inside the stunning DIY Empire Of Colt Cabana

The commentary was as succinct because it was once brutal. Like a folding chair to the noodle.

And there it was once, proper on the WWE’s website: “World Wrestling entertainment has come to phrases on the release of SmackDown famous person Scotty Goldman (Scott Colton) as of February 20, 2009. WWE wishes Scott the very best in all future endeavors.”

Ouch.

The brief, painful statement informed the world of the firing of newcomer Scotty Goldman—aka Scott Colton, aka Colt Cabana, aka Officer Colt Cabana, aka Matt traditional.

Cabana’s profession as a “celebrity” had barely even begun, but the WWE had already made the bold younger grappler a loser on as a minimum two ranges: The leisure firm behemoth had scripted him to lose his few matches, and it additionally made him a loser as a result of it had no thought what to do with him. WWE’s remedy of him mirrored that deadly lack of knowledge. It didn’t take into account Cabana’s items and appeal, which would change into an increasing number of obvious to everybody rather than WWE kingpin Vince McMahon in subsequent years.

Being fired used to be an impressive motivator for Cabana, who says of his relationship with WWE, “I virtually see it as pleasant competition, apart from they don’t know they are competing in opposition to me. it is now not just WWE, it can be any person who looked at me or my body of labor and laughed at the concept that I could earn cash or be successful in wrestling. For years my motivation was once to point out them how excellent I was once doing, in order that they’d inquire from me again and admit they were fallacious.”

and that’s where things get interesting.

soon after Cabana’s WWE career ended, the wrestler discovered himself sampling lifestyles’s temptations that were off the desk: namely, he indulged in entire large pizzas and nondiet sodas. When that obtained outdated, Cabana began to take heed to a bunch of podcasts, and set about re-developing himself professionally in the unsparing shadow of his failure as a WWE wrestler.

the first step? remodeling a bad into a favorable through turning his stint within the WWE into a self-deprecating joke. looking again on this time, Cabana remembers, “I used comedy as a defense mechanism. I had probably the most worst WWE runs ever. the same factor has took place to others, and those wrestlers disappear from the scene.”

For Cabana, that wasn’t an possibility.

“I hit it head on. one of the most first issues I did used to be go on a standup comedy tour with [wrestler] Mick Foley, where quite a lot of my act used to be making enjoyable of how bad the persona Scotty Goldman was, and the way bad I was once in the WWE.”

The wrestler found proposal within the skilled reinvention of any other man who flamed out dramatically after really extensive early promise: Marc Maron, whose WTF podcast helped inspire Cabana to create The artwork of Wrestling, his very personal “existence podcast” delving into the lives, careers, and philosophies of skilled wrestlers with the depth Maron’s podcast explores the arena of comedians.

The podcast used to be a gradual-rising success. When Cabana began, podcasting was once nonetheless a in moderation populated Wild West, especially where wrestling used to be concerned. So Cabana was ready to determine the kinks and develop his voice underneath the radar. In these early days, Cabana might by no means have imagined that one in all his future issues can be an episode of being too fashionable.

however nowadays, The artwork Of Wrestling frequently averages about 75,000 downloads per episode, with episodes that includes extra prominent wrestlers regularly eclipsing six-determine downloads and, in a single case, reaching into the hundreds of thousands of listeners.

as an alternative of being a child-oiled cog in McMahon’s massive computing device, Cabana angled to become a one-man industry whose career mixed the old and new in interesting, progressive ways. As a real unbiased, Cabana takes the DIY aesthetic to close pathological extremes. He doesn’t just volunteer to autograph just about everything he sells that may be autographed—from an outstanding assortment of T-shirts and hoodies to posters to headbands, buttons, DVDs, and cards—he says on his web site that he additionally programs and ships each order himself.

in keeping with Cabana, a third of his income comes from performing, a 3rd from podcasting, and a third from merchandise gross sales. Cabana started aggressively pushing his merchandise himself as a result of he needed to: In 2003, the $50 to $a hundred Cabana would possibly make for a suit wasn’t going to pay the bills or strengthen even his modest way of life, however promoting merchandise had the possible to make his wrestling dream a commercially workable reality. Even as of late, when Cabana wrestles world wide and has lots of of thousands of Twitter followers and podcast lovers, he remains committed to an aggressively DIY aesthetic.

“I’m my very own the whole lot,” Cabana says. “Agent, manager, booker, promoter, the whole thing. I rush dwelling from a tour of Japan to take a seat and fulfill orders. I’ve built this factor all up myself that I simply do not need somebody else messing with. It might be the downfall of the whole lot, but once I get something carried out, i feel productive, and i believe like i am earning each single buck I make.”

Escaping WWE’s control gave Cabana the freedom to re-create his career on the other hand he saw fit. He has partnered with standup comic Marty DeRosa for a sequence of projects together with Worst Promo Ever, an internet collection that spoofs wrestling promotions whereas concurrently selling the wrestler’s actual dates across the us of a and the globe. Cabana and DeRosa work well together: a wrestler geekily obsessive about comedy and a gifted standup comic obsessed with wrestling.

Thanks in no small section to Cabana, this is an engaging cultural second for the marriage of comedy and wrestling. one of the summer time’s most talked about comic performances was once delivered with the aid of John Cena in Amy Schumer’s Trainwreck. meanwhile, lifelong wrestling fan Jon Stewart recently made headlines via internet hosting WWE’s summer season Slam, even indulging in a villainous “heel turn” towards hero Cena.

“I’ve realized extra from Colt than i have from most comedians I’ve labored with,” DeRosa says. “at first, I discovered about what it truly means to hustle. I have no idea someone that works more difficult than Colt. It really makes you seem to be in the mirror and say to your self that you could and must be doing more. it can be contagious.”

Cabana and DeRosa have also worked collectively on the web sketch comedy collection inventive Has Nothing For You and on 5 dollar Wrestling, which brings mystery Science Theater 3000‘s cheeky commentary therapy to the sector of wrestling.

Maron has opened different doorways for Cabana. After showing on WTF, Cabana performed on IFC’s Maron along with close good friend CM Punk, who got here up with Cabana and become considered one of WWE’s greatest and most controversial stars. He has frequently spoken out about what he sees because the dysfunction, sycophancy, and cowardice plaguing the WWE—and he is carried out it on WWE proclaims, nonetheless, in a transfer harking back to the times David Letterman harangued his own community for perceived failings.

Punk now plays an enormous function in Cabana’s story. He was once a guest on The art of Wrestling after being fired from the WWE—on his wedding day.

With nothing left to lose, Punk doused his world with kerosene and proceeded to burn every possible bridge through laying naked all his issues with the WWE. Punk held nothing back, even revealing the worst-kept secret in media: skilled wrestling is fake.

The Punk episode proved so widespread that The art Of Wrestling’s servers weren’t ready to deal with the demand. it is been listened to greater than 3 million times.

but the podcast, as popular because it was, also generated problems for Cabana.

Of his podcast’s most popular episode, Cabana concedes, “honestly, it might have damage more than it helped. The preliminary platform crashed, and i lost all my subscribers and needed to regain all of them. individuals nonetheless tweet me and ask why i ended podcasting. whilst you hear [Marc] Maron thanking me on his podcast with Obama, it is because him and [WTF producer] Brendan [McDonald] reached out to me to make sure the same factor did not happen to them.”

It’s a sign of the occasions: A neurotic comedian was consulting with a professional wrestler on how best to deal with the technical demands of broadcasting a one-on-one dialog he was once conducting with the president of the united states.

Cabana links worlds. He’s a bridge between WWE and independents. He’s a gateway into wrestling for comedy enthusiasts who may have heard him on WTF or Sklarbro united states or seen him on Maron and are intrigued by his greater-than-existence character, despite the fact that they have been conditioned to peer wrestling as a pastime of the unwashed masses. Wrestling is at the core of Cabana’s career, but a part of his success lies in his skill to make wrestling accessible to a wide range of audiences.

in a similar fashion, Cabana serves as a conduit between the insane world of Insane Clown Posse, the notorious, malevolent clown-themed Detroit horrorcore track duo infamous for the decadence of its every year Gathering of the Juggalos pageant, where Cabana regularly performs, and the rest of the galaxy.

“I obtained to know them and see how they began this empire without anyone,” Cabana says of his union with the self-styled “world’s most hated band.” “They failed to desire a desktop to lend a hand them, they just changed into their own computer. I knew i wanted to be my very own computer. a lot of that was influenced via ICP.”

It’s simple to peer why Cabana is the sort of beloved figure. He has the rare high quality of being immediately extremely savvy in how he handles his occupation while at the comparable time being wholly honest. He takes what he’s doing significantly, whether it’s the audio quality on his podcast or catering his performance to a selected target audience, all while not taking himself too significantly. Cabana’s boyishly exuberant persona is a perpetual reminder that wrestling—and exhibit industry—is supposed to be enjoyable.

except his physique offers up, Cabana will proceed to battle, whether or not it is at the Gathering of the Juggalos, a fit in a town that’s barely on the map, or halfway all over the world. He’s a social media and podcasting juggernaut with over 200,000 Twitter followers who additionally happens to honor the traditions of wrestling, plying his curious alternate one show at a time for the love of the artwork form—and making some money within the process.

Cabana realizes how exceptional his still-young experience has been.

“I’ve wrestled at a fats camp, I’ve wrestled on grime roads in India, I’ve wrestled for the Inuits. I come from a smartly-off Jewish suburb in Chicago, and these experiences are ones I cherish. it is opened my eyes to the real world, and i’ll at all times be pleased about that.”