KRad and Cool Beans w/Brooke Binkowski

[00:00:01] Speaker A: That's okay. I watch it on double speed. [00:00:04] Speaker B: Cream puffs. Welcome back to Monday night Fake Fights where I, Garrick Taylor, she. They am doing a re watch of the Monday night wars still. And I am still making it your problem. This week's esteemed victim is. [00:00:29] Speaker A: Hello, I'm Brooke Binkowski. You may know me as, I suppose, Brooklyn Marie. I am a journalist, sort of, I guess. And a shitposter, definitely. And also, I don't know, that's kind of really my whole life right now. I work, I come home, I shit post, I work, I come home. Sometimes I don't even leave home to work, but that's what I do. And. But you know what? I do other stuff too. That's not fair. [00:00:55] Speaker B: Yes. You know, it's not. It's not much, but it's an honest living, you know. [00:01:01] Speaker A: Very overly honest. And I'm trying to think of, like, what I should cram into this. I'm a big HRT stand. [00:01:13] Speaker B: Yeah, we were just talking about that. [00:01:16] Speaker A: We can talk about hormone therapy. [00:01:18] Speaker B: We're always. We're always talking about CIS HRT on this podcast as a joke about meaty men taking steroids. But in your case, literal CIS hrt I love. Right? So you are a second time you're coming back. This is so great. Last time we ended up talking so much off mic that it was a Patreon episode. And then by the time we got around to the show, we had an hour of battery left and we had to speed run it because this is what we're. No, no. Don't you ever apologize for your art, Brooke. This is what I love about you. So, yeah, before we got go, we're like, well, we'll do a little catch up. And you're like, oh, my God, I could catch up. I'm on HRT estrogen. So please, please let everyone know how great estride is. And I mean, I'm just gonna sit back. Where's some popcorn? Yeah, tell it. Tell us all about it, girl. [00:02:15] Speaker A: Okay, actually, I do. I do actually have a spiel about this. Okay. So I started to have all these weird things happening, and they turned out to be like, perimenopause, which apparently starts sometimes in your 30s, which I did not know. And so I was having all these weird health things, and they were spiraling out, and I was really cranky, and I gained a bunch of weight in it, but it felt weird. Like, weird. Like not good weight gain. Like, not fun. I've been, you know, eating and sitting around, but more like, yeah, there's water collecting and weird parts of my body, and I hate it. Yeah, this ain't right. And so all of that's going on. I finally got properly, I guess, assessed. I don't even want to say it's diagnosed, because this is, like, natural. It's not. You know, I just needed a supplement, and that supplement happened to be hormonal. But I knew what to ask for. And this is my spiel. I knew exactly what to ask for. I had no problem with it. I had absolutely zero issues once I realized that that was something I needed to ask for because. And thanks to every single one of my trans friends over the years who has demystified hormones for me, who has actually, like, gone out of their way to talk about it. They've gone out of their way to, like, talk about, like, injecting heroin. Oh, my God. Sorry. I'm watching. Shameless injecting estrogen. [00:03:25] Speaker B: Yes. Oh, God. Woof. [00:03:28] Speaker A: Sorry. Shameless. [00:03:30] Speaker B: Yep. I mean, it's. It's. It's not unheard of, but not, thankfully, never. Me. I was one of those persons. People who. Someone gave me, like, a little bit of cocaine to rub on my gum once, and I immediately went, I hate this. Like, can I just give me my bong back? Y' all are weird. And, like, that's the hardest I ever went. Like, I'm just. And now I. I don't even smoke cigarettes anymore, Brooke. I'm all. I'm down to caffeine and weed. [00:04:00] Speaker A: Same, same. I quit drinking. [00:04:02] Speaker B: Yeah, there you go. Yeah, congrats. [00:04:05] Speaker A: Thank you. I actually quit because there were multiple reasons, but, like, the main one was vanity. It was messing with my, like, face cream. I'm on this face cream. All this crap. Anyway. But then after I quit, I realized, like, I had a lot of behavior that was really problematic, that I was actually drinking a lot more than I realized I was. And I had to examine my behavior. I had to, like, think about it. And after about a year, and remember, this started with banning, just, like, quitting smoking, but after about a year, I was like, you know, maybe. Maybe I just. I'm going to kind of go off drinking for a while, and it's actually worked out. I don't have any craving for it. If I do, I have a beer, and then I'm like, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, it tastes great. I love beer. I've always loved it. But the aftermath is just not. I'm not okay with it anymore. It's not. It's too much. I'm too old. I Broke everything. I'm sorry. By the way, my birthday is at the end of May, and every single May, like clockwork. And I do not do this consciously. I catch myself doing it, but I can't seem to stop it. But I've been doing this since I was maybe 20. Every May. I'm like, I'm so old. I'm so old. I'm so old. I'm so old. I'm desiccated. I'm old. I'm old, old. [00:05:14] Speaker B: I'm old and dying. Yeah. [00:05:16] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm old and dying. And then my birthday hits and I'm like, it's my birthday and I'm so happy. [00:05:22] Speaker B: Yep. [00:05:23] Speaker A: And then that's it. I'm good for a whole nother year. But anyway, let me talk. Let me talk more about hrt. Sorry. [00:05:29] Speaker B: Yes. No, absolutely. Brooke, we missed you. Welcome back to the commentary. [00:05:33] Speaker A: I'm so happy to be back. [00:05:36] Speaker B: But hrt, yes. Not. It's not just for pumping up meaty men. No. [00:05:40] Speaker A: Although I would like to take some of the meteor men and, you know, some of those real school guys, like the real buff types, the real masculine mask guys, and just like, give them all the estrogen they want. And I think they would be so pretty. [00:05:56] Speaker B: Some of them need some Prague. And no, if we learn anything from. Is. If we learn anything from having you back, it's that everyone should. Should just try the hormones. Just. [00:06:07] Speaker A: Yes, try them. Just give them a go. And you don't. You don't have to stay with them, but you might like it. See, this is why I don't talk about it too much, because I start sounding like a pusher. I'm like, no, everybody needs to go to the world. I'm going to dump estrogen into the fricking water supply. And then maybe everybody will chill out a little bit and be a little happier. [00:06:24] Speaker B: My friend. We. We hang. We hang out and post our posts primarily on Blue Sky. That's not that bad. And don't ask anyone about the things that I do in the sub basement of the headquarters here. That's neither here nor there, but welcome back. Yeah. Appreciate you. Maybe I'll show you what's behind what. What's behind the curtain when we're on break. So now that you're back, though, I got to put you through more wrestling. And we are on to. It's been so long since you've been here that, like, things are very different. First of all, nitros are two hours long now. I'm sorry, that just changed. And people People. Yeah, that was. And it's. Folks, we'll talk about it. It's not grand. Turns out then when they have more time to fill, they just do it with things that isn't wrestling. And it's not. Not a great thing. But people who were at one place are at the other place. Everything's spooky. And we are getting well into the age of Neo kayfabe and what our mutual friend Carl would call weaponized unreality, where they are blending the real and the fake to the point that we are watching these shows and there are lawsuits going on while these shows are airing on the air. [00:07:57] Speaker A: The weirdest thing, there's this concept. I don't know if you've talked about it. I. I have not talked about it much. I haven't heard anybody talk about it for a few years because I think it just. We've been living it. But it's called ostension. And ostension is when you have a disinformation narrative or a narrative of any sort, like a fictional narrative that somehow becomes reality by the force of that narrative. Like it gets willed into reality. Like if you say the house across the street from me, it's going to be blue, and you decide that house is going to be blue and you bring it about somehow. Like somebody comes and paints the house blue. You have. You have. I don't know if it would be ascended. Well, anyway, it's ascension. You've turned it into reality. And I think that the biggest problem I see with Kayfabe is, is that. Is that nobody stopped to think that that ascension was possible, that it could become reality. And yet. And yet here we are. [00:08:51] Speaker B: Yes. Whereas me and the rest of the old witchy types who have studied all kinds of, like New Age occult and magic and, and. And ritual magic and things of that nature are just going that. Do you want a tulpa? That's how you get a tulpa, Vince. If you don't, you gotta pay attention. Yeah. Next thing you know, Hulk Hogan has a mind of his own. And Hulk Hogan's different than Terry Bellea. And you have a guy in court explaining to a judge that Terry Bellea doesn't have a nine and a half inch p. Just Hulk Hogan brother. [00:09:29] Speaker A: And you're like, you know, you just. You had to be there. [00:09:32] Speaker B: Yeah. And you're just like, you know what? Maybe this, all of this was a bad idea. But we are in the age where all of those lines are getting wiggly wobbly and it's getting fun because people are Playing with the realities and everyone's trying to get ahead. So I think we should start with Nitro because for the second week in a row, historic Nitro. Last week, Scott hall, who was Razor Ramon up until the night before, literally broke the night before, walked out and basically said that he was declaring war on wcw. And, and what people didn't know is that he had signed with wcw. They kept it blurry to kind of make it seem like maybe he's this guy who still works for the Fed who's coming over and, and like they didn't say his name, but they didn't say that it wasn't his name. Like they did call him Razor but they didn't not call him Razor. So it got weird. Well it, they took a gamble and it worked because tonight is the first week of what will become the famous 83 weeks where WCW topped Raw in the, in the ratings for 83 straight weeks starting tonight. Brooke. So welcome. Historic grabs. Yeah. Because they, that gamble paid off and you better believe people showed up and yeah, they're, they're, they're at two hours. Everyone's happy. The big boys are playing live. Hour one is, it's different now. It's split. There's hour one and hour two. So the first hour you have Tony Schiavone. Love him, he, he's still working today. And Larry the Living Legend Sabisco who is, he's there. He's, he's a guy, he's got a hell of a history and I don't care to talk about it unless I really have to. Maybe later in the shows he gets a little more involved. I will say Two Tone Scott themed button up shirt under a blazer. I can't help but love it. The Mad lad went for it. [00:11:43] Speaker A: I mean I'm sorry but we left the best era of fashion behind in the 90s there. [00:11:49] Speaker B: I'm saying Brooke, I, I was too young to appreciate it fully. But going looking back and, and people watching. I don't know about you, but I tend to watch the crowd a lot when I watch these for the show. [00:12:03] Speaker A: Oh yeah. [00:12:04] Speaker B: Oh, there's so many different kinds of 90s guy. The mustache is alone. Holy crap. And then the glass is bigger than your face. I, I don't. Wowzas. [00:12:17] Speaker A: You know what I'm starting to see? I'm starting to see the kids like rocking mullets and huge glasses. Know I, there's, there's this guy who I see around here who is, I don't know, probably like 21 or 22, full blown mullet, big old glasses, high water jeans in those like 80s striped shirts. And he looks freaking great. It looks awesome. Every time I see him, I'm like, buddy, you look freaking great. Like, we did not look this big. You look right. You look K rad. We used to say K rad. Actually, that was a nerd thing. That was because I was. I've been online, you know, since the 80s, which is like a really sad thing to admit. And we used to say KAD and cool beans and you know, that's where cool beans comes. [00:12:59] Speaker B: All right, so no, see, I love that I, I was like a generation later of the Internet, but still, like, I guess theoretically I am still of the generation that like grew up online for the most part. Like, I, I lucked out. We didn't have like great Internet, but we had dial up pretty young because my parents own their own business and like, they had to have Internet to like run it. So I lucked out. Yeah, right. I didn't get to use as much as I'd like. So I've been on the Internet like longer than most. But yeah, I didn't know that. K rad. I didn't know these are fancy words. Exquisite. [00:13:37] Speaker A: Krad. You know, it's like a thousand rads. [00:13:40] Speaker B: Oh, my God, that's fantastic. [00:13:44] Speaker A: Heavy nerd. Heavy nerd. [00:13:46] Speaker B: That is. So I am writing that down. [00:13:50] Speaker A: Oh, my gosh. Yes. My, My youth. But not wasted. Yes, it means something. [00:13:58] Speaker B: No, I mean, we're gonna get done here and I'm gonna disseminate that onto blue sky. So speaking of disseminating that, they show us what happened, right? Hey, that's a one way to transition. They showed us what happened last week. That's a dissemination of information. I'd say. Big bubba. Yeah, thank you. Thank you very much. Big bubba, who's totally not big boss man. Don't say it out loud. Who gets sued harder? He shaved half of the shark's head. So, like, this is a sad thing. Uh, John Tenta is the guy who plays the shark. He's actually like a really awesome, like, athlete and a good pro wrestler. This is like the end of his career and it's not great. Well, not quite. It actually gets worse. So they did this thing where they, they shaved half of his head. And he comes out and he decides he's telling everyone that he's keeping it as a sign of his embarrassment to like, really get him ready for revenge. And I'm just like, that's. That's bad. Like, no one, no One's because, like, this guy has to like, go pick his kids up, you know, and he's got half of a head of hair and the half that's. The half that's there is missing some too, you know, it's not a full head of hair, you know, and on the top of that, they're calling him shark. So at least he. He. He does say to this. People make fun of this a lot. And it's really hard not to because it's so silly. But God damn it, John Tanta gives it his all. He's like, cut my music. He tells Gene, I'm not shark. I'm not a fish, not an avalanche. I'm a man. John tent, a 500 pound man. And I'm just like, all right, what a catch. Yeah, if he was a fish. Holy. So there he's trying to reclaim his humanity. Brooke, the whole thing's silly. I hate all of this. It's silly. It's beneath him. Bubba's playing with his hair in the ring. Silliness, this joke. This whole story has like 30 juice. He chases them away with scissors. I think it was supposed to be a match and it just didn't. This sucks. I don't. I'm like. I'm done with it. Like, it's. It's the second week of it and I feel bad having made you watch it. I like you more than this. [00:16:34] Speaker A: That's okay. I watch it on Double Speed. It was. It's really fun. On Double Speed. [00:16:38] Speaker B: Not a bad idea. I would love to have heard Mongo and his good, good friend Kevin Green in Double Speed saying, we're not cream puffs. [00:16:51] Speaker A: Oh, man, I wish I'd had it queued up. I would have played it for you right now. [00:16:54] Speaker B: Oh, well. Oh, gosh. Oh, I should go back and catch that. Oh, no, don't give. Don't give. Don't give yourself more work, Eric. But yes, they're. They're football players. We're not cream puffs. We're. We're cronuts. And. Yeah, so. [00:17:09] Speaker A: Oh, no, I don't think they existed yet back then. I'm not sure. I think cronuts weren't invented till the odds. [00:17:14] Speaker B: Yeah, they're simply bro sexuals that pull the occasional no homo. And that's all. Sigh. We. We come back from that unfortunate side quest that they did to our first actual graps. I will say the faces of Fear versus High Voltage. I don't know anything about this. This team. I meant to look up more about them. I Simply did not care. I'm being honest with you, Brooke. I'm being honest with the listeners. I wrote down Green Beefy Boys, and that's kind of all I really needed to know. Neon Green Beefy Boys. It was shocking. And they are fighting Barbarian and Mang, who are two guys who will kill you. And, like, so this is. This is a strange setup. Oh, God. Now, Larry Zabisco is a special kind of, like, Midwest old dude racist. And then you add pro wrestling racism to it, and, like, he comes from the territory days where if a Samoan guy is in the ring, you talk about how they eat people like that. [00:18:28] Speaker A: Like, oh, my. [00:18:30] Speaker B: No, that was like, okay. It was just. Oh, it was expected for you to be that racist. That's like, what. That kind of. That's what pro wrestling was in, like, before, like, you know. Well, God, we're seeing it up to, like, the 2000s, if not more. You still. You still can't head butt a Samoan. Like, that's true. You can't. If you headbutt a Samoan, they know sell it, and you act like you hurt yourself. [00:18:55] Speaker A: So, I. I'm sorry, I have to cut in for a very brief side note. I recently got through. I. I work with a school. I helped create a school, actually, this online community school. Dark Times Academy. [00:19:10] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:19:11] Speaker A: Yeah. Oh, it's. It's great. We just finished up, I guess, a semester. It's all very, you know, unprofessional on my part because I. I just. I. I don't know. I went through all of this, and I want to tell everybody about it, but I'm working with other journalists, so, like, my true personality comes out, and I just, you know, my soul is, like, chain smoking, and I'm. But the thing. The thing about the school is it's based in New Zealand, and what we do is focus on journalists in, like, Pacific island nations, because they aren't as. They don't have the capability of being as connected and as dialed in as we are, you know, just because they're, like, in small islands out in the Pacific. And so the disinformation is hitting them at a different rate than it has hit us. So, you know, we're well into it. So I'm. I'm basically the terrible warning. I'm like, okay, here's what happened. Here's what happened to the United States, and here's what happened when we were in the same, you know, like, area of disinformation that you were in. Here's how to fight it. Don't let this happen to you. So we're the horrible warning now? You know, the US Is a horrible warning. [00:20:20] Speaker B: It's honestly, we probably should have been like, like, like alarm should have been rung a long time ago. [00:20:30] Speaker A: They were. They were. [00:20:31] Speaker B: They were, yes. From you. [00:20:35] Speaker A: I mean, not just for me. I mean, like, we, like all the hippies were warning about it. But one of the things that you that, that I was like, specifically like, had to pay attention to is I'm very fond of saying things like, eat the rich and let's eat the billionaires. Let's cook and devour them. Right. No. Nobody. Like, I didn't, I didn't offend anybody, but it was something that I had to keep in mind because apparently that is something that is deeply offensive, especially when like a white American person says it. And I, I mean nothing by it. I did not realize that that was actually something that people actually like, literally said and believed. I just think it would be cool to eat the rich. [00:21:13] Speaker B: Yeah, right. No, but we can't. We can't have nice things because you can never underestimate just how racist our ancestors were. Like mine specifically yours. Is yours less so much? [00:21:27] Speaker A: I don't know. There's some. There's some in there. I'm pretty sure. [00:21:30] Speaker B: I will, I will. I am happy to say that the German in me got here in like the late 1800s. [00:21:35] Speaker A: So. [00:21:38] Speaker B: So the worst of it too is that barbarian and mang aren't even so moing. They're Tongan. But yeah, right. It's, it's, it is layers of awful. So like, geez. And they're just. Oh my God. He says they're one generation removed from cannibals. And I'm need this to be done. Like, I'm so done with 1996. And it's June. [00:22:00] Speaker A: Yeah. Great year across the board. [00:22:03] Speaker B: And it's. So we're just getting started. He does follow it up with a sick inside dig at his old boss, though. He said that high voltage is the last thing we need around here. More Watts. And that for, for all the smart marks, the, the, the like old school wrestling fans listening to this just went, oh, sick burn. Because Bill. Bill Watts is the name of their former boss and everybody hated that guy. Yeah, he's the one who said, stop jumping off the top rope, man. It's like the people really, like when we do that, don't do it. Cowboy Bill Watson. Like, oh my God. Yeah. That is. He has said things so racist that I can't say them that Guy. Meanwhile, in the graphs, there's not much to highlight other than barbarian kicks a dude full in the face. And it ruled. I want to believe he heard Larry, and he's like, I go get you. Followed by, like, an overhead belly to belly from the top rope that was horrifying to watch. And ends it with just a big old super kick from Ming to the chin for three. This was like a squash match with extra steps. And I was kind of. Kind of here for her. [00:23:28] Speaker A: Now I'm. I'm trying to pull up. So I tried to pull up the we're not cream puffs line, but of course, I can't do it while I'm listening to you. [00:23:38] Speaker B: You're working too hard. You're working far too hard. But, yeah, I. I might have to do it, though. That's too. That's too funny to me. All right. But anyways, uh, that's over. Uh, Gene Okerlin talks with the best friend tag team champs next. And, uh, Lex gets. He has no idea what's going on, and it's kind of adorable. He's like the poor lost puppy hot dog band who didn't get the script. They just. He just gets. All of a sudden, they're talking to him, and he's like, oh, yeah, two. But in, like, just had no idea. Like, no, dude, we're. You're in the middle of class. This is a pop quiz. And he's like, footage. We're talking footage. All right. Yes. That was some footage for sure. Stinger, take it away. Like, oh, God. But, you know, stick barely gets started before you get Scooter Pie. Steiner Scott in full ring gear. And then his brother, the puppy boy Rick Steiner dressed like he just got off of a boat to grab some margaritas and, like, maybe an appetizer at the, you know, the Riverside Bar and Grill. You know, uh, it's a thing. You get up there with the boats and you drink all day and you fall asleep in the sun. And the juxtaposition of the two blows my mind. But they have a bit of a boys shout therapy session. It gets shovey. Yeah, right. They're working on their feelings. And as much as I didn't enjoy this, I hated the next thing harder. Because we come back from commercial and it's Disco Fever. Yeah, yeah. [00:25:13] Speaker A: I love Disco Fever. [00:25:15] Speaker B: Of course you love Disco Fever. Of course you do. [00:25:18] Speaker A: I love it. Love it. [00:25:23] Speaker B: So, yeah, Disco Fever. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Now what. What I do love about a Disco Fever entrance is one thing only. They cut to. We talked about the most 90s of 90s guys in the crowd during this. They go to the 90s of 90s moms in the crowds. [00:25:40] Speaker A: Yes. [00:25:42] Speaker B: Disco dancing. And I was all. I was like, yes, you. You get it. You're out with the girls. And like, I used to serve these ladies margaritas at happy hour, and it was just exquisite. But then again, the juxtaposition of it all, they immediately cut from that to like this bro y looking white dude in a the Gangsters T shirt doing the same disco dance. [00:26:09] Speaker A: The 90s were awesome. [00:26:11] Speaker B: It was a time, apparently. [00:26:13] Speaker A: Yeah, it was something else. I mean, it was. They weren't awesome. There was a lot about them that sucked. But there were things about them that I thought, aesthetically speaking, were phenomenal. And the collision of disco and sort of grunge in 96, 95, 96 was fantastic. It was such a show. [00:26:34] Speaker B: And again, for the wrestling fans, the guys in the Gangsters T shirt, which is a. That's new, Jack. That's a guy who I would have loved see get his hands on Disco Inferno. Just saying that guy did time. So, yeah, he did bad things to people in the ring. And it wasn't always okay. When you get a dark side of the ring episode about you, you know, you kind of up. But unfortunately, uh, Disco is fighting Craig Pitman. Nothing about this match is worth dealing with. This is very, very little happens. It ends quickly. And it ends because Craig Pitman begins the process of getting his submission hold on. Doesn't get it all the way. And Disco just gives up, like, and is like, see, yeah, I'm smart because I can still dance. And it's like, no, no. Nothing about this entire gimmick is okay. [00:27:38] Speaker A: Oh, my God. [00:27:41] Speaker B: So I wrote. Just literally skip it, folks. We talked about it because we have to. I'm doing this for the sake of. Of having it all written down, but Jesus Christ, why did I have to look at that again? It's two hours now, but they're filling it with this. Are we really winning? Only time will tell. On the way to the commercial, though, they. They do show us a confrontation between Sting and Regal. And William Regal hits him with a back fist that sounded like a brick and woof. I. I don't. I think it. That. That there was no real love loss between these two irl. I don't know why. I don't know if they ever. I haven't like, seen anything about them hating each other. But, like, I don't know. When you get a back fist that hard, you either Hate the guy or you love the guy so much that. That he told you, hey, lay it in, brother. Because, like, ow. That. That looked painful. [00:28:46] Speaker A: I wonder how many of these folks had, you know, still have, you know, just beefs that went on for years, and they just kick the. Out of each other in real life. [00:28:55] Speaker B: Oh, my God. Right? Well, I could think. Speaking of what. What a transition. I can think of one, because this match, you got Regal coming out to his pomp and circumstance, and then his opponent is the jingo nostalgia act of Jim Duggan. And one time I saw, you could probably still find it on YouTube, you can find an indie match where very old Jim Duggan is fighting very old Doink the Clown, who looks more like. Like the clown from Twisted Metal at this point. And, like, the Doink is. Was kind of an And. And was not in a good place. And it. And it seemed like he was just trying to actually, like, hurt Duggan. So you could kind of see what that situation looks like a little bit. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because, like, Jim Duggan, like, was like. Like, I'm seeing him go from, like, hey, oh, are we working, brother? Are we working? Or do I have to put you down? So, yeah, you can kind of see that. So, yeah. In the meantime, though, Duggan, I lost track of my own thought, but that's fine. I tell people I'm a ranter, not a writer. This is why the people start chanting USA before the match even starts. And they just keep doing it, and I just. Okay. Thankfully, like, Regal's very good at this. He knows how to play it. He gets all the right heat, but, like, the way he's getting these guys, like, worked up, like, I half expect the camera to pan over to the front row, and there's, like, a minute man in the front row heckling him, like, full, like, you know, like, triangle hat. Just. You get out of here, you bastard. Like, just like, I could see it. These colors don't run, but these colors are the original 13 Stars of Stripes. And, like, they. They run that as far as they can. At one point, Larry says, later tonight, we got four guys that know how to wrestle in reference to a match later. But I just thought that's telling that he's admitting so far, no one on the card tonight knows how to fight. And that's kind of funny to me. I'm sure he didn't mean it that way, but it came off that way. Larry, think before you talk. I don't think he can. Poor Larry Zabisco. He's new. New to this Regal stable comes out to kind of distract the ref, the rest of the Blue Bloods, so that Regal can try to cheat. But instead, Duggan takes advantage and gets his knuckles taped up and he punches all the other Blue Bloods out, only to get distracted himself and rolled up for three. Regal wins. Woo. Everyone applauds. Everyone loved that. They. They didn't love that. Is it 1996America? They hated it. So Gene Mean Jean, of course, is. We're starting to see the pattern here. Match happens. Jean talks to him about it. He confronts Regal about his slapping the out of Sting because apparently he has been fined for it. And it, it's funny because he responds with like, in my opinion, the most American thing. He says it, it was worth it. [00:32:15] Speaker A: The best of America. [00:32:17] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. It's like, oh, wow, he's Americanized at this point. He was. I'd do it again, you know. Oh, I was like, yeah, he's used to it now. He's worked up and he wants Sting pissed. He wants them to be downright bloody rude. He says, and I love him. Like, I forgot this match was coming. And it's, it's. It's bound to be good. We get a little background on Benoit and Sullivan getting in each other's faces. This is, this is unfortunate. This is the beginning of the storyline where Kevin Sullivan works himself into his shoots, is how they put it, because he's writing the storyline and he writes a storyline where Chris Benoit steals his wife and then Chris Benoit steals his wife. [00:33:08] Speaker A: Extension. [00:33:10] Speaker B: Yeah, Callback. There you go. Yeah, there you go. There you go. I was gonna say, wait, we just had a word for that. Ostension. You did it again. So. Yeah, he accidentally did that and it doesn't end well for anybody. It's kind of funny though, because, like, the first time Sullivan comes out to in this, like, package, he has like a full Hogan headband. And then they cut to a different night and he comes out again in the headbands kind of rolled up, so it's at like half mass. And then he comes out a third time and sure enough, fully no headband. And I was just like, this is. What the hell? Like, I don't even. I don't even care what he's saying. I was giggling. I didn't pay attention to what he was actually saying. I was just giggling at the headband slowly rolling off his head over time. The headband drama, the headband drama. Where did it go? These are the things I think about. I said. And then we get back to the Graphs. And it. It is Kevin Sullivan. He has his angry eyebrows on. He's like a. He's like a Bostonian, Mr. Potato Head. It's terrible. And it's him versus the debut match of Prince Ikea, uh, which is pretty cool. Um, however, it's just a squash. I don't have much in my notes because Kevin just hits all of his favorite moves on the kid and then pins him. And that's it. Woohoo. Nothing much there. Kind of boring. I hate to say it. Like, nitro is boring me a little bit. So far, I'm saying it out loud. We'll see how, how it, how it rolls up, but at this point, I was not pleased. Kevin and Gene and Jimmy have the breathless interview. Jimmy Hart is more out of breath, I feel like, than Kevin, which is weird because Kevin Sullivan just wrestled. Like, what did. What were you doing? I guess he runs around. He manages with his whole heart, you know, the. His whole Jimmy Hart. So I guess that makes sense. Kevin says that there is two wars going on and that he'll let the legal department handle the first one. And that's our, uh, our first clear reference to kind of what I mentioned before. The fact that they are absolutely, within a week getting sued already. [00:35:32] Speaker A: Oh, my. [00:35:33] Speaker B: Yeah, well, Scott hall came out and he talked in his Razor Ramone voice, and he didn't come out in his Razor Ramone gear, but he. Hey, oh, I'm talking real slow, man. And it's like, okay, we, you know, like, we get into this weirdness of what is the intellectual property aspects of a wrestling gimmick. And like, this is one of the things that really kind of starts with that. And it's also why they had to get with the kayfabe, because they're like, okay, well, these guys blew up kayfabe by doing this and screwing us. So now we're just gonna have to start telling half truths and people's actual inner lives get made into storylines and stuff like that. And it starts. Boy, yeah, it starts. [00:36:23] Speaker A: That's how it happened. [00:36:25] Speaker B: That's how it. [00:36:26] Speaker A: That's how it happens. And, you know, I think about this so much now, and this is not just wrestling, but just everything. Like, where is the line between who you are as an individual in your private life and who you are as a public Persona? No matter what that public Persona is, it has to be part of you. Otherwise it wouldn't be a Persona. It wouldn't be an effective Persona. And I think about this a lot because, you know, I worked in broadcast. I Worked in radio for a long time, and there were all these people running around who had these, quote, Personas. And those Personas were always, like, sexist and racist pieces of. And they'd be like, oh, this is a bit. But the thing is, yeah, in private, they were also sexist, racist pieces of shit. So, you know, I feel like there's. You always have to put all of yourself into any aspect of yourself. There is. I. I think that that's. Again, I think about this all the time. I'm getting a little bit too deep. Sorry. [00:37:19] Speaker B: No, no, I'm into it. We are. We are a deep podcast here. It makes me think of podcaster. Well, gosh. So I don't know if her show or she does a show with Jake Flores, but it's like kind of off and again off again. Luisa Diaz. And, uh, she was doing a thing for a while where she's just like, I don't want there to be a disconnect between, like, what I'm trying to make people think of me and who I actually am. And I tried to, like, actively, like, stop that. And I, like, part of me is like, no, that's. That's. That's what I'm trying to do, too, because I'm learning that, like, I'm. I didn't. You know, I used to be in a band and ship. I never thought about getting famous. I was there to make music and drink too much, you know, like, yes. [00:38:04] Speaker A: You know, that's part about being in a band. [00:38:06] Speaker B: Yeah. You don't think about that shit. And then, like, I got on Blue sky, and all of a sudden there's thousands of people following me. I'm like, oh, no. I'm just. I'm just making goofs. Just do the goof. [00:38:17] Speaker A: Great, though. [00:38:19] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:38:19] Speaker A: You know, I said about Blue sky being really intentional. Sorry, go ahead. I'll tell you in a second. [00:38:24] Speaker B: Oh, but. But, you know, it made me. It leads to me having to learn in real time how to kind of really implement that and. And. And kind of be like, okay, well, I'm not gonna be. I gotta, like, try to fight that. Especially coming from, like, I have a history of trauma where, like, I would very much just mirror things because it. It feels like the safest way to not have someone blow up at me is to, like, just mirror what they're doing, and then everything's fine, you know? Like, so. But problem is, if you find yourself surrounded with awful people, you mirror awful, awful things. And, like, I don't want. I don't want to do that, you know, so. But also, you have. You can go the reverse. Which is what happened to, like, Ric Flair, where it's like, Ric Flair created this Persona, and the next thing you know, that just is Ric Flair. [00:39:15] Speaker A: See, that's the other thing. [00:39:16] Speaker B: Doesn't exist anymore. It's just Ric Flair. [00:39:18] Speaker A: Yeah, that's. Kurt Vonnegut said that. And I think about this all the time because he said, be careful what you pretend to be, because that is what you will be. And when I first read this, I was probably, like, 15 or 16, and I thought I was very cynical and hip. In fact, that was probably around 1996. Oh, no, wait, I was 1796. No. Oh, no, I was 19. Oh, my God, I'm old. I'm old. Sorry. [00:39:45] Speaker B: And I didn't even have to interrogate you for any of that. You listen to that, folks. You gave that all up willingly. [00:39:50] Speaker A: Yeah. I don't care who knows how old I am. The only thing I worry about is getting my identity stolen. But at the same time, like, who gives a shit? Like, whatever. I don't have any money. Go ahead. [00:39:58] Speaker B: Which is why I will always be 30 to 40 years old. [00:40:01] Speaker A: Yes, yes. 30 to 40 years old. Yes. Me, too. I'll be, well, 40 to 50 years old. I guess at this point, I've given away the game too much. [00:40:09] Speaker B: Yeah, right. Anyways, your thought. [00:40:12] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. Blue scene. So when Twitter was a big. When Twitter started to get, like, really big, I got on there because I'd always sort of used, like, social media when social media came onto the scene as a blend between my personal and my private, my personal and my professional lives. And I would say, oh, I walked down the street. I traveled. Here's some selfies. Also, here's a story that I was working on when I traveled. And, like. But then it got out of control because, so Twitter gets. Gets big. I didn't understand the point of it for the longest time. Then I was like, well, maybe this is a good way for me to connect with other journalists. I have a message to get out here. This is when I was started to get into counter disinformation of 2015. So I'd had this account, but I'd never really done anything with it. And then it got out of control. Like, the personal and the professional became like. I couldn't. There was. There was no difference, and there was no boundary, and it was awful. And I was working, like, just horrifying, you know, hours every day. I was, like, working, like, 20 hours a day or something. For a while. And I was on Twitter all the time back when it was, you know, truly Twitter and trying to get, like, use all of my personality to get this professional stuff out that I need. I thought that needed to get out, which it did. But unfortunately it didn't take. So here we are. [00:41:28] Speaker B: Some of us really tried, Brooke. We really pushed it. [00:41:32] Speaker A: I know you did. [00:41:33] Speaker B: I didn't have ten and a half thousand followers on that site. I had like, one. [00:41:37] Speaker A: It didn't. Well, because. Because I. I threw myself into it because I thought that it was going to be temporary. I had utter faith in myself and my ability to get the word out. I had total faith that I would be able to, like, get out in front of this and that I would be basically like this, you know, media hero for stopping this disinformation tech. And I didn't even, like, consciously formulate this. It wasn't until later I thought. I thought I was going to be the one. I thought it was going to be just. I was going to save the day. I was going to get out there and I was going to save the day right into my goddamn white horse. [00:42:06] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:42:07] Speaker A: Yeah. And she wasn't even. She didn't even. Aaron Brockovich, that bitch. But yeah, like, you had other. [00:42:13] Speaker B: I love the disinfo and I love that this info is. And he was like, well, hold on. Sidetracked. [00:42:21] Speaker A: I mean, she. Not. Not to take away anything, but there were more. That there was more than one. [00:42:27] Speaker B: I'm familiar. Everyone else, if you're not, go check it out anyways. [00:42:31] Speaker A: Yes, go check it out. She was on and told, like, called trashy and dismissed as a hysterical woman. And she was fucking right all along. [00:42:40] Speaker B: But also, it was a team, you know, like, it was a bunch of people. [00:42:43] Speaker A: There was. There was a team. And I'm. I'm glad there was a team because you need that. You need solidarity. But I did not know that at the time. I didn't realize the importance. I understood solidarity and why it was important. And I loved connecting with people back then, but I didn't understand how deeply important it is to building sort of community resilience and like, understanding, you know, how to. How to live. How to live through this shit. [00:43:04] Speaker B: Yeah. Not burning yourself out. Not being the only one. [00:43:06] Speaker A: Yeah. Burned out so hard. Burned out so hard. And so now I'm. I'm much more intentional on Blue sky where I'm. I'm trying not to talk about work. I'm trying not to be. Have my work Persona on because I need a place Where I just. I mean, sometimes I do talk about it, but only when it's incidental. I. I just need it. And, like, it's so great. I talk about cats and I talk about crows, and I talk about, you know, horrible things I find online that aren't news related. And that's. That's. I have. I. I need it. Because if I burn out again, I don't know if I'm gonna come back. [00:43:38] Speaker B: Yeah. Right. No, understandable. And I would miss you so much. So. Yeah, no, it's good. I don't. Yeah. I need. I need you to be broken. Don't. Don't Rick. Flare my brook. You know, I don't. Don't do the. The rook flarification. [00:43:51] Speaker A: Well, that's. That's the other thing. So. Okay, so the. The. So I read that Vonnegut, you know, quote, be careful what you pretend to be. So I decided back in the day, I was like, well, I'm gonna pretend to be, like, this worldly, well traveled, Cosmopolitan woman who's been all over the place and done a bunch of. And, like, that's. That's who I'm gonna pretend to be. And. And I did it. I. I actually, for a while, I held up that, you know, I had that Persona and inhabited it because it was. It was somebody I wanted to be. And I did travel a lot, and I did see the world, and I did, like, do all these cool things, and then I didn't realize this was going to happen. I got fed up with being that person, and the world changed, and I stopped wanting to see the world for a while because I am so still kind of disappointed with humanity at the moment. It's not a delight. [00:44:36] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [00:44:37] Speaker A: Like, for example, I wanted to go. I wanted to visit India. I've always wanted to visit India. And I wanted to go see Pakistan. Right. I want to go see Indian. Pakistan. It's been on my list for years. I want to go explore. I want to backpack around, travel, meet people. Yeah, not gonna happen right now, for God's sake. Yeah. [00:44:52] Speaker B: Yeah. It's like. What. What's. What's that thing I heard. I heard someone say on the Internet? Super smart, pretty. It's a global far right power grab. Yeah, that's it. [00:45:02] Speaker A: Oh, go on. [00:45:05] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:45:06] Speaker A: She sounds awesome. [00:45:07] Speaker B: You should. You should send her money. [00:45:09] Speaker A: Well, just another day. I don't need to be posting the stories. I write. Like, I'm. I'm writing, you know, I. I do local news and it's fine. It's great. Like, I really like, it. And it's, it's very far away and it's local. Yeah, but who cares? I mean, I mean, I care. Like, obviously people locally care, but, like, nobody needs to see. I don't need to be like, this is my latest story that I just did. I just wrote this story. I just decided this. If it's, if it's a national interest story, maybe, yeah. If it's something I broke and it's national, absolutely. But I don't, because, like, I'm burned out and, and I don't want everybody to see what I'm up to all the time. And. Yeah, I don't talk about my personal life a lot. Like, I'll mention it incidentally, like, for example, as you know. And I'm going to talk about something personal, but only in the most broad strokes. I had to cancel this and reschedule with you a couple times because I had a death in the family and we had to deal with, you know, like, all the stuff that comes when you have a death in family. And it wasn't somebody who I personally was particularly close to, but it was still somebody who was a really important part of the family who, I mean, that sounds like. They weren't my enemy. It was just somebody I didn't know, but it was, they were still an important part of the family. And I had to go, you know, like, going to the funerals, heartbreaking. Like, the whole thing just was a bummer. And I have not talked about it online because, like, what's to say? Who cares? [00:46:31] Speaker B: Yeah. And it's like, why, why is this anyone's problem? You know? And if you're the type of, of presence on the Internet where that it would be considered like the, like that someone's problem, and that's like your thing. Good for you. Not my bag, you know what I mean? Like, I'm, I'm keeping my Ric Flair and my Richard Fleer separate. That's just, you know, like, like there's Garrick Taylor and then there's the name that y' all don't know and like, and that's, that's fine. [00:47:02] Speaker A: You mean to tell me that Garrick Taylor is not your real name? [00:47:05] Speaker B: No, Kate. Kayfabe, baby. Kayfabe. [00:47:10] Speaker A: Man, I should have, I should have thought that one. I should have thought up an on air name years ago. But I, I came, I was equipped with such a great on air name that I just used it. Oh, yeah, it's my real name. [00:47:20] Speaker B: Yeah. No, you got alliteration. You gotta stick with that. Come on now. Yeah. [00:47:24] Speaker A: Media family. [00:47:26] Speaker B: Yeah, right, exactly. They knew. They knew what they were doing. [00:47:29] Speaker A: They did. [00:47:30] Speaker B: Oh my God. Speaking of knowing what they were doing, we get back to some grabs, right? See how I did? [00:47:35] Speaker A: Oh, yes, very good. [00:47:37] Speaker B: People who know what they're doing. Everyone involved in this tag team match, Brooke, Rock and Roll Express and the Horsemen, Arne and Rick. Speaking of Richard Fleer, the Rock and Roll Express, they come out looking like an 80s dream. I'm happy to report that Ricky Morton's hair still looks like that. The flower flowery front mullet. Like he just, it's. I don't know what he, he, he must have gotten like the Joe Dirt surgery where like it infused to his brain and like the wig can't get taken off because his hair just looks like that still. It is wild. He still shows up on TV occasionally and gets dropped on his head for, for the shits and games. I love wrestlers. Right? Then Rick and Arn come out wearing Mongo and Kevin Green's jerseys to troll them a bit, which is. I gotta give it to him. Gotta hand to him. That's good stuff. What was funny though is Arn gets to the ring and he, he gets stuck in his. Which made me giggle pretty hard and like woman and Miss Elizabeth had to pull him out of it and save him. And it was the kind of thing where it was like that was not intentional at all. Lovely. They count down to the second hour of, of nitro mid match, which is kind of weird, but I guess it's a thing we have to get used to now. And they just. A bunch of pyro goes off as these guys are just wrestling and I don't know, I'd hate that. I don't know about them, but I wouldn't like that as a performer necessarily. I'm not in Kiss, you know, like I don't. But they switch and we, we say goodbye to Larry Sisco and Tony Schiavone and we get Eric Bischoff and thank God Bobby Heenan and it's, it's a strange thing. This match was very solid though, all around. All of these guys are vets. I, I would save that folks. Watch these grabs. This was a solid tag team match. And on a commentary, apparently Bobby showed up with what is now an infamous silver Halliburton. Again, old wrestling fans will hear Halliburton and go, oh my. Eric accuses him of se secretly managing the Horsemen. He says that he's going to let us know later. Eric says he's waiting with baited breath. And Bobby slips one in so quick you'd almost miss it. Brooke, he says, stop eating minnows. That wouldn't happen to you. Holy baited breath. Stop eating minnows. Wouldn't happen. [00:50:12] Speaker A: Oh, my God. Explain it. [00:50:16] Speaker B: No, see, I was. Hold on, hold on. All right, I was gonna say that. That, that's classic. Meanwhile, Arn versus Morton. I have a, I have a cricket sound effect for there. It's fine. Is one of the best things that I've ever seen, right. I, I got it for myself, but now I use it on other people on other shows that I, that I edit when they tell like an awful joke and everyone's like, boo, I'll just hit the crickets. So. Yeah, you too. Can, can have these services. Pay me. Arn and Morton, one of the best things I've ever seen. Rick tags in and then flare and Morton is one of the best things I've ever seen. That's kind of the story of this match. Uh, it's just very good. Everyone here is great. Uh, the sheer torque on some of these arm drags, folks. Uh, it's kicking, you know, kicking the second hour off pretty hard and wild because it, it feels like a main event tag match. And I think that they're just really doing their damnedest to make this two hour thing pop. And given the like, first round of matches, I'm gonna say it's working. It almost, it almost felt like the, the first hour was like dark matches, like, okay, whatever, you know, Craig Pitman and Disco Fever. Woo. I get, you know, like, not. Then they get to the second hour and it's like, here's like a 25 minute barn burner. And I was like, all right. And it's about this time though, that I looked it up because I was curious. And this is the first of Eric Bischoff's 83 weeks. And God, it's, it's a great match. I, I found myself being like, you remember Bill Hader doing Stefan on snl talking about the, the clubs on Weekend Update. I just sit here going, oh my God, this match has everything. [00:52:06] Speaker A: Yes, yes. [00:52:08] Speaker B: It has flair begging off. It has big stalling suplexes. Thumbs to the eyes. Arn bewildered by punches to the face falling on his big butt. Spine busters. There's homoerotic undertones. There's tassels as everything. [00:52:24] Speaker A: I'm just like, so, so, really? And I just remembered after I started talking about the gender bending that I loved that last time too. The homoerotic undertones. So I'M a real fan of homoerotic undertones. I'm also a fan of homoerotic overtones. Yeah, I feel like this kind of like went from subtext to text pretty fast. [00:52:49] Speaker B: Yeah. Especially when we get to raw. Yeah. [00:52:53] Speaker A: Damn it. I keep screwing that up. I'm sorry. It left a real impression on me. [00:52:58] Speaker B: Understandably so. No, it's folks. Yeah, that, that, that character wasn't around last time you were here, so. Whoa. But yes, as far as all this goes, the biggest thing to happen with this is that Heenan leaves commentary to go sit at the Horses VIP table. Uh, and I think that kind of says it all as far as whether he's going to manage them or not. Uh, we end the match with a rake to the eyes and a DDT behind the rest back as is tradition. And then we get again with Gene and the. Gene and the Horseman. Arn apparently spent the whole match thinking about how stupid he looked stuck in that jersey because the first thing he says, I'm just too big. Muscly. Damn it. It wasn't silly at all. I'm just. I'm so big. Sure, Jan. Rick meanwhile, does his, his whole. I'm. I just. I'm sleeping with your wives. Deal with it. That's it. That's what Rick is doing right now. Gene asked Bobby officially and Bobby still says, hell no, I am retired from managing. He pulls out from the Halliburton a heavy looking trophy and he says that I managed the all Madden team and I am super proud of that. But I won't be managing. I'm retired from managing but not coaching. So I'm coaching the Horseman and all is well and right with the world. Yeah. On the, on the way to commercial though, we get a gross Hogan promo for TNT that I'm sure they thought would get people hyped for his triumphant return. No, no, thank you. And then like that was apparently a teaser, Brooke, because we come back from commercial and it's the full video montage of hero Hulk Hogan just being American made and grunting. [00:54:56] Speaker A: And I gotta tell you, in double time or in double speed? [00:55:02] Speaker B: Double speed. How'd that go? [00:55:05] Speaker A: Awesome. [00:55:07] Speaker B: Well, yeah. Oh my God. Hulk Hogan probably had work rate for the first time. That's amazing. That, that. There you go. Holy. It's like you're watching him in Japan. Yeah, he's going. So no one like this and they're going to have to figure something out, which they're going to soon. But next we get Ice Train versus the Giant for the title and you know, if it's possible to telegraph the ending of a match simply through the booking, this is the match that does it. Because, like, this guy Ice Train is huge. Yes. He can work very well. Yes. But he's been here for like a month and a half, Brooke. He is not winning. Like, it's not. That's not how this works. Which means he's gonna get squashed by the Giant's magical powers. And once again, as though my note taking has reached back through time, Ice Train lets Jimmy Hart distract him. And then right away gets choke slammed by the Giant for three. And I was just like, damn it. And I think this is kind of where this tag team died. This tag team is about a month old. Fire and Ice hit taps because this is. This is it. The guy's tag team partner, Scott fired Norton or Flash. Norton comes out and the Giant kills him too. It's just like, I don't know. They've been pushing this tag team as like, big monster guys, right? Because they are like, they're two big dudes. You look at them and they've been shaking it up with other monsters like the Steiners, and. And then they just get squashed. And then you can't. How are you ever going to take them seriously again? Is how I feel. Because you just had the giant, who, yes, he's tall, but he's not like, jacked. And. And it's just like, I don't know, the suspension of disbelief. It's like, this isn't. This isn't a Grim's fairy tale. Like, he's just seven foot tall, guys. Like, I don't. Yeah, he's not going to grind anyone's bones here. But speaking of, the Giant addresses his enemies, which I do think it'd be funny if he. If he just straight up, like, threatened to grind someone's bones to make his bread. I'm gonna grind your bones for my whey protein. For my. My pre workout. He calls out Hogan and like everybody else but says, luger, I like you, but you basically, you're next. And I was like, there you go. Okay. He did it. He did the. You. You. You're cool, but also you. We come back, right? We come back and Scott Norton, still in the ring, hurt, apparently this whole time. Then we get the Dungeon of Doom's very own joker, Hugh Morris. This is a guy who. Pain is funny to him. You see Teehee. Teehee, that's his gimmick. So I'm so sorry that you had to see a Hugh Morris match. Hugh has slightly right. He comes. It's. It's never good. He can. He can moonsault. It's pretty. But, like, I did notice that he has slightly extended his eyebrows drawn on like Kevin Sullivan. Like, it's like his Amanda Palmer brows are spreading like a virus to other members of his stable. What else do you call those? I just have to. They're both from Boston. I have to assume it's something in the water and. [00:58:41] Speaker A: Oh, my God. [00:58:42] Speaker B: So there it goes. So this silly guy, he comes out and he drops a bunch of elbows on the already dead Scott Norton while laughing. I'm so missed. And for some reason, the ref isn't counting him out. And then Hugh goes for his moonsault and Norton. I think Scott Norton was supposed to catch him and, like, slam him, which would have been really cool and is a spot that you can do when the guy who's moonsaulting is a cruiserweight, you know, But Hugh Morris is a big guy, so he just kind of drops and like, he barely. Barely doesn't land on his goddamn head. For the three. That. That sucked. Like, everything about that sucked. I didn't like it at all. [00:59:31] Speaker A: I. I found a description of that fight that gives it one quarter of a star. [00:59:36] Speaker B: Yeah, there you go. Yeah, I think. I think you're being more generous than Dave Meltzer would with his actual star system. Like, apparently, I just recently found out you can. Can get negative star matches, and I think that might have been a negative star match. Yeah. So a previous guest told us there has been negative star matches. Like, I think, like, three of them are just like, this is so bad that I have to tell you, just. It's that bad. But speaking of things that suck and are bad, we finally get to Kevin Green and Mongo broing out. They're doing. I guess they're doing comedy. I. I think this is comedy. [01:00:15] Speaker A: You know What? In the 90s, our comedy was terrible. In the 90s, we didn't actually have proper comedy back then. We had to learn to manufacture it in the aughts. So, yeah, give us a break. [01:00:25] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. After it got. It got. The manufacturing got sent overseas. Now we're trying to bring it back stateside and it's. It's a whole thing. There was comedy tariffs. It was. It was a hard time. It was great for it. For Susie Izard, though, like that. Fantastic for her. But these sketches are. I tell you what, they're. He. They're heterosexual as. First of all, let's get that off the bat. This is Very straight. It reminds me of stuff that we did in, like, social studies class in seventh grade for, like, for projects, you know, like, make a. Make a sketch about an subject or something. Like, that's the level of what these guys did. The most effort that was put into this sketch is whoever drew the little wrestling ring on the whiteboard is basically. And it doesn't amount to much because these two chuckle. Just draw stick figures and say baby over and over while eating Slim Jim. [01:01:23] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. That was the 90s. That was the 90s. [01:01:26] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. All of it. It's really there. The whole thing is just saying it. I. At this point, I just wrote down words. They said, racking and sacking, talking, talking, penetration. These are just all words that came out. It did not make sense to me. They decide because of the. The genius this. Of their slapping into snapping into Slim Jims. And they're like, we'll have coach Randy Savage bring us together. This is three minutes. It's my life. I'll never get back. That's basically it. That's how I feel about it. We. We get back to the graphs, and it's a Steiner line, and I just wrote down here, Brooke, apropos of nothing, do you have any thoughts on anabolic steroids? [01:02:13] Speaker A: Apropos of nothing. I actually don't have any thoughts on them, except that they make people get very beefy. [01:02:24] Speaker B: Very beefy. Meaty. Men being very meaty. [01:02:28] Speaker A: So I. I actually. I. I actually do have a couple of thoughts, but they're not very well informed thoughts. [01:02:33] Speaker B: Oh, please, hit me. [01:02:34] Speaker A: Okay. Very badly informed thoughts. So my experience with anabolic steroids. Well, my. I didn't. I never had a personal experience because. [01:02:42] Speaker B: I was gonna say, oh, do I have to. Do I have to redact some of this or be okay? [01:02:46] Speaker A: Oh, man, that would be pretty rad. Like, actually, I. I would be like a really muscular Chihuahua. You know, I'm 5:3, so I would be just like this little, tiny. But no, no, just I. I knew a couple of people. I was a weightlifter for a while, so I guess it wouldn't have been so far out of the realm of possibility. I was really into fitness for some time, so I knew people who got on it, and it changed their personalities. Not for the better, but, yeah, I made him real angry and, like, you know, quick. Quick, like, trigger, quick draw type. Uh, but I think they were already like that, so I don't know. I. I'm still trying to figure out how much of it is. Yeah, it's hard to Tell, like, did they go on that because they thought it would make them like big and like muscular and masculine and angry all the time or, you know, and then I just kind of assumed it was. It was the steroids doing that or did they actually get angrier? Because the reason I think about this is because I'm thinking about like testosterone therapy and hormone therapy, you know, and it. More of a general sense. And I can't really say I'm. I'm anti anabolic steroids, but. [01:03:48] Speaker B: Yeah, well, no, I have a lot to say about that too. And I think you stick on a good point and this is something that it might get canceled by some of Doll sky. But I, I'm going to say it out loud anyway because I, I mean what I say and I say what I mean. Testosterone isn't evil. Say it again. Testosterone is not inherently evil. [01:04:12] Speaker A: Yes, testosterone is not evil and it's not like destructive. Like, there's this, I mean, I swear to God, the binary that, this gender binary that we have to deal with all the time, it's everywhere. It's Democrats and Republicans. It's good and evil. It's right and wrong. You know, it's. It's like they can't. People can't stop masculinizing and feminizing shit that have nothing to do with masculinity or femininity and not even fucking masculinity and feminine femininity have anything to do with like what we traditionally called. [01:04:40] Speaker B: Sorry, I was gonna say. Yeah, no, exactly. Like, it's. It's something that changes. It's. It's a. When. When we say it's a societal construct, that means it's something that is a living concept. And I think that's where people get lost a lot is like, well, you say this thing now, but 20 years ago you said this thing. I'm like, well, yeah, was different back then, honey. Like, it was like, that's just, that's just what it is. Like, that's what we live in a society, you know, like changes or so I've been told. [01:05:11] Speaker A: But no, makes me so mad. Yes. [01:05:14] Speaker B: And I, I've done a lot of. I've. You know, when I. You get into these subjects like wrestling and combat sports and things of that nature, you learn a lot about it. And I've said a few times that like, I. The steroid trial was something that really fascinated me. And like, I've heard, heard the lapse fanboys do the whole transcript in the voices. It's beautiful. And like, you learn A lot about it. And from what I can see and from what I've seen, and then I've also seen guys who are fitness guys or weightlifters who will openly say, yeah, no, I absolutely juice. I do it this way, this way, this way. It doesn't affect me that way. What I think it is is that the, the, the people you see whose lives it, like, really up and utterly destroys and like, who get a real bad reaction like that are people who are super insecure already. And like, you're just seeing what happens to insecurity when you, You. You tie like a, an outside chemical force to the temporary button that makes you feel less insecure because that's how you become. Become addicted. And the addiction is what makes you a. Mixed with the, the insecurity that you are not dealing with. Instead, you're, you're shooting up about it and, and trying to lift more instead of, like, dealing with it. Because, like, there's plenty of people who do steroids and lift a lot who aren't because they have a healthy mental relationship to what they're doing. You know what I mean? And it just comes down to what's your mental relationship to. To the thing you're doing? It's not the thing itself, you know, and that's, you know, again, mental men will shoot themselves full of HRT instead of going to therapy. Yeah. Like, basically. And it's just like. Yeah. And it sucks because then you get these, these stereotypes about roid rage and stuff, which hurts my trans mask brothers. Like, yeah, and, like, the fact that, like, you can talk about DIY estrogen on the Internet and feel not like you're gonna soup, like, not super awful about. Because it's not controlled substance. You can't do that with DIY testosterone or anything of that nature because you will go to jail. Why? Because Scott Steiner had to look like a truck in 1996. [01:07:51] Speaker A: And because men are dangerous and women are dangerous, but in a different way. Women will manipulate and men will just like, beat you or whatever the. [01:07:59] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [01:08:00] Speaker A: It's so dated. I'm so over these binaries, and I, so I want to enjoy, you know, being myself without having this, like, war being waged on. On what. What the correct way to present as a woman is or as a man. I mean, I know this is a very old complaint, but, like, right now it's just being ratcheted up so much by these transvestigators and, like, what they're doing. And I've said it before, and I'll Say it again. During the first phase of this disinformation crisis, you know, there were a bunch of like, gender critical types who I knew. I didn't know what gender critical meant in like 2016. Like, I had to be educated about what I thought. It just meant, like, criticizing gender, which I'm totally down for. [01:08:44] Speaker B: So you're like gender critical? Yeah, sure, sure. [01:08:46] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, that's great. I'm, I'm down, but yeah, no, of course. It's, it's, it's like. What is it in California, they call it at will employment when. And it sounds really good, but actually what that means is that you can get fired at any time for any reason you can't see. But yeah, so like these, you know, these transvestigators and I keep telling my fellow CIS woman this, like, we need to fucking stand up for our trans sisters because, like, first of all, it's a decent thing to do. Second of all, if you let these fuckers define womanhood and femininity like they always have and they always will, they're going to define it away. They're going to define it until we're not women anymore either. Until you're not a woman. Until there are no women except for the ones that, that they have decided are allowed to be. Like, that's where they're going with this and I'm sick of it. [01:09:34] Speaker B: They're starting to give the game. They're starting to give the game away too. No, no, it's fine. But they're, they're absolutely giving the game away to that too. Where like, and you know, there's people who are actual philosophers who have talked about this and some, some of it I agree with, some of it I don't. But like, you get to the idea where you could see gender and, and like man and womanhood as, as, as, like when you boil it down, a man is the oppression oppressor and a woman is anyone who's oppressed, you know? You know, and like, to a certain extent, like, do I believe that, like in. As, like that's how it should be? No. Do I believe that's how our society is? Kind of. Yeah. And so like, to a certain extent, like, that you operate that way and you're not going to be wrong, you know, because that's a lot of what it is. And, and you're seeing that when you say, when we say, hey, can we just treat everybody like they're an actual human being with agency and, and, and start at kindness and start at an equal place And. [01:10:34] Speaker A: And then everybody's like. [01:10:35] Speaker B: And the response to that is no, but the response to that is literally a guy who I used to really like and have a lot of respect for and follow having a post about how, well, raising boys is so hard now. What? Because we told you they can't be dicks. Are you kidding me? Like. Like, are you serious right now? Like we said, hey, can you stop being dicks? And they're like, oh, that's so hard. I'm like, oh, get the out of here. Like, that's. No. [01:11:05] Speaker A: Yeah. And that moral panic comes up every five. Five years at. @ most, like clockwork. And it's always, boys can't be boys anymore because the girls, they're so worried about being accused of sexual assault, they're so worried about offending. Well, okay, what about the girls who are fucking? Like, we've had to deal with sexual assault and. And being accused of making shit up. Like, if we. If we complain that, you know, as has happened to me and every other person I know who suffered the indignity of being a little girl, right? You get your nipples pinched or something by some fucking budding pervert on the. On the. On the playground, or like some shithead comes and like, smacks you because they. You didn't move fast enough or whatever, and then you take it to it. Boys will be boys. Or. Oh, he's just doing that because he likes you. And I say, what the fuck is. [01:11:52] Speaker B: That supposed to mean? [01:11:54] Speaker A: Yeah, like, what fucking lesson is that supposed to be, B. No, that's not. That's not. That doesn't mean anybody likes me, you know, Feet. Why the fuck are you saying that? Go over there and smack that kid down. He just hurt me. He left me a bruise, you know, like that kind of stuff. [01:12:10] Speaker B: Oh, my God. I could go. I could. No, I could. I could go on my own separate rant about that because, like, boys will be. Even when I was trying to be a boy, boys will be boys was a threat. Like. Like that is always. Red is a threat to me because I wasn't a good at being a boy. Turns out it's because I wasn't. But when you're not good at being a boy, you might as well be a girl to the other boys. So, like, boys will be boys is a threat to me and always has been because I wasn't a good boy. But speaking of good boys, to get back onto our track, Diners vs String and Lex, we're almost. We're almost home on nitro. And then. And Then raw go quick because it's only an hour. But this reeks of banger. This match. Before the bell even starts though, Bischoff brings Macho man on the phone call. This is a WWF gimmick. This is something they do. I think Nitro is better than this. However, hearing Randy Savage over a phone is kind of amazing. That's not something you get a lot. And like they split screen it. So there's this great, great graps going on in the ring. Like huge roided out dudes throwing smaller dudes around like it's nothing. And meanwhile, while that's going on over a phone, Macho just suit and tie. See, I can't wrestle, but I can manage. Yeah, they say I can't coach rec league softball, but not the 21 pub league after the incident. Yeah. So he's just doing it like, he's just like going into full thing and he's basically pulls the same thing that Bobby just pulled. He's like, I can't wrestle, but I can coach. I can manage. So woohoo. They did a storytelling. Graps wise, this match is what it says on the tin Scooter pie. Throwing people around and being horrifying. Top rope Frankensteiners suplexes left and right. Watch it. For the second week in a row, Stinger does a. A reversal of a suplex into a ddt. Reverse ddt. Which will end up being his finisher. And you can see this is kind of cool because the crowd goes pops real hard when. Because Scott's head like bounces from it. And I had right. And I adore this because you can watch the evolution. Because Sting did this once last week. It was the same thing. He reversed it and he did it and people kind of liked it. This week they go real hard and you can kind of see him go, huh? They really like when I do that. And it's like, yeah, maybe I should start thinking about that as a finisher instead of a crossbody, which is like something that like shouldn't be a finisher in the 90s. It's cool to see the wheels turning, you know what I mean? But it ends with a cluster because of course it does. The Giant comes out and destroys everybody. Woo. Right. What else to say? They're still on that. But we are to the end of the show. And for the second week in a row, the NWO takes us out. This is kind of a nice thematic transition really, because the good guys are they, the guys who are just fighting, they have to form a united Front against their shared enemy, the. The big stinky giant. And it's like, cool. And that's a good look at foreshadowing of what's going to be. This storyline they send back to the booth and Bobby's, like, pleading with Macho man to not kick his ass at ringside. This is great, but besides that, Scott Denim is my life. Hall makes his way towards them and he varies kind of lightly, doing his Razor Ramone walk, but not too much because he's. I think he probably forgot they're already getting lawyers involved at this point. Uh, like, stop doing. Stop doing the trademark shirt. But he shows up and it's this kind of the same as last week. But he's like, I got you. People don't understand. Like, Eric makes sure that, like, people know that they're not working for the Fed. He had to say it on air, basically. So he didn't say that these guys work for us. He just said they didn't work for the Fed. Now, this is narratively important, though, because it solidifies the path forward, forward for this and kind of as far as what this group is going to be. Because basically this guy was working for the Fed up until about a week ago, and then the night later he shows up, blah, blah, blah. Everyone's like, what the. They initially were trying going. They were absolute. We know this now because of the lawsuits and, you know, 20 years plus of history. They absolutely wanted to imply that this guy was still working for Vince. They didn't know where to go after that when Vince sued them and said, you can't do that and won. So, like, they weren't, like, really sure what to do because all this was. Is that Bischoff was. He. He'll. He lies about this because he's a liar, but he's ripping off what two promotions in Japan had done a few years before this, where one group invaded the other, and it was a big thing and it got fans from both promotions involved and, you know, it went well. So it was like when the Avengers, you know, a crossover in the Avengers. Everyone. Everyone likes when you do that. So, like, narrative. Yeah, but narratively this is important, though, because they had to change it. And now they're saying, okay, these guys don't work for the Fed. They're just free agent badasses. And they're showing up to do their own thing, this new world order of wrestling. So it ends with this ends up being the biggest thing in wrestling. And it's what gives Bischoff his 83 weeks art. Imitating life and life imitating art. Though it will also end up, in my opinion, being one of the downfalls of the company. Yay. So, yeah, Scott just sticks him down, says, relax. Chico calls him a Ken doll. Everyone loves it. He says, relax, man. You started this war. We're gonna finish it. And Eric's like, you know, who's we? And he tells him, just wait. And then Sting shows up, and he's like, you're here. Welcome to the jungle, baby. You know, kicking the guns and roses. And basically just Stings like, I'll you up now. Scott's like, you're not my real dad. Don't tell me when. And. And the cops break him up because, like, he slaps the Sting slaps him, and it's like, all right, I am your father. I am emotionally stunted. I'm gonna slap the out of you now. The cops are. [01:18:22] Speaker A: I'm your daddy now. [01:18:23] Speaker B: I'm. Look at me. I'm the daddy now. Yes, I am. I am the Stinger now. So, honestly, it's perfect tv, because it's like, okay, next week. You know what I mean? Like, next. Yeah, you have to come back to find out who the Wii is. So, like, we are full on cooking. This is like. This is so fun, Brooke, because you. You came very early in the show when things were very kind of like, nitro's just getting going, and everyone's trying, and now we're like. We're cooking with gas. Like, it's going to. Hey, there's curveballs. This. This. These shows were almost unwatchable for 40 weeks. [01:19:03] Speaker A: I have to say, it does sort of feel as though I am kind of coming into the party two hours late, though. You know what I mean? Like, everybody's got their inside jokes. It's great, though. [01:19:13] Speaker B: No, it's kind of fun that, like, in its proof of what Arturo. Thank you. By the way, Arturo Garcia came on. Came on after you and said, like that. Oh, yeah, no. And he's hung around. He. He's been on some Patreon episodes. [01:19:27] Speaker A: I love art. He's one of my favorite people in the whole wide world. As you probably already know, we worked together for years and years. I've known him half my life, at least. Nor more than half my life. [01:19:36] Speaker B: You will find art in this discord that we are recording in right now. So, yeah, yeah. So arts around. But he said that this is, like, the most forgettable era of wrestling, and. Holy. Was he right. Like, the. The era that you came into. So, like, you feel like you Coming late to the. The party. But I would be like, you know, you'd be like, oh my God, wait till the party. And I'd be at the party going, you didn't miss much. You know, like there's not a whole lot going on. Hey, hey, hey, sickos. I'm. I'm so excited to talk to y' all. I'm on my break right now at this super great coffee shop and it's my first day on the job. Turns out just a little bit of makeup. Those wonders for your self esteem. You know what else does wonders for your self esteem? Liking and subscribing to this podcast. Wherever you listen to podcasts. Hell, while you're at it, go check out the most important election of our lives, where politics meets pop culture. For histrionic hypotheticals. See that? I can do alliteration too. Oh, and you know we're syndicated. Friend of the show Amber is streaming live weekly Saturdays at 7pm Central. Central Standard Time. That's on Twitch TV. Hexenshow H E X E M S H O W I don't know what a twitch is, but damn, they got old episodes of the show. Set the wrestling footage. Yeah. Hey. Hey there, sir. Yeah, yeah, I like your T shirt there. Yeah, yeah. My good friend just taught me all about off the heritage of that flag. Let me ask you a question quick. Hey, Cheryl, can you hit that bell for me? Thank you. Yeah, no. Have you ever heard of the ddt? But. Okay, finally. You've been trying to get here for so long, so we're just gonna power right through. [01:21:27] Speaker A: Sorry, this just left such an impression on me and I thought it was so great, especially since I've been thinking about like hormone therapy. [01:21:36] Speaker B: Gender. Like. [01:21:37] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, I always think about gender and of gender and all that and like continuums and binaries and all that. But like, this is such a perfect illustration of how when you play with gender, you play with. With, with performance. It can be so hot. [01:21:55] Speaker B: I was gonna say, like, I need to lay down. I need a cold compress like gold dust. Let's go. So Goldust wasn't around when you were here last. Now, problematic in the sense that there, as we will find out, the whole storyline is that it's like gay panic, basically, but. [01:22:15] Speaker A: Oh, God, yeah. [01:22:17] Speaker B: Yeah. Basically is. They're like. The whole thing is like, well, he's the queer and he's given mouth to mouth to the guy and the guy freaked out because he saved his life. And it was like, oh, he kissed me. It's like well, no, we watched it. He was blowing air in your mouth. But the whole thing is like, Glad had to get involved in the 90s and we're like, people die from this. And Vince, like, I don't care you. You know, so like, they. Yeah, but. Yeah, right, but Gold Dust, the guy himself, he just. He's just a guy who wanted to be a good wrestler and wanted to do the best job with what he was given. And Vince hates his family, so Vince gave him the queer gimmick because as a punishment. And instead Goldust decides that he's going to be one of the greatest drag queens of all time, in my opinion. He was my first Drake. This is my first drag queen. Brooke is Gold Dust. Really? But when I was a kid, the first, like, drag queen I ever really came across outside of Ursula, because I didn't know that divine was Ursula. Like, you know, can you get that later? No, was Gold Dust is the. The Hollywood obsessed drag queen. So, like, he also. This whole setup, he's recreating a centerfold that Shawn Michaels did with the. The world title for Playgirl magazine. [01:23:35] Speaker A: Oh, my God. [01:23:36] Speaker B: Yeah. So Sean did a centerfold where he's like, naked with the belt over his junk, and that's why Gold Dust is doing it with the belt. [01:23:45] Speaker A: Oh, it's just. [01:23:47] Speaker B: Oh, my God. He's. They gave him this worst thing and he's just like, no, I'm gonna nail it. I'm just gonna do the character work and I'm gonna nail it. You can't stop me. And he just keeps doing it. It's so good. Like Dustin, Dustin Rhodes, he still works. He, he's still wrestling. He's one of the best to do it. God, I love that guy. But yeah, we are, we are well into Raw now. Stone cold Steven versus Sparky Plug. Oh, poor, poor Bob Holly. Uh, the chuckle in the booth. Give us a look at the in your house match where Savio beat Steven in a strap match. Sending Ted out of the company. That's a shoot too. He's leaving. He's gonna show up as part of Scott Hall's new group in like a, a week or two here. So the folks, the watch party for this is on Patreon and I highly, highly recommend it, uh, because the strap match they're talking about has been one of the highlights of this entire rewatch process. It was unbelievable. It. Go check it out. It's one of the best Strat matches I have ever seen. So that's. It was pretty cool. They did that on an in your house. You know, it was like they didn't have to go that hard, but Steven and Savio did that for us. And then. Right. And this one, this is the first round of the King of the Ring tournament, which is a thing that they used to do. I don't think they really do it anymore. But it's just your standard, you know, bracket tournament. This is Stone Cold Stevens first match without a manager, without the million dollar belt. He's really entering like the end of Steve Austin version one. It's, you know, getting to the Stone Cold of it all. So that's pretty great. Uh, in my opinion, uh, I didn't like him as the ringmaster. It was silly. We have to let him just be himself. They're learning this and this is the start of that. The match is solid. We like to make Bob Holly jokes, but he's working pretty hard here. Stone Cold's doing some that I've never seen him do before because I never watched him this young at the time. And this is before he has surgery on his legs. So he's doing things that he physically couldn't do. And I was watching him and I'm just like, wow, who is this guy? This is wild. Like, you know, fireman carry over the head, gut buster and landing on his knees a bunch and it's like, yeah, don't do that. That's not. [01:26:14] Speaker A: Buddy, buddy. No, no, no, no, no. [01:26:16] Speaker B: Yes, please. Yeah, I'm looking back from the future like your, your, your action figure comes with a knee brace. And again, that's a shoot, brother. Yeah. And I, I say this is a fun watch. In spite of commentary doing some weird. A litter of aw. Such as beads of sweat profusely pouring. Vince is. He thinks he's a poet and it's just weird. Stephen ends the match with a million dooll dream though, because he, he doesn't have a finisher of his own yet. Old gimmicks die hard, if you will. His million dollar manager is gone, but his finisher remains for the time being. And from that it's just, it's just some. We get flashbacks of Lawyer Warrior vs Goldust and Lawler being a jackass. We find out that Lawler and Warrior are gonna fight at the King of the Ring pay per view, which makes me happy because Warrior is not a good wrestler. He hurts people, which means Lawler could very well get hurt. And that, that pleases me. I'm gonna be real with you guys. That's a good thing. But we come back from that and it's Barry Horowitz. Yay. Coming out to Hava. Nigela Jobber to the stars. Amazing. [01:27:41] Speaker A: Amazing, right? [01:27:43] Speaker B: Like the one Jewish wrestler when I was a kid like that we knew about that. That like turns out there was more Dean Malenko, also Jewish. Didn't find out till later but like yes, Barry Horowitz, we're gonna really let you know. [01:27:58] Speaker A: And he's sorry if I'm mangling this and please, this is, I'm not looking this up. I am not citing anything. I'm not fact checking this. I'm just asking. I'm raw dogging this question. [01:28:09] Speaker B: Hey, that. No, no, that is the, that is the way we do this podcast. Raw dogging. Please go Raw dog. [01:28:18] Speaker A: Isn't wrestling, didn't wrestling the way this sort of like this kind of wrestling, this very theatrical wrestling, wasn't that like a come out of like some kind of Jewish things, entertainment practice? I don't know. [01:28:31] Speaker B: I don't know if it was a Jewishing particularly. No, I mean like I'm there, there were Jewish promoters for sure. This actually came out of more like carney stuff where like you would have traveling carnivals with like a strong man, right? Well then after a while you would, you would have the strongman. You would get money by being, you'd go town to town and be like, bring me your best guy and, and I will him up and like in these like shoot wrestling matches. And like for a while there it was legit. Like there was this, it was called catches Catch can. That kind, this kind of style of wrestling came over from Ireland actually. And you had it mixed with different types of things, Greco Roman to a certain extent, but that came later. And it, it started as legit fights but then they, they started to figure out these different carnivals working in different territories, figured out that if they, you know, got message ahead to the town, they're going to be like, hey, tell your biggest guy we're coming through and to make a good show of it. And we'll get them a cut of all the winnings from the people who bet on it. You know what I mean? They just, and they figured out like if we figure out who's going to win beforehand, we can make more money and sell more tickets by, by blowing it up. And next thing you know that. And then TV happens and Vince McMahon's dad gets it on TV for the first time and that's what changes everything. [01:30:03] Speaker A: Okay. [01:30:04] Speaker B: You get, you get Gorgeous George doing the gold dust Gimmick in the 50s and 60s on television for the first time. And all of a sudden it like television was made by professional wrestling in a lot of ways. And wrestling made or TV made wrestling what it is now. Like, it's a symbiotic relationship. Cable tv, especially because of what we're talking about now. You know, RAW was on cable. So like, you know, TNT and TBS like this. It was K. National broadcast. Like broadcasting, like cable television survived in the early days because of professional wrestling, more or less. [01:30:43] Speaker A: Really? [01:30:44] Speaker B: Absolutely. And like, you talk to someone at Turner and they will tell you that is the truth. Because when nothing else was on, local regional stuff could have a wrestling show and people tuned in for wrestling. So that's what we call. What we call the territory days. The territories were. Were regions. And the. The. The end line, the perimeter line of those regions was basically how far out the television broadcast. So like, that's what what said your territory was. So if you. The Midwest territory, like the AWA in Minneapolis, Vern Gagy, Verana and all the. Those guys, they had this territory here. And it was. It was basically how far the. The TV would go. And like, that's what wrestling was. [01:31:33] Speaker A: Wow. [01:31:34] Speaker B: Yeah. And then Vince decided, I'm gonna. Vince Jr. Was like, well, this. I want to go national. I'm gonna buy all of you up. And. And wow. Yeah. And that's. And. And he turned it into a monopoly. And our podcast is about the last five years of that fight because eventually he buys WCW. And the only wrestling on. On national television for 20 years is WWF. And. And like TNA, which was like, not. It was on Spike. And it was not really. It's. It was. Was. I might get hate for that. I don't care for tna. I don't care. Like it was a monopoly is the point of it. But. [01:32:15] Speaker A: Yeah, well, we had. We have. Well, I. I don't think they're called territories. I can't remember what they're called. But here at the border. And Art could probably speak to this more because he follows Lucha more than I do. [01:32:28] Speaker B: We've talked about it extensively. [01:32:30] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, okay. Well, then I'm probably just repeating something that he says all the time, badly, because this is not. This is not my lane. But I do know that there are regions and territories and there's districts and whatever the word actually is that they use. And I was so interested in that because it's like it. It's an actual circuit. Like, it's an actual. There's actual. There's skill. It's not just all scripted. And I had just sort of Assumed it was all scripted, like there wasn't any skill involved except for acting. But no, like, they're actually doing. They're out there doing match. And so for a while, up until 2020, actually, when Covid just sort of derailed everything and I haven't. It's kind of changed my whole life. I haven't really gone back to a lot of things, I guess, like, all of us. Right. [01:33:15] Speaker B: Yeah. I started this. I started doing new things. [01:33:18] Speaker A: Yeah, Yeah, I started doing new things, too. I wrote this book, and I've got this, like, book I'm revising now, and I'd never done that before. I started that in 2021. And I mean, it probably sucks, but, like, I still have it. I wrote it, you know, and it's something I didn't ever. I. I love it because I wrote it, but, you know. But anyway, I was. I was going to, like, a bunch of lucha matches all over San Diego trying to learn about it. I saw so much blood. [01:33:47] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, no, you talked about that a little bit last time you're here, like, actually covering lucha and like. Oh, yeah. Oh, that's right. I did, didn't I? [01:33:55] Speaker A: Yeah, that's right. There was one guy who. [01:33:56] Speaker B: He didn't. He. [01:33:57] Speaker A: He told me backstage, like, after the fact, he said he didn't feel like there was something going on with his nerves, so he didn't feel pain. So his thing on stage. And the kids went nuts for this. I probably told this story because it left a real impression on me. He was just, like, hammering nails into his head. Like, there's these little kids watching him hammer nails his head and cheering and, like, there's blood just, like, all over. And kids are, like, getting pictures of him and, like, he's got, like, blood on them and, like, running out of his head, down his face and. And I mean, I got a picture of them, too, but I was kind of gross. [01:34:30] Speaker B: No, Carney, like. Oh, I say carnage. I mean, that positively, like, complimentary. Yeah, like that. Yeah. Speaking of Carney, Barry Horowitz and Mankind. Look at. Yeah, we're good. Yeah, right. So Barry is. Is. Is fighting Mankind. Who's another guy who wasn't here last time you were here. Goldust and Mankind are like, the two guys in the history of wrestling who were pretty sure just don't suck. They're like, the two good ones. And there were also, like, two of my favorites growing up. You had the one who gave me gender and the one who said mental illness is okay. And I was like, good, because I Got both. Yeah. So, like, these two are my favorites. Vince makes JR own Mankind right away on commentary. Says Mankind. He knows Mankind like no other. Vince didn't like Mick Foley and didn't want him there, but he hired him as, like, a favor to Junior, and he says, like, he basically told. Told Junior, like, I'm gonna hire him to prove a point. When he disappoints you, he ends up being, like, with Steve Austin in the Rock and all them, one of the biggest stars of the generation and, like, helped save the company. So eat it. Big advance. [01:35:42] Speaker A: Wait, did Mick Foley turn out to be a turd? [01:35:44] Speaker B: No, no, he turned out in a good one, but he also turned out, like, saving the company because he was like, yeah, he didn't think he was going to be worth a. As a wrestler. And he came on and, and like, say he. We're watching him. Mick Foley? Yeah, Mankind, the guy we're watching. Who? In the mask. The brown mask. Yeah, yeah. [01:36:04] Speaker A: Because I'll tell you what, he stood out to me. Back in about 2000, I went into, like, sort of this brief foray into. Into wrestling, mostly because I was dating this guy who was really into it, and I didn't really. Yeah, I'm all for it, actually. It enriched my life. He didn't. But the, the interests I picked up along the way did. Yeah. And I, I read Mick Foley. I ended up reading Mick Foley's book because it came out, like, right around the same. Maybe it's like 2001, 2002. I just thought he was. He was great. I thought he was wonderful. All those stories he was telling. So I am so, so relieved to know that he turned out to be, as you said, one of the good ones. [01:36:43] Speaker B: Yeah, he's pretty much right. No, the worst thing he's done recently is, is take a wishy washy stance on. He didn't even, like, say, like, there's good people on both sides. He just said, like, that he doesn't want to say anything disparaging about Vince McMahon while Vince has got all this lawsuits going on. And, and everyone's like, well, that's up. How. And everyone's like, how dare you? Blah, blah, blah. How dare you not come out and, and, and, and say that he was wrong? And I was like, well, I need you guys to remember that, man. Mick is probably signed to a legacy contract to that company, and his son is a writer for the company. So, like, you know, which. It's like, is you'd like to, you know, obviously you want to stand on Your principles, but, like, he could get sued, you know, like, so it's like you have to think about that at the same time, because, like, I feel like if you. If that wasn't the case, you would have a lot more to say, oh, no. My Mankind litmus test is like. Is like kind of my litmus test for people. Like, I show people a Mankind match. I'm like, do these images fill you with fascination or disgust? You know, like. Like, there is no wrong answer. [01:37:59] Speaker A: Because. [01:37:59] Speaker B: I love this guy, but, like, he's gonna make you feel things. What do you feel? As for the grabs there, this is pretty great. Barry's out there doing his jobber to the stars thing, and he's just. He's doing his job and the job this evening. That's what he does. And what's great, though, is that even though this was a predictable match, just because Horowitz is out there, so we know, like, he's gonna lose. They both give us a hell of a match, and I love Barry so much for that. He's. That's why he's in my mind, the jobber to the stars. He always does it good, even though, you know he's probably gonna lose. He. He was just awesome, and I don't think he got enough respect, damn it. And he makes everything Mick does look like it's killing him. Mick gives every. Gives him everything to put him down, which, in my opinion, shows that he was a worthy opponent. You know, they go to commercial teasing, like, oh, is the Undertaker coming down? And I was like, this is. No, he's not. And then they give us a I put a truly, like, Canvas's best templates commercial for the WWF Attitude Adjustment Live Tour. It was like, I'm not a video editor, but I feel like I could do better than whatever the hell this. This was. I felt like. I felt like I was tripping on too much surge, you know what I mean? Like, like specifically a 90s sugar crap. And I also giggled because it's proof that Vince has only ever had, like, a handful of full of ideas because it's called the Attitude Adjustment Tour. And that's the name of John Cena's finisher. It's the Attitude Adjustment famed actor that used to wrestle sometimes and is actually currently the World Heavyweight Champion again. Oh, God, I. I wish I were kidding. I don't watch Modern Fed, but that's a thing that happened. Mankind finishes this matchup by shoving his fingers down Barry's throat like he does. And 75 of my audience just gets A little thrill. I know you sickos. Don't deny it. It's fine. I, I refer to that as his foreplay finisher. This is what he like. All right, you go, you, you do you. Mick does it. [01:40:04] Speaker A: It does it for me too. Which just shows you I've been spending time on Blue Sky. [01:40:10] Speaker B: We're rubbing off. [01:40:13] Speaker A: I know. That's kind of hot. [01:40:16] Speaker B: Oh. Oh, my. All right, what's the say about and the gold dust to start you off? I, I. Gold dust. I will tell you. But Mankind on his way out of the ring, Junior pulls him over for some questioning and he does it. It's like this. He won. So when Mankind wins, he gets a different theme song on his way out. And it's this beautiful blue moonlight. And the Joe Johnston fied Toriemos piano music because Mick Foley loves Tori Amos and that's amazing. And he drops a hell of a promo. He points out his lost ear trying to get heat that WCW wouldn't because he's like, I lost an ear. That should be cool, right? And then he even drops some Ozzy Osborne. Uh, he says, of all the things that I've lost, he misses his mind the most. Ah, good stuff. And then he does some Terry Funk squealing as he walks off. I love him. He's so funny, weird. I love him. He's just a weird little dude. [01:41:12] Speaker A: Love him so much. I'm so glad he's not an. That makes me so happy. Sorry, I'm still on that. [01:41:17] Speaker B: Oh, can you ride that? Ride that high through the rest of this episode? We're almost there. [01:41:23] Speaker A: Well, actually, you know what? You probably have a lot of ideas of how so many people have disappointed me. I'm still. I can't believe Gwen Stefani turned out the way she did after all those years. I'm just a girl. Oh, my God. And now I hate it too, because. [01:41:38] Speaker B: I also have walked in a spider web. And like now, you know, it's just. But then I go back and I was like, oh, there were signs. But you know, that's the worst part. [01:41:49] Speaker A: The worst part of all. It's like they were always there. [01:41:52] Speaker B: I should have known. [01:41:53] Speaker A: Damn it all. [01:41:55] Speaker B: Gross. Colored glasses, red flags. Yeah. So next they show us what this pissed me off because Vince has been telling everyone it's a historic night. And I think he has historic night jealousy because the other company keeps doing cool. His historic night is them him just showing replay footage of a pay per view and a. A double count out ending. I feel like if I was like an older person in 1996 watching this, I'd be so pissed. I feel like something historic and it's just a replay. And I'm like, God damn it. Like, this is part and parcel for Raw, but come on. Like, this is the beginning of those 83 weeks, and Vince is learning that that will simply not fly anymore. And, like, good. But first, gold dust redux. He's back. They go. They go back to gold dust being mostly naked. And Vince asks him where he is. Goldie says, he's in my den. Uh, and now here. Something happens here. Vince says, your den of iniquity, no doubt. And, Brooke, it's taking everything in my power not to spend the rest of our brief time together explaining all the ways in which this phrase is complete and utter gibberish. It means nothing. Antiquity isn't a word. He was trying to say den of antiquity, which is something that would not even make sense in the context. So, like, I don't. Vince. No, just. No. [01:43:23] Speaker A: Iniquity. That's a word. An equity, not a word. Antiquity, a word. [01:43:28] Speaker B: Yes. [01:43:29] Speaker A: So he maybe was drunk. [01:43:31] Speaker B: Yeah, maybe. I would like to think so. Well, that's just a den of antiquity means something. It doesn't mean that, but okay. And enough of that. We get back to Vince Russo and Vince McMahon's barely veiled racism, because first, gold dust quotes the color Purple and in doing so, calls himself black. For comedic effect, I'm guessing. And then he eats some chocolate and makes dirty jokes about Ahmed. And I'm like, God damn it, this is bad enough. He then uses a word that I don't think I'm comfortable using here. [01:44:05] Speaker A: Oh, my God. Which one? Which one does it start with? [01:44:08] Speaker B: It starts with an M and ends with A. It's an old timey slur for. For. [01:44:17] Speaker A: That's okay, you know, I'm sorry. I just wanted to know a hard. A hard letter, if you know what I mean. [01:44:23] Speaker B: No, he's not dropping a hard let. But you're asking these questions, and now I'm just sitting here sweating so hard in White Brook. [01:44:31] Speaker A: Now I gotta go back. Now I gotta go back. [01:44:34] Speaker B: Okay, I'm sorry. [01:44:35] Speaker A: All right. [01:44:35] Speaker B: That was rough. Okay. I'm like. I don't even know how to get. I don't even know. But needless to say, don't have heroes in wrestling because our good, good gender boy has well and truly done his first hardcore racism of the show. I feel like I should. I feel like I should hit a sound for that or something. Girls. Girls in the lab. Get. Yeah, get get on that. Girls. Find something. But back to the graphs. It's the pig farmers. The Godwins are smashing some lower level guys to build up towards trying to get the belts off the smoking guns. Sunny is here and Sunny is awesome. I love Sunny. When I was a kid, she's out at the table and I brace myself for a trifecta of gross. We've had the queer phobia, we had the racism. Here's a stinking pile of good old fashioned massage. And hey, I've mentioned before that all they really have for art for Sunny as far as the character arc is that the whoever has who she starts with one team and then her team wins the belt and then her team lost a belt and she dropped that team and went to the team that win the belt and then she does it again and that's all they have for her. Whoever the championship belt is, she dumps the guys and manages the next guys and like she's been doing this for like a month and like it's clear what she's doing but then she proceeds to just. It's, it's the thing where they, they, he can't, you know, you're supposed to show and not tell, but Vince is like that. I'm a tell, tell, tell, tell, tell. So she just comes out and is like, you've been watching me do this for a month. I'm just going to tell you this is what I'm doing. And I'm like, okay, okay, sure, Sunny, you deserved better. Unfortunately we won't see. Yeah, right, we, we won't see Sunny again at any Wrestlemania parties until we abolish prisons. Though she's, she's in jail. It will probably. Yeah, she did a little bit of a manslaughter with a vehicular. Oh yeah, it, she had a rough life after wrestling and I, it's one of those things where like it's, it's like was it nature versus nurture? Like was she always going to have that rough of a life or did wrestling her up? Because like wrestling absolutely treated her like. As far as these graps go, it's the Gogwins versus I've. Every time I say it I feel weird. Techno Team 2000, again with the alliteration. We have our second appearance of a disappointing Watts. Larry Zabisco joked about Bill Watts. And this is Bill. One of these guys is Bill, Bill's son, Eric Watts, one of these two long haired unfortunately dressed jobbers. It ends with a merciful slop drop and some ho Dowing. Thank. I was like, this is again, this is another one where, like, folks just feel free to skip this. You didn't miss much. It wouldn't be raw though, if we didn't immediately go to a replay of something that had nothing do with the wrestling that we were just watching, like, barely hit the 1, 2, 3, ding, ding, ding. And here's Clarence Mason and he's on the phone, like, just right away. He's. He's talking about how he got assaulted. And I was like, all right, whatever. So finally it's just a bunch of we. Man, Roz goes so fast. A, when you're here, Brooke, because everything's faster when you're here. I love it. And B, because like, the nitro was like an hour and a half long show. And this feels like we're at the main event already. Damn. It's a first round king of the ring match again. And it's triple, triple ball. Hunter Hurst Helmsley versus Jake the Snake. And this is a fun thing where Triple H was actually supposed to win the whole tournament, but his buddies left and they broke kayfabe at this famous incident called the curtain call. And because of that, we get the year of punished. Paul. Because his buddies broke the rules, then left and the only person left that Vince could punish is him. So like, yeah, you don't get to win now. And yeah, that's fine because for us sick that love it when bad things happen to Trips, it's popcorn time. Hate that guy. The graphs are solid. It's. It's Jake Roberts carrying a super green blue blood triple paw. Basically, he's still young and he's not awful, but you could tell he's still very green. Jake in him tell. Oh, God. They tell kind of a classic Jake story. Jake's opponent is stuck between a DDT and a snake. And that's the story of the matches. As if he gets too close to Jake, Jake's gonna try to get him in the ddt. If he backs too far away, he's gonna run into a snake. Yeah, and it works. It's great. The crowd is. Is chanting DDT the whole time. It's fantastic. It's a shot. The DDT is a great example of something that we're like. It used to be like this. It's a match ender. Like if. If Jake the Snake ddts you, that's the end of it. But now a DDT is like a transition move. It's like, you'll see. I've seen you. You see matches where people get ddt, like, eight times, nine, ten times in a match, and it's just nothing. It's. It's kind of weird. Some people, like, purists, are like, how dare a DDT should end the match? And I'm the type of person where, like, we're like, I see what you're saying. Yeah, yeah, Like, I see what you're saying, old man. I do. But you're gonna hate me because I have this thing called whimsy. So I'm gonna say that only a DDT from Jake the Snake should end it. End of, like, because, damn it, it's wrestling. Can't we just say there's something special about Jake's ddt? It's different than everyone else's. And that's why, like, come on. How hard is that of a suspension of disbelief to have, you know? So, like, yeah, I think y' all just want to be mad. Just. We'll just say, Jake did it real good. The chuckle at the booth. They do some sexism at the model. This is a thing where they hire a new model to walk out with Hunter and then sit and get harassed by Jerry the King. I hate this. I'm ready for this to be over. And it more ways than one, because after they get done with this, Triple H's actual girlfriend becomes his, like, valet manager. And at the time, his girlfriend is China. And I don't know if you remember China. [01:51:21] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. [01:51:22] Speaker B: China's who I wanted to be as a little girl. Like, I want to grow up to be China. [01:51:29] Speaker A: He was pretty awesome for a very long time. [01:51:33] Speaker B: Well, she's just so buff and so girl, and, like, you could be buff, girl. I was like, see, It's. It's real. You can do it. So, like, that's awesome. I remind myself after all this, though, that Ultimate Warrior is gonna fight Lawler soon, and that means he's gonna hurt him, and that's good. And, like, we're getting. Vince makes sure to, like, let us know that we're nearing the end of the hour here. He lets everyone know that these. The. That showed up at that other place do not work for me anymore. Uh, furthermore, and subsequently, uh, unquestionably, I don't know those guys. Uh, I hear they are lying liars and that they lie and they kick puppies. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Awful, right? All right. Like, those dudes, it's just like. It's like, get. Get it in there. Kick them while they're down. It. It's. It's really wild to see this. This start to really pop off. And of course, it ends with. If you'd like to know more about this, we have bullshitted about the other bullshitters. Call us on the superstar line for several. Several dollars a minute. Well, $49. And, yeah, after many rounds of almost getting caught and escaping, Triple H finally succumbs to the DDT and gets covered in a snake for his trouble. And that's a Raw like that. That's a way to end. That's classic to me. I. I like when this happens, when. [01:53:02] Speaker A: It just goes absolutely off the rails. [01:53:06] Speaker B: Yep, exactly. Just. Just. It's a cluster ending. And then there's Jake teasing the CR. Snake ending. And that's good stuff. [01:53:15] Speaker A: But, yeah, snakes always make it better. Always. [01:53:19] Speaker B: So. We did it. You. You officially made it through your second episode of Monday night Fake Fights, bro. Congratulations. [01:53:26] Speaker A: I did it. [01:53:27] Speaker B: How's your brain feel? [01:53:29] Speaker A: Oh, mushy. But I also had a big edible before I started it. [01:53:33] Speaker B: Hey, hey. That's preferred. There you go. If not, we would have given you one at the door. Yes. Thank you so much for coming back and letting me put you through more of this. My final. Oh, yeah, absolutely. [01:53:50] Speaker A: I'm sorry I did not add more to the wrestling conversation. It's like listening to a huge inside joke. But it's. It's fantastic. I love hearing you talk about it, so thank you for letting me come on and listen. [01:54:05] Speaker B: Would it blow your mind to know, Brooke, that I've been told part of what our fans enjoy about this show is when people who have no idea what this is know about a lot of other cool stuff show on. Because then we talked for two hours about a lot of stuff that is tangentially related. [01:54:24] Speaker A: I did that. [01:54:25] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:54:26] Speaker A: But I did. I did read Mick Foley's book and enjoyed it very much. And, like, I am going to hang on to that because, like, now I know a little bit more about wrestling. [01:54:37] Speaker B: There you go. And you know that mix pretty good. And Dustin had some rough bits, but it's mostly okay. Yes. Is there anything. Yes. Goldust is awesome. Is there anything that you want to let people know about before I let you get out of here, though? Back into the water? [01:54:54] Speaker A: No. You know, if. If I ever finish revising this book and get it published, totally buy it, but, you know, that's a long way. Other than that, I. I really don't have in particular to promote. There's. There's Dark Titans Academy, which we're doing a bunch of classes right now, like dealing with Tech Bros. Decomputing and so on. So I could promote that Dark Times Academy. If you want to learn about disinformation, weaponized unreality, or just living in this spiraling narrative nightmare that we are all part of, I can also throw around cool terms like ostension. I teach some of the classes and I ramble horribly, so you'll love it. So, you know, that's, that's, that's the only thing I really have to promote. But Dark Times Academy, I would promote it even if I wasn't part of it because it's great and it's a community school. And when the State Department came for us and demanded lists of our students and our class materials, we told them to off. So, you know, that's where we're at. [01:55:53] Speaker B: Damn right you did. And let me tell you folks, you can do it. Brooks here to tell you, you can. When they come to you with the fascism going, fascism, please, you can tell them to stick it up their asses. [01:56:11] Speaker A: It does work. It's really scary. I can guarantee that it is very scary to stand up to an entire, what feels like an entire state, you know, with all that, that state power and implied force behind it. It's really scary. And I am not too ashamed to admit that even I was a little bit nervous, even though I'm pretty cynical. But at the same time I figured rightfully, I think, well, all the scary shit they're going to do to me, they're going to fucking do to me anyway anyway, right? Probably. I mean, you know, it's going to be a long few years, so I might as well tell them to off. [01:56:44] Speaker B: Yeah, in the in folks, we're going to have to do some scary. And I'll leave, I'll leave it on. On. All I have to say to that is what I've been saying for, since the first time around on this is that they want you to be scared and they're expecting you. They're. They're hoping on you being scared. Because when you are not scared, when you. Well, when you get through the scared like Brooke did and you tell them to shove it, they got nothing. They got nothing. They're hoping that you will be scared. So to that I say if, if they want to be big and scary, I. I will die on my feet before I live on my knees. And that's all I got to say about that. You're gonna like, oh, you want to kill me? Get in line. I just quit smoking cigarettes. Like I just knocked cancer out for this one. So, like, there's plenty of things that want to kill me. [01:57:37] Speaker A: I got a big mouth and I hate Nazis. So, like, everybody around wants to kill me. Right? [01:57:43] Speaker B: Like, yeah. First time, you know. [01:57:48] Speaker A: I got pissed off. Exes, I got. Oh, I got people. You know who I got sued. There's the guy outed for plagiarism. You guys can all wrestle it out out there. [01:57:57] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. I mean, I. I have hot wrestling takes on the Internet. You know, it's dangerous. It's a dangerous, dangerous time. But if. Thank you all so much for hanging out with us, and I. I'm so happy. Thank you again for. For coming back, and I hope that folks enjoyed it and we'll come back next time. We will hopefully have broke again sometime soon. Next week's gonna be a fun one. I know who the guest is, and I'm excited, but y' all don't. And we will. We will see you then for exciting times and for more raw vs nitro on Monday night, Fake fights. Okay, Bye. [01:58:36] Speaker A: Bye. [01:58:37] Speaker B: It.