Anyone watching this? I’m very into pro wrestling, and I know there’s a lot of criticism that this series is catered toward non-fans and just rehashes a lot of stuff that knowledgeable fans already knew. I think that’s accurate, but I also think these stories don’t get old no matter how many times I hear them. It does seem like a major limitation that it was mostly filmed before all the sex trafficking stuff came out - just a giant elephant in the background that it’s not possible for the series to address…but then again, I haven’t made it to the last episode yet, so will be interesting to see how it gets handled there.
Some other random observations, based on this plus the million other wrestling documentaries I’ve seen:
*Eric Bischoff seems legit retarded. I know he fancies himself this genius who outcompeted McMahon for 83 weeks, but honestly he sounds like an idiot, and he himself tells story after story where he basically gets taken advantage of by other people (Brian Pillman, the North Korean government, etc.) because he’s kind of a gullible rube. The disconnect between that and how he perceives himself is kind of shocking.
*Bret Hart - great wrestler, total mark for himself. He’d benefit from taking himself a little less seriously, and maybe being reminded that wrestling is scripted.
*Tony Atlas - comic genius. This guy pops up in various docs and is consistently hilarious. Pat Patterson “grabbed mah peckah”. Dying. His iron sheik impersonation is also fantastic.
*Triple H - I think he’s an opportunistic douche and was overrated in the ring and on the mic, but he comes across as if he has more than two brain cells to rub together, which is a feather in his cap.
I’m sure I’ll think of more hot takes, but interested to hear if other people have been watching.
The whole series made me compelled to really find out more about Vince McMahon as a person. So much of his life was glossed over to get to his business and wrestling persona. They left a lot of meat on the bone. And some of the things Vince said without any pushback from the filmmakers, were intriguing.
It's amazing hearing wrestlers talk because you know they are always "working." They know why they are there and are usually accommodating.
Bret Hart is a mark for himself. If you ever heard Scott Hall talk about him he said, "Bret would argue for titles over money."
Trips is underated if anything. Phenomenal worker, Phenomenal character work, very good promo skills, I-uh understand-uh why-uh some people-uh don't-uh like-uh it though. I can't imagine the attitude era without Trips.
I enjoy Bishoff on his podcast and think he's smart and entertaining. But in this series they did play up smary Bishoff
The biggest problem with people like McMahon, Cornette, Bret, Tony Kahn, CM Punk is they are carnies and can’t let go of the carny mindset. I am so tired of hearing everyone’s take on things like the Montreal Screwjob since it’s such a stupid thing to fight over to begin with. I do appreciate Bischoffs take though since he usually comes across as someone who understands entertainment and the business side of wrestling and had success beating WWF.
HHH and Undertaker are two guys who people love and who I totally don’t get. Might just be my blind spot, but I never found ‘Taker particularly interesting in the ring or on the mic. He seems like a pretty cool, level-headed guy from his interviews, though.
Undertaker was popular because he had a gimmick that was really cool to kids, and he embodied it enough that it never came across as cringe. And then he kept it well into the era where every single wrestler was "MUSCLE DUDE #12" with no ability to distinguish them beyond their boring personalities (like HHH).
Watching him and Kane do wild shit in the ring is inherently more interesting than almost anything from the post-Attitude era, and it was strong enough to carry him through his retarded Biker gimmick.
Add in that he was never revealed to be controversial or difficult to work with, so nobody ever had a reason to hate him personally.
Kane is such an underrated character and worker. I still don't think people really appreciate what he did in the WWE
We are only just getting to the point where Wrestling fans feel safe even admitting to existing without feeling embarrassed, so it'll be sometime yet before people can come around to "the goofy gimmicks were actually the best fucking part."
Unfortunately, in order to reach that level we also had to let in a lot of CM Punk types who jam it full of wokeism and people embarrassed to be seen as non-progressive. So its a mixed bag.
Plus Taker is a born-again Christian and a Trump voter/donor in real life.
Yeah, the former surprised me too, even if it did happen basically as his career ended.
Mark Calloway was one of the most ardent supporters of kayfabe for most of his career. He made that one documentary a few years ago about his coming back from injury. And that was pretty much the point at which he dropped kayfabe.
Undertaker was so good that he was able to pull off the character of "undead MMA biker wizard" all the way into 2022.
With a theme song by Limp Bizkit no less
As a kid Undertaker was my favorite because I was retarded edgelord who liked 'evil' characters. But when I learned a little how the industry worked and heard that he'd work his ass off to put people over and better the industry instead of just try to make it all about him, he remained my favorite.
I get subjective taste. A lot of Taker matches are his entrances. I quite like his style. Mark Calloway does seem less carny in retirement which is weird since he was so protective of kayfabe as a wrestler.
As a kid i literally thought he had supernatural powers lol. And the announcers like Heenan would really sell him being a dead man. You didn’t like the entrance? Even with the druids?
If you think too much about it The Undertaker is such a vague gimmick. Is he supposed to be dead? Why does he have powers? Why are those powers controling lightning
lol. So true. As a life long hulkamaniac I was scared for Hogan when they had their first match. Paul Bearer was the perfect manager for him. Sucks he died before podcasts blew up. I’d love to hear a 5 hour podcast with Taker and Bearer going over old times. Yoko too