The Horrorwolf666 Podcast
On the Horrorwolf666 podcast, I talk to horror lovers from the metal and heavy music community, as well as authors, actors, directors, and more. I also do a few spin-off series, including one on Stephen King, Seinfeld and The Devil’s Chord doom podcast.
The Horrorwolf666 Podcast
Ralph Schmidt (Ultha)
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On this episode I talk with my good friend Ralph of the killer band Ultha. We talk about his new album “A light So Dim” which is absolute perfection. We also talk about the darker menacing side of professional wrestling. As always I had a great time talking with Ralph and I hope you enjoy it.
Outro song: Ultha - Hex Upon our Heads.
https://ultha.bandcamp.com/album/a-light-so-dim
Synth Outro by Abraxas Horn
My email and social links:
Brandonlegion666@yahoo.com
Twitter: Horrorwolf666
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Facebook: Horrorwolf666
www.patreon.com/TheHorrorwolf666podcast
https://www.teepublic.com/user/the-horrorwolf666-podcast
On this episode, I talk with my good friend Ralph of the killer band Ulta. We talk about his new album, A Light So Dim, which is an absolute piece of musical perfection. It's one of their best things yet, and I love everything they do. We also talk about the darker, menacing side of professional wrestling. We go over some of our favorite, you know, like darker wrestlers out there, more evil and stuff, and uh that's really fun. So um as always, I hope you enjoy this episode, and uh thank you so much for listening. After you're done with this episode, make sure you check out my fellow horsemen of the podcast Apocalypse, Everything Went Black Podcast, into the Necrosphere, the Necromaniacs Podcast, Spitball Media, Idless Manifestations, and the Soul Knox Podcast. Also, don't forget to rate this podcast on whatever service that you use. That helps and goes a long way. And there's also a feature now on the uh homepage of the Buzz Sprout page where you can leave messages and stuff like voice messages and things like that. So uh feel free to do that if you like. That's also pretty cool. And uh yeah, once again, hope you enjoy this episode and thank you so much for listening. All right, Ralph. It's always a pleasure having you on the show, man. Thanks for coming back on.
SPEAKER_01Oh man, absolutely my pleasure. I mean, it's been I don't know like how long, but what was the last thing we did together? It's been a while.
SPEAKER_02I think the last thing we did, it's been about maybe two years. We did the Severance Talk, I think was our last thing.
SPEAKER_01Oh, that yeah, that that might be the last one. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's been it's been a while. But I mean, like I said on Mike's podcast, I completely stepped away from everything for a while. Like no social media, no podcasts, no hanging out with people. Um, yeah, and it made me uh reappreciate uh doing podcasts, talking to people, but I'm very selective about this. And so like it's uh it's been great. Like you, I mean, we've always been in touch, like you know, like via mail, but now uh like talking again, um, that's a good thing. I'm really looking forward to this episode.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I've been looking forward to this one too. And yeah, we always stay in touch, man. I consider you a brother like you, Mike, all the horsemen and stuff are all like you know, this is I don't have like siblings, so you're like brothers to me. So it's always, you know, always special to have you on the show.
SPEAKER_01So yeah, same here, man. So yeah, um, I hope you're doing good. And uh yeah, I'm really happy to be back here.
SPEAKER_02Thanks, Ralph. Yeah, it's great to have you back on. Yeah, I'm doing good. Uh doing a lot of podcasting. I have like two or three podcasts like uh every weekend till May right now. I'm pretty stocked up on yeah, which is great. I'm gonna be super busy, and I got some really cool ones coming up. Uh I have one that I've been wanting one person I want to make when wanting to get on the show for a long time from the uh band Primitive Man. Um Ethan from Primitive Man is gonna be on soon, and I'm very excited about that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, dude, we had some heavy hitters, like you know. I mean, well, it's funny, like when when this whole like horseman thing started in the in the pandemic, and I think like the only real established podcasts were the ones of you know, everything went black. I mean, it's the OG and and like into the necrosphere was already a bit bigger and and necromaniacs, but like your podcast has grown so much, like not only like in quality of guests, but in general, it's like so much more gravitas and and cool people coming through. And whenever I was like, Okay, this is interesting, I'm going to listen to this. I'm like, oh yeah, like Brandon really stepped up his game in the last year, so that's awesome. I'm so proud of you. I appreciate that.
SPEAKER_02And yeah, uh, it's cool because uh I love talking metal and horror, and it's cool having like the metal community talk horror with me. You know, I think it's a good a good niche or whatever, because I mean they go together pretty well. There's you there, I mean, there are rare times you talk to somebody that's in the metal and stuff they don't like horror. I mean, that does happen, but majority of the time they're also horror fans, so I think that's cool.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I mean, I think I mean it's uh I think there's like stylistically, stylistically, like some of these art forms are very adjacent. And I mean, I uh recently did a podcast like for the new Ultra Record, and there was like the comparison of post-punk and and black metal, and I've always like been like, yeah, like the melodies are kind of the same, like the melancholia, and I think horror in general and horror movie scores have like the same timbre, you know, it's the same feeling, and I think that's why so much of like black metal is horror adjacent or death metal, and but I gotta say, like it's I think like most death metal, it's more like splatter movies, and black metal is more like organized occult or like folk horror. So that's why I always like since I like these horror movies better, it's like why I always been more into black metal than death metal. But in general, there's this I think there's it's this a certain feeling that is like transpired through all these art forms that is adjacent, and that's why you have so many metal fans that like horror and the other way around.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, I totally agree with that. And how you said like certain movies feel like black metal, and some feel like you know, uh like death metal has more like splatter stuff. Like uh a good example of that would be like uh Mandy is the epitome of like dark, heavy doom it with some black metal elements, you know what I mean? Like that it just feels like that, and like if you're watching The Witch, that totally feels like black metal to me, like atmospheric dark, cold black metal, yeah.
SPEAKER_01And terrifier is something like Cannibal Corpse, you know? Oh, definitely, yeah, you know, like super over the top, and and I can appreciate that, but it's not mine. But from for me, like when it comes to death metal, and I mean everybody's speaking about blood incantation and these bands, but like the bands that like kickstarted the revival were dead congregation, and to me, Grave Miasma, and Grave Miasma, like when Odo Sepul Kurorum came out, was like, oh man, this is like crypt doom, you know, like all Fulci, like not the zombie, like but like the transdimensional zombies, whatever, super gloomy atmospheric. And that's like that's always the movies that I liked most, and that's always the flair of black metal that I liked most. That's why I never liked Dimu Borgier because Dimu Borgier is like, I don't know, like super over the top, like kitsch in a way. But um, I mean, look at Wicker Man. Wickerman is like a neo folk uh dark black metal album, you know? And and I think that's also an episode we could do at some point. It's like to categorize albums with movies or something. That would be fun.
SPEAKER_02Oh, that that's a great idea. I'm gonna jot that down now because yeah, that'd be perfect. There's so many options we could choose from, too. Like that's a great idea. I dig that, but uh yeah, and uh speaking of uh albums, I uh I have uh got to listen to your your new album, your new Ulta album before uh it was released and stuff, man. I just want to say before I give my big opinion or whatever, uh well, I'll go and get my big opinion now. It's fucking it's awesome. I mean, you never disappoint with Ulta, and I fucking I Light So Dim is uh it's a heavy, heavy emotional dark masterpiece in my eyes. It's it's fucking great. It's already gonna be on my top ten of this year because this year I'm actually gonna do a top 10 metal album and metal and rock album list. Um I know Carl and me are gonna do some at the end of the year, so yeah. This is definitely gonna be on there.
SPEAKER_01Thank you so much. Glad you like it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, um it's it's awesome. Um, me and my wife both uh listened to most of it together. I I did I listen to it twice, and uh my wife also very much approves of this. She's also a huge Ulta fan, so she loves this as well.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, I'm so happy you like it. Yeah, that was a rough one to give birth to, man. Um I'm very happy it's out now when the people listen to this, and um yeah, I'm very proud. And it's like I think it's a pretty bold statement, man. 74 minutes in a time where streaming of music everything is shorter in a way, and again, no promo, nothing, but like we wanted to do it that way, and we were thinking about like cutting like some songs out, and I'm like, no, dude, they all flow together. And I mean, my big plan, which I like talked about like another podcast, is like I wanted like my actual idea was that the next author album, after uh all that has never been true, would be like Tangerine Dream and Joanne Johansson with blast beats, yeah. So like even more, you know, like more like a movie score, but then through like the lineup change and what like all the stuff that happened, we ended up with this album, and someone said to me, Man, this feels like a movie without pictures. I'm like, Yeah, thank you. And I think that's a good comparison because I wanted to write like a movie that has no images, it's you know, like just images and a story that you conduct in your head.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, dude, that's a hundred percent correct on that. Yeah, it has a huge cinematic feel, and it's like once you start, you don't want to stop because it all rolls into each, you know, every song rolls into each other like perfectly and stuff. It's like one giant, like, you know, it's a score, it's like a giant score, like for like a movie that hasn't been made yet. It's so good.
SPEAKER_01Oh, perfect. If if like a pro like you sees that in it, like a movie buff like me, and who's also into film music and everything, then uh that means something. Thank you. It's like it's really what I wanted to achieve because like I always thought that Ulfa has like the cinematic quality to it, and I thought, like, what is the next step in the evolution now? It's like not going away completely from black metal because I didn't want to do this, I still want to play this sort of music, but like all the songs are a microcosm in and itself, and in like in in the whole aspect, it just combines to this one large narrative. And also, like the album tells a story from front to back if you go through the lyrics and the feeling of the songs, and yeah, I'm I'm very proud of what came out, and I mean the reactions are still very fresh, but I'm really curious if like it will stand the test of time, like all that has never been true did.
SPEAKER_02I definitely think it will. I think this one's gonna hit very hard with people. Like is this it one of the notes I made here was uh it felt like a giant dark tidal wave of emotions, you know. You're going from your ups and your downs, like it starts off, you know, pretty mellow, then it goes harsh, and you know, it's just it's all over the place with emotions and stuff. And throughout the album, though, there's a darkness to it, which I really dig. That's like the cinematic darkness, like you're watching fucking an Eggers movie or something, you know. Cool, man. Thank you so much. So, well, what tracks did you like? Favorite track when it comes to pure heaviness and brutality for me. Uh it also has a heavy uh neurosis feel to it as well, and with vocally and stuff would be uh Hex Upon Our Heads. Fucking love that one. Yeah, that's a heavy, like I think it might be the shortest song on the album, but it's just like a heavy hitter. It's like, holy shit.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, that was like a that was a complete accident that this one happened. Uh it's like we already had all the songs, but we needed an intro for Sister Faith and Sister Chance. And I wrote this riff, and I'm like, yeah, maybe it works, and then it didn't work, and we're like, but this is good. And then like an accident in studio happened, and Manu, our drummer, started playing like a drum roll. And I'm like, oh man, we can end the song like this, and now like, and then we were finished. I'm like, hey, do we should we like just play this riff? Just just plain on reverb with no distortion. And Manu uses like these this um brooms for for the drums, so it's guess like this bore Boren in the Club of Gorefield. Yeah, and now you yeah, now you have like the most aggressive riff on the album, and it's not me singing, it's actually Tim singing it, uh, our new keyboard player, because he can go even lower than I can. Wow, and then we like had like this super chaotic kind of like I don't know, almost Keel Hall-esque song. Then it breaks down into this hardcore crew shout, and then it goes into Borin and the Club of Gore all in like three minutes. I'm like, Yep, okay, this works. It's crazy, but it works, dude.
SPEAKER_02I love that, and I love Bohart. I think they're fantastic. And yeah, I picked up on that with the jazz stuff at the end, and like it reminded me uh also like some David Lynch stuff, too. Like it had a big Twin Peaks feel. I'm like, this is awesome, great combination. Um, another song I really dug. I I dig the whole album, but these are just some songs I picked out I thought that really hit me extra hard. But uh uh Cherry Nuts, I really dug that just because you know, Braxis Horn is mostly all synthesizers and stuff, and this has a really dark, bleak, like scent sound to it. And I fucking really dig this.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's a song about my dead cat.
SPEAKER_02Uh yeah, she yeah, she was.
SPEAKER_01I mean, she was called Audrey. Do you remember what Audrey Horn could do?
SPEAKER_02Oh yeah, oh yeah.
SPEAKER_01Get it?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, yeah. Cherry Nudge, yes. Oh, that's awesome.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, that's um, I mean, because every song on this album is like um a place where I felt heavy emotion and I felt devastated, but it always tries to have like this turn of like, how do I find strength in this darkness? And um, I mean, that song is like about the feelings that I had when she came into my life and like how she saved me for like several years. And um, and then in the end, like she passed, and like the last sentence is grief is only love perceiving. And that's like the the almost like a mantra that I told myself that like whenever I wake up, and I mean it's like she's three years gone now. Yeah, like this this April, and it still like breaks my heart, and um but I still have this feeling, and you know, like and to me, this is like a proof of how much of I like she gave to me, like how much I loved her. And actually, she was the one that um started this progress, which ended up with this record, because when she got diagnosed with like um cancer, she had like um on her anus, and so like she couldn't defecate anymore. And and the veterinarian said, like, oh, she's in heavy pain, and she will like maybe last two weeks or something, and you really need to let her go when you when when she signals you I cannot do it anymore. And I was willing to put her down, and then she gave me three and a half fucking months, you know, like every day. She was, I mean, she I could see she was in pain, and she was always, but she snuggled up, she waited for me when I came home until the day when she was really like, No, I can't do this anymore. And that was the point where I said to myself, stop whining like a little bitch about like how sad you feel and start like working like a little cat, you know. Do something, and yeah, so she kind of kickstarted the whole process that ended up being this record, which is a record about like positivity in the worst place that you could be in. That's like a light so dim, and she pretty much is the epiphany of a light so dim, or she was, yeah, she still is.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's awesome. Um, that's really cool. She inspired this album and stuff, and yeah, because you know I am with our cats as well, they're they're family to me. Like, uh, yeah. I hear people always talk shill oh, your cats are not your kids. That's bullshit. So they're my kids, you know, you go fuck off with your human kids, you know what I mean?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I mean, like my girlfriend, she has kids now, and I really like them and I'm really close to them, and but they're not my kids. And you know, like I when I tell her, like, yeah, Titus, like the dog, he I love him because he's my my dog, and so was Audrey, was my cat, and she's like, Yeah, but it's not comparable to humans, like, yeah, but they are your kids, yeah. Like, I I I may at some point feel the same feeling for them that you have, but you know, like Audrey was my baby, Titus is my baby, Cooper was my baby, and that's the thing. And when people I mean, I had dates on me canceled when I still used dating apps some years ago. It's like, oh, a guy who lives alone with a cat. It's like, yeah, well, then fuck off.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, 100% fuck off, yes. Yeah, fucking assholes, but yeah, yeah. Um, another song or the last song I had on my list here that really got me going or whatever was uh Pink Light Soil into Copper. Yeah. Uh this one had a huge, I don't I don't know if you intended this, but there's like a huge like Halloween, you know, vibe to it. Like, you know, the movie Halloween. Like I feel like almost has like a slasher feel to it, uh, a John Carpenter feel. I I really, really dig this one a lot.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's my uh my love for my new pock pedal came out. It's like, you know, it's like that's like at first. I'm like, oh, this kind of loud sounds like uh like a circus organ or something, but then it's like I played this riff and it had like a locust feel, like the band's locust, and then we had like this stubborn instrumental beat, and I'm like, yeah, and then the cosmic middle part, and then a neurosis part. I'm like, yeah, do we can we fit this all together? And um, yeah, really, really happy with that one. Yeah, yeah, it's cool. Like that was also something we never expected. Um but then it was like, yeah, is this still black metal? It's like I don't care. Like, if people still come around, like, oh Ulfa is not a black metal band. It's like I don't, you know, I don't give a shit anymore. If you don't see us as a black metal band, fine. We're a metal band. That's what our Instagram says. We have metal uh black metal influences, but man, no album that is considered uh true black metal was an inspiration for this album, you know, like because the like spiritual godfathers to this album were Massive Attack, Deepesh Mode, uh Oranzi Pazuzu, and Deftones, you know, like these were the these were the albums where every song is an individual story that uh in the end sums up like a whole narrative, and that's what I wanted. And yeah, we just played through like the voices that we have, and there is some black metal in there. Certainly, I wanted this to be, but if people still like after 14 years of Ultra are like, oh, you're not a black metal band, it's like, dude, there's so many mayhem ripoffs, go jerk off to them, you know. Like, why do you why do you why do you waste your breath about like because I'm not ruining ruining your scene? Yeah, it's um but like yeah, it's like you know, X or Twitter, whatever you want to call it. It's like people on the internet, the internet comment section is the worst.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, dude, it really is. And uh, yeah, like I said, this is amazing. Um, I hear a lot of the death tones now that you mentioned death tones, like definitely hear deft tones, definitely hear neurosis. Uh, there's certain certain you know, Bohorn and uh the club of Gore. I hear you know stuff from that. I also hear a little bit of like Interpool. I don't know, you know, if you dig Interpool or not, but definitely hear the post punk and you know, there's some goth vibes, even a little bit of like doom on certain stuff on certain riffs or whatever. Like, I heard a lot of different things going on. I I really love all that. So yeah, perfect. Yeah, thank you so much. Glad you like it. Yeah, I can't wait to uh purchase. Are you doing vinyls and stuff as well, right? Yeah, yeah, sure.
SPEAKER_01I'll send I'll send one over, no worries.
SPEAKER_02Oh man, yeah, that's fucking awesome. Uh all your vinyls I have on my uh mantle of like all my things that inspire me with my Mandy posters, my Mandy X, like all that. So your vinyls are behind me. So also with tombs and stuff like that, neurosis, that's just things that inspire. So I kind of keep it on the mantle there. Oh, cool.
SPEAKER_01So so awesome. Yeah, I will like I was already considering like how to do it because the shipping rates have gone up and it's so insane. So I'll probably like do one box and send it to like I don't know, to Mike or Davy, because I'm like in touch with Davy of Dry Wedding a lot, and then just have them like send out the individual albums within the states to save on some money. Because right now to ship over one vinyl is 60 euros, which is like seven 70 bucks. And that's like why like a lot of people is like, what the fuck? It's like, yep, but uh our level, our label has like a distributor in the state, so like records can be purchased from there. But people were like, Hey, we would love to buy a t-shirt, but like shipping over a t-shirt now is like 40 bucks. I'm like, Yeah, I don't I know, but there's no different option for us, and that sucks. Yeah, thanks, Trump, I guess.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, no shit. Yeah, we're living in apocalyptic times, my man. So yeah, yeah. But yeah, that's awesome, man. And like I said, congrats again on this um on this new album. It's great, and I think it's gonna get a lot of love, and uh, it better get a lot of love, damn it. You know, it's a good yeah. I mean, it's a damn good album. I love it. So it'd be definitely something I'd be listening to over the course of the year, over and over. So cool. Thank you so much. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So um, I guess.
SPEAKER_01before we get into our our our wrestling talk or whatever have you seen any recent horror movies or anything on the you know any darker films from the past year that's really caught your caught your eye yeah I I really actually can can't say that I saw a lot like I think the last I mean we spoke about this and I mean I listened to your guys's like from the horseman the top uh top movies I think the only like horror movie last year that really was like okay this is my movie is bringing her back yeah that was that was like spot on I mean weapons was great and there's like a bunch of good movies but um I really don't watch a whole lot of movies aside from like rewatching Lord of the Rings the extended editions almost every month by now because I'm so obsessed with them. Dude so good oh man dude like you know like my my girlfriend's uh second child like uh her boy he's uh 10 and he like watched Star Wars episode one with a friend and he's like hey Ralph you're a Star Wars fan could we watch more Star Wars I'm like oh yeah okay let's do it because now I have to watch them German dubbed which is terrible and and then we watched like episode one two and three and I'm like holy shit are these movies terrible yeah the if the oh the the CGI is so pathetic and then you see Lord of the Rings which was like years before that and you're like oh my god they could do this or like you go even back further watch terminator two yeah and it's like you were able to do pull this off in 91 and this is Star Wars really oh my god so yeah horrible um I like last year I don't know like I tend to read a fucking lot by now um I watch a lot of shows um I actually got the um tomb of the Leviathan's after you and Mike spoke about it.
SPEAKER_02Oh did you like it?
SPEAKER_01Yeah I liked it it was great this one story with the hole you know with the Russian with the with the Canadian soldiers and they have this hole in the wall oh yeah dude that shit was so creepy man like when it would turn dark like somebody would disappear in a hole like fuck yeah yeah dude that was like I want like I would love to see this as a short movie man this is probably one of my favorite short stories of the last years like that was fucking amazing um I got like uh yeah I like I I don't know like I'm right now I'm watching Monarch because um you know like I'm not opposed to the to the monster verse I kind of like obsessed about Godzilla for a while because of Godzilla minus one and I don't hate the monster verse movies I actually love King of the Monsters the second one with Kingadira. Oh yeah that was good yeah I think like it they took it a few steps too far in the last one with like hey there's another world and there's another world and here's the King Kong army and blah blah blah it's a bit too much but like Monarch is actually a very good show that I really enjoy I might need to give the second cheese season a chance on on there because uh we watched the first season and it was too much like uh romantic drama and less monsters you know what I mean like come on like where's the fucking where's the action but that like that's I haven't seen the second season yet I mean they started I think two weeks ago or something but everybody said like now you get like it's that's uh someone compared it to the expendables where like expendables too is the one that you actually wanted to be the first part where it's just like over the top and like all all are shooting all the time and the first one is too much talking. Yeah and um they said like the second season has way more uh way more giants or titans and so yeah like I just enjoy it but I gotta say man in this in this shift that I like had in the last um few months of getting better and um I it started like with I mean like I said with Audrey and I got a um a fortune cookie by Danny my good friend and it like it just said stop worrying about things you cannot control and this is like a mantra to me too now and this is also something with I have an old friend who's a big Star Wars head and whenever like a new Mandalorian season came out he's like oh this is the worst shit or you know I'm like no I like it it's enjoyable it's maybe not everything I want but it's enjoyable and that's the thing too like people hate it on the monster verse yeah it's over the top but I mean the old Godzilla movies were also over the top minus one is something different that's a perfect movie yeah but I still can't enjoy this and I don't give a shit about this anymore. When people tell me that um the rings of power Lord of like the Lord of the rings show yeah it's not really canon and blah it's like I don't care it's a show that plays in this world it's enjoyable do I care that like that like uh orcs have women and children no I don't give a flying fuck but it's dark it's bleak you know people should stop worrying about this shit and just enjoy what they have 100% agree with that yes but yeah like one thing I need to mention and probably this is like has been my my favorite thing of the last uh like last half year I'm super heavy back into comic books and I gotta give props to the absolute universe of DC which has is like it's really the last time I felt this wave of like oh man something cool is happening is when Spawn started in the 90s. Yeah and I was always a Batman fan and I knew about some characters uh like preferred Watchmen and stuff like this but I was never a DC guy but then like Brody King we'll speak about wrestling in a bit he's like he posted on his Instagram man absolute Batman is the best I'm like oh what is that so I googled okay so it's a new timeline and I was already like oh fuck this timeline shit in in superhero comics but it's like okay what is this so yeah it's a pretty much a reboot and every character will get like a retold story it will be a bit more gritty and dark and boy they didn't like they didn't hold back like I don't know did you read that or do you know about that?
SPEAKER_02Yes I um I don't I'm not on the the newest issue of absolute Batman but I did start that one this year actually because uh Mike Skandano was talking about it on uh necromaniacs and stuff and I was like I wanted to check it out because the artwork looks really awesome and yeah dude it's so fucking brutal Batman's on the giant ass fucking like uh earth mover like machine or whatever that's a new Batmobile I'm like man everything is big and aggressive and just mean yeah it's very much like a Punisher version of Batman and like this cool thing is like the reasoning is different.
SPEAKER_01So like I got absolute Batman plowed through this I'm like oh my god this is the best shit ever and then it's like okay well so what else is there? And I checked out okay so there's paperbacks of Superman Wonder Woman Martian Manhunter Flesh and Green Lantern. I'm like oh okay well I always had like a soft spot for Superman but he was always too clean. But then I I liked the Zack Snyder version which is was really bleak and I'm like okay the pictures look great good I mean it's it's you know it's 12 euros so 14 14 bucks I was like what can go wrong I ordered Absolute Superman read it in a day and we're like okay this is the best thing ever okay what's next okay Wonder Woman okay now Wonder Woman is a is a witch that comes from hell you know and it's like what the fuck is going on? Why is this all so good? And she chops up like a giant monster on the beach with a gigantic ass sword and has like dark magic I'm like okay dude and then what really was the frosting on the cake Martian Manhunter I I've never read anything of Martian Manhunter in my life. I didn't even know what it's about I knew that there was a like a plan show with my Mahashar el Ali that actor and I'm like yeah okay I get this dude and I read like I followed some comic book pages from the States and they all said the Martian Manhunter collection like the first six books are the best thing in the last years and hands down it's the best thing I've read in years. Wow it's it's really mind blowingly good like the the artistic thing they did the story they told the way they portrayed it it's unfucking believable so and then I was like okay now I need to get the rest too then I got flash flash is like a little boy and he doesn't look as cool as like the original Flash still interesting and then I got Green Lantern and that was good too and I'm like okay and then like a comic book nerd here from Cologne told me there's a one shot called absolute evil and I'm like okay what's that and it's like yeah just get it it's like it's six it's uh 30 40 pages you will love it and it's pretty much all the bad guys from the universe so it's Razel Ghoul and Alex Luther and all these guys they come together to form a negative JLA. So this will be in the next turn will be like a negative alliance like an opposite to the actual Justice League will be like they still consider themselves the Justice League but it's clearly a pun towards like Trump and his fascist regime of like hey but we're the good guys you know and I'm I'm so down with this shit. I fucking love this and it made DC like the biggest player right now again and like they had to reprint all that stuff all the time so I encourage you and everybody out there go check out the fucking absolute universe of DC it's the best thing will do man yeah like I said I love the absolute Batman stuff.
SPEAKER_02I haven't read the uh the stuff with Bane and I love Bane so that looks really cool. So that'd be my next thing to read and then I guess I start moving on with Wonder Woman and Superman and stuff.
SPEAKER_01Try try to track down the Martian Manhunter stuff first man. I okay and please when you have it you will yeah you can read this in one sitting and tell me that I was like completely off or tell me that I was absolutely right and I'm pretty sure you will say like oh my god this is the best thing.
SPEAKER_02Okay I would definitely uh seek out the Martian Manhunter absolute for sure. Yeah nice yeah I love comics myself man I've been doing a lot of reading so but well a lot of novels and short stories but yeah I need to get back on some more comic stuff.
SPEAKER_01It's you know like it's in this in this cluster fuck of a world that we are in with all the shit and I mean I don't want to say yeah it's primarily Trump and his goons in the US but the whole fucking shebangabang out there also our like fascist regime we have and all the shit that's going down the way that people you know actually I feel like in Ghostbusters too where like where the slime is like underneath the streets and and then like Winston says it's it's this city is so full of negative energy that people would rather punch themselves in the face than talk to each other. And that's where we're at right now. And sitting on my balcony listening to music through my headphones and reading comic books is the perfect scenario to decompress from all the shit. And I mean I'm in in like in school all the time where I have to deal with stupid parents stupid co-teachers stupid city government assholes telling me stuff to do and this is really what helped me you know finding some calm and peace in this crazy world.
SPEAKER_02Yeah that's that's the perfect way to escape. And you know one thing that amazes me um how many people I talk to that don't read like it like you don't read like what what do you do like I mean you read on your phone nothing like they don't read anything they just watch the videos or YouTube something I'm like it's so weird to me because reading is second nature for me and a lot of people I know is like that's bizarre to me.
SPEAKER_01Yeah it's such a beautiful art form and uh and that's the thing like with uh like to me the biggest praise that I got like for the new Ulfa album is that a bunch of people that listen to it said like okay these are the best lyrics you've ever written and you know like this is so mandatory to me to put like a lot of thought into it and I'm like if that gets like praise from people that I know read a lot of books are into the same shit that I am at and they're like this is exquisite and I'm like okay thank you so yeah people should read more that would help and not like a telegram group no like actually pick up a book pick up a Kindle I've been all I've been a like all about Kindle for like the past couple of years when I got one for my birthday from my wife because uh you know finding the best lighting in a dark house is pretty hard so if Kindle comes in handy with it I still collect physical books as well but also you know Kindle's pretty convenient so yeah pick up a Kindle pick your phone has a Kindle app on there I mean people just need to read more yeah right yeah this is crazy man it baffles me that people don't read and I've met multiple people in the past couple of years actually that tell me they don't read I'm like what the hell like I have like a sixth like I'm the head teacher for a sixth grade class so there are 28 kids in there and two of them voluntarily read books at home and they're the ones that talk to me about Lord of the Rings and they're like 12 years old and I'm like okay so you've got good parents I see yeah no shit yeah voluntarily reading that's a good thing not being made to read and still going home and reading that's I mean that's what I did as a kid like I'd check out so many books from the library go home and read it then I get like an assignment English class to read this I'm like cool but yeah it's it's different it's weird. Yeah it's I mean it's hard because it's a cognitive thing that you have to process and but the thing is like the more you read the easier it gets you know and I mean my biggest opponent is always the fatigue that I'm so tired but um still like you know like you learn to read better and then I have kids in school and in English lessons like hey read this sentence and they're stuttering and they're like in the 10th grade and you're like what the fuck is going on yeah I can't read that well it's like how the fuck did you make it to 10th grade with reading reading like a little baby but yeah I mean that's kind of the world we live in.
SPEAKER_02Yeah we live in strange times that's for sure yeah absolutely so uh yeah let's uh let's talk about some wrestling man like I haven't I don't think I've talked wrestling on this podcast since it started and I I and you I I have to blame you actually not blame you but uh my wife might blame me because I watch a lot of wrestling now and she doesn't understand wrestling that's cool but you got me back into like watching wrestle again specifically with aw that's yeah that's that's what I watch. I I was watching a little bit of the WWE stuff when I started up again but it just kind of sucks. But AEW is where it's at for me and uh yeah I really uh I owe you some uh gratitude there for getting me back into wrestling because it's something fun I can you know I don't it's nothing really to like uh stress over you're just you're you're just watching something fun it's like you know it takes you away from all the bullshit for a little bit and yeah it's awesome.
SPEAKER_01Right. It's the same as comic books. It's easy it's good versus evil the stories are captivating it's mixed with like interesting stuff that happens and even though you're even though you know it's scripted it's still fun to like participate in and like proc like doing prognosis of like what will happen and yeah to me that's also it has always been my safe space and I mean we will talk about like how we found it but I gotta say man to me this is my well let me see 36th year of being a wrestling fan. Wow that's that's cool yeah like I would have been right up there with you but like I said there was a a moment in time from probably age I quit watching wrestling probably when I was like 18 or 19 all the way to maybe five years ago so it's like I I don't know none of the like you know everything after the attitude area I'm like attitude era of wrestling I'm kind of like yeah I don't have no idea what went on then so yeah I mean I watched uh I sat through a lot of horrible wrestling but thankfully I mean there was like at some point all especially with the internet there was the chance to see like alternatives to WWE because for a while that was the only product that you could see and it got worse and worse and and thanks to uh AW you know like competition always makes you like work harder and that's what happened at least for a while with WWE too but before we go into this detail I want to make something really clear here um I don't know like how many people that listen to your podcast are also wrestling buffs but I gotta say the most most heinous crime scene of humanity is the comment section under wrestling YouTube or wrestling uh you know Instagram posts or something because I I fucking hate the tribalism you know it's like oh man this is like why the fuck do you like this like it's not even discussion it's like bashing the others why do you in like invest and I mean it goes both ways with the big companies it's like why would anyone who's like super into WWE take the time to bash like AEW people on the internet why you can just say like I don't like it but it's good that it's there because there's an option there's more work that it made WWE better because they had to step their game up had to do like better contracts had to do health insurance and all this shit so why could you not just say like it's not my taste but yeah if it floats your boat good so I hope we don't have any of these fools you know that will like criticize us for saying like because I'm an AW guy all the way and by now I'm like a fuck WWE guy. But I'm not a guy that posts like oh fuck this shit fuck triple H fuck this shit fuck CM Punk for being a sellout I you know if it's for them if it makes them happy if there's one person that watches this and says this made my week better fine yeah you can you can speak about blood money and all that shit and working with Saudi Arabia and all that shit. I don't like this but like it's a business I mean also like Tony Khan and his family they're also not perfect.
SPEAKER_02No to me it's just the style of wrestling and the way wrestling is portrayed in AEW and like the background of making a humane company where you have to work two nights a week you get health insurance you're not a private contractor that's all like aspects that make me fall in love with this company and I'm glad it's there and I'm glad it made life for people in WWE better as well and that we have the internet and we can watch TNA Ring of Honor New Japan you know Gorilla Pro all these things and I consume a fucking lot of wrestling man yeah like I said once you uh got me back into wrestling again it was pretty much that's uh oh yeah like 80% of what I watch now is wrestling for the most part because there's so much to watch I say you guys WWE which you know I don't really prefer at all but you know there's something that's kind of catchy like if you know like when Goldberg came back for that one match like I'm gonna watch that this you know it wasn't a good match but you know it was cool seeing that having that old school feel come back again the nostalgia and stuff and then there's you know ring of honor there's uh new japan like you said uh and then there's a lot of indie stuff I I watch on YouTube it's we have one called MLW which is okay it has some good wrestlers in there it's okay like uh there's one guy called uh Maj Kruger who I think he looks really fucking cool and stuff and uh he's like a old school kind of like big evil guy and I I dig that and stuff but uh there's yeah there's so much wrestling to watch people need to just uh enjoy it yeah I just I I started going back to life wrestling shows you know like I there's a the biggest German league is called WXW and they like tour around and they have got shows and they had like uh Hiroshi Tanahashi and people come in you know like new Japan guys and and that's cool and um then there's a really small league here close to where I live called Euphoria and that's like pretty much like you know in a local gym where there's like 50 people in the end but they still have people from Turkey from France from Italy they can't wrestle and it's just so much fun.
SPEAKER_01It's like innocent fun and the for that like going out and hanging out with people I'm down for that. Um but like you know I keep up with WWE but I watch like to me like my my favorite YouTube channel is WrestleTalk. It's like British guys that do like wrestling news and and stuff and they're like they're good and they always do like um you know like uh the not like highlights but like they um they they watch a show and then give their feedback on it and summarize it and I follow them and I watch like some WWE you know like um uh Friday night smackdown in 10 minutes or something. Yeah and you know like there's stuff that intrigues me and when it's like when there's a match where I'm like oh I like this wrestler and I want to see what they're doing then I go out and find this. I I it's on Netflix now Now and so I watched that, and that's okay. But just like NXT, for example, like the way it's produced, the way it sounds, you know, like they have this horrible sound when like people do bumps on the ring. It just sounds crazy. And then they have the worst commentator with Booker T. And I I I just can't enjoy it, you know. And with like big WWE shows, it's like, yeah, this is all too much. And I fucking hate the the DQ endings to keep everybody protected. And you know, and again, that's my subjective taste. So if you don't agree with this, please don't crucify me in the comment section. Um, I just like uh a real finish to a match, and I think like a DQ finish needs to be something special for uh you know for a storyline purpose, but not like a show with six matches and four of them are DQ finishes because you want to have the real ending at a pay-per-view, and that's just you know, that's like stylistic things that drove me away from WWE, and again, no hard feelings. They like they gave me everything I love about wrestling for so long, but now I have AW and I want like I was at all in the first and biggest gate that ever was there with like Wembley Stadium, 80,000 people, and you can see me pretty much six rows behind the ring. I'm on camera the whole time, and yeah, I spent like 600 euros to sit there, and we flew over. And um, yeah, it's just the best thing. So I'm AEW all the way.
SPEAKER_02I'm hoping, like, uh, I don't know if this is ever gonna happen. It could happen though, but I want to Oba Femi is my favorite thing about WWE. I think he's a fucking beast, dude. He's so good. Yeah, he's very good. I want him to go to AEW, him and Swerve have like a thing going that dude. That would be the ultimate, like, yeah, he I think it would fit better with AEW, his wrestling style and everything. He's such a beast.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, but like I think they will make something out of him because they they had like Ahmed Johnson in the 90s, and he was also like a black big dude, like, but like Oba Fami has more charisma, and I mean he looks like the swole version of an like already swole swerve now. Yeah, um, but I think like I think he's a good match for WWE, but here's my again criticism of WWE. Oh my god, this will turn into a criticism show. I'm sorry. Um, it is um what they're doing, they don't pull the trigger on the new guys. Braun Breaker is a fucking star. Oba Femi is a fucking star. They've got like some people from AEW. I don't understand why they didn't put together the Ray Phoenix and um uh his brother Dan Penta. Why didn't they like already put them together and made them like the tag team stars that they are supposed to be? Right, and that's again a creative decision, that's their thing. And um, but yeah, Oba Femi is definitely like a household name, and he's going to be a real star if they don't ruin him like they did with so many others.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, exactly. I and I hope hopefully they don't because uh yeah, he's like he's what I like about wrestling, like the old school big guys who can move and like and and has an awesome move list. Like his stuff is like badass, like yeah, very cool.
SPEAKER_01That's very crisp. And I mean, gotta say, like, as much as I like the uh AW more than WWE, the women's wrestling in a in WWE is just like on a completely different level. I mean, look at like Rhea Ripley, she's like legit a star. Um, Charlotte Flair, uh Alexa Bliss, and they're like all, I think they're all pretty much better than the AW women's wrestlers. But that's again subjective. And but you know what pains me the most about this whole tribalism and being a uh WWE being this big ass company that's ruled by TKO, if they would understand the money they could make with like doing crossovers with AW, how much it would do well for both companies, and you know, like booking dream matches like Oba Femi against Swerf. Um, you know, like do do like uh hangman Adam Page against the Seth Rollins or something. You know, there's so much potential, and like I mean, AW showed it with a forbidden door, it's possible, but WWE will never do this, and that's what hurts me the most.
SPEAKER_02That's that would be great, man. It would be, dude. That would be awesome. Maybe yeah, maybe one day. I I don't see it in yeah, maybe one day, but yeah. So yeah, let's let's uh you want to go ahead and start off on uh how you got into wrestling and stuff, like how you found wrestling.
SPEAKER_01That's the fun aspect of doing like these episodes. It's kind of like when Mike and I do did like these episodes about bands like ministry and the replacements, and you know, like when you find out, like, oh, here's the timeline of my youth, which is now easy to like retrace the steps, you know. Like to me, Terminator 2 was like such an like important movie because Guns N' Roses did You Could Be Mine as the soundtrack, yeah. And and then it's like I remember getting Use Your Illusions 2, and I remember sometimes around like close after that, I bought Nevermind and 10 and Bad Motor Finger and the Black Album. And I was like, fuck, that was all 91. I'm like, oh my god, you know, like and then you can like trace back these steps. So my first memory of wrestling, and I looked it up today to be like really certain. We had a TV station here called Telefive. It was like a fifth channel when we just had like a few of them. It was kind of like a cheap ass TV station, but they had like good cartoons and and stuff like that. And they had a show called Ringfrei, which means um open the ring, which is the translation for pretty much let's get ready to rumble. So and they started in 1989, and in 89, and it ran until 1993, and I know in 89 I didn't watch it, so I must have like jumped in around 91 also with wrestling, probably rather 92. And there was a guy called Marcel Obua who was the host, and so I looked him up today and like, oh okay, here's his biography. That's and then I found out that like in the beginning between uh 89 and 92, they showed wrestling matches from WWF, but also from the territories, but also kung fu and karate matches, so it was just like a like a fight show. And I remember that I saw matches of wrestling, but then they had like these you know karate stuff, and they stopped doing this mid-91. So it must have been around that time that I started watching wrestling, and that was they had like not full shows, but they showed like individual matches, and I remember like one of the first people that I saw was Macho Man Randy Savage, um Brutus the Barber Beefcake, uh Hulk Hogan, the Iron Chic. So this era must have been around like WrestleMania 2, 3, something like this. Yeah, that was my entry point.
SPEAKER_02Uh let's see. I think I want to say my entry point too was back in like '91. Shit. I could have been around maybe 1990, because I was like five or six during 1990. But uh yeah, my uh I think I was introduced to wrestling from my granddad at the time because uh there's an older, a couple older wrestling moves, like no holes barred and all that stuff came out. Like uh those really caught my eye, but I think I was already watching wrestling before then. I would rent the VHS from like uh uh like National Video, which was like a video store we had, which was uh that's kind of like a national chain, and then Blockbuster, stuff like that. I would watch these old tapes from like the early 80s and stuff, like Hulk Hogan under the giant, all that good stuff, you know. Back in the day, that really that was my thing was watching the tapes because we didn't have cable or nothing like that. And uh, and then around that same time period or whatever, we did have our local stations, and one of the local stations played uh was a like a WCW like channel. So on Sundays or whatever, like WCW would be on, and this is like back in the day with uh you know Vader and stuff, and you know, I think Hulk Hogan was on WCW at this time for the first time before it was like NW or any of that shit. But uh yeah, that was my some of my earliest uh earliest wrestling things, and then you know, I said watching the whole bar and all that stuff. I was a big Hulk Hogan fan growing up. I had like a poster of him and stuff in my in my room, you know, before I knew he was a piece of shit, you know. Hulk Hogan, the character, you know, not the person. But uh yeah, and I was like, man, he's so cool. Like, this is like the ultimate, and you know, and but I had to give like credit to my granddad and stuff for getting me into that. That was like my first like wrestling experience.
SPEAKER_01That's cool. It's crazy, right? To see like if you look at a guy like Hulk Hogan now, if you would place a guy like him in front of people, they would be like, Who's that dork? You know, like the the m bald head mullet and like you know, eat your prayers, uh, say your prayers, eat your vitamins, and like the red and yellow. But back then, man, that also made me a wrestling fan. I mean, I was around for the debut of The Undertaker and and like all that stuff, but like I was I I got I got stuck with wrestling because of Hulk Hogan, and even though I didn't understand the word, because I mean the uh Marcelo Bua hosted the show in German, and I think the wrestling matches also had German commentary, so I understood a bit because my English back then was not good or not like present at all. And um I still like you know, like the all-American guy, and it was like I I didn't have any idea about what America really means or is or like why he is a patriot. What the fuck is a patriot? It was just like his over, like his over the top persona, the way he interacted with the people. I gotta say that fucking song, I am a real American. Yes, like to this day, man, like the chord progression and the melodies, like it gets to me. And so he made me a wrestling fan. And I remember like the first feud that really caught my attention was him versus the ultimate warrior. Oh, hell yeah, dude. Yeah, yeah. The ultimate warrior with like his ACDC ripoff song, because like the the song is pretty much a cover of an ACDC song, um, just heavier, and like the way he was just a maniac. So he really got me. And one of the guys, probably maybe that's the my entry point to the actual style of wrestling that I prefer more. Um, so the slimmer guys with the slicker look and the better mic skills that was Rowdy Roddy Piper.
SPEAKER_02Oh, yeah, he's the man. Yeah, he was the man.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I love that one. So that was my entry point, and so it was all WWE, but then um telefive stopped airing Ringfrei, and then um I had two channels that showed wrestling. The one was um Eurosport, which was I think also a British German channel, and they showed they started showing WCW from 1994. So I remember seeing on there when Hulk Hogan jumped chip. So I I don't know like how I found out about this. I think like some wrestling program said that, oh yeah, uh Hulk Hogan is not with WWF anymore, he's gone to that company, and then I found that, and I mean that was before the internet, or like I could ask anyone because I knew nobody who was a wrestling fame. But I found it and I saw like him arriving in the limousine, signing the contract, and that's when I started watching WCW.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, uh yeah. When Hulk Hogan went to uh WCW, that was huge for them because WCW was really big in the early 90s, like they were like the top promotion because WWF at the time was like uh a bit more cartoony with their characters, you know, was uh yeah, Dorink the Clown, which you know, I went to all these events when I was a kid, like a lot of those events would come here locally and stuff. I would be there. Like I've seen one, two, three kid fight Bastion Booger before. I don't know if you remember Bastion Booger.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, oh man. I have a clear image in my head.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, he's unforgettable, man. And uh yeah, he looks just like he does on TV. He's a big giant blob of a man, and uh one, two, three kid was so tiny, it was like this guy's not gonna beat him, but you know, he ended up beating him. But yeah, there's sorry.
SPEAKER_01No, Hugo.
SPEAKER_02I was just saying, like, yeah, around that time frame, like WWF was very, very cartoony, uh, definitely directed more towards kids where WCW was more adult and more like uh serious at the time.
SPEAKER_01And I still have the feeling it is still nowadays to some degree. I think WW uh AW does like comedy spots good and well. Um, and something is funny, but the WWE humor that died with the Attitude era when like a Kurt Angel, Stone Cold, like and The Rock, they made me burst out tears laughing because it was so funny. But um I mean now Danhausen jumped ship and went to WWE. I have no idea if he will actually work in the realm of a WWE because he worked so well in AEW, and it's still a shame that they didn't have more for him. I still think it's because he's like best friends with CM Punk, and after the whole CM Punk fiasco, that like Tony Khan didn't want to do anything with him. I don't know, but like I wish him the best because like Danhausen is a great guy, and he's also like a hardcore fan, so he's straight edge, he listens to hardcore a lot. You can see him like in videos of like shows of twitching tongues on the side, and um, yeah, they're all like hanging out with Darby Allen, who's also like into hardcore and punk. Um, but uh yeah, like that that kind of humor is cool, but like the 90s humor when like everybody in WWE had to have a job. The big boss man, the police guy, Duke the dumpster Drossi, the garbage man, you know, like the Mountie, um, the hair like Brutus Beefcake, the haircut, like the hair designer, um Bastion Booger. He was looking like a booger, you know, like stuff like that. The only guy from that realm that was cool and really spoke to me, and that was we'll go into like what we're talking about here about the darker characters, was um there was a guy called Nails.
SPEAKER_02Oh, yeah, Nails was cool, yeah.
SPEAKER_01He was like a like a uh prison escapy. So he had like this orange overall on, and had like the the slick back, like slick back uh blonde hair who looked like the singer in Haywire or like Lane Staley of Ellison Chains, but like with steroids. He was not a like I watched some matches of him recently, and he was not a good wrestler, but his entrance and the way he looked was very intimidating.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, Nails was intimidating, yeah. Yeah, but yeah, like I said, he wasn't much of a wrestler, but he looked apart and like he had that aggressive look uh amongst all the kind of clown characters, you know.
SPEAKER_01So yeah, I mean doing the fucking clown. I always thought like I mean, I I I was already a fan of Pennywise and it, you know. Um, so like I don't know like why they never pulled the trigger of making me really scary because he I think he looked very weird and not like really comical. No, and then they had like the little doings, and I was like terrible. But I I think the like the like the worst thing they did was the gobbledygooker back in the in the 80s. Remember that?
SPEAKER_02Oh yeah, yeah. Oh my goodness, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Do you know you know who was supposed to be the gobbledygooker, and then he like bailed out and said, like, no, I'll rather do something else. I'm not sure who wasn't. Mark Callaway, aka the Undertaker.
SPEAKER_02Oh man, I'm glad he didn't take that route.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and that's that's when he debuted as The Undertaker. So imagine that, man. He was like, Oh yeah, I'll play like the gigantic turkey in this gigantic egg. No, I'll just like I'd rather play this dark guy who's like almost like the Grim Reaper.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that would have been horrible if he chose that other route. So oh man, absolutely. But yeah, let's uh let's segue from this. Like, since we're already talking about The Undertaker and Nails and stuff, let's uh yeah, let's talk about some of these uh darker wrestlers that we really dig.
SPEAKER_01I have a small list of like some of them, but we can you know there's more than just a few that you know I dig, but yeah, like I I I instantaneously when we spoke about it, I was like, okay, so I know my top guys when it comes to this. And then I was like, huh, there's actually not that many that really pulled off like the really dark stuff. You mean I mean you can argue like um, you know, uh I mean we had like crazy characters like the boogeyman or uh Papa Shango, you know, like the voodoo priest. Yeah, that was like yeah, that was like kind of scary, but like we've got like cooler, like darker characters that were just like brooding or more like you know, harder. But they're more like thrillers, but like we're going to talk more about the people that were like more horror movie adjacent. And um, yeah, I got a like a top six, I could make it a top seven. So do you want to go like Mount Rushmore style or something?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, you do you want to start from uh the bottom and go up?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, absolutely. Let me just drink something real quick. Oh, this stupid cold man and my sore throat. Um alright, so my top seven of dark wrestlers of all time. Number seven is Kane.
SPEAKER_02Nice, yeah. He's on my list too, but he's gonna be higher.
SPEAKER_01Okay. So you were talking about it when you were um like when he's way further up, okay? Okay, but yeah, like Kane, the Undertaker's brother, the big rat machine. Um great character, great invention. The guy's total piece of shit now, like a Republican governor, you know.
SPEAKER_02I know, right? Jeez, what the fuck? Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, but still, Kane ruled when he came out.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So what's your seven? All right, my number seven. I'm gonna this one's gonna be from the short-lived but very fucking cool wrestling organization uh called Lucha Underground. I don't know if you dug them or not, but I fucking I love Lucha Underground. I thought it was great. So I I did watch that before I you got me into AEW. This was okay way back in the day. I did because uh that whole network was really cool, L Ray. And I was like, what is this? And it was so the whole promotion of Lucha Underground is super dark, and you know, like it has a real dark, evil feel to it. But there's a certain wrestler off there that I really fucking dug, and I his whole persona was just badass and evil, but that was uh Mil Muertes. I don't know if you remember him or not. No, I have to like I'm kind of looking it up.
SPEAKER_01What's it what's his name?
SPEAKER_02Uh Mil Muertes.
SPEAKER_01Okay, got him.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and he's he's done some other stuff too. Yeah, dude. He was so brutal over there, and he was usually always like the champion, and he was he would sit on top of his like throne that was overneath the like the walkway that would have wrestlers would come out in and stuff, and just like uh he had the whole like urn type thing going on, like the Undertaker had like he he was supposedly like possessed by like uh some kind of like demon god or whatever, and uh he was just dark and he could wrestle too. Like he was a badass, he was like one of the biggest uh lucha wrestlers they had over there, if not the biggest lucha wrestler, like when it's you know, he was just a brute, and uh I really dug his whole persona. He was kind of like the lucha libre version of The Undertaker, yeah.
SPEAKER_01So to me, like lucha wrestling is a style that I always like, but I never like fully grasped. But Lucha Underground, I mean, Swerve is on there, um El Generico, aka uh Semi Zayn is on there. Um, but to me, like when I watched that, it's like Penta was on there, and I think Penta is great. I think he he's the best looking Lucha to me, like his mask with a face paint. He has it always reminded me of Skeletor in a way, and I think he could like if he would go like all dark for a while, he had like a shovel with him, then you could consider him like a dark wrestler too. But uh yeah, like um Penta is a good guy when it comes to this, so yeah, I understand that. I really should check out Lucha Underground more. Like, uh, I saw like a couple of stuff of that, but uh and really need to like really go my way through that.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, definitely, dude. It is so good. I think they did five seasons before it was canceled, unfortunately. But it was, I mean, every season was great. I mean, they did some crazy shit, and and and just the way that all the the drama and all played out there was very well done, very some um cinematic, you know. They like you know, their promos and everything, like so good. That whole neck network was great. Um, El Ray, which was uh uh Rob. Robert Robriguez's network. I think him and uh damn uh him and somebody else were in business for that there, but I know Robert Rodriguez was the main reason El Rey existed and it played like old Kung Fu movies, like a lot of like cool 80s action movies, like you know, it's just a lot of cool stuff. But that network went under, unfortunately, and stuff. But uh yeah, Lucha Underground, fucking awesome. Cool.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. I need to, like I said, like need to dug in, dig into this a bit more. Um cool. My number six is uh going by two names on the indies. He's killer cross and WWE, he was Carrion Cross, and I still think that he's a very underrated wrestler. Um, he's a good storyteller. And now that he's back on the indies, he's doing a lot of great stuff. And I like it best when he goes like full sinister and dark. He's more like the manipulative uh demon guy, you know, like you know, the devil in disguise, pretty much. And um, yeah, I wish like it is still not clear if he's like not really still with WWE and just taking a break, but I think like he could be a guy, like getting signed to one of like the bigger not AWWE promotions could be a real star because he is good on the mic, he does great video promos, and like I said, like I think he should go darker than he did in the last time, but I always like Killer Cross.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, Killer Cross is cool. I'm not that well like versed with Killer Cross. Uh, I did watch some of his later matches before they left WWE and stuff, but what I saw from him I thought was really cool, and I do like his evil persona where he's always like backstage trying to you know manipulate people and stuff. He has like a definitely has an evil look to him as well.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's like it's a shame. One of the guys that WWE, especially Vince McGann, really wasted. Like they could have made him a real big star, and he got organically over, and they still didn't put the pull the trigger on him. Um, but yeah, like I give him kudos. So all off for killer cross.
SPEAKER_02He's one that uh needs to jump over to AEW. I think that would be a good fit for him.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think so too. Like he should get a chance there, but I think Tony Khan is still not certain if he's really gone from WWE.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, uh yeah, yeah. There is some weirdness going on there with that. So yeah. All right, so my number five, we're going old school, like real old school with this one.
SPEAKER_01But uh this is one of isn't it six number six or number five?
SPEAKER_02Oh, yeah, yeah. Uh well, I just did my numbers. We're doing our top six. I think uh my my six was uh Mil Muertes.
SPEAKER_00Ah, okay, okay.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. So it's be my five here.
SPEAKER_00Okay, okay.
SPEAKER_02And that's gonna be the notorious Abdullah the Butcher.
SPEAKER_00Oh, okay, okay, okay.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I mean, you can't get much more evil than this guy, and he's done some evil things in real life as well, you know. He's like uh he's not too far away from his character for the most part, you know. He's been in some notorious, like bloody fucking real fucked up matches. He's uh done some pretty fucked up things in the ring, and he's been doing that since what the late 70s, 80s, and I think he was wrestling on all the way into like the early 2000s when he's like you know, super old and stuff. And uh yeah, he's just a scary dude. He seems he seems like somebody you would run into on like a dark alley or something, you know, somebody that exists in real life, his character is kind of him. You just pull out a fork out of nowhere and start stabbing you in the head. Dude, like, yeah, I wouldn't want to meet that guy. Jesus. Yeah, there was a documentary on him on the uh dark side of wrestling, which I really dig that that vice program and uh yeah, the stuff he did, like it's pretty heinous and those matches that he had overseas and stuff. And yeah, yeah, he was uh he lived up to his name, but Abdullah was definitely evil and scary dude.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely. Not someone, not not someone I would like hang out with. It's like, nope, hard pass. No, so yeah, he's my uh he's my number five.
SPEAKER_01Okay, so like uh I I actually did seven because like Kane was my seven, killer cross was my six, so I'm doing my five now. So we're like then we're back like on track, and then you go fourth, and then I go fourth. Okay, um, okay, my number five is uh the uh crow version of Sting. Yeah. Oh nice. Yeah, when Sting uh was the only guy that stood up to the almighty NWO. And I mean, you could argue, like, yeah, I mean, he just stole like the character from the comic books and one of the most popular movies, but he really made it his own. And um, yeah, he was very brooding, like this just being in the rafters of of the of the venues, and you know, with the baseball bat and this whole attitude and everything was so fucking cool. The recluse, you know, like I'm doing it by myself, I don't need any help. I mean, he got watered down and then got like to the red and black NWO, and like I didn't like all of that. But sorry, the beginning phase of um Sting as the Crow Sting was fantastic.
SPEAKER_02Oh, dude, I 100% agree with that. I am a huge crow fan, still am. Still one of my all-time favorite movies. When I saw Sting come out as the Crow, I'm like, this is the most badass shit ever. Comes down with this baseball bat and stuff. Like, this is peak sting. Like, that was my favorite version of Sting. I love that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, he was fantastic. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, wasn't I wasn't a fan when he did the whole red and black NW Wolfpack thing. I I don't know. Somehow the red and black didn't really work. You know, I like him as you know, regular crow sting. That was like peak. Yeah, dude.
SPEAKER_01When we when if we would have gone down like the further, like the whole like where did we find wrestling and what was wrestling to us, I gotta say, like the Monday Night Wars phase, when it was attitude era versus NWO era, that was the peak of wrestling back then. I mean, now I love everything that's happening now, but like the way they outshined each other back then, like Hogan's Hogan's turn at Bash of the Beach 97, uh 96, and um then like the first incarnation of NWO before they had like way too many members and they fucked up the storylines and Hogan didn't want to lose. Fuck all that shit, but like the inception of the NWO and the beginning of that versus what you had like with The Rock and Stone Cold and the McMahon thing in WWE, that was the best time, and they really outshined each other back then with their care characters and the grittiness of it. I mean, some of the stuff didn't age well, like you know, the Bra on Panties matches and yeah, like Lawler like calling uh show us the puppies and disgusting. But um, in general, like that was the peak, and yeah, like the cross thing to me was the peak point of NWW uh like of WCW before they completely derailed and fucked everything up.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, 100% agreed on that. The attitude area, uh the attitude era and the uh NWO era when it first started on WCW, those two were like the best, and then on you know, with WWF, you had new uh the Generation X and all that stuff, like the whole attitude area was it was fucking perfection. The era of attitude was the best.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's like there's it wasn't PG, and when they started like with John Cena, the ruthless aggression, that was like okay, now we're back to kitty TV, and there was no opponent, uh no opponent to like really charge them. But that's when I found like the first ring of honor stuff and saw like the first new Japan matches. I'm like, oh yes, here we go. Yeah, um, so yeah, sting number five. What's your number four?
SPEAKER_02My number four is uh the great psycho Sid Vicious, and uh preferably Psycho Sid, you know, before he was like, you know, the whole Sid Vicious thing, but Psycho Sid, like that persona, man. Holy shit.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, yeah. Not not the big best wrestler, but like his persona, his presentation was awesome.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, the dude the way he looked. I mean, he was a giant motherfucker. Like he was like six foot nine or six eight, but he was legit six eight, six nine, you know what I mean? They weren't really throwing the numbers at him or whatever. He's just a big, scary looking dude. And he he looked like he was like his eyes were always like super crazy. Like you could you know, he felt like that character, like he could go off on you at any minute. And I loved his power, he's still got one of the best power bombs, in my opinion. I love love his version of the power bomb, but uh yeah, he was one of my favorites, and he's just yeah, very big, brooding dude. And you know, he was originally they were casting the X-Men back in the 90s, they're gonna do like a badass X-Men movie, and he was supposed to play um Sabretooth, and I think that would have been the best fucking sabretooth movie.
SPEAKER_01Oh man, yes. But it was the guy that did uh Ray Donovan later, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Oh yeah, yeah, that was weird. Uh, I don't know. Yeah, it was a very weird pick, but yeah, there was supposed to be a 90s uh early a mid-90s X-Men movie, and all the casting was out stuff, and he was Sabretooth. I was like, dude, this is the best. I love Sabretooth. I think he's one of my favorites, but uh yeah, psycho Sid, man. Yeah, I believe he passed away recently, too.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, he did. He's uh to me, it was always like the Dolph Lundgren of wrestling, you know, like this gigantic blonde dude who's like legitimately crazy, and yeah, like one of my favorite comedy fails in wrestling of all time was the debut of the shockmaster.
SPEAKER_02Oh god, yeah.
SPEAKER_01That was oh man, that's like a recurring theme with my two best friends. We watch were like that watch wrestling together. We send us like that video again, and it's always a blast watching this.
SPEAKER_02Oh man, and the looks it gives on me is like what the fuck?
SPEAKER_01Oh god, so it's thing is like, what am I doing here? Yeah, oh man, fucking hell. Um, man number four, the late great Bray Wyatt.
SPEAKER_02Oh, good choice, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and we're speaking like I don't I don't like I don't think the fiend was that good. I think the firefly fun house was cool. I did like it when he then came back with this song that his brother is using now. I didn't like that, but like the um Max Katie looking swamp uh cult leader character Bray Wyatt of the beginning phase with the Fireflies, the song when he came out, his promos from The Swamp with Sister Abigail. That was like one of a kind, and like again, something whereas like Vince McMahon didn't see anything really in him that could have been like, I mean, even the Undertaker said, like, hey, this is the next guy, I'll pass him the torch, but now he's dead, and now no, like Undertaker's like, yeah, Damien Priest is the guy. It's like, no, no, Damien Priest is not the guy. Um, but like Bray Wyatt, man, he was such a genius when it came to this because he was a nerd like we are for horror movies, everything dark and gloomy, and he worked it all into his character, and it was just perfection. And he was also for his size, he was so crisp and so good in the ring.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, he could move. Yeah, that was a good character, man. I could I could definitely fit into that family, the Firefly family or whatever. Like, I got to look for that, I gotta totally be with that family.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you're you always remind me like when you post that picture of you with the guitar from your old band. I'm always like, that looks like a guy from True Detective Season One.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, without the math, there were you know, straight edge version, yeah. But yeah, that's a good pick, man. Yeah, great, he was a great wrestler.
SPEAKER_01And the thing is, you know, like even like that's the cool thing about like that. There's like the fourth wall is broken and Kfabe is pretty much dead, that everybody now can speak about him. And it's like the like when he died and like when he passed, that was shortly before it was pretty much, I think, two days before All In in London. And uh the House of Black then paid tribute to him. And I saw like all these interviews, and people were like, he's the nicest guy, he's the nicest person, and like his father, who was IRS, like another job wrestler because he was for the tax deduction. Um, you know, like him talk having like hearing him talk about his son, about the genius of his son, that really like touched me. Like, yeah, Bray was a good guy, I think.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, definitely. Uh very good choice on that, and definitely a good wrestler, and had a very dark aura about him and stuff. But yeah, gone way too soon, unfortunately. All right, so we're down to my number three, I believe. And uh not going old school again with you here, but uh this is one of my all-time favorite wrestlers just because he's a big, mean, fucking scary motherfucker. But uh, I'm going with early WCW slash New Japan version of Big Van Vader.
SPEAKER_00Oh, good one.
SPEAKER_02Yes, dude, when he would come out in uh New Japan, he would bring that giant, like uh what kind of it was like a big helmet thing he would wear. Then he would lay it down and like the smoke would come out of it. And he's just such a like monster of a dude, you know. And yeah, it's like this guy's fucking intimidating, and he wrestled the same way as like his entrance. Well, he's a very intimidating wrestler, like he would uh throw some pretty stiff shots, you know. He was known for that, known for like uh popping his eyeball back in after I think what Stan Henson almost knocked him out in Japan.
SPEAKER_01But it's but also like very agile for a guy his size, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Doing fucking moonsaults and stuff, like you know, and Vader Bomb and all that stuff. But uh yeah, I I love Vader. And when he went to WCW, that all that shit was cool too, with like the Taskmaster and all that was going on. Was it Legion of Doom over there in WCW?
SPEAKER_01Um Dun Dungeon of Doom.
SPEAKER_02The Dungeon of Doom, yeah, Dungeon of Doom. All that stuff was super cool.
SPEAKER_01Legion of Doom where the Road Warriors in WWF, yeah.
SPEAKER_02That's right. Also, one of my favorite tag teams of all time.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, they could fit on here too, like the bad. Yeah, yeah. Um, but the thing is, uh, it's funny. Like when Sting retired, I like watched a long podcast interview with him, and he was like, What was your most dangerous opponent you ever had? And it's like, yeah, Vader, and they're like, Oh, yeah, was he so hard? Like, no, he's stank. Yeah, I heard he smells horrible, yeah. Yeah, and Sting was like, dude, like wrestling him and like his crutch in your face must have been like one of the most gruesome things he ever took in the ring. Oh man, stinky ass Vader.
SPEAKER_02Also cool being his name is Vader. I mean, how more how much more metal do you need than that? Like that that's intimidating as itself, like Vader. Like, fuck yeah, he lived up to that name so well.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, especially in that time when I when I like in '93 or something, when I started with WCW, um the band Vader, like the Polish death metal band, just like when when death metal was at its absolute biggest back then, they released uh their album The Ultimate Incantation. And I love that. There was a video on MTV Headbanger's Ball, which was like super scary, and it was like, oh, I love Darth Vader. There's a death metal band called Vader, and now there's a wrestler called Vader. So there is some, you know, like a red linen that uh features all the stuff that I love. Yeah, that is called Vader.
SPEAKER_02Uh fun fact about the Vader, Vader, the band. Um, when I first met my wife, we started dating. We both went in on, she was a uh promoter around here for a very long time in Loquare, a very good promoter. And we bought Vader down to our little ass fucking town in South Carolina. Vader played like a small club. Me and my wife were running the whole fucking show for him and stuff. Like we brought him down, she booked him. I was running front of house and all, not front of house, I'm sorry, I was running door and all the other shit. But uh yeah, we bought Vader down to this small little tool. Like we had this like uh very not a very big venue, and we just had it packed out with people to see Vader. I'm like, and they had their giant tour bus parked outside this small ass venue, it's insane. Like nobody's ever brought a band that big down here, you know, wherever I guess yeah, it was crazy.
SPEAKER_01But were they were they cool? Did they like the show?
SPEAKER_02Uh they uh they stayed in her bus the whole time.
SPEAKER_04Okay, they weren't they weren't they're okay, I guess.
SPEAKER_02Uh maybe they were tired. I I give them that. I don't I don't know, but yeah, they stayed in the bus the whole time, and so it was time for them to play. They were they requested a whole bunch of waters and shit. We had to lug over there, and yeah, I don't know. They weren't very personable. I think I can say that, but the show was good. They did a good job, of course.
SPEAKER_01But yeah, that's everything that counts in the end, yeah.
SPEAKER_02And also another little like uh fact on Vader the Wrestler. Um, he was in the episode of one of my favorite TGIF shows back in the 90s, Boy Meets World. I don't know if you ever watched that. Oh, yes, yes, yes, yeah. It's like man, that's Vader. Like, yeah, it's like he's actually just a normal human for the most part, you know.
SPEAKER_01But by speaking of 90s, do you know the sting commercial where he he throws around the kid in the house?
SPEAKER_02Oh, yeah, that's a good one.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, dude, the 90s, wherever off the right off the charts, man.
SPEAKER_02It was it was the best of all the you know, yeah, it was the best of times was the 90s, in my opinion. Unbelievable.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, um, okay, my number three. Um a rather fresh face, also someone who's been to like he comes, hey, he's actually from a neighboring country of mine, and he w wrestled in Germany for a long time, and then he went to NXT, went to the main roster of WWE for a short stint, then went to AW, and now he's back in WWE. He's Alistair, aka Malachi Black.
SPEAKER_02Oh, yeah, he's cool as shit. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Uh Thomas' name. Um he is legitimately like Bray Wyatt when it comes to knowledge of this shit. I remember I turned Mike Hill onto him, and uh because he was on hard lore, and then he explained like his character, and he did this cool ass vignettes when he got fired from WWE with his infected eye, and then he like appeared in AW. And I gotta say, like this version of him, like the early Malachi Black, the really dark character wearing a suit being the antithesis to Cody Rhodes, who was still in AW back then, you know, like pretty much good versus evil. And um, and then he brought in Brody King and then um Buddy Matthews, and they were like the house of black. Like this version of him was fantastic. I liked him in NXT, he was great. Um, again, someone who jumped back ship after Triple H took over. And I know like he was not happy with how AEW treated him. I cannot expect like I cannot think that he's really happy with what WWE is doing with him right now. Same goes for Rusev, a guy who could have been way more. Um, but yeah, they decided to go back to WWE, and I think it was a the wrong choice. But in general, that guy, man, he knows the stuff. I mean, he has he came in and had uh Amon Ra as on like an entry song um in AW. And then he had something from I don't know, like from a deathcore band. So he knows the stuff. He has like black mask clothing, he's into black metal, he's friends with uh Belfigor and and um Behemoth and all these cats. So he knows his shit, he knows his books, his movies, and his references were always so cool that you really could like sit down and watch a promo of him or like a vignette and be like half an hour is like okay, this is a reference to this movie, this is from that show, this is from that book, and he was spot on. He's a also very good in the ring. Um, yeah, he should be a real star, but I don't know why he never got the shine that he's supposed to be got.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, dude, I also really agree with what you said there. I love Malachi Black. Um that and he seems like uh you know, he is a metal head, which is also cool. One of the best entrances ever when he's in AEW, like yeah, and the dude can wrestle, like he can also fight too. I think he's like he's a kickboxer as well, but uh he's very nimble and yeah, he has that look.
SPEAKER_01Oh man, like his black mess, you know, like when he was still like the super dark character in AW, and he just like waited for his opponent and then just like this kick done. That was very cool, like the manipulative aspect and him bringing Brody King in, and like one of us, I would always consider him because he's from the scene and he sings in God's hate. And now Brody is like getting the shine he deserves in AEW. Um, but like them as the trio's champions in this dark look, they were so fucking good.
SPEAKER_02That was a great time for AEW. I really enjoyed them. Yeah, and I like Brody King might be my favorite AEW wrestler right now. Like, I really like Brody King, especially being that he's a metalhead too and has a Pretty awesome, Van. Like, yeah. He's fucking cool guy.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Also, very good power bomb. The Dr. Gonzo bomb, I think it's called.
SPEAKER_01Oh man. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02That's a brutal power bomb.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's like a mixture of a pile driver and a power bomb. Yeah. That's also like his cannonball, man. Jesus.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, perfection. Like, I I know it's uh it's gotta hurt a little bit, you know. Whoever's receiving that. There's no way because he's throwing his weight right at you like that. If you're not in the right spot, you're gonna get fucking knocked out.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. All right. So we're going with my number two, which you've already mentioned earlier in the podcast. That's gonna be the great cane. Yes. The cane that I love is from the attitude era when he first, you know, when he first came out, got his mask on and stuff. Like he's top-notch, the big red machine. I I'm not a big fan of when they unmasked him and all the other shit. That's not the cane I like. This is you know, the cane I like is the one doing fucking, you know, top rope clothes lines and stuff, his feud with the Undertaker, and just he was so brutal and dark, and you know, coming out with that entrance entrance with all the flames and shit. It's like holy fuck. And you know, rumor has it he was Undertaker's brother, like that whole fucking feud that went on that was like perfection. And he's he's such a big, intimidating dude. Like he's a big motherfucker and he can move.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, that was um when he started um that inception of him and Paul Barrett betraying the take betraying Taker and him, like his brother, and then the way he looked, like the first mask and the first suit he had like the first um yeah, what what do you call this? Like his wrestling gear, that was cool, but then they reshaped him and it was supposed to look like he had like scars from a demon on his chest, but then it was like this mesh, and his left nipple was always sticking out, and like you know, like he looked like surfer nipple cane, that's what we called him, and that already was like the beginning of his downfall. Yeah, given him and Daniel Bryan the comedy skits they did, that was funny as shit, but that was not not like the dark cane that I wanted to see, you know, like the threat, and um, but like OG Kane when he came out was perfection, yes.
SPEAKER_02Definitely, and also the best choke slam in wrestling. His choke slam was fucking brutal. And I also heard uh some of the people in the locker rooms were from interviews and stuff saying that Kane was like one of the strongest wrestlers they ever encountered. Like, I mean, you've seen him pick up the big show like pretty much with with the ease for the most part, and I mean that's impressive as it is, and yeah, sure.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Um he was also in a few um horror movies, the C No Evil films. I think there's two of them by the Sosuka sisters. Uh not bad. Like he makes a hell of a villain, like seeing Kane come crashing through a wall and shit, like that's pretty legit, like guy that size coming after you, like yeah. But he was pretty good.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, sure. I I always thought like he should have played uh a Jason Forhease in uh in a movie.
SPEAKER_02Oh man, he would have made a perfect Jason Voorhees, like somewhat intimidating, like having his Jason, that'd have been great.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Unfortunately, he went down the other route.
SPEAKER_01Oh man, yeah, dude. Uh well you'd have you can never look behind the head of a guy, you know, like his forehead, what they think, and um, well, I don't know, whatever floats his boat, I guess.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, thanks for the good memories, man. Like that's for sure, you know.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, absolutely. Uh my number two, right? Yes. My number two comes from the darkest death of hell. Vampiro. WCW's vampiro. Good choice. Oh man, I loved him. That was already at the time when WCW was like on the downfall. Um, but then they brought him in, and his look with the shorter black um dreadlocks he had, the white face paint, um, his finishing move was the nail to the coffin, which was like a spike pile driver. He did, I mean, he's a lucha guy, so he went to CML after WCW, and um, oh, he was so fucking good. He was a good storyteller and he was a good wrestler. And to me, the coolest thing then was that back then the misfits got signed as like you know, they had KISS in WCW, yeah, and then they brought in the misfits. I mean, it was like the the Graves era of misfits, but still they would like bring him down to the ring and play him down like with life song. And I mean, if you've got the fucking misfits in your corner, you're my guy, yeah. Um, and he was just so fucking good. And if you go back now, and like YouTube has a bunch of like WCW vampiro matches, like he wrestles the style that I love. Like this version of him could wrestle nowadays in in WC and AW and he would fit in perfectly.
SPEAKER_02Oh, 100%. He was really innovative, especially for that time period. Like the moves he was throwing out, they were like, Fucking, we never seen this shit before. Like, it would be perfect for AW now.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it was a shame that it was the Vince Russo era when like no one took WC set series anymore, and with the new blood and all this shit, and like the black and silver NWO with Jeff Jarrett as their leader. Oh god, that was terrible. And yeah, but he was always like, Oh, Vampiro is on, he's my guy. So, yeah, to this day, uh whole like high memories of vampiro.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, Vampiro was awesome. There's a really good documentary on him that's on like Amazon Prime, it's probably on Tubi now, too. I can't remember the name of it. It came out a few years ago, but very good documentary on Vampiro. He goes through all his like stages of his whole wrestling career and some of the battles he had to go through personally and stuff with drugs and everything. It's really good. Should check that out.
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah, well, I will track that down and watch it cool.
SPEAKER_02And he was also on Lucha Underground. He was one of the announcers who also like came into the storyline. Like, he had like this cool ass fucking part that was also really dark. He was like this fucking almost like a cult leader type person over in Lucha Underground. That was really awesome. Got it. Cool. Okay, love Vampiro. All right, so my number one. This might be your number one, too. I'm not sure. I haven't heard your name yet.
SPEAKER_01So yeah, it can only be one person, I guess.
SPEAKER_02I'm thinking so. Uh, my number one is the all-time great, my all-time favorite wrestler besides Stone Cold. They're like kind of tied there. It's hard to say who's my favorite, you know, out of those two that I love both of them so much, but uh we gotta go with the Undertaker. Um everything but the American badass stuff. I don't like none of that shit when it comes out to Kib Rock and all that fucking shit. Like everything before that, especially like when he was doing the ministry stuff. I thought that was absolutely fucking killer.
SPEAKER_01I have my number one here on my piece of paper says Corporate Ministry Undertaker 1999. Boom. We are on the same page here.
SPEAKER_02That's my favorite version. Because I think man, the storylines are so dark for them. I mean, yeah, dude.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. I was like, what the fuck?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, uh so fucking his look with a pointy beard, and he had like the Mr. Sinister kind of like wardrobe on, you know, like the cape with the shoulder pads and everything. And then he had like you know, uh, what was the the um the APA as like bodyguards and who was else was in there? Um, he had like uh visera, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02And Midian was with him, I believe.
SPEAKER_01Uh yeah, yeah. Yeah, like this whole crew, and then like I mean, even when it came out that he works for McMahon, like I was still like he was so evil, and that was the time when chaos comics was really big, and he was the first guy to got like chaos comics an own comic book. Remember Chaos Comics with Lady Death and Evil Ernie and stuff like that?
SPEAKER_02Yep, man. I used to love Lady Death, yes.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and um, yeah, man, he was he I think to this day, people say like that like uh Hulk Hogan is the guy that put wrestling on the map, and then John Cena is probably the guy that um made kept it like alive for the kids, but I think the one that really got like the most cultural reference was Stone Cold, The Rock, and this version of The Undertaker.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it's like the unholy trinity of wrestling right there, like the best of the best.
SPEAKER_01So that's when they kind of like fucked themselves over. But like, even if they would have continued, like in the cool way the NWO started, look at the star power of like a prime stone call Steve Austin in the feud with McMahon, the rock in his prime, his mic skills before he went to Hollywood, and the corporate ministry undertaker that all combined with McMahon as the ultimate villain. WCW didn't have a chance, man.
SPEAKER_02No, not at all. They got crushed when this happened. Like, it was that was it. Yeah, I mean, this was the best time for wrestling, in my opinion. Out of you know, all the times I've watched wrestling, this is the best. Like, this is the attitude era, yeah. And you know, the man, what and Undertaker has always been cool, even when he first came out. Like, I was like, Who is this guy? And I I loved Horror since I was a kid, and seeing him come out there with Paul Bear and stuff in his purple gloves. I'm like, holy shit, what is this? Because he came out during a time, like I was saying, all the like comic-y characters are out there, you know, yeah, Sergeant Slaughter, fucking the Mounty and all this stuff. Then you got this guy, it's like, holy shit, and he beats Hogan too, which is awesome.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and it's like the whole presentation for like it was revolutionary for that time, the way he cuts promos. Like, he like, I mean, he spoke. Like, I've got like the Blu-ray set, like I got it as a gift, like Undertaker's story, and when he talks about it, that he was like, Hey, you can be the gobbledygooker, or you can be this, and he's like, What am I supposed to do? Because if you look at like older Mark Callaway matches where he had like red orange hair, and like was like, Wow, that's the guy, and it's like, Yeah, but you you need to be like really dark and grim, is like, okay, what what do I do? And it's like, hey, you can roll up your eyes like this, do that, you know, and then like the way he processed, like progressed into the actual Undertaker, but then when he was like dressed completely in black, he's I I think to this day it's the best entrance song of all times, you know, with the bell, lights going out, and then the choir. It has everything I love about like dark like entertainment. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02100%. I got to see him live back when he wore the hat and had the uh I think it was purple gloves, but they might have been, he might have switched his gloves. I think he had white gloves at one time, but anyways, it was in the mid to early 90s, and I got to see him live. And when the whole arena goes black, it almost gets cold. Like you feel like a cold air hitch you're like, what the fuck? And then Undertaker's music hits. It's like, oh my god, it's like, yeah, that's history right there.
SPEAKER_01That's something really special. Yeah, like he was a very special guy back then. Um, I mean, yeah, like nowadays he trains the young, he has also some problematic views. Yeah, he's like he's stuck to Vince McMahon through all that shit. And I mean, I understand loyalty and everything, but um yeah, you can't deny what he did for wrestling. And I think he was the guy that got like the last thing that wrestling needed to be like an all-out success. You know, like you had characters like Hogan or like Shawn Michaels, you had the pretty boys, you had the rough guys, you've got like the the you know, like the badasses and and the lovable people, and but like this dark nemesis guy that was missing, and like none, no one ever did it better than he did.
SPEAKER_02No, and I don't think nobody ever will. I don't think there's ever gonna be anybody as intimidating as him and as dark now. I don't think so.
SPEAKER_01And that's and that's the thing. I mean, he said like in interviews that Bray Wyatt, he like he like there was this last moment where he came back to the ring and he whispered something in Bray Wyatt's ear. And Bray said, like, the undertaker said, now it's on you to keep the darkness, you know. Like he is like, okay, he was passing the torch, but then Bray died. I think the only one in his presentation and all-out approach is uh Malachi Black, but not the version that is in WWE now, and not the one wearing short shorts, yeah. You know, like the the AW guy with the when he had the uh Muay Thai shorts on with the like painted eye and the promos. I mean, he's not as tall as the Undertaker, but he he was intimidating and he had his faction. And when they added Julia Hart, that was a good choice. But um, I think he's the only one that was able to pull that off. But I think he gets lost in the mid-cart now, and he will never be in the position to be like the Undertaker. And he could have been in AW if Tony Khan would have said, like, I'll go all in. That's my opinion.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. But yeah, man, uh it's it's sad looking back, like you know, knowing all these wrestlers are like retired or passed away and everything. It's like it's just a different time. Wrestling's still cool. I'm glad it's doing well again, but it's never ever gonna replicate that, you know, the attitude era, you know, none of that's ever or the NWO when it first started, error, or you know, none of that stuff.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. And the the good thing is, you know, like, and that's where we go back to the beginning of this podcast. You and I, we know this was the best time, but we know how good AW is right now, and that we can still appreciate it. But there's so many people in wrestling and in black metal that are stuck, and it's like, oh this was the best. I don't need to watch anything more because it's not as good. That's bullshit, you know. You know, there's so much happening in black metal or in metal in general, also in wrestling. And I mean, yes, not everything floats my boat. There's also not everything in AW works for me, but in general, I love it, and I'm so happy I get to see wrestling like this in like in 2026. Um and I'm sure that a lot of people will say, like, hey, what WWE is doing right now is fantastic. I just don't like the people that judge, and they don't even bother like trying out what is happening right now. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02No, I I get that from people with uh movies too. Like, well, nothing's been good since like the 80s. I'm like, no, that's wrong. There's so many good things out, man. Like, you gotta open up your mind and don't go by all the mainstream shit that plays in most of the theaters, you know. There's a lot of good indie stuff out there and stuff that don't that doesn't make it to the theaters, you know. There's so much good shit out there.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and see, and this wrestling is the same thing, and that's why I like look up like smaller companies if there's wrestling shows. When we flew to London to see all in um that was on a Sunday, on the Saturday, Ref Pro, like one of the biggest UK promotions, had like a show, and like we were like three guys, and one guy brought his girlfriend and his kid. So they like he and his wife and his um and his kid, they spent the day in London, and Toby and I said, like, hey, let's go to that ref pro show. Man, that was so fucking amazing. And it had like a run-in of of Chris Jericho when he feuded with Will Ospreay. It had like Sky's uh Sky Blue showed up and can uh not Kenta. Oh yes, Kenta showed up, and also um uh cota no, not Cota Bush. Well, whatever, but it was like it was so much fun. I'm like, oh man, I need to see more life wrestling. And now it's like I try to see as many live shows as I can, even if they're small, if some of them are ridiculous, it's so much fun, and yeah, like that's why I'm so happy that I finally got to do like a podcast episode on wrestling. Because I mean, I think you can hear my passion about it, and there's not a lot of people that are as passionate about it. So I'm glad that you like caught fire with AW and we got to do this episode.
SPEAKER_02Hell yeah, man. Your passion got me back into wrestling, and I really, really appreciate that because it was something I was kind of lacking in you know in my life. It's it de stresses me, and I'm so happy for that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it is it is so simple and it's so effective. And um, yeah, I I really can't thank wrestling enough. Um because it's yeah, it literally like saved my sanity in so many parts, like so often. And um, yeah, there's there's the one tattoo that's still on my list to get, and it will be a small ring, uh, a wrestling ring, and it will say wrestling is real, everything else is fake. You know, like that's that's what I need to get.
SPEAKER_02Nice. That's gonna be a cool tattoo. Yeah, very cool. Well, Ralph, this has been awesome. And um, before we go, can you let uh people know where they can buy the new album at?
SPEAKER_01Um, I mean, like if you're like from if you're not from America, um I I I gotta figure out like where like Vendetta, but like if you follow Vendetta Records, he always posts like about the distro, like the the the shop that has like in the States that carries all the Vendetta bands. So you will get our new album from there. Um otherwise, like if you like wanna pay, uh you're willing to pay the um the the shipping or whatever, or if you're not from America, um ulta.bandcamp.com slash merch. Um then the proceeds go directly to us. And um yeah, I mean there's Bandcamp, you can find it on all the streaming apps. Um if you can't afford it, please drop us an email. I will send you a link to download for free. We don't care about this. If you have some bucks spending on us, we will use it to keep this band rolling. Um but yeah, man, in general, if you're really not able to track it down, please hit us up. We will find a way to get you our record if you really like it.
SPEAKER_02That's really awesome, Ralph. And I'm gonna also have the uh links and everything in the show notes, so people check out the show notes. Like I have all these links there, so easily easy to find, you know.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Yeah, man. And I want to say thank you to you again for having me for doing this good job of the podcast, for keeping people sane in a mad world. And um, yeah, I'm just proud of you for what you're doing, proud of all the horsemen, and I'm glad to be part of that.
SPEAKER_02And um, we're glad to have you as part of us, and I'm fucking happy to be part of the horsemen, happy to be friends with all y'all. Like they say, we're brothers, and that's that's very important. I don't call anybody brother, you know what I mean? Like, you have to earn that. I'm not like hippie guy going brother and all that stuff. No, you have to earn that. So, like, yeah, definitely brothers, and yeah, this has been a great podcast, man. Thank you for talking wrestling with me.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely.
SPEAKER_02Oh, yeah, and we'll do uh something again soon.
SPEAKER_01So yeah, we will compare black metal albums and horror movies.
SPEAKER_02Yes, that that's the next one. Yeah, I got that in my notes, so that's gonna be the next one. That's gonna be fun.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Fire. Thanks, man.
SPEAKER_02All right, Ralph, you take it easy and have a good rest of your day. Bye. Bye.