Jericho on Broken Skull Sessions, Wrestling Tropes, Apollo Crews and Representation in Wrestling

The Accidental Wrestling Fan

We're back for the first leg of a doubleheader for WrestleMania week. We were joined by Hanzi, former Howard Stern Show personality and the host of the BiPolar Coaster podcast as well as Damon's good friend and fantasy sports savant Fro.

Jericho on Broken Skull Sessions

The wrestling world was shocked to find that Chris Jericho, currently one of the top stars on AEW, would be joining Steve Austin on the Broken Skull Sessions.

Steve Austin told Sports Illustrated:

“I was having a beer one night after my Broken Skull Sessions interview with The Undertaker aired, and out of the blue, Chris Jericho reached out and said, ‘Man, that was a great interview’. I sent him back a couple of those emojis, one of a beer mug and the other of an eagle, and then he called me right then and there."

Austin on getting Vince McMahon’s approval:

“I texted Vince and said we had this badass idea about Jericho coming on the show,” Austin says. “Vince goes, ‘It’s cool. Go ahead.’ But me and Vince don’t always do well with phones and texts and all that, so I texted one more time, ‘Are you sure it’s O.K. to have Chris Jericho on the show?’ Vince gave me the thumbs up, and Chris came out to do the show.”

Wrestling Tropes

Wrestling uses a number of tropes to fall back on when telling stories or progressing angles. WWE, in particular, has a number of tropes that they use repeatedly. These tropes, such as a challenger pinning a champion in a non-title or tag team match to get a title shot, lead to things becoming incredibly stale. We had a chance to discuss some of those tropes with Hanzi, as well.

Apollo Crews and Representation in Wrestling

Apollo Crews' recent heel turn has been an interesting topic in the world of pro wrestling. Some fans hate his use of the Nigerian accent, even going so far as to say that his character is ripping of Black Panther. Dave Meltzer (*SIGH*) went so far as to describe Apollo's new character as racist:

Crews now has a character who is a Nigerian tribal chief. He goes out to the ring with an entourage. He carries a spear as if he were an African tribal chief. Now he speaks with a Nigerian accent, which he sometimes doesn't. He's a new character and he's so horribly racist and stereotyped that I can't believe they're doing it to this day. It would have been embarrassing 35 years ago, and wrestling has come a long way since then. Basically he's emulating Armand Hussein, who was a half-poster badass in the late '70s and early' 80s, except for the budget, because WWE can afford to have loyal subjects in the entourage. Most crappy promoters from the '70s and' 80s wouldn't even have proposed this.

An interesting thing for Dave to say since actual Nigerian people seem to love the new gimmick.

https://twitter.com/BashirAhmaad/status/1368135728450985985?s=20

You can find the BiPolar Coaster podcast on iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bipolar-coaster/id1504829645

You can also follow Hanzi on Twitter (@Hanzi83).

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