Hey, we’re back! It feels like forever since the last homework assignment from the At Odds with Wrestling podcast. For those of you who weren’t born yet the last time we did one, each and every week without a major wrestling event (or a vacation) the hosts of the At Odds podcast assign each other and the listeners something else from the wide world of wrestling to watch. There have been year long themes for most of 2023 but after the recent “Conversations with Joe” on the Patreon, we all watched the latest show from Rad Pro Rasslin. You can also watch this show with a subscription to IWTV, easy to watch through your Roku or Firestick. 

I had never watched an event from Rad Pro, but it turns out this was show number four. If I or anyone else enjoys this it will be very easy to catch up on all the action. Also, this was a short show, just over two hours. 

The concept of Rad Pro is that this is a wrestling promotion from the past. 1994 to be exact. All of the wrestlers have era appropriate gimmicks. If you see anything that reminds you of any wrestler since 1994, well then consider yourself lucky to see where those moves originated. Way back in the glory days of ‘94 with Rad Pro. 

The show begins and gets all of us right in the mood for a bygone era. “Previously on”, “promotional consideration paid for by the following”, and do I hear overtures of the X-Men ‘97 theme? 

As this is my first show, my notes are kind of interesting because I’m getting familiar with all of these gimmicks. Nothing is meant in any rude or condescending manner. To jump ahead, I had a blast watching this show. But, along the way, I had thoughts and these are my thoughts alone. I’m trying to figure out what everyone is going for in this silly promotion and sometimes I get it wrong. 

The show begins with this Red Riding Hood girl (Aislis) and a slave coming out and offering some sort of membership to a guy named CJ. He asks her to not do anything tonight. Something is coming. We cut to a candle, and then to black, then it’s time to start the show. 

Fred Vernon announces the matches. Oh damn, the pile driver is still illegal. Arthur Carbonneau and Les Amana are the commentary team. I’ll get it out of the way here, Les could have been very annoying but I thought he was hilarious. He’s playing his gimmick but, in my opinion, still gets over the wrestlers and the in ring action. He’s not putting himself ahead of the show. I don’t know if everyone will agree, but I dug it. 

Lux Virgo (with Denise) vs Stefon King.

Lux has an arrogant narcissistic gimmick. Stefon is… maybe a rhinestone cowboy? I’m guessing Lux is the more experienced talent and he does well playing the heel. I feel like Stefon should be getting more height with some of his moves. Lux’s mirror goes flying and breaks and in all of this commotion Stefon hits a Rear View for the pin. Lux is dreading his upcoming bad luck. Fine opening match. 

Side note, I don’t like low rings. That’s nothing against RPR. I disliked low rings on WCW as well. That said, I noticed it in the opening match and again during a spot in the main event, but otherwise forgot the dimensions of this ring. 

The Dead Ringers vs Pear Tree (with D’Angoleme).

Ok, Dead Ringers are grunge loving baseball players. Cool. I honestly thought they were baseball zombies at first. And Pear Tree are… gay cyborgs? I hope I’ve built up enough credit here to not come across like an asshole, that’s honestly where I thought the gimmick was/is going. I’ll wait to hear back on that one but what I can be sure of is these are some slow moving cyborgs. Which is actually a really funny gimmick and the first moment the show really started to feel like a child of Chikara. Especially with the slow dive over the top. The commentators say the Iron Man match is “going on as we speak”. I’m confused, but more on that later. As I see the Dead Ringers out smart the cyborgs I start thinking how much my kid would love this show. I can picture him laughing so hard it’s picked up by the IWTV cameras and we rewatch the show later to listen for him. Anyways, Dead Ringers win and D’Angoleme is holding back one of the cyborgs while the other gets pinned. This is odd but rolls into the next match. 

D’Angoleme starts slapping the losing cyborg, I think Anjou. He is “bruising the fruit”, a call that does nothing to dismiss my theory. 

Angelo Intellect 1.3 (with Wally Dingus) vs Anjou. 

This A.I. gimmick is brilliant. He’s set to punish and destroys Anjou. Because we have yet to see destruction of this level on the show, it stands out too. Wally controls A.I. with a keyboard which gets stuck and A.I.’s programming skips so he keeps dropping elbows. I’m losing it now and I’m all in. RPR reeled me in slow but I’m all about it now. A.I. locks on a sharpshooter (but not called that) to get the win. 

Now the lights go out and this rolls into Aislis coming out to wrestle D’Angoleme. 

And this was awesome. 

Seriously, this is my favorite match of the show. I see Aislis is really new but she has something here. These two had great chemistry and I would pay money to see them face off again. I don’t know what Aislis’s athletic background is but she’s got some natural skills that are going to get even better the longer she’s in wrestling. She keeps getting back up, she bends in weird ways, she has this great horror vibe to her that could be something special. Check out D’Angoleme sell her chokeslam! The other cyborg attacks the feral child that came out with Aislis. D’Angoleme puts her to sleep. Then Anjou turns on D’Angoleme and joins up with Aislis. Yeah, I’m going to have to watch the previous shows because now I’m invested in all of this. 

The Gristled Gangsta Granny Roberta Gingersnap vs Clair/Klair. 

“Newport rhymes with Newport.” This was the dumbest joke and I laughed way too hard. Clair/Klair has a brilliant bipolar gimmick. These two would be right at home in GLOW. The story here is great. The previous match was better wrestling but I’m enjoying these two as over the top characters and I can’t wait to see what they pull next. Gingersnap gets the pin but I don’t know how much Clair/Klair cares/kares. 

The Iron Man match continues! 

This is such a funny thing. A year long (maybe longer) match that continues through every show. Fight to the back and continue on with the next show. 

Cromagna TA vs Esteban Palmino. 

Cromagna TA might be one of the best wrestling names I’ve ever heard. I called up one of my friends and said what would you name a wrestler who is a Neanderthal that thawed out and started watching southern wrestling. He came up with John EnCeno Man and I now want that out there too. Max, if you’re reading this, you can have that one. Esteban is a “martial arts novice” and I’m loving commentary. Esteban with a DEEP step over toe hold face lock (I don’t think I got that right). Watch out for the fan! Well, that explains the low ring. Low ceiling. The fight continues to the back and we’ll see how the Iron Man match continues next show. 

Blossom Oak vs Dairy Dan the Milkman. 

Blossom Oak is one of the Plant Based Prophets. They come to the ring with the most disgusting of liquids – oat milk! Now, I will say I really like oat milk as my stomach has turned against me. I think oat and almond milk work better with Quik than dairy. Speaking of dairy, back to the show. The Milkman has not shown up because someone poured organic sugar cane into his gas tank. Who could have done such a thing?! Taking Dan’s place will be “The Fish” Ricardo Pescado. I thought the fans were chanting “fish math” but it was “fish man”. The “fish is awesome” chant got me. Fine silly match with lots of fish spots and humor. Blossom kicks up stream and Pescado wins via DQ. The PBP pour oat milk on a rag and do a chloroform spot on Pescado. So ridiculous but so much fun. 

CJ Cruzz promo which leads us to the main event. 

CJ Cruzz vs the Pit Boss. 

Pit Boss is a big boy. Good start with the big guy throwing the smaller (but still good size guy) around. Who still does the trapezius squeeze in 2023? Oh, no one, it’s taking place in 1994. I forgot. CJ the “home town hero” takes a beating. It’s a well structured match. CJ gets in some offense to come back but then the Boss hits a big move to swing it back to his favor. We get a ref bump then a double clothesline and both men are down. Stefon King comes back out and tries to hit Pit Boss but knocks down CJ instead. Boss ends up getting the pin. I think this match is going to be more interesting in the greater lore of RPR. Aislis comes out to offer some sort of assistance to CJ and he thinks for a moment but says no. Again, this is going to be very interesting as RPR puts on more shows. 

For my first show, I had a blast. I didn’t understand everything, I didn’t connect with everyone, but I did understand and connect enough to come back for more. If you can’t attend live, I think these shows alone would be worth an IWTV subscription.