Edge & Christian’s Pod of Awesomeness Recap
Episode 7 with Guest, Daniel Cormier
By: Jeff Indelicato
DIRECT LINK TO LISTEN/DOWNLOAD
“For The Benefit of Those with No Time” (Top Stories)
- A new Contest is announced with E & C asking their listeners to come up with a creative name for the fanbase. The winner will be a guest on May 26th.
- Cormier was in attendance at Payback, and thought Strowman/Reigns was the best match.
- Daniel was encouraged by Kurt Angle to continue his amateur career, and move on to professional wrestling afterwards.
- Cormier transitioned to Light Heavyweight after he was told by Dana White that he would have to fight his friend and trainee, Cain Velasquez.
“5 Second Pose of Timestamps”
0:00: Show Introduction & Discussion on Celebrities
37:00: Beginning of Daniel Cormier Interview
52:00: Talk of Cormier’s career and original wrestling aspirations
56:00: How difficult is it to drop weight/Why did he change to Light Heavyweight
1:12:00: Talk about The Undertaker & Roman Reigns
1:16:00: Does Cormier ever get nervous?
1:22:00: Discussion of loss to Jon Jones
1:29:00: Thanks and Close
“You Think You Know Them” (Recap)
Opening Intros 0:00-37:00
The boys open the show discussing their guest this week, UFC Light Heavyweight Champ, Daniel Cormier, which is Christian’s get. Along with the interview, they’ll also discuss WWE Payback. Edge has initial trouble remembering what the name of the last pay-per-view was, because of all the name changes that the shows go through. This leads perfectly into a quick chat about the recent news that WWE will have a new PPV titled Great Balls of Fire. Edge thinks that this is an odd name for a show. Christian notes that at the very least, it sticks in your memory. Edge is not a huge fan, but it makes him chuckle.
Christian moves on and talks about how he recently saw the Red Hot Chili Peppers in concert for the first time live. He reminisces about when he met producer Rick Rubin & singer Anthony Kiedis backstage at SummerSlam a few years ago. During that conversation, Kiedis mentioned to Christian that he had just seen The Rolling Stones in that arena a few days prior, and the WWE blew them out of the water. Edge thinks back to WrestleMania 21 during the Money in the Bank ladder match. As he was climbing the ladder to get the briefcase, he looked down and saw Kiedis and Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan cheering. It took him out of the match for a second, and ended up having a “whoa” moment as he was a giant fan of the stars. After the match, he got to meet both of them backstage, and the rockers couldn’t get over how Edge was still walking after the match, and just couldn’t believe how wrestlers do the things they do in the ring. This story then makes Christian rethink his professionalism during that same match, and now wonders if he should have went into business for himself, and pushed Edge off the ladder, and stole the briefcase.
The Kiedis memories lead to more discussions on meeting celebrities. Christian shares a story of when he ran into the legendary singer Phil Collins backstage. He serenades Edge with the classic Collins hit “Sussudio.” When they met, Collins asked Christian how he was and requested a photo with his son. Captain Charisma was shell-shocked that Phil even knew who he was. It further blew him away when Phil said, “This is so crazy to me, you guys are real people.” Christian responded with, “You know you’re Phil Collins right?” Edge believes that the ones who are super successful are down to earth and real. He’s been very fortunate to meet great people, like the Foo Fighters & Mr. Perfect.
One time he was backstage at a Foos concert and ended up eating an entire box of donuts that were given to the band by Jack White. Christian closes out the celebrity love by talking about how when he was young, he jumped into Crush’s (Brian Adams) car to tell him how big a fan he was of him and Demolition. Crush was totally cool the entire time and was such a good guy. Years later, after Christian had been in the business, they ran into each other, and Crush noted how he remembered that funny experience.
The boys announce their next Contest. They would like the fans to create a name for the E & C Fanbase. It can be funny, obscure, or random. The winner will be a guest on the show May 26th.
Interview with Daniel Cormier 37:00-1:29:00
Before moving to the interview, Christian mentions how he wishes Daniel would’ve choked out Edge. The Rated R Superstar responds by threats of wanting to rip his throat out, and wouldn’t need someone to do his dirty work for him. Christian explains his reasoning was because he wouldn’t want to soil his hands with touching Edge.
The boys welcome their guest to the show and mention that he is a super WWE fan. In fact, he was even in attendance at this past week’s Payback show. What was the PPV experience like? Cormier says that he has been watching his entire life and that the company always takes care of him when he wants to go to a show. He brought his family along, and talked about how his 6-year-old son gets heavily invested, and was very disappointed when Randy Orton lost to Bray Wyatt. This leads to a discussion about the House of Horrors match. Daniel believes that it was probably more appreciated on TV then it was live in the building. Edge feels that when you attend a live show, you pay to see live wrestling and not on a screen. Cormier thought the match was well shot, with nice visuals and good action, but the crowd was booing it. He thinks that following the Women’s Championship match, where hometown favorite Bayley lost, contributed to the negative reaction. (I respect his thoughts, but in my opinion, that match had an uphill battle as soon as it was announced, and Bayley losing was not the cause for an upset crowd). Edge comments about how it was pitch black when the match started, yet there was still daylight in San Jose at the time. In his opinion, it was a good idea in concept, but in addition to the daylight mistake there were other errors, which included being bothered by the cameraman’s shadow, and the whole refrigerator being toppled on Orton.
Talk moves on to Braun Strowman. Edge compliments Braun on how good his footwork is, and how it’s rare for someone his size to have that center. In his opinion, not since The Undertaker or Kane has someone had footwork that was that good. Cormier brings up how much he’s improved in the last year, and how far he’s come since debuting with The Wyatt Family.
Edge tells the listeners that Daniel used to be a very successful amateur wrestler. Did he ever want to transition to professional wrestling? Cormier tells a story of how he was interested and met Kurt Angle backstage at a live event. During the discussion, Angle encouraged him to finish his amateur wrestling career and try to make it in the Olympics, as he was still young and had a long future in front of him. He advised Daniel to wait until he was 29. Cormier finished his amateur career, and by the time he turned 29, he began fighting and took another path. He realized that he was getting higher in age, but was encouraged to try fighting. In his opinion, the energy in the fighting arena is unmatched, and he was immediately hooked. He mentioned that even though he was older, he didn’t have the wear and tear like the fighters who begin their career early, and is not as beat up by comparison.
The tag team specialists note that while Cormier originally began as a Heavyweight, he now fights in the Light Heavyweight Division. Understanding that, how difficult is it to make or drop weight? Daniel admits that it’s very tough, as his normal weight was usually about 240 pounds, and therefore he can sometimes have to lose around 40 pounds for a fight. In order to not have to lose so much, he is trying to be more active, and change up his training. He talks about why he ended up switching divisions. As many UFC fans know, Cormier was trained by Cain Velasquez. Because of how good Cain was to Daniel, he made a promise to himself that if the time came, he wouldn’t fight his friend, as he knows that he couldn’t have gotten there without Cain. Fast forward a while later, and they were the top two heavyweights in the industry. Dana White told Daniel that based on their standings, they’d either have to fight each other or go to another division, which was the decision that Cormier chose. He admits that he has been tested more against light heavyweight opponents because they are leaner and quicker.
Edge compliments Daniel on his character and notes how he likes the boys who do their talking in the ring. Cormier admits that some fans have kind of turned on him, and compares himself to Roman Reigns & John Cena. He’s a good guy who works hard, and when he’s done, just wants to be with his kids. Edge reiterates that he likes the family guy who works hard. Christian adds that as long as they are invested in you, it’s succeeding, and you just have to roll with it.
Moving back into the wrestling talk, how did Daniel feel about this possibly being The Undertaker’s last match? He was actually happy that Reigns went over because that is the time-honored tradition in the history of the business. When you go out, you leave by putting the younger guy over. He loved the Roman Reigns promo and reaction the night after Mania.
Since he was in attendance, what was his favorite match at Payback? While he enjoyed The Hardys and is impressed with Alexa Bliss, he has to give it to the Strowman/Reigns match. He gave props to the selling of the competitors and liked how Reigns looked like he was really getting beat up. Edge notes how it’s difficult to get sympathy for a guy like Reign, as he’s so big and commands the ring. Cormier agrees and believes that he doesn’t need to win against a guy like Strowman. Edge furthers the point by saying that there’s nothing to get behind when a guy always wins. He feels that this might be the thing that finally gets Roman sympathy, but it also may be too late.
Daniel is asked if he gets nervous fighting, or watching others compete. He admits that he gets competitive nerves before a fight, but when he arrives, remains calm. On the opposite end of the spectrum, he gets super nervous when his teammates fight because they are on their own, and he can’t help them.
His loss to Jon Jones is brought up, and how losing can sometimes derail your career. In Cormier’s case, the loss almost made him better. The story goes that after the fight, Daniel was demoralized. People would encourage him with positivity, but he needed to hurt, so he would watch his loss over and over, and let it eat him alive. He admits that it was probably not the healthiest thing to do to himself, but when you experience that, you never want to go through it again. He states that Jon Jones is his white whale, and is looking forward to fighting him again. E & C thank him again for being a guest and welcome him on anytime.
Close 1:29:00-1:35:33
E & C thank Daniel again, and Edge briefly talks about the Headlock on Hunger charity that he and Beth Phoenix have supported. They wrap up the show by encouraging everyone to follow the show on Twitter @EandCPod, E-Mail them at ecpodofawesomeness@gmail.com, and to call their Voicemail at 929-367-8204.
Jeff’s Take: 6.5 Kazoos out of 10
An alright episode this week. While it is nice to break it up, and have different guests, I wasn’t all the way invested with the interview. One small thing was that Cormier did his interview over the phone. While I know that this can’t happen all the time, I always feel that in-person interviews provide a little more substance. There were still some good pieces on the show, and I was intrigued by the celebrity discussions. Feel free to follow me on Twitter @the_Indel or send me an email at indelpw@gmail.com. See you next week!
About the Author
Jeff has been a fan of professional wrestling since he was knee high to a grasshopper (little kid), after coming across the Wrestling Challenge episode after WrestleMania 7, and has not looked back. His passion has led him to win wrestling trivia contests in his city and even won him his Senior Talent Show by dancing to Shawn Michaels theme song. When not annoying others with wrestling talk, he loves spending time with his family and friends and focuses on his other passion: movies.
If you missed it, check out last week’s recap of Edge and Christian Pod of Awesomeness with The Young Bucks.
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