Awesome Truth: A Wrestling Book Club

New new new world order! Those 5 words (ok, 3) changed wrestling forever, and maybe pop culture as well? That's the thesis of the upcoming book Say Hello To The Bad Guys, written by ESPN reporter Marc Raimondi and chronicling the rise, fall, and wide-ranging impact of the nWo. Marc joins us on Awesome Truth to discuss the book's origin story and how it'll differ from the many, many other WCW obituaries published throughout the years.

We've talked about Becky Lynch's new book, now we're revisiting one of her classic matches. It's Becky versus Sasha Banks versus Charlotte Flair at WrestleMania 32, by far the best match on that card and also maybe the first time women were truly taken seriously in a WWE ring. Does watching this triple threat help answer last episode's big question: "Is Becky Lynch good in the ring?" Join us and find out!

The written word is back on Awesome Truth! This week, we're talking about the hottest wrestling book of 2024: Becky Lynch: The Man: Not Your Average Average Girl, by the one and only Becky Lynch. How did Becky go from a young Irish upstart to maybe the most popular female wrestler of all time? What was it like to wrestle in the main event at WrestleMania? "The Man" answers all these questions and more, and we're chatting all about it.

The King (and Queen) of the Ring is sometimes a thing in WWE and sometimes not, but once upon a time it was new and different and actually mattered. To revisit those glory days of 1993, we are watching one of wrestling's most quietly celebrated matches: Bret Hart versus Mr. Perfect. It's a mere quarter-final match in that year's tournament, but it's no surprise that Bret and Curt Hennig, two of the best to ever do it, made their 18 minutes count.

Bray Wyatt was a truly unique wrestling character, and Windham Rotunda was a unique man. The deep complexities of his personality and creativity are examined in the latest feature-length WWE documentary on Peacock, Bray Wyatt: Becoming Immortal. Almost a year after his death, what is Bray's wrestling legacy? And what happens next with the rumored Wyatt 6 stable, seemingly designed to honor and build on his legacy? We break it all down on today's Awesome Truth.

For years, David Penzer was one of the voices of WCW, the man with a microphone in the center of the ring for every episode of Monday Nitro and Thunder. Now, in his new book Sitting Ringside Volume 1, Penzer shares his stories of WCW, the Monday Night Wars, and more. And we're getting a sneak preview on Awesome Truth! Join us as we talk to Penzer about how he got started in the business, why he wrote a book, and the best ribs he ever saw played.

April is usually the quietest month on the wrestling calendar, but not on Awesome Truth! Instead of digging through the archives to find the 'best' ho-hum Backlash match, we're watching a legendary showdown from Extreme Rules 2012: John Cena versus the returning Brock Lesnar. It's the rare semi-recent Lesnar match that doesn't feel like one of his fast-paced MMA-style bouts; instead, these two beefy boys beat the heck out of each other for nearly 18 minutes. Join us as we revisit a classic.

Awesome Truth's Road to WrestleMania finally stops here; we're departing from our usual format to recap the 2-night spectacular, especially the showdown between Roman Reigns and Cody Rhodes. Did it live it up to the hype? Was it too much Rock or (surprisingly) too little? And what's next for Triple H and WWE now that the Bloodline story is at least on pause? Join us as we discuss WrestleMania 40 in detail.

The last stop on Awesome Truth's Road to WrestleMania is all about the Tribal Chief himself, Roman Reigns. His episode of WWE Evil examines the life of the real Joe Anoa'i, including the recent bout with leukemia that led to time away from wrestling and his eventual return as sports entertainment's biggest heel. But is this half-kayfabe, half-reality docuseries the best way to tell Roman's story? And is WrestleMania 40 going to be the apex of Roman's career and ultimately the end of his incredible run on top? Join us as we discuss The Big Dog.

Our next stop on the road to WrestleMania 40 is yet another look at the rise of Cody Rhodes, namely his showdown with Seth Rollins at Hell in a Cell 2022. You may know this as "the one with Cody's fully torn pectoral muscle," but it's also a match that Walt and Steve have never seen. Does it live up to the 5-star hype? Is it an integral part of Cody's still-forming WWE legacy? Join us and find out.

Cody Rhodes is about to main event two WrestleManias in a row, and his return to WWE from AEW has been about the biggest success story one could imagine. So it's no surprise that, in summer 2023, they released a documentary about his life in and around pro wrestling. But how does that doc hold up in the midst of this build to a Roman Reigns rematch and the likely involvement of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson? Join us as we dissect American Nightmare: Becoming Cody Rhodes as we continue down the road to WrestleMania 40.

As Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson threatens a return to the ring and a leap into the WrestleMania main event picture, we felt we owed it to our fans to revisit the last time he had a true wrestling match. That's right, we're watching along with John Cena versus The Rock at WrestleMania 29, a show we actually attended in person. How did Rock look in the squared circle 11 years ago? And what do we think he'll look like now, at age 51? Join us as we talk over this finisher-heavy Mania showdown.

As Will Ospreay prepares to make his full-time debut with AEW, we thought it was time to revisit his ascent through the ranks of wrestling via the 2020 documentary Ospreay: The Rise of an International Pro Wrestler. Is it a good, well-made doc? Not necessarily, but it does spark some great conversation about the hotly desired Ospreay and if his signing could be the spark that AEW desperately needs.

If it's January, then it's time for a Rumble watch-along. Awesome Truth is revisiting a recent classic and maybe the best of all time: the 2020 Royal Rumble. It's one of the best-booked matches in Rumble history, from Brock Lesnar's attempt to take on all 30 entrants by himself to Drew McIntyre's coming-out party. And don't forget the exciting return of Edge! And the less exciting return of MVP. Join us as we journey back to that magical year of 2020.

Despite being incredibly depressing, A24's The Iron Claw is one of the winter's biggest movies, and you better believe the Awesome Truth boys bought themselves two tickets during Christmas break. The tale of the Von Erichs has been told before but there's something special about seeing wrestling depicted on the big screen, especially when the movie has legit Oscar buzz. Join us as we discuss Zac Efron, Zac Efron's muscles, Jeremy Allen White, Holt McCallany, a horrific Ric Flair impersonation, and all the other elements that made up Sean Durkin's well-done pro wrestling tragedy.

Happy holidays! To celebrate the season, and the end of 2023, we're watching one of the Attitude Era's defining matches: the 6-man Hell in a Cell featuring Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, Undertaker, Kurt Angle, HHH, and Rikishi. It's the infamous match with the "big" bump onto a flatbed truck, and it's indicative of a lot of the bloat and excess that made the era both famous and infamous. But is it any good? Join us and find out.

What does everybody want?! That's right; Al Snow (minus Head) is on Awesome Truth. The living legend and 'star' of Wrestlers joins us to talk about his Netflix-fueled return to the wrestling spotlight, what it's like to book Ohio Valley Wrestling, and how it felt to perform in front of thousands of screaming ECW fanatics during his in-ring heyday.

It's our November watch-along! Awesome Truth is celebrating WWE’s November tradition by revisiting one of our favorite Survivor Series matches from recent history. 2014’s main event has it all: The Authority, a Big Show heel turn, the Bludgies, and Dolph Ziggler putting on a wrestling clinic to the delight of everyone (but probably not Vince McMahon). Plus, it has one of WWE’s biggest superstar debuts of all time: the Stinger himself.

You may remember Ohio Valley Wrestling from countless mentions in other wrestling documentaries; it's the company where Brock Lesnar, John Cena, Batista, and Randy Orton cut their teeth. Now, however, it's gone from WWE minor league to barely surviving regional Kentucky promotion, and it's up to Al Snow and a sports talk radio host to save the day. That's the conceit of Netflix's Wrestlers anyway, a new docuseries that follows the misfits of OVW and lead booker Snow as they pursue their dream of a pro wrestling career. We've watched countless docs and TV shows for Awesome Truth; is this one worth your time? Join us for a surprising answer.

We really had no choice for our October watch-along: It's the spookiest match of all time, Hulk Hogan versus The Giant in a monster truck showdown at Halloween Havoc 1995, followed by an impromptu battle featuring the bearhugging debut of The Yeti. This is the apex of the "Hogan versus the Dungeon of Doom" era, one most wrestling fans would like to forget but perfect for amateur wrestling historians to revisit. Join us as we watch along with this two-part match that probably should've buried WCW for good.