BONUS The Friday Show - The Best of the Worst
Guest:so he says where am i then he looks around a little bit and he says there's no hulkamaniacs here he just looks around just just takes a look around no hulkamaniacs i just love that that's how he knows he's safe in regular life like he goes to the supermarket and he's like wait hang on hang on he looks around oh good hulkamaniacs they're here freezer section i see him i see him right over there
Guest:Chris, how are you?
Guest:BMAC, I'm great.
Guest:How you doing?
Guest:I'm doing good, man.
Marc:I heard you saw Bo is Afraid.
Marc:I did, and I gotta, I mean, there's so much to say, but I just, I think I need to say, if you don't like that movie, I don't think we can be friends.
Guest:I have not seen it yet, so we are still friends because I have no opinion on it.
Guest:I love that you saw it in the biggest IMAX theater available.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:It was literally the deciding factor.
Marc:I was in the city.
Marc:I had my annual physical.
Marc:Everything's great, by the way.
Marc:And I was going through my AMC, and I'm trying to debate, all right, am I going to see this AMC?
Marc:Evil Dead movie, or am I going to see Bo is Afraid in IMAX at Lincoln Center?
Guest:And yeah, that one.
Guest:Well, I think it's funny that the IMAX tipped you over and not the fact that the other thing was a double remake of the Evil Dead.
Guest:Which, like, they just did a couple, like, here's what I don't get about that.
Guest:So, I guess it's now, like, a new franchise?
Guest:Like, this was a sequel to the remake they did a couple years ago?
Guest:Is that right?
Guest:Oh, I do not know the lore of it.
Guest:Well, but, because, like, the sequel to the original Evil Dead, Evil Dead 2, is one of the great movies ever, and it's a comedy.
Guest:Like, what is this thing?
Guest:The whole thing is supposed to be a guy with a chainsaw for his arm.
Guest:Like that's that's Evil Dead 2 and Army of Darkness.
Guest:I don't want to watch another version of the first Evil Dead remade for the third time.
Guest:Like what?
Guest:I love how mad you are because you are like a horror fan.
Guest:I am.
Guest:I'm nowhere near a super... Again, this goes back to something I was saying last week, where I'm not way into it the way some super horror fans are.
Guest:But I do love the best versions of the genre.
Guest:I love John Carpenter movies.
Guest:There's a lot of good crap, too.
Guest:I like good crap, which is appropriate, because that's what we're going to be talking about later on this show.
LAUGHTER
Guest:which I think some people might say wrestling falls under the category of good crap like most of the time I would argue that some of it is high level art and performance but there is a lot of good crap I think that's very fair to say what else have you been up to you've been just at home right you weren't traveling again yep my beautiful wife had a birthday and I took her to indoor skydiving oh yeah you guys both did that
Marc:Yeah, we both did that.
Marc:How'd it go?
Marc:It was great.
Marc:I've skydived, skydaved.
Marc:Sky plunged.
Marc:I've screamed while I fell through the air.
Marc:I jumped out of a real plane twice previously.
Marc:So this was not that.
Marc:Had Aaron ever done it before?
Marc:She never skydived.
Marc:And this was her first time doing this.
Marc:And she had a great time.
Guest:Oh, good.
Guest:And what do they do?
Guest:They just kind of like have a person hold on to you as you float in this tube?
Guest:Yes.
Guest:Okay.
Marc:In this vacuum.
Marc:Like they give you an earplugs because it's like just a big wind tunnel.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Well, when do they decide to let you go?
Guest:Because when I've seen the commercials for it, there's always like some person just kind of floating by themselves.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Do you have to like graduate to that?
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Yep, yep.
Marc:You got to keep on giving them money, and then eventually they'll just let you do things.
Guest:So yeah, it's a scam.
Guest:Yeah, it's like when you send a kid to karate class or taekwondo.
Guest:They just keep giving you belts, but it's only if you keep paying for it, right?
Guest:Exactly.
Guest:Exactly.
Guest:My brother-in-law sends these videos after, like, oh, we're going to the dojo, and his son is going to get his new belt.
Guest:And then they send me a video, and they held up a piece of balsa wood for him to kick through.
Guest:They're like, oh, good.
Guest:You're now an orange belt third degree.
Marc:Such a racket.
Marc:A hundred more dollars, please.
Marc:Why is everything a scam?
Marc:Everything is a scam.
Marc:Oh, it's America, baby.
Guest:We will soon talk about a form of entertainment that's based on con artistry.
Guest:The entire premise of this thing was to trick people into that there were real fights.
Guest:Speaking of that, I think it's very appropriate to bring up this question.
Guest:I'm always keeping track of your questions that you send in, and you can send them into the form at the bottom of the episode description there.
Guest:There's a link.
Guest:Click on it.
Guest:Send us questions, thoughts, ideas, comments, anything you want.
Guest:And the one thing that really caught my attention before we get into the rest of the show here was somebody asked the question, how many guests lie about their story and you know it?
Guest:Now, the funny thing about that is like, who are you talking to?
Guest:Because that is definitely a different answer from me and from Mark.
Guest:Because there are definitely times where I will be listening to an interview that he had with a person, and I then just write to him while I'm in the middle of editing it.
Guest:I'm like, this is all horse shit.
Guest:Oh, really?
Guest:Oh, yeah, like Cat Williams recently.
Guest:I was like, I don't believe a word this guy is saying.
Guest:And Mark was like, yeah, I thought that might be the case.
Guest:It's still good, though, right?
Guest:I was like, oh, yeah, totally, totally good.
Guest:But let's also remember...
Guest:That Mark was the guy, and I'm not blaming Mark for this, that in like the first three months of doing this show back in 2009, he sat across from another comedian, Steve Ranazzisi, the guy from The League.
Guest:Oh, shit.
Guest:Who told Mark that he was in 9-11.
Guest:No.
Guest:9-11, yeah.
Guest:Then he got out.
Guest:He escaped.
Guest:He escaped 9-11 and ran for his life.
Guest:And he was okay after 9-11 almost got him.
Guest:That wasn't even just an exaggeration.
Guest:It was totally made up.
Guest:made it up go you can go we have not altered that episode we haven't taken it out of the archives it's right there for you to hear if you never heard it episode 31 steve ran is easy who said he was in 9-11 and that was not true what did what did you and mark yo so did you and mark like powwow afterwards like i don't know do you buying this 9-11
Marc:No, we totally bought it.
Guest:Why would you think?
Guest:Why would you think someone made up being in 9-11?
Guest:And what a dick you would have to be to sit across from the guy as he's telling you that and be like, come on, really?
Guest:I don't know.
Marc:Yeah, true.
Marc:But man, just a bold face lie like that.
Marc:Just staring at someone else's face, lying about being in 9-11.
Guest:I'm so fascinated by that in general, just people like lying like that.
Guest:Like it's a real, like I have a point of fascination with it, like the way you're fascinated at a zoo.
Guest:You're like, whoa, look at that animal.
Guest:I just kind of want to watch it in its habitat.
Guest:A liar like that, I really just get so interested.
Guest:Can I watch you lie, please?
Guest:So George Santos, you're like... Oh, I love that guy.
Guest:That guy's my favorite.
Guest:I'm not even kidding about that.
Guest:I love George Santos.
Guest:I mean, he's terrible, but I...
Guest:I literally like, I think I put it on Twitter when he was like caught in a million lies.
Guest:I was like, this is the greatest political debut of my lifetime.
Guest:This is without a doubt.
Guest:No one has ever like taken the national stage like this guy.
Guest:And I love him for it.
Marc:Brennan's like, I must draw you.
Guest:I want to draw his lies.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah, no, I'm totally fascinated by that.
Guest:And yeah, Steve Rand is easy.
Guest:That was one time where a guest lied right to our face and we did not know it.
Guest:In terms of other things, I mean, like, do we know like every story people tell is true?
Guest:No.
Guest:Do we question like some things?
Guest:Do they sound exaggerated?
Guest:Maybe.
Guest:But I just kind of feel like...
Guest:If someone's going to be dishonest on that level, like lying about being in 9-11, they've got that on lock.
Guest:That's not something that you're going to just break through in that moment.
Guest:Like, hang on, I think you're lying to me about this major portion of your life.
Guest:I mean, another great example of...
Guest:You know, a guest kind of lying and Mark sussing out the lie was Carlos Mencia.
Guest:Like, right.
Guest:That got that interview got done.
Guest:And Mark said, I don't trust that.
Guest:Like, it did not feel right.
Guest:It felt like he was zooming me.
Guest:And that was why we did a follow-up where Carlos came back and answered to, you know, questions about other comics and things that we were told in the interim.
Guest:So, you know, that has happened before.
Guest:And it's not the goal of the show, but obviously Mark and I both have instincts around that kind of stuff where we can, you know, approach things journalistically if need be.
Guest:And I don't, like I said, I don't ever...
Guest:pretend that what we do is reporting, but yeah, we obviously don't want to have the wool pulled over our eyes for something.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And you're not fact-checking, right?
Guest:Well, I do.
Guest:I mean, I do it to an extent.
Guest:Obviously, I'm not going to fact-check everybody's part of their life, right?
Guest:Right.
Guest:If they say that they were in the jazz club in high school or something, I'm not going to go fact-check that.
Guest:Right.
Guest:You know, I will, especially when other people get brought into it, I will confirm that that's true because, you know, you don't want to put something on your show that involves someone else who did not, you know, say that they were part of it.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And then all of a sudden that person's objecting to it.
Marc:So what do you do?
Marc:Do you email the guest and ask like, hey, is this true?
Guest:Sometimes if I notice that it's not verifiable, I'll just take it out, you know?
Guest:Oh, really?
Guest:Or sometimes the guest will, like a good example, I've just put it in the producer cuts this week that Ray Romano had said, please cut out the story I told about a particular person because...
Guest:I don't know.
Guest:I didn't.
Guest:You know, we said, sure, because we've always said our standard is if it's the kind of thing before we've aired the show that you would have said in the moment, hey, I have second thoughts about saying that thing.
Guest:And it was, you know, an anecdote.
Guest:It's not like I had second thoughts about the entire discussion we had.
Guest:Right.
Guest:We say, OK, yeah, you know, it was a funny story.
Guest:I would have liked to have kept it in.
Guest:But that's, you know, put yourself in those shoes.
Guest:Like if you say something and then you're like, ah, gosh, do I have a chance to, you know, take that out?
Guest:I don't want to use it.
Guest:You'd like to be given that opportunity.
Guest:You don't want like your words to have slipped out of your mouth and now they're out there forever.
Guest:Right.
Guest:So we afford him that opportunity to take that thing out.
Guest:But.
Guest:I don't know if he wanted that out because maybe he thought to himself, oh yeah, maybe that story's not fully accurate, right?
Guest:Like he doesn't want that.
Guest:Maybe my recollection is fuzzy.
Guest:Exactly, exactly.
Guest:So yeah, I would say that happens more frequently than somebody outright lying, right?
Guest:It's just maybe a case of, oh, is that really what happened?
Guest:And then either through us talking to them or them saying it to us, we wind up getting rid of it or changing it.
Marc:Right.
Marc:And those producer cuts are really fascinating.
Marc:I personally love them.
Marc:Oh, cool.
Marc:And if anyone out there listening to those has someone who's interested in podcasts, like I've never been interested in making my own podcast.
Marc:But it's pretty much a really fascinating way to show that you sometimes have to kill your darlings because there's some real –
Marc:really funny shit in there in all those producer cuts that you just have to edit.
Marc:And I gotta say, are you ever, or I gotta ask, are you ever like, oh my gosh, I really don't want to cut this, but I have to for time?
Guest:No, no, no, I would always say,
Guest:that there's I can't even think of a time where I've had to cut something that I absolutely want in the show like other than a guest saying you must cut that I don't want it included because you know there are no time constraints on the show so there's there's my gut instinct about how long people tolerate certain things but then if a talk is good it
Guest:It can be long.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And and if something's really great and I'm like looking for a place to trim for time, I'm not going to trim the really great part.
Guest:Right.
Guest:So I'm going to look elsewhere.
Guest:I would never cut something that I absolutely regret cutting.
Guest:But, you know, the opportunities that we have there of.
Guest:having space on the full Marin to air things that I knew had to come out of the show is a good one.
Guest:Like I want people to be able to hear things like you folks subscribing to this are exactly the kind of people who want extra stuff.
Guest:And that if I could just let the show be three hours, you'd probably listen to it.
Guest:So why not give you the stuff that I took out forever?
Guest:As I give you the reasons why I took it out, here it is.
Guest:You know, there's plenty of stuff that I'm not putting on those producer cuts.
Guest:That's for the junk pit, right?
Guest:Like, you know, if there's some kind of flubbed story or recollection that a guest goes through or mark, like literal outtakes, right?
Guest:They might be in the middle of something.
Guest:It's like, oh, yeah, can we get rid of that?
Guest:I totally screwed up the timeline or whatever.
Guest:And like, yeah, that's gone.
Guest:It goes in the trash.
Guest:But yeah, the things I'm explaining on the producer cuts, that's for your context to understand why I would cut it out.
Guest:Follow-up question.
Marc:Has Mark ever sort of come back to you and be like, hey, you edited part of my monologue?
Guest:No, because that would entail him actually listening to the show.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Which he has never done.
Marc:Which he doesn't.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:Okay.
Marc:So he never knows.
Marc:He just talks for 15, 10, 15 minutes, and he just never knows what happens to that material, huh?
Marc:Oh, God.
Marc:I wish it was for 10, 15 minutes.
No.
Guest:He usually talks for like a half hour.
Guest:And, you know, a lot of it is just stuff that doesn't come together.
Guest:And he trusts me implicitly.
Guest:I mean, it's funny.
Guest:The other question I pulled from our comment section was it's a two part question.
Guest:But the second part addresses this.
Guest:The question is, is your partnership 50 50 financially?
Guest:The easy answer to that is yes.
Guest:And it has been since day one.
Guest:And it says, and does Mark ever pull the, but I'm the talent card?
Guest:And like, again, no, and not since the beginning of our working together.
Guest:He hasn't.
Guest:He just, he knows what he does.
Guest:He does that.
Guest:He knows what I do.
Guest:And he lets me do that.
Guest:And we don't interfere with each other's process on that front.
Guest:Now, does that mean he and I are just like exactly the same and we do things the same?
Guest:No.
Guest:And I do know that part of my job is to manage him as talent, right?
Guest:Like that doesn't mean he's like pulling a talent card or he's like positioning himself as above me or something, but it's like, he's the artist.
Guest:He's the person creating something with his brain and voice and
Guest:sense of humor and intuition.
Guest:And when he's interviewing people, his empathy, like I have to be able to allow him the space to do that.
Guest:And part of that is just kind of armchair psychiatry, learning like what his moods are like and what will best allow him to feel comfortable doing something.
Guest:That's not him playing a talent card.
Guest:That's just him being Mark.
Guest:And my job is to adapt to that and make sure everything works, like works while he is Mark.
Guest:He doesn't have to turn himself into somebody else.
Guest:So that is 100% fully integrated into my being.
Guest:I don't have any question about that.
Guest:And it's been that way with anyone I've ever worked with on that level.
Guest:Rosie O'Donnell, Keith Olbermann, Chris Hayes, all these people.
Guest:I'm there for them.
Guest:They're not like pulling rank on me.
Guest:They're just being them.
Guest:And I've got to help them deliver being them.
Guest:That's it.
Marc:And in any other hands, this podcast would not have lasted as long as it has.
Marc:I've seen it firsthand at Air America.
Marc:Well, you're saying like other people working with Mark?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Yeah, like Larson, like, you know, it was just a, it was a bad, it was a bad, bad time.
Marc:You and Mark are the perfect marriage.
Guest:Well, that's, yeah, I appreciate that.
Guest:But I do think it's true.
Guest:I think, you know, it's the reason this has worked.
Guest:It's worked because we have a good working relationship together.
Guest:And that's, that's that.
Guest:Well, cool.
Guest:I'm glad to always kind of answer these questions.
Guest:And if you want to send more in, we are happy to take them.
Guest:Keep them coming.
Guest:Ask me, ask Chris, ask the both of us, or just tell us the things you want us to talk about.
Guest:It's right there in the episode description.
Guest:Just scroll down to that and wherever you're listening to this and click on it.
Guest:You'll see the form.
Guest:Just put in your question or comment.
Guest:You don't even need to put in an email.
Guest:And with that, we're going to shift into the wrestling portion of the Friday show, which is always here for the wrestling fans who have joined up to the full Marin and have stuck with us, which is super impressive considering we've been now doing this for several months.
Guest:We've been talking a lot about like...
Guest:the things we like in wrestling, right?
Guest:Every week at the end, we say, what's the best thing you saw this week, right?
Guest:And we've talked about some of our favorite memories, Chris's favorite WrestleMania match, all of that stuff.
Guest:I thought like...
Guest:we're maybe giving a little impression of wrestling here that's not exactly true, right?
Guest:It's not like we sit down and watch this all the time and we're like, we're ready for the greatest entertainment in history, right?
Guest:Citizen Kane, but with wrestling.
Guest:Exactly.
Guest:I think it's very clear that some of what is, a big portion of what is enjoyable about wrestling is when it's bad and campy and silly and ridiculous and,
Guest:And so I was thinking, what are some of the more ridiculous things that have ever happened in wrestling?
Guest:And you could, quite frankly, go on with this for a very long time.
Guest:There is a website that I stumbled across when I was in college, and I think they're still updating it 25, 26 years later, called WrestleCrap.
Guest:And it's just a website devoted to the hilariously bad stuff in pro wrestling.
Guest:And...
Guest:So the things we're going to talk about today are probably two Hall of Fame entries in WrestleCrap, like totally the most ridiculous stuff.
Guest:And I picked things that I was pretty sure, Chris, you correct me if I'm wrong.
Guest:We haven't talked about this yet.
Guest:I'm pretty sure you never saw these things.
Marc:I know I saw the Yokozuna match.
Marc:Oh, you have?
Marc:I just forgot it.
Marc:You blocked it out?
Marc:I blocked it out as if it never happened.
Marc:And I'm like, oh, yeah, that's a thing that happened.
Marc:The other thing, no, I did not.
Guest:Well, these two things come from around the same time, too, 1994 and 1995.
Guest:And this was a transition period for the wrestling world at that time, especially in North America.
Guest:You know, you were kind of in WWF, which was what it was called at the time.
Guest:They had come to the end of Hulkamania.
Guest:That ended in 1993.
Guest:when he left the company.
Guest:And they were really struggling to find footing, like who was going to be their next big star.
Guest:They tried to make Lex Luger that person.
Guest:And it was really within the course of this year that we're going to be talking about that that didn't work out.
Guest:And they were kind of rudderless.
Guest:The business was going down, trending downward money-wise.
Guest:It wasn't at the lowest point yet.
Guest:That would be in 1996.
Guest:But it was starting to edge there.
Guest:And then what winds up happening is Hulk Hogan goes and joins WCW, their direct competition, later in this year, 1994.
Guest:Hogan joined WCW and was paid an inordinate amount of money to do it and given a ton of creative control.
Guest:His dates were limited.
Guest:He didn't do all the shows.
Guest:So he was a huge, huge investment, but it wasn't entirely sure he was going to pay off, especially because his act was so antiquated, right?
Guest:The kind of like...
Guest:big cartoonish hulk hogan from the 80s like the world was changing it wasn't you know cartoon characters anymore but yeah it was a played out gimmick yes but well they didn't really think that in wcw as we will talk about uh with these uh these clips we're about to watch
Guest:I will say, if you're interested in what we're talking about, I will start putting something in the episode description because I got this note from Brian.
Guest:He said, I really enjoyed the edition of the Friday show.
Guest:Six months ago, wrestling would have never been something I'd be interested in.
Guest:Your passion has opened my mind and I've been enjoying wrestling.
Guest:That's like the greatest thing we could have gotten.
Guest:But he also said, I wish when you talk about the matches, you'd tell us what episode it is or put a link to the matches in there.
Guest:And yes, I absolutely can do that.
Guest:And that's something we'll just be more conscious of.
Guest:So this first thing we're going to talk about comes from the WWF Royal Rumble 1994.
Guest:And you can watch that on Peacock.
Guest:Just go to the WWF section of Peacock.
Guest:It's one of their main tabs and go to the Royal Rumble.
Guest:uh and it is the 1994 version this was january 22nd 1994 and the wwf title match at this pay-per-view was a casket match now did you did you know what a casket match was chris going into this have you've seen them before right i'm assuming yeah i i feel like i've seen them before i mean yes i know what a casket match is you know you get that you have to get the guy in you have to close the lid close
Marc:the lid and it's over.
Guest:We basically just saw one in AEW.
Guest:They had the Jungle Boy Christian casket match, I guess.
Guest:So the casket match, as Chris said, put your opponent in the casket and close the lid.
Guest:And I believe it originated with the wrestler in this match, The Undertaker.
Guest:I don't believe there were casket matches before The Undertaker as a character.
Guest:The Undertaker, obviously, if you go by his profession, he is an undertaker who
Guest:who is wrestling.
Guest:But at this point, maybe, which was maybe about four years after he had debuted, he had been taking on kind of like supernatural undertones.
Guest:Like, it wasn't just that this guy was a...
Guest:guy who built caskets and embalmed people and like, you know, your standard Wild West Undertaker, which was like the initial design of the gimmick.
Guest:It almost is like now he's a zombie.
Guest:Is that what you say?
Guest:That would be how you would describe him?
Guest:Or he's just in some... Or a Frankenstein?
Guest:Yeah, right.
Marc:He's in some way a monster.
Marc:Supernatural.
Marc:Yeah, yeah.
Marc:Yeah, but I will say we got to start with the video package before this match.
Marc:Oh, yes.
Marc:Because that is all about him making a casket.
Marc:Yeah, he has a workshop like Santa Claus.
Marc:Yes, he has a workshop.
Guest:And he has his little friend, Paul Bearer.
Marc:Yokozuna.
Marc:Why do they all say Yokozuna's name a million times in this video package?
Guest:My favorite part of this video package, which was showing obviously like the multiple weeks of WWF television leading up to this pay-per-view where he was building this casket that he's going to put Yokozuna in, who we will talk about in a second.
Guest:Yokozuna is portraying a character who is a sumo champion.
Guest:That's what Yokozuna means.
Guest:It means grand champion is sumo.
Guest:And he is so big that Undertaker has to make a, they say this many times, double deep, double wide casket.
Marc:Just to make you feel good.
Marc:Don't want you being cramped.
Marc:It's comfy for him.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:There's nice velvet inside it too.
Marc:It's actually a very nice looking casket.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:When Paul Bearer opens up the casket, it makes the creakiest of sounds too.
Yeah.
Marc:Like a horror movie.
Guest:Well, my favorite was they obviously because this was in January, as I mentioned, they've obviously been filming these things week to week to week.
Guest:And there is one that must have happened right at Christmas.
Guest:And so in the midst of this video package, Undertaker is like using like a lathe or something on this thing to like shave it down to size.
Guest:And he says, Merry Christmas, Yokozuna.
Marc:Ho, ho, ho.
Marc:And there's a wreath on the wood.
Marc:It is so insane.
Marc:He's festive.
Marc:He's a festive undertaker.
Marc:Also, the next clip is him hammering some hot iron.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And he's like, I made my New Year's resolution.
I'm like, oh, my God.
Oh, my God.
Guest:Are we going to keep going?
Guest:I should just do it all year long.
Guest:I had a dream on Martin Luther King Day.
Guest:That you will rest in peace.
Marc:So insane.
Marc:So cartoony.
Guest:I love it.
Guest:I love it.
Guest:I also love that.
Guest:They show then Paul Bearer on like a carriage taking this giant casket on a horse-drawn carriage, although they conveniently never show a horse.
Guest:So they just probably pulled this thing by way of tractor or something.
Guest:And they show him on this carriage outside the Undertaker's workshop barn, whatever it is.
Guest:But there's a very nice sign above the door of this broken down barn.
Guest:It just says Undertaker.
Yeah.
Guest:Like, in, like, WWE font, right?
Guest:Like, it's like the same thing that was on, like, Undertaker t-shirts that you get at the gift shop.
Guest:So, okay, now after this video package, we go to the arena in Providence, Rhode Island.
Guest:And this is the casket match, Undertaker versus the champion, Yokozuna.
Guest:Now, Yokozuna...
Guest:was as i mentioned he's he's uh the gimmick is he's a sumo grand champion he comes out with the manager mr fuji and they're waving the japanese flag and uh yokozuna is largely mute he rarely says anything he has mr fuji as his manager he also has jim cornet as his like spokesman so jim cornet can cut all the promos uh and that's why he had two valets exactly exactly
Guest:And so they come out.
Guest:Now, you would think because of this would be pretty important that, you know, Yokozuna was Japanese, right?
Guest:He's playing a Japanese guy with a Japanese flag.
Guest:He is not.
Guest:He is a Samoan.
Guest:In fact, he's related to all the other Samoans in wrestling, including two of them who will come out later in this match.
Guest:But yes, no, he's playing a Japanese guy, a Japanese heel in 1994, by the way.
Guest:I didn't get.
Guest:No, there's nothing to get.
Guest:It's just a typical Vince going back to the well of like the evil foreign heel, which would not have worked.
Guest:It literally did not work at the same time.
Guest:He was doing it with another guy, a guy named Ludwig Borga.
Guest:And that guy was like from Helsinki.
Guest:And he was an evil foreign menace heel.
Guest:And there was no reason.
Marc:And he was what?
Marc:He just had the flag flying and people would just be chanting USA?
Guest:I guess that was the thought behind it.
Guest:The only reason it worked with Yokozuna was because Yokozuna was good.
Guest:Like, as a performer.
Guest:He was... Also, he's imposing looking.
Guest:He's, you know, just... He looks like a giant monster heel.
Guest:And, I mean...
Guest:They bill him as 600 pounds in this thing.
Guest:They keep saying he's 600 pounds.
Guest:And if he wasn't, he was getting close.
Guest:When he died, he was over 600 pounds.
Guest:Obviously, he did not have a long life being that big.
Guest:But he was very large.
Guest:He was very nimble for being someone of that size.
Guest:And he was a good worker in the ring and a good performer.
Guest:He knew how to get heat and...
Guest:It was just very good.
Guest:So I think Yokozuna would have succeeded if it was just like, this is a giant Samoan.
Guest:Like, they didn't have to make him an evil heel.
Guest:But they did because that's wrestling in the 80s and early 90s under Vince McMahon.
Guest:They always did that.
Guest:Okay, so he's out there.
Guest:Then here comes The Undertaker.
Marc:Wait, wait, wait.
Marc:Before, I'm sorry, before you get to The Undertaker...
Marc:We have to talk about the commentary because I watched the Razor Ramon match that happened right before it, and that's a different team.
Marc:Oh, yes.
Marc:And then it's Vince McMahon and the Million Dollar Man.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Ted DiBiase.
Wow.
Marc:Why?
Guest:Oh, I'll tell you why.
Marc:Why was that?
Marc:Yes.
Marc:Thank you.
Marc:Please tell me.
Guest:Why was this?
Guest:At that point, the heel announcer on most WWF shows until that November had been Jerry the King Lawler.
Guest:Okay.
Guest:Jerry the King Lawler.
Guest:had been charged with statutory rape.
Guest:Oh, no.
Guest:And he was no longer allowed on the shows because he might be going to jail.
Guest:He was then acquitted of that charge, and he came, and WWF, once he was cleared of the charges, WWF let him come back.
Guest:He comes back by the following WrestleMania.
Guest:But because of that, they had no heel announcer.
Guest:And that's why they bring in the Million Dollar Man, who had now retired from wrestling because he had injured back,
Guest:and had basically nothing to do.
Guest:Eventually, he becomes a manager.
Guest:But for this, he was a commentator.
Guest:The other thing is that Jim Cornette was kind of filling in on that role, but he couldn't do it because he's in the match, right?
Guest:He's got to come out with Yokozuna.
Guest:So he's not available to do the talking.
Marc:But I mean, he's not talking during the match.
Marc:He could have been the heel announcer just talking shit about Undertaker.
Guest:Yeah, in hindsight, they might have wanted to do that because Ted DiBiase was bad.
Marc:So bad.
Marc:Like to the point where Vince had to just steamroll and be like, we're live.
Marc:Through the whole thing.
Marc:He keeps talking over Ted DiBiase.
Marc:He's just not giving him an inch.
Marc:Because Ted DiBiase isn't saying anything.
Marc:He's a really bad heel announcer.
Marc:Also, he has like one money reference.
Marc:If I was the writers, I would be giving him all kinds of lines with money related lines.
Marc:I don't know.
Marc:You know, like that's your gimmick.
Marc:Do it.
Marc:But yeah, he was awful.
Marc:So anyway, continue.
Marc:Undertaker's coming out.
Guest:So Undertaker comes out with his double deep, double wide casket and Paul Bearer.
Guest:And here's the thing.
Guest:If you were watching this at the time, as I was, this is now almost 30 years ago, even I back then, you know, minorly smartened up fan.
Guest:knew that Undertaker couldn't win this match, right?
Guest:The whole idea was that this was supposed to, this is at the Royal Rumble.
Guest:So the winner of the Royal Rumble is going to go on to WrestleMania and face the champion.
Guest:It had all been set up for that to be Lex Luger.
Guest:who missed his chance of beating Yokozuna months ago and blew his only shot.
Guest:And the whole thing was like, he's going to get a chance back.
Guest:If he wins the Rumble, he'll get a chance to go on to WrestleMania and fight for the championship.
Guest:Well, it wasn't going to be Lex Luger versus Undertaker.
Guest:You knew that as a fan watching it.
Guest:So you're watching going, well, they're going to have to beat the Undertaker somehow.
Guest:But it's the Undertaker.
Guest:He's set up as this supernatural being who can beat anybody.
Guest:How are you going to do that?
Guest:well just you wait uh so this match gets started and by the standards of two big guys it's a pretty good match actually i mean they all have it's pretty slow and plodding for because you got a 600 pound guy in there but they're hitting all their spots undertaker's doing his signature things he does the rope walk which is always impressive like for a guy of his size to be able to walk along the rope and jump off and deliver a blow uh
Guest:And Yokozuna, as I mentioned before, for a 600-pounder, is very nimble.
Guest:You could almost call him graceful on his feet.
Guest:Like the way he takes a bump, he takes a flat back bump with both of his feet coming out from underneath him.
Guest:It looks real good.
Guest:These guys are fighting on the outside of the ring.
Guest:It looks pretty...
Guest:you know, realistic in terms of a brawl.
Guest:In fact, at one point, The Undertaker gives him a full-on unprotected chair shot to the head.
Guest:And I'm like, well, that's no good.
Marc:But they did that back then.
Marc:Yokozuna also tosses a handful of salt in Undertaker's face.
Marc:That's the big heat moment, yeah.
Guest:Why salt?
Guest:Oh, because that's part of, like, the sumo ritual.
Guest:Ah.
Guest:But, yes, so the salt bucket, though, then becomes a perfect heal weapon.
Guest:Like, you're always going to have the salt, so you can throw salt in a guy's eyes, and then you have a bucket that you can hit over somebody's head, right?
Guest:Which happens in this match as well.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:So, yes, the salt in the eyes was a heat moment for Yokozuna.
Guest:That's also how do you slow down Frankenstein?
Guest:You throw salt in his eyes, I guess, whatever.
Guest:But it all leads up to a big flying DDT by The Undertaker.
Guest:Looked great.
Guest:Yokozuna takes a big bump, and what he's got to do is roll Yokozuna into the casket and close the lid.
Guest:And that would be the end of the match.
Guest:So he gets him into the casket.
Guest:And by the way, this must've been the most devastating DDT in history.
Guest:Cause Yokozuna is out cold for four minutes.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Three or four minutes.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And they're like, put the camera right on him.
Guest:And he's like sleeping.
Guest:Like his face, his face is closed.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Like in real life, you would send someone out to check, make sure he's not dead.
Guest:Like you're like, this guy hasn't moved for three minutes.
Guest:We better check on this.
Guest:Uh,
Guest:So he goes in the casket, the lid is about to be closed, and a bad guy named Crush, who is another guy managed by Mr. Fuji, he comes out and he stops the Undertaker.
Marc:He's one of Fuji's forces, apparently.
Guest:Oh, is that how they called him?
Marc:Yep, Fuji's forces.
Guest:forces one of fuji's forces uh undertaker gets rid of him crowd pops big now more guys that were from mr fuji's team come out the great kabuki and tenru the crowd i noticed this while these guys were coming out and getting beaten by the undertaker the crowd is still popping for this oh yeah yeah the crowd is very happy that like bad guys come out and then undertaker just waylays them okay now you got bam bam bigelow comes out he's not related to mr fuji he's not a
Marc:It's not a Fuji force.
Marc:And side note, I met, I met Bam Bam Bigelow at a block party once when I was a teenager.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:He's a nice guy.
Marc:Oh my God.
Marc:What was happening?
Marc:How did that happen?
Marc:I don't know.
Marc:I think he was friends with someone on the block and he drove a car with his like flame on the side.
Marc:Like the Bam Bam Bigelow.
Guest:Oh my God.
Guest:That's amazing.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:It was really fun.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Where was this?
Marc:I think it was in Jersey somewhere.
Guest:Yeah, well, he was from Jersey.
Guest:He was from, like, Asbury Park or something like that.
Marc:Okay, so that checks out.
Marc:Yeah, I think it was, like, my friend or cousin's block party.
Guest:Super fun.
Guest:Okay, so now in this match, it's five on one because Yokozuna has woken up and is now fighting.
Guest:They're all fighting The Undertaker together.
Guest:And the bad guys have stolen Paul Bearer's urn, which Paul Bearer uses to...
Guest:elicit the power of the Undertaker, right?
Guest:Right.
Guest:At some point, though, within this fight, Paul Bearer goes over and punches out the heel managers and takes the urn back.
Guest:So now the Undertaker is able to fight off this five-on-one attack.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:Which soon turns into nine on one because Adam Bomb, that's a guy's actual name, Adam Bomb, Jeff Jarrett and the Head Shrinkers also come out to this match to start fighting.
Guest:And you've got a nine on one fight, but the Undertaker can beat all of them because I guess he's got the urn.
Guest:It was at this point, too, that I noticed that the crowd starts chanting for Lex Luger.
Guest:Because they're thinking like, OK, he's overwhelmed.
Guest:The forces of evil are winning.
Guest:You need someone to it's wrestling.
Guest:You need someone to even the score.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And in hindsight, it makes zero sense that no one would come.
Guest:Like what?
Guest:Like does everybody hate the Undertaker?
Guest:Right.
Marc:Fuck that guy.
Marc:I was trying to like to come out and just beat up on Undertaker at that point.
Marc:Right, join in the fun.
Marc:Hey, why leave it at 10 on one?
Marc:Right, which Vince, by the way, says there are approximately 10 men in there.
Marc:No, 10 exactly.
Marc:You can't count?
Marc:Why is it approximate?
I don't know.
Guest:Maybe one of those guys he thought was like a half guy.
Guest:I don't know.
Guest:At this point, once it's 10 on one, Yokozuna punches Paul Bearer and takes the urn from him.
Guest:He hits Undertaker with it.
Guest:He opens it.
Guest:And what would you describe happens to the urn?
Marc:uh i i think the accurate term is we get a new slimy pope because there was there was green smoke emanating from the urn it's like someone had a stink bomb in there yes i mean it was not an unimpressive prop like i i liked it as a prop and it was like billowing smoke out of this thing really impressively like you know right right like if slimer was at the vatican yes exactly
Guest:And and but but this is we are being told.
Guest:Wait, I have to say the power of the urn.
Guest:It's the power of the urn.
Guest:And in fact, Ted DiBiase says as they show a close up of this urn on the ground and this green smoke is coming out of it.
Guest:Ted DiBiase says, I've never seen that happen before.
Guest:Oh, you think so, doctor?
Yeah.
Guest:You've never seen that happen before.
Guest:Like there was an opportunity that something similar might have happened with it, but this one specific type of smoke, I've never seen that happen before.
Guest:When my aunt, we put my aunt in her urn, this never happened.
Guest:No.
Guest:A little ash fell on the ground, kicked it.
Guest:This is also when Vince McMahon says, perhaps the Undertaker's power is leaving him as well.
Guest:Like, put a little lantern on that of what's happening now to the Undertaker.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I noticed that the crowd has largely died down in their attempt to try to stay in this match, but they were still kind of clapping to get The Undertaker up off the ground as all these guys were attacking them, thinking something's got to happen here.
Guest:And nope, they just roll Undertaker in the casket, close the lid, and that's the end of the match.
Guest:And this crowd goes dead silent.
Guest:And I don't mean like they're...
Guest:It's not heat.
Guest:They are baffled.
Guest:They're like, why did I just sit through this?
Guest:They just put him in there and closed it and it's done?
Guest:Yokozuna, to his credit, goes and gets the Japanese flag and starts waving it and the crowd starts booing him.
Marc:And they also start doing USA chants, which has a real America first MAGA quality to it.
Guest:But again...
Guest:It just goes to show that you could have gotten heat on this match just by Yokozuna.
Guest:Like, you did not need all the magic and the power of the green goop ten guys, right?
Guest:You didn't need any of that.
Guest:You have a good bad guy in there.
Guest:He could beat this Undertaker if you wanted to.
Guest:Evidently, they didn't want him to.
Guest:So they start wheeling the casket out of the arena.
Guest:As Vince says, like a trophy...
Marc:Yes, like what?
Marc:What trophy?
Guest:Where are you going to put that?
Guest:Who gets to take it?
Guest:There's 10 of you.
Marc:Does one guy get it each week?
Marc:Yeah, Diesel, put it in your truck.
Marc:You have a big rig, right?
Marc:You're Diesel.
Guest:You must have some way to transport this.
Guest:It's in your name.
Guest:So, yes, they're moving this casket back.
Guest:And Vince says, we have seen I don't know.
Guest:I think it's Ted DiBiase says we have seen, I believe, the demise of The Undertaker.
Guest:Not quite yet, folks.
Guest:Because what would you say happens now?
Marc:The lights go out.
Marc:Okay.
Marc:And the crowd pops.
Marc:And then we get on the video board.
Marc:Oh, wait, wait, wait.
Guest:Before the video board, smoke starts coming out of the casket.
Guest:Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Guest:To which Vince called it green gook.
Guest:It was not green.
Guest:It was not gook.
Marc:It was smoke.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Regular old smoke.
Marc:And then a video happens of and we're watching a video of the Undertaker in the coffin.
Marc:The coffin that is in the aisle.
Marc:Yes.
Guest:But it's an overhead shot that's like 10 feet above the open casket.
Guest:Which is, like, so he's, like, teleporting right now.
Guest:It's like Doctor Strange.
Guest:Like, he's doing, like, an astral projection, I guess, of, like, he's in the casket, but it's in a different location.
Guest:It's like Luke in his Jedi thing.
Marc:It's very confusing.
Guest:Well, it doesn't get any more understandable.
Guest:No.
Guest:Because then the Undertaker, who is dead in the casket, comes back to life.
Marc:Why, by the way?
Marc:Why is he dead in the casket?
Marc:No.
Guest:Wait, you're asking why?
Guest:Chris, you watch The Undertaker's urn and the power of The Urn all go away, right?
Marc:The green goo.
Marc:If the green goo is loose, then The Undertaker's dead.
Guest:I thought you were going to do a Johnny Cochran thing there for a second.
Guest:It sounded like it was going to turn into a whole rhyme.
Guest:So, yes, the Undertaker is now alive with a gong and everybody pops at that.
Guest:They're very happy that he's alive in this video.
Guest:And then he starts to recite a poem that he has written while in this casket, apparently.
Guest:And I will read it here right now because I wrote it down.
Guest:I will not do it in The Undertaker's voice because I think it's actually better if you just try to read this like a person.
Guest:Like a normal person saying this sounds way crazier than The Undertaker saying it in the box.
Guest:Okay, here's The Undertaker's death poem.
Guest:Be not proud.
Guest:The spirit of the undertaker lives within the soul of all mankind.
Guest:The eternal flame of life that cannot be extinguished, the origin of which cannot be explained, the answer lies in the everlasting spirit.
Guest:Soon all mankind will witness the rebirth of the undertaker.
Guest:I will not rest in peace.
Guest:And with that, The Undertaker gets electrocuted?
Marc:Yeah, he gets electrocuted, right?
Marc:He gets electrocuted to the point that, again, it's like Frankenstein's monster.
Marc:And then he turns into a white silhouette.
Guest:Yeah, it's like a negative image.
Guest:You're now in negative land, right?
Guest:And this is all on the video screen, right?
Guest:And then what happens to that?
Marc:I want to say his image, it just goes up on the video screen.
Marc:Are we to assume that he's now Jesus and he's like ascended to a new, like to heaven?
Guest:All I know is I listened to Vince McMahon who said, the undertaker is levitating here in Providence, Rhode Island.
Guest:Probably the only time that was ever said in the history of life.
Marc:Fight a nickel.
Marc:Providence, Rhode Island, you say?
Marc:Oh boy, I levitated there all the time.
Guest:And yes, he rises up to the heavens.
Guest:The Undertaker, who was in the casket that's in the aisleway, but he is now floating up behind the video board to the sky.
Guest:It was actually, in fact, the Brooklyn brawler, Steve Lombardi, in an Undertaker outfit.
Marc:No kidding.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:For many years, it was rumored that it was Marty Jannetty, who we talked about last week on this show.
Guest:And somebody asked Marty Jannetty on Facebook, were you the fake undertaker who rose to the ceiling?
Guest:And he said, no, that was Steve Lombardi.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So going on the basis of Marty Jannetty, who, you know, these guys could all be working everybody, so they could be lying.
Guest:But he said it was the Brooklyn Brawler who was a fake Undertaker there.
Guest:And apparently real Undertaker wanted time off for his wife having a baby and injuries that had been mounting.
Guest:So this was their way of getting him out of the storyline for a little while, which led to SummerSlam 1994.
Guest:The Undertaker.
Guest:I'm sorry, what now?
Guest:I think it's best left at that, and you and I will watch that some other time.
Guest:Because, yes, it was The Undertaker versus The Undertaker.
Marc:Was it the same fake Undertaker?
Marc:Was it the Brooklyn Brawler again?
Marc:No, no, it was not.
Marc:Oh, no.
Marc:I have to watch this.
Marc:It's held hard.
Marc:Oh, you do.
Marc:Yes.
Guest:Wow.
Guest:Well, with that, I did not want to leave out the other competing wrestling federation at this time, WCW, who, as we mentioned, were trying to become actual competition to WWF, and they did so by hiring Hulk Hogan, Macho Man Randy Savage, all the big WWF stars from the 80s and early 90s.
Marc:Were you watching WCW back then?
Guest:Somewhat.
Guest:Yeah, I actually liked it better before those guys showed up, actually.
Guest:I liked it when it was like, you know, Sting and Ric Flair, Barry Windham, all those guys.
Guest:Like, that was more appealing to me.
Guest:When Hogan and his tired act went over there, I was less inclined to watch it, particularly because of the type of thing we're about to talk about.
Guest:Hmm.
Guest:So what wound up happening was they had this giant contract of Hogan.
Guest:He had creative control.
Guest:They basically knew that they weren't going to have a situation where he'd be putting over like the WCW guys.
Guest:He wasn't going to lose to Ric Flair.
Guest:He wasn't going to lose to Steve Austin, who was stunning Steve in WCW at that time.
Guest:So Kevin Sullivan, who is a wrestler and a booker,
Guest:Was basically like, give me the Hulk stuff.
Guest:I'll take Hulk.
Guest:I'm the Hulk whisperer.
Guest:And I will book for Hulk.
Guest:Just for Hulk.
Guest:And Kevin Sullivan was a politically smart operator in WCW.
Guest:And he said, the thing this guy loves is fighting monsters.
Guest:Like, he spent the 80s having Hulkamania.
Guest:And he would fight, you know, Andre the Giant, King Kong Bundy, Big John Studd.
Guest:And it was like the monster of the month that Hulk Hogan could vanquish, right?
Guest:Right.
Guest:So Kevin Sullivan was very smart in saying, this is how we'll keep Hulk Hogan happy and just beat monsters.
Guest:The part that didn't get executed as well is that he had him fight literal monsters in a faction called the Dungeon of Doom.
Guest:Which, as we were talking about last week, there were interview segments and stuff on wrestling shows.
Guest:You'd have the barbershop.
Guest:You'd have the funeral parlor.
Guest:You had these places where guys could go have an interview.
Guest:On WCW, all of a sudden, in the summer of 1995, there's this place called the Dungeon of Doom.
Guest:that they just toss to in the middle of a show.
Guest:Oh, let us go now to the Dungeon of Doom.
Guest:And these guys are in like, there's like a cave and like water dripping from it and evil music.
Guest:And this guy sitting there who's known as the master is actually an old wrestler named Curtis Ayukaya.
Guest:And he's telling Kevin Sullivan, who's now the taskmaster,
Guest:you have to end Hulkamania and we have to destroy it.
Guest:And so each week he starts adding a new monster to the dungeon of doom.
Guest:One week it's the shark, which was formerly earthquake.
Guest:He's now a guy with teeth painted on his face.
Guest:So he's the shark.
Guest:And then there's the Zodiac who's Brutus beefcake in black and white makeup to like look like a yin yang, I guess.
Guest:Somehow that's the same as the Zodiac.
Guest:Sure.
Guest:And his thing was that he just said yes, no all the time.
Marc:What?
Marc:That's it?
Marc:Wait.
Marc:He had a yin yang on his face.
Marc:He said yes, no.
Marc:And he was the Zodiac Man?
Marc:That's it.
Marc:You got it.
Marc:Wow.
Marc:You're up to speed.
Marc:There wasn't even a second draft of that idea.
Marc:The first idea.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:And then Kamala, who got to keep his gimmick and everything.
Guest:He was a wrestler from the 80s who Hulk Hogan had fought at one point in the WWF.
Guest:He gets to come in because he's a monster too.
Guest:Ugandan headhunter Kamala.
Marc:So wait, so he was a WWF guy before it was a WCW guy?
Guest:Kamala.
Guest:Oh, Kamala was all over the place.
Guest:He was a big territorial heel in the days of like where you just went from place to place.
Guest:And, you know, he had great success doing that, but he never stayed in a place for very long because once he'd get vanquished, you had nothing to do with him.
Guest:So he just have to move.
Guest:He didn't want to just then start getting jobbed out.
Guest:So he would move on to somewhere else.
Guest:So, yes.
Guest:So that was the deal with Kamala.
Guest:But all these monsters were like week to week being introduced.
Guest:And then at the pay-per-view right before this episode on July 22nd, 1995, Hulk was there and this giant comes out, guy who's like legit seven foot tall, and throws Andre the Giant's Princess Bride shirt at Hulk Hogan.
Guest:And apparently they were trying at the time to sell him as the son of Andre the Giant.
Guest:For whatever reason, they abandoned that right away.
Guest:But this is the guy who becomes the Giant, who's also then known as the Big Show in WWF.
Guest:And this was his debut.
Guest:No kidding.
Guest:And so here we go, cut to a week later, with no setup.
Guest:No.
Guest:They just say, let's go now to the Dungeon of Doom.
Oh, my God.
Guest:It's literally like saying like, okay, we go now to hell.
Guest:We take you now to our reporter on the scene in hell.
Guest:And they go to hell.
Guest:And the master is sitting there with the taskmaster.
Guest:And they're talking about Hulkamania this and Hulkamania that.
Guest:It will be destroyed.
Guest:And then there's the sound of like...
Guest:teleportation or something yeah and hulk hogan falls through the wall or something i don't even sure where he fell from somehow hulk hogan has returned yeah that's exactly it and i just want to read exactly what he says please do because this is my favorite thing ever
Guest:He's looking around.
Guest:It's Hulk Hogan, one of the worst actors in the history of anything.
Guest:All you have to do is see any of his movies.
Guest:And you know this guy is great at being Hulk Hogan.
Guest:But anytime you ask this guy to act, he's the dirt worst.
Guest:And so here he's being asked to be afraid or confused.
Guest:So he says...
Guest:Where am I?
Guest:Now, remember, this has been on TV every week.
Guest:They keep showing that there are monsters showing up in WZW.
Marc:But just like Mark, he doesn't watch.
Marc:He doesn't know.
Marc:He's not watching the product, man.
Guest:That's maybe one of the only things Mark and Hulk Hogan have in common.
Guest:So he says, where am I?
Guest:Then he looks around a little bit and he says, there's no Hulkamaniacs here.
Marc:He just looks around.
Marc:Just takes a look around.
Marc:No Hulkamaniacs here.
Guest:I just love that that's how he knows he's safe in regular life.
Guest:Like he goes to the supermarket and he's like, wait, hang on, hang on.
Guest:He looks around.
Guest:Oh, good.
Guest:Hulkamaniacs.
Guest:They're here.
Marc:Freezer section, I see him.
Marc:I see him right over there.
Marc:Like, are you sure, Hulk?
Marc:I think he... No, no, no.
Marc:We're good.
Marc:We're super good.
Marc:There's a Hulkamaniac here.
Guest:Okay, so there's so few words spoken, I'm going to say them again.
Guest:Where am I?
Guest:There's no Hulkamaniacs here.
Guest:Pause.
Guest:I've never been here before!
Guest:I don't know what any of this shit is, man.
Guest:And I'm scared.
Guest:Then he walks over to a fountain.
Guest:There's a fountain in the middle of the room.
Guest:The dungeon.
Marc:Feng Shui.
Guest:Yes, right.
Guest:It really ties the whole dungeon together.
Guest:The fountain is operative.
Guest:They spent some money on this, right?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And he goes over and it's dripping water and he's tentatively putting his hand out as if to grab this fountain.
Guest:Flowing water looks mysterious for some reason.
Guest:And he puts his hand in and goes, ah, and pulls his hand back and goes, it's not hot.
Guest:So insane.
Marc:I was expecting it to be hot.
Guest:This crazy place.
Guest:This place is insane.
Guest:They have cold water.
Marc:It's not hot.
Marc:It should have been hot.
Marc:I implore you all to just watch this clip right now because it is unbelievable.
Guest:It's not hot.
Guest:I put it in the episode description here.
Guest:You can click on and watch if for some reason you get out of sync with the YouTube clip that I put in there because it's a very long show.
Guest:And if it gets unsynced for some reason, you know, on this YouTube clip, this part starts at the two hour and two minute mark.
Guest:Around there, two hours, two minutes, and 20 seconds or so.
Guest:But I have it synced up in the clip.
Guest:If for some reason that gets knocked out of sync for you, that's where it starts.
Guest:That way you don't have to sift through two hours of WCW 1995.
Guest:But yes, I implore you to watch Hulk Hogan's acting in this, which he then has to act...
Guest:scared of Kevin Sullivan, who's like, literally comes up to his chest, right?
Guest:He's like so much shorter than Hulk, but Kevin Sullivan is like backing Hulk down, backing him into the wall.
Guest:And then there's this like Colossus statue in the wall.
Guest:It looks like the Colossus of Rhodes.
Guest:And Kevin Sullivan touches a staff to it and it explodes.
Guest:And,
Guest:And then out of the wall in explosion comes the giant and he chokes Hulk Hogan for three seconds.
Guest:Like I did a like Mississippi count on it.
Guest:And it's like one Mississippi, two Mississippi, three Mississippi, Hulk Hogan dead.
Guest:Like he just falls out of the frame is nowhere to be seen for the rest of this clip.
Guest:And,
Guest:And then the giant cuts a promo about how he's the giant and he'll destroy everyone.
Guest:They have evil laughter.
Guest:Everyone.
Guest:And then it goes back to the arena where Tony Schiavone and Bobby Heenan have just watched this.
Guest:And they're like...
Guest:Wow.
Guest:Pretty serious.
Guest:No one is like, someone go find Hulk Hogan.
Guest:He's been killed in a dungeon somewhere.
Marc:We don't know where.
Marc:You'll know if you're getting close that the water is not hot.
Guest:Just touch every water that is around.
Guest:If it's hot water, you're not there.
Guest:But when it's cold, you're good.
Guest:You'll find Hulk Hogan there.
Guest:I want to read what Dave Meltzer wrote in the Wrestling Observer the week this came out because it made me laugh very hard.
Guest:The 722 Saturday Night Show had perhaps the all-time most poorly acted and dumbest skit in history.
Guest:Wow.
Guest:hulk hogan visited the dungeon of doom anyway they're on the set and hogan is beamed into the dungeon by saying where is this where am i obviously showing he has the good sense not to waste his time watching his own television show
Guest:He and Kevin Sullivan then get in an argument when the really tall guy, who I believe was called the New Warrior, came through the wall, dressed up like Andre with a new afro and an Andre ring outfit, and gave Hulk Hogan the legendary Zeus choke, and Hogan went right out.
Guest:To make matters worse, for the rest of the show, the announcers never acknowledged what happened, probably due to personal embarrassment, but you were left with the idea that Hulk Hogan was dead.
LAUGHTER
Guest:so wait had you never seen that before never no i mean is that is that famous like legendary yes it's it's like wrestling shorthand too to to like for something that's bad people go it's not hot like that's the that's no that's like a known wrestling uh trope at this point
Guest:oh that's fun i didn't know that that's that that comes yeah if you meet like a really hardcore wrestling fan and you say there's no hulkamaniacs here and they know what you're talking about you guys are will be friends for life i bet i bet um all right well uh away with the bad and in with the good do you have a choice for this week's uh best thing in wrestling oh why don't you go first
Guest:Yeah, you know, I thought it was a very short thing, and I liked it because I realized we're probably not going to get much more of it.
Guest:But it was on AEW Dynamite this past Wednesday.
Guest:There's a storyline playing out with MJF, the champion, and his friend...
Guest:Three biggest rivals and they're going to lead to a match where all four of them fight each other.
Guest:But as a little side plot, he has made friends with one of them, Sammy Guevara, and they are best buddies all of a sudden.
Guest:And there was a segment with the two of them that I was enjoying so much.
Guest:And then realized by next week they're going to break this up because they're going to have to become enemies again.
Guest:But they were hugging and kissing each other and talking about what best friends they were.
Guest:They had gotten each other matching outfits, a matching vest for MJF, a matching scarf for Sammy.
Guest:And like I love when heels love each other and are happy.
Guest:Happy to be being bad guys together.
Guest:That's one of my favorite things in all of wrestling.
Guest:And these two guys are particularly good at it.
Guest:And it put a huge smile on my face.
Guest:And it might have been lessened if I didn't know they're not going to be doing this all the time, right?
Guest:So like, take it in now.
Guest:You're going to get, you know, these guys at their best, which is really their worst right now.
Guest:And then it's all going to go away very soon.
Marc:My favorite moment of that interaction was...
Guest:was at the very end where mjf is about to hop in a car and he's like no no no no no the car the car's full sorry man and the camera man finked him out because the cat like i love it's another thing i love in wrestling is when like the cameraman it's like the office does that too like the camera operator decides to show you of the reality of something which creates the punch line and this camera operator once mjf tells
Guest:Sammy, his supposed friend, he can't ride with him because the car is full.
Guest:The camera turns and peers into the car to show this giant SUV is completely empty.
Marc:Such a great bit.
Marc:My favorite wrestling was Orange Cassidy again and Bandito.
Guest:Oh, I love Bandito.
Marc:Man, that guy rules.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:And I really love what they're doing.
Marc:I also loved at the end of the match, Orange gives him his own pair of glasses.
Marc:And those glasses, the sunglasses, they kind of fall off, but Bandito makes it work.
Guest:Just so people know, this was the opening match on that same show, AEW Dynamite, this past Wednesday.
Guest:And we will put some YouTube links in the episode description for you on both of these things.
Guest:But until next week, we will keep an eye out for the best and worst of wrestling.
Guest:We'll also look at your comments and your questions and come up with some new ideas.
Guest:I've got some guests coming up for us, including the guy behind the show, The Dark Side of the Ring.
Guest:Oh, wow.
Guest:So we're going to talk to Evan, who makes that show, and he'll tell us some of the stories behind this year's episodes.
Guest:Until next week, this is The Friday Show, and I'm Brendan.
Guest:That's Chris.
Guest:Peace.
Guest:Adios.