Puro Pourri Podcast

The tea is not so much cold as absolute zero, but you don't listen to this podcast for the timeliness of the things we cover, do you? And if you do, we really hope you at least got something out of that episode where we reviewed Nick Bockwinkel vs. Billy Robinson. Join George, Daniel and David as they spit their vitriol and spurt their sweet balm of praise over NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 13, in which David very nearly manages to produce an ASMR that consists entirely of exasperated sighs over Gedo's booking, KUSHIDA departs for the States and leaves us with the biggest dose of nightmare fuel since Hieronymus Bosch's last LSD trip, and Chris Jericho's transformation into yer da reaches what is hopefully its final form. Kick back, listen in, fuck Graham Linehan.

NOTE: At present this is a rough cut of the audio, a refined version will be going live within the next few days. Listen at your own risk! (Although we could say that about any of our episodes to be honest.)

It's the most wonderful time of the year, the ladgter is very much in the offing, and it's time once again for the Puro Pourri Podcast to celebrate Christmas is the only way they know how; by getting slightly fucked up and talking random shite. This year we bring you a Q&A with questions provided by our lovely fans, a medium dive into the wonderful world of Chinese wrestling (thanks go to friend of the podcast Terry Riley), and the age-old question is finally answered; which puro wrestlers would we have over for Christmas dinner, and who would cook it? So there it is, the second-ever Puro Pourri Podcast Christmas Special, the Lynx Africa gift set of podcast eps. You didn't want it, but you've got it.

When a Michinoku Pro match involving The Undertaker isn't even the weirdest thing covered in an episode, you know we're in for some fun. The hosts conclude their side-eyed look at Hulkamania-era WWF wrestlers in Japan with a vast smorgasbord of delights including Hacksaw Jim Duggan embarking upon the worst reading of an audience since Michael Richards in 2006, Hulk Hogan proving that he can wrestle but just chooses not to, which AJW wrestler does the best ASMR videos, and a friend of the podcast's one-person guerrilla campaign against racist old snooker-pocket-botherer Jim Davidson. And just to confirm, yes, we're as surprised we've pushed out two episodes within the space of a month as you are.

Matches:

Genichiro Tenryu, Ashura Hara and Ultimo Dragon vs. Jerry Estrada, Kamala and Hacksaw Jim Duggan (SWS, 16 June 1992)

Hulk Hogan vs. The Great Muta (NJPW, 3 May 1993)

Macho Man Randy Savage vs. Jushin Liger (NJPW, 17 July 1996)

The Undertaker vs. Hakushi (Michinoku Pro, 10 October 1997)

It's about to come crashing down, and by gum I believe it's about to hurt inside. In the first of a two-parter, the hosts finally leave PRIDE behind and dive into an underappreciated but very interesting aspect of the Hulkamania era - what its biggest stars were getting up to in Japan. Just like his best friend's wife, you'll have to wait for the Hulkster to come, but in the meantime we've got four matches for your delectation, and along the way David, Daniel and George talk about the most hung man in European wrestling, call about a dozen things fash, and slaughter a particular sacred cow so thoroughly PETA's put a bounty on their heads. Tuck your chin, chill out, and listen in to that Good Ol' Triple P.

Matches:

Andre the Giant vs. Stan Hansen (NJPW, 23 September 1981)

Jaguar Yokota (c) vs. Wendi Richter (WWWA Championship) (AJW, 5 October 1982)

Bret Hart vs. Tiger Mask II (WWF/AJPW/NJPW, 13 April 1990)

The Ultimate Warrior (c) vs. Ted DiBiase (WWF Championship) (WWF/AJPW/NJPW, 13 April 1990)

The P to the P to the other P return with the third and final instalment of their PRIDE Fighting Championship retrospective! Daniel, George and David have for your delectation another tranche of fights that combines the equal parts classic brutality and shitty nonsense that characterised Japan's greatest ever MMA promotion. Along the way we discuss the relative merits of violent combat sports and Jools Holland's Hootenanny as New Year's entertainments, which Brazilian MMA fighters would combine to make the best football team (complete with tactical discussions!), savour the sweet return of Podcast Spirit Animal Yoji Anjo, and end with an ill-advised musical number which Statto has been bound by penalty of Burning Hammer never to repeat. Enjoy, and tune in next time, when we'll actually discuss wrestling, honest...

Matches:

Wanderlei Silva (26-3-1) vs. Quinton Jackson (21-4) (PRIDE FC, 31 October 2004)

Yoji Anjo (0-4-1) vs. Ryan Gracie (4-2) (PRIDE FC, 31 December 2004)

Mauricio Rua (9-1) vs. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (11-1) (PRIDE FC, 26 June 2005)

Bob Sapp (4-3) vs. Akebono (0-0) (K-1, 31 December 2003)

The half-time oranges have been eaten and the surreptitious shots of ephedrine plugged into their arse cheeks, and the boys are back for the second part of #FootballIsProWrestling. Hepped up on a combination of extreme tiredness (George), inebriation (Daniel) and just being Scottish (David), podcasting's greatest back three run their VAR-enhanced eyes over the most rigged football matches of all time, as well as the greatest moments and angles from the sport that may be known as football officially, but is also very much pro wrestling. It certainly has a better claim to be wrestling than 2002 TNA.

Fresh off the heels of our warmly-received Robot Wars special, that good ol' P-to-the-P-to-the-other-P brings you #FootballIsProWrestling, an irreverent look at exactly why the greatest sport in the world can be explained in terms of the greatest simulated sport. In this, the first part of two, we cover footballers who turned their hand to pro wrestling, footballers we reckon would have excelled in the squared circle if they'd chosen to follow that path, and the greatest promos in the history of football (yes, we do talk about THAT Kevin Keegan interview). If somehow the modern world isn't giving you a sufficiently large fix of the beautiful game, why not listen in, and find out what happens when the hosts' natural inclination to talk fitba is given free rein...?

Dan has internet again, so we're back with the long-awaited (shut up) second part of our PRIDE FC retrospective. Join George, Daniel and David for another dive into the legitimate businessman-fuelled madness that was the boom period in Japanese MMA. We've got it all; the world's greatest pub car park fight, the most brutal German suplex outside of mid-90s AJPW, a succulent Chinese meal, and the most convoluted April Fool ever to involve a fake letter from Kensuke Sasaki's lawyers. Get this down you, and bask in the warm glow of that good ol' Triple P.

Matches:

Don Frye (14-1) vs. Yoshihiro Takayama (0-2) (PRIDE FC, 23 June 2002)

Mirko Cro Cop (5-0-2) vs. Igor Vovchanchyn (51-7) (PRIDE FC, 10 August 2003)

Fedor Emelianenko (18-1) vs. Kevin Randleman (15-7) (PRIDE FC, 25 April 2004)

Giant Silva (1-1) vs. Naoya Ogawa (6-0) (PRIDE FC, 20 June 2004)

With Daniel still fighting the greatest match of his career (against the internet providers of Madrid), Sarah Parkin joins George and David for a special look back at the career of one of the greatest wrestlers of all time, the legendary Aja Kong. Featuring a diverse selection of matches from across her career ahead of her UK debut for Pro Wrestling EVE on 5 May 2018, we take a trip through stiff kicks, muscle-shredding holds, blood-soaked cage matches and, most terrifyingly of all, 1995 WWF, pausing only to gush about how Meiko Satomura is as lovely out of the ring as she is fearsome within it, and to vent about the moral abyss that is Jerry "Allegedly" Lawler. Enjoy, and who knows, maybe next time we'll finally get around to finishing our PRIDE run!

Matches:

Bull Nakano (c) vs. Aja Kong (WWWA Championship) (AJW, 11 November 1990)

Aja Kong vs. Chaparita ASARI (WWF, 14 November 1995)

Aja Kong (c) vs. Meiko Satomura (AAAW Championship) (GAEA, 15 September 1999)

Aja Kong (c) vs. Chihiro Hashimoto (Sendai Girls World Championship) (Sendai Girls, 14 April 2017)

With one third of the podcast currently between flats, please find submitted for your delectation by David and George, to fill the gaping Triple P-shaped hole in your rich and fulfilling lives, a light and breezy look at Japan's biggest wrestling show of 2018, NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 12! Discover the secrets of the law offices of BRUCE THARPE DES, which New Japan wrestler's name can be sung to the tune of "Ebeneezer Goode" (hint: not Jado), and whether Hirooki Goto will ever inherit GotoCorp. Watch us quip, watch us nae nae.