WeWatchWrestling Issue #643

Hey, do you watch wrestling? Greetings. Salutations. Well, hello there. Welcome, friends and foes, heels and babyfaces, to the one-stop shop, sure to make your body drop. It's the place that's in your face, the home of professional wrestling fandom. Then, now, and forever, the We Watch Wrestling Podcast. I'm your wonderful, darling, redheaded, bearded host, wrestling Matt McCarthy. With me as always, professional wrestling encyclopedia, Mr. Vince Averill. Hi, hi, hi. Oh, hi. What's happening?

hello there welcome back well hello there welcome back what a time what a time to be us what a time to be you what a time to be

professional wrestling fan what a time for jericho to debut on monday night raw can you believe it did it happen no oh i was gonna say i i guess i missed it it's funny too because then yesterday uh People are like, he's still on AEW's roster page. They had removed a few people for the new year, Matt Taven. And they're like, yeah, it seems like he's probably not.

I'm going to debut if he's still on the roster page there. But, you know, good on the E there, throwing that little break down the walls into Adam Pearce's little raw tees. Right.

double thinking i i know how we'll get people to tune in oh they think that's happening um let's just fucking lean into it uh yeah um you know i think uh level with me dude the brawn breaker cm punk just to you know just to get this sort of i it wasn't until i saw your face that i was like oh right we haven't discuss Tanahashi at all because the whole time I was just like sitting here just being like just fucking in a bad mood about the CM Punk

braun breaker match until i saw your face and i was like oh wait a minute bigger fish to fry it made you mad i thought it was a stupid i i thought braun should have won i thought that the i thought that the i thought that i thought that this company works man you got to have a big they want to crown brawn at you know wrestlemania or something you know they don't want to just uh do it on a raw they don't do that shit no no unless you're roman reigns um

Unless you're the next face of the company. They're just going to pick a random raw to do it on. Yeah, but I think otherwise it was perfectly fine, short of the Frankensteiner. Dude, fucking first... punk almost kills breaker well we don't know who was killing who now we do have you know when they redid the spot well when they read you gotta redo it no matter who fucked it up but i think

No, but here's the thing. This is how I, in my mind, Punk is the one that fucked up because he's still sitting there on the top rope while the other guy's on the ground, like hopefully without a broken neck. Right. Because it would have been one thing if Punk was blocking it. Because then it's like, oh, okay, that's why he's still sitting up there.

uh and then they go through it again it's like nope nope he was supposed to take the spot and then if that wasn't enough punk then dives through the fucking ropes into a fucking swimming pool with no water yeah I'm like, Jesus Christ. I'm amazed both of them walked out of that match. That was a uncomfortable. Come on, dude. Dude, I get so uncomfortable when wrestlers repeat the spot.

right but yeah yeah yeah anyway i think uh fortunately no one was injured thank god and uh i thought that i thought they i thought that the actual save on tv wasn't too bad though between the announcers announcing and you know how they how they went back it was it was all right but no cole cole's great cory graves was great it was just hope that uh

Man, you love Stranger Things, dude. You love seeing your two favorite Netflix shows collab, dude. I don't even, I mean, I recognize the song. but I don't know anything about that show. I watched the first season so many years ago, I don't know, but I mean, I recognize the song. Dude, Jack was a newborn baby when that show first came out. That's how fucking long ago it was.

it was i thought it was you know as as far as like two things being jammed together i i thought it was all right like it didn't you know it wasn't like they had to um have a demogorgon in a match or something and and also i kind of enjoyed the little like chapters even though it didn't really mean a whole lot but it was like oh whatever that's if you're gonna have to do it like that was

a decent way to do it in my estimation but man i didn't hate it uh hunter i've been binging this stranger things okay here's what i think it said in the 80s I'm the biggest wrestling superstar from the 1980s. Probably I run in. I fucking waffle brawn breaker over the head. Gig, gig, gig. One, two. Not today. I grab Phil. Throw his ass.

Ass head over tea kettle over the top rope. Bing, bang, boom. New world champ right here. This reminds me of a game that Terry and Buddy would play in the back seat sometimes. I mean, you want to talk about stranger games, stranger things. I have never seen stranger things in my life than watching Buddy and Terry sitting in the backseat of a fucking dice with a bunch of sides on it. I mean, these these dice were peculiar. They had a lot of sides to them, man.

One day I said to Buddy, I was like, that ain't no regular dice. And he says, no, man, this thing's got 20 sides on it. And I was like, fuck me. That is too many choices. Terry talking about hit points, and I'm talking about let's hit the point. man y'all y'all kids today you're worried about hit points you need to be worried about hitting joints okay bing bang boom get yourself a case of beer now you're in the hunt

I thought we were off. We're on the road to the Royal Rumble in Saudi Arabia. That's all. That's all there is to that. Ma'am, I ain't allowed to go back to Saudi Arabia, and I ain't getting into why. i felt like i was a saudi arabian that's why i felt like i could say something like that you know i'm more of a saudi than you uh yeah yeah as i was watching uh the first part of

Stone Cold on Chris Van Vliet this morning. It just occurred to me, you know, again, is this where all these recent quotes came from? Anytime you get those kind of things, it's usually someone's done a... you know whether it was uh they just he just did one with um who the fuck was it pettengill or no one of those anyway the boston sports guy just uh it just occurs to me that you know um

that's another this next iteration of like you're just getting shoot interviews in in real time you know right like like this morning there's just an hour and 21 minute interview with you know a shoot interview with stone cold you know it doesn't feel exactly that way but it's like you know and then it just i don't know it just sort of occurred to me like oh this is like a thing that would have used to been taped in a hotel room and then you

like got the fucking paper catalog i don't know i'm just no i there was um there was there is you know say what you will about the man's personal choices but there was there was something to the way that RF would conduct an interview where it was just he had a fucking like a list of questions like on a roll of paper from a deli you know yeah

now uh you know when you and so and so and yeah i'd be like did i work with that guy it'd be like so yeah sometimes it would just be so like specific because these podcasts it's like they're like no it's the art of the conversation i'm like I don't know, man. I feel like I really enjoyed really direct, pointed, specific questions. That then led to...

Yeah, which then led to ridiculous stories. Although, of course, after four hours of pointed questions, there still would be like, do you have any cool road stories? the floor would just be opened to like what about is there anything you want to just tell us about the layover in Hawaii but because it's hit or miss because then you get you know I don't know

I haven't revisited a lot of these in a while, but I remember the Mr. Fuji one being particularly... There was just a moment in that where he just starts talking about... which like one of the one of the WrestleManias it was like it was like and it was like he was he was it was in the 80s he was like a a manager and an old man

And he just starts telling the story about having sex with eight different women in one day. And he had group sex. Mr. Fuji having... group sex with four women uh twice in one day yeah like a different group it's like to me mr fuji is like uh you know you have like hulk hogan the ultimate uh liar the guy who could right who could not speak true no

couldn't but fuji is only a couple notches down based on what i know so i feel like god it's because because you would also get those shoot interviews where it'd be like okay this guy like is going to take this check but he's not really going to answer any you know like No, the worst was Abdul the Butcher. It was like, it was just an hour of, we had good matches. Right, the like...

Hey, Jimmy Hart, what's the craziest Vince McMahon story? He's like, oh, man, you know. You're like, no, man, no. That didn't happen. Also, that's so lame. Really? I'm like, what are you, Marco Rubio on Meet the Press? Like, fuck off with this fucking non-answer.

very exciting though now we've got um so much of our uh mania trip is starting to ramp up the tickets for the collective going on sale this week we've got all these shows being announced it's starting to feel real as it were and we get a little bonus fucking dynamite here in Ontario in February not too long it's I love when a show gets announced and it's like you know like a month away or less you know

no anticipation you're like i'll still be alive for that just boom i'll be there anything can happen but you're thinking like i got a pretty good chance of still being on earth for this You know, there's a decent chance there's still going to be a planet and a country. I could look forward to this, dude. Yeah, man. So, you know, sold out Tokyo Dome. Man, I didn't realize that they hadn't actually sold out the Tokyo Dome in what, like 18 years? Yeah. 19 years, something like that?

because even when tanahashi was like thank you for letting me look at a sold out tokyo dome i i feel like he said for the first time ever just requesting a wave calling for a wave he's like alright before I go underneath all of your seats are beach balls you need to start blowing them up yeah I Here's the question I had. Yes. Okay. That I've been waiting to ask you. Okay, dude. What happened? I've never seen your noise. Sorry. What's going on over there? Are you living in the funny farm?

are you in the money pit uh did you stay up all night here's what happened tell me um i let's see i i watched There was the young lion match. Then there was the ELP match. And then I made a pot of coffee.

and so we're on the west coast we're talking it's probably 11 30 or midnight at this point yeah like i think the main show so i think the the next match was the first show on the card which was like um the rambo yeah whatever their version of the rambo was this year oh yeah it was like the three yeah that was weird for the i think it was for the like um the six man or whatever uh and so then

I start drinking coffee and then I drink a fucking big cup of coffee and I make it right to the end of the women's match. And then I go to sleep and then I, what i had anticipated happening which did was i i knew around what time i typically get awoken by an animal and so it just uh

And you had the animal strategically placed for optimum. No, I just mean like, well, here's the thing that I had already sort of known, but it's now completely confirmed. Like I drank a giant cup of coffee and went directly to sleep. That's right. But then I was awoken and I turned it on and it was like perfect. Like they were. Oh, I love it. Now, did you go into your bed or did you lay out on the couch? No, this is the problem. The TV.

in the bedroom down here is the one that has the roku on it so that's the one i have to watch it on so i already knew it was going to be an issue that i was going to have to be in a bed for it like i was gonna bring a chair in there and then i was like ah fuck it man so i uh so i'm in the bed but i woke up and uh and they were so i just kind of right on right on the money i

I saw the match and then I saw all of the shit that, that happened after it. Um, incredible. So then, so what time was that about four? I think it, I want to say it probably all wrapped up by four. oh okay or maybe even like i don't know at that point like i would say it was probably no you know what i think it was like like early in the threes that the match ended yeah so it was like a full hour i guess of shit after yeah yeah um but um man just like such a great match uh for you know like

what i mean not only what could be expected but i think a little above and beyond but especially you knew the you knew it was going to be like the psychology was going to be incredible yeah um yeah i mean i thought the match was great and then everything that happened after it just was fucking i thought they just nailed it because i watched uh i watched it at my leisure And I think I did it correctly. I watched the hour YouTube doc and then watched the match. Oh, okay.

So it was tremendous. So it was great. All the emotion of, you know, Okada, you know. you must be tired you know iwgp ready and then shibata coming out you know at the end it was uh yeah that my only issue a very minor one but was like why naito was sort of this featured person and also i mean obviously within his character but like just took for fucking ever but but more than that was like why did he get to come out at the end by himself he was not like

you know historically you wouldn't go like oh naito that was the one kanahashi's top opponent or his like you know i think it was just because it was the way i felt was it was Because it should have been Nakamura, but it couldn't be. And then Naito doesn't work for the company anymore and left in a way that...

I think it really truly was a surprise that he would come back or that not even that he would come back, that he was invited back and he accepted the invitation type of thing. But I think that was also just lump them in.

not to feature him you know what i mean well maybe that's the only way he could come back or he would come back or i don't know yeah but i think i think all the like i think that also plays into why he was i'm gonna milk this and uh because they they were on like broadcast tv and they had a definite heart out and it was like why are you why are you doing this to us yeah

But I don't know. I mean, it featured well into the, especially having watched the hour recap of his career, of Tanahashi's career before watching the show. It was like... Nakamura's absence was glaringly obvious. I love that Tanahashi acknowledged him in the match. But Naito did fit in, and there... The fact that they were amicable with each other after it was like, man, like Tanahashi feels like he has to save not just the belt.

from Naito but the whole company from him yeah that it was like oh this is there was a uh it he's he's certainly the most unusual guy um especially that character to do something

respect-based yeah you know i heard our friend jerry missed a large portion of the show walking around the concourse with a piece of paper that had the word pretzel written in japanese on it i don't know if that's true i haven't talked to him directly yet but that's that's just something that trickled down to me that's what i heard he had a drawing of a pretzel and it said pretzel in japanese and he just was holding it up at different yes concession stands

It translated to bread ring. What he needed was Kojima. Kojima would have got him at least a loaf of bread.

uh i'll tell you if this has been going on i wasn't aware of it but i was i was actually kind of hyped for it that uh yo is now toru yo no he's he is did you see he's he's got the hairs bleached he's got the kimono he's he's doing the uh um sake he's he's his buddy now he's toro yono toro yono that is hilarious no i watched the main and then i watched um the title match which was fantastic oh my god i also i fucking loved the aaron wolf

evil match whether it was mostly evil getting it done or not yeah um i just i thought it was i thought it was great and you know and uh we'll see what uh i think they're smart enough over there to protect aaron wolf he's he's a huge star over there apparently uh what's a huge celebrity over there uh gold medal and shit and so you know if don't

you know you don't got to make him go out and do uh 25 minutes necessarily and just you know keep the opponents like like evil who can you know make sure that shit gets done i was uh Very curious about that match. I thought it was very good for what it was. But when things got going, because this is obviously my first time seeing this guy. You know, I've read, I've heard things. But then when he came out and first of all, he looked nervous as shit, you know, which I was like.

I was like, all right, that seems odd. Because I was like, this guy shouldn't be camera shy. I'm running through my head. I'm like, why does this guy look so fucking nervous? He shouldn't be camera shy. He's a big celebrity.

did like the olympics i mean that's that's some fucking pressure sure but then i'm like is he worried about how it's going to come off is he trying to remember spots performance right it's not like if he's going out to fight judo he's like at least i you know this is this is this he's like now i have to remember shit i have to like not actually hurt anybody i have to you know like you know but i thought like it was such a

like a great story that you know especially for him being a baby face because you know evil had said like if i beat you you're gonna shave your head and put on black trunks and be a young lion and so then he just did it you know he shaved his head and put that shit on and came out i was like i'm fucking i am a young lion or whatever you know i just thought like it's a baby face move

I loved when he became the ultimate babyface when he disrobed. And I'm like, oh, this guy's got the same physique as me. I'm down with this guy. I guess if you... I guess in Japan, you, if you're already known, if you're a well-known badass, you can have the, the Murdoch or whatever, you know, I was, I was, it was so refreshing to see a wrestler with the 1970s physique, you know?

Well, I mean, there's a few over there. You got, you know, Great O'Conn isn't exactly shredded, and there's one or two others, I think, that's... But I mean, at no point... even even up to and including right now in this moment would i ever think about like terry gordy i'm like well he's fucking fat who cares about that guy i'm like yeah he doesn't like he doesn't have ripped muscles no and i'm like

I couldn't think of anybody more terrifying. Like that guy will rip my fucking head off. Cocaine or not. It's only going to make it worse. Yeah. Yeah. There used to be a lot of those guys. I mean, especially in Japan, like well into the nineties, you know, you couldn't pay me to be the dungeon master on a fucking carry and buddy crawl, dude. No way. God. Now, wait a second. Can I still use my... Can I still cast this spell of fire? I want to be able to...

Well, no, actually, Terry, your character doesn't know that spell. Bullshit. I want to throw a fireball at this fucking guy. I'm going to roll this fucking dice, and I'm going to throw a fucking fireball.

yeah it was fucking good man I mean I'll never move past this the idea of like Bill Mercer coming over to their fucking disheveled, falling apart, ranchackle house, and he comes in and he's like, well, it appears I've interrupted the Freebirds playing another rousing games of Dungeons and Dragons. Hey, sit down, Mercer, okay? Quiet down. Quiet down, all right? We just entered a cave. Buddy just rolled a natural 20, and that means his character gets a free pack of smokes.

Yeah, I mean, I thought the women's match was good and the last women's match was great. Yeah. So, yeah, I watched the main. I watched the championship match. I watched Aaron Wolf. I watched the women. god damn at one point i was like did i accidentally like i legitimately looked i was like do i accidentally have this on like play at 1.5 i was like they were going so goddamn fast and i watched elp

And then the rest, I was like, I don't know. I'll pick and choose, I suppose. Which is to say. I think, yeah, just like some of these, you know. Just kind of sit there. Did you watch The Dash? I had not seen The Dash. I like watching the New Year's Dash for all the angles because it feels like every year, whether I realize it or not, my New Year's resolution is like, you know what? I just watched the Dome.

I watched the dash. I got all the angles. I'm going to watch new Japan all year long, dude. Yeah. Maybe that'll, cause you know, that's the, um, the interesting thing too, right? They, uh, they have this show.

I think it's in February in Trenton, New Jersey, at a building that seems to be way too big. Always. But to me... you know and i guess we'll we'll see but i feel like having that night one of the g1 in uh schaumburg chicago whatever like i bet that show because chicago is such a such a hotbed g1 is a thing summertime people can come in like i bet that i bet that show sells good that would be my thought but i hope so yeah um but and also you're just going like oh i don't

night one of the g1 i haven't really been paying attention but it's just it's this tournament like i can you know what i mean like there's no right like i don't know what the fuck's going on what am i going oh i'm not and that's why and and because and it's night one it's like we're all starting at zero

This is perfect. Even though the other thing that you can bank on historically is if you go to a New Japan show, it's going to be good. If we fucking ended up in Trenton, New Jersey, I don't think we'd be disappointed. The wrestling is always good. yeah you just like go home and you're like i don't know what's my what's my new japan world login you know like you're just kind of it just isn't there's just something right now that it's it's not this is a little cold but

oh man i completely forgot to mention this i i couldn't believe my eyes when kota abushi came fucking limping out another um miscalculation i would think like he's trying to heal from this thing it's like you're just gonna walk that whole way like dude dude either you know stay on the ramp or like you don't have to it's like it's like football players playing with no sleeves in like

zero degree weather like it's supposed to be this you know i'm sure it was like oh i must i must walk down there to tanahashi it's like sure no dude your fucking leg exploded dude like why not uh you know maybe use a cane or uh have uh omega push you in a chair or you know it's like what are you doing dude what do you do you're pushing back it feels like you're pushing back your recovery and and it felt so on point for that fucking lunatic

yeah and he's just in a t-shirt everyone else has like got a suit on right i'm like you you go so far to a point yeah yeah it's almost like they were like hey man you know thanks for coming tana will be back in a little bit he's like oh no i'm going down there they're like what

It's like, oh, no, I'm definitely, I'm definitely going. I wonder. I really want, because it was like, Kenny was obviously scheduled to be there. It's not like they, God, I wish I could, I had the footage playing right now, because I'm like. Did he have his own bouquet of flowers that he gave Tanahashi? Did they have to scramble and get like a... Can you imagine like everybody else has these gorgeous, you know, almost like prom, like level, like bouquets and then...

Koto Bushi comes out and he's just got like like fucking wrote like daisies that he fucking clearly ripped out of the like in the parking lot yeah it's like you know like they were hanging out beforehand and right and he's like i'm kenny's like oh no i thought you were he's like no i'm coming with you he's like yeah i don't know if you're gonna he's like dude

I'm going to be, I'm coming to the door when we get to the, I'm going to be with you. Oh, well, all right. I mean, I'm not. And then, and then Kenny's just going like, sit down with me. There's a, there's a person I won't put on blast.

here a comic who when i was in australia with my favorite murder i went and saw him earlier in the day for a couple beers and then he's like oh i'm gonna come coming down i'm gonna come down to the show tonight and i'm like oh okay yeah i don't know um and then he's like yeah and then i like got to the building i'm like look like this dude rolls like just know it's not i did not

we don't have any room for him i can't have him in here like that is too fucking funny oh no you don't need to do that that's uh no vince said i could no no no vince did not say that but yeah i just it's uh he it just the abushi thing all of it yeah seemed a little bit wrong but i mean at that field what you're describing what you described it sounds like that

That must be the nature of Kota Ibushi and Kenny Omega's entire relationship. Or he's just like, you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to go out there. Like the last time we saw him, I mean, before he fucking shattered his fucking femur. Yeah. as he starts doing those backdrops on the fucking steel chair turn the wrong way he's like i'm gonna do here's what i'm gonna do stop stop what are you doing yeah yeah you're doing dude you're it's like

You're sitting at the restaurant and you're like, they'll be, they're coming over. You don't need to do anything. Oh yeah. He's, he's Vince Vaughn and swingers. We're just like, He's Walter and the Big Lebowski and Kenny Omega's just like, they're calling the cops, man. I'm going to drink my coffee. I didn't shatter my femur face down in the mud so that these people could tell me when I'm.

It's like, are you fucking this thing up, Kenny? What was all that shit about New Japan, man? I got to go back there. You know what I mean? I got to work with these people, man. Jesus Christ. I got to make a living here, man. It was nice to see both Switchblade and... Oh, my God. When I forgot about the flowers ceremony. So when Switchblade's music hit, I was like, oh, my God, is he going to come? He's come to kill him. He's going to kick it. Oh, my God.

It's like fucking Switchblade doesn't give a shit. He's going to come down and kick his ass. Osprey. It's good to see old Will up and around. A lot of people on the... I was like... It wasn't until they started all coming out in droves that I was like, oh, this doesn't mean that Jay White is no longer, doesn't mean he's cleared.

as soon as he came out i was like i was like oh my god thank jay white's back baby he's back we need him the book the bang bang gang needs him i also just i was never if i if i knew i don't recall like what his injury was was it like a arm thing uh i was also just going like can you just you know just kind of

Throw a little windmill or something. Let's see how that's moving there. Give us a sign. What's our range of motion here, Jay? Give us a sign, man. Something heavy up. Because it's been a while, you know?

also i saw someone who was there who was like anytime like there was a little heat on tanahashi there was this guy up in front of us who kept jumping up in a tanahashi t-shirt going go ace go ace and we thought it was just some you know what and it turned out it was elp oh it's like sitting out in the crowd during the match and he's just like yeah that's great April 2nd, White was kayfabe injured in an off-screen attack by the Deathriders who forced and was forced to pull out of the tournament.

This was done to write white off of television to allow him to heal from a hand injury that would require surgery. So it's just his hand? I mean, I don't mean to say just his hand. They're very useful appendages. What year is this? Earlier this year in April? Yes. Did he ever... Am I thinking somebody else who, like, did he come back and then immediately get hurt on something else? Maybe not. That feels like Taylor's time with some of these wrestlers, you know? Yeah. Well, yeah.

I mean, that's like, that was, that was Adam Cole's whole fucking AEW run was I'm back. Shit. Another, I want to give another big shout out to Mike in Tokyo for, for, uh, taking care of all my business over there um and also i was i feel kind of fortunate that um craig violent miracle uh used one of my tickets because then it allowed me to see where my seat would have been

Oh, right. That was kind of cool. How did the seats look? It looked pretty good. It was straight on, and it was in the top part of the lower. So it seemed... It looked pretty sweet. I don't think I would have been that pissed about it. No. I mean, Jerry and Garb's seats looked fucking great. I think those were...

Mike took care of all that because when I was still in hopes or something, he was saying that they had another one, an extra ticket. Let me tell you something about this Mike in Tokyo, okay? There's two things he knows how to do, dealing and wheeling. He does both at the same time. All right, pal? Yeah. Fucking A, man. Yeah, good shit. And also, yeah. And also what? No, that's it. Just, you know, big ups to everybody involved.

i'm texting my wife god why are you so angry about it our priorities are a little out of whack this morning trying to get you to watch other matches on the show and you know oh my god she's she's she's going on and on about the rambo i'm like honey it was terrible i don't have to watch it to know it was terrible i heard she's a big finley mark She's like, no, it was Tiger Mask's final appearance in the Tokyo Dome. I'm like, I don't care. It goes, hunk, Tiger Mask for you. Just white hot heat.

The wrong kind. It's Tanahashi because he's still going to be president of New Japan. Here's what's going to happen. He's going to be sitting in his office. This is the day after Tiger Mask finally retires. Yeah. He's going through papers on his desk. He's looking at things. And then he presses the intercom to call his secretary. And he goes, when you get a chance, since Tiger Mask retired last night, bring me the Tiger Mask mask in here.

And we're going to coronate a new Tiger Mask. We're going to build up to that this summer. It's going to be great. And then she says. Everyone's clamoring. Tiger Mask never brought the mask. He took the mask with him when he left last night.

she's like he call call the tokyo police station uh the police i'm hoping um that now that tanahashi's role is just as president yeah one he gets back to that haircut he had for his movie my father's the pro wrestler or whatever it was called a heel wrestler yeah uh which was kind of just like a bowl cut as i recall i'm trying to picture in my head yes um that was the other great thing about that our doc was to see the evolution of that hair my god because he it felt like he had a shaved head

The whole time, and then all of a sudden, one day, his hair was shoulder length, and it was spiked all the way like a wave of just magnitude, just magnificence. And the other thing I sort of want for him, especially given some of the images around his, you know, when he does cheat a little bit on his meals is I would love.

for him to do the thing that a lot of athletes, pro athletes in the U S when they retire, they just get super fat. Sure. That'd be amazing. He just becomes the fucking fat president with a, with a bowl cut of right. Right. Yeah. Pro wrestling. It's a great lot of partnerships with, you know, different snacks. Oh, yeah. All the best snacks. Feel the best snacks and all the best snacks.

feel the best snacks eat the best how many meals did you have today one in a hundred one in a hundred this meal right now for today it's just one in a hundred meals i'm having today Got to, you must energy. You must have energy. That's right. Energy and love for snacks.

I mean, it was the middle of the night, so you might have been out of sorts. I got emotional, man. Different points in that match. Even before the ceremony, there was points in the match where I was like, holy fucking shit. He was, I mean... when he did the high five flow to the floor i was just like god damn this fucking guy boy he going out big when he when he hit him when he hit okada with that and then he's laying on the ground i was like

He's got to be thinking right now, that's the last time I'm doing that. And he meant it. I'm sure that there were plenty of other times.

he did that move to the floor it was like that's the last time i'm doing that ever doing that again yeah i mean i think that was it was just uh so great in that respect if you did have any you know affinity for for him or that feud or anything else you know it was it was the match itself beyond like once you know the the great muda or whoever started you know coming into the ring but

Yeah. Muda was the one where I was, because everyone else before then was like, oh, this person really looks up to Tanahashi or is old friends with him and like the deep bows. Really deep bows. Muda came in and was just like, all right, let's get it over with. Here we go. I guess they want me to come in here too. I don't know. Someone sent word I'm supposed to do this. Yeah, I suppose I'll go in and give the kid a thrill. I mean.

Yeah, it felt like that. It felt very... Did you ever watch the... I have that DVD of the movie they made in Japan about Rikido... ricky ricky dozan yes yes did we ever watch that together i don't think we watched it together but i remember i remember seeing it back whenever it yeah came around or i was aware of it but We should sit down and watch that together. Maybe host a screening. In some of my other work that I've been doing for us... Some outside stuff? I did find out that...

Over here at Look, where we had the Von Erich thing. The Von Erich thing? Oh, the movie theater, yeah. That they will just let you play a DVD.

like if you want to like rent one of their theaters um you can just fucking you can just bring a dvd which to me seems again i don't think that that is completely on the level because once you're showing something like that they yeah that that's they i mean is it on the the viewer the person throwing the party to get the the license to show it well it seems like they would

intimate like you can do this but you're also gonna have to do this in order to be allowed or whatever but um i because i mean most movie theaters it that is what like they're they're getting sent a like a you know it's obviously it's not like the new beverly or the fiesta where there's like canisters of film being sent anymore yeah i just thought because of the

because of licensing and all whatever sure that's it was just weird to me that they're like you can also bring your own dvd you know that's incredible that's oh we should just start doing that let's just start having

Uh, we're going to be, Hey guys, uh, we're going to be, we're going to be over fucking Glenn, Gary, Glenn Ross over at the look. If you guys want to be at the look, we're going to be watching. Um, uh, I like to hurt people and then, um, you know who knows maybe we'll throw on if we've got time we may we may throw on memphis heat yeah we're going to be watching a double feature of uh the glow documentary as well as um an ivp

disc that i just got the best of uh bring down bring down a fucking best of danielson and aw or whatever and that sounds like a fucking great time Not the worst idea. No. Worst idea. I think we just tapped into something. Yeah. This is the new watch along. i know yeah it's like the fucking yeah it's like look cinema in glendale and we'll fucking watch uh yeah no more of this videos this commentary stuff it's like let's all just hang out we'll get some some some soda pops we're gonna watch that

We're going to watch that first RF Shawn Michaels when he's doing his wrestling school and he's dipping and sitting next to the air conditioner in his hotel room. Like a golf ball sized dip in his mouth. Strange day. Swears up and down. He had nothing to do with the fucking screw job. Strange day. Weird vibes that day. Strange day.

It's funny. Man, I got this universal remote and it just suddenly this one VCR isn't responding to it. Technology, they say. It's really, it's since we lost like during one of the storms. We lost power for a couple minutes. And I'm like, do I got to unplug this thing, plug it back in? Do I need to redo the remote? Yeah. I don't know.

i lost my sound bar for a period of time and i think that was more uh someone who was over here um had something to do with it but uh but it seems to be back now georgia will sometimes report a delay

But I'm like, I don't see it. I hate that. I hate to hear that. You know what I was doing a little research on? I wanted to share this with you. They would have... conventions every year for for video stores oh where you know distributors studios different labels would have booths like any like i believe they're doing this week it might even be today

as we are recording this, the CES, the Consumer Electronics Show, which was also a hotbed for VCRs and disc players and all that stuff. Anyway, in... Looking into it, I suddenly came across this on eBay, which I just had to snatch up. This was from one of these conventions. This is the Coliseum video. WWF wrestling videos. I guess the button of people working the booth would be wearing. What? Retail margin? What does this mean?

I have no idea. No idea. I don't know if that, and it's 99540. I don't know if that means there was, you know, close to a hundred thousand different vendors at this thing. I mean, maybe there were, I have no idea, but. Huh.

Isn't that great? A bit odd. Hey, is it odd or is it God? I don't know. Wait a minute. What is it, dude? I'm checking your schedule real quick. No, no, no, no, no. Are you looking at... The Pete shows? Yeah. Yeah. I got to cancel a show. That show popped up in Texas, and I was like, well, that ain't happening. Oh, yeah, Romania. I was just looking because the Hollywood show is coming.

uh but it's um this weekend so you are going to be up north the hollywood show is this weekend i'm afraid so and they have got a cavalcade dude okay this time fuck man oh man i mean there's some people here i kind of even couldn't believe and i'm not talking about fred dryer necessarily but um who was the person that i saw

there was like um god damn it i can't believe first of all i can't believe i didn't know holy shit they got both people from hunter uh-oh sorry georgia i'm busy this weekend girl i gotta go see the hunter people 81 celebrities. Gutenberg. Oh, greatest American hero. William cat. I mean, they've, they have, Oh, Todd bridges in the building. Thomas C Thomas Howell, Bruce Dern.

Wait, Proctor from Police Academy is going to be there? Bearing the lead, homeboy. I'm telling you what. They got a couple people from Titanic. Dee Wallace. I was just on a plane with her not that long ago, oddly enough. The first Annie from the 1982 movie. Oh, Julie Newmar. That was the one I was like, what? What did I tell you? Didn't I tell you Billy Zane is always at these fucking things? Soleil Moon Fry.

Dame Joan Collins. That was the one I was like, what? Joan Collins? Yeah, man. Better believe it, dude. I can't believe you skipped right past Butch Patrick. who are you looking to oh were you ever at meltdown when the first jennifer from back to the future would show up i don't If I was, I don't recall. Claudia Wells. She would show up to things. She would be looking for events.

anything that had to do with the back to the future and she would she would just show up kind of like uninvited um i don't know what we were doing if it was like she's doing well well she uh is is will gladly tell you her story um that she obviously she was in this huge huge movie but her mom was like nope you're not doing acting you are you know

going to college or you're doing whatever instead and wouldn't allow wouldn't allow her to be in the sequel wouldn't allow this wouldn't allow that yeah sorry about your bad damn luck But yeah, it's Debbie Gibson. Yeah, she's, you know... Wait a second. Mayor Goldie Wilson's going to be there. Dude, I'm telling you, bro. Is Sketchfest this weekend? Is that what it is? Is that what you guys are part of or no? No, we're just playing...

Yeah, we're just doing the, what's the club we're doing? I keep wanting to say the collective. Cobbs. We're doing Cobbs. Nice. Yeah, we're part of the collective. Lauderdale's.

got us over at the uh it's got you and pete it's got me and pete i think we're just gonna kind of vamp between shows while they're like cleaning up glass we're just gonna do some do some bits wait gw bailey's gonna be there you better you need to stop looking bro because you're just gonna make yourself feel worse and worse that you're missing this i didn't know that guy was still alive did you know that mash is no longer streaming on disney plus

I didn't know it was. A lot of people were, because once in a while, it's strange. I have never, you know, it's like Tom Petty said.

when they were being called New Wave. It's like, I didn't sign up for no clubs. We ain't never signed up to be in no clubs. But I'm like, I haven't signed up to be in any clubs on Reddit. But for whatever reason... when i click on an article and all of a sudden i'm on reddit before i know it you know i'm like ah shit i thought i was reading an article i'm on fucking reddit post so then now i get um and i don't mind them because i'm like you know what

They are feeding me what I want to eat, and I'm not forgetting my manners. I'll get alerts once in a while to different things happening on Reddit. Okay. And this is all just to tell you. One morning I woke up. I believe it was all is quiet. on New Year's Day, except for in the MASH sub-threaded. Oh, no. It was one thing after the next of people being like, where did MASH go? Why has MASH gone? I can't find it on Hulu. I can't find it on Disney+.

wow you just begin to realize there are people who are fucking counting on their mash baby boy it was one post after the next of i watch mash before bed every night this

is fucking ruining my life. Who knew? Now you know. And knowing. Meanwhile, I'm sitting over here with, you know. The full series on DVD, thinking, sorry about your bad damn luck. So, you know, there was some speculation, and I think we see here that... As I was just going back to look at what had happened on Dynamite on the 31st. Yes. Oh, I miss that show. Monet, you know, we were worried about all those belts she had. She slowly...

Willow got that TBS one off of her right there at the end of the year. She's coming apart. She's falling apart at the seams. Now remember, last time someone went crazy on that show, Tony Storm turned into a whole other person. They lost their mind. We'll see what happens with old Monet. Monet. Bandito versus Mortos. Not as good as Bandito versus Ricochet, but it was alright.

I was watching... It's funny. I completely blanked on Dynamite because of New Year's and all that. Oh, Steve Guttenberg canceled. Oh, what? Dang it.

Don't worry. Todd Bridges is still going to be there. No, no. I'm worried about Fred Dreyer, dude, and his partner. I'm worried about the Hunter people. I mean, if they're both... both supposed to be there that's like this year's uh scarecrow and mrs king that's going to be the big it's their barney miller it's yeah it's this year's barney miller there's actually been one since we went really yeah there's been one since we where are you getting these alerts

I mean, I follow the Hollywood show. Shit. I guess I need to fucking up my game. I mean, I bet, you know, the middle of next week they'll announce when they're coming back. This will happen, and then the next dates will be announced. They're rolling. Hollywood show don't play. All right. Catch me in Burbank. How about that? Catch me outside. We were watching... I had on Collision. And... jack was really into oh jackie boy what's what's holograms he's the clone clone yeah and um

Oh, I don't follow the Hollywood show. That's the problem. Hollywood show one. That's a bad sign. Hollywood show was already taken. Or they already got their shit hacked or taken down once. Sure. Okay. All right. Good. Now we're set. Now we're in the hunt. So have it on. And Jack goes, wow, this guy's really good. And I'm like... Yeah, oh, I'm like, both these guys are great. And Jack goes, no, no, no, no. Just that one guy. Wasn't feeling Angelico. Everyone's got their opinion now.

And I'm like, Angelico's great. I'm like, here's the problem. He was already in the ring when the music hit. Jack didn't see Angelico take off his jacket. Didn't get to see him dance at all. If he saw him take off that jacket. He would have loved it. He would have loved it. So as though being in the ring waiting without any entrance music wasn't already a bad enough sign, then he's paired up with, what's his name?

el el scorpo the guy who always opens the shows or sometimes he has his mask off and he's he's a different guy are you thinking of el scorpo let's yeah el scorpo what's his name el um yeah His name is... I'm sure he's a great guy. I can see him. I can see him. I can see him with the mask and without the mask. Is there anybody out there? El Scorpo. There you go. El Curtain Jerk. Yeah, that one was good. Willie Mack, every once in a while, gets a fucking... To see what job! He works there.

That's insane to me. I had no idea Willie Mack worked at AEW? I mean... We're talking about the same wrestling company, right? Yeah. I mean, I guess he could have been released by now. This is old. This was an old thing I was looking at, but. I had no idea. Let's see here. Maria Conchita Alonso. what there's nothing funnier to me than just reading random names of actors who are going to be at this fucking show Serpentico Serpentico what did I say El Serpico

No, you said fucking dog day afternoon. El Scorp. El Scorp. Serpentic goes in the building. Oh, Jackie boy. does willie mac have a job man you better check the roster page and get back to me i guess that's the place to look right i always go to wikipedia because i'm like i always have faith that they're gonna be able to tell me anything Tony Khan. I don't know. No, he doesn't work for AEW anymore.

Just feel. Last we heard from Willie Mack, he was on Major League Wrestling. Oh, that's fun. Or at least this is according to Wikipedia, which is not a reliable news source.

I don't know why you always go there, Vince. Hey, man. Once you get to know something, you just feel like that's how I operate. Did you hear the frog man died? Come again? This was... I know. The only reason I knew his name is because this was... Steve Austin's first professional match in world class. Oh, okay. I heard a little bit about this guy. Yeah, the frog man died. Huh. Enhancement guy. I mean...

Times are tough. Enhancement guy in the USWA. It's like, man, they are so lucky I didn't save my money. He's a frog man. All right, Steve, here's what we're doing. We got you in there with a frog man. Now, don't be worried. He's willing to do the job. You just got to let him jump around a little bit. Then you squash that motherfucker, okay? And, hey, don't get me wrong. He ain't no frog. He's all man, okay?

He's willing to do you the honors, you know, but maybe afterwards you just buy him a couple of tall neck beers because this territory is going down. All right. I'm supposed to be off today. Long neck. I came in on my day off to book this fucking match. That's how much we believe in you. And hey, you know, I'll always get your back, you know.

In case I'm running interviews or I'm producing matches, hell, I could be running interviews. You get your mouth busted open. You go to the hospital. Get it stitched up. You come back. I'm going to fill you in on what you missed. I'm a stew jock Jake to you. I'll tell you everything Jake said. I'll tell you everything that Jake drank. All right? Hey, Steve! Jake just cut a religious-based promo.

all right, we're going out there. Basically, I came up with a 360. Oh, you didn't know? Oh, that's somebody else. There was one day, I remember Michael pitching Cena. Because somehow Cena's locked into a feud with the big show or some shit. He's like, and then we get you out there. You get that big man up on that ladder. AA off the top of the ladder. And Cena immediately just goes, no, Michael, that would kill him.

i mean that's the old fucking hardy boy that's the old hardy boys talking about like you know michael hayes talking about why don't you do this why don't you do that why don't you fucking do it michael we're the fucking tag team of the year 2025 PWI. God damn. Oh man, I didn't do raw homework. Hey man, it happens. Oh man, I feel like a fucking heel.

No. Jack went to camp today and he's like, my dad's a heel wrestler. Why are the kids off a whole other week of school? What is going on? Dude, they get three weeks for fucking winter break. Thank God. Thank God. I mean, he was, it was raining. Half the time it was either raining or he had a stomach flu. I'm like, this kid is omnipresent in this album, man. Needs a little extra time for herself.

He needs to go out there and stretch his legs. When I picked him up yesterday, he was in a great mood. I was like, oh, man, you fucking running, jumping. What did he say? Recovers. Oh, volleyball. He was saying they played volleyball. And he's like, and our team won. I was like, did you come up with a name for your team? He's like, the Fighting Coyotes. Where do they do this at? Oh, one of the parks. A little park and rec.

you ever have camp kids at your the park when you were working there like during the summer or something there was some you know i think there might have been but i was that was part of the programming side i just yeah yeah yeah i just handled the you know the operations the maintenance and the you know that kind of shit so i think there were campers now that you mention it but i uh you know me and kids you know i just uh

I keep it moving. You were busy making the park family friendly before anybody showed up. That's right. And that was enough of a job. A lot of freaks go to these parks. A lot of freaks, a lot of geeks. um god damn yeah it's you know it's not like an overnight they do like an overnight camp in like griffith park somewhere like on a break like this not in the summertime no no that that's in the summer but you got to sign up

I have, you have no idea how many alerts I have on my phone. I remember from last year. I remember how far in advance you, yeah. Because our friend, and she's the best, but like, she'll mention it like. Oh, yeah. We're already. Oh, you guys, you should have signed up. Son of a. All right. I see how it goes. Well, now I got myself an idea.

Fucking A, dude. Fucking A, dudes. Oh, man. What's the matter? Nothing. What's eating at you, bud? Well, they announced that the pay-per-view catalog is going on Netflix, but all they said was WWE. There's no indication on the rest of the library. Oh yeah, none of the other shit. It's just their old shows.

like paper but that's what was weird is because the vault because i i went through and i changed my uh i was i was thinking about i was like maybe i maybe i do the hollywood show change those notifications that they send me notifications i'm New year, new me. I really revamped my notifications on my phone. I went through YouTube and was like, I need an alert every time that a new botchamania goes up and I need an alert anytime the WWE vault posts anything.

right because they just put up the the wrestling classic and i was like oh god damn but now i'm like shouldn't that be on netflix well no i think i think what they're gonna do is push a lot of that stuff over to youtube and and try to the old shit yeah like the the i mean so so you know it probably won't also be you know the entire

1983 of this company or whatever either. I wouldn't think, but no, that's no, I think those days are done. I think that that's all going in the vault ship sailed. Did you see this one? thing they put up on the vault. Let's see if I can find it. God. There's kind of nothing worse than posting stuff online.

everybody leaves a comment you know well that's what it is man yeah and you're just like god damn i don't get dialogue you've been wanting i'm like if i wanted to know what you thought of this video i would have sent it to you homeboy just consume it yeah just watch it and tell me it was great just like subscribe tell me it was great everything else shut the fuck All right, Raw Vault. I thought you said you didn't do it. No, we didn't do it. In my mind, I'm calling the WWE Vault Raw Vault.

where is this oh the unseen golden era it's like all this yeah i've tuned that on once in a while not not super into it i i like a little more control i mean sometimes it's fun to just throw on and see what what's cracking but but a lot of times it doesn't pan out for me this uh these bloopers oh is it body slams bleep whatever the bleepers blunders no this is all stuff i've never seen before it's like it's it's 25 minutes of

Andre getting sprayed down before an interview. Sprayed down? I'm telling you, that's the opening thing is just them spraying down Andre. He's like, I'm not... I don't have enough already. And then like Jesse Ventura off camera just being like, we got to spray down Andre. But you know, it's a lot of like, you know.

kind of the running gag is everyone, it's 25 minutes long, but every few minutes you see another attempt by Kurt Henning to hit the bullseye with the dart. It's a lot of that, you know.

Fair enough. What were you talking about? Just clicking the... It's always live, like a channel? Yeah, there's always... on there and also on like the wcw vault whatever like they usually have something playing live and you know sometimes it pans out but sometimes you're like yeah what else is going on you know i mean i'm of the opinion it should be

Live 24-7. No, I think it is. That's what I'm saying. It is always live. I just clicked on it. There's nothing live right now? Not that I see. That's weird. I think that is weird also as well, too. Just because I feel like every time I've turned it on, it's like... Yeah, it's not. Shout Studios is live right now. They're showing a Little Rascals. Oh, that's cool.

Oh God, that's so stupid. You know what makes The Little Rascal so funny to me? I mean, asides from the kids and the ridiculousness of the situations. It's the same thing with like... most like three stooges is how there's just no ambient music it's just dead quiet right so then when like They were just trying to pull the donkey in the house or something. I don't know what the fuck they're doing. And then they all fall down. It's just the sound of them falling down.

dead quiet well did i show you that i did i send you the video we my brother and i found stymie on a episode of emergency no i think you mentioned this you didn't send it to me though incredible he's like it's just stymie he's he's he's a he's a a man but yeah the exact same like everything else about him is exactly the same that's the way he talks yeah it's just weird yeah he looks the same

yeah bit odd bit weird god damn god damn it's a great time to be a wrestling fan man here we go 2026 that's what's up what do you think before we close this out what do you think tanahashi had to eat After the match. Oh, a heroic dose of meat. A heroic dose of meat. Another little fucking banchan. He enjoyed himself.

Yeah. Honestly, I think he had a big plate of flapjacks. He was just like, when we were in the United States, they had these, and I've been waiting for my retirement to eat more. Pan of cake. Oh. Yes. Cake pan. Having some cake, man. Well, do I even need to ask? It's got to be. I know it was last week, but it's got to be again. I'm sorry. It's got to be. Hiroshi Tanahashi for me as well. It's the universe. What a run.

incredible and and just uh yeah kudos on on having a fucking retirement tour that worked and then yeah send off and a match and everything that was just perfect everything about it was worked exactly right um yeah that's true they uh it's funny i mean i know you you condense it down to an hour but like that recap of his career it made it seem so short you know it was because it really only focused on

the biggest moments right whereas i was like yeah and it and at first in my mind i was like god i guess i guess his career was kind of short and then i'm like doing the math in my head of just like no it was literally the exact length of time as John Cena's you know yeah it's also funny too because you're like

like muda who came in the ring just retired last year right you know so some guys you know stick around a little longer but that was the other thing i found i guess that maybe there's no direct connection but when it was over i was like

Oh, I'm surprised Jushin Liger didn't come in. Mm-hmm. Jushin Thunder Liger. What are you going to do? Fucking A. Where can the kids find you online? At Vince Averill on Twitter. Vince.Averill on Instagram. This is your old pal Matt McCarthy saying, follow me on all forms of social media, at McCarthyRedhead, the video movie club. I'm sending out a bunch of these cards this week. And if you want one, sign up, and I will get it done. Go sign up.

get it done get it done that didn't help at all uh oh we do have a new patron i believe what and um we'll we'll see everybody a little bit later in the week for the The Q&A and the .5. Let's see here. Yeah, that's right. That's right. I'm flying out Thursday, but, you know. We'll figure something out. And I'm hanging out with a Bay Area record store owner on Friday, I think. Oh, that's fun. Andrea Buser. Andrea Buser, I'm going to say.

Oh, goddamn, Andrea. We're going to strap the rocket to you, pal. And I'm going to say Ryan Drake. Oh, Drake. Austin Gunn's favorite wrestler. Thank you to all our Patreon patrons and everyone else, and we'll see you very soon. Ta-ta for now.