Tyrus On How He Built A Thriving & Popular Media Career Following His WWE Release, Talks Purpose Of New Podcast

Tyrus may be best known to some for his pro wrestling career, but he’s now cemented himself in his post-wrestling career as one of the more viable names in the cable news industry as a contributor for Fox News.

George Murdoch – known by his ring and stage name Tyrus – has been a prominent fixture across Fox News’ programs over the past decade. The former pro wrestler first made an appearance on The Greg Gutfeld Show back in 2016 as a guest commentator and he’s been a regular contributor on his show since.

That created an unexpected career as a commentator which has led to Tyrus becoming a fixture across the Fox News platform. The man formerly known as Brodus Clay and The Funkusaurus (his WWE stage names) now has a well-rounded media career in which he hosts a podcast called Planet Tyrus. In addition, he also has a comedy career in which he tours the nation.

Tyrus admits that he had no concrete plan he would have a media career while he was living out a dream in being a pro wrestler.

“No, if you would have asked me anytime in my life whether it was as a bodyguard for Snoop Dogg, playing football, wrestling, even teaching if all this doesn’t work out, I’m just gonna walk myself down to Fox News and tell it like it is, never ever did I envision that,” said Tyrus in a one-on-one interview.

The career path wasn’t exactly laid out – it spontaneously developed. The 6-foot-7 Tyrus – who also played college football – detailed how his whole career with Fox News evolved.

“When I went on there, when I did The Greg Gutfeld Show, it wasn’t very political at that time,” said Tyrus. “It was more humor, and they were kind of finding their way. It was just talking about stuff, and then it didn’t start getting more political until Trump’s announcement. That’s the phenomenon that happened, all this division and stuff sparked. Because up to that point, I was just going on a show, cracking jokes and having fun. If I was asked a question, I just answered the question in terms of how it affected me in my life, just applying common sense.”

Tyrus said that he likes to apply non-politics in his comedy and his podcast. He considers himself to be “in the middle” when it comes to politics, saying that he has voted for both Donald Trump and Barack Obama.

“I never really thought about political lines, because I’ve always been the middle of the road guy,” said Tyrus. “I voted for Obama twice, I voted for Trump three times. I vote what I think is best for me in mind, not necessarily what tent I’m in. That was an adjustment, and when I started to get a lot of backlash for being on Fox, that was a tough choice. Here’s the thing – no other mainstream places would give a wrestler an opportunity to go on (except for Fox News).”

The 52-year-old had a notable pro wrestling career in the WWE in the early 2010’s, making his debut as Alberto Del Rio’s bodyguard before experiencing his most well-known character as a funk dancer called “The Funkusaurus.” Following his release in 2014, he would go on to wrestle in TNA/Impact Wrestling and eventually become the NWA World Heavyweight Champion in 2022.

However, it’s his media career that has Tyrus busy these days. You would think that Tyrus’ new podcast, Planet Tyrus, is centered on interviews with athletes and pro wrestlers, or even political figures. It’s actually the opposite, with a lot of different types of guests, including scientists and real-life people with real-life stories.

“Planet Tyrus is one of the fun projects I got to work on because it’s a podcast about just everyday conversations,” said Tyrus. “It’s not a political thing. I think there’s too much political talk. I’m just trying to meet really interesting people, a lot of scientists, and things I’m fascinated with like Big Foot stuff the Loch Ness monster, a lot of the unknown. A lot of the stuff, like deep sea space exploration and just bringing up a lot of things in history, which we don’t really talk about.”

The podcast is a unique approach to the space. The market has become oversaturated with just about every notable figure having a podcast these days. It’s a major reason why Tyrus decided to go the unconventional route and instead have real-life people tell real-life stories.

“The real stories out there are the people who are not necessarily on TV and giving them a voice, and they’re using a platform other than to try to push your point of view is kind of my goal,” said Tyrus of the objective of his podcast.” Just present some stuff, common sense stuff and and just enjoy it. Driving in the car, you want to listen, laugh, smirk, make fun of yourselves.”

One of the main themes that Tyrus hammers home is about having conversations with people with “no negativity.” In a culture and a world of media that constantly features negatives themes, it’s a breath of fresh air.

“The people you meet and the things you do, it’s just a bro podcast,” said Tyrus of what the podcast is about. “It’s just like, ‘Hey, what’s up? How are you? What’s cool? I’m having a lot of fun with it. The numbers are doing really well. We’re growing really fast, and it’s amazing, because a lot of times you think, ‘Well, you got to get these big A-List guys on your podcast.’ And you don’t – you just have to have some fun stuff to talk about and trying this new thing, No negativity. Crazy idea not bashing everybody because they vote differently. That’s just silly to me at this point.”

Tyrus – who has had two podcasts before the in the past – said Fox News gave him the green light to basically talk about whatever he wants as long as the show is doing good numbers.

“I would say Fox has been trying to kind of find something for me, and I kind of do a little bit of everything,” said Tyrus. “The success of the Gutfeld show and kind of launching my comedic career from there. It’s one of those things when you have a hit show and you don’t want to water down. You don’t want to be a situation. Everybody and their mama has a podcast, and Fox News is jumping and putting their foot in the podcast water. They were like, ‘Hey, you don’t like directions, you don’t like meetings. You just kind of want to do your own thing. We’ll let you.

“They’re just kind of letting me do my thing, pick my guests, which is really cool,” Tyrus continued to say. “I have no leash right now. The cold part is though, you mess around and get weird or do some dumb s***, you’re gonna end up with four producers going, ‘You’re gonna say this.’ The nice thing is that they are trusting me to kind of do my thing. It’s kind of cool. I’m just calling in the wrestling world as they say, I’m calling it out there, dude.”

The simple objective for his new show? Morph it into one show where the podcast runs five days a week and the main show is on the network.

“My long-term objective would be to get to the point where it kind of morphs into one show,” said Tyrus. “Maybe the podcast runs five days a week, but our main show will be on the network. That would kind of be a cool thing to have a podcast that has a weekly television show. Let’s say maybe they give me Saturday nights at midnight – we can do the best podcast or the week in review, and then we run it that way. The goal would be to eventually just be streamlined into one thing.

“It’s a lofty goal, I don’t think it’s ever been done, so probably shouldn’t say it out loud because I think (Joe) Rogan can make one call and he could be on a network tomorrow,” said Tyrus while smiling. “But whatever happens, happens. I’m at a point in my career where it’s about you do the work, but the ego stuff is kind of gone. It’s just trying to set the table for my my kids, to have the best possible launch into this world, as they’re getting older, making decisions, education or whatever their dreams are, and being able to help facilitate that without making them spoiled. But having the option to be there and have them so where they can have opportunities that I didn’t necessarily have.

“I still want the work, I still want the as a parent, you gotta let your kids get a few scars,” Tyrus continued. “But you can be there to guide them in terms of that thing, I still want them to understand the hard work, but also at the same time, being able to reward their hard work is kind of a goal in my career right now.”