It’s time for a special edition “Shootin’ The Shiznit” with “Rollin’ Into Mempho.” Brian Tramel is joined by RynoJB to review Championship Wrestling from Memphis for Episode 19 in their quick RT format ! 

They answer the following questions about the show:

-Hits?

-Misses?

-MVP??

-What do they want to see on next week’s show?

-THUMBS UP or THUMBS DOWN?

They reviewed this episode !
https://youtu.be/ba8vP7rkKns?si=gEperbI2sRCoZx30

Video Cast:
https://youtu.be/UOuOPO_lqTg?si=X9iz_4pCAPvIlPZF

On Episode #58 of Retro Wrestling with Gene Jackson, Gene sits down with one of professional wrestling’s great talkers, self promoters, storytellers, wrestlers, managers, and personalities: Rock Riddle, the original “Mr. Wonderful”. From the opening seconds, Rock proves exactly why he has spent decades captivating crowds, cutting promos, and making people pay attention. Gene introduces him as a star, a superstar, and even a megastar, but Rock immediately tops the introduction himself with the kind of larger than life, old-school wrestling bravado that only Rock Riddle can deliver.

This episode is less a standard interview and more a ride through Rock Riddle’s mind, memories, philosophy, and unmatched promotional instincts. Gene and Rock talk about legends, fan memories, the importance of showing appreciation while people are still here, old school wrestling class, Hall of Fame gatherings, Sgt. Slaughter, Pat Patterson, Rip Hawk, Swede Hanson, Michael Jackson, Sylvester Stallone, Terry Funk, the magic of professional wrestling, and the upcoming Gathering in Charlotte.

The biggest theme of this episode is the magic of old school professional wrestling. Gene asks Rock why wrestling connects so deeply with fans, and Rock answers through a series of stories. 

One of the most powerful stories is Rock’s memory of discovering Rip Hawk. As a bullied, skinny, shy kid, Rock saw Rip Hawk as cocky, arrogant, dangerous, and completely magnetic. That moment gave him a role model and eventually gave him a dream. Starting a Rip Hawk and Swede Hanson fan club led to meeting Rip, getting encouraged by him, and ultimately deciding that he would become the kind of wrestler he would want to sit in the front row and watch.

This is not a typical question and answer episode. It is Rock Riddle being Rock Riddle: funny, philosophical, engaging, reflective, promotional, inspirational, and completely in command of the microphone. It is exactly the kind of conversation that reminds you why professional wrestling is built on personalities, stories, memories, and moments that never really leave us.

For fans of old school wrestling, territory era promos, North Carolina wrestling history, CAC, The Gathering, Rip Hawk, Swede Hanson, Sgt. Slaughter, Pat Patterson, and the art of being larger than life, Episode #58 is a must listen.

On this episode of Huge Pop Entertainment Presents..., Huge Pop welcomes one of ECW’s most intense originals: “Pitbull #1” Gary Wolf. A former ECW World Television Champion and ECW World Tag Team Champion, Wolf joins the show for a raw, straight-ahead conversation about the Monster Factory, the Pitbulls, ECW, Paul Heyman, the legendary ECW locker room, road stories, broken necks, ribbing in Japan, and why respect still matters in professional wrestling.

Gary talks about growing up as a fan watching wrestling with his grandfather, seeing names like Hulk Hogan, Iron Sheik, Jimmy Snuka, Don Muraco, and Bob Backlund, and eventually finding his way into the business through the legendary Monster Factory in New Jersey. From there, the conversation follows his journey from training under old-school rules to becoming one half of one of ECW’s most memorable and physical tag teams.

One of the strongest parts of this interview is Gary’s discussion of the Monster Factory and how different training was when he broke in. He stresses respect, storytelling, psychology, and earning your place. To him, wrestling is not about how many flips someone can do. It is about making people care, bringing the crowd into the match, and knowing why you are doing what you are doing.

The ECW stories are exactly what fans would hope for. Gary talks about the locker room as a family, but also as a competitive environment where everyone wanted to have the best match of the night. The Pitbulls were physical, believable, and intimidating, but Gary makes it clear they were still working with psychology. They were not just out there throwing bodies around. They wanted the crowd to feel the fight.

The story of Gary breaking his neck is one of the most intense moments of the episode. He explains how he took the bump wrong, heard the crack, saw white, and somehow still drove himself to the hospital before finding out he had broken his C-1 vertebrae. The details about the halo, the pressure in his skull, and the six weeks of recovery are brutal, but they underline his point: wrestling may be predetermined, but it is absolutely not fake.

There is also plenty of classic road story madness, especially the stories involving Anthony Durante, Vader, Samu, Japan, ribs, drinking, shaving, tape, and the kind of insanity that could only come from old-school wrestling tours. Gary’s memories are blunt, funny, and exactly as wild as you would expect from someone who lived through that era.

This episode is a must listen for fans of ECW, the Pitbulls, the Monster Factory, old-school tag team wrestling, and the generation of wrestlers who learned respect the hard way. Gary Wolf does not sugarcoat much, but he gives credit where it is due, speaks with pride about what ECW meant, and makes it clear that the Pitbulls helped leave a mark that fans still remember decades later.

Follow Huge Pop Entertainment on Facebook at

facebook.com/HugepopPodcast

Subscribe to their YouTube Channel at

www.youtube.com/@HUGEPOPWRESTLING

On Episode #4 of Talkin’ Off The Top Rope, host “The Grizzled Vet” Michael McCurdy welcomes longtime wrestling historian, writer, radio host, filmmaker, teacher, and storyteller Evan Ginzburg. Best known to many fans as the producer of 350 Days, associate producer of The Wrestler, creator of Wrestling Then and Now, and author of books including Wrestling Rings, Blackboards and Movie Sets and Grindhouse, Arthouse and Wrestling Flicks, Evan brings a lifetime of wrestling, film, teaching, and New York memories to the show.

This conversation is built around the mission of the show: making sure the stories never die. Evan talks about falling in love with wrestling as a kid in the 1970s, watching WWWF on the UHF dial, seeing Chief Jay Strongbow fight back, attending Madison Square Garden with his father, and experiencing Bruno Sammartino, Pedro Morales, Killer Kowalski, Nikolai Volkoff, Fred Blassie, the Valiant Brothers, and so many others when they felt larger than life.

A major theme of this episode is memory. Evan does not just talk about wrestling as a list of matches, dates, and statistics. He talks about what it felt like to be there. He remembers sitting with his father, watching Bruno Sammartino become more than just a wrestler, and understanding that those nights mattered because of who you shared them with. That idea lines up perfectly with what Talkin’ Off The Top Rope is built to do.

The wrestling history in this conversation is tremendous, but the film discussion is just as strong. Evan explains how his love of cinema runs from grindhouse theaters and kung fu double features to classic musicals, horror, art films, and independent projects. He talks about why the theater experience still matters and why some films stay with us because of where we were, who we were with, and what they meant in that moment.

The stories about The Wrestler are another highlight. Evan walks us through how his wrestling connections eventually led him into the film’s orbit, working with Darren Aronofsky’s team, helping with wrestling related details, and seeing how the worlds of pro wrestling and independent film could come together.

The closing message is simple but powerful: help people and create art. Evan’s life has crossed wrestling rings, classrooms, radio studios, movie sets, newsletters, books, and documentaries, but the thread through all of it is passing something meaningful along to someone else.

For fans of old school WWWF, wrestling newsletters, movie history, The Wrestler, 350 Days, grindhouse cinema, and heartfelt storytelling, this episode is a deep and rewarding conversation with one of wrestling’s greatest historians.

Follow The Grizzled Vet on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61581684591623

It’s time for a special edition “Shootin’ The Shiznit” with “Rollin’ Into Mempho.” 
Brian Tramel is joined by RynoJB to review Championship Wrestling from Memphis for Episode 18 in their quick RT format ! 

They answer the following questions about the show:
-Hits?
-Misses?
-MVP??
-What do they want to see on next week’s show?
-THUMBS UP or THUMBS DOWN?

They reviewed this episode !
https://youtu.be/RnAfPYYKcV4?si=dKEoW9aqLM2CDs9f

Video Cast

https://youtu.be/Zp3JzNDNFNI?si=NfjEFv4h-phOLiAE

On Episode #112 of the RWR USWA Podcast, The gang heads back to December 14, 1991, as the USWA starts closing in on the end of 1991 with a show that feels like 1991 Memphis is finally building some momentum again. Bart Sawyer officially steps into babyface “Bartman” mode free from Doug Masters who falls apart on the microphone, Miss Texas makes a wild return, Sandman continues his strange Memphis Tour of Duty, and the Moondogs remain right in the middle of everything.

With Producer Smokey on vacation, the boys dive into a packed episode of USWA Championship Wrestling featuring title match confusion, strange mystery partner logic, loaded purses, broken ropes, surfboards, Moondogs, and the promo return of “Rowdy Tommy Piper!

Episode #112 is funny, energetic, and full of the kind of oddball Memphis logic that makes this show so much fun to revisit. Bart Sawyer is breaking out, Miss Texas is back, Doug Masters is struggling, Sandman is surfing towards Memphis main events, and the only mystery to Jeff Jarrett’s “Mystery Partner” is why did Jeff Jarrett pick Awesome Kong?!?

In other words, the end of 1991 is getting weird in all the right ways, and 1992 is just around the corner!

On this episode of Rick Del Santo’s Classic Wrestling Talk Podcast, Rick welcomes Greg Evans, best remembered by most fans as one half of The Ding Dongs in WCW, as well as part of the Rock & Roll Rebels from Jody Hamilton’s Deep South Wrestling. This is a fun, honest conversation with a guy who lived through one of the strangest gimmicks of the late territory/early cable era and came out of it with a good sense of humor, a lot of perspective, and no regrets about choosing family over the wrestling life.

Greg talks about growing up as a fan during the days when wrestling felt like superheroes on television, especially after seeing an angle with Argentina Apollo and Ox Baker that made him realize, even as a kid, how powerful wrestling could be when it pulled real emotion out of the audience. From there, he followed wrestling through magazines, television, high school, and college until he finally got the chance to train with Jody Hamilton.

The biggest topic, of course, is The Ding Dongs. Greg is very honest about how ridiculous the gimmick sounded when it was first explained to him, but he also makes it clear that he and Richard tried to make the best of it. They could not go out there and work like tough guys in bell covered bodysuits, so they leaned into the clowning, played to the kids, and tried to get what they could out of it. By the time the act was actually starting to connect with younger fans, WCW had already decided to move on.

Greg’s comments on the business changing in the late 1980s are also interesting. He talks about how the territories were disappearing, how smaller promotions could not draw enough to sustain themselves, and how even talented guys had a hard time finding real opportunities unless they fit what the bigger companies were looking for at the time.

The interview also gives fans a nice look at Greg as a person, not just the gimmick. His decision to leave wrestling came down to family. He loved the business, but he did not want to be gone 29 days a month and miss his son growing up. He became a firefighter and paramedic, built a stable life, raised a family, and now enjoys time with his kids and grandkids.

For fans of late 80s WCW, Deep South Wrestling, obscure gimmicks, territory wrestling, and behind the scenes stories from someone who was there, this is a really enjoyable listen. Greg Evans does not run from the Ding Dongs legacy. He laughs about it, explains it, and gives listeners a better understanding of what it was like to be handed an impossible gimmick and still try to make it work.

Check out more great stuff from Rick Del Santo on his YouTube Channel:

https://www.youtube.com/@TheRickDelSanto

Follow him on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/theprofrickdelsanto

It’s time for a new episode of “Shootin’ The Shiznit.” Brian Tramel brings you “THE WTF News Desk.”

BT brings you an insider's perspective to the bizarre happenings in the squared circle and the octagon. From outlandish storylines to mind-bending maneuvers, THE WTF News Desk is your go-to source for all things unconventional in the fight world.

This is an opportunity to experience the inspiring story of Barbara Goodish, the widow of the legendary Bruiser Brody, a trailblazing performer who left an indelible mark on the world of professional wrestling. While there are numerous podcasts featuring Barbara Goodish that delve into the tragic circumstances surrounding Bruiser Brody's untimely passing, this conversation will be distinctly different. Rather than revisiting the events of that fateful day, July 17, 1988, we will shine a light on the remarkable life of Frank Goodish, the man behind the iconic character of Bruiser Brody, straight from the lady who knew him better than anyone else.

Also, for all your current wrestling news and reviews with K.G., Bob Cook, Robbie Idol, and the “Grizzled Vet” Michael McCurdy…subscribe to the Get Your Bell Rung YouTube Channel over at https://www.youtube.com/@getyourbellrungprowrestling and like their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61583941710996

Subscribe, follow, and get ready to have your bell rung!

It’s time for a special edition “Shootin’ The Shiznit” with “Rollin’ Into Mempho.” Brian Tramel is joined by RynoJB to review Championship Wrestling from Memphis for Episode 17 in their quick RT format ! They answer the following questions about the show:
-Hits?
-Misses?
-MVP??
-What do they want to see on next week’s show?
-THUMBS UP or THUMBS DOWN?

They reviewed this episode !
https://youtu.be/ba8vP7rkKns?si=gEperbI2sRCoZx30

Video Cast
https://youtu.be/fkvyb6BARvU?si=AKpNs1XCty_ziqyZ