So we need to further thank just Seppe taco. Excuse me, that's delicious.
I would love I would love to taco from man Evan Garnado for bumping
up the pledge. What's up to Anthony Fiori and just Justin Schiller and a
heavy hitter in the moat tier by the name of Dylan Smith. We deeply
appreciate the uh the vote of confidence. Vote with your wallet. It's the
only kind of vote that counts in America. That's that's so true. All
Epton, thank you very much, and on we appreciate that. Cake.
Ben Osley, longtime supporter. Well good to see you in the cut.
Clyde, thank you very much. Seemed to wire tap eight o four and
Mikey Wild you want to talk about a day one? Mother's holding it down
as best he can in Thailand from what I understand. Wow, he's in
Thailand. I think he's teaching according to his Twitter, so I'll come up
to him. It's not working. Is he working? Matches and Tie?
I'm not sure for his eating tie, I mean I suppose that's true.
It's a choice. Alex, Alex, I don't know your last name,
but we appreciate the bump up and pledge. Murdo Mackenzie, Great murder,
What a great first Murdo, Eric Holeman, thanks for the cake. We
appreciate it. Welcome to the ept or Brian Quinnby by the ways, I'm
reading off all of these names. If you've ever scoffed at us pitching our
Patreon, these are the people you claim to be better than. You tell
me, you tell me who you'd rather have in your camp, someone that's
willing to put the cake on the table, or someone that laughs at people
who don't think everything's free. Have wrestling gifts? Thank you very much.
We appreciate it. Da Thorne Pov what have wrestling gifts? It's obviously sort
of like an account name more than a personal name, but I got to
convey what they what they list, you know, Hey, I'm yeah,
no, no, no, I'm down with that. I just want to
make sure I got it right, okay. Martin Zamora, thank you very
much. Welcome to the VIP Circles. Name to you, Tom Pedley.
We see you, son, and we appreciate it. All these months later,
our boy able in Phoenix has a note that I'd like for you to
pass on to the ten solar system. Boss. You know we all go
through stuff, yes, and when you're a TLF listener, we go through
it together in some kind of way. And Abel has this to pass on
if I can only find my window here? All right, there you go,
All right, able co chairs. There's just something about two old school
wrestling fans admiring an ico pro duffel bag while the sounds of a roaring fire
crackles away in the background that just warms my heart. Yeah. Think,
please tell me that this will become an annual tradition. Yes done. My
apologies for not being able to send you anything this year, as has been
a tumultuous holiday season for me. I hope my monthly Mote privilege pledge will
suffice at least for right now. You see, my girlfriend of ten years
and I determined that, like many tag teams, were both fare better in
singles competitions. We're coming up on our ten year two. But we're not
going to make this That's true. That's a good point. Sadly, when
you reach a point where you feel more alone in a relationship than when than
you did when you were single, that when you know it's time to move
on. While there is no need to go into details of the split,
no broken barbershop windows were involved. That's good. I've realized that many memories
that we share together are connected to specific TLF episodes. For example, I
have always associated the Piper Tribute with our very first trip to Coronado, California.
That's beautiful, though, Oh, I gotta say sorry that it's gonna
sorry. You can't ever listen to that episode or go to Coronado again.
Yeah, that's a double edged sword. The soundscape, you know, it's
either you don't know if what you see, you know, associate happily is
going to change in context. Yep, exactly. Um, I mean there's
a ton of shit that you know, even to this day, I don't.
I don't. I almost like, out of luck, I don't listen
to it, you know, like I've I've created a weird superstition of shit
that I'm like, No, I won't, I won't. I mean,
I mean other things, no, no, no episodes, but like,
um, you know, uh, certain things I'm just like no, I
like, I'm not. I don't go so much. The hilarious jury selection
process of the trial is life played through my car speakers while trying to navigate
around Santa Barbara during a summer vacation. Those star cast bits that you were
dropping every ten minutes a few years back, I'll always connect those moments with
Flagstaff's beautiful mountainous landscapes during one of our many weekend escapes from Phoenix. The
point I'm trying to make is that, as a longtime listener, I didn't
realize just what a significant role you two played in my life during the last
few years until I reflected back on the experiences of my relationship. The fact
that I can look back on my time listening and relistening in some cases,
I can often remember exactly where I was or what I was doing during many
t left moments. It's truly incredible. On another note, JP, while
I agree with you that Santa Claus the movie desinally definitely hasn't aged well one
as I had hoped, you can't deny that the film's score is far far
better than it is. Yeah, I mean, listen, I will agree.
It's I mean, it's Henry Mancini. You can't go wrong, all
right, He's such he's a legend. So it's like, I agree,
it's so Yeah, I certainly hope we can find a way to bring Liftgow's
autobiography back into the cast. I'd happily pay fifty dollars a month just to
listen to GP read aloud from Yeah, don't don't say things you know the
woman in the Port Central Park tells Kevin, don't say what is it?
Don't make promises you can't keep. Yeah, yeah, well I'll tell you
what you know. Someone said that about fucking wrestle Mammia, and look what
happened. All right, don't make promises your wallet can't keep. Exactly what
a way to kick off the new year with a look back. Look it's
DNA run. I can't speak for anyone else in the Solar system, but
I'm really hoping we're in for some exciting surprises in twenty twenty three. How
about Ronick? Is it that we didn't read this letter until we were done
with TNA? I know exactly, and like, well, no surprises thus
far, Pal, but pretty fucking locked up or locked down as I suppose.
Yeah, wait, our twenty twenty was delay. Yeah right, I
have my fingers crossed for a Gawker trial reenactment, Brother and a deep dive
into that awesome WCW Superstar series. Oh that's the v chess is that we
got? Yes, I think you're talking about. Yeah, you know,
the whole trial. Trust me, you didn't want that. There's so much
in that trial that has nothing to do with whole Hogan. It's so much
to do with like the maschinations of putting the story together. It's just it's
not it's not worthy. It's not a wrestler or sort of on trial and
everybody's talking about them. I mean, that's that's the thing. It's like,
it's not right the wrestlers, the plaint of here. He's not the
defendant, right right? Oh yeah, you're the defendant. The whole different
story. Um, Christ, how in the hell can anyone compete with such
incredible gifts? Please don't never leave me, gentlemen. Twenty three more than
ever. And while I realized that Sonoran Sonoran hot dogs and Mexican style coffee
might not travel well across the country, I'm sure I can come up with
something. Oh man, we're looking forward to it. Able. I'll told
you're well man, fucking Mexican style coffee please, Yeah, I don't give
a shit of it. Spoiled. I think the risk seriously to Rome Morgan,
thank you for the pledge. Kl Why, thanks very much for that
c ak. We appreciate an Anthony O'Brien and David Flores who bumped his pledge
all the way up to the fifty dollars tier. It's like buying one of
those cock pumps, you know. Yes, it makes your dick like thirty
times widerants or comforts. Of course it is to be in the moat tier.
Jeff Pop, we appreciate it. Matt D. Hollow Rich boy Sean
Ball, thank you very much for the cake. Patrick Hayden, you're goddamn
right. Andrew Brister, thanks for lighting the way with your generous ep level
pledge. Damien, I want to thank you very much for bumping up your
denomination as well. Matteius took us up on the tip jar hint throwing some
bucks at us on PayPal and writes to your coach heirs, I think it's
time for me to finally act like an adult and send that money. Word
belongs. Thanks for the fucking cast. There we go. That's exactly correct.
Michael Thornton, thanks very much for bumping all the way up to the
moat tier, my friend, we really appreciate the vote of confidence. Dave
Dravello and Daniel Beasley and Jonathan Siderman and Brian Cruz, who of course is
a huge contributor to our understanding of TNA during TNH. We appreciate all that
you've done and thank you for the pledge. We go to Chad. Now,
this is kind of a random drop in, but I thought it was
kind of compelling some of the things he was asking. It's about Wrestlemanian nine
and Brett's first title run. This is Chad, this is okay, not
the country of Chad, a gentleman named Chad, and not the stuff that's
left behind right on when you vote brother, Hello co chairs, just we
listen to your Wrestlemanian nine show. And a few theories about Brett's planned title
run stuck in my head. Not to question the Melts, but the supposed
plans that fell through for the series and the rumble don't add up to me.
First, Jacob's Survivor series, Jake was out of the company six months
before they decided to give Breath the title. I sort of feeling he was
being lined up for Sean even before he h even before we winning winning the
title, and it just worked as an opponent in lieu of any better options
for him. It wasn't Jake supposed to being creative. Yeah, Jake thought
some points going to transition into a creative role after dropping to an undertaker at
WrestleMania, right. Um, So, I don't know. I don't know
why they would have, um, why Brett would have put in his book
that he believed he was going to work a program with Jake. He probably
asked for it, they said yes, and yeah, probably told him they'd
bring him back, but then Jake went to WW. I don't know,
honestly, don't don't know. It's a very good point. There's a lot
of chronology stuff that if you line it up with Brett, he conflates different
time periods. Yeah. Um, like, you know, maybe he asked
to work a program with Jake, but it was actually the Intercontinental Belt and
he puts in the year before before. Right. He doesn't even mention what
he almost went to WCW as Intercontinental Champion, which was like the front page
story and the Observer and the talk of the business. He doesn't even mention
that. Yeah, so uh and then Warrior at Rumbo. Okay, sure,
maybe they did tell Brett this, and I've heard this on other podcast
too, so I'm sure, um it was the supposed plan, but I've
never really heard anyone delve into thinking about this seriously, does anyone believe Warrior
would have been willing to job, let alone submit in the sharpshooter when it
came down to do business. I highly doubt it, and I would love
to hear your thoughts. Yeah, I think Vince in ninety two and ninety
three in particular, was in the mode of telling Brett whatever he wanted to
hear, as far as making him feel like he's actually the guy, right,
and then, like he found out with Hogan, when push comes to
show, Vince will act like that's not what he meant when the real stars
in the room. And I'm not saying Brett isn't a real star, but
at the time he's not. In terms of pull backstage pull, he's not
a real star, right, He's not a real star. This is the
way this, Brett. You got to accept that, pal, you're not
a star. One last thing I get to ask you for you guys,
back when these things were going down, what was the bigger shock to you?
Brett came the belt ninety two or Diesel ninety four? What do you
think Brett um. The only reason I'm gonna say dees list because I can
remember exactly when I found out with Brett. I feel like, just like,
by the time I realized he was a champion, it wasn't like the
first time he came out with it, so I was kind of like Rubble
ninety three. I kind of realized it, which is kind of late.
I oh wow, now see I can remember exactly the the the All American
Wrestling that I watched it was because everything leading up to it, everything leading
up to it, I was just getting used to Flair being champion again.
Oh sure, that hadn't really sunk into me that Flair was champion. And
then and then all of a sudden, I'm watching this episode of All American
Wrestling and they cut to me and Geane on the on the interview podium and
he announces the new w champion, Brett Hart, and I'm like, that
doesn't happen ever never, it never happened since either in a lot of ways,
I was just like, what the absolute fuck are you talking about?
Like my my, I was never a huge Bret Hart fan, but I
was so anti heel, you know that any baby face with the belt,
it was better than nothing. And to see him, you know, because
in my mind he was just Intercontinental title material. He just lost to Davey
Boy. You know. I was very that you had that, you know,
yeah, because the Diesel thing. Not that I thought he was going
to win the title. I just was very I remember just kind of like
thinking that, Okay, you know, his time soon, they're making they're
making a push with him. I could feel it the way that because especially
the way I had heard about the turn happening at Survivor series all that shit,
it just felt like, Okay, something's gonna happen, Yeah, Brett.
I was just like I lost. I got goosebumps when Brett came out
with the belt, and you didn't get goosebumps with Diesel came out with the
belt. No, No, there it is because it also because it was
a different surprise, Like if I remember correctly, it's like I watched Saturday
morning TV after Survivor series that when did it happen? Was it Friday or
Saturday Saturday? Right Saturday night we're talking about Diesel. Diesel. Yeah,
yeah, yeah, Okay, Saturday almost positive. Okay, So I watched
Saturday Morning TV and I just so it's like I heard about that, and
so I kind of went into you know, I knew he was. I
knew that they'd made the big, the big heeled turn, I mean the
face turn for him with Sean Michaels kicking him the face, and and Monday
on Raw when I'm watching, they played the video of it at the beginning
of the show. Yes, I remember this, and so I wasn't really
so to me, it was kind of like, oh, that's pretty cool.
Well that's great, glad we're not getting the fucking Bob Backlin run.
Right. But now the Bret Hart thing was just completely out of no where
because I didn't see him in that role. I didn't see him as a
world champion at that time. No Diesel, there was no reason to him
and well no, no, no, Diesel, I did. I'm saying,
Bret Hard. I didn't see him as a world champion. He was
intercontinental to me at you know, all the way, because that's what I
only know. You know, yeah, Diesel, him on the icy strap.
It was just he was just just beginning to break out as a single's
baby face, which to me was like kind of a prerequisite for a title
run like this. And and I guess to the uh, the thing about
it was we kind of my friends who watched the Rumble with me that year,
the ninety four Rumble, we were all kind of like, like everybody
else like, oh fuck Diesel, Holy shit, oh Diesel. You know,
so that was a heel totally, but we were just kind of like
blown away by that that it was, you know, and it set up
nicely. Bred emerged, you know, he faced, so you know,
so it kind of fun that was over yeah, um or that you know,
that Rumble build was just to build a challenger for Brett. It wasn't
to build a new world champion. And right right, that's basically right where
it started. Very interesting. Well, um, and to say nothing of
the fact that Brett was coming off losing to Davy at like the biggest show
ever, the biggest Summer's lame, right, That's exactly it. Like,
it's just like all these things just kind of didn't didn't come and didn't really
place with me at the time at the time, because again, you know,
I was still I was less than a year watching regularly. Yeah,
you know, I was still. That was still new for for a for
for a championship to change hands too on a show without you know, any
kind of build to. It was just chocking to me. That happened twice
too, because the Flare thing didn't have I'd never saw the Flare thing either.
Ye. So, um, I guess there wasn't much left that you
could cover to bring you back this exact time period unless one day you cover
the Saturday. Yeah, well, Saturday's main event from October. That will
certainly do the trick. Hopefully you can touch on this if you do another
mail bag show down the line the sent in January. Yeah, right,
but we get it done. That's the thing. We close loops. Takes
a while, but we closed loop. HOLLI we leave him closed, saster.
Thank you, Sean Richardson, Thank you, Mark Sullivan, Thank you
Cole. Thank you. Cole sent a missive in um concert with his pledge
and this this is like such a sign of the times. Around late January,
early February, as I'm going back through this, we our mailbox starts
blowing up with people fucking around with chat GPT. It was like, yeah,
yeah, yeah, you could have you can put on a chart like
when the solar system started sending us messages and when it started taking off.
Is the only thing anybody was thinking about for a little while there. Oh
god, yeah, and Cole had the idea, let's do an AI generated
lapsed vince press release. Oh my god, so for no other reason,
and then because it's hilarious, but also because you put cake on the table.
We're very glad to share one of what will be a few more here
to come. In this back episode AI generated Lapsed Inspired folks, they're training
the AI on the TLF catalog and it's it's getting dangerous, all right,
and and we're gonna have a union thing about this exactly. Yeah. Yeah,
this does not grant anybody writes in perpetuity. Let's make at all dear
coach chairs and my dear coach coach chairs of my cole cavern. That's correct.
He's got some dusty shit up there. I guess I'm a stupid bitch,
and I lapsed from the LAPS fan in twenty twenty two as a failed
attempt to be a better father than my newborn. But I'm back that right,
I went back, Yes you did. Um uh now, and I
have a gift for you. I'm behind an episode, so not sure if
anyone else has got to this first apologies off so, but maybe you've seen
news articles about chat g PT and I think it was written twenty years ago.
Already, know it really does, seven really does. I don't know
if you see miracles about this thing. I really have not. I have
not. I don't know anything about it, but except that from what I've
heard from from you and so system members to say, you know, write
something in the style of Vince. And as you say, well, first
you say because it doesn't know who laps Vince is. First you say lapsed.
Vince has these characteristics. Oh my god. So it downloads them,
it understands what you mean, and then it kind of spits out in the
style of what you told them. The personality is what he would say.
The thing is like chat GPT. It just sounds almost sounds like AOL I
am you know, Yes, it's so fucking dated already. Yeah, it
just sounds gross. Um. Anyway, so the generation I decided to give
it a go and see if it could generate some Vince McMahon branded press release.
Nonsense, here's what it output. M McMahon Entertainment, the industry leader,
pause for one sec. Yes, because what I want to do is
he kind of he sets it up to where he only he only reveals that
he gave it the prompts afterwards. Okay, you're like, holy shit,
chit chatty, but he knows who lapsed vinces now, but I'll read,
I'll go out of order here. Okay. What he told it to do
is write a press release in the style of Vince McMahon announcing a new business
media platform. Business venture include words like branded entertainment, oh my god,
synergy, vertical and horizontally integrated, scripted, live, weekly episodic sports based
vehicular spectacular. Include the phrases what a maneuver, the Trial of my life,
and Shane McMahon was never my son. Replaced the word WrestleMania with mcmanna
palooza. Do not use the phrase sports entertainment. Include a testimonial from Hulkogan
that simply reads, brother hoof. That is bizarre, So what do we
get? Um McMahon Entertainment, the industry leader in branded entertainment, is proud
to announce its latest business venture. The McMahon Media platfor this platform will be
a horizontally integrated, vertically integrated media platform offering scripted, live, weekly,
episodic, sports based vehicular spectacles for audiences around the world. The McMahon Media
Platform will feature exclusive content for the world of sports and entertainment, offering fans
an unprecedented look at the McMahon world, from Vince McMahon and the McMahon family
to the superstars and the McMahon Universe. Audiences will be able to experience it
all through the McMahon Media Platform. M mp fans can also expect exclusive coverage
of the McMahon family's signature events, including Mcmanapalooza and other pay per view events.
Plus, the McMahon Media Platform will feature unique content such as behind the
scenes looks at the McMahon family's day to day lives and exclusive interviews with the
McMahon family and the superstars of the McMahon Universe. The McMahon Media Platform promises
to be a synergistic experience that will excite and entertain audiences around the world.
As Vince McMahon says, it is the it's the trial of my life and
I'm going to make sure it's a success. What a maneuver. Shane McMahon
was never my son, but he's my brother. What see. It kind
of goes off on its own, but he's my brother and I'm excited to
share this new venture with him. Hulk Hogan, a longtime friend of the
McMahon family, added, brother, you gotta see this in print, folks.
It's fucking hilarious. It really see the written word of it. With
a McMahan media platform, McMahon Entertainment is set to revolutionize the world of sports
and entertainment. Stay tuned for more details on this exciting new venture. Tremendous
stuff. That's hilarious. He actually did it with something called chat Sonic,
which is a chat GPT imitator, basically because it was off light at the
time. Cole also followed up a month later. And the only other message
I sent was in May twenty eighteen that you guys read of the Road Wild
ninety six episode. As recounted in that message, I was inspired to write
to you after I was gifted a birthday phone call from Lanny Pofo. A
few hours later gave me the text version of the call. Announcing Bruno Sammartino
had passed. I remember this. Oh my god. The guy who Lanny
like called back to Bruno died. Didn't know the guy I know? Nope,
Hey, but I think did you get a he's got a moment?
You know that I did that. I just found out Bruno Sammartino has died.
I'm gonna write you a poem. Oh well, that goes without saying,
Lanny, just get it over with. Bruno was a man. He
used to sit on a cane. He used to sit on a can when
he went to the restaurant. Deep hold on, just take a deep breath,
Give me one second. Bruno was a man. What was it right?
He? Okay, okay. Bruno was a man. He used to
sit on a can when he went to the restaur restaurant, he decided he
would flaunt a poem by the m. Bruno was a man. He used
to sit on a can m when he went to the restaurant. He decided
he would flaunt a poem by the Genius and also a fucking T shirt.
Damn right, but I think pleased X has put his finger on a very
historical moment. He remembers it as that email, launching the lapsed Landing character
we all know and love. Yes, Yeah, and here four and a
half years after writing only my second message to you guys, A couple of
weeks later, I get the call from my brother, whose birthday gift to
me inspired that first message about the passing of Lannie. Wow, apst serendipity,
cold, cold, this fucking real, damn right and more. Thank
you for the pledge, Steven Hernandez, thanks very much for joining the inner
circle here at TLF. Matthew Gundacre, Welcome to the VIP corner. Seth
Curran. We always appreciate your support. Thank you very much for sticking with
us. Andrew baldazon Over on PayPal writes back pay and I am a god
in your life. Someone said that along the way, I'm a god in
your life. I don't remember who. Some characters said that. Yeah,
Anthony Fiori, thanks from bumping up your pledge after getting in. Adam Sims,
Thank you, Matt Thank you for your pledge. Mark Evans, we
appreciate the cake. Thank you very much. At Jesse Wenty, thanks for
bumping up your pledge. Ross Hamrick, It's great to have you. Thanks
for the ep level pledge, Jesse Harrison, thank you very much, and
Patty Moriarty. We also very much appreciate your support here at tlf HQ.
Of course it doesn't stop there, yes, computer might Paul Unwin brother thanks
very much for the cake. We appreciate it. Leslie Todd bumping all the
way up to the moat tier again, truly humbling the amount of people who
said, Yep, that's for me. Wow, fifty dollars a month,
that's for me. Peppa Fawn's Justin davinport Ali, wire Tap eight oz four,
Bryce Bartoo, Brad Murphy, Chance Mullinix, Vernon Dursley, Doozel Doozel,
Tynamite Kid, Diesel and Goose. I think so, Corey Barnett,
General Smedley Butt Sex, Tim bever Sean Tim Coscuba long long time supporter,
We appreciate it. Jonathan Andrew bern Hack, James Harvey, Adrian Serchio,
Alejandro Estrada, Samuel Devison, Jason dark Night, dev Sean, Tony Fernandez,
dav Jake Despero, Stephen Tackett, Adam Two, Henry Roth, Wooie
Thompson, dj Alex Bressler, Dean Cole's Flame Broyled Gimmick, Brandon Kaiser,
Big Swinging Dick Motier member ad X three, Christopher Damars for the bump up
to the Mote Tier, Kuka, Jared Thompson, Matthew Munns, Brandon m
Trent morel Edge, Daniel Moehler, Big Swinging Dick, Mike Poolan, DJ
Hartley Brown? I mean, shall I continue? Do I need to keep
going before you get the point. These these these these people know what it's
all about. I don't have to keep going, but I will. This
one's from Ryan and this is around the passing of Lanni Pofo, which of
course hit his hard here at TLF as it did. Subject line is ri
ip TV on the ceiling. Dear JP Cesaro and Jack Garcia Colossi Coulis that
one was that was a direct hit. You know. That's when John Cena
hits his knee at wrestle may need to propose and he goes Nicole Garcia colis,
Oh god, it's so cringe. Oh my god. And his like
new balance running sneakers that he wrestles in. Oh, I know what a
du it's like. Come on, man, I'm a day late in finding
out, but I just read that Lanny Poffo has died. You will,
however, live on in the lapsed universe. Twenty twenty two was a crazy
year for me and went by so quickly that it seems like it just disappeared.
My mom had a stroke in late January. Were Gonna eventually died on
March twenty two, twenty twenty two, around the time of Scott Hall.
She was in poor health towards the end, and I am happy she's no
longer suffering Crohn's disease, fibromyalgia, and chronic pain plague the majority of her
adult life. That's that's rough. It's tough. That's fucking rough. You
hate to hear that. Yeah, I like to think more about the happy
times. I remember how she would get excited to see the big guys like
Vader and Yokozuna get beat up, getting beat up. That's wrestle, Mommy
a man. Yeah. It's a tribute to the role Mom's play in our
fans. Yes, yes, by kind of allowing themselves to get into it
because their son likes it or their daughter likes it, even if they would
never get into it left to their own devices. I mean, gain,
I think about that that that bizarre wrestling show during one summer that we put
on for the moms in a basement. I did the same thing. I
had a match against my friend down the street and underwear in my living room
mom and grandmom, and we just of course he didn't know how to work,
so it just broke down into like fisticuffs. But yeah, yep,
yeah, I mean I was I was whole Cogan, and I had I
had bought a yellow tank top, like like that wife beater type of fabric,
you know what I'm talking about. Yeah, And it was yellow and
I drew on it with with a with a with a you know, a
real strong permanent marker. Um. And I had yellow shorts I would not
wear, you know, underwear or speedo. But I came in and um,
yeah, we had like we set up a ring with with beat up
mattresses and we put we put yarn or twine as ring ropes. Oh goodness.
And and the way I d I dropped the big leg at the end.
I like, you know, I was scared to to to go up
for the ride, do you know, right, And so I just kind
of like lifted my leg and then just kind of fell backwards i'd exactly.
You mean, it's like all this time, I'm gonna do it. I'm
gonn take a flatback bump right in the hallway, and then you end up
sliding into send No way, no way, never, never gonna happen.
You go down, but you slide, you don't fall right exactly exactly.
It's like a weird it's and it's even weirder. You know, you might
think that it's cool, but it's definitely weirder than you even think it is.
It's weirder than it feels, and it's just very disappointing. Remember that
during the Starcade nineteen ninety two Sting versus Vader Cable of King of Cable match
was the first time I remember her taking notice of wrestling other than it being
something that's on in the background. She actually stayed and watched the full match,
clapped and cheered as real estate Steve Foreclothes on strip mall developer Vader.
Yeah, that's a real friendly match. Yep. Indeed, someone's uh,
someone's uh, I'll fuck it, forget it. Real estate portfolio was on
the line, YEP. I was gonna what do they what? What?
Uh? Mortgage back securities no, no, it doesn't matter. Sorry,
she just stands for Mohammed ben Solmon I forgotten. There we go. She
did this for Brett Hard versus Yoko WrestleMania nine as well, which was kind
of embarrassing because I had a friend over to watch fun Memories. With her
deteriorating condition, toward the mid two thousands, she had spent she had spent
more time lying in bed, much like Landy Pofo. She had a TV
mounted on the ceiling so that she could more comfortably watch while lying down.
So yeah, when it's a necessity, I'm okay with it. Of course,
when it's a choice. I love the laps landing character, and the
mention of the TV on the ceiling makes it even funnier because my mom had
one for years before I knew about his. If only my mom could have
been buried in Ecuador, that would have completed this ironic loop. Anyway,
I want to thank you for delivering such a great podcast that helps me get
through the rough times. I do have a special request. Will you please
send me a link to the Death Toll music or uploaded where I'm a download.
I will gladly pay you for this if needed. You don't play the
Death Toll music any we don't should be going. But this was always very
soothing for me. I mean this is from MP forever ago. I better
fucking me playing. Um that's a TJ thing. Well, no, I
no Death Told music. We didn't do doing TNH, so that's probably what
we did for the beginning. Yeah, I don't know, because Scott Hall
and uh and uh what's your butt from? You know the suicide Girl?
Oh? Literally, yeah, Daphne, Yeah, yeah, expecting that I
may need to be soothed soon as I have an aunt with lymphoma and an
uncle Jesus Christ. Yeah, yeah, I'll say my family is getting jobbed
out due to health and old age. It could be so kind to send
me the Death Toll music. I would have to listen. I would have
it to listen to and feel soothed anytime I need. Take care, guys,
and don't get rolled up from behind. Brother? Why do you say
that? Why would you say that? Bro? Is that all like a
big set up dude just to deliver? Are you got a blindside me?
Brother? You know, dude, we're always getting cheap shot about one of
our so called friends. Brother exactly that's what he needs to keep in mind.
Dude. Well, Ryan, I'm sorry to hear that you had some
challenges. Man. That's that's tough. But you know, all we can
do is keep casting and hopefully the availability of the podcast helps in some small
way. That's what we can offer. Caleb Hughes, thank you, Damien
Thorne, thank you. Ryan Grandick and Paul Barrett and Justin Schiller and teenkicksource
dot com and Heath Harshman and Christopher Reader and Colin Harris and Cole who bumped
his pledge up faster than Chuck and Bobby Dylan and Jimmy McKenna. Sounds like,
sounds like an indictment out of Charlestown. Drew Jones and Andrew Trudeau and
Dicky Bird my Bunny, Dickey Bird down mccannon. Dicky Bird hangs out a
lot on the student absolutely, Dicky Bird. If you always outside the convenience
door, it was always outside. He's he's always, yeah, he's.
He likes, he likes to loiter outside the comedian store. Michael rallipart looking
motherfucker. Yeah yeah yeah, and he always hangs around sullies that between between
twelve and three Gavin Schubert, Thanks Jimbo. We appreciated Matthew of Madison.
To be clear, we appreciate the support Damien Ross and Matt Muzzy and Michael
Thornton and Wes Odam and David Damn Bois. We appreciate all the um all
the support, all the votes of confidence and all the all the financial help.
Here, Tim writes from Texas, He's just discovering the lamentable tragedy.
Always a joining some people find our journeys in the catalog. Yes. Also
the sad song playing the video with David's death, he says, was Willie
Nelson's Angel flying too close, too close to the ground. This must have
been something we wondered during the course of the limitable tragedy. What that song
was, I would imagine. Yeah. He also says Glenn Goza did some
commentary with Mark Laurance on Championship Sports that Oh my god, one match I
recently saw was Chris Adams versus Michael Hayes. He says, I'm actually sitting
second row ringside behind Mark Laurance on that night and whoa and many Monday nights
from eighty three to eighty six. Tim where the fuck were you when we
were doing I know you could have been our Brian in the impact zone.
Holy shit, that's what I need to know. I need to know what
it was like in the sportitorium. An idea lapsed X what about Yeah,
you know our journeys and people who actually subsequently discovered that had a firsthand accounting
of all that happened in that area, in that era or during that story
that we didn't know at the time. M m. In fact, he
says they were eight in my family that went every Monday. We stopped going
because the price is in eighty six went from eight dollars per ticket to twelve
dollars per ticket. Look at that. I agree. I forgot that Fritz
did actually wrestling again Stasiac in nineteen eighty. That must have been a subject
of some His matches were tag teams with the Boys and Brody thinks again.
I will add more if I can remember, well, Tim, Sorry it
took so long to get around to it, but fascinated, yes by your
experience, Yes, Matthew Moreno, thank you, Chris Stoh, we appreciate
it. Robbie Coleman and Jesse and George McAllister and Murdo Mackenzie. God damn,
it's raining around here. Dennis is not sure if the one K club
still exists, but looks like I cracked it a little while back, despite
clinging onto PayPal only for a while. Just glad to be there, even
though I'm certain even further behind the great lubinaries of TLF. Well, Dennis,
that is true. But man, I'm so glad you said that.
Yeah, because you know, if you want to talk about the true elite,
if you want to slice it, I mean, the Moat folks are
on a fucking they're in the fast lane, yes to this level of elite
pledge. But yeah, please do know that that we do keep very close
attention and keep very near and dear to our hearts. Those who on Patreon
have pledged over a grand to the castor over its lifetime. And as Dennis
points out, and it's a good point, you know, there are so
many ways of supporting the cast beyond Patreon, like the PayPal donations, like
all the other things that folks do for us that you know, it's hard
to make a total financial picture. We just we don't. It'd be way
too hard to add up everything. Oh, absolutely. Oh, we do
appreciate every dollar at the same time, so we're sort of we're sort of
a slave to the Patreon record keeping than people who give that way and in
that arena fighting out of the blue corner. I think we both know who's
still leading the league there. The gap is still significant. Tom At to
Nacio, Yeah, um, you wish you had a podcast listener like him.
If you have a podcast, you also wish you had a podcast listener
like him if you don't have a podcasts. True the support the I mean,
you talk about a ride or die, motherfucker. You talk about someone
who's just like there, He's there, it's simple. Yeah, it's amazing.
He's blown my mind over the years, and I'm sure he's even more
blown your mind. Oh totally. This guy just comes out of the sky
and is like, let's let's fucking go. How can I help? What's
what's going to take? It's an amazing thing. Mike Hornecker coming up the
year as close as anybody, and we appreciate so many years of support from
Mike, who's who's kind of a low key guy. I can't say I
can play a face to the name, which I kind of like that.
Yea, Pedro Rios also up there, that's the real Golden Triangle because there's
there. Of course there's a number four, but there's a significant distance,
so Pedro, Mike and Tom we appreciate it very very much. We've got
our four horsemen here coming into view, Paul Ford and Brian Blake and Jim
Rocco and Danny Nkoivu and Dominic Herrera and Robert Holtzammer and Mark Daper and Brandon
from New Jersey and Halt Coogan and Joshua Marberry and Brian Hinz and Harry Coca
Ronas and will Winthrop and Real Gus Plinsky, Mark Wilson and Lewis Perez and
Rob Doherty and Alistair and Pete Cozy and the King of Homestyle, Tom Bower,
Joe Ward Laurn, Mason, Gerard Martin, David Nichol, Ryan Ball,
Arnaldi, Evil robot Zach Marcus Class and Peter j Panico, Sam Fairbanks,
Kevin Mills, Christian Bower, Sox Lester McCoy, Joshua Gibson, Jeff
Jewett, Mike Chespil, Chris Mains and Indy Yellenich and Arpian Polo Dog and
Tom and Denis Owens. There he is. You made it, my friend,
You're in Blake Downing, Curtis Anderson, Paul the Saints, Fan Graham,
James the Real Paul Graham, Superstar Poly Graham Brother, James Riley and
Richard and James Irwin. He's just so fucking guys, so solid, Zach
Medris who we saw in Boston, Sammy Conduit, Sean McGear, Stephen Cole
and Brad and Dustin Buchanan and Lucky Lagucci and Brendan Moe and Max Vatovsky who
he spent so much time with in La Brett Contour, Carl from Saint Louis,
Christopher Creva who he's on Boston, Jonas Oldison, Mark Chalmers, David
Camin, Esther hard Way, Butt Juice, Brian Bulliu, Abe Letier,
Max Warrell and Scott, Michael Ferry and Robert Hodge and Daniel and Intern Matt
and Matthew Finney who's rock solid, Matthew McIntyre and Cody foot Fag and Christopher
Anastasia and Monty Davis Junior and Dominic and Andrew Binder and Dan Noble and Steve
Gotchkov and Michael Taylor and Jonathan Austin and Jared Murray and Rob Wilson and the
Cutman and Marty Longhurst and Simon Andrew malt and Martin Ferguson and Joe and Eric
Prater and Justin Chambers who can forget Stephen Laird Hall of Fame member of the
Solar System, Jordan Grinly, Christopher Craig, Andy toff Arion, Mitch Gee
and and Nick Williams who he saw at the Survivor series, and Alan McGuire
and James Baltazar and Mike Poolin and George Otto and Mac and bj Lalande and
Brian Roberts and cold Stone, Steve Austin, our boy, Brian Steve King
and Matt J. H the rock solid out there in the Solar System and
Logan Wilgis, who just recently became an even one grand lifetime That's where he
cut off. Is that enough for you, motherfuckers? Fucking nuts Raveyard Entertainment
Welcome in scott Arnold. We appreciate the vote of confidence all the way up
to the moat tier. Christian Hollister, who has give given for so long
that he's he should almost be an honorary one K Club member. I don't
even know if I said his name. I was going so fast there,
but man, he's he's a listener you want to have in your corner.
Mark Henry, thank you, Johnny Moore, thank you. Give us more,
Ben Brown, thank you. And Martin Fryer thank you. And Ali
thank you, and and d Ethan Fode thank you. Paul P writes,
finally, no longer a free loader. That's all he has to say.
That's how we that's how he came here to feel, and that's how he
feels. Um, I'm gonna keep going. I don't give a fuck.
Yeah, do it. These people deserve it. These people are what make
podcasting an actual thing instead of just sitting around with our dick in their hands.
So, yes, Dennis, the one K Club does exist. Yes,
what is it? The New York Sun Um, Santa Claus Letter,
Ryan Baron, jer and Owen Charney, long times a border, Cody Davis,
We appreciate it very much. Thanks for your pledge to the lapsed man
on Patreon. Faster than Chuck wants us to remember this, I'm listening to
TNH in real time while I take the lamentable tragedy journey for the first time.
Oof. I grew up in Texas. No idea of the depths of
Fritz's depravitying is fucked up upbringing, so just oof, truly depressing, but
our Coachair has turned it into fucking gold. No surprise there. Well,
I just got to the random bid in which Lapped Vans tries to pay Shawn
Michaels fifteen million dollars to return in a match against Daniel Bryant at WrestleMania.
The match do you remember this would consist of Shawn Michaels, Yes, missing
a moon salt from the top to the outside, getting right back up,
climbing the ropes, missing a shooting star press from the top to the outside.
At this point, Daniel Bryan is just inside the ring watching, missing
a diving head butt from the top to the outside, getting right back up,
climbing the ropes. Then Daniel Bryan removing the mat outside the ring to
expose the concrete, and then Sean missing a swanton bomb from the top to
the outs. I don't see the problem. I've listened to it at least
sixteen times. That's entertainment, and I'm cackling like a witch sucking the nitrous
out of ready whips. It's so fucking funny. That's right, Chuck,
You're goddamn right it is. I forgot all about that, man. That's
good. That's the kind of stuff we need to re emerge with. Laps
decks. Man, find those little moments that made you laugh and that you're
pretty sure didn't make anybody else laugh. Ye yes, Connor Lyons, Casey
Lovane and Udra I'm gonna try this one. Balas subrum hold on, Balas
subernominum. Thank you very much for the vote of confidence. We'll take the
fucking tribute. Casey Trowbridge, thank you very much for your long time support
and recently bumping up the denomination of said support. Daniel Devine, Andrew Johnston,
Azazagoul, Corey Pritchett, Kevin Grimwood, coming hard, coming strong over
on PayPal. Andrew Baldazan drops another bit of tip BACKPA. He writes,
lamentable tragedy WCCW. That's the spirit when you realize the value of that shelf
life. Corey Barnett, thanks very much. We need residuals, that's what
we need. Look at Andrew coming in strong, so just fuck this.
I know fifty dollars gives me the maximum benefit. I'm gonna come in with
a seventy two dollars pledge out of the gate, Like, what the fuck?
That's awesome. Thank you. Evan Grnado and Jake Desborough and Luke Bradshaw
and Henry Roth and Sean van de Velde and Damian A. Thorn. Again,
we appreciate it. Folks come in and out, so sometimes forgive us.
We'll say name more than once. Martin Fryer, appreciate the increased pledge.
Chris Zouka and Justin Harman and Richard Garcia, doctor Lariot and going up
in pledge. And we have exhibit B Boss and the aforementioned trend of chat
GPT being put to use. Oh boy, this one is from Dylan and
the headline the subject line rather Chat GPT, Hart and McMahon reunion. I'm
boy, Hey, lads, I was listening to twenty episodes of a Little
while back, and during it, Boss, I was trying to remind you
of a scenario you'd both made up for when Heart returned to the we.
I try to remember as much detail as I could and punch it into chat
GPT. I also know this is very bad taste. Also, for some
reason, it's formatted like a news article. All important provisos Yes. In
a sudding turn of events, former w superstar Breadth the Hitman Heart made a
triumphant return to the w w E for the first time since the infamous Montreal
Screwjob. Fans were shocked and thrilled to see the legendary wrestler back in action,
but little did they know that Vince McMahon had something up his sleeve.
During Heart's first match back with the company, McMahon somehow convinced Hart to allow
his opponent to put him in his signature move, the sharpshooter. As the
hold was being applied, Heart suddenly felt a sense of deja vu and realized
what was happening. In that moment, as he thought to himself, I
can't believe this is happening again, a skeleton dressed in a blue blazer on
the rafters and landed on the mat with a sickening thud, mcmahonon me.
McMahon immediately screamed for the referee to ring the fucking bell and the match was
over. The stunned hudience was left wondering what had just happened, and Hard
himself was left in shock at the bizarre turn of events. In the aftermath,
mcmandon yes, Yes. In the aftermath, McMahon denied any involvement in
the Blue Blazers untimely demise, claiming that it was just a tragic accident.
Yeah, I didn't explain holding onto the body. What you know that this
was? You know, I I certainly did not have any involvement with it.
I was I was ringside, So I certainly couldn't have anything to do
with the fact that someone fell or something fell from you know, a multiple
story architectural triumph. So what architectural triumph? Perhaps he should revisit this.
Bruno was a man. He used to sit on a can when he went
to the restaurant. He decided he would flaunt. He also decided he would
flaun. He did so, I guess evinced. The long and short of
it is, insofar as you're concerned, whenever something falls from the ceiling going
one of your events, it's nothing you could have reasonably prevented, and nothing
a curve reasonably or unreasonably prevented that. Notwithstanding, thank you, but many
fans were skeptical, believing that the w B chairman had orchestrated the whole thing
as some kind of twisted revenge plot against Heart. Despite the chaos and confusion,
one thing was clear, Bret Hart had finally returned the WWE and whether
he like Oh my God. Despite the chaos and confusion, one thing was
clear. Bret Hart had finally returned to the dipping of Ue, and whether
he liked it or not, he was once again at the center of the
wrestling world's most outrageous storyline. Can you imagine AI pumping that out? Something
we couldn't even imagine existing when we first did a bit? Oh? I
know, how about this one? This is from Greg Conley, a wonderful
member of the Solar System, who's fighting in the legal arena for your rights
in mine, and who just did us a great kindness to be with some
court records. M hmm, Hey, lads, I was listening to one
of your episodes a little while back, and during it, Boss Man was
trying to remind who of a scenario you'd both copy and paste copy of new
Oh wait here it is. Oh no, that's the same thing. Nope,
Nope, it's the same one repeated, Oh wait, no, there's
a house show thing here. How did I that's the one? Yeah,
there's a little delineation line there right, Oh there it is. I see
you. I asked chat GPT to book a nineteen ninety three WWE house show,
then asked it to write a local newspaper article about the show that has
been heavily tampered with by an editor who hates professional wrestling and thinks it's not
only fraudulent but also criminal. Do I read it as what? Do I
read it straight? Or do I read it as the editor? I think
you read it straight? Okay, Local Newspaper, July twenty seven, nineteen
ninety three. Let's fucking go with the headline. It's my fucking By the
way, that's my favorite paper ever. I love reading local newspaper. It's
a great fucking tell. They get, they get the real facts. Institution
WWE show in Worcester and m M w W E show in Worcester a night
of deceit and disappointment correct by a staff writer. Yeah, Worcester, Massachusetts.
The World of sing Entertainment brought its house its quote unquote house show shows.
It quotes to the Worcester Centrum on Saturday night. But what the fans
got so was was far from the action packed, hard hitting spectacle. They
were promised, what a lead, What a lead by the lab stead there
he's dangerous with this kind of technology. Man, forget about it. Oh
you won't we write your lead? Will I'll do it. I'll do it.
I don't need you know what, I don't need a human brain,
I got ah, that's right. Do ever I fucking want pick up a
hot cup of coffee and throw it in the rapporter's stace. Stupid bitch,
you you fucking count st Hi, you're fired. Yes, suck my cock,
motherfucker. Okay, an editor of a newspaper, major Metro daily.
Who doesn't you know they all have shouting fits. It's part of the job.
Their sleeves are rolled up, they're playing the role there. They smoke
cigarettes and on. But he I don't forget what he said. I mean,
I know he said the C word, and then he said, what
suck my cock? Motherfucker? He said, he tells the reporter he fire
suck my cock at the top of his lungs in the newsroom. I mean,
come on, folk, I challenge all of you in this fucking news
room to suck my cock. That's the wonderful guy to work for. What
else did he have this room? What else did he have this writer say
about the show? The matches were nothing more than a display of bad acting,
fake injuries, and cheesey catchphrases. The crowd up, I'm trying to
do this like without laughing. But the crowd made up of children and a
l The crowd made up of children and adults who should have known better,
cheered and jeered, cheered and jeered on Q as the so called quote superstars
unquote engaged in a scripted dance that was as predictable as it was insulting to
the intelligence of any thinking person. So played it straight. Just the facts
here from this guy. We spoke to some of the wrestler's backstage after the
show, and even they seemed to be aware of the shortcoming from their chosen
profession. This is a little oh my god. Oh Bret the Hitman Harder,
defended is WWE Championship against Yoko Zuna in the main event, told us
that while he enjoyed performing for the fans, he recognized that wrestling was not
for everyone. Quote. I know some people look down on what we do,
but for me, it's about putting on a good show and making people
happy. Heart said, but I understand that not everyone appreciates the artistry and
the athleticism that goes into our performances. Sean Michaels, who defeated Crush in
a singles match, echoed Heart sentiments. We know that some people think what
we do is fake, but what But we're out here giving it our all
every night. We love what we do and we're grateful to the fans who
support us. But despite the wrestler's attempts to defend their craft, it was
clear. It was It was clear to anyone with half a brain that what
they were got it. But what they were witnessing was nothing more than a
cheap invitation of real sports. That's lost Teditor the butts right. Yes,
it's like the quote to tell the story, so I've got to put the
butts in there. Yes. In conclusion, the WWE House Show and Worcester
was a night of deceit and disappointment, a sad reflection of a society that
values spectacle over substance. It is time for us as a culture to demand
more from our entertainers and our athletes. It is time to put an end
to this fraudulent insulting, an ultimately meaningless display of mediocrity. I mean amazing
that Let's go, Greg, Oh my god, that is that is just
it's so smooth, that is so just spectacular. Oh and like you just
picture everyone. Those paragraphs with it with the Knox are like they were written
right straight and without any offense by the inditial writer. And that's exactly what
the editor would do to them. The sentences. Unbelievable, man, that
a machine can spit that out. Matt Corkrane, Mike Piva, Andy Brandon
Kaiser, like we said a moat to your motherfucker, Vin Thor the Hurdler
and Josh Godare and Hope I'm pronouncing that right, and Dave Skilton and Nima
McCamy, which who is wonderful to meet out in LA when we did the
show of the WrestleMania Mike Pooling again in the Sauce, Joseph Alpaugh and Mark
Sweeney and Dan Haggerty and Mark mood El Mardie and doctor Whiz Pip. I
don't know much more than that. Corey Hulbert. Thank you very much as
well for your support of that fucking cast. Over on Patreon, Jeff Ross
writes to us, I want the Solar system to know how this cast makes
it impossible to watch. Everybody loves Raymond. Number one JP's mom calling Rayca
Ramon Raymond barone. Yes. Number two JP calling Billy Kidman Ray Romano.
Ah, and this is good, this fun, It is beautiful. Number
three an old episode where the coach here is joke about the idea of ray
Barone being the report order forced to cover wrestling the night that Owenard died and
in thinking it was all part of the act. Oh my god, picture,
great episode, Oh my god. And the hilarity is that he's just
so completely insensitive to the real grief going on around him because he just he
almost naively like believes it can't possibly have really happened. It can't have happened,
and he's totally failing in its professional responsibility. Who both the facts.
I mean, I could think the real episode and I can totally say that
happening. Jordan's Scapechi and Jerome Custin and Kaipo Puno who out in Hawaii.
We love to hear from Kaipo every now and then. South Turk. Thank
you very much for going all the way up to the moat tier level.
Timothy Weiss and Paul the Saints Fan and Kelly and Logan Henry and Patrick Voisberger
and dav and Stephen Murray and Chris Jones and Chuck Piacio went all the way
up at one point in time to the moat tier. Thank you very much
for that. Faster than Chuck wrote to us a couple of things. Um
he wanted us to know about Shano here. M hmm, I don't know.
Channa here come up during a movie reference and turn. Remember we talked
about here comes comes up often enough because I'm always enjoying hearing me the stories.
And I've told the story several times about how he thought to throw me
into the Charles River Love that signing autographs. I knew the APA was going
to do a run in on a boat because they had done it in another
town before this one. This is in two thousand and one, during the
invasion Angle And I said, Sean, aren't you afraid that the APA is
going to show up and run you out of here? And he looks at
me, goes, you want going to throw you in the river man,
and I go no, and that's the end of that. He's just staring
at him with the blank stare you know me? And then the next time
I saw him, he was running around looking to kill somebody because he showed
up to an MMA show at Mohegan's Son that got shut down before the first
fight happened because too many fighters couldn't pass the physical to put enough doubts before
the public, and he was looking to kill someone to get his downside.
I was with the craziest fucking night man so faster than Shock, writes to
us about shano Here the following So I really wanted to tell the story to
night but I was amidst a long drive home. In nineteen ninety eight,
shadow Here was an up and coming kickboxer and tough man competitor in Hilton Head
Island, South Carolina, and I banged his ex girlfriend with whom he was
pre believe obsessed creepy because he was twenty seven at the time, she was
eighteen. I two was eighteen. So when he showed up to a cluster
of outdoor bars called the Triangle to confront her and pummel me to oblivion.
I should have been scared, but I wouldn't even have the chance to get
scared. You see, little did he know that working the door at the
bar of his ex girlfriend and I were inside with our fake IDs, was
the owner of that bar at toughest nails five nine bowling ball of a country
boy, actually a sweetheart of a guy who I'm friends with this day.
While the shantan bomb tried to blow right past him without showing his ID,
so the bouncer and owner stopped him. The bouncer slash owner, oh here,
shoved him in the face and said, out of my way, shrimp.
I don't call him shrimp. You call him shrimp, then you don't
have to worry about a guy who calls you shrimp. The one owner then
one punch cold cocked him, fracturing his orbital moan and permanently retiring him from
ever drinking trying again. Upon seeing this incredibly hilarious knockout, his leggy blonde
ex girlfriend and I paid our tab, scadaddled out the back eggit, went
back to her apartment and banged again. The end tremendous. You know I
need to hear it Jes rest In p Shano here by the way. Sean
Burnett, thanks very much with the pledge we appreciated. Eric Ramos, we
appreciate all your supporting Thanks very much. Ayachi, thank you very much.
Hope we've proven worthy of the pledge. A Travis rev deadly pudding, got
that right, but the cash on the table. Appreciate it. Michael Herndon
and this this this person up instead of putting his name into the field,
wrote my friend saw y'all at NXT. James looked bored until schism came out,
prompting him to take a shirt off, yelling fuck, yes that's his
name. Wow, he didn't see us at NXT. We didn't go to
nxts been a message for somebody else, Adam b. Thank you very much,
Justin Wright. Since joining weeks going that twenty dollars, tier, I
will say that TLF has become a part of everyday life. Lapsed, Vincent
Hogan are among my favorites and just want to say you guys turned around a
horrific breakup from me and got me through the bad days. Looking forward to
you continued injection into my air waves. Thanks vell As, Justin From that
upper Peninsula of the beautiful state of Michigan. There we go, Jeff Russ.
We appreciate that the increased pledge and the increased faith in the cast.
Thank you very much. Great to hear from you. Kevin Grimwood, Yes,
that's exactly correct. Brian McDaniel, Jeremy Smola, Darryl Wilkins, Mark
Gillenwater, Damien Thorne, Moucorp, John Francis Shall, I continue, Marcus
Crouch, Jake Desborough, Pete mctaggar. They're coming back, They're not staying
away. Daniel James Dunn and Paul the Sames fan who comes in stronger and
harder than ever. Nick Assapoff and Dark Knight dev and Niaz Kala who just
comes in and out of our lives for years now. David's style going up
to Motier member Cliff doing the same thing, annoyed by everything, not annoyed
enough by us to keep the money in his wallet. Thank you very much.
Patrick Logue, Alex mcgaar and Ryan McCormick, Oliver Suggett and Sam Gaffshack
and Allie and Molly and Zach and Scott Direnzo, Leslie Todd, Harry Double
Jimmy McKenna, Barry Fitzpatrick. We're talking about Jason, We're talking about Luke,
We're talking about you. Yeah, I'm talking Martin Rosinski. Yeah,
I'm talking Stephen Jollie. Yes, I'm talking Chris Carter and E sc and
Shao Hung gioe and Bryce Bartwo and Jay Clark. Let me get a fucking
breath here. It's all real, folks. We wouldn't spend the time if
it was fake. It wouldn't possibly be worth it. It's hardly worth it
when it's not fake. Nico Jack, Tracy, Jeric DeRosier, Dylan Smith,
Cameron Stevens all coming strong, coming hard, and not wearing a condom.
Lyrics Anonymous writes to us Ola co Chairs all praise to the new war
Lorder. This is your longtime close personal friend. Lyrics Anonymous just wanted to
tell you how much I enjoyed that cast in I asked. Last night,
I brought my wife and she finally got to witness the shame and pain we
all endure. She thought it was hilarious, as I always keep her up
to date on the happenings, so she felt she had a good grasp on
the inside. Jokes. She was very impressed with your impressions. Boss.
Not only did we think the show was great, but we also think you
two personally resemble that remark. One last thing, who do you JP think
would win this Survivor series match? Only Anderson, Jeff Hardy, Bruce Hart
and Irs managed by Brother Love versus Raven, the Young Bucks and Jerry Lawler
in a Santa suit with a coke managed by Doc Hendricks. Yeah, the
fans. The fans. I guess he saw us in La So we appreciate
it. Man, glad to enjoy the show. John Conway, thank you
very much. Yeah, this is definitely now I'm looking at it. Feedback
coming off the Mania show that we did in Los Angeles, Nina Nima Pardon
writes to us, just wanted to say how dope it was to see the
coachairs there doing their thing last night. Felt honored to meet both of you
and shake your hand after all these years listening to that cast, Nima,
the feeling is extremely mutual. What an day that was. Looking back up
that was, God is crazy. It almost doesn't feel like it happened.
Yeah, like it was so because we hit this known after that Cody match
ended. We were just like, so, yeah, we just we and
we we just fucking left. The moment was run. Yeah, yeah,
the moment that that the three count was registered, we didn't even fucking stand
around. We were like, get out and scot out of here. On
the move. Brandon Tillotson and Chris Beard Sell and Miguel out of Going and
Tim l and Cody Liptach and Andrew Chapman and Daniel Hawes and Joseph Russo and
Glenn Harris, Danny Poolman, Tom valand Martin Fryer, Andrew Heckt, nin
Dalton Hastings going up strong in terms of how much he's putting in front of
us. We appreciate it. Pat here he goes. He writes, I've
been listening to older episodes in the last few years, and I keep hearing
about under the cinemat. I will admit I've never been a movie person.
A lot of movies bore the hell out of me. But hearing the coach
here is deep guyve wrestling mixed with cinema. I can dig that creative.
I've remember I've always wondered that I that's something I can't fathom. Yeah,
it's like I'm kind of indifferent about music, and people are like, how,
I mean, yeah, I like music, but I don't. I
don't need music in my life. I feel like, yeah, but maybe
that's because I have something wrong with me. I don't know. I mean,
it's just a weird thing to me, like the the I mean,
yeah, it's it's so I I mean, I'm not there's nothing whatever,
but like, I just can't fathom that. I just cannot fathom the idea
of movies boring someone. Yeah, you know, like sometimes it requires too
much attention to follow a plot. I think that's what kills me. Yes,
it's like, you know, really like I already don't know what's happening.
I missed some subtle remark that explains the whole fucking thing. Yeah,
yeah, I mean that makes sense. I suppose I can say that I
really like watching movies with subtitles, even if it's in English, for that
very reason, because you know, my kid has been doing that. Yeah,
and I used to piss the hell out of me, but now I
kind of need it because I like read shit that I was like, oh
my god, that's what they said. Movies that I've movies that I fucking
heard. I've watched for fucking thirty years a million times, I'm like,
oh shit, exactly, they don't. We hear wrestling lyrics and theme songs,
and we tell ourselves for years that it says he carries a fish dick
and the Big Bossman theme. Of course it doesn't say that, right,
right, But until you actually read what it says, you know, which
is of course the the miracle of the Internet and just the limitless archive of
lyrics that are out there, we actually know what it says, which we
ever had the luxury of no one and we were kids. And it's similar
with movies. I remember the movie Sexy Beasts. Remember that that film?
Yeah, I never saw it, but I know, yeah, I know
what thick, thick, thick British accents in that movie as I recall,
oh yeah, yep, impenetrable to my ear at the time. When I
went to watch it, I put the subtitles on. I love the movie.
Yes, would have hated the movie if it wasn't for subtitles, if
it was just on VHS. Would have hated it because I just would have
felt so behind the whole time and crazy. It really is. IQ wrestler.
It's great to have your support, my friend. We love it.
Thank you very much for the pledge on Patreon, Caesar Deelah, thank you.
You know it is funny too. It is that that accent. The
accent is also like whenever I watched the full Monty, I have to like,
it takes me about and I should watch it now with with subtitles,
but it usually takes me about ten minutes to be able to understand what they're
saying. I kind of when you saw a couple of foreign films and I
was like, this is great. Like yeah, when I when I saw
a John Luca Dard movie, which one is it? Um? Oh?
You I know, and I was like I felt no um disconnection from what
was being presented. And that was that was so key to me because it
was just like it's a miracle, you know that we can enjoy foreign language
films, you know, due to subtitles on on DVDs. I mean even
in the VHS era, you just you couldn't do it. No, you
couldn't. You couldn't I mean unless they were yeah, you you couldn't choose
to do it right. You couldn't expect it right, like that is a
that is a DVD thing, and now with you know, I have every
question about that. And sometimes, you know, we'll exchange files for cinement
and stuff, and sometimes the subtitles will work, and sometimes they won't.
Do you know if the subtitles or somehow embedded in the metadata of the DVD
file, like which ones you're talking about, I don't know. There's been
a handful of movies that I have no trouble pulling up the subtitles compute or
others I don't. And most of them, and someone out there might know
why this is, most of them work in every language besides English, so
I'll be able to get Spanish subtitles or French subtitles. That's fascinating to me
that what that tells me is that somehow the version of this file is one
that understands it's it's sold in an English speaking market, doesn't offer English subtitles.
But to me, it's like English subtitles are always an option alongside.
Yeah, for sure, very very busiessum. Yeah, I don't, I
don't, I don't know. I don't even think. The only time,
the only time that I actually concerned myself with subtitles is when we've done foreign
films, which I think we've only done Ricky Dozan at this point. Yeah,
but I wanted to make sure that I had them burned into the file
right so that we could watch That's awesome. Yeah, but what signs that
Zach fucked around with chat GPT and sent us to follow boys us? This
is the whole? Is it? Yeah? Okay, I feel like this
is one of those um it sounds like like one of those old documentaries in
the fifties, Lapsed Whole. Cogan, the retired wrestling legend, wakes up
every morning with a sense of paranoia. He's convinced that someone, anyone is
out to get a visual pinfall on him by rolling him up. The fear
of being caught off guard and losing a match plagues his thoughts constantly as he
goes about his day laps Hulk Hogan is hyper vigilant, always on the lookout
for any mention of the word back or the phrase roll up in conversations or
media. Even the slightest reference to these triggered words sends him into a state
of alertness, ready to defend himself against any potential sneak attacks in his interactions
with others, laps hulk Hogan Peppers's dialogue with his trademark phrases. He calls
everyone brother, using it as a term of endearment, but also as a
way to assert his dominance and authority. He uses dude as a casual greeting,
but also as a way to express frustration or disbelief. However, laps
Hulkogan is not just focused on defending himself from potential attacks. He's also constantly
thinking about how to keep himself relevant and maintain a steady stream of income.
He's constantly brainstorming new ideas and opportunities to get this thing back on track and
dial it in financially. Yes, He's often seen engaging in various ventures to
stay in the public eye, whether it's making guest appearances on talk shows,
starting his own podcast, or endorsing products on social media. He's determined to
keep his name in brand alive, leveraging his wrestling persona and fame to generate
income and secure his financial future. Despite his relentless pursuit of relevance and financial
security, Lapsed Hulk Hogan also battles inner demons He's plagued by insecurity and anxiety,
worried that he may never be able to replicate the success he had in
his wrestling career. He struggles with the pressure to maintain his image and legacy
while also grappling with the passage of time and the changing landscape of the entertainment
industry. And it gets better, Oh my god, Lapstulk, Hogan,
and Knobs made their way to the beach ready for a day of fun in
the sun. Hulk it was constantly on edge paranoia that someone might attempt a
surprise roll up on him, as he was always trying to keep himself relevant
in the rattling world. As they set up their beach chairs, Hogan scanned
the area, always on alert. He greeted fellow beach goers with his trademark
phrase, let me tell you something, brother. He was determined to keep
the day on track, and I'm sure that he remained center of attention.
Knobs, ever, the loyal sidekick, offered to make omelets for them,
as per Hogan's wait. Knobs, ever, the loyal sidekick, offered to
make omelets for them as per Hogan's orders. Unbelievable, However, despite Knobs'
best effort, the omelets always taste the omelets always tasted like disappointment. Hogan
couldn't help but express his frustration, saying, brother, these omelets are not
cutting it. We need to dial it in and get this thing back on
track. As they lounged on the beach, Hogan's ears perked up when he
heard the word back or the phrase roll up from nearby conversations. He couldn't
help but feel triggered, constantly on guard for any potential wrestling maneuver aimed at
him. Just then, to Hogan's surprise, they ran into Dixie Carter,
a former wrestling executive. Hogan's paranoia peaked, and he immediately became suspicious of
her intentions. He greeted her with a cautious tone, Hey, dude,
what brings you to the beach. You're not here to try and get one
over on me? Are you can't go to the beach without the accute to
that by this man? Also, I picture her in like full pants.
Oh yeah, totally exactly. Yes, Oh my god, that is absolutely
amazing. I mean that it can channel it is like that. It's just
remarkable. Oh, Jeff wants you to know, it's so cool. We
were talking about Woody Strode. Oh yeah, he writes, I had no
idea he was a wrestler as well. It's really a shame that every American
doesn't know the forgotten for athlete who broke the color barrier in football Strode,
Kenny Washington, Bill Willis, and Marion Montley, especially since this happened before
Jackie Robinson. How popular the sport is. It's a shame the NFL,
he says, doesn't recognize its history. Pret Super Bowl. There is a
great mural in downtown Can't Ohio, home of the Hall of Fame, that
honors him. Great work on this, JP. Gold Dust is a great
read for anyone who likes wrestling, football, acting, or history. That's
his book, right, Yeah, gold Dust goa l Dust. Yes.
Plus, I'm sure you saw it in your research. But apparently Woody and
Toy Story is named after wood He Strode. So oh, I didn't know
that. Actually I didn't see I didn't notice that. That's pretty cool.
So all toy story movies are coming soon, he concludes. I guess,
yeah, there we go, shit toy Story. So that's a great little
teaser front of the cinemat. Tell folks about wood He Strode and what we
talked about Oh god, well, I mean so so we were able to
do the Ten Commandments around Eastern Passover because of wood he strode, and uh
yeah, he's he was a great uh actor, performer, athlete just like
I mean, is a renaissance man is what he was totally. But what
I really really like, here's a guy who fucking lived it, man,
Right, this guy was like like his book is chuck full of stories about
what it was like to live in Los Angeles as a person of color in
the nineteen thirties and just kind of like he remembers when the La River was
a river, right, right, he remembers when it was a river,
Like remember the fucking remember the game, rocks each other's head, rocks to
each other's head, and you and you keep playing until some one bleeds and
then that person that that team loses, like you're throwing rocks across the river
at each other hoping to cut somebody. That's that's playtime. Wow, that's
some rough shit man. And just his phenomenal career, uh going from uh,
you know, he played American football and then I don't remember if he
did. I don't think he ever did the NFL if he did, it
was very very short. But then he also did the CFL. But then
you know, like like a lot of guys did that. He wrestled in
the off seasons and wrestled all over the place and was very had no idea.
Yeah, and we fucking uh we watched the match too that he had
with Um, with Gorgeous George. That was really cool, like like he
was, yeah, he's a guy again. This it's stuff like this that
I find to be the most valuable and and he's We're lucky with him.
Um. It's more so the people who who don't have books, who you
know, don't have people talking about them, who we have to kind of
like, you know, I have to literally build their biography from news stories
and shit, and it is it's it's sometimes there are times where it's literally
been the most rewarding stuff just to be able to tell somebody's story who's long
forgotten like this, like the uh, the State Trooper in Halloween two.
That's my favorite one, honestly, because there's nothing about his wrestling career anywhere.
I remember he wrote that letter to h He wrote a letter to the
thing defending and like it's like that was a portion of it. It was
like a fifteen page letter, and I was like, oh my god,
what I would give. I'm sure that you know, there's obviously no way
that there's a copy of that anywhere, but man, yeah, so good
old Wye Rode. Yeah what Hetrode was magic moments in that Cinemat Catalog films.
I'm telling you a lot of fun. Mark Powers to take his word
for it, not just ours, Mark Powers. Cipher Allie, we're talking
cipher All, Sorry, cipher All, Job Burr, Dan Parshley, Lillian
Mattis, Michael McCabe, Faster than Chuck, Willie Thompson, Fitz Finnigan,
Stephen Jolly, and Matt Dee and Gavin J. Baxter, all making sure
that they're doing right by the co chairs. James says fuck at James Santinelli,
He writes, my financial manager told me I should cancel my Patreon memberships
after I admitted that I don't really listen anymore. I couldn't bear to hear
such blasphemy, My liege, lords, I offer you my eternal tithe Also,
finally, listening to every single under the Cinemat Wrestling stinks. Give me
the movie talk well, We've got you's right, ignore your financial advisor.
Matt Danny, Daniel Beckett, Matthew Manzella and Adam Tucker. We're talking to
Chris and Brennan and Anthony de Sanzo and the one called Clamps under the cinemat.
We're all about Clamps. Zachary Cole, Ben Buck, Will Harris,
Daniel Divine, Ben Buck bumping the pledge up again. I love those introductory
pledges. Within days, they're up at the premium levels again. Pav Wrestling
Gifts and Matt Anderson, and Annon and R and Damian Thorne, Brian Sours,
Kristin Hollister. Always in the soup, Always in the sauce, Timothy
Weiss and Jarrett Says and Nick s We appreciate it also very much. Here's
a nice just sort of lapsed missive. These are the moments that the podcast
exists to pass along. Brad writes, simply, Dave Sullivan. I went
to a comic con in the middle of nowhere, Nebraska this weekend, towards
the back of the hall, sitting with nobody besides his handlow around him was
Dave Sullivan. It was really depressing and had Virgil vibes. I got excited
when I saw him and then realized I'm a fucking idiot and he's a Carney.
I deserved to feel that way, almost like a Hi, kup,
thank you, Brad Daniel, Divine Belle Winters. Let's fucking go. Let's
keep the kiddie full. Austin rock Solid, member of the Solar System,
basically forecast what we've been touting for weeks here on the air LATS LATS lap
Star five Transcription service. This is a way to search full text of our
TLF archive by emailing LAPS to dot scribes at gmail dot com. It can
connect you with Solar System member haystex Calhoun, who will facilitate access to this
treasure trove. Austin gets it, and he got it before he even knew
LATS existed. He wrote gear CoA chairs of Colin Carnage, what a year
it has already been on the fucking cast. Well, I've written a LAPS
to man at Gmail for a few things lately. I've not written a main
feed email since my missive last fall, in which I chronicled working my wife
into listening to six hours of I Know what you did last summer coverage.
So buckle up to make it long. First off, I and update my
journey through the Lapst archives. If you remember long ago I started at episode
one. I mean listening to every TLF episode in order taking notes along the
way of classic bits, the first appearances of LAPS characters, important tropes,
and generally notable observations. I am now midway the episode one thirty two,
ten years after the Chris ben Wat tragedy. The pain is excruciating in this
one. My god, that was a tough one, I'll say, Jesus.
My initial plan was to pepper you with my notes and emails to make
for a recurring bit and mail back segments. However, quickly became a parent
in twenty twenty two. They simply have too much content to bury in our
asses, so mailback segments became a seasonal affair. Given the shift in policy,
I now have far too many notes to attempt to put in one email.
In fact, I have so many notes it has led to a much
larger idea. And that's a funny thing about notes, isn't it. Yes,
it is, you see. I also spent the last year getting involved
with TLF on Twitter. Before I left, let a college podcast routinely ruined
my rectum. I had sworn to never create a Twitter account, as I
hated the mail stream of discontent I observed on the platform. After a while,
though, engaging the Solar System on Patreon was simply not enough. I
listened to TLF Brandon Entertainment close to twenty hours a week it actually could be
more, and needed an outlet to display my freshly pounded poop shoot. So
reluctantly I created a Twitter account solely due to my need to engage with other
Solar System members and stay up to date with all things lapsed. I bring
this up because my short time on Twitter is soon revealed how thoroughly outclassed I
am with the true ogs in the game. I realized the level of institutional
knowledge among the day one Lapsed members is truly awe inspiring, which got me
thinking, why doesn't a legitimate lapse to wookie exist. We've enjoyed an early
decade of real unation at the hands of YouTube religion of loyal lapsed listeners,
many of whom are highly talented and skilled individuals, Yet a complete source of
lapse, truth, to my knowledge, does not exist in one place.
So I'm today throwing down a challenge to the solar system. This needs to
exist and he can commit to starting the effort. He'd also tell us who
also tell us a short story how describing how I will always remember WrestleMania thirty
nine. I spent the weekend with my house to myself, my wife is
conveniently out of town, listening to the TLF many episodes of the last four
years, and gearing up for a fun virtual watch party with my older brother
and two nephews. Last year, my two nephews, fourteen and twelve,
began a curiosity with WWE. This was mainly due to Logan Paul deal with
the reality of that piece of business working out for WWE, and they would
each send any clips they'd watched, ask me questions about how it all quote
unquote worked, and would watch parts of PL's Everything. However, as it
tends to do with new fans, shifted with the Royal Rumble. For this
year's Rumble, my younger nephew texted me he was excited to watch, and
so we ended up watching the entire event together on FaceTime. He was hooked
with the exception of the women's matches. He loved the rumble and was all
the way on the team for Cody Rhodes, despite him asking questions about isn't
this fake? Or wait, was that part real? Love that? So
the little dude just loved watching athletes fake to beat the shit out of each
other. My older nephew joined in as well, and he quickly became a
die hard Cody fan. I'm sure they fucking got what they deserved at WrestleMania.
By the way, boss, Oh, absolutely tell those little don't forget.
Don't forget kids, it doesn't matter what you want. By elimination Chamber,
I had both nephews watching with me virtually and they were completely glued to
the screen again the exception of the women's matches. I shit you not,
one of my nephews even on ironically exclaimed during the Sami Verse Roman made event,
bro, I am so entertained right now, that's a shoot. Father.
My nephews went to spend and maybe forty six months from tangentially following WW
to Logan Paul, the weekly watchers of Ron SmackDown and Avid Cody Rhodes fanboys.
I cannot count the number of times they asked to be a caller text
Cody is going to win at Mania, right? And which night is Cody
fighting Roman? We want to make sure we can stay up for it.
I having got a text from their father, my oldest brother, telling my
middle brother and I, your nephews are in the pool doing w W moves.
WrestleMania weekend finally arrives, ohoy, and those two kids stayed up both
nights, watching every match with their two uncles on FaceTime. They love Night
one and powered through Night two as each match noticeably raised the levels of anxiety,
anticipation, and excitement in both of them. They were silent during the
entrances for Roman and Cody. They dared not speak over this moment they had
looked forward to for months. During the match, they could not be more
engaged with every move. They were the perfect balance of nervous and excited,
exactly as you are when your favorite team is playing a championship game or match.
At times they cheered, at times they looked away, nervous to watch.
Then Cody started hitting the crossroads and they started losing their minds. But
then Cody lost. I could literally feel the ear or drop out of their
bodies through the iPad screen. They both hung up with barely a goodbye,
and sent the following text to my brother and myself in our group chat.
Keep in mind they'd been fans a w to B from for at most six
months. The following is a complete shoot, older nephew, while my stint
as a wrestling fan is over. It was fun, younger nephew. I'm
never watching anything to do with WWE again, Older nephew. The company has
gone to crap. I had the Ta Lef live audio feed from the Comedy
Chateau to send me home happy, but my nephew's undoubtedly went to bed pissed
off and unsatisfied that night. The next night, I refused to turn on
Rob. I guess who did. That's right, My older nephew sent me
a screenshot of Roman's entrance with the caption I'm watching raw and already regretting it.
Yeah, I'm watching to see what Cody's going to do. About ninety
minutes into the show, I get the following texts from him, Vince trip
Lash are going to somehow mess up the ww draft. I know it,
and yes, I know I said i'd never watch again, but I lied.
Both still keep up with what's going on, but neither watch every minute
like they did, and I've already talked about perhaps watching more a W And
that, my friends, is my story of how w W took appear of
twelve and fourteen year old brothers, got them completely invested in the top baby
face, only to make them both better lapsed fans like the rest of us
in the span of four months. Well done, Vince, You've still got
it until next time. Thank you for the best five podcasts left main Feed,
delf Archives, this American work under the cinemat and Wrestlemammia in the world,
and thank you for total NonStop Holkamnia Yours and laps to Austin. Wow.
What do those children learn? That wrestling is not fun, that wrestling
is not enjoyable, that wrestling will never be what you wanted to be?
And why is that? Because one would think, right, you want to
win the faith and the and the the expenditure of your clientele. You want
to give them what they want. Right. No, as wrestling taught us,
as wrestling taught us that the idea is actually totally wrong. Absolutely,
it's absolutely lead. You know, there is a weird, twisted mindset,
yes, in the wrestling world that that what people cheer for is not what
they actually want. Yes, bizarre, And you're saying that mentality exists within
the decision makers. Yes, so we'll never really get what we want if
we get what we wanted just because we were thinking like them for a limited
time. That was a bad move at WrestleMania. Who really was It's a
bad move. I no business is phenomenal. I know it's red hot,
and I know the Roman segments have been blockbusters in terms of the ratings.
I know it's big. I'm here to tell you it would have been just
as big if Cody was the champ, except Cody segments would have been bigger.
Also, perish the thought. The thought. Also, it's ready to
wrestle Rock again at summers Lam. Yeah, guess what those kids who were
over It's not us wanting Cody to win, although I thought that was the
movie they should have made. It's us knowing that twelve and fourteen year olds
out there like that we're watching and for no reason, they didn't get Hogan
beating the Sheik. And it's just a weird thing too, because it's like
not only has has Um, you know, like he's he's the he's got
the honkytok Man run, you know, and much better. I'm not trying
to compare him to honkytok Man, but I'm just saying, like he's had
this epic run. You know, you gotta know when to pull the trigger
on it and let it close. You have to know that you're making him
such a massive deal that you're gonna have to just take the opportunity when it
presents itself to move to somebody else, because you're not going to be able
to force that. You're not going to be able to just draw a line
in the sand one day like they did with Goldberg and just say, all
right, you're losing tonight, because eventually you have to lose, and tonight's
going to be the night, and we're gonna reverse engineer reasons for it.
We're going to listen extra hard for a crowd that didn't cheer you and pretend
that that's like representative of the whole. We're going to ignore the fact that
every metric indicates that the belt should still be on this guy. And then
we saw what happened, and I'm not suggesting that's what's going to happen to
WWE because Cody didn't go over at Mania. I'm just saying, you can't
hope for a better setup. You can't. If we can't trust WW to
strike. When someone presents themselves that the crowd will accept as sort of worthy
and ready to defeat Roman reigns, then we're automatically setting ourselves up for a
moment where whoever does beat him I think is very very likely to be viewed
as Ronnie Garman in terms of beating Wick Flair. Ye, and it'll just
be like, all right, well, on's this going to go back to
Roman? I I love Jus, and I think they might give go with
them instead of Cody beating Roman. They might do it. You might do
solo Sokoa. I don't know there are I'm not saying there aren't options out
there, but I'm telling you Cody is the only one that would have felt
like a graduation. Yes, right, Cody's the one where there would be
a line in the sand, like Steve Auston at fourteen, like in some
ways Brett. You know, at ten we just mentioned Hogan beating Chic Warrior,
even though that didn't work out so well. At six, you got
you don't get many chances to do these moments and as a wrestling as a
wrestling company, I feel like if you don't know how to appreciate those moments
that you're never going to get back, and by appreciate, I mean take
advantage of them, then I'm not really sure that we're supposed to like think
you're awesome, you know, right, It's just it's it's it's security,
blanket bullshit, you know, I don't know. Brian Hunter, thanks for
the pledge. Scott Arnold, thanks for the pledge. John Maggio, we
love it. Devin Bray, Holy Mountain and Odie Pop and PDW, Damien
Thorne, Lumpy, Chris Calameda, Paul Neebe, and Daniel and Cody Hinkle.
We need to thank also Daniel Divine and Daniel Moehler for their generous support.
Longtime Solar System member Brian Blake, as solid as they come, writes
to us, never intermittent fast that cast, and I think he's absolutely right
about that. Matthew Finney, thanks for the vaney increase in pledge. It's
been a pleasure getting to know you. Owen Taylor, thank you very much.
He writes up from the three sixteen tier to VIPs. I need to
feel the ass lash from the co chairs tonight. That's our backlash live call
Nick Capriolo, Dylan Smith and Justin Garcia MSG nineteen sixty eight ninety nine.
Thank you, Fred Dernsdorff, Richard Templer and Ben Odsley, Andy Lowe.
And we heard also from John Jennings who wrote, well, Fellas, it
all started when I searched a WA in a podcast app. There you go,
that's it, miss him from Verne Country in Minnesota. Boss, I
wish you'd pass on John's story of you got it becoming lapsed. Oh,
I love it. Fellas had all started when I searched a WA in a
podcast app. When I caught up with your feed, I rolled back and
listen to a WA and WCCW pods until you put new things up for me
to freeload on. That ends today. I lived through those two tales a
W A and wcc W. I'm a LAPS fan in Minnesota, forty seven
years old. I used to sneak around the house on Sunday mornings, hoping
I didn't wake my mom and dad so I could catch so I could catch
All Star Wrestling on the Channel nine in Minneapolis. If they woke up,
we would have to go to church, and there was no chance to see
in the whole show. I told you they were out there. We just
we found the limental tragedy guy a few emails ago. Here's r A w
A guy. Then I have to wait till next Saturday. Admittedly, I
was Great Gagney's only fan when I was five to ten years old, even
in the fucking u crop top with the back camo. All right, that
didn't spread the gospel, Okay, I got. I got to go to
the ABA matches in Fairmont, Minnesota when I was young. The undercard Bobby
Heenan wrestled T and T Tom Lens. He hit him in the chest with
a Greg Valentine hammer and Lens spit straight up in the air. My friend
Ryan, who was who was with me and my mother started crying because he
thought Lens got hurt. He had to go out into the entry and be
consoled by my mother that it was okay, It was all okay. When
I was seven or eight, I was visiting my grandparents in Lake City,
Florida. We used to we used to use three different airports to fly in
because my mother was a Penny Pincher. Oh shit, the three were Jacksonville,
or Lando or Tampa. We were on our way back to Minnesota,
and my grandparents drove us to the Report. Of course, back in the
back in those days, everyone went to the gate for the big sendoff.
Especially that's right, I'm gonna say they definitely went to the gate for the
sendoff. I'm staying with my grandpa and looked at my right and see this
huge guy lift a woman up under her armpits, almost in the military press
style, and bringing her over the rope next to him. I said,
Grandpa, it's whole Cogan. He replied, who's so cogan? I said
he was a wrestler in the AWA. Grandpa Grandpa said, let's go meet
him. I told him I was too scared to go over there. My
fearless grandfather Mark ride over there. And then a little breath said, my
grandson says, he sees you on TV wrestling. Folks. Response, not
me, dude, Oh my god, brother, what on Terry d No,
dude, not me, brother? What are you? Who sees me?
Who? Who sees me? Brother? Wait a minute, who's your
grandson? Brother? Are you? What are we talking about? Dude?
That is that walker? Is that a shoot? Wait a minute, how
old are you? Brother? What? What airport? Is this? Just?
Sh oh? Here? Grandpa came back and told me that, and
that was my first lesson that these fuckers are all liars. Yes, my
mother said she wouldn't spit on him if he was on fire. I mean
no. Nonetheless, I flew on a plane with Whole Coke in in Minneapolis.
He flew coach for the record. Grandpa would watch with me every now
and then. He was pretty good with his fist back in the day,
and when those guys would go into their punch heavy ballet, he would have
to leave the room saying, this is all bullshit. He went, he
went and got another help and a hot dish. Yes, it was a
hot pot plate. Is it plate? That's casserole being sticking out of it?
Oh yeah, absolutely absolutely bubbling on the inside. You can see him
and the French is fried onions. Yea, oh god, oh my god.
I raised to Loring's Drugs drug store to get my aftermags every month.
That was the only way I could know what was going on in other territories,
even though at the time I couldn't see world class I read about David
van Eric a lot and was sat in by his passing. I also I
read about Billy Jack, Bob Backlin, Dusty and all the people I couldn't
see. Then we got cable Gorilla and Bobby doing Tuesday nights MTV Rock and
Wrestling wcc W Saturday nights on TBS at five oh five Central time zone.
Good God, this must be what heaven is like. Yes, fast board.
In nineteen ninety, I was fifteen. We used to print called Buck's
Bar in Hamburg all the time. Yep, fuckhead Buck Zoomhoff at a bar
wow, I had no idea tremendous oh in his hometown, he always answered
the phone. A good friend of mine got into a verbal tiff with Buck
one night in a bar in Hutchinson, Minnesota. It was decided that this
was to go outside. My friend introduced the three knees to buck skull and
the battle was over. Such a minna of saying it. It produced three
knees to a skull that night. And uh yeah, yeah, well you
know used to stand up. He used to stand up comedy in Marshall,
Minnesota, and for a while he was actively living in a van down by
the river in New London, Minnesota. Oh, please, no, I
know he's lying Buck Zoomhoff living in a van. I mean, that's too
that's too classy for him. I was standing in Minneapolis airport to pick up
my uncle. Oh, my uncle was in the can. Mike Rotundo ran
past me full speed. It really does. I told my dad who it
was. Then then then t Tnko walked by. I was a little confused.
My uncle came out of the head and started walking and said to me
my father that the guy in front of him at a record number of folds
on the back of his head. That happened to be the guy walking in
front of us. Kamala and Tito Santana were talking about why it's better to
lease a vehicle rather than buy it. Oh, that's just tremendous, is
it? Because of love? Dress rates low John, that's a great letter.
That's a great tip. Jo still more. Oh, Oh, I'm
sorry, please more. I got into radio on the mid two thousands,
and I thought out wrestlers for interviews. I mostly quit watching by that point,
but still wanted to speak to the ones I loved as a kid.
Slaughter came to Wilmar for a baseball game just to watch it. Yeah,
yeah, right, Jericho, which was maybe my worst interview guests ever,
aj Styles, broun Stroman, Steve Austin, a lot of others. While
their product is the shits, the personalities are what I want. Here's the
deal, guys. They don't have a lot of money. I'm in fucking
radio. What I do have is a lot of sports cards. I threw
a few up on line. Decide that whatever they sell for is when I'm
given to the most entertaining audio that has crawled right up my ass, amazing
laps fan. That's a fucking fucking christ more more more this season, donate
your unused, unwanted cars to WTLF. There it is cars, cards,
whatever, John, that's a wonderful email. And it's cards that's someone of
your vintage from that very significant part of the country is counted amongst the solar
system. We're going to rely on you. I think, for instance,
going forward quite a bit, where were these bull when we were doing these
journeys. I know, fucking christ aot D. I want to thank you
for the pledge as we continue our trend of dominance here saying to you Pete
Faulkner. We really appreciate the support. Carl writes, my ap my afternoon
is a lapsed sleeper agent. This is from Cape Town, Dear cochairs.
This past weekend was my fiancee's birthday and we went to a music festival with
friends. We happened to discover our neighbors were American and invited them to come
to have a beer with us. We are forty five minutes from the nearest
hard road. It's cool but not cold, and the sun is crisp and
that unique autumn way. Sometime into the general conversation, this gentleman mentions he
grew up in Boston and now lives in a small town in Colorado. Everything
changed at that moment. My brain was now screaming. We got in Cape
Town, South Africa. Yes, my brain was now screaming, Lodrula,
my cousin is a state trooper and cop cop Cop Cop Cop. I'm no
longer capable of having a pleasant conversation with this man, as my brain goes
into a psychosis every time I see him thereafter. This is all due the
lapse to kill word Shirley and grained into the solar system. Boston. Yeah,
we have done quite a bit of of burning into the brains on that
whole. I just that there's someone in Cape Town saying lad regular as it
is, he here is Boston. Oh yeah quite happy, Yeah, sy
Robs, Thank you, John, thanks for increasing your pledge up to the
VIP level. Tim Bever's nicest year maturation as a Solar System member. Keep
the good will coming, Jamie Ode and Danny Vaughan and Chris and Derek Dolazal
and John Callowhill and a good boy and Andy Yellinich who's a motetier motherfucker with
big thick veins. Norman Francis and Alex and Brad Peterson and Alistair and Gary
Tealem. There's Christian again and Jordan Grindly again and Michael Weisskamp, Bobby Wasabi,
Narjar Lowery, Jesse Harrison, gen Richard Mann and Mike Rutch Sean what
about will l Or? I sorry jobber bumping up the pledge. Call Amede
is back in the spot, Marcus Crouch is back, Josh Wright, Clay
Mark, Justin Garcia, Matthew of Madison, Harry Turner, Fu Manchu sent
Oh oh, isn't it just put you right? There now justin Harman,
Mark Sullivan, Matthew Gundicker, Brandon Guyser, Boat Tier. I know him
when I see him, Adam Two, gr Spence, Darryl Wilkins. We
need to thank all of these people, and that is precisely what it is
we're doing. Gr writes us. I am no longer a freeloading bitch.
As my finances increase, my pledge will increase. Thank you for the memories,
thank you for the inspiration, and thank you for whole clemania, very
clean sentiment and just what we're looking to hear. Thanks very much, Bill
b. Thank you for the pledge, my friend. We appreciate it.
Liam writes to us, I'd never thought this would come up on the cast,
but I actually ran into Rhino in real life during that whole cheese and
cracker Wow. It was the night of raw atk Tuesday, and I went
to after raw and I went to the Kroger on Michigan Avenue and Outer Drive
here in Dearborn, Michigan. I was walking, speed walking actually to the
frozen foods, but stopped and doubled back after seeing a curious yet familiar figure
in my periphery. It was rhino standing in the hell food aisle pensively trying
to select organic tortilla chips or something. He was wearing khaki cargo shorts with
a short sleeve button up, and flip flops, a small basket in hand
rather than a card. All of this amused and satisfied me. That's right.
He wound up next to me at the self checkout. I could not
help myself from turning to him and asking if he was stalking up on cheese
whiz. He had no idea what I was talking about, look looked exhausted.
To be honest, Yes, I jogged his memory about the thing he
had been doing a national television less than twenty four hours prior, and he
was like, oh yeah, And we both started rambling the word cafebe over
each other nervously. I was surprised that he is actually taller and longer in
person, not nearly as boxlike as one would expect. Was not, however,
surprised to see him depart the Kroger parking lot and a massive hummer he
had triple parked sixty yards away from the store entrance and a mostly empty parking
lot. That's a laps dispatch if I've ever heard one in the wild.
Matthew McCown, thank you very much for your pledge. We appreciated Alexander wanted
to pass this sentiment along upon the passing of the iron cheek, Dear CoA
chairs also goes by Ali. By the way, I'm a first generation Iranian
American. I don't know if you or your listeners are aware of how important
the Sheik was to Iranian American kids growing up in the eighties. Now,
I have no idea. Tell me about it. It felt like the Aetola
and the Sheik were the only Iranians we ever saw on TV. Kids like
me could never support the Aetola. Our families fled Iran because of his regime.
The Sheik though he was our guy. We rooted and cheered for the
Shiek, regardless of him being the evil foreign menace. That's amazing someone sharing
the iron cheek in the eighties. He looked and sounded, that's crazy.
They're out there. I mean, yeah, obviously, it makes sense.
I mean, you know they especially in those days, you know, you
cheer for you cheer for your countrymen. You know, like that's that's the
thing. I just I have never heard anybody. He's a proud Iranian.
You know, he did hawk patuee on the American flag. But it's sure
he's out there denouncing his Iranian heritage. No, no, not at all.
He looked and sounded like our fathers, our grandfathers and uncles. He
spoke farci in interviews. He was a hero to us and for me and
my brother. He helped to create a bond with our father that continues to
this day. My dad would tape Saturday night's main event for us to watch
in the morning, and he still claims that the Sheik had the best soup
plexus. It's strange how I am so saddened by the death of a man
I never met. Yet somehow it's like I lost a family member. Thank
you for letting me share this with you both. Ali Okay, he writes,
maybe my dad and uncles didn't quite look like the Sheek. Not many
people can have abs and a beer belly. Yeah, Why, he did
have those ravioli abs. He did define the term contrari And Alex and Kyle
Burke and Yeldee, thank you very much, and I ate him and I
ate him for your support. This one's from the man This one's from Tom
ats Nacio, and it concerns under the cinemat. It concerns your ingenious chronicling
the WW career of Michael Luisa of WW Studios. Oh my goodness, you
know Tom's going to bring that extra color, absolutely industry color. That's right,
hey, coach chairman. I mentioned this to JP, but following up,
Michael Luisa was let go because W Studios was hemorrhaging money effort to turn
things around and enhance the studio's critical image. He put everything into Pandemonium,
including making Omega. Offered Bradley Cooper to play Vince, including a significant percentage
of the gross on the back end. That's the movie about Vince that went
nowhere. We read the script for one. We read the script. Luisa
claimed he had Vinnie Max's approval for the offer. Stephanie and Michelle Wilson accused
Louisa of going row tremendous. I love this, yep. Michelle Wilson's job
was to reign in costs and she targeted ww E stoos for cuts immediately,
which Luisa didn't like because he blames some of the losses on being forced to
produce original programming for the network at the time, which supposedly was one of
the things that pissed off Stephanie. Anyway, when Luisa went to Vince,
he pulled a SummerSlam ninety three and was like, I was fine with you
reaching out to Bradley Cooper, but I didn't approve you making an offer.
Here we go, right, I should you be Hogan, but I never
said so. Michelle pushed him out with Steph's support elanorous feet of course,
as all of the Mike Luisa's of the world seemed to. But it was
the crazy never running Pandaemonium development that got him in the end. I'm sure
there's more to this story, involving other duties he probably had while at WWE,
but the less said about all that the better. That's yeah, that's
crazy at the inside story right there. Yep, we do love an inside
story around here, especially in the cinem We do. Thank you. Jesse
Harrison, Andy Yellinich, Panda, Jordan Armstrong, Matt Colbley, Damien Thorne,
Matt Venderick and Beef Beef Queen, Chris Thomas and Kade Archer and Dan
Parshley and Robert and Real Yoshi Hashi, Daniel divine and Logan Henry and Steve
Talbot and thunder Gun and Keith Lapinski and Jimmy Carter and Jack Llespion faster than
Chuck, Brent Clark and Michael Fitzsimmons and ukhmar Javed and David Zaylor. We
love all of you and thank you very much for your vote of confidence in
the cast. Ellis writes, picturing Bischoff and Hervey's staying up to four in
the morning with empty beer bottles and coffee cups around them, high fiving each
other as they celebrate how they closed the loop and every loop in the storyline,
not recognizing how damn boring and unnecessary it all was. Boss hashtag tenh
damn right. Ken Canal writes, general entertainment is what Sergeant Slaughter would be
called if he debuted in twenty twenty three? Why was that? Again?
Say that general entertainment is what Sergeant Slaughter would be called if he debuted.
Absolutely blake a modern condition. Oh boy, firstly, I wish you a
happy Father's Day. I have zero reason to assume you were not great dads,
and you don't constantly talk about your kids, so I believe it's safe
to say you are next. Let me say that, unlike the common show,
there is no cure for the modern condition. It's everything that surrounds us
in every avenue of life we walk down. It is what we those who
live in the golden age of childhood so clearly, clearly see it's fucking mediocrity.
It's someone who is less than what you know is possible telling you that
they are the top of mount profession. Yes, we are watching the wheel
reset and come back around to be replenished. But what is being served up
is not what was once there. The fields went bare, the seasons were
harsh, but it was not any different than what had always happened before.
What happened here, while in our little slice of heaven that we call professional
rastling, we merely traded in men like Sid Uti for men like Phil Brooks.
On its face, it doesn't seem like such a bad deal, right,
I mean, we all know Sid's hang ups are right. He's going
to do steroids. He's gonna play softball, and he will will not show
up. Yes, he's gonna looking tremendous. The people are gonna pop.
You have no idea what he's going to do on screen. Then we get
to our white night, our second city seat. Phil Brooks. I mean,
he's a little rough around the edges and crusty, but you know,
he's a decent guy. He's not going to cause issues everywhere he goes because
of his feelings. He's absolutely not going to walk out really a locker room
leader, not like sit at all. So what's the issue then, Well,
it's very much the same as the modern issue. See on its face,
it really isn't much different than it's ever been. The issue is the
modern condition. The issue is Phil Brooks. It's so much bullshit and interference
and noise and garbage that's only there because of the modern entity bringing in It's
as it should be. It's not as it needs to be. It is
as it has been made to be presently. They don't know how to be
larger than life anymore. They don't have it in them, so they bring
it to them. Then you're the problem. You're the asshole. You're the
issue, you old bitch ass. Nothing in the world acquires the same amount
of greatness to be it anymore because we have made everything not special. That's
right, it's over now. I realized that I come across as angry and
have an extragrind with Phil, perhaps because he blocked me on Twitter six years
ago for asking how big batiste his dick was. That's another thing. Fuck
can lighten up man. The correct answer would have been asking your mama,
but he blocked me, probably with flaky bread crust in the corner of his
mouth. Anyway, this couldn't be further from the truth. So he Phil
gave me the greatest gift anyone could give a man. As I write this
on Father's Day, the symbolism comes crashing down on me, but it doesn't
hurt inside. It feels free, hopeful. When Phil returned the first time,
my son was watching and he fell in love, had a punk t
shirt, stickers saying shit like no one can beat see him punk in Chicago.
They are it all out for the comeback. It was magic. He
had him for life. Then he gets hurt. Okay, shit happens and
the fucking muffin faced press conference and all that shit goes down My boys like
seven eight at the time, he's still believing. I try to explain,
and he asked me the question, Well, if they got in a fight,
why don't they just have a match I told him that I didn't know
that was about it. He watched a bit here and there, then slowly
stopped. Finally, last week he asked me, do you want to go
through my wrestlers before I donate them? Yes? Two things. Jesus Christ,
How pathetic is that? I should be shot in the face? Boss?
Can you picture your dad? Can you picture offering your dad your wrestling
toys before you gave them away? What have we done? I mean,
he would be so confused. What. Secondly I knew that was it?
He said, It's just kind of boring wrestling. That is. Of course,
I can't argue. I owe all of this to Phil. He set
my son free. He will not know the pain of this profession of Carney
Fox. He won't spend twenty minutes writing an absurd email to a college podcast
thirty five years into his future because some meth dealer, short order cook greaser
from Chicago got butt hurt with other phony blooney dumbfucks and someone bitter man,
and my god, just fuck it, what a fucking bitch fight. I'm
disgusted with it all. It's all the modern condition. Thing fucking sucks.
I'm exhausted anyway, thanks Phil. Cult of Personality played eight times on repeat
in my ear during this email. That's my song now, bitch, now
hit my fucking music. PS double biz your lap Soldier Blake aka the forty
ninth City Saints. That's coming for us that moment. Also we realize we're
playing with toys longer than our kids did. Yeah. I mean, it's
happening now. It's happening now. Yeah. Yeah, ah man, that
was a heavy one, that tremendous, writes prostitution. Brother, We're listening
to the lamentable tragedy at the moment for the third time, and just finished
the ben Wat tragedy for the second time. Wrestling is essentially prostitution. Watch
me hurt myself, cheer for me, then watch me kill myself and throw
my family. I fucking love it, he writes, And love you guys
so much, your insight, your research, your riff. Second to fucking
Nune. My era was two thousand to two thousand and five. So I'm
a rock and Shawn Michael's guy. I love Austin too, don't worry,
but I always knew I was missing a special connection with him, and I
hated forcing bullshit my stepdad was actually the one that introduced me to wrestling,
which is pretty weird, but it helpless bond over an otherwise awkward pairing of
people. My best memories were, unfortunately for you guys, during O one
O two Invasion. Stuff had me so invested as a ten year old and
without knowing how much better it could have done. Meantime, all I ever
wanted to see was the under seller to dominate the Oh I mean I'm with
you though, man, I mean I was, Oh yeah, I couldn't.
I mean, I I tuned in because I knew in the back of
my mind I should be caring about this more exactly. It's one of those
first things of like, it was one of those first experiences of like,
why am I more hyped than they deserve? Yeah? Right? Yeah?
Why am I more hyped than they have made me? Where is this extra
energy coming from? What am I reaching for? And it's that tragedy of
getting to know the business well enough that you book things better in your head
than they do on the screen, and you build the anticipation better in your
head than they know how to do or care to do anymore. Yeah,
there's that line. And when you cross it, you realize that it's got
you by the balls for the rest of your life, this business, because
you're always going to let your imagination out run the very banal and prosaic limitations
of their creative thinking. Yes, I remember being genuinely terrified, he writes,
w you would win that two thousand and one Survivor Series winner take All
match, which is hilarious and embarrassing in hindsight. I knew it was fake,
but I felt like it was real. Well, yeah, I mean
if WCW one, then they would have transformed the TV shows, so it's
kind of reel it away. Yeah. When Rock faced Hogan of Wrestleman eighteen,
it was Rock Me versus Hogan. My stepdad and I generally couldn't understand
the Hogan appeal and got so fucking angry when the crowd turned on my port
Dwayne, Oh yeah, you weren't alive for the salad days, my friend,
Oh yeah, man. Anyone who knew the power of Hulkamania in every
way, including the power of Hulkamania at the bargaining table from the w C
run, Yeah, we knew. Thankfully he won, and I was the
happiest kid in the world, and while I knew my stepdad was legitimately disappointed,
he looked at me and said, well done, as if I had
anything to do with it. When the Underseller beat Hogan for the title in
one of the worst matches of all time at Judgment Day two thousand and two,
I was genuinely excited, even the despite the debut of the You're Going
to Pay instrumental theme song. To be fair, that new theme song left
a genuinely dirty taste in my mouth because obviously I thought keep Roland was the
coolest thing of all time. Anyway, I asked him that was a better
one. It was better anyway. I stopped watching wrestling around oh six,
so I froth on those two thousand and two thousand and five shows you Guys
Do, but came back to about ten years later for some stupid reason,
when I was single, living alone and had nothing else better to do but
feed my nostalgia. Then I randomly searched for wrestling podcasts and found The Lapsed
Fan No Mercy in two thousand and two, one of my favorite pay per
views of all time, and I hit play. While the rest is history.
Been listening to you guys for the better part of six or seven years
now. I'm getting married in October, and my fiance laughs at me for
watching aw and often asks what the fuck is that when she walks in on
me nearly pissing my pants while listening to two grown men also uncontrol will be
laughing on the loudspeaker. That's right. I always to think I got to
a place in life where there are people blasting me, laughing like a fucking
idiot in the privacy of their own homes and cities. I'll never go to.
Yep, it an earshot of relatives in countries you'll never go to.
Is It's weird. It is a weird feeling. It's a rail but it's
also very very disconcerting because I'm not somebody that would voice my laughter on anybody,
you know what I mean, right right, But the podcast has a
way of you know, I'm among friends, but that doesn't stop others from
listening in. We're hearing people, people are hearing you and worrying, what
the fuck. Oh my god, I'm vulnerable in that moment because I am
losing my fucking mind half that absolutely laughing like that. Oh God, I
mean, Jesus, how we do it to ourselves, but we do.
Man, It's just there's something there, there's an X factor. You know,
it doesn't happen every time, but you know it happens enough that it's
like it's always yeah, yeah, I mean they just you know, I
mean, for God's sake, I mean, Carlisle, I mean, what
the fuck is that? Right? Right? I always point out a few
things to where he writes, One you wouldn't understand. Two you watch reality
TV, which is the definition of trash, and three it's that fucking cast
An Australia. Unfortunately, wrestling wasn't super easy to access, and my current
thirty to thirty three year old friends generally do not care when I try to
tell them the bizarre tales behind it all. Until tonight we were hanging out
and I took over the YouTube feed and gave them little backstories, a lot
of which I've sourced from you guys, to every clip and they were hooked
the old Austin returning Edge and Matt Hardy loved Triangle, Shaun Michael's fucking with
Hogan Owen, heart death, Chris Benois and Eddie WrestleMania moment followed by death,
etc. I had them hooked for a night, and they will never
watch wrestling or delve into it by themselves, but it was a special few
hours and they all admitted they understand why I'm fascinated by it anyway, rambling
drunk, et cetera. You guys rule, and if I ever win the
lotto, I'll be sure to include you in the share, but for now
I'll just keep paying a small pittance. Ps. JP is one of the
funniest guys on the planet in my eyes, and jack passion journalistic prowess is
fucking incredible. Well, Matt, I glad to be of service. I
agree with that. I mean, that's that moment where he tells himself,
even for two three hours, that he's managed to get his mates to see
what he sees and wrestling. Ye is that dragon? We all chase?
Yes. And it's why a podcast like this form such a strong community,
because you can never find those people in your immediate geographic bounds unless you're inccredibly
fortunate. It's I mean, yeah, it's it's it's extremely lucky. It's
taking that moment in the dorm where I see the no mercy cartridge in the
N sixty four and ask you you're a fan, and it's scaling it to
the world. That's what the last post. Yes. Over on YouTube,
where we've posted a lot of our work, including this American work, we
did an episode where Vince talks about the announcer Ray Morgan, who a lot
of people did Vince Junior replaced announcing Vince Senior's television shows, And there's a
whole story about how Ray Morgan insisted on a raise and Vince Senior pulled a
fuck you and put Vince Junior in the chair with no preparation. And as
Vince was going through recollecting who Ray Morgan was and so was Nasal Gas,
a faux paw was made that I always like to correct on the record here
whenever we kind of go in a blatantly false direction based on faulty source material
or at least conclusions that were drawn that shouldn't have been drawn. Turns out
there were two Ray Morgans, really, and two famous broadcasting Ray Morgans from
roughly the same part of the country. Bizarre. That's always hard to account
for in research about people who were prominent in the fifties or whatever. But
uh, Ronald, Ronald and always said that, uh Ronald on YouTube last
name, so I figured, uh oh, he might be a Ronaldo more
than Ronald, he says. There were, in fact two Ray Morgans.
Both were radio and TV announcers, and an accurate Wikipedia bio conflates them into
one hybrid Ray Morgan, then the non wrestling, non athletic one was a
neighbor of mine growing up with a big voice in a good career, who
liked to call himself One Take Morgan. Neither lapsed fan nor vince him to
realize the photo of the other Ray, who looks nothing like the wrestling Ray
see the New York Times obituary under his name. Great stuff. One take
one, Take Morgan, and take Morgan. That's brilliant, I'll say.
Now, we spent some time on TNAH talking about what we see from Dixie
Carter in that last promo of the series where she's in there, yes,
not calling Hulkegan by name and trying to become a heel yea. And we
speculated that that was the real Dixie Carter all along. Yes, Yes,
I want to give a shout out to Adam too, who posted in a
very triguing thought on Patreon that we didn't get to share in the TNH feedback
episode due to the time it came in, but I want to pass it
along here. Yes, he writes, I have a slightly different theory as
to the origins of Dixie as a heel. While it's undoubtedly true that part
of her true personality is in this character, I feel that the real Dixie
is also the one who tries to nurture and give people tons of chances.
Like Russo and Jeff Hardy, I feel like to heal Dixie character is more
her attempt at imitating her own mother, huh, and how her mom acts.
It's Dixie's way of sticking it to her mom for being a tight ass
with the purse strings and effectively killing any chance of the company growing, which
it wouldn't have anyway with a creative team in charge. Just my thoughts.
If I was able to ask Dixie Carter one question, Buss, it would
be how much of your mother did you channel in your heel on screen persona?
And watch and watch her melt at the suggestion, I um, I
appreciate that suggestion. I always feel the nurturing party is who she's been told
she should be, correct and so that is just something that's been ingrained.
I mean, you know, could be wrong. I'm that to me.
To me, it's that, yeah, this is what you're supposed to be,
but supposed to make people feel like you're gonna make them cornbread unraly that
give a fuck about them? Right? That that anger and that ability to
not even mention somebody's name, That to me is is the is the the
repressed reality waiting. It's like, uh, that movie um Me Myself and
Irene. Wow, you know you remember that one? I do? Yeah,
like Jim Carrey, Yeah yeah, because like you get this this this
cookie cutter person on on on top, but the repressed, angry person is
lying underneath, waiting, waiting for their opportunity to be released. Wow.
David sent us a picture of a shorn finger and he writes, I did
it. I no longer I am a freeloading bitch. I joined the ten
dollar tier. I could have easily done three sixteen, but I wanted the
live calls and everything else that comes with it. I'm not going to stop
there. I want under the cinemat. Ever since you put Halloween in the
free feed, I had to have it. I'm curious on boss Man's take
on the new trilogy by David Gordon Green. Oh God, I love him,
love him. Yeah, Verdict's in yeah, coming soon under the cinemat.
Yeah. Well hey, I mean I get that was that was a
that was a revelation. I didn't even think about. But but last year
when we did uh, when we did Halloween too, you even brought it
up. You're like, yeah, they all quality. All Halloween's qualified because
of Michael Myers, totally in the rest because of the Michael Myers you know,
in inspiration, you know, and so that you know, someday down
the line, love it, we will, we will get to the get
to them. Then I think they're Yeah, I I I'm a rarity,
I will say in with those because I I like, I liked all of
them. I really genuinely liked all of them. And I love the middle
one. The middle one to me is like it just it just was if
it was a different movie. But what I like about what I like about
the second and the third one is that even though they they're they're they're they're
creating a new story and kind of go off in different in a different direction.
What I like about it is that they have elements there are there are
definite homages to the previous Halloween movies that had the numbers two and three in
them. Yes, and that's really cool. Um, Yeah, they're They're
a lot of fun. I love them. I'm looking forward to I haven't
seen the third one since I saw in theaters last year, so I'm looking
forward to watching it again. Has taken my personal Halloween enthusiasm to a completely
different level I would have anticipated. Get ready be closer than you think.
I've always leaned hard into Christmas. Everybody knows this big decoration this guy.
But I'll tell you, ever since under the cinemat scary movie season started and
I became acquainted with, you know, the sort of central texts of horror.
Yeah, and just Halloween, you know, celebration, I've leaned in
hard. Man, I am I buying. It's a problem. Yes,
that's a problem, and it's a great problem. You know. They you
know what they got. My dad sent me a picture today of something they
had at lows Us. This like this fucking jot thing. Watch it?
What is it? A giant one a giant this giant motherfucker thing. Like
it's just like a demon of sorts huge. It's like it's like it's gonna
be like, motherfucker exactly ten twelve feet tall. Oh my god, Like
it's like, my god, like, do you want to? Okay,
that's how crazy crazy my dad is. He said. He texted me this
photo and there are two strangers in it who are like he took a photo
of two strangers, and I said, I said, he said, I
asked these these two people to be in the photos so I could give it
scale. So literally, can I take a picture of you? It's so
fucking ridiculous right there. Yeah, without a doubt, without a fucking doubt.
So far, how do you? How do you like something that's twelve
feet tall? Like, how do you? I don't, I mean,
I don't where do you even? I mean, I'm gonna send you the
picture. I'm gonna send the pictures. It's it's bonkers. I mean,
you know it's actually it might even be taller. Well, I see,
um, I saw a lot last last Halloween of these um huge skeletons,
these lawn skeletons that are like as tall as like passed through the height of
your front door. Like, I don't know how those get erected, but
I'm very intrigued. It's always it's always crazy, um, because this is
like I mean, it's like basically it's a it's a it's a skeleton.
Um uh scarecrow. Yes, it is type thing. And it's just it's
it's wacky and it's so cool and it's so fucking big. Here I am.
I am sending you. Where is it? Where to go? There?
It is? Here we go. It's coming to you now. And
look at those fucking people and just fucking mother and mother and child. Oh
my god, Oh that's awesome. Look at that thing, right, that's
a beautiful fucking piece I have never seen. It's about scaling something, Yeah,
it's right, it's about look at that. Look at the fucking look
at the smiling strangers. Oh my god. Those poor people. Yeah,
they loved it. They're do Look at that fucking thing. Like you know,
and and and you and you've been in my house, will get that
that woods thing, that woods thing, and like they kind of like in
front of that freaky Yeah, you could put that thing sticking right out the
top of the trees looking at the road, right, could you imagine fucking
like like have have like a spotlight of a single spotlight. That's kind of
what I want. I want people to drive past my street and be like,
what the fuck is going on down there? Yeah? Is that hell
down there? Or is that is that Christmas Heaven down there? And I
love and I love doing um, you know, I always I love doing
a graveyard. I had a graveyard last year. I love doing that when
I I love. I love a good grave. I love a good graveyard.
And I had like some I've got a Bates Motel sign, which I
absolutely love that I always put out. And I've got one of those weird
so stupid. I got this, uh this basically like um, like a
power lever, Yeah, power box with a lever, and it's got these
two cables coming out from it that are that are loose and broken, and
it goes just kind of like goes crazy like so fucking I loved. I
almost bought a Johnson mask while we were doing Yes, yes, yes,
I'm I'm sad you didn't do it. I'm sorry. I did not expect
them to be so full of fall winter revelry. It's fucking well coming outside.
We're getting close, man, We're not We're listening listen, we're closer
than we are, said that you know, and uh yeah we got I'm
the lineup for scary movie season. I'm I'm very excited and said, No
better time to get yourself properly positioned over at Patreon, No better time of
year that we roll right in a holiday movie season. Killer. Yep,
we got like a two we get I love. What I love is two
is we get the two week buffer. We get like two a two show
buffer because after your scary movie season you gotta take a week off and fucking
it's it's so exhausting. But then you get a two movie buffer in between,
um, you know, like basically for Thanksgiving before going into Christmas movies.
So excited, Well, David concludes some good ones. Anyway, this
is my testimony for the nonbelievers. Shut up and nut up. To quote
Jack, this is not a fucking game. Side note, Yeah, don't
handle sharp objects while listening to that fucking cast. Thank you for what you
do with two jokes. Here attaches proof of my lapsed injury. I guess
he cut his finger. Don't don't exercise, don't drive, don't do anything
besides all these things, don't do anything right actually will hurt the beauty as
you can do everything that's right, joy it, but you will hurt.
That's correct. On our transcript rating of Whole cocon on the Awkward Trial,
tom at Nascio notes on Patreon Torry as a good worker, arguably better than
Hogan, but the gauger. But the Gauker attorney was shockingly inept. He
had no idea what he was in for with this cross. It happened again
in that reading, it happened again. Or these lawyers who specialize in getting
people to contradict themselves on the stand just cannot deal with how ballfaced wrestlers are
willing to be about the nature of truth on that stand, right right,
nobody was ready for the things he set up there, and that's why it
was the perfect daumal. In my opinions to t Y, Dennis is pointing
out, as we posted the call fromote tier members, when a wrestler dies,
it's informed on one or the other about the death of a wrestler.
We've gotten to the point that Patreon is the way I find out about wrestler's
deaths. How about that. Wow, that's some state of affairs. That's
right. Robert Ritchie, lapsed veteran, Jake Despero, Andrew Manceux, Matt
Adams, Paul Augustine, Michael Caprio, Blake down you on all the way
up to the Motier. We've shouted you out once, We'll do it again.
Paul p Jack, Tracy Clay, Mark, John Fletcher, Joseph Newbauer.
All these motherfuckers just delivering for us. On patreon dot com, slash
the lapsed fan our boy, Zach writes wrestling has gotten progressively worse since the
introduction of the word story, both in terms of referring to storylines or when
Vince started saying we're telling stories. I couldn't agree more. I could not
agree more because it just it truly exposes that you've lost the plot of what
you're out here to do. That's right, you're starting on the wrong foot.
Graveyard Entertainment is in our corner and we're glad to have them. They
write to us Steers co Chairs. I'm writing to you on behalf of Graveyard
Entertainment since recently becoming a patron, which is long overdue, since you've been
eernally penetrating me for over two years. Your talents for talking theatrical tussle deserve
far more compensation than myself or the company I represent and can currently provide.
I read a long message within Patreon. The deleted itself, of course before
I could finish. Of course, second time, but Little Discourage teams had
some good stuff on that how show email that just won't be on this TV
taping reshoot. We are a four man team of music promoters. Three quarters
of our team are avid fans of not only the golden air and attitude aurors
of wrestling, but we also keep up with current WWAW products. I'm,
however, the most addictike of any wrestling fan of my immediate circle. I
keep muted screens onto my studiage, recording studio, slash office, slash garage,
s slash man cave, streaming w BAW and even TNA Impact don't ask
why throughout my work day. And New Gentlemen are my soundtrack. I came
to love the sport of kings as child, and my first memories are over
Brett hartmatch on Superstars against some jobber and my uncle watching the Steiners on WCW
Saturday Night because that was the real fake wrestling. Ever since, I've been
consumed by figures, videos, video games, and now podcast which started as
many is now just the lapsed fan. That's a trend. I'm noticing us.
Yes, people who included us in a broad dragnet of what's happening in
wrestling podcasts and then end up to us. Yeah. I came across the
lapt fan when I heard it mentioned on one of Conrad's mini podcasts on the
subject of a combat Koma Sutra, and during a lull and new episodes,
I checked out TLF and I've been hooked for the last two plus years,
late to a party that never I'm sorry, wait, wait what combat combat
Kama Sutra? I think he's just referring to. Yes, I know that's
probably what it is, another euphemism for pretend to combat. Although I'm only
entering the three sixteen tire, my goal is to enter into oh he must
mean now in the ass or something. Although I'm only entering the three sixteen
tier, my goal is to enter into the fifty dollars or more tier by
the end of the year. That's some fucking goals, hashtag goals. This
is why I'm getting asking the coach here is to call him the Solar and
for assistance. I have no sparing come on my own wife, three daughters,
bills, blah blah blah, But I do have access to my company
marketing budget via credit card that is used toward purchases and subscriptions that might bring
streaming in sales revenue to our primary yardists. Sir Nasty, he's a wrestling
fan and he incorporates lines into many of his songs. Might sing you guys
a compilation of lines one day and even has a song dedicated lapsed timeline me
ver is the World by Sernasty that I'm hoping the coachers and the Solar System
will find worthy to not only listen to, but endorse for as long as
we Graveyard Entertainment are patrons. And an effort to turn this minor three sixteen
investment into a major platform dedicated to exploring synthetic athletics into a major investment moat
tier and beyond that will make all the financial sense in the world once my
team sees the power of tlf and the Solar System in action. Of course,
as with all things, TLFU will give us what we need and not
necessarily what we want. So if you choose to ignore my email and propose
to megapower handshake that would create an alliance between hashtag Sernasty music and TLF the
revolutionary force and dissecting deep faked fisticuffs. I get it, and I would
be no less a fan or patron if the solar system chooses to act and
increases the Cernasty audience and streams of the Carney conceptualized song me versus the World
by Cernasty, we will use those additional streaming funds to increase our Patreon pledge
to the highest tier and beyond. This is a new model, boss,
I have to say, this is a new model. This is not meant
to step on the audio contributions of Postal in any way, shape or form.
That's an important thing to say. He is the rap king of the
cast, though not the pimp cane end of that fact. There is no
doubt. I cannot thank you, gentlemen enough for giving a mid thirties bald
headed, goat tied black guy living in the South the reason to laugh out
loud to beans on toast Boston accents and rehearsed and rehearsed rivalries from the nineteen
fifties to the present. I'm on my second journey through the catalog hashtag shelf
life. But now I have content that I had never had before. So
I might get to railed with Fable for three live calls and so much more
than a ten dollars tier here I come. I've included links to the song
I would love for you to hear and possibly play on the air for the
solar systems supporting my digital streams. I know you're not obligated to entertainment I
request, but I didn serrely Holpe, you'll consider it, did Listen?
Fan, It's Me versus the World by Sir Nasty. Everybody ps random question
that I've never heard discussed in any context. What he asks? What was
up with the skinny cane at King of the Ring ninety nine. He's noticeably
rail thin and not the original cane in my opinion, I've never heard that
one, so I can't help either. But if anyone out there knows what
he's talking about, drop a message to us at lapsed fad at gmail dot
com and whatever we'll talk about it. Also, by the way, so
if you know this, this makes me think too. You know what you
know? Every you were we've seen the ten year thing we're coming up by
the way West. The ten year thing, how they give the belt to
that, you know, they kind of give into the fans every ten years,
you know that point, Ben Wah, is Cody Rhodes the ten year
guy this year and is Cody Rhod's gonna have to face Kane at backlash?
He'll take the booking because that's you know, that's the tradition except for Brett.
But it's the only one who didn't be you know, because Kane wasn't
there yet. Amazing Johnson, right, he did end up. He did
end up end up feuding with Kane at a year later though, when he
Isaac gankm Yeah, I actually count town. You know, I think that
he wasn't his champion, but you know, no, but Glenn Jacobs awaits
champions that the fans wanted more than Vince wanted. Yes, yes, I'm
hopelessly lapsed. He writes. This is Dan Johnston as I continue to work
my way through the catalog, currently listening to Roma ninety four, about two
years behind. So if you ever read this on the cast, I'll probably
find out in late twenty twenty five. All right, consider this a letter
we'd put in a bottle and send down the ocean. You got it.
On this episode, Jack mentioned that a friend of his attend of the show,
and also that his friend's mom had made him a life size doink wrestling
buddy j JP wanted further in tails, and it reminded me that my mom
did a very similar thing for me. She was tired of me attempting maneuvers
on my younger sister. My mom took a long sleeve cotton shirt and sewed
closed all the openings. Took a pair of sweatpants and did the same thing,
then sewed those together. Prior to making the final closure. The entire
thing was stuffed with those styrofum packing peanuts that you see all the time in
shipping boxes. She attached a towel or something for a head and stuffed it
with balled up newspaper to keep around shape. I was probably about ten at
the time, and by using adult clothes, the wrestling dummy was the perfect
size for taking all my finishers. The packing peanuts allowed expert joint manipulation and
crowd manipulation for sharpshooters Figure four a million dollars dreams. The stuffing also provided
a cushion from my top of the couch splashes and elbow drops. After a
while, the peanuts would be flattened but a quick blade job. But I
allow them to stuff that job or full again so that my push could continue.
I named this carny contraption Mitch Stitch. Thanks for being the only group
of people on this planet who could hear this story and not make me ashamed
to remember a time when it used to be better and a time where a
bunch of packing peanuts crammed in a shirt took the most devastating power bomb in
my hometown. That's the good Wow, that's the good stuff. Thank you,
Matt. Thank you very much for your generous out of the gate pledge.
We definitely appreciated. This is from an anonymous Solar System member. I
had to send you this message before I forgot. I just played a round
of golf where I got paired up with the random older guy and his adult
son, both of whom was super friendly and nice, and we had a
good time. During the usual small talk, we asked what each other did.
Dave, the older gentleman, said he used to work in print media
like newspapers and ran a large newspaper at one point former publisher of USA Today.
I wasn't sure if I misheard him. It didn't push further. The
conversation switched to media in general and how everything has changed in that space.
I mentioned Peacock buying content for a billion dollars, and that led to his
son mentioning he's been a fan since he was a kid. Wow. Then
Dave mentions he had done deals with both you have seen in w W he
At one point he mentioned, you know, Vince is like a stage director.
The business is all Linda. Yes, she's the smart one. Yes.
I was obviously intrigued, but didn't want to grill the guy. Then
something he said validated he wasn't kfaming me. When talking about the type of
business deal it was with WWE, he said, and I quote, you
know they WW we're all about cross platform branded I shit you not? Yes,
yes, yes, he said those exact words, completely unprompted and with
zero irony. The words again, you know, they were all about cross
platform branded entertainment. There's nothing ironic about boss. What the fuck right?
Jesus. I never got his last name, but later did some googling base
and what he told me in sure enough validated this guy was who he said
he was. He had another piece of anecdotal evidence. Lapped Vince is the
real Vince. Yes, that's what's up. Those are the dispatches we're looking
for out in the wild. Samuel Hill, thanks for the pledge. Daniel
Moehler, how about Mosby Dick as an ahab seeks to slay I guess.
Michael Herndon, thank you very much, Patrick Heron, thank you, Sean,
thank you, Rich Molton and Chris Harris and Andy yellinich In rk oh
Rucero, thank you very much as well. We're rounding third here on this
meal back episode. We were doing the damn thing. We're catching up.
Stephen wants us to consider something bos Steven wants. Imagine walking into that Greek
and seeing Lou Albano's shirt open, belly out, dipping pieces of lamb into
a sauce that is spilled onto his lair stomach like a piece of excess shower
jel and an owner sobbing that he paid Lou for the TV Adverton free Meals
for Life? What movie was that? But the Greek that's from recently though,
that's from Stay tuned indeed the Greek restaurant, say tuned under the cinema
featuring the well bando doing an ad for a Greek restaurant, and then,
at least in our imagining, helping himself to the cuisine. Oh I mean
yeah, I just again imagine the the chunks of falafel that are underneath his
bitch tits. Oh my god, I mean you know, the uh,
the the the euro that stuck in his belly button, the tabouli in his
fucking the tabuli is in his fuck, is in his beard. It's like
people like see him like a year later, like wait, is that tibulli?
No no, no, no, no, no no no what it
is cream that I'm putting my hair going island and man, yeah, what
a way to make a living that guy? Holy shit, only in wrestling,
man, I mean there is there are He's just a bizarre like I
mean, you know, you hear about wrestler was always wanting to pay day,
but I think he takes it to a whole nother level because he wants
snickers too, and a kitcat and a fucking nutrageous. He wants a fucking
even He even wants an almond joy in a mound? Mounds? Absolutely,
what do you know about mounds? It's always nice to get a picture.
And some of these lapsed emails, and when someone sent us a picture of
a rather handsome looking English pub called Aces and Eights, I just had to
investigate. No, Rob writs, deerst co chairs, you have the picture,
you deserve it. Let's see you want Fuck? What did you do
something of this? Woof brother? Right before you go? Did you I
just got off the phone. Wait a minute, why did you, brother?
Did you intercept the call? Dude? Are we are you? Are
you recording this conversation? Dude? Are you not recording our conversation? Brother?
Is this call being recorded? Frock? Look at it? Basses and
aids neighborhood bar and pizza. Rob writes, dearest coach, here's after drinking
one too many cans of paps to the other evening, I found myself quote
unquot enjoying an almost two hour bus ride home from sec should be the sound
of paths. Yeah, we're working on it. An almost two hour ride
bus home from central London to my abode in the deepest, darkest outskirts.
Imagine my thrill when, thanks to a pesky red traffic light. I spent
a few moments gazing drunkenly out of the window at this pub. I just
about roused myself in time to take this photo, which I now present for
your inspection. Needless to say, the only thing enjoyable about that lengthy bus
ride was here to lengthy selves in my ears and up my rs ich Bonus
Hogan Son Rob That's it, man, It's about those moments where you see
something you think of us, like the aces and Ate pub. Hey Stax
wants us to know thank you for your stellar service under the entire duration of
TNH. Boss Man. Hogan's run in TNA was a section of wresting history
that demanded to be traversed, and you have showed us how to approach it
with a consummate, a plum and vigor all along the way, and we're
all the better for it. The ten journey has been an absolute triumph of
will for all involved parties, including in especially Jackson. I'm proud to have
had the opportunity to partake in the journey that, my friends, is the
spirit. The Reverend Colonel writes, I'd eat two hull Cooke and cheeseburgers from
the dollars store. Wow, I'd love to see that. That would be
a viral video if you could pull that off. Jeff writes, the way
I feel about Kurt Vonnegut is the way Jack feels about George Carline when you
talk about AI. Read what Kurt Vonnegut wrote in nineteen fifty nine introducing your
character who lived on a planet of machines that built each other. Once upon
a time, on Trafalmador, there were creatures who weren't anything like me machines.
They weren't dependable, they weren't efficient, they weren't predictable, they weren't
durable. And these poor creatures were obsessed by the idea that everything that existed
had to have a purpose, and that some purposes were higher than others.
These creatures spent most of their time trying to find out what their purpose was.
Sounds like the fucking Facebook reels feed. Yeah, These creatures spent most
of their time trying to find out what their purpose was. And every time
they found out what seemed to be a purpose of themselves, the purpose seemed
so low that the creatures were filled with disgust and shame and rather than serve
such a low purpose, the creatures would make a machine to serve it.
This left the creatures free to serve higher purposes. But whenever they found a
higher purpose, the purpose still wasn't high enough. Some machines were made to
serve higher purposes too. Yeah, And the machines did everything so expertly that
they were finally given the job of finding out what the highest purpose of the
creatures could be. The machines were ported, in all honesty that the creatures
couldn't really be said to have any purpose at all. The creatures thereupon began
slaying each other because they hated purposeless things above all else. Yes, yes,
And they discovered that they weren't even very good at slaying, so they
turned that job over to the machines too, And the machines finished up the
job in less time than it takes to say troll fellmador. Let's fucking go,
Jeff Yea, let's fucking go. A lot of truth in there,
Kurt Vonnegut laying it down Jesus Christ. Andrew Belled is on senses money and
fucking PayPal and says summer back pay. That's the spirit. Correan Winnipeg,
writes. The look on the parquete attendant's face when they heard the words tis
tis and is a coming out of my car can't be described. Rick Cobos,
thanks for the pledge. Darby Kleimer, Thank you so much, Clay
Mark. Let's fucking get it. Let's get that increased pledge. Let's taste
it, let's feel it, let's experience it all together. Let's continue in
a twenty twenty three doing so. Francis Bannaker, Thank you, Christopher Reader,
thank you so very much for the vote of com and same to you,
Robert Reynolds. Mike Right. Shout out to the coach here as tenh
was a ride. You both excelled yourself again, Bravo. Thanks for the
incredible content. Cinemat has been incredible during the teenage run. Also ps shout
out to Haystacks and the lapsed scribes amazing, such a useful tool. It's
all starting to come together. Boss Ruby nineteen ninety seven. Kurt Hull,
we're talking about and Rudd Balsa, Robarnani, I'm again, I'm trying.
I'm trying. My friend Tiff now, thank you, Daniel Thorne, thank
you, even though I said your name about four thousand times on this show,
and Jared Wolfe, thank you very much, Adam two post, the
whole tenh Journey gets encapsulated from twenty four two hours and forty eight seconds to
two hours and fifty one seconds on this episode. Let's see which one he's
talking about. For those that want a shorthand the brook knows best lost episode
we just dropped. He writes, Jack is a stand in for the listener
of the ten Journey. He is joyously intrigue and sucked in by the Wilhelms
scream oh yeah, yeah. This takes him through a hellish, entertaining and
enlightening, horrific journey of hoganisms, classic game show theme music, and iconic
sound bites. It ends, It ends the way all journeys must end,
a single fucking gun shot, echoing into and echoing into the endless void of
nothingness. This is the TLF way, the only doubt, the only way,
Paul writes, If Hulk ever drops a leg again, after all we
learned about his back during ten h I envisioned his entire body exploding like vinceus
Limo, Mike writes, episode two thirty one, New Japan AGPWWWBS Wrestling Summit,
rediscovering the show. Can't stop laughing at the birth of Lanny keeping an
eye on Liz while Randy is in Japan. The co chairs nailed this improv
and Lanny watching a TV and the ceiling comes up again and again. From
here on out, I haven't laughed this much since twenty twenty when I first
heard it, heard it the first time. Hashtag paint off the Pacific,
hashtag lapsed, hashtag lats, hash tag in that ass, hashtag, shelf
life, hashtag Macho King, Jack and JP. You just keep improving that
cast ages like a fine wine worth every bit of money you have ever received
towards your work on that cast. Thanks Mike, Yeah, thank you,
Gree, thank you. Have We close with three rather poignant letters. First,
Yeah, you'd convey Ali's sentiments as we can be. Got our summer
mail back, Brother, got that? Dude? What who? Brother?
What's going on? Dude? Took a while to a rock it did,
took the long route. Brothers still yesterday in Japan? Brother, we got
dialed it in. Dude, Hello again. First, I wanted to start
this email by letting you guys know that I'm writing this email on my phone
from a market basket. You have Boss's attention. Go on. The first
email I ever sent to you guys about the pod for tenh was from the
middle of absolute nowhere, also known as the Rantham Outlet mall. I've been
there to refresh. It was the email where I noted that I was first
exposed to sting in two thousand and nine TNA as a kid. I heard
about your idea for Lapsed X coming in twenty twenty four and thought now would
be a great time to let you know how I found the podcast. The
year's twenty fifteen and WrestleMania thirty one just happened in Seth seth rawllis, Let's
go with it. That's it. Seth Rawlis had just one the w t
BE Championship. It was touted as the heist of the century approximately four times
by Jibil and Michael Cole and Michael Michel and Magil. Yeah, I guess.
For some reason, fourteen year old me was gobsmacked that that was the
finish to the show. Not that I hated it or anything, but I
was surprised that they took that route. So I got on my podcasting apps
because I wanted someone to hear some people react or analyze what just happened.
And that's when I found you. That's when fourteen year old me entered the
Solar system. I listened, and I thought, Hey, these guys are
pretty funny. Have these guys done anything else? Whoa boy? Was I
in for a surprise. They they talked about every WrestleMania for thirty weeks straight
and for like eight hours each I'm in and there I was in high school
in the Greater Boston area, listening. Almost every day of the journey.
I would watch WrestleMania and then listen to analysis unlike any other from you guys.
Each time I knew, each time, I knew I had a home.
One of my favorite moments was realizing that laps Vince wasn't actually Vince.
No, seriously, I really thought you had him on the pod from my
first yearfless thing. Oh that's ridiculous. No way did he believe that.
I honestly, God, thought you had him in the booth. Say the
White House is about to be the goddamn mcmahonhouse on the No Mercy two thousand
two pod. Another favorite moment of mine was realizing that you guys were from
around here, which was when you mentioned the Kowloon. I can't, for
the life of me remember when you guys mentioned it, but I gasped,
Oh my god, these guys are from here. We mentioned it until aw
did a skit there. I mean we mentioned it that every time we can.
I have no idea why the mention of Kowloon was a dead giveaway and
not the universities you guys attended. All we attended the same one. But
that's sorry. But I guess I thought to myself that no one would mention
anything from Saugus otherwise that mall over there is incredibly depressing. Now, ye
mark Market Square mall I don't know. I'm I don't know the area outside
of Kowloon, and they're roast beef place. That's all I know there.
That's all I go there for. Would it make you happy to know that
I passed the steroid section of my pharmacology class from flying Colors as I'm in
school in the health sciences field. At the trial of his life exposed me
to the world of anabolic way before I picked up my four hundred dollars text
buks Oh, I love it. Oh God, that's that's that's fucking phenomenal.
Would it make you happy to know that I have that? I also
have uttered the phrase, brother, what at things that have nothing to do
with wrestling. For example, my very recently, my mom had his hat
on CNN in the background and the news was talking about Global matters newscaster.
Today, President Biden holds a joint press conference with the President of Finland and
me out loud, brother, what Finland dude? Exactly? What the fuck
is that sposed to mean? Ran exactly as Finish brother? What ill Finn
dude? Right, Luca brother, the Finn brother? What's going on?
Du what? I think you guys have helped shape the way I view wrestling,
or maybe grasp a deeper understanding of what this industry actually is. I
think other podcasts or wrestling out let's totally missed the points that you nail right
on the head, whether it be about the past or present. To end,
I finally understand why hul Cogan is probably the most important wrestler of our
time and yet means nothing. Wow, isn't that damn? I should have
consulted for the go home material? Yeah? Right, that's pretty much yet
right there, that's that's what TNH helped us confess. Yes, how he
rose to such heights and still failed. I'm sure Michael Jordan means something to
the twenty four year old NBA player right now. I'm sure Joe Montana or
Jerry Rice means something to the twenty four year old NFL player right now.
Do you think that Hulk Hogan means anything to the twenty four year old wrestler
at the moment. No, it's Sean Michael's and Triple H. Would it
break your heart that when I attended a one day wrestling fantasy camp in North
Andover the one Sasha Banks and Camello, Carmelo Hayes, who's in He's the
NXT champion, I don't okay train and yes, I took a bump,
and of thirty or so attendees, not a single future wrestler said Hulk Hogan
was their favorite or most influential. One asked, I think we know why
Hulcog ultimately failed and through teenage we grappled with it. Yes, thanks for
everything, and here's two more. That's a powerful one. Yep, yep,
yep. Just the thought of like you know, because there's no there's
no better education in steroids than Vince McMahon's trial because Jerry mcdevit researched it more
closely and more cynically than anyone ever had. He attacked the literature, He
attacked it with a legal, legal eye, and he said, you know
what, Yes, I'm not going to allow anybody to get away with these
generalizations and these correlations being affixed to causations and the frankly, I mean,
we know by the time he was done right that it was like these steroid
experts, they don't know what they want steroids, or at least I know
they've gotten away for so long with just attitudes, with just like broad strokes
and in a white coat. And when really put to the test, well,
how do you know that, doctor, they crumbled, Yes, they
crumbled because you know, because it started, it started to collide, It
started to collide with the legal ramifications of trafficking and possessing this stuff. If
you're gonna put somebody in jail for possessing antibolic steroids, like you, what
are they're possessing cocaine, you better be ready to get on that fucking stand
and explain why that deserves to. It's like, you know, they they
they, It's it's like they didn't realize too that they needed to learn more
than just what they needed to learn from a medical perspective. It never occurred
to them that this this moment was coming right where well, how do you
know? That? Would be asked? And I can't think man of a
better education than that, because you can study all the medical literature you want
and that, and you know, while it's it's very scientifically sound and there
is rigor to it and peer reviewed rigor, it is a big circle jerk.
Yes, oh yeah. It is people who can afford to be wrong
within their little circle and then you know, just keep going. It's like
you know pundits on television who product every election wrong, yet sometime somehow they're
always still at the desk on election night making predictions or and the run up
to them. Yeah, yep. And Jeremy McDevitt said, fuck this,
I'm going to do public records requests of the meetings that the FDA had when
they decided this stuff should be illegal, and realize that they couldn't even get
their ship together then, that they didn't even really know what they were voting
for then that the label indications for this stuff left so many venues open for
physicians to make wide open interpretations about when and how they could prescribe this stuff
that it kind of was a joke. Amazing, And that's the stuff that
sort it comes down to. You can study all the medicine and all the
science you want, but what matters is when someone sues you for killing motherfucker's
or for ruining lives. That's right, And what can you say under the
pressure of the law, And what can't you say categorically under the pressure of
the law? Ye ironically, I mean, and I think I'll leave figured
it out. You want to study medicine, study the law first on malpractice.
That's exactly right, exactly right. Who is God? I'm having a
hell of a time entertain people for a second? Hold on, uh okay,
who thank you? I couldn't remember his name. And so when doctor
Gary Waddler gets up there, oh my god, I'm coming. That's fucking
Goodddler John and Nashville second to last penultimate email. Give it to him,
dear coach heirs, I write the scene to you after a long silence.
Years ago, I called him too the Wrestlemaning thirty one show and had the
privilege of hearing laps to Vince Firing Tony Chavanney while Tony said front leg back
kick. I have also written in a couple of times, once about Rick
Flair calling me a fat boy as a kid at Uncensored nineteen ninety five,
the other about the tragedy of losing my daughter Kate at twenty three weeks in
the hospital while at the same time listening to your coverage of the tragedy of
world Class. That's bad timing, man. I went away for a while.
I'll stopped listening. I was not only a freeloading bitch, but I
didn't keep up. I'm not proud of that. Life changed and time moved
on. I came back during the Black Saturday coverage and loved it. Hours
and hours of coverage of something that happened in nineteen eighty three Bollie Anderson for
twenty plus hours being a mean prick. Count me the fuck in. Never
would I again, Never again would I negle this podcast to be there we
go. Ben twenty twenty three came around and something happened as you were covering
the TNH series my wife became pregnant again and unfortunately lost the baby at t
Fuck dude, Jesus Christ. Oh shit, it's odd how the Laps journey
has gotten me through my own triumphs and tragedies. Yeah, you've been there
for me since I was newly married in twenty fifteen, and you're you're there
for me still even in darker times. I may be a freeloading bitch,
but I will say this, I plan to change that. What you do
for people is not just a podcast, but it's an emotional journey of laughter,
shock and awe. You give us all something in our life we also
desperately seek and want that we don't get from these other se Tier want to
be chump ass podcasts. No other show makes me laugh as much, say
brother, randomly or deep or dive so deep I lose track of time.
So I don't know what the future holds for you, but I can't wait.
Brother. So, from the bottom of my heart, as I write
this email and stuff my face with Panda express the drive through, what man,
I didn't I didn't know what you got? What'd you get? That's
the question. Thank you for the memories, Thank you for the journeys and
thank you for all comania. Thank you, sorry for all the difficulties,
John Dude seriously like, ah, I'm I am, I'm deeply sorry.
But as we as we cast you know, if if we can, Yeah,
being being of value to you is enough reason to do the show.
Yeah, that goes for you totally and for totally and for you, that's
always going to be enough for us. Finally, from the mail Bag this
week, before we kick it over to our interview with Lapsman Solar System member
Fred representing on the Wheel of Fortune stage, we turned to Alastair's missive entitled
Wrestling was just ahead of the curve to co chairs. I have listened to
the Lapsed Fan for a few years, and I've always been content just to
be a freeloading listener. However, as I listened to some comments you made
on the Summer twenty twenty three mail Bag episode themselves echoing comments you've made in
plenty of other shows down through the years, something resonated with me strongly enough
that I felt almost compelled to write in you talked about how wrestling fans are
obsessed with ratings, pay per view by rates, merchandise sales, and all
that stuff. How that sometimes it seems, indeed to be the main vector
of their fandom, more than anything that happens in the ring or on the
screen, the one thing they want to talk about, And how this is
not something you see in any other form of entertainment. I have to say
that I don't completely agree. M Maybe fans are uniquely obsessed with ratings,
but for the most part, I think wrestling and its fans just beat everything
else to the punch. For example, look at movies. I want to
share something Martin Scorsese said in an interview in twenty seventeen, which I think
illustrates what I mean. When I was young, box office reports were confined
to industry journals like the Hollywood Reporter. Now I'm afraid that they've become everything.
Yeah, box office is the undercurrent and almost all discussions of cinema,
and frequently it's more than just an undercurrent. The brutal judgmentalism that has made
opening weekend grosses into a bloodthirsty spectator's sport. Ye seems to have encouraged an
even more brutal approach to film reviewing. Talking about market research firms like Cinema
Score which started in the late seventies, and online aggregators like Rotten Tomatoes,
which have absolutely nothing to do with real film criticism. They have everything too.
It's not true with the movie business and absolutely yeah, yeah, I
guess, I mean, I guess I don't know about it. I mean
Rotten Tomatoes, I don't. I don't know. Maybe I don't understand what
he's what he's what he's saying here. But like Rotten Tomatoes, is uh,
you just a place to see what people say about movies. And it's
usually I mean, yeah, it includes some people that may not be considered
like real film critics that you could consider to be you know, uh jokes.
But there's also there are also legit critics on there from legit publications.
Sure, And that's the difference, right between the Tomatoes rating and the other
one. Isn't there some kind of delineation between professional critics and the well,
I mean, you know, I mean, I just I just think of
credibility, like I'm always going to turn to somebody from a newspaper before I
turn to something. I get that. But isn't there a different way of
tracking the score of what critics say versus what the masses. Yeah. Yeah,
But that's the thing. It has both there. It gives you an
audience review and it also gives you, um, the critics. What the
critics say. I think what he's saying is completely set aside. The professional
critics on Rotten Tomatoes. Those that's not who he's talking Those are the people
he, you know, considers legitimate and who've always had a voice. But
what a platform like Rotten Tomatoes does, what a platform like any internet sort
of public yes, is it turns us from fans into critics, Yes,
yep. And it does that because we have the means to broadcast our opinions
in an instant, which we never did and you know twenty thirty years ago
when he was first making film. And it sounds democratic and it is,
and we shouldn't run from what people say about us when given the means to
communicate their thoughts far and wide. But what does happen, I'm afraid,
is that those platforms and the availability of that platform changes the viewer. It
gives them a different reason to watch film, a reason that is built up
in their own idea of themselves and not of the work. It's about how
can I channel this latest bit of consumption into my perceived persona online because if
you're good enough at sling in your opinions, eventually the follower account gets up,
the engagement metrics get high, and we know it's something worth chasing because
we see so many scream into a void with no positive re forcement, people
tweeting twelve times a day with no followers. What are they doing, what
are they chasing? What are they trying to see happen? And if those
people suddenly get six hundred thousand followers and all those people expect them to say
witty, sardonic things about film, do you think they're ever going to be
able to enjoy a movie again? Or is it now? Have we found
a way to make everything we love work without getting paid for that work that
used to be the thing. Right, don't pursue your passion as a profession
because eventually you'll start to see it as work. And yep, we did
it to ourselves. We did it to ourselves. Around restaurants where we're thinking
more about how to frame this on Yelp than we are about what we're putting
in our mouths. We're saying things like m M and you can you can
really taste the tartness come through with the sweetness. We're imitating these vapid,
useless people on like Food Network who were performing the act of eating. Yeah,
who care way more about the brand name of the clothes they're wearing while
they eat than what they're eating. Who get pampered on a set for three
hours so that they can eat a little piece of steak and make a face
that makes us think they taste something we don't. We made everything work,
but we don't get paid for it. Right. We made everything work and
took on the responsibility ourselves to make people notice it and feel like it's a
fair bargain. When we who have no skills and getting noticed failed to do
that, I think it's a fair trade. We have indourability to enjoy things,
is I think what he's saying. They had everything to do with the
movie business and absolutely nothing to do with either the creation or the intelligence viewing
of film. He Scorsese said, yea of running Tomatoes, the filmmakers,
I will say, you know, I used to I will say I used
to love back when. I'd say when I was a teenager and I first
subscribe to Entertainment Weekly. One of my favorite things to do when the magazine
would come in was to turn to the back and look at the box office
reports. I love doing this. I wanted so badly the movies that I
liked to make money. I wanted them to have been moss a success.
Why wasn't it enough that you just love the movie? I know, I
know, right? Why do I need the validation of other people going to
see it? D dinging? Is this about me enjoying the movie? Or
is this about my idea of myself as someone that can And do I have
to hate everybody for not seeing it as I see it? Or do I
celebrate with everybody for seeing it as I see it. I've talked about this
before when Floyd Mayweather fought Oscarde Lajoya in two thousand and seven, which to
that time absolutely smashed every pay per view record there ever, was on the
back of the innovative HBO twenty four seven documentary format of Hype, where they
followed both guys and their training camp and through testimonials and through thousand and seven.
I remember this and I pulled together all the twenty four seven episodes and
the fight was that night, and it was all Sports Center was talking about.
It was pretty much the last time, with the exception I think of
Mayweather versus McGregor and to some degree Mayweather versus Pacquiao, where the whole sports
world cared about a fight and that was it. Every other sport didn't better.
It was the seventies and the sixties all over again for one night,
and I pulled together all those episodes and I sat down folks in my immediate
circle and who could care less about boxing, yep, and I put on
the twenty four seven episodes. By the time those were over, YEP,
they wanted nothing. They would have done anything to see if Floyd succeeded or
failed. They sat through the drudgery of hours long prelimbs that boxing pay per
views can put you through, the torture sessions, especially on the East Coast,
because they were in Vegas and you're waiting till, like, you know,
twelve thirty for the fight you bought this whole thing for to hit the
ring and the show starts at seven just but they but you had you had
to see if Floyd Mayweather was going to be shut up. You had to
see if this guy that you were only just becoming aware of his greatness actually
had it when he went up against the last boxer you ever heard of,
in Oscar de la Hoya, And for of course the Mexican fans, the
national hero, right. And why did I enjoy that situation in that fight
so much more because other people were telling me it was worthy of my attention,
And I would have enjoyed it if I watched it by myself and nobody
wanted to come over and see the fight. Yep, there's something there.
Yeah, there's some truth there for sure, and it had no small part
explains I think on why we're going on our tenth year. Scar says,
he said the filmmaker is reduced to a content manufacturer and the viewer to an
unadventurous consumer. Yes, Alastair writes, and I don't think he's wrong.
I think this is what all popular culture is like. Now. Fans don't
talk like fans anymore. They are obsessed with money and number crunching. They
talk like they're at a shareholders meeting, or like they're consulting on the marketing,
or they're on the board of whatever company or studio has produced the thing
they purport to love. When I began using the Internet about twenty years ago.
I was a kid who wanted to talk about stuff like Star Wars and
The Lord of the Rings movies, but nobody about the Lord of the Rings
franchise, franchise and quotes. Nobody cared about brands. They certainly never called
anything properties because we still thought we had characters back then, not I p
h. Well that's where you that's that's that's where you were, you know,
in your own delusion. We adopted I mean, this is me talking
here. We adopted the language of the people that were destroying the heart of
what we loved. Yes, because we were taught that that's how we are
to think of it, simply because it's the only redeeming quality people like that
can see in anything, the ability to bleed money out of it, to
make more money off less than the next thing. That's what we did with
our loves. We put them up to that judgment and said, all right,
you're right, that's only worth enjoying so much because look at what the
returns were. Of course, today, Alistair writes, those are the default
terms of engagement, which we as fans, seem to have decided to use
anecdotally a short while ago. I saw a conversation on Reddit in which one
participant said of the Lord of the Rings that they were quote unquote reading the
franchise for the first time. Oh my god, that's nauseating. Not reading
the books, reading the franchise. I accept that it's just a shorthand term
people find useful, but I just no, no, no, no,
no, no no, do not accept that. That's where we're at.
We don't do not accept that. We do not accept those things around here.
That's that's that is. That is a jackass term. That's bullshit.
You know, podcast for four hundred thousand hours ago to accept shit like that,
But I just can't help but feel cynical about it. If sure,
only because the word franchise always makes me think of fast food chains. Of
course, there's another truth. It always comes back to food. I'm not
sure when it all changed, because it just seemed to happen overnight. Alistair
writes. What I do know, though, is that pro wrestling was there
first. Vince McMahon was there first with his branded vehicular, predetermined sports influenced
premium live scripted episodic action, adventure, comedy entertainment product and Queen and Patterson
write that down. That's good. I don't have an hour and a half.
Boss. Everyone else has followed his lead, and not just in the
wrestling world, whether they know it or not. Vince dictated the terms,
and the fans, even people who aren't even wrestling fans, embraced them.
Having said all that, I don't really have any conclusive thoughts on this topic.
I apologize if I've rambled, but this is something I have found myself
thinking about a lot since that episode. It is what it is, and
nothing can change it. Being a fan used to be better, that's for
sure. Coming up as friend, We'll see you next time as we ramp
this thing back up on the Lapsed Fan Wrestling podcast, Boss, We're accustomed
on these feedback shows to you know, celebrating milestones out there in the Lapsed
Fan Solar System. Folks let us know when they have, you know,
big life events, positive and negative. You know, just had my first
baby, my dad just died, I just got divorced, I just got
married, the whole thing. Yeah, And so we've become accustomed to and
sort of really enjoy celebrating with members of the Solar system when cool things happen
to them In their lives, particularly things that perhaps offer us a glimpse into
a world that Vietnam wrestling is still kind of a Carney situation. And totally
we're always in the market, Boss to understand Carneyism in whatever form it may
take. As much as we can. We want to understand Carney. And
of course it really is a television camera that sends pro wrestlers into overdrive from
a court respective and you know what what what closer perhaps cousin to the the
roots of studio wrestling than the television game show Similarly, you know, taking
place in that small, closed set with the audience that sort of pre screened
for an affinity for things that the hosts you remember, And it might not
be Gordon Soli Boss, it might be I don't know, Pat say Jack,
it could be. So I've always wondered personally, what it's like to
get on Wheel of Fortune salesman selling sale. We can make that work sometimes,
Yeah, we'll work on that, Um, what it's like to get
on Wheel of Fortune? Of course, one of the longest running game shows
in history. And yes, fortunately for us, UM a true blue member
of the Solar System. I think even if a former opponent of yours across
the Ring and the Renaissance rumble, Boss, not me, Boss Addison.
I'm a big fan of I'm a big fan of of of of Fred.
But I know I know the other guy, you know, Boss Axon,
not a fan. Yeah, I'm not sure a purple parrot went on Wheel
of Fortune or Fred did, but we do know that Fred is a long
long time supporter of the program and a good friend and um he shared the
enthusiasm with us. Let's put it that way in terms of right getting on
Wheel of Fortune. So while we're taking sort of a break from the normal
uh sort of you know, show by show treatment and diving into the mail
bag and celebrating the solar system as we love to do as often as possible,
we've welcomed Fred on to talks recovering also in recovery from from from TNA
and tnh oh yeah, anything, right, exactly. Anything feels like a
vacation at this point if it doesn't involve one, two or no leaf foaming
at the crotch and all the rest. But Fred, you're froman at the
crotch. Welcome back. Ah Hey, gentlemen, so great to be here
and great to talk to you guys again. Yeah, definitely, definitely excited
about this. So let's start at the beginning. Um, when did you
realize getting on to Wheel of Fortune was a possibility and what steps did you
take? Yeah, it's always it's always been a possibility, and I had
always thought about it. I don't know, I guess. So I've sent
in the audition videos for game shows in the past, like when they did
a revival of Card Sharks and I think press your Luck. When they revived
the Legends of the Hidden Temple, every single person in the world called me
and was like, you need to be audition for this, of course and
I and I sent in a video. But they were looking for like online
influencers and musicians and you know, basically the opposite of you know, the
great thing about game shows. But enough about how WWE is hired in the
past few years, right Yeah, yeah, um um, and Wheel of
Fortune was all I mean, that was my first game show as a kid,
Like my mom, I said this on the show. My mom said
my first words were a bi val because they would just put me in front
of TV and I I dare say that I learned the alphabet watching Wheel of
Fortune. Like the one. I was a decidedly below average student in school,
but the one subject I always excelled in was spelling because I knew what
matters. I would say confidently from watching so much Wheel of Fortune. But
it is, like you said, it's been on for forever, and it's
such a popular show, and you know, so many people are trying to
get on it that I just thought, oh, like, I don't know,
realistically, it just didn't seem like a possibility that they would pick little
old me. But then I was in the middle of my first year teaching
and I saw an ad on Facebook that said that they were looking for contestants
for Wheel of Fortunes WWE week, and I thought, you know what,
I this has to be it because I love Wheel. I'm I'm a huge
I'm a big wrestling fan. Like, there's the time has to borrow a
quote, The time is now? Yes, So yeah, So they did
a ww week where they were going to pair you know, contestants with wrestlers
and just you know, play the game. And so I sent in an
audition video. So they have a link on their website where you can fill
out an application and you just record like a one minute video being like,
Hi, my name is so and so I'm from here. Here's what I
do for a living. And then specifically to the w week, they wanted
me to talk about which wrestler would I want to be paired with and why?
And I mean, if I'm being honest, I would have probably said,
like, I don't know, like Stone Cold or somebody you know with
actual star power, But thinking realistically, they were gonna use, you know,
a more current crop of folks. So I said the Miss, who
I'm a huge fan of and I have a lot of respect for play.
Oh so you must have been the one person who liked the the Semper Fold
journey. Then yes, absolutely, absolutely. So I went on this really
cheesy thing where I was like, I want to be partners with the Miss
because he is he plays hard, he's aggressive, and he's and I ended,
of course by saying he's awesome. Yes, So I sent in that
video with my application. And then that's the thing about wrestling, by the
way, Fred, I'm glad you said that it teaches you how to how
to tell them what they want to hear, like, yes, I know
you're an actual Miss fan, but you get my point, Like they've sort
of ingrained in you, like what you're supposed to do to rise to an
occasion like this. It's very curious. Yeah, yeah, and Miss not
only am I am I a Miss fan, but he's also the one guy
that bridges the gap of like back when I was still watching regularly and now
where I pretty much don't watch at all. So yeah, So that happened,
and then I think about a month went by and I didn't hear anything,
and then they called me to schedule an interview a few days later,
and so we did like a zoom chat. It was me and two other
proSP prospective contestants who were interviewing with one of the They have like a whole
contestant coordinating team of folks, and so we they she talked to all of
us. We played like a little mock version of the game where we just
had to solve a bunch of puzzles and then we got to talk one on
one. And I don't know how much of a fan, like how much
of a true wrestling fan this woman was, but she knew who the Well
also Miss has been on Celebrity Wheel, so he's he's a face to them.
So we we just talked about she you know, she really connected with
um. She was like, yeah, you know, I love how the
miss came from like Hollywood and reality TV and really and worked his way through
the system and now he's successful. And we talked about yeah, just wrestling,
and I was, you know, I was a teacher still am,
and I think I think they enjoy having like teachers, and they enjoy having
people who you can call like essential workers. Like that's that's a story.
That's a really good story for them to tell. I'm glad you said that,
because I'm gonna reveal a little something. I don't know if I've said
this before, Boss, I've ever told you that I drove to an audition
for Who Wants to Be a Millionaire w W audition? No, no,
yes, I was just like, why why am I going to do this?
That's why I'm going to do this, because I don't know why I
would. So I drove there. It was in Princeton, New Jersey.
This is like twelve years ago, maybe third Cameron how long it was?
Yeah, just because I had the day off the next day and I was
like, I'm gonna do this to see what it's like. More than anything,
I honestly didn't. I don't know. Somewhere in the back of my
mind, I was like, because I'm such a wrestling fanatic, I feel
like I can pick up that I can sniff out in the room what they're
looking for. But I got there playing the card. I think Fred played
of like I'm just a guy, right, I'm just like a person who's
a workaday person that likes wrestling. But then I don't know if you saw
this, Fred in your audition, but process, which is it is just
the most human humanizing thing you can imagine. I mean, just you know,
scores of people packed into a empty hotel, you know, sort of
series of hotel function room areas, and just like the least possible accommodations,
the least possible idea of how long it's going to take, and just just
just you know what television is. It reminds you that you're just like a
cog immediately. And so you're there and all of a sudden, the guys
had the belts, and you could tell like there's a bunch of fathers of
three with belts, and they're going to go from those guys, you know
what I mean, Yeah, belts and so I got up there and I
said a couple of things that even what I said, I said, she
gave my background. They just wanted to know, like where I was from,
and I just try to play it like, you know, somebody that
would would be not exactly what they would expect for a wrestling fan. I
thought that was the only card I could play because I couldn't bounce off the
walls like these fucking morons that showed up, you know. And I think
the guy they ended up picking was really like personable and cool and stuff,
and he was really he was just a guy that was just a WW fanatic
and just like a family man. I didn't have kids at the time,
so I couldn't play that card. And uh, and it was it was
interesting to see through from soup to nuts see what actually made it on TV.
Your experience then, Fred, is that, well you knew that wheel
of fortune like to have teachers on or or did that just work out for
you or did you come in knowing that would work? It was that like
a realization of a strategy. Yeah, it was. It was one of
a few cards that I played that I think worked in my favor. They.
I mean, I know they liked teachers because they have done teacher weeks,
like they have done weeks of tapings exclusively for teachers. There is the
actually there's a teacher who actually teach us right down the street from where I'm
living right now, right here, right outside DC. She is a middle
school math teacher, and she's the most recent person on the show to win
one million dollars. Wow. WHOA, So that's that's a that's a pretty
fun story to tell. But yeah, I also I played there. I
did. I had a lot of little tricks. So we did the zoom
the interview in my classroom, and I made sure before the interview that I
printed out there's like a I think it's on word Finder. There's a web
page you can go to where you can enter in text and it comes up
in the Wheel of Fortune puzzle board, and you can also like whatever the
custom texts, and then you can also give it like a category title.
So I printed out the Wheel of Fortune puzzle board. The category was cool
Drama teacher, and the text in the puzzle was mister Fletcher, which is
that's my last name, And I put that. I put that right behind
my head as we were interviewing and pointed it out and they were like,
oh, that's so cool. Um, so I did that. We talked
about teaching, we talked about wrestling, we talked I love it, that's
right. And we talked about the fact that I grew up in Saverna Park,
which is right where pat say Jack lives. Oh wow, my friend.
So we had I had a lot of fun stories about sort of I
think you might like this guy. He's just a furn apart guy, you
know. Yeah, you know how people from that. He's a he's a
teacher, but you know, he's got something about him. There's something about
it. Yeah, fucking break. Yeah. So at the end of the
interview the woman, the woman said, um, yeah, Fred, I
really like you. I want to try and get you on the show.
She said, I can't promise that it'll be WW week, but you're eligible
to be on the show period, just any any week of tapings that we
do. And I said, okay, great, I'll take I'll take what
I can get. So um so that was it. And then about another
month went by and didn't hear anything. Wasn't really thinking about it too much,
and then they emailed me and said, hey, good news. We
have a tape day for you. And it was five days after I got
the email. Was when they wanted that's right, that's right. Do you
how bad do you want it? That's the question. I mean I would
have like, how bad do you fucking want it? I mean you talked
earlier about like milestones in life, like birth of children and stuff. I
swear to god I would have missed the birth of my son. That's correct,
that's right. If it meant going out to we the fortune, but
that didn't five days to somehow get enough money together to book a flight to
to take three days. They don't. They don't fucking fly you out.
No, well they know they. I mean all contestants are guaranteed a thousand
bucks just for showing up, so that but no, they don't fly us
out. We we got to get there ourselves. So you get so you
get your cash draw from Lanza, and we had they put do they put
you up? Go ahead? Do they put you up? No? They
give us a nice discount on a hotel near the studio. Let's talk about
my partnerships as the Hilton to the Pains right right right, And we actually
had to be there the day before the tape thing to take a COVID test.
And I don't know why, but for some reason, I didn't realize
that when I booked my flight, so like I it was so the taping
was on a Thursday. I booked my flight to get in on Wednesday morning,
and then they called me and they were like, Hey, just a
reminder, we need to hear wednesday morning to take your COVID test. And
they were very matter of fact, like if you don't take this COVID test,
you're not going to be on the show. And it was too late
too, It was too late to cancel my flight. So I literally just
had to not board this flight that I booked, and I had to somehow
get enough money together to book an earlier flight. And I luckily have a
college friend who's out in LA who let me crash on his couch for the
night. So I got in Tuesday night, just barely made the flight anyway,
because I was coming straight from work and got in, crashed on my
friend's couch, and then went and took the test, the COVID test.
And how nervous were you that you might have it? Yeah, M not
terribly. I think I had just had it like two or three weeks before.
Yeah, it does help, and I was I was feeling pretty good.
Oh no, I'm wrong. I had had it once before for brother,
and I had had at least one booster. Actually, I think I
got it booster. What do you Who's who's boosted? Dude? You know
it's funny though, I'm peeping, Okay, okay dry. Two days after
the actual keeping of the episode, I went home and I had a wrestling
match that Saturday. And I know for a fact that I got COVID when
I was at that show. Wow. So if if I had been scheduled
for a taping like a week later than I wouldn't have I wouldn't have gotten
on. Luckily though, it all it all worked out and my dad actually,
um my dad flew out with me. He wasn't like originally I was
going to go just by myself because my girlfriend was working. Uh you know
I my parents were like, oh, you know, that's a lot of
travel and whatnot. And then my dad just called me the day before and
he was like, hey, what what airline did you take? Because I
want to try and get out there. So he took his own flight and
he has to get tested too if he's going to come up on stage with
me at the end. So he had to go get tested. He just
barely made it. But yeah, so we got there, got our tests,
and then I just messed around in LA for a day, which was
pretty cool. It was my first time in LA. Oh really yeah yeah,
yeah, that's amazing. That's fun. So okay, all right,
this is good. So we've got pretty much a soup to nuts idea of
how you gone on it. I have to say, Fred, the question
that hits me hardest and earliest the most is why did you want to do
this so bad? Look at look in yourself? Why did you want to
do this Christ? I mean you wanted to do it for Jesus Christ.
I understand that Pat wanted him to do it for that reason. Yeah right,
I want to do it for Mordecai Kevin for a test. But when
you talk about I mean the two giants in my life as far as shaping
my life and giving me dreams to chase. It's pro wrestling and game shows.
Got it. And I'm so glad Jack that you made that comparison,
because they are there's a there's you know, the ven diagram of pro wrestling
and game shows is a lot closer to a circle than people think. What
do you what do you see in common? The showmanship, like you said,
the working, the working a crowd, the the fact that you are
you know, in terms of the game show and the contestants too. To
a degree, you are just an extension of your real self. You're not
you're not playing a character. You're not working from a script. Well,
you know, the host might have some things that are scripted, but generally
it's like a lot of ad lib stuff. It's uh, they desire big
personalities and when they're looking at you, they're looking for what they can bring
out of you. Yes, here's the question, here's the question. Here's
the question. Billion dollar questions. When the camera's not rolling, does Pat
say Jack give a shit? Uh No, And I don't think he needs
He literally we didn't see him. We didn't see him at all until he
walked out for the first taping and when the cameras were off, he literally
walked off stage and walked behind the set and just chilled. And because he's
like, you know what, don't send these fucking losers into my fucking presence.
I mean he was very like he would come on like like thirty seconds
before cameras roll again. He would come back on and be like, hey
guys, you guys, okay, you guys need anything you good? Like
he was very kind and generous, extremely limited time that he gave us.
Yeah, but yeah, but no, he's he's he's at the Vanna,
on the other hand, actually stayed out and like when we were on a
break, she would like do Q and A with the audience. She'd be
like, does anyone have any questions? Thank you all for coming. She
actually Vanna surprised us in the morning because so we got there for the taping
at like we got there like seven am. They actually herded all of us
into the Jeopardy studio, which is right next door to do to fill out
our paperwork. So we were all just sitting there in the audience on the
Jeopardy set doing our paperwork, and the contestant team We're all like on the
stage talking into a mic, going over the rules, going over legal whatnot.
And then all of a sudden, and we all had masks on so
I couldn't see anybody's face, and all of a sudden, this tiny,
tiny woman in sweats walks up onto the stage with her mask on, and
we're all looking around like she's somebody's daughter, like who is this And then
she pulls the mask off and it's Vanna and she had just gotten there.
She didn't have any makeup on, and she was just like, hey,
guys, just want to say hi and good luck and you guys all do
well today and have fun and blah blah blah, and then she just and
scurried away. Well that's that's part wrestling right there, right, boss?
Is her? Van A White makes this qualified? Right? Wrestlingning for Yeah?
Oh yeah, totally totally absolutely qualifies. Hugan is like the nicest guy
ever or whatever. What. No, she said that, Yeah, she
was like, Oh, I like Hulk, he is so nice. Oh
oh on the show, I see yeah yeah, oh oh. I thought
you just brought that up to you, like randomly because you're on the Wrestling
week. No, but I didn't tell her. When I went back the
second time, I told her that I think her and Pat would make a
great tag team. Matt say Jack and slam A White, and her response
besides, you know, judging you in the back of her mind? Yeah,
right, A little chuckles, like, don't talk to you. Hey,
excuse me, came here, go fuck yourself. Yeah that was left
unsaid, all right. So when you're on the ground and and they say,
you know, well, well we'll pay you a grand, so you're
like, you're coming out of pocket for the flight and you know, fortunately
had accommodations, but you at least are you know, have some expectation of
of being able to pay that back to yourself, so to speak. So
there's that, right, even if you even if you don't even make it
on camera, you're going to get that money. So that's good. Yeah,
and well everybody, So they tape a week sort of episodes in a
day, and there are so three contestants per Actually I'm wrong, they tape
it's between. They usually do a week. Sometimes they'll do a week and
then one extra one that they'll air just like on a random time, totally
independent of that week. So we actually tape six episodes on the first day
that I was there, So there were eighteen of us total, and then
there was one person. There might have been two who are like alternates who
are paid. I think they pay them like two hundred or three hundred bucks.
And the alternates are all like la local people who they just bring just
in the off chance that one of the original eighteen can't make it for whatever
reasons. So the alternates were there, and then the rest of us were
there, and yeah, like I said, like everybody who makes it on
camera against a thousand bucks just for showing up. So so well that's another
wrestling parallel, right, there is just arrathon tapings, like what is this
pretty Monday night raw? Right? Yeah? Yeah, working that? What
are the fucking Disney World and Jam Studios? Jesus got a maximize? It
felt it felt a lot. I mean, it didn't feel taxing at all,
because it was we were all so excited to be there, like we
were all huge Wheel fans, and they were all they were all great people
and they were great to hang out with. And I taped the second I
think I taped the second episode of the day, but I stuck around to
watch the rest of them, even that you don't have to, like,
once your episode's done, you can leave. But I was just I was
just I'm sure, I'm sure they prefer that too. Yeah, please seriously,
dude, come on. Yeah, I was loving the vibes, like
the crowd was great, The contestants were great with each other. It was
it was just a fun and the contestant team all hung out with us while
we sat in the audience and watched everybody else. Like it was it was
an often time, all right, So what day of the week is this?
We taped on a Thursday? What time did you show up? Call
time? Seven am? Where did the people in the audience come from?
What do you mean, like, did they just like line up to be
admitted, like you know, yeah, yeah, that's a good question.
I actually do. I'm not sure it was. I mean it's a mix
of you know, just Wheel fans who want to come in and watch,
and and obviously friends and family, but they keep us totally separated from Yeah,
like once we go in for our call time, then we don't see
our family for until our taping is done. So I actually don't. I
didn't really, So you're up there. Yeah you get, I can tell
you you get. You get tickets from like the studio or whatever from it's
still still shoot them sony lot, right, Yeah they do, yeah,
yeah, and um that yeah and they h yeah because we did. Did
we actually go to a Jeopardy taping or was it one I know, I
know, I don't remember. I went to Letto one time and it was
a similar process you're describing it. Yeah, yeah, you kind of.
Yeah, it's it's very it's very kind of lucy goosey. So when you're
up there, Fred, we can't appreciate this. Watching at home, you
can see the crowd, Yes, yes, they're they're very it's dark and
that was that was one thing that struck me being on the set was when
you're on like when you watch it on TV, everything is bright, but
when you're on the set, everything is bright on your right hand side,
but on your left hand side everything is completely dark. Wow. Wow,
people don't appreciate that. Why so that the people in the crowd don't distract
you? Maybe, Um, I don't know. I guess they just don't.
I mean, like, it's it's lit enough to where everybody can walk
around and see what they're doing. But I and I could see faces if
I looked hard enough. I don't know, I guess. So these people
are showing up at seven in the morning, the no, not the audience.
The audience wasn't They told our families that they weren't even let in until
like I think it was like ten thirty before family was let in. So,
um, you know to be there three hours before? What's that?
Do they give you breakfast? You're there three hours, three and a half
hours before? Question? All right, sorry, yes they did feed us.
They did. All right, that's good, all right. Was there
was there a craft table? Was there a craft service table? It was
Oh god, I can't even remember. Now, come on, don't let
me down. It was like we we actually had a selection. It was
like these pre made like catering boxes that the breakfast were all like breakfast burritos.
Sure, oh yeah, there were Oh you know what, I'll tell
you what. I'll tell you something. This is not a joke. Sony
Lot, the the the Commissary and the Sony Lot has the fucking best breakfast
burritos. They were pretty good, fucking pissed. They're so good. I
used to fucking get them when I when I was on the lot during Premonition,
I got them almost every fucking day. So good. And then and
then the lunches were, um, so like we taped three episodes and then
when and had lunch, lunches were like, oh, I can't even they
were. They were dishes that I like. They were dishes that I had
never even heard of a lot of them. It was like like it was
like all beef or chicken or they had I think they had a vegetarian option,
but they were. But the specific dish was like I have never I
don't have no idea what this is. So I think I had like cuts
of beef with like some kind of sprout like bean sprouts or yes, I
truly do not even remember absolutely rice involved. There might have been, remember
it were there roasted potatoes, but it was you know, it was food.
It was like there and they had a pretty nice catering table when we
came in for breakfast with like coffee and paste, bagels kept their bellies full
bagels. Did they have like a bagel craft service table? I'm sure they
did. I didn't have one, but yeah, I have to imagine,
what the fuck's wrong with you? What's wrong with you? Fred? You
didn't stash your muffing away for lunch? I should have, you know,
I should I should have kept the gimmick. I also was very hypercon because
I did have coffee, and when I have coffee, I shit. And
I was very shitting on stage. That's right. I go to spin and
I spin the wheel too hard, and then you know they got they got
a mestical lean up. Yeah. So when you were doing the puzzle in
the audition, right, are they doing that to see if you're like,
if you have any metal capacity? Or are they doing that to see if
you understand the game? Why do you think they did that? Yeah?
I think they that they understood that they think you understand the game and that
you're just good at the game, like they we played, like when when
it was the three of us all interviewing together, they had us do like
a couple of toss up rounds, which I got. I think I got
one of them. And then they were like I can't even remember. They
were like five total, maybe, and I got one of them. So
I didn't feel great about that. But then they had us they broke us
off and interviewed us one at a time, and they had us solve like
four or five puzzles in one category and then four or five puzzles in another
category. I guess to see like what categories you excel in and which ones
might be a little bit trickier for you. I was really good at like
pop culture categories. I was really good at like phrases and the ones.
The one, the one I've always struggled in is like living things, which,
to be fair like I the one. The one puzzle that I remember
not getting was Persian cat and I was like, but in my defense,
what the fuck? Like why why is that a puzzle? Like, well,
hey, you know exactly, that's why, right, that's why puzzle?
All right, of course? Yeah, So, um, you're you
tape how many episodes on that Thursday? Six? And that's it? Or
do you do more of the next day? Um? So they did six
our day. I think they told us they tape like to they they tape
two days every two weeks, and I think they taped us on Thursday.
I I don't. I don't know this first fact, but I'm reasonably sure
that the WW episode, the week of episodes for WB week was taped the
very next day. And again, you weren't part of that. I was
not, although we were. It was funny. We were we were getting
a tour of the stage and all the contestants were standing on the floor and
then the executive producer comes out and she's like introducing herself, and she gives
this big speech to the whole crew and we're all standing there and she says
at one point, she says, and don't forget guys. Tomorrow we come
in and we're filming WWE week. And I went, yeah, and I
was the only person who made me annoy every everybody turned and looked at me.
It was right, And I was like, oh my god, no,
shame, no, it was fun. Yeah. Okay, no shame
yeah bullshit? Um okay. So that's great, all right, Shane.
So you just you just got on this show not by playing the look at
me. I'm a wrestling fan who can string a sentence together. Card.
You got on this show because you're an enthusiast, and you know you knew
how to how to show out for what Wheel of Fortune looks for do to
your lifetime watching it. It's like how pro wrestlers are good at pro wrestling
if they watched their whole lives. You know there's something innate, right right?
Yeah? And I wonder because we also did mention in my interview that
I'm actually a legit like training and practicing pro wrestler myself, and I wonder,
I don't know, for a fact. But I wonder if that might
have had something to do with me not getting on week because they didn't want
like a conflict of interest or interesting something. But it did, it did
make its way prominently into my show, Like they made sure to put that
on Pat's card when he interviewed me, that I was a pro wrestler.
Tell us about that moment. Oh, so it was pretty wild. It
was pretty fucking wild. I remember I watched. I was like, that's
that was really funny. So um, so Pat walks out, Oh my
god. So I was petrified. And I don't I don't get nervous hardly
ever, because I've you know, I just you know, the things that
I do, Like I've been a performer for forever, so things rarely make
me nervous. But I was scared to death being up there. Why first
of all? Why? Um? Because this was this was the culmination of
like a lifelong dream and a lifelove like I have. I have pictured the
image in my head constantly, endlessly my whole life, of me being on
you know, whether it be prices right or I was a huge once to
be a millionaire fan, so like that was always in my head and Wheel
of Fortune and knowing that this was my one and only chance, because they
also make it clear to you when you're there that it's a one and done.
I mean, at least I thought it was, but they tell you
that. You know, once you're on the show, you're never eligible to
be on again. So I was like, Okay, I don't want to
fuck this up. You know I'm missing something. Only chance for what I
mean, you're on the SHO show. What what do you mean? I
mean like, once you're on the show, you're not eligible to ever be
on the show again. No, but you're only chance to do what you're
going to be on the show. So my only chance to be it to
be successful and to become like a name recognized in the game show community.
I didn't I didn't want to be an embarrassment. I didn't want to be
so well you but you but you told them you were a pro wrestler,
so you're already, so you're going to be an embarrassment, right there?
Come on, you're right, and you know what, actually I did read
YouTube comments. I read a YouTube comment later on on the YouTube video of
my episode. Somebody said like, oh yeah, you know clear with that
physique that he's got, he would fit right in with today's pro wrestlers.
Wow, yeah, you versus Marcos Stunt or something, right, yeah?
Right, So so so this is this is important to me, and I
don't care if it's important to you Orf, it's important of JP. We're
going to get to the bottom of this. So you just said that you
what really you're afraid of is not being remembered for this appearance and doing the
game show Community Justice. Is that right? Yeah? And the money was
also real. That's what I was wondering. Why you haven't you brought that
up yet, because I think when people sit at home and watch these game
shows, Fred, they think, but the charm of these people is that
they're nervous because they're chasing, you know, that the jackpot, which I'm
sure isn't there. But but you're you're I don't know, because you said
earlier. Everybody else that got on the show we're big Wheel of Fortune enthusiasts
too, so they probably had a similar feeling of like, let me be
remembered if nothing else. And I don't when I watched the show, I
don't it never occurs to me that these people are also trying to be worthy
of being up there in addition to trying to grab the money. Yeah.
And the true and the honest truth is that the money is good. But
it's not. It's not unless you win the million, which only like three
people have ever done on Wheel. It's it's not life changing money. It
just isn't right. You have. There has to be right for nerves to
kick in. There has to be you know, equal parts. You know,
do do I do? Do I perform? Well? You know,
because you said to the community, like, tell me about this community?
Is it like a like if JP went on wrestling it would be a similar
feeling like me sitting at home like would be rooting for you know what I
mean What do you mean by that? Well, yeah, I mean the
game show community is uh, you know, folks who are recognizable names either
from like having one epic moment on a show or they or they run the
circuit. Like I've actually like connected on face Like, so there's a there's
a Wheel of Fortune alumni Facebook group that I'm a member of real and so
I've connected with a lot of people through that. I actually it's funny.
I connected with a couple of folks who were on Wheel of Fortune, but
we're also on other shows like, um, there was one guy, you
know, when I was growing up, like I said, I was a
huge fan of Millionaire and there was a guy in the Wheel Facebook group who
was also a big name because he was successful a millionaire, and it was
really cool. I got to be friends. I'm friends with him now,
which I thought was really cool. But yeah, it's it's a lot of
it's folks who are a lot of them are are like LA locals who just,
like I said, just run the circuit of like they're on Prices right,
they're on Jeffrey, they're on Wheel, they might have been on Millionaire
when it was on back in the day. Like just they're just they're just
names that people know if you are in the loop wrestling, it literally is.
And there are groups of you know, fan groups of just game shows
in general that I'm in now that are like people constantly post the most like
like updates that like, quite frankly to me, like you know, I
read the things that people post, and I'm like, I get that you're
excited, but honestly, I don't care that much. That Price is Right
is now on Pluto TV. Like, like, it's not not the most
important thing in the world, but but yeah, I mean these are extremely
passionate people about game shows, about the history the culture, Like wow,
yeah you like you said it's pro wrestling to a t. I think it's
instructive that um there. Used to be a newsletter writer by the name of
Steve Beverley in the late eighties early nineties. He published a newsletter called Matt
Watch, which was a relation to Bowen Blake. Well, he can't confirm
her deny all right, but what I can say is that he was also
pretty much from what I can tell, I don't know a lot about it,
but it was always referred to as the nation's leading game show expert,
and he didn't an even more popular game show newsletter. And I always thought
it was interesting that those two, that those two worlds, you know,
had had similar fans. Like I wouldn't call myself, I don't know about
you, boss, I'd be interested. I don't consider myself a game show
enthusiast, but I'm joying a fucking game show man. Yeah, I mean,
you know, it's funny. It's very funny when when we go visit
my parents, it's you know, seven o'clock hits and it's Wheel of Fortune,
Jeopardy, that's it. There's a lot one of that comfort. When
they come over to our house, the same thing happens, although we have
it on in reverse. But it's like, I don't do that on my
own, but when they're here, it's like, oh, yeah, shit,
let's do this. You know of it. But yeah, like I
again, I wouldn't. I don't seek it out, but there are times
where I'm like, you know, I'll get I enjoy it. I enjoy
it for sure. You get sucked into it. What do you think,
Fred, Is there something to that that it was always on at the same
time on the same station. Uh? Yeah, I mean I mean just
thinking about it, like like it might be different for you guys, but
where I am, like you said, Jeopardy and Wheel are on at seven,
seven thirty, and then you know, depending on what night of the
week it is, immediately after that, you're looking at either raw or SmackDown
like huge, right. Yeah, that's so, that's that's significant. And
those are like all of those shows that I just mentioned are TV mainstays that
have not um, you know, in the ever changing world of how people
engage with television and engage with media. Those are you know, the stalwarts
like like Ron SmackDown, Wheel and Jeopardy. There's probably a handful of others,
but like those are those are the shows strictly for entertainment purposes, Like
you know, news is one thing, but those are the entertainment shows that
have stuck around it's on TV and are not so readily accessible anywhere else and
of defining television for as long as television has existed exactly. Yeah, yeah,
that's great. So, uh, let me try to remember where we
left off. So there you are, and you're feeling a little bit of
anxiety. So tell us what it's like when you know you're you're taping the
first episode and they you know, they you're live, Like, do you
go into a zone? What's it like? It's hard to explain. So,
first of all, before before they even started taping, they actually did
a couple of rehearsal rounds with all eighteen of us, Like we all got
up really, yes. They they had us all do a practice spin of
the wheel. They had us all practice calling out letters loud and clear.
They wanted to make sure that we were talking, that we were giving like
energy in our voice, that we were speaking clearly enough so they could the
judges could understand what letter we called for. Like there was they were very
precise about. And they also like wanted to make sure that when we were
clapping and cheering that we didn't actually like clap loudly enough to so that our
body mics could pick it up. Like, was there someone? Go ahead,
was there someone when you're practicing the wheel? Yeah? Was there someone
who just couldn't get it? And and they're just a fucking idiot. Um,
there were a couple of folks who spun and didn't really put a lot
of behind it, um, which it's the rule are very tricky. The
only thing that you're not allowed to do with the wheel is you can't aim
the wheel. Like if you know, like let's suppose that the five thousand
dollars space is like one peg over and you go, oh, it's my
turn to spin the wheel, and then you spin it exactly one peg,
They're gonna be like, oh, nope, you're aiming the wheel. So
you got to do that again. So they put it right back to where
it was and they say, okay, spin the wheel like for real,
and don't aim because because you know, the judges will tell if you will
be able to tell if you're aiming to be clear, if you do aim,
they don't put that on the air. Correct. Yeah, I've never
seen that watching it, that's right. Yeah, yeah, they're gonna.
Yeah. I wish they I wish they wouldn't then say no, no,
no, no, no great, no no no, no, you fucking
it make people heal, do it again, do it again. Still,
if game shows were still live to tape, that probably would make it on
the air. Yeah, but uh yeah and no, and that never came
up. Like, like I said, there were a few folks who couldn't
get it right the first time of like like how much to put behind the
spin, But you know, nobody, like nobody was accused of cheating,
like nothing, nothing that catastrophic. But yeah, they had us go through
a rehearsal round and the guy who hosted us for the rehearsals wasn't It wasn't
even pat. It was like a local I think it was a local magician,
like an LA magician who was just just there to run us through rehearsal
rounds. So I actually I think I because each group of three played one
round only for rehearsal, and I solved. I solved our rehearsal puzzle.
So I was like feeling, you know, reasonably confidence. It was big,
but I also well, but also in fairness, I should say that
when you're doing the rehearsal round, um, they don't like the goal of
the rehearsal round is to get everybody to spin at least once, to get
everybody to call a letter at least once. So like if there was a
moment where player one spins but they immediately know the puzzle and they go,
hey, can I solve it, the rehearsal host to be like, uh
no, actually, because it's player teams turned to span, okay, go
and then like if you land on a bankrupt they he just nudges the wheel
so that it gets out of bankrupt so that they can actually hear you call
a letter. Like that was that was the ultimate goal. But that being
said, I did still feel really really good about the fact that I saw
the rehearsal puzzle. So they did. Yeah, So we did all the
rehearsals and then we did the they did the first the first taped episode,
um, and then we went up for number two and yeah, Pat walked
out. And the thing is like when cameras roll and Pat and Vanna walk
out, you go right into the game because they actually they do the first
toss up puzzle before they even interview the contestants. So so you have like
right us, they say, okay, cameras are rolling. You gotta be
in you gotta be in game mode. Remind me that day there's on television.
They interview first, right, No, no, no, I'm so
when okay on TV, Pat walks out, he says, okay, we're
going to do our first toss up. You do the first toss up and
then they interview and it comes oh yeah, okay, rings a bell yep.
Um, So yeah I got I got the first toss up and I
I felt pretty good about that. And then there was a lot of there
were a lot of little moments that I remember from the taping that didn't make
it to air, Like, um, I remember the contestant team was really
nervous about how I held the buzzer, so they taught us. They taught
us that the technique to hold the buzzer was just hold it in one hand
and press the button with your thumb and press in release and once you're release,
that's when you ring in. Me being the freak that I am,
I also so when I was a kid, I played a lot of Mario
Party and my technique for button mashing on Mario Party was like, just put
my index finger on it and just like vibrate and just tap and tap and
tap, and but I had to keep the controller steady. So I would
put the controller on the table and with the left hand and then with the
right hand, I would just tap tap tap, tap tap, And I
got pretty good at it. So I was like, Okay, well,
if that worked for Maria Party, it clearly will work for Wheel of Fortune.
So I held the buzzer in my left hand, but then put my
right index finger on the button to buzz in, and like I was very
intense, and like when in rehearsals when I rung in, I like,
instead of just pushing the button once, which they tell us to do,
I was like mashing it. Like I felt like I was back playing Maria
Party again. And they were like, uh, Fred, you're making us
nervous. Please please just try and you know, you know, if you
know it, just ring in once and then trust me you we'll pick it
up. We'll get you actually, And then we did the first toss up
and I rung in in my usual way, and if you watch it,
you'll see like my whole body like jolts when I ring in, and Pat
commented on that. He was like, after I solved it, he was
like, I like how you rung in with your whole body. That was
really cool. But that comment was eded out. That commented, oh,
so it just looks like you're orgasming. Yeah, yeah, pretty much.
So they go into the interview and and Pat we talk about how I'm a
teacher, a trivia host, and then I say I'm a pro wrestler,
and Pat says, so I think they cut out of the airing that.
He said something like, oh yeah, those things just go together naturally,
of course. And then no, he said that I remember that. I
remember that, okay. And then he said do you get paid to wrestle,
which was not a question I was expecting to hear, and so I
just said very little, but I do it for fun, and that's true.
I think I think I've gotten thirty bucks for one show, and that's
literally the extent of my payday. And wrestling. So yeah, so that
was it, and then we talked about my girlfriend, we talked about my
grandma. These are all things that like you go over pretty in depth with
the contestant team beforehand, and Pat's got all the notes on his card,
so so yeah, and I was really glad that I had that chance because
my grandma was the person that I mainly grew up watching Wheel with and so
I was. I was really happy that I got to give her a shout
out. And when I looked at the camera and I said, Mamma,
I love you. Pat looked at the camera, he goes, we love
you too, mamma, and like there was an audible awe from the audience,
which which was really cool, and then they clapped for me, and
Pat was like, all right, good luck, and I yeah, I
just I was. I think part of my nervousness was also not was also
that I didn't want to completely botch the interview and like either leave things out
or sound like a dork. But I was. I was happy with how
it went, So I felt a lot better after that. The buzzer,
what is it look and feel like? Um, it's pretty like like picture
a Jeopardy buzzer. It's pretty much exactly that. It's uh, it felt
almost like the button almost felt like like an arcade style like, okay,
is it red? It was red? Is the device black? Ah?
I it's either black or it's the color. It's whatever color contestant you are
playing. So it chord lists, No, it's it's corded. What what
if I was standing there and I looked down, What do I see?
Just wood like propping up the set? Or what is there? Something?
Is there water down there? Like I'm fascinating. So there are platforms that
we stand on that actually before cameras roll, they actually adjust the height of
the platforms so that we are all like wrestling again brothers, Yeah, relatively
the same height and that we are all like in in the camera shot.
So they had to adjust our heights a little bit. And you look down
and it's padding on the sort of armrest, uh podium, It's it's like
gray padding. And then the scoreboards are underneath that, but we can't really
see the scoreboards. And then below us from there is the wheel and the
wheel is way fucking heavier than it looks on TV. Yes, talk about
this, So it's it's metal pegs and you have to grab one of the
pegs. And in my case, since I'm left handed, like right handers
can just kind of push it across them, I had to reach across myself
grab a peg and just and pull on it and just yank it across and
like literally, just from rehearsals, my hand was getting red and blistery.
Like, so you pull, you don't push? I pull? Yeah,
it because I'm left handed, so I have to push. Yeah, but
who's pushing? Brother? Who's getting to push? What? Dude? Push?
Brother? Do you mean to create a line? Push? Dude?
So so you're doing all this is okay, tremendous. So if you can't
see the scoreboard, then how do you know how you're doing? Because they
have a scoreboard just off camera for us to look at. Okay yeah yeah
yeah, so they like it's like it gives us like your total current,
your total just for the round, your total overall, like it's all it's
all on there. How how how close did you come to bankrupt? I
got bankrupt once? Oh I did get it once? Okay, yeah,
so so once if you saw a puzzle, everything that you win in that
round is yours to keep even if you get bankrupt later on. I think
it was the second main game. It was the mystery round and I landed
on the mystery wedge, which I was already So do you know what the
mystery wedges? Are you familily with that? Yes, So like you land
on it and it's it's like a mystery panel that is either containing ten thousand
or a bankrupt So like the suspense is like is he gonna pick it up?
Is he not? And I was That's one thing I was nervous about
because I was like, uh, do I Am I gonna want to risk
it? Am I gonna want to play it safe? I'm generally a pretty
safe like I'm not much of a gambler, so I didn't think I would
do it. But then I guess just the pressure of the camera and pat
being like is he gonna do it? Is he gonna do it? I
did it. I picked it up and it was bankrupt, and I was
like, oh fuck. But that's that's the only time I got bankrupt.
I very narrowly avoided bankrupt a couple of times. Like I think in the
first round there was one spin where like I was like one click shy of
bankrupt, and it was almost the end of the round too, so if
I had gotten and then I probably would have lost. So to me,
it's all chance. I mean, you got to know the puzzle. But
is there any strategy? Is there anything you do that's sort of like trying
to game the other person? My strategy, Well, at the time,
you know, it's funny. I think I've been thinking a lot about strategy
after the fact. I will say though, that my strategy was always to
solve as soon as I know it, and don't try and spin a few
more times to get some extra money, because that's how you're going to bankrupt.
So like the moment that I figure out what the puzzle is, I
solve it. There are people who don't do that there Oh yeah, there
are people who want to spin, who just want to spend for the money.
Yeah, there are people who want It's less common now because I will
say, the wheel is a lot heavier than it actually used to be,
and so therefore bankrupts and loser turns are landed on much more frequently now than
they used to be. So I think I think there's been a trend of
people playing it closer to chest now than there was sort of back in the
day. But I also, I think part of the strategy and I wish
I had paid more attention to this when I was on the show. Part
of the strategy is also getting familiar with like when you do a typical spin,
about how much of the wheel are you spinning? Like it's different for
everybody, Like, you know, my two opponents when they spun, they
might they've got roughly halfway round the wheel. When I spun, I realized
watching it back after the fact that I usually made about a full revolution on
the wheel, and so so like there were like in the first round,
there was a moment where I spun and I landed on like the space right
before bankrupt, And then I spun again and I landed on the space like
right after that same bankrupt. So you know, part of the strategy is
like, you know, figuring out what what your average is as far as
about how much you spin, and then based on that, like, are
you like if you look down and you're looking at a bankrupt close to you,
maybe you just your spin strength a little bit so that you don't hit
it um again. That's something I wish I had done, and I didn't
but um, I think it. I think it worked out for me.
Yeah, it's because something you can't practice, it's something you can't you can't
know until you're there exactly. And Megan, my girlfriend, kept joking with
me because she wanted me to practice a lot, and we did play a
lot of practice games. But she was also like, we should build like
a replica wheel. All that would do is give you the wrong idea of
how hard you have to push exactly exactly. And by vowels, that was
that was they they like they themselves, Like Vanna when she came up to
us in the morning, she was like, guys, remember by vowels,
they will help you. Um so yeah, I like, as soon as
you've got enough money to run the board of vowels, you just buy as
many as you can, right, Yeah. Does anyone not do that?
Uh? I don't know. I think some people forget like that. It's
a reminder more than it is, like, yeah, a strategy, right,
Like, I think some people get up there and either because they're nervous
or because they're otherwise occupied, they forget that there are a vowels on the
board, like like so many contestants and it's so unfortunate, and I feel
so bad for them. When a contestant calls a letter that's already been called,
they lose their turn, even though they're like, it's not you can't
see it on camera, but there is a used letterboard off camera for us
to look at what letters have been called and what letters haven't. But some
contestants forget that that's there, and so like, you know, the contestant
the one before them called an H, and then it'll get to them and
they'll be like H. And then Pat will be like, it's already been
called. Sorry. So is there anything that I think you kind of alluded
to it with the aiming the wheel? Is there anything that happens that they
do it take two? You know, I'm trying to like kind of figure
like where the good TV mentality comes in versus the our integrity of the game
mentality. The only time that between both of my episodes, the only time
that we had to stop tape in the middle of a playing of the game
was and it wasn't even my episode, it was somebody. It was another
one of the episodes. They were doing the speed up round right before the
bonus round, and the puzzle was the puzzle was longhorn cattle, and it
got to one of the guys and he said it. He said longhorn cattle.
And I'm watching this from backstage. He said longhorn cattle. And then
all of a sudden, Pat goes, yeah, we have to stop,
and so they stopped tape. And I found out later that there was a
woman in the audience who yelled. She said it loud enough so Pat could
hear it. She said longhorn cattle, and Pat heard it. The judges
heard it, so Pat was like, oh, we had to stop.
Oh my god. They had to throw out that puzzle. That's like Vince's
trial making this yeah, right and exactly. And the worst part I think
that I found out later that woman was that contestant's grandmother. Scandal, right,
so they had to throw that puzzle out. I think he the puzzle
they did to like when they reshot it, I think he solved that puzzle
again. Anyway, So like, you know, no big loss, right
there was that was that was a big That was a So they take your
phones away, they block him up. Um, yeah, well no,
they just make us keep it off in a way like if they see it,
you have it on your you have it on your person when you're up
there, not on the stage. No, no, no, no,
okay, that's right. When you're when you're just a rat. Like we
walked into the Jeopardy studio and one of the other contestants was really excited.
He had his phone out and he was like taking a snapchat at the Jeopardy
stage and one of the producers was like, uh, put it away,
put it away, and I and delete that video. I didn't see anything,
but just but put it away. I love it, so did anybody
You didn't put any and have to shit And they had to stop the thing.
No, not literally, there was there was a woman whom from my
first episode. She got up there and she started talking to Pat and she
like she just totally like froze and she kept fumbling her words and she was
like, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, and Pat was like, it's okay,
we'll just try again. So they literally just they didn't even stop.
He just started all over again and just went through the interview again and there
were now One thing that they do cut out of the show usually is if
one of the contestants spins the final Spin and they land on the bankrupt.
They usually cut that out because the final spin is to determine how much money
they play for in the speed up round. And on my second episode,
they got my opponent who spun the final spin hit lose a turn, and
then he hit bankrupt. And both times Pat was just like, up,
just spin again and we'll forget that never happened. And then he spun it
again. He landed on lose a turn. He said, spin again,
We'll forget it, ever happened. He's fun again, and he landed on
five thousand, which was crazy, was a crazy moment, but yeah,
forget it, ever happened. So that's pro wrestling too, right there.
Wow, Hey, you know what they say, if it doesn't happen on
TV, it doesn't happen. That's so his Pat say, Jack's face,
Fred, is it alarming? Is it caked? I'd imagine it's so made
up that you feel like you're looking at a Madame Tussaud's wax figure. Yeah,
it's a little you can tell that there's been some work. I actually,
I hate to say it, but I noticed the makeup a little more
heavily on Vanna when because the winning contesting gets to stand next to them for
the end credit shot. I'm standing there and I'm talking to Vannah, and
I can I can see her makeup like sweating off on her face. That's
right, that's right, that's right. I didn't really want to go in
on Vanda, but okay, yes, and she was I don't she was
so sweet and I and I love van and I don't want to did they
put makeup on you? Listen? Listen there there, Listen. They have
to look like they that they're not eighty five years old. That's alarming how
long they've been doing this show. Yeah, I mean when you think about
the height of it, do you think of fucking Vanna White and Russellmini a
four right in nineteen eighty eight, fucking thirty five years ago? Yea.
So what's the technology of the actual letter board? Like, did you notice
anything you never appreciated about how the letters light up, turn around, spin
around? Um well, I think this season was the first season that the
board was like one single digitized screen right there. That's like Kevin Dunn,
Yeah, yeah, yeah. For a long time it was I mean,
you know, back in the eighties, it was like you turn the letters
and the spinning thing made me so happy as a kid. I used to
fucking love that. I agree, but but you know, and then in
the nineties they made it so that each letter was its own digitized screen yep.
Um, so that's mostly what I'm I was familiar with grown up.
And then I think this season that I was on was the first season where
it was just one giant screen. Fuck that all right? Fine? Yeah?
Um, so take listeners who didn't get to see it all the way
through how you actually did and what the puzzle was you you solved, and
take us from you know, your whole your whole bid to compete here.
Sure, so I got humpback Whale with others woo, and then who interviews
and then the second toss up was on the count of three, which was
kind of weird. I'm actually like some of the puzzles. I feel like
I should have gotten way sooner than I did, but I got them all
anyway, so it doesn't matter. Um. And then first main game.
First main game puzzle was a food and drink puzzle and it was pineapple upside
down cake, which, funnily enough, I just randomly a few weeks ago
was watching an episode from like nineteen eighty seven on YouTube and the puzzle was
the exact same one, pineapple upside down cake, So I thought that was
pretty funny. And then we came back and did the mystery round and it
was a it was a Wheel of Fortune crossword puzzle, which I hate.
I despise the crossword puzzles I did just it's very annoying. But the clue
was talking shop, so it was like all the words and the crossword were
different kinds of shop and it was body, coffee, pet, and pawn.
And then we came back from that and we did the prize puzzle round,
which that was probably the most nerve wracking round because if you know the
game, the contestant who solves the prize puzzle automatically wins a trip and the
value of the trip is added to their total, and it's such a little
cheap thing. It's such a little fucking cheap thing they do there. Yeah,
so like I would say, like nine times out of ten, whoever
solves the prize puzzle wins the whole game because because that the boost in their
scores is so much that nobody can catch them. So I was like,
if I don't get this prize puzzle, I'm probably fucked. So the Pride
it was two words and the first word was unparalleled. I couldn't quite figure
out what the second word was it it looked, I don't know, it
was weird. And then there were like two or three blank spaces left and
I landed on the Express wedge, Oh yeah, and I called a letter
that was in and then Pat was like, do you want to do the
Express? And they actually cut out of the of the airing because Pat has
to explain what the Express is like. He explains, like, you just
keep calling consonance. It's a thousand bucks for each one if you if you
miss a letter, it's a bankrupt And he was like do you want to
do it? Yes or no? And I was so I couldn't make up
my mind because I was like, I don't want to bankrupt, but I'm
so close to the end, like is it worth it? Is it worth
it? And if you if a contestant goes five seconds or longer without deciding
what to do, they bugged them out and there turns over. So Pat
was standing there going yes or no, Fred, yes or no, Yes
or no, And finally I was like, no, no, I don't
want to do it. I don't want to do it, and they cut
they cut out Pat sort of wow, prodding me. They cut that out.
So so I said, no, I didn't wanted the express. I
spun the wheel. And then as soon as I spun the wheel, I
looked up and I said, oh, it's hiking, unparalleled hiking. So
I called the k and then I was like, okay, I'm going to
solve right now. And actually, looking back, I'm glad that it was
hiking. It could have veried just as easily been biking. So I called
unparalleled hiking, and which is kind of a weird puzzle. Even Pat pointed
that out on the air. He said, he said, so, I
guess that would be what perpendicular hiking? Yeah, and then he said he
said, by the way, you just want a trip to Costa Rica,
And that was I freaked the fuck out because it was it was Hawaii themed
week, so I was kind of expecting, naturally, diget a trip to
Hawaii, which I would have been fine with, but I don't know,
Hawaii is just not high on my list of like tourist destinations. Um,
but then you said Costa Rica, which is high on my list. And
I was like, I was completely stunned. And then listening to Jim the
Void, the announcer, like talk about the resort and all this stuff,
like I was, yeah, I was pretty much crying. And then when
camera stopped rolling, I did cry and one of the contestants looks over at
me and she goes, what are you crying for? We're the ones who
were supposed to be crying? Yeah right, um, wow, that's great.
So did you go yet? No, we have a year after our
air date to go. We're thinking probably sometime during the holidays, like maybe
Christmas break nice, that's what you and a guest the one one more ticket
yep, yep. Um. So we came back from that, and then
it was the Triple toss Ups, which is the three toss ups in a
row, and showbiz was the category, so I was already like, okay,
pop culture, I'm feeling it. And the first one was non speaking
role yep, which which I was kind of disappointed. I didn't get it
sooner, but it but like it was fine, I got it. And
then so the triple toss ups are kind of a new thing, but if
you've been watching, you know that the Triple toss ups are all connected in
some kind of way, right, So non speaking role was the first one.
The second one comes up and snng fill in on the top word.
So Jalicia, one of my opponents, ring in and she says speaking role
and Pat's like, Nope, that's not correct, and so it keeps going
and I see a pe come up. I'm like, oh, it's supporting
role, so I ring in. I get that. And before I even
saw the third puzzle, I was like, Okay, we had non speaking,
we had supporting the third one. There's the third one has to be
like a lead, like the lead role, like some kind of way to
describe the lead role. So then the puzzle came up and I just filled
it in. I was like, oh, it's the starring role. So
I answered it like the G I think came up and I just pressed it
immediately, and I was like, yeah, it's the starring role. So
now, are you so laser focused on answering this throughout every answer you've talked
about that you're only looking at Pat? Or are you looking at your fellow
contestants? Are they looking at you? Is there any gamesmanship there? They
always tell us keep our eyes on the board like at all times, even
once you've spun the wheel, don't look down to see what the total is
that you landed on, because Pat will tell you just keep your eyes on
the board because the longer you keep your eyes on the board, the better
you're going to have a chance of solving, like the more work you're going
to do to fill in the missing letters. Right. So I was just
laser, nobody makes any noises to try to mess with your head or nobody.
Yeah, No, I think I might have glanced over at Pat,
like when Jalicia rung in. When she rung in, I thought, oh,
she's gonna get it. She's gonna get it. And then I looked
over at Pat to see what would he he was going to say, and
he was like, Nope, that's not right. So I like, you
know, occasionally I look over at Pat to see what he's doing, but
generally, yeah, we're just keeping our eyes on the board. Yeah,
and then so so I got pretty emotional again after that because the triple toss
up is two thousand for each puzzle, but if you solve all three,
they bumped the six thousand up to ten thousand. So that was that was
another big boost in my score, and then we did the like after that,
they called time, so I had to do the final spin and then,
oh my god, the Speed Up Round was about five minutes longer than
what actually made it to air, because um so I was gonna say those
must go longer than they actually do. Oh yeah, so yeah. So
if you know the Speed Up Round, basically, nobody spins the wheel.
You just go one by one down the row and call a letter and that's
your letters in the puzzle. You get a chance to solve. But it
was a really short puzzle and we just kept calling, like I think we
called a couple of letters that were in it, and then there were at
least like three or four complete like revolutions around all three of us where we
all called letters that weren't in the puzzle, and I swear I feel like
we went through the entire alphabet. The puzzle was Buzzer Beater, and we
got the R and the T. We I think eventually we got the B.
Nobody ever wants to call vowels in the Speed Up Round because vowels don't
win you any money, so we just kept calling all the consonants and like
we got down to like X and W and Y and like nothing was there,
and I think right before me, Julicia called X, and I called
Z and the Z and they filled in the two z's on buzzer. And
I had actually never heard that term buzzer beater, which, like now I
know that it refers to like like like when you shoot a hoop in basketball
and you make it just before the buzzer, But at the time, I
thought buzzer beater referred to like a Wheel of Fortune player who liked right,
That's how I choose to remember it as. Anyway, so I got buzzer
beater. Pat walks over to me with this like be fuddled look on his
face because I had just totally swept the game, and I was like,
Pat, how did this happen? Like what it like? Yeah? And
he oh my god. So he went over to the two other ladies,
the two other contestants, and he goes, you know, to you too.
I just want to say, sometimes it just happens where someone gets really
hot and you know there's nothing you can do about it, and you know
the way because they both were not terribly lucky with hitting bankrupt, so that
that probably did a lot for me. So he like he shook both their
hands. He came over to me and he was like, you brute,
just because he's a pro wrestler. And he looks over at the at the
girls he goes, you want me to body slam them for you? And
I will never forget. I can't remember which one it was, but one
of the ladies very enthusiastically was like, yes, please, please do it.
Wants pain, wants that pain. Right, Yet yet another person learns
the hard way about tea left adjacent dominant. That's right, that's right,
that's right. So as Pat is talking already, they've got the three categories.
Like, so the puzzle board, like I said it was, it's
one big screen now, so in addition to the puzzles, it'll also show
like advertisements and like whatever the theme is it. So they put the three
bonus round categories on the puzzle from the board for me to choose from.
And I was looking at those before Pat even announced them, and I told
Megan, and I told everybody who will listen that, hands down, the
best category to choose for your bonus round is phrase because phrase is always going
to be a recognizable set of words that your brain will do the work for
you of putting the words together, or the other choices. So my choices
were what are you doing? Things? And phrase you can't tell you something?
There's one thing I cannot stand. Well, I'll tell you what when
you're given the option of things or thing or whatever. Yeah, I'm like,
I say, what is wrong with anybody who fucking take You're stupid to
take that bet? That literally could be anything? Yeah, it could be
anything. You want to narrow it down as much as you can, right
right? I I totally agree. Um, and then and even what are
you doing? Like? Category? What do you? What do you do?
You do? It actually is what do you do? You tell me
what that category? Well? Look are you what? So what's he doing?
Did he talk? Did he join you guys for lunch? By the
way, did you get to see him eat? No? No, no,
no fucking way, are you kidding me? He's in he's in his
office getting a fucking blow job? All right? Come on? He uh?
He actually I took I got a quick peek behind the puzzle board.
There's like a chair and a couch. There's like a catering table back there.
I would like carrots with ranch dressing and stuff. Yes, yeah,
so so I didn't even have to think twice I said phrase, And so
they cut to commercial and um, the contestant. So we like, each
episode had their own member of the contestant team who was kind of like their
coach and their mentor. And um, so Alex was was her name was
the girl that worked with us. She was really nice. I really liked
her a lot. Um she talked to us after every round and and I
remember the first couple of rounds as I was solving puzzles, she kept looking
at Jelicia and Jenna and being like, ladies, the girl, the game
is not over. Don't worry. You still got the prize puzzle coming up.
You still go all this coming up. And then even once I saw
the prize puzzle, she was like, ladies, you're not out of it
yet. Remember that. Wow, the five thousand dollars spaces on the wheel.
You can make a comeback. It can happen. I've seen it done.
And then cameras stopped after that last round, and they escorted Jelicia and
Jenna off stage, and like I was trying to like waive them, be
like by ladies. It was nice to meet you. Thanks for and Jelicia
gave me like a half hearted like congratulations, and then they walked off and
that was the last time I ever saw them. You're damn right, fuck
you. Listen, listen to me, Fred. They hate you. That's
right that they will forever. By all accounts from other contestants who saw them
in the dressing room afterwards, they were extremely upset. Well, what did
you hear that? They said? Yes, Um, I heard, I
heard that. Jenna said to somebody like he got every puzzle, yes,
and yeah, I just I don't know, I like yeah, And they
didn't and they did not dare stick around for the rest of the tape.
I don't think they even saw Wow, look at that. Like. They
took their money and left, like every everybody has to be paperwork for whatever
prizes they win, even if it's just a thousand, So they went back
and did their paperwork and they dipped. I don't think they did anybody.
They thought they were ladies. You don't have what it tanks. I think
understand that, sorry, understand that. Understand the fact that when you're going
up against the fucking Purple Parrot, you're in for trouble is a reality.
So so you all right, so tell us about that moment where you bring
it all home. So uh the so Alex was like talking to me about
the Bonus Round, like giving me coaches and that. Uh. The stage
manager is actually worked with us a lot too. Actually the stage manager is
his name is Jimmy. He's also a member of the clue crew on Jeopardy.
Um if like so for Jeopardy fans, if people recognize the faces of
the folks that do a lot of the clues, he's one of them.
And he was a super nice guy. And he came up to me as
I was standing next to the like the Bonus round little mini wheel that they
have a spin and he and he made me do like a practice spin and
um, he like walked me through. He was like, Okay, you're
gonna do the spin. Pat's gonna grab the envelope. You're gonna walk over
to this spot over here and then you're gonna do it all right, good
luck man, And then he walked off. Pat walked in next to me
and he was like, man, you know you've you've killed it today,
like you did awesome. And then I see my dad like they have.
Everybody's allowed up to two people to come be get their guests that comes up
on stage with them. So I see my dad walk over to the side
of the stage and he's in front of a camera. They're putting makeup on
him real quick. They had to actually put makeup on his bald head,
which I thought was pretty funny, much better. So we so the cameras
roll and Pat is again is just like yeah, like it's very rarely that
happens where somebody sweeps the game, try and make it a clean sweep by
getting the bonus round. And then they always ask you like do you have
a guest here? And I've said my dad, my dad, Rich is
here. They cut the camera to Rich and then Pat asked me, does
your dad wrestle? And that was another question I wasn't expecting to hear,
so I kind of mumbled like, oh no, he uh he supports me
in his real job, right, So so I spun the bonus wheel.
Pat grabs the envelope. We go and we go and look at the puzzle.
And now you talk about a moment that I've played a million times in
my head. Yes, before, before and after the fact, Like I
played it over a million times before I went on the show, and I've
played it a million times after I've gotten on the show. Standing there in
front of the bonus round puzzle again. The first thing I noticed as I
was standing there was that the stage was brightly lit, but everything to my
left was complete dark. And then they put up the bonus puzzle. It
was a pretty big puzzle, I noticed, was the first thing. And
I had a pretty good clue as to what some of the words were,
but I couldn't quite figure out like the big operative word at the end,
and so I called my four letters that I thought we're probably going to be
in the puzzle. I think I called D, H, and O,
and then they filled him in and it was like I wasn't one hundred percent
sure, but I had a pretty good idea. And then Pat says good
luck. And as soon as Pat says good luck, the clock starts and
you have ten seconds pretty much no time, So I think the post thing.
I think. The first thing I said was his mind is pondering.
And then I hear Pat, Oh, nope, nope, you still have
time, You still have time, keep going, And then I said,
his mind is wondering. And then I realized, wait, I called oh,
and they didn't put an O up there, so clearly it's not wondering,
but maybe it's wandering. I didn't call a I said, his mind
is wandering. And then they put it up and Pat's like, yeah,
you got it, and I wow. Um that was yeah, that was
completely indescribable, the feeling that I had, And then the feeling I had
again when Pat opened the envelope and he showed it to me and it said
forty thousand dollars, I I think. I yeah, I broke down a
little bit. And then my dad came up and hugged me, and I
think I left like a tear mark on his shirt because I was crying so
much. And then oh, yeah, it was an incredible moment. And
then the icing on the cake. Pat comes up behind me and puts me
in a face chicken wing. The fact that he fucking the fact that he
fucking knew how to do that was both surprising and very alarming to me.
Yeah. Yeah, so if I was, if I was to be picky,
he actually kind of put me like he like he put my arm in
like a hammer lock, like there's a there's a verse. There's a very
specific way to trap the arm in a chicken wing. He didn't quite do
it that, but he did. He just kind of grabbed my forearm and
just held it behind me while he like head locked my head. And with
no warning, by the way, with no warning. No, this was
like everybody asked me, was this the thing he told you he was gonna
do? No? No, this was completely on the cuff or on the
arm, and uh and I but I but I quick I realized pretty quickly.
I was like, Okay, he's doing a bit. I'm gonna yes
end with him. I'm going to sell. I'm going to sell for him,
absolutely. But I also I, you know what, you know what
I would have loved. I'm sorry to rub you know what I would have
loved if just instead of instead of rolling with it, you just suddenly when
what the fuck is wrong with you? Just what I actually tried to do,
because there is a counter to the hammer lock, and I tried to
like slide under him encounter and put him in it. But he sincerely was
holding me so tight that I he was shooting on you. That's right,
shooting, that's right, he was shooting you. Know, he's he's he's
he's worked catch, that has worked catch. And there is a moment like
you see it on the episode where there's a moment where like I'm trying to
like get him, like like I'm trying to get behind him, and I
put my foot out and he kind of trips over my foot. Yeah,
yeah, and uh he almost he almost ate shit. I mean I'm yeah,
but he kind of tripped and then he just walked off like like I
love. My favorite part was that he just walked off like it didn't even
happen. And then he just left me there to just celebrate with my dad.
And this is the biggest lesson is that despite this you know, realization
of a dream, you know, despite this dream state you're in and it's
happening, all that ends up mattering, to say Jack at the end,
is that you're a wrestling fan. Right. That's right. That's the one
thing he remembers about you. That's the only thing he'll ever remember about you.
Maybe he'll remember what a goof, but that is what a goof?
That's right. That's what we've been talking about for ten years on this podcast.
Yeah. And I would not have it any and you know what,
Frankly, if he hadn't done that moment, I probably would not have become
like the meme for a day that I became. So that was so damn
funny. I was like, I was dying the fact that, like so
many people were fucking reposted, didn't you. I think I saw it on
CNN. I saw it on my cnnapp I saw I didn't even yeah,
yeah, yeah, I think I saw that, And I think I didn't
I send you something you might have m I feel like I sent you something.
It was like a headline boss, like you know, Pat say Jack
gets physical with Yeah. Yeah, yeah it was, And it was done,
you know, tongue in cheek obviously, but it was. It was
really funny. Well, there were some there were some people that were pointing
out that there were a couple of articles, like Fox News was guilty of
this where the headline was like really misleading, like it said like Pat say,
Jack loses it gets rough with right test like something that's like erroneously telling
you, like basically anything that he just freaked out on a contestant. But
I am in taking consideration too, the fact that you know what you got
him in he's got you in that hold, and you're you know, you
get your mouth like screaming because you're selling for him. And that's the still
that fucking you know they're posting on all these these news websites and shit,
yeah, yeah it's true. Um, it's actually uh my dad who was
on the show with and my dad loved it as well. He was cracking
up. And he actually reached out to Fox News themselves and he sent them
an EMO like, Hey, just so you guys know this, this this
article was reported a little irresponsibly. It was all in good fun. We
all had fun, we all loved it, um, and all he had
to say was this. All he had to say was this fake exactly exactly.
And then actually, uh uh, the woman that he was corresponding with
from Fox News's digital team actually reached out to me on Instagram and was like,
hey, I'd love to interview, and I left her unread because I'm
not talking to Fox News. Good, damn right, unbelievable, So damn
fucking right. So forty grand guy, that must feel good. Taxes withheld
or do you have to worry about that at the end of the year.
So the final total was seventy five eight hundred, so that's that's forty thousand
bonus and then thirty five eight was my main game total. Nine thousand of
that was the trip to Costa Rica. Yes, my cash net was sixty
six eight um. So when they send you the check, they take out
if you're not a California resident, they take out California tax, which is
which is about seven percent um. Everything else you get, but it's that's
seven percent. That's it. Jesus. Well you get, you get the
full amount. But Uncle Sam's going to come calling next year of course.
Oh yeah in the federal side, Yeah, exactly. Yeah, because they
they do. You have to play in your state too. Um, I
don't think so you don't plan too. I don't plan too. Yeah.
Oh you're better brother. Oh that's great man, I'm so happy for you.
That's so cool. So you're on the you're on the plane back.
Yeah, what's it like? Oh I can't what it was that even doing
I can't even remember. I think I might have. Oh uh, it's
well flight, Yeah, the first the first plane ride back wasn't so bad.
I think I flew Alaska Airlines, which is it was my first time
flying Alaska, but they were great, Like first the flight was like,
Alaska was awesome. I think I might have been going over lines in my
script for the play that I was skipping rehearsal on today. Okay, so
you're right back to work, then that's right. And as a matter of
fact, it's funny. So I missed a couple of rehearsals for this play
that I was in to go on Wheel of Fortune, and actually what the
first episode, while we're standing there next to Pat and Vana for the end
credit shot, I actually look over at Pat and I say, hey,
by the way, Because all of my cast mates, once they found out
I was going to be on Wheel, they all like half jokingly and half
seriously, said, hey, you should like slip Pat like an advertising card
for our show because he lives he lives here, like he lives in our
area, so like, you know, maybe he can come see it.
And so I mentioned to Pat. I was like, hey, by the
way, my my director would kill me if I didn't mention to you,
I'm in a play at a theater in Annapolis right downtown. And he I
mentioned the name of it. He was like, oh, yeah, I've
heard of them, and he was like, when does it run? And
I said, oh, you know such and such a date and Pat was
like, I'll see what I can do. And he never never, nope,
nope, nope. You know what. You know what? He saw
what he could do, all right, and he saw what he could do
and he chose something else. Right, you get nothing, you lose good,
right, you got enough for me already, all right, I guess
gave you. You don't have a friend for life here. I'll see it
later. Jesus Christ, he's fucking contestants. Man, the show's over.
I'm so sick of the ship an. He's a ann he's a fucking actor,
Jesus Christ. Piece of shit hockey is do they hear you the envelope
like you know Arnie Scollen and with the visor on when you leave, or
does it come in the mail like a day later mail it comes in.
I actually just got it like two or three weeks ago. Did you worry
you weren't going to get it? So they tell us, they tell us
up to one hundred and twenty days of course airs on TV. You have
up to three years after TV after an air's on TV for us to send
you the money and if it doesn't come within three years, I can't do
anything about it, right right? Yeah? U? So yeah, no,
it was no we go. So they took me off stage. There's
a little room backstage where there's a woman who like takes you through all your
paperwork and the papers you have to sign for like whatever you want, like
like certainly if you want a trip, they have to get a lot of
infro from you, and just like all this stuff. And then they actually
took me to a different room where they had me interviewed by Maggie Stay Jack
Pat's daughter for their from the social media page. She also was super nice
and she was great to talk to. She actually she asked to me in
the interview, she was like, what do you think of my dad's wrestling
skills? And I was like, he got me? What can I say?
Like I was he had me for a shoot, Like he had me
pretty good. And actually after so after the cameras rolled on that interview,
I mentioned to Maggie, I was like, yeah, you know, I
you know, I'm a fellow Saverna Parkyan or whatever. And her mom,
missus Sayjack was in the room and like the three of us just had like
a really nice chat about growing up in the area and like you know what
we did and like all this stuff. And then I was saying goodbye to
them and I said goodbye and I got up to walk out, and missus
say Jack says, I'll see you around town. I was like, oh,
yeah, cool, and then, uh, I haven't seen them around
town, that's right. But so that was really cool. And then I
went out and sat in the audition told told them Shard told them I'm about
the play I should have and I and I was thinking about that after the
fact. I was like, they should have been of all people, they
should have been the ones that I right pitched myself too, because they probably
would have been a little more recepted to it, right, and I and
I was beating myself up about that. But but also I also realized now
because it was about a month after this that they called me to invite me
on for Fan Favorites Week, and I would the explanation, the explanation for
the sage X not coming to my show. The explanation that I choose to
believe is because is because I was going to be on the show again,
and so that would be like, you know, legally, the host can't
interact with the contestants, Like, all right, while we're watching our watch
now because that's over. Yeah, were you at guys? Right? Right?
Come on? And you know what, I actually missed to perform a
much rehearsals. I missed two performed to be on wheeled a second time?
Did did you have? Did you? Did you guys have understudies prepared?
No? They had. They had a guy that they knew who just filled
in for me the part with his script in his hand because he didn't have
enough time to memorize. Dude, what a dick you are? Man fucking
Christ, Yeah, the fuck you. The director wasn't thrilled, but he
was also like I get it, Like you're this is doesn't get it a
chance to win more free money, Like like, well, that's true,
that's true. He's he's hardly in a position to say, uh, I'm
paying you more here right right he I actually it's a community theater show.
I was not getting paid. Oh yeah, good luck, dude, get
me to go. That's great. So why did you come back to favorite
week? Because was there like a voting or the producers just decide? I
think the producers just decided. Um. The two opponents they had me play
against also swept their games, and I'm just you know, I feel like
they just wanted to see that that supermatch, and it was great that they
were the two other like Ricky and Julia. They were great. They were
awesome to hang out with. That whole That was an experience in itself because
a lot of the fan favorites that came back for that week were people that
I was a fan of, people that I had seen on the show and
I had like watched their clip of their epic moment like so many times.
So the fact that I got to hang out with them and like become friends
with a lot of them was really really cool. And tell the fans,
how you fare it in that round? Not as well as the first time,
but but I did okay, So um, I solved the first toss
up uh, and then I had a pretty long drought after that. Um,
but I did get the prize puzzle and the prize. The prize was
a cruise to Tahiti, which actually, funnily enough, I think I'm going
to be taking before Yeah, so win it for me. That was It's
like a ten grand worth cruise, so I did that, and then I
got two of the three triple toss ups, and then we go to the
speed up round and Ricky spun like I said, he spun five thousand on
the wheel and then he got that was enough to give him like ten thousand
more to his total for the speed up and he was I think, like
less than a thousand dollars of catching of catching me on the final total.
I just barely beat him with enough bonus round. So that was like you
can actually see it if you watch the show, you can see it.
He solves the bonus puzzle and then I look over at the contestants scoreboard off
screen and I go, oh, league, Like I didn't curse, but
I was like, oh geez. Then it was a it was a big,
big moment. And then yeah, and then I went and did the
bonus round and I'm not I didn't get the bonus round the second time,
and I'm a little it's a little bit embarrassing because if you watch me,
I have this smile on my face because I think I know it. And
then I call the letters that I think are going to be there, and
then some of the letters that I called weren't there. So I was like,
oh, well, shit, it's not what I thought it was.
And then I and then I didn't get it um and then and then Pat
like after so he opened the envelope and I lost out on forty five grand
this time, which in them, but but it was still I was trying,
like, I was trying really hard to like keep it optimistic, and
you know, remember that it was a really cooling and it was like I
was, you know, I had a great time. And Pat even was
like, uh, I think he said something like, all right, no
fisticuffs this time, Fred, and I like put my hands up ready to
ready for this fight, and he was like no, no, no,
nope, nope, not this time, not this time. The Adventures of
a Wrestling Fan out did you did you say, hey, hey, thanks
for coming to the play By the way, I really appreciate it. Love
seeing you that day. No, Actually, what I did was when we
were standing there for the end credits, which, by the way, I
don't know why this was, but if you watch the second episode, the
end credits run for a really long time. So I was standing next to
the chatting for what felt like forever, but it was really cool. I
got to talk about a lot of things with them. Actually, I I
told Pat that I had seen him once before when I went to a show
here in Maryland that was hosted by Mark Summers, the host of Double and
Pat stopped by to like do a Q and A with Mark with the audience.
So that was really cool. I told Pat that. And this is
you know, this is where it gets kind of real, and this is
where it gets to be like why Wheel of Fortune is such a big part
of my life. Um So Pat has a hospital wing at the local hospital
here in Annapolis named for him, the Save Jack Pavilion um because like just
he just cut them a really big check. And it was about five or
six years ago. My dad had he didn't have but he didn't have the
ball so do anonymous? Huh No, No he didn't. H Yeah,
he doesn't like the public. He doesn't like the spotlight. But you better
fucking make sure that my name is is on that pavilion. Yeah. But
anyway, Yeah, my dad had to have emergency surgery because he his appendix
ruptured and ship Yeah, it was pretty I don't I mean, I don't
know how close he was to like to death, but it didn't look good
for a while. Um, so he had his surgery and you know,
everything was good, but it was a really long recovery process. And I
don't think there's surgery itself was in say jack pavilion, but I know that
his postop treatment was and he came out, you know, sooner sooner or
later. Like I said, it was a while to get there, but
he came out and he's healthy now and he's good and especially his age,
like he's in really good shape. So you know, I made sure to
tell Pat. I was like, you know, on behalf of my family,
thank you to your family, because you guys have meant a lot more
to me and my community because you know, say Jack's given a lot to
this, to this community. I so like, thank you on behalf of
us. And you also, in a very indirect way, you helped,
you know, save my dad. And Pat was like, oh, that's
very kind and and thank you for saying that. I love hearing stories like
that. And then he said something like, yeah, they don't let me
in there anymore because I keep trying to play with the surgery tools or something
like that, and then he walked away, like you did after he put
you in the chicken wing and yeah, no, no, he says that,
and then he puts on some groutio Mark's glasses and you know, nose
and mustache and just starts waddling away. Yeah. Yeah, So we ended
with he was just like, well, Fred, you were great. You
were a great guy. You're great to have on the show, and thank
you so much for being here. I shook his hand, I shook Vanna's
hand. I almost felt bad for Vannah because I wasn't I wasn't giving her
nearly as much attention as I was pat But I mean it's kind of awkward.
You don't really want to say to her, Hey, you know I
used to jerk off to you as a kid, and then awkward, which
is not the case for in my in my case, you know, for
people ud dude, you're missing out last name white. Anyway, Yeah,
so like both their hands and then uh we we walked off, and h
I think I was so I was the second episode to tape the first time.
I think this time I was like the fourth or fifth. So UM
went back and hung out with them with the other contestants, and then uh,
I think I think I flew out the same night where like my first
taping. My first taping, I celebrated by going to In and Out Burger
afterwards Good for You with with uh with Nathan, who was one of the
other contestants is now a good friend of mine. He and I went out
to an in and Out and then I stayed one more night and flew out
the next day. But the second taping, I yeah, we flew out
the same night. And Megan was with me on the second trip. And
I will never forget the flight back. It was I want to say it
was American Airlines, but it was non stop back to DC. And first
of all, it was a fully it was a completely packed flight, no
empty seats at all. That we were crammed, we were tired, there
were there were at least like two wailing babies on the plane. Oh yeah,
they kept us on the runway for like an hour for some reason.
I can't even remember. And when did you When did you flown in for
this one? When did we fly in? I think it was like was
it how how I guess how far? How how much earlier from when you
left? Like did you fly the night before or two days before? What?
I think on the second trip, I think we flew in either because
so the second time, the taping was on a Monday. It was actually,
like I said, it was the day before the first episode aired,
so so funny. Yeah, so we taped on the monday. I think
we flew in like Friday night or Saturday morning or something like that. And
we spent a couple of days and we got to see more of La second
time. First time okay, Like we walked up and down Hollywood Boulevard.
We we oh we this might be a company you've heard of JP. We
went and saw an improv show at Citizens Light Brigade. I know, the
upright Citizens again? Is that fuck? Brother? They do get that wrong?
Yeah, I actually I'm not sure if he's still there or not.
But uh one of my fraternity brothers used to be the artistic director. Uh
there, but I think he left that show, but he might still perform
there. Um Drew Defonso Marx. I don't know if he was on the
show. I don't. I didn't really, I didn't. I didn't put
names on faces. But it was. But it was a really good show
and I really enjoyed and UCB is great. UCB is great, had a
lot of fun and actually that show kind of inspired me to take my because
I I haven't really done a lot of improv yeah, in my career,
but now I'm taking a little bit more seriously because I just I saw that
and I saw the space and just it just it was so much fun that
I was like, I kind of feel like I want to put a little
bit more of my artistic energy into this kind of work. So now,
so that's kind of that's a little bit of what I'm doing now. So
you're on the plane and you'll never forget. Oh yeah, I'm on the
plane and I'll never forget. It was just the way and I have really
bad restless like syndrome, so like my legs were like freaking out and I
couldn't move. I couldn't do anything about it. Like I couldn't get up
to go to the bathroom because we were about to take off and I couldn't
stretch my legs. I couldn't do anything. I tried to take a melotonin
to like knock myself out, and it didn't work. I couldn't put the
seat back because there were people behind me. Like it was just the most
agonizing flight I think I've ever been on in my life. And then and
then once we finally did get in the air, it was still six hours.
And then actually think in mind, keep in mind, this is what
you deserve. You want these kinds of things you earn suffering. Yes,
correct, what happened for for my art and my money? Yeah? Um,
we got back at like seven am. I very decidedly did not go
to work that day and then just went home and slept. And it's funny.
We got off the plane, we dropped off our car, we got
home, we slept, and then after a few hours I got up and
went to the local bar here in a Silver Spring here in Maryland, where
I host trivia, and they were very they were very kind to host a
watch party for me for my first episode. Yeah, I went to that,
had a bunch of friends, had a bunch of the Renaissance Rumble crew
there and nice yeah. Yeah, so that was yeah, and they were
they were all really excited. And then and then I went into work the
next day and all of my students came up to me in the hall like,
mister Fletcher, you're rich, mister Fletch. And at least at least
five or six times a day for the rest of the school year. One
somebody would come up to me be like, mister Fletcher, can I get
some of that money? Yeah, yeah, right, you're damn right.
Yeah, I love it. Well, that's great, man, thanks for
flying the TLF flag at Wheel of Fortune. You did us proud, you
did your family proud, your community proud. And uh yeah, it's it's
it's great to see a Solar System member get out there and close a close
a loop, a childhood loop, because that's what we're all after. That's
the dragon we're all chasing. Yes, yeah, and I and and thank
you so much for having me on here to talk about it. I encourage
anyone in the Solar System or beyond, like try and get yourself on a
game show like you have. You have nothing to lose, you have everything
to gain. Uh. Wheel is great if you're trivia inclined, Jeopardy is
great. I really want to be on Prices right like you know that.
It's it's just they that's a crazy one, man. I've I've been to
a taping of that. Yeah, that's just a wild thing because there's so
much up in the air, right and actually my girlfriend kind of doesn't want
me to do prices right, because uh, it's a lot. I mean,
where we live, it's a big effort to get out to LA with
you know, of course, yeah, and and with Prices right, where
Whereas if you're a contestant on Wheel, you're guaranteed to be on the show,
Whereas on Prices Right, if you get a ticket and go sit in
the audience, on Prices right, there's no guarantee that you're going to be
called up on stage. So she's just she's like, I don't want you
to fly all the way out there just to be in the audience. And
I'm kind of like, I hear you, but also I still want to
do it. I don't get a big Yeah, you guess what you have
now? Yeah, the sickness. That's the sickness. And I am and
I am down with the sickness. Yeah you get do you get two sicknesses?
Because you're you're not now now you're now now you're a fucking uh game
show junkie and and you're a wrestler. Fred, let let the diminishing returns
begin. Yeah, and I have to so speaking of putting the two worlds
together, I because he used it on me on the show. I have
now put the chicken wing in the Purple Parrots repertoire amazing. But of course
I'm now I'm I'm toying between a few different names. I started with parrot
wing, but I think I've settled on Wing of Fortune. That's that's that's
great. I like that one. That's really funny. And I gotta tell
you so, I was in touch with you know when you know. I
DVR the show, and the day after it I watched it. I did
get a I did get a call from from Boss Adkisson and he was not
happy. I just want to say he was not happy, and and he
actually, I'm listen, this is this is this is what he said.
This is not me saying this. He basically said, he's gonna he's gonna
put the iron claw on your head until you give him all the money.
It sounds like friends to me. Apple doesn't far too fall, I get
too far. I guess yeah, I mean you know what what I can
I'll tell you what and I'll make Boss a deal. I just bought a
really nifty um uh. I have a I have a friend who's another wheel
of lum who makes replica bonus round envelopes. So it's like it's called a
legit thing, but it looks really cool, pretty authentic. I got an
envelope that says forty thousand on it because that's what I want. Um.
I'll make a deal with him if you want, I can give him that,
um and just he can just pretend that he's a winner like I am.
And uh, you know, I I think I think I think that's
the best of both worlds um. And by the way, that the price
for that, if he's willing to to to part with forty thousand dollars,
then then you know we can I think we can call that a fair deal.
So, boss, if you're out there, I hear you. I
want to work with you. Hill money, win money, the purse,
it's all. Uh, it's all happening in a very real way and very
real. The envelope or better, I'll right to buy him, tell him
to match the donation that I have given to to TLF and and then we'll
talk. Yeah, I'm you know, if I know him. You know,
I don't know him too well, but from what I do know of
him, he's not much of a giver, except when it comes to punishment.
A lot remains to be seen, a lot remains to be resolved,
but Fred, we wish you the best going forward. Thanks for joining us
and sharing a really cool experience with the solar system. Yeah, thank you
guys. This was awesome. Love you guys, Thank you so much.
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