You guys were idly chatting about movies on one of your podcasts and how you’d like intermissions to come back for certain ones. Do you think intermissions should make a comeback for certain wrestling shows?
Most major sports are between 2.5-3.5 hours with multiple intermissions. For those longer AEW or NJPW PPVs, do you think two hours, a 15-20 minute intermission (where you could show a dark or pre-show match for that time on the broadcast), then the rest of the card would be an easier way to keep the crowd energized? I know that when I attend live events it’s nice sometimes to have an extended break for food, a smoke, and a bathroom break.
Or do you think 15- 20 minutes of downtime would take the crowd out of the show.
Have you guys started talking about possibly going to Mania 40? As a fan of yours now for 12/13 years I keep missing your live shows as the manias I go to tend to be ones yous don’t! Going for 40 though.
Opinion, where does the Bloodline Arc lie in the conversation about the greatest storyline arc created by the WWE/WWF history for you guys if we argue an arc most last 9-12 months.
And longer question a bit more complicated. At what point do you feel you stepped out of the only a fan of wrestling into the journalist shoes throughout your careers and do you feel it has affected your overall enjoyment of being a fan having to analyse everything from that perspective? Also do you still get lost in the entertainment of it all and moments created by any feds and if so what was the last time you really felt that happen?
But I first heard of Wai from his Wai-in show. I think someone shared a clip in the old sherdog forums or something.
Anyway, a lot of that old content was you playing a character and having hilarious yet cringey moments. It was kind of ahead of its time.
But you’ve also mentioned something to the effect that the experience was negative or at least hard to endure.
Can you talk about whether playing that character took a mental toll on you? And was there a specific video or experience you had that broke the camel’s back where you felt you had enough?
Do you think the pairing with Vince doomed Austin Theory from the start? Anything to do with Vince has go away heat for me and I think most of the current audience feels the same way. Cheers!
I’d like to know your thoughts on the Reddit fiasco between the mods and admins over 3rd party tools. To give a brief explanation, the mods, who are unpaid, depend on 3rd party tools. Reddit, who is trying to go public, did a shakedown on developers who have monetized and profited off such tools in exchange for making Reddit a much more enjoyable site. The mods waged a war against Reddit via silent/loud/silly protests and basically took the users for a ride.
With all of that typed, how do you feel about this, and did it change your view of Reddit? It does feel as if Reddit is a site that many wrestling journalists and sites have strayed away from.
Hey John, Hopefully you can shed some light on my question. In most interviews with people in the wrestling industry, I’ve heard about Tape Trading. I’m around the same age as you guys so when the internet came around, I was using AOL for wrestling chat rooms, downloading photos of Sunny and a few years later browsing websites for free wrestling news / rumors.
With the internet making finding wrestling so easily accessible to people now, i’m curious how people actually would find other Tape Traders & how the Tape Trading process worked before the use of the internet.
Was it done through a company like in the early stages of Netflix where you selected from a list, gave your payment info and after returning one tape, your next tape would get sent to you?
Or was it a system amongst pen pals who would send you a random tape and you pass it on to someone else?
Thanks to both of you for your time and great work.
From what I noticed so far, AEW Collision has made a positive change in the pace of both it and Dynamite related to its pacing and use of promos and video packages. Given its constant movement and ratings decline, do you see Rampage staying in its current timeslot? Or does TNT keep it on air?
Also, the crowds in Hamilton were vocal, I rewatched the broadcasts, and there were entire chants not being picked up. So, I think the Hamilton crowd was potentially hampered by AEW’s crowd mic’ing. I saw the more large Senhiesser environmental mics on the hard camera side, where there weren’t many people seated, but not on the opposite side with the crowds.
Have either of you watched the Netflix or ESPN documentaries on American Galdiators and if so, what were your thoughts?
Although watching both gives a thorough story I found Netflix’s version surprisingly insightful with focus more on the athletes where ESPN focused a lot on the creator and co-creator which could have been condensed into a much more concise story in my opinion.
There seemed to be a lot of parallels to the gladiators and professional wrestlers so cross-over seemed a sure thing but all I can find is “Malibu” did 3 professional wrestling matches and he and his late wife were in training for WWF before her passing.
Were there any other cross-overs between the two besides hogans hosting duties of the failed reboot and if not, why do you think these two worlds did not cross paths sooner?
Because according to the ESPN documentary WWE is going to launch a version of American Gladiators with wrestlers.
With Collision being on a Saturday night, which is not a school night so children can theoretically stay up later, do you think AEW should try to cater to a more child friendly audience, not by necessarily changing the tone of the show or stories, but by toning down the violence and language?
Now we’ve seen how Collision performs against a big WWE PLE (not well), how would you book the Collision on the night of WrestleMania? Load the card up or throw in the towel?
As I slowly approach ten years in my current job, I am currently thinking about ‘what if’ questions. So here is one for you. If you suddenly woke up ten years ago to the month, what is something that you’d miss about 2023 and what is something that you’d find in 2013, that you miss right now?
With the obvious and inveitable comparisons between Gable Stevenson and Kurt Angle ramping up now that Stevenson is being featuerd in-ring, it made me wonder - am I remembering Angle’s first year or so in the WWE wrong? In my mind he was the complete package almost instantly - but was this actually the case? Was he greener then I remember?
As one of 3700 members on strike currently from Metro’s in the GTA, I’d like to thank you guys for providing great content every week as the days tick on. My question to you guys is have either of you guys been in a union and if not, what are your opinions about unions in general. Thanks for giving me something to listen to as I march the lines.
I was watching the Naito/Okada finals, and I fell asleep. I woke up, continued the match from the spot I last remembered, and proceeded to fall asleep again.
So my question is what is a critically acclaimed match that you did not enjoy?
First, shout out to John for being the only person I know to call it a single man Spanish fly, acknowledging its origins.
Second, in your opinion, why do you think stardom’s Cinderella tournament is so much more popular to the 5* Grand Prix? To me, it would be like everyone talking about the New Japan Cup over the G1, but if half the matches in the njc were 4 min long and ended in over the top rope dq’s. As an aside, if you have 11 minutes, watch Syuri vs Suzu Suzuki from night one, a phenomenal match that didn’t need to be 45 min to tell a great in ring story.
This is not a question, I am listening to the lastest of talk and the importance of self care came up. I do agree with you guys that prioritizing self care and being able to walk away things when they get too much is needed. Keep up the great work guys, you have built quite network in these past few years. You men should be proud.
Question probably more for John since I think he’s more of a reader than Wai:
I have just received 2 books by Jonathan Foye; one called ‘Ganbaru’ about the All Japan 2000 roster split and another called ‘The Muto Years’. I don’t know much about AJPW and Noah outside what I’ve heard on the post podcasts and I’m looking forward to learning about these promotions. Have you read either book and if so, what did you think?