Can’t Knock The Hustle: Wrestling Podcast Time Machine
*By Request*
“In the past, you said that you listen to a lot of wrestling podcasts. I had a thought about what things like podcasts and social media could’ve been like back in the Monday night war era. Do you think you could do a column on the wrestlers from that period of time that you think could’ve had must-listen shows if things like that existed back then? Thanks.”
Technically, there were things like radio shows and similar shows in the early days of the internet, but obviously, that was nothing compared to what we see these days. I’ll go along with the premise of the request, though, because I dig the idea.
The first thing that immediately comes to my mind is how crazy the podcast scene would’ve been back then, simply based on the rivalry between the WWF and WCW. When you think about any rivalry between WWE and AEW today, it generally only exists between the fan bases online. The wrestlers themselves are, far more often than not, good friends and even hang out together in whatever down time they have.
As an example, imagine the wild ride that the 1998 version of Eric Bischoff would’ve taken people on during a weekly podcast. Think of the shots he would take at Vince McMahon and various members of the WWF roster back then.
This won’t be about who would’ve been the most likely to have podcasts back then, by the way. It’s strictly about whose shows would’ve been the most entertaining if they existed during that wild and crazy era. With that said, I’m going to remove some of the obvious names like Vince McMahon and The Undertaker. The idea of Vince having a podcast, especially back then, is too over-the-top for me to even fathom. Taker, on the other hand, was still smack dab in the middle of keeping kayfabe alive as much as possible, and he has only come out of that shell over the last few years. Would an Attitude Era podcast with Vince or Taker be worth listening to? Of course, but even my “fantasy booking” has limits, you know?
Because they were a big part of the scene at the time, as well, I’m also opening the doors to ECW employees for this column.
Let’s get this started, in no particular order.
Kevin Nash: He has often been referred to as the “coolest man in wrestling” and things along those lines. Even today, about a week away from his 65th birthday, he carries himself with a certain swagger that most people of that age simply do not possess. Big Kev is one of a few names on this list that either have a modern day podcast, or had one recently, but having the mid-to-late-90’s version of him hosting a show would’ve been a lot of fun. Lots of “inside” comments and jokes. If it was nWo-era Nash, there would probably be a ton of shots at his own company, as well as praise for his buddies back in the WWF, because it’s a safe bet that nobody in WCW would be keeping track of anything being said. A lot of his show would’ve ended up with that clubhouse vibe, where you feel like you’re listening to a bunch of things that maybe you shouldn’t be.
Paul Heyman: Then, now, forever… this is at the top of my list of podcasts I would love to experience. I don’t even care what the subject matter of the show would be, either. If Heyman was talking about “current” topics, I’d tune in. Same for him covering the history of the business. I’d even be a loyal viewer if he read the Sunday newspaper every week. That’s how much I respect his ability as an orator. However, just imagine the ECW Owner Paul Heyman, right in the middle of his battle against WCW and the WWF, hosting a regular podcast. This is the man who loved to shoot, whether they were shoots or “shoots,” and I have no doubt that he’d be pulling the trigger time and time again in a setting like this.
Mick Foley: Even though it recently came to an end, Foley is another person who had a modern day podcast. That gives a bit of insight on what a podcast with him in the 90’s could’ve been like. Personally, while I liked Foley Is Pod, I think a show from back in those days would’ve been even better. I’ve mentioned this in my columns before, but there were times when Foley Is Pod was difficult to listen to. Mick’s brain is showing signs of the decades worth of trauma that he put it through. Numerous times in every episode, he would start on a tangent, only to forget where he was going, and would need Conrad Thompson to get him back on track. Maybe he wouldn’t be perfect in, say, 1999, but that’s 25 less years of brain deterioration that he would be dealing with now.
Sid Vicious: Okay, okay, okay… this one might just be a guilty pleasure of mine. That makes sense, as Sid is probably at the top of the list of my all-time favorite guilty pleasure wrestlers. He was never going to be confused with Lou Thesz in the ring, but I have been a fan of his since the first time I saw him. There isn’t a chance in hell that this would be a “good” podcast, but it would be entertaining to me, and that’s why it’s here. You never knew what Sid was going to say in his promos, and you would never know what Sid was going to say in his podcast, either.
“Macho Man” Randy Savage: Come on now… does this need an explanation? Hearing him speak about his departure from the WWF would be great. Having him open up about his on again, off again friendship with Hulk Hogan would be even better. There’s also potential for this one to end up not working at all, if I’m being honest. For large portions of his life and career, Randy was a low-key figure and seemed to prefer keeping quiet. A podcast with him would be fun, but decidedly less fun if he wasn’t interested in truly opening up about some of the biggest stories in his career.
New Jack: Look… I’m well aware that this podcast would’ve lasted a month or two, tops, before it was canceled for any number of reasons. What a ride that month or two would be, though. If you’re looking for a podcast where absolutely zero topics and targets are off-limits, it would be New Jack’s show, and that’s what would have me tuning in each and every time.
Brian Pillman: Some people probably wouldn’t be on board with this one due to Pillman’s voice, but I’m obviously not one of them. Even with the major rasp that he spoke with due to dozens of operations to deal with throat polyps he had when he was a very young child, Pillman was able to command your attention when he spoke. He wasn’t always utilized a ton in that manner during his career, but he made the most out of what he was given. Like I said with New Jack, the “Loose Cannon” era Brian Pillman is a podcast host that would be unpredictable to the point of pure entertainment. You never knew what Pillman was going to say or do at any given moment. He had a lot of grievances and anger that he would’ve let out over the airwaves. Works for me.
Eric Bischoff: If you’re someone who isn’t a fan of Bischoff’s current 83 Weeks podcast, there’s a really good possibility that it’s because of his opinions and comments about AEW. He finds any chance he can to take shots at Tony Khan, AEW fans, AEW storylines (or lack thereof, in his opinion), and the type of wrestling that AEW generally delivers. Even if you agree with at least some of what Eazy E says, which I do, it’s easy to see how it can turn a lot of people off. He’ll shit on AEW even when AEW isn’t even remotely close to the subject matter at hand. Okay, so… can you imagine what Bischoff would’ve said about the WWF and ECW DURING that streak of 83 weeks? Eric is sitting in his beautiful home in Wyoming, with no skin in the game, as the saying goes, as he takes shots at AEW. He isn’t battling to destroy AEW because AEW is battling to destroy him. He would’ve pulled no punches on Vince McMahon, Paul Heyman, and anything else involved in the Monday Night War, and it would’ve been glorious.
Sunny: In 2024, very few people on the planet give a rat’s ass about anything Tammy Sytch has to say. If you travel back to around 1996, though, you’d find quite the lengthy list of people that would’ve spent their hard-earned money to drink the woman’s dirty bath water. People like that would’ve tuned in to enjoy a Sunny podcast even if she was reading the menu at McDonald’s. If you’ve seen any of the shoot interviews she’s done, or if you’ve read her book, you would know that she has no problem gossiping and dishing the “dirt” on the people she’s worked with. Hell, her book damn near included a list of everyone in the business that she has slept with. That makes for a different level of craziness than pretty much anyone else on this list.
Shawn Michaels: Hey, speaking of people that had sex with Tammy Sytch! HBK would’ve been appointment viewing as a podcast host back in the second half of the 1990’s. His well-known attitude issues, at least partially due to his drug addiction, makes him yet another host that has potential to say anything, about anyone, at any point in time. You can already picture him having a bunch of choice words for Bret Hart in 1996 and 1997 and beyond, as well as talking about what Scott Hall and Kevin Nash were up to in WCW. Everything Shawn did and said back then brought a ton of controversy with it, and hosting his own podcast at the time would certainly be no different.
Raven: When it comes to the best “talkers” in pro wrestling history, Raven is worthy of being involved in the conversation, but he’ll probably get overlooked. When it comes to the most intelligent minds in pro wrestling history, both wrestling-related and in general, Scott Levy is probably right there at the top of the list, but he’ll probably get overlooked. I don’t know how many wrestlers are legitimate members of Mensa, but he’s one of them. Those things alone place him in a category all by himself when it comes to what we’re talking about here. To take it further, he has proven to have a tremendous storytelling ability, shown repeatedly in shoot interviews that he’s done through the years. He would be able to take people into the ECW locker room like nobody else outside of Paul Heyman could.
Road Dogg: While I certainly don’t like the WWE shill that he has become through the years, I really can’t deny how much charisma the man has and the things he was able to accomplish on the microphone during his career. He just had a podcast that came to an end earlier this year, but man, the New Age Outlaw version of Brian James would’ve been a blast to listen to.
Jim Cornette: Just seeing his name made a bunch of you start mashing your keyboards with your fists, didn’t it? Whether you like Cornette, hate Cornette, agree with Cornette, or disagree with Cornette, there’s no denying that the man knows how to elicit strong responses from people all over the world. If he can do that on his podcast today… in mid-2024… at the age of 62… without having been an active member of a wrestling promotion in years… can you imagine what he could’ve done multiple decades ago? His beef with the likes of Vince Russo would’ve been fresh. His opinions on the rise and fall of WCW were entertaining on WWF programming, but would be even more entertaining on a podcast (presumably) without any filters that Vince McMahon would’ve placed on him. Corny has a formula that works, and he has been using it, in varying ways, for a long time now.
“Rowdy” Roddy Piper: Pro wrestling is, give or take, like 12,000 years old. Of the gazillion people to have come through the business in that time frame, Roddy Piper remains one-of-a-kind. That’s almost impossible to pull off at this point. For his entire career, he was someone who showed no fear. He wasn’t afraid to speak his mind, no matter how it might make him look. He wasn’t afraid to stand up for himself, even if it might make him seem like a “difficult” person to work with. That lack of fear would certainly work out for him in the world of podcasting. He’s going to say what’s on his mind, no matter what the outcome might be. His show would also be different, depending on when it happened. He was with the WWF up until September 1996, which would open the door for him to talk about an interesting time, both in the WWF, but also with the nWo just taking off in WCW. Then, he was in WCW, which would’ve opened the door further for him to talk about people like Vince McMahon, who he hasn’t always seen eye-to-eye with. Lots of options.
Now, I turn things over to all of you. Using a loose time frame of, say, 1995 to 2001, who in the pro wrestling world would you have loved to see host a podcast at that time? Someone I listed here? If not, I’d love to hear your choices and reasoning for picking them. As always, feel free to hit me up in the comments section below, or on Twitter (@HustleTheSavage), and let me know what’s on your mind.
Time to switch over to my Weekly Power Rankings, before closing things out like I always do, with the list of songs I was listening to as I put this very column together.
Weekly Power Rankings
Paul Heyman: The man is going to be turning 59 years old in a couple months, and has never been an in-ring worker. With that said, he took a beating on Smackdown, including an ugly table spot that couldn’t have felt very good whatsoever, all to help get the entire Bloodline story back on track. He got one of the biggest face pops of his career by saying that Solo Sikoa is not HIS Tribal Chief. The wheels were already in motion, but with this one segment, Heyman helped to make Roman Reigns the biggest face in the company, and Roman hasn’t even returned yet. When Roman does come back, though, the roof is going to blow off of whatever venue the company happens to be at that night. Is CINEMA back?
Swerve Strickland vs Will Ospreay: I think Swerve was clearly motivated here. He was already a great in-ring performer, but it seems like he must’ve read comments that wondered whether or not he would be able to “hang” with Ospreay here. Both men have changed a lot since 2016, when they last faced each other in singles competition. Ospreay has been getting “all-time great” talk since then, and Swerve seems to have taken that personally. This was probably Swerve’s best performance to date. Ospreay was great, as usual, but I think Swerve is getting all the attention coming out of the match, and not just because he won. This was phenomenal all around.
Uncle Howdy/Bo Dallas: It wasn’t a long video, but I love the added layer to the Wyatt Sicks that we got here. Uncle Howdy “interviewed” Bo Dallas, and Bo got to pour his heart out about how much he is still grieving and hurting ten months after his brother passed away. Call it whatever combination of a “worked shoot” you want, but there was definitely some reality in what Bo was saying. Now, his character is getting to use that grief, hurt, pain, anger, and sadness to make sure that everyone remembers Bray Wyatt and everything that Bray fought for and stood for. The Wyatt Sicks story is off to a great start.
Bryan Danielson vs Shingo Takagi: As I said in my Forbidden Door review, the only real complaint I had about the match was the fact that AEW is using the “Danielson is really hurt” angle far too often these days. I understand that his body is probably in legit pain, and it’s probably a constant thing. However, it seems like every big match of his features a spot where the action needs to be stopped so that Doc Sampson can check on him and see if he can continue. That’s problematic for a couple reasons. One, it makes all of his matches too similar. More importantly, though, if you keep running to the “his career is finished” well over and over again, what’s going to happen if *knocks on wood* he actually does suffer a huge injury during one of his matches? Nobody’s going to believe it because they’ll think it’s yet another angle.
MJF, Daniel Garcia & Will Ospreay: It’s a “believe it when I see it” type of thing right now, but is AEW really about to pull the trigger on a major push for Daniel Garcia? Live crowds were ready for him to become a main event player all the way back to the storyline where Bryan Danielson and Chris Jericho were basically competing for DG to align with them, but as soon as Garcia chose Jericho, ALL of his momentum died right there on the spot. It has been a long road back, but now, Garcia looks like he belongs in these promos with some of the top stars in the company. AEW has had a bunch of people on the verge of a major push before, only for it to go nowhere, so I’m still cautious.
“Hangman” Adam Page: We got a vignette that signaled his upcoming return to AEW. His last match was four months ago, and his presence has been missed on AEW programming. The company isn’t exactly hurting for names at the top of the roster, but the overall AEW product is better when “Hangman” is around.
Kyle O’Reilly vs Zack Sabre Jr: It’s a stat that blows my mind… since returning from what was viewed as a career-ending injury, Kyle O’Reilly is now 0-294 on AEW programming. Insanity.
TNT Title Ladder Match: It was an entertaining Ladder Match, but I just didn’t think there was the usual “this spot will be replayed on highlight reels for years to come” moment that every great Ladder Match has at least one of. I don’t need to see someone die in these matches or anything, but I just feel like this was too “safe” to really reach a higher level.
Mercedes Moné vs Stephanie Vaquer: Chances are, the average fan had not seen anything of Stephanie Vaquer before this storyline. By the end of the match, though, she came across like a big star, even in a losing effort. She started winning the live crowd over more and more as the match went on. I don’t think many people would complain if she returned to AEW at some point in the not-too-distant future. For now, though, it seems like someone else has made some noise about being next in line as an opponent for Mercedes…
Britt Baker: She made her return after the Winner Takes All match, indicating that she wants to face Mercedes next, and she received one of the biggest pops of the night. It has been nine-and-a-half months since ol’ Doc Smiley has been seen on AEW programming. Her return makes an already deep AEW women’s division even deeper.
Jon Moxley, Claudio Castagnoli & Wheeler Yuta vs Shingo Takagi, Hiromu Takahashi & Titan: A match simply used to further the Danielson/Shingo story, but at least it was a fun one.
Bron Breakker vs Ludwig Kaiser: The only negative here is that Kaiser was reportedly injured during the match, although the severity of the injury was unknown as of the time I type this sentence. He is in the middle of the biggest singles push of his time with WWE, so an injury that keeps him out of action for any extended period of time couldn’t come at a worse time.
Tony D’Angelo vs Nathan Frazer: This was one of the best Heritage Cup matches since the HC was brought to the United States. When he isn’t booked to be a complete cartoon character of an Italian, D’Angelo continues to show that he is getting better and better in the ring. I could definitely see him as a top guy in NXT before too long, with the potential to do so on Raw or Smackdown one day, too.
Jon Moxley vs Tetsuya Naito: I dunno what it was, but this one never quite seemed to reach its potential, although it still ended up being good. I’ve seen people say that it was because of the obvious outcome (of course the full-time New Japan wrestler was going to win and take the company’s top title back), and I’ve also seen people say it’s because Naito isn’t what he used to be in the ring. Whatever it was, this should’ve been something that ranked higher here.
Orange Cassidy vs Zack Sabre Jr: A pretty good week for ZSJ, making the list twice. OC, on the other hand, continues to put on really good-to-great performances in the ring, only to have people still question whether or not he can put on really good-to-great performances in the ring. There’s so much focus on his character work, and how unorthodox it is, and not enough focus on what he can actually do in the ring. It’s amazing, really.
Rey Fenix vs “Switchblade” Jay White: Are we in line for another singles push for Jay White, even though he is currently in possession of every six-man tag title on the planet today, plus a few from other planets? It’s always a possibility.
Finn Balor & JD McDonagh: Congratulations to the brand new World Tag Team Champions on Raw. The match where they became champions just missed making the cut here. Hopefully, they’ll be able to give the titles a bit of a boost, as Awesome Truth didn’t really seem to do anything special with them, unfortunately.
Mark Briscoe, Dante Martin & Lio Rush vs Konosuke Takeshita, El Phantasmo & Jack Perry: A fun preview, of sorts, for the Ladder Match that we would see at Forbidden Door. Nothing more, nothing less, but that’s perfectly fine sometimes.
Queen Aminata vs Skye Blue: It’s great to see Queen Aminata back. She adds to the aforementioned depth of the women’s division in AEW. This was her first match not behind the RoH website paywall since Supercard Of Honor on April 5th, and that was still an RoH pay-per-view. To find her last match on AEW television, you have to go back to February 14th. She continues to have a really bright future… you know, as long as Tony Khan finds a way to have her wrestle on television more than once every four months.
Jalen Brunson & Tyrese Haliburton: First, it was Trae Young. Now, it’s Tyrese Haliburton. It is becoming something of a tradition for WWE to bring in a rival of the NBA’s New York Knicks when they run a show in Madison Square Garden, the home of the Knicks. It’s a guaranteed heat getter. This time, though, the home team had representation, too, with the Knicks’ Jalen Brunson also making an appearance. If you didn’t know any better, you’d think we’d be getting a match involving them at some point, although I’m not sure how I would feel about it if I were the front offices of the Knicks and the Indianapolis Pacers. Even if they don’t wrestle, this was a perfectly harmless segment that got a ton of heat from the MSG crowd.
This Week’s Playlist: “HERicane” by Lucky Daye… “Top” by Lucky Daye… “Dance With The Devil” by Blxst & Anderson Paak… “Paralyzed” by Memphis May Fire… “I Don’t Wanna Smile” by Total… “Tops Drop” by Fat Pat… “DEVIL IS A LIE” by Tommy Richman… “Fall In Love Again” by Aziel… “All I Want Is You” by Miguel & J. Cole… “Wade In Your Water” by Common Kings… “Don’t Stop The Rock” by Freestyle… “When I See You Smile” by Uncle Sam… “Baby You Are” by Uncle Sam… “Anything” by 3T… “Foolish Heart” by Steve Perry… “Can I Rap” by Roach Gigz… “It’s Goin’ Down” by Celly Cel… “Sumner Days” by Above The Law… “I Still Love You (Remix)” by Next & Big Pun… “Something New” by Wiz Khalifa & Ty Dolla $ign… “Remember You” by Wiz Khalifa & The Weeknd… “One Of Those Nights” by Juicy J & The Weeknd… “Lei Hali’a” by Keali’i Reichel… “Kawaipunahele” by Keali’i Reichel… “Maunaleo” by Keali’i Reichel… “E O Mai” by Keali’i Reichel… “Kauanoeanuhea” by Keali’i Reichel… “Melia” by Josh Tatofi… “Every Road Leads Back To You” by Keali’i Reichel & Robi Kahakalau… “If We Hold On Together” by Keali’i Reichel & Lorna Lim
