Later than we intended thanks to the flu, here’s what was supposed to be stopgap content over the holidays. Make sure to check out the latest Patreon shows, and be on the lookout for the return of the weekly show this Monday. Now, for the original show descriptions:

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Part 1:

It’s Thanksgiving, and you know what that means: A new Patreon deep dive, this time looking at the first ridiculous startup promotion of the post-WCW era, John Collins’ Main Event Championship Wrestling. And since he was right in the thick of things, we’re joined by our dear from Beau James (@kingofkingsport) throughout this first part (of two, with another episode coming in December). Topics include the initial buzz that Beau heard before the news of the startup broke publicly, Collins paying his guys to appear at shows promoted by Beau and others that he was making zero dollars from, various ridiculous interviews that Collins gave on radio shows, Bill Behrens, Mike Samples, and others publicly warning everyone about Collins’ sketchiness, the MECW “TV taping” at the ECW Arena being made a free show at the last minute, Collins doing a TV pilot taping there in the first place after already having shot a separate pilot, Terry Taylor publicly flirting with a job in MECW, all of the drama with Buff Bagwell refusing to do a job for then-NWA World Heavyweight Champion Steve Corino, and much more.

Like we keep saying: John Collins is like putting Paul Heyman/ECW, Herb Abrams/the UWF, and Olu Olalyemi/Joe Pedicino/the GWF in a blender. You do NOT want to miss this show. Happy Thanksgiving!

Part 2:

It’s that time of the month, and you know what that means: The second anf final part of our deep dive into the utter disaster that was Main Event Championship Wrestling, John Collins' post-WCW/ECW startup. Topics include everything going to hell after the big "TV taping" at the former ECW Arena, flights to Evansville being cancelled and Collins blaming Paul Heyman when he just hadn't paid for them, an amazing (and lengthy!) lesson in promoting towns from Beau, Collins self-destructing on a conference call with Tod Gordon, Bob Ryder, and Dave Scherer, wrestlers showing up at Collins' home to demand their money, the simultaneous rise of fellow nebulous startups Super Fed and WrestleXpress, Collins harassing Crimson Mask from the Wrestling Classics Message Board on AOL Instant Messenger, Collins "having a heart attack" more than once, MECW's backer being under court order not to spend money since before MECW was even announced, Collins working as a heel manager on shows syndicated by Bill Behrens while Bill's own promotion has a heel doing a Collins parody gimmick, Terry Taylor's "Torch Talk" interview, Collins' SECOND promotion, the Torch's year-end quiz, Collins going to federal prison thanks to MECW, and MUCH more. This is an amazing show and we hope you enjoy it!

Timestamps:

0:00:00 Prologue & July 2001

1:55:15 Early August 2001

3:14:08 Late August 2001 (and Beau's lesson in local promotion)

5:11:35 September 2001

6:19:55 October 2001 and beyond

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