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The saying “never meet your heroes” has been a proverb used to prevent people from having high expectations of those they admire or idolize.
For professional wrestling podcaster Dwayne Swayze, the phrase couldn’t have been more wrong.
Swayze teamed up with All Elite Wrestling (AEW) star MVP to create the “Marking out with MVP and Dwayne Swayze” podcast, focused on providing an outlet for wrestling fans to listen to in-depth interviews with their favorite stars from all wrestling backgrounds.
AEW STAR MVP BRINGS PRO WRESTLING EXPERIENCE AND AUTHENTICITY TO BZZR
MVP, left, and the Dwayne Swayze podcast associated with BZZR. (Getty Images/Provided to Pak Gazette Digital)
As the podcast partners with BZZR, Swayze shared with Pak Gazette Digital the story of how he got involved with MVP in the first place. He said he saw MVP at WrestleMania 25 in a Money in the Bank Ladder Match and days later the professional wrestler was in his studio trying to record his own music for his entrance theme.
“Suddenly, six months after being at WrestleMania 25, my favorite wrestler walked right in. I couldn’t believe it. And no one knew how much of a wrestling fan I was, but I refused to go to the studio on Mondays or Fridays for ‘Raw’ and, maybe it would have even been a Thursday back then, for ‘SmackDown’. I don’t work at all during those times,” he recalled. “So, he came in, so we were able to build a relationship and the first song he released, I was in the studio sitting in the back watching my favorite wrestler and he was rapping. He would ask me for some advice from time to time. And I don’t know him well enough to say anything because I’m like, ‘Oh my God, I can’t believe you’re here.’ And it ends with this song: two verses. And he looks at me and says, ‘Hey, do you want to do the other verse?’ And I said, ‘Of course, of course I do.’
“And from then on, we were in the studio and we were chatting, I would always ask a question related to wrestling, being the big fan that I am. Something like, ‘OK, at the 2008 Royal Rumble, you will be fighting Ric Flair, he is on his retirement tour, you, Mr. Kennedy. Eventually you will face Shawn Michaels and that will be the end of your career and when you guys are at Madison Square Garden, it was reported that he had trust issues. What were you saying to him in the ring right before “Will the bell ring? And he was telling me and this is what would be happening for 15 years. And in October 2024, I asked him a question and his answer was: ‘This should be a show.’… But this is how we got here.”
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MVP, Dwayne Swayze and Kayla Becker have teamed up with sports-focused social media platform BZZR. (BZZR)
Swayze said BZZR offers sports fans a break from the usual noise they would see on major social media platforms, adding that BZZR cuts through the noise and keeps it focused on sports.
“BZZR launched with, I think, 10,000 videos, 500 verified creators: Josh Pate (college football), Brett Kollmann (NFL), of course, Kayla Becker is like the host of it all, Kenny Beecham and the joy of basketball with the NBA,” he said. “Not just those creators, there are podcasts too. And of the 500+ creators out there, you can find sports all over the landscape, just high-quality sports across the landscape.
“Without anger bait, you’re not going to find those little things. If you compare it to Twitter/X, the people you follow on your timeline, that’s not all you see. You end up seeing some things that you didn’t necessarily sign up for, and with BZZR, you’re only going to see sports.”
Of course, professional wrestling will be the subject of “Marking Out.”
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WWE and AEW own the main conversation when it comes to professional wrestling, at least in North America, if not the world.
Swayze spoke with Pak Gazette Digital about some of the good things he’s been seeing at both companies.
“Some of the good things I’m seeing… Well, aside from my ‘Tribal Chief’ (Roman Reigns), you have to admit, there’s a big youth movement, of course,” he said. “In WWE, I love watching Bron Breakker, Je’Von Evans, Sol Ruca. AEW, ‘where the best wrestling is’, of course, where the MVP is right now. I really like Kyle Fletcher, Megan Bayne is amazing, Kevin Knight. I love seeing the changes from how things were in the past and how they are now.
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“These guys have a lot more pressure on them than yesterday’s stars. I compare it a little bit to Michael Jordan and LeBron James. They have to live in the age of social media and we as fans, the expectation is to see our star: we see them on TV, we see them on their social media, a dirty sheet can take them out, there are podcasts. There’s so much going on, but they’re doing their thing. They’re still performing. They’re still entertaining us. They’re trying hard. As a fan, I definitely appreciate that.”
