2014 Pro Wrestling Thread

Speaking of podcasts, I can't speak highly enough about some of the stuff Austin, Jericho, and Ross do for Podcast One. They get great guests, especially Jericho as he goes outside of wrestling often. This week he did a two-parter with Kevin Smith that was a good listen, and I'm not much a fan of his stuff outside of "Mallrats" or "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back." Jericho obviously gets a fair share of rock stars for interviews, not so much contemporary guys but older stars like Ace Freehly and Sebastian Bach.

Ross isn't too hurt by not having current WWE talent on, as he can still pull good guests. Cowboy Bill Watts was a good show, as was shows with Vince Russo and Tony Schiavone.

Austin is a bit in limbo right now, as he's in Georgia filming one of his CMT redneck shows, but WWE has let him get a lot of good guests, like Heyman. Otherwise, when there's no guest, Steve just drinks and tells stories or answers fan questions. What makes those shows listenable is that Steve's a natural storyteller and a funny guy. He cut a five-minute promo threatening a Loch Ness Monster he spotted at his lake-front rental house in Georgia, and it was funny as shit.

Of course, there's also the Cheap Heat podcast from Grantland with David Shoemaker and Peter Rosenberg. They'll occasionally get a current WWE talent (Mark Henry, Roman Reigns), but mostly it's commentary on the most recent shows and behind-the-scenes news. A bit on the short side, and Rosenburg's name dropping as part of his heel persona (very tongue-in-cheek) tends to get in the way of genuing discussion of news and analysis.

Right now, I have a 20-minute commute to my part-time temp job (wife's car has Bluetooth so I can listen to my iPhone), and I have the freedom to put in earbuds and listen to whatever at work (I'm doing layout for a weekly paper), so having hours of podcasts is just fantastic for me right now.

 

I'm totally with you on the PodcastOne shows for the most part, Bradley. I get them through a podcast app on my phone and enjoy them while driving.

Jericho's definitely my favorite -- whether the guests are in or out of wrestling, he makes it interesting (and the Kevin Smith interview was a damn good one). While Austin's are very good too.

As much as I hate to say it, I'm not too enamored of Ross' shows for the most part (though I've missed the most recent ones). He has some good observations about the state of wrestling and booking, but to me he's seems to pound the same opinions into the ground episode after episode, and in many cases, he tends to take over an interview with a rant about something when I want to hear what the guest says.

But, yeah, overall some great, great stuff on those podcasts. And I'll have to check out that "Cheap Heat" at some point.

 

I've given props to the podcasts before, but yeah, they're good stuff! Jericho, I'm not so into when he has a non-wrestling guest, and I typically don't listen to the guest-less Stone Cold shows - I have such a large queue of episodes, I know I'll never really double back to them.

Ross can be very hit or miss to me. When I see an old time wrestling name on there, I have to fight the urge to skip, because I know it'll be rant 1,561 about how guys don't argue with the refs enough, how heels just want to be cool, how they need to bring back draws and countouts, etc. He repeats himself quite a bit with all of that. However, he also has more interesting guests overall, and he doesn't do guest-less shows, which helps keep me interested.

 

I listened to some of a Ross one with Kurt Angle, and I couldn't get through it. Ross got all ranty and preachy — toward Angle even. I was like, "Shut up and let Kurt talk!" I'll stick with Jericho and Cheap Heat when I remember.

 

If Ross didn't have guests, his show would be 60 minutes of
Why do they allow a closed fist?!?!?

But, yeah, I agree. The guests are great, for the 10 actual minutes they get to say something.

 

If you're going back through Cheap Heat, you can probably skip the regular shows. They're very topical at Cheap Heat in terms of the weekly product. But the guests when they have them are great. When the Atlantic piece on race and wrestling came out, they got MVP on. He said he's under a non-disclosure about elements of his departure (who know how much of this is a work), but he was adamant that he'd never be back at WWE, and it was mutual on both ends. He didn't like the culture toward race and vocalized it. Really interesting stuff to hear.

Then there's Noelle Foley, who's only claim to wrestling fame is being the hot daughter of the Hardcore Legend. She's the smarks' wet dream come true. They slobber all over her, and she loves the attention. They did get in a few good questions about Mick's mental status because, well, Royal Rumble '99 and such.

 

Furthermore, why is it legal to hook the tights in a suplex, but illegal to hook the tights when pinning your opponent?

Or another one I thought of: in a three-way or four-way match, when someone is locked in a submission and is about to tap out when the third guy grabs his hand and prevents him from tapping. Why can the guy in the hold just submit without tapping out?

 

More wrestling illogic: why do opponents allow the referee to hold Cena's chain? Aren't they afraid it shows bias?

 

My biggest ref inconsistency: Why is it whenever a wrestler is doing a move on the ropes that involves a 10-count (I.E. Sheamus with the beating your chest thing or your standard 10 punches in the corner), the crowd and wrestler have no problem counting to 10 and the ref is usually still at 3 or 4 when it's finished?
Also, when there's a cheap finish, why doesn't the ref just go to the instant replay to see what happened rather than making a judgement call on the spot that may or may not be correct?
Also, why is it that the ref never refuses to allow a heel team's tag to count when he doesn't see it but he immediately puts up a fight that he had to see the tag when it's a face tag?

 

You guys and your logic. Don't you know Vince doesn't give a shit about logic by now?

 

The suplex thing goes back 40 years, at least.

The tap- out thing was popularized by Taz, but submissions without tapouts are still allowed.

One funny logic thing that I recall reading about was either a pre-ECW or early one in which Terry Funk was complaining that he lost a falls count anywhere match when he was pinned against a wall. The idea was that since falls count anywhere, they could be pinned against a wall, or a ceiling, to anything like that.

 

My post was supposed to come across as sarcastic.

I know real-world logic doesn't apply in the WWE. That's why I'm willing to suspend belief to watch it.