The Taz Show - Todd Grisham Interview (Oct. 7, 2015)

The Taz Show, Bodyslams & Beyond (Episode 13)
Host: Taz
Guest: Todd Grisham
Release Date: Oct. 7, 2015

Report by Sean Sumey, PWPodcasts Reporter

HOT TOPICS

– HUMP DAY PROMOS: The return of a few entrants from last week. Some friendly rivalries are born. Some stars are in the making! Oh, and please, whatever you do, no more sinister laughing!

– TODD GRISHAM INTERVIEW: A very funny chat between two friends. Find out what Todd is up to and how he feels about his friendship with Taz.

– TAZ TAKES LISTENER CALLS: Some pretty good calls from new people.

SUBJECTS COVERED (w/Time Stamps)

(00:00-00:22) Ads

(00:23-00:57) Show intro

(00:58) Taz opens the show and is ready for some Hump Day Promos. Taz said some entries were amazing and some were awful. Todd Grisham will also be on the show later to talk about the NFL, baseball, and more. The Yankees are out of the playoffs. The Astros are a young team and they are hungry. Taz likes the Yankees, but believes they drifted into the playoffs. Taz says baseball is a game of failure. In baseball, if you succeed 40 percent of the time, you are a success. Taz says that baseball is a total mind-f. Players get into a slump and they don’t get many opportunities to get out of them. Tonight the Cubs will take on the Pirates in a wild card playoff game. NXT will have their Takeover: Respect show tonight as well.

(10:08) Taz takes a call from Josh in Wisconsin. Josh asks Taz what he ate and how he stayed in shape during his pre-ECW days when money was tight. Taz said lots of eggs. Egg whites, whey protein, and chicken. Taz was not a milk guy. Whey protein is the best because it doesn’t have as much fat. Any type of lean chopped or ground meat would be good. Taz said you cook the meat, throw in some egg whites, add a baked potato. Eat that six times a day and you will look like Batista.

(12:42) Taz takes a call from Ethan in Texas. Ethan is excited for Hump Day Promos. Ethan doesn’t know if his entry will get played but if it isn’t, he knows there is always next week.

(14:02-15:21) Taz does a live read for Sleeper Bot.

(16:31) Taz discusses New York Mets pitcher Matt Harvey missing a mandatory work-out because of traffic. Taz is very punctual and HATES when people are late. Taz understands that traffic can be an issue. The Mets don’t need this distraction. Taz said this should have been kept in-house. The Mets have been through a world of disappointment for many years. Now everyone is on the bandwagon and supporting the Mets. Taz warns Harvey to focus and get the job done.

(20:56) Taz takes a call from Ryan in San Jose. Ryan wants to know what Taz thinks of the low Raw ratings. Does it matter? Is it really low by today’s standards? Taz answers that the ratings are everything to Vince McMahon. Taz said Vince gets extremely pissed off when the ratings drop. Ryan watches WWE on Hulu Plus and believes that probably takes away from the ratings.

(24:40) Taz said he received a question from Mary Kay Williams. Mary wants Taz to explain how a dead crowd can affect a show. Taz said that in front of a dead crowd, inexperienced wrestlers tend to speed up their pace. Taz said that he would get mad. Taz learned from Kevin Sullivan and Tony Atlas to slow down and take your time. Taz said the audience can affect the announce team. Eddie Guerrero used to thank Taz for putting him over. Taz said Eddie and Kurt Angle were the easiest guys to announce for because they were so good.

(28:11) Taz plays “Do you know the way to San Jose?” for Ryan in San Jose.

(28:58) Taz takes a call from Seth “The Kung Fu Jobber.” Seth says his new daughter is named Kay as in Kay Fabe Jobber. Seth is hearing that Taz is ripping him on the air. Seth accuses Brian of trying to steal his spot. Seth loves his Twitter followers and is excited for Hump Day Promos. Seth will be back October 19.

(32:22-33:49) Break

(34:00) Taz tells a story about taking his son to the local barber shop for a haircut. Taz had to wait two hours and wanted to stab himself with scissors. Taz has a case of the barber shop blues.

(35:15) The intro to the show is accidentally played instead of the intro for Hump Day Promos. Taz laughs and said Seth is going to be excited that Brian screwed up.

(38:12) Promo #1 comes from Tony Knox. Tony is the “Classic Man.” Tony has an interviewer which Taz says is original. Taz thinks Tony is playing both roles. Tony doesn’t care if the locker likes him. He says to expect greatness. Tony ends with some jibberish that may be about Peru. Taz likes Tony’s tone and pace. Taz thinks Tony needs to take command and that doesn’t mean be loud. Taz compared it to Peter Parker. Brian agrees and calls him an alter ego. Taz wants to know what makes Tony Knox the classic man. Brian thinks he was probably wearing a suit. Taz doesn’t know if just a suit makes someone a classic man.

(42:58) Promo #2 comes from Freak Show Misfit. FSM instills fear into all of us. He doesn’t walk a straight line, he walks his own line! While Pork Chop John is grilling his pork chops, the FSM will have his hand raised with the gold around his waist. FSM tells us to remember that evil never dies. Taz loves it all, but didn’t like the sinister laugh at the end. Taz likes Pork Chop John and thinks he is probably wondering why he got called out. Taz asks the listeners that if you have a special name like Freak Show Misfit, please explain why. Taz doesn’t know if he is missing a toe or what. Taz said this is his opportunity to armchair quarterback the fans after years of them doing it to him. Taz loves the rivalry between the listeners.

(46:52) Promo #3 comes from Ethan Fisher. Ethan starts off with a sinister laugh. Taz stops it and cannot believe he laughed right after they just got done bashing FSM for laughing at the end of his promo. Taz comes from the old school belief that when you laugh in your promo, it is because you are lost and don’t know where to go with it. Ethan is “The Fish Man” Ethan Ray Fisher. He finds it laughable that you think you are in his league. Hence, the sinister laugh. When it is all said and done, The Fish Man will be considered among the greats. The Fish Man will hook you and reel you in and you will be just another trophy on his mantle. Taz likes that he knows why he is The Fish Man. Taz takes a moment to say that a fan let him know what Tony Knox said at the end of his promo. It translates to “Go Peru.” Back to The Fish Man. Taz liked that he named some old school guys. Taz dug the whole thing.

(50:34) Promo #4 comes from John Rocha. John gives his blood, sweat, and tears for this business. Taz stops to point something out, even though his wife told him not to. Taz really likes John’s cadence in his promo. John has been the first to show up and the last to leave. John has missed his kid’s first steps and other stuff. Taz liked the promo and said his inflection was great. Brian didn’t like the line about John missing his kid’s first steps. Taz takes offense and says that actually happens when you are in the business. Taz missed a lot of important milestones in his son’s life. Taz said people who are not in the business do not understand it.

(57:12) Promo #5 comes from the returning Dave Silva from Dirty South Texas. Dave starts out his promo with laughter. Taz can’t take it. Dave is ripping into Mike Tenay. Dave and Tenay drank and slept with a lot of women together. Now, Dave is mad because Tenay put over Ian from San Antonio.

(59:00-1:00:13) Taz interrupts his review of Dave’s promo to do a live read for Square Space. Use promo code TAZ and get 10 percent off your first purchase.

(1:00:39-1:02:02) Break

(1:02:30) Taz acknowledges that he made a mistake by saying Todd Grisham would be on after the break because he isn’t on for another 30 minutes.

(1:03:11) Taz continues his review of Dave Silva’s promo. Taz really liked it. Taz says that Dave has range. Taz said Dave has a Yosemite Sam sound. Taz also liked that Dave changed his voice when he was imitating Tenay. Taz said he doesn’t want his fans thinking that only fans from Texas cut great promos.

(1:06:13) Promo #6 comes from Gary Lamatone. Taz said he messed up this guy’s name last week. The promo starts out with Gary correcting Taz on the pronunciation of his last name. This makes Taz pop. Gary says his name should be lodged in Taz’s thick head. Taz liked the promo, but said he lost energy as it went on. Taz gave advice to entrants that didn’t make the air. Taz said a lot of them sound like someone is reading. Taz said they need to sound natural. Taz thinks Gary’s promo from last week was better. Taz then plays Gary’s previous promo. Taz thinks Gary edited his promo.

(1:13:40) Taz takes a call from Terrell in Texas. Terrell wants to know if Taz had a chance to watch the WWE 24 special on the NXT: Brooklyn show. Taz said he forgot that was coming out, but wants to check it out. Taz likes when they show what happens behind the scenes.

(1:16:13) Taz plays John Rocha’s promo again. Taz hates ties and doesn’t want to call a draw. Taz just got a Tweet from The Fish Man. Taz says Fish Man is not in the top three. Taz picks Rocha as the winner. Taz says Dave Silva is runner up. Taz challenges Silva to cut a promo in a different voice because he wants to see his range. Taz said some people are sending in promos full of cursing. Taz said that any cursing, your promo gets eliminated from consideration. Next week’s Hump Day Promo subject is “Why would you be the best janitor.” Taz said you can add some wrestling twists to your promo.

(1:20:50) Taz takes a phone call from Ethan “The Fish Man” Fisher. Ethan says that his win is just getting played on the air. Ethan says its an honor. Taz respects Ethan not being a sore loser. Ethan is already thinking of janitor promos. Ethan thinks Dave Silva should have won.

(1:22:33) Taz is told that Dave Silva sent in an additional promo in a different character. Dave’s other character is called Southern Comfort. It sounds like an effeminate Dusty Rhodes. Taz loves it. Taz asks Brian why he didn’t send that to him before. Brian said he thought he sent it yesterday. Taz reminds him that it is his show so he is never at fault.

(1:25:40) Taz takes a call from Dave Silva. Dave said he will team up with Fish Man any day. Dave lives near Michael Cole way down there in Texas. Dave is excited that Taz likes his promos. Taz said Seth will eventually send him his t-shirt. Dave said that Seth is popping out kids like they are tic-tacs. Dave is ready to be a disgruntled janitor next week.

(1:28:40-1:29:55) Break

(1:30:20-1:51:20) Todd Grisham is on the line. Todd picks on Taz for only contacting him when he wanted him to be on the show. Taz said he always sees Grisham and Coach on ESPN. Todd says he has been off the air for three weeks because he just had a baby. Taz said he will send him a t-shirt. Todd thanked Taz for being on top of his personal life. Todd has three girls – a 4-year old, a 3-year old, and a newborn. Todd says that being married with children is the greatest thing in the world and the only thing he would trade it for would be to be single with no kids.

Taz asks Todd why he wasn’t involved in the SportsCenter from WWE. Todd said he was first choice, but they decided to go with Coach. Todd tells a funny story about a female fan screaming for him at a WWE show. Todd was surprised that she was so excited to see him. Todd went over and she asked him if he could get John Cena’s autograph for her. Taz said that when he was trying to get booked pre-ECW, he was going all over. Magnum TA was booking for the NWA and left a voicemail on Taz machine. Taz calls him back. Magnum thanks him for calling back and asks him if he had Mondo Clean’s phone number. Todd asked whatever happened to Mondo Clean. Taz said that Mondo became Damien Dimento. Todd remembered that he wrestled The Undertaker in the main event of the first Raw. Taz has Brian check the information and it is confirmed.

Todd then asks Taz which wrestler faked a broken neck so he could quit wrestling and start a podcast. Taz got a good chuckle out of that. Taz corrected Todd for calling his show a podcast. Taz said his show is available as a digital download. Todd says that is a podcast. Taz asks if someone could watch SportsCenter online if they missed it live. Todd says no. Taz said that was a bad example. Todd and Taz then discuss baseball. Taz said baseball is an activity, not a sport. Todd said to be a successful pitcher in baseball, you have to look like you just stumbled out of Gettysburg era 1863. Todd is a soccer guy. Todd loves to cover MMA and football. Taz assumes that pro wrestling helped prepare Todd for MMA announcing. Todd agrees and said the only difference is that the competitors hug and raise each other’s hands at the end of the fight. Todd and Taz pick on each other. Taz asks Todd why he came on the show. Todd said he knew Taz had no one else if he was contacting him. Todd said Taz just blew past the news that he had a newborn and told him to make sure he is available for the show. Taz had asked Todd if he wanted to do the show at 8:00 or 8:30. When Todd picked 8:30, Taz called him lazy. Todd countered that he has to do SportsCenter until midnight and Taz told him to quit bragging.

Todd thanked Taz for having on his digital download show. Todd says that Taz will be as big as Howard Stern. Taz tells Todd how he has the sound board from Stern’s show. Todd asks how old it is and says that it has a Max Headroom button and a Where’s the beef button. Taz hopes that Todd gets to the B Show and then works up to the A Show. Todd is growing a beard. Taz asked if ESPN cares about his facial hair. Todd told a story about when he was in WWE and cut his hair really short. Todd said after he was done with promos, he was called into the production truck and talked to about his hair. Taz asks for Todd’s prediction for tonight’s Cubs-Pirates game. Todd says “I don’t know.”

(1:51:42) Taz hypes NXT Takeover: Respect. The main event is a 30-Minute Iron Man Match for the NXT Women’s Championship between Bayley and Sasha Banks. Taz doesn’t like that it is called Iron Man and not Iron Woman. (Paging Triple H for the explanation.) Taz thinks it will be a great match. He likes the contrast between Bayley and Banks. In the semi-finals of the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic, Finn Balor and Samoa Joe will take on Dawson and Wilder. The other semi-final is Jordan and Gable versus Corbin and Rhyno. There will also be the finals on the card. Asuka will take on Dana Brooke. Brooke is a little green but has a great look. Apollo Cruz will take on Tyler Breeze. Taz thinks this match could steal the show if given time.

(1:55:43-1:59:19) On tomorrow’s show, Mike Tenay will be on for his segment, Fantasy Island. Taz thinks Hump Day Promos went very well. Taz reminds fans to send in their entries to hpmtaz@cbs.com. Taz thanks Todd Grisham and Brian for helping out while Seth is gone.

RATE & REVIEW

7 out of 10. The last time Taz had Hump Day Promos I gave him a bumped up rating due to the creativity. This week, he earned it based on how well the segments come off. It is highly entertaining to hear the promos and then hear Taz develop a connection with the people that send in entries. No other show is taking live callers and creating these ongoing on-air relationships. Taz has a unique ability to recall people based on their voice. Taz regularly gives shout outs to specific listeners when he thinks about them such as Ian in San Antonio and Pork Chop John. I find that way cool because it is something that Taz really doens’t have to do. Taz could easily phone this stuff in and just talk about his days in the ring. Instead, you can tell that Taz is driven and wants to be unique. Todd Grisham came off with way more personality than WWE ever let him show. That is a shame because WWE’s broadcasters lack their own personality. Except for my boy, Corey Graves, that is. As always, I welcome any comments or critiques.