“WE WATCH WRESTLING” EPISODE #118
HOST: MATT MCCARTHY
CO-HOSTS: VINCE AVERILL, TOM SIBLEY
RELEASE DATE: December 2, 2015
DIRECT LINK TO LISTEN/DOWNLOAD
Report by Steven Ganyo, PWPodcast reporter
TOP QUOTES
– None of the faces I saw last night would even legally be allowed to be on-camera in this time, 2015 – Tom, on a 1987 NWA episode
– And that Miley Cyrus, I’ve now seen her COMPLETELY naked! – Tom being Tom
– It’s almost as though they’re doing something to their bodies to make their foreheads larger – Matt, on Tom’s assertion that Lex Luger and John Cena look alike.
– I’ve only put guns in their mouth like, once, and that was for Christmas – Tom, on Kevin Von Erich’s parenting
– I have a lot of stuff in my butt right now – Tom still being Tom
– I love Ric Flair. I never wanna see him on TV again. He’s out of his f*cking MIND! -Vince
– Matt: ‘Member when we were sitting next to her at the bar on Mania weekend?
Tom: She was wolfin’ a burger, right?
Matt: She was HOUSING a cheeseburger.
Tom: That’s so hot…
– On Mojo Rawley:
Tom: He has way too many gears that he can seemingly effortlessly go in and out of…
Matt: He has two gears: he has hyped, and staying hyped.
– Right now he’s doing bong rips, wherever he is – Tom, on Randy Orton celebrating his time off.
– Vince: It’s to be discussed. Wrestling is to be discussed. It’s not to be enjoyed in a vacuum.
– No, I mean, they sucked! The pants sucked – Vince, on Tommy Dreamers fashion choice
HOT TOPICS ON THE SHOW
This week, the boys talk NWA wrestling, Randy Orton’s vacation, Ric Flair, and more!
SUBJECTS COVERED (w/Time Stamps)
*Intro*
*NWA World Championship Wrestling* – 12:30-21:10
*Kayfabe Commentaries* – 21:10-27:50
*More NWA* – 27:50-46:10
*Ric Flair* – 46:10-51:10
*WHERE’S RANDY?!?!?!* – 51:10-56:55
*This Week’s Raw* – 56:55-1:11::45
*Rapid Fire Topics* – 1:11:45-1:16:50
*Who’s Your Favorite Wrestler?* – 1:16:50-1:30:41
SHOW HIGHLIGHTS
After a schizophrenically entertaining intro, the boys dive into the meat of this weeks issue talking NWA. They discuss squash matches being utilized to showcase the talent but not give away marquee matchups on free TV. Tom watched an episode of World Championship Wrestling on the network and they break down the happenings. How do the women in wrestling from 1987 compare to the women of today? Where did the old territories shoot TV shows?
Next, the boys talk Kayfabe Commentaries. Matt raves about the quality and incite of these interviews and puts KC over as the best shoot interview series. They talk about clips from a recent Al Snow shoot in which Snow complains that the business is no longer protected from amateurs who don’t know what they’re doing. Snow also talks Wresltmania 3’s best match and the boys compare wrestling and comedy.
Back to the NWA. The boys discuss the prominence of the Four Horsemen on NWA TV without feeling like too much, and Tom jokes about Arn Anderson looking like he was born a 47-year-old man. Tom goes on to compare The Horsemen to a group of crooked New York cops who are too cocky and dangerous for their own good and Matt talks the differences between The Horsemen and other groups in wrestling history.
The boys critique the Horsemen’s finishers, which leads to a childhood story from Matt involving the Torture Rack. Tom insists that Arn Anderson has a jolly, bumbling quality, which Matt and Vince take exception to. Tom notes that Lex Luger and John Cena share similar facial features, which leads to a discussion about Luger’s troubles post-wrestling including the death of Ms. Elizabeth. As so often happens, a “tragedy in wrestling” conversation leads back to the Von Erichs. The boys talk Kevin Von Erich and what it must take for him just to still be alive.
Transition out of NWA and back to present day to talk, ironically, about Ric Flair. Vince doesn’t want to see Flair on TV anymore because he thinks Flair is physically and mentally unstable. A brief detour into Divas territory to comment on the Charlotte-Becky Lynch business from Raw and a quick Paige cheeseburger story yields back to Ric Flair’s instability but then shifts back to classic NWA Flair. Tom asserts that Flair was on so many drugs ahem he cut promos that he “lost touch with general consciousness.” Again, Matt and Vince take exception, and Matt points out that Flair’s promos were all real life because he lived his gimmick.
After a brief Breaking Ground interlude in which Tom says Mojo Rawley is a sociopath, the boys come back to an old familiar subject: Randy Orton. They speculate on how Randy must be celebrating being on the shelf for over a year due to neck surgery, including smoking “a brick of weed” and forcing his kids to watch his movies with him.
From there, the boys briefly riff on urban legends and Jesse Ventura. Vince then talks Raw, saying that it looks like WWE is maybe trying some new things to mix it up. He goes on to wonder if there’ll be a backstory on the League of Nations and talks about people thinking The New Day were overexposed on Monday. Tom thinks Dean Ambrose must be unhappy being thrown into a run-in with The Usos, which leads to a conversation about whether or not all of the Samoan wrestlers are actually closely related or just related because they’re Samoan. Matt looks up the family tree on Wikipedia to try to make sense of it. In the meantime, Tom and Vince talk about Tommy Dreamer’s appearance on Raw, including his unfortunate ring gear that Jeff Hardy probably loved.
The Samoan heritage question led to a series of rapid fire topics including the Eva Marie “corporate choice” storyline from NXT, Dolph Ziggler’s sexual history, and why Jim Cornette and Paul Heyman never got along. The segment closes with a look back at Cornette’s original character storyline and rabid fans attacking wrestlers.
Who’s your favorite wrestler? This week, Tom likes Tully Blanchard. He was unfamiliar with Tully until the new NWA episodes went up on the network, but he’s so charismatic you can’t help but watch him. They talk about his move set, including the slingshot suplex and the pile driver. Vince likes The Thrillseekers because he’s been dipping into Smoky Mountain Wrestling on the network. They talk some Smoky Mountain Wrestling history and how all of these old shows were preserved and how they found their way to the network. Matt’s favorite wrestler is Manny Fernandez. He’s been watching Fernandez on the old mid-’80s NWA shows and seeing how great he was in the ring and how much personality he had.
SCORE & REVIEW
10/10: SUPER fun show this week, even for a show that’s fun every week. The Von Erichs stuff was pure gold and I’m personally very excited to continue to dig into all of the new vault programming on the network so it was fun to hear them talk about that so much. Even TOM is checking it out!
I think the reason I especially loved this issue is because there was much less discussion on the downward spiraling current product and much more focus on good old fashioned wrestling. I understand there’s been a lot of current WWE silliness to talk about, but I’m not very well-versed in much outside of WWF(E) before the ’90s and it’s so much fun to hear some old pros talk about it with that excitement in their voices. Okay, I’m gonna go watch wrestling now.
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