Awful Wrestling Documentaries

[LuciCypher]

What are awful wrestling documentaries that you've seen or heard about one I saw years ago was Wrestling With Manhood: Boys, Bullying & Battering. It was critical of wrestling but that's not why it was awful it just had a lot of inaccurate information and made outlandish claims at points.

[eDemento2099]

The Rise and Fall of WCW

[2 Cold Scorkum]

the one with the STUNT GRANNIES

[Joe Neglia]

That "secrets of pro wrestling" special that somehow got Harley Race involved.

There was one a few years back that I reviewed on a site I used to work for, title was something like "101 Reasons Not to Be a Pro Wrestler" - the doc itself, mostly just interviews - was fine but the camera work made it unwatchable.

Also, Faded Glory, one of the first (made sometime during the late 90s) on the Von Erichs. Biggest piece of fluff ever.

[Deleted]

Jul 21, 2014 18:07:39 GMT -5 Joe Neglia said:

That "secrets of pro wrestling" special that somehow got Harley Race involved.

There was one a few years back that I reviewed on a site I used to work for, title was something like "101 Reasons Not to Be a Pro Wrestler" - the doc itself, mostly just interviews - was fine but the camera work made it unwatchable.

Also, Faded Glory, one of the first (made sometime during the late 90s) on the Von Erichs. Biggest piece of fluff ever.

I once knocked 101's camera work on another forum and got torn apart. I feel so much better that someone agrees with me on that.

[Deleted]

The Warrior one was really mean spirited.

Well he might have not been the nicest person to be in the WWE, there sure has been a HELL OF A LOT more scum to work for them.

[Deleted]

Self Destruction of the Ultimate Warrior
The Monday Night Wars
Pro Wrestling's Greatest Secrets

Any documentary that ignores a wrestler's WCW work, especially when they spent extensive time there, is offputting to me.

[Cranjis McBasketball]

Bloodstained Memoirs.

I thought I found a steal when I finally saw this in stores......what an awful piece of shit.

[Gummydavidson]

The Jesse Ventura Story.

["Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay]

Jul 21, 2014 18:07:39 GMT -5 Joe Neglia said:

There was one a few years back that I reviewed on a site I used to work for, title was something like "101 Reasons Not to Be a Pro Wrestler" - the doc itself, mostly just interviews - was fine but the camera work made it unwatchable.

I saw a bit of this and I thought it was awful. They recycled so much footage over and over (that bump of the guy being thrown into the wall being described as infamous or some shit when it was at some show with about six people there), and the editing on the bits with Bruno drove me mental.

Jul 21, 2014 18:02:49 GMT -5 eDemento2099 said:

The Rise and Fall of WCW

I hated this, so much. ECW gets a three hour doc, WCW gets like 90 minutes and hardly any new interviews?

[Mozenrath]

Yeah, the WCW one wasn't great. I get that ECW has more of a devoted following in some ways, at least as far as names go, but that doesn't mean to half ass it, especially when it isn't like WCW guys are incredibly difficult to get ahold of for interviews. No one is expecting you to get Ted Turner in, but come on.

[The 1Watcher Experience]

That Highspots Dynamite Kid shoot that was turned into a documentary of sorts because as a shoot alone it would have been a disaster. So much hype and so disappointing.

[The Dark Order Inferno]

Jul 22, 2014 5:59:12 GMT -5 Mozenrath said:

Yeah, the WCW one wasn't great. I get that ECW has more of a devoted following in some ways, at least as far as names go, but that doesn't mean to half ass it, especially when it isn't like WCW guys are incredibly difficult to get ahold of for interviews. No one is expecting you to get Ted Turner in, but come on.

ECW has a larger fanbase in death than it ever had in life because the WWE hyped the heck out of it. With WCW, they've done everything they can to paint the company as worthless and alienate the fanbase... WCW's audience had shrunk, but they still worked to drive off what remained, it was like if the WWE decided one day that Smackdown's audience was worthless and that the best course of action was to do all they can to drive them away, then spent the next decade using the brand as a punchline.

[Mozenrath]

Jul 22, 2014 7:24:26 GMT -5 The Dark Order Inferno said:

Jul 22, 2014 5:59:12 GMT -5 Mozenrath said:

Yeah, the WCW one wasn't great. I get that ECW has more of a devoted following in some ways, at least as far as names go, but that doesn't mean to half ass it, especially when it isn't like WCW guys are incredibly difficult to get ahold of for interviews. No one is expecting you to get Ted Turner in, but come on.

ECW has a larger fanbase in death than it ever had in life because the WWE hyped the heck out of it. With WCW, they've done everything they can to paint the company as worthless and alienate the fanbase... WCW's audience had shrunk, but they still worked to drive off what remained, it was like if the WWE decided one day that Smackdown's audience was worthless and that the best course of action was to do all they can to drive them away, then spent the next decade using the brand as a punchline.

WCW made it incredibly easy to mock in death, near the end. It wasn't just WWE downplaying what it had going for it.

Beyond that, though, ECW was always a company first, and the stars came second, same deal with ROH nowadays. WCW was defined more by its stars than the other way around, so instead of WCW revivals, it's "Hey, there's Sting and Flair!" and talking about them outside of the dead company, rather than Dreamer and Rhino feeding off of ECW's ashes.

[Jiren]

Starrcade

40 mins?, piss off

[Deleted]

The Backyard documentary, I know people liked it but I spent most of my time laughing my ass off (The two brothers feuding) or rubbing my forehead (Everything else). Especially when one of the brothers chokeslammed his mom, I laughed for about a solid two minutes.

[A Platypus Rave]

not really a documentary but there was that terrible Andre the Giant Biopic

[Adam Black]

The Attitude Era one was really underwhelming they just discussed sutff that most people already know and they just skimmed thru a lot of stuff too.

[The Dark Order Inferno]

Jul 22, 2014 7:29:33 GMT -5 Mozenrath said:

]WCW made it incredibly easy to mock in death, near the end. It wasn't just WWE downplaying what it had going for it.

Beyond that, though, ECW was always a company first, and the stars came second, same deal with ROH nowadays. WCW was defined more by its stars than the other way around, so instead of WCW revivals, it's "Hey, there's Sting and Flair!" and talking about them outside of the dead company, rather than Dreamer and Rhino feeding off of ECW's ashes.

As was ECW around that time, the difference is no-one saw it so it's easier to whitewash over... And the WWF wasn't some mecca of awesomeness around that time either but it was saved by people being pounded with chairs or dumped off ladders through tables, which appealed to the WWF fanbase. WCW's portrayal has been akin to someone making a WWE attitude era documentary which only focussed on things like the hardcore division, the horrible attempts to mimic WCW's Cruiserweight division, the use of Mae Young, Moolah and the Stooges, Kaientai, Val Venis, Mark Henry's 5 fingered offspring, Jeff Jarrett: Woman beater and the punishment gimmick that ultimately killed Owen Hart.

[kingoftheindies]

Jul 22, 2014 5:59:12 GMT -5 Mozenrath said:

Yeah, the WCW one wasn't great. I get that ECW has more of a devoted following in some ways, at least as far as names go, but that doesn't mean to half ass it, especially when it isn't like WCW guys are incredibly difficult to get ahold of for interviews. No one is expecting you to get Ted Turner in, but come on.

I remember a list leaked of guys Vince approached about for interviews for the WCW documentary and said no. Bischoff, Goldberg, Hogan, Nash, Sting (though I think them and Bischoff may have been in TNA at this point), Ted Turner, Tony Schiavone, and I think there were a few others as well.