Might have something to do with it. In one of Jericho's podcasts he says that Benoit was this insane perfectionist that would punish himself(in the gym) for botching or having what he thought was a bad match. From his ring work it was clear he had a stupidly high standard.

I've never listened to TLF but I see you guys and people at other places mention it all the time so I should probably try them out. Not sure this episode is a good one to jump in on or not.

They did mention that self-punishment thing via the Jericho podcast as well.

Though this show is different than most in that they're not covering an event, maybe it would be okay to jump in on this one? Wherever you jump in, unless it's at the beginning, I apologize on their behalf for their constant and incredibly stupid running joke about bringing pain to the listeners' asses.

I have a 12 hour car ride coming up Wednesday with a non-wrestling fan who has an interest in the Benoit thing. Would make interesting listening for them?

Given the interest in the Benoit thing, I'd say sure. Obviously you can always pull the plug if they get bored.

Any standout episodes? Don't really want to jump in on a 12 hour talk about Benoit tbh.

I always bring up World War 3 1995 as a favorite where they roast an awful show. But otherwise you can basically look for episodes of your personal favorite shows. Their quality is pretty consistent.

Agreed, for some of their older stuff. The 91 rumble is great, or select your favorite mania on the journey, money in the bank 2011 for something fairly current.

I went through and bookmarked some I thought I'd enjoy but I hadn't thought of WW3 95 or RR 91 so thanks for that . I'd never seen WW3 95 until someone(probably LKJ) did a write up on it. I'm in the minority in thinking MITB 2011 is good but not great.

Really the best part of the podcast is all of the underlying backstage story stuff that they go into before going through the actual event in meticulous detail. That may also help inform which eps you might find most interesting.

This exactly. I share your thoughts on MITB Kabong, but the way they break down everything that was going on with punk in and around that time is excelent

Yeah sounds like I'd enjoy it regardless, added to the list. I think I'm going to start with the Starrcade episodes.

I was just going to recommend Starrcade 83, 84, 99 Part 1, and 2000 Part 1. the latter two are very informative with reading from Eric and Russo's books with a bunch of comedy. 83 and 84 are great for background biz stuff w/Vince Jr. and Sr. along with readings from Dusty and Flair's books.

Thanks to this thread, and Jericho's podcast about Benoit, I've downloaded the TLF episodes. I expect to listen to more.

After listening to those voicemail messages last night, you can add painful to that list too. Holy ****, I don't like to play the "it's different when you have a kid" card, but the whole time listening to part one, I kept picturing one of my kids and couldn't comprehend how. It's just awful and evil and a bunch of other adjectives I cant even think to type right now

It certainly is imo. You can put yourself in that position and when I didn't have a kid (granted this was 15 ****ing years ago), I wouldn't understand. It's impossible to love someone as much as your kid(s) and seeing someone else hurt theirs is the nut worst. Things like the concert event in Manchester last month make me feel for the parents because I can imagine that.

The thing where he started spinning lies is crazy too. I agree with whichever host was saying that it indicated that he at least started out to try to get away with it. Seems like the long period between the son's time of death and his own time of death strongly supports that.

Yeah, that was Jack that kept bringing that up. That along with the binding of Nancy's arms/feet supported that as well. That's so ****ing sick. Imagine if he went to wrestle on Sunday night and later finding out that he'd just killed two people the previous two days. If I was Punk, I'd throw up. Imagine if he made the Saturday night show...my god.

No 97? That was going to be my first one. Speaking of 97, Nick Patrick was on Dave Penzer's podcast and finally talked about the finish by saying that Hogan asked for a slow count but that Sting was also asking for a fast count and he spent the whole day trying to find Bischoff and get an answer on what to do and when he couldn't find him he just went with the slow count. Seems like a BS answer to me given that a fast count is the only thing that made sense with that finish. I still believe the original idea that the fast count was the original agreed open finish the whole time and that Hogan or Bischoff or both told Patrick to do a slow count and that's it.

Thanks for the 83/84 suggestion, I was going to start later but will definitely check them out.

1997 is good. I just gave the ones that I think are the most interesting/informative/funny. Ironically enough, Starrcade 1997 is one of only 2 filed under the comedy section on SoundCloud. I do believe on the 97 cast, they reference that interview with Nick Patrick but look at it from all angles.

I don't want to spoil much of it if you're going to listen but 83 and 84 (and 87 really but it's not as funny as the others) should be required listening for anyone interested in the history of wrestling and Vince McMahon. 83 is Vince Sr. and Jr. leaving the NWA. 84 is just great with the telling of "Black Saturday". 87 is great because you'll see how cut throat Vince is with PPV becoming a main stream thing and pitting Survivor Series vs. Starrcade on Thanksgiving Day/Night. The 95 edition (WCW vs NJPW supershow) is the only edition I thought was meh.

Went to the live show in Dallas on Sunday with Bruce Prichard, Tony Schiavone and Conrad Thompson. Was a super cool time. Got to chat with all of them and they were all really nice, with Tony and Conrad being over the top nice. Strong recommend, planning on seeing Bruce/Conrad in Houston before Survivor Series as well.

I have been waiting for some combo of this to do a show in Chicago. I did go to Jim Ross' show a couple months ago and I highly recommend it.

Confirmed. Saw JR in Dallas (with RVD and Jeff Jarrett) and in San Antonio and both were great.

Listening to the MEltzer / Jericho podcast on Benoit now, it is interesting.

I just finished listening to TLF KotR '97 part 1, and here was one of the funniest things I've ever heard on a podcast in it. It's toward the end where they read all of the emails. I won't give anything away, I will just say that it's a story about a Reddit post. That story alone is well worth the time invested into getting there

Spoiler: the running ass jokes play a part.