You guys are really starting to hit your stride here. I think because of the delay in online communicating, sometimes you guys would sort of have an awkward time with replying to each other in time. There's usually some talking over each other when replying and then the classic "no you go. No you go" that anyone who talks to their friends in Discord knows too well. This episode was completely seemless with James' replies, and Stevie's voice made it the entire episode without breaking, haha. This podcast really is great. You two make a very solid duo.
When wrestlers stopped using psychology and instead started relying on , gymnastics , blood , fighting outside the ring within 2 moves , all at a normal house show .
I guess they figure everyone knows it’s a work, so might as well cater to the internet ADD crowd and just have guys flying all over the place risking paralysis on free TV. I’m not saying you have to go back to 1995 WWF, where if you got better than a squash match, you were very lucky. But you can still tell stories. The problem is that this isn’t the 90s. My generation had an identity. This m one doesn’t. Stone Cold and The Rock epitomized that era of anti-authority “extreme.” What sorts of characters would you have today? Ones that people would buy? This is the Seinfeld Generation - a generation about nothing.
Personally, I've never seen a match and thought, "If only there was blood." For some people, all it takes is blood to make a match great. Some people really love "wrestling" where it's literally nothing but how many ways can they mutilate each other with random weapons. Not to mention what you already said with the constant dives and such.
Hunter Thompson wrote “The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side.” By the sound of it, he could have been describing the Wrestling business
Hunter S Thompson was actually a smart fan back in the day and used to make money on the side writing magazine articles about wrestling back when Los Angeles and San Francisco had booming territories.
It’s also been reported that he completely fabricated most of the details in his wrestling reports. Never let the facts get in the way of a good story, I guess.
@@weatheredtome Sadly, that seems to be the case. It's amazing that Stevie still loves wrestling given what he's been through. I wouldn't blame him for a second if he felt bitter and disillusioned by the industry. The fact he isn't speaks to Stevie's character. He just seems like such a good dude
The thing that drives me crazy is when a guy is standing outside the ring and his opponent dives from inside and his “opponent” his “enemy” just stands there and catches him. If there’s a spot you can’t make look real and be safe then just don’t do it.
Ditto for me. If the cooperation is too obvious and basically has to be that obvious for the spot to work then it's taking away from the match more than it's adding to it. Especially when the audiences sees dive spots to the outside so frequently now.
My biggest pet peeve with wrestling is the way most women "hit" the ropes. Candace LeRae is the first one I noticed and now I immediately notice whenever someone does it: They run up to the ropes, full speed. Stop completely. Turn around. Half lean against the ropes. Start running the opposite direction. It's like they're afraid of the ropes. If it's because the back of their head will hit then they need give Rey Mysterio a bonus to go down to the PC and give a master class on hitting the ropes as a short person. I've never seen a male hit the ropes that way and the actual star women's wrestlers (Charlotte, Becky Lynch, Rhea Rhipley, etc) hit the ropes normally. It's just the "you forget they exist when they're not on screen" class of specifically female (for some reason) wrestlers who ALL do it.
To be fair those ropes are incredibly tight, it does take a certain level of weight and force to really move them. If those woman on the smaller/shorter/lighter/awkward side tried to do it like Rey, who is still bigger and and heavier than all of them, they'd be more likely to not get the momentum to bounce back up on stable footing and probably just fall on their butts. At worst they'd fold up between the middle and bottom rope and roll ass over teakettle off the apron and hit the floor.
Yeah the whole point of hitting the ropes is to gain more momentum, yet most women completely lose all momentum and just walk off the ropes. Looks woeful. Doing it properly requires practice and building calluses to avoid bruising and rash marks. It's part of getting back in ring shape for the men when returning from injury or time off.
@@daniellebrackett4905 To be fair: nobody pretended that Kelly Kelly was actually a good wrestler. She didn't get to be in Wargames, street fights, Elimination Chambers, Wrestlemania main events, etc etc. (Not that I was a fan of hers either)
Great episode fellas. Love this weeks content. I was a big fan of the razors edge growing up so I appreciate the breakdown. I always enjoy Stevie’s reaction to a rough landing. 😂. Cracks me up. Catch you on the next.
Arn Anderson mentioned that too much hot shotting went on. Also the Lucha Underground model should have been followed. Seasons with tighter editing of content.
Stevie has mentioned doing fantasy booking and i would love it. I was a wcw kid growing up. It was how my stepdad and i bonded and I would love if he rebooked breaking Goldbergs streak. This even changed my dad’s and mine relationship. He was still my dad until the day he died and i still think of him as dad now, but it got a little colder that night. I’d love for him to rebook it and dispel that cloud that has hung over my dad’s memory.
@mrcliff3709with Goldberg being shocked by a taser by Scott hall and Kevin Nash covering him, then the following night the finger poke of doom. I’m asking for Stevie to rebook it with his inside knowledge and experience.
31:07 I feel like this issue of "knowing how a move should work in a real fight" is largely mitigated in the Japanese style of pro-wrestling, as pretty much everyone is trained as a shooter to some extent, and many end up dabbling in MMA. There's a reason why Japan has guys like Minoru Suzuki, Kazuyuki Fujita, Masakatsu Funaki, the legendary Kazushi Sakuraba, and even Shinsuke Nakamura; guys who started as pro-wrestlers and went on to have success as MMA fighters. Meanwhile, the most successful western pro-wrestlers who went on to have successful MMA careers are guys like Brock Lesnar, Bobby Lashley, Ken Shamrock and Josh Barnett, but Ken and Josh both have roots in Japanese pro-wrestling, while Brock and Bobby both had tremendous amateur careers before becoming pro-wrestlers. Very rarely do you have successful western MMA fighters who can genuinely say that their base is pro-wrestling. Unless you call Phil Brook's UFC career successful. Japan is where the line between scripted fighting and real fighting has been (and remains) blurriest, a tradition they kept while the West went down a more theatrical (and arguably safer) route.
It's funny you mention that because on the patreon we were talking about Brian Gamble vs Saturn, there were two "jobber" matches that night, gamble took on saturn and the other had sho funaki, in some ways gamble was lucky that he had an on his best behaviour saturn, not a Fujiwara trained UWFI/Battlearts veteran like sho funaki as it would have been an even more painful night for Gamble. funaki's story is a lot like the bushwackers yes they are known for their "comedy" personas but underneath there is someone not to be messed with.
I love your show! You’re one of the few people that I feel like I’m getting the real person, not a performer. Mark, on Six Feet Under, may be the only other one that gives this quality.
As usual, Stevie says made a lot of sense. There's no variation or variety in pro wrestling today. Remember the first match of Survivor Series 2014? The Miz with his stunt double Damien Mizdow vs Stardust and Goldust vs The Usos vs The Los Matadors. The audience were laughing at Damien's antics, laughing at Stardust, angry at the Miz for not tagging Damien in. The Usos, Goldust and the Matadors were doing their wrestling stuff. El Torito also provided a little entertainment in the mix. It was a fun and entertaining match.
I went to sleep watching the dark knight on DVD for a good year at one point. I also believe the last non Disney movie James watched was Suburban Commando
Stevie Richards has me beat with Dark Knight views. I think i only have about 200 views of it. I watch it every New Years Eve as a little tradition to myself and always put it on if it's playing on TV or have it on in the background while I work once every other month or so.
I don't know when PA changed, but the liquor stores used to be closed on Sundays. I'd never be able to tell you when they started, I just remember picking up a bottle Christian Brothers for a recipe and it hit me on the ride home what day it was.
Stevie the dark night is the best movie ever i agree i watch it all the time just to go to sleep with what an awsome movie and the joker was perfection
A couple things that really annoy me about wrestling today. A. Kicking out of finishers, everyone already using the same finishers, abd the need to go 100% speed at all times and going from spot to spot with almost no story.
Razors edge is one of my favorite moves. As a kid I really liked him because he was one of the only Hispanic super stars on TV. Of course I didn't know he wasn't really Cuban 😅
I wonder if WWE would let you guys interview some of the production people. I don't see why they wouldn't, they don't get enough credit and Stevie did his job well for the company for years. IT would be a fun series of shows and Stevie as a guy interested in video production who also has a wrestler's perspective would be kind of the perfect guy to do it.
Thats a dope plad long sleeve James is rockin!!! Something A 1996 Stevie would have worn But for real you guys you have the belts if there was a name and title BEST HOST AND FORMER WRESTLER 2 MAN PODCAST UNDER 5 YEARS.... HERE ARE THE NOMINIES 1. JAMES N STEVIE 2. JIM CORNETE N BriAN LAST 3. JAKE THE SNAKE N MARCUS AND SO ON N SO ON RESPECT RESPECFULLY🤜🤜
In West Palm when I use to dj that Sunday rule was in effect and sometimes we would end our Saturday night before 12 on Sunday so we would have to wait a few minutes.
and let us not forget one of worst landing on feet injuries with poor sid vicious snapping his leg in half on a simple forward kick from 2nd rope. horrible spot that had no reason to exist for a person not really suited for it on either end, sid in giving it and the opponent in taking it were all miscast. i believe sid sued about it as well as he claimed he was told to do the spot despite his telling the agents that he didn't feel comfortable doing it.
Not sayin Scott Hall wasn't super strong but note that he's not carrying all the weight with his arms. Most of the opponents weight is sitting on his upper back/shoulders.
I put a lot of the "indy crossover" mindset and spotfests to Mick Foley. He's said in interviews that he's into "moments" more than "matches," and how did he get over? With that video of him jumping off a roof onto a mattress, and Hell in a Cell. Now, Foley was a great entertainer and had great promos, but if you look at what's out there it is hard not to see the connection. There are other factors and players involved, but... "jump off high things and through things" is heavily Mick-- ECW et al did the same stuff, but it was Mick who was mainstream, made WWE champion, headlined PPVs, and so on.
Every wrestler throughout their career should go through several, what I call, Finisher Cycles. It's not that Wrestlers shouldn't have their finisher kicked out, but rather that it should go something like this... 1. You should be on a fairly dominant run right before it happens for the first time. 2. You either should go on a back and forth situation where it is a series of wins and losses, or you should basically start losing more and more with more people kicking out of it. 3. You should get take a break at this point depending on health and if you've been overused or whatever other reason you come up with. 4. The next step is two directions. You either try out potential finishers, usually losing, leading into struggling towards something like a lesser title, where you master a new finisher till it's perfected with the title win. OR you come back and your first match is a dominant win against either the guy you broke your finisher, someone that is close to that person, but a little less as a "try out" for the next match against the guy who broke the finisher which you should dominate to, or lastly you beat someone way above where you previously were. 5. Dominant run goes here. 6. Cycle back to beginning for another plateau surpassing. This is a very basic layout of how you should evolve and such when you let someone kick out of your finisher. People love redemption arcs and underdog stories. This is that. It also give you a place and reason to face or heel turn, because you have a struggle, and as a result of that struggle, something changes and you do better. Also...If you're really clever, you plan ahead and have a several stage finisher which you can evolve and change up a little but, but never actually ever change your finisher. You can make a sloppy weak version that you use for when you have people kicking out and then a strong looking version for when you "hit your stride" as it were.
Martel took a bump from Booker BUT his Martel’s foot caught the rope coming down. That was all it took. Martel was hurt and out. Stevie, this is a great candidate for What Went Wrong. What I was wondering is if Martel was not used to the size of the ring?
1:54:53 Rick Martel - I was seven in 1990 when I became a fan. Of course at that age, I was a die hard babyface fan. But there was one exception: Rick "The Model" Martel. I thought he was the coolest, and even rooted against the Ultimate Warrior when the two of them wrestle on Superstars. Idk why, but yeah. Love me some Rick Martel.
Going PG is where it went wrong for me. Making John Cena Hulk Hogan 2.0 for 20 year was not good. Cutting out all the sex and actual violence made it look and feel too manufactured. We knew it was "fake" but things still felt impactful until the PG Era. That took me out of it and I still have zero interest in watching the product to this day.
I don't think the sex and violence of the Attitude Era made it better. It was the personalities that made it what it was, both before that era and during that era. I went to a number of house shows during the late '80s and early '90s, and the reason I wanted to go was to see the wrestlers, to see those personalities up close. I wanted to see Hogan, Warrior, Demolition, The Hart Foundation, Andre the Giant, and others. And the reason I enjoyed the Attitude Era was because of Stone Cold, The Rock, Shawn Michaels, and we can name many more. But the era before that was PG, and it was just as amazing as the Attitude Era. The sex and violence wasn't needed because the wrestlers' personalities shone through and made it special. And I didn't care for John Cena or most of anyone else after the Attitude Era either. I think the only wrestler I've actually liked was Sasha Banks.😂
@@G360LIVEThat's the thing though. What was the Key Trait of those people you mentioned? Their entire persona was Attitude. It was Stone Cold being profane and violent. It was The Rock and Shawn Michaels mixing in Sexual Innuendo and being brash personalities. It was Inherent in the Personalities. WCW brought you a clean product. ECW brought you only sex and violence. WWF Attitude Era brought you the perfect middle ground between the two. Early "Ruthless Aggression" ramped it more towards the ECW Style and the network exec backlash caused them to course correct to being WCW and corny.
@@G360LIVE Yep, you have to make great characters and get talent who can make the audience care about them. Guys who you grow up wanting to be like, who you see as heroes, or guys you hate with burning passion who you see as monsters, and can't wait to see them get their ass whooped. All the sexual innuendo and thumbtacks isn't going to be able to make up for a lackluster show, with mediocre pansy talent who can't talk, exude no aura or masculinity, think wrestling is spamming destroyer powerbombs and superkicks, not selling, and who look like a jobber from 2005.
One of the things that never gets brought up is the tragic death of King Kong Kirk. It completely shocked the world at the time. It was said to be news all around the world. And what impact that had on wrestling. It was the start of the end of British wrestling. Because at the time I suspect the TV production believed Big Daddy was responsible. But later it was revealed that King Kong Kirk died of natural causes, he had a series of heart attacks. And he probably died before big daddy did his token move. Which cleared big daddy. But for something that shockedt the world and is probably biggest thing that’s ever happened in wrestling of all time. Because Kirk died in the ring. Which doesn’t happen very often or if it’s ever happened before… It seems it’s been forgotten. I do think it probably created a problem for wrestling on a whole. And there was a lot of questions about where to go forward from it. I’m just wondering if it has affected anything that’s follow through today.
One of my earliest memories of when I began to stop watching and being invested in wrestling was when WWE kept doing ad breaks in the middle of matches. That took me completely away from the match and I started to see how structured matches were. Another pain point was when they kept merging the titles to where raw only had the world title and the intercontinental title.
AEW hitting a big dive and IMMEDIATELY going to break and returning with a dead crowd and guys just screwing around really made it clear there was a "template" going on.
Theory: DCEU all will ultimately end with Batman killing Darkseid in Final Crisis AFTER getting hit with the Omega Beams -- "The death that is life." And the movies we are seeing now are the ever increasingly hostile realities that the Omega Sanction sends Batman tumbling through.
Fenix’s quote was translated. In Spanish, inhumane in this context most likely means unfair . It’s funny how all the wrestling media are using inhumane in its literal meaning .
Can we also add there being zero point to the referees? In AEW especially, the ref literally begs guys “please Kenny, get in the ring! Please!” Nowadays you can beat a 10 count by spending 10 mins on the outside. It’s absurd.
I know it was meant to be a cool spot and all that jazz but I've started to hate the cage dive spot since we have seen two major injuries from it in Adam Copeland and now Bronson Reed.
The big problem with Starks and Fenix is TK said he wouldn't be like Vince and keep people there if they didn't wanna be there. Now he's doing the same thing he was on Vince about.
As far as the business side is concerned: billionaires having the say, Saudi money, and ridicolous tv deals that these streaming networks give out regardless of the product quality or the number of viewers because they have so much money that they don`t even care As far as match quality goes: no more house shows, working once a week or less, no mandatory practice, high six or seven figure salaries for everyone, PG era
48:00(roughly). I completely understand and to an extent agree with the point here, however I feel like if WWE with it's presentation offered up 5 tremendous in ring matches (not necessarily all high flying and flips, but that does have a place as well) at a PLE they would be a lot better, if a match isn't top quality it doesn't belong on PLE/PPV in a modern setting, an issue I have with the big events is the filler matches that are placed to give the viewers a breather before another big match, to me these feel pointless and lose my attention. I think there's a place for world class wrestling but on events around 3 hours with a little room between each match with some video packages or promotion, even backstage interviews with performers coming up later, that would be my ideal scenario. TV wrestling shows are another conversation entirely where the variety of presentation comes in with for example some comedy etc
Overweight American here, so of course my comparison is to food. A good card, be it TV or PPV or Mania, should feel like fine dining where everything compliments the overall meal. Current booking sometimes feels like every course if trying to jam an entire meal's experience on you every single time a new dish comes out. It's too much. Openers should be openers, main events should be main events, and there should be ups and downs in between. I don't need seven Canadian Destroyers in my salad course, and I don't need my soup to swerve me with a fully cooked beef wellington at the bottom of the cup. Wrestling, and cooking, should harmonize, not compete with what came directly before and directly after to win the night.
Oh thank god. I was beginning to concentrate on my work.
Same. I was actually starting to be productive 😂
Hahaha yes.
My thoughts exactly
Never do that statistically you work for somebody who isn't paying you enough
Seriously, Stevie has quickly became my favorite wrestler podcast.
IT'S NOT A PODCAST!! hahaha :)
What about colt cabana
You guys are really starting to hit your stride here. I think because of the delay in online communicating, sometimes you guys would sort of have an awkward time with replying to each other in time. There's usually some talking over each other when replying and then the classic "no you go. No you go" that anyone who talks to their friends in Discord knows too well. This episode was completely seemless with James' replies, and Stevie's voice made it the entire episode without breaking, haha. This podcast really is great. You two make a very solid duo.
"it's not a podcast, it's a show" 😅
This has become my go to podcast every week. I become very excited to soak in that Stevie knowledge when i see a new video available.
It went wrong when Hogan stopped working the space time continuum, brother.
He was never the same after Taker' dropped him brother.
@@IzualTheMightyhe also lost a lot of confidence when he found out his 🍆 wasn’t 10 inches
@@IzualTheMighty the deadman was always a little stiff dude, that didn't work for me,brother
@@thefiggamehunt6946Call my wife and kids, brother.
Never got that Hollywood Hogan Undertaker dream match.
When wrestlers stopped using psychology and instead started relying on , gymnastics , blood , fighting outside the ring within 2 moves , all at a normal house show .
This!
Video game generation of wrestlers who grew up playing the games and brought that style into the actual ring.
It’s hard to argue against dumbing it down when it seems like most of America got…not smarter.
I guess they figure everyone knows it’s a work, so might as well cater to the internet ADD crowd and just have guys flying all over the place risking paralysis on free TV. I’m not saying you have to go back to 1995 WWF, where if you got better than a squash match, you were very lucky. But you can still tell stories. The problem is that this isn’t the 90s. My generation had an identity. This m one doesn’t. Stone Cold and The Rock epitomized that era of anti-authority “extreme.” What sorts of characters would you have today? Ones that people would buy? This is the Seinfeld Generation - a generation about nothing.
@dompartida we dont need know ejukayshun!
Personally, I've never seen a match and thought, "If only there was blood." For some people, all it takes is blood to make a match great. Some people really love "wrestling" where it's literally nothing but how many ways can they mutilate each other with random weapons.
Not to mention what you already said with the constant dives and such.
Hunter Thompson wrote “The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side.” By the sound of it, he could have been describing the Wrestling business
Hunter S Thompson was actually a smart fan back in the day and used to make money on the side writing magazine articles about wrestling back when Los Angeles and San Francisco had booming territories.
It’s also been reported that he completely fabricated most of the details in his wrestling reports. Never let the facts get in the way of a good story, I guess.
@@paddya3304TBF you just described most of his career.
@@weatheredtome Sadly, that seems to be the case. It's amazing that Stevie still loves wrestling given what he's been through. I wouldn't blame him for a second if he felt bitter and disillusioned by the industry. The fact he isn't speaks to Stevie's character. He just seems like such a good dude
One of the only things I look forward to each week, no exaggeration
Hey man, hope everything is alright.
@@weatheredtome yeah pretty sad right?
The thing that drives me crazy is when a guy is standing outside the ring and his opponent dives from inside and his “opponent” his “enemy” just stands there and catches him. If there’s a spot you can’t make look real and be safe then just don’t do it.
That spot is impossible to look real.
@ That’s my point.
Ditto for me. If the cooperation is too obvious and basically has to be that obvious for the spot to work then it's taking away from the match more than it's adding to it. Especially when the audiences sees dive spots to the outside so frequently now.
For me, It only worked back in the day when it was someone like Kane that catching them then ramming them into the ring post. Otherwise, yeah bad spot
Bonus points if there's an entire crowd just sitting there outside
The perfect show to savor on an early Saturday morning at the gym. Thanks as always, Stevie and James for your fascinating and inspiring content!
I liked wrestling better when the marks were out in the seats and not in the ring
I wouldn’t mind them being marks in the ring if they weren’t such marks backstage.
If wrestlers weren’t marks, they wouldn’t be in the wrestling business. EVERYONE that’s EVER done this, is a mark.
Nothing more ridiculous than fans calling other fans “marks”
Boom
I used to fall asleep to gladiator Russel Crowe movie.
My biggest pet peeve with wrestling is the way most women "hit" the ropes. Candace LeRae is the first one I noticed and now I immediately notice whenever someone does it:
They run up to the ropes, full speed.
Stop completely.
Turn around.
Half lean against the ropes.
Start running the opposite direction.
It's like they're afraid of the ropes. If it's because the back of their head will hit then they need give Rey Mysterio a bonus to go down to the PC and give a master class on hitting the ropes as a short person.
I've never seen a male hit the ropes that way and the actual star women's wrestlers (Charlotte, Becky Lynch, Rhea Rhipley, etc) hit the ropes normally. It's just the "you forget they exist when they're not on screen" class of specifically female (for some reason) wrestlers who ALL do it.
To be fair those ropes are incredibly tight, it does take a certain level of weight and force to really move them. If those woman on the smaller/shorter/lighter/awkward side tried to do it like Rey, who is still bigger and and heavier than all of them, they'd be more likely to not get the momentum to bounce back up on stable footing and probably just fall on their butts. At worst they'd fold up between the middle and bottom rope and roll ass over teakettle off the apron and hit the floor.
Yeah the whole point of hitting the ropes is to gain more momentum, yet most women completely lose all momentum and just walk off the ropes. Looks woeful. Doing it properly requires practice and building calluses to avoid bruising and rash marks. It's part of getting back in ring shape for the men when returning from injury or time off.
I mean that's not new. Remember Kelly Kelly?
@@daniellebrackett4905 To be fair: nobody pretended that Kelly Kelly was actually a good wrestler. She didn't get to be in Wargames, street fights, Elimination Chambers, Wrestlemania main events, etc etc. (Not that I was a fan of hers either)
@daniellebrackett4905 that's the name that immediately came to mind when I imagined it
Love ya Stevie, from a old Philly guy that went to a ton of ECW shows.
Peace love and respect❤
I do miss those intros you filmed for those 2 or 3 episodes, they were great "Coming up today!" bits.
Great episode fellas. Love this weeks content. I was a big fan of the razors edge growing up so I appreciate the breakdown. I always enjoy Stevie’s reaction to a rough landing. 😂. Cracks me up. Catch you on the next.
Stevie love the channel..hope we get more TNA stories soon… keep up the great work!
Thank you big Stevie cool, you have the best show on UA-cam
Love ya stevie!
Still think your superkick is in the top 5 of all time!
Thanks for still doing content!
I have never been someone that looks forward to a UA-cam channel posting every week. This is the first channel where that is the case.
Thanks for helping me stay awake when i work 11pm to 7 am
Congrats on 25, brother!!
Best wrestling show on the internet hands down.
2 hours is much more manageable, another great episode guys 🤟🏼
You guys fixed the low volume issue. Kudos
For me it went downhill when Rock, Austin, Hall/Nash, all left around 2002 😥
James has a good point, off the top of my head I'm not sure I know a wrestler that sports a better mustache than Dutch (maybe there is, I dunno)
Simon Gotch, Bart Gun, Dan Severn
Love this podcast. Eagerly anticipate the “Kurt Angle is the GOAT” episode
Steven Richard’s has become the Keanu Reeves of wrestling lol
The show’s brain is fully developed
This is an incredible wrestling show. Best I've seen in years. Thanks Stevie.
70k and rising! Congrats guys!!!
Arn Anderson mentioned that too much hot shotting went on. Also the Lucha Underground model should have been followed. Seasons with tighter editing of content.
So bandido western video and Julia Hart videos are good build up for the return.
Stevie has mentioned doing fantasy booking and i would love it. I was a wcw kid growing up. It was how my stepdad and i bonded and I would love if he rebooked breaking Goldbergs streak. This even changed my dad’s and mine relationship. He was still my dad until the day he died and i still think of him as dad now, but it got a little colder that night. I’d love for him to rebook it and dispel that cloud that has hung over my dad’s memory.
@mrcliff3709with Goldberg being shocked by a taser by Scott hall and Kevin Nash covering him, then the following night the finger poke of doom. I’m asking for Stevie to rebook it with his inside knowledge and experience.
@mrcliff3709it’s all good. I’d love a different ending lol
31:07 I feel like this issue of "knowing how a move should work in a real fight" is largely mitigated in the Japanese style of pro-wrestling, as pretty much everyone is trained as a shooter to some extent, and many end up dabbling in MMA. There's a reason why Japan has guys like Minoru Suzuki, Kazuyuki Fujita, Masakatsu Funaki, the legendary Kazushi Sakuraba, and even Shinsuke Nakamura; guys who started as pro-wrestlers and went on to have success as MMA fighters.
Meanwhile, the most successful western pro-wrestlers who went on to have successful MMA careers are guys like Brock Lesnar, Bobby Lashley, Ken Shamrock and Josh Barnett, but Ken and Josh both have roots in Japanese pro-wrestling, while Brock and Bobby both had tremendous amateur careers before becoming pro-wrestlers. Very rarely do you have successful western MMA fighters who can genuinely say that their base is pro-wrestling. Unless you call Phil Brook's UFC career successful.
Japan is where the line between scripted fighting and real fighting has been (and remains) blurriest, a tradition they kept while the West went down a more theatrical (and arguably safer) route.
It's funny you mention that because on the patreon we were talking about Brian Gamble vs Saturn, there were two "jobber" matches that night, gamble took on saturn and the other had sho funaki, in some ways gamble was lucky that he had an on his best behaviour saturn, not a Fujiwara trained UWFI/Battlearts veteran like sho funaki as it would have been an even more painful night for Gamble. funaki's story is a lot like the bushwackers yes they are known for their "comedy" personas but underneath there is someone not to be messed with.
I do declare this Tuesday in Texas!!!
I love your show! You’re one of the few people that I feel like I’m getting the real person, not a performer. Mark, on Six Feet Under, may be the only other one that gives this quality.
As usual, Stevie says made a lot of sense. There's no variation or variety in pro wrestling today. Remember the first match of Survivor Series 2014? The Miz with his stunt double Damien Mizdow vs Stardust and Goldust vs The Usos vs The Los Matadors. The audience were laughing at Damien's antics, laughing at Stardust, angry at the Miz for not tagging Damien in. The Usos, Goldust and the Matadors were doing their wrestling stuff. El Torito also provided a little entertainment in the mix. It was a fun and entertaining match.
JUST in time for work hell yes!! 🙌 👏
I went to sleep watching the dark knight on DVD for a good year at one point. I also believe the last non Disney movie James watched was Suburban Commando
Stevie Richards has me beat with Dark Knight views. I think i only have about 200 views of it. I watch it every New Years Eve as a little tradition to myself and always put it on if it's playing on TV or have it on in the background while I work once every other month or so.
I don't know when PA changed, but the liquor stores used to be closed on Sundays.
I'd never be able to tell you when they started, I just remember picking up a bottle Christian Brothers for a recipe and it hit me on the ride home what day it was.
Episode 25 Let's fn Go!!!!
Stevie the dark night is the best movie ever i agree i watch it all the time just to go to sleep with what an awsome movie and the joker was perfection
I've seen the original star wars trilogy so many times I can quote the entire movie line for line and I still love it
WWF cliffhangers were satisfying. Nitro liffhangers always felt like the viewere was cheated.
Who was the diva who made the mistake of giving her rental car to balls and sandman? Ariel? The idea of that is terrifying.
"Balls?" - King Booker
I would choose you to play against everyone in slobber knocker matches on Smackdown vs. Raw. You are OP and you have one of the best movesets.
A couple things that really annoy me about wrestling today. A. Kicking out of finishers, everyone already using the same finishers, abd the need to go 100% speed at all times and going from spot to spot with almost no story.
Razors edge is one of my favorite moves. As a kid I really liked him because he was one of the only Hispanic super stars on TV. Of course I didn't know he wasn't really Cuban 😅
48:00 David Michael Penzer complimented our tag team for getting in getting out and keeping it old school.
But were you holding on to the tag rope
I wonder if WWE would let you guys interview some of the production people. I don't see why they wouldn't, they don't get enough credit and Stevie did his job well for the company for years. IT would be a fun series of shows and Stevie as a guy interested in video production who also has a wrestler's perspective would be kind of the perfect guy to do it.
Thats a dope plad long sleeve James is rockin!!!
Something A 1996 Stevie would have worn
But for real you guys you have the belts if there was a name and title
BEST HOST AND FORMER WRESTLER 2 MAN PODCAST UNDER 5 YEARS....
HERE ARE THE NOMINIES
1. JAMES N STEVIE
2. JIM CORNETE N BriAN LAST
3. JAKE THE SNAKE N MARCUS
AND SO ON N SO ON
RESPECT RESPECFULLY🤜🤜
In West Palm when I use to dj that Sunday rule was in effect and sometimes we would end our Saturday night before 12 on Sunday so we would have to wait a few minutes.
and let us not forget one of worst landing on feet injuries with poor sid vicious snapping his leg in half on a simple forward kick from 2nd rope. horrible spot that had no reason to exist for a person not really suited for it on either end, sid in giving it and the opponent in taking it were all miscast. i believe sid sued about it as well as he claimed he was told to do the spot despite his telling the agents that he didn't feel comfortable doing it.
Yep. Looking at this, Bronson landed brilliantly, accounting for almost any scenario. It's awing how smart that landing is, yet his foot catches...
Tennessee is where you learn how to master calling it in the ring.
Insert Jarrett strut here. “ ha ha”
Not sayin Scott Hall wasn't super strong but note that he's not carrying all the weight with his arms. Most of the opponents weight is sitting on his upper back/shoulders.
Dark Knight is the best comic movie ever. No question
I believe in Steve Richie
2:08:57 I don't know why, but Stevie's shot going away from the screen made me laugh way more than it should've
Hey Stevie, guys here.
Nice, was just listening to a previous episode :)
I put a lot of the "indy crossover" mindset and spotfests to Mick Foley. He's said in interviews that he's into "moments" more than "matches," and how did he get over? With that video of him jumping off a roof onto a mattress, and Hell in a Cell. Now, Foley was a great entertainer and had great promos, but if you look at what's out there it is hard not to see the connection. There are other factors and players involved, but... "jump off high things and through things" is heavily Mick-- ECW et al did the same stuff, but it was Mick who was mainstream, made WWE champion, headlined PPVs, and so on.
Raisins leather oak sweetness, this cigar is great and the video too
Every wrestler throughout their career should go through several, what I call, Finisher Cycles. It's not that Wrestlers shouldn't have their finisher kicked out, but rather that it should go something like this...
1. You should be on a fairly dominant run right before it happens for the first time.
2. You either should go on a back and forth situation where it is a series of wins and losses, or you should basically start losing more and more with more people kicking out of it.
3. You should get take a break at this point depending on health and if you've been overused or whatever other reason you come up with.
4. The next step is two directions. You either try out potential finishers, usually losing, leading into struggling towards something like a lesser title, where you master a new finisher till it's perfected with the title win. OR you come back and your first match is a dominant win against either the guy you broke your finisher, someone that is close to that person, but a little less as a "try out" for the next match against the guy who broke the finisher which you should dominate to, or lastly you beat someone way above where you previously were.
5. Dominant run goes here.
6. Cycle back to beginning for another plateau surpassing.
This is a very basic layout of how you should evolve and such when you let someone kick out of your finisher. People love redemption arcs and underdog stories. This is that. It also give you a place and reason to face or heel turn, because you have a struggle, and as a result of that struggle, something changes and you do better.
Also...If you're really clever, you plan ahead and have a several stage finisher which you can evolve and change up a little but, but never actually ever change your finisher. You can make a sloppy weak version that you use for when you have people kicking out and then a strong looking version for when you "hit your stride" as it were.
Let's go💪🏾
Stevie popped me with the Chappelle's show reference
One day I want to see Stevie Richards on an episode of Undertaker's Podcast Six Feet Under With Mark Calloway. If Maven was a guest so can Stevie. 😉
Depends on if Taker's opinion of him is soured due to The Godfather being vocally unhappy about Stevie during the Right To Censor days.
@anointed6386 Dang, I forgot about that. But then again you'll never know. That was decades ago they all should be cool now...at least I hope lol.
Martel took a bump from Booker BUT his Martel’s foot caught the rope coming down. That was all it took. Martel was hurt and out. Stevie, this is a great candidate for What Went Wrong. What I was wondering is if Martel was not used to the size of the ring?
What went wrong it's episode 24 in the description and the thumbnail is episode 25
1:33:41 NFL does this too. It looks like the “picture clarity” tv. Probably the only instance of that I enjoy
1:54:53 Rick Martel - I was seven in 1990 when I became a fan. Of course at that age, I was a die hard babyface fan. But there was one exception: Rick "The Model" Martel. I thought he was the coolest, and even rooted against the Ultimate Warrior when the two of them wrestle on Superstars. Idk why, but yeah. Love me some Rick Martel.
Mahoney renting a car without a license a story I didn’t know I needed.
When Jake DDT you, you stay down unless your name is the undertaker.
“I’ll show you. YOU’LL SEE!!!”
Big list, Yet your are missing so many banger albums that came out this year!
Ric the model Martel was so good
Going PG is where it went wrong for me. Making John Cena Hulk Hogan 2.0 for 20 year was not good. Cutting out all the sex and actual violence made it look and feel too manufactured. We knew it was "fake" but things still felt impactful until the PG Era. That took me out of it and I still have zero interest in watching the product to this day.
Same. Stopped watching in 2009, cena was godawful and unbearable to listen to. And it's only gotten worse.
I don't think the sex and violence of the Attitude Era made it better. It was the personalities that made it what it was, both before that era and during that era. I went to a number of house shows during the late '80s and early '90s, and the reason I wanted to go was to see the wrestlers, to see those personalities up close. I wanted to see Hogan, Warrior, Demolition, The Hart Foundation, Andre the Giant, and others. And the reason I enjoyed the Attitude Era was because of Stone Cold, The Rock, Shawn Michaels, and we can name many more. But the era before that was PG, and it was just as amazing as the Attitude Era. The sex and violence wasn't needed because the wrestlers' personalities shone through and made it special. And I didn't care for John Cena or most of anyone else after the Attitude Era either. I think the only wrestler I've actually liked was Sasha Banks.😂
@@G360LIVEThat's the thing though. What was the Key Trait of those people you mentioned? Their entire persona was Attitude. It was Stone Cold being profane and violent. It was The Rock and Shawn Michaels mixing in Sexual Innuendo and being brash personalities. It was Inherent in the Personalities. WCW brought you a clean product. ECW brought you only sex and violence. WWF Attitude Era brought you the perfect middle ground between the two. Early "Ruthless Aggression" ramped it more towards the ECW Style and the network exec backlash caused them to course correct to being WCW and corny.
@@G360LIVE Yep, you have to make great characters and get talent who can make the audience care about them. Guys who you grow up wanting to be like, who you see as heroes, or guys you hate with burning passion who you see as monsters, and can't wait to see them get their ass whooped.
All the sexual innuendo and thumbtacks isn't going to be able to make up for a lackluster show, with mediocre pansy talent who can't talk, exude no aura or masculinity, think wrestling is spamming destroyer powerbombs and superkicks, not selling, and who look like a jobber from 2005.
I mean it was really only 8-10 years. Kinda like with hogan (in wwe atleast) his run was really only 6-8 years
One of the things that never gets brought up is the tragic death of King Kong Kirk. It completely shocked the world at the time. It was said to be news all around the world.
And what impact that had on wrestling.
It was the start of the end of British wrestling. Because at the time I suspect the TV production believed Big Daddy was responsible.
But later it was revealed that King Kong Kirk died of natural causes, he had a series of heart attacks. And he probably died before big daddy did his token move.
Which cleared big daddy.
But for something that shockedt the world and is probably biggest thing that’s ever happened in wrestling of all time. Because Kirk died in the ring. Which doesn’t happen very often or if it’s ever happened before…
It seems it’s been forgotten.
I do think it probably created a problem for wrestling on a whole.
And there was a lot of questions about where to go forward from it.
I’m just wondering if it has affected anything that’s follow through today.
One of my earliest memories of when I began to stop watching and being invested in wrestling was when WWE kept doing ad breaks in the middle of matches. That took me completely away from the match and I started to see how structured matches were. Another pain point was when they kept merging the titles to where raw only had the world title and the intercontinental title.
AEW hitting a big dive and IMMEDIATELY going to break and returning with a dead crowd and guys just screwing around really made it clear there was a "template" going on.
@ I don’t watch much wrestling anymore but sucks to see it never changed. Look like my decision was justified.
My autistic son has started copying the Ha Ha, love it!
Theory: DCEU all will ultimately end with Batman killing Darkseid in Final Crisis AFTER getting hit with the Omega Beams -- "The death that is life." And the movies we are seeing now are the ever increasingly hostile realities that the Omega Sanction sends Batman tumbling through.
That already happened in final crisis by Grant Morrison (2008)
(easter egg) Razor razored edge Strike Force, former tag team champs.....Tito annd Martel, in these clips!
1;19;18 "ya know sometimes they pull off,mostly in the girls matches" sounds like a shoot on the IWC if I ever heard one
1:41:01 I don’t know I agree that they aren’t watching. I just think the focus is on the moves rather than the reasons to do them
The dark knight IS the best movie Stevie!
would love to hear his thoughts on the kawada driver/ganso bomb the fact its never injured anyone baffles my mind
Fenix’s quote was translated. In Spanish, inhumane in this context most likely means unfair . It’s funny how all the wrestling media are using inhumane in its literal meaning .
Woo hoo!
Can we also add there being zero point to the referees? In AEW especially, the ref literally begs guys “please Kenny, get in the ring! Please!” Nowadays you can beat a 10 count by spending 10 mins on the outside. It’s absurd.
I know it was meant to be a cool spot and all that jazz but I've started to hate the cage dive spot since we have seen two major injuries from it in Adam Copeland and now Bronson Reed.
The big problem with Starks and Fenix is TK said he wouldn't be like Vince and keep people there if they didn't wanna be there. Now he's doing the same thing he was on Vince about.
As far as the business side is concerned: billionaires having the say, Saudi money, and ridicolous tv deals that these streaming networks give out regardless of the product quality or the number of viewers because they have so much money that they don`t even care
As far as match quality goes: no more house shows, working once a week or less, no mandatory practice, high six or seven figure salaries for everyone, PG era
48:00(roughly). I completely understand and to an extent agree with the point here, however I feel like if WWE with it's presentation offered up 5 tremendous in ring matches (not necessarily all high flying and flips, but that does have a place as well) at a PLE they would be a lot better, if a match isn't top quality it doesn't belong on PLE/PPV in a modern setting, an issue I have with the big events is the filler matches that are placed to give the viewers a breather before another big match, to me these feel pointless and lose my attention. I think there's a place for world class wrestling but on events around 3 hours with a little room between each match with some video packages or promotion, even backstage interviews with performers coming up later, that would be my ideal scenario. TV wrestling shows are another conversation entirely where the variety of presentation comes in with for example some comedy etc
By the way, my all time favorite wrestler is Baron Von Stevie.
Complaining online opening when you only have two companies to work for is wild .
As I recall Rick injured his leg, came back and then reinjured the leg again.
When they started doing 50 moves for no reason rather than 1 move for the right reason
Wwe should hire Stevie for NXT
Overweight American here, so of course my comparison is to food.
A good card, be it TV or PPV or Mania, should feel like fine dining where everything compliments the overall meal. Current booking sometimes feels like every course if trying to jam an entire meal's experience on you every single time a new dish comes out. It's too much. Openers should be openers, main events should be main events, and there should be ups and downs in between. I don't need seven Canadian Destroyers in my salad course, and I don't need my soup to swerve me with a fully cooked beef wellington at the bottom of the cup. Wrestling, and cooking, should harmonize, not compete with what came directly before and directly after to win the night.
1:40:30 i do this to learn everyones spots and how to add myself in their matches