Wednesday PWTorch Livecast Recap
Host: Pat McNeill
Special Guest: Former WWE wrestler Trevor Murdoch
Aired Live: February 3, 2016
DIRECT LINK TO LISTEN/DOWNLOAD
Recap by Dominic DeAngelo
SUBJECTS COVERED
– New Talent In WWE
– WWE’s Missteps With Minorities
– Daniel Bryan & WWE: To Wrestle or Not To Wrestle?
TIME STAMPS OF COVERAGE
(2:35) Pat McNeill intro
(3:50) Trevor Murdoch intro
(10:20) What is missing from today’s mainstream tag team wrestling?
(12:10) What will differ Trevor’s school from other wrestling schools?
(15:00) Most important lesson Murdoch learned from Harley Race?
(17:45) Will Stan Hansen ever get into the WWE Hall of Fame?
(18:35) Any restrictions on using the brain buster in WWE?
(20:00) Does Trevor ever think Kevin Owens will be WWE champ?
(21:55) Vince McMahon discussion
(23:15) If Trevor could have one more WWE match who would it be with?### COMMERCIAL BREAK ###
(32:00) Nick Dinsmore
(33:05) Is WWE Network to blame for the heavy product criticism?
(38:14) Are most of the “cowboy” wrestlers really cowboys?
(39:20) How can WWE make the Heavyweight Title feel important again?
(46:53) Will Vince ruin Finn Balor when he’s called up to the main roster?
(50:40) Roman turns heel at Fastlane?
(51:50) Veteran influence for Trevor in WWE
(55:10) Cryme Tyme vs. Cade & Murdoch
(1:00:05) Kurt Angle discussion
SHOW HIGHLIGHTS
– Trevor is opening up the Kansas City Pro Wrestling training facility. He thinks it’s a great time to start a wrestling school. It’s important that they learn to know how to wrestle right. Pat asks what’s the most important aspect Trevor can teach the students? So many folks today don’t know how to wrestle properly, it’s important to do it the right way. They also started a contest for one lucky aspiring talent to join the school for free and the winner was a 27-year old named Trevor Johnson.
– Kylin calls in: what does he feel is askew from today’s tag team wrestling? He thinks they need to give tag team wrestling a little more focus and a little bit more storytelling. Tag wrestling used to be the main event on the card, and you start to notice now when they give them a little push, people start to notice. They need to have a storyline to give these guys. There has to be some story and character development.
– Kylin’s second question is what will separate Trevor’s school from other wrestling schools such as the Dudleys’s or Lance Storm’s? To be honest, there’s nothing Trevor can do because those guys have done so much in the business. He’s not trying to separate himself from them, but he’s giving people in the Kansas City area to give the opportunity to train. He’s also going to have a professional trainer on site, which perhaps other schools don’t have – as well as an open membership for people to train in-ring as long as they know what they’re doing and don’t have the potential to harm others. Pat also mentions cardio is important. Trevor says wrestling cardio is different from regular cardio, but experienced wrestlers will not only get the benefit to work in-ring with a membership, but will have gym access as well.
– Kylin’s final question: what was the most valuable in or out of the ring lesson his trainer, Harley Race, has taught him? There’s been so many, but one was to always be a man of your word in this business. If you don’t have your word, then you don’t have anything. He didn’t always follow that initially, but it’s really important to develop trust in and out of the ring. If you say you’re going to do something, then do it. Good or bad.
– Will Stan Hansen ever get into the WWE HOF? With the WWE Network, Trevor thinks so.
– Any restrictions on using the brainbuster in WWE? No restrictions, but moves like that are heavily monitored. A.J.’s allowed to use it because he established it somewhere else and management trusts that he won’t hurt anyone with it, but WWE’s been pretty on top of things ever since Austin got hurt.
– Trevor thinks Kevin Owens will win the WWE Championship someday if given the right storyline. He’s got that Daniel Bryan appeal. People are starting to realize nowadays that people don’t have to look jacked to have heart, but you have to have the wrestling ability to pull off a look like Owens has. Trevor adds he’s the last person to be judging anybody by the way they look. His goal in the ring was to make things looks like he was in a fight and make himself look mean.
– Did Trevor ever get in trouble with Vince McMahon by something he said or did in the ring? Vince is a fickle individual, Trevor says. One day he’ll tell you he likes vanilla as his favorite ice cream, and you go out there to give him vanilla, but then when you get backstage he’ll tell you he wants f—— chocolate (Trev apologizes for the f-bomb slip). There’d be plenty of instances like this with Vince. It’s the nature of the beast and he doesn’t hold grudges.
– If Trevor could have one more WWE match who would it be with? Dolph Ziggler: he goes out and gives 110 percent no matter what match he is in. He is WWE’s “ace in the hole” if they ever decide to use him properly. He’s a Dolph Ziggler fan.
– Hurricane Helms will be Pat’s guest next week.
– Nick Dinsmore is brought up: Trevor is impressed with how knowledgable and smart he is of wrestling business, very much different from the Eugene character he plays. Hell of a nice guy to boot, too.
– Is WWE Network to blame for the heavy product criticism? Trevor thinks it’s a strange question because he also thinks it helps boost the product. Pat brings up the big injury bug. Trevor thinks that the wrestling schedule for WWE is so heavy that it’s no surprise talent is getting banged up. A lot of them wrestle hurt. Any way to remedy this, Pat asks? In Trevor’s opinion, there’s only so much you can do. Guys nowadays aren’t as cautious as they once were. There is no more control with the wrestlers anymore, you do what WWE tells you too. If WWE backed up to a couple shows a week, but when you work in a corporate environment not making money is not an option.
– Chat Room question: are most of the “cowboy” wrestlers really cowboys in real-life? Yes, Trevor says. JBL may wear a suit, but he still puts on the boots. Even Billy Gunn with his Smoking Gunns gimmick. You really can’t fake that kind of gimmick. It’s no different from really any other gimmick, just an amped up version of that individual.
– How can WWE make the Heavyweight Title feel important again? They have to give the fans what they want, Trevor says, and he’s not sure the fans want Roman in that spotlight. They have to find that one guy that everybody wants to see – again he brings up Ziggler. Right now he thinks people feel a little cheated with Triple H as champ, but it’s part of the story they’re telling. Pat says they can’t book Roman like he is John Cena. Trevor says everything is so scripted today that it’s tough for talent to cultivate a reaction. Going off script is a risk because if the crowd loves what you did, then you’re money, but it’s a different story if your risk goes flat. WWE needs more of those risk takers. Was it like that when Murdoch was around? Trevor says it was very tight scripted until they were comfortable with your character. He’d grab scripts and read it 10 times over until he had it memorized and then would put his own spin on it so it didn’t sound fake. You have to let talent be themselves.
– Trevor has had four bull rope matches in his career. He’s been asked to do them more times than what he’s done, but bullrope matches were used to cap off a feud so it doesn’t make sense to go that route, and Trevor doesn’t roll like that.
– Pat asks Trevor about promoting shows, and Trevor wants to avoid that. He wants to focus on just training talent. He doesn’t want any part of promoting.
– Will Vince ruin Finn Balor when he’s called up to the main roster? Pat thinks that many guys from NXT have gotten over on the main roster. Trevor also says fans need to realize that NXT is a much intimate environment in comparison to WWE’s huge stage. He doesn’t think Hunter would let WWE’s setting ruin that talent since NXT is his baby. They’re going to wait for the right moment to call up Finn. He’s a guy Trevor could see pop up around or after WrestleMania time. You also have to look at guys who are able to take something and get themselves over, like New Day. Trevor says they are main eventing Raw with unicorn horns on their heads
– Emailer thinks Roman will turn heel on Dean Ambrose at Fastlane. Pat and Trevor both don’t think that will happen around WrestleMania time.
– Trevor says guys like Mike Rotunda and Barry Windham were both very influential in his development. Who else backstage in WWE were like that, asks Pat? Arn Anderson was his go-to guy. He felt more comfortable around him because Arn was a straight-shooter. He was so knowledgeable. For example, he and Lance Cade wanted to do something different with The Highlanders. They sat next to Arn at the HOF and asked him what they should do with them. Arn said “If I was you, I’d work them like the Sheepherders (a/k/a The Bushwhackers),” that way they helped The Highlanders get over while keeping their characters fresh. Another guy that he relied on was HBK. He’d ride with him and Lance to shows and was an open book for them. If it wasn’t for Shawn, DX would have never feuded with Cade & Murdoch.
– It’s been rumored that JTG and Shad of Cryme Tyme had some heat with Cade & Murdoch. Trevor validates this and says JTG even mentioned this on Jericho’s podcast about Cryme Tyme getting fired for bumping a referee. JTG isn’t telling the story correctly: first he says Trevor and Lance were in cahoots with the ref to win the match, but what he isn’t saying is that Trevor & Lance were going over anyway so it doesn’t make sense. The other point JTG made was that they (Cade & Murdoch) were telling the ref to count faster, but Cade and Lance were heels – of course they’re going to do that. Bottom line is Trevor and Lance did a heel double-team spot to get JTG out of the ring to create drama with a out-of-the-ring 10 count. At the time, WWE was very stringent on referees to make pin counts and DQ counts be legit. So JTG gets knocked out of the ring, but doesn’t address the 10 count in time, according to Trevor. If they were really in cahoots with the ref, wouldn’t they want to end the match with their finish? If Cryme Tyme never bumped the referee they would have never gotten fired. They almost broke that ref’s arm with that spot, and on top of that they had an attitude afterwards with John Cena backstage. Guess who got fired the next day? They brought that on themselves. Was Shad a big goof? He never took anything personally with Shad, but yeah, in the ring he was a big goof and didn’t take anything seriously.
– Trevor says Kurt Angle is a perfectionist and was always available to talk to for advice. Wrestling will miss his intensity.
– If you want to train at Kansas City Pro Wrestling, email kcprowrestlingtraining@yahoo.com or call 913-645-8826. Go to trevormurdoch.com as well.
SCORE & REVIEW
9.0: Another darn good episode. The show started off with some strong tag team discussion then proceeded to go into Trevor’s training experience, current events and his WWE tenure. You can tell he was trained by the great Harley Race because his attitude is extremely old school – all about character development, smart ring work and strong storytelling. He is also extremely understanding of WWE’s corporate landscape, the good and the bad, which gives this interview an added shine. With a deep voice and engaging personality like Murdoch’s, you wonder why WWE hasn’t utilized a return for him, and I think this episode certainly showcases those intangibles.
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