"He's Up In Canada" - WFAN Fans Remember Rich Mancuso and Jody McDonald on the Graveyard Shift

john8
posted 09-03-2009 02:04 PM

Does anyone remember the wrestling segment on WFAN in New York. It was on really late, I think 3 to 5 am on Saturday night.

Jody MacDonald and Rich Mancuso were the hosts, but Mancuso was the expert.

Who was he?

He never seemed to be right about much. Was he guessing at what would happen?

Also, if he didnt know where someone was he always said they were "up in Canada".

I really enjoyed the show regardless of these problems.

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FromPartsUnknown
posted 09-03-2009 03:45 PM

I don't remember that, I don't listen to WFAN at that early an hour, but I know that Evan Roberts talks wrestling sometimes.

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JJ Bklyn42
posted 09-03-2009 04:12 PM

LOL. When I saw the thread title, my first impulse was to post "I think he's in Canada".

This goes back more than 20 years in FAN's beginnings, when Jody was doing weekend overnights.

I believe Rich was just a friend of Jody, who had a few contacts in the business, and filled an hour or so on Sunday morning talking about what was going on (or what he thought might be going on) in the wrestling biz (after Jody had spent an hour droning out the baseball boxscores for fantasy players). But sometimes they would get a phone interview with someone like Meltzer and get some real info.

I read somewhere (and I have no idea of its veracity) that Rich still writes the weekly "Slammer" column in the NY Daily News. For all we know, he lurks here for story ideas.

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john8
posted 09-03-2009 06:42 PM

So you think that Rich Mancuso is The Slammer?

Interesting. Your description of it is right on. I bet youre right..just a wrestling fan that knew Jody and had some connections.

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Age Of Q DMS NYC
posted 09-03-2009 07:10 PM

I wonder how much Mancuso gets paid if he is in fact "The Slammer"?
Anyone on this board could do a better job then he does in that column.

I can't find where I read the claim that Mancuso is the DN's "Slammer" (I may have heard it somewhere), but fwiw, Google tells me that his own byline has appeared in that paper a few times.

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Pier 6er from NY
posted 09-03-2009 07:43 PM

Rich Mancuso is "The Slammer" in the NY Daily News (as Paul Heyman even said so on The John Arezzi Radio Show on another New York radio station). I enjoyed listening to Rich and Jody McDonald on WFAN, as this was the first time that I had access to "inside information" on pro wrestling. That show always had a call-in guest, as they would rotate each weekend between Dave Meltzer, Steve Beverly, and Wade Keller (as each of the three saw their newsletter readerships grow largely from appearing on WFAN).

While Mancuso did have some inside knowledge, he was hardly an expert (as I distinctly remember him mispronouncing Chris Benoit's name...pronouncing it like former NBA underachiever Benoit Benjamin).

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NJRob65
posted 09-03-2009 08:03 PM

I remember that Mancuso denied being the Slammer, he insinuated that it was Black Jack Brown, which would make some sense. I recall Steve Beverly and Wade Keller being on the show but not Dave Meltzer.

Jody McDonald is the son of former Mets General Manager Joe McDonald , he wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer. At least three times, audience members wrote or called in and asked what happened to Tarzan Tyler and Joy Mac asked if he was related to the Red Booster- Terry Tyler(sic), he was reminded by Mancuso that The Red Rooster's name was Terry Taylor, not Tyler. He also was a big fan of The Rockers and Tito Santana, which makes him suspect in my book.

I was surprised by how many kids were up at 2 in the morning on a Sunday. A couple of them were British. I also recall a couple of teenagers calling themselves Bag O' Cheese who wrote and called in with inane questions.

I recall Beverly and Keller being on the show, not Dave Meltzer.

I recall him pronouncing Benoit last came correctly, the French way Ben-wa and taking flack from some idiot who wrote in and said it's not pronounced Ben-wa Benjamin or Joan-Ben-wa (a runner). Mancuso was somewhat flustered.

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Pier 6er from NY
posted 09-03-2009 08:28 PM

Jody McDonald is the son of former Mets General Manager Joe McDonald , he wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer. At least three times, audience members wrote or called in and asked what happened to Tarzan Tyler and Joy Mac asked if he was related to the Red Booster- Terry Tyler(sic), he was reminded by Mancuso that The Red Rooster's name was Terry Taylor, not Tyler. He also was a big fan of The Rockers and Tito Santana, which makes him suspect in my book.

I was surprised by how many kids were up at 2 in the morning on a Sunday. A couple of them were British. I also recall a couple of teenagers calling themselves Bag O' Cheese who wrote and called in with inane questions.
With all due respect, perhaps you were not a regular listener if you do not recall hearing Dave Meltzer on that show? Meltzer, Beverly and Keller were on practically a 3-week rotation as call-in guests. Each would always be on the opening segments with breaking news stories, and in return they would advertise their respective newsletters (offering a sample issue or two at an introductory price for WFAN listeners). Dave Meltzer has often stated that appearing on WFAN enabled his readership to grow substantially (as this was obviously pre-internet era).

I always enjoyed listening to Jody Mac, as he sounds a lot like Jay Leno. I remember him being the son of ex-Mets and St. Louis Cardinals GM Joe McDonald, and I also remember him being a big fan of Tito Santana and The Rockers (so he obviously appreciated good in-ring wrestling ability). I never would have remembered "Bag o'Cheese", but I do remember a fan named "Martinez" who called the show every week. It was a great wrestling radio show back in the day, as they would close the show by mentioning upcoming local wrestling events in the NYC tri-state area.

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Chuckerd58 from L.I.
posted 09-03-2009 11:01 PM

I listened religiously..and i have no idea why. They really never gave us any info that was accurate or really shocking.

Yet I never missed it.
I also tried to listen regularly (when I wasn't spending quality time with my then girlfriend at 3:00 AM). Not all their information was inaccurate, as that show was where I first heard that WWF was planning on having WWF World Champion Hulk Hogan wrestle Intercontinental Champion Ultimate Warrior as the upcoming main event at WrestleMania VI.

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Pier 6er from NY
posted 09-03-2009 11:46 PM

Anyone on here remember Arezzi's radio show on Sunday mornings? It was on a small Long Island station,but it was pretty good. Don Liable was usually on every week,I enjoyed it.
I also enjoyed Arezzi's radio show, even though it was on a very weak Long Island station. Arezzi often put together bus trips to Philadelphia to see WCW's monthly cards at the Civic Center, as well as Joel Goodhart's Tri-State wrestling events.

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JJ Bklyn42
posted 09-03-2009 11:57 PM

Was the Long Island wrestling radio show on at a better time? The time of the WFAN one was brutal. Way too late.

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Mexican_Seafood
posted 09-04-2009 02:32 AM

i worte in letters every week the last few years the show was on the air. in my early teens that was the highlight of my life. i think Mancuso used to just read the news he got from the Observer and the weeks he had no news was when he did not get it in the mail yet. Meltzer was on plenty of times and that was where i first heard of the Observer. I doubt Mancuso is the slammer and i also always assumed (from Mancuso giving hints) that it was Blackjack Brown. i used to bust Jody's balls and call up to 8 years after the show was off the air during his "Jody Mac do me a favor" segment and ask him to bring back the wrestling hour. last time i looked up Mancuso he was working for some paper in florida i think. i still have some old tapes of it that i have been meaning to listen to. the indy guy who yelled at the fan i believe was Sean Waltman. greatest show ever was when Terry Funk yelled at the caller and told them he knew they were Dusty Rhodes and to go back to bed with Saphire. when i met Funk 15 years later (to the exact same day actually) i told him about the call (he did not remember) and he laughed his ass off.

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Tony Meyers
posted 09-04-2009 05:17 AM

I would call in that show every single week and most of the time made the air. I was only 16 and it was an awesome place to find out where all the local independents were. "Jason from Jersey you are on The Fan." They did a real good job but it was too obvious he was reading word for word from The Observer half the time...

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NJRob65
posted 09-04-2009 03:18 PM

I remember wrestler Jason Knight calling a couple of times and getting disconnected and hung up on.

I also remember when The Pearl of Orient(Ranger Ross) appeared on the Saturday Night Show, and a caller arguing with Mancuso that it was really The Great Muta because he did the same moves.

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Andy from NY
posted 09-04-2009 09:25 PM

I remember Mancuso calling in from a payphone and they would say he was on doing something important out of town. He probably just ran out of subway tokens or something.

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Ahhhh - The good ol' days!