In the world of wrestling podcasts, Conrad Thompson has become the fan with the golden touch. Thanks to his unique rapport with Bruce Prichard, he has been able to not only launch a podcast empire, but he is responsible for bringing Prichard back from obscurity and crafted the number one sports podcast two years in a row. There’s a good chance that Prichard isn’t anywhere near the product today if not for the wild popularity of Something To Wrestle.
Tony Schiavone definitely owes his AEW career to The Podfather. It helped bring Schiavone back from a near twenty-year self-imposed exile from the business. So far, Thompson seems to be the wrestling version of King Midas.
10 Actually A Mortgage Broker
Despite hosting one podcast for every day of the week, Thompson is actually a successful Mortgage Broker by day. Based out of Huntsville, Alabama, Thompson has helped hundreds if not thousands of people over the years pay for their forever homes.
First Family Mortgage isn’t solely in Alabama, either. The company operates in 42 of the 50 United States and by all accounts, Connie will treat you right.
9 Ric Flair’s Son-In-Law
Conrad Thompson is indeed a Flair by marriage. He had met The Nature Boy years ago when he was collecting Ric’s beautiful Olivia Walker robes. He would eventually come to meet Naitch’s oldest daughter Megan and the two hit it off.
Conrad has mentioned over the years that his wife doesn’t really watch wrestling, despite who her dad is. With the exception of David’s wife, the Flair family tree has every branch involved in the business in some way, shape, or form.
8 Paid To Hang With Wrestlers
The Podfather’s entry into pro wrestling came thanks to his love and support of ECW. In 2012, Thompson had ponied up a sizable donation to a Kickstarter campaign for a documentary on the hardcore promotion. The donation put Thompson and his wrestling buddies at a tier high enough to merit a visit and a sit down with Shane Douglas to watch the movie.
The Franchise had a great time. Thompson also happened to know Mark James, who was working on a book with Jim Cornette and got to speak to the Louisville Lip as well. Little by little, Thompson and pals started scoping out when the boys were coming to town and thanks to Cornette vouching for him, would get to hang out with a bunch of talent.
7 Wooooo! Nation
One of those chance meetings was with The Nature Boy and the two hit it off swimmingly. Naitch would call Conrad to hang out, go drinking, and even hang around backstage at WWE events. When CBS called Ric to do a radio show, he asked his new bestie Connie to help and Wooooo! Nation was born.
Considering Flair doesn’t have the greatest attention span or desire to do a radio show for a long period of time, it wasn’t long before Wooooo! left the airwaves, but Connie got the itch to do more.
6 Something To Wrestle
After Bruce Prichard appeared on Wooooo! Nation, “Brother Love and The Mortgage Guy” hit it off and struck up a friendship. As legend has it, Connie asked Bruce “what happened when The Radicalz came to WWE?” With Prichard’s long-winded answer, Thompson knew that this could and should be a podcast.
After it took some convincing and recording a few sessions to find their rhythm, Something To Wrestle With Bruce Prichard was born. Very quickly (in fact with The Radicalz episode), the duo had garnered a slew of downloads and it was confirmed. Wrestling fans were clamoring for nostalgic takes from one of the big players of the last thirty years.
5 Starrcast
When Cody and The Young Bucks first announced All In, the entrepreneurial Thompson had an idea of his own to help make the weekend the ultimate destination for Indy wrestling fans. He used his famous wrestling friend’s contacts and his own phenomenal gift of gab and put together a massive wrestling convention.
Up until the pandemic, Starrcast had become a big part of AEW event weekends. The sheer dearth of talent Thompson was able to procure up to and including a certain red-headed Deadman (who had to renege on the deal thanks to Vince and WWE) for each and every Starrcast event was astounding.
4 The Pipe Bomb Brought Him Back
Some fans get hooked when they’re young and stay hooked no matter what. Others, like Thompson, had grown a little bored of the product and went away. But during The Attitude Era, he had come back around only to leave (like a swath of fans did) shortly after it ended.
The big event that helped bring Connie back for his “current run” of fandom was the infamous Pipe Bomb promo that CM Punk gave heading into Money In The Bank 2011. Strangely enough, all of the change that Punk wanted to create also extended to Thompson creating his podcast empire.
3 Huge Collector
The Podfather started collecting Ric Flair robes years ago. He even has lent robes to The Nature Boy to wear for his appearances (most notably during his 30 For 30 Special). That’s not all of the merchandise Thompson has gotten his hands on over the years.
Everything from boots worn by the likes of Andre The Giant and Dusty Rhodes to ring skirts, turnbuckles, and even an old school Nitro sign adorn the walls of Thompson’s man cave.
2 AD Free Shows
Currently, Thompson hosts one podcast for every day of the work week - 83 Weeks, Arn, What Happened When, Grillin’ Jr, and Something To Wrestle. Lately, especially with some of his co-host’s hectic schedules, the shows do tend to run together and cover similar topics. However, if you’re a die-hard craving more, The Podfather has a Patreon that fans have flocked to so they could hang out with some of their favorites.
Aside from Thompson’s “Top Five” shows coming without commercials, there’s a slew of content that you can’t download on Spotify or iTunes. Everything from Schiavone and Ross traveling and talking about the business to new content from superstars like Madusa to even Mance Warner; if you crave wrestling and wrestling info nonstop, that's where to go.
1 “Just A Fan”
Tony Schiavone might give Connie the business about it on WHW, but despite all of the success Conrad has had piggybacking off the industry, he has always proclaimed that he is just a fan and nothing more.
It’s actually part of his success, more often than not, he brings the fan perspective to his podcasts and is able to take some of his audacious cohosts like Bischoff and Prichard to task when they start spinning yarns.