SPS

Absolutely loved Jose Fernandez as a guest, I enjoyed this episode tremendously and especially loved his insight of the different perception the international audience like in Spain or Europe overall would remember WWF as especially the story about the commentator making up nicknames for the wrestlers that became what many remembered them as. If he could ever compile a list I'd enjoy hearing more of them because they had me laughing all week.

Very sad to hear, first found out abut him oddly enough from the Giant Gram AJPW games on SEGA Dreamcast and ended up looking him up and was super impressed with his ability and athleticism for his size. Would've loved to see more footage of him as he was such an incredible guy to watch move around and do things in the ring decades before you saw guys his size have a such repertoire of athletic maneuvers. RIP Don Leo Jonathan

My god some Karl Gotch footage, I'm super excited to see this.

PM Sent.

Love the show guys, is there anyway to still get the Vader/Takada shirt since the pre-order is over?

This is the part I always came back to, yes Sid was an arrogant ass who lots of fans and talent alike didn't like and Arn was the longtime respected worker and had powerful political allies in WCW, but Arn didn't just happen to have those scissors for no reason. Despite how Sid was wrong for clowning on Arn for losing a significant amount of his income while Sid being the less talented and proven draw was getting that much more for his less than admirable efforts, Arn was a veteran and should've known better than to engage in such bullshit and let it escalate to a fight by hitting Sid with a beer bottle first and trying to stab him with another broken beer bottle,which always gets left out of the story. Arn was drunk and the reason he had those scissors was the same reason he grabbed that broken beer bottle earlier, he wanted to hurt Sid and must've thought he wouldn't have gotten the job done empty handed. Also the fact that Arn stabbed Sid first gets left out of the tale a lot as well. Overall both should've been fired and Arn should be held just as accountable as Sid was when this story gets retold all these years later, Arn wasn't some poor helpless vet standing up for his friend who got blindsided by a roided up young arrogant giant who tried to stab him to death. Arn was a drunk miserable vet who was pissed off and probably jealous that a guy like Sid who had a modicum of the talent he had was getting a raise for the amount he had cut from his deal and had the gall to brag about it and knock his buddy Flair to boot. Arn is the one who initiated the physical fight, Arn is the one who tried to stab Sid with a bottle first, Arn is the one who attacked with the scissors first and Arn ended up on the wrong end of his own weapon and then still has publicly in everything he's commented about the incident still tries to act like he was the victim. While both men acted deplorably, Sid was railroaded as the bad guy because he wasn't well liked and the dirt sheet fans and writers were all Arn Anderson fans over Sid.

Thanks

Ahhh I see what you mean now. Kinda like the change over from the fans of the early UFC talent with the motley crew of characters like the champions of their art of Royce Gracie and Ken Shamrock mixed with the traditional Martial Art wannabes and street fighters like Tank Abbott to the modern crop of fighters who save for a few personalities are all solid well rounded fighters but lack a lot of charisma and character compared the the fighters of the early era If I'm understanding you correctly. Like a good portion of people would find the older fighters and fights more exciting and attention grabbing but less technically sound but modern fans seem focused a lot on the technique and skill quality when that doesn't really matter to the masses. Same as we see WWE go back to the stars of old who while not as technically great in terms of ring work they are more exciting characters and personalities. I agree with you on guys like Dolph as Jim Valley on the Pacific Rim Wrestling Podcast put it, 'he's been on WWE TV for a decade and I still don't know anything about what his character is supposed to be'.

I've seen this thrown around a good amount in the last few years but I just don't see it, what about Taue as a worker makes him better than Kawada,Misawa and Kobashi? To me he was good and he complemented the other 3 but I never saw him in a match with or against the other 3 Pillars or against anyone the others faced and thought he did anything that the others could not have done or do better. I'm just curious as to the specific points to why he's gotten such a swell of praise and support as better than or the best Pillar in recent years, it comes off kinda hipster in terms of flying in the face of more casual fans who may know a bit about the other 3 Pillars due to the praise and references they get instead of the often forgotten Taue.

What book?

How so? curious you chose those two things specifically.

Brock Lesnar? if we are including all round stats and ability I can't see anyone else would top him. A guy at his peak at 295 who could move like a crusierweight, had tremendous strength and explosive ability and could fly through the air.

She just seems to have no respect for him as a father or authority figure and reading their book and knowing all we do about Ric who can blame her? He was an enabler and tried to buy his kids love while being unfaithful to their mother and gladly spending as much time partying on the road over spending quality time with them. Ric as a performer and a character in and out of the ring will always be glorified and Charlotte obviously loves him and respects his thoughts and opinion when it comes to the business but you can see how she and him interact he seems desperate to make her happy when he's around her and she seems to have an underlying resentment of him. I remember in the RF Shoot with Bob Backlund and Terry Funk where Bob made the point of the contrast of himself and Ric/Hulk in what they made and how they are regarded and how he did as the top guy in the northeast, basically it was Bob saying how if at the end of the day your family and children aren't happy thriving adults who respect you then really how rich are you? money isn't everything and as Ric and Hulk have shown they are divorced, went broke/lost most of their fortune and their children had very public struggles and don't seem to have much respect for their fathers all as parents. Guys like Bob Backlund may not be remembered as fondly but he saved more, has a great life after wrestling, is still honored as a HOF'er and has his wife of many years and successful children that respect him and on top of that is healthier than someone of half his age. Ultimately Ric paid the price for his lifestyle and choices not only with his own health and finances but also as we see with his children's view of him.

Hope he makes a full recovery and beats it, sad to see anybody or their family/friends go through such a shitty thing like cancer. Also if there are any MMA fans on this board KID Yamamoto from K1 HEROS and UFC fame announced today on his Instagram he's battling cancer as well. Cancer's a bitch man.

While I'm not as down on him as many hardcore online fans seem to be in recent years compared to the WWE faithful, if anyone could make Lance look like Ricky Morton when it came to facial expressions it's Dean. Also if some people think Lance's punches looked soft then they should check out Dean's forearm strikes, they were some of the worst I've seen a name worker ever throw. But Dean still could do some things on the mat and pull off sequences and highspots that still could wow most any fan today, he's just not the level of what Benoit, Jericho or Guerrero were in hindsight.

I agree with the folks vouching for Lance as a Canadian fan I was a huge fan and I disagree he was a terrible worker. Say what you want about his strikes being too light or his interviews being bland but between the ropes the man was respected by his fellow workers and used as trainer in OVW for a reason. I also got to train with him at his school and work in the ring with him a lot and he is fantastic, he is so athletic and skilled also it's a shame he never did any amateur wrestling or grappling in a shoot sense because his instincts for it, he'd have been interesting to see in that realm and having that added to his pro wrestling work. Some people seem to take offense at his demeanor outside the ring and how vocal he is about his viewpoints regarding what he thinks is right and wrong in wrestling but I've never heard him just knock people or promotions for no reason. As for Raven also am a huge fan and aside from his childish humor at times and huge ego you can't doubt his mind for the business or say he didn't know what he was talking about. Personal issues aside the man was at one time groomed for a spot in the "inner circle" of the WWF and was producing WWF TV and working in the office. Also even when his WWF run ended so industriously he probably made more money than anyone else besides Terry Funk on the early to mid 2000's indie scene. Raven was a very savvy and smart guy and totally got business, if he didn't with all his baggage and issues he would've never stuck around as long as he did.

I agree, with fans now being so much more open to support and spend time and/or top dollar on such a variety of promotions with different products it's really opened up the doors to enjoy some sort of wrestling no matter your own tastes. Hell due to the ease of internet streaming for almost every major promotion I've branched out into viewing more wrestling groups than any other year. This year I've scaled back my WWE viewings to just NXT TakeOvers and the Major PPVs and now added ROH Major shows,my NJPW viewing, MLW, Impact's major shows,AJPW and friggin CMLL since LA Park returned and it's all a blast. If you told me that this was the mix of stuff I'd be watching even a year ago I'd of said that's ridiculous but it's a lot of fun.

Very sad to hear the news, Jim was such a great talent in his team with Bret. Sad to see him pass so young, I remember when I was training in Calgary I got to meet him briefly while I was doing ring crew at the Hart Legacy Wrestling show at the Calgary Pavilion. After meeting Jim, one of the older guys there who knew him for years told me a story of him bumping into Neidhart at the grocery store in Calgary and Neidhart had like 12 of those 24 flats of eggs in his cart and when he asked Jim why he had so many eggs Jim replied it's the best source of protein you could buy and that he would eat a dozen or more in 1 go. Me being the skinny and poor aspiring wrestler I took this advice and started eating a dozen eggs a day and gained like 20 lbs in 3/4 months of solid mass so he wasn't bullshitting. My condolences to the Hart family and especially Natalya (also a sweetheart when I met her briefly), they were good people to support Jim and want the best for him despite all his struggles with addiction.

The Dudleys said they were traveling and dinner buddies with The Rock, Jericho and him seemed tight too while they were feuding.

Her story has changed then because the one she always used to tell was that AJW gave her the name because they wanted her to be their new Aja Kong character and she said she was nervous about bumping into Aja in Japan due to not wanting to think she was stealing her gimmick. Apparently when they met Aja was a sweetheart and it was never an issue and they later became Double Kong as a team.