The Doc Says

Yet again, my daughter has temporarily taken control of my podcast!  Two weeks away from WWE's annual January Classic, Jordan leads the charge in (what I'd consider to be) her finest effort to date.  She adds some engaging insights as she and I preview the Royal Rumble card and make predictions.  

On this week's show, a preview of the college football national championship game reveals the blueprint for how Ohio State can beat Alabama and what I feel is the most interesting narrative that could affect the outcome (around 4 minutes in).  The grandest wrestling show on the planet takes center stage thereafter; in my review of this year's event from earlier this week, I explain how it has earned that distinction (14:00).  Then, a new segment called "5 Things From Film" debuts alongside an enjoyable movie trailer-like intro I had a blast creating (33:00).

The college football playoff is just days away. Can Notre Dame pull off the first real upset in the seven year history of the 4-team tournament? Ohio State came back for this moment. Can they pay back the Tigers for last year and quiet Dabo's recent criticism? Or will the Thanos-like inevitability of Clemson and Alabama be the predictable story after January 1st? Fellow long-time college football enthusiast, Dr. Josh D'Alessandro, joins for a spirited chat!

This week concludes with a plea for you to have as much faith in your own body (31:00) as many have for the advice they're getting from the mainstream media.  The bulk of the podcast focuses on the season 2 finale of The Mandalorian putting the finishing touches on a show that has both made me forget about the lackluster Star Wars: Episode IX and made me wish the same care put toward the Disney+ hit had been used for The Rise of Skywalker (1:00); and then an alternate perspective on the popular narrative that the College Football Playoff "needs" to expand to 8 teams (13:15).  Be well and enjoy life, my friends!

This episode is a reflection of my many passions.  The show begins with a quick reflection on the third undefeated regular season for Notre Dame Football in 9 years (3:40), then shifts focus to the most intriguing team going into the new NBA season, the Brooklyn Nets (8:20), who have too many storylines to quickly list.  Long-time listeners of the classic Doc Says podcast will know that ranking things is kind of my jam, and in the spirit of the season, Christmas movies are up next to rank and file (17:40).  Last but perhaps most important on this episode, a recent viewing of the Oscar-winning film, Spotlight, got me thinking about another dynasty nearing its reckoning: the United States "health" care system (32:15).

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to a new podcasting endeavor.  I'm excited to reboot this former genre-specific show, the peak of which brought me great joy last decade, into something that allows me space to explore a wider variety of my passions.  Today, I get my feet wet while hoping to express to potential listeners (much appreciated) a sample of what to expect.  What is "The Matrix?"  Referencing the 1999 film classic, it is a computer generated dream world designed to imprison human minds.  Neo, "The One," sees through the "code," and it allows him to do extraordinary things.  So, I like to use the expression "Decoding the Matrix" to describe it when someone in the real world is the catalyst for an innovative leap forward.  LeBron James does that in basketball like the Wright Brothers did in aviation / travel / transportation.  Those examples are fleshed out, plus others are added (#ThankYouTaker).  Then, in the life section to close the show, some new questions are asked about COVID-19, in sports as it is in life.   

On this episode taken over by Dr. Chad's daughter, Jordan, she welcomes your regular host for some amusing commentary on the Becky Lynch defense of the Raw Women's Title against Sasha Banks at Clash of the Champions 2019.  Neither of us had ever seen the match, so like real wrestling commentators, it got a lot livelier as the run-time progressed.  Also note the presence of Dr. Chad's son Quinn and the family puppy, Scarlett in the background; like third commentators in wrestling, they basically just added noise, but it was cute.

In this special college football edition, I offer you pre-game thoughts and post-game breakdown and memories of a most memorable Notre Dame vs. Clemson experience.  The pre-game thoughts were recorded on Friday night, setting the stage for Notre Dame's biggest home game since the famous "Bush Push" (USC loss) in 2005.  Post-game (about 14-minutes in if you want to skip to it) was recorded Sunday morning, as I figured any listener would prefer to hear more than the cathartic hooting and hollering my wife and I were doing immediately after the game Saturday night as the fans rushed the field in a reminder that joy > fear.  May you find the kind of joy in anything that we experienced last night!

Well, this is it, folks.  Dave Fenichel is back with me for the Season 1 finale.  It has been a lot of fun re-engaging over the past couple of months and I, as well as my various guests, have appreciated your time and energy, hopeful as we are that it has brought you some escape from the rigors of the real world. When Dave and I left off last week, John Cena had just dropped the WWE Championship to Daniel Bryan in a pivotal moment for both their careers.  As we assert today, the path that Cena took at that fork in the road has done his historical standing tremendous service, helping him both plug the holes and fortify the strengths of his all-time greatest resume.  We feel confident that you will find it hard to argue our overall point of view about Cena as the G.O.A.T. after today.  Expect a well presented case from the doctor and a superb closing argument from the lawyer.

I have recorded somewhere in the ballpark of 400 podcasts in the past several years.  This was one of them when, immediately after we hit the stop button, I was like, "Dave...that might've been the best podcast I've ever recorded."  So, I'm going to hype this up to you as the crème de la crème of pro wrestling discussions. Dave Fenichel was my guest again for Part 2 of our Cena: The G.O.A.T. assertion.  This period that we discussed - post-WrestleMania 22 until Summerslam 2013 - is the time-frame that best shapes the argument.  Fairly or unfairly (I would say fairly), your historical profile on John Cena is going to be etched by his monster run as the tippy-top guy in the industry during that stretch.  The championships, the classic matches, the important, huge drawing shows that he headlined, the sheer volume of main-events...Cena's legacy is attached to that era, and it's a mighty impressive legacy at that.

This will serve as a quick preview of the Season 1 finale's two bigger parts, featuring conversations with Dave Fenichel about John Cena having become the greatest wrestler of the WrestleMania Era.  

This podcast is also available for download via The Doc Says on iTunes, Google Podcasts, etc. I'm flying solo this week because I needed an uninterrupted train of thought to fully decipher the career of Seth Rollins.  Statistically, as will be made clear today, he may well be the most successful modern star, if for no other reason than he's the only guy in WWE in the last half decade that has been treated like a Top 5 star without a ton of stop-starts (and I don't extend a back-hand when making that compliment).  It's actually pretty wild how successful he's been. Nevertheless, when you start to compare Rollins to historical peers like CM Punk or Edge or even Shawn Michaels, it just seems odd.  What is so odd about it?  That's partly why I wanted to explore it alone because I think there's a lot to unpack about the perception of his career within the all-time greatness context.  Not many wrestlers have had 6 straight years of massive WWE relevance like he has.  Why doesn't it feel that way? Expect a lot of Rollins praise on this episode, but also a lot of relevant Rollins legacy questions to be asked and answered.

This podcast is also available for download via The Doc Says on iTunes, Google Podcasts, etc. Four summers ago, when the last print edition of The WrestleMania Era: The Book of Sports Entertainment was released, Chris Jericho was ranked 12th all-time, ahead of Kurt Angle but behind Edge using the patented (not really) Mania Era ranking formula that the book employed and that this podcast employs as the basis for the greatest wrestler ever conversation.  Today, Sir Sam - The Man right now among LOP columnists, as far as I'm concerned - joins me to reassess Le Champion's ranking and to determine AEW's impact on it. In the book, I drew a clear line of distinction between Edge and Jericho at #11 and #12, respectively, and the Top 10, otherwise known quietly among Mania Era readers as "The Pantheon," the elite space that only the truly greatest of the great occupy.  Spoiler alert, Sam and I agree that the Pantheon now has an 11th member and we seek in this podcast to figure out just how high he could logically rank, comparing him to several fellow Pantheon members, including Shawn Michaels.

It is rare that our wrestling fandoms are given back a star that was taken away before his/her career felt complete, ladies and gentlemen, but that's what happened when Daniel Bryan returned in 2018.  Though subject to typical modern WWE booking, Bryan certainly had another peak when he turned heel and carried the WWE Championship into WrestleMania 35.  An interesting question revolves around exactly what that second peak added to the historical standing of a star who once ranked outside the greatest of the great despite having an unquestionably all-time level moment at WrestleMania 30. On today's show, the former host of the Right Side of the Pond (LOP Radio's longest running podcast), Mazza, joins to discuss Bryan's place among the all-timers.  In addition to contextualizing his WWE runs, we'll also look at how much Bryan's pure pro wrestling zenith during his Ring of Honor days factors into a conversation such as this one.

Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen.  This week, it's time to really get going with the first in-depth conversation of the season.  The subject is AJ Styles, whose WWE success these past 4 1/2 years opened the door to potentially changing part of the context of The WrestleMania Era premise.  I remember, years ago, telling a fellow wrestling columnist that New Japan did not deserve to be discussed alongside WWE and NWA/WCW when determining all-time rankings of greatest wrestlers.  I no longer necessarily feel that way.  If we accept NJPW into the fold, bringing its championships, major shows, classic matches, etc. with it, then given how much success Styles had in the promotion that made him a commodity, do we also accept TNA/Impact and its history? Rich Latta, formerly of WrestlingHeadlines.com and always of Social Suplex and One Nation Radio, joins me to determine the answers to those questions, as well as to help determine the WrestleMania Era ranking for AJ Styles.  Is he a Top 30 star?

Ladies and gentlemen, I hope you've been well as we all continue to navigate the upside-down world in which we live.  This year has been beyond strange.  Accordingly, I have been leaning heavily into the pro wrestling world for an escape.  Out of the chaos (and with other inspiration) came an idea to revisit my book, which gave some needed objective(ish) shape to the greatest wrestler of all-time conversation others falsely insist is too subjective.  In podcast form this time around, presented weekly over the next two months, I will be broadening that discussion, starting with today's introduction.  As always, the primary purpose here is to have fun talking about wrestling lore.

The Doc's daughter stole his laptop, recorded her own show, and asked me to post it.  Well, not really.  We watched her favorite, Charlotte Flair, take down Rhea Rhipley at WrestleMania 36 and she wanted to recorded a few thoughts...about the match and other things : )

I figured I was done with podcasting of this sort, but during these odd times in modern world history, a text from a friend started a train of thought that ended with a desire to lean on my old escape from the real world.  My friend's question: "What are your Top 10 WWE matches of the 2010s?"  Anyone familiar with "The Doc" Chad Matthews should know I welcomed the chance to analyze, rank, and file my response to such a query regarding modern WWE lore.  

These are my thoughts on the coronavirus and the manner in which we have responded to it.  I don't pretend to have all the answers, but I felt compelled to bring to the forefront some questions that are obscured by widespread panic.  

On her dad's birthday, Jordan McIntyre takes over The Doc Says podcast, talking about a mutual passion of theirs: pro wrestling!  Topic of the day is Cody Rhodes and the ascension of AEW, the new league taking the pro wrestling world by storm as of late.  

In recent years, it has been featured on The Montell Williams Show, The Today Show, Good Morning America, and The Doctors,  as well as inspired a Storyville Studios documentary.  It has prompted  European Medical systems to feature it as a specialty wing in  hospitals.  It has helped countless patients with various conditions to  get their health back with a holistic, logical approach.  Yet, so few  know about it.  As America continues to get sicker and sicker, it is  time that everyone became aware of it...THE BEST KEPT SECRET IN HEALTHCARE...

Another holiday-themed reminder that our healthcare system needs to change

A fun, Christmas-spirit filled reminder that our healthcare system needs to change

Welcome, college football fans.  At this point in the season, it gets no  better than a big non-conference game between teams ranked in the Top  10 that lives up to the hype.  On this efficient 18-minute podcast, I  commentate on the coaching narratives, including Tom Herman's  aggressiveness perhaps getting the best of him as much as it also  contributed to the at times exhilarating drama of this match-up; I also  spend a good amount of time gushing over Joe Burrow and the LSU  receiving corps while simultaneously recovering from the shock of seeing the Tigers new  offense move the ball so easily through the air (and with such pace), as  that wound up being the real story of the game; plus, I'm both an admitted hyperbolizer and a proud over-speculator, but I try to tone it down while drawing conclusions about what this game will mean to each team moving forward.

My daughter, Jordan, found out that I had a sports/entertainment podcast with listeners all over the world and she thought it was the coolest thing ever (I endearingly consider it the nerdiest part of my life).  For months, she asked if she could do a podcast and here is what she came up with.  She watched a WWE match between Charlotte Flair and Sasha Banks and recorded her thoughts in watch-along format.  It's an adorable 9-minutes.  Enjoy!

Podcasting on my hobbies is something I've done for many years under a pen name I created years ago while attending NC State.  Time to integrate and merge my two worlds, so to speak.  If you watched Miami vs Florida start week 0 of the 150th college football season in an entertaining, mistake-filled, back-and-forth momentum pendulum of a game, then from one long-time CFB enthusiast to another, here's a conversation-starting, quick-hitting breakdown of the pre-game thoughts, in-game takeaways, and post-game questions. Welcome to my new show!