Tag: podcasts

Featured NEWS Other ROH TNA UFC WWE

Vince Russo’s The Brand Recap – Joe Going Off Script Against Lesnar, Cena Putting Over Styles, Samson’s Botched Guitar Shot, More!

Russo is joined on today’s show by his co-host Jeff Lane.

To open today’s show, Lane plays a clip of Dave Meltzer who’s discussing Jason Jordan’s upcoming push. Meltzer says that while having the spotlight on you is good, WWE is a tricky spot to receive a big push because if Vince McMahon decides you don’t get over during your big push, you have a black mark on you for the rest of your career.

Russo says that this can be said about any profession because if you have an opportunity at your workplace and you don’t succeed, you’re going to be taken out of that spot. Meltzer and these other dirt sheet writers mightn’t understand this because they’ve never worked in the real world. He also says that if you don’t want to have the spotlight on you in the biggest promotion in the world, you’re in the wrong business.

A clip of Wade Keller presents him discussing the Brock Lesnar/Samoa Joe angle. Keller says that Joe came off as someone that could kick Lesnar’s ass during the entire program, and we haven’t really seen that before. There were a couple times when Keller thought Joe might get in trouble, specifically when he told Lesnar to ‘look at me when I’m talking to you’, because that wasn’t scripted.

Featured NEWS Other ROH TNA UFC WWE

Bischoff on Wrestling LIVE Recap – Talking Smack’s Cancellation, Favourite nWo Member, Lesnar Returning to UFC? More!

On this special ‘1 Year Anniversary’ edition of the show, Bischoff and his co-host Nick Hausman go live in order to answer fan questions.

To start the show, Bischoff says he’s very grateful that Shane McMahon emerged without injury from a forced landing in a helicopter yesterday. He says he doesn’t know McMahon well, but he knows how much McMahon loves his wife and kids and he was certainly thinking about them during that situation yesterday.  In typical McMahon fashion, Shane didn’t really sell anything during his news interview, and Bischoff says that only Shane could top his Hell in the Cell leap by falling out of the sky in a helicopter.

A listener calls into the show and asks Bischoff how WWE can get back to the days when they were doing 6.0 and 7.0 ratings. Bischoff says that things have changed so much in the world of entertainment since those days, and there are so many alternative ways to consume programming these days. He doesn’t think we’ll ever see those types of numbers again, and with respect to the current television landscape, Bischoff thinks that WWE is ‘blowing it out of the water’.

Another listener calls into the show and asks Bischoff who his favourite member of the nWo was. He says that Hulk Hogan is his best friend, but he also really enjoyed Scott Hall’s performance as a member of the nWo. Hall brought a lot to that group, and then his pairing with Kevin Nash resulted in a terrific tandem. Hall and Nash’s pairing is a perfect example of 1+1=5.

Featured NEWS Other ROH TNA WWE

Conversation with the Big Guy Recap – Surprises at Live Events, Ripping Dirt Sheets, What Move Has Ryback Stopped Using? More!

Ryback is joined on today’s show by his co-host Pat Buck.

Ryback informs that he just finished another stem cell procedure, which is helping him with injuries he suffered over his career in professional wrestling. He is having issues with the discs in his neck/back, and for this reason he says he is done performing any type of stunner manoeuvre. He says that even executing a leg drop is very hard on your body when you do it for multiple years.

Ryback comments on some negative buzz that he has received on the indie scene, with some people thinking that he’s failing on the indies simply because they don’t see him wrestling for certain promotions. He informs that he’s simply choosing not to wrestle for some promotions, because he’s not wrestling for free or for a discount since he knows his value.

He says that people can criticize him all day long but he knows how hard he works, and if any of these critics spent any time with him they’d see it too. He says that this past year has been a terrific year for him financially both with wrestling and with his supplement business, and while he continues to let his body heal, he’s not focused on working for any and all promotions that inquire about bookings.

Featured NEWS Other ROH TNA WWE

Vince Russo’s The Brand Recap – Backstage Heat on Enzo Amore, ‘Broken’ Hardy Gimmick, Jim Ross Fields Criticism, More!

Russo is joined on today’s show by his co-host Jeff Lane and Glenn Gilbertti (Disco Inferno). Gilbertti says that the decline in wrestling’s popularity might be easily explained by one … Read More

Featured NEWS Other ROH TNA WWE

Vince Russo’s The Brand Recap w/ Kristian Harloff – Writing for WWE, Relationship with Roddy Piper, WWE Limiting Their Talents, More!

Russo welcomes former WWE writer Kristian Harloff to the show.

Harloff says that he was always a huge wrestling fan, and his favourite performer was ‘Macho Man’ Randy Savage. He moved to Los Angeles to become a writer and a stand up comedian, and he met Paul Heyman through a WWE event one evening. He asked Heyman how to get a chance to write for WWE and Heyman told him to write a letter. He told Heyman he already did that, so Heyman told him to write another one.

He wrote the company again, this time including his take on an in-depth ‘Invasion’ angle. This caught the attention of Stephanie McMahon and she flew him into Stanford for an interview.

Russo asks Harloff why he’d want to make the jump from being a stand-up comedian to writing professional wrestling. He says that he always wanted to work for WWE and he had to take the chance. Unfortunately, shortly after arriving in WWE he realized that it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows behind the curtains.

Harloff informs that he got on management’s radar quick, but not in a positive way. During his first pre-show production meeting which was led by Vince McMahon, Harloff raised his hand to ask questions on multiple occasions. Coach came up to him after that and told him to settle down a little bit, because you don’t want to be ‘that’ guy.

Featured NEWS Other ROH TNA WWE

Talk is Jericho Recap w/ Sheamus & Cesaro – Best-of-7 Series, Tagging Together, WWE Travel Woes, More!

Jericho welcomes Sheamus & Cesaro to the show.

Jericho asks how their Best-of-7 series came to be. Sheamus says that prior to the WWE Draft, he was World Champion as part of the League of Nations and Cesaro had returned from an injury on absolute fire. Somewhere along the way they both lost some momentum, and at the Draft they were selected second last and last.

Cesaro says that he was quite angry that evening and Sheamus agrees. They felt that they should have been drafted higher, and they were both very motivated to prove doubters wrong. The company decided to pair them up for a couple of matches, and after that Mick Foley told them they’d be doing a best of 7 series.

Sheamus says that they kicked the shi* out of each other in every one of those matches, and he recalls one uppercut in particular from Cesaro when he actually felt his jaw move. Jericho says that as the series progressed every match got better and better, and Sheamus agrees. They capped off the series with a double count-out in the 7th match.

Featured NEWS Other ROH TNA UFC WWE WWE NXT

Bischoff on Wrestling Recap – Dixie Carter in WWE, Paige/Del Rio Drama, Samoa Joe vs. Brock Lesnar, More!

Bischoff is joined on today’s show by his co-host Nick Hausman.

Hausman asks Bischoff for his opinion on seeing Dixie Carter on WWE programming this Monday night. Bischoff says that Kurt Angle, and his return to WWE is a big story within that company right now, and Carter was obviously a big part of Angle’s post-WWE career. It didn’t surprise Bischoff to see Carter on Angle’s documentary at all, because there was never really any animosity between WWE and TNA.

In terms of Angle’s current mystery storyline on RAW right now, Bischoff says that he knows exactly what’s going on there. He says that WWE is simply copying the Clair/A.J. Styles angle from TNA a few years back. He says that all signs point to Dixie Carter being the person on the other end of Angle’s phone, and we might see her on RAW soon.

Bischoff says that if Carter is actually going to be a character on WWE programming, he hopes that there are a whole new batch of Producers ready to focus on getting Carter through her segments. He says that it would often take her an entire day to prepare for a 2-minute segment in TNA because she’s simply not a talented performer.

Featured NEWS Other ROH TNA WWE

Vince Russo’s The Brand Recap – Paige & Del Rio Drama, Disco Inferno in WWE, Breaking Down Triple H’s Success, More!

Russo is joined on today’s show by his co-host Jeff Lane and Glenn Gilbertti (Disco Inferno).

Lane asks Russo and Gilbertti for their opinions on the rumours that Paige was sitting ringside at Slammiversary last weekend wearing a mask in order to protect her identity. Gilbertti says that he can’t lower his IQ enough to discuss this on an intellectual level. Russo says that if that was Paige, it’s easy to tell that this was a desperate move by her in order to get out of her contract.

Paige clearly wants to be with her boyfriend Del Rio in Global Force Wrestling, so Russo doesn’t understand why both parties can’t get on the same page here and make that release happen. WWE has actually referenced Paige’s leaked sex tape on WWE the last couple of weeks, but then they removed those references from the replays.

Gilbertti doesn’t understand this because the average age of their fans is 54, yet they’re still acting like they have to market to a young demographic. Russo says that if this was the attitude era, Del Rio would have been signed after Paige’s tape was released, and the storyline would have consisted of Del Rio and Paige accusing Xavier Woods of releasing that tape. This would have been a great storyline and everyone would have been talking about it.

Featured NEWS Other ROH TNA WWE

Conversation with the Big Guy Recap – Breeze in A Dress, Ryback vs. Ultimate Warrior, Ways to Improve Wrestling, More!

Ryback opens today’s show by revealing whether he misses being on the road with WWE full time. He says that sometimes he misses the live events and the guys who he developed relationships with, but he doesn’t miss television tapings and all the ‘shit’ that comes along with being on the road 300 days a year.

He says that last week’s show made some headlines due to his recollection of a backstage scenario featuring Tyler Breeze. Some people questioned the legitimacy of Ryback’s claims, but he says that he was there in person when Vince McMahon witnessed Breeze leaving an arena early, and Breeze’s stock within WWE immediately plummeted after that.

Nonetheless, he likes what WWE is doing with Breezango right now as they continue to produce entertaining segments every week. He’s still confused by the fact that Tyler Breeze is wearing a dress every week now, but he assumes that someone backstage at WWE gets their kicks from seeing Breeze in a dress.

Ryback says he loved the Rap Battle on Smackdown Live last week between The Usos and The New Day. He says that these types of segments are what have been missing from WWE programming lately, and the ‘R rating’ line in particular proves that anything can happen on WWE programming, similar to how fans felt about the product during the attitude era.

Featured NEWS Other ROH TNA WWE

Vince Russo’s The Brand Recap – GLOW Analysis, Hardys vs. Sheamus & Cesaro Just Won’t End, RAW Needs More Joe & Lesnar, More!

Russo opens today’s show speaking about Netflix’s GLOW. He says that he watched the first few episodes and he was absolutely hooked. He thinks the show is very well written and acted, and it’s no surprise to him that the show is seeing success. He always said that a well written wrestling drama/comedy would draw better than an actual wrestling show.

He informs that back in 2000, he was hired by FOX to write a wrestling show and he penned a show called ‘Rope Opera’. It was more of a drama but FOX wanted a comedy, therefore they passed on his show.

Russo says that his disagreements with many wrestling journalists are simply that, disagreements. He does not hate any of them, and when he picks apart their silly opinions it’s just entertainment for him. However, he does not like being labeled a racist or a homophobe which a couple of them have done, and that made things personal for him.

He says that he is neither a racist or a homophobe, and if anyone has been discriminated his whole life it’s been him. He’s an Italian from New York, and people just think he acts a certain way due to his upbringing. He says that people continue to make up silly things about him and everyone believes the nonsense.