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Episode 95: I Was Always Afraid You Were Going To Step On My Head And Torque My Neck
38 Plays5 years ago
Surprise we're back! Did we miss anything while we were gone?? Let's catch up on 2 months of wrestling together! Also, you FINALLY get an explaination where we were!
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Transcript
Podcast Comeback and Hiatus Explanation
00:00:35
Speaker
Happy New Year and welcome back to the Predetermined Podcast, your favorite weekly Wrestle hangout. Your Wrestle BFFs are back in town. I'm your host, Garrett Callender. And I'm your other host, Derek Halpin.
00:00:47
Speaker
November 6th, 2019. That was the last time that we released an episode for this goddamn pro wrestling podcast, but we are back. And man, I think I speak for both of us when I say we are excited to be back and doing this for you guys. It has been way too long. I truly missed you. I truly miss doing this. It just feels so right. We have, obviously,
00:01:16
Speaker
a lot to get into for this episode. We want to talk about all the stuff we've been doing while we were away. I'm sure you guys want to get updated on what's going on in our personal lives. We've obviously got pro wrestling things that we missed that happened while we were away. We want to talk about that stuff as well. And also, at the end of the show, what, you think it would be fair to kind of explain why we had to take a hiatus or a vacation from the podcast, Garrett? We're all friends here, and I think that you all deserve an explanation of where we were.
00:01:47
Speaker
that I think that that's going to be the main event for this for this episode. And we will get to that at the very end. So if you stick around through all the rest of the fun nonsense that we have provided for you today, yeah, you'll find out what's been going on. But you mentioned that something happened while we were away. Did anything happen during our two month hiatus?
00:02:08
Speaker
Lots of things happened during our two month hiatus. Apparently we, I don't know, we were still getting downloads. That's what I kept hearing from you. There are still people out there listening to us while we were not around. Yeah, that was a lot of fun just seeing all the downloads and we've been getting some new listeners.
00:02:27
Speaker
new listeners and reviews we do have yes let's read it right now because also hey we're back it's time if you're new to this hop on the itunes leave a five star review write something nice we'll talk about whatever you want and we have a listener uh his name on the uh the app here it says tegums i believe that's his last name
00:02:49
Speaker
It says, great podcasts. I just started listening to this and blazing through the backlog of episodes. It's great and I get to catch up on all the wrestling I missed over the years while catching up on the podcast too.
00:03:03
Speaker
That warms the cockles of my heart, as every review that we get does. But especially when you know that we're not around and we're not providing weekly entertainment for everyone, there's still people going back into the archives and enjoying past episodes.
Influence on Wrestling Fans and Listener Engagement
00:03:16
Speaker
We would like to think there is a goldmine of good shit that this podcast has provided over the last couple of years. Seriously though, thank you for, that's something I never even considered, is that people could go back and catch up on all of the wrestling just listening to us describe it.
00:03:34
Speaker
Does it make you feel a little more powerful knowing that we can kind of shape somebody's view of the pro wrestling world if they just get their pro wrestling news and information from us? If you tuned into this podcast, you would think that Nick Gage is the most important wrestler on the planet because he motherfucking is. You would also believe that there is a professional wrestler with the actual name Jizz. Which there is.
00:04:03
Speaker
Now we're just falsifying things, but apparently that's an okay thing to do these days. I missed you too, bud. I did want to say that. I missed talking with you every week about pro wrestling. I missed this.
Reasons for Hiatus and Personal Breaks
00:04:16
Speaker
And yeah, it was a weird adjustment because we didn't give you guys any warning. When we pulled the rug out from under you, we decided to put this thing on hiatus because it was in the best interests of us and the show.
00:04:31
Speaker
and we had to switch gears, take a break. And Garrett, what have you been doing since early November? Because it is now a whole new year, a whole new decade, a whole new set of wrestling fun and problems. I took a full month and a half off from watching any wrestling, Derek. This is, and when I say any, I mean, I took a full break. I was having a detox, a cleanse, a fast.
00:05:01
Speaker
Did you feel like you needed to do that in order to re-appreciate this thing that you love or was that just like a coincidence? It started off as just like, okay, I have the week off. I'm not gonna watch. And then I started catching up on TV shows and things that I didn't have time for normally. But yeah, no, I was worried.
00:05:24
Speaker
Part of me deep down was a little concerned. What if I stop watching and I realize this is what I want? I want to not watch wrestling. There was part of me that considered that as a possibility. You mean for me or for you? Were you worried that this podcast wasn't going to happen again? I mean, it was always in the back of my mind as a possibility, but I had considered the possibility for you that
00:05:47
Speaker
stepping away from the world of pro wrestling for an extended period of time and going and rediscovering some of the other things that you love to do or enjoy or your other hobbies would make you be like, oh, maybe that was a partial stress contributor or was an element of my life that I needed to pull out in order to feel happier.
00:06:09
Speaker
I mean, it wasn't something that I was sitting there dwelling on or terrified of, but I had considered that as something that could happen. Well, that's funny because while I was on the break as well, I was like, what if Derek finds out that he doesn't like wrestling anymore during this break? So here's where it gets interesting. Over the last couple of months, I feel like
00:06:33
Speaker
Not intentionally, as yours was a detox, I have kind of, other than like watching AEW pretty consistently, I have fallen out of the wrestling loop more so than I have in years. And it was, like I said, it was not intentional. In fact, when you started getting back into it in the last few weeks, I felt like a little bit like, oh shit, I'm out of shape.
00:06:59
Speaker
You got to get that Christmas weight off. A little bit. You've been too busy butt chugging eggnog. But that's not false. I had so much fucking eggnog. That was an important part of the two months. I rediscovered my love of eggnog and damn near ruined it. But I cut myself off just in time.
00:07:22
Speaker
I know that there's probably a lot of people this is the case for. A lot of the pro wrestling that I ingested while we were away was primarily social media based. I wasn't actually sitting down and watching Raw or SmackDown or NXT. I would watch AEW. A lot of times I'd be on my phone while I was watching AEW. It doesn't mean I wasn't entertained, but
00:07:45
Speaker
Just it was a different mindset, I guess. Like I said, I think it was an unintentional detox. And yeah, kind of fell out of the loop a little bit. I am aware of things. However, I have not sat down and watched pro wrestling like I used to. But hey, we're back. We're watching wrestling. And it turned out when I watched wrestling, when I came back, it was everything I loved. I think I needed to be away from it to realize, you know, my heart grew fonder for it as I was away.
00:08:16
Speaker
Well, like I said, I had considered that maybe you would discover that you didn't want it or need it, or that was a strip, but there was also the part of me that, I mean, this is actually what I was leaning towards.
Garrett's Spontaneous Paris Trip
00:08:27
Speaker
I believe that taking a break from it was gonna make you fall in love with it again. Too much of a good thing can be bad. We all know that. Everything in moderation. Except for white claws, apparently. I did receive three cases of white claw for Christmas.
00:08:44
Speaker
Like were they wrapped up in gift wrap? They were, but they weren't all from the same person. So enough people know what I need that I had three cases of claws delivered to me. And honestly, great gift. Are they all gone by now? There is one case remaining. Oh my God. I got Leah on the claws now too, so they go a lot quicker.
00:09:05
Speaker
So let's talk about this because we do like, we're going to have to kind of interview each other a little bit because we're going to have to dig out all the little kernels of information from the last couple of months. You left the country and not only did you leave the country, you didn't tell me that you were leaving the country until the day you were leaving the country. Like I understand that you've had a rough time, but what a piece of shit move that was.
00:09:32
Speaker
That is true. Like I said, we'll get in more on what was going on with me towards the end of the episode. But straight up, I went to Paris, France and told Derek while I was at the airport that I was on the way.
00:09:45
Speaker
And again, you were like, I haven't told you this because I'm a little embarrassed, but I'm going to Paris. And I wasn't mad that you were going to Paris. I was weirded out that you were weirded out that you couldn't tell me. We'll get into that down the line. This all comes back to what was going on at the end. But yes, I did go to Paris and I officiated a wedding in Paris. Nice. So you're officially a pastor.
00:10:11
Speaker
Yeah, so if you need me to marry you, if you're such a big fan of this show that you need me- If you leave 10 reviews on iTunes, Garrett will officiate your wedding. I will come wherever you are. I will hop on that plane as long as there's some wrestling nearby that we can watch afterwards.
00:10:29
Speaker
Oh man. Can you imagine if this podcast starts getting booked for wrestle weddings? Oh man. Like where you officiate an IDJ or something? Hopefully we get to officiate a wrestler's wedding. I don't think wrestlers like us much, Derek, because of the name of this show.
00:10:44
Speaker
Oh, that's
Podcast Rebranding and Wrestling Updates
00:10:45
Speaker
so weird to me. That's petty. Like, fucking, you can't have it both ways where you're engaging with fans on social media in ways that suggest everyone knows that it's a work. And then be mad like, well, you can't call your podcast predetermined. That's too... Look behind the scenes. Shut up. We're not killing the business. We're goddamn fans. We love you. We appreciate you. We respect you. We use the word predetermined to defend you.
00:11:09
Speaker
So let's talk about that before we get back into your Paris thing. We are rebranding of sorts and calling ourselves the pre-determined podcast. We have dropped the, what would you call that? The subtitle, a pro wrestling hangout. Like it's still an important theme for the show, no doubt. But shorter. Shortening it. Sweeter. Pre-determined. I'm probably not even gonna say pre-determined podcast. I'm probably just gonna say pre-determined. Welcome to pre-determined. Welcome to pre-determined. Yeah, we've gone as this, are we doing like the Puff Daddy thing?
00:11:39
Speaker
Like Puff Daddy, then P Diddy, and then Diddy. We're WrestleJizzle. We're WrestleJizzle? A few years will just be called pre. Yeah, no, you went to Paris. So you go overseas to go to Paris. Did you get engaged with any pro wrestling things over there? No, you did not.
00:12:05
Speaker
Hey, just so you know, I was jet lagged as fuck. And while I was over there, I purchased GCW Untouchables and watched it at three in the morning. Our first GCW show. I watched it while I was over there in the middle of the night. So I haven't gone back and watched that show. You have that ability. Do you see us at all? Oh, yeah.
00:12:28
Speaker
Oh, we're prominently featured is what that oh yeah meant. We're not on hard cam, but there are definitely times where Nicholas Gage says, get the fuck out of my way. And our faces say yes, sir. Speaking of that match with Nick Gage, we got to throw a shout out to our old buddy Marcus Crane, who is seeing some rough times.
00:12:50
Speaker
What's going on with Marcus Crane these days? So I saw he was supposed to be at the GCW show. I went to a Nashville that we'll get to in a bit and he wasn't there. And I see that there had been a GoFundMe set up for him. He has some kind of condition. He ended up in a hospital and it turned out he has some kind of disease that's eating away at his skull.
00:13:14
Speaker
Well, fuck. So Marcus Crane is not in a good spot right now, and he does have a GoFundMe. I believe we posted it on the Instagram or on Twitter a while back, but if you can, go give Marcus Crane some money. He's done a lot for us, like a lot a lot. I woke Derek up and we watched needles get stuck through that man's face for our entertainment, and then later that night discussed it with him. Yeah.
00:13:40
Speaker
Marcus cranes a good dude in my book he's provided us with a lot of entertainment it's time for us to get back to him. Can we also talk about the fact that a big big fan of the podcast jim cornet. Is currently suing g raver for using his image. On a t shirt that he was selling.
00:14:01
Speaker
Well in all fairness, the image wasn't he like decapitated or dead or something? Well yeah, I think it was a violent image. Who are you going to bat for in this scenario? I made the joke that Jim Cornette was a fan of this show and you just bypass that and went into defending him. Hey, I don't even know what to say about that. I guess my mind went to weld the laws of the law.
00:14:26
Speaker
There's pro wrestling law where there's basically no rules, and then there's real life litigation. Where- It's not just that you went to Paris and became a pastor, you apparently became a fucking lawyer too. We about watched G Raver die in front of us, and here you are not supporting our guy here.
00:14:47
Speaker
Hey, no, I love G-Raver. I'm ready for G-Raver to be back. I hope he's ready to come back. I hope so too. I hope he's healthy. That said about Marcus Crane, I didn't want to diminish that by moving on to the other thing that made me think of, but... Yeah, throw Marcus Crane a couple bucks.
00:15:02
Speaker
Do you realize that the week we left, like a whole bunch of shit happened that we would have loved to have discussed? It's so funny because, well, again, we will get into the specifics for why we left, but it was one of those things where like we left and it was like the wrestling universe was like, good thing those guys are out of the room. Let's unleash this shit. So many things happened that were right in our wheelhouse to discuss on this podcast.
00:15:32
Speaker
Starting with, fucking CM Punk kind of came back to wrestling and I underline the words kind of. Yeah, it was, he came in with more of a whimper than a bang. He came in in the shadows. Literally in the shadows. Not mic'd, just talking in the dark to a camera. And changing the culture. One low rating at a time. I don't even think that's the biggest news that happened while we were gone.
00:16:04
Speaker
I mean, I'm having a hard time thinking of something. I mean, maybe for this podcast, bigger news. Yeah, for this podcast. Goddamn PCO became the world champion. Yeah. Was I the one to deliver that news to you? I think you were. Somebody sent me a text. It was probably you. So I was getting updated, but I was like, you got to be shitting me. We leave. PCO gets the title. PCO won a title in an empty arena match, I think.
00:16:30
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, that's another guy when we talk about the history of the predetermined podcast. PCO is another character much like Maxwell, Jacob Friedman, and much like the elite where their arc and their story is intertwined with our own and PCO is a character. I mean, I approached that man.
00:16:52
Speaker
the Ring of Honor world champion while he was wearing flip-flops and handed him a predetermined business card and said, we would like to have you on our show. And he awkwardly looked around. He's like, yeah, that'd be great, but I got to go. And we should have jumped on that fucking chance because now he's the world champ and he's got no time for us, probably. Yeah, he's
Podcast Journey and Future Plans
00:17:11
Speaker
I mean, he has it started off as a joke, right?
00:17:16
Speaker
I don't think so. I went back and rewatched just actually this week. I downloaded Spring Break 2 and rewatched the entire show. Because I just wanted to go back and see what it was like. Because that would have been my first GCW show ever. That would have been my introduction to Nick Gage. That would have been like Tony Deppin, Jimmy Lloyd. So many of these guys were on that show. And this was the show that had Walter versus PCO.
00:17:43
Speaker
I went back and rewatched it, and Tarek, that is a really good match. That was an exciting good match. Like, I was a true PCO mark at that point. Did you expect it to go this long, though? No, good for him, though. Look where he's been in the last two years. He fought Walter in the Pontchartrain Center in Louisiana, and now here he is the world champ.
00:18:09
Speaker
Yeah, and here's the other thing. We've missed a myriad of other little wrestling stories here and there. Fucking Daniel Bryan doesn't have facial hair anymore. The Universal title's blue. Nikki Bell is engaged. Keith Lee is the shit. Yeah, I leave and they push Keith Lee to the goddamn moon.
00:18:40
Speaker
We had, you and I had tickets to Survivor Series. We'll talk about at the end why we missed it. You're gonna hear me say we're gonna talk about that at the end a whole bunch. But fucking sold the Survivor Series tickets, had great seats. And then it turns out Keith Lee, how many times did I joke Keith Lee versus Roman Reigns? That was the other joke that I wanted to mention is that we, like you said, we had tickets to Survivor Series weekend. We would have been so happy.
00:19:08
Speaker
We would have been so happy leaving those shows. Fucking Kevin Owens comes back to NXT. I would have came all over the place if I had been in the building for that. That would have been your CM Punk and Chicago pop. Yeah, I probably would have lost. I might have gotten thrown out. You would have spilled all your fucking jalapenos all over the people in front of us. I would have spilled my beans.
00:19:33
Speaker
Why'd you spill your beans? That, Garrett, that was the name of the last episode of this show that came out. Yeah, that's gotten a shit ton of downloads because it was the last episode. I think somebody just kept coming back and downloading it every week hoping that it was a different version, maybe like the director's cut.
00:19:51
Speaker
Yeah, maybe we will eventually release a director's cut. What else has happened? Now there's apparently beef between CM Punk and The Miz. This is like the most recent controversy. I have honestly I've not since I've come back to wrestling the main things I've been paying attention to
00:20:08
Speaker
We're NXT, AEW, GCW, and with Wrestle Kingdom, I'm back into New Japan. So you can't say mainly when I came back into wrestling. You set that up like you've only been paying attention to one thing, and then you listed five or six things.
00:20:24
Speaker
I went through and listed everything but WWE and Ring of Honor, essentially. You just mentioned Ring of Honor, so you've clearly, you know who the ROH champ is. Oh, speaking of that, I better go on the ROH site and make sure that they don't have my credit card to auto renew my membership, because I'll tell you, I don't need it.
00:20:46
Speaker
You're not doing that? You're outright. We're back after our hiatus and you're already saying like, fuck ROH. Hey, during our hiatus, I got rid of every single wrestling app. I got rid of all of them. I canceled my membership. So would you save like a hundred bucks? Probably. But I got rid of all of them because I wanted to know at the end, which ones did I miss the most?
00:21:12
Speaker
Did you get your answer? Yeah, turns out GCW, AEW, and also New Japan. Yeah, we did kind of turn our back on New Japan when AEW debuted pretty hard. And what does New Japan do? They show us every single time why we fucked up by stopping watching.
00:21:34
Speaker
Hey, as far as I'm concerned, the entire pro wrestling universe was like, shh, get out of here, guys. Because as soon as we left, lots of good shit to talk about started happening. Yeah, the fucking week we leave, man. The week we leave, my boy Tana Hashi or Takahashi came back. Did you feel like when you would get little bits of this news, like the world was telling you, yeah, and stay out?
00:22:00
Speaker
We got Keith Lee, we got Takahashi, PCO's the champ. We don't need predetermined. The world's a better place without it. It felt that way for a little while. It was like scrooged. PCO's punching me in the dick, Bobcat Golfway's yelling at me. But we're back.
00:22:22
Speaker
So if the wrestling product starts to get worse, you know who to blame. Though I will say while I was in Paris, I did wear an Effie shirt in front of the Eiffel Tower. You wore an Effie shirt in Paris? What do you think? I packed nicer clothes? No, I dressed the same. That's true. I thought you were detoxing though. Are you allowed to wear your pro wrestling shirts when you're detoxing? That's a good question. That may be the only wrestling shirt I wore the entire time.
00:22:51
Speaker
All right, you hear that, Effie? Your shirt has made it all the way to Paris. Did you post that and tag him in it? That seems like something that would get some play. Hey, I was in front of the Eiffel Tower. I kind of forgot. Yeah. You should have worn a Joanie Ryan shirt and then laid down with the Eiffel Tower as your dick and then tagged him in that. Where were you on this trip? Where was I? Yeah, like why I needed you for that.
00:23:19
Speaker
Oh, can I tell you a little story, though, that was fun about the wedding? So I officiated a French wedding and they basically figured out last minute. Can I give my answer? You asked me if you could tell a story. And then you just started telling the story.
00:23:34
Speaker
Yeah, you can tell the story here. Go ahead. Thank you. So they decided to have it in the courtyard of the apartment we were staying in, which was very nice. Looked like something off of a movie studio backlot, since that's my only frame of reference for the rest of the world.
00:23:51
Speaker
And it was like a cobblestone thing, but there were businesses around us. So I'm standing there in a suit, bright and groom in their bright and groom clothes in front of me. I see this guy coming with a dolly, filled with like glass.
00:24:06
Speaker
and literally right what glasses it was a like a a glassware store like cups wine glasses like that's what they sold okay i thought you meant like shards of glass so yeah it was light tubes uh so they literally right as i start speaking this dude starts pushing this fucking trolley over cobblestone so dearly beloved
00:24:37
Speaker
So I'd kept a straight face. I kept it going. If you need me to officiate your wedding, I can do it under any condition. I think this does not become us promoting your next business venture. You want to get married?
00:24:53
Speaker
Just let me know. What were we talking about? I'm sorry, I got off track there. That was your story from Paris, right? That's it. That's the only thing that happened. Yeah, I mean, as far as me, I don't have any super exciting stories. I've been going through some family struggles. My grandmother is not doing well. That's been weighing on my mind the last month or so.
00:25:21
Speaker
I've made a couple trips back home to see her since then.
Personal Updates and Star Wars Discussion
00:25:25
Speaker
And that's been pretty heavy. Other than that, busy with work. I just purchased a season ticket plan for my beloved Chicago White Sox for the upcoming baseball season. My team has been busy the last couple months and it's made me happy. So I've had that to kind of occupy my mind during the break.
00:25:47
Speaker
Sports. Some of us look at the real stuff, too. The non-predetermined stuff, please. The real shit. We both saw Star Wars. We both loved Star Wars. Yeah, I did want to bring that up, even though I don't know how that fits into the pro wrestling sphere at all, but that we're getting caught up in our lives. So we both saw the new Star Wars. We both loved it. Apparently there's people out there who don't, and I don't understand why.
00:26:17
Speaker
I hear that it's fanservice, but I'm the fanservice me. To anyone who keeps using those two words fanservice, I would have loved somebody to have given me some fanservice back in 1999 when episode one came out. Fuck off. Would you say that Dominion 2018 was fanservice? Yeah, it was absolutely fucking fanservice. What do you hear of sequels by their very nature are fanservice.
00:26:46
Speaker
A film by itself is just art. Once you start doing sequels, you're like, oh, you want some more of that? You want to know they're helping? Here, fanservice. No one said, uh, the girl who rode home alone on the train. What was that movie? The Girl on the Train? With Emily Blunt, it was a sexy thriller. It was based off a book. Nobody said, this sexy thriller is fanservice. It's too much like the book.
00:27:08
Speaker
all of those fucking Lord of the Rings stories after the fucking Hobbit fanservice. Is this a generational thing? Could somebody on this who listens, I feel like Joey and Jeffy can fill me in on the derogatory nature of the words fanservice because I feel like it's a generational thing. I don't know, but- I think we're the same age as them.
00:27:35
Speaker
Well, no, I understand, but I feel like I've had like nerd conversations with a couple of our listeners online and I feel like they'll understand this, but I feel like I'm out of the loop as far as like being a critic of non pro wrestling nerd things. Like now, now I just show up and I'm like, I'm happy. That was fun. And you know what? That's, that's a good place to be in.
00:27:58
Speaker
Like, there's a lot of angry people, there's a lot of unsatisfied folk in today's world, and I'm just... I want to have fun and have a good time. I'm not trying to be a critic of everything. I know I didn't like the last main Star Wars movie, but it wasn't because I didn't want to like it. I fucking wanted to. I was excited about it. I owned a shirt for The Last Jedi, and I ended up not liking the movie. Where's that shirt now? I don't think I own it. I don't know where it's at now. Did Marie Kondo make you toss that one?
00:28:30
Speaker
That works, let's just go with that. That's an old reference to another episode. Yeah, for the diehards in the upper level. I had 100% Derek, the weirdest return to pro wrestling.
Wrestling Event Highlights
00:28:46
Speaker
I don't believe you. Yes, I did, Derek. I'm challenging you. When I took that month and a half off, my first pro wrestling show that I returned to,
00:28:57
Speaker
Actually, yeah, that would have been about a full month, I guess, was my hiatus from watching wrestling. GCW's Wombat 2. Oh, yes, you returned to Scaryville, didn't you? Scaryville, yes, Tolohoma, Tennessee. And I saw some shit, Derek.
00:29:19
Speaker
It was so weird because I was still like, I don't know if I'm ready to come back to the wrestling world yet. And for that to be the one that I got dropped into, it really, it was a test for me to see how much I really truly love this sport. Did you pass the test? Yeah, this show had a fair amount of nonsense on it, but it did open with a dark match that was the single greatest thing I've ever seen.
00:29:48
Speaker
And GCW did eventually post it to Twitter when Jim Cornette was complaining about another GCW show. He complained about on Jimmy All The Way, you know, a take on Jingle All The Way, but Jimmy Lloyd's Christmas show. Yes. They had Jordan Oliver versus Blake Christian. Those two
00:30:07
Speaker
Fucking banger match. It was so cool. They had one of those spots where they're just constantly reversing until they both stop like ninjas and get in the fighting stance and the crowd erupts. Cornette hated it. Seemed too rehearsed. Worst thing ever. I like that he subscribes to GCW apparently because he knew that a match in the middle of the show didn't fit his liking.
00:30:28
Speaker
but so GCW said okay well if this is killing the business then here's this and they posted the dark match from this wombat show it was I know the guy's name was JJ Garrett I didn't know the other wrestler they did a 15-minute match Derek of only headlocks
00:30:50
Speaker
There were no other moves performed than reversing out of headlocks. And it went to a 10, the match had a 10 minute time limit and it went to time limit draw. So after 10 minutes of headlocks, the crowd chanted five more minutes.
00:31:08
Speaker
Were you one of the people chanting that? Yes. They came, they went ahead and gave five more minutes of this match, crowd going wild for only headlocks, and it ended in time limit draw again. And Jim Cornette didn't like that? Well, I think GCW is saying, well, if you just want old moves, how's this? It's a fucking headlock. How real is that? The question is, did it shut him the fuck up? I don't, I don't think Cornette responded. He did fight with GCW a lot, though, over our break.
00:31:38
Speaker
Yeah. Big fan of the podcast, that James E. Cornett and we're a big fan of him. I feel like we're going to get sued for claiming that. You motherfuckers claimed you're a fan of me and I went back and listened to 60 hours a year show and heard you shit on me seven or eight fucking times. And I would say to Jim, I'd be like, fuck Jim, I haven't even listened to 60 hours of our podcast. What the fuck?
00:32:03
Speaker
It's like, first of all, thank you, Jim, for all those downloads while we were away. Rate, review, subscribe, please. So you came back with wombat. Can we talk? I don't know if you want to tie this into the end of the show. You were supposed to go to an AEW show in Nashville.
00:32:23
Speaker
Yeah, that's gonna kinda be the beginning of the story. At the end. We're doing like an old episode of Raw where there's a segment at the end of the show and we're just gonna keep fucking reminding you to stay tuned because there's a segment at the end of the show you need to listen to.
00:32:39
Speaker
Brock Lesnar might wrestle in the last 15 minutes boys you gotta keep stay tuned even if it's three hours stay around so Yeah Would we like to at this point segue into kind of some of the stuff we watched for this week's episode or like
00:32:57
Speaker
What else has happened? Are there any other stories you'd like to share from the two months away? Yeah, no, I went to two shows. This wombat show, though, one of the main things. So going back and rewatching it on the pay-per-view, it's presented more like N.W.A.
00:33:13
Speaker
where they're pretending like all these wrestlers have been going for a long time, you know, because this is a lot of just the Southern wrestlers. They want this to feel like a Southern wrestling show, and goddamn it, it was. But there was a match. It was a Dollar General gift card on a pole match. I saw this. It was Effie versus GQ Lightning. This match only lasted five and a half minutes.
00:33:39
Speaker
Because at one point, in going back and watching this on commentary, it's so funny. GQ Lightning is setting up a door across the ring in the barricade, puts Effie on it, climbs to the top of the turnbuckle,
00:33:52
Speaker
And Joey Janela goes, why are you doing this? Don't take this spot. And then when he does the spot, Effie rolls out, this guy lands ass first on the door, straight to the concrete. And then Janela just goes, what a fucking idiot. He just broke his ass. He just broke his fucking ass.
00:34:13
Speaker
And he broke his ass. Derek, he couldn't continue the match. He broke his fucking ass. So if he has a Dollar General gift card now as a result. Well, this is what happens. So they have to, you know, obviously just try and figure out how to end this thing. So he goes to get the ladder. Last time we were in Tola Homa for this shit, they had an extending ladder rather than rather than like a folding ladder.
00:34:38
Speaker
So as this guy, as Effie's trying to figure it out, he can't figure out how to extend it to go to the ceiling, because they have to lean it against a pillar at the top. He can't do it, so a bunch of wrestlers have to come out, including our good buddy Garrett. They hold this ladder, Effie climbs to the top, grabs the Dollar General gift card, and just kind of tosses it into the crowd and leaves.
00:35:01
Speaker
That's so weird. They should have done like those epic moments where all the wrestlers put them on their shoulders and parade him. Like that's that was the spot that should have happened there. There was also the gift card for it's probably five dollars.
00:35:17
Speaker
I mean, that's five items. I mean, yeah, that's a good amount. I mean, you can get some detergent, some chips, some, you can get everything. But there was the other one I have to bring up. Remember we talked about Juicy Jimmy and his butt plug last time. He had a- I don't remember that.
00:35:34
Speaker
Well, then go back and listen to some back episodes where we talk about it, man. You gotta remember all these stories. There's been a lot of nonsense we've talked about on this podcast. I don't think butt plugs was something that necessarily was so shocking that it stood out to me. Well, I believe Effie put the butt plug in Jimmy Juicy's mouth and super kicked it. That's par for the course. This time around, though, it was Juicy Jimmy versus Logan Stunt in a Waffle House deathmatch.
00:36:00
Speaker
Which is different from a regular deathmatch how? Uh, because the light tubes have waffles wrapped around them. What? Doesn't that soften the blow? You would think but some waffles get involved so it adds, it's a little festive. I was kind of hoping that the waffle irons were being used. No, just waffles. I believe somebody, I think somebody got a waffle stapled to them.
00:36:24
Speaker
God damn, you have to have a pretty long staple to pierce a waffle and keep it. Well, it wasn't a crisp waffle. They look pretty floppy. They had some uncooked Eggos out of the box. But to me, this was the biggest thing that happened while we were gone. I got to go to this show. This was the next night. Long live GCW happened at Basement East. This to me, Derek, was the the indie equivalent of watching The Undertaker's streak end.
00:36:52
Speaker
You saw something pretty historic, and there's a picture out there of what your fucking face looks like when it happens too, so. Oh, I was Undertaker guy. So Nick Gage has a match with AJ Gray. In my mind, Nick Gage is never gonna lose this title. Ricky Shane Page comes out and fucks with him a little bit, but that doesn't result in him losing. AJ Gray ends up beating fucking Nick Gage.
00:37:20
Speaker
Well, how did he beat him, Gary? That's kind of important. You can't just fast forward to the result. Well, there was some fuckery, but then it resulted in, you know, AJ Gray and Nick Gage fighting for a little bit longer and AJ Gray penning him. I mean, this was a while ago, so I'm trying to remember the exact finish. But earlier in the night, Ricky Shane Page came out and Nick Gage said, you will get a title match against whoever, whenever, wherever.
00:37:44
Speaker
So AJ Grey gets to celebrate his title win for approximately five seconds, and then Ricky-Shane Page comes out and I guess cashes in Nick Gage's offer to take a title match whenever he wants it, because I think, I guess, Nick Gage is the commissioner. And who's going to tell him no? Who's going to tell him no? So Ricky-Shane Page beats AJ Grey in one minute. Ricky-Shane Page is the new champ, but it'll always show in the history books that AJ Grey dethroned the king.
00:38:15
Speaker
That's the look on your face. For an indie promotion, for Nicholas Gage to lose before your very eyes and to elicit that response from you. That's actually fucking hilarious. That took me back to, like it honestly was that moment where I was just like, fuck, I love wrestling. When a story can grab me so hard and surprise me this much that my jaw dropped. I honestly thought the referee fucked up.
00:38:48
Speaker
I was like, there's no way Nick Gage loses in Nashville. I think you're saying that that brought back all those good feelings that you like to feel when you watch good wrestling.
00:39:01
Speaker
Really going to that GCW show the entire time, we were front row for it, and just, once again, just being there and it all being right in our face, uh, schlack busting through a door right inside my eyes. You know, like... God, they bled all over the place. There was a deathmatch there, but most of it wasn't in the ring. They bled all over the basement east, where Fozzie will be performing soon.
00:39:25
Speaker
Are you gonna go see Fauzi? Well, I remember how Jericho always said that he had the greatest VIP experience, the best value, that it was always 30 bucks to go do the VIP Fauzi experience. Well, I don't remember the 30 bucks part. I always thought it was more than that. No, it was always like 30 bucks. And I'm like, you know what? I will buy a ticket and pay 30 bucks to hang out with Chris Jericho. He has since upped the price to $150. Well, he's in demand.
00:39:54
Speaker
Le Champillon doesn't come cheap. You're telling me a year ago he wasn't in demand? Because of the AEW title, that raises the price that much? I think he found out that he was selling himself short. That's like if Metallica raised ticket prices and they're like, didn't you hear Jericho's champ?
00:40:15
Speaker
It's a band. That shouldn't have anything to do with wrestling. I don't want to hear you shit on Jericho. Jericho's got shit on enough this week and I've had enough of it. What happened to Jericho? Jericho got fat shamed because of Wrestle Kingdom and this is a personal story to me because that's how I got blocked by Jericho in the first place on Twitter before he unblocked me which was a huge
00:40:36
Speaker
news story for us on this show momentous occasion. It was very momentous. Um, yeah, apparently there, there was a whole thing on social media about ripping Jericho's, uh, the, the quality of his physique because of how he looked at wrestle kingdom. However, I thought his performance at wrestle kingdom was fantastic. So I don't know. Suck it.
00:41:01
Speaker
Speaking of an old WCW wrestler, last thing I gotta mention for this GCW show. There was a match between Effie and Mance Warner for the vacant WCW Big Gold title. What? Mance Warner came out and it was a match for Big Gold. And at one point during this match, Derek Sting made an appearance.
00:41:26
Speaker
Oh, God. Sting, meaning Marco Stunt. It was Marco Stunt and Stingpaint. What I'm saying is GCW is still doing good shit. They're doing my favorite wrestling. I will actually be in Austin, Texas next weekend, not this coming weekend, but the next weekend to witness a Texas deathmatch between Nick Gage and Alley Cat. Are you going down there to visit your sister or to go see GCW?
00:41:56
Speaker
Little column A, little column B. Yeah, both. I'm actually taking my brother-in-law to his very first wrestling match, and we are sitting front row at GCW.
00:42:09
Speaker
Jeremy? Jeremy's going. Oh my god, I hope you showed Jeremy a good time. Send my love. This will be a deathmatch. Do you think this is a little intense for the first wrestling match ever? Garrett, don't act like you're apologetic about this shit. It's like every time you take somebody to their first wrestling match, there's something wild about it. There should be.
00:42:30
Speaker
Exactly, so fucking own it. This is how you feel. You throw them into the deep end. You sink or swim, man, and there's going to be a little glass in your eyes after this, but you'll be a stronger man for it. You basically did that to me, and I'm a fan of pro wrestling. I didn't know that we were going to fucking death match wrestling until the day of. Man, the big death matches are coming back to Japan in a few weeks. Jesus.
00:42:55
Speaker
Okay, but yeah, I'll be in Austin, so if we have any listeners in Austin and you're at GCW, come say hi. Speaking of GCW, I didn't find out until your post that you had a fucking GCW jacket. Oh yeah, I got that at the Nashville show.
00:43:09
Speaker
Oh yeah. I realized I didn't own a single piece of GCW merchandise and I wanted to get a get a jacket. You're like if I'm gonna get something GCW I want it to keep me warm. Yeah well it's I mean it's like basically a swishy plastic jacket almost. So it's not super warm but you know. Like a windbreaker. Yeah.
00:43:27
Speaker
I'll wear that around. Actually, I will not wear that to Chicago because we're going to goddamn revolution. That's true. I had a ticket to AEW revolution. By the way, can we talk about that too? That was another thing that was announced and happened while we were away. Yeah, that was just a pay-per-view came out of nowhere.
00:43:46
Speaker
Well, how many times have they run Chicago in the last couple years? Three. Well, are we not including All In? I was. Oh, I forgot they ran the TV taping, too. Yeah, they ran All In. They did All Out. They ran the TV taping. Now, I guess here's the difference between this. For those not from the area, we've talked about this a multitude of times.
00:44:12
Speaker
All of AEW's shows have been run at the Sears Center, which is technically out in the suburbs in a place called Hoffman Estates. AEW Revolution is actually going to be taking place in downtown Chicago in the South Loop at Wind Trust Arena, a relatively new complex that I have not been to yet. But we're going to be going.
00:44:36
Speaker
So do we know any matches so far? I think we only have one that I can think of. There's a lot that they're hinting at right now. In fact, we are recording this episode right now during Dynamite, so there will probably be some updates. But they're they're hinting at Jericho Moxley. They're hinting at Cody versus MJF. So yeah, I mean, there's there's working. It's here's the thing. We got cheated out of Moxley at the last AEW pay-per-view here in Chicago, so.
00:45:05
Speaker
They gotta bring him back. I was just worried about him being able to survive Wrestle Kingdom without getting injured. It seemed like he did fine. I think he's fine. But man, one thing that his, I don't know if we're headed towards this, but we're obviously leaning towards Hangman Page is in a little bit of a, you know, it seems like he's on the outskirts of the elite right now and probably about to leave.
00:45:29
Speaker
My roommate Chris was pointing out what a great shirt Hangman was wearing last week on Dynamite. My wife said the same. The embroidery? Yes. I was informed that shirts like that, like the button shirts with the embroidered flowers and sparkly shit or whatever, those don't come cheap apparently.
00:45:48
Speaker
oh no that's a nice shirt hangman page has some cowboy shit money and he's spending it on t-shirts apparently yeah no there seems to be some tension brewing between uh between kenny and and hangman so if we get kenny versus hangman page in chicago
00:46:07
Speaker
I'm coming, is that correct? Already? I'm coming! Well, it's funny because it's the beginning of January still technically. That pay-per-view's not all the way until the end of February. We've got plenty of time to get there. Well, if you guys are listening, make that happen, because that's a match that I would absolutely love to be in the building for. For sure. Should we talk Wrestle Kingdom for a bit before we get to the end? Let's talk Wrestle Kingdom. Yeah, let's get into some Wrestle Kingdom,
00:46:37
Speaker
Was this the first time it was a two-day event? Yeah, this was the first time. Wrestle Kingdom 14, two days. People raving about this show. I definitely can confirm. It seemed like a damn good show. I watched five or six matches. I didn't watch both nights. I did watch matches from both nights, pussy. You make the mistake. You're just like, hey, there's a show on tonight at like 1 a.m. And I'm like, that's cool. I've got work at 4.30 that I have to get up for.
00:47:09
Speaker
But it sounds like you were jet lagged for an extended amount of time from your trip to France. And so that has kind of rolled over into your ability to sleep.
00:47:23
Speaker
Yeah, no, I basically didn't sleep in France got back had to go to you know My parents house for Christmas didn't sleep there. I've basically been awake for like six weeks. No, I'm getting some sleep It's okay, but Wrestle Kingdom this weekend. I stayed up and watched both live I can tell you with a hundred percent certainty I would have taken a nap during the pre-show of the first night if I had been a smart man You don't need it. You don't need it. You don't need the pre-show. I
00:47:49
Speaker
don't get me wrong there's some good young lions all those uh you know those white wrestlers that i saw in nashville yeah if you want to see all those white guys that uh only wrestle when no one has visas to get over here uh they're there they're still good that clark guy clark conners he's still awesome but that being said wrestle kingdom's a long event i don't need it
00:48:13
Speaker
Yeah, that's man. You know, Japan is ahead of us in a lot of.
00:48:21
Speaker
technologically based advance. What am I trying to say here? Technological advances. Yeah, they're better technological advances. I think that they are setting the mold for what WrestleMania should probably follow, which is making it a multi-day event and giving each show a completely different, you know, card and feel to it. Garrett, lots of good matches on these, on these two days. Where do you want to start? Because I definitely didn't watch everything, but I watched all the big stuff.
00:48:51
Speaker
Okay, so like where did, I'm assuming for night one, you probably just watched the final four or at least Moxley Archer. I did watch Moxley versus Lance Archer. And that was fun. Especially, I think the theme of a lot of these matches, and I don't know if this is just, I forgot this is the case with New Japan. Love the finishes for most of these matches. Like fucking fantastic finishes for every single one of the matches I watched.
00:49:19
Speaker
Did it make you excited that Moxley has the title again? Yes. It really seems like I like an AEW guy having a title over there because I, goddamn, there was a bit of me that I was like, oh, what if we got Jericho versus Tanahashi in Chicago?
00:49:37
Speaker
There was deep down, I was hoping that that was going to be the main event of revolution because Jericho was going to give Ta-Nehisi a or no. Yeah. Wait. No. What am I saying? Who is going to get a title shot? Ta-Nehisi was going to get a title shot if he beat Jericho. Oh, with the AEW title. I was like, yeah, because I started thinking like, who the fuck did Jericho fight? Yeah, fought Ta-Nehisi for an AEW title shot in the future.
00:50:02
Speaker
I love that they even brought it up, that they mentioned AEW. It doesn't seem like we're quite there yet, but God, I want them to work together. That seems like they have to be working together a little bit because New Japan booked them. They booked the AEW guys to look strong. Moxley walked out with the IWGP United States Championship and Jericho beat Tanahashi.
00:50:28
Speaker
Which that's- AEW guys went over. That's pretty cool though, Tanahashi versus Jericho, just almost like a Legends match. For sure. And again, something that I think gets overlooked and doesn't get talked about enough, when Jericho breaks out like the legit like Lion Tamer finisher, it's a- it's a true finisher when it looks like he's breaking your neck.
00:50:51
Speaker
Oh, yeah, I feel like we haven't seen him put in a lion tamer that hard on anyone in years. Yeah, that was it stops. It stops looking like it stops looking just like they're doing the Boston Crabs stick and it gets into like, oh, fuck, he's actually trying to murder you. This. Yeah, this isn't a rest hold. He's breaking Tana Hashi. That's what you're always worried that your friend and your is going to do to you in their basement when you guys are play wrestling as kids. They're just going to fucking legit try to murder you.
00:51:18
Speaker
I feel like that's what you always worried I was going to do to you. I was always afraid you were going to step on my head and torque the neck.
00:51:28
Speaker
And who slammed a garage door onto whose midsection? Who won that match? I think as far as I'm concerned, I'm still the backyard champion of our Federation. I think you are, but it's always because of shenanigans. Somehow there was a disqualification in a cage match. Don't know how the fuck that happened, but... Why do you think I love the Miz so much? Oh my God. Shenanigans. Yeah, Ta-Nehashi Jericho was great. I think it ranks up there with Jericho's New Japan matches. I think it's in the top two or three.
00:51:59
Speaker
Yeah, I'm trying to think... I think his first match with Omega was like his best match that he's done over there, right? I think just because it was so fresh and people were so excited. It was just such a brand new thing. But I don't think it was just good. It also was, I mean, two guys who were very, very good at what they do putting on a fucking crazy match that you don't normally see in New Japan. Right. It was brand new to us and it was awesome.
00:52:24
Speaker
This night one, though, what would you say of the matches you saw? What was the best match? I think this is actually really hard because I think those last three matches were all really good. And you don't hear me say that often about Jay White. I will say I didn't watch the Jay White match, but what I did watch of Kota Ibushi and Okada was hard hitting as fuck.
Naito's Victory and NJPW Storylines
00:52:48
Speaker
We got the exact match we wanted out of those two.
00:52:52
Speaker
Absolutely. And again, we've said this before when a bushy strikes. I mean, that's not there's nothing work about those strikes. That's just that's just him kicking the shit out of you. What if a bushy right now is smiling like, oh, he thinks I'm really kicking him.
00:53:09
Speaker
Well, I would say that you are a master of deception, sir. You are a magician. Don't get lost. No. And this is what's so fantastic about pro wrestling. You were talking about it a little bit with the Nick Gage losing the title to AJ Gray thing.
00:53:29
Speaker
I was convinced that Ibushi was winning. Oh, it was his time in my head. And they did the job in the match of making Ibushi seem like he was winning. Like the moment where, you know, Okada's laying in these different fucking moves to him and he's just no selling them and kind of smirking at him. Like he's not being affected. That's usually the buildup to the comeback and the win. And for Okada to still come out with the victory,
00:53:58
Speaker
Like, holy shit. And then that means so Nido beat Jay White got the IC title. Then I guess, no, Nido already had it, didn't he? Yeah. So then, oh, no, Jay White was the champion.
00:54:15
Speaker
Like I said, I didn't watch, and I haven't been, and I knew, last I knew, Naito was the Intercontinental Champion. We really just, I know, we'll talk about Okada in this real quick, but yeah, Naito, J. White was the champion, Naito beat him, and then that meant, because whoever won that title was gonna get to go to the main event of WrestleKing tonight too, and somebody was gonna walk out the first double champ.
00:54:40
Speaker
Correct. So Okada, Obushi, have a goddamn banger. Everybody's beat up from that. Then the next night, Okada has to turn around and do it all again against Naito.
00:54:52
Speaker
Going into the Naito match, knowing that Okada won now, they kind of swerved you with Ibushi. Did you think Naito was going over? Did you think like this has to be his time then? So I didn't watch this live as I made clear to you earlier. I had to go back and watch this recently. I want you to be very happy when I say this. I knew I got spoiled and I knew that Ibushi didn't beat Okada.
00:55:39
Speaker
and I don't want my I was I it was like I was watching the live which is exactly what you want but like I fucking popped weren't you so happy for him I was it was the completion of a story that's been going on for years before I was even aware of New Japan just getting to see him like does this make up for two years ago do you think like him getting to be the first double champ
00:55:46
Speaker
I didn't know anything about the Naito Okada match at all.
00:56:06
Speaker
Absolutely. This is kind of his prize. Now you look back at the journey to get to that moment as part like it was the story. Well, I love that they brought it up on commentary because so when I was at Wrestle Kingdom, this is one of the I think I said this at the time, this was in the top two times that I've been in a building where the life got sucked out of it.
00:56:30
Speaker
At Wrestle Kingdom 12, that building was so hot for Nido. Everybody was so ready. And when Okada won, it was just like a collective like, oh no. What was the other time when Sting got beat by Triple H? No, I'll never stop saying this. It was when Mizdow didn't win the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal in the pre-show of Mania 31.
00:56:56
Speaker
Well that was the same show where Sting beat by Triple H. You get to see that happen twice in the same show. Seriously though, that crowd, there was an entire stadium cheering for Mizdow and they didn't go with it. They went with Big Show. Who came back this week? Wait, he's wrestling?
00:57:13
Speaker
He came back on Raw this week. To do what? So, I don't know if you've heard, I'll get back to the Wrestle Kingdom shit here in a second. Authors of Pain are now aligned with Seth Rollins. I heard. And they are currently feuding with Kevin Owens, who's like the top babyface on Raw now, and Samoa Joe. Samoa Joe and KO are like a, I don't know if a faction, but they're like a team.
00:57:39
Speaker
They have joined forces. They had a three on three tag match scheduled on raw for the main event. But the third man for Owens and Joe was a mystery. And when Big Show came out, he got a nice pop as their third man for the tag match. And they ended up beating Rollins in the AOP.
00:58:00
Speaker
What is a Rollins an AOPs faction name are they just the super cool dudes? I don't fucking even know if they have a faction name like I said I haven't sat down and actually watch the show. It's been social media But uh yeah big sugar I guess he's had like five hip surgeries in the last like six months to a year Doesn't he have a Netflix show coming out too does he?
00:58:22
Speaker
I think he did. It makes sense that you're more aware of that than you are his actual full-time career. Because I spent more time watching Netflix than wrestling over the last two months. Um, Wrestle Kingdom. I was extremely, I'll go back to it, I was extremely happy for Nido and fucking Kenta had to show up and ruin the party. Kenta ruins every party he's ever been at.
00:58:46
Speaker
He's the guy that walks in and the record scratches and everybody like two hours into him being there is like, okay, we're gonna pretend like everybody's going home. But when he leaves, we're just gonna party like regular. Kenta, man, he was a disappointment to me. I'm not loving Kenta. You're pissed or you worked? Well, I'm not pissed. I just like, I'm not super excited about him. I think there's a difference between not liking a guy and just being like, man,
00:59:13
Speaker
I could do without him being a part of this. It's like, I don't need him to be Nido's first guy. Can we just be happy for Nido for a minute? I'm so happy for Nido. Don't accuse me of- We saw him wrestle. Like, what was that? A little over a year ago? What, at the Logan Square? Logan Square Auditorium. And then, honestly, one of the best show, one of the best, uh, in ROH shows I've ever been to was that one where we got Bullet Club versus, uh, LIJ. Yeah.
00:59:43
Speaker
So no, that was almost two years ago. Is that weird to think about? Time has really flown by. I mean, when season one of your podcast goes 94 episodes, which I think is the perfect number of episodes for a season. So welcome to season two, by the way.
00:59:59
Speaker
Yeah, we've been, technically we started season two a while ago. We called it that. Or did we call it after the first year or something? Yeah, I think we did. I want to cancel that and just say that we run on 94 episode seasons. We will go 94 straight weeks and then we'll disappear. I don't even think of it like that because we've, how many bonus and watch along episodes have we done that like fuck up the entire total of what we've actually recorded? We'll never know. There's no way to even find out.
01:00:29
Speaker
Well, I'm sure we could, but I don't feel like taking the time to go count. I'm just like, you know, I'm invested in the podcast. I'm not that invested in the podcast where I'm going to go one, two, three. Not doing it, but no, we started we started this journey with this podcast, I believe in late January of twenty eighteen.
01:00:53
Speaker
We're coming up on two years. Now, given we're coming off of a two-month hiatus, so... Honestly, we really only missed, I think, one week that entire time. Yeah. Other than this, but yeah. We had a bunch of people who reached out to us saying it was a well-deserved break.
01:01:13
Speaker
And I appreciated that. Yeah, I'm just saying that it was nice that people we are listeners were hyper understanding. Let's make that clear. We're very grateful for all the love and support you guys gave us while we were away. Well, I guess should we go into why we were away?
01:01:29
Speaker
Let's get into it, Garrett. If you're ready to unpack your bags here and talk about why we had to take the hiatus, I would be more than happy to assist you in telling the story of why we had to take a break.
Mental Health Struggles and Seeking Help
01:01:45
Speaker
Yeah, so I've not been very shy about like I have some mental health problems. I've got depression and anxiety and I had been struggling with finding the right medication and it finally hit me pretty hard.
01:02:00
Speaker
Where I was just having my social anxiety was through the roof and honestly it all started at all out it was like right before all out things were getting pretty bad for me and What what made you? What was the big like the the warning sign that things were getting out of control like what made it different than other
01:02:22
Speaker
flare-ups you've had in the past. Well, I can't remember if this was... Maybe this was one of the weeks that I ended up taking off right before that. I had changed some medication, all my muscles locked up for two days. All my muscles were as tight as they could be for two days, that sucked. But I started getting to the point where I was missing things I was excited for.
01:02:47
Speaker
My social anxiety was so bad that even when I was talking to people I've known for a long time, my hands would shake.
01:02:55
Speaker
Like I was just getting so uncomfortable in every situation. I was starting to get like these mental blocks as well where simple things started to seem impossible in my brain. Like this is going to sound dumb as shit, but like I needed a new pair of shoes and for like six months I was trying to go to the mall and buy new pair of shoes, but it was like somehow making a decision was impossible for me.
01:03:20
Speaker
I ended up having to go to the mall and I threw away my shoes that I was wearing and bought new ones. Uh, that was how you forced your, your hand. It was, yeah. And then like another, how can you describe what that would be like to somebody? Like just like, what, what were you feeling? Like, how do you describe that particular brand of anxiety?
01:03:38
Speaker
it just it feels like there is a wall up that I just could not get over and it would be for dumb shit like and it's something that you know is irrational and it's so hard to explain that to people who don't get it you know what I mean like it's I mean you don't maybe I don't know
01:03:58
Speaker
Okay. I don't know. It is really hard to explain. It is just a wall. And then another thing was I just, I couldn't, I quit, I basically cut myself off from everybody for months. I hadn't been returning texts in a really long time. I hadn't been, I don't know, it was just something about texting people was making me so nervous and uncomfortable. And I was, the thing though that really got me to be like, okay, I need to go get help.
01:04:25
Speaker
I had a front row seat to AEW when they were coming through Nashville. I could not bring myself to leave the house to get to it. Like what was it that you were most like or at least the thing you felt like you were most concerned about with going to the show? I couldn't talk to anybody anymore. Like I was worried I was going to run into somebody I know and have a conversation.
01:04:50
Speaker
and you didn't want to do it? I couldn't. Like my brain made it feel like it was impossible. Like I just couldn't leave the house. I do want to say I am on the right medication and for the last month and a half I have felt the most normal I have in years.
01:05:08
Speaker
I'm back to back to I mean, I put normal in quotes. But yeah, like depression sucks and it like it hits you so hard and brings you down and you know what's happening. There's just no getting around it. You kind of just got to sit there and wait it out.
01:05:25
Speaker
It was definitely concerning on my end because like I said, there's nothing I can do to fix it other than just like basically be there when you need to vent. But if I can't personally relate to the exact feelings that you're going through, I mean, how much advice or whatever can you hear from somebody else to fix your situation? Especially, and the thing is, in being your friend for years and years and years and years and years,
01:05:53
Speaker
So much of this, I feel like, I don't know if this has always been there for you or if I just didn't notice. You have changed your medication a couple of times in the last year or two, is that correct? Yeah.
01:06:06
Speaker
I guess my question to you would be, what makes you confident that this change is different than the other changes? Because I feel like one other time you've at least made a change and you're like, oh, this is completely better. I feel like back on the right track. And then that ended up not being the case after a little while. What's different about this time?
01:06:27
Speaker
Well, it turned out that basically what had happened is I had gone. I had been going to a psychiatrist and she was terrible. Every time I went to the psychiatrist, we spent the whole time her trying to figure out how to swipe my credit card. And like we didn't really talk about my brain at all. What? Yeah, it was fucked up.
01:06:47
Speaker
It was really fucked up like I was basically paying I had to go see this lady like once every couple months just and pay her money so that she would write me a prescription for pills. And then I went to a new psychiatrist and found out that this lady had had me on less than the average amount for a normal sized person.
01:07:09
Speaker
Huh. So this guy was this was the first time I had gone to a doctor and he told me exactly how my brain felt to me. And there was such a relief. It was like, you know, the monkey went off my back. I felt my shoulders come a little intense just hearing somebody say like, no, this is what's happening to you. And this is how you feel. And he kind of described my like my level of depression falls more into
01:07:36
Speaker
He described it as like obsession where like and that's where you know like the thing where just a simple act like buying shoes became felt so impossible that my brain obsessed over how I couldn't do it or come to do it. Because you felt like you knew it was a thing you had to do and because you had to do it that put pressure on you to accomplish the task. It's just yeah it was just like weird little tasks felt impossible and gave me like crippling anxiety
01:08:05
Speaker
But so essentially when you realize that your anxiety was now not allowing you to go enjoy this thing that you've been looking forward to for a long time and AEW showing up in Nashville, you're like, okay, this is a problem.
01:08:21
Speaker
Yeah, because I had missed stuff in the past where like I would skip a concert, but I could chalk that up to like, I'm tired or something. I just don't feel like going. And that can happen to anybody. Like you can buy tickets for anybody can buy tickets for or have an event planned or something. And then when the day comes, just the situation calls for canceling.
01:08:40
Speaker
It just, yeah, this was the final one where I'm like, OK, now I'm starting to miss stuff that I really care about. And also just the fact that I couldn't talk to friends anymore. I was cutting everybody off and I didn't want to be doing that. But there was just something about talking to people. And even when I went to the the GCW show in Tolohoma, it was still like I was still in that like space. And then when I got to the GCW show in Nashville, I think I was even texting you from the line that I didn't know if I was going to be able to handle it.
01:09:10
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I remember that. But then like, are you also queen of the ring was there and it was great seeing her. I was going to ask, like you didn't really mention much about your interaction with, with, with Alex. I felt bad because I was still in like that, that head space where I was like coming back to talk into people and it just, I don't know. I still felt uncomfortable and nervous. Like I said, I've been feeling, I've started feeling that way around people that I've known for years.
01:09:40
Speaker
Was it, can you take me through the process from your end of contacting me about stopping the podcast for a while? Let's see, I mean, I'm trying to remember how that even came up. Were you scared or nervous to bring that up? I was nervous because part of it is like what you said. There is that little bit in my head that it's like, if we stop this, will the listeners come back? If we stop doing this, will we wanna come back?
01:10:09
Speaker
Will you decide you didn't want to come back? There was a lot of factors in that that I was really nervous about doing this break. But honestly, I feel so refreshed. I feel so good. I really missed everybody. Seriously, honest to God, thank you to all the listeners that reached out to me during that time.
01:10:29
Speaker
It was rough, but I got through it. And the only reason I wanted to say all of this is just I know there's other listeners out there that are dealing with the same shit. And it's like you feel crazy doing it sometimes, but you're not alone.
01:10:44
Speaker
Going to get help is just getting there. That is the hardest first step is just sitting down because it's one of those things where I have to schedule a thing and that felt impossible. But once now that I'm on this medication, like this new medication, it's actually the I'm on the old one with a combination of a new one that was added. And I have had so few bad days since then, like maybe just one a month now instead of where I was having it five times a week.
01:11:14
Speaker
I'm extremely happy that you're feeling better. And the thing is, I never take it for granted. Like, I always kind of in the back of my mind, think that, you know, like, if you have a rough day or something, that's not a big deal. And I figured that if you were asking for time off, like, I was going to be down for it too. Because I mean, shit, man, we can always use a break or whatever. We've been doing it for a long freaking time. And I know I feel refreshed.
01:11:42
Speaker
as a result of having taken the two months off.
Gratitude and Podcast Return Plans
01:11:45
Speaker
So it's not necessarily a bad thing. And I think the other lesson to take away from all of this, at least this is my perception of it, you can confirm this, you should never guilt trip yourself into thinking that stepping back from things that you love is a bad thing.
01:12:04
Speaker
that it's okay to take a break from things. It's okay to take yourself out of situations to get a fresh perspective and to, like we said earlier, to essentially detox and find out how you feel when you step away from things that you enjoy for a while. In other words, you don't owe
01:12:26
Speaker
putting yourself through things for anybody else. You gotta take care of you first, even if it's things you enjoy. So no pressure. You're not letting anybody down. I think you had expressed concern to me that you would be letting our listeners down if we stopped. And I said, I think our listeners who've stuck with us up to this point, who know us,
01:12:45
Speaker
I mean, they get it. They're not going to take it out on us. They're not going to hold it against us for taking a break. And I hope that you're excited that we're back. No, I am. And I just like I know like Lowell reached out to me today. I hadn't responded to him yet. But seriously, thank you. Thanks to Luke and Billy that reached out. Dalton and Joey, the curtain jerks, which actually Chris sent me a nice care package the other day. And I have to give him a huge thanks for that.
01:13:14
Speaker
You got a care package from Chris? I did. He sent me. This is truly a Christmas gift from somebody who knows me well. He sent me a Nick Gage patch that I'm going to get to put on my jacket that is of Nick Gage's mugshot.
01:13:30
Speaker
Oh shit. A Nick Gage pen, some St. Louis Blues trading cards, and a Brody King sticker that I'll always laugh thinking about him busting his ass on the ground at Bola, which he did break his ass too, but his was way funnier than GQ Lightnings. Oh my God.
01:13:53
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I'm sure, I mean, this is directed at you. I'm sure me and all of our listeners, we're happy to hear that you are doing better. We're happy to have you back. I mean, I'm excited to try some new things with the podcast. We'll be making some changes to the show here and there over the next few weeks, doing some new things. Yeah, we're gonna add some more segments. We're gonna try to change up a couple things. You know, we're coming up on episode 100.
01:14:22
Speaker
We would like to have some, like a, like a new feel, but what, you know, some of the old stuff too, that you like. Same old bullshit. Same old bullshit. Some new features. Same old bullshit with a coat of paint. Yep.
01:14:35
Speaker
Yeah, I also, before we get out of here, I did want to say it was also nice when we stepped away from the podcast to find out that I'd had interactions with people that you've introduced me to and that I've met through the podcast just online that didn't require the podcast. So I've, you know, it was nice being reminded that the show itself has helped me make some friends. So thank you to, you know, Alex, thank you to Joey. Thank you to Dalton.
01:15:04
Speaker
a bunch of others, Lowell, the curtain jerks, everybody that we mentioned. It's been nice having interactions with about other things outside of wrestling too, so.
01:15:16
Speaker
Andrew, our new listener, Teagum, I don't know. I don't know your first name at this point. But hey, also, you left a review. It's time to pick something that you want us to watch, buddy. Welcome to the predetermined family and give us something. I don't care if it's crazy. I don't care if it's just one of your favorite matches. Give us something you want us to watch, though, and we'll we'll get that on an upcoming episode.
01:15:38
Speaker
We've already plugged how you can you can be kind of the podcast by going on iTunes and give us the five stars and leaving us the review. But as always, we do have an email you can reach out to us at predetermined podcast at Gmail dot com. We also have social media gear. What's our social media stuff? It's been so long.
01:15:57
Speaker
at wrestle hangout on twitter at predetermined podcast on instagram i am at gartet derek is at halloween halpin i've been shit the past year uh responding to things but i will say i have been texting friends again this is this is this is a new big step for me but i'm back in a writing mood and if you write to me if you write us an email i will respond if you shoot me a twitter a tweet
01:16:21
Speaker
You shoot something on Instagram? I will respond. I am back. I'm feeling good. I'm ready for this new year. PCO's the world champ. Takahashi's neck is fine again. I'm just happy to be back, man. I truly missed all you guys. Where is Marty Skrull gonna show up?
01:16:38
Speaker
Maybe Chicago. Maybe. Totally a possibility. Actually, that is a possibility. I didn't think about that until just now. There's a lot of things we're excited to get back into. I'm excited to be doing the show with you again. And hey, if you guys listen to this episode, if you're excited that we're back, reach out to us on our social media. We'll retweet your responses. Help us promote that we are back. That would really help us out beyond just the reviews and the five stars.
01:17:08
Speaker
Just spreading the love, sharing the good word of the boys from Predetermined.
Closing Dedications and Show Ending Options
01:17:14
Speaker
And also before we leave, I just wanted to give a special shout out. I mentioned earlier that my grandmother's health has not been great lately. Her birthday, her 83rd birthday was January 7th. So I'd like to dedicate this episode, this comeback episode to my grandma, Betty. Love you and miss you.
01:17:38
Speaker
That was very sweet. Top that, Garrett. I can't. I can't. You said a very sweet thing, and what can I say besides something filthy to fuck it up? Are we going to insert music here? Are we going to say our old slogan? What are we doing? How are we getting out of here? It doesn't feel right to not hit our goddamn music. Yes.