The Art of Wrestling with Colt Cabana
Release Date: July 27 2017
Guest: Edinburgh preview with Marty DeRosa
Recap by: Josh Coulson
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Newsworthy items
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- This week’s show did not feature a guest per se and was a preview show for Colt’s upcoming trip to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. He was joined by Marty DeRosa however.
- Stan Lane of The Fabulous Ones referred to groupies as ‘gropies’ because of how they would grab him as he walked past.
- While the original GLOW was ground breaking for women’s wrestling, the sketches in the show were often derogatory towards other stereotypes.
- There was once a wrestling angle that involved the loser having to be painted black.
- Jerry Lawler never used to work out yet always looked the part.
- Robocop once rescued Sting from The Four Horseman.
Subjects covered (with timestamps)
0:00- Start of show
5:46- Clips begin
11:35- Bonnie Blackstone
20:04- Sponsors/ads
21:36- GLOW
25:32- Racism and Funk’s debut
32:31- Lawler, Robocop, and thumb wrestling
43:38- Sponsor/ads
44:18- Close of show
Show highlights/rundown
Colt opens the show in the usual way by revealing that he’s back at his studio apartment and gets in some plugs and sponsors. He then talks about him and Brendan Burns going to the upcoming Edinburgh Festival and that this show will be part one of a two part preview show.
Alongside Colt for the preview is regular Art Of Wrestling guest Marty DeRosa. The two of them begin discussing their live show, $5 Wrestling. They talk about how they began doing it during WrestleMania week before every wrestling company under the sun would hold shows during that week.
Colt recalls being reluctant to go back when invited to do the show at WrestleMania in New Orleans due to there being so much competition.
Colt reveals they will also be doing the shows in America. This episode of Art Of Wrestling will feature clips that they’ll use for the live show with Colt and Marty discussing them in a way that they would live on stage.
The Fabulous Ones
Colt introduces the first clip as someone who was previously not a wrestling fan becoming a wrestling fan. The clip features Sally Jesse Raphael talking to The Fabulous Ones.
Following the clip, Colt and Marty get into how impressive that is for the time and try to think of other times when wrestlers may have appeared on talk shows.
Marty tells a story about how he loves to show clips of The Fabulous Ones to newer wrestling fans to give them an idea of what pro wrestlers were like back then, and that they had to be larger than life.
The clip then continues with The Fabulous Ones taking off their jackets and Sally commenting on how much they must have to diet and exercise. They respond that they’re trying to appeal to women so they have to stay in shape.
Back to Marty and Colt who reveal that teams like The Fabulous Ones were known as b**w job teams because they would pull in female wrestling fans, and that would have a knock on effect and pull in even more male fans.
The next part of the clip has Stan Lane telling Sally they would call groupies ‘gropies’ because they would grab their faces and crotches as they went past.
Boni Blackstone
Colt then recalls watching Global Wrestling Federation on ESPN as a child and describes Boni Blackstone as the Renee Young of that company. You could send in letters to Boni and Colt asks Marty if he would like to hear letters that were statements or letters that were questions. Marty goes for statements, which means he has to elaborate on them in the voice of the person who sent them.
The first statement comments on all foreign objects being outlawed in wrestling and is from a gentleman in Alabama. Marty adopts the persona and says that he doesn’t want brass knuckles and whips being used and pretends to get professional wrestling confused with apartment wrestling.
The next statement complains about rules being broken like people ganging up on one wrestler while referees become very easily distracted. Marty takes on the form of a Floridian for this one and says that when he watches wrestling he wishes officials would just pay attention to what’s going on in-ring as opposed to getting so easily distracted. Marty says that if he was a referee Ric Flair would have probably only won the world title once.
The third clip comments on Arn Anderson being a traitor and having a turncoat attitude. Marty has to pretend to be a woman named Julia this time and says that Anderson will get nowhere in this business because he doesn’t have the look and only cares about belts.
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Marty and Colt then return to talk a little more about GWF, discussing how they used to openly talk trash about other wrestling promotions and challenge their champions to matches.
GLOW
The discussion then shifts to the recent popularity of GLOW. Marty managed to watch every episode of the new Netflix series in one sitting and was disappointed not to see Colt in the show.
Cabana then reveals to Marty and the listeners that he has put together some sketches that used to appear on the original GLOW during the 1980s and is going to play them. He says he doesn’t remember the sketches but Marty does.
The first clip features one woman mocking another for being built like a man and is quickly followed by another that contains a terrorist joke, saying that one wrestler takes hostage on planes. Colt and Marty say that they could have said anything back then and because they were naïve kids they wouldn’t have known what they were talking about anyway.
The next sketch is a joke about the owner of GLOW with a female performer making fun of him because he’s Jewish and rarely opens his wallet.
The next clip features a larger, older woman who looks out of place next to the other performers. She’s speaking to a man who says that one of the women can come to his BBQ to keep the flies away from the food. They both say that if it wasn’t for the canned laughter they wouldn’t have known it was supposed to be funny.
Racism and Terry Funk’s debut
The topic and the clips then move on to the subject of racism in professional wrestling. The clip features two men arguing over the stipulations of a match. If one man wins he gets to paint his opponent black.
Colt and Marty describe it as being reverse black face, as it’s a black man who wants to paint a white man black to teach him some sort of weird lesson. They say that it’s something he would probably want to do anyway because he’s likely a racist.
Marty then points out the weird noise Larry Nelson makes during the clip and mock him in a variety of ways.
Colt then reveals that he has unearthed a clip of Terry Funk’s debut in WWE. It features Funk riding a horse and he talks about how big different WWE Superstars’ arms are before saying that it doesn’t matter because he has a bigger heart than any of them.
Colt and Marty joke about how Terry was blatantly using the extra large gimmick as a sexual innuendo, as he kept saying extra large for a while before revealing he was talking about his heart.
The clip ends with Funk getting really wound up and repeatedly saying that he’s hot. Marty talks about how weird that is because Terry means that he’s angry, but to most people that isn’t what hot means.
Lawler, Robocop and thumb wrestling
Next up is a music video featuring Jerry Lawler that feels like a mish-mash of everything that was popular at the time. Lawler’s voice has been dubbed over an awful lot of times as correctly pointed out by Cabana.
Colt and Marty talk us through this one as it’s playing and how he truly was the King at the time. Colt says that his songs have been song of the week on Art Of Wrestling a few times, and that he was desperate to be a singer.
Marty says that Lawler without facial hair looks like a grown up version of a little chubby kid.
Colt reveals that he was told Lawler never used to work out, but somehow always looked like a wrestler.
The next clip features the time that Robocop appeared on a pay-per-view. The likes of Ric Flair, Lex Luger and Sting are also on the card, with Robocop teaming with The Icon.
The clip is advertising the event on cassette, and Colt and Marty talk about how expensive tapes were back then.
The two of them wonder whether anyone bought the PPV who wasn’t a wrestling fan but they wanted to see Robocop. They agree that it would work with real people, like Floyd Mayweather, but not with characters from movies.
The final clip is an advert, voiced by Vince McMahon, for thumb wrestlers. Toy wrestlers that kids control using their thumbs. The ad features Iron Sheik playing a school principal yet he was still shirtless and wearing jean shorts. Colt jokes that’s where he would hide his cocaine during matches.
Marty talks about how looking back, thumb wrestlers were such a weird idea. He remembers having them but never really used them.
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Colt and Marty then bring the curtain down on the show and remind listeners that what they just heard is a part of what they can hear Colt do live in Edinburgh and at some shows in the United States. They also get some plugs in before the show ends.
Review (7/10)
This week’s Art Of Wrestling was a step away from what you’ll be used to from Colt, but is a must listen for anyone who is a fan of the business. How Cabana managed to find some of the clips that are featured I have no idea, but I’m very grateful that he did. At points during the podcast I was genuinely laughing out loud as Colt and Marty’s analysis of some of the clips is hilarious. The show is light-hearted but also eye opening as to how weird and inappropriate professional wrestling can be sometimes.
About the writer
Josh Coulson is a journalism graduate from Bristol, England. He has been a pro wrestling fan since the age of 10 and truly fell in love with the business during the build to WrestleMania X-Seven, citing the rivalry between Austin and The Rock as what really got him hooked. Other than wrestling he is a keen soccer fan and a long suffering supporter of his local team Bristol City. You can find him @BristolBeadz on Twitter.
If you missed it, check out The Art of Wrestling #360 with Keith Lee.
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