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Pod Warriors 16: Best B-Shows Ever
31 Plays2 years ago
Heel Husband and the Fig God are back with the latest installment of Pod Warriors. This time around, they are discussing the greatest B-Show Pay-Per-Views of all time! They talk about what makes a great B Show, some of the best matches from their favorite shows, and of course they go deep on the figures represented from these events. Plus, Listener Mail!
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Transcript
Introduction & Content Format
00:00:01
Speaker
UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
00:00:16
Speaker
What is up, Foley fam? The Pod Warriors are back on the attack. Me and my best friend, Jordan Wells, AKA the Fig God, here to bring you guys some more audio gold. Y'all know the deal with the Pod Warriors. We were bringing you guys evergreen content. Just search Pod Warriors on the Chick Foley Show feed. We're picking one topic and going deep on it. And it's going to be a lot of fun. Before we get into this episode's topic of conversation, let me ask my main man, Jordan.
Personal Updates & Promos
00:00:42
Speaker
How is life out in Nebraska?
00:00:45
Speaker
man things are good it's uh it's been a rough couple weeks for life and work so it sucks but i always look forward to doing these and we're not going to bring you guys down with that shit so uh yeah man i'm just ready to record another episode of pod warriors
00:01:01
Speaker
Oh yeah, it's gonna be great you guys heard me just pop the top just now this is my first beer I've drank since Sunday so I'm ready to to get loose and talk some wrestling. You know the podwares is always a little bit lighter on the production we're gonna get the housekeeping out of the way. One thing I want to let you guys know this episode is make sure to use code chick Foley to save 10% at ringside collectibles on all your figure purchases.
00:01:23
Speaker
And make sure to check out the pod foundation follow our friends at turnbuckle tavern, the extra cooler show and coming down the aisle.
Favorite B-show PPVs Discussion
00:01:30
Speaker
Alright, so Jordan, tell them what we're going to be talking about this week. Yeah, so I have this idea a couple months ago to do our favorite B show paper views. So basically, the only things that we excluded from this were obviously the big four in WWE and then just Starrcade.
00:01:47
Speaker
Um, we weren't going to do like new Japan or anything like that. So, uh, yeah, we just, we excluded those five and then, uh, me and Seth both picked our five favorites and, uh, we're going to go through them with you guys. So hopefully this, uh, brings back the nostalgia for you guys. Yeah, it definitely did for me, man. We had some fun putting together the list. Uh, you know, we're doing, like George said, we're doing four piece and then we each had one that was, you know, on each of our lists, but these B shows tend to be a lot of fun, man. I think the thing that makes a great B show.
00:02:17
Speaker
is usually you're hitting it with some lower expectations, right? Like it's kind of just going to be a whatever night and then it ends up just surpassing whatever you possibly could have expected from the show.
00:02:28
Speaker
Yeah. And it's funny that we mark them as B shows because dude, back in the day, like WWE and WCW, there really wasn't technically a B show. Like, dude, they put all the production value into it. There was a different set for every pay-per-view. Like, I mean, we're calling them B shows because now they are definitely B shows. They're definitely presented a lot different, but dude, back in the day, I mean, these shows were important every month at an important show. And some of these ones we're going to go through are like,
00:02:56
Speaker
you realize the importance of these shows in the history of wrestling. So yeah, once you got out of like the in your house era, once they kind of did away with the in your house branding, it was especially in the attitude area, it was really hard to tell the difference between the B shows and the big shows. They just some of those B shows, the cards were just stacked, man, especially like post WrestleMania 18 when you had all the WCW guys. And they're also like, if you go back and just like on paper, look at some of these matches we were getting, it was insane.
00:03:26
Speaker
Yeah, it's it really is crazy. And there's there's one in particular we're going to talk about tonight. I mean, it really was a WrestleMania main event at the next show. So it's crazy looking back on it.
B-show Reviews & Wrestling Figures
00:03:39
Speaker
Alright, so the format we're going to each take turns picking up some of our favorite B shows talk about what made it special for us, highlighting some of the key matches. And also, you know, we're always going to bring back some figure talk, we'll talk about some of the key, you know, the key figure looks and everything and maybe some figures that we're missing from these shows that we've never quite gotten man.
00:04:00
Speaker
I'll ask you guys to pull up if you know, if you're chilling at home or whatever, listening, pull up wrestling figure database, that's going to be an easy way to kind of get a quick peek at some of these figures that we're discussing as we go through. You ready to get into it, Jordan? Yeah,
Great American Bash 1989 Review
00:04:14
Speaker
let's go.
00:04:15
Speaker
Alright, so first one, we're going all the way back. One of my favorite ever in WA slash WCW shows, The Great American Bash 1989. This was a show July 23rd, 1989 in Baltimore, Maryland. Just a really, really fun wrestling show. I got a soft spot man for
00:04:35
Speaker
late 80s early 90s WCW that's what I remember watching with my great grandpa my papa Clyde we'd sat down in the basement at my granny's house and watch WCW Saturday night would go and read all these tapes and just watch these matches and I think this is kind of like the best of the best when it comes that it's kind of like that that
00:04:54
Speaker
I don't know if like B grade is like the right way to say but the production was just not as glossy as WWF's was even in the, in the 80s and 90s, all the arenas always look kind of smoky, but it just had a total vibe to it. And I think this show is the one that epitomizes it's
00:05:10
Speaker
really good matches from top to bottom the two there's three that really stick out to me, you get a really really good sting versus great mood a match it's, it's less than 10 minutes I want to say it's about eight minutes long, but the dudes are just going non stop like you know if you ever watch any peak mood of the thing that stood out to him.
00:05:27
Speaker
He's got a deal kind of like Kenny Omega. He's just so fast, man. Like, I think that's the thing that makes Kenny Omega special now when he sprints in the ring. Like, he looks like he's just faster than all the other wrestlers. And Muda had the same thing, man. Muda was almost kind of ahead of his time, and he really sticks out when you go back and watch him on a show in the 80s. And Sting was Sting. He was always great.
00:05:47
Speaker
He got a road warriors match with the road warriors midnight express and Dr. Desti Williams against the free birds and the Samoan SWAT team, Samu and Fatou. So bloodline making it happen in war games all the way back then. And Paulie dangerously was in the mix also. So, you know, when he says those Samoan ties run deep, he is not lying. And then last, the main event, Rick Flair and Terry Funk and just a classic is about a 16, 17 minute match for the NWA world championship.
00:06:13
Speaker
It was set up at the at the previous pay-per-view, which I believe was a wrestle war. I can't remember some of those pay-per-view names get kind of blurry to me. But yeah, Terry Funk attacked Ric Flair and they just had a classic match on the big stage. So yeah, I love this one. And I believe this was one of your nominees also, right, Jordan? And I kind of selfishly took it for myself.
00:06:32
Speaker
Yeah, this was one of my nominees. Uh, yeah. Just like you said, really good show top to bottom. You're exactly right. Do the production value on these shows? He just garbage. Like it just seems like they're thrown together at the last minute. But again, man, they, they created magic on some of these shows. And this is definitely one of them. Like you said that, uh, that war games matches a banger. Like I love that match.
00:06:57
Speaker
It was peak Ric Flair too, dude. As much as Flair seems like such a natural heel and you want to hate him, when he's working babyface, he was a really, really good babyface. I think of this match against Terry Funk and the match against Vader at Starrcade 1993, the two that really stick out. So you got a babyface Ric Flair performance here.
00:07:18
Speaker
Yeah, man, just just an awesome awesome show So definitely check this one out if you're in the mood for some some 80s WCW getting into this some figures man, so we had four entries for You know figures that you know, we're going deep on this. It's not just wrestlers that haven't been on the card They got to be wearing the same or close to the same gear that they were on the show and first up we got go lube Lex Luger and
00:07:43
Speaker
I mean, the Galou line was just solid. This figure is no slouch at all. I like this figure a lot. So yeah, I mean, it's cool that they did the Galou's period, but yeah, this figure itself is really cool.
00:07:58
Speaker
Yeah, shamefully, I don't know a ton about like, you know, who was behind the glue blind who was making them, because dude, they those skulls still hold up man like when I hear Lex Luger figure like when I hear the name Lex Luger I think the first thing I think of is glue figure with the blue tights.
00:08:14
Speaker
and the white boots but all of them man like really stand out like I'm looking at my shelf right now and I got the Steiner brothers and I don't think I've ever seen a better let's set a head sculpts on for Steiner's man like these figures were like I mean they didn't have any articulation so they really kind of were just little sculptures.
00:08:29
Speaker
Yeah, there's a, they're, they're definitely not very breakable either. Like you're going to have to really whack someone with one of these to break them. So yeah, they're really cool. I love these figures. The whole line was cool. It's kind of wild to look back at how many like unreleased go lubes there were like, like I'm on wrestling figure database right now and seeing that Luger with like the jacket and the chains over it and stuff just wild.
00:08:56
Speaker
Yeah, there's some weird ones out there too. There's some that like, I think whoever was working this line was an actual wrestling fan, cause there's like a Ric Flair with lightning bolts on his trunks. And I don't think I remember seeing that one in real life, but yeah, the gloobs were great. They make really, really good, really, really good weapons. Also, if you're fighting with a younger sibling back in the day, cause they were rock solid and they had a little bit of weight to them. So you could really sling those things. Yeah, that's definitely, you definitely didn't want to take a glue to the forehead.
00:09:23
Speaker
All right, up next, the Legends Road Warriors. So these were the Mattel Legends line. There's been a few sets of all black road warriors with the black shoulder pads, but the best ones were definitely the Legends. This is a set of figures. They got some serious significance in me and Jordan's friendship.
00:09:38
Speaker
yeah so uh me and Seth have actually traded these figures back and forth twice um so when Seth was doing his great sell off of his action figures this was ones he was going to sell and I was like dude you cannot sell those to anybody but
SuperBrawl III Discussion
00:09:53
Speaker
me because I never had those figures and I mean obviously everybody less than this knows the price of those figures is insane so Seth sold them to me and about
00:10:03
Speaker
Two months ago, he texts me and says, Hey, dude, will you sell those figures back to me? I'm like, send them, send them back home and send them back home. Why not?
00:10:13
Speaker
Yeah, dude, I had my my purge of my wrestling collection that lasted all about three days. Yeah, it's really kind of mind blowing to think that in that three days, I managed to get rid of Chief J Strongbow Elite and the Legends Road Warriors. What the fuck was I thinking? I don't know, because after you got I don't remember which figure you had gotten rid of. And I was like, dude, what the fuck are you doing for real? Like you love these things. You took all the time to collect them and then now you're just going to get rid of half of them. I don't get what you're doing. And then you were like, oh, yeah, you're right. I'm going to fucking idiot.
00:10:43
Speaker
There's no telling where it would've stopped at if I hadn't had that conversation with Jordan. Now in my defense, I was going through a ton of stress, man. I was in the middle of moving with my family, didn't know where we were going to live at. I was up for a big promotion at work. Life was coming at me fast at that time, and I don't know, maybe subconsciously I was just trying to shed some
00:11:01
Speaker
some stress or I don't stress in the right word because I don't get it's not stressful managing the wrestling collection but like it takes up a lot of mental bandwidth you know what I mean well not only that dude you guys were I mean you guys were downsizing a lot too like Sheena sold a lot of her stuff you started selling off some of your stuff like you guys were trying to live the minimalist life and I was like wait a minute wait a minute wait a minute
00:11:22
Speaker
You're going to sell off half of your figures though. Like dude, what are we doing here? You spent all this time and they bring you so much joy and you're just going to get rid of them. Then you were like, yeah, you're right. This is stupid. But it was already too late. He had already sold off the chief and the legend, the legends road, where's the damage? Yeah. Classic, classic moment, man. For sure. Yeah. We were planning on downsides until like a much smaller place, but unfortunately with what real estate was doing last spring, like
00:11:50
Speaker
There was nothing, dude. It was basically like, you know, the only stuff that would have been like worth it to downsize would have been a straight up shit box, man. So we end up getting a place basically the same size what we had in Virginia. But yeah, on to the next man, the recently released Samoan SWAT team, dude, Samu and Fatu. Now these need to be the chase variants from Legends Series 18, but these figures are gorgeous.
00:12:12
Speaker
Yeah, these are absolutely beautiful figures. The leg paint and everything is awesome. Yeah, I mean, there's not a whole lot to say. Everybody's already seen these because they're brand new. But yeah, absolutely awesome. Really glad we got them. Yeah, I like them better than the head tricker version. How about you? Oh, yeah, dude, the the Simone SWAT team is way better. I love those figures.
00:12:36
Speaker
Yeah, I have more memories of the head shrinkers as wrestlers. But yeah, figures wise, I like Simone Swat team a lot better. I think the way I'm going to kind of manage them in my collection, I'm going to display the head shrinkers with all the garb, like the big fucking bo staffs and that like the demolition style chest gear in the skirt. So I think I'm going to go Simone Swat team was just just straight up tight because I don't remember them making entrances with a whole bunch of gear on back in WCW.
00:13:00
Speaker
No, and there wasn't. It's just I mean, this is kind of the laziness from Mattel. They just like throw the same things in the package and call it good. Yeah, those chases are strictly paint swaps. All right. So Rick Flair was in his purple gear with the white boots. The most there's been a few different versions. He had his pink robe. So we got that robe with his ultimate edition.
00:13:24
Speaker
But honestly, the is as much as we think of Ric Flair in the purple gear, the only one that was actually like picture perfect to a T was his old FTM figure, the big LJN style one. There's been other ones that were like purple with like light purple boots. This was the only one that's purple with the white boots was that old FTM Ric Flair. That's insane. Like just to think that that figure is that old and that's the only one we've got with that look.
00:13:50
Speaker
It's crazy, man. Like, dude, Ric Flair is just such an easy figure for Mattel to make to all they have to do is paint swap on all of them like I just yeah, I don't get it.
00:14:00
Speaker
Paint swap give us the robes. Yeah, so like his ultimate edition, you know, it's in purple trunks, but he's got the pinkish boots man So yeah, this was he was rocking the purple purple trunks with the white boots on this one So you guys know man as soon as flare gets back in the fold I'm praying that they crank out that were rumble 92 ultimate edition. I've been fantasy booking for about a year now Like entrance robe give us the crazy head for the post show. Like I think that would be solid gold You're never gonna come off that are you?
00:14:25
Speaker
I want it, dude. I told you, that needs to be the next crowd fund. A thousand bucks, all 30 members of the, of the 1992 World War One. But dude, they can even make it a payment plan. Dude, do it over 30 months. Make this a two and a half year project. Every month we get them and they come out in the order that they made their entrance at the Rumble, dude.
00:14:42
Speaker
Now you're really counting on Mattel to do things right. You are on drugs. Tell me you wouldn't be pumped to know that you're on a subscription plan that's going to last for 30 months and you're going to get every member of the 92 World Rumble once a month. You know something would go wrong in there though. There's no way that would work. That's a lot of wrestlers to count on not saying some dumb shit and getting canceled for two and a half years. Not just that. That's a lot of pressure on Mattel to make sure they're releasing a figure every month.
00:15:13
Speaker
So we'll put a bow on the Great American Bash 1989, man. There's a lot of fun shows in this period. Really anything from 88 through 92, there's some fun to be had. Some of those WCW, NWA shows, they're so bad that they're good, but they're never just boring. So definitely give that a... That whole era is a fun watch, but if you only got three hours to sit down and watch some wrestling, Great American Bash 1989 is a good pick. Jordan, you ready to drop your first show? I am.
00:15:42
Speaker
So I went with Super Brawl 3, easy for you to say. There's just a lot of nostalgia in this one for me. The Vader Sting strap match is what really elevates this show. It's honestly one of the best strap matches I think ever, maybe the best ever one. The best, bro. Yeah.
00:16:01
Speaker
Yeah, and I mean, there's a lot of good stuff on this. This was the this event marked the return of Ric Flair to WCW. And there's also Davey boys WCW debut. This was also the first show after the Bill Watts fiasco and Eric Bischoff's first WCW pay per view as executive producer. So
00:16:22
Speaker
Wow. I did not know that. Yeah. So this is a, this is a meaningful pay-per-view all the way around. Also, this is a WCW pay-per-view where the NWA world heavyweight championship was defended. So yeah, I mean, there's a lot of important stuff on this show. I'm not saying this is like,
00:16:40
Speaker
five-star classic or anything, but it's fun. It's a fun show to watch. Two Cold Scorpio and Chris, who he shall not be named Benoit, have a banger. That's a hidden gem, bro. That's a fun match. So good. I don't even think Benoit was properly signed at the time. I think he was kind of just like a glorified jobber that they kind of just had hanging around for a few shows. Yeah.
00:17:03
Speaker
You have to block it out of your memory who he is and just enjoy the match because the match is fantastic. Cactus and Paul Orndorff had a really good match. Dude, I must be drunk already after one beer. Yeah, that was a fun, they had a fun little feud, man. I feel like that, I feel like that feud played out like, like most things in WCW back in that day, almost exclusively on WCW Saturday night. So yeah, that was a fun little, you know,
00:17:30
Speaker
WCW version of like extreme wrestling at that time. Yeah. And then like I said, the NWA world title was on the line and Barry Windham actually defeated the great mood to win the title on this show. Um, I mean that match was pretty long if I remember right. But, uh, yeah, this is just a fun show to me. I enjoy this. I mean, a lot of like Seth said, a lot of stuff from 89 to 92. Unfortunately this is 93, but this is the start of a big era for WCW. Eric Bischoff's in charge at this point. And, uh,
00:17:59
Speaker
Dude, I mean, the sky was the limit for WCW. So yeah, I enjoy this pay-per-view a lot. I mean, I know some might disagree, but just the main event, dude, just Vader and Sting in a strap match is just phenomenal.
00:18:14
Speaker
Dude, I had straight up Mandela effect on this show, man. When I was doing my research on it, it kind of dawned on me. I remember the Barry Windham and Great Moodle match being really good, but I could have fucking swore that Sting Invader was for the championship, dude. Nope, it was not. Like, I mean, if I had a million bucks on the line, if you asked me that a week ago, I would have said, oh, yeah, it was for the WCW Championship. No, it was like the.
00:18:35
Speaker
I hope they call it white castle of fear strap match or whatever it was. Yeah. What a name for a match also, dude. Nope. The United States title was the only other title on the line, if I remember right on this show with the natural Dustin Rhodes. It's Max Payne. What's your favorite Max Payne match? The double main event on this one, man, is just a ton of fun. Barry Windham and great Muda is like
00:18:59
Speaker
Like if I would, if I want to show somebody like this is what like pure pro wrestling looks like. Check out this match. She's got Muda who's got the speed and high flyer and Barry Wyndham is a guy who I don't really think gets his due for just how smooth of a worker he was in the ring. Like that dude was just a really, really good wrestler man. Kind of like
00:19:15
Speaker
I feel like I compare him to like Hangman Adam Page. He's a little bit bigger than him, but worked that same style, man. Like mixed up like power stuff with some really, not necessarily high flying, but just some really, really like smooth looking technical wrestling. Like, yeah, Wyndham could go, man. I still think it's a shame that they couldn't find anything better for him to do in WWF than be the stalker when he came over there in the new gen era. Dude, and he was only like 33 at this time too. So he was still in the prime of his career at this point.
00:19:43
Speaker
And I know a lot of people don't see Barry Wyndham as like a really good wrestler or anything. I get it. Um, but like do yourself a favor and go back and watch this match. It is really good. And yeah, mood of being the NWA championship is just wild to say. Um, but yeah, it was, this show's really good. I definitely encourage everyone to go back and watch it.
00:20:02
Speaker
Yeah, Wyndham can definitely go, man. Definitely somebody to check out his stuff back in NWA WCW days. And then, yeah, that main event, man. Vader and Sting, I think it's unquestionably the best strap match ever. Just a brutal match, dude. They were really building Vader. It was just one of the best monster heel pushes we'd seen up to that point. And he beat the hell out of Sting. Sting's a great babyface getting all the sympathy. And it's just a brutal, brutal match. The strap match, there's been a lot of good strap matches or dog collar matches. I kind of consider those one and the same.
00:20:31
Speaker
I've been a lot of good ones over the years, but this is the one that still holds up that like if I'm only keeping one of these gimmick matches That's the one I'm keeping. Yeah. Yeah, it's a really good man. They definitely lay the shots to each other so do yourself a favor go back and watch it because dude sting at this time too is like He's just on another level at this point in his life. So
00:20:54
Speaker
Yeah, we've talked about it before man, about how like, as iconic as the crow sting was, there's really not any great matches to point to, man, that for when he was crow sting, there's a few decent ones out there, but surfers sting was putting on banger after banger every single night, man, was definitely the shining star in WCW throughout the 90s. That's why it was the franchise, man.
00:21:14
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, he's on every show in the last hour. Like he's always either the co-main event or the main event. And yeah, that's why dude, he was unreal as surfers thing.
In-depth 1997 Event Review
00:21:25
Speaker
All right. So Mattel has showed a little bit of love to this event. We got four figures from this one. So elite 81 stone cold Steve Austin. This was the Hollywood blondes Austin. Yeah, this is a definitely a good figure. And honestly, this is a figure I never thought we would get if I'm being a hundred percent honest.
00:21:43
Speaker
Yeah, pretty easy to make a custom Brian Pillman to go along with him. Unfortunately, the loose cannon is not under contract with Mattel, but you can get the parts. If you go back and grab that Elite 47 Pillman, it's pretty easy to do a little bit of part swap ski to get yourself the matching Hollywood Blond set. Elite 39 British Bulldog. This was the Bulldog with the dreads, the braided Bulldog.
00:22:07
Speaker
from the early 90s. There was another braided Bulldog figure in Elite 94. Both of them worked pretty good, but as far as the event-specific attire goes, the one from way back in Elite 39 was a little bit closer. Still a very cool figure, man. I'm hoping we get an updated like the Bulldog, like between this era and between Heel Bulldog, where he just had the long hair and he was rocking like the booty shorts, like the Allied Powers era Bulldog, you remember?
00:22:34
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, that's another great figure. Dude, they can make all the bulldog figures they want. People are still going to buy him. That's just one thing about him. I'm actually surprised we haven't got an ultimate bulldog yet to be completely honest with you.
00:22:47
Speaker
Yeah, he had that cool thing kind of like Brett did where the gear was always pretty similar but he was changed up just a little bit right like different patterns sometimes he'd have the gold tassels on there. Like yeah, I'm down for more Bulldogs man I think he's another guy who is I wouldn't he's definitely not underrated but I still don't feel like he's quite gotten all the credit that he's due just for what a great worker he was back in the day.
00:23:07
Speaker
Legends Series 4, Paul Orndorff with the blue robe and the blue gear. That's basically exactly what he was wearing at this show. And then Legends 3, Vader. So this was the all black Vader with the white cape. They gave us back at the start of the Legends line. Really, really cool figure and just a really cool look for Vader.
00:23:24
Speaker
Dude, these early legends lines were killer. They just, they knocked them out of the park way ahead of their time on how good these were, honestly. Like we, we have already talked about the road warriors and stuff, dude. All these figures were just killer figures. Dude, the Akeem, Rick Martell, that Rick Rude, the Macho man they put on that line. Like, yeah, dude, I think
00:23:44
Speaker
you could put that the the legends revival has been pretty cool like there's been some hits and misses but that first uh six series legends line from intel like that's definitely in the mix for best figure lines of all time dude the bulldog in that line is great the uh hillbilly jim is great in that line dude hillman yeah they they destroyed this line it was so good at the beginning i still think it's good now but i think the start of it was better just because they were releasing way more rare figures to me
00:24:13
Speaker
Yeah, definitely. It seems like WWE is cut down on the amount of legends they're kind of keeping, you know, on the payroll here over the last last four or five years. I mean, if you look at it, dude, Fatu and Samu are probably the rarest figures that we've got out of the the new line. I mean, the the Mark Callaway taker is I mean, just the Mark Callaway is pretty, pretty rare. But yeah, getting Samu and Fatu I thought was like one of the things that made this line kind of cool again, you know.
00:24:42
Speaker
Oh yeah, Samu was one of the Hasbro five, dude, a guy that only had a figure in the Hasbro line up until this. So yeah, that was his second figure ever, man. So yeah, kudos to Mattel for getting that cranked out. One thing I thought of, man, now that Harley Race is back in the fold, how sweet would it be to get a manager version of Harley Race to go along with Vader?
00:25:01
Speaker
Yeah, dude, they gotta, I hope they take this Legends line the way it should be and give us more like people we don't have rather than just new figures of people we already have. Yeah, first time in the line, even if you had to dig deep, dude, like we're, the Legends like tagline is very, very, you know, we're not holding you guys feet to the fire on this, dude. Pretty much if they've wrestled in the past, we're cool with them being in the Legends line.
00:25:29
Speaker
Yeah, it's a loose Legends term. All right, let's go ahead and hit the beverage break before we get to each of our second show.
00:25:47
Speaker
Alright, that may or may not be some foreshadowing for an event we're going to talk about later on in the in the in the episode. Jordan, what are you sipping on this week? So currently, I'm drinking a broken school double IPA. But I got a table full of bush lights to pound after this because I was not doing like two or three of these because I wouldn't make it to the end of the show.
00:26:12
Speaker
I promise we didn't plan this man. I'm actually drinking a broken skull American lager. And then I got a cooler full of Marillite stayed that I'm going to kind of wash it down with man. So yeah, kicking it off with some broken skull and then going to the daily driver. Yeah, man, that's a great way to go, especially when you know, we're going to do a longer show because yeah, man, you pound down two or three IPAs and
00:26:35
Speaker
The end of this gets a little wonky. Listener mail goes off the rails. You start slurring every other word. Like, yeah, I've been there before. Can't even look at the question. All right. Let's talk about July 1997, July 6, to be precise, In Your House Canadian Stampede. I think this was the best of the In Your House
00:26:58
Speaker
branded paper views. And it's one of my favorites of all time. It's really unique event. So this was back in the true, you know, in your house be show days. This was a two hour pay per view. So when they originally rolled out the in your houses starting after WrestleMania 11, they wanted them to be cheaper paper views, right? They were going to be only two hours long. I think 1795 was the initial cost on those.
00:27:20
Speaker
And then it went up to maybe like 20 bucks before they finally expand them to three hours. But yeah, it was going to be a cheaper pay per view to hold you over between the King of the Ring, SummerSlam, Survivor Series, World War One Mania. And I think this was the absolute best concept.
00:27:36
Speaker
out of all that they did. So it kicks off with Hunter Hearst Helmsley against mankind goes to double count out and they did the really cool thing that we've seen them bring back from time to time where, you know, the guys kind of brought to the back and then you see them still brawling throughout the night.
00:27:51
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. It was, uh, this show is really cool for it just being a format show. And yeah, I mean, they did a lot with four matches. I'll say that. And how crazy is that kicking off, uh, in your house with Triple H and mankind, dude, whatever. Yeah.
00:28:06
Speaker
They were jerking the curtain, man. It's pretty, pretty wild thing about where these guys would be at just, you know, less than two years later on the card. Um, then you had the great Sasuke against Takamichi noku for the light heavyweight championship. Just not a whole lot of story behind it. I think this was the great Sasuke's debut. Um, and it was just a fun fast-paced high flyer match.
00:28:27
Speaker
Then we, he was on the last show too, man, bringing it back. Undertaker defends the title against Vader and just a bad-ass Haas fight, man. It's 12 minutes long, hard hitting. I think Vader got his mouth busted open and Undertaker ends up getting the dub.
00:28:40
Speaker
And then finally we have what I think is the best 10 man tag match ever. So you get the heart foundation going up against Ken Shamrock, Goldust, the Legion of Doom, and a guy by the name of Stone Cold Steve Austin. The match is just electric. So to kind of set the scene for those that may not have watched 97 David WWF, which
00:29:02
Speaker
if you haven't do yourself a favor go check it out but the heart foundation were basically they were the biggest baby faces in canada while being the biggest heels in the united states and it was a really cool dynamic and the canadian stampede uh paper view was held during this event called the calgary stampede which is basically like the city of calgary's big annual
00:29:21
Speaker
like carnival festival, what have you, you know, I know a lot of us from here in the States have, you know, our talents have different events like this. So you already got a ton of civic pride, a ton of national pride going. And then you got these guys all rep in Canada coming out and dude, if you watch the entrance for the heart foundation, like the pops just keep getting bigger and bigger until the time Brett comes out and the place just erupts, man. And then all 10 guys just brought it in the ring, just a hell of a match.
00:29:46
Speaker
Yeah, this I actually did coming down the aisle with John swallow and this was the match that we watched. I think it was like a year ago and we did this and just watching this match back. It's just unreal that they had those 10 guys in the ring at the same time. Like, I mean,
00:30:03
Speaker
Usually you think Undertaker and Vader there is no way anything can main event over that and then they roll this out with just I don't know just 10 10 top of the line guys like pretty crazy to think that this was your main event at a in your house show and
00:30:20
Speaker
Yeah, and it honestly did. It's really kind of a super historically significant match, even aside from just how big of a moment it felt like with the hearts winning in front of their home crowd and film the ring with their family. Because prior to this, the feud was Brett and Steve Austin, and they used this match to kind of pivot and have Owen and Steve Austin start feuding. And this is the match that would lead to their match at SummerSlam, where Steve Austin got his neck broke on that unfortunate tombstone pile driver from Owen.
00:30:50
Speaker
And that's kind of one of the most significant injuries in wrestling history man I think that injury really turned the tide see like you can kind of go back and forth and in some ways it kind of made the Steve Austin character and in some ways it definitely shortened his career, you know
00:31:05
Speaker
But yeah, just crazy match and a really, really fun event. Yeah. Yeah. This was definitely a good choice. I had this on my short list and me and Seth kind of agreed that we wouldn't have any that we had together. But there was only one that I was like, now we got to have one. That's the same. So yeah, this is a great choice.
00:31:27
Speaker
Little bonus homework assignment to quote the guys from the extra cooler show if you guys want to go watch the documentary Wrestling with shadows a big portion of that documentary centers around this pay-per-view And show you some of the behind the scenes of them putting this match together. So pretty fun You ready to get into the figures from this one Jordan?
00:31:44
Speaker
This is a long one. It's a long one. So yeah, we're into the attitude era where Jax was just cranking out the figures at the time. And this is an era that's gotten a lot of love from a tale. So we'll kind of quickly run through them. And if it's ones that I feel like we need to discuss, we'll discuss. So China was on the show with Triple H. The China that came out in that Elite two-pack ringside exclusive
00:32:08
Speaker
with Triple H is very, very close to this one. So, you know, good enough for government work. The Amazon exclusive mankind, that's still to this day, the only elite mankind we've gotten that had his OG boots. You know, the boots that have like the brown leather straps and studs on them before he switches the black wrestling boots. Isn't this an elite in like a basic patch? Yeah, that's what I thought. Dude, this figure is great.
00:32:34
Speaker
Yeah, I think it's probably, he's had some cool cactus Jack figures, man. But I think this is probably the best Mick Foley figure that Mattel's done. Funny story, man. So I had just switched over from Jack's classic superstars to collecting Mattel figures. Jordan knows for about a year and change after I got back into wrestling, I really was not digging the Mattel line. Just something about the figures.
00:32:58
Speaker
I don't know. I think I was just, I was so used to the look of like Jack's figures and stuff that that's what I liked. And I know it's, it's just horrible to think back about that now. But Jordan finally, he had bought me a razor Ramon defining moments and I got a Bray Wyatt elite. And that was pretty much all it took for me to switch over. But I was at a toy show in Hawaii about two weeks after I'd switched over to collect a Mattel figure. So I wasn't as smart on the line as
00:33:22
Speaker
I would come to be. And I remember I saw this mankind figure and I was like, oh, that's really cool. But it was in the basic packaging. And the guy was trying to sell it to me. He was like, no, it's an elite. And I was just like, no, it's not, dude. This is a basic. I know what I'm looking at here. And it wasn't until like two months later that I was kind of looking into it and realized, oh, shit, that really was an elite and basic packaging. Really bizarre, man. At the time, do you remember why they did that, Jordan?
00:33:47
Speaker
No, and quite honestly, I thought it was like a misprint that it was an elite because I didn't even buy this figure when they released it. I just thought it was a misprint because I saw the packaging. I'm like, there's no way that's an elite. It just had to be a misprint. So I never even bought it because of that fact. No, I don't know the reasoning at all behind why it was in basic packaging.
00:34:10
Speaker
Yeah, it must have been something they were doing at the time or at least experimenting with with the store exclusives because that Vince McMahon in the suit, the Toys R Us mail away figure, it's the same way. It came in a basic package also, but it's an Elite, so I don't know, kind of weird. All right, Takamichi Noku, his best figure was the Jacks Slammer. The Slammers, I still consider them like in the bone crunching line, but they were like a hybrid.
00:34:33
Speaker
Jack's bone crunchers and like Hasbro figures they would all have like some little feature with a move They would do pretty nice-looking figure you remember this one Jordan Yeah, it's a good figure minus that scan or head sculpt where we want to call it The head sculpt looks like just like a basic person from the video game Tekken
00:34:50
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, definitely The recent Royal Rumble Vader is probably the best representation of Vader from this event the ultimate edition Undertaker if you just ditch the entrance gear Undertaker was this he wasn't putting on the full robe and hat and everything for it in your house He just walked out in the ring. You're ready to fucking roll
00:35:08
Speaker
Ultimate Edition Austin with the one, the one knee pad. Now Goldust, man, this was a tricky one, dude. I thought we would have had a better, more accurate Goldust in this by now, but Elite Series 6 Goldust is actually the closest one. There's not an exact one, you know, Goldust was always doing funky stuff with his paint, but this is the only Elite Goldust we've had that has got like the big, poofy, like really ornamental robe.
00:35:31
Speaker
Yeah, this figure is great. I actually did go back and get this one just because of the robe. Because I mean, the actual figure itself, it's pretty similar to the other ones they've released. I mean, once you have one gold dust, you have them all right. But but the robe itself is the unique thing about this one.
00:35:49
Speaker
Yeah, as far as Goldust goes, I think you need that debut Goldust they did in Elite 47, where it was the much more just like the plain, you know, gold paint with the gold suit. And then I think you need one with like all the black detailing and stuff. But I'm the same with you, man. As far as like the more crazy face paint goes, I can't tell the difference between one to another. No.
00:36:07
Speaker
Elite Legion of Doom, you know, Nuff said those figures are great. The Elite 52, Ken Shamrock with the red gear and the red robe. Bret Hart's Defining Moments and the all black gear. The Legends Bulldog we talked about earlier. The Legends Pilliman we talked about earlier. And then the Elite 74, Jim Nighthart, it's not an exact match, but it's pretty dang close. So you could damn near put together this
00:36:31
Speaker
this whole show. I forgot to mention the network spotlight Triple H also. He's a, he's one you can have. So yeah, you damn near put together this. If we could just get that God dang great sauce game, man, we'd have just about this whole show put together in a figure form and then, you know, show already a custom, custom old heart from Ivy's custom figgies or something. Yeah, this one's great. All right, Jordan, you're up there.
00:36:53
Speaker
All right, so this one was one I was not leaving out.
ECW Heatwave 1998 Review
00:36:59
Speaker
I remember watching this show live. We're going to go back to August 2nd of 1998 in Dayton, Ohio for ECW Heatwave. This was the first edition of Heatwave for ECW, and it also featured talent from Frontier Martial Arts Wrestling due to a partnership between them and ECW.
00:37:20
Speaker
This to me still to this day is the mountain top of ECW shows. It is literally just the straight up hardcore wrestling matches that you grew to love in ECW or you hate it. I mean, it was really either way, but this whole show to me is just fantastic highlighted by Masato Tanaka versus Mike Awesome in just an anger.
00:37:47
Speaker
12 minutes of nothing but beating the living shit out of each other. These two guys, for some reason, when they got in the ring, it backstage, they're like, all right, man, who's going to almost die in the ring tonight? Which one of us wants to almost die? And they're like, well, let's just flip a coin. It was like they both called heads. And they're like, well, I guess we're both dying in the match.
00:38:10
Speaker
They just always put it down. RVD and Sabu wrestled Hayabusa and Shinzaki. Absolutely fantastic. Tell everybody who Shinzaki is probably better known as. That is Hayabusa.
00:38:26
Speaker
No. Hakushi. Oh, Hakushi. Hakushi. Sorry. Yeah. Yeah. So Hakushi and Hayabusa wrestled RVD and Sabu with Bill Alfonso in their corner 20 minute. Just, it's kind of a cluster fuck a little bit. Cause I think they're trying to do way too many moves. This is like the, the spot Fest of 1998. Like
00:38:45
Speaker
That was kind of the deal with Sabu. Also, man, that was part of the fun. You know, you're going to get like it's going to be like a 70 percent hit rate on all the shit he's going to try. Well, yeah, dude, he he's going to try every single thing that he put in his bag that night. So, I mean, there's no telling what you're going to get out of it. Taz and Bambam Bigelow for the FTW championship when that title actually meant something.
00:39:06
Speaker
And then the main event was Tommy dreamer Sandman and spike Dudley first, the Dudley's Bubba divan and big Dick Dudley with Joel Gertner and sign guy Dudley. Absolutely. Classic ECW. Dude, I just think like this pay-per-view, like I know a lot of people were not watching wrestling at this time. They just, or they weren't watching ECW. I strongly, granted it's going to be pretty muted on the network, but
00:39:33
Speaker
this show is just fantastic. Like, like I said, this to me is the best ECW show ever. And it's probably not even that close for me. It's just, it's everything I loved about ECW, man. It was just, you never knew what you were going to see on these shows. And this one was, uh, was no different. And so, I mean, do you remember watching this?
00:39:52
Speaker
Oh yeah, yeah, dude, 97 and 98 ECW, that's like injected into my veins on the nostalgia man. One match, dude, I think he kind of sold short, dude. So, you know, we had the classic ECW matches with the RBD and Sabu tag, Taz and Bam Bam, that main event.
00:40:07
Speaker
Tanaka and Mike Awesome had a strong style. Dude, Chris Candido and Lance Storm had a technical freaking masterpiece, man. And that was a great thing about ECW, dude. Everybody remembers the flaming tables and the blood, but they gave you a little bit of everything, dude. ECW is who really kind of brought Chris Jericho to the mainstream, Ray Mysterio. They made Lucha Libre really kind of blow up. And honestly, they kind of brought strong style to the States freaking almost 20 years before WWE tried to start doing it, man.
00:40:35
Speaker
Yeah, ECW was just awesome, dude. I remember, you know, it's super nostalgic for me because, so my friend RC, this is in seventh and eighth grade, he was like my wrestling friend. We were both really hardcore wrestling fans. And my uncle Josh, they would get all the ECW papers. So we lived in this small town called Ingleside, Texas.
00:40:54
Speaker
I can't remember the specific cable provider we had but you know ECW wasn't on every pay-per-view provider right like some carried it some didn't and they didn't they didn't our cable provider didn't carry it and I remember my uncle Josh he up in Kentucky he would he
00:41:09
Speaker
He would, he got all of them and he would tape them and mail me the VHS. So I know we're really aging ourselves on this dude. But I remember the excitement of getting these, these VHS in the mail, like Russell Palooza 97 was the first one. I remember getting these and I would wait until either like I'd go stay at night at RCs or he'd come stay at night at mine. And we would watch these tapes just be mind blown, dude. Like there wouldn't be much talking. We're just watching it just in awe of what we're seeing. Cause it was so different from what WWF and WCW were presenting at the time.
00:41:37
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, they didn't really give you a lot of production value. Like, dude, they were just going out there for the wrestling and, and the hardcore style. And it's funny, you did say Candido and Lance Storm, dude, we're selling the opening match short. It was just incredible versus Jerry Lynn. Like, yeah, I mean, dude, like, seriously, if you get on this card, every match is fun to watch. Like everything on this is great to watch. I mean, yeah, some of them are a bit sloppy, but
00:42:02
Speaker
Dude, this show just puts it down, man. This is definitely like a happy spot for me. I mean, I was 13 years old, like just watching this and just being in awe of what these dudes were doing.
00:42:14
Speaker
Dude, I'll take it to my grave, man. Nobody was done more wrong by WCW than Mike Awesome. This dude had been the ECW world champ, putting on incredible performances in the States and in Japan. He was a crazy power wrestler, but he could fly, dude. He was a mix of Scott Hall and
00:42:36
Speaker
dude I almost want to say like Seth dude the way he could like as fast as he was and how he could run and stuff like the guy was the absolute total package he was like somebody you would make when you were doing create a player on on a wrestling game and just max out every attribute and they bring him in as the fucking fat chick thriller
00:42:52
Speaker
Just, dude, this was the biggest problem with WCW. They wanted to change everything that made people special. And I don't know, man, every time I talk about WCW, it kind of pisses me off because they bring in someone awesome and then they would just turn them into nothing. Like they would just be like just filler. I mean, there's no way Mike Awesome should have been filler in WCW. He could have easily been the champ in WCW.
00:43:16
Speaker
Yes, dude. Look what they did with Brett. They got Brett after the screw job, dude, the hottest guy in wrestling. And he was a mid-carter within months. Dude, don't you remember when the Warrior came out in WCW and how jacked the crowd was? And within months, they had him doing One Warrior Nation and walking in a fucking circle. I just don't get it, dude. They would get all these top name talents. And outside of Hogan and the Outsiders, they just had no idea what they were doing with them half the time.
00:43:45
Speaker
Same thing with uh, you know flare remember he had his big feet of their bishoff and was gone for basically a year And they finally bring him back and he ends up just doing silly shit months later. There were so many times where like WCW was handed stuff on a silver platter and honestly like if they would have used like I feel like if they were to use Brett, right They probably could have put the nail in the coffin for WWF man, and they just fucking fumbled the bag every single time dude that roster was so damn stacked when Brett went over there and
00:44:13
Speaker
Like, I seriously thought when Brett left WWE, I thought it was going to die. I'm not even joking. I just thought WCW was so stacked with talent that there's just no way they can blow this. I mean, dude, they had, I don't know, 15 main event guys at one point. And then you have guys like Mike Awesome that are just floundering at the bottom of the card. It's like,
00:44:36
Speaker
I don't know, man. I just, I don't get it. It's, it's so frustrating because yeah, you go back and watch Mike awesome matches and yeah, he can work the hardcore style, but he can also wrestle his ass off, dude. Yeah. Yeah.
00:44:50
Speaker
All right, so we'll quickly run through these figures. I'll be honest, man, none of these figures are really anything to write home about, but this show is pretty well represented from a figure standpoint. So stop me if there's any of these you want to discuss. So FTC is actually showing some ECW love. They put out a pretty good Justin Credible, Jerry Landon, Chris Candido from this show. Lance Storm from this is in classic superstar series 23. Mike Awesome has a WCW Toy Biz figure in his all black gear.
00:45:20
Speaker
There's a Rob Van Dam Jackson limited edition figure from this from the show. Our good friends at Chella put out a Hasbro style Hayabusa just I think it was your last year 2021 task classic superstars series 11 two pack Bubba Ray and Devone from OSF TM and Spike Dudley in classic superstars.
00:45:39
Speaker
23 man. I still think it's criminal that when the Dudley's had their, uh, they're kind of short comeback run with WWE that Mattel didn't crank us out. Any tie-dye Dudley figures. We just got the modern day camo ones. Dude. The funniest thing is I was about to interrupt you and say, what the fuck was Mattel thinking, dude? We could have got spike Dudley, Devon, and Bubba and like a three pack in the tie-dye. And you're telling me that wouldn't have sold.
00:46:03
Speaker
Know we got those I mean the figures themselves weren't that bad But who was wanting the red camo modern-day Dudley's when we could have got the the tie-dye with the the overalls and stuff Yeah, man, I just I just I feel like they don't they don't utilize enough of the talent in the figure line a lot of times Dude, there's like 10 RVD's we could get obviously we're probably never getting any Mike awesome Yeah, it's Taz man. Talk about a dude that
00:46:33
Speaker
criminally got no figs in WWE. I know. I love Taz. Dude, I talked about it before when we did our N64 wrestling. And when I remember getting a WrestleMania 2000 on N64, first thing I did was spend about two hours creating Taz on there. That's how over he was with me as a, as a youngster. So we're going to talk about Fumble in the bag on WCW.
00:46:54
Speaker
Dude, I still to this day think WWE fumbled it with Taz. His debut when he came out at Royal Rumble, the Wrestle Angle, I just remember being so jacked that he was in WWE. I know he had a lot of injuries and stuff like that, but dude, he should have been way bigger in WWF, I felt like.
00:47:13
Speaker
Yeah, I think he already had the deck stacked against him, man, for the height, not being the height he was. That's just always going to be a thing in WWE. It still is to this day, man. It's a little bit more easy to not have the prototypical wrestling build and end up being a big star. But I think the height was already going against him. He could overcome that. But like you said, the injuries, by that time, he just wasn't quite at the peak of what he once was. Still could have been way better than what he got.
00:47:43
Speaker
But yeah, man, it was definitely a little bit disappointing because I believe he was ECW champion when they signed him. Yeah, he relinquished the belt to go to WWE. Dude, he was just so awesome from his look. Dude, his entrance was so badass.
00:47:59
Speaker
I mean, I just can't even imagine being in the ring and watching this dude come down the aisle. Looks like he's about to kill you at the towel over his head. I just, I don't know, man, I, I loved it. I get the size thing, but at some point you got to move past that and just see who he actually is as a talent. And the dude is just straight up talented. Yeah, for sure. Did the human suplex machine. Yeah.
00:48:24
Speaker
All right, so I'm fast-forwarding to the modern era for my last two picks.
Money in the Bank 2016 Recollection
00:48:27
Speaker
This next one, I think might be kind of controversial, but it's one of my favorite pay-per-views of all time. So I'm throwing it under anyways. Money in the Bank 2016. So before we get into this one, I'll ask you, Jordan, do you think Money in the Bank has graduated from the ranks of B-Shows? Because it kind of feels like it might be like the fifth major pay-per-view at this point. It is, but we're still not, I mean, it wasn't like we were going to pick
00:48:53
Speaker
like this year's Money in the Bank or anything like that. So that's why I kind of let it roll. When I saw you had Money in the Bank on the list, I'm like, some people might disagree with this just for the fact that it's not really a B show anymore. But I don't know, man, this show still to me was a B show at the time.
00:49:11
Speaker
This one was a blast. This was an all time epic sports day, man. This happened on the same day as game seven of the Warriors and Cavaliers in the 2016 finals, one of the best finals of all time. Yeah, on Father's Day, just a just a really epic event. They actually had
00:49:29
Speaker
between the money in the bank match and the main event, they had a Titus O'Neill and Rusev match for the sole purpose of not wanting to start Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns until the Warriors and Cavs was over. So pretty funny, man, that, you know, they actually went through that trouble to make sure they had all eyes on this match because
00:49:47
Speaker
Seth and Roman, they were hyped at the time and I think it was accurate. It could have been a WrestleMania main event in a year, dude, but this was Seth's first match back from his knee injury. He won the championship at WrestleMania 31. Me and Jordan were in the house and had a pretty dang good run, man, that lasted eight months until he injured his knee. So he never lost the belt and he comes back and gets it in his first match back. Beach Roman clean, which
00:50:14
Speaker
That was extremely rare back then. I mean, it's still only a handful of people that have beat Roman clean, but, but he beat Roman clean. And then Dean Ambrose cashes in the money in the bank he won earlier that night. So we had all three members of the shield holding the championship within about a two minute span. Pretty cool. In addition to that, we had AJ Styles and John Cena's first matchup on pay-per-view, another great match. And I just think this was an excellent pay-per-view.
00:50:36
Speaker
It is. And this to me is like a top 10 day in my life. I didn't, I did not watch this show at all. Obviously I'm a huge Cavs fan. So I was watching Cavs warriors. I watched this show a couple of days later and yeah, it was fantastic. But yeah, dude, I'm glad you picked this just for the fact that it was a father's day show and this one for me was a fantastic day. So yeah, it's a good show. It holds a special place for me as well. So
00:51:04
Speaker
Um, one thing to check out on this woman, it really stands out. I feel like, you know, WWE is known for their awesome video packages. I feel like they've only kind of gone down a couple of notches maybe over the last few years, but the opening video package for the show and then the one for the Seth and Roman made event match are both
00:51:24
Speaker
really, really epic, man. The one for Seth and Roman kind of shows all the twists and turns, how basically their careers have just been intertwined from the start. And then they're coming to this moment and it gives you a couple little teases about Dean Ambrose getting involved. So yeah, just a really, really fun show. A lot of figures from this one. So you got Elite 56, Luke Gallows, Dana Brooke, Basic 81, Seamus, Basic 72,
00:51:48
Speaker
AJ Styles Elite 51. That's actually one of the best AJ figures, man. The one in just the black and chrome. Yep. That's a really good figure. John Cena Elite 50. Dean Ambrose Network Spotlight. This is a really cool one because they made it, not just event specific, it's moment specific. So in the Money in the Bank match, Ambrose still had his wrist taped up how he normally did. But when he came out to cash in the briefcase,
00:52:11
Speaker
he had taken the tape off his wrist, he's just, you know, bare handed, and they actually capture that on the figure. So pretty unique for the it's the only Dean Ambrose figure that looks like that. So it's kind of cool that Mattel went through that trouble. There's an Alberto del Rio best of paper view 2014. This is in his red gear. Sammy Zane basic 69. Nice. Chris Jericho elite 53. And rusef battle pack 47. So another event with a ton of figures. Yeah, this is a modern day one. So yeah, they're gonna pump out the figures on these ones.
00:52:41
Speaker
I left out too, the Seth Rollins from the then now forever Walmart line. This was when Seth was rocking that gray and black gear from when he first came back, and then Roman Reigns Network Spotlight with a gold vest. So yeah, like I said, I felt a little bit weird because I got two newer shows, man. So I definitely think I got some recency bias going, but when I was kind of just running through it, there's a bunch of really, really good B shows all throughout the Attitude Era, but the ones that really kind of stand out above the pack, Jordan's about to list them out right now.
00:53:10
Speaker
So we're going to go back to April of 2000, backlash 2000. This show to me.
00:53:20
Speaker
It absolutely destroyed WrestleMania this year for me. Dude, they did what should have been done at WrestleMania and did it on this. A little history about the show. This show outsold every WWE pay-per-view that year outside of WrestleMania, so that includes Royal Rumble, SummerSlam, and Survivor Series. The ending of the main event is
00:53:43
Speaker
I think this is one of the best moments in wrestling, honestly. The Stooges, McMahon's and everyone are doing everything to make sure the rock loses. The glass breaks near the end of the match and Austin comes out and helps the rock to win the title.
00:53:58
Speaker
Dude, these are the two biggest stars of that time. And one of them is helping the other one win against the corporation. Why the hell would they not have ended WrestleMania like this? I don't know, dude. I really don't know. I was kind of thinking. I was literally, as I was kind of running through the show in my mind, right before we were getting ready, I was thinking about talking about this event. And that would have been such a perfect WrestleMania ending. The only thing I can think is,
00:54:27
Speaker
Maybe they really thought they needed to have Triple H standing tall at the end of Mania to to kind of solidify his spot. But dude, this would have been a perfect ending, man. It's got some some parallels to WrestleMania 8 where the ultimate warrior returned to help Hulk Hogan. And then it also kind of bridged the gap between 15 and 17 because we know the main event of WrestleMania 15 was Austin and Rock and the main event of 17 was Austin and Rock. So how cool would it be if in between at WrestleMania 16 you had them kind of helping each other out?
00:54:55
Speaker
Yeah, dude, this is just such a botch. I think this is one of the all-time botches for WWE. WrestleMania 2000 sucks, by the way. That is a shitty show. And the fact that we did not get this at WrestleMania is such a... And this is only like four weeks after WrestleMania, mind you. Dude, they realized immediately. I probably screwed this one up, but I like this show in general, too. You got a six-pack hardcore match with Crash Holly, Matt Hardy,
00:55:25
Speaker
Jeff Hardy, hardcore Holly, Perry Saturn and Taz. Great. It's a fun match to watch. Um, Dean Malenko and Scotty to hottie for the light heavyweight title was really good too. I really enjoy that match. And then, uh, you have Chris Benoit and Chris Jericho and a really good match right before the main event.
00:55:45
Speaker
If, I mean, if you have not watched this show, you owe it to yourself to watch it. The Austin pop itself is just unreal. And when they realize he's coming to help the rocket, just, I don't know, man, it's just a special moment in wrestling for me. And like I said, I'll never understand why they wouldn't have done this at mania.
00:56:01
Speaker
The crowd is nuclear all night long as well. I think this was the only time we'd see Austin. I think Austin was gone for another few months after this also. Yeah. I mean, that main event, I don't think the crowd sits at all during the main event. I mean, there's a ton of run-ins, ton of shit. Linda McMahon's out there. Shane's out there. Vince is out there. It's a lot of stuff that's going on in this match, but I mean, just the ending is just perfect. It's just perfect wrestling.
00:56:29
Speaker
Yes, it's one of the big flaws of the attitude error out of the four manias We got at a 14 15 16 17 two of them straight-up sucked, bro Like WrestleMania 15 and WrestleMania 16 both are just not almost depressing with how bad they already they're just convoluted They feel like glorified episodes of raw Like they I feel like WrestleMania 15 and 16 both represent like the worst of the attitude error. I
00:56:54
Speaker
I agree. And then the year after that, you follow it up with what I think is the best WrestleMania ever. I just, I don't get it, man. It's just so weird. Like this again, rosters extremely loaded and it just seemed like half the time they just mailed it in on. Well, I think the biggest thing, honestly, looking back on it, they were getting ratings every week. So they didn't really care if the pay-per-views delivered at this time because you had to tune into raw and smackdown every week is way more about the weekly TV. Yeah, dude.
00:57:23
Speaker
I mean, that's what you were tuning in for and that's what they were counting on. So I guess when you look back on it, on the attitude era, it does make sense why, why these kinds of things happen because yeah, I mean, they knew everybody was going to be tuned in on raw on Monday night. Yeah. And this was definitely the time where like the big four, like definitely did not stick out as much as, as they typically did historically. Yeah. It's crazy to think about.
00:57:46
Speaker
All right, so we'll run down the figures again. So that Taz again from classic superstars 11, the two pack X-Pac from elite 33 in the classic black and black and green gear. Jeff Hardy from the Jax team extreme three pack, big boss man in the heat and the shield.
00:58:02
Speaker
Elite 47, Backlash Series 5, Hardcore Holly. There's actually a Backlash Series of figures, dude. There was a whole line of Backlash figures. That's how important this paper view was. Kurt Angle from the Jax WrestleMania 20 said he had the same singlet on. Devon from Jax Famous Scene Series 3. Crispin Waugh from Famous Scene Series 2. Chris Jericho from Famous Scene Series 2. Elite 69, nice. Rock. And the Ultimate Edition Triple H.
00:58:32
Speaker
One more thing to sign off on this pay review. We talked about sets and stuff that really made it. Dude, the set for backlash 2000, 2001 and 2002 was the same. It was the swinging sickles at the entrance. Dude,
00:58:48
Speaker
How awesome is that? And also how dangerous is that? Like looking back on it. I mean, just imagine if one of those fell and like hit the audience or something like, and Matt Hardy climbed one of these and jumped off of it. I don't know. Just looking back on it, man, WV was not out there for safety at this time.
00:59:10
Speaker
No, you don't remember, uh, if camera feels like fucking capital carnage or it may have been a backlash where Trish, they had that stare. I think it was invasion where they had that stage with like the big fucking circle, like opening in the middle of it and true stratus almost falls into it. Yeah, dude.
00:59:25
Speaker
They were, like I said, they were not about safety at this point, but I don't know. It made the pay-per-views feel so special because I think that's one of the things I don't like about current day is all the same. It's the exact same, dude. All that changes is the Titan Tron in the background.
00:59:41
Speaker
nothing else changes about it. It's just the same thing every week. I don't know, man, I just, I wish they would do more special stuff for pay-per-views. I mean, it's supposed to be important, you know, it's, it's, it's supposed to feel different than weekly TV. And I think that's one of my biggest things right now is it just kind of feels like the same thing every, every month to me outside of WrestleMania.
01:00:01
Speaker
Yeah, they, you know, I think we got a listener mail question on it, but it definitely feels like they take us they take us for granted a little bit when we're kind of giving up, you know, three hours of our of our weekend nights to watch these shows. Yeah, it sucks. But yeah, that's all I really have to say about this great show. Yeah, just fun.
Clash at the Castle 2022 Praise
01:00:22
Speaker
All right, so I got another super modern one, man. So feel free if you guys want to flamethrower me on this one. But I thought the show rocked. It was one of the best shows of the last couple of years, man. Clash at the Castle from last summer in the UK, dude. Again, another one. It kind of had that same thing Canadian Stampede had where you got a foreign crowd who maybe isn't spoiled by having pay-per-views in their backyard all the time. So the crowd was on fire the whole time.
01:00:50
Speaker
Big man, three big matches where he stuck out. Gunther and Seamus had a match of the year, you know, true European strong style match where Seamus just looked like a giant freaking blister by the end of the match from all the shots he was taken from from Gunther and it was cool because Seamus got to stand, even though he came up short, he got to get the standing ovation from the crowd. And I feel like that was definitely deserved, man, because Seamus is somebody who
01:01:12
Speaker
kind of gets a lot of I feel like he was kind of just in the mix for a long time and people didn't realize how what a really great wrestler he was. He had Seth and Matt Riddle who were in a just a red hot feud at the time and Seth actually bust out the second rope curb stomp. First time we had ever seen that pulled off in a match.
01:01:31
Speaker
He's topped it since then. We know we hit the top rope curve stomp on Omos at Backlash, right? That was the name of the program. Yeah, I'm sorry. It was escaping me for a minute, dude. I thought I was getting confused because we just got done talking about Backlash. And Roman and Drew had just classic in the main event, dude, which I...
01:01:51
Speaker
I don't know, man. I think this is probably the closest Romans come to losing the belt. They'd like that. Some of the near falls and I don't feel like Cody had any of those like just freaking cunt hair, um, close, like near falls that, that drew God on Roman in this match. So I think this is the closest we saw it a Romans rain ending, uh, before solo Soko finally made his main Rasha debut and officially joined the bloodline to help his cousin.
01:02:14
Speaker
keep the belt. We're going to ignore that bizarre ending where Drew McIntyre and Tyson Fury were singing Don't Look Back in Anger by Oasis in the crowd. Still not sure what that was all about. I think maybe the cameras were supposed to be cut off, but we got to see that all. But I thought this was just a really fun show.
01:02:30
Speaker
Yeah, dude, I don't fault you at all for picking this one. It is really fun to watch. I mean, maybe it's a little too recent for what we're doing here because this is more. We like to look back on this nostalgia, but I mean, it was almost a year ago now, so we're good.
01:02:46
Speaker
But yeah, it's a fun show to watch. I was actually at the Nebraska football game when this show was going on and Seth was texting me. He's like, are you watching this? I'm like, dude, I'm at a football game. He's like, pull it up on your phone. I was like, Oh yeah, it's a hundred degrees outside and I'm at a football game. It says asking me to watch the wrestling pay-per-view. I'm at a Husker game.
01:03:06
Speaker
Dude, I had a ball that show, dude, just for the kids. Sheena had a friend that lives in Nashville, her friend Aaron. It's our friend Aaron, but she's really close friends with Sheena. She actually came down and visited that week, so the kids were inside because they love just hanging out when there's another adult over.
01:03:21
Speaker
you know, she and her were just hanging out, you know, just talking to the kitchen table. So I had the whole, you know, Jordan's been out there in the redneck revere on the back porch. I had the whole back patio to myself, dude, cooler, full of beer. Nobody distracted me bugging me and just really get to take the show in. So maybe that's why it rocketed up the charts for my all time rankings. That's probably why I like dude, having some alone time and just getting to watch some wrestling by yourself is a,
01:03:46
Speaker
It doesn't happen often. Let's just say that yeah, and it was an afternoon pay-per-view to you know with the UK thing I think it started at noon So it was just a whole totally different vibe like I said, there's it I'm a huge in-your-house family the new gene era was my era of wrestling So there's there's some in-your-house shows that I'm really really fond of
01:04:04
Speaker
but would be kind of hard to defend on the on a podcast, but then just say, you know, I love them because I watched them when I was a kid, you know, because there's some there was definitely some shitty matches on some in your house shows. But yeah, I just I thought this was a really fun show. Figures were actually pretty light on exact figures. Elite 17 Seamus. He actually, you know, Seamus going all the way back to Elite 17 had a figure that's got basically the same year. And then the elite upcoming Elite 104 drew
01:04:32
Speaker
is Drew's look from that show. So we're surprisingly a light on a... We're surprisingly light on a pay-per-view that just happened in the last year. Like, dude. Well, I just figured there'd be some people that have their everyday wear. You know what I mean? But a lot of people were busting out some special gear. Seth had the Elton John... Elton John. Elton John. I'm starting to get a little faded too, dog.
01:05:00
Speaker
The he had on the orange Elton Elton John gear And Roman had his red boots need so we got to get Mattel to hurt him Craig us out of red boots Roman D Cuz he's been rocking the different boots for about a year now, so But yeah, man, so actually a little bit light on exact figures on that one, but really fun show I told I welcome all the hate and you guys I really couldn't argue with it too much if you guys feel like that's too recent of a show to have on my list and
01:05:28
Speaker
It's all right, man. We're still with you. We're in solidarity. We're with you.
ECW One Night Stand 2005 Nostalgia
01:05:34
Speaker
My next one is ECW One Night Stand from 2005. I never thought we would see this, honestly, just because
01:05:45
Speaker
Vince was not a fan of ECW. He made it known that he did not love that style of wrestling. It just, it wasn't in his appetite, but they gave us one. They went to the Hammerstein ballroom, sold it out 2,500 people. And it sounds like there's about 50,000 people in there. Um, just.
01:06:05
Speaker
I mean, dude, it's just like a night of wrestling that you never thought you were going to get. It's just they brought everybody back for it. I mean, Lance Storm and Chris Jericho is the opener. Lance Storm hadn't wrestled in the wild. So the fact that they even got him to do a match was unreal. It was a great match too. Super crazy. Defeated little Guido.
01:06:28
Speaker
Um, and to Jerry in a three way dance and first being only six minutes, dude, they brought it for six minutes. I mean, none of these matches have a ton of runtime because the show was just a lot of like, there was a lot of video packages. There's a lot of talking. I mean, obviously it was a nostalgia show, man. It was like a really, really fun house show, dude.
01:06:48
Speaker
Yeah, like Joey Stiles is doing a lot on this. Paul Heyman cuts a killer promo about how much ECW meant to him and all that stuff. I mean, it really is a good promo and it's so well done. Ray Mysterio wrestled psychosis in a great match. Sabu and Rhino wrestled. RVD couldn't wrestle because he was a little bit banged up at this time. So he was in Sabu's corner with Bill Alfonso. Chris Benoit defeated Eddie Guerrero in a great match.
01:07:18
Speaker
The stars of the show again, Mike Awesome and Masato Tanaka just do this is 10 minutes of just nothing but them kicking the shit out of each other again. Just a great match. And then they ended it with the Dudley boys defeating Sandman Tommy Dreamer. There is a really, really cool moment at the end of this. I still don't know, looking back on it, if it's completely necessary. Austin comes out to drink a beer with everybody.
01:07:46
Speaker
I love the beer bash, dude. You gotta have us a beer bash. It was cool. I mean, don't get me wrong. It's cool anytime you see Austin anywhere. But then that turns into a brawl. And the number one thing that everybody remembers out of this pay-per-view is JBL beating the living shit out of Blue Mimi. Dude, that was some hateful punches he threw at Blue Mimi. I know, dude. He busted him right over there. It's just supposed to be a little battle royal, dude. Nobody should be going stiff at that point, man.
01:08:15
Speaker
That's why I do. JBL has always been a down check for me. And one reason I still fucking ride for Stevie Richards is I can't remember if it was on an episode of Raw or Heat, but it was like a week or two later where, you know, the storyline called for Stevie Richards to hit JBL with a chair. And, you know, Stevie Richards and Blue Mini are tight and, you know, big Stevie cool fucking lays the wood in a JBL.
01:08:40
Speaker
That motherfuckers ears had to be ringing. So, yeah, just if you want to check it out, just Google like first off, Google like JBL Blue Mini. I'm sure you can find the video. It's bad. And then and then look at the payback, dude, from fucking Stevie Richards on JBL, dude. So, yeah, Stevie Richards is the fucking real one of the week on this episode of The Pod Warriors. Dude, that JBL and Blue Mini clip is bad. Like, I mean, he literally targets him and the punches you can tell are stiff punches like.
01:09:09
Speaker
It's just not good, man. Dude, you can see Blue Meanie just looks like he's surprised and confused by it, dude. It'd be one thing if they had heat that Meanie knew about and he was expecting to be a fight, but you could tell Blue Meanie has no idea what's even going on, man. It's just, yeah, it's just fucking mean.
01:09:28
Speaker
Not to mention, dude, I have never in my life of watching wrestling heard a negative word about blue meaning never in my life. He sounds like he's the nicest guy you could ever meet in your life. And yeah, dude, JBL is just a dick, man. If if it's not JBL. Yeah, dude, he's he's just one of those. He's one of the old guys that this isn't my style. So I'm just going to shit on it. You know, it's just the way he is. And
01:09:55
Speaker
It sucks that that's the way this show ends because dude, it is just a fun show. And honestly, man, I had never felt younger in my life than I did that night. I mean, I was 20 years old and I seriously felt like I was about eight watching that show because it's just, it's just fun, man. It's just fun to watch it.
01:10:13
Speaker
They'll probably, we'll probably never get another show like that in our lives. You know, I mean, we're not going to have another buyout of a company anytime soon. So I highly doubt we're getting a nostalgia show ever again. So enjoy it.
01:10:26
Speaker
I, uh, dude, I very well said, man, and one night stay in 2005 was great. I got a hot take though, dude, in my heart. I like 2006 better, man. Interesting. That John Cena and that top to bottom 2005 was the better show, but that Rob Van Damme John Cena match is one of my favorites, dude. I just thought that was between the match and the crowd and RVD when it's championship. Like I just, I love that freaking match, dude. I think that's the most,
01:10:55
Speaker
I think that was the coolest thing John Cena ever did when he's got that whole crowd hating him. And he just walks out holding that belt above his head, man. He's got people swiping at him, throwing shit at him. And he just embraces that hate. And then him and Rob Van Dam have a banger of a match, man. So yeah, it's definitely just off of that one match. But like, yeah, I love one night stand 2006 also. Dude, I think the thing about so this is the reason I like 2005 so much is because
01:11:22
Speaker
It was all ex ECW wrestlers. I will say 2006 is the hottest I've ever seen a crowd. Like I think they literally would have killed somebody if Cena would have won that match. Like they had those banners that were draped over the sides that said, if Cena wins, we riot. Like I'm dead serious. I think they rushed the ring. If he wins that match, like it would have been an ugly scene.
01:11:43
Speaker
Another really notable fact about this pay-per-view. This is a appearance of pro wrestler Kevin Steen on this show. He's in the audience and they showed him on camera. Nice dude.
01:11:57
Speaker
Nice. Better known as Kevin Owens for those that aren't in the know, man. So that's pretty cool, dude. Definitely just a really, really fun show, man. And yeah, I remember the beer bash. I forgot about the blue meanie thing. And JBL happened on this one. For some reason, I was thinking that happened in a different show. But yeah, that's fuck JBL, dude. If anybody wants to know where the Chick-fil-A show stands on JBL, yeah, he's thumbs down for us all the way. Yep.
01:12:22
Speaker
All right, we will quickly run through the figures. This is another one. You know, Jack's just the fucking workhorses of the wrestling figure industry, man. They were cranking out the figures back in the day. So this is a well.
01:12:34
Speaker
Representative show you get the Ray Mysterio Jack's ruthless aggression pay-per-view series 9 Chris Benoit ruthless aggression series 26 the Dudley boys ruthless aggression series 9 pay-per-view and Mattel has Eddie Guerrero WrestleMania 32 basic we're in this I don't think he was supposed to I'm not sure which WrestleMania he was wearing this gear but he rocked the same gear at one night stand 2005 and then that Mike Austin toy bis figure again and
01:13:02
Speaker
All right, Jordan, you ready to get to both of our choice for the number one B show of all time? Oh, you know I am.
Bash at the Beach 1996 Significance
01:13:10
Speaker
All right, Bash at the Beach, 1996. You can make an argument. Outside of any WrestleMania, this may be the most historically significant wrestling event of all time. Some good matches on here. Ray Mysterio and Psychos have a great lucha match. Conan and Ric Flair have a really good match. This is when Conan was still kind of like the biggest star in Mexican wrestling.
01:13:31
Speaker
Honestly, we're really kind of here for one match and one match only. That's the, the, the, the outsiders hauling Nash or the mystery third man against the Lex Luger sting and the macho man, Randy Savage. Dude, I'll do you one further. You can argue with anybody you want. This is the most important night in wrestling history. It just, it is dude. I looking back on this and I mean, do people still talk about this show to this day? It's just, dude, it was the forming of the NWO man. Like this is a,
01:14:01
Speaker
one of the most legendary factions of all time formed on this show. And I just, I think that this is just such a historic night for wrestling. So this wasn't to me, like if we were ranking these, this was easily number one for me. This was the first show I put down on my list. Like I knew that there was nothing that could get better than this for me, just based on the significance of it.
01:14:26
Speaker
Yeah, we just, you know, me and, you know, I was born in 84, Jordan was born in 85. So we are kids of the Hulkamania era, dude. Like we came up with
01:14:35
Speaker
Hulk Hogan, eat your vitamins, train, say your prayers. I mean, he was the epitome of the American spirit being a baby face, everything it means to be a good person. That's what Hulk was. And just to see him turn his back on all that after all these years, dude, it was surreal, man. It really was. I told the story between
01:15:02
Speaker
pod warriors and chick-fil-a show before, but my papal Clyde, my great-grandpa, you know, I talked about watching Great American Bash 1989 with him. He was real old at this point, dude. Like he was up there in his late 70s by this point. And when all the speculation was going on for who the third man was, he had actually called it. He told me and my little brother, Tad, he said,
01:15:24
Speaker
it's going to be Hulk Hogan. We hadn't seen Hulk in a couple of months. He'd been off filming a movie or whatever, and he told us, he said, I think it's going to be the Hulkster. And we're like the meme. We're like, go back to sleep, Grandpa. That's fine. But we were like, there's no way, dude. Even though you could connect the dots and be like, OK, it'd be cool, you just never thought that Hulk was actually going to turn heel.
01:15:48
Speaker
Well, so now looking back on it in our older years, Hulk Hogan was always kind of a heel because he was always kind of a dick. So he always worked heel. Yeah, he was definitely out. When you look back, yeah, Hulk was definitely a fucking asshole. Yeah. So that's funny that your grandpa called it though. Cause yeah, dude, I don't know, man. Just like looking back on this show for me, it's just, I don't know, man. It's just, it's a wild night of wrestling and something I would have never expected from Hulk Hogan at that time.
01:16:17
Speaker
Yeah, I remember watching it live, you know, looking back at it now, like, who else could it really have been besides whole COVID? Like, maybe Brett, but, you know, we hadn't heard any, you know, this was pre internet, dude. And so there was no reason to think that Brett was actually leaving WWF, even though he was on a hiatus.
01:16:33
Speaker
I kept thinking maybe sting man, like what I remember as a kid thinking the sting was going to turn on him. And then I remember if you remember in the match Lex Luger goes out within like the first five minutes on a stretcher. I remember thinking that Lex Luger was going to come back and turn on him because you know he'd been in WWF and Lex was always kind of a tweener character right like he had a lot of healed face turns over the years but
01:16:55
Speaker
But yeah, sure enough, we come out and then Hulk comes out. And I want to ask you, man, because this is definitely a point of contention historically. Do you think that Bobby Heenan fucked up when as Hulk's coming out, he says, you know, whose side is he on? Yeah, 100 percent. He definitely shouldn't have did that.
01:17:13
Speaker
Yeah, I think so too. According to Eric Bischoff and everybody that was involved with it, the announcers didn't know, right? Like the announcers were kept in the dark. I think it was, you know, the guys in the match and then I want to say Eric Bischoff, Kevin Sullivan, and I think Jimmy Hart were like the only people that knew that this was going down. And I think it was just, it was a natural thing for Bobby Heenan to say. I feel like maybe if they would have brought
01:17:39
Speaker
Coached him up on it that he wouldn't have said that, you know, because I think it was you know, Bobby Heena had been hating on Hulk Hogan for years but it definitely kind of I feel like it took just a little edge off because it at least planted that seed in your mind like oh shit, maybe Hulk's gonna turn on him, but That that's a my I think that's kind of like the only minor criticism You can even have on how this whole angle went down, you know, Hulk comes in clears the ring of Hall and Nash crowds going nuts dusty roads is on commentary just
01:18:06
Speaker
going to ape shit, you know, that Hulk Hogan's here to save the day. And then he turns around and drops that fucking leg on macho man. Dude, just an absolutely iconic moment in wrestling history. We all hate Hulk, but yeah, dude, just an insane night.
01:18:22
Speaker
And he kind of killer promo too, man. He, even though he originally called it the new world organization instead of the new world order. Um, that's a good promo, you know, that even though, um, obviously we don't condone people throwing debris and don't, you know, foreign objects into the ring. Cause you could hurt somebody, all the trash getting thrown into the ring. It really kind of made the moment. You agreed a hundred percent. Cause.
01:18:45
Speaker
I don't think it would have felt this shitty without that, without them doing that. Cause dude, we all kind of felt the same. Like what a dickhead. He stabbed us all in the back after all these years, everybody defended him and then he does this. So yeah, dude, it is. It's just an iconic moment. And like I said, if, if people really don't agree that this is like one of the most iconic moments in wrestling history, like are you even a wrestling fan at that point?
01:19:09
Speaker
Yeah, it's the
Wrestling Figures Discussion
01:19:10
Speaker
best dude. Like the whole show is fun too man, but that match loom so large that like it's really, you know, it's not a one match show, but that match was so big and so hyped up that it kind of feels like it. Well dude, it just overshadows everything else. That's the problem. Like even if there was like a five star match on before it, it would have been overshadowed just because of that.
01:19:31
Speaker
Yeah. And so I know it's probably kind of hard to understand for our younger listeners. You can remember this is like the early days of the internet. Like the majority of fans weren't really smartened up, man. Like we didn't, this stuff was still presented. Like we knew wrestling was fake, but sometimes like the storylines just seemed so real. And it really felt like WWF was invading WCW dude. It really felt like
01:19:53
Speaker
It was like, you know, some Avengers type shit like this was like an existential like crisis for WCW, right? Like they're about to get put out of business by these outsiders. Yeah, it's a it's really crazy.
01:20:05
Speaker
All right, we will quickly run through the list of figures. This is a show that's got a lot of figure love. So the Series 3 Nasty Boys from the San Francisco Toymakers line, they're in the green gear. It's the only green Nasty Boys that we've gotten. Two figures from that really cool Four Horsemen Toy Biz set that came out, Dean Malenko and Steve Mungo-McMichael from this show.
01:20:27
Speaker
So Rick Flair is rocking his red gear with the red boots. Believe it or not, the best figure representation of this is that God awful Rick Flair Hasbro figure. That might be honestly one of the worst figures of all time, too.
01:20:42
Speaker
Yeah, it's just a really, really weird figure, man. Arne Anderson was rocking black boots and black trunks. The only time we've gotten that in figure form is actually in his micro brawler. Crispin Woz, his OSFTM line that was kind of like Hasbro style figures. It represents Crispin Woz from the show. Mattel put out that really, really cool Macho Man, Lex Luger, and Sting three-pack that then now forever set with the face paint. Jordan actually hooked me up with that one.
01:21:11
Speaker
found in Nebraska and brought it out to Hawaii. I brought that one. Didn't that was when I brought you earthquake and typhoon too, wasn't it? And the shield. Oh yeah. My suitcase was full of Seth's figures on my way to Hawaii. I don't know why Mattel whenever we visited that both those sets sold quick because I think I saw the the macho and sting set on pegs once and I never saw the shield said those those three packs were really, really cool, dude.
01:21:40
Speaker
This was in late 2016, early 2017. They gave us a classic shield set, and then they gave us Macho Lex and Sting from Bash of the Beach, which was really cool, because Macho and Lex got face paint. I remember, and it was kind of like a shock drop. They weren't showing at Comic-Con. They weren't hyped up. They kind of popped up on the pegs. I remember Sheena showing me off the Wrestle Fix forums, and I was just stunned, dude, because I had been fantasy booking those three figures for a long time, the babyfaces from this event.
01:22:10
Speaker
You know what the craziest part about those two three packs is as well. So I was at Walmart when those were getting put out. It was just dumb luck. And I had texted Seth. I remember texting you and being like, Hey, do you want either one of these? Cause I was getting them for myself. So I was like, do you want either one of these? And you're like, yeah, they were filling every peg up with those, uh, then now forever line too.
01:22:31
Speaker
And you're like, dude, if you can get the earthquake and typhoon to get those, I'm pretty sure that was the most I've ever spent on figures in a store at one time. And the craziest thing is I never saw those three packs again. I never saw them at any other Walmart's in Omaha. That was the only time I ever saw them. And it just seemed like it was just an accident that my Walmart got them.
01:22:53
Speaker
Yeah, they were pretty limited run man. The, the macho election sting pack. It's not crazy valuable. I know that shield pack goes for pretty good money nowadays, man. I actually sold both of those packs just cause I being MOC dude and holding both those packs. Like there was just no space for them anywhere. So I eventually just sold them both of them at the same time. I don't remember what I got for him, but it was like, I think it was like two 50 for both bags.
01:23:18
Speaker
Yeah, it's a it's definitely a big set. I'm gonna do a quick. I'm doing a quick eBay search man. See what they're going for right now. So yeah, so that shield set right now. There's two listed on eBay. One is for 400 and the other one's for 250. Wow.
01:23:34
Speaker
I know man, I mean it makes sense when you look at what those three guys have done since then but yeah Let's see what the macho and sting when there are there's no of the macho sting and Luger listed on eBay right now. We'll click check the sole listings It's crazy to think that they've never done a three-pack of the heels man like the
01:23:57
Speaker
Like we've gotten them in so the the sting macho and luger that sold for 125 most recently. So it's still pretty pricey. That's so pretty but uh But yeah, so for the nWo side of the house elite 16 Kevin Nash and the red gear Which I could totally see that getting re-releases the ultimate edition sometime soon. Hopefully they need to do this as a three-pack, dude Yeah, yeah, that's what I'm saying, man. I don't know why we've never gotten these as a three-pack. It's such an awesome moment Yeah, we've got hall in elite 51
01:24:23
Speaker
Go ahead, you like the end of your spray paint on the front of it and do it like a flip up lid. I think that'd be awesome, dude.
01:24:30
Speaker
Yeah, that would be pretty badass too. Scott Hall and Elite 51, the black and red gear, really, really great figure, man. And then, so there's been Jax, excuse me, Mattel has two pretty close Hulksters. The one that just came out in Legends 18, and then the one from Hall of Fame Series 2 are both pretty close, but there was a Jax limited edition. It's like a classic superstar slash ruthless aggression style figure that's actually the only one that's been the exact version. So Mattel's never done the exact
01:24:59
Speaker
Bash at the Beach, Hulk Hogan surprisingly enough. Wow, that is crazy. Yeah, but yeah, if anybody from Mattel is listening, dude, give us a three pack, man. That'd be a great San Diego Comic Con exclusive, dude. Hulk and the Red and Yellow and Holland Nash from Bash at the Beach in 1996 would be awesome. Yeah, I would love to have that. All right, you ready for some listener mail, Jordan? Yeah, yeah, we're ready to go.
01:25:26
Speaker
Alright, let's do it, dude. Alright, so first off, we have from our good friend, Sam bro. So this was before I clarified we were talking pay per views, I think he thought we were talking regular TV, but he says is is thunder the worst of all time? It's definitely up there, man. I think rampage is giving it a run for its money right now. Yeah, I was gonna say rampage has had some
01:25:53
Speaker
some hidden gym episodes and stuff, but Thunder is like, like the first two episodes were kind of cool. And then dude, it was just no effort whatsoever. They want to go under around one person, dude, it was Glacier. The entire show was premised off him. And he was an absolute flop when they, when he finally debuted. So pretty much killed that show.
01:26:16
Speaker
Yeah, if you want to see some of the worst pro wrestling ever, just watch like some 1999, 2000 episodes of WCW Thunder. So yeah, I think Sam Bro, may I note it? I think it might actually be the worst of all time. Yeah, dude, that those shows are so bad. All right. So Kurt Kilburg says.
01:26:36
Speaker
Fully loaded in 1999 is a true hidden gym. We had a great viewing party that night back when you could round up enough people for a viewing party. Plus Vince McMahon couldn't be on TV anymore. And you know, WWF always abides by their stipulations. What was, you got to jog my memory, dude. I'm kind of drawing a blank here, man. This is a banger, dude. The main event was a first blood match between Austin and taker. Um, and, uh,
01:27:02
Speaker
He also retained the title by hitting a taker in the head with a television camera and causing him to bleed after X-Pac interfered. So where's your lie? 1999. Let me run down this card real quick. So we got Jeff Jarrett defeated Edge for the Intercontinental Championship. The Acolytes defeated the Hardy Boys for the tag belts. Dilo Brown defeated Midian for the European Championship. A lot of title changes, dude. Big boss man defeated Al Snow for the hardcore belt.
01:27:32
Speaker
Big Show beat Kane, Ken Shamrock defeated Steve Blackman. Oh my God, dude, the match is on this. Road Dogg and X-Pac beat Billy Gunn in China for the rights to the name of Degeneration X. And then Triple H defeated The Rock to be the number one contender at SummerSlam. And yeah, Steve Austin beat Undertaker.
01:27:51
Speaker
I do not remember this one, man, at all, dude, like I know I watched it because I watched every paper you back then. But yeah, this one definitely is just in the mix. But Jordan, you're giving it certified banger status. This is a great pay per view. This was actually on my list. I think this was like eighth on my list for putting it on there. I mean, dude, it was just so much fuckery. Like if Austin won, Vince couldn't appear on TV anymore. Yeah, right. They were really going to do that. Yeah, for sure.
01:28:18
Speaker
All right, Johnny JB taking us off wrestling says not wrestling related thoughts about the John Moran situation. So I'll get this one kicked
Ja Morant's Social Media Incidents
01:28:26
Speaker
off. I'm right here in the Memphis area. So I feel like I got to speak on this one first, man. So for those not in the know, John Moran was suspended in March of this NBA season because he was on Instagram live in a strip club in Denver with a pistol in his hand, which, you know,
01:28:46
Speaker
That was kind of justified because Denver, you know allowed to have you know guns out in nightclubs or bars or anything And then there was some speculation that if he had it there He probably had it on the team flight back to Memphis, but this past week. He was on Instagram live here in Tennessee In a car listening to some rap music kind of just doing what young people do sing along dancing with a song and he had a gun in his hand and because that the Grizzlies have suspended him indefinitely from all team activities, so
01:29:12
Speaker
I'll say this, man, there's definitely a million better ways he could be spending his time and things he could be doing that wouldn't hurt his image. It's incredibly dumb and it's not good gun safety as a responsible gun owner. Like, yeah, you know, it strikes to him on that, dude. It's not good practice whatsoever. But I have a hard time understanding why this dude is being suspended from his livelihood over this, man. Tennessee is, you don't have to have a license to carry. You can carry a concealed, you can open carry.
01:29:42
Speaker
It's basically no holds barred when it comes to guns in Tennessee. And to be honest, man, I feel like it's a little bit racist, dude. I feel like if it was a white dude out with his gun, I don't think it'd be a big deal, man. So I kind of feel like Josh is getting targeted on this, man. Like I said, I don't understand why being stupid caused you to get suspended, man. And that's kind of my take on it, dude. Jordan? Dude.
01:30:11
Speaker
I feel like him doing this, I get what you're saying. You're exactly right. He has a right to have a gun. I feel like the biggest problem is, dude, he just did that strip club thing not even two months ago. I feel like if that wasn't there, this wouldn't be a problem. They just talked to him and stuff like that. The biggest problem is, dude, NBA has an image to uphold.
01:30:33
Speaker
And when, I mean, when you, when you start doing stuff like this, like kids look up to you and stuff and they start seeing that they definitely don't want violence to be associated with MBA. Right. Um, and I feel like dude, that first time that he got in trouble was a really bad look for him, man. That's just.
01:30:53
Speaker
I see what he did the whole, he did the whole heartfelt apology shit too, which now that seems completely instance here, right? I think that's the biggest problem, dude, is he did that, did the apology to her and now he's done this. And I feel like, dude, I think Adam Silver is going to drop the bomb on him. I think he might get suspended like half the season next year, honestly.
01:31:15
Speaker
See, I'm hoping, man, as a as a Grizzlies fan and a genre fan, that maybe the Grizzlies were just trying to be preemptive to keep the NBA from dropping the hammer. Right. Like kind of like let us handle it at our level. You know, you guys don't got to weigh in on this. But yeah, it's not good. And dude, on the role model thing, you're 100 percent right. Like, you know, John Marantz, my son's favorite player,
01:31:36
Speaker
you know, he started seeing highlights of the Grizzlies and the dude just stands out with a colorful hair. And I can tell you from seeing him in person, the dude, he, you know, he really stands out on the court. He's a very, very special athlete. And I agree with you 100% about the, you know, not just the image thing, but he's a role model, dude. Like regardless of what any athlete wants to say, that's part of the deal that comes with the fame and the money. You're a role model for little kids.
01:32:01
Speaker
And he's definitely not setting an example for any kids, man, with the way he's acting out there. So if Nike or Powerade wanted to drop him, I wouldn't have any beef with that. I think they're fully justified. I just think it's a little bit of an overstep for the Grizzlies to straight up say, hey, dude, you're not going to be allowed to work anymore because of this. I think, dude, here's what I think happened. I think that shit happened. And they told him, hey, man, there is no more warnings or anything like that. Next time, you're in deep shit.
01:32:31
Speaker
that they gave him his options. I think that the dude is just another case of he does not put himself around the right people, right? And this is the problem with professional athletes.
01:32:45
Speaker
And it's not like Jha was like raised poorly or anything, dude. He went to a private school. I know, that's the craziest thing, dude. He's comes for... Dude, his parents are still together. He doesn't come from any kind of broken home. That's what I say, dude. He's a wannabe gangster, right? He's not a real fucking gangster, dude. His real name's Timetrius, man. He's just trying to... For whatever reason, dude, I assume it's just out of immaturity. He's just wanting to live this image, you know? Yeah.
01:33:12
Speaker
Feel bad for the dude, man. I think, I just think that he's just leading himself down a road. And I just, I feel like he's gonna, I feel like he's gonna kill his career, man. You know, you said he surrounds us up by the wrong people, but if you watch that video, like his friend, as soon as Ja pulled the gun out, his friend puts the phone down, dude. Like, I think it may just be Ja, dude. Like, I don't think his friends might be like, what the hell are you doing? But I don't know why you feel needy going up.
01:33:41
Speaker
Instagram live anyways, man. What are you doing, dude? You just signed a $200 million contract. You got a beautiful house out here in the country. He's actually in my neck of the woods out here in Tennessee, way out here in the sticks, dude. Just chill, bro. Go sit by the pool and drink a fucking Mai Tai, right? I feel bad for the dude because I just... I think he's really ruining his career, man, and he was probably about to get a boatload of money too is the worst thing.
01:34:07
Speaker
I hope this dude doesn't, dude, he got a Nike deal. He got a signature shoe from Nike. What the fuck are you doing? What is wrong with these kids, man? Even going back to Vic, dude, you have the world by the balls, basically. You're on top of the world and you can't break away from stupid shit. I just don't get it.
01:34:30
Speaker
If I had that kind of talent and opportunity, I would be sitting at the house, working on my game, doing what I need to do to stay on top of that, and just chilling and enjoying my life, bro. Like I said, sitting by the pool, complaining video games, doing whatever, man. Why even mess with the nonsense? Like I said, to boil it down, Johnny, I think it's incredibly stupid what he did, but
01:34:53
Speaker
I think maybe there's, he's getting dealt with a little bit of a heavy hand from, from his team and from the NBA, but you know, that's, I think there's kind of just the price that comes along with, with that level of fame and opportunity, you know. Yeah. I feel bad for the dude.
AEW's Pay-per-view Set Design
01:35:08
Speaker
I really do. Cause I feel like he's throwing it all away for nothing.
01:35:13
Speaker
All right, Zach Hertzler says, favorite B-show entrance stage. I think Jordan, you already mentioned back last 2000 years, you got another one you want to shout out? I do. We'll go with Halloween Havoc, 1998. The gargoyle holding the pumpkin that had Halloween Havoc on it. I love it. Dude, I kind of love Spring Stampede. Remember, they used to always have it look kind of like fucking shootout at the OK Corral. WCW always went all out with the sets. Yeah, but WCW knew what they were doing. They killed it.
01:35:44
Speaker
I think, honestly dude, I think one thing that killed the, I don't know why AEW's not giving us unique sets. They should. We're shelling out 50 bucks for those fucking pay-per-views. AEW should be doing the unique sets. For WWE, I could kind of get it because they started giving away all the pay-per-views on the network and on Peacock, you know, for 10 bucks a month. So I could kind of, I still think they should do them, but I can give them a little bit of a pass. But AEW needs to step it up, dude. The pay-per-views need to look different from Dynamite.
01:36:12
Speaker
Yeah, they definitely do. All right, Zach Squirtzer has got another question for us. That's his affectionate nickname for us here.
Beer Drinking While Mowing Question
01:36:21
Speaker
Stupid question for fun. How many beers do you drink when you cut the grass? For me, it can be anywhere from two to four beers. I need to stay hydrated, safety first. So I use a push mower, man. So I really don't drink beers while I'm
01:36:35
Speaker
while I'm mowing the grass, man. I'll definitely, I'll down on ice cold beer right after I get done, but I'm not drinking while I mow, man. How about you? Yeah, I'm more of a post-mow beer kind of guy. I don't, dude, when I'm mowing, man, I do a push mower too, and we have a hill in our backyard. The last thing I want is to end up being drunk and then falling down and getting cut by the mower or something, dude. I mean, it's funny, but dude, I'm sure it happens, man.
01:37:03
Speaker
hit a slick spot in the yard or a hole that my dog dug. So like, yeah, I don't do much drinking while I'm mowing. Yeah. Sorry to let you down Zach. Yeah. I'm over the post mode beer. So Zach, we need to follow up question, bro. Are you, are you on a riding mower and you got a beer in the cup holder? Cause that's cool as fuck, dude. Or are you like, you got a beer set off in the shade and you're just, you know, you mow a few lines and go take a couple of golfs, man. Like let, let us know what the game plan is.
01:37:29
Speaker
TNT Tyson Neil Trevino says any superstar Billy
Tribute to Superstar Billy Graham
01:37:33
Speaker
Graham story. So again, we're courting this on Thursday May 18th superstar Billy Graham absolute legend in the wrestling biz passed away last night I I don't really have any man. Like I mentioned earlier, you know, I'm 84 George 85 we kind of were were after The superstars hey day. I remember watching a few VHS tapes from the 80s. I think summer slam 88 He's a color commentator on that but
01:37:58
Speaker
I don't got a whole lot of memories of this guy, man. How about you, Jordan? No, just like you. Um, I don't really have a lot of memories. The only thing that I can really remember is like when the, when all of like the steroid talk hit is this was one of the first guys that was mentioned the first steroids and stuff. But yeah, man, I, it's, it sucks. I mean, the older we get, the more of our wrestlers are going to pass away. But, um, yeah, I mean, I just don't have a whole lot of memories of Billy Graham.
01:38:24
Speaker
There is a really, really good WWE produced documentary about him. I'm about to look. Hopefully it's still in Peacock. I know it was on the network.
01:38:35
Speaker
Yeah, so if you want to go on peacock, it's called 20 years too soon, the superstar Billy Graham story. And it's all about how he was basically like, you know, a guy from, from the Hulkamania Hulkamania area that just happened to be wrestling back in the, you know, late sixties and seventies and stuff. So yeah, 20 years too soon, the superstar Billy Graham story, really great documentary. If you guys want to check it out on a peacock, that's kind of like my, the extent of my Billy Graham experience.
01:39:03
Speaker
All right, Sam Rosenthal says you're at the AW inaugural press conferences back in 2019. Your question to anyone on the stage, how would you feel or would you believe us if we told you Jeff Jarrett and Jay Lethal got back to back paper views with tag title shots in 2023? Yeah. I don't know why this is what we're doing, man. Like I'm a fan of Jeff Jarrett. I like him having some spots, but I don't know why he's getting such high profile matches on back to back paper views in 2023. How about you, Jordan?
01:39:32
Speaker
Yeah, I don't really get it. I thought it was cool at first. I mean, it's fun seeing the old guys come back, but I just don't get it. Yeah, it's fun, right? It's cool for an episode of Dynamite or even a one-off on a pay-per-view. But dude, there's so much talent, especially even just in the tag team division. There's so much tag team talent in AEW. Why is Jay Lethal and Jeff Jarrett getting back-to-back tag title shots?
01:40:02
Speaker
Quite an answer for that, dude. The tag division is one of the things that I feel AEW is not doing the greatest job with, but FTR being champions I'm fine with, obviously. I think they've done some good things, but I'm getting back on the AEW train, man. I feel like they're doing some good things and they're moving in the right direction again.
01:40:23
Speaker
Yeah, it's been better than it was maybe four or five months or so ago. I'll give you that for sure, dude. I'm still sticking with NXT, man. Again, it's May 2023, wherever you guys may be listening to this. NXT has been awesome, dude. The star power is not the greatest and the in-ring quality ebbs and flows, but as far as consistently booked storylines, I feel like NXT has been the best out of all the brands in wrestling over the last few months.
01:40:51
Speaker
Um, Sam Rose said this was one last question. I think we already answered. He just talked about, uh, you know, why our custom sets a thing anymore. Yeah. We talked about that throughout the show. And then we talked about a little bit there with, uh, was Zach a while back. So thank you guys for all the listener questions, man. You guys really motivate us. We love seeing all the positive feedback from pod warriors episodes. Again, if this is your first time tuning into a pod warrior show,
01:41:13
Speaker
It's very easy to find us. Every single podwares episode, going back to March of 2022, has podwares right at the start. So it's gonna be very easy for you to find and get caught up. And all of them are pretty much evergreen content. So it's not stuff that's time-specific. You can listen to it whenever it's gonna be good to go. I wanna remind you guys, use code CHICKFOLY to save 10% at ringside collectibles. Jordan, you wanna hit us with some closing thoughts before we put a wrap on this one.
01:41:41
Speaker
Yeah, again, thanks for all the support, you guys. We wouldn't be doing this without you. I know it's been a while since we've done a podwares me and Seth have already talked about getting better at this and recording at least once a month. So we're gonna we're gonna pump out some content for you guys for podwares. And yeah, man, just keep supporting us and we love you guys and have a good week.
01:42:19
Speaker
Granddaddy drank heavy and daddy drank light I can turn any day to Saturday night if I want to And most of the time I want to I can still paint a picture of a hemlock view My mountains had smoke but the ones that were blue that we buy then Or the ones that spent a little more time in
01:42:45
Speaker
between the hangovers and the handcuffs. It's been a minute since I had one in my handcuffs. Everybody says it's gonna be the death of me, but these days I'm living on the side of life just cause a smile through my sobriety. Don't mean it ain't chilling in the back of my mind. I ain't saying I swore it all for good. I'm just saying I'm doing the best.
01:43:36
Speaker
What do you expect from a redneck?