Talk’n Shop #67 – guest Matt Sydal (Oct. 10, 2015)

Talk’n Shop #67
Hosts: Rocky Romero, Karl Anderson, Doc Gallows
Special Guest: Matt Sydal
Released: Saturday, October 10, 2015

DIRECT LINK TO LISTEN/DOWNLOAD

RECAP BY DAN TOMLINSON

TIMECODES

00:00 – Introductions to the podcast.
02:32 – The beginning of the podcast – where are the Good Brothers this week?
03:50 – Gallows’s Howard Finkel impression; is Matt Sydal enjoying New Japan?; WWE riding buddies; the story of North Carolinian cops; the gang get warned.
10:32 – Humbled to whispers; North Carolinian cops that love wrestling
13:33 – The Dragon Gate scandal with the resident monkey
17:52 – What did Trent Barreta have for breakfast?; more monkey talks; Sydal’s crazy evolution theory
21:15 – Sydal gets open about love and monogamy; where Gallows would have ended up if not for Bullet Club
24:33 – Gallows and Sydal’s match at Citi Field for GFW; the pros of South Korea
28:20 – Sydal’s life in South Korea
31:20 – The boys wrap up the podcast.

PODCAST SUMMARY

– 00:00 – Rocky Romero introduces the podcast thanking all listeners and plugging the Talk’n Shop’s Twitter account. This is followed by the usual introductions, including a plug for the Hoots 2, available on Vimeo On-Demand.

– 02:32 – To kick off, listeners are immediately greeted with Matt Sydal talking about money. “We’re rolling, boys,” says Karl Anderson. Doc Gallows is first heard telling us faithful listeners that today he will be calling Karl “Chad Allegra,” his real-life persona. Apparently he’s being a real d— to all of the boys. Karl explains that today he got fan mail to his house, and he hasn’t opened it because he’s paranoid. Rocky Romero is here, too, as they are riding on a bullet train between tour dates with New Japan as per usual. Gallows is drinking a beer, and it is apparently morning on the train they are riding on. Judging by Sydal being in Japan with them, I would date the recording as somewhere during the NJPW Destruction tour last month.

– 03:50 – Gallows welcomes Howard Finkel to the train, who gracefully welcomes in “Reborn” Matt Sydal, as well as the hosts. “Fink, sit on your thumb and twirl,” barks Karl. Doc calls Sydal “Evan,” further breaking all kinds of kayfabe dimensions this week. They ask Matt about this being his first tour with New Japan as Karl mentions that they are on the way back to Tokyo from Kobe, the site of NJPW Destruction on September 27. “F—ing extraordinary,” Sydal replied.

Gallows asks Matt for some great stories he was telling earlier. Sydal takes us back to his early days in the WWE where he was still in developmental and he would get the rental car for free – and being the Good Brother that he was, he’d get a mini-van and get on the road with Ray Gordy, Jr (Jesse) and Gallows (Festus). He joked about getting fired for riding with the job boys. Then he rode with Brian Kendrick, and he got fired too! “Every riding partner I had got fired.”.In North Carolina, Sydal, Gordy, and Gallows were riding down the road in this mini-van, whilst Gordy and Gallows drank beers in the back. Once, they were on a one-lane highway, and he saw what he thought were some kids with flashlights in the road – it was a singular police officer waving them down. It turns out it was just the cop pulling them over because he knew the wrestlers were coming to their town for a WWE show. The rest of the force were elsewhere…all with cameras.

This town’s police force LOVED WWE. They got them all out for a photo shoot, and Gallows under the guise of Festus scooped up one of the officers like a baby for a photo! Then they were all crowd-surfing this cop, too. “I bet he’s looking at those photos now and he’s like ‘who the f— are those guys” quipped Anderson. “We’re waiting on Taker, man but you guys are cool, too,” added Gallows. It turns out the cops were also backyard wrestlers…”They had a real ring in their back yard because you know…they have a few bucks,” said Matt seriously. At this point the story was cut off because the conductor had come to tell them to be quiet. Matt seemed puzzled and not used to the Japanese culture, as the guys told him what the man meant.

– 10:32 – Hushed by the conductor, Karl mentions on Twitter a fan told him that in a suit, Karl looks like a divorced dad, making the panel laugh quietly. Sydal asks Karl about his Southern accent, mentioning how it seems to come and go. After some jokes about the voices Karl and Doc usually do on this podcast, Karl asks Matt to finish his story.

The police force finally let Sydal, Gordy, and Gallows on their way to the town, but one cop was actually doing his job and working. They went to a gas station to refuel and get over the surreal experience, and Gallows needed to use the bathroom. No public bathroom anyway. So he went to the toilet behind the gas station in some weeds. He proceeded to use a white t-shirt as a tissue…leave that to your imagination. Ten seconds after, a cop comes round and…it was just for a photo because he couldn’t get one before. “This was the cop that was the champion of his backyard fed.” He told the boys: “We’re the only cops for the next 50 miles, so go as fast as you want!”

– 13:33 – Karl returns to the conversation about their redneck voices, and how they’re stuck on saying “Hell yeah, man” a lot lately. The boys proceed to confuse Sydal with their wacky Talk’n Shop exclusive voices. Sydal was asked about a monkey (“is that the Dragon Gate scandal?”), and he replied saying it terrified him to no end. “It was a wild ass monkey, it was probably abused when it was young, purchased at a pet shop, and then hanging out in front of the Dragon Gate dojo,” Sydal recalled. He recounted getting back from a show late at night and having to get out the opposite side of the bus for protection because this monkey would chase after you until it ran out of chain around its neck – and then throw rocks at you! “It was probably p—ed about the chain, but it shouldn’t have whored itself out at a pet shop, all for a couple of Yen, y’know.” Matt then joked how inspired he’d get from the monkey doing backflips and stuff. “I learned a lot of moves from that monkey.” It would throw gravel and dirt at you, do backflip handsprings and then charge at the guys again. They then talked about Clint Eastwood, and then the band Gorillaz and their animated videos. Classic Talk’n Shop linking conversations with random topics.

Sydal mentioned the monkey did break into the dorms at the dojo and bite somebody’s foot. “Everybody loved that damn monkey, but it was a problem child!” It clearly wanted to be in the jungle. Sydal came up with a wacky theory of evolution: the monkeys came out of the trees and saw the mushrooms that cows would leave, ate them all and gradually evolved to become humans doing what the panel were doing now. “Evolution theory, or just how it happened,” Sydal joked.

– 17:52 – The conversation jumped to how hot the bullet train is. Doc mentions he has had a couple of whiskey Colas. Turns out Gallows has made Sydal have a drink despite not wanting one. “You gotta at 8:45 in the morning,” he responded. Sydal then brought up what Trent Barreta had for breakfast that day – a whiskey Cola and a Vegan protein bar. Romero mentions that his Roppongi Vice brethren is a wild card. Rocky added that he’s grown up more this tour, though, citing he’s not like Karl usually is, barely making the train. Meanwhile Sydal goes back to monkeys, mentioning how the males have bigger balls but the women are all out there. “When there’s competition, everybody’s balls are out.” Karl asks Matt if all monkeys and humans share this common bond called monogamy: “Oh, completely.”

– 21:15 – Matt goes deep when he says: “Who decided all this?” calling monogamy ridiculous. He was confused by the notion that you should only find love in one person and be restricted, getting spiritual. “I get love freely, man!” Karl asks for more about free love. The gang quibble as Sydal mentions how you are who you are but also the people you surround yourself with. Karl jokes that ever since he saved his career, Doc has started being more like him. Before they met, Karl joked Doc was still running around doing a fake Aces & Eights gimmick. Gallows said if it wasn’t for Bullet Club he’d be in a weird country. “Here we are, it’s Zimbabwe Championship Wrestling, and here is Tatanka from Aces & Eights,” the announcer with a Southern accent no less.

When asked about their friendship’s past, Matt and Doc recall Gallows hitching rides and then becoming friends. The panel quickly says Matt was riding with the wrong guys and should have been riding with John Cena, who Sydal brings up was riding with Ted DiBiase and Cody Rhodes at the time. Matt jokes that he took people for free rides to get information on them and rat them out to John Laurinaitis for competition’s sake.

– 24:33 – Gallows asks if he ever wrestled Sydal, prompting another story. The story goes that they were doing a thing at Mets Stadium/Citi Field for GFW. The crew were scrambling to get Scott Steiner a back brace so he could work that night, and Sydal and Gallows were given 25 minutes to work with. There were cameras following them to cut promos on one another – and then after the promos, they kept following them, whilst they were discussing their match with their backs turned. And the whole crowd was watching it on the JumboTron. “So we go out and the people are like f— you guys” jokes Gallows. That’s the only time they wrestled apparently.

The conversation shifts to what Sydal’s doing when he gets home – traveling to Korea to open up a new territory. “South Korea? There’s only one Korea.” Cue Anderson to say they’ve gotta get booked in North Korea and meet Kim Jung Un sometime. Sydal said Kim Jung Un would swoon at the chance to get some podcasts in and some Bullet Club merch. “He has a ton of money. Nobody else has,” jokes Sydal. “I think we’re all fans of North Korea here, man.” Sydal talked about North Korea playing freedom songs and telling South Koreans to come on over for freedom. Sydal continues his defense, how North Korea is darkness but South Korea is as advanced as Japan, as America – even more: they have the fastest Internet connection ever. Karl meanwhile chimes saying that Japan’s Internet is pretty poor.

– 28:20 – Gallows asks about weird bylaws preventing entry to South Korea, and Sydal says no. His brother teaches English in South Korea apparently, and plays for a local baseball team out there. When he broke his foot and went to visit his brother introduced him to his friend that is a massive wrestling fan named “The Hong.” Apparently The Hong is the definition of a gimmick. The Hong asked Matt what his name was excitedly – Matt went to respond, and Hong exclaims “IT DOESN’T MATTER WHAT YOUR NAME IS!” in broken English and hugged him in front of the whole team. Hong told him about his friend Dr. Monz, who owns a wrestling promotion there, and they went to have coffee.

…Coffee with high-speed internet. Sydal mentions Monz trained with CHIKARA a little while back, too. Monz was the PWF Money in the Bank holder, as well as champion – that’s what happens when you’re a promoter. The conversation takes a turn when they ask Gallows how promoting WrestleMerica is going, and they talk Sydal coming down to work for him. Apparently Doc pays good money. Rocky asks him if he wants to talk about the new TV deal, but he denies as per usual.

– 31:20 – They begin to wrap up. Sydal plugs his Twitter and Instagram, and then banter about Karl Anderson winding up in the finals of the G1 Climax back in 2012. Sydal kayfabes and tells listeners to check out his upcoming match with A.C.H., how he’s going to make him cry again when he beats him. Sydal then praises independent living, having total control over himself and not waiting on phone calls or being told what to do. The podcast is going over at this point, and Rocky begins to shut it down. More plugs from Gallows, prompting listeners to keep on supporting the podcast. The podcast wraps up at 37:50.

OVERALL SCORE & THOUGHTS

Matt Sydal is a kooky character. He’s clear, and actually made the format of this podcast structure work out more straight forward than when past guests like MVP have been on. Granted, it’s a different scenario being on a train as opposed to partying in a hotel room. Speaking of which, podcast recording on a Bullet Train is nothing new for the Talk’n Shop, but that was the first time they’ve ever been told to keep quiet on one. For a lot of this podcast, it seemed like dudes you wouldn’t even know were in wrestling talking – nothing wrong with that. It just shows that wrestlers are actually real humans too (shock horror!) (6.5)

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