Flair podcast was usually good but so much good podcast content is out there that I can always find something to listen to.

Starrcade 99 part 1: best episode of TLF. Definitely give it a listen.

June 21 Vince Russo on Steve Austin is really good and worth a listen. First half is Austin talking about a new car so you Can fast forward its not that long at all

Coincidentally Cornette did a legendary 45 minute rant on Russo at the end on his podcast this week that also serves as an incredible lesson on wrestling and the rise and fall of TNA.

Flair's podcast will return this week, but it will be on MLW Radio and iTunes.

Bump.

TLF's Survivor Series 1988 that came out today is such gold. 4:39:30-4:46:40 had me in tears. Lapsed Andre getting 'rana and springboard instruction from Lapsed Vince. Whole episode is great.

Sweet. I love those old Survivor Series where they have all the "traditional" multi man matches and put some effort into using them to tell stories and build guys.

It has a story that I think you in particular would like with the Rougeaus knocking the teeth out of The Dynamite Kid. I won't write much more because I assume you know about that. They dig deep in that situation though. Good stuff.

Looking forward to hearing that. I'm only about 30 minutes in, but a deep dive on that incident sounds great.

LKJ, did you listen to the 98-00 Starrcade's? imo the Part 1's of each are the 3 best episodes they've done. The series was spectacular and so much better than the WM journey but I think that's more to do with it being a fail and an ending rather than WM still going on.

Nah, I've been holding those in reserve in case I somehow get that far on my MNW project. Been passing up some interesting episodes for that reason. Certainly plan to get there eventually.

OK, I have never listened to any TLF and it sounds super great and I want to start. Having 100 4-6 hour episodes is a bit intimidating. Any recs for can't miss stuff to get started?

I would listen to the first one (SummerSlam '91) first just to get a feel for the show. My personal favorite episode is World War 3 1995. The road to WrestleMania where they did 30 Manias in 30 weeks would be a smaller chronological listen that you could do, then branch out from there.

Part of the problem with just jumping around is that part of the amusement of the show comes from inside jokes they've built over time, so a person listening to the most recent episode cold would probably have a lot of "WTF are they talking about" reactions.

I just started from the beginning again two days ago and it's crazy how drastically it's changed. The change from ep. 1 to ep. 2 is pretty noticeable as well so if you don't like the first, I'd definitely listen to the second as well.

When I first started listening, I started at WM 1. A lot of the inside jokes that come in start around this time so it wouldn't hurt to start here either imo. On that remark, I want to mention that I think the Starrcade Memorial Tour is much better than the WM Journey because they only gave themselves a week between each WM but were able to take their time between Starrcade's. It really showed.

It's crazy how a lot of WM shows still don't have 5k listens but when they put out new eps now, they get up to 7k within two weeks now.

thanks, good info

Cheap Heat podcast has gone downhill fast since Shoemaker left. The last one I listened to was the one after the PPV. Problem is, Rosenberg didn't actually watch the PPV. So he would have Greg say the results, then he would make comments. That was the last straw and I unsubscribed.

Shoemaker has a podcast of his own now, but to find it, you have to search for The Ringer, because all of that network's podcasts are on the same feed.

I'm always surprised that the TLF guys seem to hate on Monsoon's trademark phrases while still sort of liking him overall. I wouldn't want to give up Gorilla's trademark phrases for anything.

Was another good episode this week, one that left me wanting to sit and take in some Golden Era wrestling.

Funny thing about Survivor Series 88: I downloaded the original broadcast and it started with the 10-man tag. When they started on a completely different match I was just out of it because I didn't think they were calling a match, I thought they were commenting on a match.

Listening to KotR 94 now and JP goes, "I found Gorilla saying 'will you be serious'. We can play that whenever I say something stupid.". How I'm glad that didn't become a thing. Probably would've made me turn it off with how often they'd use it.

A bit disappointed they're doing MitB 2011 this week. The e-mail they got about it was hilarious but meh. I want to hear about classic wrestling and awful ppvs.

Yeah, I'm sure I'll listen to that one but the prospect doesn't excite me either. I suppose Lapsed Vince negotiating with CM Punk around that time has potential though.

Lapsed Nash calling himself could be pretty funny as well even though that's SummerSlam I see them doing that anyways.

Outside of his chemistry with heel color commentators, the trademark phrases are the best thing about Gorilla. They always came off as something he created, not some by design corporate marketing scheme.

Gorilla was awesome, tremendous with Jesse and Brain.

See how you had to throw in the extra people to give him the complement? That's what they're talking about. When I was a kid I enjoyed Gorilla a lot...I still do. I think he was great. But I can see where the TLF guys are coming from when he calls Razor hitting a second rope bulldog on Bam Bam at KotR 94, "a leap". Like wtf? Or anytime someone does something with the rope, it's a "leverage maneuver". Pretty dumb at times.

Halfway through episode 6: Halloween Havoc 91. They hit their stride in this episode. "They flew her from Florida to Tennessee because she sent PN News a pile of ****" after talking about how this lady won a trip to Havoc 91 for winning a contest that consisted of writing a rap and sending it into WCW magazine. Great stuff. I subscribed to that magazine as well until at least 94.

Gorilla wasn't great at the technical aspects of knowing moves, etc. That is undeniably true. While I do appreciate a play-by-play guy who has that ability, I don't think that it's among the most important traits in doing the job well, or someone like Mike Tenay would rate a lot better historically.

Really, for a show like TLF, I'm all for them making fun of him for stuff like "leverage maneuver" as a cop-out. It just seems like they get genuinely annoyed with the other stuff, the "external occipital protuberance" business, which I've always enjoyed.

For me, that was intentional because I don't think Gorilla was all that great when he didn't have the great heel announcer partner to interact with. Yeah, he came off as genuine compared to somebody like Michael Cole, but that is a low standard, and only seems very impressive today because WWE announcers have come off as phony for so long. Kevin Kelly comes off as genuine. If you bring in a huge wrestling fan off the street and don't give him a giant list of rules to follow and just let him display his natural enthusiasm he will come off as genuine.

In terms of just getting over the wrestlers and the match on his own, I don't think Gorilla can touch the top tier play by play guys like Jim Ross and Lance Russell.