Cheap Wrestling for Cheap People 03.30.06: Shoot 'em Up
Posted by Ryan Byers on 03.30.2006
Will B. Brian Blair survive if he sees the Iron Sheik again? Will I survive three hours with Vince Russo?
Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to Cheap Wrestling for Cheap People. As always, I am your hero and role model, Ryan Byers. First off, I'd like to thank everybody who made me offers for the tapes that I was attempting to sell through my column last week. I did get an offer, and it did go through, so those are off of the table now. We should start a pool to see how long it takes me to turn around and use the proceeds to buy more wrestling.
While you organize that, I'll write a column.
Cheap Wrestling Tip #34: Shoot 'Em Up
Six months ago, I never would have given a shoot interview a chance. There was something about plopping down a gob of money to hear some indy worker or washed up WWF star gab for two hours that just wasn't appealing to me. Though I may have wanted to hear some fun road stories, I just couldn't admit to myself that I was big enough of a geek to actually pay money in order to do so. I mean it's bad enough to explain to your date what a best of the Midnight Express DVD-R is doing on your dresser . . . but a three hour sit-down interview with Dennis Condrey? That's a whole other story. Then, for whatever reason, I got over myself. I decided to adventure out in to the world of hardcore wrestling geek-dom and buy my first shoot. (For the record, it was one conducted with Kamala, the Ugandan Giant.) I loved every minute of it. Many more interviews would follow, and I learned not only that they are entertaining, but also that they can be obtained for a song if you look in the right places. This week I'll be taking a look at some of the better places to buy shoot interviews, as well as reviewing what is perhaps the highest profile shoot ever. It's certainly the only one I know of to receive national distribution in actual, honest to goodness stores.
Before we get there, though, let's look at some of your online options.
RFVideo: Though I can't say with certainty that Rob Feinstein invented the shoot interview, he's certainly the guy who popularized it and was among the first to offer them with any regularity. RF does have the largest selection of shoot interviews that I've been able to find, though they're certainly not cheap by any stretch of the imagination, generally ranging from $15-$20. Though that disqualifies Feinstein's interviews from being part of this column's normal subject matter, I figured I would get far too many nasty e-mails if I didn't mention him at least once.
Highspots.com: Okay, this is a bit more like it. Again, you rarely find rock bottom shoot prices on Highspots. However, for only $10 you can find interviews with Mike Awesome, Vampiro, Jimmy Valiant, Taylor Matheny (of Tough Enough I), Bobby Eaton, Wahoo McDaniel, CW Anderson, and the Midnight Express. That's certainly an odd group of wrestlers, but variety is the spice of life, and Highspots seems to subscribe to that philosophy.
Also, in the company's new Highspots.tv subsite, they have recently added "free previews" of shoot interviews with Ron Bass, Rey Misterio, Jr., Tim Horner, Jacques Rougeau, and Barry Horowitz. Various shoot interviews can be purchased online as well, though the slight decrease in price doesn't seem worth not having a hard copy of the interview.
Ring of Honor: I know I sound like a huge ROH shill by constantly putting them over in this column, but their online store seriously does have some of the best deals in professional wrestling. In addition to their regularly priced shoots, they currently have four VHS interviews that are each available for $6 and the DVD version of "Secrets of the Ring with Dusty Rhodes" available for $10. Combine that with the numerous sales that the site runs, and you'll definitely be able to pick up some cheap interviews for your listening pleasure.
Millennium Wrestling Federation: This may sound like a bit of an odd entry, and, again, I will have to admit that the DVDs are not available at a huge discount. However, the MWF is home to what may be the single most hilarious and sad shoot interview that I have ever seen in my life. Click here for a preview of MWF's shoot with the Iron Sheik, who literally GOES INSANE during the interview. In the preview he discusses why he wants to anally rape Brian Blair, and, on the tape itself, he discusses his hatred for Hulk Hogan, how Nikolai Volkoff broke the heart of a "wheelchair man," and why his wife may or may not be a lesbian. It's $15 but worth every damn penny . . . and, if you need any more of a reason, MWF owner Dan Mirade has recently had some health problems and could use the extra cash. The shoot can be purchased through BostonWrestling.com, a fun site in its own right.
Because I want you to buy it so badly, I won't be reviewing the Iron Sheik shoot. (After all, why do you have to buy it if I give away all of the contents?) Instead, I found a couple of guys that I'm a little less sympathetic towards and decided to review their shoot instead. Here goes.
Title: Pro Wrestling's Ultimate Insiders (Volume 1) Released By: Big Vision Entertainment Release Year: 2005 Run Time: 180 minutes Found At: Sam Goody Price: $7
For those of you who are not aware, the Ultimate Insider series was started last year. Big Vision Entertainment, a company who has released some wrestling DVDs in the past, paired up with Pro Wrestling Torch's Wade Keller to put together an insane NINE HOUR shoot interview with Vince Russo and Ed Ferrara. The interview was broken up over three different discs, and a similar set was done with the Hardy Boys a few months later. Though I found mine in a brick and mortar store, you can also get the sets online, often for as low as $20 for the three disc sets. Now that we've gotten the introduction out of the way, let's head to the interview proper.
We start at the natural starting point, namely how these two men got in to professional wrestling. Ferrara talks about becoming an indy wrestler for a brief stint, which happened in between gigs as a Hollywood producer. Eventually through his connections in LA, he was flown to King of the Ring 1998, where he met Vince Russo and got a job. Vinny Ru, meanwhile, started promoting wrestling shows in the New York era, through which he met various WWF talent. After that, he wrote Linda McMahon and immediately started writing for (and later editing) WWF Magazine.
The topic then shifts to the lame gimmicks that predominated the WWF when Russo was editing the magazine, including TL Hopper and the Goon. Ferrara makes sure to note the guy's boots, which were truly awesome. Unfortunately, they did not mention his great finisher, namely body checking a man on the outside of the ring and then rolling back in to force a count out. Mantaur also gets a nod, and there's a funny story about how he couldn't get in to the ring with the giant bull head that he was forced to wear to the ring during his early matches. Jim Neidhart's Who character is next on the list, which Russo notes was supposed to be a jab at Hulk Hogan, despite the fact that nobody outside of Titan Towers got the gag.
Interviewer Wade Keller asks the two men how gimmicks like that were even supposed to get over with the audience, and Vince lets us all know that McMahon and all of his associates were stuck in a "bubble" that left them oblivious to what was going on in the real world. It's somewhat ironic hearing this, because Russo got caught in a similar bubble of his own a few years later. More irony ensues, as the two men talk about how they decided to burst this bubble by doing everything that wrestling fans would not expect to happen during a show. Unfortunately, what they failed to pick up on was the fact that their booking style was still very simple and that, about three months it to it, fans would be able to call their angles as easily as they were calling the more traditional storylines that existed before them.
Keller tries to bring up some alternatives to Russo's "bubble" theory after this, noting that part of the problem may be that the territorial system died off, and thus the major leagues had nobody smaller to steal good ideas from. Russo takes Keller's theory, which seems reasonable, and completely shoots it down with no real backing as to why he's doing so. If this sort of thing keeps up, we're in for a long interview.
After this, Russo gives Bill Watts credit for allowing him to come to power in the WWF. Apparently Watts was hired to help run the WWF while Russo was there, and they would watch tapes together because their offices were close. Eventually, after the two had shot some ideas back and forth, Watts got him his first position on the creative staff. Russo in turn helped to get Ferrara hired after the aforementioned meeting at KOTR 1998. Eventually Watts would shoot himself in the foot, and he'd be gone from the company just a few weeks after bringing Russo in to the fold. Without his biggest ally in the company, Russo claims that he was completely ignored by everybody else in creative, as he tried to shoot down their terrible mid-90s ideas. Things changed when he finally got to meet Vince McMahon. Apparently, in one meeting, Vinnie Mac shot Russo up to the top of the writing team but did it in such a way that the New Yorker would have many enemies inside the WWF.
There's also a bit on the two mens' relationship with the wrestlers thrown in, as Russo's respect for them apparently kept him from booking the actual matches, as he would have had no clue how to do so. He claims that he did not get the same respect, though, as wrestlers apparently all thought that they could write a show and that Russo and Ferrara were extraneous. I'm actually going to have to side with the wrestlers here. Though Russo and Ferrara try to justify their jobs by saying that "the business has changed" to the point where the writers are necessary, it still stands that people who worked as wrestlers or managers have been among the best creative forces in professional wrestling history. They've also made more money than professional television writers, as the latter camp only has the Attitude era on which to hang their hats.
The next big topic introduced by Keller is what a typical week would be like for a WWF writer. The Tuesday after every Raw, Russo and Ferrara would gather and write four hours worth of television while watching a massive block of Jerry Springer. I am not making that last part up, and it is definitely the most hilarious revelation to come out of this DVD. It certainly explains why Russo pushed so hard for that incest angle between Ken and Ryan Shamrock. The day after they wrote the shows, they'd run everything by Vince McMahon, and they'd have the answers to all of his questions because they're just so smart and those damned rasslin' folk are just so stupid. McMahon's contributions apparently consisted of tweaking minor parts of the show and making "good angles in to great angles." Vince Junior's greatest weakness? The fact that he would only focus on the main event storyline, completely leaving the rest of the show to his underlings.
The two writers also discuss their ideas for long term booking, which is interesting given that one of the big knocks on them was that everything was seemingly done at the last minute. They claim that they based everything on Wrestlemania, coming up with an idea for a Mania main event and then building the rest of the year around it. Things did change as the year went on, though, as Russo said he would have to listen to the crowds and give them what they want. That may seem like a minor statement, but it appears to be one of the big differences between the Russo/Ferrara philosophy and the philosophy of traditional wrestling bookers. From the traditionalist standpoint, you certainly do push who the fans want to see pushed – but you don't give everybody exactly what they want. You make them think that they're going to get what they want and then make them wait for it until they're in a position where they have to pay you a lot of money to see it. Which camp you agree with is a matter for you to decide . . . but, again, one has historically drawn a lot more money than the other.
Up next is the topic of babyfaces and heels, as the writers shoot down one of the biggest misconceptions about their booking style. A lot of people say that Russo and Ferarra wanted to kill off the concept of babyfaces and heels for a "shades of grey" approach. However, as Russo explains, their idea is not that you would destroy the system in which the fans are supposed to cheer for one character and boo another. The idea is that the guy the fans are cheering for do not have to be old fashioned heros who do everything the "right" way, drape themselves in the American flag, and finish the evening with a cup of milk and a slice of mom's apple pie. They can break the rules, so long as they're still likeable characters. Personally, I'm glad that Russo went and cleared this up, because I've seen far, far too many people misunderstanding what he meant by the "shades of grey" style of booking, whereas I always thought he had a great point here.
And heeeere's the talk about Steve Austin. They discuss how "terrible" the Ringmaster gimmick was, which is a common misconception. The gimmick itself wasn't terrible. He was just a guy that went out there and wrestled . . . it was the NAME that was lame, nothing more and nothing less. Fortunately, they completely refrain from taking credit for the Stone Cold persona and flat out say that Austin did it all on his own. When it comes to the big Austin 3:16 speech at the King of the Ring, Vinnie Ru didn't even know what was coming, though he tried to capitalize on it afterwards, only to be shot down by Vince McMahon, who "didn't get it." They really gloss over the rest of the character's rise, which is fine given that most people who are buying the DVD already know the story. What they do talk about that many people haven't heard is the fact that Austin apparently started to get very paranoid about his spot once the character got big, which made him a little bit more difficult to work with as things progressed.
And why not follow up talk about Austin with talk about the Rock? We pick it up at the Nation of Domination, where Russo came up with the idea for Mr. Maivia referring to himself in the third person after becoming a fan of the work that he would do in the background of NOD promos. Aside from that, though, both men give all of the credit for Rocky's success to Rocky and Rocky alone. He was also one of the nicest guys in the business according to Ferrara, which pretty much comports with all of the other stories that I've heard about him.
Now we move to what Keller refers to as the third spoke in the wheel of the Attitude era, a man who you all may know as Triple H. He was apparently a very hungry, hard working man. Despite no longer being in communication with him, Russo is apparently "very hurt" by all of the negative things that people say about Trips these days, as it couldn't possibly be the same man he knew and loved.
From Hunter we transition to Hart . . . Bret Hart and Survivor Series 1997. Russo doesn't want to talk much about it, instead trying to get people to buy his book. From the reviews that I've heard thusfar, you really don't want to do that. I certainly don't want to do it after I paid good money to buy this man's shoot interview only to hear him trying to take more cash away from me. If you're actually curious about what went on in Montreal, just head over to wrestlingobserver.com and look around for information on how to order Dave Meltzer's back issue on the subject. Owen Hart gets mentioned as well, and Russo and Ferrara are asked to address whether any "malice" towards particular individuals lead to the Blue Blazer gimmick and Owen being placed in an unsafe situation. They confirm longstanding internet rumors, stating that the Blazer character was handed to Owen because he turned down a storyline in which he was to fall in love with Debra McMichael. They deny, however, that the character was created to intentionally make fun of anybody like Hulk Hogan or Bret Hart. Russo also uses this subject as a platform to pimp his Christianity, as he originally felt guilty about penciling Owen in for the stunt, but, now that he's "saved," he knows that it was destiny and that he couldn't have stopped it if he wanted to. Russo also has no problem with the show continuing after Hart died, as he saw Owen himself wrestle a great match almost half an hour after he learned of Brian Pillman's death. This is apparently evidence that Owen would have wanted things that way.
Keller then asks his first question about the jump to WCW . . . and we fade to black, with a message that this will be continued on Volume 2 of the series.
DVD Bonus Features
The DVD bonus footage comes to us from an indy card that took place in 2005 – SSCW's "So Cal Supercard." Vince and Ed are backstage, and they're faced with the task of helping four indy guys put together a match from scratch. On the DVD, we've got literally half an hour worth of footage from the planning stages, as well as the bout itself.
Scorpio Sky, Human Tornado, Quickliver, and Ronin all meet with Ferrara and Russo, and they're UNMASKED~! Ferrara tells the wrestlers that their ring gear as great and really helps to set them apart . . . and I can't imagine what that has to do with laying out the match. The wrestlers themselves then get in to the structure of the match that they want to do, which sounds like a very basic tag team encounter. Heat sequence on the babyface, big tag, etc. Ferrara comes up with a story for the match, as Tornado (a face) teams up with Ronin (a heel) because it was the only way that he managed to get on the card. This somehow grows in to Sky and Quicksilver putting the singles titles that they hold on the line, with Silver being a little bit more in to the idea than Sky. This is apparently a great idea in Ed's mind, because the crowd will be looking for dissension between the heel/face team, but they'll actually be getting it out of the face/face team.
After Ferrara's big pitch, he gives it to Russo to talk about the finish, though Vince instead goes over to the Tornado/Ronin team, telling them to do a lot more dissension spots than Ferrara had wanted them to. When he finally gets to the finish, Russo says that there should be a ref bump followed up by Ronin using some sort of dastardly heel tactic that allows Tornado to win the match, even though he'd previously complained about having to team with a bad guy. This is all eventually supposed to lead to a four-way match, as everybody winds up being pissed off at everybody else.
As soon as that conversation wraps up, we cut to Ferrara and Russo standing outside the venue for the evening, as they look around for a good place to have the wrestlers in the match cut a promo. They then go and speak to the interviewer and tell him what to get across, which really is just a rehash of everything that they had already told the workers. This is followed up by about five straight minutes of our writers talking to each other, which is completely inaudible due to the noise backstage as the show is getting ready to start. When the camera actually gets in to position to pick up some of the dialogue, Ferrara is talking about his time on the indy scene and the first time he bladed. Apparently he cut himself high up on his head so that he wouldn't have any nasty visible scars, but then his hairline receded, so he has them anyway. Okay, that is hilarious.
There's one more meeting with the wrestlers, where they go over the specific moves that they had planned on using to get over the storline that Ferrara had laid out them earlier. Scorpio Sky seems to be the guy that's acting as the proverbial ring general, directing traffic and letting all of the other wrestlers know where they're going and when. Footage of the pre-match promo being shot airs as well. This seems to be more Russo's territory than it does Ferrara's. The guys have to stop three or four times in order to smooth out a few wrinkles, and nobody's going to mistake them for polished professionals, but they did a good enough job for a group of indy guys who generally get over on their work as opposed to their talking.
And we even get a bit post-match with Ferrara and Russo, as they seem impressed by what the guys did but offer a little bit of a critique on how to improve things. Then they go to planning a post-match promo with Human Tornado, where Russo tries to convince a very fat camera man to take his shirt off for a cheap laugh. Tornado cuts his promo, and he's got all of the charisma in the world, but he needs bit more experience in improving things to really be great on the mic. Again, they stop and do a few reshoots, but the critique from Russo and Ferrara isn't anything groundbreaking after watching them do the first promo . . . plus they weren't saying much that people with acting experience wouldn't know anyway.
They did insert one funny bit, though: When Tornado is cutting his promo, it's pretty clearly a replica of the WCW Cruiserweight Championship. The DVD editors stick it to indy promoters everywhere, superimposing the words "DO NOT USE REPLICA BELTS AS YOUR CHAMPIONSHIPS" over the screen.
So that's the behind the scenes bit. We also get to see how the match itself turned out . . .
DVD Bonus Match Numero Uno: The Aerial Express (Scorpio Sky & Quicksilver) vs. Ronin & Human Tornado
Ronin ambushes the Express to start, but Tornado pulls him off because he wants the match to be fair. A standing moonsault connects on the R-man, which Quicksilver follows up with a back elbow and a superkick/dropkick combo. Scorpio's in at that point, and he hits an impressive dropkick of his own. There's a quick tag to Quicksilver, and I swear I didn't set out to make that pun when I started writing the sentence. He hits a climbing enzuguri in the corner and gets a nearfall, but Ronin turns the tide with a simple right hand and forcibly tags in Tornado. The little pimp hits a leg lariat and a very unique hopping kick to the shoulder. Ronin's back in after that, and he does a bunch of chopping and choking. It's very odd to see generic American heel offense coming from a guy who's dressed like a luchadore. A forearm in the corner sets up another tag to Tornado, and Quicksilver is selling a two minute beating like he's been in there for half an hour. Tornado goes for the DDT variation that bares his name, but Silver blocks it and hits a NICE spinebuster to set up the tag to Sky. Ronin naturally gets one as well, but he's dispatched by Scorpio, who uses a rana and then a backdrop suplex on Tornado. Silver tags right back in to the match for a fabulous wheelbarrow/sitdown splash combo from the champs. Ronin runs back in to the ring to do battle with Quicksilver after that, but Scorpio comes off of the top rope with a missile dropkick. Sky and Ronin do a nice reversal sequence, culminating with a powerbomb from the bigger man. Quicksilver nails him with a top rope move, only to be dropkicked from behind by HT. Tornado follows that with another set of nice kicks, only to bump the ref in the corner. Tornado gets an enzuguri while the official is down, and Ronin hits the ring with a championship belt. As was discussed earlier on the DVD, Tornado tries to get it out of the ring, but Ronin eventually uses it to hit Quicksilver. It looks like Tornado is going to show some sympathy for Quickie, but he sneaks up behind him and hits a wacky suplex for the three count at 8:58.
Match Thoughts: Well, watching this match get booked and then watching the end product certainly was an interesting experience that you're not going to get in many other places. Overall, the wrestlers carried out the plan that was set up for them rather well. A few of the criticisms that Russo had after the match were actually valid, namely that everybody was tagging in and out far too easily for a group of people in which there was supposed to be animosity. On top of that, there wasn't really any dissension teased between the Aerial Express to set up the four-way match that was supposed to be on the next show . . . though I guess that storyline was secondary to Tornado's turn in the grand scheme of things.
As far as the technical merits of the match is concerned, it wasn't that great, even though I generally like the Aerial Express in both singles and tag environments. First of all, the four men were only given a limited amount of time to work with, and they all wanted to cram far too much in to that nine minute block. There was no structure to the match AT ALL, as we went from maybe forty seconds worth of heat sequence to a ton of highspots and constant run-ins to break up pins. The other big problem I had with the match was that the tag rules seemingly meant nothing after the first ninety seconds of the match, as everybody came in and out of the ring with the referee not even pretending to care about who was legal and who was not. I did like the breakneck pace that everybody had while they were in the ring, and I thought that all the spots they did were executed well, but they needed more time to do everything that they wanted to. Unfortunately, they were on a stacked card that didn't really allow for it. *3/4
Final Thoughts
Overall, the interview portion of the program didn't do much for me. Though Russo would periodically thrown in a nugget or two that I had never heard before, all the two men really did was tell stories that were already available on the internet in free interviews that they had done over the course of the past several years. If you've been on the internet for a long time and followed the story of these two men, please do not buy the DVD for the sole purpose of hearing the straight-up interview. You just won't leave fulfilled. It may, however, be a good purchase for those of you who are just getting started with this whole internet wrestling scene and want a quick overview of a guy who is one of the most influential and hated characters on the modern wrestling landscape. (And I ain't talking about Paul Heyman.)
Though the interview itself was lame, the "bonus" material on the DVD made up for its shortcomings significantly. True, there was nothing actually groundbreaking revealed about how a match is set up or how wrestlers work on their pre-taped interviews. A bunch of guys just get together and they have a conversation that isn't much different from any other brainstorming session that you might have with your coworkers. However, as a wrestling fan who has never seen that sort of thing happen live and in person, it was certainly an interesting experience to look over the shoulders of the participants in the process. It was also quite neat to see how the wrestlers themselves took somewhat abstract concepts that they were given by a set of writers and then translated that in to the psychology of a match that could have slid its way in to almost any edition of Monday Night Raw or TNA Impact. I certainly wouldn't pay the $15 that I have seen some stores charge, but I consider paying $7 or $8 for the unique opportunity afforded by the bonus footage to be quite worth it.
