Wednesday PWTorch Livecast with Pat McNeill
Special Guests: Comic Book writer Brandon Conejo and former WWE/ECW Wrestler “Nova” Mike Bucci
Aired Live: May 11, 2016
DIRECT LINK TO LISTEN/DOWNLOAD
Recap by Dominic DeAngelo
SUBJECTS COVERED
– Brandon Conejo’s The Wrestling Dead
– Damien Sandow’s Life After WWE
– Nova’s Road Agent Experience
TIME STAMPS OF COVERAGE
(2:15) Pat McNeill Intro
(3:35) Brandon Canello intro
(4:10) The Wrestling Dead
(6:06) Victims and Villians
(8:18) C.M. Punk & A.J. Lee as the stars of The Wrestling Dead?
(9:30) Kickstarting Kickstarter
(11:20) Brandon’s TV background
(13:38) Has Brandon ever thought about joining a wrestling creative team?
(15:05) Who does Brandon see as the top wrestler of 2016 so far?
### COMMERCIAL BREAK ###
(22:00) How long would the Victims & Villians screenplay be?
(24:50) Find Brandon on Kickstarter
(26:10) Final Raw segment
(27:10) Brandon needs another $16,500 to pull off his Kickstarter.
(28:30) Support Brandon’s Kickstarter
### COMMERCIAL BREAK ###
(31:00) Nova intro / Damien Sandow
(34:55) Does Nova think more wrestlers will be released by WWE?
(37:20) What’s the most interesting part about Titan Towers?
(41:00) Simon Dean angles shot down
### COMMERCIAL BREAK ###
(48:46) How often was the ECW ring canvas replaced?
(49:00) Does WWE have an aversion to bringing back someone like Adam Rose because of his personal situation?
(53:05) Who was Nova’s easiest wrestler to deal with and hardest wrestler to deal with as an agent?
(56:00) What hours do the Titan Towers cafeteria have?
(57:57) What is Nova’s thoughts on WWE developmental today?
(59:49) If Nova could pick a female to be in the bWo who would it be?
(1:02:05) Find Nova on Facebook as Mike Bucci
SHOW HIGHLIGHTS
(4:10) Brandon wrote a short film called “The Wrestling Dead,” which is about a small group of indy wrestlers who stop at a friend’s house to crash while on the road. The friend is having a Halloween party so the gang is forced to wear their wrestling gear. A zombie outbreak occurs and the wrestlers get stuck in it all. A short wrestling film by a wrestling fan. He’s a fourth generation wrestling fan.
(6:06) He has a Kickstarter for Victims & Villains – which is the next evolution of superhero movies. It’s about a city swarmed with super villains. Each story that takes place is about one of the victims who has been victimized by the super villains. One of the main super villains in it was visually based off C.M. Punk.
(8:18) Brandon asks who better to star in The Wrestling Dead than C.M. Punk & A.J. Lee? Right now the film runs about thirty minutes in length. He’s not against turning it into a feature length film.
(9:30) Brandon had trouble getting the Kickstarter off the ground. He was banking on Kickstarter to put him as a “favorite,” but it didn’t happen. He’s currently looking for comic book artists and is willing to pay professional pay rates.
(11:20) Brandon has a background in TV: he did an episode of Beyond Geek, which was about pro wrestling – Supreme Pro Wrestling out of Sacramento, Calif. He gives independent wrestling an honest look for it.
(13:38) Has Brandon ever thought about joining a wrestling creative team? Yes, absolutely. He’s primarily a writer. Something like that would be a dream come true for him. He’s got that built in passion and knowledge so he thinks he’ll be really good at it. In high school he almost trained to be a wrestler, but was too skinny.
(15:05) Who does Brandon see as the top wrestler of 2016 so far? Someone from Lucha Underground, maybe Brian Cage? Pat says you could definitely make a case for A.J. Styles.
### COMMERCIAL BREAK ###
(22:00) How long would the Victims & Villians screenplay be? About a 100 pages, which is a good length for a feature film. He had some artists originally set up, but they flaked on them four times, and then he was scammed by an “art school.”
(24:50) To find Brandon on Kickstarter, just search for Victims & Villans and it should pop up.
(26:10) Pat found the final segment on Raw to be a little disappointing since the Big Cass vs. Jericho match never went through.
(27:10) Brandon needs another $16,500 to pull off his Kickstarter. For a $1000 or more, they get to name a character in the comic or screenplay. You also get a special look at the first five pages of The Wrestling Dead.
(28:30) If you’re interested in seeing C.M. Punk and A.J. Lee star in “The Wrestling Dead,” tweet at them with the hashtag #WrestlingDead. He really wants to make that happen! Brandon signs off.
### COMMERCIAL BREAK ###
(31:00) Nova intro. He’s been in touch with Damien Sandow since he’s been released. How’s he been doing? Good, he doesn’t want to speak for him, but he’s sure he wants to get a public forum going. One thing for sure was Sandow was not caught off guard by this release: that’s how this business works. They’ve been talking about this already for about a year. When he wrestled Miz on Raw and lost with a clean finish, Nova knew it was all over for Sandow. It probably pissed some of the suits off that Sandow got over on his own, It’s nutty how WWE works because the company gave him nothing. The whole Mizdow thing to Nova was a rib on Sandow, but Sandow got the gimmick over. They were prepared for this for quite a while.
(34:55) Does Nova think more wrestlers will be released by WWE? Could be, Nova hates hypothesizing about this, because it seems pretty ghoulish to him. Guys in the locker room would be hoping that their phone wouldn’t ring. He would say if you were just sitting at catering being called to tapings to do nothing then you were already released.
(37:20) What’s the most interesting part about Titan Towers? Nova actually enjoyed some of his coworkers at Titan Towers than guys backstage. Titan Towers is a universe unto itself. It’s really just like any other job, but you harvest talent. Everyone’s on the same page. It’s unlike anything else in the real world.
(41:00) Has Nova taken any supplements? Not anymore, he’s wary of stuff like that. Just multi-vitamins and protein powder. Pat mentions deer antler, which Nova says is hot on the market right now. Nova could have literally taken NesQuik and marketed it for himself. If you ever buy whey protein and the first ingredient “whey concentrate,” that’s mostly sugar and carbohydrates. He actually tried pitching a workout regime for WWE when he was Simon Dean, but the McMahons shot it down – funny how Stephanie released workout videos later on. He also wanted to pitch a group called “The Church of Simonology,” which would be a parody on The Church of Scientology. A writer then shot that down because of the religious connotations, but a few months later McMahon did that whole angle where him and Shane fought God and Shawn Michaels.
### COMMERCIAL BREAK ###
(48:46) How often was the ECW ring canvas replaced? A lot. They rotated them out – they had to. Even in WWE they change it pretty often. You would usually have to take them to an outside car wash to clean them,
(49:00) Does WWE have an aversion to bringing back someone like Adam Rose because of his personal situation? If WWE feels that you’re not making money, they don’t need a reason. Social media is a double-edged sword, Rose had a right to state his case and it’s ridiculous tries to put a lid on it. Pat brings up Eugene and Eddie Guerrero as examples of people that came back because of the wellness policy, but after the domestic battery charge things might be different. At this point, Nova was unaware of the domestic charge and after hearing it he said that he thinks Rose is done. He was already on the plank but now the plank just got sawed off.
(53:05) Who was Nova’s easiest wrestler to deal with and hardest wrestler to deal with as an agent? Nova thinks that’s a great question – Paul Burchill was a joy, but Kofi Kingston is #1. An absolute professional and total pro. He wouldn’t say that there was someone particularly hard to deal with, but there would be some guys who just didn’t get it. There was one guy named Casey James, but he was a mysteriously weird figure who was hard to get a hold of. He said the guys that ran the developmental system were harder to deal with than the talents, and he’ll just leave it at that. They didn’t want to do what they’re supposed to do. Guys thought they were booking WrestleMania week in and week out, which wasn’t the case.
(56:00) What hours do the Titan Towers cafeteria have? Open all day, dude. Breakfast, lunch, whatever. He’d have lunch with Howard Finkel. Did Nova time his workout so he’d be there with Vince. Yeah, he’d work out with him. There was no shame in his game, and there was no stopping him. He remembers one time in Titan Towers, Nova brought his wife in and Vince was super nice to them. He had no issues with the McMahons, they were cool to him, and it’s a great company to work for when everything’s clicking. He just had issues with guys that worked with him. Johnny Ace was cool, too.
(57:57) What is Nova’s thoughts on WWE developmental today? All he knows is this: every single guy in the developmental system thinks they are going to be a star, which is certainly not the case. He’s not a baseball guy, but he knows how the system works: if you have a Triple-A squad, one or two of them will see the light of day while the other 20 are for trading and the other 20 are just there to help get that talent over. The odds of getting over are minute. He says Sandow will make more money in the indys than he ever will when he was in WWE.
(59:49) If Nova could pick a female to be in the BWO who would it be? From the ECW era it would be Jazz, but if it was today then it would obviously be Blue Pants. This’ll be the 20th anniversary of the bWo in November. He’ll be doing something with Stevie in June. Meanie is the most busiest as a wrestler, while Stevie’s busy with DDP Yoga and Nova is busy at running a bank. There’s been talk of doing a BWO documentary. Meanie handles all of the bWo merchandise and pro wrestling.
(1:02:05) Find Nova on Facebook as Mike Bucci.
SCORE & REVIEW
9.5: My goodness, as this show progressed, it just got better and better. Brandon Conejo was an interesting (yet clunky) listen for the first half of the show, but once Nova took the reigns, the entertainment just poured outta this puppy. Not only did we get clued in on Damien Sandow’s current situation, but it we got insight on what it’s like to be a road agent from Nova’s perspective. You pair that up with his unintentionally hilarious asides to his daughter throughout the interview and you have yourself a must-listen episode. Questions such as Kylin’s really added to the fire of this one, too.
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