It’s All In weekend, and while AEW hasn’t been on the nuclear hot streak of years past, they seem to always deliver on PPV and this one has a fun lineup. Time for your old buddy and old pal to PICK ‘EM! Let’s see, there’s Swerve vs. Danielson (promise you I am the only guy on the planet picking Swerve here); MJF vs. Ospreay (Ospreay, and when he finally hits that Tiger Driver the place will go banana as Pat Patterson would say); Toni vs. Mariah May (Mariah when Mina Shirakawa accidentally on purpose costs Toni the match); Casino Gauntlet (it would make the most sense to have Hangman win this and challenge Swerve at All Out, but could see someone like Ricochet show up and win); Britt vs. Mercedes (Mercedes); Jack Perry vs. Darby (Jack); Hook vs. Jericho (Hook); Bucks vs. FTR vs. Acclaimed (Bucks); Patriarchy vs. Bang Bang Gang vs. House of Black vs. Pac/Claudio/Wheeler (House of Black); Statlander & Stokely vs. Willow & Ishii (Statlander & Stokely). As always, I’ll be hosting a live chat on that one over on old man social media, so join the fun there won’t you? Until then, let’s answer some questions!
Joseph kicks us off with…”What was it like seeing Andre the Giant beat Hulk Hogan on The Main Event, live in the arena?”
Eric and I were up in the upper part of the arena, not nosebleeds per se, but fairly high up, and I can tell you everyone there was like, “what happened there?” No one around us could tell what was going on with referee Evil Earl (there was no giant screen letting us know what was happening), we just thought Hogan lost and was being a big crybaby. You have to understand, even at that time Hogan was such a massive babyface that folks couldn’t comprehend him acting like this. So it was kinda surreal.
Ryan N wants to know…”Why haven’t you done a Wrestle crap on CWA: BODYGUARDS VS BANDITS”
Because I…keep forgetting? Lame I know but true. Send me a link and I’ll get it on the list.
James B ponders…”What match first inspired Wrestlecrap for you?”
It wasn’t a match, it was a phone call. I was talking with Merle about something dumb he saw on Nitro, telling me it was the worst thing he’d ever seen in pro wrestling. I quipped, “Then you haven’t seen the Gobbledy Gooker!” The phone call wound up being two hours of talking about what we’d soon call WrestleCrap. The site came shortly after that call. I’ll never forget it. Merle was so funny, way funnier than me. Another dear soul I miss horribly.
Robb D takes us back to that age old question…”Mankind just won the belt, it’s all downhill from here for WCW… what NWO type gimmick COULD they have used to stay in the fight?”
I honestly think they would have been ok if they hadn’t tried to hotshot constantly. Just build coherent storylines and good matches. They wanted to make everything that magic wand solution, and it just doesn’t work that way. Patience would have been the key but generally pro wrestling promoters have none and do stupid things that make matters worse.
The legendary Derrick G from the Powerhouse of Sound DJ Service hits us with…”Per your profile and cover pics, which do you prefer the straight forward doc Won’t You Be My Neighbor or the Tom Hank’s led biopic Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood?”
Believe it or not, I still haven’t seen Beautiful Day, but I absolutely LOVED Won’t You Be My Neighbor. I remember watching that with RD Jr, who watches almost no movies but was glued to it from start to finish. He was like 15 or so at that time and we were both crying at the end. Great stuff and I think it inspired both of us to treat other people better.
Logan H beams us up with…”Your favorite Star Trek series?”
Next Generation.
Jamie M asks…”Since Mama Cornette was a character that was never seen on screen, I always pictured her to be Mama Carlson from WKRP in Cincinnati. Who did you picture her her as?”
Jim Cornette in drag.
Jarvis G is feeling hungry as he wants to know…”Any recommendations near the State Capitol Building for a post-marathon brunch?”
There’s a really good Italian place down the way, not sure they serve brunch, but trust me, we’ll figure it out.
Ryan D ponders…”What other classic retro shows would you like to do besides Batman?”
Tops on the list would be the animated Dungeons & Dragons show, as that was not just my favorite cartoon ever, but one of my favorite TV shows ever. Last campaign we did with RD Jr. my characters were Hank & Presto!
Charles B asks…”How did you come up with the character Mic Check and all of those various radio stations?”
I grew up in the 1970s and I actually WANTED to be a disc jockey (my degree is in broadcast journalism believe it or not). But there was a guy on a local radio station in the 1990s on The Bob & Tom Show named Mark Patrick. He did a ton of characters, and one of them was Nick R. Agua, “the world’s most cliched DJ”. I liked that character but thought he should be older and grumpier. I wanted him to call anyone who hadn’t been in radio for 40 years “greenhorns” as a college professor taught us how to splice tape (!!!!) despite the fact that I could do it digitally with this thing called a COMPUTER. The stations I would just Google random cities and try to come up with call letters Mike could turn into something dumb. I loved doing that character for many reasons, but one I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned was that it was easy on my throat. Doing something like Nathaniel Edward Rodham Davis just tore my vocal cords apart. Mike was easy to do. I still slip into that voice every once in a while just to mess with Mrs. Deal.
Robert R wants to know…”What’s your favorite memory from college?”
I wasn’t a huge fan of the college lifestyle as I am not a party guy at all. Plus my high school sweetheart and I broke up in college and I was completely devastated, going into a horrible depression for most of my junior year. Still, it was the place I learned to play pinball, which we did because if you played well enough you could win free games which was better than going home for the night. Lots of good games came out in that era – Earthshaker, Whirlwind, Funhouse, Diner. Yeah, I’ll go with pinball, which I still play daily.
Mike M wraps us up with…”Favorite Who’s Line is it Anyway performer, British and/or American versions?”
I think the only bit of this I ever saw was when Richard Simmons was on, so I’ll go with him. He was very funny regardless of where he was and was absolutely hysterical here:
I can’t top that, so I will just say let’s chat during All In! And keep sending in those questions here!