Dan Severn on The Realest Guy in the Room, Ken Shamrock and Inducting Don Frye

Dan Severn: (Showing off his mustache merchandise) The Beast is always on the loose. I challenge most young men to try to keep up with the schedule I keep. I call this the tough man kit: Slap on a mustache. You’d be surprised how much more seriously the ladies take you when you answer a question with one of these on.

Fred: Already you’re taking this interview more seriously. What’s up, everybody? This is Fred Richani of TSC News, and I have right here on the line a very special guest: UFC Hall of Famer Dan “The Beast” Severn, a two-time NWA World Champion and the only Triple Crown champion in UFC history. Speaking of halls of fame, he just inducted his good buddy Don Frye into the UFC Hall of Fame during UFC 200 weekend, and he’s got a brand-new book, “The Realest Guy in the Room.” Mr. Severn, how are you tonight?

Dan Severn: That was quite a dramatic intro. I love it.

Fred: It’s not every day we have Hall of Fame-caliber guests. You probably don’t remember this, but you were one of the first people I ever interviewed, back in 2009 or 2010, when we were The Sports Courier.

Dan Severn: Wow, I didn’t know that. I appreciate it. I stay busy, and I like what I do. I’ve lived out of a planner since my junior year of high school, when I did a lot of traveling for wrestling events in the summer. To this day I live out of an old-fashioned planner, writing in my dates and upcoming events, and I love it. I think I can hang in there for maybe another decade doing the crazy stuff I do.

Fred: Lately you’ve been doing a lot more pro wrestling. You took a break, did a lot of appearances, seminars and charity work, and all of a sudden you’re appearing in a battle royal and getting booked on more shows. What made you decide to get back in the squared circle?

Dan Severn: The bookings were always coming in. The problem is the variety of things I do. I do amateur wrestling instruction, especially over Christmas break and in the summer, when high school and college programs bring me in to break up the monotony of practice. That’s folkstyle, but also freestyle and Greco-Roman, the two international styles contested at the World Championships and the Olympic Games. I have my own flavor of submission grappling, more of a catch-as-catch-can style. I also instruct law enforcement, corrections, air marshals and the military, and more recently one of the largest private security companies in the world. I love the variety. Each day is a new adventure.

Those other groups book me a year in advance. By the time a pro wrestling promoter contacts me, four to six weeks out, I’m already booked. That’s really been the problem. Recently I told several promoters to book me further out, and now I’ve got bookings for professional wrestling in February, which I never would have had before. I work for myself, so I like knowing the income is coming in.

Fred: I’m looking at details on your book, “The Realest Guy in the Room.” How appropriate for a man who was most likely the toughest guy in any pro wrestling locker room. Why was this the right time to put out a book?

Dan Severn: I’ve been working on a book for close to 20 years. The problem is that I have too much content. In the last three or so years, I thought, “I’d better stop procrastinating and move forward on this project, or it will never happen.” Ian Douglass helped organize it, and he actually came up with the title. I sent him half a dozen titles, but as he conducted the interviews, he kept coming back to how direct my answers were. He said it was refreshing that someone was this blunt and honest about the pro wrestling industry, mixed martial arts and the no-holds-barred world. A lot of people today would consider it politically incorrect, but I’m OK in my little world of being the way I am. The world has kind of gone to hell in a handbasket.

I run a training facility, and when I first opened it, I said, “Mi casa es su casa.” No. Stupidity is running rampant. I no longer believe in democracy in there. This is my country, and I’m the dictator of the doors that allow you to come in and to leave. I’ve been pretty bold with some parents: “You have three choices. You can drop off and pick up. You can take advantage of this golden hour while I have your child and go work out yourself. Or you can take your child and leave, because I don’t need you.” I’m not going to compromise my rules or my standards. My youth class is MMA, but it stands for modern martial arts. It’s a glorified physical education class, with drills for hand-eye coordination, gross motor skills and fun stuff. I don’t just bark orders. I do it with them. When they’re doing gymnastics, yours truly can still pull off cartwheels and forward rolls, and parents ask me how I do that. I want to continue doing it for as many years as possible, because as the old cliche goes, nobody gets out of the game of life alive. I want to stay in the game as long as possible and have quality of life while I do it.

Fred: You mentioned being politically incorrect, and you held nothing back in a statement I received from you a couple of months ago. You were supposed to fight Ken Shamrock on UR Fight, a one-off internet pay-per-view that featured Roy Jones Jr. fighting a fan, Kurt Angle against Rey Mysterio, and Chael Sonnen and Michael Bisping in a grappling match. Shamrock pulled out, and then I heard you were supposed to fight Tank Abbott. You were not happy. Can you describe that wild weekend?

Dan Severn: “Not happy” is probably an understatement. Because he opened his mouth and garbage fell out, I felt it was my position, like training an animal, to grab him by the scruff of his neck and rub his face in the garbage that spewed out of his mouth. And the guy bails out nine days before we were supposed to have our match. Here’s some information you may not know: Our original date was Feb. 21, not the March 20 date when the show actually took place. They contacted me back in November 2015, said they’d heard I might come out of retirement for one of a few guys, and asked if I was interested in Ken Shamrock. I said yes. I didn’t care about Roy Jones in a boxing match or Kurt Angle or any of the rest. All I cared about was getting my hands on Ken Shamrock one last time. I busted my hump for this company because I wanted this match to happen. And Ken Shamrock has tested positive for steroids more than once.

He signed a letter of intent and took a deposit in good faith for the Feb. 21 show. Then he announced he was fighting Royce Gracie in February. Normally in a contract, you can’t take another match for at least 30 days before an event this big, sometimes 60 or 90. So I brought it to the company’s attention, and they decided to move their show back. Pretty ballsy, to fight Royce Gracie one weekend and me the next. They asked if Dan Severn had a problem with that. I said I had no problem whatsoever, but they might, because if he got hurt in that match, he’d face a minimum 30-day suspension, so they’d better move it back at least a month. They moved it back, his match took place, the ruling came down that it was a TKO, and lo and behold, he bails. They came to me with other names, and I said, “You contacted me about one of three people. Unless you can produce one of those three, I’m not interested.” Then they came up with Tank Abbott. It was kind of a freak show to begin with, and Tank fits the role of a freak show, so why not? And just because of my age, I had to go before athletic commissioners and take a few more medical tests to prove I was fit, because most states don’t want you competing past 38, and here I am at 57.

Fred: You’ve done quite well. How’s your body holding up? Do you have a fountain of youth or any tips?

Dan Severn: I tell people one of my homes is near a fountain. Maybe it’s the mustache.

Fred: Speaking of epic mustaches, you inducted Don Frye into the UFC Hall of Fame. You and Don were probably two of the first MMA fighters we ever interviewed, and I found out through those interviews that you’re good friends who came up together. You’re more level-headed than Don, kind of the yin to his yang.

Dan Severn: Let’s say I’m older and more mature. When I was at Arizona State, Don was one of my athletes, and he lived with my younger brothers, so I knew Don on a much more personal basis much earlier. After graduation he settled down for a bit, and then he came back around while I was doing Ultimate Fighting Championship and promotions all over the world. He sought me out and asked if I could help him get into this industry. I knew Don was a hard-nosed competitor who would not be denied, and I thought he’d do well. I helped get his foot in the door, but he kicked it open.

Fred: What was it like to induct him at UFC 200?

Dan Severn: It was like a homecoming or a reunion. Mark Coleman was out there too, and it was interesting to see how time has changed people and how they’ve mellowed. Being able to stand up there and say, “Welcome the newest member of the UFC Hall of Fame, Don ‘The Predator’ Frye,” and see him come out with the typical mustache, the smile and the cowboy hat, proud as he should be, was the greatest thing for me.

Fred: As a pioneer of mixed martial arts, you saw UFC 200 become a huge event, and 24 hours later we heard the UFC was sold for $4 billion. When you became the first and only UFC Triple Crown champion, did you think the UFC would get this big?

Dan Severn: I knew. It’s an act of violence, and people are drawn to that. Football is popular because people like watching guys knock each other down. A buddy of mine had an old VHS tape with the first three UFC shows, and as an experiment I’d pop it in when a couple of buddies stopped by to drop something off. They’d say they could stay five minutes, and an hour and a half later they’d be on the edge of the couch screaming, yelling and contorting their bodies like they were fighting with the people on the screen. I watched my buddies more than the screen, and I thought, “Look at the magnetism this product has.” I knew if it could survive, there was something there. But until you see a WrestleMania or Super Bowl type of event every year, with the UFC champions against the champions of World Series of Fighting, King of the Cage and Bellator, that’s when the sport will have truly arrived, if we can get some of the egos out of the way first.

Fred: You’re 57, correct?

Dan Severn: 58.

Fred: You certainly don’t look 58.

Dan Severn: It’s not my real color. I color my hair. I’m just glad I still have hair to color. I could be a blond or a redhead, but I don’t think people are ready for a blond-mustached Beast.

Fred: We could make that a match stipulation. But the window of opportunity for real fighting is closing, with very few states that will license you. Are you hoping someone from your era like Ken or Royce will step up for one last fight?

Dan Severn: I only want one of two people, or both of them. Today I say put up or shut up. If you talk the talk, walk the walk. Mark Coleman has some health issues, so he’s off the table. But Ken and Royce did their Bellator match, so why don’t I get to play? Let me fight the winner or the loser. I might even be so kind as to do a two-for-one special.

Fred: Have you talked to the people who can pull those strings?

Dan Severn: I’ve spoken to some of the most primary people, and it seems to have fallen on deaf ears.

Fred: Let me make a suggestion to some wrestling promoters, then. If you have to go through all these hoops for MMA, how about Dan “The Beast” Severn and Don “The Predator” Frye against Ken Shamrock and Royce Gracie at the Tokyo Dome for New Japan Pro Wrestling?

Dan Severn: I would do it, but I kind of doubt those two would.

Fred: Any chance of you and Don teaming up? Team Mustache! It would be best in Japan. Don was pretty over there, and you had success in Japan too.

Dan Severn: I think it has spectacle value.

Fred: Put Yoshihiro Takayama on the other side. I don’t know if we’ll ever see a match like Frye and Takayama again.

Dan Severn: That took some years off their lives. They both paid the price.

Fred: Before we started, you were just finishing a training session as the true Beast. Where can fans get the book and find you next?

Dan Severn: Go to my website, DanSevern.com. It has all my social media. I’m not exactly the sharpest guy when it comes to social media, so just go to the website and you’ll see everything there. The e-book came out first, around July 4, and within about 45 days it moved to No. 1 bestseller on Amazon. I still haven’t received the physical book. It’s supposed to come in this week, and this is really the first week of doing any real promotion. I’m a blunt, to-the-point person. Not quite as blunt as Don, but probably not politically correct.

Fred: Knowing you, it’ll be a great, candid read with a lot of history, because you were part of history.

Dan Severn: I am walking history, Fred. Look at the timeline. I started my amateur career in 1969. By 1971 I was teaching amateur wrestling. By 1972 I had my first national title. In 1976 I was the No. 1 recruit in the United States in my weight class. Two decades later, in 1996, I’m the No. 1 cage fighter in the world. Two decades after that, in 2016, I come out of retirement. Over four decades, I legitimately have over 100 state, national or international titles and records. There’s not another human being close to what I’ve done, and I’m not done yet. And I’m lifetime chemical-free. Of the first three guys inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame, only one of us has never tested positive. Want to go out on a limb and guess which one? Some people may or may not like the book, because I keep it real. I would love one more match with those two guys, only those guys. If you want to open your mouth, put up or shut up, man.

Fred: If that wasn’t the best sales pitch I’ve ever heard for an autobiography, I don’t know what is.

Dan Severn: Just look at me, Fred. I’ve competed for over 40 years, but look at the MMA portion alone. Why aren’t my ears all cauliflowered? Why isn’t my nose broken and twisted? I still have all my teeth, and I can speak in full sentences to you. A lot of my contemporaries are nowhere near my age, and you couldn’t have the same type of conversation with them. There are only four people in the world with over 100 cage fights, and I’m one of them. There are only three with over 100 victories, and I’m one of the three. I faced the other three and defeated them, and they were about 15 years my junior. Once again, that puts me in a category all by myself. I was also the WWF’s oldest rookie ever. I was in the office talking with Jim Ross, and he asked how old I was. When I told him, he said I was the oldest rookie they’d ever had.

Fred: What a career. We really appreciate the time. For more information, follow Dan Severn online, and pick up “The Realest Guy in the Room: The Life and Times of Dan Severn.”