A Look Back at the Place to Be Podcast: Season 3
On February 11th, 2011, the Place to be Podcast launched and now we are two years and 200 episodes in, and it was clear that the PTB Nation couldn’t be stopped as we would see it continue to grow over this next year. We would see more new faces come into the picture and we would also see a major launch with the creation of the website Placetobenation.com which would become the central hub for this and new podcasts coming into the family. This year would also see Scott and Justin collaborate with other communities like Pro Wrestling Only and as we move to another major milestone in 300 episodes, we will see more memorable moments and episodes throughout this season.
Headlines
Like we saw last season, the headlines continued to be monthly as they would usually happen prior to a pay-per-view and the boys would run down the gamut of news from the world of wrestling, and they would occasionally have guests on whether it was Jordan Duncan continuing his half-baked ideas, Andrew Riche to talk college or NBA, and Kyle Forchetti to talk everything NFL. They would also do special headlines including recapping the first half of 2013 with Graham Cawthon and Chad Campbell for episode 234 (aired 7/3/13), previewing the 2013 NFL season with Kyle for episode 248 (aired 8/27/13), and episode 285 (aired 1/9/14) where they were joined by Nate Milton and Greg Phillips to recap the year of 2013 in wrestling. We have seen over these last two years the headlines take a back seat to the Vaults and to other specialty shows, and it will be interesting to see how much longer the headlines last or if they will just be dropped all together come the next season.
Vintage Vaults
As season 3 began, the Vintage Vaults continued to roll on as the boys continued their trek through the history of WWF PPV by starting the season with Rock Bottom on episode 201 (aired 2/26/13) and making it to the end of 2001 with Vengeance on episode 297 (aired 3/10/14) as the season ended. They would continue the trend of having guests on for the Vaults as they welcomed newcomer Mike Rudh for episode 204 (aired 3/7/13) to talk the 1999 Royal Rumble, and then they had on 2013 PTV Trivia tournament winner Mike Poulin for episode 255 (aired 9/23/13) for Unforgiven 2000. They would then be joined by Aaron George for episode 263 (aired 10/21/13) for the 2001 Royal Rumble, and finally they would be joined by Scott Keith for episode 289 (aired 1/29/14) to talk Summerslam 2001. Many of the normal gimmicks would continue as Scott’s love song for Triple H would change to “2 Become 1” by the Spice Girls, and Scott would begin playing random love songs for Justin and his bromance with Kurt Angle after he debuted. But perhaps the biggest story of this season was the hijacking of the “Rob Houston Memorial “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan Update” by Vince as he would mainly talk about his exploits with his crew of Marc Clair, Anthony Armento, and Matt Rotella who he dubbed the “Pussy Posse” and sing different songs. But things took a turn for the worse during episode 261 (aired 10/14/13) when the boys talked Armageddon 2000 and Vince ended up collapsing which led to him being in a coma. For the rest of the year, Clair would provide a “Vincent Kennedy McMahon Health Update” where he gave updates on Vince’s condition while playing audio diaries from Vince’s life and this would culminate at episode 300 (aired 3/23/14) which we will delve into later. These Vaults I believe are still some of the more memorable as it covered one of the hottest periods of WWF history and it will be interesting to see how the quality changes in the next season as we hit what many consider a down period for the WWF.
Throwbacks
After the success of the Summer Throwback last season, they would continue into this season though the “summer” part was dropped as they just became known as Throwbacks. The majority of the throwbacks this season were mainly the boys covering big episodes of RAW including episode 223 (aired 5/20/13) which covered the 8/9/99 RAW, and on episode 296 (aired 3/3/14) where they talked the 11/19/01 RAW. But the biggest one of these was easily episode 202 (aired 2/28/13) where the boys were joined by Chad Campbell as they talked the RAW and Nitro from 1/4/99, and they added unique perspectives as Chad was there live for Nitro and Justin was at RAW when it was taped for that night and both experienced huge moments that night. One change that the boys made was doing polls over at the message to determine what throwback show they would do, and they would end up doing this a total of three times during the course of the season. The first was for episode 208 (aired 3/19/13) where they discussed the Big Event for the first time, the second was for episode 219 (aired 5/8/13) where they talked the 7/28/90 Saturday Night’s Main Event for the first time, and the last one was for episode 230 (aired 6/20/13) where the boys and Chad live watched the infamous Heroes of Wrestling PPV. The boys would also do one more movie during this season for episode 220 (aired 5/11/13) where they live watched “Thunder in Paradise: The Movie” and that would be the last movie to this point that they would do. Clearly,the throwbacks did start to be pushed back a bit as more specialty shows happened this season which I will discuss later, and it will be interesting to see how much longer the throwbacks continue into the next season.
Interviews
The boys would continue their run of having great interviews during this season as they would welcome back a recurring guest while also having new guests to interview which spawned the gamut of wrestling and pop culture. First, they would bring Kevin Kelly back several times this season for episode 203 (aired 3/4/13) to talk the second half of 1998, episodes 221 (aired 5/13/13) and 233 (aired 7/1/13) to talk 1999, episodes 250 (aired 9/4/13) and 262 (aired 10/16/13) to talk 2000, and episodes 278 (aired 12/18/13) and 298 (aired 3/13/14) to talk 2001. We now move onto the new guests as the boys welcomed Joe Dombrowski for episode 211 (aired 4/1/13) to talk “The Montreal Theory” as well as his appearance at Wrestlecon that weekend, and that episode also featured Kevin Kelly who talked about Supercard of Honor VII that weekend. The boys would then welcome Christopher Daniels for episode 214 (aired 4/22/13) as he discussed his career to that point and he gave his thoughts on numerous topics, and then the boys brought in Glen Ruth (Headbanger Thrasher) for episode 232 (aired 6/28/13) as he talked about his career to that point. They would then bring in a pair of legendary internet wrestling personalities as they welcomed Scott Keith for episode 247 (aired 8/21/13) to talk about his time on the internet, and as mentioned he was part of Summerslam 2001 and also was part of episode 269 (aired 11/15/13) to talk the spring of 2001. The boys would then welcome Christopher Robin Zimmerman for episode 249 (aired 8/29/13) as they talked his life as a fan and internet reviewer, and then they would be joined by Brian Shields for episodes 267 (aired 11/6/13) and 277 (aired 12/16/13) to talk his fandom as well as video games and other topics with Steve Willie joining them for the second episode. The boys would then be joined by Brian Papa for episode 284 (aired 1/6/14) to talk his mobile wrestling game as they were joined also by Brad Woodling, and the final interview they did was with Steve Corino for episode 286 (aired 1/13/14) as he talked his career and his current position in ROH. This season saw quite the unique group of people come in for interviews as they ranged from all different aspects of wrestling from competitor to fan, and we will see who the boys continue to bring in for interviews in the future seasons.
Specialty Episodes
While the Vaults continue to be the centerpiece of the podcast, this season saw quite the number of specialty episodes happen and there was quite a number of different types of episodes that took place this season. We did have some returning specialty episodes as we had not one, but two March Madness preview shows with episodes 207 (aired 3/18/13) and 299 (aired 3/17/14) as they hyped the 2013 and 2014 tournaments with Matt Rotella, Andrew Riche, and Chris Criscuolo returning. We also had our third ever Halloween episode with episode 265 (aired 10/30/13) as they welcomed a few guests and did a recap of Hell in a Cell, did a few lists, and gave out tricks and treats, and then we had the third ever Christmas episode with episode 279 (aired 12/24/13) as they discussed memories, gave out gifts, and were joined by numerous guests throughout the night while also debuting the “12 Days of Place to Be Nation”. We also had the return of List-a-Mania on episode 205 (aired 3/11/13) as the boys ranked the greatest managers in wrestling history, and the remaining specialty shows that aired this season were different from what we’ve seen. We had four roundtables this season surrounding the Big 4 in WWE as on episode 210 (aired 3/28/13), the boys were joined by Jason Greenhouse, Jeremy Nichols, Chad Campbell, and Jordan Duncan to talk all things Wrestlemania. For episode 244 (aired 8/12/13), the boys welcomed back Greenhouse and Nichols while bringing in Andrew Riche, Ben Morse, and Brad Woodling for a roundtable talking Summerslam, and on episode 270 (aired 11/17/13), the boys brought on Mike Rudh, J Arsenio D’Amato, Ryan Everett, Steve Willie, Ryan Schmauch, and Sean Zern (these men donated the most for Justin’s Making Strides campaign) to talk everything Survivor Series. The final roundtable this season took place on episode 287 (aired 1/15/14) as Nichols, Riche, and Morse returned while Steven Graham made his debut as they talked everything Royal Rumble. With most of the Nation gathering at Wrestlemania 29, the boys did a big Wrestlemania preview on episode 212 (aired 4/3/13) and then brought in George Ribelino and Andy Flanagan to recap the weekend on episode 213 (aired 4/11/13). They would do it again on episode 290 (aired 2/1/14) as they were joined by Brad Woodling and Chad Campbell to recap Royal Rumble weekend. The boys would also do two drafts this year with the first being episode 240 (aired 7/24/13) where they drafted wrestling TV shows, and then again on episode 260 (aired 10/10/13) where they were joined by Chad as they drafted wrestling pay-per-views. The boys would also do their own tournament this season on episode 254 (aired 9/18/13) where they were joined by Graham Cawthon and they determined the greatest WWE tag team of all time. This year also saw 3 PTB Summits with the first being on episode 256 (aired 9/26/13) where they were joined by Chad as well as Pete and Charles from Pro Wrestling Only to talk tag teams and the best member of each team. The second summit took place on episode 269 (aired 11/15/13) where they were joined by Scott Keith, Matt Pettycord, and Good Ol’ Will from Texas to discuss the spring of 2001 in wrestling. The final summit took place across four episodes as the boys were joined by Will and Charles to discuss 1994 WCW as they talked the first half of the year on episodes 281 (aired 1/2/14) and 282 (aired 1/3/14), and the second half of the year on episodes 291 and 292 (aired 2/11/14) though only Will joined them for those episodes. This season also saw the boys begin a stretch project in building their all-time monthly PPV cards which stared on episode 274 (aired 12/4/13) where they did January and February, and then on episode 280 (aired 12/30/13) to do March and April, and they would also do their first PTB Mailbag on episode 283 (aired 1/5/14) as they took questions from the Nation while watching wrestling. They would then do a special episode to celebrate the launch of the WWE Network on episode 294 (aired 2/24/14), and of course the season culminated with episode 300 (aired 3/23/14 and 3/24/14) where the boys held a special trivia tournament, the saga of Vince from the Vaults came to an end, and looked back on the previous 300 episodes. It has been quite the season with all the unique episodes that we have had during this season and you know that the upcoming seasons are only going to get better.
Trivia
Back in 2012, the boys held the first-ever PTB Trivia tournament where 24 men competed and at the end of the day, Jay Hinchey stood tall and was the first trivia champion. Due to the success of that tournament, the boys decided to hold another one and this one was going to be even bigger as 32 competitors signed up and were looking to stake their claim as the top trivia champion. The bracket was announced on episode 219 and the first round began on episode 227 (aired 6/10/13) where Brad Woodling defeated Jim Hogan and Jay Ouimette upset Chad Campbell. The next two matches took place on episode 228 (aired 6/13/13) where Austin Pfaff defeated James Salerno and Steve Willie took out Jesse Bye, and the next two matches took place on episode 229 (aired 6/17/13) where Jordan Duncan defeated Dennis Nunez and Derek Cornette took out Jason Greenhouse in a battle of heavyweights. The next two matches took place on episode 230 where Todd Weber defeated Mark Poirier and Michael McDonald upset the defending champion Jay Hinchey, and the next two matches took place on episode 231 (aired 6/23/13) where Jeremy Nichols defeated Matt Ferrell and Ryan Schmauch defeated Neil Trama. The next two matches took place on episode 234 where Mike Poulin defeated “King” James Mander and Sean Flaherty defeated Brian Meyer, and the next two matches took place on episode 235 (aired 7/8/13) where Ryan Everett defeated Steve Riddle (me) and Aaron George took out Ashley Cruse. The final first round matchup took place on episode 236 (aired 7/10/13) where Rob King defeated Marc Clair and last year’s runner-up Dave Hall defeated Dave Crisafi to complete the Sweet 16. The second round began on episode 237 (aired 7/15/13) where Cornette eliminated Hall and Willie took out Woodling, and the next matchups took place on episode 238 (aired 7/17/13) where Pfaff eliminated Ouimette and Weber eliminated Duncan. The next matches took place on episode 239 (aired 7/22/13) where Everett upset Nichols and Poulin defeated Schmauch in a war, and the final two matches took place on episode 240 where McDonald defeated Flaherty and George eliminated King. The quarterfinals began on episode 241 (aired 7/29/13) where Willie defeated Pfaff and the next match was on episode 242 (aired 7/31/13) where Everett ended Weber’s run, and the next match was on episode 243 (aired 8/6/13) where Poulin ended McDonald’s miracle run and George upset Cornette. The semifinals took place on episode 246 where Poulin defeated Willie and Everett defeated George, and the finals took place on episode 248 where Poulin defeated Everett to become the 2013 PTB Trivia Champion and he would cash his prize in on episode 255 for Unforgiven 2000. But that would not be the only tournament as on episode 300, the boys held the first-ever PTB Olympics featuring staff of PlacetobeNation.com, and in the end Jeremy Nichols outlasted Chad Campbell, Greg Phillips, Nick Duke, Aaron George, Glenn Butler, Jordan Duncan, Steve Willie, Andrew Riche, and Josh Richer to win these Olympics. It is always fun to see these tournaments take place and for me, it was even cooler to actually take part in one and it will be interesting to see how many more tournaments happen over the seasons.
Moments
As we have seen in the last two seasons, this season was ripe with many great moments across the episodes and it seems like the moments are getting more and more memorable with every passing season. We had plenty of great quotes throughout this season including the first March Madness preview where Matt Rotella coined the famous “Shockwall”, and then Scott had a great quote on episode 225 (aired 5/29/13) about Unforgiven 1999 when talking about the Dudley Boyz and Scott mentioned that he liked Big Dick himself (meaning Big Dick Dudley) as that episode also saw them spawn the theme song from “Frasier”. The Halloween episode provided some great moments including Justin mistaking the band Aural Vampire with “Oral Vampire” while also claiming there was a wrestler named Bizmark, and that episode also had a great Steve Willie quote as he wanted to “talk the Thicke”. The boys would also bring up great memories from Wrestlemania 29 weekend on that episode as they talked going to Ring of Honor with a fan accosting Scott, going to Wrestlecon where Scott met Jim Duggan, and then being at the Hall of Fame and Wrestlemania including the big tailgate. The Christmas episode saw some good moments including “The 12 Days of Place to Be Nation” and El Gigante returning to read a Christmas to poem, and the roundtables provided plenty of moments as Gignate roasting everyone at the Wrestlemania roundtable, Jason Greenhouse being named “Asshole of the Week” for claiming Savage/Warrior from Summerslam 1992 was overrated, Andrew Riche getting lambasted for claiming Austin/Angle from 2001 wasn’t great, the numerous sex jokes aimed at J Arsenio D’Amato during the Survivor Series roundtable, and Justin trolling Scott with the Jim Duggan song at the Rumble roundtable much to Jeremy Nichols’ delight. The drafts provided good moments as Scott was mocked for drafting Thunder too high and the two of them forgetting TNA Impact, and the tag team tournament was also a fun listen with Graham calling out Scott and Justin at one point and Justin trying to get the Twin Towers far in the tournament. There was a somber moment from this season with episode 216 (aired 4/29/13) as the boys discussed Over the Edge 1999 and paid tribute to Owen Hart, and the episodes with Kevin also provided good moments like Kevin and Justin continuing to needle each other and Kevin being attacked by his new pet cat while talking the first half of 2001. There was also a rare lost episode from this season as Chad had joined the boys and Kevin to talk the first half of 2000, but the episode was lost in the void of the internet and they brought Kevin back to redo the episode. The trivia tournament also provided good moments including Chad choking in his match against Jay, the bizarre matchup between Jordan and Todd, Michael McDonald having a Cinderella run, and the epic second round match between Mike Poulin and Ryan Schmauch. But this season is best remembered for two big announcements with the creation of PlacetobeNation.com on episode 225 and the introduction of two new podcasts on episode 286 which were the Main Event hosted by Scott and the Kevin Kelly Show starring Kevin and Justin. Finally, the 300th episode had some memorable moments with Chad once again choking in the Olympics, Josh once again proving that no one is worse than him, Jeremy surviving the field, and perhaps the most memorable, the saga of Vince McMahon came to an end as he came out of his coma and learned that his own Pussy Posse poisoned him which was revealed by Parv who was accused of the crime by special detective J Arsenio Saverio Rotella. As I mentioned, it seems like every season as more memorable moments than the previous seasons and it will be interesting to see if that trend continues through the future seasons.
Final Thoughts
Overall, season 3 of the Place to Be Podcast was a great season and I dare say it might be even better than the previous two seasons. In the three years and 300 episodes that we have had, we have seen Scott and Justin grow as hosts and the podcast grow into something that I don’t think that even Scott and Justin could’ve thought it would ever get to be. To sum it up, the first season saw the two of them get their footing as podcast hosts, the second season saw the Nation continue to grow, and this season saw even more growth with the creation of the website and the addition of the two new podcasts. It is going to be interesting to see the continued growth of the podcast with those new podcasts and future podcasts coming in, but there is no question that the sky was still the limit for Scott and Justin and we will see how the fourth season sees their growth continue. As for season 3 of the Podcast, it is a great season with some memorable episodes and the growth of the Place to Be Nation continues.
Recommended Episodes:
Headlines:
1. Episode 222 – “Headlines: Extreme Rules 2013”
2. Episode 234 – “2013 First Half Review”
3. Episode 236 – “Headlines and Money in the Bank”
4. Episode 241 – “Headlines with Live ROH Recap”
5. Episode 245 – “Headlines with Summerslam 2013 Preview”
6. Episode 248 – “2013 NFL Preview and Trivia Tournament Finals”
7. Episode 264 – “Headlines with Hell in a Cell Preview and Bound for Glory Recap”
8. Episode 276 – “Headlines – TLC and Final Battle Preview”
9. Episode 284 – “Brian Papa and Headlines”
10. Episode 285 – “2013 Wrestling Year in Review”
Vintage Vaults:
1. Episode 204 – “Royal Rumble 1999”
2. Episode 216 – “Over the Edge 1999/Owen Hart Tribute”
3. Episode 225 – “Unforgiven 1999 and PTB Website Preview”
4. Episode 227 – “Survivor Series 1999”
5. Episode 235 – “Royal Rumble 2000”
6. Episode 239 – “Backlash 2000”
7. Episode 263 – “Royal Rumble 2001”
8. Episode 268 – “Wrestlemania X-7”
9. Episode 289 – “Summerslam 2001”
10. Episode 295 – “Survivor Series 2001”
Throwbacks:
1. Episode 202 – “Monday Night Wars 1/4/99”
2. Episode 208 – “The Big Event 1986”
3. Episode 219 – “Saturday Night’s Main Event 7/28/90”
4. Episode 220 – “Thunder in Paradise: The Movie”
5. Episode 223 – “RAW is WAR 8/9/99”
6. Episode 230 – “Heroes of Wrestling”
7. Episode 296 – “Monday Night RAW 11/19/01”
Interviews:
1. Episode 203 – “1998 WWF with Kevin Kelly Part 2”
2. Episode 211 – “Joe Dombrowski and Kevin Kelly”
3. Episode 214 – “Christopher Daniels”
4. Episodes 221 and 233 – “Kevin Kelly WWF 1999”
5. Episode 232 – “Glenn Ruth”
6. Episode 247 – “Scott Keith”
7. Episode 249 – “Christopher Robin Zimmerman”
8. Episodes 250 and 262 – “Kevin Kelly WWF 2000”
9. Episodes 278 and 298 – “Kevin Kelly WWF 2001”
10. Episode 286 – “Steve Corino”
Specialty Episodes:
1. Episode 205 – “Manager List-a-Mania”
2. Episode 210 – “Old School Wrestlemania Roundtable”
3. Episode 213 – “Mega Wrestlemania Weekend Recap”
4. Episode 240 – “Wrestling Television Program List-a-Mania”
5. Episode 244 – “Old School Summerslam Roundtable”
6. Episode 254 – “All Time WWE Tag Team Tournament”
7. Episode 256 – “PTB Summit: Tag Team Extravaganza”
8. Episode 260 – “Wrestling Pay-Per-View Draft List-a-Mania”
9. Episode 265 – “Third Annual Halloween Spooktacular”
10. Episode 267 – “Wrestling Nerdgasm with Brian Shields”
11. Episode 269 – “PTBN Summit – Spring of 2001”
12. Episode 270 – “Old School Survivor Series Roundtable”
13. Episode 274 – “January and February All-Time PPV Cards”
14. Episode 279 – “Third Annual Christmas Spectacular”
15. Episode 280 – “March and April All-Time PPV Cards”
16. Episodes 281 and 282 – “PTB/PWO Summit – WCW 1994”
17. Episode 287 – “Old School Royal Rumble Roundtable”
18. Episodes 291 and 292 – “PTBN Summit – WCW August-December 1994”
19. Episode 294 – “WWE Network Extravaganza”
Bonus: Episode 300 – “An Extravaganza Three Years in the Making”