Pro Wrestling Forever Ep. 03

May 13

BALD, SWEATY, AND KEEPING THE YOUNG GUYS DOWN

Professor Degree and Blade Daily took a trip back into one of the strangest corners of wrestling history on the latest episode of Pro Wrestling Forever, reviewing the 1974 cult classic The Wrestler starring Verne Gagne and Ed Asner. Far removed from the critically acclaimed Mickey Rourke film of the same name, this territory-era fever dream captures professional wrestling at its sweatiest, baldest, and most gloriously self-important. Packed with appearances from legends like Ric Flair, Dusty Rhodes, Superstar Billy Graham, and even Vince McMahon Sr., the film feels less like a scripted movie and more like somebody accidentally documented the territorial system in its natural habitat.

The fellas explored how The Wrestler reflects the eternal psychology of pro wrestling: aging stars refusing to let go, promoters chasing nostalgia, and the industry’s obsession with “one last run.” Along the way, the conversation spiraled into wrestling history, classic wrestling cinema, territory culture, and the strange beauty of old-school wrestling storytelling. Equal parts hilarious, fascinating, and deeply sincere, the episode perfectly captures what Pro Wrestling Forever is all about — celebrating the absurd, unforgettable, and oddly moving legacy of professional wrestling across every era.

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Hello, wrestling fans, and welcome back for another week and another episode of Pro Wrestling
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Forever.
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I'm your host, the Toast of the Third Coast, Professor Degree.
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With me as always is a man that I said I knew well and sometimes hated, iBlade Daily.
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Blade, how are you doing today?
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I'm all right.
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I'm all right, Professor Degree.
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How are you?
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I'm fucking awesome.
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And I'm quoting Jim Croce.
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So today I'm wearing a track jacket and I'm wearing this track jacket, which is rubbing
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up against my microphone and really irritating me.
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In honor of a very special episode we have today, we are reviewing The Wrestler, not
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The Wrestler with Mickey Rourke, but The Wrestler from 1974, independent film directed
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by Jim Westman, produced by Vern Ganya and W.R. Frank and written by Eugene Gump.
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And if that isn't the biggest bunch of pseudonyms I've ever heard, I don't know what is.
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The movie stars Ed Asner as promoter Frank Bass, Vern plays over-the-hill champ Mike
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Bullard, Elaine Giftos is the secretary Debbie, you might recognize her from every
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television show that has ever existed in the 1960s through the 80s, including but
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not limited to I Dream of Jeannie Bonanza, My Three Sons, Ironside, Adam 12,
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Streets of Ames, San Francisco, The Paul Lynn Show, Love American Style, a recurring
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role as Ruben Kincaid's girlfriend on The Partridge Family, fat chance, dude.
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That lady was way out of that guy's league.
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Kilt Check, The Night Stalker, Bob Newhart, Quincy M.E.
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Six million dollar man, a whole bunch of shit, a bunch of movies you don't even
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care. It also stars.
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Well, she's who they got when they couldn't afford Mary Tyler Moore.
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She's exactly who they got when they couldn't.
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She looks a lot like Mary Tyler Moore.
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The only credit that's not in here is actually Mary Tyler Moore, pro wrestler
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Billy Robinson plays Billy Taylor.
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Some Sarah Miller plays Betty Bullard.
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Sam Menacher plays mobster and Hard Boiled Haggerty has a special guest
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appearance as the bartender.
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American silver medal weightlifter Harold Sakata, who also went into
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professional wrestling as Tosh Togo, a partner of The Great Togo and two time
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NCAA wrestling champion Joe Scarpello plays Jack Cutter.
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We also get an appearance from Dan Gable in this.
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Oh, yeah. The greatest amateur wrestler in the world at the time.
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Right. Makes it makes a brief appearance in this movie.
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This movie is chock full of cameos and we're going to talk about them
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one by one as they happen.
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And it's even. Yes, I just interrupt.
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Go ahead. I just interrupted you.
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Well, now that now that I've interrupted you interrupting.
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It's also it's a movie full of name dropping.
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And speaking of name dropping, I heard that you had a little piece of
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information about this film you wanted to share.
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I did. Thank you, Degree.
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So, yeah, I asked I reached out to my good close personal friend, Lance Storm
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on threads about this movie because I was pretty sure that Lance must have seen
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it at some point.
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And he said he had he said he had a DVD copy that he thinks Don
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Calis borrowed and never returned.
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It was originally titled The Promoter.
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And then he goes on to say, don't have much memory of it now, but recall
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at the time mentioning to I think Wade Keller, but it seemed more about the
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promoter who's played by Asner and should have been called the promoter
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and speculated that the wrestler might be a more marketable title.
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Wade responded that that was 100 percent what happened.
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And that is true.
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That is completely true.
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Ed Asner is the main protagonist and he's he's a tweener.
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Can we call it that?
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Because, oh, there's an element of him trying to screw job.
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They hear the real hero in this movie, Mike Bullard, Mike Bullard
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played by Virgo, yeah, because the moral of the story is that bald
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people are number one baby.
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Now, that is that I'm glad you brought that up degree, because as a bald
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yourself, you must have been fucking over the mirror.
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So many so many bald dudes with potbellies.
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I felt right at home.
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I thought that maybe the movie was made by myself, actually.
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Yeah, yeah. And you.
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You you see people in this movie throughout that look just like
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Verne Gagne with the horseshoe kind of thing going on horseshoe hair
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right down the middle bald.
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And so many times I'm like, oh, why?
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Wow. Verne's getting his ass kicked.
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I don't remember this.
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And that is not Verne.
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It's just a guy that's exactly like him.
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Yeah. And that's what my notes are full of that.
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Just like the fuck. What the fuck? Who's this guy?
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So here's I'm going to run down the basic plot because I do have it
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written on a piece of paper.
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So basically, the story is about it's about the promoter, Frank Bass.
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But Mike Bullard has been the champion for a very long time.
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He's defeated all contenders.
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And there's a lot of pressure for him to step down.
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This movie is all about pressure.
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Bass is under pressure from the board who wants a hot young star.
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And he's on the lookout for someone to take Bullard down.
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He's also under pressure from the mafia because they want to fix the fight.
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Bullard's wife is pressuring Bass and Mike Bullard to convince Mike to retire.
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And of course, Debbie, the secretary, is pressuring Mike Bass
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for a little something else.
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Yeah, we'll get to that.
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Well, she's pressuring him to open up. Let's be real.
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Yes. And I think it's better if we call Mike Bullard Verne
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because yeah, it's too hard to see who are the same thing with that as near
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because I didn't even learn.
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You don't learn his name to like halfway through the movie.
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Well, and the secretary's name I found on Wikipedia.
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I have no idea what her name was.
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Debbie. OK, just Debbie.
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The mobster is listed listed as mobster.
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Did you see his credit?
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What else is he in?
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Hold on. I got Wikipedia open right now.
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Yeah, please.
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So what I would say is nothing.
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He is fucking listed in nothing.
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You feel like I've seen him in at least one other thing.
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I don't know.
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He's one of those guys that's like he's like Debbie,
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where it's like he's been on a ton of TV shows. Right.
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Luckily, I have a phone here, too.
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OK. Now, don't worry about it.
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Now, I would say this movie before we get into it,
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we're going to make fun of this movie a lot.
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We're going to talk a lot of a lot of shit about the way they made it
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because it's not made very well.
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Sorry. Sorry, Ganya Frank Productions.
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Yeah, they're all these people are probably dead by now.
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Yeah, they're all dead. They're all dead.
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But I will say one,
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this is not the worst wrestling movie I've ever seen and it's not even close.
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No Holds Barred is by far a much worse movie than this.
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Two, this is the closest you could get to making a real documentary
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about wrestling at that time.
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It almost is a documentary in a certain way.
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It's crazy how much they pull back the curtain.
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They never explicitly break kayfabe, but they get right up to the wall.
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Yeah. And just kind of brush up against it.
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They almost I was shocked.
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They almost literally tell you it's fake.
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Like, I mean, they almost tell you that.
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And they kind of do almost.
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Billy LaLonde says, I want to see a Texas death
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match between Ed Asner and Charles Durning.
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Who would win?
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I don't even know who Charles Durning is.
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Oh, when a stranger calls.
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Oh, gotcha. OK, right.
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And then Billy says this movie doesn't even really start
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until halfway through. That is true.
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Yeah, because that's the first time you see Vern is about halfway
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through the movie.
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And then it shocks me that Vern was not a master
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filmmaker from Blair Eilion.
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If you like Billy Jack and movies like that,
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and if you like the episode where Mr.
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Rogers goes to the crayon factory and you could somehow mush them
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into the same movie, it would be this movie.
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It's almost there, but yet it's like the worst thing
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I've ever seen in my life.
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Well, absolutely so bad.
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It's good. Yeah.
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Yeti Malone in the chat says it's real to me, damn it.
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Yeah. The thing is, and we'll talk about this more
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after the review is over.
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We've never done a wrestling movie review.
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This is our third episode.
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So we'll see how well we do with this format.
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But Ed Asner is basically playing the Booker
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Id of Verne Gagne.
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And this movie is littered with Verne Gagne's philosophies
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about the wrestling business, his anger at the media
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for the lack of coverage, his anger at like gimmick
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wrestlers who aren't really good wrestlers,
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his anger at people telling him he's too old.
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Yeah. Oh, my God.
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Seventy four. When was his last title reign?
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It was like 81.
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Yeah. And in 74, they were already saying you're too old.
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You're bald. You're knock kneed.
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You got a potbelly.
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You're I mean, and he runs through it.
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He to his credit, he takes it all on in the movie.
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But it's like maybe you should have just listened to them
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and maybe you'd have been still be in business.
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The only thing missing is that.
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Yeah, the only thing missing is that Terry Funk
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didn't retire in this movie.
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That is Terry Funk.
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Is he in this movie? No, he's not.
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But OK, I was going to say I could have been
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because it's shocking.
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He's like the only one who's not.
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Yeah. You know, he could have made an appearance for sure.
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For sure.
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So do you want to start running down the movie?
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Oh, yeah. OK.
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So who's going to do the play by play of the movie structure here?
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I mean, both of our I'll do it.
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I looked at your notes.
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Your notes are alarmingly similar to mine.
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I think we both just sat there typing the whole time like
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and then this guy shows up and then this guy shows up.
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So the movie opens
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your backstage, like at a TV studio or whatever.
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And Larry Henning is cutting out a promo, calling out Mike Bullard.
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He calls him all the things I just listed.
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Fucking Larry, looking just like Kurt Henning.
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Just a thicker Kurt, basically.
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It cuts to this fisheye lens shot of a wrestling match.
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Absolutely terrible, terrible footage.
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Kind of looks like that one Beastie Boys video.
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Is it so what you want?
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What you want? Yeah.
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Yeah. So as the match is going on,
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fucking Ed Asner appears like Rod Serling in The Twilight Zone.
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And hi, I'm Frank Bass and the man you're watching right now.
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That's Mike Bullard.
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He explains how Mike has been on top for a super long time.
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Mike has taken everyone out with his drop kick, followed by a sleeper hold.
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Mike has won NCAA championships.
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Let me see.
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Basically, a low and Olympic gold medal, apparently.
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If there is a sports award, fucking Mike Bullard has won it.
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Yeah, he's bald.
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He's a wrestler and he's still number one.
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Right. Yeah.
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Even though he's like 50 years old, he's a bald ass,
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fucking winter white killing machine.
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Yes. If you look, I mean, look up a picture.
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If you're I know you're watching this, like maybe you're on your computer,
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grab your phone, whatever.
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Look up a picture of Erngonia.
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If you don't, if you're not familiar with who he is.
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His contemporaries at the time, what Pedro Morales is the WWF champ.
233
00:11:42.970 --> 00:11:44.730
I think Terry's the NWA champ.
234
00:11:44.810 --> 00:11:46.470
Dory is. Dory is.
235
00:11:46.610 --> 00:11:48.450
I'm sorry. We'll get into that later.
236
00:11:48.730 --> 00:11:53.450
But so, yeah, we've got a little bit of sexy saxophone.
237
00:11:53.770 --> 00:11:56.590
It sounds a little bit like the naked gun or like
238
00:11:56.590 --> 00:12:00.590
so many ABC after school specials and the music.
239
00:12:00.590 --> 00:12:04.290
The music is obviously just fucking
240
00:12:05.070 --> 00:12:06.830
like whatever you could get for free.
241
00:12:07.030 --> 00:12:08.170
Whatever domain music. Right.
242
00:12:08.190 --> 00:12:11.110
Whatever was available from whatever production studios library
243
00:12:11.110 --> 00:12:12.550
that they were working with.
244
00:12:12.830 --> 00:12:15.890
It feels like they went to like the local community college
245
00:12:15.890 --> 00:12:19.430
and like that's who they got to, you know, man the cameras.
246
00:12:19.750 --> 00:12:21.430
The sound is god awful.
247
00:12:21.550 --> 00:12:24.170
Like there are many points in the movie.
248
00:12:24.170 --> 00:12:27.670
Maybe it's just I had a bad transfer, but like it just sounds like
249
00:12:27.670 --> 00:12:30.690
they're in an open room full of echo, full of reverb.
250
00:12:32.050 --> 00:12:35.030
So maybe I missed a few plot points here, but that's OK.
251
00:12:35.270 --> 00:12:37.450
Also, everybody thinks they have a bad transfer
252
00:12:37.450 --> 00:12:39.250
because the movie's of poor quality.
253
00:12:39.830 --> 00:12:43.530
But yeah, the worst quality is always the in-ring stuff.
254
00:12:43.950 --> 00:12:44.690
Because what? Yeah.
255
00:12:45.450 --> 00:12:47.470
The last thing we got to mention before we get rolling here.
256
00:12:47.470 --> 00:12:51.270
Yeah, yeah. A lot of these matches were filmed with no audio.
257
00:12:51.590 --> 00:12:54.290
And so they add the audio in after the fact.
258
00:12:54.470 --> 00:12:56.170
And it's like a Bruce Lee movie with.
259
00:12:56.170 --> 00:13:00.010
Yeah. And then, you know,
260
00:13:00.070 --> 00:13:01.590
slapping somebody's skin or something.
261
00:13:01.690 --> 00:13:05.710
And then, but if they slam a guy, there's no Matt sound at all.
262
00:13:05.710 --> 00:13:06.890
Ever. No.
263
00:13:07.270 --> 00:13:08.310
And everyone's in a while.
264
00:13:08.330 --> 00:13:09.810
You'll catch somebody like
265
00:13:09.810 --> 00:13:13.470
yelling out in the crowd and it just totally it is fake.
266
00:13:13.470 --> 00:13:14.750
Crowd noise, too.
267
00:13:15.570 --> 00:13:18.670
There is a a very small man,
268
00:13:19.190 --> 00:13:23.830
like a little person walking around very triumphantly cheering and cheering.
269
00:13:23.830 --> 00:13:27.430
And then there's always a huge floodlight
270
00:13:27.430 --> 00:13:30.670
that they put the guys against the hard cam.
271
00:13:31.370 --> 00:13:33.690
So that is blinding and you can't see anything.
272
00:13:33.690 --> 00:13:36.130
And at one point, the shot where Verne does the drop
273
00:13:36.130 --> 00:13:39.930
kick in the first match, the ref makes sure to walk right
274
00:13:39.930 --> 00:13:44.610
in front of the camera and you get like a prolonged shot of his crotch
275
00:13:45.270 --> 00:13:47.110
before you see Verne hit the drop.
276
00:13:47.290 --> 00:13:48.830
That was the best shot we had.
277
00:13:48.850 --> 00:13:50.590
We just we only have so much film here.
278
00:13:50.590 --> 00:13:53.710
We got to run with this because a lot of the
279
00:13:54.230 --> 00:13:57.330
a lot of the budget for this movie, I think, went to the wood paneling
280
00:13:57.330 --> 00:14:00.970
in Verne's basement, because I'm pretty sure that's actually Verne's house
281
00:14:00.970 --> 00:14:03.030
where they they keep going. Oh, I think it is.
282
00:14:03.430 --> 00:14:05.850
Yeah. Dude's got a fireplace and shit like that.
283
00:14:05.850 --> 00:14:07.250
Like he didn't. Yeah.
284
00:14:07.930 --> 00:14:11.250
So OK. Who's in the first match?
285
00:14:11.270 --> 00:14:13.430
I'm trying to remember it's it's Verne and who else?
286
00:14:13.770 --> 00:14:15.910
Oh, it's probably Larry. It's probably Larry Henning.
287
00:14:15.950 --> 00:14:19.070
It might be, but to me, it actually looked like a guy
288
00:14:19.070 --> 00:14:22.390
who kind of looks like Nick Bachwinkle, but it's not Nick Bachwinkle.
289
00:14:23.070 --> 00:14:25.610
So I'm not I'm it's just a nobody character
290
00:14:25.610 --> 00:14:26.770
that nobody's going to care about.
291
00:14:27.030 --> 00:14:32.170
But, yeah, basically, you're meeting Ed Asner, who is the the the promoter.
292
00:14:32.270 --> 00:14:33.510
And Rod Serling. Yeah. Yeah.
293
00:14:33.970 --> 00:14:37.850
He's he's the one introducing, you know,
294
00:14:38.710 --> 00:14:39.790
the basic plot of the movie.
295
00:14:40.090 --> 00:14:43.850
So we cut to the wrestling office where Debbie,
296
00:14:43.870 --> 00:14:45.250
the secretary, is taking a phone call.
297
00:14:45.370 --> 00:14:49.490
Debbie has a penchant for sweater vests and butterfly collars.
298
00:14:49.490 --> 00:14:51.470
She's taking a call from Jim Barnett
299
00:14:51.470 --> 00:14:56.950
in what will be the first of many, many name drops in this movie.
300
00:14:58.730 --> 00:15:00.350
Bruiser and Crusher walk in.
301
00:15:00.470 --> 00:15:02.810
They have like a little playful back and forth with her.
302
00:15:03.950 --> 00:15:05.730
Ed Asner is getting them like tickets to Japan.
303
00:15:05.930 --> 00:15:06.730
It's like they're just
304
00:15:07.510 --> 00:15:11.630
the movie is nothing but Easter eggs for wrestling fans.
305
00:15:11.810 --> 00:15:12.170
You know what I mean?
306
00:15:12.170 --> 00:15:14.770
I mean, it's just, oh, he's the Japanese champ.
307
00:15:14.850 --> 00:15:15.950
Oh, they're going to do a tour.
308
00:15:16.130 --> 00:15:16.970
Oh, they're going to go to this.
309
00:15:16.970 --> 00:15:18.170
I don't think they mentioned
310
00:15:18.170 --> 00:15:21.090
Riviera steakhouse, but like it's like the only thing
311
00:15:21.090 --> 00:15:22.550
they don't mention in the movie.
312
00:15:22.550 --> 00:15:23.110
You know.
313
00:15:23.250 --> 00:15:27.590
Well, it's even Lord James Blair's who comes in and starts talking about it,
314
00:15:27.590 --> 00:15:29.970
who is a famous wrestling head from that time.
315
00:15:30.190 --> 00:15:31.830
He was running like Hawaii.
316
00:15:31.830 --> 00:15:34.190
I think he was a part of running Hawaii.
317
00:15:34.710 --> 00:15:36.910
And when they say Jim Barnett's calling, you know,
318
00:15:36.910 --> 00:15:41.930
he's famously known as a GCW Georgia guy and then a WWF guy.
319
00:15:41.990 --> 00:15:44.750
But at the time, he he literally had to leave
320
00:15:44.750 --> 00:15:47.350
the United States and run wrestling in Australia
321
00:15:48.450 --> 00:15:50.370
because he scammed a bunch of people.
322
00:15:50.810 --> 00:15:54.450
And so he had a wrestling promoter, scammed a bunch of people.
323
00:15:55.210 --> 00:15:56.390
I've never heard of that.
324
00:15:56.710 --> 00:15:59.670
But do you know what the name of his Australian promotion was degree?
325
00:16:00.510 --> 00:16:01.810
World Championship Wrestling.
326
00:16:02.230 --> 00:16:02.770
No shit.
327
00:16:02.970 --> 00:16:06.350
Yes. Well, how about that as the first time the WCW name was ever used?
328
00:16:07.050 --> 00:16:09.670
Fantastic. So then Mike Buller's wife calls.
329
00:16:09.670 --> 00:16:11.730
And this is a little bit more of an emergency.
330
00:16:12.190 --> 00:16:13.330
Ed Asner.
331
00:16:13.450 --> 00:16:14.870
I mean, I think Ed Asner is good.
332
00:16:14.870 --> 00:16:18.230
I think the lady who plays the secretary is actually pretty good, too.
333
00:16:18.510 --> 00:16:19.370
I mean, they're actors.
334
00:16:20.470 --> 00:16:21.850
Yes, the actors who play them.
335
00:16:21.850 --> 00:16:22.930
They know they are acting.
336
00:16:23.070 --> 00:16:25.510
They know how to act like she's super charming.
337
00:16:25.550 --> 00:16:28.130
And she's just got an adorable smile.
338
00:16:28.430 --> 00:16:32.990
And he's just exasperated and having one of these.
339
00:16:33.250 --> 00:16:34.190
Yeah. Yeah.
340
00:16:34.370 --> 00:16:36.710
So he leaves.
341
00:16:37.010 --> 00:16:40.930
So he has to go to to her house, Verne's wife
342
00:16:40.930 --> 00:16:44.330
to calm her down on his way to the door,
343
00:16:44.330 --> 00:16:46.730
which is about as far away as that door to me.
344
00:16:46.950 --> 00:16:51.490
He name props Lord James Blears, Gene Kyniski and Cowboy Bill Watts
345
00:16:51.490 --> 00:16:54.070
before he even hits the fucking door. Right.
346
00:16:54.270 --> 00:16:56.890
And then the secretary mentions superstar Billy Graham.
347
00:16:57.370 --> 00:17:00.590
Yes. And then as he's leaving, she also runs up
348
00:17:00.590 --> 00:17:02.170
and kisses him on the cheek.
349
00:17:03.070 --> 00:17:04.730
And that is foreshadowing.
350
00:17:06.970 --> 00:17:08.849
Now he looks like his granddaughter.
351
00:17:11.250 --> 00:17:13.150
Yeah, dude.
352
00:17:14.190 --> 00:17:15.670
And it's like but it's 1974.
353
00:17:15.670 --> 00:17:17.950
This woman's probably 32 years old.
354
00:17:17.970 --> 00:17:20.069
So she's basically a spinster in 70s.
355
00:17:20.950 --> 00:17:22.790
You know, time frame, whatever.
356
00:17:23.609 --> 00:17:26.010
So anyway, Asner goes over to Mike Bullard's house.
357
00:17:26.230 --> 00:17:27.390
His wife is there.
358
00:17:27.910 --> 00:17:29.790
She goes downstairs and tells him.
359
00:17:30.110 --> 00:17:30.930
And this was fucked up.
360
00:17:31.050 --> 00:17:33.210
She mentions Bobby Duncan. Right.
361
00:17:33.550 --> 00:17:35.730
He must have just recently died at that point.
362
00:17:35.830 --> 00:17:38.630
And like, I hope you got Bobby
363
00:17:39.310 --> 00:17:45.090
Duncan's family's consent to mention his name and his death in this film.
364
00:17:45.090 --> 00:17:47.450
But because of his death, she's concerned.
365
00:17:47.690 --> 00:17:49.230
She doesn't want Mike to die.
366
00:17:49.230 --> 00:17:52.530
Vern, she shows him some footage.
367
00:17:53.550 --> 00:17:54.970
Of a bunch of different superstars.
368
00:17:54.990 --> 00:17:56.530
Blade, who do we see at this point?
369
00:17:57.590 --> 00:17:59.670
Yeah, since I'm doing all the talking here.
370
00:17:59.670 --> 00:18:02.910
Yeah. So she makes Ed, she makes Ed Asner
371
00:18:02.910 --> 00:18:06.890
watch footage of Pedro Morales, who they because they have one of those
372
00:18:06.890 --> 00:18:10.090
reel to reel things and everybody's got a reel to reel in their home.
373
00:18:10.530 --> 00:18:12.270
Like, it's like these tiny little things.
374
00:18:12.410 --> 00:18:15.070
Yeah. So they're watching footage of Pedro Morales,
375
00:18:15.070 --> 00:18:19.130
who was the WWF champion and outside of kayfabe at the time.
376
00:18:19.230 --> 00:18:22.010
And he refers to him as the Eastern States.
377
00:18:22.630 --> 00:18:25.350
Yeah. And then they show footage of Dory Funk.
378
00:18:26.930 --> 00:18:29.390
And then while they're showing the footage of Dory Funk,
379
00:18:29.410 --> 00:18:34.190
who was the NWA champion, she notes how good they are and how young they are.
380
00:18:34.230 --> 00:18:37.870
And I simply have to say Dory Funk looks no younger than 55 years old.
381
00:18:38.710 --> 00:18:40.830
He looks just as old as Mike.
382
00:18:41.010 --> 00:18:43.690
And so they talk about Vern crossing leagues
383
00:18:43.690 --> 00:18:47.130
because what they're building to is a Super Bowl of wrestling
384
00:18:47.130 --> 00:18:49.430
where all the champions never been done with each other.
385
00:18:49.650 --> 00:18:53.330
It's never been. Oh, Mike's never crossed leagues before.
386
00:18:53.350 --> 00:18:54.450
You're right. Right.
387
00:18:55.050 --> 00:18:59.010
But she is definitely afraid that my dude, that Vern,
388
00:18:59.190 --> 00:19:00.650
we got to stop calling him my convert.
389
00:19:00.870 --> 00:19:01.510
Yeah, sorry.
390
00:19:01.690 --> 00:19:06.630
So she is really afraid because he's been taking on the best in the world
391
00:19:06.630 --> 00:19:09.050
that he's going to die in the ring.
392
00:19:09.630 --> 00:19:12.650
And yes, and Ed Asner tries to comfort her.
393
00:19:12.650 --> 00:19:15.670
And for a minute, I kind of wonder if they're going to fuck.
394
00:19:16.050 --> 00:19:17.490
But they don't, they don't.
395
00:19:17.610 --> 00:19:18.990
Because it's soft lighting.
396
00:19:19.130 --> 00:19:21.630
She's gazing out the window and he kind of like comes up
397
00:19:21.630 --> 00:19:25.170
and puts his hands on her shoulders and he like may even give her
398
00:19:25.170 --> 00:19:26.030
a little kiss or something.
399
00:19:26.230 --> 00:19:27.810
Yes. But it was the 70s.
400
00:19:27.810 --> 00:19:29.890
It was a different time. You could do that.
401
00:19:29.930 --> 00:19:30.910
Yep. Yep.
402
00:19:31.150 --> 00:19:33.250
Then it cuts to go ahead.
403
00:19:34.050 --> 00:19:35.210
It's one of the highlights. You're ready.
404
00:19:35.610 --> 00:19:37.090
I'm sorry. I was really excited.
405
00:19:37.210 --> 00:19:38.010
I'm sorry. I didn't want to like.
406
00:19:38.050 --> 00:19:39.410
No, you go ahead. You go ahead.
407
00:19:39.410 --> 00:19:43.030
But then it cuts to the scene of Ed Asner in the sauna,
408
00:19:43.670 --> 00:19:44.870
laying down in the sauna.
409
00:19:45.870 --> 00:19:49.330
With what appears to be a sweater vest, it's not.
410
00:19:49.930 --> 00:19:51.490
It's just it's not on his back.
411
00:19:51.710 --> 00:19:53.050
He was built with that.
412
00:19:53.830 --> 00:19:57.610
And a couple of mobsters show up and they start strong arming him.
413
00:19:57.690 --> 00:19:59.870
They want Mike to throw the match.
414
00:20:00.330 --> 00:20:01.850
Or do they just want money at this point?
415
00:20:01.990 --> 00:20:03.270
They just want money.
416
00:20:03.290 --> 00:20:06.330
I think they want to get in on the action is the thing.
417
00:20:06.330 --> 00:20:09.690
And they and they wanted a hard man.
418
00:20:09.830 --> 00:20:11.850
He's he's not conceding anything.
419
00:20:12.350 --> 00:20:15.050
Well, if there's one thing that, you know, Ed Asner, as you said earlier,
420
00:20:15.750 --> 00:20:17.330
he's not always on the up and up.
421
00:20:17.350 --> 00:20:19.430
He is kind of trying to screw his guys over.
422
00:20:19.490 --> 00:20:22.070
But as a promoter, there's one thing that he will never do
423
00:20:22.070 --> 00:20:23.450
and that is throw a wrestling match.
424
00:20:23.470 --> 00:20:25.570
He will never fix a wrestling match.
425
00:20:25.630 --> 00:20:26.370
He will never work.
426
00:20:26.670 --> 00:20:28.970
Wrestling is absolutely a legitimate sport.
427
00:20:29.490 --> 00:20:31.410
Yep. It's nothing staged at all.
428
00:20:31.450 --> 00:20:33.810
Right. And then bruiser and crusher show up.
429
00:20:33.930 --> 00:20:35.690
And they're basically just kind of like
430
00:20:36.150 --> 00:20:37.350
fuck, you get out of here.
431
00:20:37.590 --> 00:20:39.150
Yeah, they scare the mob off.
432
00:20:39.910 --> 00:20:43.170
And like, I like bruiser and crusher in this movie.
433
00:20:43.370 --> 00:20:45.030
I think one of the better money there.
434
00:20:45.050 --> 00:20:47.710
They're very entertaining in their day.
435
00:20:49.050 --> 00:20:51.850
Yeah, they play them like they're like, I don't know,
436
00:20:51.850 --> 00:20:53.610
not like Abbott and Costello or something,
437
00:20:53.610 --> 00:20:55.330
but they're just kind of a couple of goofballs.
438
00:20:55.330 --> 00:20:56.850
And like, they're funny.
439
00:20:56.870 --> 00:20:58.110
They're good. They're a little solid.
440
00:20:58.130 --> 00:21:00.350
They're a couple of good big dummies who were there
441
00:21:00.350 --> 00:21:01.690
to provide some comic relief.
442
00:21:01.870 --> 00:21:02.990
They're glutes.
443
00:21:03.270 --> 00:21:04.430
Yes, they are glutes.
444
00:21:06.350 --> 00:21:08.050
Back in Ed Asner's office.
445
00:21:08.350 --> 00:21:11.190
And now keep in mind, this is maybe 20 minutes into the movie.
446
00:21:11.270 --> 00:21:15.650
Yeah, I felt like like at least an hour had gone by.
447
00:21:15.690 --> 00:21:18.690
And I was like, wow, like this is only an hour and 45 minutes.
448
00:21:18.770 --> 00:21:19.710
Are we going to get to it?
449
00:21:20.210 --> 00:21:22.510
It just moves that way.
450
00:21:24.430 --> 00:21:26.650
Here's where Lord James Blair shows up.
451
00:21:26.650 --> 00:21:30.510
Yeah, he's got a reel to reel, and he wants to show
452
00:21:30.510 --> 00:21:35.370
Billy Taylor, who has won titles in every title in Europe and Asia.
453
00:21:36.250 --> 00:21:37.790
Ed Asner sees this footage.
454
00:21:37.790 --> 00:21:40.730
He calls him a combination of Gotch and Nagurski.
455
00:21:40.810 --> 00:21:43.370
And he says he's got to get him two more names there.
456
00:21:43.370 --> 00:21:45.550
We should start having like a dinger, like a counter.
457
00:21:45.730 --> 00:21:47.190
I know. I know.
458
00:21:48.190 --> 00:21:50.510
This is this is a very star fucker movie.
459
00:21:51.050 --> 00:21:52.170
Dude, the whole thing.
460
00:21:52.230 --> 00:21:53.430
Yeah, I want it.
461
00:21:53.610 --> 00:21:58.650
But it's Billy Robinson playing Billy Taylor, who Billy Robinson is
462
00:21:59.470 --> 00:22:03.790
legend in Japan, legend in Britain and legend in America.
463
00:22:03.790 --> 00:22:06.950
You know, one of the greatest scientific wrestlers of all time.
464
00:22:07.430 --> 00:22:10.390
He trained a ton of people, tons of people.
465
00:22:10.530 --> 00:22:11.650
I mean, tons and tons and tons.
466
00:22:11.710 --> 00:22:14.070
I'm sure he worked with Finley and Regal.
467
00:22:14.190 --> 00:22:16.270
I'm sure he had something to do with them.
468
00:22:16.370 --> 00:22:18.650
Yeah. And he's good, like all the shit they show.
469
00:22:18.710 --> 00:22:20.170
He's totally. Yeah.
470
00:22:20.210 --> 00:22:22.170
I mean, he's a technical wrestler.
471
00:22:22.350 --> 00:22:24.570
It's like watching a 70's Zack Sabre Jr.
472
00:22:24.970 --> 00:22:27.630
You know, who I fucking love.
473
00:22:28.230 --> 00:22:29.250
Like Zack Sabre Jr.
474
00:22:29.350 --> 00:22:32.890
It was a barrel chested, you know, he didn't wear knee pads.
475
00:22:32.890 --> 00:22:34.370
Yeah. Well, yeah.
476
00:22:34.370 --> 00:22:37.410
If he wasn't fucking 97 pounds, then yes.
477
00:22:37.990 --> 00:22:41.690
But the point of Blair showing up is to tell Ed Asner
478
00:22:41.690 --> 00:22:43.810
he's got a challenge for Verne.
479
00:22:43.970 --> 00:22:46.810
I've got the guy that's going to take Verne down.
480
00:22:46.910 --> 00:22:51.790
So they watch some tape and yeah, he's a combination of Nagurski and Gotch.
481
00:22:52.050 --> 00:22:55.330
Then they're going to go see Billy Robinson train in a gym.
482
00:22:55.790 --> 00:23:00.050
Right. We cut in on a guy lifting these huge weights.
483
00:23:00.050 --> 00:23:02.210
It's fucking Ken Patera.
484
00:23:02.570 --> 00:23:03.590
Right. And I didn't even catch that.
485
00:23:04.050 --> 00:23:04.930
Gigantic weights.
486
00:23:05.590 --> 00:23:07.610
I'm like, I didn't think Billy Robinson could lift like that.
487
00:23:07.650 --> 00:23:10.590
It's not Billy Robinson. That's why it's Ken Patera.
488
00:23:10.690 --> 00:23:14.210
Yeah, they kind of the camera travels with the characters
489
00:23:14.210 --> 00:23:16.930
and they go to the back of the gym where you see
490
00:23:19.270 --> 00:23:20.150
Billy basically.
491
00:23:21.770 --> 00:23:26.270
Like big timing of fucking somebody who can't look at his level at all.
492
00:23:26.590 --> 00:23:27.030
Right.
493
00:23:29.250 --> 00:23:32.730
And you it's I think it's Mike Graham, actually.
494
00:23:33.270 --> 00:23:34.850
Oh, no shit. Yeah, I think it is.
495
00:23:35.070 --> 00:23:39.870
So Asner shows up and he's basically just like, hey, I want to book you
496
00:23:39.870 --> 00:23:43.950
for this exhibition match with Bachwinkle at the Boys Club,
497
00:23:44.030 --> 00:23:47.270
where they're going to do like a little, I don't know, whatever,
498
00:23:47.510 --> 00:23:49.390
little show to try to get some kids involved in wrestling.
499
00:23:49.670 --> 00:23:51.110
He says he wants to do it.
500
00:23:51.110 --> 00:23:53.790
Ed goes back to his office and he says, get another ticket
501
00:23:53.790 --> 00:23:55.070
for that flight tonight.
502
00:23:55.790 --> 00:23:59.270
Ed Asner is convinced that this guy is going to win and beat
503
00:23:59.270 --> 00:24:02.730
Verne Gagne and his secretary just says no, she has faith.
504
00:24:02.730 --> 00:24:04.770
She knows that nobody can beat Verne Gagne.
505
00:24:05.950 --> 00:24:08.810
Also, you hear the audio of her making the reservation.
506
00:24:08.810 --> 00:24:10.010
And just to give you
507
00:24:10.510 --> 00:24:13.610
some perspective on what it took to book a flight back then,
508
00:24:13.890 --> 00:24:17.390
she goes, yes, I'd like to book one more seat on the plane.
509
00:24:17.670 --> 00:24:19.610
And they go, OK, what's his name?
510
00:24:19.630 --> 00:24:21.750
And she gives them their name and then they go, cool.
511
00:24:21.830 --> 00:24:23.570
And that's it. That's the end of the conversation.
512
00:24:25.030 --> 00:24:25.830
Yeah, there's.
513
00:24:26.090 --> 00:24:30.070
We have some contrary in the in the chat here from Billy, Billy.
514
00:24:30.390 --> 00:24:32.410
Tons of people had movie projectors back in those days.
515
00:24:32.410 --> 00:24:33.850
It was the time of Super 8 films.
516
00:24:33.990 --> 00:24:35.650
All of your grandparents had them guaranteed.
517
00:24:36.650 --> 00:24:37.610
And then Billy says,
518
00:24:37.630 --> 00:24:40.570
I don't think Mike is trying to screw over his own wrestlers.
519
00:24:40.610 --> 00:24:43.810
His passion was to try to find somebody to beat Verne.
520
00:24:43.950 --> 00:24:45.270
He had all the respect for the sport.
521
00:24:45.370 --> 00:24:46.850
I wanted to find a worthy opponent.
522
00:24:47.030 --> 00:24:49.310
I'm just saying if he was loyal to Verne,
523
00:24:49.310 --> 00:24:50.650
maybe he wouldn't have done that.
524
00:24:50.650 --> 00:24:53.610
Well, I think I'm not looking.
525
00:24:53.750 --> 00:24:56.770
I mean, I'm not looking for people to beat you up there.
526
00:24:56.870 --> 00:24:57.350
Well, right.
527
00:24:57.630 --> 00:24:59.630
But I'm also not a wrestler, you see.
528
00:25:00.130 --> 00:25:02.270
And so all the more reason to beat you up.
529
00:25:02.270 --> 00:25:05.330
Go on. Well, that's well said, but well taken.
530
00:25:05.830 --> 00:25:10.630
But the what I would say is at times they kind of portray
531
00:25:10.630 --> 00:25:15.710
Ed Asner in a way where he's his motives are dubious
532
00:25:15.710 --> 00:25:17.750
and they kind of reveal at the end.
533
00:25:18.170 --> 00:25:20.310
You know, I hate to spoil this for you guys that
534
00:25:20.650 --> 00:25:22.630
he's more on the level than you'd think.
535
00:25:24.470 --> 00:25:26.390
But yeah, and then fuck your mama two times says
536
00:25:26.390 --> 00:25:27.810
also real quick, Billy.
537
00:25:27.910 --> 00:25:31.210
Billy, your your grandma and grandpa were filming porn and snuff films.
538
00:25:31.210 --> 00:25:32.470
That's why they had that reel to reel.
539
00:25:32.490 --> 00:25:33.910
My parents didn't have one of those.
540
00:25:33.910 --> 00:25:35.390
Yeah, my parents go on.
541
00:25:36.230 --> 00:25:38.070
He asked, fuck your mama two times asked,
542
00:25:38.190 --> 00:25:40.370
we talk in rollerball, Rocco, Kendo, Nagasaki,
543
00:25:40.670 --> 00:25:42.190
giant haystacks and Big Daddy yet.
544
00:25:43.330 --> 00:25:46.710
No, no, only one British guy and that makes it in this movie.
545
00:25:46.890 --> 00:25:48.590
Yeah. And and I'm sorry.
546
00:25:48.590 --> 00:25:50.550
Blurry line also makes it clear
547
00:25:51.050 --> 00:25:55.030
if you feel like I've spoiled this for you, you've only had 52 years to watch this.
548
00:25:55.050 --> 00:25:55.990
Yeah, yeah.
549
00:25:56.830 --> 00:25:59.930
The big reveal in the sequel is actually that Ed Asner was her father.
550
00:26:00.190 --> 00:26:02.330
Oh, so then it.
551
00:26:02.550 --> 00:26:05.390
Yeah, then old boy is actually based on right.
552
00:26:05.490 --> 00:26:06.290
Thank you. Yes.
553
00:26:06.350 --> 00:26:07.350
Thank we've just ruined.
554
00:26:07.750 --> 00:26:09.610
Now we've ruined old boy as well.
555
00:26:10.730 --> 00:26:12.330
Then it cuts to this cool thing
556
00:26:12.330 --> 00:26:15.390
where the whole screen is like an old fashioned TV
557
00:26:15.390 --> 00:26:18.610
and they you see a wrestler on the television cut in a promo.
558
00:26:18.890 --> 00:26:21.810
And I guess the TV is in Verne's house.
559
00:26:21.810 --> 00:26:23.390
But you don't you don't always see that.
560
00:26:23.430 --> 00:26:26.430
But it's just a really cool, like just a recurring theme
561
00:26:26.430 --> 00:26:28.390
is that just your whole screen is just this.
562
00:26:28.450 --> 00:26:31.130
So it's like you're watching it in those days.
563
00:26:31.230 --> 00:26:32.410
And Billy Graham, isn't it?
564
00:26:32.550 --> 00:26:34.070
It's fucking superstar Billy Graham.
565
00:26:34.250 --> 00:26:35.390
And he's awesome.
566
00:26:35.550 --> 00:26:39.090
And then it cuts to a horribly shot match of him
567
00:26:39.090 --> 00:26:41.190
dragging Wahoo McDaniel around.
568
00:26:42.230 --> 00:26:44.930
You can't even tell what's happening.
569
00:26:44.930 --> 00:26:47.410
No. And you can't even tell that it's a strap
570
00:26:47.410 --> 00:26:49.070
match until the very, very end.
571
00:26:49.810 --> 00:26:51.210
Yeah. And Wahoo wins.
572
00:26:51.670 --> 00:26:54.770
There's a saxophone that sounds like
573
00:26:54.770 --> 00:26:56.430
that old Nestle commercial.
574
00:26:56.690 --> 00:27:01.050
You know, what fucking sweet dreams you can't resist.
575
00:27:01.350 --> 00:27:03.630
And yes, he is.
576
00:27:04.150 --> 00:27:07.130
It's yeah, it's that so.
577
00:27:08.130 --> 00:27:09.630
It's fucking stupid.
578
00:27:10.910 --> 00:27:13.710
Backstage, there's a wrestler getting his blood pressure taken
579
00:27:13.710 --> 00:27:16.210
and Graham walks in face full of blood.
580
00:27:16.330 --> 00:27:18.490
I got to get stitches for this man.
581
00:27:18.610 --> 00:27:19.750
Yeah. Yeah.
582
00:27:19.750 --> 00:27:23.730
And then Ed Esner is talking to Billy Taylor in the hallway.
583
00:27:26.210 --> 00:27:30.770
Oh, and then we get the fish eye lens of who I thought
584
00:27:30.770 --> 00:27:32.880
and you apparently also thought was Mike Bullard
585
00:27:34.730 --> 00:27:37.650
fighting someone who I thought was Ray Stevens.
586
00:27:37.850 --> 00:27:39.870
It is race, but it's actually oh, it is race even.
587
00:27:39.870 --> 00:27:41.750
So it's Jackie Cutter.
588
00:27:42.390 --> 00:27:45.070
Well, Jack Cutter is the Verne guy, the bald guy.
589
00:27:45.370 --> 00:27:46.350
Yeah, yeah.
590
00:27:46.350 --> 00:27:49.710
And he's actually NCAA champ Joe Scarpello.
591
00:27:50.070 --> 00:27:53.390
Yes. So then after he dies,
592
00:27:53.850 --> 00:27:56.390
what is it that hold on after he dies?
593
00:27:56.650 --> 00:28:00.170
Yeah. You don't just say after he dies, because.
594
00:28:00.790 --> 00:28:02.790
So this is a major plot point in the ring.
595
00:28:02.890 --> 00:28:06.130
Oh, yeah. A major plot point in the movie is you see race.
596
00:28:06.370 --> 00:28:08.930
You might miss it because this movie's pace terribly.
597
00:28:08.930 --> 00:28:12.310
Go on. Ray Stevens is wrestling this bald guy
598
00:28:12.310 --> 00:28:15.630
who looks just like Verne Ganya and a bit hairier.
599
00:28:15.630 --> 00:28:16.890
But yeah, it's dark.
600
00:28:17.290 --> 00:28:20.150
So it's very hard to tell what's going on.
601
00:28:20.330 --> 00:28:24.610
But he slams this guy on the mat.
602
00:28:24.610 --> 00:28:27.730
It turns out to be Jack Cutter then.
603
00:28:28.330 --> 00:28:30.790
And Stevens clearly has him beef, right?
604
00:28:30.930 --> 00:28:33.210
Oh, yeah. Then he climbs the top rope.
605
00:28:33.890 --> 00:28:37.790
And he jumps off the top rope and he drops a knee on the man's face.
606
00:28:37.790 --> 00:28:42.090
Mm hmm. He's automatically disqualified for jumping off the top rope.
607
00:28:42.210 --> 00:28:44.110
But this guy's not moving at all.
608
00:28:44.310 --> 00:28:48.990
Then the doctors come in and they go, this man is dead.
609
00:28:50.350 --> 00:28:52.110
I did leave that huge plot point.
610
00:28:52.370 --> 00:28:54.090
Yeah, it's kind of a big fucking development.
611
00:28:54.170 --> 00:28:55.730
You moron. So you know why?
612
00:28:55.730 --> 00:28:59.770
Because even in 1974, that fucking flippy shit was killing people.
613
00:29:00.130 --> 00:29:02.410
And, you know, we saw it even here in this movie.
614
00:29:02.490 --> 00:29:03.770
It's 52 years old.
615
00:29:04.190 --> 00:29:06.390
I think it's about time to put an end to it. Yeah.
616
00:29:07.250 --> 00:29:13.070
So basically, the point is that Ray Stevens has murdered a man in the ring.
617
00:29:13.210 --> 00:29:15.730
He there's no criminal charges filed.
618
00:29:17.350 --> 00:29:19.010
I don't think he intended to murder him.
619
00:29:19.150 --> 00:29:20.270
It's like manslaughter.
620
00:29:20.470 --> 00:29:22.390
I think he didn't even have to do the move.
621
00:29:22.930 --> 00:29:24.910
You know what I mean? He didn't even have to.
622
00:29:24.990 --> 00:29:25.670
You know, didn't have to.
623
00:29:25.710 --> 00:29:27.650
Did Gorgeous George have to primp and preen?
624
00:29:27.670 --> 00:29:29.510
Of course not. But he did.
625
00:29:29.710 --> 00:29:32.290
I mean, you know, sometimes I mean, the thing is,
626
00:29:32.290 --> 00:29:34.710
he probably fought Jack Cutter before he probably knew
627
00:29:34.710 --> 00:29:36.710
it was going to take two finishers to put him out.
628
00:29:37.350 --> 00:29:39.410
So, I mean, I don't blame him.
629
00:29:39.410 --> 00:29:41.950
I don't think he was at fault for killing that man.
630
00:29:42.030 --> 00:29:42.890
And then did.
631
00:29:43.530 --> 00:29:46.590
So my notes say Ray kills a guy with a diving knee drop.
632
00:29:46.870 --> 00:29:49.210
He's declared dead. He looks just like Burganya.
633
00:29:49.330 --> 00:29:51.390
They then cut to a shot of the ring announcer telling the crowd
634
00:29:51.390 --> 00:29:55.350
the guy's dead, where you can clearly see Jack Cutter's dead body
635
00:29:55.350 --> 00:29:57.250
breathing at after.
636
00:29:58.250 --> 00:30:01.350
Then they cut to Ed Asner talking to these reporters.
637
00:30:01.350 --> 00:30:04.870
And he's ranting and raving.
638
00:30:04.990 --> 00:30:09.650
Ed Asner rants to the newspaper people there after the show about why
639
00:30:09.650 --> 00:30:12.510
they wouldn't even cover Jack Cutter's death when they would cover
640
00:30:12.510 --> 00:30:14.130
anything that happened in football.
641
00:30:14.630 --> 00:30:18.810
Oh, a football player stubs his toe and it's a five page report.
642
00:30:18.890 --> 00:30:22.530
And the newspaper guy goes, well, that's because this doesn't
643
00:30:22.530 --> 00:30:23.970
belong in the sports section.
644
00:30:24.310 --> 00:30:26.790
This belongs in the theater section.
645
00:30:26.990 --> 00:30:29.670
And Ed Asner goes, what? Because we're colorful.
646
00:30:30.230 --> 00:30:35.490
Right. And so and this is the scene we were talking about where go ahead.
647
00:30:35.830 --> 00:30:39.090
He basically doesn't ever say it's not fake.
648
00:30:39.110 --> 00:30:42.230
And then he calls themselves colorful.
649
00:30:42.630 --> 00:30:43.590
That was interesting.
650
00:30:43.650 --> 00:30:47.230
And then the newspaper guy says, if wrestling such a big deal,
651
00:30:47.350 --> 00:30:48.310
what was Cutter earning?
652
00:30:48.410 --> 00:30:49.650
Seventy five dollars a night.
653
00:30:49.950 --> 00:30:53.210
Guy doesn't realize that Bern almost certainly didn't pay that much.
654
00:30:54.170 --> 00:30:57.190
The newspaper guy accidentally makes a lot of good points
655
00:30:57.190 --> 00:30:58.610
and he's supposed to be the villain.
656
00:30:59.170 --> 00:31:04.210
Ed Asner also says there's 40 million wrestling fans who want to know about it.
657
00:31:06.270 --> 00:31:10.210
And then and then Asner closes by saying, if this is fake,
658
00:31:10.250 --> 00:31:14.210
then why don't you tell that to DBS and he names off all these people
659
00:31:14.210 --> 00:31:16.130
who died in a bunch of dead wrestlers.
660
00:31:16.130 --> 00:31:19.230
Yeah. Yeah. And it's kind of like, I hope their families were OK
661
00:31:19.230 --> 00:31:21.470
with you doing that. Like I really do.
662
00:31:21.910 --> 00:31:25.550
I feel like this scene is where you are really getting that.
663
00:31:25.630 --> 00:31:28.490
Like we were talking about Vern's philosophy coming through this
664
00:31:28.490 --> 00:31:31.010
scene is it because it's all.
665
00:31:32.010 --> 00:31:32.950
Yeah, we're colorful.
666
00:31:33.230 --> 00:31:36.210
And he I mean, he says something, a couple of things about how,
667
00:31:36.210 --> 00:31:38.430
you know, these guys are busting their asses every night.
668
00:31:38.630 --> 00:31:40.410
They have to work out. They have to train.
669
00:31:40.530 --> 00:31:44.390
I mean, he's basically making the same arguments we still hear today.
670
00:31:44.630 --> 00:31:47.270
I mean, people don't make the fake comments as much as they used to.
671
00:31:47.410 --> 00:31:49.870
But just yeah, like he's defending it.
672
00:31:49.870 --> 00:31:51.890
He's just saying it's just like any other sport.
673
00:31:53.050 --> 00:31:56.330
He just stops just before he says it's worked.
674
00:31:56.330 --> 00:31:59.950
You know, he never actually says it's not fake.
675
00:32:00.450 --> 00:32:02.810
Right. And this is real athletic competition.
676
00:32:02.830 --> 00:32:04.070
He never says that.
677
00:32:04.350 --> 00:32:09.410
And no, it's just it was kind of ahead of its time, really.
678
00:32:09.570 --> 00:32:11.610
No, it was. And it reminds me like, did you?
679
00:32:12.330 --> 00:32:13.990
Are we going to spoil the iron claw here?
680
00:32:14.010 --> 00:32:14.930
Did you see the iron claw?
681
00:32:16.010 --> 00:32:18.050
I saw half of it and I got bored.
682
00:32:18.510 --> 00:32:22.250
There's a part where they go out on whatever von Eric
683
00:32:22.250 --> 00:32:25.490
goes out on a date with a girl and he's describing wrestling to her.
684
00:32:25.490 --> 00:32:29.030
And he's just like, well, it's what does he say?
685
00:32:29.310 --> 00:32:32.190
You know how when you go to a job, you work really hard at your job
686
00:32:32.190 --> 00:32:35.230
because you want to do the best and you want to be on top at your job.
687
00:32:35.570 --> 00:32:37.250
Well, wrestling is the same way.
688
00:32:37.270 --> 00:32:40.450
And it's the same thing where it's like he comes really like
689
00:32:40.450 --> 00:32:42.970
she calls it fake. He won't call it fake.
690
00:32:43.870 --> 00:32:46.710
And they did a pretty good job of like kind of explaining it.
691
00:32:46.710 --> 00:32:47.770
But this movie does.
692
00:32:48.370 --> 00:32:51.010
I mean, I think it does a fair job of it's a fair defense.
693
00:32:51.010 --> 00:32:54.610
That's pretty good. And like you said, 1974, it's way ahead of its time.
694
00:32:54.610 --> 00:32:56.030
It's a great defense.
695
00:32:56.190 --> 00:32:57.230
And it's very logical.
696
00:32:57.310 --> 00:32:58.850
Well, it's legit. Yeah.
697
00:32:59.030 --> 00:33:02.310
Yeah. Oh, it's the same things we're saying today.
698
00:33:02.430 --> 00:33:04.270
You know, the bookie guy.
699
00:33:04.490 --> 00:33:08.190
So Ed is coming back from this trip.
700
00:33:08.850 --> 00:33:09.890
He's at the airport.
701
00:33:09.990 --> 00:33:13.550
The bookie guy and his muscle confront Ed again with the you know,
702
00:33:13.550 --> 00:33:14.530
he's with the two thugs.
703
00:33:14.670 --> 00:33:18.910
The bookies want Vern to throw the match with Taylor. Right.
704
00:33:19.270 --> 00:33:21.770
You know, because then this is very legitimate match.
705
00:33:21.770 --> 00:33:26.690
It's classic 1970s filmmaking, too, and especially like low budget
706
00:33:26.690 --> 00:33:30.950
where it's like we don't really have enough time to do more than one
707
00:33:30.950 --> 00:33:31.550
camera angle.
708
00:33:31.550 --> 00:33:34.730
So we're just going to hold the camera on you for the entirety
709
00:33:34.730 --> 00:33:36.710
of this five minute conversation.
710
00:33:36.710 --> 00:33:39.850
And it's no, there's no fucking guts.
711
00:33:40.230 --> 00:33:43.190
No. Then they go back.
712
00:33:43.310 --> 00:33:44.090
We're back at the office.
713
00:33:44.130 --> 00:33:47.690
And also, it should be said, Frank stays hard as fuck.
714
00:33:47.830 --> 00:33:49.370
Guarantees that he won't do it.
715
00:33:49.490 --> 00:33:51.090
And he doesn't like flinch at all.
716
00:33:51.090 --> 00:33:53.770
You can tell he's been in this business a long time because he doesn't flinch
717
00:33:53.770 --> 00:33:55.970
at all at various points in this movie.
718
00:33:56.150 --> 00:33:58.150
I actually got confused.
719
00:33:58.150 --> 00:34:02.790
And I thought that Ed Asner was who's that guy from Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
720
00:34:03.370 --> 00:34:07.670
Oh, Bob Hoskins, Hoskins, Hoskins name check.
721
00:34:08.030 --> 00:34:09.150
Right. So then we go.
722
00:34:09.670 --> 00:34:10.250
You've only watched.
723
00:34:10.850 --> 00:34:14.489
Well, I don't like the oil picks because they're generally incorrect and wrong.
724
00:34:15.230 --> 00:34:16.210
And they're all kind of the same.
725
00:34:16.350 --> 00:34:20.730
I like that movie, but I don't really watch music movies
726
00:34:20.730 --> 00:34:23.630
because I don't I don't watch the exact same movie.
727
00:34:23.630 --> 00:34:27.730
Yeah, I mean, like I'll watch them later on just because I do like that stuff.
728
00:34:27.870 --> 00:34:29.929
But anyway, back to the office.
729
00:34:31.830 --> 00:34:33.429
Sam Muchnick is name checked.
730
00:34:33.630 --> 00:34:36.409
The secretary says Sam Muchnick called to see if.
731
00:34:37.489 --> 00:34:40.850
Ed Asner was going to go to the committee meeting.
732
00:34:41.170 --> 00:34:42.170
Oh, right, right.
733
00:34:42.350 --> 00:34:45.270
Which was which is like the NWA meeting,
734
00:34:45.350 --> 00:34:48.090
which is funny because the AWA wasn't in the NWA.
735
00:34:48.290 --> 00:34:50.469
Right. So Betty Bullard called
736
00:34:51.870 --> 00:34:55.590
Mike Bullard called and the secretary accidentally slipped up
737
00:34:55.590 --> 00:34:57.570
and told him all about Billy Taylor.
738
00:34:58.170 --> 00:34:59.690
She offers to resign.
739
00:35:00.390 --> 00:35:02.090
And then we get a phone call, baby.
740
00:35:03.170 --> 00:35:05.630
And that phone call from a man by the name of the American dream,
741
00:35:05.750 --> 00:35:07.650
Dr. Rhodes and Dusty's at a bar.
742
00:35:08.310 --> 00:35:11.750
He wants an advance for him and his partner, Dick Murdoch.
743
00:35:12.410 --> 00:35:15.410
But Dusty doesn't get the chance to ask because
744
00:35:15.410 --> 00:35:18.370
Ed Asner is basically just like, don't start any fucking fights.
745
00:35:18.370 --> 00:35:20.750
He's like, I'm tired of paying for shit for you guys.
746
00:35:20.750 --> 00:35:21.590
Stop this. Yeah.
747
00:35:22.010 --> 00:35:24.190
Like everything you're destroying stuff. Yeah.
748
00:35:25.230 --> 00:35:28.450
You're blowing all your money on booze cowboy hats.
749
00:35:28.930 --> 00:35:33.230
Dusty's fucking young in this movie, too, like and him and.
750
00:35:34.750 --> 00:35:36.430
I thought he was pretty entertaining.
751
00:35:36.630 --> 00:35:37.730
I thought him and Dick Murdoch were both.
752
00:35:37.770 --> 00:35:40.250
They were. Oh, I thought they were very entertaining. Yeah.
753
00:35:40.630 --> 00:35:42.190
There's a drunk at the bar.
754
00:35:42.250 --> 00:35:44.690
He's trying to start shit. They don't want to do it.
755
00:35:45.490 --> 00:35:48.690
Couple of dudes walk in to the classic,
756
00:35:49.350 --> 00:35:53.450
you know, do you want to hear some racist music?
757
00:35:53.690 --> 00:35:58.070
Yes. And they do that in in in in in in, you know, yeah.
758
00:35:58.630 --> 00:36:01.850
And they challenge him because karate cannot or karate
759
00:36:01.850 --> 00:36:03.410
will always defeat pro wrestling.
760
00:36:03.550 --> 00:36:07.230
They keep going karate very strong. Right.
761
00:36:07.230 --> 00:36:08.750
Because they can't speak English.
762
00:36:08.890 --> 00:36:10.630
Pro wrestlers very weak.
763
00:36:11.430 --> 00:36:13.510
And so then they go to their table
764
00:36:13.510 --> 00:36:16.410
and he karate chops the table and it busts in half.
765
00:36:16.950 --> 00:36:19.030
And then Dusty and Murdoch, they want to stay out of trouble.
766
00:36:19.230 --> 00:36:21.630
So because they don't want to get in trouble with Frank. Right.
767
00:36:21.710 --> 00:36:24.710
They don't get Frank in trouble or Frank mad at them again,
768
00:36:24.710 --> 00:36:26.610
because he won't book them if they get in trouble.
769
00:36:26.830 --> 00:36:28.930
So then they get up and they go to another table.
770
00:36:29.510 --> 00:36:33.650
And then he's like karate, very
771
00:36:35.250 --> 00:36:37.190
technical wrestling, very dumb or whatever.
772
00:36:37.650 --> 00:36:39.570
He chops the table again.
773
00:36:39.570 --> 00:36:42.010
And that is the extent of his karate.
774
00:36:42.850 --> 00:36:44.290
Yeah, there's two karate chops.
775
00:36:44.490 --> 00:36:47.550
Also, this guy is dressed as a super. Yeah.
776
00:36:47.550 --> 00:36:50.330
And he's actually listed his odd job in the credits.
777
00:36:50.390 --> 00:36:52.970
So he's the guy who played odd job in
778
00:36:53.430 --> 00:36:55.550
because I know that guy became a professional wrestler.
779
00:36:56.070 --> 00:36:58.790
Yeah, that would be 1948 Summer Olympic
780
00:36:58.790 --> 00:37:03.070
American civil silver medal weightlifter Harold Sakata.
781
00:37:03.370 --> 00:37:05.630
Yes. Yes. So
782
00:37:05.630 --> 00:37:09.230
then Dusty and Dick Murdoch decide
783
00:37:10.310 --> 00:37:12.090
well, we got to do some about this.
784
00:37:12.230 --> 00:37:14.090
And so they're like, well, we're going to do some about it.
785
00:37:14.090 --> 00:37:18.230
And then they proceed to just destroy these two karate guys.
786
00:37:18.690 --> 00:37:20.290
And it's totally like.
787
00:37:20.970 --> 00:37:25.530
You're watching the Dukes of Hazard just like throwing guys over the bar
788
00:37:25.530 --> 00:37:27.890
and just fucking a couple of good old boys fighting.
789
00:37:28.090 --> 00:37:29.510
Yeah, it's a couple of good old boys fighting.
790
00:37:29.510 --> 00:37:34.590
And then the guy that had said he could destroy Murdoch
791
00:37:34.590 --> 00:37:38.730
whenever he wanted to, they come up to him and they're like, let,
792
00:37:38.730 --> 00:37:40.750
you know, let's have a beer with him.
793
00:37:41.030 --> 00:37:44.050
And then they each grab a beer and then they take his hat off.
794
00:37:44.270 --> 00:37:47.070
And then they pour the beer in the hat
795
00:37:47.070 --> 00:37:48.830
and then they put the hat back on his head.
796
00:37:49.270 --> 00:37:52.210
And the guy, he has to take it because like,
797
00:37:52.570 --> 00:37:54.070
yeah, obviously a fucking idiot.
798
00:37:54.830 --> 00:37:56.290
Well, he was chip faced.
799
00:37:56.410 --> 00:37:57.670
That guy was so fucking drunk.
800
00:37:57.930 --> 00:38:00.670
Yeah. Was there a snap pool pool cue?
801
00:38:00.750 --> 00:38:03.410
I believe there might have been. Yeah, there had to be.
802
00:38:03.510 --> 00:38:04.810
I mean, that was just a gimmick.
803
00:38:05.250 --> 00:38:07.810
Oh, and then Dusty like comes up from behind the bar
804
00:38:07.810 --> 00:38:09.810
with a couple of beers like that.
805
00:38:09.810 --> 00:38:11.570
It's fun though. It was a fun. It was a.
806
00:38:11.690 --> 00:38:14.210
It is. No, I thought that was one of the better parts of the movie.
807
00:38:14.210 --> 00:38:16.530
Yeah. And like it's one of those things where it's like, oh yeah,
808
00:38:16.730 --> 00:38:17.850
Dusty's totally a natural.
809
00:38:17.990 --> 00:38:20.510
Like you could see it even in that scene.
810
00:38:20.510 --> 00:38:22.770
Like it's like that's why you went on to be Dusty.
811
00:38:23.110 --> 00:38:24.750
I mean, he's probably already pretty big.
812
00:38:25.270 --> 00:38:27.330
But OK, is he teaming with Murdoch at this point?
813
00:38:27.350 --> 00:38:29.530
Yeah, they were still the Texas allies. Yeah. OK.
814
00:38:29.610 --> 00:38:32.110
So this is before that before Dusty truly becomes.
815
00:38:32.350 --> 00:38:33.750
Dusty was not a huge star yet.
816
00:38:34.010 --> 00:38:36.870
No, interesting. OK, pre that he's a heel.
817
00:38:36.870 --> 00:38:38.570
He's still a heel. You can see it.
818
00:38:38.570 --> 00:38:42.330
Yeah, I mean, you can you can see the beginning of Dusty Rose.
819
00:38:42.430 --> 00:38:46.870
He's he talks like you can also tell that Superstar Graham did this first
820
00:38:46.870 --> 00:38:51.570
because you would see a promo of his earlier in the in the movie
821
00:38:51.570 --> 00:38:53.450
where he is full on in that mode.
822
00:38:53.550 --> 00:38:55.930
It does. He's like three quarters of the way to that.
823
00:38:55.930 --> 00:38:57.550
He's not there yet. Yeah, he's still a cowboy.
824
00:38:57.630 --> 00:38:58.810
Yeah. At this point,
825
00:38:59.530 --> 00:39:02.750
the huge shit that you skipped over earlier when Ed came back
826
00:39:02.750 --> 00:39:05.710
to the office is Mike Bullard.
827
00:39:05.710 --> 00:39:08.630
Vern Ganya had called in. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
828
00:39:09.330 --> 00:39:12.650
Very early and he found out about Ray in the morning and Billy Taylor.
829
00:39:13.250 --> 00:39:18.510
Ed Asner had told her not to tell Vern anything about this new guy, Billy.
830
00:39:18.990 --> 00:39:21.250
Right. He told him everything about Billy.
831
00:39:21.990 --> 00:39:25.070
And then you'll notice that then she told Vern
832
00:39:25.070 --> 00:39:28.210
or then she told Vern that she wouldn't tell Ed Asner
833
00:39:28.210 --> 00:39:31.730
anything about her telling him about Billy.
834
00:39:31.790 --> 00:39:35.550
And then so if there's a huge plot point, I'm going to miss that.
835
00:39:35.550 --> 00:39:38.890
And I'm going to focus on the little minor elements like Dusty Rhodes.
836
00:39:39.050 --> 00:39:39.870
Go on. Yes.
837
00:39:40.170 --> 00:39:43.870
And then so basically she betrays everybody that she gave her word to.
838
00:39:44.370 --> 00:39:47.750
That's when she offers to resign and he kind of blows it off.
839
00:39:47.850 --> 00:39:50.330
He's like, you better go answer that phone, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
840
00:39:50.430 --> 00:39:52.850
She's what Jim Ross would refer to as a Jezebel.
841
00:39:53.070 --> 00:39:54.210
She's a Jezebel.
842
00:39:54.490 --> 00:39:55.990
She's an absolute Jezebel.
843
00:39:56.090 --> 00:40:00.270
And then then Mike Vern Ganya is back in town early.
844
00:40:00.690 --> 00:40:04.910
Right. And he wants to play tennis with, of course, Ed Asner.
845
00:40:04.910 --> 00:40:09.490
Because if you haven't gotten enough of Ed Asner's sweating profusely.
846
00:40:12.230 --> 00:40:15.430
So Ganya is just making a fool of him on the fucking tennis court.
847
00:40:16.030 --> 00:40:18.450
And just like kind of.
848
00:40:18.510 --> 00:40:22.490
It's like he's teasing him, but you can tell that Vern Ganya is a fucking asshole.
849
00:40:22.730 --> 00:40:25.550
Like, you know, I mean, like, because his teasing is,
850
00:40:25.550 --> 00:40:27.370
it looks like you're a little bit out of shape there.
851
00:40:27.370 --> 00:40:29.910
You know, like, yeah, look at you, you flabby piece of shit.
852
00:40:30.050 --> 00:40:32.410
I mean, yeah, he's fucking rude. Yeah.
853
00:40:33.090 --> 00:40:34.490
So they're going back and forth.
854
00:40:34.490 --> 00:40:36.430
They're talking about the Super Bowl of wrestling.
855
00:40:36.850 --> 00:40:38.130
They dab their necks.
856
00:40:38.170 --> 00:40:41.790
He's fucking doing this kind of shit with a, you know, with a towel.
857
00:40:43.650 --> 00:40:45.350
And then he offers.
858
00:40:45.570 --> 00:40:46.110
What is it?
859
00:40:46.470 --> 00:40:48.030
He wants a spot on the Super Bowl.
860
00:40:48.290 --> 00:40:51.350
And he says that he'll meet Taylor in the locker room
861
00:40:51.350 --> 00:40:53.790
at the the boys club or something.
862
00:40:54.210 --> 00:40:57.590
And he weasels he weasels his way into this boys club thing
863
00:40:57.590 --> 00:40:59.150
because Asner doesn't want him there.
864
00:40:59.150 --> 00:41:02.670
He's like, oh, it's OK. I booked somebody earlier in the movie
865
00:41:02.670 --> 00:41:05.750
because he was supposed to be in Munich during the exhibition. Right.
866
00:41:06.390 --> 00:41:09.950
So usually Vern does the exhibition for the boys club,
867
00:41:10.370 --> 00:41:13.030
but he was supposed to be in Munich, but he came back early.
868
00:41:13.170 --> 00:41:15.670
And he's like, well, I guess I better get ready for that exhibition.
869
00:41:15.710 --> 00:41:19.010
He's like, well, actually, I already booked somebody in his billy. Right.
870
00:41:19.170 --> 00:41:22.150
So he booked Billy versus Nick Bachwinkle for the exhibition.
871
00:41:23.810 --> 00:41:26.290
And then we is like, I'm going to be there.
872
00:41:26.290 --> 00:41:27.910
I want to see this guy. Right.
873
00:41:28.110 --> 00:41:29.770
And so then we get like a little
874
00:41:29.770 --> 00:41:32.070
it's just a bunch of takedowns, basically.
875
00:41:32.590 --> 00:41:34.810
Him and Bachwinkle at one point.
876
00:41:35.330 --> 00:41:39.550
Is this where Ed Asner kind of gets in and he's like, hey, this is just
877
00:41:39.550 --> 00:41:40.750
it's just an exhibition.
878
00:41:40.850 --> 00:41:43.150
Don't start any shit because he's getting a little violent.
879
00:41:43.270 --> 00:41:47.250
Bachwinkle starts punching and kneeing him in the face and stuff.
880
00:41:47.250 --> 00:41:51.070
And he's like, this is supposed to be a simple, classic exhibition.
881
00:41:51.250 --> 00:41:54.270
Classic style. Because I will end this right now.
882
00:41:54.530 --> 00:41:58.330
Wrestling is real. Yes, this movie wrestling is real.
883
00:41:59.850 --> 00:42:05.030
So Bullard meets Taylor in the locker room, and he says that, again,
884
00:42:05.130 --> 00:42:08.430
kind of a little not really breaking kayfabe, but pulling the curtain back
885
00:42:08.430 --> 00:42:12.590
a little, he says, every year I bring a bunch of rookies to my farm
886
00:42:12.590 --> 00:42:14.090
and I train them.
887
00:42:14.550 --> 00:42:17.470
And would you, Billy Taylor, like to come to my farm
888
00:42:17.470 --> 00:42:18.970
and train these rookies with me?
889
00:42:19.110 --> 00:42:22.430
Which is something that Vernganya really did in real life.
890
00:42:22.510 --> 00:42:24.210
And you always hear
891
00:42:24.210 --> 00:42:27.570
those legendary stories about how it was subzero weather
892
00:42:27.570 --> 00:42:31.150
and we had to wrestle in our fucking winter clothes and all this shit.
893
00:42:34.500 --> 00:42:38.940
And then we well, first the basement, another wood panel basement.
894
00:42:39.180 --> 00:42:41.440
Mike Bullard cozying up with his wife.
895
00:42:41.680 --> 00:42:44.160
The fire is going. They're watching wrestling.
896
00:42:44.240 --> 00:42:46.320
She's complaining about watching wrestling,
897
00:42:46.620 --> 00:42:49.640
which I think is probably kind of a common thing for a lot of wives.
898
00:42:49.640 --> 00:42:52.180
Sorry, that's a little sexist and stereotypical.
899
00:42:52.760 --> 00:42:55.760
But the way they're portrayed, she's like, oh, what's that?
900
00:42:55.880 --> 00:42:57.960
The way they're portrayed in movies, especially at this time.
901
00:42:57.960 --> 00:42:59.100
Oh, absolutely.
902
00:42:59.480 --> 00:43:02.440
But, um, well, I just meant that my wife is always complaining.
903
00:43:03.440 --> 00:43:07.580
Well, that's my own personal experience there.
904
00:43:08.340 --> 00:43:11.420
And so whatever she wants him to retire.
905
00:43:11.680 --> 00:43:14.340
And he basically says he wants to unify the belts.
906
00:43:15.000 --> 00:43:18.140
And it's the only time he really, I think, mentions that. Yeah.
907
00:43:18.560 --> 00:43:23.420
But then we go to the scene you were talking about
908
00:43:23.420 --> 00:43:26.940
in Mike's garage, Verne's garage, whatever.
909
00:43:26.940 --> 00:43:27.860
Burns barn.
910
00:43:28.300 --> 00:43:29.860
There's a shit ton of wrestlers.
911
00:43:30.220 --> 00:43:32.140
Dan Gables, their Olympic gold medalist.
912
00:43:34.220 --> 00:43:36.040
And then do you want to do?
913
00:43:36.220 --> 00:43:38.960
Did you recognize a lot of the wrestlers that were in that scene or no?
914
00:43:39.100 --> 00:43:39.860
Some of them, yeah.
915
00:43:39.920 --> 00:43:43.460
So I know Brunzel is one of them because they mentioned him by name.
916
00:43:43.480 --> 00:43:44.280
But that's how I know.
917
00:43:44.640 --> 00:43:48.460
And his wife also says she wants him to retire after the next time
918
00:43:48.460 --> 00:43:52.000
he loses, which is the Ric Flair situation, right? Right.
919
00:43:52.420 --> 00:43:55.240
So he agrees, you know, he's full of shit.
920
00:43:55.240 --> 00:43:57.080
Anyway, you got to his barn
921
00:43:58.340 --> 00:44:02.040
and Dan Gable is there to train and spar with the wrestlers.
922
00:44:02.260 --> 00:44:07.000
And the first guy that he spars with is Mike Graham, son of Eddie Graham.
923
00:44:08.680 --> 00:44:10.800
Gable completely whoops Mike's ass.
924
00:44:12.200 --> 00:44:13.080
Verne describes it all.
925
00:44:13.700 --> 00:44:14.460
It's a go ahead.
926
00:44:14.640 --> 00:44:17.100
Verne also very carefully describes everything
927
00:44:17.100 --> 00:44:19.580
that we can already see with our eyes as it happens.
928
00:44:21.380 --> 00:44:23.720
And it's all like takedowns,
929
00:44:23.720 --> 00:44:25.380
hip tosses, arm locks.
930
00:44:26.540 --> 00:44:30.280
And I think, I mean, the point of it is to basically show like see
931
00:44:30.280 --> 00:44:33.360
we do those same moves in pro wrestling.
932
00:44:34.200 --> 00:44:35.820
Gable is fresh off. I don't know.
933
00:44:36.000 --> 00:44:37.640
Yes, he is. That is true.
934
00:44:37.680 --> 00:44:40.400
And he says he's the best wrestler in the world.
935
00:44:40.500 --> 00:44:44.080
Even the Russians acknowledge that because he had just won at the 72 games.
936
00:44:44.480 --> 00:44:45.380
Yeah, exactly. OK.
937
00:44:45.380 --> 00:44:47.540
Yeah, I don't know shit about the Olympics. Sorry. Yeah.
938
00:44:48.480 --> 00:44:51.720
So then he's going to demonstrate a philosophy.
939
00:44:52.420 --> 00:44:54.480
This is exactly what it is.
940
00:44:54.500 --> 00:44:57.160
Yeah, it's a burns memoir jerky him.
941
00:44:57.320 --> 00:44:59.380
So the whole fucking movie is just Verne.
942
00:44:59.640 --> 00:45:04.300
Yeah. So after after Gable does his thing, Verne says,
943
00:45:04.540 --> 00:45:07.060
well, you know, now I'm going to demonstrate a philosophy
944
00:45:07.060 --> 00:45:10.280
known as professional wrestling because that's a.
945
00:45:10.480 --> 00:45:13.460
Can you imagine someone like now I'm going to show you a philosophy
946
00:45:13.460 --> 00:45:16.220
known as professional basketball? Right.
947
00:45:16.800 --> 00:45:18.940
Well, yes, throughout the ages,
948
00:45:18.940 --> 00:45:21.940
the Romans and the blah, blah, blah.
949
00:45:22.020 --> 00:45:23.480
But this is now a professional.
950
00:45:23.500 --> 00:45:26.920
Oh, God. He's just talking about like Japanese emperors.
951
00:45:27.220 --> 00:45:30.040
George Washington, who I've never heard, was a wrestler.
952
00:45:30.220 --> 00:45:32.080
And he was a wrestler. Yeah.
953
00:45:32.080 --> 00:45:36.720
And they all do these exact same things that you're going to learn here.
954
00:45:38.700 --> 00:45:41.580
And then Billy Taylor and Jim Brunzel go into the ring to demonstrate.
955
00:45:41.620 --> 00:45:45.620
And it's the same thing where Billy Taylor is like demonstrating.
956
00:45:45.620 --> 00:45:48.880
So they're using this to show the difference between amateur and pro
957
00:45:48.880 --> 00:45:53.160
wrestling, where, you know, you could throw a guy to the to the floor
958
00:45:53.160 --> 00:45:54.820
or whatever. Right.
959
00:45:55.080 --> 00:45:57.840
And as Billy's wrestling Jim Brunzel,
960
00:45:58.180 --> 00:46:00.620
they add all this reverb to Verne's voice.
961
00:46:00.620 --> 00:46:03.060
And it sounds like this super villain narration
962
00:46:03.960 --> 00:46:06.320
of the history of pro wrestling. Right.
963
00:46:06.680 --> 00:46:08.060
So Billy Taylor.
964
00:46:09.500 --> 00:46:11.580
What is it? He.
965
00:46:11.580 --> 00:46:13.820
Well, he's doing a bunch of he's doing like hip tosses
966
00:46:13.820 --> 00:46:17.100
and takedown, like the same kind of things, only he's like
967
00:46:17.580 --> 00:46:18.960
wrestling them up a little bit.
968
00:46:19.080 --> 00:46:22.900
You know, Verne also says that Brunzel, quote unquote, falls wrong.
969
00:46:23.080 --> 00:46:25.600
You will learn to fall properly as time progresses.
970
00:46:26.500 --> 00:46:27.400
Which is interesting.
971
00:46:28.360 --> 00:46:30.960
Yes. We're not going to say it's fake. Right.
972
00:46:31.260 --> 00:46:33.220
But we're almost going to say it's fake.
973
00:46:33.300 --> 00:46:36.540
And then Eddie Graham and fucking Midwest
974
00:46:36.540 --> 00:46:39.180
superstar Wilbur fucking Snyder.
975
00:46:40.040 --> 00:46:41.840
OK. Wilbur was a big deal.
976
00:46:41.860 --> 00:46:43.300
He wrestled for Dick the Bruiser.
977
00:46:43.300 --> 00:46:44.900
He was an Indiana boy.
978
00:46:44.900 --> 00:46:47.480
OK. And that was like his territory.
979
00:46:47.520 --> 00:46:50.700
He wrestled in Indiana and he wrestled in AWA sometimes.
980
00:46:51.200 --> 00:46:53.500
And his big move was the dropkick.
981
00:46:54.500 --> 00:46:57.800
Eddie and Wilbur start wrestling with the supervillain narration.
982
00:47:00.140 --> 00:47:05.560
And it's and then Verne does this long narration about, you know, dude,
983
00:47:06.320 --> 00:47:11.240
the Egyptians, the Romans, the at one point,
984
00:47:11.240 --> 00:47:13.300
he says that you will need to work out.
985
00:47:13.320 --> 00:47:15.000
And they say this more than once in the movie.
986
00:47:15.100 --> 00:47:18.440
You will need to work out for six hours a day.
987
00:47:18.440 --> 00:47:21.580
Yeah. He goes, other than work, you're going to need to work out
988
00:47:21.580 --> 00:47:24.260
six hours a day, but other than that, that's about it.
989
00:47:24.300 --> 00:47:25.560
It's a snap. Yeah.
990
00:47:25.820 --> 00:47:29.680
None of these motherfuckers are working out for six hours a day.
991
00:47:29.840 --> 00:47:32.340
I don't even think it's possible.
992
00:47:32.480 --> 00:47:35.000
Go on. Then they cut to the dinner table.
993
00:47:36.040 --> 00:47:39.020
Instead, Verne's feeding all the rookies and Verne's.
994
00:47:39.020 --> 00:47:39.840
Which is cool.
995
00:47:39.840 --> 00:47:41.360
Burns talking at the table.
996
00:47:41.540 --> 00:47:47.800
And there is this chubby guy with brown hair who looks very familiar.
997
00:47:48.300 --> 00:47:49.520
He's drinking milk.
998
00:47:49.900 --> 00:47:52.800
He looks like a little chubby kid.
999
00:47:53.300 --> 00:47:54.480
Oddly respectful.
1000
00:47:54.920 --> 00:47:57.080
Yeah. And I was trying to figure out who it was.
1001
00:47:57.080 --> 00:47:59.020
And I realized that's fucking Ric Flair.
1002
00:47:59.280 --> 00:48:00.480
Yeah. Yeah.
1003
00:48:00.480 --> 00:48:03.600
And they don't draw any attention to it whatsoever,
1004
00:48:03.600 --> 00:48:05.440
because he's a nobody at this point.
1005
00:48:05.440 --> 00:48:07.020
I mean, he's got brown fucking hair.
1006
00:48:07.020 --> 00:48:10.700
And he's like those old pictures of the beefy Flair.
1007
00:48:10.980 --> 00:48:14.040
Yeah. Well, Flair had talked about his best buddy was Ken Patera.
1008
00:48:14.040 --> 00:48:16.660
And so he was trying to do all the same things Patera was doing,
1009
00:48:16.760 --> 00:48:19.900
but it just made him flabby and it made Ken jacked.
1010
00:48:21.420 --> 00:48:23.420
Yeah, but but yeah.
1011
00:48:23.560 --> 00:48:26.460
So this takes this was filmed during that time where,
1012
00:48:27.080 --> 00:48:30.600
you know, the famously the Iron Sheik, Ric Flair and Ricky Steamboat
1013
00:48:30.600 --> 00:48:31.680
were all being trained.
1014
00:48:32.380 --> 00:48:35.240
And so, you know, that's a very famous,
1015
00:48:35.240 --> 00:48:38.180
you know, thing that Flair has talked extensively about.
1016
00:48:38.720 --> 00:48:41.960
Yeah, it's I mean, in all the documentaries, if they ever talk about
1017
00:48:41.960 --> 00:48:46.280
whether it's AWA, Ganya, whatever, you always hear about that fucking barn
1018
00:48:46.280 --> 00:48:47.680
and those training things.
1019
00:48:47.680 --> 00:48:49.240
So it was really cool.
1020
00:48:49.960 --> 00:48:50.920
Flareline with a good point.
1021
00:48:51.120 --> 00:48:54.240
Cody will meet this exact movie starring himself in like 12 years.
1022
00:48:54.360 --> 00:48:55.960
Yes, that's true. Yeah, that's yeah.
1023
00:48:56.060 --> 00:48:57.000
That's totally it.
1024
00:48:57.000 --> 00:48:59.400
I hope he's bald, too. I really do.
1025
00:48:59.680 --> 00:49:00.900
Oh, God, I do, too.
1026
00:49:01.060 --> 00:49:02.240
And, you know,
1027
00:49:03.900 --> 00:49:05.360
so we're back at.
1028
00:49:05.780 --> 00:49:08.640
So this is a pivotal scene that I won't leave out.
1029
00:49:08.920 --> 00:49:13.480
We're back at Ed Asner's office and Billy Taylor is talking to the secretary.
1030
00:49:13.600 --> 00:49:14.840
And I don't remember what they're talking about.
1031
00:49:14.860 --> 00:49:15.480
It doesn't matter.
1032
00:49:15.660 --> 00:49:18.800
But he says to her, I was going to ask you out for dinner.
1033
00:49:19.400 --> 00:49:22.160
But after the look, I saw you exchanged with your boss.
1034
00:49:22.400 --> 00:49:23.860
I think I won't do that.
1035
00:49:23.860 --> 00:49:26.100
He realizes she's in love with that Asner.
1036
00:49:26.620 --> 00:49:27.520
And that's gross.
1037
00:49:28.260 --> 00:49:31.600
And he also did you catch he referred to her as a pepper pot?
1038
00:49:31.600 --> 00:49:33.380
Yeah, he called her pepper and pepper.
1039
00:49:33.520 --> 00:49:37.460
And Pepper Potts is Tony Stark's secretary. Oh, interesting.
1040
00:49:38.160 --> 00:49:42.120
Yeah. So I looked it up and all I could find were recipes for Pepper Potts.
1041
00:49:42.260 --> 00:49:47.180
So I don't it must have been like it must have been a popular saying at the time.
1042
00:49:47.620 --> 00:49:49.760
But yeah, I was like, oh, she had Pepper Potts.
1043
00:49:49.760 --> 00:49:50.360
That's crazy.
1044
00:49:51.140 --> 00:49:54.480
Now I'm going to say something controversial before we go further.
1045
00:49:54.800 --> 00:49:57.700
It was at this point after the dinner scene
1046
00:49:58.220 --> 00:50:00.440
where I realized that.
1047
00:50:01.040 --> 00:50:05.000
Is this movie wildly egotistical in its tribute to Vern Ganya?
1048
00:50:05.280 --> 00:50:05.620
Yes.
1049
00:50:07.040 --> 00:50:11.660
Also, is Vern kind of a decent actor in what he's being asked to do?
1050
00:50:12.240 --> 00:50:14.180
Yes, he's not that bad.
1051
00:50:14.580 --> 00:50:17.040
It could be so much more horrible.
1052
00:50:17.380 --> 00:50:21.360
No, the best actor in the movie is probably at Asner technically.
1053
00:50:22.120 --> 00:50:24.680
But other than that, it's probably Billy Robinson.
1054
00:50:24.740 --> 00:50:25.780
He's not that bad either.
1055
00:50:25.780 --> 00:50:27.240
I mean, that's the thing.
1056
00:50:27.700 --> 00:50:32.960
Even even Lord Blears is obviously comfortable on camera, if nothing else.
1057
00:50:32.960 --> 00:50:36.260
I mean, then, you know, and the same thing with Ganya, like
1058
00:50:36.260 --> 00:50:40.720
he's not he's not doing that thing where he's like looking at the camera,
1059
00:50:40.720 --> 00:50:44.380
you know, paging Mr. Herman like he's not doing any of that.
1060
00:50:44.480 --> 00:50:45.780
Right. Right.
1061
00:50:45.780 --> 00:50:47.100
Sex pot, honey pot.
1062
00:50:47.300 --> 00:50:48.580
Word terms from the era. Yeah.
1063
00:50:48.980 --> 00:50:49.860
Yeah, that makes sense.
1064
00:50:50.320 --> 00:50:53.380
And just being like overtly sexual towards any woman
1065
00:50:53.380 --> 00:50:57.520
that you thought was attractive was as par for the course, baby.
1066
00:50:57.520 --> 00:50:58.960
Trade is 1974.
1067
00:50:59.340 --> 00:51:00.520
Yeah, it was 1974.
1068
00:51:00.520 --> 00:51:02.560
And it's the wrestling business, too.
1069
00:51:02.980 --> 00:51:05.660
Yeah, you're lucky these guys weren't even scum here.
1070
00:51:06.000 --> 00:51:06.980
Then they cut second.
1071
00:51:07.300 --> 00:51:09.160
I'm getting I'm being paged.
1072
00:51:09.420 --> 00:51:11.840
OK, I'll I'll I'll talk about the next scene.
1073
00:51:12.720 --> 00:51:14.460
They cut to.
1074
00:51:15.820 --> 00:51:17.520
But there's there's degrees, dog.
1075
00:51:17.860 --> 00:51:18.660
Don't come back.
1076
00:51:18.800 --> 00:51:20.320
Find a new family to live with.
1077
00:51:23.060 --> 00:51:25.100
Sorry, that was that was my dog.
1078
00:51:25.220 --> 00:51:26.640
They cut to the poolside.
1079
00:51:26.640 --> 00:51:29.180
They're now at a hotel by the pool.
1080
00:51:29.480 --> 00:51:34.980
Yeah. And Ed Asner is yelling at this group of guys.
1081
00:51:34.980 --> 00:51:37.560
And one of them is Vincent J.
1082
00:51:37.660 --> 00:51:39.520
McMahon is Vince McMahon, senior.
1083
00:51:40.140 --> 00:51:40.980
Yeah. OK.
1084
00:51:41.520 --> 00:51:44.520
And basically, these guys represent the NWA.
1085
00:51:44.720 --> 00:51:45.760
There's there. They're there.
1086
00:51:45.780 --> 00:51:48.640
The you know, kind of just what would you say?
1087
00:51:48.640 --> 00:51:52.320
They're like they're just kind of like the board as the council or whatever.
1088
00:51:52.380 --> 00:51:53.760
Yeah, I think they call them the board.
1089
00:51:53.760 --> 00:51:55.480
The board. Yes. Calling them. Yeah.
1090
00:51:55.480 --> 00:52:00.060
And basically, Vince McMahon himself says
1091
00:52:00.060 --> 00:52:03.900
and he just sounds like some typical New York guy who knows doing the mob.
1092
00:52:04.480 --> 00:52:07.720
And he's got a ton of lines like he speaks a lot in the movie.
1093
00:52:07.860 --> 00:52:08.620
Yes. Yeah.
1094
00:52:08.620 --> 00:52:11.400
And Vince McMahon is the most the loudest one of them.
1095
00:52:11.560 --> 00:52:14.700
Also, a guy who had just recently joined the NWA, by the way,
1096
00:52:15.700 --> 00:52:17.520
rejoined the NWA was Vince McMahon.
1097
00:52:17.520 --> 00:52:22.720
And they're like, you know, look, you know,
1098
00:52:22.720 --> 00:52:25.740
he sees, you know, Verne's too old.
1099
00:52:25.820 --> 00:52:26.660
He's too old.
1100
00:52:26.820 --> 00:52:29.500
And you need to get that title off him.
1101
00:52:29.660 --> 00:52:32.940
If you want to be at the Super Bowl, we can do it without you.
1102
00:52:34.340 --> 00:52:37.500
And Ed Asner with the greatest line says
1103
00:52:37.500 --> 00:52:43.400
so bald Ed Asner goes, yeah, but gory funk is bald, man.
1104
00:52:43.920 --> 00:52:46.680
Right. And then one of the other promoters says, yeah,
1105
00:52:46.680 --> 00:52:48.560
but he's only 32.
1106
00:52:49.920 --> 00:52:55.940
So how old is Verne Ganya in this movie?
1107
00:52:57.480 --> 00:52:58.400
Billy makes a good point.
1108
00:52:58.520 --> 00:53:01.440
Yeah, they asked him to play an overly egotistical wrestlers
1109
00:53:01.440 --> 00:53:03.760
who slyly thinks he knows more than everyone else.
1110
00:53:04.000 --> 00:53:05.160
Wow. That's a stretch.
1111
00:53:05.820 --> 00:53:08.260
Ver Ganya basically plays himself. He does.
1112
00:53:08.360 --> 00:53:11.080
So the other promoters in that scene, I have it up here.
1113
00:53:11.280 --> 00:53:11.760
Vincent J.
1114
00:53:11.800 --> 00:53:15.280
McMahon, Bill Crouch, which sounds familiar, but I don't know who that is.
1115
00:53:15.640 --> 00:53:16.340
OK. Eddie Graham.
1116
00:53:16.340 --> 00:53:21.620
Wally Carbo and the Pro Wrestling Forever
1117
00:53:21.620 --> 00:53:25.500
favorite announcer, Rod Trongard, baby.
1118
00:53:25.580 --> 00:53:28.100
Rod Trongard for life, the fucking best.
1119
00:53:29.320 --> 00:53:31.200
The father of this show.
1120
00:53:32.200 --> 00:53:33.880
Dude, no shit, I love fucking Rod Trongard.
1121
00:53:34.220 --> 00:53:35.320
So anyway, Rod.
1122
00:53:36.280 --> 00:53:38.860
So for real, like how like.
1123
00:53:39.540 --> 00:53:41.360
How old is Verne?
1124
00:53:41.360 --> 00:53:45.280
Yeah, Verne must be like in his late 40s in this movie, right?
1125
00:53:46.500 --> 00:53:49.580
And the so now you kind of finally see
1126
00:53:49.580 --> 00:53:53.180
the totality of the pressure that this Ed Asner is under.
1127
00:53:53.560 --> 00:53:57.780
Yeah, which is why he wants the wife is freaked out that Verne's going to die.
1128
00:53:58.460 --> 00:54:01.880
The the promoters think he's an old fucking flabby piece of shit
1129
00:54:01.880 --> 00:54:02.900
and they want him out.
1130
00:54:03.660 --> 00:54:08.620
OK, but they never say like, have him drop the match, have him throw the match.
1131
00:54:08.620 --> 00:54:10.840
They're like, you need to find somebody who can beat him.
1132
00:54:11.320 --> 00:54:15.160
Yeah. And it's hilarious because they keep talking about
1133
00:54:15.160 --> 00:54:18.920
how like old and like he looks like shit and he's knock kneed and all this stuff.
1134
00:54:18.920 --> 00:54:21.640
But it's like, but nobody can beat him.
1135
00:54:21.660 --> 00:54:23.040
So he's clearly the best.
1136
00:54:23.160 --> 00:54:23.960
Well, and that's the thing.
1137
00:54:24.020 --> 00:54:25.120
So they keep arriving at.
1138
00:54:25.280 --> 00:54:27.900
Well, I keep trying, but he's just better than everybody.
1139
00:54:29.120 --> 00:54:31.420
Also, Blair Eli says Verne's 48 in this movie.
1140
00:54:31.520 --> 00:54:32.320
He might be.
1141
00:54:32.340 --> 00:54:34.800
I'm not sure if you look that up or not, but he very well.
1142
00:54:34.800 --> 00:54:35.360
Oh, my God.
1143
00:54:35.360 --> 00:54:38.360
He nestled well into his 50s on top.
1144
00:54:38.460 --> 00:54:40.700
You know what? I do have the power of the Internet at my fingertips.
1145
00:54:40.700 --> 00:54:41.780
Let me hold on.
1146
00:54:42.020 --> 00:54:44.360
But you're going to have to do math.
1147
00:54:44.360 --> 00:54:47.360
Verne Ganya was born in 1926.
1148
00:54:47.360 --> 00:54:49.540
Yeah, 26. So this movie 74.
1149
00:54:49.780 --> 00:54:51.020
Wait a minute. He's like.
1150
00:54:52.080 --> 00:54:53.120
Yeah, he's 48.
1151
00:54:53.340 --> 00:54:54.280
That would be 48.
1152
00:54:55.920 --> 00:54:57.340
So I was like, wait a minute, he's 20.
1153
00:54:57.780 --> 00:54:59.180
Yeah, no. OK.
1154
00:54:59.540 --> 00:55:03.000
So basically, they're they want to do the Super Bowl thing,
1155
00:55:03.120 --> 00:55:06.160
but Verne's literally such an old piece of shit that they're like,
1156
00:55:06.820 --> 00:55:10.640
we won't even let you in if he's like he's going to die
1157
00:55:10.640 --> 00:55:12.940
if we let him compete in this match. Right.
1158
00:55:13.580 --> 00:55:18.200
So, OK, then they cut a match between Billy Robinson
1159
00:55:18.200 --> 00:55:20.220
and recent murderer Ray Stevens.
1160
00:55:21.480 --> 00:55:24.880
And that scene is the fucking best part of the whole movie.
1161
00:55:24.880 --> 00:55:26.500
Yeah, so cool to see all this shit.
1162
00:55:26.500 --> 00:55:29.540
So, yeah, Ray Stevens, that old shot with the television.
1163
00:55:29.700 --> 00:55:30.640
He's cutting a promo.
1164
00:55:30.880 --> 00:55:32.980
Lots of drums in this one.
1165
00:55:32.980 --> 00:55:34.700
A lot of jazzy music.
1166
00:55:36.300 --> 00:55:39.600
A lot of handholding and monkey flips is what I have in my notes.
1167
00:55:39.860 --> 00:55:40.520
In the match.
1168
00:55:41.020 --> 00:55:43.860
Yeah, like a lot of that stuff where it's like they'll clasp their hands
1169
00:55:43.860 --> 00:55:46.740
and they like kick the guy over the monkey flip kind of thing.
1170
00:55:46.800 --> 00:55:49.040
You know, this is my notes on the match.
1171
00:55:49.160 --> 00:55:51.780
Stevens is an evil, murdering, crippling fucker,
1172
00:55:51.780 --> 00:55:56.500
but he's no match for the scientific Englishness of Billy Robinson.
1173
00:55:56.920 --> 00:55:58.760
Not at all. It's all fish and chips, baby.
1174
00:55:58.980 --> 00:56:02.120
And the Blacksploitation-esque soundtrack to this match
1175
00:56:02.120 --> 00:56:06.380
combined with the already nascent homoeroticism of pro wrestling
1176
00:56:06.380 --> 00:56:09.120
makes this match kind of feel like a porno.
1177
00:56:09.120 --> 00:56:11.200
A little bit, and especially when you see
1178
00:56:11.200 --> 00:56:13.460
Vernganya in the background wearing a turtleneck
1179
00:56:13.460 --> 00:56:14.940
and a black and white checkered jacket.
1180
00:56:15.220 --> 00:56:17.800
He looks like he's in a cuck chair watching this match.
1181
00:56:19.100 --> 00:56:22.020
He also looks like he's seventy five in this scene.
1182
00:56:22.920 --> 00:56:24.160
Yeah, he does. Yeah.
1183
00:56:24.320 --> 00:56:26.540
So, OK, so that's
1184
00:56:26.540 --> 00:56:27.940
kind of gross and weird and uncomfortable.
1185
00:56:28.140 --> 00:56:33.680
And then we cut to a staple of 1970s exploitation films.
1186
00:56:34.680 --> 00:56:38.780
Low budget movies is you get a close up shot
1187
00:56:38.780 --> 00:56:41.760
of a woman with a beehive hairdo singing a song
1188
00:56:42.340 --> 00:56:48.000
in a red smokey club for so long that you begin to wonder
1189
00:56:48.000 --> 00:56:51.340
if the movie stopped and another movie has started
1190
00:56:51.340 --> 00:56:55.400
because the camera doesn't pan out for like a whole verse.
1191
00:56:55.560 --> 00:56:57.320
Yeah. Finally, the camera comes back.
1192
00:56:57.360 --> 00:57:00.400
We see that we're in like a tavern or some sort of a bar.
1193
00:57:01.380 --> 00:57:04.460
And Ed Asen is on a date with his granddaughter, right?
1194
00:57:04.760 --> 00:57:07.140
Well, he's no, it's a business dinner.
1195
00:57:07.140 --> 00:57:10.400
And she's asking him how the steak is.
1196
00:57:10.920 --> 00:57:11.960
He's like, well, it's good.
1197
00:57:12.000 --> 00:57:13.500
She's like, well, is it as good as mine?
1198
00:57:13.540 --> 00:57:14.640
And he says, I don't know.
1199
00:57:14.680 --> 00:57:17.600
And he says, she says, well, you should taste mine sometime,
1200
00:57:18.100 --> 00:57:22.240
which is one of my favorite lines in the whole fucking like, wow, honey,
1201
00:57:22.240 --> 00:57:24.360
you are putting it out there.
1202
00:57:24.740 --> 00:57:28.000
There's like there's a this guy's under pressure from all sides.
1203
00:57:28.500 --> 00:57:30.680
And as you have to be 50 in this movie,
1204
00:57:31.000 --> 00:57:34.300
and he has no concept and it's just fucking great.
1205
00:57:34.440 --> 00:57:36.300
And then the gambler show up.
1206
00:57:36.300 --> 00:57:39.780
Right. The mob guys, the bookie guy shows up with his muscle again.
1207
00:57:40.200 --> 00:57:42.280
Right. And he puts his cigar out in his potato.
1208
00:57:42.300 --> 00:57:46.120
And he's like, I got half a million on Billy Robinson beating him.
1209
00:57:46.400 --> 00:57:48.120
You better make sure it happens.
1210
00:57:48.760 --> 00:57:51.860
And yeah, he puts his cigar out in Ed Asner's food.
1211
00:57:51.960 --> 00:57:55.160
Oh, yeah, it's just cliches galore.
1212
00:57:55.320 --> 00:57:58.800
And then as her is super pissed because he really liked the food.
1213
00:57:59.280 --> 00:58:02.140
Yeah. And then she goes, let's go back to my apartment.
1214
00:58:02.260 --> 00:58:03.360
I'll make us some coffee.
1215
00:58:03.360 --> 00:58:05.660
And they apparently dine and dash.
1216
00:58:05.660 --> 00:58:09.220
Like they didn't show that they just get up and leave.
1217
00:58:10.320 --> 00:58:14.600
They end up in this fucking swanky 1970s
1218
00:58:14.600 --> 00:58:16.480
Jim Steranko fucking apartment.
1219
00:58:16.480 --> 00:58:20.700
Yeah, I have no idea how this woman can afford that fucking apartment.
1220
00:58:20.740 --> 00:58:25.020
I know it looks like it's a 40 dollars a day danger diabolic.
1221
00:58:25.180 --> 00:58:26.460
Like it fucking looks like that.
1222
00:58:26.520 --> 00:58:28.180
Like it's this leak. Yes.
1223
00:58:29.140 --> 00:58:31.140
Yeah, but I think it's actually diabolic, isn't it?
1224
00:58:31.140 --> 00:58:32.320
I've always said diabolic.
1225
00:58:32.380 --> 00:58:34.960
I always just I say stuff like that just to be stupid.
1226
00:58:35.460 --> 00:58:38.640
Oh, I used to actually think it was pronounced that way because I was stupid.
1227
00:58:39.460 --> 00:58:42.440
Anyway, are so they're back at her apartment.
1228
00:58:42.760 --> 00:58:44.240
Sexy saxophone.
1229
00:58:44.400 --> 00:58:48.560
She comes out in this like skin tight, fucking slinky dress
1230
00:58:48.560 --> 00:58:50.500
with the big necklace.
1231
00:58:51.420 --> 00:58:55.340
And and she she's just putting it out there at this point.
1232
00:58:55.400 --> 00:58:57.840
She's like, dude, I got to be honest.
1233
00:58:58.080 --> 00:59:00.420
So fuck. I won't be on me.
1234
00:59:00.960 --> 00:59:02.440
The whole sweater vest,
1235
00:59:02.440 --> 00:59:05.920
butterfly collar thing is kind of more my style, but she did.
1236
00:59:05.960 --> 00:59:07.620
She's fucking hot. This lady's hot.
1237
00:59:08.600 --> 00:59:09.360
So anyway, yeah.
1238
00:59:09.360 --> 00:59:10.460
Basically, that's what she says.
1239
00:59:10.540 --> 00:59:12.540
Will you please fuck me at Asner?
1240
00:59:12.640 --> 00:59:16.080
And he he doesn't want to be hurt, blade,
1241
00:59:16.240 --> 00:59:20.240
because he's been in love before and he just can't put himself
1242
00:59:20.240 --> 00:59:21.320
through that again.
1243
00:59:22.760 --> 00:59:24.820
Yeah. So he he leaves.
1244
00:59:25.000 --> 00:59:26.420
Well, no, but he doesn't leave.
1245
00:59:26.540 --> 00:59:27.920
You do this so bad.
1246
00:59:28.340 --> 00:59:30.280
OK, they go to her house.
1247
00:59:30.280 --> 00:59:32.540
She's dressed very skin tight and pretty much demands
1248
00:59:32.540 --> 00:59:33.640
that he put the moves on.
1249
00:59:33.640 --> 00:59:37.440
Yes. He tells her, you make me feel real good,
1250
00:59:38.000 --> 00:59:39.300
like a genuine Don Juan.
1251
00:59:39.380 --> 00:59:42.580
Then he confesses that he enjoys flirting with her.
1252
00:59:42.920 --> 00:59:45.660
Yeah. And he likes to come to work and that because of her.
1253
00:59:45.820 --> 00:59:48.080
He's in a bad mood if he gets too busy
1254
00:59:48.080 --> 00:59:50.320
because he doesn't get that 15 minutes to flirt with her.
1255
00:59:50.620 --> 00:59:52.960
Then she tells him that she's in love with him.
1256
00:59:53.080 --> 00:59:54.720
She just puts it all out there.
1257
00:59:54.720 --> 00:59:56.560
And did she say that? Yeah.
1258
00:59:57.020 --> 00:59:58.780
I kind of zoned out a few times.
1259
00:59:58.780 --> 01:00:04.180
And she says she needs him and wishes he felt the same way.
1260
01:00:04.180 --> 01:00:07.300
And he's like, I do, but I'm bad at love.
1261
01:00:07.320 --> 01:00:09.000
Love is a thing he sucks at.
1262
01:00:09.160 --> 01:00:12.540
He says, if he lets himself love her, no holds barred.
1263
01:00:12.540 --> 01:00:13.880
That's an actual quote.
1264
01:00:14.480 --> 01:00:18.080
They should have been painted that they lose what they have already,
1265
01:00:18.100 --> 01:00:20.580
which is basically him just being her boss.
1266
01:00:20.860 --> 01:00:22.460
She says she's not afraid.
1267
01:00:22.460 --> 01:00:24.320
She's willing to take the chance, he says.
1268
01:00:24.540 --> 01:00:28.720
And I quote, I'm too big a bastard kid to be that much.
1269
01:00:28.780 --> 01:00:30.180
Then he walks out.
1270
01:00:30.420 --> 01:00:31.560
Then he stops.
1271
01:00:31.680 --> 01:00:32.940
Then he rings the doorbell.
1272
01:00:33.120 --> 01:00:34.160
Then she opens the door.
1273
01:00:34.340 --> 01:00:35.760
Then they make out.
1274
01:00:35.780 --> 01:00:38.560
Oh, and then they probably bang because he says,
1275
01:00:39.120 --> 01:00:40.420
I never did get that coffee.
1276
01:00:40.440 --> 01:00:40.940
I never did.
1277
01:00:41.060 --> 01:00:44.240
Let's make this power dynamic really fucking exactly.
1278
01:00:44.320 --> 01:00:46.100
I should be your boss and your lover.
1279
01:00:46.200 --> 01:00:49.440
That's a great idea. And your grandfather and your grandfather.
1280
01:00:50.180 --> 01:00:52.940
Exactly. He came back to give her some of those.
1281
01:00:53.500 --> 01:00:56.560
What were those candies that your grandfather were?
1282
01:00:56.560 --> 01:00:59.800
Oh, yeah.
1283
01:01:00.800 --> 01:01:05.280
So they have sex and he gives her a Werther's original after this.
1284
01:01:05.280 --> 01:01:09.760
At this point, it's just like a bunch of candy.
1285
01:01:09.760 --> 01:01:15.080
It's all like one big piece of that ribbon candy and shit.
1286
01:01:15.080 --> 01:01:17.200
Oh, God, so fucking gross.
1287
01:01:17.320 --> 01:01:21.200
At this point, my notes just say, oh, my fucking God.
1288
01:01:21.520 --> 01:01:25.040
And then if you go over to my phone and you look at me texting you,
1289
01:01:25.040 --> 01:01:28.180
I'm also saying, oh, my fucking God, this movie.
1290
01:01:28.180 --> 01:01:30.000
That is an actual text. Yes.
1291
01:01:30.800 --> 01:01:32.600
Yeah. Oh, shit.
1292
01:01:32.940 --> 01:01:34.640
So that's.
1293
01:01:37.140 --> 01:01:39.820
So Vern, oh, my God.
1294
01:01:40.340 --> 01:01:41.720
Oh, so Vern.
1295
01:01:41.980 --> 01:01:44.420
So then they're back in Ed's office
1296
01:01:45.600 --> 01:01:48.780
and Billy tells him he wants to match with Mike,
1297
01:01:49.080 --> 01:01:50.300
that he wants to match with Vern.
1298
01:01:50.780 --> 01:01:53.100
And he goes, well, you tell him.
1299
01:01:53.100 --> 01:01:55.480
And Mike Vern walks in.
1300
01:01:55.980 --> 01:01:56.960
Billy wants a match.
1301
01:01:57.320 --> 01:01:59.140
Vern just says, no.
1302
01:01:59.680 --> 01:02:03.620
Yeah. And then Vern actually gives a pretty rational reason why.
1303
01:02:03.740 --> 01:02:05.400
Again, Vern's logic is pretty good here.
1304
01:02:05.680 --> 01:02:08.140
He says, look, I know you're a great wrestler.
1305
01:02:08.260 --> 01:02:10.800
You're one of the best in the world, but the public doesn't know it.
1306
01:02:10.800 --> 01:02:12.640
And I make my living selling tickets.
1307
01:02:13.200 --> 01:02:15.380
Then Frank says, hey, but they have time.
1308
01:02:15.440 --> 01:02:18.100
We have time. We have a couple of weeks to promote the fight.
1309
01:02:18.920 --> 01:02:21.600
And keeping in mind, this fight will happen before
1310
01:02:21.600 --> 01:02:24.360
the the the Super Bowl.
1311
01:02:24.720 --> 01:02:28.020
Right. And then Mike and then Vern says he has a hurt ankle
1312
01:02:28.020 --> 01:02:29.460
and then he limps out.
1313
01:02:29.960 --> 01:02:31.780
And Billy goes, was he limping when he came in?
1314
01:02:31.820 --> 01:02:34.300
And I can tell you, for a fact, he was not.
1315
01:02:35.760 --> 01:02:38.400
And then and then I'm like, Vern's the good guy,
1316
01:02:38.500 --> 01:02:40.720
but he's literally dodging this match.
1317
01:02:41.340 --> 01:02:44.660
So then Frank steps it up level,
1318
01:02:45.040 --> 01:02:47.660
not realizing that he's playing into a master plan here.
1319
01:02:47.780 --> 01:02:50.180
Frank goes on television and says,
1320
01:02:50.700 --> 01:02:53.580
I have tried to make this fight between
1321
01:02:54.240 --> 01:02:59.440
Bern Gagne and Billy Robinson and for Gagne is refused.
1322
01:03:00.580 --> 01:03:04.460
Then Vern has this right little smile and his wife's like this.
1323
01:03:04.540 --> 01:03:07.000
Yeah, we're back at Vern's house in the wood paneling basement.
1324
01:03:07.000 --> 01:03:09.860
Yeah. And he's sitting with his wife and she's like,
1325
01:03:09.960 --> 01:03:12.020
they're making the match anyway.
1326
01:03:12.040 --> 01:03:14.640
And he's like, just like I knew he would.
1327
01:03:16.120 --> 01:03:17.800
And Bern goes, well,
1328
01:03:18.600 --> 01:03:22.880
she's like, well, but I didn't think anybody knew about who Billy was.
1329
01:03:22.920 --> 01:03:26.640
And he's like, they do now because he made the challenge on TV.
1330
01:03:26.960 --> 01:03:29.400
Right. He's playing fucking 4D chess.
1331
01:03:29.760 --> 01:03:33.620
Basically, he just lets what was going to happen anyway
1332
01:03:33.620 --> 01:03:36.200
happen and takes credit for it.
1333
01:03:36.220 --> 01:03:38.300
Like he's some sort of a fucking genius.
1334
01:03:38.660 --> 01:03:41.440
Did we fuck or not? Pepperidge Fired remembers. Yes.
1335
01:03:41.860 --> 01:03:45.480
And then and then and Asner shows up to his to his house.
1336
01:03:45.480 --> 01:03:50.740
And he's like, so just wanted to see if you saw TV last night.
1337
01:03:51.600 --> 01:03:53.600
And he's like, oh, yeah, oh, yeah, I see.
1338
01:03:53.700 --> 01:03:57.860
This is this I may have missed some massive plot points, but
1339
01:03:58.380 --> 01:04:00.780
literally the point is
1340
01:04:01.880 --> 01:04:05.780
lifting weights like on the seaside.
1341
01:04:06.060 --> 01:04:08.840
And Ed Asner shows up in a fucking trench coat
1342
01:04:08.840 --> 01:04:12.580
with the wind blowing the little wisps that a little Homer Simpson
1343
01:04:13.200 --> 01:04:15.000
little things on his head. Yeah.
1344
01:04:15.000 --> 01:04:17.600
Yeah. And that's when he basically realizes
1345
01:04:18.160 --> 01:04:21.280
you've played me for a fool and I've walked right into your hands.
1346
01:04:21.360 --> 01:04:23.000
Well, what's great about it is he goes.
1347
01:04:24.160 --> 01:04:26.540
I thought you'd be pretty sore in me, you know, when you saw that
1348
01:04:26.540 --> 01:04:30.980
I made the match without you and Verne goes, look, you're a promoter.
1349
01:04:31.360 --> 01:04:32.200
You promote the matches.
1350
01:04:32.460 --> 01:04:35.020
I'm a wrestler. I wrestled the matches you promote.
1351
01:04:35.440 --> 01:04:37.320
And then he goes, wait a minute.
1352
01:04:38.440 --> 01:04:43.200
So you you've been playing Billy Robinson this whole time.
1353
01:04:44.240 --> 01:04:47.180
And Verne's like. Yeah.
1354
01:04:48.040 --> 01:04:51.020
You know, like, like it's a fucking Mentos commercial.
1355
01:04:51.020 --> 01:04:52.880
Totally, totally. It's so bad.
1356
01:04:53.880 --> 01:04:56.760
And Billy adds that it is Verne's lakeside property.
1357
01:04:57.160 --> 01:05:00.240
Yeah, Minnesota once took it for eminent domain
1358
01:05:00.240 --> 01:05:04.580
because Verne had leveraged it for collateral money
1359
01:05:04.580 --> 01:05:07.040
to keep the AWA functional for years.
1360
01:05:07.060 --> 01:05:11.380
And once they annexed that, it's like the state of Minnesota was like, dude,
1361
01:05:11.380 --> 01:05:12.980
call it a fucking day.
1362
01:05:13.000 --> 01:05:14.340
This promotion had a turkey.
1363
01:05:14.440 --> 01:05:18.180
You had a turkey on a pole match like it's time to just wrap it up.
1364
01:05:19.160 --> 01:05:20.980
We want a tag tournament.
1365
01:05:21.160 --> 01:05:22.220
You just did. It's over.
1366
01:05:22.300 --> 01:05:24.220
Sergeant Slaughter is your biggest star.
1367
01:05:24.680 --> 01:05:26.980
So, OK, then we get this vaudeville music
1368
01:05:26.980 --> 01:05:31.540
and this kind of montage of shots of merchandise and fans
1369
01:05:31.540 --> 01:05:35.940
piling in and all this other shit, because we're at the arena.
1370
01:05:35.960 --> 01:05:37.460
We're ready for it to happen.
1371
01:05:37.580 --> 01:05:40.300
And Ed Asner gets accosted by the mob.
1372
01:05:40.300 --> 01:05:42.340
And they have his girlfriend.
1373
01:05:42.340 --> 01:05:45.280
Oh, my God, her husband, because she's not just his secretary.
1374
01:05:45.420 --> 01:05:46.960
She's not just his granddaughter.
1375
01:05:47.260 --> 01:05:48.100
She's his lover.
1376
01:05:48.340 --> 01:05:49.720
And she's his soulmate.
1377
01:05:49.740 --> 01:05:52.100
And they've got her and they go into this locker room.
1378
01:05:52.980 --> 01:05:55.380
Couple more karate chops to the back of the head.
1379
01:05:55.580 --> 01:05:56.960
They beat the shit out of that.
1380
01:05:57.180 --> 01:06:00.200
Yeah. He gets color and shit like he's bleeding.
1381
01:06:00.600 --> 01:06:04.060
He bladed basically inside of his mouth.
1382
01:06:04.100 --> 01:06:07.040
Yeah. Yeah. And then he spent like, you can obviously tell
1383
01:06:07.040 --> 01:06:09.880
he's got like a blood pack or something because he's like,
1384
01:06:10.300 --> 01:06:12.800
I'm surprised there isn't like a piece of plastic
1385
01:06:12.800 --> 01:06:14.640
from the blood pack hanging out.
1386
01:06:15.180 --> 01:06:18.200
And bruiser and crusher show up again and they save the day.
1387
01:06:18.220 --> 01:06:21.520
Well, to show you how nefarious these men were.
1388
01:06:22.340 --> 01:06:26.040
They show up and Ed refuses once again to tell them
1389
01:06:26.040 --> 01:06:28.280
that Vern's going to do do the job.
1390
01:06:28.600 --> 01:06:30.820
And so they beat the shit out of him.
1391
01:06:32.040 --> 01:06:37.000
And then they talk and he's like, I'm telling you that if
1392
01:06:38.100 --> 01:06:41.340
Vern Konya doesn't do the job, you're dead.
1393
01:06:42.080 --> 01:06:43.260
And then they're like, do it again.
1394
01:06:43.360 --> 01:06:44.540
And they beat him up again.
1395
01:06:45.040 --> 01:06:48.840
And then they're like, then the the bookie guy is like now
1396
01:06:49.460 --> 01:06:50.980
to show you we mean business.
1397
01:06:51.360 --> 01:06:52.520
Why don't you do it to her, guys?
1398
01:06:52.600 --> 01:06:53.820
Just the way you did it to him.
1399
01:06:53.820 --> 01:06:54.880
Oh, yeah. The same.
1400
01:06:55.040 --> 01:06:57.960
And right when that happens, the bruiser and crusher come in
1401
01:06:58.440 --> 01:07:01.840
and literally fucking throw these dude through lockers.
1402
01:07:02.280 --> 01:07:03.800
It's actually pretty awesome.
1403
01:07:03.800 --> 01:07:05.460
It is. It's it's.
1404
01:07:05.520 --> 01:07:08.880
And then they throw guys through a door that breaks in half.
1405
01:07:08.880 --> 01:07:11.200
And you can clearly see that is prop car cardboard.
1406
01:07:12.300 --> 01:07:15.180
And they are then they just pile all the bodies
1407
01:07:15.180 --> 01:07:18.500
on top of each other, as if to say they're not a threat anymore.
1408
01:07:18.900 --> 01:07:21.680
Right. And it's totally cartoony and it's awesome.
1409
01:07:21.880 --> 01:07:22.980
And yes, I don't know.
1410
01:07:23.060 --> 01:07:23.940
I thought I like that scene.
1411
01:07:23.940 --> 01:07:27.100
I like when this bruiser and crusher are the best part of this movie.
1412
01:07:27.280 --> 01:07:28.960
They really are. Yeah, they are great.
1413
01:07:29.500 --> 01:07:33.300
And they just like bruiser and crusher feel like they should have had
1414
01:07:33.300 --> 01:07:35.640
a Hanna-Barbera cartoon where they solve mysteries.
1415
01:07:35.800 --> 01:07:36.780
They kind of. Yeah.
1416
01:07:37.120 --> 01:07:38.960
You know, like that's the vibe I get from them.
1417
01:07:38.980 --> 01:07:42.620
There's definitely like an imaginary friend that only they see.
1418
01:07:43.620 --> 01:07:46.200
They are the imaginary friends. Yeah.
1419
01:07:46.340 --> 01:07:49.380
I think like, yeah, like a little kid, like puts his rings together
1420
01:07:49.380 --> 01:07:51.000
and bruiser and crusher appear or whatever.
1421
01:07:52.140 --> 01:07:55.480
And then the best part is Verne shows up and just steps over the bodies
1422
01:07:55.480 --> 01:07:57.720
that are in the hallway, goes, what happened?
1423
01:07:58.140 --> 01:07:59.420
He pokes his head in.
1424
01:07:59.460 --> 01:08:02.940
He's holding his championship belt and he's like, we're
1425
01:08:02.940 --> 01:08:05.920
you know, he's like, what happened?
1426
01:08:06.180 --> 01:08:08.200
Very convenient timing, Verne.
1427
01:08:08.480 --> 01:08:09.320
Yeah, no shit.
1428
01:08:10.300 --> 01:08:13.060
Then we get to the main event, the big match.
1429
01:08:13.180 --> 01:08:14.240
It's finally going to happen.
1430
01:08:14.340 --> 01:08:18.000
Well, and I missed some other huge plot point kind of.
1431
01:08:18.080 --> 01:08:22.180
Frank says he finally comes clean that the mob has been leaning on him
1432
01:08:22.180 --> 01:08:26.880
to get Verne to throw the match and that he'll be killed.
1433
01:08:26.880 --> 01:08:30.779
And his his partner will be killed if he doesn't throw the match.
1434
01:08:30.779 --> 01:08:34.859
And Verne's response to that is to say nothing and then blink
1435
01:08:35.460 --> 01:08:39.279
and then go like, OK, I'm going to go out there now.
1436
01:08:39.300 --> 01:08:42.700
Like he never actually, you know, the match.
1437
01:08:42.920 --> 01:08:44.180
He wasn't acting.
1438
01:08:44.279 --> 01:08:47.600
He was acting for the he like never at any time
1439
01:08:47.600 --> 01:08:50.200
shows any concern for their lives whatsoever.
1440
01:08:50.779 --> 01:08:54.560
And so Verne just walks out and now we're in the big match, baby.
1441
01:08:54.840 --> 01:08:57.620
It's time the match we've all been waiting for.
1442
01:08:58.300 --> 01:09:02.540
And there had been some important scenes before this,
1443
01:09:02.920 --> 01:09:06.779
but Billy comes to the ring, then Verne comes to the ring.
1444
01:09:07.000 --> 01:09:09.540
Verne signing autographs in the corner before the match
1445
01:09:09.540 --> 01:09:12.500
as if he couldn't be bothered, you know, Billy is introduced
1446
01:09:12.500 --> 01:09:15.819
as the Japanese champion. He's British.
1447
01:09:16.560 --> 01:09:19.100
Right. But he was holding the belt in Japan.
1448
01:09:19.540 --> 01:09:21.160
Yes. The match starts.
1449
01:09:21.319 --> 01:09:22.700
They lock up several times.
1450
01:09:22.800 --> 01:09:25.100
Things get a little testy between the two of them.
1451
01:09:25.100 --> 01:09:28.520
The massive floodlight makes things impossible
1452
01:09:28.520 --> 01:09:31.260
to follow at many different points.
1453
01:09:31.899 --> 01:09:35.600
Billy gets Verne in a full Nelson and Verne literally shoot.
1454
01:09:35.600 --> 01:09:37.220
Looks like he's going to die.
1455
01:09:37.819 --> 01:09:38.439
He's sweating.
1456
01:09:38.939 --> 01:09:41.319
He looks like he really can't get out of it.
1457
01:09:41.960 --> 01:09:44.200
But Billy lets him out of it because.
1458
01:09:46.000 --> 01:09:49.000
Before this starts, though, did you catch who the referee was?
1459
01:09:49.319 --> 01:09:52.720
No, it was not Greg Brady, but a young Greg Gania.
1460
01:09:52.720 --> 01:09:54.820
Oh, a lot like Greg Brady.
1461
01:09:54.840 --> 01:09:59.520
And before the fucking match starts, he explains the rules
1462
01:09:59.520 --> 01:10:01.000
of the wrestling match.
1463
01:10:01.820 --> 01:10:06.520
And it takes like five fucking minutes and it is so dull.
1464
01:10:06.600 --> 01:10:09.620
And it's like, I think we know how wrestling matches work.
1465
01:10:09.840 --> 01:10:13.220
That's also why it makes so much sense.
1466
01:10:13.340 --> 01:10:16.040
It was Greg Gania because it was boring and I tuned out.
1467
01:10:16.580 --> 01:10:18.660
And that's what Greg Gania did
1468
01:10:18.660 --> 01:10:21.000
for the next 30 years of his wrestling career.
1469
01:10:21.840 --> 01:10:25.300
Wow. So I did not know I did not catch that.
1470
01:10:25.600 --> 01:10:27.440
So anyway, first be a clean fight.
1471
01:10:27.560 --> 01:10:28.840
I don't want any cheating.
1472
01:10:29.160 --> 01:10:30.020
No closed fists.
1473
01:10:30.160 --> 01:10:33.740
And he just goes fucking on and on and goes off the top rope.
1474
01:10:34.020 --> 01:10:36.120
That was so disqualification.
1475
01:10:36.480 --> 01:10:40.580
Yeah. If you disqualified, then you lose the title.
1476
01:10:41.020 --> 01:10:43.800
So there's a lot like lots of scientific grappling.
1477
01:10:44.280 --> 01:10:46.060
Billy's just starts out shining.
1478
01:10:46.480 --> 01:10:48.040
Verne keeps a good match.
1479
01:10:48.280 --> 01:10:50.060
I mean, they keep see of it.
1480
01:10:50.060 --> 01:10:52.040
It's the best film to match.
1481
01:10:52.200 --> 01:10:54.880
And that's with the floodlight blocking out a ton of the action.
1482
01:10:55.760 --> 01:10:59.480
They keep wrestling and then kind of out of nowhere, this dramatic music
1483
01:10:59.480 --> 01:11:02.620
busts out, but nothing interesting is really happening in the ring.
1484
01:11:03.060 --> 01:11:05.540
Then Billy has Verne in a leg lock.
1485
01:11:06.260 --> 01:11:11.160
And then Mike or Verne very scientifically kicks Billy in the head.
1486
01:11:11.400 --> 01:11:13.920
Right. But Billy hits a chicken wing suplex.
1487
01:11:14.000 --> 01:11:16.540
Then he hits a gut wrench suplex, a cyto suplex.
1488
01:11:17.420 --> 01:11:18.200
Then he hits an arm.
1489
01:11:18.660 --> 01:11:20.540
You did some good play by play.
1490
01:11:21.240 --> 01:11:24.620
Then they flash back to a conversation we didn't even mention
1491
01:11:24.620 --> 01:11:25.780
earlier in the movie.
1492
01:11:26.000 --> 01:11:28.800
Keep in mind, at this point, the music is basically the Hawaii 5-0.
1493
01:11:29.220 --> 01:11:32.020
Right. It's the Hawaii 5-0 music is getting louder and louder.
1494
01:11:33.840 --> 01:11:36.680
And all that happens is.
1495
01:11:38.280 --> 01:11:40.720
So Ed Asner had said to Billy,
1496
01:11:41.520 --> 01:11:43.280
you got to keep him away from the ropes.
1497
01:11:43.340 --> 01:11:44.540
You got to keep him off the ropes,
1498
01:11:44.580 --> 01:11:46.460
because if he hits you with that dropkick, you're done.
1499
01:11:46.460 --> 01:11:49.200
And Billy goes, nobody's ever hit me with a dropkick.
1500
01:11:49.300 --> 01:11:54.200
Never. And what happens is after he's been kicked in the fucking head,
1501
01:11:54.200 --> 01:11:58.060
scientifically, Billy's a little drowsy.
1502
01:11:58.760 --> 01:12:02.360
It cuts to slow motion at this point, and it cuts to slow motion.
1503
01:12:02.840 --> 01:12:06.620
And Verne runs off the ropes in slow motion way too long.
1504
01:12:07.500 --> 01:12:13.360
You can literally see the sweat just popping out of Verne's taint.
1505
01:12:14.380 --> 01:12:18.100
And he jumps up for the dropkick and they replay the scene of him going,
1506
01:12:18.180 --> 01:12:21.860
no one's ever hit me with a dropkick. Never. And then it goes to black.
1507
01:12:22.620 --> 01:12:25.680
Total black. Yep. That's the end of the movie.
1508
01:12:25.680 --> 01:12:29.540
And then the credits roll credits roll. It's a fantastic film.
1509
01:12:30.080 --> 01:12:32.380
It is like all good art.
1510
01:12:32.760 --> 01:12:37.020
It is up to interpretation how it ended. We don't know.
1511
01:12:37.180 --> 01:12:38.460
Like all good art.
1512
01:12:39.700 --> 01:12:42.620
This has nothing in common with good art. It's not good.
1513
01:12:43.800 --> 01:12:48.880
But what it is, is it's a fascinating fictionalization.
1514
01:12:49.840 --> 01:12:53.400
It's as factual a document of the wrestling industry
1515
01:12:53.400 --> 01:12:55.660
as you could make it this time. Yeah.
1516
01:12:55.940 --> 01:12:59.960
And it's it's like I was saying yesterday, it's like I almost wish
1517
01:12:59.960 --> 01:13:03.100
they could remake it and make it good, because it's like
1518
01:13:03.900 --> 01:13:05.720
there's there's something there.
1519
01:13:05.740 --> 01:13:08.400
There's a through line there that's not horrible.
1520
01:13:08.780 --> 01:13:10.080
But it's not good either.
1521
01:13:10.220 --> 01:13:13.320
It would be like if what if they made this movie?
1522
01:13:13.360 --> 01:13:14.800
A.W. made this movie.
1523
01:13:15.580 --> 01:13:17.380
OK, it's about Kenny Omega.
1524
01:13:18.320 --> 01:13:20.000
Like Kenny is the star. Right.
1525
01:13:20.400 --> 01:13:23.880
And diverticulatus is the diverticulatus is Ed Asner.
1526
01:13:24.260 --> 01:13:26.760
Yeah, we'll find the right opponent for him.
1527
01:13:30.060 --> 01:13:33.800
But who plays the secretary in this version in this version?
1528
01:13:35.240 --> 01:13:40.500
I don't know, Lexi, Lexi Nair or R Kitty or maybe.
1529
01:13:41.500 --> 01:13:42.960
Right. R.J. City.
1530
01:13:43.120 --> 01:13:45.140
How about R.J. City? R.J. City is the secretary.
1531
01:13:45.160 --> 01:13:47.020
Yeah, dude, he's he's awesome.
1532
01:13:47.320 --> 01:13:48.640
And Tony Khan's.
1533
01:13:48.760 --> 01:13:50.540
Yes, Billy, it's a mockumentary.
1534
01:13:50.660 --> 01:13:52.220
It reminds me of the Ruttles. Yes.
1535
01:13:52.820 --> 01:13:53.600
Yeah, it does.
1536
01:13:53.760 --> 01:13:57.080
But without the humor is intentional in the Ruttles.
1537
01:13:57.200 --> 01:13:58.760
Yeah, that's not accidental.
1538
01:14:00.000 --> 01:14:02.780
But it is, though, like we're saying, it's definitely
1539
01:14:02.780 --> 01:14:06.320
you see Verne's personal beliefs on display.
1540
01:14:06.440 --> 01:14:08.220
You see him defending wrestling.
1541
01:14:08.220 --> 01:14:10.500
You see him putting himself out there.
1542
01:14:10.740 --> 01:14:13.540
But even like the stuff where they go to the boys club and he's like
1543
01:14:14.160 --> 01:14:16.560
he just says something about like, you know, this is a good
1544
01:14:16.560 --> 01:14:17.940
this is something you can do.
1545
01:14:17.980 --> 01:14:19.200
It keeps you off the streets.
1546
01:14:19.440 --> 01:14:20.440
It gives you something to do.
1547
01:14:20.560 --> 01:14:24.080
It's athletic, like which I'm sure that Verne was
1548
01:14:24.080 --> 01:14:25.820
probably doing shit in his local community.
1549
01:14:25.820 --> 01:14:26.740
I don't know. He was.
1550
01:14:26.960 --> 01:14:30.580
No, I mean, was, you know, I mean, thing was like all over the states.
1551
01:14:30.620 --> 01:14:34.120
It was like a wrestling hustle that you ran if you were a promoter.
1552
01:14:34.120 --> 01:14:36.640
Oh, like it's like a community service thing.
1553
01:14:36.640 --> 01:14:38.340
Eddie Graham had one.
1554
01:14:38.500 --> 01:14:39.980
Dory Funk Senior had one.
1555
01:14:40.260 --> 01:14:41.540
They had boys clubs.
1556
01:14:41.740 --> 01:14:42.160
I didn't know that.
1557
01:14:42.300 --> 01:14:44.100
I just thought it was like a YMCA thing.
1558
01:14:44.160 --> 01:14:45.620
I always think when they call them boys club,
1559
01:14:45.720 --> 01:14:46.940
it gives me the ick a little bit.
1560
01:14:46.940 --> 01:14:48.480
But then you see what it actually is.
1561
01:14:48.480 --> 01:14:50.300
And it's like, no, they're just like teaching these dudes
1562
01:14:50.300 --> 01:14:51.800
how to wrestle and shit. Right.
1563
01:14:51.860 --> 01:14:54.180
But it's not like John Moxley's boys club.
1564
01:14:54.460 --> 01:14:55.800
It's not the death riders.
1565
01:14:56.480 --> 01:14:58.140
Blair Lyons says, I swear those silhouette shots
1566
01:14:58.140 --> 01:14:59.800
from Dark Side of the Ring were inspired by this.
1567
01:14:59.920 --> 01:15:03.140
Yes, but they're much better shot than this. Yeah.
1568
01:15:03.700 --> 01:15:06.760
But there was it was a really fun movie.
1569
01:15:06.760 --> 01:15:09.180
I would definitely I mean, I've watched it once before this
1570
01:15:09.180 --> 01:15:10.140
and I would watch it again.
1571
01:15:10.360 --> 01:15:13.300
Like it it's fun to watch with a friend
1572
01:15:13.300 --> 01:15:15.600
because you just laugh a lot degree.
1573
01:15:15.600 --> 01:15:17.220
And I did not watch it together.
1574
01:15:17.380 --> 01:15:20.560
I watched it on Saturday night and you watched it on Sunday morning.
1575
01:15:20.680 --> 01:15:21.600
Sunday morning. Yeah.
1576
01:15:21.600 --> 01:15:25.640
But we had a blast fucking just bullshitting.
1577
01:15:25.940 --> 01:15:27.900
Blair Lyons says it's on YouTube.
1578
01:15:28.180 --> 01:15:31.520
So I looked at I tried to watch it on YouTube and it was
1579
01:15:32.420 --> 01:15:35.140
like the sound was really, really bad.
1580
01:15:35.260 --> 01:15:37.180
I watched it on something called Fawesome,
1581
01:15:37.440 --> 01:15:39.660
which I think is means free and awesome.
1582
01:15:40.260 --> 01:15:41.920
And it was a free app that I got.
1583
01:15:42.180 --> 01:15:43.760
So you can watch it there.
1584
01:15:44.200 --> 01:15:47.680
It's on Midnight Pulp, but you have to pay like six dollars a month for that.
1585
01:15:47.680 --> 01:15:50.900
Yeah. And it's not worth it because that render of that copy
1586
01:15:50.900 --> 01:15:53.300
is not the DVD copy. It is terrible.
1587
01:15:53.880 --> 01:15:56.580
It is so this is the only movie you want to watch.
1588
01:15:56.740 --> 01:15:58.980
Do not pay six ninety nine a month.
1589
01:15:59.140 --> 01:16:01.500
Fuck. No. Just you can find it.
1590
01:16:02.120 --> 01:16:04.100
Billy says this is my favorite wrestling movie,
1591
01:16:04.100 --> 01:16:06.840
probably besides the Iron Clive, had it on DVD for years.
1592
01:16:07.340 --> 01:16:10.840
It is everything that professional industry wants you to know on their terms.
1593
01:16:10.860 --> 01:16:14.100
100 percent. That's a great line. Any better.
1594
01:16:14.640 --> 01:16:18.640
And I also have it on DVD.
1595
01:16:19.180 --> 01:16:20.840
And you have the real car. I have.
1596
01:16:21.160 --> 01:16:23.820
Yeah, I'm getting this poster, by the way,
1597
01:16:23.940 --> 01:16:26.120
because what I'm doing, he's throwing the dropkick,
1598
01:16:26.720 --> 01:16:27.860
throwing the drollies.
1599
01:16:27.860 --> 01:16:30.300
Copy is like it's got Ed Asner on the front,
1600
01:16:30.300 --> 01:16:34.060
but then it's got some like some weirdo who's not even seen a prototype.
1601
01:16:34.520 --> 01:16:36.660
Yeah, yeah, I know. It looks like a collegiate wrestler thing.
1602
01:16:36.700 --> 01:16:39.460
Yeah. Yeah. That poster is fucking killer, too.
1603
01:16:39.460 --> 01:16:40.820
Oh, dude, I have to get it.
1604
01:16:40.820 --> 01:16:41.540
I have to get it.
1605
01:16:41.540 --> 01:16:45.820
It'll go next to my bandito most wanted poster and this baby.
1606
01:16:46.440 --> 01:16:51.540
And then I'm going to get Verne's ghost to autograph it for me.
1607
01:16:54.180 --> 01:16:55.980
Is Ed Asner still alive?
1608
01:16:57.100 --> 01:16:59.300
Oh, I hope so. Oh, I hope so.
1609
01:16:59.300 --> 01:17:02.580
I mean, if you can get him to autograph, dude, he looks so fucking old
1610
01:17:02.580 --> 01:17:05.680
in this movie and this movie is filmed in like 70.
1611
01:17:06.180 --> 01:17:09.160
They were they couldn't pay for makeup or anything like that.
1612
01:17:09.160 --> 01:17:11.520
I'm just like, did he have an out of control drug?
1613
01:17:11.600 --> 01:17:12.620
He died in 2021.
1614
01:17:13.140 --> 01:17:15.940
Oh, no, no, but he definitely had a gambling addiction.
1615
01:17:15.940 --> 01:17:16.900
And that's why he had to.
1616
01:17:16.900 --> 01:17:19.660
Yeah, he owed somebody a big favor for this movie.
1617
01:17:19.700 --> 01:17:23.540
I mean, but to his credit, motherfucker does not phone it in.
1618
01:17:23.560 --> 01:17:25.800
No, he brings his a game to this movie.
1619
01:17:25.820 --> 01:17:26.900
He did. He did.
1620
01:17:26.900 --> 01:17:31.740
And so I think all of the all of the appearances are awesome.
1621
01:17:31.740 --> 01:17:34.860
I think it's an honest account.
1622
01:17:34.860 --> 01:17:38.940
Oh, God, a promoter's point of view of what wrestling was.
1623
01:17:39.500 --> 01:17:43.200
Yeah. And I mean, if you have if you're if you're interested
1624
01:17:43.200 --> 01:17:45.880
in the history of pro wrestling, you have to see this.
1625
01:17:45.880 --> 01:17:50.180
The must. Yeah, I think I mean, there's a million wrestling movies
1626
01:17:50.180 --> 01:17:52.860
that have been made over the years and various levels of,
1627
01:17:53.500 --> 01:17:55.200
you know, kayfabe or not kayfabe.
1628
01:17:55.200 --> 01:17:58.540
But this is like a I mean, I would almost call it
1629
01:17:58.540 --> 01:18:01.600
like a like an artifact, like a historical artifact.
1630
01:18:01.600 --> 01:18:03.700
This is something you put in your.
1631
01:18:05.180 --> 01:18:09.480
Your time capsule or whatever, because it is really it's a really unique
1632
01:18:09.480 --> 01:18:12.800
for its era and for what it does and what it says.
1633
01:18:12.880 --> 01:18:15.400
And like Billy had said earlier, it's it's wrestling
1634
01:18:15.400 --> 01:18:18.040
letting you know what it is on on their terms.
1635
01:18:18.860 --> 01:18:19.600
What was the best?
1636
01:18:19.880 --> 01:18:22.060
What was the best part of it for you?
1637
01:18:22.220 --> 01:18:23.620
From the best part? Yeah.
1638
01:18:23.620 --> 01:18:27.080
Um, I did think that the secretary was kind of hot.
1639
01:18:27.560 --> 01:18:30.640
She was really, really, she was super hot.
1640
01:18:30.760 --> 01:18:31.680
Really? Yeah.
1641
01:18:31.680 --> 01:18:35.280
I think the best part, probably bruiser and crusher, I think,
1642
01:18:35.660 --> 01:18:40.400
or just popping every time somebody shows up that I recognize every like
1643
01:18:40.400 --> 01:18:42.920
like that's why that scene with the
1644
01:18:43.460 --> 01:18:45.960
with the the board of directors and everything.
1645
01:18:45.960 --> 01:18:48.640
It's like you look at your there, you're at this pool
1646
01:18:48.640 --> 01:18:52.020
and it's this total 70s corny, like people are doing coke, whatever,
1647
01:18:52.020 --> 01:18:53.660
you know, drinking my ties.
1648
01:18:53.760 --> 01:18:58.380
And it's like all these fucking guys, Vince Senior and fucking Rod Trongard.
1649
01:18:58.560 --> 01:19:00.700
And like just every time every time you turn around,
1650
01:19:00.700 --> 01:19:02.660
there's another wrestler and they're name dropping something.
1651
01:19:02.660 --> 01:19:05.080
So it's like, I guess that's what I I would say.
1652
01:19:05.120 --> 01:19:05.880
I would say that.
1653
01:19:05.880 --> 01:19:10.180
I mean, that's the opposite for me, that they got Vince McMahon Senior,
1654
01:19:10.700 --> 01:19:15.080
who is the big one is really like not this guy I've ever heard speak.
1655
01:19:15.900 --> 01:19:18.320
Right. And I forgot that he was in this movie.
1656
01:19:18.320 --> 01:19:22.560
And for him to like shocked for him to be so forward
1657
01:19:22.560 --> 01:19:24.560
about what they wanted out of a champion.
1658
01:19:25.600 --> 01:19:27.960
This is real shit that they said behind the scenes.
1659
01:19:28.100 --> 01:19:30.300
Even the Dory Funk is all shit.
1660
01:19:30.600 --> 01:19:32.620
They said that stuff, you know.
1661
01:19:32.720 --> 01:19:34.700
So like I thought it was awesome.
1662
01:19:34.940 --> 01:19:37.500
I thought I you guys got to see this movie.
1663
01:19:37.540 --> 01:19:39.040
It's a lot of fun.
1664
01:19:39.800 --> 01:19:41.700
And what's the what's your favorite part degree?
1665
01:19:41.840 --> 01:19:44.140
Well, I thought the secretary was hot. Sorry.
1666
01:19:44.820 --> 01:19:45.960
It was not.
1667
01:19:45.960 --> 01:19:48.100
But she is she is extremely.
1668
01:19:48.120 --> 01:19:49.340
OK. And here's the thing.
1669
01:19:49.360 --> 01:19:53.320
If this movie had been any better, maybe I wouldn't be focusing on that.
1670
01:19:53.380 --> 01:19:55.040
But it was not a very good movie.
1671
01:19:55.460 --> 01:19:56.980
Let me read the list.
1672
01:19:57.180 --> 01:20:02.280
We've got Jerry Wade, Don Morocco, James Blears, Dan Hodge, Joe Scarpello,
1673
01:20:02.600 --> 01:20:07.120
Bruiser, Dan Gable, Crusher, Dusty Rhodes, Wahoo, McDaniel, Joe Dusick,
1674
01:20:07.360 --> 01:20:10.080
Nick Bachwinkle, superstar Billy Graham, J.
1675
01:20:11.060 --> 01:20:14.060
Hyon, Ray Stevens, Lawrence Basson, Rick Flair, Dick Murdock,
1676
01:20:14.060 --> 01:20:18.140
Greg Ganya, Larry Henning, Wilbur Snyder, Bobby Cox, Ken Patera,
1677
01:20:18.480 --> 01:20:21.420
Dennis Hilgart, Jim Brunzel, Horace Hoffman,
1678
01:20:22.020 --> 01:20:26.400
and then Jack Wildman Armstrong, Dory Funk Jr., Pedro Morales, Mike Graham.
1679
01:20:26.700 --> 01:20:29.700
There's just fucking shit ton of people in this movie.
1680
01:20:29.740 --> 01:20:31.560
It's the who's who of wrestling at that time.
1681
01:20:31.660 --> 01:20:34.880
I mean, by the time this movie actually was Dory and Pedro
1682
01:20:34.880 --> 01:20:38.040
were no longer the champions by the time this movie was released.
1683
01:20:38.160 --> 01:20:41.880
Oh, so it was filmed in like 72 73, you know.
1684
01:20:42.940 --> 01:20:44.720
So 73, I think they did.
1685
01:20:44.860 --> 01:20:46.320
Bruno, there's a scene in the movie
1686
01:20:46.320 --> 01:20:49.080
where he just goes through a slideshow of famous wrestlers.
1687
01:20:49.080 --> 01:20:51.060
And he calls Bruno the great Bruno.
1688
01:20:51.780 --> 01:20:53.500
Yeah. And he like refers to him as a champ.
1689
01:20:53.640 --> 01:20:56.300
And it's like, well, here's the guys that we couldn't get for the movie.
1690
01:20:56.320 --> 01:20:58.560
So we're just going to shove them all in this montage.
1691
01:20:59.440 --> 01:21:01.900
Super fun. You know, aside from like beyond the mat
1692
01:21:01.900 --> 01:21:04.620
or something like that, that was such a seminal piece.
1693
01:21:05.140 --> 01:21:07.800
This is one of my favorite pieces of wrestling media. It's great.
1694
01:21:08.180 --> 01:21:09.020
Yeah. Yeah.
1695
01:21:09.100 --> 01:21:11.800
And I wish it was I wish it was better known.
1696
01:21:11.880 --> 01:21:15.200
I wish it was I wish somebody could properly restore it.
1697
01:21:15.200 --> 01:21:16.960
Yes, because it looks like garbage.
1698
01:21:17.040 --> 01:21:18.840
It looks like it was in trash.
1699
01:21:19.060 --> 01:21:22.640
Yeah. It was tough to watch because there were a couple of times where
1700
01:21:22.640 --> 01:21:26.200
like I was watching on this Fossum thing and it got staticky
1701
01:21:26.200 --> 01:21:28.260
like I was watching an old VHS.
1702
01:21:28.280 --> 01:21:29.740
I mean, it looked bad.
1703
01:21:30.340 --> 01:21:34.120
And I think on mine, on on on the Midnight Pulp thing,
1704
01:21:34.220 --> 01:21:37.040
which I already canceled the fucking subscriptions.
1705
01:21:37.380 --> 01:21:39.100
Was anything good on there? No.
1706
01:21:39.100 --> 01:21:43.940
OK, but they nothing that you can't get for free on to totally word
1707
01:21:44.460 --> 01:21:45.080
methods.
1708
01:21:45.960 --> 01:21:52.020
They they had a it's just so they stretched it to be like 1280.
1709
01:21:52.380 --> 01:21:54.400
Oh, yeah. Yeah. It looks so bad.
1710
01:21:54.520 --> 01:21:55.720
No good. That's terrible.
1711
01:21:56.140 --> 01:21:57.480
Oh, it looks so bad.
1712
01:21:57.720 --> 01:22:00.260
No. But all that said,
1713
01:22:01.020 --> 01:22:04.500
I am a huge fan of old shitty schlocky movies.
1714
01:22:04.720 --> 01:22:07.080
I am a huge fan of grindhouse shit.
1715
01:22:08.000 --> 01:22:11.040
I like I mean, we talked about being Roger Corman fans.
1716
01:22:12.580 --> 01:22:15.920
So it's this this is absolutely a movie that's so bad.
1717
01:22:15.920 --> 01:22:19.620
It's good. You know, it I would recommend it to any wrestling fan,
1718
01:22:19.660 --> 01:22:22.660
even though I just sat here and shit all over for two hours.
1719
01:22:22.940 --> 01:22:24.660
I would still tell you to watch it.
1720
01:22:24.700 --> 01:22:26.180
Like, you got to see it.
1721
01:22:26.180 --> 01:22:28.920
If you love wrestling, if you love wrestling, you have to see this movie.
1722
01:22:28.960 --> 01:22:30.020
I think it's fantastic.
1723
01:22:30.020 --> 01:22:34.120
And I think fundamentally, yes, I'm a Roger Corman, Vincent Price,
1724
01:22:34.220 --> 01:22:36.800
those Edgar Allan Poe movies they made.
1725
01:22:37.080 --> 01:22:40.120
Big fan. So like that's that's my shit.
1726
01:22:40.140 --> 01:22:41.260
That's like where I come from.
1727
01:22:41.320 --> 01:22:43.500
Public access television. Give it to me.
1728
01:22:43.640 --> 01:22:45.920
Like, sure. Talent shows on public access television.
1729
01:22:46.180 --> 01:22:48.000
Religious programming on public.
1730
01:22:48.280 --> 01:22:50.520
I have the fucking Billy Jack box set.
1731
01:22:50.840 --> 01:22:52.800
Yes. Yes. In my language.
1732
01:22:53.000 --> 01:22:55.080
Yes. Blurry Line says this movie is awful.
1733
01:22:55.080 --> 01:22:55.980
You got to see it.
1734
01:22:55.980 --> 01:22:57.940
That's pretty much what we're telling you. Yeah.
1735
01:22:58.260 --> 01:23:02.480
But like, for instance, No Holds Barred was written by Hulk Hogan
1736
01:23:02.480 --> 01:23:03.100
and Vince McMahon.
1737
01:23:03.280 --> 01:23:06.580
And it's I have a special place for it in my heart.
1738
01:23:06.580 --> 01:23:07.740
But it sucks.
1739
01:23:08.420 --> 01:23:09.760
Like objectively sucks.
1740
01:23:10.000 --> 01:23:11.260
Hulk Hogan is not a good actor.
1741
01:23:11.620 --> 01:23:13.180
There's nothing legit about the movie.
1742
01:23:13.200 --> 01:23:16.300
It doesn't even it sound it seems like it's written by people
1743
01:23:16.300 --> 01:23:17.520
who've never watched rest.
1744
01:23:17.520 --> 01:23:21.020
This is not that this is like a love letter to what wrestling was at the time.
1745
01:23:22.460 --> 01:23:23.380
But degree, I think that's it.
1746
01:23:23.380 --> 01:23:24.600
Is that it for you?
1747
01:23:24.740 --> 01:23:26.280
Yeah, I mean, I don't have anything else to say.
1748
01:23:26.460 --> 01:23:27.140
It was a good movie.
1749
01:23:27.680 --> 01:23:28.980
It was a good bad movie.
1750
01:23:29.320 --> 01:23:32.460
A couple of weeks ago, we did the best worst wrestlers this week.
1751
01:23:32.460 --> 01:23:34.000
We did the best worst movie.
1752
01:23:34.260 --> 01:23:36.560
How did you all feel about the movie review format?
1753
01:23:36.560 --> 01:23:37.300
Let us know.
1754
01:23:37.480 --> 01:23:40.960
Send us you can send us an email at pro wrestling forever pod at gmail.com.
1755
01:23:41.480 --> 01:23:44.100
You can let us know in the comments on whatever platform
1756
01:23:44.100 --> 01:23:45.080
you're listening to this on.
1757
01:23:45.580 --> 01:23:47.440
But whatever your platform you're listening to it on,
1758
01:23:47.500 --> 01:23:48.480
make sure you subscribe.
1759
01:23:48.520 --> 01:23:50.260
Yes. Smash that subscribe button.
1760
01:23:50.560 --> 01:23:53.340
Give a thumbs up on this video. Share it with a friend.
1761
01:23:53.480 --> 01:23:56.960
If you got a pro wrestling fanatic friend, this is the podcast for them.
1762
01:23:56.960 --> 01:23:59.260
It is pro wrestling forever is for you.
1763
01:23:59.360 --> 01:24:02.260
If you have a lapsed friend, a lapsed fan friend,
1764
01:24:02.280 --> 01:24:05.560
this is the podcast for them because we're not just talking about modern stuff.
1765
01:24:05.560 --> 01:24:09.800
We're delving back through the history of professional wrestling, the ephemera,
1766
01:24:09.960 --> 01:24:12.060
the collectibles, if you will.
1767
01:24:13.200 --> 01:24:13.900
Mm hmm. Mm hmm.
1768
01:24:14.160 --> 01:24:17.100
And if you have a movie, a wrestling movie that you think we should review,
1769
01:24:17.220 --> 01:24:17.800
let us know. Yeah.
1770
01:24:17.800 --> 01:24:19.960
And we're not going to do a play by play next time.
1771
01:24:21.700 --> 01:24:24.740
Larry Lyte says I'd say do one also about the 2008 wrestler,
1772
01:24:24.960 --> 01:24:26.660
although this one's just generally more interesting.
1773
01:24:26.660 --> 01:24:27.780
So here's what's interesting.
1774
01:24:27.960 --> 01:24:32.520
The 2008 film, The Wrestler is about a dude who's old, washed up,
1775
01:24:32.680 --> 01:24:35.160
and he just can't fucking quit the business.
1776
01:24:35.160 --> 01:24:38.480
And he's just like an indie guy and he just keeps staying in the business
1777
01:24:38.480 --> 01:24:41.240
and it keeps drawing him back in no matter what.
1778
01:24:41.720 --> 01:24:46.080
And it in a way kind of parallels the story of an old man
1779
01:24:46.080 --> 01:24:48.780
who just can't quit the business in 1974.
1780
01:24:49.740 --> 01:24:51.780
I don't know if there's any connection.
1781
01:24:52.120 --> 01:24:56.140
Spoiler, the 2008 movie ends with him jumping off the rope
1782
01:24:56.140 --> 01:25:00.060
and then it cuts to black, which is exactly how this one ends.
1783
01:25:00.500 --> 01:25:01.640
Could be total coincidence.
1784
01:25:02.180 --> 01:25:03.260
Could be a little something more.
1785
01:25:03.380 --> 01:25:03.780
I don't know.
1786
01:25:03.780 --> 01:25:06.420
I've just ruined three movies for you.
1787
01:25:06.840 --> 01:25:10.940
But if you guys if you guys love the uncle wrestler phenomenon,
1788
01:25:11.160 --> 01:25:16.700
which is wrestlers who look like your fucking uncle, who Doryfunk,
1789
01:25:16.700 --> 01:25:20.540
you know, fucking these dudes with little guts and bald heads
1790
01:25:20.540 --> 01:25:23.420
who are literally in their early 30s.
1791
01:25:23.680 --> 01:25:27.200
You know what it is, is it's when Alan Moore would get a hold of like
1792
01:25:27.200 --> 01:25:30.420
some old silver age comic books and then he would twist them
1793
01:25:30.420 --> 01:25:33.060
and make them disgusting and drug addled and nasty.
1794
01:25:33.060 --> 01:25:35.620
That's like what the 2008 version is.
1795
01:25:35.660 --> 01:25:36.640
You know, right.
1796
01:25:37.100 --> 01:25:39.280
Yeah, the Charleston characters in Watchmen.
1797
01:25:39.540 --> 01:25:43.180
This is the old silver age version where it was bright and shiny and fake.
1798
01:25:43.880 --> 01:25:45.080
This is Professor Degree.
1799
01:25:45.320 --> 01:25:46.360
He's Blade Daily.
1800
01:25:46.700 --> 01:25:49.580
We're here to celebrate professional wrestling in all of its forms
1801
01:25:49.580 --> 01:25:55.460
for all time, for all people, pro wrestling forever.