On this episode of 10 Bell Pod, Nick, Tyler, and The Man Scout Jake Manning take a rare deep dive into the life and career of Nicole Bass.

Nicole was a bodybuilder, actor, Howard Stern regular, and one of the most physically imposing figures to ever step into a wrestling ring.

We discuss her elite bodybuilding career, mainstream fame, and chaotic run through ECW & the WWF at the height of the Attitude Era.

It’s a look at missed potential, industry failure, media spectacle, and the complicated reality of a woman who briefly broke wrestling’s mold.

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EPISODE NOTES

Nicole Bass: Strength, Spectacle, and the Cost of Being Early

Framing
This episode exists to explain why Nicole Bass is remembered far more than her in ring résumé should allow. Using her life as a case study, we look at what happens when elite athleticism collides with late-90s wrestling culture, shock radio, and an industry that didn’t yet know what to do with women who didn’t fit the mold.

This isn’t a nostalgia trip or a hit piece. It’s about timing, labor, exploitation, and how spectacle often replaces development.

Core Takeaways

• Elite athlete, wrong system: Bass was a legitimately world-class bodybuilder, but entered pro wrestling at a time when training was minimal, women’s wrestling was an afterthought, and “monster” roles replaced long-term development.

• Visibility without protection: Howard Stern gave Bass massive exposure, but that visibility came without structural support, setting a pattern that followed her into wrestling.

• Wrestling’s 90s shortcut culture: She was thrown into ECW, WWF, and even WrestleMania-level spots before the industry had modern developmental pipelines, especially for women.

• The Chyna match that never happened: Wrestling routinely books “big man vs big man,” yet balked at giving Bass a meaningful counterpart, opting instead for novelty and humiliation angles.

• Labor without leverage: Her WWE tenure ends not with a creative reset, but a lawsuit, highlighting how little power performers had when crossing management or locker room norms.

What Usually Gets Missed
Nicole Bass wasn’t a failed wrestler. She was an elite athlete who arrived too early, in an industry more interested in using her than building her.

If this episode does its job, you don’t walk away thinking “what a sideshow,” but instead wondering how many careers wrestling burned through before it figured itself out.

On this episode of 10 Bell Pod Nick, Tyler, and The Man Scout Jake Manning unpack the strange, messy, and oddly endearing career of Wrestling Superstar Virgil.

We discuss everything from Virgil's bodybuilding start to his early territory days to becoming the Million Dollar Man’s long suffering bodyguard, a surprise mega babyface, a nWo foot soldier, and eventually a late career internet folk hero.

We will dig into the contradictions, the kayfabe mysteries, the highs, the long stretches of “what now?”, and why Virgil somehow became more memorable after wrestling than during it.

It’s a funny, affectionate, and honest look at a guy who spent decades orbiting wrestling’s biggest stars, hustled his way into cult status, and left behind a legacy that’s impossible to neatly categorize.

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EPISODE NOTES

This episode exists to explain why Virgil’s career makes more sense when viewed as labor history instead of a punchline.

Rather than treating him as a meme or a cautionary tale, the episode tracks how wrestling’s economic structure, naming politics, and carny incentives shaped a career defined less by wins and losses than by proximity to power. Virgil isn’t the story of a star who failed. He’s the story of a worker who stayed employed by any means necessary.

Core Takeaways

• Proximity over push: Virgil’s real value wasn’t championships, but placement. He was consistently positioned next to top money acts, which kept him visible even when creative stalled.

• The servant gimmick wasn’t accidental: Pairing Virgil with Ted DiBiase wasn’t subtle symbolism or long term storytelling.

  It was heat first booking rooted in 1980s wrestling’s comfort with racial and class caricature.

• The pop that didn’t pay off: Virgil’s 1991 babyface turn produced one of the biggest crowd reactions of the era, but the company lacked either the patience or belief to convert that moment into sustained elevation.

• From employee to independent operator: Post WWF and WCW, Virgil leaned fully into wrestling’s gray economy: signings, merch tables, and self-promotion while treating notoriety as inventory.

• The meme era misunderstood the man: “Lonely Virgil” reads differently when you understand that showing up uninvited was less delusion than survival.

What Usually Gets Missed
Virgil wasn’t confused about who he was in wrestling.

Fans were confused about how the business actually works.

This episode isn’t about laughing at Virgil. It’s about recognizing him as a clear-eyed participant in a system that rewards persistence more than dignity.

On this episode of 10 Bell Pod, Nick, Tyler and The Man Scout Jake Manning take on one of the most accomplished figures to ever wander into professional wrestling: Steve “Mongo” McMichael.

The NFL Hall of Famer, Super Bowl champion, and Chicago Bears icon, made his way into the Four Horsemen with his blinding charisma.

We trace his jump from football superstardom to WCW commentary and how he became an unforgettable part of WCW’s wildest years.

Steve McMichael’s wrestling career was exactly what it needed to be: loud, messy, fun, and impossible to ignore.

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EPISODE NOTES

Steve McMichael: Mongo, Toughness, and the Value of Belonging

This episode exists to reframe Steve “Mongo” McMichael not as a wrestling punchline, but as a case study in toughness, transition, and why locker rooms matter more than star ratings.

Using Mongo’s path from the 1985 Bears to WCW commentary and the Four Horsemen, the episode looks at how pro wrestling absorbs outsiders, what it rewards, and what it forgives.

This isn’t about pretending Mongo was a great technical wrestler. It’s about understanding why he mattered anyway.

Core Takeaways

• Elite toughness travels, skills don’t always: Mongo’s football career places him among all time greats, but wrestling exposed how sport-specific conditioning and repetition really are.

• WCW valued presence over polish: As a commentator and later a wrestler, Mongo worked because he sounded real, looked legitimate, and reacted like a fan who believed.

• The Four Horsemen as credibility machine: Mongo’s induction worked not because he was perfect, but because the Horsemen historically legitimize tough, flawed, real guys.

• Character beats execution: His offense was limited, but his personality, promos, and physicality often outweighed clean mechanics.

• Wrestling as replacement family: For retired athletes, wrestling’s real value isn’t championships. It’s locker rooms, travel, and shared purpose.

What Usually Gets Missed
Steve McMichael wasn’t trying to become a great wrestler, he was trying to stay part of something, and wrestling gave him that when football was gone.

This episode argues that Mongo’s legacy makes more sense when you stop asking “was he good?” and start asking “why did he belong?”, because he did.

On the Season 5 premiere of 10 Bell Pod, Nick, Tyler Wood, and The Man Scout Jake Manning dive into the life, career, and legacy of Windham Rotunda, better known as Bray Wyatt.
From his deep wrestling lineage and early struggles in developmental, through the creation of one of the most daring and original characters wrestling has ever seen.
We recall how Bray consistently pushed the art form forward while fighting against the limits of the system around him.

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EPISODE NOTES

Bray Wyatt: Art, Control, and the Cost of Not Pulling the Trigger

Framing
This episode isn’t a tribute reel or a highlight package. It’s an attempt to explain why Bray Wyatt mattered, why he frustrated people who loved him, and why his career feels unfinished even though the body of work is enormous.

Using his full arc, from Husky Harris to cult leader, from The Fiend to cinematic experimentation, this episode treats Bray as a performance artist working inside a system that never fully trusted him. It’s about creativity colliding with corporate fear.

Core Takeaways

• Bray Wyatt wasn’t misused, he was interrupted: WWE repeatedly stopped his momentum at the exact moment it required faith, not course correction.

• Character over mechanics: Bray proved that wrestling doesn’t require technical perfection if the character logic is airtight and emotionally grounded.

• WWE’s core flaw on display: The company repeatedly prioritized short term brand safety over long term myth making, even when the audience was clearly ahead of them.

• The Fiend as modern wrestling art: Firefly Funhouse and The Fiend worked because they acknowledged wrestling as media, memory, and trauma, not just matches.

• Loss as legacy: Bray’s influence is clearer in the wrestlers and creators he inspired than in the titles he held.

What Usually Gets Missed
Bray Wyatt’s story isn’t about spooky gimmicks, it’s about a system that could showcase imagination but couldn’t live with its consequences.

This show frames Bray not as a “what if,” but as proof that wrestling’s biggest limitation is rarely talent.

On today's episode we discuss The Benoit tragedy, fall out and conspiracies.

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On today's episode we cover the Nancy, Kevin and Chris WCW feud and Chris's time in WWE.

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On today's episode we cover Nancy Benoit AKA Woman AKA The Fallen Angel.

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On today's episode we cover Chris's career from ECW to The Four Horsemen.

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