Speaker 1: Mister fake entertainment too. Rights, I'm so glad you guys
brought up disability. Guys like Sid holland Nash specifically has
always been given off a vibe of seeking the relief
of not working. They are of a certain vintage that
were sons and grandsons of the generation that returned from
the war and worked someplace for thirty years. Guys with
crooked fingers, busted backs, who walked into the retirement sunset
with a gold watch and a handshake, then dying three
years later in the recliner on a golf course, forced
to sit at home, receiving a check in early retirement
with nothing but time. Feels like such a dream scenario
for these blue collar bounce around guys of the eighties
and nineties. I had not thought of that as not
wanting to work in exchange for money, as not a
wrestler carningy thing, but just a product of the eighties
and nineties who saw your parents and grandparents have no
fruitful retirement years.
Speaker 2: Interesting, and it gets.
Speaker 1: In your head and you try to have retirement years
while you're actively working, essentially, which some of these guys
were able to pull off. Very interesting. Philip wants no
question for Jack. In those periods when Sid was wrestling
away from WWE, did Bo Justice become bow Vicious? No,
he did not. He was absolutely always Bo Justice. But
because I had the Sid Vicious galub and he was
a totally separate wrestler, he had nothing to do with
the other Sids, and that was Sid Vicious. So there's
your answer. Chris has an interesting theory, he says on
the Sid Tribute show, you mentioned how by the time
the Jacks figures came out, Diesel and Razor were long
gone from the company. I don't know if you were
aware of this, but remember in Spider Man the animated series,
how hob Goblin was featured before Green Goblin and was
so prominent despite not really being a huge deal in
the comics. Apparently toy Biz mistakenly made way more Hobgoblin
figures than anyone else, so they decided to feature Hobgoblin
more prominently than they normally would have so kids would
buy the toy So it made me remember that. Actually,
I remember Hobgoblin being way pushed to the forefront of
that show in a way that didn't make any sense.
So it made me think maybe this is why they
introduced the fake diesel and racer. Maybe Jacks was pissed
to find out their big new action figureline feature two
guys in the first way.
Speaker 2: Oh wow, who.
Speaker 1: Weren't even on their show anymore. Some toy exact probably
didn't watch wrestling and didn't understand why you couldn't switch
them out like other actors. I'm not saying this is true,
but it's something to think about.
Speaker 2: So, yeah, I just don't think they'd have would they
have that kind of pull over the company, they being
the toy manufacturer, the toy manufacturers, I mean, the company
was that they were just brand new that they came
out in ninety six, the Jacks Ones, So would they
have had It's not like they'd been like long, you know,
like long time associates.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: See, I would almost put the pressure the other way.
I would think WWF would be worried about looking stupid
to them. Then Jack's coming to them and complaining per
se and getting anything changed. I would think it would
be more likely that WWF would try to get cute
and like try to avoid a discussion about having toys
on the shelf of guys who didn't work there. Anymore
just by coming up with fire.
Speaker 2: I mean, but I would also say, you know, we're
making money off these guys, so yeah, who can you know?
Speaker 4: That?
Speaker 2: To me is always the Vince rationale exactly.
Speaker 1: And I think, and I think what Chris is getting
at is maybe Jacks would actually accept, knowing nothing about wrestling,
that it's actually perfectly acceptable to just call somebody else
Razor and Diesel. Yeah, the fans wouldn't care about the
person under the costume. It's really interesting. He also says, ps,
the CID Hasbro has the same body slam as the
first Hogan Hasbro, but it's labeled power bomb on the package.
It is possible to make him do an okay power bomb,
but it's obviously meant to be a body slam. Yeah,
that's interesting, the same move, but you just give it
a different name.
Speaker 2: Gorg Yeah, I know, I mean that was like one
not before I wanted more common moves. The the press
slam certainly was that a lot of those guys had.
Speaker 1: Gordon was also inspired to write on the Bow Justice Front.
He writes, as a kid, my friend Dan had two
l J and Piper figures, and his fig fed the
main figure was naturally rowdy roddy Piper, but the other
was his twin brother, a jobber, ripping ritty by er.
Speaker 2: There we go.
Speaker 1: He also had two Awa Rick Flairs. Wow, one was fine,
but the other one had a face that was accidentally
burnt on a radiator. He was dubbed. Yeah, you had
to say it, I have to say it retarded Ron Flair.
Oh my god, Rick sometimes ron Flair would have been
funny enough. But yeah, Rick sometimes manager and an occasional jobber.
We still joke about this thirty five years later.
Speaker 2: That's great, that's amazing, good stuff, Ron Flair, Rick and
Ron Flair.
Speaker 1: Something like he's still when he's workshopping names and asking
Dusty for permission when.
Speaker 2: He's first breaking in right right.
Speaker 1: Steve wants you to know, Boss, that Pierce being Bond
was a massive deal in Ireland. All I bet, I
bet it was. The country, he writes, was in the
middle of a massive boom. So in Irish Bond was
the icing on the cake. Until I left school in
twenty eleven, our Irish language textbooks would have a celebrity
profile on a famous Irish person, and it was almost
always peer and for Boss and I'm gonna mispronounce it
drug hada d r o g h g d a
is pronounced Oh, he does it for me, okay, because
he's doing it to connect pronunciation, it's pronounced draw hada.
I guess that's something he read during the course of
the episode.
Speaker 2: Oh made it. Probably I read. I did read a
bunch kick because when when we talked about Pierce and
we did his kind of early years in bio, we
I did talk about his Uh. Yeah, probably there are
probably a bunch of Irish names that I had no
idea what the fuck they were, right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's that kind of thing's gonna happen. William writes,
I imagine Sid dispensing Vienna's with his softball bat, much
like a little league coach during practice. Oh my god,
big boys sausage on the two hot. I want to
see you dig.
Speaker 2: Oh I I I believe that I could see that.
Speaker 1: And he also brings the uh the Arkansas Intel. Vienna
sausages come forty eight cans to a case. It's usually
two layers of twenty four cans, separated by a thin
layer of cardboard and sealed and plastic. I would say
that it measures about ten by twenty one hundred and
fifty thousand cans makes four three twenty five cases. I
would say it would probably be around ten six foot
tall palletts. Can you imagine Sid's garage? Oh god, it
hits the automatic door button from his head when he
comes home again, you know, expecting to be able to
use the garage. Oh and Frank has not donning his part.
He hits the automatic door button from his house, so
the door opens as he's walking out to the garage,
and it's all just a wall of sausage.
Speaker 2: Yep.
Speaker 1: And there's always a few dented cans that leak the
gelatinous liquid. The smell that comes out of the garage
and a hot Arkansas summer day is enough to kill
one of Bischoff's prized elk. God damn Frank. Else it
says softball is huge in Arkansas, with no pro sports
teams except for the minor league baseball team, so college
sports are huge, and the men's baseball team and women's
softball team are highly revered. For what it's worth to
probably work rice fields is that's one of the few
crops that grows well. Very interesting. A lot of Arkansas
and town from William, which we appreciate. But yeah, apparently softball,
you know, it doesn't hit the same way in Arkansas
as it does to some other places that are like
he played softball? Like, what the fuck is that? Apparently
it was a respected thing.
Speaker 2: I'm sure, I'm sure I would imagine that it wasn't.
But it must have been something bigger than we all
would think.
Speaker 1: Right on our Buried a live episode, Blake has this
to say about who I can only assume is Jerry Lawler.
I bet Jerry just jerked off into his underwear and
goes to sleep. He then he pisses on the wall
at three am because half his dick hole is covered
in dried comh.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he totally yeah, because remember so he goes to
bed naked, so it's like all over the fucking bedspreads.
Speaker 1: It's his time of year, bossy. Oh, I think he
had another fruitful Christmas season.
Speaker 2: An I'm I am sure that he was thrilled. I'm
sure he and I'm sure he did nothing but enjoy
waking up Christmas morning to all the Santa Claus gifts
that he gave himself, like going through his stocking as
if he doesn't know what he's getting.
Speaker 1: The sound of like him pushing something around inside his
stocking to get to the something lower.
Speaker 2: Yep, yep, all by himself. He gave himself these gifts.
Speaker 1: He's taking selfies in the Ralphie pink bunny costume.
Speaker 2: Yep, yep. And then then all of a sudden, then
cut to the sound of like sizzling eggs and bacon
making himself a nice Christmas morning breakfast. Nothing wrong with
us at all, this is this is incredibly acceptable. Uh
not uh psychopathic behavior.
Speaker 1: Oh, we're gonna miss him when he's gone. I know
the jammies he wears. Oh, just like the softness touching his.
Speaker 2: The weird like innocent attempts at overhead selfies'.
Speaker 1: Jared Lawler has a weird innocence. That's awesome, that's true.
Speaker 2: And that's what he does. Like he does these like weird,
little fucking innocent selfies. Like such a problem.
Speaker 1: You're in your you live next to him. You don't
know him that well, but your kitchen window, your kitchen
window look up looks into his backyard and you're like
washing a dish and Christmas morning and you look up
and he's standing in his yard in the Ralfie suit
just looking at you, not moving.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, he's looking like right at your face, like.
Speaker 1: Contact expressionless face expression, you know.
Speaker 2: And you're like okay, you know. And you go down
and you start unloading some dishes from the dishwasher. You
come back up at the window and he's ten feet closer.
Run that one through rock. Oh my god, that's funny,
like absolutely impossible for him to make that distance in
that amount of time.
Speaker 1: Oh, I just got silly. It's good light. Here we go.
So you look up. He's ten feet closer. You duck down.
You look up. He's ten feet closer. You duck down.
You look up, he's ten feet closer. He's like almost
up to the window. Now you duck down. You look up.
He's nowhere to be found. You look up. He's on
your roof.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you're duck down. You look up.
Speaker 1: He's halfway across the roof. You keep going. He keeps
going until he's like totally out of sight down the horizon,
and you look up.
Speaker 2: He's in the air. He's just like the air.
Speaker 5: He's floating, just floating. He's not that's the twist. He's
not coming to get you at all. He's looking past you.
You know, he's just like a wind up doll.
Speaker 1: Oh God, goddamn funny at Lawler.
Speaker 2: Such a creep hockey night.
Speaker 1: CTE rights. I hope we get a lot of lap Sid.
We did. He's one of my favorites. Sid always reminds
me of Daffy in the old duck Ammic cartoon. He
recognizes that the business he's in is fake nonsense, but
isn't quite self aware enough to pick up that he's
as fake as the rest of it. Yep, be very
true of Sid. Let's see, Adam writes to us. Scenario
Sid stands at the pearly gates and the great hereafter
all he has to do to enter paradise is to
cut a live promo without fucking up. Now, armed with
more than half a brain and vivid images of playing
softball racing through his mind, Boss, can he do it?
What say you?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 1: You can do it?
Speaker 2: Yes now?
Speaker 1: Clarkson writes, I would imagine that most of the Solar
system says, in one way or another, brother to themselves
as a way to add to the fun of listening
to any of the shows. However, this podcasting entertainment vehicle
is so far up my ass that when I dropped
something in the kitchen a couple of days ago, I
said brother out loud to myself, as one might use
damn or shit. I was not listening to the show
at the time, nor was I thinking about it or
anything involving wrestling. It was thinking, for me, we have
reached full integration. Brother. Yes, Oh I can attest to that.
I say brother all day. Yeah, when anything even mildly
unexpected happens, I say it.
Speaker 2: So I've started doing it too.
Speaker 1: I say it like I'm listening to MPR, Like someone
says something on the radio and I'm like, brother, I
just I just want to it's boring, So I just
want to make it seem like what the person and
just said is somehow objectionable or suspicious.
Speaker 2: I forget I did it, you know, I did it
in the presence of people recently. Oh yeah, oh yeah, man,
like it was just a I forget what happened. There
was someone's like a brother, and it's like, you know,
I'm like, oh wait, this person doesn't don't know what
I'm You don't know what I'm talking, no idea why
I just made that noise. You don't know why I
would say that word at that time for any reason
at all.
Speaker 1: Two of us. Oh God, Ken has a good one,
he says, Uh co chairs, Sid stinks, never was a draw.
This tribute should be great. But if anyone had to
work with someone like Sid, he'd be the co worker
you hate the most.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that one loves him apparently, but I imagine he's
he was not easy to be around.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's he's he's he's kind of a pain in
the ass, the salt of the earth. He knows how
to ye, he knows how to keep people in his
good graces, but the second you get in the way
of his convenience, you're fucked. Like he doesn't care about
you anymore. But you can be useful to him. You know.
That's different than right, him being a nice guy.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: This is from Meyer Mania the Homie Sean Let's hit
It Boss.
Speaker 2: In early nineteen ninety nine, between his stintson WW ANDWCW,
I had the privilege of seeing Sid in Quincy, Illinois.
Harley Race had just started World League Wrestling the WLW,
a nice little indie outfit in the Midwest that still
exists around Saint Louis. To hype his TV taping at
the Quincy High Gym. He booked the Master and Ruler
of the World. This was my first pro wrestling show.
I was in seventh grade from a town of roughly
one hundred people and going to Quincy, population forty thousand
was the big city to a kid like me. My
dad was one of the few lapsed dads that knew
it used to be better, but still watched the product
and didn't shame me for doing the same. That night,
Sid drew probably a few hundred to the gym, not
a big crowd, but a decent amount for a town.
Matt Size Gordon solely worked for WLW in one of
his last ventures in the business before he passed, so
I got to see him Man Harley, though admittedly I
had no idea I was in the presence of Bumpman
and the pimp king of the cad at the time. Also,
Trevor Murdoch was on the card, who was and probably
still is the highest profile wrestler to be developed out
of Hardley's territory. Sid squashed whoever. He was such a
giant beast compared to the others on the card, But
the absolute highlight was before he finished off the jobber.
He gave that snappy Sid look to the crowd. Our
eyes met. I yelled power bomb as loud as I could.
Sid's eyes grew wide, and he asked power bomb yes,
to which I nodded and pumped my fists as this
poor bastard jobber took probably the biggest ride of his career.
I'll never forget it, and to this day, my dad
will still bring it up from time to time. I've
been to several w W and AW shows since, from
Wrestlmingia twenty two to All Out, but I'll always remember
my dad taking me and my sister out to eat
at Steak and Shake, going to buy WW the Music
Volume three at Walmart, and heading over to Quinsey High
for my first live journey into the sport of king. Yes,
all the best from one of year ogs.
Speaker 1: Who is it?
Speaker 2: Oh, Sean? Oh?
Speaker 1: I thought you cut out for a second. Oh no, Well,
there's absolutely great stuff, Anthony writes to your co chairs.
I liked at the time to memorialize it of that
fucking cast to help do that. Sid isn't a guy
that comes to mind when you think about your wrestling
with Aunt Rushmore or even your top twenty favorite wrestlers
of all time. But he had something very rare, and
that's believability. His intensity was attention grabbing and an intangible
that helps you suspend your disbelief while watching wrestling, And
for that in his star power, I consider him underrated nowadays.
I quickly familiarized myself with them in nineteen ninety two
when I started watching wrestling weekly. Kind Of hard to
believe nowadays, but back then I only knew of him
thanks to VHS rentals at blockbustered my local mom and
pop video stores. I can think of three major pay
per views I would run over and over again, WWF
SummerSlam nineteen ninety one, Hey now our first episode, Royal
ronint ninety two, and wrestle Mania eight. Absolutely, that's a
holy trinity right there. Three shows that sid played a
huge role in his heel on Hogan. He'll turn on
Hogan was excellent, Perhaps the final feud of a babyface
Hogan that mattered his barbershop interview hyping WrestleMania eight was legendary.
Who else could bought a chair shot, get baby powder
all over their face, take that and look like a
psycho killer and have it improved the segment. Only Sid
could do that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1: My favorite memory of Sid and when I always treasure,
was attending the nineteen ninety six Survivor series as an
eight year old. Wow, I'd imagine my excitement as my
parents told me the day of the show that we
were going to go. I still remember that train ride
to Madith the Square Garden, checking all the wrestling magazines
of the new stand in Time Square, seeing people were
encroasting makeup in the garden, which made me feel uneasy
as I was a huge WWF fan. The garden wasn't
sold out, but it was. That's wild because that was
you know, that was still a fresh thing, just like
a month old at that point. Yeah, that's a good point.
The garden wasn't sold out, but it was rocking. As
young as I was, I went with the momentum of
the crowd that night. I didn't boo brat Hart, but
I did cheer Steve Austin too. I was swayed in
a cheering Sid to win the title that night as
he defeated my then favorite Seawn Michaels in the main event.
Can you imagine that showed up to an eight year
old and deciding to boo Shawn Michaels even though you
love the guy.
Speaker 2: Because that's yep. I mean, hey, you know what, I'll
tell you what. I had a similar experience the opposite
way the year prior when I went to that Worcester
in High Gear Tour show and I go there expecting
the bou Shawn Michaels, and everyone's cheering for him, and
I'm like, well, I guess I better cheer for Shawn Michaels.
Speaker 1: It was an electric night and something I never experienced before.
I never saw the top face get turned on in
my fandom. SidD the power to do that here in
New York, first against hulccan at ninety two Rumble and
again against Don Michael's. I will choose to remember the nights,
the highs rather of Sid's career and how fun it
was to be a fen during his ninety one ninety
two run and the fall of ninety six, where the
seeds of the Attitude era were planted. As always, thanks
for the cast, guys, I've been a loyal listener for
years and years now. I look forward to the lapse
treatment in a RAAR review of a raw during a
great time period. I will finish up my email bass
and the coachairs. What is your favorite Sid figures? Glube
Hasbro or Jacks? Oh my god, it's not even close,
Globe even close.
Speaker 2: Yeah, just just for the fact that he's he's got
those those giant fists, you know, and he can do
the he can do the club into the back.
Speaker 1: Yeah, perfect, yep, And it just it just it's the
only figure that actually looks like Sid, right, it resembles him.
The hair works in the back, the musculature is right,
he's a little taller than the other figures. It's great.
And he's got the sing lead on which was to
cover the stab, the the the surgery scar from the
broken ribs. As we found out, Blake, the Master, who
would ever say the Jacks Sid is their favorite? Why
even't put that on there? Honestly, that thing was a nightmare.
Speaker 2: I mean it looked so weird.
Speaker 1: Toy sucked.
Speaker 2: I mean his face was horrible, horrible. His eyes were
just like white dots. Yeah, and they were like wide eyed, like.
It looked very weird.
Speaker 1: Blake writes, the Master and Ruler, it feels like a
darker place without Sid. I know he didn't give a fuck,
and that's why we love him. We admire his business
view of this Carney circus that has ruined our one
chance on this rock we call earth. I think that's
the intangible that he had that people couldn't put their
finger on. Everyone wants to not give a fuck, and
no one knows how except Sid. The man left a
big money to play softball in Arkansas. Man, there's no
more giving not a fuck than calling Arkansas home, which
leads me to my personal Sid anecdote. And like everything
in this lapsed life, it's bullshit, but it's real bullshit.
For all my life, I've had a family in Memphis,
brother Lawla Coca Cola Middle Schools hoof anyway to get
to Memphis from the West, one must first drive through
West Memphis, Arkansaw, which anyone worth their salt knows this
is where the Master and the rule of the world
hails from. So every year, for probably thirty years, when
I would drive down there, I would have my head
on a swivel in West Memphis looking for large Cadillacs
or town cars driven by a curly headed monster. It
never happened, and I guess it never will now. I
do have faith. One day, though, something will happen on
that drive, and when it does, I'll say, can we
do that again? Then my wife will look at me
with a dead eye and crooked mouth and drool while
she says we're live, pal which I'll say, it's fine,
yest in Peace, Power and pussy Master, lapsed locker room
lad Brother, Blake, Josh Geert, thank you very much for
bumping up that pledge. We love it. Zack has a
very provocative question. It's just one line, boss, Imagine working
at a shooting range?
Speaker 2: Is that it? Yep? Imagine working in a shooting range.
I mean Bend was shooting range before?
Speaker 1: About it?
Speaker 2: Okay, working work?
Speaker 1: Get your ask. Yeah, you can't go out there having
fake fights at the shooting range. Okay. I think that's
where Tony van Silva was a shooting range and I
think so too. Okay. A tool Belt for Daddy has
an interesting take on our premium live event live calls
on Patreon. He says, the tag the co chairman used
is we watch you don't have to, But the truth
is I watch so I can also listen to the
live call.
Speaker 2: There we go.
Speaker 1: The reason people watch modern WWE how weird is that?
That's I'm sorry, Roshan Patel, thank you very much for
your pledge. Welcome into the inner circle. Triple Biz writes.
Vince sleeps in one of those water tanks from Empire
strikes back.
Speaker 2: Oh yes, yes he does.
Speaker 1: He does.
Speaker 2: With a fucking you know, with a mouthpiece, you know,
like a face mask. There, Yes, he's and then when
he's uh yeah, when he wakes up, he floats up
to the top.
Speaker 1: Twenty twenty four was a year of pulling random shows
for the entirety of our you know, actual formal show
coverage on the main field, and that men ECW and
that men Living Dangerously and that meant that Roberta decided
that it's time to write this email about a night
that Roberta spent in the midst in two thousand.
Speaker 2: Greeting as coach chairman, just writing in to share some
bleak memories that your ECW Living Dangerously episode dislodged about
one of the longest, dumbest nights of my life. This
period was the peak of my contrarianism infected wrestling fandom.
I was laid to the dirt sheets wrestling Internet, but
when I discovered it I became one of those kinds
of fans. Everyone listening knows what I mean. So I
got into ECW way more, which led me to July
twenty first, two thousand, when I attended my one and
only ECW event, when myself and four other teenage losers
packed into a tiny car and drove two hours to
the mediocre city of Decatur, Illinois for a house show
attended by eight hundred other lost souls. We had no
idea this was a dying promotion at the time, but
I invite you to take in this card. Bill Wiles
defeated Julio Fantastico means nothing to me. FBI defeated Christian
York and Joey Matthews means nothing to me. Willie Frasier
defeated Red Dog means nothing. Yes, Chris Chetty and Nova
defeated Easy Money and Chris Hammrick. I remember, I know
the names Chris Chetty and Nova. S W. Champ Just
Incredible defeated Kid Cash. I know, I think I know
Kid Cash. I know Just Incredible. Tommy Drina Dreamer, Danny
Doring and Amish Roadkill defeated Simon Diamond, Just Johnny Swinger
and c w Anderson, Sandman Into Jerry defeated Scottie Anton
and Rhino Rob Van Dam defeated Steve Corino. Some highlights.
Seeing RVD that close that closely was still was, and
still remains one of my all time live wrestling highlights.
And now the in retrospect low lights. Yes, teenage me
was way too excited to see France scene then managing
just incredible in person. The crowd loved Sandman's entrance. One
of the dirt bags in my group sprinted over to
where Sandman came out into the crowd to get some
cheap beer poured on his face. As a proud daygo,
I bought an f the eyeshirt we chanted absolutely appealing,
appalling things rather all night that I'd rather not repeat.
And here's where it really goes off the rails. The
wrestlers were signing autographs and hanging out after the show
at their hotel. For some reason, I have a red
roof Inn burned in my head. RVD smartly was nowhere
to be seen. Many of the wrestlers there were already
absolutely Shitthouse, especially Sandman. I didn't drink and was pretty sheltered,
so this site was pretty eye opening and sad to me.
I got autographs all over the sleeve of my ECW
Extreme music album. One friend stole a folding chair to
get autographed. No wrestlers wanted to talk. They looked miss.
Speaker 1: Awesome.
Speaker 2: A man with a mustache, glasses, jean shorts, and black
graphic shirt danced alone on a dance floor to DMX's
party up. I can't shake this one. This is where
I really started to rethink my fandom. The oldest member
of our group was fixated on getting a picture with
Justin Credible. He kept blowing us off but telling us
to stick around, so we had to stick around. I
called my mom more than once to let her know
my arrival. ETA was getting later and later, tired and
annoyed at my friends. My ECW fandom was dying by
the minute. At two am, Just Incredible by then so
drunk and high he was on another planet, agreed to
take a picture our group of five. Justin Francine, Sally Graziano,
Huge in person, and a few ring rats walked down
this hotel hallway and into a parking lot, where he
took a pick with us. I wish I had a
copy to share, but I remember him basically hanging off
of us.
Speaker 1: No.
Speaker 2: About ten minutes from home at four am, We've got
pulled over. We were definitely out way past local curfew laws.
We show the police our autographs to back up our story.
I wish I knew what was going through their heads. Mercifully,
my mom was too relieved I wasn't dead to be
mad at me when I walked in. About seven hours later,
two guys in the group came over to ask if
I wanted to go with them to Peoria for that
night's ECWTV taping. My mom laughed in their faces and
told them to take yes. While she wouldn't have allowed it,
I didn't want to go anyway, so she saved me
from having to say no. This night pretty much murdered
my interest in ECW. Boss, I want you to feel
vindicated about your feelings towards this promotion.
Speaker 1: That that's as east W as memories of guests right there, man, yep,
and a huge miss huge, a missed opportunity. Uh you
know when the Misfits and Action were created in w
CW by Vince Russo, famously, Hugh Morris was renamed Hugh
g Erection. Remember that, Yes, I would suggest in the email,
or maybe think of it. Hugh Gin person might be.
Speaker 2: I mean good for for Gracian Yeah.
Speaker 1: H h g h middle named g I N last
name person. Yeah, yeah it works. That does sound like
such a great atmosphere of Boston. Are you so mad
you missed all those ECW shows?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm so. I imagine that the arena smelled like
piss and shit, uh and and peppers and onions. Sure,
so I'm good. I'm good never having experienced that, never
wanting to, never desiring it, never needing it.
Speaker 1: Well, A tool belt for Daddy has Living Dangerously memories
as well. Greetings co chairs.
Speaker 2: Listening to.
Speaker 1: Listening to the Living Dangerously two thousand rundown reminded me
of the first ECW event that came through the Saint
Louis area, which I attended April sixteen of that year,
a mere week after Awesome debuted Mike Austin and WCW
in two days after dropping the belt to Taz. While
labeled as Russell Palooza two thousand, it was essentially just
a TV taping and if memory serves, was more of
an Angle Palooza. But I digress Taz was not on
the show.
Speaker 2: The Angle Pull.
Speaker 1: Day prior was a fan fest that we attended.
Speaker 2: Sounds like a Curt Angle special.
Speaker 1: I kind of like that, like just to a show
that's only angles. Yeah, Angle Pollute.
Speaker 2: It's called a Vince Russo book.
Speaker 1: I know exactly, I've seen it before. The day prior
there was a fan fast that we attended. We bought
posters that we got autographed by a dozen or so
of the guys in true CW fashion. The poster was
left over from an April seventh event in Warren, Ohio,
and still featured Mike Awesome as schedule to appear. On
my poster, Sally crossed out Mike Ausam's name, prompting Mikey
to change the phrasing to read Mikey is Awesome. Sal
also wrote dl z nick with an arrow to Mike's
name on my Buddies poster, the word which I now
understand to simply be Dick and Carney. Oh I see
dizz brother Dyl's nick became at the time a mystery
that had to be unraveled. Sale told us to ask
Joey what it meant. Joey played dumb, as did Fran
scene so as the twenty year old idiots we were.
We wrote DL's nick on eight pieces of poster board
and took it to the show the next night, chanting it.
When the FBI came out, Sal saw us, shook his
head and laughed. Fast forward a month and much of
the same group are attending hardcore Heaven and Milwaukee, another
show I can't wait to come out of the hopper
thanks to more Rhino and Lori Fullington Shenanigans. I believe
the FBI were in the opening match, which normally gets
our Dil's nick chant on the pay per view audio
along with Sal's these fucking guys again reaction to it,
but it also features a brief power outage thanks to
the Wien concert taking place in the same building at
the same time. All told, we probably attended a half
dozen shows over the year two thousand and then. While
the shows weren't necessarily great, the memories are. And I'll
always have a soft spot for Sal's fat ass, and
he attaches a picture of.
Speaker 2: He's also got soft spots in his fat ass as well.
Speaker 1: Yes, man, Yeah, that was it. That was an era, man,
That was the time to be an ECW fan, That's
for sure. That's a unique one, so thanks very much
for those. That's of course, part of our Living Dangerously
two thousand coverage, which is Mike Awesome leaving the company
and the details on his contract coming to WCW and
all that and his last pay per view appearance as
a ECW champion. Teddy says Jack calling the match while
the Boss falls asleep is still infinitely more entertaining than
any other wrestling podcasts, So uh, lick her up in
the new year, Boss, that's the suggestion, and says I'll
bet Hogan still wakes up in a cold sweat, knowing
he never got his win back against Yokozuna before he died.
Surely he tries to go back to sleep by convincing
himself it's okay because he won their first match, but
surely up all night and probably wakes Fish Off up
in Wyoming to yell at him for never signing a
nine hundred pound yokes at the very end. Yeah, BJ Lalande,
thank you for opping that pledge. We appreciate it very much.
Speaker 4: The laps Fan wrestling podcast, the wrestling podcast that knows
the boys need their candy. It's the Lapsed Fan.
Speaker 6: Just because we posted a new episode of the Lapsed
Fan doesn't mean we are done with the campaign to
take what is rightfully ours. If you haven't yet, vote
for the Lapsed Fan to win the award for Wrestling
Podcast of the Year, click on this show's notes, follow
the link and do the right thing.
Speaker 4: He's a Lapsed Fan wrestling podcast with Jack n Seo
m JP.
Speaker 1: Sorrow Blake wants us to know that Jr's heel persona
was amazing. We talked about it and Unburied Alive nineteen
ninety six. He doesn't think it was good because he
doesn't understand who he really is.
Speaker 2: Oh shit, yes, that's exactly.
Speaker 1: Joe writes, happy follow the JP. This is obviously we're
going back a bit since officially past Labor Day. I've
been going back and forth on what to write you
guys for about a month. Still can't decide because there
is just too much. Long story short. I came upon
the podcast in the most lapsed way. I just downloaded
all your old episodes from the way back machine and
loaded up a new MP three player. I immediately joined Patreon,
because pay for what you support. That's the key. Joe,
let's fucking go. Let's like the way longer email to come.
Speaker 2: And you will be rewarded.
Speaker 1: And that's the thing. It's all you get nothing out
of it. Have wrestling gifts. Longtime supporter. Great to see
Pa again. Thanks for the support, man, Frank from Askogie.
We appreciate the cake. We appreciate all that you do,
Ryan writes. During this Jack and JP joked about having
Summer Slam in February, which sounds absurd.
Speaker 2: But I'm surprised they don't.
Speaker 1: Honest man, he points out, if it would occurs somewhere
in the southern Hemisphere, like Australia, then it could accurately
be called Summer Slam because.
Speaker 2: They could be Yeah, you know, you could have Summer Slam,
you know, anywhere, honestly, Yeah, anywhere below the equator. Summer
Slam could happen in the winter, and should happen in
the winter, that right, you think? So, yeah, our winter, Yeah,
would have to. I tell you it's what it's actually
a dream of mine. I want to go down to.
Speaker 3: That.
Speaker 2: There's a there's a city at the southernmost tip of
South America called Ushuaia, and they have a massive winter
Solstice party, like an event celebration, but it's their winter Solstice,
so it's June. Wow, so I want to go in June.
Like I was like, you know, I've I've experienced winter
where it's warm, but I've never experienced my summer when
it's cold, and I want to do that.
Speaker 1: I've never even heard of that. That's crazy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I had I did a thing for uh when
my kid was in like kindergarten. They had us put
on a you know, they had us put on a
show for them, Like they said, can you you know,
they want us to arrange a holiday like a non
denominational holiday party, a holiday show with the kids and stuff.
And I was like, all right, well when we go
hard on this and like pick a bunch of different
like random right, you know, winter celebrations. And then I
found I like, well, wait a minute, you know, not
everybody celebrates winter when we do. There's a whole half
of the world that we kind of ignore, you know,
that we don't ever really consider that they celebrate, you know,
winter during our summer, like they deserve to have some recognition.
And so I found out I found out this this
this city down in South America, like honestly, like you can't.
I think it's the southernmost tip of the world.
Speaker 1: Wow, I've never heard of this in my whole life.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it's wild. I want to go. I want
to go, although the thought of the plane ride does
fucking turn me completely off.
Speaker 1: But oh, what's the total what's the total damage on that?
Speaker 2: I have no idea. I did look it up one time,
but I haven't done it in a while. It's it's
in Argentina and it's like way way way down. Yeah,
and uh, I would love yet, I'd love I would
love to go. And I think I think I think
you can even take I don't maybe I maybe I
I imagine this or not. I don't know, but I
think you can take like I don't know, like it's
close enough to Antarctica, like you can take you know,
like uh, maybe helicopter trips Antarctica. I don't remember if
that was actually the case or not, if I just
made that up. But yeah, oh no, it's a here,
it's a well, it's it's still a ways. I guess
it's six hundred and eighty miles from the Antarctic peninsula. Wow.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that must be a multi multi hop journey.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I would imagine. So I mean it's way way.
Speaker 1: Down multiple forms of transit there.
Speaker 2: I imagine that that Apple Maps would not have a
an easy an easy route maybe Nationals. Actually, I bet
it does.
Speaker 1: It doesn't sound like a direct trip, let's put it
that way.
Speaker 2: No, no, no, I'd probably have to make a couple
of stops.
Speaker 1: Well, unfortunately for us, Tim made a stop at a
liquor store in Rhode Island over the summer because hul
Cogan was out promoting his beer. Remember this is America
whatever it was called, weel American beer and.
Speaker 2: Is he going to be the secretary of of of embibment.
Speaker 1: It's zero to beer, of tobacco, alcohol and fire.
Speaker 3: There we go.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yes, yes, it means to be seen.
Speaker 2: Haul Cogan was doing a tour Rhode Island liquor stores
on August twenty seventh and August twenty eighth in support
of his beer Bent brand, Real American Beer. I waited
in line for several hours at Heritage Liquors in Cramson,
Rhode Island to get my chance to meet him, and
figured I would mention Sid since I had just rewatched
their match following his passing, I recorded the attached audio.
The first part is muffled because his agent or handler
took my phone to take photos, but it clears up
shortly after. The part they got me and I initially
missed was him saying, freaks me out. Dude. You guys
might get a kick out of it. Oh yeah, thank
you for the bottom of my heart, for everything you
guys do. The cast has been an integral part of
my life for these past few years. I also touched photos,
one of me and him and one of his Jordans.
Ha ha, that's wild.
Speaker 1: Oh we've got a dispatch from the field. What do
you say you want to hear from the.
Speaker 2: I got to hear this ship.
Speaker 3: I'm sorry.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's it's always three.
Speaker 2: That's I know.
Speaker 1: It's so said, always like that freaks me out.
Speaker 3: Yeah he was. He was a little different.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I'm.
Speaker 3: Sure you got story. Is little good. I'm sure you
got story. You want to hear me? Yeah?
Speaker 7: Bad?
Speaker 3: Thanks man, take care?
Speaker 2: Hey, thank you. That brought freaks me out. He's always
a little different, freaking out. You're talking to me, brother,
that freaks me out.
Speaker 1: H It comes in threes, dude, could I be am?
I wait a minute? Am I the third man?
Speaker 2: Who who roller?
Speaker 1: Wait?
Speaker 2: Monkeys. Yep, good point, that's exactly it. John wants this monkeys.
Speaker 1: John wants us to know that comedian Patrese O'Neill wrote
for WWE in two thousand.
Speaker 2: Boss Oh Boy, Oh Boy, the late great stand up comedian,
spent perhaps the shortest stint on WB's creative team as
anyone in history, sometime around November of two thousand. As
the story goes, according to Patrise O'Neil's manager, Jason Steinberg, quote,
someone from WE at the time saw Patrese perform one
night in New York, and shortly after that we were
approached by them about Patrise working there. And according to
O'Neill's widow von de Carlo, they had him up to
Vince's house in Connecticut and he went on one week
of shows. That's it. At the end of that week,
according to his story, Patrese told me himself, when we
worked together on his VH one show Web Junk, McMahon
handed him a thirteen week contract in his travel info
for the next month of TV tapings. Patrese took one
look at it and told her I have shows. That
was Patrese, a comedian through and through, even in the
face of a dream job. That's also an example of
how it is to work for Vince McMahon. He makes
wrestling his life and expects you to do the same
while under his employ As De Carlo told me, Patrese
described working for ww Creative as a quote cult.
Speaker 1: Oh, come on, that's unfair that the.
Speaker 2: Vibe felt like, quote you can do the rest of
your life. When Vince says so.
Speaker 1: It's so true, man, so true. And we've heard that.
It's like over and over again from people who come
out the other side. It's like, yeah, he doesn't say
you can't have a life, but you don't know when
you can have a life. Like, Okay, I guess I'm
working this Saturday month morning and afternoon. I thought it
was my day off, but Vince decided that there's something
that has to be resolved today.
Speaker 2: I didn't say you had a day off, right exactly.
I didn't say, hey, you know, you can take the
next two days to yourself and enjoy your family, enjoy
the night off, go out to the town. I didn't
say that. I said good night, Wow, see you.
Speaker 1: In the wow, see you in the morning. And Vince
needs it now. Vince needs you now. It's not complicated.
Speaker 2: Aren't you having fun?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 2: This is fun?
Speaker 1: Your dream job.
Speaker 2: Working is life, Life is work, Life is a work.
Speaker 1: What Robbie oh Sullivan, Welcome to the ept or, Nathan Cooper,
Chris Jones, s L Brown, Matias Soto Ramirez. How about
ah ah ah you coming in with the big pledge,
Lucky Lugucci and Matt Anderson and Justin Schiller and William Lenhart.
We want to thank everybody for ledging to that cast
on Patreon and helping it, help making it more than
even a going concern. Justin Wrights. I discovered your show
after watching the movie Iron Claw. This is a new way,
new way. After I watched the movie, I needed to
get an emergency spinal fusion surgery. I would be later
for months, so I decided to google the hoonare X
to learn more. I stumbled upon the Lapsed Fan Wrestling podcast,
and allow me to say, The Lamentable Tragedy is the
most in depth, top to bottom, unbelievable piece of work
I ever heard on a single subject. Unable to move much,
I listened all about Fritz and his boys and realized
the movie was not a fourth as good as your guys,
work a little about me. I'm forty one, hulkamaniac as
a kid and lapsed the first time. After Hulk left,
I peaked in the nWo, but it wasn't the same
in high school. I peaked in on the nWo in
high school. I broke my ribs playing football and the
school provided me transportation to school. It was nineteen ninety eight,
and I'm sure you'll both appreciate this. I rode to
school with the special needs kids and they were all
into wrestling. I started watching again and was all about
the attitude. Ear. I even't had to turn to my
DX sucket shirt. You're right, I even had to turn
my DX cucket shirt inside out at school. Living in
New Jersey, I was able to get ECW simulcasts on
Friday nights. I was hooked again. I went with the
Wrestling Buddy to the two thousand and one King of
the Ring, another show you expertly covered. It was so
close we got hit with glass when Shane came flying
through from the other side.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 1: I was totally ready for a lasting golden era of wrestling.
After the con Continental Arena exploded when Booker t put
Steve Austin through the announced table. Sadly it was not
to be. I was lapsed again after the Invasion pay
per view, as were so many As were so many
between going to college, the brand split, pissing me off,
no NWL one flair, I just gave up. Fast forward
to twenty twenty. My nephew was four. We couldn't leave
the house and wrestle Mania was free on the network,
so I sat my nephew down and watched it with him.
I tried to tell him how cool wrestling used to
be and how much I loved it. I thought it
could be our thing. Fast forward four years. I got
hooked again, and most kids today are more than happy
to tell you they don't give a shit about fake fighting. Sure,
my girlfriend was relocated to Saint Louis for work. Finally
feeling better, I went to see her. As fate would
have it, aw Dynasty was in town the next weekend,
a tremendous show Osprey Danielson Swerve Takes the Belt Off Joe.
I was elated. On the way home that night. She
told me she loved me, but she's never going to
that stupid shit again. Wow, you have since broken up
and I can't help but think the sport of King's
had a hand in it. Life got hard again after
the break up. My dog of eighteen years died and
I was told I need another back surgery. Most of
my days spent in a chair, playing video games, rehaving
and listening to my favorite obsession, the Lapsed Fan Wrestling podcast.
The past few months, I've realized how deep I needed
in my ass. I can no longer sit in the
sidelines and be a free loading bitch. Money is tight
since I can't work, but three sixteen for what you
both provide me is worth its weight in gold. I
can't thank you enough. Really, finding you guys really proved
to me laughter as the best medicine. I've included two
photos of my King of the Ring experience, the only
remaining photos for my disposable camera that day, me and
my wrestling buddy I'm in the angle shirt and a
fresh faced Kurt walking to the ring before the industry
took him to the woodshed. Thank you both, God, bless you,
Praise be to the Warlord and the Lapsed Editor is
going to be the Cinderella story of the TLFX games.
Ah and didn't turn out to be well man, we're
sorry that you've been in such dire straits. We're glad
to provided LEAs some comfort. And please don't strain that wallet.
You know this is not We're not looking to to
nickel and dime people that need every penny. We're just
grateful for the support and others are doing their part,
and so keep that in mind. Best of luck to
you and your recovery, and glad to have you as
a listeners. That's the first one I've heard that came
to us because of Ironclaw.
Speaker 2: Yep, right, Well, it's about time you find a particular podcast.
Speaker 1: Yeah, in a particular orifice. Scott Michael Ferry such a great,
such a great observer of wrestle Mamia on the moat
tier and he wrote this one that I had to
save and read. This episode is twenty one minutes long,
but it probably took me thirty minutes to get through
it because I kept rewinding to hear how hard Jack
burst into laughter right after Mama Sorrow said that a
street signed to the temple could be death. Do you
remember that they're using a stop signed ECW? She goes, oh,
that could there is Let me.
Speaker 2: Tell you my mom fears nothing more than getting hit
in the temple, hyper specific all right, like that, like
like that is a I remember the first time she
told me. And you know, I've never even looked this
up to see if this was true or not, but
like that, if you get hit in the temple, you
could die. Yeah, right, is that true? Yeah, if you
could hit anywhere in the head, you could die. But well,
all right, I mean yeah trying that's not like specifically
the temple.
Speaker 1: I think the temple can knock you out like a
little more easily. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Well, she's like basically any blow to the head to
the temple and you die, right, you know that's she's
been like fear of God about that.
Speaker 1: I mean, you're going back and forth.
Speaker 2: I was a kid.
Speaker 1: I actually because Scott Michael pointed that out. I went
back and like listened to one hundred times Left Massa
because it's like if I remember, it's been a while now,
but if I remember, correct, You're going back and forth
with your mom about you know, the danger of hitting
some of the stop sign and it's hit him in
the temple, and you go, that could be serious injury.
She goes, well, it could be death. She like she
corrects you almost, yeah, right, exactly. Now, Now I know
while you're going back and forth with her about the temple,
because you knew what we could light a fire over her.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, I know, I know, I I yes, gotta gotta
kind of get her going on some of that show.
Speaker 1: That's a pleasure. Brett recalls that this is the U
when you were doing Vince's voice on The Buried a
live episode and Jim Ross is in his full heel
mode and Vince is trying to you know, kind of
big legalm and pretend to be more refined than JR. Yes,
And at one point, I don't remember this, Vince says,
I probably don't. He is a barbecue fan. Where Brett
nails it when he says laps Vince will always be
the undisputed champion, and that turned out to be true
in the t lf X games Man, and that is
very true. Jeff Wright's coming home from a Salesforce training
on customer Journeys to hear Vince called nineteen ninety six
WWE a customer Journey was a vibe. Hey, I want
to send a huge thank you to Robert Reynolds. This
kind of fell through the cracks. Do you ever go
to Nordli's. Do they have any around you Nardelli's, I
mean nor Deli's.
Speaker 2: Yeah go and yeah, absolutely the homie s Connecticut fucking
sent us a fifty dollars gift card to Nardelli's.
Speaker 1: Oh so put that to use because there's none close
to me.
Speaker 2: No, it's a Connecticut thing. Oh it is only Connecticut,
I think, or at least that they're at least that's
I've never seen them outside of Connecticut. Maybe like maybe
close to the border in New York, but not not
other than that, right man.
Speaker 1: That's uh, that's awesome. We appreciate that. And I couldn't
do this, but I appreciated. Christopher Grieve, who's such a
wonderful guy, such a great Solar System member, so awesome
Mote Tier series as it gets there for you, sent
us some cheese on PayPal, and he wanted us to
do a live call of Hulk's RNC address.
Speaker 2: Oh I can't go that. I can't.
Speaker 1: Yeah, let us know, let us know if you want
to back man, because I I thought about it. It's like,
now as soon as we go there, it's over, you
know what I mean. Ethan Suppley, who's Ethan Suppley.
Speaker 2: Oh he's an actor.
Speaker 1: Okay, this is tim. I don't know if you guys
read episode comments and Patreon. But Jared Saines brought up
a point that I replied to regarding Ethan so plays
connection to wrestling. Figured I would tip you guys in
case you ignore comments like I usually do. Okay, Ethan
slip papers and mal Rats and also played Vader's son
and Boy Meets World. Is that qualifying for mal Rats
laying the son of Vader.
Speaker 2: No, because he needs to actually wrestle. It needs to
be some kind of legit wrestling connection. But it's close.
It's a good effort. I will say that because mal
Rats is. But there's actually I mean, look, mall Rats
is actually easier really than we all think.
Speaker 1: Is it because of Burnley?
Speaker 2: No? No, actually not even well, I mean that that's possible,
but actually, uh, Kevin Smith himself, because Kevin Smith went
like a three episode story thing on AE. That counts.
That absolutely counts. I mean that opens up Kevin Smith. Well,
I don't know if all of Kevin Smith.
Speaker 1: If that, if that counts wall Rats, then maybe we
don't need to read what I just sent you. I
want to just put it in your back pocket. But
the whole Brodie Lee character that that uh you know,
the former debuties lu Carper played was inspired by the
movie as well, and it was laid out very cleanly
in the email I just sent you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, take it, take a read. People are interested. There
you go on an email, the email.
Speaker 1: Everyone wants to wall rats to qualify so bad.
Speaker 2: Yeah, read the email. It Mike co co chairs and
analyzers of anal assimilation for a long time. I'm a
longtime listener who remains comfortable being a free loading bitch,
mostly because I am a sole breadwinner of a family
of three. You're philosophical, but uh no, no, I mean
there's society. Your philosophical banter about stage combat and simulated
athletics keeps me entertained during mundane household chores like sweeping, vacuuming, mopping,
and scooping catshit out of litter boxes. I don't have
an elaborate stop sob story or embellished past to tug
on your heartstrings like other Carney inspired listeners. But I'm
a lifelong wrestling fan from the Bronx who still wears
wrestling shirts to the chagrin of my wife and my
mother and who flashed a too sweet when my son
was born while wearing a bray Wyat shirt, sparking a
yearly tradition of wearing that shirt and flashing the two
sweet on his birthday with him. And yes, the shirt
still fits size large, which means I'm not a complete failure,
although I get goosebumps making late night grub Hub and
door Dash orders instructing the delivery person to not ring
the beetle or call me and to leave the food
on the chair near my doors xactly delivery on the
app and watch them through the door, ignoring their phone
calls because I clearly said not to in my instruction.
I love that, and waiting for them to leave so
I can shuffle out of my socks and grab the
food while looking left and right to see if anyone
notices this shameful transaction. At one am, I enjoy the
meal and destroy all traces and evidence of it before
my wife wakes up to maximize the shame. I heard
your desperate plea to the Solar System to see how
mall rats could qualify for cinemat, and I hold this
bit of information. I hope I hold this bit of
information will support the cause. From the Wikipedia page of
Jonathan Hubert rests in peace aka Brody Lee. If Cape
Fear can count because of Bray, Whatt and Whale and mercy,
I feel this should qualify Malrats. Quote. He came up
with the name Brody Lee from the movie Mallrats absolutely
by combining the names of actor Jason Lee and his
character Brody Brooks, though his style and appearance have also
brought them parents is to Bruiser Brody mistakenly thinking his
ring name was derived from Bruiser. All right, yeah, it
totally qualifies it. Okay, if so, I may borrow some
bucks from my some piggybank to hear the co chairs
Deep Dive, one of my favorite movies from my.
Speaker 1: No one needs to be in the agenda for twenty
twenty four boss.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I think that's uh. I think that's fair.
I think that's fair. A mall rats. I love mal Right, man,
I love all of you know the Kevin Smith movies.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, he had such a he had such
a hold on the culture for a while there.
Speaker 2: It's like, yeah, and I mean, you know, he's uh,
it's such a if you watch I mean, I can
watch his movies, and I do enjoy his movies, but man,
they there are there are not many movies that reek
so hard of the nine. Yeah, as his movie, that's
so true. I mean.
Speaker 1: You mean time. It's not a negative thing.
Speaker 2: Not a negative thing, not a negative thing. It's just
like you you you know, he he was, he was
part of that that mid nineties independent film boom.
Speaker 7: Yeah, absolutely, when you had so many, so many of
these kind of like you know, student filmish like movies.
Speaker 1: Yep, My god, so many people coming in mall rats.
Now that I'm looking through this, Wow, they want it
back right. It's it's there, It's there, It'll come good.
It's good to know it's big. It's a big confirmation
here on this episode. So a slew of thanks here.
We want to thank David Lee, Martin's, Joe Napoli, Double Bizz,
Heather Barber, Huey Vambino, Chris turg Laferra, Matt White, Tim Lee,
Sean Van de Velde, Joe detallve Geno, Methodology change A,
David Christian, Valentine, Brandon Kaiser, Matthew Hardaway, Brandon Collard, Stephen Tackett,
Daniel Jim Rocco, James Harvey, Garrick Taylor, Ben Buck Tavio,
Matthew Munns, Chuck Angeline, Heath, Horschman, Jesse Harrison, and Ali
all for their recent pledges to the One and the
Only true cast. This kind of supports what makes all
the difference. Always need to remind folks that if Patreon
isn't your thing, you can send us a one off
digital tip by typing the lapsed fan at gmail dot
com into your PayPal account send us funds that way,
as many have done. Michael Hooper did that recently. Just
simply wrote tip in honor of TLFX. Thanks for all
the content that nice and we o nice little almost
like a fist bump. Blake writes, we discuss past family
members who also watched wrestling as if they suffered afflictions,
and we are sick with the same thing and our
parents are looking for genetic explanations. Mmm, it's true. George
McAllister also hit us on PayPal. He writes, Dear Jack
and JP, got a little bonus this month for all
my hard work over the course of the year. Just
wanted to share the love and give you another twenty
pounds this month. Keep up the great work. Isn't that
like just great citizenry at the end of the day,
I agree, I agree Jesus Christ talk about straightforward good stuff.
This one is newish to the solar system. It's from TC.
Grew up a WB fan. Started my journey down memory
lane with the Dark Side of the Ring wrestling documentaries.
I keep hearing about Lapsed Wrestling podcast being mentioned in
the podcast of Dark Side of the Ring. There's another
new one people can push that way, So I finally
took a listen. Let me tell y'all, I'm now bent
over with all my hands by my ankles, taking it
all the way up. You get the point. Saying it
as well as hearing it always makes me cringe. Everything
you both do is gold. I'm broke at the moment,
but the day I get all my funds in order
that that HOPPERA is open, I will bless and curse
you all with a shit show to cover, because I
personally believe y'all best work is when you both hate
the show and mostly everyone in it. I was high
as fuck one night THHC not to tea but not painkillers,
and I was listening to the EPs to episode three
twenty four Bash at the Beach nineteen ninety five while driving,
Thank god it was late, because my god lapsed. Vader
had me in tears and cramping. I could barely drive.
I went back to listen to it sober as we
speak while I'm working, and I had to pause it
because I start dying from imagining some huge, bald guy
ripping through a parking lot of people just indeat.
Speaker 2: Yes.
Speaker 3: What was.
Speaker 1: What was key about that to my memory is that,
first of all, it's like the sound of the little
rocks on the parking lot crunching under his boots.
Speaker 2: Yes.
Speaker 1: And it's that he's not he's not like blasting through
people to get to the food. The food's inside. There
are people outside. He's not just hitting them. He's like
pursuing them, even after he's knocked them over. Like he's
not pushing them out of the way. He's trying to
fright them and defeat them and then go get the
food a fox him up basically.
Speaker 2: Well, And I remember the thing that I loved the
most too, was that there was there was like an
idea of a guy who like didn't know, you know,
he's trying to get out of the way but he
keeps going the same way as Vader. He can't get it.
He can't get it right.
Speaker 1: That's odd.
Speaker 2: He fucking gets killed.
Speaker 1: Last, but not least, there's the listen of my favorite
LAPS characters below. Thanks so much for everything, keep taking
us on rich historical trips have failed, but once great promotions,
and continuing to remind us that wrestling is a carnival
full of crazy carnies that live in their own world
and worry about nothing but themselves. First ps adding driving
high as fuck while listening to that fucking cast as
one of those do at your own risk things. Number
one is Kevin Nash, Number two is Vince McMahon, Number
three is hul Cogan, Number four is said and that's
before the tribute, and number five is Macho Man. Honorable
mention Vader. Well, we're glad to have he as a listener. Pal,
good stuff. Yeah, hilarious. Email Jennifer, who's been lapsed since
twenty fourteen the wrestles owne Days Wow, writes this, Dear
coach Chairman, I'm sending you this email upon one revelation,
even though I did not start watching wrestling until twenty
three oh four. Who was the man who was my hero,
who was the wrestling god? Who do you think it was? Boss?
She's from two thousand and three? Four?
Speaker 2: Oh I gibble jibbling bits.
Speaker 1: Yes, even in twenty oh four. The first iconic hero
of wrestling for me was Hulk fucking Hogan. To think
about that, Think about people who discovered Hulk Hogan during
the two thousand and three run That's Insane. Let me explain.
I was first introduced to the sport of kings to
the second PS two WW SmackDown game, Shut your mouth.
After that I took some interest in the product, though
wouldn't say I really became a hardcore fan until couple
of years later. However, in two thousand and three, I
was introduced to a very special VHS tape. My dad's
roommate Mick, a longtime friend in Rocker type, made a
mixtape of most of Hogan's exploits of three After No
Way Out two thousand and three, including his entire run
as Mister America. What's Better. Mick filled the tape with
divas segment. So Don Marie was flashing her naked tits naked?
I don't think so? Not her? Did she did?
Speaker 2: She show it.
Speaker 1: I know she made I.
Speaker 2: Don't have to show them. I mean she might have,
like you know then you know, quote unquote, you know nude.
Speaker 1: Maybe she did. Actually, I know she made out with
Torri on that pay per view. I watched that more
than once, but I don't know if she ever should
because now I'm actually wondering if she did. I know,
of course the cat did. That was the only time
I thought they ever went ahead and did it on Yeah.
Speaker 2: Well, and then you had uh Jacqueline always fucking right,
losing it all the time.
Speaker 1: And said was doing a sable rather Sable was doing
a strip tease in between segments with Hogan beating on
Piper and fucking two thousand and three, Yeah, I remember that.
That was That was when Vince was after her and
she ended up going with Brock. And it's probably closed
a couple times on that fucking.
Speaker 2: Deal, I imagine.
Speaker 1: Honestly, I wasn't watching week to week. I couldn't even
watch SmackDown for years. But outside of the occasional raw,
I could peer my eye into the world of wrestling
through this five and a half hour mixtape. Except I
could watch this whenever I wanted, not only on Monday nights.
I have to say, as a nine year old kid,
I completely bought into this Hulk Hogan. For one thing,
I was constantly being told both by my dad and
the storylines that Hulk Hogan is some kind of legend
who must be respected as the greatest sports entertainer of
all time. I completely bought into the feud with him
and Vince. I was interested to see him beat on
Shaan O'Hair, and I found the Mister America gimmick really funny. Really,
the week to week goof of fence Piper attempting to
expose mister America's Hogan was perfectly tuned for a nine
year old barely in a wrestling I had never been
thought about that. The kids watching that just thought it
was the greatest thing. Yeah, I'm quote, that's that's wild.
I am not Hulk Hogan brother, because I knew nothing
any way. I was just able to accept old man
Hogan as a hero one could get behind, a badass
fighting against the system who just wanted to get a
big pop from the fans. Basically, he was my stone Cold.
How weird is that Bizarres the real stone Cold? To me?
Some jackass on an ATV who drinks beer and pranks
Eric Bischoff, who is and has only ever been raw GM.
Why does it say sob on his vest? My dad
would say, to fuck with us. By the time I
properly got into wrestling, my hero is definitely John Cena,
at least in those preteen days before I would be
too cool and jaded for him. But in my first introductions,
the big guy, the star of the show, the going
concern it was still Hulk Hogan. Even after WCW folded,
the WW was successfully getting at least one kid in
America to still believe in hulk Amania. Whether or not
this email has ever seen, cheers or cheers to you
and ps, I can totally send a link to digitized
version of the tape. I ripped it years ago. Get
I get the gist. I get the gist because I
made those two. That's good. That is just a whole
wild relevatory to me. To think that there are people
out there that like looked around, took the stock of
WW in two thousand and three and said, yeah, this
guy's the coolest guy. That's just that's insane. I totally agree, Steve.
He's had a great point he says, I'm sitting here
listening to the live call and thinking, Wow, the guys
are being a little hard on Solo so CoA. Then
you say he looks like a falafel, and now I
can never see that and I will never take him
seriously for the rest of his life.
Speaker 2: That's right, nor should you. He's in his face right now,
Oh on a stupid baby face, fat face.
Speaker 1: Why poor guy's sending me control that he's a bad ass.
Speaker 2: Can't stand him.
Speaker 1: He's not a bad look at his face.
Speaker 2: He's a bitch. He's an idiot. Oh shit, Solo so CoA.
If he's Solo suck you say anyone's name like that,
He's only idiots souls and look at he's just a dufus,
just a complete dufis.
Speaker 1: Chocolate equals Detriment pointed this out from the lapsed funk.
I bet you don't remember saying this laps fucking four
hours and thirty three seconds quote. I'm gonna touch you
where you stink, and I want you to accept it,
understand it, and celebrate it. There's something gems in there, man,
that it's gonna take a long time to resurface. But
the hours and hours. We were in a trance, a
Terry funk trance. I really was so true and I
still remember I still remember the smell of opening the
box I got from his estate sale.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, just.
Speaker 1: That smell of like someone else's stuff, do you know
what I mean? Yeah, yeah, it hadn't been touched in
twenty five years.
Speaker 2: Because there's a hint of that mustiness to it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, like you know, you get an idea of what
his living room smelled like. You know, yep, yep, My god,
Kevin McClory. You think our homie Steve in Ireland doesn't
have thoughts on this guy ooh from the Bond film.
It's amazing to me that McClory tried to make himself
out of his rags to riches story. He was born
and lived in doing log Hair, a very wealthy part
of the city that had a lot of British presence
even after independence was passed. He probably went to one
of many private schools in that part of the city.
One of Ireland's most famous ones is ten minutes up
the road. He was a posh kid.
Speaker 2: I love this.
Speaker 1: Why do you love it? Tell people who don't know
I love.
Speaker 2: This because again, he comes, he comes across, he talks
about himself like he's this, like he's this underdog, but
he's really just a fucking failure.
Speaker 1: Well, he's a fraud as far as an underdog, that's
absolutely a failure. He succeeded, I would say.
Speaker 2: No, not at all. He had no money when he died. Well, yeah,
but he had nothing. Got what he wanted though, No, no,
no he did not, especially especially since his estate gave
it all away.
Speaker 1: Yeah. No, he'd be horrified to know what happened after
he passed. Kevin McClory just quickly. This is a guy
who claimed co authorship rights to a lot of the Bond.
Speaker 2: Ip Yes, yeah, he well he yeah he. He actually
wrote the first ever Bond script prior to Kubby Brockley
coming on board with Ian Fleming. And Ian Fleming then
they they end up separating on a very sour note,
and Fleming took what they'd written and made Thunderball, made
the book Thunderball, and thus started and didn't give credit
or didn't give a paycheck or anything, and thus started
an incredible a fifty year battle, a fifty year battle.
Speaker 1: Obsessed with winning this fight, obsessed with basically being owed
every red scent that the Bond franchise ever made.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he was really insisting owned. He created Bond and
deserved to own Bond. And he just spent his entire
life with this vendetta with only one victory, not two victories.
I guess where he got to produce the Thunderball film
on alongside Kubby Brockley and Harry Saltzman, but then also
make his Thunderball remake with Sean Connery. But besides that,
I mean, he just failure. It's a complete shit show. Yeah, total.
Speaker 1: Matthew writes. I don't know why Jesse the Body Ventura
claiming asylum in Budapest made me laugh out loud, but
it did.
Speaker 2: I don't know why they laugh either. It's fucking funny.
Speaker 1: It is funny. Jesse Ventor is saying Budapest like it's
a city everybody knows which it is.
Speaker 2: But you know why, I've been to Budapest, you know,
and I've been there and I claim asylum.
Speaker 1: He's saying Budapest because he thinks you're going to be
impressed that he knows what Budapest is.
Speaker 2: It's exactly what it is. I mean, you know, I've
been all over the traveled the world. I'm a globe trotter,
not ashamed to admit it. And you know, sometimes when
we're out there doing these things, and you know, I say,
you know what, I think it's about time I claim,
as Shylom in Budapesh.
Speaker 4: It's the laps Fan wrestling podcast, the wrestling podcast that
knows the boys need their candy. It's the Lapsed Fan.
Speaker 6: Just because we posted a new episode of The Lapsed
Fan doesn't mean we are done with the campaign to
take what is rightfully ours. If you haven't yet, vote
for The Lapsed Fan to win the award for Wrestling
Podcast of the Year, click on the show's notes, follow
the link and do the right thing.
Speaker 4: He's an Lapsed Fan wrestling podcast with Jack and Carnaco
and JP Soorro.
Speaker 1: He writes, Ricky Steamboat and joined Coffee is something I
never thought I would laugh at. That is what we're
here for. Hard to step out, Yes, Yes, oh my god,
it's so good. Another PayPal hit from the Hodie Alexander,
who writes at jukebox request good boss, oh man, please
sing missawis theme to the vocals of Lex Luger selling noise.
I don't think this will disappoint however it comes out.
Speaker 2: I will do it at some point. I can't do
that tonight. I will do that at some point.
Speaker 1: But that don't don't let us forget remind us. Yeah,
you're you're just the victim of where you fell on
the l box order there, so don't uh, don't fret,
don't don't lose faith. Fred Denstrow, Ronnie Rudy Casserras, longtime support.
Always great to see him in the soup. Thanks for
the support, man, John Calla Hill, Thank you very much.
Mason Thompson, we appreciate it so very much. Kifa Jay
Perhaps I want to thank you for the support. Mike Poohland,
Chris Mann, Gindi Draws, thank you very much for the support.
Very tall man, very strong pledge. I want to thank you.
Leo B. Forsyth, Jerome Cussin Maya good longtime supporter. Always
good to hear from Maya Austin Tyson. Doesn't get much
better than that. Ross Muller and Brandon Kaiser, the homie,
Ricardo Barland, thank you very much for your pledge. Shells
KF and Brad Murphy, Liam McGrath, Tim z Elendbach ossified Caddie,
we'll take it. Brune, thank you very much for your pledge.
Johnny Fees, thanks for bumping up what comes our way.
Same to you, Jason Panditex's thanks so much for the support.
Sammy Conduit. We want to thank you for really boosting
your support to a level that indicates a high level
of seriousness and a high appreciation. H I appreciation for
the CoA chairman interrupt you, Sami writes, I'm back. I sorry,
I sinned. That's all right, it happens. We'll come in,
they come out, they cycle in, they cycle out. It's
the nature of life. But we're like you said earlier,
we're always here with a with the seat at the
table for you. We have a place setting just for
you when if you decide to show up. Huey Bambino
as well, and Jason Panitec's thanks very much for all
the support. Let's see who's next as we round third
here on this feedback marathon. Chris l thank you so
much for the cake, Andy Yellinick, Steve King, Kevin Jolly
badly drawn Bob. We'll take it. William Murphy and Mark
Henry Jay whoever you are. Jay, thank you very much
for the pledge. Connor Stewart and Justin John Harris Stevenson,
thank you very much. Great to make John Harris Stevenson's
acquaintance lately sounds like a true blue member of the
Solar system, willing to do what it takes to offer support.
Ray Sanson, Thank you. Mike Berres Berese, Thank you very much.
Ben Oudsley. We appreciate the support. James Wilson and the
aforementioned Scott our Young Jake. We appreciate the cake basically,
and this one is one that I knew we'd get
to eventually. Do you know the hawk to a girl?
Do you know what that is?
Speaker 2: I've heard of it. I don't really know.
Speaker 1: All right. Joe Boys Joe from Denton, the county seat
of Denton County, forty miles north of Don Hondolas. I
think Texans emphasized our geography, he writes, because it is
so plainly unremarkable. Anyway, I sent you a tongue in
cheek tweet inquiring about your thoughts on HUK to his
future endeavors, and you asked me to post the question
an email, so for posterity stake, I'm going to post
the tweet verbatim, and then I'll provide some context as
to why and what the hell the tweet was a
big draft of the cast. For me, is the commentary
on modern consumerism and the context of extreme onlinism and
social media. Jack's rants and this arena received hearty amens
in my household. All this to ask Jack, what does
the future hold for hawktua? Okay, the other day I
was sitting around and became angry that I knew who
Hawktoua was. I'm forty four, and other than tweeting at
you occasionally and leaving Patreon comments, I have minimal social
media presence, and I would like to think I have
pretty good social media restraint. So why in God's name
do I know who this knitwit is? I kept thinking
back to one of Jack's many rants on digital media consumption,
and although I'm going to butcher this statement, it went
something to the two. Now, if the idea of fifteen
minutes of fame existed before social media, I shuddered to
think what will become of influencers who get fifteen seconds
of fame only to spend the rest of their waking
lives trying to make people give a shit about them again.
And as I thought of this rant, I smiled and
nodded slowly. I wish no ill will towards Huktua. I'm
just saddened that I'm going to have to join a
monastery to dodge howktua two point zero, and I'm not
even sure if that will do the trick. I would
love to hear your thoughts on how social media has
spawned an infinite number of self help hucksters, whether it
be financial, diet, pet, relationship advice, or whatever fuck else.
All of a sudden, so many people have life figured
out and they're dying to share their secrets with you,
like subscribe and comment. I'm a Cardlin super Mark, So
I think back to two of my favorites. One thing
he said is life is not that complicated. You get up,
you go to work, you eat three meals, you take
one good shit, and you go to bed. Another thing
he said is if you're looking for self help, why
would you need to read a book by somebody else.
That's not self help. That's help, that's help. There's no
such thing as self help. If you did it yourself,
you didn't need help. George was so inspirational, concludes because
he became funnier and sharper with age. God, I missed
that guy. Yeah, if he was around, man, we would
have the vocabulary to talk about a lot of the
absurdity we observe on a daily basis. Since it's passing. Okay, fellows,
you're the best. Take care. So Hawktua. This is a
girl from Nashville who was interviewed by one of these
like content people who hang around like bars and nightclubs
and try to get girls to say things on camera
like do you give a head or yes one thousand percent?
And like now you know, it's a way for these
guys to get fucking polished off, you know, because oh
my god, you have followers. Oh my god, you have content.
Oh my god, you talk. Oh my god, I saw
your videos. And so she's one of them walking around
and uh with her friend, and this content creator asks her,
what does you have to do keep a man satisfied
or something, and she goes, you got to give him
that hawk tua, meaning you spit in his dick. And
that's like, you know, like how iron She just do
the hawk to a lot of people joked about that
Originally she said a lot of pizazz and a lot
of personality and a lot of spark, and she had
a Southern charm and blah blah blah, and she was
blonde and tan and brother, yeah, I didn't mean to
alarm you. And so Hawktua became like a shorthand thing,
and you know, everyone was talking about it. They named
her hawk Tua, and then she got a podcast called
Talk Tua and she's famous because she made a joke about,
you know, a good hearted joke and with this big
smile on her face, laughing like one of the guys
about spitting on a dick, how you gotta do that?
And so she got like a thing where it's like,
oh my god, she's everyone's after her. Who is she?
What's her story? You know how this hall goes like
who's the hawktail girl? Yeah, you understand, she's here all
of a sudden, like she gets offered two thousand dollars
to do something in its news, and she starts making
a nightclub appearances, whether the fuck she did concerts, She
shows up at things like that. And I'm glad I
waited on this because it's a respond to this one,
because now she's in the middle of a crypto controversy.
Some may call it a really scam yeah, rug pull
as it's as it's said in that world where you know,
a celebrity backs a certain coin and then the value
of everyone buys in and then the value crashes overnight,
but the people who started the thing make off to
the bank with kind of like preferred shares. It's a
big the thing, and if I miscast it, it's because
I don't care enough to understand the details. So and
now it's like she's just another fucking creepo, like, you know,
scam adjacent influencer type. And that's what Joe's getting at.
So I guess the idea is like, why, you know,
why do people like this become famous? What does this
say about where we're at? It goes back to Paris
Hilton in a lot of ways. Pam Holderson, I mean,
it's all it's all the same shit. I mean, you
make you just become known because you have a sex
tape or because you're making sexually explicit gestures and references
or indicating your openness to such. But what I noticed
about her is we're in an era and now where
everyone is just waiting for the only fans, so anyone
cares about if you're hot online all anyone cares.
Speaker 2: It's actually it's actually, you know, it's I I there
are some people that I know and and I see
on their social media, and it's actually disturbing how many
how people have the the I mean, it's it's the
social media internet protection, you know, that weird thing of
asking these women when are you gonna start an only fan?
Speaker 1: It's like the only thing people care about.
Speaker 2: Now, right, people like just and it's like, I mean
it's because I ask you this. I mean, this is
what when it comes down to it. And that's actually
what I tell my kid all the time. When when
you know, when she you know, is texting some some
you know kind of like any kind of bully shit
or or some stuff, she's doing it necessarily on purpose.
I mean, she's getting it from all these things. And
I say, would you say that to their face? If
you would say that to their face, then say it
to whoever you want. But if you couldn't go up
to this person and look them in the eye and
say this ship, then don't say it. I mean, it's
just vile. It's viral, you know, yep, and not just
say it behind the fucking typing. You know, that's this
is the This is this weird little cage that people
have where they're typing. You know, I mean say ship,
you know, use your real voice if you're going to
do it, let people hear you say it. Don't just
sit around there and and and fucking and type it
and and you know, hide behind your computer or your
phone or whatever. I've listened. I've said ship on this show.
I've said ship over the ears, and you know, I uh,
you know, I don't know if I'd say everything that
I said to their face. And this is me. I'm
total hypocrite. Don't get me wrong. I can you can
call me out on all that ship. But you know
I'll say this. I'm saying it here, I'm saying in
front of a bunch of people, and I'm not hiding
behind it. It's just it's me saying the ship. I'd
say that. I'll say that much.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, yeah, it's not a pseudonym.
Speaker 2: I'm not. I'm I going underneath a you know type
and stuff and like running away basically, you know, like
being a little fucking chip like I mean, yeah, you know,
it's just it's yeah, I I I can't, I really
can't stand it.
Speaker 1: Like, let's just fucking stop it. It's all because phones
made everything better, right and uh you know it's all
get rich quick. That's always that. That's our fatal that's
our that's our our achilles heel in this country and
it always will be.
Speaker 2: And and listen, I'm not there's no I actually have
no issue with you know if you with people doing OnlyFans.
I mean I've I've heard some incredible success stories of
people who are just making a ton of money and
they're able to kind of keep their own integrity. And
it's not like you know, but it's just this idea
that anybody has, the like where do you get the
entitlement to fucking tell somebody you should you should go
on this website so that I can pay to see
you nude.
Speaker 1: It's and it's just like it's not like it'sn't telling
the person, it's just like asking is there one this
this supposition.
Speaker 2: Or are you going to do it? But I mean
it's the should, it's the you should do this, you
should do this.
Speaker 1: If a girl is a certain age, like the internet
convinces itself that they could coax them to do it,
and you know what, they probably can. Like I was
thinking the other day, like, you know, we didn't have sexting,
like only fans, Like I mean, god, Uber turned everyone
in a cab driver, and this is gonna turn everyone
in a porn star. Yeah right, Because it seems you
deal drugs in the hood. It's like you go to
McDonald's and make you know, minimum wage, which is higher
than has ever been. I get it. Blah blah blah, inflation,
make all your jokes shut the fuck up. But I
don't do you know how much fucking money I can
make work in these corners? Do you have any idea
how much money m M for someone who knows that
it's in the odds are infinitesically small that I'm gonna
be able to break out into into a high earning
positions in white collar America like who's shipping? Who here?
You don't want to hire me, I don't want to
work for you, and you can pretend you want to
hire me, but when push comes to shove, you're not
gonna pay me the fucking money. I can make movie packs, okay,
And that's exactly what's happening only fans side. I'm like, God,
look at my account. Oh my god, six hundred thousand
dollars on a podcast that doesn't exist for the purpose
of a real showing someone on your phone with the dollar.
That's it. It was just just cares about fucking direct
deposits and receipts and and it's it's so weird because
I feel like she became famous because people were like,
is she gonna get naked? And she doesn't, and she didn't,
And she actually has a pretty cool personality. I've seen
her kind of carry on and interview formats and stuff.
But you know, whatever, you're gonna fall into that, or
you're gonna be like that girl in the UK who
who went viral for lining up a fucking one hundred
guys showing up at a condo somewhere in England and
just airing her out. And then everyone's like, oh me,
good documentary about her anguish, when really that's just somebody
else attaching themselves to the the pure and interest of
this girl taking that many dicks. It was kind of like,
you know, it's like whenever whenever, like a journalist or
a documentary and does something about porn. I'm always very suspicious,
you know, even if they take the subject hyper seriously
and they and their work is relevatory, they just want
to be around porn, you know. They went like a
pretext to watch these people get absolutely waylaid, of course,
and I just I just think it's kind of a
it's kind of a strange and unfortunate thing where we've
now like seem to have reached a point in terms
of online discourse where everyone's posting these these pictures of
themselves and instead of it being vanity like it used
to be, instead of it being you know, something designed
to kill and crush your enemies with jealousy, it's now
actually a bit of commerce. It's actually trying to set
the hook. So you go down this rabbit hole of
links where you end up being asked to pay for
the only fans, and it's all over the place. It's
you know, and it's more explicit on some platforms than others,
and it's crypto adjacent. So a lot of it like
ends up being like you build up a following by
teasing showing nudity, and then that following is then leveraged
to try to get people into a into a new
crypto coin and build that up. And it's all built
on this idea. It's the it's the oldest salesmanship in
the book, that like you're smarter than everybody else, you
know how to make money quicker than everybody else. Here's
a guy with an open collar who is like young
and tan, and he's had spiked hair, and he says
he's got one hundred million dollars and he he's he
flips property like it's like the set. You know, I
always picture like these run down neighborhoods and like there's
this like this this renovation going on for no reason,
and this jackass shows up in like Gucci shoes walking
around the construction site. You know, I don't care how
much money he's making. You couldn't fucking pay me enough
to carry on like that douchebag. And the way he's
got to think and look and act and consider, and
the disdain he has to have for people, and the
rent seeking fucking you know, heard of everything he does.
So I don't know, I'm I'm very uh. I don't
want to go in on her. I don't think she's
like some kind of disaster because she's had a chance
to show that she actually is a pretty interesting, like
kind of personality, interesting in that she's not somebody that
you like Paris Hilton, you look at like she doesn't
even talk, she can't talk, like she can't say anything,
Like she just can stand there. But that doesn't mean
she It doesn't mean she can't easily be convinced that
everybody but her is a sucker and end up scamming
fuckers and end up in the company of people who
use her following for nothing but ill gotten gains. So
it's become a much more complicated story this talk to
of things since the serial was sent and we went
in a lot of different directions there. But I hope
that satisfies what you were looking for, Joe.
Speaker 2: And I just don't know shit about it.
Speaker 1: If you know, if you're in high school today, you're
just waiting to see the nudes, yep, exactly, just waiting
to see the nudes, and when they become a.
Speaker 2: Vade, waiting to get off your your your parents, uh finances,
so you can start paying for the ship on your own.
Speaker 1: And what happens when nobody wants to pay for your
only fans anymore? Because that's coming. What's next, Yeah, I
know that's gonna be. The platforms new enough that most
people are still young.
Speaker 2: Somebody's gonna get bored. We're still in the earl, gonna
get bored. Somebody's gonna get bored. And you're gonna get
old unless people are gonna want to look at it. Yep.
Speaker 1: And you're not gonna save that money. You're gonna by
all kinds of things to convince yourself that you've hacked
life and can afford a lifestyle that will have no
consistency to it. The earning. The earning stream will have
no consistency to it. There will be like a year
where all of a sudden, you make sixty percent less
than you made, and you're gonna have all these fucking
bills for this lifestyle. And maybe maybe I'm wrong, Maybe
these maybe these girls are stashing it away in like
some kind of like investment vehicle when it's just sitting
there and growing and they're not gonna use it all
at once. But I somehow doubt it, because if that's
your mentality, then I should have no fucking idea how
much you make, because you sho gonna be running around
parading it attention seeking behavior. It'll be your downfall every time.
That's all I'll say about that. Moving forward here on
the Feedback Show, We're almost done bossed. Do you believe
me when I say that?
Speaker 2: I never believe it when you say that.
Speaker 1: Growing up in Ireland, Steve says, you'd be amazed by
how many characters like McRory you meet in day to
day life completely agree with the co chairs that it
boiled down to Ireland versus Britton feelings. This is back
to the bond stuff. Fleming was probably friends with or
related to, people in government who helped negotiate the Treaty
for Irish Independence that didn't grant Ireland full independence, and
then to a highly contentious relationship between our countries and
McCrory growing up and oh sure, growing up in an
Irish free state would definitely have heard of this and
the stories of Bloody Sunday and other similar massacres and
war crimes during the East Rising War of Independence in
Civil War, McCrory probably convinced himself by out smarting Fleming
he had struck a blow for Irish nationalism. Is that
what he was after was he just pissed that Fleming
was a brit I mean, there's part of that for sure.
You know, there there was definitely some stuff that implied
that that he was. Yeah, that there because I mean
I think even I think we I think there was
something in.
Speaker 2: There about even Fleming looking down McClory because he was Irish. Yep.
Speaker 1: I think that's probably most of it. And he's such
a stubborn fuck that he just made it his lifelong
obsession and didn't have as much to do with Bond
a claim on Bond as it had to do with
his politics and his.
Speaker 2: No And I always said too, I think it's a
mix of that. I also think it's just came having
a chip on his shoulder. I think that if if
if there had been if if Fleming had given him
money or given him credit on the book, or even mentioned, hey,
I'm going to turn this one into a book. I'll
give you credit for it, then nothing would have happened.
It all stemmed from the fact that Fleming didn't give
credit in any way to Kevin McClory or give him
a paycheck. And that is it. I mean, that is
not it it, But that's like one of the key
reasons it's just pure ego, trementous and and and and
and listen the national the politics stuff. Sure, I have
no doubt that that that that. Uh uh, I would
say it's probably a third of it. A third, Yeah,
you know, i'd probably I would. I I do think
that the the ego thing, I think that was the majority.
So I don't know what the what the percentage would be,
but that's the majority. But then you know, right there
also the politics and then also the greed.
Speaker 1: Well basically let me know if you disagree with this,
Kevin McClory.
Speaker 2: I completely agree with that.
Speaker 1: Al from Queen's has an interesting one. First time, long
time congratulations on tlf X. I have one question that
I'm hoping you'll answer. Tlf started ten years ago based
in the premise that it used to be better. My
question is this, was it better ten years ago when
you started TLF than it is today? So not was
it better when we were you know, young, and I'm
better in twenty fourteen?
Speaker 2: Well?
Speaker 3: Was?
Speaker 2: I mean twenty fourteen, that's the thing, right, I remember.
Speaker 1: Well, the prospects for the network were better, that's for sure.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean the network was better.
Speaker 1: Sure, the idea of this like emerging way that we
could watch everything WW had and the vault was fucking
intoxicating and led to the creation of the show. I
couldn't possibly be that excited now about that because it's
going in the opposite direction. We've had it and it's
been taken away from us a little bit in Peacock
and now even more coming up in terms of ease
of access. Ye. Yeah, I mean it was kind of
before politics was about you know, who's going to lead
to the destruction of the country. First it was less
like that.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's fucking annoying. It's uh see twenty fourteen, what
else was better? There weren't as many like empty haulied
out stores and stuff.
Speaker 2: Yeah no, no, yeah, we were still in a pre
COVID America just.
Speaker 1: Or world significantly, so we just lost Party City. Those
are all closing. Wow, it's like, fuck, that's I think
that sucks. Don't give a care if Party City is open.
I just mean, like, you know, in general, like you
didn't have to Yeah when when stuff like that starts
going away, Yeah, you didn't feel like anything that has
hitting history to it is on the brink of fucking
leveraged bankruptcy. Bullshit fucking you know, can't pay its debt,
so we're going to close everything. Situation. What else? Social
media was better? Way better? Yeah, better because people used
it in much more moderation because their phones weren't quite
as powerful in terms of being able to access and
update the image. The images wasn't such a big part
of it. That hit me the other day. It's like,
what really fucked us is images on social Like if
it was mostly text, we'd be we'd beat each other's throats,
but it wouldn't be there wouldn't be this commercial aspect,
and people wouldn't be able to make as much money
off of keeping people at odds with each other as
they can by.
Speaker 2: Well also too, you know that the pictures don't to me,
weren't as much of a of a of of of
a problem as it is these these short videos, these
TikTok videos. But now everyone has everyone's doing them, and
you know, and there's just no there's like, there's no
thought put into it. There's no it's just like it's
just you know, it's it's like I'm gonna do a
transition change and you're gonna see me in the morning
looking like a fucking you know, a blob of goo,
but then in two seconds I'm gonna be all gussied
up and looking fell Yeah. Those really, you know, like
the whole thing, like the fact that you can't go anywhere,
there's not everybody. Everybody is doing these shorts, these minute
long shorts, and it's like you just you cannot get
away from it.
Speaker 1: I was like, like they have disabilities, like they're acting
like they have like like spontaneous impulse control problems, you know,
like they have to they have problems. They have to dance.
Everyone's dancing. Nothing against dancing, but George Carlin once said,
you know, people who are dancing appear insane to those
who can hear the music, and.
Speaker 2: Which is actually funny because I did do one of those.
We went to a wedding and it was a very
small I.
Speaker 1: Mean I see people like this on the street.
Speaker 2: But they have you dance in the headphones. They like,
give you a headphones.
Speaker 1: Ye mean, I saw that.
Speaker 2: It's so fucking funny. It actually is the most funniest thing.
Speaker 1: Is Yeah, when you have the headphones on though, it's
like totally fine.
Speaker 2: Just right right, But then you know, I took video
of it. And it's just like you're just a bunch
of fucking idiots moving.
Speaker 1: From you hear their shoes clapping on the ground while right, yeah,
it's spectacular, and that's that's where we're at. To me,
to me, like, if it's on TikTok, I can't hear
the music, I just hear I just see people acting like.
Speaker 2: But it's also the way that TikTok has you know,
I'm not a fan of TikTok. I think TikTok is
a complete disease and I hate it. I hate it
because it's it's an attention ruinings yes, uh form of escapism,
and so I I don't let my kid go on TikTok.
And actually I recently took just pretty much all videos
away and it was funny. So the the other day,
you know, she was like, well, can I have you know,
can I can I still use Pinterest? And I was like, yeah, fine, Pinterest,
Like you know, I know my wife does Pinterest. I
know you just you just post, you know, put a
bunch of things up there that you're interested in. They
do videos now, they do TikTok shorts basically got to
demo the products in the same fucking thing. And I'm
like no, like no, we can't do this, Like we
need to move away. It's just like fucking Ryan, it
is stupid ass toys. I gotta get away from it
because it is. It is toxic. It's and listen, it's
bad enough for adults, Okay, it is, but it's worse
for kids. And unfortunately kids are are are you know,
it's these things are a magnet to kids and it's
a disaster. It's a disaster. All the ship is a
disaster for for for this general of kids. And you know,
I would imagine, you know, when our kids are older
and they've got kids, if they choose to have kids,
they they will there will hopefully be a better understanding
and a better way to go about it. But it's
like the fucking wild West with this generation, you know,
because they're kids. They're like the first or second generation
who's growing up with phones in their hands. Yeah, and
it's a way of life. It's like it's not necessarily
like you know, it's not like we can hide this stuff.
Speaker 1: It's not like we can say, choose this path. It's
the only path.
Speaker 2: Because they need it. They're gonna need it. They're going
to need their phone, and I get that, but it's
also like they they when they're there. We were all
adults when we got these phones, and we kind of understand,
you know, we understand what it is like, we understand
what is going on with this, and yes, maybe we
all get sucked in sometimes is where scrolling through something.
But at the same time, I'm not getting manipulated by it.
I'm not sitting there basing what I'm doing. I'm not
being getting interested in skincare because of the videos that
I watch. I'm not basically deciding that this is what
I need to do to be accepted, to be you know, admired,
to be seen. And that's the problem. Sure, they're not there,
they're you know, that's that's the real issue.
Speaker 1: It's amazing how I'm supposed to be this great democratizing
technology and supposed to give us access to all kinds
of perspectives and the styles, trends, thoughts, outlooks that different
from ours. That was the promise of the Internet, and
in connected.
Speaker 2: It will it will at some point, it will when
when they fucking everyone seems to use it to make
sure that they're exactly like everybody else, right, which is
hilarious because why do you even need the phone then
just copy each other, right, And I mean it's like
it's funny because the whole idea is that, you know,
these kinds of things were supposed to open the idea,
open the mind to being more yourself than not.
Speaker 1: Not it's not that at all, because that's boring, Like,
you know, yeah, the Arab Spring. It's like, you know,
Facebook leading to like cultural revolution in a country that
then installs a government that's ten times worse because the
will of the people. It's like, we've been through enough
repetitions of pretending that this technology is going to set
us free, and we realize that in almost every case,
the unintended consequences overwhelm any positive effect it has for
every relative you can stay in touch with. Because of Facebook,
you're at war with six more, right, And that's just
something that would not be the case if the platform
didn't exist. That is the platform's fault. That is not
to suggest that people made the platform to create that,
but they're certainly not adjusting the platform to prevent it
because you can't, you cannot, for a second, do anything
that will discourage people from staying on platform. It's very,
very simple, and even as everyone's been made a hip
to that, they can't stop. They even get worse. And
these these these these people are are just taking their
phones out and recording themselves dancing in public. Yeah, and
I hope they're having fun, But I don't get the
sense they're doing the video to have fun. I get
the sense they're doing the video because there's something missing, yes,
and they're trying to smile through it. I can't help
but see tragedy in a lot of these things. And
maybe I'm just something, just a weirdo, and that's but
I don't know. There's there's too many in the email
are touched on it. There's too many of these like
life coach people who end up, you know, doing the
heart felt like video in two years about how they
had to like get divorced and you know, their kids
fucking hate them, and it's like and they were out
there trying to tell us how to live, you know,
try to tell us, like, you know, just just eat
a California diet and everything's gonna be fine. Yeah, and
California has highest doors right in Cana. Fucking misery all
over the place. I don't know, it's it's very uh,
we're a very weird time where when people are their
most vulnerable, they seem to think that projecting confidence online
is the answer. And it's like I just see it
as a as a as a cry for help, not
for not for a sign of a some kind of
personal rediscovery. You know, these are damaged people. You know.
It's like like the a lot of like the alternative
medicine world and like the yoga and spiritual healing world
and stuff, a lot of people like had drawna they
had drawn to that because they ended up getting some
kind of a chronic disease that modern medicine couldn't allay
their pain well enough, right, And so of course, I mean,
if you're in fucking agony and you've been given this
fucking life sentence for agony, of course you're going to
seek out somebody that promises, you know, somebody. First of all,
that says, of course you know, of course you're not
getting any better because you're trusting doctors, and that would
be stupid, and I'm not of course, you know they're
idiot doctors, just like they're idiot anybody else. But you know,
it's like I don't know anything about this shit, so
that's why you should follow me, you know, right right right.
It's like, well, I don't know. I think you need
to know something before. And it's but they know how
to find people that they can get to think that way.
They're sort of like like a population of potential leads.
Oh this person, this person's dissatisfied, this person, you know,
is in a miserable place because they've been dealt a
bad hand. Now is the time for me to move
in with my brand of you know, it's amos spirituality
almost you know, yep, And it becomes really dark, really dark,
because everybody's smiling, but no one's smiling on the inside.
Everyone's everyone's transacting.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 1: Thanks a lot for putting us down that road, Joe.
So let's see. David said, Tina Turner was the face
of the new South Wales rugby League. So we're trying
to get Tina for something that's supposed to qualify a movie.
Do you know why people bring up Tina Turner for cinema?
I don't know, I remember either.
Speaker 2: I don't remember why.
Speaker 1: Brett and the Heart's still in their pjs. Jeff bretton
the heart's still in their pj's presents, all open, kids
playing with the new toys. Brett smiles at the bounty
he is able to provide his family and looks at
watch his watch to realize that Christmas story is about
to start fresh when the cordless rings stir it.
Speaker 2: Man, I'm on, crackhead, I cead.
Speaker 1: You just joined Christmas a second ago.
Speaker 2: Uh here smoke crack creaky Huh do you know that
that's good will hunting qualified? Because an hour Summer SLAMO
five episode Edge tells Vince, it's not your fault, over
and over. It's not your fault. You're from North Carolina.
Uh no, no, unfortunately, not unfortunately, not to.
Speaker 1: That aforementioned phone call, Andrew says, picturing Davy's Christmas phone
called to Brett, and Davy is actually calling from the
next room.
Speaker 2: Oh yes, that's that is exactly it is that Davy
is dabe. Oh how'd you find me?
Speaker 7: I was.
Speaker 2: I was in different places.
Speaker 1: And poly cautiously, I picture steam Beat walking up to
his opponent with a cup of coffee like Lumberg and
office space. Yeah, let's talk about the finish. Ricky steam
Cup goes up to somebody. You guys hanging out? Are
you friends?
Speaker 2: Yeah? What's going on? Guys? What are you doing? Yeah?
Only here to talk about the match? Yeah, no, okay, all.
Speaker 1: Right, only here? Uh Brett wants. Brett wants a tournament
of runners up into l f X. Like characters that
weren't able to make it, like Lap Sean Connery laps,
local businessman whose business is disrupted by a movie abyss
Hult Cogan, but the action adventure comedy star Diana Hart,
Shane Douglass, Shawn Michaels, Hogan, Linda Hogan.
Speaker 2: I'm sorry. I like the idea of Hulk Hogan, not
the wrestler, but the action movie star, adventure comedy star.
That's fucking money.
Speaker 1: It's something to think about. It won't happen, but I
guess it's fun to think about. Uh, Tim, Well, Tim,
thank you. I read the email about the Princess Diana thing,
and I understand that it wasn't just a pop Rozzi
to blame, but apparently her driver. Did you know this?
Her driver was trashed?
Speaker 2: I didn't know that. Actually I did not know that
her drivercohol is a problem.
Speaker 1: We were talking about her, of course, in the context
of some of the British premiers that we took in.
Speaker 2: Yeah because she was there and yeah before she met
her demise.
Speaker 1: Lucky Night ct writes on her ECW coverage. To me,
ECW's popularity was its doom. It was at its best
when watching it felt transgressive. Staying up until twelve to
one am and flipping channels because you weren't sure who
they mailed the tape to this week was part of
the experience. Once I got regular TV, a big part
of the magic was gone, he declares. Jeff writes ECW
ECW don Kallis looks like a local radio DJ whose
show was brought down when Howard Stern came into the market.
Speaker 2: Absolutely agree with that.
Speaker 1: Jerome likes the Living Dangerously two thousand episode because we
talked about Mike Costumes ECW contract and delve into it deeply.
And so he says, this podcast allows us to tell
anyone who asks that we listen to a legal analysis
podcast whereby documents are discussed and broken down for better understanding.
Speaker 2: Of contract law. It's not wrong.
Speaker 1: I mean, look, you can say it if you need to.
Abel I agree with what that. I agree with Entertainment
from Phoenix Abel co chairs. Like so many others in
the Solar system, I love hearing about Eric Bischoff's slow
moving but smart equipped ranch life, especially when it involves
what he eats. Although many although many of his older
social media posts Pretna are now deleted, I can distinctly
remember one where Bischoff described his evening dinner after recently
arriving back in Cody. Although I can't call the words verbatim,
I remember Bischoff talking about smoked salmon being cooked over
an open flame with melted cheddar. Of course it sounded incredible,
even for someone that doesn't even eat fish. To hell
with Minnesota and their mint jelly. Thanksgiving with the Bishoffs
is where I want to be.
Speaker 2: Here we go. That's very funny, William wants to know.
Speaker 1: Now, I'm curious. Was Jim's cheese steak named in the
ECW bankruptcy. I would think that if uber Eats existed,
then there would have been a constant stream of cheese
steak deliveries to Big sal And, seeing how these guys
weren't even getting their seventy five dollars pay days, there
would have to be some kind of tab or line
of credit between gyms and AJHG Corp. Tremendous. Oh. The
ECW game William Hilarious for PlayStation William says was absolutely
one of the worst games ever played. The animation was terrible,
even for the time. The announcing was awful, just repeating
the same few lines and not really time to the action.
The gameplay was pathetic. I can't imagine how Acclaim would
put their name on it. It felt so rushed and
halfway finished, I wrung what little joy got out of it,
but I put it away permanently after a couple of weeks.
We're talking about that ECW video game. What a piece
of shit that was? Tool Belt for Daddy asked the question,
Am I the only one who would love having the
life of lapsed Bischoff?
Speaker 2: Listen, it's not a bad life. I'm not making fun
of the life. I'm making fun of him.
Speaker 1: Living my life. It's him.
Speaker 2: It's him, all right, because it's so phony, all right,
that's the problem. I think of him whenever I see
Yellowstone on TV. Yeah, of course, I'm sure he thinks
of him severaltimes.
Speaker 1: He's also someone I gotta find this before you read
this next thing, Oh Christopher, he writ some Patreon I'm
picturing easy listening to this, all set to be offended
at any mention of him and starting to vent when
the coach here is get to the last thirty minutes,
then he hears the comment about the butter churn from
sharper Image and realize this, you have a point.
Speaker 2: Exactly, It's exactly. It's about he's about to like he's
he's like on the verge of going into a rant,
and then he's like, oh, yeah, you know he wants it.
Speaker 4: He's the laps Fan wrestling podcast, the wrestling podcast that
knows the boys need their candy. It's the Lapsed Fan.
Speaker 6: Just because we posted a new episode of The Lapsed
Fan doesn't mean we are done with the campaign to
take what is rightfully ours. If you haven't yet, vote
for The Lapse Fan to win the award for Wrestling
Podcast of the Year, click on the show's notes, follow
the link and do the right thing.
Speaker 4: He's an Lapsed Fan wrestling podcast with Jack NCRN SEO
and JP Soro.
Speaker 2: Hey coachairs. Listening to the latest ECW episode and the
guy talking about the myth of the Paul Hayman kool
Aid compelled me to write you all an email when
the wrestler says it wasn't the Paul Hayman kool aid,
it was being on TV that kept those guys little
ecw It got me thinking about again how TLF uses
pro wrestling of the nineties and two thousands as a
mirror to modern society. TLF has essentially been my thirties,
and now as I approach my forties, I think a
lot about what I call the millennials curse, this idea
that we're told our whole life to make sacrifices and
give up important life events in the name of being
successful or important. Many of us will never know our
true value because we were tricked in our twenties into
thinking we were important. And if an employer can convince
you that you matter, they can convince you to work
for less than your worth. Does that sound like Paul
Hammond and vinsick manned anybody else? I think any millennial
who chased professional success can relate to everything Danny Doring
says when he talks about the chase of fame. It
talks about the chase of fame is what appealed to
him more than the alleged Paul Hamon kool aid. As
a child of the nineties, you were told to chase
success in recognition. You weren't told to look for comfort
or stability. You were told that you had to be relevant,
that you had to succeed. As I talked about before,
my degree is in journalism, and although I was lucky
to get out of the business early in my career,
I watched many friends fall for the so called relevance
of getting clicks on social media and online articles. It
didn't matter that they weren't paid a fair wage or
had their or had fair working hours and standards. They
were quote relevant and relevance was all you needed to
have a happy life. I think, unfortunately it took a
global pandemic to start to break some of that mindset.
But I just look at what I call the millennial's
curse as this idea that fucked up our brains and
screwed ourselves out of comfort in twenties and thirties because
we were constantly told to be relevant, no matter, to matter,
to be important. I think we were told that money
would come, But I'm sure that a lot of listeners
hold some sort of grudge for the shit work we
did at shit pay in the name of this idea
that we wouldn't be quote failures if our job title
wasn't prestigious. The money never caught up in the same
way we were promised, and many of us had to
look at ourselves in the mirror and say fuck every
adult in the nineties who told me I was better
than someone who put in an honest living in a
trade job. That's why I could never truly blame wrestlers,
because I see the idea of the wrestler in many
of the creative friends I have who will never know
their value as always. TLF is almost Shakespeare and the
way you hold up the mirror to society though through art,
it amazes me how you find these parts of nineties
wrestling that explain modern americane.
Speaker 1: Yes, Jeff, that's an almost perfectly written email. Man. I
say almost because I want to try to say something
about it, but it's all there. It's so true. It's
so true. I mean, when you chase relevance, you serve
everyone but yourself. You serve the algo, you serve the
platform owners, you serve the people who don't have to
worry about being relevant. They just somehow are able to
tax your work and get a little little bit of it.
And it's all these coding people who decided to find
who decided to set up, you know, all these ways
to set up the platform and own the stream of
advertising in such a way that they get paid even
if they couldn't produce a single creative thing in their
fucking lives. Yep, but they know how to build a platform.
And so there are the new gods and they control
the gates. Yes, it is an empty promise. Yes, it's
easier to underpay somebody when you feel when you're able to,
you know, make them feel like you value them. Paul
was great at that, and he was good because he
was clearly making stars out of people who had no
right to be in the wrestling business, such as it
was constituted at the time. They didn't Spike Dudley bless
his heart, worked his ass off, great guy from all accounts,
would have made ten cents in the wrestling business of
Paul Hayman didn't a have ECW and b couldn't look
him in the face and say I value you, you
know right? But it's true. Yeah, that is very much
a condition of nineties kids, I think because we were
we and especially as YouTube came out, we were kind
of sold this idea that we'd all we all could
be famous if we just tried hard enough.
Speaker 2: Right, or if we just you know, had the right video.
Speaker 1: Right exactly, And we don't really know what it means.
We don't really know what it gets us to be famous.
We just know we want to find out right, right.
It's the Counting Crow song. It's uh, mister Jones, it's
we all want to be big, big stars, but we
don't know why, and we don't know how.
Speaker 2: Mm hmm.
Speaker 1: Yeah. And that's that's the thing is so many people
find out that like it's just it's all, there's no
money to be made, Like you're just now if you're
a creative person, you're now just giving it away in
the hopes that I don't know, it's it's no different
than hoping someone discovers you would have fucking you know,
at to Speak Easy or at a fucking nightclub. Yeah,
a big digital place where you hope someone finds you.
It's very strange. It's very strange thing that people everyone
thinks they're about to be discovered somehow. It's very weird.
Speaker 2: But I mean, hey, you know it's no different than
than Wizard of Oz and yeah, sure, Schwabs Schwab's Pharmacy
and sitting there hoping somebody sees you put you in
a picture so good. You know, it's just a different
way of doing it. I mean, in a weird way
that's at least better because it required you to go
to something right, and so you know, you had to
go to California and then go to Schwabs and buy
a fucking you know soda.
Speaker 1: It's self selected in a way for people who at
least cared enough to make the trip right, and who
cared enough to scrounge together the money to afford the trip.
And now there's no barrier to entry, and there's a
million applications and the reason the one person gets picked
is is completely arbitrary. And you know, Tktua is Hoktua
because this guy walked up to her when she was
leaving a nightclub or whatever, a bar and interviewed her. Yep,
And that guy was doing that for the same reason,
chasing views that he you know, thinks he can convert
into a I guess, a career. I think I think
one of the things I'll say it's the fust thing
I'll say about this, it's like, I think a lot
of this creator economy stuff, it dangles this lifestyle in
front of people, it gives them, and I think that's
why a lot of them fall in love with, like,
you know, like policies where no one has to work
or anything. It's like they think there might actually be
a way to survive and pay all your bills if
you just stay online enough, right right, Well I can't,
it's all. It's always going to be the time you
spend offline that's going to allow you, yep, to to
create security for yourself. But I think that that's that's
a lot of the a lot of the frustration, and
you know, the venom you see online is like this
consistent frustration with the fact that you can't tweet through it,
like you can't you can't read reimagine society in a
way where suddenly you can afford everything because you just
keep like you know, making political arguments all the time
about why things should change and then collecting evidence that
proves your point, all towards this world where like you
don't have to work, and it's like and the definition
of work is you don't want to do it, by
the way, that's a you know point. Yeah, I think
there's like this this really fading idealism that we can
just advocate until eventually we can just get paid to
express our thoughts all day, especially if we dress it
up like in well produced videos. It's like, no, no one,
no one's going to pay for your thoughts. I mean
maybe they maybe you can stumble on a little niche
audience that will do that. And I'm saying it's impossible,
but it seems like a lot lot of people think
that that is a world that they can force into existence.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean that's that they didn't have anything to say yet.
They didn't have anything to.
Speaker 2: Say yet, and and the and that's the I mean,
that's that's that's exactly it. Like they want to find
they want the they want the status, but they don't
want to put the work in.
Speaker 1: They don't want to live a life so that they
actually have something to say. They want to just say things.
It's like all right, or look hot. It's like, oh god, right, right,
Michaelson writes to us after the Bird Alive show. I
know it was, yeah, it was bird Alive. We're talking
about what the first Undertaker Mankind match was on TV,
and he points out that there's a Colosseum video that
has an Undertaker Mankind dark match that we had called
out as not He'd pointed it out and we said,
well that that wasn't ever on TV. That was the
first time they wrestled was on TV, but in fact
it was included on the Colosseum video of the show.
I think it might be revent to the Taker we're
thinking of here or something like that. I can't remember
the exact show, but I did want to give him
a fistbump for that because it wasn't a foul correction
at all. If it was on Coliseum video, then video
exists of the match. I thought it was just I'm
going to look up the first time these two ever
wrestled and call that out. When we did the show
where Dan Peterson commentates in Italian, Choppin Eaquals Detriment had
the translation. He says. The translation by Dan Peterson says
it's no secret and Nors calls him out for no taxes.
It's no secret that most of the taxes are here
in Milan instead of tax cheats. What he means is
Milan is the capital of Lombardi, which is the most
effluent state in Italy, and for years they have been
disgruntled that all their tax money goes to Rome to
support the poorer South. In fact, there's been a separatist
movement in Lombardi, Ala, Catalonia and Spain for the same reason.
So what Dan Peterson is saying is you're coming out
here saying you guys cheat on your taxes, but which
is especially rich because they feel like they pay the
taxes of the rest of the country.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 1: So I actually had more resonance that I bet micro
Tunda had any idea.
Speaker 2: I'm sure he's just doing a stupid gimmick.
Speaker 1: Jeff says Ian Fleming would be a creepy ass deviant
art redditor and not an author if he came along today.
Speaker 2: Oh absolutely, And I mean still be smoking a cigar
with a cigar, I mean cigarette with a cigarette.
Speaker 1: Holder, and just two more before we kick it over
to Blake as we finally do the house cleaning that
can only be necessary around the first of the year.
This one's from Amber I Gabe. Yeah, well, get what
did I say?
Speaker 3: Is it?
Speaker 2: Blake?
Speaker 1: Oh? I have a letter from another letter. It's just
a quick closing thought from Blake, and then we go
to and actually, isn't it isn't Blake, It's Ben Blake.
But this quickly from Amber dear co chairs. I'm visiting
my partner's folks for a few weeks, and while they
are nice people, it's been a bumpy few days because
I came out to them as a trans woman roughly
a week before. They are both conservative, so I wasn't
sure how it would go. Her mother is supportive, just
doesn't really address it though. He laughs when I make
sissy jokes at my own expense, which helps ease tension.
He's a former National Security Agency NSA, so he's got
that intimidating, stoic demeanor. One night, he told us a
story about one of his military buddies who picked up
a tie woman at a bar and took her to
his room. When they find out that she was a
he then his friend kicked her out of his room.
He's probably heard this story before. The devious trans the
trap who seduces the innocent straight guy only to reveal
a cock size scott All scattle broad. Typically, the devious
trans gets a beating in the end. There's a whole
Sopranos episode about this story, plus it shows up in
numerous movies and books. Rick Steiner probably as nightmares about
oh about this kind of thing because he's an insecure,
fake bitch. So her dad's telling this to us completely
oblivious to how awkward this is for everyone, especially me.
His future daughter in law constantly struggles to feel like
a real person. Sometimes I feel faker than Shane McMahon's punches,
and they have been hit on by straight minute bars.
I've heard tell him I'm trans up front. Okay, yep,
I have friends who are attacked on the street just
because I think a lot of trans people got file wrestling,
because those journeys are also right with shame and pain. Yeah,
it's scary because you never know how people will react
when you tell people your trans up front. I know
from experience that men like his friend consider trans women
to be men. Therefore it's okay to hit them, especially
if there was an attraction from their side. I'll never
understand why men's masculinely is so threatened by trans women
queer people because news flash, hormone tree Okay, okay, Anyway,
that night I retired to the bedroom and broke down
for a while because this shit is scary and empathy
is short, is in short supply. But I put it
all aside and turned on that cast male bag. Addition,
I love these shows because you never know what's gonna happen.
Plus Boss often serenades us undeserving Fox with wrestler themes.
We asked them too late tonight. Maybe next time, Amber, Yeah,
where else can you get bushwhacker Luke rambling on about
stone necklaces to make what to make? You forget that
your father in law will never understand you as usual,
You guys make everything tolerable for a few hours. PS.
Last night, my pardner rast if I wanted to watch
a w since her parents have cable. I immediately said no.
Coming out to them as trains is one thing, but
even but even I'm not bold enough to inform them
that I'm a fan of this bullshit non ballet buffoonery. Wow,
thanks guys, Amber, thank you Amber. That is that is something, man.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that is that's that's that's a that's tough. I
can't even, I mean I can't. I have no no
frame of reference for that. I just know that that
stuff is difficult, and uh, you know, glad, I'm glad.
I'm glad that we that we can be there.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, I say that again.
Speaker 2: We can be there, I said, I'm I said, I'm
just glad that we can be there.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, that's that's awesome, that putting in.
Speaker 2: The cast, because it's I know that that whole situation
that could be really tough. You know, it can be
really really tough.
Speaker 1: Glad that putting in the cast can help, even just
a little bit. Absolutely, So, We've got a tremendous listenership
and it's going to keep continuing in the length of
this fucking show. I think I attest to that this
episode here to kick off twenty twenty five, I'm going
to close here as far as the readings with Ben,
and then we'll hear from Gabe and send you on
your way to make a twenty twenty five count. Ben writes,
I've been listening to tlf for years, and probably more
intently than most, even though I'm not and never have
been a fan of professional wrestling. I love that subject
line is a brief synopsis in the closing days of
TLFX that notwithstanding I think that everything I've learned from
that cast mostly boils down to this life is almost
entirely just one big fucking work. So like what you like,
laugh at what you think is funny, support and cultivate
the things you care about, do good when you can,
and give a shit about the people who give a
shit about you. Thank you for ten rock hard years,
co chairman, and thank you for truth a mania. Best
regards Ben Broler, And with a highly concerning note, we
turn it over and you over to Gabe, who's still walking,
who's still battling, Just like a certain podcast, I know
we'll see you next time. Well, fans, we told you
he would survive. We told you he lived. If you've
been following us throughout TLFX, you know that there's been
challenges for one of the great Solar System members there
has ever been in one, Gabe who we were proud
to share the details of a GoFundMe and some of
the things he went through with open heart surgery. And
as we embark on a new year and put the
first decade of LAPS behind us and look forward to
the next, it's a very good thing, I would submit,
and I'm sure the boss would agree that we still
have Gabe in our corner and he's back. Well, I'm
not sure if he's on his feet or not. He's
probably sitting down now I am.
Speaker 3: I am sitting now. Sure. Look, it's it's true. I
was almost compromised to a permanent endow. I was hoping
that Jack would pick up on that one. The rumors
of my death have been greatly exaggerated.
Speaker 2: You've heard from Gabe over the years, one of the
earliest supporters of the show, one of the first to
come to the.
Speaker 1: Table and say, hey, I really take what you guys
are doing. How about some some sponsorship, just all kinds
of stuff like that. You know him of course from
the Whole Ballgame podcast. That is kind of a bit
of offspring from what we've been doing all this time.
Speaker 3: And ship we're TLF cosplayers. Man, We're a TLF cover band.
That's what we are. Really honest here.
Speaker 1: Boss, cover band. I like that.
Speaker 2: I don't mind that at all. I mean, listen, the
more the merrier on that, keep it up. I appreciate
cover bands.
Speaker 1: How uh, Well, while Gabe is listening, Boss, how great
is it to hear him back on on the air.
Speaker 2: Oh, it's fantastic. I mean listen, the the the the
trials and tribulations, the trial of your life in many ways.
So I mean it's there's nothing better. It's so great
to be able to hear your voice and have you
back here.
Speaker 3: Thank you. That means a lot, you know. Uh, I
wrote some notes down because I didn't want to go
into this blind and babble on for forever and get
get you guys, you know, kind of an update and
kind of get you caught up with what my last
it was. Uh, it was nine weeks on Friday. Since
you guys are familiar with Christmas vacation, yes, I mean
we're all Christmas Christmas heads here, So nine weeks ago
today or well nine weeks ago Friday as we're recording this,
I was played open like the Griswold family, Turkey on
a on a surgery on a in an operating room.
And I'm not exaggerating, Like, guys.
Speaker 1: They break the breastbone, don't they.
Speaker 3: They So what they did is they they have this
device called a ribspreader, And so I still have bruises
on the bottom of my biggest fat roll, which is
getting smaller, which is a great side effect of surgery.
But uh, it's where they anchor the ribspreader, right, So
they anchor it there.
Speaker 1: That was Owen Heart's nickname, by the way.
Speaker 3: Oh Man, straight to hell, all of us wonderful. And
they use a what is essentially it's a surgical saw,
but essentially it's a circular saw, and they, you know,
they make an incision first with a scalpel down my chest,
which I have this really wicked ass like fourteen and
a half inch scar.
Speaker 2: Right down the center, right down the center. You're gonna
have to get a scott Steiner tattoo to cover that
one up. Yeah, or a Lesnar one too, you know,
sword right.
Speaker 3: No, No, I don't think so. I think I think
I'll let the scars I'm wearing open, uh you know,
button up shirts wide open the rest of my life.
I earned it. I support that anyway. So they use
the scalpel and then they they use a circular saw
and they directly in half cut the breastbone between the
two ribs, and then they anchor the ribs spreader. They
put the the arms of the rib spreader on either
side of the breastbone, and then they turn a crank.
Speaker 1: Boss thoughts, and I.
Speaker 2: I can't even I mean, listen, it's it's what really
the problem is is that I'm hearing imaginary sounds in
my head of what this sounds like spreading of bone
and flesh, and just like it's just it's just a
sound that the human ears were not meant to hear.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, luckily I didn't have to.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, listen, that's great, but I'm hearing it. I'm
hearing it now and there's nothing you can do about that.
Speaker 3: Well, if it makes you feel any better. I hear
the tick of my artificial heart valve constantly all the time.
It's very very Edgar Allen Poe tell Tale heart sort
of stuff going on. It's just a I should send
you guys, just a because my phone picks it up
really well. Because my breastbone isn't completely healed, so you
can hear it outside my body in a quiet room.
It's really really crazy. But yeah, so they did that.
What I continue to be confounded by and astonished by
is the the ability of the human body to heal,
even human bodies that you haven't necessarily taken the best
care of. Like I said, nine weeks ago, they did
that to me. Today, I have slight discomfort occasionally, but
I have no pain.
Speaker 1: Unbelievable, it is.
Speaker 3: It's nuts.
Speaker 1: We've exchanged texts, but his first time I've heard your voice,
Ince went down. I honestly expected kind of like a lethargic,
you know what I mean, kind of like a voice
that still spoke, because I know you were probably barely
able to speak in the beginning. Right.
Speaker 3: Oh, yeah, it was man, those first I was in
the hospital for seven days, and it was especially the
for like waking up and recovery and then kind of
transitioning from recovery into the main room. The best indicator
I have of this is I had very little appetite
for at least five weeks after surgery. I lost seventy
five pounds from the day I went into surgery to
about five weeks out. It's insane. Yeah, it's absolutely nuts.
I mean I I was eating like six eight hundred
calories a day. Just Jesus, there's just nothing, like nothing
sounded good. But I think it was day two or
day three, I was in my hospital room and my
wife was there and she was talking to me, and
there was a little little cup of green jello that
they had brought me, and I scooped a spoonful of
the green yellow and fell asleep before it got to
my mouth. Oh my god, I mean it just like
I mean.
Speaker 1: This is like straight like Sean Michael's nineteen ninety.
Speaker 3: Five correct, I may as well have been Matt Hardy
in a diner or Jeff Hardy in the diner in
North Carolina. It was it was it was like that.
Just they had me, you know, they had me on
nerve blockers and you know, pretty serious painkillers and stuff
for the first week, and then they sent me home
with some too.
Speaker 1: But I tell the people, if you could gave what
was the issue that they remedied.
Speaker 3: It's I'll be as brief as I can, but it's
an absolutely nuts story. So we talked about weight loss.
I have been a rotund individual for my entire life,
and I've never I've always kind of battled with it.
And in February of this year, I went to the
doctor finally to get it rectified. As you guys know,
I have a new baby here, twenty month old, little
piece of heaven, and I just wanted to get it right,
you know what I mean. Like I was, I was
pushing towards four hundred and that was scary, and so
I went to the doctor and we we worked on
a plan, and they got me on some blood pressure
medication and and then I started on wigov which is
you know, one of the famous, you know, weight loss
drugs that are derived from the diabetes drugs UH. In July,
I went through two rounds of July. I hit the
top dose. Wigovy's kind of an incremental dose. You get
higher and higher and higher. Got to the top dose
in July. Fourth of July weekend, I was sick as
a dog. Couldn't figure out why. And then three weeks
later I was even sicker, and I knocked me on
a commission. For like five days, I was throwing up
everything that I ate, even stuff that I'd eaten two
three days ago. To Wogovy does two things. It slows
down your digestion digestion, and it it regulates your insulin,
so you you create insulin like a normal human being
instead of somebody who has absolutely no metabolism.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 3: And so I was at the top dose. My body
was just not digesting food fast enough, and so I
was it was making me sick. I didn't know that,
but I woke up in the middle of the night
on a Thursday night, and I was just so ill,
and my wife was like, you have to go. You
have to fucking go to the er. Stop this. So
I went to the ar and I told him what
was wrong, and they said where I was pointing was
essentially my spleen and that doesn't make any sense. So
they did a full body scan CTE and found what's
called an aortic aneurysm and a big motherfucker, a big motherfucker.
So essentially the high blood likely the high blood pressure
for as long as I was living with it, I
mean I was, I was one forty over one ten,
just normal sitting down.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 3: It just the blood flows through the aorta out of
the heart at such a pressure that it bulges out.
And that's what the aneurysm is. It's just a big
bulge in the the aorda.
Speaker 2: Let's say, aneurysms are fucking scary motherfuckers. There's like, you know,
there's just no real warning. They just fucking yeah none.
Speaker 3: I mean, John, that's how John Richard died. John Richard
didn't know there was anything wrong, and he just walked
on set and it dissected and that was the end
of it, and mine was. The threshold for surgery is
three and a half centimeters to four centimeters, and mine
was five point five. And so they did, honestly, they
just sent me directly to a cardiothoracic surgeon after I
went to the ECHA cardiogram, went to the ECHA cardiogram,
and they found and this is this was the kicker,
and this is kind of it was a combination of
the blood pressure in this piece. That that that made
it made it really an issue, was most people's aortic
valve in their heart has three little flaps on it
that open and close, open and close. Mine only had two.
They call it a bicuspid valve, which is a birth
effect that's hereditary. And I've had my entire life and
had absolutely no idea. I'm forty one, and.
Speaker 2: So do all these issues come downstream from that game.
But it had nothing to do with your dialing it
in on the weight loss and going hard.
Speaker 3: No, No, the weight loss thing was just just a
way to get me to the emergency room. Had I
not had a stomach ache, you know, I'd still you know,
I wouldn't have had a surgery.
Speaker 2: I have an account of, like you said, the metabolism
issue with the drugs.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's amazing.
Speaker 3: I have no reason to get a heart scan, and
a lot of people don't, but by god, you should
figure it out. Just something, you know.
Speaker 1: Just wellness policy. I mean, look since Eddie, right, I
mean I haven't heard of many if Eddie like that,
where you know, there's like this this uh premature sort
of failure of the heart from these these wrestlers. And
that's been the huge thing, is like regular cardiogram for
these guys, and they're much more aware of heart health
and in early signs.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so you know it. It was it was weird happenstance,
and and and I ended up at the cardiothoracic surgeon.
He's like, yeah, you got to have the surgery. That's
kind of all there is to it. And I was like,
it's non invasive, right, you can figure that. No, we
got to crack the open. Yeah, uh, you know. And
of course then the fear starts and you start to
like really kind of think about what your life is
and was and will be, and you know, all of
the Brett Hart shit.
Speaker 2: Well, I'm not sure when is a good time to
bring this up, but I suppose it'll probably be here
because when we heard, we were like, oh, man, like
you know, sharing the word every time we do a
podcast that you guys are trying to, you know, raise
the funds to be able to live somewhat seamlessly on
the other side from a you know, a stability point
of view. And I'm sure that was challenging. We'll talk
about that, but it remains challenging. But we're like, what
can we do? You know, that's a little something extra.
What can we do that's a little I don't even
know how to describe like what came over.
Speaker 3: Us life affirming I would I would go there just no, no,
don't laugh.
Speaker 1: Well, well go ahead.
Speaker 2: I mean I don't want to characterize it any any
other way than you would as the person who we
thought we'd try something for. And man, am I so
happy that we're able to come back and just talk
about it. Is like this fun thing as opposed to like,
you know, a missive that could have been one last one,
you know, I mean, this is serious surgery, as you know,
and is anyone who just listened to your description told
and just go ahead if you wouldn't mind.
Speaker 3: You yeah, so well, it's interesting, right. I. Uh, Jamie
and I have become as we talked about on the
show before, Jamie and I have become good friends with
with Dana Massey, who's Matt Matt Jackson's wife, and she
came to Chicago, which is about a two and a
half hour drive for us, for the pay per view
that was in Chicago. I don't even remember what it
was because we were only there for about twenty minutes.
We went and saw her and you know, hung out
a little bit, and we drove home the next morning,
which is a Sunday morning, and I suppose I would
have gotten the mail on Friday or Saturday, but I
came home to I think in large part thanks to
Blake reaching out to you guys and you finding a
sort of place to plant this flag for the first time.
And uh, there's a bit there's a big, you know,
sort of FedEx style envelope, and there was a oh god,
it's right next to me.
Speaker 1: Where is it at?
Speaker 3: It's down here somewhere. I believe it was the January
nineteen ninety two p W I inside p W Pro
Wrestling Illustrated. Sorry that all these fucking website pisses me off.
I always get it mixed up with my It's like
when you want to say Starcade and you say star
cast instead because of that big old fat of a goo.
Fuck you, Connie. Now I'm kidding, you know I love you?
Where count anyway?
Speaker 2: I claim Connie? Like that.
Speaker 3: Anyway?
Speaker 2: Conn Thompson sounds like someone who works at the church.
Speaker 3: Look here, Gabe, you just don't want to fall out
of the truck. Okay, whatever did you do? You know we're.
Speaker 2: Involved right now, Gabe, and correct me if I'm wrong
in some fellow, Yo.
Speaker 3: We are. We are engaging. Hell yeah, hell yeah.
Speaker 1: Let the people know what was in that hot little
envelope of yours.
Speaker 3: The January nineteen ninety two Pro Wrestling Illustrated with a
really terrible picture of Rick Flair on the cover.
Speaker 1: It's the haircut Jim hed hair. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Oh god yeah, Spartacus and uh uh what do they
call those things? Like a little drive? Right? A thumb
drum drive?
Speaker 2: Yes, flash drive?
Speaker 3: Flash drive? And I'm like, and of course you know
it says on the on the uh I see this
from you guys because they see the returner drives. I'm like,
what the hell could this possibly fucking be? And I
opened it up, I put it in and say, you know,
the fire. There's a couple of files on there, but
the one that's important says listen to this Gabe in
all cats. I'm like, all right, well I might as well,
and I sit here at my computer for the next
two hours and forty five minutes. That's correct, And you
guys just deep dive this fucking magazine for me, just
for me. Uh. And my wife went had gone into
the other room to take a nap, and she didn't
know what was going on. When she came out, I
was listening to it and I was crying, and she
was like, well, what what, What's what's wrong? Why is this?
And And what it comes down to is there are, uh,
there are things that I've shared with you guys over
the years that you know, we've had countless conversations and
for you to remember little things like this was just
it was just so life farming, like I said, and encouraging.
But every year on Christmas, as we mentioned, I'm a
big Christmas guy and you guys are too. I think
it's you know, that's that's evident.
Speaker 1: Very much, and we may even overdo it.
Speaker 2: I don't.
Speaker 3: I don't.
Speaker 2: I've never shared that about you're talking about having recorded
the unwrapping and fucking Santa's Workshop.
Speaker 3: Man, I I listened first thing every morning, you know. Anyway, Uh,
in my stocking every year would be a p w I,
a wrestler, and the third one that I can't remember
off the top of my head, and.
Speaker 1: The wrestling insider right.
Speaker 3: Inside wrestling that's the one. And uh, this was one
of them at one point for sure, but it was
I'd always wake up before everybody else would. And the
only day night of the year that my parents would
leave the tree lights on would be Christmas Eve. And
so it's still dark outside and I'm just sitting on
the couch by the light of the Christmas tree reading
p w I before my parents wake up, you know,
including those rankings and all of the bullshit letters, and
and just thinking like, man, man, I would love to
see this promotion that I've never heard of. And and
you guys dove that that magazine and it was just
I mean, it may be overused on the cast, but
it was electric, it was electrifying. It was it was
life affirming, and I can't thank you guys enough for it.
Speaker 1: Well, boss, I know not to speak for you, but
I mean we've wanted to do something like that for
a while because you always talk about the rankings pages
right right right, and it's like we had, we got,
we gotta hands on copies of these things as time
goes and it's like, what if we did it this way?
What if we did a one of one, you know
kind of thing. And I don't know as much as
we did it for que at a certain point it
was like, this.
Speaker 2: Is just fucking fun. Yeah, Oh that's that was the
thing about it. I mean, yes, I'm I'm glad it
meant something to you game, but it was just fun selfishly.
Speaker 3: Look, and that's that's the other thing. That's the other thing, right,
is like I'm listening to this thing and we're going
through it. I don't remember the last because I don't look,
and I think I'm not I don't think I'm in
the minority here. But it's very rare that I watch
along with anything that you guys do. You know, you
don't do it ton of watch along as anyway. But
I've seen these shows so many times that it's just
like I don't need it I just need them, right
And this thumbing through it page by page with you
was the most engaged that I've been with you guys
for a long period of time, like ever, and it
was just it was there was a magic about it
that I can't overstate.
Speaker 1: Well, we lost you know, we lost physical media. We
lost it along the way right right, And here's a
way to to give us a reason to rediscover it.
Because you can pick up as many old pwy's at
as many yard sales or whatever, or as many vintage
shops or you know, antique places or wherever you find
these things as you want, but it's you have to
you have to share the enthusiasm of holding that in
your hand with somebody else to really get closer to
to that moment we had, the moment you had near
the tree.
Speaker 3: Yes, yeahactly, I can feel like it's crazy to think about,
but I can close my eyes, I can feel it
now and right like.
Speaker 1: That's you know, that's what we've been trying to do
for ten years and trying to do another ten It's like,
get back to is to let you know, Gabe that
we were by the tree too, in our own little way,
and we and there's No, there's no shame in trying
to go back there. In fact, it's vital. It's vital,
and well this is great because I haven't had the chance.
Speaker 3: I know you.
Speaker 2: Expressed gratitude that whatever I mean. But that that that
you actually took it in like that is is exactly
I think what we were hoping for. So oh for sure,
like that was you. You you kind of organically took
it exactly what we were what we were hoping for.
Speaker 3: Well, look, you know, my the soundtrack to my recovery. Unfortunately,
because I devoured this so quickly. Uh was was ruled
by the master and ruler of the world, and so
it was. It was wonderful, don't get me wrong, but
that was the soundtrack to my recovery. Was was you
guys going on and on about fucking Vienna sausages every week?
Speaker 1: Jesus Christ, I think he went on, Have you had
I have?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Yeah, I mean anybody that grew up in the
Midwest has had them. They did, just they're you know,
they're not my preferred potted meat.
Speaker 1: Taste. Like we couldn't bring ourselves to try it.
Speaker 3: Uh, Okay, have either of you had, Pete? Yes, it
tastes nothing like that, but it's the it's the exact
same consistency.
Speaker 2: Of like, So I guess that I would have guessed
mom a snappy hot dog. Well, I would have guessed
like kind of a like honestly to me, it looks
like a hot dog, just kind of it's it's like
too soft, like it's MUSHes.
Speaker 3: Correct. Yeah, yeah, there's a little case thing on the outside,
but you bite into it and just MUSHes. That's why
most people eat it with crackers because it'll just mush
on the crackers because it's fucking gross. Yeah. No, not
a not a great delicacy. But you know, to each
to each their own. Fuck in West Memphis either you guys,
we were talking about the tree. Are you guys familiar
with Simone de Beauvoirs, Sure, okay, one of my favorite
philosophers of all time. As a matter of fact, I
used to have a cat named Simon that I named
He was a boy, but I named him after her.
She said, what is an adult a child blown up
by age?
Speaker 1: Yes, that's great and that's correct.
Speaker 3: And I interpret that two ways. I interpret that as
exactly what it sounds like, like. We hold on to
it all children, and the faster you acknowledge that, the
faster you can, you can live your life successfully.
Speaker 4: Yes, the LAPSTNG Wrestling Podcast, the wrestling podcast that knows
the boys need their candy. It's the Lapsed Fan.
Speaker 6: Just because we posted a new episode of The Lapsed
Fan doesn't mean we are done with the campaign to
take what is rightfully ours. If you haven't yet, vote
for The Lapsed Fan to win the award for Wrestling
Podcast of the Year, click on this show's notes, follow
the link and do the right thing.
Speaker 4: He's The Lapsed Fan Wrestling podcast with Jack and.
Speaker 2: I.
Speaker 3: Also, you can look at it as a little bit
less bubbly a worldview. We lose our childhood, we lose
that innocence as we grow. It's blown literally blown up,
a child, blown up by age. Whether that's what she
meant or not, I don't know, but I think about
it a lot, especially when we talk about the shame
of enjoying professional wrestling and the pain and all of
that stuff. The reason I think it's it's important to
talk about now, at least for me, is that, whether
you want to or not, going through something like this
gives you a little bit of perspective, and as cliche
as that sounds, I mean.
Speaker 1: That's that's a huge part of the reason that we
felt this is how we should start the year, because
you're you're now coming back to us having come up
to a line that we all hope no one in
the Solar System has to walk up to.
Speaker 2: But yeah, but you know, you're so in the inner
sanctum of what we do, and we know you so
much more than we do the other Solar System members
that we're really turning to you for this. So so
don't hesitate, don't worry about cliches.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's it's I shame doesn't really doesn't really factor
in for me much anymore. I think there's there's uh,
there's always something below the service that's always going to
be there. It's just it's just kind of inherent and you,
especially if you've dealt with it for a long enough time,
it's part of you. But you know this what we're
doing here, you know, talking about it, what you guys do,
listening to you guys so masterfully do what you do,
and then even kind of extracted and blown out into
you know, at a thirty thousand foot view, the things
that Blake and I are doing with stupid, silly voices
and sort of unvarnished bullshit where we don't filter ourselves
for better or worse. One day we're going to get
in trouble. But like it, just you have to soak
in every little piece of everything. And I went back
to the hospital on Thursday of this week because so
because I have this mechanical heart valve, my blood has
to be thin forever. So I'm on blood thinners and
so it doesn't clot up on the non biological material
and send a blood clot to my brain and kill me.
I have to get tested every once in a while,
and the blood thinner stuff that you take is a
little finicky and they have to figure out the right
dosage and all this stuff. And I went two weeks
in a row and it was too low, which means
blood was too thick, and so they had to take
me to the hospital and pump me full of IVY
blood thinners for three days to get my numbers back right.
You know. So I was climbing the walls. But uh,
the point is that it's it's just don't oh oh sorry,
I knew I was going somewhere with that I watched
Saturday night's main event in the fucking hospital and the
nurses were walking in and out. I could not have
killed less.
Speaker 1: That's it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was. You know. I wish they would stop
with these fucking half measures and just do what they're
supposed to do on something like this, But you know
I can beggars and choosers.
Speaker 1: Right, hospital thoughts, Yeah.
Speaker 3: Exactly, for Christ's sake, I did like the bike rack.
Why couldn't you have the bike rack at ringside too?
Give me a break, Like we can't see the people's knees.
This is a problem for us. Yeah, anyway, anyway, that's
my point is just that let it go, guys, let
it go. Like if you like something, just enjoy it.
And and it doesn't mean you have to be loud
about it. But like nobody, none of it fucking matters, right,
it's and you know, Blake's taught me a lot in
this regard, even before all of this shit went down.
But his go to his mantra is it's fine, and
it is it always is, even if it's not.
Speaker 1: It's fine, right, even if it's not, the power of
declaring it so helps, Yeah, to say it's fine. Helps
even if it's not.
Speaker 3: If I can, before you know, we we wrap and
I don't want to take up more, too much more
of your time. We've been going on for half an hour,
but I want to address solar system, if that's all
right with you.
Speaker 1: Absolutely.
Speaker 3: The outpouring that I saw from the solar system was
and I don't use this term lightly. I really thought
about it. It was debilitating, it was huge, it was swift,
it was kind, it was overwhelming. Lots of people donated
names that I recognize. Some are out there. Someone donated anonymously,
so I'm not going to blow up their spot. Some
as little as five bucks, but it it doesn't matter.
It's about the it's about the Hello ship.
Speaker 1: Well some some of them only had seven bucks in
their pocket, but if you stick with them long enough.
Speaker 3: I did not, unfortunately, get a truck.
Speaker 1: Did I. But before you go on, which I really
want you to, I wanted to ask when you first
came out of the Boss, I'll I'll que you up next,
did it hurt to laugh?
Speaker 3: And like?
Speaker 1: Could you not listen to us? I was? I was thinking,
we are you actually going to hurt this guy?
Speaker 2: Ye?
Speaker 3: Yes, yes you are. And you did yes, Fox, they
sent me home, and well, it gave it to me
to the first day I was. I was there after surgery.
But I have a heart shaped pillow that's very thick
and very fluffy, and they pull it full of stuff
and it was for me to use when I laugh
or cough or sneeze. I was supposed to hug it
to protect my breastbone. Oh and most every night in
the hospital when I had you guys on, because I
couldn't stand to watch the nineteen inch flat screen television
in the room without my glasses on. Yes, I laughed
a lot and hugged that pillow quite a bit. Because
of your ridict Us College podcast.
Speaker 1: Well, I'm glad you had a way to mitigate the impact. Boss.
Did you want to say something there?
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, I was actually curious. Did anyone give you
seven dollars?
Speaker 3: I don't think so. I think I think there was one.
I think one guy gave three sixteen, which is pretty
fucking cool.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's great.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I did want to shout out Dickie, a man
who I have never even spoken to, who's another you know,
died in the wool member of the Solar system, and
we were Yeah, As a matter of fact, Blake and
I swore vengeance for finding out that he gave that
fucking branding iron to Brandon from New Jersey, who, by
the way, is responsible for those drones.
Speaker 1: I've decided, well, it's my understanding that he actually gave
it to John Pollock, the homie from post wrestling, but
I could be wrong about that. I think there may
be Jackson.
Speaker 3: Pollock pretty sure he painted some of the paintings in
the hotel room or the hospital.
Speaker 1: Room with the browning iron.
Speaker 3: Yes, whoever whoever he gave it to, he won it.
He didn't take it back to Australia because he didn't
want to pay for custom yard. I don't blame him there, no,
I it's no I know.
Speaker 2: I'm the first thing I thought of, like ad Belluh
he they the fuck is this?
Speaker 1: It's a weapon?
Speaker 3: Sir? Yeah, it's a good point. I guess that's true.
Ship it for three hundred and fifty dollars. Yeah, No,
I all jokes aside. Like I was, I was astonished
time and time again by the generosity of people through
this thing, especially it's such a crap shoot and you
kinda like the thought went through my head like you
kind of only get one shot at doing a GoFundMe
in your life.
Speaker 1: That's true.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know what I mean, Like it's like it
hasfe story. Yeah, if you have any shame at all, right,
And while we talked about losing it in this case, yes,
I have a fair amount of shame. So so I
went back and forth a lot about whether or not
to even do this. But like again we're back to
this life affirming thing where it's like, holy shit, the
generosity of people is just astonishing. People complete strangers, people
from the podcast who listen to the same podcast as you,
giving you two hundred three hundred, four hundred five hundred dollars.
And it's like that is that doesn't make any logical sense.
But what connects us is so much stronger than what
divides us. And today right now, fucking especially that shit
we got to hold onto.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well I just think I mean ten, well, twelve
years ago, twenty years ago, it's not really not really
an option available to people to build a community around
something called a podcast such that they consider you, you know,
brothers and sisters in arms, not just fellow spectators. You know.
It's just it's a new I think it's an underappreciated
part of what podcasting is and it's unique to podcasting.
Speaker 2: Well, I'm saying this what podcasting can be. That's right, correct, Yes,
thank you for that. What it strives, I think, what
it strives to what everyone kind of strives to want.
Speaker 1: That's that's the testament. That's the testament to to why
we why we would bother doing as much as we do,
because like we just keep going and people keep showing
that actually.
Speaker 3: Matters.
Speaker 1: I guess you can say it matters. Yeah, it matters,
and it matters in as much as to me, it
doesn't matter until it's made manifest in the real world.
And this is real. This is real support. This is
not people pretending to support you because they want to
be part of a crew or correct.
Speaker 3: Right, when you're talking about cash.
Speaker 1: There's in the United States of America. I mean, until
there's money exchange, no one believes anything.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's we we joke about fellowship, right, but the
reality is I I think back on on our dinner
in Philadelphia quite a bit, just for the uninitiated or unaware,
Blake and I, you guys have heard us, you know,
on the show before talking about our podcast we wanted
to advertise with with the Boys here and try to
get the name out on the podcast. And we knew
we were all going to be in Philly together, and
so we invited Jack and JP and we went into
some steakhouse. It's fantastic.
Speaker 2: It's the best stake I've ever heard some steakhouse.
Speaker 3: Yeah, look, I wasn't going to go there, but it
wasn't wasn't an inexpensive a fellowship.
Speaker 1: Especially especially when you order the Butcher's cut with no
price on a menu. They just represent that such a
thing exists. Verbally, I'm just glad.
Speaker 2: I'm just glad that we all we all felt for that, right.
Speaker 3: But yeah, it was just like we got them and
we kind of like looked at each other. My favorite
part of the evening, however, was when Jack and JP arrived.
So Blake and I are there and we're just wearing
shirts and jeans, right. The bouncer threatened to not let
Jack and JP in because they were wearing sweatpants. To the.
Speaker 1: No, it was it was just me.
Speaker 2: I had the ath Leisure, I had the Vioris on
you know, which, Yes, I could have bought a twenty
dollars pair of chinos that would have.
Speaker 1: Been like way less expensive. That's what hilarious anyway.
Speaker 3: And and Jaff walks in and he's like, they're not
gonna let us in, and I was like, what do
you mean? And he said he just told me I
couldn't come in. And I was like, well, we're already in,
so let's walk to the table.
Speaker 1: And he just looked at me like he was watching
a ship take off that had his wife on it
and he knew he was never gonna get to it.
Speaker 2: It's like, okay, here, here's what I'll do. You say
I can't get into the dress code. Okay, buddy, thanks
a lot. You know what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna
go I remember this now. I'm gonna go talk to
them about it because they're waiting on me. I got people,
they're waiting on me, and then by go talk to
them about it. What I mean is I'm going to
walk up to them and then follow them into the
dining room. Correct, And I'm again, and you, my friend,
won't do a goddamn thing about it. That's exactly what happened.
Speaker 3: So you know, uh, eight later, that's.
Speaker 1: More of a burn's cut than a Butcher's cut.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think about that night a lot, not because
the steak was so good, but because the the com
and he was was incredible and we had such a
good time and we laughed and we it was it
was just great. And and that's uh, that's the relationship
that you guys foster with your people and we are
their people. Everybody listening, that's I think what will continue
to find it and be responsible for for tlf's continued
success and dominance. Good hearts. Unlike me, and it's been,
it's been here it is again so life affirming to
be a small part of what you have all created
for us. And it's really important what you do, not
because uh, you've helped me and my family get through
what is the yeah you said it at the top,
the trial of our lives thus far, but that but
that it's not unlike everything else around, what it is
that you do, it's not fake, right, and and that's
that's a thing. That's a real fucking thing. Guys.
Speaker 1: Well toast to you, Gabe. And the bottom line here
to me at least, is that we make a podcast
and we tried to think about people who we'd like
to share company with. Around wrestling that we talk about
it all the time. We just didn't have access to
in our immediate lives. We just you know, we didn't
have a lot of wrestling fans around us growing up.
There were some, but they were fair weather. They would
never understand why we'd spend the hours we spend not
only watching, but then dissecting, joking, meming, just creating these
these infinite halls of mirrors, of references and this impossible
to penetrate series of inside jokes and everything everything it is.
And just by doing that, if after ten years it
can create a vibe, for lack of a better term,
that that helps you a little bit and helps others.
And that's all we have to do is just be
true to yeah, right, how how much goddamn fun we
can have with this stuff. Then sign me up for
another ten years and.
Speaker 2: Basically do what we've been doing since college. You know,
on our own what it is.
Speaker 3: You're stuck with me forever. As long as you guys
are even remotely public figures, you're just screwed.
Speaker 2: The point is it just blossoms. It blossoms. You don't
have to just sit down and stay. We're gonna make
a podcast, it's gonna mean something to people. No, you
just fucking do it. I mean that's the thing too,
like that that was never that was never an intention,
never we sought out to do. It's like you know,
I always I always think about, you know, the one
email that that always has stuck in my mind and
I apologize. I don't remember the gentleman's name, but the
guy who got in the car accident, and you know,
like that that always sticks because that was to me,
that was something like I was like, holy shit, Like
I never I never would have thought that number one,
we would be that to somebody. And then in this case,
I never would have thought that we would have had
the you know, would have built a community that would
be willing to help. That's right, a stranger, a stranger,
Like that's fucking Christmas right there.
Speaker 3: Oh man, uh yeah, yeah, you know, next time and
next time there's a big wrestling event in h south
Southeast Missouri, we should all meet up and go to
Lambert's gonna throw me home home with a throat rolled baby.
I uh. I when I was god well before any
of this bullshit, like two thousand and nine ten, I
was working in Memphis, but my my ex was in Chicago.
So I was driving back and forth to Memphis every
two weeks, and I'd go basically right through Sykeston, uh,
every two weeks. And and on that drive down, you
bet your ass, I went to the Lamberts.
Speaker 1: Wow, it's great to show us the ways. Yeah, talk
about the show me State, show me them fucking Airborne
more like to state.
Speaker 3: We can just we can just take a three a
quick three hour drive down to West Memphis too, and
go see the sights.
Speaker 2: Let's go to Saint Mary's Cathedral and see if they
got me Viennas and stock Well, no, I guess we
already got the ball of water too. You know, I
gotta tell you something. So actually today yeah, all right,
so today today, you know, I I I had my
my my daughter was that was in had a competition,
and so I was there and I said, you know what,
I was thirsty and I didn't have my water bottle.
So I actually went out. I was like, I got
a ball water.
Speaker 1: That's the that's the anthem for t l f x
X the next ten years. Everybody in our in the
sound of our voice, you go and order a water
in public, You order a ball of water. It's a
great idea.
Speaker 3: The ball of water conversation leads me to just one
question that I'll leave you guys with. And maybe you
guys are going to bound upon this elsewhere. Maybe you
already have. We uh, we got the Terry Funk retrospective, right,
and that was what like twenty five parts?
Speaker 2: And then I can't even answer that. Twenty five hours
at least on a twenty five parts or twenty five hours, there's.
Speaker 3: A whole hell of a lot. And then we got
we got SID and and I remember I remember tweets.
I believe it was tweets or certainly misses from Jack
going like, you know, I don't know that anybody else
is going to warrant quite as much, quite as much
delving into the past as Terry did. But you know,
we'll see how things go. We got like at least
thirty hours of SID, right, Like, have you just blocked
out all of the year? Whenever Flair dies? That is
going to be once a week you're gonna get six
and a half hours over lair.
Speaker 1: I don't know, boss, I think we better check our
short term disability leave.
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, it's funny. There was prep at
one point and when he was really sick and then
but it's a you know that was back then. It's
a whole different fucking ball game.
Speaker 3: Now it is the whole it is. It's the whole
ball game.
Speaker 2: Damn, it's the whole ball game.
Speaker 1: It's a great question, Gabe, and I've been lying if
I you know, as always it's like.
Speaker 3: Wait, don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining.
Speaker 1: No, no, I don't know. Yeah no, it's always like oh,
you guys, like it's taking so long, and then like
you can do another one.
Speaker 3: Yeah, right, no, right, it's so Look, you know what
the funny thing Blake and I were talking about the
other day, like the how thorough and how deeply researched
all of this ship is is so daunting that early
on when we were starting this baseball thing, it was like, well,
I'll do you know, I'll jump into the you know,
I have a history, I can do the No, we
just want we watched the baseball games and we do
stupid voices that we just we can't. There's no fucking way,
there's no we can't do it.
Speaker 2: Yep.
Speaker 3: It's it's unbelievable. The dedication and the sort of commitment.
I think that's the word that you have to take
to do something like this, and I think you guys
mentioned it earlier. It's it's not about doing something that
other people are going to go that shit's amazing. It's
about doing shit that you guys like and like attracts
like right like people. People see right through bullshit and
there is no bullshit outside from all the bullshit.
Speaker 2: And that's that's t LFX. Like we told ourselves at
the beginning, as we have always joked about, Boss, We're
not doing this for you out there.
Speaker 1: We're doing this for us.
Speaker 2: And if you want to and if you want to
come along for the ride, that's fine, but don't expect
to have any role beyond that in what we decide
to do. And it turns out by doing it for us,
we also end up doing it for them. Damn right.
Speaker 1: It's a beautiful thing and Gage is a testament to it.
Speaker 3: Gage, It's it's a shocking thing to know. And this
I think this is the first thing I ever said
to you guys when I met you Jack for lunch
in Boston. Oh yeah, cream clam chowder. Uh at what
was the name of the Ale House Union Oyster House Union,
Oyster House. We got we got clam showder I told
you right then and there. The reason that this means
so much to me and I want it is because
you and Jack, you and JP are me and my
best friend from high school, my wrestling friend from high school.
We talk to each other the exact same way we
know each other. It's it's just, you know, we aren't
as different as we like to believe. We are us
University and and that's how you guys, And I'm I'm
just really really, I'm really fucking thankful for you, guys.
Speaker 1: Let's get it. Well, we're thankful for you. That's what
That's what it's about. We're all lapsed. That's all it is.
It is and long made continue. Happy New Year, Gay,
We're very glad that twenty twenty five will have you
in it.
Speaker 3: Let all the acquaintance be forgotten. Bitches A city.
Speaker 4: Preceding announcement as a t J DeSantis production, its contents
is intended for private use only