Sad to hear of the passing of Julia Reilly, better known to wrestling fans as Claire Lynch. Not seeing any details yet (listed as natural causes, but she would have been pretty young I think?), but what I find interesting about her is that I likely saw her in person at least once as she would be Olive Oyl and Universal Florida, and I am of course am a big fan of both Universal and Popeye. Crazier, well sadder still, is the fact that apparently she was portraying both Olive and Claire at the same time, and when folks discovered that they would start harassing her at the park. I’d tell everyone to not be an idiot like that, but I’m quite confident anyone reading this particular text doesn’t need such a reminder. Y’all are good folk. In fact, let’s see what you have to say this week…
Rob N kicks us off with…”Thoughts on the current round of releases?”
Oh come on, ya mark! It’s all part of the show! Didn’t you hear what Triple H had to say about it? Obviously releasing Truth was such a bad look for the company as being completely greedy (which they are) as they repeatedly trumpet record profits (which they do), so once the backlash hit, he was brought back. It was all a work! You all believe good ol’ Hunter, right? He never lies!! I think more interesting are rumblings that Miz is on the chopping block and that would be surprising for sure. Now that the fans can basically veto cuts, it won’t happen, so the worst WrestleMania main eventer in history will survive again. So mad props to him for that as well as…
…yeah, you know.
Rudy Y wants to know…”Other then Haku coming with crown as illustrated, who should have gotten a LJN or Hasbro figure that didn’t?”
I always wanted a Gooker figure of course. I know you can get them now, but how awesome would an actual old school figure of him have been? I know the timing wouldn’t have worked out, but if it was an LJN one, it likely would have weighed 17 pounds and potentially killed someone when a little kid threw it in a fit of rage. Eh, probably for the best.
Mike M ponders…”What’s the biggest overall change you’ve seen in wrestling over time since you first became a fan?”
Probably recency bias, but TOO MUCH CONTENT. When I was first a fan, I looked forward to every single show becaus there wasn’t that much of it. It was like, “Wait, I get Superstars and Challenge…and a SATURDAY NIGHT’S MAIN EVENT this weekend?” Now it’s like, “There’s how many shows this week? Screw this, I got other things to do in my life.” Sometimes less is more.
Speaking of which, David B asks…”Thoughts on the four hour AEW shows?”
Obviously not a fan, as four hours is way too long for a television show. I’d argue it’s too long for a PPV as well, even when they deliver like AEW almost always does. I get that it would help them short term (and the talent would be big winners to have just one show a week to be at instead of two), but long-term it would be death. You want to do a four hour show a couple times a year? Ok. Heck, go crazy and do an ALL NIGHTER like WCW used to do! But don’t make it a regular thing please.
Thomas M inquires…”Whatever became of Jeff Cohen, Barroom Brawler and The World’s Most Popular Wrestler, Mike Samples?”
Cohen is doing well in Indy, running Sophisticated Living magazine (I used to write for it too!). Not sure about Brawler, but I know Mike Samples is still around as I see him posting things on Facebook now and again.
Chad A queries…”I miss WCW, so I binged watched from 1989 to currently 1997, what 3 things do you miss from WCW the most?”
I think I can narrow it down to this: I just loved the fact they would try different things. You’d get stuff there that no one would think would possibly work, but they would try it just to see what happened. A lot of times it blew up in their face like Cheatum blowing up Sting’s boat, but other times it gave us something awesome, like Nitro completely reinventing the industry. In business, you can’t be afraid to try different stuff, and say what you will about them, but WCW (especially under Bischoff) wasn’t scared to see what might make be magic. I much prefer it over the same old milquetoast junk WWE churns out again and again.
Arya W ponders…”Thoughts on Hangman beating Ospreay at DON and do you think, as I do, that Mox beats him at Y’all In?”
I wanted Ospreay to win and get the belt from Mox at All In, simple because I don’t know if someone can work a style as hard as he does and last for very long. So stop dilly dallying and get the belt on him as quickly as possible. I could see Mox beating Hangman and Ospreay being crowned at Forbidden Door since it will be in London, but man…you are really tempting fate there with a MAJOR backlash with Mox winning at the biggest event of the year. I think Hangman beats Mox and Will gets it a few months down the line.
Dustin N hits the road with…”Which do you prefer: Cruis’n USA or Cruis’n World?”
World. But prefer Blast to either of them. And OutRun 2 SP beats them all hands down anyway.
James C cluck clucks with…”We’re about halfway thru 2026 – who are a few of your top runners so far for Gooker noms this year?”
Can we just nominate TEN BILLION SHOWS A WEEK for the Gooker? No? Eh, I’ll say I know it will tick a LOT of folks off and likely won’t be up for it, but is it just me and has this Cena heel turn kinda turned out to be a dud? It had all the momentum in the world when it happened and now is just kinda…whatever. Doesn’t help that Rock just kinda vanished into thin air and left it to die on the vine.
Simon JL asks…”With the fact that everyone has a podcast, how does it feel being one of the pioneers of the entertainment format?”
It’s funny that Blade and I were doing this before the term “podcasting’ really existed. I do often think that we were about 10 years too early, as a WrestleCrap Radio YouTube channel would have been a LOT of fun.
Jeremy W ponders…”Does Bret v Owen at Summerslam 1994 deserve to be on the pedestal of the likes of Muraco v Snuka for best cage match of all time? And on that topic, maybe Bret’s best match ever period? I feel it was a match even better than their Wrestlemania X opener (which I consider the best opening match to a PPV ever btw). 30 minutes of incredible action in the cage, psychology that just about nobody today has and a postmatch angle that had the crowd going nuclear. Maybe I’m just too much of a Bret fanatic, but I feel it doesn’t get spoken about enough.”
I prefer the Mania match, but for sure that Summerslam match is an all timer, a zillion times better than Muraco vs. Snuka which is really remembered just for the splash off the top of the cage. Heck, Muraco even WON that match!!!! So I always find the fact that folks think it’s one of the best ever kinda laughable.
Taylor W wraps us up with…”So Omega vs Okada is winner take all. If they combine the International and Continental titles do you think Tony Khan will then introduce 2 more titles and say hail Hydra?”
Don’t give him any ideas! i just hope they COMBINE them and don’t have one of them walking around with two belts they have to defend separately.
That’s it for this week! Catch y’all on the flip and as always, send in those questions rightchere!