Episode 204: Chris from IVPVideos.com (Presented by Patreon.com/AnHonorablePod)

Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
This is an Honorable Mention with JeffSchwartz and Shane Haggedorn, part of the
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my special guest today here on thepod that I'll be throwing to our interview
here in a second. He isuh the CEO c OO of i VP

(03:31):
Videos. So we'll talk to Chrishere in a bit, but before we
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honorable mention. Well, let's diveinto it. I think he's worthy of

(06:08):
an honorable mention, probably presented byPatreon dot com. Backslash an Honorable Pod
and i VP videos dot com.Welcome to the show. Chris from IVP
Videos, Welcome and thank you forhaving me. It definitely has a pleasure
and an honor to be here.Oh hey, I see what you did
there? Yeah, you know it. These Honorable Journey episodes are always interesting

(06:33):
to me and I think to alot of our audience because everybody has a
different kind of pro wrestling origins story. You know, how they started watching
or why they started watching, andthere's all these like, if let's say
pro wrestling is the center of thespider Web, all the other additional webs

(06:56):
that shoot off are like different facetsof wrestling. You have the action figure
people and the video tape people.And I just wanted to be a wrestler
because I'm an athlete and football didn'twork out. People, you and I
both fall into the videotape segment ofthings. Let's talk about like tape trading

(07:20):
and how you got into that ingeneral, and some fun stories from the
tape trading days. Sure, definitely. It started pretty much as soon as
I got the Internet at home andat school too. I would be on
at lunch, I'd go to thelibrary and be checking out Yahoo auctions and

(07:41):
eBay auctions, And at first itwas just WW stuff. I wanted to
get all the Colosseum home video releases. And then as I over time discovered
chat rooms and then I'm like,oh, there's this tape trading chat room.
What's this about? And they're like, oh, you could send this
random person money order that you buyand then they'll send you a tape to

(08:01):
your home. So it's crazy tothink about nowadays, but just sixteen years
old giving some stranger my address andbe like, yeah, send me some
wrestling. Yeah. It's it's interestingtoo because the time frame for me,
I think I was probably thirteen orfourteen when I started tape trading, and

(08:30):
it was it was a process becauseinitially, when I started doing it,
I had talked to somebody from theold Wrestling Figures dot Com messageboard or Wrestling
Figs dot com. They had atape trading forum, and you know,
this guy wanted like Hasbro figures,and I had some old Hasbro figures that

(08:54):
I didn't play with anymore. Thejack specific I think, had come out
by that length, and so Iwas like, oh, yeah, here,
take these valuable you know, nowin twenty twenty two, take these
valuable figures and send me you know, no Mercy two thousand and god,
what else? You know, WCWHalloween having nineteen ninety one, Chamber of

(09:20):
Horrors, send me Great American Batchninety one, you know, send me
these in theory bad shows. Butthey were what I rented as a kid.
Now, I want to own them. And then you know, through
these message boards that I'm sure youwere a part of as well, you

(09:45):
learned how to set up two VCRsand have one play and the other records.
And I eventually bought a dual deckVCR from Go Video that I actually
still have in my garage. It'skind of a relic that I don't plan
to ever get rid of. Andyou know, you you compile VHS tapes

(10:11):
when you started tape trading, kindof what was your process like, were
you just looking at WWF and theColiseum home video or was that kind of
the beginnings of expanding your wrestling horizons. Yeah, there was a lot I
would definitely would be get, likethe PWI magazines, and that's why I

(10:35):
discovered ECW as it wasn't on TVhere in Baltimore, so I would read
about in the magazines. And thenI found some Yahoo auction where they were
like, I got barely illegal,like a couple of weeks after it happened,
and I was like, oh,sweet, paid for it, got
the tape in the mail. Iwas like, Oh, this is ECW.

(10:56):
That's insane. So I fell intothat a little bit and then eventually
did get the two VCRs. Inever I did eventually have the duld deck,
but just the two VCRs and stillliving at home with my little brother,
who would get mad because I'd belike, you can't watch TV right
now, I'm dubbing this tape.I gotta send it out tomorrow. Roll
My name and address will be listedon this message board as a bad trader

(11:18):
he can get. So, yeah, you did, you did? You
do? Like the go to thevideo store and like rent a bunch of
videotapes and then dub them and thentake them back occasionally, Yeah, and
not too much just because space andtime. Um, there was one video

(11:39):
store that had a good w Wcollection. I did get a few of
those, but the local ones nearme didn't really have a whole lot at
that time, unfortunately. That wasthat was kind of how I built up
my collection, was going and takingmy weekly allowance to go, you know,

(12:03):
rent seven or eight tapes over thecourse of a week. And you
know, uh, once I gotmy driver's license, like going to all
the local quote unquote video stores andgetting everything I you know, I could
find and creating a tape list.And there was a guy that I shared
a tape trading website with Ah,you know, and he and I have

(12:30):
kind of lost touch, but itwas interesting, like the tape trading culture.
I guess kind of talk a littlebit about that, Um what it
was like, I guess, youknow, around the timeframe that you had
started. Actually, I was justlooking. One of my original websites is
still out there from like nineteen ninetynine. It's wrestling videos dot free Servers

(12:54):
dot com. It's it's yes,last updated in two thousand and one.
It's pretty funny to look at nowtwenty years later. It's insane to think
about. But yeah, the culturewas a lot of you you'd make quick
friends, talk to him when it'sthe messenger, like there was all There

(13:15):
wasn't too many places you could findpeople that were insane enough to do this,
you know. So there was thechat rooms was where I mostly hung
out, then meeting them on aI AM, and then there was like
Network fifty four. This is abright yellow message board. It was so
hideous, but it worked and youwould find stuff there and eventually you'd find

(13:37):
stuff like compilations, and you're like, man, how did they spend the
time to do that? Because itwas just stop record, stop, record,
stop record, And eventually I foundthe ninety four J Cup because you
would hear about like a you wouldread Scott Keith at the time would talk
about it and you're like, oh, I gotta get that. It sounds

(13:58):
amazing. Then you pop it inand you're like, it's in Japanese.
This is insane. Wow? Doesthis even get here? You know?
Well? And it's interesting too becauseI feel like a lot of us that
are in that similar age range wherewe grew up on either WCW or WWF

(14:20):
or both. ECW is always thefirst like outlier that we find, and
depending on when you found it.I think some people found ECW and we're
like, all right, that's whatI want to see from wrestling, Like
I don't need anything else. Andthen there's others that were like myself personally,

(14:45):
oh well there's ECW. I don'twonder what else could possibly be out
there, And then you just geta PWI magazine or what were some of
the other aftermags like Inside Wrestling andWrestling Wow Wrestling Wow Wow magazine was like

(15:05):
life changing at the time, It'slike what I think they're talking about it,
like it's not real. This isn'tcrazy to think about. And I
mean you would see names and youknow, four and wrestling in there,
and it was like, oh,how do I see this stuff? And
I mean for me, I rememberlike Kaza and Morpheus. Um, there

(15:31):
might have been another one of those. Yeah, you know you could you
could get music, you could getvideos, and I remember that's how I
first saw like a Kobashi match wasKaza. And I mean, I think
fans now don't really understand just howit was easy to get stuff outside of

(16:00):
the WWF and WCW and ECW bubble. But it wasn't easy, right.
The one thing I feel like it'shard to explain, but you actually appreciated
when you got something, so youwould just you watch it. You'd make
sure as soon as it came inthe mail. Like I remember, I
got the ninety five King of theRing and as soon as I got I
was like watching it. I waslike, this sucks, but I gotta

(16:22):
watch it because it's brand new.I haven't seen it before. How much
does this guy way right our Donovan? I was there at that show sign
here the commentary until much later.Oh my goodness, gracious, it was
it was quite quite an evening withGuerrilla months a ringside. But I definitely
remember I ordered ECW heat Wave ninetyeight as a kid. Like we had

(16:47):
cable off and on just whatever,you know, Sometimes we could afford it,
sometimes we couldn't. I was workingat McDonald so I would spend my
twenty bucks to ore of the payper view And that's why I discovered Hyabusa.
I read about hy So, butactually seeing him, I was like,
I need to find more about thisguy. So that's when like the
hunt began. And that's when Istarted getting a little more into Japanese rustling,

(17:10):
not as much as later, butthat's the that was the first taste
really well. And as we takethis today, August second happens to be
the twenty fourth anniversary of Heatway ofnineteen ninety eight. Oh wow, I
didn't even realize that. That's crazy. Yeah, yeah, it's interesting how
that I was pretty sure it wastoday and I just googled to make sure.

(17:33):
But I mean, we were fortunateto come along at a time where
we also had stores in the mall, like a Sam Goody or an f
Ye that there were these compilation DVDsof FMW which I've gotten into heavily over

(17:56):
the course of the last couple ofyears thanks to Chris Harrington and a couple
other people. But like you couldget a best of Hyabusa at the local
stam Goodye in the mall, right, oh no, I definitely was getting
those. Like at the time,I wasn't trucking release dates on anything,

(18:18):
and then it was just you'd popin the mall because I didn't have a
car or nothing. So it's likewhenever you got there, you're looking and
you're like, oh man, theygot this new one, and you'd grab
It'd be like twenty bucks. Imean you would get it and immediately go
home and watch it. And theother thing with tape trading there was always

(18:40):
so interesting was you would align withwhoever you were doing the tape trade with
and say, all right, I'msending it at ten thirty am on you
know August second, right, whenwhat day are you sending on? And
then you couldn't go online to theUS both Service website and get a tracking

(19:02):
number to like make sure it wassent. You just had the trust right
and trucking was extra then too,so like do I really want to spend
the fifty five cents. I don'tknow, right, you know, because
because you're shipping a media mail too, because heavy, so hopefully you'll get
there, maybe it won't. Imean, it's just such a it feels

(19:29):
like forever ago that culture. ButI remember the like weekends of just sitting
there and you know, you geta box of tapes in the mail and
you just go through them and justbe like, oh my god, I've
never seen this before, you know, somebody had. I used to make
like comp tapes, and um,I had like the best of Jeff NWAWCW.

(19:55):
So I'd go through and i'd youknow, sit there and make these
comps and then I'd have master tapefor them. But it was like second
and third generation master tape, soto speak, you know, the best
ofs. And I mean, thereare so many things that I can remember
from those days. And you know, I was fortunate to never get like

(20:21):
ripped off or have like a badtrade or anything like that. But when
that happened, that was like theworst thing in the world. I knew
people that got ripped off. It'sso fun. It's been over twenty years
and I still remember the guy thatI sent some stuff too, and he
was like, this quality is crap. I'm not sending you anything. And

(20:41):
then I was like, what,No, Like, it's fine, what
are you talking about. I thinkit was like movies or something. I
can't remember the exact details, butI still remember that guy. I wish
I remembered his name because i'd findthem. But if you're out there listening,
you owe me some tapes. Yeah, VHS tapes. Let's go,
which which is also an interesting facetto this. You know, now we

(21:03):
can go to Office Max or OfficeDepot or whatever it is Staples and get
a you know, stack of onehundred DVDs, or you can go online
to I think the website was shopfortech dot com. I used to my

(21:25):
DVD cases I used to get fromthere. Um, you know, when
I was doing the physical DVD youknow media, and now I'm starting to
just keep everything digitally and you know, slowly taking away some of that physical
media. But um, for me, getting tapes was always a pain in

(21:48):
the ass because I would have torely on my mom or my grandparents to
take me to Sam's Club to whereI could get that sweet sweet deal of
twenty four VHS tapes for like ninebucks. Oh man, I will show
it to Sam's Club. I didn'tget my license until I was eighteen because

(22:11):
we just we didn't really have acar for periods of time, so it
was a hassle and a half toget to Walmart and I'd get the ten
pack of Sony's. I think thatwas like nine bucks two for a ten
pack, and that I do rememberthose times. I'm like, I can't
send yet, I don't have tapes, and they'd get mad. I'm like,
I'm just a child. I don'tknow what to tell you. I'm

(22:33):
sorry. I will see if mygirlfriend will take me after school. These
were I think JVC. Is itsounds great? Yeah, that sounds right.
Okay, so it was JVC.You get twenty four for like nine
ninety nine, and it was asteel. It was a great deal,
you know. And you know,sometimes if it was my mom, she'd

(22:56):
let me buy one, and ifit was my parents, they would let
me buy like two or three.And if you go with the grandparents to
Sam's Club, you were riding highon the hog with plenty of tapes to
trade. For quite some time,but the tape trading industry, you know,

(23:18):
was kind of the genesis of Ringof Honor, the bootlegging of copyrighted
material from l ol or pretend yousaid eighteen video and that's how they got
in the Ring of Honor. AndI guess, like for you and IDP
videos, you're trading Japanese stuff andcomp tapes and all tons of interesting stuff.

(23:47):
So there's got to be like someinteresting stories of like stuff you were
requested to make or in acquiring thefootage, you know, there was an
interesting, you know story to tell. I guess kind of talk a little
bit about that, and then theorigin of IV A few videos. Sure,
yeah, like I said, tapetraded forever and then just randomly on

(24:11):
eBay, I just sing them.It was two hundred and thirty two tapes
of Japanese wrestling and I was like, oh man, and I was like
I want a piece of that.And this was like two thousand and one,
two thousand and two ish, soI'm bid. It was close to
my house too, It's like anhour, and I was like, man,
I could just if I could getthem. So I messed him,

(24:32):
was like, hey, could Ipick these up? If I win,
you could save the shipping, LikeI'll drive out there. It's not a
big deal, and they're like,yeah, that's fine if you win,
and I'm like, oh man.So I end up going way over what
I budgeted for it. I thinkit was like six hundred bucks for two
hundred and thirty two tapes, whichisn't bad actually for tapes, but there

(24:53):
was a lot of money because Iwas working at a video store making next
to nothing. But I was like, I'll go for it. Whatever.
So I drive to the guy's houseand it was just a teenager as well,
probably a little year or two youngerthan me, and his dad's like,
what are you going to do withall these and I'm like watch them.
I don't know. So And whatreally, like what got me started

(25:15):
was I paid way too much fora DVD recorder. This was like right
when DVDs were hot two thousand andtwo ish. I mean, it was
a little after they're hot, butno one had a DVD recorder. So
I'm firing out. They're wrestling onDVD, Yahoo auctions, eBay auctions.
It was. It was a wildwild West at the time. So like,
I'm selling WCW pay per views fortwenty bucks a pop, and they're

(25:38):
just like more and more and morelike sweet. So I ended up making
all that backplus and then I transferthose tapes to DVD sold the tapes,
so I ended up making out onthat and that's how it all began.
Really, it's just kind of aweird accident where I found it on eBay,
and and like even at that time, I wasn't super into Japanese wrestling.

(26:00):
I gotta be honest, like eventhen I was. I liked it,
of course, but it wasn't likethere's many more people that know more
about than I do. Do youthink that that's This is just a sidebar
question, but it's it's something I'vediscussed with quite a number of people over
the last few years. Do youthink that it's an acquired taste or do

(26:25):
you think it's either you like itfrom the get go or you don't.
That's a good question. I thinkit's almost an inquired taste because I think
you have to mentally get to aplace where the commentary doesn't bother you.
I think for a lot of peopleat first, they're just like, I
don't understand what they're saying, Buteventually you get to a point where it's

(26:48):
it's doesn't matter it's background noise,and you just you're focused on those first
Jacobs in the I WI King ofthe death match, and I'm just like,
I don't know what they're saying.I don't know what's happening, but
eventually I think you can get there, or some people just never get there,
you know. Yeah. I meanit's interesting because I know there's one

(27:11):
wrestler in specific that I won't mentionhis name, but somebody that's on television
pretty often told me said, youknow, I like, I get why
people like it and why everyone emulatesit. I don't have any connection to

(27:32):
the stories that they're telling, soI just don't care, right, No,
I mean that's a I get it. And I thought I had never
really considered that as an option becauseI always viewed it as, oh,
this action is so different than thekick and punch and body slam and you

(27:56):
know, chop to the chest andpose in the corner type of thing that
I was used to. But Ithink it goes show just how diverse wrestling
fans are and how it's not justa bunch of like, oh, you
know, I'm buying into this,you know, male soap opera. There

(28:17):
is something too tying you into thepsychology of what you're watching and why you
watch and why you invest in thestory, right, I know, like
back during the indie boom, everyonewas high on Toby mid South, they
have all these names. But Itry to watch it and without a crowd,

(28:37):
I was like, I just can'tdo this, just it doesn't work
for me. So I feel likeit's the same way. It's just some
things work for others. Well,Like I the crowd is half the fun,
you know, and if there's tenpeople there watching just singing on their
hands, that just takes it anotch lower than a hot crowd for an
average match. You know. Well, it's kind of the thing I think

(29:02):
that you know, we have unfortunatelyexperienced as adults the pandemic era of professional
wrestling and what it's like to haveno crowd watching wrestling. And I I
don't know if I have regularly watchedWWE enough like a full three hour raw

(29:26):
and a full like a two hourSmackDown. I didn't know if they've gone
to three hours or not yet,but a full two hours SmackDown and NXT
like with the digital boards and stuff, I couldn't watch a full show because
the action wasn't even good enough toget me to invest. There were some

(29:51):
personalities that I liked, but Ijust I couldn't vibe with what I was
seeing on their channel. And youknow, in Japan, the crowds are
so different. You know, whenyou're dubbed, like the stuff that you

(30:11):
have on your website, you know, Noah and all Japan and things of
that nature. Like the crowd stylistically, they're not doing the goofy chanting and
you know, sign waving and thingsof that nature. They're they're more invested
in what they're seeing in the ring. And I do think that that made

(30:34):
me appreciate an American crowd more.Yeah, I could see that for sure.
It's definitely a different style to getused to just but I like both
crowds, to be honest, Ilike the I probably prefer the rambunctious like
role of nineteen nine eight crowds thatare just going insane for everything. I've

(30:59):
been to a million wrestling shows andpeople ask like, what's the best match
you've ever seen? I'm like Hugginversus the Rock just because of the crowd.
And then rohczwkje to death as well, like just the crowds can make
something legendary to me, and itmight not be the best in ring work
in a bubble, but you geta crowd that's molten for one thing or

(31:22):
another, it's it's golden well.And that's I think the story of where
present day wrestling goes right or itgoes wrong. Like we can see what
we want about what's going on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Impact is on
Thursdays, and SmackDown on Fridays.We can pick a part everything that goes

(31:48):
on in between the ropes. Butyou can tell what's working by listening to
the crowds or the piped in orthe piped in. Yeah, it's hard,
it's hard to tell sometimes, butyeah, even things like I'm like,
oh, that don't work, butthen you see the crowd going crazy.
I'm like, no, no,I'm just wrong. It's okay to
be wrong. I'm older. Now, you know that's different, Like aw,

(32:13):
some things are for a much youngeraudience, and I understand that as
well. I think that's one ofthe great things about modern day wrestling is
that there are so many guys thatare our age, that are, you
know, trying to bring back someof the older stuff like see him Punk's

(32:36):
return, you know last September.Essentially the Darby Allen match was Bret Hart
and Sean Waltman from RAW in nineteenninety five, nine seventy four, I
think four. Yeah, I thinkit was early ninety four, like January
eleven, nineteen ninety four, possiblysomething like that. It was recent,

(33:00):
Yeah, the anniversary was recent,but it was ninety three now to be
ninety four because ninety three was whenhe became the one two three kids and
when Raw started, right because theywere not at the Manhattan Center for the
Brett match. Yeah, and itwasn't ninety five because he wasn't a heel
and he turned heel against Ramon.Why do I know all this? This

(33:20):
is this is the history, Thisis our this is our life right now.
This is we invested so much timeinto pro wrestling over the years,
and it's it's like, you know, Punk his essentially taking all these Bret
Hart matches and mix them into hismodern day repertoire. FTR does the same

(33:40):
thing. And I was never thebiggest Bret Hart fan, but what those
guys have taught me through watching themand through conversation used to go back and
watch like a Bret Hart and andwatch some of his matches. Um,
there are little things that I guessI just never noticed because he wasn't doing

(34:05):
stuff off the top rope and flashylike a Sean Michaels, or he wasn't
lowed and like Neon, colorful likea Sting. Not to say that Sean
Michaels and Sting weren't great, theycertainly were. But Brett, I think
I have totally changed my view towhat he was. And now I'm discovering

(34:30):
all these like hidden gem Bret Hard, you know, nineteen nineteen ninety three,
nineteen ninety four matches that I just, you know, never cared for.
And I loved Owen, who Ithought was so far superior to Brett,

(34:51):
to the point where I was makinga tape trade I would say,
probably shortly after Owen passed away andI said, hey, I really love
to get that Owen Hart comp.And the guy goes, well, I
got a Bret Hart comp that waslike up to current, So I guess,

(35:14):
you know, summer of ninety nineish, and I remember staying to
the guy, I'm like, I'mnot really a big Bret fan, but
I'll take all the owen I canget, And he was like, how
could you not be a Bret Hartfan? And now I realized just how
silly that statement is. I havegone back. I think I've watched the

(35:35):
Breton Piper match from Russell made aeight, probably forty times since January.
I think it's one of the mostgenius wrestling matches that I think it's lost
in the sands of time. Yeah. I agreb it's kind of suckrilegious to
say, but I've just never gotfaced Piper, like after the heel,

(35:59):
after he turned face after Mania three, I just never got him whatsoever.
But that match is just genius,just an amazing spectacle that definitely gets forgotten
about on that show. Yeah,and I mean I think in Brett's run,
you know, to ascending to beinga top top guy, that match

(36:23):
is never given credit. And Ireally feel like that was the one,
even more so than the Summer's Lamninety one with perfect the kind of was
like, all right, he justbeat the guy that made an end of
wrestle Mania one, right, theone that never gets pinned. Never Hogan
never pinned him, no one everpenned him. He's that it had that

(36:47):
finish that I'd never seen before,which I think is just genius when you
think about it, and it kindof makes me think of like how it
was. It's a reinvention of thewheel, which is what good wrestling to

(37:12):
me is. It's taking something andjust putting a different twist on it and
showing me something new. Doesn't haveto be flashy, doesn't have to be
flips or you know, you know, Canadian Destroyer into a styles clash out
of a four or fifty or whatever. But I just want to see new
and interesting and different, and Ithink there's a lot of that in modern

(37:38):
day wrestling, and we're very fortunateto be around for that time frame while
still appreciating the old school stuff thatwe grew up on. And you know,
with one of the sets that youput out fairly recently, the Dean
Linko set, I think that wassomething I wanted to bring up because Dean

(38:04):
is to me the perfect mix ofthe old school like Bret Hart style and
still doing the Japanese in Mexico influencedstyle as well. And I guess that
just kind of leads into my nextvideotape question. Before we get into talking

(38:24):
about ROH and discovering some of theother things that came with it. What
of through IVP videos. What aresome of the oddball, like interesting stories
that you've come across, or oddrequests that you've gotten from fans or wrestlers
or I don't know about. I'vehad a few wrestlers hit me up.

(38:49):
I'm like, hey, I didthis tour and I'll send the most off
with the problem. I had acouple like, hey, do you have
any with tight underwear doing flips?Very muscular man and I'm like, yeah,
sure, here's I got no problemwith that. I'll sell you whatever.
Here's some dragon Gate that's right upyour alley. Trust, uh,
nothing too crazy. I've had acouple of requests for custom compilations that are

(39:14):
like, well, you got itwith this, but I don't have the
time to do that anyway, soI just pass it on that. So
see, he's never gotten like adid I please get a best of Ellegante
compilation request? I'm trying to thinkI actually have the best of El Gigante,
So I'm pretty sure I got itfrom you. I didn't put together

(39:37):
someone else did. But there's aguy on one of the message boards.
I think it was Crazy Max.He would put together comps of pretty much
every mid card goofy gimmick in ninetyfour, I feel like a best of
Nails, best of Papashongo, bestof Adam Bomb. I got Jake thirty
three. If you're out there,I remembered your name, which is why

(39:59):
how would I remember? But heput all those together. I'm pretty sure
that is the person that I dealtwith almost exclusively through Crazy Max. Yeah,
I um, I'm trying to thinkof what his last name was and

(40:23):
drawn a blank. Um. Iprobably have have like in an email or
something, but I mean it.It's that like the oddball, like who
would request best of Nails? Yeah, he had all the stuff up,
just anyone from ninety one to likeninety five. He would just compile it

(40:45):
all. Luvig Borga remember that one. I have them all somewhere around,
even though you probably have like athere's probably Tony Holme footage from with the
All Japan. I think, yeah, frying remember, but he was like

(41:05):
I remember the SS and like whateverthe finish like Nazi party was and in
an SS tattoo, which is wildto think, but like it's there's such
a a interesting niche to pro wrestling, and it's that like trading tapes and

(41:36):
being a part of our generation thatwas trading these VHS tapes and eventually into
the DVD era and seeing how justhow different things have gotten and how easily
accessible stuff is now. I mean, you have this incredible collection of stuff
from literally every Japanese promotion. Imean, I would say probably you know,

(42:02):
dating back to the eighties. Igot some stuff from seventy five,
all Japan not much but whatever.It's trickled out, but yeah, I've
got because I've switched to a prettymuch everything from the past two years.
It's all digital. Now. Ihave a hard drives and I've been slowly

(42:23):
but surely going through the old stuffand digitalizing it because a lot of it
just no one cares. It hasn'tbeen sold in years. But I can't
get rid of it or anything thatthat would be insane. Why would I
do that. I have to hoardit forever. So I've been backing up
on hard drives and then keeping thediscs and then backing up that hard drive,
which is in a dresser drawer.So I have like two backups and

(42:45):
the original discs just in case.So let me ask you this because this
is something that has been peaking myfancy. And I was actually going to
talk to you about this off theair, but you know, I mentioned
to you this up of my office, and you know the DVD idea,

(43:06):
you know, originally it was Iwanted to learn graphic design, so I
started designing all these DVD covers andyou know, wrestling PSDs or PSD Dream
or whatever that website was, youget like the cut out of the wrestler
and stick their face on the cover. And eventually, like printer Inc,

(43:28):
I didn't want, as you know, living on my own without having mom
and dad to pay for my printerinc anymore, I don't want to do
any more DVD covers, and Ilost like the program. So what what
would be the best method going forwardfor me or any other tape trader DVD
trader out there to digitize. Justa really good external hard drive, a

(43:53):
super big external hard drive, abunch of small ones. Right now about
three hard drives are Ford terabytes.You could just pop the DVD in your
computer and I use image burn,I amg burn or UM. Sometimes the
falls are incompatible from all my olderDVDs. I guess it's just how they're

(44:16):
built, so I have to useDVD shrink, but just create ISO falls
from that and then just flow themon the hard drives. That's uh.
Those are the two programs I have, and I just, um, I
don't know, man, there's somethingabout like physical media that you know,

(44:36):
it still means a lot to me, But also at the same time,
I value space, and this sneakercollection continues to grow and grow and grow
faster than the DVD collection does.So, um, you know, clearing
up some wall space would be nicein this office and actually be able to

(44:58):
pull down some of the wall paperbehind wood shelves and cinder blocks that are
holding them together. I just I'mso afraid of like digitally corrupting a hard
drive. I don't know if Icould. I don't know if I got
the balls the grapefruits they do it, you know. Yeah, that's why
I have backups and then the originaldisc so I still keep So I've got

(45:22):
two failsafes. It's definitely gonna besomething I look into down the road.
I don't know how soon, becausemy collection really hasn't grown exponentially outside of
what I've put on my own externalhard drive that already use so and the
patrons at patreon dot com knows someof the cool stuff that's made available from

(45:46):
that that particular hard drive. Butwe've talked enough tape trading. I guess
we got to get into the heartof the matter, and that is your
honorable journey to Ring of Honor,and let's talk about it. So you
told me that you had an interestingfirst Ring of Honor show, But let's

(46:08):
talk about how you discovered OROG andindependent wrestling locally Maryland Championship Wrestling. I
would go to their shows. Theyweren't really like they were a mix between
your yok local yokels and like asmart marked thing where they bring in like
Mikey Whipwreck. That's where I firstdiscovered the Amazing Red and SAT and they

(46:31):
blew my mind. Yep. Sothey were like my first taste and MWF
as well back in the day,but they weren't as nearly as much like
I wouldn't call them Internet darlings yet, but they were the ones that were
getting Internet buzz. I guess youcould say, like Amazing Red, you'd

(46:52):
hear about and then you'd see melike, oh wow, like I could
flip. But so Ring of Honoritself I really discovered through EWR Extreme Warfair
Revenge. Oh wow. Yeah.So that was kind of like during a
lull and following wrestling, like wW was pretty bad, and I would

(47:15):
pop in the local indies and tapetrade, like doing the tape trade sself.
It was. It was happening,but I wasn't deep into it just
yet. So I would played EWRand I saw a Ring of Honors on
there and like four one one ManiaI think it was called. It was
probably just four one one Wrestling atthat point, but they had a guy
that would write the reviews of theshows. I was like, oh,

(47:38):
this sounds pretty cool. And itwas in Philadelphia, which is only ninety
minutes from my house. So Iwas just like, hey, I'm going
to order some tickets. I've neverseen this before, but it sounds cool.
The guys are highly rated in EWR. Bj Wimer's in eighty eight.
He must be good, you know, stuff like that. So I ordered

(47:59):
the tickets. When I ordered thetwo second row seats, they sent me
two free general missions because they justthey wanted to fill it for the taping.
So I brought my little brother andhis friend and we drove up there
and sight unseen. I saw Maytwo thousand and three, do or Die.
Okay, it's a homicide and Joeyep I distinctly remember that they came

(48:22):
out. I was like, oh, it's new Jack versus Yokozuna. Yeah,
typical internet loser guy, you know. And then they blew me away
and I was like, this iscrazy, this is so much so cool.
I mean, so I'm gonna pullup the do or Die card here
in a second. But I mean, like you walk into the Murphy Wreck,

(48:45):
which I mean I've never been there. Um it's when I go visit
hag It or next time, I'mdefinitely making a side trip to the Murphy
Reck. I gotta see this place, like it's it's interesting. I don't

(49:05):
know if you've ever been in MadisonSquare Garden, but you feel that building
when you walk in Cameron Indoor Stadium'sanother one on Duke University's campus, Like
you can feel the building. Ohno, I'm not. I'm a huge
propeller. Like I love going tohistoric buildings where rustling. I when I

(49:29):
went to Detroit. I drove fortyminutes north to go to the ponteac Silver
Door and it wasn't It was stillthere at the time, but it was
closed by just like I have togo see where Rustlemania three happened, even
even though it's completely out of theway and unnecessary, but I was like,
I've got to make the trip,so I completely understand. It's it's
such a unique feeling to like feelthe building and without even like having anything

(49:57):
in there, you know, Imean the Murder rec Center, it's just
a it's a gym, It's that'sa whole lot of nothing. But it
still was the birth of something that'sstill going twenty years strong. Yeah,
And there are so many incredible matchesand moments in there. I mean,
just look at some of the nameson this Do or Die Show that you
were at May thirty first, twothousand and thirty. You have Dan Moff

(50:22):
taking on BJ Whitner, Tony mamAluke, ECW alumni taking on Jason Cross,
n WA Wildside alumni, also Impactfor TNA or whatever it was,
shooting Star leg Drop Pretty. Thatwas one of those like you see it
on the weekly pay per view onWednesday nights, and you go, huh,

(50:46):
Glad I taped this show so Ican rewind this in about an hour
and a half and watch it abouttwelve times in a row. Iceberg and
Oman Tortuga, Iceberg and another NWAwildside legend, Matt Striker and Tom Carter
Reckless Youth, you know, oneof the forefathers of independent wrestling, the

(51:10):
Second City Saints, Punky Cavana againstthe Briscoes, the Carnage Crew of Locan
de Vito and Issy and Dixie Specialk Tag Scramble, and then you probably
don't remember the historical significance of theman John Walters wrestled, but he happens

(51:32):
to be the tallest man to everwrestle and Ring of Honor Andy Anderson.
I don't remember that at all.He was like six ten and he beat
John Walter's future purest tough enough forsomething. For some reason, I'm thinking,
no, he was just this tall, lanky guy that I think probably

(52:00):
trained with John Walters in Boston.And this is the only ROH show he
did, unless he did one inthe Boston area that I don't recall U.
But he was he was like sixten and probably two hundred pounds.

(52:20):
Just I just pull up a picturehim. I think I vaguely remember him
now, but not enough to that'sfunny. Yeah, I mean it's he
was like one of those like namesthat just showed up and you're like,
oh, yeah, he did athing and then disappeared forever, right,
Yeah, that will happen the timeor two. But yeah, I mean

(52:42):
that's kind of the story in ROHis these people that would come in and
you'd see their name and you think, wow, this guy's got a great
future, and then you maybe seehim one or two more times they're gone.
A few people that were never gonesee him, Punk Stepher Daniels,
Frankie Kazarian and the late Jimmy Ravefour Corner Survival Match, the Backseat Boys,

(53:07):
Trent Acid, you know, Mayhe rest in peace, and Johnny
kashmir Over the newest member of thea EW Rosters, Slim j and Jodi
Fleish. Now that one I distinctlyremember, because, like I said,
I had second order of seats andmy little brother and his friend at general
mission, so like you sit overthere where I could see you from my

(53:30):
seats. Everything would be cool.And he was only like nine or ten,
which bad big Brother. But Iremember during that match they went up
to a scaffold and jumped off ofit and like they just ran over to
where that was happening. I'm sittingin my seats like, no, you
get back, what are you doing? And that on the DVD you could

(53:51):
see them just being like just goingcrazy because they did like they're ten years
old, Dyne though anything more thananything, and they were just like this
is insane and I can't believe thisis happening. Well, and the amazing
thing about a fourth of this match. So I'll put Slim j aside and
I'll talk about him in a second. But Jody Flish I saw four years

(54:15):
ago at AIW in Cleveland during theJT Lightning Tournament, and he is in
unbelievable shape. And the irony ofthat of him coming to the States was

(54:36):
the ring of honor was in thecity that he lived in. They were
doing their UK tour at the timeand he was over here. That's funny,
Like they could have could have hadash and he could still go.
He was unbelievable. You know what. I think. That's the weekend i
WTV or powerboum TV at the time, had a show and it was supposed

(54:59):
to be Jody Flash and Gresham andI went to Philly for it, and
they're like, oh, he gotinjured the night before. I might have
been in Cleveland, so he canceledthem up being knick Age against Gresham,
which was fine, but I wasreally looking forward to see Jodi Fleisch because
I went there specifically for that match. I mean, it's it's pretty incredible

(55:24):
the shape that he's in now,because he's he's jacked. I mean,
he's in better shape then I wouldsay probably anybody of that age. I
mean, he's north of forty andhe's an incredible shape. And then you

(55:45):
know, like Johnny Storm I haven'theard much of, but Jody is still
going strong. He's currently dealing witha torn achilles, so hopefully he works
his way back, you know,in a year or so. But man,
like, that's a guy that wouldbe incredible if like, let's say

(56:06):
a E w Ran in the UKor NXTUK did a big show. That's
a guy that deserves his flowers,right, That's funny. They're like back
in the day, you'd see himwrestling and be like, oh, he's
never gonna be wrestling in five yearsand then twenty years later, still doing
his thing, just like Jack Evans. Watching him back in the day,

(56:29):
everyone was like, Oh, he'snot long for this career because he's gonna
hurt himself and still going strong,still going strong. He's gonna be in
the Jat Lightning Memorial Tournament for aiwhere in a couple of weeks. And
but as far as Jodi Fleiss,partner in Special K here slim J.

(56:49):
Like, I was reading the Darkresults from the tapings in Orlando and I
saw slim J had joined up withAri Davari and Parker Bordeaux, and I
thought to myself, Wow, I'mso glad that guy got a break.
And then I watched him on theZero Hour on the Ring of Honor Death

(57:14):
Board dis Honor pre show. He'she can still innovate, he does cool
moves, he's got personality, andhe still looks pretty young. Like I'm
not exactly sure how old slim Jis. He can't be, you know,
me, debuted in two thousand andone, so he's probably probably close

(57:42):
to forty, if not a littlenorth. Yeah, I think he was
super young when he's own Impact ortena at the time, it's it's pretty
incredible to see like those guys.And then you have your main event of
homicide and Samo Joe for the rhWOLD title, and I mean that's just
for a first show like that.You've got two Hall of Famers there,

(58:07):
Oh yeah, piss out of eachother. And I was like, this
is crazy and we immediately they cameback the next month and I was like,
we're coming back, don't care Nightof the Grudges, which I mean
you talk about main events, youknow, Oh no, No, that
was Russell Rave was the next onein Philly. It was neither Grudges was

(58:31):
in Boston. I think the Bostonarea was in Dorchester, not Dorchester,
Cambridge. So Ve Russell Rave wasthe next Philly show. Yeah, and
you go out on top with tryinAcid and homicide. Yeah, and they
blew the roofs place. What's funnyis I That's why I started like joining

(58:53):
the message board. And I metthis person that lived fairly close to me
and they were like, we havethis RV. Do you want to go
with us to Jersey? And I'mlike, yeah, sure, person,
I don't know, And I justmet up with them and hopped in the
RV and went to the first deathbefore Dishonor and then like they're like,
we're going to Upstate New York nextmonth and I'm like, okay, sure

(59:13):
whatever. So just hopping in anRV with these people I do not know
for this eight hour trip and thiswas before GPS, so they wrote down
the directions on paper and it wasnot good. And do you mind driving?
I'm like, I can't drive anRV. I'm sorry. I will

(59:34):
tell a quick story. So Ijust had an unfortunate incident a couple of
months ago where somebody in a parkinglot did a little hitting run on my
SUV. I have a Chevy trailblizer. And they finally got the parts into
the collision center that my insurance companywanted me to go to. And I

(59:57):
had a rental car, so Igot a Jeep uh Compass I believe it
was. And I said it waslike driving a moose because it was so
big and slow and just and I'vedriven like moving trucks and ring trucks,

(01:00:19):
you know, those type of thosesize of vehicle, but an RV.
Yeah, And I don't know.It was a night through New York and
I was like, man, I'msorry, guys. So I think that's
when I stopped getting invited by them, which was on the message board.
Um, I think so. Yeah. The one girl's name was Tammy.

(01:00:43):
She actually had a ring them onher tattoo on her ankle. Oh wow,
well she got she was really intoit. Yeah. Um, I
don't. I have no idea whathappened to her though. For out there's
Tammy. Thanks for the rod Imean that's kind of the big picture of
like what ROH was for a lotof us that were a part of the

(01:01:07):
early days. Was you know,my first show was in March of four,
which l Pretenu said eighteen. Um. You know, I told my
parents I was going to spend theweekend and a friends watching the NCAA tournament.
But I drove to Elizabeth, NewJersey in my Toyota Corolla. Um,

(01:01:28):
and I went as far to hideit from them that I rolled back
the mileage. Oh wow, yeahit was. Yeah. I ended up
having to roll it back forward whenI sold the car. But thank god,
by that point, you know,you could look up how far it

(01:01:49):
was to Elizabeth, New Jersey andjust guess fight pro is getting ready to
bring a new professional wrestling style tothe independent scene. Of an innovative approach
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code of conduct featuring three set divisions, a tier system, and a seasonal

(01:02:12):
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(01:02:36):
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ts fi gh t t pro dotcom and find out more about Fight Pro
Wrestling's debut event Saturday, September thetenth in Westville, New Jersey. Want
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(01:02:58):
a patron today at page dot comSlash an horble pod. If you become
a patron, you'll get early andadd free access to the show with several
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each tier comes with more bonus perkslike bonus content merch and so much more.
Support the show at patreon dot com, slash an horrable pod and get

(01:03:20):
early add free access and be worthyof an honorable mention. I mean those
those message board days and nights andweekends in the Aol chat that was on
instant Messenger. Hey, I don'tthink people realize, like they know the
toxicity of Twitter, but they don'tknow the toxicity of the message board.

(01:03:43):
And then the contrast to that toxicityof the message board, the kind of
lifelong bonds and friendships that that placecreated for so many people. Right,
Oh for sure. I just goback just a hair to the rex Plex
and at our best I went whenall that broke with r F, and
I just think I remember someone thatwas murmurs and threads would get deleted on

(01:04:08):
the board, so we'd be inthe chat room. They're like, something's
happening in Philly. They're gonna doa thing. RF got busted and we're
like what, no way, no, no, no. So after that,
I'm like, oh god, they'regonna cancel the show. I have
front row tickets, first time everspent the fifty bucks. So like I
called the Rexplex, was like,please don't cancel, please don't cancel,
which down as a grown adult,I'm like, dude, they should have

(01:04:30):
canceled. Yeah, what is happening. There's a skateboarding place for children and
the guy still owned the thing.But at the time, I was more
concerned about my front row seat GussieJay Brisco. So Joe and the kids
got gotta get Jay Brisco's blood allover my shirt. So we've each at
brisco blood on us. Yes,yes, it was splattering everywhere. We're

(01:04:56):
like, this is so cool.I gotta see Ox Baker Dusty Rhodes yelled
at each other. I have afunny story about that. Right, That's
where I was going. I'm inline for the what was that smoothie place?
I forgot the name of it nowmalwee wowee. Yes, I'm in
line right, and all of asudden, I get shoved hard from behind,

(01:05:17):
and I'm half paying attention. I'mlike, what's your problem? Man?
And I just walks this big beefydude walk past me, and I'm
just like, hey, I askedyou, sonny. He just ignores me
and he goes to where Dusty Rhodesis signing and starts yelling at him.
And I'm like, oh, Iknow that guy. I'm gonna shut up
now, but I was. Iwas ready to fight because he showed me

(01:05:38):
hard from mine. It's like whatwas happening? And then I helped Dusty
Rhodes hop the guard rail. Sothat was like a highlight of my life.
Yeah, And that's a thing,like it sounds so out of place
of like Dusty Rhodes doing indie showsfrom two thousand and two to about two
thousand and five, Like, Imean, I saw Dusty on the indies.

(01:06:02):
I got to sit in a seminarwith Dusty. Um. You know,
I've told the story on the podbefore of Dusty and Lawler against the
Road Warriors going five minutes in amain event and then Dusty doing a fifteen
minute promo afterwards by himself Lawler gone, Road Warriors Gone, Just Dusty and

(01:06:25):
his dirty white Cleveland Brown's T shirtand jeans and like pants halfway falling down
and the belt, you know,the big belt Buckley ads on the on
the mat because that played into thematch, and I mean it was like
the coolest thing. And I toldthat story to both Dustin and Cody and

(01:06:50):
they both were like, you know, those those times were really hard for
their family, and I don't thinka lot of people really realized that.
You know, Dusty was at WCWmaking very good money doing creative and announcing
and whatever else he was doing.And w CW died, and you know,

(01:07:14):
he did impact for a little whilethere, and there was a couple
of years until he went to theWWF or w w E, I guess
at that point to go work inwhat became Florida Championship Presling, so he
was doing the Ring of Honors ofthe World. There was some lean years.
I think Cody's talked about how likethe Dusty Roads DVD saved their house

(01:07:38):
and everything because there's just nothing comingin compared to what it was. W
W did a house show here backin May. I think it was the
same day as an AIW show inAkron, so about twenty minutes apart that

(01:08:04):
Eddie Kingston was on. And thenWardlow happens to work out at my gym
from time to time because his inlaws live in town and his wife or
girlfriend or fiance, whatever she is, she's from here. So I work
out at one of the bigger gymsin town. And like all the WB

(01:08:26):
guys came in, including Cody,and I said, you know, you're
working in the same building that yourdad teamed with lawlerd or Wrestler Road Warriors
at and he was like, really, I've never wrestled in this building before.
So he said it was really coolto wrestle in a building that both
his father and his brother did.Like house show matches him and he said,

(01:08:53):
are you going to come to theshow, And I said, no,
I'm not. I don't. Idon't have any interest in doing like
those kind of things anymore as I'mgood. Like I'm sure you guys will
have fun, it'll be a goodcrowd and whatnot, but I'm gonna stay
home. And so you know,it's there are those connections like wrestling.

(01:09:17):
To me, it's about the connectionwith your fellow fan, with on the
independent level, the wrestlers and thefans. And in those days with Ring
of Honor, you had a messageboard where unfortunately there were people that had
my type of behavior, which Iam incredibly embarrassed by all these years later

(01:09:42):
and apologize to everyone, including you, And I would just like to say
that I also was a child thatacted like an idiot most of the time,
So I apologize as well, becauseI mean it's it's really cool though
to like sometimes in the way backmachine to hop on there and see some
stuff and just be, you know, cringe at it for a minute and

(01:10:04):
then realize like, okay, likeI was, you know, a junior
in high school or you know,something crazy was going on in my life,
and like there's that connection. Buteverybody had their message aboard me,
right, So like I was JSWOand you were Billy Gunn fan. And

(01:10:28):
to me, I've been fortunate enoughto get to know Billy a little bit
over the last few years at AWand I will selfilly admit to never being
the biggest fan of the New AgeOutlaws, but in hindsight, like Billy
Gunn is the most massive human beingI've ever seen in my life, and

(01:10:53):
he is a role model for youknow, fifty somethings as far as they're
physical conditioning goes. What made yousuch a big Billy Gunn fan. It's
kind of funny, actually it's alwaysliked Billy Gunn. But you know,
I like a ton of different people. But I was at a sports bar

(01:11:14):
with my friends and my friend's girlfriendand my friend's girlfriend's dad and we were
watching the nineteen ninety nine King ofthe Ring. So my friend's girlfriend's dad
was just a huge typical wrestling fan, doesn't not smart marking the least,
but which is fine, but hehated Billy Gunn. So every time Billy

(01:11:35):
Gunn won, me and my friendswould just go crazy, like only two
more, only two more. Andthen when he won the King of the
Ring, we lost our ship inthis sports bar, dude was so mad
and it just kind of stuck.It became like a I wouldn't say a
running gag because we do really likeBilly gun Don't get me wrong, It's

(01:11:56):
not yeah, but that's where itstart it. And then we made shirts
and we wore to the next timethat the next paper view at that sports
bar, and he came and wehad our Billy gun shirts we ordered,
and just from there just kind ofworked out him. I think I chose
that for Ring of Honor because Ithought I would annoy people because at the
time, like Billy Gunn was thetypical WWE big guy that no one liked

(01:12:23):
at the time, So I waslike, yeah, I'm I'm a Billy
gun fan. What's up? Themost fascinating thing to me about Billy was,
you know, not that I thoughthe was like the typical to be,
you know, muscle guy. Healways struck me as being a super
athletic guy and a really good athlete, but I never realized how big he

(01:12:47):
was. Yeah, it's kind offive. Recently rewatched the Raw Bowl and
like he's going toe to toe isSid and they're the same heights, and
yeah, for whatever reason, itjust I think he was almost too athletic
to the point where like his heightwas hidden because he was so fast and
so agile that your brain didn't comprehendlike, oh, he's the same size

(01:13:11):
as Kane or the Undertaker or Sid, but he's moving much faster than that.
His athleticism, I think is probablywhy for years and years and years,
where you know, we get thatsingles Billy gunpush for three or four
months, and then it would stopfor whatever reason. He'd go back to

(01:13:35):
road Dog or end up with BigShow or you know, I'm sure I'm
missing some tag partners in there somewhere. China Chuck, Oh yeah, yeah,
Um, I mean, he justit like he is the antithesis of

(01:13:58):
what the Ring of Honor style wasthen, So you know, I guess
we've we've talked about like our annoyanceof the message board and some of our
conduct, but like any fun memoriesand stories from the message board that you
can recall that maybe you will refreshmy brain and get me thinking. I

(01:14:18):
mean personally, I always because Iworked at a video store at the time,
so Friday Saturday nights would just behitting refreshed, go to the back,
hit refreshed to get the results.Um. I used to love the
like the fantasy booking section. I'vehad some fun in there. Him.

(01:14:39):
My memory is so bad, Ican't remember too much particulars. But did
you have the greg Ah parties?Did you have any burner accounts? I
did not, shockingly, so youand me are the only two. Then,
well, when I got banned somebody, I got banned because when Daniel
Brian broke his or Brandon and brokehis orbital bone, I was like,

(01:15:01):
he shouldn't be wrestling yet. Thisisn't safe, guys, we shouldn't be
doing this. And then they bannedme for that, and I was just
like, of all the things I'vedone, that's what gets me. Okay,
So someone gave me, a superdragon is my hero. Oh wow,
yeah, I was that that camethat had to have come from.

(01:15:21):
Was it Lone Wolf? I thinkI want to say Lone Wolf gave it
to me. I was gonna sayit could be lone Wolf, or it
could have been um zia z xI a x if. No, I
don't. I didn't really talk tohim like that, so I don't think
it was him, but I'm prettysure. It's been so long. But
then I started gimmick with that wherehe was just a child that went to

(01:15:44):
about it's so silly. In hindsight, it was so it was perfect because
that was what that was. Like, I've looked back at that and I
said, I'm embarrassed it the wayI conducted myself, But yet I have
such fun memories of that message board, right, And like I've talked to

(01:16:06):
Shane Hagen and I was like,I'm sorry, I was probably very mean
to you students, but you guyswere just doing your best, like they
didn't put you in no win situationsconsistently, So my apologies, guys.
Sorry. With the message board,I do remember Billy Gunn fan Fan.

(01:16:30):
It wasn't Milly. I don't rememberwho that was, well, because like
there was a period when that wasgoing on, and then like there was
a fake JSWO, which I thoughtwas just utterly confounding at the time,
right and still to this day,I baffled by it. But nobody would

(01:16:55):
tell me who that was. Sosomebody I knew like trying to fuck with
me. And I can't take creditfor that one. If it wasn't me,
I would take credit. But Imean, it's there's gonna be a
time when whoever, whoever it was, either they don't remember that they did
that, or you know, I'msure somebody would have told me by now,
because I mean it's two different worldsthat Jeff Schwartz of that era and

(01:17:20):
the one that I am now isit's just two. It's like you took
you know, you cut half ofme out and here I am. Um.
It's a good thing though, likeI always like you see people get
canceled on Twitter because of what theytweeted in middle school or something. I'm

(01:17:42):
like, man, if I hadTwitter in middle school, it wouldn't be
good. It won't be good.I'm well aware of. Like I would
say some dumb shit, you know, And in hindsight, Like my original
Twitter account Twitter Sam blasted away becauseI made a joke to Grizzly Redwood and

(01:18:04):
I, I mean hindsight kind ofglad that it's gone, because it had
a lot of bad stuff on there, Like I don't even want to get
into it, but like stuff thatI would never in a million years tweet
now right, Um, and andthat's that is what it is. Unfortunately,

(01:18:27):
it was a verified account, soI don't get my white check mark
or blue checkmark back, um,you know with the new account, But
um, it is what it is. I'll live on. But you know,
the message board itself though, likeyou talked about going to the back
at work and hitting refresh on thecomputer to get results, like you didn't

(01:18:50):
have the results in the palm ofyour hand, or you couldn't stream the
show as it's happening, so theresults weren't live either. Someone that the
wholesomebody and be like, hey,let's just happened, and then there'd be
fake results and people would get somad. So that brings me to a
great story And I want to seeif you remember this. There was a

(01:19:11):
show in Chicago where r j mcrob McCarron was doing live results and he
had a sidekick, I believe atthe time or some phone that could access
the message board. And I hada phone that could get to the message

(01:19:32):
board, but I couldn't post.I guess there was something in like the
Internet coding or something that wasn't compatiblewith my phone. But he could get
on and post. So he postedthat Rhino debuted and did a run in
during like low Key and somebody orwhatever, and people went nuts. I

(01:19:58):
do remember that. I went crazy, and then he was like, ah,
I got you guys, and thengave band him so he got an
account. Like that was the kindof thing that was going on and that
that time frame. And you knowwrestling fans nowadays they go on onto their
phone and they stream whatever shows theywant. And then I've seen like two

(01:20:23):
different streaming notifications from IWTV tonight andyou know, it's a Tuesday night in
the middle of the summer and thereare two wrestling shows going on. You
could watch plus n XT on televisionthat would have blown our minds in two
thousand and four and two thousand andfive. You know UM Ring of Honor,

(01:20:47):
like you order the show as soonas it hit the website or you
know, if if it was likea mediocre sounding show, you got the
buy three, get one for Ialways wait for the buy three geting for
free, which I think you gaveme crep for once, Like you're not
true fan, probably I remember thatsounds sounds like something I would say.

(01:21:10):
It's like, oh no, thiscompany needs all of our money, like
like no, no, waits,oh wait, that's cool. The funniest
thing to me about that, andand it it kind of speaks to my
tone of the time was like peoplethought I was on like the Ring of
honor payroll, which I mean,knowing what we know now and what we've

(01:21:31):
heard from people like Leonard when he'sbeen on the show and Jimmy Raves,
and like this is not some bigbudget operation, like it was very much
a mom and pop shop without momto help do some of the work.
Like it's a a very small,you know, operation that somehow felt bigger

(01:21:59):
than And why do you think itfelt bigger than just a regular indie That's
a good question. I think itwas almost how they presented themselves, like
it's fake it till you make it, you know, because I mean they
weren't. There was the indies drawingmuch bigger houses in the same cities that
they were running. But I justDanfield was like, it wasn't Ring of

(01:22:21):
Honor. It wasn't the brand thatthey created. So I was thinking about
this and very much the fake ittill you make it thing. I think
it is a great way to describeit. That phrase didn't come to mind
for me. What came to mindwas that they didn't have wrestling in the

(01:22:43):
name of the company h and Ithought it was so different like end you
had NWA TNA, so you hadNational Wrestling Alliance tole NonStop action. But
this this is a ring of somesort that is going to be honored.

(01:23:03):
So yes, the website was roahwrestling dot com, but it sounded classier
than Combat Zone Wrestling or you know, extreme with an X pro wrestling.
That's a very good point. Inever really thought had they ever talked about

(01:23:24):
how they came up with the nameRing of Honor, Like I know,
they based it off of the wholehandshaking gimmick. So Gabe's wife, Rebecca
was the one that came up withthe name, if I remember correctly.
I don't know what the thought processwas I've asked, gave this, and

(01:23:45):
this is another one of those thingshe just doesn't answer. But I I
have this thought in my head thatit doesn't have wrestling in the name,
therefore it's it's a little classier.Yeah, I get that, And that's

(01:24:06):
like not I don't want to saythat until like knock wrestling, because we
both love wrestling obviously that's why we'rehere and talking about things from twenty years
ago. But like, I can'tbelieve it's twenty years ago. What the
hell? Well? And that's thething, Like I watched Death before Dishonor,
and I think I watched the showa couple of times now, and

(01:24:32):
it feels like part of the naturalprogression. And I don't know if you've
seen the show, but there wasa period where, like twenty sixteen,
twenty seventeen, twenty eighteen, whereit felt like, okay, the next
step had finally been taken in whatyou know, making it a number two

(01:25:00):
company to the WWE. And thenobviously a EW was created, and that's
very clearly right there, head tohead with WWE, and is in fact
what I described as Ring of Honoron steroids And now Ring of Honor has
officially taken that next step. We'llsee what it looks like in the future.

(01:25:24):
But if you watch that death beforethis Honor show or a Supercard of
Honor back in April, like itfeels like the next step in. You
know, they the first step wasall right, we're gonna run a show
and recreational gym that may fit twohundred people, and then they're going to

(01:25:47):
crown the champion in July, andyou know, then they're gonna just run
this string out and then you know, four or five, it kind of
took that next step. Carry balllight they got rid of, you know,
l Pretenue said eighteen, the internetgot behind them, and there was

(01:26:08):
all these Match of the Year andthen the Jocobaschi thing, and I mean
it just it was like every yearthere was some sort of growth, maybe
not financially, but in terms oflike a materest and not already yelling Ring
of Honor on WWTV and you're like, how is this even happening? Perfect

(01:26:29):
example, you know that was Augustof two thousand and five. You know,
a mirror seventeen years ago. Youknow, It's just there was always
something and I think That's what madeRing of Honor so special was there was
always something, and then you getto the end of kind of the company

(01:26:56):
and it's like that something is makingfifty something year old PCO the world champion
doesn't necessarily have the same vibe asoh Man, Like Nigel McGinnis is upset
the giant monster to catch you.Mourashima finally like he's the world champ,

(01:27:17):
you know what I mean? Right? Yeah, definitely like early felt young
hungry guys stake in their claim likethis is we are the future. Here
we are. You're gonna watch whatwe do. We're not WW size,
We're not their style, and that'sthe only style left. So this is
what we're gonna do. Come alongfor the ride. And then, like

(01:27:42):
I've told this before, but mycutoff point for really following Ring of Honor
was when Jerry Lynn won, andnothing but respecting the world for Jerry Lynn.
Don't get me wrong, but Ijust felt different. It felt like,
I don't want to say, betrayalof what Ring of Honor was,
but he also knew it was partof a cashing in for the wrestler,

(01:28:05):
so it's just kind of like grossand it was not a long rain,
but it just wasn't You didn't expectNigel to lose it after such a long
rain to an ECW guy. Thatwas four years after ecwor long a couple
of years. Yes, it wasa couple of years after the ECW like

(01:28:29):
Renaissance and no five you know,so it's even past that. We're just
all right, I get it.Jerry was not part of that Renaissance period.
He was in Yeah. Yeah,So to me, it is strange
in the sense that like we havethis I wouldn't say cut off point because

(01:28:54):
I was so going to shows untilthe Garden. The Garden was my last
show because I always you that islike the perfect Swan song, like go
from these small gyms and armories andand then it's you get all the way
to Madison Square Garden. It's like, okay, how does it get any

(01:29:17):
bigger than this? Right? Andthen the Ring of Honor effort on the
Garden show was I hate to say, like minimal, because that's not fair.
It was disappointing. Yeah, therewas definitely some steps that they took

(01:29:38):
that once again I felt when Iwatched that show. But the Jerylyn winning
also coincided with me becoming huge intoUFC, so it was like the perfect
transition. I was like, oh, instead going the Ring of Honor shows,
I will travel all over the placefor a UFC. So I still
like followed Ring of Honor, Iguess, but the TV wasn't very good

(01:30:01):
usually, I mean Baltimore, soI went to several shows when they were
based out of here. But diddu Burns Arena Yep, yep. So
like, do you have some otherlike standout favorite show memories from those glory
days, because I mean, forme going to all these shows in the

(01:30:26):
different markets, there were things thatworked in Dayton that did not work in
New York, but I had anappreciation for all of it. I was
I just felt like every show Iwalked away wanting more and just like an
addict almost right, Oh no,definitely, I was like, when's the
next one? When's the next one? I love the rex Plux. I
love that building more than anything inthe world. It's just the atmosphere,

(01:30:50):
everything going on, the Greg Ageparties. I was for some reason,
I always liked the mid card morethan some of the main events. Like
some I'm long matches tend to justwear on me. I spent Like I
remember, I went to the onein Philly where Punkin Daniels went sixty minutes

(01:31:14):
within eight minutes. My buddy looksat me. It's like they're going sixty
and I'm like, no, they'renot. He's like, no, they're
going sixty. You can feel it, like twenty minutes and I'm like,
damn it, you're right. Iwas there for when Danielson in Ulsonaries Win
ninety three was it ninety three oreighty three ninety three? Testing the limit
testing that I was there for that, and I'm sure it was. It's

(01:31:38):
really good, but I have ittested my limit and it went past my
limits. I walked out to thelobby once or twice just to be like,
I know what it's happening, butI can't anymore. Well. And
that show was in an hotel ballroom, so it was yeah, in my
not Philly. It was outside ofPhillies Essington. Yeah. It's the weird

(01:32:00):
thing because I think it was afallout to the RF stuff. They lost
the Baltimore building because I think it'sthe Baltimore and they moved to because the
Survival of the Fittest before that itwas supposed to be the Shamrock Cup.
Yes, Shamrock Cup. Coincidentally,that show was the very first date between

(01:32:24):
Shane Hagedorn and Missus Shane Haggart.Oh look at that was it? Was
it the show itself or uh thatI'm not sure of, but I know
Mary came to the show, soyeah. I mean it's just like,
let's say that show stays in Baltimore. Is there a mister and missus hagear

(01:32:46):
right? Are we doing an honorablejourney for you? If Hagever and I
can't do a regular show because hiswife just had a second child, I
mean, like, it's there's somany what ifs. Oh. I've definitely
had those thoughts, Like while driving, I'm like if I was if my

(01:33:06):
dad didn't introduced me to wrestling andbecome a wrestling fan, there are children
today that would not exist because likeI have a friend who my wife introduced
him to his wife, I wouldn'thave known him. We worked together McDonald's
and we didn't like each other untilI found out he liked wrestling, and
then we started talking and hanging outand then I joined. I found out

(01:33:29):
he backyard rustled, so I joinedhis backyard fed and then we became close
friends. But without wrestling, Iwas like, this guy's a prick.
I don't like him. It's justI mean to me, when I think
of like what ifs the Ring ofHonor, I think of like what if
we could have gotten like another twoyears? I think James Gibson on that
run right, like, that's mynumber one because I think that single run,

(01:33:59):
which was just February about five untilOctober or October second of two thousand
and five, that is, youknow, seven months roughly worth of shows.
And I would put his single sevenmonths against anybody else's seven months.
Oh yeah, him and Roderick StrongKabashi Weekend. I tell people that that

(01:34:25):
is just as good as Joe versusKabashi. Like it that match is.
I actually just rewatched it like amonth or two ago and it's still held
up. But so Rodrick Strong wasalways the guy that just the mid card
held that together would have a beautifulfifteen men match that bolstered up their show
like stuff like that. That's whyI think my favorite part of Ring of

(01:34:47):
Honor, Like everyone talks about thetechnical matches, but it really was just
a Smorges borg of every style,Like you had the Carnage crew doing their
thing, you had special k flippingall over the play like it was just
it was the three ring circus.It wasn't just your like technical main event
classics. I think that you know, Haggard and I have talked about this,

(01:35:12):
the Ring of Honor style. Whatwhat exactly is that encompass and it
is it's a Schmore sport of everything. It's just like, all right,
I have an idea throw throw itin the Ring of Honor style pile because
that's it's throwing a honor style likeeverything from a dragon Gate six man to

(01:35:38):
Joe versus Kobashi to Roddy and JamieGibson too. You know, Jimmy Raves
spraying uh you know whatever bug sprayor whatever it was. It it CM
punk to you know a violent steelcage weekend um where I skipped my jew

(01:36:00):
your prom or my no, itis my girlfriend's senior prom um to go
go watch punkin Jimmy and Chicago ina cage, I mean, or else
somebody gonna see that, Like yeah, she needs to understand, Like it's

(01:36:20):
it's that like there are there areso many decisions to travel and dollars and
sense involved. And when you're whenyou have this regular job and you're going
to school and you're doing all thesethings, you have to like allocate money
to make these trips and time.And the wrestling was worth it almost.

(01:36:45):
I mean the batting average is probablynine of the time. Yeah, I
can't remember. There was like something. There's maybe one or two shows I
walked away from it. I waslike, uh, the one in Connecticut
under a tent in the rain Enta. Yeah. I showed up like twenty
minutes late because the rain just slowedme down so much and I should have

(01:37:10):
left earlier and then get there andthey don't on my seat anymore because they
just like everyone's just seeing wherever.Just here's some free DVDs. Shut up,
like okay, well and that's anothercrazy thing too. It was like
if there was an inconvenience or troubleor something happened, it was like,
here have some DVDs and you werehappy, Yeah, because that was a

(01:37:31):
commodity. Oh yeah, No,these were things I was gonna buy eventually.
So I was like, okay,yeah, I'll be quiet, now
I'll find a seat. Yeah.I mean that show in itself is just
so bizarre, like to think thatyou're you're importing Kenta and nail Michi Marafuji,

(01:37:54):
who are these larger than life stalwartsin Noah, which is the in
vogue promotion of the time in Japan, and you're putting him in a tent.
It really is the wrestle in frontten thousand people. And then come
to America and it's in a tentin a backyard of a wherever building it

(01:38:15):
was. It was an armory.I guess that makes sense. Yeah,
because it was it wasn't the soccerindoor soccer place. I don't think names
with with homicide and Brian like thatprevious June it may have been saying I

(01:38:36):
only went to that building one time. It was like it was my birthday
weekend, so my wife and Iwe went to Connecticut and then down to
New York. Yeah, made aweekend of it. I mean that's and
that's the thing that you're making aweekend of these events because they were Friday
and Saturday, so it's not justa one day and then you go home.

(01:38:56):
It's a two day thing because yougot to see what happens on the
Saturday show. If you went tothe Friday show, right, you know,
and that was Brian Danielson in Kenta. Was the main event of the
New York Show. So the firstnight in the Grand Ballroom, ye so
yeah, I mean that was Gloribellon our weekend. Um, you know,

(01:39:16):
two of the bigger you know,it's a tent pole event. It's
two of the bigger shows of theyear, and one of them happens to
be in the tent in the rain, you know. I mean, there
there are so many things, andthere are so many shows and memories and
good things that happened, great thingsthat happened, life you know, life

(01:39:41):
lasting memories. But then there's alsowhat I refer to as l L ro
oh moments. I always talk abouton these fan Journey shows. What are
some of the more like ridiculous,like oh my god, what the hell
was that? Type of moments thatyou can remember from your time I'm going
to shows. See, I stillfind it hilarious. But the whole Dusty

(01:40:04):
Rhodes in the back, like what'sthat smell? Someone pooped in the backs
the carnage crews and it ended upbeing Una and Danny Daniels, right,
yep, and it's just no onecared. It's like, oh, Danny
Daniels, I've heard of that guy, no offense to them. I'm sure

(01:40:26):
it's a nice enough fella, orhe's not. I don't know. But
it did not get over what part. No, it was not exactly the
best introduction, Like the idea ofexpanding the Carnage Crew and then having another
tag team for the Carnage Crew playoffof doing you know, the hardcore brawl

(01:40:47):
matches. Okay, okay, I'lllisten to that. But how they got
to that, Yes, it wasinstellar. And then because it was just
like they're gonna reveal themselves and like, wait, why would they reveal it?
Because there was no reveal. Theywere just like the match was booked
in. They're like, Carnage Crewis gonna fight the two guys that pooped

(01:41:09):
in their bags. We're like,okay, I never liked how Moreshima beat
Homicide. That's just I get whatthey were going for. But for me,
and then Joe beating Moreshima the nightbefore would definitely confuse me, like
why would you do that? Likethis guy's the unstoppable killer, but you

(01:41:31):
killed him the night before. Forsome reason for a guy that, like
Joe was in TNA at the time, he wasn't a regular, He wasn't
going to be a regular. Like, I get it if you're saying up
a rematch, but like that,they had to know that was never gonna
be or at least not anytime soon. Well, I mean, to me,
it was always okay, if Moreshimais beating Homicide, and therefore Morerishima

(01:41:56):
needs to be Joe. If Joeis beating more Shima, than therefore Homicide
is also beating more Ashima. Butthen you're like, are you beating more
Ashima twice on his first weekend?That's kind of you know, booking yourself
into a circle, and maybe notthe best way to do things. But

(01:42:17):
hey, I mean that More AshimaJoe match was fucking awesome. So it
holds up, you know, justto this day. I mean, we
watched it for the pod a coupleof years ago, and it was,
if anything, I think it's betterto watch now then it was at the

(01:42:40):
time. And at the time Iremember live just thinking, good lord,
this is unbelievable. It's not JoeKobashi, But I mean, what is
the New York Show? So Imissed that one, but there's there's something
about that Joe Kobashi match, andI've i al it in a way.

(01:43:03):
It's almost punishing from me, andit's like a lifetime punishment because that feeling
of being in the building and inthe front row and all the magic that
transpired both before and after that show. For me, I have been chasing

(01:43:27):
that feeling every wrestling show I've everbeen to since two thousand and five,
and nothing has come close the offenseto anything I've seen, because I've seen
some just off the charts stuff.I mean Kenny Omega and Brian Danielson and
Brian and Adam Page, and Kennyand Adam Page, like those guys had,

(01:43:50):
you know, a combination of matchesthat were just off the charts,
um Punkin Eddie Kingston on the payper view, punkin MJF. You know,
multiple times over, even like atWWE, I saw Danielson and Roman

(01:44:14):
Reigns on a house show and theywere unbelievable. And this was like before
Roman really like put it together.You know, this was like post WrestleMania
thirty. Brian's the you know,the higher up on the food chain,

(01:44:35):
which is ironic considering how he wastreated there the rest of the time,
but like Roman hadn't like taken thatnext step to be the guy, because
what he's doing now I think isunbelievable. But they had this match on
a house show and it was liketwenty twenty five minutes maybe and Brian and

(01:45:00):
was clearly going at a house showlevel. But his house show level is
so far in a way higher thaneverybody else on that show that it felt
like, Wow, this is unbelievable. But nothing has gotten to that.

(01:45:21):
Joe Kobashi feeling right, and Idon't know if anything ever will. I'm
gonna keep trying to find it andchase the dragon, but I don't know
if anything will equal that. Butthere's we can talk about these great show
moments and matches all the time,but there were a lot of hysterical,

(01:45:43):
ridiculous things that you saw at shows, you know, like Zayas being shoot
monkey flipped or by super Dragon.See I don't know if that actually happened,
but Super Dragon did grab him bythe hair, like trying to pull
him over the guardrail, and hewas like, this is insane, what

(01:46:04):
is happening? Oh, And likethere's little things especially when you sit in
the front row that like maybe aPrince Nanna will say to you that just
you're just like, did he reallyjust say that? Julius Julius Smokes is
a prime candidate for that spot aswell as to the what the what did

(01:46:28):
he just say? Like you know, we hangingarn always does his Julius Smokes
he talks about gerbils and g strings. I mean, those two things don't
necessarily ever like come together in thesame package. But Julius Smokes found a
way to make that a thing.You know, um to me, like

(01:46:51):
Sweeney front Row, you know,his his comments to fans and some of
the things he would do just itwasn't even like a large scale thing.
It was just to get a popout of one person, right, not
necessarily even me. So I wishI'd suck front row more. I usually

(01:47:14):
would get second or third a lotof times, like I bring my girlfriend
and wife and my little brothers,so it would just get expensive. So
I'd be like, oh, I'lljust get third row. It's all the
same. But I should ditch themand just swim by seven front row.
That's a that's another thing to discusstoo, Like ring of honor front row.
Back in the day, it waslike forty bucks and it was a

(01:47:38):
it was a big, you know, temper tantrum on the message board when
it went from forty to fifty andthen fifty to sixty and oh my god,
we're in Manhattan and it's one hundreddollars for a front row Like ah,
if you yeah, And if you'repaying one hundred dollars to sit in
the front row to wrestling show intwenty twenty two, like, that's pretty

(01:48:00):
awesome. That's a good deal.You know, the quality of the wrestling
spoke to what the dollar of theticket price was, and you got your
money's worth every time, and ifif not, like okay, maybe they

(01:48:24):
were, you know, ninety fiveout of one hundred percent of the time,
you got something to take home withyou. Now. I remember,
at our best was fifty bucks forfront row, and there was some commotion
about that, and I was like, oh, I'm good, I'm in
let's do it. Yep. Iremember I sat ga it at our best

(01:48:47):
and then I said, all right, I'm never doing this again. And
then years ago by and I thinkthe last time I sat front row was
like a surf a tag team Survivalof the Fittest, which was like twenty
twenty fourteen or twenty fifteen maybe,and then I was like, you know

(01:49:12):
what, I'm out. I'm done. I've had enough front row. I'm
good. And then I just therest of the time, you know,
I was getting Colm tickets to sitGA, and I was more than appreciative
enough to sit in the GA sectionand depended on the building right like the
Philly Armory. I had preferred GAjust because you had a real good view

(01:49:33):
of everything. Yeah, those bleacherswere great. I sat up there for
Cage of Death and that one Isprung for second row for that. Well.
So we took a bus trip afront of ring Lord fifty nine on
the message board, rented a vanand a bunch of the Midwest people.
We all drove out in the vanand it was like myself, who at

(01:50:00):
a Wrestleholic O eight, my buddyNate m R J mc one oh one
of vander Biatti, Tom bobou Panzerrocket from the Tombs. I don't think

(01:50:20):
I'm missing anybody in the van.But we all, we all took this
van out, you know. Werented the van and drove out and initially,
like I think somebody was supposed tobuy front row tickets for everybody and
then just didn't or overslept or couldn'tdo it, or I don't know what

(01:50:42):
the story was because I don't rememberwhat Philly show at the Armory presuscitated it
possibly help freeze is over because theMarch show was Arena Warfare and that was
obviously at the ec Arena UM.But like I remember we got there.

(01:51:03):
I was like, all right,where's our front rows? And they're like,
oh, we got GA, AndI was like, what the fuck
I'm going to sit in front rowfor Cage of Debt, you know,
like I can't wait to see whatthis contraption looks like. And then all
of a sudden, it's just thecircle cage and that's it. And I
was like, oh, I don'tmind sitting GA. I could see everything
now. It's cool. GA wasgreat. We had a lot of fun

(01:51:27):
sitting up there. Yeah, thatwas a good building for that. I
got to sit with my dear friendmay rest in peace RVT, Paul Kurtzman,
Um, you know during that show, and we had a blast.
UM. But like the Philly Armory, GA, that crowd that night was

(01:51:49):
the back and forth like that wasa lot of fun right, Oh no,
it's so funny, Like the smartestcrowd of wrestling fans we all believed
it was real that night. Webelieved it was Ring of Honor versus CCW,
their fans against us. It's funny. I have a friend now,

(01:52:10):
I didn't know him at the time, but he was there in the CZW
section. He's like, I hatedyou smart assholes. Well, and that's
the thing, like they I thinkwe all bought into it because of the
US versus them mentality, which inhindsight is just fucking genius. Yeah,

(01:52:34):
to be able to manufacture that,And CCW was so stupid that they didn't
capitalize off of lin did nothing.That was something you probably could have run
for an entire year, if notlonger, right, just based off of
the War for South Philly alone.And you know that it starts in Januar,

(01:53:00):
worry, and it's done in Augustin Dayton. Oh yeah, it
did to extend to that neverro Barbarermatch, right yep, BJ and necro
Um. It's just it's crazy tothink like that something so silly, and
it featured guys who all ended upin the Ring of Honor or. We're

(01:53:23):
already there, you know, ClaudioHero, the necro butcher a Kingston.
Yeah, obviously, sorry do yousay Hero? There was so because like
he was always a hot topic onthe Ring of Honor. Board's like bringing
Chris here, No, Chris Herois not good enough, He's not worthy,

(01:53:45):
Like that was a legitimate reaction,Pep. It's like, he's not
worthy of stepping foot in the Ringof one. It's like, how is
he not worthy of anything? Like? Why do we do it? Have
you like, okay, I couldunderstand, Like when Anthony Amo would do
a bring in thread, it'd belike, uh, you know, bring
in Delo Brown, and you getmixed reviews, and then oh bringing why

(01:54:10):
don't Why does Roh bringing in ChrisHero? It was always phrased as bring
in so and so. Why doesn'tRoh bring in so and so? And
I always thought that was fascinating.But the idea that somebody the wrestling caliber
of a Chris Hero is not welcomeEntering of Honor work, But yet half
the people wanted Delo Brown. Nooffense to Delo Brown. I'm a big

(01:54:35):
fan of of his His run inWWF and and WAT and A. But
like at that time, it wasn'tdefinitely wasn't the guy. No, he
was coming off the lowdown tag teamwith Headbanger Mash, who would coincidentally have

(01:54:56):
a few Ring of Honor match himselfas a guardian of truth. And just
like the bringing threads were always funbecause they were ridiculous sometimes, like I
remember bringing Shark Boy thread um thatyou know, there was like one ardent

(01:55:18):
defender and I'm pretty sure it wasShark Boy. But there was always when
the guys you could tell they werethe wrestlers. Yes, come on,
we're not buying this. The onethat always stood out to me more than
anything else because it actually was thepolar opposite type of thread that you would

(01:55:40):
expect it to be. Dog.I believe he was Diggity Dog forty six
at that point. Oh yeah,so so Russ his real name is Russ.
He's one of the smartest people thatI've ever met my life. Great
guy, and he did the bringin James Gibson, bringing Jamie Noble,

(01:56:03):
and he started out his post sayingthat every day until James Gibson or Jamie
Noble was booked in Roage he wasgoing to create a new bring in Jamie
Noble threat, and Gabe had togo in the thread the first day because
every person was like yes, yes, fuck yes, hell, yes,

(01:56:27):
absolutely one, bring him in.No arguing, no fighting, nobody,
just being a a contrarian, thankyou. I couldn't think of the word
nobody being a contrarian, just tobe a contrarian. And it was like
every everybody had united to support thisguy, and Gabe had to like step

(01:56:51):
in and be like it's done,he's coming dating February twenty fifth or whatever
it was, and relax I thinkhe was. He wrote relax in all
capital letters, and it was Itwas like the most bizarre message board threat

(01:57:12):
because there was no fighting, therewas no arguing. There was like all
peace, love and wrestling. Right, you're right there. If we had
more time with Tim, I meanyou could. I wanted to do like
a Jamie Noble and his Rednecks againstTalmicide and the rot Wilers. Nice and

(01:57:32):
I remember pitching Gabe on this isthe opportunity to bring in Tracy smothers.
You could put you know, aChris Hero in this group. You could
take Nate Spider, Nate Webb puthim in this group. Are you get
all these guys from like, IWA, mid South, you're not. You
don't have to go dip into theWWE talent pool or you know, find

(01:57:57):
somebody and make them a quote unquoteSouthern her like Jamie's not even technically like
a Southern or Southerner. He's fromWest Virginia. Like, yeah, it's
the South, but it's also onthe east coast, right, you know,
so you know, and Gabe didn't. Gabe didn't go for it,

(01:58:18):
but you know, he also didn'tgo for my two old scorpio. She
would join the embassy either, Um, who do you? I saw him
russell someone and it was weird.He was on the Testing the Limit show
all right against Yeah. They hada dance off at the end and Jay
couldn't dance and that was funny becauseit was like, I don't know why

(01:58:39):
you're making me do this. Andthe match got clipped on the DVD because
of Aries and Danielson, and Iwant to say it was a four way
I'm talking right now. I wantto say, like Trent Acid might have
been in there, and I thinkthat's Wilmer Trenas had broke his ankle or

(01:59:00):
heard his ankle. Oh yeah,he and Joey which it was getting good,
and then he did a moonsult Ithink and he heard his ankle pretty
bad. It was a steel AlexShelley, Oh okay, but I want
I wanted to Cold Scorpio to jointhe Mbassy and and be like the hip

(01:59:25):
cool Embassy member. While Jimmy Ravesa prick, fight Pro is getting ready
to bring a new professional wrestling styleto the independent scene. A progressive and
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(01:59:48):
a seasonal structure. Fight bro isgetting ready for their debut event in Westville,
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(02:00:13):
information on Fight Pro Wrestling, goto fight pro dot com. That's fight
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(02:00:33):
get it early. Become a patrontoday at patreon dot com slash an armable
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(02:00:57):
an armable pod and get early adfree access and be worthy of an honorable
mention. That show also featured Rockand Rebel and Cloudy. Oh yes,
I distinctly remember that good old PhiladelphiaRock and Rebbell matches. Yeah, and
you got to have a promoters licenseto run Philly. So Rock and Rebel,

(02:01:18):
good old, good old Green Lanternfan turning his back. Yeah yeah,
I mean, here's a head ofhis time. Though, to be
fair, it's true. It's true. You know the Rebel, the Rebel
flag and all that other stuff thatcame with the Rock and Rebel, and
then you know the horrendous activities thatthat he had at the end of his

(02:01:41):
his life on this planet. Um, I guess would have been like twenty
seventeen, twenty eighteen. Think soyeah, um, horrible person. But
you know the ring of honor legacy, I guess is you know all these
great matches and talent that have shapedand reshaped the wrestling business present day.

(02:02:06):
Right, So where where do you, as a fan of the business,
where do you see a ring ofhonor going forward? See, that's tough.
It's gonna be a struggle. Ithink just because you're owned by a
bigger company, you're always gonna bealmost lesser than It's gonna be a tough

(02:02:30):
balancing. I trust them to pullit off to the best of their ability.
But again, Claudia being the championis a huge step in the right
direction. Not nothing against Gresham,but Claudio is a multifaceted talent that long
overdue one probably I would consider thebest tag team wrestler to ever exist.

(02:02:53):
Yeah, the Kings of Wrestling tagTeam, I mean they I voted that
when we did the honorable mention Hallof Fame of Honor first Class. Obviously
the Bristos dominated the tag team inductionrun, but I voted for the Kings
of wrestling on the first ballot,and I just in a perfect world,

(02:03:21):
I could watch the Kings of Wrestlingagainst FTR for the rest of my life
and never need to see another tagteam match. Yeah, I'm curious of
what they gonna either gonna try toget TV because I have so much TV
out there, Like would Ring ofHonor be viable really or would just be
almost impact level of no one reallycares. There's only so much hours in

(02:03:45):
the day that people will all trustand there's insane people like you and I,
but we're unfortunately few and far betweennowadays. Well, I wouldn't go
as far as to say that Ihave gotten to be insane, because really
the only wrestling I do watch onTV is a Wutnesdays and Fridays. That's

(02:04:08):
true. I don't I don't watchImpact. I really don't watch role that
much. If if I turn iton its background noise, I watch AW
weekly for sure. And that's that'sexactly that. Like Mondays for me,
Raw used to be background noise fora long time. It was you know,
and then if you know, Brianor the rock or punk or certain

(02:04:32):
talents would appear, then I wouldturn my eyes to it. But right
now, like Monday nights, Igot Better Called Saul. I got the
shy if I don't get to iton Sundays UM. The documentary stuff that's
on A and E right now I'mwatching on Sundays. UM. So that's

(02:04:54):
why some of my Sunday shows getpushed on Monday. But if you told
me, like I, hey,you can watch Raw or you can watch
Better Called Saul, It's not ahard decision. Yeah. Now, So
I was a couple of weeks ago, I was thinking about how like back
in the day, I was workingin McDonald's and I tell them, I
was like, I have to Ican only work till eight thirty on Monday

(02:05:16):
nights because I have to get homefor wrestling. Like that was like,
this is the rules, deal withit. And now it's like I forget
to turn on it's not thirty.I'm like, oh, yeah, I
guess I should pop it on andsee what's going on. Very similar to
me, I would have Hebrew SchoolMondays and Wednesdays, and Hebrew School would

(02:05:38):
end. I think Hebrew School endedwhen I was fourteen, I guess because
bar Mitzpil was thirteen. So yeah, like spring of ninety nine, and
I tell you what. I Mygraduation from Hebrew School would have been the

(02:05:58):
day after Owen Hart passed away,so May twenty fourth of nineteen ninety nine,
and I remember like it would endlike six thirty and then we'd have
a car pool, so, youknow, like if I wasn't the first
drop off, I was raising hellin the back of whoever it be man
mistaking us home so I could gethome, shower, eat dinner, and

(02:06:23):
then watch Nitro and then rawl likeI had to, Like you know,
there would be a take going inthe basement of whatever show I wasn't watching,
so as soon as one was over, I could watch the other because
I had to be ready to talkabout it at school the next day.
Right. Oh yeah, those werefun. I remember I wasn't getting pay

(02:06:45):
per views at the time. AndSurvivor series ninety eight. The day after
I go into school find the guyI know that ordered it. I was
like, dude, tell me whathappened there, Like the rock turned bad.
I'm like my mind's blown. I'mlike, no, they did,
You're lying up. So it likebreaks down the whole tournament and everything that
happened, and I'm just losing mymind at breakfast, like want no way.

(02:07:09):
That was when Gilbert came back.Yeah, right, yep, Like
he told me that too. It'slike, I was like, who is
the mystery surprise? Was this ShawnMichaels. That's what people were saying and
the like, no, there's someguy named Dwayne Gill And I'm like what,
Like, I didn't remember it wasa jobber or nothing at the time,
so I'm just like, what areyou too? Him? And by
him and very hardy. It wasa tough decision between the two. Well

(02:07:31):
he's a Maryland legend, so yeah, I should have knew better at the
time. But I mean, it'sjust it used to be appointment viewing and
eight I look at a w ifI'm not there to see it in person,
like I'm gonna be home on Wednesday. It's very rare that I have

(02:07:51):
not made it so that my scheduleallowed me to be in my house to
watch AW Wednesdays. Now, Imay be working during the show, but
there's a TV that I just turnmy head there. So and I think
that's what potentially could come of roh. I enjoyed death before dishonor enough and

(02:08:18):
between Claudio and FTR and Wheeler youto Mercedes Martinez finally getting a break.
You know. Obviously Samoa Joe,my all time ROH favorite is you know,
the TV champion, and like,I feel like that is more me

(02:08:41):
than what AW is. But atthe same time, why can't I take
a little of column A and columnB and enjoy them both. So I'm
I'm super excited for what's to come, and I think good things are going
to happen for our oh just becauseof those three letters mean so much to

(02:09:03):
the wrestling business. Yeah, I'lldefinitely have my eyes on there for sure,
because, like I said, Iactually went to the Final Battle.
I was like, oh, Igotta go when we thought it was gonna
be the last show ever, FinalBattle and I was like, I gotta
go, and I end up withfront row seats, so and they kind
of like after the show, Iwas like, man, that was fun.
I forgot much fun these smart youknow, because it had been before

(02:09:26):
COVID at the very least to ashow. So I was like, it
was it was so weird to likebecause I worked the first AW show back
out on the road. It wouldhave been July seventh of twenty twenty one

(02:09:46):
in Miami, and I just rememberthinking like, oh man, it's gonna
be so weird to see like awhole building of people and where they had
us for merch. We were outin like the um the hallway of the
place, so we didn't actually getto see anything on the show. And

(02:10:07):
I remembered being like, oh man, So, like my dad and my
brother was living in Florida at thetime, and I got them tickets to
the show, and they love OrangeCassidy. You know, two non wrestling
fans love Orange Cassidy so and Ilove Orange Cassidy myself. I think he's

(02:10:28):
a wonderful, wonderful talent and agreat man. But the idea that they're
going out into you know, theCOVID world just to go see Orange Cassidy
in this building in Miami that haszero public parking, and you know,
they're you know, it's like halfattached to the hotel. And like I

(02:10:50):
asked them what happened on the showwhen they came out to visit at the
merch table, and my brother washim. He's like, oh yeah,
this guy in a dark suit showedup, but he like super kicked Arn
Anderson and Da Da Da Da Da, and I'm like, huh. I

(02:11:11):
was like, oh, oh,I guess Tommy End works here now.
But I didn't know what name theywere going to use for him or anything.
And I was like, oh,that's cool, like all right,
and they're like, oh, youknow, Sting came out and I was
like, oh, I didn't getto see Sting. You know, nothing
but the idea of like seeing wrestlingwith other people, whether you're a fan,

(02:11:35):
whether you're you're helping out in someway, you know, it's such
a cathartic, joint human experience thatyou, as a fan have to appreciate
because there is nothing like it.You know, you talked about before we
started taking You talked about a Brown'sRavens game that you were at, and

(02:12:01):
as an apathetic Browns fan, youknow, I always would go to Browns
games and just think, all right, we're gonna lose by you know,
three touchdowns, and there'll be abunch of drunks and I'll just sit here
and be a grump the whole timebecause I'm cold and they suck and whatnot.
And you actually came from Baltimore toCleveland to share any Ravens game against

(02:12:26):
rivals, you know, the Browns, because the Ravens used to be the
Browns before Art Model stole the teamand they lose, and you told me
the experience of that, and it'slike that, Yeah, it was a
negative experience for you guys to makethat trip and come all the way here

(02:12:48):
and deal with the obnoxious Browns fans. And as a you know, apathetic
Browns fan, there are no moreobnoxious fans and all of the NFL than
Browns fans. Maybe Cowboys fans,but Browns fans are up there, at
least in the top two. Andthat's an experience, and that's what wrestling

(02:13:11):
gets. It's an interactive experience eventhough those football players aren't doing anything specific
for you, either are the wrestlers. But you're reacting and you're interacting,
even if it's indirectly. So thatleads me to one of my final questions
for you. Do you think thatthe wrestling business is going to sustain long

(02:13:35):
term and more fans, new fansare going to come in and stick,
or do you think it's going tocontinue to have, you know, just
a decline and interest. See whatI think, Like I think the indie
scene is definitely going to shrink.Like the days of the super indies where
all these guys could flown in.I think that's done and over with,

(02:14:01):
and then you'll see things like forme, I think Rustling is something you
need to experience in person, muchmore so than on television. I think
that Like just last week, Iwas in Orlando for vacation and we went
to an XT. I brought myten year old daughter and she was losing

(02:14:24):
her mind at everything because first thebuilding's real tiny's because it's at the performance
Center, so we're like basically fiverows away from the action. Everything's up
close, loud, and she's losingher mind at the good guys winning,
bad guys cheating, all that goodstuff. And like, if this was
on TV, she wouldn't paid asecond thought. She would walk past the

(02:14:46):
TV and be like whatever. Butbeing there, she was like. She
even got so into it she randown the slap hands during a commercial because
everyone was down there. She's likecan I, and I'm like whatever,
so she ran. So I thinkRustling is in good shape. It's much
better than it was before. Aw, that's for sure. Absolutely, there

(02:15:11):
was definitely a period where it wasWW and nothing else there was. The
number two promotion was such a fardistant number two, like when Impact went
downhill. I guess when Hogan camein, like twenty ten. During that
period when they lost Spike, therewas number two was not real. There
was no real number two. Itwas number five. Basically WW was number

(02:15:35):
one. Two through four was vacant. There was number five. But AW
is a true number two with potentialto be number one. And if people
are like, oh, they can'tbe number one, it's two. People
said that about WCW, and Idon't see them making the same mistakes WCW

(02:15:56):
made along the way, So Ithink it's a good shape. I think
indies are gonna hurt a little bitbecause, like price of gas is gonna
and you always see on Twitter indiewrestlers like, oh, we should get
paid more, and I'm like,where's the money coming from there? You
can only draw so much blood fromstone and there isn't as nearly as many

(02:16:18):
indy fans of My Great aw awas a giant indie feel to it with
indie style wrestlers, and I thinkthat's taking the attention away, which is
fine. And then there's some indiesthat will survive, but they're in their
own markets, like AIW is aperfect example. I listened to their podcast,

(02:16:39):
I've seen some of their shows.I'm not I don't follow them religiously
or anything, but they seem tohave a good niche going, and they
know what they are and they knowwhere they're doing, and they're staying in
their zone. They're not blowing budgets. They have a school where their students
are getting reps. You're gonna seea lot more of that as opposed to
like the Ring of Honors of thepast or Jersey All Pros or even the

(02:17:05):
old CZW. I think like GameChange Your Wrestling is the only one that
kind of they've taken the Ring ofHonor idea so to speak, and then
refashioned it in their own style.Their us fascinates me, Like, I
don't know how they've done it.I don't think that style though, is

(02:17:28):
going to influence the industry the wayRing of Honor did, right. I
feel like they've created their own niche, but it's not translatable because there is
companies that have tried that are outthere and you see like you see them
on Twitter and everything, but theyjust don't have nearly the sing buzz or

(02:17:50):
Yeah, game changer fascinates me.I don't. I don't know how they've
done it, but they've pulled itoff during the pandemic too, is when
they like really got the steam couldits to them like that? It's fascinating
what they've done. And it's it'sformer message boarder Brett Lauderdale at the help,
you know, I mean, whatcan we say like the message board

(02:18:13):
the message board created Tony Kahn.Uh, you know he was a DVDR
poster. Yeah, it's so wild, the thing because i posted them there
all the time too, and I'msure I interacted with him at some point
and it's just wild to think aboutcoach it was coached Tony Kay. Yeah

(02:18:33):
that was Yeah. Yeah. Iwas not a big DVDR poster. I
didn't consider myself smart enough to part. I was usually scared to post because
of that, but I was there. I was a reader, not a
poster. Yeah. Um, youknow, and that's I think something that
I've come to appreciate now. Um, with message boards, I know there's

(02:18:56):
a couple, you know message boardsthat still exist, like CCW fans still
exist, and there's roh World's messageboard, which is just zook still out.
Uh yeah, and I'll tell youa couple of using anecdotes off the
name about that um, because Idid sign up over there for podcast plugging.

(02:19:20):
But man, it is a farcry from the Ring of Honor message
aboard all the old days. ButI guess my final uh you know topic
for you is, you know,plug IVP videos. Tell the people what
you do and where to get theirgood stuff. Uh yeah, I'm still

(02:19:41):
going strong. I'm actually the fifteenthwill be the nineteenth year anniversary of me
registering IBP videos dot com. Soit's it blows my mind. If if
I knew it was gonna be aroundthis long, I will thought longer on
the name. To be honest,Well, what is the origin of the
name. It's it's embarrassing, butI wanted VIP videos but it was taken,

(02:20:03):
and so I just was like,IVP that works, amazing. There's
not anywhere near what I was thinking. Nope, but even better. Yeah,
it's it's ridiculous. But I definitelydid not expect me to be still
doing this about the term forty butI I it's I don't even need to

(02:20:24):
anymore. I don't. It's justsomething like I've always done and I don't
know what I would do if Iwasn't doing it. So I'm still here
making blue rays. That's that's usuallythe hot stuff I have. Mystery Boxes.
Took this month off because we're doinga big sale for the nineteenth anniversary
UM which you could find out.Follow me on Twitter at IVP Videos to

(02:20:48):
see all that information coming up soon. But yeah, I'm still here,
still kicking, got a whole backcatalogue of stuff. Whatever you can think
of, I've got it. Anotherthing real quick, I just want to
say, I'm blowing to me.I've had dozens of wrestlers they're like,

(02:21:09):
yeah, my grandmother ordered from youwhen I was thirteen, and that's how
I got into this. And I'mlike, I'm so sorry. But like
I've heard from people on National TVthat were just like, yeah, when
I was a teenager, I orderedfrom you. I'm like, I'm so
old. Why why do you tellme this? Well, I guess I

(02:21:31):
should I should have asked this earlier. But you did some seminars and things
and got involved with sponsoring wrestlers,and you interacted a little bit with Jimmy
Ray amongst others. And Jimmy,of course is a really good friend of
mine. I had Kayla, hisdaughter, on the show a few months

(02:21:54):
ago to talk about Jimmy's life andJimmy as a dad as opposed to wrestler,
and I guess let's end it onsome Junior Rave positive stories. And
you know, I think Jimmy's aspecial guy and I certainly miss him and
his positive attitude that he added atthe end. So let's let's end it

(02:22:18):
with some positive Junior Rave talk.Absolutely. So. I also I book
a small indie promotion here in Marylandcalled EWA, We Run Out bel Air
Maryland. I do the booking,I do the social media, I do
all that good stuff. So Ifirst met Jamie Rave actually I brought him
in for an autograph signing in liketwo thousand and nine. I talked to

(02:22:41):
him off and on over the years, but I flew him to Jersey for
an autograph signing and we actually shota shoot interview that was just about Japanese
stuff. Like it wasn't backstage gossipor dirt. I didn't want any of
that. I was like, justtell me how it is to be an
American wrestling and Pan and your timein dragon Gate and your tour of New

(02:23:03):
Japan. So um, well there'sactually I'll upload that to Google Drive and
just make a phrase everyone can seeit because it's a lot of fun.
It was first, first and onlyshoot interview I ever did. It was
only an hour long, and like, like I said, it's no drama,
just like, hey, you didthis match, how how is adjusting
to Japan? All the good stuff. But I will I will make sure

(02:23:26):
to pass that along to to Kayla, his daughter, and to James his
son. Definitely, they'd love toget their hands on. I made them
um uh compilation sets. He wasthirty four discs overall. Oh nice,
so like his entire wild Side runthrough the end of our oh and some
of the indies at the end,and um sent it off to them about

(02:23:52):
a month ago. So that's awesome. Yeah, it would have been cool.
I have that on there, butI would love to watch that.
Yeah, it was great. I'llsudden that along when you can't even maybe
put it in the notes or signa link or whatever for sure, But
yeah, like he was awesome todeal with. And then years later,
like I said, I talked himoff and on online, nothing crazy,
And when I started booking, Iwas reached out. I was like,

(02:24:15):
hey, do you want to doa seminar? And so he drove down
because he was living in Philly atthe time, and this seminar in a
match and caught up, told somestories, had some fun. Real nice
guy. I do miss him aswell. I wish I kept him more
in touch, but I'm always beenkind of weird about messaging first, but
very nice guy. Yeah, it'samazing all the horrible, horrible stuff that

(02:24:43):
he went through at the end ofhis life. And I talked to him
about a month before he passed away, and he was so upbeat, he
sounded clearheaded. Just it was.It was a conversation I will hold very
close to me for a long longtime because it was like, if you

(02:25:07):
know, God forbid something were tohappen to him, That's how I'm going
to remember him. Right. Yeah, I can't even imagine what he went
through towards the end and losing limbs, and I just it's painful to even
think about. And I said,I wish I'd talked to him more towards
the end. I don't think peoplerealize just how smart of a coach type

(02:25:33):
figure he was, and how heimpacted the lives of so many people that
are in wrestling today. Oh yeah, yeah, there's something that you did.
I didn't partake by watched it whileit was happening, and there's a
lot of good information that a lotof people took the heart. I think
that's the story of Jimmy Raves thatyou know he cared about wrestling and love

(02:25:58):
wrestling just like the rest of us. Oh yeah, a fan when he
passed away, and he's the exactsame age I am, And it was
just like, man, he wasme growing up and he actually became a
wrestler, lived a dream, traveledto count travel the world wrestling dude,
he did the dream. Huh andthat he did, Chris, I can't

(02:26:22):
thank you enough for joining me.This is a lot of fun. I'm
really glad we could catch up andfinally bring the two of us together to
do a fun pod for the peopleout there. Absolutely. I just think
back to two thousand and four messageboard where I'm like calling you names and
You're like, you're just a dirtybootlegger and I'm like, yeah, what
you suck? And I don't evenremember what I said some mean stuff.

(02:26:46):
I'm sure, but we both did, you know, and we're just a
couple of kids, you know,a couple of couple of immature kids.
I know, I for sure wasand in some good are you that I
have? I have matured in onlycertain areas of my life present day.
I don't know why. I justremember because this was what got super Dragon

(02:27:09):
is my hero band. I bumpedone of your posts where it was like,
dear Loki, this is your rolein Ring of Honor because he quit
or something, and you were justlike, your role is to lose sometimes,
yeah, which is one hundred percenttrue, Like God, yeah,
he just is occasionally, damn it. And on that note, that is

(02:27:31):
the perfect ending. Loki, justlose. It's okay. Wrestling is a
work, folks. If you're askedto lose a match, it's okay.
Still mad we didn't get Loki Samojotoo, There's still time. Talk to
your boy. Tony Kaye coach Tonykay I pretty sure after the announcement that

(02:27:52):
he had purchased Ring of Honor,and he mentioned the significance of the Air
of Honor Begins being twenty years agothat week, and he mentioned Christopher Daniels
and Brian Danielson. I don't knowabout the odds of a low key Samoa
Joe too, but there is thathorrid PWG match did Joe put zero effort

(02:28:13):
into? And there's a Jersey AllPro one as well. Jersey All Pro
was so weird back then because likethey would have these crazy matches and then
just no one tried. It seemedlike no one's go see this. It's
not smart marker. I think it'smad traum. No one watches that.
I will I will share a quotefrom a wrestler who I will not mention

(02:28:37):
on air regarding his efforts in JerseyAll Pro. They pay me well and
it's close to home. Who givesa fuck quote unquote, but it was.
And on that note, thank youfor doing this. I really really
appreciate it. Um. I'll I'llthrow it back to the unhonorable Mention Mobile

(02:29:05):
Studios to do the wrap up hereshortly, but check out at IVP videos
on Twitter and IVP videos dot Com. Nineteen years in business. Congratulations man,
that's yes, It's just because Ihaven't given up yet. All right.

(02:29:26):
That was a really great conversation tohave with Chris from IVP Videos a
long time coming and something that youknow I mentioned during the interview and that
we discussed, you know, theold days of Ring of Honor. We're
so special and unfortunately you can't replicatethat, but it was nice to relive

(02:29:52):
some of the old days and beable to look back on them fondly.
Even though we were just a coupleof immature, you know, jerk offs
on the message board. I'd liketo think we've we've turned into good friends
as adults. So thanks Chris againfor joining us, and make sure you
head over to IVP videos dot comget all your DVDs and Blu rays that

(02:30:16):
you need. As far as usgo here at an Honorable Mention. You
can find us on Twitter and Instagramat an Honorable Pod. You can find
me on Twitter at mister Jeff Schwartzzero. You can find me on Instagram
at mister Jeff Schwartz zero and Facebookjust search Jeff and Schwartz. I will

(02:30:37):
be your friend. You can findmy co host changing diapers, reading books,
doing whatever you do to newborns.He's at Hagedorn Shane and that's on
Twitter Shannon hag It or on Facebookat hag It Or on shann on Instagram
as well at Code of Our Bookon Twitter. Code of Honor is a

(02:31:03):
book about the history of Ring ofHonor and its influence on the pro wrestling
industry, written by Shane Agador andEd's coming to a bookstore near you at
some point in twenty twenty three.From what I've read the excerpts, it
is an incredible piece of journalism.I'm so proud of my partner for writing
this. In documenting getting everything allthese interviews, there is some great stuff.

(02:31:28):
You're gonna learn a lot about thehistory of ROH and even though you
don't hear it on this podcast,there's some some new stuff, So check
it out at Code of Honor Book. Be sure to follow that and more
to come on that on this verypodcast in the near near future. Be
sure to head over to our YouTubepage for the non ROH matches of the

(02:31:50):
week. If you're a member ofPatreon, dot com, Backslash and Honorable
Pod, you know some of thegoodies behind the paywall over at the YouTube
page, and that's YouTube dot com, Backslash and Honorable Mentioned Podcast. YouTube
dot Com Backslash and Honorable Mentioned Podcast. Be sure to subscribe like and get

(02:32:13):
over to Patreon dot com, Backslashand Honorable Pods so you can get behind
the forbidden door. At our YouTubepage, we have upcoming events schedule.
There'll be a couple more Honorable Journeyepisodes. I'm going to try and get
those in the can as and ap. Brian Bellinger's joining me on the next

(02:32:33):
one. Joe Condello, Steve Hoethere, you're gonna be joining me on
an upcoming episode. And then whenHagedorn returns to the show, we will
cover Survival of the Fittest twenty eighteen, which is the least favorite Ring of
Honor show I've ever attended and honestlyone of the oddists as well. And
then we'll do Death Before Just Honorseven, Night one and Night two at

(02:32:56):
some point in the near future oncepaternity leave expires for Shane Hagthorn. We
would like to once again officially onBehalf of Me. Everybody that is a
part of our Honorable Mentioned team,you know, the Creative Control Network,
Zach Johnson, everybody else. Congratulationsto the Hagedorn family on the newest edition.

(02:33:22):
Catalina, she is a part ofthe Honorable Mentioned family, and I
guess she'd be the honorable daughter,honorable princess, honorable an, honorable baby,
honorable newborn. I don't know theseare just arbitrary titles, but welcome

(02:33:45):
to the world, kit Kat.You have no idea what you're in for,
but you got good parents and agood older brother to guide you through.
We are brought to you by theCreative Control Network. Be sure to
follow the head of the Creative ControlNetwork, mister Joephin. He's on Twitter
at j w any y through ourd and at the CC network one for
all the latest news and notes onthe Creative Controlled Network. Be sure to

(02:34:09):
follow a verified scientists of sound orastronaut of audio or Pervaria production, the
aids of action figures, the voiceof video games, of Bassmaster General,
the technician of Trouble, the bestbroadcast machine, the award winning autocrat of
advertisement, the cleaner of audio.Mister Zach Johnson. He's on Twitter and
Instagram at Radio ZT and he deliversus the best intro and outro every single

(02:34:33):
week, making sure that we soundcooler than the other side of a pillow.
Anyone with information regarding the murder ofmy dear friend Carnell Sledge and his
friend, Catherine Brown is asked toplease call the Federal Bureau of Investigation for
the City of Cleveland, Ohio twoone six six two two six eight for
two. Carnell and Kate were murderedon June fourth, twenty nineteen, in

(02:34:56):
the Rocky River Reservation under the LittleRain Road bridge between five four and five
to thirteen pm. Honestly, Iread this at the end of every episode,
and there's one hundred thousand dollars rewarddistributed upon conviction. You can remain
anonymous. Reading this means a coupleof things to me. Number one,

(02:35:20):
it means that Carnell and Kate's killerhas still not been brought to justice.
But it also means the end ofthe show. And I don't want to
pontificate too much on the subject,but you know, for all the respect
that I have toward law enforcement andfederal law enforcement for the difficult job that

(02:35:41):
they have, it's undeniably and astoundinglyembarrassing empathetic that they have no information regarding
this case, and that Carnell andKate's killer is still walking free. So
do your fucking jobs. Having saidthat, there is only one thing left

(02:36:03):
to do. That is to quotethe honorable Mayor of an honorable mention our
palace, sal Salernaro. No needto trip out. It's time to dip
out, slap the porpoise. Thisone's over. We're out. Be kind
to one another, keep your chinup, happy everything until the next episode.

(02:36:24):
I hope you take my commentary outof the man because I don't want
to have anything to do with it. What I'm fucking abortion. I see
truth so green red roses, Isee them blue fucking you, and I

(02:36:48):
think to myself, what a wonderfulI see skies of blue and cris white,
the bright blessed day, the darksad night, and I think to

(02:37:16):
myself, what I wonderful? Thecolors of the rainbow, so pretty in
the sky, are parcel on thefaces of people going by. I see

(02:37:41):
friends shaking hands, saying, howvery really saying I do. I hear
Bigger's crown. I might slim.They are like much more then I never

(02:38:05):
know, And I think to myself, what I wonder my world? Yeah?
I think to myself what I wonderYeah,

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Episode 204: Chris from IVPVideos.com (Presented by Patreon.com/AnHonorablePod)

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Episode 204: Chris from IVPVideos.com (Presented by Patreon.com/AnHonorablePod)

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