A Look Back at the Place to Be Podcast: Season 4
On February 11th, 2011, the Place to Be Podcast was launched and now we were just over 3 years and 300 episodes into the podcast, and it seemed like the sky was the limit for not only the Podcast but also the Nation as well. This season would see much growth between the website continuing to grow and the number of podcasts coming into the family, but this year also saw some drastic changes due to events in real life becoming a major factor. The scheduling for the podcast would see some big changes as it went from two a week to three every two weeks, and eventually down to one a week or one every other week. Despite this, the season still provided many memorable moments and I will be sure to talk about them throughout this lookback.
Vintage Vaults
One thing that didn’t change this season was the Vintage Vaults as they basically were now the centerpiece of the podcast, and Scott and Justin would continue their trek through the WWF, eventually WWE starting with the 2002 Royal Rumble on episode 301 (aired 3/26/14) and finishing the season at New Year’s Revolution 2006 on episode 399 (aired 3/22/16). One of the running segments through the last few seasons, the “Rob Houston Memorial “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan Update” was discontinued after the Vince saga ended at episode 300 though Vince would pop up every now and then at random times. The love songs for Triple H and Scott continued to grow as it eventually became a medley of songs, and by the end of the season the medley basically grew with every passing year and seemed to reach nearly 5 minutes at one point. Scott would also continue playing songs for Justin’s bromance with Kurt Angle and even did a medley of songs for that at one point, and this season saw very few guests appear for Vaults as Graham Cawthon returned for episode 358 (aired 1/19/15) to talk the 2004 Royal Rumble. The boys would also be joined by Marc Clair for episode 363 (aired 2/16/15) to talk Wrestlemania XX and then they would be joined by John D’Amato for episode 387 (aired 11/24/15) to talk ECW One Night Stand 2005, and finally they would be joined by Todd Weber and Jordan Duncan for episode 395 (aired 2/13/16) to talk Taboo Tuesday 2005 as well as the podcast’s 5th birthday. You can tell that the boys were starting to get a bit worn out with this timeline as they come close to 2006, but we will see how much longer they continue on with this current timeline before thinking if it would be time to switch things up.
Network Live Watches
One of the first big changes to occur this season is the headlines, which had been around since the very beginning of the podcast, basically came to an end as the boys would occasionally bring up happenings during their other shows. So with the WWE Network having been launched during the previous season, the boys decided to take advantage of it and held a variety of live watches of specific shows throughout the season. The first track of live watches would see the boys joined by Roger Morrissette, Steve Willie, and Chad Campbell as they watched Monday Night RAW from the beginning to the RAW before King of the Ring 1993 with Jordan Duncan appearing at times and Jason Greenhouse also making an appearance. The second track would see the boys joined by Willie, Duncan, and Glenn Butler to talk WCW Monday Nitro as they started at the beginning and ran until the 11/6/95 show with Good Ol’ Will from Texas joining later in the track. The third track would see the boys joined by Greenhouse, George Ribolino, and Aaron George as they watched the first episode of Smackdown before transitioning to Saturday Night’s Main Event by watching the first two episodes along with episodes 4 and 5 with Morrissette joining for the 5th episode. Sadly, with the schedule changes during the second half of the season, the live watches were discontinued on the main podcast though they were continued briefly as specials for the feed. These episodes were always a fun listen especially with you were watching along with the shows themselves and they were a good part of the season even if they were only a temporary part of the podcast.
Interviews
With the changes occurring to the podcast this season, the interviews also took a backseat to the Vaults and other specialty episodes, but the boys were able to pull in some big names to come on for the podcast. This season saw their series with Kevin Kelly ended as he would come on for episodes 313 (aired 5/22/14) and 324 (aired 7/30/14) to talk 2002, and he would make his final appearance on the show on episode 333 (aired 9/10/14) to talk the first few months of 2003 and that would be it for him aside from appearances as narrator of the Christmas shows. They would also welcome Scott Keith back as he would join them for 5 mailbag episodes where the boys and Keith would answer questions from viewers, and this would also be the last season for the mailbags. The boys also had a very unique interview as on episode 368 (aired 3/27/15), they welcomed Kendra and Wes Mayle who were part of the family interviewed by Terry Taylor at the 1993 King of the Ring as they talked that night and what they’ve been doing since, and that same episode they had on Roger Morrissette and Steve Willie to discuss KOTR 1993. The first official interview of this season took place on episode 337 (aired 10/6/14) to talk with Dr. Tom Prichard about his life and career, and the second interview took place on episode 353 (aired 12/30/14) where the boys welcomed Jeff Jarrett to discuss his career as well as Global Force Wrestling. The last interview from this season took place on episode 356 (aired 1/9/15) where the boys welcomed Ken Shamrock to talk his career and the current state of UFC, and it will be interesting to see how many more interviews we end up getting with the new scheduling of the podcast which is sad since we’ve had many great interviews through these last four seasons.
Specialty Episodes
After last season where we had a ton of specialty episodes, they were toned down a bit here though we still had a good number of specialty shows even if it wasn’t quite as much as the previous seasons. This season saw the boys continue their project of creating their all-time PPV months as on episode 307 (aired 4/24/14), they did May and June, for episode 326 (aired 8/13/14) they did July and August, for episode 364 (aired 2/21/15) they did September and October, and on episode 374 (aired 5/29/15) they concluded with November and December. They would also welcome back Andrew Riche, Matt Rotella, and Chris Criscuolo for the 5th and 6th annual March Madness roundtables for episodes 367 (aired 3/16/15) and 398 (aired 3/14/16), and they would have their only real “headlines” episode this season on episode 303 (aired 4/7/14) when they bought in Aaron George to talk about Wrestlemania XXX. Sadly, they would end up doing a few tributes this season as on episode 305 (aired 4/14/14), they paid tribute to the Ultimate Warrior who had suddenly passed away and on episode 379 (aired 8/3/15) where they not only talked Armageddon 2004, but also paid tribute to Roddy Piper who had recently passed away. With the throwbacks coming to an end last season, we did get two more this season with episode 306 (aired 4/21/14) to talk the 3/25/02 RAW and the first WWF Draft, and then for episode 393 (aired 1/23/16) to discuss RAW Homecoming from 2005. This season would also see not one, but two Halloween specials for episodes 341 (aired 10/22/14) and 385 (aired 10/26/15) as the boys welcomed numerous guests for both specials to talk all things Halloween in wrestling. We also had two Christmas specials this season with episodes 352 (aired 12/23/14) and 389 (aired 12/24/15), but unlike the other Christmas shows these were very unique shows as the first saw the Nation put on a play talking about Scott and Justin splitting up and eventually getting back together despite the ploys of Andrew Riche. The second Christmas show this season saw the Nation put on a second play of Scott losing his soul after killing a dog and he along with Justin must travel to different places and meet different people to find him a new soul. And as usual, the boys did a big show for episode 400 (aired 4/1/16) as they talked the previous 400 episodes, brought back Leann Griffin for a chat, and brought in numerous PTBN staff members to discuss the Wrestlemania match ranking list that they put together. As I mentioned, while this season didn’t have nearly as many specialty shows as the previous season, there were still some good ones though we will see how many more we get in future seasons especially with the new schedule.
Moments
While the schedule may have changed and while the types of shows started to dwindle with this season, this season still had plenty of great moments that took place and kept the entertainment going. The Vaults themselves have become pretty straightforward as I mentioned, though Vince would pop up every now and then especially for episode 363 where he confronted Marc Clair for what happened on episode 300. One of the bigger moments took place on episode 366 (aired 3/12/15) as the boys talked Backlash 2004 and during the recording, Justin’s wife went into labor so they had to record the episode over two weeks. The live watches would provide memorable moments with Roger being fascinated by 1993 RAW, Roger and Chad arguing about certain wrestlers, Glenn being exposed to 1995 WCW for the first time, the sheer joy from the boys when the Yeti made his debut on Nitro, and Aaron’s weird fascinations including his love of the Junkyard Dog’s mother and being in awe of the Big Show’s back being shiny. The Halloween episodes also provided fun moments including Roger mistaking Nate Milton for the Godfather, the wrestler and being made fun of for it on live watches after it, and the second one was great for Scott being frustrated by everything and angrily yelling about how the last 5 years had come to this which he compared to trash. With this season being the first for the Christmas episodes being special plays, they provided some great moments as well including some great character performances and more memorable quotes from the boys. Finally, episode 400 saw some fun moments including the return of Leann to talk certain topics including “Jersey Shore” and Hulk Hogan’s lawsuit against Gawker, and then the boys talking the Wrestlemania match list with Glenn fighting hard for Adrian Adonis vs. Uncle Elmer from Wrestlemania 2, and I also have to call out Chad giving me a shoutout for still being on the message board at that time. But perhaps the biggest moment to come from this season was the announcement of the new schedule as after putting out two episodes a week since the start aside from certain times, they would now only do one episode every two weeks which was a shock given how much content they had put out prior. This caused the season to stretch out as well as instead of finish 100 episodes in a year, this season took two years to complete and we will see how long future seasons take to finish.
Final Thoughts
Overall, the fourth season of the Place to Be Podcast was another great season though it feels like this was the most straightforward season to happen at this point. That’s even including the first season which was really the boys getting their feet wet in terms of doing a podcast, and this is also with the scheduling changes that were to take place this season. Obviously, many things changed as the headlines and throwbacks came to an end while the live watches came and went, and the specialty shows also started to become fewer as the Vaults became the primary content for the podcast. We have seen a lot come and go over the last five years and 400 episodes as the website continued to grow and the feed grew as well, and with the inclusion of the pop feed it seemed like things would only get bigger from here. As for the fourth season of the podcast, it is a really fun season with some great shows, great moments, and was a clear turning point for Scott and Justin and the Place to Be Nation.
Recommended Episodes:
Vintage Vaults:
1. Episode 304 – “Wrestlemania X8”
2. Episode 306 – “3/25/02 RAW”
3. Episode 316 – “Summerslam 2002”
4. Episode 329 – “Wrestlemania XIX”
5. Episode 358 – “Royal Rumble 2004”
6. Episode 363 – “Wrestlemania XX”
7. Episode 366 – “Backlash 2004”
8. Episode 387 – “ECW One Night Stand 2005”
9. Episode 393 – “RAW Homecoming 2005”
10. Episode 395 – “Taboo Tuesday 2005 and PTB’s Fifth Birthday Celebration”
Live Watches:
1. Episode 310 – “Monday Night RAW 1/11/93 and 1/18/93”
2. Episode 315 – “Monday Night RAW 1/25/93 and 2/1/93”
3. Episode 330 – “WWF Smackdown 8/26/99”
4. Episode 334 – “Network Watch Party – WCW Monday Nitro 9/4/95 and 9/11/95”
5. Episode 336 – “Monday Night RAW 4/5/93 and 4/12/93”
6. Episode 339 – “Saturday Night’s Main Event #1 and #2”
7. Episode 355 – “Network Watch Party – WCW Monday Nitro 10/16/95 and 10/23/95”
8. Episode 357 – “Monday Night RAW 5/17/93 and 5/24/93”
9. Episode 361 – “Saturday Night’s Main Event #5”
10. Episode 362 – “Network Watch Party – WCW Monday Nitro 10/30/95 and 11/6/95”
Interviews:
1. Episode 312 – “Mailbag with Scott Keith”
2. Episode 313 – “Kevin Kelly on First Half of WWE 2002”
3. Episode 323 – “WWE 2002 w/ Kevin Kelly Second Half”
4. Episode 333 – “WWE 2003 w/ Kevin Kelly”
5. Episode 337 – “Dr. Tom Prichard”
6. Episode 353 – “Jeff Jarrett”
7. Episode 356 – “Ken Shamrock”
8. Episode 368 – “King of the Ring 1993 and Kendra and Wes Mayle”
Specialty Episodes:
1. Episode 305 – “Ultimate Warrior Tribute”
2. Episode 307 – “May and June All-Time PPV Cards”
3. Episode 326 – “July and August All-Time PPV Cards”
4. Episode 341 – “Fourth Annual Halloween Spooktacular”
5. Episode 352 – “Fourth Annual Christmas Extravaganza”
6. Episode 364 – “September and October All-Time PPV Cards”
7. Episode 367 – “Fifth Annual March Madness Prediction Show”
8. Episode 374 – “November and December All-Time PPV Cards”
9. Episode 385 – “Fifth Annual Halloween Spooktacular”
10. Episode 390 – “Fifth Annual Christmas Extravaganza”
11. Episode 398 – “Sixth Annual March Madness Prediction Show”
Bonus: Episode 400 – “A Celebration, Wrestlemania Match Rankings, and an Old Friend”
