James Willems Explains How ‘Wrestling With The Week’ Is Like Subscribing To Subreddits

James Willems says showing and sharing uncommon interests is what drives his new show with Scorpio Sky.

Willems spoke with WrestleZone Managing Editor Bill Pritchard ahead of the premiere of his new show, ‘Wrestling With The Week’, now available to watch on YouTube. Willems is a wrestling fan and aware of Scorpio Sky’s career, but noted that while it might not be reciprocated, that relationship is what probably what strengthens the show.

“Our sensibilities are very similar and that’s something we identified immediately. The things we enjoy and laugh at are very similar, even if I don’t watch any basketball and he watches it religiously. I have like, two pairs of shoes. One of them is scuffed beyond belief because I was in a motorcycle accident. I have these old shoes, I don’t need these old shoes, but I still have these old shoes and he has these collections of amazing shoes. So, finding those common points and hearing his enthusiasm for that makes me excited about shoes, something that I never thought I would be, and then in his case, a lot of the time, it’s gaming. That’s a world that I’m entrenched in, and he’s the type of person that only started playing video games less than a year ago. He’s only ever played one game and so you want to know what’s the kind of stuff we’re going to be talking about, especially in the first episode, I just recently found out that he bought a second game. I don’t know what it is,” Willems explained, “but we’re going to find out what it is on the show, and so it’s that kind of back-and-forth, that showing and sharing that I think is going to make the dynamic really good.”

Willems noted that they’ve done hours of recording and test episodes so far, and it’s been fun and sees it as the draw of the show. Pointing out the display case behind him and mentioning the likelihood that Sky keeps some of his most prized sneakers in one, the conversation ventured into one about Power Rangers fandom. Willems joked that something tells him Sky doesn’t have Power Rangers toys on display, but agreed that this idea is on topic and the area where the show will find it’s groove.

There are other comprehensive wrestling podcasts out there that do that, so it doesn’t make sense for us to bite into any of that pie. There’s other people that do it way better than we could, but this show almost feels like subscribing to subreddits in a way,” Willems said. “If you go to Squared Circle Reddit enough, it’s going to be in there. Something’s going to hit the front page, but it’s not the only thing. You’re not going to spend all of your time there and you’re going to get all kinds of other things from other places, but wrestling is part of it, and so are sneakers, so are Power Rangers, so are any of these other things that come up every week.

Willems says he also relates it to anime fans getting people into that world, and hopes the show will be the ground level opening people need to explore other hobbies they discuss.