Our rewind series comes to a close with the match that sits atop the STAR rating board. We are of course talking about the final episode from season 3, Kazuchika Okada with Gedo vs Kenny Omega with the Brothers Jackson for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. The match that famously caused Big Dave to turn that star dial all the way to six for the fi…

Our TIA Rewind series is nearly over as we look back to the very first episode of the accursed season 9 of This is Awesome and one of the best matches in the history of the original NXT. This is Pete Dunne and Tyler Bate for the NXT UK Championship from NXT TakeOver: Chicago, and features all the joint manipulation and mustache twirling that any wa…

Live from Comiskey Park in Chicago, it is a 2 out of 3 falls contest for the NWA World's Heavyweight Championship and the season 5 entry in our TIA Rewind series! "Nature Boy" Buddy Rogers takes on champion Pat O'Connor. Don't let the black and white or the fact that this match is from 1961 but feels like it is from 1941 - this is practically a Cov…

Can a match that is over an hour long be defined by a single moment? If this entry in our TIA Rewind series is to judge, the answer is absolutely not. From all the way back in season 4 of TIA, this is the 2008 Royal Rumble match. A fun episode that explores what makes a great rumble match, and why. Two major milestones for our (*patent pending) STA…

Our rewind series takes us back to season 7 and our first visit to CMLL -- its Lucha de Apuestas. Volador Jr and Negro Casas lucha their hearts out in front of a rabid crowd for the right to continue to occasionally rock an epic pony. Reminder, this was recorded before anyone knew that Joey Ryan was a reprehensible monster garbage person so please …

Our TIA Rewind series continues with one of our favorite episodes of Season 2 that marked our show's first look at All Japan Pro Wrestling. Featuring one of our favorite guests, Will Wiesenfeld, this hard hitting tag match is of course an absolutely classic with four dudes just absolutely pounding on eachother and truly showing their audience what …

This rewind takes us back to the height of our pandemic-era sessions that saw at least one of our cohosts recording most of the episodes in a closet. Today we are flashing back to season 8 and the Risa Sera 60 minute Iron Woman gauntlet death match that also happens to double as our main star's birthday present to herself. While much more tame than…

The retro TIA rewind rolls on and we're setting the dial on the wayback machine all the way to season 1 when we covered the classic matchup between Randy Savage and The Ultimate Warrior at WrestleMania VII. Don't forget the tissues, folks, that post-match angle is a doozy. The show format was slightly different back then, but the love and enthusias…

CONTENT WARNING: The match discussed in this episode is highly graphic and should only be viewed by those comfortable with excessive blood and violence. Seriously. The first episode of our TIA rewind series takes us back to season 6 and Big Japan Wrestling for a festive deathmatch that will test even the most hardened wrestling fan's limits. This i…

WATCH GREAT WRESTLING -- New wrapper, same flavor. Watch Great Wrestling is a podcast from Los Angeles-based wrestling crew Muscle Temple. Formerly known as This Is Awesome? WGW is an informal research project with little to no methodology. Your hosts watch the best wrestling matches of all time, suggested by you, and share them with their friends.…

While looking for a new pro wrestling autobiography to read, Chuck discovered that many of these books have forewards written by other pro wrestlers. Naturally, he made a game out of it. Frank and Joaquin face off in this buzzer game that will test their skills in critical listening and wrestling minutiae. Who will be the ultimate winner? How many …

Inspired by Matthew J. McPherson's one shot role playing game Actual Cannibal Shia LaBeouf, Joaquin has crafted yet another one-session game of wrestling madness to confound Frank and Chuck. For this game, the duo is tasked with stepping into the shoes of beleaguered billionaire and owner/operator of All Elite Wrestling Tony Khan and picks up immed…

All eyes fall upon the newest creative director of the WWE to see if he can set up the perfect main event for a WrestleMania taking place in the shadow of Hollywood, California. Will Paul be able to book Dwayne Johnson against his cousin Roman Reigns, or will he have to settle for an ascendant Three Star General to close out their biggest show of t…

This episode features your croix boys taking their very first dive into the Official WWE Encyclopedia of Sports Entertainment New Edition. Joaquin has crafted a weirdly complicated points system that he definitely will be able to keep track of in this game that tests the knowledge of Frank and Chuck. Will Frank once again best his opponent in this …

On this off-season episode Chuck challenges Joaquin, Frank and returning guest Geoffrey Golden (@geoffreygolden) to compete against one another in a classic TIA knockout game with a fresh twist. This time, Chuck has culled a list of hundreds wrestling promotions. Half are real promotions found on Cagematch.net's exhaustive database -- the other hal…

Welcome to episode 3 of Watching the Underground! The internet’s only podcast binging, recapping and annotating AwesomenessTV's The Underground. Your hosts are the boys of This is Awesome? - Joaquin, Frank and Chuck. In this episode we are discussing The Underground episodes 10-13. Covering the final episodes of the season, we watch three blow off …

Welcome to episode 2 of Watching the Underground! The internet’s only podcast binging, recapping and annotating AwesomenessTV's The Underground. Your hosts are the boys of This is Awesome? - Joaquin, Frank and Chuck. In this episode we are discussing The Underground episodes 5-9. Covering Act 2 of the season, the drama picks up almost as much as th…

Welcome to episode 1 of Watching the Underground! The internet’s only podcast binging, recapping and annotating AwesomenessTV's The Underground. Your hosts are the boys of This is Awesome? - Joaquin, Frank and Chuck. In this episode we are discussing The Underground episodes 1-4. Covering Act 1 of the season, we learn about the origins of the show,…

Another off-season episode ahead of the premiere of season 10 of the program. First, Joaquin delights his co-hosts with details of his enlightening lucha libre adventure with his tag team partner. THEN, its show and tell time in the Muscle Temple as Chuck introduces the boys to the wonderful world of Manor Pro Wrestling -- the ONLY pro wrestling di…

It is the off-season again, so that means it is time for more silly games and nonsense talk. Joaquin kicks things off by hosting a fresh round of Muscle Temple Jeopardy. It's just like normal Jeopardy, but just about wrestling! Joining Frank and Chuck to play the game is a very special guest: Geoffrey Golden (@geoffreygolden)…

Season 9 mercifully reaches its end with another classic finale episode! As is tradition, your croix boys have gathered 'round the microphone to get to the business of tying up loose ends. This season produced FOUR tie scores derived from our *patent pending* STAR Rating system. Votes will be cast and matches will either slide up or down the big bo…

Put that cigarette out! The longest TIA season of all time creeps ever closer to the its end with (predictably) the longest TIA episode of all time. With the World's Heavyweight Title held in abeyance, WWF President Jack Tunney has decided that the only way to determine the next champion is via the greatest gimmick match in the history of wrestling…

Crank up the AC, pour yourself a cold beverage, and maybe wear something that breathes because you've found yourself smack dab in the middle of a Heat Wave 1998. We're checking out a standout match from that show that features the odd couple tag team champions, RVD and Sabu, defending their titles against the "Japanese Contingent" from FMW, Hayabus…

Our "long" hiatus has finally ended! (I mean, sure it was a long time but its not like it was a whole year or anything, jeez. This show is free! Get all up off my back about it.) We return to Lucha Underground to have a look at the bloody, brutal, fire-filled Cero Miedo match that sees the arm-breaking Pentagon Jr challenging a thurible-toting Vamp…

Well folks, we're in for a delightful night of gentlemanly pugilism as we turn our sights on an exciting exhibition matchup between two champions! Competing under Admiral-Lord Mountevans with 8 five minute rounds and two falls to a finish... In one corner, Johnny Saint, the Lightweight Wrestling Champion of the World - and across him Steve Grey, yo…

It is night 4 of the 23rd G1 Climax. 5th match on the card. In one corner: The Stone Pitbull. The other: The Wrestler. Each man with a reputation. Each man with something to prove. This instant classic only lasts 12:17 seconds bell to bell, but when it's over you'd think these men had wrestled for an hour. 8 years later, does the shortest match to …

Frank, Chuck and Joaquin (yes, Joaquin is back on WTE once again) break down all of the action from this year's Double or Nothing PPV. Did AEW deliver a solid four hours of wrestling action or did the show fizzle out like so many botched exploding rings? Come for the takes, stay for the references to the classic 2009 Michael C. Hall and Gerard Butl…

Open the forbidden door! It's an inter-promotional dream match! Christian, perennial WWE glass-ceiling cleaner, will attempt to reclaim the World Championship that was taken from him by the tattooed blue chipper Randall Orton. Will Christian finally be able to win the big one (via pinfall)? Or will he easy into his pending Goto-status like a warm b…

Another exciting edition of the TIA vamping series - this time Frank and Chuck sit down and run through the entire AEW Blood and Guts card from May 5, 2021. Your boys are talking the highs and lows of the entire evening - the lit live crowd, a manic Miro promo, gratuitous amounts of crimson, a laconic opening tag match AND MORE. Oh and somebody fel…

Back to the impact zone we go - this time to watch the exciting conclusion to what many have argued is the greatest "best of" series in tag team wrestling. It's best 2 out of 3 falls to put a cap on a best of five series for the belts. On one side, the beer-guzzling, wet-haired roughnecks known as Beer Money, Inc. - former champions and current cha…

A very special episode of Watching the Elite - Frank and Chuck happened to watch BOTH nights of WrestleMania 2021 and decided to have a chat about it. Done in the format usually applied to all things AEW, your boys go through each match, discuss the highs and lows of a (mostly) solid two nights of action and get into the nitty gritty of everyone's …

Forged in the furnace that was the CHIKARA gauntlet, Sara Del Rey vs Kana (now Asuka) will now be put through the STAR rating grinder. Despite missing both a third rope and a hot program to raise the stakes, these two supremely talented wrestlers put on a match that CHIKARA proudly points to as it's first all-female main event. But despite all of t…

It's the return of the Gauntlet episode! For the season 9 edition your intrepid hosts are sifting through FIVE audience suggested matches from the now-defunct promotion: Chikara. Joaquin, Chuck and Frank watch and discuss each match, putting them into a weighted ranking with the match that comes out on top becoming the subject for the next episode …

We could open an In n Out with this many potatoes! This episode, for AJW's prestigious Red Belt, comes with a pretty big content warning. Despite there being zero thumbtacks and not an an inch of barb-wire there is still a significant amount the juice - so word of warning for our listeners who choose to become viewers. Aja Kong, the Ace of AJW defe…

The journey through season 9 begins with yet another first for TIA as we examine one of the most compelling matches in the short but remarkable history of WWE United Kingdom Championship matches. Part promo for NXT UK, part mid card show-stealing performance, this contest between Pete Dunne and Tyler Bate was an instant classic in 2017. But has thi…

It's the final off-season episode before we fire up season 9 and Joaquin has donned his blazer, mustache and game-master cap as he hosts TIA's first ever edition of Pro Wrestling Jeopardy! It's just like normal Jeopardy!, only all the questions are about wrestling and consumption of croix is highly encouraged. Joining Chuck and Frank as players thi…

On this week's episode, Joaquin, Frank and Chuck don their WTE thinking caps and get to the business of Talkin' Bout AEW. Your boys look back at the year that was 2020 for the upstart promotion and then speculate on what is yet to come. Discussion points involve building new stars, the state of the women's division and what each title picture looks…

What the buck are we watching? It's the final part of our two part series! We've dusted off the old Watching the Elite format to take a look at an artifact from the late aughts - the final five episodes of YBTV. Your boys binge, recap. and annotate the rest of the youtube channel before throwing a good old fashioned Superlatives party.…

What the buck are we watching? For this off-season episode, we're dusting off the old Watching the Elite format and taking a look at an artifact from the late aughts - the first five episodes of YBTV. Made by your favorite christian boys from Rancho Cucamonga all the way back in 2008, this primordial version of Being the Elite makes for a strange v…

As we get closer to the go-home portion of 2020, it's important to take a moment and celebrate the many holidays that greet us warmly in December. It is with that spirit that your TIA boys celebrate Festivus, the holiday for the rest of us. The tradition of Festivus begins with the Airing of Grievances! Joaquin, Chuck and Frank got a lot of (wrestl…

On this week's off-season offering, your boys are back in listicle mode as they gather together once again in the virtual studio to rank each and every Smackdown theme, starting all the way back with the original 1999 classic (you may know it better now as the Botchamania! Theme). Will the Brothers of Entrance theme destruction ride together again?…

What is All Wheels Wrestling? The first thing that comes up when googled is: "All Wheels Wrestling was a professional wrestling & racing hybrid unsold television pilot, which was filmed for the Speed Network on June 29, 2011 at the IMPACT Zone in Universal Studios, Orlando, Florida." But it's oh so much more than that! On this off-season offering F…

This week, your boys are once again welcoming a special guest onto the program and inviting her to compete in a brand new game from the dark, twisted mind of one Joaquin Poblete. Introducing the "TIA Feud" game! Which is definitely inspired by (and, for lawsuit reasons, officially classified as a parody of) the classic gameshow Family Feud!…

In this week's off-season offering, we're definitely Talkin' Bout Hell in a Cell matches, but two out of three hosts vetoed further use of that naming structure. So we're calling it a roundtable! Joaquin, Frank and Chuck have a good old fashioned chat about all things Hell in a Cell (the match, not the Pay Per View) and try to drill into the genre …

The off-season ROLLS ON as your boys clash in yet another battle of wits. This time, Gamesmaster Joaquin has pulled recipes from the "Can You Take the Heat? The WWF is Cooking!" cookbook, published all the way back in the year 2000. You may be able to smell what they're cooking, but can you determine which wrestler is responsible for each recipe? A…

The off-season kicks off with the 4th edition of everybody's favorite wrestling trivia game based off of a forgotten network daytime gameshow: King of the Thing. But what's that? Russo swerve! Joaquin has taken over hosting duties so that Chuck can try his best to win the game that he created! Rounding out the field of players is returning champion…

Season 8 comes to a raging climax with some always-exciting STAR Ratings housekeeping. Joined by original Muscle Temple member Nathan Bulmer! Tie scores will be broken and big thoughts will be had. How many different quotes did Joaquin prepare for the show? And what does any of this have to do with Dr. John Becker?…

**This Audio Is Pulled From the Twitch Stream Originally Broadcast on 9/19/20** The Unofficial AEW Dynamite Post Show (Dynamite Air Date: 09/16/20) Originally a podcast binging, recapping, and annotating YouTube’s favorite pro wrestling show Being the Elite, the scope of WTE has now grown to cover every aspect of All Elite Wrestling. Streaming live…

6/3/1994 - All Japan Pro Wrestling - Mitsuharu Misawa vs Toshiaki Kawada In the early days of the IWC, this match was considered by many to be the greatest of all time. A high point in the stellar years-long run of early 90s All Japan Pro Wrestling. Two of the four pillars of heaven clashing in the ring for the vaunted Triple Crown Title. What more…

For the fifth time inside of the six-sided ring, Samoa Joe and Kurt Angle will square off. But this time, Joe isn't just fighting for Angle's TNA World Heavyweight Championship - he's fighting for his career! And to put a hat on that hat, both men have been training in mixed martial arts. Also Karen Angle is there. To help break down this MMA-infus…