5 Must-Listen To Wrestling Podcast Episodes From Early January 2017

As I have written about it prior posts for Still Real To Us, wrestling podcasts are often more entertaining than the weekly television we have access to. But not all wrestling fans know what a podcast is; many wrongly believe that the WWE Network’s recurring Stone Cold Podcast is an example of such.

In turn, here are five recent podcast episodes from this month that are worthy of your time and attention:

1) Kenny G on Talk Is Jericho – Coincidence or not, Chris Jericho had both Kenny G and Kenny Omega on his podcast in the same week. Kenny G may be a bit of a musical punchline to the average rock or hip-hop connoisseur, but the fact remains that few artists have sold close to as many albums as one Kenneth Gorelick. Within this in-person interview, Mr. Jericho got to the bottom of Kenny’s story, including his teen years as a professional (!) saxophonist, his early days within the majorranks, his big break on The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson, and his touring with Whitney Houston. Surprisingly, Kenny has knowledge of both heavy metal and professional wrestling.

2) Ep28 of Keepin It 100 With Konnan – Considered the flagship show of the Jericho Podcast Network, Keepin It 100 offers a variety format that is especially unique to the podcast medium. Most podcasts seem to follow a format where the host does an intro about what is coming up in the episode, as followed by an interview, as followed by an outro. On this show, Konnan and gang go from segment to segment, having chopped up pre-recorded interviews into smaller weekly segments. In turn, in a two-hour episode like this week’s edition, you’ll have heard Konnan, Disco Inferno, Kevin Gill, Juventud Guerrera, Shane Helms, Dave Meltzer and Diamond Dallas Page, and you’ll not only be caught up on WWE, TNA, Total Divas, and New Japan’s latest happenings, but also MMA, football and new music.

3) January 12, 2017 of MSL & Sullivan – Mister Saint Laurean — MSL, for short — is one of the co-founders of the MLW Radio Network. Kevin Sullivan has not been wrestling since the 1970s, but was one of the main creative minds within WCW; he also remains active these days with Ring Of Honor. MSL and Sullivan each week talk current events in wrestling, then go over a particular episode of WCW Monday Nitro segment by segment. In turn, fans get both the old and the new in each episode. MSL got a great story out of Sullivan about wrestling outdoors, as related to the yakuza in Japan in this edition.

4) “Ravishing” Rick Rude on Something To Wrestle With Bruce Prichard – Last week’s epic episode was three hours about the past, present and future of “Million Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase. Essential listening, of course. This week of Something To Wrestle focuses on the late, great Rick Rude. Plenty of stories you have not heard before Rude. Also, lots of the usual entertaining back-and-forth between Bruce and co-host Conrad Thompson. 24 episodes in and not a bad one yet, to say the least.

5) AOW 333 Sami Callihan on The Art Of Wrestling – When Colt Cabana had Sami Callihan on his podcast a few years back, Sami was an indie wrestler with a growing fanbase. Shortly after, Sami was signed by WWE and reported to NXT. After a few years under contract as Solomon Crowe, Sami asked for his released in November 2015, and was granted such by WWE. This podcast is largely a reflection on Sami’s time in the big leagues, but more so a discussion of why he and Colt prefer being on the indie wrestling scene. It gets personal — it is great to hear that Sami is taking better care of himself these days — and helps to remind fans of what other options for sports entertainment they have, should mainstream programming not always capture their interest.