We are dangerously close to the festive period and I imagine many of you will be getting new phones, tablets and pods of the I variety this coming yule. Alongside this, there has been an explosion in popularity of the wrestling podcast since the Podcast One expansion with several former WWE superstars, then the podded back and forth between a certain disgruntled employee from Chicago and the owner of the WWE – I don’t know if you heard about that though.

    Now before I go into my five choices, I will not make this into a huge backslapping party in regards to our own fine broadcast. That Wrestling Podcast is one sexy weekly show, which this humble writer assumes you are already subscribed to (and if you’re not, then slap that subscribe button on TWP now, it’s REALLY good). But hey enough about us! Sometimes you’re on the train a lot in the week, maybe you’ve got a long job at the office or you’re off for a long ass hike or something – there is always time for a variety of wrestling podcasts, be it a retro review or a weekly round-up. Here are my top five wrestling podcasts.

    ATTITUDE ERA PODCAST

    Present company excluded, this is my favourite podcast right now. Not just wrestling, everything. Hosted by Irish stand-up Kefin Mahon and his cohorts, comrades and colleagues Adam Biblio and Billy Keable go through the Attitude Era, pay-per-view by pay-per-view and event by event. They are hilarious – bottom line. They poke fun at the some of the lesser known moments in the golden age of WWF (funnily enough, it wasn’t all as amazing as WWE wants you think) but they also really go in-depth of some of the key issues in the era such as Vince Russo’s impact, female violence and the use of women in the Attitude Era. They usually last about an hour and a half, and it flies by with the natural charisma to all three and a great dynamic between them all. I cannot praise this enough, it lets you relive your youth whilst looking back and thinking ‘wow I can’t believe I thought that was cool’ (The Undertaker won’t be the same to you once you hear this)

    They also do videos of some of their best bits; this is my favourite – kills me every time.

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    THE NEW GENERATION PROJECT

    Similar to the AE Podcast, another trio of wrestling fans (Paul Scrivens, Stewart Brookes and Adam Wykes) review what they call ‘the dark ages of professional wrestling’ The mid 90’s AKA The New Generation Era. These guys are at a much slower pace than the AE guys, but it works so well with their humour, often going on amazing tangents and really going in-depth about the workings of a time which many don’t really pay attention to. They’ve even dabbled into the mental-ness that is mid 90’s WCW (Halloween Havoc 95 ep is one to listen to) and recently reviewed Thunder In Paradise and the WCW episode of Baywatch – they cover all bases. For the UK brethren, some of the British references in here are amazing (if you like Alan Partridge, you’ll like this basically) and I would recommend this purely for the recorded mental breakdown that is the King of the Ring 95 episode. It’s a real fun listen for those that may have never watched this time period before or even if you have for the nostalgia kick.

    ART OF WRESTLING WITH COLT CABANA

    Now this is so obvious, I don’t need to go into detail here about why you should listen to this – It’s a weekly interview podcast with independent wrestler and BFF of CM Punk, Colt Cabana. It is awesome, it is the reason the internet blew up the last few weeks. I am however going to tell you some episodes that you might have not downloaded before, that you should download and listen. The two-parter with William Regal is fascinating stuff, a superb insight into the man’s life and career. Former WWE diva and TNA knockout Shelly Martinez is on actually my favourite podcast, and she talks about her life less ordinary and her beliefs in life, and what she has been though. All three episodes with the former Domino, Cliff Compton are hilarious and finally the episode with Truth Martini has some of the most bat-shit stories I’ve ever heard. Download these, and enjoy.

    SMART WRESTLING FAN WRESTLING REVIEW SHOW

    Going for nearly ten years, it is the longest running independent wrestling review podcast going. Starting off as Joe Negron and former CHIKARA host Wiggly, it has now moved on with Joe being constant and a raft of former hosts, now leading up with resident Alcoholic and Macho Man Mark, Mr. Mutant Larry. It is a three-hour speech radio show in its purest form, reviewing each of the big shows (TNA which is currently replaced by Lucha Underground, Smackdown, Raw and a monthly PPV) with emails and features running throughout. The unique selling point is that is a community, everyone gets their say, everyone becomes friends on their Facebook group, and even moving up to host the show (the various hosts on it are all formerly callers to the show) It’s a really warm, nice group and podcast to listen to…if you get into the groove of it. It is such a niche community, with so many inside jokes I would imagine that it might be jarring at first, but stick with it – you’ll grow into it. They have also got some scoops before, this was the podcast that got the leaked WrestleMania card a few years back and also, Joe knows a lot of things that happen before anyone else…but the magician never reveals his secret. Right now, I’d argue it’s not at its best – you have to wade through ten minutes of adverts begging you to help them pay for stuff before the show starts, and with the absence of internet comedian Dshban, known in other circles as Max Laughton – the show has become a bit more negative (the last podcast, they basically proclaimed everything sucks apart from Lucha Underground and NXT, which is debatable) but if you can see that it is just their point of view and understand their PBS-style advertising strategy – it is a great listen. I have That Wrestling Podcast and SWF downloaded each week, it’s good to have both sides of the coin.

    OSW REVIEW

    The standard bearers of the video review podcast, Jay Hunter, Mr. OOC and V1 started off reviewing the Hulkamania era, pay-per-view by pay-per-view and have now discussed ECW from its inception to its death to its rise and then to it’s grizzly demise under the WWECW banner, and recently went off the beaten path and reviewed flop horror film The Happening…and they knocked it out of the park. The kings of the review format I believe, the production qualities on the videos are top notch, their banter is spot on, their jokes are always funny without taking away from the reviewing side of things – if you are a wrestling fan and a comedy fan and you’ve not seen this, you are missing out. Subscribe on YouTube now, and subscribe to the audio version as well via your podcast app.

    So there you have it, I’ve taken all your free time away from you – subscribe to the six (us being the first naturally) I’ve recommend you, and happy listening!