IWC Podcast 7: WWE To Down Your Street

This week on the IWC Podcast we talk from the Indie scene in Ontario to WWE this week. We run the gambit including a lot of talk about a big week for ROH. Ethan Page an independent wrestler featured on the Future of Honor show going down tonight in the U.S is our guest. Like me from Hamilton,Ontario Canada which we talk about our pride in that and a lot more.


Thanks to Ethan Page for joining us this week you can keep up with him on You-Tube and Twitter. You want to check out his moves here is a look via his You Tube Channel:



As for us like us on Facebook on The Condo on the Moon Page. If you enjoy the show tell a friend and spread the word.  

Raw Notebook: April 14th, 2014

Back to reality that another Wrestlemania has come and gone. Add in the fact the WWE wanted to do a tribute to the Ultimate Warrior and your New Word Champion is on his honeymoon it was a lot to deal with. It led to a show that tried but pretty much failed for the most part.

The one thing they didn’t fail at was the tribute to the Warrior that I felt that was not as over the top as I feared it could be. A nice tribute off the top of the show and a nice tribute by the Uso’s both wearing half of Warrior face paint in their match. Some video packages sprinkled through the show and a bit of some tacky promotion for “Warrior Week” on the WWE Network. I was a little uncomfortable personally with the use of the Warrior's speech from last week. I understand using it but I think for a lot of folks it had to be a little disturbing.

The other takeaways from the show included the most unique exchanges between two wrestlers in a long time. I thought the build to Bray Wyatt and John Cena was one of the best heading into Wrestlemania. The match itself did not get the live reaction that you would have thought. I still felt the match was good however despite that. Clearly this feud was set to continue and we got confirmation of that tonight.

Bray Wyatt would call out John Cena to the ring claiming to want to have fun. This came after proclaiming that John Cena was still lying to us all. Cena would come out and cut the most awful promo with terrible photo shopped props on the big screen. John Cena is not funny and when he tries to be funny it leads to some of the worst he has ever cut in his life. When he was the heel and cool rapper gimmick his humour was somewhat tolerable but in his current role it is just jokes that are made to make kids pop and I don’t even think the kids do. But Bray Wyatt to his credit called John out for his terrible comedy routine and this all would lead to the announcement of Steel Cage match between the two at Extreme Rules.

Daniel Bryan was not around so this show would focus around The Shield. Triple H said to Orton and Batista that they needed to focus on The Shield and take care of that problem. Orton and Batista failed to agree and later in the night would get swarm attacked by the Shield during a match with Usos. Triple H and Steph greeted the two backstage and basically Triple H said simply I told you so. Later in the night it would be announced against mystery opponents in the main event.  It turned into some sort of 11 on 3 farce of a match that would lead to Evolution reformed minus Ric Flair down to the ring to beat down The Shield. The Crowd reaction was for the most part muted and unimpressed by the return of Evolution. Reaction online seemed much more positive than the live audience.

Stephanie also did her best impression of dad and laid into Kane. The end result of this Corporate Kane is dead and masked Kane is coming back and looking to take out the New World Champion Daniel Bryan. This apparently is the first program for Daniel Bryan which if this is case is pretty damn brutal start for the Daniel Bryan title reign.

This Raw was a major step backwards and not something that gets fans all that encouraged for the post mania stretch .Will see if the return of Bryan can save this whole thing returning next week.

Oh I  forgot one major thing the WWE’s latest attempt to make you think the Intercontinental Title means something with #1 contenders tournament with 8 participants.  It produced the match of the night with Ziggler against Barrett with Barrett getting the win. Other winners were Cesaro over Mark Henry, Sheamus over  Swagger and RVD over Del Rio.  I don’t think this tournament along will get over the I-C belt or the Champion Big-E (Langston) so I would think winner of this will become the champion. If they want to really get that person over they should challenge Dean Ambrose and unify the U.S and I-C Title.

Other things that happened of little note….Paige had a match with Alicia Fox and we had more promos for both Bo Dallas and Adam Rose. I love men in bunny suits losing at hungry hippos. It is awesome…this edition of Raw was not.

Wrestlemania 30: Historic For Many Reasons But For A One Most of ALL

It will go down as one of the historic Wrestlemanias and the number 30 will not be the reason for it. It will be for a number of iconic moments that will live on forever and some that have the potential to be. Going into Wrestlemania 30 it was all about what would happen to Daniel Bryan. After things are over the talk is all about the end of the Undertaker’s Streak surprisingly.

After 5 years of legitimate threats to the Undertaker’s streak with matches with HBK and HHH Twice and CM Punk last year no one gave Brock Lesnar a hope in hell. The match itself was not all that good as I kind of foreshadowed as a possibility. Lot of MMA stuff in the match but it was slow and lethargic. Brock would hit a couple F-5’s on the Undertaker and no one believed he had a chance of winning off them. He would hit a third and a stunning three count would go down and the world would collectively be in total disbelief.

The Streak was dead and 21-1 flashed on the board and people still shocked moved on to confusion. Taker looked terrible and tired and like his age and magic of the streak was gone. The crowd eventual cheered him but still was trying to process what they just saw. Just like after the last Rock vs.Austin match, it was implied but not stated that we may have seen the last of the Undertaker it was a sad end to something that all fans, but Undertaker fans most of all held with such hi regard.

In a touch of irony Jimmy Korderas on our Podcast previewing Mania he talked about the wrong guy beating that streak. Most feel for a lot of reason’s Brock is that wrong guy. First being he is a part time wrestler and never really gains as much as someone else could from beating this historic streak. Let’s face it though Taker is the one that wanted this to end and Brock never wins if Taker wasn’t on board with it. In fact when this match was originally thought of Taker had reported wanted this match to end his streak years earlier.

This will be something that love it or hate it will be one of those moments you will remember for a lifetime and where you were and who you were with.

This was another moment like that in a much different way to kick off the show for both live and PPV audience.  Hulk Hogan came out as The Rock did back at Wrestlemania 27 when he hosted Wrestlemania. Hogan had some instant Botch-A-Mania material when he called the Superdome instead the Silverdome. Hogan would be interrupted by Stone Cold Steve Austin who teased Hogan about his flub and than asked the crowd if they wanted him to Stunner Hogan. Most seemed, all for that but given the state of Hogan’s health that was never happening. Instead Austin would but over Hogan and than the two would be interrupted by The Rock who would come out and talk about his iconic matches with both. Eventually Austin would call for the beers and the three would have a toast in the middle of the ring.

It was a cool moment that fit perfectly with an iconic number for a Wrestlemania. The reaction both live and on social media was very positive for this moment to kick off the show.

There was a lot of debate on when we would see the HHH and Daniel Bryan Match would take place. There were basically two schools of thought on this. One seeing this mimic what happened at Wrestlemania 10 with Bret Hart facing his brother Owen to kick off the show and return to face Yokozuna to win the title. Others felt this match would go back to back with the 3-way Championship match.

In the end they went the historic route and just like in that Mania 10 angle Bryan would have an injury story line that would progress throughout the night. Bryan was selling the beat down of a few weeks early when he was handcuffed and beating down. He came out with a wrapped up shoulder that would be a focal point of the match.

Triple H and Bryan delivered in the ring as many expected them too. Triple H would have Steph out at ringside with him and she was brilliant in her role as basically heel manager. In the end this match told a story of Triple H trying to work the injury to Bryan’s shoulder. He would hit a Pedigree on Bryan and he would kick out. The finish of the match would be Bryan landing his knee out of no where and getting the pinfall. HHH was furious as was Stephanie after the match and it lead to a violent chair shot to injured shoulder against the poll leaving Bryan injured and questionable to make it to the main event.  

If you blinked you missed The Shield beating Kane and Outlaws. Roman Reigns looked pretty good in this short squash match. Also in Canada if you were being good little boy or girl you were not able to see the pre-show match. It was for the tag-team title match which turned out to be an elimination tag match. Los Madators would be the first to exit followed by Ryback and Axel and we would be left with Usos and  Real Americans. In the end the Usos would retain and Real Americans would break apart. Csearo would go baby face and as things would turn out would end up on the main card in Battle Royal.

So why not go there next as the Andre Battle Royal went down. Not as shocking as streak ending the internet pick to win this match never was even in it. Rusev did not even participate in the match as it turned out. The match would come down to Dolph Ziggler, Csearo and Big Show the storyline favourite. There was one other person I think Del Rio in the final four. In fact it was Del Rio as he eliminated Ziggler I believe. In the end we got Csearo and Big Show.

How it would end was the early in the night mind blowing event. Cesaro would slam Big Show to the floor over the top rope in an amazing strength spot that was a throw back to Hogan slamming Andre. Show would in end shake hands with Cesaro and Cesaro would lift the Giant trophy of the Giant in the air in celebration.

Bray Wyatt and John Cena match was a story telling match but didn’t seem to jive with live audience as it did for me at home. If you remember the Cena Feud with Kane where Kane was trying to get John Cena to embrace the hate this took a similar vain.

By mentioning that feud I feel I have given Bray Wyatt not enough credit cause he did a much better job than Kane. He started the match on his knees begging Cena to hit him Cena would not go for it. Later in the match Wyatt was going to hit Cena with steal steps and Cena avoided it. Cena would pick up the steps and thought about hitting Wyatt with them but refused to do it. Later the same with a chair and even the ref had to encourage John not to use the chair. In the end the story of this match was great as Cena. In addition to battling with in himself he was always mindful of Wyatt’s family on the outside which would led to his demise and some near falls for Bray the best of which on a power bomb off Cena attempting his leg drop from the top.

In the end Cena got his finisher and the crowd through out this match was pretty flat to this match that had the best build heading into Wrestlemania. I am not sure if Bray based or failed in this match with Cena overall. He clearly didn’t have the crowd into it.  He may have had the whole world in his hand but it didn’t include the 70,000 or so in the Superdome.

The Divas got stuck following the Undertaker match and in the end they worked hard but no one cared and the matched ended with the expected finish if your smart to the game or unexpected result if you are not A.J Lee would get the win via her crazy submission hold on one of the Funkadactyls.

On to the Main Event and the crowd still have stunned tried to get into Bryan but were far less exited based on Taker outcome and fact they were just burned out at this point in general, As in the opening match both Orton and Batista would target the injured shoulder. Orton giving Bryan a Garvin Stomp to the shoulder.

The big spot of this match was Batista power bombing Bryan into a reverse RKO through a table. Orton would smash his back on a monitor and get legit cut. Bryan on the other hand looked dead and you could almost believe he may have been legit injured. They put a neck brace on Bryan and wheeled him off but he would rise off the stretcher.

HHH would make an appearance pulling out the ref and he brought along Steph and Ref Brad Armstrong. Remember him costing Bryan the title in one of those angles since Summerslam. He would count a fall against Bryan for only two. HHH would get in his ear as would Stephanie. Bryan would take a suicide dive and take out all three. Triple H would bring out the Sledge Hammer and end up on wrong end of it from Daniel Bryan.

A lot of false finishes would eventually lead to Daniel Bryan getting the tap out  win over Batista. His long 8 month journey would come to an end with him finally having his moment in the sun.

This was a really excellent Mania in my view despite the end of the streak I thought the show aside from that match it was a pretty good show bordering on great. Some great story telling in a lot of matches on this card. I really felt like this was a pretty well done Wrestlemania that matched and played to the history of the moment being number 30. But it will be most remembered for 21-1 at the end of day.

IWC Podcast Episode 4 The Rocky Road to Wrestlemania

We are back for another week with the normal cast of character myself and Chris Walder. We talk about the build or lack of build to Wrestlemania 30. Some thoughts on that as well as some thoughts on what ROH is doing right that TNA and WWE are not. Also some pretty cool booking ideas that I spitball for Mania and beyond.




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IWC Podcast - Special Guest Brian Fritz From Between The Ropes

Excited to have a guest this week who has covered the wrestling business for 16 years. Brian Fritz has been covering the pro wrestling buisness for both radio and print outlets over the years. He currently runs a great website that I mentioned in a post on podcasts that I love. So it a great pleasure to have Brain from Between The Ropes on our IWC podcast here on Condo on the Moon.



Chris Walder will be back next week along side me for the podcast. I want to thank Brian for coming on board and being our first guest. Trying to work at getting more guests you'll enjoy and maybe even get some wrestlers at some point? I hope so, I learned from my experience in basketball if you work at you can build relationships and get guests. It just takes working hard at it and some people being willing to give you a chance. Brian did that for me and I thank him for that and for not mentioning Kobe Bryant scoring 81 points against the Raptors.

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Raw Notebook: Realism and Proper Babyface Booking

In my transition into writing on wrestling I have tried to not fall into the typical stereotypes of what I see out there. Doing blogs or podcasts after Raw is the standard thing to do if you cover wrestling. I am not saying I will never fall into that standard type of things, but at this point I am focused on building myself an audience for this.

With that all said last night’s Raw in San Antonio had me compelled to talk about it a bit. From an in ring point of view the show wasn’t anything special at all.  Although I thought a couple of things on this show for me caught my attention that was different from the standard stuff we have come to expect from Raw.

The biggest thing I noticed was the treatment of Daniel Bryan. While on the surface it seemed the standard way Daniel Bryan has been treated on the program since Summerslam.

But look a little closer and it was different. Michael Cole who I have never praised for his commentary to any large degree at any time I can recall did a good job on this show. He drove home a theme of the night about Daniel Bryan causing problems between all the various heels on the show.

The show began with a promo by Triple H in which he would be interrupted by both Batista and Randy Orton. Batista and Orton were to say the least upset about HHH granting Bryan a match that could see him be a part of their main event match.

This caused HHH to be angry with them doubting his abilities to beat Bryan. In reality everyone does expect HHH to lose to set up the main event match that people want to see. HHH cut a great promo that actually was attacking both Orton and Batista using actual feelings of the fan base on both. 

Than he dropped the bomb on Batista and Orton but more in reality the fans watching when he declared there will be a triple threat match for the title at Wrestlemania 30 but it will not be Bryan in the match it is going to be him. In other words the winner of the Bryan vs. HHH match regardless of the outcome will put the winner in the Main Event for the title.

Brilliant because now fans that feel HHH is out to bury people now have a concern that maybe he just might now win his match with Bryan. This match lacked any drama to it and now it has some for people that question HHH’s desire be it in storyline or in reality to put over Daniel Bryan.

Cole did a good job selling the fact that Daniel Bryan was the cause behind all of this drama between the three. Fans are fully aware of the history of the three in evolution and in reality most are fully aware of the friendship between the three. Daniel Bryan even in storyline causing a riff between them makes him seem more important.

During the body of the show the riff also extended to between HHH and Stephanie. This again was sold by Cole as being caused by Bryan. In the end this tension was proven to be just a work that would get revealed in the final segment.

Still now it took people plotting to destroy or set-up Bryan which makes him important. In the end the show ended with HHH and Stephanie being on the same page. Steph would come out and call for the cops to arrest Daniel Bryan for his actions last week disrupting Raw. As it turned out the Cops were fake and had cuffed Bryan while Steph and Hunter were fighting outside of the ring. HHH enters the ring and at first looks like he is going to call off the cops but instead reveals the cops are phony and a beat down of Bryan commences. The fact Bryan is handcuffed makes him seem again important and a threat. HHH if he was so confident he could handle Daniel Bryan why go to the extent to have him handcuffed to beat him down.

The combination of Cole getting it over and the storyline made Daniel Bryan feel like he was being treated by the company as a top baby face.

While many will leave the show more concerned than ever about Daniel Bryan getting to the finish line at Wrestlemania the subtle seeds have been planted that he will.

What I also liked on this show was all the subtle jabs of the reality we had mixed in the program. From the opening segment we talked about to Bray Wyatt’s promo on John Cena to Christian on commentary. The WWE on this same show introduced a show for kids called Slam City that is basically the cartoons on the net that are a modern version of the old Hulk Hogan’s Rockin' Wrestling.

The Attitude Era is dead but for fans of that era if you can add more of those “Real Life” lines into promos it will be something that will appeal to that older Attitude Era crowd but sill stays in the WWE’s PG world. If you think about Jake” The Snake” Roberts  mainly existed in that kid friendly WWE era with Hulk Hogan and still did his thing. Bray Wyatt often draws comparison to him and can have that same amount of success. In the Attitude Era we likely see Bray Wyatt not just subtle reference to Nikki Bella but he likely kidnaps her and does God knows what. Back to Jake “The Snake” Roberts and his feud with Randy Savage. He would just intimidate Elizabeth and never cross that line too far. There is no reason to think Bray could not do something similar in his current situation.

There is a way for everyone to be somewhat happy at the end of the day. WWE just has to work extremely hard at doing that. Regardless of if people will believe it or not the exit of CM Punk might have served as a wake up call for folks in the WWE to work harder at reaching that goal. It seems like at least a legitimate theory as you can’t argue that Punk’s absence has not had an impact on the company having to alternate plans and re-evaluate.  This along with the continued strength of Bryan and the lack of strength of Batista has led to the most winding road to Wrestlemania we have seen in some time perhaps ever.

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IWC Podcast Back Talking Mania, ROH, And Divas Oh My

Week two what you gonna do brother! Well I will tell you we talk about Daniel Bryan and his road after Wrestlemania. TNA's return to PPV that was called Lockdown but by looks of the crowd maybe it should have been Lockout. While TNA struggles ROH seems to on the rise? Talk about the lack of knowledge about the Mania under card. Does a Battle Royal work in 2014 as a concept. In addition what former WWE Women's Champion is not a fan of the term Diva. We look at the state of Diva's Division in WWE.


If your enjoying the show please let people know about as we are trying to get this podcast off the ground and build an audience and a fanbase for this. We have some guests were trying to book for the upcoming weeks that we hope you will enjoy.

CM Punk Did Not Come To Save The Day

Raw came and left Chicago without CM Punk appearing but his influence on both the crowd and the WWE booking was all over the show. Word on street was WWE made an offer to CM Punk to return that he rejected. Some people are trying to make him look like the bad guy here. How on earth can they say that without knowing what exactly this offer was? Hell do we even know why exactly Punk left in the first place? We have all speculated and have our opinions but only CM Punk knows why he isn’t part of the WWE at the moment. I would venture to say even WWE might not know exactly what his concerns are fully if they couldn’t make this work for a big return in Chicago.

Who knows if CM Punk was watching the show but if he was he saw an amazing battle outside of the contests in the ring itself between the WWE and the fans of Chicago. The night started out with C.M Punk’s theme and out came not Punk but his former manager and real life friend Paul Heyman.

Heyman being the genius that he is some how walked into the minefield and didn’t step on any. He started cutting a promo talking about CM Punk and why he wasn’t there and wasn’t going to be tonight. Heyman being the perfect guy to deliver that message cause as he has pointed out he would lie to his own Grandmother if it benefited him. So even though as it turned out he told the truth fans were more than willing to assume he lied.

He talked about Punk losing to the Undertaker last year and he blamed him for Punk not being around anymore and than he blamed the fans as well for him not being around. He went on to say that he was going to make things right by having his client Brock Lesnar defeat the Undertaker. It is a little out there considering that Punk/Lesnar feuded at Summerslam and Heyman had taken a royal butt whipping from Punk. Still it was brilliant and the typical great work from Paul. Brock was handed the mic and did not have the same success.

We had the tag titles switch hands as the Uso’s defeated the New Age Outlaws. You had the Wyatt’s and Shield fight again and have Seth Rollins walk away from The Shield causing them to lose and increasing the build to that break up. Tease of Csearo Face turn as Jack Swagger interfered causing Csearo to lose to Big E again.

They packed as much crowd pleasing stuff into the first hour and fifteen minutes of this show it was insane. By CM Punk not being there he forced the WWE to do a smart and well though out booking plan. This was one of the things Punk has been on the record as it not being good and one of the reasons people think he has left.

The crowd was getting there CM Punk chants in mind you but WWE did a masterful job of keeping them somewhat under control. Even to the point the hi-jacking Raw that had made its way onto Social Media also made it into Daniel Bryan’s Promo. Bryan and his Yes Movement were taking over the show until he got an answer from HHH on his challenge for Wrestlemania.

The promo and exchanges with both Stephanie McMahon and HHH was honestly some of the best mic work Bryan has done in his WWE career. Stephanie was almost drowned out by the boos anytime she spoke. Hunter stuck to his guns and refused Bryan’s challenge for a match at Wrestlemania against him.    Kane would get called to the ring and Bryan would dive out and attack him leaving him laying.

Everything was well thought out all night long. Cena came out to cut a promo and refused to reference Punk by name. The fans who in this town truly hate Cena as the greatest rival to Punk let him have it. The Wyatt’s would cut a promo and it was done in a soft tone. At first annoying cause crowd was still hot at Cena and chanting CM Punk. They like Bray though and wanted to here what he had to say and so the quieted down.

Batista and Randy Orton were kept from cutting promos in front of the live crowd another wise move by WWE. There were some bumps in the road like a Christian vs. Sheamus match that not many seemed to care about. A Divas tag but with no A.J Lee involved as to keep the Punk noise down.

The Celebrity host came out with Ziggler who is popular with an audience like this. He helps Ziggler get the win distracting Alberto Del Rio.

The main event was Batista against Daniel Bryan. Randy Orton was at ringside the match would end via a DQ with a beat down with Kane HHH and Orton and Batista would all take their turned beating down Bryan. HHH would bend down to talk to a fallen Bryan and get a kick to the head for his troubles. Fans kept hoping for a heroic CM Punk to come save his Indy buddy Daniel Bryan but it never happened.

Just as we have seen far too many times, Bryan was laid out and the show ended.

Credit to all the performers that had a rough experience tonight dealing with a crowd that only wanted to see one guy and it wasn’t them. Well maybe a few they wanted to see but none more than CM Punk.

CM Punk indirectly minus a few things here and there including the finish that were not good by and large had far more thing that was good. Punk’s lack of appearance forced the WWE to careful construct a card that would allow them to make it through the night.

Punk not being on this show almost guarantees he will not be going to Wrestlemania. The longer he is away the more likely it is we may never see Punk again. I think Punk more than any other wrestler is capable of staying away.

Ironically enough Punk by leaving may have at least caused the change he was always searching for if only for one night. As much as people and WWE will try to turn this into CM Punk being selfish and not caring about the fans it is a load of crap. If Punk was that guy he would be hosting Wrestlemania as a past his prime joke. If he was that guy he would have come back and taken his Mania payoff and left in July when his contract was up. Punk is a guy with principles and a guy that has been smart enough to save his money along the way.

Punk represents a lot of the hope wrestling fans have for change and that hope has died a little with him gone. This is kind of sad at the end of the day. The future for the WWE should be bright and CM Punk has had a big influence on a lot of the young talent in this company.

The reality is setting in of a Wrestlemania that really on paper looks like it will be underwhelming.