It’s been interesting the last week or so as I’ve been hit with a lot of WrestleCrap Radio questions. That was a time of my life that I always considered something just so crazy and chaotic, but more than that, just a LOT of fun. When we redid the site, we didn’t move those archives over. To be honest, I wasn’t quite sure what to do with them. Blade was gone and honestly, it just hurt me to go back and listen to them knowing I’d never get to be on the tin can and string with him again. It’s been years now and I am once more considering what to do here. For those unfamiliar with it, WrestleCrap Radio was a podcast, but it started before the term “podcast” was even a thing. We just figured out a way to record our little show and we had no real idea what we were going to do with it, just that we thought it would be fun to do it. It wound up as a ‘theater of the mind’ presentation, where Blade and I would both play characters on the show. There was no real discussion of “hey, what do you think of a character that’s an old time DJ” or “how about a John Cena character that wants to do nothing but talk about NIN-TEN-DOOOOOOOO?” We’d just come up with the characters really on our own and do our bits on the show hoping to make the other guy laugh. Which of course we did. Every Mike Check bit was done just so I could try to get Blade to crack. Angry Jim would show up to see if he could get ME to break. It was a lot of fun and yeah, I’m thinking about what we could do with all those old shows. Stay tuned I guess. In the meantime, let’s hit the mailbag and see what y’all are thinking…
Zach P kicks us off with…”I was on a road trip the other day and “play with me” by Extreme popped up on Spotify (generated off of me listening to “Mr Crowley” by Ozzy of all things….I ask, how did you guys choose that as the theme of WCR?”
A couple weeks ago I posted a SQUASH of the Week with Shawn and Diesel doing a match when they were tag champs. I always remembered that match because I loved the finish so very much. So basically, Nash came in and did the big move to incapacitate their opponent. He did all the hard work. He tags in Shawn, and Shawn starts running the ropes like a madman, then just kinda shrugs and pins the guy. I always thought that was hilarious, this giant build up to nothing. Extreme is my all-time favorite (non-Weird Al) band, and the start of “Play With Me” starts with Nuno’s crazy guitar riff then hits a dive down and the song starts in all its greatness. So I thought, “We will also build this show up like it’s going to be awesome, but it’s just a fart in church.” That’s how that came to be. Not sure anyone ever ‘got’ what we were going for there, but that was the idea. Insane to think we put that much thought into it!
TJ F wants to know…”What’s your favorite Mike Check moment?”
Oh man, Mike was like my favorite character so that’s hard to choose. I loved doing that character because it reminded me of my youth when I’d be on long car rides with the family and we’d always have the radio on, this would have been in the 1970s, and those DJs were the stuff of legend. Mostly local guys, but you’d get your Casey Kasems and Wolfman Jacks and stuff, Dr. Demento of course too. So this was my chance to pay homage to them. I always thought most of them were a little creepy, so I would give just a touch of that to Mike. Hence his fascination with Tyler Wilde and the other TNA knockouts at the time. Impossible to choose my favorite moment, but some of the ones that still make me laugh are his debut, his time at the Star Wars convention with Jake Lloyd Jr., and the Bob & Weave morning drive. Also one time he was talking about one of the girls and Blade, appalled, asked him “Where are your hands right now?” Mike paused and deadpanned “on my microphone.” Just ad libbed and absurd. Also funny: I was going to a country western party this week and thought, “I don’t own any outfits like that.” All of a sudden a voice from my past grumbled out…
…”Hello there, fellers.” And I was set (after digging through all those old costumes we used for the Roast!). 🙂
Frederik S asks…”Angry Jim was my favorite character. Did you know how accurate you were to the actual Jim Ross at the time?”
No, no idea. It was just something Blade did that he thought was funny. I loved Angry Jim, especially when he’d come up with money making schemes like turkeys and hams, usually with Doc or Hollywood John Tatum helping out. Like I said, Blade would just try to make me break and he loved hearing RD and Jim interact. We didn’t go in with any real script, just a base outline of “Ok, Jim will be showing up about here, Mike will be here, I think we might have Popeye call in about this” and then go. It is hilarious in hindsight that we met Ross many years later and he may have been even grumpier than Angry Jim was!
Susan L wants to know…”What was the one character you thought would be a hit but was a total dud? What disappointed you the most on the show?”
I really thought I could make Fantasy Booking Island take off, but just no chance. That was DOA from the beginning. I also really, REALLY wanted to do a Robert Fuller character on the show but neither of us could do a worthy impression of him. That southern drawl is the stuff of legend!
Fred R finishes us up with…”Viewing Booth Bill Cosby hit before the scandals…how did you guys know?”
Again, no idea. Was just something Blade came up with and we ran with it. When that all hit we were like, “Ummmm…WHAT?” It was hilarious and just made us laugh even harder.
That’s it for this week. Keep those questions coming in and I’ll keep answering them!