Petey

That's definitely part of it. It's clear that if they're focusing on a specific show or something similar, JR doesn't go back and re-watch the show, angle, match, etc. I know he has a lot going on with traveling a lot, the new book coming out and still going back and forth with doctors for cancer and sciatica, so I imagine his schedule isn't great, and it's why I can't go too nuts over it.

I want this podcast to be better than it is, and I don't think there's anyone to blame for why it's not. I think what holds it back is that JR doesn't have Jim Cornette's recall, nor does he have Bruce's ability to just BS stuff he doesn't know. Instead, JR repeats the same stories and constantly gets his timelines mixed up. It's not JR's fault because Cornette's recall is freakish, but JR has been in multiple really interesting places during a lot of super fascinating times, so I'm always left feeling frustrated or just wanting more.

I listened to it casually last week. It was better than the average episode since JR seemed to have better recall about that era than a lot of the Attitude Era stuff. I didn't find it to be overwhelmingly controversial, although again, I listened passively. I'd guess that it's more that Conrad was surprised at the nature of some of the content as opposed to it being so over the top. Granted, I also listen to Jim Cornette's Drive-Thru and I feel like he's talked about similar items, so perhaps it didn't faze me as much as it might someone else.

JR's had such a fascinating career, but listening to his podcast makes me wish he had Cornette's recall. Half the time it feels like he's giving his opinion on something that he has no recollection of occurring.

I feel like JR just doesn't remember a lot of specific details or stories from much of his WCW/WWF days. I don't necessarily blame him. He's 70 years old and has been in the business for nearly 50 years. I'm sure a lot of stuff blended together after a while. Plus, I feel like Head of Talent Relations is one of those jobs that's so time demanding that you never have the chance to reflect. With Bruce, it's probably a little of the above and also because now that he's back with the company, he doesn't have the time to really invest in reflecting on the topic. Plus, he has to be careful with what he says.

It's funny because as a child of the Attitude Era, I sometimes fall into the trap of, "I miss when the wrestlers really gave a rip and were ultra competitive with one another, to the point where they'd have legit issues with each other behind the scenes." And now that it's happening, I don't know, I feel kind of ambivalent. I'm a very casual AEW viewer. I will watch the TV every once in a while but I often order the PPVs because I appreciate that there's so few of them, they all feel pretty special. I feel like the whole situation is just ridiculous, and I kinda wish it wasn't the case.

As I mentioned in another post, I cut back a lot on Conrad's pods and podcasts in general. I think the last Conrad pod I made an effort with when it launched was Grilling JR. I never listened to Arn or anything after that. I just started the JJ pod, and as I said, I've been enjoying that, but it's essentially a supercut of a topic that I find interesting, so it makes sense. Bischoff filled in for Conrad on the most recent Grilling JR. The topic was Hogan in WWF/E while JR was there. Nothing earth-shattering, but it was a pretty breezy listen. They went off the rails a couple of times, but they were usually pretty interesting sidebars. Eric was solid enough in the role, mainly because there wasn't much of an opportunity for him to bash Meltzer and such. I wanted to weigh in on the 9/11 discussion. I was in 9th grade when it happened. I live on Long Island, and at the time, I was probably a little over an hour from the towers. I remember it vividly. I'm not a particularly anxious person, but I remember not wanting to visit the area for years after it happened because I never felt ready. It wasn't a situation where I couldn't reflect back on 9/11 or anything like that. I make fun of Pete Carroll's 9/11 truther nonsense constantly. I just didn't feel ready to visit the site. In my late 20s/early 30s, a couple of friends and I would make monthly excursions to NYC, and one day, we wound up down there, somewhat unplanned, but it happened. I was fine. It was heavy, of course, but no more than the Vietnam memorial or something else that pre-dates me. It's a very roundabout way of saying that I call BS on the 9/11 trauma unless he knew someone who passed. I recognize everyone's experience is different, and everyone copes in different ways. But sixth grade and no personal connection? C'mon.

I started listening to the TNA Megasode, and it's my first exposure to the Jarrett podcast. It seems he and Conrad have a really good flow, so if Paul E. Bromwell pinch hits, I could see how that is a significant downgrade. Maybe it's because the TNA Megasode took place over the first few episodes, where Conrad's tend to be strongest, but I really like the conversation. It doesn't have many of the tropes of most other Conrad shows.

I cut back on many of the podcasts I listen to, although I still give the JR show a listen when Paul E. Bromwell is not hosting. I actually think Sean Oliver has the personality and skills to reinvigorate that podcast. To be fair, I think Oliver would probably be the best possible host for all of Conrad's podcasts, save Tony or Bischoff, since it seems like Conrad has a legit relationship or camaraderie with them.

Yeah, the Bromwell shows are an instant skip for me. I've been skipping most JR shows recently, or at least the ones where they focus on a specific show. It seems like JR no longer re-watches the shows they're covering, so he doesn't add much insight to whatever Conrad is talking about. Also, I know JR has either begun or is about to start undergoing treatment for skin cancer, so I can understand why he may not have the time or the energy to re-watch a show and take studious notes as Bischoff does on his show. I'm not trying to knock Jim, so I hope I don't come across as mean-spirited.

It depends. Sometimes it's the same exact ad copy repeatedly, and that gets quite tiresome. When the ad copy is varied, it's much more manageable.

I mentioned this in the STW thread, but I couldn't agree more. And this was regarding a show that was recorded a while ago (SummerSlam 1990). Not only is a significant portion of the show centered around Bruce being too busy and tired for the podcast, but now that he's back with WWE, he offers absolutely nothing of value. I used to enjoy when they covered pre-Attitude Era stuff because it felt like Bruce was more plugged in, and it involved people who were mostly not part of modern wrestling anymore, so Bruce was more open. But, unfortunately, that show, which was the one VHS tape I had as a kid and must have watched a zillion times growing up, was so poorly done and a waste of time that I completely quit the show.

I enjoyed this show more early in its run. However, it really has turned into JR complaining about how everything he says gets turned into "clickbait" and ranting about wrestlers complaining about their almighty "push". I know he doesn't care, but the show quickly turned into angry old man yelling at clouds. And when it comes to complaining about stuff getting turned into clickbait, it draws the biggest eye-roll from me. Stop being so sensitive and having rabbit ears about everything every random internet person says. The same goes for when JR rants about people saying he's washed up. He's like an older Kevin Durant.

For me, I find that there's a pretty big difference in quality depending on the era. Whenever they cover something after JR left talent relations and his influence/interactions with Vince declined, I haven't really found there to be a lot of substance to the episodes. It's usually just JR giving his opinion on things but you don't really get too much from it. The NWA/WCW stuff can be hit or miss. I enjoy those episodes just because I don't listen to a lot of podcasts on the subject, so I'm not burnt out on it like Attitude Era/Nitro era stuff, but it's clearly not Conrad's strength in terms of knowledge, so again, you don't always get a ton out of them.

I'll second this. Granted, I'm not super up to date, but Tony's recollection of little details from the JCP era is real good, especially when compared to the Turner/WCW run. You can tell Tony really enjoys reliving JCP stuff. Since they started covering that era with a little more regularity, it seems like they've toned down all the toilet humor. That's not to say it's completely gone, but these eps definitely have a different vibe than a random 1999 WCW PPV.

To the best of my knowledge, he joined the creative team at some point in 1996. I believe the team at the time was he, Bruce, and Vince (I think Pat was semi-retired). In Cornette's 1997 WWF Timeline video he did with Kayfabe Commentaries (which is an excellent video), he talked about how he and Bruce would be writing television at Vince's house. I think Russo kinda/sorta joined the team at the end of 1996 but not in any meaningful way until after the Raw from either Germany or Johannesburg in either March or April of 1997. The rating was bad and it looked like crap on TV, so that's when McMahon put Russo on the creative team in a more prominent position and it became Russo and Cornette writing TV with McMahon for the remainder of 1997 until the very end of the year. Cornette said that he took a week or two off at the end of 1997 and suspects that in Corny's absence, Russo gave McMahon a "either he goes or I go" ultimatum since they really weren't getting along. McMahon went with Russo and when Cornette came back from vacation, he was told he wasn't needed in the office and that was it.

I finally unsubscribed. I've been going through the backlog and I got to SummerSlam 1990. I was excited for this one because it's a relatively undercovered period, it's one of the first VHS tapes that I had, and I really enjoyed their Survivor Series 1990 episode that they did way back when. But the episode was terrible and the show has been rough, aside from Bruce's tribute to Pat Patterson. The show has become nothing more than, "poor Bruce is working 23 hour days and gets 10 minutes per week to squeeze in the podcast." I don't deny that Bruce is likely overworked and is working a ridiculous schedule. The fact is, the show is awful. Even at its peak, Bruce was usually pretty protective of his prior WWF/E runs but I was fine with it because you'd still often get pretty good insight, he and Conrad had good chemistry and Bruce himself was pretty entertaining. Not anymore. If/when Bruce eventually departs WWE, I might give it another shot but I don't know. It's a rough listen.

I think the issue is that WCW (pre-nWo) and especially Crockett is not really Conrad's wheelhouse. When covering those topics on JR and Bischoff, I feel like Conrad can kinda coast through a bit but I could see him getting exposed covering those topics with Arn.

I was at WrestleMania X, so I got to see the Bret vs. Owen and HBK vs. Razor matches live... but I was 6, so I don't have the strongest memory of them and probably couldn't have appreciated them enough at that time. I was also at SummerSlam 2002 and both Brock vs. Rock and HHH vs. HBK were really good live. I attended a ton of ROH events from 04-08 and the two matches that stand out the most: Joe vs. Kobashi and Bryan vs. Morishima I. I would actually say those two matches are probably the best I saw in person.

I wonder if there's some resentment on Last's part that Conrad is the bigger name (and likely more successful in terms of revenue) in podcast hosting. I don't think anyone could argue that Conrad's historical knowledge is anywhere close to Last's, but Conrad's got multiple podcasts with big names and he tends to be more involved from an on-air perspective than Last is with Cornette's podcasts. I could be completely wrong but I feel like if the two have never met in person, there doesn't seem to be a reason why Last would have such strong animosity towards ol' Connie.

I've never listened to an episode but it doesn't surprise me. Conrad's specialty is not the territories. A Brian Last or someone from here would be way better suited to cohost an Arn Anderson podcast.

Bruce trying to deny that Survivor Series wasn't trying to kill Crockett/Starrcade was so egregious that I don't know how he said it with a straight face, even by his own standards.

Yeah someone who actually enjoyed that time period/territory would be great.

I'll add to this. I feel like as time has gone on and ol' Connie's been producing more and more shows, his half of the shows have decreased in quality. He's been pretty open that he first became a fan as a kid in the late 80's, drifted away business went south in the early-mid 90's, came back just after the formation of the nWo and saw his interest dwindle again around the turn of the century (he's shockingly very down on 2000 WWF). He's also a big ECW fan but it seems like he didn't start following them until some time in 1997. It's pretty clear he has very little knowledge of any of the territories and he's always bitching whenever he has to do a watchalong of Crockett TV. Conrad's older than I am, so I can't fault him for not being some territory expert since I didn't grow up with them either but at the same time, just because you weren't around for the French Revolution doesn't mean you're unable to learn what happened. I just don't think that Conrad has the time between 5 podcasts and his mortgage business to all of a sudden start researching Mid-South, Crockett, Japan, etc. and actually have something to offer. Instead, it's easier to just rely upon whatever was reported in the newsletters and base everything around that. It's formulaic and when he's doing a show with a host who seems to be dedicated to just tearing down the "dirt sheets", it's a bad formula. I haven't listened to the Arn Show yet but I agree with people who say that Grilling JR is hit or miss. I'd also say that I strongly prefer Grilling JR over the Bischoff or Prichard podcasts just because it's nice to hear a show where half of it isn't just someone's jimmie's getting rustled by Meltz.

I haven't listened to any of Cornette's watchalongs yet but I have listened to a bunch of Tony's and I would imagine they're nothing alike. Tony and Conrad basically just shoot the shit for the show and often don't talk about anything going on in the actual show. WHW is more just a couple of guys hanging out and having wrestling on in the background. I enjoy the shows because I find Tony to be very entertaining and every once in a while, he will have a good anecdote related to production or something along those lines which is insightful. But yeah, if you're hoping for an in-depth breakdown of certain shows/matches, WHW ain't that.