The Suplex Through Time Podcast

Raw To Netflix, Old School To Now

• david fine

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We salute our early chart momentum and settle into a fast ride through Raw’s Netflix era, a surprise tag title shift, and AEW’s violent spectacle while anchoring it all with a love letter to 1985. Memory, contracts, and injuries collide with today’s nonstop calendar.

• shoutout to listeners and global rankings
• where to listen and follow on social
• mission to blend old-school history with the present
• guest tease for Sin Bodhi and custom figures
• Raw on Netflix recap and AJ Styles with Dragon Lee win
• Adam Pearce, Braun Breaker, CM Punk trajectory
• injury updates for Seth Rollins and Jacob Fatu
• AEW WrestleDream chaos and Sting’s save
• Samoa Joe notes and Andrade contract freeze
• weekly viewing calendar across WWE, AEW, TNA
• 1985 highlights from WWF and the territories
• how fans got news pre-internet and hotline nostalgia
• preview for Starcade 1985 review next week

     Follow the show on Facebook, Instagram, at the SuplexthroughTime Podcast. And get more exclusive content by liking and subscribing on our YouTube channel.


SPEAKER_00:

The following is an exclusive first take audio production. Broadcasting from the Beacon Hill Studios in Atlanta, Georgia, it's time for the Suplex Through Time Podcast. And now your host, David Fine.

SPEAKER_01:

Welcome in to another exciting edition of the Suplex Through Time Podcast. I am your host. I am your matchmaker. I am your editor. I am your presenter. I am your general manager. Coming to you from the Gorilla Position here at the worldwide radio headquarters of the Suplex Through Time podcast in Atlanta, Georgia, home of the Free Burst and home of the National Wrestling Alliance, home of WCW for a while. Boy, folks, you have been responding. I I'll admit, I am overwhelmed at the response and the feedback and the and the love of the very first episode. We debuted in the United States on our first episode out of about 1,500, 1,600 wrestling-related podcasts, 165. And we are 88 in Australia. We're no matter what type of podcast uh wrestling related, um, we do really well in Australia. Uh there's Odysseys, there's people in Australia, they freaking love us. Which uh we thank you. Everyone listening on the old podcast platforms, of course. We are on all the major pack podcast platforms. We are on Pandora, we are on Amazon Music, we are on iHeart Media Podcasts, we are on Audible, we are on uh Pandora, like I said, we are on uh Spotify, we are on, of course, Apple Podcasts, just anywhere. I mean, we're on other other smaller podcast platforms, but those are our major ones. So we we've got it all covered. Um, and soon you'll be getting the audio size picture version of this podcast each and every week on our YouTube page at the suplex through time podcast. That's the official and only YouTube channel for the podcast. And of course, you can follow us anytime on Instagram at the Suplex ThroughTime Podcast. We are not on the Tiki Talk yet, and we're definitely not on XI. Not a big fan of X. Uh, are you a fan of X? Do you get your wrestling information from Xi? I would admit I I get a lot of my information, my some good, some bad off the internet, off Instagram and uh the old Facebook page. Uh it's so much shit going down, literally going down. But uh, I'm just glad that I could you know take this next hour and kind of just take you out of the um the doldrums and the worries of everyday life. I mean, that that is what professional wrestling is, isn't it, folks? And I mean, and back in the day, I mean, it it was um one of those things that I freaking love old school wrestling, and that's what we're trying to do here on the suplex through time podcast. Um you know, we kind of go back from like the mid-70s through the through the present. That's uh that's what our modders motto says, it says, where wrestling's past grapples with wrestling's present one suplex at a time, and um um it's just uh I I uh when I listen to to my podcast, um I it's a even though folks uh TKO is basically priced out any normal person from going to any of their live events, WrestleMania. I mean it's John Cena's last match uh in um in New York, uh Washington DC. Um I'm surprised it's not in the White House. They're doing a UFC fight, I think. Rumored has it on the White House lawn. We won't get into politics. Um well we will kind of touch on Trump. He has been in the WWF back in the day when they had it at the Trump Tosm Hall uh in Atlantic City. Um he up here, but you know, but we'll talk about that later on when we get um hopefully some guests here on the podcast. We were supposed to have an amazing guest this week, the one and only Sin Bodhi out of Las Vegas, Nevada. He's a great wrestler, he's a great custom figure-making genius. Just hit him up on Instagram at Sinbodhi and on Facebook on Sinbodhi. And if you want your own custom professional wrestling figure, it's about 120 bucks, uh, which is not not bad for his uh LJN type and his his magic that he can you send him a picture, life-size picture of what you want back, front, side, and whatever, he will make it look just like you. But he he will be on in the next couple of two, three weeks. Um yeah, folks. Did you watch Monday Night Raw on Netflix? Uh it was actually surprisingly pretty good. I am um really happy, really happy for the phenomenal one AJ Styles, even though he has his uh he still has his uh freaking mom hair mom hair. I'm surprised he hasn't cut it. He had it cut in TNA and back in the old days when I used to do some stuff with him um in NWA uh Cornelia um and in some uh Wildside. Uh that was what was called NWA Wildside in Cornelia, Georgia back in the mid-90s. Um it was like 90 to probably 98. I did a couple things with him, but him and uh Dragon Lee beat the team. They bought they beat the um Finn Balor and JD Madonna uh for the WWE tag team titles on Monday Night Raw. I was actually surprised. Uh I mean to be frank. Yeah, he he's had tag titles. I don't think, I mean, I could be wrong. I don't think he's had a tag title in the in the in the federation in the WWE. Um, but he's definitely had some some tag team matches with uh and some tag team champions with uh Luke Gallows, um Carl Anderson, the Bullet Club back in the old uh New Japan days. I I remember I don't think I told the story on the last podcast. Um if I did, I apologize. We were working a show in uh in Rome, Georgia, superstars were wrestling. It was just a Carl Edwards uh uh Luke Gallows and um Carl Anderson story. Uh Luke Gallows was wrestling, and he said, Hey brother, I'm like, what's up? He said, Can you hold this belt? I'm like, Yeah, I can hold this belt. He said, Don't lose it. I'm like, where am I gonna go with this really heavy gold-plated New Japan tag team title belt? I don't know, but that just kind of brought back great memories with uh AJ winning the title with uh Dragon Lee. They're trying to come up with a uh a name for their team. They had a generally funny joke, they said they were gonna call themselves AJ Lee, you know, Dragon Lee AJ Styles, but AJ said, I think that's already taken, you know, by AJ Lee, you know, CM Punk's wife. But anywho, uh it was a great, great, great raw on Netflix. Of course, we had the scrapdaddy Adam Pierce. He is a former NWA world heavyweight champion. I have done a couple of shows with him, he's a good dude. He asked politely from Braun Breaker, one of the bronze, um, Bronson Reed, Braun Breaker, uh, with the uh with the Oracle, the oh Paul Heyman. That that man, if if you don't know much about him, about his early career as Paulie Dangerously, he has been amazing. He helped start ECW, which of course, if you've never heard of ECW, why are you listening? Go back, pause this, listen at the look and look at the history of the ECW. It's amazing. Anywho, he asked um uh Braun Breaker, he said, uh, can you please give me back the world heavyweight title? It's not yours, it's gonna be in a battle royal. Uh, and whoever wins a battle royal gets to go up against CM Punk at Saturday night's main event, the next one coming up. Uh, not the one, I don't think it's they may have one before John Cena retires. I don't think it's not definitely not the John Cena um retirement uh Saturday night's main event, but it's it's one coming up before. Um, and it was a great battle royal. I mean, it was, I mean, Don Mysterio, he's just that dude, you know, kind of going back. Um, he's and it's doing a backstage, you know, in interview vignette, and he was mentioning to them and to the the one only scrapdaddy and pierce, why am I the only one putting their belt on? Who am I? Why am I the only one defending their belt? And of course, he's the I think he's the triple-A mega champion, and he's of course the intercontinental champion. He put his belt on the line, and then he was Pierce is like, uh, okay, um, okay, we got a tag team title match, AJ Styles, Dragon Lee versus Finn Bala and JD McDonough. JD McDonough. Jeez, two great accents. I mean, those two dudes, Finn Balor's awesome. Of course, you know, they lost the tag titles. I was surprised um because rumor on the dirt sheets and on the internet that uh Braun Breaker and um they were gonna strap the titles to them, Bronson Reed and Braun Breaker, but with a Seth uh Rollins legitimate injury, which folks, I I'm I'm like you. Did you think that he was actually you know like shenanigans and Tom Foolery? Kind of like last time when he cashed in his money in the bank. Um, he was not hurt, but he is actually hurt. He's gonna be out a couple weeks, uh, sorry, a couple months. Speaking of another injury, the hottest, I mean, I fucking love this guy. This guy is amazing. The one only, the werewolf, Jacob Fatou. Haven't seen him in a minute. So I kind of did some research and talked to my sources um in the WWE. He has a non-related injury. Of course, you know, we're all thinking maybe he did something stupid, did something he shouldn't have. Come to find out, I'm not sure if this 100% true, but it was some kind of dental surgery or some kind of dental procedure that maybe went awry or it's taken longer to recover. But that dude, I mean, they were putting a fucking rocket ship on that guy's back. I mean, they were going to put him to the moon, and then it kind of squished, but you know, that's that's okay. I mean, it he'll come back uh uh bigger and better than ever. But um Wrestle Dream from AEW didn't watch this pay-per-view because it was an actual pay-per-view, and I mean I I was uh I was um upset enough that I had to uh kind of switch my Hulu Disney Plus to Disney Plus Hulu uh plus ESP and ads um so I can watch the PLEs because if not, I mean I wouldn't be informed and I could watch them on you know like on some kind of uh illicit site that you know may give me a virus or two or three, but I didn't do that, so I did it for the fans. It was um I heard rumors it was a good match. I mean, I mean a good pay-per-view. Um, of course, sting came back at the end um to help John to help um Darby Allen beat uh John Moxley in a in an anything goes match. I mean, holy shit. I I did I have heard rumors that it was very bloody. They put freaking skewers in their fingers. I mean, they were he was drowning Darby Allen, John Moxley was inside an aquarium with water. I mean, what the hell? I mean, is it me or has John Moxley kind of morphed into this from the shield Dean Ambrose into this this guy that just has like I mean he he I mean he freaking starts bleeding on on dynamite. I mean he he's one of those guys that like starts bleeding coming to the ring. I I don't understand how he I I I love him, he's great and Darby Allen, he's just a freaking amazing, it's an amazing talent. Of course, he did uh Mount Everest. Uh he he helped he sum it to the top and lived, which is awesome. Uh now he's like he was on uh another podcast, and he said he to be honest with you, he does not really care about titles. I mean it's not one of those, he just wants TV time. I mean, he wants to you know further his gimmick, which is not really a gimmick. I mean, he he lives you know the straight edge life like uh CM Punk does. Um but I mean it was an amazing match, and of course, another good dude. I mean, I worked with him a couple of times in uh Palatinum Championship Wrestling back in um uh Atlanta, a couple of a couple of shows we had probably 10 years ago. Yeah, it was uh 2016, 17, maybe a little earlier than that. Um Samoa Joe. That dude is freaking awesome. He's of course retiring after his current contract ends up, you know, expiring, which I mean they they all say that. And speaking of person who should have had a lawyer or someone read it over the fine print, was the Andrade situation. He comes in and attacks Kenny Omega. We're like, holy shit, Andrade is back, he's gonna do a program with Kenny Omega, then he's gone. Come to find out that TKO, if you get uh let go for cause, which I guess can be anything they think is stupid or whatnot. And and if your contract doesn't just run out and expire and they don't renew it, if you that happens, you can go straight to any promotion you want to. He could have gone straight from Monday Night Raw and come to AEW Dynamite on Wednesday, but no, he appears, then he's gone. Come to find out, TKO had a viewer let go for cause. Like I said, it's a one-year no-compete. So he can't even wrestle in AEW, can't wrestle anywhere. I don't understand how that's fair. I mean, hopefully he's got some good lawyers to maybe kind of wiggle him out of there, but or but but I've been listening to some other podcasts on some other radio shows, some wrestling shows. If TKO and the WWE, they have not been using Andrade ever for a while. I mean, they've used him spot spot shows, but not nothing, no program, not nothing. They weren't pushing him, pushing him to anything. They wouldn't have a feud or anybody, but they let him go for costs, so he can't wrestle for a year. Why don't just let him go? I mean, why don't you say, you know what, cut our losses, buy. You know, make some money for your family, whatever. But they didn't do that. So it's it's I mean, I think that's kind of shitty, but I mean, what it we're not TKO, we're not uh we're not those uh you know people that have all that money. Um but yeah, I mean it's it's it's been a great wrestling week. I mean, we have of course coming up in the next couple weeks, uh on this weekend, uh, today was we post the show. Um on Monday, of course, that's two days from now. We have another edition of Raw on Netflix. Then on Tuesday, we think TNA, maybe Wednesday, of course, is dynamite. Thursday, maybe TNA. I don't really watch TNA. I mean, it's a great promotion, it's got great process promotion. Of course, the Hardee's are the tag team of NXT and TNA. Awesome tag team. I'm so glad that the Hardy's are back and kind of um at their big prowess. And then, of course, on Friday, we have Friday Night Smackdown, and then we just start it all over again. It's so much professional wrestling that it's just I mean, it's just um uh amazing. Um, gonna do some uh news from today back in 1985 when I first started wrestling. Uh, let me pull that up. Um, but yeah, I mean, if you want to follow us on Instagram, of course, it's the suplex through time podcast. Um, it's all on all the social medias. Uh, we're not, like I said, not like I said at the beginning of the program, we are not on X, and we will never be on X. Just not a fan. Just not a fan. Of course, you know, uh the highlights from the first year, it's actually the first year I started watching wrestling. It was 1985, from the World Wrestling Federation. Hulk Hogan continued his reign as WW WWF champion, famously defeating his title against various opponents and launching new merchandise lines like the WWF Championship Belt. Have you ever had that? It's freaking awesome. I mean, I just love the WWF Championship belt. I mean, like I said, we're gonna have Sim Bodhi on in the next couple weeks, and he's gonna be talking wrestling figures. Of course, new stars from 1985. I I did not know this. Randy Macho Man Savage. Oh yeah, junky'dog, Ricky the Dragon Steamboat, Terry Funk, Paul Orduff, King Kong Bunny, British Bulldogs, and the Hart Foundation. Um it's funny. I read this. Back in 1985, they had a uh kid-friendly shift, which I mean they have a more kid-friendly shift than uh than AEW, but that doesn't take much. The WWF's kids friendly shift uh shift was boosted by the release of the very first LJN action figures and the growing popularity of VHS tapes. Hey, kids uh younger than I'd say 35, 30. Ask your parents uh what VHS tapes were, which allow fans to rent and buy matches and interviews. Uh the honky talk man debuted as a babyface, but was met with booze, which I fucking love the honky talk man. Uh he was later turned heel, solidifying his career with his help of his manager, the Mouth of the South, Jimmy Hart. And of course, then local promoters. Uh the the Federation back then, they were just kind of up in the mid-Atlantic. You didn't really see TV. I saw him on Saturday nights, but I was more in the NWA on Saturday night at 6.05 on the Brave Station TBS, unless, of course, the Braves were playing. Uh, Magnum TA defeated Wahoo McDaniel to win the United States title in a steel cage. In the AWA, the AWA World Tag Team Champions face the NWA World Tag Team Champions at a major event. Uh, I mean, that was actually a pretty good event. Portland Wrestling, the Road Warriors, Sergeant Slaughter, and Buddy Rose were featured in an event called Portland Wrestling 60th Anniversary Extravaganza. Let's check that out. Mid-South Wrestling, of course, that was uh Jim Ross was on there. A mysterious videotape was received at a show which an unknown individual claiming they would overcome evil and hinting at future events. Hmm. What does that mean? Of course, back in 1985, there was no internet. You didn't get your your news, folks. I don't know how you got your wrestling news. I got mine from Pro Wrestling Illustrated, from the insider, from the wrestler. But go to the um, I'd have a subscription to a couple like the Pro Wrestling Illustrated, but I'd go to the supermarket, get the magazines, and I would read the latest rankings, the latest event results, which at that time they were really old. But uh I remember one time uh kind of going on a rant like I did last uh last program, we would back in the mid-90s. I was in wrestling, so I started wrestling, doing wrestling ring announcing in 1990. We would go to tag or to um TV tapings over at Center Stage Theater in Atlanta, Georgia for world championship wrestling in the late 90s, early 2000s. We would go there, it'd be great. I mean, it wouldn't cost that much, we'd see two or three hours of wrestling, but it was fun. Okay, so one time they would open up, the Harlem Heat would be the tag team champions, have some matches, they do an underview interview later on, they take a break, come back, the Steiner brothers would be tag team champions. Next break, the Midnight Express with Jim Cornett would be tag team champions, and so on and so forth. I was like, how the hell is that possible? Come to find out, you know, they do these pre-tapings, they don't do that anymore. I mean, well, some promote like TNA does that, uh AW that AEW does that a little bit, but of course, WWE, nothing's ever pre-taped. I mean, they're they're events at least. I mean, I can't, I mean, I remember calling. There was a hotline in Atlanta. Now it's like a traffic and uh weather thing. It's 511. Get like two or three calls a a month free to get a wrestling hotline with a with a good old Jim Ross. That is how folks I would get my wrestling information. But but now, folks, you can just go on how hard it is, and I just want to get your opinion and your feedback um on Instagram and on YouTube and on Facebook and all our social medias. How back in the day did you get your wrestling information? Did you get it from the uh the Aftermax? Did you get it from like a hotline, like a 1-900,$909,$9,900, only$2 for the first amendment, 35 cents each additional minute? And back then the kids were like, okay, they didn't really care because they didn't really think about the charges, and then their parents would get the bill and they'd be like, Oh my gosh, David, fine, why$50 worth of wrestling hotline? I was like, I apologize. I want to take a poll. Who and how did you get your wrestling information? I mean, folks, if you're a newer listener and a younger listener, you of course got it from the internet. Um, but how are our old school fans? How do they get how did you get your information back in the day? Um, I would like to know. I mean, like I said, I got mine from the Aptormax, I got mine from the the hotline numbers. Um, I mean, it would just it would trickle in. It was kind of like back in the day, whenever you know, uh you had to get the the sports scores at the stock market on in the on the paper, um, like two or three days later. Now it's instantly. It's amazing what you can do. I mean, back in the day you couldn't do this, you couldn't have freedom to put your expressions and your feelings and your emotions and your thoughts about professional wrestling on the internet, but now you can. And it is so, so amazing. But you know, that's kind of our my rant for episode number two. Uh, next week, we are gonna cover Starcade 1985. Uh, it was a weird event. I mean, if you remember, I think it was Stark 85, they just if you watch it on the Peacock Network, uh, where it is, which I I I really encourage you to do that, just uh type in, uh go to the WWE tab and just find NWA Starcade 1985. Come look at the matches. It's weird. They start the match, they start the whole show just already in the ring. The match started. Not sure how if that's how the um closed circuit started, because folks, you know, I remember going back to um Omni Atlanta to watch Starcade, one of the Starcades uh on closed circuit television. Yeah, you didn't have pay-per-views, you didn't have all this stuff. Um, it was amazing back then. But yeah, I mean, check that out on however you can get. If you don't have Peacock, um, if the budget's a little tight and you don't get that, uh, go over to YouTube, just type in NWA Starcade 1985, just look at it, watch it, kind of write down some notes. Um, because we will be back next week, same time, same place. And for everyone here at the Stuplex New Time Podcast Studios, Planet Georgia, I am David Fine, Mr. Announcer Man. Take it away.

SPEAKER_00:

And that'll do it for another exciting episode. Follow the show on Facebook, Instagram, at the StuplexTruTime Podcast. And get more exclusive content by liking and subscribing on our YouTube channel.