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Hi, guys. I don't know
if this will ever get released, but

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I just wanted to send this in
to talk a little bit about sort of

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what the Laps Far has meant to
me over the years of listening to it.

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So the first episode I ever listened
to was episode sixty six Some Slam

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nineteen ninety nine, and at the
time I really hated it. I think

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of a lot like a lot of
our listeners were. The first time I

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tried listening, I really just bounced
right off the thing. I remember getting

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to the part where you were making
fun of Steve Blackman, been talking about

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how he was a fake tough guy, and I think for some reason I

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got indignant at that, at the
thought that, you know, no,

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this guy really wasn't tough. He
was just sort of a regular wrestler of

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this sort of karate gimmick, and
I switched it off and again. So

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I just really didn't like it.
But all these weeks later I tried to

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give it another chance. I think
what really hooked me was the YouTuber recordings

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of your talks with David Meltzer on
the WrestleMania Journey, and they kind of

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give me that perspective of you know, these guys aren't just yet sort of

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make fun of very thing in the
crap all over everything, but they're actually

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very insightful in variant wrestling, sort
of the history of wrestling. And so

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I started watching again, and I
think what's been very valuable is actually what

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turned me off in the first place, which is that mentality, have no

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sacred cows, the fact that you
are willing to be so brutally honest about

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a lot of people and to put
a lot of people into the microscope,

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guys like the Undertaker, who I
would have just fought of his legend,

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who I grew up with, who
had never really thought critically of, and

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really taking guys like him apart and
really saying, you know, everybody says

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he's his locker room leader and he's
the coolest guy in the room, but

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let's actually look at him as a
wrestler. As a promo, he wasn't

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very good, and you sort of
look at some of the things he did

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later in life with sort of critical
eyes and you think, how this guy

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really is all that we sort of
thought he was. And without you know,

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a podcast like The Laps Fan,
which can really take a critical look

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at those sorts of guys. I
think it's very easy for us as wrestling

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I was just sort of believe the
narratives that companies want to sort of foist

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upon us. It's very hard to
look at things critically sometimes, especially when

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it's all wrap up in nostalgia.
So I think that's a really valuable thing

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that The Last Fan does as well. What I wanted to just comment upon

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is the way in which the podcast
is so good at just encapsulating certain people,

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certain eras of wrestling so well.
So one of the things that I

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always like think about what I'm thinking
of the cast, and it's such a

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little thing, but the discussion about
Triple H call himself a diamond in two

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thousand and four, in this sort
of rant that you went on in one

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of your episodes about how it's sitting
in the college cafeteria, You're listening to

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Triple H talking about he's a diamond
and just rolling his eyes and thinking,

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you know, this guy, he
was a brawler, he was a member

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of DX, and now he's walking
around and trying to call himself a diamond

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with his feathered hair and his white
boots on, and just it's such a

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little thing that I don't think anyone
else would really ever remember or talk about,

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but it just so encapsulates that kind
of period in why that character was

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so eye rolling. Another example I
think would be Vincent in the way that

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you often make fun of the way
that he speaks and the sort of very

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tortured ways that he talks about business
in What the w dewe Is. I

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don't think I've ever heard anybody else
sort of narrow into that part of Vince's

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character, but I feel like it
tells you so much because it illustrates how

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that need he has inside of trying
to be this like legitimate businessman and trying

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to be respected by the wider world, to get in with people from NBC

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and stuff like that, And I
think that's just so useful. I think

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even in stuff like the lamentable tragedy
of World Class, the narrowing in on

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stuff like Heaven needed a Champion,
which I'm not sure if he even did

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sort of consciously because yes, it's
a very funny song. It's very funny

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to make you know, light ov
and a play and to sing along with

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it because it's so bad. But
you know, when you really think about

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it, what a sort of the
correlements of the tragedy in World Class.

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It's the fact that you've got this
guy Fritz van Eric, who moves on

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so quickly from tragedy, who never
seems to take a step back and really

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learn anything from what he's doing,
who refuses to take accountability, who's trying

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to profit off of the deaths and
the tragedies that are going on in his

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family, and that's pushing his sons
into doing something that they don't really want

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to do, is putting too many
expectations upon them. And then you listen

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to the song Heaven Needed a Champion, and on the surface it's very funny,

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yes, but when you dig into
it and you really think about it,

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you know, it's this CD that's
coming out in that profiting off of

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the death of David von Eric,
and it's sung by this, you know,

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this fraud, Glenn Goza, who
isn't like a legitimate musician or anything

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like that, you know, in
these selling these selling this song about David

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and talking about how, oh how
he's a champion, how it's okay that

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he died because he needed a champion, when you know, you know,

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David probably didn't want that variant horses. This is sort of Fritz's vision for

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him being loaded about upon his death, and and so you pick up on

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those sorts of things, and on
the surface, yeah, it's very very

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funny, like you could pick up
on Heaven needed a Champion, but also

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just summarizes that whole journey, And
you know, I think that's just such

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an important part of the cast and
and the fact that when you're talking about

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the Iron Klare movie and how that
tries to focus on Kevin whereas it's really

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Fritz, his storian and the talk
that you guys had about how sort of

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almost immediately upon putting to the other
your anal tragedy journey, how you realize

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how the whole the story was about
Frits. And I think that's so you

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know, well done, that you
guys are always able to pick up on

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what's the actual core thread of this
story and to really focus and hone in

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on that certain individual or that certain
moment that just sums up the whole story

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that really just illustrates them, and
they are able to get to sort of

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the cause of these people and really
pick them apart. You know. So

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a comment I think is so true
about your Eric Bischoff impression, about how

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you know Eric Bischoff. He he
doesn't have like a particularly strong accent or

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a particularly unique way of speaking.
It would be so hard to come up

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with an impression of that guy.
You know, he doesn't have any catchphrases

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or any sort of go to phrases. But somehow you're able to really like

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dig into his Like you can come
up with this whole character about him,

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and you know about how he's hunting
in my owning, and he likes all

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these you know, lavish foods and
going on all these high restaurants and all

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that sort of stuff, and just
over and over again, you're able to

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surprise me by really digging at these
people and really finding out those kind of

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layers hidden underneath the surface. I
think got so easily missed. And so

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I really want to thank the guys
because you know, I've listened to ever

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since episode sixty six, so I've
listened for years now, and it's always

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such good content. It's always so
funny. Every time I think, oh,

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this is sort of the best episode
I've ever listened to, you know,

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something else comes along, something else
around the corner. So I just

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want to hank you guys for the
work and all the effort that you've put

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in over the years.
