Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Predetermined: A Pro Wrestling Hangout-001-Curtain Jerking
77 Plays8 years ago
In our first episode, Garrett and Derrick discuss the origins of their pro wrestling fandom. Also, the boys talk about Garrett's recent trip to Wrestle Kingdom 12.
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to 'Predetermined' and Wrestling Passion
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey everybody, welcome to Predetermined, a pro wrestling hangout podcast. I am your host, Garrett Callender, and with me, my best friend in the whole world, Derek Halpin. Hey everyone, thanks for listening to this first episode of our podcast. Today for our first episode, we're going to talk about what made us pro wrestling fans and what we love about this business. As well as I recently took a trip to Japan for Wrestle Kingdom, so we're going to talk a little bit about that. But we are in the gorilla position, ready to head to this ring, hit our damn music.
00:01:00
Speaker
Here we are. We're doing it. It's official. It is official. We just strutted our way down the ramp. The pyro was going off. We were banging forearms.
00:01:10
Speaker
We were smacking hands with fans, climbing up on that turnbuckle, shaking the ropes, Ultimate Warrior style, and now we're ready to go. This is a big day. This is a long time in the making, man.
00:01:30
Speaker
We've been talking about doing this for a long time, but we really haven't. We should have been talking about doing this for a long time. We should have been doing this a long time ago, but it is what it is and we're here today and episode one of our podcast and excited to be doing something that we both have a background in, essentially, that we haven't done anything with our degrees for up until this point, but now we're using our degrees for something we love, which is talking about pro wrestling.
00:01:59
Speaker
Oh my god, like honestly, the reason that we're even doing this for you is for the sake of everyone else around us. I feel like a big part of my time is trying to talk about pro wrestling to people who just don't give a shit.
00:02:13
Speaker
That is that is not a fruitful endeavor a lot of times. No. And I mean, I my wife has to hear so much about so many different wrestling promotions that she doesn't care about. And this is a way for us to, you know, not annoy the shit out of our significant others. And hopefully you can do the same listening to this.
Engagement with Listeners
00:02:33
Speaker
You know, hit us up on social media. We want to talk about wrestling to you.
00:02:37
Speaker
This isn't just an outlet for us. It's an outlet for you, too. If you want to have somebody that you can kind of vent to, if you want to discuss things with, we're your pro wrestling source right now. We're your friends. So hit us up on social media. Email us. We're going to be here. We're getting started. But there's a lot left for us to do.
00:02:57
Speaker
Oh my god, I'm so excited. Because not only do I not have to annoy the shit out of my wife and strangers on the street, I get to talk to one of my best friends in the whole world about goddamn pro wrestling, and this is something we should be doing weekly anyway, so now it's just an excuse I get to talk to you more.
00:03:14
Speaker
Right? And we've been friends for, God, 30 plus years. And we're finally doing something together that we love. And we're going to see where it takes us. So now that we've kind of got that started, where would you like to kick this podcast off with?
Becoming Wrestling Fans: Attitude Era and Memories
00:03:29
Speaker
Well, I feel like we should tell them a little bit about ourselves. Why do we love wrestling? Where did wrestling start for you? What's your first wrestling memory? Funny enough, I think I was a late bloomer. The one thing that we can both kind of bond over is that we...
00:03:49
Speaker
We kind of were born into the attitude era as far as that's when we became like 24-7 die hard wrestling fans. But I think for me. A real coming of age time for a lot of wrestling fans. I'm sure there's a lot of people who share our story though. I mean, it was maybe the biggest, it was probably the height of the business up to that point.
00:04:11
Speaker
Or this point? I mean, yeah, that's the peak of the business. And at that point it was everywhere. It wasn't like it is now where I go try and talk to strangers at work about pro wrestling. It was like, that was a water cooler thing at the time. It was on the cover of TV Guide. They were everywhere.
00:04:32
Speaker
I mean I think that there's some correlation between the the boom of the attitude era and and also the dot-com boom with the internet exploding and people being able to discuss what was going on behind the scenes and being able to you know you know chat rooms were a thing and yeah no I think you know for me I remember being a kid and I remember for one of my birthdays I had a friend who
00:04:57
Speaker
gifted me a Sting action figure, WCW Sting action figure, and it was actually Beach Sting. And had no idea what that was. I just knew it was a shirtless dude wearing tights. What do you think that kid's thought process was picking Beach Sting? Was it the face paint?
00:05:13
Speaker
Maybe. I mean, Facepaint probably looked pretty cool on an action figure and he was probably jacked. And, uh, I mean, it wasn't, I mean, yeah, it was an action figure. Here's a toy. You're a boy. Do your thing. How many generic action figures have you bought just because the guy was wearing Facepaint and was jacked as hell? As an adult, not nearly enough. I'm just thinking just to like all of the random He-Man and X-Men action figures we had, like definitely characters I had never heard of.
00:05:41
Speaker
Oh, yeah. I mean, how many copies of Michael Keaton with a 16-pack on his chest? Can you? I know. I mean, I remember it for me. I guess that was the official. That was the seed. And then I remember in the years growing up on the Nintendo Entertainment System,
00:05:59
Speaker
I remember playing the original Nintendo. Did you get a wrestling game on that? The NES, man. WWF. There were a bunch of WWF games that you could play where you could do cage matches and things. Weird, funny tangent. I might as well get this out there now because this is a great place to start. For years when I was a kid,
00:06:18
Speaker
There's a scene in the movie Home Alone 2 where Marv is threatening one Kevin McAllister with his life and mentions that no one's going to hear from him again except for a fish and then he says The Undertaker.
00:06:33
Speaker
And as a kid, I thought he was specifically referencing the wrestler, the undertaker. I did not like understand. I didn't even know that an undertaker was an official like like a job like. Yeah. Yeah. For me, like as a kid, it's like that's my two favorite things. John Hughes and pro wrestling merging into one thing in that moment.
00:06:54
Speaker
I don't think that was the intention. I think that it was actually meant to be referenced to an undertaker, but I was sitting there like, oh, they're in New York and WWF is in New York. So they're referencing, you know, what, Mark Callaway? Well, what's weird is you don't realize until you're with somebody who hates how much you talk about pro wrestling all the time, how often it is referenced through all of pop culture.
00:07:21
Speaker
For sure. Like, when you're with somebody who's going to be annoyed by those references, you're going to hear so many of them in every TV show and movie.
00:07:30
Speaker
Yeah, I think what's funny is that for the reputation that pro wrestling has is being lowbrow. Like you said, it's got a pretty permanent place in pop culture. I mean, especially now, I never would have guessed all these professional athletes who talk about Ric Flair being an influence on them. And so I mean, to me, it's fascinating that there's always been kind of a stigma around pro wrestling as far as it being lowbrow, as it being
00:07:56
Speaker
you know something to be a little bit of ashamed of but it's funny even from when we were younger to see where it's gone now it's it's like you walk to a you walk into a pro wrestling show and there's you know every walk of life in there to enjoy you know some predetermined that's a plug for a show some predetermined fighting so some predetermined combat yeah oh i mean
00:08:19
Speaker
in just every generation like
Evolving Passion for Wrestling
00:08:21
Speaker
there's people that are going now that you you know i've talked to so many people that tell me the wrestlers they grew up watching and you know you get to hear somebody say like actually buddy rogers i'm like oh i bet that really yeah goddamn
00:08:37
Speaker
What's to steer the steer the ship back in the right direction? I could tell you since we were like we were saying that we were both products of the attitude era as far as when the wrestling boom was at its highest The first angle I Remember and I like I said, I was I think I was a late bloomer even in the attitude era It was I think in the summer of 1998 I was a WCW viewer and I remember there was a feud going on between Scott Hall and Kevin Nash and
00:09:07
Speaker
between NWO Hollywood and NWO Wolfpack over Scott Hall turning on Kevin Nash and I remember Scott Hall's character being intoxicated frequently on Nitro and Thunder and... What's funny is I remember being kids during all of that time and you know us talking about like he's coming to the ring drinking beers and I'm like oh there's rules in Hollywood he's definitely drinking apple juice
00:09:35
Speaker
Oh there's no way they're letting that man come to the ring with an actual beer, it has to be something else. Which now looking back on it's like, oh he was drinking beer. Oh right, for sure. It's like he was drunk, and possibly on other things at the time.
00:09:49
Speaker
I don't know what makes like something click though. Like how do you go from being somebody who like wrestling is just kind of on your perif and you're not really engaged and then you watch a certain angle or you watch a certain match or you watch a certain wrestler and you go, ah, I think I'm going to tune into this again next week. Well, the thing is like it can happen at any time at any age because I mean, just going back to like where I started in all of this, like for me, I don't remember a time before Hulk Hogan was in my life.
00:10:19
Speaker
Sure for real like I mean I as long as I remember I remember having Hulk Hogan action figures. I remember the wrestling buddies I mean I remember I feel like it was on on Saturday mornings Possibly like around the same time as cartoons or maybe it was getting replayed
00:10:35
Speaker
at that time. And there was probably some weird overlap for you because I think as a kid, you're not necessarily aware of there being like a difference between WWF and WCW. And all of a sudden Hulk Hogan is going between companies. Like, I mean, I mean, he kind of, I mean, I know he says it all the time, but he transcended wrestling. And so yeah, I mean, it's hard to imagine a time period. Dude made thunder in paradise. Oh, for sure. And, uh, gosh, it was Rocky three.
00:11:04
Speaker
Yeah, Rocky III, Mr. Nanny. Man, I wonder, you know what? He should come up with a nickname for himself, something like Hollywood. I think that would do well for him. That would be good. That could catch on. Yeah, I think, like I said, I remember it being like 1998. And I just remember being really sucked in by this like over the top feud where a drunk Scott Hall was coming to the ring. And I liked his tights that was oozing the black and white.
00:11:32
Speaker
on his knee pads and elbow pads and his vest and I remember watching some of these angles and just being like ah this is cool this is live and I think that I mean that atmosphere isn't like when you're a kid that that was intoxicating it was must-see TV there in the late 90s every week and especially like what you were talking about in the intro
00:11:52
Speaker
the next day at school, you know, whether it was, you know, Monday morning after a wrestling pay-per-view or Tuesday morning after Nitro, that was what people were talking about, you know, on school buses or in the cafeteria before school started was what had happened the night before on whatever show you were watching. I think most people, I think a lot of people during that time period were probably watching both. I know, I mean, I started off as a WCW viewer, but, you know, eventually, I mean, they were one channel away from each other, so,
00:12:20
Speaker
What's kind of embarrassing in retrospect is that you and I were both WCW kids, but we did keep up with WWF. And I know that like we gave our friend Nathan so much shit about how much better WCW was than WWF. And I mean, we really never apologized. Do you think we need to now or do you think it's just sort of a given?
00:12:46
Speaker
Well, I think he would probably still like to hear us admit that we were wrong. But maybe we weren't. Maybe we weren't wrong because Carl Malone got a spot the other night, so... I don't know if you knew about that. Recently? Yeah, like last week, Carl Malone had a spot with Bobby Roode.
00:13:06
Speaker
I think it was when the cameras were off, but I know the wwe.com and their social media has certainly covered it. Well, I mean, I feel like I just broke some like earth shattering for you that broke my brain a little bit, but then I had to think about it. I'm like, well, I mean, Undertaker is probably going to have more matches. So why doesn't Carl Malone? Well, I mean, and I think to to our point where we were talking about how big wrestling was, I
00:13:34
Speaker
the idea that they were able to just kind of casually bring in like celebrities, whether it was, I mean, even if they weren't good, even if they couldn't work in the ring, I mean, you can criticize WCW for how they utilized any celebrity they brought in, but the fact that they were able to do it, that's how big wrestling was. And I mean, you're given WCW a lot of credit, but if I recall, like in the last couple of years, WWE had Grumpy Cat. There was a pretty good Ms. Grumpy Cat segment and they booked Grumpy Cat well.
00:14:04
Speaker
Grumpy Cat, Pee Wee Herman, Ben Roethlisberger. The cast of Entourage inviting us to enjoy Summerfest. Yeah, I mean, no, WWE has done really well for themselves, for celebrities. Do you miss the guest hosts of Raw? Do you really miss it? I honestly, I'm kind of happy they're gone.
00:14:27
Speaker
Me, too. I mean, don't surprisingly occasionally, you know, Hugh Jackman shows up and tells me to watch a Wolverine movie and maybe he gets to punch Zack Ryder. I don't know.
Exploring Wrestling Promotions Beyond WWE
00:14:37
Speaker
That's I don't know. I guess I guess if my mentality is if you're going to get a celebrity on the show, please get them in the ring and please let something happen. Like Kevin Owens, power bombing machine gun Kelly off the stage was pretty rad, right? Oh, Jesus. What about if you're going to talk about if you're going to use the word rad
00:14:57
Speaker
about a celebrity encounter in a wrestling ring. I mean, it's obviously Kathy Lee and Hoda from, uh, just watching the stands just empty so that everybody could go to the bathroom as these two ladies drank champagne and smashed wine on each other's butts. So what about you? Like, I guess, yeah, we should probably talk about what we like.
00:15:19
Speaker
Yeah, no, I mean, I'm. See, OK, I want everybody to know that's a big thing about this podcast. Like, there's a lot of podcasts out there, people complaining about everything with wrestling. And that's not this. We love it. I want to talk about what we enjoy about it. Like, do I want Roman Reigns to turn heel?
00:15:36
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, that'd probably be pretty good. But you know what I need to not do? Talk about it every single week. Because I have no control over it. Sometimes you just got to accept what's happening to you. Because there's a time there's a time and a place for criticism. And this podcast will have moments where I'm sure we'll say what we know what the hell were they thinking. But like, there's there's a lot of positives to take away from. I mean, if you're watching this after, you know, years and years of being a fan, you're you're still a fan. Like, like, there's something that's keeping you around. So
00:16:04
Speaker
And we're in this amazing resurgence of wrestling. We're in this new golden age of wrestling where you have so many different promotions to choose from. I mean, if you are looking for in-ring action, New Japan. That's the place to be looking for just the best matches. I mean, great characters in Ring of Honor. And the thing is WWE has good stuff going on right now. I mean, if you're not into the Roman Reigns thing,
00:16:32
Speaker
The Miz has this awesome thing going on on the side which also happens to include Roman Reigns right now, so that's a bad example. But there's something for everybody on that show.
00:16:41
Speaker
I think if you had told me four or five years ago that you would see AJ Styles being pushed to the top of the card in WWE and getting recognition from guys like Vince McMahon, I probably wouldn't have believed you because just a few years ago, stuff like that seemed impossible. And yeah, it's crazy to see. I think one of the things that they don't get enough credit for is regardless of how they utilize their talent, which is a huge part of
00:17:08
Speaker
the job is the actual rosters that they, you know, the big show, WWE, they have stacked rosters. The talent has showed up there and it's just a matter of how they use them. And there's a lot of things to enjoy I think week in, week out.
00:17:24
Speaker
Oh, yeah. This podcast is going to try to stay as positive as we can. I mean, like I said, there will be times to criticize, but that's not going to be what we it's not going to be the Internet. It's not going to be Facebook comments. No, what we're doing right now is we're hanging out in your basement.
00:17:39
Speaker
for sure i mean maybe you're on a treadmill let's face it you're probably not on a treadmill you're probably not on a treadmill we're all wrestling fans we know it we're not on treadmills some of us are on treble we're not we're all marks here right is that what we need to get on a shirt as we're all marks here we're all we are all that we're all marks let's just admit it hey come on man just come over and hang out in the basement have a you know have a mountain dew if you please
00:18:06
Speaker
Yeah, I guess so officially my first favorite wrestler was Scott Hall. Didn't know anything about Razor Ramon. Didn't know anything about- Let me say, I am more afraid of his finisher than anyone else's. The Razor's Edge or the Outsider's Edge? If you told me what one wrestling move you do not want to take, my answer is most of them, but especially that one.
00:18:32
Speaker
I don't know, Ember Moon's finisher looks like it would destroy me. What, does she do the top rope stunner? Yeah, she does a flip off the top rope into a stunner, and every time it looks way worse than a regular stunner. Somehow she's found a way to show up stone cold Steve Austin. What do you think he would say to that? Does he like? Oh, god damn. I don't know, something like that. He would just say god damn.
00:19:01
Speaker
I don't know. I mean, yeah, no, I mean, I think my first that was my first favorite wrestler. I think I got hooked. And then like I just rode. I rode WCW to the bitter end. Like, like, I mean, there was a lot of crap there at the end that was just bad and including that mayhem game for PlayStation.
00:19:18
Speaker
You know, but at the time, I didn't know the difference. Liked it. Liked it as much as I would have told you I could, and played the hell out of WCW Nitro, played the hell out of WCW Thunder on the PlayStation game. WCW Nitro was my first PlayStation game. Oh, I remember you bringing that over to my house. Oh man. Playing that until the early morn. Doing the, just doing the taunts was the best part, like doing the Ric Flair strut.
00:19:44
Speaker
Mmm, or being Santa Claus. Oh, yeah, you could be like Mean Jean you could there yet a lot of options Yeah, I mean like and then I think I think the thing that drew me over in the end after you know as WCW was dying was I became a big fan of One Dwayne The Rock Johnson who nobody's ever heard of before I like that. He's still the guy that like everybody's in agreement. Like now he's still pretty cool Yeah, I mean, I think there was a time period there where
00:20:13
Speaker
Everyone was, like, mad at him for leaving. Like, I don't think they knew how to convey it exactly, but somewhere around 2002, when he became a little too baby-facious, but they also knew he was on his way out the door. And yet, here he was, he was a guy who had no problem dropping the belt to Lesnar. The guy did jobs for everybody. Yeah, and the only thing that I have an issue with him for now, or with now, is, uh,
00:20:40
Speaker
His WrestleMania segments are a little long, but I love when he shows up. I'm like all in. And then it's not really until you rewatch a WrestleMania that you're like, oh my God, he took 40 minutes to get down the ramp.
00:20:54
Speaker
Well, the live crowd just loved it, so. Oh, I was into it. Don't get me wrong. Like, when I'm in Dallas, I'm losing my mind as he's coming down with a goddamn flamethrower. It's just when I'm on my couch rewatching it that I'm like, oh, yeah. He really milked that. But he milked it and we all loved it.
00:21:13
Speaker
It's the rock. It's the rock. It's the rock. What are you going to say? Like, I think, I think that I got sucked into that. I think a lot of people were, you know, stone cold was, was the face of the attitude era, but the rock was definitely the voice. And I think that towards the end, I was fine with WCW dying off because I was watching a lot of what was going on with the WWF and it became clear to me that that was, that was the superior product.
00:21:38
Speaker
And I mean, it was easy to see why. I mean, when you look back to that late 90s WWF roster, it is outrageous, like the names that they have there all at one time. And Alex Wright, disco inferno.
00:21:54
Speaker
oh you're talking about the WCW roster. I was going to WCW on their way out. Oh, no, that definitely would have put WCW over the top if they'd been able to keep those guys on top. So, no, I thought the WWF roster was just better. I thought the shows were better. It was must-see TV, like I said, and yeah, after WCW died, I've been a WWE guy, you know, for years, still am.
00:22:22
Speaker
In the last couple years, I've been trying to get caught up on the indie scene a little bit more thanks to you. And so the explosion of the Bullet Club and New Japan Pro Wrestling kind of coming to the forefront is, it's exciting, like you were saying. It's cool that now in the pro wrestling universe, not just the WWE universe, the pro wrestling universe, there's something there for everybody. So it's an exciting time. And it's been cool that for more than half of my life, I've been a committed pro wrestling fan.
00:22:50
Speaker
Here here I am now at age 30 doing a podcast with my best friend talking about it. So yeah, no So just going back a little bit to like where I started I know I said like I don't remember a time before Hulk Hogan, right? I loved wrestling as a child Leading up to you know, the Monday Night Wars and all of that like I was still a fan before that and then it got there and
00:23:14
Speaker
My brain was exploding like I love like every Monday Was flipping those channels on and you know going back and forth between the two because like you I think you were saying and I cut you off For us it was channel 30 and 31. So we got right one flip away loved it. It was perfect But yeah, it's somewhere around high school. I dropped off I I want to say because you continued at that point
00:23:42
Speaker
I, you know, I've always kept my ear to the ground as far as pro wrestling, but yeah, I've dipped out a couple times too, just for like a year or two here and there. I know that like, I'm sure for you, you probably, you probably disappeared what, right around the time that WWF bought WCW, like right after that? Yeah, I think I watched a little through that, it being, you know, being excited that I was going to start getting to see some of these guys on there. And then what was happening just wasn't as interesting as I think I had hoped it to be.
00:24:11
Speaker
And I kind of dropped off. And I followed a little bit through you and seeing what shirts of wrestlers you were wearing. So I don't think I ever got to see Carlito in person.
00:24:26
Speaker
But I have seen you talk. Actually, I think I think I have seen him in the last few years like a retzel con or something. But but yeah, like I wouldn't have known who he was. I missed him on TV. I actually missed the whole CM Punk era.
Rediscovering Wrestling: WWE Network and Daniel Bryan
00:24:43
Speaker
uh... i wasn't actually i mean i i i don't have a problem admitting kind of when i got turned onto things and punk was a guy i didn't like for a number of years i just he didn't click with me i kind of thought his his evil jesus gimmick with the straight edge society was kind of cool but again nothing really sparked until he finally cut his pipe bomb promo and i i'm sure he would be pissed if you heard me just admit that that was the moment that it clicked but it really did it felt like it clicked and then like when i
00:25:11
Speaker
When he picked up the gimmick of being the disgruntled employee, I thought that that was his moment. And I think he ran with that for a couple years, and then it just, I think he was legitimately unhappy, so... Well that was... Yeah. Honestly, the pipe bomb was the moment that my eyes kind of saw the product again. And it was that clip just being posted online a bunch and watching it, and uh...
00:25:31
Speaker
I didn't really follow through all that. It was like right around the time that he left is when the network came out, I wanna say, like around that time. And it was right during that Daniel Bryan storyline leading up to the WrestleMania 30.
00:25:48
Speaker
Even as an adult, that was one of the best storylines I had ever seen. I was so into that. Just watching the yes movement and the takeover where all the people came into the ring and they were all doing the yes and he got his WrestleMania match.
00:26:05
Speaker
I think that was exciting for a lot of people. I agree with you. I think the best times for pro wrestling is when something works well enough that people who don't normally follow hear about it or they get involved with it or they watch. And I know I can speak for, there's several people I know who were not regular pro wrestling fans who got sucked in at least for a little while by the Daniel Bryan angle. But from what it sounds like is what you're saying is that you tapped out for a few years
00:26:35
Speaker
And then probably somewhere around what, 2011? Cuz I seem to remember you coming back in the night The Rock came back to announce that he was gonna host that year's WrestleMania. Cuz I remember you were saying that you were watching when that happened and it was a big thing, but.
00:26:50
Speaker
Okay, yeah, yeah, that would've been right around that time. Even just those few weeks of watching that build of the Daniel Bryan storyline, it was just so good. He had such a good shirt, too, that I immediately went out to Hot Topic and bought that thing.
00:27:10
Speaker
And it was after WrestleMania 30 that I started talking to more people about wrestling. I was like, oh my God, that was such a fun show. And then that is when somebody told me, because at this point in my life, I was living in Los Angeles during WrestleMania 30. And somebody said, if you like wrestling, you need to go check out this PWG show.
00:27:34
Speaker
And that changed my life. Like it truly was that. Somebody recommended PWG Pro Wrestling Gorilla. It's an indie promotion out of Southern California. American Legion Post 308 Reseda, California. Best place in the world. Little slice of heaven. You said that changed your life because
00:27:58
Speaker
not only you realized all at once that you had like a local promotion you could get into and there was a world outside of WWE just for you essentially. And the fact that it was because you know I feel like for the longest time like indie wrestling had a really bad stigma to it you know like where you're picturing like backyard wrestling almost or just like a really low rent production
00:28:22
Speaker
Or were it being gruesome to compensate for the fact that it was an indie promotion? Exactly. And so I ended up getting a ticket to this thing. I think it was sold out. But they told me I could go to the door and get a ticket. We show up. That was honest to God the best time I've ever had at a wrestling show. And I hadn't heard of 90% of the people there. I'm going to go ahead and say 98%. It was PWG that, because I had heard of the Young Bucks.
00:28:50
Speaker
But I had never seen them like it was just a name I had heard one time maybe and like that night I got to see Here just saying let me I can actually grab the I'm gonna grab the thing real quick
00:29:03
Speaker
Well, part of that's, you know, you got to be there for like the explosion of a small promotion that was local for you. And I think the atmosphere there, I've never been to a PWG show. You have been to a bunch. And yeah, I think from everything I've heard, the PWG crowds are insane. And that probably helped suck you into the product. I mean, when the fans are good, like the show's good, so.
00:29:31
Speaker
Well, it was a thing, too, that showing up to a place, it was one of those situations where it felt like everybody knew each other. So you go there and you're like, ah, shit, this is going to be a club that I'm not a part of. But immediately, the people around me are like, this is your first time here. Get ready to have the best night of your life. And as they're going through with all these people, they're explaining to me people's characters and what the stories are. Because also, going into the show we did, my first show there was Mystery Vortex 3.
00:29:58
Speaker
which is just a mystery show. You don't know who's on the card until their entrance music hits. And you don't know who they're gonna face.
Experiencing Pro Wrestling Guerrilla
00:30:07
Speaker
So the first match of that entire night that I ever, the first match I saw at PWG was Tommaso Ciampa versus Johnny Gargano. And never heard of either of them before. And god damn it, that's, I still rewatch that match once in a while. That's still one of the best matches I've seen live.
00:30:26
Speaker
And little did you realize how relevant that would be in the mainstream just a couple years later. Yeah, I mean, when I know Champa's hurt right now, but when he comes back, him and Gargano are definitely going to have something going on. Yeah, probably for an NXT title, I would imagine or hope. Also, that night I got introduced to the world's cutest tag team.
00:30:49
Speaker
Which you know Joey Ryan Candice LeRae Candice LeRae my favorite wrestler on the planet right now She just happened to sign with one world wrestling entertainment. So which she's misses Johnny Gargano So, you know, they get to be together. That's nice. I am hoping to god. She debuts at the Rumble probably not gonna happen I bet she has to do some developmental first
00:31:12
Speaker
She could do both technically shit couldn't she couldn't she do a spot running at the rumble and then immediately show up on NXT Yeah, that could be a thing I was actually really worried because a big part of Candice LeRae's career is intergender wrestling So like you're watching Candice being these fucking brutal Matches where like I mean matches where she's fighting the young bucks and getting kicked in the head with tack shoes and like Candice can hang and
00:31:38
Speaker
So what was it, for you at least, going from being basically like a lifer, mainstream wrestling guy, when you did watch, you start off a WCW fan, you become a WWF fan, and then you kind of check out for a little while, you dip into WWE a little bit, you move to California, and then the next thing you know, you kind of discover PWG, and what was it that drew you in?
00:32:04
Speaker
It was the sense of community. Going to PWG was like going to Fight Club. It was like you're in this goddamn torturous room. It's so fucking hot. This old man that runs at Legion Larry is such a mean old bastard. Love him to death. Would not turn the air conditioning on in that place.
00:32:28
Speaker
so you're just sweating balls part of the show it's part of it like you go there and you're just like the whole time you're like I am fucking miserable in here but like it's like your mind is able to go somewhere else while your body is being physically tortured in this Legion Hall and also first time I ever went mystery vortex 3
00:32:49
Speaker
Had to take a shit pretty bad by the time I got inside. Somebody- Hold that in. Oh yeah, holding that in. Somebody at doors ran into the bathroom, stuffed paper towels down all the toilets, and clogged them. I got to hold that for another several hours. Oh, but was it a fun show? That's all that matters. Oh, I had a great time. Like, I forgot about that, like, so quick.
00:33:11
Speaker
And you didn't shit yourself. And I didn't shit myself. Like I maybe almost shit myself. I believe Chris Hero broke his finger that night. And just like held up a sideways finger. It was bleeding. Zack Sabre Jr. is on the ground. He pinches his own finger so that it sprays blood all over Zack Sabre's back. And I was just like, where the fuck am I right now? I want to live in this building.
00:33:37
Speaker
So you're living in California, you're going to PWG shows, and you left California, what, a little over a year ago?
00:33:46
Speaker
Yeah, I think I just hit my year mark, or at least a year of living in Nashville, which is where I currently am, where there is not a lot of live pro wrestling. And I will say, leaving PWG was the hardest part of leaving California. And I know that that's gonna hurt some people's feelings, but for real. Little do the people of California realize the best part of California was PWG.
00:34:12
Speaker
Oh my god, like I've flown back out to go to shows there and it's just like the fact that I'm like making a plane trip to go to this tiny Legion Hall in Reseda like it was uh There's just there is nothing like that room like anybody that gets to you know That's lucky enough to get to step into that room like even my wife not a fan the first time she went to PWG she got it and
00:34:37
Speaker
she understood what the atmosphere brought, and how you can get addicted to that, yeah. Yeah, even she's yelling shit at that point, because you get sucked into it. The best thing about that crowd is that everybody's there to have a good time, and anyone in that room is going to buy anything that happens in that ring.
00:34:57
Speaker
You know, I think a great idea for our next show would actually be to talk about the card from our very first wrestling shows and just kind of go over that and see what tangents can break off of that. But you know what, for real, tune in next week because I got a goddamn doozy for you. I'm going to break down the card.
00:35:15
Speaker
from a WCW Thunder baby.
00:35:34
Speaker
from from I can't how not like that it sucks but I mean that that was true you know and this was my I went to my first pro wrestling show in 2004 so we have we'll talk about that next week I think this is a great point since you know you were talking about you know you went to PWG shows that in California now we've
00:35:53
Speaker
Actually, also while I was out there for WrestleMania 31, I drove up to San Francisco. That was my first WrestleMania. I was so excited, you know, in the time leading up to that mania. And after I experienced it, it was just one of those things that it was like, oh, my God, if something brings me this much joy. Why ever miss this again?
00:36:18
Speaker
And you've been every year since. Yeah, I've been to 31, 32, 33, and will be at 34. And it's not even like a lot of people are like, yeah, but it's WWE. No, but it's just getting that many people who love the same thing together in one room. It's awesome. Everybody there is so excited. It's just such a good day. I think wrestling's a little bit different though, because you could make the argument.
00:36:44
Speaker
that all the people there for the Super Bowl, at least most of the people in an arena for a Super Bowl, they love football. But the difference is that I think there's sort of a chip on the shoulder of most wrestling fans, that the thing that they like, it's got a stigma to it. And so it's almost like you said, it's like a fight club, it's like a cult of people who, they feel like they're outcasts almost?
00:37:12
Speaker
I think there's a lot of wrestling fans that bond over the fact that they think that they don't have a lot of people they can relate to on this. And that's sort of kind of the vein that we created this podcast in, is we wanted to be an outlet, not just for ourselves, not just so that we every week had an hour or so to talk about pro wrestling, but we wanted to suck in a bunch of people who like talking about wrestling and hearing about pro wrestling.
00:37:38
Speaker
Yeah, there's a community around this. Like you said, just like with the PWG shows, there is a community and pro wrestling that likes to take care of each other. And you're not alone out there. And if you feel bad about liking pro wrestling, you shouldn't. No, you shouldn't. Because there's a lot of us out there.
00:37:53
Speaker
Yeah it's and the thing is like when you find somebody else who likes wrestling like it's just you get so excited because you know like oh my god me and this person we've got we've got this going and like we've got hours of stuff to talk about. Was there ever a time that like you were embarrassed to admit it? Like was there anyone that you ever just didn't admit that you were a pro wrestling fan too?
00:38:17
Speaker
Um, I don't think so, but I mean, I don't think it was a matter of admitting as much as it just, it didn't come up. I mean, and when you find somebody who like you, you get like a little snippet, if somebody makes a reference to something or, or whether, you know, you bring it up and then you go from there, but like, no, I don't remember ever being embarrassed. I think there's a lot of people out there who are casual fans.
00:38:39
Speaker
who they watch every Monday but they don't go around broadcasting that they watch every Monday or whatever so I don't know man like I think it's interesting where we're at now I don't know if our audience realizes this yet but you know this guy that I'm doing this podcast with I've been friends with for over thirty years like I said and we're actually you know we're broadcasting from two different places this guy lives over in Nashville I'm living in Chicago and
00:39:07
Speaker
We're going to be bringing you a lot of stuff every week. A lot of discussions, a lot of fun, a lot of laughs. We're going to get into some shenanigans. A big thing for me is attending live wrestling. If you aren't going to wrestling shows and you're a wrestling fan, get the fuck outside and go to shows. It's so much fun just getting to go and yell at people.
00:39:30
Speaker
is uh you know it releases some stress you're around like-minded people it's awesome like i even go to shows by myself like i would do a house show recently by myself had such an awesome time just hearing how excited those children were to see cane it's a release it's definitely a release and i went to um smackdown just a couple weeks ago and after the show was over like in the day or two after the show i felt like uh i felt refreshed it was a weird like it was a weird way to vent it was a weird way it was like cathartic
00:40:00
Speaker
getting it out. I mean, when you're chanting with an arena full of people, ruse of day, and you're all on the same page for something, and it's just fun, and it's goofy, and it's over the top, but everyone's enjoying it, like, I mean, there's really nothing else like that. Like, even with sports, there's nothing like that. And I think what we both have a mutual friend who once described it as like the last true form of theater in the round.
00:40:26
Speaker
Oh, it really is. Wrestling is art. And I don't want to make this sound super serious right now because this podcast is going to be fun. We're going to be joking about things. We're going to be going to shows, describing to you the shows. We want you to feel like you were at the show with us.
00:40:43
Speaker
and Derek and I are gonna start going to a lot more things together. I'm gonna be making it up to Chicago to start going to some AAW, which I'm really excited to check out. We're gonna be going up there on February 17th to check out Sammy Callahan versus Naito.
00:41:00
Speaker
And we're going to be meeting Nido that same weekend, so. At the Pro Wrestling Tees Shop, which I'm pretty excited to check out. Which is really close to where I live, so. Awesome. And yeah, I'm actually starting, in addition to the podcast, there's going to be some YouTube stuff just kind of documenting our journey to different shows. So be on the lookout for that. We'll announce where you can check that out as well.
00:41:24
Speaker
I think you should tell the people about your most recent experience while we're on this subject. Tell me about your last pro wrestling show, Garrett, because it was a doozy. I think you traveled for
Honeymoon at Wrestle Kingdom 12
00:41:38
Speaker
this one. Yeah, I traveled a little bit. I traveled about 6,400 miles. Got over a fear of, like I'm not afraid of airplanes, but I am claustrophobic.
00:41:49
Speaker
but you should be afraid of airplanes yeah like the idea of a 12-hour plane ride really rubbed me the wrong way but i did fly across the ocean not much of the ocean actually kind of curved around canada a little bit and uh went up and around but went to wrestle kingdom 12 whoa holy shit man like i it's been crazy because we've been trying not to talk about this we haven't discussed it since i've been back
00:42:14
Speaker
I well now this is your time. This is your outlet man. Just lay it on me. I mean I can tell you for certain I haven't been able to watch the whole show like there's a lot there. I've definitely watched all the Omega and the Jericho stuff and that was that was the big build for the show That was all the hype and seems like the match delivered. So oh that was I actually had the tickets to it before that match was announced so you better believe when that match was announced and
00:42:42
Speaker
You hit the jackpot. Holy shit. So I ended up going to Wrestle Kingdom 12 for my honeymoon because I have a very understanding wife. I think that's putting it lightly, actually. Well, I guess to get to that point, you kind of have to describe the wedding, too, which Derek was a part of. I got married dressed as the Miz on Halloween. That's correct. And who are you standing next to me dressed as?
00:43:12
Speaker
Oh, I was just Kevin Owens with the Universal Championship over my shoulder. And yeah, gave a toast at my guy's wedding. And yeah, I mean, it was cool. I mean, this guy got married on Halloween night, middle of nowhere in a giant barn. In a barn. In a barn. Cold as absolute fuck for that wedding.
00:43:35
Speaker
Not nearly as big of an issue for anyone else, but the dude who's dressed up like Kevin Owens and therefore is required to wear shorts and a sleeveless shirt. Yeah, he wasn't the face of America, the new face of America Kevin Owens in the suit. He was a current Kevin Owens, no sleeves.
00:43:50
Speaker
Yeah, that was, I mean, here's the thing. I'm not even joking. Nothing to complain about there. I had a blast. I had a blast. Everyone was checking on me the whole night to make sure I was doing okay. But yeah, just to give you some perspective on how long I've been friends with this guy, how good of friends we are and what we're into. And how fucking big wrestling is in both of our lives. Yeah. Like it played a pretty big part in my wedding. Like I walked down the aisle
00:44:17
Speaker
to The Miz's entrance music with my family as The Miztourage.
00:44:23
Speaker
And and the intercontinental championship over your shoulder. Oh, yeah, that was on my shoulder when I got married so Pretty big deal, but if we needed to validate how big a wrestling fans we are. I think that does it Oh, yeah, and also I've never had much interest in traveling like actually leaving the country just always afraid of that long plane ride seemed awful, but my wife she
00:44:50
Speaker
Actually suggested Wrestle Kingdom It was kind of her way of tricking me into going to Japan and getting to do a thing I really really wanted to do as long as it was only one night of our ten-day stay But you know what that's love
00:45:06
Speaker
Oh, yes, because that meant there was one day of that entire trip that was basically useless to her where she had to sit there for six hours. And but you know what, she she married you. She knew what she was signing up for. So I think she it makes sense that she would throw you a bone, a wrestling themed bone in the middle of your honeymoon.
00:45:26
Speaker
So yeah, that was nice of her. I really did appreciate that. I honestly like that whole day when people were finding out we were on our honeymoon, they're like, she is the coolest and kept telling her. And that did not make her feel better about being there. It didn't. I mean, I'm sure it felt nice. But at the same time, like she was still at Wrestle Kingdom. She did have quite a few drinks at Wrestle Kingdom, though. So I think she was like living a nice buzz throughout the day that got her through.
00:45:54
Speaker
Did you guys get matching New Japan tracksuits? You goddamn better believe we did. What are we even talking about? She clearly loves you. She clearly had a good enough time to where she was willing to partake in the festivities. And we are planning on wearing those New Japan tracksuits front row at Ring of Honor next Saturday. So look out for us in the front row wearing our matching New Japan tracksuits.
00:46:21
Speaker
yeah i mean that's that's that's that's exciting news man you're gonna be you're gonna be you're gonna be a star sooner than you think between our podcast and between identifying yourself on a ring of honor show so i mean if this ends it someday like all i can hope for out of this podcast is that some people you know have make some new friends and us
00:46:42
Speaker
and it gets them through the day uh just listening to some wrestling but also maybe just maybe i could be one of Dalton Castle's boys like if it gets to the anything that's like that's really the end goal with this that seems like uh that seems like a pretty that's even that's a more exclusive club than the bullet club man getting to be one of the boys i mean yeah i i understand i'm not saying it's an easy goal to reach but you do need to set a goal to you know we got to shoot for something
00:47:13
Speaker
And if we can both be shirtless in those masquerade masks with Dalton, I feel like we've done it. I'm bummed because I'm never going to get to be one of the druids when Undertaker comes to the ring. So I've already missed my dream. You might get to be like, you know, I mean, last year I thought that I watched Undertaker retire and we're all crying and shit. And then I find out he's coming back. Did you cry? I did not. I actually, here's the thing. I got excited for a second. I thought that was going to be a whole tangent.
00:47:40
Speaker
Oh, I'm a big crier. Like, if I told you how many times wrestling has made me tear up, it's insane. It's ridiculous. Did you cry when Sting lost? I didn't. My wife, though, was the only person in that room excited about that. She loves Triple H.
00:48:02
Speaker
So tell the story while we're here. I mean, this is what we did the podcast for. You're at WrestleMania 31. You're in San Francisco. Or is that what we're. She's also at that. It was so fucking hot that day. And it was my birthday and I convinced her to dress as the undertaker. So she was overheating all day and pretty pissed off.
00:48:22
Speaker
about it because she was out of things she didn't like. And though Sting, you know, has his match. We're all excited. The whole Kogan shows up. There's a lot going on. All we knew was like, for sure, Sting's going to win this, right? Why would he lose? Why would he lose? It's probably his only WWE match he's ever going to have. Why would they, after everything that's happened over the years, they don't need to pile on anymore. Sting's going to win. It's going to be a feel good moment during the show, yada, yada, yada.
00:48:49
Speaker
yeah it's like you know triple h got to come out as terminator he he kind of wins anyway uh but oh my god that finish sting what is a pedigree 123 i think sean michaels super kicked him into a pedigree or something yeah
00:49:04
Speaker
I remember the bat being swung through the sledgehammer and that being an oh shit moment and then the sledgehammer being used anyway and Yeah, next thing you know boom stings knocked out and getting pinned and the crown of life Oh my goodness. The crowd is just dead silent Leah's cheering
00:49:24
Speaker
Just the one lone voice at the back of the room going, yeah, yeah. She didn't grow up watching. All she knows is that she likes Triple H now and Sting had face paint on. That's really all she knew. But you know what? That's fine. Everybody can like who they like. You know? That's fine.
00:49:44
Speaker
Is that what we're hoping to get to by doing this podcast? Is everyone's allowed to like who they like? Yeah. I don't have to understand every wrestler. There's some wrestlers that people love that I'm just not into. But man, we're going to get so much shit from people when we say, hey, it's OK. Go ahead. Cheer for Roman Reigns. And then people are going to be like, oh, no, they're those guys. They're trying to smooth things over between us and the E, man.
00:50:12
Speaker
No, go ahead. Actually, you know what? You can like who you like and boo the shit out of whoever you want. Because I don't think there's any rules. Whatever you're feeling at a show, I don't think you have to play along. Whatever you're feeling in your heart,
00:50:30
Speaker
go with it. To me, I don't think you necessarily owe anybody a fake reaction. Well, because it's one of those things where the bad guys don't believe they're the bad guys. Right. They think they're doing the right thing.
00:50:46
Speaker
Well, I've used this comparison before, too, when talking about pro wrestling, where they're like, well, why would anybody ever cheer the heels? And I go, come on, dude. If you like Star Wars, there's people who own so much Darth Vader fucking merch. Like, what are you even talking about? Like, people who like Batman absolutely fucking love the Joker. Like, what are you talking about? I guess...
00:51:09
Speaker
Like I said, there's no rules to this thing like you cheer and boo whoever you want and anybody who tells you otherwise fuck them. So Yeah, I should probably I just realized how much how long we've been going. I should probably talk a little more about Wrestle Kingdom Yeah, that's what I was gonna say. That's what I was gonna say I go ahead and get into We're gonna go on a lot of tangents on this show The we should because I think that's how people have wrestling conversations is tangents. Yeah, it's all tangents But yeah, we get to the Tokyo Dome we get there
00:51:38
Speaker
fairly early and to go like go through the merch line get those track suits because that was you know that was top priority of the day other than just get to the show how much did those things cost the track suits yeah they were thirteen thousand five hundred yen a piece that means nothing to me which is a American which is like like a hundred and thirty bucks each oh Jesus
00:52:07
Speaker
All right. I flew to Japan. Like, what am I? I know. That was that was the only like crazy purchase I made on that trip. And I did. I hope the quality of that. I hope the quality of that tracksuit is amazing. Just so you know.
00:52:22
Speaker
It's a nice tracksuit. You're going to see it. I'm going to wear it. I'm actually going to wear it to the AAW show. Anyway, go on with your story. Sorry. So the way they sold tickets, because this year was one of the biggest years they've ever had for Wrestle Kingdom. I think they pre-sold about 40,000 tickets, which is about double what they did last year.
00:52:43
Speaker
And I'm sure Jericho had a big part in that, but I think also Okada Omega from last year had a huge part in that, because that was a very talked about match. But we get there, and so the way they sold the tickets to English speakers is, you had no idea where you were sitting. You bought the tickets and it's like, cool, show up to this gate. And you're like, all right. So not knowing anything about my tickets, I guess I'm going to fly to Japan and figure it out when I get there.
00:53:09
Speaker
I got floor seats and basically what we did is I looked and saw a lot of English-speaking people crowded around so I walked over to them trying to figure out what was going on and we did eventually find out that the paper was wrong and we were all waiting in front of the wrong place and all very silently tried to sneak away to the right place so that
00:53:31
Speaker
all you know thousands of people didn't try and come with us at once to do the same thing but we get like I ended up meeting so many awesome people that weekend we made friends with a bunch of Australian guys they were all awesome like who you go to a show with can really affect how much fun you have at that show
00:53:49
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. And I will say this, traditionally New Japan shows are very polite. They always say, like a lot of the wrestlers say, you can't tell when you're doing a bad job because the crowds are so quiet.
00:54:03
Speaker
Which is a sign of respect over there, isn't it? From what I understand that, like, them giving their full attention to the match and the show is they're like, it's not like an American crowd. But it's just so weird to be in a place that holds, you know, I mean, there's at least 40,000 people in at that time and just hear so much silence during the match. But one thing I was concerned about was, well, you sold all the English speakers tickets and you bunched us all together.
00:54:31
Speaker
We tend to be rowdy at shows. Like, if you wanted to keep the same aesthetic, have everybody be polite, you should have really mixed that in a little bit. You should have peppered us. No, you guys were like, if the arena was going to be a neighborhood, you were going to be like the shitty house on the block. Oh, we were the bad part of town.
00:54:52
Speaker
If you're wondering what arena B meant on your ticket, arena B meant the bad part of town, central bad. So what happens is, because if I can't speak the language of the people next to me, I'm probably not gonna be as loud. But you bunch us all together, it's me and a bunch of Australian guys. And we are going fucking nuts. Because at first I told Leah, I'm like, just so you know, I'm probably not gonna act the same as I do.
00:55:18
Speaker
Like PwG or anything like we're gonna be more respectful here But as it's going like we're just getting louder and being just having fun, and we're getting shushed And the thing is that was that but it was like our entire section when I say our section I mean thousands of people it's not like it's me and six other guys like there's a you know thousands of us, but here in the middle Bowl just simultaneously shush us and
00:55:46
Speaker
It was like, oh shit, I guess we do need to be quiet. But as the night went on, it was just like, you can't, it's hard to contain your excitement as these matches are going. And by the time that Omega Jericho was on, I don't know if I've ever yelled that much at any wrestling match ever. That was probably the most fun I've had at a live match.
00:56:09
Speaker
I thought that one of the things that was so great about that match, other than just the fact that it had a lot of hype to live up to. And I thought it delivered. I thought there were a lot of really good spots in there. Even him breaking out the lion tamer, just for the diehards out there. I don't know. I thought it was a really fun match. I thought that everything that they needed to get done, I'm sure you had a blast.
00:56:37
Speaker
I mean, did the crowd get rowdy for that match at least? They did, but I think a big part of it was that's a different type of match for New Japan. That's not something they get every day. That was like a no DQ high profile match like that. Well, their matches like because did you end up watching Okada Naito?
00:56:56
Speaker
I have not seen Okada Knight on it. Did you see the Omega and Okada match from last year or any of those series of matches? Yeah, I did see parts of that. Actually, I did see parts of the Cody match, which is also really good for a Cody match. Cody tends to have pretty... His matches are okay.
00:57:16
Speaker
But that one was actually a very memorable Cody match. But as far as the Omega Jericho thing goes, New Japan matches are like a story. It's like an epic story. And that match that we got from Omega Jericho was almost like a punk rock song. If you're comparing the two, their main events are usually operas.
00:57:38
Speaker
where it's just like this amazing piece of work and then you get this other one that's just like a quick punk rock like boom boom boom boom you know just and that's what that was and like also Jericho was just so good at getting that crowd to boo him
00:57:53
Speaker
Oh, I love the spot where he grabs the camera and flips off the crowd while taking pictures of him flipping off the crowd. Oh, he gave the finger to everybody. He played that arena differently than they would normally get played by a New Japan character.
00:58:09
Speaker
You know, I think that's one of the things I do want to talk about real quick is just the idea.
Jericho vs. Omega: An Impactful Wrestle Kingdom Match
00:58:14
Speaker
I know everybody's saying it right now. That guy is in his what, mid 40s, late 40s? Yeah. And for him to be able to leave WWE, go do Fauzi. I mean, the guy's multi-talented like a mother.
00:58:28
Speaker
Which also with Fozzie keep in mind like yeah, we all made a lot of jokes about Fozzie over the years Dude just had his first radio hit after doing Fozzie for like 14 years So right not not my music, but good on him for getting there
00:58:43
Speaker
Somebody's listening to it. Quite a few people are listening to it for the play it's getting. And for him to be able to branch off and do something new, he deserves all the credit and the world for that. And not only just the hype and not just having the balls to go over there and do it, but then to deliver. And for the match to be that good and to get people into it. And then ultimately, at the end of the night, tearing the house down and putting over Kenny Omega. Yeah.
00:59:11
Speaker
like that was yeah that was a match that it was just like we none of us really knew how it was gonna go like it could have been a garbage match
00:59:19
Speaker
And thankfully, you know, it wasn't. But I think the moment that we're all just like, holy shit, this is going to be a crazy match is in the build to it when he just showed up in the middle of the ring and gave Kenny that code breaker. Yeah. One of the shows leading up to Wrestle Kingdom. Nobody has ever sold the code breaker like Kenny Omega.
00:59:41
Speaker
Right. He made that look like the most devastating move I have ever seen in my whole life. Well, what's crazy is I said this the other day on Twitter, but I feel like the code breaker is a really underrated finisher. I don't feel like it gets enough credit for being a move that looks devastating. And maybe it's just because guys haven't been selling it the right way. But Kenny made it look great. And I thought the other thing with that whole feud and the build to it, I love the press conferences they did. I loved I loved Jericho's run ins. It felt real and it felt organic.
01:00:11
Speaker
And I think that the best wrestling angles are like that when not everything is scripted.
01:00:16
Speaker
Well, I think if you enjoyed that, because I know this is kind of one of those things where I have branched off and watched a lot more of the indie stuff. And I don't want to say I'm an expert on New Japan by any means. But in New Japan, that is something they do. They do the press conferences before the matches. And they actually have reporters there asking the questions. So in Japan, things are still kayfabe a little bit, like where everybody's going along with it.
01:00:43
Speaker
As much as it can be. As much as it can be. And there's something really fun about that.
01:00:48
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I think, I don't know. There's different ends of the spectrum. And I mean, one of the things I'm excited about doing this podcast with you is the opportunity to kind of talk not just about, oh, this is what happened on this show, or here's what we're doing in the next month, is I'm excited to bounce wrestling philosophy off of somebody and to get feedback from people who listen. And I agree with you. I think when you play along, it's still real.
01:01:19
Speaker
I mean, the name of this podcast is predetermined, but that's sort of a tongue-in-cheek reference because that's always been the explanation anytime somebody wanted to rip on pro wrestling was being like, oh, it's not fake, it's predetermined. But I think the show is better when everyone is kind of on the same page as far as being like, within this universe, all of these things that are happening are legit and they take it seriously. And yeah, there's funny spots and stuff, but it still happens and you still have to, like the people that they have in an angle
01:01:47
Speaker
Have to take whatever happens seriously for it to get over like you kind of have to deadpan some things like well and that's uh, like what you're saying is like part of why pwg worked so well Because you have so like, you know, there's only like 300 people we're all smashed into this room together, but we're all going with it right and when you have that many people in a room where everybody is like
01:02:12
Speaker
We all only know one thing, and that is, this is real. Like, when you treat the entire night like, what is happening is fucking awesome, and these guys are kicking the shit at each other. Like, and you know, everybody's yelling, you just, it makes it so much more fun.
01:02:28
Speaker
Well, and I think that's isn't that the whole point of going to a show in the first place? Is it supposed to be fun? Exactly. Like you're going there to have a good time. Like don't be a dick at the shows and be like, you know, yelling at them to kiss each other. There's always a guy at every wrestling show that's going to yell at two guys to kiss when they're like face to face.
01:02:46
Speaker
Yeah, we've heard it. It's fine. Going back to Wrestle Kingdom, so your experience there was different than an American wrestling show, but you said it was still exciting. It was a completely different experience, but yet awesome for what it was. Oh, amazing. And just to really quickly talk about the main event, the main event was for the heavyweight champion. It was Okada versus Nido.
01:03:13
Speaker
And Naito has had a very long history with New Japan where things just never really went his way. And after all these years, it was like, oh my God, Naito is going to get his shot and people like him right now. And I have like, there was a thing the whole room, like that was kind of like that sting match where it's like, well, we all know Sting is going to win.
01:03:35
Speaker
And he didn't. The exact same happened. Like this match, the main event, the crowd was going nuts. The whole crowd is chanting Nido. And he fucking loses to Okada, who right now is their longest reigning champ. Like he had just beat the record.
01:03:52
Speaker
for like longest reign which is like 500 and some days or something and everybody's like well obviously this is the time he's gonna drop it just did not happen and the only other time i've experienced the wind just get sucked out of a building like that was actually at mania 31 and this is kind of dumb but it was during the andre the giant memorial battle royal
01:04:15
Speaker
Yeah, I mean everyone thought that Mizdow was going to win the damn thing and probably deserved to win the damn thing. No joke, like he was so over at that time that that might have even been during the pre-show, the Andre the Giant thing. I think it was. That whole place was going off the rails when it ended up being big show in Mizdow. And when Mizdow got thrown over the top rope,
01:04:40
Speaker
It was like we were at a funeral. Like everything was done. But luckily, you know, that's the beginning of a show. Like, I don't know. New Japan's so good at their booking. Like, I do want to see where this goes. They obviously have big plans. Well, that's what I was going to ask is where do you see this going? Because I mean, that's how that's how the that's how Wrestle Kingdom ended. Where do you see the stuff with Naito going now?
01:05:04
Speaker
Well, I don't know if you caught this, but leading up to Wrestle Kingdom, Naito and Jericho were having a fight on Twitter.
Future Storylines for Jericho in New Japan
01:05:14
Speaker
Oh, I mean, yeah, I mean, I saw like, yeah, I mean, they're clearly going to go some direction with him and Jericho, which nobody was expecting because I think everyone thought after Wrestle Kingdom that Jericho was going to book it out of there.
01:05:25
Speaker
Oh yeah, and then for him to publicly announce I'm in New Japan for a while, which part of it could be that he ends up fighting Naito on his cruise or something. That's possible. But it's also at a point where it's like, well, Naito needs a win. But also, if they're trying to build Jericho up as this big badass in New Japan, which I actually heard somebody say they might try and build Jericho to be like New Japan's Brock Lesnar.
01:05:55
Speaker
really where he's just like they're badass but it's like well in order for him to do that he needs a win right but it's like yeah but that also makes it an exciting match because I have no idea who between Naito and Jericho would win and it'll be an awesome match
01:06:09
Speaker
And like I was saying a minute ago, when everyone's expectation is, all right, Wrestle Kingdom's over, he's gone, and then you see that he's sticking around, it just opens up a world of possibilities of things that they could use him for. So yeah, I think going back to kind of the theme that we were talking about towards the opening of this podcast is just, it's a great time to be a wrestling fan right now because there's a little bit of something for everybody and there's exciting stuff happen all over the place.
01:06:35
Speaker
Yeah, it sounds like you had a great trip to Japan. Sounds like the show was great. It was awesome. I hope that you and I can go there sometime. One of these coming years, make the trip over together. Honestly, that whole week, there was a show somewhere every single night in Japan. If I had my way,
01:06:58
Speaker
on that honeymoon. I would have seen nothing, but the end. Don't let Leah hear that. No, she's never going to listen to this. The point of this podcast is she doesn't have to hear this. Well, watch the irony, Obie, is she actually tunes in to see if you're talking shit about her. Yeah. Well, if she made it like an hour and 15 minutes into this to get to this point, we'll all be surprised.
01:07:22
Speaker
She will have earned her ability to chew you out at that point for anything you say so oh yeah But that being said like it just honestly Going to Japan like you'll see it in the video that I post there was just so much good about traveling there cleanest city I've ever Tokyo is the cleanest city I've ever been in in my whole life and
01:07:41
Speaker
So safe. Like, we walked all over that place at all hours of the night. Just, honestly, just an amazing experience getting to travel over there, going to the Tokyo Dome. Like, that was truly like a bucket list item that I never thought would get checked.
01:07:56
Speaker
And I feel like if this were an RPG, that my wrestling fandom would have leveled up. You gained some experience points by taking this trip, for sure. Oh, yeah. That was something I'm like, all right. There's a lot of things I'd like to do with you over the next few years. And Wrestle Kingdom, down the line, I would love to go do with you. I think in the immediate future, my goal is to just even go to a
01:08:23
Speaker
a WrestleMania here in the States with you would be the thing that I want to do. And I don't think I made this clear. I've actually only been to one WrestleMania. You've been to several the last few years. And the one and only WrestleMania I've been to was WrestleMania 22 here in Chicago in 2006. Is that the one where Cena came out with a Tommy gun?
01:08:44
Speaker
That is the one where Cena came out with the Tommy gun. It was also the one where the show ended with the entire crowd chanting, fuck you, Cena. And that was sort of.
01:08:56
Speaker
Oh man and how many years ago was that? Oh man and that became a theme for a decade and then everyone became okay with John Cena after some of those cricket wireless commercials so...
John Cena's Career and Fan Perception
01:09:09
Speaker
It's hard to not be okay with Cena like he's one guy that throughout this podcast you're probably gonna hear me defend a fair amount.
01:09:17
Speaker
That's fine. I think I'll do it way more than I would have ever thought that I would, but he's kind of the Batman of pro wrestling. You could say in the sense that it seems like we were meant to hate him for a time period. And now towards the end of his career here, we're realizing how much we actually loved and needed him. And, uh, yeah, I haven't, I will say I haven't bought a John Cena shirt in over a decade.
01:09:41
Speaker
That being said, you have bought a John Cena shirt. I've bought multiple John Cena shirts, actually. So I don't know if you realize I still have a John Cena word life beanie hat. Oh, shit. Yeah. Break that out. Do you still wear it?
01:09:57
Speaker
Um, I haven't in a while, but if you'd like me to, I can. I mean, I think I would feel better about everything knowing that you have that on. I'll probably send you a selfie after we get done recording this podcast. It'll be on the, uh... John Cena beat it. Yeah. It'll be on the Twitter and the Instagrams for you guys.
01:10:15
Speaker
That'll be great. That'll be great content. Oh, I get this thing. The engines just getting rolling, everyone. I know. As the weeks and the months roll on, you're gonna get more and more content. We're gonna get better at this. And I guess we're at a point now where if you're still listening to this podcast, thank you for hanging in with us.
01:10:32
Speaker
yeah thank you for making it this far i know like this episode feels like a lot of housekeeping like we're just like this is what it's going to be like to listen to this but i want you to know we are going to have a good time on this uh we're a big fan of like would you rathers a lot of hypotheticals uh we're we're gonna there's gonna be a lot of nonsense there's gonna be some horse play it's gonna be fun and i think like like you said a lot of would you rathers a lot of hypotheticals a lot of tangents we talked about that earlier i don't i don't think that if you're in the middle of a
01:11:00
Speaker
conversation about wrestling. There's anything wrong with going off on a tangent to talk about something else that is related to whatever you're talking about. So this is going to be fun. This is exciting. And as we're kind of wrapping things up here in our first episode, just like I said, I wanted to say thank you and hang in there and check us out next week. We'll have a new episode up for everybody to listen to. And kind of like we hinted at earlier, I think next week we're going to be talking about our first shows, our first live shows that we ever attended. And we might hit on the Royal Rumble coming up here soon. So
01:11:29
Speaker
Yeah, like he said, this isn't always going to be like talking, you know, the new events like this week, what happened on Raw. Like we will if like something worthwhile is talking about. But honestly, I watch wrestling all the time. We both do. We're just going to talk about what we've been watching. We're going to, you know, bring up like, for instance, like when do the Bludgeon Brothers collect their paycheck? Is that a thing they're even there for? Why haven't the fashion police won more matches?
01:11:56
Speaker
I think I just watched them beat. Oh, they beat rusev day. Yeah. How did that happen? Uh, I mean, I don't know. I think it's, it's, it's very typical as a time period where everyone would like to see rusev day, get some wins right now. And now we're watching a fashion police get some wins and upset that rusev day isn't getting some, some victories, some debuts. The thing is, it's two groups that I'm fine with watching win.
01:12:21
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I think, I mean, we're wrapping up this episode here. I will say, I think the SmackDown tag team division is amazing right now. So yeah, we'll be able to comment every week. We'll discuss that more next week.
01:12:35
Speaker
Yeah, we'll get into the details of the current storylines and the shows next week. We're doing some housekeeping this first episode. But yeah, thank you to everyone. Thank you to everyone for tuning in this week. And we'll be back next week with a new fresh podcast for everybody. And so thank you.
01:12:53
Speaker
Yes, thank you for listening, and you know what, how about next week we figure out a sign-off phrase. That's probably pretty professional. That's the next thing we gotta do, is figure our intros and atros and make this professional, man.
01:13:05
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, if anything, it's just like one of the most common one of the most common sentences is a wrestling fan. You have to use is no, it's predetermined. And just remember, we have to determine it. We have to determine that before next week. Yeah, we will determine that. All right, everybody. Thank you for listening. Have a good. Thank you. We'll be with you next time out there.
01:13:54
Speaker
you