v2 Wrestling Podcast 13 January: New Year, New Impact, Same Raw

http://v2wrestling.com/5/post/2015/01/v2-wrestling-podcast-13-january-new-year-new-impact-same-raw.html



Welcome back to another edition of the v2 Wrestling podcast and welcome to all of our listeners on TNAsylum.com and the 606v2.com forum.

This week the team is made up of your host Adam, along with regulars Paul and Richard who come together for a look at TNAs debut and the consistently, disappointing RAW. 

We kick off the proceedings with a quick chat about wrestling podcasts in general and in particular, the Dixie Carter interview with JR before swiftly moving on to Impact.

And for once, the panel agreed that TNA seemed to put on a good show in general. All of the major angles are discussed including the title matches, the change in presentation style and the quality of the roster. And no need to worry about spoilers for future episodes - we promise to not reveal any!

Don't forget that next week, I will be interviewing Al Snow and Grado ahead of their clash at the Glasgow

We then move on to Raw which at the moment is being carried by one man - Seth Rollins. We look back at the main points and discuss the relative creative ideas for Ambrose and Reigns, as well as the state of the tag division.

No question of the week but please do let us know if you have any questions for Al Snow and Grado who will both be on next Wednesdays shop. Please email us at wrestling@v2journal.com or contact us through twitter or facebook and please make sure to submit any questions you would like us to discuss!

To listen to the show scroll below or download from iTunes here (click)

If you have problem listening to the show on the v2Journal, you can listen directly to the show onhttp://v2wrestling.podomatic.com/entry/2015-01-13T16_17_35-08_00

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Interview with Snitsky
Interview with Austin Aries
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Re Ross: I've not heard the JR Dixie podcast. Basically you need to skip the first 6:30 to 7 mins to skip their first set of ads. After that you'll be into Ross' thoughts, which often are the same week in, week out. So skip another 4 minutes. What he does do is get interesting interviewees, just based on his name recognition. But he's not a good interviewer, he'll not challenge or push. So there's a chance his guest might say something interesting, but that's down to the interviewee, not Ross.

Still, good to know you are better than the competition, huh?

Prometheus wrote:Re Ross:  I've not heard the JR Dixie podcast.  Basically you need to skip the first 6:30 to 7 mins to skip their first set of ads.  After that you'll be into Ross' thoughts, which often are the same week in, week out.  So skip another 4 minutes.  What he does do is get interesting interviewees, just based on his name recognition.  But he's not a good interviewer, he'll not challenge or push.  So there's a chance his guest might say something interesting, but that's down to the interviewee, not Ross.

Still, good to know you are better than the competition, huh?

Glad you agree! Gavin slated me for suggesting that Jim Ross was crap!

And thanks for continuing to listen!

I love the Ross Report and don't agree that Ross isn't the reason we get something interesting. First of, he knows the business inside out. And he's practical so if he says something, you tend to listen. He called Cena winning the title at Royal Rumble in September while everyone was think Lesnar had ejected Cena from the title scene for a long time.

Second, he does ask the questions that you wanna hear the answers to, e.g. he asked Tony Schivonne about the famous Mick Foley incicdent, he asked the former WWE writer (forget his name but it was an excellent podcast) why he wrote the skit making fun of JR getting out of hopsital, and he asked Bob Holly why he didnt go see Beniot 'that day' when Beniot had asked him to call in. JR has a way of not sounding pushy or snide in asking questions that some interviewers do - plus it helps that he already knows these guys. The only annoying thing about the podcast is the ads, ('m sick of hearing about fantasy football and DDP Yoga!!!) but they make the podcast free for me so I'm happy to suffer or skip them.

However I haven't listened to his Dixie podcast and might not bother as I'm not that interested in TNA, so can't really comment on it.

Although Ross does have a tendency to sound a bit bored at times, I also think there is a large percentage of wrestling fans who don't really want to hear intelligent analysis of wrestling.

I'd rather listen to somebody with a dull voice talk sense, than somebody with an excitable voice talking out of their backside.

I think it's called the Jim Ross/Vince Russo dilemma

Gavin Duenas/Adam Davey dilemma

Meanwhile I have a robot voice and talk crapola.
Win/win!

Actually Joel Ross might be a better example than Russo, with the added poetry of almost having the same name as Jim Ross.

Strangely enough I am listening to the Ross report with Vince Russo as a guest.

Adam D wrote:Strangely enough I am listening to the Ross report with Vince Russo as a guest.

And, did you think it was a good interview. Did you think that JR pressed Russo on what went wrong at WCW (and elsewhere) with his writing and on how much of the glory days of WWE he really was responsible for? Or, do you think he was just a conduit to allow Russo to say what he wanted?

Havent listened to it in full yet - I am about 45 minutes in which means that the interview has only started 20 minutes ago!

His opening monologues are teeth pulling bad - he just rambles and doesnt really say anything different than the rest of the IWC.

His interview technique is basically asking questions he has received from his audience (talking of which I am interviewing Grado and Al snow so some would be nice).

He does ask more hard hitting questions we want to hear but thats not down to his skill as an interviewer but his connections. If I had Russo or Dixie on the v2 show, they would hang up if I asked, "did you kill Owen Hart?". Ross can ask the questions because he knows the people and because the guests wont not answer due to the mainstream nature of the podcast.

He peppers every interview with his own stories (no real problem with that) but quite often it gets in the way of the guests answers.

Russo comes over as a misunderstood individual on the show and although he is annoying, I found myself agreeing with a lot of what he said.

Jim Ross just comes over like my grandfather. No real insight about things (other than what he reads in the Daily Mail) and wants to turn every story into something that happened to him.

Thanks for taking the time to answer, with a very even-handed response. I still listen to him because of who he can get on the show and what they might say, but I do agree with the negatives.

Adam D wrote:(talking of which I am interviewing Grado and Al snow so some would be nice).

I've spent all week trying to think of an Al Snow question. I've failed I guess everyone wants to be cool by saying they were into ECW back in the day, but the truth is I tried it a couple of times and maybe I got a bad representation of what was happening, but what I saw the guys weren't really that fluid as wrestlers and relied on taking big bumps and injuries than wrestling, so it wasn't my thing and I didn't see him there.

I remember him as Leif Cassidy, but I'm sure even Al would agree that there's not much to remember from that run. When he came back to WWE I didn't like him. I found the Head gimmick not just a bit daft, but annoying that Head was so often used to end a match. BUT then he teamed with Steve Blackman. And we saw more of the character of Al Snow, and I turned completely, I thought he was bloody hilarious and started to love (most of) his work.

This is a ramble, still without a question. So, I guess the best I can get is: (I think I read somewhere that) Al Snow looks for charisma in young wrestlers, but of course not everyone will have athleticism, wrestling smarts and be good on the mic, so does he think that the role of the manager should be used more and is it a role he'd consider to help some of the new TNA talent get over?"

I forgot about head cheese - I think thats one for Grado!

"So Al has been involved with head cheese - what about you Grado? Have you ever had head cheese?"

It was truly brilliant because Blackman was such a surly dude who took everything to the highest level of seriousness, and then you'd have this...

My overiding memory of Al Snow was his European title run, where he would bring out a new country to represent each week.

I think that he is one of those guys who didnt hang around for too long as a wrestler and still manages to get a small pop because of it when he does show up.

See, I'd forgotten that one.

I still don't really understand why a NA wrestling show had a European title. I guess someone thought it would be a succour to the fans in UK, Ireland, Germany, etc. But all I remember is D'Lo Brown holding it. And nothing said mid-card, no plans for this more than that.

I just read Snows Wiki page and its actually quite interesting! I have got to ask him about hell in a kennel!

Against the Big Bossman. I have to go back to view that on the Network. These were the most docile dogs imaginable.

Obviously in creative in someone's head this was going to be great. A cell and these hounds of the Baskervilles around it. It truly was terrible. They could have at least got some false dog poop and had Snow rub Bossman's face in it.

You have to ask Al Snow about the P£nis Suplex (as mentioned in Mick Foley's 2nd book)

Enjoyed the podcast aside qhen Hero compared The Ascension to Ryback, Ryback is miles ahead those two jobber gimps