🎙️ Ringside in Rose City #16 – Excitement in the Air, Volume Two (New Year’s Show)

One ring.
One city.
A thousand stories.
And a brand-new year.

Ringside in Rose City kicks off the New Year with a deep dive into Excitement in the Air – Volume Two, Mike Rogers’ secondcollection of long-form wrestler interviews, featuring voices that helped shape Portland wrestling, the Pacific Northwest, and the business worldwide.

As always, Lisa Hughes opens the show, spins the wheel, and keeps the episode moving—introductions, transitions, trivia, and all—while Frank Culbertson and Mike Rogers break down the stories behind the stories.

This episode explores:

• Ivan Koloff – From Red McNulty to Cold War villain, the power of mystique, health struggles, and the reality behind his brief WWWF title reign
• Bad News Allen – Intimidation vs. kindness, race in wrestling, promoters, Dynamite Kid, and refusing to play a degrading role
• Billy White Wolf / Sheik Adnan Al-Kaissie – A career spanning decades, cultures, continents, and controversy
• Don Jardine – One of the saltiest interviews ever conducted, with brutally honest opinions on promoters, partners, and the business
• Don Wyatt – Faith, family, wrestling’s changing style, and walking away at the right time
• Bobby Jaggers – Blood, bar fights, Florida stories, Puerto Rico, ribs, and life as one of wrestling’s great heels
• Mad Dog Vachon – Riots, caskets, chains, Lonnie Mayne, and one of the greatest publicity photos ever taken
• Lanny Poffo – Poetry, Boston heat, ribs, and the birth of “The Genius”
• Rip Rogers – Portland booking brilliance, Buddy Rose, Roddy Piper, Puerto Rico, and life as a legendary trainer
• Steve Rosano – One of the most powerful and difficult interviews in the series, examining the real cost of hardcore wrestling
• Dory Funk Jr. – Vancouver, Gene Kiniski, NWA politics, championships, and carrying the title with quiet authority

Plus:
🎲 K-Abe Curveballs – New Year’s trivia where wrestling knowledge takes a back seat to chaos
📚 Book talk, Portland memories, road stories, and the philosophy behind what makes wrestling believable

This is not just a recap—it’s a reflection on careers,consequences, creativity, and change, told by the people who lived it.

Welcome to the New Year.
Welcome back to the territory.
This is Ringside in Rose City— wrestling…wrestling the way it should be.