Wednesday PWTorch Livecast
Host: Jim Valley (filling in for Pat McNeill)
Special Guest: KISW Rock 99.9 Radio Personality & Wrestling Fan, Steve Migs
Special Run-In: Jonny Fairplay
Aired Live: September 30, 2015
DIRECT LINK TO LISTEN/DOWNLOAD
HOT TOPICS IN THE SHOW
– How Can WWE Flourish in Today’s Digital World
– WWE Superstars In and Out of Character
– What’s Great About NXT
SUBJECTS COVERED
(2:00) Who is Steve Migs?
(6:10) Raw Ratings discussion
(8:40) Current Raw Format/New Day Suggestion
(11:40) Brock Lesnar Hell Tour
(13:30) Brock on Raw next Monday / Anyone a little bored of Brock?
(14:40) Bob Backlund book
(17:20) Vincent J. McMahon and kayfabe
(19:50) Sasha Banks not on Raw
(23:35) Lucha Underground
(25:50) Introduction of Steve Migs
(30:40) Steve’s relationship with WWE
(31:50) Does Steve’s radio audience have a favorite wrestler?
(34:30) Seeing Ric Flair in a hotel lobby
(36:50) Andy Savage spoiling WrestleMania 19 location
(42:40) Jonny Fairplay calls in
(51:15) Has Steve ever been asked to do anything in the ring?
(55:15) What wrestlers are great interviews?
(58:30) Any wrestlers stay in character on Steve’s show?
(1:03:55) Is there room for another wrestling company in the television market?
(1:08:25) NXT formula talk
(1:16:50) Huge discussion on today’s WWE product: how do they change?
(1:30:35) Roman Reigns & Dean Ambrose talk
(1:33:40) WWE on YouTube / WWE Network
(1:39:05) Resting wrestlers
(1:42:55) Cesaro, Neville & Enzo Amore
(1:45:30) Does Steve’s wife watch wrestling anymore?
(1:46:40) Steve caught John Cena’s shirt once
SHOW HIGHLIGHTS
– Interviews with WWE contracted talent are rare to get, but Steve’s Seattle show gets a lot of the current WWE roster so he has some interesting stories to share.
– Jim talks about the WWE needs to be shaken up. He mentions the New Day and says tag teams only go so far. Why not pick out one of them and have them be like the Freebirds? After their tag team run is finished, why not have one of them win the U.S. Title while the other two play his bodyguards? That way you’re still pushing the hot act even further when their tag team shelf life runs it’s course.
– Jim loves the Network specials like the MSG show and the Tokyo show. In the beginning days they’d show MSG shows on HBO, USA, and the MSG channel. Seemed so much more edgier back then. Now it seems like Ramen Noodles.
– Is anyone getting bored of Brock Lesnar? Jim says we’re seeing the same thing over and over again. It’d be cool to see him talk and do more interesting things. He’s unsure if that’ll make a difference.
– Jim’s reading the Bob Backlund book. He said back in the day, Bob looked cool. He’s really enjoying the book – he’s not acting like did during his Hall of Fame induction (thankfully). He talks a lot about power brokers in wrestling like Sam Muchnick, Eddie Graham, and the Funks. Backlund said Vincent J. McMahon didn’t care too much about kayfabe which Jim found interesting. He highly recommends the book.
– Is Sasha Banks in the doghouse since she wasn’t on Raw? Jim doesn’t think so, he says it makes a lot of sense that she’s not on Raw since they’re juggling so many Divas right now. It would minimize her if she’s just in pointless segments or matches.
– Lucha Underground is coming back, but the wrestling dynamic is changing. Everything is good about it, but not enough people are watching. Same thing with ROH. He brings up ECW November 2 Remember 1995 – production was not good, but people watched it. The same thing does not hold true to ROH.
– Steve’s part of the morning show on KISW in Seattle (alt. rock station), and gets to talk about wrestling here and there. Jim didn’t get too many opportunities talk about wrestling when he worked for the Seattle news station.
– Steve finds it interesting so many major news sources are talking about wrestling. Jim says it’s cool that it’s getting talked about even if the major news sources don’t know what they’re talking about.
– Steve has a very good relationship with WWE. They have flown Steve out to cover Summerslam before and despite of how everyone feels about the on-air product, the way they handle themselves behind the scenes is top notch.
– Does Steve’s radio audience have a favorite wrestler? He says that it’s probably an Attitude Era wrestler based on the show’s 30s demographic.
– Daniel Bryan’s been on his show way back when he was on NXT. He thinks his story was inspiring and they have him on from time to time
– He says Ric Flair was hanging out at the hotel lobby and Steve was star struck. Flair was bs’ing with whoever and he thought it was a really cool experience. Stuff like that makes him feel like a kid again. He is a professional but deep down he is a fan.
– Steve feels he was partially responsible for WWE not allowing radio personalities in the ring. At a Smackdown before WrestleMania 19 when he was working for the Andy Savage Show, they asked if they wanted to come out of the tunnel and welcome the crowd and plug the show. Andy caught wind that WrestleMania was going to be in Seattle (something he shouldn’t have known) and revealed it to the audience. The whole production crew was in shock. He said it was an awful moment. Even though the WWE staff was polite, everyone wanted them out of the building.
– Jonny Fairplay calls in: if Jonny ever has a wrestling promotion he’d take it on ballpark tours like Global Force Wrestling does (but on days with ball games) and would have the local radio personality beat him up for the crowd’s enjoyment. Steve loves the idea.
– Steve mentions going to wrestling shows as a kid and how story lines were started and ended at the one event, which was a lot of fun. Jonny talks about poorly booked indy promotions
– Jimmy Hart stories: Steve talks about how Jimmy Hart would never leave shows which had to frustrate Hogan. Jonny tells the story how he would walk with Jimmy Hart at Universal Studios to promote TNA shows and Jimmy would flat out lie to as to who would be in attendance.
– Jonny says working a local D.J. into any promotion is a no-brainer.
– Did Steve ever get any in-ring opportunities? Steve says Roddy Piper came to town, and the promotion wanted him to be in the ring and watch Piper wrestle, but it never happened. Steve said Piper was his guy grows up and it has to be a thrill for Jonny to be able to do it. He says bumps suck.
– Jonny encourages WWE to put more talent on radio shows, because it would attract audience.
– Steve got to meet The Miz before and says he’s gold on the mic and is a fun interview. Cody Rhodes was great, too (he even showed up in his Stardust make-up…for a radio show) He hopes Cody goes far in WWE.
– Steve says it’s tough to get attendance in for some venues, but only speaking for Seattle they do a great job at filling the seats.
– Anybody else in character when showing up to radio shows? He said someone he wasn’t prepared for was Damien Sandow (in character), but it was a lot of fun. He can also understand that some radio personalities would be turned off by that, but imagines Damien would be smart enough to make adjustments.
– Steve also talks about doing podcasts. He mentions that he interviewed Ken Anderson and how great of an interview he was – he was completely open about everything and it was one of his favorites.
– Is there room for another wrestling company in the television market? Steve thinks so – people are always looking for an alternative, not a copy cat of WWE. TNA would have to revamp and he loves Lucha Underground. He said NWA has some potential due to its history. He enjoys ROH but the production values need to be addressed.
– How does Steve feel about NXT taking a more Bill Watts’s style approach? Steve thinks that’s why he loves NXT – very much like what the AWA was doing, in-ring work with a flare for characters. Being only an hour helps, but he never fast forwards. He thinks Sasha Banks is the best thing going right now. He loves Finn Balor and The Vaudevillians. Will it appeal to a mainstream audience is the key question.
– Jim brings up the previous Sasha Banks question and Steve agrees with Jim’s viewpoint. He prefers that they make her a spectacle rather than put her on every show. He’s very excited for the Iron Woman match next Wednesday.
– Jim sees NXT more as a Crockett Promotions product. What he likes about NXT is the quick promos. WWE could benefit from that. Both would like to see the “Mean Gene” style interviews again with Renee Young. Steve also brings up how WWE utilizes Corey Graves more – he’s got that Jesse Ventura vibe.
– Steve started watching wrestling in the early ’80s. He watched WWF and UWF where he learned about Sting and the Ultimate Warrior. Something he loved was the Von Erichs and Freebirds feud and how developed it was.
– Everyone is so quick-minded nowadays and brings up the Kevin Owens vs. John Cena feud as an example. He says it’s a bummer you can’t prolong feuds anymore. WWE would benefit from storyline development and letting wrestlers breath when there’s a microphone in their hand.
– Steve questions that maybe the mainstream audience isn’t as patient as it once was. Jim brings up the show Mr. Robot and how great it is at storytelling – WWE doesn’t do that. Steve asks if the audience doesn’t have the patience to give the WWE an opportunity for their characters to develop. Does WWE even have plans? If there is a method to their madness, maybe we’re not letting things develop – Steve is unsure by all this.
– Jim says as fans we’ve been spoiled. He says he’s been watching Georgia Championship Wrestling and although the matches are boring, you still are waiting for that one big moment. With WWE, you know who’s in charge and you know who they’re pushing which takes out some of the fun. Steve says wrestling is at it’s best when you question if part of it is actually real. He hopes NXT is a foreshadow of whats to come. He hopes they follow the pattern of SNL or Jimmy Fallon where they create bits that people will remember.
– He questions if Raw being live even draws people in anymore more because in today’s world, people cherry-pick and watch at their will. How do you build something viral that will capture an audience? He says people have to worry more about how these instances will be shared among friends than how big the ratings are or aren’t. The new way to build a buzz is the Internet, and although Steve doesn’t know how to do that, maybe someone in WWE does. If so the future will be pretty awesome. Give the young talent an opportunity to shine virally. Jim agrees.
– Jim says if WWE is going to pull the trigger on Roman Reigns, then just do it. Steve says history repeats itself, and brings up The Rock. Nowadays he’s famous, but in the beginning he was booed mercilessly. Turn Roman heel – Ambrose, too. Jim says one has to be the foil for the other and agrees with all of his points.
– Jim brought up WWE having the most views on YouTube even though none of their videos breaking the trending surface. Steve says maybe though it shows that so many people aren’t watching network television as much – people are getting content from YouTube and WWE Network. Steve suggests maybe more backstage stuff delving into the actual wrestlers’s lives.
– Steve agrees with Wade Keller on not having wrestlers be on every show. Make them disappear for a few months. It would force different writing and storytelling. It could only mean great things for wrestling. Jim says for once he’s sort of interested in Randy Orton because he’s not around all the time. Steve says guys like Big Show and Mark Henry really suffer from being on all the time again.
– He does say that some people are too critical. He’s even liking what they’re doing with Cesaro and Neville. He loves Enzo Amore’s act and thinks he’ll be a rock star in wrestling.
– Jim’s wife doesn’t watch wrestling anymore, but Steve’s wife is hooked on Total Divas. Jim calls Total Divas the gateway drug.
– Jim shares a story of his niece watching wrestling and Steve says as a kid he would love the Ultimate Warrior even though he didn’t do anything in the ring.
– Steve says one time he was at a live event and he caught a John Cena shirt. He didn’t watch to keep it because he was a grown man, so he handed it to a kid he knew. It was one of most favorite moments in wrestling to see the expression on his face.
– Follow Steve @ImSteveMigs on Instagram & Twitter. Email is steve@kisw.com. Listen to the Migscast podcast, too. You can also stream the KISW radio show on the KISW website. Follow Jim @JimValley on Twitter.
SCORE & REVIEW
6 out of 10: Jim Valley did an excellent job subbing for Pat McNeil and for the first 25 minutes he did the show solo, giving his opinion on several hot topics while maintaining a good pace. Steve was a good guest, too. and him being able to share his interactions with some of today’s stars provided to be interesting. (Cody Rhodes showing up to the KISW studio in make-up and in character was a pretty awesome story.) However, if hearing Steve’s radio stories isn’t an interest to you, there was a very healthy discussion in the last 40 minutes about how WWE needs to adjust it’s product to fit today’s impatient audience. Steve not only asks WWE questions, but turns the tables on fans. Not particularly a newsworthy episode, but if nothing else give the 1:16:00 – 1:42:45 a listen to hear someone with his finger on the pulse of today’s “a la carte” / “need it now” media mentality.
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