My Mom's Basement - EPISODE 23 - GENNADY "GGG" GOLOVKIN/BRANDON WALKER

Episode Date: August 26, 2019

Gennady "GGG" Golovkin - one of the greatest boxers of all time - joins Robbie in the basement this week to discuss his upcoming title fight at Madison Square Garden on October 5th, a potential trilogy with Canelo Alvarez, and the most realistic boxing movie ever made, before Brandon Walker kicks the door down to talk a little professional wrasslin'. Brandon breaks down his top five favorite wrestlers and matches of all time to get the listeners accustomed to what kind of wrestling he's a fan of. Outro Music: 'Stacked Actors' -Foo FightersYou can find every episode of this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime Members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. For more, visit barstool.link/mymomsbasement

Hey My Mom's Basement listeners, you can find our episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube, and Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Triple G, Gennady Golovkin, one of the greatest boxers, possibly, of all time. This was a really cool interview, it was a little challenging to do through a translator, but we made the best of it. It was a lot of fun, thank you very much to Triple G for coming in. And after the interview, we'll get into the main eventer for this episode. That's right. Brandon fucking Walker. Enjoy. We have Triple G, Gennady Golovkin. He just signed a new bout agreement to fight at the Garden October 5th. I'm excited for this fight. You fought at the Garden a bunch. Do you like fighting in New York City?

I love it. I love fighting in New York because I feel like the Garden is my second home. Why do you think that is? What is it about that building? Like, is it the history? Is it? Yeah, everything. You know, history, people is it everything you know history people

atmosphere you know just and you know come on garden is make of boxing a bunch of good memories there for you as well oh yeah absolutely what do you think the best is so far the best memory at the garden you've had a long time ago i still very young guy i watch great fights this is my huge family memory so so you're talking not even you in the ring you're saying watching fights i remember yeah i remember my time this is my dream going to the garden this is my life for boxing for you know, or hockey. It's this medal. God in his garden.

Wow, that's amazing. That's amazing that you were able to visualize that dream and actually realize it. So Canelo just vacated this belt that you're fighting for. For the non-boxing fans out there, why did he vacate this belt, in your opinion? I don't know, really. They just couldn't come to an agreement ask him just seriously just because sergey is the sergey he he was told he had to defend the

belt against him um they couldn't come to an agreement now you're fighting him how do you feel about him as a matchup for you he's very good fighter you know i know him a long time he's very tough guy and i'm very excited you know because right now i feel i need more you know focus for boxing i need more opponents like him yeah because he is a very good fight and you're saying it's interesting you say you need more opponents like him because he's the rightful middleweight contender, a lot of people say. Canelo talks about moving up in weight and looking for these big name fights. Will we ever see that out of you, or is that something that doesn't interest you? I have a couple of chances.

I don't have a lot of options for big opponents. Yeah. But if that were to come along with that interest you this is a good question you know just of course i'm i need good fight and i need big name and with who right now just you know i don't know just why I stay 160? Because I have a big deal with dozen with Canelo fight. This is my focus. Or right now I have more bigger plan and maybe I'm ready. So you mentioned the Canelo fight and obviously that's a big thing, the trilogy everyone wants to see.

If you read online, everyone says Canelo is not going to give you this fight because maybe he's afraid of your power, maybe he's afraid of your danger, maybe he just hates you. Do you think Canelo hates you? I don't know. I don't know. I'm just, you know, I think just business, only business. Tell you one guy who I think does hate you, and I feel weird saying this.

I got Eddie Hearn in the room, but I think Oscar De La Hoya does hate you. He talked a lot of trash after the last fight. What do you think about a promoter getting in the mix like that, talking trash to a fighter like that? I can't really talk for Oscar, you know, because this is his business, this is his upbringing, it's his promotion. Whatever he says is not only has negative effect on his promotion, but it also has negative on our promotion work as well. Agreed, and we're not really fans of him in this building. You're in good hands here because he ran an MMA event with Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz. It did less buzz than our backwood boxing event.

It really did. It did 25,000 buzz. It was insane. Let's move away from Canelo. Let's move away from Oscar. They're the enemy. Oh, thank you. After a decade at the top, you won your first interim title in 2010. After almost a decade at the top, what do you think has changed the most about this sport in your time? Still more smart. You know, just have new people.

New coach, new a lot of things. Yeah, you went through a lot of changes recently. I believe right now is my time. I'm coming back more strong. But for the sport in general, just for boxing, what do you think has changed across the whole landscape? Do you think the fighters in 2019 are much better than the fighters in 2010 or do you not see a big difference there? You know, I see just – this business is more dangerous right now.

More dangerous, seriously. Just so many people, you know. If you're not ready, you can't stay in this business. And what do you think – I come from more of an MMA background. I cover more MMA than boxing. What do you think about boxing right now can grab an MMA viewer or someone that maybe was raised on something that wasn't boxing? You know, I love MMA and just I'm very respectful of his business. And just remember, boxing, this is classic. Yeah.

Boxing is classic. Everybody loves classic. And what do you think in the future boxing could do to maybe grab the younger viewer

someone like me do you think there could be changes or do you think maybe more more stars just need to arise

what do you think it could be I don't know just boxing doesn't lose position you know

just like people. Of course, like young people right now, more interesting UFC. And a little bit later, everybody is coming back to boxing. Right now, we have a lot of fights, good opponents who bring, you boxing position like you know to back so real big position and what was it that originally drew you to boxing when you were a kid action just actually not just yeah every tough guy stay in boxing if you not say if you're not tough guy you maybe try different sport I would agree with that, definitely. Me, I'm going to try no sports, none at all.

How much longer do you think you'll be around in boxing? I don't know. I told you, just boxing is a very dangerous sport, and just one punch changes your life. So do you think after your time in boxing has come to an end that you'll always be around in the business in some way, whether it be a coaching role or something like that i want 100 just i want yeah you know just i understand this business you know i like this business all right absolutely two more quick ones for you um i'm looking for your top five maybe top four it could be could be rough middleweights of all time. Your favorites. Oh, it's a lot.

It's a good question. Everybody's different, like Manzon, Hagler, you know, like, I don't know, Leonard. Just middleweight. One of the most classic divisions in the sport. I love the old school. I can't say, you know,

I can't say, okay, I like softball or I like, you know, tall guy. Everybody is different. I remember Roy Jones. He is good. You know, he looks good in middleweight division. Like, I don't know, everybody is good. Just, no, I respect all heroes. Absolutely.

And then this one may be a silly question, may be a dumb question. Out of all the boxing movies that have been made, which one do you think has been the most realistic? Maybe True Story, Cinderella. Cinderella, man? That's one of my favorites. Were you a fan of boxing movies growing up? Of course. I'm a regular guy.

Rocky fan? Absolutely. Alright, I love it. Triple G, g thank you so much we wish you the best of luck on october 5th and getting that canelo fight hopefully getting that trilogy closed out thank you very much welcome back to the show i am joined now by a newer barstool employee but someone that's not new to anything we talk about on my mama's basement really professional wrestling in particular, Brandon fucking Walker. Welcome to the show. Thank you for having me.

Welcome to My Mama's Basement. Thank you for having me. It's a nice basement. Thank you. A little musty down here. Yep, yep, yep. Smells of foot and ass, but it's okay. So you came to me recently, and you just walked right up to me, and I think you overheard

me and Nate talking about wrestling, and you said, I am the biggest professional wrestling fan in this office. 100%. And you had never talked to me about wrestling prior to that. had never really talked much prior to that at all at all we shook hands yep a couple times yeah nothing more than hi nice to meet you I thought you were pulling a bit on me so I'm like yeah okay all right because usually as a wrestling fan when someone comes over says something like that to you it's like oh here we go the next thing he's gonna say is and you know it's fake right right like all right brandon walker and you're like why don't you name all four opponents macho man faced at wrestlemania 4 in the tournament and i'm like oh okay we're dealing with the fucking savage on our hands no we're not fucking around i uh

1985 okay i was six years old wrestlemania 1 i remember vividly the buildup to it, and I was hooked immediately. I remember as a kid growing up, Saturday night's main event would come on once a month, and I just remember nervously awaiting Hulk Hogan fighting Paul Orndorff in a cage, nervously scared about it. That whole Saturday was built around it, and wrestling has been a part of my life my entire life.

And I don't go to bed at night now as a 40 year old man without the way i fall asleep is turning on the wwe network picking a random pay-per-view and pressing play i love it every single night i love it and when you're picking those pay-per-views do you go way old school with them most of the time i you know what i go random i would not random but i i just some days i get in moods like i'll get in a survivor series mood for a couple of days this week i've been on old wcw nitros i i love getting on those i love getting on like the vince russo era nitros that are just so abysmal and they're so bad they're good yeah um the specifically september 11 2000 that episode of nitro is the worst episode of

television i've ever seen and i recommend it to literally that have the cage no that wasn't the cage the triple stack yeah no that was uh it was mike awesome who was like that he was running like a that 70s show 70s show mike yeah he's like he came out on like a stupid uh like a school bus like a painted school bus during the main event it was a whole thing i think brett hart was feuding with the NWO at the time and Ric Flair was in and they tried to bury him alive or something. It's just a bunch of ridiculous stuff. But you said wrestling's been a part of your life your whole life.

Same thing with me. Literally since I was like three or four years old, I can remember watching wrestling. But my brother got me into it. My brother's 12 years older than me. So he got me into it. This is now 2001, 2002 by showing me the golden era stuff.

His favorite of all time is the Ultimate Warrior, Hulk Hogan. WrestleMania VI was like gospel in my house. As well it should have been. I mean, WrestleMania VI, I remember it vividly. Toronto Sky Dome. It was, you know, first of all, you put those two guys in the main event. It's bigger than life, but it was also a pretty shockingly good match between those two guys. Awesome match.

Very well put together. Perfectly put together and had to be because those two guys all of the like things that warrior couldn't do or even hogan couldn't yeah and it was it was just absolutely perfect i just still remember i get goosebumps when i think of jesse talking about hogan coming back in the ring to give the belt and you know he's leaving a champion i believe hulkamania will live forever and i'm not a big hulk hogan fan but that was an incredible. Who did you lean over in that match? In that match? Yeah.

I believe I was pulling for Ultimate Warrior. Didn't really love both guys. I love Warrior still to this day. Even when I was 90, I was 11. Yeah. I was 11 years old. So who was your number one as a kid? I'm a savage guy.

Randy Savage. 100% a savage guy. Always has been? Always has been. From day one know he broke in at late 85 and they had the ic run that culminated at wrestlemania 3 and that had to be watching that like were you watching wrestlemania 3 live i wasn't watching wrestlemania 3 live i i in fact i don't know that i watched the wrestlemania live until much later oh you were getting the vhs but

when you're that young when you're that young it's live to watch it all vhs i i don't know what happened especially in mississippi didn't i didn't have cable tv i remember watching wrestlemania 6 like it was live and i wasn't even born yet right yeah exactly so so i i didn't watch it live but once we were able to go to ray's rent a movie in west point mississippi and rent the tape then i watched it and just wore it out and i i love wrestlemania 3 but savage i got to, he had the face turn about two months after that. And then I got to live his ascent to becoming champion. I was always a Savage guy. So who got you into wrestling?

Because it was my brother for me. Was it your dad into wrestling or was it just going to a video store and seeing an awesome VHS cover? Nobody really. I was an only child until my sister was born that sounds weird but um she's 16 years younger than me so for the first 16 years of my life i was an only child and my mom would just i'd be in a room and i'd watch wrestling and that's how i fell in love with it and there were bigger than life characters and it was the 80s it was the first really big national wrestling boom. So when you went to school, everybody's got a Hulk Hogan lunchbox or a rock and wrestling lunchbox. So it was in the culture that I was growing up in.

So I wouldn't say it was my mom or my dad. It was just being a product of that time. And when you're watching it, Macho Man's your guy throughout all of those WrestleManias, which was like your moment. When you look back, what was the moment where you're a kid like celebrating a macho man title win or something? I am WrestleMania 8. Thank you. WrestleMania 8 happened in 1992. He won two titles.

Against Ric Flair. Against Ric Flair. He won it in WrestleMania 4 and then he won it at 8. But I was watching 8 live. Okay. So I wasn't watching 4 live when he won it, but I was watching 8 live. March racing. And I just, you know, I was big.

You know, Savage went through. That's actually not my favorite Macho Man moment. Him winning the title. The best Macho Man moment. Can I predict it? Yeah. It's easy. After the match at WrestleMania 7.

WrestleMania 7. All day long. Reuniting with Miss Elizabeth. It's my favorite wrestling moment in the history of this business. It can make me cry to this day. It is a story that was four and five years in the making you didn't know it was in the making during the story but when she comes out when she comes to the crowd during the match she is and she she jumps the rail and the goosebumps and she gets in she throws sherry out of there sherry's playing a

great role there by the way all-time heel manager very underrated oh terrific get almost as much credit as fucking someone like Bobby Heenan. Almost a little too good. Yeah. Almost a little too good because sometimes she would detract from focusing on the match, but that's her job. Anyway, so we throw her out of the ring, and then they just let it stew for just enough time, and then they hug.

That's my favorite moment. And throws her up on his shoulder. Throws her up on his shoulder, and then all of a sudden, he just lost a retirement match. He's now your biggest baby face in your company, and he technically doesn't work there anymore. And I'll tell you a funny story about WrestleMania VIII. So I used to set up rings for a local indie company in New Jersey called WrestlePro. I used to set up rings, run their spotlight, do anything I could do. As a fan of the business, I've seen all these documentaries, and I've seen everyone, say that's the way to get into the business is to go and just help out.

Do anything you can do. So that's what I was doing. And they brought, they would bring in pretty big names. They're a pretty big independent company on the East Coast, the biggest on the East Coast, I believe. And they brought in Flair once. And I was helping out for that show. And the promoter, Pat Buck, who's now a producer at WWE, congratulations to him. He's also the man that trained me, and we can get into that too.

I trained for a summer to be a pro wrestler. It was some time. But he brings in Ric Flair, and he knows I'm a huge fan. So he says, we had like 40 minutes before the show. He said, hey, why don't you go just sit in the room with Ric? He's not doing the meet and greet anymore. He's hanging out until the show starts. He was cutting a promo about how great WrestlePro was was the beginning of the show and getting out of there sure and i got to hang out

in a room with rick flair for about 40 minutes sitting next to him and we had a tv on showing his old nwa matches so i'm starting to ask questions why why'd they put blackjack over in 75 why'd they do this with dusty and we got to talking about wrestlemania 8 and i said that's such a great match and my brother had texted me at the time, my brother being the one that got me into wrestling and everything. And he's like WrestleMania 8 is the most gangster thing ever when he lost and he still kissed Miss Elizabeth. It's like the biggest heel move ever. So I mentioned that to him and he was like – what did he say to me? Ric Flair in response.

He said something ridiculous where he was just like, brother, I thought it was gangster too. He just started laughing. But it's crazy. People in that era are just so still larger than life in a way that I don't think today's wrestlers will be to the current generation in 20 years. No, absolutely not. But it's a different society now. It's a different whole thing. I mean, no real athletes are different than they were in real... Athletes are different than they were in 1985.

Athletes are different than they were in 1995. Different access, different level of looking up to them. You talk about WrestleMania VIII and that match. That's my favorite WrestleMania. WrestleMania VIII and 92 is my... Even with the whole main event botch? When we get to... That actually enhances it to me.

I'll tell you why. When we get to my matches, the F to me i'll tell you why when we get to my matches the flare savage match is not on there but i do have another match from wrestlemania 8 on that list but the main event botch i didn't know it was a botch at the time i am watching at 13 years old all i'm doing is saying i'm kind of looking at the screen what all right what's happening what the fuck's going on and then and then the warriors music hits fuck it's over i don't care if they botched or not that's an all-time run-in yeah that's an all-time finish still the gif of that you know it's all over twitter sucked yeah i mean it sucked but that

whole in in 92 my favorite year it had the 92 rumble which is one is one of my favorite matches ever it is the best rumble in my opinion 92Slam was good because you had Davey and Bret on top. You had another good Savage Warrior match. Wow, I didn't even consider that. 92 was a fucking awesome year for the WWF. 92 was absolutely stacked. Then if you go to WCW, 92 also had the best WarGames match ever, which was the Dangerous Alliance against Sting's Squadron, I believe.

Yeah. 92 was loaded. Yeah. Were you starting to believe that I'm a 92 was loaded. Yeah. Were you... Are you starting to believe that I'm a big wrestling fan? Brandon Walker, you sold me days ago. Okay. Were you WCW over WWF or you didn't care?

I was anything I could get my hands on. I never chose. I never chose... Did you even fuck around with TNA in the 2000s? No, I didn't. By then, I was kind of grown and really was WWE only. But let me tell you something that I grew up with. Territories were still a thing.

And especially down south, we had Continental, which was in Dothan, Alabama. And we also had Jerry Lawler's Memphis promotion. Those were the two that I would get. Did you go to shows in Memphis? Yeah, I did. And I would get Jerry Lawler on Channel 5. And on Channel 4, every Saturday night, I would get the Dothan promotion,

which I actually loved more. It had guys you wouldn't even know. Any names I would know or no? So Nightmare Danny Davis would eventually run Louisville for WWE. He would run that territory, that developmental territory. Dr. Tom Pritchard. Oh, of course. Of course, him.

The Dirty White Boy, I don't know if you know him. He came to WWF later. His name was Tony Anthony. Guys like that. Wildcat Wendell Cooley. The Stud Stable was down there. He would later be Tennessee Lee and Colonel Parker. Was Rick Rogers down there?

He probably was. He's a little older than me, I think, or my era. But I would consume every promotion everything i possibly could from the tiniest little dirty promotion to the wwf at the time um i i prefer wwf that's the you know that's the one that got to my heart the most but again if it's saturday at 605 and the superstation's on i'm watching wcw saturday night and who were your WCW favorites? Were you Sting kid? That's a great question.

Sting never did anything for me. Really? Even Crow Sting? Yeah. No, neither. I never really got into Sting very much. I liked Luger. I'm just trying to think back in that era.

I was kind of becoming a teenager and kind of turning towards the heels a little bit. I remember Stunning Steve Austin. I think this guy's really cool. I really like little bit. Yeah. I remember stunning Steve Austin. I think this guy is really cool. I really like this guy. When he was stunning Steve Austin. When he was stunning Steve. That's pretty cool. I didn't know that was going to happen.

Yeah. Nobody did. But, again, I can pinpoint WWF favorites. With WCW, it was more of the product in general. It always felt like a more mature product. Of course, it would get worse. It would also be less mature most of the time but um i don't really think i can pinpoint a wcw favorite so let's talk

i i had you do some homework for this podcast i said give me your top five wrestlers it doesn't even have to be in a particular order but your top five so the listeners can get kind of a view of what you like in a wrestler and give me five matches that define Brandon Walker's fandom of pro wrestling. What do you want to do first? Let's do your wrestlers first. So the wrestlers first. Okay, so I don't have any honorable mentions here. On the matches, I got honorable mentions, but I do have it in order.

Sweet. Even better. So my number five is, and I know this is a controversial take, but I think this is the greatest in-ring wrestler of all time. As your number five? As my number five is, and I know this is a controversial take, but I think this is the greatest in-ring wrestler of all time. As your number five? As my number five. Well, I mean, there's favorites and there's recognizing. Oh, true, true, true. We're doing favorites.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I believe this guy is the greatest of all time because of the variety of matches he could have with a variety of opponents. I'm not going to name Ric Flair because I do think he wrestled a standardized match a lot of the times. Okay. He's great. He is absolutely great. No Ric Flair because I do think he wrestled a standardized match a lot of the times. He's great. He is absolutely great.

No Ric Flair slander. He's top one or two all time. I just prefer Shawn. Shawn Michaels is my number five wrestler of all time. Brandon Walker, put her there. Shawn Michaels is the greatest of all time. There you go. Okay, so I thought you were not reacting very well.

I didn't think you liked that. I didn't know who you were going to say. Shawn Michaels is, in my opinion, the greatest of all time. He's my second favorite wrestler of all time. Okay, he's my fifth favorite wrestler, but I think I recognize him as the greatest. So do I. Because he could have matches with big guys, little guys, fat guys. Look at the two halves of his career.

He had two great careers. The way he reinvented himself, two great careers. He had two great careers. Look at his WrestleMania matches alone. You talk about guys who reinvented themselves constantly my number four favorite wrestler is chris jericho absolutely 1998 chris jericho might be my favorite year of any wrestler ever i don't know i know you probably weren't you were around you remember 1998 at all no i was born in 98 you're born in 98 so you don't

remember it very well 98 chris jericho in the 97, he had been a smiling, white meat, baby face, wasn't doing anything, great wrestler. With the lion heart tights and everything. Very good wrestler, but no character. Then he has the heel turn, he's whining, and he turns into just this sarcastic, funny, irreverent. The man of 1,001 moves. 1,004.

1,004, yeah. Yeah, genius character. Of course. 98 Chris Jericho, my favorite character ever. Jericho, personal moves. 1,004. 1,004, yeah. Yeah, genius character. Of course. 98 Chris Jericho, my favorite character ever. With the Jericho personal security. Ralphus, yeah. One of my other favorite characters or years for a guy is also Jericho. It happened in 2008 after he'd been Y2J for a decade.

He puts on the suit. He's all of a sudden he's coming out there. That feud with Sean was the best feud in years. Absolutely. It's the reason WWE is no longer PG. Then he had the tag team. He made a tag team with Big Show Interesting. How do you do that?

I know. And then a few years later, they were like, let's just put The Miz in Jericho's spot. Somehow that was interesting. I know it was. Just based on what Jericho had done. But Jericho's my number four. A guy that invents himself all the time. Great pick.

And the WrestleMania 19 match between your number five and number four. One of my favorite matches. Teacher versus student. So good. And that turn after the match where he low blows him. Great story. Great, great. One of my favorite Mania matches.

Not on my list, but I have reasons for that. Number three is a guy that never got to the world title level, but this guy just screamed cool to me. He screamed what I wanted to be what i thought a wrestler should be his name is mr perfect kurt hennig you talk about a wrestler who could wrestle and then just with a look just walking out there and the way he would cock his shoulders the way he would cock his face you knew this is a guy who is better than me and fucking knows it i love mr perfect kurt henn. Much respect on that pick.

The vignettes of him throwing himself the football, him playing all the sports, the gum smack. I think I try to do that every time I'm in a parking lot chewing gum. Why wouldn't you? I'm like, all right, let's see if I can get it this time. If I ever have a towel, throw it behind the back. Throw it behind the back. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Mr. Perfect, much respect.

Another guy who doesn't get enough credit for this, but Mr. Perfect has some amazing WCW matches in the second half of his career. He does. And nobody really looks at those. He also has a match on a very, very early Raw in 93 where he wrestled Doink the Clown. And this guy is bumping his fucking ass off. There's a Saturday night's main event match in 1990. It's setting up the main event with Hogan and Warrior. But it's Hogan and Warrior

against Genius and Perfect. Yep. And it's basically 10 minutes of Hogan and Warrior just throwing Mr. Perfect around the ring. And he has my favorite bump of all time in that match

where they slam his head in the turnbuckle and he does a flip with a twist in it. Yep, yep, yep. That bump is my favorite bump ever. I feel like someone redid, I think Michaels

like paid homage to it. Maybe think Michaels paid homage to it. Maybe in that crazy Hogan match. The Hogan match in 05? You oversold everything. So Perfect's my number three. I'm just going to take a brief stop out of this list and say that my favorite wrestling personality of all time, my favorite human being who has ever been involved with wrestling,

and it's not as a wrestler, but it's as manager as a commentator my favorite person ever and the guy i i model my characters here after is bobby the brain heenan absolutely he is my favorite bar none if bobby the brain he never existed i wouldn't love wrestling the way i love it i think it'd be the funniest person in the room he'd be the most evil person in the room. I love Bobby the Brain Heenan. Back to the list. Bobby the Brain, by the way, him and Gorilla Monsoon, there's no better commentary team for my money. Absolutely. They're the greatest of all time.

Your money is smart. So I have one and two, but it's really 1A and 1B. Okay. So 1B, but number two on this list, I... The Rock. I don't think I've ever rooted for a guy harder than I rooted for The Rock. Back in 2000 and 1999, I was 19 years old during his face turn slash heel turn in Survivor Series 98, and I was just all in.

The first Raw I ever attended was February 15, 1999. The Rock beat Mankind in a ladder match to win the title with Big Show's help. The Rock is my... Now, he's not the greatest wrestler of all time, but he is the biggest star to ever touch this business. When you talk total package... The biggest star. To me, he is...

He didn't have the greatest career because it wasn't long enough, but I liken him to young Mike tyson or even lebron james at his very very peak he might be the best that ever did it as far as the total package up there everything he just didn't do it very long i fall on the other side of the equation though i'm more of a stone cold guy than a rock guy i was a rock guy i was i'm very surprised you're a rock guy it seems like everything about brandon walker would add up to be a stone cold guy i just wasn't really a stone cold guy i mean i the beer drinking guy when he won at 98 come on when he won at 98 i was i mean i think i cheered for him but once the rock hit his stride summer

slam 98 when he fought triple h in a ladder match and the ic title he had been nothing but a heel weird purple strap he had been nothing but a heel up to that point but it was an msg right down the street and just during that match he slammed triple h onto a ladder was hunter hearst him was it was yeah he was triple h at that point slammed him onto the ladder and he looked up and msg went fucking crazy electrified electric and that was the first time i'd ever seen it and and and that's when said, this guy might be the biggest fucking star in the business. And I didn't realize it until that moment when he slammed it and he looks up and MSG goes crazy for a fucking heel. I love The Rock. And my number one, I've already spoiled it, Macho Man Randy Savage.

Yeah. Macho Man Randy Savage is a larger than life character. The voice, the mannerisms. The Slim Jim commercial. The Slim Jim commercials. Everything about him screamed big star. But the best part about Macho Man Randy Savage is when he got in the ring, he was a great fucking wrestler.

He could make you feel any feeling he wanted you to feel. He could do anything. Macho Man Randy Savage savage if i'm building a professional wrestler that's what i built the epitome of a guy who could wrestle a broom and he could wrestle a broom and make it interesting he could wrestle again he wrestled four guys for the title that in that wrestlemania four turn four different matches wrestled a fat guy wrestled an immobile guy wrestled and the stories of him and warrior trying to see who could drink the most cups of cappuccino before they go out to the ring and the crazy shit they were i've never even heard that

oh my god yeah they would have contests of who can drink the most expressos before we that does make a lot of sense yeah uh let's get into the five matches now that define brandon walker's fandom i have two honorable mentions okay before i get to that and number these these most of these matches well every single one of these matches includes somebody on my list so that tells you who i am my number one is perfect mr perfect and tito santana this is your number one honorable honorable mention my number one honorable mention perfect and santana saturday night's main event 1990 it's a nine minute match. It is stacked. It's on the network, obviously.

But they did a Saturday night's main event, Best Of DVD seven or eight years ago. It's on there. It's on desk three. And it's just hiding in there. But for nine minutes they just go at it. And Bobby Heenan's at ringside. Perfect cheats and cheats and

cheats. And Santana keeps coming back it's a great match a great illustration of what a heel is supposed to be what a heel manager is supposed to be and ultimately he wins by not cheating by being the better wrestler I love it honorable mention the obscure pick me and Jared Karabas we do wrestling podcasts wrestling interviews um and we always asked our guests the wrestlers for an obscure match recommendation you did it without us even asking okay well you're going to have at least one more obscure one but uh my second honorable mention gold rush tournament 2005 shelton benjamin sean michaels yes on raw i love my favorite matches are matches i can re-watch all

the time and i don't think you can re-watch 51 minute epics like adam cole and johnny garg you can't just i can put on one of my favorite matches and watch them in 10 15 minutes sean and shelton in 2005 i had no expectation this was going to be a match that i love for the rest of my life but i think it was the first time somebody jumped off the rope into a super kick something like that happens all the time now but i was like what is shelton doing there he goes and he got such height and the tie-dye guy in the crowd immediately jumping out and then the gigantic i don't know if it's a football player beside him and he was like his his mouth everyone's stunned the crowd goes in everyone stood up and the way shelton sold it like death too there were there are springboards and then there's 2005

shelton benjamin springboards it was like a foot and a half higher than everybody else remember he was the kind of the original kofi kingston Kingston in terms of every time there was a Money in the Bank match, it was like, what's Shelton going to do? He would do the running up the ladder, clothesline, and all that shit. He's an athletic freak. Should have been a bigger deal, but I know— That's a match that I feel people don't look at enough because—and they actually put it on their YouTube channel in full a few years ago. And I recommended people watch it in full because people just look at the finish to that match. The whole match leading up to it makes that finish what it is.

There's a moment in there where Shawn has— they tell the story of a young up-and-comer against the grizzled veteran, tell it perfectly. There's a moment where Shawn has finally turned the tide, and they're both laying on the mat, and Shawn kips up, and you think, here he goes, and one, two, and Sean kips up and you think, oh, here he goes. And one, two, Shelton kips up too. It's just an incredible, incredible match. Going to number five, Backlash 2000 main event,

Triple H, The Rock. Triple H has been the champion for, it seems like, 75 years at this point. The Rock, who had turned... Did you love to hate Triple H? I fucking hated him. The Rock should have won the title at WrestleMania. It's a mistake that they didn't give him the strap at WrestleMania 2000.

It's ridiculous that Triple H are retained there, but they go to Backlash, and it is the perfect overbooked storm of a match because they're bringing it. You know Austin's coming? They've hyped up Austin coming. And when Austin's music hits hits there's about three minutes from the glass breaking to rock pinning triple h the pop not only hits when the music the pop stays there for three minutes yeah they're

just yelling for three minutes and then the rock pins him after triple stone cold takes everybody out with a chair rock pins him it's another pop It's just the most sustained pop I've ever heard in my life. You know, 98, 99, 2000 Austin pops were different animals. They hit different. The one that hits when he comes out to help mankind against your boy. Yeah. That's maybe the biggest pop of all time. January 4th, 1999, I believe.

That's right. Yeah, no, it's 100% right. Yeah, Tokyo Dome Day. Same. Yeah, that's right. It was also the same day of the Finger Poke of Doom in WCW. The turning point. The turning tide in the Monday Night Wars.

Number four is another obscure match. And it's one that I really just saw first on a DVD a couple of years ago. And I believe it was on Sean's Heartbreak and Triumph DVD. My favorite wrestling documentary ever. It's very good. But it was on there, and it's Brain Busters Rockers from MSG in 1989. It was my favorite tag team match ever. It was just two veterans and Tully Blanchard and Arn Anderson,

two of my favorite guys, complete pros. You seem like an Arn guy. I love Arn Anderson. And it took everything. He would be number six on this list. Oh, wow. Cool. arn and it took everything he would be number six on this list oh wow cool i i it's just two pro wrestlers veterans with two young guys that you know they got all the talent in the world and

they just rip shit up for 20 minutes uh sean and marty for the first five minutes are just embarrassing toly narn until toly narn cheat and then they get the um and ultimately they cheat to win i just love it if you've never seen it you need to seek that out msg i might have seen it but i i definitely don't remember it so i'm gonna have to go back and check that one out the the rest of mine the top three are all from wrestlemania so i know you've seen all of these cool number three is wrestlemania 8 and it's brett the hitman heart ic championship match against Rowdy Roddy Piper. Now, Rowdy Piper, not a great wrestler in the ring. He was decent enough, though.

Decent enough. And he was such a great character with so much charisma. He could get by without having bad matches. Didn't matter. But this is his greatest match ever. I would have to agree. Dog collar match, Starrcade 83 with Valentine, maybe. But this one, P heart wrestlemania 8 we

know piper's leaving he's the champ but we know he's leaving this is the only the only title he ever had in wwf he wanted at the royal rumble over the mountain so crazy still that he never won a world championship insane it's insane but the story they told in about 13 minutes they both go in as baby faces they have a 30 second interview before the match where they turn on each other. Yeah. Where Piper's talking about slapping the bologna on and pinching his cheek. They go out, and Piper, he's been the greatest heel in the business before, is a face at the moment.

But during the match, he just slips into heeldom. And he breaks Brett open. He breaks Brett. Starts bleeding. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then one time he points. Brett's got a problem with his knee pad. Piper hey check on that and as soon as they look at it he punches he sucker punches him then he takes the bell and you've got heen and going what the hell

use the bell which by the way the bell is my favorite foreign weapon in all of wrestling and they never use it never use it anymore what the fuck it was great back then because you had the bell side but then you had that big assass piece of wood behind it. I know. It was a giant plate of wood. It was awesome. The bell plays into my number one match, which we'll get to. But number two, also Brett, Brett and Austin, Brett-Austin WrestleMania 13. It's the perfect wrestling match. I mean, 30 minutes, and it's just them kicking the shit out of each other all over Chicago. At the time, the most unique match ever because of the double turn.

It's the best double turn. You won't see that double turn happen. It's the best double turn in the history of the business. No question. It at the time, the most unique match ever because of the double turn. It's the best double turn. You don't see that double turn happen. It's the best double turn in the history of the business. No question. It launched the biggest star in the history of the business. And it launched the best heel

in the business for that summer. You know, Brett's whole heel. It's just an incredible, incredible match. Special guest enforcer? Ken Shamrock. And the best, maybe the best finish

in the history of the business. Totally. Passing out with the blood trick in the history of the business. Totally. Passing out with the blood trickling down his teeth and everything. I mean, perfect. The way he got lucky with the way the blood came down. I know. And the imagery. It's just.

And that shot that they went to that shot of him powering out. Oh, it's fantastic. It's fantastic. Can't say enough great things about it. My number one favorite match, have you looked? I have not looked. Can you guess? Nope.

Well, it features someone on your list. I assume it's a Macho Man match. Is it the Mega Powers Colliding? It is not. Okay, what is it? It is WrestleMania III, Pontiac, Michigan, Intercontinental Championship match. Macho Man Randy Savage defending against Ricky the Dragon Steamboat. I should have guessed.

Those sons of bitches didn't take a breath for 13 minutes. And you've got 90,000 people just on every move. It's just the perfect wrestling match. 93,000, I believe. 93,000. I'm sorry. 93,000 people. Melter said it was like 72.

Yeah. So they're just going at each other. It's just perfect. It's incredible. And it's one of those matches where Savage lost and still came out a bigger star. Definitely. Because he stole the show at the biggest show in the history of wrestling to that point. And that's such a match.

You look back at it and it's almost like it's a weird comparison to make, but I want to say hieroglyphics in the terms of like Steamboat in the white, Savage in the pink and yellow. You recognize those colors right away of like that. Those colors represent that match, represents that era, represents that class of wrestlers that were the workhorses, really. Yeah. The true main eventers. I mean, you can watch that match on mute and you know who the good guy is and who the bad guy is. You don't have to be told you just know the way they're carrying themselves

and that's a good wrestling match you had the George Animal still on the outside which was a little ridiculous but it played in the story because he had wrestled Macho Man at WrestleMania 2 and he had this long year thing and then the bell at the end Savage had put Steamboat out

by draping his throat over the guardrail and then the bell is he gonna kill him no he's gonna lose the match but that is my favorite wrestling match of all time can i say a match that surprised me that wasn't on your list is it royal rumble 92 no because when we were talking about earlier i was like that should fuck that should be on my list royal rumble 92 is phenomenal i thought you were going to have WrestleMania 18, Icon versus Icon, Rock versus Hogan on there. Yeah, it was considered for the list. But when I think of Rock moments, when I think of Rock, his career,

I think of Backlash 2000 when he finally beats Triple H and finally gets that belt and that massive pop. Now, I loved WrestleMania 18. I loved Hogan against The Rock. I went into that match and I was like, is this going to be good? I mean, Hogan's so old. People in WWF, the WWF fans don't care about Hogan anymore.

I was wrong about that. Yeah. And just the whole energy. I might have stood for the whole match, watching it back in my house in 2002. I loved it. I believe it. But these five, I mean, it's a pretty staunch five that I've got.

And we're going to have to get into them with Jared Karabas as well. I need to introduce the two minds now of Brandon Walker and Jared Karabas because I'll tell you what, Jared is going to fucking love you, Brandon Walker. He's a big wrestling guy too. See, I didn't know that about him. He's a huge wrestling guy. See, I come here and I'm a gambling guy. I'm a college football guy.

And I'm doing pretty well with both of those two things. Absolutely. You're crushing it, brother. Nobody knew. I mean, I'm a bigger wrestling guy than I'm a bigger anything else. If I go home tonight, I'm not watching. Well, I am going home tonight. I'm not watching the 1998 Sugar Bowl.

I'm watching WrestleMania 14. So it's just something. It's always been a comfort in my life. It's my favorite thing to do. And one of the great regrets I've got is I'm 6'5", and now I'm 40 years old and fat. I've got titties. But then, like 20 years ago, I was 6'4", about 200. Good size, good frame.

I wish I had at least tried it. I never tried it. Man, it's never too late.dp was pretty old when he started 100 too late it's never too late walker we're gonna get you in a ring with me jared karabas i'll be the referee you guys could put on a match but we'll work it out i have b cup titties we'll have a bunch of smoke and mirrors it'll be overbooked to hide your uh greenness maybe have the uh the old WCW Dungeon of Doom and all that. We'll have Dave and Big Cat on commentary. There'll be a mush run in. It'll be great.

Maybe a mush manager. Maybe a mush manager Casey run in. Can I please get away from mush for about five minutes? I can't wait to put this together. Brandon, thank you so much for joining me.