Episode Seventy - Here Come De Judge
Oct 03, 2017
Show notes
Will the Cubs be able to defend their World Series crown?
Just in time for playoff baseball,, we welcome back to the podcast the Managing Editor of Awful Announcing Joe Lucia (@joe_TOC). We start with the news of the day, the resignation of Atlanta GM John Coppolella and which managed might get the pink slip this offseason. We then give our picks for the American and National League Cy Young and MVP awards. Then, it's a series-by-by-series breakdown of each round of the playoffs, culminating with who we each think will win the World Series.
After that, it's some quick Premier League chat. As a Manchester City supporter, Joe is flying high at the moment, with his team top of the table when the podcast was recorded. Conversely, my Everton is under-performing and plenty of folks calling for the manager's head. We also give our thoughts on who may or may not end up in the relegation dogfight.
Episode Sixty-Nine - When First We Practice to Deceive
Sep 19, 2017
Show notes
Martin Landau as Rollin Hand.
On the ever of Star Trek: Discovery debuting, we are pleased to be joined by John Champion (@dvdgeeks), co-host of the Mission Log Podcast, to talk Trek and more.
We begin by going over the career of Martin Landau, who passed away in July 2017. Lots of Mission Impossible chat here, including some of his most memorable episodes and also some of his other guest star appearances as well as playing Bela Lugosi in Ed Wood. We also mention a number of connections between Mission Impossible and the 1960s Star Trek show, including the overlapping guest stars and address the rumor about Landau possibly being on the list of actors to play Mr. Spock.
This segues into our Trek talk, starting with Mission Log about to wrap up reviewing The Next Generation and moving on to the TNG movies and then Deep Space Nine. And we preview Star Trek: Discovery, starting next week on CBS before moving to CBS' streaming service. What do we know so far based on the trailer and advanced information? John also lets us now how Mission Log is going to cover an on-going TV show.
We end with a very nerdy chat about the 1967 Bond movie Casino Royale and why we both love it, despite being "a glorified mess."
Mission Log Podcast (@missionlogpod), host by John and Ken Ray (@macosken) drops every Thursday wherever you get your podcasts.
Episode Sixty-Eight - Red Fog at Night
Sep 10, 2017
Show notes
The scheduled card for the CMLL Anniversary show. But will the main event happen as planned?
The CMLL Anniversary show is next week, so Dr Lucha Steve Sims (@drluchajr) returns to the show to discuss it. We talk about Niebja Roja's injury and what that might been to the scheduled main event. We also discuss Diamante Azul possibly being off the show, despite still be on the poster released today. We discuss the lackluster go-home show Friday night and speculate about the winner of the mask match between Princess Sugheit and Zeuxis. We also discuss the usual head scratching of CMLL booking, can Micro-Man win Rookie of the Year? and some of the other news in lucha, such as Dr. Wagner Jr's mask loss at Triplemania this year. (Note: zero discussion of the lady boxer/wrestler most everyone has been talking about the last week or so).
Then, we ask Steve just what is up with his LA Dodgers, from potential record breakers to a team that can't buy a win lately. Was getting Yu Darvish a mistake? Will the Diamondbacks catch them for the division title?
We end with a look ahead to the first season of Sreve's new hometown hockey team, the Vegas Golden Knights. How successful can a hockey team be in Sin City, where will attendance come from and can they establish a foothold before the Raiders come to town
You can hear Steve weekly on Wrestling Observer Radio and is a regular guest on Luchaword's Lucha Classica podcasts.
Episode Sixty-Seven - Campeones, Campeones
Aug 26, 2017
Show notes
Hot balls. The UEFA Champions League draw happened this week in Monaco.
With all sorts of news going on in the futbol word, we welcome ESPNFC journalist Gabriele Marcotti (@marcotti) to the show. We start with an analysis of the draws for the Champions League and Europa League, held this week in Monaco. Which groups look the toughest and what are the prospects for the Premier League teams. Then, we discuss the flurry of transfer activity this summer, including news just today that Ousmane Dembele is headed to Barcelona and Kylian Mbappe could be on the verge of joining Neymar at Paris St-Germain. That leads to a talk about PSG and Financial Fair Play, something Gab has written about over the last couple weeks. We end the futbol talk with a look at Week Three in the Premier League, including the match at Stanford Bridge between Chelsea and Everton.
The rest of the show, we talk about how Gab became an ECW hardcore regular in the mid to late 1990s while a student at Penn. What was his first trip to ECW Arena like? What angles does he remember seeing at the shows? Does he still keep up with the business in 2017?
We really want to thank Gab for his time, as the pod was recorded after he flew back this afternoon to London from Monaco. You can read Gab's work at ESPNFC.com, The Times (of London) [paywall] and you can hear him as the host of The Game podcast every Monday during the futbol season, on Soundcloud, iTunes, or most listening platforms.
Episode Sixty-Six - Islands in the Stream
Aug 11, 2017
Show notes
NBC's excellent EPL studio cast: host Rebecca Lowe, and analysts Kyle Martino, Robbie Earle and Robbie Mustoe.
With some sports media news in the headlines, we are pleased to be joined again by Richard Deitsch (@richarddeitsch) from Sports Illustrated. We recorded on Operning Day for the English Premier League, so we chat about NBC's near-universal popular coverage as well as their paid app and whether people will purchase. That seques into a discussion of The Athletic, the paid content sports writing site, their successes so far and would their model work in a city like New York. We talk about ESPN and how necessary they are for a fan whose favorite sports are undercovered (like hockey and soccer). We also discuss where ESPN fits in with Disney's new streaming strategy. We end with some brief wrestling chat, what Richard is enjoying with the current WWE product and being able to wrestling from around the world online.
We are working lining up some guests to discuss the Premier League and the other European leagues starting up, but were not able to get them in time for today's podcast. Hopefully, they will be on the next episode. Thanks for listening.
Episode Sixty-Five - El Gringo Enojado
Jul 25, 2017
Show notes
Love Machine Sam Adonis on his way to fight Blue Panther in Arena Mexico.
Sam Adonis (@realsamadonis) returns to the podcast to discuss his upcoming hair vs hair match against Blue Panther August 4th in Arena Mexico.
We discuss the world-wide media attention he has gotten for his flag-waving American gimmick in Mexico and how that fits in with wrestling's history of xenophobic heels. We talk about the feud with Blue Panther and invoking the name and gimmick of the late Love Machine Art Barr and his feud 25 years ago in CMLL. We chat about his favorite opponents and partners over his year in Mexico, his upcoming trip to Japan and how things are going for his brother, WWE announcer Corey Graves.
Sam is super busy these days, so we thank him very much for his time.
Also, a quick shout-out to former podcast guests Colleen Coover and Paul Tobin, for their third consecutive Eisner Award for Bandette. You can hear them discuss it on episode 24. Congratulations to all the winners, some of whom are tentatively planned as future guests.
Episode Sixty-Four - The Mad Titan
Jul 19, 2017
Show notes
From the Death of Captain Marvel. (c) 2017 Marvel Comics.
Just in time for San Diego Comic-Con, an over-stuffed episode about comics, movies, TV and video games. We welcome Craig from the Puzzle Warriors 3 podcast (@PuzzleWarriors3) to talk all that and more.
We start by going over what got Craig back into comics after a couple decades, what we are both enjoying right and looking forward to coming out soon. Plenty of good recommendations here. Also, why does Craig love Dazzler so mych?
From there, we talk about the just completed season of Doctor Who and what we could happen in the Xmas Special as well as thoughts on the new creative team and cast.
And lots of Marvel Puzzle Quest talk, including why he, Ian and Craig started the show, thoughts of some of the more powerful characters in the game, balancing PVE, PVP and DDQ, how much fun the special events have been of late and chat about the special plants for their 100th episode in two weeks time.
Lots of random stuff at the end, including wrestling and hockey talk. We never got around to all the old TV show and cartoon talk that was on the docket, so hopefully Craig will be back in a future episode.
Note: We had a brief addition to the show for a mention of the passing of George A. Romero and Martlin Landau. As a huge Mission Impossible fan, I am working on lining up a special guest to talk about Landau's career.
Episode Sixty-Three - Es Un Asunto de Familia
Jun 27, 2017
Show notes
Puma King with his copy of issue six at Break the Barrier 2017.
If you missed the news a couple weeks ago, issue six of the magazine is now out. It debuted at the Break the Barrier show in Old Forge PA, where Puma and his dad Felino wrestled Guerrero Maya Jr and Skayde. That match was the basis for our cover (by Kcidis) and cover story bios by The Cubs Fan (@luchablog).
To talk about his article in the magazine, we were joined on the pod by Dr. Lucha Steve Sims. We discussed his article on the Alvarado Family (Los Brazos, Maximo, La Mascara), their history and how that related to what happened to Ultimo Guerrero's car, the guys who were and were not fired over the incident and all the things that connect to the incident. We also discuss some of the other big families in lucha right now: The Munoz Family (Rush, Dragon Lee, Mistico and Pierroth), the Ibarra Family (LA Park, Volador Jr, Super Parka), the Panthers (Blue Panther Sr and Jr, The Panther) and of course, the Casas Family (Negro Casas, Felino, Puma, TIger, Dallys, Canelo), There's also other lucha talk, including why hasn't there been any legal action over the vandalism, the usual head scratching involving CMLL booking and talk about the next project coming to the website, a look back at what Rob Viper called CMLL's best tournament ever, the 2014 En Busca De Un Idolo tournament, which involved people like Hechicero, Barbaro Cavernario, Dragon Lee, Cachorro/The Panther and Sobernao Jr.
After that, we talk about Matt's article on Gino Hernandez's time working in Houston for Pail Boesch. We talk about his matches there, both as a single and a tag team with Tully Blanchard. Unfortunately, Matt was unable to be on the podcast to discuss his article. But if you want to see many of the matches he wrote about and we discussed, you can see them on the NWA Streaming Service (at least as of this writing).
Then there is a whole mish-mash of subjects, from what wrestling we could watch in the mid-1980s to watching wrestling in college (Steve in Chapel Hill in the 70s, me in Bloomington in the 80s) to a bunch of other stuff.
For more information on the magazine, check out its page here on the website.
Episode Sixty-Two - Los Persuasores!
May 25, 2017
Show notes
RIP Sir Roger Moore
To talk about a wild time in the world of lucha libre, we welcome back to the show Rob BIhari (@robviper). We start off by discussing the circumstances that led CMLL to fire Maximo, La Mascara and Bobby Villa. We go over the facts as we know them and where things go from here for those wrestlers, Super Porky, Psycho Clown and others. We also discuss the history of micros in wrestling, from their start as a drawing act, through Antonio Pena reviving the concept in AAA in the 1990s to the recent matches involving Micro Man, Gallito, Mije and magazine/podcast favorite Zacarias. We also mention the return of Lucha Underground and some indy lucha Rob recommends. Then we discuss powerbomb.tv's Break the Barrier show June 11 in Old Forge PA, which both of us will be attending. We are planning to debut the next issue of Odessa Steps Magazine at the show (details soon). We go over some of the luchadors working the show, as well as hoping to see more lucha talent wrestling in the US.
(51:20) Then, we have some Stanley Cup playoff chat, including Who will Win Game 7 between Pittsburgh and Ottawa, how we both are rooting for Nashville in the Final, the PK Subban story, playoff parity, the World Championships, Mitch Marner's soclal media, the usual love for past pod guests Jeff Marek and Grey Wyshynski and more.
(1:15:30) To close the show, a brief memorial to Sir Roger Moore, who passed away earlier this week. Some chat about his work, well-known and some not as much: the Bond movies, The Saint, The Persuaders, ffolkes, spoofing his image in The Cannonball Run and on the Muppet Show and more.
Episode Sixty-One - Masters of the World
May 02, 2017
Show notes
Parejas Increibles. Valeria Richards and Victor Von Doom. (c) 2017 Marvel Comics
Todd Rowker (@rowkerthejoker) from The Longbox Heroes Podcast (@longboxheroes) returns to the show for a chat about a variety of subjects. First, we talk about the new season of Doctor Who, what has and has not worked so far and a brief discussion of the rest of the season. Some small spoiler talk but only things shown in the teaser trailer. We then talk about the Gallifreybirds project Todd and Joe (@joesposto) are doing this year on Longbox Heroes After Dark, We go over why Todd chose each episode of Doctor Who so far for Joe to watch, as well as thoughts on the wrestling he has seen so far. Then, some chat about current comics, including the Batman/Flash cross-over "The Button", Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps and another endorsement for Scooby Doo Team-Up. We briefly chat about some Marvel books, including thoughts after the deep dive re-read I did recently of Jonathan Hickman's run on Fantastic Four and FF.
Also, as mentioned on the show, we will be setting up at the Powerbomb.TV Breaking the Barrier show on June 11 in Old Forge PA. Hopefully, there will be a new Odessa Steps Magazine debuting at the show.
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