The Press Box - 'The Masked Man' — The (Familiar) Elbow Drop Heard Round the World and Bruce Prichard (Ep. 287)

Episode Date: March 23, 2017

The Ringer's David Shoemaker teams up with Bleacher Report's Dave Schilling to discuss Shane McMahon's elbow drop on 'SmackDown' (03:00), the general manager situation on 'Raw' (10:00), how Braun Strowman could fit into the Roman Reigns–Undertaker match (21:30), the "Missing Ron Simmons" teaser (29:00), and Twitter questions (34:00). Then Bruce Prichard of "Something to Wrestle With" calls in to discuss kayfabe in today's wrestling (39:00) and share Andre the Giant stories (46:00). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today's episode is brought to you by the Ringer University podcast. That's where you can find Tied Up hosts Mark Titus and Tate Frazier, breaking down every game during March Madness. Subscribe to the Ringer University right now, and let our college basketball experts be your buddies for the whole tourney. To the Masked Man Show. I'm David Shoemaker, joined as always by The Man in Black. The Man Who is Black.

That's really offensive. Hey, man, I said it. I can say it. You're like one of those like Reddit trolls who just like, you know, like says terrible things about black people. Then it says like, hey man, I'm black. It's okay. It's all good. Yeah, it's fine.

Stack guy Greg does it all the time. No, he doesn't. I'm just kidding. Speaking of which, Rosenberg had a cool interview with Triple H this week. Yeah. We're going to talk a little bit about Triple H later. Also speaking of cool interviews, we did a cool interview yesterday with the most famous man in professional wrestling, Bruce Pritchard. He is the most famous man of professional wrestling.

Definitely the most over, man. Yeah. I mean, the former brother love himself. It was really fun to get to talk to him. He was great. We love his podcast. And if you guys stick around to the end of the show, we're going to tease our interview with him,

just a quick snippet of it. And all next week we're going to be dropping episodes, a little mini episodes of him going over the WrestleMania card. And us going over the WrestleMania card. Yeah, I mean. And maybe some other people going over the WrestleMania card. There's going to be a lot of WrestleMania talk next week. Next week is going to be a bit,

going to be a big week on the amazing feed of the Maskman show. Which, by the way, review it five stars on iTunes. Very helpful. Or, you know, review it four stars, but don't review it anything less. Yeah, please. Listen, before we get too deep into the show this week, we got a lot of WrestleMania talk, and like I said, that interview will be at the end of the show as discussed. But before we get into it, just, I want to say, just, you know, send out prayers and well-wishes to Jim Ross and his wife, Jan.

I'm sure everybody probably saw online that she got into a bad Vespa accident I've had the honor and pleasure of meeting lots and lots of pro wrestlers

and pro wrestling talent over the years and I got to tell you I couldn't rank the number of geek out moments I've had getting to meet my idols from childhood and just people I really respect working backstage. I say this not I'm not I'm not this isn't an overstatement to say that my favorite human being that I've ever met related to pro wrestling is Jan Ross and I've had the honor of having dinner with her a couple of times and just talking to her in VIP areas and she's just the most just honest and and and goodhearted and amazing person and you hear this kind of thing all the time but she balances out JR so well and in a very real way this is this is a shoot guys and I mean they're just perfect together

so yeah it's just terrible news that's coming over the wire and I just really hope for the best and for JR too Dave you have anything you to chime in on that I mean obviously I'm really bummed out and my best wishes are to both of them and everything I've heard about Jan

and about Jim has been positive People always say that Jim is one of the nicest guys on the planet. And I've never met Jan, unfortunately, compared to you, who's gotten to hobnob with the Ross family. But, you know, I've heard great things about her as well. And I hope for the best. I really do. All right.

Moving onward, this was, it felt like we were running behind and WrestleMania set up for about the last month and a half, just compared to where we usually are as these things get set up. I actually talked about this with Pritchard a little bit when we interviewed him that it used to be not that long ago that you knew the entire WrestleMania card coming out of the Royal Rumble. And even though we had heard rumors, there was very little on TV to indicate anything outside of, you know,

Triple H versus Rollins. And even that was, who knows, you know. but finally things have all kind of come into focus. We discussed this last week, and now they're just sort of polishing and sticking in the knife a little bit. There are a couple of really big moments that we want to talk about that happened this week, but the one that is freshest in both of our memories was Shane McMahon jumping off the top turnbuckle to outside the ring on the announce table to, try to

incapacitate AJ Stiles. It was a cool moment, but it felt a little bit familiar. Yeah, you could say that. And when I came in here today, you were watching it again, and I was like,

what are you watching this for again? Didn't you watch the show? And you're like, well, check this out. And then he showed me the exact same angle from last year on Raw. Fifty one weeks ago, almost to the day.

Yeah, so it was also It's also the penultimate raw before WrestleMania, right? You gotta put Shane over. I mean, I don't mean that in a derogatory way, but it's the moment where you prove Shane is a threat. And it worked once, this is pro wrestling. Let's just roll it back again.

As a matter of fact, Shane, do you have the same Henley that you wore last year and the same set of pair of jeans? Because we really need to make sure that this is the most reminiscent scene possible. So he was wearing the same clothes, as he pointed out, the only major difference is the angle. The camera angle

was different. They shot him from the other side of the announce table, which sort of exposed that he doesn't really nail that element. Actually, I think the original, I mean, this is going only on memory. The original raw airing he looked like he missed. Yeah. And I think that what we just

watched was the reverse angle that makes it look a little bit better. He usually does, though. I don't think, I kind of feel like with on that spot, you try to miss. Yeah, because he does this sort of thing where his arm is flailing a little bit and isn't quite, he's not bending it so that there's a sharp elbow. It's sort of floppy, and then he comes down on his back first, as opposed to like a macho man elbow where it really looks like it hurts.

I'm not saying that Shane McMahon is not a daredevil and a remarkable athlete. It's just not the best working elbow I've seen. I think with Shane in general, you just have to suspend disbelief. I mean, not that you don't know professional wrestling, but he does some things that are so great that you just got to go with it. Yeah, I mean, we're marking for the attempt for the fact that he's so fearless,

as opposed to, I can't believe he pulled off this seamless move. Because even the Van Terminator he did on Vince at WrestleMania 17 wasn't flawless. No. It wasn't like RVD did it. But it was good enough where it's like, wow, I can't believe Shane McMahon pulled off that spot and didn't kill himself.

Yeah, no, it's true. True, man. I mean, listen, I was, I was, I said that last week, I could, they just waited so long to pull the trigger on the Shane A.J. thing. And I get it. You got to, they, they were using A.J. to build suspense in the Smackdown title picture. But, you know, I mean. That's what's so funny about the fact that they just redid the same angle. It's like, well, what have we got in the drawer?

Yeah. It's also, it's also kind of mind-blowing to think of how much different, the difference a year can make to Shane McMahon. Man, I love Shane, and I'm probably more excited about this match than your average smart mark listening to the show. But, man, a year ago, he was, like, the number one wrestler in the company. He was so over. He's still over. He was not quite as over.

And I tell you, that spot is just, it pops every live crowd. It doesn't matter who it is. The elbow. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, no reason not to run it back, like I said. It was, I mean, this is another example of, before the elbow just kind of took me out of everything and I started watching Old Undertaker Shane highlights,

the thought that was on my mind was that, like, AJ came into the ring. Like, by appearances, he came into apologize, and Shane just beat him up. Now, listen, I'm not going to make some, like, meta-argument about how the faces are heels and everything else because, you know, Hulk Hogan was raking backs back in 1984.

before. But I was kind of confused as to whether or not A.J. was lying. You know what I mean? Yeah, well. Was that a false apology so that he could take a swing and then Shane just swung first? Or was AJ actually sorry? I mean, I think it was not intended to be so ambiguous. I just feel like Shane was probably like really hot and decided he's just going to go for it or something.

But I think the intention was that he was being disingenuous. because he's a heel because he's AJ Stiles because that's what he does. But it seemed like they skipped the step. They should just make Shane a heel GM. Or wait, is it a commissioner? What is he? He's a commissioner.

Yeah, and Daniel Bryan is the GM. They should make him heel commish. And just like once a month he fires somebody by elbowing them through an announce table. Just straight up, like he comes to work every week with a black guy and blood running down his forehead. Some jerk beat me up in the parking lot. No, no, just self-inflicted.

Oh, he's beating himself up. Okay. Running his head against walls. Speaking of Commissioner Mick Foley was fired this week. Yep. No longer the general manager of rock. Yeah, I mean, the titles are interchangeable. They've been used in various ways.

I remember Teddy Long was the assistant general manager to Vicki Guerrero for a while. At least now in the Brands Split era, Vince was very clear about his children being commissioners and they were appointing GMs. Yeah, I know there's a contingent of people. out there on Reddit or various message boards who are sick of the McMahon's. But it's the most logical way to set up a brand split of, all right, I got two kids, I got two TV shows. You get one TV show, you get another TV show. See, there's not more McMans.

We just have so much more wrestling content. Linda could be the general manager of Nxti. She's managing her own pro wrestling promotion right now down in Washington. So, yeah, Mick Foley is no longer the GM. I guess Triple H gets in XT. That's a he's a McMahon. Yeah, he's basically a McMahon. They got to bring Rod McMahon.

Vince's brother, Vince has a mysterious brother named Rod. I'll be damned. And the stories that I heard is that creative had a plan for bringing Rod in for like a decade. And they just could never pull the trigger on it. Because Lord knows we need another one. The funny thing is if they brought in Rod McMahon, like nobody's, Nobody would believe it was really Vince's brother. And it wouldn't make any difference at all.

Imagine WrestleMania 2000 if there's McMahon in every corner, but Rod McMahon shows up with, oh, let's say, I don't know, Albert. Albert is in the main event. I got to say that was a great segment to lead Raw. Raw was really hot up until... Brooklyn, man. Yeah, Brooklyn was on fire. I'm picturizing wrestling at Barclay Center.

It's a great man. The crowds really show up. Yeah, but then they totally... took a dump on Bailey and Nia Jacks and... Really? Yeah, yeah. I was watching...

You know what? You know how I am, I understand. I tune out the crowd noise and the announcers like 60% of the time and not on purpose. Like I just am sort of like unless the crowd is doing

something really specific. They were chanting for page. They were chanting for page during the match. We will not be... This is a formal announcement that we will not be commenting on any sex tapes

that have been leaked this week. I thought that I thought that Bailey and I jacks match was really fun. Yeah, that's why I was so bummed they were chanting for Page. But not to dwell on that too much. They were on fire for Mick Foley. McFoly reciprocated and cut a great promo, tearing up his index cards. Triple H comes out, cuts an even better promo.

Stephanie is great in that segment. And then Sammy Zane steps up, comes out, and they set up the first match of the night, him, and Samoa Joe. I thought it was excellently paced. or that everybody was on their game. And I thought it did, even though Sammy Zane lost, he got over. He got over, stepping up to Triple H and Stephanie McMahon. Man, there's nothing I love more on the wrestling internet

than people lamenting the Sammy Zane spot in the company. He's golden, man, he's fine. Don't worry about Sammy Zane. I think I said it three weeks ago or something like that. But this is who Sammy Zane is. Now, listen, we can all be afraid that his career is going to follow the arc of, like, Dolf Ziegler or something like that. But, I mean, Sammy Zane gets put in these positions to, I mean, if you don't, even if

you're not winning, you're getting, you can get yourself over, you can, you're in the, you know, some semblance of the spotlight. And he's just close enough to the peri, you know, periphery of the main event picture that when they decide to pull the trigger, he'll be right there. Yeah, and he's got, you know, connections in the, in the office that are going to make sure he's never going to be Dolf Ziegler. He's a triple H guy. Yeah, he's also, I mean, there's stories, but this is not reporting.

This is, you know, stuff that I've heard from other people, from other people who know stuff. I mean, he speaks his mind backstage. He spoke his mind. He's spoken his mind on, like, WW programming on, like, the Breaking Ground Show and stuff like that. Yeah. Like, he's a, he's, you know, he's a, he's a full, fully formed character backstage, but I don't think anybody's mad at him. So it's, yeah, he'll be there. Let me ask you this.

All I'm saying is if you want to, if you want to actually do like a K-Faber metric breakdown of like his and Ziegler's career arc and say like this is what we're worried about this moment where if you pass this moment and your push is dwindled, then whatever. That's fine. I don't want to hear how he's getting buried about how he's like his pushes over or anything like that. He's an underdog. Come on. This is, it's just semantics. And there's not, there's not a, I mean, there's not a roster spot for everybody in the main event at WrestleMania. I feel okay about saying he's gonna be fine

K Faber Metrics is the best thing you've ever said Second thing let me ask you Who's your next raw general manager if you could pick anybody? Well I mean I don't I don't even know accounts of spoilers anymore in pro wrestling The rumors is that it's gonna be Kurt Engel right And I think that would be a funny Kurt Angley role I watched a lot of Kurt Engel footage this week Unrelated sort of to

You know the Hall of Fame I guess there's something not much difference. He's skinny Kurt Engel was the scariest Kurt Engel. Remember in TNA where he was like training for the Olympics and he dropped down to like a buck 90 or something like that? He didn't have a neck anymore. Oh my gosh, he was so scary. But yeah, I mean, I think I will say I think Engel is an incredibly talented comic actor,

but that was just never my favorite angle. Like I just wanted sort of like monster in the ring. Tough Guy angle? See, I was always a mark for Kurt Engel drinking glasses of milk and flirting with Stephanie McMahon and playing the ukuley and Steve Austin.

Well, that whole Austin angle thing, I wish that there was like, I want a documentary about that. Maybe after Simmons gets done with Andre the Giant thing, we can just do two hours on what that was supposed to be. Or we can ask our new friend Bruce Pritchard

to do an episode of something to wrestle. That was so great. But, I mean, that was so far I think that there I don't mind him being an inherently funny character

as a wrestler you know but I think just sometime when he was like when he was the GM was he the GMF Smackdown previously when he was in the wheelchair

or whatever he was injured that is a little bit a little bit too much I just think he just shows a little bit too much ass I don't mind it like it's not again

it's just my not my cup of tea I'm not critiquing the product or anything but the but yeah so anyway I think he would be I think he would be really good at that Do you have any other ideas that you were thinking of?

Broken Matt Hardy. Imagine the broken universe taking over Monday Night Raw. So the rumors popped up yesterday that both the Hardy signed contracts. Right. We talked to that. We fantasy booked a little Ring of Honor thing a few weeks ago. Do you think it's more or less likely that that's going to happen? If you want to indulge my conspiracy theory, this can be evidence because they were free agents.

and if WW was acquiring the whole kit and caboodle, they'd probably still have to sign the Hardee's clean as WWE employees. Right. Because their Ring of Honor contracts are short-term. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, Broken Matt Hardy would be really good. Although that's a little bit too much.

I want a guy or gal who can work straight, like 75% of the time. Somebody with it, like Daniel Bryan is perfect. He's got a backstory. He's got a backstory. He's got enough character to really get invested in the storyline when it calls for it. But most of the time, he's just a sort of gruff GM backstage. You're not always gruff. He's just a human being, you know, who is making matches because that's his job.

And it doesn't, everything doesn't have to be, you know, the GM isn't doing everything because of some, like, arch plan to rest control of the company or whatever, or because they're a heel, you know, or whatever. or, you know, McFoly's heyday was those old shows where he would pop up as a guest GM and do the clipboard shows, you know? I mean, like that stuff is always so good. And by the way, what's to be lost? I mean, what's to be, what does Raw lose by starting off every episode and just saying, like, guess what?

Here are six matches. Well, that's what it used to happen. It only became, there only became a superstructure of matchmaking in the attitude era, when they decided to say that Vince McMahon is the owner of the company, and he gets to make the matches, and he has all the control. Oh, no, no, I know. But, like, why not have every show just feel like, or a lot of shows just feel like a clipboard show?

Instead of having, why do we need to find out matches are happening by, like, the Michael Cole voiced bumpers at the end of the first segment? And when he's just like, and tonight, Roman Reigns versus Ron Stroman. Presumably this is on Twitter earlier. I'm not checking WW's Twitter feed to find out what matches are tonight. But, like, I would just start off every show by just the GM coming out and just be like, guess what? There's the card.

We got a lot of stuff. Bailey versus Niagara Jacks is a really good match. Like, I'm excited about this. Yeah, I would prefer that to what they do now, which is, you know, promos or weird justifications for having matches, or like what they did on Monday. To circle back to the original topic is you had to have Mick Foley get fired, and then you had to have Sammy Zane come out, and then Sammy Zane had to challenge Stephanie who then brings out Samoa Joe

so that they can have their match. And you could have just said, Samojo is wrestling Sammy Zane tonight. Yeah. Listen, I don't mind if things happen organically, but it's just fun for me when you start off a show and you're like, we have wrestling tonight and not just like I have a thing.

I have some grievances to voice, you know? Absolutely. It's a little bit melodramatic. Anyway, speaking of melodrama. And by the way, I'll think of somebody who would be a great GM for this show. Our guest at the end of the episode, Bruce Pritchard, if he weren't employed by TNA,

it would be really awesome right now. Just bring back brother love. Wouldn't that be a great WW heel move if they just got a fake brother love as the GM? No one would know what it was. I guess it depends on the crowd. If they're in like Philly, people would know. If you got to do an old wrestler, I mean, the problem is you just don't know. Kevin Nash.

He's too big. You got to go somebody who looks a little bit human. That's why Daniel Bryan's so great because people look giant standing next to him. And he has a specific rationale for never. getting physical with the talent because you can't you know it would be really okay I have two ideas neither of them are good ideas from a from a rumor and innuendo perspective but one Jake the Snake Roberts would be a really great GM just like I mean who knows what is you know what life on the road would be like or whatever but I mean if you somebody who like old who's old enough that

he's not you're not worried about him getting in the ring and can just talk for days Yeah. That would be really interesting. Two, the best heel, and you made me think of this. If you want to go full-on, like, Stephanie and Triple H, he'll move. Just give it to Xbox. Oh, man. Just Sean Waltman with his hair slipped back in a suit.

I think that would be awesome. He would do a good job at that. Yeah. It would be hilarious. And you'd have the sort of, like, the click backstory to it. And, oh, I'm going to bury this guy, but I'm going to get this guy over. and all the rumors about him being a prankster in the back, and you can do a little skits with him pretending to take a dump in someone's bag.

It'd be great. It'd be great. Oh, man, that would be fun. Okay, anyway, speaking of melodrama, as I was going to say, Raw ended with another big kind of hastily put together setup for WrestleMania, and that's the Roman Raines Undertaker Battle for the Yard. Again, my question revolves around Braun-Stromen, although I don't want to, like, get too far ahead of myself here.

They set up this match, like, it was going to be the blow-off, and clearly we all knew what was going to happen. There were, like, nine video packages throughout the three hours of, here's the history of Roman Reins v. Braun Strowman. I didn't realize there was so much history. I thought they just fought one time. It was a lot of build-up for an inevitable conclusion, which was the Undertaker appearing.

Right. And choke-slaming Braun. Which didn't seem to go over well with The Undertaker. He looked a little pained by that. Well, Ron's a big guy. He's a big man. And it didn't really go over. It wasn't a good plan for The Undertaker because he set himself up to get speared.

Yeah, why don't you just attack Roman Rains in the parking lot? Bronz Roman is all right. Well, yes, parking lots were all serious attacks should take place. But Ron Straman's already, like, showed his deference to the Undertaker. Like, why is the Undertaker worried about Ron Strowman standing behind it? That's a good point. I still think this is going to end up with Bronz Stromen joining the Undertaker

or join, I mean, I guess he can't team up with Roman Raines at this point. Well, Braun Stromen is more over babyface than Roman Rains is. He's got to be involved in that match, yeah, because he's not on the card. Maybe we can't have Bronze Tremont. Did I fantasy book Bronzhroman as the underfaker last week?

Yes, he did. Okay, new one. I'm fantasy booking Bronz Strowman as guest referee for this match in the Sean Michael's bicycle like short shorts. Oh yeah, I remember those That was what he always wore when he was doing I'm the commissioner, but I'm also the special guest referee

Yeah, wouldn't that be great? I don't know if I want to see Braun in bicycle shorts But, you know, it'd be a, it's great, sure It'd be like he'd be like the new Damien Sandow Like, oh, I'm just going to pretend to be everybody else on the roster He's very deeply involved in this match I feel like, I mean, in this feud I feel like you should have a, you should have a formal part in it

Yeah. And like guest ring announcer or whatever. That would actually be kind of funny thing. He could be a one-man lumberjack match. There you go. Boom. Yeah. And also the referee.

I'm not giving up. Yeah. So did we get any, I mean, did we anything change about that feud in that segment? No, Undertaker just reasserted himself, basically. Like, I'm still a badass, but then also Roman Raines asserted himself. So, you know, we're at the stalemate portion of the angle. where everybody's got to look strong. Yeah.

But there really isn't a story here. It's the simplest wrestling tale there is. I think I'm better than you. Well, I think you're not. Of all of the meta stories that, I mean, which I spend way too much time thinking about, the greatest meta story that's happening this year at WrestleMania is I don't know if film the blank can wrestle.

You're not talking about Maurice, are you? Well, no, I said, we know that she can work, but it's been a long time. But, like, if you look at Undertaker, Goldberg, yeah. Shane McMahon. Yeah. Well, I guess you can throw Maurice in there, too. Yeah. It's been a long time since she worked a match.

And then you go to, like, the kind of second level. I'm just like, I know I've seen this guy wrestle, but I'm still not sure if he can wrestle. Like, Baron Corbyn. Barrett's had some good matches. Let's throw Mojo Ralee in there. even though he's in a battle royal. We haven't really seen him work a long match. Certainly not something on the level of a WrestleMania.

Sure. Main card match. You know. This will be Nia Jackson's longest match, probably. This could be, is WrestleMania going to be Bray Wyatt's, like, fourth match in the last calendar year? He has not wrestled a lot. You're right. And he was in a tag team for a lot of them.

No, he's wrestled. He's wrestling more than I give him credit for. We're not thinking about house shows. You know, I was when I talked to the big show. for this piece I'm writing for Bleach Report. Big show was like, yeah, you know, I'm winding down my career. And I said, oh, yeah, you're not really working a full-time schedule because you're on TV.

And he's like, no, man, I'm doing the house show loops. I'm on the road. I'm working matches. You just don't see them. We need a new chant. Fans out there that all, since probably there's a million people listening to this, I could easily start a chant at any given arena. Instead of you can't wrestle, we just need the can you wrestle question mark.

I love this idea. When people are entering their ring. You're fired today with that and the K-fabromatrix. You don't fire. We got to, well, K-fabermetrics is an old joke. We got to talk about Triple H's various promos this week and also get to some Twitter questions. But before we do, a quick word from one of our sponsors,

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with promo code BSPN25 at betDSI.com. And this episode of The Masked Man Show is also brought to you by our new wrestling podcast, Missing Ron Simmons. My name is Ron Simmons. I'm from Warner Robbins, Georgia. I play middle of guard, 6-1-238. That's Ron Simmons.

Or maybe you know this Ron Simmons. Damn! Or maybe you might remember this Ron Simmons. Damn! And then, One night, when my internet cut out, Ron Simmons was gone. And now I'm missing Ron Simmons.

You been watching the March Madness tourney? Off and on, yes. You know, being a sports writer, I am forced contractually to watch college basketball. I was watching a lot of it this weekend. RIP Duke. And, oh, man, what does it tell you? What is it pay-per-view when your biggest heel goes out that early in the show?

Oh, my God. You know what I realized this week? No, what? Dick Vital is Enzo Amorei. This is important. These guys are, like, Inzo Amore is a trendsetter in many ways. But if we could get Inzo Amore on the mic, just reading lines from, like, Dick Vital catchphrases, you would be shocked. I get, they're the same person.

Well, let's go the opposite direction and say, can we get Dick Fital to cut an Inzo Amore promo, or better yet, redo his... is very strangely erotic Georgia Gold KFC commercial, where he started talking about wanting to take a bucket of chicken on a date. Enzo hasn't done a KFC commercial for WW yet, have they? Yeah, they have. Inzo and Cass? Oh, they did one. Well, I only know this because I finally caught up with Southpaw Regional Wrestling. So good.

The pre-roll ad for every episode is the Georgia Gold KFC commercial. Oh, wow. Anyway I would give anything To get Dick Vital You know We're doing a piece About him on the ringer

Maybe I can talk to the writer And get him just to say Hey can you say Cup of Hadas for me It's a cup of haters baby That's a really good impression Thanks man You're welcome baby

Yeah All right Triple H Triple H did the The bicycle this week He did He cut a great promo on Rock calling out Seth Rolins.

I mean, he'd be really awesome if Seth Rons just, like, took a pass on that, like, you know, what was the, what's the contract terms? The hold harmless, hold harmless. Which is funny because then Daniel Bryan tweets out, got to learn more about these hold harmless contracts for matches because, you know, he's chomping the bit to wrestle. But, yeah, so I thought that was a, that was good triple H. This whole week was good triple H. I mean, just that backstage mama where he said, have a nice day to McFoli, was just excellent. And then the promo I thought was, you know,

it was vintage Triple H for better for worse, but I really enjoyed it. And then he was on first take the next day, which is just so bizarre. Just seeing him in that place. Yeah. Seeing them, I mean, listen, there's probably some gigantic essay to be written

if it wasn't already written at the, you know, if enough wasn't already said during the election about the sort of WWU. of the entire culture. If any part of ESPN is just clearly pro wrestling at this point, it's first take. Just arbitrary, phase alignments and just, yeah, promo cutting left and right.

But it was funny to see CUNA Smith to some extent, but especially Kellerman, just sort of like figuring out the right way to embrace Triple H as their guests. Kellerman actually just asked a lot of, I mean, he wasn't working, He was just asking very good questions that are real questions. I have no idea if this is the case, but I have a feeling he's probably a fan.

That's a really interesting point. Yeah, I don't know, but I think he probably is. But anyway, or he hates it. If you're a boxing fan, you're either all in or you're just thinking it's the worst thing. Anyway, and then he did, like I said, he did Rosenberg's podcast. Triple H has been everywhere this week, man. One of the best spokespeople for WWE that's ever been. He's so good.

I was texting with you and Steve and Dan and we were talking about his appearance on first take and I believe it was me who said there was no way Vince McMahon could pull that off could go on to ESPN to first take and not get offended by something. Yeah, not try to choke Stephen A. Smith. But yeah, so anyway, I enjoyed Triple H-Bing everywhere.

He's really, really good at what he does. And like the best wrestling promos, like he can say, He was giving information about the performance center in Orlando on first take that I knew, and I probably heard him say. And it always just feels fresh and interesting. He's very good at being a spokesperson. He's great at being a spokesperson. We talk about this a little bit in our interview with Bruce Richard, which is about to come up.

Before we get there, we have a couple of Twitter questions. All right. So first of all, we have a tweet. We got to get out of here because we have to put this on the end. We have to put the interview on the end of the show. So let's do a speed round. Question number one is from at Main Man 1. And it's a photo of the Wyatt family beatdown of Randy Orton from last night's Smackdown.

And there is a picture of a guy in a sheep mask who looks surprisingly like Dean Ambrose. So the question is, is that Dean Ambrose and is Dean Ambrose joining the Wyatt family? And we just have no idea. No. But you know who else? Speaking of which, you know who else looks a lot like Dean Ambrose is Luke Harper, who apparently was wrestling this week in a black tank top and more form-fitting jeans. Oh, good.

Good. It's time for him to give a bunch of weight, and he's like, he looks diesel now. He's ready to rip it up. Real quick, at Reading WB makes a point to say that it was Paul Bear. Paul Bear was played by Paul Heeman during the Punk-Taker feud and not by CM Punk. That's right. You had said it was CM Punk. Why do I have a very vivid memory of

Sam Punk in a fat suit? I don't know. I don't know. I think you're thinking of when Kevin Nash played Vince McMahon on Thunder. Wait. No, Kevin Nash played

Arne Anderson. He also played Vince McMahon. Look at up. Supercut of wrestlers playing other people. Okay. Love the show, but why do you pronounce

Oscar with a sh sound? Asked at Eric X-L-O. Because like I said before earlier the show, I don't listen to the announcers enough. Yeah, it's definitely Oscar. Let's see if we got any more here.

We have a lot of tweets about the Dennis Jam Battle Royal. We've talked about potentially doing this as its own separate episode. The Memorial Battle Royal. Memorial Battle Royal. So we'll get to that soon. Keep sending us those to at Mass Man Show on Twitter. We will definitely do this. Maybe its own episode, maybe not.

I'm excited about this. I guess I want to see these. Oh, and finally, at G. Ether 101 asks, why would you rather be at a house show instead of WrestleMania, which is what you said last week? I would rather be – I've talked about this before on the show. I don't go to that many house shows, obviously. I mean, there's only so often it comes through your town. But I went to one out here in L.A. soon after I moved out here. And it was at Staple Center.

It was full-size. And it was so much fun. I mean, it was just so good. And I think – without being too long-winded about it, I – there's no. Nothing like being a part of a great, you know, raw in Brooklyn crowd or the epitome is the raw after WrestleMania. To be a part of a great smarky crowd or you're chanting everything, you're a full party to, you know, you're like kind of hijacking the show. That's fun. You know what I mean, don't get me wrong.

I love that stuff. But that's most of what I experience. At this point, I prefer, there's something just magical and wonderful about a house show because the crowd is, there's no camera. The crowd's not playing the camera, and instead, we direct all of our energy towards making the show better. Yeah. And you're all just, it's not like a conscious decision. You sit down, the lights go down, and that's part of it. It's darker in there.

It's like a spotlight on the ring. And it just happens naturally. You're just part of the fabric and very old-fashioned way of, like, cheering for the faces and booing the heels and just interacting. And it's just this wonderful, cool feeling. And if you can, we were talking about it last week. If you can, on top of that, give us a, you know, give us a crowd a giant surprise, like Triple H and Finn Baller are wrestling tonight. Oh, man.

I mean, that's where I would rather be. And there's also the thing where I'm just like a disaff-like, I'm just a, I've been to WrestleMania enough times, and I love it, and everybody should go, and everybody should pay whatever WW wants you to pay to go. You should definitely do it once or twice, or if it's in your home, you know, if it keeps coming to your hometown, go over and over again. But, you know, it's, it's, I've done it before. And it's a lot.

It's a lot. It's going to be nine and a half hours this year or something. On that note of WrestleMania weekend, last, last, last question. At WWPN, Bello asks, was, is a physical WWE Hall of Fame being stifled by the Trump effect, i.e., because Donald Trump, President of the United States, is in the WWE Hall of Fame? I don't think that has anything to do with it.

I don't think the WWE. The W.W.E Hall of Fame, the physical WVE Hall of Fame is not going to be like 40 statues of the people who are in. It's just going to be like a memorabilia spot. Yeah, it's going to be a place to buy T-shirts. It's a hard-draft cafe or the W.W.E. The World. What's it called? WWE New York was what it was. W.W.F. New York. It wasn't the world or the globe after they changed over to WWE. Oh, okay. I think they're probably more concerned about Sunny being in the Hall of Fame than Donald Trump. There's a lot of people that they could be concerned about being in the Hall of Fame. Yeah. All right. Well, those are a question.

for this week, keep sending them at Mass Man Show or to meet at Dave Underscor. One more addendum to the previous question. Also, WrestleMania works better when you're watching it at home. So anyway, without further ado, is a little sneak preview of our talk with Bruce Pritchard. We talked to him for an hour. We're going to release it next week, probably in pieces. Apologies to Dean Ambrose, and we'll see you back next week, probably earlier than usual. So check your feeds, humanoid. We are joined now by the one, the only. The wrestling legend and these days the podcasting legend, Bruce Pritchard. Bruce, how are you doing today, man? Man, I'm excellent. Thank you guys. Legend, that's kind of just fast and loose with a term, you know. We're just trying to put you over, Bruce.

That's our job today. It's to put you over. I used to be over. Which you can get on pro wrestling teas.com. There you go. Listen, everybody knows you from your history with WWE, and I'm sure everyone listening to this. knows of your podcast, something to wrestle with Bruce Pritchard. If you don't know it,

you got to listen to it. It's literally the only wrestling podcast I listen to on a regular basis, and that's including my own. Listen, we have a lot of WrestleMania talk we want to get to, but right off the top, I'm just sort of, I'm just sort of captivated by, you know, your current podcasting career. I know you're back with TNA now, but you started off, the business with Paul Bosch, who one of the weird eccentricities about his career is that he did wrestling radio, I believe. And now you're doing this podcasting thing, spending a lot of your time doing that. What do you think Paul Bosch would have said if he had heard one of your podcasts and how much you're breaking down the behind the scenes going on of the wrestling world?

Probably roll over in his grave, just telling me about how I'm killing the business. But if we were to listen to all the pundits over the years the business would have been dead a long time ago uh yeah triple h was on espn this morning as we're recording this um and i you know i was just totally captivated by the way that he just sort of you know uh engaged as if you know on kind of both halves of both sides of the coin and we're wrestling they kind of treated as if wrestling was legit but also they're you know kind of winking at the audience uh what what is the time of the time of you know what is the tightrope that someone like Triple H walks when they do a mainstream interview like that? You know, it's kind of a tough role to play because on one end of the spectrum, you are

viewed by the general audience as, you know, a bad guy authority figure. On the other side of that spectrum, you're viewed as the heir apparent and the guy that's running everything behind the scenes. These days, the two, you know, those lines aren't nearly as blurred as they used to be. So you do. You got to kind of walk that tightrope. And I think that it's no different than having an actor who also happens to be the executive producer on a film, go out and talk about his role and just embracing that role and

becoming one with it. And then also, hey, by the way, folks, he's the executive producer of this movie, too. I think it all goes hand in hand. The audience is much more sophisticated now. I was talking to the big show recently about social media and how the people in WWE now are dealing with the fact that they have to sometimes be in K-Fabe on Twitter, and sometimes they, like the Sasha Banks'es of the world

or Charlotte are often talking to each other or to the fans as themselves. And do you think that there's a better or a worse way to sort of deal with K-Fabe on social media? Because you're doing quite well on Twitter, right now? I think that the K-Fabe of old is dead. I don't think that there, I think people view the talent as ordinary people with real lives and real careers outside of the business. I think that you can go into any business and any company in the world, any relationship in the

world, and understand, especially in business, that there's a business relationship, and then there's a personal relationship. You may not like someone in the business world, but you get along with them after work having a few beers. It's no different in sports and entertainment and everything else. So again, times have changed. And I think that if you don't adapt and you don't grow, you get gobbled up and die. Speaking of which, you know, the wrestling world in some ways gets bigger all the time.

and in some ways it keeps consolidating in the backyard of WWE. But talking about, you know, growing and moving on, have you talked to anybody at WWE since you started doing your podcast? And is there, you know, I just find it kind of amazing that of all the wrestlers that have left WWE, you probably got yourself over post-WWW more than anybody else. I don't know about that. I do speak to a few friends that I have there. probably speak to more people that used to work there than I ever did before.

But it's, yeah, I think for the most part, they're aware of it. They've heard it. They listen to it. And there's also, I'll tell you the funny thing, whenever I get an order at brucepritcher.com that has a 203 area code because I call everybody that orders the shirt, that's always interesting. Because I've had quite a few that kind of say, oh, hey, And by the way, man, I work there. And do you know this guy?

So that's always fun. Are there any talents, current or former, that have bought shirts that you've been called and been like, oh, hey, I know it's ex-person and how are you doing? And that kind of thing. No, but there have been a few writers that have that I worked with before or that kind of came after me. And quite a few folks in production, which was pretty cool. But no, no talent. I've made sure that they're talent that have their share of merchandise to plug for me, but none that I know of that have bought any.

Well, they get all the free t-shirts they can wear anyway. Exactly. All right. I do want to bring up one thing, and that is Andre the Giant, because the big boss over here, Bill Simmons, is producing an Andre the Giant documentary for HBO, and we're really excited about that. And you probably are one of the most capable people to talk about Andre in the world besides Vincent Kennedy McMahon or Shane or Stephanie. So what are you, I don't know if you're familiar with the project or the fact that it's coming out, but what do you, what would you like to see in the definitive Andre documentary?

I think that Andre as a whole, just such a fascinating human being to be able to tell that. story from a giant perspective. What I mean by that is here was a guy, seven, four, 500 pounds. You know, now he ballooned up to 500 pounds later in his career. But he traveled the world. And he traveled the world as a giant, no matter where he went, no matter what he did, he was gawked at and stared at, and people would ooh and awe. It everything he did.

no matter where he was or what he was doing. He never truly got to experience normalcy except give for the times that, you know, he was on his ranch in North Carolina. Was the one time that, you know, he could really just be himself and not have anybody looking into him like ooh and awe. But even then, you go back and you look at the special recliner that he had, there. Everything was bigger, a little bit bigger for a giant. But those fascinating things, having Tony Lama make him custom boots, the first time that he had custom cowboy boots and how much he loved him. Paul Bosch making him a wristwatch out of a giant pocket watch. Yeah, I remember that from your Houston wrestling episode. That was crazy.

Right. And just, you know, people in general looking at him like, oh my God, you know, he's the giant and constantly, you know, smiling and posing for pictures, whether he was in a good mood or a bad mood. And sometimes he could be a grumpy giant. He could be a very grumpy giant at times. But I think that to analyze life is a giant would be, It's just fascinating to me, going to Japan and having to lay in a bed that is built for the average Japanese, which their average height is under six feet. And here you got somebody seven foot four with, you know, his calves hanging off the edge of the bed, not being able to fit in a bathroom and a toilet in Japan. And having to take a dump on newspaper. Oh, my God.

So, you know, those are things that people kind of, well, gosh, I never thought of that. Yeah. Yeah. You know, they didn't think about having the plane trip to Japan, and how in the hell is he going to relieve himself? I mean, even the idea of him being on the plane seems not manageable because of his size. I mean, I'm really excited to find out more about him. And yeah, yeah, I mean, he's one of the most, if not the most important professional wrestling figure of his time. I'm just thinking about that newspaper now.

I mean, somebody would be selling that on eBay, if that were today. March Madness is finally underway and there's no better place to bet on games than Bet DSI. Their live in-game wagering lets you make plays throughout the games at home or on the go. And now, in honor of March Madness, Bet DSI. is having a million dollar bracket contest for our listeners. You get a free $25 credit just for registering, as well as a 200% bonus on your first deposits when you use the promo code BSPN25.