Posted By
Joe Gagne on Oct 16 |
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The podcast week in review, brought to you by LD Products (or our
Amazon and
WWE affiliate links).
- “They were scrambling to get Scott Steiner a backbrace.” – Evan Bourne, on why he once had to go long wrestling Doc at Citifield
- “He was working Ole Anderson, and he hit Ole Anderson. Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! He hit him with like 8, 9 punches, and Ole just kept shrugging them off. So then Ricky just took a bump on his own, for no reason. So they get to the back and Ole is like, ‘Why would you bump after hitting me nine times?’ And he goes ‘Somebody had to.’” – Raven, telling a story
- “I love DDP, I love him as a person, I love him as a wrestler, but there’s only so much you can hear about yoga.” – Bubba Ray Dudley, after being hidden away with DDP for 7 hours before the 2015 Royal Rumble
“Countouts are for people that have no imagination.” – Kevin Sullivan, relaying an old Terry Funk saying
Talk n’ Shop #65 (10/10/15): Matt Sydal joins the Bullet Club on a bullet train. He gets into a great story about getting pulled over by mark cops, the mean monkey from Dragon Gate, going long because of Scott Steiner, South Korea, the perils of travel day, free love, and the rejuvenating power of ayahuasca. Sydal is just bonkers, and this is one of the funnier and more quotable episodes in a while.
THUMBS UP
The VIP Lounge #4 (10/11/15): MVP, Alice, and Alex are back for round 3. There’s a decent amount of wrestling talk, including a discussion on bumping and the hot take that the NXT women are good wrestlers. Also a lengthy discussion on aliens, if that’s your bag. They also talk The Martian, politics, and some other topics I can’t remember for the life of me, which tells you how memorable this episode is.
THUMBS DOWN
Steve Austin Show #263 (10/13/15): Raven is the guest this week. Not a lot of talk about his career, but instead he and Steve discuss the intricacies of wrestling. You’ll hear about gaga, what a highspot actually is, negotiating a finish, why Jerry Lawler and Dusty Rhodes were so great, why Chris Benoit wasn’t, and why Raven thinks Stone Cold was right to take his ball and go home. Some interesting discussion, even if you can hear Steve breathing the whole time. Austin’s shows have really been feast or famine lately, thankfully this one is the former.
THUMBS UP
The Ross Report #87 (10/13/15): JR is in a hotel room with former WWE divas Jackie Gayda-Haas and Alicia Webb (the former Ryan Shamrock) for an interview I guess we didn’t know we wanted. It’s really not that bad to start, as Jackie is super nice and talks about Tough Enough, Russ Haas, and everything wrestling has given her, and Alicia has an interesting story of just basically falling into wrestling with zero product knowledge. But then JR asks about hooking up with guys on the road and it starts to get a bit icky by the end.
THUMBS IN THE MIDDLE
WOOOOO [emoji]8482[/emoji]Nation #23 (10/7/15) Kevin Von Erich phones in from Hawaii to chat with Ric and Conrad. They get into why Kevin was never the NWA champion, Kerry losing his foot, wrestling with no boots, David’s tragic death, David Manning’s wild kingdom, the famous Freebird feud, Gary Hart, Chris Adams, the Sportatorium, and more. Kevin’s audio is disastrously bad (because of his hearing issues he had to use a speakerphone, plus he can be hard to understand anyway) and Ric’s isn’t much better. But even when you can make out what they’re saying it’s not that interesting.
THUMBS DOWN
Talk is Jericho #186 (10/14/15): No time for shenanigans, as Jericho gets right into a lengthy interview with Bubba Ray and D-Von Dudley. They talk about how they got together as a team, the origins of the Dudley clan, why they left the WWE ten years ago, the one fight they had as a team, pioneering the TLC matches, the *** Cream sketch, Spike Dudley, jumping from ECW to WWE, how tables became a big part of the gimmick, working with Mae Young, and their current role in the WWE. The Dudleys aren’t afraid to put themselves over, but they’re at least partially in on the joke. Awesome 90+ minute interview.
THUMBS UP & BEST OF THE WEEK
Bauer & Pollock (10/14/15): Something different this week, as it’s actually Bauer, Pollock, & Alex Greenfield. And rather than running down the news, they review their Observer Hall of Fame ballots, discussing who they did and didn’t choose and why. There is some good discussion here, although some of the rationale made me want to jump in the ocean (I don’t think Gary Hart having an outside hand in booking WWE in 2006 really pads the resume). But it is an interesting look behind the curtain at how a set of voters approaches the Hall.
THUMBS UP
Art of Wrestling #272 (10/15/15): Nick “Eugene” Dinsmore makes his second appearance on the podcast. He and Colt talk about Dinsmore’s various WWE runs, working in India and Puerto Rico, training wrestlers in WWE, the Performance Center, starting a school in North Dakota, inspiring kids with special needs, and almost meeting Hulk Hogan with Grado. The parts about producing in NXT are mildly interesting, but the overall interview is short and there’s not much to recommend here.
THUMBS DOWN
Steve Austin – Unleashed #264 (10/15/15): Part 2 with the 3 and Twenty Band, who remains a band. They talk about producing an album in 2015, listening to the audience, the equipment they use, and other nonsense. They sing a song about drinking and then cover Outkast. Remember what I said about these shows being feast or famine?
THUMBS DOWN
The Jim Cornette Experience #98 (10/8/15): Jim and Alice chat with wrestling historian and fellow MLW’er Matt Farmer. They talk about Matt’s new show on the MLW network concerning independent wrestling, but Jim mostly uses the interview to talk about how much better wrestling used to be. I like Farmer a lot but there wasn’t much to the interview. It’s also bookended by Jim reinforcing the idea that women go to wrestling shows to have sex and ends with a lengthy rant about gun control.
<Farmer’s interview starts at 28:54> THUMBS DOWN
Talk is Jericho #187 (10/16/15): Again, no real intro from Jericho, as he gets right into it with his guest, Jerry Ferrera, aka Turtle from Entourage. They talk about how he got into acting, getting cast for the show, the process of making the movie, all the celebrity cameos in the film, losing weight, getting booed on Raw, his new podcast, and life after Turtle. Ferrera seems like a nice enough guy and he has some good stories, but the talk of how Entourage never won any awards and the movie was the victim of negative internet reaction is fairly comical.
<Ferrera’s interview at 3:32>THUMBS IN THE MIDDLE
MSL & Sullivan Show #3 (10/16/15): MSL and Kevin run down the Lana/Rusev angle, sports vs. entertainment, an interesting discussion of wrestlers not being bigger than the brand, Hell in a Cell, and the booking of Seth Rollins. Then they jump to cover the first hour of the July 22nd, 1996 Nitro, and then close up by answering some very interesting mailbag segments about the finish of Starrcade 1997 and why Sullivan never seems to get credit from Hogan and Bischoff for WCW’s success. A fun listen, and if you miss MSL on MLW Radio (or you just miss MLW radio period) you get a lot of his thoughts on current scene here.
THUMBS UP