SomethingSavage

My bad, brutha. You're doing all the heavy lifting for Corny's defense. You're here for all the weekly TVs and the spot shows. I just pass through once in awhile for the occasional one-off.

Relevant or not, Cornette is still a great storyteller and a crazy entertaining personality. Does he swing too wide with some of his comments & criticisms? Sure. But that's just his nature. The guy has always been a human hand grenade of rage. It's all part of the charm. You generally know what you're going to get from him. I'd still rather listen to Cornette talk about ANYTHING than just about 90% of modern promos or interviews. Jim can pause to cough or clear his throat and STILL be more entertaining than any Seth Rollins match or segment I've seen since the Shield split. Legitimately. But hey. I'm a proud Corny stan. Idgaf if he's "relevant" to today's scene or not, because that's not actually relevant to his appeal in the first place. Furthermore, if he is irrelevant, it's sort of sad - since I find him to consistently be a better judge of talent and potential than guys in ACTUAL key, relevant positions within the business. If you look at Corny from a broad, wider lens? Then yes. He comes across as a grumpy, irritated old man just shaking his fist and yelling at clouds. But if you listen and follow, then you'll hear fascinating analysis and breakdowns on what certain performers DO deserve credit, DO get over with audiences, etc. Is it out of touch because he knows it's more important to emphasize drama and story over gratuitous apron bumps and endless thigh slaps? Is it out of touch because he knows comedy relief works best in wrestling when it's used for RELIEF? It's not relief if it's 75% comedy and 25% drama or action. That's actually the inverse. Your comedy is no longer relief. It's your product. The drama and the action is then the only relief. I could go on and on. But I feel like I'm absolutely always the odd man out in these Corny discussions. So meh. In closing, you're all wrong. Corny is the GOAT. Kenny Omega is the Carrot Top of professional wrestling. And it's too bad Seth won't be taking maternity leave for 9 months, too.

Furthermore, I think Bully experienced exceptional growth throughout his TNA stint as a performer. According to both Bully and Cornette, it's when he first got turned onto the idea of watching & studying Memphis matches and footage for inspiration as the Bully Ray character. I think that absolutely shows through. The breakup of Team 3D during a faux retirement speech, the way he'd stooge and show ass for smaller guys like Aries, etc. are tremendous highlights. I realize you were referring more to their time as a tag team (and you're absolutely right), but yeah. I just loved Bully's run overall with TNA. Hell, even after Aces & Eights fizzled out, they reunited and went on a tear of great (albeit abbreviated) matches with the Wolves and the Hardy Boys. All of those are shorter versions of what you would've gotten on a WWE pay-per-view, but they're still totally worth checking out. On Jericho's podcast, Bully talked about pitching the Bully Ray idea to Vince after the Dudleys had run their course against the New Day and Wyatt Family. Just hearing the process of pitching and tweaking and negotiating for the idea, I can see how & why it never panned out - but damn. I would've LOVED to have seen Bully rip it up with Roman and company for another year or two as a top-tier singles guy in the biggest company. I really do hate that he was sort of pigeonholed in the tag team position after improving so much and putting in all that work to show he was a viable world class heel worker.

Absolutely. This series was an absolute blast. Excellent analysis of the Perfect/Hogan program. I don't know that I'd ever thought much about their match structure while working together, but it makes total sense that things would appear "off." Hulk built his bank on selling, and Perfect was a smaller pinball. Good stuff. But the rebooking of the SummerSlam card was a real highlight as well. Love the idea of turning Jake heel against Hogan. I tend to agree that the fan backlash wouldn't be there by 90, because they'd already been allowed to cheer and experience babyface Jake. The groundswell wasn't there like it would've been in the infamous, fabled DDT angle we hear about. I would love something similar soon. The Monday Night War shows are fun, but this was just on another level for me.

Yeah. That's it, really. There's basically no follow-up or follow through with any of his talkings points. It's like Conrad has his line of questions & his results to read, and there's no disrupting that - regardless of the response or answers from the other side. It's very disappointing as a listener & exactly the sort of thing that bugged me about Feinstein's interview style.

Seth gets upset anytime someone tells him how much his work sucks. But also, his work sucks. My biggest gripe with Corny isn't his rose-colored bias for everything old school or his impossible standards. It's that he actually defends guys like Matt Morgan and Seth. I'm glad to see he's just down to the one now.

Seth is still trash. I'm still convinced he cares more about flipping tires and doing CrossFit shit than anything to do with Becky or Jim. I don't know if Seth would know what conviction sounds like if he heard it pumped through his Beats headphones while he does burpees in his favorite black leggings or whatever the fuck. Cornette is still the GOAT and wins by default. Seth is the kind of guy who could take off running two days early and still lose this race.

Seth is still trash. I'm still convinced he cares more about flipping tires and doing CrossFit shit than anything to do with Becky or Jim. I don't know if Seth would know what conviction sounds like if he heard it pumped through his Beats headphones while he does burpees or whatever the fuck. Cornette is still the GOAT.

Well, I don't know if there's anything on planet Earth I could give less fucks about than somebody bragging about his download numbers or whatever the hell Conrad is doing there. It's also something about his personality that really irritates in general. The humble bragging ranks right up there with the obnoxious, LOUD, forced laugh. At the end of the day, I enjoy some of his podcasts DESPITE his role in them. As I said, there are times he's okay with Arn and JR. But those Dark Side pods are by far him at his best. Even with that said, Brian Last's Arcadian Vanguard catalog wrecks & ruins Conrad's in terms of stories, fond nostalgic feels, wide array of topics, discussion, and just about every measurable facet that matters to me as a listener. Do ANY of Last's shows get bigger numbers than any of Conrad's? I don't know, and I don't care. The quality is certainly better. And, again, I'm a fan of shows from both guys. But if it's a gun to your head scenario, I'm picking Last's offerings seven days a week & twice on Sundays.

I first remember Conrad covering consecutive shows like that back when he and Bruce were trying to review ALLLLL the Attitude Era stuff from 97-99. What started as a fun series of shows quickly soured into shit with stuff like No Mercy 99. It just became VERY redundant, with Conrad basically hitting the same news beats time & time again. And he's still doing that. With Arn, it's 2015 and 2010 - both dreadful periods in the company's history. I get that it's probably a lot easier on Conrad to schedule things this way, because he has a FULL plate of podcasts. But there's so many interesting topics to be covered. Even though they weren't necessarily stellar shows, I'd like more profile pieces like Tito/Duggan. Those actually used to be some of Bruce's best efforts - thinking back to the early days with Pillman, Vader, Jarrett, and Savage all the way up to Sid and Yoko. The Tito and Duggan stuff felt like lesser thans by comparison, but part of that probably goes into the busy schedules of both Conrad and Bruce. But yeah. The topics and the scheduling is really monotonous. If reviewing shows in consecutive order is what Conrad wants to do, he could at least choose a period when there was something interesting to discuss. I don't know that fantasy booking what might have been for Tyson Kidd every week is exactly what people want to hear about. And yes. Just to reiterate & double down again, Brian Last smokes Conrad as a host. Hell, Jericho is a better and more versatile host than Conrad. When JR appeared on Jericho's show a few weeks ago, JR was much more casual and conversational in telling a bunch of fun Vince stories than he ever is on his own show with Conrad steering the ship and bogging things down in needless results reading and dick jokes that wouldn't make the cut for one of those wretched straight-to-DVD American Pie sequels.

Conrad is in complete autopilot mode on most of his shows these days. There are countless recent instances when he should've challenged something Bruce or JR said, but he just moves on to read his next string of results or reader question instead. I think Conrad is actually much better with Arn in that regard. It's a more conversational exchange between them, without ever getting too loose (as is the case with the awful Schiavone stuff). And, to be fair, Conrad is also quite good in those Dark Side pods covering each episode of the docu series. But yeah. Across the board, he comes across as coasting. I literally cringe anytime I hear someone compare/contrast him to Brian Last. Say what you will, but Last is in another league entirely as host and guide on his shows.

Ugh. Yeah. That Sacrifice 2010 episode reminded me why I dialed out for awhile. Just a lot of babbling about nothing & way too many irrelevant tangents about the dog, the wife, and the best friend. I don't need a ten minute preamble for you to make one decent point to answer a straightforward question. What's worse is that it's usually an answer he's already given several times before. "Again, I had nothing to do with creative." "Again, I had it put in my contract. I wasn't involved with management." "Again, it wasn't about stars. It was about presentation." It just gets to be too much when about 65% of the show could be trimmed away & still leave you with a decent episode. Whoever suggested Conrad do some actual editing is right on point, actually. That would help this podcast tremendously in times like this instance. As much as I dug ALL the previous TNA episodes from Eric, this one was just a slog. I actually paused right as they started discussing the actual event itself. I was just burned out on hearing all the dizzying business speak that led nowhere. I'm sure I'll finish it eventually, but yikes. Oh, and yeah. Conway was definitely there. He and Russo were writing the "placeholder" shows prior to Hogan and Bischoff showing up but immediately after BFG 09. I remember Conway getting some talk online for the basic (in a good way) booking of Styles' title reign and the matches with Joe/Daniels for the belt at the end of the year.

I'm curious to hear when it is Bischoff stakes a claim in the overall creative. I know he always points to Aces & Eights as his brainchild, but I'm fairly certain it started sooner than that. If I had to guess, I'd think it started with the more episodic storytelling that started with the Joker Sting stuff in 2011. I've said it a dozen times over in the various TNA threads, but Lockdown 2011 to Lockdown 2013 was an incredibly enjoyable peak for the company after an awfully low year in 2010. I think there's a great deal of fatigue and hangover from the Russo creative still in place throughout most of the year. I don't know whether Immortal/THEY was a Bischoff idea, but I tend to believe it was another Hogan, Russo, Conway mashup. And yes. It was another misfire in the same vein as Abyss-A-Mania, Nature Boy Styles, etc. I loved hearing Eric heap so much praise on Kaz & Daniels. I can totally buy that he appreciates those more creative, ambitious types. It's less work for him, but it also shows an entrepreneurial spirit. Guys like Eric want to do less while maintaining efficiency. Conversely, in McMahonland, that's overstepping. It's an OCD environment where control and bureaucracy comes first. If you have an idea, cool. But know your role & get back in line. I also popped for the Kong story. "I hope she drew blood." was a fantastic line. There's something very admirable to me about Eric pulling no punches when it comes to his disdain for Bubba the Love Sponge. I absolutely believe he means it when he calls him scum and a lowlife. Eric had another great line when he described initially getting the Jimmy Hart deal to join TNA and serve as Hulk's buffer. Eric said he and TNA had "mutual disinterest" in one another. They just wanted Hulk. I enjoyed the TNA episodes so much that I actually went back and started to scope out some of the other episodes I'd missed since he left WWE. It's nothing great, but I was just getting through a workout and let the SuperBrawl V show play anyway. I will say this - Eric's breakdown and analysis of the Alex Wright/Roma match is some PWO circa 2014 level shit. Very cool. And, even when he can't quite put his finger on what he wants to say, he does a great job of acknowledging that. He talks about selling needing to inspire hope and that he doesn't always know how to explain great selling, but he always knows it when he sees it. In something like pro wrestling - where so much is up for interpretation - it's easy to relate to that statement.

I only occasionally check out one of his shows anymore. I still find Jericho to be a GREAT host and among the most versatile out there, but I don't know. Some of the guests and the subjects feel like too much retread whenever I scroll through the episodes. The recent JR episode from a couple of weeks ago was awesome. It was just a breezy conversation with plenty of Vince stories to eat up. Not a ton of new material covered, but it was never boring. The Brodie Lee episode was alright. Again, the highlights are the Vince stories, which have basically been 100% confirmed by Arn over on his show as well. It's crazy to think Harper got heat for that run in late 2016/early 2017 when he was a part of some of the best stuff on a very stacked SmackDown show at the time. Harper claims be told the writers the angle would get HIM over as the babyface, even though it was supposedly designed to do that for Randy (it was actually accomplishing both, but the crowd WAS solidly behind Harper). They continued to push through, but Harper got babyface reactions - even while doing heel stuff laid out by Arn. The crowd didn't care. They were cheering Harper, because 1) they dug his work, and 2) he was smart for catching on early and trying to warn Bray Wyatt about the impending betrayal by Orton. That's not heel tactics. The crowd didn't care if he was interfering in tag matches. They wanted to cheer the guy. Anyway, I checked out the Revival/Revolt episode also. But mygoddamngod. I really wish I hadn't. What a bore. I was hoping for some entertaining or interesting Vince stories surrounding their release and the wild gimmick pics that popped up online. We actually did get to hear the gimmick pitch, but that's about it. The rest is an hour and twenty minutes of them sounding like Kenny Omega by telling us how humble they are and how they want to change the world through wrestling & give back to wrestling or whateverthefuck. Hard pass anytime they're on anything that's not them just shutting the fuck up and wrestling.

First off, I really appreciate the heads up about these new Eric episodes. I'll definitely scope those out soon. Bischoff's last TNA show was great, and I was obviously an early fan of the show. I also lapsed once he signed with WWE, but I'm going to give these a listen. Secondly, Eric has always maintained that Hulk wanted him as part of the package deal in TNA. Clearly Hulk was the target and the guy they wanted to bring in for mainstream appeal and attention, but Hulk wanted Eric there day-to-day to keep his interests in mind and serve as the buffer. Hogan is smart in how he recognizes other people's assets beyond just his own. Did he want his friend to get a payday? Probably. But he also knew that Eric knew advertisers, decent storytelling tropes, etc. as well. Thirdly, I am a James Storm fan going way back. I always dug the guy's brawls & found him to be among the very best modern day bleeders. I loved the Beer Money tag team, his push towards main event status as a singles, and the Outlaw gimmick seemed destined to sell merch & make some money. But it was doomed to be confined to the TNA vacuum - where good things can happen, but nearly nobody hears about them. But yes. If Eric also brings up the boo boo face thing, then he is only the latest & absolutely not alone. Prichard and Snow have both mentioned it before. I know Bruce has also talked about how he was inconsistent in when he would want to give 100% to an idea or an angle, which is an unfortunate thing to hear about someone you're a fan of tbh.

THIS. Just this.

I just wanted to say i'm just now seeing this post, and I still won't read what you wrote. ... Nah, in all seriousness, I hope all is well with you and your people. And Cornette's still the fucking man. Carry on.

I'm still around. I can't remember why I stopped logging in and posting. But eventually, life priorities just took over. And now I've been working an insane schedule for about 6 weeks due to the virus. I'm an essential, y'all. Anyway, I randomly thought to swing through and see what y'all have thought about any of the more recent podcasts, and I saw your post. Just wanted to say I appreciate the shout-out and hope all is well with you & yours, man.

You're right. Clearly classic symptoms of dementia, am I right?

Amazing. People here are criticizing Corny for being over the top about the things he hates. In turn, they're so triggered and mad that they're literally attempting to diagnose the guy with dementia. Incredible. Who's getting all worked up again? It's amusing to me that modern wrestling fans are so adverse to admitting they can be worked, that they'd rather insist that a lifelong worker has "worked themselves into a shoot" than admit that the fans themselves are actually being worked. Which. Is. Your. Role. You're fans. We're all fans. We are supposed to sit back and be worked into feeling certain ways sometimes. I understand everyone has delusions of being the ultimate critic or the next Dave, but fuck that noise. We're fans. It's okay to be worked. I don't know why everyone bashes Corny for working his own angles to keep his shit relevant. It's absurd. You're a fan. You're meant to be worked. This arms race in which all wrestling fans are trying too hard to be the smartest person in the room is obnoxious and off-putting. Be a fan. Of course Corny is going to be outrageous, be controversial, and be exaggerated in expressing himself. The guy is a lifer. He gets the deal.

It's not the Experience, but I've actually gone back and started to listen to all the Drive-Thru episodes from the very beginning. This show is just an absolute blast, and it's the one I'd highly recommend to any wrestling fan. I forgot just how much of a home run the Drive-Thru was from day one. It's a stripping away of the more annoying aspects from the Experience, and it's essentially just Jim telling fun stories and reminiscing on the things he loves most about professional wrestling. I'm about ten episodes in right now, and so much ground has already been covered. OVW, Smoky Mountain, and (naturally) the 80s territories are all highlighted in rapid succession on these shows. Cornette's comparisons of Funk, Lawler, and Flair in debating the merits of each as his own personal Greatest Wrestler Ever is some PWO GWE level shit if I ever heard it. Well worth seeking out for you list guys. Corny has a level-headed, realist type response to summarize his thoughts, which I appreciated. I understand Brian Last has some detractors and everything, but I've really come around on the guy, especially when paired with Corny. The criticisms about Conrad Thompson not following up on questions or bending and adjusting with the flow of the conversation are not things that apply to Last. Say what you will about Brian, but the guy allows the talk to steer itself and find its own path at times. One listener question about ring announcers literally transforms into a lengthy discussion involving fashion choices, Jim's managerial wardrobe becoming more gawky and outrageous, how uncomfortable some of those suits were, and then settles with Last inquiring about Jim's personal favorite choice. That's the difference in having a co-host that is simply hitting the beats and one who is trying to create some rhythm. If you dig what Arn is doing right now, there's no reason to believe you wouldn't feel similarly about Cornette's Drive-Thru. You can even start from the very beginning like I've recently done. I don't think you'd be disappointed.

Oof. That Rumble 05 episode was not great. Riddled with rants and ad reads from start to finish, it just felt like it had no real flow. And they actually jumped right into the topic for a change, but that didn't help much. I never got the sense JR was drunk, but he was as salty as ever and got sidetracked onto some strange tirades. The Trump impeachment talk came way out of left field, and I could sort of sense Conrad's awkwardness in the moment. He quickly shifted gears and just basically began to read a beat by beat breakdown of the action for a fucking Hiedenreich match, just to drown out JR's political nonsense. Just bizarre. Even the novelty of JR essentially arguing with himself can wear a little thin when you hear it four or five times within a two-hour show, I guess.

I don't know, but I do know I never need to hear JR say the word "boner" during an an read ever again. That Rumble 05 episode sounds like a glorious train wreck. I've got a chest day (best day) in the gym tomorrow, so this bad boy sounds ideal to have on tap for that. Looking forward to hearing him go off the rails and argue with the ether some more.

I'm not surprised in the slightest. At least ever since the Attitude Era, a large portion of fans have associated the term "charisma" with people like The Rock only. It's directly tied to being loud, brash, and bombastic. But that's not necessarily the case. There's a whole spectrum with subtleties. Charisma is about commanding attention. The Rock is a fucking lightning rod. He is a once-in-a-lifetimer, go be sure. But the existence of Dwayne Johnson charisma doesn't mean that there isn't Jason Statham charisma out there as well. It's a more subdued, but similarly effective, magnetism. It also draws you in and keeps you fixated. It's just a different vibe and frequency. Now I'm not defending Orton's duller moments, nor am I suggesting he's at Rocky's level of course. But I'm saying you're crazy if you can't see how he's toying with the crowd and exuding charisma with every movement in that scene. The guy was on point when it counted. It's almost as if he is educating them that he'll give a shit and put in the effort when they meet him halfway with a decent angle for a change. Wild theory, I know.

THIS. I don't watch much of anything WWE does anymore, but this was tremendous. Pure pro wrestling through & through. The scene was allowed to really breathe and play out beat by beat, with Orton and Edge milking every millisecond of every moment for maximum effect. It was one of those rare instances where the crowd felt absolutely all in as well. They felt emotionally invested, spiking and dipping in waves. The smallest or slightest movement from Randy was enough to send them into a frenzy. I absolutely believe this is what Omega hopes for with his silly twitching and shifting and Muta aping, except it's totally devoid of the emotional attachment - which is exactly the engine and the driving force in the first place. I'm absolutely on board to see what they do in the eventual match. Part of it is curiosity to see how carefully they construct a grudge match around the injury. But shit. Some of that is this story, too. They have a history. And, more specifically, this segment just sent it over the top. It's amazing how effective a simple, straightforward angle can get me on the hook after all these years. I don't think I've felt this excited since Jericho started popping up in New Japan and wrecking shop like he was Brody or some shit. Edge was great here. Orton was fantastic, too. Don't sleep on either guy's contribution to the finished product here, regardless of where you rate them or rank them on some fluctuating list in your head. This was magic. This was pure pro wrestling, pulling on emotional puppet strings from start to finish.