BONUS The Friday Show - Location, Location, Location!
Marc:And then The Undertaker arrives, and much like Donald Trump will do later, he takes the escalator down.
Marc:Which is just such a bizarre thing to see.
Guest:Well, it's just bizarre that he's in Penn Station in full Undertaker gimmick in the first place.
Guest:Like, it's like, is that a dead guy?
Guest:Zombie is here in the Penn Station?
Guest:All right, let's cheer for him.
Guest:Hey, Chris.
Guest:Brother man.
Guest:How you doing, man?
Guest:I'm good.
Guest:I'm good.
Guest:I know you're a little bit under the weather, so I'll try not to push you too hard.
Guest:But I am going to require your enthusiasm on some things that we're going to be talking about on today's show because I know, and we'll get into this later when we talk about the wrestling stuff,
Guest:I'm excited in that I told you to just watch some things or check out some things, and then you tell me about them.
Guest:So I'm sorry that you're going to have to do a little heavy lift when you're not feeling so great, but I have been looking forward to this.
Guest:Excellent.
Marc:Yeah, I'm here for you.
Marc:I'm up for the challenge.
Guest:Well, what can I be here for you then, buddy?
Guest:I'd like to reciprocate.
Guest:I know maybe you had some questions about something.
Guest:Well, I mean, have you listened to Chevy Chase yet?
No.
Guest:Oh, yeah, I've listened to it.
Guest:I mean, I haven't fully edited it.
Guest:It'll be edited and be released on Monday's WTF.
Guest:Awesome.
Guest:You heard me and Mark talking about it on the bonus content?
Guest:I sure did.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Mark is, if you couldn't tell from that, he's still very down on it, which sometimes I think makes for a good episode.
Guest:When he's like, I didn't feel satisfied or I didn't feel like I got where I needed to get.
Guest:what you wind up hearing in that is like Mark actually working hard, you know, like he's working, like, you know, it's not, I hate the fact that I'm going to use Ben Kingsley as a fulcrum for the rest of my goddamn days.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But that's a great example of a thing where you hear Mark working, right?
Guest:And the gears are turning.
Guest:How do I do this?
Guest:How am I dealing with this guy, right?
Guest:And it translates that way.
Guest:And that's definitely what's going on with Chevy here.
Guest:But it's also, it's Chevy Chase, so it's kind of like...
Guest:It's entertaining and then also like morbidly entertaining, right?
Guest:Like you have like two things at once where you're like, well, he's still Chevy and he's still funny.
Guest:But, you know, it was one of the most fascinating things was when I was doing research on it for Mark before, you know, so we could have a talk ahead of time.
Guest:And one of the things I found was, you know, everybody badmouths Chevy.
Guest:You know, he's got a reputation that precedes him and whatnot.
Guest:Mm-hmm.
Guest:And there are very few people who defend him, Martin Short being one of the ones who defends him.
Guest:But largely what most people are like, this guy is just an unrepentant dick.
Guest:He's always been an asshole.
Guest:And Lorne is the one who nails it the best because, as I said on that bonus episode, I mean, he's just one of the greatest judges of talent and character, not human character, I mean, entertainment character in history.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Really, it was one of the things I remember talking about with other TV people when I worked in TV.
Guest:And we'd see like executives just grasping for straws, trying to make things work.
Guest:And we realized like, oh, they're not bad executives.
Guest:That's just like what...
Guest:all executives do.
Guest:Like they just grasp and they try to, you know, they throw a bunch of shit against the wall and then they have a good enough amount of finesse and skill to tap dance around mistakes and burnish successes, right?
Guest:That's a general high level executive skill.
Guest:But there are so few people that can just...
Guest:like know in their gut, what is a hit, right?
Guest:That's a hit.
Guest:And it's like, there are like maybe like five record executives in history who did it, you know, like Dick Wolf is apparently very good at it, right?
Guest:Like that's a guy who could tell like, no, this is going to be the show that we do.
Guest:And, you know, not these 20 other ones and he'll throw out the scripts or whatever.
Guest:But yeah, Lauren is great at it.
Guest:And he said about Chevy in this kind of,
Guest:piece that had reactions from all sorts of people and their opinions on Chevy.
Guest:And Lawrence was, Chevy is exactly who he was when he was 20.
Guest:He has the same sense of humor.
Guest:He has the same disposition.
Guest:He said, the problem with that is the type of comedy that animates Chevy, the type of thing that makes him funny is,
Guest:is entertaining and cute when you're 20 and handsome and charming, and less so when you're doing the exact same thing and you're 40 or 50 or 60.
Guest:And I was like, that's exactly it.
Guest:Like, just reading that, it hit...
Guest:Directly on the nose and you can hear, you know, I'm giving everyone listening to this a little extra preview of the Chevy episode that will go up on Monday.
Guest:That's exactly what it is.
Guest:Like when you listen to him on that, Lorne's description of him rings so true.
Guest:So yeah, that's, that's, that's my take on the, on the Chevy episode.
Guest:I don't have the same kind of disappointment that Mark had that he didn't get him to some like confessional personal place about his abusive childhood or something.
Guest:Cause I think Mark feels, he feels let down that he didn't get there, but I don't think that was, that's ever happening.
Guest:Probably even with like Chevy's wife.
Guest:And I just think, you know,
Guest:What we got was the kind of thing that's unique to our show, and I'm happy with it.
Marc:And why was his wife there?
Marc:Like, is that the first time that you've had, like, a significant other?
Marc:I mean, not first time.
Guest:No, I mean, Mark will largely not allow that.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Definitely not on the mic, right?
Guest:And this wasn't the case where Chevy's wife was on the mic either.
Guest:Oh, she wasn't.
Marc:Okay.
Guest:Okay.
Guest:No, but he does have a seating area.
Guest:And there's times where, like, okay, a good example was there was this guy recently, Al Ruddy, who is the producer of The Godfather.
Guest:He was played by, I believe, Miles Teller in that Godfather series, right, The Offer.
Guest:And Al Ruddy came on and was telling showbiz stories and whatnot.
Guest:And he's like 90.
Guest:And I believe it was a daughter.
Guest:Don't quote me on that.
Guest:But it was a family member, I believe it was his daughter, asked if she could come along and sit somewhere where she could hear the interview.
Guest:And if he had a lapse in memory or something like that, she would be able to help him out.
Guest:Fine.
Guest:Like there's no problem with that whatsoever.
Guest:And essentially Chevy's wife was asking the same thing when in similar terms, he sometimes loses like the train of thought on things.
Guest:And if I'm there, I can help keep him on track.
Guest:So it would be highly suspect of us to not allow that in situations where we've allowed it before, even though a caveat with this, even though I knew, and I said it to Mark and Mark agreed.
Guest:And you know, that,
Guest:Keeping his memory sharp was not the main goal of her being there.
Guest:The main goal of her being there was to make sure he didn't fuck himself.
Guest:Because that's all he's done for 40 years is deliberate self-sabotage.
Guest:And we knew that this was like, she's there as like a legacy protector and whatnot.
Guest:And you know what?
Guest:It all went fine.
Guest:As Mark mentioned in the bonus material, there was stuff Chevy then said off mic that his wife was like, please don't include any of this.
Guest:And it's like, well, we won't.
Guest:It's off mic.
Guest:The interview is over.
Guest:But Chevy was even like...
Guest:I don't know if taunting is the right word, but just clearly has been in the position before where this has happened to him.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And he was almost like saying it like, oh, I know what's going to happen.
Guest:You're going to, you're going to use this stuff.
Guest:And Mark's like, I'm not even recording right now.
Guest:Like it's off.
Guest:Like you don't have to worry.
Guest:It's almost like he's daring him though.
Guest:Like it's so, I totally believe he was.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I mean, it's, it's like he could go either way, but it is not hard to get me to believe he was
Guest:Daring him.
Guest:Exactly.
Marc:Yeah, I can't wait.
Marc:Can't wait for that episode.
Marc:I listened to one of your previous episodes over the weekend, over on my birthday weekend.
Marc:My wife and I drove to Niagara Falls, which was great.
Marc:We got a little Airbnb in a town called Niagara-on-the-Lake.
Marc:Ever heard of it?
Marc:I have not.
Marc:So are you on the New York side or the Canada side?
Marc:Canada side.
Marc:Canada.
Marc:Oh, well, that's the nice side.
Marc:Well, it is and it isn't.
Marc:Like Niagara Falls, like State Park in New York, awesome.
Marc:Like I highly recommend it.
Marc:Have you ever been to like Maid of the Mist or Cave of the Winds?
Guest:Dude, I grew up in upstate New York for a large portion of my life.
Guest:We've never been to Niagara Falls.
Marc:What?
Guest:Oh, man, you never been to Niagara Falls?
Guest:No, no.
Guest:We keep talking about doing it as a family trip too.
Guest:We're going to have to do it at some point.
Guest:Yeah, it's really fun.
Guest:Because it looks so amazing.
Guest:And I just want to see a guy do a Peter Pan right off that there ledge.
Marc:Exactly.
Marc:There's also this place called Cave of the Winds, also on the New York side, where you're basically face-to-face with the falls, and there's a hurricane deck where you can actually get splashed with the falls.
Marc:It's wild and awesome, and I highly recommend it.
Marc:Really, really fun time.
Guest:I think that just the idea that these things are that big and still flowing is just a crazy thought to me.
Guest:Like, you know, especially I'm guessing if you do the tour, they tell you like how many gallons goes over the falls every minute or some shit like that.
Marc:73,000 per second or something like that.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Nuts.
Guest:Like I can't even, that's one of those things where it's like, wait, that's happening right now.
Guest:We're doing, we're talking and that's happening.
Marc:Crazy.
Marc:Well, back in the day, they actually boarded it up so that like, because it was privately owned.
Marc:So you had to like pay a quarter to like look through a peephole to see the falls.
Marc:Like it was so corrupt.
Marc:It was so carny.
Marc:The most carny.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:But no peepholes to show over here.
Marc:It was a great time.
Marc:So we drove up there, which is a very long drive.
Marc:I don't know.
Marc:For you in New Jersey.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:No kidding.
Marc:And my wife wanted to drive, which is perfect, honestly.
Marc:Great.
Marc:I don't need a six hour, seven hour drive on my hands, which means I take reins of the entertainment, right?
Marc:I'm playing music.
Marc:Oh, that's your rule?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:In the car?
Marc:Yeah, absolutely.
Marc:Oh, see, we have the opposite rule.
Marc:Oh, no kidding.
Marc:If you drive, you get to pick.
Marc:But then you're pressing buttons.
Marc:Then, no.
Marc:You can set up a playlist?
Marc:I suppose.
Marc:We didn't do that.
Marc:In fact, I'm the cruise ship captain.
Marc:Well, there you go.
Marc:I'm doing the thing.
Marc:I'm playing music.
Marc:I'm doing podcasts, making conversation.
Marc:Really fun stuff.
Marc:Mixing cocktails.
Marc:You still got a shaker above your head?
Yeah.
Marc:I basically spoke that Politico article on Mitt Romney residing to her.
Marc:It was great.
Marc:Oh, yes.
Marc:Also, gorgeous day.
Marc:Blue sky.
Marc:Gorgeous.
Marc:Fantastic.
Marc:The way back, she asked me to drive.
Marc:And look-
Marc:I love my wife, but she doesn't have the same sort of cruise ship captain vibe one needs to have a long car drive.
Marc:And there were a lot of times where there's just static playing on the radio.
Marc:Very little conversation because apparently I drive too fast and she does not want to be looking at the cars because she's going to tell me to slow down or brake or anything.
Marc:So it's a very kind of annoying drive for seven hours.
Marc:Plus, it's a torrential downpour for most part of this of this trip.
Marc:So now I'm just I'm sitting in bumper bumper to bumper traffic near the Poconos.
Marc:Just rain happening.
Marc:I'm just like, can you please put a podcast on something?
Marc:So she's like, oh, you know what?
Marc:I'm going to put on this murder podcast.
Marc:That she read about in Slate.
Marc:Fine.
Marc:Now, I'm not into murder.
Marc:Are you into murder?
Marc:No, I don't like the true crime.
Guest:Is your wife into murder?
Guest:She listens to the one that's a big hit, Morbid.
Marc:Oh, that's what we listen to.
Marc:Oh, my God.
Marc:So, she puts on this double episode going over Kurt Cobain's death.
Marc:Oh.
Marc:We all know that this is a suicide, but what this podcast presupposes is maybe it wasn't.
Marc:So these two women go over a lot of detail and it's astonishing how much leeway they give Kurt and how much they obviously hate Courtney Love.
Marc:Like it is a bit much.
Guest:Yeah, welcome to the last like 30 years.
Guest:Is that what it is?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Well, yeah, I mean, like, this is like, it's almost hack at this point to say that, like, you know, Kirk got killed and it was, and Courtney's somehow responsible.
Guest:It's like a, it's like a joke.
Guest:Like, but I guess, you know, they're like, what, two, like, millennials that probably were born, like, in the 90s or something, the women on that show.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So I guess they don't have the full, you know, breadth of history of the thing.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:So, I mean, but they do go through a lot of detail.
Marc:Like, there's a point where they mention that Kurt has a $200 a day heroin addiction.
Marc:And they're kind of wistful about it.
Marc:Like, can you believe this guy?
Marc:And then, you know, like, what an amazing artist.
Marc:He's able to still do stuff with this heroin addiction.
Marc:And then in the next breath, they're scolding Courtney Love for having admitted to doing heroin while pregnant.
Marc:And...
Marc:Like at this point, I actually pause the show and be like and talk it out and be like, wait, so maybe Kurt was buying heroin and having an influence on her like nothing.
Marc:Like he's just he just gets a hall pass.
Marc:Like I don't I don't understand how she is like this villain in this.
Marc:I hate it.
Marc:I hated the whole show.
Marc:But the show paints it as if love basically paid for someone to kill Kurt Cobain and make it look like an accident.
Marc:Meanwhile, she got herself arrested on purpose to have the perfect alibi.
Marc:This is really what people think, apparently.
Marc:I honestly didn't know this.
Guest:QAnon is a thing, man.
Guest:The brain takes wonderful leaps of logic when it wants to avoid reality.
Marc:Well, it made me want to listen to your episode from this past Christmas with her.
Marc:And I listened to that.
Marc:And I got to say, first of all, she is impenetrable.
Marc:Like, there is no way in to that person.
Marc:Like, there is no way Mark could have gotten anywhere deep with her, right?
Guest:Right, but she shows you exactly who she is at every second of her being.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:Like, that's the thing.
Guest:Like, I wouldn't use the same phrase.
Guest:Like, the impenetrability, it's that she's not going to be vulnerable.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:Right.
Guest:But who she is is blatantly obvious.
Guest:It's right there.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:You have no – there's no question.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:And number two is I can't imagine this person being able to keep a secret like that from anyone.
Marc:Like what kind of jujitsu is this person working on that she – yeah.
Marc:I, I murdered this, this, this rock star.
Guest:I mean, it would have to be like that SNL sketch with Phil Hartman playing Ronald Reagan, where he's like, you know, a doddering grandpa, Ronald Reagan in public.
Guest:And like that, there's like the presses in there and he's like,
Guest:oh the girl scouts are coming in oh and then like he does like a photo op with them and like some reporter asks him a question he's like oh i don't recall and then they leave and he's like all right everybody back in here and like he gets like all these people in and he pulls down a map of like the contras and he's like all right we're gonna send them out over here we're sending missiles here and like somebody asks a question and he's like you don't know the answer you're out he's like screaming at him
Guest:That would have to be what it is.
Guest:Just a total act.
Guest:I got a complete like 30 year snow job that has been going perfectly.
Guest:Right.
Marc:Absolutely.
Guest:Perfectly for this to be pulled off.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:So, you know, it's so offensive about that shit to me though.
Guest:And I don't want, I don't even be in the position to defend Courtney love.
Guest:Like she's got her own life and her own problems and whatever.
Guest:And that's why it annoys me.
Guest:Cause it's like,
Guest:If you want to hate Courtney Love, go ahead and fucking, she gives you 10 million reasons to do it every time she opens her mouth.
Guest:You know, like there's plenty of reasons you could find that Courtney Love is distasteful.
Guest:But she got so fucked over in that relationship as well.
Guest:Like that's the clear thing that like, they were kids essentially who were married and then running this huge business.
Guest:Essentially once once his once everything took off and then and they're drug addicts and they're they're young parents and then this guy kills himself and she's left holding the bag with zero capability of doing anything about it.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And then gets taken to the cleaners left and right by business people who knew, well, she's a mess.
Guest:She's not going to be able to handle this.
Guest:And there were multiple times in that thing where she called Kurt and she does identify Kurt as like one of the few geniuses she's ever met.
Guest:Like, I think she IDs like him and somebody else.
Guest:I don't remember Lana Del Rey.
Guest:Perfectly Courtney Love to be like, those are the two geniuses that I've known in my life.
Guest:But she also keeps calling him Kurt the Ruiner.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:Like, the specter of him has so clearly set her entire axis on tilt for the rest of her life.
Guest:And I'm not saying it was going to end differently for her without ever meeting Kurt.
Guest:Like, she just sounds like that type of person.
Guest:She's, you know, born into a very crazy upbringing and just took off from there, you know?
Guest:But man, I just, beyond what you're saying, which is 100% true of like, this person does not spell out criminal mastermind in any way.
Guest:But also like, have a little fucking empathy.
Guest:Like, even if it's for Courtney Love, like, you have to do a lot to push me in the position to start making me feel sorry for her.
Guest:And saying that she murdered her fucking husband, the father of her child is enough to do that.
Marc:Yeah, exactly.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:So, so yeah, I didn't really enjoy that.
Marc:I think I told her after that, I'm like, okay, cool.
Marc:Let's, why don't we put on something nice?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:You know, not, not something real terrible.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Hey, you want to hear me and Brendan talk about fake fighting?
Guest:That'd be fun.
Marc:Can we listen to that?
Yeah.
Marc:By the way, though, Courtney Love mentions on your show that in nine months, she will release this Kurt song that will be a huge hit.
Marc:And it's basically nine months after.
Marc:Where's that song?
Guest:I remember exactly what I thought when she said that.
Guest:Well, we'll never hear that thing.
No!
Guest:There's no chance we're hearing that.
Guest:Anytime a person of her personality type puts a timestamp on something, you can pretty much guarantee, not only is it not going to hit that deadline, it will never happen.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Never.
Guest:It will never happen.
Guest:So if you ever hear this Kurt Cobain song she's talking about, that would be a miracle.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:Especially after she, I'm sure she cashed in a bunch of checks last year because they allowed the Nirvana song to be used in the Batman movie.
Guest:And then it like actually charted again.
Guest:Right.
Guest:So like.
Guest:She's fine.
Guest:Like, yeah.
Guest:She's fine.
Guest:Right, right.
Marc:I don't think you're going to hear that song.
Marc:Oh, that's funny.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Courtney Love.
Marc:What an insane episode.
Marc:Also, Mark is so good.
Marc:Like, right before he goes to Courtney Love, it's like, all right.
Marc:And now, here, what does he say?
Marc:He's like, hear me listen to Courtney Love.
Marc:What?
What?
Guest:that was very deliberate uh also i think i talked about this briefly when i put some stuff out on a producer cut of this um but man that was a hard fucking episode to edit like one of the hardest like if i could count on on on one hand like the five hardest episodes to edit that's definitely on there
Guest:Oh, wow.
Guest:Because it was just so her, the way her brain works is like synaptic responses, just boom, boom, boom, boom.
Guest:And things would go all over the place.
Guest:And so I had to ride this very fine line of trying to make it make sense without diminishing who Courtney Love is.
Guest:Like I couldn't.
Guest:It's not my job.
Guest:It's my job to put an intelligible thing out there for people to understand when they're listening to it.
Guest:But it's not my job to make her into something she's not.
Guest:Right.
Guest:I don't need to clean up Courtney Love.
Guest:I just need the audience to not turn it off after five minutes.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And that was hard because I remember texting Mark while I was listening to it the first time.
Guest:And I was like, this is impossible.
Yeah.
Guest:And he's just like, I'm sorry, man.
Guest:I'm sorry.
Guest:I did what I could.
Marc:It's like that Chevy Chase scene in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.
Marc:Here's a little nod for you, Russ.
Marc:Here's a big ball of Christmas lights.
Yes.
Guest:exactly that's exactly what it felt like and uh and then yeah she kept texting him for like days afterwards it might have even been weeks about like thoughts on how the talk went and things he should he could bring up again and then a bunch of stuff from that episode made news like her her talking about how brad pitt had her fired off of fight club or whatever and uh and then she's texting about that like oh i guess uh guess we got old brad and mark's like what
Guest:Whoa, whoa, whoa.
Guest:I didn't get Brad.
Marc:I just fucking put in what you said.
Marc:He's a body incline over here.
Guest:He's like, Brad, you mean my friend Brad?
Guest:The guy who watched my show three times in a row?
Guest:Oh, man.
Guest:Yeah, that was a fun time.
Guest:What I will say, though, is difficulty in editing it aside, I found it to be a trip.
Guest:Like, I enjoyed it as an episode, and it was one of those ones, like a lot of the older episodes we did, where they would get some attention, but not in a negative way, not like a Sam Elliott attention or Ben Kingsley attention.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I gotta stop fucking talking about Ben Kingsley.
Guest:But like that Courtney Love episode, I felt like it felt engaged in the way that the, like the people were around, like the Dane Cook episode.
Guest:Like it got people talking about it and they were like stuff, but I didn't feel like it was like out of bounds or like people were just fishing for clickbait.
Guest:It was, people were legit.
Guest:Like, like I remember Sean Fennessy from the ringer was like, this is an all time.
Guest:That's awesome.
Marc:It really is.
Marc:I cannot imagine having to edit that.
Marc:That just sounds horrible.
Guest:Well, it was, yeah, there is only one corny love and murder or not.
Guest:Probably not.
Guest:Probably not.
Guest:Yes, let's say that.
Guest:Make sure we say that so we don't get sued.
Guest:But yes, I don't think we're ever going to really do one like that ever again.
Guest:And that's that's probably for the best in multiple ways.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Well, if you have any reaction to that episode or anything else you've been hearing on the show, you can give us a comment.
Guest:There's a link in the episode description.
Guest:Just click on that.
Guest:Leave what you want to say.
Guest:At this point in the show, we usually do this for our friends who have hung around to listen to us talk about wrestling.
Guest:We will talk about some wrestling here.
Guest:However, I have a funny feeling that people who are listening to this who don't know anything about wrestling or don't follow wrestling might have seen what we're about to talk about because it made international news.
Guest:I saw it on ABC.
Guest:Amazing.
Guest:And this was over the weekend.
Guest:From the DDT Pro Wrestling promotion in Japan, there was a wrestling match on a Japanese bullet train going 180 miles per hour between two older wrestlers.
Guest:I believe they're both in their 50s.
Guest:Minoru Suzuki, who we see often in AEW.
Guest:He's in New Japan Wrestling as well.
Guest:And Sanshiro Takagi.
Guest:And these two old guys were in their underwear following
Guest:fighting on the bullet train with a referee there.
Guest:They had plants in the, in, in the seats so that like they pull a guy up and beat the hell out of him too.
Guest:And there was a guy doing a run in on the bullet train and there were multiple attacks and,
Guest:This fight apparently went on for 30 minutes.
Guest:It is so ridiculous and strange-looking and fun-looking that it has made international news, as I said.
Guest:I've seen a ton of attention on it.
Guest:The type of people who never talk about wrestling or never pay any attention to wrestling have been sharing this clip of these two guys fighting on the Japanese bullet train, which...
Guest:Got me and Chris to start thinking about the fact that wrestling should do this more.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:There should be more wrestling in non-wrestling ring locations.
Guest:And the reason that I believe this is not just because of the bullet train situation.
Guest:video that we watched.
Guest:It is because every time this has ever happened in wrestling, it's awesome.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:This happens like I would say with the regularity of maybe like twice a year, right?
Guest:If that, sometimes you go a long time before seeing this, but every now and then some promotion, usually one of the big ones, cause you'll see it on, on television does a match in a weird location and
Guest:And it rules.
Guest:And I was just kind of rattling some ones off the top of my head.
Guest:I was a little busy.
Guest:I didn't have time to really watch and research these things.
Guest:So I said, you know, Chris, if you haven't seen some of these things, why don't you go and watch some of the, like, matches in crazy locations?
Guest:And we can talk about them.
Guest:You can tell me, like, your favorite ones.
Guest:And maybe if there are any people from wrestling listening to this, which I know there are a few, we can lobby that you...
Guest:The creative department in whatever promotion you're with, get on it and try to recreate some of these events because I think there should be more matches in different locations.
Guest:So what do you got?
Guest:What do you think are some of the best ones?
Marc:So first of all, there's a it's not a wrestling match for some reason, but there's a Stars and Stripes challenge.
Guest:Ah, yes.
Guest:Stars and Stripes Challenge.
Marc:You know of it.
Marc:It's Yokozuna versus the USA.
Marc:Live on July 4th.
Guest:The whole USA.
Marc:Yeah, the entire country.
Marc:Apparently, it's a body slam Yokozuna and you win a pickup truck.
Marc:That's the gag of this.
Marc:Now, do you remember this like, you know, when you were a kid?
Marc:I remember it like my grandparents.
Guest:Yeah, exactly.
Guest:I know everything about this.
Guest:This was in the aftermath of Hulk Hogan leaving WWF for good.
Guest:He was having a falling out with Vince over money.
Guest:He wanted to go and just make his television show, Thunder in Paradise.
Guest:But he was the champion at the time on his return.
Guest:And his previous return, they had to figure out a way to get the title off of him.
Guest:And he agreed he would just lose to Yokozuna.
Guest:You lose to Yokozuna, get rid of the title.
Guest:And they didn't really have any plan for him to come back.
Guest:And he indeed did not come back until after WCW was dead because he went to WCW a year later.
Guest:Right.
Guest:So that's the setup for it.
Guest:Now, Yokozuna was the champion and they had no Hulk Hogan around.
Guest:They had no one who was a big American hero type to defeat Yokozuna, who is being presented as the foreign menace, which we've discussed this exact thing before this, like staple of Vince McMahon that he couldn't let go of the foreign menace where he was even doing it in 1993 with the Japanese as though that was a thing that America cared about.
Guest:But anyway, he sets this thing up on the deck of the USS Intrepid right here in New York.
Guest:You know, if you haven't been here, it just sits on the Hudson River over in Midtown.
Guest:It's a museum.
Guest:You could go there, but it's an aircraft carrier.
Guest:And you, you know, go on the deck.
Guest:You could see the planes and stuff.
Guest:Well, they put on on the 4th of July.
Guest:They in 1993, they put a wrestling ring.
Guest:on the deck of the USS Intrepid and said that any athlete in the USA could come and accept Yokozuna's challenge to body slam him.
Guest:If you could body slam the 500 pound sumo wrestler, Yokozuna, you would win, as Chris said, a pickup truck.
Guest:I don't remember what brand I'm hoping American made.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I'm hoping for it.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Or Chevy.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Guest:By the way, don't rule out the fact that if they got a foreign sponsor, they would have used it.
Guest:So did you watch any of it?
Guest:I watched it all.
Guest:I watched it all.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Wait, all?
Guest:Because it's like uncut footage.
Guest:It's like...
Guest:three hours long oh no no i watched like the 10 minute version you watched the recap yeah yeah the recap the recap and the recap is great there's like a new york giant running back i've never heard of yeah it was all no-name guys but they were like he's from the giants like it's like the practice squad guy right come out i think wait was maybe bill fralick from the bears was there there was some there was at least like one or two
Guest:Like, semi-names.
Marc:There's a Pittsburgh Penguin, you know, hockey player, Patrick something.
Marc:There's Scott Burrell from the Charlotte Hornets who had just been drafted by the Hornets.
Marc:So he actually is like, nah, I'm not going to do it.
Marc:He refused.
Marc:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Guest:I remember that.
Marc:There's like a guy, he steps in the ring, he looks up Yokozuna, he's like, nope, I'm out.
Marc:Yes.
Yes.
Marc:but then there's scott steiner which i i forgot that he was at wwf at the time but yeah tatanka uh crush but wait tatanka don't don't gloss over tatanka he does a full match there he starts hitting him in the head and it's like wait what the fuck
Guest:So you're telling me if you actually body slam the guy after that, that would be legal?
Guest:You just punched him in the face several times.
Marc:He's going off the top rope and shit.
Guest:Yes, right.
Guest:The funny thing is the wrestlers are all doing wrestling, but these other guys show up and they try to shoot body slam the guy.
Guest:They're trying to do what you would do in a weight room, like a clean and jerk.
Guest:I'm just like...
Guest:Pick this giant man who can lower his center of gravity and be dead weight on you and pick him up.
Guest:They don't budge him a centimeter.
Guest:Like they can't move this guy.
Marc:By the way, at some point, Yokozuna, who is not Japanese, he takes a time out.
Guest:Samoan.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:He takes a time out and eats a gigantic bowl of rice with chips.
Guest:That is a classic.
Guest:I remember that from just from like regular like Monday Night Raw or something.
Guest:You know, they're going to go to break.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And before they go to break, they want to show like the wrestler preparing for the match he's got coming up.
Guest:And like, you know, he'll just go, okay, and when we come back, you know, this guy's going to fight and he'll be like lifting weights or using like a resistance band or something.
Guest:He's getting himself ready.
Guest:They did that at Yokozuna.
Guest:They went back and he's doing exactly what you said, eating a bowl of rice.
Guest:And I remember Owen Hart was his tag team partner at the time.
Guest:And he's standing next to him and he's going, come on, Yokozuna, you got to eat up.
Guest:You got to get fat for your match.
Guest:What?
Guest:like it's a spinach also that this bowl of rice which he was eating with chopsticks so like like three grains of rice at a time is this is going to make a difference for a guy who already weighs 600 pounds seriously this is a great part of pro wrestling that we're discussing right here by the way like you wouldn't trade this stuff for the world seriously
Guest:So another thing before you get to the climax of this Body Slam Challenge is something that you might not have noticed.
Guest:What's that?
Guest:Because Yokozuna definitely tried to make sure you didn't notice it.
Guest:He was trying with all his might to not sell this.
Guest:But Mr. Fuji was his manager at the time.
Guest:And apparently it was like 100 degrees that day in New York City.
Guest:July 4th, New York City.
Guest:Yeah, right.
Guest:At 2 p.m.
Guest:or something.
Guest:And yes, and so this ring, which probably was put out there like the day before, right?
Guest:So it's been sitting there all day long until they're doing this thing.
Guest:It's piping hot.
Guest:And Mr. Fuji took Yokozuna's sandals and hid them under the ring.
Guest:So Yokozuna had to be in the ring barefoot on this baking canvas.
Guest:Oh, my God.
Guest:He must have had third degree burns on the bottom of his feet.
Guest:Oh, my God.
Guest:He was trying desperately to not let you know that he was in agony that whole time because his dick manager pulled a prank on him.
Marc:Oh, I got to watch that again now.
Marc:God damn it.
Guest:So, yes, this and now we should also we're talking about this about being in like cool locations.
Guest:It is very cool.
Guest:Oh, it's the best.
Guest:Tons of people on the deck of the USS Intrepid and you can see the skyline in the background and the water.
Guest:But then the coup de grace.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:Right.
Marc:A helicopter arrives on the intro.
Guest:Because everyone else has failed.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:Everyone who is participating in the event has now tried to body slam Yokozuna.
Guest:I think Macho Man was the last guy to go.
Guest:That's right.
Guest:He's wearing a red, white, and blue jacket with tassels and his cowboy hat.
Guest:He can't do it.
Guest:He fails.
Guest:So Yokozuna wins.
Guest:He defeats all of America.
Guest:And yes, then, as you're saying, a fucking helicopter happens.
Marc:comes out of the New York sky.
Marc:And lands on the Intrepid and out comes Lex Luger wearing a stars and stripes.
Guest:The most 90s stars and stripes shirt.
Guest:It's like a flag shirt that you'd buy in the mall.
Guest:With the stars on one side.
Guest:Yeah, exactly.
Guest:And yeah, this was the moment where they decided Lex Luger was going to be the new Hulk Hogan.
Guest:It was a valiant effort.
Guest:It failed like crazy, but
Guest:he does get over huge.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:With this crowd.
Marc:They're all chanting Lex, Lex, Lex, which is such a weird thing to chant.
Marc:Like Lex is such a strange name.
Marc:Weird thing.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:You might be saying sex.
Marc:Right.
Marc:But it's also like Lex Luthor is like a, you know, it's just like a weird word.
Marc:Also at the time, I don't remember this at the time, but we're, we're fans thinking it was going to be Hulk Hogan.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:They're cheering for Hogan.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:When, when they see the helicopter coming in, you hear people going, Hogan, Hogan.
Guest:They thought Hogan was coming back.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Cause that would have been the spot.
Marc:Like, Oh my God.
Marc:The, the entire intrepid would have rocked.
Guest:Hey, I'll say it again.
Guest:Like they did their best.
Guest:you know, with trying to get this guy over.
Guest:And he was over right there.
Guest:It just didn't work in the long run, much as the case with Lex Luger in most of his career.
Guest:He kind of never really worked in the end.
Marc:But he worked here and he slams Yokozuna to the ground or to the mat and wins their truck.
Marc:And yeah, that is an impressive place.
Marc:And please, wrestling companies, do this again.
Marc:Do it on the Intrepid.
Marc:I don't care.
Guest:It's so awesome.
Guest:Usually there aren't guys that weigh what Yokozuna weighs anymore because it's unhealthy and died an early death.
Guest:But there are giants.
Guest:Get that Satnam Singh or Omas.
Guest:Get one of those guys in a situation like this and put them somewhere where guys have to come and try to slam them.
Guest:That would be awesome.
Guest:Yes, for sure.
Marc:All right.
Marc:Next one I have on my list.
Marc:It's Triple H versus The Undertaker, again in New York, but this time at Penn Station.
Marc:Were you around for this?
Guest:I was around.
Guest:I did not have this show.
Guest:This was a show that didn't air where I lived.
Guest:Shotgun Saturday Night.
Guest:That's right.
Guest:Shotgun Saturday Night, which was their attempt.
Guest:There was a period of time where they were going to do weekly pay-per-views.
Guest:Oh, God.
Guest:They had tried a thing called Tuesday in Texas.
Guest:Yeah, I remember that.
Guest:It was after, like, a Survivor Series, right?
Guest:And it didn't do well financially.
Guest:So they abandoned that idea.
Guest:But then what they were going to do when they, you know, had it going weekly was do it in this vein.
Guest:Like, have a, like, small location somewhere, like a nightclub or a bar or something.
Guest:Mm-hmm.
Guest:And the show would be there.
Guest:And so it was about like six or seven years later, they developed a shotgun Saturday night show and it didn't last very long.
Guest:It was probably pretty expensive for them to put on and it didn't get a ton of clearance.
Guest:Like I said, I didn't even air in the market I lived in, which is like the Albany, New York market.
Guest:Yeah, that's wild.
Guest:So I would only see the highlights.
Guest:But this one, I have since sought out the full match and the full, you know, I've seen the highlights a million times because there's one tremendously famous spot that like legit more people should do.
Guest:Just this spot.
Guest:You don't have to go to Penn Station for it.
Guest:Just do it somewhere where there is an escalator.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:Well, first of all, we have to mention that Hunter enters Penn Station via limo and he's being interviewed by Scott Pentingale, I want to say.
Marc:And he's like, you know, you wouldn't see me give up this belt just like you wouldn't see me take one of these trains, which is great.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Boom.
Marc:Great heat automatically.
Marc:He's not one of us.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And then the undertaker arrives.
Marc:And much like Donald Trump will do later, he takes the escalator down.
Marc:Which is just such a bizarre thing to see.
Guest:Well, it's just bizarre that he's in Penn Station in full Undertaker gimmick in the first place.
Guest:Like, it's like, is that a dead guy?
Guest:Zombie is here in the Penn Station?
Marc:All right, let's cheer for him.
Marc:I'm running for my train.
Marc:Like, wait a second.
Marc:Was that Undertaker or was that just some guy?
Guest:Yeah, right.
Guest:You wouldn't necessarily know.
Marc:Yeah, right.
Marc:Yes, totally.
Marc:So Hunter apparently, he flees the ring at one point.
Marc:The fight spills out onto the staircase.
Guest:Yeah, I want to make that clear, what you just said.
Guest:This is not just a fight in Penn Station.
Guest:They had a wrestling ring in Penn Station.
Guest:Like in the section of Penn Station where you're looking at the departure times and the arrivals, where your track is.
Marc:There's a fucking ring.
Marc:I really hope our friend Justin, who does Penn Station tours, which are great, by the way.
Marc:Everyone should take them.
Marc:But I hope he mentions this during his tour.
Guest:If he doesn't, I got to get him on this.
Marc:This is the escalator where The Undertaker tombstones Hunter Hershelmsley onto the ground, onto the escalator, and Hunter rides the escalator down, basically dead.
Marc:That's how the match ends.
Marc:It's fantastic.
Guest:Now, I watched that clip, and the only—
Guest:there are times you know i watch things in wrestling and i'm like terrified for the performers even if i know like that they got out of it okay and you know like a big bump or something i watch i'm like oh god i can't believe he did that yeah and this one is like gives me the most kind of internal cringe feeling ever because hunter has such long hair oh yeah he gets turned upside down at the top
Guest:the tippy top of the escalator where the thing where the rotor is moving and then he gets tombstone which is a you know pile driver driven headfirst down onto the thing and then has to sit up and ride the thing down as he's kind of like with his ass and back leaning on the escalator if his fucking hair got caught in that escalator nightmare nightmare i can't even it's like the john moxley with the skewers in his head like i don't even want to think about it anymore yeah
Marc:Absolutely.
Marc:Also, that match has Vince.
Marc:I guess Shotgun Saturday Night had Vince on commentary with Sonny, which is amazing, honestly.
Guest:Sonny was the big drawing point of that show.
Guest:And apparently, I don't know that this is like a gospel truth, but I've seen a former WWF writer on the internet saying that
Guest:When Terry Funk just recently died, he was like, you know, Terry, one of the lesser known accomplishments of Terry Funk was he got Shotgun Saturday Night essentially canceled.
Guest:Really?
Guest:And it was because he made an appearance on a show, a Shotgun Saturday Night show, and was just like, they told him like, hey, it's late night.
Guest:You can like be like, you know, as...
Guest:Be a little edgy.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Like it was like what they told Rob Bartlett back on the Monday Night Raw days.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And he went out there and he's like, where's McMahon?
Guest:McMahon, you're a pussy.
Guest:Get away from me, Pettengill.
Guest:Your mother's a whore.
Guest:Oh, my God.
Guest:Well, at the end of this show.
Marc:Amazing.
Marc:Speaking of Terry Funk, he's the next thing that I watched, or he's in the next match that I watched.
Marc:And it's Terry Funk and Stan Henson in the New Jersey 1990 Rumble in the River.
Marc:Have you ever heard of this?
Marc:No.
Marc:No, I've never heard of it.
Marc:I haven't seen it.
Marc:Oh, yeah, I've seen it.
Marc:I'll send you the link.
Marc:Oh, wow.
Marc:We'll put the link in the in the show notes.
Marc:But this was a Falls Count Anywhere bout.
Marc:And the ring is set up next to a swamp.
Marc:And after a while, they're wrestling and the two depart the ring and the action is taken to the riverbank where Terry Funk gets body slammed into the river.
Marc:And they're counting the person out as disqualified.
Marc:And that's how the match ends.
Guest:What?
Marc:A disqualification in a Death River match?
Marc:And also, Falls Count Anywhere, guys.
Guest:You're next to a river.
Guest:What do you want right now?
Guest:That's some horseshit.
Guest:This is probably why I've never heard of it.
Guest:I'm sure it looks amazing.
Marc:Yeah, I mean, it is grainy, but yeah, it is quite something.
Marc:And man, 1990, New Jersey, Rumble in the River sounds so much like an action park sort of thing.
Marc:Like I'm shocked.
Guest:Like a promotion that they would do to get people in that day.
Marc:Yeah, yeah, totally.
Marc:It totally sounds like it was.
Marc:While three kids died on the loop-de-loop slide.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:All right.
Marc:Next one I watched was, well, there was Bash at the Beach.
Marc:So there was there was Beach Blast in 1995 and it took place in Huntington Beach, California.
Marc:Now, did you have you seen this?
Guest:Yeah, I've seen all the beach blast and, you know, ultimately they wound up putting them in arenas, but they initially were on the actual beach, which is dope.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:Well, they were dope, but apparently as Dave Meltzer says that, you know, there were no bleachers.
Marc:So it made it really hard for people to see.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:And that's the other thing.
Marc:It was July and it was in the middle of the day and it was just hot for everyone.
Marc:So, yeah, it was a real kind of.
Guest:Well, they fine tuned this then.
Guest:Now, maybe you're going to bring this up because they knew that they wanted to do something like this traditionally on WCW and have like a spring break beachy kind of show.
Guest:But yeah, it was too hot and it was not an easy enough way to get people to see the actual thing.
Guest:It still looks great.
Guest:I love the way it looks and I'm sure they did too.
Guest:And so instead what they started doing was putting Monday Nitro episodes in
Guest:at spring break where they would go to this place club lovella in panama city florida which is not nice florida that's like panhandle florida right but there's still a beach right and so they're out by the beach you can see the water right it's it's in the distance yeah but the the place they're at is like a a club a resort and the ring is in the middle of the pool area
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:It's like on a, it's like on a platform and the pool surrounds the ring, which is the greatest idea ever because in wrestling, a pool always works.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:Any, any wrestling you have where there's a pool, it's great.
Guest:It's just like having a cake or a trophy or, you know, it's like a press table.
Guest:Someone's going to go through the table.
Guest:It's just like that.
Guest:It's Chekhov's pool.
Guest:Chekhov's pool.
Guest:Exactly.
Guest:There's,
Guest:always somebody that's going to go in the pool and it always gets a pop uh jericho has his cruise right and and so there's a pool on the cruise ship and of course someone gets dunked in the pool every time i mean jf got got dunked um yes he did one of the first ones yeah
Guest:They did the stadium stampede on AEW pay-per-view.
Guest:There was a pool there.
Guest:For some reason at the Jacksonville Jaguars Stadium, there's a pool.
Marc:Of course there is.
Marc:So a guy went in that.
Marc:One guy wouldn't go in because he can't swim.
Marc:And the wrestler was like, what are you talking about?
Marc:It's three feet of water.
Marc:That's a great part.
Marc:Wrestling's funny, guys.
Marc:Wrestling is so funny.
Marc:I just love it so much.
Guest:And it's bad when they forget that it's funny.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:When wrestlers take it too seriously, it's bad.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:Wrestling is good when it's funny and dumb.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:100%.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:All right.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:You mentioned empty arena matches.
Marc:There's another Terry Funk versus Jerry Lawler match.
Marc:That's the most famous one.
Marc:Oh, is it really?
Marc:That's like the most famous empty arena match.
Marc:Oh, interesting.
Marc:Because I'm watching this and I'm like, wow, this is raw.
Marc:This is like really something.
Marc:Like they're jawing at each other.
Guest:Terry Funk is amazing in that.
Guest:The fact that you can hear him, everything he's saying.
Guest:And it's just like, he's like,
Guest:My eye!
Guest:Goddamn you, Lawler!
Guest:My eye!
Marc:Yes!
Marc:And that's how it ends.
Marc:Oh, my God.
Marc:This match is good.
Marc:Man, I do not know many Terry Funk matches, but this guy, I mean, he's just fun.
Marc:He's fun to watch, and he is just really good.
Marc:He responds to Jerry Lawler showing up with his crown on, and he's just screaming at him like, look at this idiot!
Marc:Can't you see nobody's here?
Marc:Just great.
Guest:You know, Terry Funk was good enough as a performer that he got a bunch of acting roles and everyone was always like, oh, he's going to leave wrestling and go be an actor like Roddy Piper.
Guest:And then in some interview at some point in his life, he revealed like, no, I just would do that because it was how I got my insurance.
Guest:So like he would do small roles like, you know, he was in Roadhouse and what's your favorite one?
Guest:The arm wrestling one.
Guest:Oh, over the top.
Guest:Over the top.
Marc:He has a very brief scene in that.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:But well, that's what it was.
Guest:He do small bit parts.
Guest:I think he was in a Wendy's commercial.
Guest:You'd see him on every now and then he'd be on one of those kind of like Knight Rider type shows.
Guest:I don't know if specifically that, but, you know, hour long, you know, episodic.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Action dramas and stuff.
Guest:And yeah, he did it just because he's like, no, I'm not going to give up wrestling.
Guest:I don't, I might, I'm not aspiring to go work in Hollywood.
Guest:I love wrestling, but this is, this is how I, you know, get my SAG card and now I don't have to worry about health insurance.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:But wouldn't it be great if wrestling had insurance?
Guest:Yes.
Guest:What the fuck?
Guest:And not this not this sham that these guys are just independent contractors.
Marc:Like, give me a fucking break.
Marc:These guys are literally risking their their necks every single week and you can't get them health insurance.
Marc:That's that's just idiotic.
Marc:Yeah, that's that's nuts.
Marc:So there's that match I watched.
Marc:There's a I also watched.
Marc:There's this WWE did a halftime heat, which was during the halftime of Super Bowl 33.
Marc:I've ever seen this.
Marc:Oh, yeah.
Marc:And it did a huge rating.
Marc:Yes, it really did.
Marc:And also, I got to say, I wish they would do it again.
Guest:Yes.
Marc:Because it is fun.
Guest:But wait, wait, wait.
Guest:But hang on.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:You haven't identified the participants yet.
Guest:Oh, yes.
Guest:And that's the only way you can do these kind of matches.
Guest:Because just like you said, with Terry Funk and Jerry Lawler, like, they were good.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:And like, they're super entertaining.
Guest:And who happened to be the two people involved in this halftime heat match with
Marc:were they with two jobbers two guys that like you know were just excellent technical wrestlers who was involved in this match it was the rock and mankind oh those two guys yeah they're kind of entertaining yes yes they are i mean you know it matters of course uh the the casting uh these two fought to i mean just a really well produced i mean would you call it a cinematic episode or a cinematic i don't know that
Guest:The cinematic thing, which became, came in vogue during the pandemic, which was generally like shooting matches like movies where you didn't, you could have all the contrivances of editing and cuts and, you know, hauntings.
Guest:haunted house matches where spooky shit happened.
Guest:And that's what I would think of with cinematic.
Guest:This is, is like any wrestling match would be produced.
Guest:It just happens to be all over this arena where they go, you know, in through the back and they're fighting in offices and stuff.
Guest:And there's clearly some goofy camera shots where like, well, there wouldn't be a camera there, you know, like the bottom of a forklift or whatever.
But,
Guest:But man, there's a part in that match that is funny every time I see it.
Guest:Which one is that?
Guest:They're fighting in the back and they get to the spot where inevitably in any match like this, there's going to be like catering and food so that guys can have like a food fight.
Guest:And The Rock, he's just so amazing at talking while he's doing this stuff.
Guest:How he became famous was just that he kept talking.
Guest:He would talk during matches.
Guest:He would do these amazing promos.
Guest:And he's just...
Guest:laying all this shit talk on Mick Foley the whole time.
Guest:And he's like, everything he hits him with, he's got some kind of quip about the thing he's hitting him with.
Guest:And then at one point, he's fighting on him with food.
Guest:And he stops because there's a bowl of tortilla chips and salsa.
Guest:And he takes a tortilla chip, he dips it in the salsa and eats it.
Guest:And he goes...
Guest:It's mild!
Guest:And punches Mick Foley in the face.
Marc:That's just amazing.
Marc:I have to know, was that scripted for him?
Guest:Whether it was or wasn't, there's no doubt that this guy, no one should mistake the fact that he became the highest paid movie star in the world.
Guest:That is a guy with amazing skill and charisma.
Marc:Totally.
Marc:The match ends with mankind pinning the rock by lowering a forklift payload with wooden planks with kegs of beer on top to remain the champion.
Marc:Really just chef's kiss of a wrestling segment.
Marc:Really, really great stuff.
Guest:Yeah, that's a great—I mean, when that came out, everyone said, like, oh, they're going to try to do the Terry Funk-Jerry Lawler match.
Guest:Oh, no kidding.
Guest:Oh, wow.
Marc:Yeah, yeah.
Marc:Wow.
Marc:All right.
Marc:Next one I watched was Camp Victory in an undisclosed location.
Marc:in the capital city of Iraq, which is like, is that like parts unknown?
Guest:Wait a minute.
Guest:I don't have any idea what you're talking about though.
Guest:What was this?
Marc:Oh yeah.
Marc:This WWF did a tribute to the troops.
Guest:They would annually go over there.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Right.
Marc:But, but one, one year they actually went there and, and into an active war zone in the, in the capital city of Iraq.
Marc:Get the fuck out of here.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:That's right.
Marc:I mean, of course, take it with a grain of salt, right?
Marc:It's wrestling.
Marc:But that's what they say.
Marc:But I watched an episode with John Cena versus Big Show with a bunch of active military and their families in attendance.
Guest:Now, were they fighting in a ring or were they just fighting all over the military camp?
Guest:No, no, no.
Marc:They were fighting in the ring.
Marc:Yeah, yeah.
Marc:Unfortunately, it's another ring episode.
Marc:But yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:See, that's the thing.
Guest:I love when the ring is in a weird place.
Guest:That's the thing that I love.
Guest:Granted, there's matches that are like the Riverbed one where they're just out in the wild, but where the ring is somewhere it shouldn't be.
Guest:Again, if you're listening to this, wrestling people, put rings in weird places.
Guest:That makes a match awesome.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:Another weird place for the ring to be was Wall Street when WWE went public for the first time, I guess.
Guest:I just saw them play the clip of this because, you know, they just had this merger with Endeavor and UFC.
Guest:And yeah, they were they were hearkening back to when they launched their IPO.
Guest:And it's crazy.
Guest:That's a crazy video.
Guest:Like that is such a Vince McMahon production.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Of like, we're going to make this look like the most important thing in the world.
Guest:The day that we launch our IPO and we're going to now be reliant on the public buying stock.
Guest:You know, we need to make this look like as big as Disneyland.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And it does in that video.
Marc:Yeah, it looks great.
Marc:Yeah, I think there was a Dudley Boys versus Hardee's match, which is just amazing that the Hardee's are still doing it.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And then I think The Rock and Steve Austin cut promos.
Marc:So, yeah, it was a well-orchestrated event for them.
Marc:Some other things that I actually – I only saw like – I was just trying to find articles on this stuff and I couldn't find actual videos.
Marc:But there's like some Dragon Pro Wrestling from 2015 that did a – That's in Japan, yeah.
Marc:Yeah, but they did a cave match where they put the wrestling ring in a fucking cave with stalagmites coming down from the roof.
Marc:Fucking awesome.
Guest:Wait, yeah, because if you don't hang off of one of those to do a dropkick, then you've missed an opportunity.
Guest:Yes.
Marc:That would be amazing.
Marc:Or pretend to put someone through one of those.
Marc:Like Cliffhanger.
Marc:Yes, yeah.
Marc:Yeah, so yeah, I couldn't find a clip of that, but man, I saw a still shot, and it looks awesome.
Marc:So yeah, so that is one of them.
Marc:And to be honest with you, another weird place for wrestling that I don't think anyone should ever do again, actually, is something we talked about previously.
Marc:It's the first Monday Night Nitro at the Mall of America.
Marc:That is a weird place for a wrestling event.
Marc:And except for the escalators being constantly having people on it, I don't recommend people doing this ever again.
Marc:Yeah, so that's my list.
Marc:Do you have any others that I haven't mentioned that I should check out?
Guest:Well, I think one of the ones that I this came to mind as soon as I saw the bullet train fight that that started this whole conversation was the time WCW had a match in the back of a flatbed truck speeding down the highway.
Guest:And this was called the King of the Road match.
Guest:It's pretty terrible.
Guest:It's like the visual of it is cool.
Guest:And it was Dustin Rhodes and a character named the Blacktop Bully who was Repo Man, our friend the Repo Man in a different gimmick.
Guest:And this match is significant really only because it got both guys fired from WCW because they bladed during the match and WCW had a strict no blood policy at the time.
Guest:Now, here's the strange thing about that.
Guest:This was a match filmed while they were, you know, on a flatbed truck speeding down the highway with multiple cameras shooting this pre-recorded match, which they then edited together.
Marc:Right.
Guest:Why did they not edit out the blood?
Guest:Right.
Guest:Or just like, they're like, yeah, had their cake and eat it too.
Guest:Like, they're like, oh God, they bled on our pay-per-view all over the place.
Guest:Oh, by the way, you're fired.
Guest:Yeah.
Yeah.
Guest:And so the interesting thing about that is it leads to Dustin Rhodes going to WWF and becoming Gold Dust.
Guest:Oh, no kidding.
Guest:So the King of the Road match is actually historically very significant.
Guest:Oh, interesting.
Guest:Other than being a weird thing where two guys are fighting in a flatbed truck for 10 minutes on pay-per-view.
Guest:Hmm.
Marc:Now...
Marc:I'm sorry, one other event that I didn't mention because I couldn't find a video of it.
Marc:But New Japan Pro Wrestling used to host matches on a deserted island in Ganrandir.
Marc:I'm sure I'm saying that incorrectly, but apparently they were just apparently this is a site of legendary samurai battles from the from the 1600s.
Marc:So they would do matches there in a deserted island, which, again, a weird place and deserted.
Marc:And it must have been cool as hell.
Guest:Yeah, I've heard all about that.
Guest:I also remember, you know, the promotion FMW, which there's a whole Dark Side of the Ring episode about.
Guest:They used to do matches like out on the water, like, you know, like a float, a pontoon out there and put a wrestling ring on it.
Guest:And the guys would have to fight like the crowd was...
Guest:far away watching these guys out on the water and they have you know ring of fire matches and stuff it's all pretty crazy I'm assuming a lot of the Japanese wrestling stunts like this are done because their regulations might be a little different like sporting commissions might not be the same or have the same rules as they have in the US I don't know that for sure but I'm guessing that's why you hear a lot more of these Japanese promotions having crazy events like this
Guest:I will say the one other thing that springs to mind is WWF invented in 1998 or nine, the hardcore title.
Guest:Oh yeah.
Guest:And that was largely to give guys like Mick Foley a showcase to, you know, have hardcore matches.
Guest:But soon it turned into this gimmick where it was a title defended 24 seven.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Uh, so that basically anywhere you were, uh, with this title, someone could attack you.
Guest:And if they had a referee with them, they could pin you and win the title.
Guest:It's such a good gimmick.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:It leads to many great segments on, uh, WWF TV, especially when the title was held by this guy, Crash Holly, who was like an undersized guy.
Guest:Uh, but like pugnacious, like his character was, he was kind of like one of those like fighting mice in like Bugs Bunny cartoons.
Guest:Oh, really?
Guest:Like a Mighty Mouse type of guy.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And he had the hardcore title, which was defended 24-7.
Guest:And so people were always trying to go to him in places he was in life and steal this title from him.
Guest:I remember there's one where he's asleep in his house and two guys sneak in and try to pin him while he's sleeping.
Guest:Like a silent pin, right?
Guest:Yes.
Guest:It's like silent pin and then celebrating in silence because they got him.
Guest:And that wakes him up.
Guest:And so he pins him back and takes his title back.
Guest:But the greatest one is with this guy, Crash Holly.
Guest:Again, I should point out that he's like an undersized dude.
Guest:But like, you know, he's got like a boyish face.
Guest:In fact, Chris Jericho would cut promos on him and call him Elroy, like from the Jetsons, because it's kind of what he looked like.
Guest:And so in this segment, he is going to like a kid's play place, like a Chuck E. Cheese.
Guest:And he's not with a kid.
Guest:He's just there to go to this place.
Marc:Wait, what?
Marc:That's amazing.
Guest:Yeah, it's like this is him on his day off.
Guest:It's a Friday.
Guest:Yeah, exactly.
Guest:He went to go hang out at this place that looks fun.
Guest:And these two wrestlers known as...
Guest:known as the headbangers, show up at the place and they're like, hey, what are you doing here?
Guest:And then he spots a referee with them.
Guest:And so he knows immediately what's coming.
Guest:And the chase is on through this children's play space.
Guest:And it culminates in them all climbing to the top of some play structure and going down the slide, including the cameraman and the ref.
Yeah.
Guest:And ultimately this match ends with him pinning one of the guys in the ball pit.
Guest:No way.
Guest:So this is the height of, I think the height of on location wrestling matches really never been replicated.
Guest:They, they reinvented the heart, the 24 seven title.
Guest:They called it that they stopped calling it the hardcore title sometime around like 2014 or whatever, and called it the 24 seven title and
Guest:And tried to do this on every show and hit this height that they hit way back in like the year 2000 with Crash Holly.
Guest:And they were never able to get there.
Guest:Nothing was ever as good as this sketch in the ball pit, Chuck E. Cheese, wherever it was, going down the slide.
Guest:It's literally the best one.
Marc:I got to watch that.
Marc:I'm going to try to seek that out.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:If I find a link for it, I will put it in the episode description.
Guest:And along with the other things that we put in the episode description every week here, which is the best thing in wrestling.
Guest:And Chris, what was your pick this week?
Marc:My pick for best thing I saw in wrestling was from WWE SmackDown.
Marc:And it was The Rock returning to Denver.
Marc:And it was great.
Marc:The pop was great.
Marc:He is the best.
Marc:My God.
Marc:He just cuts a great promo.
Marc:He did some action.
Marc:I absolutely fucking loved it.
Marc:It was great to see him back there.
Guest:Well, you can thank two entities for that.
Guest:You can thank the AMPTP, which has caused SAG and the WGA to be on strike, which means the Rock has some free time.
Guest:And you can thank the NFL.
Guest:for absolutely obliterating Monday Night Raw, the previous Monday, which caused panic in WWF offices because it's the same week they were announcing this merger.
Guest:And they were going to announce this merger on the week where they had a record low rating because Monday Night Football...
Guest:With the Aaron Rodgers New York Jets game just destroyed Monday Night Raw.
Guest:And so they called their favor in to their friend Dwayne.
Guest:And he showed up in Colorado and blew the roof off the place.
Guest:And they had a monster SmackDown rating to close out the week.
Guest:It was a very smart move on their part.
Guest:And why wouldn't it be?
Guest:It's always smart to have The Rock show up to a wrestling show.
Marc:He's the greatest.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I mean, but I saw clips of him on Pat McAfee's show, who I don't really understand what he is, but he's a thing.
Marc:You're too old.
Guest:Oh, is that what it is?
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:I mean, he was an NFL kicker.
Guest:And after his career, he became like a radio guy slash YouTuber.
Guest:And so he's got a huge, huge...
Guest:Especially young, young fan base, younger teens, 20 year olds.
Guest:They love Pat McAfee.
Guest:Amazing.
Guest:And so he's been involved with WWF for several years, which was a good rub for them to have him around.
Guest:I think they now can't afford him.
Guest:And he's back doing, I think, college football game day or whatever.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:Which is where I saw clips of him and The Rock talking, and The Rock was saying that, yeah, I was supposed to do WrestleMania 39, but they never called me or something.
Marc:So, fascinating to think that maybe The Rock comes back for WrestleMania 40, which would be such a wild ride for him.
Marc:you know, concerning the fact that they have this Cody Rhodes story that they kind of, they didn't put on ice.
Marc:I mean, he's still amazingly popular, but the story is just kind of like just stagnant.
Marc:Yeah, it's a spin in wheels, right?
Guest:Yeah, they're not.
Guest:Well, but the bottom line is they've always seemed to be going toward the idea that the Roman Reigns story would end with, or would be a climax with The Rock, right?
Guest:Because the whole idea was Roman Reigns is the head of the tribe, right?
Guest:Of like all the Samoan wrestlers in the world.
Guest:Well, okay, who's the head of the tribe of all the Samoan wrestlers in the world?
Guest:It's The Rock.
Guest:So they've clearly for three years been setting it up so that The Rock would come back and they're just, they're at his whim.
Guest:Will he do it?
Guest:Can he do it?
Guest:Can he, you know...
Guest:Not book movie roles to be able to have the time to devote to training for a full match, you know, which is the thing he has said that he won't come back just for like a smoke and mirrors thing.
Guest:He needs to train and get in ring shape, which takes time.
Guest:Like whatever, whatever anybody thinks about wrestling, it takes you several months to actually get in shape if you've not been wrestling for a while.
Marc:Right.
Marc:And apparently, like, you get hurt if you just start... Yeah.
Guest:If you just do it, you could be screwed.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Totally.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:So, yeah, so... Shane McMahon just destroyed his legs.
Guest:Yes.
Marc:And we don't want that to happen to The Rock or anyone.
Marc:But, yeah, that segment was my favorite thing that I saw on wrestling this week.
Marc:How about you?
Guest:Well, I have a little bit of a cheat here because...
Guest:The best thing I saw in wrestling was my entire live experience at AEW Dynamite in Arthur Ashe Stadium here in Queens.
Guest:The great thing for me this time, you know, I love going to wrestling.
Guest:I have...
Guest:most of my life, but I was sitting ringside for this.
Guest:And so the thing that I was really paying attention to was the interaction and performance of the wrestlers when only I could hear them.
Guest:Like if they're in my general area on the side of the ring and, you know, not on camera.
Guest:And it's so amazing how they,
Guest:both try to stay in character the whole time, but also amuse themselves enough to have fun because they know what they're saying is non-consequential.
Guest:It's not for the TV show.
Guest:Give me an example.
Guest:Oh, I have a question.
Guest:tons so like uh orange cassidy and uh chris statlander were part of a tag team match and uh something happened where orange got knocked out of the ring and chris statlander comes around the side of the ring and they were like right in front of me and she leans over to him and she's like what happened and he stands up and goes ah she kicked me right in the face
Guest:And I thought it was so funny that like he's telling her like, like they're playing this as though this is a real thing in front of me.
Guest:You know, it's like, it's not like for no one's benefit other than me and their own amusement.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Theater for what?
Guest:In that same match, the guy Jake Hager, you know, the guy formerly with the hat, he goes to cheat but gets knocked off the ring and he falls down to the ground.
Guest:He wasn't in the match.
Guest:He was, like, outside of the ring.
Guest:And the guys who were fighting in the match, his tag team partners, they lost.
Guest:And right after they lost, he stands up.
Guest:He's standing right in front of me and he's, like, holding his head.
Guest:And he turns around and he looks at me and he goes...
Guest:Did we win?
Guest:I wasn't awake.
Marc:That's amazing.
Guest:There was another part where one of the young bucks, Nick Jackson, he's coming around the side of the ring and he's looking at his hand.
Guest:And as he's approaching where I am, I can see that his cuticle is bleeding.
Guest:He's got a little blood.
Guest:He must have jammed his fingernail on the ground or something.
Guest:And he's looking at it and he's got this concerned look on his face.
Guest:And he's walking by and he looks up and catches eyes with me.
Guest:And I'm like, don't worry about it.
Guest:And he's like...
Guest:Man, I didn't even gig.
Guest:Gig, if you're not aware, is like when wrestlers cut themselves on purpose to produce blood.
Guest:That's great.
Guest:This little blood dripping out of his fingers.
Guest:Another thing that happened that wasn't directly to me, but I definitely heard it, and I don't think the rest of the world heard it, or it wasn't meant to be picked up on TV, but the best friends were fighting, and their gimmick is they hug each other in the middle of the ring.
Guest:Well...
Guest:They were fighting and they went to do the hug and the bad guys like pulled them by the legs, pulled them out of the ring.
Guest:And so they're like standing outside the ring and they look at each other and they, you know, like they're going to go run back in the ring and beat the guys up.
Guest:And instead he turns to his friend and he goes, let's go hug these motherfuckers.
Marc:That's great.
Guest:I will also point out that I saw your brother's friend Q. Amazing.
Guest:He has come up on this show before.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:Q from Impractical Jokers.
Guest:He and Sal were invited in the ring to scissor with the acclaimed.
Marc:Wow.
Marc:That is the highest honor.
Marc:That's like they got knighted.
Guest:That's right.
Guest:In my ringside seat, I was not only able to scissor with the acclaimed, I scissored the belt.
Guest:Wow.
Guest:He brought the belt around so I can scissor the belt.
Guest:Yes.
Marc:Wow.
Marc:What a night for you.
Marc:Holy shit.
Marc:You really buried the lead there.
Marc:You scissored the belt.
Guest:Amazing.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Wow.
Guest:Wow.
Guest:Wow.
Guest:I love all the people who are now trying to understand what this means if they don't know what scissoring the belt means.
Guest:Please don't Google that.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Don't Google.
Guest:You just have to watch wrestling and figure it out because the real world version of what that is is probably not good.
Guest:In wrestling, it's very innocent and fun.
Marc:I think it was Rampage last week where they were like, who was it?
Guest:John Silver from The Dark Order.
Guest:I looked up Scissor and you guys are doing it wrong.
Guest:So he's supposed to be a heel and the audience laughed at that like laughing at a joke in a sitcom.
Guest:The crowd was like ha ha ha it would have said on the closed captions.
Guest:That was great.
Guest:I laughed my ass off at that.
Guest:I will also point out that you had mentioned to me after I was there at Queens at the Arthrash Stadium to tie this all up in a bow.
Guest:I could tell you had wrestling weird locations on the brain because you were like, why don't they have a match out by the Unisphere?
Marc:Yes.
Marc:Why don't you have it there?
Marc:It's perfect.
Marc:There's water.
Marc:It looks awesome.
Guest:Like, come on.
Guest:Why not?
Guest:I think maybe someday if they do a daytime event where it's bright out.
Marc:Because if it's dark, you lose all the visibility.
Guest:visual i've seen it lit up at night at night though no no but here's the thing dude well the lighting i know what you mean because you're driving on the highway and you see it it's it's lighting from the ground up to the unisphere right right that if you have guys fighting around the unisphere which if anybody doesn't know what we're talking about it's that big globe in queens that's right next to the two things for men in black right that look like spaceships yes
Guest:And it was part of the World's Fair, and it's still there in Queens, near the Queens Museum.
Guest:And yeah, it's picturesque and beautiful, but I think if they wanted to do it at night, it would cost them a bajillion dollars because they'd have to set up an entire lighting rig.
Marc:right right I guess what they should do is right before like if they do ever change this into a pay-per-view which I think they should they should start they should have a match Falls Count Anywhere and have it end right there and man that would be so fucking cool guys swinging off like South America to do a kick yeah one of these luchador guys just running up it somehow up the globe yeah yeah
Guest:All right.
Guest:Well, again, if wrestling people are listening, I hope we've given you some ideas today.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:And if you have any ideas of places that people should wrestle that are not traditional, like an arena or a theater.
Marc:The seven train.
Marc:Go on a seven train.
Marc:Sure.
Marc:It's so perfect.
Guest:There we go.
Guest:Well, leave us those suggestions in our link that's in the episode description.
Guest:Send a comment.
Guest:Tell us other matches that we've forgotten about where people went and fought elsewhere.
Guest:And just keep it coming.
Guest:Because, hey, I do have a bunch of things that came in this past week.
Guest:We will do another kind of mailbag episode in the future.
Guest:So if you're sending stuff in and I haven't read it yet, I will do that very soon.
Guest:There's been a lot of good stuff.
Guest:And I want to make sure that your voices are heard as well.
Guest:But until then, I'm Brandon, and that's Chris.
Guest:Peace.