O'Shea Jackson Jr. On CM Punk, John Cena's Final Opponent, The Rock vs. Roman Reigns, Underrated Theme Songs

O'Shea Jackson Jr. (@OsheaJacksonJr) is an actor and podcaster. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet at West Coast Creative Studios in Hollywood, CA to discuss his podcast "No Contest Wrestling" with TJ Jefferson and interviewing CM Punk on the first episode, dream guests for future shows, why The Rock vs. Roman Reigns is looking less and less likely, who will John Cena's final opponent be, possibly training to be a wrestler, the one wrestling moment from history he wishes he was there for live, his dream bar fight team and more!

Quote I'm thinking about: "The big lesson in life, baby, is never be scared of anyone or anything." - Frank Sinatra 

On starting a wrestling podcast:

"I had always thought about it. I had always, like, pondered it. I was gonna do something with my sister on Twitch or something like that. But then, yeah, Rich Eisen called and he gave me this offer. Even said if I wanted to bring my sister along and laid it all out. Then TJ Jefferson, my podcast partner, the way that our show is balanced is I'm new school, he's old school. So he's a bit of a historian, because he was literally there. I remember when we first started talking. He asked me when I started to watch. I was watching weekly about 98 you know, early 2000s and then he goes, 'All right, I started watching in 1982.' That's what I'm saying. That's a running joke on our shows. We don't know how old TJ is. Gotta cut him in half and count the rings. But yeah, when it came time for it, it was like, I'm doing it on Twitter for free every day anyway, I might as well possibly get paid for it."

On having CM Punk as the debut guest:

"To be able to get Punk, he shot our show up the charts like the first day. And, yeah, we kind of been riding that wave. So it was like this before, but especially now, no one can ever say anything about CM Punk, greatest guy in the world."

On the dream guest:

"I really want a longer talk with Roman, because at the Rumble we had like six minutes with him. So to have a real sit-down 45 to an hour with Roman, that would probably be the white whale. But of course, Dwayne, too. Dwayne or Austin? That would be fun, just to get stories from there." 

On watching movies more critically:

"No, that's been ruined for me for about 10 years now. I watch things and go, that was probably annoying the film, like a movie where I'm supposed to be able to just turn my brain off, like Godzilla vs Kong. You're just going, it's Godzilla vs Kong. I'm sitting here critiquing it. But when I saw the scene where Godzilla flips the ship over and the lady is underwater, and she has to hit the button. I'm like, that was probably annoying as hell. Are you kidding? Because I was in Godzilla, so I know King Ghidorah; whenever he's on screen, they had to bring a hurricane. So I'm getting doused with water all day. I can't explain, you have to be there to see how much water they use on you, and it's terrible. It's terrible."

Can you give an example from one of your movies?

"Den of Thieves, for example. You start, you see all this heist information, and you're like, All right, yeah, they're probably gonna shoot that like this. And then when I get there, Christian Gudegast goes, 'All right, now, put on your rappel rope and jump down this elevator.' I’m like, 'Whoa. I'm pretty sure you know how to fake this a little bit better than me.' They made us rappel down this elevator shaft. There's certain shots where if they don't show the face, you can get a stunt guy in there. But Christian be real up on you all the time. So yeah, me and Gerard [Butler] and everyone else, we had to rappel. It's so weird. I thought we were playing pretend for money."

On his upcoming projects:

"I got something funny on the way that I'm really excited about that I go to film in August with my man, Dave Franco, who's one of the best friends that I've gotten from acting, and Peter Dinklage, who I can't wait to talk to about Game of Thrones. I know he's tired of talking about Game of Thrones, but it's stuff I gotta know. It's really gonna be fun. It's a road trip comedy. We're gonna have a ball on that. What I've been doing lately, in between, because before I just used to wait for majors. But I remembered after Straight Outta Compton, I didn't get work for a year, and I was shocked by that. I was like, just had the number one movie in the country, number one on the call sheet, I'm expecting, at least, that's what I thought it was going to be my phone was going to be blowing up. So I kind of had to find what the next thing was. And I did Ingrid Goes West, and Ingrid Goes West kind of fell in my lap, because I had saw Aubrey Plaza at an award show where I was presenting, and she was presenting too, and I went to go say hi to her, and these ladies, bless them, stop me and like, wanted to take pictures. Tell me how their grandson loves Compton. I'm like, I'm trying to get to Aubrey Plaza. Look up, Aubrey Plaza is gone. Get on Twitter, as I do, talked about how I almost got to meet Aubrey, but of course, that didn't happen. So the night's going well. She sees that, DMs me, tells me she's got this movie and she wants me to play in it. I'm like, Alright, here's my number, or she gave me hers. But anyway, I text her and say, 'Hey, it's Batman.' From there she goes, Great. And then we set up a meeting. We get to the spot that the meeting is, she goes, 'How do you like the script?' I'm like, 'What script?' She's like, 'The script for the movie.' I said, 'You didn't send me a script. What's my email?' She was like, 'Well, then why did you say you were Batman?' I mean, I'm Batman. I don't know, I love Batman. And then she goes, 'Well, your guy in the script loves Batman. And I kind of already told everybody that you said, yeah.' So I was like, All right, so I gotta do it now. So that's how I got Ingrid Goes West, and Ingrid Goes West has done more for me in circle wise then I would say Straight Outta Compton, which obviously still backed me, but I've gotten maybe four roles strictly because they watched Ingrid Goes West. I got Obi Wan Kenobi because of Ingrid Goes West."

On some fans calling him a nepo baby:

"What do you do? It's not nothing I chose, but it's not nothing I'm gonna throw away either. It's like, you there's no way to make me feel bad about that, and I wear that with such a badge because, number one, how much I love my dad. But then number two, like, there's no real disrespect there. There's no real anything that can really affect the person you're telling is a nepo baby. So I'm like, yeah.

I'm sorry I hit the baby lottery. What do you want me to do? Yeah, bro, don't yell at me. Yell at your dad. I don't know. What do you want me to do? What do I do with that information?"

On now being a great time to be a wrestling fan:

"Yeah, it's such a [great time], and with this time, they found this pocket right now. Because with social media, with just how much access people have, it's so hard to put things behind the curtain now, and when they do flip things on their head, it's got to feel good. Whether or not we the fans are loving it or hating it, the fact that they still can do that is like, that's got to be the best feeling for somebody who's really behind there."

On The Rock vs. Roman Reigns looking less and less likely:

"After the [WrestleMania] 39 thing, and it was kind of like The Final Boss situation when him joining The Bloodline, the thing that they did with Solo in the new bloodline. Kind of felt like what they were supposed to be doing with The Rock and Roman of having just like The Rock with the New Bloodline, Roman with the OG Bloodline. But then it kind of felt like Rock dipped and they gave it to Solo. And Solo has been doing great. He’s hilarious. But yeah, I don't know if we get it now, and it's always going to be there, but it's so important that they put it in at the at the right spot and then get the proper buildup. Because if fans nowadays, when they can feel when it's just thrown together, it just doesn't have the build-up that it needs. So yeah, they have to treat that right."

On who will be John Cena’s final opponent:

"The Punk thing hurt because I thought in my mind and my fantasy booking that all fans do, I thought they were going to save that for the Saturday Night’s Main Event in Boston. Because, you know, rewind a little bit when Punk and Cena were going at it, when the roles were reversed, and Punk was the one that was trying to take the belt and leave it was in Punk’s hometown. So I thought they were going to do that same thing in John's hometown and have it that way, but they just did it in Saudi. So, man, I don't know, but I think if I know how John is, it's going to be somebody to pass a torch to a little bit, he's going to put somebody over, as opposed to somebody who's a vet, and who's been doing it. So like a Randy Orton or any of his past rivalries, I don't think it's going to be the person. I think it's going to be someone of the new school that he's going to put over and kind of have that traditional wrestling look up at the lights for your last match."

On John Cena not retiring as a heel:

"I was a part of the crowd who didn't like Cena, because I was like, he's so such a goody two shoes guy. Rey Mysterio, I never want to see Rey Mysterio turn heel. There were moments when John was the Doctor of Thuganomics, where I was like, this dude is dope, this guy is cool. Then once you do a couple of Marine movies, he just became this guy who just never veered. He was always face, face, face, face. And then the super Cena. So I had my issues with it. And even now, once he has turned heel, I agree he has to at some point give a nod to Cenation, they're lost without you, right?"

On wrestlers taking time away:

"That go away sometimes is what you need. I remember Baron Corbin, who is my guy. Love Baron Corbin, man. When he poured dog food on Roman, I was like, This is crazy, this is insane. Then the next time I saw Roman, he didn't lose forever, 1,316 days as champion. Usos did get a pin on him before that. But like, yeah, that go away is so pivotal, and sometimes they don't want to accept that. They're like, you know, maybe you should be off TV for a little bit. Get you some time with the family. But during that, that time, though, John was in your face all the time."

On possibly training to be a wrestler:

"Right now I'm doing training for Den of Thieves 3. There is no date yet. I'm just getting training in right now. So when I get that, when I get ready, I'm definitely going to be hitting up Booker T, because Booker T every time he sees me, he's like, when you coming to Reality of Wrestling? I'm like, Alright, chill out. It's your birthday. I'm trying to tell you Happy birthday. So I'm definitely gonna check out book, and I want to, I definitely want to, but I don't want the celebrity spot, because I don't earn wrestling fans' respect that way. You know, I don't want the Jon Stewart spot. No disrespect to Jon Stewart. I love Jon Stewart. But like, I don't want that type of spot. I want to go and Logan and Bad Bunny have kind of set the bar right now, so I gotta go, just so wrestling fans can give me that nod."

On the most underrated theme song:

"They changed it a little bit. Alexa Bliss’ theme, bro, that bana, bana, bana, that if you listen to that, whoever was in the studio was on one killing it. It has a bunch of different layers to it, it's all over the place, she's so tiny, and the beat is so big. Shout out to Alexa Bliss, five feet of fury. It's called spiteful. I think the name of the song is spiteful. But that song is a banger!"

On his bar fight team:

"Brock Lesnar, 100% because I took my sister to the Raw after Mania 39, and she had never seen Brock in person. We're like, second row. We ended up getting bumped up to first row, and she saw Brock, and she goes, Shay, Brock is big as hell. I said, this dude is a refrigerator walking, and he will fight you, and he's okay with that. So Brock Lesnar number one. Number two, because I just had a conversation with Rey Mysterio, and I'm gonna pick Eddie Guerrero, because Eddie will have your back. Eddie will have your back like none other, and Eddie will go. I gotta go, Jacob. Now four was Kurt. I've been picking Kurt because wherever I watch a few times during that week, I'm like, oh, yeah, he should be on my bar fight team. Now, if my man TJ was here, I would pick Andre, because nobody's messing with Andre. But I don't know what age Andre I'm getting. So I'm going Kurt Angle. Yeah, I'm going athleticism, speed, and then like, Jacob, I know, got my back." 

What is O’Shea Jackson Jr. grateful for?

"The No Contest Wrestling Podcast, my nephew and health."

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