Christian welcomes special guest host, Zack Ryder to the show.
Christian asks Ryder about his wrestling toy collection, and asks him about his most expensive toy. Ryder informs that he recently lost a bidding war for a rare Lex Luger prototype, which sold for over $8000. He’s since been in contact with the winning bidder and he’s offered more cash to buy it, but the owner will not sell it.
Ryder informs that he hasn’t been on WWE television since he moved from Smackdown to RAW several months ago. He knows that he needs to keep his head down and keep working because it’s no good to complain all the time. If he continues to work hard and remains positive he’s sure another opportunity will arise for him.
Speaking again about his wrestling figure collection, Ryder informs that some of his figures are worthless, but some are heavy hitters. He has one Greg “The Hammer” Valentine figure that someone offered him $25,000 for last year, but he said no.
Christian comments on something Bruce Prichard said on his podcast last week. Prichard said that The Unamericans didn’t work in WWE because those guys were scared of the heat. Christian says that wasn’t the case for him at all, but he does admit that he didn’t truly believe in that character. It’s very tough to go to the ring every night and give it everything you got when you’re not really invested in the character.
Christian wasn’t sure how long that faction would last, so he didn’t want to cut his hair for that group. He mentions that he wanted that change to mean something from a singles perspective. He admits that he was too inexperienced at the time to realize that he should have cut his hair and made a complete transformation after he and Edge split up.
A listener writes into the show and asks Ryder and Christian to name their Mount Rushmore of professional wrestling. Ryder says his personal favourites would be Hulk Hogan, The Ultimate Warrior, “Macho Man” Randy Savage and Steve Austin. Christian notes that trying to pick four guys is so hard, and his list could change every five minutes. He points out that The Rock, Ric Flair, Shawn Michaels and a few others could be included there as well.
Another listener writes into the show and asks Christian if he thinks WWE needs more stables. Christian would like to see more stables in WWE, noting that someone like Ryder could really benefit from a stable. Ryder notes that some of the most iconic characters in wrestling history were part of stables such as the Four Horsemen, DX and NWO. Christian argues that the women’s division could use some stables as well.
A listener writes into the show and asks Christian how wrestlers do laundry on the road. He informs that he separates the clean and dirty clothes with plastic bags on short trips of 3-4 days. On the longer overseas trips things can be more difficult. Sometimes they get lucky and there are machines at the stadium or in the hotels, but if not, they have to find a laundry service somewhere.
Christian believes Charlotte and Bobby Roode have some of the best ring attire in WWE currently, as he really likes the robe look. Ryder says he likes when performers change their attire frequently, adding that he’s a big fan of Finn Balor’s demon attire.
Ryder informs that his personal YouTube channel captured lightning in a bottle. He started the year as a nobody, and then his channel led to him getting on television and winning a Championship. Unfortunately, once WWE took it over it wasn’t the same. He notes that it’s hard for other people to recapture the magic he found that year.
Another listener writes into the show and asks Ryder to name his #1 moment in wrestling thus far. He says his #1 moment was winning the Intercontinental Title at WrestleMania a couple of years ago. In terms of a retirement match sometime down the road, Ryder says he would like to face either Dolph Ziggler or Curt Hawkins in that scenario.
That sums up this week’s episode of E&C’s Pod of Awesomeness. You can listen to the show yourself anytime here, and I’ll catch ya next week for another recap!
