Fans, workers, journeymen, lend me your ass. I come to bury
a cast in it and to praise the co chairs. The evil that men
do lives after them. Just ask jolly old Saint Fritz. The good is
oftenterred with Owen's bones, at least before they're dropped upon and the waiting shipman
trapped in Hbk's sharpshooter. All right, enough of that. Wrestling ain't ballet,
and the lapse fans certainly ain't Shakespeare. But I don't mean that in
a bad way. The Bard was a college level hack and a carney worker.
The lapsed fan most certainly is not a college level nor is it carney.
But if you haven't figured that out by your first journey, there's no
help for you. Now, before I go any further, I should tell
you who I am. This is Phil from Halifax. That Glengarry Jim Ross
bit from the beginning of WCWNJPW Super Show ninety one that was all me baby.
I started listening to this podcast back in twenty sixteen, during the Arcade
Memorial tour. I was working at the Dump in Halifax, spending hours in
horrible conditions doing tedious work. I would listen day in and day out,
hours and hours every day for years. The cast got me through the toughest
parts of that job. When I had to go to the hospital and get
two bowel resections, the cast was in my ears during those pain filled sleepless
nights. The cast was up my asss. I literally learned how to take
a shit again. When the world faced the uncertain times that were a global
pandemic, the cast was there. It helped me get through my tedious and
hazardous work of processing COVID laced trash. The entertainment was so essential they made
a T shirt commemorating it, a T shirt I still wear with pride.
When my palm Nick Demola, was battling cancer and I wanted to send him
a cameo from the co chairs, the cast was not only there, but
went above and beyond to get him laughing and smiling during his darkest time.
When I blew out my knee and couldn't work at the dump anymore, the
cast was there, booing my spirits and helping me fight off suicidal ideations.
When I spent a year in rehab rehabbing my knee injury, doing hours of
work in the gym and in the pool as well as counseling. The cast
was there, the cast continues to be there to this day. To paraphrase
a certain wise men, as we just finished up Terry Funk's journey, I
thank the lapsed fan for all of this, for being unselfish and selfish times,
for taking podcast listeners and showing them a better way. Because here's what
you people need to understand. The effort that Jack and JP put in is
unrivaled. No one has the work right that they do, No one has
the shelf life that they do, and because of that, no one deserves
praise from the Solar system more than they do. Your favorite podcast. And
that guy in's inside the biz who claims to know how it really is,
fuck him. He's so far up his own ass all he can smell as
his own farts. That Carnie fuck is working you and you're too stupid to
know it. Oh, you think long form podcasts are the way to go?
Fuck them. They don't hold a candle how long and hard the laughs
fan goes. The amount of content Jack and JP put out is staggering,
and that's without even factoring in Patreon. You think your fandom has a dedicated
fan base. Fan base. To quote Ollie Anderson, fuck them and fuck
you too. I'll put the solar system against them any day of the week
because we know the score. We've all had struggles, and we all deal
with the pain and shame of simultaneously loving and hating this insane, fucking business.
The cast could end tomorrow and it would hurt, but I'd have ten
years of shelf life to look back on, to keep listening to and to
keep me going through this fucked up world. It wouldn't be what i'd want,
but the cast is what I need, because at the end of a
day, that's what this cast and what wrestling is really about. It's about
what you want versus what you need. Now, if you'll excuse me,
I'm going back to the lamentable journey because MJF and Holt Mcallenny Aside fucked the
Iron Claw. Hm, fuck the Iron Claw. I wonder how many times
Fritz said that to Doris. Anyway, With love and devotion from Halifax,
this is Phil signing off