When It Was Cool Wrestling and Retro Pop Culture (DragonKingKarl)

Today the DragonKingKarl Show hosted by pro wrestling historian Karl Stern is available exclusively only at When It Was Cool (I am running Wrestling With the Dawg Episode 500 podcast at Observer in my spot this week). So, with just us friends here today we look at a very interesting issue of Dave Meltzer's Wrestling Observer Newsletter which leads with the tragic story of a car crash that UWF wres...

Today is an interesting topic for me personally. The death of pioneer pro wrestling legend William Muldoon fell outside the scope of my groundbreaking book DragonKingKarl's Pioneer Era Pro Wrestling Omnibus since Muldoon died after 1900. However, the death of the biggest legend of the pioneer era of pro wrestling is certainly within the scope of this podcast and today I dig through the pages of Sc...

For the 500th episode of Wrestling With the Dawg Broadcast at FlairFlop.com , the Three Faces of Fear unite to debate and discuss the MONTREAL SCREWJOB from WWF Survivor Series 1997! Joe Drilling and Eric Allen of OnTheStick.com joins the Dirty Dawg Darsie to review the Dark Side of the Ring episode on the matter as well as review the WWF Championship match at Survivor Series, as well touch on if...

Today I discuss the December 8, 1986, issue of Dave Meltzer's Wrestling Observer Newsletter which covers NWA Starrcade 1986, the show where Magnum TA should have won the NWA World heavyweight title but following his career ending car accident, he was replaced by Nikita Koloff in a better-than-expected match. Plus, The Road Warriors battle the Midnight Express on a scaffold and Jim Cornette suffers...

Episode 2010 (September 28, 2026) It's time to travel back and visit some sitcom families from the 80s, 70s, and earlier. The Bradys, the Bunkers, the Bundys and even some families that had last names from elsewhere in the alphabet! But, as usual, before the main event we've got to answer the mixtape challenge wherein last episode Mike asked for tapes with songs that asked a question. Did you come...

Today we crank up the time machine and travel back to the fall of 1986 and cover October from my latest book DragonKingKarl's 1986-1987 Pro Wrestling Omnibus and discuss the details of the career ending car accident suffered by top NWA star Magnum TA (Terry Allen). Magnum TA's car accident prompted the babyface turn of Nikita Koloff and changed the booking for the upcoming Starrcade '86 and set th...

Karl Stern: Professional Wrestling Historian: Author of DragonKingKarl's Pioneer Era Pro Wrestling Omnibus takes a deep dive into the retirement of the most famous pro wrestler of the 1800s in the United States, William Muldoon. I take a look into Scott Beekman's new biography of William Muldoon for notes of interest I may have missed in the Pioneer Pro Wrestling Omnibus and now, I believe we can...

Today I look back at the November 3, 1986, issue of Dave Meltzer's Wrestling Observer Newsletter which first reported details from the career ending car accident of Magnum TA. Magnum TA was being pushed to win the NWA World heavyweight title at the upcoming NWA Starrcade according to the late promoter Jim Crockett, Jr. The career ending car accident changed the course of pro wrestling history. Plu...

Episode 2009 (September 14, 2026) School was back in session last episode so it's only natural that Mike and Joseph cover after school TV watching this time out.  Ultraman, Gilligan's Island, Star Blazers - the guys watched a lot of different things covering various genres.  Did they watch one of your favorites?  Listen to find out!  And of course there's the "Mix-Tape Challenge" wherein they shar...

Aaron Gartlan presents SECW Action News Podcast. Over the few weeks pro wrestling historian and author Karl Stern will be posting a 3 part series about the little known assault story involving Mr. Wrestling 2 (Johnny Walker). This series is not for kids as we will be discussing some very heavy criminal themes. Part 1 - Who is Two? This isn't a biography, but rather a look at who was John F. Walker...

Blackjack Mulligan was a major pro wrestling star in the 1970s into the 1980s and his sons Barry and Kendall Windham also joined him as wrestlers. Married into the family was Mike Rotundo who, of course, spawned Bray Wyatt and Bo Dallas. In 1989 Blackjack Mulligan and Kendall Windham were indicted in a million-dollar counterfeit money scheme and ultimately were sent to prison for around two years....

Aaron Gartlan presents SECW Action News Podcast, and this week pro wrestling historian and author Karl Stern takes a look at a crime that took place years after SECW and Continental Wrestling had ended but involved two people who wrestled for Continental Wrestling. In August of 1995, Tracy Smothers and Ricky Morton were top stars in both Smoky Mountain Wrestling and USWA when an incident occurred....

Free week 2026 is here! It only happens once a year but this week, all the shows we release are free! This episode concludes my series on the history of the National Wrestling Alliance World heavyweight championship and follows the belt into the independent era. This series was completed before the Billy Corgan NWA era began and, at some point, I will do an episode on it also, but this show follow...

Grab your #2 pencils, your Trapper Keeper and head out to the bus stop because it's time to go back to school!  Join Joseph and Mike in homeroom for our trip back to the classrooms of our younger days.  And as always, we've got the Mixtape Challenge to answer where the guys come up with tapes featuring female names.  Billie Jean to Valerie - see if one of your favorite tracks made the cut.

Today we travel back in time to September 1986. Taken from my latest book, DragonKingKarl's 1986-1987 Pro Wrestling Omnibus available at Amazon we look at the outcome of the criminal case against Chris Adams who, not only gets essentially a slap on the wrist, but is stripped of the World Class World title and jumps to Bill Watts' UWF promotion. The new World Class World champion rides into town on...

Today I have a very special show for you, and it is a great jumping on point if you have never listened to any of my pioneer era (1800s) podcasts and many long-time listeners will certainly love this one. If the pioneer era of pro wrestling is really the ancestor to modern entertainment style pro wrestling like WWE or AEW and not the predecessor to mixed martial arts like UFC then you should be ab...

Mike and Joseph break out the turntables and cassette players as they dive back into the musical world of the 70s and 80s. First albums, first singles, first concerts - it's all here. Plus, Joseph tells of his exploits at getting free records and driving hours to see concerts multiple days a week. Of course, there's also a Mix-Tape Challenge to cover. New Wave to heavy metal, funk to hard rock - t...

This week on the 1000 Hours Podcast series which about the pioneer era of pro wrestling I discuss one of the most famous boxing matches in history. Pioneer era boxing was on the rise at the same time pioneer era pro wrestling was and the biggest name in pioneer era wrestling was William Muldoon. John L. Sullivan, the pioneer boxing legend, was having some problems, namely, he was a sodden drunkard...

There is nothing wrong with your television. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are now controlling the transmission. We control the horizontal and the vertical... You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the deepest inner mind to - - the outer limits. Yeah, okay, that doesn't work too well for an audio show like a podcast, but you get the idea - it's time to talk s...

I continue my look at the new William Muldoon biography by author Scott Beekman. On this episode we find William Muldoon traveling to San Francisco to continue touring with the play As You Like It with Madame Modjeska and Maurice Barrymore. Muldoon continues to wrestle as well and begins working in San Francisco and other places on the West Coast. However, as always, troubles both legal and otherw...

Oh, no - there goes Tokyo! Joseph and Mike take on the world of tokusatsu and daikaiju and how they both came to love the adventures of Godzilla, Ultraman, and other kaiju brethren. Mothra, Gamera, Rodan, and the Gargantuas are all up for discussion in this episode. But first it's time for the mix-tape challenge of planes, trains, and automobiles and Joseph answers the added challenge of being abl...

Today the time machine takes us back to August 1986 from the pages of my latest book DragonKingKarl's 1986-1987 Pro Wrestling Omnibus available from Amazon. In August 1986 Ric Flair won his fifth NWA World title from Dusty Rhodes. WWF was dominating the wrestling scene and doing massive TV tapings for its new shows Superstars and Challenge. The AWA was out of luck, and Stan Hansen defended the AWA...

I'm runnin' down the road tryin' to record my show got a Slayer mailbag on my mind. Returning to you yet again with all the production values you have come to expect from the legendary NoFriender, yet ANOTHER new episode of the Thrash Metal Show Podcast hits the internet and this time he is taking questions about Slayer. Let us all sit up and pay attention and sit under the learning tree about one...

Today we dive into the September 15, 1986, issue of Dave Meltzer's Wrestling Observer Newsletter . This was one of the sources I used in my latest book DragonKingKarl's 1986-1987 Pro Wrestling Omnibus available from Amazon . In this issue, Dave breaks down the business metrics of The Big Event in Toronto, Canada with a main event of Hulk Hogan verses Paul Orndorff which drew around 70,000 people....

Get ready for Armageddon as the Mix-Tape Challenge goes nuclear! Yep, it's time for some post-apocalyptic themed playlists before things REALLY get going as "kayfabe" reigns supreme when Joseph and Mike go back to the 70s and 80s for an extra long discussion about professional wrestling.  From a pint-sized businessman to a parking lot dash from destruction, the guys have some stories to tell and m...