Byte This – February 9, 2005
Hosts: Marc Loyd and Josh Matthews
Guest Host: Tazz
Guests: Robert Caprio and Droz
Much like this report, Byte This starts late. To fill time, they show a few minutes of Chris Benoit vs. 2 Cold Scorpio from Japan, courtesy of WWE 24/7. Announcers were Eric Bischoff, Mike Tenay and a Japanese guy (Sonny Onno).
Marc and Josh welcome us to the show and mention that if we want to see more action like Benoit vs. Scorpio, to go order WWE 24/7.
They talk about what a week WWE had, with both brands going over to Japan on the heels of the Royal Rumble, and it being a successful tour with great crowds and action. Speaking of Royal Rumble, Batista will be joining the show. Josh says he’ll maybe tell them who he wants to wrestle at Mania. Yeah, right. Marc wants to know how these videotapes of JBL and Big Show keep on appearing on RAW.
Also, author of the new WWE book “Are we there yet?” Robert Capri will be on the phone. While they talk about the book, there’s a door slam and it’s none other than…. TAZZ! He says he is just trying to help the show from drowning. He says “What’s up, Josh? Marc… how you doing?” Marc laughs and asks him if he remembers him. Tazz says of course he does. He also remembers that Marc lost his CD’s.
Tazz says he is on the show to “bring a little something to the heterosexuals out there.” He then says that was cruel and he takes it back. The real reason he is there is because it’s 8 pm on Wednesday night, and Josh knows this…. He is part of the clean up crew. LOL He cleaned up Marc’s cubicle, by the way.
Tazz asks if Robert Caprio is a wrestling superstar and has he been on the road. Josh says he is an author of the new WWE book. Tazz is surprised he didn’t interview him for the book. Josh says Michael Cole was interviewed and he represented Tazz. Tazz replied that Cole will be hearing from his lawyer. Josh says Tazz and Cole are tight, and have come a long way. Marc says when you think of Cole, you think of Tazz and vice versa. Tazz disagrees saying they both went to different high schools.
They then display RVD’s new DVD which they will be giving away 2 copies on the show. Josh looks to see if there is any RVD vs. Tazz matches on the DVD. There are none. Plus you get a RVD skull cap if you buy the DVD.
They are going to go to break and when they come back, they will talk to Droz and also get to the bottom of what Tazz is really doing on the show. Tazz says he’ll be right back, but he’s got to go clean a urinal. LOL
<Break>
They play the Triple H/Ric Flair Wrestlemania Trailer. (I wonder why so far all the trailers feature RAW superstars and none from Smackdown. Maybe they are waiting till No Way Out is done.)
Back from the break, Josh imagines riding a donkey all the way to Wrestlemania. That will make for one tired ass. <drum shot>
Joining the show now is Robert Caprio. Tazz cuts off Josh and says that Droz was supposed to be on. Josh replies he will be on later.
Josh asks him to tell a little about the book. He says this is a different kind of book from what the WWE has put out lately. Its basically short stories about the superstars and their travels on the road. They range from funny to Al Snow telling a couple of his famous ribs. Josh says Al has fifty stories in the book. Tazz interjects himself and says he has 5.7 billion Al Snow stories, but he never came to Tazz and he just heard about himself. What’s the deal? Caprio said he went to Tazz’s press agent and they told him that even they couldn’t get a couple of minutes with Tazz, and Al Snow said he was available and to call him whenever he wanted. He showed up at his house in fact. Tazz jokes that Al Snow is always looking for work. Marc says the stories in the book are tremendous specifically mentioning Cole talking about the trip that he, Tazz and Josh took to get to Indianapolis; I believe the one where there was a huge snowstorm. Caprio says that was Tazz’s appearance in the book and Cole had some funny things to say about the trip. Tazz says Cole is a very entertaining guy.
Marc asks if he traveled with the superstars to get their stories. He said he went to a few shows, but he had none of the funny, or amazing or sentimental stories happen to him. He went to shows in Pennsylvania, Washington, Virginia. So he got a glimpse of what the superstars go through to get from one arena to another etc. He says its difficult to watch as someone who’s not in the business, but its amazing. Tazz says he’ll tell him what’s difficult to watch and that’s Josh hosting Velocity. I am guessing Matt Zylbert will have something to say about this. Marc says “he didn’t pop” but Tazz says he was laughing.
Josh asks how long did it take to write the book? Robert says it took about four months. Besides going to the shows, he talked to a couple of the superstars on the phone a few times. He had tapes of stories that it took two months to go through. He says there were a lot of good stories but they had to cut down on the number of stories they could put in the book. He says Al Snow could have written his own encyclopaedia. Tazz says Al Snow is just looking for someone to talk to, since Mick Foley isn’t around anymore. Robert says it got a little weird when Al started showing up at his house.
Marc asks him what was his favorite road story. He says its tough to pick one. He tried to separate the funny from the bizarre to the sentimental, which he didn’t think he would see. He says his favorite is the Ric Flair one where he took a trip to Japan a while ago, and he mentally broke down. (I think Ric talked about it in book) He was working 2-3 shows a night, and then had to take a 20-hour flight to Japan. He mentally broke down on the flight. He landed in Japan, took a flight back to North Carolina where he was met at the airport by his wife and manager and they told him to get back on that plane and get back to Japan. Robert said he saw the raw emotion from Ric as he retold that story even 30 years later.
Tazz says he captured that emotion perfectly in that book. He adds the big thing about being a wrestler is being on the road and all kidding aside, this is a great concept that he came up with. He says it’s a great read, good to have on a long flight, which he is sure a lot of the superstars will be doing, and to be quite frank, it’s a great read while you are on the throne. Tazz said he probably wouldn’t mind that as long as people are reading. Robert says what he finds interesting is the variety in the book going from funny, bringing up Chris Jericho talking about his international travels to Jim Ross who told him a few stories from back in the day. He says after reading that, you have to have a lot of respect for J.R and all the things he went through.
Robert Caprio leaves the show.
Josh mentions that next week, they will be giving away copies of the book.
Marc mentions that Big Show talked about the book when he was on the show, to which Josh bought up BS mentioning his engagement. Josh has been getting calls from friends and family asking when is the wedding and why he didn’t tell them earlier. He still didn’t mention Rue by name. This is news to Tazz, and he congratulates Josh.
Josh ends the segment by saying the book is available at finer book stores. Marc says we’ll take any book store.
After the break, Droz will join them
<Break>
They show footage of the All-American Diva fashion show or whatever it was called which was interrupted by Simon Dean, who was interrupted by the low blow heard around the world courtesy of Christy Hemme (By the way, if you watch in Canada, she says she’s not stupid, yet she comes out to Walk, idiot, Walk every week)
Back from the break, Josh introduces Droz but Marc interrupts him. Josh asks him why does he always do that. Marc says Tazz told him to. Tazz says its amazing that they both still work for the company. He asks Josh if Vince knows he still works here.
Droz joins the show
Tazz and Droz exchange pleasantries and Droz says he will be at the Philly Smackdown show on the 22nd. (mmm, I wonder if WWE will start to plant the seeds for the proposed ECW-PPV on that day?. Nahh, didn’t think so.)
Droz says his dogs have started to quite down. He thought he might have to tie them down so he could get through the segment without incident. Tazz says he is sitting with two puppies, pointing at Josh and Marc.
Josh tells Tazz to continue talking to Droz, but he says “We go way back. We are caught up already.”
Josh asks Droz for his thoughts on RAW. Droz say it must have been an honour for some of the wrestlers to wrestle in front of the Japanese crowd, bringing up the difference between Japanese and American fans. Droz wishes he was there, so he that he could be out there and feel the crowd. Droz said it must have been crazy to go from being in front of fans that yell and boo a lot, to fans that remain quite as a sign of respect, although he did hear a couple of boos, which back in the day was unheard of. He said it must have been a great experience not only for the crowd, but for the wrestlers as well.
Marc wants to know what advise he would give Batista as regards to going after the WWE Title or the World Title. He would tell him to make a decision that works out well for him. He feels he should go through Triple H. If he goes the other way, he’ll always be under Triple H’s thumb, and in his shadow. Tazz says that he being a part of the Smackdown announce team, he hopes Batista goes the other way, but that’s just him talking. Droz says that will be good too, but he is worried that he will always be in Triple H’s shadow if that happens. Tazz says it’s like Josh living in Michael Cole’s shadow. Matt Zylbert will definitely have something to say about that.
They move on to the No Way Out PPV and the main event – a barbed wire steel cage match between JBL and Big Show. Josh wants to know if Droz is either JBL or BS, how would he be feeling right now? Droz says if you are JBL or BS, you probably would be excited because you’ve been in regular matches and done your thing, but this is a different ballgame. This is something that hasn’t been done before. He says this is Big Show’s opportunity to inflict some punishment and get the belt on top of that. He says JBL can use the cage and the wire to his advantage and try to garner himself another win. He is looking forward to this match, but have a little caution too.
Marc wants to talk Hall of Fame with Droz. He’ll say a name and Droz will say one word about the person.
The Iron Sheik
Droz – “Hammer.”
Tazz – “Is this Word Association? I don’t want to play that.”
Jimmy Hart
Droz – “Mouth”
Tazz –“Crazy, Zany, Silly”
Paul Orndorff
Droz – “Stud”
Tazz – “Wonderful”
Bob Orton Jr.
Droz – “ummmmm Rough”
Tazz – “Tough”
Marc thought Tazz didn’t want to play, to which he says “Easy there, pony pants”
Nikolai Volkoff
Josh - “Russian”
Droz – “ummm….. I’m part Russian here… ummm….ahhh”
Tazz – “Whoa! You’re part Russian?”
Droz – “I know!... ummmm….. ahhhh”
Tazz – “you know, the guy who cuts my hair is Russian”
Droz – <Silence>
Tazz – “I really go to a Russian barber.”
Droz - <Silence>
Tazz – “what do you think about that, Droz”
Droz – “I’m fine with you there”
Marc thought they lost Droz. Josh says more people will be announced later on. (I hope that’s not another way of saying “These are the only people who accepted our invitation”)
Josh says they will talk to him next week and probably have more names on the list and he can play word association with Marc. Droz says bye and “hope you have fun with your threesome.” <Drum shot>
Droz leaves the show.
Tazz wonders when its his turn to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, who would induct him?
Marc – “Josh!”
Josh – “Michael Cole. Everyone knows that!”
Tazz – “No. No. Michael Cole will be long g…. No. No”
Tazz would like Vince McMahon to induct him.
Josh and Marc - <silence>
Tazz – “Vince loves me. We always do business together.”
Josh – “That’s why he’s got you cleaning cubicles.”
Before they go to break, they are going to give away a copy of the RVD DVD (say that 10 times.)
Question – Name three partners that RVD won a WWE tag team championship with.
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