Wrestling Podcasts

Not sure how many of you on here listen to any of the podcasts Vince Russo and The Brand make. While I’ve learned that you need to filter and process everything they say because they’ll pretty much shit on everything the WWE does these days, it’s without question that their opinions are sometimes spot on. Having said that, I totally can relate to the “Smart Mark” way of observing and reporting that Meltzer, Satin and Keller subscribe to. For instance, do I think Russo is right when he says that wrestling has become too much about the actual wrestling and not enough time is focused on character development and storytelling? Absolutely. But do I also agree with Meltzer that the current in-ring technical work done by the new generation of wrestlers is some of the best we’ve ever seen? 100%. Do I think Russo sounds ridiculous when he claims that the new generation/style of wrestlers (Rollins, Balor, Gargano) are overrated and untalented? Of course. Does Meltzer sound like a total out of touch fanboy when he makes it seem like 80% of the storylines currently in WWE are well written and entertaining? Yes, yes and yes.

As far as podcasts go, I’ve found that The Taz Show is probably the closest thing to a middle ground between the two mindsets that you can find. He’s willing to call bullshit when the WWE fucks something up, but he’s also willing to pay the WWE on the back for a job well done when they deserve it.

Going back and watching a lot of PPV’s from the early 90’s, you can clearly see how those wrestlers were able to tell great face vs heel stories in the ring without having to fly off the top rope every other move. Heels were actually willing to be vilified by the crowd and adhered to working the match as a heel actually would. In today’s WWE, the lines are so blurred that wrestlers don’t seem to care about face/heel as much as they care about getting over. Faces do just as many “dirty” moves or angles as the heels and it’s become impossible to to maintain any of the 80’s style kayfabe as far as characters go. The technical wrestlers have become so intent on the idea that the only way to get over is by bedazzling the crowd with one crazy technical move after the other that most fans have become desensitized to it. You can consistently here “boring” chants throughout the tapings of 205 Live; this is so puzzling to me because fans claim to want to see crazy technical matches, but when they’re actually presented with one, it can’t keep their attention for longer than 90 seconds.

The whole thing seems bipolar to me and I’m just curious where the middle ground is in all of it; how do we tell great stories like they did in the 90’s while showcasing the golden age of technical abilities that we’re in now?

The truth about Meltzer is that he's an opportunist. He's essentially what Roger Ebert used to be to reviewing movies. His opinions don't really matter, but he's been given a status of importance because no one else really does what he does. There were other critics reviewing movies before Ebert, but his approval became more important than any other. Roger Ebert rose to prominence due to him and Gene Siskel giving movies "two thumbs up" or "two thumbs down", and it caught on. Ive seen a lot of movies Ebert liked, and ive hated, and ive watched a lot of matches Meltzer gave 4 or 5 stars to, but I thought were subpar. Meltzer loves his high spots, and its apparent in how he rates matches.

Ultimately these are just people with opinions, but the large majority of wrestlers don't like Melzer, because he knows nothing. He's just a fan who watches matches, and has somehow been given the ability to place a quality ranking on them and the sheep will say "Meltzer liked it" or "Meltzer didn't like it", and it lives or dies based on his stupid star rating.