Pro Wrestling Podcasts - 2025

[driver]

Today I listened to the latest episode of Charting The Territories and Al Getz announced that the pod will be wrapping up with the September episode due to health issues. I've listened to it since '01 and loved it for it's complete dorkiness and the fact that it hit on an era I was unfamiliar with. It will be missed. I hope he gets his health back.

 

[Cobra Commander]

the WWE/Saudi talk on the BTS halftime show probably isn't breaking any new ground compared to the other times that topic comes up but the mentions of boxing in Saudi.. boxing has a much longer history of questionable ties (hey, Rumble in the Jungle and Thrilla in Manila weren't exactly in democracies)

you know there's people in the TKO-sphere lamenting that Russia invaded Ukraine and now they can't run shows in Russia

[Technico Support]

4 hours ago, Cobra Commander said:

you know there's people in the TKO-sphere lamenting that Russia invaded Ukraine and now they can't run shows in Russia

I don’t think that would stop them.  I think it’s because 1) Russia isn’t trying to sportswash yet and 2) Russia is really poor and the only people who could afford tickets in TKO’s “forget regular people; just target the whales” strategy are the oligarchs, but they’d expect comps.

[Cobra Commander]

i'm not expecting them to run a card in Dagestan, but I'd think all the Dagestani UFC guys would be on a UFC card in Moscow if said thing was workable at the moment

[Elsalvajeloco]

They had two shows in Russia in 2018 and 2019. They has never been talked of going back since then. 

[AxB]

When Triple H was on BBC Breakfast, they asked him about doing Wrestlemania in London, and he flat out said "We expect cities and countries to bid for our events". Which, there's no way any London Mayor is ever going to give Taxpayer's money to the WWE to entice them to run a show there, it would be a scandal that would kill their career and haunt them forever. But secondly, I doubt Russia has the liquidity to get TKO over to run shows there, whether it's WWE, UFC or both (and apparently it generally is a 'Buy One, Get Second Half Price' package deal).

I don't think WWE's whale-fishing business model is sustainable. UFC can keep it up, because they're running the big buildings only once a month, everything else is in the Apex, which is tiny. WWE running Raw and Smackdown every week in enormo-domes, with jacked up prices all over the place... wrestling is fundamentally a working class sport. If you drop your life savings on going to WWE once (or go into debt to do it), you can't/ shouldn't do it again a few months later when they're back in town.

There was a tiktok that got decently big, where some lad in Texas was looking to go to a live Smackdown, looked at how much the most expensive ticket was, looked at how much the cheapest ticket was, and then had a look at All In ticket prices for a comparison... and now he's going to All In, because pitch seats there were substantially more affordable than back row, up in the Gods seats for a WWE TV show.

[odessasteps]

At least, in major international sports, Eussian athletes and clubs are still being sanctioned and what not. Russia is still banned from things like the Euros and the Champins League.

[Cobra Commander]

Cornette randomly dropping a story about he and his mom hoarding silver and the boom in silver prices in 1979/1980 during his talk about the Crusade for Children https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3zcZ9igtko

[SovietShooter]

20 hours ago, Technico Support said:

Russia isn’t trying to sportswash yet

Eh, the 2018 World Cup and 2014 Sochi Olympics were definitely sports washing. 

 

20 hours ago, AxB said:

I don't think WWE's whale-fishing business model is sustainable. UFC can keep it up, because they're running the big buildings only once a month, everything else is in the Apex, which is tiny. WWE running Raw and Smackdown every week in enormo-domes, with jacked up prices all over the place...

I think sooner than anyone thinks, WWE is going to move to a similar model. When they start to hit a period where ticket sales are down, I can see them doing something like running an Apex-like small venue for standard TV tapings, and then running the "premium events" from major arenas, with the WrestleMania/SummerSlam/Survivor Series/Royal Rumble level shows being where they put them out for bid. With the decline of house shows, a schedule like this would put more of a premium on the event. Imagine if WWE only comes to cities like Pittsburgh, Kansas City, Dallas, etc like once a year. 

[Cobra Commander]

I wonder if some of the WWE ID system and reduction in house shows is gonna end up with them farming out live events to "friendly promoters" (if any could be herded) who will absorb enough of the costs of putting on shows with farmed out talent where the losses aren't on the TKO ledgers or aren't as glaringly on the ledgers

[SovietShooter]

I can see a situation where a Live Nation or IHeart type of company thinks they could make money putting together a tour, and paying TKO a flat fee.  They already control a lot of large venues.  

[RazorbladeKiss87]

1 hour ago, SovietShooter said:

I can see a situation where a Live Nation or IHeart type of company thinks they could make money putting together a tour, and paying TKO a flat fee.  They already control a lot of large venues.  

NXT at Cochella? Evolve at When We Were Young? A Live Nation/TKO team up wouldn't be surprising.  

[SovietShooter]

24 minutes ago, RazorbladeKiss87 said:

A Live Nation/TKO team up wouldn't be surprising.  

I'm just looking at it from the perspective where TKO might say that, aside from fulfilling their tv obligations, they aren't going to run events that people are not paying them to run.  And if their television partners are on board with an Apex-like setup, then basically any tours or live events outside of a PPV/PLE situation would have to be bought by someone. A live event promoter like Live Nation makes sense. Then, WWE can basically downsize and refocus their promotional team. 

[odessasteps]

Does your organization need a fundraiser? Call TKO to bring the stars of the WWE to your school. 

[Elsalvajeloco]

14 minutes ago, odessasteps said:

Does your organization need a fundraiser? Call TKO to bring the stars of the WWE to your school. 

Jimmy should have been raising funds for the promotion instead.

[odessasteps]

In my experience, a promotion usually got a flat fee for a sold show and the sponsor kept the tickets and concessions. 

[SovietShooter]

It depends. For a lot of charity "fundraiser" type shows, especially at the Indy level, there is usually some sort of split; Maybe a 50/50 split on the gate.  Promoter provides the ring and the wrestlers, the charity provides the venue, and gets concessions. 

Now, a "sold show" was completely different. I promoted and worked more than a few sold shows that were at street fairs and such.  Basically wrestling was an attraction as part of a bigger event, and the organization paid a flat fee to have wrestling there. If they wanted to charge an additional fee to watch the show or whatever, that was up to them, but these were usually outdoor shows in parking lots or whatever. 

[odessasteps]

Yeah, I’m sure every promotion is slightly different. I should ask Beau how it varies, since he does a ton of fair shows this time of year, 

[Casey]

4 hours ago, RazorbladeKiss87 said:

NXT at Cochella? Evolve at When We Were Young? A Live Nation/TKO team up wouldn't be surprising.  

In the past, WWE has worked with Danny Wimmer Presents to put NXT live shows at the Aftershock and Louder Than Life festivals, so this wouldn't be breaking new ground or anything. I really don't see TKO getting involved with the iHeart Music Festival though - can't imagine the crossover between Tate McRae fans and EVOLVE or NXT fans is all that big lmao

[Elsalvajeloco]

6 hours ago, RazorbladeKiss87 said:

NXT at Cochella? Evolve at When We Were Young? A Live Nation/TKO team up wouldn't be surprising.  

Coachella might not be a crazy idea when you think about it. Now that the Palm Springs/Coachella Valley area has an actual arena now (Acrisure Arena), that might be feasible. I mean you can have a free show on the grounds with the younger wrestlers during the afternoon and then have your big show in the arena not too far away. 

[Cobra Commander]

2 hours ago, Casey said:

can't imagine the crossover between Tate McRae fans and EVOLVE or NXT fans is all that big lmao

"Tate, you're from Calgary, do you wanna meet Bret Hart?"

"I was born in 2003, who's Bret Hart?"

[Casey]

5 minutes ago, Cobra Commander said:

"Tate, you're from Calgary, do you wanna meet Bret Hart?"

"I was born in 2003, who's Bret Hart?"

"Do you wanna meet Blake Monroe?"

"What do you mean? I've already met Sabrina Carpenter."

[Cobra Commander]

Tate McRae is a very NXT-ish sort of real name

[AxB]

There used to be Wrestling at Dowload festival in Castle Donington. In 2015, it was Progress Wrestling, but then NXT UK took the spot and started running it like a house show/ taping there. And then after the pandemic happened and NXT UK stopped being a thing, Lucha Britannia took over.

[SovietShooter]

Back in 2007 (and again in 2014?)  AAA was running a few matches at Warped Tour tour stops in the US.  it was basically some of the minis and preliminary guys working a couple matches between sets on the main stages.