Wrestling Podcasts

I’ll spare you the history of podcasts, but let’s just say they really started to take off in 2004.  In 2011 Colt Cabana launched his podcast “The Art of Wrestling” and even though there was been dozens and dozens of wrestling podcast since then Colt’s although may not be the first is definitely the best. 

I had heard about it before but I didn’t start listening until May 2014 and that was because I wanted to listen to episode 193 the live Wrestling Road Diaries Too show as I was very excited to watch the Wrestling Road Diaries Too DVD when it was released. 

After that 1 episode I was hooked and since then have listened to all available episodes and am currently downloading episode 240.  This weekend I will be attending the Boston Pro Wrestling Marathon with featuring a live Art of Wrestling podcast taping.  I couldn’t be more excited about that!

Some of my favorite episodes feature Cliff Compton, Luke Gallows, CM Punk, Cesaro, and too many to mention.  I really like the format of Cabana’s podcast, it always starts out with a brief add, the opening theme, a monologue by Colt that leads into to song of the week which is wrestling related, then another well done ad by Colt and then the podcast begins.  The average time of this opening is usually less than 10 minutes and goes by fast.  The average conversation, not an interview, last about an hour, and then Colt concludes with a summary plugs and upcoming events. 

What I like the most is Colt never interrupts the conversation with advertisements and he is really good at getting people to open up but mostly it just sounds like two friends chatting.  Also all of Colt’s podcasts are done in person and not over the phone.  To me the quality this brings to the product far exceeds that of simply audio but enables them to interact much better off of each other’s body language and lessens the chance that they will talk over or interrupt each other.  By far this is my favorite podcast. 

There are so many other wrestling one’s out there that it’s hard to keep track.  My podkicker app doesn’t have the greatest search feature for podcasts, and it also depends on the show is posted to the internet as well. The other wrestling podcasts I have or currently listen to are;

Chris Jericho: Talk is Jericho

Jim Ross: The Ross Report

Steve Austin: two shows a week, one family friendly and one unleashed

Roddy Piper: Piper’s Pit-pod

Taz: The Human Podcast Machine

All of the podcasts are pretty good The Human Podcast Machine is just getting off the ground.  They all utilize interviews over the phone, so the audio can be tinny, and sometimes they have interview in person.  But these are interviews for the most part, not conversations, the only one that does more of a conversation is Christ Jericho. 

Also these do not exclusively have wrestling guest on them, Taz does to date, but people from all walks of entertainment, so I don’t listen to them all.  My biggest issue with all but Taz is the number of commercial breaks, they start with an ad, have a long intro, another ad, then during the interview a couple ad breaks and they conclude with more ads.  These podcasts can be anywhere from 90 minutes to over 2 hours long with the interview being only an hour of this time.  Ross is the worst for rambling and it just gets boring.  I find myself skipping ahead to the interview. 

Colt’s is the only one that I listen to the whole thing from beginning to end and the only one that I listen to every episode guaranteed, but his a strictly wrestling podcast.

Other podcasts that I listen to include:

The Nerdist Podcast – featuring Chris Hardwick and regular co-hosts Jonah Ray and Matt Mira featuring guests with celebrities and as well as episodes called hostfuls that have no guest at all.  They discuss and many topic from their personal lives and pop culture.

The Moth – a Public Radio show featuring storytelling taped at live events around the country.  They range from comedy to drama and can be pretty heart felt at times. 

How Did This Get Made – hosted by Paul Scheer, June Diane Raphael, and Jason Mantzoukas each episode has different guest featuring deconstruction and mockey of bad films.  They have even featured Hulk Hogan films No Holds Barred and Mr. Nanny. 

All of them are worth checking out.

Later Readers