Edge & Christian’s Pod of Awesomeness Recap
Episode 15 with Charlotte Flair
By: Jeff Indelicato
DIRECT LINK TO LISTEN/DOWNLOAD
“For The Benefit of Those with No Time” (Top Stories)
- Charlotte didn’t get much advisement from her father when she first began, and credits Sara Del Ray, Norman Smiley & Dusty Rhodes for her teaching.
- Feels that Natalya has been a positive influence in her career.
- Her next goal is to main event WrestleMania.
“5 Second Pose of Timestamps”
0:00: Show Introduction/Banter about Nia Jax & Learning
25:25: Tales from the Indies with Hobo Hank
44:00: Beginning of Charlotte Interview
57:00: Added pressure of being Ric Flair’s daughter
1:20:00: Money in the Bank discussion
1:36:00: Thoughts on Natalya & Women’s Revolution
1:54:00: Wrap Up & Close
“You Think You Know Them” (Recap)
Opening Intros/Banter 0:00-25:25
Christian opens up the show by singing some sweet tunes. Edge is impressed because it’s more than the usual grunt that he often hears. He admits that he has his faults too though, as after reviewing some previous episodes, he realized that he does say “Um” a lot, and apologizes to the listeners.
Moving on, they watched Raw last week, and Edge wants to commend Nia Jax for her performance in the gauntlet main event. He reinforces that he is a big fan of the superstar, and feels that she should be protected by the company, and booked as an unbeatable machine.
Both E & C were cleaning recently, and they both found some old journals and notes they had used during their wrestling careers. Christian even found one of his old tryout tapes on VHS. This leads to a discussion about how both of them tried to focus on the bigger picture of their matches and focused on the details. Christian brings up the recent Pete Dunne vs. Tyler Bate match at NXT: Takeover. He emphasized how great of a match it was; however, there were a few key details that stuck out. He refers to the suplex that Dunne gave to Bate on the outside, and then moving straight to working on Bate’s hands, while neither body part was focused on after that. Edge agrees, and they continue to let both men know it was still great, but don’t lose sight of the little details, as they can build up to a bigger story. Both men admit they were guilty of the same things, and criticize some of the decisions they would make in their matches. Christian remembers after he had split off from Edge, and at a live event asked Stone Cold to watch his match, and provide feedback. He had a pretty good match, and when he got to the back, Austin asked him, “Why don’t you learn how to sell?” Christian watched it back, and realized the Rattlesnake was right. He appreciated that honest feedback, and worked to improve from there.
Tales from the Indies with Hobo Hank 25:25 – 44:00
Tommy is still on tour in Australia, so we’re joined with special guest, Hobo Hank, who was Tommy’s opponent on a past tour, and was referenced on the Pod a few weeks back. Hank believes he is more Indy than Tommy, so he is a good substitute. E & C refer to the fact that Hobo Hank does not have a beard, so, is he able to grow one? Hank can indeed grow one, but prefers not to. Perhaps he could grow a beard on only one side of his face?
Since the “Match of the Century” a few weeks ago, Hank unfortunately lost his World Championship. All three of them hope Dreamer cares, and could possibly make an appearance to serve as back up to help him regain his gold. E & C then begin brainstorming some merchandise ideas for Hank, and hope to have him on the show again.
We are then interrupted by the Steve Austin impersonator, who sings Charlotte’s theme song. That interview is next.
Interview with Charlotte Flair 44:00 – 1:54:00
Edge opens it up with having difficulty referring to her as Charlotte, since he’s known her as Ashley for longer. Back then, she was still focused on her volleyball career. How difficult was it to transition over to the WWE? For Charlotte, the wrestling part was easy. What was initially difficult was coming up with the character and wondering about what kind of gear to wear.
Understanding that her father was a legendary wrestler, did she have a desire to enter the family business at a younger age? Truthfully, she never really thought about it. Her focus was on gymnastics and later volleyball, so it wasn’t a big discussion. Obviously though, her brothers were a different story with David becoming a pro wrestler in WCW, and Reid focusing not only on the amateur mat, but having a desire to become a pro as well. She remembers Reid staying up and watching Dusty Rhodes promos in order to learn more.
E & C talk about how athletic she is, and how crazy it is to watch her moves, including the moonsault, because she is so tall. Edge remembers trying a moonsault once, failing, and swearing them off. Charlotte believes it to be something that she never lost from her gymnastics days.
With both E & C having daughters now, they can’t even imagine how proud Ric must be. All of them acknowledge that he is a proud dad, but we surprisingly learn he was not as involved when she first began in training. Charlotte wonders if it was because he didn’t take the women wrestlers as serious at first, especially considering that this was before the Revolution. She credits Sara Del Rey and Norman Smiley as the trainers who helped get her into ring shape, and Dusty Rhodes for helping with her promos. She remembers learning the ropes fairly quickly, and having a lot of fun, but felt it wasn’t until she got injured early on that she was able to stop, and watch other matches from a fan’s perspective in order to study and learn. She references the Paige/Emma series of matches in NXT where she was able to observe, and learn how to properly perform.
After that, Paige ended up vacating the women’s championship, which led to the opportunity for Charlotte to face Natalya for the title. Flair believes that this match gave her the confidence to succeed, and sometimes wonders if everything would have still fallen into place for her if she hadn’t participated in that match. She remembers having a lot to prove, considering who Ric is, and wanting to separate herself from just being “Ric’s daughter.” In addition, both Ric & Bret were advertised at ringside for this contest, so it added additional pressure to ensure that the focus remained on her and Nattie.
As if that pressure wasn’t enough, it piled on when she was brought to the main roster with Ric as her manager. This surprised me at first, because initially you’d think having that support system along with a top guy in your corner would give you confidence, but I could see what she meant. Not only did she and the fans have a constant reminder about who Ric is, she also had to make sure she was delivering and keeping the focus on her. She tells a funny story about how during a match Ric was supposed to remove a turnbuckle pad. She was out selling a move, and it must have been too good, because Ric went over to check on her instead of completing his task!
Talk moves on to how she is a recent member of the Smackdown roster, and how that has changed for her. Originally she was nervous because she’d be moving shows, and she had already had feuds with Natalya and Becky Lynch. Once she began to really think about it, she felt comfortable as she’d be a face in this new role, which would lead to different opportunities/challenges. Christian agrees and notes how just changing from a face to a heel or vice versa can be such a different dynamic. Charlotte admits she is an over thinker, and when approached to go face, she questioned everything from a character perspective, including why she would be a face all of a sudden, and how many moves she should add to her arsenal.
Edge mentions that Charlotte had not one, but two Money in the Bank ladder matches within a week and a half. How is she feeling? Truthfully, she feels great. She is pleased with what they were allowed to do, and how they made the best of it. They all agree that since this was the first one for the women, and that it was a success, everyone can now breathe a sigh of relief. In an interesting perspective, they talk about how different each one was, because one was on pay-per-view, while the other was on TV (which requires breaks, and will end at a specific time). They all agree pay-per-view is easier from that thought, but are happy the Smackdown match turned out great, if not even better than the original.
Discussion is then moved to how the women are being granted more opportunities to shine, and how they are continuing to prove themselves. The fans are fully invested in them, which makes everyone happy, and how nice it is to be given time to establish their characters. Charlotte can’t believe that just two years ago, the girls were only given 2 minutes, which led to the Give Divas a Chance trend. It’s amazing to see where they’ve come in those two years, and as Charlotte mentioned, both rosters had a women’s match at WrestleMania this year. Speaking of WrestleMania, Flair mentions her goal of wanting to main event the big show, and feels they can get there. Edge agrees.
Talking further about her career, Charlotte again mentions Natalya and credits her for helping her grow and learn in the business, while gaining confidence in her abilities to succeed. She admits she was worried about making it, because she didn’t look like the others, but it was through Nattie that she realized she didn’t need to look like anybody, and that she was an athlete. She believes she has finally found her calling, and loves what she does.
As they wrap up, Charlotte wants to know when Edge’s show Vikings returns. They start talking a little bit about show business, where Flair announces that she will be featured in the Psych Holiday Movie special, later this year. Christian quickly teases Charlotte will be back for an Anatomy of a Match segment in the near future.
Close 1:54:00-1:59:00
E &C thank their guest again, and talk about how proud they are of her, and how much she has contributed to the success of the women’s revolution. 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: 7 Kazoos out of 10
Solid episode this week. It is nice to hear from Charlotte outside of her character. She comes across as very likable, and determined. My only criticism would be that there was so much more to cover, and I felt a lot was missed. It was still interesting to hear about being Ric’s daughter, but I feel that a lot of these topics were sped through without talking much further. Other than that, good stuff. 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 winning 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.
Be the first to comment