I think the praise of stiff styles is such an unfortunate reaction to years of being told "you know it's fake, right?" when talking about one's love for pro wrestling. It's fake, that's great, and even though injuries happen and people power through them, in my ideal world everybody would work like Bret Hart or Curt…

My year in pro wrestling fandom is coming full circle. I wanted to start watching this New Japan thing and was helped along by talking some folks in Tell us about your pop culture weekend thread earlier this year, which was fantastic. Now WK9 is getting some nice publicity from this article.

Come to the comments of Podmass and give us your pitch on why people should listen. People are pretty open to giving new pods a try over here.

Yeah, the mad chaos of him and KA in the same space is amazingly entertaining but I also love the glimpses of LG at his most genuine. Seems like a terrific guy, and the TIJ tidbit warmed my heart.

The Lunchbox was a really wistful, lovely movie. The Oscars would've lapped it up, had India actually chosen to send it there last year.

My newer podcast favourites this year, in no particular order:

Love the ones you mentioned. Also:

I disagree with Amy most episodes but she echoed my feelings on Inception (a bit controversial I know) and I love the sparring, because it's so ludicrously over-the-top they both just laugh at each other. It's a nice change of pace.

I listened to all of it but judging by the uneasy feeling I have had seeing it become such a big thing, I think I probably shouldn't have. Will know to avoid true crime stuff from now on, I guess.

I don't like U2, I loved the podcast, I tried listening to U2 due to the podcast and I still don't like U2. Don't worry, you'll enjoy it.

My most listened to episode of 2014, alongside the I4H 4/20 Special, so big ups to Matty B.

Yeah, it's really shitty. On the other hand, he's earning some money from what I understand and he's not addicted to opiates anymore. On the other, still really shitty of those twins.

Uh, I was not evaluating this, or other podcasts, as a scripted narrative drama. Most of my favorite podcasts are very conversational or with a format (like that they're reviewing a movie or whatever). Not quite sure why I harped on its "pointlessness" in the previous comment, suppose I'll have to take that back since…

Man oh man, why couldn't something fun and light-hearted have become the year's podcast breakout hit and phenomenon? I listen to a lot of podcasts, but the level of attention and scrutiny that this one got and also the eventual pointlessness that the podcast ended with really makes me feel weird. I thought it was…

That or The Andy Daly Podcast Pilot Project (Pilot Project Podcast? Podcast Project Pilot?) should, by all logic, probably win.

God, this show is so delightful. Delights of the episode: Rogelio's hashtags, "Best Villain" going to Petra for turning off the TV, the whole escape-from-telenovela sideplot (hilarious), Rogelio saying "meme", Petra's backstory, the twist.

I have fantasies about Alicia from The Good Wife representing somebody on Jane the Virgin. It makes not a lick of a sense but they're my two favorites right now and it would be a strangely hilarious crossover.

Yeah, definitely. The slow descend into a comfortable mind-decay they've got going on is worth starting from the beginning.

I've burned through all the available episodes of The Worst Idea Of All Time, the podcast about two NZ comedians sitting through Grown Ups 2 for 52 weeks in a row.

Gina being overly nice and the term "Garfeldian" were the best parts. This show makes me damn happy.