Tenille Dashwood & Mike Rallis on Their Wedding, Life After WWE & Traveling The World

On life after WWE:

Tenille Dashwood: "Well, I will say that I was that person the last time I got released, I literally had everything lined up. I had new entrance music I had tours planned. And I went and wrestled for, the top companies around the world. I did, like different countries too, everything. So I definitely have been there. And I think this time, it was more of that thought of now let's do all the other things that we haven't been able to do, like, the new businesses were starting. And all of those things. It was like an opportunity and like a positive in that sense."

On what they are doing now:

Mike Rallis: "So there's a few of them. Yeah, I mean, because there really is it kind of was like, when we first looked at it as like, oh, we want to do this, and this. And then a week later is like actually, I kind of want to do that too. And it got to the point where it's like screw it, let's just try it all. And so, for me, I mean, the YouTube series we've already mentioned. Then there’s The Rallis Regimen, which I just launched with my brother. It's a holistic health and wellness programme for people that basically you just have to sign up and you get all of this for free. And it's completely comprehensive guides to training, nutrition, sleep and environment. They're easily digestible, and they're immediately actionable. So basically, there's so much information out there. And we help people sort through that, make it simple and actionable right away, and implement it right away."

On travelling:

Tenille: "That's the thing was we talked about what we were most passionate about, what we enjoy and things that we like to share with people in our lives or our audience. And for me, it's very clear, I love to travel. So this website has a travel blog, I talk about places I've been or new opportunities. I also have a shop where I sell itineraries and guides so people can literally go purchase them and it tells them exactly you know the best spots to go for meals, the best hotels, and hikes it tells them hidden gems best photo spots, like for instance, probably by the time this is I'll have a new Paris itinerary up as a guide with a free itinerary actually. And that will tell them some of the best places to take photos for the Eiffel Tower, but that people don't know about so. So you know, you see like my page and I have these pictures and these places and I find people always saying to me, how did you find that place or how did you go there or how did you arrange this? And so basically, I'm just kind of putting it together and saying, This is how this is how you do it. Just go click the button and get it."

On Tenille being released hours after promoting Elimination Chamber:

Tenille: "It was a rough day. I will say, since I returned to WWE it was definitely a thought and a goal of mine to be able to do a big show in my home country, and even just to return there in general on a tour. And it's something that I did ask many times about when I was there. When's the next tour? They hadn't been there for years, because of all the lack of travel and the restrictions for years. But basically, I kept asking, and I thought it wasn't happening. And then so was kind of a surprise, when I saw that tweet that there was a show happening there. I still hadn't been told by anyone. So then I was like, wow. And I just thought what a dream to be able to wrestle there. And then throughout the next few hours or so we started hearing that people were getting released. And at that point, I mean, I can't say that [we were safe], we were basically expecting calls at that point. Like we were kind of in that position where we thought we're probably gonna get released. And then we did."

Did they call you together?

Mike: No, we actually weren't together at the time. So I was just at the archery range, and that I felt bad not being there with Tenille when she got the call, especially given what had happened earlier that morning, I was with her when they announced the Australian show.

On the possibility of one getting released and one staying:

Mike: I'll tell you, for me personally, I would have felt very guilty if it were me staying. I probably wouldn't have wanted to stay. If it was her who was staying, I would have been totally fine with that. I would have been happy for her and I don't [know], maybe she would feel the same way. I'm not sure. But I just felt like and maybe for me, it's partially the fact that I mean, obviously I didn't get to do everything there is to do in the industry. But I had that year, year and a half as Madcap that I felt pretty good about where I got to really express myself at least in this character and have a tonne of fun with it, you have no idea how much fun I had as Madcap. It was just a great time. I got to do goofy stuff. I still got to wrestle in long matches against great opponents. I mean, and just part of the team. I was a mainstay on the television show with a defined actual role. And I felt good about that. And I just felt like of course no one [feels like they are being fully utilised] I'm sure there's literally Roman Reigns who probably feels he's not used to his fullest potential. And maybe he's not, it's just like, that's probably not going to happen for 99.9% of people. But I really felt like Tenille had so much more she could contribute do and she just really never got the chance to do especially the second time around. So I definitely felt like I wish she had gotten more."

On wrestling again:

Tenille: "I will say I was a little disappointed with that last run, and a little upset with how things went. But I do think I had a lot more to contribute. I had very high hopes when I returned, and it just didn't turn out the way that I would have liked. But in saying that, we did see it as a positive, we just weren't being used, you know. So when we finally got released, we were like, Okay, let's go do the things we want. And that has been very exciting. So I think at this point, we're kind of focusing on that. And we do have a tour coming up in Australia that we have committed to." 

Mike: "We are wrestling again." 

Tenille: "There are some autograph signings and a match that will both have. But past that, we are kind of just focusing on all our other things right now. And yeah, I guess I can't imagine ever fully stepping away from wrestling. It's been my dream since I was a little girl and that was the only thing I ever really wanted to do. And I mean, I'm so glad I've gone after it and had the career I've had. So it would be hard for me to say I'm done with wrestling. But in that same instance, I am not actively pursuing anything or don't have a plan moving forward at this point, either."

Mike: "I mean, I would probably echo a lot of what she said. Like I just mentioned, I had so much fun wrestling, and I met so many cool people, I love wrestling. Having said that, there's a lot of other things I really love that I want to pursue. And the one thing about wrestling and when I was a football player I used to say this, the one guaranteed thing is like it's going to come to an end. And it's very physical and I've taken my fair share of punishment with Achilles, ACL surgery, I've got a wonky eye from a few too many concussions and blows to the head, so like, it, that's definitely a consideration is is the health. And as much as I love the wrestling part of wrestling, there's a political side of wrestling that I don't necessarily love. And all of these businesses that we're doing have its own, I mean, feel like we're we're way busier than we were with WWE. As anyone who's tried to do anything on their own, or have their own entrepreneurial venture of any kind knows, there's a lot of work that goes in upfront. It's stressful, and it's exciting, and it's fun. But there's something to it being all on you, and not having to worry about who you're rubbing the wrong way or anything like that. And just am I standing the correct way to not anger the wrong person? Or what is so and so think of me, there's just, it's really freeing. No drama."

On Madcap Moss being pitched:

Mike: Well, first I came up, to summarise my career real quick on the main roster. I was Mojo's lineman, that's its own story that was not at all what they wanted. It was what was written on the paper, but someone got confused. They didn't want him doing football references. Anyway, a few weeks later, I turned on him and I had a run as the 24/7 Champion. When COVID hit that kind of took the 24/7 thing to the side for a bit. And then I came back on Raw Underground, I tore my ACL on that. And then I came back and I felt really good about where I was at and I made some Riddick Moss pitches, and they were bringing me up, I did one dark match on SmackDown. And then the next week, they said, Yeah, we're gonna bring it back for another dark match. And then the night before, like, Thursday night, they said, Actually, you're gonna be on SmackDown with Baron Corbin, Corbin is doing Happy Corbin. And you know his game, he's got the custom-tailored suits and all that stuff. And so I'm like, Dude, I brought something like this, I do not have the appropriate wear. So we were in Philly, my brother was living in Philly at the time, so I went and raided his closet. I got some stuff, but not enough. And then went shopping and just like, got a nice thing. And so I was like, I have no idea what I'm doing. And then I sat down with, first was Corbin, but then, Vince, and basically he told me what the schtick was, but I didn't have a name yet. And so, and Corbin, to his credit, he warned me, he said, he's going to make you laugh. So be ready for that. And so, you know, he explained like, basically you guys just think everything's hilarious." 

Couldn’t you be Riddick Moss?

Mike: So then he [Vince] said, we have to come up with the name. And I said, just to be clear, we're talking like a moniker or like a whole new name, right? And unless I misheard, I'm pretty sure if we said moniker, and so I'm thinking okay, so that's gonna be like Riddick the clown Moss. So, then I'm on my way to SmackDown the next week on the plane, and I get a text like, hey, from the writer, you're gonna be Madcap Moss now. And so I thought that was pretty funny. And like, well, probably there goes to the main event of WrestleMania. And then a couple of minutes later said, here's the idea we have for your look, but on the plane, you can't download pics. So I had a whole flight across the country like what is this? And I hit download when we landed. And it was what the look was basically, you know, the suspenders and the shirt and the kind of short pants. And they were like you didn't happen to bring suspenders did you? So anyway, that I had to go buy those, I think I think maybe they helped me out with that. But yeah, so it kind of just came together like that. And like I said, Vince made sure I could laugh. And you know, at this point in my career, I think in a good way I had kind of done a good job of relinquishing the things that you can't control."

On the Alabama Slam from Drew McIntyre where he landed on his head:

Mike: "So first of all, 100% my fault. Let me just, not at all trying to throw Drew under the bus. He walked it through with me. And it's just one of those things that I guess it's like a guy thing not asking for help when you need it or clarification. But when we run through it. He was doing it half-speed. You know what I mean? He's not actually finishing it. So it felt to me like Oh, I gotta help them a little bit. But I didn't have to help them. And so anyway, that's what happened. I was fine and I knew what went wrong, just because I didn't land flat. But I was never loopy or anything like that. So when the ref came and checked on me, Jess, she checked on me multiple times actually because she was like you Good? Are you sure you're good? I was fine. It didn't feel great. But mentally and everything, I was all there. And after the match, I knew, well, actually what happened was we went to the outside after that, and Drew was throwing me over the table and stuff. And I heard Corey Graves say, I don't even know how he's walking right now. And I thought, maybe that was a little worse than I thought. But anyway, I felt fine. And so I knew everyone was gonna be like, Oh, my God, are you okay? And I was just like, Guys, guys, I'm fine. And they brought me up to Gorilla and showed me that super high definition super slow motion, where you're talking about where my spine just looked like it just shrunk, vertebrae by vertebrae. And I thought, Okay, let's go check this out just to be safe, because that looks nasty. And I gotta go call my mom. [Did you get an MRI?] I did. And we got all the scans after that. I had a sore neck. But it was never anything worse than that. And, but it just looked so nasty. I thought, I don't care what I'm feeling, we got to check that out. And they were great about it.

On Tenille’s dance as Emma:

Tenille: "It was just back at NXT or even, maybe FCW, that old building back in the day, We were going through entrance music to pick and then I was like that one's kind of like weird, a bit quirky, kind of. I like a little dubstep kind of music or club kind of music. And anyway, so that came on and I was like, It sounds a bit different. And then I think it was Saxton was kind of like [dance] What would I do? He's like, you could try some kind of like dance. And at first he did, it was very like Egyptian I kind of think like, like, yeah, it was just completely I was like, that's just like an Egyptian dance. That's what he did it back to me. So I was like, Well, I don't know, I could play with it a little bit. And that's kind of what happened is, it was some kind of just do something, move around something with your hands or your arms. And then the more I kind of did it, the more silly I just kind of went, whatever, who cares, you know. So I just like spin in circles or this or that. And then it became like, I started bringing bubble guns and then popping my bubbles. And I was just thinking, What can I do with this that makes it like in someone's face and, and I just kind of had fun with it. And that's when I started doing the whole, all the puns with my name, Emma, Emmalution. Just silly things, but I was just having fun with it."

On Madcap Moss going back to Riddick Moss:

Mike: "I actually found out via Twitter question from a fan tweeting me. [They said] Hey, they updated the website. He's back to Riddick Moss. So the communication for that one? Yeah, I mean, it was just, when you're a priority, you're a little bit more involved in those decisions. And then, for whatever reason, I'll let everyone draw their own conclusions. But when I was in NXT, I wasn't much of a priority from the beginning of the Madcap run until about halfway through, I think, to 2022, I think I was on every Premium Live Event, that what they're calling them now? I was on TV every week, and then never again."

On wrestling at WrestleMania 30 the match after The Streak was broken:

Tenille: "I guess it really hadn't crossed my mind that Taker would lose, those thoughts hadn't really gone through my mind. And then, basically, I remember everyone was just super excited to be in that position, have this girl's match and going out there. My first WrestleMania, something I've always wanted to do. And then that happens. And I remember then the girls taught to kind of like, look around and talk and then there's people saying oh, a match might get cancelled because of like the reactions or what's happening or if it's going long. So we thought maybe we weren't even not even gonna go out. I was like, What do you mean what's happening? And then I'm then I'm seeing you know, the, on the cameras and the screens, the reactions of people and everyone's devastated. There's an awkward silence. And, and then it just became awkward for us or for me anyway, because then they will just kind of like alright, we're going to do it. We're going to have the match and they're just like, Come on, get out there. So we just file it out side ramp to the ring. And then we will just kind of stood in the ring until we came back from whatever it was, and like they were ready to start the match. But it was just, we were out there in front of everyone. And probably the last few entrances need to happen with the music. But the rest of us were already in the ring. And then she was looking around like, no one wanted to see our match. At that time. No one cared about Battle Royal."

What are Madcap and Tenille grateful for?

Mike: “Being alive, quality time and our lives together.”

Tenille: “My health, my family and my friends and I have Mike in my life.”