Co chairs. It's James here. I just wanted to say congratulations on ten
years of TLF and thank you for everything that you guys have done over the
ten years. It feels like it's flowing by. If I'm honest, I
remember when I found you boys. I've been with you since the late the
fall of twenty sixteen, I believe, and you guys have been a constant
in my life ever since. I seem to remember listening to New Gen podcast
Attitude Era OSW quite a lot, and whilst those guys are good, I
remember them not giving me everything I need, which must have been why I
was looking for something else. And I remember finding you guys and pressing play
on it and seeing how long the episodes were and thinking, what the fuck
have you boys got to talk about that's so good that it has to go
on this long, and not really being enjoying the episode that much to start
with. But I came back, as we all do, and I think
the episode that you really got your grubby little claws into me was. I
think it might have been Survivor series two thousand and two, because they see
I seem to remember Vince McMahon trying to Lapse Vince trying to convince Lapse Sean
to return to the FED and in doing so, convincing him to be thrown
off the hell and the cell repeatedly. I can't remember which one it was.
I think it a Survivor Series two thousand and two, but either way,
I remember thinking this Vince impression is pretty good and finding it pretty funny,
and then sticking with it. And then by the time Summer Slam two
thousand and two rolled around, you you fucking had me. And you've been
a constant in my listening, in my podcast consumption ever since. Others wrestling
or non wrestling podcasts have come and gone. I fall by the wayside eventually,
but you boys have been with me this whole time. I'm very lucky
and fortunate that, unlike some of the other Solar System members, I haven't
really had any real misfortune, whether that be health wise or financial or anything
else that might affect me negatively. Touch would. But as far as you
guys helping me, it's yeah, it's unquestionable. You make me a better
person, you really do. It's surrealed say that about a podcast out loud,
but with you guys in my ear you. You make me want to
do things. This is probably been said to at nauseum, but not only
do I do housework at home. As an example, I actively get up
and find housework to do so I can just have ten twenty minutes with you
in my ear. Up my ass. The grass is looking a bit long.
Let me go get the mir out or my wife, or I'll go
tidy looking. No, no, you sit down, sweet, I'll go
tidy it just so that little AirPod goes in the left ear and I get
a little bit of time with you. Boys. You you have been with
me through so many things since since I started listening to you. You're the
overarching thing in my life. You were with me when I met my now
wife. You're with me when I decided to change and then train for a
new career. You've been with me through traveling to work during work. You've
been with me while I've bought a house, sold a house, bought my
new dream house which I'm about to move into. You've been with me when
I got married, the birth of my son. You've been with me through
the good to the great, and whilst, like I said, I haven't
really struggled with anything major touch wood. My mental health is only as healthy
as it is is because you guys just block out the shit and you're just
there making me smile, making me laugh, making me think. Then,
yeah, it's as simple as that. You have as much as that dick
sucking is from me to you, you have ruined media for me a little
bit. I'll openly admit to that. When someone recommends me a podcast or
a documentary dark Side of the Ring, for example, if you take that
now, I'm sure that's good. The episodes I've seen are good. But
if you're not four hours plus, fuck off, because what are you going
to bring to me that the lapse fan hasn't already done? Right? When
I see documentaries and they're fifty nine minutes, what are you doing other than
fucking lip service, give me what I need and go deep or don't be
a thing. Okay, So you guys have ruined many things for me,
but only because you're so damn fucking good. You are that good that,
in fact, I openly admit to listening to you a wrestling podcast. Now,
I think we can all agree and understand that's not something we typically do
as wrestling fans. As the lowest of the low. To digress slightly,
I work with a guy who's very heavily into what's the fucking game Dungeons and
Dragons? And he talked to me about a podcast he's listening to, and
I like people that are interested in different things and are passionate about it.
And he asked me he got so deep into Dungeons and Dragons, the law
of it, how he plays, how he runs games, and he asked
me what I was into and I was like, oh, I feel safe
enough, and I said I used to be and kind of now back into
wrestling. And the look he gave me was like, I'm fucking scum on
his shoe. So if you ever want to know where we are at in
the hierarchy of coolness below Dungeons and Dragons, they look down on us.
That being said, I openly admit because it's you. I'm listening to The
Lapse Fan. It's a five hour plus episode about wrestling. Not only do
I admit to it, to my wife, to my friends, to her
friends, to colleagues at work. I recommend you, at nauseam to people
wrestling fans or other ones, ones that want to find a new podcast,
give this a go Ah, I don't like that, fine, sure you
will like it. We all end up liking it. Trust me, take
a step away for a couple of weeks, you will be back. So
I'm out there spreading the gospel, spreading the good word. You have percolated
into my everyday life. I'm probably not the only one to say this and
will say this, but I say brother at least fifty times a day now.
Driving home from work today, the fuelight came on to say, I've
got fifty miles left in my van. Brother. That kind of stuff forever,
as soon as someone gets hung and people look at me like I'm fucking
mental because they don't get it, and they look at me like what mental
disability does he have? But me, I'm cracking up inside when someone says
a lad just recently got a pay rise where I work because they finished some
training. And I asked him, who's giving him a push? Snook a
push? This kind of shit, and he's looking like, excuse me,
I'm leaving now, And in my head, I'm the funniest person in the
world. I walk around the house and a proper of nothing, just heaven
newt and just cut it short. Well, I'm going downstairs now to strike
my cat, and I'm going to make a cup of tea. Charlotte,
do you want anything? I'm going to wrestling like. These people don't get
what I'm doing, and they don't need to, because in my head it's
absolutely hilarious. You guys are very relatable to me. I feel like I
need to say that I was born in nineteen nine, sorry, ninet eighty
six. Nineteen ninety Raw Rumble was my first tape, my first event that
I remember, just rinsing the fucking granny out of over and over again,
sitting down in the living room. That era, nineteen ninety to ninety two,
the colors, the glue of the Hasbro era. It's my sweet spot,
It's my home, nineteen ninety Raw Rumble. Especially for the longest while
Shavanni and Jesse Ventura were the voices of my wrestling growing up. I could
watch that Raw Rumble from start to finish and probably word for word say that
with no problem at all. I feel that because you guys grew up like
in a similar era and becoming lapse at the same time, it's a very
relatable to where I'm at. So when I hear you talking about things,
it's very easy to just be sitting behind the wheel of my car or at
work and just be not a long going yeah yeah, speak that truth.
I feel that kind of goes across from many things that you guys talk about.
When you touch on social commentary and the state of the world right now,
I'm right there with you social media and whatnot. I try to avoid
it like the plague. But like a quick aside is like I remember being
younger with a or with a we never had sky Sports over in England.
Pay per views used to be on Sky Sports and I never had that growing
up. So family friends would tape pay per views for me and then send
them in the mail, and I was watching them that way, and that's
how I'd keep up to date with pay per views. TV was fine,
raw was fine. But the anxiety of one hoping they remember to tape it,
two hoping that the tape didn't just malfunction halfway through, and three that
they then send the tape and it reaches me and doesn't end up somewhere else.
That anxiety is something that people who suffer with anxiety today won't never experience,
right. And then when you finally get that tape after waiting a week,
a week and a half, two weeks, and then you get it
and you hold it in your hands. I remember coming home every day,
is the tape here? No? No, sorry, sweetheart, No is
the tape here? No? No no. And then when you finally get
home, it's and you watch it not once, not twice, three four,
five times that first day, and then you come back the following day
and you watch it again, and then you write down the results, and
then you write down what you would have done, and you do whatever you
need to do. No one's doing that now, are they. You stream
something, you probably don't finish it because you need something else, new and
immediate, and that kind of gratification. I'm trying. I'm hoping to get
my son into it a little bit as he gets older, with like wrestling
figures I collected him. I hope he will too. And we're not going
to just go on Amazon and buy it because it's so direct, and we've
got them in Smith's Toys here, and it'd be one of those where we'd
go and write pick one out and we'd only get the ones that we can
find. Maybe teach him a thing or two about just not this instant gratification
bullshit. Yeah, I mean I could go on and on for ages with
you boys, I won't, even though I could easily. I'm sorry it's
so long. Now. A couple of passing thoughts I think you might enjoy.
I once wrote an email I didn't actually get to send. I deleted
the note accidentally. It was going to be one about wrestling toys or around
a Christmas time and my Hasbro Glube Federation and how I booked it, and
a couple of things that I remember from that that I think you might like
is I gave Virgil a very long, successful Intercontinental title run. I thought
his whilst his figure wasn't mechanically the best, I liked it and that was
enough for me. And I thought he's enough of an underdog, but enough
of it like a good guy to warrant a really long title run. I
remember having two earthquakes and painting one to be Vader, And if you remember
like the configuration of earthquakes hands, if you held him by the head,
there was enough give on my head where you could hold on his head where
you could hold it and cuff like do the Vader cuff in the corner,
like I remember. I remember making those sounds whilst doing it as well,
So it's not just that aida is it does filter through. And I remember
having a I remember doing a Battle Royal which had Coco Beware in the ring,
and in our living room we used to have a cocktail, my mum
and dad, and every now and again they would close the door and windows
and they'd open up the cage. In the cocktail, Smokey would fly around,
and I remember sitting there and he would land on like high levels and
whatnot. I remember sitting there playing and I was down to like the final
however many and Smoky landed in the ring in the middle of the ring,
which he didn't used to do, and he sat there for about ten minutes
or ten seconds, and I sat there and then it freaked out and flew
away, And I remember thinking, do I pretend that didn't happen, or
do I book on the fly and use this to my advantage. So what
I did was I had it that kokob Ware summoned the cockatil and everyone was
so freaked out the remaining entrance in the Battle Royal eliminated themselves. Kokoby Ware
won the battle oyal and I took this to be his official hill turn,
and he become this voodoo master and the most despised hill in the territory.
And he started a faction of other voodoo people. He had Papa Shango in
it, Jake the Snake was in it, and the Nasty Boys were in
it as well, and they were this five man faction that just fucking ran
a rough shot over the fed. I painted his trousers black and I drew
a evil cockatil on his trousers, and I'm pretty certain I gave him a
quick run with the world title. I'm pretty sure he beat Hogan for the
world belt. Yeah, so I'm pretty sure at one point in time my
weld time in my federation, the world champion was Coco Beware and the Intercontinental
champion was Virgil so Booker of the Year stuff. So in closing, you
guys truly are the best. No one brings the energy you do, no
one has the chemistry, the puts in the effort that you guys do.
And I'm not just saying that bar none. Truly, guys, you're incredible
at your craft. I'm not just including wrestling podcasts and that but any podcast
I've ever listened to, you are heads and toes, head and shoulders above
everyone. I wish one day I'd be able to contribute more than I do
and have one day that time will come. You deserve every penny you get
and more. Never forget that I you mean the world to me. I
love you, I need you. Continue to pound my ass like you have
done, where it now resembles a fucking basking shark eating plankton. And here's
to another ten years and many more. I hope this makes the feed so
I can be immortalized on your podcast feed forever. If it doesn't, as
long as you guys hear it and know how much you mean to myself and
everyone else, that'd be great. Love you guys. Bye,