Episode 56: Intro to WWE

As the dust STILL settles from Wrestlemania 35 the gang tags in for a little lesson in wrestling. This week Dani is joined by host of Tights and Fights, Danielle Radford, host of Dark 5, Rachel Evans, and HyperRPG's Janel Santa Cruz to talk faces, heels, works, shoots, and a little bit of everything you need to know about the wonderful world of the WWE.

FOOTNOTES:

Superstars of the WWE

Glossary of Wrestling Terms

Danielle on Twitter

Rachel on Twitter

Janel on Twitter

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:09):
Hello, and welcome to another edition of Nerdificent. I'm one
half of your host, Danny Fernandez, and today I've replaced
Iffy with three hosts. Three other hosts, all here voices
that you have heard before, and one that you haven't
um and that one would be the host of Dark
five on Amazon. It is Rachel Evans. It's the first

(00:31):
time here. Yeah, I'm so happy to be here. You
recovering U W W E, and you are very heavily
involved in that world. So I knew. I was like,
if I'm going to pull her on, it's got to
be for this one. Honestly. That's the only thing that
I think I have expert knowledge, and and that's saying
a lot. Expert is a lot. But I've put in

(00:53):
my ten thousand hours I've been watching, Like I feel
confident good. Yeah, And I mean I think the other
thing I would say, I feel like you're an expert
in horror, like you actively have horror shows. Yeah, that's true,
my whole show at Yeah. Well, I mean even material
killers and stuff like that. If we want to talk

(01:14):
about serial killers, I could do that too, okay, or
chaos Magic perfect. We'll bring you on for one of those.
That's really cool. Another voice that you are hearing, um
that you have heard before on our Buffy the Vampire
Slayer episode. She is the host of Tights and Fights.
It's Daniale Radford. Hello, thank you for joining us, Thank
you for having How long have you had your Tights

(01:35):
and Fights podcast for a while now? Jeez, yeah, I
believe we started doing that gosh in the summer of
that's right, it's been yeah, it really has been that long.
That's crazy. It's crazy. And that other voice you will
recognize from our Women in Gaming episode. She is a
gamer RPG player herself and a gaming coach nel Santa Cruz.

(01:57):
Thanks for having me, especially with this like awesome group
of women. This is fantastic. Well, you all have had
wrestling podcasts and like been so heavily involved in the
wrestling world. I just knew the three of you like
popped into my head as people that I wanted to
have on if I was going to have the compliment
anyone man explained to me, I wanted it to be.

(02:18):
I wanted it to be from y'all. So I just
I wanted to start out because Rachel, you said that
you were introduced to wrestling at a young age, Like,
what is your first memory? Who were some of the
first wrestlers that you remember before we totally dive into
the history of it. Just what is your first memory?
My very very first memory of wrestling is uh my,
I think I was probably around like three or something

(02:40):
because I've watched it with my dad since I was born.
He just like sit on his lap was a Bruno
sam Martino, which is a deep deep cut um but
my dad's favorite wrestler. But my personal first memory of
wrestling is really tragic. Actually it's own hearts that will
we will get into that because that was my first

(03:00):
pay per view. That was that was my That was
my first memory that I can see it still. It's
horrific and we'll talk about it. Okay, So what was
your first memory of of wrestling? So it was you know,
wrestling was kind of always in the background when I
was a kid because this is when Um Trash he
Pull Hogan was huge UM and wrestling was just kind

(03:20):
of in the zeitgeist. I did not start watching it
until the Attitude era and the Monday Night War Wars
were well underway. UM with a bunch of friends of
mine because I started watching and I was like, what
is this thing? And then it was the episode UM
where an undead zombie monster UH takes the owner of
the company's daughter and puts her up on a fake crucifix.

(03:43):
And I was watching it and I said, oh, this
is comic books. Oh, I'm super into this, And that's
when I started watching and again, Yeah, my first pay
per view experience was Over the Edge. You know, it's
a horrible name. It is right because I feel I
think I've made this point before, but I feel like
anime and wrestle in it has like a ven diagram,
so watch of the moves come from anime as well.

(04:05):
Like you'll see more than a few people in the
w W LIKEDUK Oh totally. I see them doing the
Guinea Force dance. Ill build up, build up, build up
until yeah, the actual fight. It's totally dragon balls people
in spandex um. Janelle, what is your first memory of wrestling? Well,
it's funny because my first memory is Danielle's also, but

(04:25):
um my interpretation of that that same incident was very
soap opera esque. UM. So I grew up with with UH.
My mom is one of ten kids, so I have
like thirty plus cousins, and so we grew up just
watching and wrestling each other all the time. But that
moment where um, where the Undertaker kidnapped vincic Man's daughter, Um,
somebody named Stone Colt Boston came in to save the

(04:47):
day I died, I was like I was. I was
probably like six seven years old at the time, and
I just, um, I just remember seeing that and it
was just so like the hero, like he came in
even though he hated and picked, and he was going
to save his daughter because it was the right thing
to do. And so that was It's really funny that
that we have like the same moment as our first

(05:07):
spit beer on me when I was nine. Oh my god,
what an honor my first um, even though I what
never got into it as much as y'all have. My
first memory, I think would honestly be middle school. My
little brother was obsessed with wrestling. He would pile drive
into my pillows. Yeah, he just he was obsessed with

(05:30):
the rock. So I feel like that was my introduction.
But I was also aware of Stone called Steve Austin Um,
John Cena Um. But yeah, my little brother just gravitated
to the rocks so much he would do the eyebrow,
the people's eyebrow. Um so that was like always on
our television. Um yeah, so I guess that was my

(05:51):
first memory before we hop in just talking about how
it got started. So the w W E n Aime
also refers to the professional and of course that changed. Um,
but it refers to the professional wrestling promotion that was
founded by Jess McMahon and a guy named Toots. Love

(06:12):
that that used to be a name. Toots mom old
carne stuff. I know, love it, bring back Toots. Where's
that name? I'm sure there's a Toots out there that's
a great wrestler name. No wonder he went into it.
Um so too. I mean we haven't had a Toots
gimmick before. I mean assigned to a to a poor

(06:33):
poor woman that we love very much, Nattie Harthetchimick. She farted,
that was her thing. I thought you were talking about
Sarah Logan in the in the What's the Driving Show?
Right with right along? Yeah, she farted in the car
and then like hot boxed it. Anyways, probably why they
don't pick the name Tuotes anymore. Yeah, that's probably why.

(06:55):
So that was in nineteen fifty two as the Capital
Wrestling Corporate Ation. So McMahon, who was a successful boxing promoter,
began working with text Ricord in nineteen six and with
the help of Ricord, he began promoting boxing and wrestling
at Madison Square Garden. So this ended up becoming UM

(07:15):
once they formed this wrestling corporation. Essentially, that's eventually what
we came to know as a WWF and then eventually
the w w E. Does anyone want to just explain
what happened there with a WWF? UM? So well, and
it was for a while it was the WWWF and
then UM. When Vince McMahon took over from his dad,

(07:36):
who was also Vince McMahon UM, he began buying up
all of these little territories and companies. So what basically
what he did about that? Because this is really interesting,
Like this point of it I think is super interesting
because it's will never be the same again because of
what they did they went. So basically what happened is
that there was a top guy in each region, and
that top guy would travel around each region and there

(07:58):
would be jobbers or they be mid carters that would
just kind of stay in their regions, but these top
guys it would all travel around. What the McMahon's did.
Let's go to each region and say, hey, you could
have you could be in one place, you could be
in one company, and we'll take care of you. And
so he took all the top guys put him in
one organization, and then all everything else failed because there

(08:21):
was all jobbers. And then the jobbers went to the WWW. Yeah,
and so then that's when it became WWB and the
reason had to become the w w E was an
early two thousands. The WWS is the Worldwide Life World
Wildlife Federation UM. And so they successfully sued in England

(08:41):
saying we're tired of people confusing our sweet sweet pandas
with this and this was during a particularly raunchy point
in w w E S. So do you think that's
why they won? Yeah, yeah, because they I mean, I
think the the idea was like their brand was being
sullied and it was some pretty was during the time
the Aptitude era, which is UM, when they were doing

(09:02):
like you know, brom panties matches where women were just
snatching you know that in order to win, you had
to declothe the other woman like that was it was
was what was happening back then, um, and it was
just a lot of cursing, a lot of you know,
just um even just racial storylines. It's just very very Uh.
If I were, you know, running a panda organization, I

(09:24):
wouldn't want my name to be still by that either.
And so that's when it went from w w E,
which is World Wrestling Entertainment, which, let's be real, is
a better I think I agree, because it did. It
really encompasses there sort of this um the way that
they kind of went around and absorbed all of these
other territories and and uh and you know, promotions. It

(09:44):
also solidifies the idea that it's sports entertainment to get
them out of the legality of being an actual sports
organization sports entertainment. So can you talk to me kind
of about the legacy of the McMahon's because they've been
involved for so long. Are they kind of seen as
um villains sometimes or what I mean that's just from

(10:04):
an outside point of Yeah, they're the mafia. They they
are the Donald Trump's of like their friends, their friends,
they're good friends, and to think of them that way
is like they're the modern day monarchy. I know that
there's monarchies not in America, in America, but yeah, no,

(10:25):
like they they're definitely a nefarious organization. Um. But that
being said, I look at me, I'm an apologist. I
was about to be like, they're not. They're just carnis.
They're just old school carnies. But at this point, like
the actual McMahon's of it all or have transcended that.
And I do think that's an important point to make

(10:45):
about wrestling is that it did start. You know, there's
so much terminology. Um, it's all carnie talk because wrestling
really began to get big at carnivals. And that's why
when you know, that's why you can have someone named Toots,
Yeah who helps um, who helps get things off the ground.
And so that's why when we do so much of

(11:06):
this weird wrestling terminology, because it really is its own language.
And we talked about you know, marks and smarts and
jobbers and all these little yeah, these weird phrases or terminology. Yeah,
it all comes from when it was carney stuff. Okay,
So the Golden Age, which is the eighties where y'all

(11:26):
still I mean, that was before we were born. But
do you go back and watch, Like, did you go
back and watch those? Like, what are some moments that
people who are some like famous or groundbreaking wrestlers during
that time. It was a lot of just big powerhouse
type men. Back then. It was very slow. The wrestling
was very very slow. Um. You know, it was the

(11:49):
time when when Rick Flair was on top. Um. Rick
Flair was kind of the um so he's called the
nature boy because he this whole thing was like the
guy who's got the bleached blonde hair and that there
was lots of nature boys, but he was the nature boy.
And so again like you had all your whole Cogan's
and your UM Warrior Ultimate Warrior, and so it was
very slow wrestling. UM. So it is kind of funny

(12:11):
to go back because you can kind of appreciate the storylines,
but also you're like, oh, not a good wrestler. Yeah.
A lot of Yeah, there's a Randy Savage was during
that point. Um. A lot of what most people think
iconically of wrestling, UM comes from that early eighties. It

(12:31):
was the golden age of blading, which is when you, um,
you cut yourself open with a small razor blade too. Yeah,
for the dramatic effect of the matches, like, oh, herested me,
and you do it on the forehead because that's where
it bleeds the best, tiny tiny, tiny cuts, so that
when you get hit in the head, they bleed out.
And Abdullah the Butcher actually has a slot in the
middle of his forehead where he's bladed so many times

(12:52):
he can stick a quarter in there. Yeah, Dudley Devon
Dudley's faces. I mean, he's wonderful and I love him
at yeah. Great. Their fourheads are just it's just very
very deep, particularly kind of and now that we have HD,
we can really see death by a thousand cats literally,
to be honest, Like, you know, I prefer wrestling now.
I think you'll, Yeah, I think you'll see a lot

(13:15):
of people, especially people who used to watch but don't
watch anymore, refer to that as the Golden Age. And
then the added what you hear mostly though, is the
attitude air is the best air in wrestling. That's kind
of where we grew up. That's why. So we do
you think because on here just says this is the
Golden Age, But is that just something people have equated like,
because when I think of Golden Age, thinks like, oh,
the Golden Age of comics, Like that's just an accepted term.

(13:37):
Are you saying people are just like nostalgically adding like, oh,
that was the golden days? Yeah, this isn't like how
you know in comics they do there is they're broken
up by decades. So there is like you know, the
Golden Age, the Bronze Age, the Silver Age. Um, it's
not I would say with wrestling, it's not really like that.
That's just something that someone Yeah, it's a nostalgia trip

(13:58):
for sure. So would you say that some of the
wrestlers from the eighties old like influence like can you
see how they influenced the next generation? And like who
would you equate that to? Like who? Can you is
there someone that you can point out that like, oh
he clearly influenced this wrestler. Well, a huge one right
now is um Piper? Why why you Piper? Um? He

(14:18):
was huge. If you ever saw They Live, he was
in that. He did a few movies. Um, he always
his big thing was Piper's Pit, which was a conversational
um talk show styled way to further along storylines. There
are so many can you give me an example, like
he would like sit there and he would do a
segment like a sketch. He would do a sketch essentially

(14:40):
in front of like they would have a set and
he would um, you know and talk to you know,
bring on a wrestler and just they would just end
up like yelling at each other because you know they're
going to fight. Um. Yeah, just a way to further storylines.
And now so he had like a Mari situation. They
had like Jerry Springer and they have a they had
a barber shop also, which was really funny. Um. I

(15:04):
just thought about Shawn Michael's because sorry, going back to um,
Roddy Um. Rhonda Rousy um actually super influenced by Roddy
Piper and so she actually was going by Rowdy Rhonda
m Rousy and she would come out. She the first
time she showed up on a WDB, she was wearing
his leather jacket and UM, so that's definitely someone who
was influenced heavily by somebody from the eighties. UM. Trying

(15:25):
to think of I think like Andre the Giant is
an easy one because any big man, like they literally
have an Andre the Giant like Memorium match. Um. But yeah,
I know any any big guy that choke slams. It's
in Andre the Giant move. Yeah. Can you talk about
some of the move before we move on to the
next air. Can you talk about some of the popular
moves that were in the eighties. I would say choke

(15:48):
slams were super popular just because it was the rise
of the big Man, and then you had Hogan's crappy
leg drop. Yeah, yeah, yea yeah. A lot of it
was a lot of Russ holds, a lot of just
you know, interlocking and then you know, just strength checks
and where you just can't grab each other's arms and
try to stronger, you know, and um some power power bombs,

(16:08):
which is where you pick them up and just kind
of lay them flat on their back. I feel like
d d T s were kind of which is where
you just kind of, yeah, you grab their head underneath
your arm, put and just kind of like picture one
chop and I can't I can't think of any chops.
But so something important that is a wrestling move that's
out through all wrestling is when we refer to as
a bump, and that is literally when someone has to um,

(16:32):
you know, when you get hit and you have to
fall and you land on your back, flat back. There
is a way that you have to do that so
that everything takes the brunt of it all at the
same time. Um, so you have to like you fall back,
you have the slam throughout, and there's a way to bump.
There's a way to bump that when you can jump
off of age and you can bump and you're not

(16:53):
gonna be great, but you won't be dead. Yeah. Yeah, So, um,
let's talk about some of the training that goes on
behind this, because that ended up being I do remember,
I don't know when the first one off to look
it up, but they ended up televising that, Like that
became a whole thing to like be in a house
and be being trained and like to be And then

(17:17):
there was also that show on MTV that like on
like X somethings make their make their living post a
career as they trained you know, other people. And that's
because WW historically doesn't take care of the wrestlers after
after they've retired. Um, there's no because their independent contractors there,

(17:38):
like the NFL, it totally almost worse, honestly, Well there's
no federal regulation, so it's much worse. Yeah, there's no union.
There's no there's no union. But they we talked about
Rotti and he was like he was on the outside
when he was like forty five. He had to go
back and go wrestle because he couldn't afford to live.

(17:59):
I feel like, I feel like as entertainers, they should
be allowed to be in an entertainment union. I agree
they should be. They should be part of SAG. It
should be said they're on TV. Doesn't make something would
make sense. But you know you're not dealing with You're
dealing with the mafia, like they don't care. Yeah, they did.
In the eighties there was a big movement UM to

(18:22):
unionize and once again proving what a trash HEP is.
Whole Coken helped us that open the guy UM. I
do think I have to I have to think that
a W it's a new promotion that is the pretty
much the only Yeah, it is pretty much the only
promotion to directly like say, w W, we can take you.

(18:42):
They're offering healthcare. And I have to think with this
new wave of people dropping like flies from the w W,
E like, is that Sasha thing real? You know? Who knows?
But I at the same time, you know, so there
are right now. It's it reminds me a lot of
the Monday Night Wars, which is a huge part of
the Attitude era where um as they called him Billionaire

(19:04):
Ted um As Ted Turner decided that he wanted to
really put his money behind the wrestling programs that they
had already had um and he was Ted Turner. Uh,
Ted Turner is in the millionaire he owns all the superstations,
cable cable guy. Yeah, So he decided he'd already had
some wrestling, so he decided he was going to rebrand

(19:26):
it and make it edgy. And that was a period
where you would see people kind of because that was
one of the first real big um challenges to w
w e's um kind of monopoly, and so you would
see people go back and forth from those companies. And
we're starting to see some of that now with New
Japan and a w is another contender where if you're
unhappy at w w E, there's a chance that you

(19:47):
could go and leave and really make your mark somewhere
else and then of course inevitably come back when you're
tired of doing that. And we've already seen it like
it's proven like WWW's veteran star Jericho, he's been around
for twenty plus years, is now one of the main
faces of a W and he's champion like Jim Ross,

(20:08):
who's a legend on the mike, gonna be momentary ever
heard by God by God, he's broken in half. Who
was the voice of the of the Attitude era. It's
him and Jerry the King lawler Um. But going back
to all elite and this company isn't started by by
stars who UM never went to WDB sto strong in

(20:29):
the face of money being thrown in their face and
they were just like Cody, Cody, Cody, Yeah, Cody left UM.
But this is the Young Bucks, then Kenny Omega, who
are stars of UM New Japan and Ring of Honor
and New Japan and Ring of Honor are these independent
quote companies. But they worked together because they and they
built this machine very very strong against to hold up against.
And so now you have people that are yeah, they're

(20:51):
just totally you know, they have a chance to make
make a living outside of w B now because of
this place and WW is col waking feel it for
the first time ever. They're kicking people out of w
W shows that are wearing a w march um. So
just wrapping up a little bit more on this era.
The There was an introduction of Saturday Night Main Event

(21:14):
on NBC in nine five, and that mark the first
time that professional wrestling have been broadcast on network television
since in nineteen fifties. I don't know what is going
on with y'all schedule. I feel like it's always wrestling
all the time. But sometimes it's really important wrestling, and
then other times it's so I guess we'll get into that.
We have a Big four. It's like, okay, every every

(21:37):
three months there's one big one that we got all
kind of and then once a year in April, we
have the big one, which is the super Bowl, which
is wrestling, and there are at least five, don't We
don't make ourselves watch all those because a lot of
it is just fill their content and it's just, you know,
it's just time for them to make money with advertisers,
because they're just trying to fill as much TV time
as possible to get the advertisement money. I don't know

(22:00):
it watched I Hate myself, you know, you know, I
watched it on I watched it on Hulu. But a
thing I don't like that they take the beats out
of important matches, and I'm like, I can't. Yeah, I'll
just keep it on while I'm working. I was going
to say the first WrestleMania was in nineteen five and
has since produced thirty five editions. Really thought it would

(22:20):
honestly be more than that. But that's what that's the
what we're at right now. So the next one will
be WrestleMania thirty six. Yeah, where's that Florida? They're going
to Florida. Okay, we're never getting one. We're never going
to get one. I'm so mad. I barely got a rumble.
We have to take a quick break. But then we're
going to hop into the history of WrestleMania, and then
we're going to hop into the Attitude era right after

(22:42):
this and we're back. So if you had to explain
WrestleMania to someone that has never watched wrestling, which might
be people listening, how would you describe WrestleMania Roman, Colosseum,

(23:04):
Gladigator matches. It's like the Super Bowl meets exactly what
Daniel once Yeah, once a year event, so this is yeah,
that's why it's everybody goes crazy for this it this year.
How long was it? We had like eight seven show? Yeah,
it went seven hours. It's like, yeah, it's the Oscars

(23:25):
and super Bowl. It's this this total um crazy event.
It's basically the culmination of everything that they've been working
up to and the and that takes place on a
Sunday and then the Monday after is um the first
TV episode of the new wrestling year. So the new
resting year starts after WrestleMania and that's when new storylines

(23:46):
are introduced and UM new people are are are brought
up into the company. Super Yeah. So one thing about wrestling,
unlike UM sports or television or most things, particularly with
w w E, there there are no seasons. So people
work and work and work until they have time off
for until they get injured. And so the closest you

(24:07):
could come to saying that's when a new season would
start would be the Monday after after WrestleMania. But yeah,
there's no seasons, there's no days. And this is a
problem with the then not having a union because these
people had to work on Christmas. They didn't get to
be with their families this past year because Vincent Man
decided he wanted to have a Christmas episode, and um,
that's not okay because these people they hide the fact

(24:29):
that they're injured because they don't want to be off TV.
They don't want to disappoint the boss. Oh, if you
talk to wrestlers, I mean, it's incredibly sad. It's like
I've never spent a Halloween with my son, you know,
I've never I've never been there for my wife's birthday.
It's oh, her birthday is on to Tuesday this year.
I guess it's they get to go home for two
days a week. Maybe yeah, two days a week and

(24:50):
if they're overseas and not that because they basically just
circle the globe. I want to say something for everyone listening.
We all know all of us are friends with professional slers,
like all of even me, who am not in this world.
I did a show at Geek and Sundury with Xavier Woods,
who's from New Day Comedy and Wrestling, Comedy and Wrestling,

(25:11):
and then I've done I've done a bunch of shows
with Dolph Ziggler, who I know as well and I
know his brother. So like, yeah, so when you hear
people saying, um, you know and and these women know
even more wrestlers than I do. So so it's not
they're just not making this up. They know a lot
of them intimately have worked with them um and and
worked on projects with them as well. So I just

(25:33):
wanted to say that as opposed to like when you're like,
no they're sad, it's like, oh no, we know. You
gives me and read it. I read this one thing. Yeah,
it's you know, and it doesn't. That doesn't. We don't
want to make it sound like we'd super it's l a.
We everyone knows everyone but most jo I was on

(25:54):
that Wait we were, Yeah, we were both on a
thing with m Jericho, remember are Yeah, so we've worked
with and so that's I didn't mean that. I just
want you know because somebody, how do you know? And
it's like, oh no, we've We've worked with so many
friends and not a secret that you know we're friends with.
All you have to do is go to your Instagram.
Yeah we know. We tell everybody but Jericho. So that

(26:18):
was somebody who was a very very prominent player during
the Attitude error, which is the next one that you
wanted to talk about. Yes, yeah, So in between that
kind of ho Hogan Big heyday of the eighties, there
was this weird moment where suddenly all wrestlers had a different,
a separate occupation to be like, I'm a wrestler, but
I'm also a dentist. Yeah, like that would be their gimmick,

(26:39):
you know, I'm a wrestler, but I'm also uh an accountant,
think exactly. Yeah, that was very white. Yeah, and so
I was a wrestler but I'm also an X man. Yeah.
That one that was well, the weirdest one was Velvinus,
who I'm a wrestler, but I'm also a point star. Yeah,
and so during that I'm seven by the way. Yeah.

(26:59):
That air um was kind of when wrestling was considered
to be kind of name And then that is when um,
you know, and a lot of the wrestlers in WW,
we're starting to get um a little bit. Older people
were getting bored, and that is when um billionaire Ted
came in and decided to inject some new life into
this is when Valvinus came up with this porn start. Yeah,

(27:22):
and so um he started taking a lot of ww's
bigger older talents, um like col Hogan and all these
other guys and bringing them over to him. But that
also meant that younger dudes got a chance to rise
now that um, these older talents weren't kind of keeping
up down. I mean people that could move like um,

(27:42):
the Heartbard kid, Shawn Michaels, who is my favorite wrestler really,
I love sewn Uh. He's evil by the way he's
he's considered he's very evil. He did a lot of
drugs back then, made a lot of poor choices. Jesus, Jesus,
he found Jesus. Um. But now this was the time
where people who were not seven ft tall could actually
you know, and Sean Michael is considered a small guy,

(28:03):
and he's like he's six too. He's he used to
play football, but he was somebody who by stature like
you know, you put him next to a whole Colgan
like he looks you know small quote quote um. And
so this was the time when a lot of people
they took they seize this opportunity to to um show
that they couldn't They weren't just going to be you know,
locking locking up, and the storylines got a little raunchy,

(28:25):
and um, it was pretty wild back then. Yeah, Yeah,
the flippy dips started coming out. Gros that like the
people who exactly people who started to introduce So there's
a very particular WWE style and it's actually something that
you learn, like when you go to the w W
now in the performance center, they teach you WWW style,

(28:45):
which is very different from the rest camera wrestling instead
of the three sixty. It's like porn versus sex. It's
like porn is like, here's my vagina, and this is
the angle that I'm not. And it's also sometimes the
pacing as much slower. And then they started to introduce
different wrestling styles when they when they brought people over
from Japan in Mexico, like they started to introduce more

(29:10):
dynamic styles of wrestling, and that also meant character wise,
people got to spice U. We've got a lot of
middle fingers from Mr stone Cold Steve Boston, which I
was like seven, this is exciting. I love him so much.
He's I can never figure out if he's my favorite.

(29:30):
You know, it runs very very close for me and
Sean Me Sean and uh and and Yah and stone Cold.
I love that. I'm I'm mankind stone Mankind is by
the way, Yeah, you know what mankind favorite. It's because
mankind is a man in a mask who lives in
a basement and has a bunch of different personality hits
himself in the face. But the cool thing about him

(29:52):
is that he's actually this wrestler mc foley who has
all these multifaceted characters. He has do love, he is mankind,
he has this jack and then he's mcfoley, and many
was my favorite. When I was growing up, I had
like a four pronged um picture frame that had all
of his personalities next to my bed and sag I mean,
look at look at the talent of somebody, Like for sure,

(30:13):
it was like pulling out these different characters and you
were like, no, that's not that's not mankind. That he
Mick Foley, I think is actually a really good example
of what we're talking about because he trained in Japan
when he was younger. He always wanted to be a wrestler,
but he wanted to be in death matches, and death
hatches are hardcore matches, and so that's very at the time,

(30:34):
was very specific to Japan, which they would have ladder matches.
People would fall into piranha pits and literally get torn
apart by piranhas and they pulled them out like four
seconds later, they're bleeding all over the place, lost an
ear in the ring. Sure did so, Like he was like,
I'm gonna go to Japan. I'm gonna learn death matches.
I'm gonna be as tough as I can because I'm
not a body guy. And like that's a thing like

(30:54):
your big guy, your small guy, your body guy. He
was none of those things. He was a normy dude.
And so he did this and then he comes to
the w W E w W at the time and
uh was completely annihilated. He was the one who always
jumped off the cages before Shane. And I think another

(31:15):
important thing which happened, um, which is also part of
the reason why some of these smaller dudes were getting
a shot. Um, there was very famously case where um,
they had to go in front of was it Congress?
What did they but they had to because of all
the steroids stuff, right, Um? And so that is when
all right, So we're gonna take it to a concept
called k pabe. Now this is what we talk about,

(31:37):
what we talk about Carney talk. So kabe again when
we talk about these Carney concepts, when people used to say,
you know, there was that whole thing of well, you
know wrestling is fake, right. You know wrestling is fake right.
It sounds weird to say, but wrestling sold itself as
being real. Um. And and the reason why that you know,
when you hear words like mark that is very much
a con artist's term because back in the Carney days,

(31:59):
people would bets and whatever and they didn't realize that
it was a show and all these dudes are friends.
And so in the eighties, Cafebe was very huge. Um.
If you if your best friend was a heal a
k a. The bad guy, and if you were a
Face or baby Face a k a. The good guy,
you couldn't travel together, you couldn't be seen together because
they protected Kfbe so heavily. Um. And they still did

(32:21):
this for traveling too. And it wasn't it wasn't it
the Montreal screw job that kind of like brought Cafebe.
That was part of it. But before then it was
the steroid scandal where Vince McMahon had to go in
front of it. Again I'm blanking on. I know it
was a governmental entity, um, and that it wasn't, but

(32:43):
so he wound up having to go in front of
them because they were all of these steroid whatevers and
people still being treated like a for real, for real sport.
And that's kind of when the mask began to drop
on cafebe because you can't say, well, I'm not in
charge of what these wrestlers do when all so, this
isn't really a sport unless you admit that it's not
really a sport if you're going up in front of

(33:05):
you know, whatever game, you know, Sports and Gaming Commission.
He had to go in front, And that's why they're
so adamant about calling it sports entertainment and calling them
exactly and calling them sports entertainers. So if you ever
hear like, there's I think there's compilations on YouTube of
people accidentally saying wrestler and then you can hear like

(33:25):
Vent screaming in their ear, like somebody on the mic
accidentally saying wrestler, and then you can hear Vince screaming
in their ear, and they're like, it's a sports sports entertainer. Yeah,
by Vince's terminology. Um. Yeah, So so we mentioned the
Montreal screw job and I'm kind of blushing over her
because I was like, Sean Michael's is my favorite. Oh

(33:49):
so the Montreal screw job was an instant that happened
obviously Montreal. What year was it, Dann do you happen
to know the exactly? I want to say? So, there
was a buildup between a match between Brett Hart of
the Heart Foundation and UM Shawn Michaels. It was like
what you said, yeah so they yeah, so there was

(34:10):
this big culmination that they're supposed to fight and then
uh the title. Uh So Brett Hart was a champion
during the time and he did not want to drop
the title to Shawn Michaels. But Shawn Michaels was really
good friends with Vince McMahon UM possibly a lover back then.
And an important and important note to make on this
was that UM Brett was getting ready to leave for

(34:32):
their rival w c W and Vince, and Vince wanted
him a classic way that you leave, you always go
out on your back, you always go out losing. And
so what Brett was prepared to do was lose, but
he didn't want to lose in his hometown at WrestleMania.
He was going to lose the day after, but because
there was such a rivalry between them and w CW,

(34:53):
recently they're champions were doing something where because you know,
uh w W E stuff was pretaped so someone you
would see who would take something two weeks ago would
suddenly be on the rival channel at the same time.
Um and then very famously, a Lundra Blaze um ak
a Medusa left w W with her women's championship and

(35:14):
she threw in the trash on the enemy program, you know,
on this rival program on WCW. Um So, this was
the fear of Bret Hart leaving with the title. They
didn't want him to take the title to w c W.
They couldn't have that. So there was a deal made
backstage unbeknownst to Brett Hart. Um So, Seawn Michaels goes
in for the pin and the referee counted very quickly.

(35:38):
So he so he didn't he put him in a submission.
I put him in a submission. That's right. Yeah, he tapped,
he tapped, thank you, yeah, thanks, you know, they put it.
He put him in a submission and he didn't tap.
He didn't tapp, and he said he didn't. He didn't happen.
Then they were like he was like he's out, and
you can see Brett Hart stand up and be like confused, No,
I didn't, I did not tap I did happened? And

(36:00):
while that's happening, Sean Michael's is hauling ass out of
the race, throwing like he has no idea what's going on,
and they're throwing things at him like on the way out,
like they're just people are living because this is Brett
Hart's hometown and Red Heart is spit on directly onto
Vinca Ban's face like it was a lugie. And then um,
and then Bret Hart. You can go back and look
at the footage. He spells out w c W. Wasn't

(36:23):
a sharpshooter that he did. He did on him, which
is Brett Hart's finisher. Yea, So he used his own
finisher on bred Heart to make him tap out into yeah,
and the most disrespectful thing he could have done. And
then so Bret Hart went in the back, punched Vince
McMahon right in the face, punched him in the face too,
and he finally, like after many many many years, finally

(36:44):
was inducted into the Hall of Fame this year. Yeah,
So like, thank God for that. There's been a lot
of a lot of animosity between the Heart family, and
uh yes, and so Sean Michael's is a is a
reformed man now but back way, just so you know,
like Brett Hart is the brother of the guy who
we were talking about who died in the ring. Yeah,
so there's the Heart family has not had it easy. No,

(37:09):
Um that that pay per view over the Edge, by
the way, was the first pay per view that I
would beg and beg my parents to buy me paper
like you know, plase for thirty night night and I place,
you know, the very first one that they bought for me,
my brother. And uh it was a long time after
that about another view. I was so young that my
dad I can literally remember and I talked to him

(37:30):
about this like two years ago and he was like,
that's crazy that you remember that. But I can literally
remember him saying, she'll never remember this. It's okay. So
to get into this heartbreaking, super sad incident. Um at
the time, Owen Heart, who again all of the Heart family.
They are a family of wrestlers. Um Stu Heart runs
what they call the Dungeon where they train wrestlers. Wrestling

(37:51):
is their family business. And so Brett at this point
was gone. Owen was doing this weird gimmick called the
Blue Blazer where he pretended he was a super hero
but everyone knew he wasn't. So going into over the edge,
they were going to have him come down on not
like a zip line, but on a like like a platform,

(38:12):
not a plat, not a platform. It's what's the name
of it when they hook you in, Either the name
when they hook you in to make you look like
you're flying and like a show or something like harness. Yeah,
like a zip line harness thing. Um. Sean Michaels used
to use them all the time as part of his
big entrances, and so the idea was he was going
to come in, get on clipped and do his match

(38:32):
at the last minute. And there are lots of different
reasons why people have said, but my understanding is that
the last minute, because he was having problems getting unclipped
out of the UM out of the system, they switched
it to a different kind of system and they did
not test it. So while he is coming down into
the ring, UM he the harness or whatever releases. He

(38:54):
hits one of the ring posts and then falls into
the ring and UM passes a way. UM they take
him out of the ring. Um, they continue the pay
per view. What he is loved by everyone. No one
has a bad thing to say about this man. All

(39:14):
the boys in the back love him. He was known
for being an incredible wrestler. He was known for being
incredibly great at training and doing well by the new guys.
He was known for his huge sense of humor and
his ability to pull pranks, which is what they call ribs. Um.
The guys always rip each other in the back or whatever,
because what are you gonna do. You've got all that
travel time. Um be universally beloved figure. And the show

(39:38):
goes on. Um. At a certain point, Um, Jim Ross
has to announce that Owen has passed away and everyone
else is just doing their best to continue this thing.
And the decision to continue the pay per view after
that is one of out of all of the things
that make Man's have done, one of the most controversial.
And if that can tell you, yeah, oh yeah, yeah,

(40:03):
yeah that was so that was all of our first
pay per view. Yeah, and we still watch and I
thought it was you know, I thought it was part
of it, and we thought I thought it was part
of the show. I thought it was a part of
I was confused because when he felt I was like, well,
why isn't he coming back? Like he's just not going
to do They quit very quickly because they've got that

(40:26):
five you know, they've got that delay. They're used to
having to cut away from injuries and things. And so
you don't see him, thankfully you don't. You didn't. You
didn't see him actually hit anything. You saw it, you
saw like a split second and then that was that
was it. And they didn't show any shots of him
in the ring, thank god. That would have been yeah,
burned in our memories forever. Um. The people there and

(40:49):
it was just silent. It was like that pay per view,
just silent. You know, they were all they want well
and they also weren't telling anyone who was there watching.
They were not giving them updates. They were giving the
people watching at home this week because they think the
certain places um networks or whatever networks, but cable providers

(41:10):
I think, decided to just not show it anymore. Well
that's that's good, that's good. But yeah, they didn't tell
anyone in the arena because there showing on. So this
that was still a part of the attitude era. This
is so um I guess just wrapping up this. That's
very morbid part of the era. Um, is there anything

(41:30):
else before we move on to the next one. Oh
so yeah, the attitude aras where you get your stone
called Steve Austin's. It's where man started the rocket sos
Man amongst you know, his his behind the scenes role.
He really became an evil character because of that, because
so he stepped into the line after that, and you know,

(41:53):
this is when they really started to take stories that
were leaking to the public like this montre Else screw
job and writing it into the show. Yeah. Yeah. And
before that, Vince had been um an announcer. He was
like the announcer there and they never talked about how
he was the owner of the company and riding everything,
um because that was a way to be able to
control the story. And then after that he became the

(42:15):
boss and not only him but his um but yeah,
his his children, Shane, well his older child, like she
didn't she didn't want any part of it. She wasn't right.
She never showed on camera. She's like that one Osborne. Yeah,
there's yeah, there's smart. I was about to say there's Kelly,
and then um, there's a Stephanie and and she McMahon

(42:38):
who also became prominent characters. Um, she McMann embraced the
Weasley you know, son of the Owner character, and um,
that's why you know Stephanie McMahon was kidnapped quote unquote
by the by the Undertaker. Um, this was a very
insane storyline time. Yeah, and this well exactly so like
this was this was the time when the shift started

(42:59):
to happen from muscle from braun to more personality driven
gimmicks and so like you moved away from like the
very classic wrestling of like Bruno San Martino, like I said,
and then you get to like the Ultimate Warrior and
holg In and like people who have strong characters, but
their characters are just I am strong, and then their
work rates are terrible, very bad. Um or great is

(43:21):
what means, like have much stuff you can actually do
in the ring, like two moves. Um. And then now
what we see with the attitude there is still like
an emphasis on the bronze, emphasis on the strong, but
now we're getting these characters they are seen as more
like comedic more it was more I think it is weird.
It was it was was more marketed for kids, and

(43:41):
we had UM Degeneration next, and you remember suck it.
You remember, you know, being told to suck it. You know,
the cross shop and everything that was during that same time.
My mom hated that. My mom hated that, hated that
we were not allowed to do that in our house.
And the leader, one of the leaders of Degeneration next

(44:01):
with Triple h who ended up marrying UM, Stephan McMahon
both on camera. You know, supposed he kidnaps her, kidnaps
her and married her in a drive through Las Vegas
chappell um while she was passed out, so that happened,
but they are actually married in real life and are
uh yeah, a big duo in the company that we
kind of we kind of champions Triple Lates because he

(44:22):
is he's you know, the son, the son in law
of Inspect band, but has his own ideas and brings
in a lot of the people that we love UM
into the company. We have to take a really quick break.
We're gonna come back jump into more of wrestling and
also kind of just get into how they get how
now wrestlers are even able to join the WWT, like
what that process is. Right after this and we're back.

(44:51):
I'm still joined by Rachel, Danielle and Janelle and um one.
I just love watching how excited you'll get when you
talk about it. It's it's those are my favorite guests
to have our people that are so passionate about it.
It's like, oh no, I just got to tell you
the t about this, Like I have so much tea
on this. I just I can see your eyes light
up when you talk about it. There's all types of
fights kind of came about it that, you know. Daniel

(45:13):
started a Facebook group and then we all we were
all just so excited to be there and talk to
each other and we would have meet ups and stuff.
And then that was before I haven't been I haven't
been a good mommy on that. I missed that Facebook
group when it was like ten people exactly when we
were cool. That then, right, and so we did yeah,
and so I wind up getting the podcast and so
now we have a different Facebook group that is not
because mine was very specifically like I want my industry

(45:35):
buds and me to have a safe place where we
can talk about rest. So we're moving into the pg
UM era. So what exactly I mean was this to
market more to be more more in reality. Like, so
I imagine they're trying to pull non traditional wrestlings for
advertisers to be okay with your product. Okay that bad

(45:56):
people were people were they were boycotts um. I think
Coke for a while it was either Coke, Pepsie, one
of the big ones. They took their support off. They
were having a really hard time getting people to actually
like getting advertisers on the show. And this was around
the time too that they started to have a new
emphasis on merchandising and so like they knew that kids

(46:20):
were buying merchandizing and so they were like, okay, well
we have to pivot here. It was around the time
they went public. I can't remember. Yes, yes, that's when
they public. Yeah, that's very smart. Yeah, that's when they
went public. And so there was like a lot of
pressure not well also, honestly, they pushed it with the
attitude there. They pushed it to a degree that was like,

(46:41):
my this is on TV and my kid can't watch it.
It's on a primetime spot. My kid can't watch it.
So we're gonna have to reel it in real content
change there, Yeah, for sure, And I wonder how much
of that was Linda. Well no, and in politics. Yeah,
that's actually a really important point because she was getting
hammered when she was trying to run for office in

(47:02):
Connecticut because people were like, how are you What is
this trash that you're putting on? And I do believe,
even if it's just a little bit, that that has
something to do with them suddenly going PG is that
she has always had um, she's always wanted to be
involved in politics, and they're realizing like, oh, well, we
can't have you know, we can't be the show where
and I wish this was fake. We can't be the

(47:22):
show where our son in law is pretending to have
sex with a dead body and then comes up with
a handful of meat. We can't be that show. Yeah,
And she's currently in Trump's cabinet. Small business. So in
March of two thousand and two, they decided to kind
of separate their rosters and they put wrestlers on two

(47:43):
different shows like what happened. They wanted people to watch
different shows and have incentive to because you had SmackDown
was on up N at the time, I believe, and
then Raw was always It's always been on well on
USA sometimes it's always been on cable cable, Yeah, at
least cable. So up n was, you know, was a
channel that we all got, you know, with just the antennas,
you know, the um so. I think that they wanted

(48:05):
to give people different things to watch, but more incentive
to watch, you know, if you want to see your wrestler.
The Rock. The Rock was really the one who um
uh coin kind of SmackDown Smacdun was part of one
of his twenty eight catchphrases, Yeah he's so good. One
of them was just about how much he likes to eat. Yeah, yeah,

(48:26):
she was. So they like literally named a brand after
him because it's I mean again diversification of income. And
now we're saying, like this new air kind of ushered
in by the Rock, who was literally called the people's champion.
So he like he encouraged a new audience, so he
brought in and he sort of shepherd in new people

(48:46):
into Ino. Smacdun, I think he actually brought up John Cina.
I want to say that he the John Cina, didn't
he have? Um what was Johnson's first story besides him
being the prototype after after that? Yeah, I know, his
first thing was when he came in and interrupted Kurt
Angle and they had their little Crid Angle, who is
actually an Olympic champion who then became one of the

(49:06):
best and most popular and most hilarious wrestlers of all time.
He is the father of He's such a dad. He
looks like he's always about to cry, and he also
looks like one of those thumb people from Spy Kids. Yeah,
that's a new development because he used to not have
he used to have hair, and then they cut his
hair because they wanted to him to stop being the

(49:27):
the um oh geez, guys, stop messing with me guy.
Um they made him more Yeah, because they turned him
I think at that point. And so he's kind of
get the hair off since then. But um, yes, so
so yeah, but this was the ruthless aggression era. This
is you know, when we have the Randy Orton's coming
in Randy Battista. Um, so this was Dave Bautista. I'm

(49:48):
also known as give me a name. I'm blinking on
a reax. It's so crazy that he was able to
hop over I never so cool. I love I mean
obviously with the rock, but like, yeah, I mean being
able to really it just goes back to them being
entertainers because being able to captivate large audiences. John Cena

(50:13):
now is becoming he's comedic, comedic, like he's being a
host now he's like he's like he was filling it
for Ellen, Like that's wild Blockers and yeah bubble By,
which he was great at. Yeah. Um yeah. So yeah,
there was those eras and then they became and we've
got to kind of condense some of this. We became
the reality era, which is especially with the rise of

(50:35):
social media. Again, knowing that we're starting to get to
a point where the fans are starting to know and
and get more backstage rumors. We kind of know markmar
Smart Smart Marks and now they started playing with well
what is real and what is kabe? And they had
reality shows what are we going to show you? Yeah?
What is real? And one of the big things out

(50:57):
of that era was a wrestler are called CM punk
did what is known as the pipe bomb UM, which
is so in interviews, one of the terms for when
a wrestler is doing a real interview where they're really
talking and it's not KF they call it a shoot
interview UM. And so pipe bomb was something that was
he worked himself into a worked him well, it's also

(51:19):
a worked shoot, and that it was meant to seem
like it was real, and he peppered it in with
you know, he basically comes in, sits down. Um, he
sits down over by I guess the Titan Tron whatever
they call now. He sits on the ramp with a
microphone in his hand and he just starts going off
about how dumb the company is, about how he is
going to leave because the company is really stupid, and

(51:41):
he name dropped company company. Yeah, you just don't acknowledge
them at all, but he was name dropping, I believe
ring um. And so he was so convincing because he's
still one of the best talkers. He was so convincing that,
like ESPN covered it, Um, real sport folks were like,
is this guy just suddenly going off on w W

(52:02):
E and blah blah blah. And so that really worked.
And in fact, I had been taking a break from
wrestling because um, there's only there weren't really any great
women during the Ruthless Aggression era fields because I did
the same thing. You're gonna check out because you're like,
oh Stone Colds gone. I took a break around like
two thousand four, around then, and then I came back
with the product wasn't great. The way they treated their

(52:25):
women was abysmal, and so there was just nothing really
in it for me. There was no China's you know, um,
And so I came back with CM punk and the
pipe Bomb because I was like, Oh, if you can
trick Jim Rome, I want to see what's going on.
I'm like, I'm so, I'm such a mark, Like I
am so easy to trick. It's so funny. You would
think that, like with all the people that I know

(52:47):
who work in the w w E, that I would
have a some understanding of what's real and what's not.
And I do not. Like I will text people, I
will watch raw and then text somebody, are you okay?
And then yeah, dude, I'm okay. So, like this pipe
bomb thing blew my mind insane because I mean I
was pretty young, but I was also like, this is it,

(53:08):
So go back on it and get chills like now,
because I also learned about that pipe bomb, that pipe
bomb promo, if you want to call it that, UM,
I learned about other promotions from that, Like that was
the first time I'd heard a ring of honor and
never a lot of people was Yeah, so that was
really exciting. Yeah, and so they started doing more of that.

(53:30):
Wrestlers were starting to get their own social media channels
and some of them learning what they can and cannot
do on there. Um. And so that is what brought
us to, like I said, that kind of reality where
we get total Divas, which is a show of you know,
just the women, you know, the the glamour of being
a woman female wrestler. Um and Nash. By the way,

(53:51):
can you tell me some of the iconic women that
are in this today organization ever? China, China, Trish Stratus, Lida. Yeah,
I believe he flips, like a lot of flips, and
that was not what women did back then. Yeah. She
was really great at doing cants, like she was like cool.

(54:11):
You know, were seeing her when I was a kid,
and I was like, oh, I can be that. We
all wanted to be that because she was relatable. She
was you know, Tris Stratus was the opposite where she's
kind of that nineties porn look um, but still was
Badasso and she like she saved her and Lida, those
two they worked, they worked each other so well because
you know you had, um, you had that storyline going
between them. UM, so that was fantastic. But today, yes

(54:34):
and so, But one thing I do want to touch on.
We won't have time to get into it, but if
you're ever interested Joshi wrestling in the nineties, UM, women
wrestlers in Japan, if you ever get a chance to
look some of those up. Some of those moves are
so good that dudes were stealing their move sets. UM.
So anyway, that's just something that's really good. But right now, yeah,
we are in an era where women's wrestling is the

(54:55):
best I think it's been. We've lost the term divas
now in w TB. There now to superstars the same
as the male. Um. There's now a female tag team division,
which didn't exist before because it was only tag team
for man, you know man. And so yeah, we have
our Sasha, we have Sasha Banks, we have Bailey, we
have um Becky Lynch who is known as the Man

(55:15):
right now, which she's holding two belts, she's holding two
titles Becky in these and like I do have to
say to you, if you are just a fan of
w W and you're listening to this, I feel like
a couple put overs is very important. So like Jordan Grace,
check her out. Yes, Tie Valkyrie, please check her out.
Has a Blanchard from the Blanchard Dynasty, Please check her out.
So like, do you know if if you're not finding

(55:38):
what you need within the w W, which I find
to be impossible because if you're not finding what you
need on the main brands, check out an xt. Oh
my god, Kyrie Sane. Did she get called up? She
got called up? But you know what that is a
great UM, that's a good segue because that was something
that UM we wanted to talk about, is how people
actually get into the WW these days. UM. And so

(55:59):
there is something called the Performance Center now where they
have their own basically Big Jim in Florida. And some
people come in because they are recruited from other other
sports and they'll say, I like your look, you come
and do a try out and see if you can
get a wrestler, a lot of football players, a lot
of Olympians, UM. And then for some people, they are

(56:20):
people who have gotten a good name or made a
good name for themselves on the indies. And so a
lot of these days, a lot of so cow people
coming in these days, like Matt Riddle. Rick is like,
we're seeing a good amount of so cow wrestlers, which
I'm happy about because I think it's the best wrestling
in the world. Um UM that stands for pro wrestling grill.
It's one of the best UM independent wrestling shows ever.

(56:42):
It happens once a month. It's impossible to get tickets.
So n x T is the brand where if you
get good enough, it happens UM Wednesdays. They're pre taped.
If you get good enough, that's where they train you
to start being able to be on TV. And so
that is is you know, you start getting onto n
x T, you start getting TV time, you learn how

(57:03):
to really be on TV, and that is the next
step towards getting drafted onto the main roster, which is
either on the SmackDown roster or the raw roster. And
this is new because like what they're they're not just
teaching them that like I said earlier, the w w
B style not because a lot of people have to
unlearn things like Ricochet when he came in, he had

(57:24):
to unlearn how to physically hurt somebody. Yeah, because when
you look at these indies like these people are killing
each other. If you look at New Japan, these people
are hurting each other. There's like, no, I'm you're gonna
you're gonna feel it. I'm gonna need you in the face,
and that's what's gonna happen because it's gonna look fake otherwise.
But they have to unlearn that and it is a skill.

(57:45):
But on top of that, they're also getting Mike skills,
like they're getting developmental skills. They come in and they
pitch characters. So it's kind of like an interesting creative space.
And important to note that Triple H is actually the
one in charge of the n X team was one
of the people that that um Um pushed a lot
of people, a lot of the independent people on there,

(58:05):
and that's why we sort of appreciate how he's championed
um these people that we admire so much from the indies,
like Ricochet, because one of the big things is that
they can actually keep their name now. Before they would
come in and we're like, Chris Hero, we're changing your
name to Cassie Us. Oh no, it's like, oh, that's
not good for my brand, But okay, so now Ricochet
is Ricochet and so that's the feels good. Yeah, that

(58:27):
is nice. I don't know how we did that. There's
literally so much to cover with this. If y'all are down,
I would love to have you come back on because
I know we didn't even get to talk about our
friends that are in it, you know, which is it
was great though, because this is an introduction to talk
about the history of where it came from. I'm very
aware listener that we might not have touched on your favorite,

(58:48):
UM wrestler. It's very obvious these women are extremely educated
on this and probably know your favorite wrestlers. So feel
free to tweet at us and let us know kindly
and be like, oh, this is my favorite or this
is my you know, my first memory. UM. But if
you're going to say you left out this, I can
guarantee that they already know it backwards and forwards. UM.

(59:08):
And it was my fault for having to cut our
time because we have to record after this, UM, because
we love y'all and we're trying to do our best
getting you everything possible that you want. I would love
for you all to come back though, so we can
talk about some of the culture and the future of wrestling.
That would be women of wrestling and um yeah, just
what it currently looks like now and and how social

(59:30):
media has affended all of that. Thank you all for
coming out. Um, Janelle, where can everyone catch you? Um At?
Janelle Santa Cruz is my social media name on everything
on Tuesday's. Actually after this episode comes up, um, I
will be on Uh. I do a show on hyper RPG, Twitch,
dot tv, slash hyper apart Um called blood Curling Tales
of Terror where it's it's an eighties RPG and uh

(59:52):
it's a horror thing and we're actually blood curdling tales
and time now, so we're time traveling. I play miss
Land Hamilton's um that it's a good time. And so
from Texas, Texas, break out my Texas accent um um.
And then uh yeah from Houston. You guys are both
from Texas, girl from both where from daniel I'm from Seattle,

(01:00:16):
I'm boring. Hey yeah, Danielle, what can everyone catch you yet?
You can find me, um just on my social media.
My Twitter is Danielle Radford. You can find me on
Instagram and daniel Underscore Radford again. My podcast Tights and
Fights on the Max Fun Network comes out every Thursday. Um,
where we recap wrestling. But and then I make lots

(01:00:36):
of jokes about it that are inappropriate, um, saying things
like work me daddy, or kind of promo one myne um,
which apparently is the thing that I do. Um. You
can also if you like the honest trailers on screen junkies,
I write those sometimes, so check them out so I
keep getting paid by Yeah. Oh hih. You can find
me all over the internet at Rachel sam Evans or

(01:00:58):
Rachel same Vans. It depends on how your brain works.
And uh yeah, but that's you know, you don't have
to watch my stuff. That's fine, we do you know,
you don't whatever, guys, but you can find me literally
at any wrestling show. We truly are over the place. Yeah,
if you were in southern California, Fornia, chances are I
will be at the independent wrestling show happening that week,

(01:01:19):
So come say hi please. I know you all are
both such a big fans of independent right, Like I
feel like that's such a huge part of the Yeah
I'm at Miss Danny Fernandez. Um, yeah, check us out
on te Public. We have a bunch of merch. We're
gonna add some wrestling merch we'll add some wrestling merch
for this UM, so it's t public dot com, slash

(01:01:40):
and nificent. UM. Thank you again for joining us. We
will do part two of this, I promise, because I
feel like you'll have even more tea to educate me about.
We haven't even gotten into the like real spicies. You
have just an allte episode and that will make people.
People that don't watch wrestling will want to watch this problem. UM.

(01:02:00):
Like we always say, stay nerdy,