SAM ROBERTS WRESTLING PODCAST – EPISODE 49
HOSTS: SAM ROBERTS & KATIE LINENDOLL
RELEASE DATE: SEPT. 29, 2015
DIRECT LINK TO STREAM OR DOWNLOAD EPISODE
Report by Mike Booble, PWPodcasts.com reporter
Sam Robert’s Wrestling Podcast Ep. 049
PODCAST HIGHLIGHTS
– Interview with current NXT Women’s Champion Becky Lynch, conducted before Summerslam discussing her path to the WWE.
– Discussion/praise for New Day, specifically Xavier Woods, with emphasis placed on the trio sticking with the gimmick until it got over.
– A discussion of the upcoming Brock Lesnar Tour, and how the MSG show feels very “old school” in setup and potential execution.
– Talked about the superhero era that is happening in WWE right now, centered on the Stardust-Neville feud, relating it to the storyline of Kane vs. Rollins and how the superhero aspects have carried over to that as well.
– Ended podcast talking about NXT, #RefGate, and Eva Marie’s wardrobe.
PODCAST SUMMARY
Introduction -0.00
Becky Lynch Interview -5.29
Lynch talks about journey to NXT -8.50
Lynch’s NXT arrival -19.10
Interview recap -30.30
State of Wrestling with Katie Linendoll -34.15
Sign Off -1.09
PODCAST RECAP
Roberts started by explaining why the scheduled Young Bucks interview teased on last week’s episode did not happen and promised to get them on the podcast as soon as they were available.
Roberts mentioned he gets requested for a lot of the same interviews, whether it be Sasha Banks, Kevin Owens, Finn Balor, or Cory Graves, all of whom he’s had on the show. The one he gets requested for that he hasn’t had so far is Becky Lynch, hence the episode today.
Roberts and Linendoll begin the interview asking where Lynch’s steam-punk look came from. Lynch responded that is how she dresses in her day to day life. She doesn’t shop in mainstream stores, mostly thrift stores and was buying a lot of corsets and those sorts of items. Someone said to her it looked like ring gear and that she should start wearing it and she liked the idea. As far as the orange hair, she just always wanted orange hair.
Linendoll asked Lynch for a detailed account of her journey from Ireland to NXT. Lynch said it was a miracle just getting to this point. She grew up a fan but never considered it a career option. Her brother was going to attend a wrestling camp in England but she was too young and wouldn’t be able to go. Around the same time Fergal Devitt (Finn Balor) opened a school not too far from her home and she knew she had to go. She told a funny story about the ironic nature of her pursuing wrestling since she was shy as a kid, too embarrassed to run and because of that failed P.E.
The school she went too didn’t have a ring for the first three months, so they learned on six blue school mats. When the ring finally came she said it was such a cool feeling just standing inside a ring, and that she still gets that feeling a lot of the time.
She mentioned being hesitant still to try because all of the Divas she saw on TV were beautiful and she was a fat kid who failed P.E. She finally did end up attending a summer camp in England where they trained eight to nine hours a day which with the focus made her a better student and improved her overall outlook on life.
Lynch dropped out of college early on to go wrestle internationally, first in Canada then Japan and finally back to Europe. Lynch said she found a diary from when she was 19 where it talked about her living in a dream world with wrestling, and how she needed to enter reality and how sad that is that a 19-year old would self-destroy their own dream like that.
Lynch then told an amazing story about her time after she quit wrestling. She moved back to Ireland to become a flight attendant, even though she was scared of flying. She taught English as a foreign language course. Attended surf camps in Portugal. Backpacked across Cambodia and Thailand, all while taking courses in MMA and Pilates. She moved back to Ireland to get her degree in acting, moved to NYC to follow that dream, then went to Chicago to attend Clown School.
Lynch talked about how looking back she was doing all of the things associated with wrestling, including being a stunt woman, but doing them individually and never getting that feeling that this is where she belonged. She said through trial and error she knew that she wanted to be a wrestler.
Lynch told an amusing flight attendant story about a passenger falling asleep with their iPod Nano inside the seat and it becoming so hot it set the whole seat on fire and filled the first class cabin with smoke.
She recalled a lunch with Devitt where he said he didn’t want to sit here ten years from now and hear her say she should’ve gone back to wrestling and that she needed to do just that.
Began taking classes again and the teacher mentioned that even after seven years she hadn’t lost anything and that she should try out for WWE. She said even though it might sound cocky, but as soon as she made up her mind to tryout she knew she’d be accepted because it felt too meant to be not to happen.
Roberts asked what it’s like to enter the Performance Center with a basic knowledge as opposed to a newbie and she said to the detriment of herself she went in “not knowing anything” to be a blank canvas for the coaches. She said it took about ten months to make her NXT TV debut, and two years and two days exactly with the company to make her Raw debut.
Linendoll said that she comes across as very genuine and very grateful to be there and that that quality shines through and you can’t fake that. Lynch agreed that she is and still cant’ believe that wrestling pays for her apartment and the food that she eats.
Ended by asking what it’s like being trained by Sara Del Rey and whether it’s important for a female wrestler to be trained by a female. She said she knew Del Rey from the indies and has a lot of respect for her, but above just being a female so she understands the female temperament, it’s best just to have a good trainer, male or female, rather than someone who just understands what it’s like to be a female in the industry.
Roberts recapped the interview and discussed the upcoming “Resurrection of Jake the Snake Roberts” documentary and Scott Hall’s potential role in it.
State of Wrestling began with Roberts and Linendoll discussing the New Day, specifically Xavier Woods. They talked about how when the gimmick started and they were good guys it wasn’t working, but that they were happy they stuck with it until it worked and now they are reaping the rewards. They were both very happy about the announcement of the upcoming “New Day Socks.”
They were a little disappointed that Woods received the U.S. Title match on Raw, since it was #HeathSlaterAppreciationDay. Linendoll mentioned she is done with everything having an appreciation day.
Transitioned into a discussion of the upcoming MSG show and how it has an old school feel to it. Roberts talked about old house shows from MSG or the Boston Garden that would be televised in the local markets and how they were stripped down productions with fewer camera angles and Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan on commentary. Linendoll said she wasn’t aware that was the case and that where she grew up in Eerie, PA, they didn’t have such luxuries. All they had was sugar free fudge and tasers.
Roberts and Linendoll talked about how WWE has done a good job of building the MSG show, and how they’ve made the Brock Lesnar vs. Big Show match a big deal.
Roberts talked about the cool feeling of only having half the roster available for the show since the other half is touring elsewhere. This led to a discussion of the logistics of trying to run a live tour, especially with two rosters and how they come up with the rosters, dates, venues etc.
Roberts mused that someone gave Vince McMahon his first comic book recently to explain where all the super hero vs. super villain angles are coming from. They mentioned they were both happy to see Wade Barrett back but upset that he attacked Stardust instead of Neville. They feel that Neville is like Batman, and everyone else should be playing the roles of Bane/Joker/Riddler, who don’t always get along but have a common enemy and focus on that.
They both enjoy the split personality Kane, especially the part where he entered the ambulance on Raw as corporate Kane, and came out as evil Kane, a la Superman. This led to a humorous back and forth riff of Roberts (playing Vince) and Linendoll (playing Nikki Bella) having a “closed door production meeting” about superheroes and titles.
Roberts said even though Sasha Banks is his favorite wrestler, and he’s said Bray Wyatt is the best overall performer on the roster, that right now, no one is a better asset than Seth Rollins.
Quickly talked about the U.S. Title Open Challenge and how they enjoyed the run earlier this year, the quality of matches it led to and ultimately the feud with Kevin Owens, and how they hope the same thing happens again.
They brought up the poor ratings from Raw last week and summarized it’s because of the stale, repetitive nature of the show. Roberts said they did a good job this week of revamping a few things, especially the ending with the match between Roman Reigns and Bray Wyatt. Roberts said this is what he’s been referring to about utilizing younger talent as the focus of the show instead of background characters. Linendoll said the carnage at the end with bodies laying everywhere reminded her of the fight between Lesnar and The Undertaker.
Ended the show talking about NXT and the continued #RefGate. Linendoll said the last few weeks she’s been calm, trying not to be angry every week for fear she won’t be allowed back on the show but enough is enough. Linendoll talked about the DM she got on Twitter from an NXT house show in Texas where Finn Balor didn’t kick out at two and the ref just stopped counting. She said this keeps happening with Balor and Eva Marie and that it is starting to feel like a conspiracy.
Speaking of Eva Marie, they had a problem with “All Red Everything” coming out in blue pants this week, especially since there is already a character called Blue Pants.
Ended the podcast hyping Linendoll’s new podcast, Katie Linendoll dot Show with upcoming guest Xavier Woods.
OVERALL SCORE
Overall 7.5. This was a very entertaining episode, highlighted by the interview with Becky Lynch. They mentioned she’s the best kind of interview because she’s not afraid to talk about her journey and I completely agree. I don’t usually enjoy phone interviews because the audio quality is hit or miss but this one was top-notch. Her incredible journey through various jobs is fascinating to listen to and Roberts and Linendoll team up well to ask questions fans would want to ask. Their interview segments are very much like a live Q&A and play as such. Very easy listen. The dueling impressions towards the end are good for some comic relief and once again Roberts and Linendoll prove on this episode why it works best with both parties.
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