TLFX Testimonials: Cliff

Hello, this is Cliff. Wanted to add my contribution to the TLF ten
oral history. I have a few personal recollections I'd like to share about the
Labs Fan. I'll start from the beginning. I, like probably a lot
of other people, discovered the laps Fan through the series of YouTube videos that
they posted of them interviewing Dave Meltzer for the WrestleMania Journey. It was June
of twenty fifteen when I found it, and I didn't start listening to the
Labs Fan immediately after those videos. It took me a few weeks to actually
download an episode, but the first one that I downloaded was Starkade nineteen eighty
five, which was the episode in which they honored Dusty Rhodes after his passing,
and I remember thinking that the episode was unlike any other podcast that I
listened to at the time. I was listening to a New Generation Project podcast,
Attitude Ever podcast I had been listening to OSW Review for a few years.
Those were all nostalgia pay per view review shows, and while they analyzed
the pay per views, they didn't do as deep an analysis as the Lapse
Fan, and I just remember thinking that it was a slow conversation between Jack
and JP about the Hard Times promo, and I had to train myself to
have the patients to sit through a deep conversation about it. I didn't realize
at the time that these guys were in best friends that you know, had
years of having these discussions with each other. And it didn't hit me yet
that that's what I was listening to as just two best friends having a discussion
about wrestling. But I listened to the whole episode. It took me a
few days, and I remember at the end of the episode, I had
my phone plugged into my car and I looked at the amount of minutes that
had passed on the episode. I was looking at my radio, the little
display on the radio that says what you're listening to, and I saw that
the episode was like two hundred and forty minutes long. Maybe that's not exactly
correct, but I remember thinking myself, holy shit, this is a long
episode. I've never listened to a podcast, a wrestling podcast, that's ever
gone this long. And I know there's a sexual pun in there somewhere,
but I'm not gonna make it. But that's one of the great things about
TLF is that they can talk about wrestling pay per views and do it for
hours and hours and hours, but probably great sacrifice to their their their own
health because they probably don't you get as much sleep as they should. But
I never get tired of listening. You know, some things can go on
too long, like an aw pay per view can go on too long,
and you can think, oh my god when it is gonna end. But
I've never had that feeling about a lapse fan episode. Maybe during the Trial
of his life, which I'm gonna admit I still haven't gotten through yet.
It's the only journey I've haven't gotten through, but I've determined to to one
day. But yeah, everything else, I've never thought, oh man,
they're talking about this pay per view too long. They're going on about this
too long. It's what sets them apart. And when I see other podcasts
saying, oh man, we're doing three hours today, I think they're amateurs
because the Labs fan does that and more on a weekly basis. But even
after listening to Starr K eighty five, I still wasn't listening week after week
for some reason. I don't know why. It just took me a long
time to get into listening to the Labs Fan on a weekly basis. A
few months later. I think when I really start to listen to them devoutly
was when I was going back into their archives and I listened to their episode
on Halloween Havoc nineteen ninety seven, and there was a discussion at the beginning
of the episode about fall and the warmth and nostalgia about the fall season coming
and the weather getting cooler and school starting up again. And that sticks out
in my mind because for a long time I had that nostalgia for fall and
the feelings that fall gives when you're a kid, but I didn't know how
to put it into words, and I never heard anybody put it into words
before. I guess maybe because people like summer more than fall, nobody really
talks about fall the way these guys do. But I remember hearing them go
on and on about the fall season and all the wonderful memories that evokes.
And I got out of a car for listening to that, and I went
into my apartment and I just said to my wife, these guys get me,
and she'd go, who are you talking about? I said this this
podcast the last fan, these two guys, they just talked about Fall and
everything I think about Fall, they just said it, and after that,
I think Starkade, the Starkad journey began, and that's when I started,
you know, listening addictively to the Lapse fan. You know, I think
this is going to sound creepy, but it's kind of like they're friends of
mine, because you know, friends have certain common experiences, they have certain
likes, dislikes, and a lot of the memories and likes and dislikes that
I had him in my own life. These guys share with me and that
really connects with me. And that's probably one of the reasons why I keep
listening to it. Just some other things I'd like to share, you know,
I I'll never forget this. I wrote the email for the Survivor Series
ninety one episode in which, you know, I was watching Survivor Series at
you know, six years old. Undertaker beats Hulk Hogan. I wasn't expecting
it. I had just started watching wrestling that year, so I had never
seen Hokogan lose a match before. So when it happened, I started crying
and my dad was laughing at me because I was crying, and then I
tried to bite his neck. And I remember listening to JP reading that email
and just dying laughing at how he was reading it, and you know,
Jack's commentaries on the side. And then I played that form my dad on
Father's Day because it had to come out right before Father's Day, and my
dad laughed. And my dad is never liked wrestling, and he I don't
think he ever liked me watching wrestling when I was a kid. Now he
doesn't care, but as a kid, I think he might have been embarrassed.
He might have been embarrassed about it, probably, but he loved that
email and he thought that that JP did a wonderful job reading it, and
it made him laugh, and that really meant a lot to me. And
then I wrote an email thanking it for it, and then they read that
email and that was hilarious too. So I'll never forget, you know,
what they did for my dad on Father's Day by by giving him that joy
and making him laugh. And it really meant a lot for me that they
did that, you know, and they're just reading an email. I don't
think they set out to, you know, make my dad's Father's Day,
you know, special, but they did, and it was great. And
that's just they're really just great guys. And that goes to another moment that
I remember. I'm the guy that got the the the hopper gift. In
Christmas of twenty twenty one, my wife had emailed them asking if she could
pay for a hopper pick, and because it was the Christmas season, they
were gracious enough to just say, all right, we'll give you one for
free. And that was really nice to them. I mean, they didn't
have to do that. And that was a weird time because that's when the
omicron variant of COVID was really spreading. My wife, myself, and my
son ended up getting COVID. So they wanted to interview me on a Monday,
and I asked them if we could hold off for a few days,
just because you know, I had COVID. My wife had just contracted it,
so you know, I didn't really I wasn't really in the mindset to
be talking about a wrestling show at that moment. And they were like,
yeah, that's fine, And not only did they wait a few days,
but they also emailed in the midly just to check out if we were fine.
You know, they wrote an email saying, hey, Cliff has everything
going, has your wife, you know, you guys doing okay, And
again didn't have to do that, but they were thoughtful enough to just check
up on us, and that really touched my heart. It's those kind of
things. It's not just I don't just listen because they talk about wrestling.
A lot of podcasts talk about wrestling. They're like a diamond dozen these days.
These guys are special guys. They are funny. The analysis is really
interesting, the research is obviously very thorough. I enjoy the cynicism which they
look at things, and they're just thoughtful guys. They're just thoughtful guys.
And I think whatever whatever accolades they receive, whatever business they do through the
T shirts and the Patreon and whatever else, it's all well deserved. And
I just hope that they continue doing this for ten twenty years, if they
want to do it, and that maybe it leads to something bigger for them.
Maybe he opens up, you know, more doors for them down the
line. I just I wish nothing best for those guys. And just one
more memory that sticks out for me, the Bruno San Martino episode when Bruno
San Martino died. I remember the historical context part was like eight or nine
hours, and it was really good, and it really honored Bruno's career,
and it again was a very thorough retelling of his life and times. And
then at the end of the episode they talk about the twenty thirteen Hall of
Fame and laps Vinced laps Vince smacks laps Bruno and calls him a fucking guinea
wop. I was driving, I was at the stoplight. I fucking died
when I heard that. It might have been the funniest thing that's ever happened
on the show. Funnier than maybe even funnier than them reading the email about
me trying to bite my dad because it came out of nowhere. Wasn't expecting
it, and it was almost like those eight or nine hours of honoring Bruno,
we're just a setup for Vince smacking the fuck out of Bruno and calling
him by a derogatory name for Italians. Priceless. Loved it. So that's
my Those are my recollections of the last fan. I'm gonna keep listening and
I hope again that all the good things that that can happen to them will
happen to them and for them. Thank you