Wrestling Needs Genuine Internet Voices
Wrestling doesn’t just live in the ring anymore. It lives on YouTube, podcasts, Twitch streams, and in the voices of people who genuinely care about it. Wrestling is a sport, an art form, and a community - and just like any other sport, the conversation around it matters almost as much as the action itself.
Think about it: Pardon My Take isn’t a part of an NFL team, but it gets people into football and sports. John Fanta isn’t officially tied to March Madness, but the way he covers college hoops makes you want to watch every game. Buster Olney can talk baseball in a way that makes you care about a midweek series you wouldn’t have thought twice about. Bill Simmons and The Rewatchables crew can make you debate the “Apex Mountain” of an actor in a movie more passionately than a studio trying to get you to watch their movie using whatever brain rot slang is popular at the time.
Wrestling needs those same kinds of voices. Sometimes it even comes from the inside. Look at what Trevor Bauer once did for baseball - pulling back the curtain, showing the behind-the-scenes, and growing the fandom through access and authenticity. Wrestling is no different. It needs people who pull you in, who make you want to follow along, who make the product bigger than what happens between the ropes.
Here are some of my all-time favorites who have done exactly that:
Maven
Last year, I had the privilege of being able to talk with Maven. It was surreal. Growing up, my favorite show wasn’t Drake & Josh or iCarly - it was Tough Enough.
Tough Enough was a reality show on MTV that ran from 2001–2004 and then rebooted in 2011 and 2015. The premise was simple: go through a grueling wrestling school, and if you finished at the top of your class, you earned a WWE contract. Many names went on to become stars from the show - The Miz, John Morrison, Ryback, Matt Morgan, Nidia, Josh Matthews, and even Chris Nowinski, who later became a leading researcher on CTE.
But for me, my favorite contestant on any season, without question, was Maven. He had everything. His storyline with his mom was emotional and real, he had all the charisma in the world, and he was given one of my all-time favorite theme songs. For years, I couldn’t understand why he wasn’t a huge star.
I was too young to remember most of his WWE run live, so I’d always check if he was doing any independent shows - but there was nothing. Then in 2021, he finally popped up again. WWE’s The Bump had him on as part of the Undertaker’s 30th anniversary celebration. (For context, Maven famously eliminated Taker from the 2002 Royal Rumble before being destroyed afterward.) Seeing him back, joking about Josh and Nidia, admitting how nervous he was before the Rumble - it was magic.
After that, his interview with Chris Van Vliet hit, and then his YouTube channel took off. The best part for me personally? I actually got to talk with him. I told him about my Tough Enough fandom, how much I loved his channel, and we even swapped some Virginia Tech football talk. That was one of those full-circle moments you never forget. I was blown away not just by how sharp and funny he was, but by how kind he was to me.
I also had the privilege of speaking with his agent, Kristen Mahar, and she was every bit as impressive. She clearly wants what’s best for Maven and was an absolute pleasure to talk with.
And here’s the thing - it’s not just nostalgia. Maven is consistently putting out some of the most authentic wrestling content out there today. He’s interviewed names like Matt from Six Feet Under, shared what really happened with the Undertaker’s pod, revealed how much he was paid, talked about backstage secrets, and given insight into his favorite opponents. That’s real, authentic content - not staged clips of The Rock calling Ari to “pivot” into a tag match.
Maven’s YouTube show is the kind of content wrestling needs more of: smart, funny, genuine, and built on respect for the fans.
Conrad Thompson & The Podcast Era (Bruce Prichard, Eric Bischoff, JBL, Jeff Jarrett, Jim Ross, Tony Schiavone)
If YouTube was one side of wrestling’s internet boom, podcasts were the other - and nobody defined that space more than Conrad Thompson. What started with Something to Wrestle with Bruce Prichard turned into a whole network of shows that gave fans unprecedented access to wrestling’s biggest minds. The first time I had heard about Conrad was on the original WOOO Nation Podcast where he was the co-host with Ric Flair which I was listening to in the early 2010s. However, that at some point went away and I started watching and listening to other mediums that you will read about on this list. However, that changed during Wrestlemania 33 weekend in Orlando. We went to Jim Ross’s live show, the morning on Wrestlemania. This was nine days after his beloved wife Jan had passed away. It was one of the most emotional shows I have been apart of. I do have an autographed copy of Justin Roberts book from that day. However, one person at the show that I did not meet that was there, was Bruce Prichard. I knew him as Brother Love from the Golden Age days and had seen him in a few WWE documentaries over the years, but was not super familiar with him. After that show, I found that he had a podcast with Conrad so I thought I would listen to his Wrestlemania 9 episode. I was hooked. Hearing him and Conrad fight over european ticket sales made me realize that I am 100% the target audience. Hearing Bruce break down the stories behind the stories and talk about the business deals over all these years was a revelation. I became such a fan for the next year and a half that I attended an eat & greet with him at the original All In in Chicago. Fun sidebar real quick, I had a Sadie Hawkins dance the night before and didn’t realize the scheduling before I had already scheduled both. To give you some context I lived in Jonesboro, Arkansas at the time. That is an 8 to 8.5 hour drive to Chicago. Our eat & greet was at noon. I also was going with my basketball coach’s daughter to the dance. Plus there was another girl that I had a crush on at the time so there was truly no way out for me. I went to the dance, even wore cowboy boots which I am not a fan of, and ended the night at the McDonalds on southwest drive with my dad waiting to pick me up about 1:30am. He drove the first 4 hours until we stopped at a gas station somewhere in rural Illinois. Now it was my turn to drive. I truly have never been more tired in my life. Don’t try this at home kids, but I needed something to keep me awake. Now I have went on countless cross country road trips through Montana, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, Oregon, Washington, all the way back to Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, all by myself which I am sure some of those stories will be made available here shortly. At the time however, I had not done any of that and was not sure I could make it. So in my 2018 Chevrolet Camaro, I turned on NXT Takeover Brooklyn 4, specifically starting at Adam Cole vs. Ricochet, I was a gigantic Adam Cole fan, threw it on my dashboard and hoped I made it. Good news, we made it around 10am. We layed down for a few minutes, went back out and went to Starrcast where the brunch was. With about 12 other fans we had the opportunity to ask questions and just chat. My dad asked his question of why did the Crockett Cup of 1986 not sell well and why was it not a bigger deal. My question what was something that you thought would turn out great, had big stars in it, but just simply did not work. His answer was the concrete crypt match from Great American Bash 2004, where Undertaker wrestled The Dudley Boyz, and Undertaker “killed” Paul Bearer with cement. I love 2004, but yeah it was strange. Obviously now Bruce has gone onto his old job and hasn’t made a pod in awhile, but those first 4 or 5 years might be the most entertaining podcast no matter who you were. I still say pronouns pal. I still say double cheese. I still sing SPEND MY DAYS WORKING HARD ALL NIGHT WITH THE HANDS ON THE CLOCK KEEP SPINNING TOO SLOW….CUZ I CAN’T WAIT TO BE ALONE WITH MY BABY TONIGHHHHTTTT. Good times.
However, Conrad didn’t stop there. He brought in Eric Bischoff, JBL, Jeff Jarrett, Jim Ross, and Tony Schiavone, each adding their own companies and flavor to the conversation. I could listen to all of these guys just the same. I am an Eric Bischoff superfan, and may be a top 5 contender for me to sit down and talk with. Bischoff gives a lot of the business side and obviously late 90s WCW. The greatest announcer of all time and proud Oklahoma Sooner JR offered both that honesty and heart he is know for with topics ranging from his early Mid South and WCW days to Attitude Era and 2000s shows where he was both the head announcer and for a lot of it, the head of talent relations. Side note with Jim Ross being an Oklahoma Sooner, a background in ad sales, and a love for pro wrestling, I think we would have a lot to talk about. Maybe the most fun shows of all of these is Mr. Tony Schiavone. Schiavone rediscovered his love for wrestling through podcasting, which in itself was inspiring, but have I listened to every single one of his pods of the entirety of 1986 World Championship Wrestling. Yes. The Thousand Year War between Paul Jones and Boogie Woogie will live on forever, just because of this pod. And then of course the new(ish) guys like JBL and Jeff Jarrett brought both TNA and stories you never thought you’d hear out loud. I would like to say I somewhat called Jeff Jarrett being amazing in this field after hearing his WWE Hall of Fame speech. Also his love for minor league baseball for someone with a minor league background is glorious as well.
Conrad turned so many long car rides into 5 minute drives and I can’t think him enough for that. Roll Tide to that.
WhatCulture Wrestling (Adam Blampied, Adam Pacitti, Jack the Jobber, King Ross)
The mid-2010s wouldn’t have been the same without WhatCulture Wrestling. This was short-form content before TikTok for me. Adam Blampied’s “How WWE Should Have Booked” were either exactly what I was thinking or gave me a complete different thought about the sliding doors if WWE had went in the direction he was talking about. That is what the internet and conversation should be used for. Smart thought provoking or thoughtful conversation. Adam Pacitti helped give us with Adam vs. Adam series which is what got me into retro video games for wrestling. They played both a best of 7 of the worst wrestling games and the best. Since those videos went up, I now have all of the games they played (including the infamous WCW Backstage Assault) and have aquired a PS1, PS2, and Nintendo 64 so I could play these games. Their reaction shows to PPVs were WILDLY ahead of their times. That is all Kai Cenat and people like that do is stream. There reaction to Survivor Series 16 when Goldberg squashed Lesnar or when Jinder beat Orton for the belt at Backlash were something I look forward to after the show because I had a good feeling they were thinking the same things as me with the volumed turned up a little bit. Jack the Jobber, King Ross, Simon, they all helped turned weekly wrestling chatter into appointment viewing, and for a while, it felt like they were just as important to the wrestling conversation as Raw or SmackDown. I hope that gets remembered moving forward.
Xavier Woods & Tyler Breeze (UpUpDownDown / GM Mode)
I can’t overstate how much Tyler Breeze and Xavier Woods playing GM Mode influenced my hobbies for a few years. When I was growing up, the best part about wrestling games was the showcase. You would play rivalries and get to watch video packages of said rivalries. WWE2K15 being my absolute favorite with John Cena vs. CM Punk, Triple H vs. Shawn Michaels and a few others that you could buy in a DLC. That was so much fun, but I have never been into video game play that much unless I was playing with someone. That all changed when I came across UpUpDownDown. First off, I was a huge Tyler Breeze fan which helped and always wanted the office to strap a rocket to him. Second, it offered a way to book wrestling shows, compete, and book your dream ruthless agression cards in both Smackdown v. Raw 06 and 07. The 07 soundtrack is out of this world good. I want that soundtrack on everything moving forward. I’d spend hours booking dream cards and rivalries, and let me assure you a lot of them were must-see tv. Clearly, it was not just me and they brought back GM mode for WWE 2k22. I was so excited and I played so much ( a lot of which with Bischoff as my gm). Also shoutout to WWE 2k22 for a great soundtrack as well. Concert for Aliens by MGK is a great song. Us WWE fans can claim we knew about MGK before he got mainstream because of Invincible at Mania 28 right? That truly was Once in a Lifetime. This channel though isn’t just GM mode. That is just what sucked me in. Having the ability to have your roster open up in a authentic way and just play video games with their friends gets you more attached to their characters and wanting to root for them. I could watch Edge and Christian play NHL 95 as if they were still in college all day. That works a lot better at developing a reaction then Unreal on Netflix. I promise you that.
Santi Zap
Santi Zap is the kind of creator who reminds you what wrestling fandom should feel like. The best creators are the ones that feel genuine and make you proud of your love for pro wrestling. His content doesn’t rely on fake scoops, wild rumors, or clickbait headlines. Instead, it feels like you’re sitting down with a buddy who just genuinely loves wrestling and wants to share it with you. That authenticity is rare in an era where negativity and controversy often dominate the conversation. Santi makes wrestling accessible by posting on all of his social media platforms and just rooting for WWE, AEW, and TNA to be fun. He doesn’t over analyze the product, he just watches and shows his reation. So many streamers are just trying to have their reaction showed on Raw and I truly do not think Santi is that way. I know we are in a little bit of a down turn in WWE right now. However, a lot of this reniassance era from 22-24, I think he had a big part of helping people fall back in love with wrestling. Also, ITS GOING TO BE BLOODLINE RULES.
Chris Van Vliet
The first time I heard about CVV was during the FyterFest press conference in 2019 for AEW. I went to it in Dayton Beach and was flabbergasted by how good this young MJF was at the time. This was the famous “and then i lost my virginity” promo night. In his press conference he said Chris Van Vliet by name and I had no idea who that was. So I did a deep dive on him and was so impressed. Then he interview Maven a few years later and I was really hooked to actually tuning into his pod just about every week. Chris Van Vliet is everywhere, and that’s what makes him so important to wrestling. Whether he’s interviewing wrestlers, actors, or athletes, he always finds a way to bring wrestling into the spotlight with someone who genuinely cares. He doesn’t just ask the standard questions -he makes guests open up and tell stories you won’t hear elsewhere. Similar to UpUpDownDown it gives the wrestlers a platform in the mainstream to get people to know them. It is both a way to talk about the good ole days, but allows wrestlers to talk about what they are doing in the future and help promote it without either the WWE or AEW umbrella where you may get lost in the shuffle a little bit.
Being the Elite (The Young Bucks, Kenny Omega, Cody Rhodes)
I was unfamiliar with the term appointment viewing. That was until around 2017 to when I kid you not, I may have been the fist viewer of every episode of Being The Elite. I found BTE because of my love for Cody Rhodes. i never understood why he did not get pushed to the moon in WWE. I loved Legacy, I loved his IC title run, and I about threw up when I saw Stardust. So I came across a video on Instagram about Cody making fun of an action figure in Wal-Mart with the Bullet Club. I looked up where this video could be found and that is how I saw BTE for the first time. came from the first episode I watched live was when the crew went into Hot Topic to see how their merch was doing. The early days of Being the Elite were lightning in a bottle. It started as a travel vlog - just the Bucks, Kenny, and Cody goofing around on the road - but it turned into something bigger. It became that bridge between the independents and the fans, letting us peek behind the curtain in a way WWE never would. You weren’t just watching stars; you were watching friends chase a dream. The jokes, the skits, the hotel-room promos - it felt raw, authentic, and unfiltered. The Q&A’S in Japan, Hijacking Raw, backstage at Dominion and Final Battle. That authenticity laid the groundwork for AEW itself. Without BTE, I don’t think the movement that created AEW would have connected with fans in the same way. I saw Paul Walter Hauser (on CVV the other day) talk about how 2015-2018 in NXT was one of his favorite times in the history of pro wrestling. That happened because of what was happening on the independent scene. If you have not read Wrestling’s New Golden Age: How Independent Promotions Have Revolutionized One of America’s Favorite Sports, I would recommend you do. It goes in depth on these exact issues and I many times wish we could have it back.
Legends of Wrestling (Classics on Demand)
Turn on Peacock right after you finish this and go watch an episode of the Legends of Wrestling. Specifically: Bad Asses, The Territories, Worst Characters, or Tag Teams. Some of the brightest minds in the business just talking about wrestling. I wish we could just have a round table podcast of Michael Hayes, Jim Ross, Mick Foley, and Tazz, and just see where we end up. I hope if the content is coming off a Peacock we can still have this available to us. If not, if someone has a DVD set please let me know.
