Firstly, congratulations to John and his family, hope everyone is well. My question is, prompted largely by David Bixenspan’s deep dive on Drake Wuertz’s social media activity, what are your thoughts on what WWE should do as it relates to their social media policy going forward? Coupled with Drake’s exploits into QAnon world, the last few months have also had Nia Jax’s antivax post, and Road Dogg posting/liking some concerning stuff, amongst others. Given how much control WWE is seeking to exert on other online activity from its wrestlers (albeit because of a financial incentive), do you see them taking any action in 2021 to more closely control what their staff posts online? My instinct is that a combination of such activity likely not making waves publicly beyond the wrestling bubble, and Vince himself being right wing in his views means action is unlikely. Secondly, I’d be concerned that any such approach would paint with a very broad “both sides” brush and we’d miss out on things like New Day’s BLM content etc.
“You Cannot Kill David Arquette” was released in the UK today, so I’ve just watched it.
I enjoyed the documentary and would recommend it to post marks if they haven’t seen it yet.
I know it was released a while ago in the US and Canada, so apologies if this question is now out of date or you’ve commented on the film elsewhere and I’ve missed it.
It was cool to see David’s efforts to try to train and become a wrestler. From the clips of the in ring action in the film, it looked like he did a good job. The clips from the death match with Nick Gage were scary, but seemed like he nailed the hurrican rana, so respect for that.
I wondered if either of you have seen the film yet and if so, what were your thoughts?
Do you get the impression that David was successful in his bid to win the respect of the wrestlers and fans? Also, I saw that David managed to get into the PWI 500. Did either of you manage to see any of his matches while he was on this run, and if so, which would you recommend (if any)?
Congrats on the daughter John. Question for both of you and I haven’t heard this asked before. Do either of you find yourselves using “wrestling stuff” in your everyday life? Like when my first born came home we had a huge stuffed dog in front of her door and I named him Ralphus because he was security at the door. Wife never questioned it and thought it was just a funny, rare name for a stuffed dog watching over her room. I finally came clean about the name 4 years later over a glass of A Little Bit of the Bubbly. In one of my kids books, it’s about expressing emotions and on one page the main character says sometimes he “walks alone,” and every time I read it I scream it as if I’m singing Bautista’s theme song (I WALK ALOOOOOOONNNNNE.) It really hit me when I was talking at a work meeting and I mentioned how something had to come together organically. That was just a few instances but I do it probably once a day, maybe more at this rate. Playing with nerf guns I teach the importance of selling the impact of the hit and just today I called myself the meat man as I went out to BBQ (John Silver.)
I’m sure you guys do this too right? RIGHT?!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you guys. This is a great platform and I remember it was just a few years ago I signed up on day one in the first few minutes. Proud to be a fan, keep up the good work.
Hey Guys! First things first, John I want to congratulate you on the birth of your daughter! There is no greater moment in life than the birth of a child, and I am so happy for you!
Now for my question. I’m pretty much the same age as both of you, and I got into what I used to call “wrestling radio” back in 2000 in my late teens with WCW Live. After WCW was sold I branched out and found The Law, Between The Ropes, and very briefly a show called Chairshots which was cancelled due to an off the rails Tom Zenk Interview. Now we all know your affiliations and backstories as fans/members of the Law, but were there any other wrestling radio shows either of you were fans of? Were there any other radio shows that influenced you to get into this field?
I can’t recall either of you discussing other wresting radio shows outside of the Law from that era, and I think I’ve only heard you talk about BTR after sharing a cab ride with Brian Fritz after a Wrestlemania. With that said, were either of you fans of any of the shows I listed?
Just rewatched the unsacntioned Shawn Michaels/triple h match from summer slam 2002.
The surprising thing I took away from it was how good jr and the king were during this match. JRs passion was off the charts as well as putting over both triple h and hbk as absolute best of the best.
That got me wondering, apart from the calls always mentioned, like hell in a cell 98 etc. Do you guys have any favourite commentary performances or lines that you find particularly memorable.
If Bret Hart chose to stay in WWF in '97, but still lost the WWF Title without any kind of backstage screwjob, how do you think Bret would have fared in the Attitude Era of the WWF? Would he be in the mix with the likes of Austin and Rock, or just be relied on to carry the mid card alongside the Hart Foundation (who in this scenario would stick around too because Bret did). Theoretically, I can still see there being a Mr. McMahon character in this alternate history, spun off not from the Bret screwjob, but from Austin messing up the moment with Mike Tyson in early '98,(“YOU RUINED IT DAMMIT!”) and Shawn Michaels would still be dropping the WWF Title to Austin at WM14 and be put of action for 4+ years. So basically, how would the Attitude Era look as is, but with Bret inserted?
Has Jon Moxley been the most consistently interesting wrestler in the world since he left WWE? Perfect combination of leaving the big bad, going to the arguable best promotion in the world as an attraction, and being the big surprise of the hot and new promotion. I think at this current time (day before Winter is Coming) he’s only lost in the G1. Both debuts, Suzuki, Kingston, even the Jericho podcast. He’s checking every box
James from Liverpool:
Wai was pretty low on Survivor series on the prior Raw episode. I want to defend the PPV as I think it did work back in the early 90s and could do again.
Team Hart vs Team Michaels worked in 1993 why couldn’t Team Asuka vs Team Sasha work now. You can have 2 people start a feud in the lower ranks from the teams, you can have 2 team mates turn on each other - you can embarrass some captains who’s teams get decimated I think it can really work.
I think they should return to the original format - people picking teams not qualifying rounds.
Do you hate this idea??
PS. it’s good to be back as a Patreon - I’ve really missed the Review-a-wai’s and Ask-a-Wai’s the past 3 months. And congratulations to John, 2 kids and still watching all this wrestling is impressive!
Congrats to John & family, and kudos to Wai for smoothly holding down the fort.
Question for Wai - How do you rate the Interpol albums “Turn off the Bright Lights” and “Antics” against each other? Whilst both great albums, and TOTBL its arguably the more cohesive full listen, I have personally always given the edge to Antics, which for me is a bit more polished, full of hooks and contains my two favourite Interpol songs - Evil and Narc.
Also, if I could make a quick recommendation, I think you would really enjoy the album “100 Broken Windows” by Idlewild, its from around the same sort of era and I think you’ll really enjoy it!
To piggy back off of this question, may I recommend Paul Banks from Interpol and RZA’s collaboration album “Anything But Words” as Banks & Steelz. Came out in 2016, but I feel like it fell under the radar.
Hey guys, Stu from Liverpool. Thanks for answering me last month. Just a quick pair of questions as I was looking through Wikipedia and it says that Lex Luger has somewhat of a role within WWE as part of their Wellness Policy,
a) Is this true? And,
b) Do you know what his role is within this?
Also, sorry, John, as the father of two boys under 5, I just wanted to know what kids’ TV show theme tunes you’ve had stuck in your head recently.
If UFC was around fifty years ago, which wrestlers do you guys think would’ve made a great transition at the time? Danny Hodge and Billy Robinson are two names I could think of.
John, what book would you recommend that is closest to a complete and fair history of the UFC?
Tony Khan is part of the ownership team of the soccer team Fulham (pronounced Ful-hum) FC in the English Premier League. They have been bang average for the last 3-4 years and seem unable to stick a coherent team together. This is down to Tony Khan’s style which uses statistical models to scout and acquire players. This has led to a huge amount of turn over and very little growth from the team because there’s never enough time to gel together the players and build a unit. Khan has a poor reputation and even had his own manager criticise him after he apologised to the fans for a poor performance without consulting the head coach.
Taking this reputation into account, how does this potentially affect AEW? We do see a lot of roster turnover and outside of a select 10-12 wrestlers the roster seems a bit transient. This might also transfer to the lack of stories in the women’s division for example where nothing seems to stick. Could it be said that Tony Khan’s approach might have problems in the longer term? Is this a fair criticism in professional wrestling or is it comparing apples and oranges?
Do you see any wrestlers on the WWE roster that have the potential to reach the levels of Austin/Rock/Cena?
As the media landscape ha shifted since the WWE has had a star of that calibar created (Cena in 2005) do they have to change there mindset of how to promote a Superstar to reach that level of stardom?
Congratulations Jon on the birth of your daughter!
I recently finished watched the original saved by the bell series with my kids. My question for both of you is what tv series from your childhood do you look forward to sharing with your kids, nieces, nephews, etc.
Have a great Christmas and thank you for your entertaining shows.
On a recent Rewind-A-Dynamte, John mentioned that nobody has been squandered more in recent years than Daniel Bryan / Brian Danielson, since coming back to WWE post-injury.
With his contract allegedly expiring in fall 2021, do you see Bryan leaving WWE and possibly heading to AEW.
He’s stated on multiple times his time as a full-timer in WWE is done. AEW has more or less been providing a much easier schedules for talent and one that somebody with a young family would have a much easier time with.
Bryan has shown many times that he is motivated by different challenges, and to me, coming into a new company full of new faces would certainly be that.
The only strike against this idea is that his family has become pretty tied to the WWE machine.
What are your thoughts on a Nitro themed episode of Raw? We’ve seen the success of AEWs themed shows and NXT even going to the WCW names with success. A Nitro theme would seem like a no brainer to pop a rating on a Monday night. Is the original Nitro set something that they would have gotten with their purchase of the company?
Before you had to watch wrestling as part of your jobs were there any particularly awful angles, matches or just booking directions of a company that caused you to step back from watching wrestling for any length of time?