Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to another edition of Nerdificent. I'm one
Speaker 1: half of your host, Danny Fernandez, and today I've replaced
Speaker 1: Iffy with three hosts. Three other hosts, all here voices
Speaker 1: that you have heard before, and one that you haven't
Speaker 1: um and that one would be the host of Dark
Speaker 1: five on Amazon. It is Rachel Evans. It's the first
Speaker 1: time here. Yeah, I'm so happy to be here. You
Speaker 1: recovering U W W E, and you are very heavily
Speaker 1: involved in that world. So I knew. I was like,
Speaker 1: if I'm going to pull her on, it's got to
Speaker 1: be for this one. Honestly. That's the only thing that
Speaker 1: I think I have expert knowledge, and and that's saying
Speaker 1: a lot. Expert is a lot. But I've put in
Speaker 1: my ten thousand hours I've been watching, Like I feel
Speaker 1: confident good. Yeah, And I mean I think the other
Speaker 1: thing I would say, I feel like you're an expert
Speaker 1: in horror, like you actively have horror shows. Yeah, that's true,
Speaker 1: my whole show at Yeah. Well, I mean even material
Speaker 1: killers and stuff like that. If we want to talk
Speaker 1: about serial killers, I could do that too, okay, or
Speaker 1: chaos Magic perfect. We'll bring you on for one of those.
Speaker 1: That's really cool. Another voice that you are hearing, um
Speaker 1: that you have heard before on our Buffy the Vampire
Speaker 1: Slayer episode. She is the host of Tights and Fights.
Speaker 1: It's Daniale Radford. Hello, thank you for joining us, Thank
Speaker 1: you for having How long have you had your Tights
Speaker 1: and Fights podcast for a while now? Jeez, yeah, I
Speaker 1: believe we started doing that gosh in the summer of
Speaker 1: that's right, it's been yeah, it really has been that long.
Speaker 1: That's crazy. It's crazy. And that other voice you will
Speaker 1: recognize from our Women in Gaming episode. She is a
Speaker 1: gamer RPG player herself and a gaming coach nel Santa Cruz.
Speaker 1: Thanks for having me, especially with this like awesome group
Speaker 1: of women. This is fantastic. Well, you all have had
Speaker 1: wrestling podcasts and like been so heavily involved in the
Speaker 1: wrestling world. I just knew the three of you like
Speaker 1: popped into my head as people that I wanted to
Speaker 1: have on if I was going to have the compliment
Speaker 1: anyone man explained to me, I wanted it to be.
Speaker 1: I wanted it to be from y'all. So I just
Speaker 1: I wanted to start out because Rachel, you said that
Speaker 1: you were introduced to wrestling at a young age, Like,
Speaker 1: what is your first memory? Who were some of the
Speaker 1: first wrestlers that you remember before we totally dive into
Speaker 1: the history of it. Just what is your first memory?
Speaker 1: My very very first memory of wrestling is uh my,
Speaker 1: I think I was probably around like three or something
Speaker 1: because I've watched it with my dad since I was born.
Speaker 1: He just like sit on his lap was a Bruno
Speaker 1: sam Martino, which is a deep deep cut um but
Speaker 1: my dad's favorite wrestler. But my personal first memory of
Speaker 1: wrestling is really tragic. Actually it's own hearts that will
Speaker 1: we will get into that because that was my first
Speaker 1: pay per view. That was that was my That was
Speaker 1: my first memory that I can see it still. It's
Speaker 1: horrific and we'll talk about it. Okay, So what was
Speaker 1: your first memory of of wrestling? So it was you know,
Speaker 1: wrestling was kind of always in the background when I
Speaker 1: was a kid because this is when Um Trash he
Speaker 1: Pull Hogan was huge UM and wrestling was just kind
Speaker 1: of in the zeitgeist. I did not start watching it
Speaker 1: until the Attitude era and the Monday Night War Wars
Speaker 1: were well underway. UM with a bunch of friends of
Speaker 1: mine because I started watching and I was like, what
Speaker 1: is this thing? And then it was the episode UM
Speaker 1: where an undead zombie monster UH takes the owner of
Speaker 1: the company's daughter and puts her up on a fake crucifix.
Speaker 1: And I was watching it and I said, oh, this
Speaker 1: is comic books. Oh, I'm super into this, And that's
Speaker 1: when I started watching and again, Yeah, my first pay
Speaker 1: per view experience was Over the Edge. You know, it's
Speaker 1: a horrible name. It is right because I feel I
Speaker 1: think I've made this point before, but I feel like
Speaker 1: anime and wrestle in it has like a ven diagram,
Speaker 1: so watch of the moves come from anime as well.
Speaker 1: Like you'll see more than a few people in the
Speaker 1: w W LIKEDUK Oh totally. I see them doing the
Speaker 1: Guinea Force dance. Ill build up, build up, build up
Speaker 1: until yeah, the actual fight. It's totally dragon balls people
Speaker 1: in spandex um. Janelle, what is your first memory of wrestling? Well,
Speaker 1: it's funny because my first memory is Danielle's also, but
Speaker 1: um my interpretation of that that same incident was very
Speaker 1: soap opera esque. UM. So I grew up with with UH.
Speaker 1: My mom is one of ten kids, so I have
Speaker 1: like thirty plus cousins, and so we grew up just
Speaker 1: watching and wrestling each other all the time. But that
Speaker 1: moment where um, where the Undertaker kidnapped vincic Man's daughter, Um,
Speaker 1: somebody named Stone Colt Boston came in to save the
Speaker 1: day I died, I was like I was. I was
Speaker 1: probably like six seven years old at the time, and
Speaker 1: I just, um, I just remember seeing that and it
Speaker 1: was just so like the hero, like he came in
Speaker 1: even though he hated and picked, and he was going
Speaker 1: to save his daughter because it was the right thing
Speaker 1: to do. And so that was It's really funny that
Speaker 1: that we have like the same moment as our first
Speaker 1: spit beer on me when I was nine. Oh my god,
Speaker 1: what an honor my first um, even though I what
Speaker 1: never got into it as much as y'all have. My
Speaker 1: first memory, I think would honestly be middle school. My
Speaker 1: little brother was obsessed with wrestling. He would pile drive
Speaker 1: into my pillows. Yeah, he just he was obsessed with
Speaker 1: the rock. So I feel like that was my introduction.
Speaker 1: But I was also aware of Stone called Steve Austin Um,
Speaker 1: John Cena Um. But yeah, my little brother just gravitated
Speaker 1: to the rocks so much he would do the eyebrow,
Speaker 1: the people's eyebrow. Um so that was like always on
Speaker 1: our television. Um yeah, so I guess that was my
Speaker 1: first memory before we hop in just talking about how
Speaker 1: it got started. So the w W E n Aime
Speaker 1: also refers to the professional and of course that changed. Um,
Speaker 1: but it refers to the professional wrestling promotion that was
Speaker 1: founded by Jess McMahon and a guy named Toots. Love
Speaker 1: that that used to be a name. Toots mom old
Speaker 1: carne stuff. I know, love it, bring back Toots. Where's
Speaker 1: that name? I'm sure there's a Toots out there that's
Speaker 1: a great wrestler name. No wonder he went into it.
Speaker 1: Um so too. I mean we haven't had a Toots
Speaker 1: gimmick before. I mean assigned to a to a poor
Speaker 1: poor woman that we love very much, Nattie Harthetchimick. She farted,
Speaker 1: that was her thing. I thought you were talking about
Speaker 1: Sarah Logan in the in the What's the Driving Show?
Speaker 1: Right with right along? Yeah, she farted in the car
Speaker 1: and then like hot boxed it. Anyways, probably why they
Speaker 1: don't pick the name Tuotes anymore. Yeah, that's probably why.
Speaker 1: So that was in nineteen fifty two as the Capital
Speaker 1: Wrestling Corporate Ation. So McMahon, who was a successful boxing promoter,
Speaker 1: began working with text Ricord in nineteen six and with
Speaker 1: the help of Ricord, he began promoting boxing and wrestling
Speaker 1: at Madison Square Garden. So this ended up becoming UM
Speaker 1: once they formed this wrestling corporation. Essentially, that's eventually what
Speaker 1: we came to know as a WWF and then eventually
Speaker 1: the w w E. Does anyone want to just explain
Speaker 1: what happened there with a WWF? UM? So well, and
Speaker 1: it was for a while it was the WWWF and
Speaker 1: then UM. When Vince McMahon took over from his dad,
Speaker 1: who was also Vince McMahon UM, he began buying up
Speaker 1: all of these little territories and companies. So what basically
Speaker 1: what he did about that? Because this is really interesting,
Speaker 1: Like this point of it I think is super interesting
Speaker 1: because it's will never be the same again because of
Speaker 1: what they did they went. So basically what happened is
Speaker 1: that there was a top guy in each region, and
Speaker 1: that top guy would travel around each region and there
Speaker 1: would be jobbers or they be mid carters that would
Speaker 1: just kind of stay in their regions, but these top
Speaker 1: guys it would all travel around. What the McMahon's did.
Speaker 1: Let's go to each region and say, hey, you could
Speaker 1: have you could be in one place, you could be
Speaker 1: in one company, and we'll take care of you. And
Speaker 1: so he took all the top guys put him in
Speaker 1: one organization, and then all everything else failed because there
Speaker 1: was all jobbers. And then the jobbers went to the WWW. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and so then that's when it became WWB and the
Speaker 1: reason had to become the w w E was an
Speaker 1: early two thousands. The WWS is the Worldwide Life World
Speaker 1: Wildlife Federation UM. And so they successfully sued in England
Speaker 1: saying we're tired of people confusing our sweet sweet pandas
Speaker 1: with this and this was during a particularly raunchy point
Speaker 1: in w w E S. So do you think that's
Speaker 1: why they won? Yeah, yeah, because they I mean, I
Speaker 1: think the the idea was like their brand was being
Speaker 1: sullied and it was some pretty was during the time
Speaker 1: the Aptitude era, which is UM, when they were doing
Speaker 1: like you know, brom panties matches where women were just
Speaker 1: snatching you know that in order to win, you had
Speaker 1: to declothe the other woman like that was it was
Speaker 1: was what was happening back then, um, and it was
Speaker 1: just a lot of cursing, a lot of you know,
Speaker 1: just um even just racial storylines. It's just very very Uh.
Speaker 1: If I were, you know, running a panda organization, I
Speaker 1: wouldn't want my name to be still by that either.
Speaker 1: And so that's when it went from w w E,
Speaker 1: which is World Wrestling Entertainment, which, let's be real, is
Speaker 1: a better I think I agree, because it did. It
Speaker 1: really encompasses there sort of this um the way that
Speaker 1: they kind of went around and absorbed all of these
Speaker 1: other territories and and uh and you know, promotions. It
Speaker 1: also solidifies the idea that it's sports entertainment to get
Speaker 1: them out of the legality of being an actual sports
Speaker 1: organization sports entertainment. So can you talk to me kind
Speaker 1: of about the legacy of the McMahon's because they've been
Speaker 1: involved for so long. Are they kind of seen as
Speaker 1: um villains sometimes or what I mean that's just from
Speaker 1: an outside point of Yeah, they're the mafia. They they
Speaker 1: are the Donald Trump's of like their friends, their friends,
Speaker 1: they're good friends, and to think of them that way
Speaker 1: is like they're the modern day monarchy. I know that
Speaker 1: there's monarchies not in America, in America, but yeah, no,
Speaker 1: like they they're definitely a nefarious organization. Um. But that
Speaker 1: being said, I look at me, I'm an apologist. I
Speaker 1: was about to be like, they're not. They're just carnis.
Speaker 1: They're just old school carnies. But at this point, like
Speaker 1: the actual McMahon's of it all or have transcended that.
Speaker 1: And I do think that's an important point to make
Speaker 1: about wrestling is that it did start. You know, there's
Speaker 1: so much terminology. Um, it's all carnie talk because wrestling
Speaker 1: really began to get big at carnivals. And that's why
Speaker 1: when you know, that's why you can have someone named Toots,
Speaker 1: Yeah who helps um, who helps get things off the ground.
Speaker 1: And so that's why when we do so much of
Speaker 1: this weird wrestling terminology, because it really is its own language.
Speaker 1: And we talked about you know, marks and smarts and
Speaker 1: jobbers and all these little yeah, these weird phrases or terminology. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it all comes from when it was carney stuff. Okay,
Speaker 1: So the Golden Age, which is the eighties where y'all
Speaker 1: still I mean, that was before we were born. But
Speaker 1: do you go back and watch, Like, did you go
Speaker 1: back and watch those? Like, what are some moments that
Speaker 1: people who are some like famous or groundbreaking wrestlers during
Speaker 1: that time. It was a lot of just big powerhouse
Speaker 1: type men. Back then. It was very slow. The wrestling
Speaker 1: was very very slow. Um. You know, it was the
Speaker 1: time when when Rick Flair was on top. Um. Rick
Speaker 1: Flair was kind of the um so he's called the
Speaker 1: nature boy because he this whole thing was like the
Speaker 1: guy who's got the bleached blonde hair and that there
Speaker 1: was lots of nature boys, but he was the nature boy.
Speaker 1: And so again like you had all your whole Cogan's
Speaker 1: and your UM Warrior Ultimate Warrior, and so it was
Speaker 1: very slow wrestling. UM. So it is kind of funny
Speaker 1: to go back because you can kind of appreciate the storylines,
Speaker 1: but also you're like, oh, not a good wrestler. Yeah.
Speaker 1: A lot of Yeah, there's a Randy Savage was during
Speaker 1: that point. Um. A lot of what most people think
Speaker 1: iconically of wrestling, UM comes from that early eighties. It
Speaker 1: was the golden age of blading, which is when you, um,
Speaker 1: you cut yourself open with a small razor blade too. Yeah,
Speaker 1: for the dramatic effect of the matches, like, oh, herested me,
Speaker 1: and you do it on the forehead because that's where
Speaker 1: it bleeds the best, tiny tiny, tiny cuts, so that
Speaker 1: when you get hit in the head, they bleed out.
Speaker 1: And Abdullah the Butcher actually has a slot in the
Speaker 1: middle of his forehead where he's bladed so many times
Speaker 1: he can stick a quarter in there. Yeah, Dudley Devon
Speaker 1: Dudley's faces. I mean, he's wonderful and I love him
Speaker 1: at yeah. Great. Their fourheads are just it's just very
Speaker 1: very deep, particularly kind of and now that we have HD,
Speaker 1: we can really see death by a thousand cats literally,
Speaker 1: to be honest, Like, you know, I prefer wrestling now.
Speaker 1: I think you'll, Yeah, I think you'll see a lot
Speaker 1: of people, especially people who used to watch but don't
Speaker 1: watch anymore, refer to that as the Golden Age. And
Speaker 1: then the added what you hear mostly though, is the
Speaker 1: attitude air is the best air in wrestling. That's kind
Speaker 1: of where we grew up. That's why. So we do
Speaker 1: you think because on here just says this is the
Speaker 1: Golden Age, But is that just something people have equated like,
Speaker 1: because when I think of Golden Age, thinks like, oh,
Speaker 1: the Golden Age of comics, Like that's just an accepted term.
Speaker 1: Are you saying people are just like nostalgically adding like, oh,
Speaker 1: that was the golden days? Yeah, this isn't like how
Speaker 1: you know in comics they do there is they're broken
Speaker 1: up by decades. So there is like you know, the
Speaker 1: Golden Age, the Bronze Age, the Silver Age. Um, it's
Speaker 1: not I would say with wrestling, it's not really like that.
Speaker 1: That's just something that someone Yeah, it's a nostalgia trip
Speaker 1: for sure. So would you say that some of the
Speaker 1: wrestlers from the eighties old like influence like can you
Speaker 1: see how they influenced the next generation? And like who
Speaker 1: would you equate that to? Like who? Can you is
Speaker 1: there someone that you can point out that like, oh
Speaker 1: he clearly influenced this wrestler. Well, a huge one right
Speaker 1: now is um Piper? Why why you Piper? Um? He
Speaker 1: was huge. If you ever saw They Live, he was
Speaker 1: in that. He did a few movies. Um, he always
Speaker 1: his big thing was Piper's Pit, which was a conversational
Speaker 1: um talk show styled way to further along storylines. There
Speaker 1: are so many can you give me an example, like
Speaker 1: he would like sit there and he would do a
Speaker 1: segment like a sketch. He would do a sketch essentially
Speaker 1: in front of like they would have a set and
Speaker 1: he would um, you know and talk to you know,
Speaker 1: bring on a wrestler and just they would just end
Speaker 1: up like yelling at each other because you know they're
Speaker 1: going to fight. Um. Yeah, just a way to further storylines.
Speaker 1: And now so he had like a Mari situation. They
Speaker 1: had like Jerry Springer and they have a they had
Speaker 1: a barber shop also, which was really funny. Um. I
Speaker 1: just thought about Shawn Michael's because sorry, going back to um,
Speaker 1: Roddy Um. Rhonda Rousy um actually super influenced by Roddy
Speaker 1: Piper and so she actually was going by Rowdy Rhonda
Speaker 1: m Rousy and she would come out. She the first
Speaker 1: time she showed up on a WDB, she was wearing
Speaker 1: his leather jacket and UM, so that's definitely someone who
Speaker 1: was influenced heavily by somebody from the eighties. UM. Trying
Speaker 1: to think of I think like Andre the Giant is
Speaker 1: an easy one because any big man, like they literally
Speaker 1: have an Andre the Giant like Memorium match. Um. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I know any any big guy that choke slams. It's
Speaker 1: in Andre the Giant move. Yeah. Can you talk about
Speaker 1: some of the move before we move on to the
Speaker 1: next air. Can you talk about some of the popular
Speaker 1: moves that were in the eighties. I would say choke
Speaker 1: slams were super popular just because it was the rise
Speaker 1: of the big Man, and then you had Hogan's crappy
Speaker 1: leg drop. Yeah, yeah, yea yeah. A lot of it
Speaker 1: was a lot of Russ holds, a lot of just
Speaker 1: you know, interlocking and then you know, just strength checks
Speaker 1: and where you just can't grab each other's arms and
Speaker 1: try to stronger, you know, and um some power power bombs,
Speaker 1: which is where you pick them up and just kind
Speaker 1: of lay them flat on their back. I feel like
Speaker 1: d d T s were kind of which is where
Speaker 1: you just kind of, yeah, you grab their head underneath
Speaker 1: your arm, put and just kind of like picture one
Speaker 1: chop and I can't I can't think of any chops.
Speaker 1: But so something important that is a wrestling move that's
Speaker 1: out through all wrestling is when we refer to as
Speaker 1: a bump, and that is literally when someone has to um,
Speaker 1: you know, when you get hit and you have to
Speaker 1: fall and you land on your back, flat back. There
Speaker 1: is a way that you have to do that so
Speaker 1: that everything takes the brunt of it all at the
Speaker 1: same time. Um, so you have to like you fall back,
Speaker 1: you have the slam throughout, and there's a way to bump.
Speaker 1: There's a way to bump that when you can jump
Speaker 1: off of age and you can bump and you're not
Speaker 1: gonna be great, but you won't be dead. Yeah. Yeah, So, um,
Speaker 1: let's talk about some of the training that goes on
Speaker 1: behind this, because that ended up being I do remember,
Speaker 1: I don't know when the first one off to look
Speaker 1: it up, but they ended up televising that, Like that
Speaker 1: became a whole thing to like be in a house
Speaker 1: and be being trained and like to be And then
Speaker 1: there was also that show on MTV that like on
Speaker 1: like X somethings make their make their living post a
Speaker 1: career as they trained you know, other people. And that's
Speaker 1: because WW historically doesn't take care of the wrestlers after
Speaker 1: after they've retired. Um, there's no because their independent contractors there,
Speaker 1: like the NFL, it totally almost worse, honestly, Well there's
Speaker 1: no federal regulation, so it's much worse. Yeah, there's no union.
Speaker 1: There's no there's no union. But they we talked about
Speaker 1: Rotti and he was like he was on the outside
Speaker 1: when he was like forty five. He had to go
Speaker 1: back and go wrestle because he couldn't afford to live.
Speaker 1: I feel like, I feel like as entertainers, they should
Speaker 1: be allowed to be in an entertainment union. I agree
Speaker 1: they should be. They should be part of SAG. It
Speaker 1: should be said they're on TV. Doesn't make something would
Speaker 1: make sense. But you know you're not dealing with You're
Speaker 1: dealing with the mafia, like they don't care. Yeah, they did.
Speaker 1: In the eighties there was a big movement UM to
Speaker 1: unionize and once again proving what a trash HEP is.
Speaker 1: Whole Coken helped us that open the guy UM. I
Speaker 1: do think I have to I have to think that
Speaker 1: a W it's a new promotion that is the pretty
Speaker 1: much the only Yeah, it is pretty much the only
Speaker 1: promotion to directly like say, w W, we can take you.
Speaker 1: They're offering healthcare. And I have to think with this
Speaker 1: new wave of people dropping like flies from the w W,
Speaker 1: E like, is that Sasha thing real? You know? Who knows?
Speaker 1: But I at the same time, you know, so there
Speaker 1: are right now. It's it reminds me a lot of
Speaker 1: the Monday Night Wars, which is a huge part of
Speaker 1: the Attitude era where um as they called him Billionaire
Speaker 1: Ted um As Ted Turner decided that he wanted to
Speaker 1: really put his money behind the wrestling programs that they
Speaker 1: had already had um and he was Ted Turner. Uh,
Speaker 1: Ted Turner is in the millionaire he owns all the superstations,
Speaker 1: cable cable guy. Yeah, So he decided he'd already had
Speaker 1: some wrestling, so he decided he was going to rebrand
Speaker 1: it and make it edgy. And that was a period
Speaker 1: where you would see people kind of because that was
Speaker 1: one of the first real big um challenges to w
Speaker 1: w e's um kind of monopoly, and so you would
Speaker 1: see people go back and forth from those companies. And
Speaker 1: we're starting to see some of that now with New
Speaker 1: Japan and a w is another contender where if you're
Speaker 1: unhappy at w w E, there's a chance that you
Speaker 1: could go and leave and really make your mark somewhere
Speaker 1: else and then of course inevitably come back when you're
Speaker 1: tired of doing that. And we've already seen it like
Speaker 1: it's proven like WWW's veteran star Jericho, he's been around
Speaker 1: for twenty plus years, is now one of the main
Speaker 1: faces of a W and he's champion like Jim Ross,
Speaker 1: who's a legend on the mike, gonna be momentary ever
Speaker 1: heard by God by God, he's broken in half. Who
Speaker 1: was the voice of the of the Attitude era. It's
Speaker 1: him and Jerry the King lawler Um. But going back
Speaker 1: to all elite and this company isn't started by by
Speaker 1: stars who UM never went to WDB sto strong in
Speaker 1: the face of money being thrown in their face and
Speaker 1: they were just like Cody, Cody, Cody, Yeah, Cody left UM.
Speaker 1: But this is the Young Bucks, then Kenny Omega, who
Speaker 1: are stars of UM New Japan and Ring of Honor
Speaker 1: and New Japan and Ring of Honor are these independent
Speaker 1: quote companies. But they worked together because they and they
Speaker 1: built this machine very very strong against to hold up against.
Speaker 1: And so now you have people that are yeah, they're
Speaker 1: just totally you know, they have a chance to make
Speaker 1: make a living outside of w B now because of
Speaker 1: this place and WW is col waking feel it for
Speaker 1: the first time ever. They're kicking people out of w
Speaker 1: W shows that are wearing a w march um. So
Speaker 1: just wrapping up a little bit more on this era.
Speaker 1: The There was an introduction of Saturday Night Main Event
Speaker 1: on NBC in nine five, and that mark the first
Speaker 1: time that professional wrestling have been broadcast on network television
Speaker 1: since in nineteen fifties. I don't know what is going
Speaker 1: on with y'all schedule. I feel like it's always wrestling
Speaker 1: all the time. But sometimes it's really important wrestling, and
Speaker 1: then other times it's so I guess we'll get into that.
Speaker 1: We have a Big four. It's like, okay, every every
Speaker 1: three months there's one big one that we got all
Speaker 1: kind of and then once a year in April, we
Speaker 1: have the big one, which is the super Bowl, which
Speaker 1: is wrestling, and there are at least five, don't We
Speaker 1: don't make ourselves watch all those because a lot of
Speaker 1: it is just fill their content and it's just, you know,
Speaker 1: it's just time for them to make money with advertisers,
Speaker 1: because they're just trying to fill as much TV time
Speaker 1: as possible to get the advertisement money. I don't know
Speaker 1: it watched I Hate myself, you know, you know, I
Speaker 1: watched it on I watched it on Hulu. But a
Speaker 1: thing I don't like that they take the beats out
Speaker 1: of important matches, and I'm like, I can't. Yeah, I'll
Speaker 1: just keep it on while I'm working. I was going
Speaker 1: to say the first WrestleMania was in nineteen five and
Speaker 1: has since produced thirty five editions. Really thought it would
Speaker 1: honestly be more than that. But that's what that's the
Speaker 1: what we're at right now. So the next one will
Speaker 1: be WrestleMania thirty six. Yeah, where's that Florida? They're going
Speaker 1: to Florida. Okay, we're never getting one. We're never going
Speaker 1: to get one. I'm so mad. I barely got a rumble.
Speaker 1: We have to take a quick break. But then we're
Speaker 1: going to hop into the history of WrestleMania, and then
Speaker 1: we're going to hop into the Attitude era right after
Speaker 1: this and we're back. So if you had to explain
Speaker 1: WrestleMania to someone that has never watched wrestling, which might
Speaker 1: be people listening, how would you describe WrestleMania Roman, Colosseum,
Speaker 1: Gladigator matches. It's like the Super Bowl meets exactly what
Speaker 1: Daniel once Yeah, once a year event, so this is yeah,
Speaker 1: that's why it's everybody goes crazy for this it this year.
Speaker 1: How long was it? We had like eight seven show? Yeah,
Speaker 1: it went seven hours. It's like, yeah, it's the Oscars
Speaker 1: and super Bowl. It's this this total um crazy event.
Speaker 1: It's basically the culmination of everything that they've been working
Speaker 1: up to and the and that takes place on a
Speaker 1: Sunday and then the Monday after is um the first
Speaker 1: TV episode of the new wrestling year. So the new
Speaker 1: resting year starts after WrestleMania and that's when new storylines
Speaker 1: are introduced and UM new people are are are brought
Speaker 1: up into the company. Super Yeah. So one thing about wrestling,
Speaker 1: unlike UM sports or television or most things, particularly with
Speaker 1: w w E, there there are no seasons. So people
Speaker 1: work and work and work until they have time off
Speaker 1: for until they get injured. And so the closest you
Speaker 1: could come to saying that's when a new season would
Speaker 1: start would be the Monday after after WrestleMania. But yeah,
Speaker 1: there's no seasons, there's no days. And this is a
Speaker 1: problem with the then not having a union because these
Speaker 1: people had to work on Christmas. They didn't get to
Speaker 1: be with their families this past year because Vincent Man
Speaker 1: decided he wanted to have a Christmas episode, and um,
Speaker 1: that's not okay because these people they hide the fact
Speaker 1: that they're injured because they don't want to be off TV.
Speaker 1: They don't want to disappoint the boss. Oh, if you
Speaker 1: talk to wrestlers, I mean, it's incredibly sad. It's like
Speaker 1: I've never spent a Halloween with my son, you know,
Speaker 1: I've never I've never been there for my wife's birthday.
Speaker 1: It's oh, her birthday is on to Tuesday this year.
Speaker 1: I guess it's they get to go home for two
Speaker 1: days a week. Maybe yeah, two days a week and
Speaker 1: if they're overseas and not that because they basically just
Speaker 1: circle the globe. I want to say something for everyone listening.
Speaker 1: We all know all of us are friends with professional slers,
Speaker 1: like all of even me, who am not in this world.
Speaker 1: I did a show at Geek and Sundury with Xavier Woods,
Speaker 1: who's from New Day Comedy and Wrestling, Comedy and Wrestling,
Speaker 1: and then I've done I've done a bunch of shows
Speaker 1: with Dolph Ziggler, who I know as well and I
Speaker 1: know his brother. So like, yeah, so when you hear
Speaker 1: people saying, um, you know and and these women know
Speaker 1: even more wrestlers than I do. So so it's not
Speaker 1: they're just not making this up. They know a lot
Speaker 1: of them intimately have worked with them um and and
Speaker 1: worked on projects with them as well. So I just
Speaker 1: wanted to say that as opposed to like when you're like,
Speaker 1: no they're sad, it's like, oh no, we know. You
Speaker 1: gives me and read it. I read this one thing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's you know, and it doesn't. That doesn't. We don't
Speaker 1: want to make it sound like we'd super it's l a.
Speaker 1: We everyone knows everyone but most jo I was on
Speaker 1: that Wait we were, Yeah, we were both on a
Speaker 1: thing with m Jericho, remember are Yeah, so we've worked
Speaker 1: with and so that's I didn't mean that. I just
Speaker 1: want you know because somebody, how do you know? And
Speaker 1: it's like, oh no, we've We've worked with so many
Speaker 1: friends and not a secret that you know we're friends with.
Speaker 1: All you have to do is go to your Instagram.
Speaker 1: Yeah we know. We tell everybody but Jericho. So that
Speaker 1: was somebody who was a very very prominent player during
Speaker 1: the Attitude error, which is the next one that you
Speaker 1: wanted to talk about. Yes, yeah, So in between that
Speaker 1: kind of ho Hogan Big heyday of the eighties, there
Speaker 1: was this weird moment where suddenly all wrestlers had a different,
Speaker 1: a separate occupation to be like, I'm a wrestler, but
Speaker 1: I'm also a dentist. Yeah, like that would be their gimmick,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm a wrestler, but I'm also uh an accountant,
Speaker 1: think exactly. Yeah, that was very white. Yeah, and so
Speaker 1: I was a wrestler but I'm also an X man. Yeah.
Speaker 1: That one that was well, the weirdest one was Velvinus,
Speaker 1: who I'm a wrestler, but I'm also a point star. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and so during that I'm seven by the way. Yeah.
Speaker 1: That air um was kind of when wrestling was considered
Speaker 1: to be kind of name And then that is when um,
Speaker 1: you know, and a lot of the wrestlers in WW,
Speaker 1: we're starting to get um a little bit. Older people
Speaker 1: were getting bored, and that is when um billionaire Ted
Speaker 1: came in and decided to inject some new life into
Speaker 1: this is when Valvinus came up with this porn start. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and so um he started taking a lot of ww's
Speaker 1: bigger older talents, um like col Hogan and all these
Speaker 1: other guys and bringing them over to him. But that
Speaker 1: also meant that younger dudes got a chance to rise
Speaker 1: now that um, these older talents weren't kind of keeping
Speaker 1: up down. I mean people that could move like um,
Speaker 1: the Heartbard kid, Shawn Michaels, who is my favorite wrestler really,
Speaker 1: I love sewn Uh. He's evil by the way he's
Speaker 1: he's considered he's very evil. He did a lot of
Speaker 1: drugs back then, made a lot of poor choices. Jesus, Jesus,
Speaker 1: he found Jesus. Um. But now this was the time
Speaker 1: where people who were not seven ft tall could actually
Speaker 1: you know, and Sean Michael is considered a small guy,
Speaker 1: and he's like he's six too. He's he used to
Speaker 1: play football, but he was somebody who by stature like
Speaker 1: you know, you put him next to a whole Colgan
Speaker 1: like he looks you know small quote quote um. And
Speaker 1: so this was the time when a lot of people
Speaker 1: they took they seize this opportunity to to um show
Speaker 1: that they couldn't They weren't just going to be you know,
Speaker 1: locking locking up, and the storylines got a little raunchy,
Speaker 1: and um, it was pretty wild back then. Yeah, Yeah,
Speaker 1: the flippy dips started coming out. Gros that like the
Speaker 1: people who exactly people who started to introduce So there's
Speaker 1: a very particular WWE style and it's actually something that
Speaker 1: you learn, like when you go to the w W
Speaker 1: now in the performance center, they teach you WWW style,
Speaker 1: which is very different from the rest camera wrestling instead
Speaker 1: of the three sixty. It's like porn versus sex. It's
Speaker 1: like porn is like, here's my vagina, and this is
Speaker 1: the angle that I'm not. And it's also sometimes the
Speaker 1: pacing as much slower. And then they started to introduce
Speaker 1: different wrestling styles when they when they brought people over
Speaker 1: from Japan in Mexico, like they started to introduce more
Speaker 1: dynamic styles of wrestling, and that also meant character wise,
Speaker 1: people got to spice U. We've got a lot of
Speaker 1: middle fingers from Mr stone Cold Steve Boston, which I
Speaker 1: was like seven, this is exciting. I love him so much.
Speaker 1: He's I can never figure out if he's my favorite.
Speaker 1: You know, it runs very very close for me and
Speaker 1: Sean Me Sean and uh and and Yah and stone Cold.
Speaker 1: I love that. I'm I'm mankind stone Mankind is by
Speaker 1: the way, Yeah, you know what mankind favorite. It's because
Speaker 1: mankind is a man in a mask who lives in
Speaker 1: a basement and has a bunch of different personality hits
Speaker 1: himself in the face. But the cool thing about him
Speaker 1: is that he's actually this wrestler mc foley who has
Speaker 1: all these multifaceted characters. He has do love, he is mankind,
Speaker 1: he has this jack and then he's mcfoley, and many
Speaker 1: was my favorite. When I was growing up, I had
Speaker 1: like a four pronged um picture frame that had all
Speaker 1: of his personalities next to my bed and sag I mean,
Speaker 1: look at look at the talent of somebody, Like for sure,
Speaker 1: it was like pulling out these different characters and you
Speaker 1: were like, no, that's not that's not mankind. That he
Speaker 1: Mick Foley, I think is actually a really good example
Speaker 1: of what we're talking about because he trained in Japan
Speaker 1: when he was younger. He always wanted to be a wrestler,
Speaker 1: but he wanted to be in death matches, and death
Speaker 1: hatches are hardcore matches, and so that's very at the time,
Speaker 1: was very specific to Japan, which they would have ladder matches.
Speaker 1: People would fall into piranha pits and literally get torn
Speaker 1: apart by piranhas and they pulled them out like four
Speaker 1: seconds later, they're bleeding all over the place, lost an
Speaker 1: ear in the ring. Sure did so, Like he was like,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go to Japan. I'm gonna learn death matches.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be as tough as I can because I'm
Speaker 1: not a body guy. And like that's a thing like
Speaker 1: your big guy, your small guy, your body guy. He
Speaker 1: was none of those things. He was a normy dude.
Speaker 1: And so he did this and then he comes to
Speaker 1: the w W E w W at the time and
Speaker 1: uh was completely annihilated. He was the one who always
Speaker 1: jumped off the cages before Shane. And I think another
Speaker 1: important thing which happened, um, which is also part of
Speaker 1: the reason why some of these smaller dudes were getting
Speaker 1: a shot. Um, there was very famously case where um,
Speaker 1: they had to go in front of was it Congress?
Speaker 1: What did they but they had to because of all
Speaker 1: the steroids stuff, right, Um? And so that is when
Speaker 1: all right, So we're gonna take it to a concept
Speaker 1: called k pabe. Now this is what we talk about,
Speaker 1: what we talk about Carney talk. So kabe again when
Speaker 1: we talk about these Carney concepts, when people used to say,
Speaker 1: you know, there was that whole thing of well, you
Speaker 1: know wrestling is fake, right. You know wrestling is fake right.
Speaker 1: It sounds weird to say, but wrestling sold itself as
Speaker 1: being real. Um. And and the reason why that you know,
Speaker 1: when you hear words like mark that is very much
Speaker 1: a con artist's term because back in the Carney days,
Speaker 1: people would bets and whatever and they didn't realize that
Speaker 1: it was a show and all these dudes are friends.
Speaker 1: And so in the eighties, Cafebe was very huge. Um.
Speaker 1: If you if your best friend was a heal a
Speaker 1: k a. The bad guy, and if you were a
Speaker 1: Face or baby Face a k a. The good guy,
Speaker 1: you couldn't travel together, you couldn't be seen together because
Speaker 1: they protected Kfbe so heavily. Um. And they still did
Speaker 1: this for traveling too. And it wasn't it wasn't it
Speaker 1: the Montreal screw job that kind of like brought Cafebe.
Speaker 1: That was part of it. But before then it was
Speaker 1: the steroid scandal where Vince McMahon had to go in
Speaker 1: front of it. Again I'm blanking on. I know it
Speaker 1: was a governmental entity, um, and that it wasn't, but
Speaker 1: so he wound up having to go in front of
Speaker 1: them because they were all of these steroid whatevers and
Speaker 1: people still being treated like a for real, for real sport.
Speaker 1: And that's kind of when the mask began to drop
Speaker 1: on cafebe because you can't say, well, I'm not in
Speaker 1: charge of what these wrestlers do when all so, this
Speaker 1: isn't really a sport unless you admit that it's not
Speaker 1: really a sport if you're going up in front of
Speaker 1: you know, whatever game, you know, Sports and Gaming Commission.
Speaker 1: He had to go in front, And that's why they're
Speaker 1: so adamant about calling it sports entertainment and calling them
Speaker 1: exactly and calling them sports entertainers. So if you ever
Speaker 1: hear like, there's I think there's compilations on YouTube of
Speaker 1: people accidentally saying wrestler and then you can hear like
Speaker 1: Vent screaming in their ear, like somebody on the mic
Speaker 1: accidentally saying wrestler, and then you can hear Vince screaming
Speaker 1: in their ear, and they're like, it's a sports sports entertainer. Yeah,
Speaker 1: by Vince's terminology. Um. Yeah, So so we mentioned the
Speaker 1: Montreal screw job and I'm kind of blushing over her
Speaker 1: because I was like, Sean Michael's is my favorite. Oh
Speaker 1: so the Montreal screw job was an instant that happened
Speaker 1: obviously Montreal. What year was it, Dann do you happen
Speaker 1: to know the exactly? I want to say? So, there
Speaker 1: was a buildup between a match between Brett Hart of
Speaker 1: the Heart Foundation and UM Shawn Michaels. It was like
Speaker 1: what you said, yeah so they yeah, so there was
Speaker 1: this big culmination that they're supposed to fight and then
Speaker 1: uh the title. Uh So Brett Hart was a champion
Speaker 1: during the time and he did not want to drop
Speaker 1: the title to Shawn Michaels. But Shawn Michaels was really
Speaker 1: good friends with Vince McMahon UM possibly a lover back then.
Speaker 1: And an important and important note to make on this
Speaker 1: was that UM Brett was getting ready to leave for
Speaker 1: their rival w c W and Vince, and Vince wanted
Speaker 1: him a classic way that you leave, you always go
Speaker 1: out on your back, you always go out losing. And
Speaker 1: so what Brett was prepared to do was lose, but
Speaker 1: he didn't want to lose in his hometown at WrestleMania.
Speaker 1: He was going to lose the day after, but because
Speaker 1: there was such a rivalry between them and w CW,
Speaker 1: recently they're champions were doing something where because you know,
Speaker 1: uh w W E stuff was pretaped so someone you
Speaker 1: would see who would take something two weeks ago would
Speaker 1: suddenly be on the rival channel at the same time.
Speaker 1: Um and then very famously, a Lundra Blaze um ak
Speaker 1: a Medusa left w W with her women's championship and
Speaker 1: she threw in the trash on the enemy program, you know,
Speaker 1: on this rival program on WCW. Um So, this was
Speaker 1: the fear of Bret Hart leaving with the title. They
Speaker 1: didn't want him to take the title to w c W.
Speaker 1: They couldn't have that. So there was a deal made
Speaker 1: backstage unbeknownst to Brett Hart. Um So, Seawn Michaels goes
Speaker 1: in for the pin and the referee counted very quickly.
Speaker 1: So he so he didn't he put him in a submission.
Speaker 1: I put him in a submission. That's right. Yeah, he tapped,
Speaker 1: he tapped, thank you, yeah, thanks, you know, they put it.
Speaker 1: He put him in a submission and he didn't tap.
Speaker 1: He didn't tapp, and he said he didn't. He didn't happen.
Speaker 1: Then they were like he was like he's out, and
Speaker 1: you can see Brett Hart stand up and be like confused, No,
Speaker 1: I didn't, I did not tap I did happened? And
Speaker 1: while that's happening, Sean Michael's is hauling ass out of
Speaker 1: the race, throwing like he has no idea what's going on,
Speaker 1: and they're throwing things at him like on the way out,
Speaker 1: like they're just people are living because this is Brett
Speaker 1: Hart's hometown and Red Heart is spit on directly onto
Speaker 1: Vinca Ban's face like it was a lugie. And then um,
Speaker 1: and then Bret Hart. You can go back and look
Speaker 1: at the footage. He spells out w c W. Wasn't
Speaker 1: a sharpshooter that he did. He did on him, which
Speaker 1: is Brett Hart's finisher. Yea, So he used his own
Speaker 1: finisher on bred Heart to make him tap out into yeah,
Speaker 1: and the most disrespectful thing he could have done. And
Speaker 1: then so Bret Hart went in the back, punched Vince
Speaker 1: McMahon right in the face, punched him in the face too,
Speaker 1: and he finally, like after many many many years, finally
Speaker 1: was inducted into the Hall of Fame this year. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So like, thank God for that. There's been a lot
Speaker 1: of a lot of animosity between the Heart family, and
Speaker 1: uh yes, and so Sean Michael's is a is a
Speaker 1: reformed man now but back way, just so you know,
Speaker 1: like Brett Hart is the brother of the guy who
Speaker 1: we were talking about who died in the ring. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so there's the Heart family has not had it easy. No,
Speaker 1: Um that that pay per view over the Edge, by
Speaker 1: the way, was the first pay per view that I
Speaker 1: would beg and beg my parents to buy me paper
Speaker 1: like you know, plase for thirty night night and I place,
Speaker 1: you know, the very first one that they bought for me,
Speaker 1: my brother. And uh it was a long time after
Speaker 1: that about another view. I was so young that my
Speaker 1: dad I can literally remember and I talked to him
Speaker 1: about this like two years ago and he was like,
Speaker 1: that's crazy that you remember that. But I can literally
Speaker 1: remember him saying, she'll never remember this. It's okay. So
Speaker 1: to get into this heartbreaking, super sad incident. Um at
Speaker 1: the time, Owen Heart, who again all of the Heart family.
Speaker 1: They are a family of wrestlers. Um Stu Heart runs
Speaker 1: what they call the Dungeon where they train wrestlers. Wrestling
Speaker 1: is their family business. And so Brett at this point
Speaker 1: was gone. Owen was doing this weird gimmick called the
Speaker 1: Blue Blazer where he pretended he was a super hero
Speaker 1: but everyone knew he wasn't. So going into over the edge,
Speaker 1: they were going to have him come down on not
Speaker 1: like a zip line, but on a like like a platform,
Speaker 1: not a plat, not a platform. It's what's the name
Speaker 1: of it when they hook you in, Either the name
Speaker 1: when they hook you in to make you look like
Speaker 1: you're flying and like a show or something like harness. Yeah,
Speaker 1: like a zip line harness thing. Um. Sean Michaels used
Speaker 1: to use them all the time as part of his
Speaker 1: big entrances, and so the idea was he was going
Speaker 1: to come in, get on clipped and do his match
Speaker 1: at the last minute. And there are lots of different
Speaker 1: reasons why people have said, but my understanding is that
Speaker 1: the last minute, because he was having problems getting unclipped
Speaker 1: out of the UM out of the system, they switched
Speaker 1: it to a different kind of system and they did
Speaker 1: not test it. So while he is coming down into
Speaker 1: the ring, UM he the harness or whatever releases. He
Speaker 1: hits one of the ring posts and then falls into
Speaker 1: the ring and UM passes a way. UM they take
Speaker 1: him out of the ring. Um, they continue the pay
Speaker 1: per view. What he is loved by everyone. No one
Speaker 1: has a bad thing to say about this man. All
Speaker 1: the boys in the back love him. He was known
Speaker 1: for being an incredible wrestler. He was known for being
Speaker 1: incredibly great at training and doing well by the new guys.
Speaker 1: He was known for his huge sense of humor and
Speaker 1: his ability to pull pranks, which is what they call ribs. Um.
Speaker 1: The guys always rip each other in the back or whatever,
Speaker 1: because what are you gonna do. You've got all that
Speaker 1: travel time. Um be universally beloved figure. And the show
Speaker 1: goes on. Um. At a certain point, Um, Jim Ross
Speaker 1: has to announce that Owen has passed away and everyone
Speaker 1: else is just doing their best to continue this thing.
Speaker 1: And the decision to continue the pay per view after
Speaker 1: that is one of out of all of the things
Speaker 1: that make Man's have done, one of the most controversial.
Speaker 1: And if that can tell you, yeah, oh yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: yeah that was so that was all of our first
Speaker 1: pay per view. Yeah, and we still watch and I
Speaker 1: thought it was you know, I thought it was part
Speaker 1: of it, and we thought I thought it was part
Speaker 1: of the show. I thought it was a part of
Speaker 1: I was confused because when he felt I was like, well,
Speaker 1: why isn't he coming back? Like he's just not going
Speaker 1: to do They quit very quickly because they've got that
Speaker 1: five you know, they've got that delay. They're used to
Speaker 1: having to cut away from injuries and things. And so
Speaker 1: you don't see him, thankfully you don't. You didn't. You
Speaker 1: didn't see him actually hit anything. You saw it, you
Speaker 1: saw like a split second and then that was that
Speaker 1: was it. And they didn't show any shots of him
Speaker 1: in the ring, thank god. That would have been yeah,
Speaker 1: burned in our memories forever. Um. The people there and
Speaker 1: it was just silent. It was like that pay per view,
Speaker 1: just silent. You know, they were all they want well
Speaker 1: and they also weren't telling anyone who was there watching.
Speaker 1: They were not giving them updates. They were giving the
Speaker 1: people watching at home this week because they think the
Speaker 1: certain places um networks or whatever networks, but cable providers
Speaker 1: I think, decided to just not show it anymore. Well
Speaker 1: that's that's good, that's good. But yeah, they didn't tell
Speaker 1: anyone in the arena because there showing on. So this
Speaker 1: that was still a part of the attitude era. This
Speaker 1: is so um I guess just wrapping up this. That's
Speaker 1: very morbid part of the era. Um, is there anything
Speaker 1: else before we move on to the next one. Oh
Speaker 1: so yeah, the attitude aras where you get your stone
Speaker 1: called Steve Austin's. It's where man started the rocket sos
Speaker 1: Man amongst you know, his his behind the scenes role.
Speaker 1: He really became an evil character because of that, because
Speaker 1: so he stepped into the line after that, and you know,
Speaker 1: this is when they really started to take stories that
Speaker 1: were leaking to the public like this montre Else screw
Speaker 1: job and writing it into the show. Yeah. Yeah. And
Speaker 1: before that, Vince had been um an announcer. He was
Speaker 1: like the announcer there and they never talked about how
Speaker 1: he was the owner of the company and riding everything,
Speaker 1: um because that was a way to be able to
Speaker 1: control the story. And then after that he became the
Speaker 1: boss and not only him but his um but yeah,
Speaker 1: his his children, Shane, well his older child, like she
Speaker 1: didn't she didn't want any part of it. She wasn't right.
Speaker 1: She never showed on camera. She's like that one Osborne. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's yeah, there's smart. I was about to say there's Kelly,
Speaker 1: and then um, there's a Stephanie and and she McMahon
Speaker 1: who also became prominent characters. Um, she McMann embraced the
Speaker 1: Weasley you know, son of the Owner character, and um,
Speaker 1: that's why you know Stephanie McMahon was kidnapped quote unquote
Speaker 1: by the by the Undertaker. Um, this was a very
Speaker 1: insane storyline time. Yeah, and this well exactly so like
Speaker 1: this was this was the time when the shift started
Speaker 1: to happen from muscle from braun to more personality driven
Speaker 1: gimmicks and so like you moved away from like the
Speaker 1: very classic wrestling of like Bruno San Martino, like I said,
Speaker 1: and then you get to like the Ultimate Warrior and
Speaker 1: holg In and like people who have strong characters, but
Speaker 1: their characters are just I am strong, and then their
Speaker 1: work rates are terrible, very bad. Um or great is
Speaker 1: what means, like have much stuff you can actually do
Speaker 1: in the ring, like two moves. Um. And then now
Speaker 1: what we see with the attitude there is still like
Speaker 1: an emphasis on the bronze, emphasis on the strong, but
Speaker 1: now we're getting these characters they are seen as more
Speaker 1: like comedic more it was more I think it is weird.
Speaker 1: It was it was was more marketed for kids, and
Speaker 1: we had UM Degeneration next, and you remember suck it.
Speaker 1: You remember, you know, being told to suck it. You know,
Speaker 1: the cross shop and everything that was during that same time.
Speaker 1: My mom hated that. My mom hated that, hated that
Speaker 1: we were not allowed to do that in our house.
Speaker 1: And the leader, one of the leaders of Degeneration next
Speaker 1: with Triple h who ended up marrying UM, Stephan McMahon
Speaker 1: both on camera. You know, supposed he kidnaps her, kidnaps
Speaker 1: her and married her in a drive through Las Vegas
Speaker 1: chappell um while she was passed out, so that happened,
Speaker 1: but they are actually married in real life and are
Speaker 1: uh yeah, a big duo in the company that we
Speaker 1: kind of we kind of champions Triple Lates because he
Speaker 1: is he's you know, the son, the son in law
Speaker 1: of Inspect band, but has his own ideas and brings
Speaker 1: in a lot of the people that we love UM
Speaker 1: into the company. We have to take a really quick break.
Speaker 1: We're gonna come back jump into more of wrestling and
Speaker 1: also kind of just get into how they get how
Speaker 1: now wrestlers are even able to join the WWT, like
Speaker 1: what that process is. Right after this and we're back.
Speaker 1: I'm still joined by Rachel, Danielle and Janelle and um one.
Speaker 1: I just love watching how excited you'll get when you
Speaker 1: talk about it. It's it's those are my favorite guests
Speaker 1: to have our people that are so passionate about it.
Speaker 1: It's like, oh no, I just got to tell you
Speaker 1: the t about this, Like I have so much tea
Speaker 1: on this. I just I can see your eyes light
Speaker 1: up when you talk about it. There's all types of
Speaker 1: fights kind of came about it that, you know. Daniel
Speaker 1: started a Facebook group and then we all we were
Speaker 1: all just so excited to be there and talk to
Speaker 1: each other and we would have meet ups and stuff.
Speaker 1: And then that was before I haven't been I haven't
Speaker 1: been a good mommy on that. I missed that Facebook
Speaker 1: group when it was like ten people exactly when we
Speaker 1: were cool. That then, right, and so we did yeah,
Speaker 1: and so I wind up getting the podcast and so
Speaker 1: now we have a different Facebook group that is not
Speaker 1: because mine was very specifically like I want my industry
Speaker 1: buds and me to have a safe place where we
Speaker 1: can talk about rest. So we're moving into the pg
Speaker 1: UM era. So what exactly I mean was this to
Speaker 1: market more to be more more in reality. Like, so
Speaker 1: I imagine they're trying to pull non traditional wrestlings for
Speaker 1: advertisers to be okay with your product. Okay that bad
Speaker 1: people were people were they were boycotts um. I think
Speaker 1: Coke for a while it was either Coke, Pepsie, one
Speaker 1: of the big ones. They took their support off. They
Speaker 1: were having a really hard time getting people to actually
Speaker 1: like getting advertisers on the show. And this was around
Speaker 1: the time too that they started to have a new
Speaker 1: emphasis on merchandising and so like they knew that kids
Speaker 1: were buying merchandizing and so they were like, okay, well
Speaker 1: we have to pivot here. It was around the time
Speaker 1: they went public. I can't remember. Yes, yes, that's when
Speaker 1: they public. Yeah, that's very smart. Yeah, that's when they
Speaker 1: went public. And so there was like a lot of
Speaker 1: pressure not well also, honestly, they pushed it with the
Speaker 1: attitude there. They pushed it to a degree that was like,
Speaker 1: my this is on TV and my kid can't watch it.
Speaker 1: It's on a primetime spot. My kid can't watch it.
Speaker 1: So we're gonna have to reel it in real content
Speaker 1: change there, Yeah, for sure, And I wonder how much
Speaker 1: of that was Linda. Well no, and in politics. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's actually a really important point because she was getting
Speaker 1: hammered when she was trying to run for office in
Speaker 1: Connecticut because people were like, how are you What is
Speaker 1: this trash that you're putting on? And I do believe,
Speaker 1: even if it's just a little bit, that that has
Speaker 1: something to do with them suddenly going PG is that
Speaker 1: she has always had um, she's always wanted to be
Speaker 1: involved in politics, and they're realizing like, oh, well, we
Speaker 1: can't have you know, we can't be the show where
Speaker 1: and I wish this was fake. We can't be the
Speaker 1: show where our son in law is pretending to have
Speaker 1: sex with a dead body and then comes up with
Speaker 1: a handful of meat. We can't be that show. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And she's currently in Trump's cabinet. Small business. So in
Speaker 1: March of two thousand and two, they decided to kind
Speaker 1: of separate their rosters and they put wrestlers on two
Speaker 1: different shows like what happened. They wanted people to watch
Speaker 1: different shows and have incentive to because you had SmackDown
Speaker 1: was on up N at the time, I believe, and
Speaker 1: then Raw was always It's always been on well on
Speaker 1: USA sometimes it's always been on cable cable, Yeah, at
Speaker 1: least cable. So up n was, you know, was a
Speaker 1: channel that we all got, you know, with just the antennas,
Speaker 1: you know, the um so. I think that they wanted
Speaker 1: to give people different things to watch, but more incentive
Speaker 1: to watch, you know, if you want to see your wrestler.
Speaker 1: The Rock. The Rock was really the one who um
Speaker 1: uh coin kind of SmackDown Smacdun was part of one
Speaker 1: of his twenty eight catchphrases, Yeah he's so good. One
Speaker 1: of them was just about how much he likes to eat. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: she was. So they like literally named a brand after
Speaker 1: him because it's I mean again diversification of income. And
Speaker 1: now we're saying, like this new air kind of ushered
Speaker 1: in by the Rock, who was literally called the people's champion.
Speaker 1: So he like he encouraged a new audience, so he
Speaker 1: brought in and he sort of shepherd in new people
Speaker 1: into Ino. Smacdun, I think he actually brought up John Cina.
Speaker 1: I want to say that he the John Cina, didn't
Speaker 1: he have? Um what was Johnson's first story besides him
Speaker 1: being the prototype after after that? Yeah, I know, his
Speaker 1: first thing was when he came in and interrupted Kurt
Speaker 1: Angle and they had their little Crid Angle, who is
Speaker 1: actually an Olympic champion who then became one of the
Speaker 1: best and most popular and most hilarious wrestlers of all time.
Speaker 1: He is the father of He's such a dad. He
Speaker 1: looks like he's always about to cry, and he also
Speaker 1: looks like one of those thumb people from Spy Kids. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's a new development because he used to not have
Speaker 1: he used to have hair, and then they cut his
Speaker 1: hair because they wanted to him to stop being the
Speaker 1: the um oh geez, guys, stop messing with me guy.
Speaker 1: Um they made him more Yeah, because they turned him
Speaker 1: I think at that point. And so he's kind of
Speaker 1: get the hair off since then. But um, yes, so
Speaker 1: so yeah, but this was the ruthless aggression era. This
Speaker 1: is you know, when we have the Randy Orton's coming
Speaker 1: in Randy Battista. Um, so this was Dave Bautista. I'm
Speaker 1: also known as give me a name. I'm blinking on
Speaker 1: a reax. It's so crazy that he was able to
Speaker 1: hop over I never so cool. I love I mean
Speaker 1: obviously with the rock, but like, yeah, I mean being
Speaker 1: able to really it just goes back to them being
Speaker 1: entertainers because being able to captivate large audiences. John Cena
Speaker 1: now is becoming he's comedic, comedic, like he's being a
Speaker 1: host now he's like he's like he was filling it
Speaker 1: for Ellen, Like that's wild Blockers and yeah bubble By,
Speaker 1: which he was great at. Yeah. Um yeah. So yeah,
Speaker 1: there was those eras and then they became and we've
Speaker 1: got to kind of condense some of this. We became
Speaker 1: the reality era, which is especially with the rise of
Speaker 1: social media. Again, knowing that we're starting to get to
Speaker 1: a point where the fans are starting to know and
Speaker 1: and get more backstage rumors. We kind of know markmar
Speaker 1: Smart Smart Marks and now they started playing with well
Speaker 1: what is real and what is kabe? And they had
Speaker 1: reality shows what are we going to show you? Yeah?
Speaker 1: What is real? And one of the big things out
Speaker 1: of that era was a wrestler are called CM punk
Speaker 1: did what is known as the pipe bomb UM, which
Speaker 1: is so in interviews, one of the terms for when
Speaker 1: a wrestler is doing a real interview where they're really
Speaker 1: talking and it's not KF they call it a shoot
Speaker 1: interview UM. And so pipe bomb was something that was
Speaker 1: he worked himself into a worked him well, it's also
Speaker 1: a worked shoot, and that it was meant to seem
Speaker 1: like it was real, and he peppered it in with
Speaker 1: you know, he basically comes in, sits down. Um, he
Speaker 1: sits down over by I guess the Titan Tron whatever
Speaker 1: they call now. He sits on the ramp with a
Speaker 1: microphone in his hand and he just starts going off
Speaker 1: about how dumb the company is, about how he is
Speaker 1: going to leave because the company is really stupid, and
Speaker 1: he name dropped company company. Yeah, you just don't acknowledge
Speaker 1: them at all, but he was name dropping, I believe
Speaker 1: ring um. And so he was so convincing because he's
Speaker 1: still one of the best talkers. He was so convincing that,
Speaker 1: like ESPN covered it, Um, real sport folks were like,
Speaker 1: is this guy just suddenly going off on w W
Speaker 1: E and blah blah blah. And so that really worked.
Speaker 1: And in fact, I had been taking a break from
Speaker 1: wrestling because um, there's only there weren't really any great
Speaker 1: women during the Ruthless Aggression era fields because I did
Speaker 1: the same thing. You're gonna check out because you're like,
Speaker 1: oh Stone Colds gone. I took a break around like
Speaker 1: two thousand four, around then, and then I came back
Speaker 1: with the product wasn't great. The way they treated their
Speaker 1: women was abysmal, and so there was just nothing really
Speaker 1: in it for me. There was no China's you know, um,
Speaker 1: And so I came back with CM punk and the
Speaker 1: pipe Bomb because I was like, Oh, if you can
Speaker 1: trick Jim Rome, I want to see what's going on.
Speaker 1: I'm like, I'm so, I'm such a mark, Like I
Speaker 1: am so easy to trick. It's so funny. You would
Speaker 1: think that, like with all the people that I know
Speaker 1: who work in the w w E, that I would
Speaker 1: have a some understanding of what's real and what's not.
Speaker 1: And I do not. Like I will text people, I
Speaker 1: will watch raw and then text somebody, are you okay?
Speaker 1: And then yeah, dude, I'm okay. So, like this pipe
Speaker 1: bomb thing blew my mind insane because I mean I
Speaker 1: was pretty young, but I was also like, this is it,
Speaker 1: So go back on it and get chills like now,
Speaker 1: because I also learned about that pipe bomb, that pipe
Speaker 1: bomb promo, if you want to call it that, UM,
Speaker 1: I learned about other promotions from that, Like that was
Speaker 1: the first time I'd heard a ring of honor and
Speaker 1: never a lot of people was Yeah, so that was
Speaker 1: really exciting. Yeah, and so they started doing more of that.
Speaker 1: Wrestlers were starting to get their own social media channels
Speaker 1: and some of them learning what they can and cannot
Speaker 1: do on there. Um. And so that is what brought
Speaker 1: us to, like I said, that kind of reality where
Speaker 1: we get total Divas, which is a show of you know,
Speaker 1: just the women, you know, the the glamour of being
Speaker 1: a woman female wrestler. Um and Nash. By the way,
Speaker 1: can you tell me some of the iconic women that
Speaker 1: are in this today organization ever? China, China, Trish Stratus, Lida. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I believe he flips, like a lot of flips, and
Speaker 1: that was not what women did back then. Yeah. She
Speaker 1: was really great at doing cants, like she was like cool.
Speaker 1: You know, were seeing her when I was a kid,
Speaker 1: and I was like, oh, I can be that. We
Speaker 1: all wanted to be that because she was relatable. She
Speaker 1: was you know, Tris Stratus was the opposite where she's
Speaker 1: kind of that nineties porn look um, but still was
Speaker 1: Badasso and she like she saved her and Lida, those
Speaker 1: two they worked, they worked each other so well because
Speaker 1: you know you had, um, you had that storyline going
Speaker 1: between them. UM, so that was fantastic. But today, yes
Speaker 1: and so, But one thing I do want to touch on.
Speaker 1: We won't have time to get into it, but if
Speaker 1: you're ever interested Joshi wrestling in the nineties, UM, women
Speaker 1: wrestlers in Japan, if you ever get a chance to
Speaker 1: look some of those up. Some of those moves are
Speaker 1: so good that dudes were stealing their move sets. UM.
Speaker 1: So anyway, that's just something that's really good. But right now, yeah,
Speaker 1: we are in an era where women's wrestling is the
Speaker 1: best I think it's been. We've lost the term divas
Speaker 1: now in w TB. There now to superstars the same
Speaker 1: as the male. Um. There's now a female tag team division,
Speaker 1: which didn't exist before because it was only tag team
Speaker 1: for man, you know man. And so yeah, we have
Speaker 1: our Sasha, we have Sasha Banks, we have Bailey, we
Speaker 1: have um Becky Lynch who is known as the Man
Speaker 1: right now, which she's holding two belts, she's holding two
Speaker 1: titles Becky in these and like I do have to
Speaker 1: say to you, if you are just a fan of
Speaker 1: w W and you're listening to this, I feel like
Speaker 1: a couple put overs is very important. So like Jordan Grace,
Speaker 1: check her out. Yes, Tie Valkyrie, please check her out.
Speaker 1: Has a Blanchard from the Blanchard Dynasty, Please check her out.
Speaker 1: So like, do you know if if you're not finding
Speaker 1: what you need within the w W, which I find
Speaker 1: to be impossible because if you're not finding what you
Speaker 1: need on the main brands, check out an xt. Oh
Speaker 1: my god, Kyrie Sane. Did she get called up? She
Speaker 1: got called up? But you know what that is a
Speaker 1: great UM, that's a good segue because that was something
Speaker 1: that UM we wanted to talk about, is how people
Speaker 1: actually get into the WW these days. UM. And so
Speaker 1: there is something called the Performance Center now where they
Speaker 1: have their own basically Big Jim in Florida. And some
Speaker 1: people come in because they are recruited from other other
Speaker 1: sports and they'll say, I like your look, you come
Speaker 1: and do a try out and see if you can
Speaker 1: get a wrestler, a lot of football players, a lot
Speaker 1: of Olympians, UM. And then for some people, they are
Speaker 1: people who have gotten a good name or made a
Speaker 1: good name for themselves on the indies. And so a
Speaker 1: lot of these days, a lot of so cow people
Speaker 1: coming in these days, like Matt Riddle. Rick is like,
Speaker 1: we're seeing a good amount of so cow wrestlers, which
Speaker 1: I'm happy about because I think it's the best wrestling
Speaker 1: in the world. Um UM that stands for pro wrestling grill.
Speaker 1: It's one of the best UM independent wrestling shows ever.
Speaker 1: It happens once a month. It's impossible to get tickets.
Speaker 1: So n x T is the brand where if you
Speaker 1: get good enough, it happens UM Wednesdays. They're pre taped.
Speaker 1: If you get good enough, that's where they train you
Speaker 1: to start being able to be on TV. And so
Speaker 1: that is is you know, you start getting onto n
Speaker 1: x T, you start getting TV time, you learn how
Speaker 1: to really be on TV, and that is the next
Speaker 1: step towards getting drafted onto the main roster, which is
Speaker 1: either on the SmackDown roster or the raw roster. And
Speaker 1: this is new because like what they're they're not just
Speaker 1: teaching them that like I said earlier, the w w
Speaker 1: B style not because a lot of people have to
Speaker 1: unlearn things like Ricochet when he came in, he had
Speaker 1: to unlearn how to physically hurt somebody. Yeah, because when
Speaker 1: you look at these indies like these people are killing
Speaker 1: each other. If you look at New Japan, these people
Speaker 1: are hurting each other. There's like, no, I'm you're gonna
Speaker 1: you're gonna feel it. I'm gonna need you in the face,
Speaker 1: and that's what's gonna happen because it's gonna look fake otherwise.
Speaker 1: But they have to unlearn that and it is a skill.
Speaker 1: But on top of that, they're also getting Mike skills,
Speaker 1: like they're getting developmental skills. They come in and they
Speaker 1: pitch characters. So it's kind of like an interesting creative space.
Speaker 1: And important to note that Triple H is actually the
Speaker 1: one in charge of the n X team was one
Speaker 1: of the people that that um Um pushed a lot
Speaker 1: of people, a lot of the independent people on there,
Speaker 1: and that's why we sort of appreciate how he's championed
Speaker 1: um these people that we admire so much from the indies,
Speaker 1: like Ricochet, because one of the big things is that
Speaker 1: they can actually keep their name now. Before they would
Speaker 1: come in and we're like, Chris Hero, we're changing your
Speaker 1: name to Cassie Us. Oh no, it's like, oh, that's
Speaker 1: not good for my brand, But okay, so now Ricochet
Speaker 1: is Ricochet and so that's the feels good. Yeah, that
Speaker 1: is nice. I don't know how we did that. There's
Speaker 1: literally so much to cover with this. If y'all are down,
Speaker 1: I would love to have you come back on because
Speaker 1: I know we didn't even get to talk about our
Speaker 1: friends that are in it, you know, which is it
Speaker 1: was great though, because this is an introduction to talk
Speaker 1: about the history of where it came from. I'm very
Speaker 1: aware listener that we might not have touched on your favorite,
Speaker 1: UM wrestler. It's very obvious these women are extremely educated
Speaker 1: on this and probably know your favorite wrestlers. So feel
Speaker 1: free to tweet at us and let us know kindly
Speaker 1: and be like, oh, this is my favorite or this
Speaker 1: is my you know, my first memory. UM. But if
Speaker 1: you're going to say you left out this, I can
Speaker 1: guarantee that they already know it backwards and forwards. UM.
Speaker 1: And it was my fault for having to cut our
Speaker 1: time because we have to record after this, UM, because
Speaker 1: we love y'all and we're trying to do our best
Speaker 1: getting you everything possible that you want. I would love
Speaker 1: for you all to come back though, so we can
Speaker 1: talk about some of the culture and the future of wrestling.
Speaker 1: That would be women of wrestling and um yeah, just
Speaker 1: what it currently looks like now and and how social
Speaker 1: media has affended all of that. Thank you all for
Speaker 1: coming out. Um, Janelle, where can everyone catch you? Um At?
Speaker 1: Janelle Santa Cruz is my social media name on everything
Speaker 1: on Tuesday's. Actually after this episode comes up, um, I
Speaker 1: will be on Uh. I do a show on hyper RPG, Twitch,
Speaker 1: dot tv, slash hyper apart Um called blood Curling Tales
Speaker 1: of Terror where it's it's an eighties RPG and uh
Speaker 1: it's a horror thing and we're actually blood curdling tales
Speaker 1: and time now, so we're time traveling. I play miss
Speaker 1: Land Hamilton's um that it's a good time. And so
Speaker 1: from Texas, Texas, break out my Texas accent um um.
Speaker 1: And then uh yeah from Houston. You guys are both
Speaker 1: from Texas, girl from both where from daniel I'm from Seattle,
Speaker 1: I'm boring. Hey yeah, Danielle, what can everyone catch you yet?
Speaker 1: You can find me, um just on my social media.
Speaker 1: My Twitter is Danielle Radford. You can find me on
Speaker 1: Instagram and daniel Underscore Radford again. My podcast Tights and
Speaker 1: Fights on the Max Fun Network comes out every Thursday. Um,
Speaker 1: where we recap wrestling. But and then I make lots
Speaker 1: of jokes about it that are inappropriate, um, saying things
Speaker 1: like work me daddy, or kind of promo one myne um,
Speaker 1: which apparently is the thing that I do. Um. You
Speaker 1: can also if you like the honest trailers on screen junkies,
Speaker 1: I write those sometimes, so check them out so I
Speaker 1: keep getting paid by Yeah. Oh hih. You can find
Speaker 1: me all over the internet at Rachel sam Evans or
Speaker 1: Rachel same Vans. It depends on how your brain works.
Speaker 1: And uh yeah, but that's you know, you don't have
Speaker 1: to watch my stuff. That's fine, we do you know,
Speaker 1: you don't whatever, guys, but you can find me literally
Speaker 1: at any wrestling show. We truly are over the place. Yeah,
Speaker 1: if you were in southern California, Fornia, chances are I
Speaker 1: will be at the independent wrestling show happening that week,
Speaker 1: So come say hi please. I know you all are
Speaker 1: both such a big fans of independent right, Like I
Speaker 1: feel like that's such a huge part of the Yeah
Speaker 1: I'm at Miss Danny Fernandez. Um, yeah, check us out
Speaker 1: on te Public. We have a bunch of merch. We're
Speaker 1: gonna add some wrestling merch we'll add some wrestling merch
Speaker 1: for this UM, so it's t public dot com, slash
Speaker 1: and nificent. UM. Thank you again for joining us. We
Speaker 1: will do part two of this, I promise, because I
Speaker 1: feel like you'll have even more tea to educate me about.
Speaker 1: We haven't even gotten into the like real spicies. You
Speaker 1: have just an allte episode and that will make people.
Speaker 1: People that don't watch wrestling will want to watch this problem. UM.
Speaker 1: Like we always say, stay nerdy,