Hi Scott,
A fantastic documentary aired tonight in the UK on Channel 4 called The Wrestlers: Fighting With My Family. It's about a family who own a small wrestling promotion and academy.
The family's daughter is FCW/NXT wrestler Paige, and shows her rise from wrestling in front of a few dozen people for her father's promotion, to getting invited for a WWE trial all the way to moving out to the states and debuting in FCW. It also shows the family's son and his struggle to achieve the same success as his sister. He has had a few WWE tryouts but was said to be underweight, although he did appear on Smackdown in a squash against Big Show.
It's well worth watching and can be watched online at the following link:
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-wrestlers-fighting-with-my-family/4od#3386001
Unsure if it can be accessed in Canada or US, if not its worth hunting for on youtube.
It cannot be accessed, sadly. But I'll put it up for any viewers who can. Although the hilarious selection of other choices, like "My Daughter Is A Teenaged Nudist", make it seem like TLC reality series hell.
There was a short lived show on A&E, I think, called The Bussey Bunch about a family that ran a wrestling promotion. It wasn't as interesting as it sounded, however, and they had nothing but a bunch of untrained jobbers out in California. That was A&E's first mistake, you're never going to get anyhwere with West Coast wrestling, even their best workers are sloppy compared to the East Coast.
ReplyDeleteWatched this last night. Good little doc though not really due to anything specific to wrestling.
ReplyDeleteIt's chiefly interesting for the dynamic between the daughter who gets it all easily and the son who really wants it but doesn't have what it takes.
The wrestling is just the backdrop for that story
One of my reporters interviewed the men of the family and said they were all really decent guys.
ReplyDeleteI also had a quick chat with Ricky (the head of the family) and he told me that they trained Nick Aldis - AKA Magnus in TNA.
Does anyone remember A&E's Unreal Story of Professional Wrestling?
ReplyDeleteIt debuted in late 1997 or early 1998 as I recall and with a decent amount of participation from Vince and Eric Bischoff as well as Verne Gange. It had a lot of classic footage too, from the 30s and 40s up through the 1990s. I always enjoyed that one despite its many historical flaws (it basically ignores ECW and the NWA too) just because of the seriousness and classiness by which they treated the topic. It was cool to see university academics examining and debating the merits of pro-wrestling -- it was the first time I recall seeing comparisons drawn between wrestling and theater and film in a piece covering wrestling.
Picked it up on DVD a few years back in a sale. As you say flawed but still worth watching.
ReplyDeleteThe nice folks at Pro Wrestling Guerrilla would like a word. From what I hear once RoH goes down the crapper they will be the Indy of choice,only more enjoyable than RoH.
ReplyDeleteNick Aldis bounced around the UK indies so much that pretty much everyone with a school could have said they trained him, I know he spent some time with Jon Ritchie as well.
ReplyDeleteI only met him once and he seemed nice enough but by reputation he had quite an ego at a young age and burned bridges as he went.
A: I doubt that, because CHIKARA or DGUSA/EVOLVE already run more shows than PWG.
ReplyDeleteB: Most PWG shows feature Steen, Generico, Briscoes, Richards, Edwards, etc. All East Coast workers.
C: The West Coast workers they do use tend to be a little sloppy. TJ Perkins & the Young Bucks are the exception, but Scorpio Sky, the RockNES Monsters, Willie Mack, and others are a little too loose for my liking, though they are all talented.
Try n school me on indie wrestling, shiiiiit son.
They rerun that once in a blue moon on one of their digital cable channels. It was a very good documentary, especially if you wanted a primer on the earliest days of wrestling. It was narrated by Steve Allen, who later became one of the largest anti-pro wrestling voices with the stupid Parents Television Council. One of the better features ever produced on wrestling, for sure.
ReplyDeleteI interviewed Nick back in 2007 and spoke to him a few times afterwards. Basically, he came across well with a good business head on him.
ReplyDeleteWhen he comes back to the UK, he usually comes into the studio and the girls (and soem of the guys)absolutely love him.
411 had a link to the documentary on YouTube:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=v2HiVuxPHPQ
ROH sucks dude. Get over it. :)
ReplyDeleteScott, many of the documentaries on UK television have what I would generously describe as 'slutty' titles (eg 'The Boy Whose Skin Fell Off', no seriously). However, they are generally balanced and well-made, far above the standard off 'reality series hell'.
ReplyDeleteI saw this on Youtube on Saturday and it was an interesting documentary. The way the Knights ran their promotion reminded me of the description of Stampede Wrestling Bret Hart provided in his book. Reportedly Sweet Saraya had some issues with the way the early part of the program was edited. I'm not sure if anything was changed before it aired but I could see why she had some issues, they made the sibling rivalry more serious than it was. What did stick out was the importance of family. I ffelt bad for the son but he just does not have the look. I hope he spends a year or so getting into a serious workout regiment so he could get a chance at a WWE Developmental Contract.
ReplyDeleteSamoa Joe, Christopher Daniels and Daniel Bryan are three west coast wrestlers.
ReplyDelete