RECAP AND REVIEW: Killing the Town – reflection on the career of Vader, wrestlers who like Boy Meets World, the top guys other top guys should be watching, who Cyrus would wrestle if he had one more match

Killing the Town

Release Date: June 26, 2018

Recap By: Dust

DIRECT LINK TO LISTEN/DOWNLOAD

Welcome again to the new Killing the Town with Cyrus and Lazenby.

Lazenby suffered a hand sprain during a stunt on the set of the Kim Possible movie. His hand got to the size of Andre the Giant’s.

They discuss Vader passing.

Lazenby likes ‘hos’ wrestlers, big as Vader (~450 lbs). Lazenby says that Vader won all the belts possible in Japan, including the UWFI ‘shoot style’ promotion belt.

UWFI usually brought in shoot martial artists or amateur wrestlers but Vader came in without any background apart from football and pro wrestling. Lazenby says he thought Vader was sent by WCW to ‘get it out his system’ in shoot wrestling, while beating people up. Lazenby says Vader revolutionized the big man business in wrestling.

They talk about Vader’s stint in the series Boy Meets World.

Christian and Scot D’Amore liked Boy Meets World, which Lazenby describes as a show for people barely into puberty, so they joke that mentally that applies to Christian and Scot.

Cyrus talks about his ‘intellectual’ discussions with Christian about 90210, especially Brandon vs. Dillan. Lazenby mentions Luke Perry is a friend and even his son is making waves in indie wrestling as ‘Jungle Boy’ Nate Coy.

Cyrus discusses meeting Mr. Barry Bloom, ‘the greatest pro wrestling agent in the history of the business’, the first agent in the business, working with Jesse Ventura, Chris Jericho, and HHH.  They discuss working in Hollywood. Cyrus talks about the Andaz West Hotel (formerly Gene Autry Hotel, Hyatt House, ‘Riot House’) on Sunset Bv. – a legendary hotel which hosted many drug fueled rock artists and wrestlers. Led Zeppelin even rented 6 floors and Keith Richards dropped a TV out of the window, while Lemmy wrote ‘Motorhead’ on a balcony. Jim Morrison was evicted from the hotel for hanging out of a window by his fingertips.

They return to Vader and say that he was larger than life character.

Cyrus quotes Jesse Ventura, “He’s agile for a big man, McMahon”

Cyrus says that Vader’s mentality was his opponents had to fight back and ‘work for it’. Cyrus also says that there’s a difference between registering and selling. Cyrus views Vader as a very smart wrestler who was protective of his image and his bumps. Cyrus mentions the difficulty WCW stars had transitioning to WWE. Lazenby talks about Vader saying to Colt Cobana on the podcast that he was stiff but didn’t give anything out that he wasn’t ready to take back, Colt replied that the other guys didn’t weigh 450 lbs.

They then turn to Brian Cage (Impact Wrestling), Lazenby says that he used to sell too much, fly too much and give too much back to his opponents. However Cage seems to have been improving recently, which Lazenby attributes to Cyrus’ influence.

Cyrus puts Brian Cage over, as being big, good with promos (though he hasn’t spoken in Impact yet) and talented in the ring. Brian Cage checks all the boxes. Lazenby also puts ‘freak athlete’ Cage and his development in Impact over.

They discuss Bo Jackson, football player, an extremely fast player – and Cyrus compares Brian Cage to Rob Van Dam but with a better physique.

Cyrus says that top guys should act like top guys, be a little selfish and a be bit of a lone wolf. Top guys should watch how Jericho, Cena, HHH and Shane Douglas (in ECW) behave and behaved.

Cyrus talks being the booker in Winnipeg in Tony Condello’s West Four Wrestling Alliance (later International Wrestling Alliance).

Cyrus was wrestling the top guys being he wanted to go to WCW, WWE or ECW. Cyrus only had a few real friends in the business, Jericho, Lance and Lazenby. Cyrus quotes Scott Hall, “I’m in the making money business, not the making friends business.” Cyrus says that you find out who your real friends are after you leave the business. Cyrus stayed in touch with few people.

The sky’s the limit for Brian Cage according to Cyrus but he has to be strategic.

Lazenby recalls being in Winnipeg and initially being miffed that Cyrus was the booker while working shows and being the champ. However Lazenby says that Cyrus wasn’t freezing anybody out and was the best choice for his top spot position in the company.

Cyrus says he didn’t have much heat in the company because he had the look (7/10), wrestling (7.5/10) and talking ability (12/10) unlike guys who could wrestle but couldn’t talk or have the look, etc. Also all the wrestlers had something going on on TV, each had their own angle even if their characters might have been slightly eccentric, like a male nurse, everybody had a featured position. Cyrus discusses grooming Jericho to take the top spot because Lance wasn’t getting over well as a baby ace and couldn’t really be the top guy. Cyrus and Jericho were supposed to win the tag belts but then Chris went to WCW and Cyrus to WWF.

Lazenby wasn’t happy with his Kaiser Kosrow gimmick, as the ‘shoot fighting champion of Istanbul, Turkey’ despite having a Canadian maple leaf tattoo on his chest (sorry, no Youtube video). They discuss nobody knowing what shoot fighting was in 1997.

Then we go to a big ad break (go VIP to avoid ads on Wade Keller podcasts as well as other benefits).

They start talking about Boone: The Bounty Hunter (John Hennigan/John Morrison) on Netflix, which Cyrus finally got the chance to watch on a flight.

Cyrus discusses Tom Selleck being the best looking guy on the planet and the only one able to rock a mustache while having a perfect physique and hair. Tom Selleck was still popular with guys as Magnum because he didn’t take himself too seriously while getting burned by chicks and getting knocked out constantly. (I love this clip)

Then Cyrus says that John Hennigan has the same vibe in a slightly different way in his film. Cyrus says that John Hennigan should have played Magnum in the reboot. Lazenby says that a good looking successful guy should be able to show that life sometimes kicks you in the crotch and that’s your common bond so you can identify with you (cough cough Roman “Rolex” Reigns). Cyrus then talks Bob Crane (who dat?) in Hogan’s Heroes and other old shows/films.(I’m not putting a Youtube clip up here).

After I wake up, they go back to discussing wrestling, including Eddie Edwards of the Sami Callihan feud. Lazenby says that something was missing with Eddie who despite being a great work unfortunately had the charisma of a blank piece of paper. Cyrus says that Eddie will hit Lazenby with a stick like he does everybody (including Grado). Lazenby says that the Sami Callihan feud has pulled something out of Eddie (turned him psychotic).

Cyrus says that if he had to go back to the ring for one last time, he’d go against Eddie.

Cyrus puts Eddie and Sami Callihan over and says a lot of neat stuff will still come with both guys. Lazenby is looking forward to more brutality and Killer Kross. Lazenby even compares Kross to Roddy Piper while Cyrus calls him terrifying being a legit 6’3” and 260lbs MMA/bareknuckle fighter.   

Lazenby says bareknuckle fighting is coming back and while being bloody, is still safer for the brain (than fighting with gloves). Cyrus again starts talking sociopathy, psychopathy and the BBC series Sherlock (yawn).

Lazenby shouts out to the legendary Minuro Suzuki who recently celebrated his 50th birthday and 30 years in the wrestling business. Suzuki held his Great Pirate Festival for 18.000 people who watched him go to a 30 minute draw with Kazuchika Okada in the pouring rain (appropriately for the Rainmaker Okada).

Lazenby is now running the Killing The Town twitter.

Cyrus asks why its called the Pirate Festival. Lazenby says that Cyrus should ask Suzuki directly.

They do their plugs.

Lazenby plugs 350 Days again, as well as When We Were Bouncers 2.

Cyrus discusses wearing Roots of Fight shirts and Scot D’Amore being a rich guy who wears horrible t-shirts he got for free instead of wearing Hugo Boss.

Again a short episode, as seems the norm for the New Killing The Town.

Score: 6 not a lot of wrestling talk so I added plenty of clips to keep you more entertained than I was.

About Dust

Not an Attitude Era fan, watches old wrestling but likes Nakamura/Styles/Kevin Owens, listens to too many podcasts. @twitdust

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