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Chris Masters Saved His Mom From A Burning House, NWA Worlds Heavyweight Title Shot vs. Tyrus
Chris Masters (@chrismasters310) is a professional wrestler known for his time in WWE and also in NWA and IMPACT Wrestling where he works under the name Chris Adonis. He joins Chris Van Vliet in Hollywood, CA to talk about how his upcoming match for the NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship was manifested in our last interview, what his thoughts are on Tyrus, the difference between Chris Masters and Chris Adonis, the story of how he saved his mom from a burning house, breaking Stevie's Richards's nose in his WWE debut match, what working with Shawn Michaels was like and more!
“Yes, he did [react to the last interview]. And I just noticed today that Wyatt is out for WrestleMania. So Bobby, he is looking for an opponent and I told Bobby under his Instagram posts that I left that date open for him. So maybe one day, we will get this Hurt Lock, Master Lock match. Believe me, I'm pushing for it. But um, you know, couple loose ends I got to tie up there.”
“I mean, it would be really cool. But it's one of those things where oh my gosh, it's just so, it feels so far fetched that it could actually happen. But like, if it did, I mean, just imagine the surprise, it would be like. Let's just say he didn't have an opponent, and they didn't know. Although, you know, I have a feeling they could fill that spot. Obviously they have a big talent roster. But you know, it definitely be a very interesting surprise to out of nowhere have a Hurt Lock vs. Master Lock. But it would kind of hurt to not be able to properly build it either if we weren't able to do that, because, you know, the build for that thing would be freaking great. You know, Full Nelson versus Full Nelson. And, you know, I have so many ideas just based on the fact that he is still as big as he is, and I'm much different. So I mean, the matchup would just be completely different.”
“Well, here's the thing. What as he calls them, the trolls, what I will give him is this. What the, as he would call them, the trolls, don't understand is Tyrus does love professional wrestling. He does have a love for [it]. But what he doesn't understand is the trolls. It's not they're not woke, it's not a right or left thing, it's a professional wrestling thing. And quite frankly, the wrestling fans are resentful of a guy who comes in to, or back into professional wrestling, as kind of, say, a side hustle. Or, you know, let's put it this way. If he lost the NWA title, he'd be just fine because he'd be out there hosting Greg Gutfeld, he'd be doing his thing on Fox News. And you know, the wrestling audience, what it comes down to is they want the best wrestler in that position, and they want the best wrestler holding the most prestigious title in professional wrestling. And quite frankly, they don't think that Tyrus fits the bill.”
“Well, I mean, I felt like I was the best wrestler in NWA for a long time now. Every time I've gone out there, I feel like I've had to go out there and, and prove myself. And, you know, I see a guy like Tyrus, who now you know, sits in his ivory tower back in New York at Fox News, holding the NWA title hostage. And when I see that, all I see is a guy, you know, using the NWA title as a prop for his own personal vanity, and I'm not cool with that. And when I come into Chicago, April 7th, for the NWA 312 Pay Per View, I am going to represent all those trolls representing all the wrestling fans representing all the marks representing all the smart marks. And how ironic is it that formally Chris Masters, the guy who was never an internet darling, will come into Chicago, a wrestling town, if there ever was one, and will represent the wrestling audience against big bad Tyrus?”
“Yeah. You know, Chris, I mean, quite frankly, we spoke it into existence. A lot of people are wondering what the heck is Chris Adonis, Chris Masters doing back here. But yes, we did speak it into existence. From my perspective, I feel like I've been one of the best wrestlers in the game for the last year. And it's just taken everybody else this long to kind of catch up. So like, I've seen this all in my head and it doesn't surprise me. But it is nice to have hard work pay off. And you know, based on our last interview that I've put everything into professional wrestling and being the best professional wrestler, and to see it pay dividends in the form of a world title match with Tyrus on pay-per-view, is pretty cool.”
“I do every day, Harley Race, Nature Boy Ric Flair, just to name a couple. But those are two of the most influential guys in my professional wrestling career. Nature Boy, Ric Flair, obviously being one of the goats in Harley Race. Being a guy who kind of took me in right outside of WWE. I don't actually get to talk about that very much. But the first time I got released, Harley Race really took me under his wing for a good 6 to 12 months. I met his then wife BJ, and they really taught me the game from the independent aspect. And they let me stay at their house and like, it was just, it was an incredible experience. So when you bring up the NWA title, those are the first two that come to mind of many.”
“He's just so much [different]. It's just night and day. Chris Masters started out focused, but I mean, just completely lost his way and, you know, didn't prioritise what he needed to and didn't focus solely on professional wrestling, his ultimate love, which it's always been. And now Chris Adonis is a guy who is a polished performer, a great in-ring worker, a guy that understands psychology, one of the best sellers in the business, not to completely break the third wall. But I mean, honestly, these are the things I stand by when it comes to me. So like, he's different physically, he's different mentally, he's different spiritually, he's different emotionally.”
“Okay, so I'm at Gold's Gym, which we both worked out at, just not too long ago. And what happened, I received a phone call from my mom's neighbour saying that something was going on at her apartment. She didn't know what was something funny was up. So then I go to call my mom. And anytime I call my mom, I get a voicemail without fail, like, you know, it'll ring but then it'll go to voicemail. This particular time, it just kept ringing, which doesn't sound like much, but for me was a big red flag. Why is the answering machine? It always goes off. So I immediately hopped in my truck, and I went from Venice to West LA, it's only about 10 minutes. Thank God, I was in town, by the way, and I get there and it's an odd scene, I get there, and my uncle who was staying with my mom at the time is locked out. That's all I see is him at the door. So I get out of the truck. And I don't know what's going on. I'm like, What is going on? And I get to the door. And you know, I'm trying, I don't even know what my uncle told me. But I start trying to make communication through the door. And somebody starts speaking to me, it's a voice I don't recognise and they are just speaking. Like I'm asking about my mom, and this person is like talking crazy. They're like, she's my mom too now. And, you know, we're gonna go, I don't even know he said something like, we're gonna go to heaven together. Like it was, yeah, it was out. But here's the thing, so I realized within, it didn't take long for me to realize oh, this guy's tripping on something. Like he's either tripping on meth or crack like this is not what comes out of a straight even a crazy person's mouth. It just sounded too bizarre. So I had found out also to another twist this whole thing that the cops were actually there and had left so like, I don't know where the confusion was like they didn't obviously, didn't know she was locked in the house. But somehow they come by and did not read the situation and left. Okay, so I'm in so I'm trying to figure out what to do. And I'm looking at the door. And I'm thinking about kicking it down, obviously, because there's a madman in the house with my mom. [Chris - The house isn't on fire yet]. No, no, no fire. No, I don't even know that. It's barricaded. [You’re just trying to get in]. Yeah. And he's not letting me in. And so like, you know, your first instinct is like f*ck, this guy's you know, I'm sure doesn't matter. And I'm gonna kick the door down. Thank God I didn’t. I had the smarts to know that, like, what if I don't get this door down? What if I can't get in and then I escalate the situation. So you know, I took a breath. I walked out to the street so he couldn’t hear me and I called the police. And I told them hey, you know, I heard you guys were here. I need you to come back. I don't know what happened. But my mom was barricaded with a madman. And I'm about to kick the door down and I need some help.”
"Well, it turns out no, I don't know who it is initially. But it turns out he's actually staying with one of the other neighbours. But like, this is a guy who's on the outs. And he's just, he's a mess I guess apparently. I don't know I wasn't around there at the time, except for right this instance. But so where are we? So I tell the cops and then they come back. The cops are back now. And they form a perimeter and they put me on the perimeter, right? And like, you know, this whole time, man, this whole thing sucks. Like your mom is [inside], and here's an important detail left out. As I'm communicating with her through or him through the door. I hear my mom yell something about fire. She's like speaking in code. And I can tell that she's saying that he’s basically, he's threatening her to start a fire in there. So I already knew that much. So and that's why I didn't also didn't kick the door down because she had said that and it made me think he's gonna start a fire and I can't get the door down then I'm screwed. What do I do? Okay, so anyways, now the cops come, they form a perimeter, I'm on that perimeter. And they start trying to communicate obviously, same thing. And then they start trying to get the door down. And again, this just kind of solidifies my position. They couldn't get the door down. They get the battering ram. I did, a cop bigger than me with boots on because I had like athletic shoes too. He couldn't get the dirt on it kicked it three times and they get the battering ram and it takes about three to four tries to get the door down. This is because the door first of all is very sturdy, but it's also barricaded by a tonne of sh*t. Like just he took whatever he could and put in front of the door and barricaded it. But hold on a second now. So while all this is happening, this is where it gets intense. Okay, they forced me on the perimeter, right? So I'm watching this all happen. And as they're trying to get this door down in the corner window, I see a fire emanate. And so right at that moment is where everything starts for me. I'm like, Oh, hell no. I sprang into action because I'm just like, I'm on, like I'm, because while all this is happening to once they get the door down, like actually I'm going a little forward like okay, so I see the fire. I come over there, and I grabbed the hose, and I think one of the cops breaks the window and I stick the frickin hose through there. I don't even know what that was. That was probably the stupidest thing I did out of the whole exchange but like you see a fire and you're just trying to like, you know, it's also it's the house, its possessions you're trying to like, what can I do to preserve that, in addition to more importantly, save her life. But okay, so now as this is happening, I stick the hose in there for whatever reason, and I come around the corner, they've gotten the door down with the battering ram, but like smoke comes burrowing out. So the fire had already been starting for like the little bit of time elapsed between these two, you know what I mean? As far as the story, but and I see all the cops back like they basically they take steps back. And you know, this is my mom. So I'm completely irrational, I’m like thinking in my head, what are they doing? Like she and then you know, like, why are they backing off. And again, we're talking about smoke burrowing, so they can't, they have no choice, but it's my mom. So I'm completely irrational. And that's when I realized this is the moment. Once the smoke came burrowing out, I realised she might die, and it's not gonna be from the fire, she's gonna die from the smoke. And it felt and that was the moment that it all, it was real the whole time, but that was the moment where the adrenaline shot through the roof and I just knew I have to save her right now. And so what I did is I knew exactly where her room was. She had two windows, and one of the windows was blocked by a tree. So I told the cop break these windows break these windows, she's in this room because again, they can't enter because the smoke and she breaks one, no sign of her. Now the other window is blocked by a tree. So I freaking grabbed the tree and I bear hug it, and I basically rip it to the ground. Like I like come to the ground with it. She breaks that window. Nothing. Nothing. All of a sudden my mom pops up. But it was like for me, it was like, Oh my God, thank God and I got up, I scooped her out, I brought her about 50 feet from the scene. I made sure she was okay. And then the last bit to the story was the next thing I know, I'm checking on her and I see them wrestling him out in front of the apartment. And I rushed over there and I give like, you know what I can only describe and what most people identify kind of as like almost an RKO punt to his head when there was an opening. So and that was I mean, that's pretty much the story, you know. And like I've and that's as detailed as I think I can get with I've had to tell that story a lot of times, but it's been a while. And this is also the perfect platform for it. So yeah, that's what happened, man and this guy. You know, you ended up going to jail for four years. I think he's out now and I'm pretty sure I'm assuming he was on meth or something like I don't know. He was really, the behaviour was just so odd.”
"By far for me, he was, even to this day still, by far the easiest working experience I've ever had. And not to say I wasn't like nervous working him or anything. But like, there's something about first of all, when you first of all, it goes without saying he's the best in-ring guy ever. He's over, which is also a very important thing to like, have the crowd invested in him. But um, when it's your favourite wrestler, there's something like you already know, like you know, you know what I mean? Like, the only thing I remember early on is I was trying to like, as super excited. I was trying to get him to do some of the like, some of the things he did back in his first run. He's like, whoa, whoa, kid, we got to create the illusion of movement of which, you know, so you rein me in and I kind of understood like, oh, okay, so this is why he does it and this is how we worked things. But like, yeah, it was the easiest, easiest experience in my life and one of the greatest learning lessons because after I gained his trust after like one or two matches, which, by the way, just kind of happened. It was in a, it was during Raw on a break. And I remember I took Shawn and we're in commercial and I'm going to ram his back into the post, like I got him like a body slam. And I can hear, I'm running full force, and like, this is a second time in the ring, I can hear that fear in his voice. He's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. And like really last second, I put my hand in between his back in the post. So he didn't get any of it, if anything, my hands took all of it. And I always feel like that was one of the moments where he at least he trusted, okay, the kid won't kill me. And then we worked a live event. And it was our first live event and the match was okay, like it felt okay, but I just remember after he had this confidence, it's like, whoa, kid, if that's the worst day you got for me, then we're gonna be all right. And then from that point on, he just let me call all the matches, which, you know, when you're 20 year old, I mean, you’re a 20 old kid, calling the matches against your favourite all time wrestler growing up, it was just like, everything was phrased in a question. I couldn't help it. Yeah, I mean, it's just like, duck, one baseball slide. I don't know, chop, chop, you know. So anyways, but like it was amazing.”
