Sam Roberts Wrestling Podcast
Release Date: June 1, 2017
Guest: Marty Scurll
Recap by: Matthew Wilkinson
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Newsworthy Items
- Sam believes the Bullet Club is the biggest non-WWE entity in wrestling, in terms of being cool.
- Sam will be on the Extreme Rules Kick-Off panel.
- Marty Scurll wants to help ROH get a television deal.
- Marty Scurll was not upset to be left out of the WWE UK Tournament.
- Sam believes 205 Live and the Cruiserweights are presented as bonus content.
- Sam didn’t enjoy the This Is Your Life segment.
- Sam thinks that James Ellsworth should win the Smackdown women’s Money in the Bank.
Subjects Covered (with timestamps)
00:00 – Sponsor Ads
01:19 – Show Introduction
09:35 – Marty Scurll Interview
18:00 – Discussing the UK scene
26:30 – Marty Scurll’s early character
43:00 – The WWE United Kingdom Championship
1:03:10 – End of Marty Scurll Interview
1:05:03 – Sponsor Ads
1:08:13 – State of Wrestling
1:14:30 – Raw recap
1:42:40 – Smackdown recap
1:53:20 – Show wrap up/Sponsor Ads
Show Highlights/ Rundown
Sam opens the show wishing everyone a happy Memorial Day and says that he had lots of fun. He mentions that fun times are coming soon for WWE fans with SummerSlam around the corner, admitting that the months of April and May tend to be the worst of the year after WrestleMania.
Sam says he is looking forward to breaking down this week’s Raw later on in the podcast, admitting that he thought it had a wide-range in quality of segments.
On today’s show, Sam will be talking to the newest Bullet Club member, Marty Scurll, who he believes is someone that fans should keep their eyes on. He briefly discussed the history of the Bullet Club members and stated that the way Scurll joined the faction was a great live moment.
Sam then discussed the importance of Marty Scurll’s ‘Villain’ character and the fact that everybody knows who he is.
Marty Scurll Interview
Sam starts off the interview claiming that Marty was a highly requested guest and both men began discussing how some people struggle saying Scurll, confusing it with other names such as Skull or Scrull.
Marty then talks about how for most of his career there haven’t been many opportunities for UK wrestlers to wrestle in America, but the amount of American wrestlers competing in Europe helped get his name out with “the boys.”
He then stated how a match between himself and Will Ospreay went, in Marty’s words, “kind of viral” and he gave credit to PWG for being the first American company to take a chance on him.
Sam followed on from that by saying he thinks there are a fair number of guys that PWG has given their break. Marty admitted he is loyal to PWG and even though he has an exclusive American contract with ROH, he has it in his contract that PWG is the exception due to his loyalty to them.
Sam told Marty that he was “ballsy” for making that decision considering the size of the two companies, but Scurll admitted he wasn’t the first guy to get it, with the Young Bucks having a similar situation.
Both men stated that they felt PWG had a ‘cool factor’ and had plenty of “buzz” about it. Marty enjoys it because it is all about what goes on inside the ropes.
They then moved onto the recent Kings of Leon tweet which disrespected a lot of people in the wrestling community.
Marty stated: “I did think it was slightly ignorant and given the fact he is an artist and he obviously has a passion, surely he should understand that other people have other passions.”
Discussing the UK scene
Sam revealed that he had grown up in England for a small time and this allowed them to discuss the UK independent scene. Marty reflected on how it used to thrive in the 1970’s to how it went to pretty much nothing and had to restart through talents like Doug Williams in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s.
Sam attended the SummerSlam event at Wembley Stadium and said that he thinks UK fans are so passionate because they don’t take for granted the fact they can’t see big shows live often.
Marty reflected on how a lot of his early memories watching live wrestling was witnessing people pretend to be WWE, with wrestlers dressed up as people like Kane and The Undertaker.
Growing up, Bret Hart was a big favorite of Marty Scurll’s as he thinks people like Hulk Hogan were perhaps too over-the-top for European audiences.
Later on, he was into people like The Rock and admitted that X-Pac was another idol as he looked up to him because he was smaller than other wrestlers which made him think he could wrestle.
Early Career Stages
The topic then changed to the early stages of Marty’s career and his run in TNA, when he wore bright tights and was known as ‘Party Marty.’ He admitted that he likes to tell people this was the plan all along as all good Villain’s start as good guys.
On a serious note; Marty stated that the real reasons for the change was the need to standout and a quote from The Simpsons creator, Matt Groening stating that, “all great characters could be recognized from their silhouette.”
Marty feels that to be a main event player you really need a character that fans can invest and be interested in, otherwise people are paying to see two people wrestle.
He admitted that one of his biggest accomplishments is when a child comes and says they are a fan of him because he wrestles to such an adult audience normally.
This then segues into the fact that Marty often gets cheered, but he claims he never said he was a heel, he is just The Villain. He believes to be a main event star you have to be likable in some way and asks whether Brock Lesnar is a heel or a face?
Sam then asked Marty about winning the Battle of Los Angeles. Marty feels like because he has had to struggle to get to the top it means even more to him when he accomplishes things, especially something like the Battle of Los Angeles.
Marty claimed he has always wanted to wrestle in Japan and now he finally ticks it off the box in the most spectacular fashion. He is glad it has taken him this long as he is more polished now.
Ring of Honor is another major accomplishment for Scurll. He says he always wanted a strong platform and ROH give him that as well as creative freedom. He feels that he can help the company as much as it helps him.
Before he came into ROH the second biggest market for the company was Canada and now that has changed to the UK.
UK Tournament
Sam asks Marty how he feels about being left out of the recent UK Tournament. Marty felt it was a great tournament but doesn’t think it would have been fitting for him.
Marty doesn’t want to be one of sixteen guys, which is a big reason he went to ROH/ to stand out by himself as they had no British guys on the roster.
Sam thinks Marty is laying his own path away from WWE that will gain interest in the future.
Sam also asks about Jack Gallagher using the umbrella like Marty does. He says he is going to keep adding props and when somebody does his things he stops doing them. That is one of the reasons he uses the Chicken Wing as his finisher as other people aren’t likely to use it.
Marty talks about GIFs and how his are never about crazy moves but his brilliant entrances of faces that he pulls. He thinks it is a positive thing as he moves with the times and tries to be ahead of it.
He believes he has made things cool, with the Chicken Wing being an example, as people laughed at him when he first started doing it. Yet now, it’s incredibly over. He accepts that some things don’t work but you have to take risks in wrestling.
Sam then asks Marty if he has long-term goals or plans. While Marty has aims that he wants to accomplish, one of which is getting ROH on a big television station, he doesn’t have a set timeline for them.
He would like to have an impact on someone the way in which Bret Hart and X-Pac did to him. He said that he would also like to bring C.M. Punk out of retirement to bring an end to the interview and teases that he has big things planned for the ROH show (where he joined the Bullet Club) as a tease to end the chat.
End of Interview/Big Announcement
Sam reflects on the interview and Marty in general and says he has something and believes he is larger than life by the way he presents himself.
Sam then announces his big news, which is that he will be on the Extreme Rules Kick-Off panel this weekend which he enjoys and says it’s a dream come true.
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State of Wrestling
Sam starts off the State of Wrestling by discussing the #DIY breakup, which he thought was done really well in terms of storytelling. He thinks it shows how strong the WWE thought about the angle that they got to close the show.
He thinks that they can get away with long-term booking because it is pre-taped as they have a captive dedicated audience, which he doesn’t believe the main roster can get away with.
RAW Recap
Sam begins talking about the Dean Ambrose and Miz feud. He believes the only thing keeping it interesting is the stipulation (which is a very fair comment) after we have seen the match so many times.
He feels the same about the cage match stipulation for the tag team match and believes that the way they left things on Raw could see a title change at Extreme Rules. But ultimately, he thinks they will retain.
Sam says he likes having Sasha Banks involved with 205 Live as it puts the spotlight on them, but he thinks it looks more like she has stepped away from the main roster, which is a problem. He believes Noam Dar has a lot to offer and doesn’t think people are interested when the purple ropes come out. While he doesn’t believe it’s the wrestler’s fault, he doesn’t think they are presented well.
Sam thought that the two matches involving the five men who will main event Extreme Rules were very good, with the Seth Rollins vs Roman Reigns match blowing him away. He predicted that Seth Rollins will win on Sunday.
Sam goes back to his 205 Live thoughts and thinks that Kalisto should be the bridge between the main roster and that division, he also thinks Enzo would be another beneficial person to help the roster.
Speaking about Enzo, Sam says him being jumped was another positive thing and the fact that Raw has mysteries gives people a reason to come back to find out who did it. Just like the Kurt Angle/Corey Graves storyline.
Sam doesn’t want Graves as the person who jumped Enzo as he cannot wrestle and he wants a payoff to the story, but he finds them both compelling stories.
Sam then moved onto the This Is Your Life segment, which he believes was not fun to watch and says he felt bad for both Bayley and Alexa Bliss. He felt that Bayley should have come out with weapons and should have been looking to hurt Alexa Bliss (which I fully agree with) as Sam felt that it proved Bayley couldn’t get extreme.
He had props for both ladies and believes fans would be more excited if the segment had been three to five minute pre-tapes where Alexa Bliss visited people such as her teacher at the school, rather than a live segment.
Smackdown Recap
Moving onto the blue brand, Sam felt that the show was good. He feels that the Fashion Files should be kept as pre-tapes and not putting them into matches with costumes but admitted he is willing to give it a few weeks.
He felt the big news coming out of Smackdown was the Women’s Money In The Bank announcement and stated if he would be making the decisions, James Ellsworth would win the match.
Sam thinks if they have a five star match and then James Ellsworth wins, people wont remember the winner, they will remember the match so historically it wouldn’t hurt things too much.
He thinks if Ellsworth wins the match, he will have all the women chasing after him as he can gift the title shot to any of them so they will be chasing after him and wanting him. This would see a reversal in the story as Carmella would then need to keep him happy, not the other way around.
Sam then wraps up the show by saying he is looking forward to Extreme Rules.
Rating- 7.5/10
That was a fun show that ran for nearly two hours, so it had plenty of content to keep fans engaged. It is always interesting listening to Sam talk to people outside WWE and Marty Scurll is certainly one of the biggest names available. He had some interesting thoughts on his character and development. To say this was the first time they had spoken to each other I thought the chemistry was great, it was just a shame that Sam didn’t get to speak to him after he joined Bullet Club as I think a lot of people wanted to hear about that from Marty’s point of view. Sam’s thoughts on Raw and Smackdown were both fair and honest, and overall it was a fun show.
About the writer
Matthew Wilkinson is from Bradford, England. He’s been a fan since the late ’90s with the Attitude Era and was then heavily invested again through the rise of C.M. Punk and Daniel Bryan.
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