Podcast Rundown April 2, 2015

 Here's the rundown of the podcast's I have listened to the last couple weeks.

Starting with my favorite Colt Cabana's "Art of Wrestling" I've listened to his three most recent ones;

I took these photos that Colt used for this promo!

Art of Wrestling 242 from the Boston Pro Wrestling Marathon I attended the recording live and it was an awesome experience. It featured some great stories from the lives guests including Justin Credible, Mikey Mondo from the Spirit Squad, Oscar from Men On A Mission, Biff Busick, and the final guest Chris Hero.  Talk about a eclectic group of guys!  Duration 1 hour 16 minutes.

Art of Wrestling 243 with original Nexus member Michael Tarver.  He has an interesting story involving Gregory Irons and some miscommunication. Duration 1 hour 8 minutes

Art of Wrestling 244 with Headbanger Thrasher.  A wonderful listen with Thrasher talking about breaking into the business, his 22 year partnership with Mosh and so much more. Duration 1 hour 16 minutes. 

I don't always listen to the podcast's in order like in this case where I just recently starting listening to and I want to check out interviewee's I most familiar with.

Biff and Ted's Excellent Podcast Adventure

Episode 40 Scott King.  The former Sky King was a stalwart in the New England independent scene who once co-owned Eastern Wrestling Alliance here in Maine finishing his career as Alexander Worthington the 3rd.  This one was especially interesting to me as I used to work for EWA during his years as owner.  Duration 1 hour 24 minutes.

Episode 36 part 1 & part 2 Sean Gorman.  This two part interview with the well known manager on the New England scene was published in September 2014 and was publicity for his memoir "Until We're Stangers Again" which has since been released and from what I heard is an excellent read.  Gorman expresses his very opinionated views on a variety of topics and personalities in wrestling.  Although I agree with his views on a certain portion of wrestling fans he does come off quite harsh and a bit of a douche bag at other times.  Well worth listening to, duration 2 hours 23 minutes.

Episode 37 "Die Hard" Eddie Edwards.  Released in September 2014 this American Wolf and former multi-time champion, including being a Ring of Honor Triple Crown Champion and TNA World Tag Team Champion, tells the story of breaking into the business, how he got his full time start in ROH and choosing TNA over the WWE.  Duration 1 hour 10 minutes.

Piper's Pit with Roddy Piper

Episode 47 & 48 Colt Cabana parts 1 & 2.  An excellent podcast interview with Colt talking about a variety of topics from his time in WWE and what he is doing after.  They also touch on the CM Punk interview from Art of Wrestling episodes 226 & 227 and more about his Art of Wrestling podcast.  Combined duration 1 hour 58 minutes.

Talk is Jericho

Episode 126 R-Truth.  This was way better than I thought it was going to be. It was very interesting to hear about Truth's start in wrestling and his early career as a dancer and his connections with a who's who of old school hip hop acts.  Duration 1 hour 15 minutes

Episode 129 Daniel Bryan.  This interview primarily focuses on the last 12 months including his WWE World Heavyweight Championship win at WrestleMania XXX, his neck injury and the subsequent surgeries that followed.  Highly recommended, duration 1 hour 34 minutes.

Episode 122 Josh Gates.  This host of Destination Truth & Expedition Unknown discusses his time monster hunting, paranormal investigations, and much more.  Chris Jericho often interviews non-wrestling celebrities and although I don't listen to most of those I'm a huge fan of Josh Gates  Duration 1 hour 18 minutes.

Episode 120 & 121 Lance Storm.  This interview that stretches over two episodes is literally two old friends sitting down shooting the shit about breaking into wrestling together and they adventures they had together.  They also talk about Lance Storms solo career in ECW, WCW, WWE, and his return from retirement.  Duration 2 hours 55 minutes. 

Steve Austin Show Unleashed!

Episode 200 Eric Young.  Former TNA World Champion talks about breaking into wrestling, if fishing shows on Animal Planet and so much more.  A really great interview, duration 1 hour 45 minutes. 

Episode 202 "Nightmare" Danny Davis.  The owner of Ohio Valley Wrestling discusses breaking into the business, being a WWE development territory and OVW post WWE.  Once again, really great to listen to, duration 1 hour 39 minutes.

Episode 204 Bas Rutten.  The former Pancrase and UFC Champion discusses growing up in Holland, getting into the fight game, and his famous liver strike.  He also talks about his growing celebrity status after retiring from fighting.  A super fun interview, duration 1 hour 41 minutes.


You should also take time to check out The Moth, How Did This Get Made, and The Nerdist Podcast, all great podcasts!

Later Readers!

WrestleMania XXXI Reaction

WrestleMania XXXI was the best WrestleMania that the WWE has had in a long time.  I can't say that I completely happy with the results of all the matches, but it was a solid show from top to bottom.

The kick off pre-show featured two matches, the fatal four way for the World Tag Team Championships and the second annual Andre the Giant Battle Royal.   The commentary team for the night was Michael Cole, JBL, & Jerry "The King" Lawler.

The tag team match was chaos from start to finish, it was hard at times to tell who was the legal man in the ring and it became a bit clustery with spot after spot.  I was glad that Kidd & Cesaro retained the titles and the end played out well.  I'm not a New Day fan, Big E Langston looks awkward and out of place smiling and clapping where as Woods and Kingston it seems natural.  Also their finisher maneuver is dumb, Big E's big ending while the little guy jumps off the top rope and pushes down on the opponent.  If anything Woods and Kingston should be a tag team with Big E going solo. 

The Andre the Giant Battle Royal was up next.  As far as battle royals go it was a decent one.  The ending with Miz & Sandow finally coming to a head was excellent and even though Sandow lost he looked strong against Big Show.  Hideo Itami won a tournament at Axxess to earn the right to compete in the match and had a HUGE fan response including a Hideo chant. 

Michael Cole continues to amaze me with how dumb he sounds on commentary.  Maybe he's being told what to say and doesn't have a choice but in the end he is still making the ridiculous comments about Hideo Itami referring to him as a "Young up and comer from NXT" and  upon being eliminated "Welcome to the big leagues."  Hideo has been wrestling for 15 years all over the world, he invented the GTS that CMP Punk borrowed, and he was the NOAH World Heavyweight, Tag Team, Junior Heavyweight, and Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champion.  When Hideo was brought into the WWE they made his signing a huge ordeal including having Hulk Hogan fly to Japan for a ceremonial in ring contract signing.  I can't imagine they would have Michael Cole say what he did to essentially belittle Hideo by dismissing him as nothing more than an average rookie.  I realize that he hasn't made huge strides in the WWE, yet, but he will.

I really enjoyed the opening packaged for the show and I like how WWE always goes with America the Beautiful in place of the National Anthem.

The Ladder match for the Intercontinental Championship was fantastic!  The finish with Bryan and Ziggler atop the ladder violently headbutting each other was insane and I loved it!  I'm was glad that Bryan won the match and I hope he brings prestige back to the Championship, not that Barrett wasn't a good champion, but Daniel Bryan will be able to elevate it better.  During the match Dean Ambrose took a powerbomb onto a ladder that was rigged to break upon impact which I feel resulted in him taking a worse bump than if he has just taken a fall onto a standard ladder.

Randy Orton vs. Seth Rollins was a solid match and the finish reversing the curb stomp into and RKO was phenomenal!

It surprised me that Sting vs. Triple H was 3rd match on the main card, I figured it would happen later in the show considering what a huge deal Sting finally wrestling in the WWE is.  This was probably the weakest match on the card in my opinion.  Sting had very little offense but he did his standard Sting stuff.  The real highlight of the match was the appearance of DX: Billy Gunn, Road Dog, & X-Pac to run interference when Sting had the upper hand, then the nWo: Kevin Nash, Hulk Hogan, & Scott Hall appeared to even the odds.  The highlight of the match was Shawn Michaels then appearing and superkicking Sting!!!  My dream match for the last 20 years has been Sting vs. Shawn Michaels, that might be the most we ever get, but I can hope that maybe this match will still happen.  Sting's loss also surprised me, I realize now the story they were telling was Raw vs. Nitro with DX vs. The nWo and WCW lost.  I would hope Sting wrestles again in the WWE, I would hate to have this match be his only match.  I wasn't a fan of either Sting or Triple H's entrances either.

AJ Lee & Paige over the Bella's was way better than I thought it would be. Not because of the lack of talent in the match but because WWE doesn't usually let their Diva's show than can wrestle.  NXT has great woman's matches, but they do call it woman's down there and not Divas which is interesting.

Rusev has this big pro Russian entrance, which was pretty neat but I really like Rusev's entrance music as it is and honestly that would have works just as well.  Before Cena's entrance they did this whole patriotic entrance video, then he comes out with his own music, not flag insight and people weren't chanting USA, they were instead booing Cena and chanting "John Cena Sucks" along with his music.  As much as they tried, this wasn't the old school USA vs. evil foreigner this was Cena vs. Rusev.  I a big fan of Rusev, he's great in the ring, has great heat, and has had good matches with everyone he's been in the ring with.  Cena is Cena, he didn't need the win, didn't need the championship, basically no one cared.  They wasted Rusev getting his first loss to someone the fans didn't care that he lost too, not to mention he lost after bumping into Lana and a single attitude adjustment making him look weak.  The match was decent, the finish was terrible.

Bray Wyatt was the perfect opponent for The Undertaker.  It was a good match, giving Taker the win he needed after last years loss.  I doubt this will be Taker's last match, in fact he looked physically better than he has in the last few years.  It would be cool to see him stick around this year on a regular schedule.

I didn't expect much for the main event, I wanted Lesnar to win and figured and Reigns would win the Championship.  I was pleasantly surprised at just how good the match was, and with Rollins cashing in and the way he did it, was fantastic.  I truly enjoyed the physicality between Lesnar and Reigns.  I would like to see them wrestle again.

In the end it was one of the best WrestleMania's and one of the best WWE big events in a long time. I hope they can continue with this momentum into Raw tonight and onward this year.

Later Readers! 

Clash of the Champions and WrestleMania Ponderings

We've had Wesley home for a week now and I've spent a few of those nights watching Clash of the Champions.  Specifically seventeen through twenty which took place between November 1991 & September 1992.  These years in WCW I refer to as the Ric Flairless years of WCW. 

During this time WCW experienced their most turbulent post Jim Crockett Promotions period with leadership changing from Jim Herd to Kip Frye to "Cowboy" Bill Watts.  You can see the difference based on match booking, who was being pushed, and even how the shows looked on TV. 

Coincidentally the time frame is also when the short lived WCW Light Heavyweight Championship existed, October 1991 - September 1992.  We only got one match Clash XVII 11/19/1991 with champion Brian Pillman defending against Johnny B Badd.

The talent at that time was so good!  Barry Windham, Steve Austin, Brian Pillman, Bobby Eaton, Arn Anderson, Dustin Rhodes, Ricky Steamboat, Jushin Liger, Sting, Rick Rude, Cactus Jack, Vader, and more!

Of course some terrible gimmicks like Super Invader, you can tell it's Hercules and he has the stupidest gear and mask on.  It's just terrible

Clash of the Champions XX marked the final television appearance of Andre the Giant. It almost seems wrong that it was with WCW and not the WWF.

Tonight is the 2015 WWE Hall of Fame Ceremony.  This years class is Kevin Nash, Randy Savage, Larry Zbyszko, Alundra Blayze, The Bushwackers, Tatsumi Fujinami, Rikishi, & Arnold Schwarzenegger.  I'm surprised that Blayze is getting in because of her throwing the WWF Women's Championship in the trash on Nitro.  It's good that they made amends. 
The Bushwackers is a surprise for another reason.  The definitely deserve it the wrestled as a tag team all over the world for 37 years from 1964 until 2001 when Butch Miller was forced to retire due to illness.  The reason I am surprised is because their are other tag teams that probably should be inducted that haven't been like, The Rock n' Roll Express or Demolition.

WrestleMania XXXI is tomorrow, and finally Sting will be wrestling in a WWE ring!  My dream would be against Shawn Michaels but Triple H will be a great opponent.  The Undertaker needs to have an outstanding match to comeback from last years crushing loss. I don't mean the end of the streak, as shocking as that was, I'm referring to how bad the match was.  Granted he was knocked out a few minutes into the match, so he did the best he could, but that's not the match that he can go out on.

 So here are my official WrestleMania XXXI picks:

Fatal 4-Way Tag Team Championship: Tyson Kidd & Cesaro retain

Andre The Giant Battle Royal: Hideo Itami

Randy Orton vs. Seth Rollins: Seth Rollins

US Champion: Rusev vs. John Cena: Rusev

Bella Twins vs AJ Lee & Paige: AJ Lee & Paige

Intercontinental Championship Ladder Match: Daniel Bryan

Undertaker vs. Bray Wyatt: Undertaker

Sting vs. Triple H: Sting

WWE World Heavyweight Championship: Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns: Brock Lesnar

This is who I want to win not who I think is going to win.

Enjoy WrestleMania everyone!

Later Readers!