[Hey, we're back with another show/fundraiser. To make this relevant, if you've never heard the podcast, check out www.joeversustheworld.com and check out not one, but two interviews with our humble host CRZ. Enjoy!]
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Joe Gagne and Justin Shapiro celebrate the fifth anniversary of the show in style, breaking down the year 1991 in the WWF. We cover it all, including Master Splinter winning the Royal Rumble, the talk show wars of 1991, Steve Keirn: time traveler, Earthquake inventing MMA, stumping for Sid in the WWE Hall of Fame, Battletoads is no substitution for live WWF, a PG product featurning animal murder, animal attacks, fireballs, broken glass, and near asphyxiation, the bumper crop of old and new faces, including that Ric Flair guy, and the importance of a second job as a wrestler. Almost two hours (!) of fun for 1991!
These should be required listening. This was an especially important one for me, because I realized while listening that this was the year I stopped watching wrestling, and was reminded of exactly why: I was a huge Jake Roberts fan and was so emotionally distraught by his turn to the darkside that, when Sgt. Slaughter tried to win back his country, I found that I no longer had it in my heart to forgive him. Seeing the toll that following the WWF was taking on my soul and hating what I had become, I opted for a four year hiatus from the business.
Anyway, so much great stuff in this, including but not limited to: a valuable Sporcle tip, fascinating insights into the post-match strategy sessions of Mr. Fuji's coaching staff and Jimmy Hart's unheralded work at building a successful Hart Foundation program, the strange tale of Skinner, Shapiro's guarded acceptance of several face turns, a review of how unstoppable the Natural Disasters might have been and the terrifying ordeal that Sean Mooney survived.
(Is it possible that Mooney's brief but heroic stint as a Prisoner of War directly inspired war correspondent Michael Cole to eventually make the jump to the world of professional wrestling? I mean, that just has to be the case, doesn't it?)
If I had a complaint, it would be that I would have liked to hear more talk of the HBO 2008 The Mid-Afternoon Talk Show War telefilm. I think you guys could have taken a moment or two to give some praise to Philip Seymour Hoffman's Emmy-winning turn as Paul Bearer.
Aside from that, though, I enjoy the hell out of these. I sincerely hope that medical science never succeeds at curing all diseases so there will always be cause for future editions.
It is the policy of the documentary crew to remain true observers and not interfere with its subjects. "Well. Shit." -hansen9j Go Pack Go! (Champs!) Let's Go Riders!
I think we'll be commissioning Dr. Unlikely to write the liner notes to the Joe VTW box set. I appreciate the kind words.
I was disappointed in the job I did on the NXT show. I put a lot of pressure on myself to convey just how special the last two seasons of NXT were, but it was so hard to distill into words what they meant to me.
A couple notes on piledrivers. I think Lawler can use a piledriver because, well cause he is the fucking king. That, and it harks back to his run in with Andy Kaufman. Austin does not take piledrivers, period.