TALK’N’ SHOP #63
HOSTS: ROCKY ROMERO, KARL ANDERSON, DOC GALLOWS
GUESTS: MVP (and a LOW-KI cameo)
DATE: SEPT. 19, 2015
DIRECT LINK TO STREAM OR DOWNLOAD EPISODE
LIST OF TOPICS COVERED (w/Time Stamps)
00:20 – Introductory plugs pre-recorded by Karl Anderson; intro by Rocky Romero
01:56 – Official start of the recording – banter with the hosts.
02:31 – Doc Gallows’ weekly Howard Finkel impression.
05:40 – Japan or China?
07:28 – What is MVP up to?; TNA; 2-Sweets; Facebook.
08:50 – Low-Ki phones in!; money in Japan
11:10 – Low-Ki wraps up; when MVP, Zack Ryder & Curt Hawkins first met Doc Gallows.
15:26 – How MVP got signed to the WWE; his training; Rocky Johnson.
18:18 – San Andreas; MVP’s run in Ring of Honor; his ties with Romero.
20:44 – Pro Wrestling Illustrated; his inspiration for the ‘MVP’ persona; Derrick Neikirk.
24:30 – Derrick Neikirk stories.
27:10 – How MVP became ‘MVP’; more sidetracked shenanigans; Rocky goes into business mode.
30:38 – Wrapping things up; MVP on Periscope; how there has to be a Part 2 to this podcast.
SUMMARY OF SHOW
– 01:56 – Cackling begins, and our hosts this week Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson introduce us to the podcast, and our producer Rocky Romero is in attendance this week! The trio hype up the setting whilst indulging in beers – this week’s podcast recorded in the Tokyo Hotel, Japan.
– 02:31 – A standard convention for the Talk’n Shop: Doc Gallows introduces the podcast with an impression of longtime WWF/E ring announcer Howard Finkel. A running gag of the segment is “Fink”‘s recurring rivalry with Anderson, insulting him as he goes on. The two trade barbs as per, whilst “Howard” shills the self-proclaimed ‘worst podcast ever’, introducing our panel for the week: the Hoots joined this week by former TNA star MVP: Montel Vontavious Porter. After several more insults from Gallows via Fink, Karl seriously introduces the show, but not before proclaiming Gallows a “sidekick”. At 5:25, we hear MVP’s voice for the first time laughing along.
– 05:30 – The panel addresses being together in Japan, and MVP kicks off by saying how his fans used to ask him how he liked working in China. “MVP, I saw those pictures you put up of those Chinese guys you’ve been wrestling!”, he recites in first-person. The four discuss the topic of mixing up Japan and China, with Karl talking about how his ex-girlfriend’s mother thought he wrestled in China. MVP mentions how he’s heard nothing good about working China, but Rocky disagreed – noting his Roppongi Vice partner Trent Barreta worked and enjoyed wrestling in China. Gallows then adds a story of his wife Amber (also known as “the Bullet Babe”) being drunk in a Japanese convenience shop and exclaiming how she couldn’t understand the “Chinese” writing on the products.
– 07:28 – Karl asks MVP what he’s up to lately, asking him if he’s still with TNA. “F— no”, he responded. Doc mentions he escaped from TNA a while ago, and that’s when Anderson chimes in again mentioning how MVP has been in every promotion where letters matter. Romero notes that they silently just 2-Sweet’d, which MVP said was a first for him. “I feel violated”, he joked. Sexual innuendos about their first ever 2-Sweet run wild. Anderson name-drops Bobby Fish refusing to 2-Sweet because “everybody’s doing it now”. MVP briefly mentions that he doesn’t use Facebook anymore. He tells of a Chris Rock quote: “there’s a new app which helps you find out which of your friends are racist: it’s called Facebook”.
– 08:50 – MVP attempts to elaborate when his phone rings, and he reveals that Low-Ki is calling him; their friendship from the Beat Down Clan in TNA earlier this year continuing. MVP puts Low-Ki on speaker-phone, but he it is hard to tell what he says. The hosts laugh, assuming Low-Ki wasn’t warm with his welcome to the podcast. MVP fills Low-Ki in on the setting; it’s 1am, they’re getting drunk and recording this podcast. He tells of how he feels drunk every time he steps foot off of the plane in Japan. Karl tells him he misses him, and MVP jokes to Ki about how Karl is happy that he’s finally making “Low-Ki Money”. “Just a little under!”, Karl denounced. He subtly notes the six-figures he’s making, then the panel discusses how Low-Ki was the top Gaijin until AJ Styles came into New Japan and took over.
– 11:10 – Karl tells MVP to tell Low-Ki to call back after the podcast, so they wrap up – but not before the hosts tell of how they want Low-Ki to come onto the Talk’n Shop at some point. Karl tries to ask MVP about why he was in jail when Doc chimes in that this isn’t a Shoot-cast. Gallows recalls ten years ago, he and MVP met for the first time in Georgia. MVP recalls too, entering a gym and seeing Doc’s face on the wall: back when he was known as the Freakin’ Deacon. Receding hairline, his hair balding badly: MVP said he thought it was cool that the WWE had given an old man a developmental deal! It turns out Deacon was nineteen years old. Talking about Deep South Wrestling, Doc remembers when Curt Hawkins and Zack Ryder came in, and they thought he was 1970s wrestler Bunkhouse Buck. Doc recalls Bill DeMott told him to take them out drinking and f— them up – which led to Gallows passing out on the bar and winding up with Hawkins and Ryder taking pictures of him.
– 15:13 – Karl asked MVP how he got signed to the WWE back in 2005; MVP telling his story of working down in south Florida under the name Antonio Banks. Porter reveals he was trained by a man called Primetime Darrell D, an independent wrestler that was trained by the Malenkos. However he elaborates that Darrell only started him – he went on to train at Duke “The Dumpster” Droese’s wrestling school in suburban Miami. This is when MVP talks being introduced to head trainer “Soulman” Alex G as ‘previously being in prison’, which led to Porter being trained to wrestle free of charge! MVP talks Rocky Johnson coming along to train; and how he used to take tips. “Give me the tip, I’ll give it to her!”, he’d say. They mention the irony that Rocky’s son is the ‘most famous wrestler on the planet’, which leads the conversation to the Rock.
– 18:18 – Karl Anderson says he recently watched The Rock’s film ‘San Andreas’, talking about how he was on the edge of his seat. MVP however says although he’s a fan of Rock as an actor, he only really liked him in ‘The Rundown’, one of his earlier films. On the topic of San Andreas, MVP pondered “what’s he gonna do? Punch the earthquake in the face?” Back to the topic of how MVP got signed, Rocky Romero remembers meeting Porter in 2004 when he started working in Ring of Honor. Porter remembers he used to tell Gabe Sapolsky that he wanted to work with Samoa Joe just to get turned down because Sapolsky knew Porter would get signed to the WWE. And just like that, five months later, MVP reported to Deep South. Romero remembered how cool Porter was back then, giving rides to Romero, Homicide, Joe and Low-Ki in his car, hanging out a lot.
– 20:40 – The gang go on a tangent about Pro Wrestling Illustrated, MVP mentioning how he was never in one of their annual top 500 wrestler lists when he worked Florida. Karl mentions he was #69 in the 2015 edition. Gallows now wanted MVP to talk about the proposal he made to the WWE when he came in. John Laurinaitis told MVP originally that the WWE liked him but creative had nothing for him – urging him to come up with something original that they didn’t have. During this time, he was working as a bouncer in South Beach Florida, seeing pro athletes acting like bigshots. MVP sidetracks, recalling him, Bill DeMott, Derrick Neikirk and Mike Knox in catering where Bill told him “that’s about as likely as you wearing the Deep South Heavyweight Championship”. Bantering, MVP quipped that he doesn’t care ever since they gave the title to “David Arquette over here” – at the time Derrick Neikirk. Neikirk got offended and challenged MVP to see who would last longer in the industry. The gang also agreed that whilst not a “superstar”, he was a good hand in the ring. “Derrick, how’s that strip club job working out for ya?”
– 24:30 – MVP wraps up the sidetracked story of Neikirk, who ended up being a security guard for Paul Heyman in ECW 2006. Karl adds in that on his first day of training with Les Thatcher – who did he start with? Derrick Neikirk. Apparently Neikirk used to lie a lot about being drafted by the Toronto Blue Jays and being a ten-time All-American. MVP tells of a story John Laurinaitis told him later on: that Neikirk pitched variations of MVP’s pro-athlete gimmick to him, and Laurinaitis’ response was that MVP already had that gimmick and he was doing it a lot better than Neikirk ever would. MVP does a stellar Johnny Ace impression.
– 27:10 – Back to the story of how MVP got the gimmick, he was on the independent circuit still as Antonio Banks and had been told to find a persona that WWE didn’t already have. MVP used to watch a lot of ESPN, with stories of cocky pro-athletes all over the headlines. This gave him the idea, and he ran with it. The gang get sidetracked again with Karl noting how there was 10 beers currently out in the open. Rocky Romero going into producer mode stated his concern of the hosting and how they had a guest of MVP’s calibre – but weren’t accomplishing anything. Gallows jokes about how MVP has such a great story, but they just can’t shut up. Gallows brings up their 20,000 listeners, and how not one of them gives a donation which cracks everybody up.
– 30:38 – MVP says he wants to take to Periscope, but Karl mentions they can’t show Romero to keep kayfabe alive. Karl then has to wrap up, telling MVP to remember his stories because they were going to cut it off and air a Part 2 next week. “This week is over!” Gallows and Anderson wrap up with their plugs, as MVP is live on Periscope at this point. Next week will be more about MVP in the WWE, so Gallows claims. “Next week, MVP’s full-blown story – I promise”, signs off Anderson.
SCORE & REVIEW
5 out of 10: This episode was night and day in comparison to last week’s. In a more conventional setting for Talk’n Shop, this episode is beer-fuelled, relaxed, and very messy in terms of topics discussed and stories told. As the panel quipped in the closing minutes, this told several newsworthy stories about MVP prior to arriving on WWE television. But as Gallows mentioned several times throughout, “This is not a Shootcast” – and that is 100 percent truth. The boys hung out, drank beer, and told old stories – and while very disorganized, very natural: MVP, Doc, and Karl are very entertaining to listen to, and I am interested in whether Part 2 will be an improvement on how this episode went. It was fun, but confusing to listen to at times.
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