Ep 358: Summer Mailbag, Cont'd (Part 1)

We continue to luxuriate post tonh. I mean I need a breather, like
a three month breather. Yeah. Well, we're working on it because the
goddamn mail bag is so full and so long since we've paid appropriate attention that
you know, non TNH missives that are constantly coming into the lapse fan at
gmail dot com. And there's one key reason we're going on ten years here
doing the show. It's because we stop at nothing to pay appropriate tribute to
the people who take the time to listen to and support us. Because of
people like you, that's exactly correct, and because of people like Fred,
Oh you damn right. At the tail end of this episode, a little
special treat for the Solar System. If you care to stick around, we
sure hope you do an interview with Fred from the Solar System, who you
may know by his um wrestling persona, the Purple Parrot. The Purple Parrot
has had I believe a pair of matches against someone you know well in boss
Atkisson. Is that right? Well one, they've had one matches, but
their paths have cross on a number of occasions, so it's it's a there
is some there is some bad blood between the I try to get in the
middle of it. Um. You know, I try to keep my relationships
with both of them separate. But you know, things happen over in the
Renaissance Rumble. And Fred recently made an absolute smash flying the TLF flag at
least we like to think of it that way, on the set of the
institutional game show Wheel of Fortune. Yes, Fred had an amazing showing winning
his initial absence. The Wheel of Fortune was on his side, apparently,
so and h and also was invited back for a fan favorite sort of sequel
run at the show. And he's a lifetime game show enthusiast and a long
time TLF supporter, and we're going to bring you an interview with him about
the experience of getting on Wheel of Fortune and what it's like and why he
did it and what he had to go through and what you see when you're
on set, the questions you've come to expect from TLF. When we've got
that adjacent edge, when we've got that adjacent way in right, you crack
that door open a little bit, we'll walk through it. Absolutely, We're
not going to do the work to open the door. But if it's open,
yep. You know, we may make exceptions in terms of the general
non interview vibe around here, and we're proud to make an exception for Fred
because, um, he really did this all proud and yeah, made quite
an impact. You may have seen some of the stuff, uh you know,
coverage of his appearance on Wheel of Fortune because Pat say Jack boss right
put him in the chicken wing to continue. He fucking came up from behind.
I mean he Thank god that that. Fred's not fucking Hulk Hogan's we
were you doing an excellent question piece of ship brother. The good thing he
didn't do that in w W Weekly, But um, you know, there's
nothing more lapsed fan than Fred mentions to Pat Say Jack that he's a wrestling
fan, and that comes to be the defining characteristic of every subsequent interaction he
has with the man. Like you know, you you start going in one
direction, you meet somebody, you start going in one direction, and a
moment that you say you're a wrestling fan, you've made a sharp detour and
that is the new direction forever, which is how all they can see.
Right. If Fred told Pat Say Jack that he was a football fan,
do you think he would have shoulder checked him at the end of the episode.
No, yep, no, no, not at all. So that
it's also a very uniquely lapsed experience that Fred has on the set of that
I can actually identify another way too, because I think of it. Uh
whenever whenever I see your father in law and he brings up the Carfax commercial.
Oh sure, yeah, absolutely, that's you know, it's something about
that guy, something about fucking car from the car Fox my guy. Yeah,
yeah, that's great, all right, yes, fucking twelve years ago.
You know, it's about Fred, and it's about the solar system.
Yes, it's mailbag time, and we have opened the mail bag a couple
of times for TNH specific letters. A couple of times we did as great
feedback came in on that journey that just concluded. But there's a lot of
other sort of odds and ends, which is of course where the solar system
truly excels. Indeed, and we've got so much to say celebrate. We've
got so many people that have jumped on board at patreon dot com slashed the
lapsed fan to add some some oil to this machine. There we go to
be the ones that enable the things they love instead of just take take,
take take, and suck off of them. And yeah, without a community
like we have on Patreon, we don't do the show and podcasting sucks loss
right, agreed, So let us continue to light the way here and waste
no time in doing so. Again, it's patreon dot com slash the lapsed
fan. We don't need to run through everything. But you do know the
Moat Tier just got an amazing treat and that we went to Blood and Guts.
We watched the latest addition to the art of war games, The Boss
and I in person at the TD Garden and only Moat Tier members got the
call Boss. Yep, that's right, that's right there. You know that
those kinds of special engagements, that that's where it really pays. That's where
we keep. And of course Russell Mammia available in the tier as well.
We've got a little cinemat which has been absolutely roaring this year, The Punisher
with Kevin Nash, the most recent episode that available to the twenty dollars and
above Tim and hey, you know, I keep, I'll say, we
keep, we keep inching towards the big the bidding, and I'm very very
excited. I think it's gonna be it's gonna be a doozy and uh that's
man is has it been fun under the cinema this year? So much,
so much stuff being worked through, so many you know, potential avenues,
probably ourselves of course. The live calls are yours each and every month as
we watch modern WWC. You don't have to coming up. The twenty twenty
three installment of Summer Slam, which is always a big one on the calendar,
will be up from patrons for that and um and so much more.
Of course the show as well on Patreon. When Summer Slam the first weekend
of August, the Saturday is always Nick constrain, So Saturdays at least one
Saturday month now belongs to Nick con If you want to consider yourself a wrestling
fan, good luck with what a con al right, and that'll Kappa hot
laps summer in so many ways. Let's good the mail bag. Let's turn
it over to the solar system and in the end, stay tuned for our
interview with Fred at the tail end. Now we're going to go all the
way back to guess what month bus It's got to be something from last year,
No, oh, November, as Carlo writes regarding the freedom of infinite
choice versus the safety of gate keeping curators. We talk about this all the
time. Yes, a parallel can be made to a study of playground fences.
This I did not know. Oh, apparently a study of playground fences
that kids play on playgrounds. I didn't know that there were studies about playground
fences concluded that the overwhelming conclusion was that with a given limitation, children felt
safer to explore a playground. You see, without offense. The children were
not able to see a given boundary or a limit, and thus we're more
reluctant to leave the caregiver. With a boundary, in this case, the
fence, the children felt at ease to explore the space. They were also
able to separate the caregiver and continue to develop in their sense of self while
still recognizing that they were in a safe environment within the limits of the fence.
Or something to be said for that. You know, you know who
else is better off when they have a fence? Is that a thief.
Carlo also writes, infinite choice makes us more insular, more isolating, not
less so. Whenever you feel like we live in this golden age of choice,
realize that that has a lot more downsides than it does upsides, less
likely to leave our caregiver. He mentions in this case the childhood and stalgia,
warmth and safety, dre, I say, happiness of a simpler time
with more and more content feeding my insatiable desire for comfort. The history of
the world is in my hands every day, and I favor what is close.
Are we talking talking about how when there's no curator to decide what gets
on television or what is rebroadcast to the wider world and a user generated content
hustle, that we all live in this dystopias. Yes, we're all happier.
We're happier when somebody says, you know you don't have infinite choice,
absolutely select from the menu, please and stop listening. There is a reason.
There is a reason why you hear from any like when when When When
you're a parent and you're wondering, you know how to fucking you know why
your kids fucking going crazy? It's always due to structure. When they're told
what to do. Yes, don't think you have free will. Free will
is the end of your existence. You need to be told what to do,
what to watch, when to watch it, when to go to work,
when to come home from work, when to fuck the whole thing?
Yes, wasn't it. I think it was mad about you. Paul Riiser
got in trouble because it was it Helen Hunt right his his coast. Yeah.
She finds out that like his his random like romantic like entreaties correlated perfectly
with a certain thing being on television. She was trying to give them all
kinds of credit for being spontaneous, and she realized it was like the most
simply scheduled a thing possible because wait for something to show up on TV before
he made a pass at her or you know, hit. Of course,
of course you need that structure, even if it's spontaneity. And and by
the way, what the fucking thing is? What is? What is cool?
What's going to work? What's not going to work? Come on?
And if you think you're a free will guy, I just realized all those
videos you're watching, um, you realize you need to be told what to
do with your free will as well? Yes, yes, right, give
me a guide here. So Carlo concludes the history of the world is in
my hands every day, and I favor what it's close. What is safe,
familiar. Yes, in a world of infinite choice, I spend my
time spinning my wheels on old pro wrestling and secret in private exactly because of
and as a reaction to, the lack of boundaries. I'm old enough to
remember a time of curator's experts gatekeepers, and I hated it condescending, lowest,
infinite choice, mainstream bullshit. But it was that boundary that gave me
the freedom to explore christ I was a Dustoyevsky scholar under that regime that But
to be fair, as there are infinite choices, there are also a maze
of infinite fences. And within this playground, TLF has allowed me to explore
the depth of postmodern reality and history inside the fence of the quote unquote pro
wrestling industry as a reaction against it that can only happen from within the WCCW
journey. Is is it riching and enlightening? As the brothers Caram's off,
I know it used to be better and it will never be the same.
And so far as the world is one big wrestling promotion, the booker is
dead. Now we have a bunch of fake fighters, all claiming with equal
standing that they are in fact, the champion of the world as a bad
booker, worse than no booker at all. It's the question, Carl,
will we thank you? That's that's letter, that's that's that's that's a great
that's a great question. That's that's the heart of the matter. That is
it. That's why we love feedback shows because it doesn't let us take our
eye off the ball of like what it says about us that we do this
show, and what it says about you that you'll listen to it and support
it with your money. I can't run away from that. How about Jordan,
He's got a great headline of great seventy mine thank you for feeding an
unhealthy obsession. That's right, High co Chairs. I've been a dedicated listener
and Patreon subscriber for a few years now, and I'm a huge fan of
your deep and extensive work. Your podcast has been the friend to share a
pro wrestling discussion with on a level that just hits right, thoughtful and sophomoric.
Brother, Brother, I am a professional in the world of work.
Yeah, we wrestlers. Yeah, that's fucking Vegas Jesus Christ, and my
love of pro wrestling is a shameful cross to bear. It must be hidden
for one's own sense of self. For example, I've recently started a new
job, and I've been hit with the classic intro questions such as, what
are you doing your spare time? So, naturally, that's such a tough
question for a wrestling fan. Man, Oh my god, what's your hobby?
Oh don't even know? Ye, yeah, when you do for fun?
I watched TV. What do you watch on TV? Well, I
don't want to talk about it, So naturally, I said, I take
a cast about bluffing brawls and spurious scuffles deep in my ass for hours per
week. No, of course I didn't. I'm an adult trying to avoid
being labeled in the workplace as a bit odd. So I said, sport
and movie history podcasts. Oh, not necessarily alive. Very true. I
do live under the cinemat so that truly is a movie history history podcast.
But you also notice I said podcasts plural. How can you explain to someone
outside of our little nostalgia bubble here in the Solar system that you simply listen
to a podcast for hours and hours and hours. Anyway, I do love
what you do, and thank you for your ongoing high quality research and output.
That patron subscription subscription is truly earned. What I wanted to email you
about was that Jack you mentioned you did a paper in college on wrestling.
You did? Um, I did a paper high school on wrestling. All
right, everybody you did. It's called the valedictory, right exactly? Now,
It's always it's always a very easy lay up. Oh you know what
I did? Do? I did? I did a presentation about the parallels
between wrestling and a Brazilian Cup away at home, which is dance. Did
you did you really? Yeah? That's fure studies like you have to study
like traditions that date back before like modern society. And wow, you see
what you did there is you you took You took a modern you know construct,
and you related it to something that has a more you know, historical
cultural No. Yeah, I just have like a full bodied and cynical understanding
of wrestling, so I can write par anything I need to get through the
assignment. Oh god, um and reminded me that I also did this in
university here in Scotland. I went to the same university as the now Drew
McIntyre, and I actually did the same course as him, but it was
a couple of years after he did. We never met in Uni, but
we did have the same lecturer at one point. The lecturer gave us a
project with a lot of scope to aligned sociology and criminology theory to anything we
wished, so at Crowbar, No not divon wrestling into we could done with
Crowbar too, or repo man wrestling into mine. The lecturer and I discussed
my paper ideas in an open discussion on Drew having been on the course,
having in the course, and how he was doing at the time, etc.
But it was a conversation with the natural smirk of a member of the
general public when they end up somehow in a conversation about wrestling. To be
fair to the lecturer, he was very open minded, and the paper actually
got a decent grade. Here's some extracted lines I hope may provide a tickle
given your amusement at barth etc. Oh my god, the title what is
it? Boss pro Wrestling in the Theory of Civilizing? Oh baby, now
we're getting started. I mean, I mean, that's a fucking that's it.
You've won me right there. And is it possible to read this without
smoking a cigarette or is that no, I've I mean, I've got one
going here with a you know, like the classic cigarette holder as well,
So I get the law barth thing never fails. Man. As soon as
you hear like a university type talk about wrestling, it's just the countdown is
on to They mentioned bar every single time, and in fact you're better off
mentioning at first, so it makes it seem like you're more of a of
a scholar than just a fool who likes fake sports. One of the key
elements and the theories of now but Elias of civilizing, and this is the
concept that there is a constant refinement and improvement of technology is man as rules,
laws and morals. It also suggests that pre modern age sanctions were controlled
by external bodies, but through the process of civilizing, these controls are slowly
moving inwards. Professional wrestling currently has an audience of millions. Well, why
this is so peculiar in relation to Elias's concept of civilizing is due to the
fundamentals of pro wrestling. It is recognized as possibly the oldest sport in the
world, along side running, but it's moved from legitimate competition to spectacle where
combatants work together to create the illusion of competition with causing minimal harm to one
another. In regular society, carn artists would be duly punished for their crimes.
In the world of pro wrestling, these deviant tanks are welcomed by its
fans, who allowed themselves to be calmed. They bought tickets knowing exactly what
they were going to witness. With civilizing, why would people let themselves be
calm? With civilizing? Why would people let themselves be calm? That's a
very good question, and furthermore, why not distance ourselves from our primitive past?
Pro wressling's popularity it could be claimed as by byproduct of Elias's theory of
civilizing. With an increase in the sensation send sensization towards towards violence. It
allows for a sophisticated theatrical representation of the violent urges were oppressed by social morality.
We also might understand the professional wrestling offers a more sophisticated treatment of our
cultures violent urges than do other sports. The violence is a real pretend art
artsy people should love wrestling because I know exactly. It's a way to experience
the dynamic of conflict and fighting without anyone actually getting hurt. Well, it's
expression necessary for evolution, right, everyone can go home after the gallery party
and exactly and and discuss and analyze and you know, pinpoint things that that
that create, you know, a psychological metaphor for life, and then make
out and drop the whole facade that the whole thing wasn't a big extended for
exactly exactly and then and yeah, and it starts fucking you know, just
starting our fucking know right an artistic way, but in Brooklyn, but still,
yes, in Brooklyn, in the booth of a of like a of
a trendy in the booth of like an old wood paneled pizza place. Yeah,
we're okay, even better, even better, and it's just like you
know, there's just there's just fingering and pleasuring going on. Well, glad
we cleared that up anyway. Elias's theory implies a gradual increase in self control
of a various bodily and emotional expressions, including violence. What can be drawn
from this is that, in accordance with the Elise's theory of civilizing, our
violent urges have been suppressed by social morality, but through pro wrestling and MMA.
Our primitive instincts are given a safe environment in which to be released,
a sophisticated treatment in accordance with a civilizing one. Our primitive instincts like singing
Chris Jericho's theme song. Yeah right exactly, but fucking seth rawlins idiot.
Now that's some mental gymnastics to falsome day into wrestling into non wrestling environment.
I but Drew didn't feel compelled to squeeze wrestling into any papers in his time
during this course. Whoh this has been yeah all right, sorry now,
and how that's some mental gymnastics to forceably into wrestling into a non wrestling environment.
Yes, I bet Drew didn't feel compelled to squeeze wrestling into any papers
in his time doing that course, My poor lecturer. Thanks Jack and JP,
wishing you both the best. PS. I just finished anything any sense,
But I can't telling myself with Jack coming around to loving Joe Fowler for
all those negative columments just written upon him. That's funny, Yes, that's
really funny. That's last year's Independence Day under that episode he stuck. That's
right, that's right. So I want Independence Day where we we I mean,
I listen. I don't, I don't. I don't say it to
brag, but like, we actually there's not much out there about Joe Fowler,
and we were able to reconstruct it and find his professional history just based
in newspapers. It's amazing, you know, I was joking. Boss puts
together the graphics front of the cinemat which we show on Twitter and Instagram,
that he tries to find a frame involving the wrestler that allows them to qualify,
and in that one or the wrestling personality, and in that one he
actually had about a half second to work with the entire fellow. So funny,
I mean, man and like and like shoot him up with Christian like
this is barely a shot with these fucking clowns. I want to thank Pete
McTaggart for the generous pledge and welcome him into the inner circle of the Solar
system. Ross Mueller for bumping up to the moat tier, which we know
is is a big lift, but a worthwhile one. It's one that you
know announces your arrival as an adult. It's like a bar mitzvah for a
TLF for exactly exactly. We want to thank Willie who posted. My uncle
came into my apartment one day and caught me listening to that cast, he
exclaimed, pornographic radio. Yes, thank you for the memories, thank you
for the inspiration, and thank you for the portcu I can imagine. I
can imagine that port That's that's a fucking phenomenal. It sound like it's your
but but I can not only that, but I can imagine like when if
you get caught listening that, you kind of it's like if your parents walking
on you, jerking off right, you know, absolutely, Brent, thank
you very much for the bump up to the fifty dollar tier. Great to
see you, and I hope you're still locked and loaded and dialed in Haystacks.
One of our very good friends, Rights TLF is the neighborhood taco truck
owner who always took the time to shoot the ship with you when you picked
up your order on your lunch break. That became the CEO of the Fortune
five hundred company that produces your life sustaining medication and now uses its own lunch
break to hop into a taco truck and drive over to your neighborhood to sell
you tacos and shoot the ship. With you, m I kind of like
it, especially the taco piece. Yes, a good friend, James Irwin
rights, when you revealed that you were going to attend Mark mccool's One man
show, I had to get up in pace. People are so glad we
did that. The old people that aren't glad we did that, or us.
I know. I've had to come home from a family funeral. I'm
sitting in the family home at the end of the dining room table, James
writes, working from home. My headphones are on and I'm sitting here convulsive
at this soundboard mashup, hoping none of my family walk in and see me
and to stop. I just thought that was a nice lapse snapshot for folks
to consider. Yeah, right, exactly. This one from Dave, who
well, like so many, writes a letter, the thrust of which is
you guys called it. Yeah, Oh God, that's like, yeah,
dearest Gods of gooch grinding. That's correct, A new one. That's a
new one. Firstly, I am a freeloading bitch, and for that I
apologize. That needs to be done more properly. Whenever whenever that that word
comes up in an email, it needs to be done like this. Firstly,
I am a free exactly, Let's cut to the cheese fuck it,
and for that I apologize long story I don't deserve to tell you. Hopefully
debt free by March February March, and then I will start repaying my debt
with that noted. Even if you see this worthy of a mention, I
expect no recognition, but you my annual passage punishers, of course, no
best, Yes, yes, this is the the podcast for punishment in your
antal passage, that's for sure. I'm on my second go round. Skip
the Trial of his life until I'm man enough to get the transscripts. But
an episode two forty three Art of War Games Bash eighty eight Tour, Part
two Time Stamp forty two sixteen, you discuss the screams of teenage girls when
the Rock and Roll Express are being attacked, and how the promoters of Pretend
could get teenage girls to go to live entertainment, you know, noble conversation.
This then goes to getting YouTubers to become involved in the ultimate fakery mis
leaves Jack to suggesting at forty two forty eight finding some YouTuber with a following
and make them wrestlers, shortly followed by suggesting Jake and Logan Paul by name,
thank you very much? Does your power have limits? Now? I
fear even our warlord and savior is unable to control you. Your damn right.
I thought you'd beat you And appreciate this call, this callback. Thank
you for pulkamania. Absolutely many. That's a big part of TLFX, you
know. Can you find moments along the way in the catalog and send us
the screenshots and the time codes to where we fucking we're ahead of the curve
because we always are to the point that we lose track, honestly. So
yeah, look forward to those at the lapstad and gmail dot com. We've
already got some great submissions in Again. The ASP is that you record a
personal reflection of what tlf IS meant to you as we approach our ten year
universary next year, and then if you can include a time code of an
episode where there's something really impactful that we said or did, and we'll try
to sort of resurface those in concert with spreading your message for all to hear
next year. Yeah, Mike made a good post. He said, this
is about under the cinemat We must have been discussing what soap opera stars became
actual movie stars. Do you remember what movie that was? Yeah, I'm
trying to think of what's and I feel like I know, I can I
can feel it that we that we talked about a soap opera star who became
a movie star. Um. He suggests other ones that became mainstream stars.
Morgan Freeman, which I did not know he was on the soap opera.
I didn't know that either Kevin Bacon and Meg Ryan. So I knew Kevin
Bacon, I did not know Meg Ryan only it's a thing. Yeah,
well, hey look we we did it with a punisher, so it was.
I mean, he's not like a major star, but we I heard
that. I played that clip from whatever the fuck it was with Will Patton
and David strathn two big time actors. Sean Wheeling up in the UK,
want to thank you very much for bumping up your pledge, Bryce bar two.
Thank you very much for jumping in to the inner circle with a pledge
on Patriot On Ryan writes, as a mass hoole myself, I'm disappointed if
Dunks gets my order correct. Must have joked about that one hundred times over
the years. Liam writes, am I the only one? Am I the
only one who has yet to recover from Scott Hall's passing and the journey this
podcast took us on. I feel haunted by Scott after listening to all that,
like, I can't help but recognize his mentality towards copping popping in my
own daily life. Ever since those episodes, I have multiple tears, tears
in my shoulder labor and literally a dozen discourney in my spine. Chiropractor's equal
workers. You got that right, Liam's right, these are spine style.
Now I find myself doing pizza, ex pills math regularly. It started off
subliminal, but now I just think, yeah, that now you make them
work, Maine. Yeah, anyone who's walked the Primrose prescription path, I
think has trouble listening to the Scott story without seeing a little too much of
that. Just don't end up, you know, expiring when you fall and
break your hip. In the middle of lockdown, Tim, thank you very
much, Tim Bevers for your pledge and joining the Inner Circle. Paul writes,
I'll be honest here. I pay my Patreon fee for the yearly description
of the day after sandwich. Oh yes, the wrestling deep dives are just
a bonus. And the thought of a turkey procession absolutely killed me, especially
carving in time with the music. It can't come back soon enough, boss,
I don't know if you agree. I'm ready. I mean, are
you kidding me? Listen? Listen? All right? Yeah? Please?
It's nothing. Nothing gets me happier then when I walk into a store and
it's sweltering outside and I'm miserable because it's fucking summer, and I walk inside.
Yes, and they've got Faull decoration. Oh my god, it's already
starting. Oh yeah, are you kidding me? We're absolutely, absolutely mid
July. I'll tell you listen as someone who has worked at a Halloween store,
right, we opened in July. When I did that, we opened
in July. You know you gotta you gotta get her, you gotta get
it open early. People are ready. I think he's already this year,
I really do. I'm so. I'll give you and I'll give you one
guess as to which tier we're going to keep nearest and dearest to our heart
this holiday season when it comes to sharing those special moments. Instructions to come
quite soon, by the way, on that fucking Christ machine. It's never
too early. Oh yeah, never too early. I think you've already got
a few presents in for it, I think so. Yeah. The po
box and you know how it goes. It was a smashing success next year,
and one too many folks had to decry the fact that the President didn't
arrive in time or they fell it honest the window, so no excuses their
friends. And in that vein we ought to let folks know that the return
of the hopper that we talked about last time were with you is nigh.
It's approaching quite soon. I would say, keep a very close eye on
the first week of August, perhaps maybe for a little bit of detail in
that regard as the co chairs kind of regroup post TNH, decide what we'd
like to do as opposed to what you know, the chronology of a journey
is forcing us to do. That's right, and then as always turned it
over to you guys. Yeah, but a yeah, day after Sandwich,
Paul reflecting warmly and positively on that and the Turkey procession. So that was
a very special Thanksgiving around here, that's right. Looking forward to Oh yes,
we got this message here from Ronnie Boss. This is I had to
follow up from one of our more thoughtful Solar System members. All right,
Ronnie, what do you get for us? This is the first time in
a while I really had some time to put my words together and had to
let you two perverts know how I found out about this fuck cast all those
years ago. It is absolutely I just started my first semester of college at
you of h after a lovely summer of dealing with the worst fucks imaginable at
our local movie theater. You two have been quite instrumental in keeping me sane
with all of this work and change. So let me first thank you for
that. I've been watching wrestling since I was about eight years old, randomly
turning the TV on an episode of SmackDown in early twenty twelve. He was
young, he was I feel old every day he was. He he was
born. He was born, you know, a year before we graduated college.
What do you want me to say? Yeah, I mean, just
the reality everything they tell you about time passes by quickly. Yeah I Know'carlin
says. It only seems that way because everything else lasts forever, like the
mountains. It's true. It is true. It looked out away. It's
and everybody's fucking double. You know, have doubled further down the road than
you thought they'd be. The next time you put your head up. Time
passes fast, passes by so fast, especially after college. Yes, well
when you get out of the school thing all of a sudden, you know,
I can still remember, like, uh, in school thinking to myself,
Oh wow, like you know, I might think about wrestling stuff.
I'm like, wow, it was only like a couple of years ago that
you know, wrestling was this hot and wrestling was this fun. And now
that's over twenty years ago, you know, so um years on randomly chime
on the sign. Uh. Pretty soon John Cena, my Terry Palaya became
my hero and I desperately needed more. From then on, I did everything
I could to get my hands on anything wrestling related. My mom, unlike
my dad, who had his heartbroken as a child by finding out it was
phony horseshit fully supported my obsession, getting me three disc documentaries from pawn shops
or from Walmart when she could, as well as the sweetest prize of all,
getting me a new figure every other month. I will admit it.
No one. Nobody else knows this. But years later, despite being a
senior in high school and captain of the football team, I would come home
from school, reaching to my closet and put on the Performance of a Lifetime
daily with my wrestlers, and I loved every second of it. The smack
of plastic when I hit a superkick, along with vicious elbow strikes and forums
because that's Japan or music to my ears, the DVDs I would really sent
me my fantom over the top. I must have come home from school and
watched Austin's or Cempung's documentary every Day the best in the world. D d
said was the fucking ship for me as a kid, that's one thing putting
on is watching something over and over and over and over again. God yeah,
gone, yeah, yeah yeah. Well, unless you're my kid.
What she watches when she gets a show, she's on it for But all
right, but I'm not talking about like a twenty episode thing. I'm talking
about he you know, like one piece of physical media, like you watch
a DVD or tape over and over again. Yeah no, that that that
that is definitely gone or listen to me to watch it over and over to
watch it over and over and like, you know, play it, rewind
it, play it again. Yeah, long gun. There's too much out
there, you know, right. We live in a world of of of
of endless options, and isn't it better that way? I think we've already
talked about. M oh, it's not brother. Uh. It was fucking
shit me putting me on to the independent scene and getting me hooked on a
ring of honor and soon old TNA shows from getting a glimpse of Samoa Joe.
I took it upon myself to make wrestling scene as cool as possible to
my friends, eventually putting the entire seventh grade hut cz w. Oh boy,
I knew once I showed them some poor soul getting a pair of scissors
through his tongue, the ultimate wrestling fan act, like I don't you think
it's ridiculous, but look this guy really got I know you think it's fake,
but look this guy's wrapped in I mean, how do you fake up
this guy's fucking hooked up on his back? You know, fuck through this
as some guy getting getting thrown through going through glass, it would get them
hooked. Ww's fake, but this is real. With my go to line,
but let me go get back on track. The day discovered the laps
Fan, I remember it like it was yesterday, looking on Apple Podcast for
another wrestling related show to listen to because the ones I had been on simply
weren't cutting it. They were all one to two hours tops, and that
just wasn't going to fly anymore. Despite not being interested in the current product,
I knew I loved wrestling for a reason, and the old ship was
always going to be there for me when I needed it. You, sir,
just may very well be a candidate for the Lapsed Fan. As I
was scrolling, I saw the Lapsed Fan and decided to take a look.
Pretty soon, Eddie Guerrero's face on the poster of the two thousand and four
No Way Out show popped up and I gave it a try. As I
said in my first email years ago, Vince sexually harassing Shaniqua immediately proved to
me that this was going to be my show from here on out. That's
the right. Plus, it was three hours with two parts, and here
I am, almost five years later, typing this in my dorm at eleven
pm. But anyways, you two became my friends that knew wrestling like I
did, and more that I always wanted this life. Shit is a little
wild sometimes, but to have something like this be available for people is so
incredible. It is real. Unlike the topic of the show, right,
I love you both, and thanks for everything y'all have unknowingly helped me with
these past five years. The tests, dumb breakups, Jim sessions, car
rides, and everything in between. I grew up with y'all. Now I
must get to the annual portion of this email. Thank you for robbing me
of my innocence. Oh, thank you for oh god, say it,
I'm thank you for experimenting on a thirteen year old boy. Come on,
get in there and truly oh as if that's the and truly violating my taint
in ways that are inhumane. Thank you for sabotaging my dreams. Thank you
for Alms in the morning with Terry, and thank you for shinniqu Wamania.
That last one I can get behind. Yeah, yeah, tremendous. Well
we love you too, one you mean, get me careful, I'm reading
that one back. Shit, Okay, Burning Hammer. We want to thank
you so very much for your Patreon pledge and thanks to Andrew Makinson. It's
always so nice to see folks who already pledge bump up that pledge even more
boss right because they've sualized it just wasn't enough. John Callowhill, thank you
very much for your pledge. Welcome in. Christopher Damars, a long time
supporter. Love having you in the Moat tier, and we thank you for
making that decision. Ryan Elaney, I think I'm pronouncing that correctly, want
to welcome to the VIP circle. Thanks very much for your pledge. As
to Stuart Wilson and Pinballa and Peter Rustling who made a very generous donation and
jumped to the top of the tier. John wrote to us following his his
pledge, just wrote from North Just drove rather from North Carolina to Buffalo,
New York. Caught up on parts three and four and the then end.
Fantastic work. As always, how the rest of the world gets through the
hum drum. I will never know exactly right. That's where we come in.
He's talking about our our epic Black Saturday journey that we took last year.
Marco Rubio, you tell me if it's that Marco Rubio has bumped his
pledge up to the executive producer tier, and we're grateful for it. Imagine
if it was yes, I could actually Yeah. Matt Finney, who's become
a very close friend of the cast, shortly after pledging, said, you
know what, love not being a bitch, That is all. And that's
the real feeling you get, right boss, that's literally the payback on the
whole thing. I mean, it's really about it's really about how you feel
about yourself because you know you're doing the right thing. Yeah, you feel
so much better if I'm paying for something like exactly, you know, because
when you don't pay for something like a service like this, you you find
yourself like almost tricking yourself into thinking, oh, it's not that good because
you don't pay for it, and there's a guilt there, and you try
to recontextualize that guilt is something that's justified, so you start like becoming a
negative person, right, You start nitpicking things to justify your decision to not
pay, and that's not a healthy place to sit mind frame wise. Yeah,
and we can do something about that if you hit over to patreon dot
com slash the lapsed fan Dustin Joseph did the same thing and he's qualifying for
Under the Cinemat these days, and it's really great. Um, let's see
we have Uh. I'm going to move to Carlos Stallion's comment where he said,
hot take forgive me. Andy's endeavors take place in the same realm where
Sunny got a locker room bucket full of wrestlers shit dumped on her Nehattan National
TV. Hilarious, real, groundbreaking comedy there, pale. Is it funny
Andy, Andy Kaufman? Of course? This is ah yeah, after our
Man in the Moon under the Cinemat? A man? Is it funny?
Andy? Is it art? Is it avant garde? Yes? Yes?
Are you bending reality? Andy? Or just contemptuously shitting on people laughing at
the right have been loaded on those who are self indulgent and deluded in their
vanity before? And he does not rise above. He's not a genius.
He's a run of the mill asshole. Do you agree, boss? Having
stuff Andy as closely as he did for that episode, I well, I
didn't study Andy as much as I studied Jim Um, but I would say,
sure, there, I can, I can let me let me put
it this way. I don't know if I necessarily agree but there are some
very very very valid points. Yeah, I can't see why the people around
him just had no patience for that fucking routine he would do. Yeah,
the total thing. You can we can all like simmer in the juices of
after the fact, but we're living through it. To have someone like that
around all the time. Yeah, I mean, you know, I again,
you know, I think it's it's a weird thing because you're the stuff
that he would that he would do. If you were on the receiving end,
it sucks, yeah, exactly, But if you're not on the receiving
end, it's great. Yes, you know, someone has to be the
butt of a joke or else it's not a joke. And if you're not
the button and we can talk. Dustin writes, Dear Coach Chairman. Listened
for free for about four to six months or so until you did the Kenny
Versus Okada series. I never watched those matches, but vaguely heard of them
through my own friends who are lapsed fans of some amount. Hearing I doubled
ugp screamed made me laugh out loud on more than I was on the I
was on the fence about joining seeing if I really needed more lapsed in my
life. The answer was yes, Yes. The Free Halloween under the Cinemat
convinced me and I went directly for this tier. I will work through the
back catalog, listening to Independence Day currently and loving every second here. They
take care of the take the cake boys and thank you. Well that's great.
See that's and now too, you know for those on Patreon two,
I'm trying to to to do this. It's but there are we were able
to make collections. Now do you know that you can make collections? Yes,
I'm glad you're experimenting with it. So I've put up a couple.
I've created a couple together. Um, and that's I'm going to try to
do that such as especially with Cinemat. I put let me take a look.
I don't remember. Um, I think I know. I got Russell
Mammia ye all together, so you can always listen to those I've got.
Oh, I got I did Total Hogan XO all forty forty forty posts,
forty forty separate patre is that you know you can always assign tags and we
do to our shows. Yeah, you can search for those, but it's
not as it's not as tight as if we just like say, this is
the collection. Yeah there members, yes, and so the next I started
putting the Life and Death of the AWA. But there are episodes of that
that are not on which we this will allow us to work on that,
right exactly, Um three or four, we were right. You had ads
in the show, and it's just right yeah, yeah, yeah, so
but that that's yeah, I'm i'm, i'm, I'm trying to put all
those together and so you can have collections right there. Excellent news. Andrew
Warren, thank you very much for the pledge. We welcome you in and
he writes your coach here as I'm severely behind and listening you guys are on
marathon and I simply can't keep up, but please keep it up. My
wife and I are expecting twins and I'm soon in the near future I will
need some restless nights with you guys in my ears. So, dude,
I can't tell you. That's where we come in. That's where a podcast
like Hours comes in. If you have if you have a child and you're
dealing with, you know, having sitting there fucking as still as you can,
hoping they'll fall asleep. Yeah, and then having to wade another like
thirty minutes before you move, God forbid, you wake them up again as
you place them down in the crib. I mean, there's doing that before
the lapsed fan, and there's doing that after the lapsed fan. You tell
me, boss, if there's any fucking comparison, it's well, I remember
that. That's so funny because I remember I was doing that during the lapse
fan was right right the first year, sure right, that's right. First
year I had my I had, I had, we had had might be
had our kid, and it was like, holy shit. So I understand.
I mean, it's just tool. I mean, good luck or or
or we never know, maybe maybe maybe your child is gonna be a fan
and so you could put it in their ear. They're like oh and they
go right to sleep out against it, not against it. Um. Yes,
he says. As of this date, I just recently completed The Fugitive
under the cinemat episodere we go. Oh God, aust This is also a
sentimental favor to me as well. I had an un kid and I didn't
even have to win a public speaking competition to get it on too. Reason,
I wanted to message you guys. Even before you guys revealed the dry,
condescending nature of Harrison Ford, I recognized it as well. I too
watched the inside the actor's studio with him, and he seems so detached and
aloof The location in North Carolina, with a train and tunnel scenes were shot
is near Western Carolina University. While in college, I would often visit one
of my friends who attended to the school and go trout fishing along the Tuskegee
River. He told one of the best stories I've heard about Harrison Ford.
It was a local tale about Ford that persisted from the shooting of the film.
As the story goes, Ford went to a favorite local diner for lunch.
I'm already excited brother. As he went to pay the cashier for a
sandwich, he looked or dead in the eye and said that was the worst
sandwich I've ever had, and then he left. Wow. I can't authenticate
it, but man, I love it. I also like to imagine Chief
Brunch was sitting in the booth behind Ford getting a donut. Thank you,
guys for all we do. Please have a great holiday season. PS.
Speaking of the holidays, how much his party mix or homemade checks mix put
you in the mood for the season. Is the first food. It's the
first food I look forward to. Andy and Carolina Western NC. That is,
there's fake Andy and NC and Winston Salem the one right dead to be
as thanks very much. Yeah, party mix um for me, it's not
a staple, but I do like it. I'm a fan. Yeah,
one of the holidays where there has been sort of a festive party mix.
So I know what he's talking about, but it's not it's it's not every
year, but yeah, you get there's something the right mix of like drizzle
and like chalk candies in there, and it can be very fative. And
I always like, yeah, you know, I always I always like checks
mix. I was always a fan of that, UM, but I never
Yeah, it's not a staple. It's not a staple. That's why we
do come on, I know, maybe we'll have some Yes, what's that
I'm running of? What is a good what's an old school what's it?
I can't I can't think of like a real staple snack that I keep around
at Christmas time? Really, Uh, Andy's Mints is a big one for
me. Um. You talk about um, Halloween easy and I know that
I'm a rarity with this. I know that I'm a weird one with this.
The pumpkin seeds and stuff, well that too, But I'm talking about
in regards to like actually like a like a like a prepared snack that I
don't do on my own. I love I'm off candy corn. Oh,
don't even stuck candy corns. I love candy corn. I love it.
I love it. I never understood people that love candy corn. I love
it. I off a cake. I know, listen, I understand it's
it's fucking weird as shit, but there is there's something about I get a
bag every fucking year. Boston's only July, and you're getting me feeling certain
ways. I don't know if that's we still got a month and a half
one hundred third degree plus temperature. You should have been feeling this way three
months ago. Fucking hell, Michael Fitzimmons boosted the pledge and we're going to
give him an acknowledgement for that. Same to James Grady, who really made
a quantum leap and how much he's putting in our pockets. And I'm sure
he hasn't regretted it for a second. Christa Mars said I had to jump
in the moat here because hey it's Conrad and got shit on that cast.
Okay, Well to each his own. In terms of opinion, Matt Northrip,
thanks very much for busting up. I'm not gonna say he's wrong,
but yeah, absolutely. Congrats to to Connie by the way for getting inducted
into the Hall of Fame and Waterliowa the Wrestling Hall of Time for his contraction.
It's very nice to see that. Scott Matthias, thanks very much for
the pledge. Appreciate it. Always obliged to it. Remind folks that if
Patron isn't your thing, and a monthly pledge is and something you can do
Right now, we do have a version of a digital tip jar. You
can just send us a pledge on PayPal. Just go into your PayPal,
type in the lapsed fan at gmail dot com and you can put some money
in the kiddie like Daniel Sokolski did. He write, Hey boys, just
try to send a little tip free. All the hard work and wonderful entertainment
spent the better part of today listening to TLF sold out ninety seven. I've
been watching Ron Nitroc and currently since I missed it first time around because of
course I was laps stand up to things like getting a college education, meeting
my future wife, and traveling with a tap here and there. I am
a little jealous boss of people who can like I wouldn't want to have missed
the Monday Night Wars as they happened. I wouldn't trade it for anything,
But it is kind of cool to be able to now know the significance of
it and watch it just cold for sure. For sure. I also I
wonder, I do wonder how how it plays. Yeah, because because there
is so much of that. As I've said a number of occasions, it
really reflected the growing like that generation of people, because here are wrestling fans
who were who you know, like they even said, it's the whole Cogen
generation that they grew up and then they wanted something more, you know,
like like I being a teenager being that in that prime fucking real estate that
they were looking for at the time. It was like they were giving me.
It was it was musty television, I you know, it was just
it was that fucking addicting. Really was. Yeah, again, not a
lot of it holds up and so much of it is is like lill now,
you know, but at the time, it was just like whatever they
could do, it basically had to do with this. Every week they were
doing something they hadn't done five years prior. Yeah, that was the game
and that was kind of it. That's where it was fucking great. Yeah,
that's where I start to like, not along with Vince Rousseau. I
don't often do it, but when he starts talking about this idea that like,
we basically had to go on television and make make sure we were pushing
in a direction that was counter to what you expected every week. I mean
that, you know, obviously we found that that unfettered is just bad television.
But if you have the spirit of like, let's make sure, let's
make damn sure every week that we're somehow subverting the audience's expectations, and it
actually works because you've got performers that can make it work, like Steve Austin,
it's great. It's great because you really, you really just get so
invigorated as a fan not knowing where things are going and not having felt like
you've seen it before. And a big part of that is him just you
know, Rousseau just having two three minute matches. I mean, of all
the things the attitude here, I don't I wouldn't be against the return of
that, just to see if it works. Like you know, I know,
a w's roster is full of some of the best wrestlers in the world
and some of the best guys that can go the distance. But imagine if
just for six months Dynamite had nothing but two to three to four to five
minute matches and promo. I also and and save the pay per views can
have the forty four nights exactly. I always felt like, you know,
because people act like the old formula of Saturday morning squash matches and then pay
per views, and how shows that had matches of length is somehow like an
impossible thing to do in a television world where you're worried about carrying the rating
and so you can't do squash matches. See, I mean, it's not
squash matches. It's just a commitment to having shorter matches between stars on television
so that when the pay per view comes along, everyone's like, Okay,
now it's time to feast, because we've gotten nothing but tastes from these people.
Instead we get like these thirty minute dynamite main events every week, which,
while great, begin to harm the significance of the next one, right,
and it harms the talent. I mean, these guys, they're not
working enough to protect their own bodies. They were only doing two three matches
a week, probably just two, if not just one in a lot of
cases. And that's injury city. Its injuries totally totally to go out there
with that false sense that you're can have plenty of time to recover so you
can go extra hard. I meanwhile, the audience is just like barely appreciate
appreciating it because they see it every week. Ye but if four pay per
views or five pay per views a year, that's when everyone gets together and
it goes Now it's time to fucking go. Now, it's time to really
rev our engines and have five star matches with the intention of really delivering a
match the fans can can really sink their teeth into and feel nourished by.
I'm telling you, no one's going to miss not having those on free television
if you remit to a system where that is the value exchange on pay per
view express sure. Anyway, I've been watching Ron Nitro concurrently, since I
missed it first time around, because of course I was lapsed and up to
things like getting a college education, meeting my future wife, and traveling with
the dead here and there. Anyway, it's pretty obvious that by January night,
ninety seventy rights the NBA was no longer cool. Wow, January ninety
seven, that's nearly time to call the thing, that's really right. I
mean, well, you know what, as someone who has watched you know,
all of ninety six, you know, back to back without having the
separation of a week, it does play out a lot fit quicker. Yeah,
and you're kind of like, yeah, you know, I'm kind of
over it now. Yeah. Yeah, that's that's what I mean, you
know, being jealous of people that can watch the Monday Night Wars and binge
fashion because they can be much more attuned to exactly that those those those turning
points that were hard to really detect when you had to wait, you know,
a week between shows, because it's like, you know, you watch
an episode of Nitro and you've got like in ninety six ninety seven, and
you've got like three or four nWo entrances right in that one episode, and
then it's like then you go to the next week, and it's the same
fucking thing, right, oftentimes with Hogan coming out of the very end doing
an interview and posing, and that's it. And if you watch four episodes
of those in a row, granted, that's that's eight hours of your time
that you've just spent, you know, watching that stuff, so it's probably
not too likely or I guess ninety minutes each time. Whatever it is,
it's like, that's old. You get it's all pretty quick. You appreciate
that it's getting old faster than the people who watch. Yeah, yeah,
yeah, it's very interesting because again you have that week of kind of moving
on from what you'd seen, and then it's like, yeah, you can
kind of you can kind of watch something over again. You can probably have
a rough idea of whether something significant happens on this episode or not, and
come and knowing like, Okay, not only am I watching four nWo entrances,
I also know that this isn't really a historically significant nitro. I had
the benefit of knowing that, right, and so it doesn't feel like it
felt at the time, which is like, all right, maybe this will
be something, Maybe this will be something, you know, Yeah, that
was kind of it. The the the anticipation of, like of what what's
going to happen this week? Right, especially with the wo yep, that
was the whole thing. That was the whole thrust of ye yep, if
it ever actually was never leave it up to wrestling fans to determine what's coolly
rights, because most of them and us are not. That's right. I've
determined that NBO stopped being cool as soon as Hogan joined them. Wow.
Interesting, it's weird. It's it's it's it's not a it's not a completely
I don't completely disagree with that point. It's just that it's a weird.
It's a weird thing because, yeah, the cool factor is the halland Nash
thing. I agree with that, Yeah, but the money thing is Hogan.
Uh. Like we said on Punish Her, I would would would would
Kevin Nash have been nearly the draw if Hogan hadn't been the third guy?
I don't think so right now. I don't think I think the nWo would
have been pretty cold within six months to eight months if there wasn't that extras
of like, wait a minute, hole, Cogan's a heel on top of
it certainly wouldn't have been a two years plus gimmick, three year gimmick r
And I think they would have been less compelled to do the whole you know,
who's joining the NBO this week kind of thing. If Hogan didn't join,
I feel like he would have stayed smaller longer. They wouldn't have realized
with until unless they did Hogan that the money here is who might join next?
That's the thing that that that's the thing we can play for like sixteen
months, right. You know, I was supposed to build one big pay
per view match off of you know, Holland Nash finally having a fight,
or whoever else might join the ENBau in the interim. So yeah, everybody
who joined the ENDBO after Hogan has Hogan to thank because he showed that it
was a money dynamic, Whereas if it was somebody of a lesser stature.
I don't think they would be able to capture the imagination of who the next
guy would be as much, because when you deliver Hogan, then it's like
Jesus, anybody could be in this thing. Oh yeah, And that was
pretty tantalizing to think about. Chris writes to us. This is subsequent to
the Black Saturday episodes we did, and then we did the treatment of the
long lost lost Battle of Atlanta, Last Battle of Atlanta. Right, so,
I'm in the middle of you're already amazing count of the Last Battle of
Atlanta, and in the midst of one of Tommy Rich's greatest accomplishments. I
thought I should pass along some cold reality to go with it. Brother.
Back in nine ninety seven, I was an eleven year old kid obsessed with
the NBO and Bret Hart speaking of the Devil. My dad wanted to take
me to a local wrestling show in her hometown of Sisterville, West Virginia.
At the time population less than two thousand. His big selling point was at
a former world champion would be there, mister Tommy Rich. And yes,
my dad is one of those rare lapsed dads who's loved pro wrestling his entire
life. He grew up Tommy Rich. Come on, what's that but Tommy
Rich? Fuck? He grew up going to see Brutal Live and somehow still
watches to this day, even after I have lapsed. I gave in because
at the time I was own a wrestling. I would have gone to see
anyone, but I had no idea who mister Rich was, other than a
vague memory of him jobbing in early NINETIESCW shows. So we get to the
high school gym and I sat down to the bleachers. From across the gym,
I see a tall blonde man who walks in, and my dad excitedly
tells me that's the former champ. He walks back and at the woman's locker
room. The wrestlers are all in. About five to ten minutes later,
he walks back out, still carrying his jim bag. We never saw him
again. That's right. Show was supposed to start nothing while is happening.
Every now and then, someone looking upset would come in or out of the
locker room. Finally, about thirty minutes later, someone got in the ring
and announced that Tommy Rich had stolen the money and the police had been called.
Several wrestlers had decided, oh my god, that's spectacular. I get
paid Tommy Rich. Indeed, Tommy Poor is mark right. Since they may
not get paid, but the ones who stayed would be starting the show shortly.
From what I recall, it was four guys that stayed They had two
singles matches and then a tag match to finish the show. But time was
not had by all good A good time was had by few. I said,
I couldn't find the actual newspaper article, but I did find it mentioned
on the site solely dot org headline wrestlers jailed for not fighting what Everyone's charges.
If that's the case, that's saying that creates quite a problem. The
article reads, Bleached Blonde Tommy Wildfire Rich and a partner of the Freshman Wrestling
Circuit Dangerous Doug Gilbert, were arrested after they took five hundred dollars cash for
a Tyler County performance but left without taking the stage. The forty year old
Rich, who reached celebrity in the nineteen eighties and Freshman Wrestling Realm of outrageous
Costumes and Comments, What Comments, and Gilbert twenty eight, were released from
jail Monday afternoon after pleading guilty to misdemeanor charges of false pretenses. Oh man,
there's a charge. The Jesus Christ. They're just like I mean,
that should be the name of this podcast, false false Pretenses. That's a
great wrestling podcast. Name. Authority said. The pair was fined and the
five hundred dollars was returned to the Sisterville area Jac's, who sponsored the River
City Wrestling Show to help fund a youth football league. Of course they ripped
off kids in the process, right, of course. I mean that's more
than one hundred spectators showed up Saturday evening at seven dollars a ticket to watch
matches like Bunkhouse Buck versus Killer Kyle Jink, the Clown versus The Punisher,
and Playboy Derek versus Jamie wild Thing Howard in the Sisterville Community Buildings. Sisterville
Police Chief Robert Hout said headliners Richard Gilbert asked to be paid upfront. When
Gilbert then went to their Chevrolet Geo to retrieve something, Out said rich apparently
saw an opportunity to follow him out and drive off with them. Oh my
god, that is absolutely spectacul. The other wrestlers performed Richard Gilbert were stopped
near Saint Mary's, West Virginia by State Police Trooper Gene Yoho, who had
been alerted to watch out for the fugitives. Yoho cited the pair for alleged
possession of less than fifteen grams of marijuana of course, then yes, returned.
That's the thing about stopping pro wrestlers. You'll find something and return them
to Tyler County for prosecution on charges there rich actually Tommy Franklin Richardson of Atlanta
and Gilbert Douglas Fred Gilbert of Lexington, Tennessee, each held on two thousand
dollars bond of the Tyler County Jail and Middlebourne, according to Magistrate court wrecords.
A couple of personal notes here, uh Chris concludes one bunkhouse Buck was
not there. Yeah, I'm sure Doink wasn't either. Oh my god,
I'm I am fucking this is this is this is exactly. This is what
I want from wrestling. This is what we get. What it is about
this that you want from wrestling? I want to be deceived, that fucking
mail bag. Go for it, all right. I want to be lied
to. I want to give my money and then be and then be disappointed,
because yes, why do you want to be hoodwinked? Why would one
want that? I fuck and listen I say it. I wish it had
gone this far. But you know, the closest I can think of is
when I went to that fucking big time wrestling show in uh, wherever the
fuck it was, and somewhere in Connecticut and nash No showed yes, and
like that was wonderful. It's like, give me more of that, all
right. I love the idea. I love here's what it is. I
love wrestlers proving me right, baby, And if it comes to the expense
of my hard earned money, fine, Yes, that way I felt taken
more, you know, succinctly, And yep, it's so true. I'm
never disappointed when that happens. I'm not disappointed. I'm like, yep,
this is what I expected. Like when Scott Hall came out of that show
and fallow River, Massachusetts would still the hospital band on his wrist and couldn't
get a ring, Oh my god. Anybody who was there regretted being there.
No, you say, this is this is history. It's the only
thing that's reverberated that he did that whole year, or that ever happened in
that promotion. Not to put the promotion down me. You get my point.
You know, the spotlight was on them, for better or for worse.
Definitely worse. But yeah, I mean that's the wrestling fan. It's
a morbid curiosity business. And you're just you're kind of look, you're kind
of like NASCAR fans. You're waiting for the crash. You're waiting for something
to go wrong, right, You're waiting for ye You're waiting for the damage.
That's why every fucking review of every match now from the wrestling intelligencias,
oh man, that was a scary spot. That was dangerous because everyone's sitting
there waiting for it. Everyone wants it, applying this unspoken pressure or even
if they wring their hands sanctimoniously afterwards about wrestler safety, they're kind of sitting
there waiting for somebody to get really seriously hurt. YEP. It's a very
strange dynamic, and the wrestlers set up on that, and so they feel
like if they're going to have an impactful performance, they have to risk life
and limb because they know that's really the cliffs notes of what everybody's going to
remember about the match anyway, because that's how we process wrestling, not who
wins and loses and how well we got to that point, about how many
risks were taken therein and how close it came to you know, basically being
like a magic trick where it looks like you almost died but you didn't.
Very strange. Number two one hundred people paid seven dollars and Tommy was paid
five hundred dollars. Something tells me those kids weren't getting their youth football league.
Number three arresting a pro wrestaurant charge is a false pretense. It seems
like a dangerous president. Chris. I'm sucking hit it out of the park.
It's a great em. That's an email and a half. Yea,
so very good, so so very good one. I thank Brian Ferris,
who's always just a massive supporter. He couldn't join us when we when we
did the Survivor series Sweet Party, the two Sweet Party if you will for
vote Tier members and beyond, and he just sent his money for parking.
I thought that was so cool. Wow, Pet, thank you very much
for your pledge. Welcome to the Executive Producer tier. Same to you,
Ryan Warner. We appreciate the support. Ad Ad x three, who's been
a long time supporter, jumping up to the moat tier lapsed veteran doing much
the same. I mean, that's the fucking that's the ticket right there.
That's what makes us the envy yeah, Okay, let's see largeable establish amusement
park. Okay, um, let's see Jeff Brokaw. Thank you very much
for your pledge. We appreciate you joining the paying community here at tlf saam
to use Steve Talbot. We hope you're enjoying dead hand deadhead at Dan ten
supporter of seven ten year. We appreciate it. We've talked in the past,
Boss. I don't know if you remember this. When we did Life
in Death of a WA. Yeah, how there were lawsuits towards the you
know, well after the promotion had certainly died. I vaguely remember this,
yes, where other promotions were using the AWA letters and a fact sued somebody
in particular whose last name was like Gagner, like Bragadio than Arthian and leave
it up to members of the Solar System. This is why we put this
stuff out into the universe, because it comes back to us tenfold. Greg
sends its an email. I wrestled on a fake AWA show. Wow,
dear coach heirs. First off, I wanted to apologize for being an unloyal
slut. That's right. I've been a FAMI podcast for years, even was
a member of the Patreon page for a long time. Then I did the
unthinkable. M I did the unthinkable. I became a professional wrestler. Suddenly
fan podcast became too cynical for me, and I gravitated more towards workers of
the business podcast. I became Conrad Thompson's personal cock sleeve. However, the
lapsed itch came back. Comes a point where you just thirst for truth.
Yes in this life, yes, yes. And while there's certainly an unlimited
amount of related relatability if you're if you are an in ring worker listening to
the other the other boys talk about the business, come on, sometimes we
all just need to know the truth. Yeah. Yeah, if you're in
the business, you need to hear from people who aren't in the business right
but who loved the business and who want to enjoy the business. That those
are the people keeps mentalities coming back to the business, who keep coming back
to the business, hoping, hoping for something more. Almost two years later,
after I debuted in pro wrestling, I was house sitting for a friend
while she was wrestling in the Memphis area. I just finished booking myself in
the Chicago area and we had planned to ride out together to another booking the
next day when she got back, so to save on gas, I stated
at her place. While she was away, I fired up the paccoq and
watched countless WW documentaries, one being the AWA doc they had put out sixteen
years ago. That's when the boss impression of Verne Gagney crept in. That's
when I knew that that they used to be better opinion wasn't cynical, it
was valid. So I began to relisten to the life in death of the
AWA series. Was hooked. I'm that crack like you for it, yes,
known as the lapsed fan fucking go. What sparked a memory, though,
was Dale Gagner. After eight months of wrestling for the promotion I was
trained at, I opted to leave. I was trained by WWE job or
Jerry Fox, who I learned quickly is a fucking Carney Fox or Rock and
Randy as we knew him, ran weekly but never paid his wrestlers, pocketing
whatever money he can scrounge. The promotion drew poorly. It would only draw
the max building capacity of fifty people once a month. I fucking love it
so every other weekend. YEP, we were lucky if we could draw eight
people. It's when you get to this level, but just left the heart
of them at our shows itself. Yes, you know what I mean.
It's not that Tommy Rich ran off with five hundred dollars allegedly. It's get
it in this town in West Virginia. Yes, right, that's what based
so much more right telling exactly, it's the whole fucking shebang. No hustle
is too small when you get bit by this bug, right right, you
all have to understand the sickness is real and the sickness is coming for you,
Okay. Randy wouldn't let you wrestle anywhere else. He would project false
hopes, saying he had a connection to WWE when he really didn't. He
would claim he trained Cmpunk, didn't we all, Yeah, I trained him
too, Yeah he's trained him when I knew damn well a Steel trained Punk.
Randy would claim he trained Callisto and Mustafa Ali as well, when in
reality, Windy City Pro Wrestling trained them. Guys who've been there for years
would stay and never venture out, thinking Randy held so much power. But
I knew in my heart of hearts it was time to leave, So I
did and moved schools and finally get a taste of what independent wrestling really tasted
like. I learned quickly I should have done more research on some of the
promotions I was able to get a spot for, especially the one promotion the
subject of this email is about. I wrestled on a promotion called Powerhouse Wrestling
Extreme. I'm sorry, hold on please, I wrestled on a promotion called
Pale House Wishing. I guess correct. I was eight months in and boy
was the match I had terrible. I won't watch it back, that's how
bad it is. At the time was Moondog Murray. It was my first
time as a heel, and when I began logging my match, as I
learned, it was my forty sixth match. However, that wasn't all I
learned. When I researched the show. It was billed as PWX slash AWA
YEP Freightmare in Street Tour. When I did when I learned, when I
did more research, I learned that the promoter of this total shit fed bought
into the bullshit that Dale Gagner felt fed him. This PWX became a member
of the AWA. While I found this footnote hilarious, that I technically wrestled
for a Friday w A show. It once again reinforced why I do research
and communicate with other wrestlers before accepting bookings. Were reaching out. This promotion
booked half to untrained wrestlers, and an alleged it was a total creep.
Oh my God, Jesus Christ. The promotion is in infants amongst amongst the
group of wrestlers I now trained with, And I learned why the hard way.
Here's the cage match listing for the show, and he listened, thinks,
do you want me to read it? All right? And he sends
the He sends the match. Thank you for reminding me why I need to
remain laughed because of you hashtag shelf Live. Thanks for the follow on Twitter,
praised me to the war lord and thank you for how Comania love it.
Greg. That's the business, thank you, brother. That's the business.
We can't forget. It still operates at extremely small, micro levels like
that in every state in this Union. Yes, like the heart of this
business is still alive and beating. It's not something we have to long for.
It's happening in gymnasiums and community speakers. And yes, fundraisers and everywhere
that somebody makes off with the bag. Brennan, we want to thank you
for the cake. We'll make off with the bag gladly. Ye, thank
you for the pledge, he writes, upgraded to the ten dollars tier.
Not because I want it. Guess why he did it, boss, Because
because I fucking need it. And you know what he writes, I'm not
done climbing the tears right spirit to be or you know, and then and
then when you become a fucking a real, a real man, when you
fucking start pledging above the tiers. Yes, oh my god, I know
in denominations that don't even entitle you to anything greater or anything higher. I
mean, now you're growing hair on your nuts now, you know. Now
you're already to vacation in Monaco. Okay, yes, exactly, Jay Wonder,
thank you very much for the pledge. We appreciate your support. Aaron
Stokes, same to you. We appreciate that bump up and that vote of
confidence. Jesse Harrison Mote tier member, legend, automatically. Andrew Trudeau Mote
Tier member, legend, automatically. Connor McKiernan Mote Tier member, legend,
automatically. We want to thank Michael Caprio and we want to thank Mark for
their pledges at the VIP level. Neil has some thoughts on war games and
that's time. Will you be coming off the coverage of Blood and Guts.
Yes, fixes for w W war games. While I like the war games
matches more than the coach heres is talking about surviber series, it feels like
there are several easy fixes going forward. One shortened the periods to two minutes.
I feel like this is the most important. The action got to be
too staggered with the three minute intervals, and there weren't many saves that got
a reaction. Thoughts on shorter intervals, boss, Yeah, three minutes is
too long, should be two minutes. Follow Listen. The formula works for
a reason. Formula you're doing war you're compared to do war games matches all
these years later for a reason, because the first ones were perfect. That's
why it's the same thing with the like the first ones were so thought provoking
and they captured your imagination, and it had to do with the construction of
the idea. It didn't just have to do with the notion. It had
to do with the nuts and bolts. It had to do with how it
functioned. Yep, yep. Number two. Have the wrestlers at the edge
of the cage when the clock strikes zero so they can just dart into the
action. The wrestlers running and walking to the ring and gingerly walking up the
steps look scoofy couldn't agree more. This came through a lot in the whole
fucking the whole fucking theme music thing is annoying just there. It's not the
rumble, Like, you don't need music entrances that doesn't even get a pop
in this environment. You need those wrestlers at the door, rattling the cage,
chomping at the bit to save their team members who were in peril.
That's what you need, because the whole thing is like, if you beat
down someone enough, they're going to be a sitting duck for submission once the
match beyond begins. So both sides are just like freaking out. The baby
faces are freaking out because they're good guys and they want to save their friends.
The Heels are freaking out because they're losing ground because they want the advantage.
Right. Yeah. Number three, coach the wrestlers to work in two
rings more effectively. Too much of the action was bunched up into one ring,
and it made for some ugly visuals. Well, probably goes against a
lot of muscle memory and training. One of the things that makes war games
special is using the extra real estate. I think we saw that when Kenny
Omega through Claudio and the other ring. You got a pop. Yeah,
yeah, yeah. I mean when you use both rings exactly to do unique
things that you can't do with one ring, then you're you're you're doing it
right. Number four established stakes for the match. We're not in the territory
era where wrestlers where we'll hold on, where we getting mistakes, Yeah,
that doesn't matter. We're talking you know what are we talking here? Omaha
golden steer steaks? Where now we're talking of as Golden steer stakes. We're
not a territory stair heels getting into a cage to himmer them gets the heat
at once? Did we see these people beat up one another every week?
There has to be something tangible at stake for winning war games. For the
competitors, well, we all probably have more additions and subtractions. We prefer
your weapons, submission, surrender only roofed cages, et cetera. These feel
like doable actions next time within the WWB system. Yeah, Neil makes a
good point, like a lot of the things we pine for and insist on
before we declare war games war games are things WB just isn't going to do.
But his suggestions are ones where they can keep whatever they've decided our musts,
you know, with no roof and all that bullet right, while still
improving the match. Yeah, I mean, everyone needs to be at cage
side, man, I don't know what the fuck you guys are doing.
Everyone needs to be out there. Every member of the team has to be
down there. And I don't know why they don't want to do that.
I don't know why they think having entrances adds to the breaks up the match
and makes it dramatic, it gives it something else. But this isn't a
matter. That doesn't matter what it does, it does break up the match,
right, problem, Yes exactly, I'm like, Okay, that stage
of the match is over, like now, I have to reset. Whereas
if it's continuous like that, it's it's just you never take your eyes off
the ring, and that's so key and get in a match like war games,
yep Um, Andy Hepburn, thanks very much for the pledge. We
appreciate you getting into the Audrey sorry healing brother, Audrey Hepburn, Ryan Harvey,
thanks for increasing your pledge. Matt, one of the most rock solid
members of the Solar System who is such a ride or die motherfucker when it
comes to helping us on the hunt for differentiated footage and research materials for the
show, was able to join us through no small series of miracles at the
aforementions of Riverer's series Sweet Party, and we look forward to seeing him again
real soon. Wrote us this letter afterwards. Despite my travel exhaustion and the
event itself, I had a blast in the suite on Saturday. Thank you
both for welcoming me. I had so many conversations with like minded people that
I'd never get to have otherwise. I wish I could remember everyone's names Chris,
Adam, JP's dad, Guy four five, etc. But it was
all true, every bit of it, and I'm grateful to have been welcomed.
When I collapsed in my hotel beds afterwards and started scrolling, I stumbled
on a Twitter threat where people were waxing nostalgiic about the glory days of war
games, back when it was just an NXT thing. The solar system needs
each other. Oh my god. Right, I'm not saying I'm surprised,
but seeing in person how the sausage is made for your live calls took nothing
away from my experience listening to it during my trip home on Sunday. It
only added. It's a notable testament to the some of your parts. Sitting
next to you in Gorilla for the first few matches reminded me of that part.
And catch me if you can, where Tom Hanks's character finally gets Frank
Abagnali Junior to admit how he passed the bar exam. Yeah, I studied,
Or like when it was revealed how David Blaine pulls off that trick where
he eats someone's drinking glass. Turns out he has put in the work and
what he's doing is eating the fucking glass. TLF was the realist thing in
the garden. Well, Matt, we were thrilled to have you there and
absolutely always a pleasure. After all these months, we're able to thank you
for this note. Mukhor, thank you very much for your pledge welcome in,
my friend. Same to e sc that's how you prefer it be pronounced.
We appreciate the cake clutch mcgutch. Now that's somebody who you want in
your corner. Wow, I'll say, talk that sounds like a wrestler.
Fucking hell, Brian Blake, let's see our good friend. And part of
what is annoying with Punk is how he wants to throw himself around like he's
the Rock as a star, and how he's doing people a favor by being
around Meanwhile, twenty thirteen, Punk moan forever about Sena and Rock head lighting
WrestleMania because they got a bigger reaction and we're a bigger attraction and bigger stars
trying to spend that He and Taker somehow was his key to the business.
What Wardlow and MGF was basically more talented, better versions. So this is
all underneath our m a W double or nothing coverage from right in twenty twenty
two episode brought to You by the Hopper. By the way, so a
lot of thought provoking stuff here from Brian. You know, um it's great,
he says. The only thing I wish Jack mentioned after JP's effusive prage
was how praise was how MJF was then totally off TV for weeks and weeks
that was a tough stretch of TV. Yeah, that was m I don't
know, man, we went there, we saw him JF. He's he's
the heart of the matter. He is, he's so fucking good. He's
so fucking good. What did you think seeing him live at this stage of
his development? Um, I mean, yeah, this is god. I
guess I would imagine the last time I saw him live was was it must
have been a double nothing in the first one? Yeah? Was he there?
He was there for all in that very first show we went to.
Yeah, but was there for double or nothing in in? Um? Yeah,
forty sure, that was there. Yeah, I think he was in
the Battle Royal. I mean, he's he's a fucking star and he's so
good and I love it. I often think back when like when I when
I hear people going nuts for him, I often think back about that,
uh that that when we were guests on that on that on the on that
podcast, and we we we we we did the uh the list of dream
rosters dream rosters, and I had him on my list because I felt and
what you're talking him now yeah, yeah, And now he's doing headlock takeovers
for finishers. He's shooting spet to the caloon. He's doing suicide dives.
After building it up for months, he's I mean talking about slaming seven hundred
pound giants on Twitter. Ah, dude, if you get to, if
you get to steal it all, go ahead. Many at the fist pump
leaves the imprint of dynamite time and ring Nathan Garcia. Thanks very much for
the pledge. We appreciate the cake seem to you, Marcus Crouch. We'll
put that right in our fucking pocket. Thank you very much. Um.
This is uh back from the Christmas Show which we were so proud to bring
you and look forward to bringing you again. Christopher writes, after three long,
busy and emotional shifts on the psych ward and has an already lapsed aw
fantas has hit the perfect spot for me on my day off Mary Christmas.
To the lapsed co chairs, Maxim and all the other gaping colocas of the
solar system, this feels like a true forbidden feud. Are stolen fire nectar
of the God's tier levels of satisfying serendipity for me, So thank you all,
so we do out there, folks for the pot. You know,
Steve Austin calls himself the podcast for the working man, but I think we
all know the truth. We know what podcast gets you through the shift.
Absolutely A Rinaldi. I thought aw was going downhill when Punk was injured and
has gotten worse after all out this is. You know, it's hard to
read this stuff now because so much has happened, but it's funny to look
back incherent storylines matches to feel the same forgetting about people, et cetera.
I hope the mjf raime backs picks back up, but even his promos have
become a bit monotonous. All rights that Adam Page my friends are mean to
me so I'm going to drink too much was embarrassing. Yeah, yeah,
Adam M. Page is kind of rudderless right now. I don't know or
what he's supposed to be or what we're supposed to latch onto with him.
It's time. Rob Strothman, thanks very much for the pledge. We really
appreciate it. About the Silverdome. When I think on tlf X Boss and
I think of, like, what do I want to make sure to not
forget about the past ten years of doing the show the Silverdome. Oh yeah,
about how little people seem to remember how fucking brilliant that whole thing was.
And I still remember that the sound of getting to the water logged floor
of the Silverdome right proximate where Hogan slamed Andre in eighty seven, and feelings
if we were walking on water, because we were, Yes, yes,
I remember. I also remember being afraid. This was so funny, like
feeling for some reason that it was a lake in there, and it's like,
well, no, man, it's only like a foot deep, Like
you can't be that fucking deep. Like if I stepped there, I would
go to my wife's like, it's right, it was. It was.
It was just the sounds, the texture. It's a SMR experience. If
nothing else, it's the just the and and and being there in the center
and looking up around and seeing what was left of the building kind of being
if you you know, like kind of being in the in the center the
eye of a hurricane. You know, that's what it kind of seemed like,
perfect I have a hurricane exactly, because it seemed like storm torn and
there was water everywhere, and ye, that sky had that blue right immediate
post storm blue to it. Hum Man. That was just that was one
of those things where it was like, you know, there's something, there's
a life force pushing these moments into existence for us. You know, there's
some there's some if you believed in these things, there are some invisible hand
saying no, you guys are doing the right thing with your time. I
know it might seem in quixotic and stupid and foolish and risky, and I
love quixotic, so that's good for me. So if you want to,
if you want to find it. Not only is it available you know,
as an audio podcast in our in our feed, but we also made a
video of it. We actually prepared it as part of our pre WrestleMania show
that year. Ye and Boss put it beautifully together with some of the still
images we took within the rundown ends of the Silverdome and and video of the
absolute deplorable body slam. Now we had to run tape for that. This
was some business has been finished, I think you said right, Business has
been finished? Yes, And it's available on YouTube. Just type in Silverdome
Elapsed Pilgrimage and it's up there. It will come up there. Let's see
what David has to say. Dearest co Chairs, I wanted to write to
you today to relay an experience that I didn't think anyone besides me and a
close friend of mine would ever care about. I am relatively new to TLF
and the Solar system, and as such, I've been going through the catalog
from the beginning. I felt a little movement in crotch of my pants when
I saw a specific title. It lapsed Pilgrimage the pot Yank Silverdome. I
listened to it and was riveted, not only because it was an engrossing audio
drama, but because I have a personal experience with that very building. That
is what brings me to write you this email today. July eighth, two
thousand and three, only a euros or so. After the Detroit Lions moved
to ford Field, me and my best friend, who was also an old
school WWE fan, went to Metallica's Summer Sanitarium show, which was an all
day concert with five big bands and none other than the fabled Pontyanc Silverdome.
It was only a couple hour drive for us, and we were big fans
of the band, but That's not all that was on our mind. As
we barreled down the highway heading to the show, talk of one thing dominated
to the car ride. We were going to the Silver Dome. Yes,
the sign of WrestleMania three. Yes, pulled there for some strange reason.
You know there's nothing there, yep. Of course, I remember catching my
first in person view of it. It was in the distance still, but
the enormity of the place stood out against the vivid blue afternoon sky. We
were early for purposes that will soon become clear. The parking lot had not
yet seen much volume for the upcoming show, and as we rolled up to
the Silver Dome, all I could think was that I think of think was
what it must have been like on March twenty nine seven. I imagined all
those kids in the backseats of their parents' cards that they pulled up and took
in their first glimpse of the dome, The butterflies that they must have been.
They must have felt, knowing they were going to see Hogan versus Andre.
Little did they know they'd see so much more than that. Little did
they know they'd not only witnessed, but be a part of history that night.
I mean every time I see any still images from outside the Silver Dome
the day of WrestleMania the afternoon and oh yeah, oh god, any footage
of that like sun kissed after, I just I shut down. I just
have to sit there and go what happened? Like what we had it?
Yep, we had it. Yep. We get out of the car and
approached the Mantras Place. I was fortunate enough to have received two passes for
the concert that allowed my friend and I'd have access to some backstage areas.
While the idea of trying to meet some of our favorite musicians was tempting,
the lure of WrestleMania three was stronger. Security must have either thought we were
cleared to roam free or simply didn't care, because nobody stood in our way
when we decided to go exploring. The place was falling up part in those
days, in those days, in Jesus Christ's fall apart up until down twenty
year death. Yeah, and was fairly dingy, but we didn't care.
We were high off the historic fumes. We took the opportunity to find the
Lions old locker room and guessed that it was probably the main backstage area for
the wrestlers that legendary night so long ago. Wandering around, we found offices,
bathrooms, Jesus Christ, they fucking did us janitist closets, and all
the stuff you'd expect to find in the bowels of a huge stadium. Well,
that doesn't seem too exciting. It felt to us like what wandering around
an ancient Roman colisseum must feel like. We poked around like archaeologists for what
felt like days. Dude, I'm with you, this is all great.
I love it. One more trip to the locker room area and it was
showtime. But more importantly, it was time for our main event. Our
plan was to walk out onto the floor from where the wrestlers entered at the
mains three. We were going to walk that long aisle out to where the
ring would have been. Sadly, the concert stage set up may that impossible,
but all hope was not lost. Since we were in early the floor
was still sparsely, sparsely, sparsely, sparsely, sparsely, sparsely, thank
you populated. My friend and I looked at each other and we knew that
there was one thing left to do, the most important thing. We used
our collective knowledge and located precisely where the ring would have been that night in
nineteen eighty seven, and we made our way there. Before long, we
were standing in the exact spot. We both were taken with the situation,
the rush of what it must have been like to stand in that ring and
look around at the countless people. My god, we were both racked with
emotion, and we both knew what time it was. I'm a smaller of
the two, so I was the one to go up. I leaned in
close and waited. Suddenly I was off my feet and the Silver Dome was
upside down. My friend dropped me gently, but still hard enough for us
to consider it what it was, a body slam. I got slammed in
the exact same spot the ring was during WrestleMania three in the Pontiac Silverdome.
People around us laughed or looked at us like we were lunatics, but we
didn't care. I took the ride leg on with the giant, and my
buddy slammed me like Hogan in the exact spot that had happened all those years
ago. The upcoming concert didn't seem to matter as much and felt like a
bonus to us. After that, we did what we were what we went
there to do. We still talk about it to this day. Keep up
the incredible work, gentleman. As do we still talk about it to this
day? Yes? Indeed. No small coincidence then that back in May,
the comedian and songwriter John Lejois were released a riveting music video starring all of
his LJN figures called Whole Coogan Slammed on the Giant. You better believe when
that came out, everybody was directing it our way on Twitter. And it's
just a song about the exact thing we're talking about, and it's a video
about the exact thing we're talking about. And so that was another great thing
about that lapsed pilgrimage is to realize we truly were not alone in feeling a
pull to those totally ratty Detroit environs. Ye, Gregory Davis, thank you
very much for that generous pledge right out of the gate. You are now
an executive producer, my friend, and we appreciate it very much. Josh
Wright, same to you, Thanks very much for the cake. Ellis writes
after we did Double or Nothing twenty twenty two. I do think it's important
that Jack and JP stepped their toe into modern waters once in a blue moon,
because then we can come on Patreon and show how we're really not any
better than the modern fan that we professtivate as we go into our little tribes
and mock everyone who disagrees with us. Yes, that's part of the reason
we did it, or agreed to do it, is because we knew it
would reveal truths about the sickness. Yep, Mike Poolin thinks very much for
your moat tier level pledge. You are now a legend UM. James Irwin
White writes, I'm sorry to say, but the ex Caliber Hooks SoundBite might
be one of my new favorites. I put down my caliber a long time
ago that kind of and it brought a Dorman fought up up again. Patrick
Heron, thank you very much. Great to have your support. John Hooker
had a great piece of business for us UM related to our Double or Nothing
show UM, where we of course covered Sam Punk beating Adam Page and the
promos before that that led to the blow up at the backstage fight. The
brawl out is door and called, and you know that LUPA has been closed
in a lot of ways as Punk is now back in a W but still
being kept substantially separate. Yeah, what a company. What a shit show?
Of course only in fake sports Man, Absolutely yeah, because it's fake,
it becomes that real, right. But I think John had some nice
thoughts co Chairs. I was surprised that you agreed to cover Double or Nothing
twenty twenty two. As a die hard lapsed fan and also a huge aew
mark, I enjoyed the hell out of it. I also felt the need
to contradict a couple of claims you made on the cast. Jack said at
the two hour thirty three mark of part one, There's nobody you'll find who
was preconditioned to take one side that ends up taking the other. There's nobody
what that means. There's people basically had made up their minds about all they
liked Spunk more than the young Bucks before this all happened, and then just
fell in line. I guess I'm the outlier. Punk's pipe Bomb brought me
back from being lapsed for like the third time since I became a fan,
and Money in the Bank twenty eleven is the first tape of view I ever
attendant in person. Despite watching this shit since eighty seven It probably had something
to do with the fact I was about to go through a divorce at the
time and needed my own voice of the voiceless. But that notwithstanding, I
embraced Punk fully. I went to the first dance and loved it. However,
I also attended the recent Thanksgiving Eve Dynamite Chicago, and when the crowd
chanted see him, Punk high injected interdicted sucks between utterances as loud as I
could. I hope Chicago he's doing well now, I know, right,
Chicago, Phil is an asshole. Fucked that guy. Um, I mean,
I see his point. I don't necessarily think you were meaning like that
far back. No, No, I wasn't. No I was. I
was thinking like There are people who thought AW was going to be completely imbued
with the indie spirit, hot topic, t shirt spirit of the young Bucks,
and when CM punk came in, they realized that Tony Khan saw something
more than that, or at least he saw it as a more diverse top
of the picture, or at least right the kind of acts that he was
comfortable to finding a w went beyond what the elite created. That was just
like the seed Capital, if you will, for the whole thing, the
seed energy of the thing. And I mean, like I I, yeah,
I'm trying to I don't remember where I don't think I give a shit.
Actually, I'm trying to think where I stood in the matter. No,
no, I don't think you had a strong thought one way or the
other. And I don't think when c him Punk first first came into a
w people did either. It's when there started to be a realization that like,
wait a minute, Punk is not only coming in, he's gonna win
the world title and he's going to be the person they pushes the face of
aw and he's gonna probably all the elite guys along the way. Most of
course, that's what he's supposed to do. You know, he's the money
player. And so it was it was like, you know, because everything
got built without him, you know, It's like all the money to pay
him was there because others proved to be the money players, and when he
came in, it was like, well, guys, like we kind of
have to I don't know what they're paying him, but they're paying him enough
that he kind of has to be the guy here. We can't pay him
this much and have him not be the champion. And you know what,
I just don't. I never saw any problem with that except that he fucking
got injured. That was a big problem. Yeah, that was a problem.
And I'm actually thrilled that he hasn't gotten hurt since because he's worked really
hard in some of his matches into and he's still holding up, which is
good. But yeah, there was a big problem. And and yeah,
so I think people, you know, it's kind of like, um,
you know, you have a party in high school, and it starts with
the ten kids that you actually want a party with, and then word gets
out through three or four other kids and then like the kids you don't even
like show up, and like, right, that's that's kind of what it
was. It's like, all of a sudden, you thought you had your
little click and you realize that like, if the party gets big enough,
you're the cool kids are going to be the cool kids, no matter who
you think you are. You know, yep, yep, um all right,
And here he goes with second claim, I've attended more non pandemic aw
pay per views in person than not. I haven't. Okay, I don't
know. I think he's saying he was he's gone to more than he's watched
on it just TV, I see, and had the pleasure of briefly discussing
post monitism with you two. Yes, I remember that, that conversation at
the bottom of the escalator, and yes, damn fucking right. Um gratuitous
shout out aside the weird disjointed build for Hangman versus Punk at this show that
Jack said didn't prevent anyone from going, actually kept me from buying a ticket.
Chicago was a day to day trip for me, and aw was a
lone bright spot each week during the pandemic. Despite being a huge punk mark,
this whole thing felt off putting, and you uncovered why during this cast.
It wasn't about business, it was about egos. You can include Tony
Conamy in this indictment. I can't stand him by the way. I can't.
I mean, I know, I think I think nowadays most fans can't.
But fucking Tony Khan's face, oh yeah, faces, and he knows
it, and oh, I'm just like, dude, you have no business
being on TV at all. Well, you know, his voice, his
face, everything. I just want to give him credit. He doesn't make
himself a character. He shows up just as like a Jack Tony. That's
yeah, No, it's fine. I still don't want him on TV.
I hear you. I'm not interested at all. I'm not interest seeing that
fucking face. I'm not interested in seeing his his his stupid hair. You
know. It's been kind of weird about that though, is that when he
promotes on social media that he's going to have a big announcement and then he
shows up for like ten seconds on AWE announcement, it gets it makes a
difference in the ratings. Like I kind of feel like, really, yeah,
I kind of feel like he's proven that he's not trying to put himself
on television because he deep down wants to be on television already. I think
he's proven that and now he's like kind of obliged. Every now and then,
when when kind of the buzz gets soft to Montoni con makes an appearance,
it actually means something in that he's not going to do it unless he
has an announcement of consequence, like announcing the All Show in London, or
announcing ce him Punk's return for Collision, or announcing that aw Collision will be
debuting in the Chicago whatever. However, he staggered those announcements like that.
Yeah, um so I almost feel like when I see him on TV,
it's because he kind of ought to do it that way, because it's the
most impactful way to make an announcement. But his yea, his manner is,
you know, it's incredibly hard to watch the way he talks and just
not feel like kind of cringed about it. It's of course, I hope,
I hope he would realize that, like he watched himself on TV,
like, oh man, I come, I'm kind of I'm kind of a
goofy, kind of a goofy essence to me. It's kind of like impolite
and in politic to bring it up, but everybody should be thinking that if
they're being honest, you know, which fine. I mean, as he
goes forward, he's got the awkward thing where he hugs people and you know,
he's like he's all out there. He doesn't he apparently doesn't give a
fuck. So yeah, it's like brock Lessner in that way. Yeah,
and that oyel, he really he really doesn't give a shit. Um feel
the greatest interview of all time. Most tickets were bundled for all three events
of Dynamite rampage double or nothing until a couple of days before the show.
There was also an increase in ticket prices from previous Chicago events. I wasn't
about to drop four hundred dollars on a ticket for three shows and try to
resell the less coveted two of them because I lived too far away and couldn't
go. I was willing to pay the day of show prices for the single
ticket on a reseller site, but the build was too strange for me to
commit to dropping the cash and making the drive, considering I bought a plane
ticket to watch Hayman beat Omega at full gear about six months before. That's
a problem for AWE. I think that has gone away. I think there
was that initial I could be wrong about this. I don't have any empirical
things to say this, and I'm not sure anyone does but besides aw themselves.
But I feel like that first year and a half or so, first
two years, and then right if they came off the pandemic, the idea
of traveling to aw shows was still a thing. There was still like a
porpoise of people that were like, We're gonna go to all of them,
We're gonna fly to all of them, because there's only forty year, right,
and I think that no one travels anymore. I think, like when
I see AW crowds, I think these are all locals, no matter where
they go or how big the show is, including Double or Nothing this year,
which was you know, becoming their thing where it was destination Vegas event,
and they did in Vegas again this year, but the crowd was it
just seemed a lot thinner. It just seemed like a lot more you know,
a reflection of Las Vegas' percentage of wrestling viewership than it did, you
know, people from all of the world descending on on Vegas for a Double
or Nothing. People still travel, but there's no way there's as many of
them as there used to be. Yeah, yeah, they'll still they'll wait
for it to come to their city, right, right, like like a
fucking normal right. Yes, inevitably conce if they're running week every in a
building. Of course, of course, Jack, I agree with you most
of the time and love your work. I just had to let you know
that some of this bullshit did affect my spending decisions as a huge fan of
a w and warned that this may be a bell weather of things to come
for the most devoted fans of the product. For the most devoted fans,
if the product continues to me under creative decisions matter and as I send this
ratings or slumping JP, I agree that MJ is the future of wrestling.
It remains to be seen of AW can maximize no pun intended his value while
he's still under contract co chairs. Thank you for reading. At the previously
mentioned star cast, I tweeted you a picture of me wearing me I'm just
a guy shirt during a meet and greet with Mash while Kafa in my face.
To make this email worth your while, I'm attaching a picture of me
ka fab in my face once again while it's getting my picture taken outside Mindy's
Bakery in Chicago during Thanksgiving week this year. I listen to you guys every
day, Love you and thank you for your company. Mindy's Bakery is no
that's a place cmpuck got the muffins he was chewing off. Oh get the
fuck out of here. Really that's amazing, So good stuff, man,
Thank you very much. I don't remember going that hard on this idea that
like no one is not going to watch AW because of this because I don't
know, maybe I didn't have as much hindsight. It's clear that it did
harm their business to have this ton of disharmony. This kind of like drama
because it wasn't just a fact that this happened, it was the fact that
it manifested in a kind of a direction US TV environment, because all anybody
want to talk about were the four wrestlers who were never on the show because
they were all suspected because of this bullshit, right, and that really hurts,
you know when it's almost like the ras after Montreal, right, right,
they're doing all the stuff characters they have, but no one gives a
shit. The only thing they care about is like how they're going to frame
Montreal this week, except here due to the way they handled it legally,
they couldn't talk talk about it for a second, and can talk about it
for a second. You know, it's alloy cared about. So that's gonna
necessarily lead to a slump. I think they climbed out of it to some
degree now that Punk's back, it's helped a bit, but um, that's
hilarious. That to me is the funniest part is that of course he's the
guy taking them out of it, like out of the slum. Yeah.
Yeah, because eventually it's like, well, I guess if he comes back,
it's exciting if nothing else, and that's what we need. It's like,
yeah, exactly, that's why he was paid so much and has its
prominent position in the first place. Yeah, so he brings that sustainable excitement
even if he rubs you the wrong way. Yeah, that's right, Paul,
the same stand. Thanks for that fucking deep ledge. Matthew Munns,
thanks very much for up in your game and earning at Damien Thorne, welcome
to the executive producer to you or my friend, writes YE chairman and Nathan
for Detroit here, Jack, thank you for a little gems of wrestling knowledge.
He keeps sprinkling into my life. Much appreciated, both of you.
Thank you for being hilarious and engaging. I would literally give up all other
podcasts if that's what I had to do to keep the lapsed fan. I've
been listening to The Double or Nothing Shell. I wanted to make up observations.
One. I totally agree that almost everyone just sided with the person they
liked and the punk for salite thing. It's human nature to just side with
whomever you wanted to like in the first place, and I honestly think my
life would be easier if I were like that. In this case, I
had Punk since he was in WWE, and hated the Bucks since the first
time I saw them. I finally started dating a young Bucks when I started
watching You Wow. You hate them all both? Yeah, hate them all.
You gotta respect that. After being on the Jericho Cruise and getting interested.
Then I started appreciating Punk a little bit when he had some good promos
with them JF. I initially thought the Bucks were wrong. Once I learned
more, I realized they were probably all being assholes at first. However,
once you throw a punch or the bad guy, that was Punk. So
whoever was said, whatever was said before, too fucking bad. You don't
get to hit people in the real world, Punk, you were now the
bad guy. Someone can call me whatever they want, and they that may
make them a dick, but if I assault them, I have stolen the
roll of the dick. Punk is more of a dick than the others,
even if they are all still dicks. Two, those remarks about how you
have to be an asshole to make it in wrestling, and that's what wrestling
is all about. Always strike me as too narrowed in. Of course,
almost anytime someone says all none every time or anything like that, it's just
wrong. But that's just how people like to talk. So that's fine for
this well stated argument, which is true if you throw on almost in there
a few times. Yeah, the wiggle words, I suppose are important.
I kind of think, you know, just do away with the wiggle words
and see what happens. That's kind of my mentality on things. You could
take the word wrestling out and replace it with Hollywood, corporate America, sports
journalism, professional poker, just about anything where people deal with other people in
public, and it would still be true. You were not noticing something about
wrestling that is unique. You were noticing something about the life that is ubiquitous.
You deserve credit for that, and I don't like you selling yourself short.
Come on, guys, recognize your own brilliance. It's a world of
assholes out there. Wrestling is not more or less like that than the music
industry, the theater world, movies, TV. You've worked in the mall,
boss, Tell me, does it strike you that wrestling is full of
more assholes than theater, TV movies more assholes. I don't know about more.
I would say there is a um, they're just a unique brand.
Yes, I think it's a more accurate way to put it. I don't.
I don't know if they're necessarily more. I think the difference between the
film world asshole and the wrestling asshole, as far as I mean, it's
kind of just like there, you know, I think it has to do
with this, like it's the trust. It's the trust. Really nobody trusts
anybody in the wrestling business, you know, because like you get this idea
that you're you're all going, you got to protect your spot and shit all
that stuff, And I don't think that's necessarily I could be maybe I'm being
naive in that in that in that way, but I don't think it's like
that. Yeah, you know, I don't think it's I mean, yeah,
sure, you want like if you're if you're a box office draw,
you're kind of like fighting for your spot, but you're not always competing with
somebody else for the spot, you know, like Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt
aren't competing to be the top guy. Right If you're the top guy you're
the top guy, you know whatever. At first, Tom cruises that Dwayne
Johnson is starting to get a lot of action roles, don't right exactly.
I think that's just room for one, which is wrestling drills that mentality in
the beforemance that only room for one. This town isn't big enough for both
of us, of course it is, but right, No, that's going
back forever, man, that's going back to you know, we just saw
the Junkyard Dog documentary on Dark Side, and one of the big things was
like, you know, he came up in an era where there was just
spot in the card for one African American baby face, right, and even
if your territory had a bad African American baby face someone, it wasn't very
good. You didn't want another baby face black wrestler because there can only be
one. And that kind of scarcity mentality is what the promoters drilled into the
talent to create a constant insecurity and a constant dependence. You know, years
in movies you could incredibly say that it's like, no, actually, there's
plenty of pie to go around. Like just The Rockets a hit movie.
It doesn't mean mission impossible. It's going to be any less, right,
And it doesn't mean that that that that people are gonna think less of Tom
Cruise or anything. You know, like everyone's everyone's still gonna go see the
fucking you know, they're gonna go see the Rock movie. And then I
mean, i'll tell you what. This weekend is a great example. Well,
you've got these two mega movies that came out, the Barbie Movie and
um Oppenheimer Oppenheimer, and they celebrated it. Actually that these two big and
it became it became a thing, goes to the double feature. I love
it, you know, I love it. It's like it's like Starcade and
uh currob series on the same night, right, except they're not trying to
kill each other. They're trying to say, actually, let's make this a
night to watch wrestling, right, which is what the cable companies eventually insisted
on doing because they weren't about the you know, WWF forcing them to pick
one pay per view over another. They wanted both, and eventually they did.
They got Crockett to move on their show a bit earlier and started to
try to push you know, a day of wrestling back to back pay per
views. That's that's the nirvana, you know. So, I mean that's
what I would say. That to me is the is the is the biggest
difference. And I mean also you know too, I mean, at least
I'll say in my in in in the stuff that I've done in theater,
there is a much more family and um environment, yeah, you know,
like you're not WW is a little more like that. Now. Sure it's
just see him Punk came, you know, see him Punk is the kind
of guy who just assumes that everybody talks shit about him behind his back,
and you know, he's just right. He always says his guard up and
that's fine. I mean, that's that's he's travels. You know, people
did talk shit about his career. He had to, right, he had
to view people as you know, trying to chop him down when he wasn't
looking because they were right right. Um. And you know sees himself as
the person who's always trying to be the bigger person and then gets his his
handbit for that. Yeah, that's always that. That's the downside of being
the bigger person. Is you gotta like you gotta not return fire when you
get right. I mean, that's just it, right, You know,
the it's like his his uh honesty and desire to be a decent person is
like naw, dude, shut up. Yeah, that's what's off about top
guy who actually you know, has trained to fight, and it's kind of
like excited to fight. It was supposed to hogre he would never throw a
real punch in his life, you know, he just right, he would
just take these things and they'd roll off his back because he he wouldn't be
shit if he tried to physically confront some of the people that were you know,
I mean, he was like a cowering dog who had to find way.
He talks about this in a second book. It's no mystery that he's
just not a fan of physical confrontation outside of you know, phony wrestling matches,
and so he just had to find a way to more, you know,
subtly and artistically get his way and keep his way and make friends out
of enemies, right then just confronting them straight up and just be like,
let's fucking fight, you know, like, okay, well you can,
you can take that route, but that's you're gonna get. You're gonna get
sort of put in a box by the batch of course, if you go
there, Um what general whatever, don't care. I don't care if they
fight again. It's not going to break my heart. If there's a fight
in aw locker room, right, I don't care as much about that as
any fight there's ever been in a wrestling locker room. I mean, there's
also just kind of like a little I don't know, it's it's so part
of me and I think I said this too. It just feels so bitchy,
like just totally it's an environment of motion. Just everyone's lutigious about it,
you know, like no one. I don't think anybody was afraid the
Dynamite Kid was going to sue Jacques Rougeau for knocking them out with the role
of chords, you just knew that next time they saw each other, ship
was on. Whereas now it's like, you know, everybody's got a lawyer,
you know everyone everyone's trying to win in a court of law. And
what's the first thing lawyers tell you to do? Don't say anything? So
this all fails up. Nobody says anything. There's no clarity. Everyone can
run away with their own narratives, read whatever they want into a little bit
that does drip out and the game continues, and it's all fucking game.
Yep, you jocred it for that, Okay, yep, okay, brilliance,
yes, got it? Okay. Just everything else is it's just part
of that crowd, and the whole lot is slimy. All we can do
is watchers to keep our sanities, enjoy the art for what it is,
and try to ignore the fact that our favorite actor, wrestler, singer,
or sports hero is someone we probably we would probably like if we talk to
them for a few minutes, and hate them if we more about them.
They're all con artists, just kidding me, all really almost all not They
all are. That's it. That's it. I mean, you know you,
I mean the whole listen. It's it's sad and most and I say
a lot of businesses are like this, but I would say in the in
the entertainment business, there is such like to survive, there needs to be
an element of phoniness to you. Yeah, disingenuous. Yeah, you need
to do that otherwise you just won't survive, you know, right, I
mean, you got to pick your battles. I don't think you need to
do that all the time, but you know, if if you don't.
If you don't have the ability to to be phony for certain occasions, then
you don't. Again, I don't. I don't like it, I think,
said. People talk about honesty like like it's desirable. He said,
if honesty was introduced into American life, the whole system would collapse because it
so much depends on us bullshitting each other and then going off and do what
we want. If everybody was completely honest with each other, literally, you
wouldn't do anything. Nothing would be getting done because because there every there's not
a chance that every other person wouldn't be criticizing you for something. You just
have to have the nose for when in life you're dealing with somebody like a
superior or a boss or whatever who has this thing about like I don't respect
yes men. You just have to be on the lookout for those people.
And those are the people you push back on, right, just you play
the game with them like you play the game with people who want to be
flattered all the time. It's the same. It comes from the same place,
you know. But some people they hate the thought of being called yes
men so much that they welcome people being contrary into their face and saying things
that sound like hard. True, this is all you know. It's just
a different way to get the same result. It's just to get someone on
your side. Right. But that's your point. It's all phonyness. It's
just the moments of candor are just as phony as the moments of you know,
empty praise or um you know, insincere flattery or whatever whatever it is.
Yep, you're just doing kind of what you think will smooth the path
for you and get you what you want, right, I mean, right,
right, That's that's the world we're talking about here. You just don't
want to You don't want to remind the person you need something from of someone
that pisses them off. You want to remind them of people they've seen that
felt like they were additive to their life, help them, right. I
don't know that sound complicated to me, Nikki. Thank you very much for
the pledge. We appreciate it. Welcome to the EPT here, Adam two.
Thanks very much for the cake. We we love it very much and
we'll we'll put it to good use. James Erwins's JP, You're absolutely spot
on about Jr's fans supporting their brand. Nonsense, really making you overly aware
that you're devoting time and energy to a corporation, not a big fight in
the ring faker Otherwise, I think Jim has really made that habit in the
past five years or so, and I think his podcast is to blame.
I think now that he's broadcasting weekly about insider stuff, it has crept into
his KAPE commentary more and more to its detriment. One of my particular pet
hates is when he flippantly says that two guys have a personal issue, like
he's writing a textbook to explain how few stories are written. Dreadful all that
set, I still enjoy his old man tangents and is very occasionally nostalgically good
call yeah me too. He's gone though for the most part. But yeah,
he's had a lot of problems. He was going to do the first
Collision show and then he like posted a picture he's had a huge black eye,
and he's got a say Attica, and he lost his voice and he's
on TNT like basically gasping for air. It's horrible. The guy doesn't that
doesn't belong anywhere anymore. Jason, You're correct on both counts. He did
dumb Rock impressions on the real world. And Mike Musannan is a fraudulent human
being, nothing behind those eyes but a sociopathic need for fame. And this
is before we did the Marine Journey. Wow, Tyrone Terrell, thank you
very much for the cake. We appreciated. Heath Harshman, thank you for
joining all the way up at least at one point the tip top Moat tier.
Matt Right, So, I always getting nervous listening to the modern stuff.
Love it you guys have given me in lapsed life. But I just
don't think the coverage out there in AW is accurate. Has anyone even tried
to talk to Lucy Guy yet? I'll try and come back to it,
but I got the point. I think there's guys, somebody that was involved.
I don't fucking know, Lucy Guy, who the fuck is that?
Appreciate it? Matt. I did read it at the time and I set
it aside, but I'm not gonna do it now. Lucy Guy. I
think it's somebody who is there a Desy Guy and Fred too. I think
it's someone who's witnessed to the fight that no one heard her side of the
story. Scott hasshul thanks very much. We appreciate the cake. Sean the
ChB longtime supporter and we appreciate it very much. Thank you very much for
the cake. I think the more people make it, like make a big
deal out of it, it becomes a bigger deal. Just like shut up,
Oh yeah, a fight happened. Sorry, sorry, you're all fucking
bitches, all of you, all sides, I think punk concluded, Mark
says, the best part of the brawl outlore is semipunk leaving the shower to
confront the elite. So he is fighting for his life, dripping wet and
a towel that probably drops and he is fighting talk out. Yeah, yes,
yes, just imagine that best part. Okay, you get fucking wet
hair, Phil, all right, and he's got a white towel around his
waist and all of a sudden it just drops and he's out fucking fighting.
And we're rolling around with the young face Rod and Todd Flanders is what he's
in, all right, Yeah, and he's like and he's like, you
know, just like got his nuts all over their fucking clothes. Ross Mueller,
thanks for the pledge. Carlos Sanchez, thanks for the cake. We
appreciated jose Vargas, thanks for the vote of confidence. Bumping up to the
executive producer Tier Adam Two writes, for many of the holidays or a time
of joy, but for some of us they aren't the greatest. This goes
out to TLF and be the best at making tough times less difficult by being
the best goddamn podcast on the planet. Truly a holiday miracle for us all
there we go, really to rise to the occasion again, boss this year
you got it. Robert Reynolds sinks from versing your pledge and for your vote
of confidence. This is from Jeff and Akron Ohio. He writes, Howard
Stern and a e W shows Howard Stern utc episode in the AW episode this
is on private parts. I think he's talking. Yeah, yes, yes,
for sure. We're very thought provoking as always, so I want to
drop my thoughts in after listening first Howard Stern. Want a great episode in
a great recap of what Stern was like and what he meant to nineties and
early two thousands culture. My dad would let me listen to Stern with him
in the car, starting right at age twelve. The role was just that
I couldn't let mom know we were listening. I think you could identify with
that boss. Yeah, he's always there, ready to flip the station if
Stern went too far. But some of my best memories of bonding with my
dad and my love of audio that you guys carrying on today came from listening
to Stern and Jim Rome with him in the early teenage years. My early
teenage years. When it comes to Stern, though, the laps fans universal
idea of it used to be better rings true in some ways that Elis Stern
wouldn't work today because the idea of TA but it was dead for better or
worse. It's better in that people are mostly free to express themselves and be
the person they want to be without public scorn, but in the bad way.
I think about teenage me hearing on the radio that a girl showed her
tits, or sneaking in the show to see blurred out tits. I think
about today's tea major and all the sick things they've seen in their phone by
the time they've hit puberty. Right, Oh my god, so true.
Only fourteen year will be excited for censored boobs today. You look at high
school college kids age today, and the study show they are suffering from more
depression and are having less sex and in fewer relationships when compared to older generations.
Going back to Stern, when I heard Stern describe a woman's breast,
it made me want to see them myself. And that wasn't easy to the
kree Internet days. I had to work on being charming, likable, and
approachable to a woman, not just pick up a phone and google whatever sick
thoughts were in my head. In some ways, Stern made us want to
be in relationships like that. In some ways, Stern made us want to
be in relationships of course, of course, because he's describing all the shit
like and naked women, especially for or you know, I would imagine you're
in puberty male audience there, male especially at the time. Yeah, the
pubesset male especially at that time. It's like, you know he yeah,
he had naked woman in there, and he's talking about oliver her entire body.
Yeah, you fucking get hot for that shit, and it's like,
where, well I need to see that now exactly just you you over there,
and it's a power, right power of audio to get those her tits,
her tits her tits, her tits, her tits to see mother fucking
such a great movie. It is a great movie movie. It is a
great movie. It's such a it was it was, yeah, it was.
It was fun. That one was a lot of fun. I didn't
want to do that one for a while, to see for ourselves what our
parents and network sensors wouldn't let us see. My counter to people like Terry
Gross be to look at today's young man and tell me he's in better shape
than the men that came before him he used to be better, or when
there was temptation in taboo something to anticipate the instant gratification and pleasure born out
of the cell phone caused way more harm than good. Also, Jack is
correct about right to censor in the way the landscape has changed in twenty years.
I've joked with my friends before that if right to censor came along today,
they would be the biggest face table among wrestlers wrestling fans. I'm probably
true. Oh, JP forgot Howard's best wrestling guests. Christy, hemmy,
don't google that at work, kids, hope she do? Unstern, do
I not know this story? I don't know. Maybe maybe she uh,
I don't know. I don't know that christ she ride the Sybian or something.
Maybe she did. Now on to aid debt. Mind was getting my
new heart when the punk Elite fight took place. I was under a fuck
ton of pain killers and really wasn't interested in reading about men who are actually
fighting over a fake entertainment. Your recap was the first time I was really
able to pross me here. Say again, please, I was under a
fun ton of pain killers and really wasn't interested in reading about men who are
actually fighting over fake entertainment, actually fighting men who are actually fighting over fake
entertainment rights. That's a beauty right there. You know, it's about like,
what did you say? What did you mean by that? Browler?
For me, the dumbest part is how many things were ruined over a press
conference were scripted entertainment. To imagine how ridiculous it would sound if Succession was
canceled because Brian Cox and Jeremy Strong gun or real fight during a press conference
after episode three. When it comes to it, used to be better.
It certainly used to better when journalists didn't take wrestling seriously. Could you imagine
an old school journalist attending a press conference for a scripted wrestling show. Oh
my god, that's just attending but taking it seriously. It used to be
better when wrestling was confined to the dark corner of the room while the real
men are chasing real stories. Agreed, Jack. I'm also a journalism grad.
Can you imagine when we started college telling one of our professors that we
want to cover professional wrestling after college. I don't think they would have let
me in the program. It used to better when wrestling didn't think it needed
a press conference. Give me Bobby heenon breaking a cribbage board over someone's head
when the fancy a heel and face together in a hotel, or give me
or give me a WrestleMania eight press conference where they're in a fucking like they
make a room out of out of like tarp and ship. Oh, it's
like, that's what we're talking about. That that's a press conference. Yeah,
the pre the pre hype one is one thing, but the post we're
like, we're talking about our performance and it felt really good out there in
Tonight's gate was and basically just trying to be Dana White. I'm not falling
for it. It's it's it's goofy. It's goofy, and it more often
than not makes the talent say things that just like diminishes the the enjoyability of
the product. It puts them in a state of mind, in a frame
of mind. MJF kind of manages to do it. But it's still even
MJF. It's like he's gonna come out and like call everybody dumb marks and
like talk about this. Like everyone's sitting there like they don't want to play
along because their media. But like Mjf's not gonna give any real answers at
the same time, So what are we doing here? You know, we
don't want real answers. I think that's that's the point. We don't want
real answers, right, We want we want to read. We want to
see the real answers in a different format. We want to see the real
answers separate and distinct from the circus tent You know, we don't want to
under the circus tent um. I don't know. Go look if you if
you have a wrestling website and you make money conveying wrestling about the information about
wrestling, of cour you go to these press conferences of course you ask these
questions. Of course you keep your questions within a certain bounds that you get
invited back. This is basic stuff, but it doesn't mean I have to
like think it's cool, you know, or interesting? Yeah? Or useful
yeah. Um. Nothing beats to this podcast. Jeff concludes, anything you
touch becomes the definitive work of that subject is always looking forward to what's next.
Can a guy with a new heart get best in show under the cinemat
soon? Boss? Oh god? I would love to, um a reason
to say no, I mean, reason to say it doesn't qualify or anything
like that. I don't. I don't. I have to. I have
to look into it a little further, um to see if it does qualify.
Trying to think of like someone off the top may be best in big
show. I don't know, but um, I'm sure there's you listened.
I found. Yeah, I'll do a shout out here because yeah, uh,
Paul the Saints fan fucking finds people. He does. I don't know
how he fucking does it, but he has found so many people who are
not on the lists that I you know, because they're that far underground in
the business, and like it opens up so many fucking movies. So I'm
I'm I am sure, I am sure someone will find a way to connect
the dots there. And you know, we can always count on Hull Coogan
for the best form of advertising for He writes, Um, what was the
one with John Liftgau that we did? Um? Under the cinematic the Santa
Claus? Santa Claus the movie? He writes, If you're not in the
ept or, you're not only missing out in the heartbreaking story of Daphne Younger,
but also the Shakespearean climax of John Luftgau coming. Do you forget you
did that? I didn't. I fucking did. Oh I've done so many
people coming it's a you know, I forgot that one? Only shit,
Yeah that was that was? Oh, I'm sure something like that. What
was the name of it again? What Santa Claus the movie? Was the
movie? And we were talking about how big that was in the UK?
Right, Yeah, yeah, big hit in the UK. Zarahone circled back
around and said, interesting, I didn't want if it was only a big
deal for me purely because I taped it off the TV. I'm only a
couple of years older than you and grew up in the UK and they definitely
had it on terrestrial TV every year. Yeah, yeah, the nineties.
I think they used to show it on BBC and Christmas Eve. I have
no idea why I retained that info. Maybe because it used to be better.
Just checked it and saw on my TV one this year Christmas Eve,
mid afternoon. I don't think. I don't think it ever airs on TV
over here. No, no one knows what it is here. I can
no no, I mean, yeah, I fucking I'm probably the only person
who rented it. Yes it was HS. I fucking loved it. Such
a bad movie, so awful bad. I don't look back. Finally on
that episode for that, Mark Hutchinson, thank you very much for the pledge.
We appreciate it. Joe Knight. We love the year end bonus action
that you threw to us. He followed up and said, fellas just sending
a year end bonus. It's not much, but I'm on a modest Patreon
payment plan, so I went out a little year entreat for you. I
thought I would recount my favorite lapse moment of this year, or at least
the one scenario I keep her playing in my head over and over It was
from a somewhat recent episode, but I can't remember the specific title. It
went down like this. A concern and agitated Terry Balaya and full red and
yellow guard visits his local Tampa subway to have a word with the store manager.
He has a simple request. He wants turkey roll ups removed from the
menu. Terry played by j P. Let's talk turkey dude, subway manager
played by Jack Sorry, sorry, you a vendor? I forgot about that.
That was great, That was funny. This was an understated comment slipped
in by Jack that while it did not garner much reaction, it popped me.
I was doubled over at the idea that the subway manager I had no
idea who this paranoid and ridiculous wrestler was, and that he entertained The possibility
that he was a deli meat vendor just killed me. It's fucking great.
Can you imagine, because you know what Hulk Hogan wears out and about in
the real world, Oh my god, all right, Like you know,
he's wearing a fucking cut off, yes, of course, a T shirt,
you know, with a bandana on, and you know, looking like
a complete buffoon. LDI thanks very much for your pledge up to the moat
tier. We appreciate that vote of confidence. Kickus if I'm pronouncing that correctly.
H is a huge supporter, longtime supporter, and he's exactly what you
said, boss, someone who says, you know what, fuck it,
I'm going to go above and beyond the maximum t Yeah, because this is
about fueling the engine. This isn't just about what I get in exchange.
It's about keeping the enterprise viable. And you all have a huge debt of
gratitude. You have a huge debt. Rather, I should say to members
of the Solar System, and they all know who they are, and we
shout them out on a Asian one K club members tend to be a shorthand
way of referring to them, but not exclusively. Who just give so much
more and gave us so much more on a pledge than we ever could have
dreamed asking for, even before we produced a single Patreon exclusive thing, even
before we did under the cinemat starting unbelievable, unbelievable. It's it's it's the
magic of like, okay, we can do this, you know, like
yeah, the audience is telling us that the more we put in the more
we'll get back. That's the hardest thing to stumble upon in any enterprise.
You know you have it, You're you're obliged like we are right now,
to service it and to let people know that you appreciate it. Lest it
stop belief, Queen, we like that, and we appreciate the uh the
pledge. Um Stephen asks, I wonder what Hogan would make of local Dublin
cuisine, where such delicacies as chicken filet rolls and jumbo breakfast rolls are offered
in every part of the city. Roller Wait, dude, story cop.
Thank you for the pledge. We appreciate it. Welcome to the Eptier.
Dylan is somebody we mentioned he didn't get his president in time. He said,
I didn't mail my president of time for this show, so we'll have
to rest in a safe spot until next year. In the meantime and in
the spirit of the season, and because it's all about food, I've heard
the description of a Christmas feast. It's only Charles Dickens could write. I
can't do it. I can't it's too far away. I can't read this
from Oh wow, look at that. Can't do it. But I'll keep
it close to my heart because I know exactly what part of the Dickens you're
talking about. William Murphy, thanks very much. Welcome to the moat tier,
my friend. That is some big swing and dick action. Just so
much great feedback from the Christmas set. Man. Oh my god, I
was fond of stuff that was fun. Shit man, people just like rekindling
the spirit James Ann's Lyle, Thank you very much for the pledge. Well,
Winthrop said, John Lithgow came to my school when he was on a
run of twelve Night at Shakespeare's Theater and gave a talk to those of us
studying drama. Somewhere in the ether, there's a picture of me sitting next
to him. You were bang on the money with your description of him in
this episode. But he also has a lot of Carney in him him.
Yes, I also remember him socks that day. Is he a carny?
What do you think? I absolutely don't. Come on. I'm saying that
I this the whole man or of the Listen. Listen. If he senses
somebody, if he can get a vibe off somebody and he can get something,
he's gonna get it, all right, he's gonna get it's not gonna
pass it up. No, not at all, take all taken. As
for this over the rights, I'd never heard of it, and I'm almost
certain that it wasn't mentioned at all when we gave the talk and took questions
afterwards. So yeah, I'm not sure how we're revered. It truly is
over here. That turned out to be quite a divisive question. Indeed.
Um, we want to thank Christopher Crieve, a great member of the Solar
System. He joined us in a Boston and then turned around and sent us
a Greg Gunya Remco figure. But I guess there was an eBay seller that
was marked on the package that didn't make it clear. Holy shit, we
gotta fuck it. Where is that Greg gunya Remco? You got it somewhere?
Uh yeah, yeah, it's and it's it's surround, it's around.
I get so much of that. I still get so much of that.
Ship entered T Martin. Thanks for the boost. We appreciate it and we
love it. You know. You know, I'm gonna tell you this.
I still have the cereal box. There are times I get tempted to open
it up and the WWF Cereal from nineteen eighty one. Yeah, yeah,
Oh I'm not going to. I can't because I know I'll die, But
there is the temptation. I'm not gonna lie. Wow, maybe we'll do
it this Christmas show. We'll both take one bite of that sweet rice.
It is, I mean the part that the kind of goes into my mind,
like you know, it's probably on that back because it is sealed,
so it's been air sealed. You know, he has a dead cockroach in
there. It's like it's like all of a sudden, like the fumes of
decay, the fumes of the first Bush administration. Yeah, he Lalande.
Thank you very much, my friend, for boosting up that fucking pledge.
That's killer. John Callahill, thank you for your further, you know,
demonstration of support IVP videos. Great service. We appreciate your appreciate your support
as well. John Harris Stevenson, thank you very much for your pledge.
Sam O'Connor, who bounced all the way up to the moat tier, big
sweeing dick move, We love it. Tim McCarthy makes a great point not
that Tim McCarthy McCarthy, a customed Nash Wrestling buddy, has opened up a
Pandora's box. Oh God, your move. Solar System, Randy Villerial,
thank you very much for the cake. And Randy Boss has reflections on ljns,
which we spent some time talking about because some members of the Solar System
put ljns in our stockings. So fucking crazy. You're all fucking nuts,
It's all I'm gonna say, gentlemen. I was thoroughly enjoying a Christmas episode
when you talked about the Johnny Valiant lj ndall, and I believe Jack wondered
aloud about can you imagine the kid that would have this? Yes? I
had to laugh because I'll have you know that I was that kid. I
referenced my LJ and collection and a previous email to you about my late father
telling the story of the King Kong Bundee head hole in our living room wall.
When I heard them and come up again, it brought back more fund
memories and also made me question how many of those damn things did I actually
have? Looking through do you know? Okay? For me, I had
a major goal when I was When I was first collecting my Hasbro's as a
kid, my goal was to have enough actual Hasbro wrestling figures. I needed
thirty so I could have a royal rumble. I could have more, but
I needed at least thirty so I could have a row rumble with just Hasbros.
And no hey Man figures or cops or any other figures outside. You
know, that was a big thing, And then I got so many more.
You brought up Luscious Johnny V. But how many kids just had to
have a classy Freddie Blassie or an out back Jack? How about a Ted
RCD or a Vince McMahon Tons of Christmas List and ninety seven clamoring for both
the blue shirt and white shirt variants of the WWE referee figure so that the
child in question could have matches with both casting the white shirted referee as an
NWA official for cross promotional supercards, I would think not. For the record,
my collection had two Hulk Hogan's Iron Cheek, Roddy Piper, Big John
stud Hillbilly Jim Nikolay Volkoff, Junkyard, Dog King, Kong, Bundy,
Brutus Beefcake, Greg the Hammer, Valentine, Paul Orndorff, George the Animal,
Steel, Bobby Heen, and Corporal Kirchner Macho Man, Randy Savage,
Terry Funk, Bruno Sammartino, Magnificent Morocco, Ricky Steambo, Tito Santana,
Captain Lu Albano, Jesse, the Body, Ventura, Jimmy Superfly, Snooker,
Billy Jack Haynes, s D. Jones, Hawaiian Shirt Variant, Classy,
Freddy Blassie, Jimmy Hart, Adrianadonnas, Cowboy, Bob Orton, Coco
Beware, Ted RCD, Mean, Gene Okerland, Hercules Kamala, Mister Fuji,
Jake the Snake, Roberts King, Harley Race Outback Jack, the Doctor
of Style, Slick Hacksaw, Jim Duggan, The Million Dollar Man, Ted
Dbias, Johnny v Honky tonk Man, Vince McMahon, Ravishing, Rick rud
Of the Ultimate Warrior Band Band, Bigelow, Big boss Man, Whore Lord,
the British Bulldogs, the Killer Bees, the Heart Foundations, Drake Fur's
Demolition, and the two Referees. I would guess I was about ten or
twelve figures away from having the entire run of LJN's when all of a sudden
done. Here's the question I want to ask too, who had the balls
to put the world title on Brett Hart. You tell me with an LJN.
No, I don't know. I want to know. I want to
know if somebody out there had the balls. I thought you knew the No,
I don't know the answer. I want to know the answer. I
want to know if someone did, if someone had that kind of foresight,
you know, an LJN not an LJN. Yeah, who out there put
the world title on an LJN before they were anywhere considered near that level of
the went on to achieve it? I would think Brett would probably be the
only lj and you could do that with. I can't think everybody else would
have won the world title that had an l warrior, I guess. I
mean that's having out back you go. Yeah, as far as when you
got it, um, let me take a look at his collection here.
Who who would have gotten the world title? I mean, yeah, savage,
but yeah, again, you know you don't know how far. But
yeah, as a term in terms of like the real future of it all,
that's a great question because he's singular in that regard. Anybody put the
world title on bred Heart in their LJA or did anyone put the world title
on outback jack right, or even more significantly exactly. Yea, remember when
he said if you didn't think I belong in the Hall of Fame, you're
a bitch. Remember that? Yeah? Yeah, maybe someone put him,
maybe someone gave him a world title run in their universe. Rest assured all
these figures were well used, as I would book card after card, going
through three rings and two steel cage sets just from wearing them out over the
months and years. And well you also well used in my house, where
they red Crayola washable markers that I would draw and press onto my figures.
Pressing made the ink pool and run down the wrestler's face into an out of
the blood stained matt below when they needed to run the razor and turn red
into green for their heartless promoter. Sometimes even a green or black marker would
get pressed into duty. If a wrestler would get to the dreaded mist during
a hot angle, some figures would would get pressed into double duty, primarily
Greg Valentine standing in for Ric Flair on many occasions, as well as the
odd Orndorf stand in for Lex Luger. I would spend whole weekends intricately booking
angles and matches, blowing them off every Sunday with a multi hour, multi
match pay per view worthy card that would usually end with the Hulkster vanquishing another
dastardly foe. Thank you both for taking me back to the days when the
toy store ruled supreme to some amazing seeing childhood memories, and for making me
feel like a kid again this holiday season. Wishing both of you and your
families a happy, healthy, and prosperous new year. Space here. Yeah,
yeah, just think how ready for you? Guess what well you should
be because you know what. We're on the other side of that pal and
even fucking say it, all right, we are closer to Christmas then,
not that it's hard to swallow. We're on the flip side, man,
Benjamin Blake. This isn't an epiphany like I had my last two emails,
But I can easily say that I've learned more about the maschinations of politics and
business and war strategy and the human condition than I ever learned in school or
anywhere else because I listen to TLF. Yes, that's simply that makes sense.
That makes sense. Ibrahim abd Rahman, thank you very much for your
pledge. We appreciate that boosted vote of support. Jonathan Kirshner, Welcome in,
RK, Welcome in, Brian Sours, Welcome in under the Tent.
I also want to welcome Leo b who came in swinging hard to the executive
producers here. Tim Lenares, thanks very much for the cake. Alex Schwed,
thanks very much for joining the TLF Solar system. Ramone writes an email
with a subject line that I hesitate to jump into you ready pro wrestling and
fetish history. WHOA my name is Ramone's toothpick. And while I thoroughly enjoy
hearing the wholesome, uplifting and sometimes soul crushing moments from the Lapse juniverse,
I'm I aim to please the Vince McMahon's and Tony atlas Is in your audience
by bringing you something a little more smutfield and what I hope will be one
of your more memorable fan emails. I will bring you the story of how
a piece Captain lew slang, a piece of Countain loose slang, and that
I memorialized on one of my specialty video shoots. Thanks to the two of
you. Yes, I am a producer of Ramone's Face Full of feat an
online clip store that specializes in face sitting, human furniture, and of course,
fetish. I'm also the co host of the fetish podcast Wow. I
was tickled pink when you brought up Tony Atlas is trampled tendencies. I have
a few lady wrestler friends, and at least one of them has trod on
the big man's face in her converse backstage at a show. You'll be completely
unsurprised to learn that fetish and wrestling have been in the same bed, or
at least the one up the hall for decades. And you once mentioned.
Wrestlers both male and female have done so called apartment wrestling to make ends meet
wrestlers and an apartment setting against other wrestlers or lucky fans and a sexier fashion,
often wearing wrestling gear or skimpy or no clothing for wealthy patrons or producers
like myself, to make fetish content to sell. Many lady wrestlers in olden
days have done fetish work, including glow wrestler Jean BRASONI aka Hollywood, and
some more modern wrestlers like Mickey James, Andrea Kong and even Tracy's mother's daughter,
Jesse Bell smothers have done wrestling for fetish work. Work is the fucking
operative term there. Yes, even today, there are things people can buy
called pro wrestling customs from companies like New England Female Wrestling and Independent Custom Wrestling,
where they can book some current independ women wrestlers to have a match.
Now, these matches aren't inherently sexual or fetishy. In fact, some of
them outright say they won't do anything sexual or fetishee. I have tried,
but there is something fetishi and off about being able to book a woman wrestler
to have a custom match. Yes, but back to the start of my
tale, So I was filming a custom clip called Sophia Quinn and Glimmer's Interview
foot smother. During this clip, Sophia Quinn comes to Glimmer for a job
interview. When things take a fetishy turn from the third story short a,
Glimmer has Sophia lay on the floor and rests her feet on her face for
the interview to test how she does answering questions under pressure. When Glimmer receives
a phone call, it's from her doctor and it's about her foot fungus problem.
Now Glimmer is consummate professional and stops the shoot. She says she needs
a name for the doctor. Then it hits me, the fucking cast always
has the answer. See if you can guess who the doctor would be.
What do you think boss, a foot fetish producer who listens to TLF would
come up with when needing a doctor's name? Ah? Doctor, Oh.
I've attached the part of the clip below. I've always been a fan of
Captain Leo. I know, I know, but he reminds me of most
of my Sicilian family. That and we had the wrestling album on a cult
forty five record in a jukebox that we had at home and history of music
every single day. I still know it by heart. So thanks for the
inspiration. If you've made it this far, thanks for going on this weird
and fetish filled journey with me. Your podcast fills me with joy. And
on the off chance that Tony Atlas listens to this podcast and as near Marylynn
tell him to look up Raymond face full because I've got twenty girls that would
gladly stand on his face. Wow, that's what's going on out there.
That's the reality of my own. Glad to have your patronage. Fred Densdorff,
We're glad to have your money as well. Thanks for the support my
friend Matt, Matt Clark. I'm sing a lot of generosity around the holidays.
John Tobin, thank you very much for your pledge. We appreciate having
you as a listener. Liam Cafferty, we've heard from you as well.
Thank you very much. David Spencer jumped into the moat pool and we thank
him very much for that. He writes, your homelone under the cinemat preview
convinced me to stop being a bitch. An upgrade from three sixteen to fifty
bucks. I had three young children in this holiday season. It's been very
stressful, and your body of work has kept me laughing and motivated. Thank
you for all of your dedication. That's just wonderful to hear. David,
concisely foot and just lovely. We're glad to be of service. Jeff Gonsalvez,
thank you very much for the pledge. Ryan Reader, thank you very
much for upping your pledge as well, he writes, you two never ceased
to amaze me. The free hour last week got me. Yeah, well,
a lot of gifts, always ready for the Solar System. You never
know. Mike Lippkey, thank you very much for increasing your pledge up to
the inter executive producer level. Zach Volk always such a rock solid member of
the Solar System. He wanted us to harold in the new year with Lord
Stephen Regals theme. I guess we'll just Harold in the summer solstice. Okay,
A ready, Kang King King King King King King King King can Canking
Caring King King King King King King King King King King King King and King
King King Loapa, I'm nah Papa, Papa Pa, Papa, bump up,
Papapa up a pounder hunt hum bum bum bum bum ba bum bum bum
bum bum bum baum bum bana hundred under what's happening? My favorite one ever
is when you close with oh with a great idea. Let's keep this going
as a commission. My Lapsed Top Moments twenty twenty two. All right,
loand Co. Chairs and Solar Systems had to list my top lapsed moments of
the past year. I could have listed so much more. What a year
it has been. Number one Roman Verse Brock Live Call Summer slams twenty two,
when the ring was lifted. We did when that happened. That was
that was remember Jesus Christ. What an absolute insanity, especially with you know,
he's fucking uh, you know, his stupid farmer face and everything that
he's gotten. You know that just singular braid going, Oh to such a
maniac. Oh go Three Lenny Pofo on Cameo rest in peace for WrestleMania,
which launched last year. That's right. Five the Thanksgiving Sandwich. Six Jerry
Lawler's home at Christmas, Summer Slams ninety eight. Seven RoboCop on utc Oh
yeah. Eight Jack and JP realizing Vince was about to have a match up
WrestleMania thirty eight, so its live calls Man the Magic. Oh my god,
well we realized he was going to wrestle Austin or Patt. Oh yeah,
oh my god. That was in the stunner. We just laughed our
asses. Yeah, because that was so embarrassing you and Steve Aosto was laughing,
Oh yeah, because it's such a gross thing. Nine review of the
Undertaker show. This is a great and ten the WBF an absolute classic.
Eleven co chairs on Mula and Wendy Richter. Yeah, I was in the
Colosseum Collection twelve, The Black Saturday Journey thirteen, Jack's excitement of Howard stern
On under the cinemat yea fourteen, The Resurgence of Lapsed Wade Barrett fifty fifteen,
Charlotte into Christmas, Jamie's and Ski suit on John's Elimination Chamber sixteen.
King of the Ring ninety six is a masterpiece. Yeah, that's a great
episode seventeen, Razormone Tribute retrospective eighteen, Sammy's Zane Vers Johnny Knox fell at
Wrestling A thirty eight and had fun with that. Oh my god, Oh
my God. Nineteen JP Hayden lead as much as I do, She's the
worst. Twenty laps Bruno singing into Club Autumn Maailback twenty one, the first
ten minutes of the twenty twenty two Women's Royal Rumble Match, Molina flailing about
the calamity of it all. Oh that was so bad. Twenty two This
American Work twenty three laps, Tulkin laps Jesse discussing forming a union all American
Wrestling. Christmas Day nineteen eight three twenty four The Christmas Gifts episode twenty five
Fable for three Bone Street Crew. Where else are you going to get this
much world rustling entertainment? That's right, I mean that's a lot just for
one year, and we just keep going. Michael Schoff, thank you very
much for the increased pledge. We noted it and appreciated it. Same to
you, mister Paul Barrett. We want to thank Adam two for staying with
us as the calendar turned. Richard Devonald, we appreciate your support. As
to you, Robert Fenton and longtime supporter Eric Prader, who couldn't be more
solid in the denomination he's pledging at Simon Ahearn, Thank you very much for
that meaty bump up. Robert Ritchie has promised keeps climbing in terms of a
pledge amount and we notice it and appreciate it. Sweat shirt of earl coming
in strong. Henry Roth, thank you very much. And this is an
interesting play here from Brandy. It's a motor mail bag two twenty two year
in review. He's got some great ones. Oh my god, oh my
god. Hello Jack and JP twenty twenty two is a fantastic year. This
is all being done, by the way to get the gears turning. For
how we're going to ride out this year in style as well. Yeah right,
and every year going forward we were like, oh, that's something we
want to reinforce. That's a behavior that's a positive one. So whenever we
get around to reading these mail bag letters, it will serve as a reminder
that this is how you should be thinking about this time of year, he
writes. Two twenty two was a fantastic year, with the launch of Russell
Mommy in this American work, the continued excellence of Under the Cinemat, the
terrific live calls in the end disputed greatness of the main show. Here are
some of my highlights for twenty twenty two, Resting for a Cure, including
the interviews with Mike Lynch and Eddie and oh yep, Eddie's answer is having
as much basis in reality as Hogan's a true delight. The WBF episodes are
instant classics, the continued evolution of j D j JP. Every time JP
goes nuts with the sound board. I love hearing Jack louses shit from laughing
so much. During the All American Christmas eighty three episode, Jack said,
I'm reduced to a quivering puddle terrific the Scott the Scott Hall Tribute episodes.
Only the lapsed Fan could do twenty plus hours on a wrestler and make it
funny, insightful, and appropriately biting. Bash of the Beach two thousand.
This was an all time masterpiece. Anytime the law and contracts come into play,
TLF truly shines. Sectional level. Subparagraphy is a wonderful addition to lapsed
Cannon. Still see the shirts today. Shout out to Brandon from New Jersey
at Ride and Door front Row wearing it awesome exposed pro wrestling's greatest secrets.
I despise Nick McKay's voice, but the sound drops are undeniable and I love
anytime Jack or JP quote the lines from this episode that was the one that
kept on giving wrestling fans have been tried again. Summers Slam nineteen ninety four.
It is an It is excellent whenever the coach chairs both love a match,
such as the bread on one cage match. This episode made me Wonderfu
Brett to be considered mister SummerSlam. What do you think? I say,
yes, sure, I mean he's I mean yeah, there there there's an
argument you seven ninety two two obviously one. Come on now, you know
for sure in the Summer Slam. In the Summer Slam, he's the mister
the SummerSlam. Oh yes, the Rick Flaire might die soon. Mini series
Hearing You celebrate the greatness of Flaire in the ring with Steamboat Cover Baywatch of
all Things and commentate live and horror at the real possibility of Rick expiring in
the ring was a midyear highlight Summers Slam ninety eight. It was fantastic hearing
you tap into why Steve Austin was the most over wrestler of his era,
if not all time. It is basically guaranteed if a show is at one
of the sweet spots for the coach chairs that it will be a perfect episode.
Black sat Day only you could do Black Saturday and have a total run
time exceeding twenty four hours. It was an excellent deep dive and shifting and
shifting or shitting on Olie always pops me. There was a discussion about legal
language involving elimination, which was followed by Lapsman saying, I have myself an
elimination chamber. You know you've fucking nailed it with that one. Oh god,
A Last Battle. I believe this was the episode that you brought up
that Gordon Soli knew when to be excited to truly sell something. This made
me think of the instances when Jack says electrify me boss to JP. Jack
has not abused the saying, he rarely says it, and when he does,
I know what is instantly stamped as a Hall of Fame episode. The
addition of using wrestler cameos to ask questions has been a wonderful idea. I
think Steamboat's tour still hasn't ended. You agreed, He's still doing the cameo.
Can I say for a probably the best example in my opinion of this
to date, check out The Punisher Under the cinemat episode that's available now,
where boss Man completely waylays me with direct testimony from Kevin nash self on filming
the movie and some of the key questions around cutting his hair for the role.
Great stuff. I gotta believe here, three am with a slur,
slow, let's talk, Turkey brother. Has that been made into a shirt
yet? If not, that should be a Thanksgiving twenty twenty three shirt.
It's not a bad idea, and that's not a bad idea. JP referred
to Ralphus as an animal that was somehow turned into a human being. I
still think that Bash to the Beach two thousand. What a wonderful use of
language by JP. Animal is oh? Jack during a live call, shouting
out Newport cramery and awful offuls. This brought me back to summer vacations in
South Coast Massachusetts as a kid. Hey now, um, JP talking about
Edges hair during a live call. Oh so bad? Dead things aren't thirsty?
You said it was air. Dead things aren't thirsty. I popped hard
for this one, he says. JP accidentally combined Hogan and Balayan called him
hogan Ella during the match Bash of the Beach two thousand episodes. Is this
another go for Terry Brother? Perhaps the random moment that made me laugh the
hardest During the Bash two thousand episodes laps, Togan asked about kidman, who's
pushing the kid into the man? Jack then replied the Catholic Church. Yeah,
almost choked on my food when I heard Jack's Joe. I believe the
Bash episodes also contained a riff about Terry Balia trying to roll up Hogan from
mind. I know I've met an image of Hogan avoiding all reflections in fear
that you might get rolled up. Its true here brother Alma sorrow saying during
the recent ECW three Way Wrestle, Mommy about the ECW fans, quote,
this is how you get your January sixth. Say that. She said that
for real, Yeah, this is get January six Yep. She totally was
like, yep. Oh that was that was shut tremendous. That was fucking
unbelievable. Bring a Saudi Life call about the Ashley Lesner match, JP said,
quote, Lashly is the only person to fly to Saudi Arabia to go
to Germany. I eat German agreed, Oh, Mama Kobashi missa Mummy.
In response to JP talk about being chopped by Kobashi said quote, maybe that
is why something showed up on your e KG during this episode. She also
said, I didn't know they did this in Japan. I've heard of Chinese
torture. Keep in mind, I made my mom watch Missawa Kobashi. All
right, all right, let's let's just let that let's coming up under this
formm let's see, let's see what's been going on here? Endless fucking well
of shit. Oh, absolutely absolutely. I look at and just sa shit
about just an amazing arrow. Uh oh. Upcoming, we've got Ultimate Warrior
versus Sergeant Slaughter from THEE. Yeah, yeah, she responds to the Injustice
of Savage. Exactly, It's exactly what that was all about. And what
would you you just watched before that, Kane versus Vader over the Edge,
the fat Piece of Ship match. Yes, oh my god, Corn Coogan,
she said, is it Darth Vader. Yes, it sounds like Mama
Sorrow. Oh God. During Grudge Matches two episode Jack said that when Hogan
would go to ribera steakhouse in Japan and that he would ask for the John
Wilkes booth slay me. This is a very limited list of highlights of the
hundreds of great hours of content in twenty twenty two. Thank you for helping
me get through work, chores, and long drives. I eagerly anticipate in
even better twenty twenty three. The announcement of total NonStop Hogan indicates to me
that you have no desire to rest on your laurels. Yeah, we didn't
say very uncomfortable territory for a long time for the cause. Chris Calamida thank
you very much for the pledge, my friend. We appreciate the deep cheddar
nick oh popping right to the top of top, popping right to the top.
Oh he wrote another one. Oh he had a different Yeah, this
one's for you. This is This is Brent on his top under the Cinemat
moments only so complete under the Cinemat edition. Holy shit, y, alright,
all right, ah under this in the mine. Some of my favorites
were Home Alone Masterpiece, A true gift to Jack and the listeners. JP
called him McCarney culkin. Where's popped me? Big time? McCarney culkin.
This movie is in some ways a loose remake of Plane Trains and Autmobiles.
They are both written by John Who's involve high jinks and revolve around a well
to do parent trying to get home to their family in suburban Chicago with the
assistance of John a John gamey character in the back of a vehicle. Home
Alone two also steals the bit where a character briefly becomes a skeleton. Yes
they do. It's very true. Please stretch the eligible ability. I listen
again. These are one that's one of the movies that I'm forever trying to
get solar system like Paul that all these find a way to connect plane,
trains and automobiles. Believe me. Um, it's not that I haven't looked.
I have looked private parts perfect. The super cut of wrestler clips from
The Stern Show is one of the funniest moments in You to See history.
He was not mentioned during the episode. I believe he is also eligible as
a w a W Hall of Famer. Oh my god. One of the
funniest lines was saying, I think regarding Kolebass and her husband charged charged with
a salt and pepper, a perfect dumb joke that passed me big time.
JP mentioned the Citian. This made me think of utc Alum David Arcady,
who appeared in the funniest Citian segment ever, which involved the eighty year old
creator of the device talking dirty with a yes, I've I've i've Oh my
god, I heard that one. Um, it's a I believe it's the
porn star little loope. Oh okay, sure, and he and he's like
he's like he keeps saying something like get the poison out, Come on,
get the poison out. That's that's him, like talking about her coming getting
the poison out. Okay, dude, yeah, what do you feel?
You feel comfortable right now? I do David's David Arquet's reaction was price was
a high meant JP seek out the clip. If he's not heard it before,
I've heard it. Uh JB talking about the late shift that should be
elabow since Jay Leno wrestled in WCW. That's fair, all right, all
right? Jack saying that Gary Labatt looked like one of Paul Himan's dc W
Lackey's was a perfect description. I hope that Paul Jimmadi's stays in JP sound.
J Jack, after hearing that line, said, what a moment,
What a moment in America. When discussing Nicole Let's check out with the name
Bobby mackerel, it is the greatest job or name of all time. Ricky
Dozan was a wonderful and unexpected way to start the year. The Friends of
Eddie Coyle. After hearing numerous references in this movie over the years, it
was fantastic to listen to the UTC treatment McKenzie's Island. This might have been
the closest to dethroning the almighty Thoor is Jack as Jack's most hated movie on
UTC, The Lucas ROCHMANI series. I never knew how much I needed to
hear JP dunk on John Williams from me, m M, I'm oh,
yes, dim dim a lot, actually a few. Chief Pride might be
the greatest laps UTC creation. The episode also feature perhaps the best UTC sound
bite, you never know you never never never no never never never know you
love it Jeff town and experienced like no other. The discussion at one point
related to buff Bagwell fighting for time. Jack SAIDs is also get out.
I'm so glad Brind's out there. Parsley brought Brian. I'm sorry Brian pouncing
it, but tell him again, who said buff bag Well fighting for time?
Then you said he's also fighting for Sage and Parsley, and then I
said Ann Rosemary, and then Brian wrote, tremendous content. Thank you exactly
correct, thank you, Oh my god, Planet Terror. Jb covering the
darkness of Robert Rodriguez was compelling. I'd say he might as well be a
wrestler with his level of creepiness. But he did find, but he did
find, Uh, he did found the l Ray Network Ray broadcast Luca Underground,
so I believe all of his movies could be considered eligible for UTC.
We have to, I have to. I have brought up the discussion about
uh filmmakers. How do you do do certain filmmakers qualify as having directed uh,
you know, especially with those who have directed U to be films,
But we haven't reached a full decision on that. JP mentioned Tom Savini.
He helped create the Fiend mask. I didn't know that, and also contributed
to outfits for Alexa Bliss. You want to something, by the way,
it's something about Alexa Bliss. Whether this came up? So, um,
I want to go see my new uh doctor the other day, and um,
you know the well what do you do? All right? Uh?
Well, I do you know? I'm I'm I'm an actor and a podcaster?
You do a podcast? What podcast? What kind of podcast is it?
Uh? It's an old school professional wrestling podcast. So fun. Not
what I listened to, but so fun. Yeah, you know. And
then and then well it's a woman and she says her her her, Um,
shit, is it her cousins her, she's Alexa Bliss, is like
her her sister in law or her cousin in law somethow well she tells her
she listens to this show, that's gonna be the end of her liking you.
Yeah, right, exactly. At I don't know, I like her.
I know they all hate you know, we know the ones that lam
us and she's not on the list. And uh Russell any crowns for Triple
H with his on screen and behind the scenes work and movies be eligible for
for uh utc Sabini. Yeah, because he did the mask. I mean,
I don't know, I don't know. I like, I like it,
you like it's a good reason. I mean, if they're contributing to
the actual look on the screen, I mean that's well, then we're gonna
have fucking horror movies for days. Man. Because he was, oh god,
yeah he was. He's a legendary um prop guy, a special effects
guy, legendary um yeah, and any an actor in a ton of ton
of movies too, So that just all right. He's the thing, you
know, like the way you do it, which is brilliant. It's like,
just because he qualifies every movie he's ever done, you can't do more
than one of them, because it's like, if he's the only anchor.
Yeah, because you know, as people have listened, it's like a big
part of it is diving into the biography of the wrestling connection. Sure,
sure you do a second TIMS of any movie. It's like, you're not
going to repeat his whole biography again, No, no, I would,
but but I would have specific stories as to his experiences about about each one,
and he's got quite a few. And do you remember he's in uh
do you remember Planet Terror? In do you remember it at all? The
movie? What movie? Planet Terror? Yeah? Planet Terror? Yeah?
You remember the cop with the bushy look looks like fucking uh uh, I
can't go, don't mind, I can't think his fucking name, Horney guy,
the tone of the tiger Lee Marshall, Ladle Marshall. But yeah,
yeah, that's Tom saviniorny guy. He's like nothing, I know, Well,
he did it all. Actually we just decided one day that this is
his m O. Yeah. Um premonition. Perhaps the best UTC episode ever.
All right, I'll thank it. Hearing JP's experiences working on this movie
was tremendous. A revelation that Jack used an alter ego and calling Jack at
work, what I oh, JP use an alter ego. When calling Jack
at work, what's hilarious? JP talked about his grandmothers staying awake watching Speed.
Wow, I I love Jack's observation that older relatives always sleep early,
always slept early, so you remember the times they stayed awake. Another great
moment was JP saying wrestling needs a rating board like the movies. It's called
the Observer. Oh seth Rawlins wouldn't be happy about that. I watched that
videos such an idiot. Yeah, there's there is nothing he can do to
make me like her. Everything he fucking does is just so annoying. Christmas
Bounty. Actually, this might have come the closest to dethroning the Almighty Thoor
as the worst movie. JP said, what's wrong? Jack? Jackers?
But I'm watching under protests after hearing Fox and Friends clipping Jack suffering, what's
hilarious? I learned every I learned hearing how much you hate the term doc
doc documentary? Yeah you know it was. I decided to do TNH to
get you back right. I did not know that? All right? Well,
then, I how how hilarious that that would be? Though? If
if if if basically I put I did a miss movie right, and so
you did TNH and then I did that marine you know, semper foe journey
to get you back more. Miss Captain knows on various moments that popped me
or or eli eligibility questions of varying degrees of seriousness that came to me during
the Willow episode. I'm not sure how it came up, but laughs.
Vin said, I create art for Americana. Also discussed I believe in regards
to George Lucas were come on, say it, but pursuit for pussy and
the hunt for kunt tremendous, tremendous, I believe, JP said Warwick Davis'
father worked for Lloyd's of London. With all the wrestlers that have used the
policies, should Warwick Davis be eligible for UTC, I love JP saying that
Spielberg was his was his hogan for movies. Yes, the Rock episode had
a great line from John Spencer if you turn in the work, they don't
really care if you're dying inside is laugh also provided an all time great sound
by during the MCAMM I don't think. I don't think you ever figured out
what fel for his egg and men. I won't say what it means,
but just read it backwards and I think, yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah, yeah yeah. Also had a magical segment on city planners of all
things. Oh nothing, nothing, nothing better than when we start talking about
kind of you know, city or small town Barrow always talk about you know,
the local permitting. I love that's it's the best part, honestly,
to hear how it affects the uh, how to filming affect the fucking These
fucking idiots were vocal. Yeah, it's so awesome. The Independence Day episode
involved Jack talking about the Sopranos. JP accidentally referred to David Cross instead of
David Chase, which was hilarious. That's funny. Gallo also was a reference
who, like buff Bagwell, has dabbled at being a Jiggilo and even has
his own website for it. Oh god, that's there's the one right there,
Brown bunny. Anybody. Let's see if that qualify somehow. Sean Oliver,
who did the Nash shoot and does the Nash podcast, has some Yes
he does. He does qualify. I include wrestling journalists, so yes,
he does qualify. Yes, six cents, Yeah for sure. Discussions of
renting movies during ut the episodes in the Coliseum. Episodes make me think of
my childhood video rental store. The name age of video good one and that
perfectly sums up when it used to be better for us. May twenty one,
wwe did various movie parodies. Would any of the parodied movies ust Fiction
or Braveheart boligible? Yeah? No, no, Pam Anderson, Yes,
was involved with ninety five I've Rumbling Mania eleven toes she qualify? Yes,
that would make bored eligible? Yes? Yes, Oh that's great. Is
Alec Baldwin? Oh shit, here we go? Is Alec Baldwin eligible after
the filming of Russ we know he is a real shooter? God Virgin Suicides
I, directed by Sophia Coppola, should be eligible? Why for infringing on
the von Eric's gimmick? Oh? Oh man? Is Jaws eligible? Before
Hogan became a wrestler he was inspired by this movie? How Spielberg filmed filmed
a leg drop because the leg falls after it's been eaten, so it's a
leg drops. But I will say Jaws coming soon under the spot so yes
back. Last two thousand and sixth featured a tag mash between Vince McMahon and
Shane and Seawan Michael's end. God is God eligiful for under the cinemat that's
wide open. Oh. During the Scream two episode, Jack brought up Terrifier
two as a movie that made people vomit. This movie features Chris Jericho.
Yes, that's indeed the one and only qualified because it involves wrestling in his
wrests and as wrestlers. This would allow you to cover Henry Winkler and call
Carl Reiner, will you ever cover over the top? I need the UTC
treatment for Scott Norton, who you truly love? At one point, Dason
JP mentioned wanting to cover David Mammett Geane LaBelle was in his movie Red Belt.
All right, good, the initial Spider Man movie is Yes, Randy
Savage in it. I believe all Spider Man movies and movies he appears and
should be qualified because in the debut of Spider Man in the comic books,
he wrestled like the movie. What does JP thinkum? Also, you know,
hey, uh, it might not be too far off because a Rachna
Man absolutely excellent point all of Spider Man and that damn it. That's oh
shit, all right, say a lot of things going on in my head
right now with all this stuff. So, um, Joe Frasier eligible for
his involvement in wrestling it too? If so, Rocky would be eligible,
I think so why why what Joe Frazier but Brian Rocky. No, it
didn't do Rocky. Yeah, he's Rocky three? Is he in Rocky?
I guess because of the speaking of Rocky. The idea was based on real
life boxer Chuck Webner. He also wrestled. Yeah, that that that qualifies
it because it's the Chuck Webner thing and he wrestled that. I knew,
and I didn't know it qualified, but I wasn't sure. When will Dennis
Rodman go under the cinemat how he would allow you to cover North Korea based
on his relationship with Kim Jong. That's true. It's true. Kevin Nash
was Oz. This means the Wizard of Oz is eligible interest It's a very
interesting question. Oh my god, because I mean that that would be a
crazy I have. I have this book about the entire behind the scenes making
a Wizard of Oz. That's not a bad idea. It was all about
turning the Yeah turner having the thing. Yeah, I gotta make sure I
put this down because, off, I forget, I'm gonna be what do
they play that every year? Is that Thanksgiving or that's more on Christmas?
I think, Wow, Wizard of Oz, That's not what I ever expected
to put down on this list. The list is insane, by the way,
just it's it's it's in. It's in fucking sane like I never would
have thought, never would have thought. Um to another cameo of fucking Nash
talking about ozsa um okay on the list. I think any movie with the
Hulk should be eligible. Yes, I believe royalties had to be paid to
Marvel at Hulk Hogan to use the name. Who wouldn't want angle to go
under the cinemat. Yes, the Hulk the Hulk Is is on the list
for sure. And thanks for the hundreds of hours of UTC episodes from the
last year.