It was twice in a lifetime when John Cena and The Rock tussled at WrestleMania 29, the penultimate stop on The Lapsed Fan’s 30-week Mania voyage. Hosts Jack Encarnacao and JP Sarro dive into Metlife Stadium to examine the top revenue-producing event in WWE history, with recollections of taking the show in live in East Rutherford, the brilliance of CM Punk, the atmospherics of the Undertaker’s last Streak victory, Brock Lesnar’s hulking visage, and the finisher jukebox that was Rock/Cena II, whic...
Aug 12, 2015•5 hr 15 min
The Rock improbably stepped back into the ring at WrestleMania 28, and The Lapsed Fan is right there with him as the show reaches the final leg of its 30-week journey through the grand spectacle. It was “Once in a Lifetime” (until next year) as Rock stepped back on to the grand stage to tussle with John Cena in 2012. TLF co-chairs Jack Encarnacao and JP Sarro give you that one-of-a-kind vantage on why the match was momentous. Your hosts also touch on, among other things: - Why Sheamus’ 18-second...
Aug 12, 2015•4 hr 58 min
Finally The Rock returns to WrestleMania, and The Lapsed Fan hits stop 27 on its 30-week odyssey. Journey with TLF co-chairs Jack Encarnacao and JP Sarro to the Georgia Dome as the most electrifying man in sports and entertainment and sports entertainment and pop culture presides over the 2011 Manes and the curious Cena v. Miz main event. Your hosts cover: - Heel Michael Cole: the good, the bad, and the worse - The phoney-baloney indoor entertainment event record the show sets - The hits and cri...
Aug 11, 2015•4 hr 12 min
The Lapsed Fan’s 30-week WrestleMania journey has come to the farewell moment for Mr. WrestleMania himself, as Shawn Michaels dances one last time on the grand stage against perhaps his best career foil, The Undertaker, at WrestleMania 26. Hosts Jack Encarnacao and JP Sarro dive into the rectangular opening atop University of Phoenix Stadium for a full accounting of 2010’s Mania, and chronicle the fading away of a cast of Mania mainstays symbolized by the main event. This deep dive includes: - W...
Aug 11, 2015•4 hr 50 min
WrestleMania 25 marked the silver anniversary of sports entertainment’s grandest spectacle, and more importantly it marks stop 25 on The Lapsed Fan’s 30-week WrestleMania podcast journey. Hosts Jack Encarnacao and JP Sarro delve into Reliant Stadium in Houston and the epic confrontation between The Undertaker and Shawn Michaels. Why was it so great? Greatest match in Mania history? Second greatest? this classic is dissected once and for all by your co-chairmen. Plus: - The hits and misses of the...
Aug 11, 2015•4 hr 7 min
The Lapsed Fan catches some rays under the Florida sun this week, as TLF’s 30-week WrestleMania journey arrives at WrestleMania 24 in 2008 in Orlando. It’s the final bow in a WWE ring of Ric Flair, and we’re having a hard time keeping these gators down. Hosts Jack Encarnacao and JP Sarro go deep on a notable and quirk Mania, from Floyd Mayweather taking a sidewalk slam and then knocking out Big Show, to Kim Kardashian as guest host, to a heel going over in the WWE championship match, even trumpi...
Aug 11, 2015•4 hr 59 min
As The Lapsed Fan’s 30-week WrestleMania journey unfolds, your hosts have come to the point in WWE history where the curious rise of John Cena began to provoked unique fan responses. Crowds in major markets across the country began to vociferously rejected Cena, all while his merchandise sales and other metrics signaled he was by far the man for the franchise position and the star of the moment. As TLF reached WrestleManias 22 and 23 – both headlined by Cena, where he turns away challenges by Tr...
Aug 11, 2015•2 hr 17 min
With 23 weeks in the books in its 30-week WrestleMania journey, you could say The Lapsed Fan is all grown up. As was the WWE, apparently, on the dawning of Wrestlemania 23, which hit the massive Ford Field in Detroit with an eclectic array of matches, storylines, and moments both famous and infamous. Join hosts Jack Encarnacao and JP Sarro as they chronicle the most bought pay-per-view event in WWE history, and recap of what it was like attending all of the weekend festivities live and what does...
Aug 10, 2015•4 hr 39 min
It’s time for The Lapsed Fan to go “Big Time” on its 30-week WrestleMania journey, as your co-chairmen take the deep dive into Chicago’s AllState Arena for WrestleMania 22 in 2006. Join hosts Jack Encarnacao and JP Sarro as they dissect the night the WWE definitely said John Cena is our man, whether you like it or not, as he taps Triple H in what was, at the time, a shocking outcome. Plus, contrasts with the half-hearted crowning for Rey Mysterio as World Heavyweight Champion in a finish done fo...
Aug 10, 2015•4 hr 54 min
This week The Lapsed Fan goes Hollywood as WWE brings a pivotal event to Staples Center that launched the runs of two future superstars. TLF enters the final third of its 30-week WrestleMania journey by sizing up the World Title wins of John Cena and Batista at WrestleMania 21. Hosts Jack Encarnacao and JP Sarro dive deep into a turning-point evening, including: - Which Hollywood-esque trailers for the show hit and which ones missed. - The final Mania match of Eddie Guerrero’s life in an underap...
Aug 10, 2015•5 hr 14 min
It’s 20 weeks in, and we have reached the point in The Lapsed Fan’s 30-week WrestleMania journey where it all begins, again. And while it felt like WrestleMania 20 symbolized change, it turned out not to be the change we thought that March 2004 night in Madison Square Garden. Hosts Jack Encarnacao and JP Sarro take the latest deep dive into the longest Mains ever, recounting what it was like to sit in the MSG balcony that historic night and drinking in the show-closing scene of Chris Benoit and ...
Aug 10, 2015•5 hr 38 min
The Lapsed Fan’s 30-week WrestleMania journey reaches stop No. 19 this week, as the WWE invades Safeco Field in Seattle for a show full of forks in the road for a host of key performers, including Steve Austin, Kurt Angle, and Brock Lesnar. Hosts Jack Encarnacao and JP Sarro go deep on a show remembered for its behind-the-scenes drama as much as its in-ring drama, which was considerable. Get Lapsed on the following: - The worm turns on Triple H, as he builds up Booker T as a proud challenger who...
Aug 10, 2015•5 hr 50 min
After nine years, Hulk Hogan returned to the Wrestlemania stage at the 18th installment in 2002, and lapsed fans around the world rejoiced. Thus, it is only appropriate that The Lapsed Fan podcast go deep on that historic night in Toronto. In the 18th stop of TLF’s 30-week Wrestlemania journey, hosts Jack Encarnacao and JP Sarro revisit Skydome in Toronto for a Mania stacked with figures from a cross-current of different eras – from Hogan to Rock to Austin to Hall to HHH to Jericho to Flair to U...
Aug 10, 2015•4 hr 59 min
The Lapsed Fan’s 30-week one-of-a-kind WrestleMania journey arrives this week at the greatest Mania of them all, X-Seven, a true demarcation line for legions who stopped following pro wrestling after the WWF’s Attitude Era. Hosts Jack Encarnacao and JP Sarro go especially deep this week, as your co-chairmen prove more than up to the task of tackling a show wrought with such tremendous historical significance, taking place as it did weeks after the WWF purchased WCW and changed wrestling forever....
Aug 10, 2015•3 hr 49 min
The Lapsed Fan’s 30-week one-of-a-kind WrestleMania journey arrives this week at the greatest Mania of them all, X-Seven, a true demarcation line for legions who stopped following pro wrestling after the WWF’s Attitude Era. Hosts Jack Encarnacao and JP Sarro go especially deep this week, as your co-chairmen prove more than up to the task of tackling a show wrought with such tremendous historical significance, taking place as it did weeks after the WWF purchased WCW and changed wrestling forever....
Aug 10, 2015•3 hr 30 min
Reenter the new millennium with The Lapsed Fan’s deep dive into WrestleMania 2000, as the TLF 30-week, 30-WrestleMania journey rumbles along. Hosts Jack Encarnacao and JP Sarro discuss the first – and hopefully last – Fatal Four Way main event in Mania history, as Triple H announces in no uncertain terms he’ll be the top guy in the organization when he becomes the first heel to go over in a Mania show-closing match. Get on board as the co-chairmen dissect: - Ice T keeping it real by telling the ...
Aug 04, 2015•4 hr 28 min
The WWF was firmly ensconced in the “Attitude Era” as WrestleMania XV dawned in 1999, and the event from Philadelphia in so many ways illustrates the promotional philosophy that catapulted the company into record profits. You know what that means – it’s Lapsed Fan Deep Dive time. Join hosts Jack Encarnacao and JP Sarro as TLF reaches the precise midpoint of its 30-week WrestleMania podcast journey. This week, it’s a look at all the guts and brains behind the WWF at this point in time, with Stone...
Aug 04, 2015•5 hr 38 min
It can be said that not since Hulk Hogan and Mr. T linked up at the first Wrestlemania did the WWF’s grand stage see a more gaming-changing celebrity presence than Mike Tyson, who in the run-up to Wrestlemania 14 set the atmosphere in which Stone Cole Steve Austin could blossom into the biggest money generator the industry had seen. This week on The Lapsed Fan podcast’s 14th installment of a 30-week Wrestlemania journey, your co-chairmen chart the flash points and culmination of the arrival of A...
Aug 04, 2015•4 hr 14 min
The Lapsed Fan 30-week Wrestlemania journey heats up this week as your co-chairmen go deep on the greatest match in Mania history, Bret Hart v. Steve Austin at Wrestlemania 13. Hosts Jack Encarnacao and JP Sarro dissect what makes the match the best, the precise moments where Austin turns the corner into a beyond-the-pale babyface primed to revolutionize the business, and the rich back story to how Hart crafted the match and a heel turn that was arguably the Hitman’s finest career work. This wee...
Aug 04, 2015•4 hr 53 min
Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart may have went Broadway at WrestleMania 12 in 1996, but the Lapsed Fan has been doing that since WrestleMania 1, and ain’t nothing changed for the 12th installment of our 30-week, 30-WrestleMania journey. Hosts Jack Encarnacao and JP Sarro journey to the Anaheim Pond this week to dissect the memorable Iron Man Match in ludicrous detail, and render judgment on whether the match is appropriately remembered. The show also tackles: - The WrestleMania debuts of Stone Cold ...
Aug 04, 2015•4 hr 49 min
The Lapsed Fan enters the second decade of its 30-week, 30-Wrestlemania review this week with a trademark deep dive into Wrestlemania 11, an inauspicious installment that asked the WWF fan to accept Diesel and Lawrence Taylor as the new Hogan/Mr. T combination. Hosts Jack Encarnacao and JP Sarro cover all bases on the 1995 Mains, which took place at a time of particular strain on the WWF’s balance sheets and on the precipice of great change in the industry with the jumps of Hulk Hogan and Randy ...
Aug 04, 2015•4 hr 24 min
It was 10 years in the making when the WWF staged WrestleMania X at Madison Square Garden in 1994, and it’s been 10 weeks in the making on The Lapsed Fan podcast’s 30-week WrestleMania sojourn. This week hosts Jack Encarnacao and JP Sarro blast off into the next decade of the WWF’s evolution, as Titan presents its first Hogan-less Mania and definitively turns the limelight over to go-getters like Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, Scott Hall, and Owen Hart. Get Lapsed across the face with the deepest di...
Aug 04, 2015•4 hr 45 min
The world’s biggest toga party was hardly the world’s biggest success for the WWF, but WrestleMania IX in 1993 did bring with it twists and turns that will echo in the annals. The Lapsed Fan wrestling podcast donned their sandals and grabbed their goblets for a deep dive into a parking lot next to Caesars in Las Vegas for the latest landing on this jet flight known as 30 weeks, 30 WrestleManias. Hosts Jack Encarnacao and JP Sarro assess: - Vince lays out for Bret Hart what Hogan would like to se...
Aug 03, 2015•4 hr 30 min
It’s the approach of the Hulkster’s swan song, and the end of the golden period for true Lapsed Fans. WrestleMania 8 is next on TLF’s 30-week, 30-WrestleMania journey, and for your hosts, Hogan’s bout with Sid Justice signals the close of a cast of characters that defined the first WrestleMania era. Jack Encarnacao and JP Sarro go deep into the Hoosier Dome for a breakdown of this 1992 extravaganza, which also featured a brilliant tilt between Randy Savage and Ric Flair for the WWF Championship ...
Jul 28, 2015•4 hr 25 min
The Lapsed Fan 30-week train stops this week at Wrestlemania VII, and a Hulk Hogan v. Sgt. Slaughter main event that took place against the backdrop of international and internal turmoil, as Sarge dons the bullet proof vest in his quest to vanquish an American icon in tribute to Saddam Hussein. Hosts Jack Encarnacao and JP Sarro bring you yet another deep dive, and lapse you across the face with moments like: - The Wrestlemania debut of the Gorilla/Heenan commentary duo - Undertaker goes 1-0 - W...
Jul 25, 2015•4 hr 44 min
This week on The Lapsed Fan, your co-chairmen accept the Ultimate Challenge by tackling Wrestlemania VI from Toronto’s Sky Dome, the historic night that Ultimate Warrior didn’t so much assume the throne as mortgage it from Hulk Hogan, heretofore our Wrestlemania hero. It’s the latest installment of TLF’s 30-week Wrestlemania journey, and it’s as intergalactic as the promos that preceded the main event event. Hosts Jack Encarnacao and JP Sarro take an accounting of, among other things: - Why Hoga...
Jul 25, 2015•4 hr 33 min
The Lapsed Fan has reached week five of its 30-week Wrestlemania trek, and thus your hosts come to the conclusion of one the most perfectly-told stories in WWF history, as Hulk Hogan and Macho Man Randy Savage collided – nay, exploded – after an unforgettable, drawn-out tension. Jack Encarnacao and JP Sarro take a deep – too deep? – dive into the gritty environs of Atlantic City for the second consecutive year, assessing what made Hogan v. Savage the apex of pro wrestling storytelling, and why t...
Jul 25, 2015•4 hr 53 min
From Bigger, Badder, and Bette – to just plain Longer. The Lapsed Fan wrestling podcast continues its 30-week, 30-Wrestlemania journey this week with a deep dive into Wrestlemania IV, night of the inaugural WWF championship tournament culminating in the breakthrough of Macho Man Randy Savage as a touchstone name in the WWF annals. Hosts Jack Encarnacao and JP Sarro hunker down and cover it all as the WWF rolled the dice in conjunction with Donald Trump in Atlantic City, including: - Robin Leach’...
Jul 25, 2015•4 hr 52 min
The latest Lapsed Fan is bigger, it’s badder, and it’s better. Anything less would be inappropriate. Hosts Jack Encarnacao and JP Sarro dive into the cavernous environs of the once-mighty Pontiac Silverdome for a wall-to-wall breakdown of Wrestlemania III, a banner night for professional wrestling and a true milestone on the Lapsed Fan’s 30-week, 30-Wrestlemania journey. We cover all bases, from Aretha Franklin to Hulk Hogan slamming Andre the Giant, with a tremendous assist from wrestling guru ...
Jul 22, 2015•4 hr 44 min
The Lapsed Fan continues its 30-week, 30 Wrestlemania journey with what the world had come to in 1986, Wrestlemania 2. It’s the deuce, in perhaps more ways than one, as the WWF aims too high in trying to push the same buttons that made the first Wrestlemania such a success – a litany of celebrities and Mr. T mixing it up – while trying to basically have three Wrestlemanias at once. One city wasn’t enough – this had to play out in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Hosts Jack Encarnacao and JP S...
Jul 22, 2015•4 hr 44 min
