PWTORCH LIVECAST WEDNESDAY with Pat McNeill
GUEST: DISCO INFERNO
AIRED SEPTEMBER 9, 2015
DIRECT LINK TO STREAM OF DOWNLOAD EPISODE
Report by Dominic DeAngelo, podcast reviewer
HOT TOPICS IN THE SHOW:
The 20th Anniversary of WCW Nitro
Record-Low Raw Ratings
Insights on Eric Bischoff & Vince Russo
Fantasy Football Talk
SUBJECTS COVERED (with time stamps)
– Introduction (0:00)
– What’s Disco been up to lately? (3:50)
– Does Nitro feel like 20 years ago? (4:40)
– Disco’s Win/Loss Nitro record on the WWE Network (5:30)
– Is WCW more respected now than it was in the past? (8:30)
– Will Vince Russo ever return to wrestling? (11:10)
– Vince McMahon wanting Russo back in WWE (12:55)
– Who would Disco manage in WWE? (14:30)
– Update on Phil Baroni’s progress (16:20)
– Disco’s thoughts on Michelle Beadle/Floyd Mayweather (17:40)
– Disco’s dancing skills (or lack thereof) (19:20)
– How to increase GFW ballpark attendance (20:30)
– Most famous wrestler to appear at Disco’s club in Vegas? (21.45)
– Fantasy football talk (23:00)
– WCW’s locker room environment at the end (25:00)
– Why didn’t Disco go to WWE? (26:00)
– His thoughts on Brock Lesnar’s career (28:30)
– What got Disco into wrestling (30:45)
– Fun Virgil stories (33:25)
– Livecast Poll Update: Greatest Nitro Moment (39:30)
– Eric Bischoff and Bash at the Beach 2000 (41:45)
– Why hasn’t WWE ever interviewed him? (44:00)
– Goldberg & Starrcade 1998 (45:25)
– Discussion of the Disco character: would he succeed in NXT? (46:40)
– Did Bischoff say he would shut Vince down in monthly meetings? (49:55)
– How did the locker room feel about Goldberg’s immediate push? (50:30)
– Disco’s favorite match (51:50)
– Raw ratings and Grantland distaste (53:15)
– WWE’s ratings against Monday Night Football/Concussion movie (55:45)
– Thought’s on GFW’s future (59:30)
– Funniest Chris Jericho story (1:00:15)
– Rapid fire topics (Pt. 1) (1:00:55)
– Favorite wrestlers today & should NXT add another title? (1:03:40)
– Rapid fire topics (Pt. 2) (1:07:15)
SHOW HIGHLIGHTS:
– (4:00) Disco’s currently in Atlanta visiting his parents and doing a fantasy football draft. He’s been working at his club in Vegas and training guys at wrestling school
– 20th Anniversary of WCW Nitro. Pat asks Disco if it feels like 20 years ago and Disco says yes, especially when you start forgetting guys who remember wrestling you. First 127 Episodes of WCW Nitro are on Nitro 6 wins, 20 losses and one no contest. Disco said for two years he’d always win on WCW Saturday Night because Kevin Sullivan was booking and would feel that doing that would help promote Nitro.
– Taking phone calls. Kylin from NJ is the first caller. He asks if WCW is a more respected brand now than it was back then due to the questionable decisions in the past? Disco thinks so because it doesn’t have to currently endure criticism like WWE does. Back then it was the days of the wrestling fan, today it is day of the wrestling critic.
– Second question regards Vince Russo: does he ever see him returning to the wrestling business? Disco doesn’t think so. He thinks Vince got a raw deal in the big picture of things. He says if you look at his resume, it’s the best of any booker anywhere. Too many fans focus on his WCW/TNA tenure rather than his WWE days, which was a boom period.
– He says McMahon wanted Russo back at one point, but Stephanie got in the way of that. Pat also said maybe the writers got in the way too of that happening.
– Who in the WWE would he like to manage? Disco says he’d managed Fandango in a heartbeat and thinks that would be pretty funny. Pat says he’d watch him every week on Superstars and Disco gets a kick out of that. Kylin interjects that he’d probably more likely be on Main Event and Disco enjoys that too.
– Email from Ted who asks how is Phil Baroni doing? Disco says he’s getting better, he’s green and is kind of stiff because of MMA background. Says he has great facials and a good presence. He says too many guys today look like kids, Sid doesn’t – he has a legit look about him.
– What does he think of Troy McLane as a talent? Disco has never heard of him and Pat hasn’t either (but he does knows Troy McLure from The Simpsons)
– What does he think of Michelle Beadle boycotting WWE because of their relationship with Floyd Mayweather? Disco thinks she has a legit point. It’s very easy to offend people these days, but Floyd’s history and the way he’s treated women in the past is not good. If you’re going to stand by him you’re going to have to face criticism. Disco thinks he’s a great talent though.
– Ryan from Cumberland asks Disco how did he become such a great dancer. Disco doesn’t think he was a great dancer, but patterned himself after the Honky Tonk Man, who purposely wasn’t a great dancer.
– How would he improve GFW’s attendance at the ballpark shows if he were booking? Disco said they heavily advertised the first Vegas show and had good attendance, but didn’t on their second show. He says you just can’t promote on social media, but have to actually advertise.
– Who’s the most famous wrestler to appear at Disco’s club? Disco said Dolph Ziggler was there a little while ago because he knew a porn star that was there. Disco says any football player that comes into his club is cursed. Coradelle Patterson from the Vikings & Michael Crabtree from the 49ers both came in and both got hurt those years.
– Disco spends more time on fantasy football than anything else. Pat asks him about Marshawn Lynch and Disco says he’ll have a good year
– Caller asks Disco about the environment in WCW before it ended. He says they were told a month before they were sold to McMahon that they weren’t going to be sold so it caught everyone off guard. He said the show was just terrible and said everyone in the locker room was actually watching Raw.
– Why didn’t Disco go to WWF after WCW closed? Disco said he was burnt out and that locker room morale wasn’t good up there, so he was going to take a break. Plus he was getting paid to do nothing. Him, Kevin Nash and Jeremy Borash would go out and eat sushi and watch wrestling. He then went and did oversea tours in Australia. John Laurenitis called him for contract discussion, but he just wasn’t interested in going.
– Mike from Ottawa wants Disco’s thoughts on Brock Lesnar’s career: He says when Brock started out he learned the WWE style so back then he was a guy on the card. After coming back from UFC and losing to Cena he adjusted his style, marrying MMA with pro wrestling so he looks more legit and is more of an attraction. Disco says his style today is brilliant. He’s somebody you can’t have on every show because he looks like he’d kill everybody.
– Mike’s final question is what got Disco into wrestling. He was a fan since he was 10 watching Georgia Championship Wrestling, Memphis, Florida, and AWA. He watched about 10 hours of wrestling a week and once he finished college, he pursued it. He was a fan of a stories and the promos. He trained for five weeks, picking it up really quickly.
– Twitter question: Any Virgil insight? Disco loves Virgil’s Twitter account, saying it’s even better than the Iron Sheik’s. He went on a lot of tours with Virgil, saying he loved to gamble and would even parlay games overseas. Virgil was such a hustler that he’d also set up his merch table by the cash register. Technically speaking Virgil wasn’t that great of a wrestler, but he knew ringside psychology thanks to Ted DiBiase. Disco always got along with Virgil. Pat met Virgil once and thought he was a jerk. Disco laughs and said he’s a character.
– Livecast Poll: What’s the greatest moment in the history of WCW Nitro? Pat first asks Disco if he has one in mind and Disco’s was Jericho reading his list of 1,004 holds because it’s the first time they used one of his ideas. He goes into detail saying that him, Jericho, Raven and Mark Madden collaborated on the idea backstage. In the lead is Goldberg beating Hogan in the Georgia Dome, 2nd place is Scott Hall returning to WCW in May of 1996, and 3rd place is Sting returning as the crow. Disco can’t argue with those.
– Email question from Sylvester: What are his thoughts on the recent video Eric Bischoff did regarding the Bash at the Beach 2000 incident? He heard the interview and know Russo got upset about it. Disco says he would believe Vince, but Eric sounded pretty convinced what he was saying and that there was only three people in that room. Pat says that whatever Bischoff says is also going through the WWE filter, such as the Madusa title in the trash incident. Disco says who knows what the truth is.
– Sylvester follows up asking why Disco hasn’t been interviewed by the WWE regarding WCW. Disco isn’t sure and wonders why he was never interviewed by lawyers when WCW was getting sued for racial discrimination when he was on the writing team. He also wonders why Bryan Alvarez never interviewed him for The Death of WCW book when he was apart of the booking team. He says there was a lot of things he wasn’t asked about in his career.
– Pat asks Disco about the decision to have Goldberg lose at Starrcade with the taser. Disco says that was a difficult booking and there were a bunch of different layouts for the match.
– Jimmy from Atlanta asks how Disco pulled off his character so well. He said it wasn’t that hard and again credits the Honky Tonk Man. It wasn’t difficult for him because he watched so much wrestling. He mentions feeling more comfortable wrestling in front of bigger crowds than smaller crowds. Pat asks if it helps that he was able to craft his own character rather than go through something like WWE developmental. Disco says absolutely, his character what got him the job. He wasn’t a great technical wrestler but he could sell, he could punch and he could kick. He thinks today he would blow through NXT and is shocked that it takes kids so long to learn how to wrestle.
– Is it true Bischoff called a monthly meeting saying WWE would be shut down? Disco thinks he recalls that, but says he didn’t call monthly meetings.
– How did guys in the locker room feel about Goldberg getting an immediate push? Disco said he was resented for the first three to four weeks, but after hearing the pop, nobody was complaining. Pat says Disco’s “No Contest” decision on Nitro was against Goldberg. He says the match never happened so that’s how he got that statistic.
– What was Disco’s favorite match? He says a lot of house show matches were his favorites, but he remembers one against Benoit in a 12 minute TV match where they tore the house down.
– Breaking news of Raw’s dismal 2.4 rating. Disco finds it entertaining that Grantland just released an article about the rise of professional wrestling, but Forbes.com came out with one about the declining ratings. Pat expresses discontent with Grantland’s credibility,
– Chris from New York brings up Bret Hart and Hogan. Does Bret have a legitimate gripe against him for sabatoging his career? Disco can’t comment on that.
– Is it fair to expect WWE to compete with the NFL in the ratings department? He says when the game stinks, there’s a chance for the crowd to channel surf, but if it’s a competitive game, forget about it. Chris follows up asking if USA knows that they’re going to lose ratings due to Monday Night Football. Disco says WWE isn’t booking their show like they’re paying attention to ratings so he can’t comment. What are Disco’s thoughts on the upcoming Concussion movie with Will Smith? Probably will spark more doom and gloom for the NFL.
– Thoughts on the future of GFW? Disco likes the look of the show and thinks Jeff knows what he’s doing – he thinks it can do better than TNA and ROH if given the opportunity/
– Funniest Chris Jericho story? Says a drunk Jericho almost got arrested the night before leaving for WWE by throwing a slice of pizza at a restaurant worker.
– Rapid fire: Emailer has the first pick in a fantasy football draft tonight – who should he choose? Disco suggests Adrian Peterson or Antonio Brown. Is Hogan’s career over? Disco thinks so. Konnan’s Twitter feud with Curtis Axel? He thinks it’s funny and think Axel is crazy for picking a fight with Konnan. Did he receive any heat from wrestlers chiming in on the Dana White “fake” incident? No. Is the Godfather still a good worker? Yes. Any untrue statements in “The Death of WCW” book? He hasn’t read it but assumes so. Did he watch Tough Enough? He watched the first 60 minutes and that was it. Who’s telling the truth in the Sabu/Pro Wrestling Syndicate debacle? Disco thinks Sabu fessed up to it. Has Disco ever turned down an autograph or photo request? No, God no.
– Mike from Brooklyn calls in: who are some of his favorite wrestlers today? Disco really enjoys the Miz, Daniel Bryan, Damien Sandow, and Brock. Not a lot he likes. He thinks Cena is okay, but not a 15 minute promo guy.
– Should NXT add another title? He thinks that would just equate to longer matches and less promo time. There’s also a question about the Filthy Animals that never gets addressed.
– Thoughts on Kyle Shanahan as the new offensive coordinator for the Atlanta Falcons? Disco thinks he’s going to be good, but they need to get their O-Line straightened out and they could score 30 points per game. Has Disco ever leaked info to the dirt sheets? He’d never leak information, he just liked talking to Alvarez. He said he’d keep in contact with Jason Powell about fantasy football, but that was it. Disco’s never used Tinder. Did he know the late wrestler Renegade? He did and he was a quiet guy, a tough story. Someone steals Pat’s joke about El Torito joining the Dudleys and becoming Bull-E Ray.
You can follow Disco Inferno on Twitter @TheRealDisco
SCORE & REVIEW
Yet again, Disco proves to be a very fun interview. He and Pat have a great rapport which makes for a smooth listen and he had more than a few stories to share about an array of wrestling personalities. Some of the questions asked came out of left field, but in a good way that added to the show’s entertainment value. And a wrestler always gets bonus points for being friendly to callers. There was an interesting Filthy Animals question that he and Pat accidentally passed over, but the man did have a flight to catch. If you’re a WCW fan jonesing for a nostalgia kick (and also have a late fantasy draft to attend), this may be an episode you want to listen to.
Score: 8.0 (out of 10)
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