I’ve been listening for a long time as well. It was definitely an awkward moment and you could tell John just went right in the show instead of the usual banter.
We all have good days and bad days. As much as we think we know them, we don’t know them personally and what else is going on in their lives.
Hell I get snappy with my coworkers too on some days. We are all human.
They are still a great team and put out a great product.
I think you might be overthinking it guys. It’s a terrible, long show and they record late at night, every week, for like 10 years. I can recall times where John had 0 interest in the show and Wai carried them through the episode before too. I think that’s just what happens when you watch every wrestling show that gets put out every single day for about a decade lol.
I wanted to wait until tonight’s show to address it all with John (and the audience) directly, but seeing as how it’s begun this amount of speculation I wanted to address it here:
To put it simply, what you heard from me in the opening minutes of RAR was a case of me being frustrated at my friend’s armchair quarterbacking in our discussion about basketball.
I refused to believe that this was a case of the Raptors “blowing it” as I had witnessed them struggle from a 14-point deficit just minutes prior. There was absolutely no guarantee Kawhi would’ve hit the shot. And if Lowry had hit the shot? Then we’d be praising the pass. This, plus the fact that Kawhi was struggling against strong 2-on-1 Warriors defence in the moment (as he had been the whole series), had me questioning (and irrationally angered), at how John could be so steadfast in his opinion during the brief debate.
But it’s tough formulating all these thoughts in a split second while you’re being recorded on-air, against a guy who’s far more eloquent (and energetic) while speaking than you. In this instance, I regretfully resorted to sarcasm as a way to express to my friend that he was way, way off on his basketball take.
I knew this basketball discussion was only going to get more heated and wanted to move on with the show – thus my aversion to making a haphazard prediction about the rest of the series. At the moment in my mind, doing so would only: 1) Force me to make the same oversimplified analysis that initially angered me to being with, 2) Prolong this discussion that was going nowhere.
This of course, only made things worse.
In listening back and reading comments, I realize my tone came across far more abrasive than I had intended. Only escalated things. I misrepresented myself and should have taken the time to properly express my opinion about the play in a calm manner.
I’d like to apologize to @johnpollock here and will do so again on RASD.
As far as having these moments be a part of our show: It’s always been my philosophy to podcast as if John and I were the only two people in the room. We’re a real friendship and you get us at our best and our worst.
Last week’s Raw was me expressing my frustrations at the product for reasons @Scottish_Paul mentioned. This week had nothing to do with Raw. What you hear from me on our shows is all just how I’m feeling at the time.
TL;DR: My friend and I had a disagreement about a basketball play. I got frustrated. We happened to record it and released to the world. It became an “incident”.
Absolutely 1000% this,people bitching about nothing.
MJfromNJ you sir have nailed it.
No need to explain or apologise,its all good.
It’s all a work bro.
As a community, we forgive you Wai.
Hi Wai, I started this thread. I just wanted to point out that I wasn’t looking for you to apologise, or anything like that. As I said in my original post being Scottish, I didn’t know if my workmate and I were just missing a big part of the way Canadian humour comes across in certain instances, that’s why I asked if people found it funny. I didn’t know it’d cause a bit of a debate, so just wanted to make it clear that I was genuinely asking a question, rather than trying to cause offence. I was just surprised at how out of character the exchange was
Wai bro, you dont need to explain yourself to anyone. We all have these kind of moments with our friends, family, whatever. I thought you just didnt give a shit about the game, but your passionate response to the game in this post made me see I was wrong and I get it as a hardcore sports fan. My Boston Bruins are in a hard fought 7 game series for the Stanley Cup right now and I get intense and frustrated when they lose.
But please, if you apologize tonight on RASD, make the Alexa Bliss heel turn when you do. It’ll make for great entertainment.
Wai explaining this and it being entirely Toronto Raptors related has made this one of
the greatest POST Wrestling subplots! Heck,
I would like this made into a meme, a t shirt, and a spin-off where we get to hear an unapologetic Wai tell John why he’s wrong about basketball! Take my money!
Actually, I think it goes to show how important and what the moment in Toronto is really like right now and I for one appreciate the real raw emotion coming out of game 5. I know it’s only sport but it’s hard to quantify what it does to a city or emotions until it’s your city or your team. Regardless whether you root or follow a team all season or even at all, when everyone around you is consumed with something and the outcome is going to make people you interact with legit sad or angry or happy and joyful it’s real. I won’t mention Durant today to my co worker who is a die-hard Knicks fan because while I find it funny his hopes for the Knicks ended last night, it upsets him and I know not to poke that bear at this moment.
@wai0937 Bravo on authentic podcasting and don’t ever apologize to us for doing what you’ve alwags done in being authentic on air. It’s why we love and support you guys, your friendship, and your work
This thread is amazing if for nothing else than it let us get to see Brother Ting’s untapped NBA expertise!
Also, that was a game the Warriors SHOULD have won. The fact that it came down to a last second shot is a testament to the Raptors’ tenacity. 
Sure, it came down to a last second shot but why was THAT the last second shot?
Between that and Nurse’s horrible time-out call that cooled off Kawhi, the Raps could have easily won this game. It was right there.
I’ll be stunned if the series doesn’t go seven because you know GSW will get every call imaginable in game six.
For a wrestling forum, there is a shockingly small amount of bitching in this thread.
People feel different ways. I don’t think any of this is a big deal whatever side you come down on.
Blaming Nurse is teapectfully a horrible take. The guy has been incredible. Don’t be FICKLE!
For what it’s worth, I didn’t think it was uncomfortable, for someone who knows nothing about basketball, it sounded like a small squabble amongst friends.
Wish people would stop threatening to remove their patronage because every little thing isn’t suited to their specific tastes. If you don’t like it, remove your patronage without threat, the shows thrives on a natural organic conversation.
Wai I was there live and believe me it’s been the same with my group of friends. Totally get it
The whole “I’m going to unsubscribe…” feels like it should be reserved for when the company is in bed with the Saudi Government. Let’s have some standards here people. FICKLE!
I haven’t read everything here. Did more than one threaten to unsubscribe?
I don’t think anyone did. I’m the OP, my colleague decided not to become a patron, because he thought the awkward exchange at the start of the show was a bit much
I wasn’t “threatening” to unsubscribe, nor did I write “I’m going to unsubscribe…”, I was expressing my feelings at the time and admitted later that paragraph that I considered it overreacting. Why exaggerate what I actually wrote into a straight up straw man? I never wrote I’m going to quit my patronage.
Tony, what part of the comprehension did you struggle with there? You claim the natural organic conversation is what you dig, but seem so threatened by one person’s opinion that isn’t in line with yours. Talk about every little thing, bro…
I also wrote a 2nd post expressing how much I’ve enjoyed the show over the years.