WWE Star Ethan Page Talks Egos, Being the Villain and His World Title Goals | Inside The Ring

I love diarrhea. I love getting diarrhea. No, seriously. Like, the cleanse. You want to look, Max? Get some diarrhea. This is TMZ's Inside the Ring. Welcome to TMZ's Inside the Ring. I'm Branson Quirk and Ethan Page just walked on in here. Yep, I'm back. Now he's back. He's here. He was on Inside the Ring a couple months ago. Yep. And it was one of our best interviews. I agree. Oh, 100%. I agree. I mean, if not the best, don't tell anybody else that I said that, of course. I won't. You won't either. Right, right. I'm not trying to hurt the ego. Yeah, yeah, yeah. See what I did there? You like that? I see, yeah. You like that? Well, I got one question for you. Sure. Only one? All this? You set all this up? One question. Just for the one, then I'm going to get you out of here. No, I want to know, other than you, who's got maybe a similar ego backstage? Is there anybody you can think of that's like, okay, calm down? Yes, everybody. Okay. Yeah, I think ultimately everybody. The only issue is that I'm very open about mine, and others are very closed off about theirs. And they pretend they don't have it, or they present it as confidence, or they present it as something else. But deep down, I'm the most authentic wrestler in the WWE, because of how open and honest and genuine I am. Everyone else is fake and playing some character to try and get ahead, or politically move their careers forward. So I would say ego-wise, falsely, everyone has a bigger ego than me. Sure. But solely based on insecurity. Just insecurity? Yes. Okay. Yes. Okay, I totally understand that. Do you think that trusting people is a good idea backstage, in this day and age in wrestling, all right? When you showed up, were you like, I'm not trusting a soul? I think trusting people now is probably safer than back in the day. More people are a lot softer now. A lot softer? Yeah, for sure. Oh my God. Yeah. Wrestlers get upset when fans tweet them. They're responding. Sure. What are you responding to fans for? Sure. The hell? Yeah. Why? Why don't you respond to the ones that compliment you? Only the ones that hurt your feelings, that tell you the truth, are you the one you're giving them attention? Yeah. Do you think that's why you are at where you're at is because of your direct honesty? And it hasn't always worked for you this way? No, no, it's never worked for me. It's always blown up in my face. No one wants to hear the truth, know the truth, understand the truth, because we all ultimately do. Deep down, we all know the truth, but no one wants to live in that, the reality of it. Everyone would rather kind of have this unspoken agreement that we're going to ignore this one thing that we all know is true, but it's okay. We're not going to talk about it. We're just going to pretend it didn't happen. That's life. Sure, yeah. Yeah, that's life. We learned that from kindergarten and on. Right, and in wrestling, it runs rampant. No one wants authenticity. No one wants genuine, honest, nothing, ever. I have the smallest ego in all of the WWE. The smallest ego? In all of the WWE. Really? I'm just the only one that wears it on my sleeve. Gosh, do you think if I asked anybody else that question, would they agree, or are they just kind of blinded to the fact? No, I think everyone else in WWE is a liar. Really? Yes. Everybody. Okay, what do you think the most important thing in the WWE is to everyone here? Getting over our money. Really, it's monetary. Hold on, I'm not done. Okay, all right, all right. Where does the money come from? Working, jobs, the money comes from management, the fans. The customer. Took me a while. The customer. The money comes from the customer. Sure. Now, how are you going to get this money from the customer? Man, I don't think I was prepared for this quiz. You manipulate them. Look, if I want to be the most loved guy in WWE, you give me three weeks, and I'll figure it out. Wow. It's manipulation. It's three weeks, right? So it's been months now since you debuted, so you are the best thing in WWE now. Yes. You're done, you finished it. I'm not trying to make people love me, is my point. I'm not here to sell t-shirts. Sure. I'm here for my childhood fantasy of becoming the Intercontinental Champion, then going on to becoming World Champion, Universal Champion, Royal Rumble winner, King of the Ring winner, all that stuff. I'm going to do all that stuff. That's why I'm here. Everyone else is here for this, and to get this put on billboards. It's a very vain and ego-driven, ironically, and money. Money is big. They're going to lie to you to sell t-shirts. They're going to lie to you to sell action figures. They're going to lie to you to sell tickets. Everyone here is a liar, but me. Okay. Good to know. Yeah. I'm going to take a left turn here. You're very well-dressed. Thank you. Very well-dressed. Yes. Is that something that you take pride in? Yeah, of course. Presentation. Who I am. Yeah. I want you to know who I am the second I walk into a room. Actually, that leads me to a question that is on a lot of people's minds. Yeah. Looks maxing. You know about this? I have no clue what that means. You've heard it though. I know you have. I have. No, I have. This is like a new thing where guys care about their appearance too much? Yeah. Okay. Well, looks maxing is essentially that you do anything by any means possible to look your best because it will fix your life in every way possible. So people like that streamer clavicular will say things like this. Hey, we focus a lot of this on TMZ. Oh, you do. You do. Okay. TMZ focuses a lot of this on TMZ. Okay. Looks maxing is a big deal. Right now I'm on day 68, no sugar right now. I consider that looks maxing. Wait, really? Yeah. 68 days, no sugar. Are you okay? I'm okay. I'm getting through it. There's a lot of good treats around here though. So it's kind of difficult. Is Stevia, you're allowed to have Stevia? Is that, I try not to have the no sugar stuff, you know, like the sugar alcohol. Wait, really? So what about like a Diet Coke? Diet Coke. I don't know. I feel like there's chemicals in there. I don't understand. Yeah. Are you a Diet Coke guy? The whole world is chemicals you don't understand. You're going to draw the line at a Diet Coke? Right. I mean, yeah. I mean, you go to Taco Bell, you can get the worst diarrhea of your life, right? Or best. Depends on if you're trying to lose weight. Man, I say this on the TV show, TMZ. I love diarrhea. I love getting diarrhea. No, seriously. Like the cleanse. You want to look max? Get some diarrhea. Like before your match, you know, you could get a good case of diarrhea. I would hate that. And you'd probably have a great match. No, I disagree. Right. You'd be dehydrated. So you'd cramp up in the middle of your match. You'd have no calories in your system. Sure. To actually get the engine of your vehicle moving. Okay. Yeah. No, don't get diarrhea before you have to wrestle. Have you ever had a moment in a match where it was like, oh man, like I got to get out of the ring? Whether it's like a headache, an injury, diarrhea, whatever. Most of the time, it's because of my opponents. Because of your opponent. I'm like, I need to get out of the ring. Yeah, I just need to get to the ring. Yeah. Okay. All right. Well, let's move on from this subject. How about that? Let's move on. Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure. Disgusting. With a look maxing? Oh, let's go back to looks maxing. I was going to say, we already gave up on this. No. You taught me something and then just threw it away. I don't want to give up on looks maxing. Okay. Do you agree with that precedent that, you know, presentation equals success? Yes. To some degree, 100%. My career definitely took a turn when I started caring about how I looked. With clothes. Then you add in your actual physical appearance to look more athletic or aesthetically pleasing for the show when you're in your underwear. Sure. That obviously helps a lot too. But, I mean, you walk into a room and you're muscular and your clothes fit a certain way. You're going to garner more attention than someone that maybe shows up disheveled or, you know, doesn't look like all ego eat the page. Sure, sure. Yeah. Well, honestly, man, I think we can agree. You would probably be the villain on a reality show. I mean, not like you wouldn't walk in as the normal. Like the fans would vote you as they called the villain. Yes. Love Island, things like that, right? This is what I've been saying the whole time. Right, right. I'm being chosen by a bunch of phonies to be the bad guy. To be the bad guy. So, it's kind of like they say, like, if a tree falls in the forest and nobody's there, did it really fall? Right. They're just making this up. It's like kind of bringing out of nothing. Yes. You've never said, I'm the villain, but they've decided that on you. Because I tell the truth. But I am the villain to them. I put the mirror up that they don't want to see the reflection. Sure. I mean, like, that's the issue. That's the problem. No, that's not the problem. To say that someone being honest is the problem. That's wrong. The problem is, is that I get off on doing it. Oh, okay. That's the problem. That's where I can see it. I can see it 100% with you. And the more I realize that people don't want to see the truth, the more I'm like, no, no, no, no, no. We're going to make sure you see it. Make sure. And everyone watches you see it. Yeah. Right. What was it like working with Rusev? Because you guys had a tumultuous. We still do. What do you mean? We're still. I know. But like, just currently, like, as we've gone on, like, is it, how's it because it's very interesting because you guys, when you were tag team, when you're tag teaming, like, you almost seem like you guys aren't friends. I believe we're friends. But doesn't it help to be like on the best terms possible when you're a tag team? Because like, there's moments where you guys had just really bad disagreements. For sure. Well, do you think that man is on good terms with many people? Not that I can see. I don't know. I don't think there's lots of guys trying to walk up to Rusev and spark up a new friendship. Right. I wouldn't. Right. So I understand kind of what I'm walking into and who I'm dealing with. And I understand the situation and the relationship. Most importantly, I understand the relationship, what he brings to the table and maybe what I bring to the table or what he doesn't think that I bring to the table. I'm well aware of his point of view on the entire thing. I just see way too many benefits from us working together than us not working together. Sure. No one has the same kind of like outlook on Raw as me. His is as close to mine as possible. He hates the same people I hate. Sure. Same goals, same stuff like that. We also grew up very similarly. He was born in Bulgaria. My family came from former Yugoslavia. We're both Balkan. So I grew up with the same kind of like relatable upbringing. Got you. So I can get him there a little bit. Sure. Yeah. That's great then. We get along. So it's a good pairing. I know when to leave him alone. You know when to cut the brakes. I know when to back off and not eat his food. Right off the gas. Sure. Speaking of, you know, your current run in WWE. You've done so much before WWE. You've had quite the career. What are you doing differently now that you think is like working for you? Oh, I just don't care. Versus before. Just not caring. I just don't care about anything. I don't care about my co-workers, my employer, my paycheck, you, this interview, the fans. Okay. I just show up. I show up. And I, what you get is what you get. And it seems to be working great. Everyone's very happy with what I give. And I have to put zero effort, zero thought, zero preparation. I just show up looking good, handsome. And I advocate for myself in every scenario humanly possible. Good to know. Thank you. Final question for you. The title. A title. The WWE Championship, for example. Is that your number one goal? Becoming the world champion of WWE. I mean, it has to be, right? I guess. The older I get and the deeper into this I get, the more I don't understand what I want out of it. And I feel like I'm chasing things that won't satisfy me. And the more I'm becoming aware of the lack of satisfaction, the more I'm changing. What do I actually want? If you become world champion, you're, I guess, a part of history forever. They can never erase that. But what weight do you hold in the overarching, I don't know, industry? Where do you sit? There's wrestlers that never touched the world title that over time have way more value. And their name holds more weight than a former world champion or a former WWE champion or whatever it is, right? So I think, yes, you need those accolades and victories and championships and stuff like that. To put to the resume, it definitely adds to the boost. But I think your overall body of work and the way the peers, your peers, I guess, speak about you over a long enough period of time. I think that's my ultimate goal. That's quite wise of you. Yeah. That's very wise. And money. Money is absolutely important. Without manipulation. Without the manipulation. Yes. Okay. Gosh, you must hate doing these media things. You just got to talk to everybody in here, huh? No, but this is... It's over and over again. I disagree. It's my job. It's your job. I get paid handsomely to kill time on camera. And that's what you love most? Being on camera? Yeah, like what am I... I love your honesty, man. You're the most honest guy I've ever talked to. Well, I... Yeah. But I told you that. Yeah, you told me that. I literally said that. Right. Yeah. You were honest. You were direct about it. Very. Well, thank you. Dude, thank you. Thank you, sir. Of course, yeah. And we'll see you again on TMZ. I'm sure. Sounds great. I'll never turn it down, yeah. But just remember, coming on TMZ can be a good thing and a bad thing. So like... Why bad? Well, like a good thing you coming on the show is speaking with us. But if you're out doing something and we got one of our guys out there, just be peripheral vision. Why? I don't know. I have a question. What do you think I'm doing that I gotta be worried? Hey, man, there was a lot going on in Minneapolis last night. You know, there's a lot of late night clubs open, you know, like people throwing stuff. You never know. Oh, so you do. You have footage. I don't. I'm not saying I have footage. You're saying there might be something. There could be. I'm just trying to keep you on your toes to keep you... I think it's good. TMZ keeps you in check. Yeah, yeah. We keep you in line. It's a good way to... The fact that I didn't know that TMZ could potentially ruin my life, I didn't. You didn't know. Well, ultimately, I'm the only person that can ruin my own life. And the wrestlers are also the same. They can only ruin their own lives. You just, you know, might have a camera nearby while people do stupid stuff that they shouldn't be doing in the first place. What I've learned from you is that everything you do is calculated. Everything you do is purposeful. If you're on video doing it, it's like you don't care because that's your direct way. Maybe I wanted to be filmed. Yeah, maybe you wanted to be filmed. Yeah. Okay, well, let's leave it there then. I think TMZ is a fantastic organization and I hope you catch wrestlers doing more stupid stuff so that you eliminate their position on the card and that I'm able to jump up as high as I can in the WWE faster, faster, than if these guys kept their jobs. TMZ, you're doing a great job. Thank you, Ethan. Get as many people in trouble as you can. Thank you, Ethan. I support it. We'll pump it up tonight. Summer Sunday too. Oh, hell yeah. Send out some more reporters. Yes, we will. All right.