Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Open Mic 3: Marie Shadows
34 Plays3 years ago
On this episode of Open Mic, the MVP kicks it with host of the “Squared Circle Podcast”, Marie Shadows. We talk to the “NJPW Queen” about how she started her career in writing, breaking into the wrestling business by taking a job with the WWE, her current role, as well as being one of the leading voices for women in pro wrestling, and much more!
Presented by, brought to you by and tolerated by the Pod Foundation.
Use code CHICKFOLEY to save 10% at ringsidecollectibles.com
Find all things Chick Foley at CHICKFOLEY.com
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Episode Overview
00:00:01
Speaker
Who the hell told you tonight was open mic night?
00:00:22
Speaker
Welcome. Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, back for a third episode. Hopefully, you know, I break that curse. If you listen to the first episode with myself and Chick Foley, we talked about that, you know, podcast, usually last three episodes, they usually kind of fade out after a while. So hopefully this one, this next episode is, you know, it does its job and, you know, I don't make the boss lady mad. Hopefully I can keep the show going and
00:00:50
Speaker
continue doing the Chick-fil-A show, but that's neither here nor there.
Pod Foundation and Show Lineup
00:00:55
Speaker
Obviously, welcome to Open Mic, the MVP Marco. I always say this, the show is sponsored by, powered by, and tolerated by the Pod Foundation.
00:01:04
Speaker
What's the pod foundation if you haven't listened to the show I'm gonna give you what the pod foundation is we call ourselves basically an independent network of podcasts, you know Creators, you know that consists of you know, the chick Foley show the extra cooler show The turnbuckle tavern as well as coming down the aisle. We have literally shows every day of the week Mostly from turnbuckle tavern. I believe they have a show for every one of your needs. They have a
00:01:30
Speaker
the debate show, where they debate topics going on in wrestling. Now they have long balls, which is a NFL-centered show, because the NFL season is upon us. We have The Raw Down, which features myself coming down the aisle, as well as Independent Epicenter, which is Anthony, or young Anthony, as we call him. We just have a ton of shows. I don't want to run them down. Definitely go to the iPod. Sorry, not the iPod.
00:01:59
Speaker
Excuse me, the Pod Foundation on IG to see all the updates, all the new things that are happening with the Pod Foundation. And then while you're at it, definitely follow those individual pages as well because they're always updating newsworthy things as well. And just to keep up to date with everyone, just follow everyone. We definitely need all the support that we can get from all of you.
00:02:23
Speaker
Let's jump into the third episode. I'm pretty excited about this.
Guest Introduction: Marie Shadows
00:02:27
Speaker
So the first episode I had, like I said, Chick Foley, Sheena Phelps. The second episode I did, it was Figure Kingdom, who's a figure photographer, but I like to just call him a photographer. He's probably one of the best out there. He dropped some bombshell news last week, where he's going to be, you know, working solely with jazzwares, which is pretty awesome. I mean, they're, you know, they give him the whole
00:02:51
Speaker
They created pretty much a new role for him within the company, which is I was pretty psyched that he actually brought that up But we just had a great rapport, you know a good conversation and he just let the you know The cat out of the bag so to speak, but I'm very excited this time around because I've been following this person on my other chick Foley show Twitter as well as the my own Twitter the MVP Marco Twitter and you know, she's I would say she's probably one of the
00:03:19
Speaker
One of the leading ladies in the wrestling community right now, I'm gonna say that. You can take my word for a great assault, whatever you want. That's my opinion. I think she's one of the best out there when it comes to definitely podcasting, videoing, as well as I like writing. I used to like to write back in the day and this is my forte, so I wanna introduce to you Marie Shadows. Marie Shadows, how are you doing?
00:03:48
Speaker
Man, that was a wonderful introduction. I appreciate that. From the bottom of my heart, I really do. I am excited. I am happy. I am well, everything under the sun. That's great. That's great. Yeah. Definitely. I wanted to talk to you for a very long time. Um, obviously I reached out to you back like in may, uh, when I was going to do the show and then I kind of chicken out because I wasn't, yeah, I wasn't, so I wasn't really sure. Like for me personally, I wasn't sure. Uh,
00:04:18
Speaker
how I wanted to present the show, what it was going to be, what the idea behind it
Podcasting Journey and Challenges
00:04:23
Speaker
was. And I was just flat out scared because I'm used to doing a show with two or three other people. So I have people to feed off of and report and all that stuff. So never done a show by myself. And that's what pretty much scared the crap out of me. But I had that conversation with friends and family. And they were just like, you just got to jump in and do it. There's no other way of doing it. Just try it out.
00:04:46
Speaker
If you hate it, then, you know, just back away from it. And I think that's with a lot of, you know, things in creative. If you are a creator, that you have to just do it because you don't know if you can do it or not. Is that would you say that's something that, you know, fall in line like with what you your day to day thing is or what how you came about in your, you know, your processes?
00:05:06
Speaker
That is 100% how my podcast got started. I went in head first, not knowing what podcasting was, not knowing anything, but I went in head first and trial and error became, you know, the Square Circle podcast. Exactly.
00:05:24
Speaker
I think that's the way to go about it. There's really no teachings. You can give it as much advice as you want. It's whether or not someone's going to take that advice and do whatever they want with it. You're just going to do it. Basically just like Nike just to do it. That's what their tagline is. That's how you have to do it.
00:05:48
Speaker
I want to jump back a little bit and kind of get... There's pretty much our first time speaking and this is what basically the idea of the show is. It's people that I see in social media that I think are basically... Wrestling is what drew us all together and that's how we're interacting.
00:06:09
Speaker
But I want to get to know the people behind those accounts. And you're one of those people. I've always had you in the back of my mind. On the Chick Foley show, we really don't do interviews. We just feed off each other. So I wanted to bring that interview-centric type of thing to the Chick Foley show. And that's how the show pretty much came
Wrestling Roots and Writing Passion
00:06:29
Speaker
about. So I want to dive into your
00:06:33
Speaker
your past, your history, and how you started writing, what got you into writing, and what got you into writing for the crazy world of professional wrestling of all things. So why don't you take us down memory lane for a little bit.
00:06:50
Speaker
All right, we're going down memory lane. It is story time, ladies and gentlemen, because I am nicknamed not only the professor of New Japan progressing and New Japan progressing queen, but originally I gave myself the storyteller tab, if you will, because I just like writing. It just, you know, all came together. So I remember being very young at seven years old. I already knew what I wanted to do. I wanted to be a writer.
00:07:17
Speaker
And I wanted to also try to be a wrestler, too, because my dad got me started with old school tapes. So like NWA, IWA, Miss South, all the territories. So he got me into that. You know, my favorite wrestler is Ric Flair. I am more of a technical girl when it comes to wrestling than all the flips.
00:07:37
Speaker
unless the flips and the technicals are together and you have psychology there. But we'll get into that a little bit later. So I grew up on WWF at the time because I was seven. And then I started to go to indie shows such as Ring of Honor whenever they were here at the Hammerstein Ballroom and also the Manhattan Center. Any type of indies I could get my hands on, not really get my hands on, but like go and visit and have fun.
00:08:05
Speaker
So I grew up with wrestling in mind, like Undertaker and Kane were the two examples of like, this is art. This is theater. This is like creative. So I got into the back of my mind that, you know, I wanted to be a writer because everything else in school was decent. And, you know, I just left it as that. So as I was growing up,
00:08:28
Speaker
I went to college for creative writing, so I have a creative writing degree, and I also have a publishing certificate. And during that time, I applied to WWE, and I managed to get my foot into the door to do the WWE Network Logging Department. Oh, nice. What that means? I said, oh, no, that's awesome.
00:08:47
Speaker
Yeah. Um, so what that means is that, um, before peacock, uh, gained a WWE network, it was my duty to make sure that the SEO was the strongest. So if you want to search for like John Cena matches or like, you know, Eddie Guerrero matches or Raymond stereo matches or specific paper views.
00:09:08
Speaker
When you search it, that should come up. You shouldn't be getting like a macho man matching that if you're searching for like Rey Mysterio in a way. So it was my job to make sure that everything was in line. So then after WWE, I just turned podcaster now doing my own thing.
00:09:25
Speaker
Awesome. That's, I mean, that's quite the journey. Geez, how, so how long, actually, let me go back before, before that. So you said, um,
Role at WWE and Wrestling Influence
00:09:33
Speaker
I want to kind of, you know, delve into the, uh, your, your father sharing, you know, tapes and stuff like that, because my father, um, grew up in the South, um, born in Mississippi by way of Arkansas, moved, moved up into the, into the East. Um, I'm in Massachusetts, so I met my mother and all that stuff. So, but he kept that like,
00:09:52
Speaker
Southern wrestling in my household. So I was introduced to that before I was introduced to, you know, WWF at the time. So I was junkyard dog, uh, the Vaughn Eric's dusty roads, all that. So like I was watching all that stuff like beforehand, obviously loving, loving what was happening, but then obviously WWF comes along bigger, brighter, all that, all that stuff. So
00:10:15
Speaker
What drew you into that about the territory wrestling? Because you hear about it, and you don't hear about a lot of people talking about territory wrestling. There are a few podcasts out there that dive into the territory type of stuff not taken away from the
00:10:35
Speaker
Conrad Conrad podcast and stuff like that like other like people like us and actually You know our historians and they go back and talk about like these matches that happen these events and stuff like that What drew you into that type of you know wrestling the territory stuff?
00:10:50
Speaker
Uh, so basically my dad would just continue to talk about it. Uh, so, you know, that phrase of, uh, he always puts it over and that was his glory days. So, you know, you always talk about it and me, you know, the more you talk about something, it's, it becomes repetitive and it like stays in your mind and me just wanting to absorb all of this, like wrestling, you know, I would go out and try to seek, uh, any type of like,
00:11:16
Speaker
Tapes or like internet stuff or whatever I could find on like old-school stuff like I wanted to learn it all So that that's you sirs you're a student of the game as they say that's that's that's always a way to do it and like a lot of You know a lot of people you know They watch like the current stuff and it kind of intrigues them to go backwards Because you have like a lot of the current guys and gals, you know bringing up the stuff that they watched So it actually brings you know those viewers ago. Oh, oh they they bring it up Oh Rick flair or like he said junkyard dog or
00:11:46
Speaker
Like I said, the Vaughn Ericks, you just go back to them and you're like, oh man, this is awesome. Then you dig deeper and deeper and deeper into the professional wrestling, like rabbit hole, as I like to call it. But that's pretty awesome. That's how my dad introduced it. He would travel to the South and stuff like that, talk to my family, be my family and all that stuff, and the Midwest a little bit. And I was unfamiliar with
00:12:13
Speaker
WCW, because at the time, as we got older, I was way into WWF. You go to the South, it's Sting, it's Ric Flair, it's the Road War. It's all these people I've never heard of, and I'm just thinking they're pretty much copycats of WWF at the time.
00:12:29
Speaker
So I'm like, who the hell is Stig? Is he a fake warrior? Um, so like that, that type of stuff. So, uh, we used to get a lot of fights about that, but, um, but all in all, like I grew to love it. I grew to love, you know, WCW and all that stuff. But it's kind of funny how I started off and the territories got away from it to the WWF then came back. Like later in life when WCW was like, like pretty big. And I was just like, who the hell are these people? These, these are people are just like copying WWF at the time. This is awful. Um,
00:12:59
Speaker
I also want to jump into a little bit with the WWE stuff. Did you take on any other roles while you were there besides that role that you had with WWE? No. Unfortunately, I was only there for three months and then they were like, yep, it's time for you to go. Oh, man. Were you a part of those rounds where they just start releasing people essentially?
00:13:24
Speaker
Uh, before that. Oh, before. Oh, okay. So basically I got in, in 2018, uh, August 2018. And then, uh, they told me, um, that my services were no longer needed. Um, uh, three months later. Oh, geez. What? That's, that's like, that's a tease. Although it's just like bringing you in and you know, that's,
00:13:45
Speaker
But at least you got that experience, though, within that realm. You probably got to see some things that most people wouldn't be able to see on the outside as wrestling fans and stuff like that. Every opportunity you take, you just build off of that and then move on to the next.
00:14:05
Speaker
Um, the next thing, and that's how I always took so, especially with like, you know, any type of job you take, if you leave or you get fired, whatever that may be, that's a door closes and another one opens. That's definitely not a, not a bad thing. Um, so as far as influences, you know, we talked about the wrestling stuff. So for influences in the.
00:14:27
Speaker
in the, you know, we'll say in the IWC, um, do you have any influences that you like? Cause when I, when I spoke to, you know, Sheena, um, chick Foley on the first episode, we talked about when she got in around 2013, 2014, um, Instagram obviously wasn't like, it was, it was, it was big, but not as big as it is now, obviously. And she was like one of the few like women out there like posting wrestling stuff. So like, not just like her, you know,
00:14:55
Speaker
you know, modeling wrestling shirts. She was like posting her thoughts on stuff and, you know, news on things and stuff like that. So where, where did you get the influence to, you know, jump into, you know, like the social media side of, of wrestling essentially.
Media Influences and Community Engagement
00:15:11
Speaker
That's a very good question because normally I am a lone wolf. I do not really open up too much to people and I'm a little like cautious. Even though if people are hearing this, you might think the opposite, but it is true. Like I am sometimes a lone wolf. I like to do things on my own.
00:15:33
Speaker
Only recently, because we were in the pandemic and we were like at home, I realized that it's okay to open up and like, collab with people and make sure that, you know, the people you're collaborating with or telling things to, like, you know, they're not going to either backstab you or something. And that's only because I come from New York City, so sometimes I have to have my head on like a swivel just to be okay, you know? But, you know, when I got into the wrestling community,
00:16:02
Speaker
Um, I was obviously new, you know, just talking to people trying to, trying to fit, um, somewhere in the very big community, even though it seems it's kind of small. Um, I noticed that like, you know, two communities that I tried, like, I should say like two clicks that like I tried, uh, didn't work out. So like I left them, I became a nomad and then like I settled upon a very good support system.
00:16:31
Speaker
And you and Chick Foley are included in that support system, along with everyone else that I know. So as for influences, there are certain other podcasters that I look up to, and it's a lot. But the first people that come to my mind to help me with doing my own interviews and to step out into that venture,
00:16:55
Speaker
We have to be a standing streamer from putting you over with his co-host, Vanessa. There's also the Will Gray. There's also Kyle and R.N. from Smack Draw Pod. And then I'm obviously going to throw out Tomatanga's name because, you know, I was lucky enough and fortunate enough to be on Thomas Island, his podcast for a couple for a couple of episodes and just to get relaxed enough.
00:17:23
Speaker
and like settle into the girl you hear right now. Because I could tell you a couple years ago or like years ago, I was shy like, man, I'm a totally different person. So like my inspirations are just like the people I say, the people that I run with, the people that I try to uplift in the community and you know, just try to get back.
00:17:46
Speaker
Oh yeah, no, definitely. You know what's funny? When you mentioned the Thomas, I can't even talk. Thomas Island. You being on that? And I was like, that was a pretty big thing.
00:17:59
Speaker
like you being on that podcast. It was just big because it was like, oh, I interact with her on Twitter and then now she's doing a named podcast, which is pretty awesome. I'm always excited when I see someone that I'm following or someone that I interact with.
00:18:19
Speaker
especially in the wrestling community, um, you know, get like an opportunity in that sense. And I, like I said, opportunities are there. You take them and then you, you know, whether you stay with them, whether you, you know, leave for your reasons or their reasons, you just move on to the next thing and take that information. And this is going to be like a recurring thing. Um, cause what I've kind of continued, what I found was this, this show so far has been like a motivational show because every past episodes I've had, um,
00:18:44
Speaker
they we've just talked about motivational stuff and like, you know, being able to, you know, because we're all pretty much all on the same level when it comes to, you know, trying to go out there and entertain as much as we can. Try to give our thoughts. Yeah, you know, not it, you know, not, you know, accept them. But you know, kind of think I like to throw opinions out there. Just so someone will think not not to agree with me at all. That's not that's not the goal for me anyway. And so just, you know, try to like, you know, provoke that thought. Yeah, I think
00:19:13
Speaker
I think you're definitely one of the people out there that does that. Oh, yeah, I do all the time. I'm told I'm told by my closest in my in my circle, like they can't believe sometimes the way that I poke at AEW fans because I just don't care. But now I'm starting to just be like, all right, no one's really going to answer me. So I'm going to stop after a while. But the way that I just go after them, because it's like I need you guys to think about wrestling and not just be like, oh, my God, that's perfect.
00:19:43
Speaker
Yeah, that's perfect. Tell me how it's perfect so I could be understanding and be like, all right, cool. We're going to agree to disagree. But now I understand where you're coming from. Because I view, you know, the way my mindset is, is that we can have this conversation. And even if like, we don't agree on like 60% of things, the other the other percentage of that, we might agree. And then we're just like, all right, that's cool.
00:20:07
Speaker
You can have your opinion. I can have my opinion, you know, I could understand you a little bit more. And then if I need to come to your defense, just in case I'll be like, Oh, but he is open minded for this and this and this, you know? Yeah, yeah, definitely. With wrestling in general, obviously, it's, you know, you know, it's tribal, you know, this, this organization or that organization.
00:20:28
Speaker
And it doesn't limit to, obviously, AEW, WWE, they're in the spotlight. But it's not limited to that. It could be MLW. It could be Impact. I don't see those fans as tribal, though, at any rate, which is kind of funny.
00:20:48
Speaker
I honestly don't know what it is and I don't even try to dissect any of that tribalism and stuff. I watch everything. I try to watch everything. I'm not the biggest mark in the world where watching every single wrestler that gets it, that's totally impossible to do. But if there's something interesting, I watch GCW. I've ordered a few of their paper views just to see what that was about. Obviously, New Japan.
00:21:15
Speaker
New Japan World app, so I'm subscribed to that. I've been a subscriber for that for years and years. If you want to see some history besides the WWE Network or in Peacock, whatever, definitely go to New Japan World, sign up. Literally, you have the whole library at your fingertips, way back in the day since its inception.
00:21:39
Speaker
And you get to see all that stuff. And it's only $7 a month, guys. Yes. Only $7 a month. And you get paper views as well. It's pretty much just like Peacock. Yes. You get screen paper views, which is pretty awesome. And that was really cool before, obviously.
00:21:56
Speaker
You know, ROH lost, you know, like the Young Bucks and Kenny Omega and all those guys. And they have like the ROH, you know, collaboration when they would do the kind of like their world's collide type of thing. And they would have their cross paper views. Those of you would be able to watch a new Japan. You wouldn't have to go to the the honor club to, you know.
00:22:12
Speaker
yeah pretty much you can actually go to do japan and watch it for free essentially so that was i always i always say uh love that i wish you know impact they also have a streaming service as well um if you're if you're a fan of impact definitely support support them um i mean they've been around forever so i don't i don't see them going anywhere anytime soon
00:22:31
Speaker
if they were if they were gonna fail they would have failed a long time ago and I don't definitely don't think that's happening yep I want to kind of like reel it back in with the with social media and stuff like that especially with like you know women in
Social Media Strategy and Debating Tactics
00:22:46
Speaker
wrestling and stuff like that we see a lot of personalities you know that reporters and stuff like that but you don't see many like like opinionated
00:22:58
Speaker
people on Twitter or women on Twitter like you or, um, you know, like, like not opinionate where it's like, you're trying to like push buttons, but like, I, I've seen a lot of, uh, just like a lot of women that were, I've seen a lot of women that were on Twitter and they just disappeared for some odd reason. Like they just, just gone. I can, you know, I could probably, you know, do the math and figure out what happened. So I'm not going to dive into that, but like from your perspective, what the, you know,
00:23:26
Speaker
Obviously, you don't succumb to that because I'm going to say, I don't want to say it's probably bullying. I'll just say it. They get bullied out of it sometimes, and their opinions don't matter. You don't know what you're talking about, that type of stuff. What keeps your head above water if that happens? And if it does, how do you counteract that?
00:23:49
Speaker
How do you navigate those waters? I'll tell you one thing. She has me do a lot of the Twitter stuff because she just doesn't want to deal with the negativity. I don't blame her for that. It gets to you. People have their own lives and stuff like that, and you just don't want to deal with someone that just wants to shit onto your opinion for some super reason.
00:24:13
Speaker
I want to know, is you, since you're out there, you're in the battlefield, as I call it. Twitter is a war zone. It is. So how do you protect yourself from that type of, we'll say, negativity? And how do you combat through that?
00:24:31
Speaker
Okay. So, uh, keep in mind that I am human, but I do have some strategies here. Number one, I am hard headed from New York city. So I am hard headed. And if I feel like there's going to be a debate or a fight, I probably would do it. And then I'm going to throw in the fact that I'm an Aries. So, you know, you automatically going to get like the fire either way. Yeah.
00:24:54
Speaker
The second thing is that if I do get trolls coming onto my tweets and they don't make sense and they just want to be trolls, I have this motto of if you have time to be negative, you have time to support me because there's no reason why me and this troll, or this troll and I, because of me being a grammar person,
00:25:20
Speaker
There's no reason why this troll and I would waste energy because I'm not getting paid. There's no point for that. So if you're going to be negative, also support me. Throw me some couple of dollars or something like that. And then the third thing is that if I do feel super annoyed with everything that's happening, I will drop my Twitch link into my tweets.
00:25:44
Speaker
for whatever situation is happening and be like, yo, if you still want to talk about it, come over to the Twitch channel, hop in the chat and we'll talk about it. So I let them come at me.
00:25:55
Speaker
Do they actually accept that answer? No. I mean, that makes sense. If they do, they are lurking, because there are times where I will talk about AEW and all of its flaws, and also how to fix the flaws. And people miss that part, because everyone is all like, oh, she must hate AEW. No, I don't hate it. I want it to succeed. And this is how we're going to fix the flaws. So listen to me.
00:26:22
Speaker
So usually when stuff like that happens, when I'm like, these are the flaws of AEW. And if I go on Twitch and after the Twitch stream, I will see there has been like an increase of live viewers, all the lurkers that, you know, come by, but they don't jump in chat. They don't say anything. So. Yeah, I mean, I could I could see that happening. You know, like we, you know, we do our
00:26:48
Speaker
We do the raw down. I sent you that link, so like every Tuesday, actually we change the times, but we do it live, so like you can, you know, pop in the chat and, you know, I think we like stream through Twitch, YouTube, pretty much any type of live stream you can think of. So you get a lot of people. You get a lot of trolls and stuff like that and people that, you know, want to combat what you say, but I mean, they have the opportunity to say it. We can, you know, say it back.
00:27:12
Speaker
I love that. I love interacting with other opinions on wrestling, but if you're just going to go down that road where you're just going to be negative and you don't have an intelligent thought when it comes to it, it's not worth my time, essentially. The other thing I want to say that I noticed with you is because you brought it up.
00:27:35
Speaker
When you tweet stuff about like, you know a W or WWE you focus on the story part of it like I've noticed like recently with a W the They had that video of John Moxley, you know say oh my god shows like
00:27:52
Speaker
and you came back and said hey you know if you're not anything negative you said hey john if you take the chance to watch monday and friday it's it's it's a lot better than it was when you left or even oh my god it's been we so like we had this like thing on our show where we're like we don't think triple ages and i turned it around that fast uh but i mean he did so and they can only go up from there but like i like the fact that you know it's
00:28:16
Speaker
You look at it from a story perspective because right now, AW is struggling with the stories. I hate to use this term because a lot of old heads say, but they say Tony Khan books for the Twitter world and he books for the internet. From some of the decisions that are made, it does look that way. From the outside person,
00:28:42
Speaker
It does look like that. So what do you say for the stories? What is your perspective on what you see as a writer when you're watching these programs? Be it, like I said, WWE or AEW, what are you looking for as a writer pretty much in both programs?
00:29:06
Speaker
is there anything that sticks out is there anything that that's missed sometimes that you that you notice is missing or yeah um the main theme the main theme is going to be consistency that's all i asked for all i ask is for consistency and logic that's all i asked for right because those are two um those are two busy big ass for professional wrestling
00:29:29
Speaker
I'll tell you that. But, you know, there is there is a wiggle room to like not always have logic. But for like 90 percent of what you do, it should be logical. So that way the story can flow correctly. And if and just in case of wrestlers don't know how to continue the story, they can like go back to the loose ends. So I have been preaching this is like day one. So I guess I'll say it again on here, too.
00:29:57
Speaker
So if I was in charge of AEW, I would definitely take my notebook around because I love writing by hand. I don't like using my phone or anything, but you know, if I were to go around, ask each and every person who is in a field or not in a field or just to get to know them, I would definitely ask them, what are their strengths?
00:30:19
Speaker
What are their weaknesses? What are their goals? Right? Because if I fill those things out and we go in the story and like I said, if we come to a place in the story where we don't know where to go, I could go back to one of those three things and be like, all right, we already worked on all of his strengths.
00:30:38
Speaker
all the fans know about this person's strengths. Now let's try to fill in this weakness here and we could try to tie it into something and then the opponent will say something about his weakness and then we go on from there because stories are supposed to get us through the dark times, whether they're kayfabe or not kayfabe, but stories are supposed to at least teach us.
00:31:00
Speaker
how to get over obstacles, how to become our best selves, how to be confident in things that maybe the world may not allow you to be confident in and grow your self-esteem. These are the stories that I grew up with. Oh, what's up? Oh, no, no. Go ahead. Continue.
00:31:21
Speaker
I was gonna say, and you know, that's my strong suit. And I really wish that AEW would focus on, you know, creating stories that connect, make sense. And you know, you know, the unique thing that AEW has is the ranking system. No other company has a ranking system. And you can utilize that too. Well, they can utilize it for their advantage. But it seems like they're not doing that. And it just seems like what's the point of it now?
00:31:46
Speaker
So going back to the whole thing, I will literally go up to each person and be like, look, we got to sit down. We got to talk about this. What kind of story are we doing? And this isn't me trying to impose that everybody has to have a script. No. If you need a script, that's cool. That's awesome because not everyone has the skills to improv.
00:32:05
Speaker
but we shouldn't shame them or anything. But this is all about trying to have the
Creativity During Pandemic Era
00:32:12
Speaker
foundation so that way when I'm discussing stories and breaking stories down to help casual fans understand and love the product more, it'll be easier. It'll be easier for them to digest stuff.
00:32:25
Speaker
Oh, no, I totally agree with that, too. And I was actually while you're talking, I was actually thinking, do you feel that during the pandemic, we'll say, you know, 20, obviously, 2020, 2021, for the most part of all 2021, do you feel like those two years were the most creative for wrestling because they had to be creative in a sense where there is no
00:32:50
Speaker
Audience to be in front of so they had to kind of like you know there's more imagination involved you know they had to like work there to work in an environment where there's no one to React to what they're doing and it seemed like for me even though it was obviously a low time in a
00:33:07
Speaker
Obviously the whole world but see for wrestling it obviously wrestling kept going and it seemed like it was like I guess a way more a Lot of more a lot more creative during those times than it is now. It's like people are back We can just you know entertain the crowd We just do what we need to do with the bill the rank and I'm not single it out AW or WWE just in general like it just seems like you know, oh we have a crowd back now now we could do this and now we could do that they can react off of that whereas
00:33:32
Speaker
two years ago, they didn't have that they had to solely focus on, you know, writing, like you said, they had to focus on strength and weaknesses. They had to, you know, just focus on all these different things that they're not, you know, that I don't say they're not focused on it now. But it seems like it's, it's a lot less than it was during the pandemic. Would you would you agree with that? Or would you not agree with with that?
00:33:57
Speaker
I mean the first thing that I thought of when you were explaining all that was I had fun you know watching that because we were all like trying to figure out you know what the hell the world is going to be doing next like what's going to be happening and you know luckily wrestling is there and this is why wrestling is important to me because
00:34:18
Speaker
it like me and probably like others, you know, it brought us out of a dark time. But I really do think that it was probably creative just because, you know, there was no live crowd. So do you have to sort of. Oh, sorry. Excuse me. You sort of have to, you know, just imagine things. I will say, though, that, you know, the whole drone thing for for for Matt Hardy was a little silly. Yeah.
00:34:44
Speaker
Other than that, like, I think it was a fun two years. I just think that now, now that we have fans back and people have a voice and stuff like that, you know, it's all about, I think now it's all about trying to keep people's attention now that people are more happy about, you know, Triple H being in charge of WWE. So now like a shift. So yeah.
00:35:08
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, definitely. And like I said, not that, like I said, not that no one's creative anymore or anything like that. Like I said, it just seemed like there was a lot more stuff coming out of that. Like obviously with like WrestleMania, we had no clue what the hell it was going to look like. Like WrestleMania, yeah, like it was just like, what's WrestleMania 36 going to like be?
00:35:26
Speaker
we see it obviously the empty you go back and watch it is kind of awkward it is kind of weird see that empty like wrestlemania but then you got obviously the firefly funhouse match out of that you got the the boneyard match out of that matches yeah you got these two creative like things that like blew everyone away
00:35:46
Speaker
Yeah. Like legit, after that weekend, literally every podcast, stop what they were doing. If they had a plan for that podcast, they completely dropped what they were doing, and they spoke about how great those two segments were. Broke down the intricacies, especially at the Firefly Funhouse. You could pick that thing apart like crazy, and there was so much stuff going on in that.
00:36:08
Speaker
You can still do it now. You could just watch it and just like pick it all apart. I kind of miss that. Like I wish I would like they kind of bring that back, like bring back like the, you know, the feel of, you know, there's not going to be a crowd there anymore. Like bring back that, like do a cinematic match now. Like, you know, don't reserve it for, you know, the, you know, the pandemic era or when things go bad, bring it back. Yeah. Like try to do it in a live form.
00:36:34
Speaker
And I think, yeah, I tried to miss it too. I miss it too. Yeah. It was, it was pretty awesome, but, um, I want to kind of break away a little bit from wrestling and get into, you know, some of like, so besides wrestling, besides podcasting and writing and stuff, what are some other interests, um, that
Hobbies and Media Preferences
00:36:54
Speaker
you get into? What is, what is some of your hobbies, you know, besides writing and that's, that's a music movies. What else are you into?
00:37:02
Speaker
Um, I do like to game. So, um, if I'm not, if I'm not watching wrestling with my community, um, I will be playing a game at random, um, and doing that, uh, on Twitch. Um, if it's not gaming, um, if I'm not like doing anything.
00:37:19
Speaker
work-related. I'm cooking. People have liked my cooking pictures in the past. So that's one thing. I haven't been reading as much as I would like to read. I miss it. I have some books on fantasy and sci-fi books that still have not been read completely.
00:37:43
Speaker
And then sometimes taking a walk so that way I can get my mind at ease. I do watch movies and shows from time to time, but it has to be very specific to keep my interest.
00:37:57
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I was actually going to say that because, you know, because you kind of brought it up, you know, TV, movies last. And I'm assuming because you're a writer and you're watching a movie or you're watching a show, your first instinct is probably to pick it apart as much as you can. But I want to put that there. Why are they saying this?
00:38:17
Speaker
Actually, that sort of depends on what it is, but lately, I don't want to bring agendas and politics into this, but I'm very, very picky about what I watch because I'm just like, I don't want to get spoon fed
00:38:35
Speaker
um, politics or agendas. Cause I think completely different. And for the most part, I do have an open mind. I do want people to be their best selves and be who they want to be, but I don't need that 24 seven to on my mind because I'm already on social media. And then I do have friends who, you know, um,
00:38:57
Speaker
you know, are themselves, so I support them. But like, I don't really need to be reminded. Like, you should know that you are enough. That you are always loved. Like, if you love yourself, you don't need anyone else's approval.
00:39:13
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. That's the perfect advice you can give anybody. That's one of the reasons why we watch wrestling is because we're not being food fed any of that stuff. It's pretty much free of any type of politics or anything that's going on in the world. That's pretty much the escape there.
00:39:36
Speaker
with wrestling. Even if you're into sports, you can't escape it with sports. With football, basketball, there's always some type of intertwining of politics and stuff like that. I totally get what you're talking about. I only ask because with shows like Stranger Things, right?
00:39:57
Speaker
I can't get into that. I'm sorry. I don't know what it is, but that but that has nothing to do with like a gender of politics. It's just generally I can't get into it. Yeah, but there was I mean, that's I mean, that's there's a lot of people that aren't into it. Same thing with like Game of Thrones. A lot of people aren't into Game of Thrones. Don't see the you know, are you into that to Game of Thrones? No, because I'm just like, you know, I think also for me is that like when something is too overhyped,
00:40:23
Speaker
I'm just like, I don't care about it. But for the sake of this conversation, I will say that I love Deadpool. I love the Deadpool movies. And I do love Deadpool. And I do love Thor, but I have not seen Thor love and thunder because it's a little too comedic for me. And I'm like, no, I need my badass Thor. Like, I just need it. I like the type where like.
00:40:48
Speaker
Certain things have to be a little rugged and a little like alpha male from like the 90s. And like, you know, I don't care if people get upset at me for that, but I just, I have, I have a different taste on like what I consider it to be like, Ooh, I want to be interested. You know? Yeah. So you like the, um,
00:41:06
Speaker
You know what's funny? I kind of miss those 80s, 90s action flicks. Yeah. Over the top, like you said, just male testosterone, as we call it, man food type of movies, where it's just like,
00:41:22
Speaker
It's just fights and explosions, car chases, shootouts, all that type of stuff. These are really good gems back in the 80s and 90s that I would watch, and I'd be like, oh, this is awesome. All right. You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to quiz you. Not quiz, but what are some of those gems that you remember from yesteryear that you would like to take a look back on now?
00:41:51
Speaker
This is such a bad question and I really don't like my brain because the first thing my brain goes is rush hour. And I'm like, why don't you say rush hour? I love rush. I love all the rush hours. I mean, I like them too, but like, dear brain, why is that the first thing you thought of? Oh my God. Um, that's also, wait, yeah, there's also speed that I like with Keanu Reeves. Yep. Um,
00:42:22
Speaker
There's this other one that had like Samuel Jackson and he's a cop that doesn't help. Like, you can't put me on the spot like this because I really don't know. But like, you know.
00:42:33
Speaker
man, I'm going to have to like tweet out a list or whatever. I don't know. I know. I know. I watch movies. It's just that, um, sometimes it just doesn't retain in my brain as much as like wrestling. So, you know, no, but, uh, no, the funny thing is like with, you know, with action, I was going to say like, you really don't see like those over the top crazy action movies, like obviously in theaters anymore, but they're all on like Netflix and Hulu and stuff like that. So Netflix, if you want, if you want to like watch,
00:43:02
Speaker
like those B action movies like not even A action movies like B action movies that's your place I can like sit there and watch like binge all those movies they don't they have no like real storytelling at all it's pretty like straightforward it's like you know
00:43:17
Speaker
taken. Someone's kid gets kidnapped and they go pretty much kill everyone until they get to their kid. Yeah, I saw that one too. Someone's wife gets killed and then they go on a rampage and find the killer. That type of stuff. I'm really into those movies. Don't crap on Rush Hour. The Rush Hour series, it's a classic. It's a classic series. It is.
00:43:41
Speaker
I totally agree. It's just that boys are the first thing my brain thinks of. Because it's a classic. It's a blueprint for all buddy comedies. I guess so, right? That's the last, I mean, that I can remember, that's the last buddy cop movie that was successful, that I can think of off the top of my head. I can't think of any other, besides Lethal Weapon and all that stuff, and Bad Boys.
00:44:06
Speaker
Yeah, but like rush hour is climbing a Jackie Chan who I was a huge fan of Back in the day like when it would rumble the Bronx came out Yeah, I was even though it probably was not shot in the Bronx at all because it didn't look like it to me it did I've never been to the Bronx but I'm assuming didn't look like any of uh, it didn't look at the Bronx at all, but uh, I'm from the Bronx Did it did you did you see rumble the Bronx at all? I
00:44:35
Speaker
It sort of is the Bronx, unless they had it somewhere else and decided to call it the Bronx. To me, it kind of looked more European than anything, but it could be here or there. But when I see that, and then at the end of his movies, he used to have the rails where it would show all the stunts that he would do.
00:44:59
Speaker
and that's like that right there like when you found out Jackie Chan was like not only doing his own fight scenes but actually doing all those crazy stunts that was i mean that was that was it for me i was like i was hooked obviously i mean i don't like a lot of people don't like to admit this Jean-Claude Van Damme i was a huge fan a huge fan of him as well back in the day
00:45:17
Speaker
Uh, Steven Seagal, all those people. So, I mean, I'm an action movie. If you listen to the Chick Foley show, you know, I'm a, I'm an action movie junkie and they kind of, they all, they make in front of me for that, but I don't care. It's, it's one of my loves besides, you know, wrestling and that's, that's all that matters to me. Uh, but, um, let's, uh, let's see. There was another, there was another question I had, um, for, oh, motivation, like what do you, what motivates you?
00:45:46
Speaker
to do what you do as far as like, you know, not just in wrestling, just writing, um, podcasting, um, you know, just putting yourself out there. Like what, what's that driving force?
Motivation and Support in Wrestling Media
00:45:57
Speaker
And is it just something that you like to do? Or is it something that motivates you in the background that says, yeah, I can do it.
00:46:06
Speaker
That's a very good question also, just because every time that I either give this answer or think about it or reflect on it, it's always going to change. So because this has been my dream since I was like seven. So I already made it to WWE and I'm still doing stuff behind the scenes and wrestling.
00:46:28
Speaker
And I'm still getting noticed and my name is getting out there and I'm helping out promotions now. Not too long ago on August 20th, I was invited as media press to Wrestling Is Now and that's a brand new wrestling company by the Maximo Brothers. And then next month I got booked to do podcast coverage for Goddesses of War, which is underneath Italian Championship Wrestling. So out of everyone in my family,
00:46:57
Speaker
You know, I have been consistently doing what I love to do because everyone in my family either just stop, gave up, and they have the most miserable life that they have. And they always told me that I should do something else. They always told me that
00:47:13
Speaker
I should get a regular nine to five job, but I am content doing wrestling, talking wrestling, helping out wrestlers. And that gives me like the biggest smiles or the warmest heart, even if I'm, you know, down mentally, because, you know, this is, this is a really journey, man. It's up and downs. It's like, you don't know what's certain or uncertain. So sometimes you get into your own head and knowing that I can help out wrestlers.
00:47:40
Speaker
and talk to them and them telling me that I've helped them out. That keeps me going. The other thing that keeps me going is that I don't want to fail. I don't want to do anything else. I don't want to do something that I don't love. So in the back of my mind, it's like,
00:47:57
Speaker
I got to keep putting out content. I got to keep doing this. I got to think of new ways of how to engage the audience on social media such as Twitter and Reddit and like maybe do a Discord, maybe do something cool on Twitch with everybody. Like this is me doing this 24 seven, seven days a week.
00:48:15
Speaker
sometimes and just and just loving it and trying to go to events and doing the travels and doing everything. Like it's a combination of a lot that keeps me going. But the one common denominator is to know that which I've said this in Gabe Saposky's Twitter space. I've never said it before. And I said in his Twitter space and I'll say it here that my platform
00:48:45
Speaker
is used to help wrestlers, you know, on the marketing side, on the social media side. That's what my newsletter is basically about, other than the writing, other than me breaking down the wrestling matches, is that when I do my interviews with wrestlers, I want to make sure that they have a platform. I want to make sure that they get over because sometimes it could be a little like,
00:49:09
Speaker
Suffocating is the wrong word, but it could be a little tight on trying to get your word out there, get you out there. And I have that with my platform. So it's a combination of everything that I love and everything that I say.
00:49:25
Speaker
Yeah, it's a it's a it's a name you can trust essentially with you. Like they can they can come to you and know that's going to be like, you know, I hate to use the term drama free, but it's going to be a place where they can, you know, be they're able to, you know, you're able to give them feedback as well as you can. They can you can take feedback from them, which is pretty awesome. And the other the other thing, too, is I want to ask you about like, how do you how do you juggle all those different
00:49:52
Speaker
things you do, like all the different organizations you work with, um, all the different media outlets that you're, that you do. Like, how does that, like, what does it, what does a day or a week in the life look like for Marie shadows when, you know, when it's like kind of like game time with all these different, uh, these different connections that you have and stuff like that.
Balancing Responsibilities and Advice to Podcasters
00:50:12
Speaker
So I make sure to prioritize what needs to be done. Sometimes I may have to take a mental break to be like, write things down. When I write things down, it helps me so much. So I do know that this coming week, I have to get out more of my G1 coverage, because I already explained why I had a little mental break from the G1, and this is why we're getting everything backed up.
00:50:38
Speaker
So it's basically about me knowing what I want to do. As soon as I make the content, I put it up on my newsletter. It goes out to everybody's inboxes. So in my brain, it checks it off as you're good for the rest of the day. You could do whatever you want. So sometimes that's like, okay, let me turn on the screen and let me try to get in, you know, my regular chatters.
00:51:00
Speaker
Maybe some new tatters. Maybe some people can like fill me money so I could like travel to certain places. And then it's just networking at the end of the day on Twitter and stuff like that. So I'm on Twitter 24 seven, believe it or not. It's like my home. And I just network with people. I talk to people. I make sure that, you know, my podcasting friends are good. You know, I check in on people. I just try to balance everything. This isn't like one of those
00:51:31
Speaker
things that you guys can like follow or whatever but everyone is different in their approach so I just take things one day at a time and I just plan for like the next day so like um you know if I know that um
00:51:45
Speaker
I have to write up a New Japan thing. I'll get on that right away and send it out to people. But if it's me recording a podcast, I could knock out three of them in maybe one day and then post them all, schedule them, and then they're out. So my brain is tricked to be like, all right, you're good. You can do whatever you want now. So yeah.
00:52:05
Speaker
Yeah, cuz you do like like just like you know, just obviously we're like just following you and stuff like that you'd like do literally like it seems like you do everything you're doing like you do it uh, you know live streams you do with the the spaces
00:52:21
Speaker
the Twitter spaces as well. I always wondered, how do you do it? How do you juggle that stuff? We talked about this before plenty of times. Podcasting is not easy. It's hard. You see how much coordination goes into it with trying to get a time down.
00:52:39
Speaker
Yeah, trying to get a start time trying to like, you know, make sure everyone's all set if there's no there's no cancellations that happen You know, you know technical difficulties can arise and stuff like that like there's so much stuff that goes into it It's almost like having like another full-time job if you already have a job on top of that and say if you already have a family too So like like that's like if you so I'll ask you this. So if you're you're someone that's you know
00:53:04
Speaker
you want to get into this podcasting, what have you, being a social media influencer, what would you say to that person? What would your advice be for that person out there that's thinking about doing it, but it's not too sure about it because there's a lot of stuff that goes into it.
00:53:24
Speaker
So this is going to be cliche. Just do it like I did. OK, but to backtrack before even just, you know, just telling you just to do it, make sure that you are passionate.
00:53:39
Speaker
about whatever it is that you want to talk about. Yes, everyone is going to say that, you know, the whole market is saturated, that don't do this, don't do that. I've heard that, you know, even before I wanted to do podcasting, I've heard that anyway. And I was just like, eh, whatever, you know, I'm going to do it. I got upset at Hell in a Cell 2019 in October, which was the birth of my show. And bam, I just went off.
00:54:04
Speaker
Okay. I did not know what I was doing. And it's okay. If you don't know what you're doing, you could always reach out to people, ask them questions, do this. But the best tool to learn is hands on trial by error. And don't be afraid to experiment. Because you know, because people have this thing of like, here's your checklist, make sure that you are within this box.
00:54:29
Speaker
Pick that box away and do whatever you want to do and create however you want to create because you could be the first for something that obviously is going to get copied because everyone copies, but at least you'll be the first person to do it.
00:54:45
Speaker
It just starts with having a passion. That's all it is. It starts with having a passion. You grow from there. You learn from others. You ask questions. Please make sure you ask questions because even though we say there are no dumb questions, where sometimes there can be, you know, make sure you ask questions. Make sure that, you know, you basically just love what you do. That's all I would have to say for that.
00:55:11
Speaker
Yeah, especially, you know, you're definitely right. You hit it right on the head, especially if you are, you know, passionate about whatever, whatever you're passionate about. Um, you know, you have that passion. Like you said, just go, you know, just, you know, just in terms of hit record and you know, just, just do it. Just, just go and do it. Cause especially like with something like this, like what I'm doing now, like.
00:55:32
Speaker
There was the first few episodes, it was just like, what the hell is it? Because they've known Chick Foley for wrestling and figure collecting and all that stuff. So me being on the show, they know me talking about wrestling and talking about buying and selling and collecting figures and stuff like that.
00:55:49
Speaker
And to hear a show like this, not that my show is any special, but it's a break from wrestling. Obviously, I'm going to have people that are in the wrestling community, but we're not going to talk about... I'm not talking about what happened on AEW Dynamite last night. I'm not talking about what happened on Monday Night Raw or SmackDown and stuff like that.
00:56:11
Speaker
I have these people on talking about like, you know, their processes, what they do, um, how they do their things and stuff like that. And yeah, that's a, it's a, it's a little off. It's a little jarring for, if you're a straight forward, like you're expecting me to talk wrestling, wrestling, wrestling. It is a little bit weird, but
00:56:26
Speaker
You know, I think people have caught on a little bit after, you know, the core listeners of the Chick-fil-A show are like, kind of like, nah, it's a little bit skeptical. But, you know, like, that's with anything that's new and different and stuff like that. And, you know, I had Sheena on, she was talking about farming, because she's a farmer. She has farming and stuff like that. And she used to be a
00:56:47
Speaker
a health and fitness coach. So we talked about that type of stuff. So that's the avenue I want to go now. You know these people, you see them every day on social media. What motivates them? What's behind them? Why did they get into this? What are their stories? And that's the type of show that I want to do.
00:57:07
Speaker
You know, I'm doing it now. So I mean, and you, uh, you know, you're doing great. You're doing great with it. I would like to say though, that, um, you did say that, you know, your show is anything special and I was going to cut you off and I was going to say that because, you know, you had the balls to be like, Hey, come on my show.
Podcast Reflection and Female Voices in Media
00:57:29
Speaker
We're on episode three, right? Yep.
00:57:30
Speaker
So, you know, if if you think of it this way, too, and this is advice for people out there, if you put yourself down and your work down subconsciously, because it's not even like you doing it intentionally, which I understand you're doing it subconsciously. Don't do it. Your show is special. Your voice is special. Your mind is special because the way that I think Marco here doesn't think that.
00:57:59
Speaker
Exactly. Our thoughts are not the same. The same way that if you do end up doing a podcast or writing a blog, what you think and how you think may not be for someone else who's reading it. No two thoughts are the same, maybe 90% of the time. But don't put yourself down because I've had a wonderful time talking and answering these questions and making me think.
00:58:26
Speaker
Okay, because I always think in wrestling, I don't really think about motivations and inspirations from the incident wrestling community. So like these, these questions are sort of like refreshing, because now I have to be like maybe once in a while, maybe every like three to six months, I have to think about like, you know, how far I've come, you know, and thanks to these questions is sort of like, I'm answering all these questions on the fly.
00:58:49
Speaker
Because no one asks me these questions if they ever get me on their podcast. So, sir, next time I'm on your podcast, please do not say that this show is nothing special. Okay. A lot of people don't like the self-deprecating humor type stuff, but you said you are right.
00:59:09
Speaker
and it you know there are you know there's power in words and there's power so you should always you know you know whatever you put out in the the universe or the ethers or however you want to say it you definitely will get it back whether it be one full twofold or tenfold doesn't matter it definitely is going to come back but yeah I mean
00:59:27
Speaker
I like to think that this show is... I know it's definitely a special show on the Chick-Fully feed, because a lot of the stuff that we have, like I said, it's very niche. So it's wrestling, it's figure collecting, it's video games, that type of stuff. But with this show, like I said, I wanted to be more of a conversation. And I took inspiration from Renee Paquette, her show,
00:59:53
Speaker
the session show. Chris Van Vliet, his show, his conversations, and Joe Rogan. I'm not going to do a three hour podcast. I'm not going to talk to somebody for three. I mean, if I could, I would if I had the time. I definitely would. I'm actually going to be doing another show literally after this one. I definitely do want to have you on again because I do want to talk more about ball wrestling, but I'm also going to
01:00:21
Speaker
What I'm also going to do is I'm going to see if you can get on the, uh, the turnbuckle Tavern debate show. Um, cause they have a debate show that they, that they do every Monday, but they recorded earlier in the week, but they just, yeah, on Monday, but they have like, you know, you, you basically they'll come to, they'll have their own talk at topics, but then they have a topic that you can choose that you can bring there as well. And I think they need.
01:00:44
Speaker
to have a, like a female voice on there, but most importantly, and I think they need someone to kind of combat those AEW because they're the AEW like flagship show for us. Anyway, they do all the reviews, they, you know, talk storylines, all that stuff. But I think sometimes you need some pushback.
01:01:02
Speaker
And I think, yes, I mean, I am one hundred percent down pushbacking because I want to make sure that like, you know, what they think is also solid. And I'll be like, all right, I'll agree with you. But, you know, this is this is the this is the business, you know, you know, and everyone needs pushback, you know, like it's not as like, you know, not in a trolling way, just like, you know, you need to play. I like to play devil's advocate on the show, on the Chick-Fully show. Like, you know, everyone would be, you know, for, you know, they are. I hate theory. I hate theory. This is horrible.
01:01:31
Speaker
Why are they doing this? Why are they pushing? And I'll come out and say, hey, you asked for younger talent. You asked for new people to be pushed and be seen on TV all the time. And now they present this to you. And now you hate it because you don't like this person. We know the wrestling fans are fickle. I'm the same way.
01:01:52
Speaker
You know, it's one of those things where like, you know, you can, you can play, uh, like I said, a devil's advocate and a lot in pretty much every scenario when it comes to rest on this, there's always going to be someone that's going to be like one way on this, but then you can go, but. This is, you can see it this way as well. Like you don't have to agree with me, but this is also an option. That's what I like to bring some time to, uh, to the show, but.
01:02:13
Speaker
I was on there a few times. They're part of the Pod Foundation. They're great guys. I'm actually on their feet as well with their WWE-centric show. They're great dudes. That's the other reason why I started the show too, is I wanted to get more
01:02:30
Speaker
more people familiar with who I come across as well, in social media. There might be people that listen to Chick Foley that doesn't know about Marie Channels. Now they will. Now they'll follow you. They'll read your blogs and all that stuff. I think they'll become fans. I am. I'm definitely a fan.
01:02:54
Speaker
I know that already. Yeah, I appreciate you and I appreciate everyone else that has been following me, but I hope they do because I know that like most of the AEW people had me on mute or had me black. I'm already like, oh, whatever, dude.
01:03:09
Speaker
The other thing too is I like to hear more women in wrestling too, in commentary essentially as well. That's another reason why I started the show. I think there needs to be more like an open forum for the ladies out there. I also do have practice commentary that I need to update.
01:03:32
Speaker
um because I wanted to do that for a while um but I haven't like really pushed for it but um I am currently happy doing what I'm doing right now eventually um commentary will come but I'm just I'm just happy doing what I'm doing now because that because if I add more I'm like trying to do commentary is going to be a little bit more on my plate but
01:03:55
Speaker
I'm a little happier doing what I'm doing now. Yeah, definitely. Like I said, you're still one of those voices out there. Like I said, I consider you up there with Sheena and the Chick Foley show. Like I said, I think there should be more women out there. Don't be afraid to step into the... Twitter's probably not a good starting ground because right now it's a little crazy because all that's going on with everything. But definitely get your voice out there.
01:04:22
Speaker
Like I said, I want to see more, like I said, just more women. I have daughters, I have two little girls, and I want them to see that there are women out there. I love when they watch Russell and me, they see all these strong athletic women doing these things.
01:04:40
Speaker
that they're able to do. And I want the same thing for the wrestling community out there is for strong women with strong opinions that they'll listen to. And I said that that's one of the other reasons I wanted to start the show as well. I actually had that conversation with Sheena before I started. I was like, not only do I want to showcase
01:05:00
Speaker
other social media people out there that I come across with in the wrestling community. But I want to bring more women on and interview more women in the wrestling ground. Because like I said, you're doing everything. You're doing a lot more than I am.
01:05:16
Speaker
And I used to love writing. I used to write and do reviews on pay-per-views and stuff like that, and kind of give them to Sheena early before I started, before I was on the show. And they would post stuff like that. Writing's hard. I just stopped doing it because I was like, I can't be witty all the time with writing. I feel like I have to come across funny all the time when I write.
01:05:41
Speaker
So I figure talking's a lot easier for me anyway. But yeah, like I said, I just want to say it's great to have you on the show. This is awesome. I definitely want to have you on again. We definitely have to cross paths at some point. It doesn't have to be on my show. It could be anywhere. We could go on Twitch, do a live chat. We could go on Spaces. We could do an Instagram live. It doesn't matter. I definitely want to talk to you again and talk more wrestling.
01:06:11
Speaker
Definitely. Yeah. Because, you know, wrestling is my like go to thing where I could break it down and be like, this is why this wrestler did this. And, you know, that's what I do on Twitch when I watch New Japan and I break it down for my community and I let them know, like, you know, the importance.
01:06:27
Speaker
things to remember about Bullet Club and how dangerous they are on the outside or the things that Tama does or the things that Sonata does or the things that Okada does. I just break it down. I really do pause the video and I'm like, guys, listen up. We're going to go down this. I have something to say.
01:06:46
Speaker
And uh, so I wanted I'm gonna start this with you because I haven't done this yet, you know, obviously this is early It's only a third episode. I'm trying try and bring new things stuff like that My last question, so I'm gonna try this on you. So okay, there's a so You have a friend right relative failure doesn't matter. They've never watched wrestling ever in their lives Don't get it. Don't even know like what the big what the big deal about it is, right? You're tasked to show them one match
01:07:17
Speaker
That's going to change their entire opinion on professional wrestling. What match do you choose and why? I don't like this question.
01:07:31
Speaker
I love it, but I don't like it. Okay. Um, yeah, automatically I was thinking of like, um, some type of WWE, WWF, um, you know, a match to show them. Uh,
01:07:48
Speaker
It could be any match. It doesn't have to be WWE, but the only reason why I will pick that is because if I go straight into new Japan, I'm just, the people are going to be like, what the fuck is this? But okay. But if I wanted to show no one from new Japan, I'll definitely show no one with like will Osprey. So like will Osprey versus Ocada at the G1, um, semi-final. No. Yeah.
01:08:12
Speaker
Yeah, final. I would definitely show them that because that was really good. It's not a typical match. It's not because I'm sorry, I have to break this down for like a tiny little bit. Okay, so usually when Okada has his matches, the wrestler, like his opponent follows Okada in the match. However, this was a little bit different. Sure, in the beginning, like Okada, I mean,
01:08:37
Speaker
Osprey was following Okada but Osprey got like an advantage at one point and then Okada started following him but then later on they did a bunch of like psychological flips along with techniques so it's a damn good match from start to finish if you guys haven't already watched it. So I would do that and to do some to a little bit of everything but if I had to choose one from like you know back in the day it would have to be like um
01:09:04
Speaker
Ricky Steamboat versus Ric Flair, any of those matches would be great just because of the theatrics behind it. I just recently watched Ricky Steamboat versus Tiger Mask.
01:09:19
Speaker
Tiger Mask at All Japan Poor Wrestling, when he went over there. Any Dustin Rhodes match for him being the natural in WCW, that doesn't get talked a lot. And then if I want to throw in some chaotic stuff, just to show them anything of Stone Cold.
01:09:40
Speaker
All right. Okay. I like that. I have a list of like, you know, not like, you know, New Japan matches, but like, I'd probably like for me, I would go to like, you know, one of my go-to matches. It's almost like I don't get wrestling with the, like, what the, what's a big deal. I'm going to take them directly to, uh, Halloween Havoc, Raven Stereo, and, uh, Eddie Guerrero.
01:10:03
Speaker
oh yeah so they can see that's just kind of like a blueprint of like emotion um technical wrestling they get into brawling a little bit on there yeah you could go with like i mean by all the one i would go bret hard ronnie piper too as well that match was i mean that's an underrated match but
01:10:21
Speaker
That was like, that was Bret Hart. That was literally everything. It was technical wrestling. It was brawling because obviously Roddy Piper's a brawler. Yeah, yeah. You know what? I'm going to be biased and probably give them a lot of Bret Hart matches. That's probably fine. Yeah. I mean, I would give them Bret Hart matches once they start understanding. Yeah.
01:10:44
Speaker
Um, uh, wrestling because, you know, you don't really like, like bread is good. I'll give him like all the credit in the world. Uh, that's just because like, I'm so used to wrestling, but like, you know, you don't ever, you don't want to introduce your buddy to like the chain wrestling when it's like 90% of the match. Yeah. Yeah. Fred Hart's a little bit above. Yeah. He's a, he's, he's like, he's like, he's like a, uh, he's like a college level course. You have to start him off or like, you know,
01:11:18
Speaker
Yeah, start off with like, I don't know, Hogan warrior, maybe. Probably, yeah, you know, maybe throw in some like, you know, Papa shango in there and warrior. Yeah. You know, I get you. I mean, if you, I mean, yeah, you can't, you can't bring him to like the, uh, like the Jake, the snake, uh, man level. Cause that's like, you know, that's promos. That's a lot of psychological.
01:11:34
Speaker
elementary school, work their way up to junior high, high school. You're right. You're right.
01:11:41
Speaker
Yeah, type of stuff. So yeah, I mean, all right. Okay, I get it. Especially, especially when like, you know, you do a headlock, and then like a wrist lock, hammer lock, go back to a headlock, a snap mirror, you know, fundamentals. Yeah, that's right. No, you're right. You're right. All right. I like I like your choices, though. But uh,
01:11:58
Speaker
Well, uh, you know what? We'll end it there. That's going to be my, I guess I'm going to work on it. That's going to be kind of my last question type of thing, but glad, I mean, you answered it. I mean, I kind of like stumped you on that one, but, uh, you came through, you came through with an answer, but, uh, uh, why don't you go and, uh, why don't you go plug everything? Cause you have a lot of stuff.
01:12:17
Speaker
All right, cool. So this was fantastic. I really enjoyed the conversation. You know, again, just reach out to me. I'll come back whenever you need me because I always like helping out my buddies no matter what. So again, I am Marie Shadows. You can definitely follow me on Twitter at Marie underscore Shadows to know when I go live on twitch.tv forward slash Marie underscore Shadows where I'll be watching New Japan Pro Wrestling. Tomorrow I will be live talking about AAW. So please don't miss that.
01:12:45
Speaker
And then also, if you want to sign up to my newsletter where you get wrestling content, it doesn't matter what it is. It could be New Japan news. It could be something about my life in the career of me trying to get signed by New Japan Pro Wrestling or just helping out wrestling companies in general or, you know, G1 coverage or wrestler or wrestler interviews. Head over to marishadows.substack.com. Awesome. And we'll end it there. Thank you, everyone, for listening.
01:13:15
Speaker
We'll see you next time on Open Mic with the MVP. Later.