The Winter Palace Podcast

Tim gets a handshake from Kawada, instead of a stretch plum. Photo courtsey Tim Livingston

Tim Livingston (@mrtimlivingston) joins the show to talk some basubaru and puroresu. First, we discuss his trip/vacation to South Korea and Japan, why he went and what he did while he was there. Plenty of talk about video games, baseball (in both countries) and pro wrestling, when Tim went to some famous venues and ate at some famous places. He even got to meet his favorite Japanese wrestler, Toshiaki Kawada. Then, we talk about his career in baseball, from working for the Dunedin Blue Jays to being the play-by-play voice of the Sonoma Stompers @sonomastompers). We chat about how he got the gig for his hometown nine, their progressive philosophies on and off the field, how Francis Ford Coppola fits in to the story and hanging out with "the Spaceman" Bill Lee.  

Tim did a write-up for Place to Be Nation. You can also catch Tim as the voice of Phoenix Pro Wrestling (@PPWPetaluma).

Would you trust Noh-Varr? From Royals 1 by Al Ewing and Johnboy Meyers.(C) Marvel Comics. 

Today on the show, writer Al Ewing (@Al_Ewing) stops by for a wide-ranging chat about his work.  First, we discuss his current work at Marvel, including the recently-launched Inhumans book Royals, including the book's creation, it's outer space setting, the inclusion of Noh-Varr and more. We also chat about his other current books Ultimates and US Avengers, and their predecessors, New Avengers, Mighty Avengers and Contest of Champions. Lots of fun stuff for you here, including the joy of C-list villains, serious vs fun superhero books and we even discuss Iso-8, the MacGuffin Mineral that features throughout Marvel's comics and video games. 

Then, we chat about Doctor Who in a number of forms. We mention the "Doctor What" story in 2000AD done by Al and Brendan McCarthy, as well as the Matt Smith Era Doctor Who comics Al wrote for Titan.  We also discuss the current season (following the season premiere), Peter Capaldi's performance as the Doctor and more. 

Finally, we go on a bunch of tangents and have a long chat about UK and US television, everything from World of Sport to Gladiators to The Great British Bake Off to QI and lots more.  If you are a fan of British Comedy, there's a lot of it mentioned, including Whose Line Is It Anyway, Blackadder, The Young Ones, Dad's Army, Morecambe and Wise, Fry and Laurie, but no French and Saunders.

Note: Stephen Fry left QI after the "M" season in 2015. Sandi Toksvig became host with the "N" season in 2016. Alan Davies' "magician murder mystery show" is Jonathan Creek. 

You can get Al's comics from your local comics shop, Amazon or Comixology. You can get The El Sombra Trilogy  from Amazon. 

Paste Pot Pete sketch by Phil Hester. 

Kirby's Sandman costume. From Fantastic Four 61. (C) Marvel Comics.

We welcome lucha libre promoter Dhani Ledesma (@luchamemes) to the podcast to talk about his career and upcoming shows. We talk about how he started in lucha and the various companies he worked for until his current promotion Lucha Memes. We discuss his working relationship with CMLL, how it began and how he hopes itwill grow in the future. We also discuss booking foreign talent for shows, matches that did not come off as planned and ones he hopes to put together in the future. If you are familiar with our stuff, you know we talk about some of our favorite luchadors on these upcoming shows, including Puma (@pumaking), Tiger *@yosoutiger), Virus (@virus_cmll) and friend of the magazine, Hechicero (@_ReyHechicero).  We discuss his thoughts on making his shows available on-line. 

You can now watch the Black Terry /Negro Navarro vs Hechicero/Virus match on youtube

Doctor Lucha Steve Sims (@Drluchakr) returns to the show to preview the upcoming CMLL Dos Leyandas show and the match it is honoring, the 2000 Wrestling Observer Match of the Year, the Atlantis vs Villano III mascara contra mascara match.  We discuss the build-up for the match, the match itself (watch before listening if you haven't see it already) and the aftermatch. We talk about this year's show, the potentially-horrendous main event, the rest of the card, who was not booked on the show (hint: if you last name is Casas, you) and what may happen to set the stage for this year's Anniversary show.  We also talk about some of the other current lucha news, including the AAA exodus, luchadors in Impact Wrestling, what's the deal with the Crash and how long will Psycho Clown stay in AAA, the future for Lucha Underground and could LU change its generic influences and still be successful?

51: 43 - For the back half of the show, we switch topics and  talk Steve's annual trip(s) to spring training and the upcoming baseball season. We mention his first trip this season to Arizona, who has he seen so far, what's Cubs mania like already,futures bets for the season to come, the proposed rules changes and the like. 

If you want more on the Atlantis vs Villano III feud, I would encourage you to check out the upcoming Luchaworld Lucha Classica podcast done by recent guest Alfredo Esparza (@therealfredo) and Vandal Drummond (@vandaldrummond) on the match. 

Ivan, Nikita and Don Kernodle.

Wrestling Observer Live's Mike Sempervive (@sempervive) joins the pod to talk about the recent deaths of Ivan Koloff and George Steele. We discuss Ivan's historic win over Bruno Sammartino for the WWWF title, his part in Ole Anderson's turn on Dusty Rhodes in 1980 and a long review of Ivan in Mid-Atlantic, from teaming with Don Kernodle to teaming with Nikita Koloff and Khrusher Khrushchev. We also mention some of his other career highlights, including the infamous "Russian Flag Burial" of Cowboy Bill Watts (my second favorite angle). We then discuss the passing of George "the Animal" Steele and his evolution or is that devolution from title contender to lovable "missing link" and his role in the Savage/Steamboat feud. There is also brief talk about the passing of Bruiser Bob Sweetan.

(1:00) - At the hour mark, we do some hockey talk. Mike talks about the playoff changes for the Rangers and the cataclysmic system for the Red Wings. We discuss the upcoming trade deadline, ways to improve it (many ideas borrowed from friend of the pod @jeffmarek), the success or lack thereof this year of the World Cup, ESPN's relationship to hockey and the NHl and more. 

The podcast remembers Chavo Guerrero Senior (Salvador Guerrero) who passed away at the age of 68. Chavo was the son of Gori Guerrero, brother of Hector, Mando and Eddy Guerrero and father of Chavo Guerrero Jr. Our condolences to his friends and family.

Magazine contributor Matt discusses Chavo's long career wrestling in Houston for Paul Boesch, including his singles feuds and matches teaming with Hector.  We mention their feud with the Fabulous Ones, amongst others. Lots of footage of Chavo in Houston can be seen on the NWA on demand streaming service. We also talk about some of matches available on the service, including a just-posted NWA title match from 1977 between Terry Funk and Harley Race. We also have a brief chat about new comics we are enjoying, including US Avengers and Ultimates 2 by Al Ewing.

Then, we have an exerpt from Winter Palace episode 7 with Vandal Drummond (@vandaldrummond). At the time, we discussed the passing of Roddy Piper and Vandal seeing him live in LA in the late 1970s and part of our discussion was about Piper's feud with a young Chavo.

We did not have a change to get someone on to talk about Chavo's career in Japan or his time as NWA Junior Heavyweight champion. We hope to try and get a guest to discuss that on an upcoming episode of the podcast. 

Below are a smattering of Chavo's work that can be found on youtube. 

Luchaworld's Alfredo Esparza (@therealfredo) returns to the pod to talk about all the recent news in lucha libre. We discuss the just-announced return date for Lucha Underground and their long-awaited arrival on Netflix. We also talk about the wrestlers who left AAA, notably Pentagon Jr., now known as Penta el 0M, how their decision might effect their bookings in the US and Mexico.  Then we discuss what's going on with the Crash promotion and can they become the number three lucha company.  Of course, we talk about CMLL, their head-scratching booking, what's coming up for Dos Leyandas, all the multi-generational trios, as always, the greatness of Negro Casas, Fantasticamania 2017, CMLL talent working indy shows and more.  We mentioned the recent Lucha Memes show and learned after recording the VOD (including Rush vs Raymond Rowe) will be available probably by the time you download this podcast.  Fredo also discussed the new Luchaworld podcasts available on podbean, including the first episode of Lucha Classics with Vandal Drummond (@vandaldrummond), discussing 1930s lucha in El Paso, luchadors in WCW and Vandal's favorite promotion, Titanes en el Ring from Argentina. Fredo is also the co-host of the Lucha Talk pod on the MLW network. 

Film scholar (as well as one of my film professors at IU) James Naremore joins the pod to talk Orson Welles and Shakespeare. We discuss the Criterion Chimes at Midnight, for which Jim did the commentary.  We talk about its creation, Welles' love of Falstaff and various aspects of the movie's production. We then talk about the new DVD/Blu-Ray release of Welles' Macbeth, the different versions of the film and which is vastly superior. We also mention the famous "Voodoo Macbeth" put on by Welles in Harlem in 1046 (see youtube clip below). We also talk about Welles' Othello and the unfinished Merchant of Venice and how some pieces of the film are now available. We conclude with talking about the contrasts of film stock vs digital in film schools and in film preservation. 

Most of Jim's books, including a new edition of The Magic World of Orson Welles, are still in print, as well as the Criterion edition Chimes of Midnight and Olive Films edition Macbeth are available from Amazon, Barnes and Noble or your local print/video store.