Yo! Here’s our segment from SummerSlam 91 showcasing every wedding from WWF/E! Who do you think makes the prettiest bride? I think AJ IS WHOPPER in a wedding dress!
Latest new schtuff on OSWreview:
Tag: WWE
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Table for 3 – Four Horsemen
Table For 3 is an edited roundtable conversation between 3 wrestlers. It’s shot and lighted very well with a documentary-style three-camera setup. The shots are always slightly panning and they splicey only a few seconds of relevant footage, which is a little jarring. This edition with Arn Anderson, Ric Flair and Tully Blanchard was recorded WrestleMania weekend. Interestingly, it’s Arn and not Flair (or Tully) who does the lion’s share of the talking.
• Arn mentions JJ Dillon (who isn’t there, but he’s alive, this is table for 3!), Barry Windham isn’t (even though he was inducted into the HOF with the other Horsemen) and obviously Ole Anderson wasn’t (he isn’t well liked, and has personal grievances with Ric, WWE and many of it’s staff)
• We’ll get this devastating news out of the way – Arn did not address Triple H doing the Aloha Arn! 😛
• He drives home losing the oddly specific 20 buckets of blood during their War Games run (it used to be a house show attraction before it became an annual PPV match) so you know we’re in for a bit of kayfabe/exaggeration. War Games (which you’ll hear about in Fall Brawl 95!) was a gimmick match devised by Dusty to get the Horsemen into one big star-studded match together.
• Tully Blanchard mentions being out of wrestling for 25 years and talking to convicts. If you remember, right before Survivor Series 89, Blanchard failed a wellness test for cocaine (smellness!) and was fired, and WCW didn’t want a guy who failed a drugs test. He became a born-again Christian very quickly afterwards and despite wrestling sporadically since then, worked as a prison ministry (teaching the Gospel to inmates).
• Arn talks about giving 2nd Gen stars (Charlotte, Cody etc) a harder time because of the potential he sees in them and the BARRR set by their fathers. As a road agent, he does his duty by mentioning the WWE Network a bunch. He also likens WWE’s HOF to becoming a parent, not “getting” the full magnitude of being inducted until you’re on the other side of the podium looking out to appreciative fans and wrestlers in suits.
• The lads have a laugh at Arn’s lack of cardio, he retorts he doesn’t need to run as he’ll just hold a wrestler there.
• Interestingly, Arn cites the cause of a lot of injuries today due to not working enough. The 80s schedule of 336 days on (wrestling twice on saturday, twice on sunday) meant you got into “ring shape”, that your body built up calluses, but if you’re only working 4-5 days a week (like “kids these days”) you don’t get into ring shape. The other two agree, as Tully mentions how hard it was to get the rest of the horsemen a day off for his wedding to his second wife. The blasé statement of failed marriages and no time off (as if it’s a good thing) speaks volumes.
I can see what Arn means about injuries; with repetition/being constantly on you’re better conditioned to taking bumps – for example, you could argue Bray Wyatt has a lot of smaller incidental injuries (eg ankle) from wrestling more sporadically…but the opposite is true, workhorse Cena gets a serious injury every other year. (pec 07, neck 08, arm 12, achilles 13, shoulder 15). Arn’s peers -wrestlers from the 70s and 80s- are generally in poor health, or dead, so I’m absolutely against the notion that wrestlers should be working more. I know WWE would never do an off season for monetary reasons, so cycling wrestlers in and out (giving them 2 months off a year to heal) would be better for them in the long run, and give creative a starting and ending point. As an aside, I’ve heard that it’s not so much the matches, but travelling city to city that takes it’s toll. Big Show has the right idea of having a massive tour bus and a driver.
• The three thank each other for their time and we’re out.
Overall it’s nothing spectacular but it’s always great to hear old wrestlers talk about the good old days. Do you think Arn’s right about the cause of injuries?
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WWE Valentine’s Cards 3
RandMcNally_ is back with more Valentine’s Cards! Here’s my favs. Which one’s your favourite?
More WWE Valentines cards:
Part 1 here: WWE Valentine’s Cards
Part 2 here: WWE Valentine’s Cards 2!
More from RandMcNally_! -
How much money did WWE make in 2015?
How much money did WWE make in 2015?
• WWE finished 2015 with $24.1 million net profit.
WWE brought in more money this year than ever before ($658.8m) but spent a lot more, with a profit of half of what they used to make pre-Network (eg 2007-10). Main factors are still bearing the brunt of startup costs (like a media center expansion project), and of course, killing their PPV business in favour of a steadier monthly income with the Network.
WWE’s main revenue comes from TV rights (which increased this year, at $54.4m) and WWE Network ($44.4m).
75% of their revenue comes from North America.
Worth noting Total Dividend payments were $36.33m, which means they used cash on hand to cover payments, effectively meaning they lost $12.2m this year.• WWE Network ended with 1.2m subs.
This is 20,000 less than Q3 but still 50% more than at the start of the year.
There’s been 2.5m subscribers since the launch.
Sneakily they’re switching how they’ll predict future Network subscriptions – average paid vs period end.
The Network roughly costs them the revenue of 45,000 PPV buys each month. (Profit of 1.2m subs @ $9 vs 2009 PPV buys @ $35)• Everything else:
Live events: Flat domestically but up 18% internationally (cheaper tickets with increased attendance)
Merch: Up 25% from last year! 55% of which is online
PPV: Buys are down almost 40% to 1.4m buys this year (to be expected with the Network)
Home videos: $13.4m. operating profit is 131% lower than last year (Top sellers WM31, Rock vs Cena, Ultimate Warrior, Best of Nitro, Kliq rules)
WWE Studios: worked at a loss of $1.5m, the venture having lost them $33.1 million so far.“Answering” questions:
• How can Vince plug holes in the roster given the injuries to top talent? “By being creative. We’ll have an awesome WrestleMania.”
• Looking at India, China, Latin America, Middle East for expansion, rather than Japan (“great market for talent perspective”).
• Wouldn’t give specifics about subscribers in India, or the top 10 international markets, beyond UK is great and Canada is good.
• Dodged answering if NXT makes any money but says it has a great social media presence and trends globally on twitter.
• TV ratings dropping? “ratings were down as much as the TV Networks were down”, used the word “ecosystem” a bunch and that’s about it.Anything else to note?
• It’s been a concern for a bit about NXT’s profitability – it’s quite expensive for a developmental ground, it has no TV deal in the US. Numbers haven’t been officially released but I’ve heard 200,000 watch NXT. That’s quite low but of that, tour attendance and merch sales are really good. So for the moment it’s a hardcore niche.
• WM32 looks pretty bleak but it’s worth noting that they already have 1.2 million subscribers in the pocket (out of sight!) – this is their yearly biggest push for new subscribers (and of course, to fill Cowboy Stadium).
• It always happens post conference-call but WWE stock went down about 7% over the day.
• There’s an excellent full write up at PiledriverWrestling.net, highly recommend checking it out.
Back to editing! Newest stuff on OSW:
• Latest Update on new OSW vids: OSWreview.com/update-feb-2016.
• Wrote up a recap of Daniel Bryan on SportsCenter, admitting he had seizures. Scary stuff. OSWreview.com/daniel-bryan-sportscenter
• Newest Audio – I was on the radio talking Death in videogames! OSWreview.com/death-in-videogames -
WWE Survivor Series 2015 P2
Part 2! (Click here for Part 1)
SURVIVOR SERIES ELIM MATCH: 3 members of The New Day & Sheamus & King Barrett vs. Ryback & The Usos & Lucha Dragons
• New Day are on top form again! (WWE are capable of showcase one mid-card comedy act, last year it was Mizdow, this year New Day, I wonder what next year brings?). Xavier has an amazing pompadour hairdo. Sheamo is shown here as a right comedy heel that tried & failed to gain acceptance from the New Day (“we’re gonna get jigga on these posers!”), which is sandbagged. I did love him slapping Kalisto shouting “hey! What about ya?”. The Usos and Luchas are matching Black, White and Red; if they’re going all New Day/comedy heels, perhaps have Sheamo & Barrett get baby blue, pink and white gear like them! STEVE! Michael Cole had a hilarious line “Sin Cara’s all over the place tonight”. Barrett was first to job.
• The match is just paying attention to New Day (well, Xavier), otherwise quite boring. Although, I absolutely loved when Barrett joined in dancing to Xavier’s trumpet. He’s already in the gutter so no amount of comedy can hurt him! There was a 4 man dive over the top, then Ryback followed up by a splash and telling people he was alright. When Big E was eliminated, the New Day left with him, leaving Sheamus (who comically looked around for this team-mates) alone, eating a finisher from Jey (superkick) and Ryback (Shell shock) for the babyface win at 17:33.
• It’s odd how WWE feel obliged to do these elimination matches, but what they present is nothing more than lip service. The other match was on the PRE-SHOW (jaysus!) and this one was cobbled together, without any decent reasoning for these teams to be made, not advancing any feuds or having any consequences of the matchup. So the resulting is a quite blah. But New Day are still fantastic, the crowd loved them, and they carried this match.DIVAS TITLE: Charlotte (c) vs Paige
I refused to watch this match after Paige’s shameless line “your little baby brother didn’t have much fight in him, did he?”, referencing Charlotte’s dead brother Reid Flair, who passed after a drug overdose in June 2013. Regardless of if it was Charlotte’s idea, this didn’t gain any heat on the characters – just the wrong type of heat on WWE. It just showed you how WWE are still the same exploitative scumbags, that this PG white-washing is just a facade for the same carny mentality, and that TV networks and other companies are right to view WWE as basically porn without the nudity. It’s sad that nobody thought to inform Flair/Reid’s mother about the line ahead of time. Flair bit his tongue on his podcast, saying that he won’t say anything that’ll get her in trouble and maybe she wouldn’t want to say no to anything WWE ask of her, this early in her career. Charlotte retained.
Dolph Ziggler vs. Tyler Breeze
• Without Lana and Rusev, Ziggler’s being aimlessly bouncing around (don’t even ask about his ring attire!) and has landed upon The Miz’s guest friend, Tyler Breeze. Tyler’s finally been called up from NXT, who has been there since June 2012, one of those ‘will he ever get called up?’. Turns out they didn’t have much for him, with a low key introduction, and losing his main-roster debut match against Ambrose in the tournament. It’s a shame as he’s presented as a bigger fish on NXT (sometimes getting ‘catwalk fashion show’ entrances) and a reliable guy to have a solid match with. I hope his titantron malfunctioned because he doesn’t have the selfie video cam on the titantron, just a still image of his name. He’s with Summer, so they can be Summer Breeze *big break music hits*. They can face Madison Rayne and James Storm! Yes? Eh? …Sorry.
• Battle of the blonde show-offs. Whilst nothing technically wrong, it was quite the unmemorable match. Tyler gets an unprettier (ie Christian’s finisher) off the distraction for the three in a tepid 6:40.The Undertaker & Kane vs. Bray Wyatt & Luke Harper
• 25 Years of Undertaker with a special entrance. As well as the fog and fire, Taker had a Taker symbol and a big open casket in front of the titantron, which had a tron inside it, showing pictures of the evolution of Taker throughout his career. It was really very cool.
• The main storyline is Bray Wyatt has ‘harvested the souls’ of Taker & Kane, and how has their pyro/lightning powers. It’s not been well-received. Despite the 4 members of the Wyatt clan showing up, it’s just a 2-on-2 tag match. They have Corporate Kane now Demon Kane (babyface) so he can tag with Taker. Rowan “has left the arena” after a chokeslam. The match is a brawl leading to the one big spot of Taker and Kane being laid out, sitting up and hitting choke slams. Taker tombstones Harper for the win in 10:18. Then the Brothers of Destruction take an ice age in the post-match, putting their fists in the air.FINALS for WWE TITLE: Roman Reigns vs Dean Ambrose
• Dean ripped his shirt in the last match so he’s bare-chested here, which is odd to see (his chest hair is ginger, like his sideburns). The two wrestle well together although they don’t show that they know each other inside out (there’s no “I’m countering your moves” big obvious bits that they bring attention to) but I watched this waiting for Triple H to come out for some kind of screwy finish. Reigns kicks out of a Dirty Deeds pretty early on. Ambrose runs into a spear and Reigns get the pin, and the win out of nowhere in 9:02. Perhaps for the reasons above, and that Roman’s promos/charisma aren’t up to snuff, the reaction really wasn’t that great. Confetti hails down and pyro too, which is nice.
• What we got next felt very similar to Daniel Bryan’s SummerSlam win, where he won the belt & got to celebrate for a bit, H made himself known (pedigree), MITB cash-in with Orton, and new heel champion that sides with H. Roman won and got to celebrate for a bit, H’s theme played and came down, looking for a handshake (but got a spear), MITB cash-in with Sheamus, and new heel champion that sides with H. As Irishmen we marked out, but I couldn’t expect anyone else to! Gotta mention that technically this match shouldn’t have started as they’ve made it clear recently that the opponent has to be standing and able to fight before the match starts! The decision to give Sheamo the belt was made hours before the show in the hopes people would cheer for Reigns over heel Sheamus. Great job lads, lol!OVERALL: It’s a skippable show, showing up WWE’s stretched roster. Just watch the tournament semi-finals and finals, and taker’s entrance (ha! can’t believe I said that!) and the TLC ad.
New OSW coming this Sunday (hopefully!) read the latest update here!
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WWE Beast In The East
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WWE Beast In The East house show
New Sumo Hall, Tokyo, Japan, July 4th, 2015 (10:30am BST)I’m so glad they made the decision to air this on the Network. Despite having hallmarks of a house show, it’s very cool to see WWE in unfamiliar surroundings with a different setup. The production was more like NXT: harsh bright lighting, less rigid camerawork – no cutting every second or zooming in/shaking on moves like stomping. With Michael Cole & Byron Saxton on commentary (live from Stamford, CT) they weren’t shilling Sonic Burger or whatever bollocks about the United Authority – there were no promos, no backstage skits – they just talked about the match being presented and the background of the wrestlers, in a reserved, relaxed way. It was much more of a legitimate sporting event feel – really great stuff.
Two untelevised matches: Cesaro submitted Diego, and Lucha Dragons got the pin over New Day.
CHRIS JERICHO vs ADRIAN NEVILLE
Jericho has his light-up jacket, which is fun to see again. Cool to think the last light-up jacket used in Japan was Prince Devitt’s, who’s now in WWE but back in Japan! Mildly jarring remembering that Jericho’s in WWE (with Tough Enough) but doesn’t wrestle. He has more knacker tattoos than ever! Cole & Saxton talk about their pre-WWE backgrounds, it’s surreal, FMW (Jericho), DG (Pac). It makes Michael Cole especially sound so much smarter and credible. The lads are wearing matching purple attire. Jericho’s very windy and Neville’s SO much faster. Oddly they don’t work the crowd. Speaking of, there’s an awesome “I’m deaf” sign. It’s so odd to hear a Japanese crowd go through the usual WWE chants (this is awesome, later on ‘let’s go Cena, Cena sucks’ etc). There’s a couple of mistakes and very short sequences i.e. they’re calling this one in the ring, but overall it’s an entertaining match. Lots of Jericho countering/cutting off Neville. Y2J didn’t do any high-risk moves, he’s too old for that! The only real choreography was the finishing sequence. He catches Neville with a lionsault, Code Breaker, countered the Red Arrow with his knees and applies the Lion Tamer (a great treat! Something we only see with smaller opponents like Tyson Kidd) for the win in 16:20. I quite enjoyed it despite being a little sloppy and a little too long.
DIVAS CHAMPIONSHIP: NIKKI BELLA (c) vs PAIGE vs TAMINA
Nothing really of note here. Tamina gets teamed up on, replies with a Tower of Doom. She gets caught with a Nigel forearm from Nikki, who retains at 7:04.
BROCK LESNAR vs KOFI KINGSTON
No Heyman and instead of pyro, dry ice discharges! Brock is SO huge. A beast of a man, if you will. Cole mentions Brock being IWGP champion, which was this whole messy affair: Antonio Inoki left NJPW to create the IGF. Champion Brock left NJPW, but kept the title over a monetary dispute. He dropped this title to Kurt Angle at the first IGF show. Kurt then wrestled in NJPW and lost it to Shinsuke Nakamura, who became their new unified IWGP/IGF champion! (And all was right with the world again).
An obvious mismatch turned to be…an obvious mismatch. Kofi’s gameplan was to WCW Brock and counter suplexes by landing on his feet. After a minute Brock stops selling Kofi’s offense (looked great) and just catches him, suplex city over and over, F5 and pin. A blowout, dominant performance in a nothing match – just him being there was the draw. That felt quite house show-y but it gets over how big a deal Lesnar is, and god help Seth Rollins. He destroys/F5s New Day afterwards.
NXT CHAMPIONSHIP: KEVIN OWENS (c) vs FINN BALOR
I haven’t mentioned it but WWE have been doing a mini-documentary about Finn for the 3 weeks leading up to this match, it’s superb viewing. Devitt comes off as very humble, professional and dedicated. He loves legos and is big pals with Tensai. Becky Lynch is given tons of time talking about Fergal and going to his wrestling school. They show lots of photos, tweets and footage from his time in the Irish, English & Scottish indies, which is really amazing to see on WWE TV. They put the three parts together into a 26-minute mini-docu called “The Demon Revealed”, track it down!
Balor’s entrance is kinda in fast-forward, he didn’t revel in it. His full-on body paint has a Japanese demon head on his back, awesome. I LOVE the giving of flowers for championship matches. It’s so out of place with Demon Balor and KO. Finn thanks the Geisha whilst Owens throws his out onto the ramp. Fans throw coloured streamers for Balor’s entrance. Oh man, I’ve said it before but I wish someone worthy in WWE would take that gimmick of the streamers. Bryan (well, it’s too late now) or Itami or Balor himself would be perfect. After a dropkick into the barricade, you can see someone dressed as Curry Man. AWESOME. There’s also a Japanese Simon Gotch.
Owens spends a lot of time working the crowd, bowing to each side. He also builds up a big head of steam and into a headlock, shouting how he hates the country and everyone in it. Hilarious. He’s great. He successfully gets even me to hate him as they wrestle a WWE match, where the heel gets the shine for the vast majority; making it a slow affair, Devitt keeps getting cut off. Owens, the man with the most feuds of anyone in wrestling (Itami, Balor, Joe, Zayn, Cena) does the 5 Knuckle Shuffle. No chained sequences, just move to move; until Finn gains momentum, hitting a reverse & regular Bloody Sunday. Owens hits a sweet release german, cannonball and package slam; before a Green Bay Plunge from the 2nd rope. Some really sweet moves but at a heel’s pace. In the end, Balor his a running dropkick, sliding dropkick in the corner, and coup de grace double footstomp to win the NXT title at 19:26! Afterwards WWE HOF’er (lol) Tatsumi Fujinami congratulates Balor and the commentators and replays put Devitt over really strong.
Overall it spent a bit too much time with the heel being intentionally slowly dominant (we’ve seen even in WWE with Cena that KO can do a much faster pace) but it’s great to see the two have a prominent match, KO dropping the belt and fully graduating to the main roster, and Balor’s next in line to do so. This should’ve main-evented.
NXT right now is this weird (awesome) hybrid of extremely talented ROH/Japan guys and then dudes like Blake and Murphy, who REALLY need developmental. I wonder if people will still love NXT after Itami, Sayn and the most talented guys leave.
MAIN EVENT: JOHN CENA & DOLPH ZIGGLER VS KANE & KING BARRETT
A tag match main event? Featuring Dolph, Kane and Barrett no less? It must be a house show! Half an hour left to kill too. This match drags and drags, lots of time spent working over Ziggler. He eventually tags in Cena, who hits all of his signature moves on Barrett and gets the win at 23:51. Sadly Kane didn’t come out with a lei (Hawaiian wreath of flowers). That would’ve been boss. Hawaiian Kane. Since he went on Va-kane-tion. I’m so sorry.Overall: I hope they do this televised house show every so often, it’s very cool. The house show mentality (for better and worse) made for a much more refreshing WWE production. 2 hours is perfect (like NXT Takeovers). Imagine if they had Cesaro/Brock instead. Could’ve used Ambrose & Rollins in the main event instead if they were intent on a tag match. If you’re sick of WWE’s 20-minute promos and 3-hour RAWs, I recommend giving this a watch. Great place to give Balor his first title in the company.
Link to the new Tough Enough/Tough Talk “Swamp Stories” review: OSWreview.com/tough-enough-602/[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]
Our brah Nate’s photos and live event experience:
[/vc_column_text][vc_gallery type=”flexslider_fade” interval=”10″ images=”4171,4172,4173,4174,4175,4176,4177,4178,4179,4180,4181,4182,4183,4184″ onclick=”link_image” custom_links_target=”_self” img_size=”717×538″]tricker[/vc_gallery][vc_accordion active_tab=”false”][vc_accordion_tab title=”Nate’s live show experience:”][vc_column_text]The crowd were straight up smoking hot! Folks got into the austere tradition and the funky colorful side of it, too: a whole gang of gents were in full Cena garb, fans were in cosplay like mad (I’ll send pics of that soon), and there were plenty of old school diehards running around – I saw Warrior shirts, Big Gold Belts, and even a Bunny!! (no Adam Rose, tho). Lots of foreign dudes were there – we all had an instant international chant-heavy connection.
Hope you loved the show! The crowd did manage to crank out some pretty good English chants, yeah? – even bigger than what was heard on the Network broadcast (someone seriously needs to muzzle Michael Cole!!). Too bad they left out the Cesaro vs. Matador Diego match, and New Day vs. Lucha Dragons, which the crowd were insane to see. All in all, it was a smaller-sized venue full of fans who were genuinely happy to be there; no cynics or grumblers in sight. They were GLUED to the performance, too – nary a side conversation going on, and so much energy for every move!!
This really was one of those cool live shows that just can’t be done proper justice on a TV. Never mind the surprisingly satisfying in-ring product (even the divas’ and the main event!) – the atmosphere was all positive, all enthused, and all inclusive. I could even hear myself roaring out “Y-2-J!!” and “Fozzy Rocks!!” on the broadcast like a mad shameless mark, but folks always got into it – people were yelling out great J-English phrases all the while: “Supa-koo(l), mahn!!” and “Yooo rock-oo!!”. Even my girlfriend was bouncing up and down for every match – too damned cool!!
Also on that, we were trying to do the old Savage / Elizabeth-on-shoulder pose for the picture. Didn’t realize that the shirts were so obscured, but that’s what a sushi / saki warm-up snack will do to a guy… C heck out the square whitish photos of Sumo wrestlers in the top left wall area! World class ! Y2J looks when I yell FOZZY and MOONGOOSE!
On the dark matches:
Yeah, they were solid! Cesaro / Diego was nice and fast with competing “Ole’s!!”, and Cesaro really knew how to work-up the crowd. He wings Diego for 27! The Matadores used some hilarious twin-magic with hugging each other and spinning in a circle at ringside, and when Cesaro went after them, they split up and ran under opposite sides of the ring, so he dug them both out and squashed both. It culminated with Torito wiggle dancing on top and pouncing on Cesaro, so he caught the baby bull and gorilla-pressed him over the turnbuckle onto Fernando before getting the pin.New Day got great heat with the clapping and chanting, and LDragons started well with their signature speed-over-power action (awesome). Xavier looked great, and even Big E looked faster than usual with Sin Cara crawling all over him. After New Day pummeled them for a bit, Dragons turned it around with a double tope dive through the ropes, and Calisto spun around and rolled up Xavier for the win. Great opener-style match.
The crowd was just manic for both matches, and they actually kept awake for the whole show after (though some did leave during the final match — Cena just moves at such a glacial pace..). Still a surprisingly good show, and so much more fun to watch without having to listen to the commentators — this actually restores a bit of my faith in WWE, which is great considering the drop in wrestling numbers worldwide…[/vc_column_text][/vc_accordion_tab][/vc_accordion][/vc_column][/vc_row]
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ESPN E60: WWE Behind the Curtain
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ESPN aired a 1-hour documentary centering around 3 wrestlers in the Performance Centre/NXT and their struggles to make it in WWE: Ray Leppan (Adam Rose), Austin Watson (Xavier Woods) and Matt Polinsky (Corey Graves). No kayfabe, as they look at how WWE create & develop new talent. To current fans it’s kinda dated, as half of it was shot in 2013 and the main follow-up footage ends in early 2014 – 16 months ago. Here’s my thoughts on the 3 stories:
RAY LEPPAN (Leo Kruger/Adam Rose)
The best story. Most of it is with ‘Leo Kruger’, Leppan’s original FCW gimmick, and how it wasn’t getting over. On the show they say that it’s his character that wasn’t clicking (that it wasn’t believable since he’s a nice guy), whilst in reality it was his wrestling skills. After 4 years in developmental and at 35 years old, he’s asked to completely change his gimmick. His story ends with his NXT debut of Adam Rose (which gets over) and Aitch congratulating him. Hilariously Rose looks for a double high five and H holds both his hands instead! Of course although he’s still on the main roster, he’s still struggling. I’d be worried he’s for the chop but this ESPN docu might stave that off for a while.
He’s put over as a strong family man, his youngest (at the time) being born with an omphalocele (where a defect in the abdominal wall causes intestines/organs to develop in a sac outside his body). His son Maverick is born and has many surgeries; and the piece ends with his first day of Kindergarten. This piece is easily the best thing that’s ever happened to Leppan’s character, you really hope he does well after seeing the docu.
AUSTIN WATSON (Xavier Woods)
The main point is that Woods is studying whilst wrestling, he wants to be the first wrestler with a Ph.D (in Educational Psychology), and he’s studying while being an active wrestler. At a production meeting, Cole nails it by bringing up getting him a role as a representative of the company. This is an extremely smart play by Woods – an active black wrestler with a Ph.D is huge positive press for WWE and will hopefully get him a job in the WWE for a long time. I always think of the time Woods was on RAW commentary mentioning his Ph.D, and JBL taking a genuinely surprised and inquisitive interest in it. They show a cut-out of him in TNA as Consequences Creed, and a prior gimmick like Papa Shango. It ends with his debut with the Funkadactyls on RAW…well not his RAW debut, but his singles debut the next week pinning Heath Slater (his debut was a tag with R-Truth). Backstage he denies having learnt his lines, that it’s all “off the dome”, which is hilarious for a developmental talent being called up. Great PR for WWE showing this but nothing that interesting.
MATT POLINSKY (Corey Graves)
“My character is me turned all the way up. I hate being told what to do. I’m a punk rock kid. I am James Bond”. Wow, fuck off. After a few seconds I’m rooting for you to fail.
This is pretty heavy-handed PR for WWE’s wellness testing. Graves notes that WWE’s concussion testing is “pretty much the world standard.” Vince notes “we’re way ahead of the NFL with this kind of thing”, and answers “all your guys are clean?” with “we’re way past that now”. It’s the only disagreeable/overly-corporate BS part of the docu. I kept thinking of Punk’s multiple instances explaining how the wellness testing is a joke. Although WWE is his dream, his multiple concussions label him as medically unfit, but there’s a happy ending as they stage a bit where Triple H offers him a 2-year commentating gig. I’m not a fan of his NXT commentating, but I love how he gets unnaturally angry at Becky Lynch, ragging on her for being a fake rocker chick. In the epilogue montage, it mentions he’s “got his own show on the WWE network” which is hugely generous for a 10-minute youtube show not on youtube. They did show a pic of his Hulk Hogan cake for his 3rd birthday, which is awesome 🙂 Overall, the least enjoyable and most shilly part of the docu.
Other notes:
• The wrestlers’ interviews are shot close-up through a light ring, which reflects in their eyes. It makes it look like they have this cool-looking eye disease called arcus senilis.
• Vince/Aitch mention that the biggest factor is charisma, and ESPN cut to a montage of 80s wrestlers – Hogan, Jake, Warrior, Macho, Andre. Fuck yeah! You want charisma and characters, you go to the 80s, brother. Wrestling needs coke, jack! Everyone’s far too calm and not-paranoid these days…
• WWE documentaries (and this is no different) are very careful to show Triple H in a great light, both fair, hard-working, intelligent and highly-attuned in business and creative, to make wrestling fans feel confident about WWE’s future.
• ESPN mention NXT wrestlers get paid somewhere between “$45,000 to low 6 figures”.
• Bill DeMott is the head trainer. He comes off well in the piece. Having filmed the bulk of the footage in 2013 you couldn’t really cut him out. They flash up that DeMott was fired due to abuse allegations at the end, so quick you could barely read it. Performance Centre is said to be a lot better after he left. Dusty doesn’t offer anything insightful.
• Michael Hayes (on Leo Kruger) “I wouldn’t see him with a free ticket”. Comes off as a gruff dickhead in his limited time!
• The docu ends to an epilogue footage montage, to Bruce Springsteen’s “The Wrestler”, previously used in The Wrestler.
• There was an Extra/deleted part focusing on Tyler Breeze, and the creation of the character. His re-debut is a success and the gimmick as the final missing piece. Like Leppan’s piece but not as interesting.Overall: Always interesting to see outsiders do a piece on wrestling. I’d watch just for Ray Leppan’s segment. Good stuff.
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