Your Wrestling Guilty Pleasure
 

So for this week's podcast, we're looking to talk about guilty pleasures in wrestling, and are looking for your contributions on wrestlers, matches, angles, feuds, shows, whatever it may be, that for you is a guilty pleasure - someone or something that typically gets plenty of derision and scorn, but deep down you enjoy, perhaps against your better judgement.

And of course, please explain why you enjoy this particular person or thing, and your perspective as one of the few who takes enjoyment in it.

As always, the best contributions will be read on the show and you'll be credited accordingly. So what's your guilty pleasure in wrestling and why?

EDIT - Our show on Wrestling's Guilty Pleasures, featuring many of your contributions is now online and available to listen to at the following link: http://squaredcirclegazette.podbean...._Pleasures.mp3

I frigging LOVED JBL as champion. It shouldn't even be called a guilty pleasure because a bunch of fat as neck beard work rate snobs think he sucks

I thought Crash Holly was awesome. Greatest hardcore champ ever 24/7! Also, the Bushwhackers ruled.

Sid, nothing more, nothing less.

He doesn't suck, but he never really had particularly great matches and having a comedy heel as your heavyweight champion is kind of dumb. But to say he sucked is ignorant. Clothesline from hell was dope as fuck and he was a great promo.

http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:A...LI2_HgFHM6wfTL

Curtis Axel is mine. Just like everything he's done except Rybaxel. #BetterthanPerfect #Axelmania #Thechainsareoff #Dontchangethechannel #SocialOutcast

For me, my number one guilty pleasure is commentator Vince McMahon. He sounded like such a jackass, but I just get the ultimate kick out of him. I actually do believe Vince is more like his commentator persona than he is his Mr. McMahon persona. I envision him being a snarky, passive aggressive, bullshit schilling douche bag. From devastating maneuvers, to "WILDMANMARKMERO" to orgasming over anything Shawn Michaels circa 1996 did, to laughing at some of his utterly inane "comedy" such as the brilliant work of that dickbag Jameson or his sad attempts to riff off of the abortion that was Rob Bartlett; I could listen to him all day.

What a cornball.

I'm going to challenge you wonderful gentleman of Squared Circle Gazette Radio to imagine everything Michael Cole and Byron Saxton say, but instead in the cadence of commentator Vince McMahon. When you do that, everything begins to make sense, and you will lose all hope. Okay, then maybe don't do that.

Also TNA would count I guess. Generally like Impact every week.

Loved the Bushwackers as a kid and still have them as one of my favorite tag teams of all-time.

If JBL is a comedy heel, then so was Ric Flair and the Rock. JBL was a loudmouth chickenshit heel.

I loved Sid. Sid was the fucking man.

Enjoyed JBL as WWE Champion and thought it was great timing and he pulled that character off great. Wouldn't call him a comedy heel either not sure how Dale got that one. Thumbs up for Sid as well.

JBL was awesome. I think even the IWC likes him for the most part though (at least in hindsight).

Also, definitely wasn't a comedy heel. Don't know what the H Dale is talking about.

I still think a fair amount of IWC folks hold the jarring nature of JBL's push against him and it negatively tinges their view of him. At WM XX he was in a JTTS tag team with Farooq, and just a few weeks later his character is turned 180 degrees and feuding with everyone's favorite vanilla midget, Eddy. I loved JBL's title run, but I can see why a lot of IWC fans still hate him. They're just wrong.

Steamboat tore Flair's clothes off in the middle of the ring in 89. That was hilarious and Flair sold it so well. Wouldn't call Flair a comedy heel, nor JBL.

They hold JBL taking the belt off Eddie against him.

Random question. I know you post your show on other sites, is JBL loved on the other sites or is TPWW just an exception?

JBL at ECW ppv=pure fucking gold IMO.

My current guilty pleasure is Stardust. I don't know how many people realize that he has really taken this and run wild with it as a persona, playing it to the absolute hilt in every form of media he's involved in and best all he seems to be having a blast.

Stardust is also amazing. Cody plays the character incredibly well. Just with they would actually keep him involved in shit.

To be fair, he just kind of showed up and won the title after being a tag team guy for like 8 years. There was no real build up to him moving up to the main event.

That and yeah, eddie was really over and deserved a longer reign in a lot of people's eyes.

I'm also a big fan of JBL's run. One of the best chicken shit heels ever.

My own guilty pleasure would be Santino. Lots of people don't like him. I think he's fantadtic. His delivery and execution, his mannerisms. All of it is so much better than everyone else trying to be funny in wrestling. Wish they would bring him back. He would be perfect for the kickoff panel.

JBL winning a cage match by escaping under the ring after a Big Show choke slam has got to be one of the best finishes to a cage match of all time. How would the IWC feel if JBL would have beat Cena at WM 21?

Could've sworn Santino was beloved by pretty much everybody.

Yeah, who doesn't love Santino? (Except Jim Cornette)

Best comedy jobber ever.

Fucking hate JBL on commentary though. He heels it up way too much, just like micheal cole did years ago.

He's like Ventura in that he tries to make valid arguements for the heels actions, but jesse knew when to reign it in and pick his spots. With JBL you don't even have time to consider the points he's making because in your head its just like "god shut up already".

I dunno about tpww, but the internet in general staryed to sour on him the same way they did eugene. I never got tired ofbhis antics though.

Nah, that was the right time, and the right guy to end jbl's reign.

Fucking mobile keyboard butchering my spelling

I don't mean comedy heel in the sense he is like santino, more his selling and stuff like that. He was "zaney" in the ring with his selling. Not taking away from him on the Mic tho.

I dunno, a 6 foot 7 inch bruising texan is kind of ridiculous as a chicken shit begging off heel.

I enjoy Total Divas

babyface Michael Hayes teaming with the Von Erichs against The Freebirds in 1988

But I guess being a towering chicken shit heel doesn't make you a comedy heel... i just think working wise it's kind of dumb. He used to be kind of like an asskicker (even as a heel) who would never cower, to being a cowering heel who clearly wasn't that great so he had to cheat elaborately to win, so I guess to me it came across as comedy... BUT I'll concede that this is an incorrect assertion. But remember y'all, you only get one, you rat bastards (Especially you #1wwffan, YOU REMEMBER IT MORE THAN ANYONE :rant: )

Hulk Hogan vs. Shawn Michaels from SummerSlam 2005. I recently re-watched it drunk, and it was hilarious and probably the best Hulk Hogan has looked in years at that point. And come on -- Shawn should have been pissed off that Hogan changed the finish.

Val Venis during his Heat run as the resident utility guy getting the most out of people in the ring. His selling was great. He beat Charlie Haas once and I just about Money Shot in my pants.

Goldberg was the first wrestler I was ever a mark for when I started watching wrestling in 1998. My Goldberg markdom never wavered. When he came to WWE and won the title in 2003 and half the people on here went on suicide watch, I fucking loved every second of it. It made me sad to see his last WWE match be such a trainwreck even if it made for a bizarre social experiment.

So yeah...I guess Goldberg counts. I'm well aware that he was the drizzling shits in the ring most of the time. Don't care. He could come back on Raw next week and I would lose my shit and immediately start watching again.

I'm also going to second Curtis Axel. I know people had higher hopes for him, but I find his ring work chillingly intense at times. He's not his father's cocky personality -- he's more like a throwback to a man's man -- except it didn't really survive the feud with CM Punk and now he's a goof, but he's fine at it. He helped train The Rock, remember? Rocky should cast him in Ballers.

Oh man, I remember the days of your love affair with Val being one of the marquee running jokes on the boards.

In terms of random undercard guys that I liked but that didn't seem too highly regarded I've mentioned before that I was a HUGE Deuce 'n Domino mark. I believe it started because I started working on my high school production of Grease and those guys debuted at the exact same time. But straight away I just felt like Domino totally killed it in his role so I wanted to pull for him.

Actually followed Domino/Cliff Compton's career after getting released from WWE. He took a hiatus for a few years but then he started working in OVW/ROH and did some hilarious podcasts with Colt Cabana (the Nigeria one is amazing). Actually he had mentioned like 5 different times that WWE was prepared to re-sign him with a storyline in mind and it never panned out. The ones I can remember were that he was going to join the Straight Edge Society, and he was meant to come in for the first season of NXT when the initial plan was to bring back former WWE guys to compete on it. He just officially retired this past weekend apparently. :( Shame he didn't get another go, fucking funny guy.

The Gum Swat by Mr. Perfect....hell, I do it sometimes.

Jack Swagger's World Heavyweight Championship reign in 2010. Those goofy promos that sounded like a high school speech, him always toting his accolades (ballroom dancing champion and having the sandwich named after him -- long-live "The Swaggie"). He's a good wrestler too. Do you think him not really catching fire as World Champion had anything to do with his losing streak to Santino Marella heading into the WrestleMania where he won Money in the Bank? I would have liked to have seen him beat Chris Jericho and Edge in a Triple Threat at Extreme Rules that year, then beaten Edge one-on-one at Over the Limit before Edge moved over to RAW. Then was the ill-fated Fatal 4-Way where a chickenshit win would have been fine for Swagger. Money in the Bank could have been a more routine defense against someone like Rey Mysterio, and then we'd be in SummerSlam territory. I always wanted to see Kane and Taker's inevitable feud converge with Swagger's title reign, with Swagger capitalizing on them destroying each other in a SummerSlam Triple Threat. Swagger vs. Taker one-on-one could have been arranged for Night of Champions, with Kane helping Swagger win. Hell in a Cell would see the Taker/Kane blow-off and Swagger defend the World Title elsewhere on the card. If this is all feeling too long for you guys, just think -- no Kane as World Heavyweight Champion in 2010.