SomethingSavage

Not gonna lie. I'd pop huge for a Mongo appearance. I don't care how bad the guy stunk it up in the ring. He had a personality and a presence that just roared, "Four Horsemen." We'd probably get plenty of party stories, but it could still be fascinating to hear in-ring stuff from that crazy super-popular time period also. As far as Lex goes, he has come across REALLY humble in all his appearances since the health issues. He seems completely cool about discussing things, his own shortcomings, etc. Doesn't seem to hold a single grudge, and that's great. I'll definitely be checking this one out. I like the series so far. Austin's still my favorite interviewer by far, but this is a nice alternative for sure. Ric's personality and love of life in general is what sells me on it though. I don't know that I look at it like, "Well he's going to kick the bucket one day, so might as well enjoy him now..." To me, that's at least a little morbid. I know it's a subconscious thing, and we all tend to treat elders that way in later years. But really. I don't want to enjoy the podcast because Flair's old. I want to enjoy the podcast for good conversations, entertaining stories, insight, and so on. As long as it holds up on that end - and it has so far - then yeah. Big thumbs up from me.

Delete. Double post.

Reliving a lot of the WWF stuff from Backlund's era alongside you guys on Titans, I wonder if this was the same philosophy Vince Sr. had in mind for Bob's reign. Say what you will about how plain & bland Backlund was on the personality scale... his challengers were almost always these larger than life creations. They were the kind of characters that could leap off the screen & looked like comic book villains come to life. Snuka and Slaughter especially stand out to me as being a little bit ahead of their time. I don't mean to derail or redirect your thread here, Parv. That line just caught my attention, and that's what instantly sprang to mind first. I've never thought about seeking out a Dory Jr. shoot before, but I might scope this one out if I get the time.

Enjoyed the rebooking of Macho Man's WWF career immensely. If you guys decide to do another long-range rebooking project in the future, I'd love to hear ya take aim at 2011 - specifically early '11 when it looked like Lawler might take the WWE Championship off The Miz. So I guess it'd be Elimination Chamber 2011 to MITB 2011. It's a subject I could see Will getting into, and it's one that I've honestly always wondered about if it had gone down differently. I'd keep the Summer of Punk and all the Pipebomb stuff that comes down the road, but I'd only request that you guys book Lawler's feud with Miz all the way through his only WrestleMania and up into MITB 2011 - where the beginning of the Punk run could be kept intact. Plenty of stuff to sink your teeth into there. - Rock's return. Does he still guest host Mania, or is he doing something else? - What about Miz? Does he drop the strap to Lawler? Does he retain? - Where does Cena wind up on the card? - How's the Michael Cole feud wrapped up? Does it go the way of Andy Kaufman - with the King just squashing him and mowing him down with Piledrivers? Or do you call on Cole to get more physical with a cat & mouse / "dog & pony" evil Mr. McMahon kind of performance? - Does R-Truth still go ape-shit bananas? ... Okay. That last one doesn't have anything to do with Lawler/Cole/Miz, but it was insanely fun. And HEY. Truth did work a main event program that year.

Appreciate this thread, as it'll make things so much easier to track. Digging the series, man. I've only missed the episode with Marty so far, and now I see you've got a new '93 loaded up to go. Gonna have to check out both pretty soon.

Yeah. Austin plays the audio of the trailer in the opening on his podcast. I'll definitely try to see it once it's out.

Christ. I just listened to the Del Wilkes interview, and it was the kind of conversation that hit close to home. I don't know whether anyone here has any experience or first-hand accounts with prescription drugs or painkiller addictions, but I've dealt with it. For whatever reason, the shit has spread across the south as THE preliminary party drug of choice in my years since graduating. Somewhere over the course of my lifetime, parties have gone from being about beer, whiskey, and tequila to a handful of Somas, Xanny bars, Vicodin, etc. I've lost high school friends and roommates to it. I've woken up to a message on my cell phone from a roommate that never came home... only to get a call later that day to tell me that he'd overdosed the night before. And, without going into too much more of that kind of personal bullshit, it's something that I fought to get away from myself about four years ago. But this story from Wilkes is really gripping. I guess I could see it being "meh" to someone that's had no involvement with any of the stuff, but it struck a chord with me. I loved it. It's made even better by the way Austin would openly counter with his own coping methods & habits throughout his career. Really good stuff if you guys haven't heard it. I've heard Shane Douglas talk about his oxy addiction before - with Kayfabe Commentaries and other shoots - but hearing the Wilkes interview makes me really want to go check out his two-parter on Austin's podcast next.

AAW from Illinois - https://www.youtube.com/user/AAWPro SMASH from Toronto - https://www.youtube.com/user/SmashWrestling1 Booker T's ROW from Texas - https://www.youtube.com/user/TheBookerTROW WCWC from Portland - https://www.youtube.com/user/WCWCPresents TCW from the Mid-South - https://www.youtube.com/user/TCWWrestlingOnline (Mostly posting "Classic" reruns lately, but they've got a lot of great old stuff up.) PWX from Charlotte - https://www.youtube.com/user/PWXProWrestling (Although they had a lot more stuff up on Vimeo, last I checked.) CWF Mid-Atlantic from North Carolina - https://www.youtube.com/user/CWFMidAtlantic Pro Wrestling Syndicate from New Jersey - https://www.youtube.com/user/ETapout NECW from New England - https://www.youtube.com/user/necwwrestling/ AWF from Arizona - https://www.youtube.com/user/prowrestlingaz FSW from Las Vegas - https://www.youtube.com/user/FutureStarsWrestling ICW from Glasgow, Scotland - https://www.youtube.com/user/ICWOnline Legend City Wrestling from Canada - https://www.youtube.com/user/lcwnl NWA Smoky Mountain - https://www.youtube.com/user/NWASmokyMtn/ NWA SAW from Nashville - https://www.youtube.com/user/krizull ... Those are the main ones I keep on my radar, for the most part. There are others that get some talk occasionally - like AIW or APW's Gym Wars, but I tried to only include promotions that put up full "shows" in this list here. Either way, this should serve as a healthy starter set to get you out there. Each fed generally has recommended channels and stuff for you to branch out and venture down other rabbit holes if you like. Championship Wrestling From Hollywood used to be among my favorites, but they've stopped posting their shows on YouTube and Blip sometime in the past year, and they've now got a pay deal set up with Patreon. Still, their old shows are still up and worth checking out. If I missed any noteworthy indies out there, feel free to add 'em and beef up the list. I know there's a TON of free content out there these days, but it'd be really cool to get some eyes on a few of these and open up discussion about ANY of them, quite honestly.

The backlash to Cornette's guys in ROH seemed more like a rejection to the changes in booking and the overall direction of the company at the time. Couple that with the way guys like Steen were openly voicing their dissatisfaction of the product, and you could easily see why so many fans would side with the original ROH talent over an "outdated outsider" like Cornette. It just wasn't a good fit. The Reseda crowd has been particularly kind to former TNA talent actually. Daniels, Kaz, Sabin, and even Lethal were pretty much brought in (or brought back in) with clean slates. You might get the usual "fuck TNA" heckling, but they seem to really keep an open mind to let guys prove themselves and see if they shit the bed first. That being said, I don't feel like Storm or Gunner would necessarily "belong" in the PWG landscape. Could they come in and pleasantly surprise people by matching up well with some of the more heralded indie darlings? Sure. Wouldn't totally shock me. But the fact of the matter is that PWG has so much talent just waiting to get their foot in the door out there. And PWG has a solid track record of listening to the audience, in that they'll try to bring in guys due to popular demand first & foremost. There's not going to be any buzz around Storm or Gunner. Nobody's going to be calling out for those guys to get a shot in PWG. And there are only so many spots. I could see Aries making the rounds though. Absolutely. Like I said, if there's a gun to my head & I have to pick one guy to land something (at least somewhat) similar to the sweet "AJ Styles" deal? It's gonna be Aries.

Give me high-horse Budro and the Dirty White Boy as the odd couple tag team, "High Class & White Trash" and now we're talking.

Yeah. Beat me to it, but that's why I asked. I knew Lethal had only made his PWG debut on an All Star Weekend, worked that weekend, and then never got brought back. Plus it was around that same point where I started to take notice of Roddy again & found him to be really hitting a new stride. So I wanted to see if maybe I missed something after that initial stretch where Roddy was "off" his game. Because I honestly haven't seen a case for it yet. I kind of enjoyed the finishing stretch of Eddie/Lethal. I could certainly see the fact that he's doing strictly Black Machismo shtick for much of the match as a turn-off for some though. He does it well - extremely well, with the mannerisms, the jabs, the double sledge, the taunts, and the whole bit really - and I can't even fault him for wanting to bust that out in front of Reseda audience. In honesty, it was pretty fun to see in that atmosphere. But I don't think it was all that wise to pull it out on his debut with the company. The match with Eddie could have been a solid straightforward match, I think, if they just would've went for it. Factor that in with him doing more of that style of match the next night with Willie Mack, but it just didn't carryover. I think his approach to the two matches should've been swapped, and both outings suffered for it. Thought the match with Mack was mostly forgettable and lacking any real outstanding traits. The finish was... well, it was a thing. But the execution of it was so slow and contrived (and heel-ish on top of that) that it'd make you think the Lethal Injection would've been just as credible in that spot. Not to derail this thread away from Strong entirely though... I would agree that the long "middle portion" of his career has felt very lackluster. It's not that he was terrible or anything, but he was really just another ROH guy for most of it. He blended in with the Edwards & Richards of the world during that whole tiresome, monotonous time period. His title reign particularly felt like a point where he was just spinning his wheels as a whole. It's only been in these past few years that he truly feels like he's evolved as a performer, and I think that's key in him getting so much talk & hype lately. It's been an ongoing process for awhile, but it's reached a point where the work is clear and abundantly available enough for nearly everyone to notice it. But yeah. That stretch in the middle is too long to ignore. I'm with Dylan on the thought that he'd need to produce a few more years of this high quality work to balance things more in his favor. Strong seemed exceptional enough & ripe with potential in the earlier days of ROH, then there was that VERY bland middle portion, and now he's kicked it into next gear again.

Got around to the Guerrilla Warfare match last night and loved it. "I'm gonna kick your ass so hard, you're shitty little boots will fall off." Strong's being able to actually heel on the Reseda crowd is great. Loved how they did the whole travel difficulties storyline, too. Yes. This. A thousand times this. I totally forgot about the little throwaway line about Roddy missing his flight or whatever, but that was a clever little piece of the puzzle. And the "shitty little boots" shtick has truly taken on a life of its own. ("Shitty little socks!" had me going hysterical.) It's one of those things that makes the Reseda crowd so endearing, even if they hit a tipping point & take it too far every now & then. Roddy's reactions to the chants and his interactions with the crowd are what help to set him apart though. Steen could go a step further, but he liked to get too cute about it too often. Strong has mostly just kept this dick-ish attitude intact and REALLY given them a reason to despise him, because he never drops the illusion that he can't stand them either. Good stuff.

I get what you're saying, but I disagree with a lot from this first paragraph anyway. I may be wrong in assuming that other people have enjoyed Storm as much as I have in recent years, but I certainly have pimped & raved about some of his performances - particularly the singles run from 2011 to late 2013. The matches with Gunner were incredibly fun brawls. The bad acting and terrible TV segments aside... they delivered when it came to in-ring action. And the praise isn't exclusive to Storm there either. Gunner more than held up his end. Didn't feel at all like a carry job. Both guys went out, busted their asses, shed blood, threw bombs, and even cooked up some slightly innovative stuff with their utilization of the weaponry. It wasn't just a string of run-of-the-mill garbage matches. Same could be said for Storm versus Roode - both the Street Fight and the Lockdown Cage match - although I'd admittedly rank both of those higher than the Gunner series. The intensity *MIGHT* have been greater with Gunner in spurts, but the story... the drama... the heat... and the atmosphere was exceptionally higher in the Roode feud, and that's something you rarely got from TNA rivalries. I've seen Shaw in other promotions outside of TNA. Have yet to feel like he's had anything noteworthy anywhere, to be honest. I could be wrong, but you're almost making it out to sound like ROH is the promised land that these guys should be aiming for. I don't think that's necessarily the case for any of them to be honest, nor do I really think it should be that cut & dry. And now with the rumored Evolve/WWN stuff being tied to NXT deals, well... there's a ton of options out there. PWG, LU, So-Cal indies, Southern indies, Northeast Indies, Japan, you name it... The door's wide open with opportunities if they pursue them and - as you kind of alluded to - if they're simply talented enough to warrant getting booked for their work. Some of them certainly are. But it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if a handful of them are just content & comfortable with what they're doing. They might keep on trucking with TNA dates, supplemented by a couple of dates with indies here & there.

Magnus seems like a surefire candidate for a WWE/NXT deal, but I said the same thing about Shaun Ricker and that didn't turn out so great. So ya never know. From what I've gathered, it seems like TNA is just cutting contracts and paying per appearance instead. So maybe a lot of these guys will just be freed up to work outside dates, but they'll likely still be seen on TNA television and working for TNA in essentially the same roles anyway. I could see Aries branching out and breaking loose on the indie circuit and possibly even Japan, but guys like Magnus and Storm would probably struggle to find as many offers. Maybe I'm wrong.

I've been real high on Roddy for the past two years or so. I've made a few posts in the Modern Indie Wrestling thread over the last few weeks citing several reasons and instances why, but I really just wanted to ask what show that Lethal match is from.

Nice. Been waiting for this one to drop. Gotta do some grilling today for the fam's "Welcome Home" back from vacation... Hope to give this one a listen while going all iron chef & they're still settling in. I already see some names mentioned that I wish would've gotten more discussion on the board here. Sounds like another fun topic, for sure.

I thought the whole angle played out perfectly from start to finish. The parallels began at the beginning, with Roddy winning the right to be #1 contender on the same night that Kyle captured the title. Both guys are babyfaces. Fast forward, and Roddy starts subtly taking jabs at Kyle on commentary. When Kyle volunteers to work BOLA (but not put the belt on the line), Strong criticizes him for it - calling him easily distracted, not taking title defenses as serious priorities, etc. Both Roddy and Kyle advance in the tourney. When the brackets for the next round of BOLA come out, it turns out that Kyle and Strong are set to lock up. But Strong ambushes Kyle and sidelines him with an injury. Roddy advances by forfeit. Eventually Kyle and Strong meet up in the match you're talking about. And yeah. It's pretty great. The Guerrilla Warfare rematch is top-notch stuff, too. There's some good stuff in that one. The strikes are crisp, the submissions are snug, and even all the weaponry shots function as either callbacks to previous points of their feud or build to the finish. I just thoroughly enjoyed the whole thing. And it felt like one of those instances where - here are these two guys working a program together, and they've both been getting this hype & buzz around them lately. So they're simultaneously hitting their stride at the same time around this period.

Having him in the tournament would be good for some fresh buzz and excitement, but I don't think it's necessary. Clearly this lineup is stacked to the gills without going that route, and I'd much rather see him treated like a big deal & special attraction kind of combatant anyway. But yeah. That lineup is insanely glorious. Just bee-yoo-tee-full. Part of me doesn't want to get TOO excited, because last year's lineup looked tremendous on paper at first. And Night 2 still turned out to be utterly atrocious. I think the one decent match was Cole/Sabre Jr. Everything else was time-killing trash. I honestly can't think of another PWG card that turned out as disappointing in their entire history. As long as there aren't any "no loss" clauses to contend with & all that this year, hopefully they can keep things steered on track and not have any off nights again. I know that sounds like I'm just pissing & moaning and whining & bitching, but really - looking over that lineup one more time, I don't think it's going to be an issue this year. You could literally draw names at random, pair them against each other, and flip a coin to decide the winners - and you'd still probably come out with nothing but quality matches all the way up through the finals.

Part of me wouldn't mind seeing Aries shake things up in ROH, because I think it could be mutually beneficial. But ROH has kind of painted themselves into a corner with these exclusive contracts & crap recently. If I had to choose - I'd much rather see Aries go the Styles route & tear it up across all indies for awhile, possibly with a stint in Japan and definitely getting some dates with PWG. If he could work all over like Strong, Styles, etc. then yeah. I'm all for it. I just wouldn't want to see him saddled in one spot with too many restrictions though. James Storm is a guy I was really high on at one point, and I've honestly enjoyed his work even as recently as last year's program with Gunner. He can be a super fun brawler when he busts out the working boots. And he's a fantastic fucking bleeder. I don't know how far outside his "comfort zone" he'd be willing to go in order to seek work, but I wouldn't be totally shocked if he found a decent deal somewhere. Low Ki would be fun in Lucha Underground for a cup of coffee. Then, when he gets upset over being asked to take a fall, they can just go all Machete Kills on him & launch the character into outer space or something. If Low Ki chooses to come back for the next season, they can have him return as a space gringo with plunder & weaponry from the seven rings of Saturn or some shit. Otherwise, just let him throw his usual tantrum & leave. No harm done.

^ "HJ babyface" being one rung below "BJ babyface" is just tremendous. But I do think you're forgetting the way Will teased an eventual heel turn on Dan in mid-match here. Or is Dan automatically the defacto heel in that situation, by way of being the off-screen "evil authority" figure? ... Oh. And yeah. Another awesome episode, guys. The format, the topics, and the general back-and-forth conversation makes these podcasts just fly by.

I really should rewatch that NOC match myself, because I think I might have a change of opinion on it. I think that show sucked and had really beaten any enjoyment out of me by the time the main event started and I didn't like it as much as I would have on a stand-alone viewing. The finish is VERY underwhelming, for sure. And I absolutely understand why it received so much negative backlash at the time it occurred. But really, the match itself tells a strong redemption story of Cena refocusing and adapting. And they almost went all the way with it on commentary for a change, if only they would have outright stated that THIS is the reason Cena is a 14-time champ. He might lose the first battle... but he adapts, develops a winning strategy, and recovers in time to win the war. Good, basic stuff.

Anybody know the deal with Vader popping up out of obscurity? I know his son's been released from NXT for like a year, so is there any chance that he's trying to open up an opportunity for him there? Or is Vader Jr. out of the business completely?

To each their own, but I'll still take Justin Credible's kendo stick & jumping Tombstone Piledriver over a guitar-shaped pinata & the Stroke every day of the week, please & thanks.

I don't think the Brock squash devalued or hurt Cena in the long haul, to be honest. A case could be made that Cena was, in fact, the only guy on the roster with enough standing & status to make the match mean as much as it did. A massacre like that doesn't hold as much weight if it isn't being done with a guy like Cena, quite frankly. Besides, whatever damage was done... was quickly UNDONE by the rematch less than a month later. No harm, no foul. I still stand by the statement that the SummerSlam match was a shock & awe spectacle. It was great in the moment. But the Night of Champions bout is a much better contest & even holds a heavier atmosphere. It feels like a real "high stakes" prize fight, and Cena's usual shtick of the bound & determined babyface works for me there.

Shouldn't Hulk Hogan feel like a bigger deal these days? When did his legacy take such a dip? Was it all the jobs he did in the 2002 nostalgia run? Was it the feeling that he dropped off the face of the Earth while in TNA? Or was it the post-Hogan Knows Best scandal stuff with his family? Just curious as to what the general consensus might be on that. I rewatched the first half of WM30 - mostly for the opening segment and the DB/HHH match - and yeah. It was just startling to me how much more of a "superstar presence" that both Rock and Austin seemed to hold over Hulk. Don't get me wrong. Hogan felt over. And he felt like he belonged within the context and framing of what they were doing. But, for somebody with so much history and mainstream exposure, he just felt like this man out of time & almost irrelevant in the environment. It's hard to properly convey or put into words, but I think you get my drift. It's just a strange thing. I think he's done okay in this new ambassador role with the company since returning, and his initial return was actually handled fairly well - but, even now looking back, it just feels absolutely underwhelming (at best) for a guy with SUCH a rich & strong influence in the industry. Where'd it go wrong?