NEWM

The 'fun cast' with Marty DeRosa and Cabana was about the most miserable way to have fun possible. A rip-roaring ride through the heads of two mates bigging each other up and brave facing it over what they perceive to be their career highs and lows. Cabana in particular (not for the first time lately) sounds really conflicted about his current standing. One minute, he's got enough money so he doesn't have to push the merch so hard, the next he's dripping in bitterness again that it's never worked out for him in WWE. He doesn't sound like he'll ever kill anybody or owt, but I feel as though he's been headed for a breakdown for a while now. This latest spell of everybody else nicking his podcast audience could be the tipping point.

Mind, always thought Lashley looked the business in white gear. Fair play to them for that.

Like a good Art of Wrestling, the Jericho podcast with Heyman and Edge is brilliant despite its host. Heyman is absolutely phenomenal on these things, and actually very likeable compared to previous times when he was a bit overbearing. He seems a lot more at peace with his role these days which makes him a better interview. Mind, he's bullshitting about why he doesn't reminisce about ECW. 'I don't ever look back', he says, before spending twenty minutes with his dick in his hand going over the minutae of the Smackdown Six era. He seemed a bit in denial about it all towards the end of the Rise and Fall DVD too. Still a sore point I reckon.

The WWEs stop start pushes are definitely a source of massive frustration sometimes, but when it serves to just give somebody SOMETHING for a bit and they completely nail it, it's a nice bit of fun for a time capsule. I just burned an hour or so watching the best of the R-Truth heel turn and title feud with Cena. It didn't make him a legit star in the end, or leave any sort of lasting legacy as such, but as an old-fashioned Hogan era 'baddie of the month' it was fucking blinding. I think, especially in this generation, that's enough of an imprint, and it's sad that more guys can't just get away with a 1-2 month run where they're THE reason to watch Raw that week.

I'm not doing the old "wrestling is crap now compared to the old days" thing, (well, I probably am a bit), but I'm watching KOTR 93 for the several hundreth time in my wasted life, and they just don't have it in them to do some of the storytelling these days that they did with Bret Hart through that show. Having Bret get his fingers knackered in the opener so he'd be struggling for the technical match against Perfect, having that match fuck up his legs and back for a final showdown with a fresh as a daisy Bigelow, all wonderfully explained in detail on commentary and so fantastically put across by Bret and his opponents in those matches to make sure the live crowd got the idea too. It's a really artistically satisfying one-man show, seemingly intentionally juxtaposed with the old dinosaur Hogan going down to an exploding camera and a load of hokey shite on his way out the side door. It's like one big team effort for Bret because Vince has told everybody that's where we're going. (Until a few weeks time and we're giving Luger a bus).

The industry has changed so so much now that I don't reckon any of that type of thing gets a fanny hair's width of space to breathe on a modern PPV or Raw, and it's a shame because it's really identifiable writing, even now. TV show writers would understand it just as well as grizzled old wrestling folk. A proper sports entertainment masterpiece.

'Had your lass.'

Surprised at there being any negativity to this turn, it was a cool surprise for me and is the sort of thing that makes me go out of my way to keep up with the show next week. In terms of character motivation, hasn't HHH been singling out Reigns (whilst everybody else does on the side too) as a threat, then with Rollins taking such an active role in The Shield's success over the past few months, he might be jealous of the attention or now ready to go it alone. All with HHH as the devil on his shoulder. That's simple enough isn't it?

I really loved the turn itself - I'm probably forgetting a few but it seems to me that when top(ish) guys turn, it's more often a slow burn that a big shock moment. Thinking of Punk as Champion, Bryan when he was World Champ, Kane's corporate return, Del Rio's descent back to the dark side last year, there's loads. I like a nice punch you in the gut turn they used to do more of, this one really came from nowhere and had you calling him a cunt for a minute while you watched the aftermath. Good stuff.

Glam Metal Detectives on YouTube. Sheesh, doesn't hold up AT ALL. I loved this when I was a nipper, is there anybody here who was an adult (or older than about 11) that thought this was good at the time?

Everybody Up is as catchy as it always was though.

Just watching the Raw aftershow DVD, and the one with Too Cool, Jericho, the Dudleys and the Big Show dancing for about four hours is absolutely wonderful. I wish it was my whole life. I've always hated how much Steve Austin ruined the fun for everybody when he came back in 2000, and pretty much possibly with the exception of this lot having Kurt Angle, Edge & Christian to beat up before they dance, this segment sums it up just about perfectly. Nobody wants to leave the ring, nobody wants to leave the building, nobody's getting hurt. It's totally ridiculous. It's beautiful. Cor, pro wrestling, eh?!

It was a disaster in many ways, but what a fucking horrendous character decision it was for Bray Wyatt to wear his own merchandise in his first match with Kane. Thick as fuck, that.

Lister, out of interest, are you still mates/on terms with Fin and PowerSlam? I love finding one of your pieces when I'm leading through old issues, you'd be welcome back in it these days.

Reading that he can't ride rollercoasters has made my night. My Mick Foley-based schadenfreude has to be one of my worst traits. The fat smelly shit.

Yeah, BUT, I like knowing what everybody in the history of wrestling thought of the John Stossel incident, so Austin can just keep doing what he's doing for me.

Batista's got the reverse midas touch this year hasn't he?? Booed out of the building within 3 weeks of returning and being part of a piss-poor reaction to the return of Evolution - if you'd have told me Big Dave and Evolution would be things happening in 2014 back in December, I'd have done cartwheels. We're here, and it's all gone flat. I agree with what somebody else said too, I don't think there's much nostalgia for the 03-08(ish) characters because half the new fans weren't watching, and even loads of longtime fans checked out during that dodgy spell. I feel sad that that class music getting aired for the first time in forever as they face off against the joint hottest act in the company deserved a much better response, but I can see why it didn't get it. The 6-man will deliver BIG time though, I'd think.

Austin's is the best WWE guy by along way but you just can't beat the Art of Wresting. Colt is a classy guy and he seems to be a good interviewer. Did i hear rumours that he might have a gig doing a show on the WWE network?

I lump Colt in with the shit lot PodcastOne are pumping out. His are only as good as the person he's interviewing, and even then they're good in spite of him for me. If he's not sneaking in pathetic digs at certain folk in the industry, he's hijacking potentially interesting conversations by misunderstanding the guest and being mind-numbingly stupid.

Lita did the podcast rounds recently (which sadly didn't prep her for her boring fucking HoF speech it seems), but BY FAR the best interviewer of this lot was Austin. Not least because he wasn't being a skeevy old cunt like JR. Chris Jericho's podcast has done nothing but confirm everything I've thought about him from his first book onwards so I've had to sack him off to save the GBs each week. JR and Austin's are only there still on the strength of their guests, and even then I feel as though I can gage how good the interviews will be within the first 10 minutes or so.

Mind, listening to loads of them as I have over the last few months, it's no surprise loads of guys think they should have been top face in the territory or whatever back in their day. For such a competitive industry, wrestlers love to tug each other off verbally don't they?! I can't imagine how inflated heads got on the long car journeys way back when. I know a bit of ego-stroking here and there is good for the flow of an interview but jesus wept, can we stop pretending that Big Show "helped redefine what it meant to be a heel in the attitude era" or whatever the random-compliment-generator spits out for these chats.

Fuck it though, really. Between around 2004-2009, TNA made me want to back it to the bitter end, and even then it was schizophrenic enough that I sometimes had to really grit my teeth. At this point, I pretty much hate it without even watching it. I have an irrational distaste for TNA, and I bet I can't be the only one. I've had my fingers burnt so many times by the show (which is really my own fault for giving them more chances than I should have), that it's mere existence only serves to annoy me, and make me realise just how brilliant WWE is at everything.

I think it's the popular option to reel off the old "TNA's good because WWE needs at least some alternative and it's good for the guys to have somewhere else to work", but I honestly think we're only saying that sort of stuff because it seems nice. Bollocks to the lot of them, if they can't fit in WWE, it seems like Japan (and to a lesser extent, the US indies) provides a decent living if you're the real deal. And WWE does have loads of competition, but I don't think it's ever considered TNA part of it.

TNA is an ugly surplus in wrestling at this point, and I have no problem in saying I'd like to see it just fuck off and leave me with a few fleeting moments where they nearly did some things right. Loki, you're bob on as well - the product never ever had a soul, because even when it appeared as if it might have, the booking was just too brilliant at ripping it away. Fuck TNA, it was mostly a balls up and the sooner it's gone the better.

Has Gogglebox held up since the first series then? I loved that, but sacked it off when the same people were advertised for the second series because I didn't think it would be possible to replicate the quality when they were 'trying' to play up to the way they'd previously been broadcast. The merit for me was the idea of voyeuristically people-watching whilst some people talk telly with each other, rather than "My favourite is the gay lad, or the Lilt ladies, they're DAFT!'. Concept rather than characters.

Speaking of antiques, we can't ignore Woy's bird:

Bursting on to screens generations ago not even realising he was a gimmick, then turned lady and brought it to the mainstream. THEN reaches the tail end of her career and has a Pillman moment, getting so good at working everybody, even those in the industry, that the line between reality and fiction is forever blurred and she's got Big Brother $$$s 4 life in one form or another.

God I wish they were my mates. I fucking love those two. And that film. I'd be let them roast Mrs NEWM in a heartbeat, and more importantly, so would she.

What was that Butch? I've never read that.

Twitter is FUCKED OFF with the ending to How I Met Your Mother. I predicted it a couple of seasons back and am glad they went the way they did (in the least spoilery way I can be seeing as spoiler tags won't work on my phone), so I'm quite surprised with such a backlash to a fairly sitcom big ending.

Thoughts (in spoiler tags) from anyone else?

It's all the symmetry of the 0 Mania's isn't it. HHH will be the biggest defeated loser to the grrr pro wrestler on Sunday after years of being a bastard, just like he was at 20, and just like Hogan was for Bret at 10 by the virtue of fucking off and letting him be the man for a bit. Ideally though, Bryan doesn't end up the victim of a screwjob or the perpetrator of a homicide between now and WM40. The odds of a good life after this aren't really in his favour, he should enjoy Sunday.

I've decided I've not enjoyed this Brock/Taker build at all. I want a bit more than 'grr, we're both dead hard, let's fight'. At least Heyman is fleshing it out a bit, but when they're both in the arena, I'm actually bored by it. It's different than when they did it for the first HHH/Taker match, such as the silent looking at the sign promo, because there was a shitload more context and for me personally, the allure of the two men facing off was far greater. It's felt a bit lazy to me, and just like Punk last year, there's a sum total of fuck all they can do to make me doubt the outcome, so I'm just not feeling it.

On the flip side, Cena/Wyatt had a fantastic week again. I had no faith in them being to able to build this, but Cena's showing plenty of weakness and I'm well up for this one, nor do I know who will win. Perfect.

I'd fucking love to see the Self-Destruction-style video they'd knocked together before Bret got back on board though. Didn't Lawler stick the boot in on that one as well? I bet some of them came off as a right set of bastards.