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Colt Cabana's Art of Wrestling Podcast


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He did raise some interesting points, but Quack is just one of those guys who, when he gets talking, makes me cringe and say, "uh oh, here he goes." 

 

There have been a LOT of really good episodes of AOW, but I think Excalibur and Drake Younger are probably my favorites (besides the Uti story).  Younger didn't really blow any minds, but his enthusiasm and positive attitude come across so well.

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I'm not sure why everyone feels this way about Quack.

 

I'm a Chikara fan. I don't go to every show. I don't own any tapes. But I try and keep abreast of what's happening. I'm also real-life friends with a few people involved with Chikara since there's a decent crossover with the Philly comedy community, so I'm admittedly a bit biased towards my friends. But I know how hard they work.

Like I just fessed up to -- I've done a lot of sketch and stand-up comedy type things. What I do is performance art. What anyone who takes any form of stage does is performance art. Even though I'm not a professional by any means, I've spent a lot of my time breaking down exactly what I want to do as an artist. I look at writing jokes as the same thing as learning how to bump/work a basic move. Once you get that down, then you can work on how to place all the stuff together and work the psychology of a crowd -- it's essentially the same exact thing as laying out a match. I also ran my own show for a while and had to figure out the order of things, and I ripped off wrestling for this -- I wanted a really strong opening act with a lot of energy, then I placed someone I wasn't sure about behind the strong opener, and I tried to end with a main event, and I always tried to arrange the show to leave everyone wanting more to come back.

That's all sort of the same level of wrestling performers and bookers give us right now in shoot-type interviews.

But there are very few people in wrestling (and comedy and all sorts of performance art) who really want to stretch the bounds and challenge the ideas of what performance art means and what can be done on a stage. And out of those few people, there are even less people who will openly and knowledgeably talk about their philosophies as to how they're pushing those limits and, more importantly, why they think what they're doing is important and what the results will be.

Those people are awesome. Quack is one of those people. He freely admits in the interview that "his flavor of ice cream" isn't the right taste for everyone. And he also freely admits that the angle may have limited and alienated some of his audience. But he also explains the concept behind the idea and why he had to sell it the way he did, and why he thinks it will work and is important.

What other person in wrestling thinks this way? What other person in wrestling talks so openly about wrestling being a form of performance art --because wrestling IS performance art. There's absolutely nothing wrong with talking and thinking about his storytelling as seriously as he does.

More performance artists should.

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Quack was starting to give a recap of the storyline but then Colt said something and they got off on something else.Not a bad interview at all really great interview it was interesting to hear Quacks pro wrestling theorys and practices.

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The Chikara return show sold out already, apparently. They haven't announced a thing about the card.

The theme of the past few months in wrestling: Deprivation works. Quack deprived Chikara fans out their beloved promotion. When they return, it leads to a ridiculously fast sell-out and a ton of interest in the promotion. When it appeared the league ended and the main event was shut, people who should know better legit smashed the windows of the venue.

The same thing is going on with Bryan. The fans are being deprived of seeing Daniel Bryan accomplishing his ultimate goal. And it's just leading to a ridiculous snowball in popularity. Bryan got the single biggest reaction in a decade because he stopped the YES! stuff for less than two weeks when he joined The Wyatt Family. People freaked out because he wasn't in the Royal Rumble. A lot of people are bugging out because he's been "buried" (despite being the focal point of the entire promotion since last spring).

 

It's a really great strategy. It's risky. But they're really great.

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I think most people in wrestling understand that wrestling is a performance. Whether they call it an "art" doesn't really make for different thinking processes and outcomes.

 

But yes, Quack is one of the greatest minds EVER in wrestling. But you are missing a point: deprivation works you say. Obv that being out of business for this long makes the return something special and it's already sold out, great! Does that mean that the next shows will be so big that they will make up for the lack of shows and the bad Wrestling is turnouts? That's something else entirely.

 

Deprivation only works if you the outcome compensates the months of privation and fear and struggle. And yes, they are making more noise than your average BIG indy wrestling angle, but that's a Russo argument. Doesn't mean that in June or July CHIKARA will be a bigger company than it was last year... they had huge momentum going last year.

 

 

I tend to agree more with you on the Bryan situation, because I agree that for months the story was that he was better than Orton and evil plans were needed for Orton to win against Bryan in a 1 on 1 match at HiaC. Meanwhile, Bryan beat Cena clean and made Shawn Michaels tap like a bitch. But angles like the Wyatt un-turn as much as they make for one cathartic big moment they fuck up the coherence of the world such that the feud becomes booking team vs Bryan Danielson and the fans where the fans feel that if they hijack shows and chant for Bryan they will make the booking decisions change. No heat on world characters, no heat what fictitious storylines, messed up fourth wall etc. 

 

Sure, if Bryan makes Triple H tapout the fans may believe that Triple H hated to that finish but had to due to the fans hostility etc. and if Triple H wins you may say it was an ego decision and that makes the much somewhat more special. But why try to create real heat to one of the faces of the company? Why turn the crowd against WWE? As a systematic strategy to build outlaw underdogs? I understand that WWE now has different crowd to play with and sometimes babyface vs heel won't be as good as a dynamic as hardcore fans guy vs "masses" guy but that can't be made at the expenses of having anti WWE wrestlers in the roster just to draw from people who are upset at tha WWE.

 

I believe that what they are doing with Bryan is counterproductive, that they lost some of their timing to elevate him, they don't want it overshadowing the other main event angles that they believe is where the money is, and in the end of all this, when the fans accept Bryan's role (whatever that is) I don't think he won't be much higher than where he was at Summerslam 2013 nor do I think that the product benefited from having Cena vs Orton and Orton vs Batista matches when this other guy was more over with the live crowds. 

 

I don't care about Bryan being a main event or whatever, I think that the great thing about him is that you can make him lose against Heath Slater next monday and he will make a feud against 3MB work and will get an amazing and heated match against Heath. As a Bryan fan, I want to see having competitive awesome matches with midcarders. Still, if ever there was a time to give him a run with the title, take advantage of his popularity and try to have some main event angles that the people may care about...

 

That's another thing, the concept of drawing. Can a great story draw better then "drawer + drawer"? WWE seems so obsessed about having its top drawers on the main event and expecting it to draw while at the same time they seem so unconcern about make the stories be logical and consequent. Sure, to have good stories you must have players, but still, I think that at the medium/long term they would have much more to gain by doing some gambling to elevate some guys even if it meant short term drops on ratings and buys (the network provides the best chance ever to do it since they will basically sell the PPVs on packages where youu have to buy 6 at a time, so you can have your 4 drawing PPVs but you can also had 2 PPVs designed to elevate some of the non drawers).

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The only AOW podcasts I avoid are the ones with people currently under contract with WWE or TNA as I feel there is going to be a lot of ass kissing and carny bullshit as to not step on anyone's toes.

 

Other than Zach Ryder's, I can't think of another WWE guy that did a bad podcast with him. The Curt Hawkins one was really good

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I don't follow Chikara and I've even made jokes on here about the promotion, but damn if I'm not going to go out of my way to see the May show after hearing Quackenbush's podcast. As someone who has been struggling to write a book for the last 5+ years, it was really refreshing to hear Quackenbush's take on creativity and persistence.

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The only AOW podcasts I avoid are the ones with people currently under contract with WWE or TNA as I feel there is going to be a lot of ass kissing and carny bullshit as to not step on anyone's toes.

 

Other than Zach Ryder's, I can't think of another WWE guy that did a bad podcast with him. The Curt Hawkins one was really good

 

Dean Ambrose just did one. It was pretty solid. Ambrose hates smarks.

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I loved how Ambrose went off on his "smart mark" tangent, then went on to brag about how he "conquered the indy scene" which is one of the markiest things I've heard someone say on the show.

 

Next to Honky Tonk Man claiming he invented the shoot interview or even worse, Harvey Whippleman claiming he invented the CATCH-PHRASE.

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I don't follow Chikara and I've even made jokes on here about the promotion, but damn if I'm not going to go out of my way to see the May show after hearing Quackenbush's podcast. As someone who has been struggling to write a book for the last 5+ years, it was really refreshing to hear Quackenbush's take on creativity and persistence.

 

 

Quack's books are better than your project. Quit, stop trying to get your shit in.

 

The show is almost sold out, he doesn't need your approval and he doesn't care for your CHIKARA jokes. Cool "I'm gonna take shots at things I don't know" attitude, but when you watch it or hear its people then suddenly they don't seem as stupid as you made them.

 

The funny thing is, Quack makes a living out of CHIKARA and the school, but he preaches that he isn't in it for tha dollar - which is probably what he tells tha boys in order to justify paying them so little - AND all these interviews he is doing are DAMAGE CONTROL "look, we didn't rly close, it was a storyline, you just had to follow : (" interviews. Granted, he turned a negative into a positive with amazing skill and creativity but the interview that inspired you so much was a W O R K. And imo boring, his books are better.

 

 

 

 

 

The only AOW podcasts I avoid are the ones with people currently under contract with WWE or TNA as I feel there is going to be a lot of ass kissing and carny bullshit as to not step on anyone's toes.

 

Other than Zach Ryder's, I can't think of another WWE guy that did a bad podcast with him. The Curt Hawkins one was really good

 

Dean Ambrose just did one. It was pretty solid. Ambrose hates smarks.

 

 

And Nerds, and DGUSA, and the fact that indy wrestlers are idiot marks.

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I don't follow Chikara and I've even made jokes on here about the promotion, but damn if I'm not going to go out of my way to see the May show after hearing Quackenbush's podcast. As someone who has been struggling to write a book for the last 5+ years, it was really refreshing to hear Quackenbush's take on creativity and persistence.

 

Mike understands The Hero's Journey. The guy is definitely someone TNA should have as their head booker. I know Chikara just came off a company takeover angle some time ago with BDK but it was probably one of the best (and dare I say THE BEST) company takover angle done in America in the last 15 years. I have been working on a few screenplays myself over the years- so hearing that there is someone with the same mindset in pro wrestling and wants to bring wrestling to a new demension by BRINGING IT TO THE FANS FRONT DOOR...is pretty cool. WWE is too corporate. TNA has NO CLUE. So I hope Chikara in 2014 continues to do what they do.

 

I am not going to pretend to be a HUGE Chikara mark or even pretend to know more than 8 of the wrestlers there, but that podcast will definitely have me check out the show. Plain and simple. Mike Quackenbush GETS IT.

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Yes he does. Pretending he doesn't care about the "vanilla ice cream fans" and he promotes for tha special snowflakes make normal dudes want to check CHIKARA so they can become a speshul snowflake themselves.

 

ECW was the same thing, ROH idem until the shows started to get worst and wrestlers started going to other places (at one point, ROH fans rly believed that ROH wrestlers looooved ROH so much they'd want to be there forever and never go to corporate meanies like WWE and TNA).

 

But some of this PERFORMANCE ARTS stuff and being hurt by trolls is mehish

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