A Look Back at the Place to Be Podcast: Season 6
On February 11th, 2011, the Place to Be Podcast was launched and we were now 500 episodes and just over seven years into the show, and this season might have ended up being the most straightforward season that we’ve had to this point. It’s pretty crazy to think that since this was easily the longest season that we’ve had and not only that, the world was turned on its head thanks to the COVID pandemic and everything coming to a stop. But the podcast didn’t stop even with a new podcast feed being created during this time and Scott and Justin continued to trek forward as they were about to reach a pair of milestones with 10 years on the air and approaching the 600th episode of the show.
Vintage Vaults
As has become the norm for the podcast, the Vintage Vaults continued to be the showcase for the Podcast as Scott and Justin continued their trek through the Federation Era, beginning with the 9/29/88 MSG house show on episode 501 (aired 10/8/18) and making it to Survivor Series 1992 on episode 586 (aired 9/20/21). The boys would continue to give out awards for the shows which they would rename continuously based on how many times a guy won or if someone showed up that made an immediate impact and also added a new award for the wrestler who looked the closest to death, and Scott would continue his Pop Culture Corner though would tweak it at times including doing the top 10 in the box office for the weekend as opposed to just listing off the movies that came out. Another slight change was whenever they recapped the NFL season by having Justin compete against “The World” in picking the winners of each game, and beginning in 1990 Justin would add a new segment by reading the tidbits from the legendary Herb Koonz. In addition to the normal shows they would do, the boys would also do special build shows for every Wrestlemania and also covered the specialty shows like Summerslam Fever 1990, all three Survivor Series Showdowns, the 1991 and 1992 Summerslam Spectaculars, Battle Royal at Albert Hall from 1991, and even the movie “No Holds Barred” along with the special match attached to it, and they would even delve outside of MSG by covering a Meadowlands house show in 1989. During this run, they would also combine one of their live watches of the special TV shows with celebrating the 10th anniversary of the podcast. They would also continue having guests for each show as J Arsenio D’Amato continued to appear for the PPVs as well as random MSG house shows, and Peter Winston would also continue to appear on each of the Saturday Night’s Main Events along with the Main Events. While Kelly Nelson would not appear regularly for the MSG house shows, the boys would bring in random guests including Greg Phillips, Andy Atherton, Ryan Everett (cashing in his episode 500 tournament win), Steve Bennett, Jennifer Smith, Todd Weber, Aaron George, Jake Williams, Tim Slomka, Matt Souza, Tim Capel, Drew Wardlaw, Shawn Kidd, Kevin Pittack, Rob Hawkins, Dave Hall, Jason Sherman, Jordan Duncan, Greg Diener, Rory McNamara, Andrew Riche, Mike Lawrence, and Calum McDougal. After getting to Survivor Series 1992, the boys made the decision to return to the original timeline and pick up where they left off in 2007, returning with Backlash 2007 on episode 588 (aired 11/1/21) and getting to Cyber Sunday 2007 on episode 599 (aired 3/21/22). They would continue their trend of doing grades and awards for the shows though they would drop the most juiced, worst hair, and most closest to death as they would add surprise of the night, and they would continue doing the Pop Culture Corner and Herb Koonz Tidbits though focused them in 1993 with Scott also talking any house shows from the WWF and WCW. They would also continue to bring guests in as Peter would return for the two SNMEs in 2007 and they also welcomed back Williams, Smith, and Capel while bringing in newcomers Logan Crosland, Marcus Fuller, Mike Eller, Ryan Gray, and Rocco Martone. It was refreshing to see the boys return to the Federation Era over the last two seasons and redo some of the shows from the first season, but it is also good that they did go back to the original timeline and didn’t continue on given how many other shows across the pod feeds covering those periods of time.
Specialty Episodes
As I mentioned earlier, this season was perhaps the most straightforward that we’ve had in 11 years and after having various types of specialty episodes throughout the seasons, this season was very straightforward with really only two types of specialty shows. They did end up doing one anniversary show on episode 512 (aired 2/11/19) where the boys talked the last 8 years, talked the state of the PTBN, welcomed back Leann Griffin to talk food and “Jersey Shore”, and they also discussed that year’s stretch project in determining the greatest WWE PPV/TV match of all time. Aside from that, we had out usual Halloween and Christmas episodes as we had four of each this season due to the season going unusually long, and the first Halloween episode was episode 503 (aired 10/31/18) where the boys were joined by Jennifer and Tim to live watch “Ready 2 Rumble”. The second Halloween episode was episode 534 (aired 10/30/19) as the boys talked the Netflix Marvel Universe before being joined by Roger Morrissette, Andy Atherton, and Matt Souza to live watch the Mike Tyson/Buster Douglas fight from 2/11/90, and the third Halloween episode was episode 561 (aired 10/31/20) where Jennifer and Tim returned to live watch “Beyond the Mat” with the boys. The fourth and last Halloween episode from this season was episode 587 (aired 10/18/31) where D’Amato and Bennett came on as the boys were interviewed about their friendship, wrestling fandom, and the podcast as well as giving out final awards for the Federation Era reboot. The first Christmas episode for this season was episode 508 (aired 12/24/18) where Stu Hart and Jim Ross held a special Variety Show featuring various personalities from the wrestling world, and the second Christmas episode was episode 539 (aired 12/24/19) which was a highlight reel of the previous eight years of Christmas shows, and the boys would also release a special Christmas card featuring hosts from other podcasts where they talked favorite Christmas memories. The third Christmas episode from this season was episode 566 (aired 12/24/20) where Vince McMahon, Jesse Ventura, and Gene Okerlund gather the roster together to record “The Wrestling Album”, and the final Christmas episode from this season was episode 592 (aired 12/24/21) where we see Vince Russo attempt to save WCW from going out of business despite the plans of Vince McMahon and Bret Hart. While the specialty episodes were not as varied as we’ve had in previous seasons, the ones we got this season more than made up in their memorability and just outright entertainment.
Moments
So even though there wasn’t much variety this season in terms of the types of episodes that we got, we still had plenty of great moments as we continued the trek to the historic 600th episode this season. The Vaults continued to provide great moments as the boys and their guests continued to talk a unique variety of Superstars, being pleasantly surprised by some wrestlers while also being disappointed in others, and Justin reading the Herb Koonz Tidbits provided fun moments with some of Herb’s predictions being completely wrong or just being so out there they almost seemed feasibly true. One of the other highlights was Justin going up against the various guests in the NFL picks and Justin crying foul when he went against someone who had lived through the particular season and knowing the winners of each game, and even after returning to 2007, them diving deep into 1993 with Herb and the Pop Culture Corner also has some fun memories. The specialty episodes also provided plenty of great moments including Jennifer’s sheer joy in watching “Ready 2 Rumble” and “Beyond the Mat” for the first time, reliving “Beyond the Mat” for a second time after the boys had already watched it during the second season, the uniqueness of watching a classic boxing match, and the boys reminiscing on some of their greatest moments from the last 10 years. And of course, the Christmas episodes also provided great moments including great performances from the members of the Nation, and for me, getting to be a part of the most recent Christmas episode was a thrill as I got to show off my Southern accent chops by playing Ted Turner and getting some props during the outtakes. While it may seem that there aren’t as many moments from this season as compared to other season, there were still plenty of great moments as you are always guaranteed to have some fun and memorable moments during the season.
Final Thoughts
Overall, this season was yet another great season for the PTB Podcast even though it was the longest and most straightforward season that the boys have had to this point. As I mentioned, the world was flipped upside down during this season with the COVID pandemic and even things were changing within the PTB Nation with the creation of a new podcast feed, but that wouldn’t stop Scott and Justin from churning out great content every other week whether it was a Vault or a specialty show. We also saw a few anniversary milestones met this season including the historic 10th anniversary in 2021, and it is crazy to think that the show has now been on the air for 11 years while other podcasts have come and gone within that time frame. This also brings us to the end of the look backs as we are caught up with everything, and now we get to look forward to the historic 600th episode and also at what’s potentially to come for Scott, Justin, and the podcast. As for this season, it is another great season and all eyes were now on season 7 as we will see how great that season ends up being.
Recommended Episodes:
Vintage Vaults:
1. Episode 505 – “Survivor Series 1988”
2. Episode 518 – “The Road to Wrestlemania V”
3. Episode 519 – “Wrestlemania V”
4. Episode 521 – “Meadowlands 5/8/89”
5. Episode 523 – “Summerslam 1989”
6. Episode 526 – “WWF House Show – Madison Square Garden 10/28/89”
7. Episode 531 – “No Holds Barred – The Match, the Movie”
8. Episode 535 – “Saturday Night’s Main Event XXV – 1/27/90”
9. Episode 540 – “Wrestlemania VI”
10. Episode 559 – “Wrestlemania VII”
11. Episode 568 – “WWF Battle Royal at Albert Hall – 10/3/91”
12. Episode 570 – “Survivor Series Showdown – 11/24/91”
13. Episode 575 – “Royal Rumble 1992”
14. Episode 579 – “WWF House Show – Madison Square Garden 3/23/92”
15. Episode 581 – “Wrestlemania VIII”
16. Episode 584 – “Saturday Night’s Main Event XXXI – 11/14/92”
17. Episode 586 – “Survivor Series 1992”
18. Episode 588 – “Backlash 2007”
19. Episode 593 – “Vengeance 2007”
20. Episode 595 – “Saturday Night’s Main Event XXXV – 8/18/07”
Specialty Episodes:
1. Episode 503 – “Eighth Annual Halloween Spooktacular”
2. Episode 508 – “Eighth Annual Christmas Spectacular”
3. Episode 512 – “Eighth Birthday State of the Union”
4. Episode 534 – “Ninth Annual Halloween Spooktacular”
5. Episode 539 – “Ninth Annual Christmas Spectacular”
6. Episode 561 – “Tenth Annual Halloween Spooktacular”
7. Episode 566 – “Tenth Annual Christmas Spectacular”
8. Episode 587 – “Eleventh Annual Halloween Spooktacular”
9. Episode 592 – “Eleventh Annual Christmas Spectacular”
