Grapple City Rewind
Step into the time machine and rewind the glory (and the weirdness) of pro wrestling’s VHS era. Hosted by Bradley Palermo and Aaron Fink, Grapple City Rewind dives deep into classic pay-per-views from the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s—unpacking everything from five-star classics to glitter botches, fake Diesels, and forgotten squash matches.
Each episode blends play-by-play recaps, backstage trivia, and plenty of sarcastic banter. Sometimes it’s reverence, sometimes it’s ridicule, but it’s always passionate. Whether we’re debating star ratings, laughing at signs, or reliving Shawn Michaels vs. Mankind, we’re here to remind you why you fell in love with wrestling in the first place.
We kick off every show with a look at today’s wrestling headlines, then rewind to the pay-per-views that shaped us as fans. Think of it as a tape-trading party with your loudest friends, only with better audio.
Want to cut a promo on us? Call 626-657-SLAM and tell us what you loved, hated, or want us to cover next.
Grapple City Rewind – part history lesson, part comedy roast, all love for the squared circle.
Grapple City Rewind
Icon vs Icon and a Broomstick - WWF WrestleMania X8 (2002)
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Hulk Hogan. The Rock. Sixty-eight thousand screaming fans in Toronto. And somehow… a broomstick gets involved.
This week on Grapple City Rewind, Bradley Palermo and Aaron Fink head back to WWF WrestleMania X8 (2002) — the strange transitional moment where the Attitude Era crashes head-first into nostalgia. The nWo has arrived, Limp Bizkit is blasting through the arena, and the WWF is suddenly leaning hard on legends again.
But nothing on this show matters more than Icon vs Icon:
Hollywood Hulk Hogan vs The Rock.
What starts as a simple dream match quickly turns into one of the loudest crowd reactions in wrestling history, with Toronto hijacking the entire narrative and accidentally resurrecting Hulkamania in real time.
Along the way we also get:
- Stone Cold Steve Austin vs Scott Hall in a beer-soaked brawl with the nWo lurking
- Ric Flair bleeding buckets against The Undertaker in a brutal fight for the Streak
- Kurt Angle and Kane throwing each other around like refrigerators
- The chaotic Hardcore Championship insanity
- Nu-metal everywhere you look
- And one of the weirdest tonal WrestleManias WWE ever produced
It’s legends, blood, nostalgia, and a crowd that refuses to follow the script.
Because sometimes WrestleMania history isn’t written by the booking.
Sometimes the crowd decides.
🎙️ Grapple City Rewind — where we revisit the wildest, weirdest, and most unforgettable wrestling pay-per-views of the VHS era.
This episode brought to you by Weber4Law - your tag team partner when life body-slams you out of nowhere. Call (818) 502-9200 or visit https://weber4law.com/
Email: Grapplecitypod@gmail.com
IG: @grapplecitypod
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Music by Bradley Palermo & The Shadow Queens.
Created by Bradley Palermo & Aaron Fink.
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