because we got to catch up with guys that we hadn't seen in years. It was literally just stepping from one great locker room to another great locker room. Billy took care of us. He made sure that we're all okay with everything. Their stagehands and stuff like that were great. Jesse, the stagehand, went out and got us a huge case of beer for entrance and we were trying to explain to her we only really need one or two but no, we got 24!"
Brian Milonas: “They really made it easy. A big shout out to Maureen over there. She's awesome. She really took care of us from you know - they even asked us if we had any food allergies! I was really blown away by the entire experience with the NWA. I was nervous going in front of the crowd because I've never wrestled in-studio before like that, but that crowd is so hyped. They are just so pumped and into it that it just was so - it was so easy."
Beer City Bruiser: “We were sitting in the entrance on top of the stage and we were only one of two people that have done a crowd entrance. We were worried! We're like, 'normally they don't like Ring of Honor guys here. We hope they like us. We hope they know who we are!"
Brian Milonas: “Yeah, Flip Gordon got booed the night before!"
Beer City Bruiser: “Yeah, and we were worried about that! We're like, 'I hope they know who we are,' and our music plays, and all sudden you see the crowd stand up and all turn to us and Brian goes, 'I think they remember us,' as we walk out. It was so cool. Their fans - Brian said it to me at the airport and it really resonated with me. Their fans don't care what it is, as long as it's wrestling because they (were) there to be entertained. That's all they want is to be entertained. They don't rate it by stars. They don't rate it by this. They want to be entertained, and that was a cool feeling to go out and just have to entertain people. It was fun."
Spencer Love: “Yeah, I really like that point. It's something you don't really think of, but it is more of a traditional fan base then you really would get for - not even just as any other promotion nowadays, but a travelling promotion does have to sort of build up - unless you're televised consistently - you do have to build up brand new goodwill pretty well any new territory you go into, which is something you really don't think about until you get into a consistent setting, I guess.”
Brian Milonas: “Yeah, exactly. They have a loyal fan base, man, that NWA. So we talked about they don't like the Ring of Honor guys? It's because they're totally loyal to that NWA brand. I mean, that NWA brand is just, you know, it's such a fibre of wrestling fans being in that area of the country (and) in that state, in particular. So, that made all the better when we turned on Eddie Kingston! We a couple fans tweet how we broke their hearts!"
Spencer Love: “Like 'we've been here for almost a cup of coffee and we're already breaking hearts!' I love it. It's always got to be nice to go to new territories, too, because I know you guys have mentioned the story before where I think you went to Japan for the first time and same thing, everybody's handing you a beer when you just need one. Sort of the perks of the job!"
Beer City Bruiser: “Yeah, my Honor Rising tour in Japan where I came out and did the spitting in the crowd, then afterwards they're paying me to drink beer. I keep telling Ring of Honor 'send me and Brian over there! If I made that impact alone, can you imagine if he's with me? The country would never be the same again!'"
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