Podcast Potpourri (aka Not Austin, AOW, Talk Is Jericho....)

[The Green Meanie]

5 hours ago, odessasteps said:

Very tired of the PPV simulcast gimmick for pods of late. Usually skip them nowadays.

This one was actually the first one I've ever done, and I really enjoyed it.

However, I could see after a while how it would grow stale.

[odessasteps]

They have done often on Schiavone’s show. Can’t speak for Bruce’s show, since I don’t listen to it. Seems like it is an easy format for Conrad to use.

[The Green Meanie]

First one I've heard on Bruce's. I just started listening to Tony's.

[MORELOCK]

This may be the first actual simulcast on Bruce's show, but it seems like all they ever do anymore is PPV-specific shows anymore and it's a really boring script - Conrad reads a month's worth of dirtsheets and Bruce explains why Meltzer is full of shit and Conrad exhibits angry disbelief that Bruce won't confirm ancient Internet rumors. They're a lot better when they do wrestler-specific shows.

[odessasteps]

Bowden pod this week has early First Family stuff from 80 and 81, including some great Dream Machine stuff. 

[Technico Support]

On 11/27/2017 at 6:31 PM, The Green Meanie said:

Something To Wrestle With Bruce Prichard Survivor Series 1987 was amazing, a must listen, and even better when you listen to it synched up with the PPV.

Horrible show.  An hour in, Prichard has already told us that it was the cable companies who asked Vince for Survivor Series, stated that PPV essentially belonged to Vince and it was his right to run off anyone he wanted, and that he's never known Vince to want to run people out of business.  If you want to be lied to by a guy who just thinks you're a dumb fucking mark, this is definitely the show for you.

[Hagan]

I don't disagree in this instance. Bruce is spinning like a motherfucker. However, I am amused that when Bruce contradicts "common consensus" on a topic a lot of people fly into a rage. It's possible that Bruce is being truthful, or telling the truth as he sees it on a lot these topics. 

I would put the absolute lying at around 20 percent per show. The rest I see as either his interpretation (which, naturally, is going to be pro WWF) or truthful. 

[odessasteps]

For you northwest folks, Tim Flowers is on Killing the Town this week. 

[BEN!]

http://wcwmondaynitropodcast.libsyn.com/

Kind of similar in tone to JJ Dillon's podcast but from the production side.

[odessasteps]

This is a must (NSFW) Listen. Ron Fuller telling this story about his grandfather Roy Welch and his days as a carnival shooter. Also a story about the original Dutch Mantell.

 

[The Green Meanie]

On 11/29/2017 at 8:51 AM, Hagan said:

However, I am amused that when Bruce contradicts "common consensus" on a topic a lot of people fly into a rage. It's possible that Bruce is being truthful, or telling the truth as he sees it on a lot these topics. 

I would put the absolute lying at around 20 percent per show. The rest I see as either his interpretation (which, naturally, is going to be pro WWF) or truthful. 

Gotta agree here. I'm really amused with the people (including Conrad) that get so upset over their perceived view of Bruce just automatically lying about (most) questions regarding Vince and/or the company.

[Craig H]

I think he's full of shit. Every time he opens his mouth with "Uhhhh" or "Ahhh" he's about to lie his ass off. Case in point, Friday's episode was about Scott Steiner. This fuckin' guy is asked what the Steiners were like in the WWF, did they cause problems, etc. And he, lying through his teeth, regards the Steiners as total professionals who never did anything wrong. Conrad is like, "uh, are you sure because why would they have that reputation in WCW, but be squeaky clean in WWF." Bruce is like, they just were so I don't know what that was all about in WCW.

And then today that got addressed on the podcast with Tony Schiavone. A lot of people know about the Steiners antics. You would be dumb not to know if you were actively employed by WCW or WWF at that time. So anyway, Schiavone talks about how the Steiners shoved 6 Sharpie pens up someone's ass, Conrad mentions how in WWF they tied Mo from Men on a Mission to a urinal and then pissed on him and another worker talked to Conrad about the story of how the Steiners shot that particular worker with a gun that had a blank in it. This doesn't even address their other antics or how they stiffed the shit out of people or blatantly injured other workers. And Bruce is all, "they were total gentleman."

I think I mainly listen to the Bruce episodes just to see how full of shit he's going to be. Anyway, the Starrcade '91 episode with Tony is hilarious. I've been laughing a lot through this one.

[DukeCaesar]

Download data might say otherwise, but good god, the 3 to 4 hour length of these Conrad Thompson podcasts has finally did me in as a weekly listener.   I would imagine people listen to more than one weekly podcast throughout the week even people that don't leave the Wrestling Bubble~!  It was sort of revealed that Schiavone isn't that great when discussing stuff without a pay per view in front of him to jog his memory for good stories but surely they could chop them up into 2 parters.  I would assume an average work commute is around an hour so if i was the pope of podcasting (and not just for wrestling ones), I'd set a limit of 2 hours.  And to hop on the Bash Bruce bandwagon, he can be engaging at times but 4 hours of dancing around some of the sticker issues isn't the best use of 4 hours.

[Guest Stefanie Without Stefanie]

Don't get me wrong, Prichard can be stunningly full of shit, but I think something else to consider was that Prichard was management, whereas Schiavone was more like one of the boys. The experiences aren't going to be the same between the two of them, especially when it comes to ribs (Prichard has been adamant that he wants nothing to do with ribs). Considering WWE's locker room history has a fairly notorious history of bullying not even registering on their radar, though, it wouldn't surprise me if he didn't know anything about people being tied to urinals and pissed on. Either that or it was no big deal to him and he saw it as a rite of passage for a newer person to get humiliated (see Prichard's response to Scott Hall getting beer dumped on him while trying to get clean as "if you don't like it get out of the business", and that was an established guy, not a newcomer like one of the Men on a Mission guys).

[cwoy2j]

17 hours ago, Craig H said:

I think he's full of shit. Every time he opens his mouth with "Uhhhh" or "Ahhh" he's about to lie his ass off. Case in point, Friday's episode was about Scott Steiner. This fuckin' guy is asked what the Steiners were like in the WWF, did they cause problems, etc. And he, lying through his teeth, regards the Steiners as total professionals who never did anything wrong. Conrad is like, "uh, are you sure because why would they have that reputation in WCW, but be squeaky clean in WWF." Bruce is like, they just were so I don't know what that was all about in WCW.

And then today that got addressed on the podcast with Tony Schiavone. A lot of people know about the Steiners antics. You would be dumb not to know if you were actively employed by WCW or WWF at that time. So anyway, Schiavone talks about how the Steiners shoved 6 Sharpie pens up someone's ass, Conrad mentions how in WWF they tied Mo from Men on a Mission to a urinal and then pissed on him and another worker talked to Conrad about the story of how the Steiners shot that particular worker with a gun that had a blank in it. This doesn't even address their other antics or how they stiffed the shit out of people or blatantly injured other workers. And Bruce is all, "they were total gentleman."

I think I mainly listen to the Bruce episodes just to see how full of shit he's going to be. Anyway, the Starrcade '91 episode with Tony is hilarious. I've been laughing a lot through this one.

I'm about 90 minutes into the Steiner Brothers episode and it's pretty shitty. Bruce isn't giving up anything. Fairly boring. 

I was listening to the Starrcade 91 episode yesterday at work and literally spit my water all over my monitor when Tony busted out the "roll of bologna" one liner. I enjoy the interactions b/t Tony and Conrad more than Conrad and Bruce as it seems lighter and more natural. Conrad and Bruce seem to have a forced antagonism at times and the "Dave Meltzer is the devil" and "you weren't there so you don't know" stuff gets to be eye rolling. Tony and Conrad started off like that a bit but I think they realized that was dragging the show down and they changed the tone of it and it's a much easier and more enjoyable listen.

[cwoy2j]

The one interesting thing I've gotten from Bruce discussing Jim Johnston's departure and also Demolition Ax' lawsuit over the gimmick is that Vince will let certain talent use their gimmicks on the Indies and others they'll send a cease and desist. It really depends on Vince's mood and relationship with the person. Now I'm not a fancy law talking guy, but I'd have to imagine that being arbitrary like that can't be good from a legal standpoint. Wouldn't letting a couple of guys slide set some kind of precedent? Say for instance, a guy leaves and they deny him from using his gimmick on the Indies. What's to stop him from saying, "well they let Shane Helms use The Hurricane gimmick on the Indies? Why can't I use mine?" and using that as leverage in court.

[MORELOCK]

I mean, if you're looking for Prichard to dish dirt and say shit like "The Steiner Brothers are awful people and terrorized the locker room" or "Sylvan Grenier was only employed because he was fucking Pat Patterson," then you might as well stop listening now. That's never been what the show is about and he clearly steers it away from that every single time Conrad tries to do a "gotcha" with some old Meltzer rumor. The only reason it comes up all the time is Conrad keeps asking stupid questions. 

[cwoy2j]

I know he won't get into crazy details like that and quite often, it's Conrad's fault for asking questions he clearly knows Bruce isn't going to answer, but some substance would be nice. He (Bruce, pronouns pal!) tap dances around everything. There's a difference b/t just dishing dirt and giving a truthful answer. 

[Guest Stefanie Without Stefanie]

I disagree re: legality of gimmicks on the indies putting WWE on shaky ground. If a copyright holder grants permission to someone to use that intellectual property, then it would be okay. It's when they don't get that permission that the lawsuits come in. It's essentially a licensing agreement, and whatever compensation the copyright holder deems to be fair is all that's asked for.

[The Green Meanie]

13 hours ago, MORELOCK said:

The only reason it comes up all the time is Conrad keeps asking stupid questions. 

 

8 hours ago, cwoy2j said:

I know he won't get into crazy details like that and quite often, it's Conrad's fault for asking questions he clearly knows Bruce isn't going to answer, but some substance would be nice. He (Bruce, pronouns pal!) tap dances around everything. There's a difference b/t just dishing dirt and giving a truthful answer. 

This. I think this is the crux of the issue. Conrad comes off as a money mark almost most of the time, and his "research" can be lacking. I'd like to hear an episode of just Bruce working at his own pace, solo. His mini-video updates on Facebook are nice, but I'd like them to be longer.

[odessasteps]

Even though he is a Twitter pal and a pod guest, I can't believe Richard Deitsch named the Pritchard show his podcast of the Year. 

[cwoy2j]

10 hours ago, The Green Meanie said:

 

This. I think this is the crux of the issue. Conrad comes off as a money mark almost most of the time, and his "research" can be lacking. I'd like to hear an episode of just Bruce working at his own pace, solo. His mini-video updates on Facebook are nice, but I'd like them to be longer.

My big issue with it is that it all seems very forced. The Conrad on Tony's podcast is way better and more listenable than the Conrad that's on Bruce's podcast. It seems like he's trying to cajole and wheedle info out of Bruce whereas the conversation and back and forth is more natural and enjoyable on Tony's podcast, even when Tony doesn't remember something or doesn't want to divulge details.

[cwoy2j]

13 hours ago, Sasha said:

I disagree re: legality of gimmicks on the indies putting WWE on shaky ground. If a copyright holder grants permission to someone to use that intellectual property, then it would be okay. It's when they don't get that permission that the lawsuits come in. It's essentially a licensing agreement, and whatever compensation the copyright holder deems to be fair is all that's asked for.

That makes sense. However, it all does seem very arbitrary. For instance, Hurricane said that WWE doesn't bother him over him using his gimmick in the Indies. He changed his logo and gear just enough so that it's not exactly the same thing he was wearing in WWE but he's playing the same character and essentially wearing the same outfit. From what I gathered from the interview I heard with him (I wanna say it was on Lance/Cyrus' podcast), It doesn't sound like there was any formal agreement to let him use it, they just don't fuck with him over it b/c he left on good terms. I'd think the lack of any written agreement to let him use it would hurt WWE if someone who left on bad terms wanted to use their gimmick elsewhere. Either that or it would force them to make guys like Helms actually sign some kind of contract to use their gimmicks. 

[Hagan]

Bruce and Conrad dropped a FIVE HOUR PODCAST ON EDGE. Jesus Christ. I don’t think Beth Phoenix would even listen to that.

[PetrolCB]

To be fair, Conrad even said it sucks and to skip it. At least he knows when an episode is shit. He’s done it before. Austin episode from Tony’s show for example. There have been others he’s said to skip too.