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A Live Fan Report From Last Night’s Live Podcast Taping With Dolph Ziggler & An Ex-WWE Writer

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Credit: Shawn Valentino and Prowrestling.net

Living in Los Angeles, we
are fortunate enough to host the “biggest party of the summer” as hyped yearly
by WWE. SummerSlam came back to my town this past weekend, and it has become a
weekend-long event for wrestling fans. My friend Rich Twilling, came down from
Sacramento to join the summer festivities.

This past Saturday, we
attended the “We Watch Wrestling” live podcast, which taped at a hip little bar
near downtown Los Angeles. Here are some notes and observations from the
taping:

(1) This event was a wrestling nerd’s dream come true. Former WWE
writer Matt McCarthy was the host, and Dolph Ziggler was the special guest for
the night. The entire room was packed with fans, many drinking, so the
atmosphere was festive. As Powell commented, I randomly run into Ziggler so
often you would think I’m stalking him.

(2) The night started with some
stand-up comedy, and the highlight was Ziggler himself. With free reign on the
microphone, he was able to showcase more of his charisma and wit. Some of his
best lines included the following. “Welcome to SummerSlam, the biggest party of
the summer. And for wrestling fans, the only party of the summer.” Another gem
was this: “John Cena has 15 championship reigns, or three for each one of his
wrestling moves.”

Ziggler surprisingly had excellent comic timing, and I
wish he could exhibit more of his personality on television.

(3) This
definitely was not an event for children because there was some racy adult humor
throughout the night.

(4) McCarthy was a bombastic host with a dynamic
personality, and you could see him being a wrestling manager in the
eighties.

(5) The show finally began about an hour into the night, and it
started with some wrestling trivia from an old Gordon Solie board game. Most of
the questions were obsolete unless you were a real wrestling historian, and
there were obsolete gifts such as wrestling DVDs for people who answered
questions. The grand prize was a DDP Yoga Max Pack, and it went to a fan from
England who went home with some added weight in his suitcase.

(6)
McCarthy was consistently entertaining and kept things humorous as we sat
through about an hour of wrestling trivia. Unfortunately, his co-host, who had
an obnoxious Gilbert Godfrey voice, was more annoying than anything, although
some of the fans found him funny. The whole tone of the show was very
light-hearted so it was all in fun.

(7) Things really got interesting
when the interview with Dolph began. He was asked about his favorite wrestlers,
and he said that Ric Flair and Shawn Michaels were his all-time
favorite.

(8) The show was at its best when the tone was serious.
McCarthy looked back at the career of HBK and discussed how amazing it was that
he was retired with a back injury and came back better than ever. Twilling and I
had the same discussion earlier, and concurred that he essentially had two
separate Hall of Fame careers. It was obvious that Michaels was a revered figure
on the show, and Ziggler talked about what a genius he was in the
ring.

(9) They compared Michaels versus Steve Austin at WrestleMania 14
with Andre versus Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania 3. They discussed how each match
was a passing of the torch that signaled a new era. I never heard that
comparison before, but I would say that Hogan was already the man before his
match with the giant.

(10) Ziggler was a great guest and he came across
as very likable and a regular guy. Everyone who attended the show seemed to have
a great time and many stayed for drinks and food after the show. There was some
self-awareness in the room that we were all wrestling geeks at heart, and the
show acknowledged it while remaining entertaining.

Overall, it was a very
fun night, and it was a cool pre-SummerSlam event to build the mood for the big
show. It also was similar to the WWE product in that it was at its best when
presented with respect and talked about with seriousness. I hope that is the
direction they decide to take the program.

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