Are There Too Many Wrestling Podcasts?

Today I caught the (apparently-old) news that Bruce Prichard has a new podcast through the MLW Radio Network called Something To Wrestle About debuting this Friday, August 5th.

On one hand, this is fantastic news for me, a long-time wrestling fan. Bruce Prichard was a key creative force and producer for WWE/WWF, TNA and GWF for two and a half decades. The guy has insight into the business that few would. He has stories to tell. He would also presumably have some good connections, leading to some exclusive scoops and interviews for the show.

Then I thought about things from an alternate perspective: That there are too many wrestling podcasts. In terms of on-air talent, there are podcasts by Colt Cabana, Jim Ross, Chris Jericho, “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, Ric Flair, Tazz, Vince Russo, MVP, Konnan, Kevin Sullivan, Jim Cornette, Tama Tonga, and Bret Hart; those personality each broadcast somewhere between one and five times per week. As far as recognizable broadcasters with wrestling podcasts, Sam Roberts and Peter Rosenberg are among those hosting shows. Then there are the podcasts hosted by industry journalists like Bryan Alvarez and Wade Keller. Plus, there’s WWE’s monthly “podcast” — debatable if it’s actually a podcast — on their network.

When there is this much content out there, the advantages are very clear:

– Quantity – If you like wrestling-related entertainment, there’s no limit or shortage of entertainment out there. There are dozens of hours of podcasts to listen to on average each week. So if wrestling is one of your main passions, you will likely never run out of interesting content.

– Analysis – Considering how many insiders — past and present — now have podcasts, there is a tremendous amount of insight out there for the offering on a weekly basis. Wrestling is no longer to outsiders like it was for its first 100 or so years. If you don’t have people in your everyday life that you can talk wrestling with, then listening to shows like these may provide the outlet you need as a wrestling fan; some of the shows take callers while others have an e-mail address for incoming questions to be answered.

– Image Of The Wrestling Fan – When there is this much content out there with substantial listenership, there is going to be advertising. Advertisers are going to want to tool their advertising towards products that listeners of wrestling podcasts will want to support and/or purchase. In turn, people in power are going to be more receptive to wrestling fans as potential customers.

– Strengthening The Indies – Some of the advertising you hear on wrestling podcasts is for live events and merchandise related to independent wrestling. In turn, podcasts are helping to build more of an indie scene, much as how — for lack of a better area for comparison — punk/ska/hardcore/metal fans would send away for mail-order catalogs before there was the Internet.

But some of the disadvantages of this are very clear:

– Repeated Stories – If you listen to more than one of the daily podcasts, odds are that you are hearing the same stories being covered. This might be due to the news day being slow. It also may be the product of lazy journalism with hosts just searching dirt-sheet headlines for content. I’m personally very bored when hearing the same topic spoken about more than once, especially if identical perspectives are being presented.

– Overly-Fast Judgment – All opinions are subjective, of course, and a lot of the opinions being offered by podcasts are knee-jerk reactions. They have pressure to cover current events, and in turn, they are putting out strong opinions before all of the facts are known. In other words, a lot of speculation is passing for news.

– Time Limits – When Smackdown Live premiered last week, I was very happy with the first episode. Then it hit me that I had three hours of TV to watch on Mondays and two hours of TV to watch on Tuesdays. As an adult with real obligations, that is time that could also be spent with friends or family, exercising, or doing any sort of thing that isn’t sitting down and watching other people doing things. So now when you consider that there are dozens of hours of podcasts to consider listening to, it can be overwhelming.

So in short:

– Congratulations to MLW and Bruce Prichard on the new podcast.

– Remember how amazing it is to be a wrestling fan these days with all of the exciting content coming to you from a multitude of sources.

– Enjoy your wrestling-related podcasts in moderation.