The adage, “never meet your heroes,” has been a proverb used to keep people from having high expectations of those they look up to or idolize.
For pro 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 BRINGING PRO WRESTLING EXPERTISE AND AUTHENTICITY TO BZZR
As the podcast partners with BZZR, Swayze shared with Fox News Digital the story about how he got involved with MVP in the first place. He said he watched MVP at WrestleMania 25 in a Money in the Bank Ladder Match and days later the pro wrestler was in his studio trying to record his own music for his entrance theme.
“All of a sudden, six months after being at WrestleMania 25, my favorite wrestler walks directly in. I couldn’t believe it. And nobody knew how big of a wrestling fan I was but I refused to go to the studio on Mondays or Fridays for ‘Raw’ and, there might’ve even been a Thursday back then, for ‘SmackDown.’ I’m not working at all during those times,” he recalled. “So, he walks in, so we were able to forge a relationship and the very first song he ever released, I was just in the studio sitting in the back watching my favorite wrestler and he’s rapping. He’d ask for some pointers every now and then. And I don’t know him enough to say anything because I’m like, ‘Oh my god, I can’t believe you’re here.’ And he finishes on this song – two verses. And he looks over at me and says, ‘Hey, you, you wanna do the other verse?’ And I’m like, ‘Of course, of course I do.’
“And ever since then, we’d be in the studio, and we’re chatting, I would always ask a wrestling-related question, being the huge fan that I am. Something along the lines of, ‘OK, at the 2008 Royal Rumble, you’re wrestling Ric Flair, he’s on his retirement tour, you, Mr. Kennedy. He’s eventually going to face Shawn Michaels and that is going to be the end of his career and when you guys are at Madison Square Garden, it was reported that he was having confidence issues. What were you saying to him in the ring right before the bell rang?’ And he’d tell me and this is what would be going on for 15 years. And in October 2024, I asked him a question and his response to me was, ‘This should be a show.’ … But that’s how we got here.”
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Swayze said BZZR offers sports fans a break from the regular noise they would see on the major social media platforms, adding that BZZR cuts out the noise and keeps it sports focused.
“BZZR launched with, I think, 10,000 videos, 500 verified creators – Josh Pate (college football), Brett Kollmann (NFL), of course, Kayla Becker is like hosting everything, Kenny Beecham and the joy of basketball with the NBA,” he said. “Not only those creators, there’s also podcasst. And out of the 500-plus creators that exist, you get sports across the landscape with just top-quality sports across the landscape.
“No rage bait, you’re not going to be finding those little things. If you compare to Twitter/X, the people that you follow on your timeline, that’s not all you see. You end up seeing some things you didn’t necessarily sign up for and, with BZZR, you’re only going to see sports.”
Of course, pro wrestling will be the theme of “Marking Out.”
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WWE and AEW own the mainstream conversation when it comes to pro wrestling – at least in North America, if not the world.
Swayze talked to Fox News Digital about some of the good things he’s been seeing with both companies.
“Some of the good things that I’m seeing … Well, outside my ‘Tribal Chief’ (Roman Reigns), you must acknowledge him, there’s a big youth movement of course,” he said. “In WWE, I’m loving to see Bron Breakker, Je’Von Evans, Sol Ruca. AEW, ‘where the best wrestle,’ of course, where MVP’s at right now. I really like Kyle Fletcher, Megan Bayne is awesome, Kevin Knight. I’m loving to see the changes of how things were in the past and how it is now.
“These guys have so much more pressure on them than the stars from yesterday. I kinda compare it to Michael Jordan and LeBron James. They have to live in the social media era and us as fans, the expectation is to see our star – we see them on television, we see them on their socials, a dirt sheet might pull them up, there’s podcasts. There’s just so much, but they’re doing their thing. They’re still performing. They’re still entertaining us. They’re putting themselves out there. As a fan, I definitely appreciate it.”
