Wednesday PWTorch Livecast with Pat McNeill
Special Guest: Former WCW wrestler Disco Inferno
Aired Live: March 9, 2016
DIRECT LINK TO LISTEN/DOWNLOAD
Recap by Dominic DeAngelo
SUBJECTS COVERED
– Lack of Characters & Believability
– UFC Encounters
– WrestleMania Talk
TIME STAMPS OF COVERAGE
(2:18) Pat McNeill intro
(3:20) Disco Inferno intro
(6:55) Meisha Tate at Disco’s club
(11:25) Meeting Mickey Gall
(13:15) Disco’s restaurant tipping scale
(13:50) TNA, Bobby Roode, and the importance of punches / selling
(21:50) Thoughts on Ambrose & Shane McMahon’s punches?
(24:45) Bold Shane McMahon vs. The Undertaker prediction
(26:17) Will there be a shocker at Roadblock?
### COMMERCIAL BREAK ###
(39:00) If Disco was going to be one of the potential new investors for TNA, what would some of his requirements be?
(40:55) Did WWE plan to open their potential physical HOF complex near Universal Studios to harm TNA?
(42:35) Who would Disco like to see in NXT?
(45:25) Does Disco have a favorite character wrestler currently?
(51:10) Can there be smaller preliminary bouts for WrestleMania?
(56:10) Rapid fire questions
SHOW HIGHLIGHTS
– How does Disco watch Raw? He reads Jason Powell’s review and if it’s positive, he’ll watch it on his DVR. If it’s a bad review then he’ll probably not watch it. He did watch it this week in its entirety. Disco thinks Pat should post spoiler alerts in accompaniment with his Raw tweets.
– (6:55) Disco’s club is very busy for March Madness. He hosted the Meisha Tate after-party so it was bonkers crazy because she won. She’s hosted quite a few parties there from time to time.
– Pat makes note that cursing has been running rampant on the Wednesday Livecast for the past couple of weeks (Bill Behrens and Justin Credible were both guilty) and trusts Disco won’t slip up (SPOILER ALERT: he doesn’t).
– (9:25) Caller Clarence prank calls and Disco in good nature enjoys the rib, even if the joke was headed south. Pat says he knew it was a prank when the caller said “Disco was a nice guy.”
– (11:25) How did Disco meet C.M. Punk’s future UFC opponent Mickey Gall? He came into the club after his fight. Disco was very surprised with how small Mickey was, noting that Punk was a lot bigger than him. A super nice kid, though.
– (13:15) What kind of tip does Disco leave at a restaurant. He always leaves 20-25 percent for good service. If service is atrocious or painfully bad, then he’ll leave 10 percent.
– (13:50) TNA seeking out investors? Disco says it sounds like they need them. He thinks it’s not really that much of a big deal. Before WWE went public they were searching for investors, too. Has he been watching Impact? Some of it, he never watches Pop TV unless TNA is on. But not as a creature of habit. What has he liked? He is so impressed with the work of Bobby Roode. He thinks there is no better worker today than him. Pat says unfortunately he doesn’t get the credit since he is on TNA. All Disco teaches in his wrestling class is kicking, punching, and selling. It’s a lost art and he believes having those as a foundation for your work will make your performance more believable. Bobby Roode’s work in that department look legit. He thinks it’s extremely important. He thinks there is a lack of common sense in the work these days. Back in the day wrestlers were legit tough guys before they got into the business – not so much today. There’s such an emphasis on acrobatics today, teaching someone a good working punch limits injuries and makes matches look more like a fight. Pat notes him and Disco grew up in the wild west.
– (21:50) Boris calls in: what does Disco think of Dean Ambrose’s and Shane McMahon’s punches? Ambrose is a good worker, but he could use Disco’s punching class, especially since that aspect is important for Dean’s character. Shane’s punches are terrible and he’s a weird character for wrestling, but don’t forget his match with Kurt Angle at King of the Ring was one of the matches of the year. Go back and watch that match (Pat says they nearly killed each other). Disco says you get your money’s worth with Shane. He’s looking forward to the match, considering now that Shane is older – it’ll be interesting to see how the bar is raised.
– (24:45) What’s Disco’s prediction for Shane vs. Taker? He thinks Angle will interfere.
– (26:17) Will there be a shocker at Roadblock? No, Disco says. Here’s why: in the past three or four years, they’ve been by the book. It’s very simplistic, no characters – they’re all just guys trying to fight for the title. It’s going to be your typical layout. More of the same stuff they’ve been doing. Pat says there’s no way Triple H is not going to be in the main event of their (supposedly) largest WrestleMania. Disco says how crazy the ratings have declined. Pat brings up the question of what will they do with Brock Lesnar then and Disco notes that the marketing machine for WrestleMania is already rolling.
– (39:00) Kylin calls in: If Disco were one of the potential new investors for TNA, what would some of his requirements be? Put more money into the visual product, not make it look so amateurish in comparison to WWE.
– (40:55) Did WWE plan to open their potential physical HOF complex near Universal Studios to harm TNA? Disco doesn’t think WWE cares about TNA. 200,000 viewers is very insignificant. Universal Studios is chock full of tourists so it seems like the perfect place to put a physical HOF.
– (42:35) Who would Disco like to see in NXT? Kevin Cross, Disco says. He wouldn’t put him in NXT, though. He needs to learn the WWE main event style. He says Cross is a great talker and could see him facing Lesnar someday. Disco also criticizes the indy style work of NXT, which he isn’t a big fan of. He’s more so for the big angle, big story feud and less about NXT’s green/indy style of wrestling.
– (45:25) Does Disco have a favorite character wrestler currently? No, he doesn’t – it’s a forgotten skill that makes a pro wrestler. When he was trying to develop a character, the way you create longevity is you need to have something that people can imitate. These days, everyone is just a wrestler. If a kid tried to imitate a Kevin Owens or Neville, it would be difficult to be able to do so. If you’re just a worker, you’re going to get lost in the shuffle. He notes that he was nowhere near the wrestling talent of a Jericho, Malenko or Benoit, but he did stuff to get a reaction.
– (51:10) Can there be smaller preliminary bouts for WrestleMania other than battle royal and big team matches? It’s hard to do an angle with the under card since there is such a lack of character development. The Russo era gets flack for crash TV, but at least there was conflict and there were characters. Today everyone should have conflict to feud over. Other than Jericho, no one else is in an angle. Even Roman Reigns and Triple H don’t have one – the fact that Reigns is being booed and Triple H is being cheered should be the angle.
– (56:10) RAPID FIRE QUESTION SESSION:
– Will Hogan win the lawsuit against Gawker? Disco hopes so.
– Thoughts on Global Force Wrestling deal with a reality TV company? A good move, as GFW has garnered some good talent for a core roster.
– Current beer of choice? A Japanese beer, Sapporo.
– Thoughts on Mark Madden & Michele Beadle’s Twitter feud? Completely insignificant.
– Hours of sleep Disco gets a night? Five.
– How awesome would a WWE brand split be – fanboy’s dream or terrible idea? Disco thought the brand split was the beginning of a wrestling downturn.
– How terrified was Disco in the bodybag when he was feuding with The Mamalukes in WCW? Extremely – they zipped the bag all the way up. He started panicking. He’s never suffocated before so he didn’t know how long he had to breathe.
– What did he think of his Kayfabe Commentaries DVD? He enjoyed the finished product.
– Will Vegas get the Oakland Raiders? No idea – 20 percent chance.
– Has he considered donating his brain for CTE? Yeah, he would. He’s only had one concussion, which may have been mild in the first place. Just couldn’t remember the security code to get into his house.
– Was 50 Cent paying homage to him with his “Disco Inferno” song? No.
– Anything about Shane Douglas’s Vegas promotion? He only heard it was supposed to start up about nine months ago.
– Does he own any Wolfpack shirts? Yeah, he’s got one.
– What happened to the WCW tag team High Voltage? Their attitude determined their altitude.
– What does he think of Ryback’s character development and has he ever run into him in Vegas? Never seen him in Vegas but he thinks his character development is getting better. He’d love to sit with him for 20 minutes and give him some tips.
– Will he be at WaleMania? He’s not doing any appearances for WrestleMania weekend.
– Did he ever hook up with a Nitro Girl? No, he never did. Some of the other guys did, though.
– How’d he do in fantasy football this past season? He won $7,500 on FanDuel and came in third place in his league.
– Where do RGIII and Kaepernick land? RGIII maybe Denver? Pat suggests maybe Dallas for Kaepernick.
– Has any indy promoter tried to book a disco battle between him and Brodus Clay? No, not yet.
– Does Disco still pay his SAG dues and how much did he make on the Ready To Rumble shoot? He still makes royalties. He hasn’t had SAG in forever.
– Do the smart mark fans sometime bother Disco more than watching the actual WWE show? Trolls can ruin the experience for the entire audience. Trolling is almost traditional now. He feels bad for Roman Reigns since he’s been doing what he’s been told to do. He thinks those type of fans have to accept some blame for what the product is today.
– Is Triple getting over at Roman Reigns’s expense? He believes WWE has completely lost touch of what’s going to get over and how the crowd is going to react. He believes WWE thinks Triple H will get a heel reaction, but they’re going to cheer Reigns getting beat up no matter what. WWE feels they are doing something right, at what point will someone raise their hand and say “this show sucks?” They think they’re writing a good show, but no they aren’t.
– Who does Disco like for the election? Hillary – she’s a small favorite over Trump. It’s going to be Trump and Hillary for sure.
– Follow Disco @therealdisco on Twitter.
SCORE & REVIEW
8.5: I’m giving this episode the same score as last week, because much like Bill Behrens’s interview, the show was very well tailored to the interviewee. The majority of the focus was on Disco’s knowledge of selling, punching, and characters in wrestling, which is all in Disco’s wheelhouse. As always, Disco is a good guest. You can tell he likes being on the Livecast and appreciates Pat’s sense of humor (and utilization of soundbytes) which puts their podcast chemistry at a high level. Some may take exception to Disco’s stance on the “green-ness” of the NXT product, but what he’s taking exception to does makes sense from a certain perspective. Whether you think Disco is off-base or on-point should be irrelevant because this is a really fun episode.
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