Tights And Fights

This week, Hal and Danielle are rejoined by Adam Pranica. He’s the host of the fellow Max Fun Podcasts "The Greatest Generation," "The Greatest Discovery," and "Friendly Fire." He joins the team to discuss one of the most important and storied figures in the history of wrestling: Ric Flair. He’s known as a 16-time world champion, a classic wrestling figure, and the father of Charlotte Flair. We take a look at his life and career form some of his best matches, most rambling promos, what made him such a significant figure in wrestling Hosted by, Hal Lublin, Danielle Radford, and Adam Pranica. Produced by Julian Burrell for Maximum Fun. If you want to talk about more wrestling throughout the week be sure to join us on Facebook and @TightsFights on Twitter and Instagram. If you liked the show, please share it with your friends and be sure to leave us a quick review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get podcasts.

This week, Hal and Danielle are rejoined by Jesse Thorn. He’s the Max Fun Network’s top Big Boss Man and he’s had almost no experience with wrestling. But a few weeks ago he and his wife traveled to Mexico City and Arena Mexico where they saw their first live wrestling show, put on by Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre. He’ll share all the fun and absurdity that he experienced, including why he found the heels more entertaining for the wrestling, how indie-wrestling star Colt Cabana helped make this happen and which wrestler inspired his future tattoos. Hosted by , Danielle Radford,Lindsey Kelk and Jesse Thorn. Produced by Julian Burrell for Maximum Fun. If you want to talk about more wrestling throughout the week be sure to join us on Facebook and @TightsFights on Twitter and Instagram. If you liked the show, please share it with your friends and be sure to leave us a quick review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get podcasts.

This week, Hal and Danielle are rejoined by Box Brown. He’s a comic creator whose new book "Cannabis: The Illegalization of Weed in America". Brown is a longtime, but lapsed, fan of WWE. The trends of the product have led to him being less dedicated to following televised wrestling. But this week featured a show that rekindled that love and has the entire panel excited for what’s to come: Double or Nothing from All Elite Wrestling. It wasn’t perfect. But it was a great first step for a fledgling promotion that has the money and roster to compete with WWE for attention. We’ll go over everything that worked and what didn’t work… and take a quick look at what RAW’s response to the show was. The Three Count Box put over the all-women promotion AEW’s post-show press conferences. Danielle put over wrestling in WWE shouting out AEW. Hal put over Zack Ryder’s appearance on the Defunctland Podcast. Hosted by Hal Lublin, Danielle Radford and Box Brown. Produced by Julian Burrell for Maximum Fun. If you want to talk ab

This week, Danielle and Lindsey are rejoined by LaToya Ferguson. She’s the author of the brand new book "An Encyclopedia of Women’s Wrestling: 100 Profiles of the Strongest in the Sport." In it, she details some of wrestling’s most important and impressive female athletes through the years, from Act Yasukawa to Wendi Richter. The panel will also discuss Money in the Bank. As WWE’s first PPV after WrestleMania, it had the responsibility of setting the tone for the future narratives of the company, which it did in some ways we’re excited about and in others that we’re less sure about. In good news: Bayley won the Money in the Bank ladder match and used it on the same night to become the Smackdown Women’s Champion. But now that Becky is one title short, what will the story be going forward? Should Bayley and Becky have a match or is The Man going to focus on RAW and take on Lacey Evans. Plus, while Brock Lesnar returning to win the men’s Money in the Bank Briefcase disappointed many, Lindsey will explain why sh

This week, Danielle and Lindsey are joined by John Walsh. His fans on YouTube know him as Super EyePatch Wolf, where he’s gained following for deep dives into anime, video-games and wrestling. The panel takes a look at the latest stories and characters in NXT. That includes the drama surrounding the Undisputed Era, Matt Riddle’s cannabis and shoe habits, who the next women’s champion should be and the potential of Mr. Eric Bugenhagen. The Beatdown For years it was considered the sacred cow of WWE: The Undertaker’s WrestleMania undefeated streak. The drama and mythos behind “The Streak” really ramped up when Shawn Michaels and Triple H tried to end it for four consecutive years. We’ll take a look at what made The Road to 20-0 so effective, including our thoughts on this 20+ year story and how we felt about its conclusion. If you want to see more about the Undertaker and what The Streak meant to his character, be sure to check out this Super Eyepatch Wolf video. Hosted by Danielle Radford and Lindsey Kelk and J

This week, Hal, Danielle and Lindsey take a look at WWE’s new Wild Card rule! For the last several years WWE’s two shows have existed as (mostly) separate shows with separate rosters. But a lot of that went right out the window this week, as more crossover is guaranteed in the future. We’ll discuss the positives and negatives of this new strategy. The Wild Card rule is meant to spur interest in the product. And let’s face it: there’s a LOT of negativity surrounding WWE right now from most viewers. And this goes beyond the disingenuous IWC criticism; ratings have dipped, fans say they’ve lost faith in the company’s story-telling ability. What’s the cause of this? Well, that “Ucey Hot” segments with the Revival probably didn’t help. But we’ll take a look at what the problems are and whether or not WWE is being held to an unfair standard that other popular media isn’t. The Three Count: Danielle put over Detective Pikachu dancing to Sami Zayn’s music. Lindsey put over Kushida’s NXT debut. Hal put over this Twitte

It’s that special rare week where Julian Burrell steps out of the production booth to join Danielle Radford in the hosting chair! They’re joined by Elle Collins, podcaster and writer for Uproxx. Elle actually became a fan of wrestling fairly recently. That’s given them a unique perspective on wrestling’s history, especially after the four horsewomen helped change WWE for the better. The panel will first take a look at a company that had a big PPV this week: Impact Wrestling! We’ll break down the biggest matches on the show, including Tessa Blanchard vs. Gail Kim and The Lucha Bros. vs. LAX. And we’ll speculate about what the promotion will look like once AEW is completely off the ground. Plus, WWE has begun its build to the Money in the Bank PPV. If done well, it sets up someone up for stardom. Now that the crop of competitors has been revealed, who would be best served by getting the guaranteed title match within the briefcase? How do we hope that this is different from the other recent cash-ins? The Three C

Jo Graham from the How2Wrestling podcast joins Hal, Danielle and Lindsey to break down tons of news from the week in wrestling! She originally got into wrestling as a way to bond with her partner. Now, that’s turned into her own podcast and rabid fandom. WWE continues to move their stars across both shows, with multiple people making their debuts on RAW and Smackdown. Most significantly, AJ Styles is set to face Seth Rollins for the Universal Championship. It’s seemingly being billed as a "dream match." But is this the most interesting direction that WWE can lean into? Becky Lynch has not one, but TWO challengers for each of her titles at the next PPV. We’ll decide whether or not Becky should already lose her championships in her first major defense. And Kevin Owens did as Kevin Owens does and beat up Kofi Kingston to get his shot at the WWE Championship! Are we broken up about him never doing the New Day intro again or do we just miss the guttural tones from Big E? Main Event In the weeks since WrestleMania,

Lindsey rejoins the show to regale us with stories of her journey to WrestleMania! She’ll talk about what it was like in Metlife Stadium, how much she enjoyed the G1 Classic and the special project that she was a part of while she was there. WWE Interviews As part of her journey through the biggest week of the wrestling year, Lindsey got to talk with some of WWE’s most popular stars. Check the timestamps to see hear one: 26:14 - Roderick Strong 31:23 - Bobby Lashley and Lio Rush 38:32 - Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder 44:23 - Billie Kay and Peyton Royce 50:24 - Kacy Catanzaro 58:03 - Alexa Bliss Hosted by Hal Lublin and Lindsey Kelk. Produced by Julian Burrell for Maximum Fun. If you want to talk about more wrestling throughout the week be sure to join us on Facebook and @TightsFights on Twitter and Instagram. If you liked the show, please share it with your friends and be sure to leave us a quick review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get podcasts.

Congratulations! You survived WrestleMania week! Hal and Danielle are joined by James Durin. He’s the lead singer of the band Quiet Riot. As a kid, he had a hard time being comfortable in who he was. But through the character-driven aspects of wrestling, he learned to express himself and find tons of new career avenues. NXT TakeOver: New York Johnny Gargano stands tall as the NXT Champion! He along with Shayna Baszler, the War Raiders and Velveteen Dream hold the gold of WWE’s yellow and black brand. With this year’s post-TakeOver featuring fewer call-ups to the main roster than usual, how should WWE balance building up NXT its own promotion and making sure their budding stars have the biggest possible platform to entertain? WrestleMania Happy Ice Cream Christmas! What a show it was. The culmination of KofiMania. The return of Roman Reigns. The coronation of Becky Lynch. The slaying of the Beast. The team will take a wandering look at a show that was incredibly lengthy, but also delivered tons of fun moments

Welcome to another episode of Riteoga agus Troideanna! This week, Hal, Danielle and Lindsey are joined by Kefin Mahon.. He’s one of the hosts of the "How2Wrestling" podcast. The show started as his earnest attempt to introduce his girlfriend to the world of wrestling, one character at a time. He’ll tell us about how he saw his fellow Irish native Becky Lynch in her formative years as a wrestler and was convinced WWE would never give her a proper shot. Now that we’re just a few days away from WrestleMania, WWE wants as much positive press as they can get. But that’s not happening now after John Oliver’s recent piece about WWE’s shoddy business practices. We’ll take a look at how we reconcile the reality of WWE’s business practices with our fandom and explain how hopeful we are that this could lead to change. Plus, our reaction to the final card of WrestleMania and the final confrontation between Becky Lynch, Charlotte Flair and Ronda Rousey. Main Event Kofi Kingston is an 11 year veteran of WWE. In that time,

Happy #MaxFunDrive! For our second episode of the week, Hal, Danielle and Lindsey are joined by Matthew Gaydos. He’s the host of the "I Love It" podcast. One thing that he loves is wrestling. Growing up his family was not very well off, financially; but they still managed to watch a number of wrestling PPV’s (he’s not sure if those two facts are at all related). The panel will get into everything from the week in wrestling. That includes the highs like Kofi Kingston finally getting his WWE Title against Daniel Bryan; and the confirmation that Charlotte Flair vs. Ronda Rousey vs. Becky Lynch will be the closing match at WrestleMania! Unfortunately, it also means looking at the worst things that happened this week. Like Asuka losing her Smackdown Women’s title to Charlotte. Does that inherently devalue the title? Or does having both brand’s championships in the main event help raise the stakes? This show is dedicated to our Max Fun Members! If you’d like to join them, sign up at maximumfun.org/donate as part of

Happy #MaxFunDrive! For our second episode of the week, Hal, Danielle and Lindsey are joined by Daron Jackson. He’s a production attorney for WWE Studios and a lifelong wrestling fan. He’ll recount tons of details about his fandom throughout the years from making snow angels with CM Punk at an ROH show to crying at the Undertaker’s WrestleMania 29 entrance. Plus, he’ll explain what it’s like to interact with Stephanie McMahon and Triple H during the film-release process, how he managed to land a job in the WWE machine and how the new film Fighting with my Family signals a change in the creative direction of WWE studios. This show is dedicated to our Max Fun Members! If you’d like to join them, sign up at maximumfun.org/donate as part of the #MaxFunDrive to support this and other Maximum Fun shows you listen to for as little as $5 a month. You’ll get all sorts of gifts, including bonus episodes of every show, including Tights and Fights! Hosted by Hal Lublin, Danielle Radford, Lindsey Kelk and Daron Jackson Pr

This week Hal, Danielle and Lindsey will break down some of the biggest news on the road to WrestleMania. That includes what some are calling the hottest angle in WWE: KofiMania! Kofi Kingston ran the gauntlet, defeating five men to earn a shot at Daniel Bryan. But even that wasn’t enough to convince Vince McMahon to give Kofi his title shot. As we try to collect ourselves and our shattered emotions, we’ll try to determine what comes next. Plus, why was Travis Browne on RAW this week with Ronda? Why is Kurt Angle facing Baron Corbin for his last match ever? And does it look like the Miz will actually be a great babyface in his match against Shane McMahon? Salina de la Renta The team is joined by Salina de La Renta! She’s a rising star in Major League Wrestling, both as a wrestler and as a manager. She’s had to deal with a lot of injuries right now and is able to get in the ring. But she doesn’t think the pain of the bumps will ever stop her. According to her, "The bump is the sacrifice you’re willing to take

This week Hal and Danielle are joined by Hunktears! They’re the host of "Wrestlesplainia" podcast. Elby will talk about how her parents were actually closeted wrestling fans… for over 50 years. This past Sunday was Fastlane. It’s normally a distinctly filler program before the main show of WrestleMania. But this year, reactions to the event were very positive! Stories and matches were strong throughout to keep everyone’s attention The show was headlined by The Shield supposed last match together. Now that Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns are all about to be pulled into different directions, we’ll examine how WWE can be sure that they’re all used correctly (hint: none of us want another Baron Corbin match). Perhaps the most significant narrative piece at Fastlane was Kofi Kingston’s ongoing trials on the road to his presumed match against Daniel Bryan for the WWE title. Has WWE struck the right notes as his journey continues? All of that, plus a look at Finn Balor losing his Intercontinental title,

This week Hal, Danielle and Lindsey are joined by Sarah "The Rebel" Wolfe! She’s the host of "Women Wrestling Friends". She’s also part of WOW - Women of Wrestling as Razor ". It’s the first time she’s wrestling more on her own and less as a manager. But she’ll explain why she thinks managers are due to make a comeback in wrestling. This Sunday will be the last WWE PPV before WrestleMania (yeah we can’t believe it’s already here either!) Fastlane has had a number of stories that are really clicking and some that we take issue with. Becky Lynch and Charlotte will face off once again, this time with Becky’s inclusion in the RAW women’s championship match at stake. Why has it been such a convoluted role to get us to this point? Especially with Becky already having won the Royal Rumble! Plus, with Mustafa Ali finally returning to active competition, how does he fit into the WWE Title scene with Kevin Owens and Kofi Kingston? And while we all agree that Kofi Kingston getting the title at Mania would be for the bes

This week Danielle and Lindsey are joined by Olive Rae Brinker! She’s the creator of the webcomic "Rae the Doe". Olive came in and out of wrestling as a fan for years until she finally found the one storyline that actively hooked her. Hint: it involved Cody Rhodes, but not in a role that he was very proud of. The panel will get into what was week of returns for the WWE. That includes Batista coming back to beat up Ric Flair and presumably challenge Triple H to a match at WrestleMania. Who would’ve thought it would be so hard for an Avenger to get the attention of Hunter! Plus, how do we feel about Kevin Owens being immediately inserted into the WWE Title match to replace Kofi Kingston? And whose stock is on the decline after they’ve had to deal with so much sub-par booking over the course of the last month? Main Event Roman Reigns returned to Monday Night Raw to deliver the message that we’d all hoped to hear for months: His leukemia is officially in remission. What does this mean for the WWE’s flagship star?

This week Danielle and Lindsey are joined by Matthew Klein! He’s the VP of sales and marketing for Valiant Comics. Matthew has some vivid memories of wrestling from throughout his life; so vivid that he’s willing to share them with anyone, even his therapist. The team will focus on Elimination Chamber, the second to last PPV before WrestleMania. The highlight of the show was Kofi Kingston narrowly coming up short for his first WWE Championship in the main event. Even though some have shrugged this off as a bandwagon situation, the panel vehemently disagrees and will explain why Kofi has always been ready to be in this position. Plus, there were tons of NXT stars who made their debuts on RAW and Smackdown this week. While it’s not clear how Ricochet, Johnny Gargano, Tommaso Ciampa and Aleister Black will be used going forward, they made a great impression that should bode well for their continued success. All of this, plus the latest on Becky Lynch vs. Ronda Rousey and Charlotte Flair, Chyna’s induction into t

This week Hal, Danielle and Lindsey are joined by Chris Gethard! He’s a comedian who’s worked in TV and hosts the podcast "Beautiful/Anonymous.". He’s also someone who wouldn’t let a little thing like parent’s permission get in the way of his childhood wrestling fandom. To start, the team will discuss some of the biggest things that happened in wrestling this week. This includes things in WWE like Kofi Kingston’s new opportunity to the WWE Championship and the fact that Charlotte has officially been inserted into the RAW women’s title match against Ronda Rousey. Regarding the latter, it was something we all saw coming. So how are we feeling now that it’s official? Beyond WWE, AEW had a lot of talent announcements from this week, with confirmations that Nyla Rose, Sonny Kiss and Kenny Omega are now under contract. Plus, Jay White is now the IWGP heavyweight champion after beating Hiroshi Tanahashi. Where do these moves leave each respective promotions as they prepare for the rest of 2019? The Beatdown: Shawn M

This week Hal, Danielle and Lindsey are joined by Omar Holmon. He’s the content editor for the website Black Nerd Problems. He’ll explain which part of WWE is keeping him engaged with the company’s programming. WWE is currently building towards Elimination Chamber, which will likely determine who will be the WWE champion going into WrestleMania. One of the competitors in that match is Samoa Joe. He’s been doing brilliant work. But how much has his character taken a hit with all of the losses he’s accumulated? Becky Lynch will also likely pay a big part in this event. She’s the most active part of WWE TV these days, appearing on both RAW and Smackdown as part of the story to her match with Ronda Rousey at Wrestlemania. We’ll discuss how WWE’s playing with the possibility of Charlotte entering the match… and if Asuka has been lost in the shuffle as Smackdown women’s champion. All of this, plus the on-going drama surrounding Dean Ambrose, the possibility of Seth Rollins working hurt and the return of Halftime He