Speaker 1: It's the Lapsed Fan Wrestling podcast with Jack and carn
Speaker 1: S e O and JP sorrows He's a lapsed fan.
Speaker 2: In all my years and wrestling, I've never seen anything like.
Speaker 3: Rop kicking.
Speaker 1: It's the laps Fan man number one in the ring
Speaker 1: begin about.
Speaker 2: Osada, a real king of swing when the bell.
Speaker 3: Goes hang and a kick like me throoming in the
Speaker 3: corner with its rash like stick.
Speaker 2: Even Jerry King could say off the crown nodded in
Speaker 2: his head like Steve low Brown? Would you get low down?
Speaker 3: We go even high up? Trip you on your head?
Speaker 4: But you no cool drive speaking monology and dragon slits
Speaker 4: fire give you more shot than the edge, retire from
Speaker 4: dropping more.
Speaker 2: Truth than the conn of sniper unless you would a
Speaker 2: coconut Roddy Piper out, Jack a JP, you a j
Speaker 2: y D drop.
Speaker 1: A cupcakes and got the brain Bob Beans.
Speaker 2: The best podcast from the start, the close file of
Speaker 2: Your Benefit fricking Polls.
Speaker 4: We're kind of the occasional series here in the feed
Speaker 4: Boss t LF talks and this is uh, this is
Speaker 4: a unique one. You know, it always doesn't always make
Speaker 4: sense for a podcast formatted like ours to welcome guests
Speaker 4: from the contemporary scene, because we devote our lives trying
Speaker 4: to understand yesterday. Like the winners, we are will exactly
Speaker 4: exactly it doesn't you know, that doesn't denote any psychological
Speaker 4: problems or anything which is great for us exactly, but
Speaker 4: this is this is we have access this time around,
Speaker 4: and we hope you out in the Solar system appreciate this.
Speaker 4: To a rare species, the the lifelong fan who got
Speaker 4: to work for WWE and then is on the other
Speaker 4: side of it now and looking back like what what
Speaker 4: was that? Necessarily what was that all about? His name
Speaker 4: is Matt Camp. You should know him from The Bump,
Speaker 4: which of course was a ww digital show for years
Speaker 4: on there.
Speaker 3: I heard that. I heard it was hard the Race's
Speaker 3: favorite show.
Speaker 4: He's He's known to Bump, no question. Also, Matt spent
Speaker 4: years in the Busted Open radio show. He's back with
Speaker 4: those folks at Serious XM and a fan who got
Speaker 4: to work there, and Matt one, thank you so much
Speaker 4: for being on on the Laps Fans air waves.
Speaker 2: First of all, you set me up beautifully because I
Speaker 2: get to tell us tell a story right away. First
Speaker 2: of all, thank you for having me on. All those
Speaker 2: things were correct and very nice, you said, Harley Race.
Speaker 2: Can you think of anybody else who's been around in
Speaker 2: WW forever who might make a similar joke?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 4: God, Well, he may.
Speaker 2: He may be very involved with main events every single month.
Speaker 2: He might work behind the scenes. He may have video.
Speaker 2: No no, no, no, I'm talking about bump and the
Speaker 2: joke that you made the bump. Michael Hayes. Michael Hayes,
Speaker 2: Michael Hayes. I was once backstage at a raw h
Speaker 2: Oh my god, and I met him, and you know,
Speaker 2: it was you knew how to sell ribs or not
Speaker 2: sell them or whatever, and he was like, Matt Ben,
Speaker 2: Matt Ben. I was sorry, okay, I'm from the Bump.
Speaker 2: I know what the bump is. I said, all right, uh,
Speaker 2: And I think I was with Kayla was like, would
Speaker 2: you ever like to come on the Bump. I've done
Speaker 2: a bump or two the show is And I was like, well,
Speaker 2: nice to meet you, Mike. I thought that's fine. Yeah,
Speaker 2: And then I think he actually was on once like
Speaker 2: about his clothing and him and Kayla went shopping. He
Speaker 2: was very appreciative, but that was my like first interaction.
Speaker 2: He looked me up and down and I had a
Speaker 2: suit that was similar to his color, which if you
Speaker 2: ever seen him dress, so it was very loud. He's like,
Speaker 2: that's not my color.
Speaker 3: I prefer not to watch him when he's dressed.
Speaker 4: Oh that sounds that yeah, okay, in his state of dress.
Speaker 5: I prefer to see his you know, yeah, his attire
Speaker 5: as miss him.
Speaker 3: Well.
Speaker 4: You know, there's also a long heritage of having a
Speaker 4: bump or two on the table when you get back
Speaker 4: to the locker room as well. Let's be very clear
Speaker 4: about that double entendre potential as well. Not to say
Speaker 4: that that's not the business anymore though, Matt.
Speaker 2: By the way, John Cena said the same thing to
Speaker 2: me when I got to I interviewed him. He was
Speaker 2: it was the Fast nine trailer premiere at the Super
Speaker 2: Bowl in twenty twenty, and he had heard about the show,
Speaker 2: and you know, he was there. All he cared about
Speaker 2: was South Paul. I will tell you guys that, Oh yeah,
Speaker 2: producer I was with. He's like, are we doing it?
Speaker 2: And it's like he's like, that's wagging it up in
Speaker 2: the morning. And we talked about the bum and he
Speaker 2: made the joke during the interview He's like, oh, bump
Speaker 2: huh what about the wrestling part? Like, what are you
Speaker 2: guys like? Ah, he goes, oh morning show, you guys
Speaker 2: need that stuff. I was like, whoa Jesus John? All right,
Speaker 2: but yes, and I one really random fact that show
Speaker 2: was nearly called ding ding ding.
Speaker 4: Are you serious? Yes, that's like Jim Hurds show.
Speaker 3: I was gonna say it would be ding Dong ding Dong.
Speaker 2: They just wanted it to be the bell that was
Speaker 2: gonna be. I was like, and what are we supposed
Speaker 2: to do with it? And they settled on the bump,
Speaker 2: which is also tough to explain to people too.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 4: So all right, the double entendres run thick, and the
Speaker 4: appreciation for wordplay is you know, it reaches Titan towers.
Speaker 4: So before we forget to mention it because I shudder
Speaker 4: at the thought, Matt's doing kind of self starting Thing's
Speaker 4: got a great YouTube channel, the Wrestling mattshow dot com.
Speaker 4: You can subscribe and get access to some of his insights.
Speaker 4: So he's in our world now, welcome to Welcome to
Speaker 4: the basement dwellers. You know us all well, Matt is
Speaker 4: your studio in the basement per chance, of.
Speaker 2: Course it is absolutely yeah, right there was a playroom
Speaker 2: we redid for my daughter, which then became like my
Speaker 2: corner where if anybody's watched my sneaker collections behind me,
Speaker 2: And all of a sudden, there's lights up, and how
Speaker 2: do we light this thing? And all the nice lights
Speaker 2: we had put in are actually too bright, so we
Speaker 2: have to turn those off and we have to get
Speaker 2: these random lamps from the target. So I get it.
Speaker 2: And I did this beforehand, and right before I got
Speaker 2: hired the computer I'm using right now, I bought all
Speaker 2: this stuff to do to do twitch and all that,
Speaker 2: and I was like, I don't need that anymore. And
Speaker 2: here I am, guys, I'm right back to doing it.
Speaker 2: So yeah, that's I was ready for it. And then
Speaker 2: all that stuff happened. And during the pandemic, they sent
Speaker 2: me a bunch of stuff and we're like, hey, can
Speaker 2: you do an extra interurant poor from your house? Sure?
Speaker 2: All right, I have this big giant screen behind me,
Speaker 2: can you send me a grab? And that's what it was,
Speaker 2: and hanging a camera off the wall so people could
Speaker 2: know that Kyle Rally had a bad neck from Tuesday night.
Speaker 2: You know. That's that's what we did. And now I'm
Speaker 2: back to I got a team, and they're they're very
Speaker 2: good and helpful. But yeah, it's it's me in front
Speaker 2: of a camera in my basement at least five days
Speaker 2: a week.
Speaker 4: It's great. It's great. So let's start where in a
Speaker 4: lot of ways JP and I started. You know, the
Speaker 4: origin story. We've told it one hundred times on the show.
Speaker 4: I see no mercy in his n sixty four in
Speaker 4: the college dorm room. I look at him. I go,
Speaker 4: you a fan? And here we are, all these years later.
Speaker 4: So when did you become a fan? What's your true north?
Speaker 4: As far as like the heart and the essence of
Speaker 4: the wrestling of your childhood? Take us through that first.
Speaker 2: So I had a wonderful I don't even know what
Speaker 2: you'd call your grandmother's sister, but my great grandaunt or whatever,
Speaker 2: who had well black boxes because her husband worked for
Speaker 2: a cable television repair thing.
Speaker 4: So always good to have one of those friends in
Speaker 4: the circle hall.
Speaker 2: Can you imagine like telling people that now, like I've
Speaker 2: tried to explain that story, I'm like, so there used
Speaker 2: to be a thing where you get like, I guess
Speaker 2: it's like finding a stream of a show, which you
Speaker 2: should never do. By the way, you should always pay
Speaker 2: for everything. But anyway, back in the day the cable
Speaker 2: box black box, you can get the pay per view channels.
Speaker 2: So she would like randomly tape shows for me, and
Speaker 2: the first one she ever taped me was Wrestling A seven. Right, yes,
Speaker 2: like what A ran like real good and there's some
Speaker 2: real bad and seven year old Matt Camp or six
Speaker 2: or whatever. I was had no idea that they didn't
Speaker 2: sell enough tickets to run the coliseum, or as Bruce said,
Speaker 2: there was the threat of bombing because of the Saudi
Speaker 2: War and all that. But anyway, I watched that was
Speaker 2: over by that point, yeah, or the what do they
Speaker 2: call the Persian Golf for the whatever it was, yeah, right, yes,
Speaker 2: So that was my first full on show. I'm sure
Speaker 2: I had watched you know, Superstars or Wrestling Challenge or whatever.
Speaker 2: I had watched that stuff, but that was my first
Speaker 2: full on show. So you know, rockers are on that show,
Speaker 2: and obviously Warrior in Savage and I didn't get what
Speaker 2: no selling was at the time. And now I look
Speaker 2: back at he kicked out of five of those frigging elbows.
Speaker 2: Well that's horrible. But then the main event, I don't
Speaker 2: even think I like that match, even though I had
Speaker 2: just started.
Speaker 3: What is this?
Speaker 2: Like this is really slow? This hooken. Isn't this guy
Speaker 2: cheating like he's the good guy? Like you know all
Speaker 2: I got that the Hogan experience of USA and all that,
Speaker 2: and so that was seven is what ninety one? Yeah? Okay,
Speaker 2: So I also remember, and I know my timeline was
Speaker 2: I remember watching Hogan Warrior like it's the only thing
Speaker 2: I saw from six, and I was a Warrior guy,
Speaker 2: not a Hogan guy. And now I look back and go, like, man,
Speaker 2: you would have been wrong either way. But that's okay.
Speaker 2: You were six, So that's how it works. A year later,
Speaker 2: my dad took me to a house show at MSG.
Speaker 2: It was February ninth two. Flair had just won the
Speaker 2: Rumble and become world champ. And the cool thing was
Speaker 2: is they did matches obviously leading up to a battle
Speaker 2: oil at the end. So it was like Bulldog and Taker,
Speaker 2: Repoman and Roddy was a seven minute house show match
Speaker 2: and Repo Man comes out and this woman who's clearly
Speaker 2: a plant in the front row, like he steals her
Speaker 2: watch and she doesn't know it, because that's what Repo
Speaker 2: men do you just steal people's stuff, You don't just
Speaker 2: take it? And then Piper comes out and goes to
Speaker 2: the lady and he hugs her and they have a
Speaker 2: very quick match. I don't think any bumps were taken.
Speaker 2: And Piper gets the White Watch back. And then at
Speaker 2: the end of the night, everybody in the Battle Royal
Speaker 2: who had already faced off finds themselves. They're all fighting,
Speaker 2: and the end of the battle Flair gets eliminated in
Speaker 2: the middle, like they just get him out of it,
Speaker 2: and it comes down to Hogan and Sid and Hogan wins.
Speaker 2: Hogan must pose and all that, and he uses like
Speaker 2: a nonfolding chair and throws it in the ring after Sid,
Speaker 2: and that's the end of the show. And I remember,
Speaker 2: like my dad bought me an Ultimate Sparrior sweatshirt that day.
Speaker 2: I also know I went as Hogan for Halloween, so
Speaker 2: a lot of this stuff got all mixed together, and
Speaker 2: who knows where my brain was at. But that was
Speaker 2: it those first couple of years. That was the beginning
Speaker 2: for me. And you know, after that, I was locked
Speaker 2: in and I've never stopped watching. I had no like
Speaker 2: I met girls in high school or like I just
Speaker 2: kept watching Monday nights.
Speaker 4: So it was like those two things are connected, by
Speaker 4: the way.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I just kept going, Like I remember being in college,
Speaker 2: like when I was a freshman, and like, we're watching
Speaker 2: we have two TVs. We're watching one in a football
Speaker 2: and I'm watching raw and I got enough people involved
Speaker 2: to watch. And that's two thousand and three, so it's
Speaker 2: whatever it is at that time. And then we would
Speaker 2: go out because nobody had class Tuesday morning. But I
Speaker 2: kept watching and I always kept up on it and
Speaker 2: I never stopped. And here I'm talking to you guys
Speaker 2: all these years later.
Speaker 4: It's great. That's great. So very similar paths. I mean, boss,
Speaker 4: we've talked about Wrestling eighty seven is formative one hundred times.
Speaker 5: I mean we're talking about that. I mean, that's that's
Speaker 5: like my prime era right there. I mean, I you know,
Speaker 5: I watched the I stumbled upon build up to Wrestling
Speaker 5: you seven, and then I went to a house show
Speaker 5: February of ninety two at the Boston Garden. You know,
Speaker 5: I feel that no Battle Royal, I'm bummed about that.
Speaker 5: I'm gonna love the Battle Royal. But I did see
Speaker 5: I did see Hogan and Piper versus Flair and Sid
Speaker 5: the main event, which is pretty great.
Speaker 2: I'll tell you what it was cool is. I don't
Speaker 2: know if you guys know John Carlow, who works for Awn,
Speaker 2: did a lot of great stuff with Janella videographer John
Speaker 2: Carlotamo and him and I worked it up to be
Speaker 2: at the same time, and he's like, have you ever
Speaker 2: liked He goes, do you want to look for something?
Speaker 2: And I was like, what are you talking about? We
Speaker 2: can pull up anything. And I was like, what do
Speaker 2: you what do you mean? And he's like, pick something
Speaker 2: and I was like, oh, we watched because you've ever
Speaker 2: seen this before? And he pull up vignette and stuff
Speaker 2: and I go, he can you do me a fan ever?
Speaker 2: Because then I realized I was like, I was an
Speaker 2: M s G ninety two. They used to tape that
Speaker 2: stuff for the MSG network and it will be Lord
Speaker 2: Alfred or a Cornett or a Gorilla or whatever. They
Speaker 2: had some kind of I said, can you look up?
Speaker 2: And I found the date and he found it and
Speaker 2: they had I got to watch the first show I went,
Speaker 2: which was unbelievab. I was like, oh my god, it's
Speaker 2: and it's never been released. I mean, I'm sure it
Speaker 2: was on MSG or maybe Classics or something like that
Speaker 2: when you used to put it up back in the day.
Speaker 2: But it existed, and I was like, please find that
Speaker 2: piper match right now, and there was. And I was like,
Speaker 2: he's gonna steal the Oh my god. I was at
Speaker 2: and so that was kind of cool that I could
Speaker 2: go find it was digital. It was you know, this
Speaker 2: was this was on a server somewhere and he just
Speaker 2: pulled it up on one of the edit machines and
Speaker 2: there it was.
Speaker 4: The vault.
Speaker 3: Vault.
Speaker 2: Got asked about that, and yes, that one that's like
Speaker 2: far away somewhere does exist. I never went to it,
Speaker 2: the one in where is it Albany or somewhere in
Speaker 2: Connecticut somewhere. I know they have that building. Uh, but
Speaker 2: like the server room because I saw I'm a big
Speaker 2: Todd guy. Todd is my ultimate Like interesting, okay, okay,
Speaker 2: there's I know you guys can't see it. I have
Speaker 2: a Todd actions figure right behind me. And I've spoken
Speaker 2: to the man multiple times. Yes, and uh, he actually
Speaker 2: did one of those watch alongs and he did that.
Speaker 2: I was I had always said, like, who's your A
Speaker 2: month into my tenure, I was on a Watch Along
Speaker 2: for that awful fiend seth Hell in a cell match
Speaker 2: and I'm on the show with a bunch of people
Speaker 2: and someone's like, what's your what's your dream bumpcast? I
Speaker 2: said Todd, Pet and Gill and everyone laughed at me
Speaker 2: and Natally goes, oh, I remember Todd. He was so
Speaker 2: nice and I was like, thank you, Naddy, you're you're
Speaker 2: one hundred percent correct. And a couple of months later,
Speaker 2: I get a call like, hey, we're in Houston for
Speaker 2: Watch Along. We think we can get Todd. He lives
Speaker 2: in Austin, And I was like, wait, are you real
Speaker 2: Todd get Todd like yeah, we get him, and we
Speaker 2: got him, and me and Gargano were on the Watch
Speaker 2: Along and no one need else needed to be there
Speaker 2: that it needed to be cameras on. We were just like.
Speaker 2: I was like, Todd, how many free gifts did you
Speaker 2: give out? Because that's all I talk about when I said,
Speaker 2: did you get your free gift? That's like the UPC
Speaker 2: codes and did you just save your pay per view bill?
Speaker 2: And all of course was to just get your address
Speaker 2: so they could send you more stuff. And I asked him.
Speaker 2: He goes, oh, Diesel gloves and macho sunglass or bread
Speaker 2: he goes. There was a whole room of that, and
Speaker 2: I don't even know if it all got set. And
Speaker 2: he was so cool and nice. And when they brought him,
Speaker 2: when they did in your House, we got him to
Speaker 2: come on the bump, and then because he was on
Speaker 2: the bump, people were like, hey, he slows his fastball.
Speaker 2: And that's why Todd worked those in your houses the
Speaker 2: next two years.
Speaker 4: Yeah, he suddenly popped up again.
Speaker 2: Well he was so cool and uh yeah, so Todd
Speaker 2: is my wrestling godfather. But the server room where they
Speaker 2: did Mania and Live Wire and all that stuff, I
Speaker 2: wanted to shoot a pre tape there at Gargano and
Speaker 2: they were like, it's too loud in here, and it's
Speaker 2: not the same room, but you could see the bones
Speaker 2: of like that tape room. Wow, all there, and they're
Speaker 2: not in that building anymore. Everything got moved out. But
Speaker 2: I worked there to do you know, raw Talk and
Speaker 2: s back down low down. But I was like, can
Speaker 2: we go look? And I pulled it up and some
Speaker 2: of the people I worked with that were on the
Speaker 2: board for Raw Talk and SmackDown Load were working there
Speaker 2: back then. They're like, and I was like, you know,
Speaker 2: this is all on YouTube, like for real. And I
Speaker 2: showed them and I was like, can you show me
Speaker 2: where this is? And they walked me ten feet away.
Speaker 2: They're like, it's here, but it's too loud and we
Speaker 2: can't shoot anything in here because it's all got you know,
Speaker 2: fans and everything to keep the server room cool. But
Speaker 2: that building up until a few months ago was still
Speaker 2: in use and you could absolutely see where they shot
Speaker 2: those shows.
Speaker 4: That's wonderful, all right. So we talked about the volume.
Speaker 4: We're pretty obsessed with it, right, boss, I know the.
Speaker 5: We've been talking about the Vault since they came out
Speaker 5: with the Shawn Michaels DVD from the Vault back in
Speaker 5: like two thousand and two or two thousand and three,
Speaker 5: Like we were when they when they had that title.
Speaker 3: And they never did it again.
Speaker 5: They never released another DVD set from the Vault, and
Speaker 5: I was just like I from that moment on to
Speaker 5: this day, we're obsessed with the Vault.
Speaker 2: It's not something that matters as much because everything is
Speaker 2: so you know, digitized and everything, and you know with
Speaker 2: Peacock and you know, getting everything up with the network
Speaker 2: and whatever they had to do for that and then
Speaker 2: get everything over the peacock, and I'm sure they're dealing
Speaker 2: with that stuff now for Netflix. It's not as big,
Speaker 2: but there's a lot of stuff that exists and if
Speaker 2: you can't get it, like we had Jeff Jared on
Speaker 2: before Summerslim a couple of years ago when he did
Speaker 2: the ref stuff and I always like to dig deeper.
Speaker 2: I'm like, come on, we gotta find and we found
Speaker 2: he had done that hair versus hair match with X
Speaker 2: Pocket SummerSlam ninety eight. Yep, they did another one, or
Speaker 2: they did some like a ladder match or something at
Speaker 2: a house show in December, and I was like, hey,
Speaker 2: I looked it up on Cage Match. This exists, can
Speaker 2: we And they found like crappy footage. We were able
Speaker 2: to show it and he was like, you have this,
Speaker 2: and we had him and Waltman on and they both
Speaker 2: talked about it and they were both like, oh, and
Speaker 2: they knew spots from the match, and so they don't
Speaker 2: utilize it as much now. And I know they have
Speaker 2: that new YouTube page called the Vault and they're just
Speaker 2: kind of throwing random stuff on it and it's already
Speaker 2: become too recent, but all of that stuff still exists,
Speaker 2: and I do, and I think a lot of people
Speaker 2: don't know how you guys feel. I'm worried we're never
Speaker 2: going to see that stuff ever again.
Speaker 3: That's it. You know.
Speaker 5: One of the one of the things that really really
Speaker 5: bummed us out was that the Hidden Gem section of
Speaker 5: the old network didn't you guys, didn't transfer to Peacock.
Speaker 3: And it's like, that's what we want.
Speaker 5: We want all that stuff, you know, like we had
Speaker 5: a whole you know, we had a whole series, actually
Speaker 5: a whole Patreon exclusive series which was just going through
Speaker 5: all that old stuff, you know, video by video and
Speaker 5: you know, chronologically, and it's like it's gone.
Speaker 3: It's like, you know, I tried.
Speaker 2: It's all because I was like, can I you guys
Speaker 2: like hired me to be the wrestling nerd. That's basically
Speaker 2: what I mean. And I'm sure we'll get into that.
Speaker 2: Oh can we can? We can we bring that back?
Speaker 2: Like can I curate this? I I think you guys
Speaker 2: trust me enough. And the closest thing I got was
Speaker 2: at the end of last year, early into this year,
Speaker 2: before I got let go, I just pitched like, hey,
Speaker 2: and you guys done this. Everybody's done this, Like Can
Speaker 2: we just watch old stuff? I'm friends with chef. Can
Speaker 2: I just watch stuff and we just shoot the shit
Speaker 2: about it? And they're like yeah, because they had like
Speaker 2: a ver in the Twitch deals very much doesn't mean
Speaker 2: much Sam, and they only have one thing on it now,
Speaker 2: but they had started it up and they made like
Speaker 2: a Twitch room because they didn't understand that Twitch is
Speaker 2: not actually in somebody's bedroom all the time, but let's
Speaker 2: let's make it seem like somebody's room something so that
Speaker 2: it was in someone's office. The guy who hired me
Speaker 2: three years later, his office became the Twitch room, so
Speaker 2: that's where I wantow. So me and I've known Chef
Speaker 2: Reactions for a year and a half. He's coming to
Speaker 2: my wedding in a couple of months, and I was like, hey, dude,
Speaker 2: I don't think they're gonna pay you, but do you
Speaker 2: want to do twitch with me for like an hour
Speaker 2: on Tuesdays? And he's like absolutely. And I had gotten
Speaker 2: him in with Corbett and all the stuff they did
Speaker 2: a couple of years ago. So all I was told
Speaker 2: was you have to watch stuff that's on the ww
Speaker 2: YouTube channel. We can't put up anything new. We can't
Speaker 2: you know, give you stuff. It's got to be there
Speaker 2: or else. Twitch It's so I was just going. I
Speaker 2: talked to someone around the YouTube team. I was like,
Speaker 2: can I have the master lists?
Speaker 1: He's a lapsed fan wrestling podcast with Jack and Carneo
Speaker 1: and Jpisoro. He's a lapsed fan wrestling podcast.
Speaker 4: Master list is that's look? The master list is worth
Speaker 4: three hundred thousand dollars. Do you hear me?
Speaker 2: It's not as good as you would think either. I
Speaker 2: was very disappointed. I was like, is this on here? No?
Speaker 2: And we Well, that's the thing.
Speaker 4: It's so important to manage those expectations because we're sitting
Speaker 4: here thinking is everything there? And if we know what
Speaker 4: is and isn't there, then we can proceed with sanity.
Speaker 4: But until we know the difference, we're in a very
Speaker 4: dangerous place.
Speaker 3: Matt.
Speaker 2: I think we need it to watch full matches. I
Speaker 2: don't want to watch like here's three highlight ninety.
Speaker 3: No no no, no no no.
Speaker 2: And then like also I was told like, well, if
Speaker 2: it's got the f you can't watch it, and someone's like,
Speaker 2: oh screw it, you could watch it. Not that many
Speaker 2: people are watching you anyway, And I was like that's true.
Speaker 2: That's that's one hundred percent fair. Just let me watch stuff.
Speaker 2: So we watched, like I think the first thing we
Speaker 2: watched was Hogan and Giant with the monster trucks and
Speaker 2: then he comes back and they wrestle. Later on we
Speaker 2: watched we watched that from WCW. We watched you know,
Speaker 2: Stinging Brett and Sting has got tomato face, so you
Speaker 2: know that. And we would just like, give me random
Speaker 2: funny stuff to watch, like I don't I'm not going
Speaker 2: to make fun of current stuff. We just want to
Speaker 2: laugh at it. We watched WCW stuff, and we watched
Speaker 2: WWF stuff, and you know, we watched more recent stuff
Speaker 2: and it was it was going well and then then
Speaker 2: I was done. But I was like, there's a whole
Speaker 2: bunch of people that want to watch this, and this
Speaker 2: is not going to cost you that much to give them.
Speaker 4: That's that's the key. It's not how many, it's the
Speaker 4: margin that you can make. Come on, folks, like wake
Speaker 4: the fuck up, Like people will pay one hundred dollars
Speaker 4: a month to see this stuff, Like what is wrong
Speaker 4: with you?
Speaker 2: Guys's just had this conversation on my show and I
Speaker 2: was like, you know the aw maybe getting the dal
Speaker 2: with Max. It's going to allow hopefully so many more
Speaker 2: people to see their full library and it's five years
Speaker 2: worth of stuff. But you know, when the network came
Speaker 2: out and I was like, that's it. Ten bucks, I
Speaker 2: get the pay per views, I get everything.
Speaker 3: Yep.
Speaker 2: And I still have a picture on my phone of
Speaker 2: that first screenshot, like when it was live. I was
Speaker 2: sitting there and I was like, this is unreal. What
Speaker 2: are people like bitching about the number? And I was like,
Speaker 2: you don't realize how And they added way more and
Speaker 2: they finally got the network to a good spot and
Speaker 2: then I got moved to Peacock and now we have
Speaker 2: you know, remember that season back in nineteen when WrestleMania happened.
Speaker 2: It's like, no, nobody and everybody knows it's bad. Believe me, guys,
Speaker 2: they know that's a they know and they do what
Speaker 2: they can. And Peacock was not necessarily ready for that,
Speaker 2: and it took time, and you know, that's that is
Speaker 2: what it is, but you know it was it was
Speaker 2: a gold mine. And now it's on Peacock and it's
Speaker 2: five bucks or ten bucks and you get to watch
Speaker 2: the Office and stuff on top of it too, but
Speaker 2: like to have all that stuff and I don't know
Speaker 2: what's gonna make the next transition. I am legit worried
Speaker 2: about that, and I don't know if they care.
Speaker 5: Now that's kind of thing like, is there is there
Speaker 5: somebody there who like, is there what's the reason why
Speaker 5: so much stuff like for for example, like the fact
Speaker 5: that all of primetime wrestling is not up there.
Speaker 3: Not all the prime time wrestling up there, because you
Speaker 3: have a choice.
Speaker 2: It's a choice. It's also manpower. You know, we got
Speaker 2: a four manute, you know, and it's upscaling or.
Speaker 4: You don't know, you don't know, you don't no, Nope, listen,
Speaker 4: put point a fucking cell phone camera at the monitor.
Speaker 4: Let's get this going.
Speaker 2: I'm not I'm not.
Speaker 3: I'll volunteer. I'll volunteer.
Speaker 4: We're talking a volunteer thousands of people that will do
Speaker 4: this for them for free.
Speaker 2: All right, But that's that is what it is. It's
Speaker 2: it's there's efforts to have to put that stuff up
Speaker 2: and they go, you know, we're gonna do this. You
Speaker 2: know Tom Green who does w CW Deep Cuts, who
Speaker 2: I love, and it has all that stuff, and I'm
Speaker 2: like I'm glad he has it, because they're not going
Speaker 2: to put up those Saturday nights. They're not going to
Speaker 2: put up those thunders or what like. And and I
Speaker 2: know there's an audience for it, but there's I guess
Speaker 2: the question is is there enough that it's going to
Speaker 2: move the needle for them monetarily or is there enough
Speaker 2: stuff up there? They go, well, don't worry, you can
Speaker 2: watch just look at a different met trick.
Speaker 4: Instead of total revenue, just look at how much you
Speaker 4: have to spend to make the money in charge, one
Speaker 4: hundred dollars a month. And it'll be just like please, like.
Speaker 2: There's yes, tell me here, you have access to this.
Speaker 4: Gets your account, get your accounting, all gimmicks on it,
Speaker 4: and you know, make it sound like it makes sense.
Speaker 4: But do the right fucking thing, because if you're gonna
Speaker 4: buy everything and then hoard it, that's some bullshit.
Speaker 2: And now, and I know there were people there who
Speaker 2: may still be there, that cared and that wanted that
Speaker 2: to be the thing, and they had gotten the network
Speaker 2: to a good spot. I had I had a project
Speaker 2: I was working on right before the pandemic of I
Speaker 2: basically wanted to take you know, the podcast format of
Speaker 2: what Conrad and Bruce did and they ran that into
Speaker 2: the ground, but do it for more, Like, hey, here's
Speaker 2: the mizz for these couple of years, no one's ever
Speaker 2: done that with him. Let's talk about these years I did.
Speaker 2: I did an entire hour and forty minute pilot with
Speaker 2: Kofe from his debut on ACW to like the stuff
Speaker 2: with Randy, like that whole run, and we had clips
Speaker 2: to show him throughout and he's telling me stories about
Speaker 2: how Big show caved his chest in and that's why
Speaker 2: it looks like it did. And you know, I pulled up.
Speaker 2: We got his dark match with Steve Carino on a
Speaker 2: SmackDown and he loved it, he said, and he was
Speaker 2: he was the bump pilot. I wasn't even there when
Speaker 2: they did that. Kofe is the best. Kofe is a
Speaker 2: wonderful person. He should be as grizzled as anybody for
Speaker 2: as long as he's worked there, and he's always been
Speaker 2: the same guy. And I did that show with him
Speaker 2: and he's like, man, this is so great. I haven't
Speaker 2: talked about so much of this stuff. And I had Hayman.
Speaker 2: I had a thing where I wanted to do raise
Speaker 2: just ECW and w CW stuff stuff with show I
Speaker 2: at all, and they're like, well, you know that's that's
Speaker 2: gonna be a lot to get that stuff. And you
Speaker 2: know Steve does something like that, right, And I'm like,
Speaker 2: I'm not trying to do broken skull sessions. I'm trying
Speaker 2: to talk about ms Versusino with his chick Madden shirt. Yeah,
Speaker 2: they're like a whole different world.
Speaker 4: They're like, way, but that doesn't remind me of a
Speaker 4: real television show that if I produced a simile of it,
Speaker 4: I would feel like a big boy. Okay, that doesn't
Speaker 4: remind me of something I've seen before that I feel
Speaker 4: like would make me feel like someone who doesn't work
Speaker 4: in a carnival.
Speaker 2: I had to fight with something like is it going
Speaker 2: to be more than an hour? And I was like, yeah,
Speaker 2: like that's a lot. I was like why why exactly?
Speaker 2: I was like, shut the fuck up, car, sh It's over.
Speaker 2: And then I get back in the car and I
Speaker 2: resume my podcast like like anything.
Speaker 4: Because the people who will watch it for four hours
Speaker 4: are worth money. The people who have to have it
Speaker 4: in forty five minutes are going to move on to
Speaker 4: the next thing, and they're not money. That long term period,
Speaker 4: Hard stop podcasting.
Speaker 3: Proved it basically they suck.
Speaker 2: They do and then got to the point where it's like,
Speaker 2: oh well, it's kind of you know, a podcast like
Speaker 2: a video show and bubba. I'm like, yes, I know,
Speaker 2: I've been trying to tell you guys this and you
Speaker 2: know that's the kind of stuff that I was like,
Speaker 2: it's right here. I work here. I work here on
Speaker 2: Mondays and Wednesdays and Friday.
Speaker 4: I already work here, guys, and I'm putting my hand.
Speaker 2: Up like let's can we do this? Like it's I
Speaker 2: and I was doing all the research. I was like here,
Speaker 2: I would watch every friggin' Raw that Seamus was on
Speaker 2: from me, like I had an episode with him. Here's
Speaker 2: Seamus and ecw all the way to whatever. I think
Speaker 2: the few with triple.
Speaker 4: H me get me situated. Part of my ignorance. This
Speaker 4: this this idea you're talking about, Matt, you shot with
Speaker 4: kofee and Seamus. Did they see the light of day?
Speaker 4: Because I haven't seen.
Speaker 2: Him, Just goffe, no, it didn't. I just did with
Speaker 2: Seameless is going to be the next one. It's just
Speaker 2: right before the pace you.
Speaker 4: Actually did it, and that they just like, come on, guys.
Speaker 2: I know, I'll tell you a thing. I think something
Speaker 2: that happened and it's very unlucky Koffee had bed internet.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, but I heard it. I heard it, and
Speaker 2: I sent it to people outside of the company, like,
Speaker 2: oh my god, this is great and I had ten ideas.
Speaker 2: And as you may now know, there is no podcast
Speaker 2: for ww even though they're trying to keep that alive.
Speaker 2: But like, but to a podcast.
Speaker 5: But I guess here's the thing, Like, so you created
Speaker 5: this whole thing, you had all the stuff, and how
Speaker 5: much money did it cost them?
Speaker 2: Very little? I mean the podcast team, it's the same
Speaker 2: guys that did you know the New Day pod or
Speaker 2: Cory's pot and it was and it wasn't pulling every
Speaker 2: clip and it wasn't you know, that was just a
Speaker 2: job memory if it was something special cool. We knew
Speaker 2: for some of the older wrestlers, if they needed their
Speaker 2: memory job for various reasons, hey, we could show them
Speaker 2: this clip. And if it was just the podcast, fine,
Speaker 2: and the audio is enough, you know, if we played
Speaker 2: the audio or something, everybody does that that's enough to do.
Speaker 2: We just want to get the stories out of them.
Speaker 3: So it costs.
Speaker 5: It costs very little, and they have it, and they're
Speaker 5: not going to just say, here's a couple hours, let's
Speaker 5: just put it up there and see what happens.
Speaker 2: Correct And it got it went through multiple receives.
Speaker 4: Whatever, house standards or whatever.
Speaker 2: Yeah, like I I was there already. They knew. I
Speaker 2: knew it. I knew I was good as a host
Speaker 2: of doing it. I knew it wasn't handing someone random
Speaker 2: who didn't know wrestling as script and be like host
Speaker 2: this podcast.
Speaker 4: Well, it's someone they hired to be a broadcaster.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: It's like, yeah, you know, yes, yes, and do you
Speaker 2: know do.
Speaker 3: You know entertainment? Though you know wrestling, but entertainment, that's
Speaker 3: the key.
Speaker 2: They never even got to that side of the world
Speaker 2: because digit old TB for a while. We're separate. It
Speaker 2: did like I had to fight through well, you know,
Speaker 2: I listened. It was good. I don't know if we
Speaker 2: have the manpower to do this. I got that a lot.
Speaker 2: You know, we're doing so many other things. It's like, oh, okay, yeah, sure, I.
Speaker 4: Just I just did it, So what do you mean
Speaker 4: man power?
Speaker 3: I did it.
Speaker 2: Like your podcast team is not busy, you're running reruns
Speaker 2: at the New Day Pod for a year and a
Speaker 2: half to pretend like you have a podcast now, Well, my.
Speaker 4: Man, Yeah, it's laziness. It's laziness and a lack of
Speaker 4: imagination and that's it. Not that mu much more complicated.
Speaker 2: Of course we say that all they're making money hand
Speaker 2: over fist right now, So what do I.
Speaker 4: Know, Well, yeah, of course, I mean that that's part
Speaker 4: of the reason that they can afford to sort of,
Speaker 4: you know, mask over things that could that could catch
Speaker 4: you know, because here's the here's the risk, Matt. They
Speaker 4: put out Kofe's entire thing and people really like it,
Speaker 4: and no one cares about the ideal quality, and what
Speaker 4: does that mean for half of the production budget? Right,
Speaker 4: all of a sudden, everyone was, all of a sudden
Speaker 4: okay with zoom quality during COVID, Right.
Speaker 3: We got it.
Speaker 4: We got over that real quick.
Speaker 2: It was edited, they cleaned it up, it was fine.
Speaker 2: Any of the is it was fine. On top of
Speaker 2: it that so too long to shoot, but we still
Speaker 2: cut it down and they had a good rough cut
Speaker 2: of it. And I was like, you know, if we
Speaker 2: try this for six it'll be fine. Like I know,
Speaker 2: it'll do well, And I was like, no, we're not
Speaker 2: gonna okay. I was like, I'll go. I'll go to TV.
Speaker 2: You need me to go to Raw or smack Down
Speaker 2: or Flying or I'll go to the because I didn't
Speaker 2: go that often. I was like, but I'll go. You
Speaker 2: we need to do this on zoom with people who
Speaker 2: can handle that. We could do it.
Speaker 4: No, h JP is it's it's gotta be worse that
Speaker 4: we're sitting here thinking why don't they and and actually
Speaker 4: it's way worse. They have a guy who said I will,
Speaker 4: and they still were like that's boring, Like let's call
Speaker 4: Bunna Murray again.
Speaker 5: I mean, that's the whole thing. It's like they're they
Speaker 5: there's not even a a you know, we can't or
Speaker 5: we you know. It's like basically we don't want to.
Speaker 3: I feel like it. That's what it comes across as
Speaker 3: And that's.
Speaker 5: Fucking annoying as hell, because you can have so much
Speaker 5: more interesting ship out.
Speaker 2: There and promoting you tell me then, now and forever,
Speaker 2: and you show those clips and it's like it's the
Speaker 2: same thing. Like the reason A and E has those
Speaker 2: shows is because they overproduced for Peacock. Yeah, and that
Speaker 2: actually I don't know if that's totally out there. That
Speaker 2: was a big part of the regime change a couple
Speaker 2: years ago when they moved on from people in digital
Speaker 2: is like you could only have so many Keith Lee
Speaker 2: twenty four to sevens when the guys had three matches,
Speaker 2: like and I understand that.
Speaker 4: Well, remember Peacock was going to do the Yokazuna one
Speaker 4: and then that didn't happen, and then all of a sudden, sir,
Speaker 4: you only knew, I'm slapping my knees right now and
Speaker 4: take it.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So they had produced a ton of content, obviously and
Speaker 2: almost too much. Like I understood the like, hey, we
Speaker 2: don't need a documentary on this guy who's been on
Speaker 2: the roster two weeks, Like we don't need a twenty
Speaker 2: four to seven or a three sixty. I got that.
Speaker 2: And at some point they looked and said, well, we've
Speaker 2: given Peacock all we need to give them, so now
Speaker 2: let's sell this stuff to A and E because they
Speaker 2: want to pay for it. By the way, they still
Speaker 2: are a good business plan. I get that. So we
Speaker 2: got what we get. We got the Yoko one icons
Speaker 2: that actually saw the light of day, the Beth Phoenix
Speaker 2: once saw the light of day. The one that had
Speaker 2: stopped on was Lex.
Speaker 4: Oh I'm sorry, I was thinking of the Intrepid. Yeah,
Speaker 4: it was Lex that didn't make it.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So I had done a show for Taker's Last Ride
Speaker 2: documentary called post Mortem, and basically we took whoever was
Speaker 2: like the central figure or someone that could talk about
Speaker 2: that episode, and me and Ryan Popolo, who was on
Speaker 2: the bump, we would interview that person. So we had
Speaker 2: Shane on, we had Michelle McCool on, and we had
Speaker 2: aj on, and we had Sean Michaels on and it
Speaker 2: was cool to kind of get you know. It was
Speaker 2: very much like talking dead or you know, the breaking
Speaker 2: bad talking, you know, just after the fact. Hey, here's
Speaker 2: everything we saw. Now let's talk about it with the
Speaker 2: important people. So that was the idea for icons. We
Speaker 2: called it Icons Revisited. So we did it for Yoko
Speaker 2: and we had Rakishi on and he was amazing.
Speaker 3: Like he was.
Speaker 2: He got us crying, he was crying, and we talked
Speaker 2: to a couple a couple of people about Yoko. We
Speaker 2: talked to Brett about Yoko. He loved him. And that's
Speaker 2: what it was. It was like, Okay, I know some
Speaker 2: of these people were interviewed for these shows, but some
Speaker 2: people weren't. Or now that it's out there, you know
Speaker 2: that Yoka one was so well done. It was dark.
Speaker 2: It was sad because of how his life ended and
Speaker 2: where he was going and how many people worried about
Speaker 2: his weight. But we were able to go a little deeper.
Speaker 2: And then for Beth, you know, we talked to Mickey James,
Speaker 2: and we talked to Mally Holly, and then for Lex,
Speaker 2: I was excited. I was like, Okay, here we go.
Speaker 2: And I kept here and like, yeah, there's not really
Speaker 2: a good way to end this one because how his
Speaker 2: wrestling life kind of ended, like there's no like, yeah,
Speaker 2: whether it be the stuff it Liz or you know,
Speaker 2: obviously Lex ending up a wheelchair. And I was like,
Speaker 2: all right, so we shot. I interviewed Bishoff, Flair and
Speaker 2: Brett for the lex Icons revisited and they never saw
Speaker 2: the light of day. And you know what, RVD had
Speaker 2: also made air. I remember we actually got RVD after
Speaker 2: the fact, but that is that was the pivot. That
Speaker 2: was Okay, everything's getting shelved, and I think Lex got
Speaker 2: Redone and a couple other ones that they were going
Speaker 2: to do got redone and they got turned into biographies
Speaker 2: or whatever. But yeah, there's some of those that didn't
Speaker 2: make air. One of my favorite things is you remember
Speaker 2: the Brett WrestleMania arcade, the cabinet commercial where Brett goes
Speaker 2: in with lunch and he's showing him how to do
Speaker 2: this stuff. So there's that image where he is either
Speaker 2: putting a Russian leg sweep or setting up the backbreaker
Speaker 2: on the cabinet. If you ever seen that image, it
Speaker 2: was in extual. So RJ City and I used to
Speaker 2: argue about this all the time. What move was he doing?
Speaker 2: And I was like, well, his hands across. If it's
Speaker 2: hands across, he's trying to do the backbreaker, and he's like, no,
Speaker 2: it's the Russian leg sweep he wouldn't do. And we
Speaker 2: argued about this, and I was like, all right, if
Speaker 2: I ever talked to Brett, we'll ask him. So for
Speaker 2: that icons revisited we had Brett and I go, we
Speaker 2: had him. He was done. I go, Brett, I got
Speaker 2: to ask you something. And I walk up to the
Speaker 2: camera and I put it up in it and I
Speaker 2: was like, this picture right here, are you doing a
Speaker 2: back break or a Russian leg sweep, and in the
Speaker 2: most Brett way possible, he breaks down the science of
Speaker 2: it and he goes, yeah, you know, but it was
Speaker 2: probably just a mix of both. And I was like,
Speaker 2: oh fuck, and I was like, thank you, Brett. He goes,
Speaker 2: you really couldn't do either move because it was a
Speaker 2: it was an arcade game. And I was like, okay, bro,
Speaker 2: thank you for your time.
Speaker 3: And I was like, that's the one thing.
Speaker 2: It's both.
Speaker 4: See, that's the one thing you had you guys didn't
Speaker 4: consider before approaching Brett. It's an arcade game, so it
Speaker 4: couldn't be the move.
Speaker 3: It was.
Speaker 2: But he was like, I just kind of did both.
Speaker 2: And I was like, Brett, that's not a move of joom,
Speaker 2: that's a mix, like what was going on here? And
Speaker 2: I had to tell Arday. I was like, it's a
Speaker 2: mix and he just goes, that's bullshit. I know, I know.
Speaker 2: Those are my favorite, like those of those moments and
Speaker 2: I'm like, no one would you guys would get this.
Speaker 2: We could never put that on the air. Nobody would
Speaker 2: get it. And it was just me getting up or
Speaker 2: behind a desk and holding my phone up as close
Speaker 2: as I can and I see Brett like and if
Speaker 2: you ever seen Bretty does the same interview spot in
Speaker 2: his like kitchen and his dynet set in front of him,
Speaker 2: but you know, the snow is behind him and he's
Speaker 2: always like, honest, you know, that's it, and I have
Speaker 2: to hold it all the way up to show him.
Speaker 4: And yeah, so it reminds me of a vault thing too.
Speaker 4: I mean, forever there's been this, this idea that that
Speaker 4: in the WWF magazine photo archives is a photoshoot of
Speaker 4: Hulk and Brett with tug of war go ahead.
Speaker 2: I don't know the answer to this. I believe it,
Speaker 2: like I've seen it. I believe it. I believe that
Speaker 2: whole story of that it was supposed to happen, and
Speaker 2: that graphic, that actual match graphic that was made. All
Speaker 2: of it makes sense, and of course makes sense because
Speaker 2: the hogan that it didn't happen.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, the magic makes it. But Brett going
Speaker 4: in a such detail about the photo shoot and the
Speaker 4: fact that these photos themselves have never surfaced, really there
Speaker 4: was I.
Speaker 5: Mean, you know there was again, you know there there
Speaker 5: there were photos in an issue of the WAD magazine
Speaker 5: with you know, it was that.
Speaker 3: That dream match thing. No, No, it is the dream
Speaker 3: wat the dream match thing where they would.
Speaker 5: They have these ideas like what if these people faced
Speaker 5: off and there was one with Brett and Hogan.
Speaker 4: Well yeah, but those I'm looking at it right now.
Speaker 4: Those are just individual studio shots that that wasn't That
Speaker 4: doesn't appear to be on the same set, and they're
Speaker 4: not facing each other as if they can see each other.
Speaker 4: But then they did one with bretton Diesel in ninety five.
Speaker 4: This time there will be a winner and they're holding
Speaker 4: the belt between each other, and I feel like that's
Speaker 4: the exact prototype.
Speaker 2: For what sure Bruce is like, hey, let's do that
Speaker 2: Holgan bread Shoot.
Speaker 4: Yeah, probably exactly right. They get these archetypes in their minds,
Speaker 4: but we've never seen the original. Well so you you progress, Matt,
Speaker 4: and you are a lifelong fan and you stick with
Speaker 4: it even when others are falling off. We talk a
Speaker 4: lot in the lap fan, as you may know, about
Speaker 4: the shame and pain of being a wrestling fan. You know,
Speaker 4: I'm in broadcasting. What do you broadcast? It's like a
Speaker 4: mixture between sports and what is it? It's it's wrestling.
Speaker 4: Oh my god, do you think that stuff's real? I
Speaker 4: mean that will never go away. I don't care how
Speaker 4: much money they make.
Speaker 5: It jumps right to that, It jumps right to how
Speaker 5: because you have a job at this company.
Speaker 3: Oh you think that sh it's real?
Speaker 4: Wait till they ask you now post ww life.
Speaker 2: When you go Now I've thought about that, I'm like,
Speaker 2: what do I say? So, how do you handle that before?
Speaker 2: Because like I did a New Japan podcast for p
Speaker 2: W Insider, which is actually supposed to be an official
Speaker 2: New Japan podcast, and then they changed all the regime
Speaker 2: and people were gone and New Japan, you know, didn't
Speaker 2: want to spend money on America and that's what happened.
Speaker 2: But I got hired that year, and it's easier to go,
Speaker 2: like I work at w B and people like, oh
Speaker 2: I know that, like that absolutely that's fine, And I
Speaker 2: was there where you know, pandemic is different. But like
Speaker 2: after that, once Triple Ahs took over, it did get better.
Speaker 2: And it's like, obviously has gotten better, and we can
Speaker 2: argue all we want and be mad that it doesn't
Speaker 2: see the light of day, like the Vault stuff like that,
Speaker 2: But I do believe Nick Khan has taken them to
Speaker 2: greater heights and there is more money to be made
Speaker 2: and endeavor and all this stuff. Now, you know that's
Speaker 2: it is more. He's made it more acceptable, you know that.
Speaker 2: Look at the people that they're bringing in, the level
Speaker 2: of celebrity, like all of that stuff. I can't deny that.
Speaker 2: I never would and I had always said, like, you know,
Speaker 2: anybody who makes through the merger, which I still think
Speaker 2: is an ongoing thing, you're working for a freaking powerhouse.
Speaker 2: I mean, that's what it is. That's and look what
Speaker 2: they're doing now. I happen to think the show's a
Speaker 2: little too glossy for me. I watched MANI and I'm like,
Speaker 2: these are blowoffs the feuds or are we just watching
Speaker 2: exhibitions here? Because everything looks too nice? Nobody's that pissed
Speaker 2: at each other.
Speaker 4: And asked, so, how have you handled the you know
Speaker 4: it's fake right question in your lifetime?
Speaker 1: He's a lapsed fan wrestling podcast with Jack and se
Speaker 1: mjpro Lapsed fan Wrestling Podcast.
Speaker 2: I go, yeah, so are the every TV show you watch?
Speaker 2: Isn't that the standard answer?
Speaker 3: I think?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 4: Good, Okay, So I don't know, boss, what did what
Speaker 4: did we tell people make meth?
Speaker 1: Like?
Speaker 2: I don't you know like I always just say, like,
Speaker 2: it's a male soap proper. Now it's obviously gender mix
Speaker 2: up and all that, and that's good, Like that's what
Speaker 2: it should be. But that was the easy way. My
Speaker 2: mom even called it that. She's like, oh, that's like
Speaker 2: me watching you know, General hospital stories exactly. Yeah, And
Speaker 2: my dad took me. And my dad has been a
Speaker 2: sports official for years at the highest level, and he
Speaker 2: liked going, Like I took him to a house. He
Speaker 2: took me that first house show. He loved the spectacle
Speaker 2: of it. He took I took him to a TNA
Speaker 2: show when I was friends with people there at uh
Speaker 2: MCU Park where where they play baseball whatever the cyclones.
Speaker 2: He loved it. He went to RAW a couple of
Speaker 2: years ago with his wife. She's like, she's a big
Speaker 2: broad with she loved it. I think people get it
Speaker 2: more now, right, But that's that makes sense.
Speaker 4: She's like, enough generations have turned over to where there's
Speaker 4: enough kids who watched it in childhood as a national product,
Speaker 4: not as.
Speaker 2: It's not being protected anymore in that way. Yeah, a
Speaker 2: part of it too. Everybody's appearing on things or and
Speaker 2: I think the fact that people have become movie stars
Speaker 2: John Cena or that helps Rock or even Batista or
Speaker 2: people or you know, it's like, yeah, they were acting
Speaker 2: on Mondays and now they act in movies. It's the
Speaker 2: same thing.
Speaker 4: Well we switched it up, JP and I you talk about,
Speaker 4: what else do you say besides you know it's it's
Speaker 4: like the movies are fake. We decided after the UFC
Speaker 4: took off that what we would say to people is
Speaker 4: actually they changed it. As a result of the rise
Speaker 4: of UFC, they felt the pressure to go real and
Speaker 4: now WW is completely real if you watch it now,
Speaker 4: and we straight face we would not because it's a
Speaker 4: stranger that comes at you with that attitude almost always right,
Speaker 4: like a party in a party or something.
Speaker 2: I would always have because I was doing fantasy football
Speaker 2: stuff and wrestling at the same time, so I would
Speaker 2: tweet about both and most of the people who follow
Speaker 2: me were just looking for fantasy football advice. But I
Speaker 2: got you're not it's fake, right, Oh God, why are
Speaker 2: you talking about that?
Speaker 3: You know?
Speaker 2: I wish you. I wish you create another Twitter account. Okay.
Speaker 4: I was like, Oh, what is it about? Why do
Speaker 4: you think people are like that?
Speaker 2: Because they have a voice. Now everybody has a voice
Speaker 2: and they said it. That's it. That's all. They have
Speaker 2: a voice, and they have an anonymous voice, and nothing's
Speaker 2: going to happen unless, you know, they go say something
Speaker 2: really terrible and their their account gets supported and they
Speaker 2: created a new one. That's all it is.
Speaker 3: I've been I've been saying that for years.
Speaker 5: Is that that's the one of the biggest problems with
Speaker 5: the Internet and social media is that everybody has a
Speaker 5: voice now, and most people don't deserve to have one.
Speaker 2: They don't there no one's checking it. We can create
Speaker 2: you guys can create the last fan. I could do
Speaker 2: my thing. I'm so happy that that is a thing
Speaker 2: and that people who have been able to go, you
Speaker 2: know what. I have this phone and I could do
Speaker 2: some great things. That's awesome. I'm glad people are making money.
Speaker 2: I talked about being friends of chef reactions. He quit
Speaker 2: his job. He takes care of his grandmother because he
Speaker 2: looks at a food and go that's dumb or that's great,
Speaker 2: that's awesome.
Speaker 4: I love his videos.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's the best, but he also is well aware.
Speaker 2: He's like, I can't believe I do this for a living,
Speaker 2: you know, Like I think every like that is the
Speaker 2: kind of person I want to see. It's the and
Speaker 2: especially in wrestling. You guys, notice, my God, has it
Speaker 2: gotten worse than ever?
Speaker 4: Well, it's almost like, you know, I think it's part
Speaker 4: of that denial of the fact that you fell in
Speaker 4: love with something that's complete pantomime and foolishness, and like
Speaker 4: you have to somehow account for that because in polite
Speaker 4: society you can't defend it. Like I don't care if
Speaker 4: you make millions of dollars. If you're in this business,
Speaker 4: family friends, neighbors, acquaintances judge you and whisper behind your
Speaker 4: back when you leave the room about how how developmentally
Speaker 4: delayed you must be to folow professional Wrestling, And I
Speaker 4: think a way to cocon I way to cope with
Speaker 4: that is to get this serious and hardcore about the
Speaker 4: minutia of ratings, because that feels real, That feels like
Speaker 4: something you can Unlike the football world, where you can't
Speaker 4: count on the results to argue over and you can't
Speaker 4: go to the matt debating who the better player was
Speaker 4: on the field Sunday, that's what we have in wrestling.
Speaker 4: We have, like you know, arguing matters of taste and
Speaker 4: arguing good or we do have that though.
Speaker 2: That's the thing, like, that's why First Take exists and
Speaker 2: all that and the greatest you know Lebron loses, Well
Speaker 2: he sucks, now, no he doesn't. That's what it's become
Speaker 2: like that to me, that's wrestling forums and that's Twitter,
Speaker 2: and that's that's message boards. That's what that's become on television.
Speaker 2: The guy who created that, Jamie Horrowitz, who has his
Speaker 2: own sword, passed like he was part of the new regime.
Speaker 2: They wanted to do that for with me, and like
Speaker 2: Helwanie and Sam Roberts and like Tyler Breese, they wanted
Speaker 2: that to be a thing.
Speaker 4: And when you say that to be a thing, please
Speaker 4: give me more.
Speaker 2: The Debate show he created the Debate or First Take.
Speaker 4: Or he's he's the pivot to video guy, right, yeah,
Speaker 4: smashing success.
Speaker 2: Yes, so Nail did it Fox. And when he came in,
Speaker 2: I'm like, oh jeez. And I had heard things like
Speaker 2: oh he tries the pit talent against each other. He
Speaker 2: did the opposite. He just disappeared like he did nothing,
Speaker 2: He did no work. He was a nick on higher
Speaker 2: and then it was like he just kind of got
Speaker 2: let go and everybody's like, oh.
Speaker 4: No one even talks about that.
Speaker 2: Nothing. Nothing.
Speaker 4: So the idea there is that we want our hosts
Speaker 4: to scream at each other about how someone sucks and
Speaker 4: how they're great, like they would, but do so.
Speaker 2: While you work for the company, right, So figure out
Speaker 2: how that works. It's like when they did backstage and like,
Speaker 2: there's page going I don't think this person should be
Speaker 2: a heel and I was like, and that promotes the SmackDown.
Speaker 2: How well we worked there? That's the gray.
Speaker 4: It's always the tough part of like I thought all
Speaker 4: these I thought WW was above that chatter. I thought
Speaker 4: this talent didn't even notice that chatter, and here they
Speaker 4: are trying to mimic it.
Speaker 2: It was eleven o'clock on Tuesday nights that had no
Speaker 2: lead in. They were trying you know, Punk debuted on
Speaker 2: that show at eleven fifty nine Eastern on a Tuesday
Speaker 2: night and the lead in was Big ten Basketball.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 4: Well, so that you're bringing me to something out, You're
Speaker 4: bringing me something I really want to ask about. And
Speaker 4: I've thought about this for years. I thought about this
Speaker 4: when the network first came out and some of their
Speaker 4: sub numbers were disappointing. In terms of what the Wall
Speaker 4: Street expected, and it's like, what can they do to make,
Speaker 4: you know, to create the new attitude or like a
Speaker 4: step change in how they present wrestling to where people
Speaker 4: would give it a look and be like, whoa, really
Speaker 4: they're doing that now, that's crazy. And I was thinking,
Speaker 4: what if you put and tell me why this is
Speaker 4: an awful idea? Because I've tried to workshop this with
Speaker 4: anyone I've ever met who works in the business. Why
Speaker 4: don't you put the creative meetings online?
Speaker 2: Well you'd have to have well I don't think it's
Speaker 2: a sway anymore, but you'd have to just basically have
Speaker 2: a camera running for six hours while I have pretty
Speaker 2: waits for Vince to show up. That was a thing. Yeah,
Speaker 2: that was that was like, that's what I am and
Speaker 2: I and I had heard stories of like you know,
Speaker 2: people on the team vincentings it now and it's one
Speaker 2: o'clock in the morning, and okay, like that's and you
Speaker 2: know those shows get written on Thursday, and you know
Speaker 2: when I had Raw Talk and Smack Down Low Down.
Speaker 2: So I would sit in the green room at the
Speaker 2: TV studio and watch the shows, but I would get
Speaker 2: the full script of raw and SmackDown every Oh yeah yeah,
Speaker 2: Draft one and Draft two and Draft three and at
Speaker 2: seven forty five, Draft six, and a lot of stuff
Speaker 2: would change. So unless they had a good editor to
Speaker 2: put all that, you know that what's the closest they've
Speaker 2: come that that that in house uh State media documentary
Speaker 2: they put out about WrestleMania.
Speaker 4: Like that's where I'm going.
Speaker 2: And even then they could they're gonna they want to
Speaker 2: make it look like no one was gonna make Rock
Speaker 2: look bad even though his idea was stupid. And then
Speaker 2: he took, you know, credit for changing the idea even
Speaker 2: though everybody knew it was Cody's year and had nothing
Speaker 2: to do with the Rock. And somehow they put a
Speaker 2: negative connotation on Rock versus Roman because they did it
Speaker 2: took how many extra weeks for that documentary to come out?
Speaker 2: And they have a hell of a doc team. I mean,
Speaker 2: I loved working with those people. I did some historical
Speaker 2: consulting with them. That team is fantastic. Oh yeah, but
Speaker 2: they get put in some tough spots sometimes, and you know,
Speaker 2: can you show that It would be cool if they
Speaker 2: had cameras rolling and they they show it ten years later,
Speaker 2: isn't that Bruce's podcast.
Speaker 4: Yeah, well that that's my point. It's like everyone's doing
Speaker 4: it anyway. Whant to capture the action, you.
Speaker 2: Know, I I I think there's something to going. Like
Speaker 2: and here was the creative meeting ten years ago, like
Speaker 2: why can't you do retrospectives about that time?
Speaker 3: Do it?
Speaker 4: Yeah? That was like when I first had that brainstorm,
Speaker 4: I was like, no, this is okay. Actually, what I
Speaker 4: mean is put them on after it's over.
Speaker 2: Like, I don't mean there was a five year rule
Speaker 2: for some time about talking about stuff, especially with that
Speaker 2: creative Yeah. Yeah, like like, hey, don't ask Seth about this.
Speaker 2: But you know, and I had when I was doing
Speaker 2: that podcast pilot, I was like, Okay, I don't want
Speaker 2: to do anything current. I want to I want to
Speaker 2: talk about stuff that. You know. Okay, we've seen the
Speaker 2: Monday Night Wars enough times. We don't need to see
Speaker 2: him again. Can we talk about something. I've seen the
Speaker 2: limbo get broken. I've seen it. I've seen Rea get
Speaker 2: thrown it to the side of their failer a lot
Speaker 2: of times. I've seen Kevin Nashsey adverb you know, an adjective. Whatever,
Speaker 2: I've seen it. Can we talk about something else. We
Speaker 2: have a lot of active talent here that was here
Speaker 2: ten or fifteen years ago, and nothing they're doing right
Speaker 2: now will pertain to that. We have Paul Hayman. Can
Speaker 2: we talk about ECW with Paul Hayman and not be
Speaker 2: doing Rise and Fall? Can we get into others like
Speaker 2: and you know, I absolutely think there's something to that.
Speaker 2: And you know what they could charge Exit for that.
Speaker 2: They could have a premium YouTube channel and people would
Speaker 2: pay for that, and you know what, Endeavor would be
Speaker 2: happy to take their money.
Speaker 4: That's what I'm saying, Like, because the way these guys talk,
Speaker 4: it's it's about how much they made relative how much
Speaker 4: they spend. It's not about the total pool of money.
Speaker 4: No one's going to present this as a three hundred
Speaker 4: million dollar idea, but it's how little you have to
Speaker 4: spend to make you know. Look, whatever it was that
Speaker 4: they would rather do than your idea with koffee, No
Speaker 4: one wants to watch after a week what you wanted
Speaker 4: to do with koffee, And we stand is proof positive
Speaker 4: they're going to listen to that for thirty years. Yeah,
Speaker 4: if they have until of interest in this guy or
Speaker 4: any kind of curiosity about how he came up in
Speaker 4: the business. That's evergreen stuff, and you can monetize the
Speaker 4: shit out of that.
Speaker 2: I mean, I always was a big believer also, and
Speaker 2: when I did the bump, you know, it was that
Speaker 2: gray area of I'm being a wrestling journalist and we're
Speaker 2: on the same team. I was an actor. I researched
Speaker 2: my role and made sure, you know, I presented myself well,
Speaker 2: but I was part of the team. I'm not going
Speaker 2: to knock anything. Yeah, but anytime I had somebody come on,
Speaker 2: I always tried to find some real life stuff that
Speaker 2: wasn't going to change or mess with storylines or be
Speaker 2: able to tell a story or hey, ten years ago
Speaker 2: you were in NXT. Let's watch that stuff. And they,
Speaker 2: by the way, talent loves that because some of them
Speaker 2: love to talk about themselves. We know that. But also
Speaker 2: it's like, hey, that was fun. I don't remember that.
Speaker 2: I'm so used to talking about being in store. My
Speaker 2: whole thing was if you're walking in that studio or
Speaker 2: we're interviewing you on Skype or video call, whatever, I
Speaker 2: want people to finish that interview and go. I want
Speaker 2: to see him on Monday. I want to see her
Speaker 2: on Tuesday. I want to watch them on Friday. Oh
Speaker 2: you know what, I didn't know about them. I like
Speaker 2: them that much more now. My job was just to
Speaker 2: get everybody, and stuff like that is gonna get people
Speaker 2: over more if you could these biographies. People like mis
Speaker 2: more now than they did because they got to see
Speaker 2: a story a little bit. The punk one when he
Speaker 2: got hot, it was like, oh wow, look at all
Speaker 2: the stuff he did beforehand. So now you tell a
Speaker 2: deeper story and people are more invested.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we'll get it. You're going to see a side
Speaker 4: of the person that's actually operating behind the gimmick, and
Speaker 4: you're like, okay, I can get behind that guy's situation.
Speaker 4: I remember Brian Pillman Junior, for God's sakes, got a
Speaker 4: job off being on dark side. It was like, okay,
Speaker 4: this is like or he got a push off being
Speaker 4: off dark side.
Speaker 2: Cody Cody got hired because of his speech and his
Speaker 2: dad's Hall of Fame thing. I mean, like there is
Speaker 2: a great example. There's little stories like that of Hey,
Speaker 2: that person she didn't go anywhere, but like we had
Speaker 2: Lacy Evans on and I think she was a heel
Speaker 2: at the time, and her daughter was there with her
Speaker 2: and we played into it and we told her whole
Speaker 2: story and she was crying about things and her upbringing
Speaker 2: was and I was like, whoa. She turned babyface after
Speaker 2: that because they knew they had something and sometimes that stuff.
Speaker 2: It's just dig a little bit deeper and you'll find
Speaker 2: real stories that are better than the ones you're trying
Speaker 2: to tell.
Speaker 4: That people will want to hear later and not just
Speaker 4: in the moment. I mean, you know, someone speaking in
Speaker 4: characters is gonna only have such a shelf life in
Speaker 4: terms of like, you know, it's the shooting interview that
Speaker 4: really rewards over time. So let me ask you. You
Speaker 4: mentioned the Rock Triple H thing. First of all, JP,
Speaker 4: did you see that documentary but the two going back
Speaker 4: and forth?
Speaker 3: No, I didn't see it.
Speaker 4: Okay, So the whole thing is Matt kind of laid
Speaker 4: out and I never take anything for granted without our
Speaker 4: listenership because a lot of them actually our laps and
Speaker 4: don't follow her. That is was just saying, they are like,
Speaker 4: I do you know you have you have this thing
Speaker 4: like if we're gonna do Rock Roman at WrestleMania, how
Speaker 4: did it end up becoming Cody Roman? And what were
Speaker 4: the machinations and where were the calls made along the
Speaker 4: way to lean in the direction of what the fans
Speaker 4: were telling them to do, and Rock recasting himself in
Speaker 4: that And it took months, and people were like, why
Speaker 4: does it take months to put this thing out when
Speaker 4: you promoted it premiering the Monday after WrestleMania during WrestleMania
Speaker 4: And it's probably a lot of tinkering around how everyone
Speaker 4: comes off. But what the big takeaway for me is
Speaker 4: and telling me if I'm wrong here, Matt, is that
Speaker 4: what we have right now with WWE is a battle
Speaker 4: for control of perception between Paul and Twain.
Speaker 2: I felt that it was gonna happen. The Rock's not
Speaker 2: around now. As far as I know now, he had
Speaker 2: I will tell you in terms of control, he had
Speaker 2: control of everything that related to him. We did a show.
Speaker 2: Here's a wild example. We did a show for years
Speaker 2: called The Ultimate Show where somehow we were allowed to
Speaker 2: do this. We fantasy book shows based on that month's
Speaker 2: pay per view, right, and we were basically other than
Speaker 2: you know, like a Benoir or someone who had just
Speaker 2: gone to aw We could kind of bring up who
Speaker 2: we wanted and we did that show for years and
Speaker 2: when Rock came back into the picture. I want to say,
Speaker 2: like later, let let he had some kind of say
Speaker 2: you know, maybe it was when he got his name
Speaker 2: or whatever the hell it was. We were told that
Speaker 2: if we bring up the Rock, or we bring up
Speaker 2: the Bloodline like in that way, we had to use
Speaker 2: Peter MYAVI as well, like that was a Rock, like
Speaker 2: he cared about that show that aired once a month.
Speaker 4: Wow, So what you're saying is you had to bring
Speaker 4: up Peter every time he brought him up.
Speaker 2: If we said the Bloodline is a group, we had
Speaker 2: to include Peter, like if we talked about it historically,
Speaker 2: and you know, wow, the here's my only personal story
Speaker 2: because I didn't really work with him. He wasn't around
Speaker 2: that much. He sent in a twenty fifth anniversary message
Speaker 2: for Triple H when it was his anniversary and he
Speaker 2: came on the bump, but Rock did a pre tape
Speaker 2: to that for that excuse me. And the beginning of
Speaker 2: the year, it was day one he showed up and
Speaker 2: did that thing with gender and at the end, you know,
Speaker 2: after he rips down gender, he says the head of
Speaker 2: the table line. Now everybody in the world knew Cody
Speaker 2: was gonna get Roman at Mania this year. But that happened,
Speaker 2: and I'm like, oh, maybe Roman's wrestling twice. That makes sense.
Speaker 2: Have have Roman beat Rock on Night one? Okay, he's
Speaker 2: the head of the table. He's the head and then
Speaker 2: he loses to Cody night too, and good for Cody
Speaker 2: gets his win and Roman gets his win over Rock
Speaker 2: and Cody. You know Rock, Roman's got an out. Will
Speaker 2: I wrestled the night before? Okay? Sure? Whatever? So he
Speaker 2: says the line and I gotta do raw talk that night,
Speaker 2: and I'm going, hey, like before I say anything, and
Speaker 2: I usually didn't get a lot of direction. I just
Speaker 2: used logic, don't speculate. He just said it like everybody.
Speaker 2: He said it.
Speaker 3: What do I do?
Speaker 2: So we opened the show and Rock came out and
Speaker 2: I opened it and I was like, well, he's he
Speaker 2: wants to be head of the table. I guess we'll
Speaker 2: see what that means. And I sound like an idiot
Speaker 2: because everybody knows what he's getting at. And the other
Speaker 2: part was and it's on Kathy Kelly's Instagram, so I'm
Speaker 2: not like he shot an interview with her, and Rie
Speaker 2: is in the interview and he's holding the Women's World
Speaker 2: title and it never saw the light of day, but
Speaker 2: it's there, like it exists, and I don't know why
Speaker 2: more people had like didn't figure that out. The next day,
Speaker 2: I was supposed to do my Twitch show with Jeff
Speaker 2: Reactions and we were gonna watch No Way Rumble two
Speaker 2: thousand because we were watching rumbles all the way up
Speaker 2: to the Rumble and Rock wins, and I was told,
Speaker 2: don't watch it, don't bring attention to it. And I'm like,
Speaker 2: he was just on raw, Like what what do you want?
Speaker 2: And they were.
Speaker 4: And then what they mean is don't bring attention to
Speaker 4: that potentially ad libbed head of the table line.
Speaker 2: But it wasn't. That's so weird what he was doing.
Speaker 2: And I think that's where, like, I do believe that
Speaker 2: Rock in his head was like, oh, we can wait
Speaker 2: for Cody. It's me, that's right, and wow, absolutely, like
Speaker 2: that's very confusing for all of us. And then Cody
Speaker 2: wins the Rumble and he points right at Roman and
Speaker 2: then they go back on it and they make Cody
Speaker 2: look dumb, and then Brian Gerwitz goes on on busted
Speaker 2: Open multiple times and kind of throws Cody under the bus.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, I was like I couldn't lay my ears.
Speaker 2: I'm like, what are we doing here? This is it
Speaker 2: didn't happen. That's your guy, that's the guy you've built up.
Speaker 2: You're going with this, I'm.
Speaker 4: Not misinterpreting this match. So the day after he says
Speaker 4: the head of the table line on that first rob
Speaker 4: of the year, you're told the next day to not
Speaker 4: bring up Rock.
Speaker 2: I was told that night to not speculate about Rock Roman.
Speaker 4: And so that means to me that Rock intends on
Speaker 4: facing Roman at WrestleMania, but Triple H and Cody are
Speaker 4: aligned to control fan attitudes in the opposite direction.
Speaker 2: So I guess the best way I would explain it
Speaker 2: is when I would do those shows. For the most part,
Speaker 2: I know what the layout was and whatever, and if
Speaker 2: I had a question and I didn't want to point
Speaker 2: out a plot hole to make Creative look, I would
Speaker 2: always ask my producer and my producer would you know,
Speaker 2: check with Creative and I get feedback and sometimes I
Speaker 2: would And on that day I was told don't speculate
Speaker 2: about Rock Roman, and then I was told, you know,
Speaker 2: don't do that Twitch show the next day. And on Wednesday,
Speaker 2: when you're on the bump, don't speculate about rock Roman.
Speaker 2: Then why did he say it?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 2: And then you plastered all over YouTube? So what am
Speaker 2: I supposed to do with that? Look, I work for
Speaker 2: the team. I'll do whatever I gotta do. I'm not
Speaker 2: an actual journalist in the company I I I'm State Media.
Speaker 2: But it was very like I didn't want to look
Speaker 2: like an idiot. Anytime I had a question and I
Speaker 2: didn't get an answer, I just listened to Michael Cole's commentary,
Speaker 2: Y's the move to do, and I would get messages,
Speaker 2: you know, from like his person administrative assistant. Don't bring
Speaker 2: up anybody's number of their days and their title reign
Speaker 2: because that's just the Roman thing right now, as guomther
Speaker 2: is going on to massive numbers as Bianca. Nope, that's
Speaker 2: just a Roman thing for now.
Speaker 4: Only one person gets to count days.
Speaker 2: Yes, makes till that kind of stuff happened, And when
Speaker 2: Vince was gone, like stuff went away and I knew
Speaker 2: I could say wrestling, and then there was like Kevin
Speaker 2: Dunn's like, ah, we're still doing sports entertainment, okay. And
Speaker 2: then I remember when it seemed like Vince was back
Speaker 2: and he was like that January of last year, like
Speaker 2: all of a sudden, reading the Row scripts and it's
Speaker 2: like everybody's got a nickname and there's all of these
Speaker 2: descriptors and the mangy mutt Pete does whatever. I was like,
Speaker 2: oh he's back. When when when Brock almost got teased,
Speaker 2: I went, Okay, he's back.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Brock Remember Brock Omas in l A Boss.
Speaker 3: Four and a half.
Speaker 2: I try not to, but yes, we knew that was
Speaker 2: you could tell right there.
Speaker 4: That's such men's matchmaking.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, we we were big guys. You know we're
Speaker 3: talking about you know, money money in the big men.
Speaker 4: Clearly as he's getting ready.
Speaker 3: Money money and the men, that's what we're talking about.
Speaker 4: To go live with Ari the next morning on CNBC
Speaker 4: and you know what was it? He looks like forget it.
Speaker 3: So Howard Hughes looks like Howard Hughes emerging.
Speaker 1: He's Lapsed Fan Wrestling podcast with Jack and and j Pisarro,
Speaker 1: The Lapsed Fan Wrestling Podcast.
Speaker 4: So Matt, I guess this is all coming back around,
Speaker 4: because what I want to ask you is, you know
Speaker 4: when people grow up loving WDB and they love talking
Speaker 4: about ww the've talking about wrestling, they say, man and
Speaker 4: people in their circle. See, well you want to work
Speaker 4: for them? Like, what wouldn't that be great? When did't
Speaker 4: you love working for them? I've heard some of the
Speaker 4: things you've said about kind of how it all ended.
Speaker 4: Would you counsel people that are passionate about wrestling to
Speaker 4: go work for WWE. I mean, I'm sure you're grateful
Speaker 4: for your time there. You have to be, But I mean, honestly,
Speaker 4: like it sounds like a it sounds like I'm.
Speaker 2: Treated as a business. I said all that stuff because
Speaker 2: a lot of this stuff was like frustrating. But here's
Speaker 2: the bottom line. I got paid very well to talk
Speaker 2: about wrestling for five years exactly like like I it
Speaker 2: was not in the plans. It became part of the play.
Speaker 2: I've actually just started telling a story on my show,
Speaker 2: like I just eat literally on the show I recorded
Speaker 2: earlier today. Here was the process of like how I
Speaker 2: found out about it and who helped me out, and
Speaker 2: I took everybody up until the moment I got hired.
Speaker 2: And you know, I didn't expect it to be a reality.
Speaker 2: Even that time. I was like, oh, this would be
Speaker 2: a bonus shop and it is my fantasy football stuff.
Speaker 2: And then it became real thing, and then it was Hey,
Speaker 2: on Wednesdays at one o'clock, you're gonna sit there with
Speaker 2: three other people and just talk about wrestling, and we're
Speaker 2: gonna pay you, and you know, in a couple of years,
Speaker 2: we're gonna pay you more and you're gonna be an
Speaker 2: employee and you're gonna have health insurance because you're talking
Speaker 2: about wrestling. Even the worst creative, which is the toughest
Speaker 2: part of the job. And by tough, I mean not
Speaker 2: that hard. It just wasn't as hard easy as the
Speaker 2: days when creative was good. I'm still talking about wrestling.
Speaker 2: I mean I I've everybody has latched onto that thing
Speaker 2: where I'm like, uh, you know, he said it was
Speaker 2: a family and I know it's not. Or like people like,
Speaker 2: why did you think it was a family? I'm like,
Speaker 2: I did it. I'm just saying that's what they said,
Speaker 2: and it was dumb. When Rock showed up earlier this year,
Speaker 2: I happened to be my birthday and we waited for
Speaker 2: him for two hours because he was late, and it's like, oh,
Speaker 2: it's good to be back with my family and good
Speaker 2: to have all you family, and you know, this is
Speaker 2: why you're still here. And it's like and everybody like
Speaker 2: they take the picture with Rock and Hunter and Nick,
Speaker 2: and everybody's trying to get in the background, and it's like, no,
Speaker 2: you've watched your family get fired over the last couple
Speaker 2: of months. And that's guess what. That's a business. I
Speaker 2: always understood that stuff. I'm very happy for my time there.
Speaker 2: I'm happy I had it. It was a great job.
Speaker 2: I met my fiance there. I paid a lot of bills.
Speaker 2: I lived a very comfortable life because I worked there.
Speaker 2: I nothing was bad, Like I could be frustrated that
Speaker 2: I didn't get a pilot off the ground, But guess what,
Speaker 2: you still saw me on Mondays and Wednesdays and Fridays.
Speaker 2: I worked as much, if not more than any broadcaster there.
Speaker 2: My face is still on peacock, I'm still on all
Speaker 2: those best ofs like and that will I'll always have
Speaker 2: that and that's and I made friends there, and I
Speaker 2: learned about the business a different way that I can
Speaker 2: talk about it now, and whatever happens in the future happens. Listen.
Speaker 2: I also would say this, if you can dedicate your
Speaker 2: life and if you want to go on the road,
Speaker 2: I say this, any in broadcasting just say yes and
Speaker 2: go figure it out later, and especially if you're not
Speaker 2: tied to a region or a partner or anything like that,
Speaker 2: and you can go do it. Yeah, I don't know
Speaker 2: how it's gonna be in the next couple of years
Speaker 2: under that new regime. I think people are gonna make
Speaker 2: a good amount of money there. I think it's a
Speaker 2: far better business in terms of what they can do
Speaker 2: in the reach they have than it was a few
Speaker 2: years ago. But I don't think anybody's gonna be there forever.
Speaker 2: And if you know that, that's okay. It's like those
Speaker 2: creative people that lasted a year and like I can't
Speaker 2: do this anymore, that's right.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that those are the people.
Speaker 2: I think it's managing expectations. I think that's that's what
Speaker 2: it is. It's I love that I got to work there.
Speaker 2: I'm happy I got to work there. I regret nothing
Speaker 2: about working there. I was really lucky that I got
Speaker 2: to work there and work with the people I did,
Speaker 2: and got the opportunities I did and make the money
Speaker 2: I did. To talk of, it wasn't a job. I
Speaker 2: happen to have an office space there, like a little cubicle,
Speaker 2: and it just had a bunch of wrestling stuff on
Speaker 2: it anybody time, anybody can to my desk. We just
Speaker 2: talked wrestling.
Speaker 4: Yep, yep.
Speaker 2: That's a good job to me. So that's yea how
Speaker 2: it ends snucked. But but you know, I still loved
Speaker 2: working there and I still love talking about it, and
Speaker 2: I'm not ever not going to be a fan.
Speaker 4: Well, I guess in closing, as you you know, embarking
Speaker 4: a new chapter, just just watching again, how has working
Speaker 4: there changed how you can watch WWE And do you
Speaker 4: miss being able to watch w B the way you
Speaker 4: used to before working there?
Speaker 2: I don't. I still. I think somebody asked me this
Speaker 2: on a redditt Ama recently, like how did your fandom change?
Speaker 2: And I said, when I was there, I think the
Speaker 2: stuff I really liked jumped out more because every week
Speaker 2: I had to watch all of Raw and all of SmackDown,
Speaker 2: and that was my job, and I knew how to
Speaker 2: watch it, like in the background or hey, we're not
Speaker 2: going to talk about that, or I know what the
Speaker 2: talking points are. But I think like the stuff I
Speaker 2: really liked, or that stuff that was really well done
Speaker 2: jumped out more. You know, I loved watching Gunther's run.
Speaker 2: I loved I loved Otis, you know, five years ago,
Speaker 2: and I like them now. I think that kind of
Speaker 2: stuff jumps out. I watch it and I used to
Speaker 2: talk to people differently, like live domin Rhea does nothing
Speaker 2: for me, but I know what it clicks. It clicks
Speaker 2: well on YouTube and all those love stories Mandy and
Speaker 2: Notice did that too, and hell go back to Macho
Speaker 2: and Flare and Savage. That's a whole. That's the basis
Speaker 2: for a story at WrestleMania that also happened to have
Speaker 2: the ww Championship WA Championship still involved. I thank god
Speaker 2: I can still say that like that. I tried to
Speaker 2: listen to different people and why they liked it, and
Speaker 2: you know, oh, I don't think aj Styles is that
Speaker 2: good because he kind of just does matches. But man,
Speaker 2: I love whoever because they can talk or that was
Speaker 2: funny or Rhea Ripley is a great example of when
Speaker 2: they came back from the pandemic, the reaction she was
Speaker 2: getting to people by surprise, and then the social and
Speaker 2: digital team saw the numbers she was doing and then
Speaker 2: presented that to Katie and Vince and guess what, she
Speaker 2: got a push because of that. Now I think she
Speaker 2: touches a lot of different fan bases. But I look
Speaker 2: at that like, oh, that's actually doing quite well. All
Speaker 2: this match I loved, you know what. Not many people
Speaker 2: cared about it. So I try to look at it
Speaker 2: that way where it's not just about me, And that
Speaker 2: comes from wrestling and being on the Indies and spending
Speaker 2: time with friends at TNA and being a play by
Speaker 2: play announcer in the Indies and doing Busted Open. It's
Speaker 2: you know, what's working and why is it working, and
Speaker 2: it doesn't have to be for me. So I also
Speaker 2: try to talk about it that way as well.
Speaker 4: Quite a quite a business it is where we find
Speaker 4: ourselves watching everything and diagnosing what is and isn't working
Speaker 4: instead of just watching it because we enjoy it. There
Speaker 4: might be something there I don't know, but fascinating. Well,
Speaker 4: you're you're We're a grateful to you, Matt for taking
Speaker 4: the time and getting us acquainted with what it's like
Speaker 4: to go through that that car wash over there in Stanford.
Speaker 4: That's quite a mean.
Speaker 3: I would also before we go too, I just I would.
Speaker 3: I would. I have to say exactly how we got to.
Speaker 5: This point where we're interviewing him, because otherwise, it just
Speaker 5: I feel people will people will be taken for granted.
Speaker 5: So it's been people have seen now on my Instagram
Speaker 5: and stuff that I was a movie directed by Clark Duke.
Speaker 5: I'll tell that story another time. Tayla Becker former Braxton,
Speaker 5: also in the movie, and she and I got to
Speaker 5: talking and I regretfully had to tell her that I
Speaker 5: was the co host of a wrestling podcast, which you know.
Speaker 4: And she actually didn't try to lose your acquaintance at
Speaker 4: that point, right, right.
Speaker 5: Right, But you know, at the same time, it's kind
Speaker 5: of like, you know, also, here's here's a woman who's
Speaker 5: been in the business professionally, and I'm also I'm now
Speaker 5: a fan with a podcast like every other fucking, you
Speaker 5: know clown in this world.
Speaker 3: But we started talking some more, and you.
Speaker 5: Know, she got to know that it was a little
Speaker 5: more of a legitimate affair, and then she mentioned Matt
Speaker 5: and I said, yeah, like, please introduce us, and she did,
Speaker 5: and here we are today.
Speaker 2: I was so like, I got the I told you
Speaker 2: this guy's beforehand. I was in Disney and I got
Speaker 2: the text. But I before that, I had, you know,
Speaker 2: I have alerts on for like figure whatever, accounts that
Speaker 2: followed me out. I was like, oh, that's nice they
Speaker 2: followed me. I guess, you know, one of my clips
Speaker 2: or whatever, and maybe we could do And then she
Speaker 2: texted me and I couldn't answer, and I was like,
Speaker 2: holy shit, really that's so because she had just left
Speaker 2: and I had I had talked to her right before
Speaker 2: she left, and she actually had met my fiance for
Speaker 2: the first time and at the MSG show, and then
Speaker 2: I get this text and I was like oh. And
Speaker 2: then I reached out. I was like, oh my god,
Speaker 2: and she like hit me up before I She's like, hey,
Speaker 2: do you want to do stuff with them? I was like,
Speaker 2: oh yeah, yeah, sorry, sorry, sorry, definitely, let's let's But
Speaker 2: I got it. I was so happy that that happened,
Speaker 2: and I'm happy for you, and I'm happy for both
Speaker 2: of you that you got it a bit. But I
Speaker 2: got to tell you something that I think you guys
Speaker 2: would appreciate. Please. So when we did the Bump and
Speaker 2: we would do you know, people that were historical, there
Speaker 2: was a time where it's like, hey, let's get hardcore
Speaker 2: holy on, Like okay, sure, and we would have these
Speaker 2: you know historical I would be like, well, we could
Speaker 2: do a whole, you know, career retrospective interview. So I
Speaker 2: would write ninety five percent of the questions for the
Speaker 2: show and then we would like, you know, divvy them
Speaker 2: up would make sense. And I had this thing and
Speaker 2: I'm like, you have to make Kayla ask about stuff
Speaker 2: that she has nothing that has no clue because Kayla
Speaker 2: didn't know wrestling before she started, so she'd be like
Speaker 2: so in ninety five when Nitro was first starting and
Speaker 2: hearing her say those words like when you're wrestling, when
Speaker 2: you're wrestling Vader at Summer Slam ninety six, and I'm
Speaker 2: going like, oh god, this is so good. And that
Speaker 2: just became a running bit where if we had anybody
Speaker 2: that was historical on, Kayla would have to like, do
Speaker 2: this his story. And it started because she was doing
Speaker 2: research for an interview with Baron Corbin and she's like, yeah,
Speaker 2: I wrote this question about him being voted the most
Speaker 2: hated villain. And I was like, are you a Meltzer subscriber,
Speaker 2: Like are you like what did and what publication? She's like, uh,
Speaker 2: pwy voted. I go, oh my god, you have afterbags
Speaker 2: at home and I was like oh oh, and it
Speaker 2: clicked right there and then so every time after that
Speaker 2: she would get at least one historical question that reference
Speaker 2: and she would naw it. She would read it as
Speaker 2: was and sometimes she goes like what is this? And
Speaker 2: I remember when In Your House got brought back and
Speaker 2: we had Todd on and we had Adam cole on
Speaker 2: and she's like, yeah, I watched it. I was like,
Speaker 2: wella you watched In your House one and she's like yeah.
Speaker 2: I was like, what did you think of Hakushi? And
Speaker 2: she's like that was the I was like yeah and so.
Speaker 2: And I always had this idea. I always wanted to
Speaker 2: do a show with her where we watched old stuff
Speaker 2: just to get her perspective. Oh stuff that and maybe
Speaker 2: there's an opportunity for this all to happen between all
Speaker 2: of us.
Speaker 4: I think I know a landing pad for said. As
Speaker 4: long as you guys are comfortable never having a friend
Speaker 4: in the business again where you need to hang out,
Speaker 4: you hang your hat.
Speaker 2: But I'm glad we connected through her and I always
Speaker 2: loved educating her out and she's like what is this about?
Speaker 2: And there were people that tried to fake it that
Speaker 2: I work with, Like someone was like, uh, xbox coming
Speaker 2: on and will also have the one two three kid,
Speaker 2: and that happened on live televisions. The first one I'm
Speaker 2: not going to mention, but that would have been yeah,
Speaker 2: well the other and if we talked about again, I
Speaker 2: once caught Hogan on a lie and a lie live
Speaker 2: on a bump.
Speaker 4: I don't believe that. Oh, I don't believe that.
Speaker 2: The clip because we were talking about it was the
Speaker 2: day of the Rumble. The guest this was Brian Danielson,
Speaker 2: Goldberg and Hogan all in the same episode. And I
Speaker 2: just did like Hogan's entire Rumble history and like he
Speaker 2: said something, He's like, oh yeah, when I wanted three,
Speaker 2: Like he said a blatant lie, and I like the
Speaker 2: next question was like, well, Hulk actually and he's like, well,
Speaker 2: you caught me there, brother, And he was. He was
Speaker 2: definitely bumped up. Let me just tell you that on
Speaker 2: that that interview.
Speaker 4: Dude, there was a point I don't remember when it was.
Speaker 4: It must have been one of those old Bubba clips
Speaker 4: that we listened to when we were doing our journey
Speaker 4: through total NonStop Hogan as we called it, his his
Speaker 4: his run in t NA, and there's like a big
Speaker 4: long thing where we went through every single thing Hogan
Speaker 4: did in TNA, and there's a certain clip I.
Speaker 2: Was I'm still I'm sorry.
Speaker 5: I'm still suffering from post traumatic stress about that whole
Speaker 5: journey we did.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that was definitely more than we bargained for as
Speaker 4: we went, but we found all these gems and one
Speaker 4: of there's an interview where he's he's he's carrying on
Speaker 4: with his you know, flowery descriptions and taking poetic license
Speaker 4: with everything, and and someone like pulls up the match
Speaker 4: right away and he's like, brother, Like, He's like, you
Speaker 4: just pulled that up like that fast, you can find
Speaker 4: any match. It was almost like the walls are starting
Speaker 4: to close in, like he can't.
Speaker 2: I feel like that that's the only place I can
Speaker 2: think over there they pulled something up that fast, And
Speaker 2: then he.
Speaker 4: Was look horrified that, like he could be fact checked
Speaker 4: in real time.
Speaker 2: Brother, don't look up that Metallica discography.
Speaker 3: I'm screwed, all right.
Speaker 4: I gotta got going, dude, Well we gotta get going too.
Speaker 4: But Matt, I think seeds have been planted, all right.
Speaker 2: And anytime I'd love to come back. I'd love to
Speaker 2: have you guys on on my show because I have
Speaker 2: some ideas that I think you should be perfectly for.
Speaker 2: So let's try to make that out. And if we
Speaker 2: could get Cale involved behind, we could definitely have some fun.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, every single thing she's ever done could be
Speaker 4: a pod.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 4: Just take us through this moment, Caylet tell us how
Speaker 4: much you love.
Speaker 2: Just get her screaming about. That's all you need there.
Speaker 2: She had to scream, and she loves horror and she
Speaker 2: does the worst scream ever because Roman likes something on
Speaker 2: top of him and she's like, ah, and it's so bad.
Speaker 2: And we played it NonStop for a good couple of
Speaker 2: weeks after that because she was so embarrassed because she
Speaker 2: wants to be in horror movies. Well that's not on your.
Speaker 4: Well, this is on ours, thank you, Matt, And I think,
Speaker 4: uh yeah, I think boss, it's safe to say that
Speaker 4: Matt camp TLF approved the Solar system can consume his
Speaker 4: content with a clear conscience. He's kissed the ring.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, He's more than welcome.
Speaker 2: God, thank you, guys. I really appreciating. Let's talk again soon.
Speaker 4: It sounds great. Thanks everybody, Thank you. Matt Peters.
Speaker 3: Preceeding is a production of the Labs Entertainment Group. Its
Speaker 3: content is intended for private use only. Really sorry, we
Speaker 3: want