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!

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