The Lapsed Fan

Ep. 54: 1996 WCW Uncensored by The Lapsed Fan

Ep. 53: 1989 WWF Summerslam by The Lapsed Fan

The Lapsed Fan air drops into the throes of nWo ubiquity by deep diving the 1997 WCW Fall Brawl. Join in as your TLF co-chairmen muse on the mockery of Arn Anderson’s retirement, vintage Kevin Nash duplicity, and Ric Flair taking the fall in War Games. The show covers: - Crickets for a Curt Hennig heel turn - The story behind the horrific photo of Flair with his head split open from the cage door...

The Lapsed Fan wrestling podcast delves into the heart of the Attitude Era this week, and the game your co-chairmen play is most certainly deadly. Your deep dive into the 1998 WWF Survivor Series “Deadly Game” scrutinizes all angles of the WWF title tournament that sharply turned The Rock heel just as he was beginning to catch babyface fire, and the lessons that can be applied to a certain Roman R...

The Lapsed Fan journeys to the Great White North for our latest edition, as a struggling WWF presented a Diesel v. British Bulldog “In Your House” main event in Oct. 1995 that infamously prompted Vince McMahon to slam down his headset and shout “Horrible!” after the show went off the air. Journey with TLF to the breaking point in the Diesel experiment, and the interesting milieu around the WWF pro...

In tribute to the “American Dream” Dusty Rhodes, The Lapsed Fan wrestling podcast gives the deep-dive treatment to an event that spoke in so many ways to Rhodes’ treasured and complicated legacy – Starrcade 1985. “The Gathering” saw fans fill arenas in both Greensboro, N.C. and Atlanta to witness Rhodes challenge Ric Flair for the NWA world title after a disputed finish in 1984, following the beat...

The Lapsed Fan returns with a deep dive into one of the true sleeper hits in WWF history – the 1997 Canadian Stampede: In Your House. Join your co-chairman as they journey to the Calgary Stampede as the famed Hart Family take their greatest stand, as the Hart Foundation squad of Bret, Owen, Anvil, Bulldog and Pillman face ragtag group of Americans captained by the surging Stone Cold Steve Austin....

With a tear in their eye, your Lapsed Fan co-chairmen go deep this week on one of the most memorable events in WWF history – the 1992 Royal Rumble, the night Titan Sports was truly “fair to Flair.” Hosts Jack Encarnacao and JP Sarro recap the brilliance of Ric Flair’s first WWF title win in the greatest Rumble ever, where the match stakes were higher than they’ve ever been, and the worm begins to...

The latest Lapsed Fan delves into a moment just before the launch of the game-changing Monday Nitro, as World Championship Wrestling staged the 1995 Great American Bash with Ric Flair and Randy Savage taking center stage and Hulk Hogan’s shadow looming large. Hosts Jack Encarnacao and JP Sarro dive deep on this Turner offering, and drink up the atmosphere of a show that took place just days after...

The Lapsed Fan podcast is back with yet another deep dive, this time on the 1993 WWF Survivor Series – the night of multiple Doinks, multiple twists and turns, and multiple fails. Join co-chairmen Jack Encarnacao and JP Sarro as they dissect a zany but interesting pay-per-view event that came in the throes of the World Wrestling Federation feeling the heat of a steroid distribution indictment and...

Coming off a 30-week WrestleMania bender, The Lapsed Fan gets back to the business of deep diving an eclectic array of wrestling pay-per-views from the past. This week, it’s the night Robocop saved Sting. Or, as Jim Cornette once called it, “one of the biggest abortions in the in the history of wrestling.” NWA Capital Combat 1990 will forever live in infamy, and TLF hosts Jack Encarnacao and JP Sa...

Ep 43: Wrestlemania XXXI (2015) by The Lapsed Fan

The Lapsed Fan’s 30-week journey through each and every WrestleMania reaches the end of the road this week, as your co-chairmen take that one-of-a-kind deep dive into WrestleMania 30 from the New Orleans Superdome. Join hosts Jack Encarnacao and JP Sarro for one last toast to “the Manes,” as they dissect the dynamics at play in Daniel Bryan’s unlikely rise and precipitous fall, the end of the Unde...

The Lapsed Fan’s 30-week journey through each and every WrestleMania reaches the end of the road this week, as your co-chairmen take that one-of-a-kind deep dive into WrestleMania 30 from the New Orleans Superdome. Join hosts Jack Encarnacao and JP Sarro for one last toast to “the Manes,” as they dissect the dynamics at play in Daniel Bryan’s unlikely rise and precipitous fall, the end of the Unde...

It was twice in a lifetime when John Cena and The Rock tussled at WrestleMania 29, the penultimate stop on The Lapsed Fan’s 30-week Mania voyage. Hosts Jack Encarnacao and JP Sarro dive into Metlife Stadium to examine the top revenue-producing event in WWE history, with recollections of taking the show in live in East Rutherford, the brilliance of CM Punk, the atmospherics of the Undertaker’s last...

The Rock improbably stepped back into the ring at WrestleMania 28, and The Lapsed Fan is right there with him as the show reaches the final leg of its 30-week journey through the grand spectacle. It was “Once in a Lifetime” (until next year) as Rock stepped back on to the grand stage to tussle with John Cena in 2012. TLF co-chairs Jack Encarnacao and JP Sarro give you that one-of-a-kind vantage on...

Finally The Rock returns to WrestleMania, and The Lapsed Fan hits stop 27 on its 30-week odyssey. Journey with TLF co-chairs Jack Encarnacao and JP Sarro to the Georgia Dome as the most electrifying man in sports and entertainment and sports entertainment and pop culture presides over the 2011 Manes and the curious Cena v. Miz main event. Your hosts cover: - Heel Michael Cole: the good, the bad, a...

The Lapsed Fan’s 30-week WrestleMania journey has come to the farewell moment for Mr. WrestleMania himself, as Shawn Michaels dances one last time on the grand stage against perhaps his best career foil, The Undertaker, at WrestleMania 26. Hosts Jack Encarnacao and JP Sarro dive into the rectangular opening atop University of Phoenix Stadium for a full accounting of 2010’s Mania, and chronicle the...

WrestleMania 25 marked the silver anniversary of sports entertainment’s grandest spectacle, and more importantly it marks stop 25 on The Lapsed Fan’s 30-week WrestleMania podcast journey. Hosts Jack Encarnacao and JP Sarro delve into Reliant Stadium in Houston and the epic confrontation between The Undertaker and Shawn Michaels. Why was it so great? Greatest match in Mania history? Second greatest...

The Lapsed Fan catches some rays under the Florida sun this week, as TLF’s 30-week WrestleMania journey arrives at WrestleMania 24 in 2008 in Orlando. It’s the final bow in a WWE ring of Ric Flair, and we’re having a hard time keeping these gators down. Hosts Jack Encarnacao and JP Sarro go deep on a notable and quirk Mania, from Floyd Mayweather taking a sidewalk slam and then knocking out Big Sh...

As The Lapsed Fan’s 30-week WrestleMania journey unfolds, your hosts have come to the point in WWE history where the curious rise of John Cena began to provoked unique fan responses. Crowds in major markets across the country began to vociferously rejected Cena, all while his merchandise sales and other metrics signaled he was by far the man for the franchise position and the star of the moment. A...

With 23 weeks in the books in its 30-week WrestleMania journey, you could say The Lapsed Fan is all grown up. As was the WWE, apparently, on the dawning of Wrestlemania 23, which hit the massive Ford Field in Detroit with an eclectic array of matches, storylines, and moments both famous and infamous. Join hosts Jack Encarnacao and JP Sarro as they chronicle the most bought pay-per-view event in WW...

It’s time for The Lapsed Fan to go “Big Time” on its 30-week WrestleMania journey, as your co-chairmen take the deep dive into Chicago’s AllState Arena for WrestleMania 22 in 2006. Join hosts Jack Encarnacao and JP Sarro as they dissect the night the WWE definitely said John Cena is our man, whether you like it or not, as he taps Triple H in what was, at the time, a shocking outcome. Plus, contras...

This week The Lapsed Fan goes Hollywood as WWE brings a pivotal event to Staples Center that launched the runs of two future superstars. TLF enters the final third of its 30-week WrestleMania journey by sizing up the World Title wins of John Cena and Batista at WrestleMania 21. Hosts Jack Encarnacao and JP Sarro dive deep into a turning-point evening, including: - Which Hollywood-esque trailers fo...

It’s 20 weeks in, and we have reached the point in The Lapsed Fan’s 30-week WrestleMania journey where it all begins, again. And while it felt like WrestleMania 20 symbolized change, it turned out not to be the change we thought that March 2004 night in Madison Square Garden. Hosts Jack Encarnacao and JP Sarro take the latest deep dive into the longest Mains ever, recounting what it was like to si...