I Listen So You Don't Have To: Art Of Wrestling Ep. 282

Cabana has his longtime collaborator Marty DeRosa on this week Photo Credit: Scott Finkelstein

If you’re new, here’s the rundown. We listen to a handful of wrestling podcasts each week. Too many, probably, though certainly not all of them. In the interest of saving you time — in case you have the restraint to skip certain episodes — the plan is to give the bare bones of a given show and let you decide if it’s worth investing the time to hear the whole thing. There are many wrestling podcasts out there, of course, but this feature largely hews to the regular rotation we feel best fit the category of hit or miss. If we can save other folks some time, we’re happy to do so.

Show: Art Of Wrestling
Episode: 282 (Dec. 24, 2015)
Run Time: 56:02
Guest: Marty DeRosa (9:08)

Summary: As part of his monologue, Colt Cabana plays a clip of comedian Andy Peters’ act before getting to the primary function, a free-range chat with longtime collaborator (and also a comedian) Marty DeRosa. Topics include regional dialects revealed in wrestler promos, the plight of jobbers, DeRosa’s childhood friendship with Josh Mathews and their convergent and divergent wrestling journeys, watching pay-per-view channels with and without a descrambling device, his old public access show and any chance of working for WWE one day. The guys spend a lot of time discussing working in front of tough crowds, or even one difficult person, and end remembering some favorite Christmas gifts.

Quote of the week:“I could at least put it on scrambled and then just, you know, have my figures out or something and just listen and just be like, and there’d be those moments where it would kind of flip in a little bit — this could be about porn as well — but it would just kick in a little bit and you’re like ‘That’s a boob’ or ‘Oh, that’s Macho Man.’ And then you were just like, ‘Yeah, this is great!’ That’s, I think, like, yeah, that was the original podcast for me, was just listening to scrambled wrestling. And I’m like, ‘I still hear it!’ I mean, that’s enough for me. I was such a fanatic.”

Why you should listen: The highlight, by far, is the two-way conversation about being confronted with audience members who seem dead-set against enjoying a particular performance. That segment allows both men to open up about their respective arts, and it’s the only part of the talk that seems like these two, who are very familiar to each other, might actually be having an original conversation. Some of the stuff about a younger Matthews is at least amusing.

Why you should skip it: I generally find DeRosa to be sufficiently entertaining, and I appreciate Cabana’s predicament of being up against Christmas Eve and his own imminent Japan tour, but there’s really not much to this episode whatsoever. DeRosa gets a few chances to be funny, but never really gets rolling, and Cabana doesn’t seem to have had any agenda in mind when he decided to record the chat. There are far better ways to engage with either performer.

Final thoughts: After hijacking the Internet with his Thanksgiving 2014 episode, Cabana almost overcorrects here by bringing on a guest of very little consequence whatsoever. Perhaps hardly anyone listened, perhaps that was the presumption during the recording session. Either way, Cabana devotees can take a pass, and anyone hungry for more DeRosa should most likely check out one of his many outlets, most notably the Wrestling With Depression podcast. Just take it on faith this episode isn’t a representative sample of DeRosa’s show.