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
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.
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.