Conrad Thompson set to expand his podcast schedule with new shows

[Ricky Jackson]

Try...

The Epic Marvel Podcast

The Comics Canon

My Marvelous Year

...to start 

[Beast]

Thank you!

[Mad Dog]

Comic Geek Speak is good especially for things like their highlights of characters over the eras. A lot of those guys are very knowledgeable and they have helped expose me to a lot of new comics over the last 15 years like Blacksad. I don't listen to every episode they do because they do a couple a week. 

I also recommend digging around and seeing you can find the mini series they did on Pulp Heroes a really long time ago. It's really interesting and got me reading old pulp novels for Doc Savage. 

[The Thread Killer]

Conrad announced the monthly special event podcast this morning.

It is called "Conversations with Conrad."  The first guest is Jim Herd of all people.  If you listen carefully, you might be able to hear Jim Cornette's head exploding.

If my math is right, Jim Herd is in his 80's now and he looks every second of it in that clip.  I'm not sure how viable he is going to be as an interview subject, but I guess we'll find out on November 10.

[El-P]

I wonder how is Conrad's podcast business going. I mean, I don't think about it, but when I see all those "exciting" prospect he's putting together, I'm just scratching my head. I mean, paying stuff to hear shows with Reba and Mance Warner ? And a conversation with Jim Herd ? Wait, what ?

As far as hanging out in Conrad's fat house, it's the stuff nightmares are made off. Conrad seems like the kind of guy I'd be bored/annoyed with after about 90 seconds IRL.

"Do you know I own this Rick Rude robe from 19..."

"SHUT THE FUCK UP !"

[Blehschmidt]

It will be very interesting to hear what Jim Herd thought of Money in the Bank 2014

[El-P]

15 minutes ago, Blehschmidt said:

It will be very interesting to hear what Jim Herd thought of Money in the Bank 2014

 

You got me there ! (actually "jealous" of not thinking of that one myself !)

[SomethingSavage]

On 10/28/2020 at 8:07 PM, Beast said:

 

Any comic podcasts that stand out? I've never really found one to join my weekly listening rotation.

Settle in, man. I'm gonna throw a few things at'cha right quick. 

The Comics Canon - Already mentioned by Kelly, but it's a solid listen. Each episode breaks down a different story arc or trade paperback type event, so they cover a ton of ground. For the sheer sake of VARIETY, I don't know that you'll find anymore than what they offer. You can just scroll through their episode list and cherry pick stories, so that's super helpful and efficient.

One of the hosts have a verbal tick, in which he always pauses and says, "You know" ALL THE TIME. It may take awhile for you to pick up on it, but it can get distracting at times. It doesn't detract from their vast knowledge or anything. Both guys are great. It's just one of those things that can grate at times when he's trying to get to a point, but otherwise? Yeah. Solid recommend.

Screw it, We're Just Gonna Talk About Comics - Now this is a personal favorite, for sure. The hosts are two brothers, who grew up essentially reading the same stories and comics. One has remained a lifelong fan, while the other pretty much took my path and dropped out for awhile. He's just now catching up & filling in some gaps. Together, they bring a ton of enthusiasm and insight into the subjects they select to talk about.

This podcast actually started out titled as, "Screw it, We're Just Gonna Talk About Spider-Man", which is what I tuned in to hear. And it was designed to be a straightforward, limited project that covered the Steve Ditko issues only. I was all over that.

But then it morphed into a season-by-season podcast, with each "season" covering a different batch of books. After Ditko Spidey, they switched over to Kirby's Fantastic Four. Following that, there's some early Hulk. There's Justice League International. There's Frank Miller's Batman. Right now, they're currently covering Gaiman's Sandman.

I call this a personal favorite, because the conversation and the chemistry between the two brothers is infectious and SUPER easy to listen to. There's plenty of humor and some out-of-the-box recommendations to be found, too.

The Wizard And The Bruiser - Another personal favorite of mine at the moment. To be clear, this one isn't strictly a comics podcast, so you'll have to scroll through and select the episodes that cover comic-related stuff. But there are plenty.

The hosts here do a ton of research and bring such a high level of energy to everything they discuss. It's hard not to just jump on board and learn new things about some of your favorite stuff.

They cover Alan Moore, Frank Miller, Stan Lee in depth. They talk about comics, anime, video games, film franchises, and whatever else they've been fans of during their lives.

Oh. And I know I said I'm done with wrestling podcasts for a good, long while (and I am) ... But I highly recommend their wrestling episodes. They're not PWO knowledgeable, but they're not Lapsed Fans ignorant about it. Their episode covering The Rock is short and concise, but it honestly had little tidbits that I'd never heard before. It's certainly better and more insightful than any podcast from JR or Bruce I've heard covering Rocky.

Talk From Superheroes - Okay. This one isn't technically comics, but it's comic book adjacent. This is just a guy and a girl (sometimes with co-hosts) reviewing superhero media. Movies, seasons of TV, etc. get covered. They're also comedians and that comes through in the tone of the show. Super fun stuff though, and of course your mileage will vary depending on whether you enjoy superhero shows and flicks.

Dynamic Duel - I've only just listened to a few episodes of this one, unlike the rest, so I can't speak too much on it. I'm only really including it here because I love the gimmick.

It's basically two identical twin brothers. One is a Marvel guy. The other is a DC guy. They are open-minded, but they pick sides and vehemently voice their opinions on stories, characters, and multimedia from the two companies.

A lot of their episodes feature simulated "battles" between a Marvel character and a DC character. This is where it may lose some people (and did lose me initially), but the two "battles" I've listened to weren't as corny or cheesy as I feared they would be. It's not the main appeal of their podcast for me, although it's kind of put front & center like they want it to be.

So yeah. Between those and the ones Kelly also mentioned, that should get you started. Hopefully you find something to enjoy.

 

[Beast]

Thanks for the recs!

[The Thread Killer]

On 10/28/2020 at 9:05 PM, MoS said:

Catching up on the thread, @The Thread Killer not sure if you have had surgery already or if it is still upcoming, but I wish you all the best. Kick ass, my dude!

Just saw this now, for some reason, sorry for the delay. I was scheduled for surgery on November 25. I went into the hospital this week for all the standard tests they need to do before a heart surgery and they found some additional issues. so the operation is being rescheduled for some time in March.  Thanks very much for your well wishes, brother.

[The Thread Killer]

On 10/30/2020 at 11:19 AM, The Thread Killer said:

Conrad announced the monthly special event podcast this morning.

It is called "Conversations with Conrad."  The first guest is Jim Herd of all people.  If you listen carefully, you might be able to hear Jim Cornette's head exploding.

If my math is right, Jim Herd is in his 80's now and he looks every second of it in that clip.  I'm not sure how viable he is going to be as an interview subject, but I guess we'll find out on November 10.

So the first episode of "Conversations with Conrad" featuring Jim Herd was released this week.  It seems to be getting some attention since this is the first interview Herd has given in over 20 years, I've seen some of the "newz" sites reporting on some of the stuff Herd said.  It was moderately interesting.  Jim Herd is now 88 years old and is understandably a bit feeble and frail, but he is still pretty sharp mentally and has a better memory than guys 20 years younger than he is.  I am betting Jim Cornette is going to blow a gasket when some of the stuff Herd said about him and The Midnight Express gets reported. Conrad did a decent job with this interview, considering he is not a professional reporter.  You could tell he was trying very hard to walk a fine line between going easy on an 88 year old man while still asking him about some of the ridiculous decisions Jim Herd made while running WCW.

[sek69]

So I've been listening to the Wrestling Game Rewind show, thanks to a helpful little birdie. The first show was kind of meh, a lot of obvious reading of Wikipedia pages (referring to AKI as it's current company name for example), and a lot of "eh I don't remember" in response to a lot of the questions, which is understandable considering the infamously brutal workload video game devs live through, but there were some interesting tidbits. For example, and I never thought about it at the time, but the makers of the WCW vs the World game were the first people to see Sting's new crow look since WCW wanted him featured on the cover.  It was also clear the reason the games were so good is because the devs involved were big fans of Japanese wrestling games (which were far superior to anything the US was getting at the time).  They also made notice of how all the people from the original Japanese version got ridiculous names and realize how unfortunate in hindsight that Road Warrior Hawk was renamed "Overdose". 

The second episode was much better, partly I think due to having the format a little more sorted and also due to them having extra folks involved in the discussion to minimize the "I don't remember" answers. It was interesting to hear them answer a question that I always was puzzled by at the time, as to why some folks in WCW weren't in the game. Nash and Hall's WCW deals were still being finalized at the time of development, and folks who split time in New Japan like Scott Norton had their primary contracts in Japan and they didn't have the rights to include them in a WCW game. It's also interesting (and so very WCW) that it seems clear that WCW saw this game primarily as a way to promote Crow Sting and kind of ended up going ass backward into releasing the best wrestling game the US had seen up to that point. It also seems like they were keeping up some kind of video game industry kayfabe when talking about how all the magazines were pushing wrestling games so hard as if it wasn't an open secret in the game biz that magazines will pimp any game the publisher puts the cash up to promote. Now to be fair if the game sucks it won't last longer than a month or two, but anyone who has a stash of old gaming mags can see how chock full of hype for games that were clearly piles of shit.

 

All in all there is a lot of interesting info mentioned, it definitely seems like a show that will get better the more episodes that they do. If you're like me and happen to be someone who's known about the inner workings of both the wrestling and video game industries you won't necessarily find out any previously unknown details but it's been fascinating to listen to the devs discuss what ended up kicking off a golden age of wrestling games. 

[The Thread Killer]

On 11/16/2020 at 3:56 AM, sek69 said:

So I've been listening to the Wrestling Game Rewind show, thanks to a helpful little birdie. The first show was kind of meh, a lot of obvious reading of Wikipedia pages (referring to AKI as it's current company name for example), and a lot of "eh I don't remember" in response to a lot of the questions, which is understandable considering the infamously brutal workload video game devs live through, but there were some interesting tidbits. For example, and I never thought about it at the time, but the makers of the WCW vs the World game were the first people to see Sting's new crow look since WCW wanted him featured on the cover.  It was also clear the reason the games were so good is because the devs involved were big fans of Japanese wrestling games (which were far superior to anything the US was getting at the time).  They also made notice of how all the people from the original Japanese version got ridiculous names and realize how unfortunate in hindsight that Road Warrior Hawk was renamed "Overdose". 

The second episode was much better, partly I think due to having the format a little more sorted and also due to them having extra folks involved in the discussion to minimize the "I don't remember" answers. It was interesting to hear them answer a question that I always was puzzled by at the time, as to why some folks in WCW weren't in the game. Nash and Hall's WCW deals were still being finalized at the time of development, and folks who split time in New Japan like Scott Norton had their primary contracts in Japan and they didn't have the rights to include them in a WCW game. It's also interesting (and so very WCW) that it seems clear that WCW saw this game primarily as a way to promote Crow Sting and kind of ended up going ass backward into releasing the best wrestling game the US had seen up to that point. It also seems like they were keeping up some kind of video game industry kayfabe when talking about how all the magazines were pushing wrestling games so hard as if it wasn't an open secret in the game biz that magazines will pimp any game the publisher puts the cash up to promote. Now to be fair if the game sucks it won't last longer than a month or two, but anyone who has a stash of old gaming mags can see how chock full of hype for games that were clearly piles of shit.

 

All in all there is a lot of interesting info mentioned, it definitely seems like a show that will get better the more episodes that they do. If you're like me and happen to be someone who's known about the inner workings of both the wrestling and video game industries you won't necessarily find out any previously unknown details but it's been fascinating to listen to the devs discuss what ended up kicking off a golden age of wrestling games. 

By the way...anybody who wishes they could hear the Wrestling Game Rewind podcast, drop me a PM.

[The Thread Killer]

Conrad held a live “Ask Conrad Anything” tonight on AFS and he said that he is finally ready to announce who his new, 6th podcast cohost is going to be. Conrad claims all the paperwork is signed, the deal is done and that an announcement can be expected about his new podcast in the next 10 days.  Conrad says that this new cohost will probably end up being the biggest name out of all of his shows. I guess we’ll see if that is true or just hype.

[Migs]

I guess we're still waiting?

Is the ECW pod that Meanie and Gertner did for AFS any good?

[The Thread Killer]

We're coming up on three-and-a-half months since Conrad announced this new mystery podcast was coming...and still nothing.  Not to mention on December 15, he said it would be announced in 10 days.  Today is January 11 and still nothing.  Conrad did an interview with Wrestling Inc. last week where he said again that he is about to debut two new podcasts, one exclusive to AFS and the other will be the infamous 6th addition to his Westwood One stable.  I assume this will be the "big name" he's been teasing all this time...but as of today, still nothing.

I have not listened to the ECW podcast.  It is getting really good reviews from AFS subscribers.  I have to be honest, I find it somewhat lame that Conrad has been saying for years that he's been dying to do an ECW podcast and tried to get Heyman and Styles...and the best he can come up with his Joel Gertner and The Blue Meanie?  I may give it a listen at some point.  All the feedback I've read talks about how impressed everybody is with Joel Gertner.  He apparently comes across as extremely knowledgeable and insightful on this podcast.  Who would have guessed?  All that, plus he's the Quintessential Stud Muffin.

Conrad did add a new Video Series to Ad Free Shows, and it's outstanding.  It's not just audio, it's video.  It's called "Title Chase" and it traces the history of Championship Title belts, shows details about how they were made, and then traces the lineage and shows where they ended up.  The first episode was on the WCW US Championship, and I really enjoyed it.  It was really professionally done and I found it interesting.

 

[C.S.]

Can Chris Hero Save Wrestling?

 

(Not with those basketball shorts he can't!)

 

I guess this is the big new Conrad show?

 

[The Thread Killer]

32 minutes ago, C.S. said:

I guess this is the big new Conrad show?

No, I don't think that is the big show announcement.  The Chris Hero podcast is probably is just going to be a new exclusive addition to the AFS service.  Conrad has a few holes in the schedule now. As I mentioned earlier in this thread, he has been adding a ton of exclusive content to Ad Free Shows over the past couple of months.  Not all of it has been a success.  We all heard what happened to Bruce Mitchell's podcast, and that Video Game podcast that @sek69 talked about has apparently been taken off the schedule due to lack of interest.  How that podcast gets pulled but Mance Warner and Madusa's ridiculous podcasts stay on the schedule, I'll never know.  No accounting for taste, I guess.  Apparently people aren't really enjoying Gerald Brisco's podcast either.  It seems to have disappeared from the schedule as well.

I know Conrad is still planning on making the announcement of the new show soon. 

Everything has been delayed because Conrad's Mother, Father, Daughter, and Wife were all diagnosed with COVID in the last couple of weeks.  The only person in Conrad's immediate family who didn't end up contracting it were himself and his other daughter.  One of Conrad's co-workers also had it, and passed away last week.

On top of that, on the new episode of Arn's podcast that was released today, Arn announced that he had COVID-19 a couple of weeks ago as well.  He talked about his symptoms and he said it really kicked his ass...he was in bed for a week and could not eat or drink anything.  He said he was so sick he was hallucinating. He talked about it and actually seemed pretty shaken up by the whole experience, understandably.

I think Conrad is still planning on announcing the new "big" podcast soon.  From some of the hints he has dropped, I think it is probably going to be Kurt Angle, although I really hope that is not the case.

EDIT:  Yeah, I checked my AFS feed and the Chris Hero show is going to be AFS exclusive...this isn't the show Conrad has been promising for months.  I watched the preview clip for the Chris Hero show and it looks pretty good, actually.

 

 

[WrestlingPower]

Is there no way to download the shows as an mp3 without joining the patreon?

[The Thread Killer]

4 hours ago, WrestlingPower said:

Is there no way to download the shows as an mp3 without joining the patreon?

Nope. Ad Free Shows is totally subscriber based, there is no free content.

[ChosenOne]

There is a way to obtain the adfree shows if you really look for them.

[cactus]

Looking forward to hearing that Chris Hero podcast. It's going to be strange to hear Conrad talk about stuff like IWA:MS and PWG though!

With the new podcast being announced today, does anyone think that Conrad might drop one of his shows? I can't see him getting much out of Arn at this point. I can usually predict what Arn's going to say before he's said it. 

[The Thread Killer]

2 hours ago, cactus said:

With the new podcast being announced today, does anyone think that Conrad might drop one of his shows? I can't see him getting much out of Arn at this point. I can usually predict what Arn's going to say before he's said it. 

Yeah I was just going to post that it sounds like today is the day he's making the announcement, finally.  Like I said earlier, all signs are pointing to either Sting or Kurt Angle, either of which earns a big "who cares" from me.  I am still keeping my fingers crossed that is either Foley or Heyman.

In the most recent episode of "Ask Conrad" he actually admitted that Arn's podcast isn't doing great numbers and says that neither he or Arn are really happy with how the show is going.  It didn't sound like Conrad was thinking about dropping the show, but he did say that he thinks they need to reassess the topics they discuss.  He specifically said they probably need to focus more on Arn's time with Crockett and WCW, and less on his time in WWE.  That seems like it would be obvious, but I guess he really thought there was an audience that wanted to hear Arn discussing his time as an agent during modern WWE.  That idea never made sense to me because the modern WWE product sucks so nobody in their right mind should want to hear about it, not to mention Arn never really says anything of interest about it anyhow.

[The Thread Killer]

3 hours ago, ChosenOne said:

There is a way to obtain the adfree shows if you really look for them.

I suppose I should have said there is no "legal" way to get the Ad Free Shows content without paying.  Like with most things, I am sure there are pirated versions out there if you know where to look and you look hard enough.

[The Thread Killer]

2 hours ago, cactus said:

Looking forward to hearing that Chris Hero podcast. It's going to be strange to hear Conrad talk about stuff like IWA:MS and PWG though!

I am about half way through the first episode of the Chris Hero podcast.  It's not without it's charm, although I am not sure I will make it part of my regular listening schedule.  Hero is being surprisingly blunt and making a fair number of revelations about the inner workings of NXT.  Based on some of the stuff he has said already, it seems fair to assume he never intends to return to work for WWE...if they ever get wind of some of the stuff he has said, I can't imagine they'd be thrilled.