Sometimes you're a loner and you're kinda forced to find something like pro wrestling, so you don't feel so alone and weird in the world. I think I kinda fell into that category. Sometimes being a wrestling fan is just in your blood. It gets passed down to you like some weird family heirloom to compels you to get into a ring and hurt yourself. “When I was a kid, my dad and my older brother used to watch Hulk Hogan, Macho Man and Roddy Piper. As I got older, it was Attitude Era – Rock and Stone Cold days. Then from there all my friends stopped watching and I was a closet wrestling fan until I started actually wrestling,” Rostyn tells me with a laugh, shortly before the doors open at the First Met Hall in Victoria for another big Friday night 365 Pro Wrestling show. “They all stopped when Cena, Lesnar came in. But I kept watching. Then I got really into New Japan. Until like 2020, I would still be watching on my phone at 4 in the morning, by myself, under a blanket. I’d go to talk about wrestling with my friends and they’d be like 'Dude, we don’t care.' But now all those dudes that ‘don’t care’ are like, “How’s wrestling?” Screw you guys!”

And sometimes, you grow up watching, like the second guy but you are also a talented multi-sport athlete that needed somewhere to put your energy, so you do the thing that you shared with your dad. “Sawyer: For me, I watched wrestling with my dad growing up, since I was like three years old. Wouldn’t miss an episode RAW, Smackdown!, Sunday Night Heat, Velocity.” This motherfucker Sawyer said VELOCITY. I am shocked. That is dedication from the start. “Dude, we watched it all. And TNA!” Like his homie Rostyn, Saywer Stein is a student of the game.

Stand the fuck up. The Moment of Truth is in the building.

“I played pretty much every sport growing up and had a good little character of my own in whatever sport I was playing that weekend. I was a shit-disturber, a natural heel on and off the court. It translated really well. I was always thinking about doing wrestling. I wasn’t really sure of when or how or where I was gonna do it,” Sawyer recalls during our sit down. Lucky for everyone in 365 Nation, fate didn't let him get settled in any of those other things. “I was literally about to take an offer to be a multi-sport athlete at a university that was by the Pro Wrestling Academy, where it was before in Campbell River. Then I went to a show, it was PWA at the time, before 365 changed their brand. Eddie had brought it in Carlito for a week and I watched their show at the Edelweiss Club. I was always a huge Carlito mark so that fired me up. That show, that day, they announced they were opening a school in Victoria. So…Now I’m here.”

Indeed, now we're all here. Here in a world, in 2026, where 365 is running weekly shows and the Moment of Truth are a beloved face team. I want to say I'm baffled, but we've all been wanting to cheer these boys for awhile. I remember a very specific moment watching a Rumble in another company, where Sawyer was in the ring with his Moment of Truth brethren and it looked like a face turn was coming and I was fucking vibrating. The crew and I were about to go insane with joy, but it didn't happen. And Johnny, well, let's just say Johnny and I have come a long way, baby. It's insane that these two have me rooting for the goddamned Moment of Truth these days. It's a real testament to their talents.

Rostyn seems beyond thrilled with this turn of events. “For me personally, it feels absolutely different, but amazing! I’ve been a heel for so long, other than our tag run when we were tweeners. Coming out and having 'Johnny!' chants, that feels pretty damned good.” Stein, the self-proclaimed natural heel (see: earlier in this article) is a little more reserved in his joy. “I was actually a face at the start, before I made the Moment of Truth with Jordie Taylor. I was definitely more naturally skilled with being a heel. I enjoyed the challenge of the face stuff at first but now I’m starting to click with it and get it.”

This is a nice opportunity to engage in some wrestling philosophy. What makes a face and what makes a heel? Are the borders, the definitions, as black and white as they seem? Ehhhhh, probably not, it turns out. “At first it’s kind of weird. I feel like there’s a lot of stuff around heel and face. I think you gotta learn how to work your character both ways, which is why I wanted to do this face run for a bit,” says Stein. “I kind of see both sides of people saying “You can’t do this if you’re a heel or a face.” I don’t 100% agree with that. I think you can kind of do almost anything you want as long as you get the reaction you’re going for afterwards. What is your goal as a heel? You’re trying to put the face over. What’s your goal as a face? You’re trying to get the people behind you, get some sympathy. Doesn’t matter how you do it as long as you achieve that goal. Figuring out how to do that inside of your own character is the challenge.”

Rostyn reaches back to just a couple weeks ago to grab an example of that philosophy. “The way that I see it, is every action movie ever, the good guy is tied up and then the bad guy punches him in the face. The action star doesn’t just start to cry. He snorts up the blood, spits it back in his face and tells the bad guy “Fuck you!” even though he’s tied up and helpless. He knows he’s going to fight until the bitter end. Let’s go back to that photo of me giving Elliot Tyler the finger in the corner –Johnny Rostyn screams a lot of that as a heel anyways, a lot of “Fuck you” energy. At the same time, if I’m babyface Johnny Rostyn and someone is punching me in the corner telling me that the Blue Jays suck, I’m gonna give them the finger, spit on ‘em and try to kick dirt on ‘em.”

It’s science: Good guys are powered up by giving the finger to their enemies.

More than moves, one of of the marks of a great wrestler is the ability to connect with the audience no matter where you come from and whether they're faces or heels, it doesn't really matter, Rostyn and Stein are going to connect with the crowd and make you love 'em or hate 'em. They are that damned good. I never thought I'd be rooting for the Moment of Truth, but now that I'm here, I'm stoked that I get to do it almost every Friday night. Was very stoked to get some time to sit down with them both to talk not just Philosophy of Wrestling, but talk about watches with batteries, vanilla lattes and how much it sucks to get squished by Eddie Osbourne.

1. What's the first album you bought with your own money?

Johnny – I would get these music store gift cards for Christmas. The first thing – I bought two cassettes. One of them Foo Fighters, the self-titled with the ray gun. The other one was Aqua, with “Barbie Girl.” I’m not joking.

I mean, “Barbie Girl” kinda holds up as well as anything on that first Foo Fighters record.

Sawyer – It’s still going. You been to Lucky Bar? <laughs>

Johnny – Then the very next year it was Green Day – Dookie and Backstreet Boys.

Sawyer – I was more of a digital guy. I think the first one was Watch the Throne. The first album I got given was Bulletproof by 50 Cent.

2. It looks like every wrestling move kinda sucks to get hit with. What's your least favourite move to take?

Johnny – A senton. I hate sentons. If they’re small it’s fine, but if they’re a big person and they snap mare you and whisper “Senton” every time I’m like “Fuck me.” I also learned this past week that I take them wrong. I don’t get my arms up enough. Senton and Swanton bombs, they sound familiar but they’re two different moves and they both suck.

Sawyer – There’s a reason we call Inferno “Swanton Crouton.” Those aren’t great, definitely up there. I personally have a thing being upside down and backwards at the same time. Even just like an ushigoroshi…they hurt and they suck. I find a lose my bearings a little bit and it’s hard to rebalance yourself after that. They’re all not great, to be honest. But yeah, a senton, man.

Johnny – Just getting squished in general.

Sawyer – I’ve taken a couple of nasty Eddie Osbourne sentons before and it was not fun.

Johnny – Do you know what? I’ll just call him out right now. The worst thing to take is a forearm from Ry Guy, to be honest. Because it’s a total shoot. He’ll just be like “POW!” and yell that as he nails you in the chin. So you gear up and give him a receipt and the next thing you know it’s a slugfest on the outside for no reason. I love you Ry Guy, but yeah.

Philosopher kings. Photo by the homie Darren Ho Media.

3. When’s the last time you did something for the first time?

Johnny – I financed a car. I mean, in a way, I absolutely love the car. In another way, I wish I never did it because it’s costing me almost a grand.

Sawyer – Mine’s kind of a cop out answer, but had my first talk show segment on a pro wrestling show last week. It was a hit. I’m excited to do more of them. I went to Eddie to ask for his grace to have that segment to push some of our storylines along, coming into the new year and running every week. Trying to get more people involved, get them over, get them more mic time. And work on my mic skills at the same time. And do it in away where it’s approachable for everybody and you can do different things with it. That was my idea. Everyone knows MizTV and The Highlight Reel with Jericho…it’s Stein Time now.

My wife is a proud owner of a Stein Time watch.

Johnny – Me too! They came with batteries!

Sawyer – I was so shocked!

Johnny – I was laying on my bed, watching my phone, the watch was on my lap and I heard the “tick tock.”

Sawyer – “I’m not going crazy!”

4. Have you ever seen a ghost or felt a presence you couldn’t explain?

Johnny – Yeah! I was literally just talking about spirits with someone I just started talking to. This isn't even my story. I get a call this week and my friend Blair is stressed out. She comes home from work and a bunch of stuff is moved in her house. Then she came to the conclusion, because nobody is going to break into your house, unlock a door, move stuff around, and leave locking a door. And now every single time she's not paying attention something is moved in this house and she's felt real bad about some stuff in there. Just the other day, she cleaned her whole house, she talked to it, “I don't know what you are or who you are but can you leave?” She went and took a salt bath and since then she's felt a lot more okay and nothing's moving. I did have sleep paralysis when I was younger, like 20, 21. I had no idea what it was. I thought I was just dreaming these things. I totally believe in spirits and that. Shadow people come with white eyes, demons come with red eyes. Remember that.

Sawyer – I've had sleep paralysis since I was 5. Just randomly, but it hasn't happened in a while. That's one thing. Another thing, I don't really wanna talk about too much because it's going to take up too much time. When I was kind of experimenting and dillydallying with spiritual forces, kind of just, I wouldn't call it 'yoga' but 'active meditation,' I guess. I was really tapped into that and I swear I had this crazy extraterrestrial experience. Also, I went to the Fifth Dimension, which was wild. It's nuts in there.
Johnny – I heard it's like being on acid all the time.

Sawyer – Kind of. But there's all these mittens and hands.

5. I mean, that does sound like being on acid. If you could spend the day with anyone living or dead, who would it be and what would you do?

Johnny – I wanna spend the day out at Stone Cold Steve Austin's farm, but he needs to be in full gimmick the whole time. I might take up drinking beer just for that.

Sawyer – I wanna see a day in the life on the road for Ric Flair in the late 80s. But a full 24 hours.

You trying to keep up with Flair or just observe?

Sawyer – I don't know! It depends what time I meet him, what time the day the starts, what he's got going on, who he's wrestling for 60 minutes that night, and then also what he's doing on the road going to the next venue. I think it would be unreal to experience that. Also, nuts that he did it for so long.

6. Your guest question comes from the mighty Liiza Hall – What's your go-to coffee order?

Johnny – Fucking vanilla latte. I've had a weird addiction to vanilla lattes over the last year. So good.

You ever get an extra shot of espresso or flavour or anything in there?

Johnny – Nah. Just straight what they got.

Sawyer – I'm going iced hazelnut cold brew. It has to be cold. I don't like warm coffee. I don't know why.

I started as a warm coffee guy but I've pretty much completely switched to iced.

Johnny – Dude, it could be dead of summer and it's like, “Give me a hot coffee.”

Nah, it could be snowing out and make it iced.

Sawyer – Yeah.

(Iced Coffee 4 Lyf)