Wrestling With Heels On

DEDICATION: This episode is dedicated to two highly influential Franks: the late great podcast host and friend FRANK READING and the late great radio show pioneer JOE FRANK. SUBSCRIBE AND FOLLOW THIS PODCAST FOR FREE The minute I walk into my psychotherapist’s office, she asks me where I’ve been this whole time, as I am … Read more

When WWE television commentator Jim Ross told the millions of fans watching the OVER THE EDGE pay-per-view event, “THIS IS NOT PART OF THE ENTERTAINMENT HERE TONIGHT. THIS IS AS REAL AS REAL CAN BE HERE,” the veil that shades what is real in wrestling from reality, as the rest of us know it, was … Read more

In this episode, we travel down villainy lane via a MAD MAN parody, for a brief nostalgic visit with the MAGNIFICENT DON MURACO. A dreamy, nostalgic ad man goes off the “deep end” about a favorite bad guy wrestler during an advertising pitch to a high-powered client. Below is the script from the episode, if … Read more

Everything I learned about geography, I learned from pro-wrestling. It’s true. Well, maybe not everything. Every time the ring announcer claimed someone was from Grenoble, France, or Kraków, Poland, or some other exotic part of the world, I had a sudden urge to know where these places were. The next thing I knew, I was … Read more

I think I was eleven, lying on my stomach watching the TV.  Black and white, by the way. Saturday morning wrestling.  WWOR: channel 9. Local New York television from Seacaucus, New Jersey. That’s when I first saw Blackjack. Blackjack Mulligan. Yep. Long handlebar mustache. Oily black hair. Thick mutton chop sideburns. A 6-foot-9, 345-pound Texas … Read more