Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Episode 62: If You Can Find It
62 Plays7 years ago
This week Derrick returns to reveal his new Brock Lesnar schedule, then the boys talk Ring of Honor 17th Anniversary, the New Japan Cup, Impact... if you can find it and Wrestlemania 3!
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Truth Talk
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Predetermined, a pro wrestling hangout. I'm your host, Garrett Callender, and with me, as always, a man who allegedly tells it like it is, Derek Halpin. Allegedly, who alleged this? Howard Finkel. Howard Finkel? This is actually how he introduced Jesse the Body Ventura to the ring in WrestleMania 3. Howard Finkel just pearl harbored me.
00:00:29
Speaker
I don't know if I like that being my rep. I mean, do you tell it like it is? I think I do, but I'm not out there touting it.
Podcast Dynamic and Guest Introduction
00:00:39
Speaker
I'm okay with you distributing that as a defining feature, if you will. But thanks, Fink. Yeah, you think you tell it like it is, and I think that is a legend. You put a lot of emphasis on think. Do you mean like I'm full of shit and I don't tell it like it is?
00:00:55
Speaker
No, I'm saying to the best of your abilities, you believe you are telling it as it is. I would like to think so. Exactly. Some may think that I'm an asshole, but more importantly, I'm back and y'all motherfuckers gotta deal with me again. Did you miss him?
00:01:17
Speaker
This is where they're supposed to insert their answer. No, I meant, did you miss them, the listeners? Oh, I thought you were asking the listeners. That was like, well, you're not going to get an answer. Yeah, I missed them. It's weird because we, you and I basically went an extra week without talking. It's true. Hopefully that leads to some quality content and I'm trying to negotiate that Brock Lesnar scheduled where I only have to show up, I don't know, once a month.
00:01:45
Speaker
I don't know who I'm negotiating that with. We're not signed to Westwood 1 or anything. Well, we've got to make it mean something, you being here, so that you taking it away means even more. Yeah, it's devastating. It was devastating last
Listener Engagement and Episode Highlights
00:02:00
Speaker
week, but you know, Garrett Keith stepped it up. He showed up. He was kind enough to show up on short notice, and I think we got some good shit out of it.
00:02:09
Speaker
Well, it doesn't seem like it was that devastating. It seemed like the machine rolled on just fine without me because you got what you had coming to you. See, I knew you weren't feeling well. And I thought if Derek isn't here and I have a pro wrestler in the room with me, is there, I mean, I had to figure out what to do. I figure fill some time by getting hit.
00:02:31
Speaker
You also knew you deserved it too, and I think you're trying to get out of a bigger one that you know might be coming. I figure at this point, if I could just take a chop once an episode to get out of regular things in my life, I'm for that. You wanna pay that phone bill? Nah, I'll take the chop.
00:02:51
Speaker
Give me the chop. Give me two chops. I need to pay that internet bill, but I find out they don't just take chops over at Xfinity. I have to take like a tombstone through a table. And when I see the guy on the other end, I'm like, I don't know if this motherfucker can support me. I land on my head. I think we found the one thing worse than a chop from Walter, and that's a bill from Comcast. And their internet speeds. You know what? Hit our goddamn music.
00:03:53
Speaker
Yeah. Really giving it to Xfinity's internet speeds right before the break. It's one of my favorite things about doing this show with you is when we open, we don't necessarily know where it's going to go in the first couple minutes and this week we decided to put Comcast on blast.
00:04:11
Speaker
Yeah, I feel like we need to say hi to some new listeners, for whatever reason. There's a bunch more of you guys. Don't know where you came from. Don't know how you found it, but you really started finding some random episodes to download a lot. Some old ones like the Jericho Cruise episodes. One of the episodes where we exclusively talked about Otis and Jizz and had it in the title started getting a lot. I wonder, maybe he was showing his family that people are talking about him on the internet. I'm a big deal with this podcast.
00:04:42
Speaker
Who do you think Jizz looked at growing up and was like, that's the wrestler I idolize? I think Jim Nynart. I was going to say that, but I also think there was a locker room in WCW just full of guys that he probably looked at and said, that could be me.
00:05:02
Speaker
See, there's the heel locker room, there's the baby face locker room, and then there's the Jizz closet. Yeah, the Jizz closet. That's where the leftovers go. Do you feel like, I don't know, Scott Norton and Hugh Morris and stuff like that? Are they close to being Jizzes? I mean, obviously they are. They are. And if you are new to this, you might not know Jizz is Otis and Jizz.
00:05:32
Speaker
You have to listen to a million episodes to get there. I realized I was going to explain it, but too many of you know exactly what I'm talking about. But it's for real. Thank you for coming and joining our nonsense. And thank you for joining us because now.
00:05:45
Speaker
We got to do the thing that we're obligated to do every episode, which is to remind you if you're just now checking this podcast out or hope you enjoy it, do us a favor. If you've got the time, leave us five stars on iTunes and leave us a sweet review. And if you do that, you can recommend something to us to check out something for us to watch as long as, as long as it can slightly in the smallest tiny way be related to pro wrestling. We have to watch it at your request and then we'll talk about it on the podcast.
00:06:15
Speaker
Should we continue the joke about neither of us having seen Marine Six yet? It's not even funny anymore. It's starting to hurt. What are the odds that Marine Seven will exist before we see Marine Six? At this rate, it may already exist. I bet eight is out by now. That is, I mean, it's basically a direct to DVD market, so why not? Why not? You know what was super
Wrestling Chops and Risks
00:06:40
Speaker
hard last week? You're typically the one
00:06:46
Speaker
That was what you said, not me. You mean after the chop? Yeah. It was. If I have to talk honestly about how the chop felt, a little exhilarating. Felt nice.
00:06:58
Speaker
So you interviewed Garrett Keith who's training to be a pro wrestler. I don't know Garrett Keith. I've never met Garrett Keith. What I will say is that he seemed to have somewhat of an intricate knowledge of the podcast and he was very kind and sent his well wishes my way, which I want to return and say thank you Garrett Keith for caring and for filling in for me and doing one hell of a job. And I really hope you'll let Garrett have it with that chop.
00:07:27
Speaker
I never released the video. I do have a video. Let's post it this week. Yeah, I think people want to see it. The only thing I felt bad about is I felt like I killed the business a little bit by not, you know, sold. I did. I think that I was so prepared to fall to my knees that when I didn't, I was so excited.
00:07:49
Speaker
like you felt like a man yeah i felt like a man and i will say he he gave it a good wind up and he really got me a chop right in the chest and my wife looked very surprised she looked startled but my immediate reaction was mostly my heart didn't stop i'm okay
00:08:08
Speaker
Was there a part of you that was like, I could survive in this business, I should do this. Not even a little bit. Not even for a second? The first thing I thought is, I mean, he was doing it to do it. He was going for it, he wasn't holding back. That's good. But I know there's guys that wouldn't hold back but would go extra, like go harder. And that's still what scares me, like getting me in a room with a Bob Holly,
00:08:37
Speaker
obviously a Walter, with a Pentagon Junior. I would, I'm sure shit my pants. Or could my heart stop? Is that a possibility? I remember having a conversation when we were in grade school and one of the things I do remember my mom advising me against when she saw that I was watching pro wrestling was something had gotten relayed to her and she was like, you know that when they smack him across the chest like that, that can stop your heart.
00:09:06
Speaker
And I remember being like, oh, well, sure, yeah, but they're experts at it, so that's not gonna happen. And now as an adult, I'm like, does that even make sense? Can you kill somebody with a chop? We would have heard about that by now, I think. Fuck. I mean, that was Flair's thing for his entire career, and people always gave it back to him extra hard, and he's elderly, it didn't kill him.
00:09:33
Speaker
Walter Chops didn't kill Zack Sabre Jr. and there's so little protection in between hand and heart there. So I think we're going to be okay regardless of what happens. I think it's just what level of welt are you going to have? There was a line of thinking that you were starting on. I want to get back to that here in a second. I feel weird about this tangent. I don't want you to lose your spot, but
00:09:57
Speaker
Listen to Lowell. I don't think he came through in regards to what he was trying to have happen. I haven't heard from him. But I had teased to you that Lowell had messaged me privately and said he was trying to set somebody up to chop you, somebody very specific, and somebody that when I was teasing you about it, I was hyping it up to be like, you're fucked if this happens.
00:10:23
Speaker
Have you worried about that all? Have you thought about it since I texted that to you? Yeah. I mean, honestly, the second we started this chop thing the first month and a half, I was like, I'm doing this. I'm good. I'm good. I'm never going to get chopped. And then eventually I just had my come to Jesus moment. It's like, oh, you're going to be taking a lot of chops throughout this. Juice isn't worth the squeeze on this one.
00:10:47
Speaker
Yeah. Well, like I said,
Ring of Honor Highlights
00:10:50
Speaker
I don't, I haven't heard from Lowell. I hope Lowell is able to come through, but I haven't heard from him. So I'll, I'll spill the beans now on what was supposed to happen. And then I'd maybe we can get your reaction to it because I guess hypothetically it could still happen. Lowell was trying to get a moment to set something up so that Jeff Cobb could be the one to chop you.
00:11:20
Speaker
I actually had a moment over this weekend, I watched the new Ring of Honor pay-per-view, the 17th anniversary pay-per-view.
00:11:31
Speaker
Yeah, Cobb looked like a fucking star on this pay-per-view. I mean, I know to us Cobb has been a star for a while, but I don't like from like a mainstream perspective star. I think he looked like a million bucks. I think watching him in the ring this weekend at that pay-per-view, I was like, oh, my God, there it is. That guy could be the next top guy. I see it right now.
00:11:55
Speaker
See, I've been in a funk the last week. I haven't ingested as much pro wrestling as I normally do. However, I am caught up to talk about several things, but you have been watching a bunch of different shit in the last week. It seems like you got a lot of stuff to spill. Yeah, the Ring of Honor pay-per-view completely changed my mind about the Madison Square Garden show.
00:12:21
Speaker
But you're still not going right um no no I mean like it changed my mind in thinking that there's potential that it could not be good I am Completely that's gone. That's gone like I am back to where Yeah, the Bucks and the elite and everybody's gone does not fucking matter Both of these companies have good enough guys. This is gonna be a great show
00:12:45
Speaker
Okay. And the 17th anniversary pay-per-view, fuck man, it was, it had one, I mean, easily the best match I've watched this year was on this card. That was Matt Taven, right? Matt Taven versus Jay Lethal for the Ring of Honor World Championship.
00:13:05
Speaker
Man, this match. Right now, it is a contender, I think. Going... Yeah, I mean, it's very early and a lot can happen, but man, this thing is fucking good. I can't recommend it enough. Obviously, I'm gonna spoil the shit out of it here in a second, so skip way ahead if you don't wanna hear the end. Going into it, I did know what was happening at Madison Square Garden, but I didn't know how this match was gonna end.
00:13:35
Speaker
Because it's been announced that we're going to get Jay Lethal versus Matt Taven versus Marty Skirrell in a ladder match for the ROH title at Madison Square Garden. Right. Had you heard anything about this match yet and what happened and how it ended?
00:13:52
Speaker
I'm learning through you, Garrett. Okay, I didn't know if you'd read it or anything. You're here to get me updated and up to speed and hopefully our listeners as well. You get to be a teacher of sorts. These two were beating each other's asses for so long and like towards the beginning of the match I had accidentally moved my mouse over and saw like
00:14:15
Speaker
I had actually moved it about 20 minutes down and saw, oh shit, this match is still going 20 minutes from now. This is gonna be a long one. I had no fucking idea how long this thing was gonna go. How long did it end up being? The full 60.
00:14:28
Speaker
Damn. It went the full 60, and this was the fourth match on the card. So basically, the first two, I mean, a half hour into this pay-per-view, Matt Taven just walks out and is basically just like, fuck it, I don't wanna wait till the end. We're having the main event right now.
00:14:47
Speaker
wow lethal comes out main event fucking starts in the middle of the show that's unprecedented was that in response to anything or was that the way that it was meant to play out i don't know as the show went on some things happened where they said that a couple matches got cut from the card one they said was due to injury
00:15:06
Speaker
and the other was some, I couldn't tell if I was getting worked or if the work was to throw the main event in the middle of the card and really just get the crowd amped. Because a match like this, you don't wanna have them worn out. I mean, you're gonna want the crowd to be fresh for that hour-long match.
00:15:25
Speaker
asking is a fan of pro wrestling and and doing this podcast for over a year and talking about pro wrestling for years you and I have talked before about how much we enjoy getting worked like just like completely bowled over surprised worked are there times where you like
00:15:43
Speaker
you wish you had a little bit more information cause you just care from an insider's standpoint you wanna know what the fuck happened like before the show is even over a little bit and there was as this match is going on the whole time I'm thinking was this really supposed to be here was this
00:15:59
Speaker
Did something happen that caused this? Why would they not wanna end this? Do they think the whole show's gonna go long and they want this one to make sure it gets all of its time? Yeah, I am thinking about that stuff the whole time. But this match so many times got me to forget about it. This match had to have had 30 false finishes. What is it about Jay Lethal that
00:16:25
Speaker
Like this is, like, not this is, again, not, I'm not taking shots at Ring of Honor, not taking shots at TNA, though that's very easy to do. Why do you think Jay Lethal has never become a WWE guy?
00:16:41
Speaker
With as talented as he is, as respected as he is, and his ability to put on quality matches with so many different people. Like does he just not want to or is this going to, is he going to, is he similar to Christopher Daniels in that sense where he's going to, when he retires, he's going to go down as like kind of the, the second tier indie legend.
00:17:05
Speaker
He very well could. And is he the kind of guy that when he would have been in his prime for WWE, they didn't need him?
00:17:16
Speaker
and now they just have so many- I guess, but it's not like he's that old, is he? He has to be in his, what, late thirties? Jake Lethal seems like he's not that old, last I checked. Maybe I'm completely wrong. I'll look it up right now, but I just posed that hypothetical. I know it's not the end-all be-all. I don't want people to think that that's what I was going- He's only 33! That's what I'm saying!
00:17:36
Speaker
He feels like such a veteran. He seems like he's so much older than that. Because to me at this point with Ring of Honor, he is like their John Cena. He's there reliable. If we don't have somebody, we're putting the title back on Jay because he can carry it.
00:17:53
Speaker
Right. And he's like a god, like only a couple of years older than us, barely. Yeah. Yeah, he's he's just a couple of years older. And as this thing was going, I think what I enjoyed the most is how important they made this match feel. You know, they never let you forget that what they're fighting for is to main or to main event Madison Square Garden and go in as the champion.
00:18:23
Speaker
That's so cool. I think we, it's such an interesting time in pro wrestling as I say so many times on this podcast, but with the elite leaving Ring of Honor and essentially New Japan, it's so easy to forget that Ring of Honor still, they're about to have this momentous occasion where they get a show in Madison Square Garden.
00:18:50
Speaker
And that is absolutely something they should highlight and build around. And it is a, what would you call it? It's an honor. It really is. Just to be on the card for a Ring of Honor show. No pun intended. It's an honor to be on the Ring of Honor show at Madison Square Garden. And if this is what they were willing to do,
00:19:09
Speaker
for the opportunity to fight in Madison Square Garden. I can't even imagine what the match in Madison Square Garden is going to be like. Because you know, I the whole time you're kind of expecting Taven to do some heel of shit. About half hour in the kingdom comes out and they hit lethal in the face with a baseball bat. And then some guys come out help lethal whole bunch of shit. It seems like Taven is going to win. He gives a low blow to lethal lethal kicks out. I mean, these two
00:19:39
Speaker
Spoiler alert, kick out of literally everything. No one gets a pin in this match, it ends at a 60 minute draw.
00:19:47
Speaker
that's fucking amazing and it ended where the crowd is so over for like both guys are just so over with the crowd the crowd is going insane and these false finishes each one you're still getting worked where everyone you're like this has to be it they cannot keep kicking out of this shit but they do did the crowd have a negative reaction to it going to a 60 minute draw
00:20:11
Speaker
Well, the crowd started chanting five more minutes. I think everyone was thinking we were going to get that little bit more. Marty Skirrell comes out, picks up the belt and leaves with it. So kind of set you up for you're getting this triple threat. I think that I don't know if there was a way to be angry walking away from that match. Matt Taven is a star.
00:20:32
Speaker
And now is the time to give him just a crazy good main event at Madison Square Garden and have him be the top guy. It's time. They made a new star.
00:20:44
Speaker
Do you have a prediction for how that's gonna play out? I don't see Marty winning because it's so uncertain and I don't see him staying at Ring of Honor. I think Taven's gonna have to win and I hope that he doesn't necessarily win it with the help of the kingdom.
00:21:02
Speaker
You think him actually earning his own win will put him over the edge? I think it would. And throughout this one, you know, he was cheating, but as the match got closer and closer to the end and they're just fighting, you could see that they just want to win because he almost won by count out. But he wouldn't have won the title. So he ends up going and throwing lethal back in to keep it going. So you're putting a check mark next to this one. This is one you're going to reference for the rest of 2019.
00:21:31
Speaker
Oh yeah, this one right now, this is one that's gonna keep coming back. I don't see anything beating this soon. But this wasn't the only good match on this show. Let's see, what was it? The opener was Kenny King versus Marty, which was fine. One that surprised the shit out of me was Jeff Cobb versus Shane Taylor for the TV title. Well, now that we're in the vicinity of talking about Jeff Cobb, let's just do it. What made Jeff Cobb look like a star on this show? Shane Taylor.
00:22:03
Speaker
It wasn't Cobb himself, according to Garrett. No, Cobb has a good look. He looks like he's slimmed down a little bit and also gotten buff. He looked like he was just in good shape and in a good place. He had new ring gear. He was just looking good. He had a lot of charisma. And going up against a guy like Shane Taylor, he's a big guy. When I think of Shane Taylor, I just think of that big old butt.
00:22:29
Speaker
You know, it's interesting. I saw Jeff Cobb Russell for the first time last February. We talk about this with MJF. We talk about this with, um, PCO. Jeff Cobbs had one hell of a year or two, including winning Bola. Yeah. Winning Bola beating Walter for the PWD, PWG championship. He's yeah. Being the TV champ at ring of honor. Shit's going well for Jeff Cobb.
00:22:56
Speaker
So, and you said he just, like, he just recently signed with Ring of Honor, right? Like, a new deal? Yeah, that's his home for a while. Yeah. But to me, the takeaway, not just Cobb, I want to talk about Shane Taylor. Shane Taylor, for the longest time, has been a bathroom break for me. When he comes out, he's when I go to the bathroom. Not anymore, baby. Dude. Shane Taylor, like, this was his hangman page coming out party.
00:23:27
Speaker
No more piss breaks for Garrett. Seeing a man that big give a Canadian destroyer to Jeff Cobb was jarring. You went to the bathroom anyway, didn't you? I did not. Right? In your pants. Right? Yeah, there was. No, for real though, this was one of those matches that even though he lost, he looked so fucking good that he is going, like he's going places now. That's the idea, right? It's just nice to see it actually work sometimes.
00:23:56
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Where you feel like somebody didn't get short changed. And you see, those are the circumstances where when somebody comes up and they're like, it doesn't matter who wins and loses. You're like, you're right. And this scenario, other times it does. But when they're able to when both guys are able to come out of it looking like a million bucks, that's there's no better feeling than that. But I do have to bring up what the main event of this show was, Derek.
00:24:23
Speaker
Yeah, you seemed pretty upset about it. Derek, because just an amazing wrestling match, one of the best wrestling matches of the entire year was decided to be put into the middle of the card. That means PCO got the headline 17th anniversary in a ring of honor world title match.
00:24:51
Speaker
I'm sorry, Ring of Honor Tag Team title match.
00:24:55
Speaker
Oh, Garrett, what did the people get? What did they get for their money? They got maybe the greatest comedy horror wrestling match I've ever seen in my life. Better than Bray Wyatt's House of Horrors? Ooh, yeah, you can't beat that. So let's go. So in this match, this match was so bloody, Derek. It was so bloody. Everyone was busted open in this one.
00:25:23
Speaker
And PCO took so many cane shots to the head and face. He was taking them to the face, Derek. Like straight to the face, like across the bridge of the nose? Yes, but he wasn't supposed to be.
00:25:41
Speaker
What? It was a part in the match where he was getting hit in the head over and over again and the Briscoes were coming at him and he was supposed to grab that cane in midair and have it look really cool. You know, he's stopping this cane from smacking his face. But you know what, Derek? PCO has a glass eye. Depth perception? Not quite there. Smack right in the face. His hand does not go near that cane. Is that true? Dead serious. Why is this a thing that hasn't been discussed between us before?
00:26:12
Speaker
And, I mean, I stood right next to him at Starcast and I was unaware. I guess it makes sense now. Does this just add to him a little more that parts of him don't work? Yeah, I mean, it adds to the flip-flops he was wearing a little bit more, the shorts. Him taking our business card. It adds a lot to everything. It makes sense why you couldn't hand it straight to him. He had to find his way to his hand if he lost it.
00:26:42
Speaker
So this, okay, where do I need to go from here? I mean, just think about this, Derek. Okay, fuck, I don't even know where to go with this because I was just laughing and cheering so much as this match was going on. Did he almost kill somebody else in this match?
00:27:00
Speaker
Someone else? No. So, PCO and Brody King get on the outside of the ring and they get two chairs and they use them to lift up the entrance ramp. You know, they have that metal entrance ramp. So now they raised it up onto some steel chairs so it's like a stage. It's flush with the ring now. Okay. Everybody is gathered at the bottom
00:27:28
Speaker
Brody King looks at PCO, and just so you know, I called you last night because I needed to tell you this line. This couldn't wait. You didn't answer, so we're doing it now. But this is what Brody King says to PCO. Do something insane.
00:27:48
Speaker
So PCO. And of course, he's like, okay. You got it, bud. So he gets up on that ramp. The Briscoes are standing at the bottom. He takes off running to do a front flip into them. Briscoes move. He is upside down, crashes spine first into the ring apron, lands on his head. Did he knock himself out? You can't kill him, Derek. He's not human.
00:28:17
Speaker
But just the sentence... That's what I want. I just want a shirt with PCO that just says, do something insane. Like that's your shtick, right? That's what you do? So everyone in this match is soaked in blood. Everybody.
00:28:34
Speaker
This match ends with PCO hitting a moonsault on a Briscoe and getting the pin. To win the tag titles. PCO is going to Madison Square Garden, a world champion. And I sat there and thought about how much I talked about Walter versus PCO from last year. That was one year ago, Derek.
00:29:04
Speaker
Yeah. I watched him in the Pontchartrain Center get the shit slapped out of him. And I loved it. I loved every second of it. There is no way in hell I was ever expecting that one year from that moment, he would be walking into Madison Square Garden. As a tag team champion? As a tag team champion with a guy that I watched him have one of the worst wrestling matches I've ever seen with as his partner.
00:29:39
Speaker
Pro wrestling's crazy. Just, I guess all we can really say is, yeah 2019 wrestling man, it's weird. Yeah, almost as weird as 2018. So many more months left.
00:29:53
Speaker
Ugh, but I like where we're at. I like where we're at. What Ring of Honor showed me, they showed me they have some good shit. The other match I didn't mention, Roosh versus Bandito. Dalton Castle was on commentary. It is 100% worth checking out. Those two are amazing. Dalton Castle, though, almost ruins the match by how funny he's been.
00:30:15
Speaker
But he also is so- He's being too entertaining. He's too entertaining that it's taking away from the insane shit these luchadores are doing. But at one point he says, he's like, you know why Bandito, he wears that mask to avoid legal trouble. Yeah, so Dalton Castle after it's over, he goes out and calls out Roosh for Madison Square Garden. Oh, remember the guys that were next to us at Starcast?
00:30:44
Speaker
Yeah. The MatMania podcast? Yeah, absolutely. They performed a song during this pay-per-view. What was that like? Was that surreal for you? It was weird because we spent so much time next to those guys not realizing how big of a deal they are.
00:31:02
Speaker
Yeah, didn't they play a show the night before we were next in the podcast row? Yeah, they were in a pretty big venue and now they performed live on a Ring of Honor pay-per-view and Bully Ray came out and shoved him all to the ground and told him it sucked. Yeah, it seems like something Bully Ray does. And then he called out a mystery opponent. He says they know who he's talking about and to meet him at Madison Square Garden. Hey, what's the situation with Flip Gordon? Is he good to go?
00:31:29
Speaker
No, as far as they said during the pay-per-view, he still hurt. Okay, I thought I read something that he was like about to be back or something. I don't know,
AEW's Strategy and Comparisons
00:31:40
Speaker
man. He didn't show up there, so it's entirely possible that, you know, that is true and that he shows up and does Madison Square Garden. Yeah, I don't know. So basically the gist of this is that Ring of Honor is still doing quality shit without the bucks, without Cody.
00:31:57
Speaker
They've got a roster full of guys that you're supposed to tune in for because, hey, you gonna be able to find impact? I don't think so. You know where WWE is, you're not gonna find impact, this is your next best option. But no, this is, I don't wanna take anything away from these guys. They crushed it. They crushed it, they got me really excited for Madison Square Garden, and they did, I mean, that's what this show was supposed to do, right? Get me excited for the big one?
00:32:27
Speaker
But isn't this the equivalent of their fast lane? And it seemed really, really important? Kind of how fast lane is supposed to take you to Mania, but this is taking them to Madison Square Garden and it seemed like it meant something? Yeah. I don't know, it was good. It was good. I really do recommend watching it. My Ring of Honor subscription ran out and I renewed it to watch this.
00:32:50
Speaker
They lured your business back to them. They did. They did. I was reading so many good things about that Matt Taven match that I had to see it, and you know what? Totally worth the money. I do not regret having watched that one. Anyone should check that match out. So sit down and be ready, because it is a long one. Check what? 17th? Did this happen over the weekend? Yeah, this would have been Friday or Saturday night. I think Friday. OK.
00:33:19
Speaker
OK, well, we need to follow up on something you said earlier. What was so hard about last last week? You had you'd started talking about like your experience with Garrett Keith last week.
00:33:34
Speaker
and then you're like something that you said something was really hard and then I made a joke about your dick and then we went on a tangent see that's the problem with this podcast is tangents take away any thoughts that I've had well I apologize what I will say I do have something else I want to ask you about and we can dive into this from a from a
00:33:55
Speaker
outsider philosophical perspective. This is not me throwing shade. This is not me knocking. I just want to get your take on it. Is it difficult that there has been
00:34:07
Speaker
press conferences for AEW, you'll see stuff online, you'll see stuff on Being the Elite, but it seems like the time between so many of these press conferences and their show, it's such a big distance. I feel like everyone's craving AEW, and they want it now, and they still have to wait.
00:34:32
Speaker
Like it feels like there's a lapse. Is that just me? No, I completely agree with you on that. I mean, I this is weird for me. I haven't watched being the elite the last couple of weeks. But you know, we also have Ring of Honor doing cool shit in New Japan Cup going on. So there is other stuff to hold my interest. But when you realize, oh, yeah, this is supposed to be the next big wrestling company. Yeah, I'm supposed to just keep being excited about it. But there's nothing
00:35:02
Speaker
really coming out you know yeah and again I don't mean that as a dig I mean it as the feeling that we had after that Jericho appearance at the press conference and then the one they had in Vegas at the pool
00:35:19
Speaker
I it's hard to maintain that level of excitement this many weeks and months in between then and their first show. And it sucks because I think it's not to say we're not still excited. I think it's just a weird.
00:35:36
Speaker
I guess I've listened to some 83 weeks podcasts a lot in the last month and one of the things that Bischoff had talked about, and actually this is a good time to bring this up as any, was if they had shut down WCW and he had bought it and they had restarted it,
00:35:54
Speaker
There would have been a period where there was nothing on TV, and they would have reassembled things. They would have figured out a new way of doing the business model, new look for WCW, new talent, all that stuff. But there would have been no WCW on television for a while, and then it would have come back, and it would have been a big deal.
00:36:14
Speaker
It feels comparable here and I bring that up also because I guess somebody has been, I guess Roman Reigns has supposedly been pushing for there to be an off season for WWE. What's your take on that and how does that relate to you having to wait on AEW since the press conferences?
00:36:36
Speaker
I couldn't agree with Roman more. I think it's good for the fans and it's good for the wrestlers if there were an offseason. It doesn't have to be, you know, a full season like if you're watching a sporting event where it's only on half the year, but I don't give those guys a winter break or a summer break or something. You like two or three months, you think? Yeah, give them a month or two off or at least just give us, let us miss it.
00:37:04
Speaker
Because I think that's one thing that New Japan does well is they do have downtimes. You know, there is a bit where there's not a lot going on. And when I go back and watch it, it makes me remember, oh my God, I fucking love this. I want to watch this every week. And then they take it away from me again for, you know, a month. And in this scenario, in this scenario, WrestleMania is like the season finale, right? Which makes everything mean that much more. Yeah.
00:37:32
Speaker
I don't know how that comes into AEW for me or how that would relate. Yeah, I mean, I want AEW to be doing stuff. We have to wait until all in, I guess, or double or nothing. So we'll be getting that information as we go on, but we've got so much shit to watch until then that...
00:37:53
Speaker
Not even going to split it. Let me propose a hypothetical to you. Do you think that the press conferences that they did have to announce some of their first signings for the roster and then the one they did in Vegas, do you think they could have spaced those out a little bit further? Because as far as I know, we still haven't heard anything about the television deal.
00:38:13
Speaker
which I assume is going to be announced at Double or Nothing or before, right? Because what they don't do until October.
New Japan Cup Excitement
00:38:20
Speaker
I think they still have so much they haven't told us that they have enough that if they do space it out, they can keep hitting us with big news or a new big sign. Yeah, that's the heart of the question is that
00:38:35
Speaker
are they gonna be able to maintain interest until next October? And I don't mean that they won't, I don't mean that they won't, I mean that like how well are they gonna be at handling the fact that they don't have television programming to keep reminding people it's just, it's in good faith. Essentially the hottest thing running in wrestling for like two or three years with all the merchandise sales for the Bullet Club and Pro Wrestling D's and the Bucks, the Elite, Kenny, all that stuff.
00:39:04
Speaker
It was the hottest thing running in pro wrestling. And then all of a sudden it came to a screeching halt, not long after all in. Well, I guess keep in mind too, they are going to these indies. They're doing stuff to keep it fresh. And I mean, did you see what the Bucks did over the weekend? I mean, that's pretty huge. I missed it. What happened? They made a surprise appearance at AAA in Mexico. Okay. Yeah, I did catch wind. And they beat the lucha bros for the AAA titles.
00:39:35
Speaker
So they're now the tag champs in Mexico. Now they're gonna have to go to Vegas and I don't know if they're gonna try and win back the AAA titles, if we'll have new titles since AEW is working with AAA, they announced that already. I don't know, it leaves more possibilities and it kind of is still fueling the story between those two tag teams. It's just gonna be a really long build to get to this match.
00:40:02
Speaker
And like you said, there is a lot of other stuff to watch and keep up with, especially if you are able to find impact. You had said to me that you did check in on some new Japan action before you, before we recorded today.
00:40:18
Speaker
Yeah, the New Japan Cup's going on. I haven't gotten to watch every single match, so I've been going through and just kind of picking stuff that interests me. When I got home, right before we recorded, I actually watched Okada versus Osprey. Which, just think about that.
00:40:37
Speaker
This company has so many top guys right now. Losing Kenny Omega just makes more room for other guys you still really liked. And there's nothing wrong with that. That actually makes me excited. Okada ended up winning, so now we're going to the final four. Which is gonna be, this sounds insane, Derek, but Colt Caban is in his first New Japan run.
00:41:07
Speaker
Really? He is still in the new Japan Cup. I mean he's a name. He's a face. Like people know who Colt Cabana is. It makes sense.
00:41:19
Speaker
Yeah, I just think it's cool. Is that surprising to you? To me, it's most surprising that it's his first run over there. Well, let me tell you where we're at and where we're headed with the matches. So on one side of the bracket, we've made it all the way down to Okada and Ishii, which that is going to be some just hard hidden beef slam action. That's going to be some shit. Tonight, actually, is Cabana versus Sonata.
00:41:50
Speaker
So Cabana and Sonata decide who are gonna fight on this side of the bracket. And then we also have Tanahashi versus Zack Sabre Jr. So the winner of those two matches face each other and then go on to whoever wins Okada versus Ishii. And then whoever wins that goes to Madison Square Garden against Lethal, or Lethal Switchblade.
00:42:12
Speaker
That's a pile of good matches. It really is, and I am just, I wanna see Cabana versus Sonata. What if Cabana goes further? What if Cabana headlines Madison Square Garden against Jane White? That would kinda be fun, right? But I'll tell you, the matches I watched today of Okada versus Osprey was awesome, and I also watched Zack Sabre Jr. versus Abushi, which I was not expecting Sabre Jr. to beat Abushi.
00:42:42
Speaker
So maybe do we finally get Zack Sabre Jr. back into a main event picture and give him another title shot? I think a lot of people would like that, right? I think he looks cool as shit right now. He's got this five o'clock shadow going on. It looks like a version of Zack Sabre Jr. that's seen some shit. Speaking of which, there's something I haven't told you yet that I'm going to reveal on this podcast, and it's kind of old news.
00:43:07
Speaker
This past Thursday, I did something I haven't done in almost three years, maybe longer. Garrett, I shaved. What the fuck? Completely.
00:43:20
Speaker
So you are truly a baby face right now. I'm not right now. Sometimes you gotta start fresh. Sometimes that forest fire has to occur naturally to let things grow back nice and beautiful. And so last Thursday I shaved and my face was smooth as a baby's bottom and I'm letting it grow back out now. And I've got a nice, I don't know,
00:43:49
Speaker
I don't know if the mic can pick this up but I'm rubbing the facial hair. I can hear that neck beard scratching. Yeah. So basically for the same the same idea as the hate breed song destroy everything you had you had to destroy it to rebuild. Well you know I made the mistake sometimes you make mistakes. I made a mistake.
00:44:12
Speaker
I tried to shape my facial hair in a particular way. Nothing over the top. I had a little bit of a swoop down my sideburn connecting to my beard, connecting to the mustache, and it looked fine. It looked normal. The problem is, is that if you don't keep up with that shit like at least every other day or whatever, it fills in with some facial scruff that looks, you know,
00:44:38
Speaker
the and then you kind of lose your ability to make it look pristine and then it looks like shit and then you don't know what to do except let it fill in more and shape things down so fuck it I just cut it all off and and here we are it's gonna probably take another week to be back to one back to something that I would call a beard
00:44:58
Speaker
So it's going to take a week for
WrestleMania Reflections
00:45:00
Speaker
you to be fully fuckable again. Yes, it's going to take a week for me to be fully fuckable again. I'll check. I don't know if I shaved. See, next time you hear this, I'll probably have facial hair. So the good news is, you know, I may have some salt and pepper mixed in with it pretty heavily in a week.
00:45:26
Speaker
I'm getting old, Garrett. You're going gray this week, you're telling me? I'm saying that you probably haven't been paying attention to the intricacies of my facial hair over the last year or so. But I do get a gray hair that pops in occasionally, especially around where the extended part of the mustache would be on my face. You know, heavily around like the chin edges of the lips area.
00:45:51
Speaker
And I think shaving all this off could result in me looking a little bit a little bit older. That's exciting. Yeah. Do you think you'll be like a lawyer now or maybe like, oh, at least just a wise man. I think I will look older than Jay Lethal. OK, I believe that. Oh, fuck. We there were. See, here's the thing. I didn't record with you last week.
00:46:20
Speaker
Last week we were supposed to get the next WrestleMania episode in, but we have time to do that now if you'd like. Yeah, this thing opens with some real casual saxophone.
00:46:36
Speaker
This is open with Aretha. It opens with Aretha Franklin singing Vince McMahon's workout music. Yeah. Which is, you know, America the Beautiful. That is Vince McMahon's workout music. You are correct. Like the whole time. I didn't understand where that was going, but yeah.
00:46:53
Speaker
Like, nothing gets him more pumped than that song. Like, his veins start to come out when he hears that fucking song. Nothing makes him rock hard like America the Beautiful. How hard did they peak at three, though? You can't go past Aretha Franklin singing America the Beautiful at WrestleMania 3. The late, great Aretha Franklin. I know that when she passed, you know, a few months back, I made reference to the fact that she sang America the Beautiful
00:47:19
Speaker
at WrestleMania 3, but I'll ask this now. Is it weird that they don't just do the national anthem? Is there a specific reason that they're just different? Yeah, have you ever heard the reason? No. Vince McMahon thinks America the Beautiful is a better song. You know, I've heard stories. You see, I wouldn't be surprised if Vince thinks Kid Rock's music is all better songs than the national anthem.
00:47:48
Speaker
I mean, if we're gonna take it for just a piece of music, the national anthem is not crazy exciting. No. Yeah.
00:48:00
Speaker
i mean i'm not listening to it to work out if i had to work out to one of those songs it would be the one that normally has music with it i've heard the other one a cappella too many times well there's three there's the there's the national anthem there's america's beautiful and there's um... god bless america and there's hips don't lie by shakira which is just and then there's real american by jim johnston which is hulk hogan's theme music which i heard in a bar over saint patrick's day weekend
00:48:29
Speaker
Did you pop for it? I did pop for it. I got rock hard. That's something Vince works out to. Mania 3. Fucking wild. There's certain old shows that when I watch them, I go, why can't the crowd care like that anymore? This is one of those shows. Do you know what I mean?
00:48:54
Speaker
Yeah, where that was one of those where, you know, WrestleMania 1, the crowd is hot. They're loving everything that happens. But I think just looking at the crowd at Mania 3, it's daylight, they're all lit up. I think they all knew they were witnessing something special. And there were a lot of big matches on the card.
00:49:13
Speaker
there were just a lot of matches, period. Although, to be fair, did you hear the rumored number of matches for this year's WrestleMania? No, because this thing was only like three hours and they went through 12 matches. How many matches this year, Derek, for our seven-hour WrestleMania? Let's have you guess, and I'll set the over-under at 13 to start. I'm going to guess 17.
00:49:43
Speaker
You nailed it on the head. No shit. 17 is the supposed rumored number of matches for this year's WrestleMania. 17. I didn't watch Fastlane, and I have not looked at any WWE product since Fastlane. So I don't really know what's going on, but I did see that people are very, very upset about a Kurt Angle match. Yeah, but it might end up being a work.
00:50:13
Speaker
Do they really announce Baron Corbin versus Kurt Angle to piss people off?
00:50:19
Speaker
uh, supposedly, but some of this is getting leaked by Meltzer where he's like, no, seriously, that's the match that they're going to do. And, and Vince knew it would upset people and they're doing it. However, I think in a lot of people's minds, the match that people were expecting, uh, Samoa Joe to be in it at WrestleMania was supposed to be him with the U S title against John Cena. However, it was revealed on smackdown this week that, uh, Samoa Joe will be defending the United States title.
00:50:48
Speaker
against Rey Mysterio. So there's a lot of people who think that John Cena is going to ultimately cut off Baron Corbin. And since Kurt Angle is the guy John Cena debuted against in WWE, it's a fitting way for Angle to go out. That makes complete sense. And also at this point, the show's sold out.
00:51:10
Speaker
like right people are gonna watch everybody you can say you're not gonna watch WrestleMania you're fucking watching WrestleMania it is liar whether you like it or not it is all of our Christmas
00:51:22
Speaker
It is, it's, again, it's a cliche, but it is the Super Bowl of pro wrestling. If you like pro wrestling, even the slightest, you take that day, you mark it on the calendar. Or you could be like me, I always make sure I have the day after WrestleMania off, because I like to have a little bit of a party for
Evolution of Wrestling Characters
00:51:40
Speaker
the Mania festivities. This is gonna be the first year I've gotten to watch it on TV in the last four. So you're not going this year, and we're still not watching it together.
00:51:51
Speaker
Well, I do have that day off, the next day off. Maybe we meet up. I don't know. We'll see. Maybe we make something happen. We'll see. That actually could be fun. I never even considered that, but I did keep the day after off just because I'm like, you know what? I'm not getting the two days before off. I'm going to go ahead and keep this one.
00:52:08
Speaker
But let's talk about WrestleMania three because as I was saying, you know, the one thing I did, one of the things this show is known for, and I'm sure that others have done it, the, the, uh, the cart, the, uh, what would you call it? The golf cart slash ATV slash mobile device that has the miniature ring attached to it that they deliver wrestlers to the ring in.
00:52:34
Speaker
That seems like a thing that they've had plenty of opportunities over the last seven or eight years to use with those excessively long entrance ramps at Mania and they haven't brought it back. Well, do you remember what was it a few years ago at the Royal Rumble where any wrestler basically that weighed over a certain amount, like you could look at a wrestler and just give him a visual inspection and be like, too fat to walk and they got a ride down on a golf cart.
00:53:04
Speaker
Like, I think Big E actually said it hurt his feelings when he realized he was a golf cart wrestler. Oh, they don't trust me to get to the ring in a timely fashion. We got to catch a fucking Uber or Lyft down there.
00:53:19
Speaker
I think the best thing about their tiny wrestling ring that transport you to the actual ring is that it makes you a game for the rest of the crowd. You know, if they don't like you, you're now a moving target for garbage. Yep, that was something I'm glad you pointed out. You get pelted with it. It's fucking 1996, bash the beach and Hulk Hogan just turned heel, throw your fucking Pepsi bottle, throw your program up there, nail Andre the Giant in the fucking face.
00:53:47
Speaker
Hit him in the dick if you're feeling lucky. Bobby Heenan will give it the thumbs up. Just him holding his dick. No baby oil. That doesn't apply here. You went to WrestleMania 31. Correct. One of the things that got commented on, first of all, I love
00:54:09
Speaker
I don't know what it is. Maybe it's because I go to so many baseball games and I get used to the dynamic of night games and day games. One of the things I think so cool about WrestleMania and then it being outdoors are these really surreal moments where I realize, oh shit, I'm watching pro wrestling outside and there's daylight.
00:54:26
Speaker
Yeah. This isn't outside, but you can tell because it's Pontiac Silverdome and it has the roof that lets light in that it's day and then you get to see it become night in the same arena. Yeah, I love that. Is that just me? Like is that like just a cool like you're not used to seeing it?
00:54:46
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, at this point now we kinda get it once a year, but I think that is still the special thing about it. You know, getting to see that many people surrounding a wrestling ring. And don't get me wrong, I have enjoyed the outdoor ones. A thousand percent enjoy an indoor show so much more.
00:55:03
Speaker
Just climate controlled you're not exactly I hate being too hot or too cold especially when it's a seven-hour event Absolutely and plus I mean it's a gamble like as we've heard from so many people it like it's still a gamble that they're doing this show in New York in a couple weeks Yeah, I mean, I'm sure everything's gonna be fine with it, but it is one of those where say that I don't know why you're sure I
00:55:29
Speaker
I'm not sure, I guess. I mean, they're gonna have the show one way or the other, right? Like, the ring will have some sort of awning over it since they're in an outdoor stadium, so even if it's snowing, they're gonna wrestle. Yeah. What, there's a million, like I said, there's a bunch of matches on this card. We're not gonna go through all of them. We've already done first two Wrestlemanias, but there are matches on this card that we do need to talk about. Where would you like to begin? Well, first off, that first match, man.
00:55:59
Speaker
Right off the bat, the Can-Am connection. Two dudes that look like Tony Danza fighting Don Morocco and Bob Orton, who's just beef on beef. It is the mid 80s. Where's the beef? Found it. It's right here. Is Bob Orton still rocking the cast? Yeah, looking through this, though, you kind of said this before we went in. Sorry. Hey, my doorbell just rang. Can I just one second? Time out. Yeah, sorry.
00:56:28
Speaker
Derek, could you hear all that? I forgot that I had my headphones around my neck and that's my microphone, so I forgot you could hear every word of that. So that's on the pot. No, I guess I wasn't in front of the microphone, so it didn't record. But yeah, I wasn't expecting essentially a door-to-door salesman, which is what that was. He made it seem like he was very official and that he was supposed to be here.
00:56:55
Speaker
This is a new thing, I get a lot of crap in the mail and people stopping by trying to sell me shit. I'm sorry, I thought maybe I needed to let Leah in or something and she was locked out. He really fucked this up. Do you want me to give you where you were?
00:57:11
Speaker
I don't even know what we were talking about. You were about to say something about how I had mentioned before we went on here about how many matches there were. Oh, yeah. You kind of said as you were looking through this, you're like, there's so many matches that now you didn't give a shit about, which regardless of, you know, I have no idea what was going on then. But looking through this card, there are for sure matches I'm excited about, but there's an equal amount that I couldn't give a fuck less.
00:57:40
Speaker
Right. I think the first one that I came to that I made sure to stop and watch, I had to watch junkyard dog against Harley race and a match where the loser must bow to the other. How did you feel about this? Again, I'm finding out I'm a big mark for junkyard dog and
00:58:04
Speaker
I don't know if I'm really upset that he lost this match. I was really distraught while watching it because I was like, this is gonna look racist. If he loses, I don't want that to happen. And what Vince McMahon thinks is, I don't care.
00:58:20
Speaker
Exactly, and here we are in 2019 doing the same thing with Gophi Kingston. I agree with you though. Over these past couple of Wrestlemanias we've been watching, I'm like really loving Junkyard Dog. He's kind of becoming my dude now. He's got one of the back of his ass, say again, thump. Thump. And the whole crowd has been so hot for Junkyard Dog, these three Wrestlemanias, that it makes me feel like I've been missing out. Right.
00:58:50
Speaker
Man, we would have been total junkyard dog marks, front row, chain wrapped around our neck or whatever. God damn. There's a couple guys from this time, like even Coco beware. Somebody that I'm aware of and I feel like I've seen a lot of matches from, but when I see him come out with a pet, this was a time when a lot of wrestlers had a pet. We don't got enough guys with pets anymore. Yeah, we need more of that.
00:59:18
Speaker
Did you check out Rowdy Roddy Piper against Adrian Adonis in a hair versus hair match? I am looking through my notes. I don't see anything. I'm sure I did, but I couldn't tell you. The match didn't mean shit to me. I just wanted to see Piper shave fucking that very large man from WrestleMania two. I wanted to see him shave his head and I got that.
00:59:44
Speaker
When you're looking at a card like this, I'm going down the run times. That Piper match was six and a half minutes. The majority of these matches are under 10 minutes. And well under 10 minutes. Is
Personal Stories and Reflections
01:00:00
Speaker
this version of WrestleMania? Are you getting the best wrestling or are you just getting a big show?
01:00:08
Speaker
You're getting a big show for sure. And people's perceptions of pro wrestling and expectations for it at this time period were a lot different than they are now.
01:00:18
Speaker
However, I say that, but then I'm gonna use that to segue into the next match I wanna talk about because this is a classic. Ricky the Dragon Steamboat against Randy Savage. This is one that gets brought up a lot as an all-time great WrestleMania match, and it really is. This is one of those that works in any generation. Any generation can pop this match in and be entertained by it. And maybe the way they looked at it back then was they really limited
01:00:49
Speaker
Or maybe they just couldn't, I don't know. Maybe they looked at it as we're going to have one or two matches on the show that are the pro wrestling match where you're going to get to see a really lengthy, skilled battle. And on this card, this was this match. What did you think of it? It goes about, it goes almost 15 minutes. Yeah. This is the one that supposedly they had choreographed every single bit of this match out.
01:01:13
Speaker
Yeah, and knowing that is crazy. Like honestly, with any wrestling match, having everything perfectly choreographed seems insane. I mean, what do you say about this match that hasn't already been set? It's just two guys at the top of their game. Totally makes sense why this is a classic. And it's fun to see a classic match that now when I think of classic matches, I'm thinking of like a 30 or 40 minute match to be able to see something that's so good done in a 14 minute time span.
01:01:44
Speaker
I would recommend this to somebody who, like us, felt like they hadn't watched a lot of Old Mania stuff, who hadn't watched a lot of old WWF. If you want proof that, yes, some really great pro wrestling was happening back, you know, 30 years ago. Steamboat Savage from WrestleMania III is one you gotta check out for the Intercontinental Championship. Steamboat ends up winning it, taking the title from Macho.
01:02:10
Speaker
Man, yeah, like you said, what else can we say other than this? This was a classic. And then we have the greatest main event in the history of main events where Hulk Hogan picks up Andre the Giant and kind of drops him on the ground. And I think at this point, Andre weighed what, three tons? Something like that, depending upon what year we're hearing Hogan's story.
01:02:38
Speaker
Every year he gets heavier and every year he tore different muscles, picking him up. I'm embarrassed to admit this. I mean, it sounds so dumb, but I really enjoyed the fuck out of this match. You mean just seeing how pumped the crowd was for it or the match itself? Yeah. No, I just think that there's certain...
01:03:07
Speaker
We've talked before about how the era of The Big Man is over, and that's true. But I think this is... Maybe this is the last hurrah of that, but this is a perfect spectacle match. I mean, they sold out a fucking stadium. These two sold that stadium out. Yeah. But there was a story. There was a damn good story. And they knew what the story of the match needed to be. And I think you forget now, you know, Andre had never lost.
01:03:39
Speaker
Andre was undefeated. I mean, there were a lot of ways they could go with like, and he was an international superstar. Yeah. And I mean, I think this is when people think of Andre, they think of Andre in the gear that he's wearing at WrestleMania three and.
01:04:00
Speaker
I don't know. To me, you're not going into this match thinking, oh man, this is going to be a really, really good classic technical wrestling match. I think the spectacle and the story that they do tell with the limited things that they could do, it worked and it was fun. It's just fun to watch after hearing about this match for so many years.
01:04:20
Speaker
It's a spectacle with great characters as well. Correct. This is a character driven story. This isn't Kenny Omega versus Okada. This is watching two guys who at the time were larger than life. It's like if John Cena were this big and no one hated him, you know.
01:04:41
Speaker
Yeah, I just think one of the things that you and I committed to doing when we were going back and watching these old WrestleMania is I hope that somebody out there is taking something away from listening to us. And we primarily cover a lot of the new stuff, New Japan, Ring of Honor, WWE, some impact, if you can find it. That's the theme of this episode.
01:05:05
Speaker
And obviously AEW. We cover a lot of the new stuff and if there's people who are listening to this who haven't gone back and watched some older WWE shows, I think you'll get a kick out of some of it. There's a lot of garbage in there, things that are gonna be a slower pace and comical that you can just toss on the heap. But there are some gyms in there that I think put things into perspective and make you really appreciate.
01:05:30
Speaker
I don't know, some of the talent from three decades ago. Just seeing the progression of pro wrestling, even the worst matches on these shows are entertaining to watch. You watch them completely different now than you would at the time. And looking at stuff like this, seeing Hillbilly Jim and a lot of these weirder characters made me wonder, when did Survivor Series start, Derek?
01:06:00
Speaker
I bet the first survivor early 90s it had to have been weird as fuck like was it hillbilly Jim and the garbage pale kids versus Fucking I don't know
01:06:12
Speaker
like George the Animal Steel and some other garbage monsters. I didn't even get a chance to talk about how great Jake the Snake versus Honky Tonk Man was on WrestleMania 3. That was a fun fucking match. It was fun as hell and Alice Cooper rode to the ring with him. Alice Cooper's there. Honky's flying all over the place. Jake the Snake looks like he wants to murder somebody. He's erratic as hell. That's the cocaine. You sell them on checking out some of these old WWF shows.
01:06:42
Speaker
Thanks.
01:06:43
Speaker
I mean, I think it's totally worth your time. You've got the network subscription. Jump in there, check out the first few Wrestlemanias. We've been enjoying it. I think you're going to see some things that you are surprised that you enjoy as much as you do. And I think the other matches, you're going to laugh and have a good time regardless. It's not a seven-hour WrestleMania. It's the same as watching a Raw. You can skip around. But I think you're going to see some guys and just also just get a refresher on some of them where you're like, fuck, Macho Man really was that good.
01:07:12
Speaker
Roddy Piper was that good. And we all know that, but going back and seeing it, just seeing them in their prime and seeing these guys that so many people we love idolized and got to where they were because of these dudes.
01:07:28
Speaker
I think you're right. I think you hit the nail on the head. I think so much time has passed and so many of these these people that we talk about have become almost caricatures to us. Like we think of them for their over the top catch phrases and personalities. And you forget that they still had an end ring act to perform and why they were legends at the time. And it's kind of cool to go back and get reminded of that.
01:07:56
Speaker
Derek, I watched a pretty weird movie over the weekend that I feel like I can't end this podcast without mentioning.
01:08:04
Speaker
Well, this is your time to close out the show, Garrett. What did you watch and what kind of mood are we ending this episode on? A weird one. Conveniently, I'm going to spoil the absolute shit out of this movie. So if you plan on seeing the A24 film Climax, just get the fuck out of here right now because you're going to hear it all. So, Derek, do you ever go watch a
01:08:30
Speaker
watch a movie or a piece of art that you know is going to affect you negatively for enjoyment. I think I only did that once and that was hostile.
01:08:44
Speaker
So then I learned this is also a horror movie in a different way it is from a French director the whole movies in French it is a movie about a French dance troupe that's having a party and Then somebody spikes the sangria with LSD and they basically all go insane and that's the rest of the movie
01:09:06
Speaker
The movie's only 90 minutes. First 15 minutes are all shot in one take. They take this LSD and the second this LSD kicks in, the DJ stops spinning music. So for the next 45 minutes, you're listening to the same thumping bass beat that just drills into your brain and makes you feel helpless and uncomfortable. Does it drive you insane?
01:09:31
Speaker
It does, but they take it a step further. There's a child at this party. He accidentally drinks the LSD as well. They lock him in a very dangerous closet where he spends the rest of the movie screaming at the top of his lungs. You never see this character again, but you faintly hear a child screaming in the background for 45 minutes while thumping bass is going.
01:09:55
Speaker
And then the last 15 minutes or less about 10 minutes of the movie the camera is 100% upside down So you are just watching the movie upside down and by the end of the movie you feel fucking insane and you go home sad And what did you do when you got home from this? Sat around and thought about my decisions
01:10:19
Speaker
That being said, absolutely loved it to death. What? What a twist. I'll never watch it again, but it was an experience. They made me feel something. I went home, binge watched a season of Queer Eye for the straight guy gets his Queer Eye now. And that just made everything better.
01:10:40
Speaker
So there's good a thing as any also in this on a positive note though Derek Do you ever have you ever had a boss that you're like fuck that guy? I want to see that guy get fucking fired cuz he's a piece of shit Yeah, I mean that isn't that the the reason everyone was able to relate to stone cold Steve Austin so well, correct?
01:11:00
Speaker
Correct. Every time while I was working at Warner Brothers and I was watching Stone Cold beat the shit out of Vince McMahon, I would think someday me, someday me. Kevin Tsujihara was the CEO of Warner Brothers and that guy made so many bad decisions while I worked there. Like he lost that company so much money in terrible movie decisions.
01:11:26
Speaker
Is he out? He's out, they finally fired him. Are you going back? Yeah, I'm going back now. That place was so depressing because basically a giant movie like Jack and the Giant Slayer would come out and no one would see it. And then the next week you'd see like accountants and secretaries with all their shit packed up in boxes leaving. Because when people got fired because the movie lost money, it wasn't that motherfucker, it was those people.
01:11:55
Speaker
And that was a bummer the whole time I worked there. He was sexually inappropriate and has been removed. And that pisses me off even more that he wasn't removed for being a shitty businessman. He was- It took something else? It took him being a shitty person to get him out. But he got his comeuppance. He's gone. And I feel like that story came to a close and now I'm pumping my fist and it freeze framed on it.
01:12:22
Speaker
One thing you should freeze frame on before we get out of here, remind the fine people out there how they can reach out to us on social media.
01:12:51
Speaker
Yeah, I would like to make a prediction. Yes. We are going to watch the Marine Six before the people find impact. You can go ahead and hit our goddamn music.