Wednesday PWTorch Livecast with Pat McNeill: Pre-WrestleMania 32 Extravaganza
Special Guests: NOAH Tag champion Lance Hoyt, ROH’s Ian Riccaboni, NWA’s Dave Fuller, and ECW’s Joel Gertner
Aired Live: March 30, 2016
DIRECT LINK TO LISTEN/DOWNLOAD
Recap by Dominic DeAngelo
SUBJECTS COVERED
– WrestleMania Weekend & The Events Surronding It
– NXT Takeover
– WrestleMania 32
TIME STAMPS OF COVERAGE
(2:10) Pat McNeill intro
(3:50) Lance Hoyt intro
(4:40) Lance’s WrestleMania weekend schedule
(11:10) What impact will the Bullet Club have in WWE?
(12:40) How soon does he foresee A.J. Styles winning a WWE Title?
(13:55) Would he and Davey Boy Smith, Jr. like to see themselves in WWE to reload the tag division again?
(16:30) House of Hardcore 12
(19:00) What will Lance do on WrestleMania Sunday?
### COMMERCIAL BREAK ###
(31:20) ROH’s Supercard of Honor
(35:10) Lance’s thoughts on NXT & Takeover
(39:00) What match is he most interested in for WrestleMania?
(43:30) Lance’s Mania debut at WrestleMania 26
(49:10) ROH’s Ian Riccaboni joins the show.
(53:10) Does Ian know when Ishii will be back in ROH to defend the TV Title?
(56:00) What else is Ian interested in seeing during WrestleMania weekend?
(57:05) Follow Ian on social media
(59:00) Follow Lance on social media
(1:02:25) Dave Fuller with the National Wrestling Alliance calls in.
(1:04:00) Joel Gertner calls in
(1:08:00) Mark Lowrance at NWA Parade of Champions
(1:11:18) Does Joel relive the ECW days on the WWE Network?
(1:12:45) Joel’s thoughts on NXT Takeover
### COMMERCIAL BREAK ###
(1:27:45) Joel’s WrestleMania 32 thoughts
SHOW HIGHLIGHTS
(4:40) Lance Hoyt & Davey Boy Smith, Jr. are both going to be at WrestleCon. He will also be at the Parade of Champions Show in Fort Worth, Texas. Jim Cornette, Rob Conway, and Charlie Haas will all be there. Lance Hoyt will be in a triple threat match against Rodney Mack (Red Dog) and one-half of War Machine, Ray Rowe. He will also be on the after-WrestleMania show defending the NOAH Tag Team Titles with Smith.
(11:10) What impact does Lance think his former Bullet Club members have in WWE? Lance says if they do what they’ve been allowed to do they’ll flourish and create something very big for the business
(12:40) How soon does he foresee A.J. Styles winning a WWE Title? He says if they continue on the path he has been then you could see it very soon. He tells the fans to be patient. He thinks it’ll be soon.
(13:55) Would he and Davey, Jr. like to see themselves in WWE to reload the tag division again? Lance found his character in Japan and if WWE would let them go in as they are now, then he’d embrace is sometime down the road.
(16:30) Lance and Bulldog will be at House of Hardcore 12 fighting Tommy Dreamer and Rhino in New York and then in Philly they’ll be fighting Chris Hero and Colt Cabana. They’ll be in Japan for three weeks starting April 20th.
(19:00) What will Lance do on WrestleMania Sunday? There may be a WrestleMania viewing party at the WrestleCon venue which he could attend, but other than that no plans.
### COMMERCIAL BREAK ###
(31:20) Pat brings up Supercard of Honor. All Night Express vs. War Machine vs. The Briscoes vs. Silas Young & The Beer City Bruiser. Lance thinks they’ll blow the roof off the building. Pat adds that the Briscoes aren’t Japanese wrestlers, but they brawl like they are. Lance says both ROH and Japan benefited from their joint venture. He loves Silas Young’s gimmick. Main Event for ROH is The Young Bucks vs. The Motor City Machine Guns.
(35:10) Does Lance watch NXT? Yes he does (when he can). He’s friends with Finn Balor and the character that Shinse Nakamura has created it should be an amazingly cool experience. Same with Samoa Joe and Asuka. For Lance, NXT is very fun – he has a lot of friends and former competitors wrestle there so he enjoys the product. Plus he’s a wrestling fan!
(39:00) What match is he most interested in for WrestleMania? He’s most intrigued by the Shane vs. Undertaker match. He’s met Shane McMahon before and he is definitely a McMahon. He praises Vince for being able to raise kids so successfully while being a CEO for WWE. Since it’s WrestleMania, everyone’s going to bring their A-Game. He thinks the Divas’s match will surprise the crowd and even though people are down on the main event, Lance thinks the masses will be pleasantly surprised.
(43:30) Lance was at WrestleMania 26 in the pre-show battle royal. He said it was a very cool experience and it was a moment that he’ll never forget for the rest of his life. What did he do for the next four hours? As a fan, he spent most of his time hanging on the side spots watching the show. He could’ve easily watched on the monitors and hung out at catering, but he wanted to experience the show as Japan. How does that compare being at the Tokyo Dome? Lance said it wasn’t WWE, but the second Wrestle Kingdom he was at, New Japan pulled out all the stops. To compare the two, Lance thinks it is unfair to do so, but the fact that he was a champion at such a big event for such a big company like NJPW, it was a special moment in his career.
(49:10) Ian Riccaboni from ROH gets introduced. Pat asks him if he’s concerned Killer Elite Squad will get mixed up in the ROH ongoings. While he gives credit to Killer Elite’s talent and prowess, ROH has some of the best tag teams in the world (although he does seem a little concerned). He then continues to run down the ROH Supercard.
(53:10) Does Ian know when Ishii will be back in ROH to defend the TV Title? Ishi has been defending the belt in NJPW, but they expect him to perhaps defend it in Chicago at Global Wars in early May. Pat says maybe Lance would like a shot at that belt. Lance says he and Ishii had a few bouts during the G1 Climax Tournament. He may force Ian to hold his hand while watching women’s matches during WrestleMania weekend.
(56:00) What else is Ian interested in seeing during WrestleMania weekend? He enjoys the Jim Cornette shows and WWE’s Hall of Fame Ceremony.
(57:05) Follow @IanRiccaboni on Twitter and visit the ROH YouTube page to hear him to commentary on ROH’s Women of Honor events. He also does an ROH Podcast with Steve Corino where they talk about the Phillies. Ian signs off.
(59:00) Lance & Davey Boy Smith, Jr. have held the NOAH Tag Titles for 400+ days and have defended the titles an almost record seven times. Follow him on Twitter @lancehoyt and @KEliteSquad. Follow him on Instagram @lhoyt77.
(1:02:25) Dave Fuller with the National Wrestling Alliance calls in. He has the NWA Parade of Champions coming to Fort Worth on Thursday. Jim Cornette will be doing his show. At the show, all top NWA titles will be on the line, first time in history.
(1:04:00) Joel Gertner calls in. He’s all heel – says when he and Pat last spoke, Joel asked what did he have to do to rise amidst that totem pole of being on Wade Keller’s or Bruce Mitchell’s show? Pat says he’d have to reach out for Wade for that and mentions Joel’s DDP Yoga experience.
(1:08:00) Anything Pat is missing for NWA’s Parade of Champions? Mark Lowrance, the voice of WCCW, will be announcing the NWA World Title match. All information at nwapoc2016.com. Dave Fuller signs off.
(1:11:18) Almost all the ECW shows are all up on the WWE Network, does Joel go back and re-visit? Joel says yes he does, he loves watching the old ECW stuff. He thinks it was a great way to spend the first half of his twenties.
(1:12:45) “NXT Takeover: Dallas” Predictions – Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Sami Zayn: Joel thinks Nakamura will be out to live up to those expectations and for Sami Zayn, he is the type of guy to go out with high expectations. It will be an unbelievable.
Austin Aries vs. Baron Corbin: Joel thinks it’ll be a great match. Austin Aries has the Nakamura mindset. For the character of Corbin, his goal is to be relevant and to stay relevant by knocking off the indy darlings. He thinks it’ll be interesting to see him gelling with Aries. It will also be interesting to see how he comes out of it, win or lose.
Bayley vs. Asuka: The intrigue is Asuka’s unstoppable fight style vs. Bayley’s charisma and talent. He thinks the smart money is on Bayley being elevated.
American Alpha vs. The Revival: The NXT tag division takes pride in telling stories and it’s really important to make sure that you’re not “added value.” You want to put the tag division on the map. The intent is for an NXT tag team to show their uniqueness. These are two great wrestling tag teams. Joel can’t tell you what the result might be, but it’ll be a great match.
Finn Balor vs. Samoa Joe II: This for sure is a NJPW style main event. A lot more matches going further are not only going to come across as WWE style main event, but as a NJPW style main event. He thinks the match will be vocal and it will have to live up to what it’s going to be since the rest of the card is so strong. This a big deal for both competitors. He’s sure those guys are going in saying that not only will this be the best NXT match on the card, but the best match to date.
### COMMERCIAL BREAK ###
(1:27:45) Joel’s WrestleMania 32 thoughts – they had a very smart crowd in Brooklyn on Monday’s Raw. Joel thinks there is so many ways to promote WrestleMania since the television landscape has changed, therefore the business model has changed. Even with Raw going to three hours, the entire roster does not get on the show. Not everything is going to get a slow boil, but in today’s day and age, not everything needs that. Both Takeover and WrestleMania were promoted differently, but he’s looking forward to a great show.
SCORE & REVIEW
8.0: Pat’s Pre-WrestleMania Extravaganza had a heavy dose of all the non-WWE events going on for WrestleMania weekend to keep fans aware of not only what’s going on, but truly how big of a weekend it is for all wrestling promotions. I feel this point is heightened when Pat asks Lance (who is always a fun guest) what his plans are for WrestleMania Sunday and he says how there is a lot of friends he has to see. Pretty much any wrestling personality is going to be there. The late addition of Joel Gertner to the show with Takeover predictions was a nice way to cap off the episode. Kind of eerie how much Takeover was discussed this episode and now that we’re in post-Mania mode, it was really the best event going that weekend. “Hold my hand!” was a quote of all quotes for Lance Hoyt (and for Ian’s sake I hope he does so).
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