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Episode 110: Memory Lane
61 Plays6 years ago
On this weeks episode Garrett and Derrick are talking AEW's Dynamite, a trip down memory lane, Netflix's The Main Event, White Claw and more!
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Transcript
Quarantine Reflections and Nostalgia
00:00:36
Speaker
Hello, my friends, and welcome to Episode 110 of Predetermined. I'm your host, Garrett Callender. And I'm the other host, Derek Halpin, and Garrett.
00:00:46
Speaker
What day are we into this fucking quarantine shit? And I feel like other people try to do some kind of cute update on how deep they are into it, but I really think it lasted like a week and then they stopped counting, which is what I'm doing. I have no idea, man. I have no idea. From my perspective, I don't know about yours, it feels like AEW Revolution weekend happened. You were here for one more day or two more days. You went home, there were tornadoes, and then everything's been shit since.
00:01:15
Speaker
Yeah, that's how good that tag match was at Revolution. It ruined everything. That tag match sucked all of the joy out of the entire world for the foreseeable future. That may have been the last good time we ever got to have.
00:01:34
Speaker
We just didn't know it at the time. If I'd known, I would've got another thing in nachos. Ugh. Man, I'm gonna tell you the truth. I wasn't, like, ready for this coming into it, but now I'm feeling it again.
00:01:48
Speaker
Like, wait, entering the fucking podcast? You weren't feeling it? No, like you were saying, it's just like, what day are we in this quarantine? It's sucking the joy out of everything. It doesn't matter. That's what I've learned between when I asked the question and now.
00:02:08
Speaker
No, that really is my perspective on things. That was the last really, really fucking good time I had was that weekend and then some stuff happened and now we're in Sealand. I forgot it was called Sealand. I love Sealand. No, you don't. Everyone hates Sealand. You miss the old world. I do miss the old world. In the old world, you were able to attend live professional wrestling.
00:02:36
Speaker
In the old world, I could go get a white claw without wearing a hazmat suit. The good news is that in both worlds, you're still allowed to drink white claw. Yeah, that never changed. So really, if anything, it's just now there's a pile of cans around me as I'm just staring out the window waiting for some sort of sign to turn on that I'm allowed to go back out there.
Quarantine Habits and Humor
00:03:01
Speaker
You know what would have been a really fun experiment would have been if the moment they announced like the Nationwide lockdown shit if you had started keeping a running tally of how many claws you'd had and you could just let it be like Bill Goldberg streak where he would be like 42 and oh on nitro and then the next week you'd show up and suddenly he was like 61 and oh and you were like what matches took place how many house shows were there and
00:03:27
Speaker
But you would be like, I had like 17 white claws. And then the next show, you'd be like, I've had 83. Next show, 174 white claws. You can't book this shit. We can just talk about it on that podcast, hypothetically.
00:03:45
Speaker
You mean alcoholism? Uh, is it alcoholism if it's fucking alcoholic water? Definitely. I think, I don't think white claw gets a pass. I think if, if you run into an alcohol problem with white claws, it isn't just like cute. I think it is.
00:04:04
Speaker
Like it's like, I think if that's, if that's the only thing that there, if that's the only thing that that has made someone an alcoholic, like, like you have problems where you have like the alcoholic uncle or something and people are trying to help, but I think people are going to be a little less inclined to start talking about it. If they're like, yeah, he's got a problem, but it's, it's water. Uncle Jerry won't quit drinking all the white clothes and it's not really a problem other than it's weird.
00:04:32
Speaker
It's only weird because he's drinking the white claws that have no flavor. I would actually call the police. You should, but they'd be like, sorry, this is not an emergency, social distancing.
00:04:48
Speaker
You were choosing an alcoholic, flavorless seltzer water during the apocalypse. You were a monster.
Post-Quarantine Dreams
00:04:56
Speaker
You could have had anything. Get the fuck out of here. You have a weakened attention. For real though, how many cases of claw do you think you've been through since we've entered Sealand? How many weeks are we into this?
00:05:12
Speaker
I think this the shit hit the fan somewhere around mid March, right? Oh my god. Is that is for real? Yeah, I mean it may have been like the first week of March and what is it now June 2023? It's not June yet. It's still like mid to late April. I think it's the 21st Well, I will say I've had at least a case a week
00:05:35
Speaker
Okay, so you've been through like five or six cases. Yeah. I think that's normal in the span of a week. You know, you got to drink so much water a day. Like I said, I'm not going to throw the penalty flag until you start drinking the flavorless brand, which I have never purchased.
00:05:52
Speaker
Oh man, I wish I could share a flavorless white claw with you right now. I know, I know, and you know what? Who knows if we'll ever get to again. It would be hilarious if, like, for the next thing we need to do together, let's get a case of the flavorless white claw and start recording an episode and set up a timer
00:06:11
Speaker
and try to do our show in the regular amount of time, around an hour, but let's force ourselves to finish that case of shitty claw in that time. So we're just guzzling water and talking about whatever. Like, yeah, water that doesn't even, see, like right now I'm enjoying a watermelon, and this is delicious. Flavorless, it's, I think it's gonna start making me feel sick quicker. Yeah. Welcome to Predetermined, everybody.
00:06:39
Speaker
Who gives a shit anymore? We're all going through the same thing. We've all been staring at the same walls. Yeah, I think I'm getting burnt out on ordering food. I need to just go grocery shopping, but even doing that's scary. I went today. How did that go? I wore a mask, and I will say, a lot of the elderly people in that grocery store that I don't have faith that they'll be alive tomorrow.
00:07:06
Speaker
That's a fair assessment. They were either not wearing the masks properly or not at all. They were like, fuck it. I'm picking up my roast beef and my box of Cheerios and no one's stopping me, not even death.
00:07:23
Speaker
It's heavy, Garrett. Jesus. What's the first thing that you're gonna go do that isn't quite safe yet? Like, you know, you're gonna go do it before it's quite time. Wait, before they lift the ban? No, they lift the ban, but you know in your heart of hearts, like, I shouldn't do this quite yet. I think...
00:07:43
Speaker
with a lot of people, I think I'm gonna go eat at a restaurant. That to me is about as close as you can get to just dipping your toe in the water. I asked this question, I asked this question to my girlfriend Megan today and I was like, what's the first thing you're gonna do? Like if I told you that Monday all of this was gone, like what would you wanna do? And I think she had the same answer. And I just miss being able to go sit somewhere and not have to either pick something up or have it delivered and just kind of enjoy the ambiance, enjoy the vibes, enjoy a meal.
00:08:14
Speaker
What are you going to do, Garrett? I'm going to go to a movie theater and sit three seats away from somebody. That makes so much sense. I need a movie theater in my life. This is the longest I've gone in my entire life, Derek, without going to a movie. You sure about that? Like when you were a kid, like a baby? I feel like I just pissed you off because you're like, you know what I meant. Derek, you knew what I meant.
00:08:44
Speaker
That was my special place. That was my happy place. And I want to go back to there.
Wrestling Memories and Milestones
00:08:51
Speaker
For everyone that's listening to this episode, I want to let you know as long as I've been friends with Garrett, one thing I have always associated with this man is the movie theater.
00:08:59
Speaker
whether that was always a big event come week come weekends when we were growing up was you would get some people together and would go see a movie i fondly remember the first time we saw austin powers international man of mystery together before it was the thing that's true it was us and one other guy in that theater and i don't think that thing blew up until it was on vhs like a year and a half later yeah
00:09:24
Speaker
Yeah, no, you are a man who needs a movie theater. And what's funny is that you're the theater guy, you're the movie guy, but for the longest time, you frowned upon people getting snacks at a movie. Not just any snacks. I think that there are certain snacks that it can be a little distracting for everyone around you. Like popcorn? Popcorn. Especially if it's the fucking bag shakers. Wasn't your dad a bag shaker?
00:09:54
Speaker
Don't you're gonna out me to my father right now this but yeah, what's he gonna do? We're in quarantine dad. You shook the bag too loud. I Appreciate all this the Star Wars movies you took me to But as a as an adult the I'll tell you now the bag shaking was a weird anxiety not anxiety. What are you doing? Why so loud?
00:10:20
Speaker
I have seen Garrett yell at complete strangers for talking during a movie.
00:10:27
Speaker
Rob Zombie's Halloween to be more specific. I bet the story I'm not prepared to tell. No, I don't want you to tell that. When I started this conversation, I wasn't even prepared to out you to your dad about his popcorn eating habits at a movie theater. You're in a bag shaker. Here's the funny thing, and defense of your dad, popcorn's a pretty standard go-to snack in a movie, Garrett. It's the definitive movie theater snack. And to have such a pretentious etiquette that you expect,
00:10:57
Speaker
Like, I mean, what do you want people to do, Garrett? Just not get the butter that's in the middle of the bag and at the bottom of the bag evenly distributed throughout the rest of the popcorn? Okay, yes. Yeah, I guess.
00:11:12
Speaker
But hey, I'm much more laxed on my rules now. I'm not as bad with that as I used to be. It used to be a sacred place to me that you didn't make a fucking peep and you just watched. It was, it was movie church. It was movie church. It was film church. And you felt like somebody showed up without their Sunday best on.
00:11:32
Speaker
I'm the fucking pastor that's not afraid to smack you upside the head if you talk during the sermon. You come up here and get that wafer. I don't give a fuck who you are. If you don't shut up, I'm gonna punch this wafer through your fucking skull. What would Nick Gage do? Yeah. No, you became pretty chill about it. And then...
00:11:58
Speaker
Yeah, I'm sure this is really hard for you, man. I apologize. That was another thing that came up was going to movies today, so I get it. And then I was devastated when they pushed the Ghostbusters Afterlife back till next year. That broke my fucking heart into a million pieces. Hey, that was your Fast and the Furious. It was. I mean, that's kind of insulting.
00:12:21
Speaker
because that implies that this has been my Fast and the Furious since Fast and the Furious. Maybe Fast and the Furious is somebody else's Ghostbusters. So you're telling, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Yeah? Fast and Furious isn't my Ghostbusters, it's yours. Shut up.
00:12:38
Speaker
I've been trying to organize a little Twitter watch along for the first two Ghostbusters at some point. So if our listeners are interested in doing that with me, you know how to reach us on social media, so go ahead and do that. But I meant to ask you, because we got on this conversation about childhood memories and things that we grew up doing and rituals, but you've been on a trip down memory lane today, maybe the last couple days. You've been going back and watching a bunch of stuff that we have attended in person.
00:13:06
Speaker
Yeah, I was just kind of going back and watching stuff that you and I had attended and just things that I've been to over the years. And I don't know, I was just really missing going to events, attending shit and kind of going back and reliving some of it.
00:13:21
Speaker
You know, it was a nice, I was Chevy Chase in the attic in Christmas vacation watching that projector crying. That's a good callback. Everybody knows that scene you've seen that movie. Everybody knows that scene. I was that guy. I was sitting there crying, watching Keith Lee throw Jeff gob around. Wrestling is the time of year. Yeah.
00:13:46
Speaker
You're just upstairs, you're in the attic with your Jack Swagger t-shirt on, your Marty Scrull umbrella, all that shit. And you're watching stuff that, you watched the last Ring of Honor show you went to? You couldn't have picked two more perfect things, because I am never going to carry that Bullet Club umbrella around again.
00:14:07
Speaker
That's what I said, they're up in the attic. I'm your Jack Swagger shirt and your Marty's Girl umbrella. Pulled that out of my ass and it worked. Thank you. Yeah, you mentioned to me today that you went back and watched the last ROH show that we went to up here in Chicago, which, fuck, that seems like many worlds away now, given everything that's going on. But what was on this show? I can't remember. Austin Aries was a free agent again at this point, wasn't he?
00:14:38
Speaker
Yes. Well, I didn't watch the whole show. I skipped around it because also I didn't realize because I was thinking that what we went to was an actual event, but I guess it was a TV tape and split up into multiple days. So going back and finding the exact date did not help me find when it actually aired.
00:14:59
Speaker
okay so i had to figure that out and i pretty much just went up and watched the uh the main event which was the bullet club versus lij which thinking about that time they were the hottest thing ever wasn't that like that was the weekend that they had sold out all in
00:15:16
Speaker
Yeah, OK, so we'll come back to this here in a minute. But I did watch the 200th episode of Being the Elite. And at the end of the episode, they do like a montage compilation of past Being the Elite episodes. And I kind of got choked up a little bit because I was looking back on when they put the all in tickets on sale. And that was the day that they did that show. And where were we at?
00:15:44
Speaker
What do you mean? No, where was that venue at? Oh my god. It was a southwest suburb, but I can't remember which one now. It doesn't matter. Yeah, I was going to say, it wasn't at the same place where we saw our first ROH show. It doesn't matter, but no. I mean, that was a big day for them. And it was kind of weird to, amidst all the stuff that's going on, kind of, like you said, go down memory lane and be like, holy shit. A lot has happened since that show.
00:16:15
Speaker
I mean, that was the day that All In got their 10,000 seats sold in what, like less than half an hour?
00:16:22
Speaker
Yeah, something like that. And it was just Ring of Honor was the biggest thing in the world. I mean, it wasn't the biggest promotion, but I mean, it was pretty fucking big. Like, people loved Ring of Honor. Ring of Honor had the biggest wrestling stars at that time. At one of their shows. Some suburb of Chicago had Los Ingo Bernal. I don't even know if I can say it. Los Ingo Bernal plays Dejapan.
00:16:47
Speaker
Yeah, LIJ, that's way easier. Yeah, just knowing that, like, it wasn't, yeah, we saw them wrestle in a Tin Man, but we saw, like, the biggest faction wrestle another faction that was going to be very rare for us to see live. Right, in some small venue.
00:17:08
Speaker
Just in hindsight, that feels fucking wild. How much fun was that match playing back? Because I know that we had a lot of personal footage from that match that was hilarious. Oh, it was like I said, it wasn't the greatest wrestling match ever, but it was a lot of fun and just seeing all 10 guys get their shit in.
00:17:27
Speaker
And you got to really enjoy everybody Bernard's walking around the ring because it was during that time. Right. I had totally forgotten about Bernard. Bernard the Business Bear. Nice to meet you, Mr. Bear. He's all fucking business. But yeah, going back and watching that, I kind of have wanted to put together a list of some of the best matches I've ever witnessed in person.
00:17:54
Speaker
Well, I'm sure several of them are from the fucking American Legion Hall out in Reseda, California. I've only, like, I'm still working on the list, but I've got two. I got when Zack Sabre Jr. beat Roderick Strong for the PWG title, and then one that you and I did a watch along to that we haven't released yet, which is that six man from Bola. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:18:22
Speaker
What else I put on there? I put Jericho Jericho versus Omega in Japan because that's a fucking life event. It was a great, great wrestling match, but also a life event. For more, for more reasons than one. I mean, you were there on your honeymoon with your wife and it was your first experience getting to wear a surgical mask.
00:18:44
Speaker
before it became absolutely necessary a couple years later. And yeah, you got to see Jericho kind of shock the world and do a match for New Japan Pro Wrestling. God, now I really regret, I'm almost positive they sold Bullet Club surgical masks. You should have got one.
00:19:05
Speaker
Like, what would they have said at the grocery store if I walked in with that shit on my face? Some fucking dude would walk up to you and be like, Bullet Club's not in anymore, haven't you? This is not topical. I liked it before it was cool. I liked it after it was cool. No, I did not like it before it was cool. And I gave up on it. You liked it after it had been cool for a little bit. It had been cool for a little bit already. Yeah, I wasn't there for the... I'm not BCOG.
00:19:36
Speaker
Um, what else has made your list of, of obvious, I'm assuming the fucking tag match that we saw at revolution is on there, right? Oh, absolutely. I put that on there. I put, uh, the young bucks last match with ring of honor, that pay-per-view they did, uh, what was it? Final battle. The main event was the bucks versus Scorpio sky and Kazarian versus the Briscoes.
00:20:03
Speaker
in New York. That was a really good one. I forgot you took that trip to New York. Yeah. And do you remember why? I totally forgot. The main reason I took that trip was because Jonathan Gresham was wrestling Zack Sabre Jr. And I was just so amped that that was going to be the best match I'd ever seen. And then it was just whatever? It was fine.
00:20:30
Speaker
I totally forgot to on that same show. I got to see a Cobb versus hangman in a title match. Was that WrestleMania weekend? No, that was just what was this? What else did I do that weekend? I'm trying to that may have been the weekend that I went there and saw evolve and ring of honor. I think I just went up to hang out with Alex and go watch wrestling. I don't I don't think it was it was just final battle.
00:20:59
Speaker
Yeah, I couldn't remember what else you did that weekend. But you took a trip to New York that was not based around mania, well. I'd actually not been, the only time I went to New York, I haven't been for mania, I just went for summer slam. That's true.
00:21:16
Speaker
Fair enough. What else did you check out on your trip down memory lane on stuff that you had attended in person? The first women's money in the bank. That was in St. Louis. That was when Ellsworth won money in the bank. I completely forgot about this. And then was the was the second one the one here in Chicago? Yeah, the next year it was that in Chicago. So I got to do money in the bank two years in a row.
00:21:45
Speaker
and Ellsworth was a significant part of the story at both shows. Rawlins cash in at 32, I put on the list. Oh, did you lose your, I don't know if we've ever talked about that. What was that like for you? Was that just like a sea of people losing their shit? Well, I stand by that that was a good match before Rawlins got brought into it.
00:22:08
Speaker
I was kind of enjoying the Roman Reigns squash match him smiling. There was blood. It looked like Brock Lesnar was beating the fuck out of him. It was the birthplace of the suplex city bitch thing. Yes. Yes. Which. Yeah. Obviously here at the time. No. But yeah, when Rollins came out, that place erupted and just knowing it was the first time that somebody cashed in the money in the bank or held it that long and waited and cashed in at WrestleMania. That was pretty cool. That was pretty awesome.
00:22:38
Speaker
I put Nick Gage losing the GCW title in Nashville to AJ Gray. And I've seen, I've seen Taker wrestle a handful of times, but I've only seen one that I think is like a really good memorable Taker match. And that was a Lesnar versus Taker at Hell in a Cell at the Staples Center. Is that the one where they started tearing up the ring?
00:23:04
Speaker
Yeah. That was the first time I'd ever seen anyone actually pull the mats out and everything. So I thought that was, that was just a very memorable pay-per-view match. Which then for the next couple of years, Champa and Gargano did like an almost every match. Oh yeah. Which that is on the list as well. I got to see that twice. I saw one of those in New York and then I got to see the other one in Chicago. Right. Yeah. I remember that. That was a damn good match because that one went all over the arena too.
00:23:34
Speaker
But yeah, I've just kind of went down the line and was just rewatching a bunch of this stuff. Like I was kind of looking at all the takeovers and even, uh, takeover Orlando had that fucking awesome match between revival DIY and authors of pain. Yes. Yes. Love a good triple threat is even better when it's a tag team match with teams that good. And the fact that I'm saying a match with authors of pain was of that memorable of a match.
00:24:04
Speaker
It was. I just wild. It was just it's so wild that for so long somebody that was like the shit and booked a certain way to look fucking amazing in NXT gets to the main roster and then can just be like an afterthought because authors of pain were some bad motherfuckers down there in NXT for a long time.
00:24:25
Speaker
Yeah, they beat the shit out of everybody and they killed those one guys. I'm trying to remember because what was their finisher? They had kind of a fucked up finisher. And they do like the power bombs where they would like smash them together like Austin's beer cans and then power bomb them? Yes. They had that one where they had jobbed those two, they had two jobbers. And when they like did the high five with their backs, they knocked their heads together and knocked that guy unconscious before the power bomb. Damn.
00:24:55
Speaker
What are you gonna do with that much fucking strength? Oh, I'm sorry, go ahead. No, go ahead. I was just gonna comment on like, what a ride. Was it awesome when we started doing the podcast? Did you feel like an obligation to start forcing yourself to go to more live wrestling? And just because of that, you've collected all these different experiences across multiple different promotions.
00:25:22
Speaker
Oh, for sure. I mean, as a person with a lot of anxiety about traveling, I really was kind of having to kick myself to make myself get out there and do this more. And I ended up having a great fucking time doing it made a lot of friends. When WrestleMania was in New Orleans a couple of years, a couple of years ago, that was not too long after we had started the podcasting. That was like,
00:25:48
Speaker
month and a half, maybe two months. And you got to see Jerry Lawler shoot a fireball at Joey Ryan's dick. And that was one of our first social media posts that fucking blew up. Good times. Good times, man. I had one last one on here that I wanted to bring up. And I mentioned I wanted to point out a PWG match I think people should check out. This one was a fucking banger.
00:26:17
Speaker
It was just a non-title match or anything at a 2017 Bola, but it was Keith Lee and Donovan Dijak as the Monstars versus the Chosen Bros, Jeff Cobb and Matt Riddle.
00:26:33
Speaker
And I mean, yeah, so it's night one. None of these guys have fought in the tournament yet. The next day they might have to fight, you know, a couple times and these guys beat the absolute shit out of each other. And I'm just an, you know, just a non-tournament matchup, just a tag team match. Didn't have to beat the shit out of each other this bad, but they did. And it also really displayed Jeff Cobb's strength. Watching that guy manhandle Keith Lee is insane.
00:27:04
Speaker
Do you feel like you haven't seen enough of Jeff Cobb? I mean, he's still over at Ring of Honor, I just haven't been- Well, he did that AEW match for Jericho. That's true, but they kinda referred to him as a hired gun. I wonder how they worked that deal out. That is weird. Like, we never got any follow-up on that. They made it seem like Jeff Cobb might be the next member of the Inner Circle. Which I was pretty excited about.
00:27:31
Speaker
and never materialized.
Wrestlers in Quarantine: Imagined Scenarios
00:27:33
Speaker
We need some... Here's the other thing I was thinking about the other day, going back to that awesome tag team match that sucked the soul out of the universe. I was so excited for the follow-up with the stuff with Hangman and Kenny and the rest of the elite. And now that feels like that was centuries ago. Yeah, and they're just at home. I haven't seen Hangman in weeks.
00:27:59
Speaker
He's hanging out with Roman Reigns. Oh man, that's just avoiding wrestling. That's pretty cool. Okay. If you had to do a quarantine with three wrestlers, who are you sitting in quarantine with?
00:28:10
Speaker
I answered this online the other day and I just picked a bunch of Canadian wrestlers. I said, if I'm going to be stuck inside with a bunch of wrestlers, they might as well be like the nicest ones. And I think I had like Owens, Zayn, Jericho, Edge and Christian were my five. I know you just said three, but that was my answer then.
00:28:32
Speaker
I like that you're just going with all the Canadians minus PCO. Well, there's other Canadians. I didn't pick Bret Hart. Bret seems like he'd be a pain in the ass to deal with for an extended period of time. You didn't put Kenny in there. That's true. But what's funny about Kenny is even though he's from Winnipeg, just the same as Jericho, I still think of him as from Japan. I can see that.
00:28:58
Speaker
Like, like he lived there for so long. And I know that he's not Japanese, but it's just one of those whatever. And really our exposure to him was all him being in Japan. It's true. I'm not telling you it makes sense. I'm just telling you it's how I feel. Um, but yeah.
00:29:20
Speaker
Yeah. Who would you like to be quarantined with as far as wrestlers? Three or five? Three or five? I would say... But definitely not four. Orange Cassidy and Chuck Taylor for sure. You don't want Trent?
00:29:35
Speaker
I don't know as much about Trent. I don't know if he likes Fast and the Furious the same as those two. I'm going based off of something that's going to fill a lot of our time that we'll all enjoy. All right. I would go ahead and get Trent. You know, I'll give Trent a chance since we're going five. You feel like those two need Trent there because they know him. They'll vouch for him. Well, I don't want to make it seem like I'm trying to replace Trent.
00:30:00
Speaker
Damn right. He's, he's really the muscle of that crew. So you've got three filled. Um, I think me and Joey Janela would enjoy watching wrestling together. All right. And just to make things interesting, let's say Jim Cornett. Oh my God.
00:30:23
Speaker
people are gonna die. It's gonna be just like a real world quarantine situation where everybody likes each other except this one guy. That would make for the best WWE Network reality show right now. Legends House with a bunch of people not in WWE and you who's also not in WWE but you have a wrestling podcast so.
00:30:53
Speaker
Corny's house. Corny's house. Quarantine. Corny team. Corny. That's so weird. Stop it. I'll quit now. I give up. Man, I think I don't want to bum you out. Watch AEW tonight.
00:31:16
Speaker
Okay? I got some good stuff from it. I'm just, if I'm being honest, it's the same old shit with me, which wrestling is so hard for me to watch without a crowd.
00:31:26
Speaker
Like I was watching the Brodie Lee match, which was supposed to be this big, like squash, fuck him up. Look at what a bad ass he is match. And all I kept thinking was, man, the crowd would be eating this stuff up if they were there. And right now it's just like, it's quiet and I'm watching a big dude, not do, I guess that's the thing. You get so used to watching some of these smaller guys do a lot of the athletic shit that when a big guy comes in and just squashes them and it's not really the best television.
00:31:57
Speaker
I think I need to give you the opposite advice you gave me, which is, you need to quit paying so much attention to the crowd. I obviously have to because they're not there. Because as I was watching tonight, my friend Jeff and I were texting, and we were both kind of in agreement that AEW, between WWE and AEW, AEW is doing a much, much better job of continuing on without a crowd.
00:32:28
Speaker
AEW is? Yes. I think the product they're doing, like I barely even notice there's no crowd anymore. I'm getting kind of used to this like studio wrestling. Okay. Is there a followup to that? Were you going to comment on what WWE is doing? Because I feel like you're still getting pretty excited about NXT. Yeah. And NXT is still good, but I don't, I honestly, I think they just need to add that few people around the ring.
00:32:59
Speaker
Well, they're still taping theirs every week, right? Like AEWs, they think they went and did that over the course of like what, a day or two? Yeah, they did it over a couple days in Atlanta. That's why you have so many just like Atlanta jobbers. Well, I was going to say every week, it's somebody I know versus somebody I don't know at all. And I'm thinking, well, I kind of know what's going to happen here now.
00:33:27
Speaker
Are you getting tired of the squash matches? Yeah. It's one of those things, I can have it both ways. I can acknowledge that yes, the circumstances are out of their control. It sucks and they're doing the best they can. I can also at the same time say, this ain't the wrestling that I'm used to. And it's holding things up a little bit.
00:33:51
Speaker
Well, it's like tonight, Jericho cared so little about one of those guys that he didn't get his name right the entire match. He called him Justin Long. The fucking ring announcer. There was one guy that he kept calling his last name Eagles and his last name was Angel.
00:34:12
Speaker
He refuses to do it. Jericho on commentary has been amazing.
Impact of Pandemic on Wrestling
00:34:17
Speaker
You pumpkin-headed dipshit. Billy gone in the dumb club or whatever. No, Jericho has been a reason to tune in every week. I think the show's fine. I think what I'm trying to convey to you is how much I miss
00:34:39
Speaker
wrestling with a live audience. I really like truly appreciate how that format has worked for years. Like I'm sorry. I know that there were people who were into the whole NWA studio wrestling thing, but I don't know if that's for me, man. Well, you gotta, you gotta learn to accept it, man. There's a, it's a new way of life. I don't want it. I want the old world back.
00:35:05
Speaker
Old world's gone, man, we're in Sea World now. Oh, it's sea land. Sea, I'm sorry. Sea World. Sea World is where you go see Shamu. Yeah, I just miss. Not only that, but I had so much fucking fun at Revolution and everything stopped shortly thereafter. I would like to go to another show.
00:35:34
Speaker
Like I had freelance shows that I was planning on going to and looking forward to, and now Kylie Rae, who was the champion there, has signed with Impact. And so much weird shit's happening. WWE continues to get bad press for the way they've handled things. Garrett, can we just go back in time? Can we just handle things differently? That's the good thing about wrestling. What if next week,
00:36:04
Speaker
We don't talk about a single current thing, and we just watch some old stuff that'll make us smile. And can we pretend that it just happened? Yes. Let's do that. Let's do a throwback episode. Fuck. I honestly just want to go back and watch that one where Hulk Hogan had to go through all those cages. That from the Halloween episode, complete. That's still two years ago? Yeah, that's like my favorite wrestling match we've ever watched, I think.
00:36:36
Speaker
I'd be down. We should take some, don't we have some listener requests for some things that we were supposed to check out? I don't think so. I think we're all caught up. Well, if you're still listening to this podcast and you have some stuff that you think we need to watch and pretend like we're watching it live,
00:37:01
Speaker
and reacting to it for the first time, then you need to send that our way, and we'll probably do that next week then. Guys, what do you want to hear us talk about? I don't give a shit. You just tell me. It'll happen. Because I can tell you this much. I don't know if you watched Dark Side of the Ring last night, but just like the Jimmy Snooko episode, I mean, that was some depressing shit. God damn. I know it's a fucking dark show, but like,
00:37:29
Speaker
Fucking Dino Bravo got murdered by the mob. What do you want me to say? That was the episode. That was kind of the gist of the episode. The thing I took away was I finally got to get a good look at the modern version of Jacques Rougeau, who trained Kevin Owens. And I got to look at him and be like, yeah, he seems like he's probably a dick.
00:37:53
Speaker
And I got to learn a little bit about the Montreal professional wrestling scene. And then Dino Bravo went to WWF and he was sad about it, but then he was happy because he made a lot of money and then Vince fucked him up, which, you know, tale as old as time. Song as old as rhyme. Yeah. Vince and the talent.
00:38:18
Speaker
Yeah, Dino left, fell on hard times, needed money, apparently got involved in the black market of cigarettes. Cigarettes. I said that like Forrest Gump, I don't know if you understood the reference. You smell like cigarettes, or you taste like cigarettes. Yeah. Anyways. Can I say something controversial?
00:38:44
Speaker
Oh my God, please. I don't love Tom Hanks. Wow. Wow. That is controversial, Garrett. Can you give me a reason why? I don't think I'm old enough to fully enjoy his performances yet. So here's the funniest thing about that. Summer 2009.
00:39:11
Speaker
I make a trip down to Carbondale, Illinois, and I stay there with our mutual friend Kyle for a couple of days, actually for several days. I can't remember how long, it was like three or four days, whatever. During that time period, there was a day where we went and saw a couple of movies. Or over the course of a couple days, we saw Star Trek.
00:39:34
Speaker
the remake, and we saw Angels and Demons, starring Tom Hanks. And you came out of that movie and you said, I'm not grown up enough for that movie yet. Which I fast forward. Was it because of its adult themes? I just think that, I mean, that was 11 years ago, man.
00:40:00
Speaker
You, you're 30. You're 33. And I just think that, I mean, it's not surprising. I just, it's kind of jarring to hear you say that you can't appreciate Tom Hanks the way he deserves to be appreciated. What do you, like, what, what is, what is the thing that's blocking you? Like, I understand the horsey movie thing with you.
00:40:21
Speaker
I get it. You don't like westerns, you feel like there's not enough music, there's way too much dialogue, there's way too much tough guy shit going on, and it's just brown on that fucking film. It's just fucking brown and nothing exciting to look at and Horsey's on a fucking set. I get it. Fuck Horsey movies, I understand. But why can't you like Tom Hanks? I like him as a human.
00:40:51
Speaker
I think he seems like a great guy. Alright, but why? Tom Hanks is America's sweetheart and it's because he's got a role that he's done for everybody. What's yours? What's your Tom Hanks role? Is it Forrest Gump? I've got several Tom Hanks. I love Castaway. I love Forrest Gump. What else do I like? I like Toy Story, Garrett. Take that. I do like Toy Story.
00:41:18
Speaker
I like big. I like that thing you do. I like the burbs. But like, I feel like the rest of the world loves Tom Hanks so much that they'll go see a movie where he plays a submarine captain. And I don't care enough to go watch Tom Hanks be a submarine captain. All right. I mean, I'm not going to go see it either. But I mean, he's America's sweetheart. What are you going to do? Somebody else's Tom Hanks. Hey, not all the Tom Hanks is for me.
00:41:48
Speaker
That's fine. It's just like wrestling. There's different kinds of Tom Hanks.
Wrestling History and Media Reflections
00:41:57
Speaker
I need the GCW version of Tom Hanks. Which is what? I don't think he's done it yet. I think he would have to start taking the roles Nicholas Cage has been taking. Would you go see a David S. Pumpkins movie? See, I wouldn't. What?
00:42:20
Speaker
All right. Whatever. We're done here. All right, everybody. Well, thanks so much for tuning in this week. Feel free to like our social media. I don't know how much more Tom Hanks slander I can handle. What were we talking about before we got into this? Yeah, I don't know. Like you. You grab the steering wheel. Well, you said something smelled like cigarettes and then you said that was. Oh, yeah. Yeah. We were talking about we were talking about Dark Side of the Ring and
00:42:50
Speaker
Dino Bravo got involved with the wrong people and got shot seven times in the face. Seven times in the face and four times in the body. And he still wrestled for another 20 years. No, that is not what happened. He was fucking gone. And I got to listen to his family tell their side of the story and how heartbroken they were. Man, what you're telling me is wrestling needs cuter crimes.
00:43:19
Speaker
I think what I'm finding out is that I don't know how, why did we show such enthusiasm during season one? Do you remember when we were watching season one and it felt like, oh man, I'm excited to talk about that. And then with the last two or three episodes, I've been like, man, how do I convey enthusiasm over these depressing subjects? How are we gonna talk about the Owen Hart episode?
00:43:44
Speaker
I mean, there's no rule that we have to. We absolutely do because we have personal experience with that. I remember you calling me the morning after that pay-per-view telling me about Owen Hart. I called you before school? Before school. You were gonna see me in 45 minutes, but it was that fucking important that you called me. That is important. It is. We didn't have text messaging.
00:44:08
Speaker
And we will retell the story here in a couple of weeks. I'm meant to ask you this because we talked. I talked about this with you a little bit last week. You finally got around to watching the main event on Netflix. Derek, I couldn't have been happier that you recommended me this movie. Tell me why, Garrett. I like a delightful children's tale.
00:44:32
Speaker
Is that why you enjoyed Sonic the Hedgehog as much as I did? Yeah, but this was like a rookie of the year, or a sandlot, or a diary of a wimpy kid. Yes. Yes. So, I told you that you needed to tune in for a multitude of reasons, one of which being you get to watch Keith Lee act his ass off. Probably the best actor in the movie. Probably.
00:45:01
Speaker
Did you fall in love with him all over again as a completely different character? Absolutely. That character worked just as much for me as regular Keith Lee does. He sings. He sings. He's nice to kids. You got to see Otis in his element? Yeah, Otis farts in a woman's mouth in this movie.
00:45:22
Speaker
yeah yeah thanks for not spoiling that i i didn't want to give you everything remember when we were going to start calling him good guy otis yeah well he farted in a woman's mouth in this movie derek and now he's back to he's back to jizz
00:45:40
Speaker
Is that a promotion or a demotion? He's demoted. He's demoted back to, I know it wasn't his option. He was great in it. He was trying to beat the shit out of a child and then farted in a woman's mouth. That is what happened.
00:45:55
Speaker
How did you enjoy him kicking a tree over in his own bag? Like, like, how does his family not know something was up? So yeah, the movie is about a magic luchador mask and really its powers are being squandered. Very, very true. I mean, this thing could make a worthy adult into a superhero, but luckily it's fallen into the hands of a child and he's just trying to win, win an NXT competition.
00:46:25
Speaker
Yep. The only bit that I did find a little unrealistic, which I know my only thing, the only thing, those bullies that were picking on that little kid, uh, they picked on him about wrestling, but not really. If, if, if that had been realistic, what you would have heard was you still watch that fake stuff. You would, you believe in Santa Claus too. And then the kid cries cause Santa's not real.
00:46:55
Speaker
And you didn't like the way they harassed him? You felt that was unrealistic. Yes. How'd you feel about the mask smelling bad? I thought that was hilarious that it continued to smell bad the whole movie. Like everybody made it seem like that thing smelled like there was a decaying body in his duffel bag.
00:47:17
Speaker
I remember when we were watching it, someone was like, you would have thought they would have washed it, or he would have at least Febreze it. And then we were like, nah, I think Febreze and it would have just made it even worse because it would have been that sweaty, shitty smell mixed with lavender. You were describing, you were literally describing my jean jacket. That thing has never been washed and it has received so many Febreze baths.
00:47:41
Speaker
like it kind of helps but not really it helps temporarily but eventually somebody's gonna realize yeah that smell is Garrett yep I'm just glad you sat down and you watched the main event on Netflix what else what was your favorite scene in the movie Oh favorite scene probably something with his aunt
00:48:05
Speaker
Oh, because she was in love with Kofi Kingston. Oh, I thought, yeah, it made me want a wrestling ant.
00:48:15
Speaker
Did you enjoy the Mrs. Roll in the movie? I enjoyed everything about this movie, Derek. I watched it with a friend that I normally watch bad movies with. And at the end of the movie, we both agreed of all the bad movies we've watched. This one wasn't bad. This was actually a pretty enjoyable little movie and neither of us had any regrets watching it. Good.
00:48:39
Speaker
So this is where we plug it again and be like, hey, if you haven't, you're in quarantine, go and watch it. What else do you have going on? Drink a couple claws, watch a little kid's movie. Yeah. Along with everything else. I mean, fucking Jizz and Keith Lee are the stars of this thing, basically. That's... that's what I said, bunny bread. I mean, I don't want to spoil a movie, but let me repeat one more time. Good guy Otis farts in a lady's mouth.
00:49:05
Speaker
Good guy. He's jizz. He's back to being jizz. He's coming. What else was I going to ask? You watched a multitude of things in the last few days while crushing a lot of claws.
Quarantine Coping and Entertainment
00:49:25
Speaker
It wasn't all while crushing claws. I don't want that to sound like I've got a problem, Derek. We already addressed at the top of the show, it's not a problem if it's white claw. It's not a problem if it's during quarantine. It's expected. How are you gonna cope? That's not good. We don't need to mean to make light of alcoholism, but that's what we've been doing for a while now. And that's because it's fucking alcoholic water.
00:49:55
Speaker
No, you implied that I have alcoholism currently. I'm not implying that you have alcoholism. I think you're doing just fine. I think you have managed your claw consumption at a reasonable rate of one case a week. I'm reading the can right now and it even says on it, it's impossible to have a problem with this, that you can't have too many.
00:50:21
Speaker
That's cause you're just infinitely hydrated and it's gluten free naturally. It's like the fucking South park episode where Randy's sitting outside. His wife, Sharon comes out and she says, you're just going to sit out there and drink beer all day. And he goes, it's okay. It's gluten free. Don't worry.
00:50:44
Speaker
Ugh. God damn, I know like we usually go like another 15 minutes, but I feel like I'm coming up light today. Yeah, me too. I miss you. I'll tell you that. I'm hanging out. Yeah, I fucking would love to see your face and go watch some wrestling.
00:51:03
Speaker
Have you been playing we've been playing Animal Crossing together a little bit I get for those listening I get mail from Garrett every day with him sending me something fun today It was for he sent me a fucking pacifier. I Got a pacifier in my mailbox this morning and I can't remember what the mail said the letter said but it was probably something along the lines of it being for either drugs or sex and
00:51:32
Speaker
Yes. I don't know how you use the pacifier for the drugs, the sex I get. Um, I had to look that up because I knew that people that rave suck on pacifiers and I guess it's so they don't grind their teeth when they're, uh, when they're tripping. Oh shit. I'll have to keep that in mind the next time we're allowed to go out in public. Yeah, you can, there's, you know, at this point, put anything in your mouth when you go out in public. It doesn't matter.
00:52:02
Speaker
No, I've been enjoying playing Animal Crossing with you. We've been having get-togethers every Thursday. I just haven't been watching as much wrestling. I've been trying to keep up with AEW. I haven't watched WWE since WrestleMania. Well, did you ever get around to watching that Edge WWE untold or whatever it is, or Chronicles, whatever documentary it is?
Wrestling Comebacks and Culture
00:52:24
Speaker
I did not. Excuse me.
00:52:31
Speaker
I felt that one coming on. I would recommend going and checking that out because that was emotional. I watched that before night one or night two of WrestleMania. It was after it was before night two and a pretty good story about his fucking comeback.
00:52:49
Speaker
Well, look into that. All right, I'm sorry. I didn't realize that that was going to not entertain you as much. No, I will. I'll check it out because that probably has a lot of stuff from his career that I missed anyway and probably should catch up on. That actually is something we need to do because you had challenged me to get you some more edge stuff a couple of weeks ago and that still hasn't happened. But yeah, you might actually shed a tear if you watch that, Garrett.
00:53:17
Speaker
Well, I don't want to cry right now, Derek. I just want to have a good time. Happy tears. Oh, oh, because he comes back. This is a dark side of the ring. No, it's the opposite of that. And then Edge's career ended because he had to box Butterbean.
00:53:36
Speaker
So for those who have kept up with wrestling over the last decade, I'm sure you may have at some point heard that there used to be a restaurant here in Chicago called the Squared Circle. It was a restaurant slash bar, and it was owned by former WWE star Victoria.
00:53:55
Speaker
And for the last couple of years, it's been shut down. And they put in what that building is now, they put a spa in there. And I just wanted to let you know that every time I pass by that building now, I give it a middle finger. Oh, you should either give it a suck it or a too sweet.
00:54:17
Speaker
I, it's, it breaks my heart driving by that thing and knowing that at one time there were walls in that building that had hundreds upon hundreds of pro wrestler signatures. You only got to go the one time, didn't you? Yeah. And I ate the weirdest food I had ever had in my life. Oh, the, uh, the s'mores. Yeah. Holy shit.
00:54:42
Speaker
they had an opportunity to fill that thing with marshmallow instead of cheese they did not take it but it wasn't like regular cheese it was a dessert cheese it was a dessert cheese but it was still cheese nonetheless yeah don't put cheese in my calzone when it's supposed to have s'mores in it
00:55:01
Speaker
I'm interested to see, the reason I bring that up, because I was sitting there thinking like, man, Chicago at different times has had like signature pro wrestling things here. And losing the squared circle hurt, but then like a few years later we gain getting it all in.
00:55:24
Speaker
And I asked this because double or nothing was supposed to be coming up, right? Like that was like the next AEW pay-per-view? Still is. When's that happening? Uh, let me look that up. I want to say it is next month still. But they're not going to be able to do it in front of a live audience, obviously. No, it's going to be another, it's going to be an empty arena pay-per-view, but I think they're still going to sell it the same. And let me look that up.
Future of Live Wrestling and Community Engagement
00:55:51
Speaker
The reason I brought this up, I was going to ask, when do you think, I guess I'm asking a dumb question because I'm asking, when do you think things will open back up? Do you think that it's possible that they were going to do all out every year in Chicago at the same time? Do you think that by the end of the summer, there's a potential that that could be a possibility?
00:56:13
Speaker
Man, you're asking me questions that I'd love to have the answer to. We're like, yes, yes, we will be. Honestly, that would be one of the like, everything's open, all out's happening. I'd be like, fuck it. Who gives a shit anymore? Let's go. If that was the first event back, you'd be happy. Oh, I would. Yes, I'd be there in a heartbeat. Just, oh my God. Think about how sweet that first wrestling event's going to be back. Right?
00:56:40
Speaker
I'm gonna be getting it. I would be at a house show doing the No Way Jose dance all the way down the fucking ramp if you were still there. I'm so sorry No Way Jose. You had sweet entrance music, though. Did you ever find that when Double or Nothing is? Yeah, it's May 23rd. All right. Yeah, things are not gonna be open by then.
00:57:03
Speaker
What a bummer. I mean, things may be open, but not live large gatherings of people. Dear Garrett, go ahead and send us home.
00:57:17
Speaker
All right. Well, coming up a little short this week, but, uh, Hey, we're a little short on wrestling. You know what I mean? Um, thanks for listening to everybody. We have a bunch of different ways you can reach out to us through social media. If you want to get out in touch with us, we are at wrestle hangout on Twitter. We are at predetermined podcasts on Instagram. If you want to send us an email, we are at,
00:57:40
Speaker
We are predeterminedpodcastatgmail.com. On Twitter I am at Halloween Halpin. He is at Gartet. I think we have the same handles on Instagram as well. It's true.
00:57:52
Speaker
If you haven't already, if you're enjoying the podcast, if you're still listening to us, if you love us and you want to give us some feedback, hop on iTunes, give us five stars, leave a sweet ass review. And if you do that for us, you can suggest something for us to check out and we will do that and we will talk about it on the podcast. At this point, if you suggest something for us to check out, I'm abandoning the part of it where it has anything to do with pro wrestling. If you suggest something at all, we will talk about it.
00:58:22
Speaker
Derek needs something to do. My life is work and animal crossing and delivery for food. So, yeah.
00:58:36
Speaker
Uh, yeah. Yeah. I miss you too, man. Let's, uh, next for real though, this week, guys, give us some recommendations for some fun matches to watch. I say me and you get a lineup of matches, go down the list and, uh, just watch those, talk about those next week. No current events next week. Fuck current events. Yep. I agree. Unless something really awesome happens. Yeah. Well, obviously if something really awesome happens, we're going to bring it up. But, uh, until then fuck current events.
00:59:06
Speaker
I completely agree. Fuck current events. Hit our goddamn music, man.