Happy birthday from my bruther from another mother, Mike E. King. Despite what people say on the Internet, the embodiment of #TeamBestDude. Hope you have an awesome day, my friend! #me #nickmaniwa #vagentmike #theboy
I’d like to be one of the first to welcome my dude, The Boy vagentmike back in the game. He was on the bench for quite a while but he’s got his velcro shoes on and he’s ready to play!
After a short hiatus, I am back with a brand new edition of Five Questions! My guest this week is Ben Gordon! Ben Gordon is a longtime wrestling fan, co-host of the pro wrestling podcast "The Programme" as well as a good friend of TeamBestDude. I ask Ben how he met his co-host Matt Ryan, how he got into Independent Wrestling, his favorite memory throughout his time with Inter Species Wrestling and more!
Mike: How long have you been watching wrestling and what is your earliest memory of it?
Ben: I've been watching since i was at least 7 years old. I may have been watching before that, but I have no real memories of it. The first thing I do remember is an episode of Wrestling Challenge from the end of 1991 featuring Sean Mooney hyping up a return bout between Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair at some house show, and I instinctively knew that it was a huge deal. A few weeks later was the 1992 Royal Rumble, which I made my parents buy and from that moment on, I was hooked for life.
Mike: That's a hell of a show to get hooked on, definitely my favorite of all the Royal Rumbles. When and how did you discover Independent Wrestling?
Ben: I'd been reading about indies for years online through sites like 1Wrestling and TPWW.net (old school!). I distinctly remember reading all about the Super 8 tournaments in 2000-01 and Larry Goodman's extensive recaps of NWA Wildside shows and thinking I'd love to actually go to one. I didn't actually go to an indy show until the summer of 03 when I saw ROH's first Death Before Dishonor. I was home from college and took one of Mike Johnson's bus trips to the RexPlex, who's closing I'm still super bummed about. The selling points for me was Jeff Hardy's first match since getting fired. Ironically, I was blown away by everything BUT Jeff Hardy that night haha
Mike: HUGE POP for the 1Wrestling.com and TPWW.net references, I still rock my lime green ECWA Super 8 2001 t-shirt occasionally.
Ben: Now I'm regretting never buying one of those lime green Special K tshirts from back in the day. They were SO bad but they'd be incredibly over today in a completely ironic sense haha
Mike: Most people reading this are going to know you from The Programme which you co-host with Matt Ryan every Tuesday night at 7. How did you meet Matt and what made you guys want to start doing The Programme?
Ben: I met Matt Ryan back in 2008 after the King of Trios. I was traveling with my good friend Mary Kate, who used to take ringside photos for ROH, and we stopped at Chickie & Pete's. We spotted a mutual friend, Jess (aka the future Mrs. Maniwa) sitting at a table with a group of fans, many of which I'm still good friends with to this day. We all were shooting the shit and when I talked about the wrestling talk show I did at my college radio station back in the day, Matt's interest was piqued and we started talking about our mutual radio and wrestling interest. We reconnected after a few Chikara shows over the next year and just continuing to chat about our mutual loves of pro wrestling and radio. Eventually he was given an opportunity to host a podcast and asked me to host it along with him. I said yes and we've been doing it ever since. That was 5 years ago as of this past February. I couldn't shake him at this point even if I tried.
Mike: Wow, I didn't realize you guys didn't know each other that long before the show started. I guess that speaks volumes to your chemistry with each other.
Ben: The chemistry was there from the get go. We clicked as friends almost instantly and doing a show together was something we'd talked about from the day we met. I'd been wanting to do one since I finished college and to meet a guy as passionate about his interests as I am (and in some cases, even moreso) was just an even bigger push to do it.
Mike: Absolutely, I hope I can do one of these with him one day soon. A lot of our followers might recognize you from Inter Species Wrestling, how'd you get hooked up with ISW and do you have a favorite ISW memory you can share with us?
Ben: It all centers around that night at Chickie and Pete's! At the same table I met Matt Ryan at I also met the incomparable Ed Wood. If you've ever seen the 08 King of Trios, you might know Wood as the guy who dressed as Akeem the African Dream sitting front row. Wood's one of the craziest dudes I know and also one of the best people. Anyway, Wood, along with Matt Hack became partners with ISW founder & head honcho Mike Rotch in 2009, and being close with Wood, I was able to help out at ISW's USA debut in the summer of 09. Since then, I've been fortunate to help out as much as I can before, during and after the shows. I cohost the Dubcast, the occasional podcast of ISW, and help spread the word to anyone within the sound of my voice. During the shows, I run the sound and occasionally do commentary, which was a dream of mine for years and I relish any chance I can get to do it.
Ben: One of my favorite ISW memories, and I have tons of them, was the Food Fight from Armageddocalypse. That may be the most ridiculously nutty match I've ever seen live. I drove to the Stop and Shop to help select some of the grocery items used during the match.....and with each thing they picked, all I could wonder was "What the hell are they planning with THAT?!" And all of my questions were answered well within that match, which is a MUST see if you never have. All of those guys are incredibly creative and the proof is in the pudding. Also, the Fans Bring the Lego Deathmatch from the end of the show is another insane spectacle of creativity and violence that is a must see.
Mike: I ended up getting my hands on a copy of Armageddocalypse and can fully back both that Food Fight and the Lego Deathmatch. For my final question, who are some of your favorite people to watch on the Indies right now and why?
Ben: Oh god, I could go on and on. I love watching everyone on the ISW roster and would hate to single anyone out. I will say that Pinkie Sanchez and Chris Dickinson absolutely tore it up at Trapped In The Closet and I could watch the two of them wrestle all day. I'm super excited to see Pinkie, Jaka and "Speedball" Mike Bailey (who KILLED it in CZW!) wrestle each other at IWS in Montreal this Saturday. Dan Barry is one of the most creative dudes in pro wrestling and I couldn't be happier that he and Bill Carr are breaking out as a tag team. The match they had with Tabernak de Team, another one of my favorite teams, at ISW also tore the roof off the Heirloom. And I can't not mention Addy Starr, who I'm excited to see return to ISW once she gets back from England.
Outside of ISW, I always get excited if Kevin Steen, Matt Tremont, Drew Gulak, (both of whom were awesome at ISW...ok, NOW I'm done!) Andrew Everett, JT Dunn, Michael Elgin, and Biff Busick are on the card. The last guy to really turn my head though was Danny Cannon, who I saw at On Point Wrestling. He's a guy I'm looking forward to seeing more often. I'm sure I'm leaving off tons of people and I'm gonna feel like a jerk for it. Chances are if I've seen you wrestle live, I'm a huge fan of yours. There's not a lot of wrestlers out there that I actively dislike.
You can catch Ben Gordon on The Programme w/ Matt & Ben live every Tuesday at 7pm on www.blogtalkradio.com/CSTC (and on iTunes and Stitcher via the Card Subject To Change Podcast Network)
Ben Gordon will be doing commentary at IWS THIS SATURDAY night in Montreal visit IWSWrestling.com and follow @IWSHardcore on Twitter for more information
