December 12, 2023 • 61 mins
Grappling With Canada needs your help!! Visit https://linktr.ee/GrapplingWithCanada for ways to donate to the program!
Welcome to Grappling With Canada! Each month Andy "The Taxman" is joined by various guests to take a deep dive into the past of some of Canada's most influential, infamous and impressive Wrestling exports! Not a Canadian? Don't worry, no passport needed! The international connections of wrestling with and to Canada will surprise you!
This episode is a special year end and update episode! Originally broadcast on the Grappling With Canada YouTube page (you can visit it here: https://www.youtube.com/live/zooPwjClGU4?si=dMUrlje4P5rHX_oc )
For the guest appearances that Andy referenced:
- The Sunday Night Army: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/music-questions-with-podcasters-pt-2/id1495216162?i=1000633720957
- National Wrestling Clippings Alliance: https://youtu.be/UjrrDL6fyFM?si=bgPCumOqjdLOp_-K
- Wrestling With The Truth: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ep-61-grumpy-old-men/id1575261957?i=1000564613952
Also, don't forget to visit the Sportzwire Radio, an excellent place for many sports related programming, including Grappling With Canada: https://sportzwireradio.org/
Please be sure to like, subscribe, rate and review! (Hopefully 5 Stars!!)
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
3, 2, 1, go!
(00:29):
Hello folks and we're back!
Welcome to a brand new episode of Grappling with Canada.
I'm your host as usual Andy the Taxman.
This is our season 3 finale.
(00:50):
Now if you're as surprised as I am that I'm actually putting out an episode, well we're
in the same boat if you will.
Now this episode was originally broadcast on our YouTube page on December 8th, 2023.
It was a livestream event to kind of give a State of the Union address if you will as
(01:11):
to the state of the podcast.
As we've been very limited in the amount of episodes produced this year, we only did
4 to be exact.
There's been some questions, there's been some speculations about the future of the
program and there's been some suppositions made so I wanted to clear a lot of that up
(01:34):
as we move forward into what I will hope to be a very fruitful and very informative season
4 of Grappling with Canada.
Before we get started you can find Grappling with Canada on this podcasting platform that
you are listening on right now.
It's also available on Google Podcasts, although I hear that that one's going away, Apple Music,
(02:01):
Spotify, you guys know the deal.
Wherever you buy, sell, trade, barter or steal your favourite podcasts you can find Grappling
with Canada.
The live show that you will hear in just a few minutes was broadcast on the YouTube portion
of the Grappling with Canada empire if you will.
So if you can go to youtube.com or at Grappling with Canada to even make it simpler, you can
(02:28):
simply look in the show notes of today's episode.
There's going to be a direct link to our YouTube page.
I hope that you will give that a click and hit that subscribe button where dragging our
carcasses to a thousand subscribers, it would help the program immensely.
If you would take that quick moment, even if you listen to this program specifically
(02:49):
on the podcast feeds, whether it's on RSS or whatever, it would greatly help me as we
kind of move things along on the Grappling with Canada empire if you will.
Just want to say a quick big thank you to everybody who's been checking out the program
(03:09):
over the last three seasons.
It's not going to notice and you're going to hear a lot about that later on in the actual
program today.
So without further ado, I present to you the live stream edition, the first ever I might
say live stream edition of Grappling with Canada that was broadcast once again, December
(03:30):
8th, 2023.
I hope you enjoy and I hope that you will look forward to what we have in store coming
in 2024.
Thank you so much for being here tonight.
You could have been anywhere else in the world, but you've settled in with me for the long
run and we're going to have some fun today.
(03:53):
I really hope you enjoy.
Thank you.
(04:16):
Hello everybody and welcome to the special holiday edition live stream of the Grappling
with Canada podcast.
As usual, although it's been far too long, I'm your host Andy Dulevich, the tax man.
Now this is the first live stream that I've ever done for Grappling with Canada.
So this is going to be an interesting experience, but the funnest thing I guess for you guys
(04:40):
will be to see how much I actually edit these programs before I put them out.
So it'll be quite the experience tonight.
Tonight's going to be a lot of fun for myself personally.
We have a few questions that have been asked about the program, about myself over the last
year of some sort of inactivity.
(05:03):
Unfortunately, I'm going to get to that a little bit later.
I'm mostly going to be talking about things that are upcoming with the program and things
that happened in this last season, which kind of led into why there was a little bit of
a delayed or truncated season if you will.
But before we get into all that, first off, I want to say, oh, and I see a wrestling with
(05:27):
the eighties.
Hello, brother.
Great to see you as well.
Thank you for joining me tonight.
Before we get into anything, I need to say a big thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you to everybody who has been checking out the program for the last three seasons.
It's been quite the experience for myself personally.
And it's just been a wild ride, we'll say that it was it's been a lot more than I ever
(05:55):
thought it would be.
And a lot of that I owe to the listeners and some viewers tonight of this program.
I will also say that if you are not able to watch this program live with us right now,
this will be broadcast later.
It will also be going up as an audio version on the podcast feed.
(06:17):
So if you miss it tonight, don't panic, you're going to be able to get your fix of the grapple
with Canada end of season live show.
I also have to apologize if I get breaking out to a coughing fit.
At some points tonight, I'm getting over a little something that my wonderful children
have blessed me with this holiday season.
So hopefully it doesn't cause any headaches, although I am dealing with one right now.
(06:42):
You just can't see because I got the tremendous headphones on.
But anyways, once again, a big thank you to everybody who's been checking out the program,
the growth of the program over the last three years, regardless of how much output I've
had over the last season specifically has been tremendous.
I'm getting into that a little bit later.
As usual, you can find grappling with Canada on all the major podcasting platforms, whether
(07:05):
that's Spotify, iTunes or Apple podcasts, whatever they call it nowadays, Google podcasts,
a little that's going away.
Basically wherever you buy sell trade barter or steal your favorite podcasts, you can find
grapple with Canada as well as right here on the YouTube page, which is which is a great
time to say like and subscribe to the YouTube page.
(07:28):
We are slowly inching crawling whatever our way to 1000 subscribers and it would mean
a lot to me if while you're watching the video tonight, if you're watching it on a later
stream that you hit that like button, but also that you hit that subscribe button as
well.
It would mean the world to me as we kind of move forward in the grand scheme of things.
(07:52):
Also if you're joining me tonight, feel free to join me in a beverage if you will.
I'm sure we'll go through several of these tonight as we have fun with the season wrapup
of season three.
Speaking of the seasons, I should quickly mention because there are people who have
listened to only certain episodes of season three.
(08:14):
They're not really familiar with any of the back catalog, which now was a great idea.
Not a great time, I should say to kind of give a rundown of what we've done previously.
So season one for those who are unfamiliar, as I take a refreshing drink of my beverage
season one, we had 12 episodes.
They were all dedicated to wrestler showcases.
(08:37):
So in season one, we had episodes starting with Stu Hart and Stampede Wrestling.
We had Dino Bravo.
We had Rona Singh.
We had, oh my goodness, more than Abdul the butcher.
There was Archie the Goldie, Archie the Stomper Goldie, I should say.
(08:59):
Pat Patterson, the list goes on and on.
So season one was strictly focused on the wrestlers itself.
Season two had a different bit of a focus in that I had 14 episodes that season.
Nine were on wrestlers.
It was a bit of a truncated season for those who are unfamiliar.
I ran for city council here in Winnipeg, so it led to a shorter season than I would have
(09:24):
wanted, but those are the breaks, if you will.
Episodes in that season included a tremendous two parter on Rowdy Roddy Piper.
There was episodes on George Gordienko on the Tolless Brothers, which I personally really
got a lot out of.
And Angelo Mosca, I think was a great episode on that season.
(09:44):
There was also a few specials that ended that year as well on some projects that are in
and around Canadian professional wrestling.
So one of the guests, for example, that we had was Vance Novato with his book, Uncontrolled
Chaos that came out this year, just like literally a Bible of if you've ever seen this thing,
it's it's it's tick as they say very tick.
(10:07):
But it's essentially a Bible of Canadian professional wrestling history, stats, match listings,
you name it.
It's on there.
Yes, Wrestling with the 80s.
It is a tremendous book and Vance has boy, oh boy, he outkicked his coverage on that
one.
I think I don't know how he's going to top it.
I I have a little bit of an idea what he has coming up in the future.
(10:30):
But man, oh man, that guy just just puts out amazing work.
So it was great to see that.
Great to get our physical hands on that one.
Shoot, that was upstairs.
It's not in my wrestling collection.
Right behind me, I've got a big collection of books, if you can see.
There's some there anyways, but that one is upstairs.
(10:53):
So I'll have to get that later.
Yes, BC, but I didn't want to.
I didn't want I figured we were going to KFave you a little bit there, BC.
So by the way, while you're on here and you can see in the chat, Wrestling with 80s, go
ahead and check out that channel.
If you're a fan of wrestling from the 80s, as the as the name of the title says, BC does
(11:14):
a tremendous job of like going through.
He has he has video snippets.
Yes, just I can't put into words what what he does.
What he does in terms of production for that program that he does is is mind boggling and
he managed to slide me in there in one episode, which is absolutely tremendous.
(11:35):
I saw that you just had one come out on the Intercontinental Championship reigns, by the
way, I got to check that one out.
I haven't done that yet.
Okay, so getting back to season two.
So season two.
Yeah, like I said, nine episodes were on wrestlers.
We had a bunch of special episodes of his truncated because because of the city council
run now season three.
(11:58):
Big time step back.
I only had four episodes of season three and that was the bruiser Bob sweet and one more
on that in a second.
The great Antonio we had.
Oh, I got to think what what I had for episodes.
Oh yeah, Dave McKinney, the bear man and also the Lewisport incident where obviously the
(12:19):
big name killed in that episode or that incident was Adrian Adonis.
So why four episodes this last season?
There's been a few questions and I'm going to get to some listener questions a little
bit later on in the program.
By the way, if you're watching this live right now with me, if you want to drop a question
in the chat, I'll make sure that I get to it in the episode tonight.
(12:42):
So season four, why was it so short?
Well, number one was the subject matter on some of them.
This is more specifically talking about the Bob sweet tan episode.
Now that one had some interesting reactions will say many people were were quite positive
(13:03):
about the approach that I took on the episode, which was to present the facts as as as they
were laid out, right?
I didn't put a lot of personal opinion on it.
I didn't use a lot of conjecture.
Actually, I don't think I use any conjecture at all.
I didn't use any rumors.
No innuendo.
I just went with the facts, including the actual court ruling against him in Texas when
(13:31):
he was found guilty of, you know, deal or assaulting his child, we'll just say to put
it that way.
So I was I was happy with the episode.
It took a long time to produce because I had to find ways to talk about the subject matter
(13:51):
without interjecting my own personal opinions on it, which I I have a hard time doing sometimes.
I'm quite opinionated if anybody hasn't realized that at this point, but I tried very hard
to make sure that that episode was presented factually correctly.
First of all, factually correctly, because I felt like that really needed to be said.
(14:13):
And second of all, I wanted to make sure that it was presented in a context that gave the
fulsome story, right?
You can't talk about Bruiser Bob Sweeten, the perpetrator, we'll say without talking
about Bruiser Bob Sweeten and what a main name he was, especially in Southwestern wrestling,
(14:36):
right?
He was a big, big time star, a massive heel.
He was over like you can't deny it, right?
It's the same thing as as the Chris Benoit comparison.
And you know what, I had a few people email me about, oh, you know, you covered Sweeten,
would you cover Benoit more on that in a second?
(14:59):
Or people trying to make the false equivalency that, you know, oh, you can't you can't talk
about Sweeten just because of whatever we still talk about Benoit and he, you know,
killed his family kind of thing, which to me, that's that's a false equivalency.
I don't see that that that you can compare the two.
I mean, what they both did equally are horrible.
(15:21):
What is on a bigger scale, in my opinion.
So in terms of what I ever cover, I should just get this out of the way.
Would I ever cover Chris Benoit?
I don't know.
And you know, that's one that people have I've been getting emails over the years about
if I would cover it or not.
(15:43):
I don't know, to be honest.
That would depend on the direction of the episode, or the direction that I wanted the
episode to take, I guess is a better way to discuss it.
There's a tremendous there's one book that I'm aware of that has actually been written
(16:08):
properly.
And I believe Greg Oliver had something to do with it.
If he wasn't the principal writer, then he was one of the main individuals involved in
it.
And I can't remember the name of it off the top of my head right now.
But anyways, if I was going to do a Benoit episode, it would probably follow something
similar to that layout of that book.
(16:29):
But again, that that one's a tough one, right?
I can't.
And a lot of people have said to me over the years like, Oh, why can't you just talk about
the wrestling and I've even heard that on other episodes I've done right.
I did the episode again in season four of the great Antonio, for example, I put a ton
(16:49):
of information, a ton of backstory, I had a guest on David Williams from fireside Canada,
whose speciality if you will, is is Canadian folklore and Canadian legends.
So he was on and he was talking about, you know, the the French Canadian strongman and
(17:11):
how that really that strongman persona really played into the gravitas that great Antonio
had in Montreal.
In my opinion, I couldn't tell the great Antonio story without exploring why that strong
man mentality or that strong man spirit was so vibrant and so alive in Montreal.
(17:33):
So I had David Williams in on that one.
And he did a fantastic job of really explaining a lot of that.
Case in point, I had people emailing, well, why'd you put all that in?
You know, the episode was, it was long ish, I guess, for not really long in terms of,
you know, some of the episodes I've done over the years.
And I felt that I couldn't tell that story without that aspect.
(17:59):
So that's kind of my thought process in going into something if I was going to cover Brent
Benoit, right?
I have to talk about I can't just talk about his wrestling.
I have to talk about the whole story.
So that's kind of why I'm lenient on on doing a Benoit episode.
I'm not saying never.
I'm just saying, you know, right now I got a lot of things on my plate that I think are
(18:21):
more important to deal with, if you will.
All right.
Now the other reason why season four was very limited was the amount of research that went
into the episodes.
So this is something that's been kind of a recurring issue over the seasons.
(18:42):
And this kind of lends itself to another to a question that's asked later in the program
that I'll get into on my trusty note sheet here.
But when I did this season specifically, there was a lot of research that went into, well,
the great Antonio one specifically took a ton of time, right?
(19:03):
You know, you're you're pouring through archival information.
You're I'm waiting for information from the Montreal Museum.
You know, there's back and forth between us.
They were tremendous, by the way, just things were slow moving.
Right.
Then it's cross cross referencing that information to what I had previous to what other people
(19:26):
have reported.
Then it's going through newspaper clippings and and trying to cross cross reference where
those fit into everything.
Then you factor in the Japanese angle.
All of this to say is that that one episode, I think it was almost two hours of runtime
probably took me three months to, you know, research, cross reference all the information,
(19:51):
find everything that I wanted to find.
You know, then then getting guests which the guests on that one were tremendous.
Again, David Williams and and however, always a great friend of the show was on that one
as well.
But it's and then it's figuring out how to present it.
So that episode alone probably took me three months just to just to get done, which is,
(20:13):
you know, that's a lot of time, right?
The bruiser Bob Sweet 10 episode, obviously, that one took a little bit longer.
But again, because there's a lot of fact checking that was done.
And I'm not saying that anything that Greg Oliver had who was my guest on that episode,
I'm not saying that anything that he had was wrong.
(20:33):
But I wanted to make sure that it was right.
And so that took a lot of time to again cross reference in the end.
And then, you know, I was able to find the the Texas his actual folder or not folder,
but is the actual dossier from from our legal dossier from Texas, which which explained
(20:54):
everything that he he did.
So that one took a little bit of time.
Then we had the Dave McKinney episode.
I had a great friend of the show West Maiment from the NWCA podcast more on them a little
bit later.
That one came together pretty quick, mostly because West is such a treasure trove of information
about Dave McKinney.
So that one was really, really simple to get through.
(21:17):
But the one following it, the Lewisport incident episode, that was a hard one to get through,
not so much for the research aspect.
I mean, there's not much to research, right?
I had the date, I had most information, most of which was wrong.
(21:40):
I'll get to that in a second.
But it was more about getting the firsthand accounts of the people who were there.
And that took some doing.
And how can I put this, that episode doesn't work without the individuals who were on
the episode as guests, the citizens who were living in Lewisport at the time who responded
(22:06):
to the crash.
I'm thinking of, well, the three that were on was Joanne, Dawn, and Raymond.
And there were other people who had reached out to me that originally wanted to join the
program.
And then they ended up deciding against it because it was, you know, the memories were
(22:30):
too raw.
And I totally understood that.
And you know, I was okay with it.
So there was a lot of treading lightly because I didn't want to offend anybody, first off,
because you know, it's their trauma.
(22:50):
It's not mine, and I wasn't there very clearly.
So I had to approach it in a certain way.
So I gave a lot of people a lot of leeway to, you know, I gave them a lot of time to,
you know, once they said they wanted to do it, okay, please make sure you actually want
to do it.
(23:11):
And so there was a lot of leeway.
So I took my time, took far longer than I probably normally would if I was trying to,
you know, coordinate an interview with somebody, but I felt like that was a prudent thing to
do.
What I ended up with was three heart wrenching interviews, to be honest with you.
And there was there was a boy, boy, there was a lot of stuff that I edited out of those
(23:35):
interviews.
They didn't alter the interview itself, but there was details that I that I left out because
I don't think that they would have added anything to the program.
And I think it would have been more distressing if I were to let them in.
You know, while I'm in the conversation with with the person who is talking about their
(23:58):
story, their experience, what happened to them and what they experienced during that
time, you know, I'm not going to tell them to stop.
And and oh, you know, I don't I don't think we should go into that.
It was very much a free flowing idea of, OK, what did you see?
What do you want to tell?
(24:20):
And a lot of those conversations to specifically went almost an hour.
And then, you know, I edited them down for posterity sake for the program.
But there was a lot of heavy, heavy, heavy matter that was left out.
But if while what was in the episode was very distressing to hear, there were a lot of things
(24:46):
that I had left out of it, which I didn't think added anything, but I also didn't think
that having those taking over the program would take away the effect that the interviews
would have on on the listener.
So that's why I kind of made the decision that I made.
Now it is interesting that that is one of the episodes that I've had the most positive
(25:10):
feedback on out of almost every episode that I've done through all three seasons of Grappler
with Canada.
One because of how I approach the episode, two because I actually let the people talk
and they've never had a chance to do that before.
And one of the one of the most flattering compliments I got was actually from Adrian
(25:33):
Adonis' daughter who reached out to me and she was blown away by the episode.
She actually was conversing with me, you know, after the episode to get the individuals information
who were on the episode, I forwarded to them and actually she's going to be meeting with
them in the future, I believe, which is like what a cool story.
(25:59):
You know, the daughter of someone who passed tragically, who's been, you know, without
this information for 35 years, you know, kind of has a little bit of kind of has a little
bit of closure and is now able to connect with the individuals who helped her dad.
Like to me, that's you know, my God, what do you say about that?
(26:23):
So I was, you know, beyond humbled to just be a conduit for that.
And I'm looking forward to hearing any stories that those individuals have when they end
up meeting up because, wow, what a thing and all because of a podcast.
(26:46):
That's wild.
And you know what, maybe I should get into that as well.
You know, this this trip through hysteria that I've been on, you know, three seasons.
What are we at 1214?
That's what 2630 3030 episodes essentially.
(27:09):
And you know, it's the podcast has been heard in like over 170 countries worldwide.
I think we're at some like 50,000, you know, listens, downloads, whatever you want to say.
And then, you know, I also have to take a break and also mention a great friend of the
show, Thomas Bryce from sportswire radio, because we're also heard on, you know, an
(27:31):
international radio station, which is crazy to me.
Like, you know, this, again, this this guy from Winnipeg, who, you know, podcasts out
of a closet, which, you know, you can see right behind me, you know, is able to have
this this amount of reach.
And you know, that's not counting, you know, YouTube and and whatever it's, you know, terrestrial
(28:00):
internet radio, like it's wild to me.
And I'm just I'm blown away by the whole experience.
Yeah, I'm almost speechless by it.
Well, we'll just say that that really gets me excited for season four, which I'm going
to get to a little bit later.
I also want to make mention that I had a couple of guests appearances over the last couple
(28:21):
of seasons.
So one I should mention, and he's in the chat right now, BC, from wrestling with the truth,
he had me on a couple of times.
We we had some interesting discussions.
One one of my favorite ones was regarding the state of current professional wrestling.
(28:42):
It was very interesting conversation.
I was able to have a guest spot on a great friend of the show, Jacob's show, the Sunday
Net Army.
He did an episode actually on podcasters and their taste in music, if you will.
And that was a great episode.
I said it ended up sending in an audio clip to that one and he and he was gracious enough
(29:05):
to put that on the program.
And that was a lot of fun.
I was also on a program of the National Wrestling Clippings Alliance podcast.
That one is hosted by Wes and Jess, who were actually guests on my program in season two.
They were on the Whippa Billy Watson episode as well as Wes was on the episode in season
(29:27):
four or so.
Sorry, I'm getting ahead of myself.
Season three, the Dave McKinney episode.
I joined Wes on we actually ran down a card from Winnipeg from the 80s.
And that was a ton of fun.
I think we ended up we were supposed to go an hour.
I think we went like two and a half.
My kids were jumping in.
My cat showed up.
Yeah, it was.
(29:48):
It was a good time.
But you know, again, it's it's crazy that, you know, it's via this podcast, I have a
chance now to interact and talk to, you know, other podcasters I've I've talked to authors
all the time, other historians all the time, I'm getting mail all the time.
And it's just what a wild ride.
(30:09):
What a crazy experience this has all been.
And it's very, very, very rewarding and well worth it.
In my opinion, I see in the chat here, BC, Ben was a tough topic, but I have the confidence
well, you know, I think I would handle it the right way.
Yeah.
And no matter what topic you do have trolls, sadly.
(30:31):
Yeah.
And you know what?
I'm sure that you see it on your channel as well.
Right.
You're you're going to get trolled.
It doesn't matter.
You can put the most positive story out there and in some yay, who's going to jump on there
to be an a hole and you kind of just have to roll with it.
And he also says no holds barred our conversation about current professional wrestling.
Yes, it was no holds barred.
(30:51):
And you know, it's funny.
I don't swear on on the Grafler with Canada programs, not not because well, because I
don't they need to be kind of like family friendly or whatever.
But Jesus, you get me off the program or you get me on a tangent about something I'm real
passionate about.
What can I say?
Things happen and expletives fly, unfortunately.
(31:13):
So sorry about that, BC.
But you know, we had a we had a fun time anyways on that episode.
All right.
Now, I suppose this is a good point as any to to list off some listener questions that
I've gotten over the past few months.
(31:33):
So because we've been dormant, you know, a lot a lot of the questions have been like,
you know, what's going on with the program, you know, basic stuff, right, which is, you
know, something that I explained already earlier in the program tonight.
So I'm not going to get into that.
But I do have what one, two, three, four.
I have four good ones.
Well, I deem good ones, at least that I'm going to answer tonight.
(31:55):
And if there's any more and you guys want to leave them in the chat, go ahead.
And even if it's after the fact, if you want to email me, you can email me at any time.
Six side pod at gmail.com.
You can also leave a question in the video chat after this episode is done.
If you want something asked, I'm happy to answer it.
Or you can hit me on any of the social media platforms, whether that's Google, not Google,
(32:20):
I should say, Facebook, on Twitter or X or whatever they call it more on that one in
a second.
Actually, I got to talk about that for a second.
Instagram threads I'm on there, though I'm not very active.
Essentially any any social media site, if you got a question, I'm happy to answer and
I'm happy to help out with research as well.
(32:43):
I've been contacted a few times in the last the last few months about, you know, individuals
that I've covered in the past that people have been looking for more information on
or are trying to clarify something for a program that they're working on, which I think is
very cool.
So I've been able to help out a little bit that way, which has been again, it's pretty
rewarding.
(33:04):
Twitter.
Yeah, we're going to get into that one, actually.
I'm going to start with this one.
This one comes from Des Latham, who, by the way, if you're interested at all in in World
War Two, which I'm I'm a massive World War Two nerd, I guess is a good way to put it.
(33:24):
Des Latham had an incredible podcast series on the Battle of Stalingrad.
I think he went like, it was like 30 episodes, I think this is a few years ago.
And it's like mind blowingly good, like really well narrated, really well researched.
It was just a fantastic series.
(33:45):
And he's got other stuff.
He's from South South America.
So are so he's from South Africa, I should say.
And he's got some interesting takes on some world events.
So anyways, if you're if you're a fan of World War Two, check out Battle of Stalingrad by
Des Latham, I highly encourage that one.
(34:05):
So he had asked for a first time listener, which episode would you recommend to listen
to first?
Well, that's an interesting question, because I'm kind of jaded a little bit.
And it kind of depends on on the listener to write.
Some people are very interested in the dark side of things, right?
(34:25):
Obviously, we saw a huge influx in that specific genre, thanks to the dark side of the ring,
for example, or, you know, that the territory show or some of the 80 biographies people
seem to be drawn in wrestling to the, you know, the darker aspects of it.
A lot of my episodes really haven't dealt with that so much.
(34:49):
Obviously, the bruiser Bob sweet 10 one is is the darkest episode I have.
There's no two ways about that.
I guess another one would be the chief Don eagle episode.
Obviously, his his murder is is one that you know, to this day, it's it's an unsolved murder,
(35:10):
right?
So there's that as well.
Dino Bravo, the end of that one.
Oh, and by the way, I should say, I have to also give a shout out to Oh, shoot, which
is it now?
You know what, I'm going to pull that up in a second.
I'll talk about the Dino episode, the Dino Bravo episode in a second, but there was an
there was an episode of the this is compelling audio I know when you know you're looking
(35:38):
at somebody trying to find something real quick on their computer.
I can't find out.
Oh, the gangsters podcast.
So they actually had done an episode on Dino Bravo.
They use some of my information for that one on their program.
(35:59):
We're going to be collaborating in the future on a on another Canadian crime story involving
professional wrestling that might be in a few months if we can get our schedules together.
So I was happy to help out with their program.
(36:19):
So again, you know, a lot of my programs aren't really of the dark variety, but those are
three examples of something where if you're if that's your kind of thing, then those episodes
are kind of up your alley.
In my opinion, a great episode if you've never listened to anything, you know, professional
wrestling related or Canadian history related or anything like that.
(36:41):
You know, a good start is probably an episode like the Rhonda Singh one, in my opinion,
somebody who, you know, a little bit less known, but like, what a tremendous story.
And you know, obviously, the end of her life was was, you know, really, really cut short.
Way, way, way, way, way too.
She passed away way, way, way too young.
But you know, someone who you know, what a mediocre rise somebody who legitimately went
(37:05):
from watching wrestling in Calgary to performing at the highest levels in Japan within a span
of like five years.
It's really awe inspiring, you know, and her run as the Monster Ripper, you know, in Japan
and in WWC Puerto Rico, you know, it's really, really inspiring.
So I would tend to lean to something towards that, as well as the Billy Two Rivers episode.
(37:32):
And that's simply for the fact that, you know, I was able to have a long, long conversation
with him.
And unfortunately, we lost him this past year back in February.
So you know, here's somebody who, you know, whose story was never really fully explored
before.
I was, you know, really lucky to be able to do interview him to let allow him to tell
(37:58):
his story.
And now it's preserved for history.
And you know, that's an episode where I'm I still get messages and emails from, you
know, great, great grandchildren, or long lost relatives, that, you know, they're just
on Google looking for information about him, they find the YouTube video, right, they find
(38:22):
the podcast and, and you know, they're learning about him that way.
So that's, that's one where it's like that, that's the whole point of doing this, right?
Just what a story.
So anyways, that that might be a good one.
If it was your first time ever listening, you know, Rhonda Singh or or Billie two rivers,
(38:43):
those are probably probably the top two that I would recommend.
If this is your first time listening to the program.
James had asked, why are you?
Why are you no longer active on Twitter?
Well, ex Twitter, whatever they call it now.
You know what, I used to be really active on that I have, I still have, I think a fairly
(39:06):
good following on there.
But ever since Elon bought that thing and went crazy, like I get no, no use out of Twitter
at all.
Outside of you know, 800 notifications a day.
There's just there's no value for me in Twitter anymore.
(39:28):
You know, I used to put out a tweet and it would, you know, get a few, few thousand,
you know, responses or view not responses, but interactions or whatever they call it.
Right.
Now I put something out against like 11.
I'm like, ah, forget it.
There's just no value in that.
For me personally, I'm most active in the Canadian professional wrestling history Facebook
(39:49):
group.
Just because I see a lot of value to that.
Not not for my program at all, to be honest, but because there's so much other cool stuff
that happens in there.
So that's where I'm most active.
But yeah, Twitter used to be used to be excellent.
And it's not just me right there.
It seems like Twitter just like killed all interactions for podcasters.
(40:12):
This like ever since Elon took it over and it just it's wild to me.
So it used to be super good.
The wrestling community fickle as they are used to be really good on Twitter.
The podcasting community on Twitter used to be excellent.
Everybody was, you know, helping everybody out.
There was a lot of tips.
There was a lot of information.
And ever since Elon bought it, it's like he just gutted gutted the podcast side of it.
(40:36):
You just it the interaction is not there.
So I have no real value.
I still have it.
It's there.
You can contact me on it, but I don't really see any value in using Twitter as a as a means
to further the podcast.
So that's the answer for that one.
(40:57):
Indy had asked what is happening with the website?
Funny you should ask.
So I have not had a I've had kind of a chincy free website that I use for a few years.
I think it's still active, but you know, it's it's not anything.
It's not good.
You know, there's no two ways about it.
(41:18):
But the reality is, you know, the the podcast doesn't really generate money, right?
So I can't really I already pay for publishing for the podcast.
I have to pay for equipment for the podcast.
You know, I have to pay for, you know, my all my research materials.
You know, there's I have newspaper subscriptions.
(41:39):
I have books I have to buy.
I have all this stuff.
You know, I have a lot of expenses that go into the podcast.
I don't really think that while the while the website would be nice as a hosting ground,
it's not really in a budget for me right now.
You know, maybe maybe that changes in the future.
It would be great.
(41:59):
You know, if the podcast, you know, generated a little bit more than it did, then maybe
I could look at a website.
I'm very grateful to have my sponsorship with Manscape, at least that, you know, kind
of helps pay for publishing and some of the offset some of my costs.
But the reality is, you know, you factor in publishing, you factor in research, you factor
(42:22):
in all these subscriptions and you try and factor in a yearly cost for website.
It's not it's just not feasible right now.
Would I love to do it?
Yes, for sure.
Is it a must?
I don't know.
It probably is, but I can't I can't I can't see the cost benefit value right now.
(42:42):
So maybe in the future, but not right now.
But thanks for that question, Cindy.
Steve asks, would you ever consider shorter episodes?
So this will play into my teaser about season four a little bit, but I want to expand on,
you know, this question about, you know, how to shorten up episodes or change length of
(43:03):
episodes.
So there's been a few people over the years, like Steve's not the only one.
There's been a few people who have asked, you know, Oh, God, you know, I love I love
the episodes, but like some of them are like three hours long and in order three hours.
And you know, I hate pausing something and then picking it up later, which I get to a
point, you know, is there a way you could break it up?
(43:25):
But I don't see how I could do that.
Because how do you how do you break up an interview in progress in an episode without
losing your spot?
Or you're you're trained of thought or your or your what's the word I'm looking for?
(43:47):
Or you're being in the moment of that episode of that interview.
How do you how do you get that back when you've stepped out of it?
Because it's taken an episode break, right?
And then, you know, join us next week for our, you know, continuing interview in progress.
To me, it I don't think that it would add anything.
I think you would actually lose quite a bit of the program in terms of listenability in
(44:12):
terms of engagement and not engagement in terms of like, you know, Twitter, Facebook,
whatever social media.
I'm talking about engagement, you listening and enjoying the program.
I feel like you would lose that if you know, there was just all of a sudden a break in
the in the middle of an interview and is all tuning next week for this.
(44:32):
Well, would you come back?
I don't know.
Maybe if you're really interested, but I feel like, you know, why why even why even set
up that roadblock if I don't have to, you know what I mean?
So that's kind of the way that I look at that.
Now, shorter episodes is something that we may be diving into in season four, and I will
(44:55):
give a bit of a teaser for season four in just a minute.
But I do see a question in the chat.
So I'm going to get to this one right here.
BC asks, which episode did you finally feel like you hit your comfort zone and felt the
podcast was delivering what you originally intended it to be?
Boy, that's a that's a fantastic question.
(45:19):
Oh, man.
What episode did I don't think I've ever felt like I've been like that I've hit a comfort
zone yet, to be honest with you.
Yeah, I.
It's weird, right?
(45:40):
I can do the research, I can do the interviews, I can put the program together.
But I'm never comfortable with with the episode until it's out almost right.
Like I.
I never.
Yeah, I just never feel I never feel like I've done enough in an episode, if that makes
(46:02):
any sense.
Right.
I always feel like, oh, I could have I could have put that one more detail in or I could
have put more focus on this or I could have I could have I could have I could have I always
have that feeling until the episodes out.
And part of that is an editing issue, editing myself, certainly.
(46:23):
But you know, in terms of.
Yeah, comfortable.
I never I've never felt comfortable just, you know, sitting in the chair and just going.
That's not really my style on this.
And I think that has to do a lot more of just, you know, my personal Picadillo of making
sure that, you know, the information is correct, that I'm presenting it properly, that I'm
(46:43):
not, you know, accentuating the wrong things, et cetera, et cetera.
But the other part of the question, you know.
When I felt like the podcast was delivering what it originally intended to be, probably
the tail end of season one.
(47:03):
You know, there's a lot of season one was kind of me finding my feet a little bit, not
in terms of like, you know, I'm an amateur.
I don't know what I'm doing.
I had previous podcasting experience before Grappler with Canada.
I did.
Although it wasn't in my opinion, it wasn't that great.
But I did some, you know, impact wrestling stuff like back in in 2018 or whatever.
(47:27):
But so I didn't approach Grappler with Canada as any kind of amateur or anything like that.
But I really felt like by maybe the Abdul the butcher episode of season one, I felt
like I started to get a really good mix of, you know, the archival audio with the guests,
(47:49):
with the direction of the program, with I felt the proper amount of wrestling history
of the individual combined with the personal history of the individual.
I think that that's probably the Abdul the butcher episode.
Maybe the run to sing one I can't remember which one came first.
(48:10):
Also, and that's horrible, because I should I've only put out 30 of these, I should know
which order they ran.
But I would say probably one of those two episodes where, where I really felt like I
hit a stride and okay, this is this is what I want it to be.
And then I moved forward from there.
Now obviously, the ones that kind of are the outliers are, you know, those special episodes
(48:34):
that I had in season two, where I was interviewing authors and, you know, some website curators
and all that kind of thing.
Those were a little bit different, a little bit more free flowing.
And I didn't really have to.
I don't want to say put the effort in.
That's not a fair way to say it, but I didn't have to put in the amount of research that,
you know, one of the long form episodes would take.
(48:55):
So those were a bit different.
But yeah, I would say this is a very, very, very long winded response to the original
question, which, yeah, probably the Abdul the butcher episode of the Ronda Singh episode.
That's what I felt like, okay, here's, here's what I want it to be.
And you know, kind of build on that moving forward in the future.
(49:18):
Now speaking of the future, I don't want to keep you guys all night.
It is a Friday night.
I'm sure some of you have lives.
I have kids, so I don't really have a wife.
And I'm dying as you can see.
My goodness, you ought to love when your kids bring home special presents from from school
(49:40):
for you.
But season four, what the hell's happening with season four?
There will be a season four.
I will say that right off the bat.
I have an interview that's been in the can for the last like three months that I just
haven't had a chance to edit, put it together, whatever.
So that will come out on January 1st.
(50:00):
I promise.
Finally, I'm going to make a deadline on January 1st.
There will be a new episode of Grappler with Canada, which will be timely because there's
a certain Hall of Fame that will be inducting members.
I think in the what would that be late March, early April range, this this vaunted Hall
of Fame, a non physical Hall of Fame, but a Hall of Fame nonetheless.
(50:25):
And an individual who who really should be in that Hall of Fame.
And this episode is essentially an argument of why this individual must be included in
the Hall of Fame.
And you know, with the change in ownership of this company with this Hall of Fame ceremony,
(50:47):
it's going to be coming up in the future, we'll see if this person gets inducted in
the posthumous category because they should have been in there a long, long time, long
time coming.
And I'm hoping that, you know, a few months out, I'm not saying that this program is going
(51:07):
to change the world or anything, but you know, it might be one more arrow in the set of quivers
that helps propel this individual into that Hall of Fame.
So January 1, look forward to that one.
There's another interview that I am owed to somebody.
I'm hoping to have that one for February.
(51:28):
I'm hoping that that he's still able to do that episode.
I'd hate for it to go.
I hate for a story to not be told.
Right.
And I'm going to digress just for a second.
I'll get back to the rest of the season four in a second.
But you know, it's one thing to go through, you know, someone who's passed on, you know,
(51:50):
like a, like a Jack Taylor or, you know, like a Rhonda Singh or, or like a chief Don Eagle
and you know, reconstitute their past, put it into a cohesive story, tell the truth,
most important and lay out what they meant in professional wrestling.
It's one thing to do that.
(52:11):
It's a completely other thing to have the person tell their story.
Case in point, the Billie To Rivers episode, right?
I want to make a concerted effort moving forward to be more of an outlet for past wrestlers
to be able to tell their story.
(52:33):
Because the reality is if, if they don't tell it, someone's going to tell it for them.
And that somebody might not have their best interests in mind, or they might only be telling
a certain part of that story.
So it's almost imperative that we start trying to save these things.
(52:55):
Because again, you know, when these individuals, these men and women pass on, it's gone.
Right.
And unless somebody's done their due diligence and, you know, either talk to them personally
or you know, done a real good job.
Jamie Greer, I should say, somebody who's doing a tremendous job, documented in the
(53:16):
history of Windsor Wrestling, Windsor, Ontario.
You know, he's, he's had, I don't know what he said, a few thousand interviews for his
book.
And one of the people is somebody who that, you know, I had inquired about, Hey, I should
get this person on the program.
(53:37):
Well, now they're in hospice and I don't, I don't even know if they're alive anymore.
You know, and that person's story now, thank God Jamie has it.
And I hope that he's able to expand on it.
You know, maybe I do something with him later, but you know, if he didn't get it, nobody
would have had it would have had that person's story.
(53:58):
So that all being said, I want to make a concerted effort moving forward, you know, in season
four, if there are individuals out there that are listening to this and you have a story
to tell or you have, you know, your, your father, your mother was the, was the former
(54:22):
professional wrestler, your grandfather, your grandmother, whatever.
And they have a story to tell to me.
That's kind of what this program almost needs to be.
Right.
It's great to do the biographical backwork on people, but man, if, if we could get these
stories from the person while they're still here, like that's, that's the way to go in
(54:48):
my opinion.
So season four, I want to make a concerted effort of that.
Again, I owe somebody an episode.
I'm going to be doing that one providing he's still in.
I've got to touch base with him.
Also in season four, there's going to be some, we'll say mini series, two mini series I'm
planning.
(55:10):
One is strictly based on an email I got inquired if I knew any information about a wrestler
and their murder and that murder having something to do with a murder for hire plot involving
the, an RCMP big brother sting.
(55:35):
It sounds confusing, but you know, it took me down a whole, whole host of rabbit holes.
So I'm looking forward to presenting to that one.
That's you know, I, that's an episode where it makes sense to do it in like a, I don't
even know what it's going to end up being.
Maybe a four part series.
(55:56):
That would make sense to make it episodic and do it.
It was a small series on it.
Another one I'm working very closely with a few individuals about the roots of professional
wrestling will say free Canada in the nation that we now call Canada.
(56:20):
I'm just going to leave that teaser out there.
If you figured out, you know, shoot me a message.
Let me know if you've, if you figured it out.
But I think those, those two mini series and then, and then if I can get some more live
interviews, I think that that's, that's the way to go moving forward in season four.
(56:42):
There are a few biographicals episodes that I've been working on, some of which have been
on the back burner for like two years.
I'm thinking about Don Jardine.
BC will know exactly what I'm talking about on that one.
I'm still looking forward to, I'm still looking at getting that one done.
Again, it's just, you know, there's, there's a lot on my plate, if you will.
(57:04):
How many episodes season four will end up being more than four, probably not more than
14.
So there's your range.
So that's kind of what I'm looking forward to doing in the future.
If anybody else has anything in the chat, they want to leave, go ahead and leave that.
(57:26):
But I'm going to start wrapping this thing up first off by saying thank you, the viewer
and the listener.
Without your support, there's no way I could do this thing.
And there quite frankly, be no point to do this thing.
You know, if you guys and gals weren't listening, weren't passing it along, weren't talking
about it, weren't engaging with it, weren't sharing your story, then this would be a fruitless
(57:50):
endeavor, which it has not been.
And that once again is all thanks to you.
So my personal utmost thanks to you, the viewer, thanks to you, the listener for tuning into
Grappling with Canada.
If you haven't yet, you can subscribe to the YouTube channel on this YouTube link.
(58:10):
If you listen to this on any of the major podcasting platforms, do me a favor and hit
the follow button on that platform.
Don't ask me why it's something about algorithmic bumbo jumbo jargon, but it helps the program
immensely.
Also, if you want to leave a five star written review, that would be very much appreciated
(58:32):
as well.
You can also find Grappling with Canada on Facebook.
There's a Facebook group, Canadian professional wrestling history is where you find that.
It's not specifically related to this podcast, but there is a whole ton of cool stuff that
is on there constantly posted.
Like I said earlier, Jamie Rear, who's been doing some tremendous stuff with the history
(58:59):
of wrestling and Windsor has been adding my God, just tons of stuff.
So that's been great.
Come check out our Facebook group there.
You can also like the Grappling with Canada Facebook page and you can find us on all other
social media platforms.
Simply search for Grappling with Canada.
(59:20):
So for myself, the tax man, once again, thank you everybody for a very successful seasons
one, two and three.
And I'm very much looking forward to seeing all of you in season four, season four.
It's got a nice, a nice ring to it if you will.
(59:41):
All right, everyone, I'm going to let you go have a great night.
Have a very safe and happy holidays.
And I look forward to chatting with all of you in the very future.
As I always say, please take care of yourselves and each other.
Good night, everyone.
(01:00:09):
This has been your episode of Grappling with Canada.
This episode was written, researched, produced and recorded by me, Andy the tax man.
You can find Grappling with Canada on all major podcasting platforms.
Please make sure to rate and review five stars were available.
(01:00:31):
You can also find Grappling with Canada on all major social media platforms.
Just search Grappling with Canada on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.
If you are willing and able to financially support Grappling with Canada, you can find
links to PayPal and BuyMeACoffee.com on the Linktree link in today's show notes.
(01:00:55):
You can also find links to the Grappling with Canada merchandise store in the show notes
for today's episode.
If you enjoyed today's episode, please share it with your friends and family.
This is Andy the tax man saying thank you very much for supporting and listening to
this program.
Take care of yourselves and each other.
3, 2, 1, go!
(00:29):
Hello folks and we're back!
Welcome to a brand new episode of Grappling with Canada.
I'm your host as usual Andy the Taxman.
This is our season 3 finale.
(00:50):
Now if you're as surprised as I am that I'm actually putting out an episode, well we're
in the same boat if you will.
Now this episode was originally broadcast on our YouTube page on December 8th, 2023.
It was a livestream event to kind of give a State of the Union address if you will as
(01:11):
to the state of the podcast.
As we've been very limited in the amount of episodes produced this year, we only did
4 to be exact.
There's been some questions, there's been some speculations about the future of the
program and there's been some suppositions made so I wanted to clear a lot of that up
(01:34):
as we move forward into what I will hope to be a very fruitful and very informative season
4 of Grappling with Canada.
Before we get started you can find Grappling with Canada on this podcasting platform that
you are listening on right now.
It's also available on Google Podcasts, although I hear that that one's going away, Apple Music,
(02:01):
Spotify, you guys know the deal.
Wherever you buy, sell, trade, barter or steal your favourite podcasts you can find Grappling
with Canada.
The live show that you will hear in just a few minutes was broadcast on the YouTube portion
of the Grappling with Canada empire if you will.
So if you can go to youtube.com or at Grappling with Canada to even make it simpler, you can
(02:28):
simply look in the show notes of today's episode.
There's going to be a direct link to our YouTube page.
I hope that you will give that a click and hit that subscribe button where dragging our
carcasses to a thousand subscribers, it would help the program immensely.
If you would take that quick moment, even if you listen to this program specifically
(02:49):
on the podcast feeds, whether it's on RSS or whatever, it would greatly help me as we
kind of move things along on the Grappling with Canada empire if you will.
Just want to say a quick big thank you to everybody who's been checking out the program
(03:09):
over the last three seasons.
It's not going to notice and you're going to hear a lot about that later on in the actual
program today.
So without further ado, I present to you the live stream edition, the first ever I might
say live stream edition of Grappling with Canada that was broadcast once again, December
(03:30):
8th, 2023.
I hope you enjoy and I hope that you will look forward to what we have in store coming
in 2024.
Thank you so much for being here tonight.
You could have been anywhere else in the world, but you've settled in with me for the long
run and we're going to have some fun today.
(03:53):
I really hope you enjoy.
Thank you.
(04:16):
Hello everybody and welcome to the special holiday edition live stream of the Grappling
with Canada podcast.
As usual, although it's been far too long, I'm your host Andy Dulevich, the tax man.
Now this is the first live stream that I've ever done for Grappling with Canada.
So this is going to be an interesting experience, but the funnest thing I guess for you guys
(04:40):
will be to see how much I actually edit these programs before I put them out.
So it'll be quite the experience tonight.
Tonight's going to be a lot of fun for myself personally.
We have a few questions that have been asked about the program, about myself over the last
year of some sort of inactivity.
(05:03):
Unfortunately, I'm going to get to that a little bit later.
I'm mostly going to be talking about things that are upcoming with the program and things
that happened in this last season, which kind of led into why there was a little bit of
a delayed or truncated season if you will.
But before we get into all that, first off, I want to say, oh, and I see a wrestling with
(05:27):
the eighties.
Hello, brother.
Great to see you as well.
Thank you for joining me tonight.
Before we get into anything, I need to say a big thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you to everybody who has been checking out the program for the last three seasons.
It's been quite the experience for myself personally.
And it's just been a wild ride, we'll say that it was it's been a lot more than I ever
(05:55):
thought it would be.
And a lot of that I owe to the listeners and some viewers tonight of this program.
I will also say that if you are not able to watch this program live with us right now,
this will be broadcast later.
It will also be going up as an audio version on the podcast feed.
(06:17):
So if you miss it tonight, don't panic, you're going to be able to get your fix of the grapple
with Canada end of season live show.
I also have to apologize if I get breaking out to a coughing fit.
At some points tonight, I'm getting over a little something that my wonderful children
have blessed me with this holiday season.
So hopefully it doesn't cause any headaches, although I am dealing with one right now.
(06:42):
You just can't see because I got the tremendous headphones on.
But anyways, once again, a big thank you to everybody who's been checking out the program,
the growth of the program over the last three years, regardless of how much output I've
had over the last season specifically has been tremendous.
I'm getting into that a little bit later.
As usual, you can find grappling with Canada on all the major podcasting platforms, whether
(07:05):
that's Spotify, iTunes or Apple podcasts, whatever they call it nowadays, Google podcasts,
a little that's going away.
Basically wherever you buy sell trade barter or steal your favorite podcasts, you can find
grapple with Canada as well as right here on the YouTube page, which is which is a great
time to say like and subscribe to the YouTube page.
(07:28):
We are slowly inching crawling whatever our way to 1000 subscribers and it would mean
a lot to me if while you're watching the video tonight, if you're watching it on a later
stream that you hit that like button, but also that you hit that subscribe button as
well.
It would mean the world to me as we kind of move forward in the grand scheme of things.
(07:52):
Also if you're joining me tonight, feel free to join me in a beverage if you will.
I'm sure we'll go through several of these tonight as we have fun with the season wrapup
of season three.
Speaking of the seasons, I should quickly mention because there are people who have
listened to only certain episodes of season three.
(08:14):
They're not really familiar with any of the back catalog, which now was a great idea.
Not a great time, I should say to kind of give a rundown of what we've done previously.
So season one for those who are unfamiliar, as I take a refreshing drink of my beverage
season one, we had 12 episodes.
They were all dedicated to wrestler showcases.
(08:37):
So in season one, we had episodes starting with Stu Hart and Stampede Wrestling.
We had Dino Bravo.
We had Rona Singh.
We had, oh my goodness, more than Abdul the butcher.
There was Archie the Goldie, Archie the Stomper Goldie, I should say.
(08:59):
Pat Patterson, the list goes on and on.
So season one was strictly focused on the wrestlers itself.
Season two had a different bit of a focus in that I had 14 episodes that season.
Nine were on wrestlers.
It was a bit of a truncated season for those who are unfamiliar.
I ran for city council here in Winnipeg, so it led to a shorter season than I would have
(09:24):
wanted, but those are the breaks, if you will.
Episodes in that season included a tremendous two parter on Rowdy Roddy Piper.
There was episodes on George Gordienko on the Tolless Brothers, which I personally really
got a lot out of.
And Angelo Mosca, I think was a great episode on that season.
(09:44):
There was also a few specials that ended that year as well on some projects that are in
and around Canadian professional wrestling.
So one of the guests, for example, that we had was Vance Novato with his book, Uncontrolled
Chaos that came out this year, just like literally a Bible of if you've ever seen this thing,
it's it's it's tick as they say very tick.
(10:07):
But it's essentially a Bible of Canadian professional wrestling history, stats, match listings,
you name it.
It's on there.
Yes, Wrestling with the 80s.
It is a tremendous book and Vance has boy, oh boy, he outkicked his coverage on that
one.
I think I don't know how he's going to top it.
I I have a little bit of an idea what he has coming up in the future.
(10:30):
But man, oh man, that guy just just puts out amazing work.
So it was great to see that.
Great to get our physical hands on that one.
Shoot, that was upstairs.
It's not in my wrestling collection.
Right behind me, I've got a big collection of books, if you can see.
There's some there anyways, but that one is upstairs.
(10:53):
So I'll have to get that later.
Yes, BC, but I didn't want to.
I didn't want I figured we were going to KFave you a little bit there, BC.
So by the way, while you're on here and you can see in the chat, Wrestling with 80s, go
ahead and check out that channel.
If you're a fan of wrestling from the 80s, as the as the name of the title says, BC does
(11:14):
a tremendous job of like going through.
He has he has video snippets.
Yes, just I can't put into words what what he does.
What he does in terms of production for that program that he does is is mind boggling and
he managed to slide me in there in one episode, which is absolutely tremendous.
(11:35):
I saw that you just had one come out on the Intercontinental Championship reigns, by the
way, I got to check that one out.
I haven't done that yet.
Okay, so getting back to season two.
So season two.
Yeah, like I said, nine episodes were on wrestlers.
We had a bunch of special episodes of his truncated because because of the city council
run now season three.
(11:58):
Big time step back.
I only had four episodes of season three and that was the bruiser Bob sweet and one more
on that in a second.
The great Antonio we had.
Oh, I got to think what what I had for episodes.
Oh yeah, Dave McKinney, the bear man and also the Lewisport incident where obviously the
(12:19):
big name killed in that episode or that incident was Adrian Adonis.
So why four episodes this last season?
There's been a few questions and I'm going to get to some listener questions a little
bit later on in the program.
By the way, if you're watching this live right now with me, if you want to drop a question
in the chat, I'll make sure that I get to it in the episode tonight.
(12:42):
So season four, why was it so short?
Well, number one was the subject matter on some of them.
This is more specifically talking about the Bob sweet tan episode.
Now that one had some interesting reactions will say many people were were quite positive
(13:03):
about the approach that I took on the episode, which was to present the facts as as as they
were laid out, right?
I didn't put a lot of personal opinion on it.
I didn't use a lot of conjecture.
Actually, I don't think I use any conjecture at all.
I didn't use any rumors.
No innuendo.
I just went with the facts, including the actual court ruling against him in Texas when
(13:31):
he was found guilty of, you know, deal or assaulting his child, we'll just say to put
it that way.
So I was I was happy with the episode.
It took a long time to produce because I had to find ways to talk about the subject matter
(13:51):
without interjecting my own personal opinions on it, which I I have a hard time doing sometimes.
I'm quite opinionated if anybody hasn't realized that at this point, but I tried very hard
to make sure that that episode was presented factually correctly.
First of all, factually correctly, because I felt like that really needed to be said.
(14:13):
And second of all, I wanted to make sure that it was presented in a context that gave the
fulsome story, right?
You can't talk about Bruiser Bob Sweeten, the perpetrator, we'll say without talking
about Bruiser Bob Sweeten and what a main name he was, especially in Southwestern wrestling,
(14:36):
right?
He was a big, big time star, a massive heel.
He was over like you can't deny it, right?
It's the same thing as as the Chris Benoit comparison.
And you know what, I had a few people email me about, oh, you know, you covered Sweeten,
would you cover Benoit more on that in a second?
(14:59):
Or people trying to make the false equivalency that, you know, oh, you can't you can't talk
about Sweeten just because of whatever we still talk about Benoit and he, you know,
killed his family kind of thing, which to me, that's that's a false equivalency.
I don't see that that that you can compare the two.
I mean, what they both did equally are horrible.
(15:21):
What is on a bigger scale, in my opinion.
So in terms of what I ever cover, I should just get this out of the way.
Would I ever cover Chris Benoit?
I don't know.
And you know, that's one that people have I've been getting emails over the years about
if I would cover it or not.
(15:43):
I don't know, to be honest.
That would depend on the direction of the episode, or the direction that I wanted the
episode to take, I guess is a better way to discuss it.
There's a tremendous there's one book that I'm aware of that has actually been written
(16:08):
properly.
And I believe Greg Oliver had something to do with it.
If he wasn't the principal writer, then he was one of the main individuals involved in
it.
And I can't remember the name of it off the top of my head right now.
But anyways, if I was going to do a Benoit episode, it would probably follow something
similar to that layout of that book.
(16:29):
But again, that that one's a tough one, right?
I can't.
And a lot of people have said to me over the years like, Oh, why can't you just talk about
the wrestling and I've even heard that on other episodes I've done right.
I did the episode again in season four of the great Antonio, for example, I put a ton
(16:49):
of information, a ton of backstory, I had a guest on David Williams from fireside Canada,
whose speciality if you will, is is Canadian folklore and Canadian legends.
So he was on and he was talking about, you know, the the French Canadian strongman and
(17:11):
how that really that strongman persona really played into the gravitas that great Antonio
had in Montreal.
In my opinion, I couldn't tell the great Antonio story without exploring why that strong
man mentality or that strong man spirit was so vibrant and so alive in Montreal.
(17:33):
So I had David Williams in on that one.
And he did a fantastic job of really explaining a lot of that.
Case in point, I had people emailing, well, why'd you put all that in?
You know, the episode was, it was long ish, I guess, for not really long in terms of,
you know, some of the episodes I've done over the years.
And I felt that I couldn't tell that story without that aspect.
(17:59):
So that's kind of my thought process in going into something if I was going to cover Brent
Benoit, right?
I have to talk about I can't just talk about his wrestling.
I have to talk about the whole story.
So that's kind of why I'm lenient on on doing a Benoit episode.
I'm not saying never.
I'm just saying, you know, right now I got a lot of things on my plate that I think are
(18:21):
more important to deal with, if you will.
All right.
Now the other reason why season four was very limited was the amount of research that went
into the episodes.
So this is something that's been kind of a recurring issue over the seasons.
(18:42):
And this kind of lends itself to another to a question that's asked later in the program
that I'll get into on my trusty note sheet here.
But when I did this season specifically, there was a lot of research that went into, well,
the great Antonio one specifically took a ton of time, right?
(19:03):
You know, you're you're pouring through archival information.
You're I'm waiting for information from the Montreal Museum.
You know, there's back and forth between us.
They were tremendous, by the way, just things were slow moving.
Right.
Then it's cross cross referencing that information to what I had previous to what other people
(19:26):
have reported.
Then it's going through newspaper clippings and and trying to cross cross reference where
those fit into everything.
Then you factor in the Japanese angle.
All of this to say is that that one episode, I think it was almost two hours of runtime
probably took me three months to, you know, research, cross reference all the information,
(19:51):
find everything that I wanted to find.
You know, then then getting guests which the guests on that one were tremendous.
Again, David Williams and and however, always a great friend of the show was on that one
as well.
But it's and then it's figuring out how to present it.
So that episode alone probably took me three months just to just to get done, which is,
(20:13):
you know, that's a lot of time, right?
The bruiser Bob Sweet 10 episode, obviously, that one took a little bit longer.
But again, because there's a lot of fact checking that was done.
And I'm not saying that anything that Greg Oliver had who was my guest on that episode,
I'm not saying that anything that he had was wrong.
(20:33):
But I wanted to make sure that it was right.
And so that took a lot of time to again cross reference in the end.
And then, you know, I was able to find the the Texas his actual folder or not folder,
but is the actual dossier from from our legal dossier from Texas, which which explained
(20:54):
everything that he he did.
So that one took a little bit of time.
Then we had the Dave McKinney episode.
I had a great friend of the show West Maiment from the NWCA podcast more on them a little
bit later.
That one came together pretty quick, mostly because West is such a treasure trove of information
about Dave McKinney.
So that one was really, really simple to get through.
(21:17):
But the one following it, the Lewisport incident episode, that was a hard one to get through,
not so much for the research aspect.
I mean, there's not much to research, right?
I had the date, I had most information, most of which was wrong.
(21:40):
I'll get to that in a second.
But it was more about getting the firsthand accounts of the people who were there.
And that took some doing.
And how can I put this, that episode doesn't work without the individuals who were on
the episode as guests, the citizens who were living in Lewisport at the time who responded
(22:06):
to the crash.
I'm thinking of, well, the three that were on was Joanne, Dawn, and Raymond.
And there were other people who had reached out to me that originally wanted to join the
program.
And then they ended up deciding against it because it was, you know, the memories were
(22:30):
too raw.
And I totally understood that.
And you know, I was okay with it.
So there was a lot of treading lightly because I didn't want to offend anybody, first off,
because you know, it's their trauma.
(22:50):
It's not mine, and I wasn't there very clearly.
So I had to approach it in a certain way.
So I gave a lot of people a lot of leeway to, you know, I gave them a lot of time to,
you know, once they said they wanted to do it, okay, please make sure you actually want
to do it.
(23:11):
And so there was a lot of leeway.
So I took my time, took far longer than I probably normally would if I was trying to,
you know, coordinate an interview with somebody, but I felt like that was a prudent thing to
do.
What I ended up with was three heart wrenching interviews, to be honest with you.
And there was there was a boy, boy, there was a lot of stuff that I edited out of those
(23:35):
interviews.
They didn't alter the interview itself, but there was details that I that I left out because
I don't think that they would have added anything to the program.
And I think it would have been more distressing if I were to let them in.
You know, while I'm in the conversation with with the person who is talking about their
(23:58):
story, their experience, what happened to them and what they experienced during that
time, you know, I'm not going to tell them to stop.
And and oh, you know, I don't I don't think we should go into that.
It was very much a free flowing idea of, OK, what did you see?
What do you want to tell?
(24:20):
And a lot of those conversations to specifically went almost an hour.
And then, you know, I edited them down for posterity sake for the program.
But there was a lot of heavy, heavy, heavy matter that was left out.
But if while what was in the episode was very distressing to hear, there were a lot of things
(24:46):
that I had left out of it, which I didn't think added anything, but I also didn't think
that having those taking over the program would take away the effect that the interviews
would have on on the listener.
So that's why I kind of made the decision that I made.
Now it is interesting that that is one of the episodes that I've had the most positive
(25:10):
feedback on out of almost every episode that I've done through all three seasons of Grappler
with Canada.
One because of how I approach the episode, two because I actually let the people talk
and they've never had a chance to do that before.
And one of the one of the most flattering compliments I got was actually from Adrian
(25:33):
Adonis' daughter who reached out to me and she was blown away by the episode.
She actually was conversing with me, you know, after the episode to get the individuals information
who were on the episode, I forwarded to them and actually she's going to be meeting with
them in the future, I believe, which is like what a cool story.
(25:59):
You know, the daughter of someone who passed tragically, who's been, you know, without
this information for 35 years, you know, kind of has a little bit of kind of has a little
bit of closure and is now able to connect with the individuals who helped her dad.
Like to me, that's you know, my God, what do you say about that?
(26:23):
So I was, you know, beyond humbled to just be a conduit for that.
And I'm looking forward to hearing any stories that those individuals have when they end
up meeting up because, wow, what a thing and all because of a podcast.
(26:46):
That's wild.
And you know what, maybe I should get into that as well.
You know, this this trip through hysteria that I've been on, you know, three seasons.
What are we at 1214?
That's what 2630 3030 episodes essentially.
(27:09):
And you know, it's the podcast has been heard in like over 170 countries worldwide.
I think we're at some like 50,000, you know, listens, downloads, whatever you want to say.
And then, you know, I also have to take a break and also mention a great friend of the
show, Thomas Bryce from sportswire radio, because we're also heard on, you know, an
(27:31):
international radio station, which is crazy to me.
Like, you know, this, again, this this guy from Winnipeg, who, you know, podcasts out
of a closet, which, you know, you can see right behind me, you know, is able to have
this this amount of reach.
And you know, that's not counting, you know, YouTube and and whatever it's, you know, terrestrial
(28:00):
internet radio, like it's wild to me.
And I'm just I'm blown away by the whole experience.
Yeah, I'm almost speechless by it.
Well, we'll just say that that really gets me excited for season four, which I'm going
to get to a little bit later.
I also want to make mention that I had a couple of guests appearances over the last couple
(28:21):
of seasons.
So one I should mention, and he's in the chat right now, BC, from wrestling with the truth,
he had me on a couple of times.
We we had some interesting discussions.
One one of my favorite ones was regarding the state of current professional wrestling.
(28:42):
It was very interesting conversation.
I was able to have a guest spot on a great friend of the show, Jacob's show, the Sunday
Net Army.
He did an episode actually on podcasters and their taste in music, if you will.
And that was a great episode.
I said it ended up sending in an audio clip to that one and he and he was gracious enough
(29:05):
to put that on the program.
And that was a lot of fun.
I was also on a program of the National Wrestling Clippings Alliance podcast.
That one is hosted by Wes and Jess, who were actually guests on my program in season two.
They were on the Whippa Billy Watson episode as well as Wes was on the episode in season
(29:27):
four or so.
Sorry, I'm getting ahead of myself.
Season three, the Dave McKinney episode.
I joined Wes on we actually ran down a card from Winnipeg from the 80s.
And that was a ton of fun.
I think we ended up we were supposed to go an hour.
I think we went like two and a half.
My kids were jumping in.
My cat showed up.
Yeah, it was.
(29:48):
It was a good time.
But you know, again, it's it's crazy that, you know, it's via this podcast, I have a
chance now to interact and talk to, you know, other podcasters I've I've talked to authors
all the time, other historians all the time, I'm getting mail all the time.
And it's just what a wild ride.
(30:09):
What a crazy experience this has all been.
And it's very, very, very rewarding and well worth it.
In my opinion, I see in the chat here, BC, Ben was a tough topic, but I have the confidence
well, you know, I think I would handle it the right way.
Yeah.
And no matter what topic you do have trolls, sadly.
(30:31):
Yeah.
And you know what?
I'm sure that you see it on your channel as well.
Right.
You're you're going to get trolled.
It doesn't matter.
You can put the most positive story out there and in some yay, who's going to jump on there
to be an a hole and you kind of just have to roll with it.
And he also says no holds barred our conversation about current professional wrestling.
Yes, it was no holds barred.
(30:51):
And you know, it's funny.
I don't swear on on the Grafler with Canada programs, not not because well, because I
don't they need to be kind of like family friendly or whatever.
But Jesus, you get me off the program or you get me on a tangent about something I'm real
passionate about.
What can I say?
Things happen and expletives fly, unfortunately.
(31:13):
So sorry about that, BC.
But you know, we had a we had a fun time anyways on that episode.
All right.
Now, I suppose this is a good point as any to to list off some listener questions that
I've gotten over the past few months.
(31:33):
So because we've been dormant, you know, a lot a lot of the questions have been like,
you know, what's going on with the program, you know, basic stuff, right, which is, you
know, something that I explained already earlier in the program tonight.
So I'm not going to get into that.
But I do have what one, two, three, four.
I have four good ones.
Well, I deem good ones, at least that I'm going to answer tonight.
(31:55):
And if there's any more and you guys want to leave them in the chat, go ahead.
And even if it's after the fact, if you want to email me, you can email me at any time.
Six side pod at gmail.com.
You can also leave a question in the video chat after this episode is done.
If you want something asked, I'm happy to answer it.
Or you can hit me on any of the social media platforms, whether that's Google, not Google,
(32:20):
I should say, Facebook, on Twitter or X or whatever they call it more on that one in
a second.
Actually, I got to talk about that for a second.
Instagram threads I'm on there, though I'm not very active.
Essentially any any social media site, if you got a question, I'm happy to answer and
I'm happy to help out with research as well.
(32:43):
I've been contacted a few times in the last the last few months about, you know, individuals
that I've covered in the past that people have been looking for more information on
or are trying to clarify something for a program that they're working on, which I think is
very cool.
So I've been able to help out a little bit that way, which has been again, it's pretty
rewarding.
(33:04):
Twitter.
Yeah, we're going to get into that one, actually.
I'm going to start with this one.
This one comes from Des Latham, who, by the way, if you're interested at all in in World
War Two, which I'm I'm a massive World War Two nerd, I guess is a good way to put it.
(33:24):
Des Latham had an incredible podcast series on the Battle of Stalingrad.
I think he went like, it was like 30 episodes, I think this is a few years ago.
And it's like mind blowingly good, like really well narrated, really well researched.
It was just a fantastic series.
(33:45):
And he's got other stuff.
He's from South South America.
So are so he's from South Africa, I should say.
And he's got some interesting takes on some world events.
So anyways, if you're if you're a fan of World War Two, check out Battle of Stalingrad by
Des Latham, I highly encourage that one.
(34:05):
So he had asked for a first time listener, which episode would you recommend to listen
to first?
Well, that's an interesting question, because I'm kind of jaded a little bit.
And it kind of depends on on the listener to write.
Some people are very interested in the dark side of things, right?
(34:25):
Obviously, we saw a huge influx in that specific genre, thanks to the dark side of the ring,
for example, or, you know, that the territory show or some of the 80 biographies people
seem to be drawn in wrestling to the, you know, the darker aspects of it.
A lot of my episodes really haven't dealt with that so much.
(34:49):
Obviously, the bruiser Bob sweet 10 one is is the darkest episode I have.
There's no two ways about that.
I guess another one would be the chief Don eagle episode.
Obviously, his his murder is is one that you know, to this day, it's it's an unsolved murder,
(35:10):
right?
So there's that as well.
Dino Bravo, the end of that one.
Oh, and by the way, I should say, I have to also give a shout out to Oh, shoot, which
is it now?
You know what, I'm going to pull that up in a second.
I'll talk about the Dino episode, the Dino Bravo episode in a second, but there was an
there was an episode of the this is compelling audio I know when you know you're looking
(35:38):
at somebody trying to find something real quick on their computer.
I can't find out.
Oh, the gangsters podcast.
So they actually had done an episode on Dino Bravo.
They use some of my information for that one on their program.
(35:59):
We're going to be collaborating in the future on a on another Canadian crime story involving
professional wrestling that might be in a few months if we can get our schedules together.
So I was happy to help out with their program.
(36:19):
So again, you know, a lot of my programs aren't really of the dark variety, but those are
three examples of something where if you're if that's your kind of thing, then those episodes
are kind of up your alley.
In my opinion, a great episode if you've never listened to anything, you know, professional
wrestling related or Canadian history related or anything like that.
(36:41):
You know, a good start is probably an episode like the Rhonda Singh one, in my opinion,
somebody who, you know, a little bit less known, but like, what a tremendous story.
And you know, obviously, the end of her life was was, you know, really, really cut short.
Way, way, way, way, way too.
She passed away way, way, way too young.
But you know, someone who you know, what a mediocre rise somebody who legitimately went
(37:05):
from watching wrestling in Calgary to performing at the highest levels in Japan within a span
of like five years.
It's really awe inspiring, you know, and her run as the Monster Ripper, you know, in Japan
and in WWC Puerto Rico, you know, it's really, really inspiring.
So I would tend to lean to something towards that, as well as the Billy Two Rivers episode.
(37:32):
And that's simply for the fact that, you know, I was able to have a long, long conversation
with him.
And unfortunately, we lost him this past year back in February.
So you know, here's somebody who, you know, whose story was never really fully explored
before.
I was, you know, really lucky to be able to do interview him to let allow him to tell
(37:58):
his story.
And now it's preserved for history.
And you know, that's an episode where I'm I still get messages and emails from, you
know, great, great grandchildren, or long lost relatives, that, you know, they're just
on Google looking for information about him, they find the YouTube video, right, they find
(38:22):
the podcast and, and you know, they're learning about him that way.
So that's, that's one where it's like that, that's the whole point of doing this, right?
Just what a story.
So anyways, that that might be a good one.
If it was your first time ever listening, you know, Rhonda Singh or or Billie two rivers,
(38:43):
those are probably probably the top two that I would recommend.
If this is your first time listening to the program.
James had asked, why are you?
Why are you no longer active on Twitter?
Well, ex Twitter, whatever they call it now.
You know what, I used to be really active on that I have, I still have, I think a fairly
(39:06):
good following on there.
But ever since Elon bought that thing and went crazy, like I get no, no use out of Twitter
at all.
Outside of you know, 800 notifications a day.
There's just there's no value for me in Twitter anymore.
(39:28):
You know, I used to put out a tweet and it would, you know, get a few, few thousand,
you know, responses or view not responses, but interactions or whatever they call it.
Right.
Now I put something out against like 11.
I'm like, ah, forget it.
There's just no value in that.
For me personally, I'm most active in the Canadian professional wrestling history Facebook
(39:49):
group.
Just because I see a lot of value to that.
Not not for my program at all, to be honest, but because there's so much other cool stuff
that happens in there.
So that's where I'm most active.
But yeah, Twitter used to be used to be excellent.
And it's not just me right there.
It seems like Twitter just like killed all interactions for podcasters.
(40:12):
This like ever since Elon took it over and it just it's wild to me.
So it used to be super good.
The wrestling community fickle as they are used to be really good on Twitter.
The podcasting community on Twitter used to be excellent.
Everybody was, you know, helping everybody out.
There was a lot of tips.
There was a lot of information.
And ever since Elon bought it, it's like he just gutted gutted the podcast side of it.
(40:36):
You just it the interaction is not there.
So I have no real value.
I still have it.
It's there.
You can contact me on it, but I don't really see any value in using Twitter as a as a means
to further the podcast.
So that's the answer for that one.
(40:57):
Indy had asked what is happening with the website?
Funny you should ask.
So I have not had a I've had kind of a chincy free website that I use for a few years.
I think it's still active, but you know, it's it's not anything.
It's not good.
You know, there's no two ways about it.
(41:18):
But the reality is, you know, the the podcast doesn't really generate money, right?
So I can't really I already pay for publishing for the podcast.
I have to pay for equipment for the podcast.
You know, I have to pay for, you know, my all my research materials.
You know, there's I have newspaper subscriptions.
(41:39):
I have books I have to buy.
I have all this stuff.
You know, I have a lot of expenses that go into the podcast.
I don't really think that while the while the website would be nice as a hosting ground,
it's not really in a budget for me right now.
You know, maybe maybe that changes in the future.
It would be great.
(41:59):
You know, if the podcast, you know, generated a little bit more than it did, then maybe
I could look at a website.
I'm very grateful to have my sponsorship with Manscape, at least that, you know, kind
of helps pay for publishing and some of the offset some of my costs.
But the reality is, you know, you factor in publishing, you factor in research, you factor
(42:22):
in all these subscriptions and you try and factor in a yearly cost for website.
It's not it's just not feasible right now.
Would I love to do it?
Yes, for sure.
Is it a must?
I don't know.
It probably is, but I can't I can't I can't see the cost benefit value right now.
(42:42):
So maybe in the future, but not right now.
But thanks for that question, Cindy.
Steve asks, would you ever consider shorter episodes?
So this will play into my teaser about season four a little bit, but I want to expand on,
you know, this question about, you know, how to shorten up episodes or change length of
(43:03):
episodes.
So there's been a few people over the years, like Steve's not the only one.
There's been a few people who have asked, you know, Oh, God, you know, I love I love
the episodes, but like some of them are like three hours long and in order three hours.
And you know, I hate pausing something and then picking it up later, which I get to a
point, you know, is there a way you could break it up?
(43:25):
But I don't see how I could do that.
Because how do you how do you break up an interview in progress in an episode without
losing your spot?
Or you're you're trained of thought or your or your what's the word I'm looking for?
(43:47):
Or you're being in the moment of that episode of that interview.
How do you how do you get that back when you've stepped out of it?
Because it's taken an episode break, right?
And then, you know, join us next week for our, you know, continuing interview in progress.
To me, it I don't think that it would add anything.
I think you would actually lose quite a bit of the program in terms of listenability in
(44:12):
terms of engagement and not engagement in terms of like, you know, Twitter, Facebook,
whatever social media.
I'm talking about engagement, you listening and enjoying the program.
I feel like you would lose that if you know, there was just all of a sudden a break in
the in the middle of an interview and is all tuning next week for this.
(44:32):
Well, would you come back?
I don't know.
Maybe if you're really interested, but I feel like, you know, why why even why even set
up that roadblock if I don't have to, you know what I mean?
So that's kind of the way that I look at that.
Now, shorter episodes is something that we may be diving into in season four, and I will
(44:55):
give a bit of a teaser for season four in just a minute.
But I do see a question in the chat.
So I'm going to get to this one right here.
BC asks, which episode did you finally feel like you hit your comfort zone and felt the
podcast was delivering what you originally intended it to be?
Boy, that's a that's a fantastic question.
(45:19):
Oh, man.
What episode did I don't think I've ever felt like I've been like that I've hit a comfort
zone yet, to be honest with you.
Yeah, I.
It's weird, right?
(45:40):
I can do the research, I can do the interviews, I can put the program together.
But I'm never comfortable with with the episode until it's out almost right.
Like I.
I never.
Yeah, I just never feel I never feel like I've done enough in an episode, if that makes
(46:02):
any sense.
Right.
I always feel like, oh, I could have I could have put that one more detail in or I could
have put more focus on this or I could have I could have I could have I could have I always
have that feeling until the episodes out.
And part of that is an editing issue, editing myself, certainly.
(46:23):
But you know, in terms of.
Yeah, comfortable.
I never I've never felt comfortable just, you know, sitting in the chair and just going.
That's not really my style on this.
And I think that has to do a lot more of just, you know, my personal Picadillo of making
sure that, you know, the information is correct, that I'm presenting it properly, that I'm
(46:43):
not, you know, accentuating the wrong things, et cetera, et cetera.
But the other part of the question, you know.
When I felt like the podcast was delivering what it originally intended to be, probably
the tail end of season one.
(47:03):
You know, there's a lot of season one was kind of me finding my feet a little bit, not
in terms of like, you know, I'm an amateur.
I don't know what I'm doing.
I had previous podcasting experience before Grappler with Canada.
I did.
Although it wasn't in my opinion, it wasn't that great.
But I did some, you know, impact wrestling stuff like back in in 2018 or whatever.
(47:27):
But so I didn't approach Grappler with Canada as any kind of amateur or anything like that.
But I really felt like by maybe the Abdul the butcher episode of season one, I felt
like I started to get a really good mix of, you know, the archival audio with the guests,
(47:49):
with the direction of the program, with I felt the proper amount of wrestling history
of the individual combined with the personal history of the individual.
I think that that's probably the Abdul the butcher episode.
Maybe the run to sing one I can't remember which one came first.
(48:10):
Also, and that's horrible, because I should I've only put out 30 of these, I should know
which order they ran.
But I would say probably one of those two episodes where, where I really felt like I
hit a stride and okay, this is this is what I want it to be.
And then I moved forward from there.
Now obviously, the ones that kind of are the outliers are, you know, those special episodes
(48:34):
that I had in season two, where I was interviewing authors and, you know, some website curators
and all that kind of thing.
Those were a little bit different, a little bit more free flowing.
And I didn't really have to.
I don't want to say put the effort in.
That's not a fair way to say it, but I didn't have to put in the amount of research that,
you know, one of the long form episodes would take.
(48:55):
So those were a bit different.
But yeah, I would say this is a very, very, very long winded response to the original
question, which, yeah, probably the Abdul the butcher episode of the Ronda Singh episode.
That's what I felt like, okay, here's, here's what I want it to be.
And you know, kind of build on that moving forward in the future.
(49:18):
Now speaking of the future, I don't want to keep you guys all night.
It is a Friday night.
I'm sure some of you have lives.
I have kids, so I don't really have a wife.
And I'm dying as you can see.
My goodness, you ought to love when your kids bring home special presents from from school
(49:40):
for you.
But season four, what the hell's happening with season four?
There will be a season four.
I will say that right off the bat.
I have an interview that's been in the can for the last like three months that I just
haven't had a chance to edit, put it together, whatever.
So that will come out on January 1st.
(50:00):
I promise.
Finally, I'm going to make a deadline on January 1st.
There will be a new episode of Grappler with Canada, which will be timely because there's
a certain Hall of Fame that will be inducting members.
I think in the what would that be late March, early April range, this this vaunted Hall
of Fame, a non physical Hall of Fame, but a Hall of Fame nonetheless.
(50:25):
And an individual who who really should be in that Hall of Fame.
And this episode is essentially an argument of why this individual must be included in
the Hall of Fame.
And you know, with the change in ownership of this company with this Hall of Fame ceremony,
(50:47):
it's going to be coming up in the future, we'll see if this person gets inducted in
the posthumous category because they should have been in there a long, long time, long
time coming.
And I'm hoping that, you know, a few months out, I'm not saying that this program is going
(51:07):
to change the world or anything, but you know, it might be one more arrow in the set of quivers
that helps propel this individual into that Hall of Fame.
So January 1, look forward to that one.
There's another interview that I am owed to somebody.
I'm hoping to have that one for February.
(51:28):
I'm hoping that that he's still able to do that episode.
I'd hate for it to go.
I hate for a story to not be told.
Right.
And I'm going to digress just for a second.
I'll get back to the rest of the season four in a second.
But you know, it's one thing to go through, you know, someone who's passed on, you know,
(51:50):
like a, like a Jack Taylor or, you know, like a Rhonda Singh or, or like a chief Don Eagle
and you know, reconstitute their past, put it into a cohesive story, tell the truth,
most important and lay out what they meant in professional wrestling.
It's one thing to do that.
(52:11):
It's a completely other thing to have the person tell their story.
Case in point, the Billie To Rivers episode, right?
I want to make a concerted effort moving forward to be more of an outlet for past wrestlers
to be able to tell their story.
(52:33):
Because the reality is if, if they don't tell it, someone's going to tell it for them.
And that somebody might not have their best interests in mind, or they might only be telling
a certain part of that story.
So it's almost imperative that we start trying to save these things.
(52:55):
Because again, you know, when these individuals, these men and women pass on, it's gone.
Right.
And unless somebody's done their due diligence and, you know, either talk to them personally
or you know, done a real good job.
Jamie Greer, I should say, somebody who's doing a tremendous job, documented in the
(53:16):
history of Windsor Wrestling, Windsor, Ontario.
You know, he's, he's had, I don't know what he said, a few thousand interviews for his
book.
And one of the people is somebody who that, you know, I had inquired about, Hey, I should
get this person on the program.
(53:37):
Well, now they're in hospice and I don't, I don't even know if they're alive anymore.
You know, and that person's story now, thank God Jamie has it.
And I hope that he's able to expand on it.
You know, maybe I do something with him later, but you know, if he didn't get it, nobody
would have had it would have had that person's story.
(53:58):
So that all being said, I want to make a concerted effort moving forward, you know, in season
four, if there are individuals out there that are listening to this and you have a story
to tell or you have, you know, your, your father, your mother was the, was the former
(54:22):
professional wrestler, your grandfather, your grandmother, whatever.
And they have a story to tell to me.
That's kind of what this program almost needs to be.
Right.
It's great to do the biographical backwork on people, but man, if, if we could get these
stories from the person while they're still here, like that's, that's the way to go in
(54:48):
my opinion.
So season four, I want to make a concerted effort of that.
Again, I owe somebody an episode.
I'm going to be doing that one providing he's still in.
I've got to touch base with him.
Also in season four, there's going to be some, we'll say mini series, two mini series I'm
planning.
(55:10):
One is strictly based on an email I got inquired if I knew any information about a wrestler
and their murder and that murder having something to do with a murder for hire plot involving
the, an RCMP big brother sting.
(55:35):
It sounds confusing, but you know, it took me down a whole, whole host of rabbit holes.
So I'm looking forward to presenting to that one.
That's you know, I, that's an episode where it makes sense to do it in like a, I don't
even know what it's going to end up being.
Maybe a four part series.
(55:56):
That would make sense to make it episodic and do it.
It was a small series on it.
Another one I'm working very closely with a few individuals about the roots of professional
wrestling will say free Canada in the nation that we now call Canada.
(56:20):
I'm just going to leave that teaser out there.
If you figured out, you know, shoot me a message.
Let me know if you've, if you figured it out.
But I think those, those two mini series and then, and then if I can get some more live
interviews, I think that that's, that's the way to go moving forward in season four.
(56:42):
There are a few biographicals episodes that I've been working on, some of which have been
on the back burner for like two years.
I'm thinking about Don Jardine.
BC will know exactly what I'm talking about on that one.
I'm still looking forward to, I'm still looking at getting that one done.
Again, it's just, you know, there's, there's a lot on my plate, if you will.
(57:04):
How many episodes season four will end up being more than four, probably not more than
14.
So there's your range.
So that's kind of what I'm looking forward to doing in the future.
If anybody else has anything in the chat, they want to leave, go ahead and leave that.
(57:26):
But I'm going to start wrapping this thing up first off by saying thank you, the viewer
and the listener.
Without your support, there's no way I could do this thing.
And there quite frankly, be no point to do this thing.
You know, if you guys and gals weren't listening, weren't passing it along, weren't talking
about it, weren't engaging with it, weren't sharing your story, then this would be a fruitless
(57:50):
endeavor, which it has not been.
And that once again is all thanks to you.
So my personal utmost thanks to you, the viewer, thanks to you, the listener for tuning into
Grappling with Canada.
If you haven't yet, you can subscribe to the YouTube channel on this YouTube link.
(58:10):
If you listen to this on any of the major podcasting platforms, do me a favor and hit
the follow button on that platform.
Don't ask me why it's something about algorithmic bumbo jumbo jargon, but it helps the program
immensely.
Also, if you want to leave a five star written review, that would be very much appreciated
(58:32):
as well.
You can also find Grappling with Canada on Facebook.
There's a Facebook group, Canadian professional wrestling history is where you find that.
It's not specifically related to this podcast, but there is a whole ton of cool stuff that
is on there constantly posted.
Like I said earlier, Jamie Rear, who's been doing some tremendous stuff with the history
(58:59):
of wrestling and Windsor has been adding my God, just tons of stuff.
So that's been great.
Come check out our Facebook group there.
You can also like the Grappling with Canada Facebook page and you can find us on all other
social media platforms.
Simply search for Grappling with Canada.
(59:20):
So for myself, the tax man, once again, thank you everybody for a very successful seasons
one, two and three.
And I'm very much looking forward to seeing all of you in season four, season four.
It's got a nice, a nice ring to it if you will.
(59:41):
All right, everyone, I'm going to let you go have a great night.
Have a very safe and happy holidays.
And I look forward to chatting with all of you in the very future.
As I always say, please take care of yourselves and each other.
Good night, everyone.
(01:00:09):
This has been your episode of Grappling with Canada.
This episode was written, researched, produced and recorded by me, Andy the tax man.
You can find Grappling with Canada on all major podcasting platforms.
Please make sure to rate and review five stars were available.
(01:00:31):
You can also find Grappling with Canada on all major social media platforms.
Just search Grappling with Canada on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.
If you are willing and able to financially support Grappling with Canada, you can find
links to PayPal and BuyMeACoffee.com on the Linktree link in today's show notes.
(01:00:55):
You can also find links to the Grappling with Canada merchandise store in the show notes
for today's episode.
If you enjoyed today's episode, please share it with your friends and family.
This is Andy the tax man saying thank you very much for supporting and listening to
this program.
Take care of yourselves and each other.
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