The Art of Wrestling with Colt Cabana
Episode 316 – Cleveland Live
Release Date: September 1, 2016
DIRECT LINK TO LISTEN/DOWNLOAD
Report by Chris Davidson
Hot Topics
– The Art of Wrestling Live features Billy Gunn, Johnny Gargano, Little Guido, Hornswoggle, Dan Severn, and Gregory Iron.
– Colt Cabana honors the late J.T. Lightning at the J.T. Lightning Invitational Tournament.
TIMESTAMPS
0:00 – Introduction
6:52 – First Guest: Billy Gunn
19:58 – Second Guest: Johnny Gargan
31:45 – Third and Fourth Guests: Hornswoggle and Dan Severn
56:34 – Fifth Guest: Gregory Iron
1:05:06 – Colt wraps up the show
EPISODE SUMMARY
0:00 – Introduction – Colt opened the show announcing that this is the final live episode for the time being, and he plugged AIW, where the podcast was taped. Colt warned that this was slightly less organized than other live episodes because guests kept going on stage whenever they wanted. Colt kicked it to the live recording at Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Lakewood, Ohio. Colt invited Dave the Potato to the stage to fulfill Potato’s bucket list item of being on the podcast. Potato briefly talked about his decision to be a referee and Colt invited Potato to be his “wingman” for the episode. Since they were at the J.T. Lightning Invitational, Potato said his fondest memory of J.T. was when he let Potato interview the first guest of the evening, Billy Gunn, for a high school project.
6:52 – First Guest: Billy Gunn – Billy Gunn came on the stage and reminisced about his interview with Dave the Potato. Gunn said that he thought the interview went well, but Potato didn’t like his questions. Colt had Potato tell him some of the questions he asked, which Colt then asked Billy Gunn. The first question was who Gunn’s scariest opponent was, to which he answered “the Headshrinkers,” and they discussed the Headshrinkers’s behavior. Gunn joked about the podcast being a waste of time and not putting Colt over. Gunn spotted a fan wearing a Sami Callihan shirt, and talked about working with Callihan
Gunn mentioned Hornswoggle, who came up to the stage, and how Hornswoggle didn’t have proper indy etiquette. Gunn said that when he told Hornswoggle he liked his appearance on another podcast, Hornswoggle “browbeat” him even though he didn’t have any “juice” to browbeat Gunn with. Hornswoggle said Gunn shouldn’t be talking about juice at all, drawing an extended laugh from the audience. Hornswoggle left the stage and Colt jokingly asked where that timing was during his time in WWE. Gunn told a brief story about Colt thinking they had heat, and Colt invited him to be on a regular episode. Gunn briefly summed up his career, calling himself a “WWE guy,” but said he struggles on the indys because he wants to coach everyone. Gunn plugged his social media and left the stage.
19:58 – Second Guest: Johnny Gargano – Johnny Gargano came out and talked about his blood feud with Dave the Potato, and joked they should make this episode the Potato podcast. Gargano credited J.T. Lightning for helping him get into wrestling and for putting him in the ring with great wrestlers. Colt discussed the types of matches he worked at the beginning of his career, and Gargano told a story wrestling Tracy Smothers in a six-man tag match. When Smothers was brought up, Little Guido came to the stage and made the fans give him a standing ovation. Guido said he didn’t know why Smothers was insane, but called him one of the best men to learn from. Gargano’s takeaway from his match with Smothers was that Smothers couldn’t tell Gargano’s partners apart because they were wearing masks, and he kept calling for a 619, until he eventually beat up Gargano’s partners. Guido joked with Gargano about NXT and said that people can watch Gargano on the WWE Network, or they can watch Guido since his stuff is on the Network too. Gargano told a story about getting Mick Foley’s autograph and asking Foley a dumb question. Gargano said that the question he gets the most often from fans is “how’s NXT?” Gargano answers that it’s good and that’s the end of the conversation. Gargano plugged NXT, the WWE Network, and his Twitter. Gargano left the stage, leaving Guido to be Colt’s sidekick.
31:45 – Third and Fourth Guests: Hornswoggle and Dan Severn – Hornswoggle took a while to get on stage, which he blamed on his little legs. Hornswoggle mentioned the numerous AIW stars who were on Smackdown in 2008, and Guido talked about his only WWE main event with a lot of the same guys now in AIW. Hornswoggle said he once main-evented Raw in a cage match against Vince McMahon to write him off until WrestleMania 24. Colt said he wanted to be in a cage match when he started wrestling because of King Kong Bundy wrestling in a cage at WrestleMania II. They briefly talked about the Punjabi Prison match before segueing into Hornswoggle debut on the indys. Hornswoggle said he felt fat getting back in the ring, and he was told he needed to lose some weight on a recent radio appearance.
Guido left the stage and Colt cut to a quick ad before Dan Severn joined them on stage. After they joked around for a bit, Hornswoggle asked Severn how he grew his mustache. Severn said he’s lucky to have any hair, then asked for any fan questions, flustering Colt. Colt said the phrase “little people” and Hornswoggle was adamant that they should say “midget.” Turning attention back to Hornswoggle, Colt asked about the wrestling promotion Hornswoggle runs in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Hornswoggle ran the promotion during his WWE tenure, because he never used his gimmick name, and everything was promoted under his real name, Dylan Postl. Severn discussed his old contract with WWF where he was not exclusive and wrestled wherever he wanted. Severn said he could have wrestled in WCW or ECW, but did not want to upset WWF management.
Colt told a story where his friend, Marty DeRosa, met Severn at a strip club urinal, and Severn ended up going to his car and showing DeRosa his UFC and NWA titles. Severn did not remember the encounter but discussed the belts, one of which was given to him by Lou Thesz. Colt asked if Severn knew anything weird about Thesz, and that if Severn ever thinks of anything to contact Colt. Colt asked Hornswoggle about weird fan interactions, specifically from fetishists. Hornswoggle said he had never received any weird interactions because of his size. Hornswoggle told a story about messing with Big E. Langston until Langston made him fall on his laptop, breaking it. Hornswoggle said he was known as a bully in the locker room. Severn said he’d never gotten into an actual fight, but he has recently had drunk fans try to challenge him to fights and has had to come up with a creative way to deflect them. Hornswoggle plugged his social media and left the stage. Severn told Colt that he’s glad the internet didn’t exist when he was growing up because he had some indiscretions in his past, plugged his website, and left the stage.
56:34 – Fifth Guest: Gregory Iron – Gregory Iron came to the stage. Colt brought up Iron’s previous appearance on the podcast, and Iron credited it for getting him a lot of bookings. Iron said that recently, he’s been getting more and more bookings as a heel, which is completely different from when he was the “handicapped hero”. Iron talked about getting heat by demanding a four count and kicking out after three. Iron went into his work with Zach Gowen, raising awareness for people with disabilities. Colt asked if Iron had any memories of JT Lightning. Iron recalled a time when J.T. worked with him individually for a long time to make sure he knew how to do the basics in the ring. Iron’s last memory of JT was getting a Facebook message complimenting him on a previous match. Iron plugged his social media and a viral post of a dog with ham on his face before exiting the stage.
1:05:06 – Colt wraps up the show – Colt thanked the show’s sponsor, all of his guests and then cut to the studio to plug his upcoming events. Colt thanked his fans, his tech help and sponsors and ended the show back at the live show.
OVERALL SCORE/REVIEW
Score: 8.8 – There was a lot of great things in this live episode, even if it didn’t quite hit the highs of last week’s episode. All of the guests were fantastic, and the chaotic nature of the episode with guests popping up on stage when they heard something of interest to them was enjoyable. The interjections did seem to through Colt off at first, but he eventually found his groove. This episode had a broad spectrum of different types of wrestlers that, while they weren’t all huge names, helped create a little more diversity in their stories. This was a final stellar episode of the Art of Wrestling, and a great live episode to end with before interviews return next week.
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