My Take On MMA 11.12.08: A Special Look at “Human Wrecking Balls”

Posted by Larry Csonka on 11.12.2008

With the show debuting TONIGHT on G4, 411’s Larry Csonka takes a special look at the debut episodes and tells you what you can expect from the series!



WELCOME~!:
Welcome back to another edition of My Take on MMA! There are times that the gig here at 411 runs me down, and then there are times that I absolutely love the job. And from time to time we get some cool things, freebies and advance copies of things. One of these opportunities came up recently when G4 contacted me about promoting press releases for their new "Human Wrecking Balls" show. I agreed and was then sent the first two episodes of the series, rough-cut review copies. It was then that I decided to go ahead and throw this column together. I hope you enjoy, and remember, the half-hour series, "Human Wrecking Balls," premieres TONIGHT; Wednesday, November 12 at 10:30pm ET/PT, only on G4. The premiere follows "Ninja Fest 3" on Wednesday, November 12 from 6:00-10:30pm ET/PT.



~HUMAN WRECKING BALLS~

Some Introduction…

I had heard about this show a few months ago, "Human Wrecking Balls" was developed by BASE Productions with John Brenkus, Mickey Stern and Rob Dorfmann, who will serve as Executive Producers. Jason King is the Producer and Director for the series. It stars the Pumphrey Brothers, Chris and Paul, who both share a background in the martial arts and actually have some impressive credentials.

Paul has set world records for breaking 23 slabs of concrete and also has the world record for using his pure lungpower to blow up a hot water bottle until it explodes; he can perform this task in 59.3 seconds. He has honed this ability from years of countless lung conditioning. Paul has said that his greatest achievement was winning back-to-back titles in the World Breaking Championships. He has also developed a signature shoulder ram technique to perform impressive breaks, where he charges like a linebacker on a blitz and powers his way through any obstacle. The first time he attempted this he rammed through 10-feet of ice.

Craig won the gold medal for the three-man team at the World Cup Pankration Championships in 2000, and then in 2001 he was the gold medal winner for the over 230 division of the USAFPA Grand National Pankration Championships and was inducted into the USAFPA Pankration Hall of Fame. He was also inducted into the International Karate and Kickboxing Hall of Fame, which was a dream of Craig's because the last two people inducted were Chuck Norris and his idol, Bruce Lee. Also, in 2001, he was the national breaking champion at the Bluegrass Nationals. He was featured in the 2001, 2002, and 2007 Guinness Book of World records for his world championship earning breaking act, the skillet roll up. Craig was the first in history to be able to roll a skillet into the tightest roll of anyone. He has been featured in numerous martial arts magazines including Black Belt Magazine, Kung Fu magazine and Jiu-Jitsu America. Craig is a two time Pancrase National Champion, and received an invite to the first ever ADCC tournament hosted in the United States.

As far as the episodes go, Craig and Paul are strategic in their approach to dismantling. For each challenge they will join forces with a team of experts in material science and engineering. They will review the object of their destruction from every possible angle before taking it apart, using physics and know-how to determine the most effective strategy. In what looks to be a lot of fun during the series, the brothers also entertain a little friendly competition throughout their challenges, such as who can tear apart an airplane faster, or which Pumphrey makes a better bouncer, based on who can most successfully destroy a bar faster.


~THE DEBUT EPISODES~
I will not be doing a full recap of the episodes, more of a general and condensed recap.

EPISODE ONE - Trashing Hotel California: Description - Joined by Danzig bass player, Jerry Montano, the brothers check into a hotel suite, bent on proving that unruly rockers have nothing on them when it comes to trashing the place. Talk about bad room service!

My Thoughts: We get an introduction to the Pumphrey Brothers, and they explains how they will use the human body as well as science to destroy a hotel room. They have a structural engineer and a registered nurse as their team. The structural engineer walks us through the hotel room, and explains how much force the brothers will need to break various parts of the room.

The brothers are competitive, and the first thing they do is have some fun destroying old vending machines for the right to throw a TV out the window. Our structural engineer explains the make up of the machine, and the force needed to destroy them. They have their destruction fun, busting up and emptying the machines in 41 and 57 seconds. The only injuries were a small cut on one of their legs.

The hotel destruction begins, as we get interesting tidbits like, "It takes 1,700 PSI to break steel" and "2,400 PSI to teak a phone book in half," which Craig did in 7-seconds. Both guys easily kick at between 35 and 45mph, and break through tempered glass and the bed frames with ease.

They dismantled a kitchen in 5-minutes, ripping it apart with their hands as well as using kicks to bust off doors of the fridge, cupboards and such. Danzig bass player Jerry Montano joins the guys and shows them how the rock stars bust up a hotel room.

Paul will try to run through the wall, which is his specialty. The structural engineer shows us a cross section of the wall he will break, and is very concerned due to the metal and cables in the wall. The crazy bastard busted right through the wall, and only has a knot on his head due to taking the stud head on. The structural engineer is amazed by this and the fact that he is basically not hurt. They then end the fun by tossing major appliances out the window.



EPISODE TWO - Automotive Annihilation: Description - How much Human Wrecking Ball can one American car stand? Quite a bit, but the brothers are undeterred as Paul shoulder-rams the driver's door off, and Craig crushes the roof with a leap from the top of a forklift. Got insurance?

My Thoughts: Damn the nurse is hot, yes, this is need to know information. The goal this time is to try to destroy a car with out destroying themselves. The structural engineer and a car designer start to describe the difficulties that the brothers will have, since the car is designed to resist impact. The car in question is a 1980's Grand Prix.

The fun begins as the brothers do a car flip to decide who will break the rear windshield, the most dangerous task this week. The average car is 3,000lbs, the average man can lift 150lbs. Paul takes a bit over 3-minutes to roll a VW Bug. Craig rolls it in 17-seconds, WITH Paul inside! That was awesome.

The destruction of the car gets underway as they gets some specs from the structural engineer and car designer. They then rip out the interior by hand, including kicking out the windshield. Craig ripped some flesh off of his pinky, but otherwise, they were injury free. The seats cause some issues due to being bolted down, even after a plethora of kicks and strikes were used. They dub this technique "junk yard jujitsu."

Now it's time for the doors, as we see spinning back kicks to break the windows and then kicks to get the doors off. Craig splits his pants during this part. Paul does his tackle technique to get the other door off, only he fails as the door bends back and he goes flying to the side. The second try fails as well so he just rips the door off with his hands. The auto engineer is amazed. Paul suffered numerous small cuts on his upper body by doing that.

Paul now prepares for his dive through the back window of the car. He explains the last time he did this, he had to get 8-staples in his head, due to the glass cutting him. They have brought in an ambulance for this part of the show. Hot burse does not approve of this part of the show. Paul charges and flies in with a flying elbow drop, and gets no breakage. Try #2 is a success as he destroys the window. They are careful removing him from the debris and he has suffered some cuts to his arm, and some glass is stuck in the cuts.

Craig then gets on a forklift and prepares for a dive through the roof. He dives from around 8-feet above the car, and bends in the roof a bit, but not as much as he had hoped. He was injury free, but is otherwise fine. To close the show, then they blow up the cars.

The 411

These guys do have impressive backgrounds, but this isn't so much about fighting or the art of the fight. The show is about men with skills in the martial arts breaking things with that skill. What is interesting is how the structural engineer explains the force and weight power needed to break the things that they do. The explanations of their power, how much power and their demonstrations of their skills are fun, and simply done so that anyone can understand it.

The show is fun overall. The brothers have fun personalities, and look like they are having a blast at what they and spending time together. If you're looking for a show on "Mixed Martial Arts," then this really isn't the show for you. But if you want to see some crazy guys having fun while using some martial arts skills, then it is worth the time to check it out. I can see this show becoming a guilty pleasure of mine.

The half-hour series, "Human Wrecking Balls" premieres TONIGHT, Wednesday, November 12 at 10:30pm ET/PT, only on G4. The premiere follows "Ninja Fest 3" on Wednesday, November 12 from 6:00-10:30pm ET/PT.