podcasts

Bischoff on Wrestling Recap – Dixie Carter in WWE, Paige/Del Rio Drama, Samoa Joe vs. Brock Lesnar, More!

Bischoff is joined on today’s show by his co-host Nick Hausman.

Hausman asks Bischoff for his opinion on seeing Dixie Carter on WWE programming this Monday night. Bischoff says that Kurt Angle, and his return to WWE is a big story within that company right now, and Carter was obviously a big part of Angle’s post-WWE career. It didn’t surprise Bischoff to see Carter on Angle’s documentary at all, because there was never really any animosity between WWE and TNA.

In terms of Angle’s current mystery storyline on RAW right now, Bischoff says that he knows exactly what’s going on there. He says that WWE is simply copying the Clair/A.J. Styles angle from TNA a few years back. He says that all signs point to Dixie Carter being the person on the other end of Angle’s phone, and we might see her on RAW soon.

Bischoff says that if Carter is actually going to be a character on WWE programming, he hopes that there are a whole new batch of Producers ready to focus on getting Carter through her segments. He says that it would often take her an entire day to prepare for a 2-minute segment in TNA because she’s simply not a talented performer.

Vince Russo’s The Brand Recap – Paige & Del Rio Drama, Disco Inferno in WWE, Breaking Down Triple H’s Success, More!

Russo is joined on today’s show by his co-host Jeff Lane and Glenn Gilbertti (Disco Inferno).

Lane asks Russo and Gilbertti for their opinions on the rumours that Paige was sitting ringside at Slammiversary last weekend wearing a mask in order to protect her identity. Gilbertti says that he can’t lower his IQ enough to discuss this on an intellectual level. Russo says that if that was Paige, it’s easy to tell that this was a desperate move by her in order to get out of her contract.

Paige clearly wants to be with her boyfriend Del Rio in Global Force Wrestling, so Russo doesn’t understand why both parties can’t get on the same page here and make that release happen. WWE has actually referenced Paige’s leaked sex tape on WWE the last couple of weeks, but then they removed those references from the replays.

Gilbertti doesn’t understand this because the average age of their fans is 54, yet they’re still acting like they have to market to a young demographic. Russo says that if this was the attitude era, Del Rio would have been signed after Paige’s tape was released, and the storyline would have consisted of Del Rio and Paige accusing Xavier Woods of releasing that tape. This would have been a great storyline and everyone would have been talking about it.

Conversation with the Big Guy Recap – Breeze in A Dress, Ryback vs. Ultimate Warrior, Ways to Improve Wrestling, More!

Ryback opens today’s show by revealing whether he misses being on the road with WWE full time. He says that sometimes he misses the live events and the guys who he developed relationships with, but he doesn’t miss television tapings and all the ‘shit’ that comes along with being on the road 300 days a year.

He says that last week’s show made some headlines due to his recollection of a backstage scenario featuring Tyler Breeze. Some people questioned the legitimacy of Ryback’s claims, but he says that he was there in person when Vince McMahon witnessed Breeze leaving an arena early, and Breeze’s stock within WWE immediately plummeted after that.

Nonetheless, he likes what WWE is doing with Breezango right now as they continue to produce entertaining segments every week. He’s still confused by the fact that Tyler Breeze is wearing a dress every week now, but he assumes that someone backstage at WWE gets their kicks from seeing Breeze in a dress.

Ryback says he loved the Rap Battle on Smackdown Live last week between The Usos and The New Day. He says that these types of segments are what have been missing from WWE programming lately, and the ‘R rating’ line in particular proves that anything can happen on WWE programming, similar to how fans felt about the product during the attitude era.

Vince Russo’s The Brand Recap – GLOW Analysis, Hardys vs. Sheamus & Cesaro Just Won’t End, RAW Needs More Joe & Lesnar, More!

Russo opens today’s show speaking about Netflix’s GLOW. He says that he watched the first few episodes and he was absolutely hooked. He thinks the show is very well written and acted, and it’s no surprise to him that the show is seeing success. He always said that a well written wrestling drama/comedy would draw better than an actual wrestling show.

He informs that back in 2000, he was hired by FOX to write a wrestling show and he penned a show called ‘Rope Opera’. It was more of a drama but FOX wanted a comedy, therefore they passed on his show.

Russo says that his disagreements with many wrestling journalists are simply that, disagreements. He does not hate any of them, and when he picks apart their silly opinions it’s just entertainment for him. However, he does not like being labeled a racist or a homophobe which a couple of them have done, and that made things personal for him.

He says that he is neither a racist or a homophobe, and if anyone has been discriminated his whole life it’s been him. He’s an Italian from New York, and people just think he acts a certain way due to his upbringing. He says that people continue to make up silly things about him and everyone believes the nonsense.

Talk is Jericho Recap w/ Baron Corbin – Money in the Bank Win, Transitioning from NXT to WWE, Getting Yelled at by The Undertaker, More!

Jericho welcomes Baron Corbin to the show.

Corbin informs that he lives just down the street from Jericho, in a house that was previously owned by both Big Show and The Undertaker. He says that the house was definitely built for a big man as the doorways are enormous and the ceilings are 18-20 feet.

Jericho congratulates Corbin on his big Money in the Bank ladder match victory, and Corbin thanks Jericho for coming up with the idea many years ago. Jericho informs that he and then-writer Brian Gewirtz were brainstorming ideas on how to utilize a bunch of talents who were getting a push within the company.

Jericho suggested that they have a ladder match where they’d fight over a contract for a Title shot the following night. Gewirtz took that idea to McMahon who adjusted it so the talents could cash in the contract at any point during the next year, and he also insisted that the contract be in a breifcase.

Dinner with the King Recap – LaVar Ball on RAW, Potential Match with Cody Rhodes, WWE Title Feud with The Miz, More!

Lawler is joined on today’s show by his co-host Jerry Lawler.

Lawler begins today’s show speaking about the MizTV segment from RAW this week, which featured LaVar Ball and his two sons. He says that this was certainly a silly segment, but it undoubtably accomplished its goal of getting people to talk about Monday Night RAW.

Lawler says that ‘wrestling purists’ who had a major issue with this segment need to chill out and settle down. WWE tries to be topical and if they have an opportunity to bring someone on RAW who has been in the public eye, they’ll do it every single time.

Moore mentions that Cody Rhodes dropped Lawler’s name on his conference call earlier this week. Rhodes was asked who he’d like to wrestle moving forward and he said Kenny Omega and Jerry Lawler. Lawler says he’d absolutely accept the invitation to face Rhodes one on one, and he anticipates that could happen in the very near future.

Vince Russo’s The Brand Recap – Discussing his Restraining Order Against Jim Cornette, Will he Press Charges? More!

Russo was avoiding this discussion and he had no intention of talking about this on his show, but after multiple false reports from wrestling ‘journalists’, he thought he had to clear the air and get the true story out there once and for all.

Speaking about the wrestling ‘journalists’, he points out that not one of them reached out to him to get the actual story after this news broke. Instead, they all took the news and gave their own biased spin on it, which is the polar opposite of respectable journalism. This proved the point that he’s been saying for years, that if you’re paying for the opinions of these guys, you’re wasting your money.

Getting into the heart of the situation, Russo says that he has been ridiculed by Jim Cornette for over two decades. It has been a constant battle between him and Cornette, but in the past couple of weeks Cornette took things to an entirely new level by threatening violence on him and his family.

He says that he only lives roughly two hours from Cornette now, and his wife is often home alone. She was quite upset after Cornette’s recent rant, and Russo felt it was necessary to take matters into his own hands by getting this Order of Protection. Hopefully this allows his wife to relax, and keeps Cornette out of their business for the foreseeable future.

Vince Russo’s The Brand Recap – Ranallo Returns, Snow vs. Meltzer, Ellsworth’s Heat Leads to Rise in Smackdown Viewership, More!

Russo is joined on today’s show by his co-host Jeff Lane, Glenn Gilbertti (Disco Inferno), and Konnan.

Russo opens today’s show by discussing the rise in viewership for Smackdown Live this past week. The blue brand’s viewership increased by 500,000 last week and he believes that was a direct result of the booking from Sunday’s Money in the Bank PPV, specifically the Women’s Money in the Bank ladder match.

Konnan agrees and although he thinks the finish could have been done better, it accomplished its goal of drawing attention to the brand. Russo points out that when you tell stories and leave viewers wondering, they will tune into the next show to see what happens.

Gilbertti says that the fan backlash over that finish was silly to begin with. He says the problem with the wrestling industry right now is that there are too few experts, and the actual experts are criticized and ridiculed by people who consider themselves experts simply because they’ve watched a lot of wrestling.

Conversation with the Big Guy Recap – Carmella’s MITB Win, Lesnar vs. Samoa Joe, Brainstorming PPV Name Ideas, More!

Ryback is joined on today’s show by his co-host Pat Buck.

Ryback opens today’s show speaking about the finish of the Women’s Money in the Bank ladder match from last Sunday. There has been plenty of fan backlash since James Ellsworth scaled the ladder and retrieved the briefcase for Carmella, but Ryback believes that means the finish was a success.

He believes that people need to realize that this is a fake scenario, and the events that transpire in the ring are meant to elicit a response from viewers, whether they be positive or negative. With this in mind, WWE succeeded last Sunday because the finish of this match has been a hot topic of discussion ever since.

Buck believes that the Women’s Money in the Bank ladder match should have went on later in the show instead of going first. WWE could have taken advantage of the crowd’s energy early on by having a less impactful match go on first, which would have saved the historic women’s match for later on in the show. Ryback points out that WWE needed to separate those two main event ladder matches, so that’s probably why they started the night with the women’s match and closed the night with the men’s match.

Buck also points out that this finish made James Ellsworth relevant again. It looked to be fairly certain that Ellsworth’s WWE contract wouldn’t be renewed after his one year deal was up, but now WWE creative has some options with Ellsworth moving forward. They might be able to stretch this angle out long enough to secure another contract for Ellsworth.

Quite simply, Ryback calls the finish of that match ‘perfect’.

Vince Russo’s The Brand Recap – Balor’s Promos Need Work, Meltzer Disrespects Al Snow, When Will Corbin Cash in? More!

Russo is joined on today’s show by his co-host Jeff Lane.

Speaking about the new Elias Samson/Finn Balor feud, Bruce Mitchell from PWTorch recently said that Samson needs programs like this, because he can learn from Balor and Balor can carry him in the ring. Russo says if we look at it from a promo perspective, he hasn’t seen Balor cut a good one yet, and Samson has been cutting great promos ever since he arrived on the main roster.

From a promo perspective Samson can ‘eat Balor alive’, but all these ‘journalists’ just look at things based on the in-ring product. Russo still wonders where Balor’s ‘Demon’ character is, and if the ‘Demon’ isn’t going to be a regular part of Balor’s presentation, Balor is going to have to show us more on the mic.

Russo also comments on the notion that perhaps Finn Balor doesn’t want to cover his face with paint every night because he’s a mark for himself and he wants to build his own brand. Russo says that this can happen when talents start to buy into their own hype from the niche audience. Today’s Superstars will never get over like Hulk Hogan or Steve Austin, because they don’t even understand what it takes to be a star in the wrestling business.

Bischoff on Wrestling Recap w/ Joe Koff – ROH Talk, Money in the Bank Thoughts, McGregor vs. Mayweather, More!

Bischoff mentions that he predicted months ago that Mayweather vs. McGregor was going to happen, because there was too much money to be made on both sides for it not to happen. He says that while Mayweather might be the favourite, McGregor is not your typical boxer. This might lead to Mcgregor putting Mayweather in some uncomfortable positions in the boxing ring.

Bischoff says that he can’t even compare this bout to CM Punk’s debut UFC outing against Mickey Gall. He says that McGregor has a much better chance to beat Mayweather than Punk had to beat Gall. At least McGregor is a fighter, where Cm Punk is not.

Bischoff informs that at one point he had an opportunity to purchase the UFC for $2 Million. This was ’98-’99, and the UFC brand was in the toilet. He took the call and listened, but he had no interest in the company at that time. The Fertitta brothers and Dana White would soon come into the picture and turn the UFC into a massive organization.

Speaking about the controversy surrounding the finish of the Women’s Money in the Bank ladder match, Bischoff thinks all the fan backlash is silly. He says that this is a storyline, and if you’re trying to make some kind of social/political statement from this, you’re going too far.

Vince Russo Files Restraining Order Against Jim Cornette

Well the on-going real life feud between former WWE creative writer Vince Russo and Jim Cornette continues. This time around, Vince Russo has filed a restraining order against because he feels that he is being stalked by Cornette.

For those not following the drama, Cornette made an offer to meet up with Russo at an undisclosed location with $5,000 in hand. Cornette said Russo can have the money if he can take it from him. Russo then issued a sarcastic apology video, which Cornette responded to with his own video as well. The two have continue to trade shots between each other on various wrestling podcasts. This all started when Eric Bischoff and Cornette decided to continuously bring up Russo on the the WWE Network’s “Table for 3” show.