Voices of Wrestling Podcast Network

This week on the Voices of Wrestling flagship podcast, Joe and Rich talk about the huge EVOLVE/WWN weekend including reviews of EVOLVE 98, Style Battle Season 1: Episode 8 and EVOLVE 99. 

Other topics include the success of WWE's Mixed Match Challenge, the upcoming RAW 25th Anniversary show, the future of 205 Live, attendance figures for this weekend's 205 Live house shows, NWA's Empty Arena match (Josephus vs. Tim Storm) and much more! 

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Rob and Jeff return on an hour-long edition of Shake Them Ropes to discuss all of THE NEWS from WWE this week. Roman Reigns connected to illegal steroid ring, Mixed Match Challenge bracketology, TM61 returning, and updates on Raw 25.

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The #WrongBoyz are back with an extremely rollicking episode reviewing another strong weekend of EVOLVE Wrestling. On this week’s episode, the Aarons break down Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” Zack Sabre Jr.’s outstanding weekend and a fantastic performance from Darby Allin. Plus, a not entirely unfair roasting of the non-Lenny Leonard portion of the EVOLVE announce team, AB takes aim at AT’s scarf game, a review of Jarek’s epic year-in-review YouTube video and a report-back on our very first interaction with listeners IRL.

Read Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” here: https://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html

Listen to Wicca Phase Springs Eternal’s new single here: https://soundcloud.com/wiccaphasespringseternal/idk-what-love-is-prod-mike-frost

Watch Jarek 1:20’s year-in-review YouTube video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXLA997PKBw

Wrestling Omakase is ready to kick off our 2018 season in earnest, and we start things out with the first of two weeks focused on current puroresu! There's quite simply a ton of shows making tape from Japan in these two weeks, so we're here to break down a lot of it and give you our thoughts on some awesome Japanese wrestling!

It starts this week as John is joined by 4-time returning guest Jesse (@K0jiii) to primarily discuss the DDT D-King Grand Prix! With all seven round robin league shows behind us, John & Jesse discuss all fourteen wrestlers who participated, breaking down everyone's best matches and how they did overall over the course of the tour! This round robin, basically DDT's G1, is a great way to get into the promotion if you're a new fan, and we give you the best matches as well as rank the overall shows! We also give you some thoughts on who we think might win the upcoming final on 1/28.

Once we're done with DDT we move on to a wild Puro Grab Bag, covering everything from: BJW 12/30 & 1/2, AJPW 1/2, ZERO1 1/1, and some upcoming shows as well! And a few other topics come up too: the whirlwind Bushiroad romance between Kazuchika Okada and voice actress (of Tomoyuki Oka's favorite anime character!) Suzuko Mimori, WWE and their upcoming 25th anniversary of RAW show, and more. It's a wild and fun couple of hours and a great way to kick off our 2018 season!

Chris Harrington (@mookieghana) and Brandon Howard (@brandonthurston) discuss the week’s topics in wrestling business news:

* 00:06:28 Could RAW and SmackDown rights move to FOX?

* 00:49:40 WWE stock valuation

* 01:44:42 Wrestle Kingdom 12 follow-up, piracy, NJPWWorld subscribers

* 02:36:42 Gabe Sapolsky signs as consultant for WWE, All In, Daniel Bryan's contract status, Ludvig Borga, charities represented in Mixed Match Challenge.

Become a Patreon supporter and see the show notes with exclusive detail, article links, commentary from the hosts and much more! Go to patreon.com/wrestlenomics.

Check out Mookie’s work at wrestlenomics.com and indeedwrestling.com. Read Brandon’s latest at fightful.com 

Email questions and comments to [email protected] 

Dedicated Wrestlenomics Radio RSS feed: https://audioboom.com/channels/4561995.rss

In this week's episode of the New Japan Purocast, we give our long awaited full review of Wrestle Kingdom 12 from 1/4/18! Plus, Damon's adventures in Tokyo, New Beginning sneak peak, and more!

On this week's abbreviated Voices of Wrestling flagship podcast (details within the podcast), Joe and Rich talk WWE's upcoming Mixed Match Challenge, the decision to air on Facebook and whether or not it will be WWE canon. We then delve into the world of NWA and the build to Josephus vs. Tim Storm, preview the upcoming NJPW/CMLL FantasticaMania lineup as well as what NJPW has in store on their New Beginning tour. 

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The #WrongBoyz are back in action with a full preview of this weekend’s exciting EVOLVE shows! On this week’s episode, we discuss Gabe Sapolsky’s now-official WWE consulting job, Doom Patrol’s big weekend and the diversity of talents up and down the card. In addition, we run down the Style Battle card, debate the merits of Nick Gage and chat about balancing our hardcore wrestling fandom with the ever-present knowledge of our own mortality! So roll up a joint, take a seat in the CORNER by YOURSELF and give a listen to the latest Everything Evolves.

You can read the excellent Gay Star News story about Parrow we discuss here: https://www.gaystarnews.com/article/pro-wrestler-mike-parrow/

Open the Voice Gate is back and it's time for our episode looking back at the year that was in 2017! It was a very up and down year for Dragon Gate, including some peaks and many valleys, and John, Milo, and Mike discuss them all with a comprehensive 2017 year in review, going month by month!

Once that's over we turn to the OTVG awards. John & Mike had given their picks back on the Milo is Missing episode (#26), but Milo gets the chance to give his picks as well. And finally, we reveal all the winners in the 2017 2nd Annual Open the Voice Gate awards! The awards were open to all OTVG listeners and we received a larger number of ballots than last year, so hear who you chose as the MVP, Most Outstanding Wrestler, Tag Team of the Year, Unit of the Year, Match of the Year, Show of the Year, Best & Worst Dressed, and many more!

Finally once we're done with the awards, the OTVG crew turns their attention to 2018! In a new segment, all three of us are each assigned 10 wrestlers randomly (via RNG) and we then have to give them a 2018 new year's resolution of what they should try and achieve in Dragon Gate! Some resolutions are serious and some are wacky, but it's all a good time. So enjoy this final look back at 2017 and look ahead to DG's 2018!

Royal Rumble and NXT Takeover: Philadelphia cards are filling out as we head into crunch time for WWE's 3rd biggest weekend of the year. This week on STR, we'll discuss the updates to Rumble and Takeover. Plus, Paige's injury might keep her out of the Women's Royal Rumble, while former Superstars Molly Holly and Serena Deeb might be making their way in for the debut match.

Cody Rhodes has announced the date for "All In," a lofty independent endeavor coming from the Bullet Club. Will Chris Jericho take part in the event? If so, is he enough to boost a 10,000 person audience number?

All the news from Raw, Smackdown, and NXT as well on a big Shake Them Ropes!

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