On the latest episode of “Wrestling Reality” presented by TicketKing.net—former WCW announcer Mark Madden joined the show. Here’s some highlights of my thoughts on topics and then Madden’s with transcription courtesy of @PeterBahi:
Open of show talking Braun Strowman backing away from The Undertaker:
Justin LaBar: One of the biggest complaints about the evolution of professional wrestling and its fan is forgetting what a heel really is. Braun Strowman was standing in the middle of the ring, and the ‘Gong’ hit, and Undertaker came down to the ring, and Strowman never taking his eyes off the Dead Man, slowly back peddled out of the ring and out of the ringside area. You would have thought that he turned and ran away from James Ellsworth. The amount of complaints I am hearing from the general masses, the ‘experts’ in their own minds, that Braun Strowman was made to look like a certain part of the anatomy—I could not believe this! Braun Strowman was backing down slowly, while keeping eye contact with one of the greatest, if not the greatest ever. A guy, who we don’t even refer to as a guy, he’s a step above everyone else. It’s not like he’s some ‘Joe Schmo’ jobber. He was showing respect to the man that everyone shows respect to, and yet, somehow Braun Strowman looks weak? Whatever you are smoking, pass it down please. Remember when Charlotte was the NXT Women’s Champion? All the while she appeared on an episode of Raw for one night to advertise NXT:Takeover, and she fought Natalya, and she lost to Natalya and the world had gone mad. The world went mad, and, ‘oh my God, they just debuted Charlotte on Raw and she loses, and her career is over!’ Nevermind that two years later she has almost as many titles as her father. It will all be okay. Remember this past January when you were all freaking out that Samoa Joe was not in the Royal Rumble?
This topic continues talking about looking at the big picture of what could be going on.
The unspoken agreement in the Cena/Nikki vs Miz/Maryse match:
Justin LaBar: I don’t know if they made the match official yet for Mania, but that is obviously where they are going. Another good segment. Yeah, it’s a little too ‘Maury Povich’ but that is what it is supposed to be. They are all on a reality show anyways. It is supposed to be that chaotic/domestic drama. When you heard the promo that the Miz cut last night about John Cena, about Cena is only around to protect his brand. As I have said many times, when you pull from those real life things, when you pull from things that get talked about on message boards and on social media—that gains people’s attention. There is kind of like an unspoken word, maybe it is spoken, but there feels like there is some sort of agreement within this storyline to pull from real life; whether they are real or people believe they are real; the stereotypes, where some people believe they are real, and assume such. It feels like all four individuals are of the understanding that there is not too much that is out of bounds here. With that freedom and trust, and with that dynamics, it is translating really well on television I think. Am I looking forward to the match? Yes, different than how I feel about Wyatt vs Orton. All the matches so far advertised for WrestleMania, I am looking forward to all of them, just in a different way.
- LaBar’s Top 10 wrestlers all time and the formula for picking such.
At 38:30 in podcast, Mark Madden joins the show presented by Tootsie’s Diner in Corapolis, PA.
- Madden on Sami Zayn not being a star
- Mark Madden then shares his feelings on Kevin Owens and who the true heels in WWE are.
- Mark Madden on the pairing of Chris Jericho and Kevin Owens over all of these months.
- Madden talks commentating Goldberg’s matches in WCW.
- Bayley’s character.
- Liking the Strowman vs Big Show match.
- CM Punk chants.
- Comparing Mauro Ranollo to Mike Tenay being considered good because Dave Meltzer says so.
The podcast is presented by TicketKing.net where you can get 15% off WWE tickets using LABARFAN.
